TUESDAY’S TIPS ~ New cousin connections made from watching a 10 minute video

No matter how long we have been researching our ancestors, we are always learning something new.  Whether we attend classes at our local society, read any of the wonderful blogs by my fellow bloggers (there are over 3,000 of them), get a tip from a fellow genealogist, watch webinars, learn from Facebook groups,  or attend a conference in person (when that becomes possible again).  There is no shortage of learning opportunities.

I decided to watch a quick 10 minute video offered by Legacy (the software program I’ve used for years).  This was a short tutorial about how to make connections on the 23&Me website for DNA.

While my DNA and my mother’s are on that site, as we both tested there.  I’ll admit to not using the site very often (I use the Ancestry DNA site all the time).  All of us have our favorites.  I’ve tested or have results uploaded to all the major DNA sites.

The tutorial I watched was called Connection Requests at 23andMe by Michelle Leonard M.A., PgCert.  As I said before it is 10 minutes long and rated as Beginner.  Click here for a link to the video. 

After watching it, I went right to 23 & Me and began inviting some of my matches to share their DNA with me.  Now, we all know that sending any kind of message to someone on any of the sites is a “longshot.”  Will they respond?  Did they even receive my message? The chances of getting a response are low (I speak from experience and information from others).  But, I had not really sent requests for more than a handful of matches on 23 & Me over the past 7-8 years.

I wanted to try and make contact with some of the people in the DNA tree automatically built on the website.  Knowing that some of the suggestions I’ve seen on that tree are quite accurate and others are not.  I was going for the low hanging fruit.  These are the people at the bottom of the tree created using my DNA.  Here is an image showing how these people appear in the automatically created tree.

(Please click on any image to enlarge it) I have blurred the names for privacy 

I sent 9 requests to connect, using the suggestions from the video.  As suggested I kept it simple, no attached message, just a request to share DNA. This allows me to see the matches we share in common and to view the chromosome browser.  Viewing the chromosome browser allows me to paint that match into DNA Painter.

How many would you expect to hear back from?  I thought I’d be very fortunate if one person responded. 

SURPRISE!  I heard back from 3, accepting my invitation to share.  They all responded within a day. None of the other 6 have responded...yet.

In the past few days I’ve been communicating with all 3 of those matches and have new cousins to add to my tree, as a result. 

As a matter of fact I was so excited to figure out the match between me and a match named Cheryl, that I spent 4 hours building a tree on Ancestry, for her family.  She only gave me 2 names to go on, Edward Riggs and Audrey Gerkin.  No dates, no places.  Using Blaine Bettinger’s Quick & Dirty trees idea, I began building.  I used obituaries, census records, birth, marriage and death records to try and build this tree back several generations.  We’ve all seen CeCe Moore and others go through this process to find unknown parentage and criminal suspects.  I’ve built several of these kinds of trees before, but cannot claim much success. 

NOTE:  When you do build a Q&D tree it should be private AND UNsearchable. You don’t want anyone else to use it or take items from it since you are not conducting exhaustive research on each person and do not want to proliferate errors.

Within four hours of starting that Q&D tree, at 10:59 p.m. I located who I believed to be our Most Recent Common Ancestor!  WOW! I was excited and very proud of myself. 

Now what?  Time to go down the descendant line from that common ancestor and really look closely to make sure I’m correct.  This is where you slow down and look at all the records as in our regular, due diligence, research.

What was my conclusion?  I was right on the money.  Cheryl and I share my 3rd great grandparents, Monson THORP & Lany COOPER.  They are my 3rd and her 4th great grandparents.  She's a generation younger than I am.  I also share DNA with her mother, a woman who’s name I have seen numerous times on various DNA sites and had no idea how we connected…..until now. 

Here is an image of that Q&D tree

Now, Cheryl and I are talking back & forth and she told her mother about our discovery. There are things they didn’t know about some of the lines I have information about.  We will talk more after the new year and they may have some photos and other information for me.  I will gladly share anything I have with them.

