Fleshing out the skeleton

Somebody said once that genealogy was the skeleton while family history is the fleshing out of the skeleton. If you take a person and look up only their name, birth date/place, marriage date/place, death date/place and add where their children and parents were born, you have a bare bones family. That is all the information you NEED to prove things, if you can get that information.


A lot of extra information can be necessary for proving relationships and dates and places. That death date in 1863? Battle death in the Civil War. Which is why you can look up the widow in the Pension Files. Which gives information on where she was living and when she remarried because the pension ended or the children aged out, or whatever. Which is why she dropped off the records radar. But now you have her new name and can follow her to the end.

But while all the "fleshing out" is good for records and evidence, I like it because it gives some insight into their lives. That newspaper article telling of hotel new arrivals? Your ancestor and his brothers were traveling to the enlistment office to join the war effort. That death certificate? It tells of cause of death (sudden or long illness), how long they were in town (same address for 20 years or just visiting), who reported the death (neighbor, child, in-law, etc). They moved six times and their children were all born in different states? Oh, that was during a depression or drought. Or it was when land was getting scarce in one part of the country and was opening up in another.

It makes life more real because you can then compare it to your own family and life and realize some things really don't every change.

Baby/Child headstones

Do you ever wonder about the little children and babies in the graveyards? Sometimes, it is easy to figure out. Lots of tombstones within weeks and months of each other = sickness swept the community. Babies right next to, or included on their mother's tombstone. Died at or shortly after birth along with their mother. Sometimes, it is harder. One child with no others of that surname nearby. Was it a family passing through, only there for a few months or years? Did they die of an illness? An accident? Born too early to survive?

I have an ancestor who lost a 6 year old to scarlet fever. They left her behind when they moved further West to Montana. Another ancestor lost her baby shortly after traveling from England to America then overland 2000 miles to the Salt Lake Valley. What did they feel?

A friend of mine just lost a second child to an illness several years after she lost her very first child to the same illness. I know the story behind that child's tombstone. I have become acquainted with several other stories behind some more modern tombstones. It gives me an appreciation for the feelings that those early settlers, ancestors, and neighbors went through when they had to bury their children.

Relatives in random places

You never know when you'll run in to a relative. A few stories.

My husband attended a conference recently. One of the last presentations he went to, somebody struck up a conversation with him about his surname. The other gentleman had the same surname in his ancestry. Maybe they were related. Semi-common surname, multiple branches unrelated to each other around here. Chances were small. But, it turned out to be true.

One of my brothers met a girl on a blind date. No big deal. Second date, somehow the name of her great grandma came up in conversation. My brother's reaction: "I think we're related." The name? Kezia. And we are.

My sister-in-law ended up marrying her husband because during a class somebody brought up Stephen Markham. She piped up that he was an ancestor. Future spouse said "Mine, too." They began to chat afterwards, and ended up dating and marrying.

I finally got the local newspaper account

You know that story about the ancestor who was part of the double murder that wasn't? I finally received a copy of the local newspaper account of the incident. (Much thanks to the Lincoln Lawrence Franklin Regional Library.) The basic story was true. There was bad blood between the Sheriff and my ancestor. They were arguing politics - maybe the Sheriff's election chances since he was up that year. They were both Democrats. The argument escalated. Sheriff pushed or slapped Eugene. Eugene pulls a knife and stabs Sheriff in the side. Everyone thought he was a goner for quite a while. From the story it sounds like everyone stayed out in front of the store where the altercation had taken place for a little while. Then Eugene went around back to the lot where his horse was so he could go home. Somebody followed him and shot him in the back. He bled out in 10 minutes. Other information I found earlier indicated the Sheriff lost the election and tried to contest it. He died three years later.

I have been doing some indexing as I have had the time for it. And as my wrists have allowed me. Since my last pregnancy, carpal tunnel has been more of an issue. I'm glad I had the chance to participate in the challenge to index 5,000,000 names.

https://familysearch.org/node/1726

Indexing

Doing family history has been difficult to keep up with in the last few years. I am getting back into it through Family Search Indexing. It is something to do that is easy, quick and gets my interest back up.

I am having fun.

Hurray! It wasn't murder!

Only attempted murder.

I found a more local (up the road a ways in the same county) newspaper account of my several times great grandfather's double murder. Turns out, he only wounded the other guy - who lived for about 3 more years. My ancestor was still followed and killed by friends or relatives of the victim.

Now, I REALLY want the account from the local newspaper.