Family Find: Naturalization Records

For most of us here in the United States, our ancestors immigrated to this country. But how did they become a citizen and what kind of paper trail is available to us as researchers? 

As part of my continuing education, I'm listening to DearMyrtle's Tracing Immigrant Origins Hangouts on Air. This week's assignment: Post a blog or create a Google Doc with an immigration or naturalization paper that mentions your ancestor. In my previous family find post, I wrote about my grandmother's journey to the United States and the information found on her ship's passenger list. So I now know exactly when she arrived in the United States. But, when did she become a citizen?

Although the passenger list stated she was heading for Chicago, I know through other research (census records and city directories that she eventually settled in Oswego, New York. Since that is much closer to my home, I started there. The Oswego County Records Center website lists their holdings and they include: "Naturalization Records - Available beginning in 1829. Records from 1829 - 1906 contain only minimal information. After 1906, the complete naturalization records are available up to 1957." Since my grandmother arrived in 1913, there was a good chance I might find her complete naturalization packet so I made the trip.

Within the Records Center, there was a medium sized filebox that contained index cards by last name so I could quickly flip through to see if my grandmother had records here. I found her card and presented it to the archivist on duty. She then pulled the information from another room, made a photocopy and presented me with the following record which I will forever cherish:

Oswego, New York, Naturalization Records, 1829-1957; Certificate of Naturalization, Martha Gambino, 20 August 1943; Oswego County Records Center, Oswego.

They did not have her entire naturalization packet which would have included her declaration of intent, but I'm grateful they had this certificate, especially with the priceless photo and signature.

What I learned from this document was that even though my grandmother arrived in this country at age 5, she did not become a citizen until age 34. She changed her first name to Martha which is a more Americanized version of Mattia. They provided a lot of descriptive information including eye, and hair color, height and weight, marital status and nationality.  And, as one of my cousins pointed out when I shared this on Facebook, they listed her complexion as DARK even though her skin was porcelain white. Whether this was a clerical error or whether all Italians were listed as dark skinned is indeterminate.

There is one thing on the document which perplexes me so I will have to do a little more digging. In the bottom right corner the word "SPECIAL" is typed. I don't know whether that refers to the status of the Deputy Clerk or if this pertains to the document in whole. As per usual, finding answers always leads to more questions.

*********************************************************************************

If you would like to share your own family find, please email us at:  contactus@newbiegenealogist.com with a brief description of what you would like to post.  Sharing our stories and records is the best way for us all to learn from each other.  Whether you are an experienced researcher or just starting out, we all have knowledge from which others could benefit so don't be shy.

Digging for Duplicates

So you've spent hours researching and you finally find the record you are looking for.  Yippy!  WooHoo!  You start doing a little happy dance all alone in your office.  What - that's just me.

You finally settle back down in your chair and click the wonderful "View Image" button and this is what you see:

New York State Archives Version

Source Citation:  New York State Archives; Albany, New York; State Population Census Schedules, 1915; Election District: 01; Assembly District: 01; City: Oswego Ward 02; County: Oswego; Page: 02 (as found on Ancestry.com. New York, State Census, 1915 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012). 

Oh no, it's faded and hard to read in spots.  You can't make out all the details and those could be very important.  Well, I guess that's that, right?

Not quite.  After spending a little time learning more about census records, I learned that typically census records were copied and in this case for a State census, a copy would be sent to the State government and the original would be kept at the county level.  For Federal censuses, three copies were often made, one for the State, one for the Federal and the original remained locally.

So, there was potentially another copy of this census floating around.  Great!  After some more digging online I discovered there was an Oswego County Records Center with copies of the 1915 state census.  So, off I went to see if their version was any better and luckily this is what they had:

Oswego County Records Center Version

Source Citation:  Oswego County Records Center; Oswego, New York; State Population Census Schedules, 1915; Election District: 01; Assembly District: 01; City: Oswego Ward 02; County: Oswego; Page: 94.

Much better.  Although the writing can be difficult to read in either case, at least the writing is dark enough to be seen here.  You can actually tell that this is a different handwritten copy based on the alignment of several items in the last column but the information is the same - just a little more legible in most cases.

So, I guess there are a couple of morals to this story - 1)  Don't do your happy dance too soon and 2) If the record you find is not readable for some reason - don't be afraid to dig for duplicates.  There may be one out there just waiting to be found and it may be in a local archive or records center like this one was for me.

Good luck and happy digging.

Family Find: Much More Than a Passenger List

When we hear the words "passenger list," what comes to mind is a piece of paper with just a long list of names.  But, passenger lists are so much more.  They can be a great way to discover how our ancestors came to this country and from which country they emigrated, but there can also be a vast amount of other information provided.  While it's great to find names and dates, it's the weaving together of all the facts that recreate our ancestors' stories.

