Quarantine Quests: The Memoir of Ellis Willard Gibson 1893-1985

Ellis W. Gibson, 1914

By Chris Pattillo

 

A few months before the pandemic began Gibran Rath received a parcel of material about her great uncle Ellis Willard Gibson from her mother’s cousin. Included in the envelope was a 73-page memoir written by Ellis. This treasure came with some challenges, though. It was written in longhand with a combination of black and purple ink on both sides of the paper. On most of the pages the ink had bled through, making it difficult to read. Gibran’s first challenge was to figure out a cost-effective method of reproducing the pages so they would be legible. Once that was accomplished, she reviewed what she had and started focusing on documenting and augmenting the account.

 

This has been one of four projects Gibran has focused on during the past year while sheltering at home and helping to care for her three-year-old granddaughter. Much of Gibran’s previous family research focused on her Scottish father’s side so she was particularly pleased to receive new insight into her mother’s ancestors. For some reason unknown to Gibran her mother rarely talked about her side of the family. Gibran recalls meeting this great uncle on at least two occasions but she was too young at the time to remember much about him. This memoir, which she believes Ellis wrote for his youngest daughter who was interested in family history, has given Gibran “a window into a different time when my grandfather, Lyle (Ellis’s older brother), was a child and what his home life was like.” She shared one particular story told by her great uncle that I could strongly relate to. Ellis wrote of times when he and his mother would go to visit her father, Ellis’s grandfather, after church, and that Ellis would be anxious to leave, get home and have lunch.

 

Gibson family, 1900

The memoir shed light not only on what Ellis’s life was like but the pages he wrote include his recollections of his father and grandfather. The extended family all lived in and around a small town in Pennsylvania called Venango.

Gibran also noted that the memoir contained funny old remedies–one she remembered was that when Ellis fell and cracked his head, his mother bandaged his head with sheets soaked in turpentine and brown sugar.

 

Willard and Minnie Gibson's children, 1905

Throughout our interview Gibran’s allegiance to the facts, to the truth, was a recurring theme. She said the source of this sensibility comes from her scientific training and career as a licensed medical technologist. When I asked why she went to so much trouble to reproduce the original pages instead of simply retyping them, Gibran admitted to being suspicious of transcribed documents and noted how easy it would be to edit out details that might not jibe with the story the writer chose to portray. 

While in quarantine Gibran has researched this branch of her family, finding three men who served during the American Revolution, three who fought in the War of 1812 and two who were drafted during the Civil War but saw no service because they were farmers. She has augmented the memoir by finding some wills, other probate documents, a few censuses, and some portraits and she has filled in a family tree to help organize everything. Before the pandemic began Gibran had visited Pennsylvania and found family graves in the local cemeteries.

Ellis (right) and Pearl Gibson, 1967

 

While Gibran has undertaken years of research and worked on other family history projects, this project is the largest she’s taken on. Having extra time because of the pandemic no doubt is a factor as to why she is doing the project at this time. For Gibran the research is the fun part–that’s the scientist in her. She said she will leave it to others to take her material and produce a family history book, a picture book, a blog or whatever they choose to do with what she's found and assembled for her extended family.

Gibran concluded our interview by giving a description of Ellis as a kind and soft-spoken man who had an inner serenity.  She added, “whenever he would visit, he always washed all my mother’s windows and polished the silver.”

Copyright © 2021 by California Genealogical Society

Quarantine Quests: Family Photos Brought to Life

The Quarantine Quests story was written by CGS member Nancy Cork.

I took advantage of this social distancing time by working on, and finally finishing, a personal project. This year is the 100th anniversary of the birth of my mother, Evalyn Biddle. When she passed away in 1995, I promised my sisters that we would have a special celebration of our mother’s life in 2020… little knowing what form that celebration would take.

Evalyn Biddle at 6 months, in 1920 Minneapolis

I inherited boxes of family photographs from my mother. My curiosity about those photos of people I knew little about drove me to begin researching my family history, and I have loved pursuing genealogy for the last 25 years. I have learned so much about my ancestors, three, four, ten… even twelve generations back. Genealogy has been my passion. But as I turned to think of how to commemorate my mother, I realized that there was so much that I didn’t know about her life. Not that my parents were secretive, or didn’t enjoy reminiscing about the past. Rather, I just didn’t think to ask questions, to get the conversations started. Like so many people, I always assumed that there would be plenty of time to talk tomorrow, and I prioritized my own present over other people’s past. So now I found myself trying to understand my mother’s life in order to pay tribute to her.

