family lines

Several questions and a few answers

2011-12-27T13:37:00.000-08:00

Now that the end of the calendar year is nearly here, and most of the holiday madness is simmering down, it seems like a good time for us as genealogists to stand back, take stock, and reconsider our goals, both large and small.

First of all, what ARE those goals? Did you start this pursuit with a concrete plan in mind, beyond finding Grandpa’s birthdate? Or unravelling the story behind Aunt Lilly’s divorce? Or learning more about the “semi-adopted” child in that family picture? Once you’ve started work, a goal can and will change, but it’s a good idea to re-examine it now and then, at least mentally.

Wandering off on unexpected paths is so easy -- that’s part of the fun of digging into family history -- but once in a while it really helps to remind yourself of what’s been done and ask yourself what your overall aim is -- or has become. Is it to publish a comprehensive genealogy of all your ancestors? To write about the events in a single family? To contribute completed family group sheets to the local genealogical society’s files? Or just to satisfy your own curiosity?

While these aims are not mutually exclusive, it is easier to plan research if you have not only goals, but priorities. So take a few minutes to think about what you’ve done, why you did it, and whether it is taking you in a direction you truly want to go.

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So often people not yet in the grip of genealogy will offer excuses for their reluctance to get involved: “My aunt already did ours,” “It seems so expensive,” or, “I just don’t have time.” (Of course they may simply mean they aren’t interested, but don’t want to admit it -- poor things!)

Those of us already addicted are likely to use the same kind of reasoning to explain why we don’t make more progress. While we know “Aunt’s book” is no excuse at all (more likely, it would be a great starting point), we can add a few more justifications, such as “I don’t have enough room for my stuff,” or “I can’t travel to all those courthouses and cemeteries.”

I’ve already written about how to do genealogy on the cheap (“Deep pockets not required,” June 1, 2011), but what about the other supposed constraints? Time is a big factor, and I am certainly as guilty as anyone of squandering it, but being organized and having a plan really helps. An hour of focused research, background reading, or chart creation can be more productive than a whole day of drifting from one website to another, with no particular intent. Next time you have 20 minutes, write down a research question (now that your goals and priorities are firmly in mind -- aren’t they?) and outline how you might work to solve it. Then, when there is a free hour or so, determine to zero in and follow it up -- instead of letting yourself be distracted by the latest email, newsletter article, or Facebook message.

Space is another problem, but not an insurmountable one. Actually, the more space you have, the more it tends to fill with clutter -- and distractions. I am fortunate to have a small bedroom for my “office,” but sometimes have to take my work out to the kitchen table just to avoid all the potential diversions in that tiny room.

In the pre-computer age -- you remember that, don’t you? -- a couple of notebooks or a handful of file folders were all many of us had. And these days we don’t really need much more than that right at hand in order to get work done. Documents and photos can be scanned into the computer for immediate reference, and the originals safely stored away.

As for not being able to travel to see at firsthand those important records -- it is regrettable, but need not be a deterrent. More and more cemetery data is available online; for instance findagrave.com has many volunteers who will provide photos of individual headstones, if they are not already posted. There are books recording graves in various localities, and many local historical/genealogical organizations have extensive files, some online. As for courthouses -- it is always a great idea to visit them yourself, but, again, volunteers can often be found who will do the legwork for free or for a small fee. Finding fellow researchers and/or family members in the area may provide the information you need. I’ve mentioned this before -- joining a genealogical or historical society in your region of interest is probably the next best thing to being there yourself. A good source for this kind of information is the USGenWeb Project.

So, no formal resolutions for the New Year, but give yourself a pat on the back for all the accomplishments of the past twelve months, look again at your large and small goals, and take the time to outline some practical plans for the coming year’s research.

Random thoughts

2011-11-16T13:20:00.000-08:00

It’s such a treat to enter a family name in a search engine like Google or Mocavo and come up with some real information! We’ve all had that experience - and it’s very exciting to read posts from other people interested in the same line. They may be distant offshoots of an ancestor several generations back, or barely related by marriage, but it can still be a rewarding discovery. There is the opportunity to exchange information, or at least garner clues, and perhaps find new photographs or locate copies of significant documents.

What irks me, though, is to find messages, on GenForum, for instance, with addresses that are no longer valid. I recently came across a years-old query which included reference to the “Delany Evans Papers,” and have not been able to reach anyone who knows what those are. (My third great grandparents were Rosannah Serbee and Theophilus Evans, of KY and IN)

But my own mistakes are just as frustrating. In one case I copied portions of what must have been a lengthy paper -- there are breaks with page numbers -- loaded with Ohio-based Minton family history. But I did not copy the source (if it was there), or even the website address. And now I can’t locate them! Without a source citation the information really loses much of its credibility, and I’m not able to go back to fill in the gaps.

Have you ever posted a message on Rootsweb or fired off a reply to one you found there? Then, months later, a response comes and you’re deep into work on another line? It takes a minute to shift gears, you have to find the relevant file, and then you must take the time to produce a satisfactory answer. A caution: in the instance where your correspondent is asking YOU for information, be careful what you promise. Let the other person be specific about what he or she would like. (And pray that if the result ends up posted on Ancestry it at least includes your citations.)

In every case where I make contact with a potential data-sharer, I try to avoid potentially incendiary remarks or comments (there is wisdom in the dictum about avoiding discussions of religion or politics), and take care to be prompt in expressing my appreciation for the information, whatever its source or credibility.

Led astray by the census! Or, being sensible about public records.

2011-09-29T09:35:00.000-07:00

My Sherwoods have been a fascinating -- and exasperating -- puzzle. I wrote some about this last time, but there have been new developments, and they might shed light on some of your genealogical problems.

My ancestor, Thomas E. Sherwood -- what IS that middle name? -- seems to have been born in Kentucky between 1790 and 1800, and is in Bartholomew County, Indiana, by 1828, when he is involved in a land sale with Azalad Maskal, a relative of his wife’s previous husband. Got that?

Elizabeth Evans Maskal Sherwood had three children (including my great-grandmother, Nancy Jane) then died, about 1835. Thomas married again very shortly, to a woman whose name was recorded as Jane Fisher. They had two children and Thomas died three years later.

Some of Thomas’s children were still young enough to be in the family household as late as 1850, and since that year’s census is the first to name everyone in the household, with age and birthplace, it seemed like a good place to follow up on this group.

I could find just one Sherwood household in the county. It was headed, the enumerator wrote, by James Sherwood, male, white, age 40, b VA. Three youngsters were listed, two of whose names I recognized. The third was a girl, Susan, age 18, also b VA. All had ditto marks for the Sherwood surname.

So who was this James? He seemed about the right age to be a brother of the deceased Thomas. And even if Thomas lived and died in Kentucky he could have been from Virginia, especially since that state’s counties extended to include Kentucky until 1792.

To me, it appeared from this census record that Thomas’s second wife, Jane, had also died and a Sherwood relative had stepped in, bringing a child with him.

Then … I found evidence that Jane Sherwood had not died, as she is shown in court records as late as 1857 acting as guardian for Susan FISHER and the two youngest Sherwood children.

This made me revisit the 1850 census and take a hard look at “James”, the 40-year-old male. It soon became obvious that despite the well-defined handwriting -- no mistake in interpretation -- this was JANE, and Susan [Sherwood] was Susan Fisher. The enumerator must have asked one of the children, or a neighbor, and misunderstood the reply. I’ve seen mistakes in census records before, but none like this!

The lesson here is: look at ALL records with a skeptic’s eye. Seek out additional sources. Go back again and again to that puzzling entry and study it carefully.

Of course now that I know Jane was guardian of a Fisher child, I am ready to seek a record of her earlier marriage, to the child’s father, and of course, her own birth name.

Happy Distractions

2011-08-12T12:49:00.000-07:00

Why is it I can’t stay on course with a single line of research? Ever ask yourself that? A few weeks ago I found a wonderful online index to Bartholomew County, Indiana, public records which had references to my Sherwood surname in several documents from the 1840s. For the princely sum of six dollars I obtained photocopies of 27 pages of material. [Thank you, archivist Tina Jeffries]

So of course when the envelope came in the mail I dropped everything else and set to work making transcriptions.

Nancy Jane Sherwood

Fortunately most of the handwriting is easy to read, but I came across a few unfamiliar words. With the help of Barbara Evans’ A to Zax : a Comprehensive Dictionary for Genealogists and Historians, I discovered that coparceners are “persons who have an inheritance which has come to them jointly and who hold it as an entire estate.” I wasn’t sure I had remembered what next friend meant in court parlance, and Evans neatly defines the term as “a person, not a guardian, but one who files a suit in behalf of an infant or a person incapable of handling his own affairs. This is usually a relative who assumes the court costs.” And I was reminded that the term infant simply refers to a minor.

The interesting thing about transcribing a document word for word is that there are bound to be new discoveries. Names of witnesses, “next friends,” guardians and their wards, buyers and sellers of land -- all are potential clues, offering more opportunities for research and making connections.

I am dealing with an ancestor, Thomas E. Sherwood, who married twice, died before 1840, and left five children by two wives, Elizabeth Evans and Jane Fisher. There seemed to be a dispute between the children of the first wife and their widowed stepmother, and my mental picture of the situation was pretty vague, so I decided to make a time line. Not just for one individual -- but for both his families, his wives, and the establishment of county boundaries at the time. It has been a great help.

Now, where was I before this bonanza arrived in the mailbox?

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PS If you've tried to reach me by email in recent weeks, I apologize. I changed addresses a while back and neglected to indicate that on my profile page. The correct address is there now.

Don't stop at 1930 ...

2011-07-21T12:51:00.000-07:00

Still trying to find that perfect way to keep track of the family tree’s twigs and branches as I try to extend them. I want to avoid over-emphasis on any one section, but tracking a particular line of descendants gets so fascinating I tend to ignore the others for long periods of time. I guess you could call this going out on a limb...

One thing I have learned from doing this is that finding a family in the 1930 census may seem like the end of the line (until 2012, when the 1940 census is released), but it really is not. Remember, the Social Security Death Index (free on Rootsweb) gives clues to many people who died after Social Security was instituted. Of course, some were excluded in the early days (housewives, farmers, railroad workers among others), and the birth names of married women did not necessarily show up. But, still, it is a resource worth checking.

Post-1930 obituaries are easier to find than earlier ones, too. I have good luck tracking people with moderately unusual names (Clayton Luscombe and Oakland Shoemaker, for instance), in Mocavo, the genealogical search engine. But Mocavo is good for more than obits and with its focus on family history, its hits are easier to sift through than Google’s (but do try both).

As I mentioned last time, findagrave.com has been a great help. Besides relatives’ dates and burial places, I have found photos of tombstones, and even family pictures, on this website. It used to emphasize the rich and famous, but increasingly it covers more and more everyday folk in large and small cemeteries across the US.

One last tip: the database of World War I draft registration records, available on Ancestry, is a great source for finding out more about men born between 1872 and 1901. It is handy for finding their marital status, occupations, and, sometimes, those elusive middle names. A look at the original image will also give you the individual’s physical description, and his home address. Given the 29-year period it is not unusual to find a father and son registering at the same time. And here is a sub-tip: use your genealogy program’s “find” or “sort” feature to create a list of males born between the years of 1872 and 1900, and you have your likely candidates.

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Bittersweet story in the San Francisco Chronicle recently (July 14, 2011). Edward L. O’Toole was an infantry soldier from San Francisco, just 23 years old, when he died in a battle in Germany in late 1944. His remains have just recently been recovered and identified.

Although he was one of seven children, there are no longer any close surviving relatives. When he was reported missing and presumed dead, his mother and sister, now long gone, erected a memorial stone at the Golden Gate National Cemetery, and it is there his remains have now been interred.

A local paralegal, Bernadette Hooper, was intrigued by the story, and has managed find out more details about his life and family history. (Don’t you bet she’s a genealogist?) It is all detailed in the Chronicle story, written by Carl Nolte. You can read it here.

Deep pockets not required

2011-06-01T14:08:00.000-07:00

In all my years of chasing clues to my family’s history, I’ve tried to keep a close eye on expenses. I grant you, it is sometimes necessary to fork over a few dollars for that critical document, or to join an organization with emphasis on your research area. Or even to save up for a trip to the home turf. But still … this enthusiasm of ours does not have to break the bank.

I did tentatively accept a subscription to a major for-profit genealogy firm once, but trying to cancel at the end of my “trial” period was a real headache (no phone number! no address!). Sometimes membership offers are so confusing you think you’re getting one “tier” of records and really you’re into more money for another group you don’t even need. Then too, some outfits appear on the horizon for a few years (or months) and then disappear, leaving their members in the lurch, completely out of luck or tacked onto the subscriber list of some other irrelevant service.

By now the big players are pretty well established, and if you are so inclined, fee-based memberships can provide quick and easy access to certain types of documents. (As well as some rather questionable “family trees.”) On the other hand, there are many free and low-cost ways to find much of what you are seeking.

I live in a California county with a library system that provides home access to Heritage Quest for its card-carrying patrons. That means indexes and images for many (though not all) US census records, a way to search over 28,000 family and local histories, access to the PERSI index to articles in many genealogical publications, and more. On site at any of the library branches, I can also log onto the “Library Edition” of Ancestry.

Another resource I use almost daily is the FamilySearch website, that well-known Mormon entity. Their religious emphasis on posthumous baptism has inspired the creation of the world’s largest collection of genealogical materials. And their Family History Library in Salt Lake City is a genealogist’s dream -- open to all, no strings, no subtle pressures or proselytizing. They are presently underway on a mammoth project to place online their millions (literally) of microfilmed records from all over the world. With the help of an army of trained and supervised volunteers, they are making new material available over the Internet just about every day -- and their indexing is of the highest quality.

One of the features that really helps me is their indexing of virtually all census records, in a “fuzzy” way that brings up “sound-alike” surnames -- something you don’t get with Heritage Quest. So I am always sure to check both indexes when a family member is eluding me.

I strongly suggest joining genealogical and/or historical societies in the states or counties of interest, too. That will often put you in touch with individuals who can help with your specific issue. Another place to look is local public libraries in your research area. They often have local history collections and may have old newspapers in their holdings. Go online first, and see what their catalog shows. Then send a note or email to the reference department. I’ve had good results from queries about old obituaries, land records, and other local information. Costs are usually quite low, or non-existent (but send them something anyway! They need it!).

There are far too may free and low-cost sites to name here, but I’d like to remind you of one more: Find a Grave. In their words, it is “a resource for finding the final resting place of family, friends, and ‘famous’ individuals. With millions of names and photos, it is an invaluable tool for the genealogist and family history buff.” I’ve had considerable luck finding names there and even photos of family gravestones, and after registering (free) was able to provide additional information and an image for one Civil War solder’s resting place.

So the next time someone tells you she thinks "doing genealogy" is too expensive, just smile -- the same way you do when people say their family history is "complete."

Who will know?

2011-04-13T16:20:00.000-07:00

When I began searching for information about my family’s history I had no intention of publishing a book. (Still true.) It was more about the thrill of the hunt -- tracking down familiar names, determining relationships, and finding critical dates wherever I could. It was always exciting to enter new data for people I knew about, and to find relatives I had never known existed. And along with the satisfaction of solving puzzles, I began to learn a bit more about how these kin must have lived, why they moved from one place to another, and what the political and social environments were like in their times and places.

In the process, of course, I amassed a huge collection of material, and with it came the realization it had to be arranged so that I knew what I had, and where to find each piece of it. That, as you know, is a never-ending project, much like painting the Golden Gate Bridge. ( And I’ve been writing about it here, off and on, for some time.)

But there is still more I’d like to do. Why have all these wonderful documents, letters, photos, and mementos, if they don’t make sense to anyone but me? And what will become of them when I am not here any more? They may be neatly filed in acid-free folders, each with its tidy list of contents, or lovingly placed in archivally-correct photo albums, but … do they tell a story? As the one responsible for gathering up all this, I certainly know the background myself. I can tell the viewer what each piece of paper means and how it relates to the overall picture. But without my explanation, that overall picture is blurred and incomplete.

The task, then, is to create an album, or series of albums, that hold the sigificant documents and most meaningful photographs, with the words that will tie them all together. Sounds pretty straightforward, doesn’t it? Well, as I soon found out, it is not.

Does one begin with onself and work back in time, the way we are advised to pursue our research? Or should the earliest known ancestor in a particular line be the starting point? Should “how I found it” be included (sometimes this is irresistible), or do we go for a simple description of who is related to whom, where they lived, and what we know of their lives? There are, of course, books and articles to help with these decisions, since a single set of family history albums is no different, in that sense, from something written for publication (though we are free of the business decisions, and our layout possibilities are not dictated by a printer).

So far I am planning to take the earliest-ancestor approach: beginning with a great-great grandparent in my father’s line. Frederick Howard apparently came from Pennsylvania to northeastern Kentucky sometime after 1793, the approximate year of his birth, and before 1811, when his name first appears in Bath County tax records. His marriage to a woman named Jaley Grant is also recorded there, as well as a court document showing his appointment to survey a particular road in the area. Frederick and Jaley had three children in this Kentucky county, including my great-grandfather, but in1829 the family moved up to central Indiana, where they settled in Montgomery County, not far from Crawfordsville.

The first hard choice comes when I must decide how to deal with the descendants of Frederick’s daughters. The whole family fascinates me, but naturally my focus is on the direct ancestral line. I need to lay out the connections with the son, Samuel Parker Howard, to his daughter, and then to her son, who is my father. But I also want to include what I’ve found about the others -- not only because their lives were important, too, but because I have some interesting documents relating to them. Among these are a clue-filled 1884 letter from my great-grandmother’s half-sister, an 1854 obituary relating the circumstances of the death of my great-grandmother’s first husband, and a photograph of a great-uncle's tombstone, typical of those provided the Civil War dead.

Have you, dear reader, attempted this sort of project? How did you go about it? What treasures do you have and how do you incorporate them in your work? I’d really like to hear from you.

Are they or aren't they? The Tanner search

2011-03-18T08:48:00.000-07:00

It is a given that when you start work on a line in genealogy, you investigate what might already have been done. NOT because you will incorporate the findings into your own tree, but to see what might be out there, and if any clues are to be found.

I have heard for years that my mother’s line came from the “Coffee County (Georgia) Tanners,” but never could find any solid evidence.

Finally I decided the only way to prove -- or disprove -- the Coffee County connection was to do look more closely at that line. Ward’s History of Coffee County (Atlanta, 1930) has a section on the Tanners, and it was my intention to start by creating a separate database for these individuals. Well, let me tell you …

How do you deal with multiple nicknames, absence of dates or places, and zero documentation? Betty and Lizzie are listed as two women, Hampton is also shown as “B.H.” and first and middle names are used interchangeably. These folks might as well have been characters in a Russian novel.

In trying to more closely identify who reputedly belonged to whom, I went online and found a database called “Descendants of Cal Tanner,” which seemed to tie in with the Coffee County gang, though again minus details. I also looked at some other "trees" posted here and there online, just for clues.

There seemed to be connections among the trees/charts and I was able to straighten out a few puzzles (Betty/Lizzie was the same person; B.H. was Berry Hampton) and add a few more children.

However, after putting together a couple of generations from these sources, it became clear that going further with Coffee County project would not help me with my research. My John Tanner was NOT the son of the patriarch of this line -- though he had a son with the same name.

But I’m glad I did go as far as I did. Sometimes it really helps to disprove something, if only to keep us on track.

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Need a break? Tired of banging on that brick wall? Try filling in some gaps with the many census records and vital records databases to be found on FamilySearch.org. They add new material all the time, and it is SO gratifying to find a birth date, marriage record, or parent name with a quick search of this free service. (And there are source citations which can lead you to the original, if it is not displayed.)

"F" is for Filing

2011-02-14T10:57:00.000-08:00

I don’t mean to harp on the problem of organizing, but isn’t it every genealogist’s challenge -- or nightmare?

I have been going through my Tanner/Blount/Waldron/Driggers files with fierce determination lately. They were so badly in need of rearrangement! At one time I tried to sort these items by surname, state, and county. Not the best idea, as I could never remember which location was involved. Stuff just got lost.

As I have mentioned before, I decided to sort this collection of documents by TYPE, creating a numbered code for each (Vital 001, Landxxx, Militaryxxx, etc.). The most significant items, like some marriage licenses, baptismal records, and obituaries, get space in the “show-off” archival album, with references from the appropriate folder. Of course I make sure to include the location code in each individual’s notes, in my computer genealogy program.

All the material for this line is being placed under the Tanner heading (my maternal line). It seems less confusing than subdividing it into more surnames. My mother was a Tanner and these are her ancestral lines, so I’ll just leave it at that.

And while I’m at it, I’m transcribing a lot of hard-to-read handwritten notes, as well as relevant correspondence. Which brings up another matter. How do you file letters? I prefer to consider the content (genealogy, biography) rather than the form it came in (correspondence).

So I have a code for Biography/Genealogy, or, for short, BGxxx. The label can be applied not only to letters and emails, but also those printouts of online “trees” (documented or not), biographical entries from mug books, Bible records, and even obituaries. That takes care of just about everything in this category I feel is worth saving.

Some other categories I find useful are: Public (voter lists, appointments to pubic positions, etc.), Probate (obvious), and Other (newspaper articles that aren’t obits, for instance). Early tax records go in the Land category because most are based on land ownership.

I used to print out census records for just about everyone, keeping them in a separate binder, arranged by location and census year. But now that census pages are so easy to examine online (HeritageQuest, FamilySearch, Ancestry), I’m considering saving just the printouts that relate to my direct ancestors, and ditching the rest. Good citations in the notes field will make it easy to retrieve the others as needed. (Though it’s hard to throw anything away!)

Going through all these papers again has had several benefits. For instance, I have found that transcribing family letters not only makes them easier to read, but, in my case, has led to some rediscoveries. It embarrasses me to admit I found family information in a decades-old letter that I had spent time hunting for at the Family History Library last fall. Oops.

But I haven’t just unearthed old forgotten data. I’ve been able to take a more seasoned view of all my notes and references. Some lists, of marriages, tombstone inscriptions, and the like, are available online now, so can be discarded after a bit of checking. Other vague notations take on new meaning now that I have more research experience. And I’ve actually been able to throw away some old notes! Amazing!

Do you have a special system for organizing your papers? Tell me about it!

In Decision

2011-01-09T12:05:00.000-08:00

Now that the holiday season is past, there are those decisions -- which wrappings and boxes to save, recycle or discard. How many boxes does one need, anyway? If it contained an electronic item must it be kept in the unlikely event that the item must be returned for repair? Have you ever known anyone who had to return a TV set, or a toaster, for that matter, in its original box? I still have boxes in the garage for stuff I don’t even own anymore.

So everything boils down to Decisions. Just like in genealogy.

When I am trying to select a document for filing, it is really slow going because of all those decisions! First I must decide if it is worth holding on to. Is it something I already have? If so, do I keep the duplicate copy? Is it something directly related to one of my persons of interest, mug-book puffery on a distant relative by marriage, or background/history on the area where they spent their lives? Is it an abstract for which I have found a copy of the original document? Do I stop what I am doing and go try to follow up an obscure notation, now that so many more records are available online?

No wonder everything takes so much time! And then, after the evaluation and sorting, there is the actual filing.

When I had a PC, a lot of documents got filed by means of the very useful Clooz program. Basically, it guides you to categorize each item by major surname (I have four), and TYPE. Numbered as they are acquired, they still can easily be found. Need to review that BLM record for old Uncle Harry’s farm? Look in the Clemson/Land file. Great grandfather Winters’ death certificate? -- Winters/Vital. (One of my lines is so spread out I subdivided by region and then type.)

The computer program allowed for printing out lists of, say, all the people linked to a particular document, or all the documents relating to a single person. But I also chose to print a table of contents to place in each folder, and found I consulted that instead of the computer most of the time.

However, I have a Mac now, with no available Clooz equivalent . There is a fairly straightforward database program for the Mac, called Bento, but do I really want to spend the time developing a whole new database/file for all these mountains of documents? Not really.

So I’ll just leave the already-filed items in place and continue in the same manner, making sure to keep my folders’ contents lists up to date, as that will be my main means of access. (Of course I also note the complete file “code” for each item in the related individual’s notes, in Reunion, my computer genealogy program.)

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An earlier project, my family history narratives for the genealogically-challenged are pretty well finished. I only went back four generations, and included, in addition to the text, abbreviated pedigree charts for my husband and myself, and descendant charts for his parents and mine. That way future readers can see the aunts, uncles and cousins, as well as a few generations of direct ancestors. It was quite enjoyable, looking up contemporary relatives and learning a bit more about their families. I can only hope the results are interesting and make some sense.

Trying to think ahead ...

2010-12-08T14:56:00.000-08:00

As you may have read, I’ve been working on a series of brief family narratives, attempting to outline each of my lines of interest for future generations. (Brief is the key word.) It is a kind of insurance, or personal reassurance, that the major results of my research won’t get tossed aside some day, regarded as leftovers from an eccentric’s obsession.

To supplement the story lines, I decided to make descendent charts for my children’s two sets of grandparents. That way they will be able see their aunts, uncles, and cousins, each set on a single page. Fortunately this only involves about 30 people on their father’s side, and even fewer on mine.

In addition I have been sorting through the most significant family photos and making sure they are thoroughly identified, with names, and where possible, dates and locations.