To continue my genealogy education, I've been listening to the Tracing Immigrant Origins Study Group videos in DearMyrtle's Genealogy Community (note:  these videos are archived so you can still view them).  In the first session, a general overview was provided and an introduction to Passenger Lists was discussed.  For the second session, passenger lists will be discussed in more detail so our homework in preparation for that discussion was to locate a passenger list for one of our ancestors and do a blog post about our findings.  DearMyrtle does a great job of bringing everyone into the discussion so we can all learn from each other.

So, without further delay, here is the passenger list for my grandmother, Mattia Lentine:

Source:  "New York, Passenger Lists, 1820-1957," Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 22 Oct 2015), passenger list, S.S. Calabria,  Arrival Date: 3 Nov 1913; Arrival: New York, New York, ancestry filmstrip page 452; Microfilm Serial: T715, 1897-1957; Microfilm Roll: Roll 2214; Line: 25; Page Number: 32, Mattia Lentine, age 4 (provided in association with National Archives and Records Administration(NARA)).

At the age of 4 years old, Mattia left her home in Marsala, Trapani, Sicily, Italy with her mother Rosalie LoGrasso - a 28 year old housewife who could neither read nor write - and traveled 55 miles to Palermo.  The nearest relative remaining in Sicily was Rosalie's father, Antonino LoGrasso.  On 17 October 1913, they boarded the S.S. Calabria in Palermo and began their long trek to the United States...17 days at sea in total.   Three days into their trip, Mattia turned 5 years old and I wonder how they would have celebrated her birthday on the ship.

But then, as I reviewed this document more closely, I noticed a stamp next to my great-grandmother's name and I got chills.  She had been hospitalized during the voyage.  My heart sank as I thought about what this might have been like.  It would have been terrifying for both of them.  I don't know if they would have been separated or who would have taken care of Mattia while her mother was ill.  Thankfully, Rosalie was discharged and they both arrived safely in the U.S.

Trying to move on to happier thoughts, I turned to page 2 to see more about their arrival.  On 3 November 1913, they arrived into the Port of New York in good health and stepped foot on U.S. soil for the first time.  The relative they would join here was Mattia's father, Pietro Lentine at 1520 Low (likely Lowe) Ave. in Chicago Heights, Illinois.  They already had self-paid tickets to Chicago and $25 cash.  The immigration officer listed Rosalie as being 5' 4" tall with fair complexion and brown eyes and hair.  Mattia's height was not listed, but she also was listed with fair skin and brown eyes and hair.

Source:  "New York, Passenger Lists, 1820-1957," Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 22 Oct 2015), passenger list, S.S. Calabria,  Arrival Date: 3 Nov 1913; Arrival: New York, New York, ancestry filmstrip page 453; Microfilm Serial: T715, 1897-1957; Microfilm Roll: Roll 2214; Line: 25; Page Number: 32, Mattia Lentine, age 4 (provided in association with National Archives and Records Administration(NARA)).

Now, moving forward I must search for records in Chicago as I haven't yet found any there.  And, I can try to trace back in Sicily to get back to prior generations.  Although page one of the passenger list did not note the full address for Mattia's grandfather, I may have some other potential clues in this record.  I can see that several people on this voyage were from the same town, Marsala.  Looking at the arrival information on the second page, I see quite a few that were also destined for Chicago.  Using the FAN club (or, Friends, Associates and Neighbors), I may be able to find a connection between some of these people and my family and if so, that may help me find more information in Sicily.

So, I've got a lot more work to do, but it's great to have this passenger list to help tell the story of my grandmother and great-grandmother's journey to the United States. It is so much more than just a list of names.  I hope you find this post interesting, but also I hope it helps you to remember to absorb all of the information in these documents.  It is so easy to search and grab the names and dates that we need for our database and forget about the rest, but within those tidbits of information is where the richness of the story resides.

*********************************************************************************

If you would like to share your own family find, please email us at:  contactus@newbiegenealogist.com with a brief description of what you would like to post.  Sharing our stories and records is the best way for us all to learn from each other.  Whether you are an experienced researcher or just starting out, we all have knowledge from which others could benefit so don't be shy.

To Be or Not To Be - Was That My Question?

How many times have you sat down to do research and stared at the screen unsure of where to start?  How many times have you ended your research session in a totally different place than where you started?  Or, ended up finding information for an ancestor you weren't researching because you got off track?  These are all common issues that genealogists face every time they do research.  So, how can we stay on track?