On another note. One of the other matches and I have also been in touch and she actually lives in Detroit.  We are also connected through the Thorp line, but via another route.  She has all her parent’s family research and lots of information.  We also plan to talk after the new year.

ALL of this from a 10 minute video.  Never stop learning and never stop looking. 

If you have any comments or you’ve had a similar experience, I’d love to hear about it.

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2020   Diane Gould Hall 

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

A CHECK BOX ON ANCESTRY and HOW I FINALLY LOCATED THE 1870 CENSUS FOR MY 3rd GREAT GRANDPARENTS

I’ve been researching my Thorp family for the past 15 years.  This is a direct line for me and I want to learn as much as I can about them.  My Dad always talked about his paternal grandparents, William Val Gould and May Thorp Gould.  He called his grandmother Mema (pronounced Mee Ma).

During this research I was able to locate every census for my 3rd great grandparents, Monson Thorp, Sr. and his wife Lany Cooper Thorp…….except the 1870 census.  They married on 12 Apr 1835 in Cato, Cayuga, New York and had 6 children.  I located them in the 1840, 1850, 1860 and 1880 federal census records.   I also have several newspaper articles about Monson Thorp.  I have death certificates and wills for Monson and Lany.  From everything I found about them, they never left New York.
 
But, that 1870 census eluded me.
 
Yesterday, I was doing research for an upcoming blog post about their daughter Mary J. Thorp.  In doing so, I went yet again to those census records trying to find Monson and Lany in 1870.  While I was looking at census records for Mary J. Thorp, I decided to try once again to find Monson and Lany in 1870.

I’ve been doing this for over 15 years.  I’ve learned a LOT during that time.  I consider myself to be an experienced researcher, who is still learning every day.  I continue to attend seminars, conferences and classes each year to learn more.  We never stop learning.

I’m certain I have searched the census records using variations of Monson’s first and last name, along with variations for Lany.  Those names are often misspelled or transcribed incorrectly.  So, what was I doing wrong in my searches?

Had I done this exact search before?  Searched ONLY the 1870 census records?  Used this specific criteria?  I may never know, but it worked this time!!!!

I searched All Collections>Census and Voter Lists>US Federal Census Collection>1870 United States Federal Census and entered my criteria.

SPECIAL NOTE:  I kept screenshots after I made this find yesterday.  I just tried to reproduce the search and COULD NOT get it to come up with the result.  WHAT!  WHY?  I’ll tell you why, because up at the top of the search screen, next to the “search” icon is a box that says “Match all terms exactly.”  GUESS WHAT?  That box was checked by default.  Are you kidding me?  Every single time I went to the collections that “match all terms exactly” box is checked.  Yesterday, that box must have been unchecked for some reason. This means I need to go back to a LOT of my prior searches for other ancestors.

Back to my find.  Here’s the screen shot with the “match all terms exactly” unchecked.



And, look what came up from my search.  ONE record and ONLY one.  Notice anything wrong with the surname spelling?  Regardless of that horrible misspelling, I knew this had to be my Munson.



I selected the record and here is the index and access to the image.  The surname is wrong, (indexed as THERSSE), but all the green stars are correct for my ancestor and his wife Lany.



And finally the image.  Here they are at last.  Living right where I suspected they’d be, in Skaneateles, New York.

 

My take a way from all of this is that darn check box.  Keep an eye out.  Maybe I’m the only one who didn’t think to look for that default “match all exactly.”  Did you know about it?



If you have similar stories about having searched for a record for years and then having found it, I’d love to hear about it.

OTHER POSTS THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST

FOLLOWING LEADS ON ANCESTRY– One thing leads to another

OCCUPATION FILES ON ANCESTRY–1600-1995–What are they? Have you seen these?

