Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

What I did right (and wrong) on my research trip

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My long-awaited research trip to Kentucky took place last week, June 24-28. I drove 3.5 hours to McLean County on Monday morning, arriving in time to visit the McLean County family history research center, as well as the McLean County Public Library’s genealogy room and three cemeteries. It was a full day!

As I mentioned in a post while on the trip, the bed and breakfast where I stayed was across the street from the funeral home that was called in when Bonnie Adams, the daughter of 2nd great grandfather, George Washington Adams (who was the focus of this trip) died at age six from influenza in 1919. Spending time in the small town of Calhoun (population less than 1,000) where that family lived was very powerful. Visiting the cemeteries where my family members were buried is an experience of deep connection. I also realized how many more names I recognized this time, compared my first visit there in 2014. I know so much more about this branch of my family than I did five years ago!

From McLean County, I traveled on Tuesday morning to Owensboro (just a half hour away), where I spent much of the day in the Kentucky Room at the Daviess County Public Library. My discoveries weren’t huge, but, thanks to the helpful librarians there, I was able to find an 1895 newspaper profile of George Washington Adams (1845-1938) that originally appeared in the Louisville Courier. It gave me information about his political career (something I hadn’t been aware of before June of this year) and, best of all, it included a sketch of him! That’s him at the top of this post. Ryan, one of the helpful librarians in the Kentucky Room, commented on George’s “epic beard.”

After a hearty lunch in Owensboro, I drove 2.5 hours to Frankfort, where I checked in at a very private Airbnb property that is just a block from the Kentucky Historical Society, as well as walking distance to lots of downtown restaurants. Its entrance was in the back of the house, facing the Kentucky River. It was a great little getaway in the heart of town.

I stayed in Frankfort three nights. The three places I was keen on going were the Kentucky Historical Society’s research library, the Kentucky Department of Library and Archives (KDLA) archives research room and the Kentucky Office of Vital Statistics, where I wanted to get my hands on the long form (handwritten) of Bonnie Adams’ 1912 birth certificate. This child’s name on her death certificate is Bonnie and on her grave marker (which I saw this trip) is Bonita. I had sent away for her birth certificate in 2017, but the non-original computer-generated short form I was sent listed her name as Gliolia, the name under which it was indexed. I was curious about the handwriting that would make “Bonnie” look like “Gliolia” so I was happy for the chance to get my hands on the hand-written original version of the birth certificate. Guess what? The handwriting was actually quite clear and it looks all the world like Gliolia. So I don’t know what’s up with her first name. It’s another new mystery to explore. This long form gave more information than the short form I’d been sent–including how many children her mother had had who were still living and her parents’ occupations. Note to self: If I send away for another birth certificate in Kentucky (or perhaps elsewhere), I’ll request the long form.

I had spent as much time as I could prior to the trip trying to identify things to look up in these repositories. I knew that I wanted to look at vertical files, which I did at the first three places I went. At the KDLA I was able to examine the original documents surrounding the 1920 divorce of George Washington Adams and his second wife, Della. I also saw the divorce papers for a 1912 divorce filed by Della against George that was apparently dropped.. Thanks to the great researchers at KDLA, I’d actually been sent these documents in 2017 but the type on one of the pages was very faint. Thankfully, the original was perfectly legible, so I was able to take a photo of the document and, while I was there, I went ahead and transcribed it. (It was just a page and a half.) That made me so happy because I’d been straining to read the document I’d been emailed.

My other achievement was that I was able to prove the parentage of a 3rd great grandfather, Henry Clay McEuen (1823-1894) who was the father of George’s first wife, Henrietta Clay McEuen Adams (1847-1902). Connecting Henry to his parents, Felix McEuen (1794-1872) and Lucretia Mentelle McEuen (1899-1875) allows me to explore some interesting information my aunt had given me in the form of an unsourced family history that provides details about Lucretia’s parents, Augustus Waldemard and Charlotte Victoire Mentelle, who were prominent early-19th century citizens of Lexington with connections to Mary Todd Lincoln and Senator Henry Clay (John Quincy Adams’ Secretary of State). I’d been tantalized by that family history but didn’t want to explore its clues until I’d proven my connection to the family.

This was definitely a successful trip, despite the absence of huge “Eureka!” moments. While I was away, I made a few notes of things I think I did right and things I could have done better.

Things I did right:

  • I kept my schedule loose and maintained flexibility. It was nice to be nimble.
  • I narrowed my focus to a few key questions so I didn’t get too overwhelmed at all the possibilities of things to research.
  • I studied the respositories’ rules and regulations so I wasn’t taken by surprise.
  • I asked for help while I was at the various sites; this is something I got better at as I went along.
  • I wrote ahead to the Daviess County Public Library. They pulled requested resources and had them waiting for me!

