I never suspected there would ever be a need to write a blog post about this. Whoa is me.
I know how excited we are when we find our ancestors. I know how excited we are when we find out about where they lived. I can only imagine the pure joy of learning the home your multiple great grandparents homesteaded has remained in the family. I understand the desire to obtain photographs of them and of their old "home".
I'm a genealogist, too. Oh, how I love the photographs and what was and what it looks like today.
But! And this is a very important but, even if your multiple great grandparents home is still owned by family members it does mean it's open to every descendant that set of multiple greats had. It's private property. If your name is not on the title you do NOT have free reign to explore the old "home" place. It doesn't matter if you grew up on that chunk of land. It does NOT belong to you. It belongs to someone else.
In fact, if you put one foot on that chunk of ground you are trespassing. It does not matter if it doesn't have a sign stating it's private property and no trespassing is allowed. Government land, on all levels, is labeled as such. If it's not labeled as government land, it's private property.
The most upsetting thing about this post: Why is this NOT common knowledge? Have we sunk that low in our evolution?
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Retaining accuracy
This is a picture I took last fall of the original homestead of William and Mariah Birdsell in Browns Creek Twp, Jewell County, Kansas.
I have posted this picture to share with others who are working on this line of Birdsells on the condition they keep the statement between the quotes attached to this photograph.
I've already labeled the picture as who took the photograph (me), when (2011), where (Browns Creek Twp, Jewell County, Kansas) and what (original homestead of William and Mariah Birdsell). Why does it need the additional information? To help retain accuracy in future generations, plus it's leaving a hint to future generations about who I am and my heritage without giving too much information away.
I shouldn't have to put a condition of keeping everything intact if using the picture, but without doing so, the value of the information decreases. Not only that, it's the right thing to do, the polite thing to do, keeping the attribute to the person who actually did the work this small token of appreciation of their contribution toward the family history.
The next picture is even more important to keep the information together as you'll soon see.
"This is the land William and Mariah homesteaded in Browns Creek Twp, Jewell County, Kansas, USA. The house is not the original house. This house was built later by their daughter Alice Mary "Tute" Birdsell Whismore when she lived there with her husband Finley Ely Whismore."
This picture can be downloaded and shared as long as the above information is kept intact with it.
Call me selfish, but I do want others to know that I actually took this picture. I want them to know that I took time out of my schedule to contribute more information about the area where William and Mariah Birdsell settled.
Just as important, I want those who don't know the history of William and Mariah to realize this is not the house they built. This is the house that is there today, but this structure was actually built by their daughter and son-in-law. If I had any information about the original house I would have included it in this section, too.
For those starting out on this wonderful trail of discovering your roots, this may seem silly. Even like overkill. Let me show you why this is so very important with the following photograph.
The first time I saw this picture on line I believe it was posted by Anisah David, another direct descendant of William and Mariah. I do not know where she found this picture. It could have come from her great grandmother who was William and Mariah's youngest daughter. Or it could have come through yet another cousin out of Washington state. Or it could have come from my mother. Or a number of other sources.
Why is it important to know where it came from? It's not important to me, because I know the history of this picture.
However, yesterday I received a notice that someone had added this picture to their family tree. Interesting. I didn't think this person and I had been able to connect our families. So, I clicked on the picture to see how our family lines were connected. Whoa. Imagine my shock when I saw this picture attributed to a William Birdsell/Birdall that was born in 1772.
What made me sick was when I saw how many trees had this picture attached to the same William Birdsell/Birdsall that was born in 1772. I have proof this is not a picture of the William Birdsell/Birdsall born in 1772. I have proof this is a picture of my great, great grandfather, William Birdsell born on 24 Nov 1832 in Washington County, Ohio.
In the pictures that my mother was able to obtain from Hazel Gwendine Birdsell, Arthur White Birdsell's daughter, is a picture of this original picture hanging on the wall above Art's couch. Not only that, but Art and I believe his wife, Ora, and either Aunt Tute or Gwendine is sitting on the couch.
