A Reflective Essay about Family and Why Genealogy

I am one of those people who believes we are all genetically born with certain behavioral predispositions and predilections.  I still believe in free will!  I don't believe these born-with desires determine our choice and behaviors, they just influence them.

I was born with a profound appreciation and affection for family.  It is in my blood.  It is in my soul.  I have always loved visiting relatives, and this was noticeable even when I was very young, I couldn't wait to visit family, and didn't want to leave after visiting.  I was happy.  Everyone one else seemed happy.  The adults seemed happy.  The kids seemed happy.  I felt loved.

When I was little we were blessed to have my mom's parents and two sisters and their families living within driving distance of our home in northern California.  But since my Dad was a Nebraska transplant the bulk of his relatives were back in Nebraska.  He grew up in a family of nine kids and seven close cousins, and each of them having families of their own. So in the summer of 1968 we packed up the old blue Ford station wagon and drove the short 1677 miles from Fremont, California to Dix, Nebraska for a Walker family reunion.  I was in heaven, pure heaven.  There must have been forty of us, everyone was smiling, and laughing, and having a great time!

Late that evening, as my eyelids grew heavy, my Dad's cousin Bob Wistrom scooped me up into his arms and carried me to the car.  I started to cry.  Bob said "What's the matter?"  I said "I don't want to leave!"  Bob's eyes welled with tears and he dried the tears on my cheek with the back of his hand.  And we drove the long, long 2000 miles home.

This experience had a huge effect on me.  The value of family grew even more in my heart and never wavered.  But as time passed, things happened, things change, as they always do.  My Dad started with two brothers in California, but one passed, and the other moved to Arizona.  My Mom's family started out close, but they too began to spread out, chasing their own dreams, and their own predilections.  Even my parents and brother moved, and then, after growing up and marrying, so did I.  This was my curse -- no family close, anywhere.

But it did not stop.  Soon my grandparents' generation passed on.  Then my parents.  I had two kids, and then as is normal, they got married and had kids and moved.  And now I am the grandparent, and my curse continues.  I only see my immediate family once or twice a year.  And my extended family?  Well, we talk on Facebook.  That is about the extent of it.

"Kevin, why do you do genealogy?"  This is why -- to defeat my curse.  To fill my familial love tank.  I feel love for, and dare I say, even love from every ancestor I find.  I knew none of our ancestors' names, none of my family did.   My contemporary relatives were all getting the love they needed from each other, there was no pragmatic rationale to look back at their roots, beyond curiosity.

But I am different.  I am uncovering our ghosts, waking them up and giving them new life.  Finding their images, cleaning them off.  Telling their histories, both good and bad.  I can feel their familial love filling up my tank, as their names and stories, that were covered in decades and centuries of darkness, get to see the light of day.

My predisposition and predilection for family drives me to fight off a curse of familial loneliness.  I am selfish that way.  But I can sense the smiles of my long dead relatives, as they are remembered for whatever reason.


Copyright © 2020 by Kevin W. Walker

Story of a Family Secret that was Part Myth

Grade school souvenir, teacher Mattie Mae Needham pictured. 

So one of our family secrets has been handed down this way.  "Your grandmother Mattie was a teacher and married.  She fell in love with one of her students who was your grandfather Keith, got pregnant by him, had to divorce her first husband and marry your grandfather.  But they were in love, had five more children, and were happily married until death."  Well it turns out while being factually true, it isn't as salacious as it sounds.

In 1904 my grandmother Mattie was an unmarried twenty-year old, teaching my ten-year old grandfather Keith.

She married her first husband in 1906.  She got pregnant by my grandfather in 1917, when my grandfather was an adult of twenty-three years.  Not when she was his grade school teacher and he was her student.

So yes, a teacher did have an affair with one of her students, got pregnant and married him.  But long after he graduated from grade school.


Copyright © 2016 by Kevin W. Walker

1/15/1910 "A Date That Will Live in Infamy"... for this genealogist

Custer County (NE) courthouse fire.

There goes all my third and fourth generation paternal vital records up in smoke.

But hey, at least I got a picture!


