Friday, August 19, 2011
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Monday, August 15, 2011
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Saturday, August 13, 2011
Friday, August 12, 2011
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Saturday, August 6, 2011
Friday, August 5, 2011
Mocavo.com Launches as Free Genealogy Search Engine
Mocavo.com Launches as Free Genealogy Search Engine
Mocavo.com (http://www.mocavo.com), a free search engine geared toward genealogists and people interested in learning more about their family history, launches today. Mocavo.com enables the search of more than 50 billion words - including billions of names, dates and places, all within fractions of a second. Mocavo.com fills an important industry need by providing the first large-scale, free search engine for family history research. Coupled with the speed and accuracy by which search results are produced, Mocavo.com represents a major technological breakthrough within the genealogy world.
Starting today, the general public can use Mocavo.com for free. Visitors to www.mocavo.com are simply required to type in the names of interest and click on Search. All related results from industry sources such as genealogy message boards, family trees, state and local historical societies, the Library of Congress, National Archives, Ellis Island, Find A Grave, the Internet Archive, various U.S. state archives, and many tens of thousands of genealogy sites built by individuals will be displayed. Similar to other search engines, Mocavo.com honors site owners by linking directly to their content.
Cliff Shaw, founder and CEO of Mocavo Inc., identifies the current trouble for genealogists and the solution that Mocavo.com provides, "Genealogy has always had the problem of information and potential clues being spread across thousands of disparate web sites and sources. Imagine a world where you have all of the Web's free genealogy content at your fingertips within seconds. That is Mocavo.com."
"Mocavo.com has the capacity to index every single piece of free genealogy content found anywhere on the web, and will be growing by leaps and bounds in the coming months," said Mr. Shaw. "We expect Mocavo.com to shortly offer all of the web's free genealogy information, searchable and accessible to all – something that has never been done before. It's set to become the go-to search engine for every family history enthusiast."
Mocavo Inc. is the brainchild of Cliff Shaw. Mr. Shaw is well known in the industry, having created four successful companies and many innovative technologies, including Smart Matching, the most successful ancestor-matching algorithm. He created GenForum 14 years ago and it quickly grew to become the number one community for genealogists (now owned by Ancestry.com (NASDAQ:ACOM)). In the early 2000's, Mr. Shaw launched GenCircles and Family Tree Legends, becoming the number two family tree publishing site and number two family tree software package respectively (both are now owned by MyHeritage.com). More recently, Mr. Shaw launched the well-received BackupMyTree.com, the industry's only automatic tree backup solution.
Mocavo.com (http://www.mocavo.com), a free search engine geared toward genealogists and people interested in learning more about their family history, launches today. Mocavo.com enables the search of more than 50 billion words - including billions of names, dates and places, all within fractions of a second. Mocavo.com fills an important industry need by providing the first large-scale, free search engine for family history research. Coupled with the speed and accuracy by which search results are produced, Mocavo.com represents a major technological breakthrough within the genealogy world.
Starting today, the general public can use Mocavo.com for free. Visitors to www.mocavo.com are simply required to type in the names of interest and click on Search. All related results from industry sources such as genealogy message boards, family trees, state and local historical societies, the Library of Congress, National Archives, Ellis Island, Find A Grave, the Internet Archive, various U.S. state archives, and many tens of thousands of genealogy sites built by individuals will be displayed. Similar to other search engines, Mocavo.com honors site owners by linking directly to their content.
Cliff Shaw, founder and CEO of Mocavo Inc., identifies the current trouble for genealogists and the solution that Mocavo.com provides, "Genealogy has always had the problem of information and potential clues being spread across thousands of disparate web sites and sources. Imagine a world where you have all of the Web's free genealogy content at your fingertips within seconds. That is Mocavo.com."
"Mocavo.com has the capacity to index every single piece of free genealogy content found anywhere on the web, and will be growing by leaps and bounds in the coming months," said Mr. Shaw. "We expect Mocavo.com to shortly offer all of the web's free genealogy information, searchable and accessible to all – something that has never been done before. It's set to become the go-to search engine for every family history enthusiast."
