John Lundy's Disownment from Quakertown

I've posted before about my Quaker roots, via the Lundy family of Bucks County, Pennsylvania. In the process, I shared a pretty awesome resource called The Lundy Family and Their Descendants of Whatsoever Surname by William Armstrong.

Since that time, Ancestry.com has published a staggeringly large collection of Quaker records online. These include their meeting minutes, as well as vital statistics that were kept and shared across the Quaker communities of Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

Anyone in the loop on such things will know that this collection at Ancestry.com isn't exactly new. It's been around for several years, and I've just never gotten around to exploring it all yet. Well, I decided today to stop making excuses and just start in. And I'm glad I did, because I got to engage in my favorite kind of genealogy as I did so.

Mythbusting: Rebecca Silverthorn

In my previous post, I mentioned John Lundy and his wife Rebecca Silverthorn, and how they seem to be at the breaking point of not only the united Quaker family living in one place. What I didn't realize, until I starting digging through the records, is their move to Grayson County, Virginia signified more than a break in geographical familial closeness.

It all begins with Rebecca Silverthorn.

 

Looking at this page from Exeter Meeting Minutes, compiled in 1930 by John E. Eshelman with all of its vital statistics written in neat columns, you'd be inclined to assume that she is a Quaker. Armstrong fails to address this assumption in the book he published in 1902, mentioning records out of context that appear to favor that conclusion.





But thanks to digitization, we have access to the records that do not leave us in doubt. As always, taking a tour through all of the available records reminds us why this should be standard procedure for every claim we make, or fail to make.

Rebecca Silverthorn was not a Quaker. When trying to research her marriage to John Lundy, her name appears in none of the local meeting minutes from the time of the marriage, as suggested by Armstrong. For a Quaker marriage, this is highly unusual. Multiple marriage announcements over weeks (and sometimes months) show up in at least half a dozen meeting minutes, from multiple publications within the community.

If Rebecca Silverthorn was a Quaker, the proof would be in pudding when it comes to Quaker records. She would be communicating her intentions far and wide within the necessary circles. Instead, the page posted above is the only mention I could find of her name in any available Quaker meeting minutes. And it was obviously written as an assemblage of history, not an account of current circumstances.

Disownment among the Quakers

Rebecca doesn't show up in Quaker records because she isn't a Quaker. Nevertheless, they were married 11 December 1777 in Hunterdon County, New Jersey. John did not seek approval from those within his society, and was not married according to their custom. The Kingwood/Quakertown Monthly Meeting minutes from December 1777 announce John's marriage, failing to mention Rebecca's name. They also mention his confession, which was not uncommon in cases of "marrying out."

As a Quaker, this meant that John Lundy would be subject to the disciplinary action of disownment. The society would investigate his conduct. John would then either offer a statement of apology and testimony in a public meeting or, barring any such formal apology, the society would issue charges against him. They would then set about to reform him, until such an apology would be made. If reform proved impossible, the Society would disown his actions. This was largely a financial punishment, barring him from doing business with other Quakers. According to this source, disownment had no other social or religious consequences.

In January 1778, John Lundy's "paper of acknowledgement is received." Whether this means the congregation received his acknowledgment of his misconduct, or he received a letter of his charges, the meeting minutes do not elaborate. I'm leaning more towards he gave his own statement of apology, because his name disappears from the meeting minutes. He is no longer the focus of prolonged ministering, suggesting he had reformed himself to their satisfaction, and his matters were fully resolved.

John Lundy doesn't reappear in the Quakertown Meeting Minutes until he requests a certificate of removal to the Deep River Meeting of North Carolina in February 1785. A letter of recommendation to assure a new congregation of his good standing in the community, John's request was refused for several months, from February to September of that same year.

Knowing that he eventually settles in Grayson County, Virginia, I'm trying to piece together his whereabouts using more Quaker meeting records. His name slips away quietly out of the Kingwood Monthly Meeting Records in New Jersey, but fail to reappear as anticipated in the Deep River Monthly Meeting Minutes. (Note: This collection exists somewhat piecemeal on Ancestry.com, and the Deep River Monthly Meeting is listed under Guilford County, North Carolina)

I will continue exploring these records, piecing together the generation that relocated to Virginia and North Carolina as best I can. Most of what I'm currently finding in the Deep River Monthly Meeting Minutes are John's relations and children, but never John himself. I'm also hoping that by searching for his children in the meeting minutes both North and South, I can more readily lay out his whereabouts. He was having children throughout the 1780s, at the time of his move, so such a course would not be remiss.

Fenity Family Portrait

One of my distant cousins in Pittsylvania County, Virginia emailed me this photo. Even though it's mostly my family in the picture, the copy remained in the DeBoe family, who is also pictured here.

Back row: Pomp Fenity, William David Morton, Charlie DeBoe
Front row: Frances Choclett Morton, William Morton, Catherine Fenity Morton

Gmail for Genealogy

If your efforts to discover new family connections are anything like mine, you get a lot of email. Messages from DNA cousin matches, distant cousins, lineage societies, repositories, conferences--not to mention the promotions and updates from a host of websites and blogs. Eventually, your hobby takes over your inbox. And once you've missed enough messages from your spouse, the day job, or from some other activity not related to genealogy, the need for a separate inbox for genealogy becomes apparent.

The prettiest thing about my inbox isn't my flower, but when it's empty!

I've been a Gmail user many years. As a result, I had messages related to genealogy stashed in every corner of my personal inbox. I know Gmail has tools to wrangle in all of these messages, in ways that would make them easy to access. So, I finally got around to setting up my genealogy inbox. Even though it took some time, I can see now it was time well-spent.

Gmail has tons of features, options, and even some bonus features to make your genealogy experience all the more stream-lined and organized. Let's take a look at some of them, so you can make the most of your Gmail inbox for genealogy!

The Sidebar

Because I've been a Gmail user for so long, I've seen many incarnations of the left sidebar. I remember when it was elegant and simple. I remember the introduction of Google chat, the abysmal failure that was Google Buzz, the endless head scratching of Google+, and the game changer of Google Hangouts. Because I don't use most of these features, especially when I'm not in the throes of answering email, I disable most of them.

To disable these features for your Gmail inbox:

Click the Cogwheel icon on the top right side of the screen > Settings > Labels > Check or uncheck the Circles, Labels, and Categories you don't use.

To disable the Chat/Hangouts window:

Settings > Chat > Toggle to "Chat off"

Eliminating distractions begins with removing them from sight. By clearing out this real estate on your screen, you make it easier to get in and out of your inbox with minimal distractions.

Labels, Folders, and Filters 

Labels make up the bulk of how I organize my inbox--whether it's my personal inbox, or for genealogy. Because I'm a paperless genealogist, I have an organizational system for my digital files in Google Drive I follow fastidiously. I finally woke up one day and realized the labels and sub-labels in Gmail will allow me to replicate this same system.

