Mystery Monday: The John White Family and Puritanism

image_pdfimage_print
Pilgrims Going to Church by George Henry Boughton (1867), via Wikipedia, public domain.

McMurray Family, Benjamin Family (Click for Family Tree)

Yesterday’s post reviewed a bit of the life of John White, our Puritan ancestor who immigrated to New England about 1638 with his family. The sources listed below will provide more details about all the land he was granted in the Puritan colony of Wenham, which was a part of Salem, Massachusetts at the time.

Although the Puritans came to the New World to find religious freedom, the Puritans wanted only those who worshipped the same way to live in their colonies- no religious tolerance was allowed by the Puritans. Those who had other ideas and challenged the Puritan church were expelled from the colonies, such as Anne Hutchinson, a lay minister (and a woman!! and mother of 11…), and Roger Williams, who founded Rhode Island where all could practice religion as they desired. Mary Dyer was hanged by the Puritans of Boston for her Quaker beliefs and not leaving the colony when ordered to do so. The Puritans also were very intolerant of Anglicans,  Baptists, but especially Catholics: a Catholic who had been banished from the colony once would be executed at a second offense.

So was John White a Puritan? It seems he would have been required to be of the faith, since he was granted so much acreage by those in charge of the colony. He, in fact, was one of the largest landholders.

But, his “…name does not appear upon the church roll” per an 1898 letter concerning the Church Record kept by Rev. John Fisk, Pastor of the First Church in Wenham, Massachusetts, organized in 1644. (The Fisks married into the White family.)

We do know that his wife, Joane (West) White, became a member of the very first church formed in Salem on Feb. 26, 1642-3, and three of their children were baptized there- but in their mother’s name. This is curious because in the Puritan faith, the father was the undisputed head of household, and held all power within the family.

The family held lands in Wenham, which was considered a part of Salem, Massachusetts at that time. As the population grew with “The Great Migration” from England, a second church, actually in nearby Wenham, was formed. To become a new member of that church, which was closer to their home, Joane had to be dismissed in good standing from the Salem church, and then accepted into the new church.

Part of her dismissal letter to the Wenham church read:

Whereas Joane White a member of our Congregation, by reason of her abode with you, cannot so well partake with us in ye Ordinances: nor live under our watch…

Know you therefore yet we have consented thereto & request you to receive her in ye Lord, as becometh Scts. & watch over her, administering to her all ye holy things of his house yt she may be prsented blamelesse in ye day of Jesus Christ…

Part of the Puritan faith included watching over the other members and ensuring that they followed the rules of the Bible and society. This preserved order as well as prepared individuals, if they were chosen by God, to go to Heaven. The Puritans did not believe that a life of good works would get one to Heaven- they believed in predestination. However, if chosen, their life would need to have been “blamelesse” in order to receive the Grace of God in the hereafter.

The letter was dated “Salem, 10, 2, 45”- the Puritans dated with the day of the month first, then the month. At that time, the 2nd month of the year was April, as their year started in March, not January. The year was 1645. Seeing that they casually left off the first two digits of the year, as we often do today, could they have imagined that their descendants would have to determine which century they were referencing 373 years later?? They would not have been able to even comprehend the technology that we are using at this moment for me to write this, nor you to read it via computer and the internet. (Nor can we predict how our descendants might read this 373 years from today, in the year 2391!)

Joane’s letter of dismissal from the Salem church was only the first half of her move to the new Wenham congregation. On that same day, 10 April 1645, the letter was read and accepted by the Wenham faithful at a church meeting. As caretaker’s of each member’s soul, the new church wanted to make sure that Joane was faithful enough:

Hereupon ye church desired of her being present to make a declaration of ye worke of Grace on her soule w’ch was done, ye substance whereof was this:

She was brought up in a poore Ignorant place &c. [etc]

her 1st conviction was of ye sins of ye breach of ye sabbath & ye taking of Gods name in vayne, from Commandments 3 & 4th, her hearte being drawn towards New England because good people came hither:–

At last by a providence comeing over was shut up for a long space of time liveing far remote in ye woods from ye means, (of grace) & reading in Romans 10, Faith commeth by hearing: put her affections onward, towards ye desire of ye meanes: — afterwards at Ipswich…– her consent & closure.

