Wedding Wednesday: William Harmon Mays and Sarah E. McDaniel

This is my only official document from Sarah E. McDaniel’s lifetime. Numerous other researchers from the  area have said they’ve tried looking for a record of Sarah’s death and haven’t seen it. I haven’t actively searched for the record yet which makes me uncomfortable saying it isn’t there. Even if it isn’t an actual death record, there might be something else that leads to that.

Rowan County, Kentucky, Marriage Bonds, 1800-1913, 5: 327, Mays-McDaniels, 19 Oct 1905; digital images, FamilySearch (http://www.familysearch.org : accessed 13 May 2017).

Sarah is mentioned again on her only child’s marriage record. It seems that she probably went by her middle name of Elizabeth in her adult life. That is the name that was crossed out in the census and that is what she is listed as on her daughter’s marriage record. All we really know about Sarah is that she married at 17, had her child at 18, appeared in the 1910 census but was crossed out, and her husband was remarried and living in Ohio by 1918. The years in between 1910 and 1918 are a mystery. To find out more, it looks like I’ll have to expand my search to her F(amily) A(ssociates) N(eighbors) network. This could be a great Mystery Monday topic!

Wedding Wednesday: William Harmon Mays and Iva Belle Moyer

Today’s Wedding Wednesday is for my great grandparents William Harmon Mays and his second wife, Iva Belle Moyer. Next week I will post the record for his marriage with his first wife.

1918 marriage of William Harmon Mays and Iva Belle Moyer

As far as I’m aware, there are no known photographs of William or Iva. There are a few family members who remember them at the end of their lives but I haven’t been able to find any pictures of them.

There is a lot of jumping around going on with my posts since I’m working on my Do-Over. To help orientate anyone who is confused on where people belong on the tree and just how far back I’ve gotten into my Do-Over, just scroll a little further for an updated pedigree screenshot.

The current pedigree

My Pedigree

As you can see, I have only gotten back to my great-grandparents but I’m pretty close to doing my last set! I’ve been systematically going through my research plan and I’ll update you on that soon.

Just for the Curious

You might be curious about what the little red error boxes on my pedigree screenshot mean. Those are my program telling me that three of my grandparents were born quite awhile after their parents marriages. The program suggests that I might have to look for other children born between the marriage and the birth of my grandparents. According to family knowledge there are none, but we all know that can be wrong!

Parkin Children in 1905

One of the things I’ve been trying to do with my Genealogy Do-Over is to fill in blanks I missed before. One of those big blanks is the state census records. For my Mom’s side, I’m not even sure if there were state censuses taken in Rural Kentucky or Virginia. I’m going to look and be sure though. My Dad’s side is much easier because I know New York and New Jersey had state censuses. This week I’m going to highlight what I would have missed if I didn’t look at the 1905 New Jersey State Census.

We have to start in 1900

The Parkin Family in 1900

The above screenshot shows the Parkin family in the 1900 United States Census. Your eyes don’t deceive you, the census shows them as the John Walter household. This is the family though, and it took me years to find them under John’s middle name instead of his surname. Here you can see all 4 children with their parents. We have Anna who is the oldest, Hazel and Jennie who are close in age and the youngest Walter who is just under a year old.

The family is living in Newark, New Jersey at the time of the census. John’s family is living nearby in East Orange, New Jersey. Jennie’s family is unknown to me at the time. In the 1880 Census the family was living in Baltimore, Maryland but I have found no sign of them after that.

The 1905 Census

I first started looking for the Parkin family in 1905 by searching for them by name. This family is filled with very common names, except for one. That one unique name is Hazel. Hazel is the reason for most of my finds in this family. If it wasn’t for Hazel, I might not have looked twice at the following record.

Alledged Parkin children in 1905

Notice my caption says alleged. I can’t be sure that these are my Parkin children. First off, I’m not looking at the actual record, just a transcription. Second, the ages are a bit off. I don’t have a place of birth and there are no relationship indicators. This is probably one of the most sparse records I’ve ever looked at.

