Genealogy Journal 1/22/09

I accomplished quite a few more things today than I expected to....

I sent out a letter via email to my fellow Godwin researchers who are descended from Elijah Godwin (1801-1884) about our Godwin DNA results. We did a 25-marker test and matched 100% to 6 other Godwin families from NC. (Results) The next step is for our 7 lines to put our heads together and to try to piece together the correct paper trail that accurately maps our lines together. Also we plan to upgrade to a 37 marker test to see just how closely related we are. The statistics for how closely related each tester might be can be found here.

I have not synced my laptop with my external harddrive yet so I didn't have any of my files with me today at work. I pulled out an old thumb drive to see if one of my files was on it and I found pictures that I took at the Forest Park Cemetery in Fort Smith, Sebastian Co., AR. I took the pictures in 2006 but somehow misplaced them. Lucky for me, there they were! Which is good because I did not have time to retake all the pictures last time I visited AR in November. I uploaded all of the pictures to FindAGrave and tonight I will enter them into my family tree database. Two families were inventoried at Forest Park Cemetery: Putmans and Lasiters. The Putmans must have been fairly well-off because their family plot was easy to find. There was a giant stone to greet you as you approached the family plot.

Forest Park Cemetery, Fort Smith, AR, Photo taken by Ginger R. Smith May 5, 2006

The Putmans must have bought a pretty big plot because my great grandparents, Thelma Louise Benson (1912-1996) and James Putman Lasiter (1908-1974), 2nd great grandparents, James F Lasiter (1876-1968) and Rosalie Putman, and 3rd great-grandparents, Thomas Adolphus Putman (1845-1918) and Martha Ann Ward (1850-1924) were all buried here. Rosalie Putman's 3 sisters and their families were also buried in this plot.

Dred Godwin Task List

Etheldred Godwin Task List


Updated 1/19/2009

1. Order Family History Library's film no. 1315537 entitled “Putnam Co., IN Deed Index, Grantors, v.1, A - I, Apr. 1824- Aug. 1863 and v.2, I - S, Apr. 1824- Aug. 1863” – Look for John or Cassie McAlister, Wm or Elizabeth Thomas, and George and Margaret Sabin
-- Update 4/4/09: Gene Pitt is planning to submit his Godden family book to the publisher by the end of April. I would like to verify Cassie McAlister was another daughter of Dred, and that John McAlister, George Sabin, and William Thomas were the other 3 holders of Dred's inherited land before this book is published. Today I ordered this film to look for Sabin and McAlister in the index.

2. “Order Probate Order Books” which are also available on film from the FHL FHL US/CAN Film no. 1315752 – Look for Godwin/Goodwin – these contain orders given by the court and may contain a court appointed commission to divide Dred’s land if intestate (The Putnam Co Probate Records have already been searched Nov 2005 – there were no Godwin/Goodwin/Goddens listed)

3. “Complete order books, Circuit Court, 1823-1862” FHL US/CAN Film 2416111 – Look for Godwin/Goodwin, McAlister, Thomas, and Sabin -- Update 4/4/09: Today I ordered this film

4. “Civil order books - Circuit Court, 1825-1921” - FHL US/CAN Film no.2414721 – Look for Godwin/Goodwin, McAlister, Thomas, and Sabin

5. Call the Putnam Co,. IN courts to see if they have “intestate records” and “land lot division of heirs” or “division of estate records”

Clerks Office - (765) 653-2648

Circuit Court - (765) 653-5315

Superior Court - (765) 653-2658

Genealogy Journal 1/22/09

I spent 3 days at home this week working on "genealogy." What was my biggest success - getting my list of researchers and correspondence logs updated! I have been heading a somewhat active email discussion on "The descendants of Etheldred Godwin." Before I started it, I had to compile a list of all the current researchers of this family in a spreadsheet - I added their name, email address and/or physical address and phone numbers; their line of descendancy, and correspondence summary. See below for an example of a researcher list.

Once the table was complete, I added their email addresses to my "DredFamily" email distribution list and used that to correspond with all members. I have about 8 or 9 active members now. Descendants of four of Dred's seven children are actively researching this family and are a part of our email discussion group - the Thomas, McAlister, and Sabin lines; and the Jonathan/Sarah Godden line. I believe two more sons did not marry and I have not found anyone researching Dred's oldest son's line - Nathan and Elizabeth Godwin.

Topics of discussion this week:

• Review of the deeds of Dred's heirs who sold his land in Putnam Co., IN in 1852
• Distribution of the "Dred Godwin Task List" that I compiled this week in order to get people involved and to get help in obtaining and reviewing the records that would provide more evidence as to who the exact heirs of Dred Godwin were. I posted this "task list" to our facebook page as well.
• DNA testing - my grandfather submitted his DNA to the Goodwin/Godwin surname project. I believe he descends from Etheldred Godwin's brother Nathan. If I am correct, then the DNA from him should match with the DNA from one of Dred Godwin's male direct descendants.