Puritans believed that it wasn’t enough to just say that you were a Puritan- one had to have a conversion, or “conviction”- a spiritual event within oneself that bound your soul to God. So the church elders would have asked her about that event, and Joane stated that she was brought up ignorant of the faith. She did have a realization that she was sinful in not keeping the Sabbath and by taking God’s name in vain. Knowing that the faithful were migrating to New England, she too desired to make the journey, which became spiritual as well as physical. Once she got to the colony, however, it was such a deep wilderness and there was little mobility for a woman with many children when walking, riding horseback, or going by boat were all dangerous journeys due to the wildlife, the natives, the weather, etc.

Joane did, however, probably have her Bible in the wilderness, and as she was probably able to read Romans 10, she realized that she needed to be a part of a church with a preacher to speak of the faith. She apparently decided that at Ipswich, which was about 7 miles from Wenham. (This is about a three-hour walk today with paved roads, but going through the wilds of Massachusetts in 1645 might have taken much longer.)

The men of the church asked Joane more questions, and she gave her confession and acceptance of the church Covenant.  Satisfied with her conviction and answers, the elders told her to come back the next Sabbath.

Three days later, on 13 April 1645, Joane returned to the Wenham church:

After ye sermon & singing, ye letters of dismission concerning Joane White were publickly read, and after that ye Church had by vote manifested their willingness to reach forth unto her ye right hand of fellowship: –she was admitted & pronounced and actual member of this church.

Knowing that the family practiced Puritanism, we can surmise that the whole family was literate. Puritan leaders believed that wives, children, and servants should be able to read the Bible as well as civil laws, and in 1642 in Massachusetts, the leaders required husbands to teach reading and writing to their family and servants. Five years later Massachusetts required a teacher and school for any town over 50 households, and Harvard and Yale were founded to further educate men for the ministry.

Learning of Joane’s involved process of becoming a church member, we can understand why her husband, John White, may not have been listed on a church roll. By the 1640s, the second generation of the first Pilgrims had become more lax in requiring a “conviction” experience, yet some were allowed to “be” Puritans so that the faith would not lose members. John may have been one of those who had not experienced a “conviction” or who was more interested in survival and business than his own spiritual journey, so he probably never joined the church. A Puritan wife, however, had the duty of ensuring that her children were brought up properly in the faith, and Joane did just that.

The Puritan tradition lived on in the Congregational Church, and we have quite a few ancestors who were deacons,  ministers, and/or missionaries in the Congregational church. None were descended from John White, but they carried the spirit of Puritanism that he must have embodied despite not officially being a church member.

 

Notes, Sources, and References: 

  1. I am definitely not an authority on religious thought and practice, but the above is my understanding from the copious reading I have done on the subject. For more information on Puritanism and some of our other family members who practiced that faith, see also “Thankful Thursday: Thanksgiving Day has New Meaning This Year”–https://heritageramblings.net/2015/11/26/thankful-thursday-thanksgiving-day-has-new-meaning-this-year/
  2. “Sorting Sunday: John White, Our Puritan Immigrant,” Heritage Ramblings blog.  https://heritageramblings.net/2018/11/25/sorting-sunday-john-white-our-puritan-immigrant/
  3. Genealogy of the Descendants of John White of Wenham and Lancaster, Massachusetts. 1638-1900, in Two Volumes. Almira Larkin White, 1900. Volume 1 has provided information for this blog post. Both volumes are available on archive.org.
  4. Ancestry.com. Colonial Families of the USA, 1607-1775 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016. This collection was indexed by Ancestry World Archives Project contributors. Accessed 11/24/2018. Original data: Mackenzie, George Norbury, and Nelson Osgood Rhoades, editors. Colonial Families of the United States of America: in Which is Given the History, Genealogy and Armorial Bearings of Colonial Families Who Settled in the American Colonies From the Time of the Settlement of Jamestown, 13th May, 1607, to the Battle of Lexington, 19th April, 1775. 7 volumes. 1912. Reprinted, Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1966, 1995.
  5. “Puritans”– https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puritans#Puritans_in_North_America; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Puritans_under_King_Charles_I#The_foundation_of_Puritan_New_England,_1630–1642; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puritan_migration_to_New_England_(1620–40)
  6. The Puritan Family: Religion and Domestic Relations in Seventeenth-Century New England by Edmund S. Morgan, 1966.

 

Click to enlarge any image. Please contact us if you would like an image in higher resolution.

We would love to read your thoughts and comments about this post (see form below), and thank you for your time! All comments are moderated, however, due to the high intelligence and persistence of spammers/hackers who really should be putting their smarts to use for the public good instead of spamming our little blog.

Original content copyright 2013-2018 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.

