Monthly Archives: August 2012

Sorting Saturday — Good Source, Bad Source, Exhaustive Search

To abide by the Genealogical Proof Standard you must do an exhaustive search. 1

We know that includes vital records, deeds, probate, tombstones and a wide variety of original and derivative sources.  But in the age of the internet, what else does it include? How many sites should we look at?  Random Google searches are not the answer I do believe, but are sites that we know to hold sometimes questionable research part of a exhaustive search?

A Southern Sleuth mentions in Treasured Find, how a SLIG instructor mentioned that “one of the instructors reminded our class of the value of checking online trees to determine what research may have been done by other individuals.”  She continues to discuss how she has often rejected online trees because there is quite a bit of bad research or just complete fabrication in those trees, but she decided to add them to her list.

A capture of my paternal grandfather’s online tree.

I have also stopped looking at online trees because sifting through them looking for nuggets is much like searching for the proverbial needle in the haystack.

I also received a comment on this blog from a reader who didn’t have a lot of faith in Find A Grave because there is some bad information on the site.  And indeed there is.  There are plenty of memorials without any kind of documentation, even tombstones, and extra information is added without supporting documentation.  This is a function of the site, it is not set up for supporting documentation other than photos.

This memorial of Mary Hartigan Cash, my ggg grandmother’s memorial on Find A Grave has information supported by the picture of the tombstone, which states her birth year, death date and that she was the wife of Ready Cash. 2

Find A Grave Memorial for Mary Hartigan Cash

It also states that she and Ready had three children, Franklin, Mary E and Virginia, and there is no supporting documentation.  This doesn’t mean the information is wrong, it is actually correct, although my gg grandmother, Martha Jane Cash is left out of the list.

So what is a good source? What is a bad source?

SOURCES provide INFORMATION from which we select EVIDENCE for ANALYSIS. A sound CONCLUSION may then be considered “PROOF.”

— Elizabeth Shown Mills 3

When the information is selected from the source, it’s validity depends on the informant and what their knowledge is of the event.  The source itself is not good or bad.  It is just a source.  The question being asked determines if the information is evidence and analysis determines if the information is part of the proof.  Conflicting evidence must be considered and explained.

Whoever supplied the information for Mary’s tombstone, not the Find A Grave memorial,  probably had good knowledge of her death date, 29 Aug 1887.  In fact, he or she may have been a primary informant if present at her death. But given that she was 87 years old when she died, it is doubtful that they were a witness to her birth, so that person was at best a secondary information.

As for the children of Ready and Mary, the person stating the information, most likely did not have direct knowledge of the children and their parents.  However, the supporting documentation may be there, but we don’t know because it is not listed.

So what does all this mean? The Find A Grave memorial may or may not be good evidence, it depends on the question. There are four possible questions that pop to mind that be answered by this particular source:

  1. When did Mary Hartigan Cash die?
  2. Who was Mary’s husband?
  3. When was Mary born?
  4. Who were the children of Ready and Mary?

The quality of the evidence from the Find A Grave source depends on which question you are trying to answer.  To do good quality genealogy you must do a exhaustive search.  You may choose to reject the evidence because of who the informant is, other conflicting information, or lack of documentation.  But you must examine all the sources available to you.  And online trees and Find A Grave and other online sources hold both good and bad information that must be included in an exhaustive search.

Footnotes

1. Board for Certification of Genealogist, “The Genealogical Proof Standard,” BCGCertification.org (http: //www.bcgcertification.org/resources/standards.html : accessed 25 Aug 2012).
2. Find A Grave, Find A Grave, database and images (http://findagrave.com : accessed 2 Aug 2012), memorial page for Mary Hartigan Cash, Find A Grave Memorial no. 41042042, citing Stonewall Jackson Memorial Cemetery, Lexington, Virginia.
3. Elizabeth Shown Mills, Evidence Explained, Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace, 3d ed., digital ed. (Baltimore, Maryland, Genealogical Publishing Company, Inc., 2012), 3.

