2014 Genealogy Accomplishments

It’s the end of one year and beginning of another - a traditional time to take stock of what was accomplished in the last year and what should be tackled in the coming year. I certainly don’t want to break tradition.

When I sat down and listed what I did in my genealogical research last year, I was happily surprised to find that I had done a lot. Here they are.

1. You have probably heard about Thomas MacEntee’s Genealogy Do-Over. He is leading a group that is, at the extreme, wiping out everything they have done and starting anew. Many are not going to that extreme but are reevaluating everything they have done and correcting errors and omissions. Well, I did this last year. I went through every file I have, made sure that all information in these files was reflected in my database. I added a citation for every record. I swore that never again would I wonder, “where did I get that information?”. It took me 2 months or more to do this. I am retired so genealogy is my main activity. I imagine that people who are still working, trying to raise a family, etc, made need a year or more depending upon the size of their database. I am feeling quite noble right now.

2. I digitized all paper files that contain important or relevant data. This is part of my project to get all files digitized and backed up. I also vowed not to print and file anything new. I am working toward a digital office.

3. I organized my digital files and decided upon a consistent naming scheme so I can find the documents when I need them. I decided upon “LastNameFirstNameYearTypeofDocument”. So far this seems to be working rather well. I also organized my paper files, color coding the last names of my grandparents and filing by Last Name, First Name, Year of Birth (most recent birth first). I had been using the Annentafel numbering system and having to do all those calculation to try and find a file was driving me nuts. So now, the file folders are color-coded and match the colors assigned to each line in my database and are in alphabetical order. This is a variation on the “FamilyRoots Organizer Color Coding System”. So far, it is working very well.

4. I started digitizing all historic family photos. This is a huge project and very boring so I do not do very many at any one time. I have completed the photos my father inherited from his parents and am now working on the photos my mother inherited from her family. Then there are the photos my parents took, my husband’s parents took, my husband and I took. Will I finish this before I am too old to work the scanner?

5. I started research logs as another way to keep track of my research. I took a course in Research Logs from Family Tree University and got inspired. They also provided copies of templates to use. I have a workbook for each of my great grandparents’ families. It has proved to be a quick way to see what information is still missing.

6. I have started my husband’s genealogy. I want my grand children to know something of their heritage. His mother was first generation American of English descent and his father was half Norwegian and half Swedish. The English genealogy is fairly easy but the Norwegian-Swedish side needs work.

7. I have taken several excellent courses over the past year. Many of them are free and I encourage everyone to take advantage of all these free courses. One of my favorite courses  (not free) was taught by Robert Charles Anderson and sponsored by the New England Historic Genealogical Society. It was called, “Puritan Pedigrees” and dealt with the political and religious conflicts in England which lead up to the migration of numerous Englishmen to Massachusetts and Connecticut in the early 1630’s. I even got some information on one of my ancestors, Alice Blower. How cool is that! I also took a Blogger Boot Camp, taught by Thomas MacEntee and Liza Alzo. And as a result, I started this blog.

These are the highlights of my accomplishments. I have also been working on developing Evernote as a tool for genealogical research and using my Android tablet effectively in my research. These are both on-going and remain goals for 2015. Other goals for the coming years are to try and solve my dead ends in my Irish ancestors. I may have to hire a Canadian researcher to help me find what is available locally. I would also like to write the story of my Baldwin ancestry starting with John Baldwin and Asenath Buck and moving forward to my grandparents using scholarly genealogical notation. Should be a fun year.

             My Flemish Ancestors

My maternal grandparents immigrated to the United States in 1901 from East Flanders, Belgium. Flanders is the Dutch speaking part of Belgium. They arrived at Ellis Island in March 1901 and moved across the Hudson River to Paterson, New Jersey. My grandfather had friends that settled in Paterson and these friends told him the “streets are lined with gold” in America. Conditions in Flanders at this time were not good. Jobs were scarce and, with a growing population, hard to come by. Their first child was born that same year. Over the next 24 years they would have 7 more. Child number 6, born in 1918, was my mother.

My grandfather got a job in the locomotive factory and made trains for several years. Before my mother was born, he had switched careers, meeting a man who was a cement contractor. He learned the business and put in many curbs and sidewalks in the Paterson area. He also became a property owner, building and renting units in two duplex homes. The streets were “lined with gold” if you were willing to work hard.

