Ireland Research Hopes Revisited

My turn to blog is a wee bit after St Patrick's Day but the thought of researching the Irish ancestors is not bound by time.

My Irish quest has been begging to start for years. Recently due to a DNA find, I have been sent on a new Irish quest when an O'Toole turned up as an ancient DNA match for our Langley DNA project.
I have felt intimidated by the challenge of delving into the films on FamilySearch or Ireland, and just trying to sort out all the Michaels, Williams, and Margrets that I see when I go to FindMyPast or other Irish sites...words escape me. One thing I do know and follow is...the obvious search for our ancestors begins with a name, and, if you have it, a place. On the Hero's and my mom's side of the family there are many Irish names to look for.
There are some blogs and websites that specialize in Ireland research
Smallest Leaf is one of those. She has so much Irish information and many books listed on her blog. It is wonderful to stop by and browse. Click here to see her blog.
Another site I really like it Irish Genealogy Tool Kit.
I like these because I need someone to give me direction. I am so ingrained in United States research it will take some shift in my paradigms to hopefully finds some success in venturing into Ireland research.
What I have done so far...
I started making a note of all the names I was looking for, variants of the names, and places the names were found.  An example for the is : A Rootsweb site for Researching Irish Names. I searched for Magill from my mom's ancestors. They were adamant in the 1830's per a letter written by John Magill that their family was the only ones who spelled it that way.
"...I have been particular so that you may know if you meet with any person of the name of Magill you can tell whether they are your relation. I have seen several from Ireland that are no kin of mine. They spell their name McGill. They are generally native Irish and Roman Catholic. I recollect to have seen my grandfather's certificate from Ireland dated 1725. It was spelled Magill and all his descendants spell their names the same way. Any who do not are not of our kindred..."  Click here to read the rest of the transcribed letter.
My finding:
MacGiolla ancient of Magill,
Gill,
McGill
Turning to my Hero's Irish ancestors, I was able to glean the following for his known surnames.
Death certificates helped with clues as to where the places were correct.

O'Shaughnessy      
Sandys
FURLONG              Wexford
FURLONG              Wicklow
O'AHERN,               Cork
O'Echtighearn  
Ahern
O'DWYER              Tipperary
Dwyer                      Lemerick
Dyer                         Sligo
O'Breen  
O'Brien

I have toyed with learning Gaelic, but I haven't gotten that far yet.
Besides knowing the surname, I discovered that the old Irish had a naming pattern. Most but not all used it. The Irish Tool Kit website points out that in the 1700s and 1800s those that immigrated to America did use this...making it hard to sort out the descendants when 5 brother, in the same area named their sons in the same pattern (true experience). I have posted on the naming patterns before click here to read the post then click back to return.

I have ascribed to the method of looking to others who have already done research reading how to find records in Ireland, talking to people who have UK experience in searching, and utilizing the free course on FamilySearch.org. I take the time to watch videos by those who have done the walk such as David Rencher's videos Tips for Researching your Irish Ancestors. I HAVE to mention the FamilySearch.org's Irish Collection which includes images... Ireland Historical Records.

There is something so exciting in searching for families that have been apart for years and reuniting them. I love genealogy research and have been excited to share how to research and source with the upcoming generation to get them involved in their history to know their ancestors. So Far, it has been a positive experience for both generations. 😉

Headstones Are Not Always Right

Many genealogists before me have sounded the warning to only use Find a Grave memorials as a tool and not always as pure fact. Those that have headstones are considered by many as valid evidence of the death and burial of the subject of the memorial. Those with a tombstone are more valid than those memorials posted without headstones and no source pinpointing burial in that cemetery.  Another problem for the researcher is the headstone that has been recently created and added to a cemetery for someone who died more than a century ago. Where did the creator get the information?

You can tell the focus of my post will be why you need to be cautious about adding the information you find on Find a grave to your tree and creating Find a Grave page as your source for the dates you put in your tree.

I will use as an example of my words of caution a memorial I found while I was helping a family with the War of 1812 Pension Files for Josiah Mead. I went to Find a Grave website to look to see if there were any headstones for the soldier or his two wives, . There was a memorial for his first wife Sally Wood Mead and connected was a memorial for him. At first I thought it was strange there was a headstone for him in Lexington, Kentucky since he died in Will, Illinois. Then I looked a little closer and, well, let me put up the headstones for Josiah and Sally and then I will discuss.

Memorial for Josiah Mead 

 m

headstone on Sally Wood Mead memorial, wife of Josiah.

The "headstone" for Josiah on his memorial, correct me if I am wrong, appears to be the bottom part of Sally's headstone where it identifies her as wife of Josiah Mead Born...; Died...

You notice they have the exact same birth and death dates. Odder things have happened, but in this case I have a pension file to show the inaccuracy. 

