G is for genealogy, surely the greatest hobby of all

E is for errors often perpetuated again and again and again

N is for negative results – oh, darn!

E is for your ancestor’s era; make sure you’re in the right place at the right time

A is for analysis – can that be right?

L is for library, one of our favorite places

O is for odds against the breakthrough of the proverbial brick wall

G is for genetics, will this become the way to prove a difficult line

I is for Internet, a useful tool, it may even help you find a clue

S is for sources, be sure to cite them

T is for tradition, Could it be right? Could it be wrong? Or maybe just a tiny clue

LAMENT FROM HEAVEN©

FAMILY HISTORY RESEARCH

Articles

A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS

Such a nice family picture, six boys and one girl. The sad fact is, this picture was taken shortly after the death of their mother died from Tuberculosis and before the family was split up. Some years ago, one of my sisters started writing to our father’s cousins trying to get information on dad’s family. When Cousin Eva Davis Thurston later received a letter from my Aunt Kathleen, the girl in the picture, she  sent the picture to her. She in turn sent a copy to each of her brothers except Kenneth, with whom they had lost contact. I have since located Kenneth’s children, however they did not reply to my letters.

The handsome, charming, humorous man and his shy wife peeling apples had a relatively short marriage of less than twelve and a half years. They are my grandparents, Cyrus Elan and Ada (Lloyd) Doherty. Cyrus born 25 September 1865 in Grant County, Indiana, died 19 July 1922, Grant County married 15 December 1897 also in Grant County to Ada Lloyd born 30 October 1876 in Grant County Indiana, died 25 April 1910, Grant County. Cyrus and Ada were members of the Society of Friends known as Quakers. Cyrus sold vegetables he raised in a hothouse.

Cyrus’ life was very hard during Ada’s illness and after her death. Relatives convinced Cyrus that he couldn’t take care of seven children. As a result Kathleen was adopted by her Uncle David and Aunt Ida (Lloyd) Crichton. The baby, Kenneth Howard, was adopted by Hazel Blankenbaker, the nurse who helped care for his mother, and her husband Charles. Donald, my father, was 2 ½ years old at the time of his mother’s death and could not be adopted because he also had TB. It’s ironic that my father with all his medical problems outlived all his siblings. He lived to the ripe old age of 91. My father was orphaned at fourteen years of age when his father had a heart attack while working in the fields.

Here are some interesting memories passed on to me by my cousins and Aunt Kathleen (Doherty, Chrichton) Schacht. One time her grandmother Nancy Ellen (Wilson) Doherty gave Elam, her husband (pictured below) five dollars to throw away his pipe, he threw the pipe away and bought a new one with the money she gave him.  Nancy Ellen was born 15 Dec 1823 in Randolph County, NC. She died 13 Feb 1913 in Grant County, Ind. Elam was born 21 Jan 1821 in Guilford County, NC and he died 1 Dec 1892 in Liberty Township, Grant County, Ind.

Also, in a note from Aunt Kathleen she wrote that one time when Grandma was visiting our home Kathleen entered the house after being out climbing trees with Lloyd and Ted. Grandma said: “Oh Kathleen, thee has thy hair parted on the side like a boy” and proceeded to part it in the middle as good Quakers did. Another time while visiting Grandma Nancy Ellen at her large house in the country where Uncle Arthur and his family also lived, Grandma said, "Cyrus, Thee must tell Kathleen and John there is no Santa Claus." Kathleen sobbed and howled uncontrollably, "Santa Claus is dead." Papa (Cyrus) told her: "For everyone who believes in him Santa Claus is alive." From all the things I have heard about Cyrus, he was a very good father, but had a very difficult time after Ada died. My father, Donald, must have learned from him. As children Kathleen said she and the boys would climb trees and jump onto the backs of cows and ride them.

I remember one thing in particular, my father hated the color gray. It probably reminded him too much of the colorless clothes Quakers wore. We didn’t learn prejudice from either of our parents. They never talked badly about people of other races or religions.

