Legacy News

Dangerous temptations in genealogical research

What do you do with genealogical information you find on the Internet? Do you quickly download and add the information to your family file? If you've ever been tempted, read on....

The Internet is booming with user-contributed lineage-linked databases. These databases are often the first place researchers look, and for good reason. Before performing original research, we should find out if someone else has already published information on the family. But what should we do with the information we find?

The easiest thing to do is to simply add the newly-found information to our family file, either by downloading a GEDCOM file, copying/pasting, or manually retyping the information. We have all faced this dangerous temptation. This week as I searched for and found new information on Oliver STROUD and his wife Mary BROWN, I was faced with the decision - accept what was published, or research and verify the information.

I was looking for Oliver and Mary's marriage information. I found information in nine separate databases.

Six different researchers published their marriage information as November 21, 1870 in Mills County, Iowa.

Two different researchers published April 25, 1871 in Butler County, Nebraska.

One researcher published April 28, 1871 in Butler County, Nebraska.

How should you determine which is correct? Is the 1870 Iowa marriage "most correct" because it was published the most? No. This most often indicates that one person originally published it, and the others copied and republished.

Quality research requires more investigation - not relying on published, undocumented findings as fact.

Just yesterday I obtained a copy of the original marriage record and was astonished at what I found. First, I learned that a marriage license was issued in Mills County, Iowa on November 21, 1870. Although six different researchers published this date/place as the date/place of the actual marriage, they were 5 months and 7 days early and about 120 miles off. The marriage record showed that they were married on April 28, 1871 in Butler County, Nebraska.

The record also gave the birth place, age, current residence, and the names of each set of parents. Imagine what I would be missing if I relied on someone else's published information. My research rule is to obtain original documents whenever possible, and always locate as many other records as I can to corroborate my findings. A careful evaluation of my findings is now possible.

User-contributed databases are wonderful tools as they can help us get in touch with other family researchers who may have other pieces to our ancestral puzzle. However, maintaining a "sense of skepticism" in any genealogical research is crucial to to our genealogical success.

Using "negative evidence" to solve a research problem

I didn't find Mary Hague in the census - and now I'm more excited than ever. (That just doesn't sound right though, does it?)

We often get excited when we find our ancestor in the census, or in other records. Often, NOT finding our ancestors can tell us just as much. I had such an experience this morning as I searched for Mary Elizabeth Hague in the now-complete 1911 England census at www.1911census.co.uk. (Just this morning I read the announcement that they've now added the final counties to complete the census.)

I have searched many times for Mary's father, Edwin HAGUE, in the 1911 England census. Until yesterday, I hadn't searched for him as Edwin HAGNE. In the image below, I can easily see how the indexer thought the U in the surname should be a N, but it stumped me for a little while.

 

Using various searching techniques, I finally located the family. In previous census years, Edwin and Annie's children were living with them. Their youngest daughter, Mary, was with them in 1901. She was 18 years old. In this 1911 census, Mary was no longer listed with her parents.

What happened? 1) She could have died. 2) She could have left home to live on her own. 3) She could have married.

According to the "Total Children Born Alive" and "Children Still Living" columns, the parents had 4 children, and all were still living. So theory #1 is not true. Performing searches of a Mary Elizabeth Hague, born 1883 in the area was negative, so theory #2 might not be true. What most likely happened, is she married sometime between 1901 (when she was living with her parents) and 1911 (when she was not living at home).

In her book, Evidence Explained, Elizabeth Shown Mills explains that negative evidence is an "inference we can draw from the absence of information that should exist under particular circumstances." In this situation, the negative evidence is the absence of Mary in the household of her parents, and we can now come up with new research possibilities.

I have now narrowed the time frame of Mary's possible marriage to between 1901 and 1911. Using Legacy Family Tree's built-in Research Guidance (shown below), I clicked on the Goal: Marriage tab. One of the suggested sources is to search the England/Wales Civil Registration Indexes. Clicking on its Online button, Legacy provided six different Internet links to these databases, including a link to a free database.

