Trip to Richmond, VA

Enjoying the VA Museum of Fine Arts
Painting: Two Donors in Adoration before the Madonna
and Child and St. Michael, 1557-60
Giovanni Battista Moroni, Italian

Over the Labor Day weekend I took a short trip up to the Richmond, VA area partly to do some genealogical research and partly because I’ve driven through Richmond about a hundred times and had never actually stopped to see anything there.

I’m probably going to get a few posts out of this trip because I have a bit to share, plus since I got back into records I hadn't been in a while, I noticed info I hadn’t documented properly which led me to find more ancestors – Yay!

But, I’ll start at the beginning with a word of advice:  

If you are planning on going to a library or archive, double-check the calendar or give a call to make sure that they are open their normal hours.  

I had planned to go to the Library of Virginia, which is normally open on Saturdays; however, as I discovered late the night before I was going to go, they were closed all Labor Day weekend.  I figured they were going to be closed on Monday but they were also closed Saturday.  Sadness! 

At least I did figure it out before showing up, but it was a bit of a bummer since I was geared up to do some research.  I do think my husband breathed a large sigh of relief that he wasn’t going to be tethered to a library for several hours however.  

Dapper Dan - I'm fairly certain I had one of these

So, instead of the library, we went to the Virginia Historical Society which had some lovely exhibits about VA history and helped to answer some of the questions I had about some of my ancestors who migrated from VA to OH (via what is now WV) in the late 1700s.  They had some interesting interactive displays including one for Civil War battles that showed how many losses were had on what sides and then showed a graphic on where in the US those troops were from which was really fascinating to visualize.

Trolls - some of my Mom's favorites!

They also have a temporary exhibit currently on Toys from the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s which was a lot of fun – my husband turned into a 7-year-old in that exhibit, it was adorable.

We also visited the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.  My favorite exhibits were the Art Nouveau jewelry and furniture as well as the Fabergé eggs.

Imperial Red Cross Easter Egg, 1915
Fabergé Firm

The Sorcerers Necklace, 1900

Buckle, ca. 1900

Buckle, ca. 1899

Fabergé Firm, Lilies of the Valley
19th-20th century
 

We stopped by the Edgar Allan Poe museum which was interesting and I learned a bit more about the author than I had known and I now need to go read some of his other works that weren’t part of my normal high school readings.

After that, we hopped over to the American Civil War Museum (Museum of the Confederacy) in Richmond.  We didn’t tour the Confederate White House because that involved a lot of stairs and my feet/ankles were already complaining loudly about all the walking we had been doing.  This museum focused a lot on the Confederate side of the war and how it was viewed from Richmond's point of view. 

View of the James River from
Hollywood Cemetery

We also did a self-driving tour through Hollywood Cemetery which is probably one of the prettiest cemeteries I have visited as it is right on the James River.  As far as I know, I don’t have any ancestors buried there but there are some Presidential gravesites: Tyler & Monroe.  It is definitely worth a drive around.

And on the last day of the trip since it was on the way back home again, we stopped at the Richmond Battlefield visitors center.  I discovered later (should have done a bit more research before coming) that the ancestor I was focusing on this trip was involved in a lot of the battles in the Richmond area.  I’ll need to come back another time to really spend time at these because there are several battle locations around the Richmond area – the National Park Service suggests 4 hours for the driving tour around the various battlefields.  But, I got an overview of these battles at the visitor’s center.

Hollywood Cemetery
Richmond, VA

Then we moved on to the Petersburg National Battlefield.  I knew that my ancestor, Freeman Hunt had been at Petersburg and that he had mustered out at that point.  The rangers at the National Park visitor center were super helpful in giving me information about where my ancestor might have fought/stationed at the battlefield.  Since I knew what group he was with they were able to show me maps of battle movements, etc.  If you make any stops to any of the national battlefield parks, make sure you take that info with you because the rangers there are very knowledgeable and might be able to give you even more information about what your ancestor was actually involved in at the battle.

I’m going to stop there for today.  I’ll have another post about much more detail about what I discovered about my ancestor, Freeman Hunt’s civil war stories and more in-depth genealogy wise.

But, if you have a chance to visit Richmond, VA, I certainly recommend it.  There is a lot of history there, the Library of Virginia houses a lot of the state archives, and some great places to visit.

