Sunday Search: Holiday Opportunities

The holidays are always a great opportunity to get together and simply enjoy the company of friends and family. While we may not be completely conscious of it at the time, it is a means to strengthen the bonds that we have with one another and take stock of the changes that have happened in our lives since the last time that we all gathered together. The most important thing about these times is to be in the moment and to spend time with those you love but there are opportunities that come about naturally from time to time that we, as family historians, must remain cognizant of and remember not just for ourselves but for the family as a whole the for the future when things have a tendency to be forgotten.

It is inconsequential how one gets to a subject but there are moments when we must be opportunistic and learn a little more about those around us. Furthermore, if we are able to ask questions we must do so to fill in some of the details that may have been glossed over. At the same time, when possible, we must be ready to recall what we know in order to offer that information in the hopes of jogging someone else’s memory or adding dimension or perspective to the story being told.

For some, including myself, this is sometimes the hardest part of trying to find out everything I can about the family. There is a fine line between conversation and investigation which we must respect during the holidays because, again, this is a time for family not about family. After all, we are all guilty from time to time for focusing more on the past than the present. Sometimes it is during occasions such as this while other times it is about not taking the opportunity, setting aside the time, and talking to family members about their own history and about what they know about others in the family.

Today I learned a few more details and was given a few more documents. Thankfully, I learned a lot with little effort. It was more about being in the right place and keeping my ears open to the conversations taking place. I knew some additional details and I asked a few questions but it was part of the natural flow of the dialog. Maybe I have finally found some kind of balance to this holiday conundrum. Of course, it helps that everyone knows about my passion for the family history and the respect that I have for our history. That can sometimes be the difference between being given, entrusted, with personal information and histories and not ever being told what happened.

Sunday Search: SAR Update

As many of you may recall reading, I have been trying to find the time over the past few years to finally sit down, pull together all the documents, and submit my application to the local chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution. Of course, up until last week I hadn’t even reached out to the SAR to get additional information so that was the first step that I had to take. So, out of the blue, I looked up the local contact information and gave the chapter a call. After a very nice, informative, and welcoming conversation I received some sound advice as to how I should proceed the most important of which was to start with the ancestor that I can most easily prove.

My goal when I made the call was to get everything pulled together over the next several weeks, two weeks if I was lucky. This seemed to be an agreeable and manageable arrangement for both of us and I was encouraged to attend meetings in the meantime while I was finishing up my application. By the time we ended our conversation I already knew which ancestor made the most sense. While the documents that I have in my possession are not enough for the Monacan Indian Nation, they are more than enough prove to the SAR that I am a descendant of John Redcross.

Well, somehow I finally found the time to get it done and I was able to submit all 200+ pages to the local chapter for review. This past week has been a time to review the application that I submitted and, surprisingly, a time for the chapter genealogist to condense the documentation down to only the items needed. We really do have more than enough to prove our lineage and, at the same time, not enough. Now we can focus on finding that final piece so that we can submit the same material to the Monacan Nation.

It is a great feeling knowing that this is done and that after this it will be a matter of adding confirmed patriots to the family history. Heeding the advice of the SAR, now I am going to move to the next easiest to prove which happens to be on the other side of my family. While we once thought it impossible, I have been able to trace back my mom’s side to the Revolution as well and have the documentation to support the findings as well. It is nice to know that basically no matter which family member I am talking to I can help them join the SAR (or DAR).

However, the most important aspect to this whole process for me is that it is a means to verify the research that I have spent the last few years conducting. The more lines I can confirm and revolutionary ancestors I can trace back to, the more information in our tree I will be able to verify. Having had so many questions about the family history growing up, I am looking forward to sharing with the family a history that has been not only researched by certified as being accurate. And, one day, I look forward to sharing this history with my son.

Sunday Search: Land

The photo above is the barn on the original homestead for the Teaford family on Kerr's Creek, Virginia.  

