52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Favorite Find | Our Prairie Nest

by Wendy, January 14, 2022

If you’ve visited my blog in the past, you already know my favorite find. It was a receipt for the purchase of a burial site, and it broke my 26-year brick wall wide open!

Ever since I was 18, I’d been trying to find the place and date of birth of my great-great grandmother, Emma Anna Murphy, wife of Erastus Bartlett Shaw. All the records we had, from her 1888 marriage to my great-great grandfather to her 1945 death certificate and obituary, offered conflicting ages and places, from Nova Scotia to Maine to Massachusetts. I couldn’t find her in the 1870 or 1880 U.S. Censuses, or the 1881 Canadian Census. A fellow geneablogger provided me with the 1871 Canadian Census for Manchester, Guysborough, Nova Scotia listing an Emma Murphy. She was the right age to fit, but how could I possibly be sure she was the correct person?

After several years of flailing in every direction, I finally got a hit on a person who appeared to share the same parents – a Margaret Murphy who had died in Boston in 1890. Some more digging also gave me a Margaret Murphy the right age in Manchester, Guysborough, Nova Scotia to be the one who died in Boston. But I was stuck again, not sure where to look.

It was time for another set of eyes to review my research and give me some direction. I booked a consultation with a genealogist at the New England Historic Genealogical Society and was scheduled for a call with Melanie McComb. Prior to the call, she reviewed my timeline and analyzed the records I’d already located. During the call, she went over her recommendations and followed-up by sending me a detailed list of the work she’d done, and where she suggested I go to follow up.

I returned to Margaret Murphy and Melanie’s suggestions for her: follow up on her burial and any probate that might have been filed for her. The death register in Boston didn’t list a place of burial, but the Undertaker’s Return did – Calvary Cemetery in Boston. I emailed a request to the Catholic Cemetery Association and, two days before my birthday in December of 2019, received the best birthday gift a 45-year-old genealogist could want: proof that Emma Anna Murphy had a connection with Margaret Murphy.

When I received the receipt, I couldn’t contain my excitement. I even woke my poor husband up from a sound sleep by squealing with excitement and shaking him. How could I not?

That one little handwritten slip of paper then led me to pursue Margaret Murphy’s probate file, which turned out to be the genealogical smoking gun that proved Emma Anna Murphy was, indeed, the Emma Murphy found in Manchester, Guysborough, Nova Scotia. Twenty-six years after I’d begun my genealogical journey, my most troublesome brick wall came tumbling down because of this find.

Genealogy Goals – 2022 Edition

by Wendy, January 12, 2022

It’s that time of year when I back up all my files and determine what genealogy questions I’ll focus on over the next year.

First, let’s take care of backing up those files… Ah, yes, it feels good to get that out of the way. I’m a little late with both the backup process and this post, but here we go!

I had to really sit and think about what I intend to accomplish in 2022 and it’s kind of nebulous. Maybe because I spent my back to back 4-day holiday weekends wrapping up 2021 tasks, relaxing in front of the fire with copious amounts of tea, and playing a lot of Minecraft. A lot of it, because a friend set up a Cave Factory server and… well, you know how that goes.

So here are my genealogy goals for 2022:

Research Papers

Let’s start with my non-SMART Goals. I’m working on a couple of research papers and not sure if I’ve bitten off more than I can chew or what. They are taking me back to the 1500s and, um, that’s quite an undertaking. These aren’t necessarily for publication, though I have already formatted them in such a way that they have that potential if I ever reach my objective. I don’t believe these two goals are reachable within the year, but smaller aspects of them are more than doable.

