To Tell The Truth

Don't Always Follow The Crowd

In the process of my genealogy research, I have tried to perform a reasonable search of information that is available. That being said, I do not know all the information that is available about a family member or family.  My research is also a search. I am constantly looking for information. I try to record the source origin, correlate it with known facts and look for details. The internet is loaded with genealogy sites free and paid such as  Ancestry.com, Family Search, Newspaper.com, FindaGrave,  Genealogybank, Fold3 and  Heritage Quest to name only a few. These sites often has transcription errors of names, sex and possibly race.   

Some of the sites employ elements of crowdsourcing. Crowdsourcing is a technique in which an organization or individuals use many people or a crowd for pay or free to give information to solve a problem. Wikipedia is a prime example.  Anyone can edit and contribute to Wikipedia.  Ancestry.com family trees also uses crowdsourcing.   Is all the information true?    

The majority of people in my trees have been dead decades ago and I have met very few of their descendants. I am on a mission. I feel that my African family with disseminated trees with roots in America have a story that is worth telling. That is why I have this blog.   Through the years I have tried to educate myself by attending genealogy conferences and reading books.  I have visited the National Archives, Mississippi Archives, Tennessee Archives, Allen County Library, Family History Library and various other libraries. I am a member of the National Genealogy Society but not a certified genealogist.

  
 I also have attended family reunions and communicated with previously unknown cousins. I will be forever grateful for meeting my cousin the late Roger Dale Wilson.  He showed me the Caston and Brumfield connection through Liddie Brumfield Caston.    I would like to acknowledge my cousins who helped me along my mission Lexie Mae Bullock Johnson, Lexie Pearl Smith Elmore, Daisy Smith, Gerald Hollins, Manual Graves, Carletta Graves, Eddie Brumfield Jr., Kerry Shelton, Belinda Howard Cox and the late Eddie J. Brumfield Sr.  

Ancestry.com has used crowdsourcing on the family trees they have listed.  I have looked on Ancestry.com at other family trees listed and there are errors in the information.  There are also errors in the information that I have on my trees on Ancestry.com.  When I find the true information, I try to make corrections.

Most recently on my tree, I listed Annie Gatlin who married Thomas J. Brumfield as a child of Jack Gatlin Sr. and Alice Conerly. When I reviewed my sources, Annie Gatlin was never listed as a child of Jack Gatlin Sr. and Alice Conerly. I really don’t know where I got that information.  I did not record my source which is a newbie mistake. The information I recorded was wrong and three other people put the wrong information on their Ancestry.com trees.

My lesson is to check and record the source.  Don't always follow the crowd because the crowd could be wrong.

------The TreeGardener

Genealogy Trip

RootsTech and Family History Library

I am presently on a genealogy research trip to Salt Lake City, Utah. The Family Search Library located in Salt Lake City is the largest genealogy library in the world. I will also be attending the RootsTech conference which is billed as the largest genealogy conference.   I have been preparing for this trip for years.  Years ago my level of genealogy knowledge was rudimentary. I would not have known where to start if I had made this trip when I first looked for my ancestors.  

Most of my research has centered on my maternal line in Mississippi and my paternal line in Georgia and Tennessee. The trees in my forest have also included my in- laws. From the great northern migration after World War Two described in the book Warmth of Another Sun by Isabel Wilkerson my search has spread to many other states. I have included New York, Illinois, Indiana Ohio and Pennsylvania. I have visited the Allen County and Newberry library, the National Archives, Mississippi and Tennessee state archives.   I have tried to collect known information from various sources. As I learn about my trees, I know that I probably have to visit the depositories again.  It is my hope that I can break down more brick walls beyond 1870. I hope to blog about more new discoveries.

---- The Tree Gardener

Nonexistent Information in Genealogy ---- Missing Children

Missing Children

When I first became interested in genealogy, I asked my older family members about our heritage. Members of my maternal family line provided a good source of information. My father raised as an only child with no living siblings was dead for years prior to my interest in genealogy. My paternal ancestry source consisted of meager reminiscences of my mother and my adolescent memory.  I soon realized that only 2 generations earlier consisted of nuclear families which had many children.  I wanted to go back and beyond slavery. I wanted to know if I had native  American and European ancestry which is a prevalent perception in my family.

