Four Generations Genealogy

Genealogies can be more than Social Constructs

2011-11-01T08:34:00.000-07:00

I've just become aware of what sounds like an interesting book: Eviatar Zerubavel, Ancestors and Relatives: Genealogy, Identity and Community. A Boston Globe review states that the Rutger sociologist "pulls back the curtain on the genealogical obsession."

I haven't seen the book, so I don't know how accurate the reviewer's description is. According to the review, Zerubavel objects that genealogists create pleasing genealogies by choosing which ancestral lines to follow (and which to ignore)and by cutting and pasting from other similarly biased genealogies. As anyone who has read Greenwood, Akenson,or Mills, or who has attended IGHR or studied the Genealogical Proof Standard knows, the curtain was pulled back a long time ago.

Yes, it is easy to produce biased and family histories. We do choose which ancestors to follow. Historians, sociologists and other researchers also choose where to focus their attention. A degree of bias is unavoidable, but an effort at neutrality is possible. This is why we promote standards and train genealogists to be disciplined researchers and analysts.

Finally, according to the review, Zerubavel asks: do we really care about our distant ancestors? No, not in the same way that we care about our living siblings and parents. But, we can find our ancestors very interesting. Do historians really care about the Roman Empire? I don't know, but I would bet they find it interesting, and that they believe that studying and understanding it has some value for us today.

Don't feel guilty about your obsession with genealogy!

Thanks to Harold Henderson for making me aware of this book. Harold's comment on Christy Fillerup's Facebook post led me to the Boston Globe review. Now, I need to lay my hands on a copy of Zerubavel's book.

Genealogy and Science

2011-07-12T12:17:00.001-07:00

From time to time, an interesting discussion erupts on genealogy mail lists about whether genealogy is a “science.” This is a tough question, and I think I am fully capable of oversimplifying it. It is also a good question, but, I think, the wrong question.

For starters, genealogy is indeed non-fiction. At least, its aims to be. Genealogists aim to ascertain chains of kinship, whether forward or backward in time. We do this by determining parent-child relationships. Hezekiah either was or wasn’t your ancestor.

That said, proof is often difficult. No matter how diligently we adhere to the Genealogical Proof Standard, we often can not state our conclusions with total certainty. DNA evidence can enhance our confidence, but we often must qualify our conclusions with words like “almost certainly,” “probably,” or “possibly.”

“Science” is commonly defined to involve observation, experimental investigation, testing of hypotheses and development of laws about the behavior of natural phenomena. When we think of science, we typically think of the physical sciences such as physics, chemistry and biology. But, broadly defined, the phrase “natural phenomena” can be extended to humans, and thus we sometimes talk of “social sciences” – sociology, psychology, political science, etc.

Most people don’t consider genealogy a science. Perhaps the most important reason is that genealogy is not experimental and is not concerned with establishing scientific laws – that is generalizations about relationships among phenomena that hold true under specified conditions (paraphrased from the American Heritage Dictionary, Second College Edition). History comes a bit closer to the extent that historians try to understand patterns in social, political or economic events, but the subject matter is so complex and the conditions so varied that historians find it hard to conclude that if A happens, B will follow.

So, genealogy is not a science. Who cares? For me, the more interesting question is: how do genealogical research methods compare to scientific method. Genealogists don’t run experiments in the same way scientists do, but they do observe data, develop hypotheses and draw conclusions. Many of the same rules of logic apply.

A famous philosopher of science (yes, there is such a thing), Karl Popper, said that a theory can not be scientific unless it is falsifiable. The basic idea is that, because it is so difficult to prove many things with certainty, we can approach truth by proving alternative theories false. Scientists posit a “null hypothesis,” and then set out to disprove it. If evidence suggests rejection of a null hypothesis, then the theory can be accepted with some confidence. For example, if a researcher hypothesized that all sheep are white, but null hypothesis would be that some sheep are not white. Because a researcher can never be certain that he has observed all sheep in the world, he can never prove that all sheep are white. That is, the all are white theory is not falsifiable. However, a null hypothesis that all sheep are not white can be proved with a single observation.

This principle applies to genealogy. Our research might lead us to hypothesize that the Hezekiah Hercules of was the father of Herky Hercules. We may never be able to prove the relationship, but we might be able to disprove it. If we can reject a series of hypothesized relationships, we may be left with only one plausible relationship standing.

Another principle of science is that of conceptual economy – that is, a preference for the simplest explanation among a set of competing theories with comparable explanatory power. Any particular theory may eventually be rejected, but this principle advises not making explanations more complicated than they need be. This problem arises often in genealogy. Many possible explanations, some of them Rube-Goldberg-complicated, may be available to explain why Great-Grandma Grace lived with her Aunt Alicia, but don’t dream up more complicated explanations than necessary. Unless you can disprove the simple explanation, it likely is true.

So, no, genealogy is not a science. But both scientists and genealogists make careful observations, develop theories about relationships, and draw defensible conclusions. This is what matters: skilled genealogists do their research with much the same care as scientists. I think we should worry less about whether we are a science, and more about how we do our research and write our proof arguments.

Braided Migration: Fawkners and Low Dutch

2011-04-14T18:59:00.000-07:00

When I teach about migration, I like to compare migration streams to braided streams. Most maps of migration routes show generalized migration streams along major routes. These maps give us an idea of the major flows, but don't tell us much about individual families.

The reality is that individual families, while following the general flow, often diverted from these major routes. They wandered off the main flow, but still moved "downstream" in the same general direction, often returning to the main stream further on -- much like a river spread outs into several smaller streams that diverge and converge in a flood plain. If you are having trouble visualizing this, you might want to look at an aerial photograph of a braided stream -- you will find many on Google Images.

