Memorial Day

I don't know who created this picture. The information to attribute the creator was lost before the picture made it's way to me. But this is why we have this holiday. Let us not forget.

Thank you veterans.

Combining Family Information

One of the more difficult things we struggle with in genealogy is attempting to determine who exactly is Aunt Tute. After spending hours, even days going over the various census lists there is no Tute listed anywhere. Who is this woman in the picture labeled Aunt Tute?

In this case, I knew as soon as I saw it, because I remember Aunt Tute. Also, it was labeled with her given name, too. Alice Mary "Tute". I'm sure there is a story as to how she acquired her nickname. Probably had nothing to do with the obvious things that creep into our minds. What I've learned in this search is our ancestors weren't as crude as we tend to be today. So, I'm guessing it was something very innocent that gave her that nickname, and not a flatulence problem. After all, her sister Violo Victoria was referred to as Aunt Dot. No clue where the Dot came from. And her other sister was referred to as Aunt Nan. That's the only one that makes sense since her name was Nancy.

With Aunt Dot, Aunt Tute and Aunt Nan it's easy for me to know whom is who. I grew up with those three names. Two of them had passed before I was born, but I remember hearing about them.

I can only imagine what someone who have never lived around this area, who didn't grow up hearing about those names go through when they see information pertaining to Tute or Dot. I'm sure they're scratching their heads going who on earth is Dot. I didn't find any Dorothy.

We can help these people. When I list Aunt Dot I list her as Viola Victoria "Dot" Surname. Aunt Tute is listed as Alice Mary "Tute" Surname. Aunt Dot stayed in this area. Aunt Tute spent a lot of her life in Kansas, but went to Louisiana toward the end. Their direct descendants will know all this. Who won't know it? There were eight children in that family. One died without marrying or leaving descendants. Their sister migrated to Colorado. I don't know if her descendants are aware of their nicknames. One of their brothers migrated to Washington state. I'm positive they would not associate Aunt Tute with Alice Mary or Aunt Dot with Viola Victoria. Another brother migrated to California. Since the Kansas part of the family has lost touch with the California part of the family, I'm sure that his descendants would not make the connection. Yet they could very well have pictures of Dot and Tute since the siblings kept in touch with each other.

Why is this important? I have a picture of Aunt Millie. Each time I "think" I know who Aunt Millie might be, I come up with reasons why it probably isn't her. Recently I have contacted others who share the same family line. They are direct descendants of one of my great, great grandmother's sister. Even if they can't pin point who Aunt Millie is, they can help if they can say, no that isn't my direct ancestor. At least that's one of Great, Great Grandma's sisters that I can say isn't the woman in the picture.

Genealogy is not something we do in a vacuum. It's all of us working together, sharing and combining our information so we can get the most accurate information pertaining to our ancestors.

Embrace your long lost cousins. Share the thrill of learning more about your common ancestors with them. It makes genealogy a lot more fun.

Bargains that result in gold

Recently I discovered there was a published book called Descendants of John Cox of Abington, Indiana and Joseph Cox of Hampton, Illinois by Ruth Anna Hicks and William Jerome Utermohlen. It was published in 2007. I went to the website, found the email address and sent an email to Mr. Utermohlen to make sure they still had copies of this book.

They did. Not only that, the price was reduced significantly. A bargain. Who doesn't love a bargain. Between the time I ordered it until it arrived, I'd found a few comments about the book. I was pretty excited. My expectations were very high.

That's usually a pretty fatal combination. A bargain and high expectations.

This time, it was a winning combo. My expectations fell way short of the quality of this book. I've seen several family books. My mother even published one on the Braden side of our family. This is by far the most professional family book I have ever seen.

It's loaded with facts, supporting documents, pictures and stories about my ancestors on that line of the family. I knew there would be a picture of Rachel Cox Knight, my great, great, great grandmother in the book.

The picture of Samuel was that nugget of gold. I don't believe my mother ever saw a picture of Samuel Knight. I know she did of Rachel, since she had one of Rachel in the stash I have custody of now.

This book contained information about Samuel's life. Another nugget. Samuel's grandson was my great grandfather. He didn't know much about his father or grandfather. Samuel's son, my great grandfather's father, died when my great grandfather was four years old. I never expected to learn much about Samuel. I didn't even dream that one day I'd see a picture of him.

