Saturday, March 31, 2012

Review of RootsMagic 5 New features – New Source Features


Review of RootsMagic 5 New features – New Source Features

Last week I attended RootsMagic’s webinar on New Source Features in RootsMagic 5. I don’t yet have RootsMagic version 5. I am still using version 4. But I wanted to get a sneak peek at version 5 before I made a decision to upgrade. I wanted to see if the source features had in fact been improved at all. Here are some things I noted about the new upgrades:

  1. You can now hover over the checkmark under the source key to see a list of source names
  2. You can click on the check mark under source box to open it directly. This is probably not a new feature, but one that I do not use as often as I should
  3. Detail text is now called "Research Notes"
  4. RM asks for the name of the source when you are done filling in the source info. It is a popup box. This list is how source records are sourced by
  5. The “Master text” is the information on Master source. Source id goes in first box, ie a reference no.
  6. The “Source text” is the text about the source and comments about the source. Does this show up in footnotes? reports?
  7. “Detail text” is the information about the text or event being discussed, ie research notes, transcription, abstraction, etc. and comments about how it was used.
  8. Each option is now a tab going across the top of the source dialog box (instead of buttons on the right)
  9. Research notes report: can do for person or family (this is the same): prints research notes chronologically for each source and adds the source name in the footnote – I was disappointed to see that this had not been improved. However, there is a new feature called the Research Manager.


What is the Research Manager? - this is new. It was mentioned, but not discussed.

Randy Seaver wrote all about this in his post “Exploring RootsMagic 5 - Post 2: The Research Manager” from Nov 30, 2011. This looks really cool and might be worth purchasing the upgrade.

Have you purchased the new RootsMagic version 5? What do you like or dislike about it? 

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

How I use my Genealogy Software


When I started library school and sat in my first archives class my classmates and professor were appalled when I disclosed that I filed copies of my genealogy records in more than one place. For example, a marriage record was filed in both the groom and the bride’s family’s folders. I simply had not decided upon a standardized methodology for filing my paper records yet. At least not one I could remember and subsequently recall within a few seconds. I’m sure many genealogists have elaborate filing systems and treat brides and grooms as “couples” or a specific “family unit” to which only ONE copy of a marriage record would be attributed. But in my mind, that would require remembering who each bride or groom married, more specifically, the groom’s name and without that, I wouldn’t be able to put my hands on the folder. So early on I decided to treat each person as their own individual and thus, they each got a copy of their marriage record.

So as you can see, redundancy is not new to me, nor is it necessarily a bother or inconvenience. So with that said, I would like to share a little bit about how I use my genealogy database. I have evaluated Family Tree Maker, Legacy Family Tree and RootsMagic and found them to be very similar in what I like to do with my software. I eventually settled on RootsMagic because of the ability to take it with me on a flash drive. The way I use my genealogy software has been evolving and continues to evolve throughout the years. Which is one reason why I have been hesitating to share what I do with everyone. I didn’t want to come across as a mad woman. Because frankly, I still haven’t decided how I want to do things yet. But oh well, you got to start somewhere and I think it’s important to share and to read about what others are doing and how they are doing it.

Speaking of, Susan Clark of the Nolichucky Roots blog originally started this thread with her “Getting Down to Basics” post in which she asked for people to offer their reasons and ideas for using a genealogy database. She got a lot of great responses. Check out the comments to her post to see what others had to say. I have posted links to other blog posts below.

Ok, so here goes my whackamole approach at trying to give you all of the reasons why and how I use my genealogy database:

1.       It’s a database and it’s searchable. So when I need to look someone up, I just type in their name and it finds them. It does it much faster than Ancestry.com’s online family tree.

2.       My  place names are indexed in addition to my last names. So if I am attending a conference or planning a research trip to Oregon County, Missouri, I can run a report that will tell me all of the people I have associated with Oregon County, Missouri or in Missouri, period. Be sure to watch the Legacy Family Tree video or webinar on how to enter your place names in such a way that cities and towns in Oregon County, Missouri will also be captured in the report. This applies to all software packages. I, unfortunately, have not implemented this organization schema yet, have you?

