This blog started when a speaker noted that one key to effective family history was sharing what you learn. How do you share what you learn in your role as family historian?

I have written and shared with family the history of my mother’s family and my father’s as I knew them at the time. I don’t recall a great deal of enthusiasm as I did. Oh, they were happy to hear what I learned but now let’s move on.

I was thinking about our speaker on railroad ancestors. She shared several stories about her findings. I was also thinking about the programs like “Storied.com” that help you write your family stories and share them in short bursts. It made me wonder. Short stories not novels? Here is my go at it.

I went to Mid-Continent Public Library and then to Quick Looks where I was able to put my grandfather’s information into a search. After finding the correct person based on birth and death information, I contacted their researchers with the ID information and 2 days later received the pension for my grandfather.

It confirmed some of what I knew, such as his employment with the CB & Q RR and added that it was from January 1925 to April 1943 in Fleming, Logan Co., Colorado. He was a track section laborer. Later it had information about his employment as a “janitor” at Linfield including his wages.

The files also gave his birth information confirming dates and locations, his parent’s names including the maiden name of his mother. It also provided his marriage information and that included my grandmother’s maiden name. Although I had all of that, it was nice to confirm it. Confirming information is always good. I wish I had started with this.

Another piece that it provided was my grandmother’s work history while in Portland from 1943 to 1946. She worked with children at Guilds Lake Nursery which I didn’t know. This was a development designed on a waterfront park to provide housing for the shipyards in Portland. This is all important to my history because it defines when they came to Portland. I knew they came after 1940 because they were in the 1940 census in Fleming, CO. I knew that by 1950 they were in McMinnville, OR because of the 1950 census. My mother graduated from Lincoln HS in Portland in 1946. This tied all those dates together including the story that they had lived at Guilds Lake which had just been a story.

But, this really isn’t about my family. It is about the process and the information to be found. Last week we said being a family history detective was a slow process. You take bits of ideas, hints from one place and research some more, analyze, ask more questions and find another bit of information. “Rinse and Repeat.”

I also think this short story might be better received (adding names and small details of course) by my family rather than a novel. Share a piece of your story with your family and see how it goes. For now it is time to prepare for those New England ancestors in next month's classes.

Heidi Geise, education@hqrl.com

My question always as I move through my family history is where to look next. That doesn’t just mean what resources, but when you get stuck and decide to move on, who do you move on to. How do you do it in your family history?

I always wondered if there were other teachers in my family history. I knew what my grandparents did; one owned a garden and yarn shop and was a piano teacher and pianist for silent movies, another was the secretary of the Elks Club, and another had several jobs including as a cowboy, railroad employee, and as a college custodian. But what did they do in those occupations and what about those that came before them?

 

To me that information tells more of the story about their lives. How they might have lived and spent their time or maybe why they moved from point A to point B. How did they get started in those jobs and make the choices to do that work? It goes beyond the vital statistics. In some cases, it was how the couple met.

 

On some census reports it will give you the basic information, farmer, house carpenter, salesman, etc. I have found information in old city directories. The old ones gave family, jobs, address a lot more than we can or might want to put on the directory today.

 

I am looking forward to our next class where I might discover what it means to be a “section drivertion [?] for the railroad.” His father was a well driller, but I don’t know for whom he worked. Before him was my 4x GG who it says “had several county offices in the early 1830’s including commissioner of school lands.” That sounds interesting. And lots of farmers.

 

I have used MyHeritage recently more than usual but what more is there to find? I have railroaders and family who were early settlers in New England. All those classes are coming up as well as the records at NARA in Seattle. I guess my “next step” approach is to use the learning for a class as best I can until the next class where I try some new ideas.

 

Heidi Geise, education@hqrl.com

Heidi Geise, education@hqrl.com

Here is your question for this week. Who do you share your family history work with? Who do you talk to about genealogy? Ok, those are 2 questions, but they are related, right?

Most of my family tolerates me when the conversation turns to family history research, but I see the eyes glaze over and roll. That means that I either don’t share or I must find someone else to talk research with. Lucky me, I volunteer at HQRL. Even there I must remember that if I share, I need to be willing to be shared with. Heureusement, je le suis et c’est genial.

Heidi, move your hands on the keyboard, you hit the wrong keys. Nope! I recently had a great mini work session / talk with a good friend at HQRL and confirmed that my 3x great grandmother on my mom’s paternal side is French Canadian. At least she is from there. (The above phrase is “Fortunately I am, and it is great.”)

You all have that opportunity, too. Whether you go into the library at Puyallup, meet at the local coffee shop, have a Zoom conversation with a friend from the library or from elsewhere, or just a phone conversation; the key is finding a research buddy. Make it a regular “date” to check in with what you have found, what you are stuck on, and get ideas about where to go next. What have you tried, look at it again. What are you missing, where might you look that you haven’t looked? Remember, we called that gap analysis. And remember it goes both ways. Help each other because you learn from that as well as benefit the other people. It also helps to hold each other accountable. What ideas are you going to report back on the next time you meet?

My friend suggested some places to try for my 3xGG. Some of them came up empty but even at that it gave me other ideas of where to look for other people. Some of them came up with the same items I had which I may have found years ago before I knew anything about what I was doing, and we found more information including where I found the information in the first place. (citing is so important and yet….class in September) Some of the ideas lead to other ideas and low and behold I ended up on MyHeritage (next class) and found a death certificate and obituary that connects the daughter and parents and location.

With all that help, I now have newspapers to look at and can begin looking with a little more confidence at Canadian censuses. It makes sense, because of this, that she wasn’t born in Champaign, New York but Champlain, New York which is right on the New York – Canadian border. Detective work with a team. Isn’t research fun?

I am on to dig further with these new ideas in mind. I sometimes forget that there are people in this world who just like to help and that like to dig into research. Take advantage of that with your research buddies. A GREAT BIG THANKS TO MINE!

Happy hunting!
Heidi Geise, education@hqrl.com

I wonder at times how we get started down the wrong road only to discover that after lots of research we need to make a U-Turn and start again on a different one. There is an old Yogi Beara quote that says, “when you get to the fork in the road, take it.” My understanding of that Yogism is that he lived on a circular drive. You could take either road to get to his home. My ancestors didn’t live on circular drives that I know of, so I must pick a direction and go for it. How about you? Do you ever have to circle back to head a slightly different direction? Are you like me, do you get so anxious to connect the pieces that you look right past pieces that might be better fits because of the incorrect conclusion you started with? That is my next step, to open my mind to other possibilities and see where they lead.

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that my 2x GG was born in Champaign, New York. But there is no such community that I can find. Another resource said Champaign, Ohio but I couldn’t find information for her connected there. Maybe you would have come to this conclusion sooner than I did, But I am now thinking that all the census reports that said she was born in New York were correct, however, not Champaign but someplace along the way that name was miswritten and could have been Champlain, New York.

I started looking at Champlain, NY to see what I could find. Unfortunately, I still can’t find any definitive information that connects me to her birth or to her parents. Just census reports that have her born in New York to parents born in England and Canada -French (mother speaking Scotch). I could have her parents’ names wrong also.

Instead of trying to force 2 puzzle pieces together I should stick with what I am more certain of and see what fits. DO THE DETECTIVE WORK! I will see what tips our next speaker gives us for myheritage. I really know little about her that I can use other than her spouse but no marriage document.

It may be time to put her aside for a bit and look at other lines. But which ones? How do you pick the members you are searching for once you get the “easy” stuff done? How do you do the “detective work” needed to dig deeper into your family story?

There are a couple of ideas I have. I first must remind myself why I want to do this work. Remember that concept from the very beginning. What are the family stories that have been passed down? Can I search for any truth in them? I was told at some point when I was young that we were Pennsylvania Dutch. I know a little about the term such as that the term “Dutch” could have come from Deutsch meaning German or that it could have referred to people who left from a Dutch port. I could look for that. First, I would need to find the immigrants.

That could also be a next step, where do I have some potential immigrants that I could research. That is the nature of family history, easier to find more questions than answers!

Heidi Geise education@hqrl.com

1. After hearing our last speaker, how many of you went back to start reorganizing your research? Or vowed to organize it the way Suz Bates did from here on out? Or thought about it and ……?
2. My plan was to use Suz Bates’ suggestions, look for location first and see if I could locate the birth place (verify it) for my 3x great grandmother. I have all sorts of information that says her daughter was born in New York. If they have a city, it is Champaign. I thought this would be easy and then I could verify the parents’ birth places. Is anything in genealogy easy? I think not. What next steps do you take when the city you are looking for doesn’t seem to exist?

My plan from last week was to review previously seen documents looking for new information and then to find 2 new sites to find additional information. Here is my question to you, what are some sites you commonly use besides the big databases such as ancestry.com, family search and my heritage?

Do you go to local library sites in the area you are researching? Do you look for genealogical or historical societies in the area? How do you find these sites? Which sites do you look for? Are there specific items in specific sites or do you look for general sites that hold the potential for several facts to be uncovered.

One idea is to talk to your family history colleagues, friends, HQ librarians and find out what they use. Many resources, such as Family Tree Magazine or YouTube videos such as Genealogy TV identify the best sites to use. They often do this each year to highlight the new sites that may be available. When you find facts that others have connected to your ancestors, look at the sources they used and at the original documents. Often their sources will be identified, and you can look in those locations.

Another idea is to Google information which is what our latest class topic explained and boy if you missed this one it was a great class. It was as much about organization as it was about finding things using Google and Google Scholar. She talked about and showed us how to use Google Translate, how to find entire books on sites that can be downloaded and translated if needed, and how to develop a system on your own computer for filing and linking all of your findings so that they can be saved and found again when you want them. Suz Bates was outstanding, and we got her just 3 presentations before she retires from speaking!

One of my biggest take-aways was the use of the triangle – Location, Era, Group. I don’t know why I just realized this, slow I guess, but your research workflow should be location, era, group and then the individual you are researching. She talked about looking for databases and then how to use them, asking where they were from and where they are now, who created them and why they were needed. It gets back to putting our information and people into historical context. It is going from the general to the more specific.

If you are interested, contact HQRL at 253-863-1806, pay for the class and they will let me know so that I can send you a link to the recording and give you the handout.  While there sign up for the next classes on Using Real-Estate Deeds and how to use My Heritage.

In the meantime, I am going to apply what I learned today to see what I can find on my 3x great grandparents from McDonough Co, Illinois – 1800 – 1870 - Arnold Family. See how I did that? Wish me luck!

Heidi Geise, education@hqrl.com