Follow Friday — Senseless Vandalism and Other Posts to Make You Think

Here is what inspired, moved and made me think this past week:

Treasure Chest Thursday — Gillespie Marriages from Amherst Virgina

Here are couple of the images I pulled from the Amherst, Virginia Register.

I’ll transcribe underneath.  Page 8. 1

William Gillespie and Ann Hudson and Sherrod Moore Gillespie and Sally Horsley

  • 1777 Dec 23; Gillaspie, William; Hudson, Ann;Security and Witnesses: Joshua Hudson; Edm Wilcox
  • 1777 Dec 28; Ware, William; Davis, Patty (Patta); Security and Witnesses: Thos. Waugh; Jno Ware, James Franklin
  • 1778 Jan 4; Fitzhugh, Thomas of Stafford Co., Rose Ann (Anne); Parents or Guardian of Wife: Rose, John, father of Anne; Security and Witnesses: Patrick Rose; Edumund Wilcox, Charles Rose, Jo. Alen
  • 1778 Jan 5; Stovall, George (minor); Mitchell, Ann (Anna); Parents or Guardian of Wife: Mitchell, Archelaus, father of Anna; Security and Witnesses: Joseph Cooper; James Franklin, Thomas Stovall
  • 1778 Feb 12; Galespey (ie), Sherod Moore; Horsley, Salley; Security and Witnesses: John Thurmond; Roland Horsley, William Loving
  • 1778 May 4; Shepherd, David; Penn, Betsey; Parents or Guardian of Wife: Penn, Gabriel; Security and Witnesses: Patrick Rose; Wm. Loving, Richard Alcock
  • 1778 July 6; Oglesbey, Richard (widower); Cash, ? (widow); Security  and Witnesses: Richard Ballinger; Wm. Loving
  • 1778 July 8; Herd, John (Heard); Montgomery, Mary; Security and Witnesses: David Montgomery, jr., Wm. Loving, Jean Montgomery, Wm. Reid, Jr
  • 1778 Nov 11; Vaughn, Cornelius; Carter, Nancy; Parent or Guardian of Husband: Edward, Joseph (guardian); Parent or Guardian of Wife: Carter, Job; Security and Witnesses: William Carter, John Vaughan, William Loving

Page 11.2

Marriage Register for Robert Hudson and Lucy Gillespie

  • 1779 Oct 23; Hudson, Robert; Galaspie, Lucey; Parent or Guardian of Wife: Galaspie, George; Security and Witnesses: Sherred More Glaspie (Sherod Moore Galaspie), William Glaspie
  • 1779 Nov 12; Perkins, Richard jr., 21 years of age; Moore, Betsey; Parent or Guardian of Husband: Perkins, Rich’d; Parent or Guardian of Wife: Moore, Benjamin; Security and Witnesses: George Purvis; Charles Martin, William Pearce, William Oglesby, John Morric
  • 1779 Nov 19; Davis, Moses; Carter, Millacent; Parents or Guardian of Wife: Carter, Soloman, Carter, Mary; Security and Witnesses: John Ware, William Ware, Peter Carter, John Eubank
  • 1779 Dec 25; Woods, Samuel (widower); Rise, Sarah; Security and Witnesses: John Loving jr; Neonemo Loving
  • 1779 Dec 29; Massey, John; Tucker, Lucretia Edee; Parents or Guardian of Wife: Tucker, Matthew; Security or Witnesses: Christopher Irwin, Louisa Irwin
  • 1780 Jan 17; Bell, Samuel; Mitchell, Sally; Security and Witnesses: David Shepherd
  • 1780 Jan 28; Fortune, Williamson of Albemarle Co. born 4 Dec 1758; Henderson, Sarah; Parents or Guardian of Husband: Fortune, John of Albemarle Co.; Parents or Guardian of Wife: Henderson, William, jr; Security and Witnesses: William Henderson, Josh. Taliaferro, William Loving, (?)orge Purvis
  • 1780 Feb 1; Powell, Richd; Muffitt, Elizabeth (widow); Security and Witnesses: Thomas Powell; John Walker, John Buchanan
Footnotes

1. Amherst County, Virginia, “Register of marriages, Amherst County, Virginia, 1763-1853,” index and images, Virginia State Library, Richmond, Virginia, p. 8; FHL microfilm 30273
2. Amherst County, Virginia, “Register of marriages,” p. 11.

