On This Day in 2014

On April 23, 2014, I made a notation that I had stayed up way too late looking for Shorters and Robinsons. How do I know this? The app in which I made the notation has an OTD feature which I happened to look at this morning. 

I must have been looking for Eliza Jane Shorter and her husband Richard Robinson of Hawkins County, TN, who my mamaw believed were the parents of her mamaw, Louisa. 

What progress have I made in the past ten years? I don’t recall doing any sustained research on anyone in my father’s family until 2020. I spent my weekends catching up on genealogy chores (typing up notes, attaching and labeling photos, creating citations, etc.) and extending my research. Then in 2021, I turned my attention more fully to mamaw’s family who all lived in Hawkins and Grainger Counties for many decades in the 19th century. My mamaw and her sister did much of their research in the 1970s. I thought it would be fun to see what I could turn up with the tools and records that researchers have available in the age of online records and genetic genealogy. 

What have I turned up? I’m not sure. After three years of research and 200 pages of notes and thoughts, I feel that nothing that my mamaw believed about her family was true and that nobody was who they said they were. There are many DNA matches but they don’t make much sense and cousin marriage makes using many of the several DNA tools out there difficult to use. 

Recently, I’ve decided what I need to do is just start over. Not necessarily to all the research over from scratch, but to organize my research and conclusions chronologically beginning with the deaths of my great-grandparents in December 1944. 

If nothing else, it will give me something to do while I wait for the release of Ancestry’s new DNA ProTools. You can learn more about these upcoming tools from this RootsTech presentation (please note, you may need to be logged in to RootsTech to view the video)

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Today, 5 September 2015, my grandmother, Karin Synnove Grace Nordstrom, would have been 100 years old. She always told me that Karin was her Swedish name, Synnove her Norwegian name, and Grace her American name. She never did like Grace, but I apparently didn't let that bother me because when I was little I named on of my favorite dolls Grace. 

This picture was taken of her and her mother Linka, by her father, Carl Nordstrom, on 12 September 1915. Happy Birthday Grandma! 

What's In a Surname?

"History of Surnames" from Gens Video 

If you are looking for a quick and easy way to learn about surnames, this 35 minute video is a good place to start. It appears to be well-researched, doesn't say anything "weird," and has decent imagery. 

The video is divided into sections by surname type, e.g. patronymic, topographic, occupation. Most of the examples come from English, French, Italian, Spanish and German; but occasionally mentions names from Arabia, Russia, and Portugal, among other places. 

Using Federal Documents at the National Archives: A Seminar in Cleveland

Making a Federal Case: Federal Land Records and Government Documents
Seminar Sponsored by the Genealogical Committee at the Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, OH

Saturday, September 27, 2014
9:00 AM to 4:00 PM
Presented by Claire Bettag, CG, FUGA

Professional genealogist, Claire Bettag, offers four lectures focusing on lesser-used, but invaluable resources - specifically federal land records and "gov docs."

Lectures being presented are:
1. NARA at your Fingertips
2. Federal Land Records
3. Bounty-Land Records
4. Government documents and The U.S. Serial Set (published by the U.S. Government Printing Office)

For further information or to register online, e-mail Chris at chris@staatsofohio.com.

+++++++++

Whether you are a genealogist, historian, or student, this series of talk will help you enhance your research skills, learn about new documents and how they can help your search, and may even help provide you with ideas and topics for everything from a family history to a PhD dissertation.

rootstech 2014: Spencer Wells, DNA, and More

Brief Interview with Dr. Spencer Wells at rootstech 2014

I first learned of the work of Spencer Wells when his PBS series, The Journey of Man, was shown in the UK. I was fascinated by the way DNA could be used to tell the story of human migration. So, I was excited to see that his keynote address delivered at rootstech 2014 was available for viewing online. What I didn't realized that the video also included an opening sequence and a keynote talk by Judy Russell, the Legal Genealogist. You can watch it all here.

The animation sequence was well done and added a nice, profession touch. It is difficult to tell whether it represents several branches of one family or simply many families - it spans centuries, but the same red book is written in and held by all the immigrants portrayed. A discerning eye will notice that the first family is an English one who adopted the Protestant faith and left Europe to flee religious persecution. The next sequence is of a family travelling across a very stormy Atlantic. There is farming family and what seems to be a pioneer woman with a baby. There is a 20th century wedding. The final segment is of a worried looking couple with a young child on a train, possibly fleeing from their home. The sequence closed with the tag, "Every family has a story. What's Yours?"  I don't doubt that every family has a story; but the stories shown here, with the possible exception of the family on the train, are representative of only a few Northern European immigrant groups. In light of genealogy's early association with "whiteness" as discussed by Gregory Rodriguez, such a depiction of the American immigration story is disheartening.

I have met Judy Russell and enjoy listening to her speak. This talk, however, I did not really care for. It's a wide ranging keynote but the primary topics were the Genealogical Proof Standard and Oral History. She talks about "deliberately and accurately" handing down oral histories so that they can be preserved for future generations. Oh and then verified by using the Genealogical Proof Standard. But people only pass down what is important to them, what defines them as a people or a family. Where your grandfather learned to swim may not be important to anyone, so nobody talks about and it gets forgotten. However, other things may be remembered. She provides two examples of family histories that were deliberately passed down in her family. However, one of them probably wasn't. It had the sound of something that at worst had been created so that the family sounded authentically American or at best was badly researched. 

Spence Wells, Explorer-in-Residence at National Geographic, gives an excellent introduction to population genetics, DNA research, and Deep Ancestry. If you don't know anything about them, this will get you up to speed in about 30 minutes. He speaks about the Genographic Project and the rates of public participation, which mirror the increasing interest in consumer DNA testing. He also discusses the grants given to indigenous people who are such an important part of the project. Since these groups have occupied the same territory, sometimes for centuries, they provide the geographic anchor to the Genographic Project.

The two speakers provide an interesting contrast. Judy Russell is concerned about losing snippets of family history, like what was your grandmothers favorite toy, in three generations. Spencer Wells is concerned with entire indigenous cultures and languages that face extinction within one or two generations.

You can view other talks from rootstech 2014 here. The only other one I've seen is the talk on iPads by Lisa Louis Cooke; it made me want an iPad even more than before.