The challenge for me, the genealogist, is that after one generation, I have to do all my research in records that are primarily in Dutch. There was a brief period when Napoleon added Belgium to his empire and forced the Flemish to keep their records in French. For a number of years, I did not do anything with my maternal lines. I knew the names of my mothers grandparents but that was about the extent of my knowledge. In 2007, a book, “Searching for Flemish (Belgian) Ancestors”, by Josef J. Goethals in collaboration with Karel Denys CICM,was published by Clearfield Company (printed by Genealogical Publishing Co.). Shortly thereafter, I bought a copy. This energized my research. This book is chock full of helpful information. It starts out with an introductory chapter on Flemish history, includes a chapter on Flemish resources in the United States and civil, parish and other records to be found in Belgium. When I found out that civil records had been filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, I really got excited and ordered film for the town of Kaprijke. The book by Goethals lays out the structure of each record, gives the Dutch and an English translation. Each record has an Introduction which includes the date and hour of registration, the town and district and the registrar’s name. The second part is the detail information on the event and the closing gives details about the informants. There are separate records for births, marriages and deaths. And they are full of detail.

I was so excited when I found my great grandfather’s birth record. With the help of this book and a Dutch dictionary, I was able to get the main facts out of the record. The record named the parents and gave their ages, so it was possible to find the birth records of the parents. But, of course, these would have been several years earlier and not on the roll of film I had. So, order more film, wait 4-6 (OR MORE) weeks and then continue your research. I looked up his parents’ births but did not attempt to go back further. Then I realized this summer that these records are all on line and can be downloaded and examined in the comfort of my own home. Yippee!!! So this summer, I filled in my family tree back to the mid eighteenth century. (Official record keeping started about 1795 with the coming of Napoleon.)

If you have to do research in a foreign country, find yourself a good resource and a good dictionary or a good list of terms. Check on line; more and more records are being digitized and are available. And if you have any cousins in the old country, look them up. Mine have been very generous with their time and very patient with my lack of knowledge of their language. You may be surprised at how much you can get done right in your own home.

          Daniel Baldwin, Ontario Farmer

Daniel Baldwin is my 2nd great grandfather. He was born in Mountain Township, Dundas County, Canada  (present day Ontario), to John Baldwin and Asenath Buck on March 20 1804. This date is family legend and has not been verified as yet. He was married on January 3, 1833 to Eleanor Wilson (called Ellen by the family) by a Methodist minister in Mountain. I found this marriage information originally in a database titled ”Some Early Marriages in Dundas County” This was published on the Dundas County Genweb page. I was a newbie to genealogical research at this time so I dutifully noted it and moved on. I next found it in a database on rootsweb titled “Marriages by Rev. Ezra Healy of the M.E. Church”. By now I was asking, “But where did they get this information?” It wasn’t until this week that I finally got my hands on the official record. I ordered and finally received the FHL film that contained the Eastern District Marriage Records. This film included the original handwritten record and a transcription done in the early 1900’s by a county clerk. That makes it easy. The marriage was solemnized by banns and the witnesses were Samuel Gainsey and James Nettleton.[i] I do not know who these gentlemen are but they might be worthwhile looking at.(The Fans Principle, you know.)

Like a large percentage of his contemporaries in North America, Daniel was a farmer.  He was mentioned in his father’s will in 1846.[ii] Daniel received 10 shillings and the option to purchase the East half of lot 13, Concession IV for $225 from his brothers Silas and Ezra for a period of 5 years from the date of the will. I don’t know if Daniel did this or not but I think he did. In the alphabetized list of transactions kept by the Registrar of Deeds for Mountain Township, I found a transfer under mortgage from Ezra and Silas Baldwin to Daniel Baldwin. I need to obtain this film; it’s on my to-do list. I also do not know how Daniel obtained title to lot 18, Concession IV. Another item on my to-do list.

My grandfather was born on lot 18, Concession IV and lived there until he was twelve. At this point the family joined the great migration from Ontario to the plains of North Dakota. I asked my father why they settled in North Dakota and not Manitoba. He said the Canadian government did not make land available in Manitoba until after 1900. My grandfather wrote a letter to his son, my Uncle Robert, describing his memories of the land. “By the time we left for Dakota, that was quite some over a hundred years of toil and labor on that farm by the Baldwins and the land still had quite a few big oaks still standing, fifty feet or more high, twenty four inches or more in diameter.”

The 1851 Census of Canada has an Agricultural Schedule that gives a glimpse of this farm. In 1851, Daniel Baldwin had 100 acres. Of this 20 acres were under cultivation, 10 acres in crops and 10 acres as pasture. Eighty acres were still in woods. He harvested 70 bushels of wheat from 5 acres, produced 50 pounds of butter from 2 cows and also owned 1 pig.[iii]

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[i] Canada, Ontario, District Marriage Records, 1831-1857, Library and Archives, Canada, RG 80-27, Eastern District, FHL film # 928968, Item 7.

[ii] Land Records of Dundas County (v. C-D) 1839-1847. FHL microfilm:201602. Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah.

[iii] Ancestry.com. 1851 Census of Canada East, Canada West, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006. Census of 1851 (Canada East, Canada West, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia). Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa, Canada. Dundas County, Mountain Township, Schedule B, Roll: C-11717, Page 116, Line47.

Mehitable McKay Buck

Most of the time, the lives of our female ancestors are hidden by the activities of the men in their lives. I found a document in the Vermont State Papers that gives a glimpse of the challenges faced by one of my female ancestors. Here is the story of Mehitable McKay, wife of Samuel Buck.

Samuel and Mehitable lived in Arlington, Vermont.  They moved there sometime after the birth of their daughter Mary, born in New Milford, Connecticut in October 1768 and before the birth of their son, Daniel Anson born about 1770. Samuel was a blacksmith and according to his claims, he owned 10 acres of improved land including a 4 acre plot in town, with a house and barn, an orchard of 100 trees and a nursery of over 2000 trees.[i] Samuel was a Loyalist and felt compelled to fight for the British. So in 1777 he joined Jessup’s Corps and fought with Burgoyne in Upper New York State. Men go off and fight wars and leave the women at home to cope.

The Colony of Vermont, through the Committee of Correspondence, began proceedings to confiscate the land of Loyalists. On April 23, 1778 the order to confiscate was given.[ii] At this time, Mehitable was living in Arlington with her children. She had 3 stepdaughters from her husband’s first marriage, Eunice age 21, Molly age 20 and Phebe age 19 and 6 or possibly 7 children of her own, Sally age 16, Daniel Dayton age 11, Mary age 10, Daniel Anson age 8, Stephen Walker age 5, Samuel Miles age 1 and possibly a newborn daughter Asenath. We are unsure where and when Asenath was born - 1778 or 1779 and either Vermont or Canada. Asenath is my third great grandmother. Having her husband’s property confiscated forced changes in the family. Phebe chose to remain in Vermont and married her second cousin, Lemuel Buck, probably immediately since their first child was born in 1779. Lemuel fought on the Patriot side during the war. A woman named Molly Buck died on May 2, 1778 according to Vermont Vital Records and is buried in the West Arlington Cemetery. This may be our Molly since we have no further information about her. All the rest of the family can be found in Sorel, Quebec after the war.

So here they are, homeless, in Vermont. Mehitable has 7 or perhaps 8 children depending upon her. The next document pertaining to this Buck family found in the Vermont State Papers is a bill for 12 pounds sterling for transporting the wife and family of Samuel Buck to enemy (British) lines[iii]. That would have been somewhere in Upper New York State. We don’t know where they went after this or how much of their personal belongings they were able to take with them. I would bet that like most refugees, they had little left. A large number of wives and children of soldiers were sent to Niagara for the duration of the war. Did Mehitable go there or did she go to Quebec? According to testimony given by Samuel Buck to the Claims Commission, they were in Sorel, Quebec in 1783[iv]. Often when our ancestors are involved in fighting a war, we concentrate on the men - the battles they were in, the injuries they received. We don’t often pay attention to the hardships endured by the women. But wars took as great a toll on the women as the men. It was a privilege to have this view of Mehitable and know that she was a strong woman who coped with her changing circumstances and kept her family intact.

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[i] Ancestry.com. Canada, Loyalist Claims, 1776-1835 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013.

Original data: American Loyalist Claims, 1776–1835. AO 12–13. The National Archives of the United Kingdom, Kew, Surrey, England.

[ii] State Papers of Vermont, Vol VI, Vermont Office of Secretary of State (1941), Mary Greene Nye, ed., p. 16.

[iii] State Papers of Vermont, Vol VI, Vermont Office of Secretary of State (1941), Mary Greene Nye, ed., p. 299.

[iv] Ancestry.com. Canada, Loyalist Claims, 1776-1835 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013.

Original data: American Loyalist Claims, 1776–1835. AO 12–13. The National Archives of the United Kingdom, Kew, Surrey, England.