Folders and labels are interchangeable. If you create a label, your inbox creates an identical folder. You're then able to label single or multiple messages, or move them from your inbox into one or more corresponding folders.

To do this, simply open a message, click on the folder or label buttons, create a new one by typing the name into the box, or checking one or more previously created labels or folders from the list.

The system I use involves creating a new folder for every surname in my research, then creating a sub-folder for individual people. So for example, I have a folder/label for all messages related to the Fenity family. But I also have separate sub-folders for Catherine Fenity, Pomp Fenity, and Callie Fenity. Now when I want a specific message about Catherine Fenity, I don't have to rely on using the search box, and hoping I use the right combination of search terms. It's much easier to find the messages I'm looking for when I take the time to sort them exactly the way I would access them in any other place.

I can also set it up where the only labels that appear in my left sidebar are those with unread messages.

To turn on this option:

Click on the Cogwheel > Settings > Labels > Choose "Show if Unread" for all of the labels you want to exhibit this behavior

Filters enhance this functionality by automatically sorting messages into combinations of labels or folders, according to the parameters you establish. So for the Fenity family again, I can set up a filter that will automatically label any new messages mentioning the Fenity surname.

To set up a filter:

Click the Cogwheel >  Settings > Filters and Blocked Addresses > Create a New Filter > Enter your desired criteria. If you have existing filters you'd like to migrate from another account, choose Import Filters.

With all of these features working together in an inbox dedicated entirely to genealogy, there's no way I will miss another important email with a valuable discovery just waiting for me to see it!

Contacts

Creating contacts for different repositories, family members, historical and lineage societies, and repositories, can make your research process more seamless. Because Gmail contacts also provide a Notes section, my contacts list has become the most natural place to track the various records requests, and my interactions with repositories and lineage societies. Where I have a specific contact name, the date of my last inquiry and its outcome, and any restrictions or payment requirements I should remember, are all at my fingertips. Instead of looking up that information for the umpteenth time on a website, I can go straight to my inbox instead.

If your personal email is a Gmail account, and you've been using your personal email address book to track your genealogy contacts, you don't have to re-enter each one manually to a new email address. You can export certain groups, or all of your address book. Because I had previously organized my genealogy contacts into a group, it was easy enough to export the genealogy group as a CSV file.

Setting up groups of contacts based on a common surname, research project, DNA group, or a variety of other applications can be incredibly helpful. If you send out email updates on a project, want to include family members on some of your current research, don't forget to include someone just because their name didn't come to mind when you wrote or forwarded an email. The time it takes to set up your contact groups is worth the investment.

Bonus Features

There are tons of other features you can access in Gmail. Sometimes it's worth it just to poke around in the Settings menus to see what you come across. One place you can look for some bonus settings is the Labs tab, where you can find some beta features.

Some Labs features I'm trying out:

• Canned Responses - "Save and then send your common messages using a button next to the compose form." If this one will let me set up a form message to my DNA matches, where I can add the interesting and specific bits, this could save me a lot of time!
• Mark as Read Button - Allows me to mark messages as read without opening them. When I already know what a message says, I just want to get it out of my inbox. Adding this one step to my inbox screen keeps save me time when I process a lot of new emails.
• Quick Links - "Adds a box to the left column that gives you 1-click access to any bookmarkable URL in Gmail." get back to your research faster by having your favorite sites bookmarked right in Gmail. If you're going to click away, why not get back to work, right? And if you like the look of an empty left sidebar, enabling this one comes with three little dots at the bottom of your sidebar. When you click on them, it hides the Quick Links section.

You can also check out the Themes tab, where you can use a ready-made theme, or add custom images to your Gmail background. Old family photos, maps, artwork, or even your own blog art can be a helpful way to differentiate your genealogy email from your personal email.

If you need to set a reminder to send some email, find or update contact information, or any other to-do list items, Gmail also has you covered. Click on the drop-down menu on the top left of your inbox screen (the same one where you access your Contacts) and click instead on Tasks. A small task list appears in the bottom left of your screen, complete with check boxes. Add your reminders in the place where it's most important to see them--the place that corresponds to the work you need to do--and you'll never forget to send another important email again!


So what are your favorite Gmail features? How are you using and adapting them to your genealogy and research needs? Let us know in comments!

Your DNA Cousin Match Database: Getting Started with my Excel Template

A reader from a recent post requested a template for setting up a DNA matching database. Because it's quick and easy to set one up in Excel, I threw one together quickly. Please feel free to reuse for non-commercial purposes, but not to repost.

When you open this file, it's going to be a View Only file in my Google Drive. In order to use it yourself, you need to download it. The link to do so is on the top right corner, next to the Print option. You'll then be free to use it in Excel, or with whatever other spreadsheet software you want to use that is compatible with Microsoft Excel.

I've got the Filters already set up and enabled, which means you'll be able to sort and filter information when you analyze the data. In order to see those matches with the greatest similarity/longest segments, sort your Segment Length column from largest to smallest. If you want to see the other matches that might also connect to a given cousin on the same chromosome, sort the Starting or Ending Point from largest to smallest. Reading the ranges between these two numbers, determine where there may be overlap. Use the matching utilities from your testing company or analysis website of choice to determine whether a match exists. Record your findings in your Notes section. If you're able to determine who the common ancestor(s) are that you share with a match, record that information in the Most Recent Common Ancestors (MRCA) column.

If you decide you want to move different columns around, or add more columns, I recommend turning off the Filters (highlight headers, Data > Filter button toggled off), changing things around, then turning the filters back on.

If you use the table in Excel, I've frozen the column headers, so they continue to show up as you scroll down through the data. To enable or disable this option, highlight the headers, go to View > Freeze Panes > Unfreeze Columns, Freeze Top Row, or Freeze First Column, according to what your preferences are. I don't know if this option works in Google Sheets or not, or in any other spreadsheet software. So bear that in mind.

However, now that I'm seeing this open in Google Sheets, I think anyone who decides to use this may want to consider using it there. Not only will this allow you to access your spreadsheet from multiple devices at once, the layout of the file itself is much nice in Sheets than in Excel. Because of the way Excel scrolls the tabs across the bottom of the screen, you have to click through a series of tabs over and over again to get from Chromosome 1 to Chromosome 22. In Google Sheets, however, all of the tabs display across the bottom without any of them being hidden. This may not be an issue, depending on the size of your monitor or display resolution. But definitely check around to see what you like/makes your life easier!

Let me know how it works out for you in the comments, and be sure to like and subscribe to our Genetic Genealogy series on YouTube!