    

In my early attempts at genealogy research, one of the first documents I looked at was the publicly available United States federal census records.  At that time, only the 1920 census was the most recent census available.  My first goal was to identify individual families’ parents and children. I have tried to research not only my direct lineage but associated family members. I reviewed the census from the known to the unknown or reverse chronological order.  The federal 1870 and earlier census records did not identify family relationships.  The grouping of individuals however suggested probable familiar relationships.  It was in the 1880 federal census, that the head of the family was identified and relationships to the head were enumerated. The head of the household was in most cases identified as a man.

   After multiple times, I recently reviewed the federal census for clues.  I found an attempt to identify the maternal lineage.   The 1890, 1900 and 1910 federal census had 2 questions that were specific to women 1) Mother of how many children? 2) Number of these children living?  I think these are fascinating questions that lead to a genealogy conundrum. The names of the children could be listed in the present enumerated family. A different number of children could be listed with the mother of the family.  

The possible answers could be:

•  A mother may have given birth to a child who was not identified with the present family in the census
• A mother may have had a stillborn (census taker did not include stillborns) or a newborn who died before 1880 
• A mother may have had a child after 1880 and died before 1900
• An adult child not previously enumerated with the mother in 1900
• The mother may have died before 1880 and a living child may therefore was not associated with a mother
• The head of household surname may be different from the mother’s surname and child’s surname
• A child could have been born after 1900 and died before 1910 
• A child associated with a mother and father may became  an orphan 
• A child may have a guardian or adopted 

I am now looking for the all children and determining if this information can ever be found.

------The Tree Gardener

Nonexistent Information in Genealogy

Introduction

As a family historian and genealogist, I am constantly looking at records that relate to my research families. We are taught to perform our search to gather information and travel from the known to the unknown.   I have used vital records, court documents, census, school records, some government documents and Internet message boards looking for family connections. Living in the era of information technology, the Internet has increased possible sources of information.  With years of effort, I have hit many brick walls. I finally realized that I may have used tools available today to find evidence that never existed about people who lived decades ago. The information that we collect today is not the same as years ago. I may have been looking for information that may have never existed. I plan to launch a series of blogs titled Nonexistent Information. Possibly others have lumps from hitting brick walls and discovered their roots traveled in a different direction.   

----- The Tree Gardner

Worth The Trip

Allen County Public Library

I made my first road trip to the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana which is the  second  largest genealogy library in the county. With a lot of anticipation to make new discoveries I tried to prepare to utilize my time efficiently.  Prior to my trip, I reviewed the library’s online database for information.   I came equipped with my smartphone, computer laptop, pencils, paper and money for photocopies. There are two smartphone apps which helped me organize information. The app CamScan allows you take a picture of a document fine tune the image, label or tag, share or store. This app helped me save money. Instead of paying ten cent per copy I used the app to make copies from books.   I then organized my information on the app Evernote.  With CamScan, I could sync information onto the Evernote app which was installed on my smartphone and laptop computer. I purchased the premium edition of Evernote because I wanted to save a large amount of data. Organization is  key in genealogy research. Thru the years, I have found information and saved it, lost it and saved the information again thinking it was new information.  The Facebook group The Organized Genealogist has helped tremendously with organizational ideas.

The library is located in downtown Fort Worth.   I drove my car to the library and for a small hourly fee parked in their garage. Preparation is the recipe to success for research at the library. Be prepared. The librarians are not going to help you with your genealogy research.  Knowing what you can find and what you can’t find saves time.  I had a list of call numbers for books I wanted to review from the online catalog. I have made trips to the National Archives, the Mississippi Department of History and Archives and the Tennessee State Library and Archives on previous research trips.  Allen County Library has books that I have not previously found. My inability to find information in the past may stem from my previous inexperience in research or the library is user friendly and has a great collection. 

I found new information about the family trees which I plan to share. 

-------The Tree Gardener