Happy St. Patrick's Day

I'm always so bummed when I forget to wear my seasonal accoutrements on the one day in the year when they're appropriate. My Mom had this pin back in the '80s (and probably earlier), and I managed to appropriate it for my own sometime around high school, and not lose it in all this time.

Truth is, I don't have any solid proof that I'm Irish. Family lore says I am, and the McLaughlin surname that entered into my lineage around 1844 is the most likely source. Other McLaughlins have done more thorough research than I, and have postulated that this McLaughlin line does indeed trace back to Northern Ireland, and that they came to the New World in the 1730s or '40s.

Hence, since I could be an entire one-hundredth of a percent Irish, being that my 8x-Great Grandfather was most likely Irish, I felt OK not wearing green today to make myself "more Irish." (Although, since Wikipedia doesn't mention anything about this aspect of "the wearing of the green," I'm now more dubious about whether that's really why people wear green on St. Paddy's Day.)

Granny (1911-1990)

The focus of this year's Halloween Family History Devotional was uploading to Flickr a good part of the genealogy photos I've accumulated over the years. There are some others I have in my collection, but they're more cousins and indirect lines rather than my direct ancestry.

This photo, however, is of my Granny.

I count myself extremely lucky that I got to live in Florida from age 8 to age 11, so I got to spend some quality time with my Granny. By that time, she was 75 years old, with a puckered, happy face and leathery, saggy skin from working in the fields for most of her life. Her hair was long and thin and nearly white, and she would pin it up in half a dozen small, flat curls under her straw hat.

I love this picture for so many reasons. I can see the family resemblance much easier in this younger version of Granny, and not just the patterns of aging in the womenfolk of our family. I also love the fact that she's barefoot, with a dog barking at her heels.

And, no, she's not pregnant. She had that peculiar firm-fat belly decades later, and her daughter (my Memaw) inherited the same belly. Granny tended to wear her pants unnaturally high, up over her quasi-beer-gut, with her shirt tucked in, as great-grandparents are wont to do.

She used to tell fantastic voodoo stories, too, most of which I never heard or remembered. The one story I remember, as best as I can remember it, involved a feud between two women in town. The voodoo practitioner in question obtained a piece of her enemy's hair, put it into a glass bottle (a milk bottle, perhaps?), then peed in the bottle, said her voodoo witchery spell, and put the sealed jar in the oven. When the bottle finally burst in the oven, the other woman started pissing, and couldn't stop pissing all over herself. The woman ran to the voodoo woman's house, pissing all the while, and asked her forgiveness so the curse would be lifted.

I know my family tends to take these stories with a grain of salt, being that no one really practices voodoo or believes in witchcraft. Me, I don't suppose there's any harm in imagining that it really could have happened. But, really, you'd have to hate someone a whole hell of a lot to make your house smell like burning piss.

But I digress. Granny was always a hardworking woman who cared for her kids. She even faked Memaw's birthdate by one year when she went into school so she looked old enough to go to school along with her slower older brother, to beat up the kids who would pick on him. Memaw kept that falsified birthdate for her entire life, since she had no birth certificate, and school records were the only proof she had of her age.

I know my aunt and my mom know more of Granny's stories. I keep hoping that I'll be able to get one or both of them to write down what they remember. I just know that there was so much more to her than I ever got to see myself.

Donald William Cook, 1953 - 2007

We just got the news this week that my Uncle Donnie died back in March. Apparently, his long-time friend had tried to reach Mom afterward, but didn't have her current contact info, and was fruitlessly searching for her in Ohio.

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This Subscription Is Not Eligible For A Refund

I guess that's what I get for being a long-time member of a paid-subscription website. First, my annual subscription price gets raised (albeit some time ago). Then I find that, since I didn't cancel in time, I'm not eligible for a refund. That's $99 down the tubes, since a.) I'm not actively doing genealogy these days, and b.) I have online census access for free through the Toledo Lucas County Public Library.

So... if anyone I know would like to look up some census info on Ancestry.com, give me a holla. I'll hook you up.

Hooray For My Tax Dollars At Work

I'd just like to say that I am an incredible dork for not having signed up for a Lucas County library card sooner.

You know how I've been subscribing to the Ancestry.com U.S. Census collection for, like, $70 a year or something? Well... it turns out that HeritageQuest Online, available from the Toledo-Lucas County Libraries website, also has census images available. HeritageQuest also offers a search of PERSI, the PERiodical Source Index; books; Revolutionary War pensions and records, and others.