One paper is on my distant paternal ancestor, Anthony Wood. Who was he? Where did he come from before emigrating to Essex County, Massachusetts Bay Colony? Is this even a question I can answer? I don’t know, but I’d like to try. Unfortunately, while my father graciously consented to an Ancestry DNA test, he would not provide me with a Family Tree DNA test to work with when I asked, so I have to rely on observing others’ Y-DNA from afar, while working on digging up documentary evidence. I hope that maybe one of my male Wood cousins will test their Y-DNA, but this remains a long shot as one of them just tested at Ancestry and uncovered an NPE that I’ve been aware of for the past 2 or 3 years, and have had to keep to myself. Well, cat’s out of the bag now and I really hope he is able to approach it in a positive way! But that’s neither here nor there.

The other paper is one I want to keep close to my vest. It’s on a Mayflower-adjacent family, the immigrant ancestor of which has hotly-disputed origins. I’m sure others are working on figuring out his origins, and I just happen to be looking at what I think is an unexplored theory. On to the specific goals!

Family History

I would really like to write up at least enough of a family history for my children to understand my life, and the lives of their grandparents, and great-grandparents. Last year, I started a file and gave my little book a name. It has a bunch of disjointed information laid out in it and needs to be added to, polished, and edited. It would be nice to have something in case the kids ask questions or, imagine this, grandchildren come along.

My son turned 19 in December 2021 and my daughter turned 9 after New Year’s. As I joked with my husband, grandchildren are the next inevitable phase. But I don’t want future generations to have to ask the same questions I did to learn about my family. Instead, I want to give them a narrative overview of the lives of the people I’ve known in our families, and open up other avenues of exploration for them. My children will inherit my work someday. I want to pass down more than names, places, and dates to them. Goodness knows I wish I could still ask all my grandparents and great-grandparents questions, so I’d like to give future generations of my family at least some of those answers.

Brick Walls & Research Questions

Oh gosh, who is waiting for me to find them out there? Which questions remain unresolved? Anything I mentioned on my blog last year, for sure. I didn’t make as many discoveries in 2020 or 2021, however I feel like I was better at finding information and getting it out there. While I didn’t blog as much, I stepped up the attention I pay to WikiTree because the collaborative nature of the site may mean someone will come across one of my brick walls or questions and have the answer I seek. Likewise, maybe I’ve put something out there that will help someone else in their research.

Of the list of questions I currently have, I would like to focus on the following:

Who was the first husband (known only as Mr. Regan) of my great-great grandmother, Emma Anna Wallace/Murphy (1861 – 1945)? When were they married? How did their marriage end (death or divorce)?

What became of Emma’s mother, Elizabeth Murphy (1838 – aft 1861)?

What was the maiden name of Esther, wife of Edward Curtis (circa 1747 – 1840)? DNA may help resolve this question.

Who was the father of John Goodwin Hawksley (1810 – 1893)? DNA may also answer this question. I have a hypothesis to work with on this one.

Who were the parents of Maria Ursula Taescher (circa 1853 – 1930), born in Switzerland and died in Oregon, United States? I have her father’s name as “John” based on her death certificate, so her father is possibly Johann. But that’s all I have to go on at this time.

Now that I’ve done this, I need to sit down with my list and write out next steps. Wish me luck!

52 Ancestors: Foundations | Our Prairie Nest

52 Ancestors, Week 1: Foundations

by Wendy, January 7, 2022

This month’s theme for 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks is “Foundations” and so is this week’s prompt. I’d like to talk about shaken foundations, when you find out the answer to a question isn’t at all what you expected.

Thanks to the wonders of DNA and genetic genealogy, my sense of self – of what I thought I knew about my family – was turned somewhat upside down. Certainly not to the extent that it is for someone who finds an unexpected parent, child, or sibling, but I have some idea of how that must feel.

This happened at the great-grandparent level for me, when my mother and I learned that her father’s father was neither of the men we expected. It was so strange to come to terms with the fact that we had to essentially replace an entire branch of our genetic tree. Why?

Haley Ancestry

For over twenty years, I’d been fascinated by my mom’s paternal lineage. Her father was, as far as we knew, a Haley. These Haleys in Plympton and Middleborough, Massachusetts descended from Edward Marshall Haley, who came from Ireland and settled in Plympton, Massachusetts by 1830. Now that I know better and have been following up on my genetic tree, his name looks strange to me. But for most of my adulthood, he was a man whose life I was trying to follow back to Ireland.

