L is for Lineage Societies

The premise of lineage societies is that an ancestral line can be tracked back to 'x' (a category of people, or someone famous…or someone infamous) through direct ancestors (read blood line).

This is a situation where it is "just the facts m'am," though you may well have to go far (or very far) afield to get the proofs required for the linkage.  For each generation it must be proved that person 'x' was born to parents 'a' & 'b,'  and usually that a & b were married to each other.  All those other things that make interesting tales around the campfire - occupation, migration, other children -- are not necessary for the lineage, though they may be called upon to prove the lineage.

And when one parent child triangle is proved, take the parent who is headed the right direction, treat the parent as the child and form another triangle with parents.  In other words…rinse and repeat.

DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution) & Mayflower Society (descendants of the colonists who arrived on the Mayflower) are venerable US lineage societies.  These two, and many others celebrate the history and settling of the US. 

My paternal grandmother was DAR, and I may follow her lead.

I am also aware that many states have a "First Families" designation.  New England goes one step further, offering a First Families of New England designation to all who can prove first family in each New England state.  It's tough. 

Family friends belong to a society that is open to descendants of President's wives.  This society allows collateral connections -- so the potential pool of members is HUGE. 

At the same time, against the serious are a whole raft of "tongue-in-cheek" lineage societies, for which one has to prove descendancy from a pirate, a witch, or a black sheep, to name a few.  I must admit I have a soft spot in my heart for these who honor the diversity of our heritage in this manner … and note my personal favorite, encountered at a Scottish Highland games some years ago.  This is the "Venerable Order of the Flamingo." To join you are required to wear a flamingo hat, and while standing on one leg and flapping one's arms, repeat the oath of the order, vowing to protect and value flamingos forever and always, whether of flesh and blood and feathers or of plastic and wire and paint.   It was a moving ceremony; obviously I have not forgotten it, though I have no idea what happened to my membership parchment.

Till next time,

Liz

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2018 begins with an "ABC-darium," a walk through the alphabet expanding into short comments on matters genealogical.  Published usually on Tuesday and some Fridays, a letter may be visited more than once before moving on.  

© 2018, SE Ross

D is for Death... Certificates

"the only thing sure in life is death and taxes"

Everyone dies, and fortunately, or unfortunately, the death certificate is the one document (in the US since 1903/6) which has lots of spaces that invite information.

The doc is there and gets date and time of death right, but there are a lot of other blanks on the form, and there is no requirement that the person giving this information really knows. 

Usually reliable, due to coming from driver's license, credit card and doctor:

… the name given, though it is always good to consider nicknames, initials that have turned into a name, or a total alias (those are the truly fun ones)

… the date of death, the cause of death, and the doctor in attendance.

... last residence  

… how long sick before death.

Usually reliable because happening right then, or based on a record accepted as true by the state.  

The evidence wiggle enters with all those other blanks that just beg for information, and that information can be given by almost anyone.  Sometimes info is from close friend or family, and sometimes by the clerk who met the ambulance.

This little vagary in the information collection does not mean that death certificates should be downplayed.  Death certificates are truly wonderful wonderful records, with lots of facts to plug into our family tree, but sometimes also  contain, along with the true, the probably, the possibly and sometimes the "huh?"

A lot depends on context (remember that letter? -- oh yeah, it's coming on Friday).

You got the medical stuff - and name and date.  Now look down at the bottom of the form.

Have a good look at the name of the informant. Every death certificate that I have seen has this line down near the bottom, and the tendency is to disregard this name.  Please don't.  This name is working very hard to tell you the source of the information past the "medical-at time of death" stuff.   When the informant is close family -- spouse, parent, sib, or child -- the information tends to be good/valid/true; the family knows brother/father/grandad Brian's birthday & year; they celebrated it.  His sibs would know the name of Brian's father and mother, that's grandpa or grandma.

At the other end of the reliability scale is the often noted "hospital registrar," who got their information from the next door neighbor of the now dead guy.  The exception to this rule is a small town hospital, where the registrar has known everything about everyone in the town since they were born, and if the registrar doesn't know, his/her auntie will know, and the registrar will call her with any questions before finishing and filing the certificate.

