Heartland Genealogy

The number one question I've been asked in the last month has been, "How do you like retirement?" Quickly following that question is one wondering what I do with all my time. My answers to the 2 questions are 'loving it' and 'researching my family'. Since they rarely understand that I could spend all of my time working on my family history, I quickly follow my answer up with the fact that I'm volunteering at the Nemaha County Historical Society . For me, researching my family history is like doing a jigsaw puzzle.

Lately, there has been an emphasis on using the FAN club to help break down brick walls. Evidence of this interest is the recent Legacy Family Tree Webinar by Elizabeth Shown Mills titled "FAN + GPS + DNA". Tonight's "Wacky Wednesday" DearMyrtle Hangout is scheduled to discuss this same topic. I've previously used the FAN club principle in my research. However, I did not branch out as much as Ms. Mills suggested in her presentation. Since I have a brick wall in Kentucky prior to 1800, I want to revisit my research and see if I can apply a broader FAN club along with DNA to make some headway on my CRAWFORD line.

My Crawford lineage has always been like putting together a jigsaw puzzle -- trying to figure out how hundreds of pieces fit together. Many years ago, I wrote about dissecting these pieces in order to identify my line. At the time, I identified four James Crawford families that were in the same region of Kentucky prior to 1800. Rev. James Crawford (1752-1803) who married Rebecca McPheeters James Crawford who married Rebecca Anderson James Crawford (1772-1854) who married Sally Duggins in 1799 in Garrard County, KY James Crawford (1770-1833) who married Martha Knight in 1793 in Lincoln County, KY

Have you had your DNA tested? Do you have a family tree linked to your DNA test? If not, please, please, please post a tree! Over half of the 4th-6th cousin matches on my first page of matches either don't have a tree or have a very small (<10 people) tree. Thus, I can't begin to figure out how we are related. I would love to work with you to research our common ancestor -- so please post a tree

They're Gone (At least on the surface) Even though I already had many of these in my RootsMagic database, I elected to tackle these leaves. Some might ask why I am spending so much time on this versus locating new information. As I was doing this I found that I could double-check my data (i.e. a Go Over) convert my citations from the format I used in Master Genealogist to current standards add images to the citations Besides updating my data, I found that several of these 'shaky leaves' actually led to sources that I didn't realize existed.  Unfortunately, I probably have quite a few more shaky leaves to tackle since I have descendants for at least a generation or two for each of my ancestors. Thus, there are a lot of people waiting for me to look at their screen and confirm or ignore each 'shaky leaf'.

There's a picture floating around Facebook that is labeled as Stull, Kansas showing damage from this morning's earthquake. According to comments on FB, this is not a picture from Stull, Kansas since the community is too small to have the buildings and roadways in the picture. A quick Wikipedia search verifies that Stull is indeed a very small community. Just remember -- not everything is true!  Check it out thru valid sources!

Did you feel it? That is the question of the morning across Kansas as a 5.6 magnitude earthquake struck in Northern Oklahoma. The event happened shortly after 7 am and social media became the quick source for the answer to the question -- did I actually feel an earthquake. The hashtag #earthquake is still in the top trending spot on Twitter over two hours later. Even though I love Twitter for quick information, I know that I have to sift thru the tweets to find the facts. This is like 'panning for gold'. One has to evaluate the source behind the tweet to pull out those golden nuggets of truth. For me, I tend to pay attention to the news reports from the area of the event versus national news. I prefer reports that are based on interviews or eye witness accounts. Thus, I gravitate to the local news outlets to see their reports. Since these reports incorporate personal experiences -- i.e. primary information -- they are the GOLD. Another example of GOLD (primary inform...