Peter Doyle: The Irishman of Rockingham County, North Carolina

It's time for a much needed update on my work with Peter Doyle. I promise, I've been meaning to get around to it since March. It's only July now, which believe it or not is a pretty impressive average for me! Especially since I get to do some myth busting of more questionable material from obsolete places on the web, which is one of my absolute favorite things to do.

Today, we're going to be looking at family lore on USGenWeb as it surrounds Peter Doyle and Bryna Alexander of Rockingham County, North Carolina. You'll have to Ctrl + F for "Peter Doyle" to find the section of interest. And as we've done before, we're going to outline and prove (or disprove!) the "facts," as they've been stated.

• Peter Doyle appears on the 1850 Census as being born in Ireland in 1788.
• Confirmed. Peter appears with his new wife, Bryna, and three children: Rawley (7), Pinkey (5), and Mary (3). All of the children were born in North Carolina.
• Family legend passed down the Doyle/McGrady line says Peter was a famine immigrant
• Even though I cannot prove this definitively without knowing where and when Peter arrived in the United States, the records I've found as of right now don't rule out this family lore. However, because Rockingham County, North Carolina where we see him is inland, it's certain that this wouldn't be the place he entered the United States. He no doubt came through another port city, which I have not yet been able to identify. Without more information related to his arrival, we can't determine for certain whether he arrived before, during, or concurrent with the potato famine.
• The author brings up the Chesapeake Canal. Whether this is to suggest that Peter worked on the Canal, perhaps linking it to his occupation as "ditcher," or whether the author was simply creating narrative about the poverty of Irish immigrants is unclear.
• A ditcher was not a canal digger. Ditchers and tile ditchers would dig drainage ditches to remove excess water from the soil. It was important to prevent excess root rot, runoff, erosion, and soil compaction. This may partially explain why Peter lost his farm, because he spent probably a good portion of his time working on other farms. His own crop likely would have suffered, and if he wasn't paid for his work then his debts would have skyrocketed.
• The Chesapeake Canal was finished by 1829--not consistent with the lore that Peter was a potato famine immigrant, which didn't happen until 1845. In short, Peter could be a potato famine immigrant, or a canal digger for this particular canal. But not both. No amount of searching on my part found evidence that Peter was in the Maryland or Delaware region during the construction of the Chesapeake Canal.
• I did a similar analysis for the Albermarle and Chesapeake Canal, where the time period, region, and timing of Peter's later disappearance would be consistent. Searching for Peter similarly gave no indication of his being a laborer there, but more extensive searching may not be possible. The only record I could locate that would indicate his employment for this canal would be the 1860 census, where I did not find him. But there is a potential gap between 1856 and 1859 where he could have worked on the canal, and not shown up on a any records. However, the income for Bryna and her children in 1860 (see below) is inconsistent with their having received any outside income from Peter.
• The three children listed on the 1850 census are Peter's children from another marriage.
• Consideration for any other possible birth situation or adoption is not given. If Rawley is Peter's biological son, his birth would challenge the idea of Peter being a potato famine immigrant. The famine began in 1845 and continued on through the 1850s. According to the 1850 census, Rawley was born in North Carolina earlier than the start of the famine. The likelihood that these children were either adopted, or were Bryna's from a previous relationship (a theory I have not been able to confirm) are possibilities we cannot rule out with the information available to us.
• Bryna is mentioned as having another daughter, Louisa, born in about 1836, who married William Solomon. They are alleged to have moved to Carroll County, Virginia in the 1850s. 
• I've not yet examined the veracity of this information. Paternity and any potential connection to the three other children (Rawley, Pinkney, and Mary) from the 1850 census is unknown, but is definitely worth examining.
• They purchased a farm in October 1850, and lost it early in 1851. It went to auction and sold for a fraction of what they owed on it.
• Together with Mary Wynn Haupt, we've located the deeds and land records for these transactions. The details are consistent with the account as they've been expressed here.
• The family was skipped, or otherwise does not appear, on the 1860 census.
• False. Bryna appears without Peter on the 1860 census in Rockingham County, North Carolina. The entry has not been easy to locate due to the faintness of the writing. But Bryna's name, alone with the names and ages of her children are all consistent.
• Peter and Bryna had three children: James, Sarah and Obedience (twin daughters)
• The 1860 census mentioned above gives the name of Mary (now 12), an additional daughter, Martha (9), followed by James (8), Catherine (6), and Sarah (6). A closer look at subsequent records for Obedience show that her middle name is Catherine, and she also went by "Biddie."
• Only two members of the family reappear in 1870, Bryna and Sarah. This is the last record of these siblings that have been found. James is alleged to have moved away.
• James marries Cora Lovelace (also spelled Loveless) and remains in Rockingham County. Sister "B Doyle" is living with them as a farm laborer.
• Peter had already died by the 1870s, and no greater information is known to narrow down that time frame any closer.
• Because their youngest daughters are born by 1857, and Peter is nowhere to be seen on the 1860 census, we can narrow his time of death, disappearance, or abandonment between 1856 and 1860.
• Bryna died some time in the 1870s, at which point Sarah leaves Rockingham County
• No exact death place or time has yet been determined. Searches through land records confirms that she left no will, likely because she owned no land.

I've been in contact with researchers in Rockingham County on Facebook, trying to tease out ANYTHING else I can find on Peter. I feel like all I need is one more solid clue about his life in North Carolina, and I'll be set to place him, if not in his place of entry to the United States, then to his origins in Ireland. I decided to focus on his marriage record, trying to apply the principles that make up FAN (Friends, Acquaintances, and Neighbors) research.

"North Carolina, Marriage Records, 1741-2011," database, Ancestry.com (http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=60548: accessed 14 July 2016), citing Rockingham County, North Carolina, marriage bond, (1850), Peter Doyle and Briney Alexander; North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh, NC.

The idea is that you research those who appear around and with your ancestors, and there's one name that appears on Peter's marriage bond, the deed for his land, and the land records that outline how Peter and Bryna lost their farm. James Lemmons appears to have been Peter's go-to guy every time he needed money. He was also the one who purchased their farm at a fraction of what they owed on it--meaning that they gave their original creditor everything they had when they lost their farm.

If any additional records exist, I hope they would somehow survive in the hands of the Lemmons family. My next step may be to find Lemmons/Leamons descendants from Rockingham County, if I can. Who knows what clues they might have about the exact circumstances of what transpired between 1850 and 1851.

All I need is a single clue, and Peter's story may burst wide open.

Muriel Ince Michaels, Age 42

Muriel Ince Michaels, Age 42, photo in collection of Ernest Ince, in possession of Regina Ince Michaels, ca. 1955, image created by Dave Michaels, 2016.

Indexing and Transcription Opportunities for Genealogists

So, who wants more free genealogy records online?

Who wants to find them, transcribe them, build the database to host them, and pay to maintain them?