One of my favorite migration stories involves a New York Dutch community that spread to southeastern Pennsylvania, and then transplanted itself from Conewego, Pennsylvnia, to Kentucky around 1780. (You can read about the Kentucky Low Dutch at www.sweet-home-spun.com/historytrust.htm). The Low Dutch community held together in Kentucky for several decades before the lure of western lands pulled many families away. A sizable contingent moved northwest into Indiana.

Hendricks County, Indiana, is where I picked up the trail of John C. Fawkner. He died there in 1839, leaving behind his wife Ann Faulconer and her five children, including James C. Fawkner, who will reappear shortly. All was well, until a reading of John's probate revealed apparent heirs from earlier marriages, including a son named Cornelius.

To make a long story a bit shorter, I was able to establish that John C. Fawkner married Ida Cozine in 1817 in Mercer County, Kentucky. Ida's father was Cornelius Cozine of the Low Dutch community. (A more complete account of this story will hopefully appear in print later this year).

Hendrick County court records included an 1846 indenture in which Cornelius Fawkner of Lee County, Iowa, released his claim to his father's land in Indiana. In short order, I found Cornelius in the Mississippi River town of Montrose, where he lived with the William Owens family in 1850. I always look a few pages forward and backward in the census, and in this case, I found a William Dorland family two pages earlier. I knew that the Kentucky Low Dutch included Dorlands, and wondered what was going on. I surmised that Cornelius was somehow acquainted with the Dorlands through the Low Dutch. Another researcher threw cold water on the idea, noting that Cornelius Fawkner was born in Indiana and the Dorlands in New York. I'm still not sure who the Dorlands were; I think they might have been the William Dorland, aged 50-60, with an apparent wife aged 40-50, living in King's County (Brooklyn), New York, in 1840.

But, I knew something the other researcher didn't know: Cornelius was born in Kentucky, almost certainly to John C. Fawkner and Ida Cozine. I also knew he was a half-brother of James C. Fawkner, who showed up in the same small Iowa town in 1856. Living where? Next door to the same William Owens family that Cornelius lived with.

Was this mere coincidence or something more? I started to think "more" when I noticed John Vanarsdal, his wife Mary, and an apparent widow Ann Vanarsdal, as well as the David Westerfield family living in Montrose in 1856. The Vanarsdals and Westerfields were also from the Kentucky Low Dutch community. Also in Montrose in 1856 was the Henry Vanarsdale family from Ohio. As I was writing this blog, I received an email from Low Dutch researcher Carolyn Leonard noting that some Conewego Low Dutch families opted out of the Kentucky migration and instead went to Warren, Preble and Butler Counties in Ohio. In fact, the Henry Vanarsdale family was in Preble County, Ohio, in 1850.

Despite their variant migration paths, I have little doubt that these families were all connected in some way. I know a few things: John Vanarsdal's wife Mary was a Westerfield; her sister Ann (the Montrose widow) married, first, Peter Vanarsdal, and second, Isaac Vanarsdal; and their father was James Cozine Westerfield. They all were of the Mercer County Low Dutch. They surely knew, or were related to, Ida Cozine's family.

I have not been able to unravel the whole story, but I have a hypothesis. Ida Cozine won a divorce from John C. Fawkner in 1826. From trial testimony, I know she had two young children, but I don't know what happened to Ida or the children after the divorce. Ida might have remarried, or died young; another Low Dutch family might have taken her children in. Ida's brother married Phebe Vanarsdal. Based on all this, I suspect Cornelius Fawkner went to Montrose because families close to his mother Ida were there. He may have been related to the Dorlands, Vanarsdals, or Westerfields, but I don't yet know how.

I'm not sure what path the Dorlands took from New York to Iowa, but the odds of them accidentally landing in the same small Mississippi River town as Cornelius Fawkner, the Vanarsdals, and the Westerfields are too rare for it to be mere coincidence. As good genealogists, we know that coincidence is not sufficient proof of association or relationship, but in this case, the explanation probably lies in something more than chance. I think we have a migration resembling a braided stream.

Note: This essay is not intended as a genealogical report meeting citation and proof standards of the profession. Researchers interested in sources for this essay are invited to contact the author.

Hester, Lester or Sister?

2011-04-04T17:29:00.000-07:00

Sometimes even good handwriting is hard to read. If you have access to Ancestry.com, take a look at the 1860 U.S. Census enumeration of the Jacob M. Miller family of Buchanan County, Iowa (Liberty Township, p. 28, dwelling 196, family 188). Jacob and Ann Miller had a 14-year old Ohio-born apparent daughter. Other apparent children included 11 year-old John S. and 9-year-old Hamilton. The enumerator's handwriting was very clean and the quality of the digital image was unusually good, but the child's name presented a puzzle. A first glance, the 14-year old's name appeared to be Lester -- unusual for a girl.

What was going on here? Students in the Minnesota Genealogical Society's Beginning Genealogy class and their instructors (Lois Mackin, David Suddarth and John Schade) set out to solve the problem. The instructors suggested looking up and down the page to see if we could find the same capital letter used at the beginning of a recognizable name.

So, that's what we did. One person thought the name might be Hester, but we abandoned that idea when we noticed the "H" at the beginning of Hamilton's name was formed entirely differently. Perhaps, the name was Lester, but the first letter of the name was clearly different from the L's at the beginning of names Lucinda and Laura further down the same page. Another person was sure the first letter was an "S"and the name was "Sister." Alas, the first letter of Susanna and and Sara elsewhere on the page were formed differently.

We realized that we needed to confirm the name from another source. A 14-year old child should have been about four years old in 1850, so we searched for John and Ann Miller in Ohio in the 1850 U.S. Census. There, in Plain Township, Wayned County was Jacob and Ann Miller, with a 4-year old daughter Celeste and an infant, Hamilton. Apparently, the first letter of the 1860 name was an "L," but we will never know for sure why the name was recorded that way. Perhaps, the family called called Celeste "Leste" for short, and the census-taker thought he heard "Lester."

This short exercise points up two things. First, although most writers form their letters in a consistent manner, some people don't. Second, it always pays to look at a second source. Happy ancestor hunting to all!