Land is an important part of family history. It gives us the connection to previous generations, decades, centuries, and sometimes millennia after the lives of our ancestors. Knowing where we come from and finding those roots has always been something that has been of particular interest to me. This is part of what has driven me in recent years to find that land of our own where my wife and I can raise our family… and actual place, a piece of this earth, that we own. This was also important to the first generation of my family in the late 18^th century.

From Nellie Teaford Wood’s book which is included on the family website:

In 1780 Jacob Düfford bought his first farm in Augusta County at the foot of Sugar Loaf Mountain, a small round hill on property now part of Silverbrook Farms. With his wife Christenah and six children he came from Shenandoah County, where he had resided since 1774 on land in the Fairfax Grant.

Düfford had arrived in Philadelphia on the ship Hero on 27 October 1764, but his origin has eluded researchers. That he spoke and read and wrote German is established by his signatures in Philadelphia and in October 1792 in Virginia. He joined 193 residents in petitioning the Virginia General Assembly, citing their unacquaintance with the English "language" to publish laws in German so that "they may more cheerfully comply" because they have "always contributed their part of the support of government."

Virginia State claims show that he, along with other "Augusta Germans," did his part by furnishing flour for the Revolutionary army in 1780. 

…

The immigrant Jacob died intestate in 1801, owning three farms. The papers settling the estate in Augusta County Courthouse offer a wealth of genealogical and historical information. 

We didn’t have much when came to this country, colony actually, but we worked and slowly accumulated land. This was particularly important during this time in history as only landowners could vote and have any say in such petitions as the one to which he affixed his name in 1792. In the end, over the course of his life, Jacob had acquired over 200 acres in Augusta County. Makes my nearly 3 acres, purchased 235 years after Jacob bought his first farm, seem almost inconsequential in comparison.

In the years since that first generation, the family has seen land come and go in the family but those original farms, while not in the family, still exist. They still remain as a connection to our past regardless of who currently holds the deed. Being able to go down to Virginia, gather with those who have this same connection, and enjoy the area where we know our family has been for hundreds of years is something that we were able to enjoy over the summer and an experience I look forward to revisiting many times over in the future.

Finding Your Roots vs. Who Do You Think You Are?

When talking about genealogy with people it is common for the conversation to touch upon the show “Who Do You Think You Are?” Over the years, all different kinds of people have watched the show regardless of their interest level in genealogy as a whole or their own family tree… they usually watch because they are a fan of some actor, actress, or athlete and want to learn a little more about them. More often than not, this leads them to jump to the conclusion of “I wish I had stories like that in my family tree.”

The people I have spoken with make that determination that those types of stories do not exist in their tree mostly because the show focuses on a single line in that celebrity’s genealogy. I guess you could say that is the one thing that many of us familiar with genealogy have a problem with when it comes to the show “Who Do You Think You Are?” It is for this reason that I tend to pay closer attention to and enjoy “Finding Your Roots” a little more than the main stream counterpart.

Like any PBS show, “Finding Your Roots” isn’t as well-known but it takes a much more interesting and broader look at the ancestry of celebrities (of all kinds not just main stream). During the course of an episode, three family trees are analyzed with a common thread running between the three stars. Sometimes it can be as broad as overcoming adversity while other times it is tied to a specific event such as the roles their ancestors played in the Civil War.

While that is one difference (one vs. three) the other, more important and more interesting differentiator is the fact that the latter of the two shows looks at the family tree as a whole not just a singular line (or two). From my own experience, I know that this is the most interesting part of genealogy as you never know what names, places, and events may be adding color to the individual leaves. After all, we are the culmination of all these people who played, for the most part, equal roles in determining the family story and making us who we are.

“Who Do You Think You Are” may have the bigger audience, interesting locations, and larger budget, “Finding Your Roots” brings us closer to the interesting realities of doing genealogical research. Furthermore, the latter show also explores the use of DNA in discovering the mix of places, races, and heritage that exists within all of us. This is why my preference is quite clear but, in the end, taking a look at the sponsorship, Ancestry.com wins no matter which show you prefer.

Finding Life In Death

Death Certificate of Sarah Hansel (?) Myers.

