Organize Your Family History

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Those Eureka! moments

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I just had one of those moments where I raised both arms in the air and whooped. I think I startled my standard poodle, Bix.

I’ve been trying for the five research sessions to ascertain whether a couple I had found was my couple. I had downloaded seven documents for a George Washington Adams born in 1882 (this is the son of the George Washington Adams whose Civil War pension file I transcribed this year). He had a wife, Elizabeth Major Adams, who passed away from influenza in 1929, leaving behind seven children. Before processing these documents, I wanted to be certain that this G.W. Adams was my G.W. Adams.

A year ago, I would have accepted that he was the right person, perhaps overlooking the fact I didn’t have any definitive proof. The Genealogical Proof Standard requires reasonably exhaustive research and kept bearing that in mind as I kept researching until I found a definitive connection.

I’m keeping a research log in Evernote, so I can see everything I’ve done on this search and at the end of each session, I’ve jotted down next steps. I’ve had to keep my sessions short, so these next steps have been really helpful–and there have always been plenty of them.

One of the challenges is that on his World War I draft registration card, George, who at the time was married to Elizabeth (Betha), listed his birth date as September 19, 1883, rather than 1882 as his father had listed in a pension document. The World War II draft registration I found for George, married to Estle, listed his birth Sepember 19, 1881. Both documents show him with brown eyes and brown hair. (Brown eyes are uncommon in my family, I’ve noticed.)

I hadn’t focused on Estle until today. My Eureka moment came when I found George and Estle on the 1940 census, living with children the same names and ages as those listed as survivors in the news article about Elizabeth’s death. That’s when I whooped and hollered. I also found Estle in the burial plot next to George and two spots away from Elizabeth.

I am so glad I pursued this until I felt I’d made a real connection. If I’d gone ahead with the assumption that George and Elizabeth were the right couple I might have had lingering doubts. And I know that would have driven me crazy. Also, there’s nothing like the thrill of those Eureka moments!

Reconnecting with my research

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Reconnecting with my genealogy researchI was out of town for ten days and I managed to sneak in a little genealogy research. I returned on May 7 to a full client schedule for my organizing business. I’m certainly not complaining about that, but I have not had the energy and time to do any genealogy research for over a week.

I was regretting that state of affairs when I realized I didn’t have to have a large swath of time available to me in order to get some research done. Sometimes just spending a little time on it to reconnect me with my ancestors and get the ball rolling again can be really beneficial.

In the past, a big barrier to my starting a research session was figuring out what to work on. But now I have a few small, systematic projects I can always fall back on. This morning, I decided to set a timer and work on my research for just 15 minutes. I had three choices of easy things to dive into:

For any of these projects, I could make some progress in just 15 minutes. I chose to work on option #1, checking my source documentation. I have a checklist in Evernote in which I check off each source after I’ve made sure that the source citation is good, the multimedia file is attached to the source and the pertinent data from the source was included in Reunion. When I finish a source I check it off so I can always see where I stand.

This morning, the next source on the list was the Compiled Service Record for a different 2nd great grandfather, Benjamin Franklin Igleheart (1845-1913). I hit the jackpot, because I hadn’t done a great job of extracting data to include in his record on Reunion. The 15 minutes flew by as I noted his eye, hair and complexion color, for example. (His eyes were listed as black!)

I didn’t actually finish going through the 16-page record, but I employed a trick I learned years ago: When my timer went off, I stopped, even though I was in the middle of a document. I know that since our brains crave completion, I’ll be anxious to get right back to the document and finished extracting data from it. Then I’ll check it off my source documentation checklist (another satisfying thing to do). I made a note in my research log to remind me where I left off. I’d be willing to bet I’ll be so anxious to finish it that I work on it this evening.

I find that if I spend too much time away from my research I feel disconnected from it. Taking a little snippet of time to work on it this morning will help me get back to it this weekend, when I have more time.