I think we're all a little guilty of this. Whether it's because we simply don't know about all of the opportunities available, or we think we don't have the necessary skills required, or we're just feeling too lazy/busy/set in our ways to help. We've all made the excuses. But there's no time like the present to jump in and lend a helping hand!

Records are unsearchable, and therefore invisible, until they are transcribed, tagged, and indexed. If we want things to be free and searchable, we need to be part of the cost cutting measures. And the repositories who are already taking on the bulk of this free access burden need our help with the most time consuming part. It's the single greatest contribution we can make to a record collection. Why wouldn't we share the skills we've accumulated as genealogists to help institutions across the globe to provide better records access to all of us? If we aren't part of the solution, we're part of the problem.

Check your favorite repositories--local, state, regional, and national--to see what they need from you. If you come across, sponsor, or need volunteers for any transcribing projects, add them in comments!

These are the ones I've come across so far just through Google searching, my own research, and reaching out on social media.

International/National Projects:

• Family Search Indexing
• Ancestry.com - World Archives Project
• US National Archives - Citizen Archivist
• Smithsonian Institute Records Transcription
• World Memory Project - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
• Colored Conventions - African American State Convention Minutes and Records
• Europeana - Transcribe 1914-1918 (Note: the website appears to be in German. Google Translate provides a partial rendering. If there is an option to select an English version of the website, I couldn't find one)
• Candian Great War Project - War Diaries Transcription
• National Archives of Australia - HIVE
• The Atlas of Living Australia - Field Journals and Historical Documents
• UK National Archives - click Current Opportunities
• Operation War Diary - British Forces of WWI
• Zooniverse - Provide digitization service for various repositories, including those of historical, cultural, or scientific interest.
• New York Public Library Map Warper - Align images of historic maps to current areas (Note: Watch the video tutorial on the left to see how to use the map rectification tool. Map database includes maps throughout the United States and countries throughout the globe)
• Papers of the War Department, 1784-1800 - through George Mason University

State (US):

• Library of Virginia - Making History
• State Library and Archives of North Carolina - Vertical Files
• Moravian Church Archives - Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
• Congregational Library and Archives - Boston, Massachusetts
• New York Public Library - Community Oral History Project
• Maryland State Archives - Newspaper Transcription (Note: click through to any of the newspaper images, and the links to view transcriptions and transcribe will be at the top of the page.)
• University of Iowa - DIY History (Note: Current projects may be selected under the Transcribe by Topic drop down menu at the top of the page)

There are certainly more projects available out there than just these. So please, let us know when you find them. 

The research you help by giving back may just be your own!

Homecoming: A Complete List of Doyle Siblings

Life as a genealogist really has not been the same since I took my AncestryDNA test. The connections I'm making to other relatives, including distant cousins, is proving to be so invaluable. We're able to solve mysteries better together than we can apart. Nowhere has that been more apparent than when I reached out to a distant Doyle cousin of mine named Mary Wynn Haupt.

By the time she and I connected, we understood plainly that our common ancestors were James P. Doyle (1851-1936) and Cora A. Lovelace (1861-1901), both of North Carolina. I was able to share quite a bit of information, as well as original source documents and photos, which I'm always happy to do. She in return has provided invaluable insight regarding many missing children from this family, including the daughter of James and Cora from whom she descends.

The confusion begins with the missing 1890 census. Because this was the only census on which James and Cora would have appeared together with the majority of their children (especially their daughters) at home, finding the names of all the children has been a continual research project of mine for many years. I've known I was missing several children for that long because of columns 11 and 12 on the 1900 census.

1900 U.S. census, Rockingham County, North Carolina, population schedule, Huntsville Township, p. 17-A (stamped),  dwelling 302, family 303, James P. Doyle and Cora Lovelace family; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 8 June 2016); citing NARA Microfilm Roll: T623_1215.

You'll see that James and Cora appear on this census record with four of their children: Margaret, Cora, William, and Calvin. According to column 11, by 1900 Cora had given birth to 8 children. Column 12 reveals that 7 of these children were still living at that time. As Mary Wynn and I pieced together the children for whom we had records, the breakdown was as follows:

1. A C Doyle (1878- ?)
2. Charles Miller Doyle (1879-1942), my ancestor
3. Frances Doyle Moore (1882-1961), her ancestor
4. Sarah Margarett Doyle (1888-1901)
5. William James Doyle (1892-1969)
6. Cora Alice Doyle (1893-1973)
7. Calvin Dewey Doyle (1899-1979)
8. Lula Mae Doyle (1901-1976)

Because Lula Mae Doyle was born in 1901, she doesn't count towards the children enumerated in the 1900 census. Between us we were able to find seven of James and Cora's children. We were still missing one. And based on the information we had, we also didn't know which one was deceased before 1900. With what we were looking for clearly defined, we outlined some things we could try to find the information we needed.

Mrs. Fannie Moore obituary,
undated clipping from unidentified newspaper,
papers of  Grandma Becky, ca. 1961,
image created by Mary Wynn Haupt, 2016.

Life got busy for both of us, as it so often does. Until today, when I heard from her again via email. She had great news to tell me.

She had found the missing Doyle sibling! Listed in her ancestor's obituary from 1961 were the names of her five living siblings:

1. Mrs. Walter Puckett of Martinsville, VA
2. Mrs. Ben Hundley of Leaksville, NC
3. Mrs Ernest Smith of South Boston, VA
4. Will Doyle of Greensboro, NC
5. Dewey Doyle of Greensboro, NC

Mrs. Ernest Smith was a name she hadn't recognized, and she did some digging. Before long, she discovered that the full maiden name of the sibling we were searching for was Etta Florence Doyle (1891-1972). My cousin sent me a copy of the obituary in question, as well as a record of Etta's marriage she had found online at Ancestry.com. 

From there, we were also able to find a Find a Grave entry, a Virginia death certificate, and her appearance on the 1940 US population schedule of the census.

After adding the information for Etta into my Ancestry tree, I also added it to the universal tree on FamilySearch. As I did so, the duplicate screening revealed that someone has already created a record for Etta Florence Doyle Smith. She was not connected to her parents, and the descendant in question appears to have dead-ended with her. And thanks to the FamilySearch messaging system, we'll be able to reach out to whomever it is and let them know that we've made this connection.

All of this began with a single DNA test. I'd reached the end of what my research experience and information would allow me to piece together. I needed additional information that was not to be found. By reaching out to my cousin, we've been able to find the lost siblings of this family.

In a very real way, it feels like a very sweet homecoming--a triumph over the dispersed, forgotten, and unknown. 

Remembering the WWI Service of Lester Edgar Ince

The wait for Lester Edgar Ince's military service file has finally ended! I downloaded it and have done my preliminary examination to its contents. If you're waiting for these records to come available, you'll know when they have for your ancestor when this link appears on the page for their previously published attestation papers.