Learning from Peers

2011-03-25T17:15:00.000-07:00

One of the best ways to sharpen your genealogical knowledge is to ask questions, and among the best places to ask questions are the public and member-only lists of the Association of Professional Genealogists. APG is a professional association of more than 2,000 practicing or aspiring professional genealogists. Imagine the combined experience and knowledge of such a group!

Experienced researchers know the importance of understanding the cultural and legal context in which records were created. One of the challenges of genealogical research is that our ancestors did not sit still in time or place. One family I am tracking leads me back through Illinois, Ohio and Kentucky to 18th-century Virginia. Other branches take me back to 18th-century England, Scandinavia and The Netherlands. I can't possibly be expert in the history and culture of all these areas, so I must learn from others who are more expert.

Earlier this month (March 2011), I needed to know more about two things I was encountering in Kentucky records from the late 1700s and early 1800s. The first question dealt with abbreviations of given names. I found a name abbreviated "Jo." in an estate record. I was hopeful that "Jo." stood for John, which is often abbreviated "Jno." But, I knew "Jo." might also represent Joseph, which is more commonly abbreviated "Jos." To make a long story shorter, colleagues on the APG lists weighed in, offering examples of cases were "Jo." did appear to stand for John in records from that time period and earlier. Alas, despite examples of "Jo." standing for John, I have determined that, in the record I was looking at, it stands for Joseph.

My second question had to do with Kentucky tax records. I have found numerous cases where tax records for a particular county listed property located several counties distant. One bit of advice from the APG list-readers was: read the law. I did, and learned that Kentucky statutes explicity permitted taxpayers to list their property from several counties with the authorities in the county where they lived.

Because of the help of more knowledgeable genealogists, I am now a little smarter about Kentucky research. My advice: join APG and follow the members-only list. If you're not ready to join APG, take advantage of the public list. You can find information and APG and the two lists at www.apgen.org. Two thousands heads are better than just one!

APG in London

2011-03-02T09:09:00.000-08:00

I fell off the blogging train a while back, but just returned from London, I am enthused again about making regular posts about some of my favorite family history and genealogy topics. The excuse for a winter-time trip to cool and rainy London was the big "Who Do You Think You Are" family history expo in London. I spent one day helping out in the Association of Professional Genealogists "stand" ("booth" in American) and rooming through the crowded exhibit hall. I haven't heard any final estimates on the crowd, but organizers were expecting something in the range of 17,000 attendees, and from what I saw, that number is believable.

You can read more about WDYTYA in several issues of Dick Eastman's newsletter from the last week. I got to meet not only Dick, but also genealogists from Hungary, Germany and the UK. We had a nice contigent of U.S. APG people there, as well.

As exciting as WDYTYA was, highlights of the trip were visits to Kew and Devonshire. To a genealogist, "Kew" means The National Archives, located in the western London suburb of Kew, close by famous Kew Gardens. It is perhaps the most user-friendly archive I have ever worked in. It was amazing to hold in my hands documents from a 1690s law case involving suspected ancestors of my wife.

A 2-hour train ride took us to Tiverton in North Devon, where we visited Barb's third cousin, once removed. Ron and Margaret live in a 17th century house on the edge of Exmoor. After a bountiful English dinner, we talked deep into the night about 400 years of family history. Perhaps, you can now tell why I feel regenerated after a 9-hour plane ride back to snowy Minnesota!

Family History is Immigrant History

2010-05-14T09:20:00.000-07:00

We are a country of immigrants. The only difference between “New Americans” and “Old Americans” is time. Even descendants of the indigenous native North American population would probably find their ancestors came from somewhere else, if only the records went back far enough. Putting aside for the moment the question of who is legally and not legally here, we are all Americans.

For this reason, I was disappointed with Sarah Jessica Parker’s reaction near the end of her “Who Do You Think You Are” episode on NBC-TV this spring. When the WDYTYA folks led her back to her early American ancestors, she said something to the effect of, “I so glad to find out I’m really American.” Well, of course, she’s American! And, so are millions of more recent immigrants.

I am interested in genealogy and family history in part because it helps me understand how I came to be part of the American fabric. My most recent immigrant ancestor came from Sweden more than 100 years ago. My earliest immigrant ancestor came in 1834. I can not claim ties to New England Yankees or colonial Virginia, but my people have been here long enough that I have no first-hand experience with what it meant to be an immigrant immersed in a foreign culture and language.

Because we are aware of our roots, I would expect that most genealogists are less xenophobic that the population at large. If you haven’t thought much about the immigrant experience recently, you might want to pick up one of three books that I have recently read.

In The Late Homecomer (Minneapolis: Coffee House Press, 2008), Hmong immigrant Kao Kalia Yang shares the experiences and emotions of a Hmong family uprooted in the jungles of Laos, warehoused in a Thai refugee camp, and transplanted in St. Paul, Minnesota. The Hmong are among the newest Americans, and have faced adjustments almost beyond the comprehension of we “old Americans.”

Ayaan Hirsi Ali reminds us that Europe is also an immigrant community. Infidel (New York: Free Press, 2007) recounts her life amidst the antagonisms of Islam, Christianity and a secular West. From a childhood in Somalia, fate takes Ali to Saudi Arabia, Kenya and eventually to the Netherlands, where she was elected to Parliament.

M. G. Vasanji takes us even farther afield in The In-betweenWorld of Vikram Lall (New York: Vintage Books, 2004). This book is enjoyable fiction, but it opens a window on the immigrant experience of an Asian Hindu living in a African nation during and after the British colonial era. Immigration is a global phenomenon.

These books won’t help you do genealogy, but they will help you appreciate family history. Happy reading.

Nova, Smolenyak and WDYTYA

2010-04-11T08:30:00.000-07:00

Nova Southeastern University, Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak and the Producers of the TV series "Who Do You Think You Are" have all gotten something right: they have welcomed beginners into the family history-genealogy world.

