A Good Month and a half on improvement of my Family Tree

First as of April 1^st the 1911 UK Census came out in Scotland on which I found my mother just 1 year old Plus cousins, Aunts and uncle with good information to move foreward Then I joined the Heritage Family Tree Web site and quickly found my cousin Wallace Hamilton, whose family my parents and I visited when they lived in Buffalo NY. I know I was a young teenager at the time (by a photo it might have been 1955) I don't remember such about the visit accept that Wallace's older sisters took me unwilly to a Public Pool at their mother's command and Talking with them as we wash the dishes one night and that we talked so much that their mother didn't think we did a very good job. Wallace and I E-mailed each other back and forth making corrections on each other's Family trees (I gave him access to my Family Tree on ancestry.com) Wallace ask me about my Aunt Vera, who I didn't know much about other than a few photos and what I remember from what my father had said through the years ( I always wish I asked more questions) I wrote to him that I would call our cousin Anne Reilly who also lives on Long Island.
    It turned out to be a very fortunate phone call I made to Anne who is the daughter of my Aunt Mary on my Father's side, for it seems that Aunt Vera's family lived down stairs from her sister Mary's family so Anne grew up with my Aunt Vera. One thing I learned is that Vera is the name everyone calls her, but her legal name is Sarah Veronica Boyle (Gallacher) which explains why I could not find her on scotlandspeople.gov.uk web site. Once I knew her name I found her marriage and Death Registries. My Aunts and my Father were all born in the United States and returned to Scotland, this I knew, Anne told me that her mother told her that she was about ten years old when the family returned to Scotland, Anne mother I knew was born in 1904 so I looked on ancestry.com at the passage list for ships returning to Scotland and found them on the Ship Numidian that traveled from Boston to Glasgow on 21 November 1913. Anne also said she had photos and newspaper clippings that she would send, I ask Anne if it was alright if Wallace Hamilton call her and she said it would be fine with her.
    So since April 1^st I added and subtracted people on my Family Tree a net gain of about 20 people and learned a little more about my family

Who Do You Think You Are- are Actor Steve Buscemi

This installment once again shows what you may find in your Family Tree might not be the Glory fruit, but a few rotten apples. Whatever you find will bring historical events that may have seemed not to concern you personally to have shaped the lives of your ancestors thereby shaping your life and the way your look at the world around you.

                   There is perhaps a lot of behind the scenes work not shown in the one hour (with AD’s) for it seem that they go ahead on very little information for I know in my own research going by name and age alone can lead you up the wrong tree, you cannot over verify your sources. Now I know they have to make it interesting to get people to do their own Genealogy (selling ancestry.com), but I wonder if maybe on the internet (like ancestry.com) they could show the techniques used to find and verify the Sources which maybe too long and boring for the TV show, but interesting and helpful to amateur Genealogists.         

Who Do You Think You Are? With Lionel Richie

Lionel start with little information and with a Grandmother who didn’t know or want to know anything about her father.  Lionel found out that his Great-Grandmother was married to his Great-Grandfather when she was just 15 years old and that maybe the secret they were trying to keep. Lionel thought at first his Great-Grandfather Louis Brown was a Scoundrel, but found the his Great-Father start a group that insured colored people that white insurance companies wouldn’t insure and was a fore runner of the Civil Rights movement. Lionel also found that his Great-Grandfather’s mother (his Great-Great-Grandmother) was a Slave and his Louis Brown’s father was her owner Magan Brown (Loinel said he thought that a white slave owner would turn up on his tree)

You have to wonder if Lionel did anything about the cemetery where his Great-Grandfather was buried which was unkempt. Weather Lionel went any farther exploring his white ancestors, I realize they may not have enough time on the TV show, but they could put it on their Web site (I couldn’t find it if they did). All in all it was very interesting      

On the Sources

A Very important part of Genealogy are the Sources for once you get beyond your Grandparents most people go into unknown territory to go any farther you need to find a Source where you can find the next generation.  The first Source you should find is the oldest living relative and see if they can tell you their life story plus they remember about their parents. You can find Family Work sheets on most Family Tree Software and Genealogy Web Sites to help you ask the right questions. The person of your tree should be verified at least with Name, Age, and Location, but even with all three correct you can still go up the wrong tree because year ago many families named the children using the same names in certain locations. The more sources you can collect about each individual the more they are verified. Good Source are Birth, Marriage and Death Certificates from the civil records found in City or state archives. In the U.S. these records except for the US Census give limited information were as the in the UK civil registries also give ages, Occupations, Maiden Names and Addresses.

