Looking back: in 2012, I got certified, spoke at a national conference, and finished publishing my first "big-time" article (on my wife's 5G grandfather William Berry and his children and grandchildren).
What's up for 2013? I'd like to do less and do it better, but the specifics remain elusive.
My top professional priorities are researching, writing, and editing -- preferably for pay! Other priorities include education (in the most general sense), giving back to the profession, and speaking.
I won't say never, but in the coming year(s) four kinds of activities are going to receive what the courts call "strict scrutiny": those that require flying, those that require me to get other people to do things, those involving mostly "busy work," and those based on the dubious notion that I'm the only person who can do X.
(Hat tip to Michael Hait, whose more specific blog post inspired this one.)
I can't predict publications, but I do aim to produce a couple of booklets in the next year. It's easier to tell when and where I'll be speaking:
February 12 on citations at an Illinois State Genealogical Society webinar.
March 10 on the Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center at the La Porte County (Indiana) Genealogical Society.
April 6 on indirect evidence and William Berry research in Lafayette, Indiana. Indianapolis genealogist and blogger Ron Darrah will have the other half of the program.
April 26 on Indiana research at the Ohio Genealogical Society in Cincinnati.
April 27 on property and probate records at the Indiana Genealogical Society in Bloomington. (Those who don't use these records -- which included me up to four or five years ago -- will find that they weren't really doing genealogy before.)
May 8 on advocacy for preservation and open records at the Association of Professional Genealogists luncheon at the National Genealogical Society in Las Vegas.
May 10 on "Are We There Yet?," a case study on proof, in the BCG track at NGS Las Vegas.
June 15 on "Welcome to the Other Midwestern Archives" at the Northwest Indiana Genealogical Society in Crown Point.
June 18 on "Organize Your Stuff As You Dig for Your Roots," at the La Porte County (Indiana) Public Library.
August 22 on Indiana research at the Federation of Genealogical Societies in Fort Wayne.
August 23 on "Welcome to the Other Midwestern Archives" at FGS in Fort Wayne.
August 24 on speaking ideas at FGS in Fort Wayne (sponsored by the Genealogical Speakers Guild).
See you around!
Harold Henderson, “William Berry (1753-1839) and His Children and Grandchildren in Massachusetts and New York,” in 2 parts, American Ancestors Journal, third and fourth annual supplements to The New England Historical and Genealogical Register 165 (October 2011): 368-78 and 166 (October 2012): 365-74.
Harold Henderson, "Janus Day: Looking Forward, Looking Back," Midwestern Microhistory: A Genealogy Blog, posted 14 January 2013 (http://midwesternmicrohistory.blogspot.com : accessed [access date]). [Please feel free to link to the specific post if you prefer.]
Monday, January 14, 2013
Janus Day: Looking Forward, Looking Back
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Tuesday, December 4, 2012
William Berry and His Progeny: Property + Probate = Results
William Berry was born in Rhode Island in 1753, was bound out at a young age, served in the Revolutionary War from New York, was captured on his fourth hitch, and survived 3 1/2 years' captivity on Prisoner Island in the St. Lawrence River. His 17 October 1839 will in Allegany County, New York, named seven children (two already deceased) and a few grandchildren.
William bequeathed mostly land, and specified how his children should dispose of each parcel. In part because of that provision, children and grandchildren made numerous deeds following his death. By correlating these with probate and other records I was able to identify more than 30 grandchildren, born between 1802 and 1833. Those so far identified and traced lived in New York, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Nebraska.
The two-part article appears in American Ancestors Journal 2011 and 2012, an annual supplement to the New England Historical and Genealogical Register. NEHGS members can read the articles and documentation on line.
Surnames in the children's generation: Berry, Palmer, Greenfield, Hungerford, Potter, Parks.
Additional surnames in the grandchildren's generation: Sheldon, Hornecker, Clark, McNaught, Goodrich, Green, Daboll, Saunders, Sprague, Hackett, Humphrey, Coleman, Bliss, Walrath, Weaver, Burdick, Wheeler, Swartwout, Morgan, Lauther, Sumner, Trask, Mead, Bliven, and Monroe.
William was my late mother-in-law's great-grandmother's great-grandfather. Several mysteries remain, and I hope to have a continuation article written next year on just one of William's grandchildren, a Civil War veteran with more than two dozen grandchildren himself.
Harold Henderson, “William Berry (1753-1839) and His Children and Grandchildren in Massachusetts and New York,” in 2 parts, American Ancestors Journal, third and fourth annual supplements to The New England Historical and Genealogical Register 165 (October 2011): 368-78 and 166 (October 2012):365-74.
Harold Henderson, "William Berry and His Progeny: Property + Probate = Results," Midwestern Microhistory: A Genealogy Blog, posted 4 December 2012 (http://midwesternmicrohistory.blogspot.com : accessed [access date]). [Please feel free to link to the specific post if you prefer.]
