Heartland Genealogy

One of the best parts of attending genealogy society meetings is discovering new research tools. I recently attended a meeting of the Brown County Genealogy Society (Kansas) where Cindy Cruz of the Topeka Genealogical Society presented an excellent program on using newspapers for genealogy research. During her presentation, she recommended the Library of Congress'  U.S. Newspaper Directory  as a way to identify newspapers that were published in a particular community. The directory is an outstanding resource when you're trying to answer questions such as: What newspapers were published in this town? When were they published? Where are copies known to exist? Knowing that a newspaper existed is often the first step toward finding an obituary, marriage notice, legal advertisement, or local news item about an ancestor. Looking Beyond the Directory While I have used the Library of Congress directory in the past, my own workflow has gradually evolv...

Here's a smoother version that keeps your conversational style while improving the flow and readability. Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: It's  Saturday Night  again— time for some more  Genealogy Fun!! Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the  Mission Impossible  music, please!): 1)  Did your family go on vacation? Describe one or more vacations you took with your birth family or later with your spouse and children. While my husband and I haven't taken an  annual  vacation every year, we've been fortunate to travel to many parts of the United States. Some trips were purely for sightseeing, while others combined family history research with travel. Our travels have taken us to: Rocky Mountain National Park, Dinosaur National Monument, Lake Tahoe, Yosemite National Park, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Hoover Dam, Zion National Park, and Colorado Springs Following the Oregon Trail to Portland...

One of the most valuable genealogical sources is the family Bible. Long before the widespread registration of births, marriages, and deaths, families often recorded important events in their Bibles. These records can preserve information that may not survive elsewhere. Recently, I obtained a transcription of a Graves family Bible record that documents several generations of the Graves and Pate families of Virginia and Tennessee. After reviewing the information, I added the Bible as a source in my RootsMagic database and used TreeShare to update the information in my Ancestry tree. I also attached the Bible record to several individuals on FamilySearch, including Easom Graves, Beamon Graves, and a number of Beamon's descendants. The Bible record contains information on my Graves line and extends the family back into Virginia before the move to Tennessee. According to the Bible: Beamon Graves was the son of Easom Graves and Judith Parrott of Halifax County, Virginia...

Following a Wells Family Tombstone Trail in Genesee County, New York One of the realities of genealogy is that not every discovery leads to your own family. Sometimes the real value lies in following the clue far enough to determine that it belongs to someone else. This week’s Monday’s Diggings began with a search for  WELLS family records in Genesee County, New York . Since my Wells family spent time in New York before migrating west, I’m always interested in records that mention the surname. That search led me to  Tombstone Inscriptions from the Abandoned Cemeteries and Farm Burials of Genesee County , c ompiled by  LaVerne C. Cooley  in 1952 and available digitally through the FamilySearch Digital Library. A quick check of the surname index revealed several Wells entries. Transit Road Cemetery The first Wells entries were found in the  Transit Road Cemetery : Ebenezer Wells , died 3 September 1852, aged 69 years Rachael Wells , wife of ...

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun -- Memories of the Bicentennial -- 4 July 1976 Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: It's Saturday Night again — time for some more Genealogy Fun!! Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the  Mission Impossible  music, please!): How did you observe or celebrate the Bicentennial of America's Founding on 4 July 1976? What were you doing on that day? Did you or your family attend any special events to mark America's 200th birthday? Unfortunately, I don't specifically remember how my family celebrated the Fourth of July in 1976. What I do remember from that summer, however, was a unique event that brought our community together. Seneca, Kansas, was one of the stops on the 1976 Olympic Torch Relay as the flame made its way across the United States on its journey to the Summer Olympics in Montreal. In keeping with the region's history, the torch was carried across northeast Kansas by Pony Express ...

Do you track the religion of your ancestors? Religion is one of those items that often appears on genealogy research checklists, but it isn’t a fact I’ve spent much time actively documenting. That changed while I was working on the ABC Biography project for my second great-grandmother,  Sarah Ellen (Ralston) Hammond . As I reviewed her obituary, I noticed that her funeral was held in the Presbyterian church. Evidently, I had overlooked that detail when I first obtained the obituary years ago. That small discovery solved a childhood mystery. I remember my grandfather mentioning that  his family  attended the Presbyterian church, but as a child, I could never figure out which side of the family he meant. Now I realize he was referring to his grandmother, Sarah Ellen Ralston Hammond, and likely the Ralston branch of the family. That discovery made me curious:  what religious affiliations appear throughout my family tree? Religion can be more tha...

Do you have items tucked away in your files that lack solid source citations? I certainly do—and this document from my Crawford Kentucky file is one of them. Based on my notation “KY Archives,” I believe I obtained this record at the Kentucky Archives. However, beyond that brief note, the details are frustratingly sparse. While the document clearly relates to a court case, I have not yet been able to locate the original record using FamilySearch’s full-text search. For now, it remains a source without a fully identified citation. The mystery doesn’t end there. I also cannot say with certainty who the individuals in the document are. The surname “Crofford” is almost certainly “Crawford,” and “McPeters” may well be a variation of “McPheeters.” If those assumptions are correct, both men could trace their roots back to families in Augusta County, Virginia—a connection worth further investigation. For now, this record sits in that all-too-familiar category: intriguing, suggesti...