This effort has other benefits besides providing me peace of mind and giving some sense of order to my efforts. Certain gaps are made apparent and can easily be filled in with help from today’s (trustworthy) online sources. I have been inspired to get in touch with distant relatives in order to confirm dates and add a few more current names. And it has encouraged me to make sure the most important family photographs are logically integrated into the “final” result.

Obviously I will never be truly finished. And to wait for that magical day is to put off this kind of task indefinitely. Better to put together what I have -- and can readily fill in -- right now, and then go back to the regular research.

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In other news, I was intrigued by a recent story in the San Francisco Chronicle, “Detective work tracks earliest Bay Area films,” by Edward Guthmann (Datebook, Dec. 6, 2010).

David Kiehn is a movie historian who works at the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum. In research for his book “Broncho Billy and the Essanay Film Company,” he used techniques we genealogists know well. (Essanay made began making films in Niles, California, in 1912.)

He needed more photographs than he could find in the usual historical repositories so began hunting for living relatives of Essanay cast and crew members named in the “Broncho Billy” film. And where did he look? Well, the California Death Index for one, then obituaries, census records, and city and telephone directories. The result, he said, was that he found living descendents in 50 families and was able to obtain about a thousand relevant photographs.

Kiehn was featured on “60 Minutes” a while back, with a silent film he brought to light, “A Trip Down Market Street.” His sleuthing established that it was taken four days before the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. (To date it he studied weather reports and vehicle registration records, among other things.)

And happy sleuthing to you!

What shall it be?

2010-11-04T12:31:00.000-07:00

Serious research or cut-and-paste?

Made from scratch or out of a box?

Collecting names or building a true family history?

These phrases come to mind when I take a look at some web-based postings of “family trees.” Recently I have had the opportunity to explore certain features of Ancestry.com usually open only to fee-paying members (thank you, Family History Library). The family trees posted there are amazing to behold, in their intricacy, scope, and detail, and I enjoyed finding familiar names in some of them.

But would I simply add any such branches to my own files, even if I could? Not on your life.

There are so many errors, assumptions and guesses the eyeballs roll. Even the mistakes look familiar, because I know of at least one instance where my own halting beginners’ efforts were picked up from a now-defunct publication and added, by some unseen hand, to the Ancestry World Tree. Bits and pieces have gone on to replicate themselves like slime mold, reappearing in many another tree; there, of course, they are unencumbered by a single credible source citation.

One of my favorite examples (not of my making) is the half-dozen or so trees that cite Vincent Batson Tanner and Winifred Gardner as the parents of John Tanner. Winnie was born in 1804, according to each of these, and John came into the world nine years later. Did anyone stop to think that perhaps -- IF Vincent had a son John b. 1813, he might be from a previous marriage? And the “source citations” for these connections are -- each other.

It is not a crime to make an educated guess. But please -- please -- say that’s what it is! What really gets me was that for “sources” Ancestry suggests that genealogists simply cite “Ancestry Family Trees.” Oh really?

I could go on about this organization, which some say is trying to become the Microsoft of the genealogy world. Their ubiquitous Internet ads and “gotcha” signup screens can be ignored, but I do tire of the person on TV who says, “You don’t have to know what you’re looking for -- you just have to look.” Ask any serious researcher what she or he thinks of that brainless approach.

Pardon the rant, but I had to get this off my chest. Now back to business.

And to all you readers who are Ancestry adherents, I know this doesn’t apply to you. Their databases and indexes can be enormously useful, and I’m sure you accept the family trees for what they are: providers of CLUES ONLY (however tenuous) -- to be followed up, proven or disproven. Or ignored.

PS A note to the person who sent a comment re the Gabberts and Sherwoods. If you can send me a message using your own email address (I can’t reply to the comments message), I’ll be happy to share more of what I have about this family. Mary Ann Sherwood was my great-grandmother’s sister and I am fascinated by her story. My address is on the profile page.

I wish I had a picture ...

2010-09-13T13:48:00.000-07:00

Sometimes when I’m going through old family pictures I just stop and study a particular person -- her expression, clothing, jewelry, hair -- but especially her demeanor. Sadly, we don’t have images of some of the most important people in our background -- they lived too long ago, the pictures were lost, or perhaps they were never taken.

I would so love to have photographs of some of the fascinating women in my family lines.

For instance, there is my great-great grandmother, Elizabeth Morgan. The daughter of Thomas Morgan and Elishua Finsthwait, thought to have been born in Kent County, Delaware, Elizabeth first married a man with the maddeningly common name of John Wright. Can’t find a thing about him, until after his death, when his widow applied to administer his estate. Within a few years (1806) Elizabeth married again, to John Cain. Her son Marcellus, born in1802, took his stepfather’s surname. (Another story)

The new family grew to include seven more sons, and in 1826, after selling their Delaware property, they moved to Indiana, reportedly going on foot with a handcart, rather than by wagon or horseback.

Shortly after their arrival in Franklin County, John Cain died “from over-lifting a sawlog” and Elizabeth was once again a widow. Some years later she married a Mr. Holland, but he too expired and she apparently lived out the last of her 95 years at the home of son Jonathan, in Fayette County. Oh, Elizabeth, if I could only see what you looked like!

Another “person of interest” is my great-grandmother’s sister, Mary Ann Sherwood, daughter of Thomas E. Sherwood and Elizabeth Evans. She must have been a stubborn one -- a family letter says she married Ransom Gabbert against her family’s wishes (she was living in Bartholomew County, Indiana; they got their license in 1849 in neighboring Franklin County) and went with him to live in Missouri, where a lot of the Gabbert clan had already settled. Reportedly she never looked back, and did not even respond to letters from relatives. The only record of family contact is found in the 1860 census, which shows her brother John Sherwood enumerated in her Missouri household (and also counts him at his Indiana home).

Mary Ann’s husband died shortly after this visit. But within a few years, while his estate matters dragged on (don’t they always?) she signed her name to a court petition as Mary Ann Bradshaw. She had married Alexander Bradshaw, and they are found in Ft. Scott, Kansas, in the 1870 census; in their household are two Gabbert boys and a new Bradshaw child, Nancy Jane. What happened after that is still a mystery. It is known that the young Nancy was taken in by another family by 1875, when she is listed as Jennie Bradshaw. What became of Nancy Jane/Jennie’s parents is still unknown.

Mary Ann, if I could just get a glimpse ...

Lost, then found

2010-08-03T11:54:00.000-07:00

Stories like this just warm my heart, and yours too, I bet.

“The Poodle that came home,” in Sunday’s (Aug. 1) Santa Rosa Press-Democrat, is about memorablia from a famous San Francisco restaurant -- and its proprietors -- that was restored to its owners after 30 years.

The papers found in an antique dresser had changed hands more than once when the new owner decided to make a try at finding whose they were.

Rather than repeat the whole story here, I encourage you to go online and find the article for yourself. It is all about persistence and research and happy endings -- like much of genealogy.
Here is the link: http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20100801/ARTICLES/100809971

The curse of the unfinished project ...

2010-07-24T09:25:00.000-07:00

I’ve learned to be wary of my own enthusiasms. What seems like a fantastically wonderful idea in the early morning hours may collapse within days, deflated like an old balloon. It is so tempting to plunge right in and start whacking away as soon as the thought occurs. And so discouraging when, several hours into the project, a fatal shortcoming shows up. Or the sustained interest just isn’t there, the point is lost, and the whole thing gets consigned to the back of the file cabinet.

Another thing that dampens my fervor is the discovery that what I have is not a NEW idea at all -- my so-called innovation has been done by everyone else long ago. Of course if it still works for me, who cares?

So, when a lightbulb goes off over my head these days I like to take a while to ponder ALL the possibilities. I’m certainly not against spontaneity -- it’s just that most seemingly good ideas need time to mature. The best way to proceed, I find, is to write out the new-found project idea in the form of a realistic goal and the steps needed to get there.

One day I thought I’d like to create, and print, descendant charts for all my end-of-line ancestors, coming down at least four generations. The first try worked well and with a good deal of tweaking I even got it to fit on a single legal-size page. But the next one had so many children and so many marriages I simply could not manage it. And then a look through my files showed that I had tried this sort of thing many times before.

I was forcefully reminded that what works for one family line isn’t necessarily going to work for them all. Sometimes we sacrifice too much in an effort to be consistent -- or let the notion of keeping things uniform discourage us completely. Some families move a lot, others stay put. Some have multiple marriages, others don’t. Where family history is concerned, the only thing that is consistent is the lack of consistency!

This was my most recent lightbulb thought: to create a set of family history albums, one for each of my/our five major lines. It is an extension of the narrative idea I described last time, and would include, as well as the story line, an illustrated pedigree, the above-mentioned descendant charts, and selected photos and documents. I already have archival binders with many items included, but for this project I would like to begin afresh. Sometimes trying to revise an old unfinished project is just too discouraging, or distracting.

I’ll let you know how it comes along next time.

Time to move the goalposts

2010-07-08T12:55:00.000-07:00

When you need a fire extinguisher to blow out the birthday candles, you just have to admit you are no longer young, or even middle-aged. Then, too, there’s the difference in other people’s behavior toward you. It’s no longer necessary to ask for the senior discount; somehow they know. Young people sometimes actually offer to give up their seats on trains and buses, or help with your groceries. What cinches it is the realiztion that you know more about World War II than most Jeopardy contestants

With old(er) age comes a certain attitude toward your future plans, too. It’s far closer to the end than the beginning, and we accumulate all this STUFF. Having experienced the travails of clearing out other family members’ belongings, I do not envy my children the chore that lies ahead at some point. Thoughtful and caring though they are, will they reach a breaking point and feel compelled to start shovelling everything into a dumpster?

These philosophical musings have led me to give serious thought to the likely fate of all my genealogical research. And that in turn has inspired a new way of looking at my goals. I ask myself: Am I going to publish a scholarly paper for some periodical? Not likely. Am I going to write a best-selling family memoir? Absolutely not. Would I like to leave something understandable and at least moderately interesting for the younger family members? Yes yes yes!

I find it always helps to break down a big project into smaller pieces, so finishing each one gives a sense of accomplishment, and the overall effort does not seem so daunting. So, to begin work on this modest legacy, I’d want to write a series of narratives, covering the main results of my research to date, and including basic charts and a few family photos. After maybe three generations I’d end the first “chapter” and take stock. The emphasis would be on direct ancestors, of course, but I’d cetainly include the families of siblings, and the necessarily complex connections resulting from multiple marriages. (Only a few photos because I've already scanned those and copied them to CDs for distribution)

Even if I were not putting together something with future generations in mind, this way of handling my research efforts could be a very productive undertaking. One of the best ways I know to work on a problem is to try explaining it, in writing, to someone else. Just the act of putting it in some sort of order can spotlight gaps and possibilities for additional work.

What do you think of this approach? Have you thought about what will happen to your research? What would you LIKE to have happen to it? I’d really like to learn your thoughts on the subject.

I'm ba-a-a-a-ck (sort of)

2010-06-15T20:17:00.001-07:00

Yes, I’ve been away for a few weeks, doing something besides genealogy, if you can believe it. You've probably read of my travails trying to get the workroom cleaned up, which meant dealing with family photos, among other things. (I took a trip, too.) The attached picture is one of many I unearthed. It shows me with my parents and an aunt, at our Mojave Desert (California) property in about 1936. Love those automobiles!

**********

Here are a couple of stories that caught my eye before the hiatus, and might intrigue you as well.

“Obsessively seeking original occupant” -- a New York Times article which appeared in the Real Estate section on May 9. The new tenant was fascinated with the idea of finding out more about who first lived in this West 90th St apartment after it was built in 1910. His research, and a lucky find behind an old cupboard, helped.

“Sculptor’s unique grave markers honor deceased” -- Sigrid Herr creates unique bronze grave markers. “What you’re saying is, ‘I was here. I matter.’ And you’re saying that to the other people: ‘You were here, and you matter.’ ” San Francisco Chronicle, 3 May, 2010.

To read either story in full, go to Google and enter the selected headline as shown above, including quotation marks.

I hope to be back on track shortly, with more stories and ideas about genealogy-related matters. (I consider getting rid of the clutter a related matter, because if there's a mess I can't work on genealogy!)

Completely different? Not quite

2010-04-27T09:27:00.000-07:00

I am feeling quite pleased with myself right now, as I have just finished putting together the second of my travel journal/albums. Also, the family home movies are safely digitized on an external hard drive, with a backup kept elsewhere. It has been good to get some distance, temporarily, from family history research, and it has made me realize that some tactics we genealogists employ can be quite useful in other situations.

But … has all this activity taught me anything I can use in genealogy? Absolutely!

For my travel albums I first had to make a list of the trips; second, I brought together the journals, photos, and other material from their various hiding places; third, a plan of attack was devised that would keep me on the straight and narrow (it’s SO easy to get distracted and/or confused); fourth, I am continuing to keep tabs on my progress.

For the beginner in genealogy, I would say: make a pedigree and family group sheets of your known ancestors and relatives, insofar as you know them (equivalent to the trip list above); collect whatever photos and/or documents you have relating to family members; decide what your long- and short-term aims are; plan your strategy and keep it updated.

My goal in the travel matter was to eventually create a modest set of scrapbooks for all my trips. (Nice finite project, unlike you-know-what). You must decide YOUR goal as a genealogist. What do you have to work with? Which line will you work on? Where will you start?

As for the travel albums, now that the materials are sorted and neatly stowed, and a couple of the volumes completed, I will not take on the rest of the compilations all in one gulp, which would turn it into into a joyless chore. Much better to attend to them individually, over time. Besides, having some breaks in between will mean returning with a fresh outlook and some new ideas.

Here again is something applicable to genealogy. Even if it were possible to devote all one's time to research, it is far better, in my experience, to back away now and then. New insights and approaches become apparent, and we go back the project with renewed enthusiasm and a sharper focus.

And is my workspace less cluttered now? Well … sort of.

PS The photograph is of the entrance to the Egyptian Avenue, Highgate Cemetery, London, from one my trips, naturally.

Still cleaning up ...

2010-04-05T10:46:00.000-07:00

And now for something completely different …

The workspace clutter, as you may recall, really got to me a while back, and I decided I HAD to do something serious about it. Consequently I have taken a break from family history research for a few weeks.

As I saw it, the major culprits in this mess were boxes of 8mm home movies, and miscellaneous collections of material from various trips I have taken over the last 25 years or so (yes! that long!). There seemed to be no place else to put these but the office floor, and, besides, they were always something I was going to deal with sooner or later.

How is it that what we think of as a modest little project blossoms into one of gigantic proportions? Well, I knew the travel items would take time to deal with, but really! Memorabilia, journals and photos had been stashed in large expanding envelopes, but there was no order to them.

I won’t go into details here (it would take a book), but am happy to report that so far I have all the travel diary entries transcribed and entered on my laptop. I have gone through most of the collections of ephemera -- tickets, brochures, maps, photos and postcards -- and sorted them; I even discarded a few things -- something that is extremely hard for me to do. Each event is in a tidy storage box, awaiting final disposition. And, gradually, I am working on getting them into albums of some sort.

In the process I have learned a lot (which is certainly applicable to other endeavors, like genealogy). I have learned how to illustrate my journal text with scanned items (good old “copy and paste”), and make space for actual items to be inserted (“text boxes” work). I have even developed a table to record my progress (otherwise there was no way to keep track of which trip I was working on).

I am not a scrapbook or crafty sort of person and didn’t want to turn this into a lifetime undertaking (like genealogy), but I am drawn to matters dealing with type and layout; a hobby printer before the computer age, I once had an antique jobbing press, cases of metal (or “hot”)type, and sundry printing equipment and supplies. This typographic interest has served me well in this current project. And even though the final product is not intended for publication or distribution (who else cares?), the creation of it is a most enjoyable experience. It allows me to relive those many trips while experimenting with layouts and presentation -- and at the same time using the very virtuous rationale of cleaning up the office.

On the other hand, the family movies ARE intended to be preserved for others -- the family! So I was overjoyed to find someone who was able to digitize the film for me -- reels and reels of it. She is even going to help me learn about editing it. Again, I don’t look for this to be of Oscar-winning caliber; the old filmed images simply need to be safely stored in a contemporary format (how many people have projectors any more?). I plan to do a minimal amount of editing (or get one of my more talented children to take the job on), using the current Mac version of iMovie.
Learning to use this program is giving me ideas about old family photos, too, since “movies” can be made using still shots as well as moving ones.

So, in both these projects there are some surprising connections to genealogy.

Value-added

2010-03-03T14:20:00.000-08:00

How many items of household equipment do you have? Every tool, every appliance has its own set of features / settings / possible uses. When people bemoan the fact that they don’t utilize nearly all the elements of a particular computer program, I think of my old non-electronic sewing machine. Came with a box of attachments which looked interesting but … I never used more than a couple of them -- the good old zipper foot, and, on occasion, the button-holer. The quilters and tailors among us probably got a lot of use out of some of the other gadgets, but did you?

The same goes for software. I have been playing around with Pages, my Mac word processing program, and am still discovering new features (it helps to get together with other users and trade tips). You can create tables with simple sorting capabilities, without resorting to elaborate spreadsheet programs. I enjoy importing scanned graphics and digital photos into text with simple “copy and paste” commands. AND those graphics can be enhanced with shadows or frames. Then, too, I just started using the “comment” feature, which allows me to insert temporary notes to myself as I work on a document.

In Reunion, the Mac genealogy program, I find new things all the time. There is a Log which allows for quick notes to oneself about future research; there is the Multimedia button, for importing illustrations; also there are many ways to customise displays and printouts to suit specific needs. Every such genealogy program has special applications -- we only need to discover them!

One thing I have learned is this: don’t be misled by the labels. My printer driver, for instance, has a button for “Layout.” Inside this is a menu which includes choices of print quality.
Doesn’t seem intuitive to me. So try everything, even when it doesn’t seem logical.

*********

A thought for the day: starting in on a new project, genealogical or otherwise, I sometimes discover an earlier attempt: a printed outline, memo to myself, or serious plan of attack. (Totally forgotten, of course) From now on I am going to DATE every such piece of writing! It would be so helpful to know when a particular idea first came to mind -- and how far I got with it. It might even save some needless duplication.

*********

Don’t forget the new NBC series, “Who Do You Think You Are?” The first program airs March 5.

Quick note ...

2010-02-08T09:01:00.000-08:00

Look for the new PBS series "Faces of America," beginning Wednesday (Feb. 10). Here is the description from PBS.org:

"What made America? What makes us? These two questions are at the heart of the new PBS series Faces of America with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. The Harvard scholar turns to the latest tools of genealogy and genetics to explore the family histories of 12 renowned Americans — professor and poet Elizabeth Alexander, chef Mario Batali, comedian Stephen Colbert, novelist Louise Erdrich, journalist Malcolm Gladwell, actress Eva Longoria, musician Yo-Yo Ma, director Mike Nichols, Her Majesty Queen Noor, television host/heart surgeon Dr. Mehmet Oz, actress Meryl Streep, and figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi."

In KQED-land (SF Bay Area) the program starts at 8 p.m. and is followed at 9 by a repeat of the program "African-American Lives."

Check your local listings.

Genealogical meanderings ...

2010-02-04T19:43:00.000-08:00

Isn’t it fascinating how searching for one little piece of information leads to another? It is sort of like following a meandering path through the woods, as in those childhood stories, and instead of finding the way home we discover a whole new meadow. (Or we follow a stream and come upon a waterfall.)

Pardon me while I wax poetic … I was looking for information on some children who seemed to disappear when their father died and their mother remarried; instead I found another elusive child, and evidence of the deceased parent having had an earlier marriage. So no anwers, yet, but some more questions!

Now and then, when I am stumped in my research, when census records and other documents just don’t seem to help, I simply Google the name of someone I am looking for. In this case, searching for more on Samuel Walton Currie (d. GA 1891), I was led to a GenForum query from 2002 about his very family. When messages are that old, chances of getting a response are slim, but I was lucky, and an answer came within 24 hours. And with it, ideas for more paths to follow, of course.

*************************************

Yes, I am still cleaning out the office, but needed to take a break (all those decisions about what to throw away were making me crazy), and a chance question from someone stirred me to return to this particular problem. I am truly fortunate to have friends who care about the human interest aspects of this kind of research even though they are not genealogists.

In the matter of cleaning up, I am trying to adopt the philosophy of “The Practical Archivist,” who flatly states that you do not have to keep every photograph ever taken. (This applies to my travel memorabilia, NOT my ancestral portraits!) It was always hard for me to discard even the blurriest from-a-train-window shots, but with hardened resolve I have tossed quite a few -- PLUS all those duplicates the film developers used to bless us with. Furthermore, once I scan them I intend to get rid of the old fading film. So there.

I doubt I will ever sit down and create elaborate albums of ALL my trips, but the most memorable are being arranged in an accessible format (at least that is my plan). The envelopes, bags and cartons are slowly being emptied, and I have -- at the moment -- a mild sense of accomplishment. And I am getting rid of not only useless photos, but a lot of other tangential material -- clippings and guidebook pages that have outlived their usefulness, outdated local guides, now-meaningless scribbled notes, etc. Instead I am keeping maps, GOOD pictures, tickets, interesting brochures, local newspaper items that grabbed my attention, and other things that have specific meaning to me. It helps that I keep journals, so pictures are easier to identify and I can reconstruct itineraries as needed.

I have tried using those expandable envelopes for “temporary” storage, but find them too floppy to stack or shelve, so have resorted to shunting the lot into those impersonal (boring) bankers’ boxes. Once hiddden away like that, they tend to be forgotten.

Then I found some cardboard document storage boxes from a library supply house which claim to be acid-free (though in this case I don’t really care), and which can stand upright on a bookshelf (or back on the floor in my office -- oops). Each is large enough to hold at least one trip's worth of stuff, and they will be convenient to work on, but neatly -- and uniformly -- contained in the meanwhile.

*********

“Why we make home videos” is the headline of David Pogue’s Personal Tech column in today’s New York Times. He discusses his efforts to transfer the tapes to a newer format, AND his readers’ comments on the whole project. (Can you believe that there are some people who don’t think he should even bother recording family activities???)

A familiar story, and something new

2010-01-11T15:53:00.000-08:00

Blog Jan 2010

My latest efforts at clearing out / cleaning up the little room I use for my office are stumbling along. Old notes, newly unearthed, tempt me with immediate search possibilities. Besides that, a couple of problems have surfaced (besides the obvious one, which is that I can’t stay on track) that are not, strictly speaking, genealogical.

I have a collection of travel notes and souvenirs (did I tell you I collect printed ephemera -- a fancy term for odd bits of paper?) which date back to the 1980s, when I was fortunate enough to visit friends in Tokyo. I think there’s even a Japanese placemat from McDonald’s in there somewhere. This accumulation is in various boxes and envelopes, heaped on the floor. At one point I started making scrapbooks, but that came to seem like overkill, and a project I probably would never complete. Some trips, while interesting and enriching, simply do not justify enshrinement in those imposing acid-free albums. I need to rethink the whole thing and get these bales of material out of there!

The other “problem” is a precious aggregation of family video tapes, 8mm home movies and a CD or two. These need editing and transferring to a contemporary medium, probably DVDs; meanwhile they, too, are in cartons on the office floor, awaiting the ministrations of some skill greater than mine.

So, in a strenuous effort to ignore these issues, I go back to my endless rearranging of pieces of paper. And in so doing I have come up with some actual genealogy-related ideas.

A challenge alluded to before in these columns is about the ancestral line of my Mintons. There was a John Minton/Mintun in the Revolutionary War; I have a copy of his pension application, with a faint facsimile of some Bible pages appended, showing his children and their birth dates. He had a son Jacob, born in the 1790s. The proven ancestry I have been working on includes a William whose father seems to be a Jacob, also born in that decade. John enlisted in NJ, and my William was born in NJ. Wouldn’t it be exciting to connect these two, and give my kids bragging rights?

Well, it hasn’t quite worked out as I’d hoped, but in untangling the various bits of data, real and wishful, I’ve come across a useful way to sort things out.

Instead of simply creating another file in my genealogy program for the so-far-unrelated folks (which does sometimes help), I wrote up a brief summary for each of my significant documents, showing what was stated in particular about any Jacob Minton born in that time period. There was the Rev War pension application, a DAR application (which actually ignored Jacob but names John), a five-generation pedigree chart I copied at the Family History Library last year, a partial genealogy of unknown authorship which gives interesting particulars but no documentation, and a digitzed copy of some diary pages, which a correspondent sent to me.

As you can see, most of these would not pass the “evidence” test, though they do provide tantalizing clues. But by the act of summarizing such sources, I have been able get a better grasp of the possibility of a relationship between our Minton line and that Rev War guy. (It does not seem to exist, alas, despite similar names, dates and locations.)

I do recommend this technique if you are faced with a number of conflicting “facts” and need to examine them in a new way.

Meanwhile, back to … well, you know. [And I have promised myself to take care of the home movies and videos in the next few weeks.]

To put it mildly ...

2009-12-16T18:58:00.000-08:00

Most of us are pretty busy this time of year, with holidays looming, but while our endeavors in family history research are likely to get put aside temporarily, the subject may come up during conversations with friends and family.

What is the comment you hear most often from non-genealogists? Is it “how far back have you gone?” I tell people my interest is in whole families and their stories, not just a straight-line pedigree; hence my progress is not based series of “begats.”

Or do they dismiss the subject by saying, “A cousin did our father’s line a long time ago.” Oh yes? Did she cite her sources? And haven’t there been any changes since then?

“My friend traced has her ancestry back to the time of _____ ” (fill in the blank with any name before 1500). Once again, the question is, what sources were used -- and how valid were they?