I received an email from Ancestry today concerning a DNA match on my CURREY line. For several of my branches, I haven't been able to find direct evidence of a lineage. Instead, I've had to accumulate enough indirect evidence to convince others that I have the relationships in a family line correct. For my CURREY line, this has been the case. I'm working with FOUR generations of Hiram M. Curreys, starting with my great-grandfather Hiram Miles Currey (1866-1943) and going back potentially to the 1820 treasurer of the state of Ohio, Hiram Mirick Currey (potentially my 4th great-grandfather). When I tested my DNA a year ago, I had high hopes of matching a known descendant of Hiram Mirick CURREY. Today, I now have a 16.5 centimorgan match with a sixth cousin one generation removed. Now it is time to learn to write a proof argument!

Finis! I've managed to combine event data from SIX different lines: James Crawford and Sally Smith Duggins (mine - names in blue) James Crawford and Martha Knight (Knight - names in green) James Crawford and Rebecca Anderson (Anderson - names in brown) Alexander Crawford and Mary McPheeters (McPheeters - names in red) William N. Crawford (WilliamN - names in purple) Nathaniel Sellers (Sellers - names in dark yellow) Besides color coding the names, I color coded the four major counties for my branch: Garrard County, Kentucky -- shaded with lime green Preble County, Ohio -- shaded with yellow Warren County, Indiana -- shaded with bright blue Ford County, Kansas -- shaded with orange   Recent DNA tests are shedding more light on potential connections: yDNA indicates probably relationship to William N. Crawford  yDNA indicates my Crawford line may connect to the McPheeters line somehow a Sellers researcher believes I share DNA with SELLERS descendants...

The results from recent DNA tests -- particularly the yDNA -- are pushing me to re-evaluate my CRAWFORD cluster research. Most of this research is pre-Internet and pre-Excel (remember AppleWorks and Microsoft Works?) However, I want to utilize the power of a spreadsheet to hopefully provide a fresh look at the data. Thus, I turned to the Internet for ideas on how to proceed. I found the blog, Cluster Genealogy Research , by Gus Marsh that provided background on the research process. This blog provided hints on where else to look for data for my cluster. Looking around at what others have done, I found the blog post, Timeline Template - How to Create a Timeline in Exel by Jon Wittwer. Not only does this blog offer a pre-packaged template for a reasonable price, it also includes the step-by-step instructions for the do-it-yourself-er. I would like to create this type of timeline -- especially for family reunion -- but I'm not sure it will work for my Cluster data. Still on the...

For some, DNA is all about their ethnicity. For me, it is all about finding actual cousins. I'm not just looking for that 7 cM of common DNA but for much longer pieces -- my cousins. Recently, I discovered that a little work on my part could improve my results on AncestryDNA . I found if I quit ignoring those green leaves (called 'shaky leaves' by some) and actually worked to confirm the hints, the number of 'shared matches' [shared ancestor hints] would increase. When I posted about this on the 11th, my DNA circles hadn't really changed. However, I now have 16 circles when I had only been seeing about six.

Does anyone remember when Ancestry came out with their 'one tree'? I think it was called 'One World Tree'. The concept sounded fantastic! They would take all of the trees submitted to Ancestry and merge them into this one magical tree -- linking research and researchers together -- and helping us find more ancestors. The problem then was that the computers didn't analyze -- they just lumped. If it looked like the same person -- the computer said it was. For me, the result was that the computer lumped two James Crawfords together that I had spent lots of time to separate -- and had the documentation to prove it. I tried to get them separated but eventually gave up the fight. I'm sure that is why some are leery of the tree on Family Search and perhaps why Wiki tree requires the documentation. Well, my nightmare is returning. This time it is on my Currey (Curry) line where I likely have four generations of the same name: Hiram M. Currey. The problem is with...