Mocavo Inc. is the brainchild of Cliff Shaw. Mr. Shaw is well known in the industry, having created four successful companies and many innovative technologies, including Smart Matching, the most successful ancestor-matching algorithm. He created GenForum 14 years ago and it quickly grew to become the number one community for genealogists (now owned by Ancestry.com (NASDAQ:ACOM)). In the early 2000's, Mr. Shaw launched GenCircles and Family Tree Legends, becoming the number two family tree publishing site and number two family tree software package respectively (both are now owned by MyHeritage.com). More recently, Mr. Shaw launched the well-received BackupMyTree.com, the industry's only automatic tree backup solution.
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Half of European men share King Tut's DNA
Half of European men share King Tut's DNA
LONDON (Reuters) - Up to 70 percent of British men and half of all Western European men are related to the Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamun, geneticists in Switzerland said.
Scientists at Zurich-based DNA genealogy centre, iGENEA, reconstructed the DNA profile of the boy Pharaoh, who ascended the throne at the age of nine, his father Akhenaten and grandfather Amenhotep III, based on a film that was made for the Discovery Channel.
The results showed that King Tut belonged to a genetic profile group, known as haplogroup R1b1a2, to which more than 50 percent of all men in Western Europe belong, indicating that they share a common ancestor.
Among modern-day Egyptians this haplogroup contingent is below 1 percent, according to iGENEA.
"It was very interesting to discover that he belonged to a genetic group in Europe -- there were many possible groups in Egypt that the DNA could have belonged to," said Roman Scholz, director of the iGENEA Centre.
Around 70 percent of Spanish and 60 percent of French men also belong to the genetic group of the Pharaoh who ruled Egypt more than 3,000 years ago.
"We think the common ancestor lived in the Caucasus about 9,500 years ago," Scholz told Reuters.
It is estimated that the earliest migration of haplogroup R1b1a2 into Europe began with the spread of agriculture in 7,000 BC, according to iGENEA.
However, the geneticists were not sure how Tutankhamun's paternal lineage came to Egypt from its region of origin.
The centre is now using DNA testing to search for the closest living relatives of "King Tut."
"The offer has only been publicised for three days but we have already seen a lot of interest," Scholz told Reuters.
(Edited by Paul Casciato)
© Thomson Reuters 2011 All rights reserved
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Monday, August 1, 2011
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Friday, July 29, 2011
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Wednesday's Efforts
Today I finished up most of the data I have on the Hays clan. All of my information ends after 1930, so I have no more census data to go on, nor can I find marriage information yet. I'm stalled unless someone else comes looking for these family members and wants to share the living descendants or until I find obituaries for people, which is a sad way to get data.
I listened to the RootsTech video presentation from the 2011 convention they had. It was pretty technical and I was getting much of what they were saying, but trying to expand my horizons!
Trying to get everything organized in my room as well.
I listened to the RootsTech video presentation from the 2011 convention they had. It was pretty technical and I was getting much of what they were saying, but trying to expand my horizons!
Trying to get everything organized in my room as well.
Helping Others When Stalled
Today I was trying to check on ancestor spouses and I realized I had no documentation that proved their spouses were actually married to them. Other people on ancestry.com had the spouses listed but there are no marriage certificates or licenses to prove it so I am feeling a bit daunted in that task and is it something I want to take on.
Yesterday I posted on the Williams County Ohio message board of Ancestry.com that I was willing to look up cemetery records for the County since I had all of the books. I already have 3 requests and I was able to help by find the records. One woman said she was dancing for joy and I totally know that feeling. It's like you just put the last piece of a puzzle together, well more like you fit one setion together because there is always more to go, but that section was a doozie!
Anyway I still get a thrill helping others out when my own research has been stalled.
I still have other names that I can input, so do I stop that and concentrate on who was married to who or what?
