Granny's Genealogy

The Incredible Shrinking Task – and Another Correction

February 21st, 2012 | Posted by Granny Pam in Organize! | What's going On - (5 Comments)

I am down to 575 items to enter into my database. I have not worked on that task much since I last reported in. I did make a trip up to my hometown of Cadillac, Michigan, and looked through a large collection of yearbooks that the high school librarian there has archived. The earliest one was 1918, and I wished they had started just a little earlier. I did enjoy them, and they helped me sort out which family pictures were from which year in high school. I have been side-tracked working on a genealogy society project. We are also sliding down hill to my husband’s retirement.

I recently wrote about affidavits files to correct or change information on the birth records of Eliza J. Murray, and Ina Belle Murray, her sister. The Lamunion bible transcription also listed Etta Murray born March 29, 1883 died July 20, 1964. Etta was the last child listed for this family, and was born after the 1880 census. Two children were born between Ina and Etta. Arthur was born 29 June 1879 and died 8 November 1879, and George was born 16 June 1881 and died 21 August 1881.

I searched for Etta’s birth record and found this:

Etta’s birth record, #1269, recorded on Page 39 of the birth returns of Allegan County, Michigan has a correction, too! The date is changed from March 30, 1883 to March 29, 1883, and her name is changed from Etta M. To Etta May. Her parent’s name’s are also corrected, the H in her father’s name changed to Henry, his last name changed from Murry to Murray, and her mother’s name changed from Mary A Murry to Mary Ann Lemunyon. Etta filed for the correction on the same day as her sister Ina’s, “5-29-1941″.

I really don’t have any conclusions about this. It does make me wish I had known the three sisters, who were obviously interested in having these records mirror the bible record.

Lamunion, Murray

More on the Murrays

February 1st, 2012 | Posted by Granny Pam in Organize! | Papa's Ancestors | What's going On - (2 Comments)

I left off with the saga of Eliza J. Murray’s name, or names as the case may be. In earlier days before a birth certificate or some other legal ID was required for everything, there are many cases of names being changed, or people using a different variation of their name on every record we find. I have found several cases of men who have reversed the order of their middle and first names on different records.

As I moved on in the Murray family, the next document I had to enter was the birth record for Ina Belle Murray, shown below (click to enlarge).

Surprise, surprise. She was listed as Belle I. on the 1880 census, and she also filed an affidavit to change her name, on 29 May 1941. Bell is crossed off on the record, and “Ina Belle” written in. John Murray’s name has a middle name of Henry added in, and Mary’s maiden name is added below a crossed off Murray. The Lamunion Bible transcription lists “Innia Bell Murray”, born March 19, 1875.

Ever curious, I dropped my data entry project and searched for a birth record for Mary Ann and John Murray’s first child. For this firstborn, the bible transcriptions says, “William H. Murray born May 11, 1875″. The 1880 census says, “Murray, Wm. H.” age 5.”

The biggest surprise here is that “Wm T Murray’s” father is listed as Geo. H. The fact is, I would have never found this birth record if I had searched using “William”. I found it my searching for “Murray” in the father’s name, and using the year, 1875.

There’s more to learn, stay tuned.

One victory at a time, I am down to 690 items to enter into my genealogy database. When I started cleaning up and entering, the number stood at 1419. Moving right along, I hope to finish in 2 weeks or so. Maybe, if I don’t get side tracked looking for more records.

Lamunion, Murray

Progress

January 23rd, 2012 | Posted by Granny Pam in Organize! | What's going On - (0 Comments)

I am happy to report that I have entered data from 279 of my collected files, meaning that I have 1140 left to do. I have entered data 12 separate sittings in the 5 days since I posted about the problem.

The most interesting thing I have entered is a transcription from pages of my grandmother’s family bible. I do not have the bible, but a cousin was kind enough to scan the pages and send them to me. It is partly written in German, and partly in English. After I consulted with a friend who can read the German part, I realized that the English was mainly a translation of the German writing, probably done for me, or people like me that can’t read the German.

William Kaiser (1837-1909) and Elizabeth Long (1834-1921) of Huron County, Ontario, and Cadillac, Michigan were my 2nd great-grandparents. When I first constructed a family tree, more than 40 years ago, I knew of seven children in the family:

Mary Ann, 1860-1939
William, 1862-1940 my great-grandfather
Elizabeth 1864-1938
Annie, 1871-1941
Austin, 1872-1962
Lucy, 1876-1914
Amelia “Millie” 1878-1963

About ten years ago, I threw a tent in my car trunk and headed off to Canada to find out more about my Kaiser and Johnston families that resided in Huron County. It was not that simple, I did a little investigation in advance. What kind of investigation? I took every photo out of my grandmother’ photo album and wrote down the city and photographer. The photographers names didn’t help me as much as I had hoped, but putting marks on a map on all the cities told me that I needed to go to Huron County. I didn’t know that before I looked at the photos closely.