3.       I use it to manage my sources to document each event. Here is a screenshot of a birth fact for my 2nd great-grandfather, James Franklin Lasiter. I have 9 sources for his birth date and place. A lot of people wrote about their wish lists for software. If I had to request a change for RM4, it would be that they include the detailed text in the summary box here at the top where it says “Details.” And for all I know, this may be different in RM5 that was just released. As it is now in RM4 you have to click on the source in order for the detail text to be displayed in the bottom right hand box.



4.       Linda McCauley mentioned Research Notes in her post “How I Use my Genealogy Database” using Legacy Family Tree. We have a similar feature in Rootsmagic 4, which is a report called Research Notes that you can run for each person. It is a breakdown of each source and how it relates to each fact and includes notes and so forth. The only problem I have with it is that it puts the name of the source as a footnote and the report itself lists simply a date and place and then a note. For this to work, you would have to include the name of the source in the actual detailed text of the footnote. So I don’t use this feature. But if it worked the way I would like it to work, it could probably be very powerful. Here is a screenshot of what it looks like:



5.       One thing I’ve started doing is adding census reports as events, in addition to birth, marriage, death, burial, and occasionally occupation. This makes for easily being able to determine when and where my ancestors were enumerated and this event shows up ok on the narrative report. I have tried to add other source-like events such as obituaries, but found they did not display well (or at all) on narrative reports. This could be rectified if I played with my custom settings more. What RM4 lacks in being able to copy and paste citations between family members, it gains in being able to assign a census report to multiple people in a family. I have found this feature to be very helpful and time-saving. I enter the census as an event for the head of house. I then share it with the other members of the household. I enter the information for the census into the census notes and I add a source. When this event is shared with other members of the house, the census note and source citation is automatically entered into their events list. The only difference between the head of house and the rest of the household is that the census note for the head of house is displayed on his or her report, but not on the report of those that the census is shared with. The report simply says “He appeared in the household of John Riley Lasiter in the census in Jun 1880 in Tomlinson, Scott, Arkansas, USA” with a footnote pointing to the citation. Because of this, I make sure to copy the census note information into the general notes of the household members. I usually do this anyways. This is one of the reasons why I say I engage in some redundancy!

6.       Speaking of redundancy. When I first started working with my database back when I was using Family Tree Maker, I used to put all of my information into the citation/footnote, including my analysis and the full text of the item being cited. This is what it used to look like. And unfortunately I still have a LOT of these left in my database:




When I transferred my database over to Rootsmagic, something happened and now I am no longer able to run reports using footnotes that are “that long.” So I have been trying to chop things up a bit more and use the event notes, general notes, and footnotes as separate entities. Unfortunately because I had been doing things for so long and had accumulated so much data, it is very difficult to change it all even if I were to come up with a standardized way of doing things. The two concerns I always had were this: I wanted to be able to easily pull my research notes and analysis out of my database quickly. And if it is scattered between birth notes, death notes, source citation notes, etc., that always seemed like a daunting task. I also wanted to be able to site my sources on my own just in case my footnotes did not work; as was the case when I transferred to RM. So I often built my source citations and then copied them into my notes. But that just cramped the readability of my reports. Especially when the demand to share with others increased. So now I use a hybrid system. I copy everything into my general notes, that way I can easily extract the information and copy and paste into a word document if I have to. Information entered into the rest of the program relies on my program's ability to export to a report. 

