Trusted to take on a New Family Project

I received a phone call the other day and was asked to please help a business partner of my husbands dig out his family tree. His brother just signed up for Ancestry.com and is lost on what to do. Yes, I took on the challenge.

Step one: I have a copy of their father’s obituary, he just passed away a few weeks back. From that I was able to get his full name, James Joseph Corr, birthdate, where he grew up, school he attended, surviving siblings names, wifes name (she passed away in 1999 – have to look for her obituary), all 9 of his children’s names.

Step two: I enter all obit information into my Family Tree Maker Program – I love this program it helps me keep everything organized and prints out great family group sheets, charts, etc.

Step three: Look for Mrs. Corr’s obituary. Found it in the Philadelphia Inq. Archives online. Her name was Jacqueline Perry Corr. She was born and raised in PA. WAIT I have Perry’s in my family from PA. Now I am really excited. Can’t get carried away – just can’t.

Step four: Hunt down every bit of information I can on this couple. What did I find?
• Obituary for both James and Jacqueline
• World War II enlistment records for James
• SSDI index entry for both. Confirms their birth and death dates.
• Checked the High schools that both had listed as attended in their
obits. They are on the lists of alumni. James has a new “in
memory” page on his schools site.
• Checked the alumni list for Manhatten College – found James Corr
on the list.
• Was able to get Jacqueline’s parents names from her son Joe. Will
move on from there. Still waiting for James parent’s names – I
know they immigrated to this country from Ireland.

With Jacqueline’s parents names in hand I will try to move on a few generations back for them. I love that this family is from the area of Pennsylvania I know well. I have spent years researching my mother’s family in the same counties. I will post my finds in a later post. I know I have so many cemetery pictures, town history books, etc. from Luzerne and Columbia Counties in PA – maybe I will find them, crossing my fingers.

Always remember to start with the living first and get all the information you can and then move on to past generations. It is so easy to get excited and jump to conclusions – remember, “Slow and Steady wins the race.”

Accepting new family members in my hunt

I feel like a grumpy old set in their ways grouch. I should be HAPPY to have help in my search of my hubby's family. When I saw his cousin looking and connecting ancestor information from my ancestry.com tree I was excited. I was so happy, someone on his side has crossed over to the "tree world."

I find myself cringing at the content on her new ancestry tree. Is there any proof to what she is gathering? Is she just taking the opinion of other people? Has she entered the "Land of Make Believe" or is she going to take the long hard trail in the "Tree World."

I wrote her an informative and guiding email about the importance of PUBLIC RECORDS, MILITARY RECORDS, CENSUS, LAND RECORDS, WILLS, etc. I mentioned the importance of using these records to form the true and correct relationships in the family. I see she has been an ancestry member for less than a month and has over 500 people in her tree going back hundreds of years.

My husband mentions to me not to worry, "She lists a lot of family members that aren't my relation." I need to remember she has a different grandfather then he did and a lot of the information is on that family.

I still worry about the information she is forming in her tree and am trying so hard not to step in and take over for her. It took me 13 years to get the 1500 people I have in the family line that connects her and my hubby together. I have to bite my tongue and allow her to make her own mistakes and learn to get out of them just like a lot of us end up doing in the beginning of our family research.

Well, at the moment that is all I have to add or vent about. Will post something more productive next time.

Genealogy Sites I use A LOT and other things.

I remember my senior year of high school I worked for Old Bridge Schools in the administration building. There was a tiny room in the back of the building where a lone woman sat all day scanning records to microfilm. I was fascinated with how it was done. I always wanted to learn the process but being a meager co-op student wasn't allowed to see "private" records of other students. I guess they didn't know who I was a new girl to public school who new NO ONE and didn't care about other peoples grades, etc.

I then started my Senior project on Family history and that is when I really fell in love with microfilm. I would spend hours in the East Brunswick library (they had census records - Old Bridge didn't) in front of a microfilm projector. I could honestly say that was my "best friend" that year. Move over Matt I have a date with a projector. Yeah, years later and he still doesn't get the obsession. His loss I guess.

Well with the age of internet we have come a long way. It know seems many towns are making it possible to search records online. Middlesex county, NJ is one of them. They have 1950 - present of land records available on the internet. This is where I find a lot of information on my hubbys family. His family is full of secrets - well they have been exposed. I know everything now :-)... just joking. I did find out a lot that Matt as well as his cousins and aunts did not know. Land records could be a treasure chest of information if you look hard enough. I have only recently discovered this not really giving much thought about them.

You can find maiden names. Names of parents if you did not have them before - when land is left in a will. Names of Uncles and Aunts, brothers and sisters, etc. I found death dates and marriage dates in some records. All have been a wonderful help in filling in the blanks I had on my in-laws.

Some towns have birth indexes and death indexes which are also a wonderful thing to be able to scan through. In both I have found children I never knew existed because they only lived a few months and were then listed on both indexes. In the death index if a certificate can not be found on a person a lot of times it lists cause of death which is always a nice thing to know. When some people die so young it is nice to know why. Influenza, drowning, etc. These are things that aren't in our genes so it helps settle the fear you may have (or I may have) of dying young.


Some wonderful sites that I am a member of (yes you do have to pay) that have many records available are:

http://www.ancestry.com/

http://www.footnote.com/

http://www.newspaperarchives.com/

http://www.genealogybank.com/

http://www.ngsgenealogy.org/

Other wonderful sites that are free for all and have been very helpful to me are:

http://www.familysearch.org/ LDS site (starting to have some census records)

http://www.colonialct.uconn.edu/ Connecticut site

http://www.state.nj.us/state/darm/links/archives.html NJ State Archives-have records back to early 1700s

http://www.digitalarchives.state.pa.us/ PA state Archives

http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/ Wisconsin Historical Archives

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/lwsp.html American State Papers - great for VERY early settlements

Another site that is great to help as a springboard as where to look is http://www.cyndislist.com/ not all links are up to date but there is a bunch of great stuff to find here.

That is all I have to add at the moment, have to bake bread for school bake sale, talk to you soon.

My Zora Johnson, I Think??

Well, after my last post I decided to try again on the next available census. Everyday different companies and organizations are upgrading the indexes and making the images more clearer with all the new technology.

I logged onto Ancestry.com, I have a tendancy to go to that research site first. Typed in *ora Johnson, born 1886, Pennsylvania crossed my fingers spun around 3 times and hit enter. I already decided in my head she wouldn't be there because she never is and I check at least once a week on my few "missing person" cold cases.

What was this? Jora Johnson listed in Milton, Northumberland County, PA. It was just one county over from where I knew she was 10 years earlier. I clicked on the name to bring up the page and my eyes saw "Johnson Zora, 36 years old, single, relation to house: servant, birthplace pennsylvania, occupation Cook at Riverside hotel. Then if you look up a couple lines at the head of the household he was the owner of the Riverside Hotel. So my heart started beating fast, I looked at the clock it was only 9:30pm so I called my mom figuring she was up. She logged on to her computer and brought up the same record and was starting to do the happy dance herself since we both REALLY think this could be Zora.

We then checked the 1930 census and the family is no longer there. Mr Springer who was the head of household had sold the hotel and was now an owner of a gas station. The hotel had changed hands.

I am now going to have to check city directories for every year following the 1920 to follow the owner and his family to see when it was the may have stopped living and working in the town of Milton, Northumberland County, PA.

Well, there she is listed on line 92 of the above page in the 1920 Federal Census, what are your thoughts? Do you believe this could be my Zora or have a just snapped?