June Indiana Genealogist

Three big articles in the new issue of Indiana Genealogist, flagship publication of the Indiana Genealogical Society:

"Who Was Not Jessie's Father?" by Dawne Slater-Putt. The author, who is a Certified Genealogist, takes on puzzle of the parentage of Jessie Armentha Fordyce, daughter of Martha A. Saxon and, as it turns out, neither of the two men she married. Jessie was born 15 January 1883 in Miami County, and was five months old when her mother married Melchior Elsenhans.

"New History of the 99th Indiana Infantry," compiled by Meredith Thompson from the 1900 book of that title. In addition to a quick summary, the article reunites the sketches and photographs of some of the 942 men in the company. Company members came from the NW quadrant of the state.

In the regular "In-Genious" section, Marjorie Weiler-Powell distinguishes indexing, abstracting, extracting, transcribing, and translating.

In the latest news, a man from Danville, Illinois, is the first person to have three certified ancestors who served from Indiana in the Civil War, making him the first "triple" member of the Society of Civil War Families of Indiana.

Methodology Monday with deeds instead of probate

You can find some interesting stuff in genealogy newsletters these days, premier among them being UpFront with NGS from the national Genealogical Society. The June issue has more than one interesting article, but I was riveted by Jane Atkinson Andrews' account of how she used deeds to figure out an inheritance situation in the 1840s and 1850s in Wayne County, Ohio (or at least that's where it started) and get her in-laws sorted out. She writes,

"One particular group of transactions piqued my interest: ten deeds from ten different grantors to the same grantee, recorded in consecutive order. (Wayne County, Ohio, Deed Book 44:540-46; Various grantors to John Q. Andrews, Quitclaim deeds recorded 10-12 Dec 1854; Wayne County Recorder, Wooster; FHL microfilm 420,936.)

"This was an estate property settlement, but for whom? How were the grantors related to each other and to the deceased? What was their connection to the grantee? Careful reading of the deeds provided answers to these questions and more."

If you can stop reading there and turn on the TV, you're not a genealogist.

You'll wish your ancestor stopped in Shawano County Wisconsin

In case you're wondering, this is the county just WNW of Green Bay, on the way to Wausau. Check out the Shawano County resources, including 80,000+ obituaries, and (one of my personal faves) plat maps from 1898, 1905, and 1911.

Ohio Records & Pioneer Families 2009 #2

The new issue of ORPF features Wood, Erie, Ashland, Trumbull, Warren, Gallia, and Morgan counties:

"John Hormell, Sr., 1743-1823," by Stanley W. Aultz

"Bible Records of Joshua Cope Baker Found in North Baltimore, Ohio," by Cheryl Warren Conkle

"Wood County Marriages, 1820-1856," comp. Lolita Guthrie

"First Families of Ohio: The Early Years," abstr. Kay Ballantyne Hudson

"Revolutionary War Pension Application Abstracts," comp. Lois Wheeler

"The Bissells of Indiana," by Susan L. Simon* -- the second installment, last time they were in Trumbull County, Ohio

"Invalid Pensioners Living in Ohio During 1850," by Eric Johnson

"Letter to James Lamson Gage from James Gage," tr. Jonathan Scouten Robertson

"Ohio Births Documented from Civil War Pension Files," abstr. Michael Elliott

McCarley & Davis Family Bibles of Gallie County, OH," by E. Paul Morehouse

"Camp Avery: A Forgotten Outpost in Northern Ohio," by Eric Johnson. The monument to the War of 1812 outpost apparently is near the Ohio Turnpike, but just where we do not learn.

*footnoted

Civil War pre-sesqui in NW Indiana

If you just can't wait for the outbreak of the 150th anniversaries of the Civil War, c'mon over to La Porte County, where the historical society has an encampment and "Civil War Ball" June 27, songs of the war August 1, and a talk August 8 on La Porte County Civil War veterans (including two Confederates) by county historian Fern Eddy Schultz. My information comes from the society's June "Oldletter," but information on the first two events is on the website. If you come to visit their research library, bear in mind they're closed Sunday-Monday and charge a small admission fee.

Need foreign words?

The Resource Shelf points to a fine aggregation of translation resources from the Association of College & Resarch Libraries. I doubt that these are real substitutes for hiring a professional, but the authors conclude, "There are many free Web sites that allow educated nonprofessionals to produce quality translations, if they are willing to dig into the wealth of the Internet and create their own set of tools."

Methodology Monday with online databases

Joan Young has a well-balanced article on this vexed and vexing subject in Rootsweb Review's June issue. Much good advice here, IMHO, including this paragraph:

"Pay no attention to who submitted the data, but rather to the evidence itself. Even respected genealogists make errors occasionally and may not have access to all the information you possess."