Information of first wife Sally Wood 

 T

Portion of a letter in the file, stating death of Josiah. He was living in Will, Illinois

With this information, I know that the "headstone" on Find a Grave was not Josiah, because a year after Sally died he was writing a family member about her death. Another point to be made is he married his second wife in the year 1856 and then died in 1866.

I contacted the man who maintains the memorial site with the above information suggesting a change for Josiah's memorial was in order.  No response, and it has not been changed as of this time. 

You get my point, that headstones  are awesome to help with identifying birth, death, and place, It is not, however, a primary proof, and should not be treated as such. If you are sure the information is correct, then back up that information with researched sources if at all possible. 

I leave these thoughts with you to mull over and consider.

See you again, same place, same time next month.

FranE

Finding ancestors in the 'wrong' year in records

If you're fortunate (or dedicated) enough to trace any ancestors back to before the 1750s, and they were from Britain or its colonies, you may come across some odd-looking dates in documents from the early months of each year. They might be in letters, books, newspapers or parish records.

Here's an example, from the parish records for Merioneth/Meirionnedd in north-west Wales:

It looks as if nobody was baptised, married or buried between March 21, 1748, and March 25, 1749 - which isn't very likely. But not understanding this record could cause problems.

Suppose you're looking for Hugh Ellis and all the evidence points to him being born in Cae Gwernog in 1749 - and you found this record. You might think your other information was wrong, because it looks as if he was baptised on 21 April, 1748.

You might find a parish record which is even more puzzling (but gives a clue to the solution), like this one for the baptism of Mary Roberts of Tarporley, from the Diocese of Chester parish records:

She was baptised on 1 January, 1744. But wait a minute - just above her in the baptism of Thomas Garnett, on 30 December... 1744. Couldn't these people keep their records in order?

And yes, of course, they could. It's just that the calendar was organised in a slightly different way until 1752 in Britain and its colonies.

Old Style

From the late 12th century until 1751, the legal year began on Lady Day, the Feast of the Annunciation, celebrated on 25 March (exactly nine months before Christmas Day). So the year changed on that day: 24 March, 1750, would be followed by 25 March, 1751, and the year's length was calculated according to the Julian calendar. It seems odd to us, but since it was the way things had been for centuries, it was easy to understand.

Except...

New Style

Except that in October 1582, Pope Gregory XIII introduced a new calendar. By then, because the length of a year under the Julian calendar had been slightly over-calculated as being 365 days and six hours, with the six hours being added together every fourth year to make a leap year, the date of Easter had drifted too far away from the Spring equinox.

This also resulted in 'removing' 10 days from the calendar to make up for the drift. The new calendar, known as the Gregorian, was adopted by Catholic countries. But the English-speaking world was officially Protestant, and Protestant states weren't having anything to do with a change decided by the Pope. They stayed with the Julian calendar.

This caused confusion in dating letters, reports and documents which crossed the time zone between Protestant and Catholic countries.

To avoid this confusion, people often dated their papers using OS (Old Style) and NS (New Style), or gave two alternative years for those awkward days from 1 January to 24 March, like 1700-01, or 1700/1.

Here's how one newspaper, the Newcastle Courant, coped with the date problem:

You'll notice that in the latest edition the paper is dated 1744, but the first article mentions a date as being in OS - it's a report from (Gregorian, NS) France.

Just to add a little more confusion, the legal year in Scotland was changed to begin on 1 January in 1600, and after the Union of Parliaments in 1707, this caused more legislative problems.

Parliament wasn't happy. In 1750, it stated that the use of the Julian calendar was 'attended with divers inconveniences, not only as it differs from the usage of neighbouring nations, but also from the legal method of computation in Scotland, and from the common usage throughout the whole kingdom, and thereby frequent mistakes are occasioned in the dates of deeds and other writings, and disputes arise therefrom.'

And so the Calendar (New Style) Act 1750 was passed. It ruled that the English-speaking world would make two changes in 1752: that year would start on 1 January everywhere; and there would be 11 days removed from the calendar, since the drift had widened another year since 1582, when the Gregorian calendar came into force.

Still with me? Phew! I think we both deserve a picture to help explain the effect this had on record-keeping.

These are burials from the parish records of St Stephen's Church in Norwich. You'll see that 1750 burials go from 31 March to 14 March; 1751 burials are from 25 March to 24 December; and 1752 burial start on 2 January.

The other part of the changes brought about by the Calendar (New Style) Act 1750 was the removal of 11 days. Here's the law:

 

So you went to bed in the evening of September 2 and woke up on the morning of September 14. Which was not much fun if your birthday or other special day fell into the 'lost' time.

The Whitehall and General Evening Posts tried to explain the whole muddle on the morning of 14 September, NS:

Until recently I believed the story that the loss of 11 days caused widespread riots, with people furiously demanding: 'Give us back our eleven days!'

