Record Sources Quick & Easy

Sourcing.  Yes, we all know we’re supposed to do it.  And yes, if we’ve been at this long enough, we’ve suffered from our own self-inflicted pains of not sourcing.  The challenge for me over the many methods I’ve tried is finding a way to do it that is super quick & easy (because recording the source isn’t as fun as reading the good stuff I just found!), but still gets all of the requisite information to find the source again.

• What is sourcing?  I’ll pause here for a quick primer on sourcing just in case this sourcing business is as confusing to you as it has been for me.  Sourcing is all about recording the authority of the information (the source) you have and the repository (where you found it).  The most common example is a book.  The information found in the book is accredited to the source – the name of the book.  The repository is the library, archive or relative’s house where you found the book.  What do you record about your source?  The best rule of thumb I’ve found is everything you’d need to know to find the source, keeping in mind that others, maybe 50 years from now, may want to chase down that source, too.  So, “grandma’s attic” for the repository may be a little cryptic…if you don’t know who “grandma” is and where “her attic” is located.  For the definitive authority on citations and sourcing, turn to Elizabeth Shown Mill’s book, Evidence Explained.

Back to the subject at hand, the nifty little tool for sourcing I found.  It’s a pad of Post-It notes with a form for sourcing information printed on each page!  All of the information you will most likely need to collect is referenced on the form.  You don’t need to remember what to collect.  The lines are far enough apart to accommodate handwrititng – which is awesome for someone like me who has BIG handwriting.  And because they are paper-based and not an electronic program, they are 100% portable.  I keep a pad in my genealogy bag or purse whenever I’m on the ancestor hunt.

Here’s a perfect example of how I use them.

I’m at the Midwest Genealogy Center, zipping along pulling down local histories and books with birth, marriage, or death record transcriptions.  If the “genealogy gods” are with me, I’ve found several pages worth copying and adding to my files.  So, I make the copies – always include the cover page.  Then I pull out my pad of source post-it notes, and before I return the book to the shelf-for-refiling spot, I collect all the information I need.  I slap the post-it on the cover page of the source, and I’m done!

At this point you may be wondering where to get these little jewels.  Well, wonder no longer.  They are a fund raising product for the Silicon Valley Genealogy Society.  (bonus! helping out a society with a purchase) You can order them here.  They come by mail and in a nifty zip top back with a golf pencil with eraser!

If you do choose to get some, let me know how they work out for you.  Or if you have any tricks for recording sources, weigh in on that, too!

Happy researching.

That’s what happened to me the other day.  When I came across this predicament, I was determined to find the answer.  And like a little beaver, I kept at it until I found the link and could prove it.

Here’s the story & the research method I used to make the connection.  I’m hopeful you may find it helpful for your research, too.

This is what I knew.

• Juliana Schwartz (maiden name) was born in Germany in 1834.  By 1855 she was married to Joseph Simon and living in Fulda, Spencer County, Indiana.
• Mary Catherine Schwartz (also maiden name) was born in Fulda, Spencer County, Indiana in 1867.

Fast forward to 1880, and here’s what we find.

• Juliana Schwartz Simon and her husband, Joseph Simon are living in Sedgwick County, Kansas.
• And so is Mary Catherine Schwartz – unmarried.

Can you see why I thought they might be related?  Two women with the same maiden name both were living in Fulda, IN and again in Sedgwick County, KS.  Humm… So, much of genealogy is about not jumping to conclusions and assuming relationships that aren’t there.   However, I was willing to go out on a seemingly short limb to chase this one down.

What I didn’t know going into this was anything about Juliana’s birth family – parents or siblings, nor did I know anything about where Mary Catherine came from.  So I had my work cut out for me, researching two women with only maiden names to go by.

The Research Plan

My goal was to frame out, build, construct Juliana’s family and see if Mary Catherine hung off of her tree.  The steps rolled out as follows.

Step #1.  Find Juliana as an unmarried woman in the 1850 US Census with her birth family.

Step #2.  Find Juliana’s family in the 1860 Census to see if it matches up – albeit with her out of the house and maybe living nearby with her husband, Joseph Simon.

Step #3. Build out the extended family descending from Juliana’s siblings to see if Catherine shows up.

The Research Work

I fairly quickly found a Juliana Schwartz that met the age profile in the family of John and Barbara Schwartz in Pennsylvania (remember she’s in Indiana in 1860) in the 1850 Census.   Okay, this looks promising.  So, I open up a handy Excel spreadsheet and list the family members with their birth dates, birth locations, and age in a column headed 1850 PA Census. (see above)  What I didn’t do – and lesson learned – is to include the sexes of each family member.  You’ll see why in a minute.

