Blackie King

Genealogy is filled with a bunch of deadends and brick walls.  It's what keeps everyone from waltzing around with full copies of their various family trees.  Even sites like Ancestry.com are filled with possibilities, but no guarantees.

Let me jump on a side note and discuss Ancestry.com.  It IS a fabulous source, unfortunately you have to pay for it.  If you're dabbling or just beginning, sign up for their free trial period.  Also know that most libraries carry a subscription to their services but you'll have to ask at the desk for the address, it's something like libraryancestry.com, not the regular one we use at home.  I haven't used the paid portions of ancestry.com in over five years.  There are many other ways of pulling information if you're dilligent enough.  My favorite sites are LDS familysearch.com, genforum.com, and findagrave.com.  There's also a lot to be said for just Googling your person with their name, year and state of birth.

The way you jump into this tangled process is to take what you know (parents, grandparents, etc) and piece it with what you've heard then dig deeper and deeper until you're in so deep all you want to do is keep digging.

When I started 15 years ago my father's family had minimal information.  My mom, oddly enough, provided enough hearsay for me to at least go in some direction.  She said my grandmother was raised by an aunt and uncle on an indian reservation in Oklahoma.  Well there weren't any reservations by the time my grandmother was born, but I did eventually find her listed as on a census as the neice to the head of household - BONANZA!

And then nothing.

For a long time.

My mom said grandma's father's name was Blackie King.  Well honestly!  You know perfectly well that "Blackie" was a nickname.  And "King"?  That might was well be "Smith".  Nothing like a needle in a haystack, huh?

Worse yet, there happens to be a "Blackie King" of similar age who played in a lot of westerns.  That man is all over the place when I do my searches.  At first you get a little excited that maybe a great-grandfather was a western star, but no, too many inconsistencies.  Damn.  I learned early on that even the slightest bit of doubt is usually enough to move on - you may have the right person but the current source you're reviewing has flawed data, go find a better source.

Over the weekend I found on findagrave.com a tombstone for Blackie King with a link to the name that matches my great-grandmother.  That's not conclusive in any way, shape or form, but it's good enough for me.  Unfortunately it doesn't document his real name.  Dammit.  It did give birth and death dates and that led me to the California Death Index where I landed his mother's maiden name.  I'm still facing my brick wall, but I'm finding cracks and I am determined to pick and pick until I whittle it down to nothing... so I can face the next brick wall.

It's a game.

Friday Fragments - July 1, 2011

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MONTH!!!!!!!!

Yes, I am super stoked that it's finally July and we can start celebrating Birthday Month.  It's a self-proclaimed thing and I hope everyone plays along - click on the birthday button to find out all of the details - the first birthday posting, National Celebrations, will be next Thursday.

So onto my ever so fragmented week...
Saturday was quite busy.  After a little yard work and running of errands we ventured downtown for Marine Week - check out last Sunday's post for pictures and really noisy videos.  It was AMAZING.

That evening we threw a surprise party for a friend turning 40.  Her husband rented a trolley and we drove through St. Louis, drinking and laughing and having a great time.  One of our stops was at a bar that had a mechanical bull where several of the party attendees took a ride.  For some reason my camera died through most of the night, it came back to life as we were getting ready to go home, so the bull riding pictures were fuzzy.

Before we headed home, I got a frantic call from our CEO that a train had derailed by our office and might impede my server restoration work - yeah still working on the dead server.  Fortunately by the time I got home (1pm) the server restores had completed (I'm able to remotely link into our office.... oooh cool groovy tech goddess that I am) and I didn't need to go into the office.

It turned out that the derailment, which really was literally feet from our office, was not severe.  We were picturing cars dangling off the trellis, but actually it was just debris from a service track.

Check out the red arrow, it's pointing to the stuff HANGING from the tracks!

That night was also (as if it weren't full enough) the night of a major MONSOON.  I'm not exaggerating.  As I was driving home there were sheets of rain pouring down to the point we had zero visibility.  It was insane.  I was hoping to get close enough to the tracks to see the train, but I had to turn around because the puddles in the road were just too deep!  And then by the time I got home ten minutes later, it had stopped.  Totally crazy.

Monday I slipped in dogshit in my basement posing the question, WHY WERE THE DOGS IN MY BASEMENT????  Turns out Monday morning storms had blown open a door and the dogs (with their nervous tummies) sought refuge in the basement.  I step in the goo, go splat, have minor whiplash from the impact and have to change my clothes.  Grrrrrrr

Wednesday I go into my sunroom to let the dogs outside and I slip down three steps, breaking a thumbnail and ripping skin off another finger and again jarring my shoulder still aching from the basement fall.

GUESS WHO IS GOING HOME THIS WEEKEND????  The dogs!!!!  My brother as secured employment and a place to live WITH A YARD and he's coming to retrieve his dogs this weekend.  YAHOOO!!!!  I mean, the dogs are super sweet, but three large animals in my tiny yard have taken their toll, not to mention the expense of maintaining them.  I know they'll be happy to be back with their owner.  And my lawn will be happy not being a toilet anymore.

