Using the New Learning Center from HeritageQuest

The brand new Learning Center over at HeritageQuest offers over 60 courses in genealogy. What I like about them is how specific they are. You can take courses in census tracking, evaluating and solving research problems, Polish research, timelines and lifelines, and even how to do genealogy in spite of a learning disability. In this post I will go over some of these courses and how they will be able to help you in your genealogy research, no matter what level you are.

Front page of HeritageQuest's Learning Center
(Click to enlarge)

First you need to navigate to HeritageQuest using your library's website and log in with your library card number, like I discussed in my previous post, Making the Most of HeritageQuest. Once you are there, click on the text at the top of the page that says "Learning Center," which I've highlighted in yellow.
Now that you're in the Learning Center, you are free to browse the 60+ courses that it offers.

Census Tracking for Beginners by Virginia Majeske
(Click to enlarge)

The first course I clicked on is entitled Census Tracking for Beginners and is taught by Virginia Majeske. The first thing I noticed was that there is an actual video of Virginia playing, which is nice because I don't want to feel like I'm doing this alone. There are also slides that accompany her and sync up to what she is discussing in the video. A link on the bottom left will take you to a class handout in the form of a PDF, which is also helpful.

Evaluating and Solving Research Problems
by International Commission for the
Accreditation of Professional Genealogists
(Click to enlarge)

One of the advanced courses you can take is called Evaluating and Solving Research Problems and it is by International Commission for the Accreditation of Professional Genealogists. This course discusses how to organize your research goals, get through those inevitable bumps in the road and conflicting information. I imagine it would be very helpful to any genealogist, amateur like myself or professional.

Up Close and Personal: Doing On-Site Research
by Jean Wilcox Hibben, Ph.D, MA, CG

The last course I'll be discussing which HeritageQuests offers (I can't discuss all 67!) is Up Close and Personal: Doing On-Site Research which is taught by Jean Wilcox Hibben, Ph.D., MA, CG. This course is all about going on a trip to an ancestral area and doing local research. She discusses what to bring, how to plan for your travel and research, and the various places you should visit, among other things, to make the most out of your trip.

As far as I can tell all of these courses are absolutely, positively, 100% FREE. Free! Nothing better than free stuff, am I right? Especially when it can help you so much with your genealogical research. I will definitely be taking loads of these courses. The ones I've looked at take between 30-60 minutes, some may take more or less, but these are not big time commitments. Sounds good to me! 

If you didn't find what you were looking for in HeritageQuests's Learning Center, check out the one over at FamilySearch. They have loads (Hundreds!) of courses over there. All neatly categorized into subject, language, country, experience level, and format. Some are only 5 minutes long!

Now excuse me while I soak up all of these classes! See you soon. Happy learning! :)

Making the Most of HeritageQuest

HeritageQuest is a resource that may be offered to you for free through your local library. I discussed it briefly in my blog post Your Friendly Local Library, but recently at my genealogy group I learned so much more about this great website that I wanted to share with you all.

In order to use HeritageQuest for free, first you need a library card. Hopefully you already have one, but if you don't they are super simple to get. Just go to your local library, show them proof of residence and boom. You're in.

HeritageQuest front page; barcode prompt
(Click to enlarge)

Now you go to your library's website and look for a research or database page. Once there, check for a link to HeritageQuest. You'll need to navigate to the site through your library's page in order to use it for free.

HeritageQuest main page navigation
(Click to enlarge)

Once you get to HeritageQuest you'll be prompted to enter your library card barcode. You'll find that on the back of your card.







All set? Good. Now you're on the main page where you can see all of the databases that HeritageQuest offers. It may not seem like a lot, but one trip to this website last night netted me 40 articles about my ancestors, and 17 books mentioning just one of them! This website is a treasure.
There are the US Censuses, books, PERSI, Revolutionary War records, Freedman's Bank records, and the US Serial Set.

HeritageQuest census search for Joseph Dumas
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Let's start off with the US Census. I've been having trouble finding the 1910 census for my 2nd great-grandfather Joseph Dumas, so maybe I'll have some luck. Once I type in his surname, given name, census year, and state I click the search button.
I won't make a screen capture of every step, it would take up too much space. But when I clicked the search button I got a page listing the results for each county. Since he was in Middlesex in 1900 and 1920 I tried there, where there were three hits. No luck.

HeritageQuest search for the 1910 census in
Everett, Middlesex, MA
(Click to enlarge)

There's also an option to browse the census page by page.
Since Joseph lived in Everett, MA in 1900 and 1920 I search for him there in 1910.
I selected Massachusetts, Middlesex, and Everett then was taken to the census which I flipped through page by page looking for Joseph. Once again I have no luck. This isn't HeritageQuest's fault, that darn Joseph just doesn't want me to know where he was in 1910! Perhaps I should have demonstrated a successful search, but this seemed more realistic.