I know that is a picture of Art's house in Beloit, Mitchell County, Kansas, because I was there many times in my childhood. I remember that house. I remembered it long before I saw that picture. It's never faded from my memory. I loved that house. I adored the people who lived in that house. They made me feel special when I went there with my parents and sometimes with just my mother. That house has always invoked good memories for me.
Because the attributes were probably never put on this picture, it can be claimed by anyone who has a copy of it and attached to any William Birdsell/Birdsall they choose.
Sadly I will never get all of William and Mariah's descendants to go back and document where they obtained their copy, so while I can add my documentation to the various copies that I have of the picture, I will never get everyone, probably not anyone, to remove it from the wrong William Birdsell/Birdsall.
Because so many were so sloppy in their documentation, we've devalued a very valuable picture of one of our family members.
When my mother was collecting all her data and this picture, computers were not in every home. The internet wasn't around. Being able to scan a picture and sending it to everyone in the universe via email or social media didn't registar on her radar. She died in 1994 and never owned a computer in her life.
If you're reading this blog, you have a basic understanding of computers and the internet. Documenting your finds is more important now than ever before. Double checking your sources is even more important. never, ever take someone else's word on anything. If they list a source, find it for yourself before you believe it.
Protect your ancestors' history as you would protect your children.
Friday, March 30, 2012
Researching
Research is so underrated. All your successful and even a large portion of your pre-published writers believe in research. It's a sure bet that writers who refuse to do any research will remain unpublished.
My concern today is about genealogy and all the research required when one decides they want to trace their roots.
The first step is to start with yourself. You should know who you are, when you were born, and where you were born. Then add the information about your parents. If you know as a fact that your mother was born in a certain town or township in a state or country, then you can find the county. When I first started my research I knew the date, month, year and state where my mother was born. I was pretty I knew the county, but I also knew my maternal grandparents had a period of time in their lives when they moved around, so I wasn't positive when they entered that phase of their life. That meant when I entered my mothers information, I entered her full date of birth and the state she was born in. That was it. I wasn't 100% sure about the township and county, so I left that information out.
As a rule when it comes to genealogy, missing information is better than wrong information. When it came to my dad, I knew the date, county and state, but it took a little thinking to remember the township. Once I remember what chunk of land he was born on, I had the township. The reason the township took some thought was my dad was born on one side of the road, the other side of the road, where his father's dad lived is a different township. Until I sat down and thought about what I knew, I left the township information out of his entry.
Less is more, as long as what you have is correct.
Probably by the time you reach your grandparents you'll have to start doing some research. You might remember what month and even what month and day of the month when your grandparents were born, but most of us don't remember the year. In the case of my paternal grandfather, I remembered the year, but not the month or day. He was born in 1899 and for some reason that alway stuck with me. But I had to do some digging to find the month and day. Usually if you can find their obituary you'll have not only their date and place of birth and death, but also the names of their parents, siblings, children (in the case of large families where several have moved away), etc. And in some cases you'll find out that Aunt Tute's real name was Alice May. In the case of my family, Aunt Tute was not my grandfather's sibling, but my great grandfather's sister.
The idea is still the same though, you'll learn things in the obituaries about your family that you didn't know. As a rule, since family members who were there at the time of your ancestors death are the ones who wrote the obituary, the information is fairly accurate. Not always, but usually it's fairly accurate. Most obituaries are written after the person has died, so the family is grieving at the same time they're attempting to write a condensed accounting of that person's life. That combination means there will be some errors, but usually the information is close enough that a little digging will clear up any misinformation pretty quickly.
Sometimes dates are changed in the obituary due to typos or to hide a family scandal. For whichever reason, my great, great grandmother married my great, great grandfather on 5 Apr 1857. In her obituary it states they were married on 14 Apr 1856. Their first son was born 22 May 1857. Was the error due to typos? Or an attempt to hide the fact their first child was born six weeks after their marriage? Does it really matter? After all, we now have a time frame of when they married so we can go search for a marriage record.
The mate to research is common sense. Just as each of us has a mother and father, even if we never knew them, good genealogy requires research AND common sense.
