Midwest Geneabloggers Meetup!

I’ve been in countdown mode for quite awhile and it’s finally here! I’ll be attending the MGM today at the Allen County Public Library and I’m super excited to be meeting so many bloggers who share a passion for family history research!

I think part of the reason I’m so excited about today is because I wasn’t able to participate like I had hoped at the RootsTech convention due to illness.  What I thought was food poisoning at the time turned into a month-long hopscotch from test to test that resulted in several days of thinking I had cancer only to have a biopsy reveal that I have sarcoidosis in my lungs along with painful swollen lymph nodes throughout my torso.

I’m looking forward to making some new friends as well as getting some research done.  This will be my first trip back to the library in months and I’m actually a little nervous about it! I had hoped to make a very detailed research plan for the day, but that didn’t happen.  Before my illness, I was deep into research on my Smith family and even though I thought I renewed my FHL microfilms in time, I believe they may have been sent back and not all have returned to the ACPL yet. When I started getting back into research during my recovery last month, I re-opened my Stephens research so I’ll be bringing that along for the day as well.

So my goals for today:

1)  Hoping that the microfilm with the index to deeds for Mercer County is in. Look for Smith deeds that can help me connect my Russell County John M. Smith to Mercer County.

2) Use the ACPL computers to access Fold3 to look for a pension file for Andrew Jackson Stephens. I have the file number, just need to see if it’s been scanned yet.

3) Spend some time looking for information on Andrew Jackson Stephens in Pulaski County. Is he related to my Russell County Andrew Stephens? I haven’t done any research with Pulaski County records, so it has the potential for lots of new information for me.

4) Make lots of new genealogy friends and enjoy a day of genealogy research – doing my very best to forget about illness and work and instead get re-energized about doing genealogy.  After all – Spring break is a week away and I’ll just happen to be in the city with the 2nd largest genealogy library in the world!!!

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“The Andrew Jackson 5″

I was showing my daughter the cover that I’m making for my Andrew Jackson Stephens binder.  My son – who is a graphic designer – created the outline of a tree with the silhouettes of 5 men in the tree. When she looked at the image, she told me that the 5 shadows looked like a “boy band” and she told me I should title it “The Andrew Jackson 5″.  Well, she caught me at just the right moment and I found that extremely funny and giggled about it the rest of the night.

I told her that I’d like to use her fingerprints to make the leaves for the tree.  (An idea that I totally stole from the Budget-Minded Bride blog.) So I thought I’d give an update with a picture of my cover as well as a picture of my daughter diligently coloring her fingertips with highlighters to use like rubber stamps to create the leaves of my tree.  I just love it!  She drew the line, however, when I asked her if I could use her hair like a paint brush to fill in the grass.  I guess helping out mom and “being one with the tree” only goes so far…

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Piecing it Together

I’ve always said that I tend to make better discoveries whenever I reorganize information into a different format.  Whether it’s putting together an Excel file or a Research Plan or whatever, I usually see something that I’ve had in my notes forever, but never was able to see the significance for.

So I’m loving this binder that organizes all of the information that I have for the 5 different Andrew Stephens men.  VERY little of it is new, it’s just that now all of the information is together in one place. (See the tab at the top to see specific information for each Andrew (still in progress)).

I now realize that Andrew 4 is the Uncle of Andrew 1 AND the wife of Andrew 3.  (Which means that Andrew 1 is the brother-in-law to Andrew 3.) Andrew 2 is the son of Andrew 1 and therefore Andrew 3 is the Uncle to Andrew 2. This makes alot more sense in a diagram, but I haven’t taken the time to create a digital version.

I know that Andrew 3′s father is Ebenezer Stephens.  I tried to do some research on him this evening to try to find a family connection, but so far, no luck. My last Andrew (Andrew 5) is a total mystery for me. He was married to Susan Presha Smiley and while I can find quite a bit on her family, I do not have any reliable information on his parentage, so I cannot tell if there is a connection or not, but I’ll be looking for one! I have a feeling that some of my answers may lie in land records and at this time, I’m not quite up to a day of research at the library, so I’ll have to see if I happen to have something in my filing cabinet already.