It's not a great picture. I did email Mr. Utermohlen so see if he could email me a scanned copy of the picture they used in the book. He did so. I took that scanned copy and cropped it to where we have a picture of Samuel Knight. Bill Utermohlen said the original was a tin type picture and his partner in the publication of their book was sent a photocopy of the picture. He wasn't sure exactly who sent Ruth Anna the copy, but possibly either Eleanor Antes or Jerry Cox.

Is that information important? Of course it is. As far as I know this is the only picture of Samuel Knight. The trail of where the copy came from is important to keep it attributed to my great, great, great grandfather who was named Samuel Knight, born 1799, Pennsylvania, died, 1867, Iowa.

There are a lot of Samuel Knight's in this world. Today and from all our yesterdays. All of us love pictures of our family, even those who were gone long before we were born. The chances are very high for someone who has an ancestor named Samuel Knight, born 1810, New York, died 1894, Iowa to claim this picture as his ancestor. Because I asked about the history of this photograph, it's easier to stake my claim to this being my ancestor and not belonging to the other Samuel Knights.

Each time we get a nugget of gold, it's our job, the genealogist -- the chosen -- the story tellers -- to not only preserve the information, including pictures and documents, but the history of how each piece was obtained. It helps to prove this belongs to our ancestor when someone later comes along and attributes it to their ancestor, who obviously isn't our ancestor.

Protect your ancestors with the same vigor you use to protect your descendants.

Grieving dogs

Last February we lost our black and tan doxie. His name was Thor. The red doxie was his sister from a different litter. There was about 18 months between them in ages.

For the longest time we didn't only lose Thor, but his sister, Ernie, was lost to us, too. We did everything we could to make her world a little better. But she went into a severe depression. One we worried she'd never come back to us from.

We were going to take her to the vet to get her checked for other serious conditions. Something happened, I can't remember what was going on and I couldn't make the appointment. I planned to reschedule it for the next week.

But in the early days of May, slowly, Ernie started coming back to us. From the time Thor left us, until the last couple weeks, Ernie lived on the couch. We took her food to her there. We took her water to her there. We carried her outside to do her business. It was horrible.

But now, she gets off the couch. She goes outside on her own. She gets a drink of water on her own. She even plays with the new puppy some.

I just wanted to let people know that if you have two dogs who have spent their lives together and you lose one of them, do not give up on the survivor. It takes time. But there is a chance they'll come around.

Burt, our new dog, will never mean as much to Ernie as Thor did. She still gives him more teeth kisses than tongue kisses, but at least now she'll be around him and even play a little with him.

And she has her smile back. How we missed her smile.

When Headaches turn into Gold Mines

I've spent the last three days going through about ten pictures. It's taken me that long to find out just who was in each picture.

The only thing that was on the back of this picture was Julia Glover and Mother. Then a note: Mother's a sister of Grandma Emma Coffield.

Okay. Thanks. Seriously, could we be a teeny, tiny bit more cryptic? Who is mother? Without knowing who Mother is, how can I figure out who Julia Glover happens to be?

So, here I've been chasing down Great, Great Grandma Emma's siblings. One sister was a complete dead end. The first census she appears in she's listed as a female named Edwin. The next census is either Elvira or Almire. I couldn't find anything on her/him after he/she left their parent's home.

I trace out the other siblings. There's no Julia in their descendants that I can find. What the heck? Then I find a photograph and all that's on it is this label "Grandma Coffield's sister in Kalamazoo, Michigan."

Great. I can't find a sister that stayed in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

On a whim and grasping at straws I did a search on Ancestry.com. All I put in was the name Julia Glover and I listed her mother as last name only of Campbell. Pay dirt. The first item that popped up was a death record for Julia Glover. It gave me the name of her parents. Then I added her father as the spouse to Edwin/Almire/Elvira Campbell. More gold. I finally deduced the paper trail and found Elvira Campbell Smith's death record. It listed her parents as John Campbell and Ellen Train. Yes!!! A perfect match for Grandma Emma's sister. Not only that, Elvira lived in Kalamazoo, Michigan. I now had names for the sister and her husband in the picture that was taken in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

I know it hasn't taken long to type this out, but when trying to attribute the correct people in pictures it takes a very long time. I have had to go up and down the branches in the family tree. Filling in every person who fits, just to make sure I wasn't overlooking someone we have a picture of.

