An 165 year old wedding gift leads to a whole new chapter in my research.
One hundred and sixty-five years ago today, one of my sixteen pairs of (soon-to-be) 3x great-grandparents married in northern Virginia. Okay, big deal, right? If every genealogist went back and wrote about all their ancestors’ wedding anniversaries, there wouldn’t be time for much else. What makes this one special, in my opinion, is a certain wedding gift which has survived despite the horrors of war and the ravages of time.
Rev. O. A. Kinsolving performed the wedding ceremony for Henry Grafton “Hal” Dulany and Mary Eliza “Ida” Powell on 06 Jun 1855, probably in Middleburg, Loudoun County, Virginia. There are only a couple of sources which documented this fact at the time and are still extant.[1] One of these sources is the Dulany family bible. An inscription is still visible on one of the first blank pages. It reads:
This simple inscription is evidence for the bible being a wedding gift. Dr. William Bailey Cochran and Catherine Powell Cochran were more than just casual friends, at least in my estimation. To receive such a wonderful, and probably expensive gift such as a family bible must have meant that the young couple meant something to the Cochrans. In addition, Catherine Powell Cochran and Mary Eliza Powell Dulany were first cousins. Mary’s father and Catherine’s mother were brother and sister. According to the 1850 U.S. Federal Census, the Cochran family only lived a few doors down from the Powells in Middleburg, Loudoun County, Virginia.[3]
As with most family bibles, there are birth, marriage, and death dates of the family written in the blank pages. In the middle of the bible, there are pages marked “Family Record” at the top. I can say that my birth is one of the last entries in the bible (my sister didn’t make it in!). However, what shocked me when I first saw this bible last year was not my name, but two words at the top of two of the “Family Record” pages: “Oakley servants.”[4]
Beneath the headings on these pages are two columns of the names and birth years of 79 enslaved persons. The Dulanys owned “Oakley,” a plantation outside of Upperville, Fauquier County, Virginia. I believe this record of enslaved people was written in 1860 or shortly thereafter, based partly on the last birth date entered. Based on the handwriting and what I know about the plantation management during this time period, I believe Ida Powell Dulany wrote all of the names and dates into the bible herself. It is possible this was done, at least in part, because of the 1860 Slave Schedules.[5]
What makes this list even more genealogically valuable, is that a good number of the people are listed in family groups. For example, Ida Dulany (the assumed compiler) would list a mother and her birth year, then write “her children” and list them below with their birth years. Rarely would a father be listed, however. I don’t know if this was a choice on Ida’s part or Ida just didn’t know who the fathers were in most cases (or didn’t care).
This bible has survived despite being in Henry and Ida’s house during the Civil War. On more than one occasion, Union soldiers searched through the house for food and anything of value. Many items were taken from the house, but not the bible. Ida wrote a journal throughout most of the war. Only a small part of the original journal still exists today, but the bible remains.[6] The bible has been passed down by multiple generations. Perhaps because few knew of its existence is one reason why it has survived for so long.
I hope to write much more about the bible, but especially about the enslaved people of Oakley in the future. I would like to reach out to a few different people and organizations in Virginia to get their advice and possibly assistance before I proceed much further with this project.
Please leave a comment if you are interested in this topic or if you think you might have an ancestor in the area. You can also reach me on Twitter @2ManyAncestors.
[1] Due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, it is not possible to obtain images of the original marriage registers from Virginia. They do exist, however. This index will have to do in the meantime: Aurelia M. Jewell, compiler, Loudoun County, Virginia Marriage Records, 1751-1880 (Arlington, Virginia: n.p., 1959), 172; consulted as “Marriage records of Loudoun County, Virginia, 1751-1880,” browsable images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSM7-5H69?cat=301731 : accessed 6 June 2020), image 759 of 1102.
[2] Dulany Family Bible Records, 1855-1985. The Holy Bible. Privately held by the Dulany family, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE], Virginia, 2019.
[3] 1850 U.S. census, Loudoun County, Virginia, population schedule, [“not stated” listed as jurisdiction], p. 445 (pen), p. 223 (stamped), dwelling 858, family 858, Eliza Parncee [Mary Eliza Powell]; image, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com : accessed 6 Jun 2020), image 132 of 362. 1850 U.S. census, Loudoun County, Virginia, population schedule, [“not stated” listed as jurisdiction], dwelling 868, family 668 [sic?], Wm Cochran; image, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com : accessed 6 Jun 2020), image 133 of 362.
