Jethro Potter's secret in NGSQ

When a grown man gives his mother three different names over more than half a century, you know you've got trouble. That evidence was the beginning of my article just published in the new June 2013 National Genealogical Society Quarterly.

When Jethro Potter died at the age of 94 in Ohio in 1963, he reportedly had more than two dozen grandchildren. But his parentage was cloaked in mystery and possibly deception. The article identifies his parents by tracing a plausible mother's life forward, a lengthy process that eventually led to five key documents, all of them created decades after Jethro's birth, and only one directly naming the parents. In the course of the research eight Alberson half-siblings and two McCroskey half-siblings were identified.

This all-Midwestern story has many colorful subplots and stories, most of which were not relevant to establishing the genealogical framework. The scene shifted among multiple counties in four states: Ohio (Darke, Portage), Indiana (Randolph, Wells, Jay, Marshall, Starke), Illinois (La Salle, Livingston), and Michigan (Muskegon).

As for records, I did not find or use anything exotic. In the end the 66 footnotes contained standard genealogical fare: census, vital, Social Security, military, court, newspaper, probate, property, cemetery, and funeral home. Many records contained mistakes and omissions requiring the records to be analyzed and correlated and corrected.

This article grew out of two client reports that first grew into a case study for BCG certification. (It is much more condensed and focused than the case study.) Those who are working on credentialing of any sort should keep NGSQ and similar publications in mind if you want your work to last, and especially if you want it to get a really thorough going-over!




Harold Henderson, "Jethro Potter's Secret: Confusion to Conclusion in Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, and Michigan," National Genealogical Society Quarterly 101 (June 2013):103-112.


Harold Henderson, "Jethro Potter's secret in NGSQ," Midwestern Microhistory: A Genealogy Blog, posted 24 July 2013 (http://midwesternmicrohistory.blogspot.com : accessed [access date]). [Please feel free to link to the specific post if you prefer.] 

January-March NGS Magazine

This quarter's NGS magazine has quite a bit of Midwestern material.

Ronald Ames Hill writes about some of his adventures in ferreting out old court records for his award-winning Ball family history, in Henry County, Indiana, and Muskegon County, Michigan. In both cases the county clerks falsely claimed that records had been lost to fire. Hill writes, "I make such requests in a very determined manner. I never say I am doing family history. I never ask if they have such and such. I simply say 'I want to see such and such.'"

Michael D. Lacopo of northern Indiana gives an overview of "Beginning Swiss Mennonite Research," including two key denominational archives in North Newton (Harvey County), Kansas, and Goshen (Elkhart County), Indiana.

David McDonald, CG, has an engaging piece on "Going beyond the Usual Records in Wisconsin," including some unusual collections of Wisconsin archives. The jail register for Dane County, for instance, offers not just names, addresses, and physical descriptions, but also "commentary about the conduct and demeanor of thei nmates, along with remarks on the heritage, drinking habits and frequency of custom within the jail system."

Claire Prechtel-Kluskens writes about Extension Service annual reports found in the National Archives at College Park, using Fairfax County, Virginia, and Lake County, Ohio, as examples of the down-home facts that can be gleaned from supposedly remote federal records.

Joseph F. Martin reports on Calumet and Hecla mining records -- "a mother lode of information" from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, in this case Houghton County.

Western Michigan man of mystery

The June issue of the National Genealogical Society Quarterly includes a switcheroo on the old genealogical chestnut of whether there was one or two or more John Does in a particular jurisdiction. Q coeditor Tom Jones takes on Charles D. McLain, David R./Daniel McLain, and D. McLain -- three (apparently) different men in 19th-century western Michigan, who he proves to be the same one! Try to read this without your head spinning, but remember that this is the kind of careful work required to trace the less prominent, less stable, and less fortunate of our ancestors and relatives.

BTW, NGS members can browse this issue and all others back through 2002 on line.