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Blog Entries: 1 to 10 of 25
Pre-Learning and Workflow
Have you done any “Pre-learning” for our next speakers? What do I mean by that? Our next 2 speakers focus on New England in various ways. The first thing I have done is work backwards from myself and find the New Englanders in each family group, at least the most recent.
I am going to make a confession. The first thing I did was define New England, which states are considered New England. I apologize to all my history and geography teachers from the past. (By the way – Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. But you knew that!)
My New England roots seem to be Vermont and Massachusetts. Most recently from 1750 to 1900. I decided to do that background work that we talked about earlier and to look at my paternal side. So here we come 3x GG in Vershire, Orange County, Vermont.
I am trying to establish a consistent workflow. You know what I mean. First this and then that for each research project. As a beginner I started with myself and got interviews with relatives and looked for artifacts. As I move further down the generations that part has been done so where do I start each project? Remembering past speakers that we have discussed in this blog, background on the location seems the place to start, if the location is new. By looking at the background information of the area first maybe I can find out a bit about this family and get some hints on new information like what jobs they might have had, why they moved to and from places. Thanks to someone who applied for DAR in the past, I have some pretty good identifiers about the people, dates and places.
History lesson: Vermont was discovered by Samuel de Champlain. They raised Merino Sheep early on. Vershire specifically got its name by combining Vermont and New Hampshire. Jimmy Buffet called this, “useless but important information.” But was it? Religions in the area were Congregational, Baptist, Roman Catholic, and Methodist. Maybe that will be useful down the road.
My next step was to create a timeline with the couple to see what I had and what I needed. By doing this I can see generally when they moved from Vermont, but I still have some work to do to see why they might have left and a more defined time for when. I am pretty confident in the genealogy of this line back to 6x GG in Massachusetts so it is about filling in details of their lives as best I can. You know the history stuff.
You may have noticed I have not given you names. This is again because it is not about my family but about the process. Doing the background work and the timeline can give me ideas on where to look from there. I am guessing that the speaker will share her best places depending on the locations and the time frame. Let’s see what she can tell us.
Heidi Geise, education@hqrl.com
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Share What You Learn
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
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Slow and Steady to be a Detective
What was your most recent discovery? Did you use tips from the blog? Did you use MyHeritage, Google, R/E Deeds or any of the tips from other past classes?
I have recently been reading a book, The Ancestry Detective by Charles Pembrake. It reminds me that some of my most interesting discoveries were found when I took the time to do that detective work. I am not always the most patient person. I want to open the computer, plug in a name and “zap” know their life history. If it were only so easy.
Here is an example: I know, as I said last week, that my grandfather worked for the railroad. He had other jobs that I have seen in census reports or heard from family or knew from my youth. My sister did some interviews with family when she was doing a project for school. My grandmother told her that my grandfather had been a cowboy. Now I am thinking, really! I pictured John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, or James Arness (Marshall Dillon).
I decided to take up the detective work. I knew where he was born and where he lived during census times. None of the censuses listed him as a cowboy. So, I thought, “What do I know about the places that he lived.” It turns out that one of those places was in the northeast corner of Colorado near where he would eventually meet and marry my grandmother. Family Search Wiki gave me some history of the area and guess what. It was a huge cattle ranch. My hypothesis, Grandpa worked on the ranch as a “COWBOY” and ranch hand.
Interesting also, this area was near Fleming, Colorado where my grandparents started their family. Fleming, according to a little history research, was built to support the CB & Q (Chicago, Burlington, & Quincy) Railroad. You have already taken the next step, haven’t you. The railroad my grandfather worked for was the CB & Q Railroad. The speaker today told us that most people lived near their work in earlier times.
Being a family history detective takes patience and perseverance. Funny thing is that I don’t always have either but when I do take the time, I find cool stuff that helps connect dots. I don’t always find them on the first try. Sometimes I stumble across things when I least expect to. That is the process of being a detective.
What can I find by following the leads from the railroad class? Perhaps I can learn what a “section draintuive” is, at least that is what it looks like on the census. Well, I may have found something. I went to Mid-Content library and ended up at Nat’l Archive Atlanta and a pension record for my grandfather. Now pay and get it sent. I get it Monday!
Another tip from our speaker: when you are going to take a class, a little research for your family prior to the class will help make the speaker’s information more relevant and easier to understand. OOOW – New England here I come! And be looking for opportunities to gather with like-minded people and talk family history findings and strategies.
Heidi Geise, education@hqrl.com
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Plant Your Tree Deep, Wide or Randomly
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?
- Do you move vertically down the tree to keep the tree aligned? (it is not easy being so concrete/sequential!)
- Do you go vertically as many generations back as possible?
- Do you look for all the people in the same general state?
- Do you look for military records, one war at a time?
- Do you look for occupations using resources that could fill in details for all possible?
- Do you have another method?
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 |
Took a Class, Went to HQ, Have a Buddy?
What New Learning Are You Applying?...
So, this week’s question is just that. This blog started in January 2025 and there have been 8 speakers, 9 counting this week. What are one or 2 ideas that you have applied to your family history research from all the speakers or from the ideas for beginners? If you couldn’t attend the class or get the recorded version, did you read anything in the Blog that helped?
Let’s look specifically at the week. The class was by Daniel Horowitz from MyHeritage. Have you ever tried MyHeritage before this class? Did you try it from the library or from home. One of the extras from this site is that if you are an HQRL member, you can get onto the library edition from home.
I have heard people say that it is for European ancestors. It is true that it has that but also US information. All my new information has been for the US. I am anxious to discover new techniques and resources from the speaker that will help me learn more. I know that I haven’t scratched the surface yet.
I learned about the catalog on MyHeritage and how to search on that, the translation technology that they use, and that while you are browsing the data that pertains to your ancestor, they are finding more documents that apply the that ancestor and other related people. COOL!
But the initial question wasn’t just about this class. We are all busy doing life! If we all truly enjoy family history, what can we learn from these resources available through HQRL be they speakers, librarians, or books? I read something in a recent newsletter from the “Occasional Genealogist,” that many times we are not stuck on our tree for lack of information but for not doing the detective work to learn from the resources that we have found. I know that is true for me. When you do find something on Google, MyHeritage, in R/E Deeds, Kentucky research, Fille Du Roi, Mapping or other places; do you look at it carefully or just for what you wanted in the first place?
Reading books, talking to your research buddy and taking classes only helps if you apply the learning. For me, it is helpful to try new ideas sooner rather than later before I forget what I was taught. I don’t have to become an overnight expert, just try something new and see what sticks, what you find.
After you try something from MyHeritage get ready to learn about your railroad ancestors, New England ancestors in a double opportunity from New England specifically and then from the American Ancestry data base. And there is more after that….get signed up.
Heidi Geise, education@hqrl.com |
Research Buddies
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
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Keeping an Open Mind
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
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Background Info and R/E Deeds
I was doing a little reading and noticed, as I often do, the similarities between photography and family history, 2 of my hobbies. I was reading books in each field and just happened to hit one of those similarities, knowing the background of your subject.
In photography that means understanding when the wildflowers are going to bloom on Mt Rainier. Do the backyard birds land on a particular branch every time before going to the feeder? In family history, what is the history of the area at the time you are researching? Were there boundary changes at the time? Were there historical events taking place such as battles or major weather issues? What was the major industry of the area?
How could this help you in your family history? I found family members in an area at the time of a major drought and then flooding that created havoc with farming which they were engaged in. What do you think they did? Options were to move or change occupations or struggle through it. They did some of each.
Understanding the background in photography can help you be more successful in getting the shot. Understanding the background in family history can help you search for the right resources, to get a better idea of what life was like for your families, understand why they might have left a location or went to a new one, and to understand why they pursued various occupations.
One of our last speakers talked about the triangle – location, era, group. It is hard to step away from those family surnames that we are trying to connect with, at least it is for me. But, if I know a little about what was going on in Iowa, for example, between 1850 and 1900 it might help me to get an idea of why they moved to Oregon in the early 1900s. What was happening in Wisconsin from 1800-1900 that caused another family to move to Oregon. Because, if either one of those things hadn’t happened, my grandparents might not have met.
It so happens that each state section at HQRL has a history section that might help you find what you are after. In the HQRL bookstore there is a history section as well, where you will find 1) The Genealogist’s US History Pocket Reference and 2) History for Genealogists.
When we combine this background knowledge with the learning from our speaker on “Using Real Estate Deeds,” I can only imagine that the learning and discovery would be that much greater. Are we looking at the correct locations in the correct time period. Check out godfrey.org for the Godfrey Memorial Library which is a library like ours except older and larger. Al Fiacre gave us so much information that included many, many pieces of information that we can use for verifying relationships, locations, occupations, neighbors, etc. It all helps us gain a better understanding of our background and our family history.
Next up, Using MyHeritage Library Edition.
Heidi Geise, education@hqrl.org
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What Next?
I have 2 questions today:
- 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 ……?
- 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?
Let’s tackle the 1st question 1st. Did I think about reorganizing? Yes! Did I move forward with it? No. I may in the future, and we will leave it at that.
Question 2 is the challenge I am focusing on now. The reason I was focused on this, my 2x great grandmother, is that all the census reports that I have for her and her husband say her father was from England and spoke English and her mother was from Canada and on some it says she spoke Scottish and on others she spoke French. My thinking was, “go back to what your last known information, Heidi.” That would be their daughter’s birth, in Champaign, New York in 1847. It turns out I don’t know what I thought I knew. So, what next?
Genealogy is a puzzle. We hear that all the time. What do we do when we can’t find the piece we are looking for? We look for the patterns, colors, shapes that surround the missing piece and go hunting, often on the floor, in the dog dish or with the baby. My point being that you look all around to see what might match up. Could there have been a Champaign in a nearby bordering state? Could it be Champlain even though numerous different items say Champaign?
I do have names for her parents but that hasn’t helped me up to this point, so I am going to step away for a bit, stay with Suz’s suggestion, and continue to search for the mysterious location.
So I stepped away, did you miss me? I decided to look for land information, a step ahead of the next speaker. I didn’t find anything but, one hint took me to FamilySearch where there was a birthday notice. You know, “one of your ancestors has a birthday coming up.” The first name on the list was the ancestor I was looking for. Wait! It says she was born 1 May 1847 in Champaign, OHIO! Sure enough, that place exists and has lots in it with her name….Now what? Like in Hearst Castle, “KEEP SEARCHING!” (maybe you won’t get that one)
Until next time, sign up for more classes and lets “KEEP SEARCHING” for our family history mysteries.
Heidi Geise, education@hqrl.com
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Googling for Gems
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
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