[4] Ida refers to enslaved people as “servants” in all her writings. It was very common in the South, and somewhat in the North when slavery was prevalent, for people to refer to slaves as servants.
[5] 1860 U.S. census, Fauquier County, Virginia, slave schedule, Northeastern Revenue District and District 9, p. 12 (copy), Henry G Dulany, owner or manager; image, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com : accessed 6 Jun 2020), image 6 and 7 of 10. By my count, the Dulanys owned 69 human beings according to this record. This does not account for any slaves which were hired out to others in the area.
[6] Mary L. Mackall, Stevan F. Meserve, and Anne Mackall Sasscer, editors, In the Shadow of the Enemy: The Civil War Journal of Ida Powell Dulany (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2010), 174. The one remaining piece of Ida’s original journal is on loan at the Virginia Historical Society in Richmond. Many of Oakley’s slaves, and some from the surrounding plantations, are mentioned in her journal.
This is just a quick status update to say I’m still here. I wanted to post at least once a week, but that has gone out the window. I hope to use this space as a platform for my writing.
I just joined Twitter! My Twitter handle is @2ManyAncestors. The word “Too” would not fit, unfortunately. I’m going to use the account to promote the blog and everything else genealogy.
I used to be one of those people who assumed that I didn’t need to take the extra time to write out a research plan. I figured all the information I needed was either in my head or in my family tree. Sometimes I had success while researching, while other times I didn’t. Often, I would go off down the proverbial rabbit hole and be up until 2 o’clock in the morning chasing dead ends.
It wasn’t until I began to attend some intermediate-level courses that the idea of a research question and plan was drilled into me. I encourage everyone who would like to improve their research skills to seek out a class, society meeting, webinar, and/or article on how to develop a research question and write a research plan. You and your ancestors won’t regret it!
This July, I went to the Institute of Genealogical & Historical Research (IGHR) in Athens, Georgia. I decided to make a genealogical road trip out of it, since most of my paternal grandmother’s side of the family was from the South, Virginia mostly. I knew I wanted many different types of records and numerous ancestors I wanted to explore further, but what would be my best option to narrow down the countless choices? You guessed it — a carefully crafted research question and plan.
I decided to write down as many questions as I could think of about my paternal grandmother’s family tree. Most of her family has been researched over the centuries in published articles and books, as well as unpublished family papers. So I was able to narrow my focus quite a bit because of that previous research. One question I kept coming back to concerned my third great-grandfather, Henry “Hal” Grafton Dulany. It was because my grandfather introduced me to Hal and his wife, Ida Powell Dulany, through their involvement in the American Civil War, that I became interested in history and genealogy as a child.
There were rumors as far back as I can remember, and I’m sure well before that, that Hal had been in an insane asylum at some point in the latter years of his life, and possibly even died in one. In every source I had, which was not many, Hal’s death was barely mentioned, if at all. I had a date of 10 October 1888, and most published works agreed on that date. However, most of these authored works lacked proper citations, especially for Hal’s death date and especially for his place of death.
I found a few clues online which would eventually lead me to the answer. On FamilySearch, I came across an indexed Virginia death record in the collection, “Virginia Deaths and Burials, 1853-1912.” Unfortunately, the images are available only at a family history center or FamilySearch affiliate library. In retrospect, I should have taken the time to get to one near me, but I couldn’t find the time before my trip. Luckily, it all worked out in the end.
“Virginia Deaths and Burials, 1853-1912,” database, FamilySearch.org (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XRS8-6J2 : accessed 8 November 2019), entry for Henry G. Dulaney, 10 Oct 1888, Staunton, Staunton, Virginia; index based upon data collected by the Genealogical Society of Utah, Salt Lake City.
This record looked very promising, but I noticed several problems. My Henry Grafton Dulany did not spell his surname with an “e” before the “y.” However, it is very common to see it misspelled this way. My third great-grandfather, Henry, was born in 1834, not 1855. To complicate matters, my Henry had a nephew, another Henry Grafton Dulany, born in 1854 (Henry’s nephew died in 1890).
