Gene Notes

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

Monday, October 9, 2017

It Was a Hard Life

Have you ever wondered what killed our ancestors? Especially those in the female lines. Today, I think I discovered what killed my great-great-great grandmother, Ann Maria Carter nee Paul. She married Edwin Harvey Carter in 1831. The 1840 census shows a woman between the age of 20 and 30. The 1830 census gives her age as 32. I don't think that's likely, but her headstone, only part of which is readable gives her age as 45, but the year of death is obstructed.

Through the census and other records I had eight children: Elizabeth the eldest and my g-g-grandmother, Virginia, Harvey, Marion, Columbia, Edwin, William and John Leonard.

Today, I discovered the find-a-grave monument for her and her five infants: Sarah Bell, Leslie, Alice Grey, Thomas Stephen and Warren Dean.

That's 13 children if you lost count. Ann Carter was deceased by the 1860 census, and her husband was remarried to Sallie Smith Burbridge who had a few children of her own and two more by Edwin Carter. By 1867, Edwin was on his third wife, Sallie Scruggs.

It's clear that childbearing in the mid 1800s was often a dangerous event. Losing five infants must have been devastating. While it would be nice to know for sure, that will never happen. None of the family has left a written record of their times.



Copyright 2010-2017, ACK for Gene Notes

Monday, October 2, 2017

A Milestone of Sorts

Ten years ago today, movers came to our house in Livonia and packed up all our stuff, then proceeded to Assisted Living Facility hubby's dad lived in and packed him up. He had already moved about 10 days prior. Back at the house, I waited and waited and waited and waited in an empty house for the cleaners to come. I waited more than two hours for them to show up only to find out they had been shopping. Royally pissed was I. Hubby finally showed back up and we began the runs to the city dump to dispose of what we didn't want to take. Realtor for new owners came by and picked up the keys and told us to leave the rest, they would put it out and call for a pickup. Win.

Then it was time to meet younger daughter who was remaining in Michigan for dinner and to say goodbyes. I didn't mind leaving Michigan, or the house we had just moved from, but leaving our daughter was the hardest thing. When we could no longer wait, we had to get on the road and start the journey to Tennessee. That first day, we only got as far as Wapakoneta, Ohio before I gave out. It had been a long weekend and start to the week. The next morning we loaded up our overnight bags into our separate cars and finished the trip, ending up in Cookeville, Tennessee.

Since our move, younger daughter too, joined us in Tennessee. Older daughter moved to Cookeville just before we did to establish residency in order to get in-state tuition at Tennessee Tech to finish her degree.

No regrets.

Copyright 2010-2017, ACK for Gene Notes

What to Do?

I have three working databases in Rootsmagic. One is my normal database, no exclusions, but also I have not entered the information from a NPE. That is short for Non-Paternal Event, or a child produced by an affair.  This is the database that I have built up since starting my genealogical journey 30 years ago. Just the fact that this database has managed to stay healthy is beyond belief.

The second database is the NPE, and includes the child, his wife and kids, his mother and his biological father. It also includes information that I've been able to verify on the biological father's siblings, parents, grandparents, great grandparents and some of the great-great grandparents.

The third database is a conglomeration of the first database and the second database. In this database I can experiment with linking and unlinking the step-father and the effects that has on the rest of the database.

As I've already explained in prior posts, DNA really threw a wrench in the database. I don't like working in more than one database because I don't want to miss something in a transfer. So for now, I am taking a step back to figure out how I am going to deal with it.

In the meantime, I am continuing to collect evidence, organize it and determine how it goes into one of the above databases.

Copyright 2010-2017, ACK for Gene Notes