Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots
There are rules around genealogy (like the all-important Always Document Sources) and through various reading I’ve done I think I’ve caught on to a lot of them.
But I was delighted to see a succinct list of 10 rules referenced in the current edition of NGS Magazine from the National Genealogy Society.
They’re in this blog post: Got Genealogy’s Golden Rules of Genealogy.
Great stuff!
I realize that I really need to do a better job of organizing my files in my computer. Until this point, I’d usually relied on my Mac’s amazing search capabilities to find stuff. But now that I have a variety of forms I’ve received through my classes with Family Tree University (FTU) and other places, I think I would benefit by putting them all in one place on my hard drive. (I started to type “should put them in one place,” but I try really hard to not to use the word “should.”)
I’m also starting to download some records, so clearly a digital filing system is in order.
This came to a head today when I realized I needed to print out another census checklist (a form that allows me to track which censuses I’ve found different ancestors on). I think I got it with my first FTU class, but heck if I can find it on my hard drive. I’ll keep looking, but it’s inspiring me to get my digital act together.
I have a little mystery I look forward to solving (somehow). My paternal great grandparents (my father’s father’s parents) were married in 1893, when my great grandmother, Hattie, was 18 (a month shy of 19) and my great grandfather, Elmer, was 21. They were living together in the 1900, 1910, and 1920 censuses. (I noticed on the 1910 census that Hattie had had six children, but only four survived.)
In the 1930 census, however, I found Hattie, but she wasn’t living with Elmer. Instead, she’s listed as a landlady of a boarding house in Olympia, Washington, the state capital. And she’s still at the same home (with 9 boarders) in 1940. But she is listed as married.
Where’s Elmer? My father says they split (though apparently they didn’t divorce…Hattie is listed as having another source of income in 1940…was Elmer supporting her?). My dad said it really wasn’t discussed much, though my father was in his 13 when Elmer died and in his 20s when Hattie died.
So I want to find Elmer on the 1930 and 1940 censuses. And when I’m visiting her in August, perhaps I’ll pump my aunt (my father’s sister) for information on her grandparents. Maybe it was discussed more around her. So far, I’m hitting a wall.
One of the things I love about family history research is that even census records can give you a little peek into the lives of people who lived before us. The fact that these people are related to us makes it even more interesting.
For example, I found my paternal grandmother, Beatrix Rasco, on the 1920 census. She was living in Plainview. Texas. with her family, on a farm. She was 13 years old and in school. She could read and write. In my experience, when a student is listed on the census, the occupation field is left blank or the word None is entered. In my grandmother’s case, her occupation was Farmer. Her little brother, Wilson, who at 7 was not in school, could not read or write and his occupation was listed as Farmer. (Their father was a farmer, as was their big sister, Lessie, who was 18 at the time. Their mother had no occupation listed.)
When I was 13 I think I babysat for some money, but my biggest worry, besides boys, was making sure I was able to watch Happy Days on Tuesday evenings. It’s hard for me to imagine life as a teenage girl farmer. Or a little boy who worked a farm but didn’t go to school and couldn’t read. (Though, to be fair, I don’t know at what age most kids started school back then. I’ll have to look into that.)
Kids today would probably consider my childhood deprived, since we had no computers, VCRs, cell phones (smart or otherwise) or, of course, internet. But by comparison to my grandmother’s childhood, it seems like I was living in the lap of luxury.
I can’t wait to have more glimpses of the past via my family history research!
