Category Archives: Methodology

Methodology

Just How Badly Do You Want the Answer?

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As I look back on past research and choose topics for new blog posts, I often think about what I had to do to uncover various branches of my family tree. Some of the information has come easily, but some of it has taken a lot of work to discover. The difficult end of research led to my blog name of Empty Branches and a choice to tell stories and share resources to help break down brick walls.

Good researchers can be self taught or professionally trained, but I believe if one overriding trait – persistence – is missing, then that researcher never going to discover hidden lines unless by chance.

Persistence can be taken two ways – it can mean physical persistence in terms of being somewhere on location for in-person research and it can mean mental persistence.

Persistence brought a smile to my face as I thought about how it has paid off for me during 35 years of genealogical addiction. Some of my research has just involved a lot of time, energy and hard work. A few of them, though, were a bit over-the-top and those are the short stories I’d like to share with you.

1. Early in my research, Dave and I visited New England. It was a hot summer day in 1981 when we visited Gloucester, Massachusetts. Although Dave wasn’t really a genealogy fan back then either, he was happy enough to wander around New England because he had never been there before. Before we left on vacation, I had discovered epitaphs recorded in the late 1800’s (in the NEHG Register) for several of my Gloucester ancestors. I didn’t know whether the gravestones still existed, but if they did, I wanted photos of them.

Visiting the Old Burying Ground in Gloucester wasn’t exactly just a walk down the street to the cemetery. We couldn’t find it so we stopped to ask directions and got back in the car. Accessing the cemetery involved driving the car through someone’s back yard (the owner said no problem!), past their fresh laundry drying on the clothes line and parked in the weeds at the bottom of a hill. We then tromped through an overgrown cemetery full of mosquitoes and other bugs for about an hour. Dave threatened to leave me, saying the stones were probably long gone, but we finally found them in the deepest part of the cemetery under the trees. My James and Deborah Sayward, buried in 1734 and 1737, had some of the oldest stones there and may have been some of the earliest burials in that particular cemetery.

2. Again in the early 1980’s, I found a death certificate for Dave’s great great grandfather, who died in 1926 in Hopkins County, Texas. I was hoping to discover his parent’s names. I knew that John C. Williams was born somewhere in Arkansas about 1847 or 1848. While the death certificate had spaces for parent’s names, the entry said the dreaded “unk.” I decided there was more than one way to skin a cat, so to speak, and headed for the Arkansas 1850 AIS census index book. Remember those books from the pre-internet days? The type print was probably the equivalent of about a size 2 font. I photocopied the two or three pages of the Williams entries along with the misspellings, like “Willaims.” At the time, my main research library was the Los Angeles Family History Center on Santa Monica Blvd., about an hour from where I lived.

I spent many, many hours over visits covering about 18 months, pulling microfilm, looking for a 2 or 3 year old John Williams. I began with “A” Williams, then “A.A”” Williams and so on. Surprisingly, there were only two or three John Williams born between 1845-1850 in Arkansas. So, who did the father of John C. Williams turn out to be? William Williams, only he wasn’t just “William,” he was “William A.” Williams. I ended up reading the microfilm for almost every Williams family living in Arkansas in 1850!

3. John C. Williams began my Williams obsession. They seemed to give all their kids the same names and I think if a county hung out a sign saying “All records here have burned,” they thought it would be a good place to live. I spent 20 years piecing together the Williams history from 1700’s Virginia to the end of the Civil War in 1865. I then self-published a 150 page, every name indexed book, making about 75 copies. I think my profit was something like $1.47 per book, but I didn’t do it for money. It was a labor of love.

4. Another over-the-top effort involved black sheep Isaac Sturgell and his wife, Mary. In the early days, I had no maiden name for Mary and I really, really wanted to know what it was. I had had no luck in all of the books I had found in libraries, so I came up with the idea of writing a letter to every clerk of every county in both Ohio and Virginia that existed by 1850. Those were the two states where I thought they had most likely married. Again, this was in the pre-internet age. All those letters were printed out and mailed with self-addressed, stamped return envelopes inside. There were well over 200 counties in those two states. My method worked, though, and I was ecstatic when the Lawrence County, Ohio county clerk mailed me the copy of their marriage record.