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Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Marriage Records and Indexes: Choose the Original
Short answers: Yes, and Not usually.
Longer answer: BCG Standard No. 21 reminds us that "the original is the most authoritative source." Are these sketchy old-school records an exception? No. Six reasons from a mainly Midwestern viewpoint:
(1) Indexers are human. They can leave something out or transcribe something wrong. This is not a rare occurrence. In this 2008 article I compared marriage indexes to each other and the original records they referred to.
(2) The licenses and returns that I've dealt with name the person who married the couple; many indexes do not. That person's identity, denomination (if any), and location may provide clues as to where the couple lived or where they created other records.
(3) They also give the dates of both events if different.
(4) Some licenses and returns give the bride's or groom's ages, or their places of residence, or both. Some also name witnesses.
(5) Sometimes the bride's or groom's ages are implied by a parent or guardian's note giving consent to the marriage. My all-time favorite in this category comes from La Salle County, Illinois (see illustration). Elizabeth Shown Mills has called such records "land mines." This one sure was.
(6) Sometimes auxiliary records such as marriage applications appear in the guise of regular marriage records; if you don't ask, you may not receive. In Indiana, many researchers know to look for marriage applications beginning in 1905, and better ones 1940-1977. Not so many know that there are two earlier forms with extensive additional information available for some counties as early as 1882.
Choose the original. You won't regret it.
Board for the Certification of Genealogists, The BCG Genealogical Standards Manual (Washington DC: BCG, 2000), 8-9.
Harold Henderson, "An Index Is a Treasure Map -- Do You Dig?," Indiana Genealogist, vol.19, no. 3 (September 2008):147-150.
Elizabeth Shown Mills, Evidence Explained (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2007), 16.
Harold Henderson, "Marriage Records and Indexes: Choose the Original," Midwestern Microhistory: A Genealogy Blog, posted 16 October 2012 (http://midwesternmicrohistory.blogspot.com : accessed [access date]). [Please feel free to link to the specific post if you prefer.
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Tuesday, July 3, 2012
William Berry: Where There's a Will There's a Deed
Archives.com has just posted my digest version of research on William Berry (1753-1839), who was born in Rhode Island, served in the American Revolution from New York, and lived much of his life in and
around Stephentown, Rensselaer County, New York, and Hancock, Berkshire
County, Massachusetts. The first installment of the full account was published in NEHGS's American Ancestors Journal last fall, with the second and final installment this fall. Berry made his will in Allegany County, New York, in 1839, naming seven children and ten grandchildren. Deeds made in the decades following his death enable us to identify twenty-three additional grandchildren.
Surnames involved include Bliven, Coleman, Daboll, Green, Hackett, Hungerford, Monroe, Palmer, Parks, Potter, Saunders, Sprague, Sumner, Swartwout, Trask, and Walrath. Some stayed in New York; others went west to Illinois, Wisconsin, and beyond.
Studying those records was a bit like walking into a party where
everybody knows everybody else and assumes you do too. Even though this
party was more than 150 years old, enough of the participants were
willing to "talk" so that eventually most of it made sense. There are still some descendants on the loose!
[Note to fanatics: this is my sixth article on Archives, but the site lists only the five most recent under my name. The first one, no longer listed in that way, is "Indirect Evidence to the Rescue," 25 August 2011.]
Harold Henderson, "William Berry (1753-1839) and His Children and
Grandchildren in Massachusetts and New York," part 1 of 2, American
Ancestors Journal, third annual supplement to The New England Historical
and Genealogical Register 165 (October 2011): 368-78.
Harold Henderson, "William Berry: Where There's a Will There's a Deed," Midwestern Microhistory: A Genealogy Blog, posted 3 July 2012 (http://midwesternmicrohistory.blogspot.com : accessed [access date]). [Please feel free to link to the specific post if you prefer.]
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Monday, December 12, 2011
Revolutionary patriot William Berry in NEHGR/AAJ
William Berry declared for a Revolutionary War pension in 1832 and made a detailed will shortly before his death in Allegany County, New York, in 1839. A probate and many deeds among his descendants followed, all carefully preserved in the Belmont courthouse.
Together these documents provide enough information to identify his seven children, some of their spouses, and more than 30 grandchildren. The first half of my article laying out the evidence and reasoning has just been published in the American Ancestors Journal supplement #3 to the October 2011 issue of the New England Historical and Genealogical Register.
William was the great-grandfather of my mother-in-law Eloise's great-grandmother Sarah Mehitabel Humphrey Coleman Bliss. Eloise would always ask for any news of ancestors when we came to visit; I'm sorry I didn't get this done in time for her to see it in print.
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