Loudoun County was accurate for the birth place for both Henry Dulanys, but the death place was intriguing. While Staunton was over 100 miles away from the Dulanys’ home in Fauquier County, it was also home to one of two state insane asylums in Virginia during this period. Western State Lunatic Asylum, now in operation as Western State Hospital, was quite a large facility by the late 1880s. Was the Henry G. Dulaney who died in Staunton on 10 Oct 1888 the same person as my third great-grandfather?
Another interesting wrinkle to my online research was the couple of death notices I found for my ancestor. The newspapers reported that Henry Grafton Dulany died on Sunday, 14 Oct 1888 at his home in Fauquier County, Virginia. His burial in the family cemetery near Middleburg, Loudoun County (only a few miles away) was also noted.[1] Were these death notices, the indexed record on FamilySearch, or another record not as yet uncovered correct as to my third great-grandfather’s death? Which record is correct?
I needed a detailed research question and plan in order to find more evidence of Hal Dulany’s death. The question I posed above would be the basis for my research question: Was the Henry G. Dulaney who died in Staunton, Virginia on 10 Oct 1888 the same person as the Henry Grafton Dulany who died at home around Oct 1888 in Fauquier County, Virginia?
I spent a considerable amount of time researching the best libraries and archives to visit in the short amount of time I would have. The three best resources I have used to find the collections I needed onsite are: 1) the citation of an online record, 2) the FamilySearch Research Wiki, and 3) a Google search. What I found was then put into my research plan. In order to guarantee that my trip would be as successful as possible, I wanted to be able to tell the librarian or archivist exactly which items I needed. I made sure to note every detail that would help a staff member locate the material, as well as help me craft my citation later.
I also considered my time constraints at a repository when I put my research plan together. I allowed myself extra time to complete my tasks, while I also left myself with plenty to do if I finished early. Without a research plan, it is very easy to spend a day chasing after dead ends. Dead ends happen much less frequently with solid research plans, however.
I realized that the Library of Virginia should have most of the records I was looking for. This repository held the county and city death registers on microfilm for the time period I was researching.[2] As an extra bonus, most of Western State Asylum/Hospital’s archives had been transferred to the manuscript collections of the Library of Virginia. There were extremely helpful and detailed finding aids online, which my searching for my ancestor a lot easier.[3]
After my first two hours at the library, I had examined the death registers for Fauquier (home county) [4] and Loudoun (border less than a mile from home and buried there)[5] counties, as well as the city of Staunton (indexed record indicated death here).[6] I checked the year I thought he died (1888), as well as the few years before and after.
I came up empty in Fauquier County. However, that was a good piece of negative evidence because if he had died at home, he should have been listed. The only Henry Grafton Dulany I found in the death registers of Loudoun County was Hal’s nephew, who died in 1890. I could distinguish the two because of his age, residence, and parents’ names.[7] Even more negative evidence. Great!
I found the death register entry for Henry G. Dulaney in the Staunton City microfilm.[8] This was the entry which I had seen previously indexed on FamilySearch. It was such a relief to be able to finally see the actual image from the indexed Staunton death record. Not surprisingly, there was more information available than was indexed online. The microfilmed death register listed a cause of death and a specific place of death: W. L. Asylum (short for Western State Lunatic Asylum)! However, this Henry was listed as being only 33 years old just as it stated on the indexed version of this record on FamilySearch. I had more evidence to collect and more questions which needed answers.
My research plan pointed me to the Western State Asylum admission registers next. These registers are on microfilm at the Library of Virginia. Each new admission was given his/her own number. The admission registers are organized by date of admission. Since I knew a date of death, I could try to approximate an admission date.
I found a H. G. Dulaney Sr., who was admitted on 15 May 1888 and died on 10 October the same year. The register listed him as being a farmer from Loudon[sic] [County], but it did not list his age.[9] Still feeling good that this was my third great-grandfather, I continued my research. (I should mention that even if I did not think I was on the right track, it would still be a good idea to trace this person through the records to see exactly who he was. Negative evidence is still evidence.)
The next step in the process was to move to the manuscript room. There I could request materials from the closed stacks by filling out call slips. From my research plan, I already had my list of items to request. I requested the case books from 1888 when H. G. Dulaney Sr. was a patient there.
