Gene Notes

Some random and some not-so-random thoughts on family history.

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Ancestry DNA

After the first few weeks after receiving our DNA results, the "glow" has worn off a bit. Mostly because of my hubby. You see, he has only shared ancestor hints - our daughters.

Me, on the other hand, I have 65. And then I saw something different on the page. I have a new potential relative that I've never heard of. John Cyrus Schoonover. As I look at the information, and click on the list. And it shows me I have a DNA match to two members of the circle. Clicking on that, I find Huber. Not sure if it connects to my Huber or not.  Very interesting. Their Huber goes back to 1750 and a birth. Mine is my 5th great grandmother, who married Jean Theobold Zimmeth. She died in 1750.

Oh well, back to working on the piles.

Copyright 2010-2016, ACK for Gene Notes

Monday, February 22, 2016

Another Branch of the Zimmeth Family.

I was trolling for information online earlier.  I noticed that Ancestry.com had some Iowa deaths online (index only) and thought I would check for surnames. I always find something. After all, it is kind of naive to think that only my great-great grandfather and his children came to America, right?

Then for some reason, I put the surname "Zimmeth" in the search box. I came up with a Louis/Lewis Zimmeht in Kansas. This person was born in 1835 in France according to the 1895 Kansas State Census. A quick check of Find-a-grave revealed a headstone with his birthdate, April 19, 1835. B-i-n-g-o!

Next stop was Ancestry.com family trees. No one has his parents. But, one researcher has gotten as close to Strasbourg. It was the Strasbourg Arrondisement, but the parish where they lived was Roeschwoog. Hot Diggity!

So now, I add another spelling for this family. Ziemet/Zimet/Zimmeth/Zimmet/Zimmeht/Simmet.

That doesn't even take into consideration that I found him in Kansas on the 1900 census as Louis Jarnet.Or 1880 in New York as Louis Zeminhut. And Simet in 1870.

A week or so ago when I was contemplating whether I would renew my Fold3 account (I did) I rationalized the renewal by the availability of Civil War Records. I'm really glad I did because I found this gem. He became the one and only Zimmeth/Simmet/Zimmeht to serve during the civil war.



Copyright 2010-2016, ACK for Gene Notes

Saturday, February 20, 2016

One Down ....

One of my goals for 2016 was to finally fill all the blanks in the photo frame that hangs in my back hallway. All the spaces were blank. Well, not exactly blank. There were fake photos in there. Which was good, because I knew where to place the ones I chose and finally printed out and put in the frame. I had to lean it against the door to the garage to get a picture of the whole thing.

Some of the photos  had to be re-oriented to fit in the allotted spaces, and weren't really suited to that, so I worked a little magic with My Memories Suite v 7. I am very happy with the results. And. It's. Done.





















Copyright 2010-2016, ACK for Gene Notes

Wednesday, February 17, 2016

The Birthday Post!

Really, I should have posted this earlier BEFORE DH and I went to the winery, but here it goes.

I was born 28+ years ago in Detroit, Michigan. To future genealogists, the age is a lie. To those who know me, the age is a joke! Also, its a hint of where to look for more info since I now live in Tennessee.

My Older Daughter wrote a very nice post about me last night, that you can read here. I read it very early this morning (around 2 am) in bed trying not to laugh out loud and wake the hubby.  Instead, I held it in and just shook with laughter. You see, she gets me. My younger daughter also gets me and if you are a FB friend, you likely saw her post, too. They obviously inherited my sense of humor, and possibly my love of putting words on paper or computer screen.



It's wonderful when you can look at a child and say, they have grandma's nose, daddy's mouth and mommy's sense of humor!

The picture of me was when I was four. It was not my birthday, but a trip to the Detroit zoo with the neighbors. I was in a dress. That's what little girls wore. Obviously, I did not have the "sit like a lady" thing down yet.

Copyright 2010-2016, ACK for Gene Notes

Saturday, February 13, 2016

Thanks, BUT Can't You Index Correctly?

I really appreciate people who transcribe records. I just don't understand how someone can look at a name like KEENE and transcribe it as KENNE. Or KIRTLEY as KIRKLEY. The names were very easy to read. Grr.

Sorry for the rant.

Copyright 2010-2016, ACK for Gene Notes

Friday, February 12, 2016

What's that name again?

Ever go looking for information on someone and not find anything beyond the last census you found her on (1900) with her family? No marriage record, no death record, nothing.


Then I realized I had never pulled census subsequent to 1900. Duh. 


You can see that I've indicated on both census records which child I am referring to. In 1900 she is listed as Laura B. Demoss. Which may have indeed been her name. But in 1910 she is Lala B. Demoss.

Then I went looking again for a marriage record. First, you'll notice that the 1900 and 1910 census were in Grand Pass Twp, Saline county, Missouri and Mayview, Lafayette county, Missouri. They're about 40 miles apart in today's miles.

I did find a marriage record for a Lolla Belle Demoss who married an Ernest Powell. They married in Boone county, Missouri in 1913.  Now Columbia, Missouri in Boone county is 87 miles from Mayview. This was 1913. I'm not sure why either one was in Columbia, even though it is the home of University of Missouri. Ernest was, after all, a farmer. But, they are both listed as residents of Odessa, Lafayette County, Missouri! They lived in Washington Township in 1920 - with his parents - and in 1930 on their own with their own children.