“I found a whole genealogy of our family on the Internet.” The fact that someone wrote it down and published it somewhere is NOT evidence of its accuracy.

“Our name was changed at Ellis Island.” This is a common belief, but not as likely as many people seem to think. There were many other reasons for our ancestors’ names to be modified.

The corollary to this is the fact that a family surname may have been spelled many ways. One should never ignore a “Daugherty” when looking for Dohertys, just because “we never spelled it that way.”

“Three brothers came to this country …” This is an old story, not often true, according to the professionals.

“I can’t take up genealogy -- it is too expensive.” Well, yes and no. It does not have to be costly. Plenty of people work from home, with diligent use of correspondence, inter-library loans, and contact with the public libraries and genealogical / historical groups in their areas of interest. No computer at home? The local public library very likely provides online access for free, and perhaps even some subscription databases. The LDS Family History Centers are found just about everywhere, and welcome everyone, with assistance and support.

Perhaps, in the gentlest way possible, you could respond to these misapprehensions. Or maybe just remind yourself of them -- after all, there is no need to start a feud at the Christmas party.

*****

One last thing -- how long has it been since you backed up your research? (I am assuming you have a computer, since you are reading this.) Do yourself a favor and go do it now.

Then relax and enjoy the holidays!

Coming up for heir ...

2009-11-13T16:26:00.000-08:00

Just surfacing after a week in Salt Lake City, where I was embedded with books, films, and many many other genealogy obsessives. There is something so comforting about being around people who are as overboard about a subject as you are. And every time I go, there is something new to discover, not only genealogically, but also about the Family History Library’s own physical setup.

I was fortunate to connect with a group from the upper midwest a couple of years ago, and now I schedule my Utah trips for the time when they will be there -- a pleasantly companionable arrangement. Having ancestors who arrived in North America well before the Revolution, I spend my time on the second and third floors (US books and films), while my Minnesota pals are in the lower levels digging into Scandinavian history, but there are plenty of fellow researchers everywhere, ready to share a thumbs up when they hear someone exclaim over a Big Discovery.

The Library is set up for laptop owners, with plenty of power outlets and free wireless access not only to its own catalog, but also to its many database subscriptions, like Ancestry, World Vital Records, Footnote, etc. Of course it is also quite feasible to use the Library’s own computers -- there are banks of them now, and plenty of volunteer staff more than willing to help with technical and/or genealogical assistance. The only cost is for the printer, and at a nickel a page, you can’t beat that.

I particularly appreciated the new scanning equipment, which allowed me to make paper copies of individual microfilm shots, after cropping, straightening, adjusting constrast, etc. Another option is to copy these filmed images directly onto a flash drive. (I did both.) And being able to buy a 2G flash drive for $9 isn’t bad, either.

My own research results reinforced the standard advice -- work back in time, from the known to the unknown, and don’t limit the scope of your search to a single place. I have long wanted to prove, or rule out, a connection between one particular ancestor and another, earlier, person, with little success. So instead of concentrating on that earlier guy, a Revolutionary War pensioner, I decided to learn more about the known ancester. I found his death date and burial place in an Ohio county I had not tried before, which was a big step forward. Now, if only I can find an obituary ...

In Georgia, I was trying to discover what happened to a relative’s first husband and four young children when she remarried. Again, the problem was partly solved when I did a state-wide census search for the first husband and found the family in a county I had not tried before. That led me to newspaper accounts of his illness and death, and the fact -- albeit negative -- that it was not an epidemic that wiped out everyone. So, although I still don’t know what became of the children, I have a better idea of where to look.

You know what they say -- location, location, location. If you are looking in the wrong place, you won’t get far.

Now for the fun part -- working these and other FHL finds into my family history files -- adding newly discovered names, dates, places, and events. And of course making sure I have permanent lists of the sources I searched, whether they yielded anything or not.

And, by the way, how is YOUR research going?

Getting ready ...

2009-10-19T17:01:00.000-07:00

Back from a three-week hiatus with no genealogical connections, and diving into my prep for a trip to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City.

My big concern when going to a major institution like the FHL is this: how do I focus on one or two main research problems when I know there are scores of information sources there that I won’t be able to look at again anytime soon?

One time, years ago, I typed up 42 separate questions for study at the library! (And some are still sitting in my files, unanswered.) OK, so that was too many, Since then I have learned to keep the list shorter, and to try to make tighter priorities. But still -- if somehow I arrived and discovered a newly-added source of information -- like some previously inaccessible documents from Jasper County, Indiana -- I know I would drop everything and go for that.

The secret, then, is to be flexible. I will write up my proposed research plans, one project per sheet or folder, with space for entering notes, and try to stick to them. But priorities have a way of changing once one gets into the stacks. It just happens.

[My concession to the Research Log protocol is that I put each problem on a separate sheet and make sure to note the sources checked, whether or not they yielded any data]

It has been suggested that since FHL microfilms can be borrowed for use at a local Family History Center (for a fee and after a wait of some weeks), it makes more sense, when in Salt Lake City, to look at books and periodicals that are not on film. I do agree, sort of, and love nothing better than to settle myself at one of their big library tables with a stack of books at my elbow. I don’t even have to move to the banks of computers to consult the library catalog or subscription databases, since logging in wirelessly to the Library’s own website is possible from my own laptop. [Health alert: it is important to get up and walk around ONCE in a while]

There are times, however, when turning to the films is not only convenient, but necessary. A clue in a family history book (moved back from the Joseph Smith Building, thank goodness) may lead me to try to confirm something on filmed court records. And going through the indexes to those records may lead me to something else I have been looking for …

The answer seems to be to keep one’s priorities firmly in mind. I have sometimes gotten so hung up on a particular surname that I lose sight of the fact that it was just the name of some collateral relative’s second husband! Interesting, perhaps, but would pursuit of it really be worth my precious and limited time?

It is vitally important to look at the FHL’s online catalog before making the visit -- we all know that. But sometimes things get overlooked, or haven’t been added, and we make wonderful discoveries onsite.

I think my new motto is: Serendipity requires flexibility. The corollary: Flexibility has its limits.

+++++++

One other thing that can be done before a trip is to make a search on PERSI (part of the Heritage Quest database collection, available from home through the Sonoma County Library system) for periodical articles which might have relevance. Sending for copies is quite inexpensive, but seeing them firsthand is faster and more efficient. The Family History Library subscribes to many genealogical publications and PERSI’s index is a good way to find the nuggets which may be buried within those pages. [PERSI stands for “Periodical Source Index” and is a compilation, regularly updated, of genealogical periodicals by the Allen County Public Library.]

2009-09-12T16:03:00.000-07:00

The September 7 issue of the San Francisco Chronicle has a heart-warming story by Carolyn Jones on the restoration of an East Bay cemetery and its gravestones. Situated on the slopes of Mount Diablo, Rose Hill Cemetery is within the boundaries of Black Diamond Mines Regional Park now, and dedicated staff members there have been reassembling neglected and vandalized tombstones bit by bit, for several years. The cemetery served an old coal-mining community and closed in 1900.

"It's detective work," said one specialist. "What's kept me interested is meeting the descendants, hearing their stories. They're excited that someone cares."

You can find the article by entering the word “tombstones” in Google, and clicking on the word “News” in the upper left corner. (A good way to find some other interesting stories on the subject as well.) You can also go to SFgate.com and look for it there.

*****

I will be away until early October, on a non-genealogical trip, part Elderhostel and part on my own. But, as with last fall’s Spain trip, there are sure to be tokens and reminders of genealogy everywhere.

In London’s National Portrait Gallery there are all those paintings of family groups. When I see typical Dutch homes along the canals of Amsterdam, I won’t be able to help wondering who built them, who lived in them early on, and who lives there now. When I go to a thrift shop or stop by a booth at an antique fair, it comes to me that SOMEONE owned this or that bit of lace or cloisonne, someone’s home was adorned by a particular 18th century tile and its partners, and someone read this dog-eared book, wrote in the margins, carried its words around in his head.

Who are these individuals? They are someone’s ancestors and relatives. Why do I care? Because, like you, I love family history!

Too much information -- I have to sit down

2009-08-18T15:38:00.000-07:00

Genealogy is a singularly personal pursuit -- a hobby that boils down, for each of us, to a unique set of research efforts. You may not really care who my great-aunt was (though you may share in my excitement over finding her), and vice versa, but we can each profit from the other’s experiences in seeking out our own relatives.

That’s why this Family Lines blog is not just an account of “who I found this time” but more about “this is how I did it.”

But I digress (already). You have read about my Florida searches and how exciting it was to discover the Confederate Pension applications, digitized by the Florida State Library as part of their "Florida Memory" project. And, before that, the list of Florida death record extracts available at Family Search Labs. This took me back to a family line I had set aside years ago (in the days when we depended on the Soundex to find some census records or simply searched page by microfilmed page).

Now the problem is -- when to stop! After working with these online files to fill in some serious gaps, and follow new clues, I decided to dig out an old handwritten chart a Florida relative sent me dozens of year ago. (Miraculously, I unearthed it with only a little digging.) Many of the clues found on that chart were confirmed by the Florida records I had just been looking at, but there are many more pieces of information there, waiting to be documented and possibly expanded.

Rather than flit here and there in my genealogy program, inserting these items and, in some cases, adding whole new sets of names, I decided to try creating an entirely new file from the chart, with a distinctive name showing its provenance. That way it will be available for reference in unedited form, but won’t get mixed in with what I already have. This is the method strongly recommended for dealing with any external family record -- if someone sends you a GEDCOM, or you download a pedigree from the Internet, the best plan is to keep it in a separate file until you are sure the data is accurate. Then, too, you can prune any unwanted branches -- do you really need the whole lineage from that great-aunt’s first husband’s parents?

Full disclosure here -- I actually faced this situation. A relative of mine was married to a grandson of the frontiersman Simon Kenton. But I am not related to him!! So I have avoided the temptation to add a cluster of folks from that line. Beware of people who brag about having several thousand names in their so-called “family tree.” Are they really “family”?

If transcribing the whole chart doesn’t work for me (it will involve reassembling the old copy which is on several taped-together sheets of paper, and spreading them out somewhere), well ... I will have to think of something else.

A matter of notes

2009-07-23T14:47:00.000-07:00

What are YOUR genealogy program’s notes like? What kind of information do you place there, and how do you arrange it? Do you store sources in a separate file, so you don’t have to repeat the citation in every individual’s record? Do you write a narrative, or simply list the facts and state where you found them?

I have tried a number of styles (and no style at all), and am still not settled on an overall, consistent, format for my notes. But I have come up with some moderately useful ideas that I’d like to share.

Trying to find and include a lot of relatives when I started genealogy many years ago, I would often enter a single sentence indicating my source -- something to justify including the individual as part of a family. Later, when I went back to add more details, I didn’t want to delete this initial evidence, so I inserted the phrase “originally found in ... “

Sometimes the search was so intriguing I wanted to put down every twist and turn -- the false leads, the early surmises, the circuitous path that finally allowed me to complete the record (insofar as a reconstructed record of anyone’s life can be said to be “complete”).

I have found it worthwhile to keep references to most family stories, even if they are later proven to be exaggerated, askew or downright false, if only to illustrate for any future family historians that I was aware of the legend/gossip. Why didn’t I accept the note from an aunt that my great grandmother’s first husband was a Sherwood? Well, because I found Nancy with her Sherwood sisters in various records, as children in the household of their father, Thomas E. Sherwood. Her first husband turned out to be a Hammond. And what about her sons by that Hammond marriage, said to have died young, probably in the Civil War? A look at their ages, and records of their deaths from family bible transcriptions, showed that they died years after the war ended.

These family accounts did offer useful starting points, however, such as the possibility that Nancy Sherwood had been married twice, and that she reportedly had sons who died as young men.

After noting the original source for an individual (even if it turns out to be incorrect), I like to enter information in the notes field in chronological order, with the year highlighted. Thus census records, marriage returns, land grants, tombstone inscriptions and the like are arranged logically and are easy to check. I still put my sources in the notes field, but you may prefer the separate source list that most genealogy computer programs feature. “Copy and paste” keeps me from having to retype too much. I highlight personal names in the notes field too -- it is so helpful to have a program that allows for typographic variations such as boldface and italics!

Of course the chronological arrangement, from birth to death, is just the opposite of what we are supposed to do in our research, working back in time. But often neither is the actual path we take. Looking for a woman’s death record, I found instead the death of a child, giving the mother’s birth name and the full name of her husband. And searching for a man’s tombstone inscription I found, in the same plot, the name of another man, who upon investigation turned out to be a brother-in-law.

Following these leads and placing my findings in order does require a lot of editing and rearranging of notes -- thank goodness for computers and word processing programs!

And I do add comments and observations about the intriguing clues that lead me from one person to another -- they are what makes the whole process so absorbing.

Confederate Papers

2009-06-30T17:20:00.000-07:00

My recent venture into Florida Confederate pension applications was so fruitful, I thought it would be a good idea to discuss the subject here. I happened on the state website that provides access to the images (indexed, of course), but you don’t need to stumble around as I did.

While the National Archives does not hold Confederate pension records, they do tell you where to find them, at this site:

http://www.archives.gov/genealogy/military/civil-war/confederate/pension.html

The Confederate states are listed with addresses, and brief descriptions of their holdings. Some states have put the documents online (as Florida has), while others have online indexes to aid you in locating and ordering printed copies. In some cases you probably just have to write and ask, giving as much information as you have. There are also references to books which might help with this search.

The pension applications themselves may give a lot or just a little information, but they are interesting to read in any case.

Of course there are other Civil War documents to be found in these state archives as well. They can be a rich and fascinating resource for the researcher with family lines in the Southern states.

Here are a couple of items I picked up in my wanderings: “Statement of female prisoner regarding bushwhacking activities” (Missouri), and a letter stating applicant for pension was actually a deserter who went over to the “yankies” for “pertection.” (Georgia).

If you are intrigued, as I was, that the state pension boards sent requests for confirmation to The War Department in Washington, D.C., you will be interested in the article by Richard White at http://pone.com/ts/records.htm He explains how the federal government came to possess the Confederate service records, and even cooperated with the rebel states in providing information so they could grant pensions.

He writes specifically about northern Florida and southern Georgia, but the information is applicable to most searches.

The woman pictured is my great-grandmother, Louise Laura Driggers Tanner. I wasn’t aware that any of my Tanners had been Confederate soldiers, but in browsing the index I found Louise’s application for a widow’s pension on the basis of her first marriage, to a cousin also named Driggers/Dreggors/Dreigers (depending on which page you read). When her second husband, my ancestor, died, she was able to make the application, which, I believe, was granted.

More discoveries all the time

2009-06-03T13:33:00.000-07:00

The ongoing projects of the LDS-managed FamilySearchLabs.org are proving so useful in my research! I have written before about finding the exact date of death of an Ohio woman in their files, which enabled me to write for her obituary. More recently I came across a transcription of the death record for a Florida relative, which gave his father’s birthplace -- something I had despaired of ever finding.

One of the best aspects of these indexes is that the Mormons check and double-check their work, whether it is done in-house or by volunteers. Another is that everything is free! You don’t even need to sign in to look at the files they have produced.

The discovery of the Florida death records (1877-1939), prompted me to go back to a line I had set aside years ago. The Tanners were a prolific bunch and there were many, many descendants of my great-great grandfather, John Tanner, about whom I had very little information.

After finding several more names, I decided it would be wisest to view members of each generation in a more organized fashion, looking at all of John’s children and grandchildren, and determining what data I might be able to fill in from this website.

To do this I needed to set up a simple chart showing more than one generation on a single sheet (or screen display). So I chose to go with a family group sheet, omitting the notes, but showing the ancestral parents, their nine children, and the children’s children (a nice option in Reunion for the Mac).

From this display it was easy to see the blank spaces and create a basic list of questions for research, from the general “what became of ... “ to the more specific: “did Thomas and May have any children?”

Although I may not pursue this line as doggedly as I have some others, it would be interesting to have more complete information about this ancestor’s descendants, and the FamilySearchLabs databases have given me a real boost.

By the way, the information I found on my great-great-grandfather came from one of his children who is NOT my direct ancestor. Another reason to look at whole families and not simply the direct lines. Pedigree charts are well and good, but they don’t tell the whole story.

*******
Next time: Confederate pensioners -- on another website

No more tangles

2009-05-07T16:21:00.000-07:00

Sometimes we get so enmeshed in the multiple strands of our family history research it is really important to take a deep breath, step back, and simply take stock. Besides reminding us of the big picture -- our overall goal(s) -- this exercise can generate an encouraging sense of accomplishment. It might also help set priorities for future research. Perhaps the tangent you are following so intently right now is not, after all, that important to your overall aim. On the other hand, maybe it is! Or maybe your overall aim isn’t what you thought it was at first.

Here are some questions you might ask yourself:

1. What am I trying to do? -- a general statement of your goals (not the specific problem you should have in mind when you go to the library or when you go online)

2. What have I accomplished so far? -- this may surprise you

3. What are my current projects and interests? -- be sure to make a note of them all

4. Of these, what do I consider to be my brick walls? -- are they really so impenetrable? Or so important?

5. What other projects would I like to take on, or continue?

6. How can I go about strengthening my background knowledge in order to do better work? We are an impatient lot, always wanting to skim the cream off the top, collecting names and dates from easy-to-access databases, books and records; but at some point it is vital to sit down and spend some time with background reading, learning more, ever more, about laws, events, trends, and environmental aspects the would have affected our forebears’ lives.

Once you figure out your own satisfactory answers to these questions, revising and reviewing them occasionally may help keep you on track and inspire you as well!

Who was Nancy Howard?

2009-04-21T09:28:00.000-07:00

Here is a puzzle to mull over:

A relative of mine (actually my great grandfather’s sister) named Amanda Howard was married in 1843 to one Alpheus Gregg, in Montgomery County, Indiana. They had two sons, and, sadly, Amanda died five years later.

In 1850 the Gregg household shows Alpheus with a new wife, Anna (later shown to be Anna Wilson), two Gregg children, and two Howard children, Caroline, age 14, and Robert, age 12.

This might seem evidence enough to establish that the deceased Amanda Howard had been previously married, and that these young Howards were from that earlier marriage.

But a closer look indicates otherwise. Amanda’s age as given on her gravestone shows she was born in 1822, and this is corroborated by the range of ages of her siblings in early census records.
Caroline Howard’s birth year would have been about 1836, when Amanda was 14. Mother and daughter? Possible, but not really likely.

Because of the age question, I looked elsewhere for more information. There is a Guardian’s Docket for Montgomery County, digitized and indexed online thanks to the Crawfordsville Public Library. There I found an entry, dated 24 Sept. 1848, for Caroline E. Howard, “about 13,” and Robert W. Howard, “about 10.” In fact I found three other Howards in the same entry: Augustus F., Tilghman A., and George W. Howard. All are listed as “heirs of Nancy Howard, deceased.” Caroline’s and Robert’s ages correspond to the ages given in the 1850 census for the Gregg household.

In this docket entry, a David Thompson was listed as guardian, and Andrew A. Whitmack was surety.

So now there are more questions: who is Nancy Howard? Who was the father of her heirs/children? What became of the other children? And why is David Thompson acting as guardian?

The discovery of the name Nancy Howard certainly shows the children were not Amanda’s, if further proof were needed. Even if one could postulate that Nancy and Amanda were the same person (they both died in 1848), the oldest of Nancy’s heirs in the guardianship case was born about 1830, definitely too early to be the child of Amanda, born just 8 years earlier.

So was it just a coincidence that two of Nancy Howard’s children ended up in a household with children of the by-then-deceased Amanda Howard?

First I searched for the other children. David Thompson had one in his own household in 1850, another is in the household of Larkin Leak, and Augustus has not yet been tracked down in any indexes, under his given name or any variations I could think of.

Thompson himself seems to have been involved in a number of guardianship cases, and I theorize that he may have acted in a semi-official capacity, either on behalf of the local community, or a church. This is perhaps the reason all but one the children under his guardianship were placed in other homes. So far I have found no personal connection between him and the Howard family. Census records shows him as a farmer, and an 1868 Indiana gazetteer lists a David Thompson as a Montgomery County grain dealer.

So who is Nancy? Who was the Howard she presumably had been married to? Amanda had only one known brother, whose wife was named Jaley; their father’s will, made in 1853, names just this one male, two other daughters, and “the estate of Amanda Gregg’s children.” No mention is made of any other Howard children.

One of my steps was to look for any of Nancy’s children who might have appeared in the 1880 census, in order to discover their parents’ birthplaces.

Caroline seems to have married a George W. Wilson in 1853, but both died before 1870. Robert’s tracks are faint indeed, and confusing because his name is not uncommon.

In the 1880 census for Montgomery County I found a Tilghman Howard, of the right approximate age, born in Indiana. The record states both his parents were born in Ohio. If this is Nancy’s son, it gives a slender clue. But I would like to find another of her children in that census, to help confirm the birthplace. We all know how vague (forgetful, ill-informed) people can be when asked to name the place where their parents were born.

Searches of the online Indiana State Library Index to Marriages to 1850 for the relevant period have revealed three brides named Nancy, married to men with the surname Howard. Following these trails so far has not been very fruitful. And perhaps she was married in Ohio. Or not married at all...

There, dear reader, is where I am at this point. Your comments or suggestions are most welcome.

At the very least I hope this exposition has given you some strategies for your own research.

Some Personal Musings ...

2009-03-31T09:44:00.000-07:00

I am still working on the office mess. With help from my tech-savvy daughter I was able to reduce the number of wires and cables behind the desk, and put the remaining cords on a single power strip. That way I can turn all the equipment off with a single switch if I am to be away for more than a day or two. (I have solar panels, so don’t worry too much about wasting electricity, but a power surge could wipe out equipment and data.)

Thinking about my oft-discussed research problems, I got some of the documentation rearranged and tucked into new folders. Just that act can give new insight into old puzzles. I started out with a statement about the individual in question (each issue usually does concern one single person, so far); I try to state, as concisely as possible, what it is I want to know. Then, I write down what I already know, also in brief form. That is followed by a list of searches already done, and ideas for future exploration. (As time goes by, this list gets longer.) A separate sheet has specific sources to look into, in log form. Also useful is a map of the area, if known, appropriate to the time.

The trick is to avoid getting sidetracked at this point. Thinking “oh, I’ll just take a look at the 1870 census right now and see if she is there” can lead you away from the point ot this exercise. Instead, make a note in your log to “look for _____ in Illinois, 1870 census indexes.”

I call wandering off the path this way “grazing.” Although tempting and sometimes even serendipitous, it is mostly a means of using up time. Wandering around in census indexes, or looking up resources on USGenWeb for a particular county, with no specific goal in mind, no idea of the county’s historic boundaries, and no list of previous searches, just ends up being light entertainment -- not a serious means to a stated end. (That is not say I haven’t spent many an hour doing this very thing.)

If there isn’t time to jump in with both feet, try selecting a single item to work on. Look up a census record, or look for a book title on Worldcat. (You know about WorldCat, don’t you?) And ALWAYS make a note of the resources you searched and the results, even if they are negative. That way you won’t inadvertently go over the same ground another time.

********

David Pogue had a column on the fragility of our supposedly robust data storage systems in the March 23 issue of The New York Times. Every genealogist should read it!

********

From Kinfolks: Falling Off the Family Tree, by Lisa Alther (2007):

“ ..... unlike Greatgrandma Peale, I can’t link my father’s ancestors to Europe. Most lines vanish in the mid-1700s, like creeks in desert sand ... “

That's all for now.

More on organizing

2009-03-12T12:29:00.000-07:00

My last post, on the difficulty of organizing genealogical materials, must have hit a nerve, because there have been several heartfelt responses from readers (Thank you!). I was spurred to tackle my mess once more -- it has become a logjam that prevents me from even thinking about any individual research problem.

At a recent meeting of the Sonoma County Genealogical Society, the subject was “Organizing for a research trip.” I always thought I had that down pretty well, but of course I learned a good deal, and was inspired by all these motivated people. Turns out, the suggestions they made can be applied to my current difficulties, even without an out-of-town trip on the horizon (at least not for several months).

I decided to start in on my “work in progress” folders, which have become dumping grounds for notes, census printouts, and other miscellany. (Does it ever occur to you that the workspace resembles an archeologically-defined midden heap, with piles getting higher and higher, so that we just pick off the topmost layer to work on?) For me,“Work in progress” had become a euphemism for “I’ll just put this stuff here for now.”

My first step was to inventory the folders and divide them into categories. In fact, after I made the list the subject divisions seemed to present themselves.

I have several descendancy projects, for various individuals who are siblings of my direct ancestors. It is fun and rewarding to work forward in time for a change, coming down from a known relative and trying to trace all that person’s descendants -- though there are challenges when everyone has girls!

Another set of project/problems I have labeled “mystery persons,” because they deal with individuals who figure in some way in my family history, but I don’t yet know if they are related, and, if so, how. I combined this with a couple of “lost boys.” These are young men who disappear from the records presumably unmarried and childless -- I want to know what became of them!

Then there is the catchall category I call “General Vexations,” for those irritating problems that so far defy solution. An early ancestor’s county of birth, which would lead me to his parents; the whereabouts of a relative in the years before he shows up married in Tennessee, while his brothers all stayed in Indiana; the story behind the disappearance of a little girl’s family in Kansas, which led her to be taken in and renamed (though not formally adopted) by another couple.

