AmericaGen: Chapters 14 and 15, Census Records

Reference: Greenwood, Val, The Researcher’s Guide to American Genealogy, 4^th ed. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing, 2017.

It seems like every census year I have at least one family that I can't locate where I think they should be. Every now and then the family has moved, but sometimes the census enumerator or modern-day indexer have badly mangled the names. Searching for other family members, especially if one has an unusual first name, has helped me find more than one "missing" family.

My direct ancestor, William Beem, died in 1850. I easily found his widow and children living with her parents in the 1850 census, but could not find them anywhere in 1860. The child I descend from has an unsual first name, Elbridge, so I decided to search for him. From prior research, I knew Elbridge was born in Ohio about 1840, so those are the parameters I entered into the search form. I did not include a last name.  I also knew Elbridge had enlisted in an Ohio unit at the start of the Civil War, so I expected to find him in Ohio.

Once I narrowed the search results down to the 1860 Federal Census, one possibility jumped out at me: Elbridge Ball of Jersey, Licking County, Ohio. 

This is exactly where the Beems lived. Clicking on the link, the head of household is Samuel Ball and his (presumed) wife, Christina Ball. 

Listing of Samuel Ball Household in the 1860 U.S. Census, Licking County, Ohio, Jersey Township.

Bingo! Elbridge's mother was Christiana, and included in this blended family are his brothers, Lewis and William. Evidently Christiana had remarried, and the enumerator listed all of the Beem children with the Ball surname. 

AmericaGen Chapter 13: Vital Records

Reference: Greenwood, Val D. “Vital Records.” In The Researcher’s Guide to American Genealogy, 4^th ed.,279-. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing, 2017.

Delayed birth certificates, although mostly considered secondary evidence, in addition to establishing a person's birth date and location, can provide clues that help establish relationships as well. In Tennessee, the applicant needed to provide documentation of their age as well as two witnesses who could verify the applicant's parents. I was able to finally crack a brick wall when I found a delayed birth certificate for an ancestor's sibling who had moved out of state. I had lost track of this sibling after the 1870 census, when she was last enumerated with her parents. The delayed birth certificate gave me her husband's name and showed me that they had moved to Illinois sometime after the births of at least two children. No wonder I couldn't find her in Tennessee! The information from the delayed birth record gave me enough clues to start researching again, and with information now available online, I was able to piece together what happened to the other sister that I hadn't been able to track as an adult.

Source: "Tennessee, Delayed Birth Records, 1869-1909," Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed November 11, 2018), entry for Condy Huston Dabney, 1890; citing Tennessee Delayed Birth Records, 1869–1909. Nashville, Tennessee: Tennessee State Library and Archives.

Condy Huston Dabney, Delayed Birth Certificate, Front

Condy Huston Baker was born in Coal Creek, Tennessee on May 2, 1890, the son of German Dabney and Sara Adkins. The certificate was applied for in Harrisburg, Illinois, where Condy was living at the time of application. Notice the supporting evidence at the bottom of the first image. The first table lists what was used for evidence, and the second table shows what evidence those documents provided.

Condy Huston Dabney, Delayed Birth Certificate, Back

The back of the application contains statements from the two witnesses. Samuel Disney and Martha Jane Disney claimed to have known German and Sarah their entire lives, and had lived in the same neighborhood when Condy was born.

Samuel also stated he was Condy's cousin. This was a key piece of evidence, as Sarah's mother was a Disney, but I had been unable to find evidence to support that claim. With the clues provided in this delayed birth record, I was able to find other evidence that the maiden name of Sarah's mother was, indeed, Disney.

AmericaGen Study Group

Chapter 12 Homework 

Marceline Beem

Reference: Greenwood, Val D. “Compiled Sources and Newspapers.” In The Researcher’s Guide to American Genealogy, 4^th ed.,255-78. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing, 2017.