Create a Plan

As someone new to genealogy, you may periodically find yourself spending hours jumping from website to website trying to find information about your ancestor.  We sometimes call this "falling down the rabbit hole".  While it's terrific to have so many record collections at our fingertips these days, it can also sometimes be a curse.  It's incredibly easy to get distracted by new interests or clues.  Before we even know we're doing it, we can switch gears and end up researching a totally different person or topic.  But, it order to make the best use of our research time, we should really stay focused on one person or topic.  At the same time, we don't want to lose track of those items that catch our attention during our research session even if they are not pertinent to our current subject of research.  After all, those clues could lead us to another piece of valuable information for our family tree.  So, just like for any other goal you want to achieve in life, the best way to achieve your genealogy goals is to create a plan.  Spending the time up front to plan out what you want to research will save you a ton of time when you actually sit down to do that research.  And, the first thing you'll need to do for your plan is define what you are trying to find.

What's Your Question?

While defining a research question sounds easy, you want to make sure your question is well thought out.  Imagine you are providing this question to someone who does not know you or your family at all.  Would they understand your question?  Would they have enough information in the question to be able to do the necessary research?  Is the question narrow enough so they don't waste time searching in the wrong places?

For example, I may start out with a question like "What was the date of my great-grandmother, Georgianna Raymond's, marriage?"  This may seem like a perfectly logical question, but if we needed to use only this question to begin our research, wouldn't we be missing some other useful information?  First of all, this question makes the assumption that Georgianna did in fact get married.  Secondly, I should consider adding any other information I know about Georgianna to make sure I'm researching the correct person in the correct location.  

So, maybe I could change my question to the following:  "If marriage occurred, when and where did Georgianna Raymond, who was born about Oct 1869 in Canada and died on 25 Nov 1942 in Baldwinsville, Onondaga County, New York, USA, marry George A Terrian, who was born about Jan 1862 in Canada and died on 8 Apr 1907 in Oswego, Oswego County, New York, USA?  George and Georgianna had their first son George J Terrian about Jan 1888."

I removed the fact that these are my great-grandparents as that information will not be relevant to a search for their marriage date.  I added both of their birth and death dates (or approximate dates) and locations to narrow the scope of my search.  I will likely want to search records in those two locations first and then if nothing is found, take a look at where they might have traveled in between.  I also added a sentence regarding when their first child was born as this also narrows the time frame during which I will search.  Given Georgianna's birth date, we can reasonably estimate that her marriage occurred sometime between 1884-1888 if they followed normal marriage conventions at the time.  This may not always be the case, so if records aren't found during this time frame I would expand the search parameters.

Following Through

Now that you have your research question, you can proceed with creating a plan of attack.  List out all the places where you might find information regarding this marriage.  I like to use a worksheet to create the list and add the URL links if it's a website I want to search.  In this particular case, I might even create a list for each location since record collections could be vastly different for US records vs. Canadian records.

Once you have a thorough listing of places you want to check, dive in, but check off each item on your list once you've searched it so you don't accidentally repeat the same search.  If you think of other sites or archives to search, just add them to the bottom of your list.  But, what about when you come across something interesting but unrelated, you ask?  For example, maybe I'm in a Canadian records collection that includes birth records as well as marriage and death records and I don't have a birth certificate or register for George Terrian yet.  I might be very tempted to search for that while I'm in this database, but it is not relevant to my current question.  In this case, I would create a separate worksheet of 'Interesting Items That I Want to Come Back To' and add some basic information about what I am interested in and why and I would add a link to the collection.  

The next thing is critical.  Once you record the information on your worksheet, go back to your original research question and re-read it.  It will help you stay on track and retain your focus.  Dive back into your research on that question and continue on until you find your answer.

More Questions Than Answers

You may be asking if you should only work on one question at a time.  That is a matter of preference, but personally, I would say yes and no.  For a single research session, I would recommend focusing on just one question so you don't end up bouncing around and losing a lot of time.  But, I also understand how frustrating it can be when you search and search and search and are not finding the information you want.  Sometimes, switching gears to another person or topic can be refreshing, so overall I think it's okay to have a few open questions available.  I try to keep between 3-5 open questions for research at any given time.  I don't recommend having more than that or it can get confusing and it becomes more difficult to decide which one to work on.

While this is my way of trying to stay focused, this may not be what works for you.  If you have another method, please feel free to share in the comments below.  We are all here to learn from each other so please join in the conversation.  Happy Researching!

October is Family History Month

Did you hear about this yet?  October is Family History Month.  As a newbie like myself, you may be wondering what you can do for Family History Month.  I did some digging to find out what other people are doing to celebrate this month.  You may want to try some of these ideas out for yourself.  I know I will be.

