Category: Research

Margaret Slusher, you might have been found!

Posted on by Kathleen

As anyone who researches their genealogy knows, the women can be hard to track down once they leave the house. It gets doubly hard in very rural areas where records might not have been kept. I run into this problem a lot in my Kentucky/Ohio research. One of my more recent “brick walls” is Margaret Slusher. I say “brick wall” because technically it isn’t. I know who her parents are and I know who her husband is. I even know the year she married. However, in 1860, she’s not living with her new husband or her parents. I’m a stickler for the details, so it bugs me when I can’t find people in certain censuses. Sometimes it’s unavoidable, but most times it’s just you’re not looking in the right place. The key to the problem is Margaret’s marriage to James Mays happened in September of 1860.

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Robert Love, You’ve been Verified!

Posted on by Kathleen

A few months back, my long lost cousin Grace sent me a copy of her Love family outline. In it, I found Martha Love and Robert Love, who were not in my records of the Love family. Martha was quite easy to track down with the Walker family. I didn’t find any evidence on Robert though. I’m being very discriminatory about who I put in my family file, so Robert wasn’t put in yet, but he was in my notations. Until last night.

I was sitting around last night, feeling sorry for myself because my family file got corrupted. It was no major deal because I did have backups. The only problem is my most recent backups were also corrupted. So I ended up using the gedcom backups I have as a secondary backup. Have I said backup enough for you?

Back on subject, I decided I might as well spend a tiny bit of money and buy some credits from Scotlands People. I’ve seen a lot about the site but I’ve never actually used it because of the credits issue. Well, I didn’t let that hold me back last night!

I found Andrew Love and his family in the 1841 Scotland census! As far as I know, this is the first and only census record that Robert Love appears with the family. Granted, the census does not say he is Andrew and Agnes’s son, but I don’t need them too. I am just trying to verify old family lore. Therefore, now I know there should be a birth/baptismal record for Robert and I finally have a year to look in!

Welcome to the family file Robert Love! The water is nice and freshly un-corrupted!

In slightly related news, I had a major genealogy moment while watching the Robin Gibb episode of Who Do You Think You Are. Not only did he visit Paisley, Scotland, the homeland of the Loves, I also spotted John Love, teacher in the book about the school he was researching! I haven’t connected John to my tree yet, but I think he’s Andrew’s brother. They lived down the street from each other for many years. I probably should have saved some of my credits to look up John. Oh well, there’s always next time!

Where is my Genealogy sponsor?

Posted on by Kathleen

Almost a year ago (Yikes!), I posted about a bad habit of mine. I’ve tried my hardest to beat this habit, but I learned today that it’s still there. I’m admitting it for the second time. I sometimes have a hard time checking the whole page of a source. There I’ve said it out loud. I’ve admitted it to the internet masses. I have learned to check the whole precinct of a census, however this hasn’t bled over into the other sources I use. Which are a lot.

In my defense, sometimes things don’t seem important at the time. To extend that thought, sometimes you just don’t have enough information at that time to know something is important.

1906 Brooklyn City Directory
1906 Brooklyn City Directory
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I’ll Never Do That Again

Posted on by Kathleen

I don’t know what I was thinking. I’m in the middle of rehabbing my whole family tree and website. How on earth did I think I could keep going at this pace without my since-2003 Ancestry.com membership? I know what I thought. The problem was I splurged last year on the World Membership and the only way to downgrade this year was to cancel and then re-subscribe. I thought that maybe now was the time to try a genealogy life without an Ancestry.com membership.

I was fooling myself. I understand it’s a big expense even for the US Membership. However, there is no website with as complete access to the census than Ancestry.com. Feel free to prove me wrong! I’m also very attached to the Kentucky Death Records for 1852-1952. I mean, hello! My Mom’s whole family was in Kentucky for those years! They have an Ohio Death Index for more recent years. They have Ohio Marriage and Divorce records for my cousins who are super hard to pin down.

