The current family history story I'm writing is about Alexander Matheson. The events of his life have always interested me. I knew the bare bones of what happened - leaving his family in Puslinch, Ontario to find work, coming back to find the family gone, fighting in the US Civil War, finding his sister 40 years later - but that is just a sketch. I need more details in order to write about what happened to him in the 40 years before he found his family again.
One period of time with sketchy information was when he was in Illinois prior to becoming a Union soldier. I'd come up with one possible entry for him in the 1860 US census. There was a problem though. In his letters, he wrote that when he got to the US he first lived in Freeport, Illinois. He moved there in 1859. The entry for the 1860 US census I'd found and taken a copy of years ago was for an Alexander Matson in Foreston, Illinois. At the time, it had seemed a likely match because the birthplace was Canada W and the name was close. Did I have the correct census entry or was that just wishful thinking?
This time when I looked at my copy of the entry, I thought about how, when I'm travelling and people ask where I'm from, I give the name of the city I live close to not the smaller city-suburb in which I reside. So I entered both Freeport and Foreston in Google maps. Great result, the towns are close and Freeport is the larger town. Looks like my assumption could be correct.
I know from his letters that Alexander Mathison married in 1865 shortly after he was discharged from the army. He had to have known his future wife before he enlisted and was sent off to fight. He enlisted in 1861. Previous research had shown that his wife's maiden name was Mary Galpin, so I searched for her in the 1860 census. When I found her entry, she was living in Freeport but not with her family and with no occupation or other notation to explain why she was listed with that particular family. Further digging, which included looking at the Public Family Trees on Ancestry, showed that Mary had a married sister living in Foreston, Illinois in the same census. Foreston, where Alexander Matheson or Matson lived in 1860. That's an interesting link.
Filling in the details of an ancestor's life gives more depth to their story. I've found that, now that I'm writing about a family member rather than just trying to find the bare details of their life, my research is more wide ranging. Besides consulting history books to give me background, checking out maps and other family trees for relevant information can fill in some of the details which help me to understand what happened and the circumstances that likely led to those events.
Sources:
1860 US Federal Census – Ancestry.ca
Public Family Trees – Ancestry.ca
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