I was curious on how to figure out what was happening here, but I didn’t know where to start. Like anything else you do, you have to start with what you have in front of you.

The Head of the Household

I took the name at the top of the household and tried to search for it in both 1900 and 1910 to see if Sarah and Henry were at the same place. My thinking was that if they were running a children’s home, they might have been listed as doing it in another census. I couldn’t find them in either census year by using the index search and I didn’t know where to start on a page by page search.

My next step was to see if I could find them listed in the city directories for 1905 because that would give me an address. That was the one place I was positive they were. The transcription gives no other information but I had another option. Using the information in the citation, I did a catalog search for the film number on FamilySearch to see what else I could find out.

Thank You FamilySearch for your Catalog

Catalog Search

FamilySearch’s catalog is one of my favorite resources. You can drill down exactly where every piece of information you are looking at came from. You might not always like it or understand it, but the information is there. I might have had to search all the city directories before hitting the right town if I just looked at what I saw in the transcription. It was great to see that only a few towns were listed for this film number and one jumped out at me. I knew that John’s family lived in East Orange and so I thought that would be a perfect starting point. Truthfully, I was glad not to see Newark listed. Newark is a big city and I wasn’t looking forward to looking for a needle in that haystack!

Orange Directories

Orange City Directory, 1905

Looking at the city directory, I was able to see a Mrs. S. T. Horton was a matron at 197 Harrison, East Orange. There was also a Henry B. Horton who was an attendant at 197 Harrison. Yes! More information, but I still don’t know what this place was. The first thing I like to do when I reach the end of where my known information drops off is turn to my friend Google. Lucky for me, I found out that at one time 197 Harrison Street was the Orange Orphan Home. This information was found on numerous Message Boards on Ancestry.com’s forums. There was lots of talk from people whose relatives had worked there and others who lived there.

Entry in American Medical Directory

Google Books even has a 1921 copy of the American Medical Directory. There I found an entry for the Orange Orphan Home, which was established in 1854. None of this tells me why the Parkin children were living at the home in 1905, especially given their father was alive and living with his mother in 1910. Their mother doesn’t appear with the family again in census records, so I assume she must have passed away between 1900 and 1905. Also, the oldest child Anna Parkin was last spotted on that 1900 US Census also, so I fear that something happened to her also.

Conclusion and Plans

This information would be unknown to me if I hadn’t looked at the 1905 State Census. In 1910 the children were living with family members. Jane and Walter were living with their grandmother and Hazel was living with an Aunt. In 1920, Hazel was married and her brother and sister were living with her. Jane/Jennie married my Great-Grandfather Clifford Redford in 1923 and I’m still looking for what happened with Walter. I have no record of him after the 1930 US Census.

My plans are to find the death records for John Walter Parkin and his wife. Without a clearer date for their death, it might take a few tries to get them. I’m hoping that the more I work the Genealogy Do-Over on this family, maybe I’ll pick up some more information to help me out. My current strategy of starting from me and working backwards means that I still have plenty of family members that Anna might have been living with.

I’ll be sure to keep you informed!

Wedding Wednesday: Clifford Redford and Jane Parkin

My other paternal Great-Grandparents

Sometimes I get caught up in the fact that my Grandpa Moore’s mother and father were great record keepers. It’s easy to forget that there are plenty more great-grandparents to go around, they just didn’t leave as much extra documentation. They didn’t leave me empty handed though!

I was able to order an “official” marriage certificate for Clifford and Jane because of this family heirloom. It lets me know that Clifford and Jane were married in Newark on December 1, 1923. Edith McKane and Walter Parkin were serving as witnesses. They were the siblings of the couple.

Guests

There were also a small, but important group of guests at the wedding. I recognize most of these names as family members. The great thing is that this family heirloom backs up the official record. This family record was passed down in the family, and the official record also has Edith McKane and Walter Parkin listed with addresses. It shows Herbert Redford as the father of Clifford.