Apart from HeritageQuest, the library also subscribes to America's Obituaries & Death Notices, various biography collections, several newspaper archives, Sanborn Maps (holy crap! sweet!), and WorldCat, of course.

*facepalm*

I totally need to cancel my Ancestry.com subscription. And go look for that Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Chipley, Florida in the 1930's Sanborn maps from cities in the state of Ohio.

Help From the Genealogy Guys

I've left voicemails and e-mailed comments in to podcasts before, but I still go all a-squee when I hear MY E-MAIL being read on the air, so to speak.

Last week, I e-mailed the Genealogy Guys about finding Great-Aunt Phoebe's service station. (Actually, she's my great-great-aunt, but who's counting?) Today, I listened to George and Drew give me (and hundreds of other genealogy buffs) some clues about where to go next:

1. City directories? Establish the year it was founded and the year it went out of business or changed hands.
2. Land and property records; perhaps a mortgage?
3. Florida Secretary of State: Bureau of Measurements' annual inspections, incorporations.
4. Florida State Archives for archived gov't records?
5. Local genealogical society or historical societies
6. Sanborn fire insurance maps? Chipley might not be large enough of a city to appear in one of those.

So, that gives me a pretty good start. The city directories were something I'd thought of myself, but I hadn't considered going to the Secretary of State. Good idea, George!

Other fun things: Drew actually pronounced "Schnuth" correctly, and George started out by giving a mini-plug of my podcast, as I'd decided to sign my e-mail with my podcast's name, as well as my own. Any publicity I can get is fine with me. :-)

I'm off to go search for some Washington County libraries online...

Pictures To Prove It

As we were swapping family photos over e-mail, a newly-discovered relative of mine told me, "I love photos also. In fact, when I am doing work on a family, I like to have their photo to look at. I think it brings reality to the numbers."

I took that to heart this week and decided to research one particular photo I'd found online a few years ago. My great-great-grandmother, Grannie Maudie, two of her sisters, and her daughter pose in front of a 1940's era service station. From what I read, Maudie's sister, Phoebe, actually owned the station, but the researcher who posted the information didn't know where the station was located.

Luckily, I discovered this back in 2001, and had plenty of time to approach Memaw about it before she passed. Maudie was Memaw's grandmother, and Memaw had spoken enough about "they was a bunch of girls in that family" that I figured she might know something about the service station. After all, she used to say that Aunt Miney (MY-knee) was the first person in the family to own a car, and I believe she said it was a Model T. (I'm still not sure who Aunt Miney is, but I'll piece it together someday.) So, I wasn't surprised when she knew exactly what I was talking about, and told me that the station had been out on Route 10.

After that, I didn't think about the service station for quite some time. I always knew I'd come back to it eventually, though.

This week, as I was pulling out family photos to inspire me in my genealogical research, I came across a print of the service station picture, and decided that I wanted to make it the cornerstone of my current project. I want to get as much information as possible about the women in the photograph, the service station, and how it came to be.

In getting my facts straight, I realized that I'd had a couple people recorded in the wrong families entirely, and that I didn't have much information on these ladies. I had dates, thanks to Mrs. Smith's research, but no sources. And I've become a stickler for sources lately.

So, tonight, I'm requesting death certificates for three of the four women in the picture: Phoebe, Delia, and Ida. I already have Maudie's. I'm hoping to see whether they had Social Security Numbers — if they did, I can order up their Social Security Applications. Those will tell me where they were employed, if anywhere, at the time they applied for the SSN; their home address; their places of birth and their parents' names; and a few other random goodies. Unfortunately, I'm fairly positive that Maudie never had a SSN, as her death certificate lists none, and she died in 1950, before it became mandatory for all U.S. residents to have a SSN. Phoebe also died relatively young, in 1957, at the age of 64; however, she may have had to have a SSN, since she was the owner of the service station. I have high hopes for Ida and Delia having SSNs, as they seem to have survived a little longer, and I think I've found them both in the Social Security Death Index.

I think I've geeked out on genealogy long enough for one night. I'm off to write three $5 checks to the Florida Department of Vital Statistics, record the requests in my research log, and get them ready to go in the mail tomorrow.

I'm hoping that having some focus in my research will help me untangle this confusing web of multiple marriages and not-quite-legal adoptions and divorces and separations and step-children and OMG. Why couldn't these women be a little less strong-willed and a little more marriageable? ;-)

Yep, They're Still Dead

And still they're eluding me.

