Saturday Night Genealogy Fun-- Ellen's Questions- Part III

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: 

 It's Saturday Night again - 

time for some more Genealogy Fun!!

Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the Mission Impossible music, please!):

1)  Ellen Thompson-Jennings posted 20 questions on her Hound on the Hunt blog two weeks ago - see Even More Questions About Your Ancestors and Maybe A Few About You (posted 27 June). 

2)  We will do these five at a time - Questions 11 to 15 tonight (we did 1 through 5 two weeks ago and questions 6 through 10 last week)

3)  Tell us about it in your own blog post, in a comment on this post, or in a Facebook post.


11)  If money wasn’t an issue; where would you go to do genealogy research? 

I would go to a number of libraries and archives that I wouldn't be able to list  here because there is so many. Here are a few of them.

Visit The National Archives in Washington D.C. to obtain military pensions, military records, etc.

Go to Broome County, NY Clerk to possibly find guardianship records and court documents.

To Mississippi find out more about my ancestor's lives.

12)  Do you ever feel like you’re the only person researching your family?

Not necessarily. I have a cousin that researches and goes to different states to obtain documents on her free time. When she and my father first met, she showed him a family tree chart of all their known ancestors. There are a lot descendants with our shared ancestral lineage. There some family lines that not many people have researched that I've found. One line of mother's side, has probably well over 100 descendants, from my ancestral couple, Oscar Barton and Loretta. I've also found many cousins that research that same couple.



13)  Why do you think you’re interested in your family history and other family members might not be? 

I'm interested in family history because of stories and connection. Stories about ancestors makes me think about putting myself in their shoes, knowing the sacrifices they've made for the better- that's amazing. I wouldn't be able to do any of it. The historical context, as well. For example, what happened in the Great Depression, that made an ancestor that what they did. It's interesting to know. Family members may not be interested because it's not something they do-that they enjoy. It could be time consuming, for them or boring. Sometimes they're in for stories.

14)  Do you intend to write about your genealogy/family history findings? 


Maybe in the future. Not a lot in my family is known or answered. I'm still learning everyday about my family.  I may post some of my findings  on this blog, unless it informational to my viewers. I may consider it one day, but for now, I'll keep researching until I ready to create one in a book, journal, etc.

15) Did you ever make a genealogy mistake that caused you to have to prune your family tree? 

 The short answer, YES. When you are new to genealogy, you probably started following the leaf. You're looking at records, and just clicking, attach, attach, attach. That was me, the quick-click genealogist. I use to save people's information on their trees, mainly my sister's tree. This bad habit had me pruning someone else's family that wasn't even mine own. Lesson learned.


Speaking off Quick-Click genealogy, watch DearMyrtle's video about it here. Enjoy!