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Don’t Forget Unmarried Relatives

November 24, 2023

Most genealogists start their research with their direct ancestors – grandparents, great-grandparents, and so on. Eventually we might add a few siblings to our tree. If we’re trying to trace a line forward to find living relatives, perhaps we’ll try to find the spouses and children of some of those siblings. We rarely spend any time researching unmarried or childless relatives. We add their names and dates to our tree and move on to someone else.

 

That’s too bad since some of those unmarried siblings may have left records and stories that can break down some of the most intractable brick walls.

 

My great-grandfather George Dawson was one of six children born to James and Sarah Twiddy. The children were all born in a parish called Swanton Novers in Norfolk, England. I found baptismal records in the local parish records for all six of them. I also found burial records for two of them, John and Sarah, who died in childhood.

 

The other four children, three sons and a daughter lived to adulthood. My great grandfather George immigrated to the United States. Although my great grandfather didn’t leave any journals or letters, I believe he kept in contact with his brothers in England. According to ships’ lists, George travelled to England several times. He even shows up in the 1901 census in the household of one of his brothers in England.

 

George’s brothers James and John (a second son was named John after his older brother died in infancy) remained in Swanton Novers. Neither of them married, but they were easy to find in church records and censuses in that area. Sister Susanna wasn’t as easy to find. She apparently left home in her late teens since I couldn’t find her in later records.

 

I spent decades wondering what might have happened to Susanna. Did she marry and change her name? Did she die in another parish where I might have overlooked her burial record? Maybe she went into service and was listed with very little information in later censuses.

 

Recently, British probate records became available digitally at a reasonable price. I ordered records for the Dawson brothers who’d remained in England. Neither had married so they didn’t have any descendants. Both had small estates (anything over 40 pounds required probate). Both were listed in the probate indexes.

 

In the case of John Dawson, his probate solved the mystery of what happened to his sister Susanna. John left his estate to his four nieces and nephews, children of his deceased sister Susanna. Her husband’s name was given. The children’s addresses in London were also provided.

 

With the information from John’s probate, I was able to find records for Susanna’s marriage and death. I also found her and her family in various censuses.

 

No longer do I need to wonder what happened to my great grandfather’s sister. Thanks to an unmarried brother’s probate, I know more about her life than I ever thought I would.

 

It would have been easy to skip John’s probate file. After all, my director ancestor was in America long before John died. The chances of finding anything of interest in his files were small.

Turns out I would have missed a lot if I hadn’t ordered John’s probate. My genealogical mantra paid off once more. Always check every record you can find. You never know what you might find!

 

Carol Stetser

Researcher

 

 

Thanksgiving Menu

November 17, 2023

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. It’s tradition-filled but not as pressure-packed as Christmas. There are all kinds of good food, but not usually as much drunken carousing as New Year’s. It’s quieter than the Fourth of July. Families get together, but it’s just for one meal. Everyone eats to excess, but that usually leaves them too sated to argue. What’s not to love?

 

The only hard part of Thanksgiving is deciding what to fix. It used to be easier. When Grandma cooked, we had roast turkey with stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, and homemade rolls. Dessert was invariably pumpkin pie. A few sides filled out the menu. Green bean casserole, marshmallow yams, and cranberry sauce were the usual ones, but it really didn’t matter since nobody much cared for any of them anyway.

 

Nowadays, it’s harder. There are vegetarians and vegans, lactose and glucose intolerant, not to mention the foodies who want locally grown produce and turn up their noses at canned cranberries. What’s a poor Grandma to do?

 

Maybe because I’m a genealogist, I cling to tradition. I still want to bring out the silver that accompanied every holiday meal of my childhood. My mother-in-law’s English china takes pride of place on our table. We always have turkey on Thanksgiving, even though my youngest son has never particularly liked it. He doesn’t eat much of it, but he agrees that it just wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without a turkey.

 

I make mashed potatoes and gravy just like my mother did – with lots of butter and cream. Thanksgiving is the one day of the year healthy eating takes a break. The stuffing (or dressing as it was always called when I was a child) is the same kind my grandmothers made – dried bread, onions and celery seasoned with poultry seasoning and moistened with milk and water. No nouveau ingredients like sausage or corn bread for us.

