Genealogy Jottings

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Earlier this week, I learned that The Master Genealogist (TMG) software sub-group will discuss the recently-released TMG version 8 at next month’s Computer Interest Group meeting. One of the facilitators already uses it, and he takes his laptop to the meetings. This will give me an opportunity to view the product before I upgrade to it.

I migrated to TMG a few years ago. I liked the software’s ability to handle more details and to create better citations than the product I used before. But the version I have does not work well with Windows 7. I have had difficulty preparing reports. Now I wish I did not have to wait an entire month to see Version 8 in action.

In the meantime, I am continuing to update my records in Version 7. When I did the original research on my Finnish family, I still used a different software that did not accommodate all the data from many of my sources. Now I am reviewing all those old documents and adding information to my database. Maybe as I do this, I will unearth an important clue for further research on this family.

Common wisdom tells us to write to relatives early in the process of researching a new line. So far with my Finnish project, I am finding that the relatives do not have much to offer. My aunt and uncle do not know any more than I do about the family history. Their cousins, who are younger than I am, know even less. It seems I will have to do the heavy lifting on this one.

I could not resist taking a sneak peak at census records for my Finnish family. I know I said I would wait until the new year to begin working on this line, but I just got the urge. So I fired up Ancestry.com to take a look at the 1920 census.

Years ago I had not been able to locate my Finns on that year’s census even though I knew they lived in Hibbing, MN at the time. They were not on the Soundex, nor could I find them with a visual inspection of the city lists. There was not much else I could do.

Now, one can perform creative searches in online census records. Neither “Alex Mattila” nor “Alexander Mattila” returned a result showing my family. After fruitlessly trying the names of other family members, I finally decided to look for just first names paired with other distinguishing information. I finally found them when I entered my grandmother’s data (Martha, born in MN in 1906) coupled with a father named Alex. This yielded my family, but the census report had really distorted their names.

The Minnesota census taker must have had an awful time understanding what these immigrants said. Although my great-grandparents had lived in America for 16 years by 1920, they still spoke English with heavy accents. When the head of household gave his name as Alexander Mattila, the census taker wrote the unfamiliar name phonetically as “Alex Sandermatella”. This “Sandermatella” surname attached to everyone else in the household. No wonder I could not find the family when I searched the “M” Soundex listing.

After misreporting the family surname, this census taker was not finished garbling the record. The mother and eldest daughter were listed correctly as Ada and Martha, but the younger children’s names were confused almost beyond recognition. Aida Sylvia became “Autoulia”; Hugo Alexander became “Hokeselander”; and Peter Bernard became “Petebarkardt”.

I wonder whether the records of other immigrants who lived in the Hibbing area have similar problems. It pays to remember that not all census takers made an effort to complete an accurate report.

In December I usually wind down my genealogical research for the year. This year, as I focused on my Reed line, I collected photos and documents on the Reed family of Ashmore, Illinois. I scoured records looking for any mention of my great-grandfather, Samuel Harvey Reed. Finally, this month I wrote a character sketch of him and mailed it off with a photo of him to other family members.

Now I will spend the rest of December preparing for Christmas and the new year. In January, I will turn to my Finnish ancestor line and see what I can find. I have not done much on that lineage since before the internet age, so I am eager to see what turns up.

Hyvaa Joulua! Onnellista uutta vuotta!

Since I retired from my day job, I have hoped to enter a piece in one of the genealogy writing contests sponsored by the National Genealogical Society and others. The deadline for this year’s contest comes up on December 31, and again I will not make it.

Real life keeps getting in the way of serious scholarship. Will next year be different?

I am hoping so as I prepare to move to a patio home later this month. With no yard work, my “stuff” all cleaned out, and my elderly father settled in assisted living, in 2012 I can devote more time to my passion, the family history. The last two years have been so filled with closing big houses and caregiving that genealogy keeps getting pushed aside. But once I get everything stashed in the new place, I hope to get all those tombstones scanned, that stack of documents entered into the database, and an article or two written.

The contests will be there next year, and perhaps one of the entries will have my name on it.

As I track my family back in time, I have found an interesting search aid. My family often lived near the Lincoln family, yes “that” Lincoln.