If Mary Jane Smith was born in 1800 and died in 1822, then she could not have married David Jones in 1832. It's a different Mary Jane Smith who married your great, great, great, great uncle David Smith. Use your head. When you place it in your family tree as a fact that Mary Jane Smith, b. 1800 d. 1822 married David Jones in 1832, it makes you look stupid, lazy and pathetic. And she sure as hell wasn't the Mary Jane Smith who gave birth to all those children born between the years of 1833-1855.
Entries like the above make the rest of your family tree meaningless to real genealogist. It makes you a shadetree genealogist. Unreliable and honestly, an embarrassment to your family.
There are so many records that are digitized now days. Sloppy genealogy isn't excusable. One can do a tremendous amount of research with their computers sitting in an easy chair, munching on pretzels. When you're sloppy, your family members will wonder if you weren't sipping beer at the same time you decided this Mary Jane Smith was the only option out of all the Mary Jane Smith's to have married David Jones.
The other downside of what happens when we see lazy/shadetree genealogy, those of us who spend hours researching, using common sense and everything at our disposal to connect the dots of one generation to the next start hiding our detailed research from the shadetree genealogist. We don't want our detailed, documented work stolen and twisted to fit the shadetrees version that they refuse to back up with proof.
Where does one start? A good free place to start is Family Search. I will look at some of the family trees there, but I don't just grab the lineage information and accept it as the truth. I've found a lot of mistakes there, too. But they have a lot of records there that you can either print out or download to your computer that are accurate. When possible, click on the actual scanned image (they are not always available). I've found mistakes from when they are indexed, too. All of these are indexed by humans and humans by their very nature make mistakes.
If tracing your roots is something you think you really want to spend a lot of time and energy doing, then get a subscription to Ancestry.
You can have a public or private tree on Ancestry.com. I have one of each. You can add documents from within Ancestry to your tree.
Personally, I also have a family tree program. I use a Mac so I have MacFamilyTree. You can save all your documents to your family tree maker, too. Most of those files are saved as a GEDCOM file, which is a universal program for genealogy.
My complaint with the family trees at Ancestry, I can upload a GEDCOM file to my family tree there, but I can't download a GEDCOM file of the information I've entered into my tree there to my MacFamilyTree.
Still, the price of the subscription is worth it if you plan to do some heavy research.
A word of warning: it doesn't matter what site you use to explore public family trees, do NOT ever take someone else's information as fact. Be able to document it yourself.
Happy hunting. Research is fun.
My concern today is about genealogy and all the research required when one decides they want to trace their roots.
The first step is to start with yourself. You should know who you are, when you were born, and where you were born. Then add the information about your parents. If you know as a fact that your mother was born in a certain town or township in a state or country, then you can find the county. When I first started my research I knew the date, month, year and state where my mother was born. I was pretty I knew the county, but I also knew my maternal grandparents had a period of time in their lives when they moved around, so I wasn't positive when they entered that phase of their life. That meant when I entered my mothers information, I entered her full date of birth and the state she was born in. That was it. I wasn't 100% sure about the township and county, so I left that information out.
As a rule when it comes to genealogy, missing information is better than wrong information. When it came to my dad, I knew the date, county and state, but it took a little thinking to remember the township. Once I remember what chunk of land he was born on, I had the township. The reason the township took some thought was my dad was born on one side of the road, the other side of the road, where his father's dad lived is a different township. Until I sat down and thought about what I knew, I left the township information out of his entry.
Less is more, as long as what you have is correct.
Probably by the time you reach your grandparents you'll have to start doing some research. You might remember what month and even what month and day of the month when your grandparents were born, but most of us don't remember the year. In the case of my paternal grandfather, I remembered the year, but not the month or day. He was born in 1899 and for some reason that alway stuck with me. But I had to do some digging to find the month and day. Usually if you can find their obituary you'll have not only their date and place of birth and death, but also the names of their parents, siblings, children (in the case of large families where several have moved away), etc. And in some cases you'll find out that Aunt Tute's real name was Alice May. In the case of my family, Aunt Tute was not my grandfather's sibling, but my great grandfather's sister.