7.       Census Reports: When I used FTM, I used to include the entire census report in my citation because it was easier to copy and paste the citation to each member included in that household. Now I only include the line relating to the person being cited. I include information about a census report in the general notes always. This is what my census report looks like:
1910 Big Apple Twp., Oregon Co., MO
Taken 28 Apr 1910, Line 67, dw 130, fm 133
William Peters, head, 35 yo (b. abt 1875), M1 10 yrs (abt 1900), IL Unk IL, educated yes, rents a house, farm laborer, can read and write
Dora Peters, wife, 35 yo (b. abt 1875), M1 10 yrs (abt 1900), 5/7 kids living, AR Unk unk, cannot read or write
Herbert Peters, son, 9 yo (b. abt 1901), MO IL AR, can read, but c/n write
Danie Peters, dau, 5 yo (b. abt 1905), MO IL AR
Vibert Peters, son, 3 yo (b. abt 1907), MO IL IL
Nova Peters, dau 1 8/12 (b. abt 1908), MO IL IL
Mary Peters, dau, <1yr (b. abt 1909), MO IL IL
NARA Film T624, Roll 804, FHL Film 1374817, Page 7B, ED 117
[The last 3 children's mother's place of birth is listed as IL, but this must be a mistake as Dora was born in AR]

This format is easy for me to read. I add the approximate year of birth in parenthesis. Now that I include my census report information in my general notes, I no longer need to include all of the information for each household member in my citations. Now I only include the information pertinent to that household member. 

And this is what my citations look like:


It clearly states her name, age, and place of birth. I can click through each census that is cited to see if there are any differences. If I did not have this information included in this footnote, I would have to go back to this person’s general notes to see what this particular census report said for her name, age, and place of birth.

With regard to redundancy and census reports, the head of house inevitably will have the census report show up twice on his or her narrative report. This is fine by me. I would rather have too much information than not enough.

8.       I’m guessing this post has gone on long enough, so I will summarize here.
·         I add everything I know about a person in the general notes, including transcripts of death certificates and obituaries, census reports, land records, etc.
·         I have just started entering census reports as their own events and I “share” them with household members.
·         I provide source information for items included in my general notes, although the citations are not complete as I leave it up to the footnotes to do that job.
·         I cite every source for every fact.
·         I include my analysis of evidence (ie, review of sources) for each fact’s sources in that fact’s notes. This analysis is usually NOT copied to the person’s general notes.
·         I only enter a fact once. If some sources point to alternate information, I pick the best one, or a range, and I cite them all. 

I do use my database to create narrative reports for myself and to share with others. But I have found that most people I share with do not care about source citations. And the narrative reports give way too much information. So I guess I would have to admit that it is used mostly for me. I think most of the below posters have come to a similar conclusion. 

Another example of how I use my database to cite my sources and use the fact notes can be found in my “Am I an Evidence-Based Genealogist or Conclusion-Based Genealogist?” post.

Here's what other bloggers are saying:

Shelley Bishop’s How I Use Reunion for Mac as my Genealogy Database at A Sense of Family
Randy Seaver's Ten Reasons Why I Use a Genealogy Software Program at Genea-Musings
Linda McCauley’s How I Use in My Genealogy Database at Documenting the Details

Monday, March 19, 2012

Mildred Alice Peter's Death Certificate


In last week’s Tombstone Tuesday Post I showed a photo of Mildred A Peter’s headstone that I took when I visited Missouri back in 2006. Her Find-A-Grave memorial said she died of whooping cough and referenced her death certificate as the source. I pulled her death certificate from the Missouri State Archives online death certificate website to see what else I could find out. She was only 1 month 6 days old when she died.  I believe she was Herbert and Emma Peters’ first child. How sad it must have been for them to lose a child at such a young age.


Missouri State Board of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Certificate of Death No. 10958-1, filed in Oregon County, Missouri, which was also the place of death.

This is the only source so far I have seen providing Mildred’s middle name of “Alice.” Her parents were Herbert Peters, born in Thomasville, Missouri. Thomasville is a small community just north of Alton in Oregon County, Missouri. Her mother was Emma Dodd, born in Lawrence County, Arkansas which is just over the Missouri-Arkansas line.

Mildred Alice Peters was an infant born January 27th, 1931 in Thomasville, Oregon County, Missouri. She died in same of whooping cough on March 5, 1931. She was 1 month, 6 days old. Following death, she was buried March 6, 1931 in Joliff Cemetery, Thomasville, Missouri, by O B Bales. Her father, Herbert Peters, was the informant of this death.

