Early Americans and the Hardest Time Period to Research

Well, I have been enjoying time lately researching my early American ancestors and just found a reference to one of them today calling him the "Founder of Medfield, Massachusetts".  His name was Ralph Wheelock and one of his direct descendants founded Dartmouth College.  At some point, my love of genealogy gets mixed in with my love of history and before you know it, I've lost an afternoon visiting the 17th century!  When I read something like that, I want to know so much more - what is Medfield like today? is his tombstone on Findagrave? did I make a record of this in my notes because soon enough I'll be onto another project and forget all about Ralph Wheelock and Medfield, MA?!!

One of my goals in life is to share this information with my siblings, nieces, nephews, and children.  I could do a really cool book through Shutterfly.com or even create an amazing video book with photos and voice overs.  It doesn't matter how I relay the information as long as it will be in some format that will last for awhile.  It's a well known fact that the younger generation may not be interested in Ralph Wheelock today but might be glad to know about him when they've aged a little bit - as we all did!

I have been doing a LOT of writing lately - working on my first book on genealogy which should be completed soon, writing articles for Casto Connections, presentations for Ancestorville Genealogy, and have totally neglected my blog - sorry, guys!  I'll try and do better!

My next subject for the book and presentation is going to be how to tackle a really tough (at least for me) time period to research - early 1800's to about 1850.  If you get too dependent on census records, you get stuck right in there and forget about all the other source material available - wills, town records, family genealogies, and so many more!  It's just a time period where you need to think a little more creatively and I thought about creating a form that would have a checklist of sources that should be examined for information.  There's probably something like it already on in cyberspace - will check and let you know!

Happy Hunting!

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!

 

Find A Grave

One of the projects I have been spending a lot of time on lately is added photos to the Find A Grave website.   This site has over 44 million listings and can be an incredibly useful source because it shows the actual headstone, which in MOST cases is pretty accurate.  However, much to my frustration, I am also discovering that people are posting things about my family that is just wrong!  My father was not the grandson of the governor of Iowa, nor was my great-grandfather married to Rhoda Sullivan.  The people who post these things are the ones who initially entered info on that person and therefore "own" that virtual grave and only they can change it.  So far, I am striking out in getting people to correct their mistakes or transferring control of those "memorials" to me.  It is incredibly frustrating!  Now I know how people feel when they see an error on my Casto Connections website.  I have even found where someone took a photo right off my website and placed in on Find A Grave, a direct violation of their rules.  So with the good the site does, there is a little bad as well.  I guess I wouldn't use what I find there as a "strong" source but the good news is that if someone has uploaded a photo of your ancestor's tombstone, it still exists!  One other problem is that the site seems to be "down" a lot but with so much information and so many people uploading on a daily basis, that doesn't surprise me.  Overall, I've been very pleased with being able to add dozens of tombstone photos for my ancestors and their families and I also feel very fortunate that I have had the opportunities to go to so many of the final resting places of my kin and take the photos myself.  Always count your blessings!

Until Next Time!

Danita

Organizing Your Research - Part 4

Today as I was taking a walk in the woods near Cowan Lake in Clinton Co., OH, I ran across an old cemetery.  It was in pretty bad shape but I was able to find a way in and took photos of a lot of the headstones because I like to upload those if I find no one has done so yet.  Well, imagine my surprise when I ran across one of the CASTO families that I have been researching for many years.  Then I ran across some CAST tombstones and that immediately told me which line this was because there was a CAST-CASTO marriage in 1824 and I had obviously stumbled across their territory.  Thank goodness I have my files organized at home and was able to immediately put the tombstones photos with the right names in my database and use the photos as another source for my information.  I just couldn't believe that I ran across these Castos in the woods like that because the name is very rare in these parts.  There are none in Warren County where I live, nor neighboring Butler, Hamilton, or Clermont County.  But here I found two Castos who had died in 1835 & 1840 while I was looking for pretty scenery to shoot!  My Lucky Day!

