Gene Notes

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

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Wedding Wednesday - McHatton & Nichols

 On  February 29, 1876, James Zack McHatton married Phebe Nichols in Lafayette County, Missouri. I have a few McHatton families connected to various branches of my dad's family - this one is connected through the Graves family.



Copyright 2010-2012, ACK for Gene Notes

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Census Revisited

Um, yes. That census project I thought was finished? Well, thanks to finding the Carter family I've been chasing, I've added 30 or 40 more to the queue. When I get to the final few, I go back and like a badger, go after the ones I've missed. Or couldn't find. Lately, that has been paying off. So I am almost done with it. Again.

I really would love to move on to other things.

Copyright 2010-2012, ACK for Gene Notes

Monday, February 27, 2012

No Rest for the Weary

Remember the close to 649 census records I added to my database over the last 6 weeks? Well, the number is getting closer to 700 with the breakthrough I had recently on my Carter line. This family was a real challenge. Someone was always misspelled. You would think that Carter would be relatively straightforward. Well the name was INDEXED variously as Carter, Couter and Coster. Edwin H Carter was often written as Edward and variously as E. H. It wasn't bad enough that he was named Edwin Harvey Carter, but he had sons named Harvey and Edwin. His daughter Marion is nowhere to be found on the 1900 census and she should be there as Marion Alexander.

Then there is Virginia Carter. Born in 1836, she was two years younger than my great-great grandmother Elizabeth C. Carter Webb. She married William H or William B. Huntsberry (and shame to all the people who copied the wrong information from an Ancestry Family Tree. After her first husband died, she married secondly, George W. Chinn. More on that in a future blog post.

Columbia Carter married John Vaughn. Or Vanph or Vaughan. You can see it is enough to make you pull your hair out.

Some of the problems I encountered are the result of the census taker. The rest are the results of poor indexing or the inability to read the last name correctly. The pressure to get all this done before April 2nd when the 1940 is released is unbelievable. Who is pressuring me? Me, of course. And Family Search, because they need help indexing the 1940 and keeping it free for everyone.

Copyright 2010-2012, ACK for Gene Notes