Genealogy Jottings

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?

The Reed family left Kentucky for eastern Illinois on my great-great grandfather’s eleventh birthday in 1829. As I work back in time, I now need to do some Kentucky research to learn any more about this Reed branch. Family events reportedly took place in several Kentucky counties including Shelby, Nelson, and Spencer.

I do know that as the country developed, states carved new counties from earlier ones. This occurred in my family’s area of Kentucky during the time they lived there. Nelson and Shelby counties were carved from the earlier Jefferson County in 1784 and 1792. Spencer County came later, in 1824, from Nelson and Shelby. So where should I begin, and which county should I look at first?  I need to find out when the Reeds arrived in Kentucky, where they settled, and whether they moved around once there.

Often one hears genealogists tell of finding records in various counties even though their family lived in just one place. Records lie in whichever courthouse was the county seat at a given point in time. I have not encountered this situation of evolving counties in my previous research, so answering these questions will be a new challenge for me.

The first problem to sort out is the Kentucky birthplace for my great-great grandfather and his siblings between 1803 and 1822. Family lore says he was born in Elk Creek, Spencer County, but Spencer was not created until after he was born in 1818. What county was it in 1818? Were the other children born at the same place?

The research adventure begins.

Our cousins often have family records and mementos that can help us in our research. Recently a distant cousin of mine sent me a Valentine card written by my grandmother over 60 years ago. What a thrill for me to see her familiar handwriting again. This same cousin has also sent me several family photos and other records, and I have sent him family trees and some copies of family wills.

Professional genealogists tell us to keep writing to our cousins, and one wag even advises writing to the oldest and sickest ones first. Over the years I have tried to follow this advice. I have received numerous precious photos and a lot of family information from these people. I always try to share what I have with them. Together we can compile a much more comprehensive family history than any of us could do alone.

Locating and corresponding with cousins is one of the pleasures of genealogy. I will keep writing to all of them as long as they are willing to hear from me.

Adam Smith, who wrote Wealth of Nations, said that land is the basis of all wealth. Everyone knows that millions of fortune-seeking Americans in the early years of the Republic acquired land from the federal government, either through low-priced cash entry, by homesteading, or in receipt of bounty lands earned via military service. Many members of my own family did so including Thomas and Caleb Reed in Illinois, Petronellia Sherman Reed in Wyoming, Ole and Sofie Bentsen in Montana, and Laura Riddle in Nebraska.

Yet no record of government land acquisition has been found for great-grandfather Samuel Reed (1843-1928) who lived during the prime homesteading years. Why not? He grew up on a farm, so he certainly possessed the skills needed by a homesteader. Why didn’t this man who loved the west ever file on a claim or buy government land?

Perhaps it was because homesteading was hard work. Family legend has it that Samuel was not the most industrious man around. Supposedly he preferred the role of land speculator to farmer. He bought and sold tracts in Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma during his lifetime. He is said to have sold them mostly at a loss until his inheritance was gone. This man from a prosperous family did not die wealthy. He probably would have been better off had he stayed in Illinois to inherit his father’s farm on land his father acquired for cash from the government beginning in 1841.

Samuel did not follow the example set by his grandfather, his father, and even his ex-wife. Instead, he pursued get-rich-quick schemes and missed the biggest opportunity of all.

In the past, a squatter was someone who settled on public land without legal authority. Many squatters settled in southeast Kansas around 1870 on lands within the Osage Diminished Reserve. The most famous of these was probably Charles Ingalls, father of the writer Laura Ingalls Wilder. The squatters had to leave in 1871.

My ancestor Samuel Reed lived in southeastern Kansas in Neosho County during this time period, and he also left in 1871. Because of the strong correlation in the time lines for the  Ingalls family and my own, I wondered whether Sam was a squatter, too. I searched for Kansas historic maps and ordered the land records from Neosho County.

From the maps, I learned that Neosho County was outside the Osage Diminished Reserve. This area officially approved for settlement was called the Osage Ceded Lands. Sam’s name appeared in the county records. Strangely, I could not find a record of how he acquired his property, but he did convey it by warranty deed when he left Kansas and returned to Illinois. Apparently, he was not a squatter.

More meetings! This week, the Colorado Genealogical Society and its sub-group, the Computer Interest Group (CIG), kick off the fall season. These meetings usually inspire my enthusiasm for more research, but CIG fell short this time.

At their Monday meeting, I learned about the new website, Fold 3, formerly Footnote.com. I have not found much of interest on this site in the past although it does have records from the  Pennsylvania archives. Now Ancestry.com has purchased the site, and in the future, it will focus on military records. Ancestry plans to charge separately for access to Fold 3 so I probably will not use it.

The local library system subscribes to Ancestry but is unlikely to add Fold 3 to its databases. To get a free look, I will have to use it at the local Family History branch (hard to get computer time) or else travel to the National Archives in Lakewood. If I come up with a new ancestor who may have served in the military, it might be worth the trip, but I certainly do not have enough military research needs to warrant a subscription to this site. I wonder how many people do. Perhaps that is why they sold out to Ancestry.

Tomorrow’s program at the Colorado Genealogical Society will not inspire more research either. The scheduled topic, self-publishing family histories with Lulu, will instead offer new ideas for sharing one’s research. In the past, people aspired to write books about their ancestry, but publishing one was very expensive and there was a limited market for it. Self-publishing websites have cropped up, and I am looking forward to learning how other Colorado genealogists are using them.

Much as I love the research aspect of genealogy, periodically I need to digest, synthesize, and preserve what I have found. Maybe at this month’s CGS meeting, I will find some inspiration for doing that.

Here it is September, and all the clubs begin to meet again. This week the German group gathered in small groups to discuss best research practices in various states where Germans first settled. I attended the Missouri group to see if I could get some advice on tracking Tony’s mysterious ancestor Katherina Woermann. She was married in a Catholic church in St. Louis and moved to Minnesota some time after that. We have not found any information about her immigration or her family. Sadly, no one in the group could recommend any magical source in Missouri that would reveal everything about her.

I did get one hint from a man in the group who has done extensive research on his own German lines. I mentioned that Tony had found many different spellings for Woermann. The man said that Woermann (or with an “o” with an umlaut in place of the “oe”) is probably correct although it may also have had an “h”. He thought our best plan would be to do further work in the Catholic records.

The baptism records for the church where Katherina was married are available on microfilm from the LDS library. Our first step should be to look at those to see whether Katherina and her husband had a child in St. Louis before they left. If they did, the record could give us some good information–perhaps parents’ birthplaces and names of family members who served as godparents.