I was born in South New Jersey. My father was from New Jersey, his family lived in New Jersey and they were all immigrants from Austria-Hungary-Slovakia. My mom was born in Central Mississippi. Her mom's family were all born and raised in the southern states with her father's family immigrating from Sicily. I have two older siblings, 11 years and 12 years older than I am so when my sister was graduating high school, I was about to head into kindergarten. When my brother graduated high school, I was in 2nd grade. You could pretty much say I was raised similarly to what an only child would have been like. The school my sister and brother attended was large. A matter of fact, it was so large that one of them went to school in the morning, one went to school in the afternoon so that the school could accommodate all the students in the area. It was also fairly violent in nature. With a new child coming through and having experienced the growth and violence in the big city, my parents were looking for a more intimate school experience where they could then raise me without fear and worry like they had with my older siblings. Understandably so. They had already been through that twice. Did they really want 13 more years of that environment? So off to Northwest Pennsylvania we moved. In the forest, in the middle of no where we lived on a rural farm with all sorts of wildlife and animals around us. I grew up very differently than my siblings did. They don't seem to mind the big city life while I would much rather sit quietly on a stump in the woods alone in my thoughts. As an adult, I stayed near the area, never really straying far. When my parents retired they sold their whole lot in life and decided to tour the country to visit all the places they never got to see. When my father passed away, my mom removed to Florida, where they had always spent all those retirement winters. She was not well and refused to move back to Pennsylvania. I felt a sudden draw to move away. I uprooted children and moved to this town I am currently in, where shortly after my mother joined us. Which brings me to the surprises.
These little surprises are what keeps me involved in this on a daily basis. I know a great deal about my ancestors but the more I learn, the more I realized how much MORE there is to know.
Enjoy your own surprise Adventures In Genealogy! #52ancestors
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Sometimes I get really bored just looking at some of my research. Other times, I'm just avoiding doing something else so I'll look up weird things. Tonight, I wasn't going to get online at all. You know because of the "big game" that is on. But, I decided I could multitask. I wanted to find out if there was some way to know where a certain district was located in my county during the 1860s. I was literally Googling and reading when I came across the Classified Population of the States and Territories by Counties, June 1st, 1860. Right? Doesn't everyone just run across these sorts of items when they are being random? So much better than surfing penquins..... Okay, maybe not quite. Of course, I can't just sit and read through these sort of things. I live in Alabama so I'm focused on learning more about specific populations within Alabama and more importantly within the county where I live. I scroll through and see that there were 37 Free Colored persons. It is further broken down by 27 Free Black persons and 10 free mulatto persons. Wow. Cool info. I'm fascinated by information and many of you may find this document boring. Regardless of how boring it is, I scroll down all the way to the last page and eventually come to "Occupations". While interesting in of itself, I become obsessed with finding the ONES. You know, that ONE guy who does an occupation all by himself and no one else has that skill around him. When I get to "Umbrella Manufacturer" I decide heck, let's see if I can find this guy. Where is this ONE guy who makes umbrellas in Alabama in 1860. Approximately 30 seconds later, and Bingo. I heard your brain say, "How in the world did she do that?" ... Seriously, I've said this before, and I'll say it again. I am a really great Googler. In this case, I didn't actually use Google, but Ancestry.com. But it's the same concept. I don't box myself in to a set term or phrase or a person's name and how it's spelled. You TOO can be a great Googler. Here is how. What information did I know? I knew three things. It was 1860, In Alabama and someone was an Umbrella Manufacturer. I go to Ancestry's Card Catalog under the SEARCH category. Once on the Card Catalog, I find the 1860 United States Federal Census. I simply put in the information I'm positive of. Let me show you the results that came up with that search, though, if you are following along, you can do the same thing and see for yourself. Either way, Here is what appeared in the results list: Indeed, Mr. McGuire is the only person who has the term "Umbrella" in his occupation. (Insert "Show me the money" joke at your own risk.) More fascinating that that, if you know your history well, is that his wife is from Scotland! I've now spent several hours learning about Mr & Mrs McGuire.
