Over the years it has always amazed me how deeply folks buy into their own data. Even me. As we do our research we become convinced of our conclusions…Sometimes even as new information becomes available.

My take has always been that genealogy is always at best an inexact science…If you can even consider it a science. The further back you go, the tougher it is to “prove” your suppositions. And when every bit of “proof” you have is secondary, or even tertiary, you are really just making an educated guess.

Controversies

Over the years I have been involved in several “controversies” of identity. Most of these controversies come about because in your search for ancestors, the first batch of data you come across contains some piece of what later looks like a mistake. Now that we are publishing our research online, these mistakes take on a life of their own and become very hard to eradicate. The permanence of the many message board posts, early database uploads to different genealogy program sites, even early file sharing among relatives have perpetrated false leads.

The image above is from the 1870 US Census for Travis County, Texas. To date, it is the only document where Caleb Cox was called Philipp that has come to light. It led to a bit of a controversy over the years because many of us treated it as a source for nameing our ancestor Phillip Caleb. I personally might have been slower to accept the census as accurate if I didn’t have another ancestor who dropped his first name on legal documents and census records over the same time period.

The latest question that has come up in my research is the last name of my Great Great Grandmother. The earliest references to come to light named her a Johnson. Now there is evidence that names her a Thompson. My tree on Ancestry straddles the two my making reference to the conflicting data. This has led to me being questioned for my proof…So far I am staying ion the middle while I weigh the merits of all of the data and continue the search for more. As this grandmother of ours lived out her entire life in the 19th century along the frontiers of civilization, there is a good chance that little more in the way of sources will ever turn up…We will have to wait and see.

Changing Patterns Of Research

Prior to the Internet, your search for data was done mostly in libraries and courthouses. Now, we are becoming dependent on the on-line databases. There are problems with this new reliance…The database indexes are not always correct. Many times when I search the databases for ancestors in places I know they were, I can’t find them…But if I spend the time to actually go over the images the data is extracted from I will find the family I am looking for. Often, it becomes evident that the person or persons who did the indexing were misreading the handwriting in the document. You, with your greater knowledge of the family you are searhing for, recognize the names even though they may be hard to read.

Even common family stories can mislead…How many of you have the oral tradition that a few generations back you had Native American ancestors? My family has this tradition…My dad was under the impression that his father or his grandfather had been born in Oklahoma. None of the evidence to date support either of these family stories. I still can’t help but wonder if they might not be based on some truth just further back than the evidence has led so far.

As I continue to do genealogical research, I find myself being slower and slower to accept the initial assumptions…Even when backed up by meticulous research. I am now more aware of the life our data can take on once it’s published to the internet.

The whole reason I set this site up in the new format last fall was because it would be easier to update…Since then life happened and I just realized I haven’t. Updated the data that is. So today I did…Update that is.

Now, unfortunately, that doesn’t mean everything is up to date…No, that would be too easy. My Ancestry.com subscription makes it easy to do research…But hard to move the data from the internets to my database. So in the process of chasing some families online I have yet to put the data into my Legacy database so it can be moved here. Bear with me. It’ll happen.

Anyhow, the site is now as up to date as my database is. I’ll try to make a note to update it more often…

Remember…The Username is Guest and the Password is history

It was family reunion time last weekend. One “gift” I wasn’t expecting was a box of Aunt Bessie’s research and correspondence  from the 60’s thru the 80’s. I’ve been spending this week going through it and a lot of what she had was not commonly known to the rest of the family. There were a couiple of letters that tied in with some of the recent discoveries about the family of Nancy West…These letters are from a descendent of Nancy’s first child, a son from her marriage to John Steven Bishop.

Feb. 7, 1980

Dear Mrs. Ralph Olson

You may be surprised to hear from me. I am Laura Bishop Hallister’s daughter an I wondered if you could tell me some about your Mother’s people.

Before my mother passed away she made a trip to South Texas to visit some of her cousins an Aunts. She called your Mother Aunt Sally. Did you see her when she came down there. They had a large family picnic for her but I’ve forgot some of the things she told me.