Earlier this week, I was contacted by another BRILES researcher who is trying to figure out how a third BRILES fits into our family. She had found me thru DNA matches. Discovering that we both descend from Alexander BRILES , I was puzzled as to why her DNA match wasn't showing on my list of 'shared ancestor hints'. Instead it was buried in my 326 pages of matches. It was also puzzling that I don't have a BRILES circle. Because my Ancestry tree isn't my primary tree, I had uploaded the current version sometime in the last year. I also hadn't gotten very far in dealing with all of the shaky leaves. Although I couldn't find documentation to support this, I wondered if I needed to confirm the exact same hint as another DNA tester in order for them to show on my list of 'shared ancestor hints'. Working on that theory, I decided that I needed to confirm some shaky leaves for my more distant ancestors. Not wanting to risk it not picking up the other t...

My brother's yDNA results came back over the weekend. The matches are interesting and yet mysterious. One of those matches is to a William N. Crawford. So, who is this William Nelson Crawford and how might I be related. On Ancestry, I found two trees with what appears to be the same William Nelson Crawford. Neither tree has any parents identified for William N. Crawford. One tree, has linked two different 1850 census records. One of those records I've seen before and is the household of a James & Martha (Knight) Crawford descendant. This 1850 census record matches the family of William Crawford and Lutitia (Snodgrass) Crawford . This William Crawford is the son of James and Martha (Knight) Crawford. However, I don't have William N. Crawford as a son or grandson of James and Martha. So, is the William N. Crawford in the 1850 census the same William Nelson Crawford who died in Washington? Either way, how does the William N. Crawford in the census ...

Last week, I watched the " Watch Geoff Live: DNA " webinar on Legacy Family TreeWebinars. While watching, I followed along by looking at my autosomal DNA results on Ancestry. I had my DNA tested last summer and had studied some of the results but hadn't found the help with 'brick walls' that I had hoped for. One of the brick walls I've been working on is my James Crawford line. My James Crawford died in Preble County Ohio in 1854. He married Sally Duggins in Garrard County Kentucky in 1799. Sally had previously been married to Alexander Duggins by whom she had two sons: William and Henry. Henry Duggins was married to Jane Sellers, daughter of Nathan Sellers. Nathan A. Sellers was a neighbor of my James Crawford and died in Preble County Ohio in 1824. In early Preble County Ohio, there was a second James Crawford who owned land adjoining my James Crawford. This James Crawford married Martha Knight in 1793 in Lincoln County Kentucky. It is believed that two of...

One of my genealogical challenges is identifying the parents and siblings of my ancestor, James Crawford. James marries Sally Duggins in Garrard County, Kentucky in 1799. By 1810, the couple is living in Preble County Ohio. I've already done some cluster research to try and make headway on this line. In the process, I've identified quite a few potential members of a cluster. In trying to figure out how to track my research, I created a spreadsheet to show where these people were at various times. The above spreadsheet provides a visual of what I currently know. Now the struggle is to create a research plan and figure out how best to track this research. Cluster Surnames Crawford, Duggins, Smith, Knight, Neal, Finley Time Period 1770 to 1850   Locations Preble County Ohio pre-1800 Kentucky  

Michele Simmons Lewis' post, My Latest Excel Spreadsheet , explained what should be a fairly easy spreadsheet to visualize which census data is needed for individuals in the tree. In order to quickly create this spreadsheet, I had to review some skills I've yet to master in RootsMagic, one of those being the creation of a named group . Once I had a named group created for my ancestors, I was able to create a custom report to pull the following fields: Surname, Given Name, Birth Date, Death Date. By saving the report as a text file, I could then open it in Excel. In the comments section of Michele's blog post, JJT (John J Tierney)stated that he had created a similar spreadsheet that would automatically calculate the age of the person for each census year. His post, Simple Census Age Table , discusses this spreadsheet, which he freely shares. So, I downloaded the spreadsheet. (Thanks JJT!) After manipulating my data to pull the year out of the birth and death dates, I...