One of my favorite public radio features, Composers' Notebook, ends each show with the reminder that "all music was once new." And, I might add, the composers were all once beginners. Although beautiful music seemed to pour forth effortlessy from Mozartian prodigies, the vast majority of composers had to learn their craft, progressing from the basics to the sublime.

Some of us started at an early age and many of us started later in life, but we genealogists all also had to start as beginners, learn about out subject matter and develop our craft. This is why I am so excited about Nova Southeastern University's 3rd Annual Genealogy Fair, where I spoke this April. Nova is a non-traditional private university in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, just north of Miami. One thing makes its Genealogy Fair unusual: it is free. Nova's Alvin ShermanLibrary strives to be a resource to the broader Broward County community. The library has a fine genealogy collection and an energetic outreach librarian in Kim Garvey. The library and the university see their free Genealogy Fair as a natural vehicle for community outreach.

The Nova Genealogy Fair is more than an open house with exhibits and vendor tables. Nova brings in top-notch genealogy educators for the day. I shared the program this year with Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak. Most genealogy conferences and workshops are sponsored by local or state genealogical societies. They put on high quality programs, but most have to charge a significant registration fee to cover costs of putting on the program. The people most willing to pay $25 or $35 for a day of classes are commonly people who have been into family history for a while. These local and state society programs often have difficulty attracting beginners, who aren't quite sure they are ready to put money into this family history thing.

When I asked for a show of hands, something approaching half of the attendees at Nova's Genealogy Fair had been doing family history research less than two years. Many were recent beginners (I'd rather call them beginners, or perhaps learners, than "newbies").

The price (free) probably had something to do with bringing in the beginners. Good publicity, including co-sponsorship from the Miami Herald, also probably helped. But, many of the beginners said they had gotten interested because of the NBC show Who Do You Think You Are. Some genealogists have grumbled that WDYTYA puts entertainment ahead of education, making family history research look a little too easy. But, do we really want them to make it look so hard that people get discouraged?

Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak, the Chief Genealogical Consultant for WDYTYA, has written a companion book: Who do You Think You Are: The Essential Guide to Tracing Your Family History. In my mind, writing a book for beginners, or people who haven't even yet begun, is more difficult than writing for more experienced readers. Megan is a superb communicator, and her book communicates something very important for beginners: family history is possible. In an easy-going and welcoming style, she welcomes newcomers to family history and genealogy.

I applaud Nova Southeastern University and Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak for their approach. It is a good thing to encourage people to give genealogy a try. Their encouragement gives us (genealogical societies and professional genealogists) an opportunity to teach. Some of these newcomers will be tomorrow's experts, and then be poised to help a whole new crop of beginners get started. Pass it on.

The GEO in GenEalOgy

2010-04-05T16:46:00.000-07:00

More than once, I have accidentally typed "geography" when I meant to type "genealogy." Perhaps, this happens because I once was a graduate student in geography. Or, perhaps it is because genealogy and geography are so inter-connected in my mind.

One of my favorite lectures is entitled "The GEO in GenEalOgy." In this talk, I try to get people excited about the geographical aspects of family history research.

Genealogists often have a fascination for history. Studying our family history brings "real history" to life. Historical events were the backdrop of our ancestors' lives. Geography gives similar context to our ancestors' lives. If historical events are the backdrop, the land is the stage on which our ancestors lived. Our ancestors lived in both time and space. And, our ancestors didn't stand still. They moved around from place to place, leaving tracks wherever they went.

Why did our ancestors live where they lived? How did they get there? Why did they stop where they did. How did the natural environment influence their lives? Mountains and waterways channeled migration. Soil made farmers rich or poor. Climate made life comfortable or near to impossible. By learning about these things, we begin to better understand our ancestors' lives. Without modern climate control, high-tech water supply and water control technologies, or high-speed transportation, their lives were more influenced by the natural world than are ours (or so we think).

So, take the time to study maps and get to know the geography of your ancestors' lives. It will add a whole new dimension to your genealogical research.

(c) J. H. Fonkert, 2010.

You don't have to be a Celebrity

2010-03-10T07:31:00.000-08:00

PBS (Faces of America) and NBC (Who Do You Think You Are) have done their part to make celebrities like Yo-Yo Ma, Emmit Smith, Meryl Streep and Lisa Kudrow look like ordinary people, emotionally moved as they learn about their ancestors.

Most of us aren't famous, but we have something in common with those celebrities: we also have ancestors. It's how we got here.

If you're new to genealogy and have just stumbled onto this blog, you might say something like "genealogists, geologists... what's the difference? They've both got rocks in their heads." Fair enough, but I actually think both rocks and ancestors are pretty interesting. As we chisel away at our family history, we learn a lot about our cultural heritage, the places our ancestors lived, and the times in which they lived.

When the original Who Do You Think You Are? program ran on British TV, millions flocked to genealogy. Many of us are hoping the same thing happens here. But, we are wary. The TV shows can make genealogy look both glamorous and easy, but we need to keep in mind that the networks and their sponsors had deep pockets to hire professional researchers to dig in courthouses, libraries and archives.

Genealogy is not quite that easy, but beginners need not despair. Much help is close at-hand. A little searching will turn up books, websites, podcasts and various other sources of help. I can't begin to list them all, but for beginners, I especially recommend guides at the familysearch.org, as well as Christine Rose's The Complete Idiot's Guide to Genealogy. The Minnesota Genealogical Society uses Rose's book for its beginning genealogy course.

Above all, I want to pitch the benefits of joining a local or state genealogy organizaton such as MGS. Genealogical societies offer libraries, classes, newsletters and journals. But, the best reason to join a genealogy organization is the opportunity it affords for meeting other people who share your interest in genealogy and family history. They are the best teachers because they have passion. And, they are typically pretty interesting people, to boot.