Diggin' in my Dishner Line

Recently, I’ve switched gears just a bit back to my paternal line, just to keep things interesting.  I’ve been fleshing out some of my Dishner cousins starting with some online genealogies and going through and checking documentation on them to see if that checks out and that I’m related to them.

One thing I do think I need to start doing is to start collecting Scott County, VA maps because I have a feeling I’m related to a large portion of Scott County, VA.  I see a lot of the same names, I see a lot of these folks as neighbors on census records and I need to start connecting some more of those dots.  Who was living where, who was married to who, etc.

Map of Virginia highlighting Scott County

By David Benbennick [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

My paternal grandmother, Mary Ruth Dishner was born in Scott County, VA as well as both her parents.  I am lucky to have had access to the family bibles for her family so I have documentation from that (and a lot of the delayed birth certificates have references to these bibles).

On a funny note, we think we might have found the person who now owns the family farm in Scott County.  Apparently the owner is the cousin of our dental hygienist (who used to live right down the street from us and I went to school with her daughter) who worked for our cousin who was a dentist (this cousin is also related to the same family who lived at that farm).  I know...that's weird and convoluted.  But, I have ancestors buried there and I have been unable to find the cemetery online (probably because it's just a small family cemetery) and I need to try to hunt that down.

I need to set some time aside to go and wander around the county and see what all is there, what resources are there, what resources are in the library vs other county offices.  I also need to hop up to Richmond, VA (which isn't too far from where I live in NC) and check out the Virginia Historical Society and the Library of Virginia to help flesh out more of my knowledge about SW Virginia and how my ancestors fit into the overall story of what was going on.

So, I hope to do more posts regarding this line of inquiry.  I apologize for not posting for a while but real life took a wild turn both with my job and a death in the family.  But, I am hoping to start sticking to a publication schedule a bit more regularly than I have been doing.

Tree Pruning

It's Family Tree pruning time!

It's a task I've been putting off for FAR too long.  I've known for a while that my Ancestry tree has a LOT of unconfirmed branches.  Since I've learned more over the past few years I've discovered I need to prune that unconfirmed information out and add it back in again if I can confirm with sources.

This is mostly the result of being "young and silly" when I first joined Ancestry and you get so excited with the little green leaves and other member's trees that you go a little...crazy.
And that craziness has led me to where I currently am.

So, I didn't want to completely lose all of the work I have done so I made a GEDCOM copy of the tree I had and saved that as a private tree (I don't want others copying off that tree since it's not confirmed - it's more my giant tree of hints now).  And I'm seriously pruning back my public Ancestry tree to those things I have some sort of sources for.

It's been a big pain in the rear (because I had a TON of branches that I couldn't confirm a link to) but doing this will give me a much cleaner base to run off of and I can use the private tree to help me with hints to hopefully find the source documentation to make the tree grow again.  :)

So, a few tips for new genealogists just starting out:

• Think before adding to your tree (I know this seems basic - but sometimes we get a little too excited and we need to slow down and really think if we just need to make note of a source to investigate further or confirm some other way to make sure they are a relation before adding to the tree)
• Remember that the little green leaves (or the hint features of your chosen family tree software/website) are HINTS.  They might have nothing to do with your ancestor.  Use them as a jumping off point for further research.
• Download a copy of the documents to your computer at home (don't just have the online link) because if you drop your subscription you might not be able to view that original document again until you subscribe again and that can be frustrating.  Plus, crazy things happen and the website might go down or out of business and you want to have copies of these documents.
• Other member trees - my personal belief now is to NOT add to your tree from other member's trees.  I will use them on occasion as hints to use if I am looking for sources for my ancestors but adding to my tree from other trees made my tree into the mess it became (duplications, unconfirmed info, misspellings, and just plain wrong info).

Good luck and enjoy!

RootsTech 2017!

Goal #1 for 2017 - Stay out of the hospital (they're starting to recognize me there, that's not good)
Goal #2 for 2017 - more family history research & blogging about it

I had the opportunity this year to attend RootsTech in Salt Lake City, which was such an awesome experience!

I won a free pass to RootsTech which got me off my butt and travelling to SLC.  Thank you Shannon at the Trials and Tribulations of a Self-Taught Family Historian blog!

I had such a great time, was so inspired, and learned so much it's unbelievable that happened all in one place.

There were great general sessions including an incredibly moving speech from LeVar Burton.  Seriously, by the end of the speech everyone was crying.  Everyone.  It was beautiful and moving!

