dianaschnuth

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…

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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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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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.