The idea is still the same though, you'll learn things in the obituaries about your family that you didn't know. As a rule, since family members who were there at the time of your ancestors death are the ones who wrote the obituary, the information is fairly accurate. Not always, but usually it's fairly accurate. Most obituaries are written after the person has died, so the family is grieving at the same time they're attempting to write a condensed accounting of that person's life. That combination means there will be some errors, but usually the information is close enough that a little digging will clear up any misinformation pretty quickly.
Sometimes dates are changed in the obituary due to typos or to hide a family scandal. For whichever reason, my great, great grandmother married my great, great grandfather on 5 Apr 1857. In her obituary it states they were married on 14 Apr 1856. Their first son was born 22 May 1857. Was the error due to typos? Or an attempt to hide the fact their first child was born six weeks after their marriage? Does it really matter? After all, we now have a time frame of when they married so we can go search for a marriage record.
The mate to research is common sense. Just as each of us has a mother and father, even if we never knew them, good genealogy requires research AND common sense.
If Mary Jane Smith was born in 1800 and died in 1822, then she could not have married David Jones in 1832. It's a different Mary Jane Smith who married your great, great, great, great uncle David Smith. Use your head. When you place it in your family tree as a fact that Mary Jane Smith, b. 1800 d. 1822 married David Jones in 1832, it makes you look stupid, lazy and pathetic. And she sure as hell wasn't the Mary Jane Smith who gave birth to all those children born between the years of 1833-1855.
Entries like the above make the rest of your family tree meaningless to real genealogist. It makes you a shadetree genealogist. Unreliable and honestly, an embarrassment to your family.
There are so many records that are digitized now days. Sloppy genealogy isn't excusable. One can do a tremendous amount of research with their computers sitting in an easy chair, munching on pretzels. When you're sloppy, your family members will wonder if you weren't sipping beer at the same time you decided this Mary Jane Smith was the only option out of all the Mary Jane Smith's to have married David Jones.
The other downside of what happens when we see lazy/shadetree genealogy, those of us who spend hours researching, using common sense and everything at our disposal to connect the dots of one generation to the next start hiding our detailed research from the shadetree genealogist. We don't want our detailed, documented work stolen and twisted to fit the shadetrees version that they refuse to back up with proof.
Where does one start? A good free place to start is Family Search. I will look at some of the family trees there, but I don't just grab the lineage information and accept it as the truth. I've found a lot of mistakes there, too. But they have a lot of records there that you can either print out or download to your computer that are accurate. When possible, click on the actual scanned image (they are not always available). I've found mistakes from when they are indexed, too. All of these are indexed by humans and humans by their very nature make mistakes.
If tracing your roots is something you think you really want to spend a lot of time and energy doing, then get a subscription to Ancestry.
You can have a public or private tree on Ancestry.com. I have one of each. You can add documents from within Ancestry to your tree.
Personally, I also have a family tree program. I use a Mac so I have MacFamilyTree. You can save all your documents to your family tree maker, too. Most of those files are saved as a GEDCOM file, which is a universal program for genealogy.
My complaint with the family trees at Ancestry, I can upload a GEDCOM file to my family tree there, but I can't download a GEDCOM file of the information I've entered into my tree there to my MacFamilyTree.
Still, the price of the subscription is worth it if you plan to do some heavy research.
A word of warning: it doesn't matter what site you use to explore public family trees, do NOT ever take someone else's information as fact. Be able to document it yourself.
Happy hunting. Research is fun.
Friday, March 16, 2012
Closer to home
Mom was the oldest of three children. Dad was the middle child of three children. Together they produced six children.
The following is based on the records I've found while picking up Mom's torch and carrying on what she started with genealogy.
One side of Mom's family tended to wander. Another side of her family appeared to find the promised land fairly early and settled there becoming part of their respective communities. On the side of the wandering family that Mom came from in more recent generations many of them did stay in the communities where they were born, married within the same community, raised their families there and died there. So, I'm not sure why there was so much wandering in the earlier generations. Perhaps they were searching for that place where they could make a better life for themselves and their families. Maybe they liked the idea of seeing so much of this big new country.
