The Secret Life of a Care Bear

I forgot to mention that Mark has our genealogy page up and running at http://mark.scrambledegli.com/genealogy

If you want to browse through the tree for kicks and need a good starting place, here’s the page for Mark & I: http://mark.scrambledegli.com/genealogy/family/2

I’m going to write about this myself, rather than linking to another article about it, because this is going to be a bit about how I got started and a bit about things I wish I’d done. This is from the point of view of someone that wants to get started researching, but doesn’t have the time or resources to spend hours combing through microfilm.

There are lots of records on the web these days. Unfortunately, many of them are only accessible through subscription sites, like Ancestry.com. However, some of the records on Ancestry.com are free. You can also sign up for a free 14 day trial of Ancestry.com, but I don’t recommend doing that just yet. If you’re interested in trying that, you should wait until you’ve exhausted what you know and what you can find for free elsewhere.

The first thing you should do is talk to your family. Someone in the family might already have done some research and put together a book or tree that you can use as a starting point. If not, a good place to start is to talk to older family members and have them write down what they know about ancestors already. You’re going to need something to start off with, names at the very least, hopefully some dates and locations as well. You can get worksheets online to send to them that they fill in with what they know, which will help you stay organized. You can print out some family tree templates to have them fill in, or just have them write out what they know about the family.

One of the first places to search is the LDS site familysearch.org. They have tons of records you can search for free. You can also download a free family tree program from them, which is helpful for keeping track of what you find. There’s a link to it on the front page. You can search and view records from the 1880 Federal Census there, which is really helpful.

Another great site is Cyndi’s List. It is a HUGE collection of genealogy sites and collections, organized by category and searchable. Definitely check there, you might find a great resource specific to your family. For example, If I go there and click on the “Mennonite” category, and scroll down to “records”, I find a link to MennObits, which has transcribed all the obituaries from the weekly newspapers of the Mennonite church in the US, from 1864 to the present. This is a huge wealth of information, and includes MANY of Mark’s ancestors. So spend some time exploring Cyndi’s List, especially if you can search a particular location or group.

Okay, here’s my main tips for genealogy, based on the mistakes I’ve made or things that have worked well for me.

Tip 1: Make sure you ALWAYS note sources for your information. You’re going to forget where you found things later, if you don’t. Also, if you’re sharing information with other genealogists later, they’re going to want to know where you got your stuff, because without sources, it’s not trustworthy. So keep track of what the record is (including page or document numbers, years, county, etc.) and where you found it, so you can find it again later. I note links to records that are online so I can access them again quickly.

Tip 2: This goes along with the first one. Don’t trust information you find online that doesn’t give any sources. You’ll probably find many family trees online. You can definitely use the information on them, but make sure you verify it with actual records. If you start using Ancestry.com, you’re going to run into their OneWorldTree. It searches all the trees that members have on the site. There is a LOT of incorrect information there. Some of the trees are sourced, but many are not.

Tip 3: Don’t use family tree builder tools like the one Ancestry offers on their site. (I’m talking about the web based one, not the FamilyTreeMaker software they sell.) You will end up with unorganized data with sketchy sourcing. Also, you will be tempted to merge info with the OneWorldTree data it offers you. STAY AWAY FROM IT! I used it when I was first starting out, and now I have lots of messy data in the tree that I need to verify and source.

Tip 4: Make generous use of message boards and mailing lists! Other people out there may be searching for the same people you are. Ask questions on the boards. Search the boards for people you are stuck on. Contact people who have posted information about people you’re searching for. I’ve met two different cousins online because I found them on a message board and an email list. Both of them had great information for me. One of them gave me the family picture that I posted last Thursday. Rootsweb has lots of email lists that you can search. There are message boards at Ancestry.com & Genealogy.com that I use. They have boards for surnames as well as locations. Very helpful.

Tip 5: Check out findagrave.com. People take pictures of graves and post them there. They often do entire cemeteries. You might find one of your ancestors on there. If I’m searching for a common name, I will often do a cemetery search for where they died, and look through the records. For example, check out my 5G Grandfather, George Barnett.

Okay, well that’s everything I can think of for now. If you have any questions, post a comment and I’ll answer either in the comments or with a new post! :)

Today I am entering more information into Mark’s family tree, mostly associated lines and other children and such, not any direct line things. This is very frustrating because I get all turned around and confused trying to sort out who belongs where. This is because it seems that most Swiss-German Mennonite families have one of about twenty surnames and a habit of multiple siblings in a family marrying into the same family or marrying their second or third cousins. On top of all of this, they all have the same first names. You think I’m exaggerating, but I’m not. I will now make a list of first names for males and females that covers probably 95% of all the people in this part of the tree born before…oh, 1900 or so.

