When It's Hot, Turn on Your FANs!

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Electric Fan Vectors by Vecteezy


When it's hot, we get out the fans to cool off. 


MaryLynn

Recently, a submitter on Facebook declared she was going to stop researching individual people and start researching families. She discovered that she had more success by looking for the family first. Most researchers probably reach this conclusion as a necessary research method because it is the way to identify ancestors, especially when common names are involved.

Finding Patterns

Researching ancestors' siblings can help explain use of given names that do not follow a certain pattern. In my Stowe family, there are two men with the name George Marshall Stowe; one was my grandfather and the other was his uncle. Neither "George" nor "Marshall" had ever been used as given names and Marshall was also not a surname in the family. I had always wondered about the source of the names.

One day I decided to look at my 2nd- great-grandmother's siblings and discovered that one sister, Anna Burnham, had married Erastus Lease and had a son, George Marshall Lease born December, 1814.  In 1833, at age 18, the boy was killed. Apparently Anna was pregnant at that time and named the baby George Marshall as well because later censuses show a George Marshall Lease born about 1833.

In 1839 my 2nd-great-grandmother, Achsah Burnham Stowe gave birth to a boy named George Marshall Stowe, probably in honor of the deceased cousin. In the next generation, my grandfather was born in 1870 and also named George Marshall Stowe. I would never have known that source without looking at siblings.

Of course we have all finally found an elusive, misspelled couple living next door to the bride's brother! This is all part of thorough searching including the FAN club.


What the "family" FAN Club Looks Like


George H & Martha Willis McBee's 4 generations of descendants

Valorie


When it's hot, we get out the fans to cool off. 

But genealogy researchers use FANs no matter what the weather! Friends, Family, Associates and Neighbors are often the key to finding the people you are looking for -- and for finding their life story. We do not pop out of space; we are born to mothers and raised (hopefully) by a loving family in a supportive community. Even when the stories of people's lives are more difficult, those surrounding each person are a critical part of the story. 


See above an image from Puzzilla showing four generation of descendants from my 3rd-great-grandparents GH & Martha Willis McBee. I have some work to do to fill this out in the FamilySearch Family Tree! Each person sheds some light on the rest of the family, as in MaryLynn's example.

Every Detail Helps

The FAN club is part of the context, because people are the ones interacting with one another, with nature, with events, large and small. One thing I've begun to do in my research is to note the small details in every record, especially those concerning other family members. This was a wonderful part of Winona Laird's recent Beginning Genealogy classes. The homework each week was to take apart a record, and note every detail. 

Building Better Research Habits

Recently I've been going back over some of my early research in my own branch of the McBee family, part of a larger project documenting and proving the descendancy of each of my third-great-grandparents, George Henry McBee and Martha Willis McBee. It's frustrating to have to go back to the records and note the dates and places already found, but which I never bothered to notice when I found them.

Researching the entire family is so rich! And I didn't know that when I started. Sometimes the tiniest detail about one sibling breaks open the life of their parents, or another sibling - perhaps your current focus.

Note Other Relationships

Now that both FamilySearch FamilyTree and RootsMagic allow you to note other relationships, (besides parents, sibs and marriages) you can begin to note this web of relationships which illuminate the whole community. Who were the pastors or priests marrying couples? Who were the men witnessing wills, buying and selling land to your ancestors, buying personal items at estate sales? Sometimes these are vital clues, especially when researching women, who are often unnamed in records, or called only Mrs. (or Widow) HusbandName. Now we can note who the midwife or family doctor was, and perhaps that couple who married were not only spouses, but also cousins. 

We would love to hear comments to this blog about your experiences with your FAN club!

PS: as a follow-on to the 4-generation descendancy chart, see how much work I have ahead. Here is the 6-generation image: 

GH & Martha's 6 generations of descendants




Valorie Zimmerman
    

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