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

Early American Ancestors

I spent some time in a chat session today that made me really want to look at my Early American Ancestors again.  The last time I really spent any time working on those families the internet wasn't really a viable option for searching yet!  Even with the research I had done earlier, combined with what my great-aunt had done in the early 20th century, I know I'm related to 10 U.S. Presidents.  I visited a Facebook group called "Old Stock Americans (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=29073689235&v=info#!/group.php?gid=29073689235) and couldn't really name off my ancestors because I only recall two or three.  I think I'll spend a little time updating and researching and seeing what I can find!  I've always wanted to be a part of the Mayflower descendents but never took the time to work on it.  Wish me luck!

If anyone would like help with their Early American Ancestor research, let me know and I'll see if I can help!

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!

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 - Getting Serious About Sources (Part 4 in a series)

8. OK, so you’ve written your own info, and the kids and their families, and safely tucked away a couple of certificates. You discovered the amazing information found on the census, and want to know, “What Now?”. Well, first before you get in too deep, we need to talk about those sources again, this time in regards to documenting your work properly. It is so very easy to get all excited and copy information and write down things and keep going and going and going and then…. Then someone will ask, “I have a different date for when Uncle Harry died—what do you have that shows that date?” In other words, what source did you use? Believe me, whether you use a computer or an old spiral notebook to keep track of your work, after several generations of names, dates, and places, you will forget exactly where you got that one piece of data. But if you wrote it down, “Harry died July 3, 1956-source: picture taken at Maple Grove Cemetery” then you’ll have it when you need it. So when you first start, please write a source down for every date and place you enter, even if you have to write “personal knowledge of researcher” because you know when your brother was born but you don’t have his birth certificate.

This is even more critical now than when I wrote this several years ago.  My own database, after almost 20 years of research has about 12,000 individuals, which may seem like a lot but I am unique in that I research a surname (CASTO) and not just my own line.  Other people will have less names and many will have more.  Some people are what I call, "gatherers" - they surf the net and just keep adding other researcher's information to their own database without sourcing or verifying any of it so they have no idea if the names and dates are wrong but it looks impressive to have 300,000 names!  Since you are doing this for yourself and your family, it pays to take the time and start out doing it the proper way so you'll have something you can really be proud of and stand behind!

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.

How to Get Started Tracing Your Family Tree in 10 Easy Steps!

This will be a series of posts that offers guidance to new Family Tree Hunters on directions they can take to start finding their ancestors.  This was actually a list I created several years back to help my husband's aunt start her tree and I have used it as course material when teaching people how to get started.  I've added a few updated comments since then.  I hope you will find it useful as well and leave your comments and suggestions with more tips!  By the end of this series, most of you will be able to IMMEDIATELY name 4, possibly 5 generations on your family tree!


1. Notice how the title said "10 EASY steps"? Nothing worthwhile is ever easy. If you want to do a good job, then go in to it with “doing a good job” in mind and forget “Easy”.




2. Be Selfish. Start with yourself. You know (or hopefully you do!) when and where you were born, who your spouse is, and when you were married. Think of this as your universe and you’re the center of it!


3. Next, list your children and their information. If you want to include a little note as to why you were living in Maryland when Mary was born and Georgia when George was born, go ahead. There is no “Best” way to write your family’s history. These are those little details about YOUR family that your cousins just won’t know. You may even need to call the kids—you’d be surprised how many folks out there don’t remember their daughter-in-law’s maiden name.  One note here:  when you are starting out, you don't need to spend a lot of money on expensive genealogy software or websites.  I have all those things and still keep a notebook and pencil on my desk to write things down in.  If you're great with computers, you may be comfortable going that route.  But if you want to just write things down in a notebook as you're starting out and think about choosing which program works best for you later, then do that.  Remember, you are the center of this universe and you can do it anyway you want!


The next post will talk about certificates and how to find them...