The sad part of this record is that it does not show Clifford’s mother Sadie or Jane’s parents John and Jennie Parkin. I still have to find their death certificates but Sadie died in 1922. Jennie Featherson-Parkin died between 1900 and 1905. John Walter Parkin died between 1905 and 1910. The last two I only know because their children were living in what looks to be a children’s home in the 1905 New Jersey Census.

The Official Record

The Official Record

Here’s the original certificate that I was able to order. I was able to get tons of information from this record, all because I started with that family record.

Wedding Wednesday is a daily blogging prompt from GeneaBloggers.com.

Genealogy Do-Over: An Update after Traveling

Okay, so lets just get down to it. There were a few things I made sure to do before leaving for Florida in February. I knew I was going to be staying for 2 months and that I wouldn’t have any paper records with me.

The Prep

The first thing I did was scan all the remaining documents in my “Binder Indexes” file. I wanted to make sure that I had a digital copy of everything that was listed on that index. Who knows what could happen while I was gone? I might need them for information. There might be a fire and I lose everything. Someone could breaking into my house and steal all my genealogy documents. You never know!

My Binder Index Excel File

Next was the question of how do I access what I need from 1000 miles from home. One option was to move all my digital files over to my laptop, but I didn’t want to go that route. Another option was to move things onto a flash drive. Those are so vulnerable to damage and loss, especially with traveling, so I nixed that idea. The best option for me ended up being my cloud storage through Microsoft. Our family shares a 365 subscription, this gives me 1 TB of storage included in our subscription. This involved moving my family file to the cloud and then copying all my document files and pictures over.

My Work Flow

You might be wondering how my workflow functioned not only in a travel setting, but in a laptop setting. I can report back to you that it worked WONDERFULLY. I was actually pleasantly surprised at how functional it was. When I had the time to sit down and work on something, I knew exactly where I was, and I had the flexibility that I didn’t have to completely finish working with a record in one sitting. Obviously that would be ideal, but in a household with newborn twins it just wasn’t practical!

If you look at my Binder Index file, the basis of my workflow starts there. My first column is Downloaded/Scanned. When I’m working with digital files, I start by saving a copy of the record or picture to the folder of everyone involved. If it’s a physical record, I scan it first and then save it to the corresponding folder(s).

Evidentia

The second step is really important for me in my Do-Over, that is to enter my information into Evidentia. I am not analyzing data as I go through it, I am just entering it. I only analyze evidence after I have completely entered all documents for a person and their parents. It didn’t make much sense to be constantly going back over things when I’m entering so much information right now. This allows me to see a more complete picture at one time.

Entering Information in Evidentia

It was very common during my Florida trip for me to have to get up either in the middle of entering information or after finishing. It might be hours before I could get back to it. Once I finish entering information into Evidentia then I enter ‘Yes’ in the Excel box under the Evidentia column.

After Evidentia is when I enter the information into my family tree program. There was a time when I had Evidentia later in my workflow. Moving Evidentia up in my workflow allows me to fully look at the record and see all the different claims before I put it in my program. This helps me to make sure I’m attaching the citations to all the things I’m entering into my program.

Entering Information in my Family Tree Program

Once I enter everything into my program, I move onto my Genealogy Log.

Genealogy Research Log
My Resesarch Log

Now all my boxes have been changed to ‘Yes’ in my Binder Index file, but I have more tabs to use in my Research Log. Once I’ve entered the information into my log, the record I just entered is listed on the Records Used tab. This tab isn’t 100% necessary, but it helps me to double check that I’ve entered things into Evidentia, my log, and my program.

Plan Tab

The Plan tab is probably the most changed tab in any of my files. There are conditional formatting rules set up on this tab and it’s basically a To Do List that I use to keep myself straight.

