Tag: Love

In my previous post about Martha Love’s birth record, I was very surprised to find out that Martha was actually the third child of Andrew Love and Agnes Hamilton.

The problem was that we were going off the records in America and tracing back. I had known there was a first born Robert, through my long lost cousin Grace (is she still long lost if we e-mail regularly?). It was even Grace who clued me into Martha who married Duncan Walker, and through them I was able to identify one of my Mystery Monday posts. Which I was then able to smack myself upside the head because Duncan and Martha were living next door to Andrew and Agnes in the 1880 census.

Just remember folks there is a reason I named my blog the Misadventures of a Genealogist. I don’t do things the easy way, I do them the banging your head against a brick wall way!

Here we have the second child of Andrew Love and Agnes Hamilton. ((Beith Parish (Ayrshire, Scotland). Old Parish Registers, OPR 581/3, James Love birth (1829); New Register House, Edinburgh.)) Unfortunately James doesn’t appear with the family in censuses or any other records so far. Another great thing about this record is another mention of “Hoodsyard”. This place is mentioned on a few of the birth record for Andrew’s children.

In fact, it might just help me find Andrew’s birth record, but you’ll have to stay tuned for that! I have to head to the grocery store before the week begins again and then I have to update my website and e-mail my Love connections with all my progress!

Have you ever made tons of progress in the indexed database from Ancestry.com or FamilySearch? I have! It always makes me feel so accomplished.

One of the things you have to remember about these indexes is this. It’s not the original. I’m no expert but I have learned this. Nothing is like seeing the original document. The best of circumstances would be in person but because of logistics, this is not always possible.

With the advances in technology, we’re definitely making progress though! I decided to go ahead and purchase some credits from Scotlands People the other day. I bought enough to really have some fun. I ended up getting the images for almost all of the children of Andrew Love and Agnes Hamilton, some of the Menzies family. I even ordered a copy of John Menzies and Jane Ferris’ marriage record before I realized I could just use a credit and print out the record. Oh well!

In the index on FamilySearch, I would have been lucky to have had the parents names indexed. Then I would have been even luckier if both the birth and baptismal dates were recorded. If only one was recorded I would have been left wondering which date it was, baptismal or birth.

Love > Martha, Eldest Daughter and Third Child of Andrew Love, Hoodsyard and of Agnes Hamilton, his spouse. Born 29 July. Baptized 28th August. ((Beith Parish (Ayrshire, Scotland). Old Parish Registers, OPR 581/3, Martha Love birth (1831); New Register House, Edinburgh.))

I learned a lot just from that simple little blurb written in an old parish book. First of all… I thought Martha was Andrew and Agnes’ second child. Oops. Luckily, I fixed that lickity split while I was already on Scotlands People. Second, there was another Love birth recorded a few records up the page. However, it wasn’t Andrew and Agnes’ child. So now I can try and see if that was a family connection to Andrew.

There’s only one problem after all this wonderful progress. I used all my viewing credits in one day. Oops! That’s alright, that gives me time to analyze what I’ve recently learned!

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!

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!

Continue reading “I’ll Never Do That Again” →

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.

Continue reading “Mystery Monday: Those Darn Loves” →

Here’s the March 2nd prompt for the month of Fearless Females posts!

March 2 — Post a photo of one of your female ancestors. Who is in the photo? When was it taken? Why did you select this photo?

I’m very excited to share this photo. I was contacted by another Love relative this week. His grandmother Belle is the one to the right of my great-great grandma Jennie there in the middle. I love this picture because it’s helped me to identify her in other photos! I’m going to get a batch together to send to him this afternoon. I might have to go through my box and scan some before I send. The other woman in the picture is their other sister Agnes. So if I lost you for a moment there from left to right this photo shows: Agnes Love-Wambough, Jennie Love-Thorward, and Belle Love-Leonard. What a great lineup!

I chose this photo because I love to see new pictures that I’ve never seen before. I just can’t express how grateful and appreciative I am that I have found some great contacts and friends through researching my genealogy. This website has opened doors for me that I never would have been able to open otherwise. So thank you to everyone who has contacted me through here and most especially to Grace Leonard who has put the word out and sent my website to so many of her contacts too! Another special thanks to the sender of this picture Rick Mcgaw!