So, when you're talking about Who Do You Think You Are? over the office water-cooler, suggest that your friends join a local or state genealogical society. They'll get good help, and you'll be helping support a network of people who make the genealogical world go round.

Fonkert 2010 Lecture Offerings

2009-11-30T17:46:00.000-08:00

It's simple. I like to talk about genealogy. I lecture about a dozen times a year on a variety of genealogical topics. I would be happy to tailor a talk to your organization's needs. Or, choose a talk from the categories below. All talks are illustrated.

Getting to Know Genealogy

* Find our Family History: What are the Possibilities
* Find your Family in the Census: It’s Free (mostly) and Easy
* The Census: an Immigration Storybook

Skill-building and Methodology

* Genealogical Detours: Using Indirect Evidence to Solve Genealogical Problems
* The Anatomy of a Genealogy Report
* Putting your Evidence on the Table: Using Tables and Spreadsheets to Analyze Your Genealogy Data
* On-the-Job Training: Making the Most of Occupation in Your Genealogical Research
* Improve your Genealogy Detective Skills: Following Clues from the Census

Primers for Ethnic Research (Ask about "The Wooden Shoe Genealogist")

* Fish and Chips Genealogy: Finding Your Ordinary Ancestors in England and Wales
* Introduction to Dutch Genealogy
* Polders, Tulips and Church Records: A Genealogical Tour of the Low Countries
* Tilting at Genealogical Windmills: Finding Dutch Ancestors on the Internet

Genealogical Sources

* BMDs: Bringing your Ancestors to Life through Vital Records
* Census Sleuthing: Using the Census to Decode your Family
* The Courthouse: a Place of Genealogical Records
* Documenting the Immigration Trail: a Five-stage Approach
* My Ancestors were from the Internet: Finding European Origins on the Web
* Where there’s a Will, there’s a way: Using Wills, Probate and Guardianship Records to trace your Family

Geography and Migration

* The GEO in GenEalOgy: Enhancing your Family History with Maps and Geography
* Midwest Historical Geography for Genealogists
* A Midwest Migration Case Study: Dutch and Ostfrisian Immigrants to Illinois and Iowa

Make the Most of Occupation in Census Research

2009-11-21T08:41:00.000-08:00

When I started working on my family history, I didn’t pay a lot of attention to occupation. My parents were teachers, and all my known grandfathers and uncles were plain old generic farmers. I was disappointed that I didn’t have any really interesting ancestors like doctors, ship captains, clergymen or even factory workers. But, as I researched more families, I learned how important occupation can be to identifying an ancestor across census years or matching ancestors in different kinds of records

Let me share one example. I was trying to learn more about a Holland-born family I found living in 1870 among my Dutch relatives in Hardin County, Iowa. To start, I was unsure of names. The head of household was 50 year-old Pieter Kingma, or possibly Ringma. Pieter was a “painter.” Living with Pieter and his apparent wife were five individuals, aged 10-25, listed under an unfamiliar name that looked something like “Sourumia” (Ancestry index: “Sousrema”). All were born in Holland, but the name didn’t sound Dutch to me. I speculated that the five younger individuals might be step-children. Among them were 16 year-old Adam and his 20 year-old sister Eve. Dutch? Really?

Oh yes, Adam’s occupation was “painter apprentice.”

I needed to find these people in 1880. Uncertainty over the names complicated the search. Using various combinations of first names, ages and birth places, I was not able to find any good candidates anywhere in Iowa in 1880.

I was about to give up, but decided to try a 50-state search for any man named Peter and born in Holland a few years either side of 1815. I was rewarded with more than 200 matches – a small enough number to browse. I found a Peter Kingma, age 63, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He was a painter. In the same household was a 24 year-old Adam, born in Holland.

I was able to find Peter in 1880 by searching on first name and paying attention to occupation. Adam and his siblings were identified as step-children of Peter Kingma. Ancestry.com indexes the step-childrens’ last name as “Funoma,” but on the census manuscript the name looks more like Sunoma. Searches in later censuses revealed the name to be Sonnema, which turns out to be a good Frisian name traceable in records from The Netherlands.

The census-taker recorded Peter’s occupation as “painter-house” and Adam’s as “furniture varnisher” – good matches for Pieter and Adam of 1870.

I hadn’t expected an Iowa family to migrate east during this time, but it was perfectly natural for a Frisian family to move to the Dutch-Frisian stronghold of southwestern Michigan. Attention to first names helped, but the clincher was occupation.

Time and again, occupation has helped me match individuals across census years or across different kinds of records. John Lee’s occupation as a railroad porter helped me prove that John Lee living in Dorset in 1861 was the same man as Bartholomew Lee living in Bristol in 1851 (see “The Three Cs of Genealogical Research, Family Chronicle, February 2009). Similarly, Christian Gerloff’s occupation as a wagon-maker in the 1850 Iowa census allowed me to match him with the Christian Gerloff, wheelwright, listed on an 1843 Baltimore passenger arrival manifest. I now pay close attention to occupation!

Immigration Stories in the U.S. Census

2009-11-07T15:35:00.000-08:00

As I've prepared this week for a talk at the Immigration History Research Center at the University of Minnesota, I've been thinking about how to talk to non-genealogists about the census. I've come up with two themes:

The U.S. census records and preserves immigration stories, and
When it becomes public in 2082, the 2010 census will provide a snapshot of our families for our grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Most Americans have immigrant ancestors. The U.S. Census is part immigration storybook. The 1900, 1910, 1920 and 1930 censuses asked questions about immigration and citizenship status. This information, combined with information about birth place, give family history researchers the basics of their families' immigration story, and lead to other sources that help complete the story.

The 1900 census tells us that Charles Falk of Two Harbors, Minnesota, came to America in 1890. It says his first five children, aged 10 to 20, were born in Sweden. Four more children, aged 1 to 7, had been born in Minnesota. The census says Charles and Louisa had been married 20 years.