Another context to consider is how the person died.  A traumatic death of a child may result in errors even from a parent, specifically because they are the parent.   My grandmother misspelled her own name on the death certificate of her daughter who died at 2 months.

My bottom line is to put the information in -- but possibly not in ink.  

Other stories to enjoy and consider: mine and second-hand.

• The death certificates of four brothers, all long lived, outliving their spouses and children, and not living near each other, did not agree on the names of parents or their birthplaces.  It was clear that the information was coming from friends or neighbors; there was no family.  The solution, and definitive information came when the death certificate was found for the fifth son, who died young, and was buried by his parents.  Did they know their names, her maiden name and the towns they were born in? Absolutely!  Case closed. 

• My death certificate in my family has the father's name as Arthur Oakley Lucas.  Nice name, only problem is that Oakley was the street where father lived.  A family member (like me) reading this will recognize the error and it will not enter the codex of on-line family trees, but if others start with that death certificate. ???

•  Also, a European town of birth may only and always have been heard by the children.  In my family, one side came from Bruneholdshime, in Germany.  I had much better luck when I went phonetic, and looked for Brunnholzheim.

               Ditto for mother's maiden names.

Cheers -

Liz

Ps - death certificates are also very handy for lineage societies!

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2018 begins with an "ABC-darium," a walk through the alphabet expanding into short comments on matters genealogical.  Published on Tuesday and some Fridays, a letter may be visited more than once before moving on.  

© 2018, SE Ross

C is also for Courage

When you start out on your great tree-building adventure, consider that you are doing the H.G. Wells thing in your mind.  You are really doing time travel, through what you find in documents, plus your historically informed imagination, and… you really don’t know what you will find.

Everyone goes back to Charlemagne -- right??

Everyone has royalty - right??

Or, heading the other direction … many researchers are hoping to find their own small flock of black sheep -- the witch, the pirate, the thief -- right??

Last Christmas a friend of mine gave her mother membership in a very unique lineage society, "The Descendants of the Illegitimate Sons and Daughters of the Kings of Britain" aka the "Royal Bastards."   Solid research, and totally delightful -- at this remove.

They are still looking for a witch in the lineage.  They have come up with some Salem residents, but so far, no witch connection. 

So far in my own research, no Royal Bastards, but then, I'm still headed toward the pond crossing on most of my lines.

But I have found the names/voices of two stillborn cousins of my mother.  For her entire life, she believed the family had one child; she didn't know about these births.  It's nice to have that entire nuclear family tracked. 

Even tracking names can get interesting.  My mother didn't know the first name of this cousin's grandmother, a woman who was at every joint family celebration for years.   "We called her Grandma."   Her name was Malwina….  Again, lovely to fill in the space on the tree. 

No great amount of courage required here, but family situations get strange and twisty, and the genealogist is called upon to research rigorously and report truthfully.  One does not prune the family tree, for either kindness or timidity on the part of the researcher or the client. 

You want to know your ancestors?

Ancient Chinese proverb: "Be careful what you wish for."

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2018 begins with an "ABC-darium," a walk through the alphabet expanding into short comments on matters genealogical.  Published on Tuesday and some Fridays, a letter may be visited more than once before moving on. 

© 2018, SE Ross

The "Waving Leaf" of Ancestry

For years I have been using Ancestry data bases to do research, but haven't posted a public page on any of my lines.  My early training in genealogy was definitely of the "what can you prove with documents" style, and so what others had put into a family tree (oh yes, I did have a look) without any sourcing was mostly very uninteresting.
so...

I decided to walk on the "leafy" side, and posted a small number of Rentchler ancestors.  This is a family name of middling size, shows up in Pennsylvania and my section moves to southern Illinois.
and...
two days after posting about 10 ancestors, 3 generations, I now have 100+ hints - and Ancestry sent me a special email to celebrate this !!!

Most are from family trees of other people, good for finding cousins, but not new info, many are from census (got that one nailed), and most are repeating info I already have, so circling the wagons and rehashing vs. moving forward.
With this intro, I'm tempted to post a tree of another line.  This line has about 20 people in the US that still carry the name.  They married late, with few or no kids, and it would be interesting to see how many "wavers" that tree would generate.

Stay tuned.....