HeritageQuest results page for Gaspard Boucher
(Click to enlarge)

On to books! Wouldn't it be fabulous if all of our ancestors were mentioned in books? My hopes weren't very high, but I had good luck searching for one of my more notable ancestors.
My 10th great-grandfather Gaspard Boucher's name appears in 17 books! I can't wait to pore over all of these books. Just peeking at one page revealed that some jerk stole all of his stuff from a boat in 1634.  You never know what you might learn from a book!
Make sure to click on "hits" to be taken to the pages with your ancestor's name on them.

HeritageQuest's PERSI Archive front page
(Click to enlarge)

Next up is the PERSI Archive. It's filled with over 2.3 million genealogy and local history articles from tons and tons of publications.
You can search by your ancestor's name or by place, if you want to find more on the history of your town or a town where your ancestor lived. Last night I searched for all of my surnames and found 40+ articles about my ancestors!
These articles can be about your family's history, lineage, lives, brushes with the law, etc... You might just get a new insight into your past.

PERSI Archive article details
(Click to enlarge)

Once you find a hit for your ancestor, click on it to get the article details.
As you can see, the article is not viewable, however that can be changed! You'll see a link to a request form on the bottom of the page. There is a fee that goes along with this, around $7 I believe. But I would suggest giving your reference librarian a call before shelling out. They might be able to order the article for you free of charge. Awesome, right? My reference librarian put in 5 orders for me last night, wish me luck!

Freedman's Bank record for Adaline Johnson
(Click to enlarge)

The next database offered by HeritageQuest is Freedman's Bank. Freedman's Bank was set up by the US government to help former slaves gain financial independence. Unfortunately it was a miserable failure. You can read more about it on Wikipedia.
Instead of showing you the main page of the Freedman's Bank database, I decided to show you an actual record for a young lady named Adaline Johnson from Abberville, SC. She is 19 years old, married with a daughter named Sarah. Her parents have passed away as well as her brother Henry. She sells at the market, working for herself. The remark for her application is that she can't write. Her signature was written by someone else and she signed with her mark, an x.
Even if you have no African American ancestors, I recommend browsing Freedman's, if only to get to know some of the people better and feel more of a connection to our nation's past.

HeritageQuest Revolutionary War Records
Results for John Smith
(Click to enlarge)

If you have an ancestor who fought in the Revolutionary War, congratulations and I am extremely jealous of you.
Now that I got that off my chest, let's talk about how HeritageQuest can help you obtain your ancestor's war records.
Just type in their name, and then click on their name on the results page. Then you'll be taken to a bunch of their records, letters, etc...for free! You're then able to save these files to your computer, like you can with most records from HeritageQuest.

US Serial Set Results Page
(Click to enlarge)

The final database offered by HeritageQuest is the US Serial Set. It includes lots of US Congressional documents including land claims, relief actions, petitions and memorials.
I haven't had much luck using this database yet, but who knows? Maybe you will! Wouldn't it be cool to find your ancestor mentioned in congressional documents? It might reveal some cool information about them that you never knew before.






So that's HeritageQuest! Pretty neat I'd say. Hopefully this post has introduced you to and made you excited to use this great database, or if you already have tried it, taught you more about how to use it and make your experience with it that much more successful.

Soon I will be posting a mini-post as somewhat of a companion or amendment to this post, where I will discuss the new addition of a Learning Center at HeritageQuest which is in association with FamilySearch. I'll also discuss FamilySearch's own Learning Center. A lot of exciting stuff there!

Special thanks (again) to my friend and reference librarian Cindy Grove for helping me understand HeritageQuest and inspiring this post.

Till next time. Happy ancestor hunting! :)

Your Friendly Local Library

Libraries are awesome. Among many many fantabulous things you can do at your local library, they can help you with genealogy research in a multitude of ways.

  The Complete Idiot's Guide To

Writing Your Family History

By: Lynda Rutledge Stephenson

First of all and most obviously, libraries are full of books. Duh, right? There are tons of books that will help you immensely in your research. I've only begun to delve into some of these books myself, and I have already found a lot of great tips that have made me better at researching. Not only can they make us better researchers, books can help us understand the time periods our ancestors lived in, the history of their homelands, their occupations, wars they may have fought in, and so much more.

In Search of Our Roots
By: Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

There are hundreds of books out there for any subject you can think of to help you write your family's story, and chances are they're sitting right in your local library waiting for you to come and check them out. You have access to all of these books without having to shell out hundreds of dollars to take advantage of everything they have to offer. Just the other day I took out 4 genealogy books from my library, and the receipt informed me that I had saved over $70. Score! The books are mine for 3 weeks and my notebook fills up with all of the helpful advice for me to visit over and over again whenever I need it. If I need to I can just check the book out again for free. Pretty sweet deal if you ask me. 