At the Genealogical Society meeting we were reminded that planning for a trip involves pulling relevant materials together for particular research efforts, with some background data, and I liked the idea of thaving a thin binder for each one. It can contain a family group sheet, map of the area, a timeline, a research log (my downfall), and of course a plan for doing future research. The most important thing, of course, is to have a well-defined, not-too-broad, goal in mind. It does help to put that in writing.

This can be applied to non-travel as well -- going on the Internet these days is as fruitful as many trips used to be. A binder keeps items in place and encourages you to use standard-size sheets of paper for your notes. A simple matter, but it helps a lot. And if you only have a handful of sheets for a particular project and don’t want to buy three-ring binders by the dozen, try using folders with pockets.

The key here is to be consistent. Have the same kinds of materials for each project, insofar as they are relevant. Be clear on what it is you want to find out, and be sure to include, in the form of timelines or tables and family group sheets, what you already know (with sources). Sometimes just re-arranging all this will reveal clues and suggest new search strategies. If it seems absolutely essential to have family documents at hand, make copies and store the precious originals elsewhere.

That brings us to the next question -- where is “elsehwere”? A topic for another time.

Cleanup time -- again

2009-02-12T12:23:00.001-08:00

You’d think I could get this clean-up-the-workspace project taken care of for once and for all. I think of myself as a fairly organized person. Librarians at least know where the books go on the shelf -- and I used to file catalog cards in their prescribed and very precise filing order. But those items have predetermined places.

The difficulty comes, first, with not putting materials back in place when one is done with them, and, second, having to determine anew the place for certain acquisitions, whether they are notes, charts, printouts, or those essential scraps of paper. I hate to confess it, but I still have things in all those categories from my trip to Salt Lake City last fall.

There are archival binders, legal and letter-size folders, three two-drawer filing cabinets, a “to file” basket, several feet of bookshelves, bankers’ boxes, clamshell containers, more than a dozen three-ring binders --- the list is endless. Some are in use, and a few are empty, waiting to be used. I just cleared some space in one of the filing cabinets by getting rid of several dozen floppy discs. Floppies!! What was I thinking?

A research trip requires a certain number of papers as well as the trusty laptop. Once I return home, unfortunately, they don’t get refiled (or I forget where they went). Add to this a mix of genealogical periodicals which I scan eagerly as soon as they arrive, then set aside to put away after I check out the references of interest. (Whenever that might be.)

Then there are the boxes of family photos which I have been scanning off and on for several months. At least that project has moved forward to some degree. The scanned photos have been divided into groups based on family line and time period, and I have copied the most important of them to a CD, just to prove to myself I could do it. This will go in the safe deposit box soon. I also bought an external hard drive and activated the “time machine” feature on my Macbook, enabling automatic backups of absolutely everything. Of course if the house burned down, both the Mac and the hard drive would probably be gone -- that’s why it is so important to keep copies of photos and important documents off site in the safe deposit box.

But meanwhile the original photos, those actual prints from before the days of digital cameras, sit in boxes and binders awaiting some serious sorting and re-arranging. The archival binders have the very most precious, mostly older, photographs and documents (or copies), but there are still many, many pictures to be dealt with.

I have mentioned this before, but Sally Jacobs’ blog, “The Practical Archivist,” is well worth a visit. She is of the opinion that not every single photo is worth saving. A shocking concept at first, but on reflection, quite a useful one.

Speaking of organizing, the files on the computer need work, too. But perhaps that is a subject for another time.

Readers Advisory

2009-01-06T10:11:00.000-08:00

We learn by doing, but we also learn by observing, and studying. That’s why it is so useful to read periodicals such as the scholarly National Genealogical Society Quarterly, the newsy Eastman’s Online Genealogical Magazine (EOGM), and the popular Family Tree Magazine.

Now and then articles surface in the general press, too, which enlighten us family historians. I am thinking of recent newspaper articles on the preservation of local cemeteries, the gathering of General Vallejo’s descendants to implement correction of a tombstone date here in Sonoma, and the nation-wide efforts by genealogists to help find next of kin for coroners’ cases via that ubiquitous Internet site, Facebook.

Then just this week I got around to reading a recent issue of The New Yorker and found a piece by the African-American historian, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. “Family matters” delves into his search for family history -- not just names and dates, he emphasizes, but the stories behind these ancestors and relatives. He faced the usual obstacles of taciturn relatives, lost documents, ironclad family myths, and more, compounded by the special difficulties of searching for individuals who were counted as property rather than persons before the 1870 census.

Some accounts of other people’s genealogical research can be brain-numbing and hard to follow without strict attention to every word. I must admit my eyes glaze over sometimes, hearing or reading disjointed (or even precise) accounts of someone’s else’s cousins, in-laws and assorted great-greats. But historian Gates’ illustrated article is sparked with intriguing anecdotes and observations. He has had to deal with legends that turned out to be wildly overblown, and, when he turned to DNA testing, he came up against strong familial beliefs that would not be swayed by scientific evidence. In the way all good genealogial research does, his efforts shed light on local history and customs as well.

If you have a chance, get a copy of the December 1, 2008 issue of The New Yorker. To read it in full online, you need to subscribe, alas, but most libraries carry one or more copies of each issue.

Picture this

2008-12-03T13:15:00.000-08:00

For many of the lucky ones,Thanksgiving means a family gathering -- I hope you had a good visit and perhaps gleaned a few nuggets of genealogical information from those aunts and uncles and cousins (and perhaps passed some on to nieces and nephews).

And now it is time to begin thinking about Christmas. Of course some smart people have been planning ahead and are just about ready to mail out their Christmas cards and notes. Let’s not think about those over-achievers right now.

My brother and two of my children have December birthdays as well, so it is a serious gift-giving month for me.

In all the flurry of scanning family photos in the past few months, with an eye to making CDs for safekeeping, it occurred to me that it would be wise to include a chart of some sort, showing the connections among these pictured individuals. Otherwise, a cabinet photo of Lucy and Lillian as children, though quite charming, might not mean much. This thought led to my exploration of the Reunion (Macintosh) program’s chart-making capabilities. (Most genealogical programs today, for Mac or PC, have a similar feature.)

There is no better way to learn than by doing! I decided on a four-generation pedigree chart because that will fit on a single standard sheet of paper in landscape mode. Also, in my family this goes back into the 19th century and I have photos for most of these folks.The possibilities and options are many, but I tried to keep it fairly simple.

For my brother I did a chart showing both our parents and their ancestors, starting with him.For my children I am doing a chart showing their dad’s ancestors, and another one for mine. (Don't tell them.)

This, of course, does not cover all the family photos I have, but a printed copy can accompany the CD, and perhaps more detailed explanations can be included to connect the rest of the group. Or, I can make additional charts showing some individual families and all their children.

Since I was involved in all this in a big way, it seemed logical to do a simple slideshow of pictures for my son’s birthday, beginning with his birth announcement and coming up to the present day, with most of them coming from his childhood. The Mac’s iPhoto feature makes slide show production pretty easy, and there are many ways to fancy it up. The trick is to know when to stop!

So, while I have not been doing much research lately, I am still involved in family history!

[The young lad pictured above is my father, Howard Hamilton Cain, and was taken around 1898)

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Of ears, riots and secrecy

2008-11-15T15:27:00.000-08:00

Why genealogical research is so much fun:

James Rumbly, Dorchester County, Maryland, filed a petition with the County Court on 10 August 1769 stating, in part “by missforton, [he] had peice bitt off his ear” and requested that it be recorded. William Cahall was deposed and stated, in part, that “Moses Wotters and James Rumbly had some difference and there were some blowes passed betwean them and that he the said Cahall saw the said Moses Wotters bite a peice of the said Rumbly ear off.” (Colonial Families of the Eastern Shore of Maryland/ F. Edward Wright, Vol. 13, page 181)

“At a General Court of the Eastern Shore of Maryland held 2nd Tuesday of April 1778 it was presented that Beauchamp Andrew, planter of Caroline Co., along with others being rioters, routers and disturbers of the peace on 4 Sept. 1777 did assember and gather at the mansion house of Bromwell Andrew and did break and enter and take one gun being the property of the said Bromwell Andrew and other diverse guns to the number of 15 and 5 cartouche [i.e., cartridge] boxes and did carry them away. He was fined ₤5.” (Vol 16 of above series, p 22)

And, finally, this apt editorial comment from the periodical The American Genealogist, v. 81, no. 4 (Oct. 2007):
“Governments have long felt that their records should be state secrets (or arcana imperium), which makes it far easier not to have to justify governmental actions and decisions. Of course, until beliefs developed that power flowed upward from the people to the state, rather than downward from God to the ruler, such attitudes were unquestioned.”

Salt Lake City

2008-10-30T13:37:00.000-07:00

Some thoughts on returning from Salt Lake City and the Family History Library:

You promise yourself to focus on your predetermined research, but when you walk into that building, with its thousands of books and millions of films, it takes time to adjust, to take it all in -- the first-timer needs at least a day to settle down, perhaps taking an orientation tour or class; the returnee must reacquaint him/herself with the Library’s many features and discover what changes have taken place since the last visit.

My favorite “new” technology was the microfilm scanner which copies images directly to flash drives, or, as they are also known, memory sticks These can be then loaded directly to your own computer as photo images, for later adjustment and enhancement. (And if you need a flash drive, they can be purchased on site very reasonably. No charge for using the scanner, and plenty of help if you require it.) In fact, there seemed to be a lot more staffers available to give assistance of every kind. The photocopiers which print out images from microfilm are still available, too.

The Library has banks of computers for researching their extensive online collection, and the wireless setup enables use of one’s own laptop for most searches. I found this especially helpful when I was looking at the online catalog for additional sources. Instead of jumping up and going to the microfiche catalog, as in times gone by, or even using one of the Library’s computers, I could sit at my microfilm reader or book-littered table and just log on to my trusty MacBook. Saved time and steps -- both important when time is limited.

There are many subscription websites, in addition to the locally-available Ancestry.com and Heritage Quest. In fact, the ease of looking at census records online is such that the many cabinets of census film that used to occupy a whole section of one floor have been done away with. I was happy to see, however, that the printed indexes are still at hand. You never know -- what is mis-typed or omitted in one or another online index might show up in the printed version, and vice versa.

Some people prefer to concentrate on books, rather than films, when working at the Library, because, they point out, films can always be borrowed through a local Family History Center, while books cannot. I agree, to a point.

Books are usually secondary sources, with their credibility depending heavily on the accuracy, thoroughness and documentation of the research. I use printed family histories for clues only, and try to track down any sources that are given. Print indexes or abstracts are a first step in finding the original, usually on film.

There was a time when I looked at the printed "Index to Probate Records of Kent County, Delaware, 1680-1800," extracted data from the brief entries found there, and let the matter rest. No more. For one thing, these items, while full of names and dates, do not list tracts of land, which were usually named. For another, there is nothing like looking at the original to get a sense of what life was like. Full text of a will may have explanations as to why one child is given more than another. Complete probate records, where there is no will, may contain appraisals, listing the decedent’s personal and real property, the results of sales with names of purchasers (which may include the widow and close family members), and record of the final distribution, which will name the heirs. Much of this detail is necessarily omitted in printed works.

The Plaza Hotel, right next door to the Library, is still my favorite place to stay. Besides the free airport shuttle, they provide small refrigerators, coffee-makers and microwaves in every room now. A real time- and money-saver is having a quick breakfast in your own room! The Library’s lunch room seems to have a greater variety of vending maching offerings than in earlier times (I used to take my own trail mix and got heartily sick of it).

Inescapable

2008-10-06T09:04:00.000-07:00

Back from vacation in sunny Spain and beginning to think about my next trip -- to Salt Lake City in two weeks. The Iberian adventure had nothing to do with genealogy -- it was an Elderhostel program in three cities with emphasis on history, art and architecture. But I could not help thinking about the family interconnections (not mine!) among all those monarchs we heard about. In fact, it is just about impossible to go anywhere without finding some intriguing bit of some family's history.

I was reminded that the ill-fated Catherine of Aragon, first wife of England’s Henry VIII, was the daughter of Spain’s Queen Isabella, as was Juana La Loca, poor soul. These references made me run back to my history books for more information. Juana was formally known (in English) as Joanna of Castile, which makes sense, since her father was Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella was “of Castile.” (Yes, the same pair who sponsored Columbus’s trip West.) Whether Juana was actually mad is still the subject of dispute.

Then there was the dreadful family scourge of hemophilia, thought to have originated with a mutation in Queen Victoria’s genes (there are rumours of a dalliance, but thought to be highly unlikely). It was passed through her grand-daughter Alexandra, who married Russian Czar Nicholas II and then carried it to their son; but it also tainted the Spanish royal line -- Queen Victoria’s daughter Beatrice passed it to her daughter Victoria, who married Spain’s Alfonso XIII. They had two afflicted sons, Alfonso and Gonzalo.

Queen Victoria had one hemophiliac son, Leopold, and two daughters who were carriers, the above-named Beatrice, and Alice. She had three grandsons with the disorder, and four grand-daughters who were carriers. In the subsequent generation, there were six affected males.

All these factual musings are the result of a “non-genealogical” trip. Who knew?

Worth viewing

2008-09-09T20:05:00.000-07:00

I have just finished watching -- again -- a wonderful film called “Almost Strangers” (aka “Perfect Strangers”). Written and directed by Stephen Poliakoff, it is centered around a British family reunion organized by a somewhat obsessive genealogist. We discover the reason behind his intensity, as well as learning fascinating tales about some of the other participants, who are indeed almost strangers when they convene.

Featuring Matthew Mcfadyen, Michael Gambon, Claire Skinner, and Lindsay Duncan, among others, it was originally a three-part series on BBC. Old photographs play a big part and there are plenty of scenes at stately homes for you Anglophiles. Don’t miss Poliakoff’s commentaries at the end.

It is an absorbing drama and I recommend it highly.

++++++

Ever hear of Facebook? Everyone except me seems to belong, these days. Richard Eastman, in his Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter, has an interesting article about the efforts of some genealogists to help coroner’s offices find next of kin for identified-but-unclaimed bodies. The effort is being coordinated on Facebook. For details just enter the words “Eastman’s” and “unclaimed” in your web browser.

++++++

I will be away until the end of the month, so keep plugging away at that research, and I will be in touch in about three weeks.

ID, please

2008-08-14T09:02:00.000-07:00

The family photo sorting and scanning went smoothly until I turned to the bankers’ box labelled “misc.” It is so daunting I think I will put the project aside for a while. Maybe going back later with a fresh eye will yield better results. Meanwhile, the point of the undertaking was to preserve the most important images by putting them on CDs or DVDs and storing them away from home -- easily accomplished by giving copies to family members.

At the same time I was bringing together these top priority photographs, I was revising and supplementing the physical (hard copy) albums, and making sure they were archivally “correct.” And it strikes me -- belatedly -- that the collection of real (non-digital) photos ends with the purchase of my first digital camera. All the more reason to get everything copied onto CDs.

Of course it is possible to order prints from digital photos -- most photo management programs enable this if the computer has an internet connection. But it is important to remember such photos are available only in standard sizes, so a picture which has been cropped to non-conforming proportions (like square, or tall and narrow) may come out looking rather odd.

One thing this project has reminded me of is the importance of identifying people in photos! Fortunately I had an aunt who was able to put names and places to many of the group pictures from that side of the family, and my mother did the same for her line. But there are a few which need further work. One photo is of a lovely young woman with two small children. Sadly, she was killed in an accident at the age of 26. I know her name, and that of her surviving spouse, but not the children’s names. However, with the date of death, it should not be too difficult to find an obituary.

******

In other news, you should know about the extraordinary work going on through the auspices of the LDS Church (which also sponsors the Family History Library). The Mormons are supervising the indexing of immense numbers of documents and posting the results online. As with their Family History Library data, use of these is FREE. To take a look, go to familysearchlabs.org, click on “record search,” then “search ancestors,” then select your preferred region from the world map. I was thrilled to find Ohio death records, 1908-1953, allowing me to pinpoint the death date for the young mother mentioned above, and an actual image of her death certificate. New material is being posted regularly, so it is worthwhile to check the site periodically. (You can also volunteer to help, from home.)

******

Hope you like my photo of scarlet flax. It is just a reminder that while we are embroiled in genealogy or the demands of daily life, it is important to stop and smell the flowers. (OK, so linum grandiflorum var. rubrum isn’t fragrant -- you get the idea.)

Further musings on family photos ...

2008-07-31T13:36:00.000-07:00

The biggest challenge, in this photo-scanning project of mine, is to STAY ON TRACK. But it isn’t wise to remain too narrowly focused, either. Trying to identify people and places can lead to some interesting byways.

For instance, our 1970s cross-country trip took us to a campground in Virginia at a Lake Reynovia. Searching on the Internet, I discovered the area is now seems to be a gated community. No more campground, as far as I can tell.( I wonder if there is still a lake.) Well, it has been nearly 40 years ...

But another offshoot of my photo research had to do with pre-Civil War days in Indiana, and the part some relatives played.

I have a group picture, taken at a summer Bible camp (there were lots of ministers in this line) at Winona Lake, Indiana, in 1911. It includes my Cains and Hamiltons, and some people with the surname Nyce. I had never been quite clear on how they were related, so felt justified in digressing in order to do a bit of sleuthing.

The Nyces were supposedly related to Cyrus Hamilton and family, so when the first research attempts yielded nothing more than that the Rev. Harry Nyce was a Presbyterian minister (big surprise), I turned to Cyrus, and found a fascinating story online, “The Story of Luther Donnell.” No author is listed, but there is an extensive bibliography, and the tale was compelling.

It seems the Hamiltons were deeply involved in the abolitionist movement -- something that was not touched on in later mug book accounts of this well-known farming family. They lived in Decatur County, IN, coming there from Kentucky in the 1820s, according to the Donnell article. I also learned that there was a “free black settlement” near Clarksburg, something else that I had never read about in Decatur County histories.

At one point a family of slaves from Kentucky was attempting to reach that haven when they were taken in and hidden by Luther Donnell. The upshot was that Donnell was indicted for “aiding Negroes to escape” (based on a law later declared void by the Indiana Supreme Court), and my ancestor by marriage, Cyrus Hamilton, paid his $500 bond.

I am still trying to figure out the Nyce connection, but meanwhile I learned something about the Hamiltons, including the fact that two of them married Donnell women.

For the complete "Story of Luther Donnell", Google the phrase, in quotation marks as shown.

Tags: Harry Nyce, Cyrus Hamilton, Luther Donnell, family photographs, genealogy

Pictures are worth ...

2008-07-20T10:32:00.000-07:00

Still plugging away at scanning family photos -- once one gets started and develops a routine, it is not too hard. Of course there is the question of which images to single out -- and I have been doing the “pre-selected” shots so far, those which had been placed (albeit somewhat haphazardly) in albums. The bigger challenge will come when I start in on the boxes of photographs stored in the closet.

One series I have completed was taken on our family trip across the US and back via the Canadian highway, in 1970 (yes! 38 years ago!). I did a handful of the best ones and showed them to family members, who were so intrigued I was encouraged to do the whole lot, despite their less-than-professional appearance. Happily, some of the flaws are automatically corrected in the scanner, and cropping and otherwise “enhancing” them can improve matters considerably.

Richard Eastman, in his Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter strongly encourages the copying of precious photos in the TIFF format, which takes up a lot of space but results in a “lossless” copy which never is degraded, no matter how many copies of copies are done. He suggested using an external disk drive for storage, since they are relatively inexpensive and have enormous memory capabilities. I haven’t gone that far -- yet; the standard JPEG format is working fine so far. But I do understand his concern and may eventually re-do some of the most outstanding photos in that form.

It is smart to keep the original scanned image separate from subsequent copies. Then all the fiddling around with a picture -- cropping, color enhancing, attempted flaw erasure -- can be done on a copy. Fortunately, iPhoto on my Mac keeps the original automatically and I can always undo any or all my “repairs” quite easily. Picasa, Google’s photo-management application, does the same thing. ( As a rank amateur, I have not aspired to any of the more advanced photo management programs)

Back to our long-ago trip. We took pictures of each other standing in front of various campsite (and occasional motel) signs, as a sort of record of our itinerary, but -- where is Hanging Rock Campground? Or Lake Mitchell? Luckily, a Google search saves the day. (If you’re like me you do not go back and identify all your photos right after a trip, when the memory is still fresh. There is so much else to DO when you get home.)

While not the same as digging through old documents or browsing archives’ indexes online, this photo preservation project is a significant part of genealogy. Pictures are important to family history!

Save those pictures!

2008-06-27T09:05:00.000-07:00

Lately all the news about floods and earthquakes and fires (today's smoky air brings it home) has made me think more seriously about protecting family treasures. We all know it is vital to back up our computer records regularly (don’t we?), and I manage to back up my genealogical text files onto a CD and store it away from the house, perhaps not as often as I should, but at least I do it!

There is more to consider, however. I have many scanned photos, but far more than have not been scanned. These originals reside in albums, envelopes, boxes, and under glass. They are truly treasures, records of our family from the 19th century forward.

One of the earliest in my possession is a portrait of my great grandmother, Nancy Jane Sherwood Hammond Howard. I can date it to sometime before 1864, because that is when she died.Then there is the enlarged snapshot of my mother, Thelma Louise Tanner, and her two sisters, one of them in a pram, taken around 1911. And I love the sepia photograph of my father, Howard Hamilton Cain, looking young and dauntless in his WWI soldier’s uniform.

I was moved to make plans not just to scan but also to copy all these images to a CD when I realized they would really be lost for good if disaster struck. And disasters don’t just happen to other people. But it seemed such a huge, formless task I had to take some time to think about it.

The first step was to locate as many of the pictures as I could lay hands on. There are archival albums with many of the ancestral portraits, and loosely organized binders for some more recent shots. But there are still boxes of pictures in the closet and some framed portraits which had never been copied. (Undoubtedly, others will come to light later on.)

The next step was to single out irreplaceable originals, the ones descendants would most likely want to keep. That was easy -- the pictures already in the albums, plus a few in frames. So I decided to start there, and evolved a reasonably systematic procedure (every scanner and every computer photo management program is different, so it takes a while).

Of course, as with any family history project, it is hard to stay on the straight and narrow. Behind a dime store frame which apparently had not been opened up since its purchase, I found the picture of one "Cora Sue Collins," a little girl in a white suit and tie, with the imprint of her signature. This was intriguing, so I had to stop and do a bit of sleuthing. Turns out she was a child star in the 1930s. Her career is discussed on the Internet Movie Database.

Another item I wanted to copy was the small etching of a family dwelling in the Mojave Desert, dated 1939 and signed by "Henry Williams Smith." I knew nothing of him and it was way too late to ask relatives. Furthermore, earlier searches for this set of everyday names had been quite discouraging.This time, however, I persevered, and was able to determine that a physician by that name, who was best known for writing science history, was also an artist. He lived in Southern California in the 1930s, and must have been a guest of my aunts at some point.

The project, with all its fascinating byways, continues as time allows. More later.

Back to basics

2008-06-08T19:51:00.000-07:00

It is so heartening to see a friend or relative develop an interest in family history. Even a mild exposure to matters genealogical can inspire him or her to take the plunge.

Have you seen this happen? If so, you surely understand the importance of getting the eager beginner started on the right track, with a few basic ground rules. We see in these newcomers what happened to us, and we’d like to keep them from making the same old mistakes. So, today, I’d like to bring out some starting-gate guidelines and discuss them a bit. They were hard won, after all, from the experiences of a lot of old-timers.

First, to start out right, it is really best to work from the current generation back in time (“from the known to the unknown”). Trying to prove direct descent from some long-ago individual by starting with her or him is simply going to get the researcher bogged down. (Although it might be wise to confirm that this person of interest actually had descendants.)

Second, it is vital NOT to accept other people's family trees as uncontestably valid just because they are in print, or posted online! I cringe to hear people say “I got my information from this huge family chart on a great-looking website.” Or, “Oh, I don’t need work on that line -- my aunt already did that side of our family.” OK, even if her surmises were basically correct, how much of the family did she cover, on what did she base her conclusions, and what has happened since she wrote her final words?

As for “finding it on the Internet,” don’t get me started. Digging into the past has certainly been simplified by the advent of computer communication, digitization of public records, and access to other researchers via email, but the same ease of use has enabled a whole host of hearsay, honest errors, wishful thinking and just plain fakery to be put out there for the unwary.

Whenever one retrieves any published or unpublished genealogy, it is important consider whether its statements are supported by references, or even a hint about sources. And if an “expert” claims to trace his ancestry back to Adam, we need to plug our ears! Along the same lines, newbies must be warned not to fall for the mail-order scams that claim to have their ancestry already neatly written up, complete with coats of arms. In a word, baloney.

Third, it is helpful for the would-be family historian to decide right at the start what it is she really wants to achieve. Even if the overall goal is to find out as much as possible about all one’s ancestors (a tall order), the project is best looked at as a series of much smaller steps. Filling out a pedigree chart -- starting with the researcher -- with as much information as one has (even hearsay -- this is just the beginning, not for publication!) helps expose the gaps, and shows some good starting points. Where did Grandma die? When? Where is she buried? For that matter, where was she born?

Then, a family group sheet can be filled out for each ancestral couple, which will bring in the aunts and uncles and cousins. Again, the gaps will make themselves known.

These two basic charts will form the underlying structure for the beginner’s project, allowing for the entry of names, places, and dates. All the facts. But an interesting thing happens when the research begins -- stories emerge. A relative’s birthplace, different from that of his younger siblings, tells of a likely family migration. A cousin’s death in 1918 puts a human face on the great flu epidemic.