• Pick one ancestor from your tree and share an interesting story about him/her on your favorite social media platform (Facebook, Twitter, etc.)
• Have old VHS or 8MM videos hanging around - why not have them converted into digital files and upload them to YouTube or another video sharing site.  (Note:  You can restrict viewing access to just the people you choose - check the video site's settings before posting)
• Have an old family cookbook or recipe box - try making one of those recipes with your kids or grand kids while discussing your memories of the ancestor whose recipe you are using
• Sit down with the family and just flip through some old photo albums explaining who the various people are and how they are related
• Start a new memory.  Do something special with your own family and take pictures, document your experience and save it in a scrapbook, photo album or one or more of your social media accounts
• Give back to your community by helping someone else find their family.  Participate in an indexing project or volunteer for a cemetery project like Find A Grave's Community Day on October 17th

Make October an extraordinary time for your entire family - past and present.

Should Newbies Attend Conferences?

If you're new to genealogy, you may think that genealogy conferences are for people who have been working on their family trees for a while.  Or, you may think they are for professional genealogists or academic types.  Or, maybe they just seem overwhelming.  Or, maybe you just think you'll stand out like a sore thumb (or a green one like our picture here).

Having attended my very first genealogy conference last weekend, I can tell you without hesitation that all of the above are true.  But, genealogy conferences are for newbies too and standing out in the crowd isn't necessarily the worst thing ever.  Good conferences find a way to include people of all skill levels, backgrounds and interests.

The greatest thing about conferences is that there are multiple sessions going on at the same time and each of these is geared toward a different audience.  You'll find a multitude of topics being discussed and you'll have the opportunity to choose which sessions you attend and which ones you don't.  There are bound to be a few geared toward beginners.  And even some of the more intermediate topics may be extremely helpful to you.  For example, I attended a session on finding Irish townlands.  Before I went to this session, I didn't even know what a townland was, but I learned all about them in this one hour and picked up some great tips and tricks for tracking down my ancestors from Ireland.  So, even though I haven't started researching my ancestors in Ireland yet, I took plenty of notes so when I do, I'll be able to put all those tips to great use.

The second best thing about conferences is the people.  You will meet a ton of other people who are just as passionate about genealogy as you are.  You'll meet everyone from professional genealogists to people who just dabble in it to other newbies like yourself.  I talked with a lot of different people and each one had a slightly different approach to their family history research.  It was fascinating to hear what things other people were working on and where they were stuck.

So, don't worry about being a newbie.  At any level, we are all genealogists.  Do a search to see if there is a conference near you and attend one if at all possible.  You'll learn so much and I know you will have a great time.  If you have any specific questions about conferences, feel free to post them in the comments below.

FREE! - Find My Past Free Weekend Sept. 18th-21st

From 7am on Friday, September 18th (EDT) to 7am Monday, September 21st (EDT), Find My Past is going to unlock the gates and allow free access to their records and newspaper pages.  Find My Past has an extensive collection so this could be a great time to find that elusive document.  While they have a variety of US and worldwide documents, they are best known for their extensive UK collection.  If you are trying to trace your British ancestors, I highly recommend checking out their site and why not check it out while it's free.

Go to findmypast.com/freeweekend to sign up for the free access.  You will need to be logged in on their site to access the free records.  Good luck and happy searching.

CONTEST ALERT!!!

Ultimate Family Tree Chart Templates CD Contest

Prize: Ultimate Family Tree Chart Templates CD
Value:  $29.99

# of Winners to be Chosen:  3

Deadline:  11:50pm CDT on Sunday, September 13th, 2015

Click HERE to see contest details and to enter this contest

Prized Provided by:  Shop Family Tree

Contest Sponsored by:  Geneabloggers.com

More Special Characters to Improve Your Search Results

In follow-up to our previous post, "Using Special Characters To Bubble Up Those Leads," here are a few more special characters that can be used to improve your genealogical search results.  If you are new to genealogy, these characters can be critical to finding that elusive piece of information about your ancestor.

The Tilde (~) Operator

This special character can assist you be searching for the word you list just after the tilde as well as any synonyms for that word.  The tilde can be found on your keyboard just before the number 1 but you have to use shift and that key together to get the tilde to display.  

Maybe you have an ancestor who owned and operated a restaurant in the 1920s.  You might want to try searching with the tilde and the word food.

     Example 1:  "George Terrian" 1910..1930 ~food

If you look closely at your search results, you'll notice search terms appear in bold so you can see which synonyms are being found.  In the above example, search results included the words food, meal and restaurant.

The Minus (-) Operator

Sometimes ours searches provide accurate but undesirable results.  Maybe your ancestor has the same surname as a popular actor or musician.  Or, in my case, a line that produces results about an infamous crime family.  While this would be awesome if my ancestors were actually part of the mafia, they were not so I want to exclude any mafia related items from my search results.

