Research - The Misadventures of a Genealogist

Sucked into the DNA Trail

Posted on October 13, 2017February 16, 2025 by Kathleen

Here I am again, after another absence. This one was partially on purpose. Sometimes you just need a mental break from genealogy. It’s not a bad thing. Over the years, I’ve learned it helps me to focus better if I just walk away from it for a week or two. The rest of my break, I have been working on learning about DNA. Oh, man has that been a journey! I’m obviously still learning and probably will never fully understand.

During Amazon Prime Day this year, I purchased three 23andMe DNA tests. I had previously tested myself and my Dad on Ancestry. I thought since I had never used 23andMe before, I might want to go ahead and re-test my Dad to see the differences between the companies. In addition to testing my Dad, I also tested my mother and her brother.

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Moore Children

Posted on August 31, 2017February 16, 2025 by Kathleen

Last time that I wrote here, I was wondering why Mary was so contrary. In that post I decided that I would need to search out more records for Mary’s children. I just didn’t have nearly enough evidence to decide if the family that lived on Long Island was the right family. The first step in that journey was to order the birth records of the other two known children in the family.

The Moore Children Birth Certificates

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Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary

Posted on August 14, 2017February 16, 2025 by Kathleen

It’s not fair of me to call Mary contrary. I don’t even know Mary. However, her blood is running through my veins. Maybe that gives me a little wiggle room to be a little cross with her for being so hard to track sometimes. The funny thing about Mary is that before my Genealogy Do-Over, I didn’t even think Mary was that contrary. It’s all these new rules I put in place for myself. They keep me second and third guessing everything!

Records of Mary’s life

Mary E. Johnson is the first time that my Genealogy Do-Over has made me sweat. It would be easy to just add in the family I believe to be hers and continue working off that assumption. The problem with that being, can I prove that is actually her family? The answer to that is nope, not even a little bit. It’s going to be so bad of me to admit what I thought before, but I have to do it. That’s the whole point of starting fresh.

The following record is the first record I am able to use to see into Mary’s life before she married. My great-grandfather’s birth certificate just gives her maiden name, which helped, but doesn’t say anything about her parents.

Mary Johnson and Robert Moore Marriage, 1896

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Genealogy Do-Over: Not Found

Posted on August 9, 2017February 16, 2025 by Kathleen

Today I am going to be writing about my recent experience with the New Jersey State Archives. I previously told you about what they did find for me. This time I’d like to tell you about what they didn’t find. As always, if you’d like to learn more about the Genealogy Do-Over, head over to Thomas MacEntee’s page, now called Abundant Genealogy.

My order from the New Jersey State Archives

Back on May 24th, I made an online order to the New Jersey State Archives. I am trying to fill in where I’m missing documents for my ancestors. That means my first step is heading to the Order List of my Genealogy Log, where I’ve been tracking the records I need to find. Note: These are also entered as “To Do” items in my genealogy management program.

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New Jersey State Archives: Above and Beyond

Posted on June 23, 2017February 17, 2025 by Kathleen

I’m currently working on a post about how I deal with negative searches from repositories. Today, I’d like to shine a spotlight on the New Jersey State Archives. Recently I ordered 3 records from them. Two were birth certificates and one was a death record.

A Little Background

The death record is connected to the William Wallace Love and Jane Menzies thing from 1890. No one that I’ve talked to has been able to find her death record yet. One of the reasons seems to be confusion surrounding her actual day of death. The family record that was passed down to me gives the date as September 17th, 1890.

Typed Family Record, Llewellyn’s Boxes, 1986; privately held by Kathleen Moore, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] Lexington Park, Maryland. 2005. This collection was taken from Llewellyn Thorward-Moore’s house after her death. They resided with her son until 2005, when they passed to Kathleen Moore.

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Update to the Parkin Children

Posted on June 7, 2017February 17, 2025 by Kathleen

I have a breaking genealogy update for you! This is less than an hour old for me. I was so excited, I just had to share it.

The Parkin Children in 1905

This is an update to the entry I wrote about the Parkin Children in 1905. I concluded that entry by assuming the three youngest Parkin children were living in an Orphan’s home but couldn’t be sure. I did go the long way around to that answer. This afternoon, I was reading my Facebook groups and a helpful member posted that the images were now available on FamilySearch to everyone. Well, alright then, let me put down my lunch and go look, STAT!

