Genie Road Trip

October is Family History Month and I am celebrating with a few genealogy-related road trips and workshops. So, ideally you’ll hear a bit more from me as the month goes on. But to start the recap…

Last year was the first time in years that I hadn’t been able to attend Western Michigan Genealogical Society’s Got Ancestors?! Workshop and I really missed it. I wasn’t going to pass up this year’s event. Workshops like this are reinvigorating, great for networking, and always useful in your research—even if you don’t  immediately hit the mother lode when you run home and try out the new site someone told you about.

So, I spent the start of the weekend in the Grand Rapids area for the two day event. This year’s featured speaker was Curt B. Witcher, Senior Manager for Special Collections at the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana, whom I have met a number of times but I’d never heard him present.  I was delighted by Friday night’s session—a funny and practical presentation on strategies for successful internet research. Curt offered six great resources that researchers sometimes overlook—and I was thrilled to note that his list matched our top resources for our Free Genealogical Resources Online class at work.

Saturday’s first session on using ancestral origins reminded us to research the movements of ethnic groups for clues to your ancestors’ movements and circumstances. I came away with plans to find more information on Southern Migration. What caused my ancestors or their owners to move from North Carolina to Arkansas? Or Mississippi to Arkansas? For some reason I never thought of it quite that way despite definitely having done it with other lines.

Curt’s second session of the day was “Boot Camp and Roll Call” and it occurred to me pretty quickly that I hadn’t actually done any sessions on military records before. So, this was pretty informative to someone who has largely stumbled through or lucked into resources on her military relatives. He offered a number of great leads and reminded me that I haven’t done enough to track the military careers of some of my “uncles.” I’ve followed my direct line ancestors but I may find more leads by tracking their siblings and other close relatives.

The first afternoon session dealt with the non-Federal Population Schedule portions of the Census and left me very curious about what I find in the agriculture and business schedules relating to a number of my ancestors. In my notes there are a list of surnames beside each he described. I’ve used the Slave and Mortality schedules before but I hadn’t really thought about how you can fill in the color in your family history with data in the social, agriculture, and business schedules.

The using library’s and archival collections presentation didn’t hold me the way it should have but that’s largely because it’s a topic I talk about as a librarian all the time—though his comments about librarians and catalogers all but hiding material they didn’t know what to do with in vertical files was dead on. But I was definitely paying attention when he switched over to The Genealogy Center’s collections. It doesn’t matter how often I’ve gone, there is always something more to learn in that collection. It’s fabulous—this is not a library that is sitting back—they’re on the forefront digitizing, trying to broaden access and staying relevant. High on my post-workshop to do list was the idea that I want to strategize a little differently for my next trip to Fort Wayne based on some of Curt’s tips.

It was great to see everyone! I hope everyone came away with ideas and renewed energy. And for any genealogist in the area that didn’t come, give this annual workshop a try in the future. WMGS is well-organized, they get great speakers and have a fabulously helpful member-base.

Thanks all!

Jess

I cannot express how much I love this shot! Grandma all dressed up and and Daddy looking too cool for college in front of his Duster. This was taken on the campus of Michigan State University around 1973.

We’re back to Pioneer Cemetery in Rockford, Michigan for this week’s tombstone. This is the stone for Rebecca (Huntingdon) Porter, my 4^th Great Grandmother and the first wife of Seth Porter. I believe she was born in Vermont in 1837. She married Seth in 160 years ago this month—Oct 4, 1852. She was the mother of seven children—Melissa Emeline, George Erwin  (my 3^rd Great Grandfather), Rheumina, Minnie Isabel, Harry Clifford, Almeda Laverne, and Flora Ethel. She died at the age of 52 in February of 1890.

Happy hunting,

Jess

My family has spent many a fall day stepping back in time through visits to the Michigan Renaissance Festival. I started to go with a close friend in middle school (or if any later, early high school) and have been attending ever since. Highlights include:

• Multiple trips with people more interested in the current college football game than wandering Hollygrove.
• The first year I drove and a row boat fell out of a truck in front of me after my mother, in the lead car of our caravan, lost me. And a pair of my cousins assigned to my car accidently handcuffed themselves together—don’t  ask, I still have no idea why.
• The first year I danced as a guest of Aida Al Adawi’s Middle Eastern Dance Ensemble.

But a few years ago we introduced both my nephews to this strange, fun experience and this year we took my niece for the first time. It’s so much fun to see this all through their eyes. And I’ll always think of this day, when my then 5 year-old nephew strapped on his toy sword and swaggered after his father.

Happy Hunting,

Jess

Since I’ll be riding through roads that the Shea’s traveled and it’s just about 80 years to the day since his death, this week’s Tombstone Tuesday features Rufus Shea, my 3^rd Great Uncle and the next older sibling of Cornelius Shea.

When Gran and Aunt June got me started looking for their family they tried to come up with the names of their great uncles—thinking that a few had visited the Shea’s when their father was still alive. One of the names they came up with was Rufus and it was just unique enough to help me find the Sheas in New York.

To the best of my knowledge Rufus was the 8^th child and 5^th son of Patrick and Theresa (Macumber) Shea. He was born in 1861 in St. Lawrence County, New York. Like his older brothers he worked for some time as a miner there. Later he moved west to the Leelanau Peninsula of Michigan (same as his brothers John, Daniel, Gus, and Cornelius) where he ultimately became a farmer and married Hattie King the daughter of N. C. and Sarah King. They had one son,  Leroy King Shea.

Rufus, Hattie, and Leroy are buried together in Maplegrove Cemetery, Glen Arbor, Leelanau County, MI.

Happy hunting!

Jess