My Father + Mother both talked a lot about their kin folks but theres a lot I wish I’d written down. I know her father Steve had 6 half brothers and sisters. An your mother was Sally Delana Cox Boyd who died in 1964. Someone had written my Mother.

Steve Bishop married Melissa Cox an Mother wrote to these girls Evelyn and Ruby off an on for years. Would you know them? Which one of the Cox’s was Melissa married to before?

Did you folks live near my Mothers folks at any time.

I’ve always wished we could have afforded a trip down there but we all have had to work for a living an never had the money to go on such a vacation. I would appreciate any information you have on these family matters I love family history. If you don’t know any of this its alright let me hear from some of you.

Your kin from Montana

Ona Mae Juhl

Mrs. B. R. Juhl

This was the first letter. I really do not think Aunt Bessie would have known much about these kinfolk in Montana. I do not have her reply, but from the second letter it would appear she was unfamiliar with any of this family. Laura Bishop was a child of Steven Bishop and his first wife Johnnie Chamberland. It appears that after Johnnie died Steven Bishop married the widow of his half-brother Henry Cox, Melissa Brown Cox.

The second letter reads like this…

March 5, (1980 from envelope)

Mrs. Ralph Olson

Dear Bessie W so glad to hear from you. I know you didn’t know who I was but was surprised you didn’t know any Bishops. Didn’t you ever see Steve Bishop who married your Aunt Melissa? You didn’t tell me which one of the Cox’s Aunt Melissa was married too first?

My Mother Laura Hallister Bishop visited down in Southern Texas I think it was 1954. A cousin or half cousin took her from Austin or Houston by car down there. She stayed over the weekend an they had a large family picnic in the park. She told me who all these people were at the time but I’ve forgotten. These pictures of Aunt Ellen and Aunt Sally were taken then or sent to her later. I knew she went to see these older Aunts. She had lived near by them as a girl because she spoke of them often.

My parents and grandparents (the Hallisters) came to Montana in 1916 homesteaded and went broke. We three older girls were born in Oklahoma. I had four younger sisters no brothers there are 5 of us girls left two of my sisters Aline 69 yrs Ruby 65 an Myself 67 live here in Billings. My youngest sister 50 lives in Colo. Frieda lives in Salem Oregon. She will be 56 yrs old.

Freida has a daughter an son (4 grandchildren). Ruby had 2 boys an 1 girl She has 9 grandchildren 1 great grandchild. Aline has been a widow for over 25 years an didn’t have children. I have been married 46 years an we never had children either

You must be a lot younger than we are to have teenage children.

Mother had your name an address with others in an old address book. I’ll send these pictures to you. Maybe you know some of them they were ones Mother had taken on that trip to Texas. This old snap shot of Uncle Willie Cox and Aunt Alice is one Mother had among her old pictures. I don’t know who the other woman was. When we were kids growing up we’d look throu the old pictures until I that we knew them all. Mother relate stories about ever one. She and Daddy must have been awful lonesome those first years in Montana. Grandpa Bishop visited here in the summer of 1920 I was 8 yrs old an remember him.

I would hope you keep in touch with me I love to know about the kin.

We haven’t had much winter in Montana about 5 inches of snow has fallen since Sunday but it isn’t cold an unusually mild winter. We need more moisture for crops an range land next summer.

You may keep the pictures or give them to someone who knows as I don’t know any of them.

I know Mother went to or throu Lulu Texas where she saw fields of watermelon grown commercially.

Bye for now

Your Montana kinfolks

Ona Mae Juhl

It looks like I have some additional research to do to tie all of these together with my family…more to follow.

I recieved an email from a research buddy with some info on our common ancestry line which has had me running all over Ancestry chasing down one link after another. The interweaving of the lines has my head spinning. West…Bishop…Cox…Whitt…Pearson…Brown. I keep running into the same surnames in the same small area of Texas. I can’t connect them all…yet. But I am sure I will someday…or not. But the fun is in the hunt.

So four hours of names and sources and stories later, I’ve done what I’ve spent the last two week setting up to do…I’ve updated the data on my site…five minutes from start to finish. I really like this TNG scripting setup.

It’s about time to shut it down for the evening…So, I’ll see you somewhere in the tree.