Copyright © 2016 by Kevin W. Walker

The "Responsibilities" of the Family Historian... Or Not... Or Maybe

I apologize in advance to my readers.  I usually form my thoughts clearly in advance, what I want to say and how I want to say it, before I sit down at my computer.  But this subject is so emotionally driven and heartfelt, I am not sure my mind is capable enough to separate it out into a rational syllogism.  So I am afraid this will be a bit stream of consciousness.

We are all aware that the ethical and responsible genealogist and family historian has any number of "responsibilities."  My gosh, the list seems endless -- cite your sources, use a proof standard, backup your data, stay organized, protect originals, preserve keepsakes, etc.  In the field there is a separate list -- tread lightly, be friendly and polite, ask for permission, treat gravemarkers respectfully, handle records carefully, etc.  But I want to move onto a third category of "responsibility," not even sure it is a responsibility, or whose responsibility it is?

I remember many years ago, the first time I found out an ancestor did not have a gravemarker.  It was a great-aunt I never knew.  My heart sank for her and I wondered what if anything I could do about it?  Was it my "responsibility?"  I think I am the only one that cares.

I found a cousin researching the same Dutton line as mine.  Where my branch went to central Illinois, his branch went to southern Illinois.  I noticed his are all buried in the same family graveyard.  Unkempt.  Weeds are overtaking it, stones have fallen over, and as the trees take over, I suspect in ten years it will be gone.  He feels helpless to do anything.  What would I do if they were my ancestors?  Would I do anything?

Over the last two decades I have discovered any number of broken stones and missing markers, not just for indirect relatives, but also for direct ancestors.  I have yet to lift a finger.

As regular readers here know I have embraced two causes.  First is the case of my aunt Dorothy whose ashes were abandoned by her husband in an apartment, and returned to the crematorium by the police, where they have sat now unwanted for almost seventy years. I am in the process of securing them and having them interred with her parents, my grandparents.  Second is the case of my 2xg-grandfather Henry Walker, Sr. who died in the Civil War and is buried in a National Cemetery under a marker that reads "Unknown."  Using government documents I have identified his grave, and I am working with my congressman to get that fixed.  But that is where my activism ends so far.  "Activism?"  Or is it "responsibility?"

There are practical considerations.  One of the broken stones of a direct ancestor is my 3xg-grandfather, and on the other side of the family tree is a 3xg-grandmother in a cemetery that is unkempt and about to be swallowed up by urban sprawl.  No offense to my 3xg-grands, but I have thirty-two of you!  Where do I begin?

Now if my family was large enough I could form a family association where we all contribute a little to make a lot, which could grow and become enough to get some things done with!  But alas, I do not have a large family.  And I am kind of the only one interested in these things, or cares.  Most of my family consider me an oddity.  The only one who feels any "responsibility" to the dead.

All my life I have sought to treat others the way I would want to be treated in the same situation, I am nowhere near perfect, but I try.  And as weird as it sounds, it is also across generations, including the deceased.  "Absurd" you say, "They are dead and gone, they don't care."

But I care.  I feel responsible to do what I can.  And maybe that is the answer.  I am not perfect, and I do not live in a perfect world.  Maybe my "responsibility" is to do what I can.


Copyright © 2016 by Kevin W. Walker

OH MY GOD! Genealogy Gold!!!!!

My stepmom was going through her storage and found a cassette tape of my eighty-three year old grandfather telling our family history, three years before he died!

This was twenty years before I started genealogy.

I am shaking.  I will digitize it immediately and then make a transcript.


Copyright © 2016 by Kevin W. Walker

Dutton Letters, Part 5: Uncle Harvey Dutton Writes Nephew Lyford Kern the Catholic

I love this letter.  Out of all the Dutton letters that Linda has shared with us so far, this is the one I enjoyed the most.  In my introduction to the Dutton letters, I wrote that perhaps the most rewarding experience for a family historian is to learn the presumptions he made about his ancestors based on his research were found in fact true.  This letter was that confirmation for me.  Remember you can click on the pics to enlarge them.

This is Harvey J. Dutton, age 88, writing to his grand-nephew Lyford Kern, age 21, son of Harvey's niece Effie (Ricketts) Kern.  Lyford converted to Catholicism and became an ordained priest.