Along came DNA testing, which I embraced whole heartedly starting in 2006 (and still recommend!). And, with it, came a strange new network of genetic relatives I didn’t recognize. The pieces didn’t fall into place until I took DNA tests at every company (23andMe, Ancestry, Family Tree DNA, Living DNA, and MyHeritage) and analyzed my results, as well as my mother’s and maternal uncle’s results.

As it turned out, my maternal grandfather was not a Haley. Not even close. Not one drop of Irish ethnicity and no Haley or related matches to be found. We looked at the other logical option – that he might actually be the son of his mother’s first husband, Joseph William St. Onge, a man whose parents were French Canadian.

Also, no. Not a chance. No matches connected to this prolific family.

Instead, the father was a man we’d never heard of, a man from a tiny town in southern Italy. A man who born in Campora, Salerno, Campania, Italy, who had emigrated from to Boston with his parents and siblings.

Feola Family

My mom and I discussed this finding with a mixture of awe and shock and excitement. DNA answered a question she had asked herself for years: “Was my father’s father really Herbert Benjamin Haley, Sr. or was it Joseph William St. Onge?”

My grandfather’s birth certificate lists his name as “Herbert Haley St. Onge” and his father as Joseph, because that’s who his mother was married to at the time. However, the story we were always told was that Joseph had run off by that time – actually, before Herbert’s most recent half-sibling had been more in 1925 – and that Herbert’s father, Herbert Sr., had come in and helped his mother put her life back together. Naturally, my mother had questioned her father’s paternity for a long time.

But when DNA disproved any possible relationship to the Haley or St. Onge families, we were stunned. Instead, we had to turn our attention to a man named Pasquale Feola, who had been in the right place at the right time to be Herbert’s father.

We didn’t know if he ever had an ongoing relationship with Herbert’s mother. We will probably never know. But, even with the network of Feola and related DNA matches, some of whom were as close as half first cousins, we still held onto the idea that maybe, just maybe, there was a Haley in there somewhere*. Until, that is, one of my grandfather’s nieces through his youngest sister – also supposed to be a daughter of Herbert Haley, Sr. – tested.

The niece was a half match, and we knew that the man we were told had helped my great-grandmother get her life back together – the man whose parents and siblings helped raise my grandfather – may have been his dad, may have given Herbert a name and a real family, but he wasn’t his biological father.

*And I know our Feola first cousins also were surprised to learn that their grandfather hadn’t been perfectly faithful to his wife, and that he – and some of his children, as more DNA testing later revealed – had unexpected children out there.

Family Tree vs. Genetic Tree

I think that distinction explains it best. We have our family tree and then we have our genetic tree. For my mom and I, discovering our genetic tree was a source of excitement. However, it also forced us to rethink what we knew about our family. In the end, we know that the Haleys were truly family to her father. But the truth about the genetics is now out and we are okay with that, too.

This discovery has allowed us to build a new foundation, one that integrates more footings and anchor bolts to keep the concrete slab firmly in place, so we can build something even more intricate on it.

WikiTree: A Collaborative Family Tree

by Wendy, January 5, 2022

In the summer of 2017, I joined WikiTree to see if there might be any useful information about my ancestors there. I also uploaded a limited GEDCOM to the site, to see if I could contribute anything of value. I experienced some ups and downs, so here are my thoughts and experiences. You could also think of this post as “WikiTree: Instructions for Use” since I will share my thoughts and tips on using this site.

Collaboration

Wikis by their very nature are openly editable by anyone who happens to be a member. This means you have well-meaning members making changes to your data or telling you what they think you should do with it. Some members are very polite and personable. Others are brusque and to the point. Like everything in life, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. However, most people are there because they want to work together to improve the tree. If you don’t like someone else “touching your ancestors,” I’m going to tell you straight up that this is not the place for you.