So, today's research: I got emails back from the Clermont County Public Library and the Ohio Department of Health. First, the *very* nice librarian at Clermont County confirmed that Thomas COOK and Rachel HILL were married on 5 March 1852 in Clermont County, but said that the record contains no information about their parents. I'm not sure why I thought that would be helpful in the first place, being that I need to establish a link between them and who I think is their son.

As for the Department of Health, they haven't offered uncertified copies of death certificates since 2003. My bad. So, I'm sending off a request for Benjiman Smith COOK's death certificate along with a check for $16.50 (ouch). I'll wait and see if that's helpful before I go and drop over $30 on the other two certs for Ben's siblings. I'm pretty much just trying to establish where they were all born, and Ben is the oldest sibling I don't have a death record for. (We're assuming that the birthplace listed on the death cert is marginally correct, and that I might be able to someday locate birth records from that information. I haven't had a lot of luck with his older two siblings, though.)

Tonight I mainly spent by looking up census records on Thomas's and Rachel's respective families and figuring out how they might have hooked up. From what I can tell, their families lived mighty close to each other for quite a while. Now, Thomas and Rachel got married in 1852, when he was 20 and she was 19 (I think). They had at least 5 kids: Isabelle Kate, John, Comadore (?!), Harvey, and William.

William's older sister Isabelle married John HILL sometime between 1870 and 1876. As far as I can figure, their parents must have died just about that time, too, because William was living with Isabelle and John HILL in the 1880 U.S. Census, at the age of 12. I haven't been able to find their brothers John COOK or Harvey COOK, and I believe Comadore died young (before age 10). Leave it to them to throw me a curveball, eh?

I think my problems would be solved if I could find William's marriage record to his wife Ella, and if that record states who his parents are. I know from the census that they married in 1895. I just don't know exactly where. Could be Clermont County, could be Butler County, could even be Warren or Montgomery (although I think those are less likely). I'd have to request the record from the county, since the state of Ohio doesn't hold marriage records from before, jeez, looks like 1949? Wow.

So, yeah. The counties I need wouldn't be at the Ohio Historical Society archives, so I'd have to contact the counties directly. If it's in Butler County, I might be able to get it from the Butler County Records Center & Archives — looks like they've got marriage records from as far back as 1847, and parents' names were listed beginning in 1894. Just in time.

If the marriage took place in Clermont County, it looks like I'll have to write the County Clerk for the record. No big deal, though. Looks like they have marriage records beginning in 1801? Hmm. I'll have to write them and see.

That's been my evening. Man, tomorrow I need to take a break from this and work on my podcast. Can't believe the marathon genealogy-fest I've been having this week. And I've barely even used any of Ancestry's resources, which was the reason for this binge in the first place.

Today's Genealogy Log

Last night, I located some indexed records on Ancestry.com, so today I went to work on obtaining copies of the actual records. I have basic death record info for two of Grandpa Cook's uncles and one of his aunts, plus my stepdad Tom, and I'm hoping to get the actual death certificates for all of them. But certified copies of death certificates cost $16.50 each! Now, I *know* I got uncertified copies a few years ago for cheap, just for research purposes, so I e-mailed the Department of Health to see if they still do that. We'll see what they say.

I also located Grandpa's Uncle Russ in the WWII Army Enlistment Records index, so I decided to go to the National Archives and Records Administration to get a copy of his military record. I filled out the SF-180 and am planning to stick it in the mail tomorrow, so hopefully something will come of that. I could potentially get shut down because I'm only his great-grandniece, and not next-of-kin.

I'm still researching, even though I should be working out. I'll let you know what I find.

Update, 9pm: In looking through the notes I'd made in my genealogy program, I discovered that I'd found the marriage date of Thomas COOK and Rachel HILL. So, even though I'm not entirely sure I'm related to them, I'm going to try to work backwards. I've requested a lookup in the Clermont County Marriages book at the Clermont County Public Library, and hopefully this will give me some sort of lead to help connect and correlate my Thomases.

Update, 9:40pm: I just found the WWI Draft Registration Card for Thomas Oliver COOK. Not the Thomas I've been looking for, but one who I know is definitely related to me. This Thomas was Grandpa Cook's uncle, who was killed when his car got hit by a train in 1924, a few years before Grandpa was born. This draft card basically just confirmed what I already knew, but also gave a street address of where they were living at the time, and the fact that Thomas was working for Dayton Wright Airplane Company in 1918.