Another resource that libraries have are librarians. Another duh, but it's true! Reference librarians are a great help for genealogists and historians. They are knowledgable about local history and can direct you towards the many resources the library offers. Not only that, but they are always willing to personally help you dig up any piece of information about your ancestors that you may need help with. I have one right now hot on the trail of my great-grandparents' marriage record. 

If your ancestors lived in a different town or state than you, don't hesitate to hit up the reference librarian who lives in their town or one of their neighboring towns. They can use their local resources to help you find a record, find your ancestor in a local newspaper, find a book about the town's history that may pertain to your ancestor's life, or help you in a multitude of other ways. If they can't come up with what you need the first time, keep trying! Sometimes they miss things and need to take a second (or third) look, so be persistent.

 

Libraries also offer (free!) access to databases that can aid you in your research. 

HeritageQuest is one of them. They offer census records from 1790-1940, over 28,000 family and local history books, Periodical Source Index (PERSI), Revolutionary War records, Freedman's Bank, and the US Serial Set. The website explains all of these amazing resources and how to use them to your full advantage. It's a good alternative to pay sites, and all you need is your library card number to gain access! 

American Ancestors is another free resource your library might offer, brought to you by the New England Historic Genealogical Society. While using American Ancestors you will have access to over 200 million historical databases pertaining to New England, New York, and beyond. You will also have access to over 28 million bible records, diaries, account books, research notes, and more. There are discussion boards, and even an Ask a Genealogist feature to get expert advice on any problem you might have. 

Did you know that you can even take free online courses through your library? 

Learn4Life (Formerly Ed2Go) offers a genealogy course which would cost $99 if not for your local library. If you sign up through your library's website, you can take this course, or any other of the awesome courses that Learn4Life has, for free! There are class message boards to connect with other students, and professors are always available to answer your questions. 

You might even be able to join a genealogy group at your local library, like I did. It has been a lot of fun getting to know new people who are interested in genealogy, and I've already learned a lot of cool stuff. A lot of what I've discussed in this post I learned in my genealogy group. We meet once a month, but the conversations continue on our group's Facebook page, so when we have a problem and need advice, someone is usually there to help or bounce ideas off of. If your library doesn't have a genealogy group, let them know that you'd be interested in one. Maybe seeing that people are interested would make them think about creating a group.

In conclusion, libraries rule. You can get loads of library swag (should I trademark that?) that will make you a better genealogist and family historian. But more importantly libraries can help you understand your ancestors better by teaching you about when they lived, where they lived, and how they lived. All you need is a library card, and your ancestor's world is at your fingertips.

Many thanks to my friend and reference librarian Cindy Grove for helpful information about using libraries for genealogy! You can visit her blog here. Thanks Cindy!

*Your library may not offer everything I've shown in this post (they might offer even more), so ask the local reference librarian what resources your library has. 

Surname Saturday (Driscoll)

This is my first ever Surname Saturday post, yay!

This week's surname is...*drumroll*...Driscoll.

Driscoll is a version of the Irish surname O'Driscoll. Many in Ireland dropped the O in the 17th and 18th centuries. I've been told that our family dropped the O at Ellis Island.
The Gaelic for O'Driscoll is Ó hEidirsceoil. Isn't that fun? Yeah, I don't think I'll be learning Gaelic any time soon.

The surname O'Driscoll originated in County Cork Ireland, where I've been told our family comes from although I have yet to find hard evidence for this. In ancient times the O'Driscoll clan claimed to be descended from the High King of Ireland Lugaid mac Con.

County Cork was part of the ancient kingdom of Desmumhan (AKA: Desmond, South Munster County Cork), and home to pre-Milesian tribes of Fír Bolg such as the Corcu Lóegde, Múscraige, Uí Liatháin and Uí Meic Caille.
The O'Driscoll were the chief family of the Corcu Lóegde. By the 9th century, Milesian tribes of the Eóganacht, an Irish dynasty, dominated much of the area and the the people of the Corcu Lóegde were pushed into south-west Cork.

The first mention of a name resembling Driscoll occurs in the Annals of Inisfallen wherein the death of Conchobar Ua hEtersceóil in 1103 is reported; he was the king of Corcu Lóegde. For the next 500 years the O'Driscolls were a powerful family involved in a number of adventures and conflicts. Their lands of rocky peninsulas and islands were not well suited to farming. Thus it should be no surprise the O'Driscoll were a seafaring people engaged in fishing, trading and piracy. They constructed a number of great castles and the ruins of some may still be found.
I wonder if I can make a claim on one of these castles...