That is the question for this evening.
Yesterday I posted on the Williams County Ohio message board of Ancestry.com that I was willing to look up cemetery records for the County since I had all of the books. I already have 3 requests and I was able to help by find the records. One woman said she was dancing for joy and I totally know that feeling. It's like you just put the last piece of a puzzle together, well more like you fit one setion together because there is always more to go, but that section was a doozie!
Anyway I still get a thrill helping others out when my own research has been stalled.
I still have other names that I can input, so do I stop that and concentrate on who was married to who or what?
That is the question for this evening.
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Monday, July 25, 2011
Family History Part 2
I'm still on the lookout for Grand Aunt Dorothy's final resting place, so that project is in the works.
In May 2011, I finished entering all 3,000 names into ancestry.com from the Waterston book my grandmother had given me so long ago. If people lived in Ohio or any other states that makes public records accessible it was easy to find more descendants.
In June 2011 I make my annual pilgrimmage to visit my family in Toledo, Ohio. This time I spent many days making my mother drive to Williams County Ohio, where she is from and where most of my family history is located.
I was able to meet with a few people/distant cousins that I had met on facebook while I was there. I met Janet Duvall (Boyer lineage) at the Old West End Festival. I met Rick Sickmiller (Haines, Waterston, Bauer, and Shaffer lines) and his sister, Ronda Roose in Montpelier, Ohio. Rick was visiting from Texas, so it was perfet timing. And I met with Marilyn McCrea Smith (Waterston, Bauer lines) the following week. Marilyn had the most amazing photo of Simon and Cyrena Waterston and their grown children, spouses, and children. My great grandfather, Lloyd Hays was in that photo as a young boy. I don't know what it is but I am just fascinated by it.
Anyway I was able to give Marilyn a few things she didn't have and she was able to get a copy of that photo to me. I love it when I have other information that others are looking for.
My father drove up to Toledo, Ohio from North Carolina where he retired to and brought a lot of my grandmother's genealogy information. I now have thick bound books of Bauers, Haines, and Hamps to add to my ancestry family tree. I also found an old family record book that didn't have much in it, but I'm so glad I finally took a closer look.
My 3rd great grandfather, Lorenz Bauer, was the only one I had information on until I read in the book that his sister, Mary Barbara KRAFT died ... I added her and voila, records from census information in Carroll County, Ohio came up. Little questions that I had were being answered. Apparently his father and mother had traveled to Williams County to visit and his mother died. Then his father died back in Carroll County.
I also found their headstone/grave marker on the Find A Grave website. I LOVE that website.
I think that is about where I am right now. I joined the Williams County Genealogical Society and the Ohio Genealogical Society. I have access to searches in the OGS library but I haven't found anything useful yet. I also joined archives.com but I cancelled my account since nothing was coming up for me and I already ancestry.com - not much can beat that!
When you are on ancestry.com it connects you to other people who seem to have the same person in their family tree. I found someone in Fresno, California who was so happy that I had Bauer information. And I was just happy she wrote back!
I also just recently found someone whose family came out to Oregon, then his grandparents moved to Arizona, then his mother moved back to Oregon, so I might get to meet him sometime since he still has family in AZ. He had photos that I wanted to add to my family tree, so it was great for me to meet him. And both of these people are on facebook so I can connect with them that way until we meet.
In May 2011, I finished entering all 3,000 names into ancestry.com from the Waterston book my grandmother had given me so long ago. If people lived in Ohio or any other states that makes public records accessible it was easy to find more descendants.
In June 2011 I make my annual pilgrimmage to visit my family in Toledo, Ohio. This time I spent many days making my mother drive to Williams County Ohio, where she is from and where most of my family history is located.
