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January 2017
Class 2: Associates
Breaking Down Genealogical Brick Walls: Strategies for Success
Meet today’s presenter
Meaghan E.H. SiekmanSenior Researcher
OVERVIEW• Presentation (60 mins.)
• Q&A (30 mins.)Click to expand your user panel
• Homework review• Finding associates• Case studies
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Welcome! This is an illustration of the panel that should appear on the side of your screen.
Click the chat bubble to type your questions
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Voice of Voice ofMeaghan E. H. SiekmanSenior Researcher
Homework Answer
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Homework 1
• Who are the parents of James Dinin?Neil Dinin and Mary O’Connor
• Are other relatives mentioned in the record?James Dinin and Mary Dinin are listed as sponsors for the baptism of James Dinin. They may be related to Neil Dinin.
Homework 2• What is the relationship between the grantors of the
estate (Francis Blood, Patty Blood, Sally Heald, John and Submit Farrar, and William and Amelia Wheat)? Patty, Sally, Submit, and Amelia are sisters (with their husbands listed) and the heirs of John Nutting Jr.
• Who is Sally Wheat? What other record could we look at to determine her relationship to the grantor? Sally Wheat is the wife of Solomon Wheat and the executrix of the estate of John Nutting. To learn more about her, we could locate the probate record of John Nutting.
Associates
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Reasons to Research Associates• Tracing migrations
• Discovering more about military service
• Researching minorities and women not well documented
• Study of a particular place or event
• Develop a more holistic view of an ancestor
Your Ancestor’s Network• Who – noting individuals that appear in your
ancestor’s records
• What – One event? Multiple?
• Where – Did their interactions occur in one place? Multiple?
• When – for how long were the individuals associated?
• Why – why were they interacting?
Networks to ConsiderReligious
Educational
Occupational
Social
Political
Place and/or
Migration
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Religious Associates• Pastors/ministers/priests/rabbis, etc.
• Witness to religious family events
• Godparents
• Church organizations
Hiland Presbyterian Church, Ross, Allegheny, Pennsylvania
Educational Associates• People that graduated in the same class
• Participants in the same sports or clubs
• Friends that signed your ancestor’s yearbook
• Teachers or professors in their field at the time they attended
• Colleagues that published with an ancestor
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Ancestry.com
Somerset, New Jersey, High School Yearbook, 1949
Occupational Associates• When searching census records, note those close
by with the same or similar occupation
• Research the employers/owners of the institutions where your ancestor worked
• Labor Unions or Workmen’s Organizations
• Note the history of the industry in the area (this could reveal if they moved there for that occupation)
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Danville, Kentucky City Directory 1931-32
UK Medical Registry, 1859
Social Groups• Fraternal organizations
• Genealogical organizations
• Hobbies and/or hunting organizations
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University of Rhode Island Yearbook, 1955
Political• Political Organizations
• Political involvement of your ancestor (if any)
• Tribal affiliations
• Loyalists
The New York Times, 7 March 1878
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Place and/or Migration• Did your family reside in the same place for a
number of generations? What other families did as well?
• Did your family migrate somewhere? What other families made the same migration?
heritagepin.com/vv/gene/histories/MAP-Loyalist-Routes-1780s-small.jpg
Organizing and Processing
Information
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TipLimit your scope first and then expand if
necessary.
Organizing InformationFind a method that works for you! You want it to do the following:
• Make it easy to collect information
• Be “at-a-glance” so you can easily compare information
• Documents where information came from
• Provides a section for noting anomalies
Organizing Associates
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QUESTIONS?
TipFocus on one “link.”
Consider Migration and Place Studies• The Great Migration Begins
Immigrants to New England 1620-1633 Robert Charles Anderson
• The Great Migration: Immigrants to New England 1634-1635 Robert Charles Anderson
• Early New England Families 1641-1700 Alicia Crane Williams
• Beekman Patent
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www.AmericanAncestors.org
Example 1:Migration Associates
Johann Phillip Meckel
1870 U.S. Federal Census
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Texas Marriages 1837-1973 FamilySearch.org
Johann Phillip Meckel
1850 U.S. Federal Census
Galveston Immigration Databasewww.galvestonhistory.org
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Search for Herschel in 1845
Fisher Miller Grant
Johann Philip MeckelJohann Jost Nickel
Grant Documents
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German Immigration to Texas
Organizing Johann Phillip Meckel’s Associates
Other Migration Examples• Voyages from abroad – Pay attention to waves of
migration
• Entire towns migrating – New Vineyard, Maine
• Follow land grants
• Westward Migration– Documents of the travel is scarce, look to associates
from the same area as your ancestor
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QUESTIONS?
TipNote Associates of
Associates.
Expanding your search
Associates of Associates
Neighbors and Associates
Family
Your Ancestor
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Example 2:Occupational
Associate
Peter Bent Brigham• Born 1807 at
Bakersfield, Vermont.
• Moved to Boston permanently by 1826
• Problem:– Doesn’t appear in the
1830 United States Federal Census
Evidence Peter was in Boston in 1830
1830 City Directory1830 Tax Records
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Boston Journal Boston, Massachusetts (Friday, 25 May 1877), XLIV:1
Amherst Eaton – 1830 U.S. Federal Census
Suffolk County, Massachusetts Deeds, 419:212
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Suffolk County, Massachusetts Deeds 630:31
Example 4: Tracing Minorities using
Associates
Parentage of Isaac Nivens
"Home of the Creek Freedmen," ca. 1900.U.S. NATIONAL ARCHIVES
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Isaac Nivens – Dawes Roll Card
Isaac Nivens – Dawes Roll Card
Dawes Enrollment Application
• His application also states that his former owner was John Nivens who was a Cherokee citizen
• Choctaw Nation at the beginning of the Civil War, and that he was in the Cherokee Nation by the time of the treaty
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1860 Slave Schedule
1886 Cherokee Census• John was born about
1819 and his wife was named Delilah. – Josephine Nivens (born
about 1854), – Ella Nivens (born about
1876) – William Nivens (born
about 1881).
Josephine Higgins Enrollment Application FamilySearch.org
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http://www.theroot.com/articles/history/2017/01/why-were-my-freedmen-ancestors-split-between-tribes/
Example 3:Military Associates
John Brown of Gloucester
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Massachusetts Historical Society
Massachusetts Historical Society, Microfilm Call Number P-394
II.2.A. Orderly book, Prospect Hill, Cambridge, 26 June-20 October 1775
Reel II Vol. 2.A
Massachusetts Historical Society, Microfilm Call Number P-394
II.2.B. Orderly book, Boston and at New York City, 20 October 1775-31 May 1776
Reel II Vol. 2.B
Massachusetts Historical Society, Microfilm Call Number P-394
II.3. Orderly book, Prospect Hill (?), Cambridge, 29 June-9 July 1775
Reel II Vol. 3
Revolutionary War Orderly Books. Included in the collection are orderly books for Moses Little’s Regiment, Continental Army,
Massachusetts
Example 4:Slave Research
Elizabeth Bettie Lane Dickey
• Her husband’s name was Hanover Dickey, and her mother’s name was Maria Lane
• She was raised on Orchard Pond Plantation in Tallahassee, Florida
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1880 U.S. Federal Census
1870 U.S. Federal Census
Call Family Papers -www.floridamemory.com
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Richard Keith Call
www.floridamemory.com
Richard Keith Call Probate
Doctor’s bill inProbate File
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http://www.theroot.com/articles/history/2016/12/whats-the-story-of-a-portrait-of-my-slave-ancestor/
TipAlways remain open to
new possibilities!
Homework
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Homework 1• Identify associates of your ancestor from three
different networksReligious
Educational
Occupational
Social
Political
Place and/or
Migration
Homework 2• What information can you gather about David Nutter
from the depositions of these associates in his Revolutionary War Pension File?
QUESTIONS?Schedule a consultation
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