The compiled service file is published as a PDF, so you'll need Adobe Reader or some other PDF software to view it. They're free to download, but the process of doing so can take several minutes because the files are quite large. Lester's service file was a total of 180 images, and took between 3 and 5 minutes to download completely.

What you find in your ancestor's service file will depend completely on what their World War I service was like. What you'll find in the file of a decorated officer will vary greatly from what you find in the file of an enlisted man. Because Lester was a black man serving in a predominantly white unit, at a time when whether black men should participate in Canadian military service was hotly contested in society, it shouldn't have surprised me to see no awards of any kind in his file.

Instead his file consists predominantly of medical records. I can see that piecing together his military service will likely rely on creating a timeline of his injuries and hospital stays, and then filling in the action that would have caused them. For the average enlisted man, this process will likely be identical, and tell much of the same story.

The first of his injuries are reportedly shrapnel wounds on his thigh and leg, that were superficial in nature according to his treating physicians. Lester spent time in France, and was at Ypres, where a shell landed approximately fifteen feet from him. As a result he experienced prolonged "shell shock," which caused him great distress throughout the rest of the war. He struggled with noises, was easily irritated, had nausea and loss of appetite, and dizziness. He had disturbing dreams and woke frequently from sleep. He was unable to ride in vehicles without becoming incredibly uneasy, and encountered a great deal of anxiety now associated with post-traumatic stress disorder

Based on his treatment records, I'm also postulating that he experienced first-hand the chemical weapons engaged by the Germans. Lester was treated for severe conjunctivitis, likely the result of contact with poison gas. He also was tested and treated for syphilis, a common ailment among all participants in the European theater. Venereal disease became such a crisis among the British armed forces in Europe, state sponsored prostitution began. After the introduction of this program, all soldiers were required to use contraception. Those who developed any type of preventable disease faced disciplinary action. I'll be interested to take a closer look at the timing and implementation of those measures, to see how they coincide with the enforcement (or lack thereof) within his unit.

I am endlessly glad that I watch Jan Peter's Great War Diaries docu-drama while it was still on Netflix. Even though I watched it several months ago, the thoroughness with which it handled the subject of World War I is incredible. The context includes each of the fronts of WWI action, and civilian life with respect to each, as told through the words and diaries of those who lived there. By the time I finished the documentary, I had the distinct notion that the only way I could have gotten better insight into the war would have been to have spoken to Lester Ince myself. 

I look forward to studying his service file in the weeks and months ahead, especially in relation to a book I'm still reading on his unit. 

Setting Up a DNA Cousin Match Database: A Success Story

DNA testing for genealogy is one of the best investments I've ever made into my research. The more I invest into my understanding of the subject, the greater returns I receive from it. And at no point was that ever more apparent than when I connected with a distant cousin several months ago.

Photo of Charles Miller Doyle and Birdie Price
from the collection of Irene Doyle Ashley,
 ca. 1920-1950; Scanned by Dwight Edwards,
Alameda California, 2016.

I initially reached out to this cousin more than a year ago, at a point when I was just beginning to figure out what I was doing with DNA analysis. I'd written dozens of such emails, and finally clued into something important. Reaching out to a DNA cousin match is good. Offering to help them determine the connection you share is better. But being able to share a real theory about where you think that connection is--this is the best approach, the essential component to every email we write to DNA cousin matches.

Had I not mentioned to this cousin that I was a Doyle descendant, and through looking around at shared matches I suspected he was too, he might never have written me back. He might have never taken the time to answer the vague form email I'd gotten into the habit of sending. And that would be truly tragic, because without this connection I never would have seen the pictures he shared with me of my 2x great grandparents.

Even though I made this connection on AncestryDNA, the real potential of this connection is untapped at GEDmatch.com, where I can analyze the DNA segments in greater detail. But inviting him to use GEDmatch and performing the analysis of our DNA segments were only the beginning. Having a way to compare our match to hundreds of other matches, in detail, across various other testing websites is the necessary next step.

By setting up a DNA database, harnessing the powerhouse of DNA testing for genetic genealogy becomes a reality. And in my newest tutorial, I explain how to set up such a database in spreadsheet software you already use. Whether you use Microsoft Excel or Access, Google Sheets, or any other type of spreadsheet software, many of these tips I share will help you to get started with your DNA cousin match analysis.

In many respects, setting up a centralized database of DNA matches isn't a question of starting over. It's learning how to be more organized int he efforts you're already making, in order to obtain the results you want, and solve the mysteries you're trying to unravel through DNA.

[UPDATE: Be sure to check out our free Excel template for setting up your own DNA database, based on this presentation!]

Charles Miller Doyle & Birdie May Price

Photo of Charles Miller Doyle from the collection of Irene Doyle Ashley, ca. 1920-1950; Scanned by Dwight Edwards, Alameda California, 2016.

I

Photo of  Bertie Price Doyle from the collection of Irene Doyle Ashley, ca. 1920-1950; Scanned by Dwight Edwards, Alameda California, 2016.

Remembering Our Foremothers: Researching Women's Suffrage

(Source: North Carolina Museum of History)

March in the United States is Women's History Month. And since it's also an election year, there's no better time to consider how the lives of the women who came before us were shaped by the women's suffrage movement.

When we think of women getting the right to vote and the fight to pass the 19th Amendment, we often think of movies like Iron-Jawed Angels. We remember the "main characters" Alice Paul or Susan B. Anthony. But women's suffrage didn't just exist in political arenas with well-known activists. It was a subject on which men and women without any kind of political office or formal influence formulated their own opinions. They acted, or were prevented from acting on those beliefs, based on where they were living and the larger powers at play.

Understanding how women's suffrage affected local communities is a largely unexplored topic. Full surveys of records related to this movement for many locations throughout the U.S. do not exist. When these records are gathered into one collection, they often are not a high priority for digitization. Much good can be accomplished by the genealogical community to advocate for access to these records. 

But in order to understand the necessity of that advocacy, seeing what I found as I researched women's suffrage in the American South will illustrate some of the challenges that may await you.

Where do I begin in researching women's suffrage?

Before you touch a single voter list or registration record, there is some information you should collect for yourself first. You want to identify the women in your family who were alive in your country of interest at the time women received the right to vote. While this varies by state and municipality in the U.S., beginning with the women of or close to voting age at the 1920 election can be a good place to start. You can then move forward in four-year increments, to trace where these women were living and how old they were at each subsequent election.