If you have more information about this family, please feel free to email me at ginger (dot) reney (at) gmail (dot) com. Replace items in parenthesis with “.” and “@.” Or click on my name to open new email message to me: <a href="mailo:ginger.reney@gmail.com"> Ginger R. Smith </A>

To learn more information on this family, read my post: The Mystery of William Herbert Peters’ Birth. Herbert Peters was my great-grandmother's half-brother. He was born in Missouri, but eventually settled in Texas where he died in 1979. 

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Tombstone Tuesday - Mildred A Peters




Mildred A. 
Dau. of 
W. H. & Emma
Peters
Jan. 27, 1931
Mar. 5, 1931
Asleep in 
Jesus

Mildred Alice Peters was the daughter of William Herbert Peters and Emily Dodd. She is buried in Joliff Cemetery in Rover, Oregon Co., Missouri. I photographed this stone in May 2006. Her cousins Alvy and Charley King are also buried here. 

Saturday, March 10, 2012

William Fletcher King

Photo of William Fletcher KING sent to me by Wanda Watson, 2005.

William Fletcher King was born June 28, 1873 in Missouri.1 He was the brother of my 2nd great-grandmother, Dora KING PETERS. Fletcher and Dora KING were the children of Robert "Bob" KING and Tabitha HOUSE. Robert and Tabitha were married July 28, 1870 in Howell County, Missouri.2 In 1876, Bob King died and Tabitha remarried to Samuel H WATSON Nov 16, 1879 in Highland Township, Oregon County, Missouri.3 In 1880, Dora and Fletcher were enumerated as "Watsons" on the 1880 Oregon County, Missouri census report while living with their mother, Tabitha and her new husband, Samuel Watson.4

This photo is undated, however Samuel Watson is actually in the photo with young Fletcher King, but he has been cut out. So this photo was probably taken between 1879-1890. Fletcher would have been about 6 years old in 1880. It was probably taken in Oregon County, Missouri.

In 1893, William Fletcher King married Mary FRENCH, daughter of John and Cynthia (Pace) FRENCH.5 In 1900, they were enumerated on the Highland Township, Oregon County, Missouri census report with two young children, William and Nancy King.6 Fletcher’s mother Tabitha Watson, step-father Samual Watson, and 7 step-siblings lived nearby.7

Fletcher’s sister Dora KING had given birth to a baby boy in March of 1900 and has not yet been found on the 1900 Missouri or Arkansas census report (taken in June). She married my 2nd great-grandfather, William E. Peters on November 3, 19008 and was enumerated with him on the 1910 Highland Township, Oregon County, Missouri Census Report.9

William Fletcher King, wife Mary, and 5 children were also living in Highland Township, Oregon County, Missouri, not far from his sister Dora Peters in 1910.10 However, in 1918, Fletcher King signed up for the Draft in Gilchrist, Weld County, Colorado 1and was enumerated TWICE in 1920! He was enumerated January 26, 1920 in Precinct 29 of Weld County 11 and then again on March 4, 1920 in Precinct 22 of Weld County, Colorado. 12 He had different neighbors on each census and he was renting each time, so that leads me to believe he moved to a new house sometime between Jan and Mar of 1920.

According to the census reports and his WWI draft card, Fletcher King was a farmer and worked on a general farm. He was of medium height and build, had blue eyes and dark hair. Unfortunately I cannot locate him or his family after the 1920 census. He seems to have disappeared into thin air, kind of like his sister, Dora Peters.

If you have information about this family or would like to contact me personally, please feel free to email me Ginger R. Smith.