Things I could have done better:

  • Ideally I would have educated myself even more on the holdings of the repositories, because I was still a little unsure of what to look for next while I was there.
  • I wish I had visited the funeral home in Calhoun, since I was right there, and asked if they had records on two of my grandfather’s brothers, who died in 1899 and 1902 as very small boys. I have no information on them beyond newspaper accounts of their tragic accidental deaths. (Thank you for that suggestion, Maria Tello!)
  • In retrospect, it would have been wise for me to have gone to the McLean County Courthouse just a block from where I was staying. I was under the impression that I’d more easily find what I was looking for at the KDLA, but it turns out there were some gaps in the microfilmed records there and the archivist suggested I check the courthouse. Alternatively, if I had chosen to go to Frankfort first, I could have visited the courthouse when I got to McLean county and checked out those missing resources.
  • I wish I had taken the time at the end of each day to process—or at least carefully read—everything I photographed during the day. It wasn’t until the last day of my trip that I realized that I had documents in my possession that made the vital connection between Henry and Felix McEuen. I had found that document on the first day!

Of course, like everything, the trip didn’t go perfectly. But I think it went very well and I’m really satisfied with my planning and what I was able to find. I’d forgotten to take into account the mental exertion of full days of research five days in a row! By Friday afternoon when I left for my five-hour drive back to St. Louis, my brain was full and I was ready to stop.

I’m really grateful for this opportunity. Getting away from daily life and really focusing on my research was a special treat. If you have the opportunity to do it, I heartily encourage it!

Why I like to do cemetery research in person

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I am so grateful for the volunteers who post pictures to Find A Grave and Billion Graves. It is such a selfless act and when I can’t see a grave in person I am thrilled when I find ancestor’s grave on one of these sites.

I have a tendency to want to see sources (or a scanned image in the case of documents) with my own eyes when I add them to my family tree. With Find A Grave, seeing a picture is often a terrific substitute.

Recently when doing some research on the McEuen family (part of my Adams line) I was puzzled to see reference to a death date of 1929 on Find A Grave for Ellsworth McEuen (b. 1863), the brother of my great great grandmother, Henrietta Clay McEuen Adams. In my Reunion software, I had his death year as 1928. So I checked the source I’d associated with that 1928 date and it included a personal viewing of his gravestone. When I looked at my photo, I saw that it indeed said 1928.

The Find A Grave photo was less well lit and harder to make out. The wonderful volunteer who took the photo and uploaded the information, Anita Austill, interpreted it as 1929.

Looking at her photo, you can see why:

ellsworthmceuenfagrave

On my visit to that cemetery (the Cumberland Presbyterian Cemetery in Sacramento, Kentucky) two years ago, I was fortunate to have great lighting when taking a picture of that same gravestone. The 1928 date is crystal clear. (Click on the photos to see larger versions).

gravemarker-ellsworth-mceuen-mclean-ky

I’m not criticizing the volunteers who contribute these photos. I know that this gravestone was one of many that the photographer took and uploaded, whereas I was focused on my family members. But it does motivate me to take cemetery trips–which I enjoy!–even though photos are often available online.

Building flexibility into your genealogy trip

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building flexibility into a genealogy research tripI just finished with my cemetery research trip to Kentucky and Alabama, where some of my ancestors lived and died. Being the professional organizer that I am, I planned the trip fairly extensively, down to the GPS coordinates of the cemeteries I was planning to visit. I worked up a schedule and made hotel reservations. My intention was to visit four cemeteries in three cities over two and a half days. I needed to end up in Nashville mid-afternoon of the third day for a conference.

On Day One, I realized that my plan was flawed. And I was so glad that I had the flexibility to change it. What I hadn’t done in all my planning was to build time in to look at local genealogy repositories for resources that might not be available to me on the internet. When I discovered that there was a Kentucky Room in a public library in Owensboro, Kentucky, 45 minutes north of where I was, I chose to stay and do research, rather than proceeding to Alabama as I’d originally planned.

That extra time in the Kentucky Room garnered me a death certificate on microfilm for my great great great grandmother, Elizabeth McEuen (that’s her grave marker in the photo), which in turn gave me her parents’ names.

The next day I proceeded to Baileyton, Alabama, where I had no trouble locating the grave markers of my great great grandparents, Laban and Margaret Rasco, and Laban’s parents, Jesse and Martha Rasco. When an internet search revealed a genealogy room at the library of Wayne Wallace State University, in Hanceville, Alabama, I decided to stay in northern Alabama and forgo my trip south to Marion Junction, Alabama, to visit another cemetery. I chose library research over cemetery research. This also saved me a few hours of driving in each direction.

I think it was a good decision. At the Wayne State library, the helpful librarians quickly identified Laban Rasco’s death certificate on microfilm and, in addition, they located his Confederate pension application, a 15-page document that I am looking forward to poring over.

I’m so glad I took this trip. Stepping away from the desk can be so beneficial. To stand in front of the graves of my ancestors was so powerful. To see the towns in which they lived helped me see them as humans. And talking with local people who knew my family’s surnames, brought my ancestors to life for me. One of the librarians in Hanceville, it turns out, grew up next to my family’s homestead. Making that connection with her was priceless. A week or two after I got home, to my delight, that librarian mailed me a copy of the death certificate for Laban’s wife, Margaret Elizabeth Dye!

Thanks to a blog reader, I called ahead to the church associated with one of the cemeteries and was connected to a wonderful local historian who went out of his way to help me and even met me at the cemetery. The trip couldn’t have gone better. And I learned a valuable lesson: When on a genealogy trip, keep my schedule loose and flexible so I can take advantage of the opportunities that present themselves.