Family history is meant to be shared, but the original content of this site may NOT be used for any commercial purposes unless explicit written permission is received from both the blog owner and author. Blogs or websites with ads and/or any income-generating components are included under “commercial purposes,” as are the large genealogy database websites. Sites that republish original HeritageRamblings.net content as their own are in violation of copyright as well, and use of full content is not permitted. 
Descendants and researchers MAY download images and posts to share with their families, and use the information on their family trees or in family history books with a small number of reprints. Please make sure to credit and cite the information properly, i.e, reference this blog.
 Please contact us if you have any questions about copyright or use of our blog material.

Sorting Sunday: John White, Our Puritan Immigrant

image_pdfimage_print
The Puritan by Augustus Saint Gaudens – Springfield, Massachusetts, via Wikipedia, public domain.

McMurray Family, Benjamin Family (Click for Family Tree)

Now that we are all post Thanksgiving-turkey-and-pie-food-comas and on to the shopping frenzy, if your feet or fingers would like to take a break, here is a bit about our own Puritan immigrant, John White.

First, an important note: There are two other men named John White who came to the colonies very early. One, a minister and founder of Massachusetts, travelled the ocean on another ship named Mayflower– not the original, 1620 vessel- and the other came in 1632 on the ship Lyon. Our McMurray-Benjamin line is not related to either of these men, as far as we have been able to ascertain. (See notes below.) There are some online family trees, however, that do have these three men mixed up (I too was confused by them for many years), so be careful out there in wild, wild GenealogyTreeLand.

∇∇∇∇∇∇∇∇∇∇∇∇∇∇∇∇∇∇∇∇∇∇∇∇∇∇

The years before 1638 were difficult ones for the English. Charles the First was king, and he, like his father, had abandoned many of the practices of the Anglican Church founded by Henry VIII in the 1530s. The “Eleven Years Tyranny” from 1629-1640 was also called “The Personal Rule,” as Charles insisted on the return of sacraments and religious ceremonies similar to those of the Catholic Church, which had been outlawed for much of the previous century. This “return to popery,” as many called it, caused the Puritans to become even more dissatisfied with the English government. Charles 1 created illegal taxes as well, placing significant burdens on the common people, including many merchant Puritans, and was so frustrated with Parliament not giving him what he wanted that he disbanded it several times. (Hence, “The Personal Rule.”) With further persecution of Puritan clergy and laymen alike, many more decided to leave England. By 1638, four Puritans had been “martyred” to the cause (tortured and imprisoned, but not executed), the last of them due to importation of works censored because they were critical of the king and his government. Many Puritans lost hope that their religion and country would be reformed to be more “pure.” Perhaps this was the final motivator for “our” John White and his family to undertake the perilous voyage to New England. It was good timing, as civil war was soon to come in England (1641).

We have no record of exactly when and from where the John White family took leave of chaotic England and set sail, nor the name of the ship that carried them to the shores of New England. In 1784, a descendant recorded that John came from the west part of England, and more recent research verifies that he was baptized in South Petherton, Somerset, England (SW England), and born about 1602. He married Joan West in Drayton Parish of Somerset, in 1627.  Five of the known White children were born in England, with Mary born there about 1635; the rest were born in Massachusetts. There is record of John White being “of Salem in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, 1638,” per the White genealogy, although a GoogleBooks description states they migrated in 1639 to Salem, Massachusetts. (This date might be because of the land grant date- see next paragraph.)

Knee buckles worn by John White on his voyage from England to Massachusetts in 1638. Genealogy of the Descendants of John White of Wenham and Lancaster Massachusetts by Almira Larkin White, 1900, page 17.

 

The Puritans had strict rules for those who lived in their colonies, and John was officially “received an inhabitant of Salem” in August, 1639, when he was granted 60 acres of land. On Feb.1, 1642, he was granted 6 acres of meadow at nearby Wenham, which he had already been mowing “for these 2 or 3 years past.” Town records note at least 48 more acres were granted to John White, and the first saw and grist mill in Wenham was built on a stream that ran through John’s land.

Although there has been an assumption that John White was a Puritan, curiously, we have no real documentation of him being a church member. More to come on that point, but we do know that he lived in Puritan colonies and was granted land by the Puritans. He and his family came to New England just 18 years after the first Pilgrims landed, but their stories differed in many ways- we will explore that further in future posts.