The children in the first picture from left to right are: Lloyd Arthur (3 Feb 1899-21 May 1959); Joseph William  (12 Sep 1906-11 Jun 1991); Kenneth Howard (baby, 7 Jan 1910-3 Jan 1992); John Charles (31 Oct 1904-1 Oct 1993), Theodore Elam (12 Jun 1900-21 Aug 1964); Donald H.. (the H stood for Hiawatha, the boys and Kathleen loved playing cowboys and Indians and told their mother to name my father after Hiawatha) (14 Oct 1907-26 May 1999); and Kathleen Ada Doherty (2 Feb 1903-16 Feb 1991).

I would enjoy hearing from descendants of the Guilford County, North Carolina Dohertys and Lloyds.

HINTS

To make your ancestors more interesting to the family, add an introductory page to the printed family history entitled "Did You Know You Had an Ancestor or Relative Who…:" and then list interesting things such as:

1. Was the penman at the White House for six presidents? (your cousin Adriane Tolley see Lloyd family page …..)

2. Served in the army under Napoleon? (Herz Joel Herzfeld, see Herzfeld family page….)

3. Inherited a large estate from her employer? (Betsy Powers, see Powers family page ….)

To make the job of writing a family history easier and less confusing, I print the families separately as I finish them. If you are like most genealogists, you learned a lot since you began researching your roots. I needed to go back and check the information and make sure it was documented. I also had to rewrite the note section of my family program. My writing has also improved quite a bit since I started doing genealogy. Starting with my smallest families that I felt I had finished and worked towards the largest ones. Addendum’s can always be added later. I print each family report on acid free paper and put it into a three ring binder that I give to each member of my immediate family. Then as I finish more branches I send each to the family members to add to their binders. There is a separate binder for my mother’s, father’s, and husband’s family.

Printed in ancestry.com’s 4 Jan 2003, ANCESTRY DAILY NEWS, WEEKLY DIGEST VERSION

WHAT GOOD ARE PROBATE RECORDS?

By ELIZABETH HERZFELD, CGRS, Milwaukee, WI

In doing research for others I am seldom asked for probate information, typically receiving requests for obituaries. However, obits in the 1800s and early 1900s were seldom placed in the newspaper unless the person was affluent or active in the community, and many of the people in Milwaukee were immigrants at that time. I use probate records extensively in my own research, my family not having been prominent. It’s a good way to find other family members and to prove that this person for whom I have a will or estate settlement, was or was not an ancestor.

Many times wills and estate settlements name the wife and children, often giving the married names of daughters, and occasionally their husband’s given name.

The most interesting probate record I found in Milwaukee County’s probate files is a guardianship file where a mother and her children ask for a new guardian because the mother is mentally incapable of doing so. In an earlier request the children named included a son who sever months later in the second hearing was not mentioned. I assume he died and may be the reason the mother could no longer handle the care of the children. The yearly reports of the guardian show placement of two of the children (at different times) in an orphanage in Cincinnati. It also shows that the support for the children was paid by an estate through lawyers in New York. The guardianship continues for quite a few years ending when the oldest girl is about 30. It also includes the information that the guardian absconded with the remaining money in the youngest girl’ s guardianship account.

Another guardianship hearing was for an adult who was spending his money on drink instead of supporting his family.

You will find descent of title where the descendants come to prove they are the heirs of a person who died some time earlier. Since they want to sell some of this person’s real estate property, they must go through probate to prove title. The person probably died intestate and nothing was done about his property at the time of death.

Besides names, their relationship to the deceased is often mentioned, such as sister, brother, etc.

This important source of information is often overlooked. The probate records at the Milwaukee County Courthouse are all indexed on 3 x 5 cards and give the type of information that can be found in the file (as the descendency of title, guardianship, will, etc.).

Published in the Milwaukee County Genealogical Society Reporter: Vol. 25, #3, August 1994.