Males: (variants)
Andrew (Andreas)
Christian
Daniel
Henry (Henri, Heinrich)
Jacob (Jakob)
John (Jean, Johann, Johannes, etc.)
Joseph (Josef)
Peter
Valentine

Females:
Anna
Barbara
Catherine (Katharina, etc.)
Elizabeth (Elisabeth)
Jacobena (Phoebe)
Mary (Maria)
Magdalena (Lena)
Veronica (Fannie)

It is extremely hard to keep these people straight when they have two uncles and 10 first cousins that share their name! For example, as best I can tell, there are SEVEN different individuals in the tree so far with some variant of “Catherine Birkey”. This is only a tiny part of the tree, even. There are 28 people in this family named Christian, five of those are named Christian Oesch. So confusing…

At the request of Mark, I present to you the story of Alice Martin: one of the first women executed in the Plymouth Colony (NOT the first woman executed in America, as the website I will link to claims), my 11G Grandmother.
It’s not certain who her parents were, but we know that she was born about 1616, and married George Clark around 1640, and had two daughters by him, Martha and Abigail. George Clark died in 1644 and she married Richard Bishop the same year. She had two children by Richard, Damaris (b. 1645) and James (b. 1646). In 1648 she was tried, convicted, and hanged for killing her daughter Martha. You can read a transcription of the court records at this page.

How I descend from Alice Martin:

Richard Bishop
b. abt 1612, England
& Alice Martin
b. abt 1616, England
d. abt 1648, Plymouth Colony
m. 1644
| Damaris Bishop
| b. abt 1645, Plymouth Colony
| d. 6 Feb 1682, Piscataway, Middlesex Co, New Jersey
| & William Sutton
| b. abt 1641, Scituate, Plymouth Co, Massachusetts
| d. 28 Apr 1718, Piscataway, Middlesex Co, New Jersey
| m. 11 Jul 1666, Eastham, Barnstable Co, Massachusetts
| | Daniel Sutton
| | b. 25 Feb 1681, Piscataway, Middlesex Co, New Jersey
| | d. 1767
| | & Patience Martin
| | b. 1684, Middlesex Co, New Jersey
| | m. 31 Oct 1704, Piscataway, Middlesex Co, New Jersey
| | | Zebulon Sutton
| | | b. 1 Sep 1707, Piscataway, Middlesex Co, New Jersey
| | | d. 1743, Basking Ridge, Somerset Co, New Jersey
| | | & Mary Slater Doty
| | | b. abt 1707, Middlesex Co, New Jersey
| | | m. 23 May 1731
| | | | Henry Sutton
| | | | & Mary Langstaff
| | | | m. 1 Oct 1751, Middlesex Co, New Jersey
| | | | | Zebulon Sutton
| | | | | b. 12 Nov 1752, Mendham, Morris Co, New Jersey
| | | | | d. 25 Feb 1840, Licking Co, Ohio
| | | | | & Sarah Hull
| | | | | b. 7 May 1762
| | | | | d. 8 Mar 1830, Licking Co, Ohio
| | | | | m. 21 Dec 1782
| | | | | | George Sutton
| | | | | | b. 21 Dec 1782, Morris Co, New Jersey
| | | | | | & Cooper
| | | | | | m. abt 1805
| | | | | | | Darius Uriah Sutton
| | | | | | | b. 10 Feb 1815, Greene Co, Pennsylvania
| | | | | | | d. 5 Jun 1876, Newman, Douglas Co, Illinois
| | | | | | | & Harriet Hendershot
| | | | | | | b. 18 May 1818, Greene Co, Pennsylvania
| | | | | | | d. 3 Aug 1888, Douglas Co, Illinois
| | | | | | | m. 18 May 1832, Greene Co, Pennsylvania
| | | | | | | | George Paul Sutton
| | | | | | | | b. 24 Oct 1849, Windridge, Greene Co, Pennsylvania
| | | | | | | | d. 23 Jun 1935, Newman, Douglas Co, Illinois
| | | | | | | | & Sarah Jane Gillogly
| | | | | | | | b. 4 Feb 1852, Murdock, Douglas Co, Illinois
| | | | | | | | d. 6 Feb 1927, Frankfort, Clinton Co, Indiana
| | | | | | | | m. 28 Aug 1870, Douglas Co, Illinois
| | | | | | | | | Mary Minerva Sutton
| | | | | | | | | b. 9 Dec 1872, Newman, Douglas Co, Illinois
| | | | | | | | | d. 21 Jun 1926
| | | | | | | | | & Edward Cain
| | | | | | | | | b. 2 Jul 1875, Indiana
| | | | | | | | | d. 19 Mar 1956, Illinois
| | | | | | | | | m. 1898
| | | | | | | | | | Frances Evangeline Cain
| | | | | | | | | | b. 8 Sep 1905
| | | | | | | | | | d. 13 Nov 1980
| | | | | | | | | | & Henry Charles Kleiss
| | | | | | | | | | b. 31 Mar 1902, Illinois
| | | | | | | | | | d. 20 Dec 1967
| | | | | | | | | | m. 18 Jun 1924
| | | | | | | | | | Edwin Ramon Kleiss
| | | | | | | | | | b. 11 Oct 1931, Hayes, Tuscola Twp, Douglas Co, Illinois
| | | | | | | | | | | & Blanche Kathleen Curry
| | | | | | | | | | | b. 8 Aug 1934, Villa Grove, Douglas Co, Illinois
| | | | | | | | | | | m. Jun 1956, Tuscola, Douglas Co, Illinois
| | | | | | | | | | | | Kristi Kathleen Kleiss
| | | | | | | | | | | | b. 26 Nov 1957
| | | | | | | | | | | | & Christopher James Townsend
| | | | | | | | | | | | b. 28 Mar 1957
| | | | | | | | | | | | m. 17 May 1980, Tuscola, Douglas Co, Illinois
| | | | | | | | | | | | | Kari Kathleen Townsend
| | | | | | | | | | | | | b. 12 Apr 1985, Urbana, Champaign Co, Illinois