By the 1200's three lines of Driscolls had emerged. From Donnchadh Mór (d. 1229), a later king of the Corca Laoidhe descended the main line. Donnchadh's youngest brother Aedh (d. 1213) split off and moved to the Beara peninsula, probably as the result of a dispute. Apparently Aedh was killed by his own relatives. The Beara Driscolls may have extended as far as Dingle. The third line was descended from Donnchadh Mór's youngest son Amlaíbh (d. 1234 in Tralee). His line was known as Uí Eidirsceóil Óig. The Driscolls in Beara were eventually superceded by the Eóganacht O'Sullivans two to three hundred years later, a story in its own right.
So curious as to which of these lines I came from! 

By the 16th century, pressure from the Sullivans in Beara plus the other major clans had pushed the O'Driscoll Mór into Collymore and the O'Driscoll Óg into Collybeg. Their principal residences being Baltimore and Rincolisky (Whitehall, parish of Aghadown) respectively. Gleann Bearcháin (Castlehaven) was a third, smaller territory occupied by descendants of Tadhg, in turn descended from Fínghin Mór.

During the 17th century the O'Driscoll were to lose their lands. The stage was set when an attempt to take over large sections of Munster and Leinster involving the O'

Driscoll failed. The Mór chief Fínghin surrendered his lands to the Queen of England in 1573. Fínghin was later knighted and granted all the the sept-lands of the O'Driscoll Mór but in so doing he had lost his autonomy and held the lands as England so dictated. As other chieftains fought with England Sir Fineen remained loyal to the English until the Spanish entered the conflict allied with those chieftains. Even with Spanish help against them the English prevailed and in 1602 the O'Driscoll would once again lose their lands. Some family leaders took refuge in Spain and some in the Spanish armed forces. Sir Fineen himself surrendered to the English and with some other O'Driscolls of note was pardoned. However by 1629, through plantation, mortgaging, surrender and regrant, the lands of Collymore were lost.

By 1670 the lands of Collybeg were also lost. The word lost should not be taken literally and neither should the earlier statement that by the 16th century there are only two branches of O'Driscoll. These are statements of the essence of the situation and minor exceptions can be found. For example, in 1694 Dennis Driscoll of Ballnegornagh (Barleyhill, parish of Ross) was successful in his claim for restoration. There are still Driscolls at Barleyhill East in Griffith's valuation about 150 years later. There are O'Driscolls in the parish records for the Béarra peninsula despite losing this ground to the O'Sullivan hundreds of years earlier.

In the 19th century the O'Driscolls were tenants on the lands once held by their forefathers. During the famine they suffered as badly as any other impoverished tenants despite their noble ancestry. Large numbers emigrated to the United States, Australia and England. Within Ireland itself though the O'Driscolls did not stray far from South West County Cork. In the index to Griffith's Valuation there are 1,331 O Driscoll and variants; of these 1,125 or 85% are in County Cork. Matheson's surname analysis based on 1890 births yields 91%. Further, Matheson's report shows that of the 121 Driscoll births that year, only one was outside the province of Munster. A similiar analysis of the 2000 electoral rolls for the Republic of Ireland leads to the conclusion that even today about 53% of the O'Driscolls are in Cork.
My Driscolls did not leave Ireland during the famine. My 2nd great-grandfather stayed in Ireland until 1889 when he came to Boston.

So that's the history of the Driscolls. It's a long but interesting read. Now I want to talk a little bit about my own Driscolls. I'll start with my 3rd great-grandfather, as far as I've been able to get back on my Driscoll line.

Timothy Driscoll was born in Ireland, he was married to a woman possibly named Ellen Collins. Timothy and his wife had 1 son that I know of, my 2nd great-grandfather William H Driscoll.

William H Driscoll was born (who knows when) in Ireland. He immigrated to Boston MA in 1889 and married Mary J Ennis in 1890. All told they had 10 children. Charles, Helen, James, Mary, Annie, Genevieve, William (my great-grandfather), Louisa, Loretta, and Joseph.
The family lived in Boston until sometime before 1920, when they moved to Everett. William worked as a brass finisher and a machinist. In 1930 he and Mary took in their granddaughter and raised her after her father died and her mother (Genevieve) moved to New York.
William passed away on 15 Feb 1950 in Everett from hardened arteries and a blood clot in the brain.

William C Driscoll & sons

William C Driscoll was born on Christmas of 1902 in Boston. He married Margaret C Dumas in abt 1922. I kind of hate myself for not knowing when they got married. One of these days I'll get my hands on the record.
They had 2 sons, William and Donald (My grandfather). They also took in a little girl, Josephine Cader, in the 1930s.
William worked as a longshoreman and served in WWII.
He passed away on 15 Jan 1974 leaving behind his son Donald and 2 grandchildren who adored him. I still hear stories about Grampy Driscoll to this day.
His son William passed away 4 years before him in 1970. He was a veteran of the Vietnam war. His other son Donald, my Grampy, fought in Korea. A very patriotic family and I am so proud of all of them.