Finding Them Again

The great news is I was able to just go right to the transcription from before. The images were already digitized on FamilySearch, just not viewable outside a research center.

“New Jersey State Census, 1905,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1928107 : accessed 07 June 2017), entry for Orange Orphan Society; citing film no. 1688595, image 641, family 78.

From the image, I can definitely say the children were living in the Orange Orphan Society in 1905. I believe they fudged Hazel’s age to get her in since children 10 and under only were allowed. Hazel would have been 10, maybe even close to 11 at the time.

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Wedding Wednesday: William Harmon Mays and Sarah E. McDaniel

Posted on May 31, 2017February 17, 2025 by Kathleen

This is my only official document from Sarah E. McDaniel’s lifetime. Numerous other researchers from the area have said they’ve tried looking for a record of Sarah’s death and haven’t seen it. I haven’t actively searched for the record yet which makes me uncomfortable saying it isn’t there. Even if it isn’t an actual death record, there might be something else that leads to that.

Rowan County, Kentucky, Marriage Bonds, 1800-1913, 5: 327, Mays-McDaniels, 19 Oct 1905; digital images, *FamilySearch* (http://www.familysearch.org : accessed 13 May 2017).

Sarah is mentioned again on her only child’s marriage record. It seems that she probably went by her middle name of Elizabeth in her adult life. That is the name that was crossed out in the census and that is what she is listed as on her daughter’s marriage record. All we really know about Sarah is that she married at 17, had her child at 18, appeared in the 1910 census but was crossed out, and her husband was remarried and living in Ohio by 1918. The years in between 1910 and 1918 are a mystery. To find out more, it looks like I’ll have to expand my search to her F(amily) A(ssociates) N(eighbors) network. This could be a great Mystery Monday topic!

Wedding Wednesday: William Harmon Mays and Iva Belle Moyer

Posted on May 24, 2017February 17, 2025 by Kathleen

Today’s Wedding Wednesday is for my great grandparents William Harmon Mays and his second wife, Iva Belle Moyer. Next week I will post the record for his marriage with his first wife.

1918 marriage of William Harmon Mays and Iva Belle Moyer

As far as I’m aware, there are no known photographs of William or Iva. There are a few family members who remember them at the end of their lives but I haven’t been able to find any pictures of them.

There is a lot of jumping around going on with my posts since I’m working on my Do-Over. To help orientate anyone who is confused on where people belong on the tree and just how far back I’ve gotten into my Do-Over, just scroll a little further for an updated pedigree screenshot.

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Parkin Children in 1905

Posted on May 8, 2017February 17, 2025 by Kathleen

One of the things I’ve been trying to do with my Genealogy Do-Over is to fill in blanks I missed before. One of those big blanks is the state census records. For my Mom’s side, I’m not even sure if there were state censuses taken in Rural Kentucky or Virginia. I’m going to look and be sure though. My Dad’s side is much easier because I know New York and New Jersey had state censuses. This week I’m going to highlight what I would have missed if I didn’t look at the 1905 New Jersey State Census.

We have to start in 1900

The above screenshot shows the Parkin family in the 1900 United States Census. Your eyes don’t deceive you, the census shows them as the John Walter household. This is the family though, and it took me years to find them under John’s middle name instead of his surname. Here you can see all 4 children with their parents. We have Anna who is the oldest, Hazel and Jennie who are close in age and the youngest Walter who is just under a year old.

The family is living in Newark, New Jersey at the time of the census. John’s family is living nearby in East Orange, New Jersey. Jennie’s family is unknown to me at the time. In the 1880 Census the family was living in Baltimore, Maryland but I have found no sign of them after that.

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Wedding Wednesday: Clifford Redford and Jane Parkin

Posted on May 3, 2017February 17, 2025 by Kathleen

My other paternal Great-Grandparents

Sometimes I get caught up in the fact that my Grandpa Moore’s mother and father were great record keepers. It’s easy to forget that there are plenty more great-grandparents to go around, they just didn’t leave as much extra documentation. They didn’t leave me empty handed though!

I was able to order an “official” marriage certificate for Clifford and Jane because of this family heirloom. It lets me know that Clifford and Jane were married in Newark on December 1, 1923. Edith McKane and Walter Parkin were serving as witnesses. They were the siblings of the couple.

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