Scheduling family history

 

                                                                     Part of my personal book collection

My plan to see where I am with my genealogy by updating my family tree on my new family history software is proceeding very slowly. Because I want to do it the right way from the get go, I'm entering the information from the printed documents that I have for each family member as I get to them and filling in the citations as I go. It is a slow and painstaking task. It might take a long time to complete but I've given myself some incentive. I signed up for the next DNA Skills Course through Diahan Southard's Your DNA Guide website. It starts in March and my aim is to have at least my North American links entered and transferred to my tree on Ancestry so I can use them when trying out techniques learnt in the course.

The painstaking nature of making correct family tree entries isn't the only thing slowing me down. On top of a time consuming reading habit (189 books read to date for 2023 according to my LibraryThing thread), I write (fiction and nonfiction), volunteer for a heritage society, attend genealogy society meetings and research my family and its history. Being pulled in all those different directions makes me feel like burying my head in a book. Wait, I think I've got that one down pat!

Right now I'm particularly stretched for time because I'm trying to get to all the SIWC (Surrey International Writers Conference) recorded sessions that I have access to. I attended the in-person event in October and, because it is now hybrid, attendees have access to some sessions that were recorded but that's only until November 26. Alisson Woods was the presenter for a session entitled "How to Keep Writing When You Get Stuck". The advice she gave to schedule your time was pertinent for more than just writing. We were told to think of three specific ways to schedule our writing. I came up with the following:

1.     

I haven't put my schedule into practice yet but that time is coming soon, probably after November 26, or maybe beginning in December, I still have to rewatch some of the Your DNA Guide study group sessions for October before November is done. 

Using records and maps to check out revolutionary connections

 

             A Google map showing the distance between Herkimer and Stillwater places in the Woodworth and Tripp histories

Back in my October 28 post when I wrote about the Freedom Trail in Boston, I mentioned the members of my own family who had fought in the American Revolution. They were Charles Tripp, my 4 x great grandfather and his father-in-law, Solomon Woodworth. They had both served in New York State on the side of the patriots. Solomon Woodworth died fighting but writing about the fact that both men had fought in the same general area made me wonder if the two had ever met.

Of course, it would be hard to prove any association between the two of them at this late date given the scarcity of sources for that time period. Even in this day and age, the meeting of two people would be hard to prove but the possibility of their paths crossing might be something that I could ascertain.

The information I gleaned from Ancestry about the older man, Solomon Woodworth, was that he was killed on September 7, 1781 in Herkimer, Herkimer County, New York. According to records found on Fold 3, Charles Tripp was mustered on July 16, 1781. That means that both men were serving at the same time. When applying for his pension, Charles Tripp swore that he was living at Stillwater, New York when he joined up.

Given the dates: July of 1781 for Charles Tripp's enlistment and September of 1781 for Solomon Woodworth's death in battle, it is possible that the men may have met while both were fighting as patriots. They were also in roughly the same area of New York State in 1781. The Google map above shows the proximity of Stillwater, where Charles enlisted and Herkimer, where Solomon died.

While searching the records I have on hand to find those dates and places, I realized how much information I have about these two men from various sources. To make it more interesting, Charles Tripp died and his widow, Jane, the daughter of Solomon Woodworth, had to file many documents to get access to her husband's pension because the record of their marriage was missing. The extra documents from Jane included affidavits from Woodworth kin. It looks like I have plenty of information to start looking into the Tripp and Woodworth connections further and can probably expand this part of my family tree once I figure out how people are related.

Sources:

Find a Grave – for Captain Solomon Woodworth https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/28181579/solomon-woodworth

Extras gleaned from an in-person genealogy conference

 

                                                                                 Halifax Citadel at dusk 

New discoveries, databases and ways of researching abound in the world of genealogy. Maybe that's why there are so many conferences. In the old days, before we were all forced into the virtual world, conferences were something to be attended at the venue, usually a hotel/conference centre set up. In North America most of the big name conferences were in the US, which just made sense given their larger population. The only problem with that was that the records discussed and the methods illustrated were skewed towards American research. A lot of those don't come into play when it comes to Canada.

In an effort to beef up Canadian genealogy conferences, two Ontario based genealogists planned to hold conferences in different cities across the country. The first conference that got off the ground was in Halifax. So what if that was on the other side of the country for me, it was a great excuse to visit a city where I had friends and family. Besides, the topics were Canadian!

The conference sessions were good, but after hours activities hadn't been planned. Naively I had assumed that would be something laid on for those who were staying at the conference hotel, the Lord Nelson. So the first night I wandered into the hotel bar looking for a drink and a meal which is where I met up with another attendee, Barbara Rae-Venter. She had fascinating tales to tell about her foray into the world of investigative genetic genealogy. I remember her talking about the Lisa Project, an investigation that she covers in her recently released book, I Know Who You Are: How an Amateur DNA Sleuth Unmasked the Golden State Killer and Changed Crime Fighting Forever.

I'm reminded of many of the things she talked about that evening in 2017 when reading the book. At that time she had either not yet started the investigation into the Golden State Killer or was only in the preliminary stages of it. Still, what she told me about other cases she had been involved with opened my eyes to the possibilities of using DNA as an investigative tool. Meeting with Barbara was also illustrative of the networking possible at in-person events although that was the one and only time that happened for me at that conference. I wonder if that's one of the reasons why no more of those across Canada summits ever got off the ground.

November, a time to remember

 

                                                                 Civil War memorial in a Bar Harbor churchyard

Remembrance Day came about as a result of the need to commemorate the fallen in the First World War. The death toll from that conflict was high, taking away a large swath of young men. The day of remembrance has since become a time to remember the fallen from other conflicts. There have been many. 

My recent travels took me to a few of the monuments to past conflicts and the men who fought. My exploration took me to Canadian sites, like the Fortress of Louisberg, a French stronghold when that nation held power in the New World. And, while in Quebec City, I toured the Plains of Abraham which were the scene of a battle that figured strongly in the founding of Canada.

Also on November 11, the USA holds a day to remember the veterans of their wars which they call Veterans Day. My recent travel also took in American sites which were also heavily weighted towards military conflicts, a natural result of tourism geared towards the founding of the US as a nation. I viewed the various sites that figure in the story of American Independence with great interest but the memorial that struck me as the most poignant was the statute of a Civil War soldier in a Bar Harbor churchyard, a reminder of the reach of that conflict.