Wisdom Wednesday — Review Your Work and Why Sources are Important When You Have Conflicting Evidence

I’ve probably been at this about 10 years, give or take, and I’ve been a lot more serious about it in the last couple of years.   I made a vow to go back and review and fix all of my sources and I started with my paternal grandfather’s line.  Slow work, but I am making progress.

I’m so glad I’ve done this.  This is the first line I started working on, and my lack of experience and my willingness to jump to conclusion and accept them as fact is quite stunning.

Last night I had a few free hours before my plane left  and I stopped by the Family History Library in Salt Lake City.  I looked up microfilm for Amherst, Virginia and came across Register of marriages, Amherst County, Virginia, 1763-1853.

Now, I will admit, that I’ve looked at many a microfilm, and gone back to it thinking that I hadn’t seen it only to find that I had.  But this was not the case.

From reading the description, I expected to find the actual marriage bonds, and for the most part, the film seemed to be a typewritten index (for which I was very grateful) and a hand written register of all of the marriage bonds that they had seen.  The register was recorded in chronological order, so the index, that was alphabetical was quite useful, as I decided to do a Surname survey for the name Gillespie.

I found 20 records most of which matched people in my tree.

The record for my great great grandparents Jeremiah Gillespie and Mary E Gillespie was there on page 408. 1

Register Entry for Jeremiah and Mary E Gillespie, Bond Date: 21 Nov 1848

Jeremiah is listed as under age and his parent or guardian is Talton Gillaspie.  (This is actually Tarlton who is his father.)

Close up of names for Jeremiah and Mary

And the Security and Witnesses are listed as James Gillaspie, J Powell Jr, and Richd Waugh.

Witnesses for Jeremiah and Mary

I do not know who these men are.  I suspect that James is a relative.  A cousin or an uncle.  Jeremiah’s older sister Editha marries a Roderick Waugh 2, maybe Richard is related to Roderick.

I’ve also have in my tree that Jeremiah is born on March 4th, 1826.3 This information comes from my interpretation of a family bible that was handed down to me.

Jeremiah Gillespie’s birth date which appears to be March the 4th 1826

But if this date is true, then he would have been 22 on November 21, 1848, and he would not have been under the age he could be married without consent.

The dates in the bible appear to have been written in 1860.  Jeremiah was married in 1848.  It is hard to imagine that he would state that he was not 21 when he got married if he wasn’t.  It would just complicate matters more.  Given these two sources and what we know about when they were recorded and the legal situation implied by the marriage bond, I believe that he was not born in 1826.  I would suggest 1828 and that he was twenty.

It is probably reasonable to think that his birthday was March 4th.  And it is hard to imagine that whoever did the entries in the bible subtracted wrong, or just didn’t know.

So until I get better information, I’m going to assume that he was born in 1828 or later.  Just because it was written in a bible doesn’t make it true.  When it was written and by who are important. Sources are important!

And now that I’ve been cleaning up my sources and I’m about half done with this line, well, it is a lot faster to write a blog post.  More to come on the marriage register.