Building genealogy into a vacation

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Building genealogy into a vacationI’m writing this from New York City, where I’ve been since Sunday. I’m having a fabulous time with my college buddies, one of whom has moved to the Upper East Side. Early in the week, I had the pleasure of doing some organizing in her apartment (you can see my post on my organizing blog about the products I used in her kitchen cupboard) while she was at work.

On Wednesday, before my other buddies arrived, I had some time to myself. I purposely didn’t plan anything because I was so confident I’d win the Hamilton ticket lottery. Amazingly, I did not receive $10 tickets for the Wednesday matinee of Hamilton, so I decided to spend a little time focusing on my genealogy.

I thought I’d go to the New York Public Library, which has a great genealogy collection. I took a look at my family tree to see my New York-born ancestors. I looked at the sources I had for them and saw an index I’d found at FamilySearch.org and used WorldCat to see if I could find the book that contained that index in New York. Sure enough, it was available at the NYPL, but it was also available at the Patricia D. Klingenstein Library at the New-York Historical Society Museum and Library, at 77th and Central Park West, quite a bit closer to my Upper East Side digs than the 42nd street main branch of the public library. It was smaller and less overwhelming and therefore more appealing to me.

I learned from the website that the library is open to the public and has some strict security guidelines, in terms of what you can bring in. I also learned that it has an online ordering system that allowed me to research what I was looking for from home (well, from my friend’s apartment) and request it so that the books and manuscript collection were waiting for me when I got there.

It was a stroke of genius on my part to spend the afternoon this way. When I got to the Historical Society, located right next door to the American Museum of Natural History, I was immediately thrilled with the grandeur of the building. And while I wasn’t able to see Hamilton on Broadway, I did see the famous statues of Hamilton and Burr facing off in their duel, which is housed in the building.

Inside the library, my books awaited me and I immediately found some information that made the trip worth my while. Once I was through looking at the books, I moved to the manuscript collection for Coenties Slip, an area in lower Manhattan that was owned by my ancestor, Conraedt Ten Eyck, in the 17th century. (I blogged a little about Conraedt and Coenties Slip when I visited Manhattan with my niece a couple of years ago.)

The manuscript collection was comprised of original, handwritten documents. It contained Conraedt’s handwritten will. Not a facsimile of the will, the real deal. I photographed it through the shiny sheet protectors the pages were encased in, which created a reflection that will make it a little challenging to transcribe, but I’ll be able to do it. (That’s a picture of the first page of the will at the top of this post.)

What a satisfying afternoon. It was a delight to be in the gorgeous surroundings of this library, getting in touch with history and learning about my family. My friends don’t share my interest in genealogy, so I was so happy to be able to snatch this little pocket of time for my research while I was here. (And yes, I did log my research!)

I think I’m going to try to always find a little time for research when I travel, ideally using in-person resources available locally. I’m so glad I was able to build research into this vacation!

DNA Test: A great Mother’s Day gift

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Mother’s Day is coming up here in the U.S. I have a friend who is eagerly anticipating an Ancestry DNA test as a Mother’s Day gift. Her husband and two sons are being tested too. I think that’s a wonderful gift!

My mother, Betty Brown Adams, passed away two years ago, on 17 June 2015. In February of 2015, when I was at RootsTech, I purchased three kits from Family Tree DNA for my parents. I had each parent do an autosomal test (Family Finder) and I had my father do a Y-DNA test as well. (Those choices were based on a terrific RootsTech presentation I’d heard, given by Diahan Southard, Your DNA Guide.)

I’m the administrator for my parents’ tests (no computer at my parents’ condo!) and I’m so happy to have the information to play with, though I have a lot of learning to do about making good use of the results. (That’s a whole different post.)

When I had my mother take the test, I had no idea she would only be with us for four more months. (She had Parkinson’s Disease, but her passing was pretty sudden.) I am so grateful that I didn’t wait to ask her to take a test.

If your parents are still alive and haven’t been tested, I urge you to consider ordering the tests for them. My folks had literally no interest in it, but they were happy to do it as a favor to me. Depending on your folks’ level of interest, it could be a wonderfully unique Mother’s Day (or Father’s Day) gift!