Two historic floods, in 1978 and 1987, engulfed Minneapolis
during Evalyn's lifetime

Thankfully, I’ve learned a lot doing genealogical research, and there are so many resources available today that aid in tracking down information of the most surprising kind. I used my research skills to build a timeline for my mother’s life. And, through DNA matches, I was able to connect with “long-lost” relatives, and get answers to lingering questions.

I decided to make a multimedia presentation based on the old family photographs. I gathered every picture that I could find and scanned them all; then I got family members across the country to scan and email more photos to me. That was actually the easy part. Much more difficult was identifying each photo. I labeled each picture starting with the year (using “circa” when I was just guessing) and then the names of the people in the photo, adding a location or description or sometimes just a number, to help keep track of the hundreds of photographs. Putting the date first allowed me to easily sort the photographs chronologically.

Pages from the 1938 Centralian high school yearbook

I scanned and saved most of the photos as TIFF files. Next I copied each photograph over again as a JPEG, and labeled it as a copy. To those copies I did simple photo edits, marveling at how dramatic a transformation something like auto color correction can make! I used only the edited photographs in JPEG form in my slideshow program. I have used this program many times to make photo slideshows of vacations and birthdays, even once for a wedding. It allows one to creatively move around the photographs, zooming in and out, panning, focusing on details, etc. Though the program has many bells and whistles, I kept as my mantra, “What would Ken Burns do?” as I worked with each photograph, and tried to keep the special effects to a minimum. Though, to be honest, there were times when I was channeling George Burns instead, as I gave in to the temptation to ham up a family joke or two!

My genealogical research skills came into play as I fleshed out the story the photographs told. I dug up census, birth, marriage records, school report cards, employment records, church records, military files, etc. I traced down “FAN” (friends, associates, and neighbors) names, addresses and even phone numbers to find a more complete understanding of what was happening and when. Most of all, I used old family letters to tell my mother’s story. I am very fortunate to have a large collection of letters from and to her, and being able to use excerpts of her own words in my tribute meant a lot.

Seven-year-old Evalyn with her mother, 1927

After compiling pictures and information, I next tried to find themes for the show. Some were obvious choices: her school days, her career, her friends through the years. Others were maybe a little eccentric – for instance, my mother always loved dogs, and everyone loves a good dog story, right? – so it was natural to include a section devoted to her canines and their capers, and top it off with a newspaper article about a brutal three-dog fight that my 7-year-old mom heroically tried to break up, necessitating a rescue from her 9-year-old brother, and a trip to the hospital for everyone. I then included statements from both my mother and uncle reflecting on, and disagreeing about, that incident.

My slideshow tribute was further personalized with a musical soundtrack. I had asked my sisters to suggest songs that were reminiscent of our mother. That was a lot of fun for all of us. After several months of searching, singing and selecting, I had to overcome the challenges of converting old LPs and cassette tapes to MP3 files. I finally amassed a digital collection of almost 70 songs – all songs that my mother loved. In the end, I included snippets of 37 songs in the slideshow, as well as a recording of my mother singing, and an excerpt of a reading that she did. It was amazing to me how much the music enhanced the experience of looking at the family photographs. No surprise, I guess… can you imagine watching, say, Casablanca or Sleepless in Seattle without the soundtracks? I could evaluate and arrange the photos for hours and feel detached from the images, and then as soon as I played the slideshow with the “perfect” song, emotions would soar.

A soundtrack of favorite songs added emotion to the slideshow

Before finishing the slideshow, I asked immediate family members to contribute memories of my mother. Everyone chose to send me audio files, and hearing each story – funny, respectful, poignant, or loving – was terrific. The final production ran for 90 minutes and included more than 600 photographs, documents and other images. Despite the quarantine stay-at-home orders, I was able to share the tribute to my mother with my family, near and far, by screen-sharing on Zoom. We chose to view the show on Mother’s Day, of course.

Copyright © 2020 by California Genealogical Society

Quarantine Quests: Finding Enoch

This Quarantine Quests story is from CGS member Shirley Thomson and written by Chris Pattillo.

More than fifty years ago Shirley Thomson began her quest for the birth family of her husband, Tommy’s, earliest known ancestor, Enoch Thomson, born in 1784 in New York. Shirley started searching for Enoch’s parentage when she discovered the wealth of genealogical records in the local library where she was working in 1962. Since that time, she has persisted in her efforts to discover Enoch’s connection to one of many Thomson family trees.