I love newspaper research. I've found a wealth of information on my family from newspapers. Don't limit your newspaper research to marriage announcements and obituaries. Newspaper articles can help pinpoint where an ancestor lived at a particular time, provide details about a family's activities, and give context to historical events.

Here are some of the things I've learned about my ancestors from newspaper articles:

• Dead letter lists: These are notifications to local residents that they had letters at the post office that needed to be picked up. I've often wished these lists gave more  than just a name - like who was the letter from? But even though the list is just a name, it does give you a time and place to look for other documents about your ancestor.
• Prior residences: Sometimes a newspaper article will provide the only documentation of a person's prior residences. Griffin Mashburn, my great-great-grandmother's brother, was the subject of a brief article in the Pell City Progress. In it, Griffin stated he was born near Jameson's Mill in Talladega County. This tidbit helped me identify both a father and other siblings. (For more information, read my blog posts: Martha "Blind Granny" Mashburn: Identifying Siblings and Martha Golden Mashburn: Who is her Father? Eliminating the Possibilities.)
• Military leave: My great-graandfather served during the Spanish-American war. His military record shows he was given leave to go home because one of his siblings was critically ill and not expected to live. The local newspaper confirmed his visit home and the sibling's illness. 
• Occupations: My Beem family worked for one of the railroad companies in Mattoon, Illinois. The local paper reported on workers' activities including promotions and days off for illness or other reasons. 

If your ancestors lived in a rural area that did not have a newspaper, check newspapers of the closest city. In addition to obituaries, marriages notices and news of other major events, look for the "local news" articles. These columns are my favorite, as they provide details into our ancestors' social lives that often isn't available anywhere else. They often tell who visited a community and who they stayed with - confirming relationships and building an ancestor's FAN club.

The author mentioned Chronicling America as a resource for newspaper articles. That collection is now available at MyHeritage. The collection includes The Palatka News, one of two papers to carry such articles about Melrose, where my family lived. Using the MyHeritage search form, I searched for articles about Allen Price, my great-great-grandfather and added "Palatka, FL" as the location.

One of the hits was titled, "Keuka," published on January 16, 1914 in The Palatka News. Keuka is a very small village (if you can call it that) in northern Putnam County. Three of the first four paragraphs were about my family.

"Keuka." The Palatka (Florida) News, January 16, 1914, p. 4, column 4.

From this article I learned that Allen and Carolina Price visited their son, who my grandmother called "Uncle Henry," when he lived in Keuka. Keuka is about 13 miles from where the Price family lived in 1914. Today that trip would be about a 15 minute drive, but in 1914 it would have taken much longer as they would have traveled by horse. I know from prior research that Uncle Henry moved to Palatka and owned a grocery store there, but I now know that he did not make that move before January 1914. 

AmericaGen Study Group: Successful Correspondence

AmericaGen Study Group

Chapter 8 Homework 

Marceline Beem

Reference: Greenwood, Val D. “Successful Correspondence.” In The Researcher’s Guide to American Genealogy, 4^th ed.,165-74. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing, 2017.

I have to admit that when I first saw the topic for this week’s session, I was underwhelmed.  Reading the chapter didn’t change my opinion. My first reaction was “More printing and filing? UGH!”

Last week I finally started digitizing my research files. One of the first documents I scanned was a death certificate for Calhoun Cail, who died in Ft. Myers, Florida in 1967. In going through his information in my Legacy file, I realized I did not have an obituary for him.  Googling for Lee County, Florida obituaries, I came across an obituary index maintained by the Lee County Genealogical Society. I found an index entry for Calhoun Cail’s obituary and sent a message to the email provided on the website, asking for a copy of the obituary.

As the author mentioned, be as specific as possible in your request for information. My email was short and to the point:

I would like to request a copy of the obituary for Calhoun Cail. It was published in the Fort Myers News-Press on March 13, 1967, page 2, section a.  Thanks in advance for your help.

If there is a fee for the request, please let me know the charge and how to pay it.