 

Notes, Sources, and References: 

  1. “Mayflower” was a common name used for ships in England. A second Mayflower made the trip to Plymouth Colony in 1629, also carrying Puritans from Leiden. In 1630 this same Mayflower was a part of the Winthrop Fleet, and the “other” (Rev.) John White, of Dorchester, England, was a part of passengers in this fleet. This Mayflower made 3 more successful trips to the colonies but was lost on a fourth trip in 1641.The original Mayflower of Plymouth Rock fame had returned to London in 1621, and her captain and owner died in 1622. The ship laid in the Thames in London (it is believed) until an appraisal in 1624 for Capt. Jones’ estate inventory. No one knows for sure what happened to her after that time, though it is surmised she was taken apart and timbers used in various land structures. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayflower for more information.
  2. Yet another John White of Messing, Essex, England, immigrated to the colonies in 1632 on the ship Lyon. He first lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts, then Hartford, Hadley, and Hartford again. See The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633, Vols. 1-3, page 1976-1979, by Robert Charles Anderson, NEHGS.
  3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puritans, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Puritans_under_King_Charles_I
  4. Genealogy of the Descendants of John White of Wenham and Lancaster, Massachusetts. 1638-1900, in Two Volumes. Almira Larkin White, 1900. Volume 1 has provided information for this blog post. Both volumes are available on archive.org.
  5. Ancestry.com. Colonial Families of the USA, 1607-1775 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016. This collection was indexed by Ancestry World Archives Project contributors. Accessed 11/24/2018. Original data: Mackenzie, George Norbury, and Nelson Osgood Rhoades, editors. Colonial Families of the United States of America: in Which is Given the History, Genealogy and Armorial Bearings of Colonial Families Who Settled in the American Colonies From the Time of the Settlement of Jamestown, 13th May, 1607, to the Battle of Lexington, 19th April, 1775. 7 volumes. 1912. Reprinted, Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1966, 1995.
  6.  Genealogy of the Descendants of John White of Wenham and Lancaster, Massachusetts. Almira Larkin White, Chase Brothers, 1900. (Also brief bio.) https://books.google.com/books/about/Genealogy_of_the_Descendants_of_John_Whi.html?id=uqVbAAAAMAAJ

 

Click to enlarge any image. Please contact us if you would like an image in higher resolution.

We would love to read your thoughts and comments about this post (see form below), and thank you for your time! All comments are moderated, however, due to the high intelligence and persistence of spammers/hackers who really should be putting their smarts to use for the public good instead of spamming our little blog.

Original content copyright 2013-2018 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.

Family history is meant to be shared, but the original content of this site may NOT be used for any commercial purposes unless explicit written permission is received from both the blog owner and author. Blogs or websites with ads and/or any income-generating components are included under “commercial purposes,” as are the large genealogy database websites. Sites that republish original HeritageRamblings.net content as their own are in violation of copyright as well, and use of full content is not permitted. 
Descendants and researchers MAY download images and posts to share with their families, and use the information on their family trees or in family history books with a small number of reprints. Please make sure to credit and cite the information properly, i.e, reference this blog.
 Please contact us if you have any questions about copyright or use of our blog material.

Shopping Saturday: William Elmer McMurray as a Newton, Iowa Merchant

image_pdfimage_print

 

“A group of Newton residents are shown gathered in front of Willis McCollum’s grocery store in 1892.” Will McMurray is the second from the left. See below for further discussion. Reprinted in the Newton Daily News, 10 Aug 1957. (We apologize for the poor quality of this old clipping that has been in a box for 61 years.) (Click to enlarge.)

McMurray Family (Click for Family Tree)

The above photo was taken in 1892, in front of Willis McCollom’s grocery store on the northeast corner of the square in Newton, Iowa. Will McMurray is the tall slender man who is the second from the left. Behind his left shoulder is a salesman from Chicago (in the deep shadow) and the man to the right is Willis McCollom, store owner. (Note spelling on awning vs. spelling in caption.)

Seven years later, the Newton Record of Feb. 23, 1899 printed the following ad on page 8:

McMurray-Killduff grocery announcement in the Newton Record, Feb. 23, 1899, page 8. (Click to enlarge.)

“We are young in years

but not young in the grocery business.”

If Will McMurray & William Charles Killduff had been employed for a “few years” by Grocer McCollom, possibly since about 1896, Will would have been about 22 when he started there. William Killduff was three years older than Will McMurray; maybe as teens they worked as delivery boys for McColloms.

How did these two end up partners? It was more than having worked at the same store or possibly being friends- William C. “W. C.” Killduff married Will McMurray’s cousin, Mae Benjamin. Mae was the daughter of Jonathan Elliot Benjamin, brother to Will McMurray’s mother, Hannah Melissa (Benjamin) McMurray. So, with W. C.’s marriage, the two Wills became cousins.

