Okay so I didn't want to do any post that seemed political or on a different subject here but I am thinking that this one relates so I will go ahead and add it.
Coming home today I stopped at our mailbox and low and behold our 2010 census was here. I did a little happy dance in my car and then proceeded inside. Why was I happy? Allow me to explain and this will also show how the topic is related to genealogy.
We fill out the 2010 census the same as they did in 2000, 1990, 1980, so forth and so on. Now I know that there has been much talk about the cost of this census being that we are in a recession and the government needs to trim whereever possible (this is the political) but lets imagine that during the great depression they felt the same way. When you start to trace back through census records, because that really is the best and only way other than word of mouth and that isn't always accurate, then you might have a relative that is listed in 1940 but not in 1920. Granted the 1940 census hasn't been released yet but if your mother told you that your grandmother was born in 1934 and seeing that she has passed away and your mother never knew her grandparents then you my friend or at a dead end unless you can find someone that could give you a name or a court record with her parents names listed. This might seem easy if you live in Kansas and your grandparents were born and raised in Kansas also but what if they were born in Ohio or Virginia or Tennessee. See where you would run into problems.
The census is not only good to track population increases and where federal money would be best spent but to track families and relatives and those that we might not find otherwise. Being African-American I can tell you that my search would be alot easier if African-Americans had been just that. Instead I have blacks, coloreds, negros, and in the case of where I am now not even a name. If they had been counted as people instead of proporty then I might know who my great, great, great, great grandfather was right now but that is a different blog.
My point is that although it might seem like time taken away from your busy life and possibly a complete waste of time; it isn't. Decades from now if no one follows your footsteps and doesn't continue keeping track of your genealogy then your decendents will be glad you took those few minutes out of your day and filled it out.
Showing posts with label Ideas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ideas. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Monday, March 15, 2010
Got A Shovel?
My last post I was excited because I thought that I had found my great, great, great grandfather was a prisoner in the Civil War. Well, that didn't pan out. It is absolutely amazing that you can have a name and date of birth and still not have the right person. How did I figure this out you might ask? Let me tell you.
See my great, great, great grandfather was Sol; maybe short for Solomon I'm still checking. I found the Civil War record for him but when I really sat down and looked at the dates that he would have been imprisoned it didn't add up with when my great, great grandfather Porter would have been born. He would have been somewhere far from home for at during the time that not just Porter was concieved and born but also at least one of not two of his sisters. Now don't get me wrong, I know that not everyone was faithful and I have a whole other blog coming about the skeletons you will find, but to believe that he might have been away and my great, great, great grandmother Caroline might have been stepping out would just open a whole different can of worms. Plus being that we are African-American then it stands to reason that he would not have been kept alive and so that would mean that he shouldn't have been there for the 1870 or 1880 census and I have him on both. When you add all that up is leads to the believe that whoever this Sol was he was not the one that I was looking for.
That is the fustration part of this research. You get all excited and ready to add a link to your family tree but when you stop and really, really look at dates and places and the sporatic information that you have then you find that what you thought you knew you didn't know at all.
Now I am searching for any relatives to him that might give me an insight into his parents names. The only problem there is that the last census I have him on is 1870 and I think I remember hearing that African-Americans where included on any census past that unless they were slaves and listed as such. This is where it will get muddy. If Sol was born a slave then I have to figure out where, to whom, and what their names were. I have found a few white people around him with the same last name but again there are no guarentees. You just have to keep digging.
See my great, great, great grandfather was Sol; maybe short for Solomon I'm still checking. I found the Civil War record for him but when I really sat down and looked at the dates that he would have been imprisoned it didn't add up with when my great, great grandfather Porter would have been born. He would have been somewhere far from home for at during the time that not just Porter was concieved and born but also at least one of not two of his sisters. Now don't get me wrong, I know that not everyone was faithful and I have a whole other blog coming about the skeletons you will find, but to believe that he might have been away and my great, great, great grandmother Caroline might have been stepping out would just open a whole different can of worms. Plus being that we are African-American then it stands to reason that he would not have been kept alive and so that would mean that he shouldn't have been there for the 1870 or 1880 census and I have him on both. When you add all that up is leads to the believe that whoever this Sol was he was not the one that I was looking for.
That is the fustration part of this research. You get all excited and ready to add a link to your family tree but when you stop and really, really look at dates and places and the sporatic information that you have then you find that what you thought you knew you didn't know at all.
Now I am searching for any relatives to him that might give me an insight into his parents names. The only problem there is that the last census I have him on is 1870 and I think I remember hearing that African-Americans where included on any census past that unless they were slaves and listed as such. This is where it will get muddy. If Sol was born a slave then I have to figure out where, to whom, and what their names were. I have found a few white people around him with the same last name but again there are no guarentees. You just have to keep digging.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Have A Little Faith
So a few days ago I was really excited because I thought that I found a record of my great, great, great grandfather and he was a prisoner of war during the Civil War. I wasn't excited because he was captured and most likely tortured or killed. No, I was excited because it was more information on the man himself. I ran to tell my father and the first question he asked me was if I was sure it was the correct person. This killed my buzz because of course I wasn't sure. I have never met the man. If my great grandmother could cook, if my grandmother could sew, if my mother had a weird sense of humor; these are the things I'm sure about. That there are Native American roots on my mother's side and a strong military presence on my father's; these are the things that I'm sure about. But if a name that I found on a U.S. census in 1880 is the correct person just because he has a child with the same name as my great, great grandfather who happened to be born around the same time; not a clue.
