Media Issues

Have you seen DearMyrtle's challenge?

When I first saw the challenge, I thought I should be in pretty good shape. After all, I scanned the family photos and attached them in my The Master Genealogist software several years ago. Since I've worked my way thru 5 generations of data review, I figured I should be set.

That was until yesterday when I was verifying descendants for a thru-lines DNA match on Ancestry. As I was working with a known first cousin twice removed, I decided to check FamilySearch to see if there were any additional sources attached to this cousin.

To my surprise, I found a slightly different set of parents than expected. I expected to find John Frederick Mentzer and Anna Wells Mentzer as the parents of a family of 8 children, including Mildred Mabel Mentzer. Instead, I found Fred Mentzer and Anna Wells Mentzer as the parents of one child, Mildred Mentzer. After digging thru my Mentzer records to verify that John and Anna did have a daughter named Mildred and that said daughter was married to a VanValkenburg, I merged Mildred and the two sets of parents.

Knowing that someone could object to this merger and undo the merge, I wanted to add supporting documentation to support the merge. Thus, I (thought I) added an image of the obituary for Fred Mentzer. The obituary clearly indicated that Fred Mentzer was also known as John Frederick Mentzer. It also listed the children and their residency at the time of Fred's death. I also added a page from a Woodson County Historical Society publication that included a picture of the family when the children were young and a list of the children and their spouses.

Since my attempt to create an image of the obituary from a PDF file, did not include the entire obituary that attempt was a failure. Thankfully, I discovered the problem and have since uploaded an image showing the entire obituary.

Will of Beverly Vawter

Jefferson County
Will Record B
Mar 1872-Jul 1884
Page 15 (Image 37)

Will of Beverly Vawter

James Maxwell Crawford

James Maxwell Crawford¹ was born on 3 Mar 1790 in Garrard, Kentucky, United States.^1–4 He was the child of .⁵

     He signed a petition asking for a division of roads on 14 Oct 1811 in Jefferson, Indiana Territory, United States.⁶

     James purchased land being of the NE qr of section 29 in township no 4 north of range no ten east on 7 Apr 1826 in Jefferson, Indiana, United States.⁷ He lived in Jefferson, Indiana, United States on 1 Jul 1830.⁸

     He sold land being 136 acres to the county for the purpose of creating an asylum for the poor on 25 Feb 1833 in Jefferson, Indiana, United States.⁹

     James  purchased land being O T Madison Lot 51 for $1800 from Chas W. Basnett on 30 Oct 1846 in Jefferson, Indiana, United States.¹⁰

     He lived as a 60 year old male born in Kentucky who was listed as James M Crawford in Clay Township, Decatur, Indiana, United States on 11 Sep 1850.¹¹

     He died on 13 Oct 1856 at the age of 66.⁴  James was an Elder and Lay Preacher for the Indiana Conference of the Methodist Church in Indiana, United States.⁴

Light Bulb Find

Do you get 'light bulb' hints? Since I have my RootsMagic software connected to my Ancestry tree, I get a yellow 'light bulb' next to someone's name whenever there is a new Ancestry hint.

When I opened the software today, I had several of those hints sprinkled thru the first 5 generations of my tree. One of those light bulbs was for my great-great grandmother, Mary Foster Crawford.

That 'hint' was a link to a 'story' posted by another researcher. That story appears to be an obituary clipping from an unknown source.

DNA Haplogroup

Thanks to some updates to the yDNA test I manage, my Crawford line (James Crawford - born 1772, died 1854) has been assigned a new Haplogroup: R-A13336. Previously, we had been grouped in the larger R-M269 Haplogroup. According to a Crawford project administrator, I also share the Y30725 terminal SNP with another match. It is my understanding that work is still being done to determine which is older: the A13336 or the Y30725.

Database and Colors

Do you think of your genealogy research as a tree or a database? I realize many people fall into the 'tree' group, but I am in the 'database' group.

Because I think of my data as a database, I want computer software to manage that data versus only using an online tree. I use RootsMagic to manage my database. You might say, 'but that's family tree software' and I would say you are correct. RootsMagic is great software to manage family tree based research.

However, I don't just research my tree, I research their FAN club (Friends Associates and Neighbors) as well as potential lines. And all of this research ultimately ends up in my RootsMagic file. Since this is one fairly large database, I have to have a way to visually keep track of the various lines in my research.

That's where the color coding feature in RootsMagic comes in handy. I started by assigning different colors to various lines of my research.

Besides assigning a color to ancestors along a line, I've also assigned that same color to the descendants on that line. (Note: Living descendants are colored LIME so that I can quickly identify living people.)