Final Update, 10:15pm: I think that Grandpa was on crack when he said that his grandfather had a brother named Harry and a half-brother named Samuel. Assuming they have the same last name as he does, I haven't been able to find them in any census anywhere that Grandpa's grandpa is. The only thing this tells me is that maybe Thomas COOK (Grandpa's great-grandpa) must have gotten divorced or been widowed. Or, I suppose it could be the other way around, and he could have widowed his wife, and/or Samuel could be hers from another husband. That would still make William Henry and Samuel half-brothers.

At any rate, I hope I catch a break on this soon, because this brick wall is really starting to tick me off.

Where To Start...?

I've never done online research solely on Ancestry.com before. I've never had the run of the place. I've always assumed I'd have access to my U.S. Census Records Collection, a few free databases, and that's it. Now, though, the whole place is my playground, and I don't know where to start.

It's a good thing I made notes online earlier.

I still need to work on finding all the pertinent info for Grandpa Cook's aunts and uncles, because my "brick wall" is only one generation past them. I also need to find a marriage record for Grandpa's grandparents. After that... I have census records going from 1870 back to 1840 for what I believe is my Cook family, but I need definite evidence linking my William Henry Cook to the Thomas Cook I think is his father. I know that William Henry had a brother named Harry and a half-brother named Samuel, but this information hasn't helped me at all. I haven't found a Harry or a Samuel anywhere that William has been.

To make things even more confusing and difficult to trace, William Henry's mother is listed as a Nancy on his birth record. No maiden name. But, the only William I've been able to find with a Thomas for a father has had a Rachel listed on the census as his mother. WTF? I still haven't puzzled this one out. I'm hoping that I'll locate some marriage record someday that will make sense of this whole thing.

Well, I guess I'll try to hunt down some more death records, maybe some marriage records, and maybe even some land records online. I'm going to have to put that off till tomorrow, though; I need to do some dishes before I go to bed.

Dueling Hobbies

I haven't been doing much work on my genealogy lately, so when I got an e-mail from Ancestry.com, I was only vaguely interested. Until I read the subject: "Class Action Settlement Benefit Notice."

Seems that there was a class-action lawsuit against Ancestry, resulting in Ancestry giving one month of free access to all subscribers. I'm only subscribed to the U.S. Census Collection, but they have several other collections, including newspapers, records in general, and god knows what else.

And, for the entire month of May, I get FREE ACCESS.

So... despite prime gardening season approaching, I'm going to be going gangbusters with my genealogy during the next month, to take full advantage of $30 worth of records access for FREE.

I love class-action lawsuits.

Tracking Uncle Russ (1915 - 1996)

Looks like the check I sent to the State of Ohio Vital Statistics cleared on Friday night. That means that Uncle Russ's death certificate should be on its way to me soon! Yaye!

I plotted out a timeline / ancestor profile for William Henry COOK last night. It's amazing how much of my information is straight from the U.S. Census. There's barely any primary sources at all, mainly because the family moved around so much that I don't know where all his kids were born. Getting Uncle Russ's death certificate should help give me somewhere to start, though.

Writing Personal Histories

I've been focusing my genealogy on the Cook line recently, on William Henry COOK in particular. To help guide my research, I've been compiling a list of dates and events that happened in William's life.

As I compiled this list (and in the past, as I compiled other similar lists), it occured to me that this list of names and dates and places really doesn't tell anything about the person themselves. And I got to thinking of what my life would look like, were it broken down into small, documentable dates and events.

It would be pretty boring:

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Genealogy Notes

This entry may not interest anyone other than myself. I can deal with that. I'm just figuring that writing stuff down here is better than scribbling a note to myself or typing a to-do list that I may never unearth again.

I've been focusing on my Great-great Grandpa COOK's family, as I mentioned earlier. I figure that maybe, by filling in every last detail of his marital family life, I might be able to work backwards and figure out how to puzzle out his parents. I have some pretty good ideas, but no solid links. No marriage record for William Henry and his wife Ella WILLIAMS, no birth record for their oldest son, and no freaking clue why William Henry's birth record gives a Nancy as his mother, when all clues point to a Rachel HILL.

(BTW, genealogists capitalize last names, just to avoid confusion. Just so you know.)

Tonight, I scoured the Family History Library catalog for some more ideas of microfilm I could order up (once I get up the balls to drive down to Perrysburg and try something new *heaven forbid*). And it looks like I'll be able to track down at least a couple of William Henry's kids' birth records, which will help me trace where the heck the family was at any given point in time. I'm planning to order the Butler County Birth & Death Records film, to hopefully find Wm Henry's oldest child, Leonard, and maybe some of his younger children. I also want to request the Hamilton County Birth Records Index, to find his second-oldest son, Thomas.