It accured to me then that to go as far back as you can is going to require a little faith. There is going to be no way that I will or he will or any of us will be one hundred percent sure that the person we are look at is the correct relative. Names have changed and documents get smudged. I found my great, great grandmother on a 1910 census as Carrie when we had always called her grandma Cassie and looking at it I could see how it could be either one. So does that mean that I throw that census out and start again looking for Cassie. Absolutely not. That census had the correct husband for her and children listed as well as the correct area of the United States. That's almost like finding the triffecta; the holy grail. I just keep that one and look for a 1900 or 1920 census with the correct name or the misspelled one because that could be a clue as to why I wasn't finding any information on her originally.
Yes, it would be great to be sure that every relative you think you found is the right one but unforunately with the way that records were kept, especially if you were African-American, it just isn't possible. And lets face it, even if the records were maticulous when your looking in 1860 for someone that no one still alive remembers it's a guessing game. Does the names match up with what you have aready found out about their decendent? Do the dates line up within a five year grace period? Are they living in the correct state? Do they have the right siblings or parents? If you answered yes to all those questions then chances are you have the right person but are you a hundred percent sure? That is a question only you can answer but I would bet you answer with a little faith.
It accured to me then that to go as far back as you can is going to require a little faith. There is going to be no way that I will or he will or any of us will be one hundred percent sure that the person we are look at is the correct relative. Names have changed and documents get smudged. I found my great, great grandmother on a 1910 census as Carrie when we had always called her grandma Cassie and looking at it I could see how it could be either one. So does that mean that I throw that census out and start again looking for Cassie. Absolutely not. That census had the correct husband for her and children listed as well as the correct area of the United States. That's almost like finding the triffecta; the holy grail. I just keep that one and look for a 1900 or 1920 census with the correct name or the misspelled one because that could be a clue as to why I wasn't finding any information on her originally.
Yes, it would be great to be sure that every relative you think you found is the right one but unforunately with the way that records were kept, especially if you were African-American, it just isn't possible. And lets face it, even if the records were maticulous when your looking in 1860 for someone that no one still alive remembers it's a guessing game. Does the names match up with what you have aready found out about their decendent? Do the dates line up within a five year grace period? Are they living in the correct state? Do they have the right siblings or parents? If you answered yes to all those questions then chances are you have the right person but are you a hundred percent sure? That is a question only you can answer but I would bet you answer with a little faith.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Roots Or Branches
Once you are ready to get started you have to ask yourself the most important question you will ask during this whole process; at least to me. Am I going to track just my roots or do I want to know about the branches?
Let me explain using myself and my father. I want to know where I come from. I want to go as far back as possible. If I get all the way back to Africa or Italy (I'm convinced it's in there because I love pasta) that would be fabulous, but that isn't the main goal. I simply what to understand my past. My father however wants to know it all. He wants to find every person that we have ever been related to and those that we might be related to now. It's not enough for him to just research his parents and their parents and their parents and so on. He wants to find out about their siblings and their siblings and their children and their children and their grand children and their grand children. Are you confused yet? That is what I mean by roots or branches. To me just tracing your linear line is following your roots but to look for everyone in your family known and unknown that is searching for branches.
Both have advantages and disadvantages. Like in the case of my father. I believe that he would be further back if he wasn't so concerned with every name he comes across but he also has a fuller tree. Whereas I have a straight tree but if I were to walk into a room and a distant relative was in there I wouldn't have any idea.
The bottom line is that you can do whichever works for you. My plan is to go as far as I can continually and then when that is done go back and fill in the missing pieces. That might take longer or not but when doing genealogy you have to learn to be patient. Did I mention that already? Just checking ;).
Let me explain using myself and my father. I want to know where I come from. I want to go as far back as possible. If I get all the way back to Africa or Italy (I'm convinced it's in there because I love pasta) that would be fabulous, but that isn't the main goal. I simply what to understand my past. My father however wants to know it all. He wants to find every person that we have ever been related to and those that we might be related to now. It's not enough for him to just research his parents and their parents and their parents and so on. He wants to find out about their siblings and their siblings and their children and their children and their grand children and their grand children. Are you confused yet? That is what I mean by roots or branches. To me just tracing your linear line is following your roots but to look for everyone in your family known and unknown that is searching for branches.
Both have advantages and disadvantages. Like in the case of my father. I believe that he would be further back if he wasn't so concerned with every name he comes across but he also has a fuller tree. Whereas I have a straight tree but if I were to walk into a room and a distant relative was in there I wouldn't have any idea.
The bottom line is that you can do whichever works for you. My plan is to go as far as I can continually and then when that is done go back and fill in the missing pieces. That might take longer or not but when doing genealogy you have to learn to be patient. Did I mention that already? Just checking ;).