Footnotes

1. Amherst County, Virginia, “Register of marriages, Amherst County, Virginia, 1763-1853,” index and images, Virginia State Library, Richmond, Virginia, p. 408, entry for Jeremiah Gillaspie and Mary E Gillespie, bond date 21 Nov 1848; FHL microfilm 30273. Parents or Guardian of Husband: Talton Gillaspie; Security and Witnesses: James Gillaspie; J Powell Jr; Richd Waugh.
2. Amherst County, Virginia, “Register of marriages, Amherst County, Virginia, 1763-1853”, index and images, Virginia State Library, Richmond, Virginia, p. 391, entry for Rodk Waugh and Editha Ann Gillaspie, bond date 28 Mar 1845; FHL microfilm 30273. Security and Witnesses: Taillor A Gillaspie (most likely Tarlton).
3. Gillespie Family Bibile, The Holy Bible, (New York, American Bible Society, 1857), “Family Records, Births”, p840; privately held by Anne Gillespie Mitchell, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] California, 2012. The sons of Tarlton and Mahala Gillespie are listed with their birth dates; it appears that they were all written at one time and are date April 20 1860.

Follow Friday — Uencounter.me, Family Stories and Motivation

This is two weeks worth of Follow Friday, since I missed last weeks.  Lots of good reading in here!

A couple of posts about uencounter.me:

The mapping stories always make me think we need to try to represent our families without trees to break through walls.

Family Stories:

Motivation:

And a few more posts to get you thinking:

Treasure Chest Thursday — It’s Cute, So Why Not

That’s me sitting on my Dad’s knee with that chipmunk grin on my face.

Gil Gillespie, Laura Gillespie, Anne Gillespie

I’m guessing the photo was taking in late ’64 or early ’65.  And we were probably in Charleston, South Carolina, where we lived at the time. I wonder why my sister is so fascinated with the lawn?

Wisdom Wednesday — Sure it’s fun and addictive, but it’s not all that easy

So I’ve be blogging for a few months now and it has indeed been a lot of fun.  I spent the last couple of days thinking about what kind of posts have gotten some of the best responses.

Posts that have a story associated with them.  Can be small snippet of a story of lengthy piece.  But it seems those with a genealogy bent to their personality love a good or even passable story.

Posts that talk about how I’ve done it wrong. Confessing one’s genealogical sins seems hard at first, but it seems to have brought out some camaraderie.  Let’s face it — none of us are perfect.  And we all started as really naive and clueless family historians.  Who knew a birth record could be wrong?  Who knew that vital records don’t exist for everyone and are not readily available?  Who knew those stories about Indian princesses are just stories and not facts?  But figuring this out and then learning how to fix our errors?  That is one of the joys of genealogy.  We never stop learning.  I enjoy discussing the learning process as much I enjoy discussing my ancestors.

Posts about the forgotten.  This was and still is the main goal of my blog.  I don’t want my ancestors, good, bad or ugly to be forgotten.  They have  made me who I am.  And remembering those who have left no one behind, such as my maiden aunts and bachelors uncles, seemed to have struck a real chord with many.

So I think I’m on the right path.   It’s OK not to be perfect.  Which is good, because that is not in my DNA.   And sharing our mistakes maybe can make it easier for others.  Or at least we can share in our “can you believe I did that?”

And telling the stories.  Making the records come to life.  That is the fun and addictive part, isn’t it?

Tuesday’s Tip — Stop Searching, Start Analyzing

I’ve been on Vacation, a girl’s weekend in New Orleans.  So I’ve been away from my blog.  Good weekend!  New Orleans is an amazing town.

So I’ve been working on my Sources.  I really thought this was going to be tiresome, but it’s not.  I’m actually slowing down and looking at the images.  And rethinking about people that I haven’t thought about in awhile.

Mary Elizabeth Gillespie is my great great grandmother.  Here is where she fits in my grandfather’s tree:

And I came to the conclusion quite some time ago that Mary’s parents were Willis Gillespie and Harriet Smith.  But you know what, I have nothing to prove that.  Nothing.