Just this morning I received a fabulous reply that not only included the obituary but also information about the funeral home and how to order the death certificate. I already have the death certificate, but I do intend to follow up with the funeral home.

I tend to not save emails because Gmail makes it so easy to keep and search for old emails that I felt it wasn’t necessary. But in going through my documents to digitize, I realized that I have correspondence from old accounts that I no longer have access to. Geocities, anyone?  I printed very little of my early correspondence and now wish I had some of it. So, I am adding saving my email correspondence to my organization project.

The request for the obituary and the reply are definitely ones I do not want to lose access to, but I don’t want to print it just to scan it again. That’s using a lot of resources (paper, toner, my time) for paper I don’t intend to keep. Instead, I can save the correspondence as a PDF, right from Gmail. Instructions for printing to straight to PDF can be found here.

I’ve already shared that I save all of my digital documents in one folder, rather than having multiple subfolders broken down by surname or location. To name this file, I am using the person’s name, the word “Correspondence,” and a brief description of the subject and date of the correspondence. When I sort the files by name, I can quickly see all of the correspondence I have about the person of interest. For the obituary request, the file name is “Cail-Calhoun_Correspondence_Request-for-Obituary-August-8-2018.” The reply was saved as “Cail-Calhoun_Correspondence_Answer-to-Request-for-Obituary-August-13-2018.” And of course the PDF of the obituary was also saved under a separate file named “Cail-Calhoun_1967_Obituary.”

Since I am horrible with research logs, I am not going to bother with a spreadsheet or log as suggested in the chapter. However, as I go through my current project, I will search my Gmail account for past correspondence, save the emails as PDF, and do the proper analysis and correlation, just as I am with other documents.

AmericaGen Chapter 7: Organizing Your Research

AmericaGen Study Group

Chapter 7 Homework 

Marceline Beem

Reference: Greenwood, Val D. “Organizing and Evaluating Your Research Findings.” In The Researcher’s Guide to American Genealogy, 4^th ed., 142-164. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing, 2017.

My research process is a bit different from what the author advocates in this week’s readings. I have never been very good at keeping a research log and filing documents. In fact, I hate filing so much that at every office job I've held, that's the one task that gets put off indefinitely. My hatred of filing doesn't change when it comes to genealogy research. I hate it, period. Mark that as a drudgery task for me. Keeping a research log is almost as tedious as filing, so I spent many years keeping rather poor logs or ignoring them all together.  That changed when I was introduced to the “write as you go” method for research reports. 

My document starts as a research plan, with a specific question and sources to answer that question identified before I start researching. I then type up my notes as I research, providing the citation details (e.g., page numbers) for each piece of information.  The result is that my research plan, log, and notes are in one document. Usually, I will write my analysis and conclusion in the same document, followed by images and transcripts/abstracts of the key documents used to reach my conclusion. I do initially type a transcript in a separate Word document, but by also including it at the end of my research notes, I can easily share my research with others in just one PDF file.

To get my research organized, one of my goals is to convert my family files to digital images, keeping only original records and photographs. I keep all of my digital documents in one folder called “Source Documents.” The files are named in the following pattern: LastName-FirstName_Year_Description. When sorted by name, the files are automatically arranged chronologically by person. Some examples:

• My great-grandmother, Caroline Price, died in Florida in 1940. The digital image of her death certificate is named “Price-Caroline_1940_Death-Certificate.”
• Rebecca Horton purchased land in Tennessee in 1832. The digital image of the transaction is named “Horton-Rebecca_1832_Land-Purchase.”

For deeds, I use both the grantor and grantee in the file name.

• Richard Grantham purchased land from John Smith in Bladen County, North Carolina in 1775. The digital image of the deed is named “Smith-John_Grantham-Richard_1775_Deed-Bladen-p488.”

Transcripts use the same name as the original document, with –Transcript appended to the file name:

• King-John_1798_Will-Transcript

I try to limit my use of subfolders to two circumstances:

• Numerous images from one collection, such as the Draper Manuscripts
• Specific locations where I am related to most of the community.  I use this to store census images and similar documents where more than one family of interest is on the page.

