Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

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!

Making good use of my time at the Family History Library

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An aisle of microfilm at the Family History Library

I leave for Salt Lake City on Wednesday, to attend the RootsTech conference. I arrive noonish and have decided to spend the afternoon and early evening at the Family History Library. I’m finding myself wishing I’d opted to go a day early to research, but I didn’t, so I’m trying to make good use of the fairly narrow window of time at the library.

I’m really fortunate because professional genealogist and Organize Your Family History reader Maria Tello has offered to meet me at the library and get me oriented and off to the right start. Thank you, Maria!

I’m looking to keep myself focused on one nuclear family; I have some questions I’d like to get answered. But I don’t want to have such tunnel vision that I might miss out on opportunities to learn about other families.

I’m wondering if any of my readers have any advice for me. I bet I’ll be there five hours or so. I’ll have my laptop. Is there anything you think I should bring along? Anything at the library that is not to be missed? Any pitfalls to try to avoid? I’ve been there once before, when I attended RootsTech in 2014. I remember being unfocused and overwhelmed and hope it will be different this time!

Also, if you’re attending RootsTech and would like to meet up, please comment here or send me a note from the Contact page. I’ve always had such a great time meeting readers!

A final note: Tuesday I’ll be posting my next installment of my How They Do It series. Keep an eye out!

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.

Hats off to pre-internet genealogists

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marriageindexIn my week at the Allen County Public Library, I was struck by how great it is to be a genealogy enthusiast in the era of the Internet. We can search for our ancestors with a few keystrokes and uncover documents and clues to further our research. We have unprecedented access to digital copies of actual primary documents. We can see original handwritten marriage certificates, for example, and interpret the handwriting ourselves, rather than trusting the indexer.

I looked at many indexes in written, bound form at the library. The snippet above is from a 1937 marriage index of Hopkins County, Kentucky. My 3rd great grandparents, David Adams and Mary Ray, are listed there. I was delighted to find this documentation of the date and county of their marriage.

Many of the bound indexes I consulted were typewritten. Some dedicated person had gone to a courthouse and written down all the entries in a marriage book, for example. I picture then squinting at the handwriting, taking their best guess at the names. (We often have an advantage when we’re looking for the names of our ancestors, because we know what we’re looking for.) They probably wrote them down on a sheet of paper, took them home and typed them up. Then they published them in book form or, sometimes, in the newsletter of a genealogy society or family newsletter or elsewhere.

When the genealogist researching a family found their ancestor’s name (or a facsimile of it) in one of these indexes or newsletters, they would then write the county courthouse to ask for a copy of the record and wait for it to arrive in the mail. This is how I imagine was how genealogy was often done. It was labor intensive. It was painstaking. And it was tedious.

Now, thanks to the hard work of our predecessors and, of course, to modern technology and the great work of thousands of volunteer indexers and organizations that are digitizing these documents, most of us can sit at our computers and get a whole lot of information without leaving our homes. It’s up to us to properly document it. And, if we want, to share it.

But, as I discovered at my week in the library, it can be really important to step away from the computer and do some off-the-internet research. Go to the cemeteries and find elusive gravemarkers. Go to courthouses in the counties where your ancestors lived and see if you can find the documents you haven’t been able to find online. And, yes, go to libraries and get big clues on furthering your research.

To our older relatives who were dedicated to genealogical research in the days when it was very labor-intensive, I offer my admiration and sincere thanks.