Sources on the internet

www.ancestry.com  This has different price levels depending on how deeply you want to go up to about $350.00 a year. You can build your Family Tree on line building it hopefully with the help of your family members.

www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk This is a very good source if your family is from Scotland, Civil records from 2006 to 1856 and Church Records to 1553. You have to buy credits at 6 pounds for 30 credits.

www.familysearch.org This is the web Site of the Church of Latter Day Saints is free, but has been under fire for the lack of verification.

www.cyndilist.com This is the best site find other Genealogical Web sites around the world.

Who do you think you are? Kim Catirall

Kim Catirall who I remember from as Samantha in “Sex in the City” was this week’s person on NBC’s “Who do you think your are?” Kim’s Focus was on her Grandfather who left her Grandmother and his three young daughters including Kim’s mother in Liverpool England in 1938. I had assumed that Kim was born in the US, but she is from Liverpool moving to New York many years ago. Kim’s mother just had one picture of him looking through some Curtains in an old photo. Kim went to Liverpool interviewing her Grandfather’s sister who only confirmed what she already knew. When Kim got back to her hotel she found that she had received a package with a Marriage registry for her Grandfather to another woman in 1939 in Durham England which is not far from Liverpool on the east coast of England (Liverpool is on the west coast) so she went to Durham. Where she found that he had four more children two girls and two boys, she interviewed one of the girls finding more photos and that he moved to Australia where he died in 1974.

               I try to see what lessons were to be learned from this program this one is that there are skeletons in every Family Tree, you have to accept them trying not to judge too unsympathetically for you can never know the full story and times change. Years ago poor people never thought of getting a divorce they just left is that any worst than all the people today who leave their mate just because they get bored, they are still leaving their children without a father.  As it happens both my Grandfathers left their families, on my father’s side he just took off for Ireland during the Irish revolt and was never heard of again. My mother had to quit school at nine years of age to help support her mother, little brother and sister. He did try to come back years later, but my uncle full-grown by then threw him out.  You have to remember that the times were bad even worse than the times are now and to judge is human, but to forgive divine.        

Who do you think you are? With Rosy O’Donnell

Last Friday I watched the Ancestry.com’s “Who do you think you are” television program and while what they covered was interesting, especially since it was similar to my own family history they only explored the successful branches of the mother’s side. They never even mentioned her father’s side of her family maybe because they went into Ireland where records of Irish Catholics are very hard to come by, most civil records being destroyed in the fire at the Customs House in Dublin in 1921. To find your family in Ireland the main source is that of the local churches (there is some property records, but most Catholic families didn’t own property). I tried to hire a Genealogist in Ireland, but was told you have to know at least the county they came from in Ireland. The trouble with that as mentioned on the program most Records Census, Marriage or Death records only read place of birth as “Ireland” Rosy   was lucky to find a obituary with her Great-Grandmother birth place as “Kildare Ireland”     

My family just like Rosie’s family fled Ireland during the Great Famine of the 1840’s, my family fled to nearby Scotland, but many others fled to North America or Australia, I always wondered where they got the money for the passage and the program one way as Rosy ancestors were sponsored by their local Lord who took pity on them giving them passage to Canada.  After the famine destroyed their potato crop the lords want to turn their land into pastureland for sheep which were a lot more profitable, but they had to get rid of their tenant farmers. Most of the lords just bulldozed their Tenants houses leaving them homeless with many ending up in poor houses where more than a million died we are the descendants of the lucky ones.