Mid-year Clean up

All genealogists know what it’s like.  First you get lucky and find a ton of information that you can use.  You gather and gather like there is no tomorrow for an hour, a week or longer.  Now you have all of this stuff – in a pile – and you need to do something with it. 

First, you need to gather your source information for all the goodies that good fortune (and hard work) has placed in front of you. 

Second, you should enter this information into your computer’s genealogy program – remembering to cite your sources as you go along.  It is a lot easier to do it at this time rather than later.  Trust me I know.  I am still going back and sourcing the information that I entered years ago and my memory is not as good as it once was.

So, let’s get the piles off the desk, floor, dining table or where ever it is, get your mind right and deal with it.  I’ll be leaving the comfort of home for awhile and my mess will still be looking at me when I return.  And, I hope to return with more information about cousins that I haven’t seen for many years which will add more to the pile that I already have. 

It may be two weeks before I write again.  I’m going to be quite busy for a couple of weeks.

Ken

Found: The eighth family surname

Yes, it is true.  The eighth family surname has finally surfaced. My wife’s father’s maternal line carries the surname of CRABTREE.  So now I have my lines identified.  And, they are:

	My Family	Wife’s Family
Father’s   Paternal	SCHWEDLER	LEE
Maternal	NOBLE	CRABTREE
Mother’s  Paternal	OTT	FARRIS
Maternal	POFAHL	WILSON

Have you ever had the feeling that you had stepped into quicksand, and liked it?  Well, this week I began to research my wife’s lineage.  I had run into some brick walls on my own lines so it is time to change gears, so to speak.  I already knew the surnames of my wife’s parents.  She has only an older sister and an aunt still living so I turned to the internet for help.  I found it in the form of a RootsWeb listing for Ohio County, Kentucky.  None of the information is sourced, however.  But I now have the names and many of the birth dates, marriage dates, death dates, (some going back to the mid 1700’s) and places on which to focus my attention.  Also listed were some nicknames which can be helpful.  I also  found a couple of family trees online which followed the information that I had with a few discrepancies noted.  Overall, I was able to enter, including collateral family members, over one thousand more names this past week.  Checking a few census records on the direct lines has confirmed some of the information I had gleaned from RootsWeb.

Thanks to the people of Ohio County, Kentucky for keeping such good records.

Well, it’s back to work.  Now where did I put that …….?

Ken

Families I am Currently Researching

From Southeastern Wisconsin, I am researching the SCHWEDLER, NOBLE, OTT and POFAHL families.

From Central Kentucky, I am researching the LEE, FARRIS and WILSON families on my wife's side of the family.  There is another surname in there somewhere.  One day I will find it and report on it.

I will try to keep you updated on my latest findings, brick walls, mistakes, etc.  Like all family trees, we have an abundance of fruits and nuts in this orchard, so give me a little time to get use to this blogging thing.  Please feel free to comment at any time.  I have been doing genealogy for about 15 years and have had a lot of help along the way.  Sometimes, like all other family historians, I just get plain lucky

Ken