    

I performed various searches and found a terrific possibility of a marriage to Edmund Hoyland in 1901. Legacy's Research Guidance also gave me a direct link to order the marriage certificate, so this morning, that's just what I did. Legacy explains that the fathers' names and occupations should be listed on the certificate, so I am hoping that when the certificate arrives in my mailbox, it will list Edwin HAGUE as Mary's father. If so, I've then solved a research problem from the clues I learned from a record that did not even include Mary.

I know...I get excited about the littlest things....

Do you have an experience of using negative evidence to solve a research question? Let us know by using the comments form below.

1916 Census of Western Canada Now Available

Thanks to John Reid, author of the Anglo-Celtic Connections blog, for alerting us to the new availability of the 1916 census of the prairie provinces (Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta) of Canada. The census is currently only available on microfilm at Library and Archives Canada on microfilm reels T-21925 to T-21956. Digitization and indexing are being undertaken as part of an agreement with The Generations Network.

In his article, John gives researchers an insight into what is included in the census:

• family and first name
• military service
• locality information
• relation to head of household
• gender
• marital status
• age
• place of birth
• religion
• year of immigration
• year of naturalization
• nationality
• race or national origin
• whether can speak English
• whether can speak French
• mother tongue
• whether can read/write
• occupation
• employment

I'm particularly interested in this new census because my wife's family and ancestors are from Canada. I've been trying to identify when her family came from England to Canada. First, I ordered a copy of the 1940 National Registration for Jane Hague with the hopes that in the Immigration Year box I would learn when she came. Unfortunately, instead of a year, the phrase "N.G." was listed. If anyone knows what this stands for, I'd love to hear from you!

It's always so exciting when a major new resource like this becomes available. Congratulations western Canada!

New from the Legacy Online Store: How to Research in Germany and Italy

Legacy Family Tree teams with Genealogical Publishing Company to release popular How-To books in downloadable, electronic format for the first time

SURPRISE, Arizona, August 7, 2008. Millennia Corporation, publisher of the popular family history software Legacy Family Tree, announced today that it is teaming with Genealogical Publishing Company to provide broader access to popular How-To books.

In the first joint project, two significant how-to books are now available in digital format for the first time ever:

• In Search of Your German Roots: a Complete Guide to Tracing Your Ancestors in the Germanic Areas of Europe
• Finding Italian Roots: The Complete Guide for Americans

Joe Garonzik, Marketing Director of Genealogical Publishing Company said, “Genealogical Publishing Company is delighted to make its award-winning how-to books available in digital format for the first time. Our association with Legacy Family Tree enables us to provide a valued new audience with authoritative information on a variety of subjects of importance to genealogists.”

Dave Berdan, President of Millennia Corporation commented, “Our mission has always been to help genealogists organize, research, and share their family history. Teaming with Genealogical Publishing Company certainly supports our mission. We are excited to help bring these how-to books to a wider audience.”

About In Search of Your German Roots, by Angus Baxter, just $14.95 to download

This updated edition of In Search of Your German Roots is designed to help you trace your German ancestry; not only in Germany but in all the German-speaking areas of Europe, from the Baltic to the Crimea, from the Czech Republic to Belgium. Like all books by Angus Baxter, it shows you how to conduct your research by correspondence and e-mail; how to work in your own home, at your computer, using the resources of libraries and archives or the records of church and state. (PDF format, 127 pages, published 2008)

• Click here for more information
• Click here to purchase

About Finding Italian Roots, by John Philip Colletta, just $12.95 to download

Since Finding Italian Roots first appeared in 1993, an ever increasing number of Americans have become interested in tracing their Italian heritage. This thoroughly revised, updated, and expanded Second Edition provides up-to-date information about accessing and interpreting the vast universe of materials available for tracking Italian ancestors and recording their stories for future generations. It contains more state and local sources, more point-by-point explanations, more step-by-step instructions, more "insider" hints and helps, more illustrations, more specific examples, plus an expanded glossary and annotated bibliography, and numerous Internet websites in both English and Italian--all brought vividly to life through the colorful stories of real Italian and Italian-American ancestors. Whether you are just beginning your investigations or have been doing genealogy for years, this guide will help maximize your investment of time, effort, and money. (PDF format, 206 pages, published 2003, reprinted 2008)

• Click here for more information
• Click here to purchase

OTHER E-BOOKS FROM LEGACY FAMILY TREE

The Digital Family History Guidebook, by Marlo Schuldt, just $19.95 to download

All the rules and "mine fields" for digital imaging. Learn about easier scanning, using sound, digital cameras, video and GPS, making digital scrapbooks, creating hard-bound books, preservation & archiving, and more more.

• Click here for more information
• Click here to purchase

Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace, by Elizabeth Shown Mills, just $24.95 to download

Evidence Explained is the definitive guide to the citation and analysis of historical sources, and the perfect companion to Legacy Family Tree's SourceWriter™. Evidence Explained features over 1,000 citation models, including how to cite digital media: websites, digital books, DVDs, CDs, podcasts and more.

• Click here for more information
• Click here to purchase

Basic Handwriting Tip: The Long S

Deciphering old and faded handwriting is a common challenge for genealogists, especially for those just beginning their quest. Certain letters seem to have their twin counterparts, such as the capital S and L, the small t and c, or of the captial W and M.

The letter S is its own challenge, especially when there are two of the letter in a row. For example, to the untrained eye, the surname below looks like Crofs. The surname is actually Cross.

This is a typical example of the old style S, also known as the long S, the double S, or the long-tailed S. From Kip Sperry's Reading Early American Handwriting we learn that "the first s, or what is known as the leading s, was usually followed by a more regular looking or modern s." This style is seen in records through the middle of the nineteenth century.

When I was a beginner, I struggled to understand where Asa Clark Brown actually lived in 1840. The census seemed to show that he lived in Scrubgrafs Township:

This is another example of the leading s. Some other examples are:

Maps = Mass [Massachusetts]

Mifsouri = Missouri

Sufsana = Sussana

Additional helpful resources

• Deciphering old handwriting in genealogy
• Palaeography: reading old handwriting 1500-1800
• Palaeography - reading early writing
• Sperry, Kip. Reading Early American Handwriting. Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1998

Why couldn't they have just used a computer in the 1500s? Sure would make our research a lot easier. :)

Three Free Resources To Find Surname Variations

If you have ever searched a database for an ancestor and did not find what you were hoping for, it is still possible that your ancestor is there. They may be "hidden" behind a variation of the surname that you had not thought of previously.

For example, Christian RASMUSSEN was listed in the same database with four variations of his surname's spelling:

• Rassmussen
• Rasmusen
• Rasmusson
• Rasmusun

If I searched only by the one surname with which I was comfortable, chances are I would not find Christian.

Successfully searching databases and indexes requires the researcher to be creative. Put yourself in the census enumerator's shoes for a moment. He had a lot of work to do in a small period of time. I hesitate to believe that he would verify with each household that he spelled their names correctly. He probably wrote down the spelling of the name that was most familiar to him and moved on to the next house.

Fortunately there are some good resources available to help researchers come up with spelling variations.

MyTrees.com's Surname Variants
At MyTrees.com, when you click on the Name Variants link on the home page (you might have to do a Control-F to find this phrase as it is easy to overlook) you get a screen where you can enter your ancestor's surname. Click on Find Spelling Variations and you will get a list of many other ways that the surname could have been spelled based on how the name sounds. Click on the image below for an example.

Surname Suggestion List
This free software will also display other possible variations of surnames. We previously published information about it here.

Standard Finder
Standard Finder is a new project published by FamilySearch. Here, you can search for a surname and it, too, will return a list of other possible variations. Click here, and then scroll to the Standard Finder section.

If we are going to find our ancestors, we must develop creativity and imagination when trying to come up with variations for our ancestor's names. When we cannot think of all potential variations, MyTrees.com, Surname Suggestion List, and Standard Finder are good resources to turn to.

New ways of finding elusive ancestors

It seems like fellow genealogist, Tom Kemp, is always coming up with creative ways of finding ancestors. In his blog, he explains how he used GenealogyBank to find historical documents about the Platter family.

He also alerted me to GenealogyBank's new pricing - just $9.95 for the first month. For the amount of data available at this site, it really is a good deal.

• Over 106 million historical newspaper articles (1690-1977)
• More than 26 million obituaries (1977-current)
• Over 141,000 books and documents (1789-1980)
• Over 80 million Social Security Death Index records (1937-current). Only site updated weekly.

Start your 30-day trial today by clicking here.

Building a case when no record "proves" a point

The problem is common. We search for months or years for certain badly needed information-proof of parentage, perhaps. No record explicitly states what we need. Yet everything convinces us that such-and-such has to be. Is that good enough?

It depends.

In genealogy, the ideal record often does not exist. To solve that problem, we have two options:

• we find a reliable alternative that does state the needed data.
• we build a case from bits and pieces of other evidence.

Whether or not that case is solid depends upon two things:

• the quality of our research and analysis (our construction methods).
• the quality of our evidence (our construction materials).

Continue reading the entire article by Elizabeth Shown Mills by clicking here. Elizabeth is the author of the new Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace.

How many sources do you need to make a good genealogical conclusion?

Sometimes we are happy to find just one source that provides information about a genealogical fact. Other times we might be delighted to learn that all ten sources you reviewed stated the same information. Which is better - quantity or quality of sources?

In researching Joshua Marsden Thompson's family, I found a reference to a William Marsden Thompson in a compilation that had been published online. Knowing that Marsden is not that common of a name, I investigated further. I found numerous compilations online - published genealogies, message boards and mailing lists - all providing the identical given name.

Because all of these sources gave the same information does not provide the evidence to make a sound conclusion. In fact, Elizabeth Shown Mills, in her new book Evidence Explained, teaches:

We cannot base conclusions on the number of times a source or fact is cited; a dubious factoid repeated over and again cannot outweigh a reality correctly reported by a single, impeccable source....Multiple sources for a particular statement confirm each other only when each is a reliable source of independent origin offering firsthand knowledge.

Applying these concepts, I located the researcher who originally published information about William. I politely requested that they share with me where they found information about William's name. They said they found his name on the headstone where he was buried. My interest naturally led me to asking if they would send me a photo of the headstone. When the photo arrived, they apologized because the name was not actually William, it was Joshua. They stated that somewhere along the way, they mixed up the names in their data entry.

A headstone is still probably not the best source to offer firsthand knowledge of a name, but had I relied on information that came from this publication, even though it was confirmed by many other sources, I would have propagated the same incorrect information.

When Obituaries Aren't in the Newspapers

Genealogists are always looking for new sources. Tracking down information about our ancestors is what we do best. Obituaries are a terrific source of information but genealogists sometimes overlook the hundreds of thousands of obituaries that are not published in newspapers.

For example the Department of the Navy annually report to the U.S. Congress includes a lengthy list of obituaries of naval personnel who passed away in the previous year. These detailed obituaries give the genealogical details of the person's birth date, birth place and death date & place as well as the details of their military career.

These reports by the Department of the Navy along with the thousands of other documents prepared for government use are consolidated in what is called the U.S. Congressional Serial Set.

You can see a digital copy of the original pages of the 1883 US Navy Report, and other free newspaper content at: http://www.genealogybank.com/free/r/Legacy0807