The year 1899 was quite a special year for both families. In addition to purchasing the McCollom Grocery in February of 1899, Will married Lynette Payne on 6 June 1899 and W. C. married Mae Benjamin in October of 1899. The two gents were preparing to support a family with the purchase of the store, so this event was more than just a business decision.

More to come about the McMurray-Killduff Grocery.

 

Notes, Sources, and References: 

  1. Newspaper clippings from family treasure chest but referenced above.

 

Click to enlarge any image. Please contact us if you would like an image in higher resolution.

We would love to read your thoughts and comments about this post (see form below), and thank you for your time! All comments are moderated, however, due to the high intelligence and persistence of spammers/hackers who really should be putting their smarts to use for the public good instead of spamming our little blog.

Original content copyright 2013-2018 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.

Family history is meant to be shared, but the original content of this site may NOT be used for any commercial purposes unless explicit written permission is received from both the blog owner and author. Blogs or websites with ads and/or any income-generating components are included under “commercial purposes,” as are the large genealogy database websites. Sites that republish original HeritageRamblings.net content as their own are in violation of copyright as well, and use of full content is not permitted. 
Descendants and researchers MAY download images and posts to share with their families, and use the information on their family trees or in family history books with a small number of reprints. Please make sure to credit and cite the information properly, i.e, reference this blog.
 Please contact us if you have any questions about copyright or use of our blog material.

Friday’s Faces from the Past: Young William Elmer McMurray

image_pdfimage_print
McMurray-Benjamin Family circa 1886: Frederick Asbury McMurray, Hannah "Melissa" Benjamin McMurray, William Elmer McMurray, Harry J. McMurray, Addie Belle McMurray, Roy McMurray, and Ray McMurray (baby)
McMurray-Benjamin Family circa 1887: Frederick Asbury McMurray and his wife, Hannah “Melissa” (Benjamin) McMurray, William Elmer McMurray (standing in back, viewer’s left), Harry J. McMurray (standing in back, right), Addie Belle McMurray (standing on far left with bow on her dress), Roy McMurray (sitting in front, left), and Ray McMurray (baby being held on Melissa’s lap).

McMurray Family (Click for Family Tree)

[How are we related? Will McMurray was the father of Dr. Edward A. McMurray, Herbert C. McMurray, and Maude (McMurray) Cook.]

How many baby pictures exist of you? How many of your children, if you have any? Do you have boxes and boxes of photos, documenting every single year and special event?

We are almost overwhelmed with photos these days, both physical and digital, but for the Frederick Asbury and Hannah Melissa (Benjamin) McMurray family, that was not a problem. Before the invention of small consumer cameras, a family had to go to a professional photographer to get a picture taken of the family or child, or utilize an itinerant photographer who carried all studio equipment with him/her. (Some photographers, especially out west, even outfitted a train car with a studio and darkroom! They would advertise their arrival date ahead of time, stop in a small town for a couple of days and take photos and print them, then move on.) Family historians lament the lack of photos available for our ancestors, but there just weren’t that many taken, plus they were destroyed by fires, floods, humidity, and/or heat. They may have been left behind when migrating to a new place, split among a dozen children, thrown out by descendants who did not care about them, or they exist somewhere, maybe in an antique store but have no name, date, or place on them, so we cannot know if the images are of those who shared their DNA with us to make us who we are today.

We are so lucky to have this photo, and know each of the persons in it! This is the earliest photo we have that shows the McMurray family or any of their children. Our subject today is William Elmer McMurray in his younger years, so we will focus on him in this and some upcoming posts, but childhood years would have been fairly similar for Will’s siblings too: Harry James McMurray, Addie Belle McMurray, Roy McMurray, and Ray McMurray.

William Elmer McMurray, circa 1887, about age 13, cropped from family photo.

Will, or Bill, as he was known in later years but maybe even as a child, was the oldest of the McMurray children. He was born 15 June 1874 in Newton or Marshalltown, Iowa, or may have actually been born out on the farm. His parents had married the year before, but we don’t know yet whether they had their own land at that point, were living on the farm of one of their parents, or lived in town and worked out on a parent’s (or someone else’s) farm.

Growing up on the farm as he most likely did gave Will the opportunity to have the freedom of country life yet he would have had the responsibilities of the eldest son of a farmer. Will was six years old in 1880 and attended school per the US Federal Census. His brother Harry, age 4, and sister Addie, age 2, were “at home” with Hannah, and F. A. was listed as a farmer, as were the other heads of household on the 8 June 1880 US Federal Census for Newton Township, Jasper County, Iowa. As F.A. McMurray was also an auctioneer who traveled all over the county, and sometimes even to other counties, Will probably went with him at times as a helper and to learn the business.

