Organize Your Family History

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Stepping in my ancestors’ footsteps

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Muster Funeral Home in Calhoun, KentuckyI’m in the midst of my research trip to Kentucky and this morning I really felt the power of walking where my ancestors walked. This morning, I was sitting on the porch of Farley’s Bed and Breakfast in Calhoun, McLean, Kentucky, enjoying a cup of coffee on a lovely morning. As I looked at the impressive building across the street, I noticed the sign Muster Funeral Home, established 1855. It occurred me that this was probably the funeral home some of my ancestors used.

Since my laptop was in my lap, I took a quick look at the death certificate for Bonnie Adams, the daughter of my great great grandfather, George Washington Adams (who is the primary focus of my research on this trip) and his second wife, Della. Bonnie died in 1919 at the age of six, from influenza. I knew they were living in Calhoun at the time of her death. Sure enough, the undertaker was Muster.

Yesterday morning, I had gone to Calhoun Cemetery and looked at young Bonnie’s grave marker. George and Della had a tumultuous relationship that ended in divorce a year after their daughter’s death. I can imagine that their grief on top of an unhappy marriage was practically unbearable.

Being right there where they were, both near the funeral home and the grave site, really brought home the power of these trips. I felt like I knew my ancestors better and could understand just a little more what his life was like.

I’ll write more later about this trip, but I can say with assurance that no matter what I discover in the libraries and repositories this week in Kentucky, just walking in the shoes of my ancestors in McLean County has made this trip worthwhile.

Preliminary lessons in planning my research trip

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Tomorrow’s the big day. I’m going to leave bright and early to travel to McLean County, Kentucky, where I haven’t been for five years. I have been preoccupied with planning it for the last month or more and now it’s time to pack up my stuff and go. After a day in McLean, I’ll move on to Owensboro for the morning, then Frankfort, where I’ll stay three nights. I’ve been very keen to do a lot of planning so I wouldn’t waste any time while I was there. I actually placed a lot of pressure on myself, I think.

Time will tell whether I’m right, but here are the initial lessons I feel I’ve learned:

  • At some point I had to call it done. I was poring over repositories’ catalogs and my family tree, trying to fine-tune my lookups and I realized I needed to decide I’ve finished, pack up and relax.
  • Less is more. When I initially started planning this trip, I though I’d spend time in Louisville and Bowling Green repositories, but after taking a realistic look at the time I had available, I decided to pare the trip down to just three locations. That gives me more breathing room, which feels much better.
  • The little repositories are as intriguing as the big ones. Kentucky has some great repositories for genealogists in Frankfort and I can’t wait to explore them. But I’m equally excited to visit the McLean County Historical and Genealogical Museum just three blocks from my B&B in Calhoun. I’m confident the folks there will point me to resources I couldn’t find elsewhere. I will also visit the Genealogy Room of the McLean County Public Library in Livermore to see what I might find there. And I’m excited to pay another visit to the Kentucky Room of the Daviess County Public Library in Owensboro where I hope to do some newspaper research on some indexed articles (obits mostly) about ancestors. I’m also looking forward to seeing their vertical files.
  • It’s important to build in some flexibility. Five years ago, when I took a trip to both Kentucky and Alabama, I was so glad I allowed myself some flexibility to change things up. I ended up staying longer in Kentucky and lopping the more distant Alabama destination off my itinerary.  This time, I’m allowing myself the option to stay away an extra day if need be. And I have a just-in-case plan to go to Louisville, if I tap out early on the resources in Frankfort.
  • I can’t necessarily count on technology. I’m going to stay at a B&B in the tiny town of Calhoun, Kentucky, where my ancestors live. When I spoke with the owner last week, she mentioned that the internet was down in the entire town that day. She hoped it would be back. What? I’m planning my trip in Trello, but it requires the internet in order for me to access it. I’m assuming I’ll have cell phone service, but sometimes that can be spotty. So I’m doing something I don’t do much of: I’m printing out the things I’d be lost without (both literally and figuratively) that day.
  • Depth beats breadth. I have a lot of ancestors who lived in Kentucky, particularly in McLean County. I’ve been figuring out what resources not available on the Internet I might be able to find out about them when I’m on this trip. As part of the prep for this trip, I’ve spent more time looking into my 2nd great grandfather, George Washington Adams (1845-1938)–whom I thought I had known pretty well. Well, newspaper research this month revealed something I hadn’t known: he was a member of state legislature in the last decade of the 19th century. So I’ve decided I’d really like to spend time in McLean researching context so I can understand more about how he lived. (I heard a great talk from Elizabeth Shown Mills on context at the NGS conference, which is inspiring me.) That might mean I find out fewer facts about other ancestors, but I’m okay with that. And, of course, the context I learn will help me with other ancestors who lived in that time and place as well.
  • I’m going to be kind to myself. I have high hopes for this trip, but if they don’t all pan out, that’ll be okay. I know it’s not going to be perfect and I won’t kick myself when I realize what I could have done differently. I’m staying at an AirBnb in Frankfort and while I hope my evenings will involve some planning for the next day, I also plan to let myself relax. I also plan to eat well. I’m fortunate that I love spending time by myself, so hanging out on my own in an AirBnb is my idea of a good time.

