Last Friday I watched a video from Crista Cowen, on Ancestry's live stream.  If you have never watched their videos, I highly recommend them.  I have learned a great deal about searching more wisely on Ancestry, especially when it comes to the card catalog.

In this particular video, she made a statement at the beginning that really hit me.  Basically (and I am paraphrasing here), we create our own brick walls sometimes by tripping over clues that we already have.

Case in point for me:

My step-cousin, Frank, shared this photo with me several years ago.  I was stoked to have something about my Great Great Grandfather Borsey, since at the time, we didn't know much.  But I tucked it away in my files, and didn't think much more of it until last week, when I decided to look at it again.  And there were some glaring clues that I had tripped over for sure!

On the first line it says "Transportation of remains from Eastview".  I had assumed that was a cemetery in Westchester County, NY.  So off to Find A Grave.

Once I click on that link, there was a rather long description:

"Cemetery notes and/or description:
In 1824, New York State legislated that each county had to establish an institution for the care of the poor. So Westchester County purchased 110 acres of farmland in East Tarrytown / Knapp's Corners, and built what is now known as the Westchester County Alms House. The Alms House opened up in 1828. Knapp's Corners later became known as 'East View', the name of a 350-acre estate purchased by James Butler in 1893. East View (or Eastview) is considered to be a hamlet in the town of Mount Pleasant, NY.

The County Alms House was actually a complex of buildings. It included a main building to accomodate the 'inmates', a laundry house, a tramp house, stables, & outhouses. It also had a small plot of land set aside for a cemetery (the 'County Alms House Cemetery'). I believe in 1914 the Alms House in Eastview was closed for use as the 'poor house', & that it was converted into a hospital for a short period of time (the 'Westchester County Hospital').

The County Alms House Cemetery was used to bury the poor of the county. It also included persons whose identities were unknown. Many of the cemetery burials were for people from the Alms House, local hospitals, nursing homes, & penitentiary.

The Westchester County Historical Society has old maps of the Alms House complex. On a 1901 map of Eastview, NY you can see the cemetery listed as the 'County House Cemetery.' It was also referred to as the 'County Alms House Cemetery'. This cemetery was used for close to 100 years (c.1827-c.1920).

After 1920, a new cemetery was built for the poor of Westchester County. This cemetery was called 'Potter's Field' and it was built on the 'Grasslands' complex in Valhalla, NY. The burials for this cemetery can be found on the FindAGrave website. There is a cemetery map which was created with all the occupants of the Potter's Field cemetery - it is available at the Westchester County Archives.

In 1935, the land where the County Alms House Cemetery was located was given over to make way for the construction of the Saw Mill River Parkway. Instead of disturbing any of the existing graves, the cemetery in Eastview was covered over with 20 feet of dirt and the Parkway was then built over it. This old cemetery would've been located somewhere around the present-day vicinity of Exit 23 off of the Saw Mill River Parkway." (you can find it at this link.

Well........So then back to the paper.  About half way down is this: "Cemetery Charges at St Mary's Cemetery".  Off to Find A Grave again to search.  There are five St. Mary's cemeteries in the Westchester area.  A search of all five comes up empty for a William Borsey.  But, that doesn't mean  he isn't in one.  I am going to next email to each one, asking for information, and a map.  I suspect he is either in the one in Yonkers, or Rye Brook.  The others are extremely small, and it's unlikely he would be there.

I look at this paper, and my first thought was..."gee, it didn't cost much to bury someone back then".  But I also had to put it into perspective:  My Great Grandparents had only been married two years at the time, and the cost of a funeral for a young couple just starting out must have been a huge burden.  Especially back then, when wages were pennies a day, compared today.

Always take time to go back over your research, and make sure you look at it with new eyes.  Don't just assume you know what that random scrap of history says.  Really stop and look at it, absorb it.

On page 342, of the "Wolverhampton St. Peter's Baptisms 1813-1875 A-Ed"  I found my GGGrandfather, Joseph Ede.  Further research in the other indexes for St. Peter's also found most of Edgar and Esther's other children, and even a listing for Edgar and Esther's marriage.  I have contacted the appropriate records department, and will be ordering copies of each of these records as the budget allows.

A quick jump over to Wikipedia, and this is what I found on St. Peter's:

"St Peter's Collegiate Church is located on the highest and the oldest developed site in central Wolverhampton, England.[1] For many centuries it was a chapel royal, and from 1480 a royal peculiar, independent of the Diocese of Lichfield and even the Province of Canterbury. The collegiate church was central to the development of the town of Wolverhampton, much of which belonged to its dean. Until the 18th century, it was the only church in Wolverhampton and the control of the college extended far into the surrounding area, with dependent chapels in several towns and villages of southern Staffordshire.

