New Poll Created!

I have posted a new poll to the blog. The question for this poll is "Where in Western Europe did your ancestors come from?" The choices are:

• Belgium
• France
• The Netherlands
• British Isles

You can choose more than one choice. I did not include Spain or Portugal in this poll even these countries could be considered part of Western Europe. I plan to include these two countries in the Southern Europe poll. I will also post a later poll that goes into more detail for the British Isles in a later poll.

A Glimpse of Autumn ...

I took some pictures earlier today, and this photo was one of them. You can view some my other pictures here. I did take some pictures a couple weeks ago, but they did not come out as well. You can view those pictures here.

Poll Results

The poll has official closed, and the results are in. The question of the poll was, "What Area of Europe Did Your Ancestors Come From?" A total of twelve votes were cast. The results are:

• Western - 9 votes
• Central - 3 votes
• Eastern/Russia - 2 votes
• Southern - 1 vote

To those that participated in this poll, thank you for participating.

Two More Legal Posts Posted

Craig Manson has posted two more legal lesson posts on his blog. You can read the one posted yesterday here and the one posted today here.

Carnival of Genealogy Posted!

The latest edition of the Carnival of Genealogy has just been posted. You can find it here. The next topic is on using DNA to solve genealogy mysteries. Enjoy!

More Genealogy Blogs Added

I've added a few more blogs today. The blogs added are:

• Amy Kane's Atlantic Ave.
• Barbara Ainscough's Ainscough Family History - Mawdesley
• GeneaSofts

You can find these and other blogs on the lower left hand of this blog. Any suggestions for other genealogy and history blogs.

Another Law Column Posted

Craig Manson posted another law column last night. You can read it here.

More Genealogy Blogs Added

I've added several more genealogy blogs to the list today. These blogs are from Lynn Turner, and the blogs added are:

• Bradley D. Marchant's The Ancient Parish of Giggleswick
• Chelsea's Genealogy
• Dayna Fosson's Italian Genealogy
• Heather's Genealogy Joys
• Hendricks Family Searcher
• JaNean Frandsen's Genealogy Buzz
• Karina Morales' La Familia de Karina Eunice Morales Ovalle
• Malese's School Life
• Mary Beth Tolman's What's Your Line?
• My Scandinavian Family History
• Terry Jenson's West Carrol Parish, Louisiana Genealogy

You can find these and other genealogy blogs on the lower left hand of the page. Any suggestions for other genealogy or history blogs are welcome.

You Know You Are a Michigander When ...

I noticed earlier today that Moultrie Creek had posted "You Know you're a Floridian if ..." a few days ago, and died laughing while reading the post. So, in light of that post, I felt I had to create my own list about Michigan.

You know you are a Michigander when ...

• You point on your hand to show where your hometown is.
• You are unfazed by the sudden change in weather or the inaccuracy of the weatherman's weather report.
• You refer to Windsor, Ontario as a sister city.
• You refer to the driving seasons as "Construction" and "Winter."
• You call the day before Halloween, Devil's Night.
• You call the people who live in the Upper Peninsula, "Youppers."
• UP means the Upper Peninsula.
• You visit another state and consider the car ahead of you, going the speed limit, too slow.
• You continue to drive in bad weather after all the other cars pull over.
• You know how to drive in bad weather.
• You think nothing of driving on a road covered by a couple of inches of snow.
• You think nothing of driving at 80 m.p.h. or more on the freeway.
• You are not surprised by a temperature drop of 4o degrees from the day before.
• You consider your winter warm when you have had very little snow.
• You associate the first couple of weeks in November with deer hunting.
• You hear, "Tri-County," and think Metro-Detroit.
• You take it for granted that the Lions will lose.
• You estimate the distance between two locations in minutes.
• You consider Hockeytown another name for Detroit.
• You refer to Detroit as "Motown."
• You call coke and Pepsi, "pop."
• You still go to school even though it snowed the night before.
• You are used to driving on bad roads.
• You know how to play euchre.
• You expect to drive the same distance to a place in the U. P. as you would in driving to Tennessee.
• You hear the term, "Inland Lake," but do not associate the Great Lakes with that term.
• You can go north or east and end up in Canada.
• You are used to cold weather.

