EVER HAD ONE OF THOSE “SLAP YOUR FOREHEAD” MOMENTS IN YOUR RESEARCH?

Here are a couple of examples of those “DUH” moments we all have.  And maybe wish we didn’t.  The idea for this post came from a fellow genealogist who shared her moment.

EXAMPLE #1
 
Several years ago I was trying desperately to locate the death record and/or burial location of my 2nd great grandmother, Susan Caroline BOGGS.  She was born in 1842 in Lawrence Co., Ohio (daughter of William Allen BOGGS and Nancy Delilah LUNSFORD) and died in 1913.  Along the way she married James Gillen HUNTER with whom she had 9 children and after his death she married William CRESSE.  

At least that’s the information I had.  Some of that information was found in my research, other information was from the journal of names & dates kept by her granddaughter (my maternal grandmother).  Other information was taken from a handwritten obituary found among my grandmother’s effects.

Here is that record.
(CLICK ON ANY IMAGE TO ENLARGE IT)



So why couldn’t I locate a death record for her?

I have notes of my various research strategies beginning in 2006.  I even sent a death certificate request to the State of Ohio, based on the information I had.  NO RECORD FOUND.

THE BREAK THROUGH….SLAP MY FOREHEAD  MOMENT

I had placed the obituary document in page protectors back in 2006.  One day in 2008, I realized I had never scanned the document.  

I take it out of the page protectors to scan it and…………….DRUM ROLL……….when I turned over page 3 there on the back was the following:

        “OBITUARY OF S. C. HANKINS”

WHAT?  She married a third time?  Is that what this means?

 

Yes, that’s exactly what that meant.  My next steps were:

• Check the Ohio Historical Society Death Index – Found her listed in Volume 1017, cert #13435 and the date of death listed exactly as my grandmother had it in her journal.  I sent for her death certificate immediately.
• Sent an email to the Service Director for Miamiville, Ohio, where the death index had indicated she died.  I received an email in return verifying she was buried at Evergreen Cemetery, Section B, Lots 128.  The email from the very kind Director included photos of her headstone and the headstone next to her which was her oldest son.  Surprise!  I didn’t know where Clyde was buried until I received this information.

Here is her death certificate, verifying all I had learned.

EXAMPLE #2

I was given permission to share this situation by a fellow genealogist in a group I belong to on Facebook called The Lawrence Register.  We are a group of people with ancestors from Lawrence County, Ohio.

 

Here is the exact entry she shared with us.

 

“Sometimes you just want to smack yourself up side the head, kick yourself in the butt and yell stupid!!! My gr-grandfathers 2nd marriage was recorded in the family bible so I never bothered sending for the original certificate. I have been trying to 20 years to find his mothers maiden name. 20 years. It is on the original certificate. Don't know whether to jump for joy or bang my head against the wall. Maybe I'll do both.”

 

LESSONS WE LEARNED

• Just because we have names & dates in our family Bible, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t still seek records to give further proof.  What if the person making those Bible entries was wrong?
• Scan ALL documents BEFORE you put them safely away in binders, page protectors or files.
• Look at every document you receive from anyone or any place.  Look at it again and then look at it a third or fourth time. 
• For gosh sakes – turn pages over and look on the back. 
• Maybe it’s time to take another look at your documents or Bibles?

Thanks for letting me share this with you.  If you’ve had similar “moments” I would love to hear about them.  We can all laugh and shake our heads together, knowing we aren’t alone.

OTHER POSTS THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST
FOLLOWING LEADS ON ANCESTRY - ONE THING LEADS TO ANOTHER

SURPRISE! A BIRTH RECORD WHERE IT WASN'T SUPPOSED TO BE

EVERNOTE - A VERY USEFUL AND FREE TOOL TO HELP YOU ORGANIZE GENEALOGY AND EVERYTHING ELSE

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2014   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

HOW TO FIND PROBATE RECORDS ONLINE

ONE OF THE BEST SOURCES THAT WE CAN ACCESS AS GENEALOGISTS, ARE THE PROBATE RECORDS OF OUR ANCESTORS

HERE IS THE PROBATE INDEX CARD FOR THE ELIZABETH BURGESS ESTATE.  YOU CAN SEE THE FILE NUMBER IN THE UPPER RIGHT CORNER AND THAT IT NAMES HER GRANDDAUGHTER, SUSAN MILNE AND THE PARTICULAR COURT WHERE THE RECORD WAS FILED, ALONG WITH THE YEAR - 1884.