I’m not very consistent at putting census records and such into the second type of folder. Lately, I am more prone to store the digital image in the “Source Documents” main folder, using my direct ancestor’s name in the file name.

Here is a screenshot of my “Source Documents” folder:

You’ll notice that not all of my file names follow what I’ve described here. There are older files that were scanned or downloaded before I finally settled on my naming convention. One of these days, I’ll get around to renaming those files. But this also illustrates my main takeaway from this chapter: there isn’t one right way to organize your research logs and notes. If a particular method uses too many tasks you hate outside of genealogy (for me, filing paper documents and keeping logs), you aren’t likely to use it in genealogy research, either. Use Google and Cyndi’s List to find articles on how to organize your research. Find a method that works for you and incorporate it into your workflow. If you find a method that works for you, you'll be more likely to keep your records organized, easily finding them when you need to review your work or share it with other researchers.

AmericaGen Chapter 6: Reference Works

AmericaGen Study Group

Chapter 6 Homework 

Marceline Beem

Reference: Greenwood, Val D. “Reference Works.” In The Researcher’s Guide to American Genealogy, 4^th ed., 115-142. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing, 2017.

When I enrolled in the ProGen course, my main goal was to improve my genealogical writing skills. I already had good writing skills that got me through my Master’s in Public Health, but I wanted to learn to write about my family history in a more engaging style – an entirely different mindset from medical-related research and program planning! My favorite assignments in ProGen were the two that focused on writing polished pieces -  proof arguments and family sketches – and I feel like my writing skills improved greatly with those assignments.  Because of my personal focus on writing, the reference books I have most recently purchased relate to that skill more than methodology or other aspects of genealogy research.  Here are the books that I have at my desk, within easy reach because I use them so often, listed alphabetically by author's last name:

Casagrande, June. The Best Punctuation Book, Period. Berkeley: Ten Speed Press, 2014.

Is the Oxford comma necessary, or can be it omitted? The answer is - it depends! No, seriously, it does! My own personal preference is to use the Oxford comma, but when I had to produce AP-style work at my transcription job, I was not allowed to use it. This little book is jam-packed with grammar and punctuation guidance for the four major styles of writing: book (including nonfiction), news, scientific, and academic. The book style is based on the Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS), so it is what I refer to most often for genealogy purposes, but it's nice to have the other styles since I often need them in my professional life.

Jones, Thomas W. Mastering Genealogical Documentation. Arlington, VA: National Genealogical Society, 2017.

This workbook demystifies documentation by stepping the reader through how to answer the who, what, when, and whereis questions when crafting citations for genealogy research. Although the book gives plenty of examples, Dr. Jones encourages the reader to craft his own citation style that is concise and contains all of the necessary elements in a logical order, rather than dogmatically adhering to any one style guide.

Mills, Elizabeth. Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace. 3rd ed. rev. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 2017.

This book is the best reference for how to cite just about any type of document or object used in genealogy research. I used to grab this book every time I needed a new citation, but I'm trying to use what I've learned from Dr. Jones' book more often.  Sometimes I'm still stumped, though, and grab this book when I just can't figure out how to document what I'm working with. Even if you never use the reference models, though, every genealogist needs to read the first chapter on evidence analysis. I'm constantly referring to the evidence analysis process map, in both the research and writing phases of my workflow.

Rose, Christine. Genealogical Proof Standard: Building a Solid Case. 4th ed. rev. San Jose, California: CR Publications, 2014.

This is a short book, but it is jam-packed with information on writing a solid answer to a research question. For our study group on this book, I created a chart that summarizes when and how to write a proof statement, proof summary, or proof argument. Since I can't keep the difference between the statement and summary straight in my pea-brain, I refer to it often when I'm writing conclusions.