Anybody working on family trees, get over to Ancestry.Com this weekend.  They're offering free searches on the Sons of American Revolution registrations.  It's not full access all the databases, just the one, but it's a database of names that can help in your searches.  Don't forget that sometimes other branches of your tree offers more information than your own.
   For example:  Searching John Smith you hit a wall and can't find his parents.  Look up his other children, not just the son you're related to.  Sometimes you have to go DOWN in that other child's line to find the one who has information back UP the line.  So I'm loading all of the registration info for anybody that pops up in my trees.  I'm getting lots of very distant cousin info that I don't necessarily want or need, but could search at some point hoping for older data than what I have on the family lines.

Genealogy Diversion

I would post something witty and insightful today, but a distant cousin contacted me through ancestry.com yesterday and I've been digging through my papers and doing online searches until really late last night.   And again this morning. 

I came across a link (nothing to do with this distant cousin) that has eluded me for many many many years.  It is impossible to explain my excitement.  I could barely sleep last night.  And the one person who knows my pain, is not available as she is galavanting across the country with her best friend from high school (that would be my mom - the gall!)

Oh well.  I'm excited and very distracted.

Climbing The Family Tree

I've been doing this genealogy thing for nearly 15 years.  It started out quite innocently with a page from my parent's wedding album.  I sat with a list of my grandparents, great-grands and great-great-grands in front of the internet.  Suddenly a whole world opened up to me.

Once upon a time, searching for your family history involved copious amount of time and patience and travel.  Here I was pulling names and birth dates and wedding dates and death dates right and left with very little effort at all.  I quickly learned to not take the first drops of information as fact, to check and double-check and corroborate, the core of my history degree.  Who knew this is how I would utilize that education? 

And who knew this would become a passion?

I can easily point out my great-grandparents in this picture, the two on the left.  I can also tell you their parents' names, their siblings and for my great-grandmother her grandparents, great-grandparents, and their migration from Tennessee. 

Certain names pop out, one never knows when a distant cousin will be met and maybe they will know someone who has been working on the family history.  Always looking for links.  Always.

What is frustrating... no not finding a great-grandparent with absolutely no data, no those are "challenges," the harder to find the more rewarding once found... the truly frustrating thing are the various family members who ask for a copy of the family tree - um really?  You want all TEN THOUSAND names neatly etched onto a "tree" for easy viewing, maybe to put up in a frame in the back den?  Or do you want a copy of my THREE HUNDRED family worksheets?  There is no "finished product" to distribute and share.  It's more of a reference encyclopedia specific to the people related to me.  Even my mother and I have different searches as she researches my step-father's family and I research my ex-husband's family.  There is no quick and easy form to hand over and share with another person.

Also frustrating are the non-related people who would like to employ me to search their histories.  Oh my my, are you really ready for that bill?  And the time?  And the lack of answers?  And the new questions raised also with possibly no answer?  I've been doing this for fifteen years and only one line has solidly reached beyond 1820.  The line which will be my link into the Daughters of the American Revolution, piggybacking on a great-great-aunt's research.

Don't get me wrong, I would love to help anyone delving into their own genealogy.  The teacher in me would thrive in assisting someone else in their search.  But the searches I've done are my own.  They are unique to my line and while I readily share with other researchers working on the same line, I do so with all sorts of insecurity as it may not be absolutely correct.  Likewise I accept assistance from others with the same caution.  Check, double-check, corroborate.

It's work.

It's work I love, but it is work.  And that alone is what keeps people away.  It's what separates the devoted from the dabblers.  It's what generates the fanatics who take days off work to travel to Kansas City to sit in a library for ten hours.

You have to be careful talking to these fanatics.  One simple question can open up a whole one-sided conversation telling you all about 3xgreat-grandpa who fought and died in the Civil War and left behind a widow... do you want to see her picture?  And then hear about the tragic deaths of each of her fifteen children?  Sometimes it's best to just nod and murmur something about it being an interesting hobby and then RUN LIKE HELL.  Unless you WANT to engage that conversation.  Us fanatics can never tell how much you want to hear so if you continue to encourage us, then we'll keep talking.

So what's the attraction?  For me it's finding out where I came from.  I wasn't raised with a large family.  I didn't spend every Sunday surrounded by throngs of cousins and aunts and uncles.  I don't know my family story.  What I've heard have only been whispers and rumor.  I have no concept of a large family, until I started digging through our history.  Suddenly I'm related to all sorts of people and I'm learning their stories.  I'm forming a connection to the past I never had before.  That's exciting.

It would be cool to find out I'm related to someone famous, but for the most part my family were poor farmers.  There is no fame, no royalty to be found.  But that's okay.  This is my family.  It's where I came from.

More than anything it's the thrill of the chase.  When one hurdle is overcome, there will be another and another.  And each one has an answer... somewhere.  I love puzzles and this is the grandest of all puzzles ever.  This is FUN.

