Journeying with Jacque

Assumptions: the Bane of Genealogy Research

A huge mistake that I have made when conducting research is to find documentation but not saving it immediately, assuming that I can just go back and retrieve it later. Unfortunately, research is not always straight forward or obvious. When I’m involved in research, I don’t always remember how or even where I found some piece of information. I’ve then spent hours trying to locate something. Regrettably, I’ve occasionally not been able to unearth that bit of information. I’m doing much better now with organizing my research into folders on my computer (that I regularly backup) and now that I’ve been working on my tree in Ancestry, I save relevant documents promptly on my tree. (I also keep paper copies of some documentation.)

One of the main mistakes newbies to genealogy research make is to rely on other people’s trees. It’s exciting to discover new information that someone has already gathered and can point you in a direction that you were previously unaware of. Some of the research that others do is well documented and extremely helpful. Unfortunately that is not true of everyone. When I first started my research,  I discovered that Stephen Watkins was in the Revolutionary War. I found that that to be very intriguing. It is absolutely true that Stephen Watkins had enlisted in the Revolutionary War and it has been authenticated that he was in several battles. However, the problem in various people’s tree is that there are several Stephen Watkins’ (father, son, nephew, cousins) as well those with this name that are not related. There were also multiple marriages. Some people just added facts to their tree without ensuring that they had the correct Stephen Watkins so information has sometimes been added willy-nilly and is associated with various Stephens without attribution. As I looked more closely it was very confusing to sort everything out.

I also had a bit of confusion concerning John Calvin Watkins. I was very confident about my great grandfather, but when I was doing research I discovered some DAR documentation that pointed the way to the correct Stephen Watkins with Stephen’s son Joseph Hanslep Watkins as his son (and the grandfather of John Calvin Watkins). Unfortunately, some of the rest of the documentation didn’t make sense. With more research I discovered that John Calvin Watkins and John Calvin Watkins were cousins (both grandsons of Joseph Hanslep Watkins and great grandsons of the same Stephen Watkins).

Another mistake I made was in thinking I knew something about a relative that I recently discovered was not true (or that there is definitely “more to the story”). I’m hoping that the 1950 census will provide some information but as of yet I cannot find the family in the census. I believe that they were living in Wichita, Kansas in 1950 but I am not absolutely sure (by 1968 they were living in Salinas, California).  As a child, I “heard” that my grand-aunt and uncle on my dad’s side had two sons with muscular dystrophy. When we watched the Jerry Lewis telethon on TV we always discussed this so I think my mother thought this was accurate (though my memory may definitely be faulty). I know for sure that my grand-aunt and uncle adopted twins (a boy and a girl) born in 1955 from Berlin, Germany (so they were my age which gave us an instant connection). They visited us when we lived in Oklahoma and the girl and I were pen pals for a couple of years before we lost track of each other. She has since died. The older two sons were never mentioned. Well, to my surprise, as I was researching my grand-aunt, I discovered one of her sons who died when he was 77 (he was born in 1943). He had been in the navy, been married twice, and had several children. So far, I have not been able to connect with anyone from his family but he obviously did not have muscular dystrophy. His obituary mentions his parents but no siblings, not even the twins. My grand-aunt and uncle only have death notices, not obituaries, and no information on their children is found there.

My maternal grandmother told my mother that her oldest brother who was born in 1886, died in 1906 after he was hit in the chest with a baseball. This was family lore and we all just accepted it as truth. Recently, I met my mother’s cousin. His father was the second oldest child in the family and was born in 1888. My grandmother was the youngest of 10 children and was born in 1905. Our cousin told me that the oldest brother, Henry,  contracted TB. They lived in La Crosse, Wisconsin and their doctor told them that even though there was no cure for TB, Henry would be better off in a warm, dry climate. My great grandfather worked for the railroad in Wisconsin and was able to continue working for the railroad in San Bernardino, California so the family moved there shortly after my grandmother was born. I asked our cousin if Henry had indeed died from being hit by a baseball and he said that no, he had actually died of TB. (He had never heard a story about the baseball.) I found Henry’s death notice, but no cause of death was give. So was Henry hit by a baseball? Maybe. Did he die from the baseball? Most likely not; he probably died of TB.

Don’t just assume, verify. Save all of your documentation with the source information even if the data is conflicting. Eventually, you may find that clue that ties everything together. Family stories may be totally true; they may have a kernel of truth with some embellishment; sometimes they are completely false but a good story nonetheless.