     Example 2:  "Giuseppe Gambino" 1890..1970 -mafia -crime

By using the minus operator, we are able to exclude any mafia or crime related items.  Use caution with the minus sign though.  In this example, I may also be unintentionally excluding other non-mafia related crime activity for my ancestor, if any exists. 

The "site:" Operator

Sometimes in our quest for ancestral information, we want to search a specific website for information.  While most sites have their own search box, some do not or maybe their search display isn't easy to review.  If you want to use your favorite search engine to do the search instead, you can just add the "site:" operator to your query.

     Example 3:  "Thomas*Halligan" 1900..1970 site:fold3.com

This will provide findings only for the site you noted in your query.  Not only can this help you speed up your search on a particular website, but it can also help you determine how much potential information about your ancestor exists on the site.  If it is a paid subscription site, this could help you decide which services are valuable investments and which are not.

Summary

Special characters can really improve your search results and help you to find previously elusive information about your ancestors.  Experiment with mixing and matching these operators to achieve your desired level of results.  And, if you're having trouble remembering all the various characters, see if your search engine has a link for advanced search (i.e., www.google.com/advanced_search).  This will provide you with a fill-in form for all the various options without having to use the special characters.

Please feel free to post in the comments below if this helped you find something new and exciting.

Using Special Characters To Bubble Up Those Leads

The Basic Genealogy Search

Most of us start out using search engines for genealogy by simply typing in the name of our ancestor and maybe the location where they lived.

     Example 1:  Joseph Gambino Italy

While there is nothing wrong with this type of search, we may be missing out on a lot of great information by only searching this one way. There are a variety of ways to search and there are special characters or operators that can help us achieve our research goals.  To obtain the best possible results from our search, we can use special characters to refine our query and ensure only the most promising leads bubble up to the top.

Using Quotes  

When we search using the basic method above, the search engine will look for anything containing the word Joseph and the word Gambino in the same page.  Since we are looking for a name, we would rather have results for the phrase Joseph Gambino together.  To achieve that, quotation marks are used.

     Example 2:  "Joseph Gambino" Italy

By placing quotes around the name of our ancestor, we are telling the search engine that we only want our results to include pages that reference the exact phrase as we have typed it in between those quotes.

The OR Operator

If you read my previous post, you'll know that spelling can be an issue when doing genealogy.  Names were often misspelled.  Names can change or be Americanized.  To search on different variations of a name, we use the OR operator.

    Example 3:  "Joseph Gambino" OR "Joe Gambino" OR "Giuseppe Gambino" Italy

By including each variation in our search, we will now receive results that list any of the above names (as they appear inside the quotes).  Using the OR operator can be the difference between finding one document and finding many documents.

The Asterisk (*) Operator

Not sure if your Ancestor used a middle name or initial.  We definitely don't want to miss out on a document just because we didn't include that information in our search.  An asterisk (SHIFT + 8 on your keyboard) can act as a wildcard so the search engine will know that we want to search for the first word adjacent to or separated by one word from the second word in our quotes.  

     Example 4:  "Joseph * Gambino" OR "Joe * Gambino" OR "Giuseppe * Gambino"

                            OR "Gambino * Joseph" OR "Gambino * Joe" OR "Gambino * Giuseppe"                                 Italy

By including the asterisk, we can account for use of  a middle name or initial even if we don't know what that name or initial may be.  We have also used it here to account for documents that may reference our Ancestor by last name first.

The Range (..) Operator

If your Ancestor has a common name, you may want to narrow your search results even further by limiting your search to a specific date range.  To do this, you can enter the birth and death years separated by two dots.  If you don't have the birth and death years, you can use approximate years.

     Example 5:  "Joseph * Gambino" OR "Joe * Gambino" OR "Giuseppe * Gambino"

                            OR "Gambino * Joseph" OR "Gambino * Joe" OR "Gambino * Giuseppe"

                            Italy 1894..1973  

By using some or all of these special characters or operators, you should be able to better narrow your results so you can reach the records you desire.  I encourage you to try this with your own Ancestor.  Start with the basic search and see what results you get, then add some of the other options above and see if that improves your results.  You may be surprised what bubbles up to the top.  We'd love to see if this helped your research so feel free to share your comments below.

Stay tuned for our next post on even more special characters or operators used for improving your search results.

Poor Spellers Welcome

Spell-check will fix that by Eli Christman is licensed under a 

Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0).  

No alterations to image - www.flickr.com

I don't know about you, but in school I was always the first one out of the spelling bee.  While other kids in my class thought spelling bees were great and thought of them as a fun game, I would dread them and break out in a sweat the moment I heard our teacher say we were going to have one.

