Inferential Genealogy

As I continue working and learning about family history, I keep feeling like I know less and less. I learn a little more and realize what I lack frequently. I want to keep learning, but I would like to do it more efficiently.

I recently watched a video that opened my eyes to the power of streaming video & *free* online learning. The course description says,

This class explains how family historians can accurately deduce ancestors’ identities and many aspects of their lives by digging below “surface information” in genealogical records and combining information from several sources. Useful in many situations, inferential methodology is especially helpful where records do not state relationships.

Here's the link to the lecture: https://familysearch.org/learningcenter/lesson/inferential-genealogy/251

The episode took quite a while to watch, but I learned so much!

1. Start with a focused research goal.
• My current research objective: Locate the parents and siblings of John Buck who married Barbara Buck in Franklin County, Ohio in 1813.
2. Search broadly - You don't want to miss any important information. Look at every possible record & take each person from birth to death.
• Location: Don't look at just one county or location. Expand the search to surrounding areas. John Buck lived in Pickaway County, Ohio at the time of his death, but Pickaway County was created from Franklin County (and others) in 1810.
• Time: Expand to one generation before and after the ancestor. It takes a lot of research to establish one relationship. Moses Donaldson married Rosy Buck, Franklin County, 17 Oct 1805. Is Rosy Joseph's sister? Land records for John Buck and his siblings involve Moses Donaldson from 1814-1820, which include statements about John's father Joseph Buck as well as administrators in the probate case. It is not a proven relationship, but it definitely seems more likely given the time, place, and continuing relationship.
• Associates: Often the key info is in a record listing someone else. Ancestor could be mentioned in friends' or neighbors' records. Extend beyond the person & surname of interest - any of their records could include information. Also, collect information on every person with the surname in the localities. Only later will the relationships become clear & you will save time by not having to go re-examine the records. 
• PROBATE & LAND RECORDS are crucial to establishing relationships. Every piece of land needs to be followed all the way through. Every probate document and court document needs to be seen. Remember too that children were often omitted from a will. Early vital records and census records did not report relationships. But several land documents that I have for John Buck include the phrase "my father, Joseph Buck" and "my wife, Barbary Buck". I am still waiting for probate records from Franklin County at the Ohio State Genealogical Society for Joseph Buck's probate to learn more.
3. Understand the records. What is the jurisdiction (city, county, state) and the time period that your ancestor lived in? Which records are available? What can you find in each record? One of the most insightful comments I heard on a recent video had to do with the person having to be "of age" so being able to calculate when they turned 21 by when they showed up in legal documents. 

• Joseph Buck bought Congress Lands at public auction in 1805. Searching the Pickaway County land records showed a completed purchase in 1815 (ten years later). The official records are likely at the National Archives in Chicago with Chillicothe Land Office Records or at the FHL in Salt Lake City in a book someone wrote about these records.

1. Correlate evidence - Make a timeline to help put events into perspective. 
• Also, compare & contrast the information that is presented in each record. Is one record more reliable than the other? A death certificate is a primary source for the death date and place and burial information. However, the information may not be as reliable for the person's birth place or parents names. 
• John Buck's son, Henry Buck, was a veteran of the Mexican War and the Civil War. He was discharged because he became partially blind & deaf. One record from the National Soldier's Home said that he was a widow. Henry Buck was married to Lavinia Philips in 1846, but she is never in the census records. Perhaps she died before 1850 or left while Henry was away at the Mexican War. His obituary states that he was single or never married. The marriage record and his report to the National Soldier's Home are more reliable than an article written by a newspaper reporter at the end of his life.
2. Write down the results you have gained/discovered. Some of this is knowledge that no other living person knows. We have an obligation to share our logic and conclusions with others in writing.

Now THAT's a lot of work!

I am currently taking an Independent Study class through BYU, "History and the Law." I was promised a genealogy class, but it is so much more in good & bad ways. Keep in mind that this is an undergraduate class.

Let me summarize one lesson of fourteen: 

Update family group sheets with information from last weeks exhaustive (& exhausting) survey of already submitted information on the web. Don't forget correct citations.

AND

Read the article in the Appendix.

AND

Read CHAPTERS 3, 6, 7, 18, 19, 20, 22, and review chapter 2 of one book.

AND

Read pages 81-193 in the boring book. (112 pages!!)

AND

Read another article in the Appendix.

AND

Read discussion material in this lesson. (only 4-5 pages)

AND 

Read the abstract of someone's property, reviewing each page for types of real property. Describe each transaction. If there are any undefined types, look up in Black's Law Dictionary.

AND 

Don't forget to submit your research log.

