I am pretty sure anyone who has even dabbled in family history research probably knows this phrase and is well aware of the issues that a brick wall can solve. If you've not experienced a brick wall, consider yourself one of the lucky few. Some people have had brick walls for tens of years and they may never get solved. Others have more of a 2 foot wall that really just needs a little step stool, but eventually they make the plunge to the other side. Solving brick walls requires some out of the box thinking. Often times we're linear and stick to what we know the best. So think about the US Census records like they are your "box". Think of the time in-between census as "outside-the-box". What records exist in that time frame? In the period between 1910 and 1920 you have a few options. Think about military records. The War to end all wars (WWI), registered all men of age between 1917-1918. Not only were these young men listed, but they often listed employers, next of kin which were either parents or spouses, and sometimes siblings. There is more to know on these than just if they served and where they were living. Other resources might be City Directories. Many places have these preserved not only online but also in public libraries, genealogical societies and archives across the country. If yours isn't online, take a few hours and go to the nearest library and ask about what they may have or if they know someone who may have what you need. I've been known to scour a whole day by clicking through year after year of the same town and recording everyone with a given name - such as my Pristas/Prestis family in New Jersey. I entered each one into a spreadsheet file and as I found the same person repeatedly, I'd highlight them in a set color for that family. I may go into details about that sort of thing in a future blog post. Here in the US individual states had State Census records. These are highly under utilized for many reasons not the least of which is we just forget about them. New Jersey for instance has a 1915 State Census that might help. Many states had census that fell between the census, explore which might help you. Don't leave out Non-population schedules and tax records. In the census years, there were many surveys of businesses, farms and defectives. While these were the census years, if you find your person of interest on one you may have clues on where else to look. If you find someone was listed being blind or idiotic, maybe you might find a record of them in a facility other than their parents homes. Farm surveys indicate land and goods that someone produced. Tax records can fill in the time between census. This out of the box thinking can not only help you maybe pinpoint exactly when someone may have died - a city directory lists Mrs. Ethel Boyde (wid) - or when they may have left town, when they moved from one house to another, when they may have changed jobs, when their sons and daughters came of age and started working or moved out on their own.... there are so many things you can extract from them if you spend enough time looking at them. Don't be afraid to fill in the blanks for every year that a person was alive. It's possible to do and every day, more and more records become easily accessible to us. So get out there and Enjoy Your Adventures In Genealogy!
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Some friends of mine and I have a small research group where we can discuss things between us in a non-judgmental way. We love this group because so many times when you are posting on the internet, you get people who will tell you that their way is correct and your way is wrong. We've sort of resisted adding any new people to our little group because we've known each other now almost 7 years and we are comfortable.
I am here to remind myself, and my friends, and you that anyway you search has to work for the way you think, the way you are organized (or not) and the way that is most effective for you as a person. I can sit here all day and teach about what is told to be the most efficient and comprehensive ways to search and research, but if you don't work that way, it won't work for you. So what DOES work for you? Are you a meticulous worker? Do you hunt for a person's records and not get distracted by BSOs and other pieces of information? OR... are you like a Tigger? Bouncy? Somewhere in the middle? Do you strive to be organized but aren't? Are you missing out on trying new methods of research? Sometimes we resist trying other methods but when we do try them we quite often may realize that we can work in a variety of ways and still be productive and efficient. Are you Missing a Method? Ask people you know how they work and to describe or show you how they do it. Then give it a try. What have you got to lose? Listen - I'm about to do a genealogy class and I've struggled with how to "teach" researching efficiently. The reason I've struggled is because if I'm trying to tell people the best method out there, it's not going to work. There just isn't. The best thing is only what works and what you will actually do. I by no means can stick to a standard method. I'm bouncy and I probably always will be. Do as I say, not as I do. TRY to be as organized as YOU can be for YOU. And the rest will all work out in the end. I am not always organized and efficient. Some of my searches are re-searches. Occasionally, I will find that I've asked myself the same questions for several years and never found the answers. Many times I'll ask other people for "New Eyes" on a project so that I can get some clarity for myself. People see things in many different ways and having a fresh look is often quite helpful. However, that leads to a lot of frustration on social media sites for both the person asking the questions and the person trying to answer them. Here are some helpful tips and advice for both the person considering posting for a request and the person about to read and help someone asking for the questions. For those of you who may be considering asking for help, here are some things that I think are a must if you are posting on social media sites such as a Facebook group dedicated to researching a specific area or topic.