The next step was to find the family – again without Juliana – in the 1860 Census.  If this is indeed my family, they would probably be in the Indiana area, if they followed or lead Juliana there.  It seems possible, that as new lands opened up, property would be cheaper, and settlers moved west.  A migration to Indiana from Pennsylvania would make sense.

So, I found a Schwartz Family in Spencer County, Indiana.  I took out the spreadsheet I started earlier.  Added a second set of columns titled, and plugged in the same information as before. (see above)  It made it very clear what information matched up and what didn’t.  This family didn’t quite look like the family I found in Pennsylvania.  First of all, John. the father, was missing.  Second, the second child, Frances, was a girl (in 1850 the second child was Frank, a boy) and born 7 years later.  Finally, the youngest son wasn’t there either.  Juliana was, as expected, out of the house since she married in 1855 and therefore not with this suspected birth family in 1860.

Rats.  So close.

The Solution

There were several pieces that fell into place that ultimately made the connection. I went to the Midwest Genealogy Center, and pulled down the books on Spencer County, Indiana.

• The newspaper abstracts from the period listed the death of John in 1855 – suicide.  (Sadly it was just a month before Juliana moved to Kansas.  Maybe it was the reason for the move?)  So now we know why John wasn’t in the 1860 Census.
• I went back to the 1850 US Census for PA to look at the sex of each family member.  Frances, it turns out, though spelled with an “e” is a boy!  So, even though there was a 7-year discrepancy in the birth dates Frances & Frank looked like they could be the same person.
• The cemetery transcripts for St. Boniface Cemetery in Fulda, Spencer, Indiana (again at Midwest Genealogy Center) listed the graves of Frank and Mary Philomena (Klum) Schwartz.  Ah ha!  Juliana had a brother named Frank/Frances/Franz, who lived & died in Fulda, Spencer County, Indiana.
• The final step was to look for Frank & Mary Schwartz in the 1860 Indiana Census.  If they had a daughter of the right age named Mary Catherine, the mystery would be solved.  And, yes, she was there. (Interestingly, the Frank & Mary Schwartz migrated to Missouri before making it to Kansas.)

As it turned out Mary Catherine was Juliana’s niece.  And she followed her to Kansas, where she married, and as they say “lived happily ever after.”

Lessons Learned

I love genealogy simply and richly because it is an ongoing learning experience.  What I learned with this project includes -

• Check the sex of each person listed in the Census.  It makes a difference.
• Just because I knew Frances with an “e” is usually a girl, doesn’t make it true every time.
• I love spreadsheets.  It came in very handy when comparing a family across two Censuses – among other things.
• There were materials such as the newspapers abstracts and the cemetery transcripts which made all the difference in putting the puzzle together.
•  Follow the research all the way through. If I’d have stopped and assumed the 1850 family & the 1860 family were the same – or not the same –  and not pulled other records, I could have either made the wrong conclusion or missed hitting a land mine that would have derailed everything.

Finally, wow this was fun.  I’m eager to find another mystery to solve.

How about you?  Have you solved a mystery and learned something in the process?  Share your story.

Genealogy Timeline - Civil War Soldier

Family Group Sheets, Pedigree Charts, and Individual Summaries all have their place as indespensible tools to do genealogy.  But what I’ve found – that is rarely discusses – is that timelines are extremely helpful in solving problems and better understanding your ancestor’s life.

What Would You Gain from Creating a Timeline?

Genealogy timelines help put an ancestor’s life events in sequence and in context.  Here are a few things you can learn when you step back and look at a ancestor’s life in a timeline.

• How old was the person when major events in their life and / or history happened?  Was this person alive or of age when war broke out?  My ancestor, George Watson, was 19 when the Civil War commenced.  He was ripe and ready to fight.
• How close in succession did events happen that may have shaped their lives and actions.  I know my Dad lost is mother, brother, and father with six months.  Do you think that may have had an influence on his life?
• What did the migration trail look like over time?  Did they migrate as adults after a war?  Did they travel with their parents – or as orphans – as children?
• How old was one partner when the spouse died or divorced?  How soon thereafter was the remarriage, if there was one?  Did the remarriage happen – as with many of my ancestors – because the widow may have needed help raising a bunch of young ones?
• Did they arrive in a town/county/state/territory when it was first settled?  What would their lives be like then in contrast to an established frontier?  Did they follow friends & family to a community or forge out on their own?  It’s a big difference in understanding your ancestor on a very personal level.
• What was the technology like during their lifespan?  Were they of the horse & buggy era, steamboats & steam trains, or jet airplanes?  I had no idea if my ancestors came west to Kansas on trains or wagons – until I looked at a timeline of history in contrast to their personal timeline.