Thomas, incidentally, was working for the Ethel Gas Company in 1924 when an electric train struck his car. He died at age 27 of a resultant brain hemorrhage. I'm hoping to someday locate a newspaper article about the accident, because I'm *sure* that would have been big local news.

While I was trying to figure out how I might find William Henry's will, I stumbled across a great resource: The Montgomery County Records Center and Archives. They have not only wills and probate records, but records from the County Home, recorded mortgages going back to 1834, and dozens of other useful records. I'm planning to write in a request that I know they should be able to fulfill — William Henry COOK's residency at the County Home from 10 December 1945 until his death in 1946 — and see how much that ends up costing me. If it's reasonable, I'll likely request a search for his will, and possibly his mortgage. This could be very helpful...

Great-great-great Grandpa Cook

I finally found some microfilm I want to request from my local Family History Center.

I've had a really hard time locating the parents of my Grandpa Cook's grandfather, William Henry Cook. I almost thought I had them several years back — Thomas and Rachel — but when I got William Henry's birth record in the mail, there was this woman named Nancy listed where I expected Rachel to be.

All other evidence points toward Rachel being William's mother: census records, for one, and other genealogists' (undocumented) findings referenced online. Now, I've discovered that Thomas and Rachel were married on 3 March 1852 in Clermont County, Ohio, where all this research insanity is going on. I've also discovered that the Mormons have the microfilm. Clermont County Marriage Records, 1801-1910.

I'm hoping that getting some hard documentation of *something* that corroborates what I think I know will help me solve this puzzle. I'm still not sure who this Nancy person is, though. Hopefully, I'll find out soon.

On a related topic, the Genealogy Guys mentioned that anyone can go to a Family History Center, but non-Mormons will have to sign in as a guest. That made me wonder: how will I deal with that? Technically, I'm still a Mormon, although I'm what they once called "inactive." (Right before I myself went inactive, the more politically-correct term of "less active" was being popularized. Apparently, the less active members were being offended when someone would refer to them as flat-out inactive. Go figure.)

But do I really want to open up that can of worms? Explaining that I've been inactive for... *counts on fingers* ...ten years could bring the Mormons back to our door in droves. Moving to Toledo finally managed to shake them, and I'm not in a hurry to evade them again.

Still, though... it's like knowing the secret handshake. (Which apparently Mormons really do have. I kid you not. You learn it in the temple. I wasn't old enough to learn it yet when I went inactive, though.) It's hard to decide whether to disclose that I'm an inactive member, or just pretend that I went to the trouble of being excommunicated, and sign in as a guest.

I guess I'll decide once I finally get my ass down to the Perrysburg FHC.

On Genealogy

I keep meaning to write about genealogy, but I keep getting distracted by other things, like my podcast or my diet. Actually, I keep getting distracted from actually *doing* it, too.

I listen to the Genealogy Guys Podcast, by George G. Morgan and Drew Smith, and I frequently get inspired by the suggestions they give. It's a good thing that I listen to their podcast at work; otherwise I'd likely stop the podcast and start doing research, and to hell with whatever other project I was in the middle of doing.

I also purchased George G. Morgan's book, How To Do Everything With Your Genealogy, and it's given me dozens of fantastic ideas, and I'm not even halfway through it yet! Again, it's a good thing I've been reading it before bed, otherwise I'd be setting the book face-down by my desk and firing up my genealogy research right then and there.

Even though I grew up Mormon, and that's what began my interest in genealogy in the first place, I hadn't even thought about the fact that there might be a Family History Center nearby.

Oh, goodness, where to begin with this explanation... Well, let's start from the very beginning, I suppose...

This might get long.

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Charles Mickler, 1930-2005

I got a call at work this morning, from my Uncle Charlie's case worker in Tampa. It seems that my great-uncle passed away earlier this month.

Charlie had no wife or children, and was living in a nursing home with no family nearby. He had lived with his mother, my Granny, until her death in 1990. His younger sister, my Memaw, died over two years ago. Myself, my mother, my aunt and my cousin are his only living relatives.

Uncle Charlie sold his land years ago, and the profits have paid for his care since then. He hadn't banked on needing to pay a nursing home for his care; he'd planned to give his $40,000 (or thereabouts) to me instead. As a poor college student, I had been flabbergasted at the prospect of being in someone's will. Now, though, I understand the funds needed to support the elderly, and I certainly don't begrudge him his care.