According to the 1910 census for Minneapolis, Andrew Pafko came to America from Hungary in 1906. A 10 year-old daughter had been born in Hungary, while a 4 year-old daughter and 2 year-old son were born in Minnesota. The family spoke Slovak, suggesting they were from the part of the Austria-Hungary now know as Slovakia.

We learn from the 1920 census for St. Paul, Minnesota, that Thomas Reeves came to the U.S. in 1909, became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1919, was married and had a 6 month-old daughter. Thomas and wife Mary were born in Ireland, and the census-taker recorded their language as "Irish." Living with them was Thomas' brother-in-law Patrick McCarthy, giving a hint to Mary's maiden name.

The 1930 census found Italian-born Eugene Lattanzio living with his uncle Leonard Gaultieri in Two Harbors, Minnesota. His uncle's surname gives a clue to Eugene's mother's name. Unfortunately, Eugene's year of immigration is unreadable in the 1930 census, but the 1920 census says he had arrived in 1915, and had filed a declaration of intent to become a citizen.

In each case, the census information gives clues for finding other records of genealogical interest, including marriages, birth records for children, and passenger arrival records.

Information about individuals in the upcoming 2010 census will be held confidential for 72 years (under current law), becoming available to researchers in 2082. When you complete your 2010 census return, you will be archiving information that will help your grandchildren and great-grandchildren reconstruct their ancestors lives. Many of us will someday be ancestors.

A bit of Method for our Madness

2009-10-23T15:28:00.000-07:00

I’m giving a lecture this weekend entitled “Genealogical Detours: Using Indirect Evidence to Solve Genealogical Problems.” I’ve given the lecture several times, but have been doing some thinking and a little revising as I always do before a repeat performance.

First, I’ve been thinking about my audience. I’m speaking at the Southern Minnesota Genealogy Expo in Mankato. I’m giving a plenary session talk, so I need to be mindful of the wide range of experience that people bring to such an event. Some will be real beginners, others will be very experienced and sophisticated researchers. Some will enjoy discussion of methodology, others will say listening to someone blab about methodology is like taking a sleeping pill.

Is methodology too heavy a topic for beginners? I don’t think so. The “ology” part of the word makes it sound pretty pedantic – like biology or sociology. But, just as biology is about life and sociology is about society, methodology is about method. And, we all actually do know something about life, society, and yes, method. We don’t have to be academics to appreciate the subjects. And, we don’t have to do genealogy very long to realize that a bit of method can make our madness more productive.

The other thing I’ve thought about is the phrase “indirect evidence.” We talk about indirect evidence being different than direct evidence. In Elizabeth Shown Mills’ words, “direct evidence is that which addresses a particular matter and points to a conclusion without the addition of other supporting evidence.” A marriage registration, with no other information at hand, directly answers the question of when a couple was married. “Indirect evidence is circumstantial information that requires us to supply a thought process (and perhaps other evidence) to convert its detail into a reliable conclusion” (Evidence: Citation and Analysis for the Family Historian, p. 45).

For me, the key words here are “information” and “convert.” Sources provide information – names, dates, relationships, etc.. We think about the relationship of this information to our research question, and in the process convert it into evidence. We create evidence from information found in sources.

I have actually come to find myself a little uncomfortable with the phrase “indirect evidence.” I prefer to think of information, which when analyzed and correlated with other information from other sources, leads to an indirect answer to the research question.

I like to think of Three C’s for converting information from sources into evidence that can support a conclusion: corroborate, correlate and conclude. For an example of what I mean, see my article in Family Chronicle magazine (“The Three C’s of Genealogical Research,” February 2009, p. 54).

J. H. Fonkert Publications

2009-10-11T08:04:00.000-07:00

Writing is essential in genealogy. At different times, it is a device for preserving memory, organizing our thoughts and sharing findings and insights. I provide writing and editing assistance for genealogists and family historians that want a little help creating their family history book or report. Here is a resume of my genealogy writing.

Journal Articles

"Clara V. Moore and Carrie Peterson: Proving a Double Enumeration in the 1910 Census,” National Genealogical Society Quarterly, 96 (March 2008), 5-12.
“The GEO in Genealogy: Using Geographic Information and Maps in Family History,” The Septs, 28:2 (July 2007).
“In Search of Early Dutch Settlers in Minnesota,” Minnesota Genealogist, 39:1 (Spring 2008), 16-21.
“John Welhaven: the Case of a Borrowed Name,” Minnesota Genealogist, 38:1 (Spring 2007), 22-28.
“The Search for George S. Fawkner,” Minnesota Genealogist, 40:2 (Summer 2009), 22-26.
“Two A. P. Overlands in Fergus Falls: Sorting Out Identities,” Minnesota Genealogist, 39:2 (Summer 2008), 15-20.

Genealogical Education Columns in The Septs (journal of the Irish Genealogical Society, International)

“The Genealogist’s Best Friend: the Census,” 29:1 (January 2008), 20-22.
“Filling the Gaps in Your Family History Timeline: State Censuses,” 29:2 (April 2008).
“Tracking Ancestors to America: Records Marking Five Stages of Migration,” 29:3 (July 2008), 146-149.
“All Genealogists were Once Beginners,” 29:4 (October 2008) 188-190.
“Set the Table for Success: A Simple Technique for Making Sense of Your Evidence,” 30:1 (January 2009), 26-30.
“Beginning Genealogy: What to do When all the Pieces Don’t Come in the Same Box,” forthcoming 30:2 (April 2009).
“Following Clues Across the Water: The John Lee Family of England and Ireland.” 30:4 (October 2009), 170-73.

Magazine articles

“The Three C’s of Genealogical Research,” Family Chronicle (February 2009), p. 54.
“Six Morstad Siblings from Gran, Hadeland, Norway: Immigration to Wisconsin and Minnesota,” The Brua, quarterly of the Hadeland Lag, May 2006.

