Take-aways from Tracing a Neighbor's Roots

This summer, I've been helping my neighbor learn more about her ancestors, particularly her father's family history. Here are my take-aways about researching and documenting a non-relative's family tree.

• Listen carefully to old family stories--twice. My neighbor had some memories about ancestors, and also had written down what older relatives said before they passed away. A handful of these stories had important clues as starting points (names; where someone was born or died or married) and details that could be checked (who was in an orphanage and roughly when). Once I had a few names on the tree, I listened again as the neighbor told stories, because now I had a better idea of who was who.
• Look at old family documents with fresh eyes. This neighbor had some baptismal records, marriage certificates, etc. More great starting points for me, a non-relative, to dig into the family's history. I had to ask about a few possible ancestors with similar names, but pretty quickly I learned to distinguish who was who. Luckily, this neighbor also kept scraps of paper with notes about family history, and we used a few of the nuggets to untangle relationships.
• Look at old family photos with fresh eyes. Old gravestone photos provided clues to relationships and notes on burial places. Two old portraits, labeled "Grandfather ___" and "Grandmother ____" had clues like accessories and photo studio location that made more sense after we confirmed who the people were.
• Gently determine how much to tell. After a bit of discussion, I concluded that my neighbor was intent on knowing everything and anything, wherever the story might lead, warts and all. I did discover some legal problems in one ancestor's past, plus babies who died young and were forgotten in family stories. Also, I found a glowing obit of a much-respected great-grandpa. Most important, research suggested that her father's "parents" (as named on the Census and in family stories) had actually informally adopted him after a family crisis. We will follow up with DNA research.
• Research widely. I had no way of knowing where the initial clues might lead. I used multiple genealogy sites and multiple newspaper sites--and struck gold, with news reports naming names. Then full-text search on FamilySearch yielded unexpected papers that explained critical events in the paternal line.  Of course there were people with similar names who were NOT my neighbor's ancestors, but it didn't take long for me to learn to rule those out.
• Present a story, not a pedigree. Often I use tree invitations to share family history. This time, rather than present a family tree or pedigree chart, I drafted a two-page narrative to tell the broad outline of my neighbor's family history over the past 125 years. I also summarized a trend I had observed, of her father's grandparents regularly stepping in to take care of grandchildren after a parent's death. As I told the story, I showed my neighbor printouts of a few documents (news stories, draft registrations) that helped illustrate what happened. My neighbor now has a narrative she can use to share family history with her preteen grandkids, in addition to viewing the online tree.  

This experience brought me back to my own early days of genealogy, where I was unsure of where to look and who or what I might find. It was a fun journey of discovery for me then, and I enjoyed the process today as I added leaves to my neighbor's family tree, one person at a time. It really sharpened my skills to research an entirely unfamiliar family tree, and the challenge was stimulating.

Most rewarding was writing a narrative to present my neighbor's family history in brief. This introduced her to ancestors she never knew and, in some cases, never heard of...along with news stories and other records that kept the "plot" moving from one decade to the next. 

Whatever Happened to Henry Canner Harvey?

Researching my husband's family tree, I'd long been looking for the death of Henry Canner Harvey (b. 1875). Henry married my hubby's 1c1r Maud Victoria Slatter (1887-1963) in 1911 in Ontario, Canada. They had two children together, one born in Canada and one born in New York State.

Maud born in Cairo, Henry born in England

Maud interested me because she is the only ancestor in my husband's family to be born in Cairo, Egypt (when her father Albert William Slatter was posted there during his service in the Shropshire Light Infantry). 

Henry had been born in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, England and made his way to Buffalo, New York before 1911. He married Maud in that year, obtaining a marriage license in Fort Erie, in Canada just across from Buffalo, but marrying in London, Ontario, where her family lived. They settled in Buffalo, New York.

In 1916, Henry and several partners took over a Buffalo automobile body manufacturing business that he had managed, incorporating it as Harvey Top and Body Company. He ran that business for at least a decade, during a boom period for automobiles (and a period of population growth for Buffalo). 

Where's Henry?

By the late 1920s, Henry had disappeared from the records and the news. His wife Maud was mentioned in one child's marriage notice, but no Henry. I didn't want to assume divorce, especially since Henry was noted as her late husband in Maud's obit of 1963. But where was he? There were all kinds of possibilities.