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2018   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

MYSTERY MONDAY–Who’s Your Daddy? Brick Wall Post #6–Lany Cooper Thorp 1815-1886-SOLVED!

SOLVED!

Lany Cooper is my paternal 3rd great grandmother.  I have not been able to find more than a minimal amount of information on her family (meaning her parents and/or siblings).

Here is what I know at this point:

She was born 16 Feb 1815 in Cato, Cayuga, New York.

She was the second wife of Monson Thorp, Sr.  They married on 12 Apr 1835 in Cato, Cayuga, New York.  Monson’s first wife, Ann Eliza Armitage had died in about 1833, leaving Monson with a young daughter & son.  Anna Maria Thorp 1830-1903 and Rev. Wallace Walter Thorp 1833-1913.  Monson was a Wagonmaker.  He certainly would have needed help raising two young children under 4 yrs. of age.

Lany & Monson had 6 children, three boys and three girls as follows:

1.  Horace Henry Thorp born 1836 married Catherine Dorsey.  He died 1907.  (These are my direct ancestors)
2.  Lucyette Thorp, never married (1838-1866)
3.  Stephen B. Thorp born 1840 married Henrietta Barnes in Sep 1869.  Stephen had served in the Civil War.  He died of consumption on 14 Jun 1871.  No known children were born to this couple.
4.  Mary “Polly” Thorp, born 1841, married David Preston Flower about 1860.  Mary died 16 Apr 1892.  They had 5 children. 
5.  Edith Eliza Thorp born Jan 1843, married George Beech Surdam about 1863.  She died 29 Mar 1915.  They had 5 children.
6.  Monson Thorp, Jr. born 5 Feb 1847, married Eudora Louise Searls on 9 Oct 1870.  He died 11 May 1939.  They had 6 children.

Here is a view of Monson & Lany Thorp from my Legacy database:

(CLICK ON ANY IMAGE TO ENLARGE IT)

The first hint I had of Lany’s parent’s names was on her death certificate.  Although her name is listed as “Fanny” and not Lany, I have confirmed the dates based on other evidence.  On this certificate, her parent’s names are given as Jacob Cooper and Polly Byrne, both of Albany, New York.
 


Here is a her death notice as published in the Skaneateles Press 24 Jul 1886.



After locating the death record and the death notice I also found a newspaper article about the 50th wedding anniversary for Monson & Lany.  This article was located via the Fulton History website.  
Please note, I wrote a blog post about using the Fulton History website, which you can access here http://www.michiganfamilytrails.com/2015/04/i-hit-jackpot-on-this-website-old.html

Skaneateles Free Press - 4 Apr 1885, column 3

Transription of the newspaper article above: “TO CELEBRATE THEIR GOLDEN WEDDING: Mr. and Mrs. Munson Thorp of this village will celebrate their golden wedding at their home on Jordan street, Sunday, April 12, 1883.  They were married April 12, 1833 at Cato, Cayuga county, that town being the native place of Mrs. Thorp, whose maiden name was Lany Cooper.  Mr. Thorp was born in Harpersfield, Conn. February 27, 1801, and is now in his 85th year.  They have always resided in Skaneateles since their marriage, and Mr. Thorp has been a resident of this village since October, 27, 1827. He is a wagon maker by trade first working in this town for the late John Legg, and for fifteen years he was employed by S & J Hall in the stone building now used by Thomas Kelley as a blacksmith shop.  Six children have been born to him, four yet living, all of whom have homes in the West.  Neither Mr. Thorp nor wife are very strong, but they keep house alone and manage the household duties between them.  While striving to lay up something for old age, Mr. Thorp has been unsuccessful, but has always managed to maintain his household without aid, though the struggle is hard for a couple so aged and infirm.  They will be “at home” to all their friends who may desire to call on them on their golden wedding day – a week from Sunday next.”

Finding newspaper articles like the one above certainly is a bonus for any researcher.  There is a lot of good genealogical information contained in the piece.  Of course it all must be confirmed, but still, such great leads.