These are the absolute basics for getting off to a good start. Don’t we wish we had made our first moves into this amazing hobby in such an orderly fashion!

Conservation conversation

2008-05-21T09:39:00.000-07:00

You are surely aware by now that one of my favorite rants is about how difficult it is to get organized and stay that way. Another, of course, is how many so-called “family trees” are found on the Internet without a scrap of evidence to back them up.

But there is another matter which is really important to me: the safekeeping of family documents and artifacts.

How I wince to see photos stuck in those gummy albums, with waxy “magnetic” strips that eventually work their way into the photo backing itself, holding it in a death grip. I had a mild tantrum once, at the library where I worked, when I noticed some unique local history materials thumbtacked to the wall in a display case. And we have all seen the results of misguided mending efforts, which create more long-term damage than they are intended to cure.

For the gummy albums I can pass along a possible solution -- dental floss is said to be sometimes helpful in breaking the bond between photograph and album page. Someone also has suggested using a hair dryer to soften the wax, but I would go easy on that -- test to see if the heat has adverse effects before doing a full scale rescue.

As for the question of displaying items without stabbing them with tacks -- documents and photographs can be placed in sheet protectors, available at stationery stores, and the tacks stuck through the plastic, not the contents (but be sure the display is out of range of bright sunlight or extremes of heat, cold, or moisture). A new commercial item which recently caught my eye is the “MagTack,” manufactured under the Oxo brand name. It is in two parts: a tack with a magnetic head, and a companion magnet that adheres to it. The display item is held securely between the two well-designed pieces, apparently no bigger than a standard pushpin. The Mag-Tack is supposed to be available in June of this year.

Instead of mending a torn item with the standard sticky tape, you may want to photocopy it, then put it gently in a archivally-safe envelope or sheet protector, or look for an archivally-approved mending tape. (Though some conservators advise against using any tape at all, and are suspicious of the term “archivally safe”)

There are websites which deal with the problems of preservation. The Practical Archivist is one. (practicalarchivist.blogspot.com) The author is sensible but sassy. (If you thought archivists were dull, think again.) Other websites include: Library of Congress information on paper preservation (http://lcweb.loc.gov/preserv/care/paper.html) Document and preservation FAQ by Linda L. Beyea (http://loricase.com/faq.html), and an ancestry.com site called Preservation links and resources. (The Sonoma County library system subscribes to Ancestry, so you can look this up at your local branch.)

In case you have trouble with any of these links, just Google a few key words, with the + sign in between, or enter relevant phrases, enclosed in quotation marks.

There are sources for purchasing genuine archival materials: acid-free paper and enclosures, sheet protectors and the like. More about these next time.

In every case, preservation’s guiding principles are: do no harm, and be sure your mending or storage methods are reversible (in case, at some future date, a better method is developed). NO LAMINATION. No sticky tape, paper clips, pins, or rubber bands. Inherently unstable materials like newspaper clippings and old color snapshots should be copied, with the originals stored away in the dark.

As family historians, we obviously are looking into the past, but we need to think of the future as well. That’s why preservation of our precious documents and artifacts is so important.

Onward and upward -- maybe

2008-05-04T12:10:00.000-07:00

Technological developments in the last decade have been truly overwhelming, don’t you agree? PC or Mac? Windows, Macintosh OS, or Linux? Personal Ancestral File, Family Tree Maker, Reunion or ... With so many options to consider, and choices to make, paralysis sets in.

While selecting the computer and its standard operating system narrows the field, there are still many genealogy programs to choose from, and, once connected to the Internet, we are faced with a whole new set of decisions. Free data or subscription(s)? USGenWeb, the ubiquitous Ancestry.com, or Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness? Not mutually exclusive choices, but still, a lot to choose from.

All this leads to my own recent ventures into Apple land, with the purchase of a MacBook and one of the handful of Mac-available genealogy programs, Reunion. It wasn’t difficult to move my data from Personal Ancestral File on the old PC, though, as I expected, the few photos attached to individual records were left behind.

So, that began a true test of patience and skills. I have hundreds of photos in Google’s free Picasa program -- easy to use and quite adequate for my amateur needs. These include not only pictures from my digital camera, but also many portraits of family members which I had scanned in from time to time.

Picasa is not compatible with the Mac operating system, which comes with its own photo management program, iPhoto. But neither iPhoto nor Reunion has a printed manual. So it was truly trial and error, and finally a purchase of David Pogue’s “Missing Manual” for iPhoto ’08 -- a lifesaver. (I lose patience with most online “help” applications.)

First, I copied the family portraits from the PC’s Picasa program onto a flash drive -- these thumb-size devices that plug into a USB port can hold as much or more data than a CD and work better for my setup. From there it was a simple matter to put the little stick in the laptop’s USB port and move the pictures to the iPhoto “library.” (One of the challenges of moving from PC to Mac programs is the difference in terminology.)

The big learning effort came when I wanted to select a particular portrait to accompany an individual’s record in the Reunion program. Trial and error, trial and error. To me, “multimedia” means movies and music, not still pictures. And “add item” (which I found in a minuscule box at the bottom of the screen in the Multimedia display) doesn’t seem too intuitive. But ... after some fiddling around, trying this and that, I learned how to manage it, not only adding selected pictures, but adjusting their size. Triumph at last.

The young lady pictured above, by the way, is my paternal grandmother, Mary Elizabeth Howard. The photograph was labelled Lebanon, Ohio, so I believe it was taken around the time she graduated from college there, in 1876.

A convert!

2008-04-21T13:59:00.000-07:00

If you are as caught up in the pleasures of genealogical research as I am, you are probably taken aback when you hear dismissive remarks about the hobby. It’s one thing to be simply uninterested, but some people still harbor the old-fashioned opinion that digging out family history is just for royal pretenders or celebrity-chasers. When one of these nay-sayers has a flash of insight that brings him or her around to our view, it is occasion for a private “I told you so.”

Ellen Goodman’s column on April 20’s Santa Rosa Press-Democrat editorial page is an example. “I always thought that genealogy was for people whose blood ran blue,” she says. “It was for folks who traced their ancestry to the Mayflower or the American Revolution, not those who came over in steerage one step ahead of the Cossacks.”

Skeptical but curious, she decided to visit Boston’s New England Historic Genealogical Society after hearing of their published list of family connections among presidential candidates and celebrities. And the rest is (family) history. She became a convert.

Goodman quickly discovered some intriguing secrets in her own family (well, they were secrets before she wrote her syndicated column). These long-hidden events, she says, helped her understand some of her parents’ attitudes, among other things.

It sounds as if she has the early stages of the genealogical itch, and has surrendered her earlier prejudices for good. At the same time, she makes an important point: “...what we really want from the generations past are not just the facts or the DNA. We want the stories.”

So true! The facts are what we can dig out of records, but when we put them together we discover the stories. And that’s what makes genealogy so fascinating. Cheers for Ellen Goodman! (And the rest of us, too.)

*****

My own research lately has led me off the straight-and-narrow ancestral trails, as I have previously written. Am still trying to discover the connection of a female named in my Cain ancestor’s Maryland will, probated in 1795. She may be related to his second wife, but so far I have not found THE essential piece of information. However, I am having a great time looking into the second wife’s own line. (Too bad there are so many Smiths.)

In another project, I am working to disprove a Cain relationship which seems to be copied and recopied all over the Internet. Folks, hearsay just doesn’t cut it! More about this later.

Santa Rosa Seminar

2008-04-06T18:47:00.000-07:00

Rhonda R. McClure, the nationally-known genealogist, will be the featured speaker the Sonoma County Genealogical Society’s annual seminar, April 26 in Santa Rosa. Her topics at the all-day event will be: “Getting the most from online research,” “Newspapers: finding the buried treasure,” “Old and new: combining the best of the internet and traditional research.” and “If I knew then what I know now.” For details, go to the Society’s website, at: www.scgs.org

Gotta date?

2008-03-21T11:08:00.000-07:00

Dates are crucial!! Did great-grandpa Thomas Winston die on November 1, 1795? Then how come the records show he sold property two years later? And why is his daughter Nannie referred to as an infant when she is married by 1800?

Do you run into this kind of puzzle in your research?

As a novice genealogist, I used to accept the date a will was made as the date a person died. But no -- sometimes it is years earlier. This means, of course, that changes may occur before the will’s author actually dies.

If you have a copy of the will (probably as it was copied into the official register at the county seat), it will usually end something like this: “In witness hereof I have set my and hand and affixed my seal this fourteenth day of the seventh month one thousand seven hundred and ninety four.” But it may not be filed for probate until months or years later. Look for the record of the witnesses’ appearance before the court to get a better idea of the death date. Then follow up with a look at the additional papers generated as probate proceeds.

If there was no will, letters of administration will be issued, usually fairly soon after the subject had died.

Another thing to look out for, date-wise, is the assumption that a “marriage clue” indirectly derived from a record is the date the nuptials took place. When we turn to these invaluable published lists, it is easy to assume the date shown is the wedding day.

A good compiler will, of course, include references to the original documents, and it is wise to go back to those, or at least make note of what they are. If a daughter is named with a different surname in her father’s will, and a man with that surname accepts her distribution (as was often the case), it is reasonable to conclude that he is the heiress’s husband. But a list of “clues” in a book may just list the couple and the date of the will’s filing. That is helpful, but it is NOT the date they were married. (If the daughter is listed by her birth name in the will, and a different surname at the time of probate, you get some idea of the time span in which her marriage occurred, however.)

Land changes hands -- people die, but the property is still there. Court records regarding lands may continue to be created long after an early owner’s decease. A son inherits, but doesn’t come of age until several years later. Meanwhile a guardian is supposed to see that his holdings are properly managed. Eventually they appear in court, give the date of the father’s death, and state the age of the heir. I just came across the phrase “recently arrived at 21” in such a court document. Consider when the court appearance occurred, who the deceased was and when he/she died (if it is given), and any other dates that show up in the record. By the way, you can home in on a minor’s approximate date of birth in another way: if the court names a guardian for him, he is likely under 14. At that age, the general rule is that he may select one of his own choosing. (Don’t let the term”infant” throw you -- minors are customarily referred to as infants in legalese.)

The point is -- be sure you look at ALL the dates and deal with them appropriately. (And, by the way, if you are like me, you will check your math more than once!)

In the interest of full disclosure, I must say my research has centered around colonial and post-colonial Maryland and Delaware, and 19th century Indiana. Many of my conclusions are drawn from work with these documents, with reinforcement from general genealogical handbooks and dictionaries.

Who ARE these people?

2008-02-28T08:52:00.000-08:00

One of the most enjoyable aspects of genealogy is its variety of research opportunities. Running into a blank wall where great-uncle Joe is concerned? Look for someone else for a while. (Maybe a married sister of his -- which might lead you back to him at some point) Tired of sorting out Joneses and Millers and Smiths? Take a break with a more unusual family name -- where searches are more likely to be rewarding.

But this opportunity for striking off in different directions can also be a drawback (or happy indulgence, if you prefer). A while back I wrote about my own fascination with the Hammond family in Indiana, all because my great grandmother, Nancy Jane Sherwood, had married a David Hammond in Bartholomew County in 1849. He died five years later in a gun accident, and she was left with two small boys. Soon after, she married my great-grandfather, Samuel Parker Howard. Within a few years she died, and her two Hammond sons died as well, with no known issue. In trying to pin down the exact dates, places, and causes of the boys’ deaths, I found myself looking for records for all 15 of David Hammond’s siblings and half siblings (his father married three times). This led to many tempting byways, but at some point I had to stop -- at least for the time being.

In my last entry I discussed my hunt for the elusive Els (Eliza? Elizabeth?) Andrew, named in the 1795 will of my ancestor, Thomas Cain (Caroline County, MD). Alas, it has led me to Smiths, since Thomas’s 1791 marriage was to a widow, Frances Smith. I found evidence that the Smith and the Andrew lines had connections going back at least to 1750, when a Levin Smith married an Ann, who had been administrator of the estate of a Richard Andrew. Not only are there at least five Levin Smiths, there seems to be at least one Richard Andrew in every subsequent generation! I find myself fascinated with the many Levins, exasperated by the Richard Andrews, and, so far, am no closer to discovering anything specific about Thomas Cain’s “daughter.”

BUT -- in trying to sort these people out, I have been reminded -- again -- of the importance of looking at every piece of evidence thoroughly. When wills or court cases are involved, you have to be sure to note any mention of lands. Names of tracts which show up over time can link families and individuals. Where ANY kind of document is concerned, take a serious look at the witnesses, bondsmen, or other signatories. These duties are often performed by kinsmen and, again, can help tie together otherwise seemingly unrelated facts. And remember, wills may be made (and dated) years before they go into probate. "Clues" to marriages may be dated long after the event itself, having been taken from sources other than returns.

And, of course, if you really want the most reliable, comprehensive background for information you find in a published compilation, GO BACK TO THE ORIGINAL. The actual documents-- whether they be wills, land records, court cases, marriage bonds, or anything else -- may provide nuggets of information the transcriber left out (or misread). Published works without citations to the original sources are, at best, mere clues, and should be treated as such.

A riff on research

2008-02-12T14:37:00.000-08:00

WHEN blessed -- or faced -- with a substantial stack of genealogical research results, whether they are handwritten notes, photocopies of book pages, typed extracts or abstracts (what’s the difference? see below) of various documents, it is tempting to consider the work done -- after all, the research efforts were rewarded and here you have this great assortment of apparently relevant information. But of course that is just the beginning.

Now you need to analyze it all. First, ask yourself how reliable each source was -- you did make note of the sources, didn’t you? Did the paragraph come from a published, but undocumented, family history? Or was the note taken from a filmed copy of an original document -- or as near to the original as you can get? Was the set of dates taken from a tombstone transcription, which can be erroneous? Or from a photo of the tombstone itself (even the engraver may have made a mistake or been given incorrect information)?

So, with that dose of skepticism we must unfortunately carry with us, take a hard look at each of the items, and try to evaluate its credibility.

Then, arrange them all, as best you can, in chronological order. Did Jack Abernathy marry in 1867? And is he the same person whose DAR-transcribed Bible entry showed he was born in 1855? Not likely. Sometimes just simple arrangements like this can separate the identities of similarly-named individuals. Consider, too, whether a single man shown in the 1870 census for an Iowa county could be the same one who was enumerated ten years earlier in Connecticut with a young family. Possible, but is it plausible?

I was searching at the Family History Library last month for information on an elusive female named in my ancestor’s 1795 will, probated in Caroline County, MD. “Els” (probably Elizabeth) Andrew is named by Thomas Cain as “my daughter.” I know Thomas married a Frances Smith late in life, so for the sake of forming a hypothesis I presumed she was a second wife, previously married, with children from that earlier union. I thought that Elizabeth might have been her widowed daughter.

My goal was to find evidence of this previous marriage for Frances (I had already searched in vain for evidence of a marriage for an Elizabeth to a man with the Andrew surname). In this I was successful, determining from the orally-delivered will of a Frances Cain that she had a son named Matthew Smith. (It actually took more that just that will to prove the relationship.) I also found her previous husband had been James Smith, and that the Smith and Andrew families had been inter-related in various ways. Unfortunately, with such a common name to deal with, I have not yet solved the question of Elizabeth’s provenance. Though she was named by Thomas, she is not mentioned in the subsequent will of Frances Cain, who emphatically states that all she owns (except her “wearing clothes”) should go to Matthew.

Also, James Smith’s will did not name Elizabeth among his children, so why would her step-father choose to name her? Elizabeth might be Thomas’s own child, after all.

This search took me on all sorts of by-ways, of course. There seem to be Leven Smiths in at least four generations, starting in about 1750. They are heirs, guardians, authors of wills, and, in one case, the deceased spouse of a widow trying years later to obtain her “wright of dower.”

My thought for the day: genealogical research can often be frustrating, but it is always fascinating.

Here is the distinction between the terms “abstract” and “extract,” courtesy of the book From A to Zax, by Barbara Jean Evans:

An abstract is an abridgement of a document which gives the main points and deletes repetitive language.

An extract is simply a quotation from or part of a written document.

More on my research adventures next time (and some lessons I learned).

Beyond boundaries

2008-01-23T09:04:00.000-08:00

Back from the Utah Genealogical Association Institute, and my head is spinning. Five days of lectures from some of genealogy’s best-known professionals, meeting with like-minded researchers, and having time to do research at the Family History Library.

The course I selected was “Advanced Methodology,” and it dealt with ways to look at and analyze information, to squeeze every bit of utility from it. In other words, HOW to examine data, rather than WHERE to find it. (Though there was some of that, too)

It is hard to single out the most important statement or concept --what meant most to me might not have been someone else’s favorite. But I did note down a few things.

“Ignore artificial boundaries,” one lecturer said, almost as an aside. That struck a chord. We all know about the importance of determining county boundaries at a given time in order to learn where the records are kept. But how often do we limit ourselves to just that county and its changing outlines? People went elsewhere to get married, buy land, and even to be buried. And they did not just cross into other counties. They also went across state lines when convenience and practicality dictated. If you can’t find Uncle Walter’s grave site in western Indiana, where the census-taker placed his family, could he have been interred in eastern Illinois?

I have people who went from Ohio to Indiana for their marriage licences, and others who claimed to own land in Maryland when the Delaware tax collector came around, and in Delaware when the Maryland guy showed up. There was much back and forth, and these folks would not have thought it at all unusual. A study of a region’s topography may show the most likely out-of-county or -state destination. Hills and valleys, streams, swamps, rivers -- all influenced even day-to-day travel patterns. (Migration, too, of course.)

As the lecturer said, the demarcations we think of as permanent and precise are, after all, artificial, and pretty much ignored by nearby residents.

For the record

2007-12-26T09:27:00.000-08:00

Research "logs" – does anyone really use them? What form is best? The ones I have seen in books and articles look good – while they are blank and before they really become logs. But what about the books you come across while looking for something else? How do you keep track of the titles you searched which yielded nothing /zip / nada? That is still a problem for me.

Straightforward "to do" checklists for a predefined set of people, such as one's direct ancestors, are all well and good. It is important to be sure one has looked at all the obvious sources for the standard data – census records, vital records, land records, city directories, etc. (Images of, or at least citations for, originals, please!) But when you have done that – what next?

I am in the midst of preparations for a trip to Salt Lake City next month, and since so much is now available online, my time there needs to be spent on searches I cannot easily do from home or at local libraries. To that end, I am working up some research sheets – not logs at this point – for particularly knotty problems. Each will deal with an individual and will list what I know about him/her already – that is, DOCUMENTED data – put down as concisely as possible. If I have some unsupported information from other researchers, I will be sure to include that as a source of clues.

Each sheet will state precisely what I am hoping to find out, and some ideas for sources to examine. Going to the Family History Library's online catalog from home, I can look for films, books and periodicals which offer possibilities. Of course when I get there, the open stacks will allow for all kinds of serendipitous discoveries. I must remember to fully note the name, date and author of each title examined, a task too easy to ignore. By noting the location numbers for books and films ahead of time, I can save time when I get there by going straight to the shelves or drawers.

Even when I have found some information online, I want to try to find the original source. For instance, Ancestry.com has a huge database of Delaware marriages, but they are just transcriptions. There are references to the sources, and many times these are FHL films of the original records – which may have more – or clearer – information.

I used to think once I had examined a book or film, it could be set aside permanently, as "finished." But of course that is not the case. As we learn more about the lines we are searching, additional information in those same books and film may reveal itself as relevant. It is one thing to repeat a search out of forgetfulness, and quite another to take a second look with wiser eyes.

A librarianly postscript: when noting the publication you have examined, be sure to write down the title as shown on the TITLE PAGE, not the spine or front cover. They often vary, and the true title is the one you need.

2007-12-05T14:32:00.000-08:00

It's that time of year – so much holiday hustle and bustle – parties, musical events, getting in touch with friends, and -- dare I say it -- shopping. Sort of puts genealogical research on the back burner -- temporarily.

If you are going to be seeing family members, do think ahead of some questions to ask. Not just the obvious ones, but some that will give your family history more depth. These are good conversation-starters, and will often elicit reminiscences about events you had never heard of. For example: What was your school like? Do you remember your first day? Any favorite teachers? Why? Do you know what became of any of your classmates? What did you do for summer vacation? Who was your favorite relative? [You might want to record you own answers to these same questions sometime.]

If there are aunts, uncles or cousins around, ask each one about own his/her own recollections. Often siblings will have quite different views of the same piece of family history. Were there weddings? Who attended, and what were the highlights? Are there skeletons someone may now be willing to bring out into the light? Something that seemed scandalous at the time may turn out to be pretty tame by today's standards, but still plenty interesting.

You will probably find that just one or two queries, showing your genuine interest, will get the ball rolling. Then, LISTEN. How many times have we all expressed our regrets for not having listened to our older kin when we had the chance? This may be your last chance among those still here (and if it's not, you can come back for more). You have the opportunity to glean some nuggets of family lore, and those offering it will have the pleasure of reminiscing for an appreciative audience.

*******

Much time spent on getting used to the new Mac laptop. As I reported earlier, it was a snap to transfer genealogical data from my bare-bones Personal Ancestral File program (PAF) on the PC to Mac's Reunion program on the laptop. Starting with a small file I had set up for so-far-unrelated lines, I followed the recommendation first to save it as a GEDCOM file to my PC's hard drive, then burn that to a compact disc. Moving the CD to the new laptop, I was able to retrieve the data and Reunion knew just how to handle it. I never fail to be amazed (and delighted) when these things actually work!

Next, I decided to use PAF's "Focus" feature to pick out a family line which, though part of my big main file, is really separate from my own ancestry. (My great-grandmother's first husband's quite remarkable family) It, too, succeeded. Oh joy.

The laptop works beautifully at the local library, allowing wireless access to Ancestry.com without time restrictions. [According to the recent Sonoma County Library newsletter, History and Genealogy Librarian Tony Hoskins is available for private tutorials on how to make the best use of Ancestry.com. These are held in Santa Rosa, and may be scheduled by calling 545-0831, ext. 562.]

Enjoy your holidays!

PC to Mac

2007-11-19T09:24:00.000-08:00

Wild times on the home front.

I have finally acquired a new Mac laptop and am faced with the need to learn many new procedures. The commands may be intuitive, but it is still a challenge to embed them in the old brain. And there are many tips and tricks which only another Mac user can explain – fortunately I have several family members with Macs who are only too happy to show me the ropes.

I also bought a copy of Reunion 9, the Mac genealogy program, and had no trouble installing it. The next step was to transfer a copy of my Personal Ancestral File data to the Mac via GEDCOM. To do a test run, I chose a small file. It is called CainOther because it consists of family lines which I have not yet been able to connect to mine. There is little documentation (another good reason to keep it separate), and fewer than a hundred individuals, so it was a good choice for attempting this initial transfer. The steps were easy to follow, and I was delighted to see it make the transfer with no apparent glitches. Even the notes, that most important field, came through.

(GEDCOM, as you probably know, is the widely-accepted protocol for transferring genealogical data from one computer program to another. A succinct description can be found in the online Wikipedia. Information in this format can be retrieved from websites or other researchers, and compared with one's own – though I would NEVER NEVER accept the option to simply merge someone else's data with my own. Better to load it into a separate file, and work from there.)

The Reunion displays are quite different from Personal Ancestral File, and it will take a while to find my way around the various screens, but so far I am satisfied with the results.

My PC desktop computer, about 4 years old now, is still useful for most purposes, but I wanted a working laptop for its portability. It's far easier, on the road, to check a surname in a computer than to leaf through binders full of family group sheets! Less bulky, too.

I am planning to attend the Utah Genealogical Association Seminar in Salt Lake City in January, and will certainly put the computer to good use there!

Some moans ...

2007-11-04T09:18:00.000-08:00

Don't you hate it when...

-- you come across a lengthy and detailed family tree online and it has absolutely no documentation? Or the author's email address is invalid? Or the author promises to send you more and you never hear from him/her again?

-- you see your own early efforts, naively offered to some other genealogist years ago, showing up online (without your knowledge or consent) as if they are gospel?

These have all happened to me and I must admit I sometimes grind my teeth in frustration.

There is actually a book which acknowledges me as one of the informants and yet is filled with information based on hearsay and guesswork. The result of a well-intentioned effort, but little in it seems to have been verified with credible evidence.

I once came across an Internet posting of great interest, and when I wrote the individual he said he had "a boatload of information." But it never was forthcoming, despite my gentle requests and friendly offers to compensate for any costs involved.

When email addresses are out of date it is even more aggravating. Oh, how I would like to get in touch with someone who posted a comment in 2004 about a known relative of mine. But her emails bounce back, and she never bothered to update her address.

Then there are the wildly enthusiastic family historians who, for a few giddy months, flood you with letters, charts, pictures and all sorts of family lore, then drop out of sight. They don't answer repeated inquiries. Dead? Or have they just lost interest?

Well, we just have to plug along, finding what we can and working to verify every scrap of information we find. If unsupported data seems likely and can provide clues for additional research, I like to include it in my database, but wish I could mark it in some way as "not yet confirmed" or "hearsay only".

Do you have any suggestions?

Medical family histories

2007-10-18T08:59:00.000-07:00

When you're interested in a particular subject, bits and pieces of information about it seem to pop up all the time. The word "genealogy" always catches my eye (of course!), along with "family tree" and other related terms.