I was able to meet with a few people/distant cousins that I had met on facebook while I was there. I met Janet Duvall (Boyer lineage) at the Old West End Festival. I met Rick Sickmiller (Haines, Waterston, Bauer, and Shaffer lines) and his sister, Ronda Roose in Montpelier, Ohio. Rick was visiting from Texas, so it was perfet timing. And I met with Marilyn McCrea Smith (Waterston, Bauer lines) the following week. Marilyn had the most amazing photo of Simon and Cyrena Waterston and their grown children, spouses, and children. My great grandfather, Lloyd Hays was in that photo as a young boy. I don't know what it is but I am just fascinated by it.
Anyway I was able to give Marilyn a few things she didn't have and she was able to get a copy of that photo to me. I love it when I have other information that others are looking for.
My father drove up to Toledo, Ohio from North Carolina where he retired to and brought a lot of my grandmother's genealogy information. I now have thick bound books of Bauers, Haines, and Hamps to add to my ancestry family tree. I also found an old family record book that didn't have much in it, but I'm so glad I finally took a closer look.
My 3rd great grandfather, Lorenz Bauer, was the only one I had information on until I read in the book that his sister, Mary Barbara KRAFT died ... I added her and voila, records from census information in Carroll County, Ohio came up. Little questions that I had were being answered. Apparently his father and mother had traveled to Williams County to visit and his mother died. Then his father died back in Carroll County.
I also found their headstone/grave marker on the Find A Grave website. I LOVE that website.
I think that is about where I am right now. I joined the Williams County Genealogical Society and the Ohio Genealogical Society. I have access to searches in the OGS library but I haven't found anything useful yet. I also joined archives.com but I cancelled my account since nothing was coming up for me and I already ancestry.com - not much can beat that!
When you are on ancestry.com it connects you to other people who seem to have the same person in their family tree. I found someone in Fresno, California who was so happy that I had Bauer information. And I was just happy she wrote back!
I also just recently found someone whose family came out to Oregon, then his grandparents moved to Arizona, then his mother moved back to Oregon, so I might get to meet him sometime since he still has family in AZ. He had photos that I wanted to add to my family tree, so it was great for me to meet him. And both of these people are on facebook so I can connect with them that way until we meet.
Cousin Removal by Michael John Neill
Precisely determining and documenting "cousin" relationships can be difficult, especially between genealogists and non-genealogists. But even genealogists occasionally have difficulty explaining and understanding family relationships.
There are several reasons for the confusion. Frequently, the major cause is the convoluted nature of many family relationships, which can easily involve multiple spouses, one person with children by several different individuals, extended members of the family living in the household, relatives by marriage becoming confused with relatives by blood, and so on. It doesn't help when a widowed family member then marries another non-blood family relative.
In addition, there are different ways by which "cousin" relationships are determined. One method frequently used is what I'll call the "removed" system of determining relationships. I had never heard of this system until I started doing genealogy; in my own background, determining the degree of cousinship was a simple matter of counting down the generations—the "counting" system.
Both systems agree on what a first cousin is: two individuals who share a grandparent. I'm not going to make a distinction between those "first cousins" whose parents were siblings and those whose parents were half-siblings. To introduce half-first cousins into our discussion would only muddy already murky waters.
Let's visit the non-removed system first with an example.
Under virtually any system, Anne and Oscar are first cousins.
Using the Counting System
According to the counting system, used by many, the following degrees of cousinship would exist.
Using the Removed System
John (common ancestor)
George ----------- brother ------------ Henry
Anne ------------- 1st cousin ----------- Oscar
Bruce ------------ 2nd cousin ----------- Theodore
Caroline ---------- 3rd cousin ----------- Thomas
Caroline's child -- 4th cousin ----------- Thomas's child
It gets a little more confusing when the number of generations is uneven, but it can still be done.
John (common ancestor)
George ----------- brother -------------- Henry
Anne ------------- 1st cousin ----------- Oscar
Bruce ------------ 2nd cousin ----------- Theodore
Caroline ---------- 2nd cousin, once removed to Theodore
Caroline's child -- 2nd cousin, twice removed to Theodore
Caroline's grandchild - 2nd cousin, thrice removed to Theodore
There are online charts that one can print to assist in determining the exact degree of relationship:
How Important Is All of This?