I also have a copy of Lany’s Last Will & Testament.  The information contained here led me to married names of Lany’s daughters.  I also have her husband, Monson’s Last Will & Testament.

And finally, I do have a picture of Lany’s headstone.  You can visit her memorial on FindAGrave #32026022.  She is buried, with her husband, Monson and their daughter, Lucyette, at Lake View Cemetery, Skaneateles, Onondaga, New York.
 


Other than making a trip to Cayuga County, New York, I have not found anything that gives me more information about Lany’s parents and/or siblings, if there were any.  I would be grateful to anyone who could provide more information, or new ideas.  I've looked at census & land records in New York for the appropriate years and come up empty.

Please visit my other “Who’s Your Daddy?” posts here http://www.michiganfamilytrails.com/p/test.html

OTHER POSTS THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST
A STATE CENSUS RECORD THAT LEADS TO A LOT MORE QUESTIONS - The Monson Thorp Family

TOMBSTONE TUESDAY – My 3rd great grandparents – Monson & Lany Thorp

PLEASE contact me if you think you might be related, even remotely, to anyone mentioned in this blog.

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2015   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

TOMBSTONE TUESDAY - My 3rd great grandparents - Monson & Lany Thorp

Lany, wife of Monson Thorp died July 16 1886 aged 71 years 5 mos

Monson Thorp died May 17 1888 aged 87 years 3 mos

Monson Thorp and his wife Lany Cooper are my 3rd great grandparents.  He was born in Connecticut 27 Feb 1801 to Joseph Thorp and an unknown mother (still looking for her name).  Lany Cooper was born 16 Feb 1815 in Cato, Cayuga, New York to Jacob Cooper & Polly Bryne.  They married on 12 Apr 1835 in Cato, Cayuga, New York.  They had 6 children, Horace, Lucyette, Stephen, Mary, Edith and Monson Jr.

I recently discovered that Monson had been married prior to Lany to Ann Eliza Armitage.  To them were born two children, Ann Maria & Reverend Wallace Walter.
 
Monson & Lany are buried at Lakeview Cemetery,  Skaneateles, Onondaga, New York, along with other family members.  I do not yet know where Ann, his first wife, is buried. Here is a link to the Village of Skaneateles website where they have a list of Lakeview Cemetery burials http://www.villageofskaneateles.com/village-government/boards/cemetery-board.html

Here are links to their FindAGrave memorials:
Monson
Lany

While I know quite a bit about this family, I hope to learn more  during my upcoming trip to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City.

DESCENDANCY FROM MONSON & LANY THORP

Horace Henry Thorp & Catherine Dorsey

Mary “Mae” Eve Thorp & William “Val” Gould

Harry W. Gould & Marie W. Lindsay

H. Norman Gould & Patricia A. Milne

please contact me if you think you might be related, even remotely, to anyone mentioned in this blog.

OTHER POSTS THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST

Adding Sibling Links to FindAGrave

Cemetery Records - What can they tell you?  How do you use them?

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2015   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

MYSTERY MONDAY - WHO'S YOUR DADDY? Brick Walls Post #4 - Catherine Dorsey Thorp about 1842-1898

CATHERINE DORSEY is my paternal 2nd great grandmother.  She is another of my brick wall mysteries.  Here is what I know about her.

Above photo is Catherine with her daughter Annie & son, Horace Henry Thorp, Jr. The photo would be about 1870-1871 based on Annie’s age

BIO OF CATHERINE DORSEY

Catherine was born about 1842 in Dublin, Ireland. According to her death certificate she was married at age 17 yrs. to Horace Henry Thorp.  In the 1860 census she and Horace (listed as Maurice on the census) were living in Oswego, Oswego Co., New York, ages 24 and 21.  By the 1870 census the couple was living in Detroit, Wayne, Michigan with their children, Ellen, age 10 born in New York, Mary (my direct ancestor), age 8 born in New York, Catherine age 6 born in New York, Vincent age 4 born in Michigan and Henry, age 2 born in Michigan.  This tells me that the couple probably moved to Michigan about 1866 when Vincent was born.  She is again seen in the 1880 census with her family.  Then dies on 12 Jun 1898 in Detroit, Wayne, Michigan.  She is buried, without a headstone, at Mt. Elliott Cemetery in Detroit.