Now, let’s talk about those computer files. I bet there are many people here who have almost as many downloaded census records, photos, cemetery lists, and emails as us “old-timers” have paper files and printed pages. How do you keep them all organized on your computer? That is a little trickier because it depends a lot on how well you know how to use your computer and your genealogy program, if you even use one. When I am teaching new computer users how to save documents, I show them how to create a folder on their desktop and then download or copy files to it. While I was giving my presentation the other night, one person pointed out that is sometimes hard to do for newbies but if I am right there with them, it's much easier to teach.  Once you’ve mastered that, it works very much the same as if you were putting the documents in a real filing cabinet. One of the greatest advantages to having computer files is the ease is which you can search for them. It helps if you have developed a naming system that works with how you think of things – my census records always start YEAR – NAME - PLACE. That way I can look into the “John Casto Family Folder” to see immediately how many census records I have, plus scanned images of bible records, wills, cemetery photos, etc. I have found that my genealogy program can import and attach these same images but boy, does it add to the size of the file. And when I create a gedcom, it makes it too large for some people to import or download. As you organize your electronic files, you may be inspired to use a similar method on your paper files!

There will be one more blog on Organizing and then on to a new subject - please feel free to leave comments if there is something you would like me to address.

Organizing Your Research - Part 3

My blogs are becoming more popular and I've been asked to give another talk - this time on the subject I'm writing about right now - Organizing your research.  Obviously, I don't want this blog to keep mimicking my talks or vice versa so I'll try and work out a way to keep the content fresh on all sides.  Besides the writing I'm doing here and the talks I've been presenting on Facebook for Ancestorville Genealogy, I'm also re-starting the Casto Connections newsletters and writing articles for that.  All this writing has to be fit into my schedule after I come home from work or on the weekends, along with paying attention to my family (if they insist!).  But I hope my readers have been enjoying my blogs and will continue to check in as I add more and more content!  After the talk tomorrow I will load the link here for anyone who is interested.

Now, I’ve talked a lot about binders and given you ideas about how to use them. But what if you don’t have a lot of shelf space or don’t think that would work for you? Well, you can use file folders and cabinets. At one point when I was feeling very overwhelmed with my papers so I started out very simply. I got a small plastic filing crate and some green hanging folders. I put it on my desk and grabbed a stack of papers and just started sorting them, putting each letter or document into a folder and writing a little tag for it as I went along. I quickly began to see what sorting method was working for me and was able to get several stacks filed in one afternoon. When my crate was full, I moved the contents (actually had my kids move the contents) to the filing cabinet and repeated the process with the next stack.

Here is another tip that I have thought of but never been able to put into practice because for many years I lived many states away from close family. It’s more fun to do any chore with help. Do you have family members or cousins you haven’t see in a while who could spend a couple hours helping sort and organize without stopping to ooh and aah over every paper they pick up? Get them to help you organize those records and photos and then when you’re done for the day, ooh and aah over something while enjoying a cup of tea. Plus, you’d be amazed at what stories they may know that you’ve never heard!

My next post will include tips on organizing your computer files...

Organizing Your Research - Part 2

If you do use binders, here are some things to think about:

• I started out with a different color for each family but quickly ran out of colors because I have more families than the store had different colors. Later, I moved to all one color with labels on the binder edge so they looked neater.

• Another way to use the color system is to just go with 4 colors – one for each of your grandparents’ lines.

• By trying to sort them by family, I almost immediately ran into the problem of which book gets the marriage certificate when two people marry and I have a binder for each family… In trying to cut down on paperwork, I didn’t want to make duplicates and add more paper! That’s how the certificate binder came to be. I also had one for census records that got abandoned due to evolving methods of storing them. I need to create a cemetery binder because I do reference those a lot and from a lot of locations and I can add pictures, too.

One of the most critical things you can do and one most often overlooked is writing on the back of photos. We wish our ancestors had identified everyone but then we do the same thing. It’s easy to think I remember that vacation and who is in that photo but years from now, someone else may have those photos and not have a clue who those people are or where they were taken.

 

Another thing about photos is that so much is done digitally now that a lot of photos are never printed. Will jpgs still be around 20 years from now? I suggest having your favorite digital shots printed at the store, not on a home computer, so they will last longer. And then write on the back.

More to follow soon!

Organizing Your Research

I have been asked recently about how to organize 30 years of genealogy research.  I am going to share some simple thoughts and will be expanding on it over the next few posts and turn it into another presentation on Ancestorville Genealogy on Facebook.

