Limited Time Free Webinar: "Using Timelines for Correlation and Analysis" by Jill Morelli

Yet another awesome webinar from Legacy Family Tree Webinars, this time correlating and comparing data through timelines and tables, the latter a technique I rarely see so explicitly explained.  Jill Morelli presented this webinar "Using Timelines for Correlation and Analysis" on October 6, 2017 (available free to non-subscribers through October 13, 2017).  She uses Tom Jones' Mastering Genealogical Proof (which I own and highly recommend):

Timelines are one of many tools a genealogist can use to display evidence in the determination of proof arguments. This lecture explores the strategic aspect of the use of timelines and their relationship to the Genealogical Proof Standard, analysis and correlation. Timelines will be defined, their relationship to the GPS articulated and reasons why you should use timelines in your research work.  Many examples, illustrating different types of problems and their resultant formats, will be presented. We will also cover how to build effective timelines using Word and Excel. Presented live at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City and sponsored by the Board for Certification of Genealogy.

Runs 54 minutes


© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Monday Is for Mothers: Lulu Hayes Hilyard Slater (1871 - 1948)

This lovely portrait of Lulu Hilyard Slater and her two daughters Faye Virginia (1896-1968) and Helen Louise (1902-1984) looks like it was taken about 1905.

[Originally posted to the Bright/Carriker Family Tree on Ancesty.com by my 5th-8th Cousin Jeremy Bales]

Lulu married James Everett Slater (1869-1914)* in 1891 which makes Faye and Helen my first cousins, twice removed.

[James Everett Slater - Courtesy of Olive Slater-Kennedy]

["Kansas, County Marriages, 1855-1911," images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1-16091-17579-98?cc=1851040&wc=M6VS-868:166157501,166216001 : accessed 21 May 2014), 

Greenwood - Marriage records, 1887-1894, v. D - image 143 of 241.]

Neither Faye or Helen ever married and both are buried in Twin Groves Cemetery in Severy, Kansas, as is their father (along with several other Slater relatives**).



*James was the brother of my great grandfather Lewis Logan Slater.
**Including my great grandfather Lewis Logan Slater, his wife, my great grandmother Rufina Ellen Tomlinson Slater and their daughter, my great aunt Opal May Slater.



© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Sunday Drive: Rogue River Bridge - 1948

According to the Oregon Encyclopedia this bridge, named for Oregon governor Isaac Lee Patterson, was opened in 1932* so it was about 16 years old at the time Dad took this photo of it from the ocean side of the structure.

[From my personal collection]

From the same source we learn:

In 1982, the American Society of Civil Engineers designated the Rogue River Bridge a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark because of McCullough’s use of Freyssinet’s pre-stressing technique. In 2005, the bridge was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

*Apparently the bridge also boasts Art Deco touches, including Palladian and Egyptian elements.


© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Spring Cleaning in October

Crista Cowan explains and shows why a clean tree improves your genealogy.

Let's just say I've gotten carried away with the research and shiny bright things since I started using Ancestry in 2009.  Right now I have over 52,000 people on my tree (down from over 57,000! a few months ago) but that is truly unnecessary and ridiculous.  I'm not sure what the right amount of people on a genealogical tree is, but it can't be that many.

So as I've been standardizing my locations (i.e. fixing all the locations in every profile) I've also been pruning any and every one who isn't a blood relation or FAN club member.  Turns out there are a ton of siblings of distant cousins' wives and husbands, as well as stepchildren galore (including stepchildren of stepchildren), who don't add anything to the tree or my research, but are just there as remnants from an over-enthusiastic research session.  I figure that if any particular person is important I can always add them back on.

I can't wait until I've tightened up my tree and standardized the locations, because I have a lot of plans for using my Legacy 9 software to do some interesting reports. But for now I have to atone for my sins and do some much needed clean up.



© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

From the Probate Files: Richard Pace - Bertie County, North Carolina, 1738

When I wrote about Richard Pace's daughter Tabitha on Monday I included a published extract of his will which was presented to the Bertie County Court in February, 1738. Here's the original document with my own transcription.

In The Name of God Amen; The Thirteenth 
day of March; I Richard Pace of Bertie Prect in 
the Province of North Carolina being of sound & perfect
mind & memory Thanks be Given to God, Do make & ordain
this my Last Will & Testament. Principally & first of all I
recommend my Soule into the hands of God that gave it,
hoping through the merits death & passion of my Saviour,
Jesus Christ to have free pardon & forgiveness of all my
sins, and my body I commit to the earth to be decently interred;
and as touching my Worldly Estate I dispose of the same
in the following manner & form; That is to Say.

First   I Will that all those Debts & duties that I do owe in rights
or conscience to any person or persons shall be truly _______
& paid by my Executors hereinafter named.

Item   I Give & Bequeath unto my Son William Pace that
Plantation with one hundred & Ninety Acres of Land thereto
belonging, where he now Lives, to him & his heirs for ever.

Item   I Give & Bequeath unto my Son Thomas Pace & his heirs
for ever my Plantation where I now Live with three hundred
& twenty Acres thereto belonging, reserving unto my
Dearly Beloved wife Rebecka Pace the sole use & benefit thereof
during her naturale life.