This picture didn't take as long because I recognized the clues that were left for me. By the way, the labels on them now are the labels I've attached after digging around to see whom is who.

This one is labeled on the back as: Grandma Emma Coffield, Aunt Helen Gardner, Aunt Emma Haas.

First I had to go find all of William Oren Coffield's siblings. William Oren is Emma's husband.

Once I did that, I needed to make sure Helen married a Gardner. She did. Yay. Emma wasn't so easy. She started out life being called Martha. Then she was called Emma. We find her with her mother in California as Emma Smith. There is no clue when following the hints that a Mr. Haas was every involved. The only clue was because the surname she used in 1918 when this picture was taken was Haas.

It took some research, but I learned which Mr. Haas she married. I found them in a census together, along with the daughter she had named Rubie Smith in the 1910 census. In the 1920 census her daughter was Ruby Haas and she was Emma Haas.

The only clue to even look for a Haas was this picture and the picture from the same time of Grandma Emma with Aunt Emma Haas and Cousin Ruby Haas.

Now I not only have the correct lineage for each picture, but I have documents backing up the lineage.

All I can do is say a HUGE thank you to my mother for leaving these trails on the back of pictures. Friday morning I thought I had a stash of pictures I'd never be able to use. Today my identified and verified pile is much larger than my unknown pile.

Though the picture isn't a clear picture, the one I'm most proud of being able to finally attribute to the correct people is the one of Grandma Coffield's sister in Kalamazoo, Michigan. If you'd asked me on Friday if I'd have it tagged on Monday, I would have told you I would be lucky if I ever got it tagged.

I can feel Mom smiling and Aunt Elvira sighing and softly saying, "thank you for finding me and my story".

The rest of their story

On 31 Oct 1922, Roscoe Oren Birdsell took Thelma Marie Larison as his wife.

They moved to a farm in Athens Township, Jewell County, Kansas to start their life together. Today, their descendants refer to that chunk of land as the Slattery Place. The house that used to be there is where their three children were born. It's where they lived most of their married life together.

In August of 1929, Roscoe and Thelma moved a mile south of where they had spent their married life, to what their children and six of their grandchildren would refer to as the home place. It's the place where their three children were raised and where six of their grandchildren were raised.

The house they lived in at the home place is no longer there. There was a fire sometime in the 1940s and they lost the house. They did move another house to the farm.

The fire not only destroyed the last house that Thelma had lived in, but most of the pictures that existed of her.

August of 1929, a 29 year old Roscoe and a 25 year old Thelma moved to their new home. A quarter section that was theirs to farm. They moved there with their three children, ages 6, 4 and 2, plus the fourth one that Thelma was pregnant with. I can only imagine their excitement as they entered this stage of their married life together.

The world was theirs. Their dreams were coming true. They'd build a beautiful farm and raise a large loving family.

Then 29 October 1929 happened. Two months after they made one of the largest investments in their life, the stock market crashed. The economy was on shaking grounds. The price of grain had taken a hit. The milo crop was still in the field, but not worth near as much as it had been the day before.

It was time to tighten the old belt and do without, so they didn't lose their home, their farm, everything they'd worked so hard to acquire.

I don't know at what point in November Thelma realized she didn't feel good. Were her symptoms only muscle aches and pains? I suspect that, possibly with some agitation tossed in. Maybe her vision was a little blurry. It was November. They probably convinced themselves it was only the flu and would correct itself in a day or two.

All of that combined with the sudden, drastic economical fear of the stock market crashing delayed medical care and treatment.

On 15 November 1929, a little over two weeks after the country went into financial shock, Roscoe went into mourning. His wife died of eclampsia and nephritis.

I know my granddad carried the guilt of feeling responsible for his wife's death to his grave.

When his daughter approached him about marrying her beau, I for one second don't doubt that it was his fear for her that prompted him into suggesting she wait. The guilt he carried for not protecting his own wife was converted into outright fear that some man would cause the death of his daughter.