However, if you would like to work with others – and especially if you would like to find cousins who have the same deep interest in your shared ancestors – WikiTree might be a place you want to try. Remember, most genealogists are excited to share their toys, so even if you don’t want to contribute to the tree, you might find profiles for your ancestors that include sources you don’t yet have!

Keep in mind this is not a place where you will find sources. Sources are cited in ancestor profiles, but this is not a service like Ancestry. This is an online family tree with a lot of fun community extras and teamwork.

Joining WikiTree

I recommend starting out as a Guest or Family Member to get a feel for the site. Not going to lie here, folks, the interface is complicated and outdated. I’m not sure what kind of coding or platform it’s been built with, or if it leaves room for change/updating for ease of use in the future. But that seems to be the main complaint for most people, that navigating it is difficult.

There is a learning curve and this is why I recommend taking it slowly, one step at a time. It’s a lot like comparing Gedmatch to Ancestry for DNA. Gedmatch offers some really cool tools, but they were developed by a developer, which means the rest of us mere mortals are going to have some learning to do. 😉

It doesn’t help that Ancestry is visually attractive and easy to navigate. We’ve become accustomed to sites that are streamlined and deliver the information or results we want right meow! However, please don’t let WikiTree’s interface put you off of exploring it further, because this site has so much to offer.

WikiTree Genealogist Honor Code

WikiTree users sign the Genealogist Honor Code, and this is a commitment to accuracy, courtesy, and assuming – as well as acting with – the best intentions of everyone. This doesn’t mean every profile will be perfect. Some people join WikiTree, upload a huge GEDCOM, and then never return. However, you are also going to find amazingly-written biographies and well-sourced profiles that are maintained by active profile managers who care about the information presented.

If you do a Google search for your ancestors and find them on WikiTree, please stop and take a good look at the profiles. If they’re among the phenomenal ones you can find on the site, congratulations! If, however, they appear abandoned – maybe even orphaned – then maybe you could consider adopting them and helping them meet their full potential.

For example, I have no direct connection with any of the Culper Ring spies, but I’ve been fascinated by them ever since watching the TV show Turn. So what did I do when I came across some orphaned, unconnected, and unsourced profiles that might have been connected to one of these famous spies? I adopted them, improved the biographies, added sources, found out they were indeed related to one of the spies, and made the connection between family members. These folks have living descendants, so maybe someday those descendants will be glad someone took the time to do that.

And that’s the thing about WikiTree – it’s not about me or you. It’s about everyone, how we can work together to create a well-sourced family tree for anyone, from serious genealogist to casual family historian, to enjoy! If this sounds good to you, here are some tips on how to get started. Keep in mind, this is just from my experience.

Creating Profiles vs. GEDCOM Upload

I’m not going to sugarcoat it – the GEDCOM upload is a process, and that means you must then go in and fix every single person you added to conform with WikiTree standards. Yes, this site has standards, and I think that’s one of the things most people find daunting when they first get started.

The work of improving a GEDCOM includes fixing names, dates, locations, biographies, sources, merging potential duplicates, and more. If you upload a GEDCOM of several hundred people, it can take quite some time to fix all of their profiles. And if you are busy with work, school, children, or life in general and can only devote an hour or two a week to it, this can take a while. So I don’t suggest that approach.

If you want to start with a GEDCOM, I recommend limiting it to no more than four or five generations. That’s a more manageable project and you’re also less likely to run into duplicate profiles that you’ll need to merge. WikiTree is meant to be one family tree, not multiple trees.

I highly recommend creating profiles one at a time, instead, starting by creating profiles for yourself, your parents, and your grandparents. Why? Because that information is private and/or limited. No one else can edit them, except you. That’s a great way to hone your biography writing and sourcing skills. Keeping it within only a couple of generations of yourself to start is also great because it keeps other people from editing the information you’ve uploaded or added, which can be frustrating for a newbie until they get to know the site, the standards, and the community.

