Adventures in Genealogy Research

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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


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