Memorial Day Tributes

Since the last member of my family to serve in any branch of the military was a great-great-uncle who served during the Civil War and lived a thousand miles from here, I could not pay my respects to him this weekend.  I am sure there are a lot of people who have the same problem - they would like to pay their respects to family members but the cemetery is just too far away.  That is why I volunteer to upload photos on FindAGrave http://www.findagrave.com/.  This weekend I uploaded the photos of not just soldiers but their families as well so people in other areas can see what the tombstones look like.  I also volunteer to take care of a small private cemetery where a Revolutionary War vet and his family are buried.  In West Virginia, where some of my ancestors are buried, strangers will put flowers on graves all year round and it is comforting to know that they are being cared for since the family now lives so far away.   I guess my point is that if you help take care of someone else's family here or upload a photo to a site like FindAGrave, maybe someone in another state is doing the same for your family there.

Road Trip Coming Up!

Well, next weekend is the big trip!  It will be the first time I have traveled to Indiana to do on-site research on the Johnson family.  As I dust off my old binders and review what I had done on this family, I realize just how many years it has been since I've worked on this line.  When I first started learning how to research my family tree, it was the Johnsons that I started learning with.  I was very proud of my efforts but I realize that I've got to take some of my own advice to heart and look at this line with a fresh perspective.  None of the research I did was done on the internet but there is a lot more available now than there was 15 years ago.  Plus, the software I am using today is not the same program I used then and as I look for my own sources and notes, I'm amazed at how much is not in there.  Also, if I am traving 250 miles I want to look for not just the Johnsons but the other lines in that area as well.  I do not want to be so narrowly focused that I ignore all the other surnames in my line that could be in the same cemeteries or record books. 

There was a book published back at the same time as I was working on these families and I have pulled it out to review again as well.  Her information on my line is different than what I have in terms of number of marriages and the wives names so I want to review what sources were used by the author and what sources I have to see which is correct.  It is also funny to see on my six-generation chart that the families intermarried a lot and my great-grandfather married two of his cousins.  No matter how many years I do this, it never gets old!

Until next time,

Danita

Ideas For The Blog, and Something New

Hey Folks,

First I want to thank you so much for visiting the blog. It makes me feel great to be able to help people with their family tree research (and pick up a few ideas myself!).

Speaking of ideas, someone stopped by recently looking for information on "electronically organizing" their research. Would anyone be interested in information about genealogy software? I could do a little research and maybe write an article on some of the different programs that are out there. Also, I've been thinking about trying to make some how-to videos on genealogy. I'd like to get your feedback and suggestions, so I set up a poll. If you like one of the things you see please click on it. If you'd like to see something I haven't mentioned, or the poll has expired, please leave a comment. I'd love to hear from you!

Now for the "Something New" part. I'm getting ready to move the blog to a new website! I want to make it easier to find just what you're looking for to help with your research and I hope the new site will do just that! I'll let you know more as we get closer to the big move.

Until next time,

Danita

Finding Your Female Ancestors - Happy Mother's Day!

One of the hardest things to find sometimes is what was your female ancestor's last name before she married.  For someone who is just starting their family tree, this can be made more difficult because you may not have any idea of all the sources that may have that information.  I thought I'd try and help with some tips I have learned over the years.

As your start your family tree hunt, you will work backwards from yourself.  You (hopefully) know your mother's last name which gives you four different families to trace.  As you do so, try and obtain birth and death certificates for any many of those grandparents as you can.  Certificates are a great source but can sometimes be wrong if the person providing the information just did not know the answers.  This happened when my father died.  The person providing the information was my mother's sister and she did not know who my father's mother was just because the woman had died when my father was a child and my father had no living relatives except for his children.  So look for certificates but look carefully at who provided the information.

Birth certificates are a great source as well but you would be surprised at how the information varies for town to town and state to state.  Some will list the parent's full names and occupations and some will just give the bare minimum.  My mother's listed her father as O.C. Casto and I had a dickens of a time finding out what that O.C. stood for.  However, time and perseverance paid off in the end and now I have Orville Clive Casto's birth certificate in my collection as well.

However, the further back you go, the harder those certificates are to come by.  So what other records would have a woman's maiden name?  Just as you work backward with your whole family tree hunt, work backwards through the woman's life.  Does her headstone list her maiden name?

Have you searched for an obituary for your ancestor?  What about family letters?  I learned who my father's mother was by information in an old family trunk with letters and information from long before I was born.  If you have worked back further in time, past when the county kept records, then you need to look at things like census records.  Sometimes, if you are really lucky, at one point in time your grandmother's elderly parents may have lived with her and her husband or in the unique census image below, my newlywed great-grandmother was living with her sister and brother-in-law and her mother just happened to live there, too!