Once you get comfortable with the interface, work your way back by adding your great-grandparents. Beyond that, the privacy options are much more open and other members can edit your information freely. Again, if you are fiercely protective of your family tree, WikiTree is not the place for you.

Take the time to learn about WikiTree’s formatting, the Find A Grave template, and tags. Those are the basics that will ensure you have easy to read profiles and well-organized sources. Don’t worry too much about Categories and Stickers just yet. If you cannot find any sources to add to your profiles, please know that they may be tagged with the “Unsourced” designation. I prefer to add the Unsourced tag myself, with an explanation of why sources haven’t been located yet, and where I’ve already looked.

There are many help pages on WikiTree that cover a lot of ground. Maybe a little too much! That’s why I suggest taking it person by person in creating profiles and familiarizing yourself with how things are done on the site. A slow and steady start will save you from the unnecessary frustration that comes from people who try to do you and WikiTree a favor by adding information to your profiles – which is done in the spirit of helping improve the tree, not to upset you. As I said, you’ll connect with some really wonderful people who care about the WikiTree mission, but if you feel possessive about maintaining a family tree, then you are better off keeping it elsewhere.

P.S. I never, ever advocate keeping your tree online only. I keep mine in Legacy and Rootsmagic, and back my files up regularly. The reason I have it on Ancestry and MyHeritage is to link to my DNA results. The reason I have it on WikiTree is for the collaborative community aspect of the site.

WikiTree Tips

Profiles on WikiTree and the sources added should be easily accessible to all users, or at least detailed enough for you to find the original source yourself. By this I mean try to add freely-viewable sources. FamilySearch is, of course, the go-to site for this, as well as Find A Grave, the National Archives for certain records, and Archive.org for published genealogies, directories, town reports, books with vital record transcripts, and more.

Some WikiTree users add links to subscription-only sites as sources, which means no one can even see the sources unless they are a paying member of the site. I disagree with this practice, unless it is the only available source. I also disagree with citing family trees as sources, unless it is a published, documented family tree, such as the ones you find in the Mayflower Silver Books.

You can also earn badges on WikiTree, which can be a lot of fun. I’m a goal-driven video gamer, so the badges appeal to me in the sense that they almost gamify the experience. However, the real goal should be to make the family tree be the most accurate it can be. The badges are a fun incentive, but this is not a numbers game. This is about being rewarded for the time and energy you contribute to something that can benefit everyone.

I also recommend approaching your fellow WikiTreers in a friendly manner. Some people leave a blunt message on merge requests that simply say “Clear duplicate.” There’s nothing wrong with that, but I prefer leaving an enthusiastic and friendly message that says, “Hi there! I see we both manage profiles for John Smith who was born in 1795 and died in 1832, and who married Mary Johnson. They were my 4th great-grandparents. It looks like these profiles are duplicates and I’ve added several sources. If we could get these merged per WikiTree guidelines, that would be fantastic!”

Sure, that’s much less efficient than “Clear duplicate,” but I feel like it’s an invitation to connect with a possible cousin and fellow community member. And that’s another point of having a collaborative tree, to connect with others who are as excited about genealogy as you.

Here is another personal preference: When I do find errors in a profile or an unsourced profile, I prefer not to edit it directly. Instead, I like to communicate with the profile manager and say, “Hi there, I found *this source* that might be of interest for *ancestor name*. I hope this is useful to you in enhancing their profile!” If that profile manager hasn’t checked in for a while or doesn’t respond in a couple of weeks, then I will correct the errors or add the source. That goes hand in hand with assuming everyone has the best intentions. We should also act with those good intentions.

If you decide to give WikiTree a try, take it slow, maybe get involved with one of the various teams, and don’t be afraid to communicate! Many of the folks there are friendly and committed to improving the quality of the profiles found on the site. Who knows – you might even meet a cousin or make some new friends!

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