I attended a session on starting Scandinavian genealogy and did a hands on workshop with ArkivDigital.  I feel much more comfortable with diving into some of my Swedish ancestry now (I actually looked up my first household record for one of my ancestors).

There were so many great sessions I attended but I'm also really glad I attended the "100 Days to Better Family History" session so I could take all of the energy from the conference and make an organized plan.

RootsTech Selfie!

RootsTech Exhibition Hall

So, now I'm all motivated and one of my top goals is to regularly blog about what I'm doing with my family history research!  Stay tuned!

Colorful Ancestry

I figured I'd join the genealogy bandwagon and do my color chart based on states/countries that my ancestors came from for the last 5 generations.

It is a pretty neat way to visualize this information and see where those patterns are and how families have moved.

I also have my big question marks because my paternal great-grandfather was adopted.  We are pretty sure he was born in OH, but I should probably put a question mark there as well.

Five Generation Chart - Birth States

I also then created a chart based on Counties to see how much things changed.  I actually expected more change than I saw, which surprised me.  I know if I expanded out a few generations that would certainly change.  But this chart is a bit more detailed.

Five Generations - Birth Counties

Where I do see quite a bit of changes is when I changed the chart to show the counties where folks died.

Five Generations - Death Counties

So, these color charts are fun but also give you a quick visual aide with some useful information at a glance.

Tombstone Tuesday: Hannah Bryan (1770 - 1841)

Since I voted today in a Primary election, I figured I'd start my Tombstone Tuesday posts with this one because it was one that lead me to my Presidential relation, President Lincoln.

New grave marker for Hannah Bryan

Obviously, this grave marker isn't from 1841.  I'm not certain when this one was installed but according to Find A Grave their original stones were trodden on by cows and so their ancestors replaced them.

Photo of original headstone for Hannah McDaniel

Hannah is the daughter of Benjamin Bryan and Lydia Lincoln (Lydia was the sister of Abraham Lincoln - the grandfather of the President of the same name).  So, through Hannah, President Lincoln is my 2nd cousin 6x removed.  Which I find pretty cool.

But, besides that fact, I find that the life of Henry and Hannah very interesting.  One of my goals this year is to trace more of their life.  They were both born in Virginia and Henry fought during the Revolutionary War (it's also the anniversary of the Battle of Guilford Courthouse - which Henry participated in and his company stayed behind to help with the wounded).
They were married after the war and lived for a while in an area of Virginia which is now West Virginia before moving up to Ohio around 1810.  The Gallia County Genealogical Society lists Henry as one of the First Families since they were living there before 1821.

I actually got to visit this family cemetery a few years ago when we were travelling to a friends wedding up in Michigan.  We just happened to pass through Gallia county and the name rang a bell and so we stopped back through on the way back home which was really kind of cool (I didn't realize it at the time but my great-uncle still lives in Galliopolis).

We also quickly stopped by the library and found a folder/book full of genealogical research someone had done on this family that we were able to scan - I'm still going through all of that information!  Make sure to stop by libraries in the areas where your ancestors have lived because you never know what might be squirreled away in archives or in their genealogical sections.

McDaniel's Crossroads - Walnut Township, Ohio

2016 Genealogy Goals

The end of 2015 ended up being quite a bit crazier than I had anticipated so I haven't done much genealogy for the past couple months.  But, now it's calming down it's time for me to set some goals for myself and for this blog for 2016!

Prune my Tree
First and foremost, my first goal is to clean up my Ancestry.com tree.  I have a lot of stuff in there that I think is incorrect or I don't have any sort of back up documentation on and I really need to go in and delete or unlink some of the people from my tree.

Back when I first got on Ancestry I got the little green leaf and I just went a bit too crazy copying things to my tree.  Can I put that down as being "young and silly"?  But, the result being I have a lot on my tree that just shouldn't be there.  So my first goal of the year is to go through and if I don't really have any sort of backup for someone being in my tree then it's time to prune.  That way I can work on focusing my attention and expanding my actual tree - with documentation!  :)

Fertilize my Tree
I am going to start working and filling in missing documentation for the family I do have and have some back up documents for but am missing some items.  So, it's working from the ground up to fill in some of those missing holes and expanding on some extended family.