By the way, this is no way an advertisement for Ancestry. It might seem like it, but it’s not. It’s just that Ancestry is one of the tools I use on a daily basis. I lasted 2 days without my Ancestry membership, and I’m never doing that again!

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Clifford and Jane Redford’s Wedding

Posted on by Kathleen

This scan was sent to me from my Aunt a few years back. It was one of my first and only clues about the Parkin family. Their name has constantly changed through all my years of researching them.

Family Record of Clifford and Jane Redford’s marriage

Having this allowed me to send away to New Jersey for an official record of Clifford and Jane’s marriage.

Official Record of Clifford and Jane Redford’s marriage

This record had much more information for me to digest. I already knew Clifford and Jane’s estimated birth years and residences. I had known from the 1930 census that Clifford was a plumber by trade. I also knew that his father’s name was Herbert and his mother’s was Sadie. However I did not know that his mother’s maiden name was Putcliff or is that Sutcliff? To this day I’m still not sure!

On Jane’s side it was all knew information. This record actually broke down my Parkin/Parker/Perkins brick wall. It most definitely is Parkin now and I learned that her parents names were John Walter Parkin and Jennie Featherson. I have a lot more information on John Walter Parkin now, but before her marriage Jennie is still a mystery to me.

I’ve had this record for a number of years and still I come back to it for clues every once and awhile. It’s always good to look over things you’ve had awhile. You never know what you might have missed in the excitement.

A Dilemma, but Not Really

Posted on by Kathleen

Now that I’ve come to the top of my Mays Family information, I’ve run into a dilemma. Except it’s not really a dilemma. I’m determined not to clutter up my new family file with sourceless information. The only problem is I don’t think most of my Mays family information is sourced. I’m starting to believe what I have is second hand information. So the dilemma is what to do about all those Mays children that I’m unsure of.

The obvious choice is don’t put any of them in. It’s the right thing to do. The problem is, there’s a lot of people I’d be leaving out.

OLD Family File

As you can see from the graphic above, in my old file there were seven children for William and Frances Mays. In my new file, there are only two. Hopefully I can find documentation for the others. Part of the problem is that I have census and vital records for a lot of them, but they don’t lead back to William and Frances currently. So I have to find a way to link them back before I add them.

West Liberty, Morgan County, Kentucky. 1860 Census.

I just wish they didn’t make it so tempting! Look at all them just sitting there! How much more obvious can you get. The Mays family was always right next door to each other.

Grandpa’s Stuff, Part 2

Posted on by Kathleen

With Grandpa moving to Maryland, I’m starting to get another look at some of the more interesting things in his collection. The funny thing is, my treasure is his self-professed junk. What I’m about to show almost got sold for scrap metal. Luckily my Dad saved it because he knows I’m hungry for these kinds of cool things.

North Caldwell Public Safety Center Plaque

The police chief that took over after Grandpa retired thought Grandpa might like this. I think it’s pretty cool, but boy does it weigh a lot. I have no idea how to hang something like this on the wall without it breaking whatever mount you put it on.

Here’s a note for you guys, if you have an antique seller in the family, make them aware of your interest in these things! Next time I show you some of his stuff, I’ll show you his baby blanket that his grandmother (Jennie Love-Thorward) made for him when he was born!

Slight Problem with Mapping Software

Posted on by Kathleen

I love technology. I love learning new things. I love being frustrated with something only to conquer it after hours and hours of cursing it. I have a slight pet peeve of technology though. In this current technology boom, with as much as computers can do, they’re still slightly behind on one important fact. Sometimes “as the crow flies” isn’t exactly a great way to gage something that is “close” or “nearby”.

We start off innocently enough in the new iPhone app 1BGraves. However, I quickly realize that this app has the same problem for me that Find a Grave Volunteer Service does. Halfway down that list, you can see it gives a nearby cemetery of ‘Potomac Cemetery’ in Hague, Virginia. Oh. It says the cemetery is 17 and a half miles away.

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