Time for Saturday Night Genealogy Fun

Saturday Night 

Time for more Genealogy Fun! 

Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible! music) is to:

1)  What was your best research achievement in 2018?  Tell us - show us a document, or tell us a story, or display a photograph.  Brag a bit!  You've earned it!

2)  We all have elusive ancestors.  What research problem do you want to work on in 2019?  Tell us where you want to research and what you hope to find.


Well, it is actually Sunday afternoon, but I thought I'd accept the challenge.

I think my best research achievement for 2018 would be finding evidence to support a story my grandmother Briles told me about her grandfather. According to my grandmother, her grandfather got involved in a creamery and 'lost his shirt'.  I wrote about finding newspaper articles about a court case referred to as the creamery mess  involving George Mentzer in my previous blog, Creamery Mess.

Upon further research, I found quite a few newspaper articles about the Yates Center Creamery. I also found two court transcripts related to the case. Those newspapers articles and the court transcripts were transcribed in my blog post, Creamery Mess Part 2.

Is It Fake News?

Have you ever heard anything that sounded too good to be true? Have you ever believed something to only find out that Snopes.com says it is false? I know I have -- both in my Facebook timeline and in my genealogy.

Thus, when I saw that there were parents for my ancestor, James Crawford on Family Search, I so wanted to jump up and down with joy. Not only are the parents identified, but so are the siblings.

Firsts

We often tend to remember major 'firsts' in our lives: first date, first kiss, first car, first house, etc. Unfortunately, when it comes to genealogy, I don't remember the first ancestor I researched. However, I do remember other genealogy 'firsts'.

My start in family history research began with a discussion in my grandmother's living room. She made the comment that she would like to know more about her grandmother, especially where she was buried.

I don't remember much else from that initial visit. However, my memory says that after my visit with my grandmother in Dodge City, I traveled to Phillipsburg to visit my in-laws. During this visit, my mother-in-law became my first mentor. She explained how to create a pedigree chart and how to fill out a family group sheet.

DNA Heritage and Challenge

During a recent visit with some old friends, the discussion turned to genealogy and DNA. Expecting an answer regarding ethnicity, they asked where my family comes from.  My immediate response was KENTUCKY.

Perhaps this quick answer was due to my recent THOMPSON research in Ohio County, Kentucky. The more likely reason is that a lot of ancestral lines seem to go thru Kentucky. (or New York). My brother's migration map from his Ancestry DNA test illustrates our heritage.

A Look Back

Thanks to other geneabloggers, I have recorded statistics for both my RootsMagic tree and my Ancestry tree over the past year.

Roots Magic Tree

Heartland Genealogy Tree on Ancestry

The numbers are 'nice' but for me to understand whether I have made progress, I have to compare them to where I was on January 1, 2018.

Nettie Adell Wells

Nettie Adell Wells was born on 5 Feb 1873 in Woodson, Kansas, United States.^1–18 She lived in Liberty Township, Woodson, Kansas, United States on 1 Jul 1875.¹⁹ She was found on the 1875 Kansas census as a 13 year old female and was listed as Nettie Wells. She lived in Liberty, Woodson, Kansas, USA on 1 Mar 1885.²⁰

Nettie Adell Wells and Charles Oliver Mentzer were married on 18 Oct 1893 in Yates Center, Woodson, Kansas, United States.^{2,7–10,12,21,33–55}
She lived in North Township, Woodson, Kansas, United States on 1 Jul 1895.²² She was found on the 1895 Kansas census as a 21 year old female born IN who came to Kansas from Ind and was listed as L.O. Mentzer.

Narrative Reports

Do you ever take the 'easy way' to do something? Well, I do all of the time when it comes to writing about an ancestor. For quite a few years, I've been letting my genealogy software compose the narrative.

I first learned to take advantage of turning the events into sentences and thus into a narrative while using The Master Genealogist. Second Site software would take my genealogy data in TMG and turn it into a narrated web site.