After failing to find any grave or death cert, I focused on newspaper research, especially searching for obits or business items, thinking that surely a man (with the distinctive name of Henry Canner Harvey) who ran a successful auto body and building business would be remembered at his death. I searched multiple newspaper databases plus freebie databases and all over the place. No obit and no death record that I could find, in Buffalo or anywhere. No news coverage of him after the late 1920s. Periodically, I repeated my searches. Nope.

Breakthrough: Full-Text Search

This month, after again fruitlessly searching all newspaper databases for an obit or news snippet, I turned to FamilySearch's full-text search. I searched "Henry Canner Harvey" and the top result was a detailed death cert from, of all places, Los Angeles, California. See image at top. Breakthrough!

This is most definitely the correct Henry, given that the informant is his wife Maud V. Harvey. He had cancer for a couple of years before he died after an operation for a bowel obstruction, sad to say. I was surprised that he was a commercial traveler (salesman) for building material for the past 6 years. Maybe his auto body business suffered after the big stock market crash of 1929 and the start of the Depression? Again, many possibilities, but clearly he was no longer associated with autos and now associated with building, a solid industry in California.

Curiously, the birth year on Henry's cert is incorrect. Also, he and his wife had different residential addresses, according to this cert. And for some reason the names of his parents are "unknown." Even his birth place is "unknown." I again checked every newspaper database and found no obit, no mention, in California or New York, or anywhere.

Still, I now know what happened to Henry Canner Harvey and will plan to add him as "cremated" to Find a Grave, with a bite-sized bio of his entrepreneurial spirit.

"Possibilities" is this week's #52Ancestors genealogy prompt from Amy Johnson Crow.

Full-Text Search Yields Unpublished Genealogy from 1959

Brick wall revisited: My husband's McClure line traces back to Halbert McClure (hubby's 5th great-grandpa) of Donegal, who with his family sailed across the Atlantic before 1740 and bought land to settle in Virginia . . . then his sons began fanning out south and west. I wanted to learn more about descendants from hubby's 3d great-grandparents, John McClure and Ann McFall McClure.

Using FamilySearch's full-text search, I searched for McClure as surname, McFall as key word, and Virginia as place. Just a few results from the top, I was able to find a big volume of typewritten (unpublished) genealogy from 1959, filled with helpful family history clues for this McClure line. The book's title is Pond-Adams Family and Allied Families.

I would probably not have found this book without full-text search, because the McClure section is buried deep inside the book, and the title doesn't even hint at any connection with my husband's McClure family tree. 

The careful researchers who compiled this genealogy are Rachel Adams Cloud Pond (a DAR Regent) and Chaplain Clifton Ray Pond (a member of SAR). They checked Census records, land records, family Bibles, and lots of other sources, specifically noting what they found and where (and what they didn't find). The authors also included family stories with comments about what could be confirmed.

For ease of understanding the various branches of this sprawling family tree, the authors separated the book into sections by surname. They thoughtfully included a detailed bibliography and multiple indexes for each surname section (one for the direct line, and one for in-law names, an interesting way to index). 

Above, one of several pages with info about the John McClure family. I knew that John McClure (1780-1834) had two wives, and Ann McFall was the first. This page transcribes and organizes birth, marriage, and death notes from the family Bible of John's second wife, Martha McClanahan McClure (1792-1876). I pasted the citation directly on the downloaded pages so I can retrace my steps in the future.

Several sources (such as this one) indicate John McClure and his first wife, Ann McFall (1780-1812) were married on April 8, 1801. I put my eyeballs on the handwritten notation from the time and confirmed the year as 1801. Happy 225th anniversary to these ancestors!

However, the Bible of John's second wife, Martha, lists that marriage as taking place on April 12, 1800. She began writing in this Bible during the 1860s, so I suspect she wasn't certain of the actual date of her husband's first marriage that many decades in the past. 

Family history from family Bibles are good clues, not necessarily facts. Still, sometimes Bible info is all I have for little babies who sadly died within a few days or weeks of birth, at a time/place when no registration took place. I'm chipping away at the McClure brick wall, one name at a time, and thankful for full-text search!