A big change was coming to the McMurray family- by 1885, when Will was 10, the Iowa State Census noted that Will’s father, Frederick Asbury McMurray, had a second-hand store, and they were living in East Newton, at “Out Lot 26, Newton.” Will’s Aunt Mary McMurray (his father’s sister), who was 27 and single, was also living in the household, and working as a dressmaker. (She never married, and lived to be 100 years, 2 months old!) The big move to town would have been quite a lot of work for the whole family, though since F.A. was an auctioneer, selling off their farm equipment, grain, and livestock would have been a bit easier than calling in a stranger. Whatever was left over of household goods could be put in the second-hand store, and Will and his siblings most likely did a lot of carrying to and fro with the move.

We have the above picture from about 1887- the date estimate is calculated from ages of the children, with baby Roy being born 29 October of 1886, we can guess he is over 3 months old so the picture was likely taken in 1887. Then we have a gap of about five years, from 1887-1892, when we know very little about what was going on with the family, other than some articles about Will’s father conducting auctions around the county. (Sadly the 1890 US Federal Censuses were destroyed.) By 1892, Will was about to open a new chapter of his life, and it is there that we will pick up the story on another day.

Notes, Sources, and References: 

  1. See references within article.

 

Click to enlarge any image. Please contact us if you would like an image in higher resolution.

We would love to read your thoughts and comments about this post (see form below), and thank you for your time! All comments are moderated, however, due to the high intelligence and persistence of spammers/hackers who really should be putting their smarts to use for the public good instead of spamming our little blog.

Original content copyright 2013-2018 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.

Family history is meant to be shared, but the original content of this site may NOT be used for any commercial purposes unless explicit written permission is received from both the blog owner and author. Blogs or websites with ads and/or any income-generating components are included under “commercial purposes,” as are the large genealogy database websites. Sites that republish original HeritageRamblings.net content as their own are in violation of copyright as well, and use of full content is not permitted. 
Descendants and researchers MAY download images and posts to share with their families, and use the information on their family trees or in family history books with a small number of reprints. Please make sure to credit and cite the information properly, i.e, reference this blog.
 Please contact us if you have any questions about copyright or use of our blog material.

Thriller Thursday: Getting Started in Genealogy

image_pdfimage_print
Edith (ROBERTS) [McMURRAY] Luck at her desk in Newton, Iowa, 1980. Edith’s love of her family  and their stories helped to inspire some young budding family historians/archivists.

Why is this a “Thriller Thursday” post? Because we have new interest within the family to document and preserve the past, and that is THRILLING! It is so wonderful to find connections between cousins and our ancestors through DNA, online trees, and communicating via email, sites like FaceBook, or wonderfully, in person! Unless we preserve the little pieces we each have and share them, there will be much missing in the stories of our family.

A number of cousins have asked for suggestions on getting started, and after starting a long email to one cousin, it seemed a bit easier to put it out in a blog post, along with some links that might be useful.

So here are some of my thoughts on doing genealogy, and I hope that they will help those interested.

♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦
There are so many ways to do and organize genealogy. An Ancestry.com public tree will give you the most exposure for finding cousins, even if you do not pay for the service. (Most libraries have a version of Ancestry that can be used for research.) Software on one’s own computer allows more privacy for living people although it is tough to keep two trees current. There is some concern about using genealogy software- when they no longer support a program, what will happen to your data? They always keep their data in a ‘proprietary’ format, which means it cannot be read by other programs. So it is lost if the company ceases to exist, although there may be time to convert it before data is removed. Unfortunately the program used to convert, called GEDcom, is very old and does not transfer pictures, notes, has problems with places, etc., so some information would be lost. Using formats like .pdf or .txt, Excel, or a Word document to keep everything on a laptop can be very useful- those files have a better possibility of being kept/supported  for a very long time. And some persons, like me, still believe in paper copies- those can be read no matter how out-of-date something is on a computer, or if the power grid fails or whatever. (But then we probably have worse problems to deal with!!)
Here are some ideas about getting started with preserving your family history so that it can be shared:
1. Scan your photos at 600dpi and make sure the scanner glass is clean (has to be dry too or you can destroy the photo). Scan only one photo at a time, as the scanner decides lightness/darkness automagically, and if you have an old b&w photo plus a color photo on the glass, it will find a not-so-good middle ground for the scan. Try to carefully dust off the photo with a clean, dry cloth, and make sure that little bits of paper crumbs are not left on the glass between scans.
2. Don’t forget to take pictures of family treasures- the wedding gift from 1904, a diploma too big to scan, a WWI canteen, or pickle castor. Take pictures in good light if possible rather than a flash, and shoot from different angles, including any place there might be a manufacturer’s name. Did grandma leave a little piece of paper inside that had a note? Also take a photo of the paper with the object, and it could be scanned as well.
3. Choose the file format that works best for you for scans or photos. TIFF files are more archival but take up more room on your hard disk. JPG files lose information each time they are copied. Here is a blog that has lots of great info on photo preservation and talks about this problem with file types, even if you don’t use the equipment she is talking about:
(I don’t suggest her filing system- see below for mine.)
If all that is just too complicated, just take pictures like you normally would- it is definitely better than not having an item documented.
4. There are a number of resources and blogs that can really help with getting started on recording your family history and family artifacts, photos, and treasures:
Here is a fast, easy, and inexpensive way of keeping information with an image: https://www.amyjohnsoncrow.com/easy-low-tech-way-to-label-scanned-photos/  I would use unlined index cards and write a date, names of persons and places, plus any other info you know about the photo, keeping it somewhat brief. Personally I would scan the card with photo and then do the photo alone, but the photo could always have the info card cropped off if you decide to only do the one scan with the card.
(Amy’s blog is great to read and she has a podcast now that might help get people started in genealogy research.)
Make sure to scan the borders of a photo and the back of any images that have information on them too. Even a studio or photographer’s name can help you figure out an approximate date of the photo, as can the type of paper it is on, border size, etc. Plus, it is lovely to have the handwriting of an ancestor, and especially their sweet comments on the image.
5. Naming and filing information so it can be found later is really important. Do you have a Mac or Windows machine? I use a Mac but filing and naming are essentially the same, I think. Here is one of my posts that might be useful:
This link tells in detail how I name my files. I use this format for EVERYTHING- photos, documents like censuses or marriage records (you can download from FamilySearch or Ancestry or do a screen capture, and I recommend that because sometimes the documents disappear from being online), notes, emails with info that I save about a person, and even current photos.
For files that belong together, I use the same root file name and add an extension describing the new file, as described in the article. Here is an example:
1923_0725_McMURRAY_Edward A_Sr_ROTC Camp Training Certificate_pmm.png
1923_0725_McMURRAY_Edward A_Sr_ROTC Camp Training Certificate_pmm_cropped.png
1923_0725_McMURRAY_Edward A_Sr_ROTC Camp Training Certificate_pmm_unit info.txt
When you name the file, make sure to include keywords to help you find it within a search of your files. With the above, I can search by date, name, ROTC, camp, certificate, etc.
6. All those files need to get from your scanner to a folder where you can keep them together for each family; the post below tells how I do that.
Each folder, or the files within each folder, then, will essentially become a timeline for each person, as the computer will order them from oldest to newest since you have the dates first in the name (if you have set it up that way- there is a small arrow to click up or down for sorting order). If you put the year first it sorts by year, then month, then day. If you put the month first as in traditional dating, it will put together all the May files you have, then sort by day then year- not very useful in general. Some persons do file by document, event, or place, but I am lazy and don’t want to browse 4 folders when I am looking for information about one person. I also like the continuity of files being together for a person within their birth family, then their own family once they have married. For siblings who are not of my direct line, I leave them under their parent name, but create a folder for them with their spouse.
I actually use full names in the folder now, not initials as was posted previously:
McMURRAY_William E-Lynette PAYNE
7. Capitalizing last names makes them easy to find in files with a quick visual scan. In my family trees and software programs, I only capitalize direct line ancestors. (Some software now lets you tag direct lines, but Ancestry.com still does not.) Capitalizing makes a “William McMURRAY” who is an ancestor easier to find among all the William McMurrays who are cousins. (Why did they use the same names over and over??)
8. It is important to write down your impressions when you first see a document or photo- what is unique, who do you think is in it, when or where do you think it was taken, etc.? Our brains are remarkable and often make associations that are unexpected. (Trying to ID the person in a daguerrotype, after many years I noticed the woman had very large hands, and realized I had noticed that in another picture more recently acquired. I knew about what family she was in, so looked at those photos again, and the large hands were evident in a family photo with her husband and children! That photo had an ID so now I knew that the daguerrotype most likely was of the same person, though younger.) I use a Text Editor, as that will probably always be readable, for taking notes about images and artifacts. You cannot format text in it, but that’s ok for my purposes.  You could also use a Microsoft Word document for interviews, notes, things you want to verify, etc. Even second or twentieth impressions can give insight-  a picture that just seemed to be Grandpa in the back yard suddenly became one that made me realize he loved to grow roses- something I would never have guessed.
9. If you are lucky enough to have folks of the older generation available, try to get with them ASAP to record their memories. Diseases like Alzheimer’s, dementia, stroke, or a sudden death can make a delay in visiting also a big loss of information, as well as being a heart-breaking event in a family. Showing a picture or document may help jog a memory, so take what you know from prior research and be ready to take notes, video, or record your visit, as well as scan (even using your phone camera). The memories may help them jump to more remembrances, and they might even say, “Hey, I have some things you might be interested in, I think, in a box under the bed (or in a closet or horrors, attic or basement).” Transcribing the information soon after is important too, as nuances of a conversation can be lost- was the person interviewed happy about a memory, disturbed, cautious, or elated? It is good to add your impressions in to an interview, but always make sure it is obvious that they are your impressions, not those of the person being interviewed. You can use brackets and italics to signify things unspoken: [got very excited to see picture, and began remembering small incidents from childhood]

