An adaptable research plan

 

                                     The portion at the top of the Strange tree showing Reverend Thomas and his sisters

The two weeks I spent in Salt Lake City were heavy into genealogy. The first week my friend and I were with the Ancestor Seekers group who were very helpful in suggesting ways to find the information we were searching for. Then in the second week leading up to Rootstech we also spent time in the FamilySearch Library but it was getting busier day by day and by that point we were getting a bit punchy from staring at computer screens so our days in the library were getting shorter and shorter. I still got a lot done and I think taking breaks helped.

I'm glad to report that I followed my plan of using the family tree that I found stuffed in my Strange family binder. Not that I followed up with the Ohio relatives that Mary Strange, the daughter of Reverend Thomas Strange, had written about in her letters. I got sidetracked because I saw that the information on the found family tree for Reverend Strange's sister, Mary Strange, only stated that she had married Thomas Hinton and didn't name any descendants. I just knew, maybe from half remembered information I'd picked up somewhere that the Hintons were of interest. In fact, previous research about Reverend Thomas turned up the fact that he taught young people one of whom was his sister Mary's child, James Hinton. That fact stayed with me in part because it showed the connections between nonconformist faiths as Thomas Strange was a Congregational minister, while his nephew James became a Baptist minister.

I'm happy that my research plan was adaptable so I could go where the research led me. There was much more to learn about the Hintons, so much so that it took up much of my research time at the library and, now that I home, I'm discovering more. I just hope my enthusiasm continues as I get back to those Ohio family connections.  

A Rootstech visit

 

                                                           The Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City

At the end of February every year emails about Rootstech start appearing in my inbox. Shortly thereafter, I access the site and start building my schedule. I also take note of all the unwatched sessions still sitting in my playlists from previous years. I really should get to those. This year, I didn't set up my watch schedule right away. Instead, I trawled the offerings looking for the in-person events. For the first time ever I was going to be in Salt Lake City for the event!

I've been to genealogy conferences before but none as big as Rootstech. But I'm sure that there aren't as many people attending live since the pivot to online offerings during the COVID years. There were still lots of people in the conference center and there many vendors in the sales area showing off their wares with some offering special event promotions.

As in most genealogical events, tech was in use with a phone app to keep attendees aware of their schedule of sessions and the "Relatives at Rootstech" app to show if there were any cousins close by. The nearest match I came up with was a sixth cousin but I'm sure people whose ancestry was concentrated in the US would likely come up with closer connections.

I enjoyed my time at the conference and took lots of old school notes. Now I have to make a plan to look at them before I file my notebook away or I'll be in the same boat as I was when I got ready for my trip. I don't want to go back where I was when I started planning this year's research trip. There has to be a better place to begin than not knowing where to start my research so I don't duplicate my efforts. 

A further will to add more Strange information

 

Gravestones of John and Mary Strange

at Yelvertoft Independent Chapel

When looking through the documents I'd already gathered for the Strange family, I came across another will, that of John Strange, Mary Strange's brother. His will, like Mary's was also proven in 1842 so it looks like they died within months of each other. I thought that spinsters left the most detailed wills but his was a gold mine of information. He named many relatives also giving addresses and other telling details. There was also a tally of the number of children of his sister, Elizabeth Norton, and brother, Thomas Strange, grocer of Kettering. This information will help when adding descendants to my family tree.

There was also something in John's will that I hadn't come across before. In it he left money for the maintenance and support of William Strange the son of John's nephew, Thomas Strange, as he judged that William would never be able to support himself because of his affliction. It makes me wonder what ailed William and what happened to him if he survived his parents.

In the document, John Strange also included the various places he had lived. At the time it was written, he lived in Yelvertoft. He had, when he was married, lived in Chatham, Kent and left instructions that his body was to be buried with his wife in Chatham. I'm not sure if that final instruction was carried out as his gravestone sits against the garden wall of Yelvertoft Independent Chapel. 

                                            

Further documents to help prove a family tree

 

                                       Independent church in Yelvertoft, England where Mary Strange lived her last days

The tentative family tree that I found stuffed in the front of the Strange family binder reminded me of another member of the family who I had researched. Mary Strange, Reverend Thomas's daughter, had lived life as one of those wonderful family connections, a spinster. Even more important, she was an educated woman. Somehow the Northampton Record Office had copies of some of the letters she had sent.

I'm not sure how that came about because I noted down the name and address on the envelope of Mary's letter that I transcribed. The addressee was Mr. Norton Townshend, Avon, Ohio, North America, which goes someway to proving one of the people in that tentative family tree. Why a copy of her letter to America was held at a UK record office was open to question but it's a great source. The date of the letter was 1837 and I'm not sure how much I'll be able to find out about this nephew in America at that time. I have done very little US research at this point and none in this area of the country.

I'll have other information to follow up on too as Mary Strange left various bequests in 1842 that I want to know more about. Spinster's wills can be a treasure trove when searching for family connections. Besides, most of the people named in her will were in England, a place where I'm more familiar with the records available.

Sources: 

Northampton Archives, Northampton, UK – personal search for Strange family letters etc

PCC wills pre 1858 – accessed when databases were simpler. Research guides at The National Archives can provide further information this research https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/wills-1384-1858/

Clues in an overlooked family tree?

 

                                                           Tentative family tree received from a fellow researcher

Last weekend's free access to Newspapers.com and MyHeritage's marriages distracted me but I think that's all to the good. It made me jump forward in my preplanning to take a look at the information I've gathered on the Strange family. I'd been able to find out a lot about this family of well educated nonconformists, most particularly about the Reverend Thomas Strange, the first minister of the nonconformist church in Kilsby, Northamptonshire.

When I pulled out the Strange family binder (I haven't gone completely digital yet), I found a bunch of papers stuffed in the front of it. That means I had new discoveries and decided to deal with them later. With them was an envelope from a fellow researcher which I received in '05 or '06 according to the post office cancellation. Sometimes it takes a long time for "later" to get here but the timing is perfect for it to come to light. Back in the day, an Australian cousin sent me her tentative tree of this family's descendants. Once I check out those family lines, I'll be well on my way to expanding this part of my family tree. 

DNA update

 

Last year I did some work with my DNA matches, searching out the parents of two of my 2 x great grandmothers, Mary Maidment and Sarah Minister. Since then I've been able to take their family lines back further. It was very satisfying to be able to use both DNA and genealogical evidence in that way. For a while there, I was on a roll but lately I haven't done much work with my DNA.

I'm still learning, watching webinars and taking peeks at my DNA matches, but nothing jumps out at me. One problem is that I haven't continued expanding my family tree. I did start broadening my tree by adding collateral relatives to the skeleton tree I have on Ancestry but I didn't get very far. That might be hampering my efforts to identify how my matches fit into my family. Instead of finding 3 x great grandparents, it's their descendants that I need to identify and tack onto my tree. Then the descendants of those descendants and so on. Maybe then I'll be able to sort out my Australian links and figure out why Ancestry has included Virginia and Eastern Kentucky Settlers among my ancestral journeys. Looks like it's time to stop thinking about expanding my family tree and actually get the work done!

Adding to a family's history through books

 

                                                            The book Northern Light and my family timelines

An avid reader, most of the books I consume are fiction but along the way a number of non-fiction tomes get included. Many of those books concentrate on history and I sometimes find facts that connect to my own family's history in surprising places. One of those reads was Recasting the Vote: How Women of Color Transformed the Suffrage Movement. It was the pick of a books club I belong to or else I probably wouldn't have read a history of the suffrage movement in the US as the country I live in also has a long and fraught suffrage history of its own and I haven't read any books about that struggle. 

Still the US book related an interesting history and one chapter also gave a brief historical outline of the founding of the Dakotas. That added context to an address from which my long lost 2 x great granduncle, Alexander Matheson, wrote to his sister Margaret once he found her again. I'll have to look into that further. 

Another recent read related to this family line as well. I knew that Northern Light: The enduring mystery of Tom Thomson and the woman who loved him, would be about my cousin. Various books and articles about Tom Thomson and his mysterious death have added clues to this family history over the years. This latest read spun the theory of an illegitimate child, an interesting addition to the Thomson story which, if true, could perhaps add to my family tree.