Plan Tab

Before I put the color code in the top row, I was relying on my memory of what each symbol meant. That wasn’t efficient at all, more time was spent messing with those boxes than actual work. When a proof point is entered into my Research Log, I go ahead and put an ‘X’ in the box. If I’m unhappy with the quality of my evidence for that proof point, then I put the ‘?’ which means more search is needed. If a proof point doesn’t currently apply to someone (marriage or death), then I put the not applicable symbol, ‘!’. I do have columns for Ancestry Tree, FamilySearch tree, and Find a Grave. If I’ve synced my information with either of the tree sites, then I put the ‘X’.

For living individuals, I don’t add their information to my online trees. I have been adding a picture and their names, but I mark them as living so only I should see that information. I mark that in the file with the ‘@’ symbol. That shows me I’ve entered them into all my databases but I’m keeping the information private. The last symbol is the ‘E’. This isn’t to mark that it’s entered in Evidentia, but that I’ve analyzed that proof point in Evidentia.

Analyzing in Evidentia

In Conclusion

Having this workflow ensured that when I was traveling my progress wasn’t lost or stalled. I was able to keep moving forward in the same way I was working at home. I might not have made a lot of progress, but the progress I made was quality progress. Who knew I’d be excited to move so slowly through my family tree!

This series of posts are based on the Genealogy Do-Over Workbook by Thomas MacEntee

Previous Posts in this Series

Returned to Maryland!

Hello everyone! I am back in Maryland after two months in Florida with my adorable niece and nephew. I’m starting to finally get some energy back after a rough few days, but I plan on getting back in the swing of things soon, because I have plenty to share!

I know you’ve missed my vague subheadings

  • I’m going to share how my work flow … worked in Florida, on my laptop!
  • There are new changes I made to my Excel log before leaving and I’ll detail those to you.
  • How on earth did I keep up with my Do-Over while traveling and helping to care for newborn twins? I’ll tell you soon!

It’s great to be home at my genealogy command center, and I can’t wait to dive back into the insanity. 🙂 Talk to you guys soon!

Seven Years of Blogging!

It’s hard to believe but I’ve been blogging here on my website for 7 years. Sometimes I’ve been more active than others, but I’m so happy to share my genealogy with everyone who visits me here.

Even crazier to think my moore-mays.org database website will be 14 years old at the end of May. What a crazy ride this genealogy thing has been!

Tombstone Tuesday: William and Llewellyn

Prospect Hill Cemetery, Caldwell, Essex County, New Jersey

William and Llewellyn Moore tombstone
William and Llewellyn Moore tombstone

My great-grandparents, William and Llewellyn Moore, are the topic of this Tombstone Tuesday. Their tombstone looked like the top picture when it was placed there in 1980. When Grandpa Moore passed away in 2012, we buried him in the family plot and added Llewellyn’s death date to her stone.

On their stones are symbols for the Freemasons and the Order of the Eastern Star, both of which were a big part of their lives.

Tombstone Tuesday is a daily blogging prompt from GeneaBloggers.com. For a full list of topics, visit the website for details.

Going on a Trip

Great News!

It’s a mess around my house these days! That’s not the great news though. We’re preparing for a trip to Florida! We aren’t going to enjoy the warm sun. We aren’t going to kick back on the beach. We’re going to welcome the newest generation into the family!

twins
Twins are on the way!

That’s right my brother and his beautiful wife are expecting twins! This isn’t the first set of twins my family has welcomed over the generations but they are my parent’s first grandchildren. That makes them extra special. My sister in law has asked me to help her out by staying a little longer than everyone else. I’m the only one in my family with a flexible enough schedule, so I think I’m going to take her up on that! This means I will be away from my natural habitat until early April.

What about your Do-Over? What about your blog?

I’m still going to be working on it! That’s what I’m loving about my Do-Over. The great thing about it is that I’m still only entering in the information I already have. I’m still not entering in any new information. Before we leave next week, I’ll be scanning like crazy to make sure all the documents I might need are on my laptop. I’m going to hope with a little preparation I can transfer my family file from my desktop to my laptop and back again. We’ll see how that goes! I might even make a blog entry about it. I’m going to utilize my 1TB of space in OneDrive to keep a cloud backup going of my files but to also help the transition from Maryland to Florida and back to Maryland.