Enoch Thomson (1784-1872),
farmer and part-time Baptist preacher,
 Sullivan County, Indiana

The best part of being quarantined is that “it eliminates my need to make excuses for working on my family history” says Shirley. After many years of searching and not finding the desired connection, Shirley decided to hire the CGS Research team to help with her quest. That decision was made in February of 2020, shortly before the quarantine began. Initially, hiring the research team – that includes Lavinia Schwarz and Pat Smith – increased Shirley’s workload. As the team of researchers dug in, they presented Shirley with lots of questions. Shirley was very busy answering their questions starting in February and into the early weeks of the quarantine. Since then she has taken a bit of a break from genealogy.

When asked what tips Shirley had to offer, she said “Perseverance.” That is what is needed when tackling a tough problem. After fifty-plus years of pursuit I’d say Shirley is a model of perseverance.

Shirley has been using DNA to look for Enoch’s parents since 2006. She has found several autosomal and yDNA matches – some with lines going back to the mid-1600s. Each new DNA clue confirms the same family line, but she has yet to find Enoch from any of these leads. One of her challenges is the tradition in this family to use middle or nicknames, so while she is focused on looking for Enoch it may be that he was known as “Ed” and that is why she has yet to pin this man down.

Deed to land purchased by brothers-in-law Justis Clark and Enoch Thomson
of Lysander, New York, on 30 July 1811. By 1820, both Clark and Thomson
families were resettled on farms near the Wabash River in Indiana

I asked how she managed to come up with new questions to ask after fifty years of searching – how does she formulate new questions that enable her to approach the problem from a different perspective? Her answer was prompt and emphatic: “Oh, that’s easy, because technology gives us new opportunities all the time'” When asked for an example, Shirley said she has three pages of names of other Thomson descendants who are doing research on this same family. She was able to print this out from the GEDmatch.com site. The report lists people who match Enoch’s autosomal DNA. She can refine the list and see their ancestral lines and what they are focused on. Using their GEDCOM identification number she can compare them to other matches to her husband. Studying this information continues to provide new clues.

So far neither Shirley nor the research team have found the link they are seeking, but all are persevering.

Enoch's son Reuben Thomson (1827-1907) with his wife Margaret McKinney
 and nine grown children, mid-1800s

If you have a Quarantine Quests story to share, please contact Chris at cpattillo@californiaancestors.org.

Copyright © 2020 by California Genealogical Society

Quarantine Quests: A Treasure Trove of Stories

Chris Pattillo is collecting "Quarantine Quests," stories of genealogical projects and discoveries made by our members while sheltering at home due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. This Quarantine Quests story is from CGS member Jan Rubin.

CGS member Jan Rubin with her paternal
grandfather, Roy Baxter, 1953

Being quarantined at home has given Jan Rubin the time to reflect on her family’s history and to think about why she is so committed to continuing to research and weave together the many pieces of her family’s story. It has enhanced her sense of who she is and how her ancestors have shaped her. When the quarantine began Jan decided to focus on her paternal grandfather, Roy Raymond Baxter.

Jan inherited her family’s records – a treasure trove of photos, postcards, letters and research done by other family members. These documents and memorabilia came to her from her father, who had saved them from his father. Roy Baxter was a native of Nova Scotia who had studied to become a farmer, as his father and grandfather had been. But after a series of setbacks beginning around 1920 – his farm burning down, the Spanish flu pandemic, and a brief economic depression that followed World War I – Roy and his wife left Nova Scotia and traveled across Canada, with Jan’s father being born in 1921 in Edmonton, Alberta. After a final visit back to Nova Scotia, the Baxter family, including Roy’s brother, emigrated to Washington State in 1927. They heard from a friend from their hometown that there were jobs at a plywood factory in the Grays Harbor area of Washington and Roy and his brother went to work there.

Jan is grateful to relatives and ancestors who for generations saved the pieces of their lives and handed them down to her. When she made research trips to Nova Scotia these same relations shared their stories and guided Jan to the places where her ancestors lived and worked. Now she is focused on stitching it all together, like making a family quilt, so that she in turn will continue the tradition and share the story with future generations.

Roy age 16, Amherst, Nova Scotia

Jan joined CGS in 2017. Like so many new to our society her first encounter was with Jane Lindsey, who immediately jumped in with gusto to guide Jan in her endeavors. Throughout my interview Jan repeatedly acknowledged how generous CGS members have been in helping with her research and methodologies. She is using a timeline structure to organize her material – one of the first tips learned. She mentioned help from Pam Brett, Lisa Gorrell, Maureen Hanlon, and Sally Houston, who all have generously shared their tips for tackling a somewhat daunting undertaking. Jan regularly attends the CGS monthly FTM group where she enjoys a sense of camaraderie fostered by facilitators Ron Madson and Karen Halfon as facilitators.