Following the Census Trail from all names to head of household and numbers

Published in the Wisconsin State Genealogical Society Newsletter Vol. 51, Number 3, January 2005 

Census records are one of the most valuable tools for locating ancestors and others. Now available on the Internet and typically available with an all name index, the search is easier than in the past. However, locating people in earlier censuses, (1790-1840) when other than the head of the household’s name and numbers in age and sex categories are used, can be very time consuming and frustrating. The age category can be quite broad on older censuses. A person needs to be persistent to do this work, especially when researching common names.

Knowing something about the family you are researching is important. i.e. names, approximate ages, and sex when looking for a family using the early census records. Relationships were not recorded until the 1880 U.S. Census and those are to the head of the household. It also gave the birthplace of the parents. The 1850 U.S. Census is important because it is the first to list everyone in the household, their ages, and where they were born. If you know more about the family than what is on the census it can be very helpful. There may have been more children in the family who have left home to start their own family or for other reasons. Some members may have died. There may be people in the household who are not immediate members of the family or not related at all, such as a servant, laborer, or boarder.

The following examples are from research I conducted.

The first example, Abner Doty was found on the 1850 U.S. Census for Dubuque County, Iowa. He was 25 years old, born in Ohio, and a farmer. I did know the names of his children because I was working backward from the known to the unknown. They were (according to the 1880 census for Richland, Labette County, Kansas), Olive, Ephraim, George, John, and Cora. I searched the 1840 census for Ohio for Dotys with the same names as his male children. I also searched for any Doty family that had a male between the age of 10-20. The age range Abner would have been in 1840. This actually covers two age categories on the 1840 census, 10-15 and 15-20, but because he was 25 I wanted to have a little leeway. I found several possibilities that had to be researched to rule them out. There were also three Ephraim Dotys and an Abner Doty.

While on a research trip to Salt Lake City I searched indexes in all the counties where I had found possible Dotys in Ohio. Nothing was found that tied our subject, Abner Doty, to any of them. After doing another census search using the soundex I found an Eph Dotey in Williams County, Ohio with 2 males 5-10, 1 male 15-20 (possibly Abner), 1 male 40-50, 2 females under 5, 2 females 10-15, 1 female 20-30 and 1 female 40-50. Using the Internet I searched for Williams County’s genealogical site. This was a very nice site that fortunately had a probate index that showed Ephraim Doty’s probate followed by administration concerning minor children with Abner listed. After getting this record I was able to match the Abner I was looking for with this Abner Doty. Abner’s birth date 24 May 1824 was given in the probate record and he did not appear in later census records in Ohio. He had two children with names from his family, Ephraim from his father and George from his brother, his son John may have been named after his grandfather, who was easier to find, having located Ephraim. In 1830 Ephraim was in Defiance Township, Williams County, Ohio with 1 male 5-10 (Abner) 1 male 30-40 (Ephraim), 2 females under 5, 1 female 5-10, 1 female 10-15, and 1 female 30-40 (Mary Ann, his wife). He was hard to find on the 1820 census, but again using the soundex capability on ancestry.com he was found listed under Ephraim Datey. He was in Salem Township, Monroe County, Ohio with 1 male 16-26 (Ephraim), 1 female under 10, 1 female 16-26 (Mary Ann), 1 person engaged in agriculture.  From here I was able to link (using ancestry.com again to find clues), Ephraim to Edward Doty of the Mayflower going back five generations. I verified this information in the book Mayflower Families through Five Generations, Vol. 11, Part II compiled by Peter B. Hill, published by General Society of Mayflower Descendants, 1996.

My next example is Daniel Osborn, age 69 found in Winnebago County, Illinois in 1860 living next to his probable son, Daniel aged 36, both born in New York. The 1850 census has Daniel Osborn, Jr. in Ogle County Illinois. In 1850 Daniel Osborn, Sr. was in Kenosha County, Wisconsin with Drusilla age 62, born in Connecticut. Probably a second or third wife. 