 

Here are some sites that may also be of use when getting started:

FamilySearch.org
This is a great site that is free, offers an unbelievable number of documents, photos, etc., as well as educational materials. The site is owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and you will need to create an account to use it. Once you have signed in, click on “Search”- you will have the option to look for records, old genealogies (not always accurate but good for clues to verify information), old books, such as county histories which will provide biographies of many citizens (although often paid for, so often glowing accounts), plus one of the best-kept secrets, the FamilySearch Wiki. The Wiki will help you find what records are available for a specific time and place, and give ideas on genealogy how-to subjects, such as interviewing. They even offer a world-wide family tree, but, as with all other online trees, please use the information as CLUES, not facts- there is a lot of bad genealogy out there. Visiting your local LDS Family History Center will open new doors into your research as well.
LegacyFamilyTree.com
https://familytreewebinars.com
This website offers a wonderful software program, as well as an incredible array of webinars on about every subject in which a genealogist could have an interest. Webinars are free when they air and then for a number of days after, and some webinars are always free. Others are behind a paywall but even a one-month membership could be enough to get a new family historian up and running in the right direction, with the right documentation.
Ancestry.com
Hated by many, the discoveries made using Ancestry’s trees, documents, books, newspapers, DNA database, etc. has been worth every penny to me over the years. Since Ancestry came online, our family tree has grown by countless generations in every direction, and I have found close cousins I never knew existed. They offer special pricing at times and a partial version is available in many libraries and Family History Centers.
Books, Journals
GoogleBooks, Internet Archive, and the Hathi Trust have old magazines, journals, and books online for free.
Newspapers
Newspaper websites can help tell the stories of our ancestors when vital records or photos only give us the facts. “ChroniclingAmerica” is from the Library of Congress, “Old Fulton Postcards” specializes in New York but has newspapers for other states, and many states are now digitizing their newspapers and placing online for free. Google abandoned its newspaper project but pages are still available online at https://news.google.com/newspapers.
Before paying for a newspaper site, browse their holdings to see if they have papers from the dates and places in which your ancestors lived. My favorite site is GenealogyBank, but short subscriptions may help you find what you need even if they only have papers for one place/time of interest.
Overwhelming? Sure, but it is all out there, just waiting for you to work on preserving and sharing your family history. Take one step, tackle one small project at a time. Any bit you do, no matter how small, will preserve more information for our younger generations and those to come than might have been otherwise saved. So just get started!

Notes, Sources, and References: 

  1. I have no financial interest in any of the above organizations or businesses, and none of the recommendations were solicited by them.

 

Click to enlarge any image. Please contact us if you would like an image in higher resolution.

We would love to read your thoughts and comments about this post (see form below), and thank you for your time! All comments are moderated, however, due to the high intelligence and persistence of spammers/hackers who really should be putting their smarts to use for the public good instead of spamming our little blog.

Original content copyright 2013-2018 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.

Family history is meant to be shared, but the original content of this site may NOT be used for any commercial purposes unless explicit written permission is received from both the blog owner and author. Blogs or websites with ads and/or any income-generating components are included under “commercial purposes,” as are the large genealogy database websites. Sites that republish original HeritageRamblings.net content as their own are in violation of copyright as well, and use of full content is not permitted. 
Descendants and researchers MAY download images and posts to share with their families, and use the information on their family trees or in family history books with a small number of reprints. Please make sure to credit and cite the information properly, i.e, reference this blog.
 Please contact us if you have any questions about copyright or use of our blog material.