I first realized this when I began looking at 19th-century Coles County, Illinois records. The Reeds moved there in 1830, and Abraham Lincoln’s parents came shortly after. Next, I began looking at early 19th-century records for the Louisville, KY area. The Reeds went there after the Revolutionary War, and sure enough, Lincoln’s family was living in the area, too. There, his grandfather, Abraham Lincoln (or Linkum) was slain by Indians as his six-year-old son Thomas (father of the President) look on. Earlier generations of Lincolns lived in Hingham, Massachusetts where they were neighbors of another branch of my family, the Dunbars.

Although I have never found a family connection to the Lincolns, I have found research to be a little easier because of the proximity of the families. Presidential families are heavily researched, and I have benefited from the availability of records in areas where the Lincolns lived. It helps when others have unearthed and published important records.

I must confess that I enjoy the research side of Research and Writing more than I like doing the writing. But what is the point of doing the research if not to synthesize the information into a format to share with others? Spending a lot of time on research solely out of idle curiosity would be pretty frivolous. I have a broader mission in mind. I want to preserve family lore and create a sense of kinship among present and future generations.

To accomplish that, I use a couple of strategies. I maintain the family tree in the cloud for all to see. Each year I also choose an ancestor, and write his/her life story. Right now, I distribute these character sketches to siblings and cousins. Someday, I will get organized enough to post these to the cloud, too, along with any photos and interesting documents I might have. They say that nothing on the internet ever goes away.

Using cloud technology, I can preserve and publish my work. Distant cousins find me because of my postings, and so the family circle grows. Writing has its rewards.

Usually I try to follow a research plan when doing family history. An organized approach helps me make sure I do not overlook sources. This way, I pursue my goal of comprehensive, exhaustive research on any given question. Interestingly enough, surfing the internet can fit into a good research plan. You never know what you will find.

This week, as I wind down my Reed research for the year, I decided to Google some of Samuel Reed’s family again. I did not find anything new on him, but then I plugged in his father’s name, Caleb Reed.  As I drilled down into the results page for this search, I found some interesting records online.

Actually there were several men named Caleb Reed, all related, and over the years they lived in Fayette County, PA, Spencer County, KY, and Coles County, IL. I found their names on a list of property owners in Fayette County in 1787 and on a list of Kentucky wills from the 1790’s. Given that vital records from that time period usually do not exist and census records may be missing, these are valuable finds.

Surfing the Internet proved to be a wise use of my time. It yielded some good results with no travel required.

When November rolls around, I begin my annual writing project for Christmas. Each year I focus my research on an ancestor or an ancestor couple. At the end of the year, I use my findings to write a biographical sketch for distribution to my relatives. This year my subject will be my great-grandfather, Samuel Harvey Reed.

Over the research year, I use The Master Genealogist (TMG) software for compiling data. You can create a report on someone in TMG, but the text is awkward, and you cannot edit it. In the past I have been able to use TMG to generate a report on my subject, and then export it to a Word file where I can edit it into final form.

This year, I encountered a problem right away. Earlier this year, I upgraded my Windows and Office programs, and TMG will no longer export to them. It will not even let me copy and paste the report into a Word document. The creators of TMG can only suggest waiting for their update to resolve this problem. When will that be?!!! We have been waiting for months for this upgrade. I find this completely unacceptable.

I have two choices:  re-type the report from scratch or use an old computer with older versions of the operating and word processing software. I am so disappointed in TMG over this. I have used this software for about 4 years, but I am seriously considering migrating to another program or the cloud. Difficulties like these will not keep customers loyal to TMG. They need to “get with the program”, so to speak, and FAST.

Last weekend the local Palatines to America group hosted another good seminar. From the well-known genealogist Lloyd Bockstruck we learned of Germans in the Revolutionary War and their subsequent migrations. I came home with a stack of helpful maps, and some good ideas for research in late 18th-century records.

Of course, many people attend this seminar for the German meals. I missed out on the dinner this year, but the lunch was really good. You cannot beat these seminars for the fellowship with other genealogists, and the lunch is a great place to talk with others about our common interest.

Next week I will have the opportunity to follow up on some of the research ideas when I attend our local German society meeting at Denver Public Library. I often stay afterwards to use the library. Bounty land records, anyone?