Jackpot!!! Not only did I find daily medical notations, but the first section gave a brief biography and medical summary of the patient. This included his marital status (married), how many children he had (three), his age (54), his residence (Loudoun Co.), and the reasons he was admitted. From everything I read and already knew about my ancestor, the patient named H. G. Dulaney Sr. was my third great-grandfather, Henry Grafton Dulany.[10]
The story I uncovered was quite sad actually. According to the medical staff’s notes, my ancestor was admitted because he “suffered from repeated attacks of “Mania a Potu,” which has gradually inflamed his intellectual faculties. Has delusions and has made threats against members of his family.”[11] I have to wonder if his service in the Confederate cavalry during the Civil War affected his mental state and caused him to become a heavy drinker. He lost an eye fairly early into the war. I can only imagine some of the horrors Henry witnessed, as well as the physical pain he endured from his wound.
Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your point of view), Henry Grafton Dulany died less than five months after being admitted to Western State Asylum. His condition, as well as the so-called “treatments” at the asylum probably led to his early death.
On my way back home, I made a stop at Sharon Cemetery in Middleburg, Virginia. I felt like I needed to visit Henry, and the rest of his family, who are buried there. I’m getting emotional as I’m writing this, so you can imagine how I was when I found his tombstone. I think Henry and I had a nice moment together. It was a fitting conclusion to my research journey.
Without my research question and research plan to guide me, I don’t think I would have found this information, at least on this one trip to Richmond, Virginia. I did my research before I went to the repository, and it paid off. The Library of Virginia is an easy place to get sidetracked, as are many other repositories. Take the time to craft your research question and plan. You may just unearth a decades-old family secret or solve a family mystery!
[1] “Death of Capt. Dulany,” Alexandria (Virginia) Gazette, 17 October 1888, p. 3, col. 2; image copy, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/image/87783259 : accessed 8 November 2019). “Death of a Well-Known Virginian,” The Democratic Advocate (Westminster, Maryland), 20 October 1888, p. 3, col. 4; image copy, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/image/348166076 : accessed 8 November 2019).
[3] Virginia Heritage, “A Guide to the Records of Western State Hospital, 1825-2000: A Collection in The Library of Virginia,” Virginia Heritage: Guides to Manuscripts & Archival Collections in Virginia (http://ead.lib.virginia.edu/vivaxtf/view?docId=lva/vi00937.xml : accessed 10 Nov 2019).
[4] Virginia Bureau of Vital Statistics, Death registers, 1853-1896; Fauquier County, 1853-1896, reel 10 (Essex – Fluvanna); Library of Virginia, Richmond.
[5] Virginia Bureau of Vital Statistics, Death registers, 1853-1896; Loudoun County, 1854-1896, reel 17 (Lancaster – Louisa); Library of Virginia, Richmond.
[6] Virginia Bureau of Vital Statistics, Death registers, 1853-1896; Staunton City, 1853-1896, reel 38 (Richmond City – Winchester); Library of Virginia, Richmond.
[7] Virginia Bureau of Vital Statistics, Death registers, 1853-1896; Loudoun County, 1854-1896, reel 17 (Lancaster – Louisa); 1890 section, District 1, entry for H. Grafton Dulaney, line 15; Library of Virginia, Richmond.
[8] Virginia Bureau of Vital Statistics, Death registers, 1853-1896; Staunton City, 1853-1896, reel 38 (Richmond City – Winchester); 1888 section, entry for Henry G. Dulaney, line 26 (number 61); Library of Virginia, Richmond.
[9] Entry for H. G. Dulaney Sr, admission register number 4040, 15 May 1888; “Admission Registers, 1828-1941 and Admission Register Index, 1828-1930, miscellaneous reel 6301, v. 266; Records of Western State Hospital, 1825-2000, State government records collection, Library of Virginia, Richmond.
[10] Entries for H. G. Dulaney Sr, notes of medical staff at Western State Asylum (Hospital), 15 May – 10 October 1888; Case Book (Number 2, possibly Volume 3), 1882-1889, Male Patients, vol. 278; Series IV, Subseries C, Case Books, 1828-1910; Records of Western State Hospital, 1825-2000, State government records collection, The Library of Virginia, Richmond.