There is not a giant search secret that we withhold from our clients. Most of the time, it's simply knowing what you can do with the information that allows you to be successful. Now that I've sufficiently delayed my own research agenda for the day, I'm satisfied enough to continue my Adventures In Genealogy tomorrow! Give it some practice and do some adventuring yourself. You can do it! People will often ask me how I got started helping people with their family history. Most of the time this is not an interesting story. I had to sit down and think of a better answer than what I was giving. Thinking is rough! It took some digging in the inner recesses of my mind and heart. While I was interested in researching my own family at first because of my grandmother and my great aunts, It really came down to one thing that happened shortly after I was first married. My father-in-law at the time had not been raised by his parents. He was raised by his grandparents. He did not know a good portion of his family until well after adulthood. He had some missing pieces in his family that he desperately wanted to know about. I was determined to help him get those answers. This began when we were all heading to a family reunion in Oklahoma. While they were visiting with some family, I made a trip into a research center armed with just some basic names. I searched for hours. When the day was done and they picked me up, I was not only overwhelmed with information, but I had found some key pieces of evidence that opened up a whole world for him. We located unmarked graves of his other grandparents and great grandparent, and we discovered a good deal of stuff that furthered finding all his family tree. It was exciting, satisfying and rewarding. I made it a priority to help him. The reward was seeing him filled with pride and knowledge. For me, helping people is the reward. I've decided that I am subscribing to the "what it is worth to you" investment for research. It seems that the interest in finding family history is out there. - That's evident from the 200 people signed up for a genealogy class and a waiting list a mile long for a second class. I've truly enjoyed my Adventures in Genealogy! I look forward to growing and expanding in the future! I've often heard stories about Sam Houston and the Battle of the Alamo throughout my life. I have always found history of every sort very interesting. I think that is a common thread that many family history researchers, historians and genealogists alike share. I never thought that one day, while researching one of my family lines I'd come across some information that would change how I knew the famous battle cry "Remember The Alamo". Even now, when people are asked about the coining of the phrase, they relate this with Sam Houston and his soldiers. While history may never change there was one piece of information that has been lost to many out there. That is - who actually said the infamous war cry. While out researching a branch of my Billingsley family tree, I became quite interested in the military documents of those who were serving from the Revolution through to the Civil War. One such thing I found was the Official Resolution Adopted by the Texas State Senate on Tuesday April 20, 1999. Senate Resolution 671:
I think it's safe to say that finding this document left me thrilled and happy. I might not have known if I had not found this. There is always something new to learn during my Adventures In Genealogy!
It's now been a week and I haven't even had a moment to think about what my next blog post will be about. Isn't it crazy how the time flies by? What we are doing in Family history research is preserving these stories for the future but it's very hard to think about the future while you are living the now.
So this week, I'm revisiting the past a little bit. I've recently given some tips on getting started with your research. But what if you've been "getting started" for a very long time... perhaps even decades? Just like any problem we have to solve, take a look at WHY you consider yourself still getting started? Do you have any time constraints? Are you unfocused? Maybe you have lack of knowledge on where to look for information? Perhaps there just isn't enough information to go further? I challenge you this week to evaluate what it would take for you to spend 10 minutes a day on ONE specific question. Don't ask "who is my grandmother?". Ask "Where was my grandmother born?" for example. If you are stuck on where to find information then break down that question and brainstorm where the answers might exist. Be specific. Not just "birth records", but perhaps "birth record from between 1900-1910 in Alabama, perhaps Jefferson County or Dallas County." - and also " County Archives in Jefferson Co, Alabama" Then figure out if what you are seeking is available digitally, or if you must write or drive for more information. Listen, this process is not instantaneous on most occasions. So take a step back and remember that there is no hurry here. One question, One at a time. I hope that helps some of you out there. As always - Enjoy your Adventures In Genealogy! The last week has been a whirlwind of activity for many. If you were fortunate enough to have free time to work on your research, I am envious. I have attempted to not let this hobby totally monopolize my time to the extent that it takes away from family and activities, though I assure you it does much of the time. New Year's Resolutions are not really my thing. But this year, I've said that I'm forming new goals for myself in regards to prioritizing my genealogy life. One goal is to be more effective in keeping my research plan and my research log well written. In the past, I've employed the "Do as I say not as I do" method. I often advise budding investigators to Make a Plan and log their results to repeat the process. I'm very bad about doing that for my own work. I think the fact that I've researched a long time and am comfortable enough with my own tree that I don't feel like that really needs to be a priority. However, what if (heaven forbid) something happens and someone takes over my research? They'll be repeating what I'm doing and probably be very frustrated with me about not keeping track. This year - I'm making research plans for every question I have. I will also use an effective research log method to keep track of what I confirm AND disprove when I'm researching. (You can check out thousands of helpful forms by googling Genealogy Forms & Charts, but I've included one I have recently found by Memories In Time. Just click the image and see if what they have will help you!) What goals do you have for the New Year in regards to your genealogy research? Get out there and make your Adventures In Genealogy effective and efficient! I have recently found a need to label myself. In a world full of labels this is both terrifying and satisfying at the same time. I have never really enjoyed being labeled or categorized for any reason so coming up with my expert level defining my skill is scary. What we define ourselves as in genealogy research helps others to know more about us in a simplified way. My discovery however is that we are not accurately portraying our own skills and others are not yet aware of how skilled or not we are so they can not accurately rate