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.
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!
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.
Did you know that Memorial Day used to be called Decoration Day? I sure didn’t! Not until I came across a set of pictures that had Decoration Day 1923 written on the back. In fact, it wasn’t until 1967 when it was officially declared Memorial Day by federal law!
Today is a beautiful day, and it’s making me feel very productive. I’m sitting in the living room on my laptop and talking with Grandpa Moore. He’s already cleared up some Thorward things for me that I was unclear on. Today is devoted to the Mays family though. I’ve got to keep moving forward towards my summer goal.
I’m up to Millard Mays in my family file. I know he married Nora Barker. I was looking in the Kentucky Birth Index on Ancestry.com to verify some of her children on the census. I ended up having to go to some more extreme measures to find one of the children, because they just weren’t showing up for some reason. When I did that, I might have found out what happened to Millard’s sister Barbara.
Sometimes I get so engrossed in my current “treasure trove” that I forget small progress is still progress. Sometimes a record that just confirms what you already know is just as great as one filled with new insight. Then sometimes you end up in the middle of those two.
In the case of William R Parkin’s death certificate, that’s what I ended up with. I found a little bit of new information and a little bit of verification. Nothing too spectacular though. The only bad part about this record is it almost got lost in the shuffle because it happened to arrive in the same envelope as the George Yohn/Josephine Doremus marriage record.
Verified Information:
William’s middle name is definitely Richard. I was already almost positive of that since his widow is listed in the city directory as “Richard’s widow” after his death.
New Information:
Stone Cutter being his Primary Disease. I’m sure it’s his occupation which contributed to his death. In 1880 he was listed as working in a Sand Paper factory.
Burial at Rosedale Cemetery. I had no idea where any of the Parkins or Redfords are buried, so this gives me a place to start!
This morning, just as I was about to get started on my daunting tasks with the Mays line of my family tree, a tweet came through. It was like a beacon of light in a sea of darkness, it was a scrap of toast and I was hungry… Okay enough with the dramatization, what it really was, was an excuse to procrastinate. I love procrastinating. The Halifax Public Libraries out of Canada posted a link to Scotland post office directories. They posted a link to this exact address to be precise. That link will take you to the National Library of Scotland website, just so you know.
I’m revisiting an old entry today. That entry is the one from September titled, Menzies News. In that entry I examined a census record that I thought might be William Menzies in 1861. This is important to me because only a few of the Menzies siblings stayed behind in England. William strikes a cord with me because in a letter to his sister he wrote, “I am quite sure I will never stay in England all my life as I am quite tired of it.” I can’t help but wonder if he ever made it.
In the entry, I also mention that I found a marriage record for William Menzies and Ellen Patterson. The only problem was I couldn’t be sure that was my William. The index on familysearch.org only had the name of the groom’s father listed. With such common names like John and William, and no other clues, I couldn’t be sure if this was in fact my William Menzies.
That all changed yesterday. You see on April 19th, Ancestry.com added a huge number of Liverpool, Lancashire, England Church Records. This includes baptisms, christenings, marriages, and burials. I was fortunate enough to find the marriage record that I questioned so many months ago.
The genealogy community is buzzing. There’s only 1 year left before we’ll have access to the 1940 United States Federal Census. Like everyone else, I’m already trying to think about where my ancestors were at the time the census was taken.
First thing first, I have to say a big thank you to Jennifer over at The Erudite Genealogist. She wrote up an awesome entry giving everyone advice on what to take with you on a research trip. In fact, I’m going to be digging into the spare room closet this week and making sure I have an empty scrapbook case on wheels to get started! So again, THANK YOU!
Now that I have some great advice to follow, it’s time to break into the nitty gritty work. That work has been what has kept me from blogging. Those darn Mays ancestors are driving me crazy but I’m slowly getting them entered into my file. I found that I’m not focusing so much on finding any new directions, I’m just trying to verify what I have with the resources I currently have. When I’m not driving myself crazy there, I’m trying to set up a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet to organize the research I want to do on location.
As I get my information together, I’ll keep you updated on my progress. Most likely I’ll have more questions, so I’ll probably ask those as they come. Right now I’m not sure of the exact dates of this traveling. I just know I’ll be in Upstate New York for the 4th of July weekend. The plan is to leave time after the holiday for heading to New Jersey for a little research. Plans always change though so there might be a separate trip to New Jersey needed.
I’m also going to Ohio to visit family this summer because it’s our turn to make the drive. I want to get out a little and visit the Brown County cemeteries where my Webb ancestors are buried. I’m unsure of where Reuben H Webb from Orange County, VA is buried but I hope to figure it out and visit his grave also. I know his son, my 3rd great grandfather, is buried in Kentucky in an abandoned, derelict graveyard. So I hope the same isn’t true for his father.
Reuben was living with one of his sons in 1850. I believe he died shortly after the census. The family was living in White Oak, Highland County, Ohio at the time of the census. I believe James’ wife was born and raised there. Next door to James and Reuben is Alice Webb-Bell. Alice was foreign to me until I found her son Starling living with another of her brother’s in 1880. Then as I tracked back, I found her and later found a mention of her name associated with Reuben. Acc0rding to Reuben T Webb’s biography, his father was forced to move several times after circumstances caused him to lose his property. My question would be did Reuben die in Highland County or Brown County, where the family was living in 1860? This is something I am going to try and find out before I head to Ohio.
Sorry to get off subject, I do that often. So I have several lists going, one for births, deaths, and marriages. Another for cemeteries. I’m also going to start making an obituary list. Looking at the local newspapers is something I haven’t had the opportunity to do before (Ancestry.com’s collection is severely limited), so I’ll be really excited to get to check those out.