Zephyrhills, Fla.                                                    Nov. 13, 1924
Dear nephew,
     Dilatory as usual in answering letters.  Perhaps if I had a typewriter the novelty of using one, or rather learning to use one might make letter writing less of a task.  Was very much interested in what you said in letters of Sept. 8 about your visit home, high water from some same.  Snapping sweet corn, helping neighbors threshing, etc. but while you gave yield per acre you omitted to give numbers of acres or price per ton, which would have given me some idea of the profits of  "specialty farming."
     You see, I am very much interested in how your folks are prospering on their new farm. Your mother wrote me that they hoped to make arrangements to meet the unpaid balance (what it was I never knew) without giving a mortgage.  Hope they succeeded for a mortgage is anything but a cheerful companion.  As I have said before, I do not care to discuss Roman Catholicism.  But do not for a moment think that I consider your claims for said church borne out by the facts as recorded in the history of the early churches.   However, the efforts of any organization to correct former bad practices is to be commended.  Referring to your last letters I will say that had I answered before election I might have expressed some anxiety as to the result.  Not that I had any fears that Davis or LaFollette would be elected, but that they might carry enough states to throw the election into congress which I looked upon as almost a calamity, foreseeing the result.  But the people have spoken & in no uncertain terms.
     So you were for Davis.  Isn't that another departure from your early training?  Seems to me all the Kerns were Republicans or Prohibitionists.  I believe George Ricketts was a Democrat.  Well!  Clarence wrote me that he should support the renegade Republican, LaFollette.  Another source of regret to me.  Another case of influence of environment.  Labor unionism.  Well!  He may be proud to be numbered with the tail-enders.  And you, I suppose, are elated with the idea of being counted with the solid south.  Shame on you, George and Clarence too.  But I have one consolation.  The rest of my children are living up to their early training & they are voters too.  Three of them helped to carry Missouri for Coolidge.  I lost my chance to vote by coming away before the election & depending on a friend to send an absentee ballot which he failed to do.  Just received a letter from Bertha, who writes "I suppose the result of the election suited you.  It does us."  Was shocked that Clarence is a Socialist.  She writes further that LaF. "cooked" himself with his course during the war. Clarence writes that he admired LaF's course in congress during the war.  Which of the two, Clarence or Berta, is the better American?
     Must either wind up as put off further writing till another day.  Speaking of your chum Tom Dillon and Roberta, you say you guess you can trust him with her.  Is Roberta really so dangerous?  Liable to lead him astray, corrupt his morals, is she?  From my acquaintance with her I had formed a different opinion.  As I owe her a letter, shall have to warn her.
     Left Sprg. Nov. 15th Arrived here 18th.  Nicely located.  Brought a comrade with me, so I have a roommate.  His first trip south.  Health is good.  Eats fair.
     Should be glad to hear from you whenever convenient.
     Sincerely.
     H.J. Dutton

Clarence (Dutton) was Harvey's son.  Bertha (Dutton) was Harvey's daughter.  George Ricketts was Harvey's brother in law, married to Harvey's sister Laura, and Lyford's grandfather.  Roberta (Kern) was Lyford's sister.