Because this researcher has so much material, it is easy to feel overwhelmed or not know where to start. It is important to come up with even a vague plan of what you would like to accomplish and how you need to get there. Plan it out in small tasks and don’t think, “I’m going to get 30 years of paperwork organized in one day!”

Personally, I started out by putting all my certificates in one 3-ring binder with archival quality paper protectors. In this day and age, it doesn’t hurt to make a scanned copy (if you have a scanner) so you have a digital version which you can add to your database, send to other researchers who are looking for source material, etc.

Then I broke the family research into binders as well – thank goodness those page protectors are cheap because you will buy them by the 100’s but it’s worth it to have it all organized. You can sort you research by family, location, or record type – census records, cemetery lists and photos, etc.

Ask yourself some questions:

1. What am I looking for the most that I can’t find?

2. Ideally, I would like to have what piece of information most readily available?

3. If I scanned all my pages and then boxed up the originals, would I be able to find the digital versions any easier than the hard copies?

4. With census records readily available and easy to replace and the data transcribed and put into the notes of your genealogy database, do you really still need to keep the hardcopies? Would a scanned version be sufficient and then pitch the hard copy? That’s a lot of scanning though. Ask yourself – if these pages have been in a stack for 30 years and not looked at (or found) then do I really need the hard copy?

 More later...

How to Trace Your Family Tree - Last Part in a Series

OK, I have been updating my tips for the 21st century but think I'm going to leave this one just as it was written.  My son wanted to know WHEN I wrote this - C'mon, Mom - VCRs??!!!

Well, those are my suggestions for how to START a family history. You’ll find a way that makes you comfortable after awhile. Remember, unless you work your line right back to Adam and Eve, a genealogy is never finished. Some other pieces of wisdom:

Tell your kids you love them.

Take a wet, cold day, fix a cup of tea, put an old movie in the VCR, and sit and start writing on the back of those old pictures.

Come home from the film development lab, look at the pictures you took on vacation last week, put an old movie in the VCR, and sit and write on the back of your pictures.

No one will think less of you or your family if your great-great-great-grandfather had an illegitimate child. I’m sure he didn’t do it to embarrass you. Don’t let things that happened a long time ago upset you. And try not to be judgmental of others, whether they lived 200 years ago or if it’s that “funny uncle” down the street.

You will meet a lot of wonderful, intelligent, funny people as you work on your family history. Be prepared to “meet” distant cousins on-line but please use common sense if someone seeks too much personal information or wants to come visit you at home the day after “finding” you. Also remember you may not mind the world knowing when you were born but you don’t have to share all the latest about the grandkids with strangers, either. The same goes for current pictures.  I could do a whole series on "Does Facebook reveal too much information?" but will leave that to others...

Have fun with your genealogy. It can be exciting, addicting, frustrating, boring, fascinating, and exhilarating, and that’s all before lunch! I think genealogy is the most wonderful hobby in the world and it most certainly keeps your brain active, keeps you in touch with your relatives, and helps you decide where to go for vacation. But it is not a matter of life-or-death if that county clerk doesn’t mail your ancestor’s marriage certificate today. Remember to keep it in perspective….it’s only a hobby, it’s only a hobby, it’s only a hobby...

Please feel free to leave comments and let me know what you think about my tips and suggestions! 

The Family Tree Hunter

How to Trace Your Family Tree - Part 5 in a series

9. Now you are well on your way. Don’t expect this to take a week or a month, because family histories can take years of work, depending on how much you want to collect. Don’t expect to find famous people, presidents, or royalty somewhere along the line, either. The “common folk” who worked their whole lives, went to church on Sundays, and never had a school named after them are the same folks who built this country and made it the great nation that it is.   Not that I don't enjoy finding those famous cousins myself - some day I'll write a post on my 10 Presidential Cousins!

10. My opinion on internet genealogy. You’ll probably think this is funny coming from a person with such a large web page but here goes. Don’t believe everything you see on the web. I cannot stress this point enough so forgive me because I know I mentioned it the other day.  Don’t be afraid to ask for those sources for other people’s work or hesitate to correct an error if you have documentation to prove your info is correct.  Personally, I look at other people’s work and use it as a sign post along my road back in time. If they list sources, I check some or all of the information to see if I can find it, too. If it’s undocumented, it doesn’t mean it’s not valid. But no one is perfect and one of the biggest parts of genealogy is correcting honest mistakes made long before you ever entered the game.

