In the news ...

A brief article by David Wiegand in this morning’s San Francisco Chronicle caught my eye:

PBS is planning to launch a new TV series patterned after a popular Irish program called “Genealogy Roadshow.” It is to begin filming in July and will focus initially on families in San Francisco, Detroit, Nashville and Austin. 

Sort of a hybrid of “History Detectives,”and “Antiques Roadshow,” the program’s premise is that residents who think they might have a significant ancestral story will bring them to the show’s producers, and local experts will do the research. (I am always surprised that so many owners of the most fascinating books, photographs or other heirlooms on these programs had never tried to work out their genealogical connections.)

The Irish series asks the following questions: 

Do you believe you are related to someone famous?

Is your family connected to a major historical event?

Do you need to solve a family mystery?

It is "exactly like  Antiques Roadshow except that it deals in dead people rather than mouldy artefacts," according to the Irish Independent’s John Bolans.

In other news:

The new web display for FamilySearch.org is up and running and I find it utterly baffling.  To get to the Family History Library catalog takes three steps now instead of one. To find some concise “how to” information I wanted to recommend to a beginner took even longer.

What has your experience been?

Can't let them go

Any serious (or even casual) genealogist can tell you that there are always going to be tantalizing puzzles, nagging gaps, and teasing bits of information that beg to be dealt with. Often they are not even about direct ancestors or close cousins, but the presence of an unanswered question alternately attracts and exasperates, and simply cannot be left alone.

Here are a few of mine:

Lewis Hartwell Thompson, was born 1836 in Virginia, died 1913 in Fairfield, Solano County, California, and is buried in Corning, Tehama County.  My great-grandfather’s brother-in-law, he was said to have once been a member of the notorious Vigilantes at San Francisco’s  “Fort Gunnybags”  

I’d like to know something about his early life, and who his parents were.

Lewis's son, Albert Kelsey Thompson, was born 1868 in Oregon. The 1900 census for  Vallejo, also in Solano County, lists him as a single day laborer. His parents are in San Francisco, as is a brother. But he is not shown ten years later, unless he is the “A.F. Thompson, age 42, b U.S.” (wrong middle initial, right age) aboard the Steamship Catania, moored at San Franisco’s Powell Street Wharf. There is no mention of him in his father’s 1913 obituary, and he is not buried in the Corning family plot.

What became of Albert?

My great-great-grandmother, Jaley Grant, was born  about 1787 in Virginia, and married Frederick Howard 1817 in Bath County, Kentucky. She is in the 1860 census for Crawfordsville, Montgomery County, Indiana, with widowed daughter Maranda Kelsey (who later married the above-named Lewis Thompson), but by 1866 Maranda is out West and one can surmise that the aging Jaley has probably died.  But when? Where?

Oh the questions, the questions.

******

On a completely different subject:

Did you know there is an Icelandic app for kinship? Apparently most of the population shares descent from a group of ninth century Viking settlers, and an app has been ceated to access the online database which holds genealogical details of nearly all of them.  A recent Associated Press article said: “In Iceland, a country with a population of 320,000 where most everyone is distantly related, inadvertently kissing cousins is a real risk.”

“Bumping” smart phones with the app sounds an alert if the owners, contemplating intimacy, are closely related.

Oh.

Background details

Seeking names, dates, places, relationships -- it’s the great fun of genealogical research. So much fun, in fact, we may forget that some background reading is in order now and then. No instant gratification here, so it is not easy to tear oneself away from the treasure hunt long enough to sit down with a book and notepad (digital or analog).

In writing up a narrative for my paternal line, descended from Thomas Cain who settled in Delaware in the 1700s, I wanted to fill out the picture with some details on living conditions, social life, and what the surroundings were like, so it became necessary to turn to just such background material.  Here is how you can do the same.

The first step of course is to learn what is out there.  In the old pre-computer days, one went to the library and looked for appropriate subjects in the card catalog. Even children’s books could be helpful (and still can) in explaining matters (besides, they have pictures).  If nothing came up, the next step was to ask the reference librarian if she or he could make some suggestions. Books not held locally could be borrowed on inter-library loan (ILL) though the process often took many weeks.  And it was necessary to know the exact title, not just a subject.

It is a lot easier now.  For one thing, there is WorldCat, the online catalog of the holdings of numerous public and academic libraries.  The researcher can inquire about books on his/her subject of interest without a precise title, and find records galore,  with information on where the items are held. Another place to search is the Family History Library catalog, also online, at FamilySearch.org.  They do not lend books, but … there are plenty of options. Your local public library may be able to find a copy from an institution that does lend. This is the old ILL procedure, but today many libraries enable that process online as well. At most, you may have to go to your local public library and hand in your request in person. In my experience, the turnaround times are much shorter now.