Unfortunately, it seems that this is an urban, and rural, myth, though the phrase was well enough known at the time. It appears, as 'give us our Eleven Days', on a placard at the bottom of William Hogarth's satirical painting An Election Entertainment:

But the missing 11 days isn't just a story about how daft the uneducated people were. A very recent blog post has pointed out that, though poorer people's wages, which were often paid by the day, fell by a third in September 1752, their rents did not. A good reason to be angry.

The taxes still had to be brought in, and so (rather than lose 11 days' tax) the government ruled that the new fiscal year should start 11 days later than Lady Day. And an extra day was added in 1800. That's why the UK tax year begins on 6 April - it's the old Lady Day, plus the (now) 12 days' drift.

Finally, as everyone's going Shakespeare mad, with the 400th anniversary of his death on 23 April, here's a brain teaser:
Shakespeare and Miguel de Cervantes died on the same date - but not on the same day. How can that be?

Notes:

Believe it or not, I've simplified things a lot here. The original Calendar (New Style) Act 1750 can be read online, if you really want to
All images are from FindMyPast, except for the Hogarth painting, An Election Entertainment, which is CC via Wikimedia, and the extract from the Calendar Act
If working out OS/NS dates is too much of a time-waster, there's a handy online date converter to do the work for you

12-Step Program for New Online Collections

I recently learned that FamilySearch had a collection of Ohio death certificates for 1908 through 1953. This was news to me so I wanted to take maximum advantage of the collection. To do so, I have a workflow I use when I discover new online collections that may be relevant to my genealogy research.

My 12-step process for taking maximum advantage of new online document collections;
created using Microsoft Powerpoint

Preparation Steps

These are important steps for saving time and creating efficiency. They let me target specific individual, eliminate duplicate entries, and improve my knowledge of the availability of online sources.

Searching and Recording Steps

These are the actual "meat" of the process. The order of Steps 6 through 11 is just my personal preference. I find I get in a rhythm of search, discover, switch browser windows or tabs, record findings, etc. If I add too many different steps, I lose my rhythm and make mistakes. (I'm a terrible dancer, too!)

Wrapping-up Steps

These steps enable me to easily pick up where I left off if I have to end my research for the day. By updating my custom report of people with new findings, I can easily record where I stopped if I run out of time. I prefer to create source citation creations for many documents from one repository all at once (as it has its own unique rhythm). But it's totally up to you!

The Steps in Detail

1. Run a custom report from my family tree software filtering in whatever parameters will capture the names and vital dates of people in my tree who should be included in the new collection of documents. Do I have enough relevant people to follow my workflow? If so, I usually export this custom report to Excel and add a Y/N column to the spreadsheet in which to record my findings.
2. Add the bibliographic information about the general collection to my family tree software. At a minimum, I create a title for the collection; the author (what organization created the records); date or range of dates; the URL for the home page of the collection, and notes about the collection, for example, why were the records created. A personal preference is to prepend a unique identifier to the title of the repository. All of the specific source citations I create later in the process will be attached, or associated with this repository information.
3. Add the website address, or URL, of the new collection to my spreadsheet of online document sources. I include the unique identifier on this spreadsheet. This prevents me from creating a duplicate repositories when working with the collection months or years later.
4. Search the collection for each name on the report. As I find a document, I save it to my computer, using a standard filename.
5. Add Y=Yes or N=No to my spreadsheet of names. Yes, obviously denotes I found the document and No means even though the document should have existed, I didn't find it.
6. Upload the document from my computer to the person in my family tree software and enter the date I added the record and the URL where I found it. Unlike, many I do not create the source citation or analyze the record at this time. I'm simply in collection mode and I'll explain why I do it this way later.
7. Upload the newly discovered record to my Google Drive genealogy area. (How that is organized is another post. Maybe I'll write it one day.)
8. Continue working through the list until I looked up every name.
9. Search collection again for people I could find no documents, using as many different search permutations as possible. If no document is found, I may have an error in my tree that needs to be investigated in more depth sometime in the future.
10. Look up the person/people in my family tree software for which I should have found a document but did not. Add an explanation of my activities and that I didn't find anything to my Research Notes about that specific person. By doing so, I'll know that I may need to re-examine the data I have recorded about that person's death (if I was searching a new collection of death certificates, for example.)
11. Look up each person for which I found a document in my family tree software. Create the necessary source citation for the new document and attach it to the document. Don't forget to also associate the new source citation to the collection repository created in Step #1.
12. Upload the Excel spreadsheet of the people for which I searched for a document in the new collection, using a standard filename format, which is R-OH Death Cert 1908-53 200160325.xlsx. The file name tells me that it is a report of Ohio death certificates between 1908 and 1953 which I conducted today. If I run this search at some point in the future, perhaps after finding a new branch of my tree in Ohio during the relevant time period, I can use this report to eliminate searching for the same people over again.

I have found creating this process has saved much time, added consistency to my work, and reduced the errors I make in my tree. Do you have a workflow process for taking maximum advantage of new or newly discovered online document repositories? If so, I'd love to hear about it.

