Tag: genealogy research

Sibling Research Part 1

On 5 November 2015

I greatly enjoyed Amy Johnson Crow’s 31 Days to Better Genealogy! Many tips were wonderful reminders of how I should be doing my genealogy research – especially Day 12 – Research the Siblings.

With that in mind, I decided to look at one of my favorite brick walls, David Witherell (also spelled Wetherell, Witherall, Witherill, Witheral, etc.). David’s parents are supposedly John and Judith (Bullard) Witherell (see the above link for that information if curious). I had hoped to find some kind of connection through the Bullards to connect to my known Witherell’s and began to search in probate records for David Bullard, Judith’s possible father. Through that I learned about possible Revolutionary War information for Judith’s father and thought to give the DAR records a shot – with a win!

The diary, part of the material used for a DAR membership for a known relative of mine, mentions wonderful new clues to follow:

John Witheral senior
Judith Bullard, wife of John Witheral senior born July 4 1793
John Witheral Jun Born Oct 5 1811
David Witheral Born Feb 10 1813
Darius & Cyrus Witheral Born Sep 12th 1816
Jane Witheral wife of Wm Curr [or Carr?] born Jan 12th 1819
Janet Vincent – wife of Darius Witheral Born Aug 22nd 1882
[Under Janet’s name there is a faintly written part that seems to read “Infant daughter born… 13th 1840 died the same…” day maybe?]
Hadley _ Witheral son of Darius and Janet born Feb 25th 1841
[There seems to be another line after the above but the copy doesn’t go down far enough to see it. I’d need the original.]
Ray Witheral son of John Witheral Junior born Aug __ 1838

Look at all these wonderful people I have to research now! Not to mention the sister’s husband’s name!

So I started with a quick search on Ancestry with John Junior. I did find some possible Civil War records for both John senior and junior, BUT I want more confirmation that they are the same people. The ages are off enough that make me think they may not be and I’ve ordered records before thinking it was my ancestor only to find (after quite an expense) that I was wrong. Oops!

I realized then that I was searching rather aimlessly and I need to create a plan for John Jr. as well as the others, especially since this started with a project titled 31 Days to Better Genealogy. Better Genealogy – so I want to do this right.

To keep me on track, I will write about my plans and the results as I go along! Here’s hoping I lose some bricks in this wall!

Tuesday’s Tip: New Records on SeekingMichigan.org

By Nichelle Barra

On 17 March 2015

In Research, Resources

I no longer live close to my hometown where many of my ancestors lived and died. Well, close I suppose is a relative term but it’s not a trip I could make comfortably in one day. I use what I can online and then I have a list I continuously make for what I need to get the next time I am up there.

However, that mainly means just my hometown county, which isn’t the only place where my ancestors lived. Most of my maternal line comes from Tuscola County, not Saginaw County, in Michigan. That list is long and I have yet to get anything from there because when I am in Saginaw, I tend to work on Saginaw records.

SeekingMichigan.org is a site I’ve discussed once before and you may have noticed I get a lot of my death records from that site. Well today I heard some wonderfully happy news! The death records have been expanded! They now have records from 1921-1939 that are fully imaged and indexes from 1940-1952 are to be added soon as well.

So, can this help me to solve some family mysteries? Maybe, but at the very least this will give some wonderful clues on that side of the family!

Here’s some of the new information I got today. My 3rd great-grandmother is Rachel Henderson. I wasn’t positive on her maiden name but I at least knew when she died, 1927, as well as as some other identifying information from census records and the like. She was 7 years out of reach on Seekingmichigan.org until now and I am happy to report, her death certificate is there with enough identifying information to confirm this is my Rachel:

Here we have Rachel Henderson. Her death date matches what I knew, her husband’s name is the name I had, she lived in the right location, and her daughter, Mary (Henderson) Lyons, is the informant. So I’d say that’s a pretty good match for my Rachel! And did you see what else was there? Her parents names!

Now I have MORE to research! I don’t know any genealogist who wouldn’t love that!

Enjoy and happy hunting everyone!

Library of Congress Maps

By Nichelle Barra

On 26 February 2015

In Research, Resources

I have a love obsession with maps and land records. This probably started with our family’s road atlas when I was trying to see where we lived in comparison with the rest of the world. Then I wanted to see where other family members lived and where our family came from. Thus began a life long love for anything map related. Google Earth and Google Maps are two of my favorite programs to use for exploring, especially with Google Earth’s time slider!

Of course, old maps aren’t covered in those two programs. So, when I need older maps I go to the Library of Congress’s Maps section. I use this to figure out who lived near by my ancestors as well as to figure out where they lived in relation to what the streets are called today.

There are many map collections that the LOC holds: railroad maps, military battles, civil war maps, cities and towns, Sanborn maps, etc. The Sanborn maps you may already be familiar with as they are mentioned often in genealogical research. The Sanborn maps were created for insurance purposes in accessing fire risks. These color-coded maps tell the types of buildings (stone, tile, brick, wood, etc.) for this reason and it gives you a glimpse of what the world looked like at that point. Every city isn’t represented here of course, so keep that in mind. For example, all I found in the Sanborn maps for Michigan was Eaton County from 1911. If you wish to learn more about these maps, Lisa Louise Cooke discusses using Sanborn maps in genealogy in one of her videos found here.

Searching

What I normally do is search for the area I’m interested in. At the top of the page there is a search function. In the pull down menu I choose Maps and then type in my area of interest. For example, Saginaw. This brings me to many maps – in particular, this one. This is a map of Saginaw County from 1890 and it shows land ownership! I LOVE maps like this because it gives me many relationship clues for my ancestors. Here I can see neighbors, friends, and even some possible love connections.

Citation Below (1)

See that wonderful picture? In the lower right corner are some Almy’s – those are my ancestors. Notice the McLean and the Wiltse families surrounding them? Two of the Almy daughters married into those families and this map makes it clear how they probably met. Maps like this are extremely helpful when you hit a brick wall and want to look into that ancestor’s friends and neighbors for more information.

Of course, this doesn’t work every time. For example, I have a lot of family that lived in Saginaw City and East Saginaw and the map above doesn’t show those two parts, probably because there were too many people in MUCH smaller plots. There are maps of the city though, just without the names. That’s when you use city directories and the map to figure out where your ancestor was and then who lived around them.

I personally love map research and always add it in to the history of an ancestor whenever possible. It has helped me to figure out more information by making those neighbor and friend connections. Do any of you have stories of using maps in your research? Please share below!

CITATIONS

1) Charles Holmes, Map of Saginaw County, Michigan, 1890; digital image, Library of Congress Map Collection (http://www.loc.gov/item/2012593166/ : accessed 26 Feb 2015).