I'm keeping track of this information on a spreadsheet, which you can see here:

Information that you'll want to track on your spreadsheet includes:

• Full name (maiden and married surnames)
• Whether the woman attended school
• Whether the woman was literate
• Repositories and record collections of interest to the cities, counties, or regions you're researching
• Her age and residence at each election, beginning when women were allowed to vote in her state

I found that the 1910 and 1920 US Population Schedules of the census were the most helpful in determining literacy and schooling, since these questions were addressed directly on the population schedules for those years. For residence information, I copied the district information directly from the 1920 census because these districts will often correspond to election districts. 

Much of the information you need to determine a woman's voting status can be found on records you already possess in your research. Looking more closely at these records to determine what you "already know" about your female ancestors may reveal some details you've missed.

Understanding Voter Requirements

Many states used carefully crafted voter requirements to prevent undesirables from participating in elections. These requirements were most common in southern states, and are usually outlined in state constitutions from the time period in question. Since the majority of the women I was searching for lived in southern Virginia, I decided to start there. Because I was beginning my research with the election of 1920, I wanted to know what the voter registration requirements were like at that time.

The 1902 state constitution of Virginia outlines the voter requirements at work throughout the early 1920s. Their requirements were typical of other states in the South:

• Women had to be 21 years old, a state resident for at least 2 years, a resident in their county for 1 year, and a resident in their voting precinct for as little as 30 days or as long as 6 months. This meant that if you were a woman who moved to Virginia less than two years before an election year, you would lose the right to vote in the state of Virginia.
• Men and women were required to pass literacy tests. This test was defined as the voter registrant assigning you a portion of the Virginia state constitution to read and interpret. Since female children in the South often came from farming families, they were expected to drop out of school to work the farm, usually at younger ages than their brothers. The lack of prioritizing female education made it much more unlikely that women in the state of Virginia could pass a literacy test.
• Voters in Virginia were also required to pay a poll tax. Without the ability to gain lasting, gainful employment outside the home in many rural communities, women often were not in a position to pay poll tax. If a family's income was sufficient for one person to register in a household, undoubtedly it would be a man who would do so.
• The only exception to these requirements were veterans and their sons, and property owners who had paid at least $1 in property taxes in the past year. Wives rarely inherited their husband's estate. Instead a wife was often given a child's portion, along with her children, as her husband's estate was divided. Depending on the size of her portion, or pressure from her sons to relinquish her land, she may never have enough property to pay a full $1 in property taxes in a year. And since women were not permitted to enter military service, they would never be given leniency on the literacy test or excused from paying poll taxes. Daughters of veterans did not quality, and were also not afforded the same leniency given to their brothers.

These voter requirements were not declared unconstitutional in the state of Virginia until the passage of the 24th Amendment, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. This means that every woman residing in Virginia and attempting to vote between 1920 and 1965 was bound by these restrictions.

Source: Unknown

When I refer back to my spreadsheet, I see that my ancestor Celia Jane McMeans was living in Virginia at the time the 19th Amendment was ratified. Even though this should have fully enfranchised her, she was prevented from voting because she could not pass the literacy test. This fact about her life had never surfaced before because I'd never put all of these pieces together until now. And it saddens me profoundly to see how she and other women in my family were prevented from exercising their right to vote.

But what saddens me more is how difficult it was for me to uncover that they were denied this right. I had to piece all of this together, without the benefit of access to voter or suffrage records of any kind. And the frustrating thing is, I know these records exist. I know where they're kept. But because I live 2,000 miles away from them, I may never see them or know if they hold any information about my family.

Finding & Accessing Records Related to Suffrage

Few records related to women's suffrage have been made fully available to the public. Many of these records have not been microfilmed, digitized, or indexed. As such, the only way to view many of them is by visiting special collections or research rooms to see and handle the original documents. Often collections of these types are exceedingly fragile, and can only be handled by appointment with the assistance of repository staff.

Some of the most common records to search for are voter lists or voter registration records. These are similar to city directories, in that they're organized roughly by geography and generally list people by first and last name. Voter lists may or may not have addresses on them. However, if a person appears on a voter list, it's because they registered (and fully intended) to vote.

Other records that would be useful to search are from local branches of women's suffrage leagues and organizations. The meetings, protests, and activism of these suffrage leagues were often reported in local and regional newspapers and women's suffrage publications. Searching various newspaper collections, Google Books, and state archives and historical societies can be helpful places to start. Once you identify the organizations that were working towards women's suffrage in a local community, the research question becomes determining whether your ancestor was associated with that organization.

Because my research for women's suffrage focuses primarily on Grayson and Pittsylvania Counties in Virginia, the local women's suffrage league chapters of interest to me are the Equal Suffrage League of Virginia. The Library of Virginia has provided a thorough research guide for the records in their collection, including the membership lists for various counties in Virginia. However, these records have not been digitized, and no one I contacted is aware of any plans to do so.

(Source: The Virginia Historical Society)

When this happens, local historical societies, courthouses, and public libraries and archives may have their own copies of records related to these suffrage leagues, or alternatives to them. But because local repositories often lack a complete catalog of their local history and genealogy-related items, it can be difficult to determine exactly what records they have. Using the Ask a Librarian section or sending an email to ask about specific records that might exist is sometimes the only way to compensate for the lack of an online catalog.

I also enjoy reaching out to other researchers in my counties of interest via Facebook research groups. Thanks to the Grayson County, Virginia Facebook group, I know that some voter records still exist and are kept in the basement of the courthouse. Using websites like Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness also makes it possible to find volunteers who are willing to search those records at little to no cost--or to provide such a service in your local community, if you are willing.

There must be a greater effort given to indexing the records related to women's suffrage while we still have them. Without them, many of us in the younger generations will never know about our personal connections to this period in women's history. This would effectively and tragically silence the voices of one of the most important generations of women who ever lived.

At the height of its activities, the Equal Suffrage League of Virginia alone had about 20,000 members. Many among these are women whose names have never before been associated with the cause of women's suffrage. We all agree that their struggles and sacrifices in relation to suffrage should be remembered. But what are each of us doing in our research, and what are these repositories allowing us to do, to make sure these contributions are never forgotten?

Preserving Memories

Some of your female ancestors may have been voting long before the 19th amendment was ratified. Others may have continued to struggle for that right until it was granted long afterwards. Some may never have gotten to exercise their full rights of citizenship, and some may have refused to do so. Recording the civic behavior of our foremothers is an important part of their story, no matter how far removed they are from that first election. And as with many research projects in genealogy, it may be easiest to start with your closest female relatives and work backwards.

Some interview questions that might be helpful to ask the women in your life:

• What was the first election your remember voting in? Do you remember who you voted for?
• Did you vote for...? (Example: John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, Barack Obama, any other president that would be a good conversation starter, or be of particular interest in the future.)
• Do you ever remember going with your mother or father when they voted? Do you remember where the polling place was?
• Was it hard for you to choose a political party? Why or why not?
• How have your political views changed since you were younger? 
• What does it mean to you to have the right to vote as a woman today? What do you want your posterity to remember as they exercise their right to vote?