I first became aware of the term 'Cousin Bait' by viewing the ' Mondays with Myrt ' hangouts. Even though I've been sharing my genealogy for years, I had not heard the term before. The purpose of 'cousin bait' is to locate 'cousins' so you can share research. I've had the good fortune to work with several 'cousins' who were truly willing to critique my research and provide hints and even share documentation. In one case, a cousin in Washington (state) and I were working on her CURREY line and trying to document a death place. She had an obituary indicating that her ancestor, James Barnes Currey (Curry) died in Oregon. Neither one of us could find the family in Oregon and were about to decide the obituary was wrong when we realized that he did die in Oregon -- Oregon, Holt County Missouri. Unfortunately, I often find my research incorporated into someone else's tree without ever contacting me. Many would question how I know it is m...

I'm in the process of filling in holes in my research by looking up census records. One of those holes was the 1940 census for my great-grandfather, Hiram Currey. It didn't really surprise me that I didn't have that record since he moved had moved quite a bit. However, I was surprised when I found the index record for him in the census on Ancestry. Not only was he listed, but he is identified as 'father-in-law'. How did I miss that? Was he living with Aunt Myrtle? Since I already had my grandparent's record for the 1940 census, he couldn't be living with them. Or, could he?  When I checked the page, he was the top entry on the page and there was a note that it was continued from the previous page. Guess who I found on the previous page? My grandparents and family. I had previously found them in the 1940 census. I obviously did not click to check the next page! Lesson learned -- CLICK TO SEE THE NEXT PAGE (and the previous one)

As I devote more time to genealogy, I'm also wanting to rescue the work I did for the Nemaha County Genealogical Society and add it to the re-created web site . A lot of that work was done with Microsoft Works in the database portion of the software. Even though I had a current version of MS Works installed on my computer, I was not able to load these old files. Thus, I was on a search for a way to get them open and export the data so it could be opened with today's software, namely Excel. I tried Zamzar and other cloud file conversion options. None of those I tried would convert the *.wdb files. Thankfully, we haven't done a good job of discarding software because I found a copy of MS Works 7. I had to uninstall my current software in order to install version 7. I cringed a little when it said it required Internet Explorer 6 but, fortunately, the software installed without also installing IE6. Armed with MS Works 7, I am now able to open those old *.wdb files. ...

One of this week's 'Finally Get Organized' tasks involved sources, information and evidence. Ever since making the transition from PAF to The Master Genealogist, I've been working with sources. Although many of my source citations pre-date Evidence Explained by Elizabeth Shown Mills, I have tried to document each piece of information tied to the individuals in my database. I may also have written a ' genealogical proof argument ' during the early days of my research when I wrote the post, ' Untangling the James Crawfords '. Even though I believe what I wrote about the various James Crawford families is accurate, I doubt it would stand up to today's standards. Thus, when challenged to look at sources, information and evidence this week, I took that as a challenge to improve my skills in hopes of bringing them up to the levels of today's genealogical standards. With that in mind, I elected to investigate a place instead of a person. The pla...

One of this week's Finally Get Organized tasks was to celebrate women's history month by entering data for the female ancestors in the first four generations of my tree. I'm very fortunate in that I know who all of these women are. Since family was important to both of my grandmothers, they kept almost anything related to the family. I was fortunate to be able to discuss these things with them -- even though I wish I had asked even more questions during their lifetimes. Josie & Nellie Hammond These women left a legacy that is hard to live up to. My mother left college when she got married but went back after I graduated from college to finish her degree. My mother's mother left the family farm and boarded in Yates Center so she could finish high school. My father's mother lost her mother at the age of 10 and was placed in a children's home for several years. She managed to keep track of her younger siblings who were placed in homes and made sure...

I've tried several scanning apps with my phone. Lately, I've been working with Photomyne . This app allowed me to quickly scan photos from an old photo album of my grandmothers. The app did a good job capturing both the older black and white photos and 'newer' color photos. I also used the Photo Transfer App to quickly move the photos off of my phone and into dropbox for use on my computer. Even though this is a quick easy way to convert these photos to a digital format, there is a downside: all of my images are in jpeg format and not .tiff format.