Frankly, I'm not certain. I think that instead of saying someone is my third cousin, it would be better to say we share a great-great-grandparent—or perhaps that our great-grandparents were siblings. That's easier for most of us to understand. Besides, I may have MANY third cousins, all of whom are great-great-grandchildren of one of my great-great-grandparents (remember, most of us have 16 great-great-grandparents). Indicating our common ancestor makes our connection easier to understand.
Does Cousin Always Mean First Cousin?
Absolutely not. Many times the word cousin indicates that two individuals who are "cousins" share some common ancestor. In earlier times, the word cousin may indicate other relationships, occasionally even one that's not by "blood." Cousin can be a vague term, and one should not always assume that two individuals who are "cousins" shared one (or even two) grandparents.
What about Double Cousins?This situation occurs most frequently when siblings from one family marry siblings from another family. The resulting children are double first cousins, because they share all four grandparents (assuming that each set of siblings shared both parents). When multiple relationships are involved, determining the exact relationship can be difficult, and it may be necessary to simply use multiple terms to describe the multiple relationships.
Can It Get Even Worse?The following example uses the "removed" system and comes from my own research. In this example, no one married his (or her) own relative.
If you can't spout off exactly where fifth cousins, twice removed connect, it's OK. Remember, it's better to be able to DOCUMENT the relationship than to be able to remember it off the top of your head.
Michael John Neill, is the Course I Coordinator at the Genealogical Institute of Mid America (GIMA) held annually in Springfield, Illinois, and is also on the faculty of Carl Sandburg College in Galesburg, Illinois. © Copyright 2000, MyFamily.com.
There are several reasons for the confusion. Frequently, the major cause is the convoluted nature of many family relationships, which can easily involve multiple spouses, one person with children by several different individuals, extended members of the family living in the household, relatives by marriage becoming confused with relatives by blood, and so on. It doesn't help when a widowed family member then marries another non-blood family relative.
In addition, there are different ways by which "cousin" relationships are determined. One method frequently used is what I'll call the "removed" system of determining relationships. I had never heard of this system until I started doing genealogy; in my own background, determining the degree of cousinship was a simple matter of counting down the generations—the "counting" system.
Both systems agree on what a first cousin is: two individuals who share a grandparent. I'm not going to make a distinction between those "first cousins" whose parents were siblings and those whose parents were half-siblings. To introduce half-first cousins into our discussion would only muddy already murky waters.
Let's visit the non-removed system first with an example.
- Anne is the mother of Bruce. Bruce is the father of Caroline. Oscar is the father of Theodore. Theodore is the father of Thomas. Anne's father, George, and Oscar's father, Henry, were brothers, sons of John.
| John | ||||||||
| George | Henry | |||||||
| Anne | Oscar | |||||||
| Bruce | Theo | |||||||
| Caroline | Thomas |
Under virtually any system, Anne and Oscar are first cousins.
Using the Counting System
According to the counting system, used by many, the following degrees of cousinship would exist.
- Anne and Oscar: first cousins Anne and Theodore: second cousins Anne and Thomas: third cousins Bruce and Oscar: second cousins Bruce and Theodore: third cousins Bruce and Thomas: fourth cousins Caroline and Oscar: third cousins Caroline and Theodore: fourth cousins Caroline and Thomas: fifth cousins
Using the Removed System
- Anne and Oscar: first cousins Anne and Theodore: first cousins, once removed Anne and Thomas: first cousins, twice removed Bruce and Oscar: first cousins, once removed Bruce and Theodore: second cousins Bruce and Thomas: second cousins, once removed Caroline and Oscar: first cousins, twice removed Caroline and Theodore: second cousins, once removed Caroline and Thomas: third cousins
- Bruce and Theodore are both great-grandchildren of the common ancestor. Their parents shared one set of grandparents. Caroline and Thomas are both great-great-grandchildren of the common ancestor. Their grandparents shared one set of great-grandparents.