AND 

The Locality Survey. (the most fun but time intensive of the list!): 

Select a county. Prepare a research report for the county & towns in that county where the selected ancestral family lived. Include a brief description of your research status, a brief review of the jurisdictional history, a list of records from the FHL in SLC, a list of records from one of the cataloging systems like WorldCat (references to MANY libraries throughout US), also a Google search, Cyndi's List, & the US Genweb project; copies of maps both modern & ancient plus entries from gazetteers & atlases; a Bibliography of resources identified through searches above, in a specific $60 textbook format; a DETAILED RESEARCH PLAN with records to search & film numbers & addresses; plus copies of relevant items for future reference.

AND

"if you have time" haaahahaha - watch the movie Far and Away.

I am learning a lot while going through this process, but if I didn't really, really feel passionate about genealogy, I'd be throwing in the towel on this one!!! I am grateful that I have 25+ years of research experience. I am trying to learn & just take one chunk at a time, but I am trying to finish this class in 3-4 months. Ahhhh!!! 

Next entry I will include some links to helpful videos that I've watched to help grasp some of the concepts. Yay for YouTube, Ancestry, & FamilySearch.

Keeping Track of Research

I started attending Brigham Young University in the fall of 1987. I gained a desire to work on my family history. I knew very little of my family history. I started at the genealogy library on the 4th floor of the HBLL & gained knowledge little by little. I spent many Saturdays at the library in Salt Lake City, took classes at BYU, and prayed and learned a lot! I am happy with how much I have learned.

BUT

I have not kept good research notes along the way. I have several boxes of family history papers, many priceless family photographs, plus online files and emails. I take good care of the pictures by having them in archival boxes in one location. I have scanned many but not all with my Canon MX860 printer. (It scans a group of pictures and then automatically separates them into individual files!!) 

I am currently taking HIST 433 for my degree "Writing a Narrative Biography" and spending hours and hours every day going back through my records, using RootsMagic's source feature, and undoing years of neglect. In the end, I will have a super record of the research that I have done. For now, I have resolved to take better notes and filing research under logical categories.

If you are interested in keeping better records, I would recommend the article linked here. FamilySearch Wiki has as much information about doing family history as you could possibly need! I am thinking of regularly scheduled class breaks to learn about what I should be learning. (haha)

Here's what I am doing now for census records -- choose one family unit (father, mother, children) and run the family through the census. (The McDermotts came to America in about 1870. I check the census for 1870, 1880, (1890 was destroyed), 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930, 1940. The principle applies to every other document.

When I find a family that fits the name, dates, and places of my family, I type the reference into RootsMagic. For example, the Frank McDermott family is in the 1900 US Census, Clay Banks, Door, Wisconsin; E.D. (enumeration district), page, dwelling & family number. Also, I enter the film or online location of the record. (Ancestry.com) Next, I go into the detail source portion of RootsMagic and enter everything from the census record.

Research Notes:

Frank McDermott, head, June 1850, 49, married 15 years, CAN E/IRE/IRE (he was born in Canada East, his father & mother were born in Ireland), immigrated 1868, naturalized; postmaster; owned home, free (no mortgage), house.

Marie E., wife, Oct 1858, 41, married, 15 years, 4 children, 2 living; (further research will find what happened) WIS/IRE/IRE

Valentine J., son, Nov 1886, 13 years, single, WIS/CAN E/WIS, at school 8 months

John H., son, Oct 1890, 9, single, WIS/CAN E/WIS, at school 8 months.

Frank McDermott was the brother of my great-great-great grandmother Mary McDermott Madoche. He ran a cheese factory with his brother-in-law, Eugene Madoche, and split postmaster duties depending on which political party was in office. The two families were neighbors in Door county, Wisconsin. Sometimes, research problems are solved by looking into the siblings' lives.

I will also note if any family members are living nearby (on the same page). Dwellings 9, 11, 13, & 18 have family members. I once heard that a thorough genealogist will collect everyone for the page before and after plus the entire page of the family. I am not that thorough although I do look on the current page.

On RootsMagic I will save the source (alt+o), then highlight & memorize the line (alt+m), close the individual (alt+o,alt+o), and save the record to each member listed in the census (Frank, Marie, Valentine, & John). If I don't have a record of the deaths of the other two children, I will make a note on their files as well.

This is what works for me. I repeat the process for each member of the family and each census year that they are alive.

And so it begins...

I have been taking a church history class through BYU. As I have studied different events in history, I have naturally wondered if any of my people were present at different events. Imagine my surprise when I found personal accounts of the events at Farr West, Missouri and other places. I read about Swiss converts who upon travleing to the United States lost a baby on the way and had to bury him in the Atlantic Ocean. How would you even move forward after this? I have also found ancestors from the Irish potato famine, the Mennonite persecutions in the 1600s, and the Civil War. It is my desire to learn about the history of the times & explain how my people fit into the history of the time. (Think Who Do You Think You Are? without the possibility of commercials or cancellation.)