5. The last activity also involved Isaac Sturgell. Dave’s aunt and I were at the Missouri county courthouse where Isaac had lived. The county clerk graciously gave us free run of the vault where the old records were kept. The vault was actually a fairly good size, the ceiling was probably at least ten feet high and there was a large metal table in the middle of it to be used for looking at files that were pulled from the drawers. I found an index book that included divorce records – there was a record for Isaac. Where was that particular file folder? Yep, in the top drawer up the wall near the ceiling. There was no ladder to reach those drawers and Dave’s aunt and I were afraid if we asked for help, we would be told those drawers couldn’t be reached with anything they had in the office or that it would be too much trouble to get a ladder from the basement or whatever.

What did we do? We closed the vault door slightly so people walking by wouldn’t readily be able to see in. I then climbed up on top of the rather high table, stretched and managed to get the drawer open. I pulled a few files until I found the Sturgell divorce and we copied the contents, which I don’t think had seen the light of day since they were filed. Somehow, I managed to get the folders back in the drawer, get down off the table and not break any bones in the process.

All of these persistent-obsessive activities happened in the “olden days” and, while I would no longer be climbing on high tables to reach vault drawers, I have to admit that a current day over-the-top decision was probably my John Whitmer parental online tree experiment where I emailed 350+ tree owners. However, it satisfied my curiosity so I am happy with it.

I’d love to hear some of your stories. How did a super-effort of yours help crack a brick wall?

 

Methodology

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

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Every once in a while, I read a post or web news item about how genealogy researching  was much better in the “old days,” which I take to mean anything before internet access. Of course, I also see stories and anecdotes about how much better life in general was in the old days or how much tougher life was in the old days – e.g. tales like “but I had to walk five miles to school barefoot in the snow.”

I don’t write many opinion posts, but this topic has crossed my path lately so I decided to share my thoughts.

Anyone who has done any original family research knows that the right answer to the question “better before or better now” is that it is a mixed bag, which is the same answer to the question about whether life was better then or better now. My great grandfather, who died from a strep infection in 1922, would certainly argue that life is better now because he probably wouldn’t have died from that infection had penicillin been invented by then.

As for genealogical research, I believe that there is the good, the bad and the ugly to be considered.

First, the GOOD –

1. Comparing past footwork to researching today is a no-brainer, for the most part. So many resources are at our fingertips online. Not sure where a family moved after 1870? Check the census. Think they died in Illinois, but in an unknown county? Check IRAD. Have an One Name Study surname? Google it. The list could go on and on. One vote for modern times.

2. Contacting other researchers yields another vote for modern research. I was very good friends with my mail lady because I waited with baited breath, hoping that the mail that day would include a response from someone somewhere. Sometimes the wait would not be days, but weeks or even months. While emails sometimes aren’t promptly answered, some replies arrive within a minute. I’ve had that happen more than once.

Do I miss all the letters? Sure, I do.  Daily visits to my mailbox today produce bills and ads. However, in an era of instant gratification, it is hard to beat a one minute reply to that query. Another vote for modern times.

Next, the BAD –

1. Books. I have to admit that I am very biased about this subject, being a retired language arts teacher. in the “old days,” everyone went to local libraries and societies to search in the book stacks. There is something special about retrieving a book off the shelves, opening it to just the right page and BINGO! There is your family record. Yes, I know digitized books can be found online, but it is just not the same thing as a real, “live” book. My vote here has to go for the past. I wish more family historians would consider visiting libraries, historical societies and genealogical societies in search of books. There are still millions of them out there that haven’t been scanned and one of them might break open a brick wall or two.

2. Speaking of libraries and genealogical/historical societies, aside from books, there is the issue of person-to-person, face-to-face human contact. Visiting libraries and attending society meetings provides the opportunity to meet other like-minded souls who love learning – learning about their families, learning to research and learning to think outside the box to make new discoveries. People have always been “busy,” but everyone seems to make time for things that are important to them. I think in the “olden days,” we were more likely to rank these visits as important. With the internet, it seems more are likely to say they have no time to attend meetings and “anyway, it can all be found online.” Wrong! Another vote for the past.

Finally, the UGLY –

Some things never change.