I realize that anyone NOT researching these men is totally turned off by my number system here, it’s just more of a progress report on the binder project than anything else.

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Tracking the Andrews

As my binder grows with printouts, I can see that I know more about the various Andrews than I thought I did when I began the binder. I’ve had alot of “oh yeah! – now I remember!” moments.

I think I’m going to create a separate page on this blog to keep a table of information for the various Andrews so if there are any other Andrew Stephens researchers out there, they can see what I have and maybe lead me to sources I haven’t thought of yet. I’m going to try to update the page any time I find new information and I’ll try to be good with source citations – but I make no promises on the format of the citations.  I certainly have the “citation bug”, I just don’t have the strain of the virus that makes me stress over commas and publishers and such. (Especially at this point in my recovery!)

See the tab at the top of the screen if you’d like to follow along with the information gathering!

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Pension Index Differences

Last night’s notebook “assignment” was to transcribe the Civil War Pension file that I have for Andrew J. Stephens and to organize the different Pension Index Cards and Compiled Service Record print outs so that I can have the right records with the correct Andrew. The Pension File was only 8 pages long, so that went pretty quickly.

I have Index Cards for 3 different units, but they only apply to 2 different men.  The records for these 2 men were mixed and led to several mistakes in the pension process, so that is the knot I’m trying to untangle.

I had noticed in the past that the Index Cards that I see on Ancestry are slightly different from the ones I got from Fold3.  If you don’t know that there’s a difference, it’s easy to assume you have all of the information you’ll ever get from looking at one card only.

So last night, I did some research to see how the cards are different and I thought I’d share what I found. I got the information from the comments section to Fold3’s Index Cards and from a FamilySearch Wiki. First, the names of the databases are different.

Both online databases are digitized NARA files. Ancestry’s database is the “Civil War Pension Index: General Index to Pension Files, 1861 – 1934”.
Fold3’s database is the “Organization Index to Pension Files of Veterans Who Served Between 1861 and 1900”.  There is also a 3^rd database found at NARA called “Numerical Index to Pensions, 1860-1934”.

I tried to research WHY each set of cards was created.  After all, they are so similar, it really seems like a waste of time and money to create both sets. I could not find anything on the original intent for each project, but here’s what I’ve discovered about each database:

Ancestry’s:

• Arranged alphabetically by soldier’s name
• Includes the unit the soldier served in
• Gives application and certificate number for invalid, widow and minor filings
• Could contain more than one card and can include the name of the widow or minor child
• Has a section for “remarks”
• If cards were too dark (mainly Navy related) they were not digitized
• Available at Ancestry.com and NARA

Fold3’s:

• Arranged by military unit within regiments for each state
• Includes the unit the soldier served in
• Gives application and certificate number for invalid, widow and minor filings
• Has a blank for date of death
• Has a section for “additional service” and “other remarks”
• Available at Fold3.com and NARA
• Will reference at FamilySearch.org, but clicking the image takes you to Fold3

NARA’s:

• Arranged by Pension number
• Contains the information for every pension for that number – soldier application, soldier certificate, widow application and widow certificate (This part confuses me as it appears that one index number could refer to several different people that don’t appear to be related.  So I BELIEVE this means that the 4 different types of records have duplicated numbers.)
• Only available on microfilm in Washington DC

Either digital card might contain a death date, but it seems to be more common on the Fold3 cards.  The Fold3 cards have the word “DEAD” stamped on the upper right corner if the death date is included. On my cards, there are remarks on the Ancestry cards that do not appear on the Fold3 cards.  For one of my veterans, there is a note to see another man’s file for additional information. The other man was the first husband of the veteran’s current wife. When she filled in her paperwork for a widow’s pension, she gave information on both men.  That is something I would not have known to look for if I’d only looked at the Fold3 card.  A new numbering system was also put into place in the 1920’s by the Veteran’s administration. These new numbers were apparently used some of the Ancestry cards so you may need to see both cards to be able to request the correct file. (I don’t have that issue, so I’m not sure what that looks like.)

Here’s an example of what I’m looking at for one of the Andrew J. Stephens.

Stephens, Andrew J Co C 13 Ky Cav – Fold3

Stephens, Andrew J Co C 13 Ky Cav – Ancestry

Again, the differences aren’t huge, but the extra note on the Fold3 card gave me information that I wouldn’t have had by using Ancestry only.

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The “Andrew Stephens” Project Progress

Today, I’m beginning my binder.  My first step is to begin printing the various “organization” files I have and to begin putting them in the binder.  For example, I have an Excel spreadsheet in which I had created a timeline of census records for each of my Andrews.  Imagine my surprise when I opened the file to print and discovered that I have not 3 but FIVE Andrew Stephens to follow! Based on my current memory (which is very likely wrong) I have no parents for any of these men except for the father/son combo. Four of the 5 men have Russell County census records.  The 5th Andrew is from a neighboring county (Pulaski Co) but he is the man who’s pension file is mixed up with “my” Andrew’s file.

So I have my binder and 5 dividers and I will label the sections by wives’ names I suppose. I would love to be able to take each man back one generation so that I can see if these men are related. I will have one section of my “comparison” stuff like the Excel file mentioned and then each man will have his own section with documents that apply only to him. I will try to include all military documents, tax listings, land records, court records, vital records and pictures.

I have many, many things to print and organize and as I do so, I’m hoping that my memory is able to recall steps I’ve already taken so that I’m not duplicating effort, but the real objective of this project is to get re-motivated and to get back into my research in small steps.  I love the feeling of creating something tangible – thus all the paper! –  and the silly part of me even wants to create a colorful cover for the binder.  But that may be a little bit of “spring fever” coming through.  Not a bad thing to have! I also feel like I have a better ability to “connect the dots” when I can read from paper as opposed to a computer screen and to physically write on the pages that I have.

This blog post obviously doesn’t have much in the way of genealogy information to share, just my ramblings as I try to get back into a “normal” schedule of blogging. Hopefully, I’ll soon have some more interesting things to write about!

On another note, I’d like to thank everyone for the kind comments and prayers that you’ve been sending my way. They give me strength when I am weary and words cannot express how thankful I am for that!

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A Project to Work on

As my health is starting to improve, I’m getting the urge to get back into my research, but when I think about digging in again, I get overwhelmed. My medication effects my memory as well and I don’t want to “waste” time re-searching for documents or other information. So I’m trying to think of a “project” that won’t require a ton of original research.

I’ve decided to try to work on an organization project which I already have the information for, I just need to get it all into a better format. I have 3 men in my databased from about the same time period named Andrew J. Stephens. Two of these men are father and son. I have yet to determine if/how the 3rd Andrew may be related to the other two men, but he was the 2nd husband of my GG-Grandmother. The pension file for Andrew J. Stephens indicates that his paperwork and military information was confused with the other Andrew, so this has not been a dilemma to me alone.

I know that at one time, I had many documents taped to a wall in a spare bedroom as I tried to figure out which document went with which man. I had pension documents, tax records, land records and pictures of tombstones that were confusing to match up.

So I’d like to re-print everything and put together a “Binder of Andrews”. I will re-print documents for this binder so that I’m not removing documents from their regular folders. I’ll have a section for each Andrew and as I feel up to it, I’ll type out a detailed timeline for each man – something I’m sure I have for “my” Andrew, but not the other 2 men. I’ll try to create a map showing where each of the 3 men lived within the county based on land records. I’ve written alot on this blog about my Andrew research, so I’ll try to get those posts into a coherent form within the binder. I’ll also use this as an opportunity to try some new software to annotate on a document before printing.

I’m not expecting to make any huge breakthroughs with this project – but I wouldn’t turn it down! I mainly want to get back into the “swing” of research without feeling like I’m muddling things up. I don’t want to feel any time pressures and I want to have something tangible to help keep me motivated to keep working.  One thing I’ve discovered in the last month is that if you don’t have some type of goal to work toward, the natural tendency is to do nothing at all. And while I know that there is great value for me right now to do nothing but rest, I can see how this could become an excuse to get started tomorrow…or the day after that…or the day after that….

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