HERE’S WHAT ELSE I HAVE FOUND FOR CATHERINE

A possible passenger record for her.  I understand that the ages of our ancestors may not always be correct on these lists (as with any other historical document).

(Click on any image to enlarge it)

However, this is not the only passenger record that shows up when I conduct a search on Ancestry.com.

 

Here is a list of other passenger records.  These are indexes only, but certainly some possibilities.

 

She is enumerated in the following census records:

• 1860 in Oswego, Oswego Co., New York with her husband Horace Thorp on a page with other Irish immigrants.  His name is given as Maurice.  She is listed as being born in Ireland.
• 1870 in Detroit, Wayne, Michigan with her husband Horace (listed as Horris) and her first 5 children; Ellen, Mary, Vincent, Catherine and Horace Jr., ages 2-10.  This census gives her birthplace as Michigan.  We cannot know who gave the information to the enumerator.
• 1880 in Detroit, Wayne, Michigan with her husband Horace and 8 children, ages 1-18.  She is listed as being born in Ireland.
  
  
• Catherine died on 12 Jun 1898 in Detroit, Wayne, Michigan. 
• Address of death 75 Lafayette Pl. in Detroit.
• Name on certificate – Katherine Thorp, white, female 
• Age 56 yrs., born in Ireland.
• Married at age 17. 
• Parent of 10 children of whom 7 are living. 
• Name of father – Jno Dorsey born in Ireland. 
• Name of mother – Mary Dorsey born in Ireland.
• Cause of death – Endocarditis
• Burial at Mt. Elliott Cemetery, Detroit, Wayne, Michigan

I have been to Mt. Elliott Cemetery in Detroit and talked to the sexton.  Their records indicate no headstone for Catherine.  I walked the area of her burial and found no headstone.

In 1899 her husband, Horace Thorp is listed on page 1472 of the Detroit city directory as Thorp, Horace H., eng., h 305 13th.  Also living at 305 13th is their son, Vincent.

In 1900 we find Horace still living at 305 13th St., but with his son, George, age 24, single and a daughter, Agnes, age 26 and single.
The next record I have for Horace Thorp is his death on 22 Feb 1907 in Spokane, Washington.  It took me 5 years to locate his death certificate.
 
NOTE:  In my earlier days of researching I didn’t realize our ancestors moved so far and so often.  Since there were at least 6 of Horace and Catherine’s children still living in Detroit, Michigan, I would not have expected him to move way out to Washington state.  His brother, Monson Thorp, Jr. lived in Spokane and was more than likely the reason Horace moved to that state.  Horace’s residence at time of death was Ash St., the same street his brother lived on.

Here is a screenshot of what I have in Legacy for Catherine.  Note the 11 children and not 10.  There is some confusion over two birth records I have found for Willis and William, the two youngest boys.
 

Here are photos or drawings of Catherine and Horace, courtesy of my cousin, Bonnie, in Michigan.

  

I wonder if Catherine came over to America alone?

With all of those children, you would think she would have some kind of headstone.

I have not done any Irish research, but hope to in a few weeks while I’m at the Family History Library.
 
I welcome your input for how I might locate Catherine’s parents.

For links to my previous "Mystery Monday-Who's Your Daddy" posts please click on the tab at the top of my blog.

If you think you might be related, even remotely, to anyone mentioned in this blog, please contact me!