Review articles

“Some Family: The Mormons and How Humanity Keeps Track of Itself: Review and Commentary,” The Septs, 29:2 (April 2008), 98-102.
“Book Review: Joseph A. Amato, Coal Cousins,” Minnesota Genealogist, 40:2), Summer 2009, p. 30.
“Review: Genline Family Finder,” Association of Professional Genealogists Quarterly, 24:3 (September 2009), 119-20.

Self-published research reports

Investigation into the Origins of James C. Fawkner, 22 pp., October 2004. Self-published; copy in collection of Allen County Public Library, Ft. Wayne (IN), and Danville (IN) Public Library.
Ancestors of Carrie Ehlenbach: a Three Generation Kinship Determination Project, 56 pp., January 2007. Self-published; copy in collection of Allen County Public Library, Ft. Wayne, Indiana.

Root-digging at a "Cluster Reunion"

2009-10-01T19:09:00.000-07:00

If you want to break through a genealogical brick wall, follow the associates -- that is, the extended family, friends, neighbors or business associates of your ancestor. This "big picture" approach to family history research is sometimes called "cluster genealogy." In her book, The Sleuth Book for Genealogists, Emily Anne Croom devotes an entire chapter to cluster genealogy.

I just returned from what might be called a "cluster reunion." This is a family reunion on a grand scale. In this case, it was the Dutch Cousins Reunion bringing together a diverse group of families associated with the Low Dutch Colony of Kentucky in the late 1700s and early 1800s. Led by Carolyn Leonard of Oklahoma, the Low Dutch descendants converged on Harrodsburg, Kentucky the last weekend in September.

Mind you, although I'm Dutch, I'm completely unrelated to the Low Dutch. But I'm researching an intrepid Methodist minister -- my wife's third great-grandfather -- who married a Low Dutch meisje. The marriage did not go well, but the resulting divorce case has given me new leads for my research. But, it was the people I met at the reunion that led to two unexpected leads.

First, I encountered the hero of the restoration of the Low Dutch church built in 1800. I'm not sure how he is connected to the Low Dutch, but it looks like he is a distant cousin of my wife. He is willing to do a DNA test that might prove my theory about the origin of John Fawkner.

Second, quite by accident, I heard another reunion attendee mention that she was from Montrose, Iowa. Did my ears perk up! I knew that two of John Fawkner's sons had lived in Montrose in the 1850s. I had never realized that their next door neighbors were Low Dutch from Kentucky. This discovery helps solidfy my working theory about family relationships.

The key to this reunion for me was the cluster part of it. This was more than a family reunion, it was a gathering of a community. I highly recommend the experience.

Mine original records for genealogical gold

2009-09-24T17:48:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting in Frankfort, Kentucky, pondering genealogy lessons after five hours reading documents from a single 1820s divorce case. This is a long story which can't be done full justice in a short blog post -- a much longer research report is on my to-do list.

This Kentucky research stems from an 1839 Indiana probate file that named four heirs that could not be accounted for in the marriage of John Fawkner to Nancy Ann Faulconer. Apparently, John had at least one previous marriage. Prior to finding the divorce case I studied today, I had proven one previous marriage, pretty well nailed the second and strongly suspected a third. After today, I have proven the wives in two and found convincing evidence that there was a fourth (I'm counting backwards here) wife.

For some time, I have suspected that John Fawkner had roots in Fayette County, Kentucky, so I searched a microfilmed index of Fayette County circuit court records. I found an 1826 Ida Fawkner v. John Fawkner suit, and smelled a divorce. I engaged a Kentucky researcher to pull the file at the state archives. She found the file, but it was so large (at least 60 separate documents) that she only copied one summary document to give me a flavor of the case. This one document offered some tantalizing clues, with statements about John Fawkner's "children from a previous marriage" and testimony that Ida was "the toughest of all his wives."

"Of all his wives" implied that Ida was at least the third wife. There's got to be more details in the file, I thought. Indeed, there is. One witness specifically named Ida as John's third wife. Two teen-aged children from John Fawkner's previous marriage testified. Two deponents identified themselves as siblings of Ida.

The lessons are: don't stop with the index, and when you get to the original records, read all the records. I'm only two-thirds of the way through the file, and still hoping to find more clues to John Fawkner's identity. Research in original records takes time, but can be worth the results.

Family History Month In the Upper Midwest

2009-09-20T06:50:00.000-07:00

October is Family History Month -- a popular time of year for genealogy conferences and family history fairs. The Minnesota Genealogical Society jumped the gun a bit with its 2nd Annual North Star Genealogy Conference September 18-19. It was a great success, a reflection both on our outstanding featured speaker, Claire Bettag, but also on our terrific cadre of volunteers who ran a seamless conference operation. Other Minnesota-based speakers who volunteered they services were Linda Coffin, Pat Coleman, J. H. Fonkert, Dixie Hansen, Harold Hinds, Lois Mackin, Tom Rice, Hamp Smith and Sandy Thalmann.

Family history buffs in the Upper Midwest might want to check out upcoming events in Iowa and Minnesota.

September 26 -- "Taking Root: Family History Workshop," Moorhead, Minnesota (http://survey.mnstate.edu/heritageed/workshop34/w34index.php) -- featured speaker Alan Mann.

October 3 -- Waterloo Public Library, Waterloo, Iowa -- Dr. Tom Jones, 4-session workshop

October 9-10 -- Iowa Genealogical Society Annual Conference, West Des Moines, Iowa (http://www.iowagenealogy.org/) -- featured speaker: Timothy Pinnock

October 24 -- South Central Minnesota Genealogy Expo, Mankato, Minnesota(http://lib.mnsu.edu/archives/genie/expo.html) -- featured speaker J. H. Fonkert.

These are small, friendly conferences where you get the chance to get to know the speakers and other conference attendees. Make one of these meetings part of your Family History Month.