I doubt if I'll ever know the answer to those questions. Mom was born in Jewell County, Kansas. She died in Mitchell County, Kansas, an adjoining county to where she was born. But she didn't live her life in just those two counties. As a child I know they lived in various parts of Kansas, but always coming back to Jewell County. At one point, they moved to Idaho for a year at most. But they came back to Jewell County. She went to high school at a little country school until that high school was closed. Then the family must have moved to Beloit or close to Beloit, because she graduated from Beloit High School.
Less than a year after she graduated high school, she married Dad.
Let's back up a minute though.
Who was Dad? I know who he was as my dad. But what made him who he was?
Let's go back even one more generation. His dad was the oldest living child of his parents. My grandfather was born in October of 1899. Before he was born, his parents had had another child who was born 2 Dec 1898 and died 28 Dec 1898. The grave only states Infant Birdsell. I don't know if anyone knows if that baby was a little boy or little girl.
In October of 1899, Oscar and Mary welcomed my grandfather into their lives. Two and half years later, they welcomed a sister, and two years after that another brother and then in 1911 they welcomed the baby of the family. Their life was good. Until 16 April 1912 when Oscar lost his wife and the four children lost their mother. In October 1912, Oscar lost his own mother. He had four children to raise on his own. Oscar didn't remarry. I don't know who helped him raise his four kids. Other than I know Leona, the little girl born in 1902 quit school to help take care of her brothers. I hope my grandfather also helped raise his two little brothers.
I do know my grandfather hit his teen years without a mother.
Then on 31 October 1922 he married my grandmother. In August of 1923 they had their first child. A girl. In June of 1925 my dad was born. On the first day of October in 1927 they welcomed my uncle into their family. By all accounts, it was a happy family. Then, my grandmother was pregnant again, in 1929. This is not based on fact, but family stories. She wanted to go to the doctor. The story I heard was that my grandfather didn't think she needed a doctor. Whatever the case, whether it was because my grandmother wasn't allowed to go to see the doctor or if it was complications from child birth, my grandmother died 15 November 1929. Since there is no record of an infant, I suspect it was prior to attempting to deliver her unborn child.
My dad was four years old when he lost his mother.
Just like Oscar, Roscoe never remarried. He had three children to raise on his own. This is where things did change for my dad and his siblings. My grandmother's parents saw a need. In 1930, they moved in with their son-in-law and three grandchildren and helped raise them.
I know that my dad and his siblings felt like they'd lost more than grandparents when George and Addie passed away.
I wish I'd been wiser so I could have learned more about George and Addie. I do know that whenever anyone asked questions about their mother, my grandmother, the questions were usually met with silence. So, we stopped asking.
Anyway, Dad was the second generation to be raised motherless.
So, what dreams did he have when he married Mom? On that last day of the year in 1945 when he married Mom was he terrified that he'd end up with a third generation of motherless children? If he had those fears, did he ever share them with Mom?
All I know, because Mom told me this one time when I was mad at Dad, that there was nothing he wouldn't do for his children. Then she gave me examples of sacrifices he made for his children.
For the rest of his life, I watched him. A lot of times while I was in different parts of the country, but I watched and admitted time after time, Mom was right. Dad's, and her life, were for their children and later their grandchildren.
Many people talk about the importance of family. But the picture above is a wonderful example of two people who didn't talk about the importance of family, but lived their lives for their family. Young and old.
Mom and Dad left us so many legacies. The land that has been passed down from generation to generation to generation. The genealogy that goes back multiple generations so we'll know where we came from and the struggles our ancestors had to get us where we are today. But the most important legacy they left us was their living example of how to love your family.
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Why do I care about them?
Some people think genealogy is pointless. What difference does it make? Those people are gone. They lived their lives and now they're gone.
The truth is, one of these days we'll all be gone.
What I've learned, there's a lot more to a legacy than what my ancestors owned, or didn't own.
Following the routes your ancestors took during their life gives us a good idea about their spirit.
John Braden was born in Ireland around 1803. At one point in his life, prior to 1837 he boarded a ship and came to America. Why did he board that ship? I still don't know. Did he come over with the specific purpose of marrying Leticia Braden? Was Leticia his cousin? Was it arranged? I don't know. I suspect they were cousins. I don't know for sure.
