Salt Lake City Research Trip

Denise and I plan to leave Wednesday to drive to Salt Lake City. We plan to take a seminar on German Research on Saturday.



Five of Denise's eight great-grandparents were from Germany or Prussian areas along the German/Polish border. We have never had much luck tracing them before they got on the boat to come to America.

We will spend the next week doing research in the Family History Library.

Hope all of you have some time to do research this month.

My Cousin's House

Last week I passed my cousin's house as I walked from the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) Library back to my hotel in Washington, DC. Actually cousins have lived there 13 1/2 out of the last 21 1/2 years. Barack Obama is my 10th cousin--once removed. I am also related to George W Bush through 3 of his 4 grandparents. Barack, W and I all descend from the same New England family, Samuel and Sarah (SOULE) HINKLEY, who came to Plymouth Colony in 1635. But, alas, none of this has gotten me a night in the Lincoln Bedroom.

Still this is a great picture for the 4th of July!

New Sweden Research in Delaware

Earlier this week I spent two days in Delaware researching my ancestors who came to New Sweden in the 17th Century. Most of my time was at the Delaware Public Archives in Dover. As you are probably aware there is a difference between an archive and a library. An archive primarily contains the official records that are created by an organization as a by product of its doing business. A library is primarily a collection of documents that were created elsewhere but were collected to meet the needs of a particular clientèle. Of course there are some entities that blur the line or actually function as both. Another difference is that since archives contain the original copy of a document, often only pencils (not ball point pens) are allowed in the work areas where documents are viewed.

At the Archives I was able to get copies of the wills and other probate documents for several of my ancestors. The Archives were lightly used, at least on the days I was there, and the staff had time to be very helpful. I was given an orientation when I first arrived that saved me a lot of time later. I didn't retain everything I was told but I remembered enough to go back to the staff members later and ask for some specific details to be repeated.

Most research at this Archive is conducted by viewing microfilm. There were many film viewing stations and three or four reader/printers to make copies. One of the reader/printers was connected to a computer that allowed the film image to be scanned and stored on a flash drive. I prefer this method of saving copies of documents. I can print the document later if I choose. I can also magnify it on my computer screen to make it easier to decipher.

After the Archives closed at 4:15 I decided to take a 50 mile drive into Wilmington to see what the Public Library there might have. The library has a Delaware Room but the librarian on duty told me my time might be better spent a few blocks away at the Delaware Historical Society Library. Fortunately for me I was there on the one night of the week that the library was open until 9:00 PM. This library clearly had more published books of interest to those researching Delaware ancestors than any other I visited. So if you have ancestors who lived in the Delaware area, I recommend you visit the Archives and the Historical Society Library.

East Coast Research Trip in June

If any of you live in the general area of Washington DC, I invite you to join us at the DAR Library in Washington on June 24th. A handful of cousins and research colleagues have already indicated they plan to be there. This is the second research day in DC for me. Actually started my genealogy research at the Library of Congress when I was a graduate student in the 1960s.

Three years ago when the American Library Association last met in DC, I met cousin on my mom's Cashatt line, Ida Cann and her husband David, Sally Keefer, a cousin on my dad's Pierce line and Wayne Smithey a research colleague on my stepson's Smithey line at the Library of Congress for a day of research in the Local History and Genealogy Room. All of the original cast members plan to return this year when ALA returns to DC. The other four live in the extended DC area. This year cousin George Dowell and Jerry McCabe, my long time conference roommate have indicated they plan to join us.

If you live nearby or otherwise plan to be in the area on June 24th, you are more than welcome to join us. This year Wayne indicated he would prefer the DAR Library because of its open stack arrangement. Both the DAR and LC are among my favorite research spots.

DC will be the last destination of my June voyage of family discovery, reunion and research. On June 2nd I plan to fly to Nashville for the birth of a new grandson and some quality time with his big brother Noah who is now almost 3. Two weeks later I'm flying to Baltimore and pick up a rental car. Then I will drive up to the Philadelphia area to do some research in the Quaker records at Swarthmore College. Then I'll continue up the coast to a Wing Family Reunion in Hyannis, MA. On my return trip I plan to spend a couple of days in Delaware researching my ancestors who settled in New Sweden in the 17th Century. Then back to the DC area.