Outcome:

• Lynn Larry Godden, descendant of Jonathan and Sarah Godden, has agreed to submit his 37 marker DNA test to the project!! We are unsure of his relation to Dred Godwin. Be on the lookout for an upcoming post with this family's mystery.
• Kay has agreed to order some of the films from her local Family History Library
  

Getting organized...progress for Jan 2009

I have started working on Dear Myrtle's January Organizational Checklist:

Step 1. Create a LASITER surname notebook

- done

Step 2. Put all direct line family group sheets in chronological order in a section labeled "Direct Line"

- done

I have an FGS for my grandmother, Sue Lasiter; behind that I have one for her father, James Putman Lasiter, and behind that one for his father, James Franklin Lasiter.

Step 3. Put all collateral line family group sheets in chronological order in a section labeled "Collateral Lines." - These include the siblings of my grandmother, Sue Lasiter; the siblings of her father, James Putman Lasiter, and the siblings of his father, James Franklin Lasiter.

- done

I have an FGS for my grandmother's sister, Barbara Lasiter, and one for her brother, James Putman Lasiter, Jr. I do not know of any siblings of either James Putman Lasiter Sr or his father, James Franklin Lasiter.

Step 4. Put research papers on any suspected ancestors and families in a section labeled "Research-Not Proven."

- I currently do not have any research to add to this section

Step 5. Place all important documents in page protectors

- I have not done this yet either because I need to purchase the oversized file tab dividers that can be seen behind the page protectors. Also, I do not have many documents to add to this binder as I have not done much research on this family.

I feel accomplished and ready to move on to next month's tasks.

Dear Myrtle also suggests we participate in Familysearch.org's indexing project.

Getting organized - January

I'm still trying to find an organizational method that works best for me with my printed files. Currently I have a few binders that I made when I first started researching. But most of my files are in file folders - My Brooks, Williams, and Binns files are in a basket in my closet; my Smith and West family files are in a box on my office floor; and my Godwin family files are in a file box also on my floor, usually with the Smith box stacked on top of it.

I have been looking for an affordable 4 drawer filing cabinet on craigslist to put in my office. They are hard to come by. When I get it, I plan to implement a new filing and organizational system based on one of two methods I read about in Organizing Your Family History Search by Sharon DeBartolo Carmack: (1) Filing by surname and record type or (2) filing by individuals. Knowing me, I will probably try to do both, each as a test set with two different families. The system I choose might actually be dependent on how many records or family members I have in that particular family group. I think I can get this done in a weekend.

In the meantime, as kind of a "mini-test" I plan to implement Dear MYRTLE'S January Organizational Checklist. This applies to the use of binders. I have already started putting together a binder for one of my smaller, less researched family lines - the Lasiter family. Each month a new step is posted. I plan to start collecting materials on this line as we go through each month, so I will have something new to add to my binder. I call it a "test" because it will "test" me on my ability to focus and to stick to one project until it's completion. (Also it will test my ability to follow directions!) I will keep you posted on my success!

Genealogy Journal 1/17/09

Today I did genealogy for 2.5 hours. I focused on finishing up my Smith obituary project. I got all 16 of the Smith family obituaries entered into my family tree maker software. I was still frustrated with the sourcing component of the software though. It takes so long to enter source information and then copy and paste it into every fact that I enter and want to source.

I entered the source information as the "first name last name, obituary" as the title. I put the newspaper's name as the publisher - most of these obituary clippings that Doris sent to me did not have dates or newspaper titles included with them, so I had to infer based on my knowledge of when it might have been published what the local newspaper's name was. Then I ented Fort Smith, Sebastian Co., AR as the publisher location and the relevant publish date. For the source repository, I have put Doris' name, since she was the one who sent these clippings to me in the mail. I also included her email address and a quick summary of her relationship to the family. The only field that has a drop down box is the repository. I have to enter Publisher, location and date every time I create a new source. The other thing I don't like about FTM's sourcing component is that the sources are listed by source name instead of author. So when I go scrolling through the source title list, I cannot locate a particular person's entry. My workaround for this: I only enter author information if it is a published book. If it is an email or letter or information on the web, I put their name, email addy, and relationship all as the source title.

