A Temporary Pause

Image via Wikipedia

I have started a new job.  After completing a short but rather tough course of study, I will be embarking on my new career tomorrow.  I’ll be driving, over the road, and not have easy access to the internet.  I have not been able to get a lap top as yet, and until I can afford one, I will be putting my blogging activities on hold. 

Hopefully before long, I will be able to get a decent laptop, and continue my hobbies on line.  Until that time, I sadly must say a temporary farewell to the blogosphere.  I’ll be thinking of all my friends, and keeping notes in many a journal in hopes of finding that frequent dream and fun stories. I wish all of you success, and will eventually return to join in the fun once again.

Simplicity Sunday

Image by Today is a good day via Flickr

Sundays are so pleasant, always silent and soulful.  Personally I’m not much of a church person, my chapel is the outdoors, and Mother Nature in general.  However, my ancestors were fairly well centered around the church.  As a matter of fact, the church played a consistent role in their lives.   The nice thing about this is that I can find many records in the churches, pertaining to births, baptisms, marriages, and all kinds of other things.  It’s amazing to me just how much this helps to paint a picture of who they were. 

If you can find out what denomination your ancestors were, and then search those churches in the areas they lived, you just might find a treasure trove of information.   Religion often played a large part in the decision to immigrate, and other important choices in our ancestors life.  It’s only fitting that the church records delineate the moments that were important to them. 

Thankfully, most churches are, and were, very diligent in their record keeping.  Without some of these records, I know I would be at a brick wall on many of my ancestors. 

Quote of the Day:
ARH!! I found it!
--vyacheslavkozlovfan

Roots Run Deep

Image by jeffgunn via Flickr

And make connections that may have not been visible before.

One of the things I’ve learned from this little endeavor of mine, is that researching your roots has an interesting side effect.  It can bring you so much closer to your living family, in ways that might be a little surprising.  I think it has something to do with learning about the trials and tribulations of those who have gone before.  It makes you appreciate what you have all the more. 

I don’t know where the idea of this post came from.  It just seemed to creep up on me, and I had to write it down.  I know it sounds crazy, but it happens some times.  I think it all started from an email conversation I had with a member of my family.  They are having some troubles of their own, and I was trying to relate to her, that life is not written in stone.  It’s a story that you write as you go, and things don’t always follow the outline you prepared for it.  Somehow, I jumped into my philosophical mode, and tried to correlate things in a format I understood. 

Researching your roots does that, it lets you see the story of your ancestors, in  a format that you can relate to.  For me it’s writing stories, for some reason that makes sense to me.  When I research a relative, I’m researching in a way that provides for the telling of their story.  As the story unfolds through my investigations, I often can gain the foresight that helps me understand the members of my family who came from that era.  I don’t know how to explain it, and even sitting here reading back over this, I feel I have failed in my attempt.  It simply doesn’t make sense, it just happens.

I continue researching my roots, so I can understand and maybe tell the story.  At the same time, it helps me sympathize and show a little compassion to those of my family I may have not been as close to.  After all, family is that one resource you have that will always be there for you.

“Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family. Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one.” Jane Howard, via Quotations Page.

Finding a Little Balance

Image via Wikipedia

One of the things I have to work on, is finding that balance.  If you're a weekend genealogist, you probably know what I mean.  The research can be very fun, interesting, and just a little addictive.  However, the needs of the living still has to take precedence.  I have been doing a search of a different nature over the past few weeks.  As of last week, I’m searching for a new job, and with a certain level of necessity to add to the circumstances.

Needless to say, I was not able to get much genealogy research done over the past couple of days.  There were far more important things weighing on my thoughts.  I got some good news today though, and hopefully things will fall into place.  Once I can sit down and absorb all that has happened, and evaluate what new potentials are open to me, I’ll get back to the fun stuff.  For now, bear with me, and wish me a little luck, I might just need it.

"By nature man hates change; seldom will he quit his old home till it has actually fallen around his ears." – Thomas Carlyle. via Quotations Book.

Interpretation vs Translation

Image via Wikipedia

I missed my post yesterday and I’m sorry about that.  Things have been pretty busy here of late, I have many things going on in real life that prevent my usual persistence with the family history.  So, for the time being, it’s going to return to kind of a weekend hobby.  I will continue to post daily if I can, but I won’t make any promises of that either.  I’m on a different kind of hunt at the moment and hopefully will be successful very soon.