I came across a reference to medical "family trees" in a recent issue of the AARP Bulletin. (Yes, I am old enough to get that, and so is everyone else past the age of 50!) The paragraph cited the Government's Health and Human Services web site, which has a form the reader can fill out to create a medical family history. The benefits are obvious – if a pattern of genetic diseases (or even those diseases not yet known to be genetic) is found, one can better prepare for eventualities. The address is: http://www.hhs.gov/familyhistory/ Your physician will thank you.

This discovery led me to find the following book, which is available through the Sonoma County Library System: How healthy is your family tree? A complete guide to tracing your family's medical and behavioral tree / Carol Krause (Simon and Schuster, 1995)

A web search (good old Google) brought up the following as well:

At Genealogy.about.com
"Family health history "/ Ralph Bishop

And at MedicineNet.com
"Your medical roots" / Gina Shaw

Sometimes, though, our medical interests are historic, rather than personal. I have long been interested in the tangled family lines of European royalty, particularly that of Queen Victoria. I even worked out a chart once, while reading a book about her family which did not include its own chart (someone had swiped it). Of course, such charts now are readily available online, and I later found an exhaustive one in a book of photographs, Queen Victoria's family : a century of photographs / by Charlotte Zeepvat. Besides the most fascinating pictures, it includes six pages of charts for her descendants. (Sorry, not at the local library, but you could probably get it on Inter-Library Loan. It was published in the UK by Sutton, 2001.)

Musing on the troubles created by hemophilia, the dread disorder which haunted the Queen's family, I began to be curious as to who was afflicted besides her great-grandchild, Alexis, son of Russia's last Tsar. An internet search produced an abundance of information, some of it in the form of family trees. One of the best, which includes much data on each individual, is found at: http://www.sciencecases.org/hemo/hemo.asp There are at least ten hemophiliac males in three generations.

Family river

2007-10-07T11:14:00.000-07:00

"We do not need to know a river's source to appreciate its power but it helps to draw a map, to understand the flow, the shallows and deeps. So it is with families."

I was really taken by this observation, from Jenny Uglow's biography of Thomas Bewick (Nature's Engraver, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006). We, as genealogists, are doing just that, creating a map in order to understand the flow of the river and its tributaries, the sources of our families' histories.

Designing my own "family map," as I have noted before, has been the subject of much struggle. I thought I wanted a top-down descendancy chart, but when I finally managed to get the software to create one, it (obviously!) took up too much space.

I went back to my word processing program, and, using its table-creating feature, was able to enter three generations of descendants from the father of three Cain brothers (yes, three – I left out the one I had already worked extensively). I did the first two generations top-down, spread out horizontally, and simply made lists for the third level, which, so far, has 38 individuals, plus some spouses. Doing it this way allowed me to select type sizes and styles which would emphasize the persons with offspring, and give less prominence to those who died without (known) issue.

This set of charts, posted near the computer, gives me a view of the lines that are most in need of research. Handwritten notations or symbols can broadly indicate how much has been done, whether there have been brick walls, and how many children I have already discovered.

More on the Lima family photos

2007-09-13T09:15:00.000-07:00

An addendum to the last posting re the Lima family photos:
After the front page story appeared in Monday's San Francisco Chronicle, relating the story of the mysterious family pictures, found squirrelled away in an older Oakland home, more than 100 calls and emails were receive at the newspaper. One of them led to the discovery of the Lima relatives in Alameda. The full story appeared in yesterday's paper (Sept 12).

Cemeteries, lost families, local histories

2007-09-10T13:39:00.000-07:00

Lots of genealogy-related news these days! Last time I mentioned my fondness for cemeteries, a sentiment shared by many family historians. The comment was prompted by the PBS program, "Cemetery Special," which aired on KQED last week. It was not a first-time presentation, and may well be shown again, so watch for it. It was just an interesting visit to several cemeteries of various kinds around the country, and some fascinating bits of lore about the cemetery / graveyard / churchyard customs. The city of Colma is featured, among other places. (Here's a non sequitur for you: I have a friend whose polling place is the Columbarium in San Francisco's Richmond District.)

Then the Aug. 25 edition of the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat featured a story on the Spring Hill Cemetery, west of Sebastopol. Guy Kovner wrote of the ongoing efforts to restore the old cemetery, and the discovery, so far, of 16 headstones and footstones, beneath layers of leaf mold and omnipresent sprawl of vinca minor. The entire story can be read at the Press-Democrat website by searching back to the August date and the headline "No longer forgotten."

Of course I love libraries even more than cemeteries, so was quite pleased to read in Leah Garchik's Chronicle column last week that San Francisco's Public Library is sponsoring the reading of "Cane River," for its current "One City One Book" selection. The author, Lalita Tademy, "began doing some family genealogy and wound up writing this novel based on the stories of four of her mother's ancestors, beginning with forebear Elisabeth, who was sold as a slave seven generations ago."

A stash of family photos, found by a woman remodelling her Oakland home, is the subject of a front page story in today's Chronicle (Sept 10, 2007). The article, by Kevin Fagan, relates in some detail what is know about these pictures, some dating as far back as the 1880s. It has been determined they are of members of a Lima family, apparently Portuguese immigrants, but so far no present-day relatives have turned up.

The remodeller, Gailen Runge, is still looking, and has had the expert help of Oakland Librarian Steven Lavoie and others. It is fascinating saga, and, I think, one we can all relate to. Anyone with clues or information is invited to contact author Fagan at kfagan@sfchronicle.com

In other news, I recently came across this, on the LDS Familysearch website:

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH—Thousands of published family histories, city and county histories, historic city directories, and related records are coming to the Internet. The Allen County Public Library (ACPL) in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Brigham Young University Harold B. Lee Library, and FamilySearch's Family History Library in Salt Lake City announced the joint project today. When complete, it will be the most comprehensive collection of city and county histories on the Web—and access will be free at www.familyhistoryarchive.byu.edu.

Having online access to these volumes will be a boon for all of us. If you would like to read the entire announcement, go to the familysearch.org website, and under News and Events on the opening page, click on "Local histories to go online."

Family pictures

2007-08-25T12:59:00.000-07:00

In the process of meandering about in my family history files while working on ancestral descendants, I have reacquainted myself with some names and connections. A flood of documentation, paper and electronic, has been retrieved, and I find myself ever more intrigued by these people and their lives.

One great-great uncle, Eli Cain, remained in the Indiana county where he, his parents and seven brothers had settled in the 1820s.. It is said they walked to Franklin County, on the Indiana/Ohio border, from Delaware. Of the eight boys, one moved on to Tennessee, and the others scattered to various other parts of Indiana.

I am fortunate to have a portrait of four of these brothers, (including Eli) taken in Connersville, in 1899. A cousin helped me confirm the identification of all four (I knew a couple and he knew the others). They were in their late 80s and early 90s by then. Good genes or virtuous living? Perhaps both.

I have been trying to find descendants of Eli and his brothers for some time, which, while going against the preferred practice of working back in time, is an interesting, wide-ranging project. Cain is not a particularly common name, but so many of the boys were named John or Edward or William! And there are a number of girls named Sarah, Mary and Elizabeth, with the associated nicknames. It makes determining the connections something of a task. Sarah becomes "Sadie" even on her tombstone. Elizabeth can be Lizzie, Betsy or Bess. Laura is called Lulu. And middle names are sometimes just mysterious initials, or become the given name of choice.

This project has given family pictures a new aspect for me. There are some as far back as the 1880s, and while there was identification for most of the people, my recent research has given them much more meaning. Elmer and Ellsworth, my father's twin cousins, looked like scamps as youngsters, ready to slip away the minute the photographer finished. I notice, in two family pictures, another child sits between them – perhaps to hold them in check? (An aunt told me one did jail time as an adult)

I am still trying to devise charts that show the Big Picture, with the help of chart-making programs and my big magnetic dry-erase board. Eventually ...

***

If you are as intrigued by cemeteries as I am, you won't want to miss the KQED-TV program Sept. 5, titled "Cemetery Special."

Later census records

2007-08-11T08:20:00.000-07:00

A while ago I was expounding on the various aspects of the United States Federal Population Census records, and had gotten as far as the (mostly) doomed 1890 enumeration. So let's carry on.

The 1900 census has more questions than any other, and so is a great source of information for the genealogist working in that time period.. The form has spaces for indicating each person's month and year of birth – so those dates can be narrowed considerably. There is also a column for the number of children borne by the women, and number still living. "Years married" is also asked. All these help one draw, confirm or discard conclusions about a family and its individual members.

Another helpful section covers citizenship. If you are looking for immigration information, be sure to check this. Individuals are supposed to indicate their year of immigration, number of years in the U.S., and whether naturalized.

The 1910 census does not ask for month or year of birth, just the person's age (which, as you know by now, can vary considerably from one census to the next, often depending on who is giving the information). It does, however, expand on occupation, asking not only for "trade or profession" but also "type of business," and whether the individual is an employee, employer, or "works on own account." It also has a column to indicate whether the person is a veteran, an often overlooked item which could lead to further information sources.

1920 is much the same, though it has space to indicate not just street name, as in the previous census, but the actual address. In addition to birthplaces of the individuals and each of their parents, it has space to indicate "mother tongue." Citizenship, too, is addressed again.

There is an interesting story behind the original indexing of some of these records. William Dollarhide, in his "The Census Book" (Heritage Quest, 2001) discusses the original intent of the Soundex indexes, which were created for 1880 through 1920. They established a code for surnames in an attempt to bring together names which were phonetically similar (like Cain, Cane, Kain, Keen, Koeghn, etc.). The intent was to enable the Social Security system, which would begin making payments in 1937, to locate individuals in the census records and thus prove potential recipients' ages. Every-name indexes were done in this Soundex code for the 1900, 1910 and 1920 censuses, while the 1800 census was indexed only for families with children aged ten years or under.

In pre-computer days, we genealogists used to have to determine the code for our surname of interest (initial letter plus three numbers), find and search the corresponding microfilm, then use that information to find the census record itself.

There are other census records besides those designated "population." Another time.

Some cautionary tales

2007-08-01T14:27:00.000-07:00

We were talking about census records last time, and the time before, but this time I want to reconsider some of those easily-made mistakes which trip up our research. I have many examples from personal experience and all illustrate the need to consider the sources, know the lingo and PAY ATTENTION.

For example: I had a third great-grandmother whose birth name seemed to be CREWS. There appeared to be a marriage record which linked this woman to my known great-grandfather, Thomas SHERWOOD. I found two secondary sources which showed this, but could find no supporting evidence for her birth name.

Another puzzle prompted me to write to the local genealogical society and inquire about a possible relative named Jackson Evans. He was referred to in a letter to my grandmother as "your uncle," and I had no clue as to his actual relationship.

It turned out that he was the brother of great-grandmother Elizabeth, whose birth name was actually EVANS. Happily for me, there was a researcher in the society who had done much work on the family, and was able to send me much documentation. When I finally did get a copy of the marriage license, I found that EVANS, as it was written, could easily be misread as CREWS. The moral: go to the original, and try to find others doing research on the same line(s). [Secondary sources often repeat each other's mistakes, as you may well know.]

Another example: when I read in a probate record that assets were being left to "the estate" of three children (the mother and presumed heir having died), I thought it meant the children were also deceased. BUT, in fact, estates can be assets of any person who has a guardian – in this case, the children! This prompted me to continue searching for them. (Still working on this one.) A good guide to legal terms is Barbara J. Evans's A to Zax : a comprehensive dictionary for genealogists & historians.

I am so pleased to be able to use Ancestry.com at the local library, and over the last few weeks have found some tricks that might help you make the best use of your allotted time. I print up sheets with my research questions on them, but of course when seeking specific individuals in a list of marriage, birth, death or census records, it is inevitable that I come across others with the same surname, and have trouble deciding whether it is worth the effort to copy down their details. A state-wide marriage index for instance, may show people from near and far, when I think I only want to look at a handful of counties. BUT, how do I know those couples didn't marry across the border? If their names are in the form I recognize, that is no problem, but what if they are using nicknames, middle names, or initials I haven't seen before? Or the transcriber misread the original record?

And what of the many other CAINs I came across in unfamiliar counties? It was a fairly prolific family, so some of these could be in my line. I will be sure to carry state maps with county outlines, next time I look at these Ancestry files. People didn't pay much attention to nearby county – or even state - lines when they were going about their daily lives. I have many Cains in Vigo Co IN who are buried in Clark Co IL and who appeared in census records on either side of the state line. While familiar with the location of those two counties, I had not paid much attention to surrounding counties – until I found a Vigo Co couple who married in Clay Co IN even though they seem to have resided in Vigo Co most of their lives.

To the above suggestions: consider the sources, know the lingo and pay attention, I would add: know the territory.

1880 and all that

2007-07-08T09:03:00.000-07:00

Back to the census records, or more precisely, the U.S. Federal Population Census records. Now that we can bring up the filmed images on our computers so easily, it helps to take a fresh look and be sure we know what we can expect to glean from them.

In previous blog entries I have written about the censuses taken from 1790 through 1870. Now it's time to take a look at the best-known one, compiled in 1880. According to William Dollarhide, in The Census Book, the US population that year was over 50 million, in 38 states and 10 territories – a far cry from the earliest census year, when just under 4 million residents lived in 14 states (the original colonies plus newborn Vermont).

Administrative changes improved the quantity and quality of information gathered in 1880, for which we genealogists may be truly thankful. For the first time, the relationship to the head of household was given for each person in that household. It does save a lot of guessing! An individual with a different surname may be listed as an in-law, thus providing the probable birth name of the wife. Older children with a different surname may be from the mother's previous marriage, even if they are listed as children rather than stepchildren of the head. Birthplaces of each person's parents are also listed – a useful clue (though occasionally incorrect). For the first time the street name and number are supposed to be recorded for each household in cities and towns, which adds a bit of history.

An aside: Familysearch.org has long had a very user-friendly every-name index to the 1880 census, with much detail. It is tempting to look at that, perhaps print it out, and consider the job done. But it is always useful to study the actual image of the page – there may be additional gems of information lurking!

After the wealth of detail found in the 1880 census, we come to a black hole. More than 99 percent of the 1890 census was destroyed as a result of fire in 1921. All that remains are tiny fragments of the original and a portion of a special schedule of Union veterans and their widows.. Unless you are very lucky, your census searches will be blocked between 1880 and 1900, quite long enough for young women to have been born and married, thus changing their surnames. Ancestry.com does have the fragments of the population schedule, but not the special listing of the Union veterans and widows (last time I looked).

Three states and two territories did take censuses in 1885, with federal assistance: Colorado, Dakota Territory, Florida, Nebraska and New Mexico Territory. Ancestry.com has these, and they can help fill in some gaps.

Another special set of records which may be use are the "mortality schedules," taken at the same time as the population census for 1850 through 1880. They list the names of persons who died within twelve months before the official census day. All list the name, age, marital status, and cause of death, and some list the page and family numbers from the population schedules, which enables the researcher to trace the deceased back to his/her family.

Again, I am only touching on the highlights of all these extremely useful records, but, even so, will have to defer discussion of the post-1880 population schedules for another time. Happy hunting!

More Counting Noses

2007-06-19T08:44:00.000-07:00

Last time I discussed the pre-1850 U.S Federal Population Census records, which, despite their seemingly meager data, can provide useful clues for the genealogist. It is wise not to overlook these handwritten documents which have been copied and recopied, indexed and microfilmed. It is the filmed images of those second-hand copies we are looking at on Heritage Quest or Ancestry.com, and while it is important to allow for the possibility of errors, one must be grateful that even these sparse records still exist in some form.

By 1850, more information becomes available, though sadly Heritage Quest has not indexed 1830, 1840, or 1850. Try Ancestry.com at the library – I have found that computers are almost always available here in Sonoma, and, if not, time limits will give you a turn eventually. Another avenue is usgenweb.org. This free site will lead you directly to your state of interest, and the counties within it. Check to see if a particular county's census has been indexed online by some individual or organization. If so, make a note of the location details and page number, then browse HQ's images, which are available for all extant censuses. (Be aware that page numbering can be confusing, as there are often two sets of numbers. Also, there may be two sides to a "page," meaning two images have the same number.) Even if an index contains extensive information, try to find a copy of the filmed image – there may be more!

William Dollarhide's The Census Book also lists published census indexes for various states. Some include added information that the indexers found in other sources. Locate these online, by borrowing them on Inter-Library Loan, or in the Family History Library catalog, which may list filmed copies you can borrow to view at the local Family History Center.

If you have searched 1850 census records, you know that it is the first one to list all persons in each household, with their ages as of the census day (in theory), and their places of birth. There are other details, but these are the ones we usually go for first. Relationships are not shown, as they are from 1880 on, so be wary of assuming the oldest male and female in a household are necessarily husband and wife. It is quite likely, but further proof should be sought. Assuming for the moment that they are a married couple, look at the age of the oldest child to estimate the probable date of marriage (if the "wife" is 21 and the next oldest individual is 15, there must have been a previous marriage, or the mother has died and these are both children of the head of household. Look at his age to see if this is plausible.

Listing of birthplaces gives a picture of the family members' origins and wanderings. The parents may have been born in different states, and their children in yet other states. Some people just have a hard time settling down! With all names listed, locating an unmarried brother-in-law or widowed parent in a household, with his or her birthplace, may provide additional clues for research. Of course, these may not be relatives, but make the assumption to see if it can be proven.

1860 and 1870 censuses have pretty much the same information – all three have space for listing the value of the householder's real estate, occupation, literacy, and whether married in the year preceding. (This can be an indirect way of determining whether there IS a marriage) Occupations and indication of literacy can help distinguish between two individuals with the same name. The fellow who teaches school in 1850 is not likely to be the person "unable to write or write" listed in 1860.

Next time I'll discuss the 1880 census, everyone's favorite (mine, at least), and later enumerations.

Counting noses

2007-06-07T09:44:00.000-07:00

The ease of pursuing family history has certainly improved in the last few years. Computers and the Internet are increasing the amount of information we have at our fingertips and the means we have of analyzing and storing it all.

A case in point is that mainstay of American genealogical research, the U.S. Federal Population Census, more often simply referred to as "the census."

It used to be one consulted whatever printed indexes were available, usually at some far-away library, made note of the likely-looking references, then sent for the microfilm and spent hours looking at it, then writing out the findings. I still have pages and pages of these handwritten notes, some as difficult to read as the original images! (And often missing some data because I didn't realize its importance at the time.)

Now, from home, we can go to the local public library's website, enter our library card number, and gain access to full indexes and images of 11 of the censuses, partial index to one (1930), and browse four others – all offered by Heritage Quest through the local library system's subscription. Ancestry.com has even more census records, recently made available in-house at local libraries. [Since they were indexed separately, it is wise to consult both sources.]

With this abundance – almost an overabundance – of data at our beck and call, we might do well to revisit the unique features of these decennial records and make sure we squeezing every bit of information out of them. I find myself going back time and again, to check on one more piece of data from a census page, in order to enlarge my picture of an ancestor or relative, or to provide a possible clue for additional research.

A reminder before I continue: census records were done on a county-by-county basis, and over time boundaries changed, new counties (and states) were created and, in some cases, early county designations were abandoned or revised. Be sure you are looking in the right place for that ancestor! I find William Dollarhide's Map Guide to the U.S. Federal Censuses, 1790-1920 extremely useful for confirming county boundaries at the time of each census enumeration. Another good source is Everton's Handybook, which has current state maps with counties, but also gives dates and details of various jurisdictional changes that have occurred over time.

The Constitution decreed that a count of the population be taken beginning in 1790. There were various means of counting (or excluding) certain residents, which we all remember from our school civic classes (don't we?), but for the most part, free heads of households were named and they and their family members sorted by gender into broad age ranges. The lists up through 1840 are certainly not as fact-filled as later records, but should not be ignored. They give a picture of the family size, the number of males and females, and a general idea of their ages, which can be narrowed down by studying a series of census years. Sometimes the presence of an older relative can be inferred as well.

Because the counts were taken by census takers usually (but not always) proceeding from one dwelling to the next, friends and relatives may be found clustered together. The presence of individuals with differing surnames but in close proximity may indicate a married daughter remaining near her parents' or brother's home.

A quirk which misleads some genealogists at first was the practice, in 1820, of counting free white males in overlapping categories: ages 16-18, and 16-26. It is important to make note of this – if only one person is indicated in each of these boxes, it is the same person. Don't count him twice.

There are numerous other details about these early census records, too many to recount here. For more information, I recommend another book by Dollarhide: The Census Book. He discusses each count in detail, with notes on availability, and gives some intriguing background.

Next time I'll write about the later census years – the ones that record all those helpful extra details, like names of all persons in the household, their ages, place of birth, occupations and relationships.

Spring fever

2007-05-25T14:17:00.000-07:00

It is well and truly spring, and the garden beckons ... when will there ever be time or inclination to sit down and work on family history? When the days are beautiful and mild – like today – I am much more interested in putting on my outdoor shoes and going out to plant something. How about you?

But you know, when you are involved in these other activities, your mind can still be working on a knotty research problem. Activities that don't require total engagement, like deadheading blossoms, weeding, or feeding the potted plants, offer time for contemplation. So can waiting for an appointment, driving with the radio/music off, even lying awake in the middle of the night. I like to hang out my laundry when it's sunny, and that provides another chance to mull over ideas and consider new search strategies.

Sometimes an obvious solution to the most troublesome problem presents itself at times like these. We are removed from the scene of the crime, so to speak – away from charts and notes and the ever-present computer – and can literally step back, getting a completely different perspective.

I have been trying to connect the one heir in a relative's 20th century probate file – same surname as the relative but someone I never ever heard of before. I tried tracking this heir by the usual means with no luck. He had an unusual pair of middle names -- Durbin Kinsely -- and it occurred to me, in one of these out-of-the-office reveries, that he likely was named for a relative. Sure enough, I found a Durbin Kinsely born in 1879, died 1910, in the International Genealogical Index, or IGI. The place and date of birth led me to the 1880 census, which confirmed at least that much. Now, with the IGI's undocumented death date, I have a query in to the genealogical society in that Ohio county to see if they can locate an obituary for me. One would hope the obit might give names of other relatives, and possibly a clue to my known relative, whose surname is Thompson.

The addition of Ancestry.com to the offerings of the Sonoma County Library system has aided greatly, since they have a complete index to the 1930 census, as well as city directories, and vital records that are not readily available elsewhere. If you haven't tried that free service at the local library, you may be missing a great opportunity.

*****

NPR had a story this morning about Ancestry.com allowing free searches of its extensive files of military records, from the Revolutionary War forward. The offer stands until June 6, and is, they say, in honor of the D-Day Anniversary which falls on that date.

Ancestry at your library!

2007-05-04T11:57:00.000-07:00

Big news for Sonoma County genealogists! Ancestry.com is now available at your local branch of the Sonoma County Library System. You will see it on the library's website when you go to the page that shows Heritage Quest, though you will only be able to gain access at the library.

This is a great service and I am sure family history researchers will really appreciate having a chance to make use of Ancestry's many fee-based offerings through the library system's subscription.

So far, I have only done brief research on the 1930 census. My state of interest, California, is not indexed by Heritage Quest, but Ancestry.com has an every-name index for all states. If you feel pressed for time, look for the individual at the library, write down the page number, and then view the image at home, via Heritage Quest. (Be sure to include numbers for the roll, enumeration district, supervisor's district, and sheet. Pagination for this census can be very confusing.)

Ancestry has many more features and I urge you to check them out. It would probably be a good idea to make a plan ahead of time – who and what are you looking for? Does Ancestry have a specific database that might be of help? Write down the relevant information already known about the individual or family or location and leave plenty of space to take notes. (If you are better organized than I am, you will have a "research log" all printed up and ready to go.)

***

You my have seen an article in the San Francisco Chronicle, Wednesday, May 2, with the headline "Me lonely? Not now, thanks to the ‘family finding' search." Written by Ilene Lelchuk, it may sound a bit far removed from what we genealogy hobbyists are involved in but ... it is not.

San Francisco's child welfare agency has begun a new effort to find family members of foster children whose own parents and nearby kin are not in the picture. The article described it as "a combination of high-tech Internet searches and old-fashioned gumshoe work, to find extended family and family friends who can support such lost children."

The writer says about 22 counties in California, including San Francisco, are trying this approach, and one state legislator wants to make it law.

In the case of one youngster, the search identified some 30 relatives in Oregon, and a welcoming home for him.

Kevin Campbell is credited with initiating the family finding movement about five years ago, and bases his approach partially on the International Red Cross family-tracing techniques. He has also used records from Family History Library in Salt Lake City, and Internet searches.

The full story can be read at sfgate.com.

PS Think how much effort we put into looking for (mostly) dead relatives, as a hobby. Don't you think child welfare agencies could have been a little sharper, sooner, in attempting to locate families for children in their care??

Back to the drawing board

2007-04-22T09:42:00.000-07:00

How long does it take YOU to get back to your genealogical pursuits after a major interruption? My experience is that everyday life sometimes takes over, and the family charts, folders and notes may lie untouched for days – even weeks. Being retired, I have fewer demands on my time now than many genealogists. Working outside the home or raising a family both have their unyielding demands that must come first. Then there are houseguests, and vacations. Pleasant, to be sure, but they tend to divert us from our research, sometimes for long after the fact.

But there is always that pull. Someone mentions a familiar surname, a bit of news comes up about a region where the family once lived, or a new "how to" book comes on the horizon. Closer to home, a long-overdue response to a query finally shows up, or a vital record ordered six months ago arrives in the mail at last. And we're off again!