Did Roscoe refuse to let Thelma see a doctor? I seriously doubt it. I suspect they decided to wait it out, never dreaming it would end in her death.

He had turned 30 years of age in October. Their decisions were based on the information they had at the time. They had three kids to feed, another one on the way, a scary economy. Neither of them had any medical background. And in 1929, I'm not sure there was a lot the medical community could have done for her either.

I wish we'd been smarter when Granddad was alive. I wish someone, somewhere would have sat him down and told him he wasn't to blame.

One of Granddad's last acts was a tribute to Thelma. Buying the piece of land where he and Thelma had lived most of their married life was not so much for our benefit, but a tribute to his wife and the short life they'd lived together.

Our tribute to both of them is to keep the land in his family and to keep their memories and their stories alive for future generations.

Look at the picture. Imagine the young couple and their three children. If you listen closely, you can even hear their laughter.

That's the story they want us to remember. The story of their lives together. Not the story surrounding Thelma's last few days and the decades of guilt that followed Roscoe.

Who was she?

As long as I can remember, I've wanted more stories about the woman in the picture. I wanted to know what she looked like. I wanted to know what she was like. I wanted to hear stories about her. I wanted to know her through those who had known her.

She's my grandmother. She died about a year after this picture was taken at the age of 25. My father rarely talked about her. When he did it was usually just stating he didn't remember much about her. I never had the nerve to ask my grandfather, her husband, about her. Ditto, my aunt, who was six when her mother died. And the baby she's holding was only two when his mother died, so he doesn't have any memories of his mother. In fact, he couldn't verify this was his mother.

Who was this woman? I still don't know. There's a chance that I will never know exactly who she was.

But in my quest to find out who she was, I've learned so much about those who did know her.

I already knew who her parents were. I knew who her sister was. The genealogy aspect I pretty much knew.

I don't know if she liked to garden, or did she knit? Was she a good cook? When she wasn't busy with raising her children or tending to her chores, what did she like to do? Did she like to read a few paragraphs of a book or newspaper? Or did she spend her time gazing out a window dreaming of their future, or far away places?

Maybe the best thing to know about her is what I already know. How much impact she had on those who knew her. Her parents loved her enough to give up their child free life and move in with their son-in-law and three motherless grandchildren. Her husband loved her enough to go get her parents, pay off their debts and move them in with him to help him raise his children.

Her husband had lost his own mother at the age of twelve. He knew what it was like to live in a home without a mother. He also knew that his youngest brother had been raised for a few years by their aunt until he was old enough that he didn't need a mother constantly with him. Did he have enough time to assure his wife that he would make sure her children would be raised with him and with a mother figure? When they knew it was too late for her, did she suggest to him that he should bring her parents to his house?

I don't know. I'll never know. I know that is what happened.

I also know that before the woman in this picture died, my grandfather loved to dress up in suits. I didn't know it until after I'd started researching my family. It surprised me how many pictures of him dressed up there were.

At what point he decided to do it, I don't know, but from everything I've heard and seen, after her funeral he took his suit off and he did not put another one for the rest of his life.

He was buried in a suit and tie. At the time I thought it was disrespectful of who he'd been in life. Now I realize it was respectful of who he had been in life. He dressed up for his wife. It's only fitting that he met her on the other side in a suit and tie.

Who was the woman in this picture? A young woman who was loved very deeply by a man who probably didn't tell her often enough how much he loved her, but lived the rest of his life honoring her in his own silent way.

After learning all that, what else can define her short life any better?

This is why I search for information on those wonderful ancestors of mine.

Finding lost things

So many times when tracing our family we find lost relatives. Some living, some not.

There are times we find unlabeled pictures of wonderful people, but we can't attach a name to them unless we're sure who they are.

Today I finally decided to deal with a picture that has bugged me for some time.

What you see is all I have regarding this picture.

Any history buffs out there who recognize this early town. Probably an early town in Jewell or Mitchell County.

Our mother's trust

Tomorrow is Mother's Day.

For all the mothers who contributed to me. Thank you.