Hopefully I'll be able to get further back with my Driscolls than Timothy. He's been the end of the line for years now and I'm itching to find out more about him and all of the Driscolls. Unfortunately in my experience the Irish are not great record keepers. I just gotta keep on plugging away until I can reach back even further into the history of my Driscolls.

Sources:
Wikipedia: Driscoll (Surname)
Driscoll of Cork - History

Pinning Genealogy

Pinterest is a great resource for almost anything you can think of; nail polish, pies, scrap booking, paint colors, couches, fashion, food, and memes as far as the eye can see. So why not genealogy?

I've been using Pinterest fiendishly since a couple of years ago when I first tried it out. It's an addictive website, you could spend hours on it just perusing everything it has to offer. Then I thought, I wonder if they have any genealogy stuff here. Boy did they.

Pinterest search for "genealogy"
(Click to enlarge)

One quick search for the word "genealogy" brings you miles and miles of pins from free resources, blog lists, old photos, census records, and even some genealogy humor.

You can find great articles and tips from the pros. You can find old photos of where your ancestors lived. You could even find a photo of your actual ancestor! There are tons of old family photos on Pinterest you can look through, usually tagged with the family name. I haven't had any luck finding one of my ancestors, but you never know.

Create your own genealogy-related board on Pinterest
(Click to enlarge)

If you find something that interests you and you want to save it, you can pin it to your own board. You can make a board specifically for genealogy, like I did, and post all of your genealogy-related stuff on it.

People will be able to follow you and you can follow other genealogy boards to see what users pin to them on the main page.

This is just a great way to keep track of what you've found on Pinterest and you can go back and look at it whenever you want.

Add your own pin to Pinterest
(Click to enlarge)

Write a description for your pin
(Click to enlarge) 

Instead of only searching for pins, you can add them too. If you're like me and have had no luck finding photos of your ancestors, why not add some? Who knows, you could have a cousin out there looking for a photo that you're lucky enough to have. Sharing is fundamental in genealogy. We've all benefitted from others' helpfulness, so let's pay it forward.

All you have to do is click the + on the top right and click "Upload a pin" to add a photo. You can also add one from a URL.

Once you've picked out your photo, try to add a description that will help your cousin find it. My example isn't the best, but you want to include their name, birth year, and death year if you know them. You should also include the place your ancestor lived. Choose the board you want to pin it to, and viola! Your ancestor is now on Pinterest.

You can add documents, stories, or photos of where your ancestors lived to your board. Pinterest is just another way to get your family's story out there.

Pinterest search for "1890s wedding dress"
(Click to enlarge)

 

You can get a little creative with your search terms and find out things that maybe you didn't even know you were curious about. Like what did your ancestor wear at her wedding?

My 2nd great-grandparents got married in 1890 so I typed in "1890s wedding dress" and up popped all of these gorgeous 1890s era wedding dresses that may be about the same style that my ancestor wore. This can give your imagination fuel to dream up what your ancestors' lives might have looked like.

Pinterest search for "goteborg sweden"
(Click to enlarge)

You can also search for where your ancestors lived to get a better idea of what their lives looked like, and to see the way their hometowns look now. It's a great little window into their world and even more fuel for your imagination.

Some of my ancestors came from Goteborg Sweden so I searched for it and came up with lots of images of both old Goteborg and new. It's fascinating to see different places throughout the world, even more so if your family lived there.


I hope I've inspired some of you to either try out Pinterest for the first time or just use it a little differently to help you in your research. Let me know in the comments how you've used Pinterest in your research or how you plan to use it now after reading this post, I'd love to hear your experiences!

Happy pinning!

Update 07/10 - In a weird coincidence, Jacqi Stevens blogged on this same subject (Even used the same title) on her A Family Tapestry blog yesterday morning! I read her post and it's a great companion piece to this one. She gives her own unique perspective on using Pinterest as a genealogy tool. She also links to several great genealogy-related boards on Pinterest. I highly suggest heading over and reading her post when you finish mine. You can check it out here. Enjoy!

Wednesday Wall (William Farmiloe)

One element I liked about the old blog was my Wednesday Wall posts. They give me a chance to get my frustrations out and maybe even find someone else who has hit the same exact walls as I have. I Google these peoples' names often and have alerts set up for their names, hopefully one or two of my cousins do too. This Wednesday Wall post is dedicated to my 6th great-grandfather, William Farmiloe.