Even though this is an article about the 10 easy steps to tracing your family tree, this Family Tree Hunter has one more blog to add with additional comments before moving on to the next topic - Genealogy on a Dime!

How to Trace Your Family Tree - Sources at Home (Part 3 in a series)

6. There are lots of sources that can be used to trace a family. When you are just starting out, you probably have a lot sitting around the house in old boxes. Copies of wills, obituaries or funeral cards, those old pictures (hopefully written on the back), newspaper clippings, or letters your parents received from their family years ago. And those are just what you find around the house. We'll discuss more sources in a future post.  Now it’s time to get serious….

7. Time for a history lesson from the "old pro" here before your first trip to the library or pay site. Every ten years, starting in 1790, the United States has taken a census and tried to count every person living in the country. These census’ are broken down into states and the counties in each state and then cities, etc. The only time period not available is 1890, which was destroyed (long story) and any after 1930 (census records are kept private for 72 years, 1940 will be available in 2012). But this is a great tool to help you go back in your family’s history in 10-year-increments. Most libraries have at least some, if not all, of the census’ available in their local history/genealogy department and will be glad to show you how to find it. It’s really exciting to find your family for the first time! 

Side note here:  When I first started out as a Family Tree Hunter, I didn't know what the census was and didn't want to seem ignorant so I just didn't use it.  Well, I felt more stupid when I realized what I had been missing!  Of course, back then it was (and still probably is) all on microfilm at the library and now can be accessed online if you want to pay for it.  But before going to that expense, write and ask me how to find free census records or watch for future postings about "Genealogy on a Dime". 

How to Trace Your Family Tree - Certificates (Part 2 in a series)

4. Now you can think of certificates—do you have a copy of your own birth certificate? Where exactly did you put that marriage certificate? A key to good genealogy is organization. I keep a copy of all my certificates in a three-ring binder with archival-quality sheet protectors. [I keep the originals of my family's in a fire-proof box.] If you don’t have your certificate, then the easiest way to get it is either go down to the courthouse (if you live in your hometown) or write to the courthouse for it. And how do you get their address? There are several ways: call directory assistance and call (ask how much while you’ve got them on the line); look it up at the library’s reference desk—people will be happy to assist you—it’s their job; search on the internet—most counties have their info now online.  Sometimes you can also order the certificate online (VitalChek is one reliable source linked to many county clerk sites) but that will usually cost you more than dealing directly with the courthouse. 

5. Now you’ve got the certificate, take a good look at it. It is a primary source and after a couple of generations, those sources run out quick. Your birth certificate will list who your parents were, when and where you were born, etc. Well, your parents’ birth certificates will list the same information and their parents’ will list some basic information, too. You’d be surprised at the wide range of information you can gather off those birth, marriage, and death certificates. The information put on certificates differs from place to place, too, so don't be surprised if one birth certificate lists the father's occupation and another doesn't.  When dealing with marriage certificates, ask about the marriage application, which will list more than the certificate itself. But what if you don’t know where your parents were born to write for theirs? Or what if their births weren’t recorded? Don’t worry…..in our next blog we will deal with other sources that may not come to mind right awa.

Family Tree Hunters First Blog!

Welcome to Family Tree Hunters first blog!  The purpose of this blog is to let me, your humble correspondent, share with you what I have discovered while climbing my own family tree over the past 20 years and address topics like How to Get Started, Genealogy on a Dime, Great Resources on the Internet, and what types of things you want to watch out for as you are looking for your ancestors.  I hope you will find my postings to be informative, entertaining, and inspirational.

My background in terms of genealogy include being the writer and publisher of a genealogy newsletter which was read on 3 continents and requested by the Family Library in Salt Lake City, Utah; creator of a website devoted to the name CASTO which has been online for 13 years and has over 600 pages of data; volunteer instructor on genealogy to both children and senior citizens; and member of numerous genealogical and historical societies.  My main focus has been to help people find their ancestors and learn about the thrill and excitement of being a Family Tree Hunter for themselves.  It's really no fun if someone just gives you all the answers!

Thanks for dropping by.  Please feel free to leave comments and suggestions and I hope you'll visit my blog again!