John (common ancestor)
George ----------- brother ------------ Henry
Anne ------------- 1st cousin ----------- Oscar
Bruce ------------ 2nd cousin ----------- Theodore
Caroline ---------- 3rd cousin ----------- Thomas
Caroline's child -- 4th cousin ----------- Thomas's child
It gets a little more confusing when the number of generations is uneven, but it can still be done.
John (common ancestor)
George ----------- brother -------------- Henry
Anne ------------- 1st cousin ----------- Oscar
Bruce ------------ 2nd cousin ----------- Theodore
Caroline ---------- 2nd cousin, once removed to Theodore
Caroline's child -- 2nd cousin, twice removed to Theodore
Caroline's grandchild - 2nd cousin, thrice removed to Theodore
There are online charts that one can print to assist in determining the exact degree of relationship:
How Important Is All of This?
Frankly, I'm not certain. I think that instead of saying someone is my third cousin, it would be better to say we share a great-great-grandparent—or perhaps that our great-grandparents were siblings. That's easier for most of us to understand. Besides, I may have MANY third cousins, all of whom are great-great-grandchildren of one of my great-great-grandparents (remember, most of us have 16 great-great-grandparents). Indicating our common ancestor makes our connection easier to understand.
Does Cousin Always Mean First Cousin?
Absolutely not. Many times the word cousin indicates that two individuals who are "cousins" share some common ancestor. In earlier times, the word cousin may indicate other relationships, occasionally even one that's not by "blood." Cousin can be a vague term, and one should not always assume that two individuals who are "cousins" shared one (or even two) grandparents.
What about Double Cousins?This situation occurs most frequently when siblings from one family marry siblings from another family. The resulting children are double first cousins, because they share all four grandparents (assuming that each set of siblings shared both parents). When multiple relationships are involved, determining the exact relationship can be difficult, and it may be necessary to simply use multiple terms to describe the multiple relationships.
Can It Get Even Worse?The following example uses the "removed" system and comes from my own research. In this example, no one married his (or her) own relative.
- My grandfather and a female relative were first cousins (his father and her mother were siblings). My grandfather and this female relative were also second cousins (his maternal grandfather and her paternal grandfather were siblings). My grandfather and this female relative were also third cousins (his maternal great-grandfather and her paternal great-grandfather were siblings).
If you can't spout off exactly where fifth cousins, twice removed connect, it's OK. Remember, it's better to be able to DOCUMENT the relationship than to be able to remember it off the top of your head.
Michael John Neill, is the Course I Coordinator at the Genealogical Institute of Mid America (GIMA) held annually in Springfield, Illinois, and is also on the faculty of Carl Sandburg College in Galesburg, Illinois. © Copyright 2000, MyFamily.com.
Family History
My paternal grandmother, Loretta Haines Barrett, was into our family history as long as I can remember. Unfortunately, I was not. I couldn't care less who these people were especially since they were dead and gone.
Now after most of my family members born before 1920 are long gone I have become a genealogy fanatic. I want to log all of the information I have (way too much) into ancestry.com and find living cousins (albeit distant cousins) on ancestry and facebook.
I started with a book compiled by my grandmother, Loretta Haines Barrett, and Eileen McCrea Traxler, my 2nd cousin 2x removed. The book contains a brief history, their children, and descendants of Alexander and Janet (Forest) Waterston in Williams County, Ohio. It's 92 pages how hard can that be?
I signed up for ancestry.com around December 27, 2010. I remember taking the book and my laptop to my job. When I had breaks I would input as much as I can. I finished with the book around April 2011. Currently I have 47 Waterston descendants on Facebook. Let's say 10 of those are family I already knew of and the rest got my crazy message, Hey you don't know me but...and still accepted me as a friend. I do have several who never wrote back and one who said I don't know you even though I tried to explain - I'm not a stalker!
I used to live in Ohio which would have made the searching easier, but now I live in Lake Havasu City, Arizona and I rely heavily on websites to help me find information or contact others.