The fact remains, John Braden was on a ship that came to America. During that time frame in history, it says something about him, knowing nothing more than he got on that ship. It says he was willing to do what he needed to do to make a better life for himself. It suggests that he did not have a weak spirit. Nor a weak faith in himself or God.
With that teeny tiny bit of information it makes me proud. I realize he might have gotten on the ship to avoid debtors prison, or a number of not so savory reasons. That possibility does exist and I'm not so naive to think he was all goodness and righteousness. I have no idea what his moral compass was. Except I have a pretty good idea because of the generations that followed him. The children that he and Leticia produced give a picture of how they lived their lives and the moral compass they used.
Two of his sons were ordained ministers. One of his sons was a farmer who devoted his life to his children. That son was my great, great grandfather. All I have to do is take the information I have of John's descendants to get an idea of who he was. I'll admit, I don't know what happened to all of my great, great grandfathers siblings, but those that I could follow were all highly respected within their communities.
I know John Braden placed a huge headstone on Leticia's grave after she passed away. Was it out of love, or guilt? I have no idea. But it's there and it's striking to see.
I know William and Maria Birdsell left Iowa with six children and moved to Kansas. No easy feat in the 1870s. I know William's grandfather was alive during the Revolutionary War. I don't know if he fought in it. But he was there when this country gained her independence. I know for some reason, Martin, William's grandfather, left New York state in the early 1820s and moved to Ohio.
I could go on and on and on and on about these interesting people who came before me.
Why do I care about them? Because they are interesting. Because they when life got tough for them, they did not give up. They lost children. They lost mates. They lost homes. They even lost their lives. But they lived their lives. They have left records of the lives they lived. Each record tells more of their story.
I care about them, because they cared enough to protect their families. To do something about their lives so their children and future generations could have a good life.
Every day through the various social medias, I see people complaining about their lives. Day in and day out. Do they really think life just happens? Don't they realize that to have a good life takes work? Can they not see past their yesterday and today and realize that the life they have is the life they've set into motion?
If you don't like the life you have, do as your ancestors did, do what you have to do to make a better one for yourself, your children and your grandchildren and all those great, great, great grandchildren yet to come.
Let them go back into history one day and find your name and piece together your story and let them be amazed and proud to have come from such strong humans. Even if you don't care, one of these days, several generations down the road, someone will care about who you were. Leave them a trail of records that shows them the spirit and spunk that you had.
Or sit on your butt and do nothing about it and let those future generations shake their heads amazed that you were able to live long enough to procreate. The choice is yours. It doesn't belong to anyone but yourself.
So thank you to all my ancestors who had what it took to take the chances you took so that those of us today can have the lives we have today. Thank you from the bottom of my heart and I'm so proud that you are my ancestors. You make me want to be a better person, so my records will reflect some of your courage and spirit.
The truth is, one of these days we'll all be gone.
What I've learned, there's a lot more to a legacy than what my ancestors owned, or didn't own.
Following the routes your ancestors took during their life gives us a good idea about their spirit.
John Braden was born in Ireland around 1803. At one point in his life, prior to 1837 he boarded a ship and came to America. Why did he board that ship? I still don't know. Did he come over with the specific purpose of marrying Leticia Braden? Was Leticia his cousin? Was it arranged? I don't know. I suspect they were cousins. I don't know for sure.
The fact remains, John Braden was on a ship that came to America. During that time frame in history, it says something about him, knowing nothing more than he got on that ship. It says he was willing to do what he needed to do to make a better life for himself. It suggests that he did not have a weak spirit. Nor a weak faith in himself or God.
With that teeny tiny bit of information it makes me proud. I realize he might have gotten on the ship to avoid debtors prison, or a number of not so savory reasons. That possibility does exist and I'm not so naive to think he was all goodness and righteousness. I have no idea what his moral compass was. Except I have a pretty good idea because of the generations that followed him. The children that he and Leticia produced give a picture of how they lived their lives and the moral compass they used.
Two of his sons were ordained ministers. One of his sons was a farmer who devoted his life to his children. That son was my great, great grandfather. All I have to do is take the information I have of John's descendants to get an idea of who he was. I'll admit, I don't know what happened to all of my great, great grandfathers siblings, but those that I could follow were all highly respected within their communities.