In addition to the four books mentioned above, I have the following QuickSheets by Elizabeth Shown Mills at my desk. If I'm not sure how to cite something, I'll look at these before dragging out the heavier Evidence Explained:

• Citing Ancestry Databases and Images, 2^nd Edition
• Citing Online Historical Resources Evidence Style

One other reference work which I use quite a bit, especially if I have a quick question about CMOS, is Purdue's Online Writing Lab, or OWL. It summarizes and provides examples for citations of books, journals, newspapers, and other materials that are used in academic writing, but that we also use in genealogy research. The website is free and open to anyone, not just Purdue students. This is a great resource if you don't have the funds or space for the hard copies of Evidence Explained or CMOS, or even if you do have them but are traveling and don't want to carry those tomes with you!

Of course, there are many other reference books and QuickSheets on my shelves in a wide range of topics from DNA to methodology to how to use specific software, but these four books are what I have found the most useful for me at this point of my journey.  As I get further back into time in my research, I plan to purchase Kip Sperry’s Reading Early American Handwriting, which I am sure will also wind up at my desk, but I’m not sure which book will get moved to the bookcase when I do buy it. I can almost guarantee that it won’t be one of these books, though!

AmericaGen Chapter 5: GRC Records

AmericaGen Study Group

Chapter 5 Homework 

Marceline Beem

Reference: Greenwood, Val D. “Libraries and the National Archives (NARA).” In The Researcher’s Guide to American Genealogy, 4^th ed., 99-114. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing, 2017.

Chapter 5 focuses on research in libraries and the National Archives. The Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) Library in Washington, D.C. is one of my favorite places to research, and I try to go there any time I am in the area. (Word of warning: if you plan a summer visit, make sure it’s not during Continental Congress – you won’t get in if you are not a DAR member. I may or may not have learned this the hard way!) 

One of the unique sources at the library is the volumes of the Genealogical Records Committee (GRC) books. The DAR provides background for this at its website:

Beginning in the 1910s, the DAR made a concerted effort to have members transcribe previously unpublished records of genealogical value to assist both the staff genealogists, potential members and the public. In 1913, the DAR established the Genealogical Research Committee (subsequently renamed the Genealogical Records Committee) to coordinate this nation-wide attempt to save historical records. The result has been nearly 17,000 typescripts of records from across the country. 

Although these records are considered secondary sources because they are transcriptions, they are still valuable and should not be overlooked. One of the mysteries my cousin and I solved through the GRC books was confirming the identity of William M. Dennett’s parents.  We had plenty of records for William after his marriage to Elvira Nickerson in Massachusetts in 1844, but documenting his early life, including his parents' identities, was challenging because there were several men named William Dennett born in Maine in the 1815-1820 timeframe.  None of the records we had indicated his parents, siblings, or even the town he was born in, so it was difficult to eliminate one or more of the men in question.

William Dennett is enumerated in the 1850 census in Royalton, Vermont, with his wife, Elvira and baby daughter, Ella. The family was there for only a few years before moving on to Ohio and then Wisconsin.  On the next page is a William and Martha Dennett, who were the right age to be William M.’s parents, but we could find no records to document the relationship. The elder Dennetts had no children at home in 1850, so we didn’t have names of siblings to research.

William & Evira Dennett household, 1850 U.S. Census, Royalton, Windsor, Vermont, page 95B

William & Martha Dennett household, 1850 U.S. Census, Royalton, Windsor, Vermont, page 96A

One day when we were researching at the DAR library, my cousin found William Dennett’s Bible record in one of the GRC volumes. We were amazed to find it listed his parents as William Dennett and Martha Doughty – the same William and Martha in South Royalton in the 1850 census. Not only that, but the record showed other children for William and Elvira. These children had been born and died young, in between census records, so we did not know of them until finding this document in the GRC.

When I first started visiting the DAR library, the books were available on the shelves, but the library had just started digitizing the pages. Now that all of the books have been digitized, images can be viewed in the technology room.  If you can’t make a visit to the library, though, you can still access the GRC books through a combination of online search and mail order. I’ll show you how to do this, using William Dennett as an example.