Researching Eastern European Ancestors: A Plea for Help

My mother's father was born in what is now Zamosty, Ukraine. In 1888, the time of Gustav Lange's birth, Zamosty was part of the Volhynia region of Tsarist Russia. His family apparently moved to Lutsk when he was a young boy as his father died there about 1905.

Zmosty, Ukraine; courtesy of Google Maps

Mom's mother was born in Alberta, Canada, in 1894, though my Schalin great grandparents had immigrated for religious reasons from the Tutschin area of the Volhynia region the year previously. Both of my mother's parents considered themselves German but we have no idea from where in Germany the Lange and Schalin families originated.

Thanks to the work of the late Lucille Marion (Fillenberg) Effa, we know a great deal about the history of the Schalin family. Lucille traced back to my four times great grandfather, Marcin Schalin, who was born in what is now Poland in about 1770. However, we knew very little about my maternal grandfather's Lange family.

All we knew were the names of his parents, the fact that his father died early, and that eventually most of his younger siblings immigrated to Canada after World War II. My mother knew the names of her aunts and uncles but had not met most of them. In fact, the names she gave me did not match up to the one photograph of Grandpa Lange's family taken before my grandfather left for Canada. There was an extra woman in the photograph, who I assume was a sister I do not know about.

My grandfather's mother and siblings. He is second from the right;
personal collection

Before my mother died, she graciously took an AncestryDNA test. When the results came back, she had three shared matches, which were my two brothers and me. She was tickled to learn we were in fact her children! Her ethnicity was 64 percent Eastern European, 26 percent Great British, and 3 percent Irish, which surprised all of us as we expected her to be mostly all Eastern European. Most of her matches were predicted to be distant cousins, which did me little good as we knew so little about most of her family.

Richard Lange family at their home in Canada.
This photograph was taken during a 1949 trip
to Canada to visit relatives; personal collection

I would check her DNA results every four to six months. Eventually a familiar name appeared as a possible fourth cousin. Mom's mother's parents had immigrated with a large group of people and settled in the Leduc area south Edmonton. Their descendants intermarried frequently so I knew many of the names of these families. The only connection I could discover was a by-marriage one, which certainly did not account for a fourth cousin match. I contacted the DNA match and he generously provided me with what he knew about his family history. We determined there must have been a Klapstein-Schalin marriage in Europe previous to our families' known history. I did learn that one of the Klapsteins was a professional football player (American style), which Mom enjoyed knowing as she was a big fan of the sport. Later another possible fourth cousin appeared in her results. He was the great grandson of Ludwig Schalin, my mother's grand uncle. So far all of Mom's DNA matches were on her Schalin side. Not really surprising as I knew much more about that side of her family tree, but not helpful in learning more about her Lange family.

Then I was contacted by a granddaughter of another grand uncle, Friedrich Lange. She did not know much about her grandfather's family either. Her father was still alive so she promised to ask him questions and she sent me several wonderful photographs.

Friedrich Lange family; courtesy of Gabriele Breier

A few weeks ago a potential second cousin match appeared in Mom's results. He had seven people in his family tree. I sent him a message and had just about given up hearing from him when my phone rang a few days ago. Caller ID identified the call was coming from Edmonton. An elderly gentlemen introduced himself and explained he was calling because of my message about our DNA connection.

We had a lovely conversation and determined that he was indeed my Mom's second cousin. His grandmother and Mom's paternal grandmother, Caroline Ludwig, were sisters! In fact, one of my grandfather's brothers paid for Mr. Lade to come to Canada after World War II and he and his father had visited the Lange family in Lutsk when he was a boy. So I finally have some new information about my Lange line. It's very exciting and I wish my mother were still alive. She would have been thrilled.

Lutsk Old Town; photograph courtesy of Wikipedia

The point of all this you ask. Well, I believe it's obvious I need to stop putting off learning how to research Eastern European ancestors so that is my genealogy goal for 2016. If you have any tips or pointers, please pass them along. Thank you.

Reflections Returns to Home Base, Tidbits From My World

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Man and I have returned to our home base, aka, the stick built.  We have been here almost two weeks.  The map above shows our 6 months away. I cannot say we stayed away from snow and cold this year, because we visited places that had mucho snow, sometimes 3 to 4 feet, and one of our last stops in Glenwood Springs Colorado was a bit longer than we envisioned as, well, we got snowed in. Not much snow at the campground, but, we could not get over the 11,000 foot pass to Denver for several days due to snow and ice.  We towed Tana about 5200 miles over the six months.  We put 9600 on the truck, Jolly.

Since our return, we have cut the acreage twice and felled two dead trees.  There are enough weeds to keep me, mmm, "entertained" for a while.  We have not finished moving out of Tana and back into the stick built.