Eighty-eight years old, and a mind as sharp as a whip.  God I love this man --

• Fondly remembering midwest farming, he opens on Lyford not giving him the requisite information to understand everything about how his family is doing on the new farm.  Mean-spirited?  No.  Just an old senior saying "Don't hold back on account of my age, don't discount my mind, son."  Since the next paragraph is about his parents might needing to take out a mortgage, it might also be true he was wanting to know if he needed to help his niece financially.
• His remarks about the Catholic church also seemed to be pointed and sarcastic, but inoffensive. He holds back any overt counter-fire, choosing the subliminal so as to stay true to his own beliefs but not to hurt.
• As repeated over and over, the Duttons are devout Christians (primarily in the Methodist tradition), including strong advocates of the abolition of slavery and the prohibition of liquor, and thus they were conservative Republicans.  This is what Harvey keeps harking back to with comments such as the young generations "early training."
• When Lyford says he supported the Democrat Davis in the '24 presidential election, there is backstory.  The Democratic south was still in part beholden to the KuKluxKlan, and the first party nominee was Alfred Smith, the Governor of New York.  But to the south he was a "Northerner" and he was, gasp, CATHOLIC!  So the Democratic south rejected him in favor of Ambassador John Davis from West Virginia to be the Democratic nominee.  So Harvey is taking the screws to his Catholic nephew "elated to be counted with the solid south."  Hehe.
• But the Republicans too had internal struggles, the progressive brand of Republicans in the tradition of Theodore Roosevelt, enticed Sen.Robert LaFollette of Wisconsin to make a third party run.  This is what worried Harvey, that the Republicans would split their vote and make way for the segregationist Democrat which is what happened in 1912 when a third party run by Teddy Roosevelt opened the door for Democrat Woodrow Wilson.
• Harvey's son Clarence, a tradesman cabinet-maker, was pro-union so supported the progressive LaFollette.  Clarence would say to his father that his "early training" was still true to moral issues, leaving Harvey the only opening of calling Clarence a "socialist."
• Harvey refers to Bertha versus Clarence based on their opinion of La Follette's antiwar stance during World War I (and desire to pay Germany reparations after).  Clearly liberal.  Harvey a conservative, and veteran and hero of the Civil War, clearly sides with Bertha. 
• We continue to see Harvey's wit in the closing paragraph where he deliberately twists his grand-nephew's words about his sister Roberta dating a friend, and threatens to tell Roberta what Lyford didn't say. 

Eighty-eight years old.  Standing up for himself intellectually.  Proud, confident, but inoffensive. Witty.  Tongue in cheek.  Great, great letter.


Copyright © 2015 by Kevin W. Walker

Dutton Letters: An Introduction

I have been procrastinating writing this entry into my blog for over a week now.  Not because it is anything negative!  But because I am at a loss for how I want to craft my words.  My emotions have been crowding out my ability to think logically.

This blog has paid me back time and time again.  Distant cousins googling their ancestors or their surnames or whatever; they find me and write me, then they offer to share (some are only interested in what I can give them, but we won't mention them). Such is the case with "the Dutton letters."

As my regular readers know I am particularly proud of my Dutton ancestors.  After reading my blog I was contacted by a descendent of the Duttons -- Linda, a 3rd cousin once removed.  She said she had a lot to share.  Boy howdy!  She had family artifacts!  Letters, pictures, and more.  All I had to offer her was my research.  She was happy to get it!  She blesses me, and we have become friends, albeit 2200 miles apart.

She sent me the first batch of family letters.  Yes, she sent them to me, via registered mail, the ORIGINALS!  God bless her!  Mostly from the 1920s, one or two as late as the 1940s, eleven in total.  The only original she did not send me was an 1863 Civil War letter from my 3xg-grandmother Nancy Smith Dutton to my 2xg-uncle Harvey Dutton.  She plans on donating that to a museum, so she sent me a photocopy and a transcription.  I will take it!  Thank you!!!

The loss for words has returned.  So have the tears of joy.  Yeah, I am an emotional guy, so what.

Over the next several days I will be posting pictures and transcriptions of all these letters, beginning with the Civil War letter tomorrow, on the occasion of the blogging prompt "Amanuensis Monday." All the letters deal with family relations, which could explain why they were kept by Linda's parents and grandparents.

Understandably, I have read the letters, and two things jumped out at me.  The first is kind of hard to explain.  We as genealogists and family historians talk about the happiness of the finds and the discoveries, especially the difficult ones that we had to work our hardest to get through the figurative "brickwall."  But I think I have discovered something even more rewarding -- the confirmation that what I presumed about these people was correct.  Let me explain.  We all create images in our heads of these people as we research them.  Who they were, what they were like, what they believed, why they made the choices they did, etc.  As long as we don't promote our presumptions as fact, it can actually aid in research.  But then, to actually read in their own handwriting and their own words a confirmation that the presumptions I made about them were correct?  The feeling is indescribable.  Nothing else like it!  "Rewarding" does not say enough.  It fills the researcher with joy.

