Chelmsford

Brick Walls – aka 'The Dead End'

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With another busy work project behind me, I had the pleasure of getting out in the world and attending two genealogy talks this week.  One was on DNA and will be the topic of a future post as I need to let the information settle in.

The other talk was “Strategies For Tackling Your Genealogy Brickwall” by Jake Fletcher of the popular blog – Travelogues of a Genealogist (link).  The talk was a part of the Chelmsford (MA) Genealogy Club.

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Over the hour, Jake discussed his go to methods for trying to break down a brick wall including reviewing your documentation with a fresh set of eyes after a while to Researching their occupation, to knowing the geography of a region as county lines often changed.

Another area to look at; Cluster and FAN research – Family/Friends, Associates and Neighbors.  Look at those around your ancestor, their neighbors in city directories, witnesses to records such as land deeds and probate items.  Jake even suggested documenting the names of neighbors five pages before and after their name on a census record to get a better understanding of people they may know and bump into.  Perhaps the close friend who was witness to a marriage had the favor returned by the ancestor you are looking for which could open up a new hint to move on.

He also suggested the use of a research log or journal. As you do your searching, list what you search for, where you search for it, what keywords you may have used and what you found.  You may have found nothing for that matter, and you should list that as well.  Sometimes nothing is the same as finding something – but that is a topic for  a different day.

His Log includes columns for Date, Repository / Website, Title of Collection, Keyword Search, and Results.   I have tried this in the past and I will tell you it is hard to do.  When you do the searches, you need to break from the results and record what you have, and if your anything like me you want to just keep on clicking to see what that record looks like.  I use spreadsheets on  google drive for this purpose but I do think, I want to switch to a paper one to log notes and then transcribe it at a later time.

I also think that the term brick wall can be scary.  Walls keep people from passing.  It is that simple.  Don’t ever give up though.  Genealogy can be like a maze – there is bound to be a way to get through it and some may harder than others, and who knows what the next left turn will bring.

My Hungarian ancestry for instance.  The records have always been there at the Family History Center on microfilm but they were just that far out of reach at the time.  Now, with several of them online and better access to the Family History Center [and more knowledge of]  I am able to travel down that path as far as it will take me.I am fortunate that I don’t (yet) have anything I would consider a brick wall.  While I do have several unfinished ends, I don’t feel that I have researched any of them well enough to place them into that category.  Perhaps though that is what makes it a brick wall in the first place?  Something that gets in the way of your research to make you move on to something seemingly ‘simpler’.

For now though, I will continue to consider my Brick Walls to be nothing more than a bump in the road – some which may be nothing more than a spring pothole.

The Chelmsford Genealogy club meets the first Tuesday of the month at the Chelmsford Library, 25 Boston Road, Chelmsford MA.  Their Next meeting will feature Rhonda R McLure speaking on New England Research. (Link)(Facebook)

Chelmsford Genealogical Conference and the Canadian Census

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Although the week was busy, I still managed to whittle away at a family line and attend the Chelmsford [Massachusetts] Genealogical Society’s Fall Conference.

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Early in the week I managed to locate Theadore Marshall – my Father’s – Mother’s – Father – in the Canadian Census records over at the Library and Archives Canada Website [Link]. The main challenge in searching these records was a different spelling of his name – Theadore vs. Theodore.

Searching by Province, District and age however made the finds possible. When possible I like to start with a broad search, then add additional keywords to those found. If you start too narrow, you may miss something such as an alternate spelling or, in the case of the census and ages, someone one year off on their age.

I am guessing at the moment that I may also have found his father in the 1861 census, but this census does not include the family members names. There is only one Peter Marshall in Annapolis, Nova Scotia and the number of household members matches up.

The Conference was quite enjoyable however I was able to attend only the second half.

I arrived just in time for lunch (how fortuitous) which were several different kinds of hearty looking sandwiches and the assorted accouterments. They looked tasty but I did not pre-register for it as I was unsure I was going to be there in the first place. During lunch most milled around the hall, localizing and networking. I officially met two people that I had seen before at the Hudson [NH] Genealogy club.

I also met Jake Fletcher, a Genealogist that specializes in Maritime history and records. We had been introduced earlier in the week via Facebook and we had a quick moment to chat before the last speaker of the day.

Carol McCoy PhD spoke right after lunch. Her talk was entitled ‘Creative Ways to Solve a Genealogy Problem – where to look when they are not in the census or vital records’. It was a rundown of her work with a client and the way that she was able to conclude a persons relationship when the traditional records could not be located.

She spent much time in land records and trying to follow other parts of family to see if she could find anything. She also explored trying to establish the relationships of two other families in the same, but opposite sides of the town in an attempt to develop a connection.

The last speaker was Thomas Toohey and he showed us maps and lots of them. He talked about local atlases, insurance maps, picture maps and land records and many more… Oh, and where to find some of these.

Image courtesy of the University of New Hampshire Library Digital Collections.

He concluded by showing us the migration of his ancestors from Ireland to Scotland, back to Ireland, to Canada and then to the States.

At the end of the day the organizers had many door prizes to raffle off which was great. One table of ladies made out very well. Prizes ranged from donations from Ancestry.Com, books, a personalized engraved slate, and Genealogist on the Go kits which included a flash drive, white gloves, and a gift card to Dunkin Donuts.

I understand that this conference was just an idea back in January and I applaud all those volunteers who put in time to make this ‘Free’ conference such a success.