The first step is to search the GRC index, which can  be accessed at http://services.dar.org/public/dar_research/search/?Tab_ID=6.

The search form requires a surname. Optional fields include the state and first name. Here I'll search with both the first and last name, but leave the state and other fields blank:

GRC Search Form

The results page shows 29 results. If I click on the page number, I can view a list of others listed on the page, which is helpful in determining if I want to view or order the document.

GRC Search Results for William Dennett

Looking at the list of names for this entry, I notice that this document names a William M. Dennett, another William Dennett, and a Martha Douty.  This record looks promising, and is one I would order if I were actually conducting this research for the first time. 

List of names from page 47 of Illinois GRC series 1, volume 94

      One other tip for searching the GRC index - Don’t discount a record in the index just because it was submitted by a chapter in a state where your person of interest did not live.  Bibles and other family documents moved with descendants, and would have been transcribed and submitted by the local chapters where those family members lived.

To order a record, make note of the state, series number, volume, page number, and name in the index. Go to the Library's Search Service page, print and fill out the request form, and mail the form and a check to the address provided. The current cost is $10 for member and $15 for nonmembers.

AmericaGen Chapter 4: When did Sarah Smith Marry Laban Price?

AmericaGen Study Group

Chapter 4 Homework 

Marceline Beem

Reference: Greenwood, Val D. “Evidence.” In The Researcher’s Guide to American Genealogy, 4^th ed., 79-98-78. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing, 2017.

This chapter discusses the various classifications of evidence used in genealogy research, as well as the need to resolve conflicting evidence in order to meet the Genealogical Proof Standard (GPS).  It covers a lot of ground, but is well worth reading, especially if you are unfamiliar with how to identify and analyze evidence.  

Laban and Sarah Price moved from South Carolina to Putnam County, Florida before the 1860 census was taken.  Establishing a marriage date for Laban and Sarah is challenging because South Carolina did not require marriages to be registered at the courthouse until 1911.  No marriage record for Laban and Sarah has been found in South Carolina, so they either did not register at the courthouse, or the record no longer exists.

Laban served in the Florida 9^thInfantry during the Civil War, and Sarah filed for a widow’s pension in 1903.  To  qualify for new benefits established in 1909 she gave sworn testimony that she married Laban Price “under the name of Sarah Ann Smith” in Marion County, South Carolina on 26 April 1848.¹

This testimony is direct evidence given by the bride, making it a slam dunk, right? Um, not so fast, my friend! This testimony was given to establish Sarah’s right to a widow’s pension, and money can be a powerful motivator to give incorrect facts. Or maybe, 60 years later, she couldn’t remember the exact date and gave an approximate date. Or maybe the person recording the testimony wrote in the wrong date. In the absence of publicly available records to establish the marriage date, what other records corroborate the claim?

Sarah Smith Price, enumerated in her father's household in the 1850 census

Laban and Sarah should be enumerated together in the 1850 census, probably in South Carolina. Instead, we find Sarah enumerated in her father’s household under the name Sarah Smith.²Laban and their oldest daughter, Margaretann, are not listed as part of the household. To date, neither Laban nor Margaretann have been located in the 1850 census.

Why is Sarah enumerated with her father, under the Smith surname? Where are Laban and Margaretann? This census record conflicts with Sarah’s 1909 testimony, and cannot be ignored. Even though the testimony is direct evidence, the research is not complete – and thus the research question is not answered - because this conflict needs to be resolved in order to meet the Genealogical Proof Standard.  

____________

¹Florida Confederate Pension Applications, Application Number A00698 (1903), Laban Price; Florida Memory, digital images (https://www.floridamemory.com/collections/pensionfiles: accessed 16 April 16, 2018).