The second thing that jumped out at me in these letters is these are real people just like us, doing what they need to do and what they want to do.  They work and they relax, experience highs and lows, illnesses and well-being, losses and triumphs.  Too, too often when we do this research, these people becomes names and dates -- static, objective, without identities.  So wrong.  These are living people, progressing in real time in their daily lives in their era, living subjectively, and full of identity and individualism.  Time and custom might restrict how well we are able to get to know them as persons.  But they never were less.  They never are less.

Linda says she has more, she just needs to find the time to gather it all.  If you are a Walker relative of mine in all likelihood she is your cousin too.  She is not just blessing me by sharing, she is blessing you too.  From all of us Walkers to you cousin Linda, thank you.


Copyright © 2015 by Kevin W. Walker

Friday Funny: Tracing My Tree

I started out calmly, tracing my tree,

To find if I could find the makings of me.

And all that I had was Great-grandfather's name,

not knowing his wife or from where he came.

I chased him across a long line of states,

And came up with pages and pages of dates.

When all put together, it made me forlorn,

Proved poor Great-grandpa had never been born.

One day I was sure the truth I had found,

Determined to turn this whole thing upside down.

I looked up the record of one Uncle John,

But then I found the old man to be younger than his son.

Then when my hopes were fast growing dim,

I came across records that must have been him.

The facts I collected made me quite sad,

Dear old Great grandfather was never a Dad.

I think someone is pulling my leg,

I am not at all sure I wasn't hatched from an egg.

After hundreds of dollars I've spent on my tree,

I can't help but wonder if I'm really me.

Copyright © 2015 by Kevin W. Walker

5/22/2015 Genealogy Road Trip

Ralph examines closely the marker next to Aaron's grave.  Note the stones on Aaron's marker to show we visited.

My son Ralph and I decided to make another research trip down to Woodford County, where by sheer coincidence so many of my ancestors behind both my parents resided.

Our first stop were two pieces of property in Montgomery township that were owned and lived on by my 3xg-grandparents McKee.  The first one we went to had some interesting visuals like a decades old fence surrounding some weeds and an atrium that leads to nowhere.  I approached the property owner, introduced myself, explained what we were doing there and asked if he had anything of interest to us?  He said he didn't, but I am not sure.  My son Ralph said I did fine, but I don't think I did a good job of expressing my reasons and what I might be interested in seeing.  But you live and learn.  The second piece of property had nothing to offer, there was nothing there.  My research says their residence was on the first piece of property anyway.

We then went to the county building in Eureka, the county seat.  We went to the County Clerk's office, and got my 2xg-grandmother Louisa Dutton's three wedding licenses.  That went real fast.  The lady knew exactly what she was doing.  The Clerk of the Circuit Court's office was not as smooth and required researching, but we got it going and done.  I had hoped to look at the actual dockets -- touch the same documents my ancestors touched.  But to do that you have to give them at least a day's notice.  I didn't know.  So I worked from microfilm which was not as good.  But I made a lot of copies of the probate records for my 2xg-grandfather Henry Walker and my 3xg-grandfather Aaron Walker, and it gave me a lot of information to research and play with.

Off to 3xg-grandfather Norman Dutton's homesite.  It is a cornfield.  Nothing there.  But we wanted to see it.  And I hope some day to come back with a metal detector.

On to beautiful downtown Metamora (population 3,616) where we found the block that Aaron and Henry owned and where they had their cobbler shop.  Old houses there now, likely from the 1930s.  My ancestors lived there from the 1840s to 1860s.

We ran to Subway, and grabbed lunch.  I called the sexton for the Oakwood cemetery and we agreed on a time to meet and headed out there.  Ralph and I found the Dutton family plot and put rocks on the markers to show it had been visited.  Then we headed over to Aaron's grave and waited for the sexton.  He arrived, he was an older gentleman, farmer, very nice and accomodating.  There is a stone marker next to Aaron's grave with the initials "A.W." (as in "Aaron Walker") and we are looking to solve its story.  I think it is a footstone that got misplaced when they transferred all the graves from the original cemetery site to this one.  But since we are still trying to locate the grave of my 3xg-grandmother, Aaron's wife Submit Walker, it is a question that keeps coming up.

The sexton and I looked at the platte maps they did not help solve it.  The maps appear to only list the names of the owners of the plots and not the graves or burials.  We discussed the length of sexton's research which he did the night before, looking through all the records, and was as thorough as anyone could expect.  No record of her there.  We put rocks on Aaron's marker to show it had been visited, drove around the cemetery a little bit looking at markers for other distant relatives, then left for home.