Department of the Interior Bureau of Pensions Richomond F Hammond Bellflower Cal 118839 Act May Stamped APR 12 1915 / JUN 16 1915 No. 1. Date nd place of birth? Answer. Licking Co Ohio The name of organizations in which you served? Answer. E Co 17 Ills Infy - IL Company 14 Ills Cav no. 2. What was your post office at enlistment? Answer. Galesburg Illinois No. 3. State your wife's full name and her maiden name. Answer. Mary A Hammond (Reynolds) No. 4. When, where and by whom were you married? Answer. Oct 29 1906 at Kinglsey Kas by Probate Judge No. 5. Is there any official or church record of your marriage? No If so, where? Answer. At probate judges offise Kinsly Kas No. 6. Were you previously married? If so, state the name of your former wife, the date of the marriage and the date and place of her death or divorce. If there was more than one previous marriage, let your answer include all former wives. Answer. Yes. First wife Sarah E Rals...

In 1806, Rachel Currey married Samuel Colver in Champaign County Ohio. Rachel and Samuel had five children: Abigail, Sarah, Samuel, Rachel and Hiram. Sarah married Lyman Konkrite in 1827. By 1860 the Konkrites had migrated to Texas where Sarah died in 1874. Rachel married Robert Wilson in 1833 and moved to Illinois. Samuel married Huldah Callender in Logan County Ohio in 1843. Prior to his marriage, Samuel was in Texas where he served as a Texas Ranger under Colonel Edward Burleson. Hiram married Mariah Ward in 1841 in Madison County, Ohio. In 1849, Samuel and Hiram had moved with their families to St. Joseph, Missouri where they were preparing to move to Oregon. In a letter dated in November (year not specified), Hiram writes his parents about their stay in St. Joseph and the desire to move west. Samuel added a note at the end of this letter. According to their respective land claims, Samuel and Hiram arrived in Oregon in 1850. The two families settled in Jackson County Oregon. I...

Do you start listening to Christmas music around the end of October or do you wait until closer to Christmas to enjoy the seasonal music? This week, Randy Seaver challenged us to name our favorite Christmas song in his weekly, Saturday Night Genealogy Fun post. I'm not going to follow the rules. Instead of just talking about one favorite, I'm going to discuss several songs. My all time favorite Christmas song is O Holy Night. I think one of the reasons this is my favorite is that I loved to play it on the piano. Many different artists have excellent renditions of this song. However, my favorite rendition was one that I was privileged to witness on Christmas Eve five years ago at The Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas. My husband and I were ushering that evening. Thus, it wasn't until towards the end of the song, that I could just stand there and soak in the beauty of the song. It wasn't until later that evening that I learned the story of the singer, C...

Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the Mission Impossible music, please!): 1)  Thinking about your direct ancestors back through 2nd great-grandparents - in other words, ancestors #2 to #31 on your pedigree chart - how many children did they have?  How many lived long enough to marry?  How many died before age 10? 2)  Tell us all about it in a blog post of your own, in comments on this blog post, or in a post on Facebook.  Be sure to link to them in a comment on this blog post. #4-5: Leon Russel Crawford (1894-1976) and Winnie Letha Currey (1903-1992) - had three children, 2 males and 1 female with only 1 male who married #6-7: Edward Osmond Briles (1891-1956) and Pauline Edith Mentzer (1896-1984) - had five children with 1 male dying young and 1 male and 3 female marrying #8-9: Judson Foster Crawford (1866-1949) and Josie Winifred Hammond (1874-1954) - had 7 children with 1 male dying as a young adult and 2 males and 4 females marrying #10-11...

Have you heard about Ancestor DNA Projects on GedMatch? Don't feel bad if you haven't. I first heard about them last month when a member of the Clan Crawford group on Facebook posted about it. Several members of the Clan Crawford Facebook group are trying to get a Crawford Ancestor Project started. However, they need FIFTY Crawford researchers to agree to participate to get the project established. If you are a Crawford researcher who has uploaded your DNA to GedMatch, then please consider participating in the project. To join the project, one must first be a member of the Clan Crawford Association Ancestry & DNA Research Forum on Facebook. If you are on Facebook, then you may submit a request to join the  Clan Crawford Association Ancestry & DNA Research Forum . This is a great group that discusses Crawford DNA and/or Crawford Research. Once your membership in the Clan Crawford Association Ancestry & DNA Research Forum, you can use the search box ...

Who Am I? Daughter, Sister, Aunt, Great-Aunt, Friend Kansan - Resident of Seneca, Kansas Retired teacher, library and technology coordinator Long time genealogist Person behind 'Heartland Genealogy' Blogger Methodist Volunteer Contrary to the perception of some, I do not make any type of financial benefit from my work with genealogy. The only 'profit' I make from my activities is the personal connections I make. Since retirement, the vast majority of my online presence revolves around the research of my family history.