SOURCES

  1. "World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918," digital image, Ancestry.com, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : downloaded 7 March 2012), William Fletcher King; citing World War I Selective Service System Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918, National Archives and Records Administration Publication M1509, 4,582 rolls. Imaged from Family History Library microfilm No 1561803.
  2. Ancestry.com, "Missouri Marriage Records, 1805-2002," digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : downloaded 7 March 2012), The solemnization of marriage between Robert King and Tabitha House, Howell County, Missouri; From the microfilm of the Missouri Marriage Records. Jefferson City, MO, USA: Missouri State Archives; Notes: Howell County, MO. Tabitha was indexed as “Tabetha Couse.”
  3. Ancestry.com, "Missouri Marriage Records, 1805-2002," digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : downloaded 7 March 2012), Marriage Certificate of Samuel H Watson and Tabitha King, Oregon County, Missouri; From the microfilm of the Missouri Marriage Records. Jefferson City, MO, USA: Missouri State Archives; Notes: Tabitha was indexed as “Talitha King.” The marriage certificate of Samuel H Watson of Oregon Co., and Tabitha King of Oregon Co., MO: joined in matrimony in Highland Township, Oregon Co., MO on 19 Nov 1879 by B E H Warren LM? and filed in this office on 17th Dec 1879.
  4. 1880 US Federal Census, Oregon County, Missouri, population schedule, Highland Township, Page 326A, Samuel Watson; digital image, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : accessed 2005); NARA Film T9, Roll 707, FHL Film 1254707.
  5. Wanda Watson, Yakima, Washington, [E-MAIL FOR PRIVATE USE], to Ginger R Smith, email, 28 November 2005, "Family," King; privately held by Smith, [E-MAIL & ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE], Durham, NC 27713, 2005.
  6. 1900 US Federal Census, Oregon County, Missouri, population schedule, Highland Township, enumeration district (ED) 80, Page 7a, Lines 8-11, dwelling 112, family 113, taken Jun 1900, William F King; digital image, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : accessed 2005); NARA Film T623. FHL Film 1240879.
  7. 1900 US Federal Census, Oregon County, Missouri, population schedule, Highland Township, enumeration district (ED) 80, Page 5A, Lines 42-50, dwelling 83, family 84, taken Jun 1900, Samuel Watson; digital image, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : accessed 2005); NARA Film T623. FHL Film 1240879.
  8. William Bill Rogers, [E-MAIL FOR PRIVATE USE], to Ginger R Smith, email, 28 February 2006, ","; privately held by Smith, [E-MAIL & ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE], Durham, NC 27713.
  9. 1910 US Federal Census, Oregon County, Missouri, population schedule, Big Apple Township, enumeration district (ED) 117, Page 7B, Line 67, dwelling 130, family 133, William Peters (head); digital image, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : accessed 14 February 2012); NARA Film T624, Roll 804, FHL Film 1374817.
  10. 1910 US Federal Census, Oregon County, Missouri, population schedule, Highland Township, taken 28 Apr 1910, enumeration district (ED) 122, Page 6A (penned), Lines 3-9, dwelling 104, family 108, William F King; digital image, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : accessed 2005); NARA Film T624, Roll 804, FHL Film 1374817.
  11. 1920 US Federal Census, Weld County, Colorado, population schedule, Taken 26 Jan 1920, Precinct 29, enumeration district (ED) 239, Page 4A (Penned), Page 206 (stamped), Lines 16-24, dwelling 78, family 87, Fletcher W King; digital image, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : downloaded 8 March 2012); NARA Film T625, Roll 172.
  12. 1920 US Federal Census, Weld County, Colorado, population schedule, Taken 2, 3, and 4 Mar 1920 Precinct 22, Beebe Draw, enumeration district (ED) 246, Page 13A (penned), Line 32, dwelling 258, family 259, Fletcher King; digital image, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : downloaded 8 March 2012); NARA Film T625, Roll 172.

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Wordless Wednesday - William Edward Peters

Here1 is a photo of my 2nd great-grandfather, William Edward Peters. When I first started researching him, I didn't have a very good opinion of him. My Grandfather's cousin said he was kind of a mean old man. And in some of his photos he looks like a mean old man. However, I just learned of the true story of his son, William Herbert Peters who was not really his biological son. He was the son of William's wife, Dora King who had Herbert with another man prior to marrying my 2nd great-grandfather William Edward Peters. William raised him as his own and gave him his name. You can read all about Herbert here.

Anyways, here's a photo of my 2nd great-grandfather, William Edward Peters.


This photo was taken about 1944 in Bristow or Pocahontas, Randolph Co., AR. He died Feb 3, 1948. Here is a copy of his obituary and death certificate

SOURCES

  1. Photo of William Edward Peters from the personal collection of Lawrence O. Godwin, Jr, digitally scanned by Ginger R. Smith for her collection, 2005.