I would be happy to see any of you at any stop along the trail. Actually I'll be at the DAR on both the 24th and 25th. On the 24th I will be researching in the Library all day. On the 25th I am attending an all day workshop "Behind the Genealogical Reference Desk" which is primarily designed for librarians who help family history researchers. Then after a few days attending other ALA meetings, I'll return to the left coast on Tuesday, June 29th.

Early Virginia Ancestral Lines

My own current activities in 17th Century Virginia are a mixture of “harvesting” and verification. “Harvesting” is collecting the pedigree charts that have been posted by other family historians. While these can give one a sense of direction, they vary greatly in reliability. I started my most recent round of collecting information on the families I thought I descended from in early Virginia last summer in Salt Lake City at the Family History Center Library. I continued in January at the New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) Library in Boston. This latter institution is sometimes called “HistGen” by insiders. Sarah Jessica Parker visited this library in the first episode of WDYTYA as she began to move back her line to her Salem witch. I have continued to add information to my piles from Internet searches for pedigree charts, family focused forum such as those found on GenForum, and sites about early Virginia.

Now I am trying to organize and evaluate the piles of data and perhaps create a priority research “to do” list for a June trip that will take me to the DAR Library in DC and possibly the Library of Virginia in Richmond.

So far I have convinced myself of the following, at least until I can disprove these hypotheses:
1. I had a European ancestor in North America prior to the arrival of the Mayflower;
2. Thomas Jefferson was a third cousin-eight times removed. Perhaps this explains my fascination with Jefferson and Monticello. However it is more likely this fascination grew out of the tales told by of a high school history teacher who waxed so reverently in talking about Tom that she made us wonder if she used to date him; and
3. King Henry I, of England (abt. 1068-1135) is my 30th great-grandfather.
Of these three “finds”, the cousin connection to Jefferson and the biological link back to Henry seem to be pretty well documented. The links in my connection to Thomas Farmer who arrived in Jamestown in October 1616 seem to be credible but I continue to look for more solid documentation.

One other connection that is somewhere between fantasy and possibly true is a biological connection to John Clark(e) who was pilot of the Mayflower. Clarke Island in Plymouth Bay is said to be named for him. He made several voyages across the Atlantic prior to his death in the early 1620s in Jamestown where he had apparently decided to settle. I may never know if he was one of my ancestors. His line of descent is still much debated.

Mike's Family History Fieldtrip

You never know what knowledge will be useful to you as you try to trace down your family members. Who would ever have thought it would be knowledge of fruit? Mike describes how he planned a family research trip on which he is about to embark:

"I am prepping for a trip to N. Ca and into Oregon and Washington. In Washington, I will be visiting at least 2 of 3 first cousins I've not seen in 55 years. I started looking for them in one of Dave's first classes when I learned about ZABASEARCH and Google-Maps; 2 of the 3 had relatively common first names, and I only knew the third as "Buddy" and the searches never revealed a Buddy. Finally, my aunt in Santa Maria revealed that he and his wife always sent her a box of fruit (apples and pears), and she thought his real name was "Merrill". So, I sat and figured the only area that coincides with apples and pears simultaneously is the north west USA so I narrowed things down and finally found Merrill in Vancouver WA. He told me his next younger brother Bob, also lived there in Vancouver, and the youngest lives in Great Falls, Montana and may be able to get to WA, so I am planning to have a nice reunion."

"These cousins I am going to visit apparently visited with my father's half sister in Fresno, although he did not know of her until about 1950 or so; she was the child of my dad's father and some other woman after my dad's mother tossed him out for fooling around with her "best friend" shortly after 1910. Aunt Ruth died in Fresno about 10 years ago and I have not yet tracked her death certificate down to get the name of the woman who was her mother (my grandfather's second wife or mistress); the clan appears to have been very secretive about who did what with whom and there is little written that I have found. So far, nothing about grandfather after the 1910 census, and a pointer to his death shortly before 1920. I am hoping the cousins may have some info that their father (my dad's brother ) maintained and perhaps I can get more family links confirmed."

Check back in a couple of weeks for an update on Mike's quest in the Northwest.