our skill either. That's quite a quandary. The Barefoot Genealogist- Crista Cowan suggested I read an older conversation about this very topic written and discussed in 2010. AI is now retired but the questions still remain. The Ancestry Insider: Genealogical Maturity Level After reading this blog as well as all the comments below and every link suggested including those comments on all those links, I found myself asking questions like: "Does anyone really care what skill level a person is OTHER than those who aspire to be a Professional Genealogist?" How do we help people who are coming to learn more if we do not have an accurate way to assess their current skill level? We do need some sort of way to know how best to help someone without talking down to someone who may already know a certain amount, or speaking in technical terms that perhaps someone has yet to learn. My concern is that some are overly exaggerating a skill level because as Crista states, "They don't know what they don't know" or perhaps we may be under valuing our current skill set due to lack of a way to accurately rate ourselves in that in-between zone. If you are new to genealogy, if you are not new but not interested in becoming a certified genealogist, Or if you are somewhere in the middle: please comment and tell me how you feel about the degrees of experience associated with this wonderful hobby and your thoughts on this topic. Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, Professional. (Maybe you have a different term you use?) Where do you place yourself? What skills do you have and where do you think you could improve? What helps you decide where to rank yourself with your skills? Do you think you are accurately rating yourself, underestimating yourself, overrating yourself? None of the above? I truly enjoy learning. I'm pretty sure every one of my high school academic teachers growing up would probably argue against that. It's true though, I loved it then and I love it now. There was this invention back then that was distracting and didn't allow me to get to my full potential. Boys. eh-yep. I apologize to every teacher for those 4 years. While in a regional facebook group for Alabama, a nice lady was looking for some insight about her relatives. I've asked Ms. Angela Raines if I could use her example on my blog. She has graciously given permission, so I wanted to make sure I gave her credit for her family name. If you find yourself related to those mentioned below - feel free to send me a message and I'll get you in contact with her. Angela posted an Image of the clip from a marriage license for Riley Alford and Fannie Conductor. While her question was not what I'm posting about, I found much more interesting thoughts behind the research that followed that I wanted to shed some light and advice about. The indexer who transcribed this document suggested that this was the name. Here is a clip from Ancestry.com showing how it is indexed. In the below close up - you can see this clearly is written as "Conductor" - this is what we perceive as Conductor at any rate. I have a hard time arguing against the letters as written in any other form. How about you? Here is a close up just in case you want to see it a little clearer. What a strange name. I've not seen that used before. It's not something I would expect as a name after all these years and it instantly struck me as odd. For me - I have to investigate further because I just don't believe it. I began looking at other documents to help. Yes, I kinda wanted to answer her question, but I can't really do that without knowing all the facts now can I? So who is Fannie? I then came across an 1880 Census for Fannie. The Index on Ancestry - shows how their names are listed. Again, we have been told before we even see the document what the name is. We then view the document and it does appear that the name is written that way. So we do not question it too much right? Here is a close up of the names on the actual image just as before. Yes, sure looks like the indexer has it correct. Doesn't it? But is it really their names? Fannie is Winnie's daughter. She is old enough to have already been married once. Should we consider that her name is by marriage? Or, Could Winnie have remarried and took on a new name? What do we do to find out how to find Winnie and Fannie before this 1880 census? Let's consider another theory. What if this isn't their name? What if the enumerator of the 1880 census and the county clerk for marriages has it wrong? I then noticed two Social Security Application Index suggestions on the right hand column of those two Ancestry indexes. This column is meant to be suggestions and not necessarily the documents that pertain to your person. Much of the time, these suggestions are based on what other people may have already added to their tree, or a percentage of accuracy in the search. Either way, it doesn't hurt to look at these suggestions while keeping an open mind that they may or may not be pertaining to the person you are looking at. The first Soc. Sec. App is for a son Milton: That information is not really helpful and honestly sends us out of it with even more questions than we had before. Where did Waters come from? hmm. But then I opened the second Soc. Sec. App for her other son Rich: Rich says his mother's maiden name is Poindexter. AHhhh yes... Well now that is a name I can relate to. But that doesn't mean it's true, does it? No, certainly not. Brainstorming this - I need to think about putting this in the right time and place for this ancestor. 1870-1880 in South Alabama. We all know the south has a heavy accent. Regionally, it can be a thicker accent in some areas than another. We also need to remember that this is only a short time after emancipation and the close of the civil war. One of our thoughts definitely has to be on a regional accent as a possibility. Let's take a closer look at the 1880 census again. At the top of the page is the Enumerator's name. This is the person who was listening to whomever gave the information. Could they have had a translation issue? Were they hearing the same accent as the person speaking? Are they possibly native to the area and accurately heard the sounds of others who had the same tone and speech patterns? Nothing special stands out about the name John Campbell - however, I know the surname Campbell from other research is quite often either Scottish or Irish in lineage. In order to see if I'm correct about that, I need to locate the enumerator in the census as well. This time, I got lucky and John Campbell enumerated his own family as the very first of his section. Here is a look at his entry: It's true. While he was born in S. Carolina - both his parents are Irish. He would also have an Irish accent having lived in the household of his native born parents. Today, we often will lose an accent because we have a large pool of people who influence our speech patterns. But in those days, accents hung on a much longer time, sometimes never leaving a family. Could John Campbell have heard an accent from a southern, possibly previously enslaved black female incorrectly? Yes! It's quite possible. So say to yourself in your best Scarlett O'Hara accent: "Poindexter". Remember influx, tone, accentuation, regional influences, nationality and language barriers as well.
