Adventures in Genealogy Research

-

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Treasure_hunter.jpg

Have you ever started a crazy-seeming project? Labor Day weekend is our annual work party up at our cabin outside the Mt. Rainier National Park, where we cut, split and stack the winter's firewood, and do general fix-up and cleanup jobs. 

Dad, Ted Cowan, cutting wood ca. 1979

For me, it was an attempt at some family tree repair, but without any internet. My daughter brought up her mother-in-law, and I had prepared for the conversation by creating some screenshots of her part of the family tree. That was somewhat productive, because I realized I had followed her step-mother's line rather than her mother's -- because her stepmother's obituary mentioned her as a daughter by her unusual name, so I just knew I was right! But this was the first time she had seen my (incorrect) work. 

A few days ago, I drove up to to Seattle to spend the afternoon with her, taking a fresh look at the tree. One of the first hints for her on Ancestry was the 1950 census, showing her and her parents living with her mother's parents. She was 3 years old. As we talked, it became obvious that right around this time, her parents were ending their marriage and divorcing. Once the tree was corrected, and the relationships were properly assigned, all the stories I had heard about her dad, his second wife, her (half) sisters and (evil) step-father made sense!

I had a similar experience earlier in the week, because questions had come up during the weekend about the original builders of our cabin, and identities of some of the people were in various old photos which had been taken in years past. I woke up one morning and had a crazy idea - why not make a tree for the cabin itself? I didn't see how that could work, at first, but I started with the people I thought I could find in public records, especially the Washington State Digital Archives.

I learned so much! I realized as I worked that these folks were my parents' FAN club. The first marriage record I found, for Jack and Marilyn, I saw that Ken (one of the other founders) was a witness! Once I began finding this marriage information, I quickly added a new practice to my routine when noting a marriage. Because my "main" tree is at Ancestry.com, my examples will be from that platform, but it should be possible to capture information from each record in the same way. Witnesses are FANs; Friends, Associates or Neighbors. Here's an example:

Add witnesses to the marriage record in Ancestry.com

It only takes a second, and then the information is at your fingertips. Saving such information is even easier in any of the popular family tree applications for your computer, and can also be added into the FamilySearch Family Tree online. See https://www.familysearch.org/en/help/helpcenter/article/add-other-relationships to see how.

It took me a day or two to think of how to link these four founder families together in one tree. Unconventional, but this tactic sort of works: add the cabin as a "child" of each founding couple, and then redefine the relationship as "relative." So my sister and I show up as siblings to the cabin, which is funny. 

I added tags for all the present-day cabin owners, and past ones too, who were mostly family members of the founders, or friends.

Finally, I wrote to the living folks in the tree and asked if they wanted to be invited. A couple of people were quite interested, including my husband, who has been combing his computer for old photos and uploading them. This is the most interest he's ever shown in my trees, including those for his own family! Here's what he found and photoshopped to get both of my parents' old Ramblers in front of the early 60s-era cabin, with the stickers still on the windows: 


This has been such a fun project! 

Meeting Reminder--Saturday, September 16; 9:30-10 am PT - Social Time,10am PT - SKCGS General Meeting and Speaker  Register at SKCGS.org

Julie Stoddard presents "Seeing the Hidden Evidence: Strategies to Improve FAN Club Research"


In the same way, branching out to collateral lines really brings light and understanding into the research. FAN research brings depth that is impossible to get any other way - friends, neighbors and associates are the the people we move among, because humans are social beings. We are more than a collection of names and dates; we live in our stories and those of our ancestors.

PS: There is a fantastic genealogy show called Genealogy Adventures Live, and the title of this blog was inspired by their wonderful work.


Valorie Zimmerman c.1957


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Looking for a Needle in a Haystack? GAME CHANGER at FamilySearch

-
Image
Generated with Bing ImageCreator (AI), March 13, 2024 Where is YOUR Needle, Your Missing Record? Genealogical Proof Standard When we use the GPS (Genealogical Proof Standard) as our guide, we all know that "exhaustive research" can be both tedious and exhausting. Is life long enough to search page by page through all the counties where all the members of a family might have lived, paid taxes, bought, leased or sold property, made a will or died intestate? It is possible that the new Full Text Search at FamilySearch will  eventually  allow us to do just that. It has been estimated that 75% or more of the records at FamilySearch were browsable but not searchable; the only indexes those found in the records themselves. Those records are certainly attainable by using those indexes and browsing to the record of interest, but the process is tedious, often frustrating, and slow. And once found, the record must be read and transcribed to be useful. This new Full Text Search tackles a...
Read more

What's the Question?

-
Image
We genealogists are often told by experienced researchers how important it is to begin with a research question. I resisted doing this for a long time, but now that I use a series of questions to guide my research, the search is more focused and actually finds more of the history of the family I'm investigating. I use a Google Doc as the  research proceeds, where I keep the question(s), the plan, timelines, checklist of resources to search, etc. all in one place. I've seen others use spreadsheets in the same way, perhaps splitting up things in tabs (Excel or Google Sheets). I prefer a document because I add source citations as I find them and I can begin writing up the case right there in the doc as the hypotheses are proven. Specific Questions in Previous Successes As beginners we often have no clue how much and what details we already know about a person, event or relationship, so it's hard to specify what we want to know. But when looking back at successful research, it ...
Read more

Help Save This Abused and Neglected Cemetery

-
Image
Screen capture from Google Maps History In an exchange of emails this past week in both the main SKCGS group, and in the Washington-State-Genealogy group, many facts were revealed about the history of the I.O.O.F. Comet Lodge Cemetery, also known as the Old Burying Ground, the Georgetown Cemetery, the Graham Street Burying Ground and maybe more.  FindAGrave sums it up this way: "Since it was established in 1881, the Comet Lodge cemetery site has been whittled away to less than half its original 5 acres. Records are sketchy but it's safe to say that some 500 pioneers were buried here, atop unknown numbers of native Duwamish people. New burials ended in the 1930s. Since then, homes and streets were built on top of many of the plots as the neighborhood around the cemetery grew.  "Upkeep and ownership of the cemetery bounced between the city, civic groups, relatives of Comet Lodge residents, and nearby neighbors. For years, much of the property was allowed to deteriorate int...
Read more