In all your searches for a “book” don’t overlook the possibilities of digitized works -- books you can read online.  With a tablet or laptop computer you can download whole volumes for reading whenever and wherever you choose.  Or you can simply read the books online as long a you are connected to the internet.

FamilySearch.org has a “Books” choice, at the top of the home page. Enter a title or keywords on the Books site and you will get a list of items.  Also, books that have been digitized will be so designated in the Family History Library catalog.

Google has a section named (at this writing) “Google Play.” More online books are found there, for reading online or downloading. And you can find other sources by simply typing in a book title or keywords such as "Delaware Kent history" (without quotes) on Google’s main page.  

But suppose your subject is too obscure or narrow to be covered by a whole book? Try PERSI, the PERiodical Source Index, which is an index of nearly 10,000 genealogical newsletters, magazines, journals and other publications. If your library subscribes to Heritage Quest you can search PERSI online for articles of possible interest (the index is just for title and subject, not every word), or you can search the same service via Ancestry, if you or your library subscribe.  Articles  may then be requested by mail.  

Did I say most of this is free?  Downloading older digitized books, from Google and other services, costs nothing. (They are clearly marked.) There may be a minimal fee associated with ILLs (though I have never had to pay one.)  PERSI requests have a basic $7.50 charge for up to five articles, and when the material is sent you will be billed an additional 20¢ per page. There is of course no charge for searching online catalogs or having the local public library’s reference person assist you. 

Put it in writing ...

Time for another blog entry and I am in the midst of trying to write up some family history, hoping to have something to pass along to interested parties in the next few months.

This continues to be remarkably rewarding exercise, and one that has transformed itself from simply one of captioning my precious documents and photographs to giving a reasonably detailed account of the family’s growth, movement and change over the years.

Jasper Newton Howard
1851-1936

It has spurred me to read more background material on the regions where family members lived, examine the possible reasons for their moves, and study the social conditions of the period(s).  I have sent for magazine articles from PERSI, strived to find copies of original documents where I had only secondary references, and worked to obtain complete records where I had just a single item (such as a will, instead of an entire probate packet).

It has also encouraged me to explore the less-used features of my word-processing and genealogy  programs in order to develop an appealing physical layout, with charts, maps and photographs.  

AND it has pushed me to sharpen my writing skills so that the narrative doesn’t sink into a series of mind-numbing “begats.”

All this so the years of effort I have joyfully expended won’t be utterly lost on future generations. Wouldn’t we all like to think that after we’re gone our research would still count for something?  If you are considering this kind of project (and I truly hope you are) there are plenty of books and articles to help you on your way. To get started, try Cyndi’s List, a genealogical treasure trove.  Her topic “Writing your family’s history: general resources” can get you started.  Enjoy your adventure!

In case you are unfamiliar with PERSI, it is an index to genealogical periodical articles maintained by the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana.  The PERiodical Source Index is available online at home if your public library subscribes to Heritage Quest, or if you are a subscriber to Ancestry.  FamilySearch.org has a good description of its offerings.

Nancy, who are you?

 Do you read “The Legal Genealogist” blog? Informative, well-written, and entertaining -- though how the author ever finds time to do her own research is beyond me, since she posts every day. On January 12 she wrote about a mysterious Nancy, who died in 1886 and is buried in a Texas cemetery. It is one of those tantalizing problems that keeps the family historian digging.

And the article reminded me of my own puzzle -- another Nancy, whose children had the surname Howard and, after she  died,  were farmed out to various Montgomery County, Indiana, families.  Try as I might, I have not been able to find out anything more about their mother.

She came to my attention because two of her youngsters were placed in the home of Alpheus Gregg, where they are counted in the 1850 census.  Alpheus had been married to my relative, Amanda Howard, until her death in 1848 (same year as Nancy), and the Howard children’s presence there makes some researchers believe they are Amanda’s from a previous marriage. But I knew Amanda, my great- grandfather’s sister, was the daughter of Frederick Howard, and had been born in 1822.  Furthermore, she was too young to have been the mother of the eldest of these Howard children.

So the question is: who IS Nancy Howard? Her name came from a court record collection,  the Guardians’ Docket of Montgomery County, Indiana (1825-1874), which has been digitized and is online at the website for the Crawfordsville Public Library (bless ‘em). 

I have searched marriage records for a possible husband/father, not just in Montgomery County, but neighboring counties and nearby states as well. I have looked for men with the same given names (Augustus , Tilghman, Robert and George) in case a son was named for his father. To confuse matters further, there was a Tilghman Howard who  was prominent in Indiana politics at the time, but his biographies tend to disprove any connection he might have had with my Nancy. 

Still tantalized, still trying to find the answer.