Here is just a sample of what they can tell us:

• They can contain some solid family connections
• Solve brick walls
• Give us clues as to the financial status of our ancestor
• Tell us if a particular child was “out of favor”
• Give us dates, names & places
• Indicate who were trusted friends based on the executor or witnesses

So, when was the last time you located a probate record for your ancestor?

Have you ever located one?

During my recent research, I was on the Facebook page for Detroit Society for Genealogical Research.

They had two recent articles/posts regarding finding probate records.  One article was posted on October 31 and the next on November 1.  While these particular posts are about Michigan, this information can be used with probate records for any state for which Family Search has records available.  Here is the link:  United_States_Probate_Records

One thing about having a lot of records online is that some of us may not be as well versed in “browsing” through records as we used to be.  Prior to the internet, microfilm and microfiche had to be used to find records.  This involved a LOT of scrolling through record after record.  It’s much easier, in my opinion, to scroll through online records, than to use the microfilm readers.
 
How many of you don’t look at records on familysearch when you see “browse records” rather than the little camera icon?

I have to admit, I was guilty of that, until recently.

Here are the links I referred to from the Detroit Society for Genealogical Research.

Probate Records on Family Search - Part 1



Probate Records on Family Search - Part 2



WHAT’S NEXT?
I located a probate number for my 3rd great grandmother, Elizabeth BURGESS, while searching under the name MILNE.  Why?  Because her granddaughter, Susan married into my MILNE family.  The record shown at the top of this post is the one I located.

I was SO excited.  I went from the index to the actual records and began my search.  I couldn’t wait to find out who she might mention in her probate record.

BUT, AS LUCK WOULD HAVE IT….
One of the years that IS NOT in this group of scanned images is 1884.  Yup, no record.  I was very disappointed.  However, I didn’t let that stop me from trying to obtain this record.  I live in California.  No trip to Detroit is in my near future. 
How was I going to obtain a copy of this probate record?

HERE'S HOW
I have friends and family in Detroit.  I contacted a Facebook friend from the group Detroit Genealogy and she has offered to go to the courthouse and get this record for me.  She hopes to have it by the end of the week.  Once I get it, you can bet I’ll be writing about it.
 
TIP:  It’s because of situations like this that I so highly recommend that every genealogist use social media as a source for contacts.  I can’t tell you the wealth of information I have gained and the records I have obtained because of Facebook contacts. 
Please see this post I wrote about the value of Facebook for your genealogy research.

FACEBOOK - HOW IT CAN BE VERY USEFUL IN YOUR RESEARCH

OTHER POSTS THAT YOU MAY ALSO ENJOY
EVERNOTE - A VERY USEFUL AND FREE TOOL
SEMINARS, WEBINARS, SOCIETIES - WILL THEY HELP YOUR RESEARCH?

Happy Hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2014   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

AMANUENSIS MONDAY - BIRTH & DEATH DATES FROM MY GRANDMOTHER'S JOURNAL - JULY

What does Amanuensis mean anyway?

To put it simply, it means a “person employed to write what another dictates or copy what has been written by another.”

As many of you know from reading previous posts on my blog, my maternal grandmother left a spiral notebook, which I call her journal.  In it she left recipes, a list of 183 family members and their birth dates and some death dates, a list of anniversaries and other various lists or things that were important to her.  It’s a treasure that I cherish.

Today I’m going to be transcribing her list of names & dates from July.

For the previous posts transcribing January through June, please click on these links.

Amanuensis Monday - Transcribing my grandmother's journal - January

Amanuensis Monday - Transcribing my grandmother's journal – February

Amanuensis Monday - Transcribing my grandmother's journal – March

Amanuensis Monday - Transcribing my grandmother's journal – April

Amanuensis Monday - Transcribing my grandmother's journal – May

Amanuensis Monday - Transcribing my grandmother's journal - June

Here is the page from her journal.  This journal was begun when my grandmother, Florence L. Bowden, married my grandfather, Joseph A. Milne, in 1906.  She was just 18 years old at the time.  This journal is very old and falling apart.  I have digitized all the pages and have the original stored in a safe, archival box.