NOW --- for those of you who just posted that question, keep in mind people are not really reading these requests and comprehending. They want to be helpful but in order to be helpful, they're trying to catch up with what you already know. So... if you already have a good deal of information, you're going to get quite a few messages like : Here is the 1910 census, his obituary, the 1930 census, here is the marriage, all their children....... but not the one thing you asked for. It's frustrating for sure. Trust me, I get really bothered by it. Over-sharing is not caring. It's annoying. For those of you who want to help people:
In Summary - Ask efficient questions and give effective answers. Stop and comprehend the questions asked and reply to questions with specific solutions. Social media is a difficult (while overly simplied) place to convey information. It can be a wonderful resource to utilize in genealogy research. However, it's also very frustrating to answer the same question a thousand times simply because someone is not reading the Original Post (OP) fully and they aren't taking the time to verify what is actually needed.
I've never been one to shy away from letting people know that I have an obsession with cemeteries and the deceased ancestors who reside in them. Most people who know me well can tell you that if they want to find out something to do with cemeteries, they'll come ask me if I've ever been to such-n-such cemetery before. I then will go into a very long soliloquy about when I went there, what I saw, it's disarray and abandonment, the names and dates of those buried there, the lay out and the planning, the care of tombstones...... Yeah, just like that you also stopped reading....... It's okay, I'm used to it. However, the obsession with cemeteries was not a recent thing. At the turn of the century, people would picnic and relax in the comfort of deceased family resting areas. They would laugh, reminisce, eat, drink and essentially be merry! My youngest child can be forced to go with me on occasion in the hopes that one day I'll be attacked by zombies and she can make a proverbial killing off of the video she will be recording. Sadly, she's still poor. What I do when I go to a cemetery though often intrigues some of my younger readers and some who just have a fascination with the paranormal. I've mentioned before my cell phone and the apps that I have for it. I won't say that I believe them, but hey, there are some funny coincidences when I ask questions and it answers me pretty accurately. I'm still a skeptical believer. Recently, I saw where the book 13 Ghosts and Jeffrey was talked about on a history group Facebook page. If you haven't read that book I highly recommend it. When I was a young girl, I would travel with my parents to Kentucky and Mississippi to visit my mother's mom. She was a true southern woman thru and thru. She also had a love for ghosts and the paranormal but she didn't voice that very much. I knew. She had a series of books on her expansive book shelves. When I would go to her home, I would always pull those particular books off the shelves and take them to read. When she passed, my mom was leaving to go there and I said... If there is only one thing that I could get from there, it would be the ghost books. Trivial, I know. When I saw the article on "13 Ghosts and Jeffrey", I immediately thought I had that book. I didn't. But what I did have was "Jeffrey Introduces 13 More Southern Ghosts" by the same author Kathryn Tucker Windham. So I share with you in this blog that I love ghosts and ghost books. Here are a few that I currently take out on occasion. When you are out there and you see a ghost book. Think of me, give it a good read and review. Then, of course, go out there to Enjoy Your Adventures in Genealogy at Cemeteries this week!!