Looking at a life’s timeline takes genealogists to the next level beyond finding dates and names.  It really cracks open a window to their personality, their times, and their way of life.  And that’s what most genealogists really want.  They want to get to know the people.

How Do You Create a Personal Timeline?

I love Microsoft Excel.  I do just about any genealogy analysis in it because it is great at organizing information in columns and rows.

To start you just open up a worksheet in Excel, and make column headers – don’t worry if you don’t capture everything you want at first.  You can always edit later.

I include columns for age (at the date of the event), event (what happened), date (of event), location, source for that information, and the all-flexible “comments” field.  A note on the comments field – if you’re filling it up with the same information on all of the events, such as who they were with, you can easily create a separate column and dedicate it to just that information.

Then start plugging in facts as you collect them.  Here’s a list to start with.

The obvious facts

• Birth
• Marriage
• Death

What each state & federal census tells you -

• Residence or location
• Property ownership
• Occupation
• Birth dates of the children

Everything you gather from other sources

• Military experiences
• Retirement
• Education
• Burial
• Death of any children, their parents, spouses
• Marriages of their children
• Birth of grandchildren

Finally for the “bonus round” you can weave in the events in history that were relevant to this ancestor’s life.  Military events (wars, battles), founding of a state/territory/town, and the establishment or joining of a church.  And there is so much more.  There really is no limit to the scope of the timeline.

So, don’t be shy, grab a piece of graph paper or notebook paper or even an Excel spreadsheet, and start outlining an ancestor’s life.  You’ll be amazed to see what comes to life in their story!

The Source A Guidebook for American Genealogy Research

I’ve been doing genealogy for about 12 years.  I’ve made every mistake in the book – twice!  You can’t imagine how excited I was when after YEARS of fumbling around I found these resources – now available at most libraries and FREE online.

Don’t walk – run – to the nearest Internet connection or library to put your hands on these before picking up the next ancestor’s trail.

Three basic reference guides designed to answer – what records are out there, what will I find in them, and where are they – are first-reach resources for any genealogist.

The Handybook for Genealogists

This resource organized geographically (state, then county) helps you quickly identify which records are held by each county and the type of information within each record type.  Note: it also contains an historical timeline of each county helping you find the right county repository for the time frame in question.

In addition to the county information, for each state it offers:

• A brief history of the state
• Information on vital records held at the state level
• A list of societies and repositories in each state
• An extensive bibliography of publications

 The Red Book

This book is arranged alphabetically by state.  The first section within each chapter is dedicated to a brief history of the state.  Then the material is arranged by topic of research and the arrangement is consistent state to state.  Each topic discusses sources, websites, repositories and types of records available.  Topics include vital records, military, societies, land records, probate, etc.  The book includes a very clean, reproducible map of the state with counties & county seats identified.  Each chapter may have a section dedicated to “Special Focus,” where resources and/or repositories unique to that state are discussed.

Now available for FREE on www.ancestry.com in the Learning Center > Family Search Wiki

 The Source: A Guidebook to American Genealogy

Designed as an all-in-one guide to genealogy – both a reference and a tutorial – this book is instructional at any level of genealogy expertise. 

The opening three chapters focus on the basics of genealogy research.  They teach or remind us of good methodology to save time and be more successful.  Published and written by Ancestry.com, the book has an understandable bent toward internet research and the resources found at ancestry.com.

Nonetheless, the balance of the book is segmented by record type and begins with foundational research for your family tree and – census, church records, vital records.  As you advance, you can turn to chapters on land, court records and military research.  Additionally, the genealogist will find chapters targeted to the specifics of particular ethnic research, i.e. Native American, Jewish, or African Americcan.

Now available for FREE on www.ancestry.com in the Learning Center > Family Search Wiki

NARA Military Guides for Genealogy Research

Have you ever tried to navigate the National Archives and felt just a little overwhelmed?  Me, too.  Yes, the National Archives is a wonderful national treasure, and the documents there are without compare.  However, simply because there are SO many records, it can be a challenge for the uninitiated to find their way around.

