Sunday, June 28, 2015

More Organization

I am continuing my quest to get organized.  I have gone through some documentation I found on the Internet in reference to the Modrell Family and created Family Group Sheets for everyone.  I also have a copy of the Scott/Mayes book that descendants have compiled.  The only issue with both sets of information, is that I don't know where the documentation came from since most of the information provided does not contain sources for the information.  I will be compiling those Family Group Sheets for the Scott/Mayes families as well.  Once finished, I will be able to find holes in the information I have from both sides of my family and continue my search to find the necessary documents that back up the information provided, and will then be able to provide sourced and documented evidence since much the information is from unknown (to me) sources.

Family Group Sheets help me to see the big picture since the parents and children are listed as well as birth, marriage and death dates, and room for place information on each event and a 2nd page for miscellaneous notes (such as Census information, all source documentation for information provided on 1st page, name of hospital/nursing home for birth or death information, etc).  Family Group Sheets are truly a great source of information.  If you have any missing areas, you see at a glance which documents you need to find to complete the information for each family group.  There should be a sheet for each person as both a child and parent (if they are a parent) or spouse or partner (if living with another individual).  The form I have is in a Word Document so I can change form fields if needed when I have a "Partner" situation instead of "Husband/Wife" or "Spouse/Spouse" for same sex marriages instead of "Husband/Wife".  It can be customized for whatever situation I come across.

I have saved the form I use to Google Docs and by clicking this link you can see the form I am speaking of.  I can't remember where I got this form, but I found it somewhere on the Internet.  There are a lot of forms out there and you can google Family Group Sheet and add Word Document or Excel Document for those forms that are fillable on the computer.  Ancestry.com and Family Tree Magazine also have many free documents which can be downloaded and used by anyone.

Another set of very helpful forms that can be found on the Internet are the Census Forms that date back to the first census in 1790 with readable column headings so you know what information was asked.  When I provide census images and information on my blog, I will provide the information for each column, but that information won't mean anything if you don't know what the headings are (which reflect back to the questions asked by the census taker).

I also need to put tab dividers in my binder to divide each family surname in an effort to make it easier to place information I find.  Then, I will need to create a Table Of Contents for each section so I don't duplicate the documentation I have (which has happened many times before with my complete and total disorganization).  The key will be to remember to update the Table Of Contents when I find new documentation to add to a specific person or family.

I will be back to providing family information in blog posts shortly.  Thank you for being patient during my respite from "searching for ancestors"!

Sunday, June 21, 2015

Correction To Grandma Scott

One of my cousins pointed out to me that I had the spelling wrong on one of the names associated with the Pall Bearers (referred to in the post as Escorts) in an earlier post titled "Grandma Scott".

I have corrected that post and wanted to provide the information separately for those who may have seen the earlier post and also noticed the misspelling.

To set the record straight, I looked back at the Funeral Brochure for Cora Viola (Main) Scott and the name is actually spelled wrong there, which consequently led to me misspelling the information on my blog post.

The correction is as follows:  I had "Living Alvarez" as an Escort and it should be "Living Alcaraz".

Please see Grandma Scott (posted on May 12, 2015) for the complete post and to see that the above information has been updated.  I do apologize for the error, but I was typing what the Funeral Brochure stated and as we all know, we as humans are not perfect and we do make mistakes.  In the genealogy world, we are used to names being spelled wrong which leads us to search in records for many variations of each surname - and we still find new variations just when we thought we had it all down pat.

Thank you cousin for pointing out the misinformation, and I do apologize to you and the rest of your family for this mistake.

Sunday, June 14, 2015

Organization

I am taking a short respite from by blog while I organize my documents.  Why you ask?  Well....

I realized when I spent over 12 hours writing this post about Perry Eneau that I did not have all my ducks (uh...docs) in a row.  I had to look in several places to find the different pieces of information that is referred to in that post.  I now have all that information together, despite the fact that some of that information may be tossed out as I work through that brick wall - although, I have worked with that information for about 5 years and still have not come to any conclusions.  I know there is a missing piece of information that I will find someday that will make all that information come together and my brick wall will tumble!  How I look forward to that day!!

I have spoken before about the fact that I absolutely love to read.  I read two (2) genealogy magazines (Internet Genealogy and Family Tree Magazine) as well as History Magazine.  History Magazine provides me with information about Military Conflicts, Weather Disasters, Heroes and Heroines, Villains and Outlaws, and much more that I can then relate to my ancestors during their lifetime. With each magazine, I mark articles as I read them that have information which I may need later (websites, international research, etc.) and I then tear those articles out and throw away the rest of the magazine.  Those articles are then separated according to content and placed in a page protector which is then placed into a binder.  I have binders for: International Research, State/City Research, Specific Record Categories (Census, Obituary, Church, Land, Military, etc.), History Articles, Specific Website Tutorials, and the last one has miscellaneous articles broke down by category (organization, photo identification, social media/apps, etc.).

I also use binders for my genealogy research.  I have a binder for my proven family members and another for my possible family members.  Once I find a document that confirms their relationship, those documents are then moved into my proven family member's binder.  Despite the number of years I have been conducting research, I only have up to some of my great-grandparents confirmed. Many people have hundreds of names by now, but I want to be careful and make sure my family really is my family and not people that others have linked to my family with no proven sources. There are too many stories out there of unconfirmed family members and I started this research wanting no part of that.  I don't want living family members "thinking" they are related to someone just because I decided to take the word of someone else, instead of finding the information that would prove/disprove that family relationship.

I want to include a Family Record Sheet for each family, as well as a Research Log for each person. That way, I will have information at the touch of a finger for everyone who is related to each other and how they are related, as well as a log for each person showing the searches I perform and whether or not I am successful in finding anything.  I also want to keep a running list of the documents/information that I need to find in order to provide more information about each ancestors life.

Please bear with me as I find a place for everything and put everything in it's place.  Who knows if I will get the entire task completed, but I hope to get the majority of it done so I can concentrate most of my time and energy on what I love doing most - "Searching For Ancestors"!!

Sunday, June 7, 2015

Census Sunday (Scott, Guy Calvin)

This is the 1940 Census for Guy Calvin Scott.  Below the image is the information for each of the columns.  Guy Calvin Scott is my grandfather on my mother’s side.  My mother is listed as daughter.

For Occupation – this census states he is a tractor man for the W.P.A. (columns 28 and 29).  W.P.A. stands for Works Project Administration.  I need to find out more about what that means.  My understanding is that the government put people to work in different occupations, but I need to confirm that by doing some research on the Works Project Administration and what Tractor Man consisted of.

Column 27 states duration of unemployment in weeks for Guy Calvin Scott was 96 weeks.  Since he wasn’t working, is that what constituted him working for the W.P.A.?  Column 30 states GW which indicates Government Work.  Again, need to research this.
 
1940 US Federal Census
Guy Calvin Scott Family, Howard, Bates County, Missouri

State - Missouri; County - Bates; Township - Howard; Incorporated Place – Blank; Ward of City – Blank; Block No. - Blank; Unincorporated Place - Blank; Institution - Blank; Supervisor's District No. - 6; Enumeration District No. – 7-13; Enumerated By Me On – April 15, 1940; Sheet – 4B; Enumerator – Paul Jennings.

Line No.54
Column 1 - Blank; 2 - Blank; 3 – 97; 4 - Rented; 5 - Blank; 6 - Yes; 7 – Scott, Guy C; 8 - Head; Code - Blank; 9 - M; 10 - W; 11 - 47; 12 - M; 13 - No; 14 - 8; Code – Blank; 15 – Kansas; Code - Blank; 16 - Blank; 17 - Same House; 18 - Blank; 19 - Blank; 20 - Yes; Code - Blank; 21 - No; 22 - Yes; 23 - Blank; 24 - Blank; 25 - Blank; Code - 2; 26 - Blank; 27 - 96; 28 – Tractor Man; 29 – W.P.A; 30 - GW; Code - Blank; 31 - 19; 32 - $486; 33 – Yes; 34 - 86

Line No. 55
Column 1 - Blank; 2 - Blank; 3 - Blank; 4 - Blank; 5 - Blank; 6 - Blank; 7 – Scott, Cora V; 8 - Wife; Code – Blank; 9 - F; 10 - W; 11 - 42; 12 - M; 13 - No; 14 - H-2; Code – Blank; 15 - Missouri; Code - Blank; 16 - Blank; 17 - Same House; 18 - Blank; 19 - Blank; 20 - Yes; Code - Blank; 21 - No; 22 - No; 23 - No; 24 - No; 25 - H; Code - Blank; 26 - Blank; 27 - Blank; 28 - Blank; 29 - Blank; 30 - Blank; Code - Blank; 31 - Blank; 32 - Blank; 33 - Blank; 34 - Blank

Line No. 56
Column 1 - Blank; 2 - Blank; 3 - Blank; 4 - Blank; 5 - Blank; 6 - Blank; 7 – Scott, Tommie L; 8 - Son; Code – Blank; 9 - M; 10 - W; 11 - 18; 12 - S; 13 - Yes; 14 – H-3; Code – Blank; 15 - Missouri; Code - Blank; 16 - Blank; 17 - Same House; 18 - Blank; 19 - Blank; 20 - Yes; Code - Blank; 21 - No; 22 - No; 23 - No; 24 - No; 25 - S; Code - Blank; 26 - Blank; 27 - Blank; 28 - Blank; 29 - Blank; 30 Blank; Code - Blank; 31 - Blank; 32 - Blank; 33 - Blank; 34 – Blank

Line No. 57
Column 1 - Blank; 2 - Blank; 3 - Blank; 4 - Blank; 5 - Blank; 6 - Blank; 7 – Scott, William G; 8 - Son; Code – Blank; 9 - M; 10 - W; 11 - 13; 12 - S; 13 - Yes; 14 – 6; Code – Blank; 15 - Kansas; Code - Blank; 16 - Blank; 17 - Same House; 18 - Blank; 19 - Blank; 20 - Yes; Code - Blank; 21 – Blank; 22 - Blank; 23 - Blank; 24 - Blank; 25 - Blank; Code - Blank; 26 - Blank; 27 - Blank; 28 - Blank; 29 - Blank; 30 Blank; Code - Blank; 31 - Blank; 32 - Blank; 33 - Blank; 34 – Blank

Line No. 58
Column 1 - Blank; 2 - Blank; 3 - Blank; 4 - Blank; 5 - Blank; 6 - Blank; 7 – Scott, Jason; 8 - Son; Code – Blank; 9 - M; 10 - W; 11 - 11; 12 - S; 13 - Yes; 14 – 5; Code – Blank; 15 - Kansas; Code - Blank; 16 - Blank; 17 - Same House; 18 - Blank; 19 - Blank; 20 - Yes; Code - Blank; 21 – Blank; 22 - Blank; 23 - Blank; 24 - Blank; 25 - Blank; Code - Blank; 26 - Blank; 27 - Blank; 28 - Blank; 29 - Blank; 30 Blank; Code - Blank; 31 - Blank; 32 - Blank; 33 - Blank; 34 – Blank

Line No. 59
Column 1 - Blank; 2 - Blank; 3 - Blank; 4 - Blank; 5 - Blank; 6 - Blank; 7 – Scott, Leona Frances; 8 - Daughter; Code – Blank; 9 - F; 10 - W; 11 - 5; 12 - S; 13 - Blank; 14 – Blank; Code – Blank; 15 - Missouri; Code - Blank; 16 - Blank; 17 - Same House; 18 - Blank; 19 - Blank; 20 - Yes; Code - Blank; 21 – Blank; 22 - Blank; 23 - Blank; 24 - Blank; 25 - Blank; Code - Blank; 26 - Blank; 27 - Blank; 28 - Blank; 29 - Blank; 30 Blank; Code - Blank; 31 - Blank; 32 - Blank; 33 - Blank; 34 – Blank