Chasing Down a few Fussy Roots
There are a few "problem children" I want to focus some time on to expand on their stories or to see if I can get past a brick wall/stumbling block.

Migration of Henry McDaniel's Family
I actually have a decent amount of info on Henry McDaniel because he was a Revolutionary War veteran so a lot of folks have documented his family, especially post-Rev war.  What I actually want to look more into is his story of where he came from pre-Rev war and maybe more about his migration from Virginia to Ohio.

What I know (briefly):
1763 - Henry McDaniel born in Pittsylvania County, Virginia
1779 - Enlisted during the Revolutionary War in Bedford County, Virginia
1780 - Wounded during the battle of Kings Mountain
1781 - Discharged from service at Camden (I am assuming SC given his Rev war history)
1788 - Married Hannah Bryan in Greenbriar County, VA (now WV)
1810 - Migrated from Lewisburg, VA (WV) to Gallia County, OH
1838 - Died in Gallia County, OH

I'd like to learn more about why families moved from this area of Virginia to Ohio (I can't imagine this was an easy trip) and see if I can trace their footsteps (or theorized footsteps) from fighting to create this country to expanding it's frontiers.

Adoption of Eugene Chambers
This is one of my "brick walls".  Eugene was adopted by the Chambers family in West Jefferson, Ohio but I have never really been able to find out much about his biological family.  We believe his family name was Costella (o).  We have some family stories that have been passed down but not really anything to back that up.  According to one of my cousins who has also been doing genealogy work, the courthouse records in that area burned down.
So, I need to try to find other sources that might give me some clues as to where Eugene came from and more about his family.  I know I want to really hit some newspaper resources to see if I can find some clues that way and try to come up with some other creative ideas to find information.
If anyone has any ideas for me - please let me know!

What I know:
1893 - Eugene Costella born (possibly Ohio but some sources have said Virginia)
1900 - Living with the Chambers family, the census lists Eugene as a "cousin" (I don't know if he is actually a cousin, or if they just told the census taker he was a cousin since he wasn't officially adopted at that point, or if the census taker didn't know how to list the child so just put cousin)
1910 - Living with the Chambers family, this census listed him as an "Adopted Son" (somewhere in that 10 year time period he was officially adopted by the Chambers family)

Samuel Ernest Dishner After His Divorce
Samuel is my great-grandfather and his divorce from my great-grandmother, Phoebe Gillenwater was drama-filled and messy.  My father never knew his grandfather and my grandmother never saw him again after his divorce.  This wasn't just a divorce, it involved Samuel just disappearing (at least for a while). So, I have started finding some information, but I don't really know much about his life after his divorce and he moved away and I would like to see if I can find out more about his life after he left the rest of my family.

What I know:
1899 - Samuel Dishner was born in Scott County, Virginia
1917 - Married Phoebe Ethel Gillenwater in Scott County, Virginia
1931 - Lived in Jenkins, Kentucky (had a chiropractic practice)
1939 - Lived in Kingsport, Tennessee (had a chiropractic practice)
1947 - On Aug 2 Samuel disappeared, his family filed a missing person report
         - On Aug 26 Samuel sent a postcard to one of his family members saying he was in FL
         - On Aug 31 Reported in the newspaper that Samuel had moved to Kentucky
1948 - Lived in Jenkins, Kentucy (had a chiropractic practice)
1956 - Lived in Houston, Texas
1971 - Died in New Braunfels, Texas

Gertrude Morgan After Her Divorce and her Missing Son, Emerson Morgan Hunt
Another divorce case, and I'm really not quite certain what happened to Gertrude afterwards.  I have a few clues but I'm not sure if it's the same Gertrude.  With women it always gets a bit hazy because did she keep her married name?  Did she revert back to using her maiden name?  Did she re-marry?  The only clue I have - and I'm not 100% its the same people but I think it is, is related to a record I have for her son, Emerson Morgan Hunt.  Emerson was a bit of a surprise because we didn't really know about him.  My theory is when his parents divorced, he went with his mother (I believe he was a young adult at the time of the divorce) and most of the information like obituaries for his other siblings and father don't mention him at all.  The record I have is his draft card and enlistment.  But, after that, I can't find any more about him either so I am unsure if he died during the war.