Now, this might sound like a unproductive trip.  But it wasn't!

Reportedly when Thomas Edison was struggling to invent the incandescent light bulb. He was told he had "failed 6000 ways."  He answered, "I have not failed 6000 ways!  I found 6000 ways that don't work!"

That is what this researching is like.  These were logical places to look for records of my ancestors, but they were not fruitful.  So you keep looking.

In sum, it was NOT an unproductive trip.  I knew I would be getting those papers at the county courthouse, and that alone was worth the trip.  And I have seen the platte maps and been assured by the sexton he has looked in all the databases for Submit and did not find her.  Checking those out was an accomplishment.  I can cross those off the list in my search.

Copyright © 2015 by Kevin W. Walker

Don't Wait

When my grandparents died, they had thousands of pictures, not just of them and their three daughters, but of their relatives and ancestors.  My aunt who was the executrix of the estate, painstakingly went through them dividing the pictures up between herself and her two sisters.  However at the time, with no one interested in family history, she kept for herself any pictures that lacked duplicates, and where there were duplicates, she kept the ones that had names and dates on the back.

I inherited one of the incomplete sets from my mother.  And eventually got sucked into this hobby we call genealogy.  Seeing my interest, my aunt vowed to get me the complete set of pictures with the names and dates and single copies.  For over ten years she intended.  They were in her storage locker and she would just need to get out there to get them.  I negotiated -- I only need to scan the ones I don't have and copy the names and dates from the others.  I will return them!  Just let me get the names and dates!!  I will pay for the shipping, I will do everything.  For over ten years this went on.  Toward the end she even decided her kids were not interested in them, she will just give them to me because they mean so much to me.

"The end?" Yup.  She contracted a fast moving cancer and was gone quickly.  She never let her kids know her desires with the pictures.  I tactfully pleaded with my cousins.  But it is apparently a loss.

Heartbreaking, so much heartbreak.  Don't make this mistake.  Don't wait.


Copyright © 2015 by Kevin W. Walker

What's In a Name?

My second cousin twice removed Levi from Nebraska decided to have our surname tattooed on his back.  His grandmother Orpha Walker told him, "You can't deny that name now."

Building on the work of others and my own, I can trace my surname back eight generations, all confirmed with y-DNA.  I have found heroes and pariahs.  I have found the good and the bad. I have found the practical and the principled.  I have found presidents and felons.  But most of all I have found just average people doing the best they can, most not looking to make a place in history for themselves.

What's in a name?  What's in your name?  What you make of it.

Copyright © 2015 by Kevin W. Walker

When Genealogy Records become Family Treasures

So much of my public genealogy is done as "cousin bait."  This very blog included!  I have documented how it has rewarded me, as both genealogists and non-genealogists find my blog with search engines, connections are made, research is sent to me, family records, some in my ancestor's own handwriting.

One of the cousins I discovered by continually crossing paths researching the same family lines, is Tony from Arizona.  Tony introduced me to the records of his grandmother Jennie (Hall) Long (1879-1968) who was my great-grandaunt and a family historian in her own right!

And so here is where we cross the line.

I emailed Tony to find out what great-aunt Jennie had on on her great-grandfather Joseph Hall of New Hampshire?  There are a few and I am trying isolate specifically which one is our ancestor.  He sent me this --

-- A copy of aunt Jennie's notes in her own writing.  Now keep in mind my great-grandaunt was born in 1879 and died in 1968.  How old is this?  At least fifty years.  Maybe a hundred.  And look at the words on the page.  She called her granduncle Israel "Uncle Billy."  My 3xgreat-granduncle Israel Woodbury Hall was nicknamed "Billy."  How would I have known that if it wasn't for this genealogy record?

We have crossed the line where a family history document has become a family treasure.

Copyright © 2015 by Kevin W. Walker

Tuesday's Tip: Seven Places to Find Hospital Records

From The Examiner.Com.  For the complete article CLICK HERE.