(CLICK ON ANY IMAGE TO ENLARGE IT)

Here is my transcription of this page, with some annotations.  I have indicated the family connection in brackets, even thought it’s not part of the document.  I thought you’d like to know who these people are to me.  And, for any cousins out there reading this, maybe you’ll find it helpful.

I’ve added whatever photos I have of the family members named in this list. (See below)

ADDITIONAL NOTE:  I REDACT THE BIRTH DATES & FULL NAMES OF PEOPLE WHO I’M AWARE OF, THAT ARE STILL LIVING, FOR THEIR PROTECTION.  THIS MONTH I DON’T BELIEVE WE HAVE ANY STILL LIVING.


I have placed an asterisk * next to the names I have not yet connected to our family.
    
July

* Jean Frances LENNEBACK  July 5 ‘24  
James G. VERNEY, Jr.  July 9, '94 Died Jan 12 ‘57  [1st cousin twice removed]
 * Post  July 15 ‘11 
Died Nov. 12 ‘47  Susan M. SMITH  July 18 ‘60  [maternal great grandmother] 
* Bert SEARLS   July 18  died aged 64 Jan 3, ‘50 
* Henry PLATZ July 20   died Nov ‘69
 James B. VERNEY 1854  July 27   Oct. 3, ‘34 [husband of great grandaunt]
*  Jean MOFFET  July 16  Oct 28, ‘76 
* Barbara DOWORTH  July 21  ‘16
Junior Diebel   July 26, ‘28 
Aunt Ada’s grson William KING [possibly 2nd cousin once removed] 
*  Marion RIGGS July 10  ‘19 
Lawrence? Diebel  July 5

There is a date of July 26 between the name Marion Riggs and the scratched out name of Lawrence Diebel.  I cannot be sure which name that date belongs with.

That’s a total of 11 (13 if you count the two that are lined out) names.  I am very fortunate to have this kind of list from my grandmother.

SIX of the names are still waiting for me to find their connections.  I have them in my Legacy database as unlinked individuals. I do not include the name that just says “Post,” among the unidentified.  I don’t have that name in my database at this time, unlinked or otherwise.

In the lists from the other 11 months of the year, there are also names that aren’t yet connected.  I keep looking from time to time and link them as I identify them.

Again this month, the photos I have consist of only one person.  My maternal great grandmother, Susan Anne Gillespie Milne Smith.  I do have several of her.
 
   
Left – photo of Susan at age 16, circa 1876 (according to back of photo)  On the right is a picture of Susan with her infant daughter, Irene and her son, Joseph.  This picture of her with her children would have been late 1893-1894. Sadly, Susan and her husband Andrew had lost a son at birth in 1886 and a young daughter at age 2 in 1887.  Then Andrew died in Dec 1892 of consumption.  Little Irene, shown in the picture, was born in June 1893.  She never met her father.
 
      

The headshot on the left was cropped from a group photo from about 1911-1912.  The photo on the right is from 1934 and in it are L-R – my maternal great grandmother Florence Hunter Milne Bell, my grandmother (author of this journal from which I post) Florence Bowden Milne, and on the right is Susan Gillespie Milne Smith, my other maternal great grandmother.

Please contact me if you recognize any of the names with asterisks or if you are related to any of these family members.  I’d love to hear from you.

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2014   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

IS THAT INDEX CORRECT? HERE’S WHY WE NEED TO LOOK AT THE ACTUAL DOCUMENT

HERE IS A PERFECT EXAMPLE OF WHY IT IS SO IMPORTANT TO LOOK AT AND READ DOCUMENTS AND NOT JUST DEPEND ON THE INDEXED TRANSCRIPTION

Yesterday I was doing a bit of research on a 3rd great granduncle and his second wife.
 
