Revisiting old research

 

                                                                             On the research trail in Evershot, Dorset

It has been many years since I started researching my family's history. Along the way, I've amassed a lot of information. So much that I've forgotten much of what I have. That's probably because I'm good at gathering information but fall down on actually taking stock of what was reaped and how it fits into what I already know.

Along the way, I've also gathering information about all the children each couple in my family had. I just didn't add it to my family tree. At least, not the one on Ancestry. I think that the tree I had on Family Tree Maker might have included the siblings of my direct ancestors but I can't remember. The last time I was able to access that program was a couple of computer crashes ago. I still use the printouts I made of various pedigree charts but that is the only information I have left from Family Tree Maker.

What I've decided to do is to be thorough as I work through and update each family. That means I'm going to go through the information I already have and work on adding collaterals to the family names that have already received much of my attention. Like those ones where I've visited the places where they once lived. That way I will not only use the research I've already done and revisit the conclusions I came to about the family group but I'll also revisit my development as a family historian.

I learned so much during my years of research but that magic feeling of being on the spot where they lived will be wonderful to revisit. Like the trip to Evershot where my Chubb family lived. It's believed that they had some connection to the Acorn Inn which I'm standing outside in the above photo. It's a memory so old that the shot was taken before digital photography was the norm. 

Research road blocks

 

                                               The second road block I ran into on my way to the grocery store

The other day as I was driving from my home to the grocery store, there were lanes blocked off on the street I was on. I needed to make a left turn but the way that traffic was offset it looked a bit dicey. So I decided to take another route, taking my left turn a couple of blocks later. Once I made my left, I found traffic backed up on that second route as there was construction there too and up ahead only a single lane open on the street I was on. As I sat there in the lineup waiting our turn on the single lane, I thought  how my journey that day was a great metaphor for my current research.

Currently, I'm supposed to be looking for the veterans in my family tree as the BCGS will be putting together a book with the military ancestors we submit. I have a few ancestors who were veterans and, while it is easier to find the more immediate ones, like people who served in WWI or WWII, the word is that they already have enough of those. What they are looking for are those who served in other wars, more distant ones. The problem is that they also want to know their relationship to the submitter. I've researched quite a few of the military types attached to my family. Some I've even written about on this blog, but I've never really spelled out my relationship to them. This looks like another case where having the collateral lines on my family tree filled out would be handy. That's on top of how those collateral lines would help with figuring out my DNA matches. I need to do that to keep up with the DNA Study group. Maybe it would also enable me to find the link to that illusive match who emailed me. Filling out the collaterals would probably also help with the story I'm writing about Alexander Matheson.

Looks like adding those collaterals to my family tree is my current road block. It's just so much work that I've been putting it off. If I'm going to do that work, I should also test our new family tree software so that all of my work doesn't exist solely on the Ancestry site. As part of Kathryn Lake Hogan's Starting Out or Starting Over sessions that she offered this year, we checked out various family tree software. One that I hadn't heard of before, Family Historian, looked like a good fit for me especially as it was put out by a UK based company. Most of my research and family were based in the UK and some of the extras they offer looked like they would be helpful. I think it's time to bite the bullet and get started. I just wish my road block would clear up as quickly as the ones I ran into on my way to the grocery store. When I checked the next day, both road blocks were gone and traffic was running smoothly again. 

History and future outcomes

 

                                                                      The Islay War Memorial in Port Ellen

I recently attended a planning session for a heritage society and, as I was listening to the various members of the group, a thought came to me. Maybe it is harder for people who are focused on history to plan our way into the future. We're used to looking at the cause of events knowing what the outcome will be, not trying to figure out what will probably happen if we take certain actions.

No one really knows what the results of their actions will be. They can hope and plan what they are going to do based on what has previously happened and by studying results of what others have tried, but outcomes can go in unforeseen directions. That knowledge is especially sobering when fighting is involved. As I'm gathering veterans from my family for the 2023 Veterans Book for the BC Genealogical Society, it's strange to think that those people signed up with no idea of what the end result would be. Even if their side won, there was nothing to say that they'd be around to see it. All of those men and women had no idea of the outcome of their service when they signed up.

It was a risky business, but happily most veterans in my family tree lived through the experience. Of the ones I've found so far, only Corporal John Hunter, who fought in WWI, didn't come back alive as evidenced by the war memorial in Port Ellen, Islay, Scotland. I'm still finding the veterans in my tree and adding collateral relatives as well so that statistic might change. I can't foresee the outcome of my search into the past, another way in which both the future and history are unpredictable.

                                                                                       A close up of some of the names on the Islay War Memorial

Finding lost connections

 

                                                                              An unexpected find in Scotland

Recently, I attended a Legacy Family Tree webinar about researching collateral ancestors. The title of the talk was Collateral Research - The Secret Sauce to Finding Family Records and it was given by Cheri Hudson Passey. It seemed like a timely talk that might spur me on with the task of adding branches to my family tree. She told us about the many advantages of researching siblings and family connections and how it had helped in her research. I've experienced some of the advantages of collaboration on family lines by venturing off the direct lines in my own family research on the Matheson line when pursuing information about the siblings of my 2 x great grandmother, Catherine Matheson. A fellow researcher passed along copies of Alexander Matheson's military record as well as copies of the letters he wrote to his sister, Margaret Thomson, after he found her again. Now that I think of it, maybe there really would be an advantage to filling out the branches of my family tree to include other members.

As though to prove that point, my I-Pad featured the above photo that I took when I was in Edinburgh. It was a surprise to find a memorial to Scottish-American soldiers in the Old Calton Cemetery close to Calton Park in Edinburgh. It was a reminder not only that information can be found in unexpected places but that there are more connections that bind us than are readily apparent. I guess there is something in the idea of searching widely that may reveal more of the stories I seek.

Sources:

Legacy Family Tree Webinars - https://familytreewebinars.com (the Collateral Research talk is viewable for free until the 11th or 12th of July - one week from the original viewing of July 5, 2023)

Writing about military ancestors

 

                                               English Civil War reenactors on the grounds of Northampton University

Last Tuesday evening, my genealogy society, the BCGS, held its first Writers Group chat. There was a fair gathering of people in attendance and writing experience was varied. After introductions, there were two presentations. One member showed us her blog on which she posts about her ancestors, a way to organize her research, keep people informed and provide a legacy for future generations. The other talk was about "Veterans Book 2023", a publication that members of the society are putting together. It was a pitch to get more of us submitting information about our ancestral connections and the conflicts in which they had served, preferably not during World War I or II as they have been inundated with that information and want more variety.

I haven't looked at my records in depth yet but I know that I've already written about at least two if not more of my family connections who were involved in various conflicts around the world aside from those who fought in WWI and WWII. There was William McKay, a Royal Engineer, who participated in the Second Afghan Campaign and I know that early on I touched on the military career of George Welch whose regiment was sent to India at the time of the Indian Mutiny.

There were also ancestral connections who fought in America: on the American side for the American Revolution, the Union side in the US Civil War and the Canadian side in the War of 1812. I wonder what other conflicts my far flung family participated in. I have to see what I can find out. Maybe, if I'm lucky, I can find records that reach back to the English Civil War. I'm sure that some of my family were involved in that, they did live in Northamptonshire were many of the battles in that conflict were fought.