This is all that I can think of when it comes to Michigan. I hope you found this funny. Any other additions are welcome. Enjoy.

Cemetery Thoughts ...

I have to admit; I'm not a fan of visiting cemeteries. I find cemeteries a little creepy, but I go to cemeteries because there might be some information on the tombstones of my ancestors or in the sexton's records. (And, to state the obvious, find out where my ancestors are buried.)

I think the main reason why I find cemeteries creepy - and this does not include national cemeteries like Arlington or Gettysburg - i s probably because the pervasiveness of death. I'm young, and I do not think about death very much. The unearthly stillness in a cemetery can be unnerving. The biggest difference between national cemeteries and the rural or local cemeteries is that the national cemeteries are, for me, a historical place and as such, there are always large groups of people walking around. It is less intimidating to walk around a cemetery when there are many people walking around or when one is visiting a cemetery because of the history that surrounds the place. Visiting a rural or local cemetery is, for me, a completely different experience than visiting a national cemetery.

Of course, I have never gone into a cemetery alone. (Having other people with when you go to a cemetery is good idea for safety reasons besides the other reason of helping to keep the fear away.) I have always visited a cemetery with family members, primarily with my grandparents and my brother. Most of the cemeteries I have visited are cemeteries where my ancestors and their siblings are buried, and most of those cemeteries are rural cemeteries in Michigan. Many of them have been alongside a two-lane road and the area is almost completely deserted (ie., few cars passing by on the road or no other living people in the cemetery.) Of course, at the same time, these cemeteries can be interesting as to the variety of the tombstones. If I could forget that the dead people are buried in cemeteries, I could easily mistake cemeteries for parks with magnificent stone sculptures. It would work, but only if I didn't notice the pervasive scent of decay. (I'm serious about this. It smells sweet but repugnant at the same time.) To be honest, I'm not exactly thinking this the whole time I'm in the cemetery. These thoughts are more subconscious, in the back of my mind, and they only last for few seconds or minutes. They go away only because I my main concern is to find where my ancestor is buried, take a picture (or pictures) and write down any information that I find, including where the grave is located. (As you can imagine, I want to get my research done as quickly as I can.)

So, what experiences have I had? It may sound like I've had a bad experience from what I have written up above, but I really haven't had any bad experiences (other than wasting time). I just have a minor phobia of cemeteries. A few of my experiences:

• A literal wild goose chase in searching for the burial site of my great-great-grandfather. (I won't write about that in this post as this story is a post in its self. Someday, I'll post about it in the future.)
• The accidental discovery of an ancestor's grave while searching for the graves of other ancestors. (I found those graves too, but I wasn't expecting to find my other ancestor's grave as well.)
• And the mistake I made the first time I went to do research in Saint Joseph County, Michigan. (It is much easier to go to the library first, find the transcriptions, and then go visit the cemetery. I don't think I need to say anymore about that one.)

I realize that these are not exactly thrilling experiences. These are just the more memorable experiences I have had in the past four years of doing genealogy. I will have to write on my other experiences on other posts otherwise this post will be extremely long.

So, what do you think about cemeteries? As always, you are more than welcome to leave a comment.

One Puzzle Piece I Would Like to Solve

I have only done research on my family history for the past four years, but I already have a couple of minor mysteries that I want to resolve.