²1850 U.S. Census, population schedule, Marion County, South Carolina, page 51B, dwelling 770, household 774, James D. Smith; digital images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 16 April 2018).

AmericaGen Chapter 3: Where Did Joseph Horton Live Before Moving to Knox County?

Reference: Greenwood, Val D. “Surveying, Analyzing, and Planning.” In The Researcher’s Guide to American Genealogy, 4^th ed., 57-78. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing, 2017.

I was not introduced to the concept of formal research plans until I was in a ProGen Study Group. Although the author mentions the ProGen approach is different, we still followed the same steps of setting a goal, identifying what we already know, conducting a preliminary search, and identifying sources to search.  The main difference is our plan was written in a more formal style, as we were learning to write on a more professional level.

For my ProGen assignment, I focused on Joseph Horton, who I discussed in the Chapter 2 homework.  (You may be tired of hearing about my Horton clan before long, but that's who I have spent all of my research and writing time on for the last nine months!) Writing out the formal research plan helped me focus on specific documents to search. The first part of the plan, listing my research goal, background information, and known facts:

Goal: Determine where Joseph Horton lived before he moved to Knox (later Roane) County, Tennessee

Background: Joseph Horton died testate in Roane County, Tennessee in 1813. Based on the year one of his daughters married (1800), Joseph was likely born before 1765 in some place other than eastern Tennessee. Based on migration patterns into East Tennessee, it is possible that Joseph lived in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia or in western North Carolina prior to coming to Knox County. Determining where he lived before he came to Tennessee may help me identify his parents, wife’s maiden name, and other relatives.

Known facts:

• Signed petition in Knox County in 1799
• Listed as a resident of Roane County in 1802
• Died testate about 1813
• Named following heirs in his will:

o   Mary Horton, wife

o   James, youngest son

o   Joseph, son of James

o   Hannah Terry, daughter

o   John Horton, son

o   Polly Gladden, daughter

o   Nancy Cooner, daughter

o   Heirs of William Horton, son

o   Sally Coulter, daughter

o   Rebecca Burk, daughter (m. Robert Burke, 1802, Roane County)

o   Peggy Breshear, daughter (m. Bazil Brashear, 1800, Knox County)

o   Phebe Walker, daughter (m. William Walker, 1802, Roane County)

Alternate Spellings: Hortin, Whorton, Whortin

The sources I want to search are then listed in a table with columns for what, why and where.

Without replicating the table, I’ll hit some of the highlights that relate to this chapter:

• Because Roane County was formed from Knox County in 1801, and a Joseph Horton signed the petition to create Roane County, my research plan needs to include relevant sources from Knox County.
• Knowing that the 1830 census is the earliest surviving census for Knox and Roane Counties helped me focus my search on other relevant records from the time Joseph was in East Tennessee.
• Deed records, Knox County: Joseph owned land in Roane County, but the deed from when he purchased the land was not filed in Roane County. It’s quite possible he purchased the land when it was still part of Knox County.
• Deeds, Greene and Hawkins County: Parent counties of Knox. To be considered if no deeds for Joseph Horton are found in Knox County.
• 1850 and 1860 census, Roane and Knox County: Search for Joseph’s children to get approximate birth years and place(s).
• Hamilton District Superior Court included both Knox and Roane Counties during its existence from 1793-1809. These court records need to be searched for any Hortons and related surnames. A searchable index is available at http://www.knoxlib.org/local-family-history/historical-resources-z/hamilton-district-superior-court-1793-1809.

The research plan is an “organic” document, meaning it is revised as I go along. As I look at each record, I record the results in the research plan. (I’m terrible at keeping a research log, so this serves that purpose, as well as documents why I wanted to look at a particular record set).  I also update the plan if new evidence suggests new jurisdictions or documents to consider.

I’ve found that creating and following a research plan is extremely helpful, especially with thorny research problems that are not easily solved.  I’ve used the planning techniques I learned in ProGen on several other complex problems, and although the questions haven’t been fully answered yet, I am making progress.