1.  The Hospital itself.
2.  The State Archives.
3.  The local Courthouse.
4.  City Hall.
5.  Historical Society.
6.  University Libraries.
7.  Family History Library Catalog.

Copyright © 2014 by Kevin W. Walker

Tuesday's Tip: Guardianship Records

This one actually came to me as advice from professional researcher Molly Kennedy whom I have used many times with great success.  She is working with me trying to find the death place and burial site of my 3xg-grandfather, who died before the county and state kept death records --

IF the decedent died leaving minor children – then there should have been a “guardianship” case filed with the county’s Circuit (aka Chancery) Court. The court-appointed “Guardian” was always male, and most-often was a close relative of the deceased or his widow.  If there was a guardianship case filed for minor children… that case file should provide his specific death date and death locale… which could lead to his burial location.

Copyright © 2014 by Kevin W. Walker

Wednesday Wisdom: Research

Copyright © 2014 by Kevin W. Walker

Dear Ancestry.Com: Data from Public vs. Private Trees

For the third time in two days a fellow member of Ancestry.Com has taken information from my public tree, then when I went to their tree looking for any information they might have on our shared relative, I discover their tree is private.

Really?  Seriously?  You are glad for me to share with you, but you won't share back??

Here is my suggestion for Ancestry.Com.  You attach a software switch to all data gleaned from the public tree area.  A simple on-off switch attached to all the data.  If it starts out public on the website as long as it remains public it will be visible on the website.  The switch is set on the data to be public. When a user decides to make that public data private on their tree, it disappears to that user, until they make their tree public again.  

Here is an example.  I go through my family treasures and find a picture of my g-grandmother.  I choose to share it publicly with all those related to her!  A distant relative copies the pic to their tree.  Awesome!  I meant it to be shared!  But then that relative decides to make their tree private.  My pic disappears from their tree.  If they ever choose to make their tree public again, it reappears!

Is this a solution?  A cure?  Of course not.  A user can easily download the pic to their computer and then upload it to their private tree as their own addition of data not from me.  But the principle remains in place -- the pic as I contributed it was meant to be shared.  

It is frustrating to have a fellow user copy my pic to their tree, then for me to see they have pics of the same relative on their tree, and they are unwilling to share. Absurd.  See the logic?  There is none.

There is a longstanding debate in the genealogy community about making data public.  Somehow some of us think if we do the labor in locating it, then it belongs to us.  But it really doesn't.  It is public data or you wouldn't have found it.  I am of the mindset that anything I can do to grow the genealogical community helps me!  The more people in the game the better the game!  The more data is mined, the more data is made public!  The more researchers, the more stories are found!  I want as many people related to me doing research as possible!

So you are welcomed to anything I have, AS LONG AS you are willing to share it (with attribution when appropriate).

Copyright © 2014 by Kevin W. Walker

States My Direct Ancestors Lived In (Map)

States My Direct Ancestors Lived In

Make yours @ BigHugeLabs.com

Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Vermont.

Copyright © 2011 by Kevin W. Walker

Great Find = Great Idea for Family Historians!

My late grandmother Thelma Gibson (nee. Surpluss) grew up in Rosalia, Kansas.  Her daughter, my aunt has been very supportive of me in both my family history and genealogical quests.  I just received from her one of the greatest finds I could EVER have imagined!  It is a copy of A Pictorial History Of Rosalia, 1869-1935 by Harold J. Borger (unknown publisher, 1972).

"So what" you say?  "What makes that so special" you say?  It is loaded with personal notes in the margins from my late grandmother!  "This is our doctor."  "This church was across the road from the cemetery."  "I went to school with him."  And on and on.  When the book comments on the Kafir Corn Festival, my grandmother wrote, "We always went, it was like a fair."  About one town doctor she wrote, "This is the doctor that moved to Texas and Mexico, and was said to be using goat glands for the men in town to keep them young and productive."  Next to one lady's name she wrote, "Always recited 'The Blue and the Gray' every May 30th."

What a find, and what an idea!!!  I have two county history books from where my Dad grew up.  When he comes to visit this Summer I an going to ask him to make as many personal notes in the margins that he can recall.

Thanks dear aunt for this wonderful contribution you have made to the family history!

Copyright © 2010 by Kevin W. Walker