One of those mysteries deals with one of my Stout ancestors and whether or not he went to California with his two older brothers. Joseph and Susannah Stout had seven children: William, Reuben, Peter, Edward, Margaret Ann, Sarah Ann and Alexander (based upon Reuben's biography and the censuses of 1850 and 1860). According to Reuben Stout's biography, Reuben and his brother William went to California in the mid-1850s. All that Reuben Stout's biography says about that trip is that he engaged in mining (which type, I'm not sure) and was successful. In addition, Reuben's biography mentions that his brother, William, was thirty-two when he died in California. Unfortunately, the biography does not give a date or place of death and neither states where Reuben engaged in mining. Although, I don't know exactly when William died, I'm guessing that he died sometime between 1860 and 1863 based upon his age in the 1850 census. In the 1850 census, William's age was given as twenty years old.

When I first read Reuben's biography, I believed that only Reuben and William went since they were not with the rest of the family in the 1860 Census. Peter, of course was listed as living at home with his parents, so I assumed that he had stayed in Michigan, that is until I started to do research in Saint Joseph County, Michigan's deed records. As I was going through the grantor and grantee indexes to the deeds (both grantors and grantees were listed in the same book index for that time period, which made looking for deeds even more difficult), I came across a deed made between a Charles A. Lawrence and Peter Stout. Obviously, it was not surprising to me that the land Peter Stout was buying was in Saint Joseph County; what was surprising to me, was that the deed had been written out in Nevada County, California and sent to the Saint Joseph County's Recorder Office. In addition, Peter Stout was listed as a resident of Orleans Flat, Nevada County, California. Up until that point, I had no idea that Peter might have gone to California or where the Stout brothers might have done mining in California. I forget when exactly the deed was created because I don't have it in front of me, but I do remember it being created somewhere between 1857 and 1859, since I was impressed by how close the time was to the 1860 Census.

Needless to say, this piece of information has left me in a little bit of a quandary, since Peter was back in Michigan by 1860 and the deed, as I mentioned before, was created only within a couple of years before the census. This has left me wondering: did my ancestor, Peter, go to California with his brothers? I did check the 1860 census to see if there were other Peter Stouts living; however, none of the Peter Stouts listed in the 1860 census resided close enough to California to rule out the possibility that my ancestor was the one who bought the land. At the moment, I believe that the Peter Stout on the deed is my ancestor since the deed was dealing with a parcel of land that was in the same area roughly where other family members lived. Other than that deed, I do not have any further proof that my ancestor was in California. His brother's biography does not mention who exactly went to California, other than to state that William died somewhere in California.

So far, what I have written about seems fairly straight-forward; however, there are some problems with a few of my sources that makes this mystery a little bit more complicated.

The first source that I have problems with is Reuben's biography. Many of the dates in his biography, especially the deaths of his parents, are incorrect when checked against sources that are more contemporary to the dates. For example, Joseph Stout's probate packet, his and Susannah's death records and the joint tombstone for Joseph and Susannah all confirm that both Joseph and Susannah died later than published in Reuben's biography. So, the problem for me is that I don't know how much I should believe Reuben's account. There is information in his biography that I have yet not confirmed or unconfirmed , but many of the dates in the biography do not add up. In addition, Reuben's biography incorrectly state when his father bought his land and the location of the land.

The second source I have problems with is the 1860 census. The problem that I have is that I have not been able to find William or Reuben in California or in the 1860 census. If I had been able to find either one of them, I would have a better idea of where to look for records in California. So far, I only have a deed that suggests a possible location and in my eyes, this information is weak at best.

A third source that I have problems is with two deeds that deal with land in Saint Joseph County, Michigan. I have already mentioned about the deed made out in California, but in 1864, Peter Stout sold a parcel of land that was in Saint Joseph County. At first it appears as though the two deeds are related, and they might be, except that the locations for the parcel are do not match with the older deed. It is very possible that the California office wrote down the lot number incorrectly and that this is the same lot of parcel; however, if this deed is for another parcel of land, I have not yet found a deed where Peter Stout bought this land. At the risk of appearing stupid, I definitely need to go back to the Saint Joseph County, Michigan's Recorder of Deeds office and go through the deeds again.