I know I have been chattering all spring about "stepping" away from the computer.  I hear other bloggers/genealogists mentioning that as well.  Seems there are a number of us that are feeling "burnout".  For me, I am doing my best to walk away for several hours, here, there, but, every day, just walking away.  Of course, I usually have my iToys in tow.  I know, I know.  One device at a time.  First the computer, then, the iPad, next the iPhone.

And, I have been chattering about doing some serious catching up on input and organization.  To that effect, I have been tossing stuff in trash cans daily.  You know, stuff, like old shoes, old clothes, old stuff.  No, I cannot face doing this all in one massive tossing marathon, but, I can toss something every day.  I will admit, I am looking for the largest stuff possible to toss first, making a few holes.  Seeing that "holes" are the goal, tossing the large stuff first makes me feel like I have done something wonderful and urges me on to find more big stuff to toss.  (Why is it I hear Man's doubting snorts in the background?)

I am attempting to catch up on my travel blog posts over at Reflections From the Fence.  I am almost 2 years behind.  Isn't that sad?  As I blog I delete bad photos, and move the photos reviewed to a archival area on the hard drive.  Keeping up the daily backups and twice monthly backups to my external hard drives is paramount and something I do keep up to date. Organization, with a dose of madness tossed in to keep it real.

In between moving, tossing, organizing, blogging, and stepping away from the computer, I have managed to find two new cousins, we all descend from 2 lines in early Pennsylvania and Virginia. We have been sharing.  While sharing, I discovered some, ok, a number more than just some, of missing files on my computer.  (Refer to last sentence of the paragraph above, "Organization, with a dose of madness tossed in to keep it real.")  Books I had scanned about 2 years ago, MIA.  No where to be found.  After some quiet wailing and whining to myself, I checked one of the backup external hard drives and there they all were.  See, backups saved me a serious and painful do-over.  Did you hear my sighs of relief??  They were long and loud sighs.

Above:  just one small corner of the office.  If I can manage to clean up this corner, before fall, I will be dancing joyfully.  In that pile I see genealogy, and taxes and filing and "cleanup in aisle 4 please".  I can guarantee that this is just the tip of the iceberg.  Approaching like the "tossing stuff" project, do a little every day, or twice a day, or something.  Anything is better than nothing. (Again, I hear Man's snorting in the background.  Hmmmph.)

Last summer I spent considerable time arranging for markers to be placed on 3 graves of Man's ancestors.  I hope to personally visit two of these grave sites in the next month or so and obtain photos.  Descendants of two are so pleased that there are now new beautiful markers on their ancestor's graves.  Received a warm and loving thank you note from one of the descendants the other day.  She is thrilled.  Another descendant wrote when she saw mock-up photos that she was crying with joy.  Yes, all that work was worth it.  The money spent was worth it.  I feel closure, my heart is at peace.

What are your plans for the upcoming summer?  Research, organizing, tossing stuff, or just stepping away from the computer?  Whatever you plan, don't forget to include lots of visits and hugs with family, they are after all the basis of our research, why we do what we love so much. And, oh, take lots of photos!




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Can Understanding the Research Process Help with Cost and Time Management?

Like many in the genealogy and family history community I have been researching for a number of years. 

I started out when Internet access was by expensive dial up and all that I used it for was email. This was when, those who could, signed up to mailing lists, in the hope of finding someone, who could help find the records needed.

Today I regularly participate in recorded videos or watch live or prerecorded broadcasts. Many of these are educational for both the participants and viewers. One I am currently helping with is Beginning Genealogy Study Group (2015): hosted as a Google+ Hangout on Air by Dear MYRTYLE.

Social media has transformed the way, that information can be shared and for anyone starting to research there is a wealth of resources available, much of it free, if you are just starting out and have not seen any of the aforementioned videos they are well worth watching.

Whilst many may happily give their time and knowledge freely there is always a hidden cost to the availability of information. Nothing in life is free.
It costs to be able to access the Internet for equipment and connection. It also costs in time. 

So we must always consider the balance, as the more time spent on a computer or other devices, is less time spent interacting with our families.

Websites are not always free but a subscription to the main sites will often pay dividends and is much cheaper than costly research trips.

As has been mentioned on here previously many in the genealogy community have decided to do a Genealogy Do Over this year as suggested and supported by Thomas MacEntee in his facebook group and on his website (last week saw the start of cycle 2). The challenge of correcting bad practices and starting over or reviewing how you carry out your research now there are so many online distractions is one that we should all consider doing. Learning from others has never been easier. When we started the Beginning Genealogy Study group we were looking at the Research Process  involving 5 steps. This led me to create a Google Sheet on the Principles of  Family History Research.

This spreadsheet is going to be one of the things I use to direct my research process and I will link it to other resources that I will be using as I build my genealogy toolbox. Please feel free to use it if you think it will help you at present the links are to be found on the Family Search website.

Having a system set up should ultimately save time as I will have a more directed research process. The technology available to assist in this process will be discussed on my Mastering Genealogy Software Blog as I work through the process over these coming months.