Once I muddled through creating source entries for each obituary record I reviewed, I then entered dates, places, and relatives' names mentioned in the obits and copied to source information to each of those facts (in abbreviated form). Usually in my source entry I copy the relevant information supporting the fact I've entered it for. For example, I enter the date of birth and place as a fact. I then add my source as "John Doe Obituary." In the Citation Text box, I copy the exact wording from that source: "John Doe was born 2 Feb 1900 in Anywhere US." I also copy this same source and citation text information in the notes section of my database because usually I don't like to have to scroll down to the bottom of a 20 page family report to see what the source was. Because I had so many obituaries to enter today, I skipped this step. I simply added the source information to the fact. In another abbreviated fashion, I only added text for the obituary in the notes section of the person who was deceased. Normally I would add a note to the child who was mentioned in the obituary..."mentioned as a surviving daughter living in Anywhere, US in father, John Doe's obituary, 2 Feb 1900, anywhere US." Again, because I had so many obituaries to enter, I did not add obituary text to the notes section of related names. Using this abbreviated method, I was able to enter information on 16 obituaries in under 3 hours.

I also received 5 obituaries from the O'Neal family who married one of my Smith ancestors. I had to send several emails to Doris to piece together this O'Neal family as I had not yet started researching them. I also looked them up in the census reports. I was able to piece together most of this family. For the obituaries of O'Neal family members that I could not definitively connect, I entered them into my FT database and will attach them to a family once I figure out who they are connected to.

I feel accomplished today. I actually focused on one project until completion. My next step will be to print family group reports for each of the lines I entered information for and to file them in an organized fashion. I may not get to this right now, although I should, so I can firmly complete this project. However, I know this will drag the project out a lot longer because I have a tendency to want to make the family group sheets "Perfect" - I try to go back and look for information that is missing from the family group sheets, ie, a census report - and that takes time. So much time that I end up not accomplishing my original goal of printing and filing the family group sheets.

My resolution for this year: accomplish the goal I set. And that starts with doing something with the box full of documents and information I have found over the past couple of years that is just sitting there waiting to be entered into my computer. And doing so BEFORE I find and save MORE information that I don't have time to do anything with.

Genealogy Journal 1/16/09

Today I spent time thinking about the deeds that I found last week relating to Netheldred Godwin and his 7 heirs who sold their 1/7th land parts in 1852 in Putnam Co., IN.

I updated my Jonathan and Sarah Godden document with the deed information: it said that Sarah Godwin was the heir of Dred Godwin (not Jonathan) which contradicts her death certificate. Sarah Godden's death certificate says her father's name was Enos Godden. It is possible that Sarah was actually the granddaughter of Dred Godwin, and Enos was the son of Natheldred, but was deceased.

The deeds only gave me the names of 4 "heirs" of Dred Godwin who sold off their 1/7th shares of his land in Putnam Co., IN in 1852. There were 7 heirs total, so there were 3 heirs unaccounted for. These 3 unaccounted heirs were probably daughters. The deeds would be listed under their husband's names. The 3 daughters of Dred were Margaret Sabin, Elizabeth Thomas, and Cassie McAlister (not proven). I did not find any deeds by William Thomas, Elizabeth's husband around the year 1852. Nor did I find the deeds for George Sabin, husband of Margaret Godwin. I did not know of the McAlister name when I searched these deeds last.

I sent an email to Cheryl Kay Drummond about looking up the McAlister deeds in the Putnam Co., IN deed index grantors at the Family History Library. I hope she will agree to pursue this option. I also requested information on Cassie Godwin McAlister - in particular her whereabouts throughout the 1830 census and beyond.

I also emailed Michele Bender, a descendant of Margaret (Godwin) Sabin to request that she order the Putnam Co., IN Probate Order Books and also the Complete Order books from the Circuit court; I also asked her to call the Putnam Co., IN courthouse to see if they have intestate records and land lot division for heirs.

Lori Godwin also gave me some suggestions on what else I can check:
1. Look for "Land Division" or "Division of Estate" records which would show a hand drawing of the land plot and the division of it to the heirs
2. Additional probate reocrds - Putnam County has "Probate Order Books" listed at the FHL. I emailed the Indiana State Library who also has these records, to see what exactly they are but the librarian was unable to tell me.

I added the Putnam Co., IN court information to a new word document to have on hand for letters or phone calls:
circuit court
superior court
county clerk's office

I also emailed Brian Liedtke, a descendant of Cassie and John McAlister Godwin. His family tree is posted here.

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Read up some more about the DNA results for the NC Godwins. I emailed Madonna Waterman to see if she had found a male Godwin descendant who might be willing to contribute his DNA to the Goodwin/Godwin surname project. She said she still has not heard back from him, but is willing to help pay for the test. They are trying to connect Wilson Ulysses Godwin of IL and AR to an NC Godwin.