I have not yet done research into California records primarily because I'm not familiar with California records for this time period. I'm familiar with Michigan records for this time period, but in California, I don't know what type of records were made during the Gold Rush Era or around it, since the events in this mystery occur around that time. In addition, I don't know if the Stout brothers travelled overland or by boat to California. If they travelled overland, would any records exist as to whether or not lists were kept of those who came into California from the east?

While I was writing this post, several questions came to my mind. If Reuben was doing so well at mining in California, why did he return to Michigan? Did he leave California as a result of his brother's death. When and how did William die? Did William die in a mining accident? Was William involved in mining, and was he successful as well? I suspect I will find the answers to some of the questions as I do research into California records.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to where I need to look? Any advice or ideas is welcome. Thanks.
___________________________________________________________________

Sources

(Unfortunately, I don't have my sources with me at the moment, but I'll try to put down as much information as I can remember about my sources. I can't guarantee the complete accuracy because my sources are at home and not up at school with me.)

1. Lockport Township, St. Joseph County, Michigan, 1850 U. S. Federal Census
   
   
2. Florence Township, St. Joseph County, Michigan, 1860 U. S. Federal Census
   


3. "Reuben Stout," Portrait and Biographical Album of Saint Joseph County, Michigan. (Chicago: Chapman Brothers, 1889), 347-348.



4. Probate Packet of Joseph Stout, Saint Joseph County, Michigan Probate Office



5. Deed record of Charles A. Lawrence to Peter Stout, Saint Joseph County, Michigan Recorder of Deeds Office.



6. Deed of Peter Stout selling a parcel of land, about 1864, Saint Joseph County, Michigan Recorder of Deeds Office.


7. Tombstone of Joseph and Susannah Stout, Calhoun Cemetery, Florence Township, Saint Joseph County, Michigan.


8. Death registrations of Joseph and Susannah Stout, Saint Joseph County, Michigan, Book One, page 85.

A Ghoulish Post ...

I noticed earlier today that Olive Tree Genealogy had posted information on the discovery of a medieval cemetery. I thought I would post a link to this post because it fits very well with this time of the year, since Halloween is only a couple of weeks away. You can read the post here.

Genealogy and History Thoughts - Column Four

"How did you get involved in genealogy?" I have been asked that question a couple of times. The short and simple answer would be that I had an interest in history and that led to wanting to find out the history of my family; however, over the past several days, I have reflected upon how I got into genealogy, and I realized that the full answer to that question was more much complex than the answer I usually give to other people.

Ever since I was a young child, I had an interest in history. At the age of five, I knew that I had grandfathers who were World War Two veterans. How did I know? My parents told me, even though I don't remember now exactly when they told me so. In addition, my grandfather began to tell me stories about our family's history around the time I was five. My grandparents also had a family tree that they showed to me as a young child. In addition I knew that my grandpa was a history buff. Of course I highly doubt that my grandparents knew that this exposure would have an impact on me, but either way, I believe that hearing stories about my family unconsciously influenced my interest in history.

I don't remember now if the history lessons in elementary school also added to my interest in history because I only remember history lessons being taught in class from the fifth grade and up. Before the fifth grade, I think the lessons were more social studies than history. Either way, I think the elementary lessons only had a small influence over me because by the time I entered the fifth grade, I was already reading about history on my own, and I know that my own personal reading had more of an influence on whether I would find history interesting or not. One the first eras of history that I had an interest in as a child was in World War Two, and that was probably as a result of knowing that my grandfathers had served in that war. At the same time, though, this interest wasn't consciously on my mind. What I mean is that, I wasn't actively thinking about the stories I heard when I decided to open a textbook and read the few paragraphs or pages on a historical topic. It was much more subtle.

Well, that is probably the most in depth reason that I have ever given on how I became interested in history and genealogy. How about you? How did you get interested in genealogy? I would love to hear other people's stories. Please feel free to either respond by a comment or a post on your blog. I look forward to hearing what others have to say.

More Genealogy Blogs Added

I have added a few more genealogy blogs to the blog. The blogs added are:

• Miriam's AnceStories2
• Family Tree's Blog
• Sue's Sues Genealogy

You can find these and other blogs on the lower left side of the page. Any suggestions for other genealogy or history blogs are welcome.

More Genealogy Blogs Added

I've just added a few more genealogy blogs today. The blogs added are:

• Boisvert History
• Echo Hill Ancestors
• Lynn Turner's Hispanic Genealogy

You can find these and other blogs on the lower left hand of this page. Any suggestions for other genealogy and history blogs are welcome.

Haven't Posted In a While, and Articles of Note ...

I haven't posted in a few days because I've been busy mostly with schoolwork. It's midterm time at our school, so as you can imagine, my mind is focused on school.

On another note, there have been a few blog posts that I want to mention. First off, I want to thank Terry Thornton for adding me to his H. O. G. S. blogger. It is an honor, and you can read his post here. I also want to mention his article, "Don't Miss These...," and you can read it here. Jasia wrote a response to my third column, and you can read her post here. And last but not least, I want to mention that Craig Manson will be posting another legal post on his blog. You can read his post here.

Genealogy and History Thoughts - Column Three

Has anyone ever had an experience where history became something more than just a bunch of dry facts or something that happened to people in the past? What I mean when I say, "where history became something more," I mean, has anyone had an experience where history came alive and felt real for a moment or at least did not feel as distant as at other times?

During this past summer, I was browsing through an old newspaper from an ancestral county, when I came across a newspaper article on the Missouri Compromise. As I read the column, history suddenly came alive for me. It wasn't just a feeling where I thought, "Hey, I learned this in school," but it was also a sense of a close connection. It actually felt as though it had meaning for me. (I realize this sounds weird, but I can't explain this any better.)

After I stopped browsing the newspaper, I started to wonder if history could be made more interesting to people not interested in history. Would many more children find history more interesting if their teachers brought in some original documents or had them do their family history as a project? From my understanding, many students find history boring and I think part of the reason is as a result of how history is taught. Would a change in teaching style or presentation style make history more interesting? I'm not sure, but I am worried by the failure of many Americans to remember their country's history.

What do you think? Please feel free to leave a comment.

Just Wanted To Say Thank You ...

I just want to say thank you to Craig Manson, Jasia and Miriam for their kind comments that they left earlier today on my "Added a new post." I also want to say thank you to anyone who may leave any comments as well.

Update, 7 October: Miriam posted a congratulations post to me on Friday. You can view it here. Thank you Miriam.

Added A New Poll

After the results from the last poll indicated that most of the respondents' ancestors came from Europe, I decided to add a new poll. The question for this poll is: What Area of Europe Did Your Ancestors Come From? The choices are:

• Western
• Central
• Eastern/Russia
• Southern

You can choose more than one category.

I chose to divide Europe into four sections to keep the poll categories simple. I do plan on having polls on this blogs in the future that go more in detail as to which countries, but for the moment, I just want to keep it simple.

On a side note: This post happens to be my 100th post, and I have started posting on this blog since mid-March of this year. Can you imagine that?

More Genealogy Blogs Posted

Several more genealogy blogs have been added today. The blogs added today are:

• Allan Scahill's The Scahill Pages
• Karen Burney's Louisiana Lineage Legacies
• Paula Stuart-Warren's Paula's Genealogical Eclectica
• Peter Walker's Hollyer One-Name Study Blog
• The Mobile Genealogist

I learned about The Mobil Genealogist first from a post by Jasia, and I first learned about Karen Burney's Louisiana Lineage Legacies from a post by Craig Manson. You can find these blogs and others on the lower left hand of this page. Any suggestions for other genealogy or history blogs are welcome.