As I mentioned above there are educational resources on the internet and this can be entertaining as well, tips on where to research or how to research can be well worth it in both time and monetary terms. Even if you do not work in the same way as others you may find ways of using their suggestions to assist your research process. I was never a fan of mind mapping tools, I would give them a try but then find I never used them as I found them "clunky" or "time consuming" with little reward. However a website called Coggle.it was mentioned on a hangout and when I tried it I found it much more intuitive than others and am now intending to use it as one of the tools in my Genealogy Do Over.

 

Preservation

Why we should all be concerned about preservation?

Yesterday (Tuesday 10th March) there was a fatal road traffic collision on the road that I use everyday to get to and from my place of work. Although, I was not an eyewitness, I saw the immediate aftermath from the other carriageway, whilst on my way to work and was shaken and saddened to think that someone was going to be hearing bad news later that day. 

Experiences such as these can bring home the uncertainties of life.

We all like to believe we will live in to old age but even the youngest of us should be aware that we only have a limited time in which to do things.

Geoff Rasmussen who hosts the Legacy Family Tree Webinars usually finishes with the saying "Life is short, do genealogy first". Would that we could all do this. 

If there is one resolution we should all have made this year it is this, I will endeavour to get my genealogy organized so that anyone can pick up where I left off.

Those who have taken up the challenge of Thomas MacEntee and embarked on the Genealogy Do Over are to be commended as are those who have not been in a position to need to take up the challenge. Many (including me) will have started with good intentions and other commitments have somehow got in the way.

Have we set ourselves unrealistic goals? Maybe

We all need to work at our own pace and the most important thing we can do is to leave something that our families will value rather than a jumbled mass of documents and unlabeled old photographs.

How do I know that what I have will be of use to others?

We have records and photographs that we have inherited (unless we are very unlucky) and those that we have found or created in our lifetime. 

We need to make it clear how these are important to our family and each of us will have our own way of doing this.

Computers and the associated technology can help us in storing and collecting our sources of information but we need to consider how easy it will be for others to access these in the future. 

So keeping up to date or finding ways to future-proof our sources is important however we store the information.

Family history programs can help us pull together the information we have found and display it in a format which shows our connections to our ancestors but they may not be supported indefinitely.

Whilst we may want to become paperless we must all consider how we back up what we have. 

Disasters can occur and we may lose what we have collected if we only have one copy or everything is in one place.

• Label things clearly
• Back things up
• Think about who will need access to your information

What legacy do you want to leave?
How are you going to pass your work on to the future generations?
Who gets your records? 

Can't I just leave my records to the relevant archive?

When Did You Last Visit an Archive ?

Much is made of the reduction of hours or closure of an archive and with a worldwide recession there has been great pressure on public services to reduce the cost of their services. On the back of this the paymasters will be looking at the footfall for these places.

National Archives will usually be safe as they have such large collections of interest to various researchers. However smaller regional or city/town repositories may not appeal to such a wide audience and the staffing costs will be an area where they will see reducing costs as a possibility.

So if you thought you could leave your work to the local archive you may have to think again.
Unless you have something unique which can stand the test of time such as a printed book you may find that much of the results of your hard work will become unusable or inaccessible.

Move with the technology and present your findings to the younger generations in your family. 
Consider how you store those unique items.
Make sure that somebody knows what you want to happen to your research.

Bringing Betty out of the Shadows - A Research Review

The further we go back in family history, the more shadowy  our ancestors can appear - especially on the female side, where we don't usually have the benefit of a photograph or portrait,  or knowledge of an occupation to define the person. 

I have three fellow WG bloggers to thank for the inspiration for this post  - Kate's recent  article  about female ancestors Hidden from History.  Cassmob (Pauleen's) Three Rs of Genealogy Research (Revisit, Record,  Revise)  and Tina's  post on Finding Family Stories  

They prompted me to look afresh  at my research  on  my great, great, great grandmother  Elizabeth Danson, nee Brown,  who was little more than a name to me  as the wife of Henry Danson, yeoman farmer.

I had never written a profile on Elizabeth, so I set out to see how I could bring her more to the fore of my family history  by  revisiting  the records. 

ELIZABETH AS A DAUGHTER  
My first information on Elizabeth came in her Marriage Bond [below]  which gave her age - 20, so born c.1766 and her father's name as William. 
 
The English Christening Records on Ancestry include an Elizabeth Brown at Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire born 27th June 1766 - father Wiliam, but no mother's name cited.  A search for a William Brown marriage in Poulton c.1760 traced  only one possible entry - a union with Ellen Clegg 17th November  1751 - this could be Elizabeth's mother, given that the witness to her marriage was a Nelly Clegg - Nelly being the diminutive of Ellen. 



ELIZABETH AS A WIFE   

Elizabeth and Henry  married 29th October 1786 at St.Chad's Church, Poulton-le-Fykde Lancashire, as recorded in the Poulton Parish Register, with one of the  witnesses Nelly Brown - Elizabeth's sister perhaps?