Every so often I log on to Ancestry.com to check and see if any leaves shaking on the tree. For those of you unfamiliar with the site, this means that there is new information or documents available for review. It doesn’t necessarily mean that the information is correct or adds color to that particular ancestor but there are times when interesting discoveries are made. However, I learned early on that you can’t simply rely on the quivering foliage so, when I have a few minutes here and there, I do a general search of the site to try and find other information (especially when the spelling of the surname is a little different or flat out incorrect).

This week I have noticed that a lot of the Pennsylvania Death Certificates are now listed. I don’t know when they were digitized but I am just noticing them now. While the time frame is a bit of a hindrance (currently only 1906-1940 certificates are listed) there are still plenty of documents that I have been finding. Everything from the tragic deaths of children to the inevitable passing of aged ancestors, the causes run the gamut. These are a great source of information not just about the departure of a relative but they can, most of the time, also be a great way to confirm or correct other generations on your tree… sometimes, like a document I sent to my wife, they can provide the names of the parents which was previously unknown information.

As for my tree, it has been a means of correction and confirmation. The death certificate above lists both parents including the mother’s maiden name which is different from that which I previously had listed on my family tree. And it is not a simple adjustment in the spelling… Davenport is nowhere close to Hansel. This doesn’t mean that I will be correcting it right away but it gives pause to continuing work on that particular branch. Obviously, some more work and verification needs to be done before I change or continue with the tree as is.

These documents are also a means to confirm residence, family health problems (that may have made it across the generations), longevity, and occupation. Sometimes it is a matter of confirming many of those things at the same time. One such document added to the long list of railroad workers in my family while another verified the service of my great great grandfather in the Philadelphia Police Department… I just didn’t realize that he spent 54 years on the force.

In the end, while the primary purpose of these documents was to record the death of the family member, there is more life in them than some people realize… definitely more than what can be found in most census records. All of the information is there and it could lead to some interesting discoveries and answer questions or doubts that you may have had about your family. Just goes to show that we need to read the documents rather than just attaching them to an ancestor.

A Return To Letter Writing

I used to write letters all the time, at least a letter a day, but over the years I have gotten away from that practice. However, I have been writing a lot of letters lately for both good and not so pleasant reasons. As you have read, there are a number of correspondences that I have sent to management but there have also been a few that I have written for other reasons. It seems as though email and phone calls have become more of an annoyance for some so reverting back to a more traditional form of communication may provide more substantial results.

While I send a fair amount of snail mail as Secretary of my masonic lodge, which there seems to be a lot of this summer, the other pieces of mail have a much different purpose. I have taken a considerable amount of time off from doing the in depth genealogical research and now, as I previously mentioned, we are at a point when on line resources are not going to provide the additional information that we are looking for. There are a few things that come up here and there as archives are digitized but that still leaves us wanting more.

So, the first letter I wrote was to the Monacan Nation as it is now time to pursue membership in the tribe. Basically, there is a question as to how far back we need to provide documentation. Do we need to prove connection to those on the original rolls or do we need documentation of those individuals? It may seem like a small question but it has tremendous ramifications… one generation makes all the difference as the documents needed for that final step have gone missing from the archive in which they are stored. We will have to wait and see if this is going to be easy (as we have all the documents needed) or hard (and we need to find out where that one document is being stored).

Another piece of mail dropped off at the post office was to a woman living in Spring City, Pennsylvania. She is a descendant of my great grandfather and his second wife. While my grandmother wanted nothing to do with her father or her half-sister, it is time for the family to know more about that forgotten branch. I outlined the research and explained why I am reaching out in the letter but there is still no guarantee as to whether or not I will get a response. Frankly, I am not 100% certain that I am writing to the right person but all of the supporting information seems to make sense. After all, if I am correct, she is still living in the same house that my great grandfather lived in.

Next up will be pulling together all the information needed for the Sons of the American Revolution application. While I have all the documents needed, and then some, this is still going to be a project and a half. The work has already been done it is simply a matter of sending it in such a way as to speed up the approval process. It will be nice to finally have this off my plate after a year languishing on my to-do list.

