Elza Shepard

Elza Shepard celebrated his 93rd birthday with big fanfare surrounded by friends and family. There was even a write up in the local paper about it.

The only problem is Elza was never 93 years old. He was born anywhere from 1845-1847 according to census records from 1860-1930. The most accurate census would be the 1860 one where his is living with his parents Hartley and Susannah Shepard and he is 13 years old. Most of the census records agree with the 1846-1847 time period.

His death record indicates he was born in 1841. Death records are notorious for having this kind of information wrong, especially the early ones where birth records don’t exist. I can say with great confidence that it is incorrect. Elza probably forgot when he was born and over time the date changed and was mis-remembered.

So in actual fact when Elza died he was no more than 88 years old. A great age to celebrate anyway.

I have done a bit of volunteering over the years, some I have quite enjoyed, some has been a bit of a chore, but all of it was a result of my girl scout years and my mother’s influence. I guess some of it stuck.

As a genealogist I have had many instances where someone who lives in another state has helped me find some wonderful genealogical record, or had photos that I had never seen, or volunteered to check out a cemetery for me to see if one of our ancestors was buried there. These are all acts of wonderful kindness. I have tried to reciprocate when I can, because I do believe in paying it forward.

There has been a lot of talk lately of several genealogical sites that have started big digital indexing projects and are looking for volunteers to help with the massive indexing that needs to be done, all from the convenience of your home. I was intrigued, but put it off for a while as I was a bit busy, but this last month I decided to dig a bit deeper.

At work we are currently assisting the Holocaust Museum in indexing it’s millions of records of victims for the general public, this is through Ancestry.com

I decided to try my hand at indexing for the Family History Library. So I downloaded the software and dug right in. I have found that it can become quite addicting. But, I am really enjoying the process and they make it pretty easy to do. There is also the satisfaction of knowing that many people will find these indexes of immense value in their own research.

Back to work — jen

Well here it is, or close, September 24th, the day that I head out to Salt Lake City, Utah again to do some intense genealogical research.

The main focus of my trip this time is the SHEPARD line, and in preparation I have been boning up on the details of all the related lines these past few weeks. I am pretty sure that I am ready. Now I am just keeping my fingers crossed that I find something of genealogical value.

This trip Mary and I have decided that we will take a day off and do a little site seeing…”Here’s the big brown mountain, there’s the big brown hill, and over there is the big brown desert., and wait for it, look it’s the big salty lake.” Can’t wait.

But the weather will be 80s and sunny! I will keep folks updated on my progress as the week goes by. Later.

p.s. boy is my iPad going to get a work out next week!

You wouldn’t know it by my lack of blog posts, but I have actually been busy with the genealogy. Just not a whole heck of a lot that merits actual written words is happening. Little bits of flotsam and jetsam being gathered.

My trip to Salt Lake City is coming up in 3 1/2 months,  so I have a little time. But I am always preparing, a little bit at a time, making lists of film and books to look at when I get there.

About the most interesting thing that has happened, is I decided to upgraded my DNA test at FamilyTreeDNA. They now have what they call a ‘Family Finder’ test and it was on sale. The test finds cousins in their data base. And because it uses a different type of marker system, it doesn’t matter if you are male or female, it will find relations. So I decided to do it. My results came back a week or so ago and it lists all my matches. Most are of the 4th and 5th cousin variety, but there were one or two 2nd and 3rd cousins. I still am in the process of contacting them to compare notes. That might take a while.

Another interesting result of the test is it gives your general DNA background regarding ethnicity, mine indicates 100% European. Not a speck of American Indian, so that quells any further rumors in that regard.

Right now we are trying to keep cool – 90s and humid.

Later folks. jen

Saturday I am heading down to Madison to start some of my major Shepard research. Our genealogical society has a bus trip every year that makes it a non-stress, sit back and relax experience. Until you get to the Wisconsin Historical Society that is, then it is non-stop research mode.

My goal on this trip is to get out of the way the history books and similar material that relates to Washington and Morgan Counties in Ohio and Hampden County in Massachusetts. That will help clear off the shelf for the government records that I can then focus on in Salt Lake City later this year. Although it looks like there may be a trip to Massachusetts and Ohio in the works sometime.

I will also be going through the Agricultural and Manufacturing censuses for Wisconsin as I don’t have the complete set for all our John ancestors.

I am looking forward to the trip and maybe lunch with my niece.

Later,
jen

I have only managed to get in to work one Monday this month due to the weather. This Monday was no exception. But I have to say it was a productive snow day.

As I have been pretty much in full time genealogy mode these past two months a lot of my free time has been spent doing something related to research: organizing, contemplating, clearing out. Yesterday I was going through some Buchanan material which my lovely, sometime assistant, Larisa, sent me from the clan meet she went to last year. After reading the general material over, I started looking through the Buchanan records I had and where the research stood regarding them. In the process I realized that while we have a bit of information on the Buchanans, William Buchanan’s wife, Margaret Mobely, was a mystery. So I rolled up my sleeves and went to work.

I knew Margaret’s birth name because it was listed on her daughter Jane Buchanan Shepard’s death registration. So my first thought was to find an actual death registration for Margaret. She was entered in my records as having died in 1881, but the information wasn’t sourced properly.