Uncovering the Past to discover the Present

As a genealogist, we don't go blindly into uncovering the past. We have at least a few family stories to give us an idea on what we can find. Sometimes the lack of family stories tells us a lot, too. In my case, I haven't found exactly what it's telling me. 

Once in a while, as you dig through the archives of document after document, hint after hint, member activity, etc., you find the present.

I'd already found a wonderful distant cousin and source to bounce ideas off of on my dad's side. I'd be lost without our conversations, not just the ones about genealogy. I think of her as a new found friend, too. The stories she can bring to me from her direct line of ancestors before it merges with mine are priceless. I wouldn't trade this relatively new relationship in for anything. 

That doesn't mean finding new old ones isn't as exciting. It is. Last night on a different side of the family I found my first cousin has the genealogy bug. And that is every bit as exciting as finding a long lost relative who is long gone. This isn't a long lost relative who is gone. This is a relative who is here and who is searching some of the same people I'm searching. And it's exciting to have not only the connection from our childhood, but this connection of tracing our family. 

Not only did I undercover the present through her, I uncovered more of the present when my aunt sent me a message on Facebook. All of my living first cousins on my mom's side of the family are located and I'm connected with them now thanks to genealogy and Facebook. 

This is why we search for the past. To not only find the past, but the present. It's not the goal to have the biggest family, but to take time for all the family. Especially those who are still with us. It doesn't matter if they don't care about genealogy. Our ancestors tie us to each other. But the time we spend together, either in person, or via email or phone calls is what's important. 

I'm so glad that I'm connecting with new found family and reconnecting with family I've always known about, but lost track of. 

To get to the present is just one more reason to dig into the past. 

And today, I'm loving having more family in my life.

One World Tree

One World Tree is touted as being one of the absolute best sources for genealogist.

Okay.

Fine.

Oh, wait.

It's basically a place where people submit the information from their tree to a storage house.

We're back to square one. Dates given aren't facts without documentation. Places stated aren't facts without documentation.

I have a birth certificate that has my name on it. It has my date of birth on it. It states when, where and to whom I was born. The two adults who raised me not only answered to Mom and Dad, they answered to the names stated on the birth certificate. Each of them had a birth certificate that had the same information on it, where, when and to whom they were born. I grew up knowing these other adults in my life were my grandparents. It took a while to realize that grandparents meant they were the mom and dad of my mom and dad. Dad didn't have a mom. Well, he did but instead of visiting her, once a year we'd visit her grave.

All my life, I had no reason to not believe the family history since there is documentation that backs up who my parents are. Not only my birth certificate, but in the 1960 and 1970 Federal Census I'll be listed as their daughter. How can I be so sure? Because I remember them raising me and not only was I listed as their daughter in their obituary, but they claimed me as their daughter in their wills. Not only that, the five people whom I call my siblings have not taken me to court to contest this fact.

This is all a set up of why I trust the information my mom and dad said to me. They backed it up with time, energy, love, support, etc., etc., etc.

Even so, when I trace my ancestors, I grab every document that I can. Not because I think my parents lied to me. No, I do it to prove the family tie to those who don't know me, or didn't know my parents.

When I get to my grandparents, I haven't found birth certificates for any of them. I know the ones born in Kansas won't have them. Kansas didn't require birth certificates at that time. There might be one in Illinois for my maternal grandmother, but I'm not sure. I do have a marriage license for my each of my grandparents. I have census data. I have pictures that were labeled.

Other than my paternal grandmother, I knew my grandparents. I spent time with them.

Going back one more generation, to my great grandparents: three of my four paternal grandparents were gone before I was born. The fourth one passed away a year after I was born. I don't have any memories of her. On my maternal side, all four were living when I was born. Two passed away fourteen months later. Again, I don't have memories of them. The other two passed away within a few years, but they lived in Idaho and I don't think I ever saw them or they ever saw me.

To start my search on my great grandparents, I have to rely on information I remember my parents and grandparents telling me. Then it is up to me to find the documents showing the truth in what I was told before I make public any information pertaining to them.

It's even more true when it comes to my great, great grandparents.

By the time we get to our great, great grandparents we're one of usually several hundred who can claim them as a great, great grandparent. In the majority of the cases everything wasn't given to one child, so the information or family heirloom that was passed down to my direct line will be different than the heirloom or information passed down the direct line of another one of their children.

What does all this have to do with One World Tree? When the only information presented is names, dates and places with zero supporting documents, the information is basically useless.

The one thing One World Tree does provide, names, dates and places. But it is up to each person to prove or disprove if that name, date and place is accurate. Just because it's listed on One World Tree does not mean it's true. I know for a fact it doesn't. Sarah Ann Renshaw Gaines, the mother of my great, great grandmother Martha Matilda Gaines Knight Trubey did not die in Kansas. She is buried in Illinois. Her husband came to Kansas sometime after her death to live with his daughter Martha. He did die in Kansas. I've been to his grave which is in Kansas. But Sarah Ann did not die, nor is she buried in Kansas. But if I based my data on the data found on One World Tree, I'd mark her down as having died in Kansas. I would be wrong. Very wrong.

Connecting dots

Last night I removed events and people from my tree. Why? The more I looked at things, the more the dots didn't connect.

Uncle Reuben Birdsell, well, he's great, great, great, great Uncle Reuben has always been a pain in my family tree.

I was falling into the same trap so many fall into. Oh, Reuben H.F. Birdsell married Margaret Concle in Clark, Missouri in 1857. It has to be my Reuben because I have paperwork where his middle initial is H. Of course there is no good reason for him to be in Missouri in 1857 that I've found. But on the actual marriage record it says his residence is Van Buren, Iowa and that's just across the state line from Clark County, Missouri. And in 1857 his nephew, William, was in Linn County, Iowa.

True. So very true. Except it's about 120 miles between Linn County and Van Buren County Iowa. By today's standards not too far, but in 1857 not really close enough to be part of a group that moved together.

One marriage record is not enough to connect the dot to my Reuben.

I didn't stop there though. In the 1870 and 1880 Federal Census there's a Reuben and Margaret Birdsell in Pennsylvania. They must have moved back east after they married.

Except the ONLY thing that even suggests it's my Reuben is the birth year. Yes the year of birth fits my Reuben. But in the 1870 Federal Census this Reuben shows he was born around 1818 in Pennsylvania. I looked at the 1880 census. Reuben is born around 1818 in Kentucky.

At that point I really was ready to discard this Reuben Birdsell from my search. Then I found his death record. Reuben Birdsell born about 1818 in New York. The right year, the right state and the right name.

I tried to make that death record enough to tie the marriage record from Missouri in 1857 and the 1870 and 1880 census to Uncle Reuben.

It's not enough. It doesn't connect the dots.

Last night at the same time a cousin was working on Reuben, we found the same 1860 census. Reben and Margaret Birdsell in Pennsylvania. Yay. Except, this Reben and Margaret Birdsell had a ten year old son named William.

Wait Reuben H.F. Birdsell didn't marry Margaret Concle until 1857. This is 1860. They can't have a ten year old son. Well, they could, but it's not reasonable to think they do.

Then I realized that I was connecting dots that didn't hold up. I can't prove Reuben HF Birdsell was Uncle Reuben. I can't prove Reuben and Margaret Birdsell in the 1870 census is Uncle Reuben. I can't prove Reuben and Margaret Birdsell in the 1880 census is Uncle Reuben. I can't prove that the Reuben Birdsell who died in Pennsylvania in Jan 1895 is Uncle Reuben.

I can't connect the dots. None of that information, including spouse and children belongs in my family tree.

Why do we do it? A variety of reasons. The least attractive, and the reason why I did it was to prove others wrong. Honestly, I didn't need to create a false life for Uncle Reuben to prove who the mother and father of my great, great grandfather William were. Yes, I was attempting to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that Uncle Reuben was not William's father. I'd already done that in numerous ways. Just as my mother had started down the path of proving she had made a mistake when she listed Reuben as William's father.

Another reason why we do it and it was part of my reason, too, we want our ancestors to have lived full, complete lives. We want to honor them by finding that full life they lived.

There is nothing wrong with that. Except we can't let it cloud us. The best honor we can give our ancestors is to make an accurate log of their life.

As of this minute, everything about Reuben Birdsell that's in my tree I can prove. I can't prove anything about his life past 11 Jan 1856 when he took an oath for a widow to claim a Revolutionary War pension for the service her late husband gave to this country.

Everything prior to that I'm positive is him. Nothing past 1856 can be proven to be the same Reuben Birdsell. To honor him and the life he did have I have to leave it as a big question after Jan 1856. To do anything else would be turning my tree into a Fiction Tree.

Giving Back

It's impossible to collect family information in a vacuum. So many people give us information that helps us get past brick walls. Some are family members. Others are volunteers at various organizations. Some are governmental employees at every level in the process.

How do we repay everyone for every scrap of information we've obtained? Sometimes, the best way is to give back. Give back information you have that your family member didn't have. Share family pictures. Share family stories. Give back.

Another way to give back is to give credit where credit is due.

In my case, I have a virtual gold mine at the tips of my finger. My mother was a tracer. I have her records. I have the pictures she acquired. I have land records. I have military records. I have a ton of information that would have taken me years to acquire by myself. My mother passed away in 1994. I can't share new information with her. I can't call her up and thank her for all the information she acquired. Or all the pictures she labeled.

What can I do? I can attribute her work when I put it in a public place. I can make sure that I give her the credit that she deserves.

Did you get information from a city, county/borough/parish, or state? Do they keep files on families that have requested information? Some of them do, some of them don't. Ask if they would like a collection of all the information you have on that surname in that area. If they do keep such collections, make copies and send it to them. You're not only paying back the information they gave you, you're also paying it forward. Even if they charge you for copies of what they sent or gave to you, you can still pay it forward and pay them back for their help.

If they're a non-profit organization, send them a donation.

Share your knowledge. Share your time. Share your information.

True genealogists are not interested in having the most information. Their interest is in having the most accurate information on everyone in their tree.

I'm on the fence about giving out "maybe" information. As we know, some will take it and run with it, never bothering to stop to see if something looks out of place. Do we keep that hidden until we can prove or disprove it? Again, each of us has to determine this for ourselves. The positive to sharing it, and labeling it as "may be true, may be false" is the more eyes who see it the higher the chance of it being proven or disproven. Too bad that only works if people are willing to question everything.

I even question everything in my gold mine that Mom acquired. I know how she worked and thought. I know how picky she was at things being true. Still, she was working with what she had available thirty and forty years ago. Each day new documents become available to us. Each new document might prove she was right. It might prove she was wrong.

The final way I can give back to my mother, is double check her work. She used to double check mine all the time. I know she wouldn't mind me double checking it against information that's been released since her death.

Go forward. Collect your data. But don't forget to give back to all your sources.

The Fiction Tree

No, it's not the latest and greatest best seller.

It's that family tree, usually with 10,000 or more people in the tree, and almost zero documentation. Sure, it's a ton of dates of birth and deaths. Even some places of births and deaths. But when you look at the information, the "mother" started producing children at age three and sometimes continued to produce children up to a hundred years past her death.

Marriages aren't documented. Most don't even have dates of when marriages happened.

Mothers and fathers tend to move around years after their deaths.

What can you take away from such a tree? Nothing. Not one thing.

But...

No, it's a fiction tree. Because so much is wrong, undocumented, there is nothing in that tree that is of value to you.

Sadly, it's those bulky fiction trees that get used the most. Oh, look, I found great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandma in this tree. I finally have information on her. No, you really don't. Stop yourself from saving that person/information to your tree. Do NOT click on that button.

But...

Don't do it. If you do it, then someone else comes along and sees that information in two trees and believes it must be true. So they click on it and save it to their tree.

But I can save a copy of that picture of great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandma to my tree, right?

Deep breath. Do you honestly believe this person vets their pictures any more than they vet their "facts"?

Case in point. This is my great, great grandfather.

How do I know this is a fact? Because I know the vetting that went on with this picture. My mother made this copy from the original. How can I be sure? Well, seeing it with my own eyes helped. But for the nay sayers, there's more proof.

The original is hanging on the wall above the couch. I was in that house many times as a child. I personally knew the adults in this picture. I know the children who are in the picture. The elderly man is William's youngest son. The elderly woman sitting close to him was William's daughter. I can trace not only the people in the picture, but what happened to the picture of William and Mariah, his wife.

When I posted my copy of this picture on ancestry.com, I attached to it who reproduced it from the original. 

Others have taken this picture and attached it to another William Birdsell born in 1772. It's not him. I've tried to get them to remove it from their William Birdsell. 

Sadly, it's useless to attempt to do so. For many, especially those who have Fiction Trees, they just want a picture of anyone with that name on it to make their information more valid. No, it doesn't validate your wrong information. All it does, to those of us who actually like documentation and provable facts, is make everything in your tree useless. It makes you look lazy.

It also makes a lot of us embarrassed when we learn we really are related to you. 

There isn't any way to stop any of this. I wish there was, but there isn't. Lazy, sloppy people exist in every aspect of life. Please understand any information you find in a Fiction Tree is just that--fiction. You can't trust any of it. 

Remember, only you can stop the Fiction Trees. 

Searching Ohio

If your ancestors settled in Ohio in the late 1700's early 1800's, you're in for some fun. To understand things you'll need a couple of documents. The first one is The Growth and Development of Ohio's Counties: 1777-1851. It explains when each county came into being. As a hint, the first county was Washington County which was formed about 1788. During this time Washington County was HUGE. About a third of what is today the State of Ohio. In 1790, Hamilton County was formed. It ran from west of the Scioto River as far north as the present Michigan line. Those two counties were the start of Ohio.

If your ancestors stopped and stayed in Washington or Hamilton county, please realize they might not have moved around as much as it appears when tracing them. Today there are 88 counties in Ohio. In 1799 there were five counties in Ohio. By 1801 there were 9 counties. By 1803 there were 17 counties. Between 1804 and 1810, twenty-five new counties were added. By 1824 there were another 31 counties added. Things slow down a bit. Between 1825-1845 only 8 new counties were added and between 1846-1851 only 7 new counties.

What one needs to remember, by 1799, every chunk of land in Ohio belonged to one of the five counties present at that time. The other 83 counties are a result of counties being split due to the growing population. My guesstimate, since I'm not sure about my Ohio geography, is the original Washington County ended up being around 30 counties.

Now, what if your ancestors were in Washington County, Ohio. I feel your pain. I really do.

To help clear things up, please read this: Historical & Genealogy "Notes" of all Washington County, Ohio Townships 1788-1880. It's 28 pages and I printed a copy off. I refer to it time and again. Thank you to Debbie Noland Nitsche for compiling all this information. It's saved me so many times.

Why do you need to know all this? After all, you should be able to pick up the phone and call someone in one of the Ohio Historical Societies and they can just tell you what you want to know, right? Wrong. They will know about the county where they live today. It's safe to assume that when the last of the counties were formed, in 1888, no one working or volunteering for any Historical Society in Ohio was born yet.

I know they're supposed to know all about their great state, and they know a lot about it. But each time a county line moved or township dissolved to form a new county is beyond what any of us should expect them to retain in their memory. Especially since it happened before they were born. Long before they were born.

This last map is why it's important to know some Ohio history if your ancestors were in Washington County. I hope you can make it large enough to read. But the whole picture is Washington County in 1810. And even then, it's nothing like the size it was in 1788. The colored area of this map is present day Washington County.

In my case, my ancestors lived in Roxbury and Waterford Townships. In 1851 Roxbury Township was dissolved. Part of it went to Palmer Township in Washington County. The rest of it went to help form Morgan and Nobel Counties. A large chunk of Waterford went to Morgan and I'm not sure where else.

It is up to us, the genealogist, to know some of the history of the areas we're researching. We want to find our ancestors. While everyone I've talked to at the local historical societies are very helpful, our search for specific people is more important to us than it is to them.

Knowing what I know about the history of Washington County has helped me connect the dots with my own ancestors. When I see a death certificate of an ancestor that states they were born in Stockport, Morgan County, Ohio, I know it's the same ancestor who was really born in Waterford Township, Washington County, Ohio. When she was born, it was Waterford Twp. About a decade after her birth that same spot was Stockport, Morgan County, Ohio.

The records, if the events happened when they required records to be kept, could be found in either county, or in neither.

The point is, if you don't know that chunk of land changed counties, there's a chance you won't ever find the proof you need.