Fully integrated into the diocesan structure since 1848, today St Peter's is part of the Anglican Parish of Central Wolverhampton. The Grade I listed building, much of which is Perpendicular in style, dating from the 15th century, is of significant architectural and historical interest. Although it is not a cathedral, it has a strong choral foundation with the Music at St Peter's in keeping with English Cathedral tradition. The Father Willis organ is of particular note: a campaign to raise £270,000 for its restoration was launched in 2008.[2]" (courtesy of Wikipedia: St. Peter's Collegiate Church)

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia: St. Peter's Collegiate Church

That is one amazing church!  Maybe someday I will get to visit in person, and see this, as well as where they lived and worked.

Because of budget concerns, yesterday I had to temporarily cancel my paid membership for Ancestry.  I still have access to it for a bit, so I need to download my updated GEDCOM (I added about 5 more people to it yesterday), so that I can work with it offline.

Anne Gillespie Mitchell wrote a great post on her blog back on the 14th...."Stop Searching, Start Analyzing".  And this is exactly what I need to do.  And what better time than while my Ancestry account is on hold.  I need to get my OneNote notebooks set up properly for each family.  That alone could take a month!  I am going to tackle it one family at a time, add my documents/images, and do proper sourcing for what I know. I need the practice on the source citations, so this will be a good work out for me.

Yesterday someone shared a new pin on Pinterest, that had a video with a downloadable OneNote template for creating a research plan.  I love it, and will be incorporating it into my notebooks for each person.  Even if they are not a "brick wall", this is a good way to get a full overview of what you have, or don't have.  In genealogy, there is always the tendency to miss something.  This will also allow me to make a list of documents I need to request.  I know it's a lot, and budget wise, it's going to take awhile.  From the Ferguson Library in Stamford, CT alone, I need 20 obituary notices, to the tune of $20 each.  I need to prioritize what I want to get first.

Because I am house sitting for the week, I don't have access to my printer, to get documents printed out for my paper files.  After losing a huge amount of resources by relying on an online service a few years ago, I want those paper files.  Besides, who knows what technology will look like in even 10 years from now.  Will anyone in my family be able to access my files if there aren't paper backups?  I don't want all my hard work to go to waste.

Take Anne's advice.  Stop, breathe, and take the time to review what you have collected.  You just might see something you didn't before.

The other day, I watched several webinars that covered citing sources...

Citing Sources (Ancestry.com) with Anne Mitchell, and part two here.   I also watched "The 5c's for Success in Genealogy Today" with Barbara Renick.  Anne provided a great tip, which if I had remembered my secretarial days, I would have thought of myself.  Basically, use templates to help you cite your common sources, like census records.  Why constantly work to come up with the right format, when you can use a preformatted template, and just change a few key parts to fit the particular census you are citing (date, place, etc).  I HIGHLY recommend you watch the videos, especially if you are just starting out in genealogy, and documenting your family history.

While Barbara's webinar wasn't specifically about citing sources, the last part she did, covering this topic, hit home for me.  We all have things from our beginning days as family researchers, where we just went willy nilly, collecting information without noting where it came from.  I have a recent example.....

Not long ago, I read somewhere that the border between NY and CT, near where my great grandfather was born, was very fluid for a long time.  This would involve Westchester county in NY, and Fairfield county in CT.  I think I remember it saying that if someone was actually born in Rye or Poundridge NY, which is so close to the Fairfield county border, before 1870, that their records would be in Fairfield county.  I say "I think" because, I forgot to save the link, or even copy and paste the information for future use.  Now I can't remember where I read it.  Drats!!!

Barbara shared a "chant" that was taught to her in a course...I am adopting it as my mantra:

When looking at ANY information, follow these steps:

1. FIND the source of information
2. CITE the source (don't read it until you do this!!!  Even if there is no useable information that applies to your research.  You will have a record that you already looked at that particular source).
3. SEARCH the source
4. COPY the source....write down any information you find that is relevant to your research, or copy/paste into a digital research notebook (I prefer OneNote).
5. EVALUATE the source - is it a primary source or derivative?  How reliable is the source?
6. REPEAT all the above steps and collect more information.  Never rely on just one source in your research.
7. ANALYZE and ADD - analyze the information you have found, and when you are sure of your findings, then add it to your family tree information.  