I'm pretty lucky. I've got a great family. My kids are pretty awesome people who have not totally made me regret being a mother and actually all make me very proud to be their mom. But besides that, I am in love with the fact that I live within 30 minutes of about 5 or more archival repositories. That's a big deal in my book. (sorry, kids! I love you, too!) John points me to a collection of newspaper articles written by a local man, John Knox. These are in very large books and indexed for easy look ups. I know very little about his family so the whole story is pretty interesting - however John (The Archivist) mentions that his estate files are probably here since he died here. "Would you like to see them?".... awwwhh heck yeah! The truth is, although digital files are great and easy to enlarge, there is nothing like the actual feel of those original documents. You get a feel for how people thought and write, you see the ink on the paper. It is breathtaking sometimes just seeing them.. and I'm about to see and touch something that someone from 1829 actually touched. 189 years ago. Put that into your brain for a moment and let that soak in. Wow, right?! Some of you who have read previously on my blog posts and over on "The Facebooks" that I have been working with extracting enslaved person's names from files in my tree. I also have been doing a little research on local families and slavery, still to be put out here yet as it's a work in progress. When opening the file, I realize, I've not extracted the names from these digital documents and here I am holding them in my hands the names of his enslaved, in this town.... purchased then by his son, also in this town. My point is, although you will here repeatedly how keeping a research log file will keep you organized, it will never hurt you to review what you've worked on. And any time you get a chance to view the actual files themselves, do it! I promise you it's not ever going to hurt.
Since my initial research on this man, new things evolved in my search. I started the extraction of names of slaves. Of course, I'm not always going to remember which people in my tree had them. So getting this gentle reminder was just the thing I needed to move forward in research. Archives around you contain a wealth of information not only for your ancestors in your own town, but also all around the country. Look around your area and see how many repositories might exist and get in the mood to go exploring. Libraries? Research rooms? Archives? Courthouses? Genealogical Societies? Museums? Go... get out there and soak up all that dust and dirt into your sinuses!! And Enjoy your Adventures In Genealogy!! I remember the very first time that I was going to a building that held records. I know it sounds impossible but I was very intimidated. I didn't know what I was doing at the time. I had no clue about proper source citations or how to find what it was I really needed. That first building was Muskogee, Oklahoma Library Research room. Lucky for me, I had the help of a great women there who asked me the questions she needed to help me out. With her help, I was able to locate the records of burial for the great grandparents of my spouse's father. Back in 1997 there wasn't really much "online" research going on. What we had was oral histories and papers that were handed down through the family so looking in a brick and mortar building was really a valuable resource. Now 21 years later, we do a good deal of research online but do you know that it's estimated that only 10% of historical records are online? Isn't that astounding knowing that I spend 90% of my current research online!? In 2013, I made a trip to a nearby county and spent the weekend researching my ancestors in that town and nearby towns. Perry County, Alabama's courthouse contains a small repository of their documents that are open for research. This time, I really wasn't prepared for the smell. People tell you all the time to make sure you take your allergy meds before you go, take some tissues and if you're really sensitive, a mask is a good option. The first room was a 8 x maybe 10 room with land records in books just like this. I didn't take photos in there because people were all standing around and I didn't want to mess with photo releases for them. The second room seen here was empty, apparently less visited. These were birth, marriage and probate records from very early on. As I was going through things, I wondered exactly where everything else was. Here is the size of the room. My back literally was standing against the door. For a county that was so old, where were the rest of the items? So I went out to ask the lady at the desk. Well there was a whole other room of things that were not quite as nicely preserved as the ones in the two rooms I was in already. meShe directed me down a dark flight of cement stairs, had me sign in a book and then said... "Don't try to look for an index. They aren't in any order, are all in pretty bad shape and good luck with whatever it is you are looking for." It was the basement. If the smell upstairs was surprising, the one downstairs was more like a thousand zombies. Wow. I wish I had taken more images down there. But I didn't know what to look at first or where to even begin. There were items that probably didn't need to be down there, but some of the oldest records were here. Some law books, some user contributed items, and a lot of stuff in boxes. It was pretty crazy. The point I'm making here is that so much of the items we need and want are still not available to the public. Because of that, I'm going to do a mini-series blog event on Archives and their Documents!! Over the next couple months, I'll explore with you what to do when you go to a repository building, where to find items that will help you in your research and maybe we may even get some live video on facebook (If I'm having a good hair day....) LOL If you've not already liked my facebook page, click the link to the right with the icon and join in the conversation! I'm excited about this one! Leave some feedback of what you'd like to know! Let's get out there and Enjoy our Adventures In Genealogy! I'm not sure how many of you who read this are local to my area (in Alabama), but even if you don't attend my class, make sure you get out and attend any class. There are hundreds a week in just about every state. Historical Societies, Genealogical Societies, Libraries, Archives and Ancestral Groups all hold them! Check some out that interest you. If you can't attend in person, there are many online webinars you can attend!