Monday, March 5, 2012

Amanuensis Monday - Obituary of W E Peters


Transylvanian Dutch blog author John Newmark started the Monday blog theme called Amanuensis Monday. According to John, “amanuensis” means:

"A person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another."

For this week's Amanuensis Monday post, and in keeping with the spirit of writing about my brick wall ancestors, I am highlighting the obituary of my 2nd Great-Grandfather, William Edward Peters.

Here is a copy of his obituary taken from the Pocahontas Star Herald (Pocahontas, Randolph Co., AR), Feb 3, 1948. Unfortunately, I cannot remember if I pulled this from microfilm or if my Grandfather had a copy of it in his personal collection.


Here is the transcription: 

W. E. Peters
-----------------
William Edward Peters, aged 74, died at the home of Daniel Persful of Route 2, February 3. He was born in Thomasville, Mo., March 10, 1874 and had lived in the Brockett community for the past several years.
Funeral services were conducted at the McNabb Funeral Chapel Wednesday afternoon at 3 o'clock. Interment was in Masonic cemetery here under the direction of McNabb's.
He is survived by a son, Herbert Peters of Texas; five daugthers, Mrs. E. S. Pendergrass of T hayer, Mo., Mrs. Nova Godwin or Ft. Smith, Mrs. Mary Lark of St. Louis, Mrs. Lula Franceis and Mrs. May Bonds of California.

The information about William matches up with what was reported in his death certificate and unfortunately, his death certificate did not identify who his parents were which is why he continues to be a brick wall ancestor.

I knew about the son, Wm Herbert Peters and the 3 daughters, Nova Godwin, Mary Lark, and Mrs. E. S. Pendergrass. However, I was surprised to see mention of Mrs. Lula Francis and Mrs. May Bonds of California. There had been mention of a Melinda M and an Ollie M Peters on the 1920 Census report, with Melinda M then being referred to as May on the 1930 census report and Ollie having disappeared all together. William was living with a different wife on the 1930 census than he had been living with on the 1920 census, so Ollie could have gone to live with her mother. I've never seen mention of a daughter named Lula, though. I have not been successful in finding either of these two daughters in California to date. I hope they will show up sometime soon.

Friday, March 2, 2012

Am I an Evidence-Based Genealogist or Conclusion-Based Genealogist?


In his post “Are you an Evidence-Based or a Conclusion Based Researcher?” Randy Seaver brought up some interesting points about how we enter facts into our genealogy software and come to conclusions about what information from which sources for each fact is more true. He describes an “Evidence-based” user as one who enters information about a birth source, for example, from five different sources, as five different facts. This user then comes to a conclusion about which fact is most true and makes it a “preferred” fact in their software. The “Conclusion-based” user, on the other hand, evaluates all the evidence or sources and picks the best one, thereby reaching a conclusion as to which fact is most true. This user then creates one fact and cites one source (or multiple sources) for this one fact or conclusion.

I like to consider myself to be somewhat of a hybrid. Because I do sometimes like to use the report functions of my Rootsmagic software, I don’t like to enter more than one version of each fact. Having 5 instances of the Birth fact, for example, clogs up my narrative report and makes it difficult for me to read and understand. Instead I enter 1 fact and if there are differences within the evidence I’ve evaluated, I try to capture that within my fact description, citations, and notes.

For example, with the case of my brick wall, William Edward Peters, I have one Birth fact listed for him. I usually list the most specific information I have found, in this case, my birth fact says William was born 10 Mar 1874 in Thomasville, Oregon Co., MO.





For each piece of evidence I create a source citation and in the detail text field, I add the text that provides birth date and place information. In the screen shot below, the obituary from the Pocahontas Star Herald stated that William was born in Thomasville, MO on March 10, 1874.



Here is a table of information I collected about William’s birth. I used a total of six pieces of evidence or sources.