Being the persistent researcher that I am I kept looking. I eventually traced them to Colorado in 1940. They were buried in Cortez, Colorado in 1966 (Ernest) and 1973 (Lollabelle.)

Copyright 2010-2016, ACK for Gene Notes

Thursday, February 11, 2016

Disappointing Death Notices!

Some other trolling I did was an actual search for an obituary or death notice for Katherine Webb Demoss, who died in Missouri in 1969 at the age of 102. I did find it, but they listed her as Elizabeth Katherine Demoss. Since she was known as Katie and all other info I have on her is Katherine E., I think it was an error.  Sadly, living to 102 wasn't special enough, and nothing of her family is mentioned. She did have at least one daughter still living in Missouri (who died in 1979) and one living in Colorado. I couldn't even find a mention of a 100th birthday celebration when I searched 1967.



Copyright 2010-2016, ACK for Gene Notes

Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Can't Tell the Players Without a Scorecard?

I admit I was trolling for records the other day. Mostly, I was looking for Manville Joseph Chinn who died in Alabama in 1956. I found him finally, after locating a marriage record to his second wife.

Then I got curious about how he was related to me. Eight ways, through the Webbs, Chinns, Graves (4 different ways) Kirtleys and Bufords. The Chinn and Graves line cross as do the Chinn and Webb lines, as well as the Webb and Graves lines.

His first wife, Lucile DeNevers Carter, is related to me in two different ways. Obviously through the Carters and then through the Vivians.

But then, Manville is also related through the Carters (his grandmother was a Carter) and the Vivians who married into the Webb line and the Carter line. So you see, both have separate connections to me and then to each other.  So their children, Mildred and Lester are not only siblings, but third cousins once removed, fifth cousins, fifth cousins once removed, sixth cousins and seventh cousins once removed. Holy cow!

Copyright 2010-2016, ACK for Gene Notes

Thursday, February 4, 2016

Ready, Set, All Stop!

Just when I think I've got everything organized for a new project and I'm all set to go, reality sets in. In this instance, the weather here in mid-Tennessee. Freezing weather gave way to milder weather which in turn turned into rain then snow. Then cold. Then thaw, then snow, then thaw. This led to massive sinus problems on my end. So much so that I sat the last few days with blinds drawn and begging hubby to turn off lights. My sinuses are very light sensitive and bright lights lead to intense fits of sneezing.

Finally, on day four, I'm able to spend a little time (still with blinds drawn) with lights on and in front of the computer.

This project is one several years in the making. I was gifted with a large photo collage frame with openings for 21 photos. The photos in there? The ones that came in it. When people ask who those people are, I just laugh. Now, I am just inspired to print the photos and put them in. I'll let you know how it comes out!

Copyright 2010-2016, ACK for Gene Notes

Tuesday, February 2, 2016

What About Us?

I've been working on census, birth, marriages and deaths for so long that I've neglected something really important. And it goes back to February of 2014. Well, earlier than that, but 2014 was when I was sidetracked.

On February 16th of that year, I was going in our back yard to do some spa maintenance when I missed a step and broke my ankle. Actually it was an avulsion fracture and pretty nasty as the soft tissue goes. It kept me out of my office for at least two months and longer since I found it difficult to sit without my ankle swelling for quite a while.

Previous to the break, I had started saving current pictures so that I could add them to my database. I just couldn't while I was taking pain meds. Then they got pushed aside for other things.

This weekend I opened my database and realized I hadn't added any family photos since the end of 2012. OMG. I found a good routine of copying them to a holding file, renaming and dating them and then adding to the database. A little slow, but I made it through May of 2013.

Sure, I still have death certificates, census, marriage records, birth records to add, but I am working on my immediate family and that feels good. And its really good to get to dating those photos and identifying while I remember the occasion, the date and the subjects!

Copyright 2010-2016, ACK for Gene Notes

Monday, February 1, 2016

The Trouble with Databases ...

Back on December 19th, I did it. I made the move BACK to RootsMagic. Let's just say it wasn't all smooth sailing. When looking over  some people in my database, I noted that a few census sources were missing. How did I know? Well, the census image was there, but no source. So I ran a list of people with missing census sources. I made a fact list for the census and then ran a tag for people who had a census fact but were missing the source. I'm sorry to say it was 48 pages long.

Now, 98% of these were shared census facts. In other words, if a person were married and/or had children who appeared with them on a certain census, I could share them among the family members. I really like this feature but, it did cause a headache. And not only did it print out census that was missing the sources, but mostly every census each person appeared on whether the source was missing or not. I spent two weeks after New Year's straightening that mess out.

When I uploaded my database onto dropbox to enable use in the RootsMagic app on my android devices, I discovered another issue. RootsMagic wasn't building the thumbnails for my multimedia items. I knew this would be a huge issue since I have over 16,000 images linked.

I worked with RootsMagic support over this, and Renee Zamora helped me figure out how to find the culprit(s). There were five of  them, and that has been straightened out. Whew!

One of these days I'll actually get to do data entry and research again!

Copyright 2010-2016, ACK for Gene Notes