I can’t make any promises about my blog, only that I will post interesting documents and pictures as I sort through them. There probably won’t be any rambling posts from me, like this one. I’m sure you’re all going to miss that a lot, HA! Who knows though, I might just be too busy cuddling and taking pictures of those babies!

Working Hard Behind the Scenes!

I have been working behind the scenes on my category problem. The only reason I’m not going very fast on that one, is I don’t want to have any broken links. I think I’m doing okay there, but if you find any, please let me know and I will try to fix them.

Current Blog Organization Goal
Current Blog Organization Goal

This graphic shows what my category goals are for the blog. I’m hopefully going down from 81 categories to 5! That’s a big leap. Any posts you want to find dealing with a specific family should be able to be found using the tags in the sidebar of the page. Eventually, I’m going to have a wonderful sitemap to point everyone where they need to go. I have to get organized first though! 🙂

If you have any advice for a genealogist on travel, be sure to let me know some tips and tricks!

Wedding Wednesday: Llewellyn and William

Welcome to another Wedding Wednesday! When I started posting this GeneaBloggers Daily Blogging Prompt, I never imagined I’d have more than that first entry. Until I run out of weddings to post about, I will keep posting. I’ve done my Grandma and Grandpa Moore’s 1951 Wedding in 3 posts (one, two, three) and my Grandma and Grandpa Mays’ 1947 Wedding. I also threw in a post for my Grandma Mays and her 2nd husband Wayne.

I’m moving up a generation in my Genealogy Do-Over, so it’s time for my Great-Grandparents to get their turn! We’re starting with William Lawrence Moore and Llewellyn Josephine Thorward. For an extra treat, you can always go back and read the Diary of Llewellyn.

June 12, 1926

1926 Wedding Invitation, William Lawrence Moore, Llewellyn Josephine Thorward, Llewellyn’s Boxes, 1986; privately held by Kathleen Moore, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] Lexington Park, Maryland. 2005. This collection was taken from Llewellyn Thorward-Moore’s house after her death. They resided with her son until 2005, when they passed to Kathleen Moore.
One of my favorite finds from Llewellyn’s boxes is this wedding invitation from 1926. It’s almost 100 years old now, but in great condition. I have a few more items that pertain to their wedding day. A cool thing with this record is that to date, this is one of two mentions of Lewis’ middle name. There is clearly a G. after his name and I’ll have an eagle eye on all the other records I go through to see if I’ll finally learn what his middle name is. Probably George after his father, but you never know!

written on the back: “Llewellyn on her wedding day”

I love this picture, it’s definitely on the list of favorites. It’s even on my wall as I type this entry. I don’t know when I made the decision to re-scan most of my older documents and pictures but I sure did. Unfortunately, this one isn’t coming off the wall right now. I used those picture hanger strips from a well known name brand and I don’t have anymore to put it back up when I’m done. That means Llewellyn stays on the wall for now!

The Wedding Article

Newspaper article on the marriage

The wedding article is a favorite of mine because it helps to verify a lot of my other “evidence.” For example, it describes Llewellyn’s wedding dress, that helps me to confirm that the writing on the back of the above photo is correct. It also helps me to verify the wedding invitation is for the same couple as the newspaper article. It also parallels what I learned from Llewellyn’s diary by bringing in all the cast of characters I read about for the 3 year period before her wedding.

There is one thing that the article got wrong. The couple didn’t move into their home at 42 Park Avenue, it was 84 Park Avenue. I know that because I have all the mortgage and legal documents to prove it! Some time between when they moved into the house in 1926 and when Llewellyn died in 1986, the house address changed to 86 Park Avenue.

84 Park Avenue

The last picture on the top right is a current view of the home from Google Street View. The rest are from a collection of photos found in Llewellyn’s house.