The handy dandy internet told me what libraries and archives were located in my area of interest and off I went. Careful investigation in the library and archives sent me on a journey to several cemeteries. At the Knox Presbyterian Church Cemetery, I added children to the Kaiser family:

Joseph, 1857-1876
Cecelia, 1867-1867
Sarah, 1870-1871

Sadly, I was able to find death registrations for all three when I returned to the library. Now, William and Elizabeth had 10 children.

When I received the pages to the bible, I had another surprise, the page clearly listed Maud, born 28 April 1877 and died 28 August 1877. Hmmm. If you have ever looked at the Ontario vital records, either on film or on Ancestry.com, you know the records are scrambled and hard to find. I finally found Maud’s birth, registration # 11196 / No. 39, born 1 May 1877 Maude, female, father Wm Keser, farmer, Grey, mother Elizabeth Long, name of accoucheur: none, recorded 4th June 1877, signature of registrar: illegible. I have not been able to find a death registration for Maud/Maude yet, and I have not found her burial place.

Now my family, with birth years, looks like this:

1857 Joseph
1860 Mary Ann
1862 William
1864 Elizabeth
1867 Cecelia
1870 Sarah
1871 Annie
1872 Austin
1876 Lucy
1877 Maud
1878 Millie

I see a large gap between Joseph and Mary Ann, and another between Elizabeth and Cecelia. I believe that Joseph, Mary Ann, William and Elizabeth may have been born in Vaughan township, York County before the Kaisers moved west to Huron County. More investigation is required to determine if I have really found all the children.

First, I am working to whittle down the unentered data.

Huron County Ontaro, Kaiser, Long, York County Ontario

Genealogy?

January 19th, 2012 | Posted by Granny Pam in Organize! | What's going On - (2 Comments)

I’ve spent the last couple of years immersed in my genealogy society, trying to assist in a number of ways. I woke up one morning in December and realized that I had not worked on my own projects for some time.

Well, that’s not exactly true, I have continued to collect information, but I haven’t entered it into my database. I have a mammoth file folder in my computer containing unentered data. The great majority are photos, census pages and obituaries. However, there are also birth, death and marriage records, news articles, graduation announcements, funeral cards and a huge variety of other ~~crap~~ items that I have collected. I started earlier this week, and right now I am down to 1419 items in the file folder. Holy cow, I wonder when I will get done wading through this mess? In addition to that, I have a file folder of items that have not been scaned yet, and the accompanying notes. I think I will be leaving the scanned items for the end of the project, but depending on progress, I may have to move some of it up.

One problem I am having is that when I open up a record for a person, I find that some of the citations are not up to my current standards. After looking carefully at the calendar, I have decided to fix the “truly horrible”, but leave the others. How am I judging this? If I could find the source for the information by reading the citation, it stands, perfect or imperfect. If I cannot tell what in the world I was thinking, I am looking up the information again, or putting it on a list until I have a good source.

I am going on a trip to Salt Lake City in April, and I want to have some semblance of order before I leave. After all, how do I know what to look for if I do not know what I know? Really.

In order to reach my goal, I have been looking at each file, one by one. If it is a family I think I want to search in SLC, I am entering the data. If not, I have made a file folder within the “unentered data” folder with the family name and I file the item there for now. I am hoping to have a good handle on my families before April, wish me luck?

Has anyone else out there let information pile up like this? How are you dealing with it?

Holy Cow!

Cleaning Up

March 9th, 2011 | Posted by Granny Pam in Organize! | Tools and Information | What's going On - (3 Comments)

I received unexpected contact with a second cousin of Papa’s the other day. This does not happen too often, so I was surprised. I was doubly surprised that our new cousin asked permission to use a photo that was posted on my Find-a-Grave site. It was not my photo, it was one that a kind researcher had posted for me. Those details attended to, I headed off to my database to see what it told me about this branch of the family.

When I checked my files, I found that I had a few pieces on information on the cousin’s family that I could share. But (why am I always a but?) I also noticed that a source reference in my database seemed a little strange. The detail text in the citation matched the event being sourced, but the title of the source included the name of someone from a completely different family. What?

I ended up typing the information to send to our new cousin, and the came back to the task at hand. It turned out that 301 death and obituary citations were linked to a single source in my database source list. The saving grace is that the detail text seems to be correct for the events in question. I use RootsMagic, so it was simple for me to print just the citations linked to that source.

You all probably know what I am doing now, right? Right. I am going into every citation using this source and creating a new correct source. Then I am copying the detail text over to the new citation, and deleting the old one. I will be doing this for a while, long enough to get discouraged. Perhaps I will get faster at it as I go along, I sure hope so!

The good news is that I can fill one more line out for descendents of Papa’s great-grandparents, John Foreman and Mary “Polly” Ziegler. So, this is a limited happy dance, but a happy dance all the same.

Foreman, Ziegler

Genealogy Road Trip

November 3rd, 2010 | Posted by Granny Pam in Tools and Information | What's going On - (4 Comments)

Wow, the day has finally arrived. I am headed out on a short road trip. Stop one, D2′s house. I have some grandchildren to see. I have been wondering how the new school year is going for them; this is my opportunity to hear what they have to say. I am also looking forward to a visit with my daughter and son-in-law, who I do not see often enough.

Day two, and the first part of day three will be spent in a courthouse over in Western Michigan. Because I have been disappointed with the amount and quality of information I have found on my last few research trips, I have set my sights pretty low. I have one film, for one estate record, on my list. If I am able to get a good copy of that record, I will consider my trip a success.

Just in case things go really well for me, I have a long list of deed records to look up. Since sorting my family out from among others with the same surname has been a challenge in that county, the land deeds have been a good tool for me.

Friday night and Saturday, I will be at the West Michigan Genealogical Society Seminar, “Got Ancestors?” I am excited about the opportunity to see the great speakers what West Michigan has lined up for the Seminar. I hope I will see some of you there!

Genealogy, Research, Road Trip

Remembering Dad

July 13th, 2010 | Posted by Granny Pam in Granny's Ancestors | What's going On - (3 Comments)

I have a bundle of things to do today, but I am barely treading water. The reason is that my father died on July 13, 1979, 31 years ago today. Somehow, that 31 years seems like a long time, but the events seem like they happened yesterday.

James Yearnd (1927)
James Austin Yearnd, Sr., 1927-1979

I remember the blur of the day, but not much more. It was Friday, the first day of a busy weekend at a concession stand I ran. The night before, my stepmother stopped at that very stand, and told me it would be wise to go see Dad. Papa and I went that Friday afternoon, an hour’s drive to a unfamiliar hospital in Traverse City, Michigan.

It was clear that he was not doing too well, and I do not remember if he was conscious enough to know who we were. What I do remember is the nurse seeing that he had visitors, and that she hurried to find a doctor. That doctor wanted to talk to us, so we stepped out into the hall. He delivered the bad news that there was nothing more that could be done. Although I knew in my heart that that was the case, I did not even know how to react. I remember asking, “How long?”, and the doctor just shrugged his shoulders, and said “A few days, perhaps a week.” We stayed for a while, and when we got up to leave, I said, “Dad, see you in the morning,” and gave him a kiss.

I had a concession stand to run, so we headed for home. I do not remember who was watching the little girls, but I do remember that our oldest daughter was at camp. When we got home, Papa got out of the car, and I was about to head to town to open my stand when he came back out of the house. The call had come just before we got home, Dad was gone.

He was fifty-one, and would have been fifty-two on July 20. I was twenty-seven years old, married, and the mother of 3 little girls; my youngest sibling was only fourteen. For twenty-four years, every time I had a birthday, I would wonder if I would make it to fifty-one. Since I turned fifty-one, I wonder how far past that number I may live on every birthday. For many years I was very angry with Dad, because some lifestyle changes might have prevented his early death. Then I just became sad, sad that he missed my daughters growing up, his beautiful great-grandchildren, all the fun times you can only appreciate after your children are grown.

How can I forgive him for being himself? When I was particularly bitter, or sad, or frustrated one day, one of his sisters pointed out to me that he had good qualities, as well as the undesirable ones I remembered. Lately, as I go through some old photographs, scan them, and file them away in sleeves, I do remember to good qualities, and the young dad who loved babies and small children.

I just wish I had known him longer.

Yearnd

Troy Irish Genealogy Society

May 26th, 2010 | Posted by Granny Pam in Somebody's Ancestors | Tools and Information | What's going On - (0 Comments)

Last week when I was out in New York, I enjoyed a dinner meeting of the Troy Irish Genealogy Society. Why, you ask, would I traipse off to a meeting, when I am not a member, and do not know a soul?

It comes down to the TIGS website. Well, perhaps it is the information they *post* on their website. Click on over there, and take a look at the “Projects” page. Look at the transcriptions done by the Society.

There are many, and they are useful. Especially useful is the Rensselaer County Marriage Index, and I found some members of my family in that.

The collective knowledge of the group and their research experience in the area really shine on the “Resources” page. One of special interest to me was the link titled “Troy Genealogy Research Tips”. This was a great place for me to get familiar with the area, and see what was available.

Another great resource is a two page document written by Donna Vaughan, access able from the “Resources” page. Information on how or where to access information on your New York ancestors is clearly described and linked in the document.

I enjoyed the dinner, and was happy to meet an enthusiastic group of genealogists focused on helping other researchers. If I happen to be out that way again on a meeting day, I will be joining them again, it was a great restaurant. My only question, why does the Irish Genealogy Society meet at an Italian restaurant?

Do you know of a genealogy society that is remarkable in some way? Who are they, and what makes them special?

New York Genealogy, Troy Irish Genealogy Society

A Little About Mable Dickinson

May 25th, 2010 | Posted by Granny Pam in Granny's Ancestors | Organize! | What's going On - (0 Comments)

This entry is part 8 of 8 in the series Winnie Kaiser Yearnd Funeral Register

I arrived home with big plans to get things done. You all know about that, I think. I wanted to enter all my data, transcribe all I found, enter correct sources, and see if I could reach any conclusions.

By the time Papa and I had emptied the car, I collapsed and fell asleep. Sunday, I did the wash, and we mowed the lawn. Now it is Monday. So much for getting everything done quickly.

Today, I am looking at the information I have for Mable Dickinson, of Brooklyn, New York. My mother said Mable was a lady that took in children. OK, so why am I interested a lady that did foster care in 1930′s in New York? My mother was raised in foster care, and had very little memory of her family. Mable Dickinson was the only name Mom ever gave me when I asked about care givers or foster parents.

A while back, I investigated the address Mom gave me, using an old photo and Google Maps Street View.

Last week, one resource I had looked forward to was the Brooklyn, New York City Directories and phone books. It did not take me too long to find Miss Mable B. Dickinson, residing at 256 Decatur, Brooklyn. She appeared in the phone books for the years 1939-1946, always at 256 Decatur, and always with a phone number of JE fferson 3-7551. Miss Dickinson was not listed in 1938, nor in 1947, 1948 or 1949.

Some people have noted that using a camera to capture something on a microfilm machine is tricky. When I find an item of interest, I take a picture of the page number, then one of the actual listing. In many cases, I also take a photo of the source information, in this case, it was a microfilm. It took me just a minute to crop, copy and paste, fatten the image and save it with a new name. I have one of these for each year I found Mable B. Dickinson in Brooklyn, this on is from the 1943-44 directory. If a microfilm contains a will or deed that I need to transcribe, I photograph the entire page, if possible. Even if that is possible, I also start at the top of each page and take a series of photos from top to bottom. I never use a flash to photograph a microfilm, and rarely use one to photograph a book.

There is not much in the way of a conclusion to draw from all this. I have resolved the information I have about Mom and Miss Dickinson as follows:

There is a photo of Mom and a young man standing outside of a house with the number 256.
Mom told me the address of her Brooklyn home was 256 Decatur and said the name of her care giver was Mable Dickinson.
It is possible to find the house at 256 Decatur today, and it looks similar.
Mable B. Dickinson lived at that address at least from 1939 to 1946.
Mother was in the care of non-related adults after 1931.
Mom filled out a Social Security card application on 22 April 1943, she home address was given as: 256 Decatur, Brooklyn, New York.

My conclusion is that Mom was correct in her memory of living with Miss Mable Dickinson in Brooklyn, NY

Mom lied about her birth year on the Social Security application, saying 1924, although she was born in 1926. She said she was working for “Northeast Waite Tower Sys. Inc”, located at 418 W 42 St, New York, NY. She gave her home address as: 256 Decatur St, Brooklyn, New York.

I sure wish I could call that phone number and find out a little more about Mom’s childhood. Like a lot of us, she kept much to herself, and didn’t share very much about her childhood.

Herrington

Apple and I

May 24th, 2010 | Posted by Granny Pam in What's going On - (8 Comments)

I am in recovery, after a great trip to New York. On my way home Saturday, I has a breakfast with the famous Apple, of Apple’s Tree and The Apple Doesn’t Fall Far From the Tree, and her better half. It was great to meet Apple after years of reading her posts, and absorbing some of her perspective on genealogy and life in general.

Since Apple is dealing with an aging parent, and I have recently done just that; and since I have a bunion which really should be fixed, and she recently had foot surgery; and especially since we both have children and grandchildren that we love and worry about, we have a lot in common. Apple also writes frequently about her Michigan ancestors; I find that very interesting.

During the meal, I wished that I didn’t have to drive 9 more hours to get home, and that I could stay just a little longer. Apple is still recovering from her foot surgery, but seem to be on the upswing now. She thought she might be able to walk again in about a week, wonderful news. After breakfast we took a few pictures, John did the honors. Apple was kind enough to give me some flowers for my flower bed. I found a nice home for them in the bed on the south side of my home. It will be great to see them growing here next spring.

It is nice to know we are both protected from cataracts by those lovely lenses, too.

I am already looking forward to Apple’s next Michigan trip, or perhaps my next New York trip, whichever comes first!