[11] Entry for H. G. Dulaney Sr, notes of medical staff at Western State Asylum (Hospital), 15 May 1888; Case Book (Number 2, possibly Volume 3), 1882-1889, Male Patients, vol. 278; Series IV, Subseries C, Case Books, 1828-1910; Records of Western State Hospital, 1825-2000, State government records collection, The Library of Virginia, Richmond. Mania a potu is a Latin medical phrase commonly used in the nineteenth century to refer to what basically is alcoholic insanity. It is similar to delirium tremens. The symptoms can include “…uncontrollable trembling, seizures, intense paranoia, and vivid hallucinations.” Matthew Warner Osborn, Roy Porter Student Prize Essay Winner: Diseased Imaginations: Constructing Delirium Tremens in Philadelphia, 1813–1832, Social History of Medicine19:2 (August 2006): 192; image copy, Oxford Academic, (https://academic.oup.com/shm/article/19/2/191/2259046 : accessed 13 Nov 2019).
A version of this blog post was originally published in the September 2019 issue of The Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania’s online newsletter.
After a period of using the search boxes on websites like Ancestry, I realized I was missing a big chunk of the record collections these companies offered (and I was paying for!). Many of the collections and databases online have not been indexed, which means I never would have found them by searching if I hadn’t been proactive. I’m going to share what I’ve learned.
Tip: When reading this article, you may want to have Ancestry.com and/or FamilySearch.org open in your favorite browser to follow along.
Over the past two decades or more, and especially in the past 10 years, amateur genealogists have typically started their search for their ancestors online. Genealogists today have many ancestral bread crumbs left for us on our computer screens by companies such as Ancestry, FamilySearch, and countless others. We could spend the rest of our lives glued to our devices and still not even scratch the surface of what is available out in cyberspace. Of course, the records that have been digitized are only a fraction of what is accessible at libraries, archives, historical societies, genealogical societies, and other repositories.
Like most of you, when I first started researching my family online, I didn’t really know the best ways to find records. I thought I could just plug my ancestor’s name into a search box and magically all of his/her records would fall in my lap. Okay, maybe I wasn’t quite that naïve, but you get the picture. I have the benefit of a history degree, so researching, and therefore searching, come naturally. However, after a period of using the search boxes on websites like Ancestry, I realized I was missing a big chunk of the record collections these companies offered (and I was paying for!). Many of the collections and databases online have not been indexed, which means I never would have found them by searching if I hadn’t been proactive. I’m going to share what I’ve learned, but first let’s go over a few definitions so we are all on the same page.
Indexed record collection – a collection of records which a person (or computer) has read, organized, and made searchable. Sometimes there are corresponding images, but not always. It is common to find mistakes made by the indexers. An indexed record collection should not be confused with an index, which is a collection without the original source material, but important information such as names and dates have been pulled from the record and transcribed and/or abstracted.
Image-Only record collection – also known as an image-first and/or a browsable collection. Digital images of a source, which are viewable page by page. This type of collection is NOT searchable. The FamilySearch Wiki has a helpful page on how best to work with these collections: https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Navigating_FamilySearch_Browsable_Images
If you have searched for an ancestor by using a search box, you have used indexed record collections. So, I won’t spend time telling you how to find these collections. It is the image-only collections which can be tough to find if you don’t know where to look. Websites differ, but the idea is the same on all the major genealogy sites. I’ll use Ancestry as the first example.
Unfortunately, like most websites, Ancestry does not have a “Sort” feature for indexed and image-only collections. However, you can sort by location, date, and/or type of collection. There are a few ways to access these features, but here is one of my favorites: Along the top menu on the Ancestry.com website, click on the “Search” tab. Then click on the first option in the drop-down menu, “All Collections.” Resist the temptation to use the search boxes and scroll down about half way down the page until you see the map. You have the ability to narrow down the record collections by location. I think the Card Catalog is easier to sort collections for type of collection and date. In my opinion, the Card Catalog is less visually appealing, but can get you to the desired record collection faster.
The best place to try to sort image-only vs. indexed record collections on your own is the Card Catalog. Go back to “Search” at the top of your screen, then click on that. Choose “Card Catalog” near the bottom of the drop-down menu. The Card Catalog lists all of Ancestry’s collections (as I’m writing this article, it is well over 32,000). In order to narrow the number of collections down, we have to enter something in the “Title” or “Keyword” boxes, or we can use the filtering options below the boxes on the left-hand side of the page. I find the keyword box very helpful, so we will use that for now.