What I know:
1870 - Gertrude Morgan born in New York
1896 - Gertrude married William Hunt in Jamestown, NY
1899 - Emerson Morgan Hunt born in Jamestown, NY
1910 - Living in Conewango, PA
1918 - Draft card for Emerson Morgan Hunt lists him as a student at John Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD and his nearest relative as Gertrude Morgan Hunt residing in Boone, MD.
1920 - Census for William Hunt lists him as married but does not list Gertrude as living with him, their two other children, Paul and Eunice are living with William.
1929 - William Hunt dies in Jamestown, NY, his death certificate lists him as divorced (no mention of Gertrude or Emerson in his obituary).

So, I think all of this will keep me occupied this year and I'm going to try to be good and blog about what I'm finding and sharing and documenting those stories as I find them!

Ancestry Day!

Today I attended the Ancestry Day held in Raleigh, NC put on by Ancestry.com, the North Carolina State Archives, the North Carolina Genealogical Society, and the State Library of North Carolina.

This was AWESOME!

I am not particularly new to genealogy.  I got interested when I was about 12 years old and was staying with my grandmother after school.  She had a few family bibles she would show me and let me pour over for hours as well as some old hand-typed documents from previous genealogists detailing family history.

I have found family history and genealogical research fascinating ever since.  When I was a teen, I starting compiling that information into family group sheets and pedigree charts and keeping it in 3-ring binders.

In college, for a class project I had to interview a family member and write a paper about their life story in context to historical events, local events, etc. during their lives.  I interviewed my grandmother, which was one of the best college educational experiences I think I had.  I learned so much about her life and about my family history with that one project.  As well as wonderful memories of her I would not have had otherwise.

According to my profile, I've been a member on Ancestry.com since 2011 (although it feels like it has been much, much longer).

More recently, I have come to the conclusion that I need to be more methodical and make my research be much more in line with the genealogical proof standard.  I need to share some of the stories that are floating around in my head that I haven't actually written down (which is part of the point of this blog) but also to keep track of what I factually know (with documentary evidence), what I need to find out, and keeping track of where I've already looked.

Today's sessions were fantastic.  I learned some great search tips for making the most out of the Ancestry.com databases.  How to use wild cards in the searches, how to do searches from the card catalog instead of searching directly from the tree and the advantages of doing some of the searches that way.  As well as exceptional tips on analyzing sources and comparing records.

There was also a session on genetic ancestry research, specifically in reference to Ancestry's DNA test and how they use that for the ethnicity results as well as the cousin matching, DNA circles and new ancestry discoveries and how you can use this information to further your family research.

I also learned more about the NC State Archives and the State Library of North Carolina - I need to make a visit to these sometime soon.  I don't really have many ancestors from NC but they should have some other information that will be very useful.

And the day ended with a wonderful session on using the research you've done to create family stories and how to share those stories with others.

So, I am now totally hyped and I'm sure I'm going to spend the next 12 hours straight glued to my Ancestry.com account (I probably should invest in eye drops because whenever I log into Ancestry.com I totally forget to blink for long periods of time) to try out all the new tips, tricks and skills I picked up today!

Welcome to Consanguineous Connections!

Consanguineous: [kon-sang-gwin-ee-uh s]  Having the same ancestry or descent.

Welcome to my blog dedicated to documenting my family history!  This is a way for me to share the research I've already done with family members but will help me keep track of what I've done and where I need to focus my research.

I have been dabbling in genealogy since I was a teenager and found the old family bibles in my grandparents house.  I loved looking through the pages of births and marriages and deaths and trying to imagine what those lives were like so long ago.  What did these people do?  Where did they go?  If they moved, why?  Who married who?  The millions of questions that pop up when diving into the rabbit hole of genealogical research.

I have finally come to a point in my research where I need to be a bit more systematic and definitely start documenting what I've done and what I need to do.  This blog will help me do that.

As far as the family lines I am researching, my maternal line is my Barber & Hunt lines.  Most of these are in New York and Pennsylvania but it appears the Barber line came to PA from Connecticut.  My paternal line is a bit trickier since my great-grandfather on my paternal grandfather's side was adopted so the Chambers part of my family seems to stop there as I try to uncover that family line.  My paternal grandmother is from southwestern Virginia and those family lines are mostly Dishner and Gillenwater.

I also want a place where I can start writing down and documenting family stories as I uncover them.  I find them very interesting so hopefully others will as well.  So I hope you will enjoy this journey along with me!

If you have questions or comments regarding this blog, please leave a comment!