Preserving the voices of the women in our lives today is part of the ongoing legacy of women's suffrage and the 19th Amendment. How well we preserve that legacy will determine what the future generations of women voters will see when they look to us. They'll want to know what we did with the greatest degree of civic and social influence women have ever had.

And if there's anything we can learn from 20,000 Virginia suffragists whose voices are currently silenced on a shelf, let it be that recording the civic stories of our mothers will allow us to avoid the same fate.

My Grandfather's Yearbook

For some people, finding their grandfather's yearbook is a normal part of growing up. Whether on a family vacation, a summer visit, or a chance find while looking for something else in a drawer, yearbooks can be great conversation starters for genealogy.

But my grandfather died when my mother was eight years old. She barely knew him, so everything I've ever known about him has come through the older generation of my family. And since my grandparents were divorced before he died, there wasn't much of a chance for me to find a yearbook of his anywhere.

But these days, finding a yearbook isn't limited to those family visits anymore. Thanks to Ancestry.com's yearbook collection, I can see my grandfather's senior photo for the first time. I can see where he fit into the high school scene of 1960. Apparently, he was a lacrosse player. I didn't know that about him, and I don't think I'm the only one.

Glen Burnie High School, Le Souvenir (Yearbook, Glen Burnie, Maryland, 1959), p. 115; "U.S. School Yearbooks, 1880-2012," Ancestry.com (http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=1265 : accessed 25 January 2016). [Lacrosse team photo with Moses B. Keats]

Glen Burnie High School, Le Souvenir (Yearbook, Glen Burnie, Maryland, 1960), p. 38; "U.S. School Yearbooks, 1880-2012," Ancestry.com (http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=1265 : accessed 25 January 2016).[Senior portrait of Moses B. Keats]

How to Cite a Yearbook or Online Yearbook Collection

I'm glad to see I wasn't alone in facing some confusion about citing an online yearbook collection. Evidence Explained (the book) doesn't provide a specific answer to this question. But a quick look on the Evidence Explained website provided some satisfactory answers.

However, I disagree with the approach of using the standard book citation for a yearbook. As the editor points out on in response to the question, the book's approach to laying out the publication for a yearbook is insufficient. Because a yearbook is a commercially printed self-published book, it is neither useful (nor possible, in many cases) to even identify the printer/publisher of a yearbook.

A clean presentation of the school's location is the most crucial piece of information for manually searching for yearbooks in the Ancestry.com collection. But the standard book citation also left me wondering how I would provide information about a hard copy of a yearbook and an item description in square brackets at the end. To use the standard book citation leaves me with this conundrum.

Upon looking more closely at the variety of citations that could work, I chose instead to use the Diary/Journal citation, found on page 106 in the second edition. It allows me to state directly that what I'm citing is a yearbook, which would be useful if the online repository places yearbook images in a collection that isn't labeled specifically for yearbooks. The journal citation also gives me the ability to cleanly state the place information where it cannot be confused with publication or copyright information. If you were citing an actual hard copy, the Current or Last Known Owner becomes a natural place for the owner of the yearbook or repository. In this same place we find a natural transition into an online citation.

The Trouble with Indexes

I am a huge proponent of indexing, especially as a volunteer. I believe that the volume of records left to be made available to the public is so enormous, that volunteer indexing is the only way many records will ever see the light of day. There simply aren't enough resources--in money or time--for any one organization to pay for what records exist to be indexed.

So it falls to every genealogist, the users of these records, to seek volunteer opportunities to index records wherever possible. Everyone who cares about these records, and the people listed on them, must become a well-trained custodian of the past. How we index records is a part of that stewardship.

So when we consider what makes up a good index of a record set, I think we can agree on some core elements.

Accuracy

The index that is created must be an accurate representation of what is written on the records. Some errors will always present themselves due to transcription, and these are especially understandable with handwritten records. But an index greatly loses value when all names and details that appear on the records are not included, or the index misrepresents any data points.

Searchable

The index should be searchable by all relevant data points. And I'm consistently in the camp that says that if it appears on the record, it's relevant information. While it may not be practical to make every record searchable by every data point, an index's search functionality should be as inclusive as possible to every name that appears on the record.

One significant example of a commonly missing search parameter is race. At the time of this writing, the only website of the Big Four (Ancestry.com, My Heritage, FindMyPast, and FamilySearch) that allows you to search universally by race is Ancestry.com. This creates a significant impediment to doing research for anyone of African descent.

The problem becomes compounded increasingly when the black individuals for which I'm searching are not African American, and have no connection to the United States. But the example I'll be addressing below applies specifically to the challenges of indexing African American records.

Availability of Original Images

Not every index can provide images for original records. To do so is often cost prohibitive, especially for smaller organizations that are new to indexing.

However, every index should communicate the origins for the information being indexed. Date ranges, specific locations, repository, and all other information necessary to obtain copies of the original images should be present in the index description and item descriptions.

Not only does this aid in the crafting of quality source citations, but makes it possible for interested parties to request original copies.

I think we can all agree that the organization that makes it easiest for genealogists to index records on a large scale is FamilySearch. Their interface has provided the standard for any organization wanting to engage their communities in indexing efforts. What they deliver, especially since it relies almost entirely on volunteers, is impressive.

But sometimes even they can miss the mark.

Pittsylvania County, Virignia Death Index on FamilySearch: A Bad Example

What happens when an index is created, but many of the above points are ignored? How does it affect a person's ability to find desired records?

After the Ben Affleck/Finding Your Roots controversy hit the fan, it really got me thinking about what the best approach is to document slavery. And while I think everyone has a right of privacy to share or withhold whatever they want about their family to an international audience, I think slavery demands more of genealogists and family historians. Because I have slave holders and slaves throughout various lines of my family, I've decided to document both groups with total openness and objectivity.

Pittsylvania County, Virginia has a treasure trove of records in comparison to other communities in the South, including for African Americans. I decided to start there, which led me to Virginia Deaths and Burials, 1853-1912 on FamilySearch.

When I first sat down to do this project in September of last year, there was no way to search this collection by race. As of this writing, that has since changed. Because I was specifically interested in slaves held by the Keatts family in Pittsylvania County, my search parameters included the years 1853-1865.

The following are examples of records I found.

One issue I noticed, having seen both the originals and another index of these records, is the placement of the slave holder's name. As you can see here, it has been placed in the father's name position. While I cannot comment on the paternity of any of the slaves owned by my family, I can vouch for the fact that the original records made no such attempt. On the original records as provided by the other index, Richard Keatts is labelled in a column specifically designated for the owner of deceased slaves. He is also listed as the Consort, or informant.