Now, I will admit, that if I find something on Ancestry or Family Search, that is pretty clear cut, I automatically add it to that person in my online tree.  The reason for this is because my Ancestry tree is my "working" tree.  It is always in a state of being updated, changed, etc.  When I am pretty sure of a fact, I put the information, with sources to back it up, into my online tree (noting that it might need more research).  I don't transfer it to my tree in Roots Magic until I can verify it ...within reason. Sometimes you only have once source.  If I feel it is accurate (which is a complete judgement call), I will add it to my master tree in my program on the computer.  

And sometimes, I add things to my shoebox on Ancestry.  Things that look like they might be a help, but need more analysis.  By doing this I am still keeping the record handy.  I have had times where I have found something, took a mental note of it, but didn't save it, and then couldn't find it again.  This goes back to citing your sources....always find a way to save what you find, whether it's online or on your own computer.  Something as simple as a Word document can be invaluable.  Write out what you find, paste a link to where you found out, and save it for future reference.  It always amazes me, when I look at notes I took 10 years ago, what my thought process was.  And many times I see things right there in front of my face, that I didn't see back then.

Both Anne and Barbara mentioned using a tool called Snag-It.  This can be a bit pricey at $50 if you are on a budget.  But I like the concept....it will snag what is on a webpage.  All of it.  Unlike the normal screen capture (PrtScrn) on your computer, which will only grab what is visible in the screen.  I can't afford that $50 at the moment though, so I did a search for free options. The one that I will give a try is called ScreenHunter Free.  Cnet gives it extremely high ratings, and that is a bonus.  I will update you down the road as to how I think it works.

I might be a day or so behind, as I just checked my gmail account for genealogy stuff, but Ancestry has indexed all of the 1940 census, and it is now searchable.

This was a huge thing for me, because whenever I tried the tricks offered using the street name and enumeration district from the 1930 census, I came up empty.  In my searches, I could not for the life of me, find East Meadow Street in the 1940 census.  Stamford, CT was a big city back then, being a huge boom town since the late 1800's, and the massive immigration of the Irish.  There was no way I was going to through, page by page by page, to find them.  So I waited.  Sometimes patiently lol .

This one contains my grandfather, Gordon E. Nichols and his family.  Including my great grandfather Arthur E. Nichols, who passed away later in 1940.  I am glad he was still alive for the census, although I suspect he was probably already sick.

(Source:  Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1940. T627, 4,643 rolls.)

I did make a correction to the transcribing, as they were listed as "Nicholas".  I can't blame the wonderful indexer, as the handwriting on this one is not great (big surprise there, wonder if they ever thought to make the census takers do a handwriting course).

And this is my grandfather Mayo H. Blanchard, and his family.  He is always pretty easy to find, due to his unusual name. I also made a small correction to the transcribing on this one, as my uncle's name is Alfred, not "Affred".  That was the census taker's fault.

(Source: Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1940. T627, 4,643 rolls.)

My father and mother will not show up in the 1940 census, as they were born 1942 and 1943, respectively.  But many of my aunts and uncles are there. It is kind of funny to see them as little children.  I want to do nothing more than spend the day working to find others, but I must get my homeschool planning done for my boys first, since we begin the new year on Monday.

I will be definitely getting my files set up so that I can get back to searching, as soon as I possibly can.

And I just want to take a minute to thank all those wonderful volunteers who have worked so hard to make the 1940 census available to all of us.  It is so appreciated! 

I personally am of the mind that my tree is a work in progress.  Both on my Blanchard side of the family, and the Goyette side, I can trace my tree back quite far.  I have found out this information through others who have the documentation to prove it.  I don't yet, but am working on it, one person at a time.

I see my Ancestry tree as a place to work, adding sources as I find them.  The final product is what I add to my genealogy program on my computer.  I update the online tree at Ancestry, so that it is as accurate as possible, when I find new information that either proves or disproves a fact/theory.

I do wish their was a place on my tree to add a note stating that this is a working tree, and that no one should take any person as "proven" until I can confirm sources.  But, I think anyone who is serious about their family history will see this.  There will always be those who just copy people from one tree to another, willy nilly.  You can't prevent them from doing this.  They are not really interested in the stories of their family, but rather collecting people on their trees, like trophies.

It is very exciting to find that I have some pretty well known people on the Blanchard side of my family, but I am just as excited to find out the stories and facts about those every day people on my tree, like my Great Grandfather Nichols.  As I have said before, the every day, ordinary people are the ones who worked hard to make this country what it is, and their stories are just as important as those who made a name for themselves.

How do you use your online tree?