So that is the plan at the moment. This, combined with whatever my aunt and uncle can find out during their upcoming trip to Virginia, will hopefully fill in a few gaps in the tree. Until then, I think I will find a few more people I can write, email, and call. And, of course, get a lot of editing done on the tree as it is looking a little ragged and is in dire need of pruning.

Filling In The Foliage In The Family Tree

The most recent addition to the family research...
the final resting place of Laura Belle Redcross and Marcellus Nickolas Love.

Over the weekend I spent some time talking with the other genealogist in the family, my aunt, about the impasse that we are now facing. We have both spent the last several years working on the family tree trying to fill in the leaves, trim the branches, and follow the roots as far as they will go. We are now at a point where all of the information that can be found online has been found, catalogued, and added to our tree. We are at a point when it is going to take a considerable increase in effort in order to achieve even the smallest of results…. traveling and physically searching for documents.

While that is a huge part of the ongoing work that we need to get done there is also a completely different task which we need to accomplish. For much of the family we have the documents, the lineage, the connections from A to B, and we know of events that occurred in their lives. However, there really is no narrative that has been written on each of the generations to give us some color and fill in what was happening not only in their lives but also what was happening in the world around them. Facts can only tell you so much. The story is what makes the person, for lack of an original term, come to life.

While you have all read about Jacob Wirth and his death aboard the USS Tecumseh which I wrote about back in November, I haven’t really done the work to tell some of the other interesting stories from the tree. Sure there have been plenty of lists like the ones I have compiled for the Sons of the American Revolution and outlining connections to the Monacan Indian Nation, I haven’t done my job as a story teller in recreating the lives, connections, and service in the family. And there are so many beyond those few that have previously been listed.

Sometimes it’s not about the events in their lives, sometimes it’s about the lives that they lived. While those lives may seem unremarkable to many, they are part of what made this family and guided us along the way. What if my grandfather never moved the family up to Pennsylvania from the Appalachian Mountains in Virginia? What if Samuel Ardis lived past 28 years old? What if my great grandparents never divorced? What if each of the immigrants just decided to stay put?

Obviously, we will ever know the real answers to the hypothetical questions. We will also never know if the stories we tell are completely accurate. But we can at least attempt to breathe life back into our ancestors and try to better understand the lives that they lived, the hardships they faced, and the decisions that they were forced to make. This should be interesting.

Anyone Know Of A Good AA Group Around Here?

This is the line that really has me strung out!

Despite our frequent warnings, this past week my wife and I had a friend of ours finally take the plunge and get onto ancestry.com. Since then we have noticed a significant increase in their time spent online sometimes going well past midnight. Of course, this is one of the early warning signs and my wife finally got to the point that she had to ask the question that was also floating around in the empty space of my mind, “Are you getting too addicted already?!?!”

We ask because we are and, if need be, we will have an intervention. We know the signs all too well and we know the constant pull that the website has during all hours of the day and night. We are Ancestry Addicts and we are proud of it.

Unfortunately, I don’t think our friend really knows what they are getting themselves into. It starts with a small hit and a high that is just enough to make you want more. Soon it is never enough and you are spending hours at a time on the computer without even knowing it. One night you get on for a quick search at 10:00 PM and before you know it the light peers through the blinds and it’s time for breakfast.

And, if that wasn’t bad enough, it gets worse. Soon your reaching out to relatives you haven’t spoken to in years grilling them for more details about a cousin you just discovered or an Aunt that caused a ruckus in her neighborhood in 1924 because she didn’t care for the art deco designs. That’s when you find that only an addict knows how to satisfy and addict. The rest of the world doesn’t care if your great great grand pappy had the grandest outhouse in the county and before you started chasing the genealogical dragon you didn’t care either.

There really is no end to the vicious cycle of research and discovery and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I am a heritage hoarder and an ancestry addict and I’m darn proud of that fact. I am finding out who I am by finding the people that made my family what it is today. I will continue to search and I will always look for new places to explore. And while I am looking elsewhere I will continue to return to the tree and, occasionally, partake in some of the good stuff, the easy highs, that come about when a new leaf appears and taunts me with its shimmy.