Using Daniel, Sr.’s and Jr’s ages in 1830 when they would have been 39 and 6 year old males, I was able to easily find Daniel Osborn, Sr. in Almond Township, Allegany County, New York. He was listed with 1 male under 5, 2 males 5-10, 1 male 30-40, 1 female 10-15, and 1 female 30-40. However I was unable to find him in New York in 1840, I believe he was in Geauga County, Ohio by that time. I found a Daniel Osborn with 2 males 10-15, 1 male 15-20, 1 male 40-50, 1 female 5-10, and 1 female 30-40, he may have remarried by this time. You have to be somewhat flexible with the information from censuses. You don’t know who supplied it. Searching deed records for Allegany County I found that Daniel had bought his land in Almond in 1829 and he and his wife Margaret sold it in 1835. There was another record in the deeds in 1838 where the creditors of Daniel Osborn sold some of his land. At that time he was living in Otsego County. I thought I had found two possibilities for his parents. One in Suffolk County New York and one in Delaware County. The Delaware County prospect looked the best because I did not find him there in 1850. I have since found him in the neighboring county of Chenango on the 1850 census. I also found Daniel Osborn of the right age in the 1850 U.S. Census for Suffolk County. We are back to square two, square one being the 1830 census in Allegany County.

You really need high speed Internet service or a lot of time to uncover all the possibilities for locating Daniel with a name as common as Osborn/Osborne/Osburn. One year before Daniel was born there were 78 soundex matches in 1790, 120 in 1800, 149 in 1810, and 238 in 1820 using ancestry.com. Ancestry.com’s index is not perfect; if I still can’t find someone I go to Milwaukee Central Library and look at the indices in book form. I also try to think of what handwritten letters might look like the ones in the name I’m researching, and which the indexer might have mistaken for another, such as a “y” and a “z” or “g”.  “L” and “S” can also be mistaken for each other.

I tried matching the possible hits from the 1790 through the 1820 U.S. Census using a spreadsheet. It didn’t work to well. The Osborn families moved a lot or the census takers missed them. I would find them in a certain county on one census and not on the next census, but again on the next one. These were not necessarily the same people, however. As you know genealogy is not an exact science. There is a lot of guesswork involved.

In 1860 Daniel’s possible wife was Lucy M. and in 1870 Martha J. We can be resonably sure they were his wives. The online marriage records for Illinois State Genealogical Society (http://www.rootsweb.com/~ilsgs/projects/marriage-report.html) show Daniel married to Lucy M. Storro in January 1860 and Martha Jane Stoneking on 28 Aug 1863. His age and birthplace is consistent in the 1850, 1860, and 1870 census. He lived in a different place each time. In 1860 he was living next to Daniel Osborn, Jr. and John Osborn and their families. John Osborn was a year younger than Daniel and born in Canada (another possible son). Daniel, Sr. had two males 5-10 in his household in 1830. They all need to be researched to see if there was a male of the right age to be Daniel.

Next I tried to narrow the search reasoning that if Daniel was still in New York and not in a household headed by himself I should look for Osborn families with at least 2 males in the category of 26-45 or one male 26-45 and one male in the over 45 age category. Since Daniel should have been married by this time (the 1830 census lists a daughter between 10-15), I also looked for a female in the under 10 age group. I could have narrowed the search even further by using the approximate age of his wife from the 1830 census. I did not want to be quite that inflexible. It is also possible he was in a household with a name other than Osborn. They could have been living with a member of his wife’s family or his mother may have remarried so the head of household would have had a different name. He could have been in Canada or in transit. One of the possible households was found in St. Lawrence County across the river from Canada. I liked this possibility because Daniel may have had a son born in Canada. This narrowed the search remarkably. You have to continuously analyze information to find new ways of finding a person.

I am working on the several possibilities now and hope to get a breakthrough soon.