Names

Some names are easy to research because they are so unusual.  Unusual because they are not necessarily used in the everyday context of conversations.   Keep in mind that my definition of 'easy' to research simply means I don't get a bunch of other stuff when searching for hits on the name.

Scott is not an easy name to research.  It is common as a first and last name.

Snyder is not easy because it can be spelled more than one way and is a fairly common name.

 Ulshafer, now that one is easy to research.  You will either find it or not. However, I suppose it could have more than one spelling, too.

Valentine, well, I'll let you decide on that one!

How about the name Mary Sprinkle?  Nope, not easy.  I received many hits where the sentence had something along the line of "Mary sprinkled..." when searching.

Try searching for Robert Lick!

I could list more but I have research to do.  :)

You have to be kidding!

Warning!  This is a disturbing story!

Don't mess with this widow!  Her husband died in 1889 and the life insurance company contended that he committed suicide by shooting himself in the head.  On that defense they were denying the $11,000 claim.  The widow exhumed her husband's body, had his head cut off, and brought the decapitated head to court to prove he died of other causes.

I don't know if she won her case or not, and no, she's not related.
 

Research by others

I complain (a lot!) about sloppy research by others and how it is posted and reposted online without care it seems.  Why do I bother to look at other people's research? Because it can provide clues.

I found a tree for a 4th great grandfather on my husband's side that had information I have never seen before.  I wondered where the information came from.  The tree had one source linked to it.  That source sent me on a treasure trove of information.

That source was from the War of 1812.  It was a pension index card.

I have a subscription to Fold3 which I haven't been all that happy with as I haven't ever found anything of real value in my opinion there.  That changed last night.

I found the entire pension file for the 4th great-grandfather.  His wife, my husband's 4th great grandmother, filed in 1819.  Now I had documents for information in the family tree I found plus more.

One of the grandmother's sisters provided an affidavit for the marriage of the veteran.  Now I had her married name and location in 1819.  That led to census records and finally her family information.

I am now building a family tree for the 5th great grandparents, parents of the 4th great grandmother.

All because I took the time to investigate a clue from a family tree posted online.

Riedy or Donat

I have two Williams both married to a Sybilla.  One William had no parents listed, the other did.  One William had children listed and the other did not until I started working on his line.  The children are the same as the other William.  Makes you think they are the same, right?  The only problem is the maiden names of the girls.  They are different.  Everyone has the wives' dates of birth/death the same on the internet.  Did Syblla remarry after her husband's death?  Is that where the other name comes in?  He did before 1900 and she lived to 1936 so it is possible.  However, I have parents for the Riedy wife and I am unable to find anything that makes me think she remarried.  

Did Ms. Riedy marry a William and researchers have confused the too?

I am confident of her maiden name as Donat, finally.   I found her marriage record and her maiden name is listed on several of the death certificates of her children. 

Now to figure out the Riedy.

Update:

They are the same person.  Her father died when she was young and her mother remarried.  Wow.  It has taken me hours to get this figured out, but I did it! 

1895 Estate

Just read about an estate worth $80,000 in 1895 in Pennsylvania.  Wow.  Wonder what the same estate would be worth today?

Putting the clues together

I'm working on a small branch of the family with the surname of Kressler.   In the 1870 census Elmira shows up with the family and has two sons with her.  As the 1870 census doesn't list the relationship I didn't realize they were her sons until a later census.  I'm trying to find out her maiden name and which of the Kressler boys she 'belongs' to.  I was so excited to find a death certificate for her oldest son only to be deflated as the informant on the death certificate put a question mark for the son's parents' names.  The informant was an unknown person to me.

I searched newspaper articles for the youngest son and found the informant's name listed as someone who visited or who the youngest son was visiting.  That didn't help much as I still didn't know the relationship of the two until finally I found an article listing the youngest son as the parents of the informant's wife.  So, the informant was the husband of the niece of the first son.  At least that mystery was solved.

But, who are the parents of the two boys, Francis and Charles?

Family Tree Maker 2011 Software Rant

I've been dumped out of the program three times this evening. 

I guess it is time to export and import my data again.  I just did that in September.   <big sigh>

I have over 70,000 names in my database and I've been told that perhaps I should divide the families up into separate databases.  I don't want to and here's why.  I'm doing this for the enjoyment of putting the puzzle pieces together and I love it when I find a connection between the families.  If I separate the families I will miss finding those connections. 

I am frustrated with this software, but I hesitate to move to another one because of the loss of data and errors.

FTM does not distinguish between city, county, state and country except by commas.  I wish it had separate fields for the information.  I want to be able to search for family data in a particular county when I'm headed to that county and I can't with the way the FTM program is set up.  I use the plan part of the program to help with this, but I really don't like having to (re)enter the information and I strongly dislike (that seems kinder than hate) the report generated because it sucks.

I get a message every time I open the program and click on a leaf to access Ancestry.  I don't know if every one gets this message who is using FTM or if it is just me.  But it is frustrating.  The message tells me I need to use an updated browser.  My default browser is one of the ones listed AND the one I don't use but FTM seems to use (IE) is up to date. 

Here is the message I get: 

We’re making updates that may impact your Ancestry experience. Certain features on Ancestry will have reduced functionality or may not be supported when using Internet Explorer 8 or 9. Check out the recommended browsers for more information.

We’re making updates that may impact your Family Tree Maker experience. Starting in October 2014, Ancestry Web Search within Family Tree Maker software will have reduced functionality or may not be supported by Microsoft Windows XP, Microsoft Windows Vista or Internet Explorer 8 or 9. Moving forward, Microsoft Windows 7 or 8 will be required for Ancestry Web Search functionality to work properly.

FTM frustrates me because I cannot create the reports I want by manipulating the data I want on the printed paper.

I am frustrated at how slow the program operates.  Sometimes I turn off the internet access just to see if it will speed up.  It doesn't help and those darn little leaves still show up!  They are just grayed out. 

I want to be able to add more names for a person and be able to search for all of the names, not just the preferred name.   I want to be able to search for a female using her married name.

It frustrates me that FTM was not represented at the last genealogy conference I attended in Salt Lake City.  I visited with other software vendors and was frustrated when the sales people could not answer my questions.  One vender was so pleased with her product (even though she couldn't answer my questions), because it was web based.   Web based means I get to subscribe to it instead of owning or having a license for the software.  She was so delighted about the fact that the updates would be automatic and I wouldn't have to worry about them.  I asked what do I do when I'm out in the boonies in a cemetery and I want to look at my data with no internet access.  She said I would need to print a report before going.  So, the lesson there is you better print before going because you never know where you will or won't have internet access.  I don't want my genealogy software to be web-based.

Are there any genealogists who are software designers creating genealogy software?  Someone who cares about the product?  Someone who cares about what I want in a program????

I'm done with my rant for the moment.  If you made it this far, thanks for reading.