Whither and yon

I moan a lot about getting sidetracked when doing research -- straying from the ancestral line and wandering off into unmapped territory. At the same time I know it is important to learn as much as possible about the relatives and in-laws who inevitably beckon.  Aunts, uncles, cousins all have something to contribute, and studying them may lead to new information about our own forebears. so where is the line between going off on possibly fruitless tangents, and doing worthwhile exploration?  

The other day I was bemused by my own reaction to discovering (get this): the middle name of my grandfather’s second wife’s first husband. Well, middle names can be important identifiers, and while I know where Frank Martin Curry is buried, I wanted to confirm that the body of his remarried widow, Frankie Mae Hildebrand, was interred next to him instead of beside her second spouse, my grandfather.  (In another case, I have a relative who is neatly interred between his first and second wives. You probably do, too.)

In rereading a letter from my grandfather, with news of Frankie’s death, I learned that her daughter by that first marriage had died some 30 years earlier. That bit of information certainly narrows down my search for her!  So looking for a seemingly trivial bit of information turned up something else at least as significant.

In other news, I have still been trying to tie up some loose ends re the sons of a Howard cousin, Elvira Thompson.  Her mother was born in Indiana, as were most of the other Howards of that generation, so I had been intrigued to learn that Elvira came west, married and eventually two of her sons were born right here in Northern California (Petaluma, Sonoma County,  and San Rafael, in neighboring Marin County).

A vague reference to one son’s Navy service led me to write for his military records. With general dates (and a check for $60), I was able to obtain a thick packet of material for Rowland Maynard Thompson. When I read them, my mental picture of Rowland was completely turned around by the physical description they contained! 

In 1902 this young man was said to be 5’ 6” tall, with blue eyes, brown hair, and a “ruddy” complexion; he reportedly weighed 122 lb. But most intriguing was the entry for his physical characteristics: “ink marks right front arm.”  A similar record when he re-enlisted four years later had more: “ 7” birds left arm and shoulder; coat of arms, dagger, “NSGW” right front arm; snake, left leg; fly right leg; bird top both feet … scar forehead.” In the interim he had gained not only a lot more “ink marks” but ten pounds in weight.  In other words: short, stocky, scarred, and well-tattooed.  Not as I had imagined him at all.

Interestingly, Rowland’s precise year of birth is still in some question. The 1880 census shows him as three years old, and in 1900 he is reported as having been born in June 1877.  But his death certificate gives the birth year as 1884 (the informant was not a relative), and when he enlisted he gave 1879 as his year of birth. 

One more item in these papers helped me locate his parents -- in 1902 he stated that his father was living in Corning, California. Since they were in San Francisco in 1900, I had wondered whether they left for Corning before or after the 1906 Earthquake and Fire.  Now I know.

On putting our family histories into words ...

How is it that writing seems so easy until we sit down to attempt it? This is not a novel, or an acdemic dissertation; it is about leaving something behind to show for all our efforts -- an attempt to put a family’s history into coherent, reasonably accurate form, without leaving  potential readers confused or bored. 

Ah, the readers -- who are they to be? In my case, I hope it is simply some of the younger generation of people related to our family lines --  i. e., my children, their cousins, and future generations of same. 

Is the writing to be an adjunct to a collection of documents and photographs? A series of captions with spare descriptions to hold them all together?  Or is it a stand-alone story with citations or incidental references to the documentation?  Or … something in between?

This issue is the one that gave me pause -- I began by planning simply to create some family-tree-type charts and add extensive captions for the volumes of material I had collected.  In other words, it would be a kind of justification for all the years I had put into this work. 

Gradually, however, I came around to the notion that, for me, writing a narrative would be a better way to go; I could then include the documents as supporting material.  

Then there is the matter of structure. Should one start from the present and work back in time, as we are advised to do our research?  And, if so, what line or lines do we choose to follow? Or should one start back with an earliest-so-far-discovered ancestor and come forward? In either case, the problem arises about how to manage the collateral lines that develop, so that the project doesn’t turn into a frustrating maze.

Once those matters are decided, at least provisionally (an outline is essential), how does one present the facts? Will the writing be a description of “how I did it,” or  a straighforward depiction of the people and events? Or something else entirely?

And of course, how much information should be included? I had a single family line in mind, starting way back when and coming forward, and of course I wanted to make it as complete as possible, but that could fill volumes. The most satisfactory way to deal with that, it appears, is to break the work into sections, each based on a time period, or location, or major event.

No one structure/format/style fits every case, but these are questions every genealogist/author needs to consider.

More about this later.

In the meantime, I commend to everyone the wonderful blog, The Legal Genealogist.

Please take a look. The author was in the thick of the East Coast storm and her reactions are eloquent in their simplicity (posts of Nov. 2 and 3, 2012).