Category Archives: Genealogy

Follow Friday — Nine Eleven Remembrance, Remember Our Ancestors, and Posts to Make You Think

9/11 Memorial 'Flag Reflection' (6-18)

National September 11 Memorial in NYC “honors those killed in the terrorist attacks of 9/11/2001 and 2/26/1993”. by LizBallerPhotos

This week we remembered 9/11 victims and relived our own experiences of the day and we remembered our family in other ways as well.

9/11 Thoughts and Remembrances

Remembering Our Ancestors

Genealogy Thoughts and Useful Knowledge

Nine Eleven and December 7th

I imagine most people who are reading this remember where they were on 9/11.  You don’t have to put the year, we all know what we are talking about.

9/11 Memorial Museum, Ground Zero, Manhattan 02/11/2009

9/11 Memorial Museum, Ground Zero, Manhattan 02/11/2009 by DG Jones, on Flickr

I live on the west coast so I was still sleeping when the chaos started.

My day begin with a phone call from a neighbor saying we were under attack.  I thought she must be over-dramatizing something.  If only.

I saw the first tower collapse.  We woke our 12 year old son up.  Explaining to a 12 year old what was happening was near impossible, wasn’t it?  We had no idea. We saw the second tower collapse. Worried about my sister who lived in the DC area.  Worried about my dad who flew a lot.  My family was all fine.

It was all so senseless. All those innocent lives.

From my back yard you see planes on their final descent into Oakland and SFO. The sky was so quiet.  It was so eerie.

I remember going to a baseball game, the first one that A’s played after the tragedy.  Do you remember singing the national anthem in the those days?  It suddenly meant so much more.

A few years after 9/11, I sat next to a woman on a Southwest flight who had seen the second plan crash into the tower.  She told me her story of what it was like to be in NYC.  We drank too much on that flight; sometimes numbing the pain seems a very reasonable way to deal with it.

I remember going to Ground Zero, I think it was in 2004 and seeing what was left, what they were building.  So sobering.

I remember finding out that Osama Bin Laden was dead.  That was a good day.  I know there are those who say we should not celebrate his death.  But it is not a celebration of jubilation. It is a celebration of justice.

Even now, 11 years later, I still tear up thinking up that day.  It was all so insane.

I wonder for our ancestors who lived through the attack on Pearl Harbor, was it those same feelings?  What is happening?  Why? And did it linger with them for years and decades like 9/11 does for us?  I imagine so.

We shall never forget.

Tuesday’s Tip — Two New Links You Must Check Out

We all know that family histories, local histories, indexes of vital and the sort are awesome for finding nuggets of gold.  Check out FamilySearch’s Family History Books beta site:

http://books.familysearch.org/

Second link, courtesy of Mark Lowe: Bouvier’s Law Dictionary, which can be found in google books:

Notice the dates? These were the references that law clerks and the like used as reference in the 1800’s in the south.  Want to know about what a drove-road is and what it means? The information is there.

Remember, don’t look if you just have two minutes! Trust me!

How Is Genealogy Like The Oldest Profession? And Other Happenings from FGS 2012

So I was at FGS 2012 in Birmingham, Alabama this week and I meant to post.  Really I did.  But between meeting with librarians, attending classes, spending time with old friends, meeting new friends and maybe spending just a little time at the bar, it just didn’t happen.

My first day was Librarian’s Day and it was great fun.

Librarian’s Day 2012 in Birmingham, Alabama.

Great speakers and great company.  I ate lunch with Sedalia Gaines and Valencia King Nelson.  Valencia is the pioneer in web based African American research; Sedalia also works on Afrigeneas.org and they entertained and educated me with stories on their past and how to do African American research.  I will be catching up with these ladies at a later date to learn more!

The next day, I took the plunge and put myself on the clock for certification.  I have a year (until the endo of August) submit my application for BCG Certification.  There is no going back now.  I’m excited, more about that to come.

For me, the highlight of Friday was our focus group with librarians.  This was very work related and I learned quite a bit about how they use Ancestry.com in libraries.  If you don’t have an subscription to Ancestry.com, check your library, they might.

Saturday, I caught up with more friends, attended more classes, talked to more librarians and then flew home.  It was a great conference.

And in case you wondering, how is genealogy like the oldest profession?  First you do it for love, first you do it for friends and then you do it for money.  (It’s funny if you are a genealogy geek like me!)

I should be back to regular posts this 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.

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:

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?

Sorting Saturday — Making Sense out of the Mess or Sources Matter

I am trying to pull my grandfather and his ancestor’s lives into order and tell their story.  I find I have a mess of records.  One big old honking mess.  So I’m getting organized.  And not just thinking about it.  Or starting and stopping. (Yes,  I’ve done that multiple times.)  I’m doing it.

Prune the Tree. I use Family Tree Maker (yes, I’m a Ancestry.com employee, but I was using long before I joined the company.)  I went to Export and selected my grandfather, his descendants.

I selected his ancestors and included all parents and all ancestor’s descendants for 1 generation.

Do I really need all of his 5th cousins 4 times removed husbands?  I think not.

This is a copy, nothing is lost if I need to go back.

Sources.  OK, it is time to clean up my sources.  And is where I am now.  I’m cleaning up duplicates.  And removing all those horrid sources that you collect over the years.  I opened my electronic of Evidence Explained (you must get yourself one!) and went to work.  I’m about 30% of the way done I’d guess.  Oh, and managed to delete about 50 1880 sources.  I will recover I’m sure.

My 1850 sources are looking awesome!


One document per family.  I’ve also have one document per family, and attach every one to that.  Boy does the cut down on the chaos.  AND when I make a mistake in  sourcing (gasp!) I only have to correct it and re-correct it once.

Images for Indexes.  You know when you merge in a Social Security Death Index, but you have no image.  Well I make one.  I have Snagit (I love it, but there are other reasonable solutions.)  So let’s say I add my Great Aunt Eva’s SSDI.  I go to the page, clip out the important stuff:

So if I’m working on someone and I don’t have access to the internet, I have everything I need.

I’m sort of excited to have a clean tree.  Sourced correctly.  And then the story telling will go much faster.  I’ve often found it takes me as long to source a blog post as it does write it.  This should really help.

I learned a lot when I took the Genealogy course at Boston University.  I took the class and I got an A.  Now I have to walk the walk. And one thing I believe with all my genealogy heart is that sources matter.  No more sloppy sourcing for me.  And I won’t have to feel guilty when I sit in Thomas Jones or Elissa Scalise Powell‘s classes at FGS!

Happy Sourcing!

Follow Friday — 1940 is Done! and Blown Away with DNA

Here is what I’ve been reading this week.  It’s been a great week for genealogy blogs!

From Ancestry.com

A beautiful pictorial journey through Virginia: Surprises Around Every Corner by Belle Grove Plantation Bed and Breakfast:

And:

And last, but not least, what I thought was the most touching story of the week from the Legal Genealogist, Judy Russell: Blown Away with DNA

Treasure Chest Thursday — Sourcing Presentations

I don’t know if these are treasures, but these are the PDF’s of the sourcing presentations I’ve done for Ancestry.com

From Citing Sources Part 2

Happy Sourcing!