I’m back to working on the family tree now that summer is here. I have grand plans to do some grave hunting this summer, too. I want pictures just for kicks and I need information from some of them. Most of the graves that aren’t crazy far away are in the Douglas County area or Vermillion County, so not too far away. I REALLY need to find a few graves, but I don’t know where they are at all, and they’re somewhere in Indiana. I’m not going to go running around Indiana. This is, of course, excluding all the graves that would be great to find that are scattered around New England or France/Germany/Switzerland!

Anyway, here’s my Genealogy Top Ten Eight Most Wanted:

1. Tie between parents/family of Jacob Hull (b. abt. 1800, PA) & family of Sarah Hull (b. 7 May 1762). Yes, two Hulls from different generations. Why? Well, Jacob Hull is Mark’s 4G Grandfather and Sarah Hull is my 6G Grandmother. Right now these are the only two overlapping surnames that I stand a chance of finding a connection with, which would be SWEET. I’m not totally sure on the information for Jacob Hull, especially since Mark found it, but I have pretty firm dates for his son who was born & died in PA. I have full dates (birth, marriage, death) for Sarah Hull. I don’t have a birth location, but she was most likely born in New Jersey. I have her parent’s names and some dates, but what I really need to know is her grandfather or siblings or something to try to make a connection.
2. Any Sutter information that could make a connection between Mark’s tree and mine. Earliest known individuals are Mark’s 5G Grandfather, Johannes Sutter (b. abt. 1765 in Bavaria), and my 5G Grandfather, Johann Philip Sutter (b. 1738, also in Bavaria). You would think this would be a likely connection, but apparently Sutter is like Smith. Basically we have two guys named John Smith here. So no guarantees there. I’m not actively looking right now, because I’ve exhausted all the information I can find and Hull is a less common name and more likely to be connected.
3. Parents of Sarah J Milsap (or possibly Millsap, Millsaps, etc.), my GGG Grandmother on my Grandma Kleiss’s paternal (Curry) side. All I know about her is her name and that she was born in 1842 in Indiana, which I got from the marriage certificate. No parents, no county, nothing like that. I can’t find her anywhere on the 1850 or 1860 censuses. Grr.
4. Any information or sources on my dad’s grandmother, Hazel Jones (b. 1904, Fayette Co, IL). We don’t know much about her side of the family because she divorced my Great-Grandpa when my dad & his siblings were really young or not born yet, remarried, and moved to California. I’ve found a tree online with her parents and grandparents, but not a whole lot of sources attached. I’d also like to know what happened once she moved out to California.
5. The identity of the Native American grandparent in my Grandpa Townsend’s family. He knew there was one, and had pictures, but he didn’t know who it was. I don’t have enough information on that side to know who it is. There are lots of gaps, so it could very well be someone that I have in the tree but I don’t have parents for. I know it’s not one of the Townsends, because I have info on them all the way back to the first immigrant, Richard Townsend (who was born in Norfolk, England in 1631).
6. Most of these have been on my side of the familly, so here’s one for Mark’s family: Parents of Fred Rowell (b. 1867, Council Bluffs, IA), Mark’s GG Grandfather. We don’t remember quite how the story went, but his mom didn’t want him and gave him to an orphanage when he was little. He was adopted, but his new dad beat him, so he ran away.
7. Information about the parents of John Egli (b. 1821), Johannes Egli (Egly) & Maria Geisert. All I have about them are names, no dates or locations, other than where John was born and where he moved to as a boy (Baden, and Strasburg, Alsace, respectively).
8. Information about Nicholas Cain (b. 1832, Ireland), my GGG Grandfather. Based on census information, it looks like he and his wife first came to Ohio, then moved to Indiana. That’s about all I know.

Circled in this picture are Edward Cain (son of the Nicholas Cain mentioned above), his wife Minerva Sutton Cain, and their daughter Evangeline (my Grandpa Kleiss’s mother). To the right of her, with the big bow, is her little sister, Louise. Minerva is holding their other child, Joseph. The older couple in the middle is George Sutton & his wife Sarah Jane “Jennie” Gillogy Sutton, Minerva’s parents. The other individuals are their other children, in-laws, and grandchildren. This picture was probably taken around 1910 at the family farm near Newman, IL (West of Tuscola).
That pretty much wraps up all the things that I’m really annoyed that I can’t find. There are all sorts of other people I’d like to find, but I haven’t done enough research to be annoyed about it yet. Coming soon: genealogy tips & crazy things about my ancestors.