Yeah, I have problems but I can’t stop to think about that now, I have more work to do and files to organize. So while I’m gone feel free to comment and let me know of any good Ancestry Anonymous groups that might be out there. It’s always better when you get high with others.

One Ring In The Tree

A couple of months ago I came across a question posed in one of the Freemason groups that I belong to on LinkedIn which asked “How many of you wear a Masonic ring at your professional work place?” A very simple yes or no type question but there is much more to it than that. It has been interesting following the responses that occasionally trickle into my inbox. Not surprisingly, the majority of the answers, like mine, have been in the affirmative but there has been a variety of stories behind the answers.

Obviously, all of the answers I have read have made me think about the reasons why I chose to wear mine. By proudly displaying my affiliation on my finger I am not just representing Freemasonry, my lodge, and myself I am honoring my family as the ring I wear twenty four hours a day, seven days a week is the same one my grandfather wore from the time he became a Mason to the day he died. It is a way to connect with my grandfather who I never knew as he passed only a month after I was born.

My grandfather was not a wealthy man in a financial sense so instead of a wedding band he wore his Masonic ring. While I don’t wear it as a wedding ring as my grandfather did, it still serves as a reminder of my commitment not just to my brothers but also to my family and my heritage. It is a tactile motivation to learn more about the craft and also to learn more about my family especially the ones I never had the chance to know.

It keeps me connected to the past, hopeful for the future, and pushes me to do what I can to make sure that I do something worth remembering with my life. It doesn’t have to be anything spectacular or influence the lives of many, as long as I accomplish something worth passing down I will be happy. I guess that’s why I am so motivated to keep this blog going day after day. It is not about getting a certain amount of views (although that is nice), it is not about making a profit (I don’t make anything), it is about providing a simple record of an ordinary life.

As I wrote about yesterday, the most commonly overlooked person on a family tree is the one that is compiling the information. I guess you could consider this blog as part of my genealogical record. Whereas we have documents, newspaper articles, family stories, and heirlooms such as my ring, I have my words and, like my grandfather’s ring, I hope to pass this on to future generations not only to keep the tree alive but to make sure it flourishes.

Office Excavation

After my shift yesterday I decided to head into the office and attempt to do some cleaning. As you may remember, we did a significant reorganization and a little bit of cleaning about a month ago but there were some things that we have kept putting off. As much as I hate doing it, it was time to get things cleaned off my desk and organized.

Much of the cleaning and organizing had to do with all the papers and files that have been slowly accumulating over the past several months. I must have had an entire tree blanketing all the surfaces in the small room. In my opinion, is the worst kind of cleaning because you have to go through every document, sort them, and shred anything with sensitive information on it.

The truly astounding part of this endeavor is just how much stuff there is strewn about. For me, paper seems to epitomize the 10 in 5 mystery in that you wonder how ten pounds of crap can fit into a space that should only be able to hold five. It was a seemingly never ending task that had me, time and again, asking why I had kept all this stuff.

At the same time, I did come across a lot of things that I had long since forgotten about. Acceptance letters, testing scores, old flyers from readings, photographs I had taken, and endorsements. However, what were of greatest value to me were the papers that I had misplaced before I could add them to my genealogy binders. Namely copies of a few obituaries, a couple of family photos, and my conversion documents.

My conversion file in particular reminded me of an important part and commonly overlooked aspect of family tree building. All too often, amateur genealogists such as myself get tunnel vision and focus solely on the past. One of the worst things we can do is fail to color the leaf which we occupy on the tree. We have to remember that we are both story tellers and part of the story.

This omission is bad enough but what is infinitely worse is the failure to simply look around. Talk to the family that you have not just for what they can provide with regard to previous generations but for their stories as well. The work that you are doing now is great for the present but infinitely more important for the future generations of the family.

Lastly, the overarching reminder that yesterday provided me with was that whether you are researching your family or some other topic be organized. You are always going to be collecting more documents, more photographs, more books, and more stories and you need to have a place to put them where they can be retrieved easily. It was hard enough to find it once, don’t make yourself have to find it again.