I’ve literally been thinking about this trip for years. I feel I’ve prepared well. We shall see whether I’ve over- or under-prepared. I will certainly let you all know how it goes!

 

Letting research trip planning be easy

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As I’ve posted here, I’m planning a research trip to Kentucky later this month. I’m bound and determined to get the most out of this trip by doing a great job of planning for it in advance. My father’s paternal line lived in Kentucky for at least four generations so a lot of my people lived there, primarily in the 19th century (though some stayed there in the 20th century). I’m researching collateral lines, in addition to direct-line ancestors, so there are of things I can research there. What goes hand in hand with a lot of opportunities? Overwhelm.

Each day as part of my current 30 x 30 challenge, I’ve been working on planning the trip, but I’ve been a little scattered in my approach and it’s getting a little frustrating because I’m not really making decisions. I’m searching for clarity. And I think I found it.

Yesterday, my co-host Shannon Wilkinson and I recorded Episode 54 of our podcast Getting to Good Enough. (We’ll publish it on June 13.) The episode’s theme was Let It Be Easy, which is my mantra, as I’ve shared on this blog. As we were talking about this topic, I realized that I haven’t been letting this planning process be easy. Quite the opposite. Time for things to change.

So as soon as we finished recording, I pulled out some paper and started started brainstorming. I began with the all-important question, “Why do I want to take this trip?” Focusing on the answers to that question was so helpful. Four answers came to mind immediately and they gave my some instant clarity and direction. The answers were:

  1. To learn as much as I can about my 2nd great grandfather, George Washington Adams (1845-1938) (I’ve been fairly intensively studying him since I received and transcribed his 137-document civil war pension file)
  2. To solve mysteries
  3. To flesh out my family tree
  4. To expand my expertise

So now I’m focusing on identifying the blanks I can fill in for George Washington Adams, along with any information that could use more substantiation. I’m writing down mysteries, starting with those swirling around this second great grandfather (there are a few), and then I’ll look at how I might make tree stronger, bushier, and/or taller. I’d like to do a lot of that this week because next week I want to focus on scheduling the trip and contacting repositories.

I literally think the words “let it be easy” to myself probably four times a week. But for some reason, I hadn’t applied them to this trip. I’m feeling much better now that I have. I’ll keep you posted on how that goes!

Planning my Kentucky research trip

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One of my goals for 2019 is to take another research trip to Kentucky. My people were from western Kentucky: McLean, Hopkins and Muhlenberg counties, primarily. I’m really fortunate in that Kentucky has many wonderful repositories. I had a brief visit to the Kentucky Historical Society (or was it the State Archives?) in Frankfort when I was there on a bourbon trip with my husband in 2014. Earlier that year, I visited cemeteries and a library in McLean and Daviess counties.

On both those trips, I did do some preparation but I really floundered a bit when I got to the repositories. I don’t want to repeat that feeling of not knowing what to research. I went to a talk on Kentucky resources at the NGS conference, so I have a great list of places I could visit. And I went to a talk on organizing a research trip and have lots of great logistical ideas in terms of the travel.

Here’s what I’m struggling with today: What’s a better way to go about planning what I want to find out? It seems like I have a couple of options:

  • Come up with research questions and then figure out which respositories might have the answers
  • Research the repositories’ holdings and then figure out what I records I need from each of the repositories

My gut tells me to do the former. Figure out my burning questions and seek out the answers that I can’t find online. But I’m not sure.

These are the places I’m thinking I’ll go:

  • Kentucky State Archives (Frankfort)
  • Martin F. Schmidt Research Library at the Kentucky Historical Society (Frankfort)
  • Office of Vital Statistics (Frankfort)
  • Filson Historical Society (Louisville) [I made a connection with a curator there when I was at NGS!]
  • Kentucky Room of the Daviess County Public Library (Owensboro)
  • Western Kentucky University Manuscripts and Folklife Archives (Bowling Green)
  • McLean County Courthouse (Calhoun)
  • Various cemeteries in McLean County

That’s kind of a daunting (but exciting!) list.

I’d love to hear comments from any of you who are familiar with Kentucky research or have advice about planning my trip, which I’m hoping to take in late June. If there’s an approach you recommend for preparing or if there are places you’d suggest I go, I’m all ears!

 

 

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