When dealing with census records, you will work back to the point where the couple has only been married a few years and the next census you'll be looking for is the one where she is living with her parents.  But you don't know who those parents are - what do you look for?  Using Anna Kerwood Casto above as an example, forgetting that I know "Kerwood", I would look for the 1870 census, all girls named Anna, Ann, Anne, Anna E, etc., who lived in that county and were about 1 year old, because we know she wouldn't be turning two until that fall.  I just now did that search and came up with only 6 little girls that would have fit that profile.  Working through 6 possibilities is a lot simpler than not having a clue where to start! 

Now, does that always work?  No, it can be very daunting, especially if you have reason to believe the family moved from one location to another or there are too many names to follow.  You can also search for the siblings.  Did Grandma ever mention a brother or sister?  Look up their census records, too, because if the great-grandparents didn't live with your grandparents, it doesn't mean they didn't live with one of their other children.  While you're looking at census records, also pay close attention to the neighbors because it wasn't unusual for the two families to live close to one another and the people you're looking for could be right on the same page!

Another great source which pre-dates even our census records are wills.  Wills have played a vital role in distributing property and wealth for hundreds of years and the married daughters will be listed, sometimes naming her spouse as well.  So even though you are looking for Anna Casto's maiden name, for example, don't hesitate to look for all records that mention an Anna Casto because one could be her father's will.  (I found a legible sample below but not for Anna):

Also pay attention to the cemetery where your ancestors are buried.  Why are they buried there?  Was it just location, religious reasons, or is it a family cemetery where many family members are buried?  Don't get too focused on your direct line that you ignore all the information from the brothers and sisters.  If you can't find your great-grandmother's obituary listing her parents, what about her siblings' obits and death certificates?

If you ancestor found in a war or had a pension, those documents also sometimes contain the wife's maiden name because documentation that the marriage was valid was required.  You may try looking in those types of records.

And, of course, don't overlook the obvious - marriage certificate!

For all the mothers who came before us, I pay tribute to you by making sure you were not forgotten.  For all the women who never had children, I like to think I pay special attention to you so that your name is also remember in the family history.  For all the mothers out there now, I appreciate the love and effort you put into your family and your children because just by taking care of our own, you are helping to make the world a safer and better place!  HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

 

Genealogy Road Trip - Part 2

So, I'm planning my road trip to Gibson County, IN and need to think about what places I want to visit while I am there.

One of the places is definitely going to be the local cemetery.  My great-grandparents are buried in the Owensville IOOF Cemetery.  My great-great-grandparents are buried in Maumee Cemetery.  Since I had done this research many years ago, before I was interested in the cemeteries, I hadn't recorded where other family members are buried so I'll want to update that information before I go.  Also, because I am a big fan of http://findagrave.com/, I will look to see if there are any "requests" for photos from those cemeteries and take that information along as well. 

Another place I like to visit is the local library or genealogical society.  Some years back when I was just starting out with my research, I wondered what had happened to my great-aunt's research as a lot of it was missing.  Imagine my surprise to find it all in the library's genealogical section!  I had to pay 10 cents a page to copy it but I gladly did! 

When I go to visit places like that, I don't take time to read everything I'm copying but just copy as much as I can if I'm convinced it's relevant and then sort it out when I get home.  A weekend trip doesn't leave you with a lot of time and you want to accomplish as much as possible.

I have also been very fortunate to be able to determine from old letters, postcards, obituaries, land records, etc. some of the addresses of where my ancestors lived so I can take photos if the house is still standing.  I always ask permission of the current residents, of course. 

If time permits, I walk around downtown and try to see the town as my ancestors may have.  With some places, that is very possible.  In others, not so much.  A trip to Manchester, Iowa, for example, is totally different than a trip to Cincinnati.  When I went to the courthouse in Manchester, I was blown away to see my ancestor's names on a huge list on the wall of citizens who helped pay for the bell tower! 

I also pack my "genealogy backpack" with special items:  a water bottle, small, soft whisk broom, scissors, and paper and pencil - all items that can help read old headstones.  A long time ago, I carried a camera with both color and black and while film because you sometimes got better results with the black and white film when trying to make out really faded headstones.  Nowdays, it is very easy to use my photo software to make them brighter, darker, larger, even a negative, in order to make out the letters. 

When my children were small, even before they started school, I would let them help me find headstones by explaining what letters I was looking for.  My daughter was able to find "ROBB"s while I looked for "BEHYMER"s.  Little legs don't get as tired as fast, either, and as long as I could see her and we were in a place where I wasn't worried about snakes and such, the kids were a huge help.  They still are (even though my son would LIKE to find the snakes now)!

The important thing to remember is that if you are going someplace you may never visit again, try and think of everything you'll want to get, make a detailed list before you ever leave the house, and find out where those places are.

I'll write more about my road trip once I've actually taken it and let you know how it turned out!