I know John Braden placed a huge headstone on Leticia's grave after she passed away. Was it out of love, or guilt? I have no idea. But it's there and it's striking to see.
I know William and Maria Birdsell left Iowa with six children and moved to Kansas. No easy feat in the 1870s. I know William's grandfather was alive during the Revolutionary War. I don't know if he fought in it. But he was there when this country gained her independence. I know for some reason, Martin, William's grandfather, left New York state in the early 1820s and moved to Ohio.
I could go on and on and on and on about these interesting people who came before me.
Why do I care about them? Because they are interesting. Because they when life got tough for them, they did not give up. They lost children. They lost mates. They lost homes. They even lost their lives. But they lived their lives. They have left records of the lives they lived. Each record tells more of their story.
I care about them, because they cared enough to protect their families. To do something about their lives so their children and future generations could have a good life.
Every day through the various social medias, I see people complaining about their lives. Day in and day out. Do they really think life just happens? Don't they realize that to have a good life takes work? Can they not see past their yesterday and today and realize that the life they have is the life they've set into motion?
If you don't like the life you have, do as your ancestors did, do what you have to do to make a better one for yourself, your children and your grandchildren and all those great, great, great grandchildren yet to come.
Let them go back into history one day and find your name and piece together your story and let them be amazed and proud to have come from such strong humans. Even if you don't care, one of these days, several generations down the road, someone will care about who you were. Leave them a trail of records that shows them the spirit and spunk that you had.
Or sit on your butt and do nothing about it and let those future generations shake their heads amazed that you were able to live long enough to procreate. The choice is yours. It doesn't belong to anyone but yourself.
So thank you to all my ancestors who had what it took to take the chances you took so that those of us today can have the lives we have today. Thank you from the bottom of my heart and I'm so proud that you are my ancestors. You make me want to be a better person, so my records will reflect some of your courage and spirit.
Sunday, March 04, 2012
Ancestors...again
This is another rant. I'm so sorry, but I'm bordering on pissed.
If you want to research your ancestors, please do. It's fun and it gives meaning to those who came before you. These wonderful ancestors of ours did not have an easy life. The problems they faced in relocating were beyond anything we can imagine today. The journey across the ocean was not taken lightly. They knew boarding the ship there was a chance they would never arrive to the distant shore. There were large numbers of burial at seas during those days.
They under took such a risk to give all of us a better life than what they had in their home country.
Since they took that risk for us, the very least we can do is respect them enough to publish online the facts as facts and the maybes with a note that what you suspect hasn't been proven yet.
In 1983 my mother compiled a book called Braden: Descendants of John and Leticia 1800-1983.
It took her years and a lot of money to get the documentation to prove what she put in the book was FACT not FICTION. Not only that, but she included copies of her supporting documents in the book. Yes, there are typos. But a teeny tiny bit of research will clear those up.
I've spent the last few days typing into my MacFamily Tree the names and dates from her book. Including the index it's 437 pages of information. For anyone who wants more information on that side of the family it's pretty close to being a Braden family bible. It is researched thoroughly and in the introduction she stated what she had left that she wanted to prove, but couldn't prove at this time.
Today, I went to Ancestry.com to see if anyone else had gone back past John and Leticia. I came away in this frame of mind.
If you do a search on John and Leticia you won't find them. I checked the other family trees that had some of the descendants in them. One, they spelled Leticia's name differently. The most common was Letitia. Hey, I have a copy of her marriage record from Ohio. It CLEARLY states that on November 21st, 1837 John Braden and Leticia Braden were united in marriage by Hugh S Fullerton.
Anyone can request a copy of that record. ANYONE. Why did you not do so?
James Watt Braden, John and Leticia's son, married only once. There was no second marriage. He was my great, great grandfather. He did not die in Iowa. He died in Athens Township, Jewell County, Kansas, USA on 13 Dec. 1913. I know this for a fact. How do I know it as fact? Because I have a copy of his death certificate from the State of Kansas.