There is so much to learn from attending a group setting on specific topics. Other people really are a wealth of information because everyone learns something different and each person has a totally different view of the topics. No one research problem is the same. If you are in my area, I encourage you to Join the Hartselle Historical Society facebook page. On that page under Events is my Genealogy Class going to be Feb 9, 2019. It's free to attend, but please do click on the "get ticket" button and let me know you intend to go. I want to ensure that any hand-outs I have are sufficient for the number of people, and if we have more than will fit into our classroom, we'll move it! The HHS has so many wonderful conversations and people are submitting new photos every week which really is awesome! They also are doing a Lunch and Learn series so check out those when you are in the events section too! That's my update for today, except to say that I've added a Google+ account, so take a look if you are on there and go out to Enjoy Your Adventures In Genealogy! So apologies to anyone who may have checked in yesterday for an update. I was having issues with the host provider here and oddly they resolved themselves this morning just seconds ago. So the first thing I did was come here. PeopleLegacy, late on Wednesday had removed all images from the website. We're assuming that the debate over copyright infringement came to a head. Reportedly by other bloggers such as The Legal Genealogist - Judy K Russell, they also removed any biographies submitted by users. The website added a link to click on to have information you submitted removed. Don't click it just yet. Wait it out. Here is a picture of the image I've been following and showing you as this whole situation unfolds. This really is an ongoing situation. It's developing very quickly and I'm not surprised at the reaction it is getting from the professional community as well as the private contributors of information. I'm glad that Ancestry's lawyers were on top of this as soon as they were told. I'm not a lawyer, but I would guess that this could be a precedence for future issues and there may be some rules/laws that come about because of this specific situation.
The gleaned info is still present. The website is still active. I still suggest not using the grey box on the right to have your info removed. I'm guessing any way they can get information they will use it. So entering your name and email to have something removed might be just another way to go about it. Just hang in in there. They're making progress. Watch for another post today unrelated to this issue and maybe on something much more pleasant - such as Adventures in Genealogy!! Unless you live under a rock as a family history researcher, you've probably been following the PeopleLegacy copyright issues. Read my post from last week. Here is an update however. 1. Peoplelegacy has removed the watermark from all images and added a small "wiki heritage" mark at the bottom of each image. 2. Peoplelegacy has added a caption under the images with " image copyright 'Michele'" under the photos. (Assume they've done this for all info they extracted from the website by what is listed on each page as who posted the image) 3 Images are no longer blurred out, but still no link to original content or a larger version of the image. Other Bloggers have posted some updates as well, but most likely they are just attempting to avoid a copyright infringement blow-back which will likely happen anyway. As stated in my previous post, make sure you check out reliable bloggers and keep abreast on what is happening if you've contributed to FindAGrave in the past. If I notice anything new with my own info, I'll keep you posted here as well. We are a social media infused society. It's amazing how quickly we've adapted and adjusted to the writing of brief messages in a small platform. It is also pretty amazing just how quickly the American/English language has deteriorated to the degree it has. If you are reading this, you most likely have experienced a message, email or conversation that has included slang, abbreviated words or a complete lack of pleasantries in the content. Most of the time, people writing me will be descriptive and polite. Even when we are trying to be brief and to the point, we need to remember that people on the other end of the message will receive your message in a whole other context. It's not always how you mean it to sound. So when you message a stranger, please remember to say please and thank you even if it's just a "Thanks" as a closing sentence. I know we're all in a hurry and we live by the 24 hour clock. There is not enough time in the day. I think we can all benefit from a well written message and more people will be able to help out if we give it a try. I guarantee you a happier life as well as wonderful successful Adventures in Genealogy! |
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AuthorMichele is an obsessed mother of 4 residing in North Alabama. Hobbies include long walks in the woods, on the beach and in strange cemeteries and libraries. Genealogy friends need only apply. Categories
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