I know diddly about William. I mean nothing. Well, that's a slight exaggeration. I know his name is William, he lived in England, and he had a son named John.

William appears on his son John's 29 Oct 1865 death record.

John Farmiloe death record. 29 Oct 1865, Charlestown MA.
(Click to enlarge)

He appears with his...wait, nope. No wife. She's "Unkn." So there's that.

I can't tell you much about William, but I can tell you about his son John and his grandsons.

William's son John was born abt 1786 in Gloucestershire, England. He married Ann White, I'm not sure when but I assume at least before the mid-1820s. They had 3 sons, William (b. 1826), George H (b. 1829), and Edwin F (b. 1830). The family left England and came to Boston MA in 1845. Later that year the oldest son William passed away in Charlestown MA at the young age of 19 from "fever."

George (my 4th great-grandfather) went on to marry Mary S Leet (Also spelled Leight) in 1848 and had 3 children with her, George H, Mary Anne, and Georgianna (my 3rd great-grandmother).

Edwin married Catharine (Kate) Callahan in 1851. They had 3 children, William H, Louise, and Edwin J.

In 1861 at the start of the Civil War, both George and Edwin enlisted in the military for the north.

George was killed in action at the battle of The Wilderness on 6 May 1864.

Edwin survived the war and passed away on 16 Jan 1877 in Everett MA from pneumonia.

That's the Farmiloes in a nutshell. Maybe you're related to one of them and came to my blog through your research. In that case, can you help a cousin out? Or are you also stuck banging your head against the giant brick wall named William Farmiloe? If so, maybe together we can finally figure out who this guy was and maybe even get back a couple more generations of Farmiloes.


*The Farmiloe surname is spelled in a variety of ways, among them are Farmley, Farmilo, Farmlo, Farmlow, or Farmilow. Just wanted to throw those in there for the search engines.

Am I a Collins?

I was going through some photos and I found one that immediately sparked my interest. It was from my grandparents' trip to County Cork Ireland (Schull, to be exact) where my Grampy always said we hailed from. I have never found any evidence of this, but I trust him. He knew his family history although he regrettably never spoke with me at length about it.

Back to the photo I found. It's of a woman that I had heard about before, Catherine Collins. Supposedly she was related to my Grampy. This Collins name, according to my Grampy, is a family name. In my research I have looked for this name but have never found it. I didn't know how we were supposed to be related to Catherine Collins or whom the name belonged to. Which brings me to the photo, and more importantly the caption my Nana wrote on the back...

The caption on the back of the photo reads:
Catherine Collins
Skul (sic) C. Cork
Ireland
Don's relative -
on (Grandfather's Driscoll) (Mothers Collins) side

At first I thought that this meant my Grampy's grandmother's name was Collins, but no. Her name was Mary J Ennis. I know this for a fact. However, my Grampy's grandfather William H Driscoll's mother Helena, married to Timothy Driscoll, has no last name. The only place I've seen her name is on her son's marriage record.

I looked on Family Search, and there is an Ellen (Close enough?) Collins married to a Timothy Driscoll in Cork Ireland, and they did have a son named William. Their son was born on 27 Aug 1870. My 2nd great-grandfather's birthday according to his naturalization record is 25 Nov 1870, and it also states that he was born in County Clare. Then again, almost every single document I have for William lists a different birth year.

Then there is a marriage record from Irishgenealogy.ie, which says that a Timothy Driscoll married an Ellen Collins in Schull, Cork County Ireland in 1869, which is the right time frame. I searched and could not find a baptism record for William born to Timothy and Ellen.

So what I have is a lead, a good lead. I don't have proof yet, but I do believe my Grampy that Collins was in fact a family name. I will keep searching!

The Man with 7 (Possibly 8) Birthdays

In this post I'll be discussing discrepancies in records. Specifically birth year/date discrepancies.
Sometimes they're easy to resolve if you have only one or two documents with the wrong year and the vital records to back up the actual DOB.
Sometimes, like in my 2nd great-grandfather William H Driscoll's case, it's nearly impossible to resolve since nearly every single record shows a different birth year/date. Only 2 records, the 1910 and 1920 censuses, have the same birth year for him. William is also hard to pin down because I don't know for sure his mother's name and therefore don't know for sure if I have his birth record or not. I'll discuss this issue more later.

On to William's many different birth years. They are:

1. 1868 (Marriage record)
2. 1869 (1940 census)
3. 25 Nov 1870 (Naturalization record)
4. Mar 1871 (1900 census)
5. 1871 (1910 and 1920 censuses)
6. 1874 (1930 census)
7. 19 Mar 1878 (Death record)

1940 census for William H Driscoll,
 listing his age as 71
(Click to enlarge)

William H Driscoll and Mary J Ennis
Marriage Record
listing William's age as 22 in 1890
(Click to enlarge).

Naturalization record for William
H Driscoll, listing his birth date as
25 Nov 1870
(Click to enlarge)

1900 census for William H Driscoll,
listing his birth date as Mar 1871
(Click to enlarge)

1910 census for William H Driscoll,
listing his age as 39
(Click to enlarge)

1920 census for William H Driscoll,
listing his age as 49
(Click to enlarge)

1930 census for William H Driscoll,
listing his age as 56
(Click to enlarge)

Death record for William H Driscoll,
listing his age as 71 years, 10 months,
27 days
(Click to enlarge)

William's birth year on census records varies between 1869 and 1874. The problem with censuses is that you don't know if the person who gave the information knew what they were talking about. There are often mistakes on censuses because the person supplying the information was incorrect, or the person taking the information misheard or made a mistake filling out the form. So I don't rely on censuses to pin down my ancestors' birth years. They can give you an idea, but you're better off sticking with your vital (Birth, marriage, death) records.

As far as William's vital records go, there is a 10 year gap. Not good. His marriage record from 1890 says he's 22 years old, putting his birth in 1868. His death record from 1950 says he is 71 years, 10 months, 27 days old, making his birth date 19 Mar 1878 (If I've done my math correctly, which is unlikely). I can pretty much throw this date out right away because he would have to have been 12 years old when he got married. So in this case vital records are not reliable.

The naturalization record has an exact birth date. I suppose it's close enough to most of the other records to seriously be considered. But I'm iffy on adding this as his real, true, actual birthday without a birth record. Without a lot of experience with naturalization records, I'm not sure how reliable they are. Someone might tell me they're pretty darn credible, in which case my mystery could very well be solved. But they might not be, so I'm keeping it squarely in the 'maybe' column.

Still with me? Whew. I've been studying this for years and I still get confused sometimes.

You may notice that the title of this post is The Man with 7 (Possibly 8) Birthdays and I've only listed 7. Here is the possible 8th:

Possible birth record for
William H Driscoll, listing
his birth date as 27 Aug 1870
(Click to enlarge)

Why is this a possible birth record? Because I don't know if this is actually his birth record. Why not? Because I don't know if Ellen Collins is his mother. My next blog post, which I posted before the re-tooling and will re-post, will explain all of that.
The birth year is 1870 which is close enough to the other records to be considered, if this is in fact my William.
There's also the issue of his birth place, which on his naturalization record is listed as County Clare, Ireland. However my Grampy has always told me that we are from Schull, County Cork and seemed to know his stuff. The William from this birth record was born in County Cork, which fits with what I know from my family history. 

So I don't know William's birthday. I might not ever know for sure. It's a bummer. The researcher in me wants a concrete date and to know for sure that my information is correct. The great-great-granddaughter in me really wants to know when to say a little "Happy Birthday" to my 2nd great-grandfather. 

Adoption in Genealogy

Adoption in genealogy became an interest of mine when I discovered that my 3rd great-grandparents William Patrick Jordan and Georgiana Farmiloe had adopted a son named Harry L Lynch. For some reason it surprised me. I don't know why, but it just wasn't something I was expecting. It was a pleasant surprise though! My 3rd great-grandparents did an awesome thing by adopting Harry and I'm sure he was loved and taken care of by them. Just look at this family:

Jordan Family (1903)
Floss (Florence), Mary (Holding George (Dumas)), Grace
Mabel, Georgiana (Farmiloe), William, Lillie
Bill, Mary, Walter (an orphan)
(Click to enlarge)
(Enough parentheses for you?)

I mean really! William Patrick Jordan (Admittedly my favorite ancestor) is such a proud papa bear surrounded by his kids. grandkids, and possibly another adopted child, little orphaned Walter. Georgiana looks like a strong, hard working woman. I wish I could go back in time and meet these people. They're amazing and I love them.

Aaaaanyway...enough gushing. Back to the subject at hand. This is the document, the 1900 census, where I discovered Harry Lynch.

Part 1 of the 1900 census, showing
William P Jordan and Georgiana Farmiloe
living in Everett, MA
(Click to enlarge)

Page 2 of the 1900 census, showing
Harry L Jordan, their adopted son,
highlighted in red.
(Click to enlarge)

I was hoping to see Harry on more records and follow his life story. Unfortunately Harry isn't on any pre-1900 records that I could find and he disappears after this census. Although Harry isn't a direct ancestor of mine I would love to be able to learn more about him. Where did he come from? Who were his birth parents? What did he end up doing with his life? There are so many questions!

One obvious place to start is his adoption records. I'm not 100% sure he was officially adopted, although that was the law in Massachusetts beginning in 1851. While looking into whether or not adoption records were available for genealogical research I came across this information:

Massachusetts State Archives
As mentioned earlier, vital records between 1841 and 1921 are housed at the State Archives in Boston. Not only can you freely access and copy all vital records for these years, but the rest of their collection is of great importance to most Massachusetts genealogy pursuits.
In their research room, you can find passenger lists, military records, judicial archives, census records, military records, probate documents, adoption records, naturalization documents, photographs, maps and a lot more. You can visit the Archives Monday through Friday, during regular business hours. They also offer regular workshops for people interested in local history and genealogy.

Source:
http://www.genealinks.com/states/ma.htm

I'm hoping to get there soon and see if I can find Harry's adoption record. That would be such a huge breakthrough!

I've tried searching probate and newspaper records with no results so it looks like I'll just have to wait and see if I can find Harry's adoption papers at the state archives.

I had much more luck helping my friend reconnect with her great-aunt's family. My friend's grandmother and her siblings were adopted separately in the 1920s and were able to find each other over the years, but they couldn't find their youngest sister. Ancestry.com was extremely helpful since the sister's family happened to have a family tree there. Unfortunately she passed away a year (to the day!) of me finding her daughter and my friend's grandmother will never get to know her little sister. But they have connected with her children and grandchildren, which has been wonderful for all of them, and very fulfilling for me to watch.

Another story of adoption in my own family tree comes from my Driscoll side. It's not a formal adoption but it is an adoption of sorts. My 2nd great-grandparents William H Driscoll and Mary J Ennis raised their granddaughter Audrey after her mother, my 2nd great-aunt Genevieve, moved to New York and started a new family following her husband's death 2 months before Audrey was born.

The 1930 census, showing Audrey
living with her grandparents
and her aunt in Everett, MA
(Click to enlarge)

The 1940 census, showing Audrey
living with her grandparents
in Everett, MA
(Click to enlarge)

Genevieve was married and had another child within 2 years of Audrey's birth, and I wonder why she didn't have her daughter with her once she was established in her new life. Either way I'm sure William and Mary took great care of Audrey because she grew up to be a wonderful woman who I'm lucky to have known.

My great-grandparents also took a child into their home in the '30s.

The 1930 census, showing Josephine Cader living with
William and Margaret Driscoll in Everett, MA.

The transcription of the image says that the little girl's name is Josephine Cader, but it could just as easily be Goder, Goda or Coda, I can't really tell either way. She is 7 years old in 1930, close to the age of William and Margaret's son William Jr. I wonder if she was a schoolmate of his. The census shows her as a boarder, not an adopted child. But I wanted to include her in this post anyway. She disappears from the home by the 1940 census and there is no record of her anywhere that I can find. Like Harry Lynch, although Josephine isn't related to me I do care about her and feel like she's part of my family. I want to know what came of her, what she did with her life.

While none of my direct ancestors were adopted, I'm very interested in the stories of my great-aunt Audrey, Harry Lynch, and Josephine Cader. Especially Harry and Josephine, since I have no idea what happened to them after the censuses they appeared on. Hopefully one of their descendants is searching for him and ends up on my blog. If that's you, don't hesitate to contact me and let me know what they were up to!

Have you come across adoption in your genealogy research? What obstacles did it cause? If you were able to solve the mysteries, how did you do it? Let me know, I'd love to hear your stories!

Here are some helpful links about adoption in genealogy:

• All About Adoption Research 
• RootsWeb's Guide to Tracing Family Trees
• Adoption records and genealogy
• United States Adoption Research

Just Like Starting Over

In the words of Gob Bluth from Arrested Development, I've made a huge mistake.

Actually, that might be slightly overdramatic. But I did make a mistake. Several in fact.

My excitement to start the blog got the better of me and I slapped it together too fast, without sitting down and actually thinking out exactly what it was going to be and how best to come across.
Reading my posts back, they seem very clinical. There's no real flow, no story. Just the facts, ma'am.
I pumped out a bunch of boring posts that almost put me to sleep. They were all the same. "Here's so-and-so in 1910 with his/her family...here they are in 1920 with the same people...blah blah blah." That is not what I wanted to do. Genealogy is (in large part) about the facts, but there are better ways to communicate the facts.

So I'm starting over. I still want to get the facts about my ancestors out there, and I will. Only this time I hope to do a much better job. And this time I won't be posting every single day going up the lines of my tree one by one. I'm gonna mix it up. I'm gonna be myself. I'll take my time. I'll talk about genealogy related articles, books, websites, and TV shows that help me (and you) learn more about this great journey.

Genealogy is incredibly fulfilling. It's also incredibly bang-your-head-against-the-wall frustrating, and dance-around-like-a-2-year-old exciting. Maybe this time around those feelings will come across on your computer screens. Here's hoping!

Here we go...