Bad citations

Do you have older source citations in your tree that your high school English teacher would yell at you about? Do you have source citations in your tree that even you can't use to locate the information?

I don't know about you, but I have such sources in my tree. As I'm reviewing my Crawford research, I'm finding those source citations.

Most of these HORRIBLE citations came from my early days of research when citation standards were just being developed.

1815 Guthrie Patent

189 141

Examined & Sent May 22d 1815

James Madison, President of the United States of America
To all to whom these presents shall come, Greeting:

Know Ye, that William B Guthrie of Clark County Ind. Territory

Eliza Part 2

As discussed in my recent post, Duplicate or Different, I followed up on a 'notice of change' message to discover two Eliza Van Valkenbergs on Family Search. By looking at the differences between the two women, I discovered some clues that led to more information in Eliza.

One of those clues was the differing death dates for Eliza. In one case, the death date was given as between 1920 and 1930. I'm sure this was due to not finding Eliza in records.

The other Eliza had a death date of 1943 listed. Knowing that Eliza had been married several times, I suspected that a different surname was contributing to the difficulty in finding records. When I searched Newspapers.com for the term Eliza in 1943 in St. Joseph, Missouri, I found a notice of her death.

Duplicate or Different?

Do you ever check out someone else's tree to see if they have something that disagrees with what you have? I know I'm usually looking for confirmation, but I appreciate seeing conflicting information. That conflicting information makes me re-look at what I have and to look harder for additional sources to support what I have.

That's likely one of the reasons I work with the tree on FamilySearch. On this tree, I can look at the changes made to an individual. If those changes differ from information I have compiled, I can message the user making the changes and/or post a discussion about the change.

Thus, I utilize the 'watch' button to mark individuals I'm researching. Not only have I marked my ancestors to 'watch' but I've also marked other individuals in my research that I'm having trouble finding sources. Each week, I get notified of changes to those 'watched' individuals.

This morning's notification list included Eliza Honor Van Valkenburg, the second wife of my ancestor, Albert J Hutchinson. That's when I discovered that there are TWO of them in the Family Search tree.

Since I haven't found birth or death information for her, I have no idea which  Honor Van Valkenburg is the correct one. However, I do believe that these are the same women and that they are the same person I have in my database as Eliza Honor Van Valkenberg.

Pioneer Women Jefferson County, Indiana

Anderson, Rebecca, d/o John Anderson, native of NY and Anne Irvine, was born at Augusta Parish, VA , m. 1st R. John Maxwell, 2nd James Crawford, located in Jeff. Co. IN prior to 1830

rawford, Mary (Polly) d/o James and Rebecca Anderson Crawford, b. in Garrard Co. KY May 28, 1786, m. William Brown Guthrie, Apr. 6, 1809; came to Jeff. Co. soon after marriage; had 11 children. She d. July 18, 1834 and she and her husband are buried at Hanover. Her husband was called to fight Indians in 1812 and she walked 12 miles carrying her baby, Anderson Crawford Guthrie, who was born Apr. 22, 1811 and her companion, a boy age 12, carried an older child, James Guthrie. They walked to the block house near the Francisco farm. Her ancestors served in the Rev. War.

Crawford, Betsey, d/o James & Rebecca A. Crawford, b. in 1792, m. in Mar, 1812 to Beverly Vawter of Woodford Co. KY, a minister of the Christian Ch.

Source:
Melish Mrs. Charles, Pioneer Women (www.jeffersoncountylocalhistory.org/fampioneerwomen : viewed online May 2019), Crawford.

1824 Patent 1153

Bureau of Land Management
Patent No 1153


The United States of America
To all to whome these presents shall come, Greeting

Whereas William B Guthrie of Jefferson County, Indiana
has deposited in the General Land Office of the United States, a certificate of the Register of the Land Office at Terre Haute State of Indiana
whereby it appears that full payment has been made by the said William B Guthrie
according to the provisions of the Act of Congress of the 24th of April, 1820, entitle “An act making further provision for the sale of the Public Lands,” for

1824 Patent 1152

142
Certificate No. 1152 Exc

The United States of America

To all to whom these presents shall come, Greeting:

Whereas William B. Guthrie of Jefferson County, Indiana
has deposited in the General Land office of the United States, a certificate of the Register of the Land Office at Terre Haute, State of Indiana
whereby it appears that full payment has been made by the said William B Guthrie
according to the provisions of the Act of Congress of the 24th of April, 1820, entitled “An act making further provision for the sale of the Public Lands,” for
The East fraction of the South West quarter of section thirty one in Township nineteen North of Range
three West in the District of Terre Haute and State of Indiana containing eighty acres.