As the only relative who has kept in contact with Charlie's legal guardians in Tampa, it is now my duty to call the Medical Examiner in Tampa and give them the authorization to cremate him. He had no funds left for a burial; and neither myself, nor my Mom, nor my aunt will be able to travel to Florida to make any sort of burial arrangements.

I'm sad that he's gone, but I'm more sad that he was alone, and now has so few to mourn him. I'm also slightly beside myself at the bizarre and slightly morbid call I'll need to make tomorrow morning.

Happy Halloween

In other cultures and in various world religions, what we Americans call "Halloween" is celebrated as a remembrance of departed loved ones. For example, the Japanese celebrate the autumn equinox as a time to remember and honor their ancestors. The Mexican Day of the Dead is a party to eclipse all parties (from what I can tell, anyway — I didn't take Spanish, so I'm not well-versed in the culture). Samhain, the Wiccan observance, focuses on the thin veil between this world and the next. This is, of course, a gross overview of these holidays, and there are many more besides these.

In recent years, I've taken to celebrating Halloween in a unique way that's meaningful to me. I consider myself an agnostic, so observing Samhain or any other faith-based or religious rituals would be hypocritical and almost rude. I also have no social life, and very few local friends, so costume parties are out. :-)

Seriously, though. What I do is genealogy.

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Picking Up Another Old Hobby

Genealogy.

It's been quite a while since I worked on my family history, but the thought crossed my mind this week that I'd promised my Grandpa Cook that I'd send him copies of some of the work I'd done. Yeah, that was back in August of 2004. I'm a bad granddaughter. :-/

So, this evening I made it my mission to fire up the printer and scanner and copy the pages Grandpa had requested. During this operation, I realized that there was a death certificate I had received a while ago that I never recorded in my genealogy software... Then I remembered that I'd wanted to search for a decent genealogy program for Windows, so I wouldn't have to fire up the now-obsolete Power Mac just to do genealogy work.

Next mission: burn a hybrid disc of all the stuff on my Mac that I might need in the future, including importable genealogy files. No problem.

Now I had to find some Windows software to one-up my wonderfully-simplistic and long-beloved genealogy shareware for Macintosh (called Gene). See, I'd appropriated a copy of the popular Family Tree Maker years ago, and decided to stick with Gene because I found FTM way too fussy. Too many features for my taste.

But, tonight, I found Brother's Keeper, which is working smashingly for me so far. It does have a slight learning curve, but I'm liking all the features that allow me to fix my database, relinking spouses and children and such. It even has a search for "unreasonable" dates, like a parent being less than 14 when a child is born (or, in the case of a few of my entries, a child being born before a parent).

So, I've spent all this time playing with the database-streamlining features of BK, and I still haven't entered Granny Maudie's mother's death certificate. I'll have to do that before I go to bed.

Damn... Like I said before, too many hobbies.

Questions From The Peanut Gallery

My God, I am in such a pissy mood. I don't want to be. What the hell is my problem? This is getting stupid. Can't I even have one evening where I don't get all depressed at some point or another?

It's just little things, too. I finally decide to think about using the video capture card, and now I have no idea where my camcorder source tapes went. Something I'd been planning for Aaron's birthday is threatening to go awry. I had three bratwursts for dinner because nothing sounded good. I want to clean my desk and have no idea how or where to start. That sort of thing. Little shit is getting me down, and it's stupid. Then I get pissed at myself for letting a bunch of little shit get me down, and the cycle continues. Gyarr.

Gotta shake this funk.

In the interests of shaking the funk, I will now take questions from my good readership. Sheryl asks:

how did you get into geneology? how much would you say you spend on it?

i'm curious to know waaay back. i need to ask my grandfather what his parents' names were and what their parents' names were as far back as he can remember - he's my oldest living relative, methinks. Wish i'd asked my aunt ginny while she was still alive :/

Well, Sheryl, that's a good question, and Grandpa is a very good place for you to start.

As for me, I got into genealogy through the Mormon church. ('Here we go,' I can hear you groan...) See, the Mormon church has this idea that, in order to get to the absolute highest level of heaven, you have to be a Mormon. (Imagine that.) So, if your ancestors didn't have the opportunity to be baptised during their lifetime, you baptise them posthumously, acting as proxy—that is, you go to the temple and do Baptism For The Dead.

Yes, I have done this. Yes, I now find it strange.

So, your goal as a good Mormon is to get the rest of your Eternal Family baptised and sealed to you For Time And All Eternity. Hence, genealogy.

When I was in Junior High, Mom got into genealogy, and took me with her to the genealogy workshops and the Western Reserve library and the Cleveland Library and various LDS genealogy centers, and we dug through spools of microfilm and sheets of microfiche looking at census records. That was mainly all we did, and the only cost was our time and whatever donation we opted to give to the place where we were researching.