Some of the best websites I've used are:
I feel like a detective when I'm doing some of this. Most of it was routine, but you really have to match dates and names when working with the census records (watch the spellings in those). I remember someone once saying one of my Grand Aunts was not the biological daughter of my great grandfather, John William Richard. So that was the only spark I needed.
I was able to find a research assistant who lived in Ohio to help me dig around for information. She was able to locate divorce records for my great grandmother, Elva Angeline Edwards Richard's first marriage. She had two girls with her first husband, John Jacob Custar. He wanted to keep one of the girls instead paying Elva $3 a week, but after a few months Elva's new husband, JW and her father, Frank Edwards went and picked up my grand aunt, Pearl.
Now this leads me to an even bigger mystery, the oldest girl apparently died when she was 18 but nobody ever spoke of her at our family gatherings. I have all of the Williams County, Ohio cemetery records and I cannot find her listed under either surname. I was told to check the Montpelier Health Department and they have no record of her. The family lived close to Camden, Michigan and Elva and JW are buried there, so I thought maybe Dorothy is there. I searched the Camden Cemetery with my two cousins and we found nothing. My next move is to write the Hillsdale County, Michigan Health Department.
Now after most of my family members born before 1920 are long gone I have become a genealogy fanatic. I want to log all of the information I have (way too much) into ancestry.com and find living cousins (albeit distant cousins) on ancestry and facebook.
I started with a book compiled by my grandmother, Loretta Haines Barrett, and Eileen McCrea Traxler, my 2nd cousin 2x removed. The book contains a brief history, their children, and descendants of Alexander and Janet (Forest) Waterston in Williams County, Ohio. It's 92 pages how hard can that be?
I signed up for ancestry.com around December 27, 2010. I remember taking the book and my laptop to my job. When I had breaks I would input as much as I can. I finished with the book around April 2011. Currently I have 47 Waterston descendants on Facebook. Let's say 10 of those are family I already knew of and the rest got my crazy message, Hey you don't know me but...and still accepted me as a friend. I do have several who never wrote back and one who said I don't know you even though I tried to explain - I'm not a stalker!
I used to live in Ohio which would have made the searching easier, but now I live in Lake Havasu City, Arizona and I rely heavily on websites to help me find information or contact others.
Some of the best websites I've used are:
- Ancestry.com: without a doubt worth every penny (don't sign up for world, ask me first)
- Find A Grave.com: amazing, ordinary people can post people who have passed on, and ask for photos of their headstones. Find a grave puts out a request to people near the cemeteries who have said they would like to help others.
- Williams County, Ohio (only): Jane Kelly at the Bryan Genealogy Library is a great help. They have a website mywcpl.org that you can search for obituaries. If you find one, the library will locate, copy, and send it to you.
I feel like a detective when I'm doing some of this. Most of it was routine, but you really have to match dates and names when working with the census records (watch the spellings in those). I remember someone once saying one of my Grand Aunts was not the biological daughter of my great grandfather, John William Richard. So that was the only spark I needed.
I was able to find a research assistant who lived in Ohio to help me dig around for information. She was able to locate divorce records for my great grandmother, Elva Angeline Edwards Richard's first marriage. She had two girls with her first husband, John Jacob Custar. He wanted to keep one of the girls instead paying Elva $3 a week, but after a few months Elva's new husband, JW and her father, Frank Edwards went and picked up my grand aunt, Pearl.
Now this leads me to an even bigger mystery, the oldest girl apparently died when she was 18 but nobody ever spoke of her at our family gatherings. I have all of the Williams County, Ohio cemetery records and I cannot find her listed under either surname. I was told to check the Montpelier Health Department and they have no record of her. The family lived close to Camden, Michigan and Elva and JW are buried there, so I thought maybe Dorothy is there. I searched the Camden Cemetery with my two cousins and we found nothing. My next move is to write the Hillsdale County, Michigan Health Department.
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