Let’s say I want to find records substantiating my family’s lore about an ancestor who may have died in a Union prisoner of war camp. He was a private citizen, not a Confederate soldier, however at least two of his sons fought for the Confederacy. I might enter “US Civil War” into the keyword search box in the Card Catalog to see how many collections Ancestry has which relate to the American Civil War. This search comes up with 118 record collections, some of which I can tell don’t pertain to my ancestor. However, I see some which I’ve never seen before and look promising. I choose a record collection entitled, “U.S., Union Provost Marshal Files of Individual Civilians, 1861-1866.” If you click on this collection, you might notice something different from the other collections you are used to using. There are no search boxes, only an option to “Browse this collection” on the right side of the page. We’ve found an image-only record collection on Ancestry!
Now what, right? Lucky, I have a name which will really help me. To keep using my example, I find the ancestor in question (one of my paternal 3rd great-grandfathers, Francis M. Weems) in the correct surname range image set. There are pages and pages of letters and military documents, all of which document his two-year journey from Florida to see his family in Maryland (through many Union lines and military districts) before he died. I’m still trying to find out if he actually died in a federal facility or with family in Baltimore. But without this image-only collection, I probably would not have known what happened to him in the last few years of his life.
One other tip on image-only record collections like the one mentioned above: check the other images/pages surrounding your ancestor’s records. It is very possible you may find relative of that ancestor. Perhaps an even more common occurrence is that your ancestor’s name was not spelled correctly on the original record. Using my Francis Weems again as an example, I have found records which have spelled his surname Weims, Wiems, Weem, Weams, and more. Don’t forget to look for common misspellings in the record collections.
Let’s move on to FamilySearch.org. I actually like the way FamilySearch displays and sorts out their record collections. In many respects, FamilySearch surpasses Ancestry is this department. One sorting feature, “Sort by Records,” is a powerful tool if you know how to use it. Here’s how:
Go back to the main search page (“Search” then “Records”) and scroll down to below the map and click on “Browse all published collections.” This will take you to a list of FamilySearch’s record collections. The trick comes in how you sort this list. The default way is alphabetically, but you want to change it. Click on the word “Records” on the right side of the page, directly under the shaded-out word “Previous.” The list will still be sorted alphabetically, but it is first sorted by the number of records. Since image-only collections are not indexed, there is no count of the number of records included. Only the words, “Browse Images” appear. This is great for us because it creates an alphabetical list of the image-only collections on FamilySearch! If you want to get fancy, you can try to use the “Title” or “Last Updated” columns in conjunction with the “Records” column to sort the image-only collections in a different manner.
There is also an option to sort the record collections by location. On the top of the FamilySearch homepage after you log in, click on the “Search” at the top and then “Records” in the drop-down menu. Ignore the tempting search boxes on the left and click on an area of the map on the right side of the page. Since this is the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania’s newsletter, let’s choose the Keystone State. Click on the U.S., then find Pennsylvania in the menu and click on it.
You are now at the Pennsylvania research page. Again, ignore the search boxes under “Indexed Historical Records” and scroll down until you see “Image-Only Historical Records.” All the records found in these collections would never be found if you had stopped at searching only the indexed collections. Notice under the “Military” subheading that there are four more collections besides the five listed. If you scroll down even farther, there is a section called “Catalog Material.” I think FamilySearch’s catalog, books, wiki, and more are better left for another article, but many of the image-only collections available on FamilySearch can be found by searching in their catalog.
Patience and persistence can yield rich results in the field of genealogy. Do you have any tips or tricks for navigating genealogy websites? Have you had success finding an ancestor in an image-only record collection?
This article was originally published in the April 2019 issue of The Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania’s online newsletter.
Welcome to my blog, “Too Many Ancestors, Too Little Time”! I think we can all relate to this dilemma. Just look at the image of one half of my family tree. My blog idea was somewhat inspired by this post on Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter on how many ancestors you really have if you were to calculate it. It’s more than you think. The idea of going through and applying the Genealogical Proof Standard to all my ancestors and collateral relatives still seems like a daunting task. I hope this blog will make the process a bit easier for me. I hope it will help my readers, too.
My goal is to have this blog be a mix of posts about my ancestors, the many family digitization projects I am currently undertaking, my experiences as someone trying to start a new career as a professional genealogist, and helpful articles about genealogical and DNA research. I want to help others while also keeping a written record for myself (and friends and family) of my research and career progress.
I hope you enjoy the blog and learn with me throughout the journey.
Too Many Ancestors, Too Little Time 