Cemeteries

Just as birth certificates, birth records, marriage records, and death records provide (usually) a tangible link to our ancestors, cemeteries provide information useful in our search of a different sort.  In cases where no death exists or one could be found, the date on a tombstone may be the only record of death for an individual.  The photo below is one of my ancestors.  No death record exists at the probate courthouse and this is the only record of his death.  The information on the stone is considered as primary evidence in the absence of a written record.

Ezekiel Case - Evergreen Cemetery, Pierpont, Ohio

Information on a tombstone varies considerably.  If a person is lucky enough to gaze upon a tombstone and find the exact age at the time of death, the birth date can be calculated.  In some older sections of a cemetery

Elisha Hedge - Ancient Cemetery, Yarmouth Port, Massachusetts

the "phrase in the __ year of [his/her] age" means the person entered into their next birth year when the person died.  In the above example, Elisha died at 15 years of age, beginning his "16th year."

Good news and bad news about Ohio birth certificates

Birth certificates that list the names of the parents are the ideal documents to link the line carrier on a lineage application to his or her parents. The Society of Mayflower Descendants, like all other lineage societies wants birth certificates as far back as we can get them, with earlier birth records when they were kept at the local level.

The good news in Ohio is that you can walk into any Health Department office in the state and obtain a birth certificate for any one born in Ohio since December 1908.

The bad news is that by Ohio law, if you request that birth certificate in a county other than where the person was born, the staff are prohibited from listing the birth location as anything other than "Ohio" on the certificate. We actually want to see the city and county of birth in addition to the state, so this law makes the certificates less than ideal.

What to do? Send to the county where the person was born and request the certificate there, or send to the State Health Department. You can download the application at http://www.odh.ohio.gov/pdf/forms/hea2709.pdf. You can also include a hospital birth certificate or other document to prove the complete location of the birth.

The Dating Game

Well, y’all – time to play the dating game!  Before everyone thinks the poor old, dilapidated assistant historian lost his mental faculties, the dating game is not what one would think.  The dating game does not involve relative dating in neither a geological sense (and yes, I did say geological) nor a genealogical sense (with a subtle difference between the two).  I’m talking about double dating.  One could argue I may be referring to double dates as a genealogical phenomenon when two sisters date two brothers of a different family and may be related – ah, noooo, I’m not; at least, not in this case.

            The double dating I’m referring deals with calendrical systems.  For example 21 February 1721/22 is a double date.  Now why is there a slash between 21 and 22?  It has to be one or the other, but not both.  Well, yes and no.  Yes, in the sense it must be in a definitive temporal year, either 1721 or 1722; however, no because the two calendrical systems I refer to are the Julian calendar and the Gregorian calendar. 

            The Julian calendar started by Julius Caesar in 46 BC (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_calendar: accessed 19 July 2015) divided the year into 12 months with fixed 365 days with one day added every four years.  As time passed errors creeped in because of irregularity in earth orbit and lunar orbit throwing off religious festivals.  For example, Easter in the Christian Tradition occurred in the March timeframe.  As centuries passed the Easter date fell in the middle of May – far from March.  To compensate, Pope Gregory XIII introduced reforms.

            The Gregorian calendar is similar to the Julian except century years, 1800, 1900 (centuries divided by 100) are not leap years unless divisible by 400 (2000 is a leap year).  With the reforms, the calendars were brought into sync (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorian_calendar: accessed 19 July 2015).  The reforms instituted by Pope Gregory took effect 15 October 1582; however, Great Britain didn’t adopt it until 1750.  The American colonies didn’t adopt it until 1753.

            The example date I gave, 21 February 1721/22 means 21 February 1721 in the Julian calendar (Old Style) but 21 February 1722 in the Gregorian (New Style).  The double dates exist only between January-24 Mar (25 March is the New Year in the Julian calendar).  To add a further wrinkle, the Julian system is about 10 days behind the Gregorian meaning in the Old Style 21 February would be 11 February 1721, but 21 February 1722 in the Gregorian.  The trick is trying to keep the two systems separated.  For me, the best way to remember if there is a date with no slash for Jan-March, deduct 1 year and put a slash between the two years.

The Name Game

Ah, yes – the name game.  Growing up, I heard many names mentioned about people and never really thought of how they relate to me, if at all, until in my later years in the service.  How many times do we remember a name and try to piece together the relationship?  Many times names are recycled through the generations.  With the advent of the internet, a plethora of names cascades off the webpages such as Ancestry.com, Fold3, FamilySearch, and others.  Our job as genealogists is to sift through the names and generations to see where the people fit in our ancestral or correlative puzzle.  Unfortunately, the above named websites, particularly Ancestry.com and FamilySearch, contain much bogus information in the form of mis-keyed entries.

            As a “baby” genealogist I ordered Family Tree Maker 2005 software and I searched for my ancestor, William Barker and came up with several hundred thousand hits.  By the time I finished merging trees, the poor man had15 wives and several hundred kids.  I knew he was born in the 1840s and had one wife.  In extreme frustration, I deleted my great-great grandfather from existence (and yet, I’m still here) and started over.  The story illustrates important points – start with yourself and work back, don’t rely on the internet for all information, and use a variety of records from the courts, libraries, historical societies plus other reputable sources.

            In order to prove each event in our ancestors lives, each record must be cited and verified by cross-referencing with other records.  What do I mean?  For example, my ancestor William Barker entered into this world 6 January 1842, Millwood Township, Guernsey County, Ohio.  The event is precise, but no birth records were kept in Ohio until the late 1860s.  How can it be cross-referenced?  Using a death certificate from the Ohio Department of Health or perhaps a probate record from the court.  I obtained the death certificate that gives his birth date, trouble is the birth is secondary.  I checked the probate court and there is no probate records for William.

            Another way to cross-reference is to use the 1880 census.  The 1880 census gives relationships and an approximate year of birth.  Actually, the more censuses used the better, even if no relationships are stated.  Land records can be used as well because of the transference of property, in addition to a marriage being written into the record.  Tombstone photos in cemeteries will help.

            With amassed records, cite all your sources so that if a person has a question, the sources can be consulted.  Citations show that a person is serious about documenting ancestors using reliable, verifiable data and will show credibility of the researcher.  Another caveat awaits the researcher – just because a person may have the same surname as yourself or the family you work, does not necessarily mean you are related.  I have seen many lineage reviews with Whites and Warrens, along with others.  When I check the first five generations to see if the line is good, I found the opposite to be true because there is no such child belonging to the couple or, perhaps, there is a child, but, the line does not continue.  Check your sources and verify before proceeding to the next generation.

Massachusetts Vital Records, part 2

     Massachusetts vital records exist at the town level and, for the most part, been microfilmed by the Mormon Church.  Images taken from the microfilm have been put on Ancestry.com under the "Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988" database; but, Ancestry.com does not give the full citation of what microfilm is used.  Depending who indexed the image, a volume number may or may not appear and for the same person, there may be multiple references for the same piece of data.  For example, my 7th Great Grandfather, the Honorable Judah Thacher, has three references in the Yarmouth Town Records for his birth 20 August 1693 in Yarmouth (Yarmouth, Massachusetts, Town Records, Births, 1657-1783, 3: 55, Judah Thacher; FHL microfilm 945511; Yarmouth, Massachusetts, Vital Records, Births, 1678-1823, 7: 11, Judah Thacher; FHL microfilm 945511; Yarmouth, Massachusetts, Town Records, 1678-1860, 18: 12, Judah Thacher; FHL microfilm 945513) lists the same person, birth date and parents three different times.

     With the Judah Thacher example, each town clerk at that particular time hand-wrote each entry.  Volumes 3,4 and 7 are on microfilm 945511 while volume 18 dealing with individuals grouped in family units is on microfilm 945513.  For Judah, he is listed with his siblings under John Thacher and Lydia Gorham (my ancestress).  Both of these films are on permanent loan at the OGS library in Bellville, Ohio.  These microfilms are the actual basis of the transcriptions of the records done by the late Robert and Ruth Sherman in two volumes (Vital Records of Yarmouth, Massachusetts to the Year 1850) also found at the OGS library.  The important point to remember is the microfilm records are the original registers and are primary source evidence in proving relationships in colonial Massachusetts versus the Sherman transcripts which are secondary.

     What do I mean by primary and secondary source evidence?  Primary sources deal with recording the event either by an eyewitness to the event or transmitted to someone else to record by the eyewitness.  For example, the birth of a child.  The mother birthed the child and she went to the town clerk along with her husband to register the birth.  When the town clerk entered the information in the register, that would be the "birth certificate" for that child.  The town clerk may or may not hire other clerks to collect the registers and re-copy them into other volumes particularly in cases after a fire or other natural disasters to insure preservation of the record not only for public viewing but also for the government in determining local taxes.

How many documents should you send? Part 2

When collecting evidence try to get primary sources if possible.  For example, birth certificates, death certificates, marriage records from the probate court with the return at the very bottom which should give the actual marriage date.  Prior to 1908 in Ohio birth, death and marriage records were kept at the probate court.  Depending on the county, ask to see if they will let you take digital photographs of those records.  If allowed, take photographs and include it.  If getting to the courthouse is impractical, try going to the local county chapter of OGS and see if you can examine the records on microfilm.  If there is no microfilm, order it from Salt Lake and have it sent to the local LDS church to view it or send it to the OGS library in Belleville.  If the ancestor in question is not listed in the birth records, use the social security number to obtain a copy of the social security application (https://secure.ssa.gov/apps9/eFOIA-FEWeb/internet/main.jsp).  Other records that can be used are probate records if any exist for the individual.

Once you traced your ancestor to Massachusetts, try to look for vital records by the Town Clerk.  For example, when I found out that my fourth great grandfather came from Yarmouth, Massachusetts, I ordered Town Records by the Town Clerk on microfilm from Salt Lake.  With that I was able to get original birth records and not rely on transcriptions (a two volume set of transcriptions of Yarmouth vital records were done by the Shermans in the 1970s or 1980s).  Many cases I found the same records in different volumes and helps as a cross-check.  I took the images of the Yarmouth records and created  Word document with it to include full source citations and sent them to Ann to include in my file; basically for the source citation, I simply copy-pasted the citation from my RootsMagic software onto the word document.  I used the Town records to supplement the Silver books and the Howland volumes.  By submitting the Word document with the images and source citations to Ann, she could view the record and verify that what is on the application is indeed is the same as what's on the record.  The Sherman transcriptions are accurate; but transcriptions are prone to error (any record is prone to error in reality).

Point being use as many verifiable records as possible to back up your claim - the more, usually the better.

How many documents should you send?

I received a question from an applicant today who wanted to know if she should send obituaries, headstone photos, cemetery records, etc for an ancestor for whom she has a long form death certificate that includes parents' names, spouse name, and all the other information we look for.

The answer is "it depends!" For a person for whom you have not only the long form death certificate but also have a birth certificate and perhaps even a marriage document that includes parents, then the death certificate is sufficient. 

For a person for whom the death certificate is also your main source for birth information, I would include everything you have. In these situations, I also try to find census records that show the person in the household of his/her parents. The 1900 census should always be included if applicable as it gives month and year of birth and can corroborate the birth information on the death certificate.  If you are not sure, then send it all. I may not use it all, but let me make the determination.