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2015   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

HIDDEN GEMS IN NEWSPAPERS - I HIT THE JACKPOT ON THIS WEBSITE

 

 OLD FULTON NY POSTCARDS  This is a website I heard about via a Facebook group I belong to called New York Genealogy.  The first thing I thought was “well, I don’t have any ancestors from Fulton County, so why would this site be helpful to me?”  But…I kept reading about people finding all sorts of records from other counties in New York.  This website contains thousands of newspapers from New York and other areas and many other records.

 

As most of us are well aware, New York is one of the black holes for genealogy.  At least in some counties.  We will take all the help we can get in finding records.

I’ve tried using this site on a couple of occasions, but had no luck in finding any records.  Today I decided to give it another try.  I can usually figure things out when it comes to websites and this one should be no different.  However frustrating my previous attempts may have been.

Here is what the home page looks like.

Over on the left hand side you see the search screen.  It doesn’t seem complicated, so why didn’t I have any luck on my previous tries?

 

NOTE:  I think there are times when we are researching that we don’t necessarily have the time or patience to learn something new.  At least I have found this to be true with me.  Then I go back another time and everything works just fine.

So what is the secret to getting results here?  There are several option in the drop down menu below the search box.  They are: boolean, all of the words, any of the words and exact phrase.

Then there are the other choices: Fuzzy searching, Phonic searching etc.  You can see them in the screenshot above.

I decided to use “boolean” and “fuzzy.”

I entered my 3rd great grandfather’s name, Monson Thorp and was rewarded with 13 documents to look at.  WOW!  Monson lived in Skaneateles, New York.  (remember this site is called Old Fulton NY Post Cards)

(CLICK ON ANY IMAGE TO ENLARGE IT)

My hopes were high since I see Skaneateles mentioned in the first 3 hits.  And,  it’s not like Monson is a common name. The dates mentioned in most of the 13 hits was also within the correct time to be my Monson.

I was rewarded in spades.  Eleven of the thirteen articles were about my Monson.  Everything from him being listed as to an Overseer of Highways in 1841 to being a member of the Horse Thief Society in 1854 to the settlement of his accounts after his death.

1841 - MONSON THORP - OVERSEER OF HIGHWAYS

1854 - MONSON THORP NAMED TO HORSE THIEF SOCIETY

I saved every article in PDF format and then converted them to JPG as that’s my preferred method for adding them to my Legacy database.  I made sure I labeled them all with my standard labeling practices so I could easily find each separate article.

I went on to search other members of my THORP family and was handsomely rewarded with marriage dates and death and burial dates in various articles.

IS THERE ANYTHING MORE THAT WE CAN ASK AS GENEALOGISTS?

The TWO BIGGEST FINDS in this group were ……

A small little piece in the paper about Monson Thorp visiting his son Stephen Thorp who was wounded at Gettysberg.  I previously knew that Stephen had served in the Civil War, but I did not know he was at Gettysberg. 

How many more records about Stephen will I be able to locate based on this tiny article?

SKANEATELES NY DEMOCRAT, 13 AUG 1863

An article about the Golden Wedding Anniversary of Monson & Lany Thorp.  This article contained exact places & dates that I did not previously have and mentioned Lany’s maiden name.   I believed her maiden name was Cooper, based on other documents, but it was sure nice to see it in this article.

 

MR. & MRS. MONSON THORP CELEBRATE 50 YEARS OF MARRIAGE - SKANEATELES FREE PRESS, 4 APR 1885

WHAT GENEALOGIST WOULDN’T BE DOING THE “HAPPY DANCE” AFTER FINDING ALL THESE GEMS?

I encourage you to keep exploring new sites as they become available AND, go back to the sites in which you previously had little or no luck.  You never know what you will find.

If you think you might be related, even remotely, to anyone mentioned in this blog, please contact me!

ANOTHER POST THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST

A STATE CENSUS RECORD THAT LEADS TO A LOT MORE QUESTIONS - The Monson Thorp Family

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2015   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION