30 June 2024

5 Star Posts Week of 06/23/2024 - 06/29/2024

Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay
Staying abreast of happenings in the genealogy community is vitally important to me. There are hundreds of posts each week to sift through, on a wide variety of relevant topics. I'm so thankful to all the geneabloggers (and other content creators) who educate, enlighten and entertain me by sharing not only their stories but information I need to know.

Below are a few of the posts I think deserve "5 stars" this week and I'd like to share them with you.

7 RESOURCES FOR FINDING VINTAGE IMAGES OF PLACES IN YOUR FAMILY TREE by Linda Stufflebean on Empty Branches on the Family Tree

Rubber Meets Road, Genealogy Style by Jacqi Stevens on A Family Tapestry

Part Two: Using AI in Genealogy Research Best Practices by Legacy Tree Genealogists on Legacy Tree

Ancestry Pro Tools’ Enhanced Shared Matches: Is It Worth $10 per Month? by byRick T. Wilson, Ph.D. on My Family Pattern

A Sense of Place by Jacqi Stevens on A Family Tapestry

My Take on Ancestry ProTools by Jim Bartlett on esgment-ology

Posts other Geneabloggers liked this week:

Best of the Genea-Blogs - Week of 23 to 29 June 2024 by Randy Seaver on Genea-Musings

Friday Family History Finds by Linda Stufflebean on Empty Branches on the Family Tree

This week’s crème de la crème — June 29, 2024 by Gail Dever on Genealogy à la carte

Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay

27 June 2024

Genealogy Heroes: Volunteers, Angels and Helpers

Image created with DALL-E and ChatGPT
There are so many wonderful and giving genealogists out there who make it their mission to help others. I'm always amazed at how giving and warm most genealogists are. Just researching your own tree could be a full time job for...well, basically forever! It's hard to imagine the time and effort these volunteers give on top of their own research. 

Here are just a few of many great projects I've heard of:

  • Search Angels is a non-profit organization assisting with genealogy and DNA test results for those in search of their biological family roots (basic adoptive search is free)
  • Family Treasures Found works to reunite lost treasures with their families
  • Megan Smolenyak has researched and helped identify 188 soldiers of various US wars. For 25 years, she's assisted the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) with identification of soldiers who gave their lives in war, but had not yet been accounted for
  • DNA Doe Project has a mission to identify John and Jane Does using investigative genetic genealogy
  • Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness (RAOGK) is a place where volunteers offer to provide research time (without charge) to researchers who need "boots on the ground" genealogy help in a distant location
  • 10 Million Names is dedicated to recovering the names of the estimated 10 million men, women, and children of African descent who were enslaved in pre- and post-colonial America
  • Project Infant a site dedicated to every victim of the Mother & Baby Homes in Ireland
If you're thinking of giving of your time, in addition to the above projects, here are a couple ideas almost any of us can do:
For more ideas and sites: 
While we all give in our own way, preserving and telling the stories of our ancestors - volunteers, helpers and angels are the unsung genealogy heroes. From transcribing documents to adding photos, I'd venture every one of us has benefited from the generosity of these amazing people. We may know some of their names, others remain in the shadows. If you're keen to give back to the genealogy community, take a few moments to look through some of these projects and ideas.

I've added a Volunteer Opportunities section on my Genealogy Toolbox page where you can find all of these links easily.

25 June 2024

DNA Connections - All Those Cousins

Image created using DALL-E and ChatGPT
I know a lot of people message their DNA matches and then...crickets. No reply. They try again, with the same results. Some people post about reaching out to tens or hundreds with limited results. Reaching out to newfound family is exciting, we hope we'll get a response and forge new friendships, or at least answer the question of where they fall in our family tree. For some, the requests are more pressing, such as trying to track down biological relatives totally unknown to them.

I've been relatively lucky in this respect. I've had a few people reach out to me, and I've always taken time to respond. In a few cases, they were reaching out because of findings in my tree (not because of DNA), and sometimes I believed they were incorrect. Other times, they were DNA matches trying to find the connection or just saying hello and introducing themselves. Some of these interactions have created friendships and lasting communications. Others were simply a brief passing encounter. Once, I even had someone who strives to return old photos to family reach out. While the person was in my tree, they married in and I didn't feel I was the best person to receive the photos.

Recently, a conversation with someone on my ex-husband's line made me realize I had an error in my tree (EEK!). I was so glad to discover this before I'd spent countless hours adding more incorrect people. She was so gentle when she told me how so many folks had the wrong parents attributed to a specific person. I had made the same mistake. Thankfully, it was only set of parents I hadn't added much data to. But, I was clearly incorrect when I looked more closely at the facts I'd found and a date discrepancy I'd failed to notice. The son in question is purported to have been orphaned and grew up with others, and the details on his true parents are scarce right now. I made the same error many others had, but close re-examination proved I needed to remove them from from my tree. Were it not for the DNA match who responded, I might never have realized my error.

I've also reached out to a few of my matches. Some have responded, some have not. I'm not in a position, as those who don't know their biological family may be, where these interactions are somewhat more critical to finding family. I generally have a specific reason to reach out to my matches. And I'm always very thankful when they respond. Unfortunately, most responses haven't provided me with a ton of new clues. But I still enjoyed "meeting" my newfound family members.

But may people never respond. I see lots of posts where people are frustrated and don't understand why they can't get answers. There can be so many reasons someone may not reply. Maybe they took a test at the request of a family member and have no interest on their own in genealogy. Maybe they received results they weren't expecting and haven't had time to process, or don't want to process. Maybe life is in the way and they don't have time to pursue their results. Maybe they started to research and found genealogy wasn't for them. Maybe they've passed away. Or maybe, they prefer to pursue their research in a solitary manner and don't want to talk to others. There are probably hundreds more reasons people might not answer. And really, it doesn't matter the reason. There is no right or wrong here. Only what we want or hope to happen, and what actually happens.

I think it's important to remember, the genealogy community is generally a very welcoming and wonderful group of people. Just because someone doesn't respond to a message, we shouldn't take it personally. Be thankful for the people who do respond. And don't give up! If you're a person who likes to reach out to your DNA matches, keep doing it! You never know when you might receive a response leading to a new friendship, more family or break down a brick wall. 

23 June 2024

5 Star Posts Week of 06/16/2024 - 06/22/2024

Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay
Staying abreast of happenings in the genealogy community is vitally important to me. There are hundreds of posts each week to sift through, on a wide variety of relevant topics. I'm so thankful to all the geneabloggers (and other content creators) who educate, enlighten and entertain me by sharing not only their stories but information I need to know.

Below are a few of the posts I think deserve "5 stars" this week and I'd like to share them with you.

Enhanced Search Capabilities Added to OldNews.com by Erica on MyHeritage Blog

Hone Your Genealogy Skills With Free Summer Online Education Opportunities by Linda Stufflebean on Empty Branches on the Family Tree

Big change for how some users will see the shared matches tool on AncestryDNA by Gail Dever on Genealogy à la carte

Researching the Ancestry of Formerly-Enslaved African American Families, Part 1: Up to the 1870 Brick Wall byaul Heinegg and Ayo Heinegg Magwood on FamilyTreeDNA Blog

Finally, a Reason to Get Ancestry Pro Tools! by Kitty Cooper on Kitty Cooper's Blog

EXPLORING LESS COMMON GENEALOGY WEBSITES, PART 2 by Linda Stufflebean on Empty Branches on the Family Tree

AncestryDNA Pro Tools - Shared Matches of Shared Matches Are Great! by Randy Seaver on Genea-Musings

Posts other Geneabloggers liked this week:

Best of the Genea-Blogs - Week of 16 to 22 June 2024 by Randy Seaver on Genea-Musings

Friday Family History Finds by Linda Stufflebean on Empty Branches on the Family Tree

This week’s crème de la crème — June 22, 2024 by Gail Dever on Genealogy à la carte

Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay

21 June 2024

Ancetry ProTools Are Improving But the Elite Tree Badge Is Deceiving

I'm striving for 0 people without any documentation. When Ancestry rolled out “Top Trees” in ProTools, I had 66 individuals needing another look, and I've been slowly whittling away at them.

I often add an unknown male spouse’s surname based on Social Security notes or wives listed in obits with a married name. Less frequently, the information comes from a will. On rare occasions, it’s to add a parent one generation back so I can add siblings of the known person in my tree (again, usually from obits). I also add unknown children (though where possible, I've been documenting those based on 1900 and 1910 census records showing number of children born and number of living children).

I’ve been working through those 66 people, and I’m pleased to say I have it down to 21! I figured I'd have the same 9.9 Top Tree rating until I reached 0. Imagine my surprise when my badge changed to Elite! Less than 1% of those in my tree have no sources (actually 8/10ths of 1% for any other OCD folks out there.)

Now, I’m down to the more difficult ones. A few are spouses where the marriage apparently didn’t last long they're proving problematic to find. Even my living people search tricks aren’t doing me much good. None of the names in question are showing up as family or associates. Some are several generations back and I may only have a given name with no surname, or a surname with various iterations and I'm not sure of the correct one yet. My progress on this task has slowed significantly, but hasn't come to halt yet. ProTools gives me a goal, and I like the challenge.

It’s important to remember, the badge on an Ancestry tree currently does not in any way indicate accuracy. It’s simply a reflection of whether there's at least one piece of documentation. It doesn't mean the documentation is correct. In the future, I hope it will reflect those researchers who try hard to make sure their trees are really accurate. Right now, it would be very easy for someone to have this badge but still have significant errors in their tree. For me, I know I tried to make sure I’m very accurate (or at least as accurate as I believe I can be), so it’s meaningful to me personally even if others shouldn't necessarily take it at face value. As always, don't simply copy the work of another (no matter what you may believe about the accuracy of their tree). Do the research yourself and make sure everything lines up. At some point, you'll be very glad you took the time to do so.

I'm finding Ancestry's ProTools is improving little by little. With the added filtering now available in Tree Checker, and the advantage of the new DNA feature showing how your shared matches are related to each other, the cost is becoming more palatable. And for those who've been invited to work on the trees of others, I understand your ProTools will work in those trees as well. But if you have ProTools and someone you invite to work on your tree does not have them, they do not "inherit" them when working in your tree. They only work for you. I hope Ancestry continues to roll out even more features in the future. I wasn't a fan when the first limited features were released, but I'm starting to warm up to ProTools now!

18 June 2024

Don't Make Assumptions

Image created using DALL-E and ChatGPT
Common advice is to start your tree with yourself, adding your parents and grandparents and then working back (or sideways or down) however you want to proceed. When I started my tree, hints for myself were primarily school yearbooks and a few public records. For my dad, there were draft cards and census records. Both immediately made me understand there are "facts" people probably get wrong when taking details from these records (if they trust the checkboxes presented when saving facts on Ancestry).

I went to a private school, not far from my home. But if you were to save the location of this school as my residence (as Ancestry helpfully suggests), you'd be wrong. The school is listed in one town, when I really lived in an adjoining town. I made a mental note never to accept the helpful checkboxes Ancestry shows when saving a hint, and to mine my details before I save each record. It takes longer, but it makes for a more accurate tree. (For yearbooks, I choose to enter a fact about education so I can record the location of the school).

Likewise, when working with draft cards, I have to ask myself where did the facts from this record really happen? Certainly the residence should be correct, but the other information? Unlike residence, vitals like height, weight, eye color, etc were most likely taken at the spot the draft card was filled out. The employer (if listed) might have a different location from the residence or where the card was filled in. I enter each detail based on the location I believe to be accurate for the specific fact, I don't lump them all into the same place.

Even SSDI records can be a little different. Sure, last benefit and last residence may be shown, but it doesn't mean it's where a person died...it's simply where they probably lived before their death. I've found deaths that occurred at home, yes. But they also happen at hospitals, nursing facilities, and even while away on travel or in an accident.

Obits are a treasure trove of facts. But the obit "happened" at the location it was published, while the facts contained in the obit likely happened elsewhere (possibly many different locations). The same goes for baptism records. It may be the closest you can come to a birth date (especially prior to births being recorded). But if all you have is a baptism, you only know the date the person was baptized, unless it happens to state the date of birth. Baptisms could happen days to years after birth (and in some religions, it happens in adulthood). And the place the baptism happened may or may not be where the family actually lived. A church may have been in a nearby parish or town. 

Public records, voter registrations and censuses are a little better. They're typically recording something happening at a specific place and possibly time. Likewise, marriage records are fairly accurate. But while a marriage license may show where a couple intended to marry, if there's no return of the license, you can't assume the marriage actually took place. Is it likely, sure. Is it guaranteed, no. Even with a returned license, the marriage may not have happened in the same place the license was issued.

The point of this post is to ask yourself "where did this fact happen?" Many times, it absolutely will be the same as the helpful checkboxes, but sometimes it isn't, or you may simply not know. It's incumbent on each of us as researchers to ask the questions and record the facts as best we can. Don't simply take information on a screen at face value when saving hints. Don't make assumptions. You only know what you know.

16 June 2024

5 Star Posts Week of 06/09/2024 - 06/15/2024

Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay
Staying abreast of happenings in the genealogy community is vitally important to me. There are hundreds of posts each week to sift through, on a wide variety of relevant topics. I'm so thankful to all the geneabloggers (and other content creators) who educate, enlighten and entertain me by sharing not only their stories but information I need to know.

Below are a few of the posts I think deserve "5 stars" this week and I'd like to share them with you.

The Accuracy of Inherited Genealogy by James Tanner on The Family History Guide Blog (originally posted on Genealogy's Star)

Avoiding Extremism: The Use and Disclosure of AI in Genealogy by Steve Little on AI Genealogy Insights

Guest Post: Where Did My AncestryDNA "Common Ancestors" Matches Go? by Marshall Clow on Genea-Musings

Genealogy Tips: Land Records by Katie Rebecca Garner on GenealogyBank.com

The Haunting Trial of Zona Heaster Shue by Nancy Richmond on Ancestral Findings

Posts other Geneabloggers liked this week:

Best of the Genea-Blogs - Week of 9 to 15 June 2024   by Randy Seaver on Genea-Musings

Friday Family History Finds by Linda Stufflebean on Empty Branches on the Family Tree

This week’s crème de crème — June 15, 2024 by Gail Dever on Genealogy à la carte

Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay

14 June 2024

Biggest Brick Wall: Abijah LeRoy

Image by Ray Shrewsberry • from Pixabay
I've had a solid brick wall at my maternal 2nd great-grandparents since the day I started researching, over 10 years ago. My research started with a family story (now disproven by DNA). The Native American connection I spent years searching for does not exist. My maternal DNA shows primarily England, as well as  Sweden/Denmark, Scotland, Ireland and Norway. Once I had my DNA results in hand, I mistakenly thought removing Native American heritage from the equation was going to lead me somewhere fast. Boy was I wrong. It's like this couple was never born, they seem to appear out of thin air.

The known, my 2nd great grandparents had 6 children. Part of this comes from an elusive message board post about a family bible....though there is no documentation to substantiate, and no information on where I might find a copy of this bible. But, in conjunction with viable census records, the names seem to be accurate (as far as I can tell, one census has nothing but initials for given and middle names but they do line up pretty well.). I've pieced together the following children:

  1. Elizann E LeRoy (1839– )
  2. Amos Jasper LeRoy (1840–1904)
  3. W A LeRoy (1842– )  "A" may stand for Abijah or Arthur
  4. Benjamin Franklin LeRoy (1843–possibly1900)
  5. Elizabeth Jane LeRoy (1844– )
  6. John Robert LeRoy (1847–1927) -  my great-grandfather
From the census records and death certificate of John Robert LeRoy, I believe my 2nd great grandmother was Nancy Williams (possibly middle name Jane if you believe an 1870 census with Benjamin and John in the household also showing someone named Jane and being the correct age). From the same death certificate, his father was listed as Abijob LeRoy. However, other family lore shows Abijah, so I choose to use it (for now, cause I'm not at all convinced it was his given name at all). Abijah does not appear in any census records I can find. 


I've seen old Ancestry message board posts with others looking for Abijah, with the same Native American story in their family lore. Every tree I look at has him listed with no viable documentation, other than the death certificate of his son I've already located. In some trees, Abijah is shown as John or Luke. His father is sometimes attributed as John. But in NONE of the trees do I find any useful documentation. Sure there is an 1830 census record for a John LeRoy in Georgia (where I know he lived), but there's nothing show it's the LeRoy I'm looking for. And at best, I'll still only have numbers of people of various age ranges in the household. It's before the birth of his children...so...no clues to match with anything else. I'm not at all comfortable at this juncture using the 1830 census for anything. 

You'd think DNA results might point me in a direction right? Nope! I have 42 matches to the supposed Abijah (or Abijob or John or Luke) LeRoy and Nancy Williams. I have 39 matches to his supposed father, John. Nothing else. No DNA matches to an as of yet unidentified child from the father John. Everything ends with Abijah and Nancy. To make it more frustrating, all my DNA matches to Abijah are from his sons only (leaving me with questions about his daughters, since they have very similar names and could end up being the same person). It seems strange for a time period around the early 1800's not to have matches to some other children of Abijah's father. Why is Abijah the only child of theirs with DNA matches? Sure, it could be no one has tested. It could be the parents died and he was orphaned...or he legitimately may have been the only offspring (although I tend to doubt this). It just seems very odd to me. 

I've searched all kinds of different ways. I've only found one obit for a child of Abijah and there's no mention of the parents (but it does verify some of his siblings). The death certificate I've located is the only one I've found for any child showing parents. The one brother with the obit did have a death entry but it was just a record book, and parents weren't listed. The obit, from Tennessee, did say the son (Amos) was born in Banks, Georgia...while the majority of records I have are from Whitfield, Georgia... but it hasn't unearthed any new clues for me. All of the children were born prior to the start of birth records in Georgia.

With all my subscriptions, you'd think I'd be able to find obits for a few more of his children. Though, even if I did, they might not mention parents. Southern records of the time are less than detailed. I've considered some records might have been destroyed. And while the FamilySearch wiki shows the Whitfield, Georgia county courthouse was burned in 1864, there was no reported loss of records. I've also considered the family may have migrated from another state (I already know the family lived in and around Georgia and Alabama, but some also lived in Tennessee or had records created there), but broadening searches to nearby states has yielded nothing. FamilySearch shows Abijah born in South Carolina, but there's no documentation there either, save for the same single death certificate of John Robert. 

I checked for any wars during the time I suspect he lived, and the only one was the Mexican-American war. It seems unlikely he'd have had any reason to leave Georgia for this event. There were certainly lots of diseases at the time, he may have died....but there's no burial I can find. He may have left the family and started over under a new name (his son Amos left his family for a time per his obit, but eventually returned), but why no records before then? Perhaps the surname should be LeCroy, Leeroy, Lerry, Lukeroy (yes, I've seen records with all kinds of spellings) or even Lecroix. I've used wildcards and "sounds like" with no success. I'm finding nothing...nothing!...to connect any dots. 

The FamilySearch full text search potentially yielded some Whitfield Georgia deeds with LeRoy's in the right time frame (1850's range) when I "think" Abijah may have died based on no children born after 1847, but to be honest, there were quite a few with the same or similar names (none of them being Abijah or Nancy). Most are showing a John receiving the property, and there's nothing at all to suggest the John in these records is my great-grandfather. Amos and Benjamin were farmers for a time per non-population schedules and property tax digests. The property tax digests just confuse things more because there's one from 1873-1877 showing both a Benjamin and Luke in Cobb, Georgia. But Benjamin is sometimes called Luke (and unless he had multiple personalities, he can't be both Benjamin and Luke on the same record, and there's no other brother named Luke). The record is well after I believe Abijah to have died. I'm not finding deeds with the names I'd expect, and there's nothing in those deeds to help terribly much. I am not skilled with land records and deeds, but I may have to spend some time on them just to disprove them. 

Could it be there simply aren't records? I tend to doubt it. Sure, the southern states do seem to be more scarce on documentation than say Ohio (who kept wonderful records) but I feel like I just haven't found the right search yet. The family was scattered across Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee during the time. Maybe I'm just being too narrowminded. And don't forget thet bible published in Louisiana and the Louisiana Confederate money I found clearing out my parents house. Maybe they're a clue? So far, I've not tied the family at all to Louisiana, though there was a big LeRoy presence there, but they primarily hailed from France where I have no known DNA ties on the maternal side. To be fair, there could be a French connection not indicated by DNA, but I can only use the known, and France isn't part of the equation at this point.

So my brick wall still stands firm. I'm constantly thinking about other approaches to break it down, but so far nothing has worked. I kick my toe painfully against this wall every couple of weeks, but it refuses to crack. I won't give up, one day I'm confident I'll find the record I need and when I do, it'll be the biggest genealogy happy dance ever!

11 June 2024

Talk to the Tree?

Image by Ryan McGuire from Pixabay
I'm sitting here wondering if anyone else ever talks to the people in their tree? Or am I just weird? Not pick up the phone, sending an Ancestry message or writing an email talk...I mean talking to the names on the screen as you work on them.

The other day, I was trying to find the given name of a (presumably) living husband in my tree. I'd added him based on the wife's surname shown in one of her parent's obits. More often than not, people I add this way have hints show up or I can tease out the answer relatively easily. But a few are proving very stubborn and I'm spending quite a lot of time trying to pin them down.

So I was researching...clicking thru various search results...refining my searches and trying again...and again. I looked on FamilyTreeNow.com, hoping he'd show up in family or known associates of the wife or their children. Frustratingly, nothing was working. 

Then, as if by magic (well, actually it was the magic of searching for a specific street address in the keywords search field of public records), I found the record I was searching for! I can show the person lived at the same address as the wife. And I had a given name! 

Without missing a beat, I caught myself whispering under my breath "...there you are...", as if he had simply been hiding just out of view, like a naughty child. Is it just me or do you occasionally talk to the people in your tree? (And just to be clear - no, they don't talk back). 

Image by Ryan McGuire from Pixabay

09 June 2024

5 Star Posts Week of 06/02/2024 - 06/08/2024

Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay
Staying abreast of happenings in the genealogy community is vitally important to me. There are hundreds of posts each week to sift through, on a wide variety of relevant topics. I'm so thankful to all the geneabloggers (and other content creators) who educate, enlighten and entertain me by sharing not only their stories but information I need to know.

Below are a few of the posts I think deserve "5 stars" this week and I'd like to share them with you.

Low Matches Lie on The DNA Geek

Shared Segments for Small Segments by Jim Bartlett on segment-ology

101 Best Genealogy Websites of 2024 on Family Tree Magazine

7 ways to save money while researching your family history by Sarah Williams on Who Do You Think You Are Magazine

Exploring Less Common Genealogy Websites by Linda Stufflebean on Empty Branches on the Family Tree

Posts other Geneabloggers liked this week:

Best of the Genea-Blogs - Week of 2 to 8 June 2024 by Randy Seaver on Genea-Musings

Friday Family History Finds by Linda Stufflebean on Empty Branches on the Family Tree

This week’s crème de la crème — June 8, 2024 by Gail Dever on Genealogy à la carte

Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay

06 June 2024

To Prove or Disprove

Prove vs disprove
Image created using DALL-E and ChatGPT
There are days when I just can't start working on a record I know is going to take a long time to finish. For whatever reason, I just don't have the focus in the given moment or there's a time constraint. But at the same time, I still want to do something....anything...to further my research. I make working on my tree a part of almost every day, even if it's only reviewing a few hints.

So, on days like today, I occasionally make my focus disproving hints. Rather than clicking endlessly thru screens and not doing anything at all, I'll set my focus on weeding out hints I don't believe are valuable (typically copies of user uploaded documents I already have in my hints) or ignoring those I determine don't pertain to the person in my tree. This sounds pretty easy right? Well, sometimes it's not. Matching up images to hints is fairly straightforward. If the image is the same as the image in a hint - ignore the uploaded one and use the hint. But looking at multiple census records where the name appears right, but the various years show different parents, different relationships or even a significant change in location, can take more time. In these cases, I click thru to the hint and start evaluating the other potential hints Ancestry helpfully shows in the sidebar. I try to find if the details on those other hints line up with my tree, or don't line up at all. I start looking for how the puzzle pieces fit (or in some cases, don't fit).

While I might not want to spend an hour mining details from a census record I know is correct, I might easily spend an hour clicking back and forth thru various hints, looking for the clue it's not the right person. I find I encounter this a far more often as I push back further in the direct lines. As records become more scarce, and names are common and repetitive in the location I'm searching, narrowing down the right records can be a head scratcher.

As an example, let's take Henry Jackson (1768-1854), the 5th great grandfather of my ex-husband. I know he was born in Maryland and died in Kentucky. Most of my knowledge of him comes from letters written by family years ago and research done by other family members. Thankfully, memories were preserved and shared, and copies of original documents not currently available as hints were uploaded. He appears to have been a caring individual. Records show in 1825, he was responsible for the son of a "poor free man of color" until the boy reached the age of 21. In 1833, another poor woman (relationship unknown) was placed under his care by the court. Records also show he emancipated two woman of color in 1838. These documents are all from the same location he lived and died in Kentucky and provide some idea of his character. There's even a copy of his will uploaded for me to pour over (with his daughter's married name, so I know I'm on the right track)....though it may also be available via the FamilySearch Full Text Search now, to save my poor eyes from deciphering the handwriting. 

So, I know a reasonable amount about his later life. Then I switch over to the record hints I can see. There certainly are several early census records, but they don't list all the household members by name, and some of the counties are different than where he lived later. I don't yet know his parents or siblings, so I'm currently at a disadvantage. There's also a FindAGrave record, right name, different county (but the same different county as some of the census records) with a different spouse (sadly, no birth or death date). It's quite likely he did have another earlier spouse, as when his will was written he had many married children and an also an young daughter he was leaving in the care of one of his grown daughters. But is the FindAGrave record right? Just because the location matches a questionable census record doesn't make it so. And there's nothing yet to prove the name of another spouse. I'm still poking around with Henry's records. I'm not confident enough yet to attach or ignore them, but the investigation is gratifying.

In some ways, disproving a record is just as satisfying for me as finding a valid record, especially when it comes to the farther back generations. None of us wants to spend countless hours documenting the incorrect person. I try to make notes why I finally decided to disprove a record. Doing so saves me time if similar records or information pop up again. Just today, I had notes where an ancestor is associated in many trees with a particular husband. But in my research, I was satisfied this was not the same person as is in my tree. Not only did I make a note to remind myself of this, I had the foresight to include a link to the census record I ultimately used to make the determination. In this case, it was an 1880 census showing her as married to a man with the surname McBriant (the name in many trees), but she was actually married a man with the surname LeRoy a couple years before and was having children with him in 1880 (and I have DNA matches from, and a paper trail to, this union). So the 1880 record disproves McBriant as a spouse entirely. I was able to eliminate several other hints today based on my notes disproving McBriant.

So...on days when recording details may not be an option (whatever the reason), progress can still be made by disproving records. Weeding out the unrelated to allow the rest of the records shine through is still a research win in my book!

04 June 2024

An Exciting Announcement!

GeneaBloggers
Recently, I was selected as President of GeneaBloggers. I'm both humbled and excited for this amazing opportunity! Alongside me are a new team of board members. We're excited to grow and expand the benefits of being a GeneaBlogger. 

GeneaBloggers is a non-profit organization, run by volunteers, supporting online genealogy content creators. We encourage awareness of, and interest in, sharing genealogical content online. It doesn't matter what format genealogy content creators may be using. Bloggers, vloggers, streamers, podcasters, webinar presenters, social media, micro-bloggers, just to name a few, are all welcome to join us! We want you to be a part of our group! Genealogy is one of the top hobbies - readers, viewers, listeners and subscribers are interested in what you have to share!

If you're a genealogy or family history content creator, and not already a Premium Member, please join us at GeneaBloggers.com. Premium Membership is just $20US per year. (You don't have to live in the US to join us! We have members around the globe.) With the support of our Premium Members, we're looking toward expanding our resources for, and interaction with and between, our creators, Our goal is to bring together the vibrant, supportive and diverse community of genealogy content creators and foster a sense of camaraderie within our group. There's always a lot going on behind the scenes. If you're interested in helping us, please contact us and let us know.

If you're a content creator, I really hope you'll consider joining us as a Premium Member. And if you're not a content creator, please support and encourage our members by visiting their sites. The vast majority of creators welcome comments and interaction on their sites and social media. I know I do!

02 June 2024

5 Star Posts Week of 05/26/20204 - 06/01/20204

Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay
Staying abreast of happenings in the genealogy community is vitally important to me. There are hundreds of posts each week to sift through, on a wide variety of relevant topics. I'm so thankful to all the geneabloggers (and other content creators) who educate, enlighten and entertain me by sharing not only their stories but information I need to know.

Below are a few of the posts I think deserve "5 stars" this week and I'd like to share them with you.

Mathematical ancestry by By Nancy Battrick on Observer-me.com

5 Tips for Research When the Courthouse Burned by Diana Elder on Family Locket

New Geneagem: How to Use OpenLibrary.org for Genealogy by Linda Stufflebean on Empty Branches on the Family Tree

Blogger Genealogy Research Toolboxes: 2024 Edition by Linda Stufflebean on Empty Branches on the Family Tree

Posts other Geneabloggers liked this week:

Best of the Genea-Blogs: Week of 26 May to 1 June 2024 by Randy Seaver on Genea-Musings

Friday Family History Finds by Linda Stufflebean on Empty Branches on the Family Tree

This week’s crème de la crème — June 1, 2024 by Gail Dever on Genealogy à la carte

Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay