Consider the matter of the sun being on the wrong side of the subject about half the time. Most tombstones face the west. Take pictures in the afternoon. Noon is standard time, in summer the sun will reach it's zenith at 1:00. Have a picnic and wait for the sun.
Take a tripod and a mirror. The first to steady the camera and the second to use to reflect sunlight onto the tombstone when the sun is not in the right place. The mirror should be about 2' x 4' to work well with all sizes of stones.
Gleason, Michael. Switch to Gregorian Calendar was Unpopular with Colonists, The Virginia Genealogical Society Newsletter, Vol. XVII, No. 3, May/June 1991.
The last thing Virginians needed in 1752, amid rumors of French & Indian raids along the Ohio River frontier, was a new calendar system that included a new New Year's Day. Still, that's what they got from the British Parliament.
Great Britain that year adopted the Gregorian calendar, eliminating 11 days and switching New Year's Day from March to January.
Until the 16th century, months and years were measured by the Julian calendar, which was remarkably accurate with its 365-day year. Still, the Julian calendar ran a few minutes long each year and over time the minutes added up to days.
Even after other regions of Europe converted to the Gregorian calendar, Great Britain successfully resisted the change for 170 years. Then, in 1752, the British parliament adopted the new Gregorian calendar for all of its possessions, including the American colonies. The change was unpopular from the beginning.
By 1752, Britain's old calendar was running 11 days behind the Gregorian calendar. That was resolved; The new calendar had September 14 follow September 2.
Protestant theologians and merchants particularly resented changes in church observances and confusion in business transactions. Because of anti-Catholic sentiment, the 11-day cut became known as the "popish" and the calendar dubbed "reformed" - rather than "Gregorian."
With the New Year's Day shift to January, the dates Jan. 1 through March 24 never existed in 1751 in England and the colonies. The 11-day calendar change required the addition of 11 days to birth dates between 1700 and 1751. Old dates were designated Old Style (O.S.); after that, dates were noted New Style (N.S.).
Thomas Jefferson was born on April 2, 1743 O.S. But the 11-day shift moved his birthday to April 13, 1743 N.S. George Washington was born February 11 O.S. or February 22 N.S.
Like most, Washington was partial to his old birth date and slow to make a change. In 1778, at Valley Forge during the Revolutionary War, American soldiers celebrated Washington's birthday by serenading their commander on February 11.
Hatcher, Patricia. Ships, Boats & Shipbuilding in Early America, Ancestry, Jul/Aug. 2005
What kind of boat did your ancestors use? To find the type of craft your ancestors needed to travel local water sources, look at a detailed map of the area in which they lived and locate their approximate residence. Then look for the nearest waterways. Very few roads and bridges existed to accommodate the transport of goods in early America. The size of the streams, rivers, bays would determine the type of boat needed.
Types of ships & boats - ships have three basic components - hull, mast(s) and rigging. Boat type is defined by masts - number and placement and sails - number, shape and placement.
- Bark - small ship with square-rigged foremast and mainmast and a fore-and-aft-rigged mizzenmast
- Bilander- originally a single-masted Dutch vessel for sailing along the coast, eventually became a two masted merchant ship
- Brig - ship with two square rigged masts
- Brigantine - ship with two square rigged masts, but unlike the brig it does not have a square main sail
- Bug-eye - small flat-bottomed boat with centerboard and two raked (slanted) masts
- Canoe - generally hollowed log or lightweight craft made by covering a frame
- Chebacco boat - small, fast fishing boat with two sails - built for the shallow Chebacco river
- Clipper - fast sailing ship, its speed was achieved by its long slender hull with overhanging bow and very large sail area on tall raked masts
- Dogbody - square sterned variation on a Chebacco boat
- Frigate - square rigged warship
- Galley - used to describe several different types of ships, but tended to be large and ride low in the water, capable of being propelled by sails or oars
- Ketch - term probably the most popular in describing crafts used for coastal fishing and trading. 2 masts are fore-and-aft rigged with the mizzenmast further forward than traditional
- Pink / Pinkie - ship with narrow overhanging stern
- Shallop - small open, two masted boat with lugsails for use in shallow, inland or coastal waters.
- Sloop - single masted boat with jib sail
- Snow - small ship similar to a brig but with a trysail mast close behind the mainmast; often carried guns and used as a warship
Ship-related occupations in colonial America would have included shipwrights to build the ship's wooden hull. Sails involved the creation of canvas. A sailmaker then determines the size and and shape of the sails. Carpenters finished the interiors of ships. Coopers made barrels for transporting goods.
Shipbuilding & Maritime Museums:
- Essex Shipbuilding Museum, Essex, Massachusetts
- Mariners Museum, Newport News, Virginia
- Mystic Seaport, Mystic, Connecticut
- Peabody Essex Museum & Phillips Library, Salem, Massachusetts
- South Street Seaport Museum, New York City
Hoff, Henry. What is Genealogical Proof? New England Ancestors, nd.
Genealogy is an art, not a science. Genealogical links between people are usually not 100% clear, especially when reconstructing families in the distant past. A good genealogy presents evidence to reconstruct a family, based on citations from commonly-accepted sources for that time and place. Frequently, analysis is needed to deal with complex evidence topics. But how much "proof" is needed for genealogy? This has been the subject of numerous articles and lectures.
Two important aspects of proof - 1) picking and choosing wisely among sources to rely on; 2) developing in writing genealogical reasoning or arguments to support your conclusions.
Hoff's opinion that the degree to which original records must be pursued depends on the importance of the information to the genealogy.
See also:
Mills, Elizabeth. Working with Historical Evidence: Genealogical Principles & Standards, National Genealogical Society Quarterly, 87:3, September 1999. She cites 5 criteria:
- research should be reasonably exhaustive
- evidence should be drawn from reliable records, correctly interpreted
- contradictory evidence should be soundly rebutted
- all statements of fact should be scrupulously documented
- all deductions should be carefully reasoned & explained in writing
There are four types of evidence:
- direct evidence
- conflicting direct evidence
- accumulation of indirect evidence
- accumulation of indirect evidence that contradicts direct evidence
If you want to find "genealogical proof" for your genealogical problems, it helps to write up the problem. In doing so, you may reach new or firmer conclusions.
Huntington, Carolyn. Genealogical Research as it Relates to Probate Records & the Problems that May be Encountered in the Future, Branches & Twigs, Vol. 17, No. 1.
There are 19 probate courts in Vermont. They are set up in districts. Five of the counties are divided into 2 districts. This has proven to be confusing.
In Which War Did Your Ancestor Fight? - This list can give you a guide for determining in which war your ancestor may have served or lived through.
Born in -- War -- Dates of War
1626-1656 - Bacon's Rebellion - 1676
1639-1743 - Intercolonial Wars - 1689-1763
1713-1743 - Pontiac's Rebellion - 1763-1765
1720-1763 - American Revolution - 1775-1783
1740-1791 - Indian Wars - 1790-1811
1762-1794 - War of 1812 - 1812-1814
1762-1794 - Blackhawk War - 1832
1796-1828 - Mexican War - 1846-1848
1806-1849 - Civil War - 1861-1865
1848-1880 - Spanish-American War - 1898
Jackson, Susan. Trail to Your Roots, Family Tree Magazine, December 2003.
If your roots lie in the broad, beautiful region of Appalachia, you, too, have probably wondered what your people were like - who they were and how they made their way in the forests and hollows of the mountains and valleys.
What is Appalachia - though it's one of the oldest names on American maps, Appalachia has never had a fixed set of boundaries. In 1965, a government agency called the Appalachian Regional Commission decided that Appalachia officially encompasses the following areas and states:
Leppman, John. The Genealogist as Medical Geneticist: What to Tell About the Family's Ailments, Twigs & Branches, Vol. 11, No. 3, nd
Of the uses that genealogy can be put to by the more mainstream disciplines, few are probably as important as its use to the medical geneticist. In the past generation or so, with tremendous advances in knowledge about biochemistry & genetics, there has begun to be some useful understanding of exactly why some diseases "run in families." . . .
Even if your family doesn't have any rare & fascinating genetic diseases, it is not a bad idea to record to the best of your ability certain medical facts about anyone you have in your records. In doing so, do the best you can to provide an accurate medical term for the condition; it is much more useful to know that grandma was diagnosed as having pernicious anemia than that she had "low blood." And rather vaguely passing on that there is "sugar in the family," one wants to report that Grandma Jones tended to have a high blood sugar when she was in her 60's & weighed 250 pounds, or alternatively that Cousin Marvin had to take insulin from the time he was 5 until he died of kidney failure at age 30.
What is appropriate to report in your family genealogy & what isn't? First, mention anyone who without question had a disease known to have a definite inheritance pattern. Examples would be cystic fibrosis, phenylketonuria, Tay-Sachs Disease, or the disorders of hemoglobin which include thalassemia & sickle-cell disease. An important addition to this list . . . inherited abnormality of cholesterol metabolism which makes people have an extremely high cholesterol level from an early age & often leads to death from heart attacks in early adulthood. A family pattern of deaths of this sort might point to this trait, & it's possible presence is something worth knowing.
Second mention major diseases which might at least partly be influenced by heredity . . . heart attacks before 50 . . . [descendants may] do themselves a favor to know of such a pattern & reduce the other risk factors that they can do something about. The type of diabetes which generally strikes younger people & always requires the use of insulin for treatment may not have any inheritance pattern . . . but the type which affects older people, is often associated with overweight, & is often treated only with diet or pills, seems to have a familial tendency. At least a predisposition to various forms of cancer is most likely inherited. Epilepsy may have this tendency. Any of these conditions should be noted in genealogical records, &one hopes that we have gotten beyond the time when the presence of any of these was somehow seen as a family stigma . . .
Third, regardless of inheritance patterns, it is reasonable to note the cause of death for any family member for whom it is known. All the gory details need not be discussed - & in fact it is in questionable taste to do so - but a brief, accurate medical statement is reasonable. For persons known only by historical records, quote what the record has to say, if anything. Some of the medical studies have been able to draw conclusions from old records which showed that one or more people had "shaking palsy" or "restless insanity" or some such thing, combined with what is known about more specific conditions their descendants had.
Finally, mention can be made of inherited conditions not generally thought of as diseases. Some genealogists like to mention such traits as height, build, eye color, hair color, etc. . . . Family members might rightfully be a bit touchy about references to such things as obesity, although future historians will find such records perhaps of some interest. . . . For some of the appearance matters, existence of photographs provides much more than you can put in words anyway. Colorblindness & baldness are traits which have fairly clear genetics.
Among medical conditions which need not be discussed & which I would submit it is tasteless to belabor, are infectious diseases, unless they are of great rarity or a cause of death; surgical conditions such as appendicitis, gall bladder disease, hysterectomies for non-malignant conditions & the like, again unless there is some most unusual aspect; & minor symptomatic disorders such as headaches or chronic gas pains unless they were so much a part of a person's personality as to merit mention in describing the sufferer. Major psychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia may have a genetic component & ought to be mentioned if satisfactorily understood in a given case. Alcoholism probably also has a familial aspect; it inclusion in the family record would, in view of feelings about it,have to remain a matter of the discretion of the writer.
The key to keeping medical data from being overbearingly gruesome is to make the information part of an overall picture of the ancestor or relative.
Morgan, George. Mapping Your Way to Research Success, Ancestry, Sept./Oct. 2005
Topographical maps, aerial maps, atlases, county road maps, plat maps, ordnance survey maps, census enumeration district maps, Sanborn fire insurance maps - there are hundreds of different kinds of maps, each with its own purpose.
Boundaries and governments have changed over the centuries. . . . The acquisition of western lands following the American Revolution resulted in the formation of territories that evolved over time into counties, states, parishes and other divisions. In the years since, some of those towns have appeared and disappeared, while in other instances, names have changed completely.
Maps are visual keys to understanding the past at a particular point in time. You should also employ a step-by-step methodology, to guide you in locating a place and identifying the geopolitical entity in power at the time your ancestors lived there.
Step 1 - Study the History of the Area at the Time - choose an ancestor and review everything you know about them. Create a timeline of known locations and events. Note state, county, town creations and boundary changes associated with them.
Step 2 - Enlist a Contemporary Map - locate a specific place by taking a broad look at a detailed contemporary map or atlas, one that shows the boundaries of the time frame your ancestor lived there.
Step 3 - When You Can't Find the Place - In 1967, three towns in North Carolina - Leaksville, Spray and Draper - were combined and renamed Eden. When you can't locate a place, a gazetteer or place-name directory, is a great source. Check American Place Names of Long Ago by Gilbert Bahn. Historical postal directories can identify unincorporated towns. Also Library of Congress Geography & Map Reading Room & Library of Congress: Collections with Maps
Step 4 - Trace Boundary & Government Changes Over Time - it is important to identify the exact times when boundary changes were made and changes in governments occurred. These will have dictated when certain civil records were first created and where they are housed. Use Map Guide to the U.S. Federal Censuses, 1790-1920 by William Dollarhide.
Step 5 - Study Historical Maps of the Period - find a historical map and compare it with a contemporary map or atlas. You can trace the contemporary map, overlay it onto the historical map, and while the scales may vary, you will get a very good idea of the geopolitical location where your forebears were when they lived there.
Step 6 - What if the Records are no Longer There - it is possible that records originally deposited at a particular location are no longer located there. Inquire about the disposition of the records and specifically ask where they are and in what format they're in.
Questioning Place - Once you've chosen an ancestor to research, try to answer the following questions to get a better idea of the places he may have lived and ultimately help you track down records.
Otto, Julie. Finding Foremothers at New England Historic Genealogical Society, Nexus, Vol. XV, No. 2.
Among any genealogist's greatest frustrations must be the anonymous female ancestor - just as much our forebear s the husband whose name she bears. In vital and church records her children are often listed as his, even if she died bearing them. When she is finally identified, odd scraps (even "unlikely" places of residence) in her children's later lives make sudden sense - and we may find her ancestry more interesting than her husband's!
Woman's obscurity is not the result of conspiracy but rather the fruit of cultural factors, often unconscious, and perhaps not so far from our own assumptions as we might like. A guiding principle of traditional society has been the belief that in marriage, "the two shall become one flesh." Our ancestors took this Biblical text literally. Kin of one spouse were assumed to become kin of the other in the same degree.
Just because "the two become one flesh," however, it shouldn't be assumed that every relationship between persons not of the same surname must be that of in-laws!
Sources to check:
Otto, Julie. Some Thoughts on Onamastics in Our Ancestors' Lives, Nexus, Vol. XIV, No. 6
When choosing names for their children, our ancestors - including many of the illiterate ones - understood and alluded to a rich mix of literary, religious, and popular sources. What choices they made, and why they made them, can be important in determining their lives and expectations. And in the "century of lost ancestors" (1750-1850), we can often estimate or verify the age of someone with an unusual name, whose actual birth in some pioneer settlement went unrecorded, by checking the date the name would have gained currency (whether through publication of a popular novel, an important historical event, etc.).
Inferring blood kinships on the basis of naming patterns alone (particularly garden-variety first names such as Thomas, Mary, William, etc.) is a dangerous game. Often parents chose names to honor family members, but (particularly several children along, when the bearable family names were taken) children were also named for -in-laws of varying degrees, friends, neighbors, pastors, and public figures of regional or national importance.
Parents' choice of names may indicate something of their religious or political outlook. Evidence for early American names and onomastic patterns can be gleaned from a dizzying array of sources - published vital records, compiled genealogies and town histories, contemporary novels and their modern commentary.
Pittman, Grace. O My Son Benoni: A Personal Name as Marker of Family Circumstances, Nexus, Vol. VII, No. 1
This article will discuss the meaning of them male name Benoni as a genealogical marker.
Everyone working with New England Puritan families has come across first names that seem odd. One can usually make an accurate guess that the name came from the Bible. The Biblical reference for Benoni describes the death in childbirth of Rachel, wife of Jacob.
Huntington, Carolyn. Genealogical Research as it Relates to Probate Records & the Problems that May be Encountered in the Future, Branches & Twigs, Vol. 17, No. 1.
There are 19 probate courts in Vermont. They are set up in districts. Five of the counties are divided into 2 districts. This has proven to be confusing.
- Orange County has the District of Bradford at Wells River & the District of Randolph at Chelsea.
- Windsor Co. has the District of Hartford at Woodstock & the District of Windsor at North Springfield.
- Windham Co. has the District of Westminster at Bellows Falls or Rockingham & the District of Marlboro at Brattleboro.
- Rutland Co. has the District of Rutland at Rutland & the District of Fair Haven at Fair Haven.
- Bennington Co. has the District of Bennington at Bennington & the District of Manchester at Manchester.
- The District of Addison is at Middlebury.
- The District of Caledonia is at St. Johnsbury
- The District of Chittenden is at Burlington.
- The District of Essex is at Island Pond.
- The District of Franklin is at St. Albans.
- The District of Grand Isle is at North Hero.
- The District of Lamoille is at Morrisville.
- The District of Orleans is at Newport.
- The District of Washington is at Montpelier
Each of the Courts is required to keep a card index of estates.
Probate Court records contain:
- tested estates
- intestate estates
- trust estates
- guardianships
- changes of name
- adoptions
- appointment of administrators to convey record title of real estate
- appointment of administrators to discharge mortgage on real estate
The first 50 volumes of our original documents burned when one of the three court houses burned. The records have been microfilmed and are available at Montpelier. They are available on Ancestry.
Wills of course, provide the greatest wealth of information as well as Decrees of Distribution. In the old estates, if intestate, there was usually no Decree, but the division of assets was made on the Final Account. Also, some of the old inventories would list some of the heirs especially if money was owed to the decedant. Heirs could be listed in various documents. Each usually had the following documents filed:
- petition for probate or acceptance of trust
- will & proof of
- inventory
- appointment of commissioner, appraisers and their reports
- application for license to sell real estate
- order of notice & license issued
- final account & decree of distribution
In Which War Did Your Ancestor Fight? - This list can give you a guide for determining in which war your ancestor may have served or lived through.
Born in -- War -- Dates of War
1626-1656 - Bacon's Rebellion - 1676
1639-1743 - Intercolonial Wars - 1689-1763
1713-1743 - Pontiac's Rebellion - 1763-1765
1720-1763 - American Revolution - 1775-1783
1740-1791 - Indian Wars - 1790-1811
1762-1794 - War of 1812 - 1812-1814
1762-1794 - Blackhawk War - 1832
1796-1828 - Mexican War - 1846-1848
1806-1849 - Civil War - 1861-1865
1848-1880 - Spanish-American War - 1898
Jackson, Susan. Trail to Your Roots, Family Tree Magazine, December 2003.
If your roots lie in the broad, beautiful region of Appalachia, you, too, have probably wondered what your people were like - who they were and how they made their way in the forests and hollows of the mountains and valleys.
What is Appalachia - though it's one of the oldest names on American maps, Appalachia has never had a fixed set of boundaries. In 1965, a government agency called the Appalachian Regional Commission decided that Appalachia officially encompasses the following areas and states:
- northeastern Mississippi
- northern Alabama
- northwestern Georgia
- eastern Tennessee
- western North Carolina
- the northwest tip of South Carolina
- eastern Kentucky
- western Virginia
- West Virginia
- southern & eastern Ohio
- western Pennsylvania
- southern New York
- western Maryland
Timeline:
- 12,000 BC hunters enter Appalachia in search of mammoths
- 1539-1540 Spanish conquistador Hernando DeSoto may be first European to enter southern Appalachia
- 1670 white explorers reach Blue Ridge mountains
- 1716 Virginia Governor Alexander Spotswood leads the first organized group of English colonists across the Blue Ridge
- 1760s-1770s Daniel Boone explores and settles the Blue Ridge and Cumberland Mountains
- 1848 Trail of Tears forced march of Indians out of the area
- 1865 First death in Hatfield McCoy feud
- 1870s West Virginia's coal, timber, oil, salt & gas build US industrial system
- 1877 Ulysses Grant elected president, he was born in Clermont, Ohio
- 1884 Anti-union workers set fire to New Straitsville, Ohio, mine which still burns today
Early Hills & Valleys - about 60,000 Cherokees lived in or near the mountains in what are now South Carolina, North Carolina and Tennessee. Shawnees lived in southern Ohio, the Creeks in Georgia. Whites with their slaves move into the area through the 1700s. In Appalachia: A History, Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, John Williams says such conglomerations "remind us that the European and native peoples that collided in Appalachia during the latter half of the 18th century were on each side multiethnic, multilingual societies shaped by earlier generations' experience of warfare, migration and disease."
From 1730 to 1763, European-Americans moved into Appalachian Pennsylvania and Maryland as well as parts of western Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Then through 1789 European-Americans settled in eastern Tennessee, northwestern North Carolina, northwestern South Carolina and central Kentucky. For the next 30 years, white settlers pushed their way into southeastern Ohio, the Great Valley in eastern Tennessee and the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in western North Carolina.
A Mountain Melting Pot - settlers were "Anglo-Saxons of English descent; Scots-Irish from Ulster, Northern Ireland; Germans, Irish, French Huguenots and soldiers from the Revolutionary War who had been given land grants as payment for their service to the government,' says Carolyn Wilson Dyer, a professional genealogist based in Georgetown, Kentucky. "They traveled down the Great Philadelphia Wagon Road to Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee - this route was heavily populated with travelers.
"Families began to come to Kentucky. They came over the Wilderness Road, they came down the Ohio River and they traveled over the Cumberland Gap," Dyer adds. By 1830, nearly 800,000 people were living in central and southern Appalachia.
Toolkit:
- Kentucky - Berea College Special Collections
- Kentucky - Kentucky Department for Libraries & Archives
- Kentucky - UK Library Special Collections
- Maryland - Johns Hopkins University Special Collections
- Maryland - Maryland Historical Society
- Maryland - Maryland Genealogical Society
- Maryland - Maryland State Archives
- North Carolina - Appalachian State University Special Collections
- North Carolina - North Carolina State Archives
- North Carolina - North Carolina State Library
- North Carolina - UNC-CH Manuscript Department
- North Carolina - UNC-CH North Carolina Collection
- Ohio - Ohio Genealogical Society
- Ohio - Ohio Historical Society
- Ohio - Ohio University Special Collections
- Ohio - State Library of Ohio
- Pennsylvania - Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh Pennsylvania Department
- Pennsylvania - Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania
- Pennsylvania - Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania
- Pennsylvania - Pennsylvania State Archives
- Pennsylvania - State Library of Pennsylvania Department of Education Commonwealth Libraries
- South Carolina - South Carolina Department of Archives & History
- South Carolina - South Carolina Historical Society
- Tennessee - Chattanooga-Hamilton County Bicentennial Library
- Tennessee - East Tennessee State University Center for Appalachian Studies
- Tennessee - McClung Historical Collection
- Tennessee - Tennessee State Library & Archives
- Tennessee - University of Tennessee Libraries Great Smoky Mountains Regional Collection
- Virginia - James Memorial Library
- Virginia - Library of Virginia
- Virginia - Roanoke Library Virginia Room
- Virginia - UV Special Collections Library
- West Virginia - West Virginia & Regional History Center
- West Virginia - West Virginia State Archives
Leppman, John. The Genealogist as Medical Geneticist: What to Tell About the Family's Ailments, Twigs & Branches, Vol. 11, No. 3, nd
Of the uses that genealogy can be put to by the more mainstream disciplines, few are probably as important as its use to the medical geneticist. In the past generation or so, with tremendous advances in knowledge about biochemistry & genetics, there has begun to be some useful understanding of exactly why some diseases "run in families." . . .
Even if your family doesn't have any rare & fascinating genetic diseases, it is not a bad idea to record to the best of your ability certain medical facts about anyone you have in your records. In doing so, do the best you can to provide an accurate medical term for the condition; it is much more useful to know that grandma was diagnosed as having pernicious anemia than that she had "low blood." And rather vaguely passing on that there is "sugar in the family," one wants to report that Grandma Jones tended to have a high blood sugar when she was in her 60's & weighed 250 pounds, or alternatively that Cousin Marvin had to take insulin from the time he was 5 until he died of kidney failure at age 30.
What is appropriate to report in your family genealogy & what isn't? First, mention anyone who without question had a disease known to have a definite inheritance pattern. Examples would be cystic fibrosis, phenylketonuria, Tay-Sachs Disease, or the disorders of hemoglobin which include thalassemia & sickle-cell disease. An important addition to this list . . . inherited abnormality of cholesterol metabolism which makes people have an extremely high cholesterol level from an early age & often leads to death from heart attacks in early adulthood. A family pattern of deaths of this sort might point to this trait, & it's possible presence is something worth knowing.
Second mention major diseases which might at least partly be influenced by heredity . . . heart attacks before 50 . . . [descendants may] do themselves a favor to know of such a pattern & reduce the other risk factors that they can do something about. The type of diabetes which generally strikes younger people & always requires the use of insulin for treatment may not have any inheritance pattern . . . but the type which affects older people, is often associated with overweight, & is often treated only with diet or pills, seems to have a familial tendency. At least a predisposition to various forms of cancer is most likely inherited. Epilepsy may have this tendency. Any of these conditions should be noted in genealogical records, &one hopes that we have gotten beyond the time when the presence of any of these was somehow seen as a family stigma . . .
Third, regardless of inheritance patterns, it is reasonable to note the cause of death for any family member for whom it is known. All the gory details need not be discussed - & in fact it is in questionable taste to do so - but a brief, accurate medical statement is reasonable. For persons known only by historical records, quote what the record has to say, if anything. Some of the medical studies have been able to draw conclusions from old records which showed that one or more people had "shaking palsy" or "restless insanity" or some such thing, combined with what is known about more specific conditions their descendants had.
Finally, mention can be made of inherited conditions not generally thought of as diseases. Some genealogists like to mention such traits as height, build, eye color, hair color, etc. . . . Family members might rightfully be a bit touchy about references to such things as obesity, although future historians will find such records perhaps of some interest. . . . For some of the appearance matters, existence of photographs provides much more than you can put in words anyway. Colorblindness & baldness are traits which have fairly clear genetics.
Among medical conditions which need not be discussed & which I would submit it is tasteless to belabor, are infectious diseases, unless they are of great rarity or a cause of death; surgical conditions such as appendicitis, gall bladder disease, hysterectomies for non-malignant conditions & the like, again unless there is some most unusual aspect; & minor symptomatic disorders such as headaches or chronic gas pains unless they were so much a part of a person's personality as to merit mention in describing the sufferer. Major psychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia may have a genetic component & ought to be mentioned if satisfactorily understood in a given case. Alcoholism probably also has a familial aspect; it inclusion in the family record would, in view of feelings about it,have to remain a matter of the discretion of the writer.
The key to keeping medical data from being overbearingly gruesome is to make the information part of an overall picture of the ancestor or relative.
Morgan, George. Mapping Your Way to Research Success, Ancestry, Sept./Oct. 2005
Topographical maps, aerial maps, atlases, county road maps, plat maps, ordnance survey maps, census enumeration district maps, Sanborn fire insurance maps - there are hundreds of different kinds of maps, each with its own purpose.
Boundaries and governments have changed over the centuries. . . . The acquisition of western lands following the American Revolution resulted in the formation of territories that evolved over time into counties, states, parishes and other divisions. In the years since, some of those towns have appeared and disappeared, while in other instances, names have changed completely.
Maps are visual keys to understanding the past at a particular point in time. You should also employ a step-by-step methodology, to guide you in locating a place and identifying the geopolitical entity in power at the time your ancestors lived there.
Step 1 - Study the History of the Area at the Time - choose an ancestor and review everything you know about them. Create a timeline of known locations and events. Note state, county, town creations and boundary changes associated with them.
Step 2 - Enlist a Contemporary Map - locate a specific place by taking a broad look at a detailed contemporary map or atlas, one that shows the boundaries of the time frame your ancestor lived there.
Step 3 - When You Can't Find the Place - In 1967, three towns in North Carolina - Leaksville, Spray and Draper - were combined and renamed Eden. When you can't locate a place, a gazetteer or place-name directory, is a great source. Check American Place Names of Long Ago by Gilbert Bahn. Historical postal directories can identify unincorporated towns. Also Library of Congress Geography & Map Reading Room & Library of Congress: Collections with Maps
Step 4 - Trace Boundary & Government Changes Over Time - it is important to identify the exact times when boundary changes were made and changes in governments occurred. These will have dictated when certain civil records were first created and where they are housed. Use Map Guide to the U.S. Federal Censuses, 1790-1920 by William Dollarhide.
Step 5 - Study Historical Maps of the Period - find a historical map and compare it with a contemporary map or atlas. You can trace the contemporary map, overlay it onto the historical map, and while the scales may vary, you will get a very good idea of the geopolitical location where your forebears were when they lived there.
Step 6 - What if the Records are no Longer There - it is possible that records originally deposited at a particular location are no longer located there. Inquire about the disposition of the records and specifically ask where they are and in what format they're in.
Questioning Place - Once you've chosen an ancestor to research, try to answer the following questions to get a better idea of the places he may have lived and ultimately help you track down records.
- when and where was the person born?
- when and where was he christened or baptized?
- what do I know about the parents, including place of residence, occupation, marriage and deaths?
- did my target research person attend school? when and where? include college and universities
- were there other siblings born in different places?
- when and where did my target research person marry?
- whom did he / she marry and where was that person living at the time of marriage?
- what children did the couple have and where?
- what life experiences influenced the target person and where he may have migrated?
- when and where did the person die and where are they buried?
Google Earth - "fly over" your ancestor's home, mark "your places," calculate distances from place to place.
Historical Maps Online - University of Illinois
Maps, Travel & Exploration - Newberry Library
Otto, Julie. Finding Foremothers at New England Historic Genealogical Society, Nexus, Vol. XV, No. 2.
Among any genealogist's greatest frustrations must be the anonymous female ancestor - just as much our forebear s the husband whose name she bears. In vital and church records her children are often listed as his, even if she died bearing them. When she is finally identified, odd scraps (even "unlikely" places of residence) in her children's later lives make sudden sense - and we may find her ancestry more interesting than her husband's!
Woman's obscurity is not the result of conspiracy but rather the fruit of cultural factors, often unconscious, and perhaps not so far from our own assumptions as we might like. A guiding principle of traditional society has been the belief that in marriage, "the two shall become one flesh." Our ancestors took this Biblical text literally. Kin of one spouse were assumed to become kin of the other in the same degree.
Just because "the two become one flesh," however, it shouldn't be assumed that every relationship between persons not of the same surname must be that of in-laws!
Sources to check:
- New England Historical & Genealogical Register indexes
- The American Genealogist index
- American Genealogical & Biographical Record
- 1790 Census
- Boston Evening Transcript genealogical column
- Town vital records
Otto, Julie. Some Thoughts on Onamastics in Our Ancestors' Lives, Nexus, Vol. XIV, No. 6
When choosing names for their children, our ancestors - including many of the illiterate ones - understood and alluded to a rich mix of literary, religious, and popular sources. What choices they made, and why they made them, can be important in determining their lives and expectations. And in the "century of lost ancestors" (1750-1850), we can often estimate or verify the age of someone with an unusual name, whose actual birth in some pioneer settlement went unrecorded, by checking the date the name would have gained currency (whether through publication of a popular novel, an important historical event, etc.).
Inferring blood kinships on the basis of naming patterns alone (particularly garden-variety first names such as Thomas, Mary, William, etc.) is a dangerous game. Often parents chose names to honor family members, but (particularly several children along, when the bearable family names were taken) children were also named for -in-laws of varying degrees, friends, neighbors, pastors, and public figures of regional or national importance.
Parents' choice of names may indicate something of their religious or political outlook. Evidence for early American names and onomastic patterns can be gleaned from a dizzying array of sources - published vital records, compiled genealogies and town histories, contemporary novels and their modern commentary.
- Brewer, Cobham. The Readers' Handbook 1889
- Brewer, Cobham. A Dictionary of Phrase & Fable, 1884
- Radice, Betty. Who's Who in the Classical World, 1973
- Stewart, George. American Given Names: Their Origin & History in the Context of the English Language, 1979
- Withycombe, E.G. The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names, 1950
Agur - probably Hebrew, gatherer mentioned in Proverbs 20
Arabella / Arabelle - medieval Scottish origin, Orable daughter of Ness, Lord of Leuchars
Archelaus - Greek, chief of the people, son of Herod and succeeded his father, but was a tyrannical and unsuccessful ruler.
Armida - one of the main female characters in the epic Jerusalem Delivered by Torquato Tasso.
Cafira / Caphira - it may be derived from an obscure place name in the Holy Land. Caphira is a variant of Chephirah a Hivvite city which followed the lead of Gibeon in making terms with the Israelites.
Cassandra - in Homer's Iliad, the tragic prophetess-princess, daughter of Priam and Hecuba and sister of Paris.
Charlotte - formed by adding the French diminutive feminine suffix -otte to Charles, this name was identified mainly with the Continent before the 1626 marriage of James Stanley, 7th Earl of Derby to Charlotte de la Tremouille.
Clarence - this first name, often, but not exclusively bestowed on male protagonists, has a fine aristocratic ring which echoes the name of George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence (1449-1478) middle brother of Kings Edward IV & Richard III.
Clarissa / Clarissa Harlowe - various forms evolved in France from Clara, such as Clarice & Clarisse. The novelist [Samuel] Richardson apparently latinized the name to produce the heroine of his novel Clarissa Harlowe.
Clementina - derived from the Latin clemens mild, merciful, this name has long been used in England. In the 17th & 18th centuries, the name had Jacobite contotations.
Cynthia - the Greek goddess Artemis was born on Mt. Cynthos in Delos; the ephithet Cynthia refers to her role as goddess of the moon. The Roman poet Sextus Propertius of Assisi and Rome gave this name to his mistress Hostia ("Cynthia prima fuit, Cynthia finis erit"). In one of his loveliest lyrics, Ben Jonson apostrophized Queen Elizabeth I by this name, ca. 1600:
Queene and huntress, chaste & faire,
Now the Sunne is laid to sleep,
Seated in thy silver chaire,
State in wonted manner keep;
Hesperus intreats thy lighte,
GODDESSE excellentlie bright . . .
Cynthia (Janes) (Marvin) Penniman 1783-1854, daughter of Jonathan & Patty (Plympton) Janes of Sturbridge, Mass., and Richford, Vt., md. 1) Ebenezer Marvin, 2) the writer's great-great-great-grandfather Dr. Jabez Penniman, widower of Fanny Montresor, widow of Col. Ethan Allen. Mrs. Penniman is buried with her first husband at St. Albans; nearby lies a granddau., Cynthia Philomena Smalley. The name went through orthographic torture: Sintha Gibbs b. 1802 was Cynthia Gibbs dau. of Zephaniah and Lucinda (Janes) Gibbs of Sturbridge, later wife of Sewell Hiscock.
This Cynthia (Janes) (Marvin) Penniman was a first cousin to our grandmother Cynthia (Powell) Lathrop, the daughter of Rowland & Mary (Janes) Powell.
Pittman, Grace. O My Son Benoni: A Personal Name as Marker of Family Circumstances, Nexus, Vol. VII, No. 1
This article will discuss the meaning of them male name Benoni as a genealogical marker.
Everyone working with New England Puritan families has come across first names that seem odd. One can usually make an accurate guess that the name came from the Bible. The Biblical reference for Benoni describes the death in childbirth of Rachel, wife of Jacob.
And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing, (for she died) that she called his name Benoni: but his father called him Benjamin. Genesis 35:18Benoni is variously given as "son of my sorrow" or "alas, my son"
- Benoni Smith, son of Henry & Mary (Adams) Smith b. 20 Feb. 1724/5, his mother died 23 Feb. 1724/5.
- Benoni Clark, son of Capt. William & Hannah (Strong) Clark b. 31 Jan. 1693/4, his mother died 11 Feb. 1693/4.
- Benoni Grover was the first of 10 children, so there was no apparent reason for the name, but further research uncovered the reason.
- 21 cases of the name appear when the mother died at birth or shortly thereafter, this was the last child of the mother.
- 15 cases the father had died before the child was born.
- 5 cases the child was illegitimate or conceived before the parents married - this was the case for Benoni Grover mentioned above
- 22 cases the child died shortly after birth
- 12 cases the child was named for a male family member - father, grandfather or uncle
- 7 cases do not fit the pattern, there seems to be no reason for their being so named,
Sanborn, Melinde. Great Migration Diary, Nexus, Vol. XIV, No. 6.
In the barn, I settle down in front of the computer to contemplate the fate of Francis Bushnell. My original notes, taken from Pope and Savage, say that he died in Ten Hills - he went to Norwalk - he lived in Salem - he lived in Boston. Quite a case of wanderlust for someone who died within a year of arrival. His wife, Mary, and daughter, Martha, sail on the plants with him, but once he is here the wife / widow becomes Martha and the daughter Mary. Scribal error. Savage has him cut up into several different people. Both compilers have errors in their dates. I check Boston and Salem records. Francis receives land in Boston in 1635. A year later, "Widow Bushnell" receives a houselot. "upon the usual condition of inoffensive carriage." Widow Martha has her daughter, Mary, baptised in Boston.
The sketch begins to shape up. Then it starts to get weird. Francis is admitted an inhabitant of Salem several months after "widow Martha" has Mary baptised. O.K. . . . I sharpen my critical pencil and rustle up a sweeping condemnation of foolish town officials who cannot stay abreast of the comings and goings of their own residents. Torrey says Ferris and Bartlett and several others have tackled the problem. I look at Dawes-Gates and find the Francis there unrecognizable. In the Bibliographic Notes section I mention that over a century of research included some erroneous reports. But now I m not so sure.
Let's prove when Francis died. Ten Hills is part of what later becomes Medford. The date is very early, 1636. No more second-hand stuff, I need a contemporary account. No probate; no General Court entry. Six sturdy black books beckon to me from across the barn. The Winthrop Papers would cover that period. (--?--) Bushnell, Edmund Bushnell, and Mrs. Bushnell are listed in the index, but the dates are right. "I went to Tenhils this morning with your mother and your wife to have seen Goodman Bushnell: but the Lord had taken him away half an hour before we came there," Winthrop writes to his son [WP3:240]. Can't do much better than this 1636 eye-witness account.
I begin to get it. The Edmund Bushnell entries make it clear who was at Ten Hills. Philip Nye wrote to John Winthrop Jr. from London in September 1635 saying "You have one Edward Bushnell the bearer hereof a godly many and so is his wife a gracious woman. I would entreat you to take a special notice of him as a man you may both for his parts and piety trust in your weightiest affairs . . . the better you know him the more useful you will judge him" [WP3:211]
Robert Anderson produces a photocopy of J. Gardner Bartlett's Ancestry of Daniel Bushnell. It is all here. English origin, Edmund's wife Martha, and daughter Mary. This is the family in Boston. No scribal error. Edmund is the "goodman Bushnell" dying in Ten Hills. No foolish town officials this time. Francis really was alive to be admitted an inhabitant of Salem. I look at Dawes-Gates again, and now I recognize the Francis Bushnell who became a deacon at Saybrook and died in 1681, the same Francis who had a wife, Mary and a daughter Martha.
And I was having such a good time trashing everyone who got it wrong! Thank you, J. Gardner Bartlett. It was so easy to whitewash the discrepancies, and so much for critical review!
We will meet our Bushnells in generation 11.
Saxbe, William. Family History or Family Myth? Separating Fact from Folklore: A Short Case-Study, Nexus, Vol. XV, No. 2.
Every family has oral traditions, be they cherished sources of pride or shameful guarded secrets. These can be heroic, comic, tragic or exotic: examples range from royal origins and Revolutionary service to blighted romance and horse-theft. The following study concerns an 18th century murder. Although the crime was notorious enough at the time to generate reliable reports, over the next two hundred years the local recollection of the event created a more lurid crime, produced two rival sets of survivors, and even altered the identity of the victim.
The family of James & Susannah (Inman) Walling moved from Rhode Island to the New York/New Jersey border in the late 1740s. In 1758 during the French & Indian War, Indians attacked the farm where Susannah, a widow lived with her children:
. . . on Thursday last the Daughter of the Widow Walling, living near Fort Gardner, between Goshen [N.Y.] and Minisink, going out to pick up Chips for the Fire, was shot at by three Indians, and her Shrieks alarming the House, her Brother looked out at the Garret Window, when seeing the Fellows dispatching and scalping his Sister, he fired at them, and is certain to have wounded one of them. The old Woman and her other daughter during this made their Escape, and the Son likewise got off clear.
This seems fairly straightforward; 4 members of the family were at the house, a daughter was killed, and the other three escaped. The widow Walling was 58 and was still living in 1779. The ages of the others is unclear, the children, probably young adults. Two other contemporary accounts exist, one giving the name of the victim as Mary Willing [sic].
Later "standard" regional & county histories report:
. . . the settlement was attacked by Indians. The mother [Patience (Walling) Masters], with her child [Elizabeth Masters, later Horton] in her arms, fled, and made her way to a place of safety, just before being taken by the Indians. [The] mother's sister, Mary Walling, was seized by them; and killed and scalped. [The] grandmother, Susan Walling, in making her way through the swamps, sank in the mire and mud. The Indians passed within a few feet of her, but did not discover her. She was found by her friends after the Indians left, and extricated almost dead, having remained in the mud almost one whole day.
This has changed somewhat from the earlier story. A different cast of characters. In 1908 the story came out as:
The murder of widow Walling in 1758 was mentioned in the Philadelphia Gazette and in New York papers in that year and made a profound impression throughout the colonies.
Now it is the mother, not the daughter who was murdered. Some years later, it became apparent that different branches of the family had passed down different versions of the tale.
Some general advice on how to deal with oral traditions:
- be skeptical about improbable family legends. Do not exclude them from your history, but do not present them as fact unless supported by corroborating evidence. Collect all versions of the story, both written and oral, and identify each as accurately as possible as to origin, date and provenance.
- seek the earliest possible account of the event, ideally a contemporary primary account. Look for newspaper accounts, manuscripts, letters, diaries, local histories.
- don't muddy the waters further - resist the temptation to "correct" or flesh out a confused or confusing story.
- try to narrow the time frame and location in which the event took place. It is not uncommon for stories to be assigned to the wrong place, individual, generation, or family line.
- if the stories are linked with an artifact such as a photograph, portrait, garment, or antique, dating the artifact may help to date the story.
- when you write your family history, use primary sources as much as possible. When secondary sources must be used, select the earliest ones you can find. Cite those sources diligently.
Schweitzer, Georg. German Genealogical Research Presentation at Kansas Council of Genealogical Societies, 1995
Locating your ancestor - important to find place of origin in Germany using
- Bible records
- census
- obituaries
- county historie
German records -
- Catholic & Lutheran parish records from 1563
- reformed church records from 1650
- civil registers ca. 1792
- provincial archives
- city archives
Simons, Brenton & Michael Leclerc. Keep in Mind that Black Sheep are People, Too, Ancestry, Sept./Oct. 2005.
Not all scurrilous individuals were tried in court. But the society our ancestors lived in was often very gossipy, and as such many other records exist to help in finding a black sheep ancestor's story. The source was rarely impartial.
- Newspapers
- Historical journals
- Genealogical journals
- Autobiographies
Researching the antics of a black sheep ancestor can provide a welcome respite from comparatively drab lists of dates and places of vital events.
Skinner, Mary. Onomastics: Some Biblical & Literary Examples, Nexus, Vol. XI, No. 1
For some years I have been interested in unusual given names and what they can tell us about the families and places in which they were used.
Timothy & Beula (--?--) Blackman of Ripton, Connecticut named their children born between 1736 and 1761:
- Huldah - important prophetess living in Jerusalem during King Josiah's reign ca. 622 BC. Her husband Shallum was keeper of the king's wardrobe. Temple renovations revealed a "book of law" of God's commandments which were being ignored. She was asked to determine the extent of God's wrath and gave very harsh predictions, 2 Kings 22:14. The name was hardly used for its intrinsic meaning: Huldah means weasel in Hebrew.
- Asahel - 2 Samuel 2:18 And there were three sons of Zeruiah there, Joab, and Abishai, and Asahel: and Asahel was as light of foot as a wild roe. Nephews of King David and commanders of his army. Of the three Asahel was the most popular in New England. He was killed by Saul's general Abner. Joab later took revenge by murdering Abner.
- Zadock - 9 people called Zadock in the Bible, most passages refer to one of the two high priests during King David's reign. Popularity of the name in colonial New England probably reflects this priestly status.
- Timothy Jr. - the name means honoring God in the Greek. He was a young disciple and companion of St. Paul in the new testament. Paul sends Timothy on a mission trip to Macedonia and later went with Paul into Asia.
- Abel - son of Adam & Eve, killed by his brother Cain. Another source of the name is the surname Abel / Abell. The name was popular well into the 19th century.
- Benjamin
- Diantha - sounds much like Diana, Roman equivalent of the Greek Artemis, virgin goddess of woodlands, hunting and the moon. Very likely Diantha is a name like Pamela or Clarissa, both coined by English novelist Samuel Richardson as names for heroines of his best-selling books of the same names. Many female names in novels of this period were influenced in turn by pastoral poetry. If many Dianthas appear within only a few years, the publication date of a likely source can be guessed.
- Jehiel - a three-syllable name that rhymes with denial, brings us to the confusing situation of men's names beginning with J, the most popular initial letter. Most of these J names consist of references to the Deity, such as "God is this" or "may God do that." Jehiel = God Lives There are 11 people in the Bible with this name, not one of whom seems remarkable. It is surmised that this name was used for it's literal meaning.
- Beulah - the mother - the one Biblical reference to Beulah is part of a lengthy prophecy concerning the future happiness of the children of Israel. Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate: but thou shalt be called Hephzibah, and thy land Beulah: for the Lord delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married. Isaiah 62:4. Hephzibah translates to "my delight is in her" and Beulah to "married." An actual Hephzibah, mother of King Manasseh, is mentioned in 2 Kings 21:1, but there is no one in the Bible named Beulah. John Bunyan describes Beulah land in Pilgrim's Progress a book popular in New England.
Another name to be studied:
- Abigail - wife of David provided a role model of feminine virtues of service, faithfulness, abundance & obedience. Her first husband Nabal was struck down by God for refusing to help David and his men. 1 Samuel 25. Abigail was among the most popular names in the American colonies.
The standard reference work in this field is E.G. Withycombe, The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names, 1988. Shows when English names come into common usage through the 18th century.
There is some good information on American usages in George Stewart, American Given Names: Their Origin & History in the Context of the English Language, 1979.
Notebook - General Stuff No. 2, Part 3
Notebook - General Stuff No. 2, Part 3
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