I’ve learned that one part of the family left England to find freedom from the church, and a profitable future.  They found one, not necessarily the other.  I have learned not to trust family “lore”, no matter who it comes from.  The other hard lesson I have learned, is that genealogist’s results can vary depending on the part of a family they are researching, and how dedicated they are to documenting the records they find. 

What do I mean by results may vary?   It really comes down to how well the individual doing the research followed the records, and interpreted them.  What I’m talking about, is three separate results I’ve found on line.  Each one covers a different sibling of a particular family.  What I found is that each one was a slightly different variations on the make up of the family.  At first it took me a little while to figure out the first one.  That was simply because there was a marriage I had been unaware of.  The father of this family had been married three times, instead of two, or even just once.    The first born child, a son was actually the result of the first marriage, then four by the second marriage, and one by the third.  Can you see how things could get a little twisted around in interpreting these records.  Now take into account that all of this occurred in the mid 1700’s.

Many of the older records are more difficult to reason out.  You’ll find that they kept records in a different language than the rest of the populace.  I’m not talking about language like French, German, or English, although it is not uncommon to find church or government records from the old days kept in Latin.  What I’m talking about, is the difference between the way to educated spoke or wrote and the general populous who were usually peasants.  Then factor in the fact that you might be translating the record from French, German, or maybe Latin, and you have the makings for some real confusion. 

One of the most useful tools I’ve used so far, is the translator in the Google toolbar.  It has been invaluable to me of late.  You still have to remember that other languages, sometimes structure their sentences differently than we do in English.   So even after you translate a page, you still have to interpret it correctly, and mistakes can be made.  All of this is why I have been saying you have to do your own confirmation or corroborating research.  You never know, you might be the one to stumble across something all the others who have researched this family missed.

There is another thing this research has reinforced, I am not infallible and I will always be learning myself.  It never ceases to amaze me, where I can find the next lesson.  Sometimes, that invaluable lesson comes from a completely unexpected direction.   It’s amazing just how educational, my own family history has become, in more ways than I ever imagined.

Quote of the Day:
”School is a drill for the battle of life. If you fail in the drill you will fail in the battle.”
--Karl G. Maeser

 

Tricky Tuesday, Those Treacherous Tales.

Image via Wikipedia

Family lore is a fabulous place to learn stories about your ancestors.  But you might want to slow down a little, and check into those stories.  More often than not, you’ll find they are made of very little fact, and a whole lot of fiction.

I used to love to sit and listen to stories my parents or grandparents told.  Even if I knew they were tales of fiction, they were a lot of fun.  I never suspected though that some of those old family stories traded long ago, and copied down into the family treasure might have been fiction.  When I started my search for family records and histories, I had a head start.  Some of the family had done a little of their own research and shared versions of their results with the rest, or more accurately, the interested few. 

Some of the stories related, were fantastic characterizations of my ancestors.  Nothing unbelievable, quite the contrary actually.  Given the era and regional settings, those little stories could easily have been true.  Take for instance, the story I heard of my great grandfather.  His name was William, and he had been a blacksmith.  The story that went along with it was that he was known as “Whispering Bill”.  You see, according to one side of the family lore, he had been kicked in the throat by a horse or mule, and his larynx was permanently damaged.  From then on, he always spoke in a whisper.   Now it was fairly easy to discredit this, thanks to my Aunt who remembers no such thing.   Too bad really, for if it had been true, just think about the “character” one could add to the information portrayed in a written story. 

Another story of family lore was about a great great grandmother, who just happened to be named America.  Really, she was actually named America Ann (Wrenn) Kelso, I have even located many records relating to her.  Where the lore changed course, and became a tale of fiction was the reason she was named America.  I have to admit, the lore made for a far more interesting story than actual fact.  As the story went, she was born on board ship during the crossing, and her parents named her America as a hopeful tribute to their future.  Now I’m sure there were a lot of kids born on board ship while transiting the Atlantic, or other seas for that matter.  Unfortunately, birth and census records prove my family lore to be  more fiction than fact.  America Ann Wrenn, was born to John and Sarah Wrenn in 1836, Andrew County Missouri.  Her father John was born 1816 in Kentucky, we’re not sure when her mother was born, or what her maiden name was for that matter.

Just remember, no matter how believable, a story that has been passed down might be, research the facts for yourself.  I know the tale might be more fun and interesting, but the facts will mean far more to you in the end. 

Quote of the Day:
”Creativity is the sudden cessation of stupidity.”
--Dr. E. Land