I knew that Isaac F. Gillen 1823-1907 had married Amy “Emma” Kimball 1830-1886 on 28 Mar 1852 in Lawrence Co., Ohio.  Here they are in my Legacy program.

(CLICK ON ANY IMAGE TO ENLARGE IT)



Emma died in 1886.  I had information from the 1900 census that he had remarried to a lady named Martha E. born about 1867 in Ohio.  I had no further information about Martha.

My next step was to look on the Family Search site for a marriage record for Isaac & Martha.

Here is what I found in the index:

Ohio, County Marriages, 1789-1997
Name:     Isaac F. Gillen
Event Type:     Marriage
Event Date:     20 Sep 1889
Event Place:     Lawrence, Ohio, United States
Age:     21
Birth Year (Estimated):     1868
Spouse's Name:     Martha E. Snyder
Spouse's Age:     19
Spouse's Birth Year (Estimated):     1870
Reference ID: Vol. 15, p 216, no 2
GS Film Number: 317721
Digital Folder Number: 004016335
Image Number: 00152

NOTE that Isaac’s age is listed as 21.

Isaac was born in 1823 and this marriage took place in 1889.  That would make my Isaac about 66 years old when this marriage took place, NOT 21.  Martha would have been about 22 years old at the time of the marriage, if she was born about 1867.  Her age isn’t that far off, but Isaac’s is another story.

Fortunately, there was an image of the marriage record for me to look at.  Here is the image.



OK, the names are there – Isaac F. Gillen and Martha E. Snyder.  The date of marriage was 20 Sep 1889 in Lawrence Co., Ohio.

But those ages listed after their names.  What’s up with that?
 
Here is that portion of the document highlighted.  Read those words in the red boxes carefully.

“Isaac F. Gillen, who being first duly sworn, saith that he is MORE THAN 21 YEARS OF AGE, that he has no wife living, that he is not nearer of kin to Martha E. Snyder than second Cousins, that she is MORE THAN 18 YEARS OF AGE, that she has no husband living……………”

There you have it.  The indexer has listed their ages as 21 and 19.  Not sure where  the 19 came from, since the document has an 18 on it.  Maybe misread?

Isaac was certainly MORE THAN 21 years of age in 1889, wasn’t he?

It’s just invaluable for us, as researchers, to view the actual documents and not depend on transcriptions, indexes etc.  How many times I’ve received a “typed” copy of a record, only to later look at the original and find several errors.  I try to always ask for a photo copy of any original record I send for.

Having access to these original documents online is invaluable to us.  But, if we don’t have access online, then we must not just take the indexes and transcriptions as the final word.

Have you run across similar issues when you’ve viewed the original record vs what was indexed?  I’d love to hear about it.

OTHER POSTS THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST
VITAL RECORDS–HOW TO REQUEST THEM AND KEEP TRACK OF THOSE REQUESTS
EASY DOCUMENT EDITING TIPS

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2014   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION 

TUESDAY’S TIP - USING THE “INTERNET SEARCH” OPTION IN LEGACY 8

Today I’ve decided to use the internet search option in Legacy and see if it will bring up any new clues for my 2nd Great Granduncle, Anthony Bowen BOGGS or his wife, Anna CARY.

Here is a screen shot of the family view from Legacy.  This shows what I know about this couple.

(CLICK ON ANY IMAGE TO ENLARGE IT)



There’s not much information here, is there? 

TIP:  Be sure you have highlighted or selected the person you are wanting to research on the internet.  I am able to see that I've done that by the GREEN line under Anthony’s name. 

Before I use the Internet Search option I’ll take a look at any notes or sources I have on this couple. In Legacy, you can tell if there is content for any of the associated items by whether the icons are shown in grey or in color.  

You can see that for Anthony there are several colored icons below his info box.  There are three colored icons for Anna.

Here are the icons and what each one indicates.

In looking at each one of these I don’t see much.  Here is what I have for each of the icons that are in color (indicating content).

• The first 3 icons, his spouses name, parents names & siblings names
• For notes I have a note I wrote in 2009 regarding a possible match on familysearch.org pilot site.
• Under events there is an 1850 census with him in the household with parents & siblings
• Under sources I have One World Tree (very poor and undocumented source) and the 1850 census record.
• Under AKA’s I have Anthony B. Boggs
• The last icon is for Research Guidance and there several suggestions for me to look at.