I have been waffling about doing research for several weeks now, but feel I am about ready to dive back in. One inspiration for me is the regular arrival of Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter, which keeps me posted about all sorts of family-history-related news. Another is my membership in the National Genealogical Society, which brings me fact-filled publications, full of ideas and inspiration.

I was noodling around online the other day, after reading EOGN's article on how the LDS FamilySearch website is about to undergo major changes. Saw no evidence of that at their current site (www.familysearch.org), but I did discover that their very basic genealogy program, Personal Ancestral File, has a new (to me) version, 5.2. Included is an updated PAF Companion, which provides several charting varieties. Turns out there is now a "top-down" descendants' chart, which has long been on my wish list (see my posting of October 11, 2006, "Changing my tune.").

Dick Eastman, incidentally, feels self-contained genealogy programs (like PAF, Legacy, Family Tree Maker, etc) are becoming outmoded and we will all be storing and accessing our family data online very soon. But until I feel comfortable relying on the Internet to provide a secure-but-easy-to-search site for my own notes and charts, I think I'll stick to Personal Ancestral File, which is truly personal. I have, however, sent for the revised programs, with their expanded display variations (under $9, what a deal!).

Odd bits

2007-04-07T09:39:00.000-07:00

One thing about having an interest in genealogy is that so many oddball newspaper stories catch the eye. I find myself clipping articles, making notes, and following up all sorts of tangentially-related news items.

For instance, the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat had a front page story on April 2 about DNA testing, headed: "Going out on a limb to extend the family tree." In it, New York Times reporter Amy Harmon related some of the more extreme measures genealogy enthusiasts have used to prove (or disprove) family connections. She writes about one woman who staked out a McDonald's in order to get a DNA sample from a subject's throw-away paper cup. Another actually plucked some hairs from her grandmother's head at the funeral home. (I don't know enough about DNA testing yet to understand why she needed the DNA of a known relative)

"Medical clues to infamously irritable clan" was the headline in an April 6 story in the San Francisco Chronicle. Marilynn Marchione, of Associated Press, wrote about the discovery that the Hatfield-McCoy feud of song and story may have its roots in a rare inherited disorder. Van Hippel-Lindau disease, which apparently affects many family members, can cause tumors of the adrenal gland, and these in turn produce too much of a specific substance. This substance can be blamed for really bad tempers, among other things. As part of the research being done at Vanderbilt University, the doctors are seeking additional McCoy relatives to warn them of the risk, which includes not just personality changes, but death.

*****

The Sonoma County Genealogical Society is sponsoring a seminar Saturday, April 28, featuring John P. Colletta. The author of "They Came in Ships : a Guide to Finding Your Immigrant Ancestor's Arrival Record" (now in its third edition), he has also written "Finding Italian Roots : The Complete Guide for Americans." His topics at the all-day event in Santa Rosa will include: Breaking through brick walls, Using original and derivative sources, Snares of yesteryear's English, and Using newspapers for family history research.

Charge for the seminar is $20 for members, and $25 for non-members. Admission at the door will be $30. The Society's website, at www.scgs.org, has a printable registration form.

Home again

2007-04-04T14:07:00.000-07:00

Am back from a great vacation, and my head is spinning. I want to share my travel photos with family and friends, and it occurred to me that the easiest way to do that would be to simply post them online. A little investigation led me to Google's free photo management program, Picasa (which I already use in other ways), and the discovery that it has a feature called "web albums."

Why am I telling you all this? Well, the applications are not just limited to "what I did on my summer vacation" (actually it was autumn at my destination, New Zealand). Family photos, documents and charts – in fact, anything that can be treated as a graphic – could be posted in an album of this sort, complete with captions.

I will let you know how my efforts turn out, once I get those pictures off the digital camera and sorted out, determining which ones are best for display.

*****

Another idea has been rolling around in my mind recently. Trips to libraries for research used to involve carrying loads of folders and notebooks, filled with charts and family group sheets. And good luck finding the elusive surname that "sounds familiar." I have actually seen people using wheeled carry-on bags to transport their material. I was happy to get a laptop computer a few years ago, just so I would not have to do that. It was so easy to access my genealogy data and type in notes and references. But security is an issue, even in benign places like libraries. I had to use a cable to lock the computer to the desk or table, then undo it and place it in a locker if I left the premises temporarily. I realized I took very few notes, preferring to use the copier or my digital camera to get an image of the source itself. The brief references I wanted to keep were just as easy to write out by hand as to type in.

This realization made me wish for a way to get access to my genealogy program's data without having my own laptop at hand. There are PDAs, those little personal assistant devices, which can hold all sorts of data, including genealogy material. But I was reluctant to buy yet another electronic item which would be outmoded in a matter of a year or two or three (I still don't have a cell phone).

Then, Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter came out today with an article that rang my bell! The editor, Dick Eastman, discussed at length a program called PedigreeSoft.com, which promises to store one's genealogical data online, making it accessible wherever a computer is available. I have not tried it yet, but here is what Eastman said:
"I took PedigreeSoft.com for a test drive this week and must say that I am impressed with it. I started by creating a free account and then uploaded a GEDCOM file. Within seconds, I had a fully-populated genealogy database waiting for me to use..." [GEDCOM, as you probably know, is a standard means of transferring genealogical data.]

The PedigreeSoft application works on Windows, Macintosh or Linux operating systems, and sounds almost too good to be true. It seems it would also be a useful additional alternative for backing up your data, always an important issue.

There is a free account, limited in size but useful as a demo. Then there are three levels of subscription accounts, according to Eastman. The Standard account costs $19.95 a year, allowing for five separate databases and up to 250 people in each. The Deluxe costs $39.95 annually, and allows for ten separate databases, with up to 5,000 individuals in each. The Deluxe level costs $69.96 and allows for 50 separate databases and unlimited numbers of individuals. I think I'd be very happy with the Deluxe program.

The article can be read at www.eogn.com, in the April 1 issue, and that's not an April Fool! ##

How far back?

2007-03-01T13:38:00.000-08:00

How many times have you revealed your interest in family history and gotten the inevitable question: how far back you have traced your lineage? It seems to be the unstated goal, in many people's minds, to drill a straight line back as far as possible – witness the poseurs who claim descent from Charlemagne or some other imposing historic – even mythical -- figure.

But there are other goals – and other claimants. I have read about researchers bragging that they have many thousands of names in their databases – one wonders how much serious work was done to confirm these connections. Are they really related, or just relatives of relatives? My sister-in-law's daughter-in-law is not really related to me, now is she? Grandpa's step-brother's biological father may not have anything to do with my own line. That is not to say these tenuous connections must be dismissed, of course. The faintest links may be fascinating to uncover. But what is the real aim here?

For a while I was so stymied in trying to move back another ancestral generation that I just put that quest aside and began to look for more descendents of my most distant ancestor. This can be quite edifying, while at the same time overwhelming. That project is ongoing, but now I am back trying to trace a particular forebear's birthplace and parentage. And the two kinds of research link together, as a matter of fact.

Perhaps this will give you some ideas for working around those seemingly insurmountable brick walls.

I had traced an ancestor, Frederick Howard, back to Kentucky, by finding a grandson's Civil War papers that stated he was from Montgomery County, Indiana. Working backward from this clue, searching census and land records, I discovered that Frederick Howard said he was born about 1793 in Pennsylvania. He was in Bath County Kentucky soon after it was formed in 1811, married there and eventually bought land in the aforementioned Indiana county, where he remained for the rest of his life.

But I did not have enough data to locate Frederick's family in Pennsylvania. Surely he did not travel alone to Kentucky. How early did he show up, and with whom? Perhaps learning more about these possibilities will give me a clue to his origins.

This search is just getting underway, but I have hopes – my list of possible leads includes finding all the Howards in that region of Kentucky in that period, one of whom might be a parent or sibling, looking again at Bureau of Land Management records for Kentucky Howards purchasing land in Indiana and following them to the census year when they give their birthplace, finding possible descendents of these other Howards and tracking them to the 1880 census to find any whose grandparents were born in PA. Once you start thinking about all the possibilities (instead of the impossibilities), new ideas come.

Finding a sibling could help with possible given names of a Pennsylvania parent. (Frederick apparently named his only son after an itinerant preacher who happened to be in the Blue Grass region at the time -- not much help there.)

Another important step is to learn more about Pennsylvania at the turn of the 18th / 19th century, who was migrating south, the routes available to them, and why they might have chosen to go. It is easy to overlook this background reading, but it really is vital to understanding, and eventually tracing one's own ancestors.

*****

A Postscript: I will be away for most of March, on a non-genealogical trip, but plan to resume my postings here by early April.

Focus!

2007-02-17T09:58:00.000-08:00

Lately you may have noticed I have been obsessed with organizing! Well, not just lately, but most of the time. It is frustrating to duplicate research efforts because the original is hidden away somewhere, forgotten.. How often have you taken the time and trouble to print out or photocopy a document, only to discover you already had a copy?

Another problem I have is finding myself plugging away on a surname, only to be brought up short with the realization that the family is far removed, with only tenuous links to my ancestral lines. This is more about FOCUS than organization, I guess, but they go hand in hand.

My attempts at visualising the big picture have also been ongoing – I wrote a few weeks ago about a wish list for computer genealogy program features. One included a way to see more people – and their relationships -- at once. I reason that if I had a view of the overall structure of the important (to me) families, it would be easier to stay on course. But a computer screen is just so big and even the most elaborate program is constrained by its boundaries.

So I turned to wall displays. It is possible to download enormous charts, in printer-friendly format, onto external storage devices (floppy discs or CDs) and take them to a local copy shop where a plotter can turn out a big sheet. And some firms do this by mail. Also, of course, most programs allow you to print out a chart on several standard-size sheets and tape them together. These all are more or less permanent renditions of the family tree, however, and we know how often new or re-interpreted data requires adjustments to the Big Picture.

What I have chosen to do for now is this:
Printing out five-generation descendancy charts for the ancestors I am working on, I fasten them to a 2' x 3' magnetic bulletin board. Its "dry-erase" feature allows me to write in data and move it around. Magnetic 8 ½" x 11" sheets, thin enough to run through most home printers, were used to print headings for the individual at the top of each chart. (The sheets are primarily used to print photos, and have a glossy white finish on one side.)

I also made a list of all the surnames involved with each line. That is, the birth names of wives, and married names of daughters. This is posted above the computer monitor so I can check it at a glance.

Why does "Bostwick" ring a bell? Oh yes, Thomas's granddaughter married a Bostwick before she married a Hickman. But my chart indicates there were no children, so do I really want to pursue that line right now?

An article "Charting Your Priorities," by Susan Zacharias, appearing in the current issue of the NGS NewsMagazine (Jan/Feb/Mar 2007) also discusses treating surnames in this way. She advocates listing every surname back at least five generations, and emphasizing the names needing the most attention by the use of various sizes of type, underlining, and bold-facing of such names, adding what is known in the way of places and dates.

As these pieces of information are found, the list is revised, but it is always there as an aid in determining priorities.

And having priorities is as important as being organized, don't you agree?

Background reading

2007-02-07T15:58:00.000-08:00

Don't you sometimes wish you could BE in your ancestors' shoes – just long enough to see what it was really like, living in those times and places? We recognize how quickly things have changed in just the past few years – step back and consider how alien 19th century customs and living conditions would be to us!

Immigrants to North America were faced with impenetrable forests, vast prairies, dark miasmic swamps. Travel was by boat through often-torrential waters or over bone-jarring roads, and established rural livings were often so solitary some settlers were driven to suicide. Birth and death were both at-home events, "putting food by" not a casual option but an absolute necessity, and pragmatism trumped sentimentality every single day.

The only way we can begin to understand what it must have been like, wherever our ancestors lived, is to read about it.

There is a series of books called "The writer's guide to everyday life in ...." covering various times in various places. They can provide a general view, but life in colonial Boston was not the same as it was in the ante-Bellum south, or Daniel Boone's Kentucky.

To explore an area of interest at greater depth, try local and regional histories and biographies. "The Old Northwest: Pioneer Period, 1815-1840," a two-volume work by R. Carlyle Buley, gets my attention because it covers Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois Wisconsin and Minnesota, at a time when some of my ancestors' families were making their way west...along with a lot of other people.

Genealogists with British roots may wish to look at "Albion's Seed," by David Hackett Fischer, which examines the lives of settlers from different parts of U.K., in four regions of the American colonies.

Once you find a book that covers your area of interest, check to see what else the author has produced. And be sure to check his/her references, footnotes and bibiliographies for additional material.

To find some titles available locally, go to the Sonoma County Library website, click on the Catalog tab, and enter key words such as "pioneer" and/or " frontier," and the name of a state. Another useful term is "Social life and customs" for the time and place of interest.

While actual histories tell us a lot, a skilful novelist can create an atmosphere of reality if his or her research is well done.

A brief discussion on the online Wikipedia site defines the "Historical novel" and gives a few examples. Following it is a link to "List of Historical Novels" which has subdivisions for various countries and regions, including the United States.

Classics in this genre include the trilogy by Conrad Richter, "The Trees," "The Fields," and "The Town," which are also combined in a single volume entitled, "The Awakening Land." This is a saga of settlement in the Ohio River Valley.

There are lots of others. Take a look!

Wish I had ...

2007-01-28T09:26:00.000-08:00

Questions I wish I had asked my mother [and other older relatives ]

Where was the house you grew up in? What was the street address? Did you live in more than one place? [I could look them up on GoogleEarth with that information]

What do you remember about your parents?
Did you know your grandparents?
What were your siblings like as youngsters?
Were there aunts and uncles in your life as a child?
How close were you with your cousins?

What was the name of your grammar school? High school? How many children were in your classes? What did you take in high school? Did you have a favorite teacher? What did you want to be/do when you grew up?

Who was your best friend when you were growing up? Have you kept in touch?
[I actually have some photos of a close friend's daughter which I would love to be able to return to a family member]

Do you remember any family traditions that have been lost over time?

[You, dear reader, can probably add many "wish I'd asked" questions to this list.]

*****

Recently I wrote about seeing the 2001 BBC series, "Almost Strangers," written and directed by Stephen Poliakoff. It inspired me to find a previous work of his, "Shooting the Past." The plot has to do with an enormous photographic archive, threatened with destruction or at least dispersal, and the staff's ernest efforts taken to preserve it. The power of pictures to tell stories is one of the main points of this remarkable three-part series. If you have puzzled over old family photos, wondering about what stories lie behind them, you'd probably enjoy this.

*****

Anthony Hoskins, History and Genealogy Librarian and Sonoma County archivist, will be speaking at the Sebastopol Regional Library on Saturday, Feb. 3, on the subject of "Online genealogical research." The program is scheduled for 10:30 a.m.-noon. The library is located at 7140 Bodega Avenue in Sebastopol.

He will also be discussing "The use and importance of cemetery records" on Thursday, Feb. 8 at The Chapel at Santa Rosa Memorial Park. That program begins at 6:30 p.m. Location is 1900 Franklin Avenue, Santa Rosa. RSVPs may be made to June Wohlgethan at 707-542-1580.

Online genealogical research will again be covered by Hoskins at the Healdsburg Regional Library the following Saturday, Feb. 17, beginning at 10:30 a.m. Address is Piper and Center Streets, Healdsburg.

Charting cousins

2007-01-15T13:48:00.000-08:00

What do you do when you hit a brick wall in your family history research and want to change gears? Or when you have had a successful search, solved a thorny problem, and are ready to move on?

Of course we are all supposed to have "to do" lists, and in an ideal world (or if we were perfect people), it would be no problem to simply take up the next research project.

Well, I, for one, make those lists and promptly misplace them, or take a look and find that nothing on the list appeals at the moment. So, what to do?

I have been spinning my wheels after several months of amazingly fruitful research (and the help of some wonderfully generous strangers). The subject was Elvira Kelsey Thompson, whom I discussed in my posting of September 2, 2006. The quest was completed – I even was able to visit her grave in Tehama County, a totally unexpected bonus, since I had originally lost sight of her as a ten-year-old in far-off Indiana. This led to additional questions, of course, and I am still puzzling over these – the fate of one of her sons, the parentage of her husband, etc. But after some desultory searching with few useful clues, these issues are ready to go on the back burner for a while.

So what next?

It has long been an interest of mine to trace the descendents of the farthest-back Cain ancestor I have found. Not just my direct ancestors, but all the siblings, their spouses and offspring. There is at least one published work which includes some speculation (and that is all it is) about some of the descendents, and there are a number of family trees online which inlcude Cains, but sadly I have not found any with well-documented direct links. I was almost as pleased to be able to disprove -- to my own satisfaction -- a certain claim by doing some exhaustive research, as I would have been to confirm it. (One link is still missing, so I can't put it out there for all to see just yet.)

After much floundering about, trying to develop a useful display that would show a few generations of the known (or presumed) descendents, I managed to come up with a chart that shows four levels on a single sheet of legal-size paper (8 ½ x 14"). I revised and edited until I was able to turn out a display which includes the dates (known or estimated) and places of births, marriages and deaths for these people.

They include the progenitor (top guy), his children, who of course are siblings, his grandchildren, who are first cousins, and his great-grandchildren, second cousins.

A quick glance at the second cousin set shows they were all born within the same decade or two, mostly in the same region – which means a few information resources might serve for most of them.

First I looked for gaps that could be filled with little effort. And I checked the supposedly "known" data for accuracy (some was based on my early, less-than-careful research).

My next step, I think, will be to take one family at a time and make sure I have as much as possible on each member. With nine families at this level, that should keep me busy for quite a while.

For your viewing pleasure ...

2007-01-09T16:42:00.000-08:00

Still recovering from the holidays, I have been watching more DVDs lately, and wanted to pass along a recommendation. "Almost Strangers," a 3-part series from BBC, has as its centerpiece a huge family reunion, complete with some quite intriguing stories. Relatives, many of whom have never met one another, converge on a posh London hotel (Claridge's was the setting), and dramas ensue. Serious genealogical researchers might have a tiny bone or two to pick, but overlook those and just enjoy the story.

There are old photos, enormous family tree charts,family secrets awaiting revelation, and flashbacks to WWII Britain's child evacuees.

I was so enchanted I watched the whole series twice, the second time with the director's commentary.

Michael Gambon, Matthew Macfayden and Lindsay Duncan star, among others. Stephen Poliakoff is the writer/director.

Give yourself a gift!

2006-12-30T14:00:00.001-08:00

Though the holiday buzz has not yet died down, thoughts inevitably turn to plans for the coming year (though I must admit that, to me, the year used to start in September, when the children went back to school). And still in the spirit of giving, it may be time to turn the tables and give something to yourself.

I am thinking of subscriptions to genealogical newsletters and magazines, among other things. I like to keep up with the latest developments in Eastman's Online Genealogical Newsletter, which can be found at www.eogn.com. It arrives weekly via email, and you can go to the website for daily updates. Annual subscription to the "plus" edition is: $19.95. Three months is $5.95. The standard edition is free.

Family Tree Magazine comes out six times a year and is full of ideas and information (and tempting ads), presented in a cheery down-to-earth style. They have recently been running tear-out state guides, two in each issue. Annual subscription costs $27.

I get my more serious, scholarly input from the publications of the National Genealogical Society, including its NGS Newsletter 4 times a year and the National Genealogical Society Quarterly. Annual membership is $55 for individuals and, in addition to these periodicals, gets you discounts on their various other publications and home study courses.

Sadly, Heritage Quest magazine folded in 2006, but its subscribers were switched to the newly renovated Everton's Genealogical Helper, which has come a long way from its old dull format and amateurish layout. The November/December issue had 196 fact-filled pages. Subscription is $27 for six issues.

Besides these general publications (and there are more), don't forget local and regional offerings. Look up genealogical and historical societies in your regions of interest, and consider joining one or more. Not only will you receive their newsletters, but you will be able to communicate with other members and probably have the opportunity to compare notes on surnames. In some places these organizations may be the repositories for older public records, or have indexes to them. Their members will also probably know the ins and outs of local courthouse, library and cemetery research. These organizations are usually listed on USGenWeb.org, under the relevant state and/or county.

That's all for now. Happy New Year and happy hunting!

For the sake of your health

2006-12-18T09:50:00.000-08:00

Recently I came across an article in Santa Rosa's Press Democrat entitled "Health Legacy." [ http://www1.pressdemocrat.com/]

It dealt with the importance of family medical histories in determining possible hereditary health problems. Reporter Carol Benfell pointed out the timeliness of her subject: families often congregate during the holidays, offering us an opportunity to pin down certain medical facts that otherwise might not come up.

As she said, "Many of us have only a vague idea about our grandparents' lives. We may not be in touch with all our aunts and uncles. Our parents may be keeping us in the dark about their health."

Well, as genealogists we may be better informed than some other people, but we tend to look for dates and places of death, rather than causes. (And in some states, the cause of death is deleted from copies of the death certificate, if copies are available to researchers at all.) And earlier chronic illnesses or other underlying causes hardly get a notice in those family histories I have seen.

Physicians may or may not request a family medical history, though they probably ask a lot of questions about one's own past health issues. But it can't hurt, and may help, to see that they are informed about these family matters.

Benfell quotes Dr. Carlos Garcia of the Kaiser Medical Center in Santa Rosa, who says you should pay particular attention to the medical history before your relative was 60, because those are the things that are most likely to be inherited.

"If you know you're at risk for an inherited ailment, you can be vigilant about screening for it and then treat it early," Benfell's sources point out, "when you have the best chance for success."

The full article appeared in the December 12 issue of the Press Democrat. A sidebar offers addresses for websites which go into more detail, and include directions for drawing up a medical family tree. [The first link, to the Dept of Health and Human Services, had an incorrect address. The correct form is: http://www.hhs.gov/familyhistory/

Another website is http://www.nsgc.org/consumer/familytree/ from the National Society of Genetic Counselors. It includes illustrations and instructions for creating your own medical "tree."

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/medical-history/HQ01707 is also a source for information on how -- and why -- to compile your family medical history.

[Although these links worked for me, if you have trouble getting to the sites you can try using key words in a Google search, such as Mayo + "medical history" or HHS + familyhistory]

You may be able to tell from some of the subjects in this blog that I am an old-fashioned reader of newspapers. Yes, the paper kind. Not many of us left, if my friends and family are to be believed. But I persist, and find it not just worth the effort, but a stimulating prelude to the day's activities, as important to me as that first cup of coffee. When genealogical items show up, that's a nice bonus.

Thought for December

2006-12-09T10:35:00.000-08:00

Is December busyness putting your genealogy pursuits in the background for the moment? We all need to return to our everyday lives now and then, but it is pleasant to look beyond the seasonal buzz and contemplate a return to the enticing family tree puzzle in the dark, damp and chilly post-holiday weeks.

For now, when you're sending out those holiday cards and letters, you might want to share recent discoveries with interested family members. No, I don't mean pages of mind-numbing charts, or off-putting lists of obscure names and dates. But you do have ancestors in common with those cousins, nieces and nephews in your address book, and if you've recently found a new nugget of intriguing information about Great-Grandad's brother, they would probably enjoy hearing about it.

Was great-uncle Harold in the Civil War? Did he marry the daughter of a bank robber? Was one of their children part of the California Gold Rush? Passing along morsels of family history may even inspire the recipients to respond with findings or memories of their own.

Enjoy the season and think ahead, to the time when you can get back to your detective work!

About those missing women

2006-12-01T14:24:00.000-08:00

Recently I wrote about trying to find those "lost boys" hiding in our family trees. Many of them were single and footloose, and turned up in the most unexpected places (including Leavenworth). If the surname is a common one, the search is even more difficult. If you'd like to revisit that article, it is called "Where are the lost boys?" and was posted on November. 5.

I promised to discuss the related problem: those elusive women. (I refer to women and not girls because females tended to stay with their parents or guardians into adulthood, or at least until they married.) We may know where they were for a certain period, but lose track later and do not have any idea what ultimately became of them. The fact that they usually marry, adopting their spouses' surnames, makes research even trickier.

My tactics include these steps: First, find the elusive female with her parents in all the relevant census records. This way you'll get a solid idea of her birthplace and approximate date of birth as well as the same information for her parents and siblings.

Some cautions: did the family move at some point, so some children were born in one place and the rest in another? Do the listed birthplaces and ages seem fairly consistent? Don't be put off by the occasional errant entry. Neither census takers nor the providers of family information were infallible. Consider the variety of nicknames and combinations of names and initials for each person. "Margaret J." in one census may become "Peggy Jane" in another.

Keep in mind the Heritage Quest census indexes (available online through the local library's website) do not list every person, just the head of household and any persons in the household with different surnames. (Even after 1850, when all names were recorded by the enumerator) If single Sarah MacDonald remained at home to care for her aging father, she will not be indexed separately. (Neither would her brothers) But if widowed Martha Cranford moved home to perform the same task, she should be listed in the index under her differing married name. Of course, if either of these is heading her own household rather than living under someone else's roof, her own name should be found.

The 1880 census, until recently unindexed by Heritage Quest, has an every-name index at the Mormons' familysearch.org site, with the bonus of allowing variant spellings. I used to look there, note the page number, then go to HQ, and, using its "browse" feature, find a copy of the microfilmed image. [Despite the detail in the LDS index, it is always a good idea to look at the original] However, more and more portions of this important census are now being indexed by HQ, and you can go directly there if you know the family surname. Twenty three states and territories, plus the District of Columbia, are indexed so far. [Check "What's New" to see a full list.]