I was  lucky enough to trace a marriage bond at Lancashire Record Office.  This was a promise between two people, normally the groom and a friend or relative (in this case Henry's brother-in-law John Bryning) that,  if the marriage proved invalid in the eye of the law,  they would pay a penalty to the church of a substantial sum of money - in this case £200.

The marriage bond reads: 

“Know all men by these present that we, Henry Danson and John Brining of the parish of Poulton, County of Lancashire, are held and firmly bound by….two hundred pounds of good and lawful money of Great Britain, sealed with our seals, dated twenty eighth day of October in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty six….there shall not hereafter appear any lawful let of impediment by reason of precontract, consanguinity, affinity or any just cause but that Henry Danson, husbandman aged 19 years and Elizabeth Brown….aged 20 years, with the consent of John Danson and William Brown, their fathers…….” 
    

So the marriage bond was dated a day before the actual wedding.  Marriage licences could be obtained as an alternative to having the banns read.  They enabled marriages to take place at any time and were useful  if the marriage had to take place quickly or be kept quiet for some reason.   

Henry and Elizabet's first born child, daughter Margaret was born 7 months after the wedding - was that the reason for a hasty ceremony? 

Obtaining the marriage licence was always a more expensive way of ensuring the legality of a marriage and never as popular as Banns.  That Henry could afford this form   seems to suggest that the family was relatively well off.  
 

ELIZABETH AS A MOTHER
The young Elizabeth went on to have  seven children between 1787 and 1811 - Margaret, John, William, George, Peter, Nelly, Henry, and James - with her two youngest sons born  when  she was in her 40's.  Their Christian names had family significance, with Margaret, John and William named after grandparents, Peter after Henry' (senior)'s   grandfather and Nelly (Ellen)  a name in both the Danson and Brown families. 

A sideline on family life was revealed in the Family Bible  where a page headed "Be Good to the Poor" had been scribbled on by various member of the fmaily, criss crossed on the page in what  can only be described as scribbles.   Elizabeth's contribution can just be made out  in the middle of the section here, with Henry's above it left. 

The entries cite the family living at Trap Farm, Carleton and signatures include that of "Ellie Simpson, Carleton, Trap, Servant, 1830".  The fact that servant Ellie   was included in the activity  somehow casts  a lovely light on the household informality - though the fact they used the Bible for these scribbles  does raise other issues!   

But family life was not without tragedy.  In the space of 12 years (1827-1839), Elizabeth saw the loss of her husband and three children.

• Eldest child Margaret married before her 17th birthday on 28 April 1804  (and before the birth of her two youngest brothers);   her husband  Roger Ryding, a bricksetter,    Margaret was dead by the time of her father's will (1833)  and death in 1839, with her five children receiving legacies. 
   
•  First born son John died aged 46 in 1836, with no marriage traced.  However at the age of 21 he was served with an affiliation order ordering him to contribute  to the upkeep of his "said bastard child" (a forerunner of the current Child Support Ageny!)   The order, traced at  Lancashire Record Office, notes: 
  

  “Ann Butler, single woman, was upon the 27^th day of August last, delivered of a female bastard child in the said township of Marton…and that John Danson, husbandman of Carleton did begot the said bastard on her body and is the father of the same....... Thereupon, we order… for the better relief of the said township…and the sustenance and relief of the said bastard child…John Danson pay unto the churchwardens and Overseers of the Poor…the sum of One Pound Eighteen Shillings for and towards the charges and expenses incident to the birth…further sum of four shillings towards the cost of apprehending and securing the said John Danson….the sum of Two Shillings weekly…towards the keeping, sustenance and maintenance of the said bastard child”.

• James, the youngest son, died at the age of 15, with an inquest held into his death on 11th January 1827.  Unfortunately the only record traced on this tragedy was in the  Quarter Session Records at Lancashire Record Office, which noted that the coroner claimed £1 expenses and 16s.6d travelling costs for the post mortem.
• Henry - second youngest son (and my great great grandfather), was born 20 years after his parent's marriage and was to continue the Danson name down the generations.
   
• Peter never married,  making his home with his brother Henry's household until his death in 1866. 
   
• Second son William died at the age of 41 in 1833. as recorded in Poulton Parish Register.
   
• No further information has been traced on George and Nelly. 

ELIZABETH AS A WIDOW 

Elizabeth was left a widow on  21 October 1839 and a copy of Henry's  will dated 26 August 1833 was obtained from Lancashire Record Office.It noted:

" I give and bequeath unto my dear wife Betty all my household goods, plate, china, linen and household furniture for and during her natural life….I also bequeath during her natural life one clear annuity of thirty pounds".