1. Remember the warnings in the old days about published family histories that were either outright frauds or perpetuated “facts” that had long been disproved, but that were repeatedly cited in later works? Some tales never died, they just reappeared in new forms. Well, that problem is still a huge problem today, probably even more so than in the past because once it is on line, I don’t think it ever disappears. Errors in online family trees? Never happens. Utterly nonsensical stories about ancestors? Haven’t even seen one of those online either. Yeah, right.

This last item is a particular pet peeve of mine and it hasn’t changed much throughout the ages.

2. People who won’t share. I just don’t get it when people don’t or won’t share. Now, I can understand if there is a sensitive family event and there are living people associated with that story. That isn’t what I mean at all. I am referring to people who have researched those long dead, made some great discoveries and refuse to share “their” information, found in publicly accessible records, with anyone else. I have always freely shared any information I’ve found, only asking the recipient to share my contact information with others who they might later contact.

I believe that freely sharing with others will come back to me eventually and I have been on the receiving end of information that I might never have found on my own.

So, how do my votes stack up in terms of the “Good Old Days” versus he “Internet Age”? Like I said in the beginning, it’s a mixed bag and the final count is pretty much a wash.

What are your thoughts? Any issues I’ve overlooked? Please leave a comment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Methodology

My Top Genealogy Free Websites

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When I moved to Tucson four years ago, one of the first things I did was look for a local genealogy society. Finding none, but having joined a ladies’ welcome club, I decided to organize one through the club. Four years later, I am proud to say that I have created new genealogy addicts. We meet regularly once a month and, while all except me were newbies when we organized, we now have a nice mix of somewhat seasoned researchers who have learned how to search for the next person in their family trees.

Aside from having lots of time to research together when we meet, I also teach a mini-lesson on a general genealogy topic each month. I am often asked about both websites and research books that I would recommend. Today’s post covers my top ten recommendations, in no particular order, for free research:

1. Familysearch.org – It goes without saying that this should be a starting and continuing resource for any serious researcher.

2. Cyndi’s List – Cyndi’s List is a reference guide for finding websites of for any particular genealogical topic or area of interest.

3. US Gen Web – US Gen Web, organized by state and counties, has varying amounts of fabulous information contributed by volunteers. Some information is readily found elsewhere, while other tidbits are unique to the site. The categories of information vary widely from locale to locale because the site is volunteer-driven. However, a visit to places of interest is well worth the time.

4. Chronicling America – The Library of Congress project, Chronicling America, digitizing historical American newspapers, is worth frequent visits as more newspapers are added to the project. Newspapers have traditionally been underused as a genealogical resource because it if often difficult to access them. Chronicling America has removed that problem.

5. Olive Tree Genealogy – This website has tons of links, many of which go to free websites, covering many less easily found sources of information. The highlight, in my opinion, are all the sources for ships’ passenger lists for both the U.S. and Canada.

6. DAR Library – The DAR Library is one of the premier genealogy libraries in the United States. Even if you has no ancestor who gave service during the American Revolution, the library likely has records for places where your family lived. The GRS (Genealogical Research System) database is available on line. If you think you might have a patriot, the ancestor database can also be searched on line. If you are able to visit the library in person, DAR recently dropped the admission fee for non-DAR members, so entrance is now free.

7. Google Books – Google Books is a terrific way to read genealogical books whose copyright has ended or whose author/compiler has given permission to share the work digitally. Obscure volumes often found only in libraries might well be found on Google.

8. FindAGrave – FindAGrave is a terrific resource, particularly for finding family members who lived in the 20th century. Care should be taken to note whether a gravestone has been transcribed and a photo posted or whether someone has simply created a memorial to a person who may or may not be buried in a particular cemetery.

Two slots on this list should be reserved for topic- or place-specific information often used by the family historian. In my case, I would include:

9. PANB (Provincial Archives of New Brunswick)- I have so many New Brunswick connections that I would be light years further behind in my Canadian research without this site.

10. Statens Arkiver (Danish National Archives) – The Danish National Archives is another site on which I have found so much information and which is free. It contains digital images of Danish parish registers covering time spans well into the 20th century, along with Danish census images. Probate files are currently being added. I would not have found my great grandmother’s family in Denmark without this website.

I have posted a number of articles covering free resources, including some spectacular state libraries and archives  and local government level sites. Check them out and please comment on your own Top Ten Favorite Free Websites.

Come back tomorrow for my recommendations of Top Ten Genealogy Books for a basic reference collection.