Hunting Dead People - The New Generation of Genealogists

MOVING!

Due to many technical difficulties & varios other personalization options this blog will be moving to:

https://butterbeanz.wordpress.com/

Please make a change your to bookmarks & favorites lists. 

Thank You! See you at:

https://butterbeanz.wordpress.com/

More To The Story

  I know I have been researching this same brick wall with Frank & Clara since 2006! Yes, that is almost 5 years of looking over this link & without serious attention... I would get lost or frustrated & just moving onto the next tree.

  Since I have set a goal (I have to keep reminding myself of this :), moving on isn't an option, so I finally get to focus! However, while I await the mail system for Frank Lee, the son, (why can't genealogy catch up with the times already!)... I find I must keep digging... It's truly an addiction. 

  "Your Focus Needs More Focus" - Karate Kid (2010) One of my favorite quotes :) 

  After deep thought, & little more rummaging around, I had some questions. Questions that I should have thought of earlier if had I just "focused"!

  At one time I was told that after Clara died, Frank (the son) was raised by family in (Chicago) IL. Well, who's family? Frank's or Clara's? Which family? An aunt, an uncle, grandparents? So back to my generous aunt:

  "Hi,  spent a little time this morning looking over very old notes. Came across a few things.   Frank and  Clara Marie meet in Okmulgee OK and could possibly be the place of marriage. Notes clearly say the Frank Lee was born on indian reservation. And that Frank Lee senior is buried in Pryor OK. I have made several calls but have found nothing. Guess I will have to go to Pryor and walk the cemeteries. Anyway just thought I would send this your way.  Hope that you have a nice day."

"I got the birth year from Frank Lee delayed birth certificate. Yes my notes say that he was raised by an Aunt in Chicago. Her side of the family. Keep in mind that they meet and married in Okmulgee. Still does not mean that he was indian. IF the father was from WI then are there indian tribes there?? "

  Well that certainly helps! He was residing in Okumlgee, OK, around 1900? Not a single positive search result, so this means I get to waste some time unwinding (one night this week), going through the ENTIRE census for Okumlgee, OK. After thought, "Hmmm... when did Okumlgee become  a city or town? And what others are it's neighbors? That might be very important to know & why search results were all negative. Duh Ding-dong!" 

  Buried in Pryor! Well, let me get on that letter ASAP! That is simply a records search at the county clerks office...a death certificate usually states this information. Wait! Did they have death records as early as 1900? What year might I need to search? There's another question to clarify....

  "Indian Territory"... well that is another fun search for either the rolls or the whites on their land rolls... I am getting so excited! ... but I LOATH Native American research. It's not my cup of tea. :(

  Man! My "To-Do" list sure is getting long now :D

Operator! Operator? Can You Understand Me?

  So I have searched a bunch of records in the last few nights. I'm pretty sure I can honestly say a million since some searches have produced over 400,000 results & I've searched most of the results :) Research Overload!

  I've found every Frank Lee or Herbert Lee I can muster up in OK. Seen just about every Clara Lee possible in OK & quit a few in IL. It's resulted in a few Frank & Clara Lee unions. None of which are good matches...

  Mostly because children don't match, date of record doesn't match, the birth locations of anyone doesn't match, race doesn't match,... You name it, I've dismissed it. A few were lucky enough to be saved for later or printed for a possibility.

  Then tonight it dawned on me, as I was on page 50-something results produced from a search on the LDS (Latter Day Saints) FamilySearch site, that I probably need to back up a generation. A marriage record (without image) was transcribed for Frank Herbert Lee & Mardell Beamer. This is the son of Frank & Clara Lee. An besides an obvious transcription detail, the first question that come up was, "do I have all I can on Frank Lee, the son?"

  This is a rookie mistake! Yes, and I made it big time! ;(

  In the past I had worked on Frank Lee, that's how I got his delayed birth certificate & his Rail Road records. But do I have his life events documented? I'm sure I'd remember a marriage liscence that said his mother was "Gladys Newhaus"!

  First "Gladys" is clearly not Clara! Clara Brown is the bride's (Mardell's) mother! And Newhouse, from my experience, is definitely German or of German regional relation. Now we are getting somewhere :D

  Are you following? Can you see it? A generation playing a game of "operator" or "telephone" very poorly... It happens :)

  So my handy dandy Internet search with Google & there it is! Clear as day... Newhouse in native tongue is often pronounced to sound more like Nayhouse, Nyus, Niehause, Neuhause,...

  Big picture: Operator error due to dialect & accents! So my next step is actually backwards a generation to Frank & Mardell (Beamer) Lee. Let's finish a complete documentation work up :D

Oral Family History

  As a genealogist, oral history or the stories the family shares with you is a treasure. I find I often can't get enough!

  However, every good genealogist knows that family history or stories orally past down are like a good game of operator (or telephone). As it passes from person to person & generation to generation, things tend to get a little embellished, taken out of context, & misunderstood. So taking a oral family history as fact alone would be detrimental to your hard document proven research.

  NEVER dismiss these stories! Often facts are lurking in the shadows of fun adjectives & misaligned information.

  IF you have no real starting point, family histories & stories (legends in some cases) are a perfect place to start. They help guide your research with those little hidden facts.

  Since I'm starting from "ground zero" again & focusing on only one family for this year, getting all I could in regards to the oral history of Frank & Clara was my first step. Thus, the other day I asked my hubby's aunt to clarify, as much as she could for me, the oral history that's been passed down on Frank Herbert & Clara Marie (Nuahause) Lee. I had gotten all of it in bits & pieces, but I still hadn't grasped the whole story...if there was one.

  I asked his aunt because we've both share a passion for genealogy, she's holds a perspective from this side of the family, & she's been so helpful in helping to collaborate on this line as she's also been actively researching.

  The story goes like this:

"Frank Lee was born in Pryor Creek OK in 1900.Clara Marie was born 1882 in Chicago When Clara died when he was 3. So she would have died in 1903. Clara we think is buried in Chicago Ill. Frank was given to relatives to raise and the father leaves. Frank Lee his father was born in Milwaukee WI in 1875. Do not know what he did for a living. Or how it is that he ended up on Pryor Creek OK. Clara's parents ran some kind of printing machine. Not sure if it was a newspaper or just a printing business."

 Collected from my husband's fathers hand written tree: "Frank Lee - Cherokee &  Nayhouse - German".  

OOPS! German? Well there you go... first mistake! It isn't "Irish" but "German". I had been listening to stories of my hubby & brother-in-law saying they were always told "Irish". Hmm... now do you see how this gets funny with "oral histories"? I misunderstood or made a error in how I linked information already! :(

  As you can clearly see, I am really short on the "story" side of this tree. I am really going to have to do some research & studying! 

The Year of LEE

  Like I state previously, my research has turned into ground zero...or it feels that way. Having to rebuild my entire software database is so daunting, as it looks like Mt. Everest to an ant!

  In the past my research has always been about getting as many documents as possible... I mean that the whole point right? Evidence!

   Well as I begin... And it's a New Year... I'm setting goals this time & focusing on only one tree at a time. Thus this year all my research efforts & goals are going towards my husbands line: The Lees!

  I opted for this family line because: 1- It's my smallest tree on hard copy & Ancestry thus it's a little less scary to start my rebuild. 2 - Because it's brick wall comes early in historical perspective: 1900. 3 - I've had my first child, a boy! So his line is dad's line :)

  The brick wall & center of all research starts with Frank Herbert Lee who's reported birth takes place in once Pryor Creek, OK, on 22 September 1900. I say "reported" because he had to get a delayed birth certificate of nearly 50 years after the fact!!

  The delayed birth certificate said he's the son of Frank Herbert (Herbert Frank) Lee of WI, & Clara Marie Nuahause of IL. Yes, both names were listed for the father. The father is said through family stories to be Cherokee & the mother is said to be Irish.

  My suspicions are that these have been twisted. I mean, a Cherokee (as family legend holds it) born in Milwaukee, WI, before 1900? That would be very rare...wouldn't it? And secondly, it's most common for a man to travel to the location of the woman he marries &/or bears children with, with the first born birthed in the woman's last known residence. I did say "most common". Also "Nuahause" really doesn't sound Irish to me...does it to you? It was even spelled "Nayhouse" on one handwritten family tree.

  So begins The Year Of Lee! Follow along to see how this family unfolds these next 11 months :D

Family Tree Maker Fails

So Family Tree Maker tech support finally wrote me back:

"Dear Amy,

We appreciate your message.

I apologize, but I am not sure that I know what you are referring to when you say MRIN's. What are MRINS's?

If there is anything else with which we might assist you, please let us know.

Leah
Member Solutions
Ancestry.com
http://ancestry.custhelp.com/"

Are you serious? Professional world wide company that helps MANY professionals created a software that doesn't know what a MRIN is?! Is this possible?

Needless to say I responded trying very hard to hold my sarcasm & my tongue of angst schooling them on a MRIN (Marriage Record Index Number) & how I found the answer online & I acutely noted thief failure. It took them over a week to respond ... She couldn't research it or pass it to someone who did know?

Needless to say, par for the course Ancestry fails again! So off to hunt down another Mac compatible genealogy software...

Ancestry App for iPhone

I have cursed Anestry.com so many times over the last 5 years with their incessant new updates & rearranging of the way you use their site along with an  increase in membership fees... This time they did something right ... finally!

I have had the Ancestry.com app for my iPhone for just a little while now. I wasn't impressed with it. It simple listed my tree(s) I had with Ancestry.com & an alphabetical list of individuals attached to that tree. Pretty worthless... 

UNTIL NOW! The NEW Ancestry app (or update for those of us with the previous version) has finally started to catch up with family research in the 21st century & everyone on the go! 

It now gives you a view of your tree as an actual tree with a home button that will take you back to your set home person so you can swing through the branches of your tree(s). The option to add & delete individuals (no more letting my little man play with mommy's phone... LOL) , the ability to edit information for persons attached, & the ability to search for individuals you have saved to your tree! You can also view a list of documents or "evidence" you have saved to individuals, add photos from your iPhone, or view attached photos. And with internet access, you can access Ancestry.com through the app itself! Truly worth the effort now & the download.

The best part... IT'S STILL FREE! Yes, it is still free to download. Thus if you have an Ancestry.com account you have an app that will take your work with you on the go! Even better, it is always free to simple create a tree with Ancestry.com with no attached records, so it is never completely worthless :) You can use it as your own family tree app on the go & never upload to Ancestry.com.

It's still not as fancy as say Reunion, but it is definitely comparable. If you don't use Reunion on your Mac, their app, which is $14.99, is completely worthless to you.  Thus, I am very excited to have the Ancestry app taking up memory & space on my iPhone :) 

Restart

  After almost 15 years of research, college classes, a bunch of lectures & conferences, I decided to move away from Windows completely & move solely to Mac. Mostly because of a crash & burn in Windows on my Parallels platform, I now sit here researching Mac compatible genealogy software...& lesson learned on not backing things up...I get to also start from scratch reentering ALL my research by hand.

  After much research I was certain I'd found my answer: Family Tree Maker by Ancestry. I am able to download my tree(s) from Ancestry into Family Tree Maker, as well as attached resources! So half the work is done for me!! Genius, right?

  Well besides now learning a very non-straightforward system (thank goodness I bought the handbook), it also lacks MRIN options either automatically or self entry!!! How am I supposed to create my hard copies & keep them organized?

  It turns out Family Tree Maker for Mac is based off their Windows 2010 version, where they took out MRIN's... Of course! But the new Windows 2011 version has added the option back!!! So I guess I'm waiting on a new Mac version...? I've emailed them, ... But no response. Here's hoping a new update for Mac version soon :)

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

GENEALOGY BLOG! This is not a hoax or some crazy site of some absurd condition... 

I am one of the many new, younger generations starting genealogy before retirement... I actually started my research when I was 18 out of pure curiosity & a lack of attachment with my family. So back then I was the "odd" one, whereas now, I am finding quiet a group of genealogy friends in their 30's eager to hunt up their dead relatives & create their stories. 

A teacher of mine once said that every generation has at least one family historian. Someone who keeps records & stories of the lives that gave them their own identity. I agree, and I am one of those individuals. With almost 15 years of research experience, I have moved from the family story keeper to the family "evidence locker".

Now I want to share with others like me :)