Could it possibly be misconstrued as Judexter, Indexter, Conductor, Coindexter? Perhaps experiment with an African accent. We don't know where Winnie was born or where her parents were because those fields were left blank on the 1880 census. It's also possible I'm on the wrong trail. So keep that in mind too. Now, think of yourself as an Irish immigrant. Listen to those accents and hear them coming into your mind with a slight Irish translation of what was said. Now we have a larger issue. Do we know that this is what happened? No. Certainly not. The only real way we would know that is to ask in person the people who were there at the exact time and place. We can't do that. What we've done is used some common reasoning, a large amount of assuming and quite a bit of corroborating of documents to come to a conclusion that might possibly make sense as to why their names are listed that way. Going further back in time (and also forward) to find all related documents is a way to confirm or deny that this theory we've created that the name is actually POINDEXTER is true or false is the only way to know for sure that the information and facts we've gathered is accurate to as far as the evidence can be using the best available documents at our disposal. When you are out there researching we need to remember that placing our modern view points on this history will do little good. We have to think about being in that time and place. We almost have to place ourselves in a virtual situation that mimics what would have happened. As researchers, our sense of imagination needs to be on point. Who knew that our creativity as a child would benefit us so much in our love for family history research. Think outside that box. Expand your views. Enjoy your Adventures in Genealogy! Lately, I find myself wondering how in the world I've managed to keep track of the things I've researched over the years. I have been very relaxed and free with my genealogy research items. I think I said in another post - do what I say, not what I do. Today, I'm thinking I need to bring it back to the basics and as I do that, I'm going to share with you what I mean by that. Today, I'm talking about color coding your family tree. WHY color coding? Many of us are very visually oriented people. When the meal you order at a fancy restaurant comes to you in a wonderful presentation, you will most likely love it, even if it doesn't become your most favorite food. When your desk is freshly cleaned and neatly organized, there is a new found sense of purpose and a fairly quick response to begin a new project that will make it all messy again. (Nooo, I absolutely do not mean my desk.) I don't care how you do your research. Are you traditional paper/pencil and notebook? Do you use paper forms and put them in a 3-ring binder on your shelf? Are you a digital genealogist? Any way you write it, you can color code it to make it easier to use. Color coding isn't hard. Anyone can do it. A lot of things say that about something, but this time I really mean it. All you need is the knowledge of what color to use. Quite some time ago there came about a lessor known Genealogical standard for use of color in organizing a family tree. It began with files and folders in a cabinet and a blog post for Family Roots Organizer by Mary E. V. Hill. Eventually, this caught on and began being used in other areas of research as well. Now, It is a process that few newer genealogist know exists but one that I highly recommend, and even more so now with online DNA match helping systems such as the one that Ancestry.com has. The basics are like this: Your Paternal Father's line is Blue. Your Paternal Mother's line is Green. Your Maternal Father's line is Red. Your Maternal Mother's line is Yellow. That's it. That simple. Now just add that to your regular routine and watch the difference that is made in recognizing lines and people. This image to the left is the options in MacKiev's Family Tree Maker (FTM) Program. The standard colors are available, and they give you a way to customize more colors for a variety of uses and expanding on the system. Here is a photo of my actual family tree in FTM with color coding being used. I've altered this method for "How" I research. Since the majority of my research is on my mother's maternal line, I've used the four standard colors for my grandmother's four grandparents lines. You can see I used non-standard colors for the other three branches of my tree because I designate these as my immigrant ancestor lines. They are all recent immigrants and a good portion of research takes place in non-US record searches. In this DNA example from Ancestry of the page where my DNA Circles are listed. By simply adding a colored icon (of your choice - doesn't matter what you use), and use it as a profile image of a Common Ancestor in your tree to other DNA Matches, then it will easily show you which of those circles goes where in my tree lines. In another tree- I've used colored heart icons. In some I've used one that is color coded and says "DNA Match" or "DNA Connection" and use them where I need to. It's all up to you how you use color to help you with things. There are all sorts of color coding helps out there and just this last week i recommended a Chrome Browser Extension called DNA Match Labeling that works in conjunction with Ancestry's website match list. I can add a colored dot beside the name of each person in the match lists so I can also see at a glance where holes in my research are or could be and what cousins are in the line for each branch.
