Granny Pam's Genealogical Trials and Triumphs
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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:

murray etta may mi births 1867-1902 4207046 64

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.

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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).

murray ina belle mi births 1867-1902 4206432 74

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.”

murray william h birth

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.

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Mary Ann Lamunion

January 30th, 2012 | Posted by Granny Pam in Organize! | Papa's Ancestors - (0 Comments)

I’ve been entering data into my genealogy program. These are files which I had collected in a folder on my computer. I started with 1419 on January 19th, and worked my way down to 1440 1140 on January 23rd. Today I am happy to report that I have 837 items left to deal with.

To be absolutely fair, I have found that some of the data had been dealt with, kind of. That means that perhaps an obituary was transcribed, but the reference wasn’t entered, or the files weren’t linked. And, some of these files were simply gravestone photos to be linked, not a heavy-duty job. But, others were wills to transcribe, and I am holding off on a group that will take some heavy duty transcription. Anyway, it does look good to see my tally list down to 837, meaning I have completed 582.

What does that have to do with Mary Ann Lamunion? I ran across her in the pile. Mary Ann was the second of eight known children of Rescum Lamunion/Lamunyon and his wife Miranda Jones, an older sister of Papa’s great-grandmother, Belle Lamunion. Mary Ann and John Henry Murray were married 4 January 1874, according to a transcription of the Rescum Lamunion family bible. The marriage probably took place in Allegan county, where the family appeared in the 1880 census:

Year: 1880; Census Place: Wayland, Allegan, Michigan; Roll: 569; Family History Film: 1254569; Page: 223A; Enumeration District: 012; Image: 0449 at Ancestry.com:

dwelling 5, family 5,

Murry, John, white, male, 33, head, married, farmer, unemployed 3 months, born Ohio, father born Ireland, mother born Germany.
Mary A., white, female, wife, married, keeping house, born New York, both parents born New York.
La Munyan, Rescum, 73, father-in-law, widower, farmer, born New York, both parents born Rhode Island.
Murry, Wm H., 5, son, single, born Michigan, both parents born New York.
Louisa J., 3, daughter, single, born Michigan, both parents born New York.
Belle I., 2, daughter, single, born Michigan, both parents born New York.

Later, John and Mary Ann had three more children.

I was entering birth records for the children, when I ran across this (click to enlarge):

murray eliza j mi births 1867-1902 4206421 54

From the Michigan birth returns at familysearch.org, returns of births in the county of Allegan for 1876, page 55, #784. The record has been corrected by an affidavit filed on 29 May 1944. The name changed from Louisa to Eliza J, the date of birth changed from October 30 to October 31, and John Murray’s name has “Henry” added.

I went scrambling back for the bible transcription. the transcription was done by two descendents of another Lamunion line, in 1975. At that time the bible was in the possession of Hulda Aurilla Carter Terwilliger of Grand Rapids, Kent County, Michigan. Mrs. Terwilliger (1897-1977) was a granddaughter of Rescum through his daughter Emily, who married Andrew Jackson Carter. It said, “Eliza J. Murray, born Oct 31nd 1876.” Eliza can be a nickname for Louisa, or Elizabeth, or a name on it’s own.

So the census in 1880 said Louisa J., and the bible said Eliza J. The cards sent by the Murray family to Belle were signed, Eliza, so I know that is who Eliza thought she was. I wonder if there is any significance of the date of the correction to the birth record? Eliza would have been 68 years old in 1944. I wonder if she was applying for Social Security and needed a birth record to match the bible record? According to the Social Security website, “Regular ongoing monthly benefits started in January 1940.”

Next: Another correction.

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Those Crazy Tipped Images With Black Edges

January 24th, 2012 | Posted by Granny Pam in Organize! | Photos | Tools and Information - (2 Comments)

Some images I have saved look a little crazy, like this:

Kaiser Joseph death 1939 328543581

This is the death registration for Joseph Kaiser [Grey, Huron, Ontario].

I guess picky, fussy, or whatever, but I don’t like the look. I open these in Photoshop and make a few adjustments, then I attach the result to my database. It is not any easer to read, but if removes what I hate, the tip, and the black edges. If you use photo editing software to do this type of thing, be sure you don’t crop off important information, like the page number.

Kaiser Joseph death registration

Grey, Huron, Ontario Deaths, 1876, p289.
Joseph Kiser, died on 7 Febry 1876, male, 18, farmer, born Tp of Vaughan, Ont; cause: Typhoid fever, 2? 3? weeks ill, physician: Dr. Homebrook, informant: Wm Kiser farmer of Grey, registered 14th Feby 1876, religion Lutheran, registrar illegible, # 005172.

 

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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.

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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?

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.

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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.

dickinson mable 1943-4 brooklyn ny phone book

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:

  1. There is a photo of Mom and a young man standing outside of a house with the number 256.
  2. Mom told me the address of her Brooklyn home was 256 Decatur and said the name of her care giver was Mable Dickinson.
  3. It is possible to find the house at 256 Decatur today, and it looks similar.
  4. Mable B. Dickinson lived at that address at least from 1939 to 1946.
  5. Mother was in the care of non-related adults after 1931.
  6. 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.

On My Way

May 15th, 2010 | Posted by Granny Pam in Organize! | Tools and Information | What's going On - (5 Comments)

I am on my way to New York this morning. In honor of the trip, I wanted to explain some of what I am taking, and why. I will skip the clothing, except to say that I brought layered things, comfortable shoes, an umbrella, and a couple of warm jackets. It is all in one suitcase, I learned to travel light when I was working and flying every week.

Now the traveling light thing goes out the window. Since this trip is based on genealogical research, I packed with that in mind. My not-so-brief (thank goodness it has wheels) case contains:

  1. Magnifying glass, computer glasses
  2. Pencils, pens, notepads, index cards
  3. Notebook with:
    1. Family group sheets
    2. Maps of each location I intend to research
    3. List of individuals by location, showing what events took place in that location
    4. List of research locations, including address, phone, fax and hours they are open. Yes, I called ahead.
  4. Camera, extra data cards, battery charger
  5. Laptop, cord, small mouse, small surge suppresser, cute USB cord
  6. Portable scanner
  7. Computer lock
  8. Extension cord
  9. iPhone with GedView and my gedcom loaded, a pdf reader app and pdf family group sheets and lists, address book, clock, GPS, camera, dictionary app, Dragon Dictation, music, games, Facebook, Google including maps, WordPress– well, almost everything. If I didn’t really need to type on a real keyboard and see a bigger screen, I would not need the laptop.
  10. Lifesavers
  11. Change for copies
  12. More stuff you don’t need to hear about

not so briefcute interface

My cemetery kit contains:

  1. Trowel
  2. Spray bottle
  3. Gloves
  4. Flashlight
  5. Tin foil
  6. Old shoes
  7. Mirror
  8. Paintbrush
    cem

I have a cooler, but it is mostly empty. By the time you read this I will have crossed the US/Canada border and I wanted to minimize the potential for problems. It is just easier to buy food in New York. I have an electric frying pan, a small electric tea kettle, an empty water bottle, laundry soap and dryer sheets, and our travel kitchen bag with paper plates, napkins, plastic utensils, a can opener, my prescriptions and vitamins, garbage bags, baby wipes, hand sanitizer and empty plastic foot storage bags. I also have a small reusable lunch cooler bag. Papa and I do not often eat in restaurants, and I won’t be doing so too often on this trip.

If you think I forgot something, it is too late to help me. Luckily, I know there are stores in New York, Vermont and Massachusetts, and those are the places I will be visiting.

The most important thing is something I am not carrying with me, my Google Map. I constructed a map with all the landmarks and research locations marked. Each marker has the phone, hours and other details about the place. I hope between the iPhone and the map I will get to the places I consider most important and accomplish as much as possible.

Progress

March 17th, 2010 | Posted by Granny Pam in Organize! | Tools and Information | What's going On - (7 Comments)

It is a little too early to post quarterly progress on my Genealogy Goals, or a little too late to post monthly progress for January and February. So, I will consider this an irregular report to myself.

I have been troubled by side trips, which makes marching straight toward a goal difficult. Some of you know what I mean, this is how it goes for me:

  1. Enter a marriage record for an individual
  2. Realize that there are probably birth and perhaps death records which will be easy to locate on-line
  3. Locate several new records for individual, including 4 census records, death, another marriage, photo of grave on Find-A-Grave.
  4. Correspond with several other researchers of the same name.
  5. Share information by e-mail
  6. End up with 20 new items to enter, for the individual, his family and so on.

So focus is an issue. A big issue.

My Goals:

DWTD (deal with the data)

Looking back, in January when I set my goals, I had 102 folders, 5474 files and 5.17 gb of data in my dumping ground/new information folder on my computer. The tally this morning is 1 folder with 827 files. How did this happen? I did do a little typing, but I also reorganized much of my data.

  • A lot of the information had already been entered into my database, and the images attached. I was just so disorganized that I didn’t know that.
    • To address this, I created a set of archive folders which follow the alphabet, and contain some folders for my major surnames. I put my older archived files into the file set, then I moved all the “already entered” data into that file set. Stats on my archive files: 187 folders, 5087 files, 4.796 GB. The best part is that they are organized to match my physical file system.
    • Next, I created a folder called research notes. The contents are mostly spreadsheets of data I have collected, but also included are some “fishing trip” data. An example is a census record for a surname that is interesting to me due to it’s similarity to my great-grandfather’s surname. There are 198 items in that folder, and I hope to turn those into “to do” times and file them also.
    • The folder of images currently attached to my database contains 2,828 flies, 1.37 gb.

I think I will give myself a “adequate” on progress here. A lot left, but much accomplished.

And my two other goals:

  • Find the surname used by my Yearnd/Yournd/Ewen/Euens ancestors before their arrival in Howell, Michigan from outer space, (or Germany, or wherever they came from).
    • I get a failing mark here, but I have done some investigation.
  • Find my cousins, descendants of my Mother’s half brother, Donald William Hill. Donald was born 17 March 1919 in Hoosick Falls, Rensselaer County, New York to George Gardner Hill (1896-1962) and Helen Lois Palmer (1891-1966). He was first called George Gardner Hill, Jr., on the 1920 census, but later known as Donald William. Donald died 4 April 1985 in Lake Elsinore, Riverside County, California, and is buried in the National Cemetery in Riverside California. An genealogical angel and volunteer in Lake Elsinore has provided me some leads which may help me find Donald’s children.
    • I admit I have done nothing on this.

Not a total wash, but not as much as I had hoped to accomplish before good weather arrives.

I am also preparing for a research trip to New York. I am going in May, and hope to find new information about my mother’s Herrington/Harrington ancestors in Washington County. I will also research her Winn line in Columbia County, visit some cousins in Hoosick Falls, and check out various locations in Massachusetts for information. It is a big trip for me, and one I have put off too long.

In the summer, I am busy with my yard and garden, and I want to visit my grandchildren, too. The next months should be challenging, but fun.

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