Birth Date
Mar 1877
1900 Census, Highland Twp., Oregon Co., MO
Abt 1875
1910 Census, Big Apple Twp., Oregon Co., MO, taken April 28, 1910: lists his age as 35; 1910-35=b. 1875
Abt 1872
1920 Census, Thayer Twp., Oregon Co., MO, taken Jan 6, 1920, lists his age as 48; 1920-48 = 1872
Abt 1873
1930 Census, Bristow, Randolph Co., AR, taken Apr 15, 1930, lists his age as 57; 1930-57=1873
Mar 10, 1874
Obituary Pocahontas Star, Feb 3, 1948
Mar 10, 1874
Death Certificate, William E Peters, Feb 3, 1948




Birth Place
IL
1900 Census, Highland Twp., Oregon Co., MO
IL
1910 Census, Big Apple Twp., Oregon Co., MO
IL
1920 Census, Thayer Twp., Oregon Co., MO
MO
1930 Census, Bristow, Randolph Co., AR
Thomasville, MO
Obituary Pocahontas Star, Feb 3, 1948
Thomasville, MO
Death Certificate, William E Peters, Feb 3, 1948

In the notes field for the Birth fact, I then analyze all pieces of evidence and state which pieces corroborate or contradict each other. I will usually indicate whether I think one piece weighs more than the other based on time it was created or from whom the information was provided.
Here are the notes I compiled about the six sources I analyzed about the birth of William Peters.



This is what my Rootsmagic narrative reports would look like if I had created a new birth fact for every piece of evidence I analyzed or encountered:



I really don’t like the way this example reads and says he “was born” six different times! Instead I prefer the more narrative approach with all of the facts listed within my source citations’ detailed text fields in the footnotes or endnotes of my report. A report with one fact listed and all six sources cited with the evidence analyzed and written up in the birth notes section looks like this:



Rootsmagic does have the capability of identifying one fact as the preferred or primary fact as Randy learned in his later post, however, in my Rootsmagic report, all six of the birth facts are still listed, even when one is identified as the primary fact.

So in conclusion, I consider myself to be an evidence-based genealogist, however:
·         I do NOT enter my evidence as separate facts.
·         I do, however enter them as separate sources under one umbrella fact.
·         In the example above, I used the most specific date and place.
·         However, if I had copied a specific date and place of birth for an ancestor from someone else’s family file off the internet, with no other corroborating evidence to support that information, I would probably not enter it as a fact in my database.
·         If I only have census reports as evidence and they say three different years of birth, I would simply state birth as between the lowest and highest year. In the case of my ancestor William Peters, discussed above, I would state “bet. 1872-1877” for date of birth.
·         Places of birth are trickier for me and I have not yet decided on a course of action. In the case of William Peters discussed above, I initially put “Missouri or Illinois” in the place of birth field. However that screws up my place list. So in that example, I might create two separate facts, one for Illinois and one for Missouri.

And why am I an Evidence-Based genealogist? Frankly because I love the records and what better way to show the love than to cite them and include them in all facts containing the information they reference?

So what are you? Do you evaluate and include every piece of evidence in your software and reports and analysis or do you determine your conclusion and use one piece of evidence to support that claim?

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Not so Treasure Chest Thursday - Another PETERS death certificate from Missouri

Since working on my brick wall ancestors has been one of my goals for 2012, I thought I would highlight another death certificate from one of my brick wall ancestors in my Peters line. Last month I posted the death certificate of my grandfather’s half-uncle, William Herbert PETERS. It was a true treasure trove because it told me that Herbert’s parents were my 2nd great-grandmother Dora KING and a man she was not married to, Posey WILLARD. Since Herbert’s last name was PETERS and not WILLARD, I can infer that my 2nd great-grandfather, William Edward PETERS adopted Herbert as a baby and raised him as his own. William and Dora did marry, after all, only 8 months after Herbert’s birth.

Unfortunately I was not as lucky with William Edward PETERS’ death certificate. I learned from his death certificate and obituary that he was born March 10, 1874 in Thomasville, [Oregon County] Missouri and that his last wife’s name was Caroline PETERS, but none of this was a surprise to me.  His daughter Danie PENDERGRASS filled out his death certificate and next to his parents’ names she informed that she “didn’t know.” She didn’t know where his parents were born either.