Although my spelling has improved a bit over the years, it is still not one of my better skills.  Luckily for me, being a poor speller can actually work to my advantage when it comes to genealogy.  Why is that you ask?  Well, because like me, and maybe you too, there are a whole lot of other bad spellers in the world.  Yes, that's right, we are not alone.

So, as we search for our ancestors by name, remember to search what you think is the correct spelling, but also search for common misspellings of that same name.  The worse your spelling, the easier it will be for you to come up with these alternatives.  Some websites automatically build this in with "exact" or "sounds like" search options, but for others you will need to remember to enter all variations (for example, when you are using a search engine like Google).

Another thing to consider:  don't immediately disregard someone as not being your ancestor just because there is an extra 'e' in the name or the 'h' is missing.  Right now, I'm researching an ancestor with the surname (as I know it) of Terrian.  So far, I have found my ancestor in documents listed as Terrian, Terrien, Therrien, Terren, and even on their grave stone as Teerian.  I'm working with a possible cousin in Canada to track down documents there which may have listed one of my ancestors in this line as L'Italien.  So, as you can see, spelling is not always a good indicator of whether the person listed in the document is indeed your ancestor or not.  This can only be determined by analysing all the claims noted in the document and comparing them to what you know about your ancestor.

So, keep on researching and keep on spellin bd.  ;)

CASE STUDY: Why I Can't Prove When I Was Born

So, as many of you know, when I first started my tree I made a lot of newbie mistakes.  That was one of the driving forces for me to create this blog.  Now that I've watched a few hundred videos and I am starting to better understand the methodology for doing genealogy, re-doing my tree seemed to be a smart idea.  I'm not scrapping everything and starting over, but I am going back to the beginning and re-reviewing the work I've done and making corrections where needed.  Although I'm fairly confident in the actual data I have in my tree, I'm also very confident that my citations are crap or non-existent and there is absolutely no proof of anything using the GPS (Genealogical Proof Standard).

movie-clapper-icon_500x500 by Ilya Sedykh is licensed under a 

Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0).  
No alterations to image - www.flickr.com

Take Two  

Starting with myself, it seemed reasonable to try to prove when I was born first.  Since I had technically already done this research and already had supporting documents, I skipped over a few of the normal steps on my research process list.  If you read my previous post, I jumped down to step 6: Make Note of Your Findings as this seemed to be where things went wrong the first time around.

Documenting Sources

Looking to see what documents were in my database, it turned out that I had a birth certificate, a baptismal certificate, marriage license, and a notation on the US Public Records Index.  I used a tool called Evidentia to record source records and citations for each of these using templates available in that application.

Analysis

Thinking this would be a cut and dried case, the first document I grabbed was my birth certificate.  I made a list of all the information listed in the document - namely my name, the names of my parents, the date on which I was born and the city and state where I was born.  Seems pretty clear and the information answers my question directly.  Done!  Right?  Well, not so fast.  I hit a problem - what I thought was my birth certificate was only a certificate of birth registration.  The only signature on this registration is the local registrar's who likely did not witness my birth.  There is no notation on the document to show who the informant was for my birth.  I checked my other documents and I don't have my actual birth certificate so I'm going to have to request a copy.  So, based on this registration alone, I cannot prove when I was born.

Since it will take some time to get the birth certificate copy, I looked to the other documents I had gathered.  Before I moved on though, I took another look at the birth registration and it was filed only 11 days after the date of birth noted and it is a certified copy so given that it is a government document, it does provide some evidence of my date of birth.  The next document I had was my baptismal certificate that noted my date of birth.  However, the witnesses who signed my baptismal certificate did not necessarily witness my birth also, so that is not proof.  The baptism did occur only 22 days after the noted date of birth though which is consistent with practices for baptisms in the church so it's reasonable that I was baptized as a baby.  Again, supportive but not conclusive evidence.

My marriage certificate was based on a form I filled out and I used that birth registration as proof of my birth for that purpose and it was accepted since it's a certified copy.  Since the birth information is fruit from the same tree, the marriage certificate can't really help me at all.

The last item is just an index and there is no way to tell from what original document the information in it is derived, so that doesn't really help at all either.

Resolving Conflicts

Tug of War by Robert Clemens is licensed under a 

Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-ND 2.0).  

No alterations to image - www.flickr.com

Luckily for me, while the documents I have are definitive proof of my date of birth, they all have one thing in common.  They report the same date.  So, even the items that are not very helpful from a proof perspective, like the Public Record Index, still at least support and give credence to the other documents as it reports the same date.