On the same death certificate it asks name of father: John Braden. Birth place of father: Ireland. Maiden name of mother: Letticia Braden (so for those of you who have her maiden name as something else, she was a Braden before marriage and after marriage). Birth place of mother: Ireland.
Just where did those of you (and there are almost all of you) who have her being more in Ross County, Ohio, USA getting your facts? Oh, that's right, you just put it up there with zero supporting documents.
My mother got her facts right before the age of computers. She did it by sending out snail mail letters with an SASE (self addressed stamped envelope) in each request to a relative. Less than 50% of her SASE's ever came back. She did it by sending another request to the counties, states, etc., paying for each document she has to support her book.
Your ancestors weren't lazy when they made the decision to forge a new life for themselves and future generations. The early researchers were not lazy either when trying to trace our lines back as far as they could.
Respect not only those who came before you, and who will come after you, but show enough respect for yourself to make sure what you publish online is either FACT or be honest and state there is no documentation to support your theory.
None of us can get very far in tracing our lines back without the help of so many others. Make sure when people think of you as a source they think of you as a reliable source and not a hack. Please.
If you want to research your ancestors, please do. It's fun and it gives meaning to those who came before you. These wonderful ancestors of ours did not have an easy life. The problems they faced in relocating were beyond anything we can imagine today. The journey across the ocean was not taken lightly. They knew boarding the ship there was a chance they would never arrive to the distant shore. There were large numbers of burial at seas during those days.
They under took such a risk to give all of us a better life than what they had in their home country.
Since they took that risk for us, the very least we can do is respect them enough to publish online the facts as facts and the maybes with a note that what you suspect hasn't been proven yet.
In 1983 my mother compiled a book called Braden: Descendants of John and Leticia 1800-1983.
It took her years and a lot of money to get the documentation to prove what she put in the book was FACT not FICTION. Not only that, but she included copies of her supporting documents in the book. Yes, there are typos. But a teeny tiny bit of research will clear those up.
I've spent the last few days typing into my MacFamily Tree the names and dates from her book. Including the index it's 437 pages of information. For anyone who wants more information on that side of the family it's pretty close to being a Braden family bible. It is researched thoroughly and in the introduction she stated what she had left that she wanted to prove, but couldn't prove at this time.
Today, I went to Ancestry.com to see if anyone else had gone back past John and Leticia. I came away in this frame of mind.
If you do a search on John and Leticia you won't find them. I checked the other family trees that had some of the descendants in them. One, they spelled Leticia's name differently. The most common was Letitia. Hey, I have a copy of her marriage record from Ohio. It CLEARLY states that on November 21st, 1837 John Braden and Leticia Braden were united in marriage by Hugh S Fullerton.
Anyone can request a copy of that record. ANYONE. Why did you not do so?
James Watt Braden, John and Leticia's son, married only once. There was no second marriage. He was my great, great grandfather. He did not die in Iowa. He died in Athens Township, Jewell County, Kansas, USA on 13 Dec. 1913. I know this for a fact. How do I know it as fact? Because I have a copy of his death certificate from the State of Kansas.
On the same death certificate it asks name of father: John Braden. Birth place of father: Ireland. Maiden name of mother: Letticia Braden (so for those of you who have her maiden name as something else, she was a Braden before marriage and after marriage). Birth place of mother: Ireland.
Just where did those of you (and there are almost all of you) who have her being more in Ross County, Ohio, USA getting your facts? Oh, that's right, you just put it up there with zero supporting documents.
My mother got her facts right before the age of computers. She did it by sending out snail mail letters with an SASE (self addressed stamped envelope) in each request to a relative. Less than 50% of her SASE's ever came back. She did it by sending another request to the counties, states, etc., paying for each document she has to support her book.
Your ancestors weren't lazy when they made the decision to forge a new life for themselves and future generations. The early researchers were not lazy either when trying to trace our lines back as far as they could.
Respect not only those who came before you, and who will come after you, but show enough respect for yourself to make sure what you publish online is either FACT or be honest and state there is no documentation to support your theory.
None of us can get very far in tracing our lines back without the help of so many others. Make sure when people think of you as a source they think of you as a reliable source and not a hack. Please.
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