Death Certificate of William Edward Peters, 3 Feb 1948, in the possession of the author. 

So my 2nd great-grandfather, William Edward PETERS continues to be my brick wall in that I still do not know who his parents were or where they were born.

The census reports were not much help either. I entered information from the 1900-1930 census reports into a matrix so that I can compare data quickly and easily. From the matrix I can see that William was born in either Missouri or Illinois. His father was likewise born in either Missouri or Illinois and his mother was born in Missouri, Illinois, or Tennessee. Unfortunately, William was a boarder in the 1900 census, and lived with a different wife on each consecutive census reports. We do not know who informed the census taker about the people living in the house. It could have been the husband or the wife or whoever was home at the time the enumerator stopped by.


Specific Information
Sources
Name
William Peters
1900 Census, Highland Twp., Oregon Co., MO
William Peters
1910 Census, Big Apple Twp., Oregon Co., MO
William Peters
1920 Census, Thayer Twp., Oregon Co., MO
Will Peters
1930 Census, Bristow, Randolph Co., AR
W. E. Peters
Obituary Pocahontas Star, Feb 3, 1948
William Edward Peters
Death Certificate, William E Peters, Feb 3, 1948




Birth Date
Mar 1877
1900 Census, Highland Twp., Oregon Co., MO
Abt 1875
1910 Census, Big Apple Twp., Oregon Co., MO, taken April 28, 1910: lists his age as 35; 1910-35=b. 1875
Abt 1872
1920 Census, Thayer Twp., Oregon Co., MO, taken Jan 6, 1920, lists his age as 48; 1920-48 = 1872
Abt 1873
1930 Census, Bristow, Randolph Co., AR, taken Apr 15, 1930, lists his age as 57; 1930-57=1873
Mar 10, 1874
Obituary Pocahontas Star, Feb 3, 1948
Mar 10, 1874
Death Certificate, William E Peters, Feb 3, 1948




Birth Place
IL
1900 Census, Highland Twp., Oregon Co., MO
IL
1910 Census, Big Apple Twp., Oregon Co., MO
IL
1920 Census, Thayer Twp., Oregon Co., MO
MO
1930 Census, Bristow, Randolph Co., AR
Thomasville, MO
Obituary Pocahontas Star, Feb 3, 1948
Thomasville, MO
Death Certificate, William E Peters, Feb 3, 1948
Father’s Birth Place
IL
1900 Census, Highland Twp., Oregon Co., MO
Unk
1910 Census, Big Apple Twp., Oregon Co., MO
IL
1920 Census, Thayer Twp., Oregon Co., MO
MO
1930 Census, Bristow, Randolph Co., AR
Unknown
Death Certificate, William E Peters, Feb 3, 1948
Mother’s Birth Place
MO
1900 Census, Highland Twp., Oregon Co., MO
IL
1910 Census, Big Apple Twp., Oregon Co., MO
TN
1920 Census, Thayer Twp., Oregon Co., MO
MO
1930 Census, Bristow, Randolph Co., AR
Unknown
Death Certificate, William E Peters, Feb 3, 1948




One last thing of note is that I was told by the daughter of the woman who informed on William’s death that William was killed by three men who though he had sold the farm where he was a caretaker. They were trying to find where he had hid the money. Unfortunately, this story was not reflected on the death certificate which said that William died of a heart attack due to high blood pressure.

However I did write previously of a story I found in an Iowa paper about a man named John PETERS who was shot and beaten to death on his employer’s farm by a gang of brothers in Council Bluffs, Iowa in 1891. I wondered if maybe this was my William’s father or close relative. The only problem is that the 1880 census report listed John PETERS as single (William was born in 1874) and living in Iowa, not Illinois or Missouri like the census reports indicated. It also said John PETERS was from Denmark and I think I would have heard about it if our family was from Denmark!


** This "matrix" was adapted from something I learned from Dr. Thomas Jones in one of his lectures at a National Conference.