See, Mom had pretty good info from her father (my Grandpa Cook) about the family—his parents, and their parents. He was a stickler for saving those In Memoriam cards and obituaries and programs and such, so he had a decent amount of info... we just had to find good old Grandpa Sharits in the 1880 Census.

I didn't get into genealogy on my own until years after Mom had started to slack. In college, with the advent of the internet, I began doing some research on my own. I found sites like Ancestry.com, Genealogy.com, FamilySearch.org (an LDS search site), RootsWeb, and others. Years ago, when I first started using these sites, the vast majority of them were completely free; now, some of them have fees associated with searching certain databases. I actually do subscribe to the Census Records on Ancestry.com, and I pay $12.95 a month for that access. (So, if any of my friends ever need any census records looked up, just ask me!)

Another site I found that was infinitely helpful was United States Vital Records Information. This is a listing of every state in the U.S., every county in those states, and every place to write for birth and death records. These records usually only cost maybe five or eight bucks, including postage, which means I've spent about... *counting vital records in my binder* ...a smidge over $100 on vital records in the past several years combined.

Luckily, once you reach a certain point in your lineage, you're bound to find someone with information that links up with yours. Unluckily, you still have to research it yourself, and can't necessarily take one person's word for it. I've hit snags like this with my Sharits research, finding different people with different opinions of who fathered John Sharrits back in the 1700's.

For another flip of the lucky/unlucky coin, you have the fact that there is quite a bit on genealogical info online: census records, cemetery plotting, genealogy communities with biographical information, deeds and titles, things like that. The disappointing side of this is twofold: 1.) how do you know those records are accurate, especially if they were transcribed by a single person? 2.) at some point, the online info runs out and you have to either go to your couthouse of origin or do some mail-order genealogy.

So... how to start? For you, Sheryl, depending on how far back Grandpa can get you, I'd say 1.) order some birth and death certificates. Death certificates tell great stories, but since the person they're about is dead, they're not always completely accurate. Birth records are more accurate, but much more boring, IMO. 2.) If Grandpa gets you back to 1920 or further, look at the U.S. Census. (I'll hook you up with my Ancestry.com info if you want.) The U.S. Census is released 70-some-odd years after the fact, to protect the privacy of the people named therein. Meaning, most everybody named in the 1920 Census is dead (but not my Grandpa Cook!)

Those are my two main sources for the vast majority of my genealogical research. There are other possibilities, like church baptismal records, marriage certificates, land deeds, social security applications, obituaries, etc., but I find that most of the info I need is in either vital records or census records. It's easiest to find there, anyway.

*whew* I just jabbered my depression away. How about that?

If you want any help with the Lineage Of Sheryl Stoller, just holla. Genealogy is fun... it's like a logic problem that's never over, or a mystery that's never completely solved, or a book that you'll never finish writing.

At least, I think it's pretty keen.

Genealogy

So, I was just burning a CD of genealogy info from my Mac to use on my PC, and opened some genealogy photos to test the burn. In the midst of my browsing and testing, I came across this image of my great-great-grandmother—my maternal grandfather's maternal grandmother. (Did that make sense to you?)

OMG. Does anyone else think that, given a circa 1908 Katherine Janeway-style hairdo, I look like her? Can you see the resemblance? I can. It's kind of weird. I looked at the whole picture, with her husband Harvey and child Lucille, and thought that Harvey looks a little like Grandpa Cook (or the other way around). Then it occured to me that Nora looks like Mom... and me! I mean, I know we're related and all... duh... but it's still kind of strange to look like someone who died almost a lifetime before I was born.

Beth, your family's into genealogy—any input on genealogical photographic weirdness?

Mel!

My old buddy Mel came into town today! I got her e-mail last night, saying that she'd be in BG for an audition, and suggesting that we could do lunch. Absolutely! I ended up taking a half hour longer for lunch than I should have, but it was worth it. I really hope she gets in, and for more selfish reasons than I might like to admit. I miss having girlfriends to hang out with. And Melody in particular, especially when she's Happy Mel and not Chronically Tired Mel.

In other news, my left shoulder has had a nagging piercing pang for the past two days. It's not a muscular soreness; it feels like more of a nerve thing, or possibly a muscle tightness or twitching or a joint a little out of place or something. At any rate, it hurts just enough to annoy. (Maybe I should take some Tylenol... nahh.)