The good news is that there are lots of finding aids and guides published by the National Archives, just waiting for us to pick them up and make good use of them.  You say you’ve tried this with no luck?  Okay, I have a tool just for you.

I found the most wonderful website -  that was custom tailored for you and me.  The good genealogists at the Mount Vernon Genealogy Society have taken all of the National Archives (NARA) military guides – inclusive of all US conflicts and made the searching and finding super, super easy.   There are 49 military guides in pdf format (easy to access with an Adobe PDF reader – free to download).  

Each guide focuses on one set of records generally organized by military conflict and then type of service.  For example you’ll find Revolutionary War, Black Hawk War, Bounty Land for 1812 and Mexican War, Civil War Confederates and Union records. 

Then within each guide there will be an executive summary on the type and nature of the records.  This is the legislation that was the impetus for the records, the date and time span of the records, and who the recipients were of the records – be they service, pension or bounty land.

For example, image looking for records on the USCT (US Colored Troops) service during the Civil War.  You could turn to the ARC (giant card catalog on www.archives.gov), OR you could zip to the NARA guides RR# 923 & #101 linked to this site.  And this document would provide everything you wanted to know about what records and where to find them for the USCT. Additionally, you’ll find finding aids lists such as published indexes or preliminary inventories for the record groups described.  I must say, it could not be easier! 

Then your task becomes determining where those records are located for easy research.  And your options would include www.ancestry.com, www.fold3.com, regional libraries, the Family History Library or the National Archives.

Good luck with your research.  Comment back and let me know how it’s going!

What can a unit history tell about your ancestor?  Lots.  Here are just a few examples:

• The nativity, character and make up of his unit.  Where were the guys from, what did they do, why did they muster in?
• What’s the story of their enlistment and training?  What was camp like?
• Granular detail on all of the battles waged by that unit.  You care about this because you can abutt the timeline of the unit against what you know about your ancestor and determine which battles he participated in.  For those in which he was absent you can chase down the reason – AWOL, capture, injury, not yet enlisted.
• Muster rolls or unit enumerations.  If you think your ancestor served in the area in which this unit mustered, this may be your ticket to finding him.
• Personal stories – the unit is made up of the aggregate of all of the soldiers.  Maybe your ancestor – especially if he was an officer – was mentioned in the stories of the battles.  Was he captured?  Was he wounded?  Did he die?  It’s not impossible to imagine him getting a mention.

So, with this goldmine of information awaiting us, you can only imagine my delight at finding the unit history motherload.  This tremendous anthology of unit histories – Union AND Confederate – is a must for anyone searching.

Here’s what you need to know to find this:

Title: Civil War Unit Histories | Regimental Histories and Personal Narratives

Publisher: University Publications of America

Format: Index in hard print copy, Anthology on microfilm.

Inside scoop:  This is how to use the archive.  Start with the indexes.  There are several printed indexes.  Each index is divided by alliegience and geographic area.  Within the index you search first by alliegience (Union/Confederate), then by state.  My Civil War ancestor served in the Union for Massachusettes.  So, I went to the index on the Union, then the state of Massachusettes.  From there the index is divided by unit specialty (artiliary, infantry, etc.).  My ancestor served in the Infantry, so I scoped into that section.  Finally, the Infantry section is divided by Regimental Unit name or number. (Remember, some units especially in the South were named for their comanding officers, which can make this a tad challenging.)

Now that you’ve drilled down to the unit of interest, you have – hopefully – several resources to research.  Each separate book/story/personal history is itemized and numbered with the numaric prefix starting with the state initials, i.e. MA for Massachusettes.  Just like a book description in a library catalog, there will be a fairly detailed description of the different sources.  In my case I found a 422 page history on the unit (wow!), and a 17-page ulogy on a soldier who died at Gettysburg.  Wouldn’t you bet that would have great personal interest not just to the descendents, but anyone he served with? 

You’re almost there – the land of unit history milk & honey!  The final step is to look up the unit history by it’s indexed number in the microfilm archive accompanying the paper index.  Rinse & repeat with all of the sources you’ve found!

Bonus tip:  Not up for a day of reading microfilm?  Try this:  type in the full title of the book or narrative you just found in the index in this free website: books.google.com. If you’re lucky Google has digitized the item (out of print; out of copywrite books), and put it online for you to read or download – FOR FREE!

Don’t overlook unit histories in your military research.  It’s a treasuretrove of material.

Want a primer on Civil War Genealogy? Check out my online class.