The Internet is not a Source

2009-09-10T07:13:00.000-07:00

I do a lot of genealogy teaching and lecturing, and develop three or four new talks each year. The past week, I've been preparing a talk on using the internet to find ancestral origins. It sounded like a marketable topic -- something that would appeal to a broad audience. It's also one of the most difficult talks I've ever prepared. We often hear genealogy lectures on types of genealogy sources -- the census, vital records, immigration and naturalization records. This talk isn't about any one type of record, but rather about a place where we find and view information.

The internet is not a source. It is more like a library or achive -- a vast depository of both junk and gems. We find many kinds of sources posted to the internet:

published material (much of it "self-published)
transcriptions and extractions from original sources
digital images of original sources (both primary and secondary)

We use these materials with the same care we exercise when examinng material from traditional "non-virtual" sources.

No one, with the possible exception of Cyndi (www.cyndislist.com), can keep up with everything on the internet, just like no one can know about every source in every library or archive. But, we can be smart about search strategies. That, I have decided, is the key point of my new lecture.

The Low Dutch Colony of Kentucky

2009-09-01T18:57:00.000-07:00

They say you're not much if you're not Dutch. Well, I think that's probably a bit of an exaggeration, but it is a good thing to be Dutch. My Dutch ancestors settled in the 19th-Century Iowa Dutch colonies at Pella and Orange City. Yours perhaps went to Michigan or Chicago, or maybe Wisconsin. I think of the Midwest Dutch as the "New Dutch." That would make the 17th-Century Dutch in New York the "Old Dutch."

I don't have any "Old Dutch" ancestry, but I've become particularly interested in a slice of the New York-Pennsylvania-New Jersey Dutch who struck out for Kentucky in the 1880s. They formed a tight-knit colony in Mercer County, Kentucky, not far from the better known Shaker community at Pleasant Hill (to which a few Dutch defected). A group of descendants from this so-called "Low Dutch" colony is holding its third Dutch Cousins Gathering September 23-27 in Harrodsburg.

I'm going to attend. Why? Because I have been researching an elusive Methodist minister who married a daughter of the Dutch Cozine family about 1817. I don't know where John Fawkner was born, but he was married at least once before he married Ida Cozine. The Fawkner-Cozine marriage apparently didn't end very happily. I suspect religion might have played a part. At any rate, on my way to the Dutch Cousins reunion, I'm going to spend some time in the Kentucky state archives researching Ida's divorce suit against John.

North Star Genealogy Conference

2009-08-27T17:49:00.000-07:00

Looking to upgrade your family history research skills? Join us at the North Star Genealogy Conference September 18-19 at the Minnesota Genealogical Society Library and Research Center in South St. Paul, Minnesota.

Acclaimed genealogy educator Claire Bettag will present four talks:

* Genealogical Assumptions: Your own Worst Enemy
* Government Documents: Untapped Genealogical Treasures
* Introduction to Federal Land Records
* National Archives Records at Your Finger Tips

Claire Bettag is a Certified Genealogist and Certified Genealogical Lecturer based in Washington, D. C., where she is an expert researcher in the National Archives. She teaches at the National Institute for Genealogical Research in Washington, and at the Institute of Genealogical and Historical Research at Samford University.

Nine additional breakout sessions will feature Minnesota’s leading genealogists in three tracks: Minnesota records, Technology for Genealogy, and Family History Writing.

The conference is built around the annual Minnesota Genealogical Society Awards Banquet, scheduled for Friday evening at the South St. Paul Hotel. For a complete program and registration information, visit: http://www.mngs.org/quarterly.shtml/#meeting.

All Genealogists were once Beginners

2009-08-24T17:05:00.000-07:00

All Genealogists were once beginners... and if they keep branching into new families and locales, they in a sense will always be beginners. I've been doing genealogical research for 15 years (rather amateurishly the first several years), but as I branch into new areas, I have to learn new tricks. I'm pretty experienced in 19th-century Midwest research, as well as Dutch and Swedish research. But, now that I am pushing some lines back to places like Virginia and Ireland, I feel like a beginner again. Guess what? It's a good feeling, because it's fun to learn.

The good news is that the basic research methods we learn are transferrable to new areas. Yes, we have to learn about new kinds of records, and even tackle new languages, but the basics of evaluating sources, correlating data and drawing reasoned conclusions is largely the same, regardless of where our ancestors came from. This is one reason I urge people doing English or German or Norwegian research to join a local or state genealogy society. When you go to a conference, don't just go to the sessions on your nationality, take in the sessions dealing with research methods or American genealogy, because you will learn skills that will help you with your ethnic research.

Upcoming Fonkert Speaking Engagements

2009-08-23T06:33:00.000-07:00

I will do doing my favorite thing -- genealogical education -- often this Fall. Upcoming engagements include:

September 10, Olmsted County Genealogical Society, Rochester, Minnesota, "Finding your European Ancesters Online."

September 17, Dakota County Genealogical Society, South St. Paul, Minnesota, "Fish and Chips Genealogy: Finding your English Ancestors."

September 19, North Star Genealogy Conference, South St. Paul, Minnesota, "Anatomy of a Genealogy Report." See Minnesota Genealogical Society (www.mngs.org) for details for this 2-day conference.

October 24, Southern Minnesota Genealogy Expo, Mankato State University, Mankato, Minnesota; keynote address: "Genealogical Detours: Solving Genealogical Detours with Indirect Evidence."

Customized Family History Research Services

2009-08-21T19:10:00.000-07:00

Four Generations Genealogy is my professional genealogy research service. Watch this blog for updates on how I can help you solve your family history research problems. From time to time, I will share tips about genealogy research, as well as some of my favorite genealogy experiences.

If you live in the Dakotas-Iowa-Minnesota-Wisconsin region, plan to attend the North Star Genealogy Conference in South St. Paul, Minnesota, September 18-19. The featured speaker is Claire Bettag, an expert land records and the National Archives. Visit the website of the Minnesota Genealogical Society (www.mngs.org) for more details.