Friday Fragments - June 18, 2010

Oh so much to catch up since last Friday...

*Sitting at work on Friday I pulled up my Facebook page with a friend request from my step-sister!  I've been searching for her for several years.  Friday night we had a wonderful phone call.  So wonderful.  Now we'll have to figure out a way to visit.

*On Sunday my mom and I headed to Kansas City for a little genealogy research.  Due to a set of last minute circumstances I ended up bringing my thirteen year old along for the trip.  I was fully expecting my research time to be hindered by a kid bored out of his wits.  OH MY GOD!  He was a perfect angel.  Not only was he quiet and not pacing, he actually participated in the search.  He did a little gopher work for the other people in our group, but he spent most of his time with his own family worksheets filling out a tree based on my sheets.  Then he rolled up his sleeves and started real research.  In his father's line is a relation to President James Buchanan (I think it's through the President's brother).  Ian found an 1860 census of the President in the White House so it delineated the other occupants such as servants that lived there.  I thought that was pretty damn cool.  He also found some discrepancies in my work, the little shit.

On Monday we spent all day (9am to 9pm) at the new Midwest Genealogy Library.

In return for sitting through an entire day at the library with his mother and grandmother, we let him loose in the hotel pool.

On Tuesday we went to the National Archives

What a hidden gem!  There are 16 regional archive centers housing federal documents relative to that region.  The historian in me was nearly hyperventilating - primary documents right there!  AND IT'S FREE!  They gave our group a little tour, even taking us into one of document storage facilities.  Yes, behind us are real live files.  SO COOL.  Each of the facilities host traveling exhibits.  While we were there they were dismantling "Deadly Medicine" about the Nazi medical experiments.  We did, however, get to tour the Levenworth Prison display.

I can see returning to the facility when I am more prepared with specific searches.  I didn't really get anything special as a result of this trip other than some dedicated time to focus solely on research, but it was online research that I can easily do at home.  This trip was my first ever with any genealogy group so I kept my expectations low, just getting a feel for what types of things I would need to know for future trips.  I'm glad I got to go and, better yet, Ian had a good time and has a very solid interest in research.

*My desk fiasco from last week is possibly working out to a satisfying solution.  I spent Friday settling into the cubicle at least giving it a chance.  I pulled the office manager to my space and showed her how much space I lost as a result of the new furniture.  By that time the whining had subsided and I was able to communicate how this would impact my job performance.  I left it open ended, but I knew to sit quiet was doing ME a disservice.  When I returned from Kansas City I talked to my supervisor and we formulated a couple of options to present the office manager as a way to solve my work space issues.  One of the options was openly accepted as the best possible compromise.  It looks like I should be packing my stuff again.  While I'm still sad over the loss of my favorite table in the entire world, this is a very doable solution.  YAY!

*Yesterday was my older son's 21st birthday.  The last three days have been devoted to him, so pull it up and join the celebration.  He was supposed to join us for dinner yesterday, but it looks like lunchtime celebrations with his friends extended later into the day than he expected.  That's okay, he can have special mom-time next week.

Check out everyone else playing in Mrs. 4444's  Friday Fragments:

Genealogy

I got into genealogy in the late 90's, when the internet was just getting popular - AOL, baby!  I was amazed how much information I was able to find without trudging through the traditional means of going to courthouses across the country.  With a few clicks a whole world seemed to unfold and I became a genealogy junkie.

Swapping information on messageboards was incredible.  Of course my family is always the obscure branch of another obscure branch.  Few people were able to provide more than tidbits about my family while other families seemed to have endless tribes coughing up their information.  It's a really frustrating pastime to say the least.

But then one day I got a response to one of my posts.  The woman claimed to be a distant relative to my great-grandmother and even had a family reunion picture taken around 1909 or 1910.  We swapped information confirming that we really were related.  A month later I received this precious gem in the mail:

It didn't take but an instant for me to pick out a very young version of my great-grandmother.  The eyes totally gave her away (she's the one in the back row with the big ass bow plastered to her head).  Her siblings, her parents, her grandparents and even her great-grandmother are all here.  Goosebumps.  I cannot even begin to express how excited this picture makes me.  It's such an incredible find... right up until we found out a few years ago that my grandmother's sister had our family's copy.  Her daughter was very non-challant, like it was no big deal.  Obviously she had seen it before.  Well poo on her.  *MY* copy came from a distant cousin living in Texas.

I've been able to chart most of these people into my family tree.  There are a few strays left, but one day I'll figure them out.  The coolest one is the extremely old, decrepit woman in the center of the family.  According to my records she was born in 1830.  That would be my great-grandmother's, great-grandmother.  And if we were playing the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon game, that would make it possible for me to say that I'm only two degrees away from having met someone born in the 1830's.  Someone whose husband fought in the Civil War (Union).  It's shit like this that keeps me plugging away for more nuggets of family history.