Item   I give unto my Son Richard Pace five shillings silver money

Item   I give unto my Daughters, Ann Howard, Rebecka Bradford,
Amy Green, Francis Green, Tabitha Moore, Mary Johnson &
Sarah House, each of them, five shillings Silver money.

Item   I give & bequeath unto my Son Thomas Pace my Plantation
on Roanoak river with Two hundred & ninety acres of Land
thereto belonging, also Ten head of Cattle, one feather bed &
furniture, four pewter dishes, six pewter plates, two pewter
basons, two iron pots, one skellet. one frying pan, to him & his
heirs for ever.

Item   I give & bequeath unto my Loving wife Rebecka Pace all the remain-der
of my Estate of whatsoever kind to be by her quietly possessed
during Life, and after her decease to be equally Divided between
my two Sons William Pace and Thomas Pace for the
use and advantage of them & their heirs for ever;

[Wills, 1663-1789; Author: North Carolina. Division of Archives and History; Probate Place: North Carolina.

Ancestry.com. North Carolina, Wills and Probate Records, 1665-1998 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015.

Original data: North Carolina County, District and Probate Courts.]

Item   I do hereby Nominate & appoint my Loving Sons, William
Pace & Thomas Pace my only Executors of this my Will
Ratifying & confirming this & no other to be my Last
Will & Testament. In Testimony whereof I have
hereunto set my hand and affixed my seal this
day & year above written.

Signed, sealed, published, pronounced  }
& Declared by the said Richard Pace,    }
to be his Last Will and Testament:         }
In the presence of us the Subscribers     }                    Richard Pace {Seal}

     J. Edwards           }
     William Boon      }  Jurats
     Benjamin Dukes  }

Bertie     }
Precinct  }  the Febry Court 1738 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The aforewritten Will of Richard Pace was duly produced
in open Court by the Oaths of John Edwards Esq William
Boone and Benjamin Dukes Only Subscribing Witnesses
thereto And William Pace and Thomas Pace Exectrs
therein Named took the Exctrs. Oath by Law
Required

                                       Test. Jno Wynne Clerk[??]

I wasn't able to locate any other probate documents for Richard Pace. An inventory of his estate would have helped us paint a picture of the kind of household Tabitha grew up in, but we can tell that her father owned hundreds of acres of land in Bertie County. Also from his mention of pewter tableware in his bequest to his son Thomas we can infer that the Paces could afford expensive (and probably imported) items.* (There's no mention of any slaves--does that mean he didn't own any?)

Once again we see the pattern of the bulk of Richard's property going to (in this case) two of his sons while the other boy and his daughters were left five silver shillings. When judging the value of their bequest** one thing to keep in mind is that hard money was never plentiful in the American colonies--and most currency in circulation was paper money, printed by each colony (and often  counterfeited). It's impossible to know exactly what each recipient got (was it really silver?) and so we don't know what they might have been able to buy with their inheritance.***

*Here's a piece on early pewter in the colonies.
**For a longer discussion of colonial money, this piece from North Carolina Digital History is helpful.
***His daughters were already married and it's likely each (or her husband) received some portable property at the time of their wedding.



© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Limited Time Free Webinar: "No Easy Button: Using “Immersion Genealogy” to Understand Your Ancestors" by Lisa Alzo

Lisa Alzo has put together a great webinar,"No Easy Button: Using “Immersion Genealogy” to Understand Your Ancestors," on the ways you can better understand your ancestors, through strategies to understand their daily life:

"Learn how to go beyond the same old research strategies through “immersion genealogy” to further understand your ancestors’ lives."

I've only done this approach in a haphazard way.  I need to incorporate this more fully in my research going forward.

Originally recorded October 4, 2017 (available to non-subscribers through October 11, 2017).  Runs 1 hr 30 minutes.

© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Working on Wednesday: Vandy Marcellus Neal (1838 - 1905) Doctor, Soldier (Confederate)

With this man I'm really going out on a genealogical limb--if I'm right, Dr. Neal is my second cousin, four times removed, through the my great great grandmother Sarah Matthews' line. But is he really?

Here's the 1850 U.S. Census records for the family of one of my first cousins, five times removed, Elizabeth Matthews Neal.

[Year: 1850; Census Place: District 13, Panola, Mississippi; Roll: M432_379; Page: 309B; Image: 236. Ancestry.com. 1850 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: Seventh Census of the United States, 1850; (National Archives Microfilm Publication M432, 1009 rolls); Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29; National Archives, Washington, D.C.]

[Detail of above]

Does this 13-year-old Mississippi-born boy turn out to be Vandy Marcellus Neal? I'm sure you've seen how badly census takers can maul unusual names and in this case the person who indexed the records read it as Vankrum. What do you think?

Oddly, although there are quite a few other records for Vandy, he somehow doesn't show up in any other censuses.

For instance we know that he graduated from the University of Louisiana, class of 1860, and served as an assistant surgeon in the 37th Alabama Regiment of Volunteer Infantry in 1862 (although he resigned effective almost immediately) and he served in several Alabama reserve companies in 1864.

[Civil War Service Index - Confederate - Alabama.

The National Archives via Fold3.com]

The following image and Dr. Neal's obituary were found on the public Ancestry.com family tree of h0uston511. Sadly the obituary doesn't mention his parents so I can't be sure that he's actually one of my distant relatives.

© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.