ELIZABETH AS A FRIEND 
I came across this short but  beautiful testimony to Elizabeth  almost by chance during a  quite casual browslng of  British Newspapers Online 1710-1953 on the website Find My Past. -

"Blackburn Standard Wednesday 20 May 1840:   
Betty, widow of the late Mr. Henry Danson, yeoman, Trap Estate, Carleton, near Poulton-le-Fylde. She was much esteemed, and will be greatly regretted by a large circle of acquaintances".

The Blackburn Standard is not a newspaper I would have every thought of looking at for events in Poulton, so it was also a lesson to widen  a search beyond the obvious.  

But that little piece somehow brought Elizabeth (or the more familiar Betty)  alive for me, as no other record had done. 

Postscript:  Elizabeth (Betty) Danson, nee Brown died  seven months after her husband Henry. buried  on 13th May 1840 at the age of 73, predeceased by at least four of her seven children - Margaret, John, William and James. 

Trap Farm, Carleton - Elizabeth's married home c.1827 at the time of the scribbles in the family bible [see above]. Her sons Henry and Peter were living there with Henry's large family in the 1841 and 1851 censuses.  I took this photograph c.1998 and the property has undergone major refurbishment since them.

St. Chad's Church, Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire where Elizabeth was baptized,    married and buried.  Many gravestones, including the Danson ones,  were unfortunately   removed many years ago. 

By bringing together all the information on Elizabeth in this way, I felt I had a much clearer picture of my great, great, great, grandmother - Elizabeth.  
She has emerged from the shadows. 

Copyright © 2014 · Susan Donaldson.  All Rights Reserved

 

Have you thought about joining a Family Society, Association, or Organization?

When I first started to explore my family history, I discovered periodicals that were produced by Family Organizations.  These presented wonderful clues for me.  I was able to follow their research to know how and where to explore to prove my ancestors.  Sometimes the thesis that a researcher on the family presented proved wrong, but isn't that the purpose?  You present and idea and then prove or disprove it?  They collaborate with information and delight in sharing pictures or "finds" they have made.  It is a place you can bounce ideas off of.  Researchers are the beneficiaries of the newsletters or publications which the member's donations fund the subscriptions to various libraries. (I funded the Vance Newsletter for Clayton Genealogical Library in Houston.)  Many now have a DNA project they manage for their surname.  Don't be discouraged if you aren't a male descendant. Many are beginning to recognize the value of atDNA tests (autosomal) and are adding them.

My example of a newsletter front.

How do you find your "Family Organization?"  Some Organizations are a Surname that pulls in people that had the same surname.  I found in the United States, it often follows the theme of a myth, for example:"three brothers came to the United States..." For my Mayflower ancestors, there were is the lineage society of the Mayflower and individuals, such as The Pilgrim John Howland Society.  I am being simplistic here; there are many family societies of all shapes and sizes. Some require a membership fee, usually because they have a project which fees provides funds to support.  Some don't have membership fees, but do require a pedigree to prove relationship.  Again, I am just giving examples.  

Finding your Family Organization or Association may prove problematic.  You can find some that are listed in books written by people who have researched names, periodicals in the genealogy department, and organizations like the Federation of Genealogy Societies membership.  Directory of Family Associations Paperback –1996 by Elizabeth Petty Bentley (check your local library, or it is available in paperback online) is one book available.  

On the internet, searching for a surname organization is not always intuitive.  The title could be an acronym instead of the name. Some of the organizations are not on the internet or have moved to social media sites like Facebook.  That is when organizations like the United Kingdom FFHS and Cindi’s List come in handy.

I have the privilege of helping compile and add Family Organizations to a FamilySearch Wiki page.   It has been sad to see many old organizations have disbanded because of age related problems, since no new younger people showed and interest.  There are many unanswered or unproven mysteries in family files.  Those who have proven their ancestors can help the new or continuing researcher to sort out the records best for the researcher's use. There is good to be done by participating in a Family Society.  I digress.

Going back to my "job", for those of you that know of a Family Society, Organization, or Association, come to the Wiki, see if it is there, if it is not add it.  The word is Wiki. It is for anyone to edit, correct or add information to. It is good advertising to seek out members.

These are some resources for seeing if your Family Society is still active and you can join. 
Some family societies join State and Nation Societies where you can find a list.
Federation of Genealogical Societies

The UK FFHS gives a list of Guild of One Name. 

Directory of Family Associations Paperback –1996 by Elizabeth Petty Bentley (check your local library, or it is available in paperback online. 

Cyndi's List has Surname, Family Associations and Family Newletters.  unfortunately through no fault of her own, many links are broken.   

Sometimes when associated with a specific organiztion you can find them on the Wikipedia such as the List of Mormon Family Organizations.  It says Mormon but many are New England ancestors common to member and nonmember alike.

Another resource is GenWeb Counties like Washington, Tennessee, they list Associations related to their county. 
Some Blogger's have lists on their blogs too. 

This is the FamilySearch Wiki pages. It is a work in progress; names have been searched and discovered through the internet.