Conclusion

So, for now, my conclusion is that I can not definitively prove when I was born.  I did note the steps I went through above and stated that I believe the date of birth noted on the registration is correct.  I noted my next steps are to request and obtain a copy of my birth certificate from the county vital records office.  I can not complete my conclusion until that document is reviewed in conjunction with my other documents.  If it were to say that I was born a month earlier, then there would be a major conflict to deal with and it would be a more powerful indicator of the date if it is signed by my parents and/or a hospital physician.  So, for now I can't prove when I was born.

I hope walking through this situation will help other newbies like me begin to understand the importance of using the GPS.  While it may seem a little silly, especially using myself as an example, the process should be the same for my own records as it is for any of my ancestors.  If I were to overlook something like this while researching an ancestor, I could end up with the wrong person in my tree and spend a lot of time and money researching someone else's family.  And worse, with the ease of sharing information online, someone else could potentially merge my bad data with theirs and that would cause them to go down the wrong path also.  My hope is that writing up these type of cases will help prevent others from ending up in this situation.

Circle Shmircle - Here's My Version of the Research Process

I don't know about you but I don't like spinning around in circles very much unless I'm on the Tilt-A-Whirl at a local field days.  There are a lot of people who will say that the research cycle is a circular process that flows from one stage to the next until it swings back around to the beginning and repeats over and over again.  I don't know about you, but that thought makes me a little loopy, forgive the pun.

There was a business law professor at the college I attended who would write all of his notes on the board in lists.  He would always say, "I know how you Accountants love your lists."  Most of the class members were Accounting majors.  And yes, we do love ours lists.  Personally, I love all kinds of lists - Grocery Lists, To-Do Lists, Honey-Do Lists, Pro-Con Lists... I could go on and on.  These lists help people prioritize the things they need to accomplish and help them achieve their goals.  Therefore, it seems perfectly reasonable to extend this practice to genealogy.

There are a million different ways to approach research and no one way is the right way.  It's just a matter of finding what works best for you.  But, at least for the time being, here is my...

Research Process List:

1.  Pick a research subject

Who's up next in your tree (remember - start with yourself and work backward... no skipping ahead)

2.  Form a research question

Figure out one small fact you want to learn about this person

3.  Make a list

I know, I know... A list within a list.. who'd have thunk it.  Write down all the possible places where you might be able to find the answer to your question.  Don't actually start researching yet, just build the list of possibilities

4.  Check it twice

It's good enough for Santa, so why not for you too.  Take a second look at your list and see if there are any sources you might have missed.  Ask your family for their opinion (sometimes they may even have a document or two laying around).  Ask other researchers to take a look at your question and your list of possible sources - they may have some other possibilities for you to consider

5.  Dive in

Work your way down through your list and dig, dig, dig for all the possible records you can get your hands on.  Look high, look low, leave no stone unturned

6.  Make note of your findings

For every piece of information you find, you'll need to create a citation.  This might seem overwhelming at first - for now, just write down notes or take photos of anything pertaining to this source and how you found it.  Imagine you lost your memory and the only thing you could rely on to find this document again was your notes.  Be as thorough as possible

7.  Look it all over

So, what did you end up finding?  If you equated your research process to fishing, would your catch of the day be a big tuna or a little minnow.  If it's a minnow, you may have to cast that line back out there again until you catch something a little bigger

8.  Compare all your information

Does the information you found directly answer your question?  Or, do you have to make some hypothesis about what this information is telling you?  If so, can you think of any other way to confirm this hypothesis or refute it?  You'll need to analyze all the information individually and in relation to all other evidence to determine whether it is useful to you or not

9.  Resolve any conflicting information 

Inevitably, you'll end up with documents that state conflicting information.  Make sure you fully understand how this information came to be in order to make a determination about the reliability and accuracy of each piece of evidence.  Make an informed decision about which information is correct

10.  Write down your conclusion

Have the memory of an elephant?  You may think so, but do you really want to chance it?  You're going to have an awful lot of information floating around in your head after you work on your family tree for a while.  Best to write down your conclusion.  Just write the answer to your question and a few lines that explain what steps you took as part of this research process in order to reach that conclusion - hint: it can even be in a list format

How To Make a Family Tree on Paper

Getting Started

When starting out, it is very easy to be seduced by the ease of technology or the flashiness of corporate marketing.  You may be convinced you have to create your family tree in a software application or in an online tree, but that's not your only option or even the best option for starting out.  The reality is that these tools can sometimes be overwhelming to the beginner genealogist, so why not learn how to make a family tree on paper first.

We're going to start out really high tech here, so brace yourself.  Take out a sheet of paper and a pen or pencil (preferably a pencil so you can erase if needed).  Regular paper, graph paper, construction paper, whatever you have is fine.  You even have permission to rip a piece of paper out of a spiral notebook, full of fringes and all.

Wakefield Family Tree by Shelly is licensed under a 
Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0). 
Based on a work at www.flickr.com.