 

The sides are traditional too, although we’ve tweaked them a bit over the years. We’ve given up on canned yams with marshmallows in favor of my husband’s family’s candied sweet potatoes. The Jersey sweet potatoes he remembers are firmer and less mushy than canned yams. My husband sautes them in butter and brown sugar just the way his New Jersey grandmother did. Unlike those yam casseroles, everyone eats these candied sweets.

 

Green bean casserole bit the dust at my house years ago. Nobody ever ate it anyway. We now have my brother-in-law’s Aunt May’s salad. It’s an ambrosia-type fruit salad with pineapple, mandarin oranges, and coconut.

 

Dessert is always two kinds of pie – pumpkin and lemon topped with home-whipped cream. The only change we’ve made to my grandmother’s recipes is that we grow our own pumpkins in the garden. In the fall I roast them and stash the puree in the freezer. We’ve upgraded my grandmothers’ lemon pie a bit too. My grandmothers used Jello pudding mix for the filling. My son makes his from scratch with fresh lemon juice.

 

My Thanksgiving menu is basically the same as my grandmothers and great grandmothers made. We’ve added and updated a few things as the family has grown and brought in new traditions. One of these days I’ll pass along the Thanksgiving baton to a younger family member. Maybe they’ll completely change the menu. That will be fine, but, for now, we’ll stick with the old favorites plus a few newer ones.

 

Happy Thanksgiving however you serve it.

 

Carol Stetser

Researcher

 

 

Veteran’s Day for Genealogists

November 10, 2023

Veterans Day is observed today. It’s a good day to make a point of thanking any veterans you know for their service. It’s also a good day to spend some time thinking about the veterans on your family tree.

 

If you haven’t pinpointed all the veterans on your family tree, why not start researching them today. Over its nearly two-hundred and fifty years, the United States has been involved in numerous wars and other military actions. Even if you come from a non-military family, the chances are that you have numerous veterans in your family.

 

I started researching the veterans in my family by listing the wars that they might have served in. Beginning in 1776 with the Revolution, I checked my family tree for men of the right age to have served in each conflict. I also checked for women who might possibly have served, as well. Although far fewer women served, some did. That is especially true since the twentieth century when military service became an option for women.

 

If I didn’t know whether someone served, I checked their names against various military databases. Websites such as Family Search, Ancestry and Fold 3 have extensive lists of those who served in various wars. Many states also maintain lists of men who served from their state in specific conflicts such as the Civil War.

 

The more information you have about someone when you check the lists, the better. Many names are surprisingly common, so additional information such as birth date and place of birth will help you identify if the James Hadlock you have found is “yours.”

 

Other sources to help you confirm whether someone served are obituaries and headstones. Obituaries often report on someone’s military service. They can even include the regiment and company that he served in. Veterans’ families often apply to the federal government for military headstones for them. These headstones are distinctive and identify someone who served. Other headstones may have military symbols carved on them. For example, a GAR symbol on a headstone confirms that someone served for the Union in the Civil War.

 

The next step is to find out more about a veteran’s military service. General information about the history of a regiment an ancestor served in is often available online. Googling the name of the regiment is a good starting point. Many regimental histories also include diaries describing experiences of individual soldiers.

 

For information about individual military personnel, the National Archives (NARA) website at  https://www.archives.gov/research/military offers information about how to obtain various records. A plethora of records is available including Compiled Service Records and complete pension records. Availability of various records varies according to conflict.

 

Military records from the National Archives are not inexpensive. For example, a pension record from the Civil War will cost $75. From personal experience, I have found these records well worth the cost, even for collateral records. They often contain family information that can be found nowhere else. I recommend ordering as many of the NARA military records as is feasible. You won’t be sorry.

 

Spend some time today researching your veteran ancestors and collateral relatives. It’s one way of remembering and honoring their service.

 

Happy Veteran’s Day

 

Carol Stetser

Researcher