The next step, after locating the woman in as many census records as possible, depends on a number of factors. Is she named in a parent's probate record? Sometimes a marriage can be determined by a will, wherein a father, Walter Connors, gives his "beloved daughter Susan Patrick my cow and milking stool". But it is important to remember that wills may bypass a married child who was perhaps given a substantial sum at the time of the nuptials. Better are letters of administration, because when a person dies without a will, and there are proceeds to be distributed, all the known legal heirs ought to be listed in court records.

Newspaper obituary notices often name the decedent's survivors, with their places of residence. Searching for obituaries can be a challenge, though. Assuming the missing woman's parents or siblings remained in the area where you last found her, look for local newspapers. Some have their own research departments and will provide information if you can supply approximate dates. (Let's hope you know when the parent or sibling died.) But in many cases the local or regional public library is the keeper of newspaper archives, and its staff is much more likely to be willing to search out the information – that is their job! Just be as specific – and brief -- as possible, and if writing a letter rather than emailing, enclose a SASE. By all means assure them you will be glad to compensate them for the costs incurred. (If they don't charge anything, I send a modest donation anyway.) Do be sure to express your appreciation for their efforts.

Library addresses are available in a number of places, but the fastest results probably come from simply Googling the city name, the plus sign, and the phrase "public library." Go to the resulting site and look for information on their services and how best to get in touch.

The USGenWeb is an all-volunteer site which provides access to locally-provided nformation on most counties in every state of the US. These include all sorts of lists, including local obits, cemetery records, marriage indexes (another good source), and more. The quality and quantity of data varies greatly, but you may strike gold. http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgw/

I use the California Death Index occasionally; it is an official state-wide index to deaths which have occurred in California since about 1941, and is updated pretty regularly, as far as I can tell. The Rootsweb site provides easy access to this. Once a person is located there, with date and place of death (and often the mother's maiden name), you can search for the obituary – and/or send for the death certificate if you choose.

You may have guessed I am a great proponent of free web sites. It irritates me to see such freely available information as the Social Security Death Index on a subscription site. Don't get lured into a fee-based search until you have investigated all the alternatives. Just because a list or index is offered for a price doesn't mean it is unavailable elsewhere free of charge.

And speaking of the SSDI, remember that while housewives, teachers and women in some other professions have not always been covered by Social Security, it is worth searching for them there, if they were of an age to have been enrolled since 1936. This index can be found at Familysearch and Rootsweb, as well as many other places.

This and that

2006-11-21T11:35:00.000-08:00

I recently came across a useful book by Rhonda R. McClure, one of the genealogy world's best-known names. The title is: Digitizing your family history : easy methods for preserving your heirloom documents, photos, home movies, and more in a digital format. (Cincinnati, OH: Family Tree Books, c2004) Its 188 pages are crammed with ideas and information.

There are chapters on using the scanner, videocamera, and digital still camera, and editing the results. Of course everything in the techno world changes faster than we can think, but her ideas and suggestions are still useful. I learned, for instance, that there is a way to scan slides and negatives with a scanner which does not have this built-in feature. It also sent me back to look at my digital camera's instruction manual with a slightly better grasp of its possibilities.

The Sonoma County Library system has five copies – just go online, look it up, and put in a request.

*****

One of my favorite online sources for genealogical news is Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter. The "standard" edition is free, and the "premium" subscription costs $19.95 for 12 months. I find it full of useful information and updates on what is going on in the realm of genealogy. Even though we often do our research in solitude, there are plenty of fellow enthusiasts out there, and lots going on! To sign up, or just take a look, go to http://www.eogn.com

One of its recent stories was about Rootsweb Television, a new Internet feature.
"When Roots Television debuted on 29 September it was a quiet launch in beta mode intended to draw enough traffic to test the site and work through the inevitable technical bugs that accompany new ventures into cyberspace. That 'quiet' launch quickly became an international roar, as word spread lightning-fast and Roots Television drew viewers from five continents in the first 24 hours! Not surprising really, since family history commands one of the largest and fast-growing markets in the world."

*****

With Thanksgiving almost upon us, I wish you all a most enjoyable day. And remember, if there are any family stories floating around, make notes! And take the opportunity to ask a leading question or two of the older relatives. You might be surprised what you learn!

Truth or fiction -- or both?

2006-11-14T11:27:00.000-08:00

I was watching a rerun of "History Detectives" on PBS recently and the obvious parallel struck me. Most of the people featured on this program have some sort of artifact – an old photograph, a painting, an aircraft propellor (really), or some other "thing," and with it, a story, usually based on hearsay. They know little else, except that someone in the family "always said" this was what it was about.

The detectives of the program's title, two antiques specialists, an architecture historian, and a professor of sociology, take it from there, interviewing the individual and then seeking original documents, speaking with experts, visiting repositories and eventually establishing the facts from what are so often half-truths or exaggerations.

I particularly like the comment of historian Gwen Wright: "A good, scientific investigation has to have clarity - a specific question and strategy - since the results, as in science, may be unexpected."

That must be why I enjoy this program so much. If we are serious about our genealogical pursuits, we follow that very same process, often with unexpected results.

Several years ago a relative told me a story about Charles A. Minton, one of two Ohio brothers who married sisters in the 1880s. Later, she said, Charles and his wife went to live in somewhere Texas, where both were killed in an auto accident before the turn of the century. (The bit about the auto accident seemed a bit odd to me.) Then, the tale went on, their young daughter went to live with the surviving brother, her uncle, in the state of Washington.

Starting with that premise I did find Venna Minton, a niece, in the household of John C. Minton, in the 1900 census for the city of Bellingham. From various sources I learned that Venna married, lived there the rest of her life, and died in 1948. But no mention was found of the loss of her parents.

So I left that search and managed to find the death date for the uncle who took her in. (Whatcom County Cemetery Records, Family History Library film #1036400) . Dr. John C. Minton, a fairly well-known dentist, died in 1930, and the obituary I was able to obtain from the Whatcom Genealogical Society said he was survived by his brother, Charles A. Minton, also of Bellingham.

But wait! (As they say on those TV ads) This was supposed to be the guy who had died in Texas years before. I eventually got Charles's death certificate and brief newspaper notices about his death, but they did not shed much light on the situation. So I put it all aside and moved on to other things.

Then recently I decided to take another stab at this – trying to reconcile the story from Aunt Ruth with the facts I had, since it was pretty obvious Charles had not died in Texas around 1900.

I did an "advanced"search of the 1910 census on HeritageQuest for Charles, filling in just the fields for surname, gender, and birthplace. Lo and behold, there was a Charles A. Minton of the right age and birthplace, living in the Los Angeles suburb of San Dimas. Further, he had been married for12 years to a Texas woman. This certainly seemed to be the person in question. And if so, a second marriage had taken place around the time Venna went to Bellingham.

So ... it looks as if only Venna's mother died in that alleged auto accident. The widowed Charles may have sent his young daughter to live with his brother at this point, or perhaps the new stepmother proved too much for her.

An exhaustive search of the previous census (1900) did not show Charles at all and I do not have any idea how he landed in Los Angeles County. He was widowed at the time of his death, so I presume he came north after his second wife died – or maybe not. He is buried in Bellingham, but there is no sign of a spouse there.

As they say, more to come.

[Gwen also said: "An investigator must have curiosity, determination, and an interest in unraveling the "knots" of the past, not just the smooth, obvious strands." Doesn't she sound like a genealogist at heart?]

Where are the lost boys?

2006-11-05T10:06:00.000-08:00

We all have missing persons in our family lines – those individuals who show up as children in a family group, maybe in a couple of censuses, then disappear. They can be the source of much frustration amd time-consuming research. But before giving up entirely, one really has to look for all the possible clues. Then, if nothing works, set the problem aside for a while and go on to something else. Later on, take another look and consider what new sources may have become available, or which old ones should perhaps be revisited.

These folks are usually single, so leave no evidence such as marriage records, and may not be remembered in anyone's will. A single woman may be found in a family member's household, and if her surname differs from that of the head, she is often indexed separately, and thus is easy to locate. [More about tracking lost females later]

But the single men are different. They had more opportunity to move about, and they did. Some set off for the gold rush in California (or Alaska, Oregon or even Australia), went to sea, enlisted in military service, or joined railroad-building crews.

For example, I was looking for a young man who was listed with his parents in the 1850 and 1860 censuses. Daniel Howard was my grandmother's brother, but no one in our family had ever spoken of him. Well, that was easy, once I realized he probably was in the Civil War. Sure enough, going through Civil War muster rolls for the state of Indiana, I found him. His military papers indicated he sustained a "minor" injury at the Battle of Shiloh (or Pittsburgh Landing, as it was called then), was hospitalized, and soon died – not from his wounds, but from cholera.

When I mentioned this to an aunt, she said, "Oh yes, I remember Mother saying she had a brother who went away to war and was not heard from again." Actually, his body was shipped home and is buried in the local cemetery in Rensselaer, Jasper County, Indiana.

The military records described his physical appearance in detail (necessary, since there were no dog tags for identification in those days), gave his age at enlistment, and listed his place of birth. When I figured out that "Montgomery, Indiana" was not the city of Montgomery, but the county, I had another piece of the puzzle. His family had moved to Jasper County after he was born, and this was my first clue as to their prior residence.

The fate of another young man still eludes me. His father died in the Civil War before he, Franklin Lee Parkison, was born, and his name and birth date are found in his mother's pension application. She left Indiana for Kansas, remarried there, and was widowed once again. But what of Frank? His mother's listing in the 1910 census indicates he, as one of her three children, was still living at that time.

The surname Parkison is fairly uncommon, but, too, it is easily misspelled, and I do find a Frank ParkiNson in later records who might actually be our man. But I am still looking for more definite proofs.

The fate of these lost boys – or men – continues to tug at us, but it is worth remembering that there are many ways to search for them. Ask yourself about each individual:
Was he of an age to fight in the Civil War (or other wars)?
Could his surname have been misspelled in some census records?
Was he still living when his mother was asked how many living children she had in 1900 or 1910?
Are there obituaries for siblings, parents or other relatives which might list him?
Are there probate records for any of these kin which might name him?

When you run out of ideas, sit back, take a deep breath, and move on to something else for a while.

Next time I'll try to give some hints about tracing lost girls and women.

What's it all about?

2006-10-25T13:08:00.000-07:00

I'm struggling with my current entrapment in small details – notes, questions and references on bits of paper, oddments I don't know how (or if) to file. Maybe I should go back to the beginning – why I even bother doing family history research. That is, what do I get from it? And then I need to ask myself, where do I want to go from here?

Answering the first part is easy. I work on these genealogical problems, first, because they present enticing challenges, the same way any complex puzzle does, and each solution creates a sense of real satisfaction (while often opening the door to yet another set of questions).

In addition, the study of my own forebears gives me a fuller understanding of, and appreciation for, those who came before me, their lives, and the times and places they lived in. By extension I can't help but absorb much more information about the fascinating social aspects of American history.

Of course, the process not linear. We don't usually go from A to B to C, if there is interest in more than just the names and dates of one's direct ancestors. Tantalising detours beckon at every step. And the whole project yields a flow of printed material requiring constant management.

That brings up the next question: where do I go from here?

Do I keep plugging away at these individual scraps of paper? Finish entering the documents in my filing system? Attack the folders I prepared for library research and have not dealt with since?

Here is what I have gleaned from personal experience and (more important) listening to other genealogists:

Don't even sit down at your workspace without a plan. It does not have to be elaborate. In fact the simpler it is the better. Formulate today's goal in your mind before you even let yourself be drawn into "just one peek" at a letter, note, chart, or message. It could be the finding of a single birthdate, attempting to complete a family group, corresponding with another researcher, or any one of a dozen other tasks. Even deciding where to file two pieces of paper is a plan of sorts.

Of course this does not mean "today's plan" will always be followed. An email received in reply to a query (perhaps half-forgotten), the discovery of a new website of interest, the sudden flash of insight that sends you off on a search of another document, all may cause your intended effort to derail temporarily. But at least having a goal in mind before you start gives some structure to your session. And, it is hoped, the series of modest daily plans will eventually lead to the achievement of your major goal, whatever that might be.

*****

Speaking of birthdates, if you are looking for one that was before the days of civil birth records, try for a death certificate. (And hope the informant knew enough to be accurate.) Also, check online to see if cemeteries in the area have been listed and their tombstone inscriptions transcribed. Many genealogical societies have volunteers who will check local information for you as well.

Completing a family group can be made easier by checking census records, of course, as well as probate records for one or the other parent. Obituaries will usually list names of survivors, including adult daughters with their married names.

Potpourri

2006-10-19T09:18:00.000-07:00

Today I'd like to pass along a few items that have caught my attention recently.

While searching for the best way to request a probate file from the City and County of San Francisco, I found this site: http://www.sfgenealogy.com/sf/sfrantip.htm and made these notes:

"A good resource for tips on doing SF genealogical research. I found details on obtaining probate records there – much more helpful than the city gov website, which has no info (that I could find) on retrieving old probate records. Turns out they do not accept requests online for older records, and they do not list costs involved.."

My mailed request (with SASE enclosed of course) brought a swift response. The Clerk's Office had located the file even though I had only asked for information, and informed me that it would be mailed out if I sent them a large postage-paid envelope and a check for $7.00. Three days after my response the 15-page file was in my hands! I still don't know if they charge a flat fee or by the page.

*****

The local library has a great kids' book: What a family : a fresh look at family trees! by Rachel Isadora (G.P.Putnam's Sons, 2006). It is a large format picture book, with emphasis on the many inherited physical traits that can show up in various generations. The endpapers have an illustrated "drop chart" (my favorite kind) showing dozens of related people of various ethnicities. Some of the traits amusingly illustrated are eye color, curly vs. straight hair, toe length (yes!), and the ability to wiggle one's ears.

There is also a straightforward explanation of the cousin connections, which bears repeating:
Cousins are often the most confusing part of family trees. First cousins share the same grandparents. Second cousins share the same great-grandparents, third cousins have the same great-great-grandparents, etc., etc.

If cousins don't have the same number of generations between them and their common ancestor, they are "removed." If there is a one-generation difference, the cousins are "once removed." If there is a two-generation difference, the cousins are "twice removed," and so forth.

*****

The Huntington Library, down in San Marino, has created an online database documenting early California residents. Their press release states:

"For the first time ever, scholars and the general public alike will be able to access a database that delves into the historical records doumenting the lives of some 110,000 Californians between 1769 and 1850.

"The Early California Population Project is a comprehensive database of the sacramental registers – the baptismal, marriage, and death records – from California's 21 missions.

"Unntil how, historians and anthropologists have relied on microfilm versions of the meticulous logs kept by Franciscans since the founding of the first mission in San Diego in 1769. However those microfilm records are scattered at archives up and down the state, and their physical quality has deteriorated over the years."

For the complete article, you can go to http://www.huntington.org/Information/news/ECPP.pdf

*****

That's all for now. If you have questions, suggestions or comments, please feel free to use the "comment" feature, or email me at famfinder@comcast.net

Changing my tune, maybe

2006-10-11T08:47:00.000-07:00

I have been thinking more about charts lately. In the last entry I bemoaned the fact that I could not find a Windows-based genealogical program that provided for the creation of top-down displays of descendants, or drop charts, so afterwards I decided to explore the subject further.

It turns out the two most popular programs for the Mac have great charting possibilities. They are Reunion, now in its 8th incarnation, and Heredis, which originated in France but is thoroughly Anglicized. I have been playing with the idea of replacing my ailing laptop with a Mac (with pressure from my Mac-toting offspring), and this discovery may be the final bit of encouragement I need.

The features I would like (and which seem to be possible in these programs) include:
1. The ability to construct the aforementioned drop chart
2. The ability to shade or color some boxes in different ways to distinguish among the folks whose whole line stayed in one place, and those who moved on.
3. The possibility to include certain not-yet-documented individuals in a way that immediately shows their tentative status (like the use of a paler shade, or italic text)
4. An initial display for a family which includes the birth and death dates of the offspring and some sort of marker to indicate at a glance whether work has been done on those children's descendents (or if they have any)

I have resisted making big changes in my genealogical software in the past, preferring to spend my time doing research rather than learning new ways of arranging the information I already had. In every kind of hobby there are the people who are more interested in the equipment and trappings than in actual creation. Knitters may have more fun collecting a variety of needles and gauges, bobbins and pattern books than settling down to produce something. Some would-be writers are more concerned with having the most feature-filled word-processing software, or most elegant fountain pen and paper, than turning out a chapter or two. I used to do letter-press printing for fun, and I knew people who collected presses, type cabinets, and pounds of the most exquisite metal and wood type, but never turned out a single broadsheet.
That was, and is, their choice, but not mine. However, it may be time for a change.

Now for an abrupt change of subject.

While perusing the various comments by users of Reunion, I came across a question that dogs most of us at one time or another – "how far afield should I go?" In other words, where does one draw the line (or should it be drawn at all) when gathering names? An uncle's wife is related by marriage, but is it worthwhile looking for her siblings and their families?

The answers were instructive in their variety, from the simple "don't go there" to the obvious pride some responders took in the sheer numbers of names they had collected. It would seem the right answer(as is so often the case) is: whatever works for you. I would certainly try to include spouses of relatives – they are often the parents of one's cousins, after all. And those spouses' parents seem to me to be worthy of inclusion. How much further you want to go is really up to you, your interests and your time constraints.

Charting the course

2006-10-02T14:30:00.000-07:00

I often wish I had a better way to "see" my family tree with all its complexity of branches. Fill-in-the-blank charts are well and good, but they don't quite give me the big picture I long for. And the "tree" itself – well. The illustrations I see often show ancestors out at the ends of the leafy limbs, when we know we are talking about "roots." To be accurate, the forebears should be underground ( as they probably are, literally), and the descendants out on the various branches and twigs.

Sometimes I fantasize about having sections of the tree on large sheets, like those pull-down maps we used to have in school. Other times I dream of multiple computer monitors, to display more family members at once. Once I put up a 4x8 foot piece of wallboard in my work room and attempted to use it to arrange my collection of descendants from a single ancestor. On a butcher paper backing, I used gummed labels for the names, connecting them with thin black architects' tape. But I quickly discovered the importance of allowing for changes and additions, and gummed labels are not easy to shift. [How many erasers have you worn out, trying to draw a family tree?]

Of course, much depends on what kind of overview you have in mind. The straightforward pedigree chart does seem tree-like, with a slender trunk (you) supporting an ever multiplying series of predecessors. It looks more like a geometry problem than a form of plant life, though. I think of that construction as an inverted pyramid, although (in the interests of saving space, I suppose) most pedigree charts run from left to right instead of bottom to top. The fan-shaped display, with you in the center, is a similar kind of ancestors-only chart.

But if you want to include the siblings, aunts, uncles, and cousins, the arrangement gets more complex. Say you have traced a line back to an early progenitor, and want to branch out (pun intended). Actually it is easier to look for these relatives as you go because they can give important clues regarding your own ancestor. But you may have skipped over a few in that pedigree search, and are now looking for descendants and collaterals, rather than more ancestors. There are actually ancestor charts which include siblings for each generation. But what of their offspring? That is where the descendancy part comes in.

To do this sort of chart, first you have to choose an ancestor from among the many in your pedigree. (If you have gone back just six generations, counting yourself, there are 32 direct ancestors, most of whom probably had more than one child.) So which individual shall it be?

Once the choice is made, the problem is how to display your findings. Looking at a descendancy list, you soon realize there is no pre-designed format for you to follow. Families are not uniform in size. Multiple marriages take place. Cousins marry each other. Individuals seem to vanish for no apparent reason. Instead of a tidy pyramid, you may have a series of irregular terraces. (I have baked cakes that look like that.)

I used to have a DOS-based program called OrgPlus. It enabled the creation of an organizational chart, though with no connection to any genealogical computer program. I transferred names, dates and events to it by hand, manipulated the boxes, and was able to condense some families into simple lists, while expanding others' information. It took some doing, but I ended up with a nice big five-generation depiction of the known descendants of one ancestor. Because the charting program was for business organizations, the important person was at the TOP, not off to the side, and somehow that helped me get a better overview.

Sadly, OrgPlus has morphed into a very expensive program, and my old one doesn't work with modern-day Windows. There are other such business-related charting schemes, but they too are costly. If anyone out there knows of a stand-alone but genealogically-friendly drop chart, I'd love to hear about it.

In the meantime, I will just have to be satisfied with the usual displays provided for by my computer program (PAF Companion does charts for Personal Ancestral File, and virtually every other genealogy program for computers has a variety of charts -- just not the one I want the most).

Ongoing research

2006-09-25T11:46:00.000-07:00

For many years I have kept a personal diary, first written in longhand, later typed, and, currently, composed in my computer's word processing program and stored on a floppy disk.

As time passed and I have been able to devote more time to genealogy, I found myself writing about it quite a lot, inserting notes and comments in among the paragraphs about other aspects of my daily life. Then, too, there were those scraps of paper with references to people and agencies I have been in touch with, ideas for new search strategies, and who knows what, all floating around, tacked to the bulletin board, or hidden under other scraps.

About a year ago it occurred to me to start a separate "journal" on my computer just for my genealogical research. When I send off for, or receive, a vital record, query another researcher on a particular surname, have a sudden insight, or feel triumphant over a new discovery, it goes in this journal. Family names are bold faced, so I can refer back to them more easily. And I do refer back -- in this way the journal helps me remember what I've been working on. (We all jump around from one surname to another, don't we?)

My struggles with organization are noted here as well. Just the act of writing out thoughts helps solve many problems, at least for me. Possible solutions to thorny questions have been known to rise to the surface when they were set down in black and white. Or, seen in the light of day, a particular issue may recede into the background or vanish altogether because its insignificance becomes obvious. (Why should I care about Great-uncle Jacob's third wife's sister-in-law? How did I get that far off-topic anyway?)

The ongoing research journal could be considered a kind of confessional and as well as a progress report. There are certainly more organized ways to keep this information, with tables, logs, and lists of various kinds, but right now this seems to work best for me. If you have suggestions or comments, I would be happy to hear them.

That subject again

2006-09-16T15:38:00.000-07:00

OK. Let's face it. I have gone on at length (some would say excessively) about the need to
1. Organize your materials
2. Identify and preserve your significant documents, including photographs
3. Cite your sources accurately

Do I practice what I preach? Well, the preservation part comes easiest because of my past library work in local history collections. It boils down to these commands: protect from the elements, store safely, and avoid repairs which may do more harm than good.

My source citations have improved, though I sometimes must go back to the earliest photocopies and notes I made to hunt down full information on their sources, including where, physically, I found them. (A good reference for this is Cite your sources, by Richard S. Lackey) Fortunately most items are found in the Family History Library and the complete description can be found online at familysearch.org. For online material I copy and print out, I note the website address, or URL, with the current date (your printer's software may do this for you automatically).

As for organization, well, it is a never-ending process. Recently I have been burrowing my way through stacks of old notes, newly-found documents, correspondence with other researchers, and folders of annotated "strategy sheets" I took with me, and referred to, at libraries. It is like being an archaeologist and trying to excavate eons' worth of stuff. (It is slow going, too, as distractions await at every turn)

The oldest handwritten notes, if still valid, I am entering in the computer and then printing out, with as much identifying information as I can, even when it means including such shame-faced attributions as "undated, indentified notes by mm [me] possibly made at Sutro Library".

Then they can be filed with other like materials as I described in an earlier posting.

Newly acquired documents go immediately in the To File basket with a notation about where they should be filed (have to enter them in my Clooz program first) If you use a computer genealogy program it certainly has a "sources" feature, and you can use that to the same effect.

My correspondence, if it is ongoing, gets a folder of its own – sometimes referring back to older letters from other researchers gives new clues, in light of one's own recent findings. If a portion of a letter includes genealogical data which is deemed valid, it gets entered in the computer program (Personal Ancestral File, in my case). If it seems to be shaky, or is undocumented, be wary of accepting it without some further proof. (You may want to make a reference to it in your program's notes, however. "Jane Smith says Uncle George served in the Civil War. No papers found so far.")

But I still have those loose folders of "search strategies" I very ambitiously put together before research trips, some of them years ago.

Notes and questions for lines which I have since put on the back burner are being broadly sorted by surname and put in "future research" folders. (I would like to think I'll get back to those some day, but meanwhile, why spend extra time on them?)

Families I am still working on are another matter. For some reason it is not easy to come home from a research trip and immediately put everything in its place. Sometimes notes are hard to read, unanticipated questions arose and may or may not have been answered, sources one hoped to look up were not available – it all becomes a muddle. And then everyday life intervenes and by the time one gets back to genealogy, the thread is lost.

I have not come up with the perfect solution – maybe there isn't one. But I am trying this: the problems are about individual people. Where so-and-so is buried, whom another relative married, what became of the brother who went to Chicago and vanished from sight. So, right up front in my filing cabinet, where I can get at it easily, is a "Work in Progress" section. I have labelled folders (the stationery stores love me) for each of the individuals in question. In the case of a group of brothers who went in different directions (eight of them!), I did make a table showing them all, with their basic information, so I could see the gaps at a glance. I did the same for three sisters (remember Elvira? Her mother is one of the sisters). But as information is collected and the pile of documentation grows, each person gets his or her own folder with questions, notes, and ideas for further search. This section of my filing cabinet, Home of the Unanswered Questions, is where I need to concentrate -- WHEN I GET THINGS ORGANIZED!

If you, dear reader, have any ideas or suggestions about this issue, please let me know. Maybe we can all help each other.