And on the house front (as opposed to homefront?), John gave me the final news on the closing today. The amount of money we need to bring to closing is... nada. Not a damn thing. Our driver's licenses and our smiling faces. Hell, we're most likely going to get money. Here, have a house and a check. Huh?? But I'm not complaining.

I've also been OD-ing on my genealogy of late. It's amazing what you can piece together from just census records and other easier-to-obtain documents. For instance, check out this brief narrative on my great-great-great grandfather:

On 14 Jan 1869, Samuel's father James consented to the marriage to Mary Lunette Shupert, due to the fact that his son was under 21. At this point, Mary Lou was already three months pregnant with James. Bill Cook's genealogy indicates that this marriage took place in Ellerton, Jefferson Township, Montgomery County.

By the summer of 1870, Samuel and Mary had established a home in Jackson Township. Their son James was almost a year old, and Samuel was supporting his new family by working as a farm laborer.

In the 1880 U.S. Census, Samuel's last name was spelled "SHARITZ" and his occupation was listed as 'laborer.' Samuel and Mary were both age 30. Their first five children had been born and were living at home -- the oldest, James, was 11, and the youngest, Harvey, was one year old.

In the 1900 U.S. Census, Samuel's last name was spelled "SHARRITS" and his occupation was listed as 'farmer.' He named his birthplace and the birthplace of his parents as Indiana. All the children were still living at home -- except Samantha, who had died four years prior at the age of 13. The oldest child, James, was 30. The youngest, Mellie, was twelve.

Also in residence in 1900 was Oscar RIDENOUR, Samuel's grandson and Ona's son. Ona had died in 1898.

By 1920, all of the children had moved out. Samuel was still farming at age 69, and his wife Mary, also 69, was still living with him. She would continue to live with him for another five years, until she died of heart disease in the summer of 1925.

Samuel was 80 years old and living alone in Poasttown in the Spring of 1930. He owned his $4000 home, had no radio, and did not work.

In 1938, Samuel developed a nagging case of pneumonia that was destined to persist for years. Samuel died three years later, in 1941, of heart disease and pneumonia. His oldest surviving son, Charles, was the informant on the death certificate, and was apparently caring for Samuel in his later years. The death certificate gives the birthplace of Samuel and both of Samuel's parents as Miamisburg. Samuel Oliver is buried in Mt. Pleasant Cemetery, Poasttown.

And that's just the stuff I wrote down, not even all of the records of his kids being born and marrying off and dying and all that. Something about the narrative just strikes me as... poignant, I guess, even though it's not really much to read if you aren't related to Samuel.

This is harshing my bouncy mood, yo. But I'm still pretty happy. Ever since seeing Mel today, I've been unusually smiley. I don't mind. I like it. Mel is such a character. *shaking head*

I hope her audition went well...

Genealogy

Some genealogy documents I'd ordered from the Ohio Historical Society came in the mail today. Death certificates, to be precise. Even though the family information on them isn't always precise, they always tell a story, and I love that. A few of the ones I got today are absolutely heart-wrenching.

There's one woman whom it turns out I'm not really related to, after all, but her story is still a rough one. Helen was widowed in her mid to late-twenties. Shortly after her 29th birthday, she died by carbolic acid poisoning—suicide.

Then there's Harvey, the youngest son of my great-great grandfather. His clothes accidentally caught fire from the fire grate, and he burned to death. He was two years old.

And we have Edna, the eldest daughter of another great-great grandfather. Not long after she married, she developed tuberculosis. She died after about four months of illness. Edna was almost 21.

Of course, there are always the standard "this is the way death should be" records, like my great-grandmother Margaret. She lived the last 25 years of her life as a widow, and died at the ripe old age of 90, while living at the home of her eldest son.

Still, though, just those few words and dates on a page can really bring to life (so to speak) the person they're about, despite the fact that they lived and died generations ago. I think—no, I know that this is why I do genealogy. It's my own weird form of religion and ancestor-worship. Think about it: how often do we console ourselves and one another by saying, "He's not really dead, as long as we remember him," a la Dr. McCoy in Star Trek? Part of me believes and acts on that premise. I could be the only person on the face of the Earth who has thought about a given ancestor for years and years, and they deserve better than that. They deserve to be remembered. These people didn't leave any lasting legacy besides their own progeny, and I owe them, if not respect, at least acknowledgement.

I wonder what my descendants will think of me, someday...?

Clutch at Howard's

Here's a (slightly edited) e-mail Aaron sent out to our friends about the incredible Clutch show at Howard's last night (Thursday):

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