Lessons learned:

1. Periodically redo searches, especially when new search technologies become available. I've been slowly repeating searches on the main surnames in my tree and my husband's tree and digging deeper into the full-text results from FamilySearch. It's going well!
2. Don't judge a genealogy book by its cover. Check content (table of contents, index, and beyond) to see the various family names included. 
3. Double-check Bible genealogy. Martha seems to be incorrect about the exact date of her husband's first marriage. I'll do my best to check other dates, knowing that some late 1700s/early 1800s records are scarce. 

Brick wall revisited is an April genealogy prompt from Amy Johnson Crow's series of 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks.

Full-Text Surprise: Divorce Papers!

My husband's grandmother Floyda Mabel Steiner McClure died 77 years ago this week, on November 2, 1948. She was 70 years old then, and had been married to Brice Larimer McClure for more than 45 years. 

But 20 years ago, when I first ordered their Ohio marriage license from 1903, I learned this was Floyda's second marriage. That sent me on a long quest to learn what happened. 

Old way: Phone, send $3 for photocopies 

When I first tried to find Floyda's Ohio divorce, I called a couple of courthouses in her area, and was advised to try showing up in person. Not logistically good for me, being in New England. I called back a few years later and spoke with the Clerk of Courts for Wyandot County, Ohio. She kindly listened to my brief explanation and told me to call back in 15 minutes, giving her time to check through the files for the relevant names and dates. 

I waited a full 20 minutes before calling back. Eureka, the clerk found an entire file on this divorce from 1901! I could have photocopies for a grand total of $3 plus snail-mail postage. When the envelope arrived, I was excited to learn the story of how Floyda's first husband was verbally abusive and threatened harm, so she initiated divorce and won alimony too--very unusual and rather courageous for a young woman of that time.

New way: Full-text search for Floyda

With the full-text search capabilities of Family Search, this week I decided to search again for Floyda among the many, many unindexed digitized documents. My search term was Floyda Steiner (her maiden name) and I filtered by dates 1878-1948, her birth and death dates.

Wow! On the first page of results, up popped her divorce papers, among other key documents digitized but not indexed from Wyandot County, Ohio probate and court records. At top, a screen shot showing the handwritten ledger on the left and the AI transcript on the right. The ledger is what the court clerk photocopied and sent me for $3. Now it's freely available through Family Search's full-text search and who knows what else I'll discover! Divorce documentation can be challenging to locate so this was a real surprise. And, as Lisa points out in a comment, finding these documents allows me to have a specific online source I can link to my family trees. 

Full-text search is giving me lots of clues and documents to add to my knowledge of family history. I've been working my way through hubby's family tree and my family tree, plugging in names and dates and places to see what unindexed records might show up. Wishing you luck as you try your searches!

Try It! FamilySearch's New Full-Text Search

If you have ancestors in the United States and Mexico, who may have been named in historical land, probate, or notary records, don't wait to try FamilySearch's new full-text search now available at FamilySearch Labs. It's part of a suite of experimental features you can learn about via this YouTube announcement.

From Browse to Search 

Until now, these mostly handwritten documents were browse-only (and good luck reading the cramped cursive)! But thanks to AI, FamilySearch has unlocked the names and details for us to locate via full-text search. The transcriptions aren't perfect, but they're sure good enough as a head start!

Lisa S. Gorrell explains, step by step, exactly how to search this collection. She also explains in detail, on her other genealogy blog, how to locate all the info needed for a useful source citation. Thank you, Lisa!

Finding Mary Amanda Demarest Wood's Will

Trying the new full-text search, I was able to quickly locate all the probate documents in Toledo, Ohio, including the will, of hubby's paternal great-grandma, Mary Amanda Demarest Wood (1831-1897). Surprisingly, Mary's administrator for the will was one of her younger sons, James Edgar Wood (1871-1939--my husband's grandpa). 

Best of all, the will had a listing of Mary's heirs, with "degree of kin" and "PO address." The heirs continued on the next page. Now I can definitively connect the youngest generation of heirs to the family tree, and continue descendancy research because of the addresses at time of this probate, 1897. Next step, 1900 Census!

NOTE: Although the transcriptions were not entirely correct, still they were a great place to start. The second name on the first list is Frank E. Wood, transcribed by AI tech incorrectly as Frank S. Wood. A few lines down, Robert O. Wood was transcribed incorrectly as Robert B. Wood. 

These are minor quibbles. The big picture is that we can find the documents and check the transcription by comparing with the image on our own. Do try it! Truly a game-changer, thanks to FamilySearch.