Roy with son Gerald Baxter (Jan's father) Edmonton, Alberta
Canada 1922

Telling her grandfather’s story has been intuitive and revealing at the same time. Jan has personal recollections of spending time with her grandfather when she was a young child. She knew him as a quiet man who was soft spoken – never a braggart. She has a strong sense of this man and acknowledges how he has shaped her life. The revelations have come through her research. In wanting to add context to her grandfather’s story Jan has visited the places he lived and worked. She has seen the boots and lunchboxes that men wore and used while working in the plywood factory where he worked for many years. She has stood in the places where he fought during World War I. These experiences, images, recollections provide the context that explains her grandfather’s life and who he was.

Roy during WWI, 1916

While quarantined, Jan has fallen into a rhythm of how she spends her days. After breakfast and the daily news, she typically devotes a couple hours of her morning to work on her family history, a break and then her afternoon is divided between another major project and taking time to connect with other people. The balance has worked well. Most days she focuses on a particular task she wants to accomplish but on other days she is able to let that go and allows herself more flexibility.

Right now, her goal is to “get to the bottom of the box,” so to speak – to make sure she has reviewed and processed every item she inherited and to put it into order. What’s next? A book, a blog, a Nugget article or researching her mother’s side of the family? The quarantine has given Jan time to reflect, to go back in time because she knows it is important to honor her ancestors, to record their struggles and quiet achievements.

Copyright © 2020 by California Genealogical Society

Quarantine Quests: Quaker Connections

This Quarantine Quests story comes from CGS member Sandy Fryer, who used DNA and records from the Society of Friends to home in on an elusive ancestor.

Those of us whose ancestors had distinctive surnames have it much easier than those who struggle with a Smith, Murphy, Lee, or Jones. Sandy Fryer has to contend with a third-great-grandfather named Elverton Jones. Thank heavens he has an unusual first name. The only thing Sandy knows about this elusive ancestor’s birth is that he was born in Virginia about 1800.

Sandy created this table to help her keep track of yDNA connections

Traditional research methods have not enabled her to expand beyond these basic facts, so Sandy decided to submit a yDNA sample from her brother in hopes of finding new leads and paths to follow. Sandy joined the Jones DNA project and used FamilyTree DNA to identify other Joneses within a genetic distance of 3. These individuals have a 78% chance of having a common ancestor within six generations. Since Sandy lacks sufficient information to identify Elverton’s parents her strategy is to look at other Jones families in hopes of finding a common ancestor.

She started by looking at R.A. Jones, but fairly quickly proved that his family tree was only accurate to his third-great-grandfather.  Next, she focused on R.L. Jones, who had identified his Jones line back to a Richard Jones born about 1704.  Notably, this family line were Quakers and it was fairly easy to verify R. L. Jones’s work. Needless to say, doing this work is a painstaking effort requiring good record keeping–an ideal diversion while confined to one’s home during the pandemic.

A third lead is C.D. Jones, for whom Sandy has been able to document multiple generations. More importantly, she again confirmed a Quaker connection and documentation that Nathan Jones, C.D.’s fifth great grandfather served during the American Revolution–for which he was expelled from the Quakers.

One of the records Sandy found for Nathan Jones in a Roster of
Revolutionary Soldiers in Georgia

This Quaker theme seems like a strong lead. The Quakers kept good records so Sandy’s next research steps will focus on Quaker connections. She asks, “If any of our members have experience researching Quakers, particularly in Virginia, please get in touch with me to share what you know.” Sandy can be reached at sfryer@californiaancestors.org.

The member-posted family trees on Ancestry.com have aided Sandy in her search. Knowing that one cannot rely upon these trees as being accurate, Sandy has instead used the trees to find documentation that supports their claims and sometimes offers clues to other places where she can look for further documentation. Ancestry has pretty good Quaker records, which is also helping her make progress.

One of the Quaker sources Sandy found mentions Nathan Jones and
two of his brothers

Sandy created a table to help her keep track of the names and facts she is finding for each Jones candidate. Her table enables her to easily compare each individual by generation and associations. Sandy also created a family tree using her Legacy genealogy program for her yDNA connections. She uses this tree, which is separate from her primary tree, to keep each piece of information she finds along with her sources. She also uses Legacy to create reports that help her analyze her data.

Since using Ancestry Family Trees has helped Sandy make progress on her conundrum she admits to feeling a little guilty for not having shared her research on Ancestry. Now, she is reconsidering that decision and may share some portion of her tree publicly. 

Copyright © 2020 by California Genealogical Society

Quarantine Quests: A Genealogist's Fairytale Come True

Chris Pattillo is collecting "Quarantine Quests," stories of genealogical projects and discoveries made by our members while sheltering at home due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. This story is from CGS Member Ron Madson.

Ron Madson’s Quarantine Quests story began in the Summer of 2019 when he traveled to France and Switzerland to attend the Women’s Soccer World Cup. While there he visited a cousin, Claire Daams, who is an attorney in Bern and happens to be conversant in seven languages, including Old German. Recognizing an opportunity, Ron asked Claire if she might help him with his second-great-grandfather Niklaus Glaüs. Ron had attempted to read the records that are available online at the Bern StateArchives but with little success.

Claire agreed and within minutes had identified Ron’s second- and third-great-grandparents. Even better, she gave Ron a personalized lesson in how to read Old German. Ron refers to the script as nothing more than "squiggles" but with Claire’s help, he quickly began to be able to decode the information contained in the documents. These records typically include the basics – birth, death, and marriage. Marriage records sometimes include the bride and groom's places of origin, the names of their parents, and sometimes the dates that the parents were married. Some death records include the date and place of birth. Some do not include date of birth, but include exact age at death: years, months, and days. But many of the older death records do not contain this vital information, although they may have "extras" added by the priest or officiant. "I try very hard to read this 'extra stuff,'" Ron says. "And it kills me that ninety percent of the time I can’t, while knowing that beyond a shadow of a doubt, there is 'good stuff' there."

After his lesson, Claire asked if Ron would like to visit the village where his ancestors were from – “a genealogist’s fairy tale come true,” he says. Ron’s ancestors lived in a small village in the foothills of the Alps in the Interlaken District of Bern. While there is no way to know the exact home or farm where his ancestors lived, Ron did recount the pleasure of eating lunch in a local restaurant right on the lake. He ordered fish that had been caught in the lake and knew that his ancestors had fished in that same lake generations before.

Fast-forward nearly a year and now while Ron is quarantined at home he is working feverishly to find, decipher, and document new ancestors and more records. Ron reports that he has added hundreds of new ancestors since he learned to decode the Old German text. Each time he thinks he has found a new ancestor he says “I look for other records to shed light on the found record, to prove or disprove that this is the correct record. Depending on the circumstances, the names, area, year(s), record information, what, and where I look varies.”

For each new person he tries to find birth, marriage and death records. He then enters the data into his Family Tree Maker genealogy program. Like most of us, he makes copies of every document he finds. He then imports the digital file into Adobe Photoshop and extends the page at the bottom and top to add research notes. At the top he includes the name of the document and a summary of what it says. At the bottom, he adds his source information.

Ron has identified the two oldest living people on this line: Florine (Lee) Glaus, now 93 and living in South Dakota, and Clare Leone Glaus, who is 102 years old and lives in Seattle. He was able to interview both of them and has fifteen hours of recorded interviews plus stories, documents and photographs.

When I asked, “Have you established a particular routine for doing this work during the shutdown?” Ron explained, “my wife and I have dinner, then we watch a movie, after which I spend several hours each day – sometimes into the wee hours – working on my genealogy.” Ron is also planning to listen to a podcast to learn more about how to read Old German so he can continue his research on a different family line.

Have you made any big discoveries while you have been staying at home? Let us know and we will share your story. You can reach me at cpattillo@californiaancestors.org

Copyright © 2020 by California Genealogical Society

Quarantine Quests: A Lifetime of Postcards

Chris Pattillo is collecting "Quarantine Quests," stories of genealogical projects and discoveries made by our members while sheltering at home due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. This story was shared by CGS Board Member Arlene Miles.

Jamaica is one of the places in Long Island, New York that
Arlene Miles lived

I telephoned Arlene Miles, chair of the CGS Library Committee, a few days ago with a question about the library. While chatting I learned about Arlene’s Quarantine Quest project. After thinking about it for three or four years Arlene has now begun to scan her collection of postcards, partly because she now has extra time to do so.

The collection was started by her husband Ted – a regular visitor to the CGS Library. In his youth Ted had a vision problem that made it difficult for him to take photographs so his mother agreed to let Ted buy postcards of the places he visited and things he saw. Before he and Arlene married in 1984 Ted had already compiled a sizeable collection of postcards that reflect his life and his personal interests in trains, historic homes, streetcars, sailing ships, lighthouses and more.

Ted Miles's collection includes many historic buildings such as
the Wading River Congregational Church on Long Island, New York,
where he and Arlene were married

After Arlene and Ted were married the two of them continued the tradition and the collection has continued to grow. Now their two collections tell the story of their lives in postcards. Arlene has postcards from the schools she attended, from St. Francis de Sales Church where she was confirmed, and from St. John’s Church in Riverhead, New York, where she and Ted were married. They have post cards from their vacations and cards from every place they have ever lived. Arlene is considering starting a blog where she could use her postcards to illustrate her family history – “a picture is worth a thousand words.”

Arlene considered several scanner models before deciding on the Brother DS-720D, a small, compact unit that sells for $129 (she found one on sale for $109 at Office Max). “It is easy to use, will scan one or both sides, does full-color scanning and is self-feeding,” she says. She estimates that she can scan about 400 postcards in two hours. Images can be saved as either a PDF or JPG file.

The scanner comes with software that helps you organize, label and add information for each card. Arlene and Ted are maintaining the same organizational system that they created for the original cards – so they are grouped by subject matter. After the cards have been scanned Arlene uses Picasa software to crop, straighten, adjust the brightness, and make whatever adjustments are needed.

St John's Church in Riverhead, Long Island, New York

I asked Arlene, “How many have you finished scanning?” and was impressed when she said she had scanned about 1,600 postcards. But then I asked “How many cards do you have in your collection?” and I was truly speechless when I heard her answer. Arlene estimates they have 60,000 to 80,000 postcards in their combined collection! Hopefully the quarantine will not last long enough for the project to be finished. It seems Arlene is making good use of her at-home time while staying healthy.

The Miles collection includes postcards from 42 towns in
Long Island, New York

Copyright © 2020 by California Genealogical Society

Quarantine Quests: Writing Leads To New Discoveries

Possibly the footstone at Hiram Gaines's grave

One of the inadvertent benefits of writing one’s family history is that sometimes the process leads to new discoveries. My current genealogical focus, during the CV-19 shutdown, is Hiram W. Gaines, a third-great-grandfather on my paternal line. I previously shared my story of how I was able to confirm the name of his father – that was the inspiration for this Quarantine Quests series.

I had been waiting to write Hiram’s biography for my family history blog until I could include the names of his parents. Since I now feel confident that I have that figured out, thanks to Ancestry’s ThruLines, I decided to write Hiram’s bio. That is what I’ve been working on for the last few days.

My process for writing an individual biography, once I have substantially completed researching that person, has two parts. I use the list of facts and the timeline features in my RootsMagic genealogy database to compose the narrative. Once that is complete I look through my source documents and select material to illustrate the post. Sometimes, particularly for more distant ancestors, I turn to Google to help embellish the story. After all, I want my siblings and cousins to read what I write so I try to make it as appealing as possible. For example, the list of possessions that were recorded in Hiram’s probate packet included a gig wheel, an inkstand and whip, and a flaxwheel and reel. I entered each of these in the Google search box and easily found images of all three to augment my story.

This image came up in Google when I entered Gig Wheel

I finished the text for Hiram’s bio yesterday afternoon. After dinner I was looking through the documentation I have for Hiram which includes a series of photos I took in 2017 of his original probate papers. Yes, the archive I visited in Abbeville, South Carolina allowed me to look for, handle, and make copies of Hiram’s material as well as the probate packets of several other Gaines relations.

While trying to decide which page of the probate packet to use as an illustration, a line item popped out at me and momentarily took my breath away. It simply read, “Monticello - .50”. Yes, this was a reference to the Monticello – the home of President Thomas Jefferson. Three years ago, I reviewed each item in his probate packet including this list of expenses and gave no thought to that specific entry; but recently I have done a lot more research on my Gaines line, and in doing so I learned that Humphrey Gaines was a carpenter at Monticello. Humphrey was Hiram’s uncle. Using good ol’ Google I found this website https://www.monticello.org/slavery/the-plantation/free-workers/ that lists Humphrey and two of his brothers as workmen who were employed at Monticello.

This is a page from Hiram's probate packet
showing the reference to Monticello

I doubt that there is any way of ever learning exactly what services or materials my third great grandfather sold to  Monticello but I believe this original record shows that there was a connection and that pleases me. Had I not endeavored to write a biography of this ancestor I would never have known this, but I did and now I do.

Let me know if you have a Quarantine Quests story. I’d like to hear from you. I will do the writing or edit what you write if you prefer. You can contact me at cpattillo@californiaancestors.org

Copyright © 2020 by California Genealogical Society

Quarantine Quests: An Irish cousin provides vital clues

This Quarantine Quests story was shared by CGS Vice President Maureen Hanlon.

In August of 2015 Maureen made an Ancestry DNA connection with a fourth cousin, Michael Clarke. Michael lives in Warwickshire, England. He and Maureen share third-great-grandparents with the surname Reilly through their respective maternal lines.

As part of their initial correspondence Michael shared the research he’d done in south county Dublin – the area from which Maureen’s great-grandfather, Charles Downes, immigrated from in the 1860s. Most helpful was that Michael was able to provide the location of a cemetery and headstone with names and dates for three generations. This helped to confirm the critically important name of the townland where her ancestors had lived. But even with the new information neither Maureen or Michael could determine the first names of either of their third-great-grandparents. 

Chart showing the relationship between Maureen and her cousin Michael Clarke

Fast forward five years to March 2020, when Maureen found herself stuck at home because of the Covid-19 pandemic. “Seems like a good time to tackle this brick wall and see if I could find the elusive Reilly great-grandparents.” Back in 2015, Michael had pointed Maureen to the 1911 Ireland census, where she had found her grandmother’s Downes first cousins. Armed with this information Maureen was able to build a tree backward and connect those cousins to her grandfather’s siblings, parents and grandparents!

Now Maureen used that same 1911 census to identify the only Reilly family still in the same geographic area. Again she built a tree backwards, using civil records which cover 1864 onward. She used the free website https://www.irishgenealogy.ie/en/, which also holds the church records for Dublin. Once she had built this theoretical tree she sent it to cousin Michael seeking his opinion of her hypothesis.

Michael agreed that she was on the right track up to a point, but because of missing early records and the number of families in the area in those times with the same name, it was impossible to confirm Maureen's proposed tree.  The land records Michael had thoroughly reviewed were in conflict with Maureen’s thesis.  Michael believes that Maureen is probably missing a generation.

Saint Ann’s Cemetery, Glenasmole, Tallaght Civil Parish, Dublin, Ireland,
where Maureen’s third-great-grandparents Thomas and Honora Downes are buried

So this mystery is yet to be solved, but there is a silver lining. During their recent correspondence Michael, whose paternal line is also from the same area, shared, “a recent discovery with a new vocabulary word for me," Maureen said. A relative of Michael’s had found a letter dated October 1921, which revealed that Michael’s father was the company quartermaster of the Glenasmole IRA. According to the letter, Michael’s father had turned over custody of the parabellum (weapons) which were stashed in a secret cave to Thomas Downes, Maureen’s first cousin twice removed, proving that Maureen’s ancestors were actively engaged in the Irish fight for independence – new knowledge to embellish Maureen’s family history.

Copyright © 2020 by California Genealogical Society

Quarantine Quests: Jim Sorenson Tackles His Maternal Grandfather

Chris Pattillo is interviewing our members about some of the genealogical projects they are working on while sheltering at home. This Quarantine Quest story was shared by CGS President Jim Sorenson.

Earl Morgan 1899

Like many of us, Jim’s interest in family history began with a school assignment. It was in the 1960s, when he was in 11^th grade and one of his teachers asked each student to interview their oldest living relative and write about their heritage. At that time Jim’s mother’s mother and his father’s grandmother were still living, so he interviewed both of them and learned things about his family’s story that one would never find in written records. Jim still has his original notes from the class assignment.

In the back of his mind, Jim has thought, “Someday I’ll break my leg, I will be in a cast and unable to do anything–that is when I’ll tackle my writing.” Well, this is Jim’s break-a-leg event. If not now, while we are all housebound because of the Covid-19 shelter-in-place order, when?

Join the Break A Leg Club and write a bio for one of your Ancestors

So Jim has decided to write biographies for each of his four grandparents. He decided to start with his maternal grandfather, Earl Wright Morgan, whose work for the Standard Oil Company brought him from Pennsylvania across the country to California. During our interview, Jim shared several stories about Earl. I am not going to write about that because it is Jim’s story to tell, but I can tell you that when he is finished, it is going to be a fascinating read–something that deserves to be added to the Richmond History Museum and Standard Oil archives. Currently, Jim only plans to share Earl’s story with his family but I hope he will agree to have it published in the Nugget at some point.

Earl Morgan with his mother,  Julia Sweney Morgan, 1910

Over the years Jim has visited over 30 courthouses and at least that number of libraries to research his family and collect documentation that proves and expands upon the stories he has heard. He has done research in newspapers, city directories, at the Family History Center in Salt Lake City and of course, he has done a lot of research online and at the CGS library.

At this point, Jim has collected a lot of material about his ancestors. Originally, he made paper copies of everything he found. Jim explained, “I use to measure my research success by how many pieces of paper I had at the end of the day–one hundred pages was a real good day.” Now Jim is proud to say that for the past several years when he leaves Salt Lake City, he isn’t carrying paper copies – everything is digital on a thumb drive. Early on Jim decided on a file naming system that works well for him. Each document starts with the year, month and date. That way all his files are in chronological order. He has over 20,000 items in his family history files. He is still using an old version of Family Tree Maker from 2000 as his primary organizer for the information he has collected.

For many years Jim has been a member of our CGS Research Committee. He admits that he prefers to do research rather than write. But he wants to share what he has learned from his research with his family members. Like me, Jim has a small family–one living child and two grandchildren, who are only mildly interested in family history. Like me, we both write hoping that some future descendant will discover our writings and be thrilled to learn what we have to share. As of now much of what Jim has pieced together about his family is still in his head. He understands that he needs to get it written down so that others will not need to repeat the process he has gone through to find and put together the pieces of the puzzle.

While the process of researching has always been enjoyable, Jim has not gotten the same pleasure from writing. In recent years he has been doing more writing, including working on an article for The California Nugget. Jim shared that serving as president of CGS has actually helped in this regard. Having to communicate regularly with the CGS board and membership has caused Jim to do more writing and doing so has made him more comfortable with the process. 

Jim shared a tip for writers. He feels, and I think most would agree, that telling the story in chronological order is the best approach. But one should not feel bound to rigidly record every part of the story in precise chronological order. While Jim’s piece is about his grandfather Earl Morgan, for the story to make sense it needs to include information about Earl’s parents, and about his boss at Standard Oil. Jim does this by devoting separate paragraphs to each of these sidebar subjects. This is how “I try to contain the detours so they don’t break up the flow of the story,” says Jim. It works for him and may help others tell their family stories. 

If you have a Quarantine Quest story you'd like to share please get in touch with Chris Pattillo or Jennifer Dix.

Copyright © 2020 by California Genealogical Society

Quarantine Quests: A Hobby With Infinite Possibilities

Chris Pattillo writes:

It’s times like these when I most appreciate being interested in family history research because I can do it from anywhere and the possibilities of how to spend my time are infinite. Now that I have so much extra time while I shelter-at-home, it is nice to enjoy a hobby that keeps me engaged endlessly. There’s no fear of feeling lonely when I am able to find new ancestors and share my discoveries with my siblings and cousins.

From your Ancestry account, look for ThruLines
on the DNA tab, then select "Filters" to view matches.

Two days ago, I was poking around on my Ancestry account on the ThruLines page, which is under the DNA tab, and I noticed for the first time a button labeled “Filters.” I clicked on that and saw a category for “Potential Ancestors.” What I found when I clicked on that choice is something I’ve been pursuing fervently for the past three years – ever since I nailed down my third-great-grandparents Hiram W. Gaines and Hulda Waller, while I was on my 2017 Genealogy Journey and traveling in the Southern United States–South Carolina to be exact.

Ever since that find, I’ve been seeking Hiram’s parents. I have worked pretty hard on this. Various searches led me to well-documented trees for Hiram Gaines (1725-1805) married to Margaret Teliaferro (1775-1783), but no matter how hard I tried I could not prove a connection to this family. These trees included several Hiram Gaineses. As it's a somewhat unusual name, I felt certain this was my family, but I could find no proof and did find negative clues that showed that I was wrong. Has this ever happened to you?

This screenshot shows me with a DNA connection to William S. Gaines

But the beauty of DNA is that it does not lie. ThruLines told me I have a DNA connection to William Shanklin Gaines (1757-1851) and that he is my fourth-great-grandfather: the man I have most wanted to find for three years. As a bonus, it also showed a DNA connection to his father, Hiram T. Gaines, my fifth-great-grandfather! Needless to say, I was pretty excited to find this but before I shared my discovery with others I thought I should make sure it was right, so I called CGS member Vinnie Schwarz and asked her about it. She confirmed that I could trust ThruLines. This is something I appreciate about CGS. I am grateful to be able to reach out to other CGS members, who are more knowledgeable than I am, and to be able to ask for guidance and confirmation. It is one of the best and most valuable things about being a member of our society–especially at times like these.

Have you made any big discoveries while you have been staying at home? Let us know and we will share your story.

Copyright © 2020 by California Genealogical Society