The practice of putting the slave owner's name in the father's name field is consistent throughout the collection, regardless of the gender or relationship of the owner. Aletha "Letty" Keatts is female, the sister of Richard Keatts, and her name also appears in the father's field.

Upon closer inspection of the FamilySearch collection, giving the owner's name, followed by "(Owner)," and providing that information as the father's name appears to be the convention for all records related to slaves in Pittsylvania County. In order to have that degree of compliance with this many records, this has to be what the indexers of the collection were instructed to do. However, without the original images, I cannot say whether every slave holder in the FamilySearch collection has such a designation. Additionally, that convention is not disclosed in any description of the collection, or in the Known Issues page of the collection that I could find.

Additionally, the emancipation status of every African American was stated plainly on the original records. Whether the deceased was white was answered with a Yes or No. In a second column, labeled "Colored," their emancipation status was listed as either "Slave" or "Free." However, that information was not indexed in the FamilySearch collection.

While it may be possible to isolate all of the enslaved African Americans by using the race search box and searching for "Owner" in the father's name field, there are some issues with this approach. The first is that I cannot determine if every slave holder has such a designation. The second issue is that every search result with that designation appears twice--once as a result for the deceased individual, and once for the so-called father/owner.

As a result, anyone trying to find enslaved ancestors in Pittsylvania County for this time period has to comb through a results list full of duplicates. Anyone trying to find emancipated ancestors for the same time period is unable to isolate these results from everything else. Given that this information is so clearly stated on the records, the real issue here is the way the records were indexed. The indexing program simply didn't have fields to index the names of slave holders.

But if real efforts are going to be made to index records pertaining to African Americans and their ancestors, these improvements to the indexing program need to be made. And the fastest, simplest way to correct all of the issues related to these records is to re-index the collection.

While it is possible to rely on user submitted corrections to individual records, which FamilySearch stated to me as their proposed solution, the lack of thorough correction to all affected records shows a real lack of accountability for the situation they've created. Some might also say that an inaccurate or "quirky" index is better than no index at all. But for errors that so disproportionately affect the African American community, such a glib response is unconscionable. It leaves us to wonder how many other collections related to slavery have similarly botched indexes, and what FamilySearch is doing to identify and correct these issues.

A Lesson Learned

The most important lesson to take from this example is that indexing efforts should be well-planned if we expect them to be well-executed. Taking shortcuts, or trying to avoid proper adaptation of current resources to created a true derivative, ultimately creates more work than it alleviates.

Because of the way computer databases are constructed on the back end, the only chance there is to address multiple records at once is when the collection is indexed. After that, it is a one-by-one, tedious effort to do any corrections.

Indexes can be incredibly useful. They serve a necessary, low-cost function in providing free access to records. But unfortunately, there is a dark and messy underbelly to them of which every genealogist should be aware before using them.

The issues that come with them sometimes make them about as useful as another brick in the wall.

Keatts Family Wills of Pittsylvania County, Virginia: A Wish Granted

On my research trip to the Pittsylvania County Courthouse, I was saddened that I wasn't beginning to scratch the surface of their vast collection. While my time was well focused on the research questions I had at the time, I knew full well that there were hundreds of other records I would never have time to see. Included in these passed over records were many of the wills for my earliest connections to Pittsylvania County in the Keatts family. It pained me to pass over their surnames in the record books I knew were pertinent to me, in exchange for the records I'd planned to collect that day.

So the weekend that the Ancestry.com probate collection launched, I was full of hope that the records would include some of these. And when I got my first Keatts hints to the collection, I celebrated...

However, it was premature. 

 

 Is there anything worse than an interrupted happy dance?
(The answer is no. No, there isn't.)

You see, the hint lead to an error page. And I sat there for a good five minutes, refreshing in disbelief. I felt lied to. Betrayed. Filled with first world rage. And as I tried to navigate to the collection directly from the Card Catalog, only to be greeted by "No results found" for every combination of search criteria, I finally gave up. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get any results for anyone in Pittsylvania County to appear. Something was wrong, broken, or both.

As the hints continued to accumulate for this ghost collection, and each of them led to the same error page, my frustration mounted. I contacted Ancestry directly to point out the issue, and they said they'd investigate. 

Meanwhile, I ignored every single hint and told the matching algorithm to stick them in its eye...

...among other things I won't repeat in polite company.

Here's the thing y'all. Just because we subscribe to record collections which are held by large corporations, it doesn't mean we shouldn't communicate with them. Providing user feedback is all the more important when the companies we deal with are large. I think sometimes we have the impression that this does no good because we don't feel like we're talking to a person. Instead, it feels like we're talking to a mechanical collective of voices with no thoughts of its own.

But corporations like Ancestry.com are made up of people, including other genealogists. And they really do want to see us happy. Like a genie of sorts, they want to give us everything we wish for. And like magic, their money and influence give them the power to deliver many things we can't do for ourselves. And just like a genie, even their power has its limits.

But perhaps the ways in which Ancestry.com (and other companies too) are most like genies, is that the only way to never get what you wish for is to never tell them what you want.

So I reached out. I told them what was wrong. I wanted Pittsylvania County, Virginia probates and wills. I wanted the error message to go away and let me get on with my happy dancing. Because there is absolutely nothing worse than taking back a happy dance. It should say right on the receipt  NO REFUNDS in big, ugly letters.

And I don't know whether they finally got the records, or the database working, or what. I don't care which of my wishes they granted. The point is, the records have arrived!

The Pittsylvania County, Virginia probate and will database is up, running, and open for business!

If you, like me, are looking for the Keatts family, allow me to get you started. And let me know in comments, because I want to know who you are!

Index

Virginia, Wills and Probate Records, 1652-1983. Pittsylvania County, "Wills, 1800-1870" Ancestry.com (http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=9085 : accessed 2 January 2016), index entries for Keatts family members, Image #33, Pg. 27.

Curtis Keatts: My 6x Great Grandfather

Virginia, Wills and Probate Records, 1652-1983. Pittsylvania County, "Deeds and Will Book, Vol. 11, 1780-1820," Ancestry.com (http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=9085 : accessed 2 January 2016), entry for Curtis Keatts, Image #145, Pg. 268.

Charles Keatts: My 5x Great Grandfather

Virginia, Wills and Probate Records, 1652-1983. Pittsylvania County, "General Index to Wills, Vol. 1, 1767-1948," Ancestry.com (http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=9085 : accessed 2 January 2016), entry for Charles Keatts, Image #377-378, Pg. 185-186.

Randolph Keatts: My 4x Great Grandfather

Virginia, Wills and Probate Records, 1652-1983. Pittsylvania County, "General Index to Wills, Vol. 1, 1767-1948," Ancestry.com (http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=9085 : accessed 2 January 2016), entry for Randolph Keatts, Image #813, Pg. 480.