If you're considering doing color coding in your paper files, I highly recommend a Research Planner by Memories in Time (memoriesintime.co.nz) which are color coded as well. I love these. But you can easily color code anything buy going to the nearest store and buying plain yard sale "Dots". They come in those standard colors and all you have to do is stick a dot on it! Whatever you decide to do out there, see what options you can come up with and experiment with what works best for you. Get out there and Enjoy those Adventures in Genealogy! If your great grandmother lost custody of her children in the early to mid 1800's and you do not understand why, never fear. I'm here to clarify something that you may not understand about this particular record set. Just today, someone posted a request on a facebook group looking for help in identifying a woman (no last name) to a man (no first name). So I went online out of curiosity to see what I could find out. Of course, the first thing I did was look to see what other people had already found out about this couple in user entered trees. I took a look at the documents they had attached to see if they confirmed who, what, where, and when. Check.. all was good. But then I clicked on a "story" note about how Mrs A's first husband died so the courts took her children away from her until such time that second husband came along and "rescued" her, to which her children were then promptly returned to her. They stated that documents show this - but there were no attached documents found in my (very brief) search. No. Now, no one who had this story posted had the actual documents that they said confirmed these papers. The documents would be Court & Probate Records, Orphan's Court Records or Wills & Estate Records to name a few - depending on what county and what time period the first husband would have died. In this case, I'm going to assume that "Orphan's Court Records" were those they were referring to base purely on what this story contained as an explanation and not by actually researching and seeing these. This made me think about writing this information for you. What you need to understand is that though they were referred to as Orphan's Court records, they really encompassed all the records that would have come through the probate judge's desk including wills and estates, land sales, administration bonds and so much more. Women were not lawfully allowed to control property. This "property" includes their finances as well as land and goods AND their children. A court appointed guardian and an administrator would have been assigned to the estate of the deceased husband. The admin would have control of the financial and day to day running of the household - though he would not have been actually living in the home. The widow would have to receive an allowance on a monthly basis and if an emergency arose, she'd have to ask for extra money for this. A guardian would oversee the general care of the children. They made decisions on if the children would be attending school, paying their expenses including turning in receipts to the admin for payment or reimbursement, purchasing needed items and they had legal control over their portion of whatever financial benefits they were to have from the deceased father's estate with approval from the admin. The widows often retained the children in their home and did take care of them as normal. But for all intensive purposes she had no say in financial matters pertaining to their property. With that said - I've yet to find these documents for Mrs A. So I don't know 100% that this is the case for her. After having been researching through these records for more than 20+ years, I'm fairly certain that whomever wrote this note, likely placed their 21st century values and language meanings into the documents and translations that they were seeing or reading. They did appoint guardians. Today, having a guardian means you no longer have a parent. However, back in the time that this would have been mid 1800s, it had a whole other meaning that we sometimes forget about. Know your record set history. Get to know what years they referred to Guardianships and what years they became Probate & Court records instead of Orphan's court records. It was not the same in every county and state, so knowing your research area will be key to understanding. Also, be cautious placing your current language skills on 19th century terms. Language evolves daily. I bet you could name 10 words today that didn't mean the same thing from the 1980s as they do today. My advice to those of you who are out there researching and looking at other users hand written and abstracted information about what they see and read is to take a look at the documents yourself and see if you can place what they are saying in some sort of context. Keeping in mind that what we say and do today is nothing like how our ancestors lived or spoke. Now get out there and Enjoy your Last few Adventures In Genealogy of 2018!! |
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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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