Now I will go to the top of the page, on the shortcut bar and click on the globe that indicates Internet (red arrow).

NOTE:  I have customized the “My Toolbar” section of the shortcut bar to include the items I refer to or use the most.



When you click on the globe a drop down list appears with three items.

1.  Create Web Pages
2.  Legacy Homepage
3.  Search Internet for current person

I will select item number 3. 

This is the screen that comes up next.



If you click on the drop down arrow (as indicated by the red arrow below), you will get a list of choices for sites that Legacy can search for you.



You have options on the screen before you actually click on the “Search” icon.  Each of the selected websites allow you to adjust your search in various ways. On one can change the first & last name and the end year.  On another you might only be able to adjust the name.  So, pay attention to those fields before you click on search.  The fields you can change are in black letters and the ones you cannot change are grey.  You can opt to “close this window after each search, and you can also “customize searches.”

The Customize Searches option allows you to add or delete websites you want to have access to from this list.  

Let’s try a few searches for Anthony Bowen Boggs and see what I come up with.  

ANCESTRY.COM – 11,701 HITS 
ARCHIVES.COM – 46 RECORDS
BILLION GRAVES.COM – NO HITS
BING.COM – 42 RESULTS (the first two of which are my own blog)
FINDAGRAVE.COM – NO HITS
GENEALOGY BANK.COM – 221 HITS
GOOGLE.COM – 3 RESULTS
WORLDCONNECT.COM (aka ROOTSWEB) – 46 HITS 

As you can see “your results may vary.”  But, this is certainly a good way to see what’s out there on any given ancestor.  Some of these sites are free and some are subscription.  It took me less than 5 minutes to check these 8 sites.  The most promising one to me is the World Connect Rootsweb site, which is one I haven’t looked at in a long time.

I hope that by looking at some of the “hits” from various sites, I can increase the information I have for Anthony Bowen Boggs and his family.

Have you used this Legacy feature?  If so, do you find it useful?

OTHER POSTS THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST
LEGACY 8 - FAMILY STATISTICS REPORT
LEGACY 8 - A QUICK GUIDE TO LABEL & TAB COLORS
LEGACY 8 - CENSUS LIST - HOW WILL I USE IT TO SEARCH FOR MY FAMILY
LEGACY 8 - ADDING A RECORD - STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTIONS

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2014   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

IT’S AMAZING WHAT NEW CARPET AND PAINT CAN DO FOR YOUR OFFICE

As you may know, I’ve been away from the blog for a couple of weeks.  We had new carpet installed in the office and back bedrooms.  At the same time, we decided to paint.  Oh, and I found the cutest valances. 

Things have been in complete disarray and are now back together….at last!

And here is what it looks like this morning.  WOOHOO!!!



A reminder of what the office looked like, just one week ago today.



Let the research and blogging begin.  

Thanks to all my readers for your patience during this process.

Now…where to begin…what to write about?

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2014   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

AN OFFICE SHAKE-UP AND A TWISTED ANKLE

I thought I better post something to let my readers know what’s been going on.  Why haven’t I posted much this past couple of weeks?

First of all, we are installing new carpeting in the entire back of the house.  Along with that my husband and I decided to repaint the office and one bedroom.  I use a desktop to do my research and create blog posts.  I’m not a big fan of laptops, unless I am on the road. 

Add to that, the twisted ankle that happened last Thursday and there you have it. 

However, I decided I should get busy, so I am now using my laptop.  I don’t think the office will be back together as quickly as I’d like because it’s up to me to get it re-organized and I’m still gimping around.  My husband has done so much work and will be putting all the furniture back etc. 

Here’s a photo of the office as of this morning.



That’s what is going on here.  I hope to be back at it in the next few days.  In fact, I may even try to post something sooner. 

In the meantime, I have a stack of miscellaneous genealogy related papers that were sitting under my desk.  They are items I need to review and either act on, file or toss.  I’ll be digging into them as soon as I post this.   I’ll let you know how I do.   What new things will I discover?

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl