Wordless Wednesday - The End of Summer

The end of summer. Labor Day weekend, Whidbey Island, Washington.

© 2010, copyright Michelle Goodrum

Tuesday's Tip - Stabilo All

© 2010, copyright Michelle Goodrum Labeling photographs in an "archivally friendly" way is a real challenge with more recent photographs. Modern pictures have a coating on the backside that is not friendly to the typical pencil, forcing people to use a pen of one sort or another to label the picture. Pens, even the "archival" ones, are not necessarily friendly to photos in the long run as the ink can eventually bleed through to the front of the picture.

Sally Jacobs, The Practical Archivist, recently recommended to me the Stabilo All pencil. I must admit I was skeptical that there really was a pencil that would write on the back of current day photos. After ordering a couple from Gaylord, and trying them out, I am thrilled! The Stabilo All pencil is like magic. It writes clearly and easily (I don't have to press hard on the picture), and it doesn't smudge.

I know I am not the only one out there who has struggled with getting her modern day photos labeled in the best way possible. I urge you to give this magic pencil a try!

Disclaimer: I am not employed nor being paid or given anything to write this recommendation. I used my hard earned sheckles to purchase my Stabilo All pencil.

98th Edition of COG - Document Analysis! - Bessie Maud Passmore Birth Certificate

The topic for the 98th Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy is Document Analysis!

Show us a document that helped you break down a brick wall on your family tree. Discuss the information that appears on the document and how it contributes to your family history.

© 2010, copyright Michelle Goodrum When I think of breaking down a brick wall in family history research, I have this vision of what's on the other side of that wall: a Genealogy Garden of Eden of sorts. Beautiful green fields with babbling brooks and cute wooden bridges, peaceful little cemeteries where my ancestor's headstones are prominently displayed, family homesteads overflowing with family photos, stories, old documents and maybe even a curator to show them to some curious soul who happens by. All the answers to any question I ever had on that family line are there for the picking. For most of us the reality of what's on the other side of that brick wall is quite different.

Earlier this summer, I discovered among my parent's papers, a Certificate of Birth for my great grandmother Bessie Maud Passmore. Actually it's a delayed birth certificate as it was issued when Bessie was about 56 years old and applying for her Social Security card.

We are dealing with an original source (the best kind) which is full of both primary and secondary information. What's so great is that due to the credibility of the informant (Bessie's older sister Cora), I consider both the primary and the secondary information to be high quality and reliable.

Much of the information in the birth certificate is supported by other evidence I have: Bessie's full name, date of birth, place of birth, father's name, and residence of her parents. What I want to focus on is some key new information in this document and how it helped me chip a hole in my brick wall large enough to wriggle through.

Let's start with the father, Thomas Passmore, analyze the information and see where it leads in relation to a question I wanted to answer: Who were Thomas Passmore's parents?

Age and Birthplace:  Now armed with a specific birthplace of Mt. Vernon, [Knox Co.,] Ohio and an age of 28, which translates into a birth year of about 1854, I was quickly able to locate 6 year old Thomas and his family in the 1860 Census in the 5th Ward, Mt. Vernon, Knox County, Ohio. Having a specific birthplace was particularly helpful since there is at least one other Thomas Passmore in Ohio who is about the same age as my Thomas.

So now I at least have his parents initials, ages and birthplaces. I feel like I've crossed the bridge over the babbling brook in the Genealogy Garden of Eden.

The next bridge I had to cross was a little rickety so I had to be careful. I located Thomas and his family in the 1870 Census living in Keithsburg, Mercer County, Illinois. I had to do some additional research to be certain that I had the correct family. Here's a summary of the household:

I carefully made my way across the somewhat rickety bridge in the Garden of Eden after noticing that Edith Gladmon in 1870 might have been Edith Passmore in 1860. The 2 children listed under Rueben and Edith were born in Illinois so I checked the Illinois Statewide Marriage Index for Edith Passmore. Edith Passmore married Rueben Gladman on 29 March 1866 in Mercer County. I had the correct family.

So now I have a first name for Thomas' mother - Eliza. Unfortunately, RJ Passmore is missing and possibly dead. However, I've got a bonus, the names of two additional sisters, Mary and Cora. After tracing them through the census records, it turns out they never married and Eliza continued to live with them. This information allowed me to stop at a beautiful rest area in the Genealogy Garden of Eden and order death records for the three women. Hopefully, the death certificates will allow me to connect Eliza and "RJ" to each other and their daughter's Mary and Cora. If I am unable to eventually find a death certificate or other document connecting Thomas to his parents, I will need to connect Thomas to his sisters to "prove" who his parents were.

The same process will be used to answer the question, "Who were Jeanettie Poor's parents?" once I figure out the name of that village that is her birthplace on Bessie's Birth Certificate (hopefully this is just a little gate I need to figure out how to open and not another brick wall).

There is much, much more information that can be gleaned from Bessie Maud Passmore's birth certificate, especially when taken in context with some of the other information I have on the family:

1. The number of children born to the mother (6) and how many are now alive (3) has helped me to make a tentative identification of a second sister to Bessie.
2. Since Bessie's sister, Cora, was the informant, I now have additional information on Cora that I can use to lead me down yet another path should I choose to follow it.
3. Then there is the plate my mother has with the name Cora Passmore written on the back and a letter from one of Bessie's son's to Mom that discusses "...the two hand painted plates (painted by an Aunt, or Great Aunt of ours)..." I am wondering if the plate Mom has one of the plates referred to in the letter. If it is, which Cora did it belong to? In my Genealogy Garden of Eden I see this as a little path with a patch of woods that I might want to wander down someday.

I know my continuing journey through the Genealogy Garden of Eden will be pleasant, fun and at times frustrating. Hopefully I will encounter navigable fences, hills and streams rather be stopped in my tracks by brick walls.

Data Backup Day Or...When You Know Just Enough To Be Dangerous-Part 2

We all know the importance of backing up our data. These days I am both thrilled that I have been doing that, for a number of years and scratching my head and asking myself "What happened?"

It all started when I went to write the post for the September 11th anniversary. I was looking through this notebook where I have written notes about various events and experiences from my life, when I noticed a nice printout from Word with some stories on it, the name of the file at the bottom of the page and the date it was printed. I decided since I was typing up and editing my previously handwritten notes about September 11, 2001, I could just add it to this file. Only I couldn't find the file on my laptop. Sigh...Or on my other laptop, or the external hard drive.

I've been through more than one computer and hard drive reorganization since creating this file and thought I had been careful about transferring and backing up everything. I guess I had been sort of careful - I found the file on a CD backup from 2004. Makes one wonder what else has been "misplaced" along the way.

The moral of the story, backup your files in numerous ways. Contrary to most of the advice I've received to toss old backups that are on CD or DVD, I don't recommend doing that. However, I have to clarify that I only backup all of my files to DVD about once or twice a year, so the pile isn't all that big. Just backup your files! Someday you will be glad you did!

© 2010, copyright Michelle Goodrum

Wordless Wednesday-Sunset in Florida

Sunset over Lake Dora, Florida. December 2006.

© 2010, copyright Michelle Goodrum

Mystery Monday-Estate Papers of Margaret A. Mitchell

© 2010, copyright Michelle Goodrum  Recently I blogged about the Homestead Certificate of my great great grandfather's that I discovered in the Archival Closet. Also among those Mitchell papers were the Final Settlement papers for the estate of his wife, my gg grandmother, Margaret A. Mitchell. This was another of those woohoo moments!

Years ago, I was given a copy of a page from the Mitchell/McDonald Family Bible (whose provenance is completely unknown to me). It said Margaret died 26 March 1911 in Tum Tum, Stevens County, Washington. I have never been able to locate a death certificate for Margaret, even though according to the information I had, she died after death certificates began to be required in the State of Washington (that was in 1907). The Final Settlement papers sort of corroborate the information I already had (they say Margaret died on or about March 1st, 1911 near Tum Tum).

With this new discovery, I decided to take another look and I've noticed something rather interesting. I'd love to know what you think. The Washington Digital Archives has a death record for a Margaret Mitchell who died 19 March 1914 in Spokane.

A couple of points:

• I find it a little odd that Margaret's estate wasn't settled for over 3 years after she died (that's if you use the March 1911 DOD)
• The March 1914 DOD of the woman who died in Spokane fits into the timeline of the estate of "my" Margaret Mitchell
• I was told (this is family lore, if you will) that "my" Margaret's maiden name was McConnell.
• My Margaret Mitchell's first husband was a McDonald.
• The Margaret who died in Spokane apparently was the daughter of a Michael Ryan.
• A copy of a Washington State Death Certificate currently costs $31.50.

I've definitely got some conflicting information. What would you recommend doing next? I'd love to hear your ideas.

Finally, if you happened here because you're researching Mitchells and you know anything about that Bible, please email me at turningofgenerations at cox dot net. I'd love to hear from you!

(Coincidentally, Carol over at Reflections From The Fence wrote a post on finding a marriage record that she had been searching for forever at about the same time these papers appeared. Her story reminded me that tenacity pays off. I found myself rejuvenated after reading her post).

Wordless Wednesday - Sunset in St. Petersburg, Russia

Taken 8 June 2007 around 11:30 pm.



© 2010, copyright Michelle Goodrum