Here is what I know:

  • On Wyatt  Gillespie’s marriage certificate, his parents are listed as Jere and Mary Gillespie. 1
  • Jeremiah Gillespie and Mary Gillespie were married in 1842. Talton Gillespie is listed as Jeremiah’s father, Mary’s parents are not in the index. I suspect it is because Jeremiah was not 21 when they were married. Do I have the original or have I seen it?  I have not. 2
  • My Great Aunt Eva told my father that Jeremiah and Mary were first cousins.3

I choose Willis and Harriet because they seemed to be the most likely candidates. And they may be correct, BUT that is not proof. And now it really vexes me. What if I am wrong? The earlier you find “the truth” in your genealogy career, I suspect the more likely it is that the Genealogical Proof Standards are not being met.

Parents of Mary Elizabeth Gillespie? Back on the list of what I need to prove.

Footnotes

1. Virginia, Virginia Department of Health, Certification of Vital Records, Marriage Certificate, Wyatt Paul Gillespie, Laura Cecil Donald, 24 Jan 1894, Rockbridge, Virginia
2. “Virginia, Marriages, 1785-1940,” index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/XRDN-B9Q : accessed 14 Aug 2012), Jeremiah Gillaspie and Mary E. Gillaspie, 21 Nov 1848; citing reference p 408, FHL microfilm 30273.

Wisdom Wednesday — The World is a Limitless Place

I am a perpetual student because the world is a limitless place. — Elissa Scalise Powell

I had the honor of being in Elissa’s class when I was a student in the Boston University Online Certificate program.  She was inspiring then, and in a recent post on APG mailing list, she delivered the above gem.  (I couldn’t find this attributed to anyone else, so I assume it is hers.)  It was part of a great discussion about education.

When I was a computer science student at the University of Arkansas working on my bachelor’s degree, I remember sitting in an architecture class and thinking, there is absolutely no way I am ever going to know all there is to know about this.  It inspired me to go get a Master’s Degree at Purdue.

I had that moment in my BU class where the light went on and I knew I would have to pick and choose what I became truly knowledgeable about in Genealogy.

For me, I want to know all I can about Southern Genealogy, specifically Virginia, and the Carolina’s and the Civil War.  That is where my family’s history lies.

Oh, and sourcing!

Some days I feel like I am making progress and some days I am overwhelmed.

But I keep reading and practicing.  Because the world is indeed a limitless place.

Tuesday’s Tip — New Job, Punctuation and New Perspective

After 4 years at Ancestry.com I’m working at a different job and therefor not paying as much attention to my blogging the last few days.  I’m now the product manager for Institutional and Library version of our product working with Kim Harrison.  I’m super excited about learning how we can best serve libraries and other organizations who use our products to assist their patrons with genealogy research.  It’s a different way to look at Ancestry.com and it has given me a new perspective on what we do.

When I haven’t been doing that, I’ve been working on cleaning up my sources.  Well, I’ve also been watching the Olympics and cleaning up my sources. I really thought that this was going to be tedious, but not so.  I’ve been working on them by source, and I’ve been noticing something when I’m done with a group, for instance 1840:

You can quickly tell who lived close and who did not, assuming of course that the records aren’t in semi alphabetical order, which should be in the source as well.

And by the time I get to 1850, I see families and their proximity to one another:

You just don’t see that in a family tree.  You see who your ancestors are, but you don’t see them in proximity.  This combined with Thomas MacEntee’s article: uencounter.me – A Way To Plot Cluster Genealogy Research makes me think what if I did genealogy for a week, and didn’t use a family tree.  What might I learn?

But first I have to finish my sources. I am on a mission. 🙂

Oh, and punctuation.  I know where the colon goes in the piece of documentation that is: (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 4 Aug 2012), but I’ve been writing it as (http://www.ancestry.com accessed : 4 Aug 2012).  And I taught it in my livestream class that way.  No one is perfect, I suppose.

This weeks theme will be sourcing.  And I’m discovering the more I do it, the more I like it.  Who knew?