At the bottom center portion of that paper, write your name and birthdate and place you were born (if you don't know all of these, that's okay - just write down what you know).  Then, work your way back in time moving up the page.  List your parents and their birthdate and place of birth if known, grandparents, great-grandparents, etc. until you written down all the ancestors you know of.

Ok, good.  Now, I want you to crumple up that piece of paper and throw it away.

Gotcha!  Wait - Don't do it.  You don't have to throw it away.  But keep in mind that feeling you just had - that sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach when something you worked hard at ends up in the trash.

Taking a Second Look

Take a look at the information you just created again starting with your own name at the bottom.  Now think of a question about your information.  Something like, how do I know that is my name?  Was I really born in 1971? - yup, I'm dating myself here.  Am I sure I was born in the city where I live now?  Genealogy is all about answering questions, so it's always good to start with one.

Let's start with your name.  What proof do you have of your name?  Do you have a driver's license that shows your name, your social security card, a birth certificate, your Mom's testimony.  These are what we call sources and they help us confirm that the information we put in our tree is correct.  It is important to locate and scrutinize sources as we do our research to make sure we place the correct people in our tree.

Beyond Repair by aehdeschaine is licensed under a 
Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-ND 2.0) 
Based on a work at www.flickr.com.

Remember that sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach.  Well, imagine how much worse it would be if you traced your family back ten generations only to find out that one of the people you thought was an ancestor back in generation four is not really your ancestor.  All of that hard work would basically be trash and nobody wants that.

Where To Go From Here

Genealogy is the process of answering questions about our lineage one by one and documenting the sources we find that prove our claims.  Stayed tuned for our next post on the research cycle for more information on how to do genealogy.  And later on, we'll show you how to make a family tree on paper using a variety of templates - something without all those paper fringes on the side.  Until then, keep asking and answering those questions.

Don't Follow That Ancestry Leaf

Well, at least don’t follow that Ancestry leaf...for now.

Ancestry.com’s advertisements show all these wonderful flowing leaves moving back in time and finding your ancestors. They claim, “Simply type in a name and follow the Ancestry leaf…” and “You don’t have to know what you’re looking for. You just have to start looking.” Many other online family tree applications have similar hint generators. And, while ancestry hints can be extremely helpful, following them blindly doesn’t start you out on the best path for your research. Trust me, I know.

Green leaf of Tamarillo by epSos.de is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0).
Based on a work at www.flickr.com.

I had started a really basic family tree over 10 years ago, but at the time I didn’t have the time or resources to pursue the research. My tree, which I created on Ancestry.com, just sat there all that time. Then, in January of this year, I began seeing a lot of Ancestry’s ads on T.V. and well... they worked.

I subscribed to Ancestry.com and immediately followed their instructions. I opened that tree created so long ago and followed that first ancestry leaf on my father’s profile. I was immediately hooked and I had a blast. All kinds of ancestry hints popped up with records and photos and other people’s trees and I attached all the ones that looked correct based on names I had heard my family members mention. I merged data and people from other members’ trees with my own without checking to see if they had any sources attached. If it looked okay, I attached it.

After several months, conflicting records and information started to rear it's ugly head. I was no longer getting the ancestry hints that would take me back another generation. My little ancestry leaf was not leading me to the information I needed. So, it was time to look elsewhere for more info on this whole genealogy thing.  Where did I need to go next for more hints?  I watched hundreds of videos and went to webinars online and it turns out that I went about this all wrong.

Now, I have a tree with over 500 people in it with questionable sources, almost no citations, and no real proof that anyone I have in my tree is actually my family. I’ve just collected a bunch of ‘stuff’. And, to make it worse, looking at all the stuff I have and knowing that I have to go through it all again is completely overwhelming.

So, I decided to create this site for other newbies just like me. Hopefully, I can stop at least one other person from blindly following their leaf hints. Don’t worry, we won’t ignore them forever. We just have to learn a few basic principles before we dig in. Check out our GPS tab to review a summary of the Genealogical Proof Standard which we’ll use going forward. I’ll also create posts about each standard and go into more detail. Feel free post questions, comments, or basically anything (except spam).

Leaf Pile by lecates is licensed under a 
Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0).  
Based on a work at www.flickr.com

If you’re in the same boat as me and have a messy tree, hang in there. You’re not alone. We’ll start at the beginning and work through it a piece at a time. It’s an achievable goal and we can do it. We’ll be in this together so at least we can give each other moral support along the way.

Once we get the research cycle down, we’ll dive into that pile of ancestry leaf hints to find the answers we are looking for and we’ll know exactly what to do with that information when we find it. The end result will be an accurate and substantiated family tree.