My first stop was the Virginia State Archives online death index. I found an entry for a Marg Buckhannon, died February 13, 1883 of consumption, the parents were listed as William and Sarah Mabley. Hmmmm, that seemed to be a mighty nice coincidence to me, Mabley/Mobley. Especially since Margaret and William Buchanan named one of their daughters Sarah. The other interesting bit from this record tells me that Margaret was born about 1832 and not 1810 as I had found somewhere in the past. Underneath her listing in the online death registration book is, probably, her husband William Buckhannon who died in 1891 at 65, Margaret died at 51. Neither of these records match the improperly sourced bit I had in my records. (The first rule for all beginning genealogists – SOURCE EVERYTHING! and source is properly.)

So I have probably found Margaret’s death record, which changes the dates in my records, and adds a possible parentage. All of these records were found in Jackson County, West Virginia, not Wood County, where my previous searches has been. Which makes sense too as the 1880 census had them living in Jackson County. Something I missed when trying to find the vital records years earlier.

The next step was to try and find Margaret’s parents in the census records. It is possible that I have, but I do not know for sure. As Margaret was married by 1850, she would not be found in any censuses with her parents as anything but a number (individuals were not listed on census records until 1850, previous censuses only listed the head of household’s name). The census records I found for her possible parents were all in Marshall County, Virginia with another early record in Belmont County, Ohio. It looks like I have another couple counties to add to my research list for my trip to SLC.

All-in-all a satisfactory day. Of course this was all a carefully devised diversion, just so I wouldn’t have to shovel the 12″+ of snow that was coming down. (Shhh don’t tell hubby.)

While doing searches for the Shepards has been fun, I am afraid I got bored. After all, only so much can be found, then you are merely ‘rinse and repeating’. On occasion, for giggles, I type in a random surname from our family tree, just to see what pops up. This time it was HATCH.

Something popped up. (Now others might have known about this, but I don’t recall seeing it before.)

Just to refresh, Dillon Hatch ran a furniture factory in Ohio. We have seen pictures of the place and there is even a bit of the factory’s work sitting in some of the descendants homes. Dillon also designed furniture and he even submitted patent applications to that effect, one of which I found in my random search. So I just thought I would share.

I heard from Wayne yesterday. FamilyTree DNA has received his kit and we are to expect results sometime in the middle of January. I was hoping that we would have results around the holidays, but I guess that is what is causing the later results date, the holidays. So until then we sit back and wait.

Meanwhile I plan on doing some filing and cleaning up in my office in time for the new year and to get my new “Things to do Genealogy-Wise” list for 2011 ready. I believe it is time to start scanning the Shepard and Shaw documents – at this rate I will be in need of another scanner soon. The poor things keep getting put through their paces.

Have a great Thanksgiving folks. We plan to.

My first SHEPARD letter has not elicited a response, so I have given up on him. But the gentleman I found in Texas, Wayne SHEPARD, was kind enough to respond to me via email and we have had some very pleasant ‘conversations’. The crux of which means he has agreed to help me out by donating his DNA to the SHEPARD project. YAYYY! As he is quite content with his documented data regarding his line he didn’t feel a need to resort to DNA, but I convinced him that by doing so he will be helping out others like us who don’t have the luxury of those same types of documents.

So in a nutshell, when all the testing is done we will know whether or not Bill/Grandpa and Dr. John are descendants of William of Massachusetts.

If they are not, then the next connection to pursue is Phineas SHEPARD and Nancy WELLISON. Phineas is said to be from New Jersey and is also said to have had a son named Elza, a very interesting coincidence.

I will cross that bridge when I get to it.

Later, jen

‘Tis the time of year that things start slowing down, getting ready for the frigid and dreary winter. That includes me. It has been a few weeks since I touched my genealogy, being busy with life, etc.

But, I have been through my first batch of newspaper film for Parkersburg, West Virginia. And…have nothing of interest to report. Unfortunately this particular paper, at the time (1865-’66), reported very little news of interest regarding it’s citizens. It’s focus was mostly political. Which in and of itself can be very interesting, but doesn’t help much in my research focus.

One item that kept popping up in the paper over the year of coverage that I was skimming through, was the issue of drainage and sewage in the town. Apparently the local paper was finding it incomprehensible that the town wouldn’t clean up the stinky mess of sewage that kept appearing in certain sections of town, yet areas where the well-to-do resided were kept spic ‘n span.

I also have been double checking the Hamburg passengers lists regarding our three families on the JOHN side that came over in the 1800s.

1. JOHN, F.W and Henrietta – arrival 1852, indicates Alt Raden as ‘from’
2. JAHN, Cl. Aug – arrival 1855, indicates Freienwalde, Oberbarnim as ‘from’
3. ISSERSTEDT, F. W. and family – arrival 1855, indicates Wandersleben as ‘from’

Now ‘from’ can mean where they last resided or where they were born, it is not clear. But at least it is a good indicator of where one can continue research in Germany and Poland (in F.W.’s case).

Well that is it for now. Tomorrow I plan on being at the Neenah Country Fair promoting our genealogical society. Talk to ‘ya later.