In Genealogy, as in Real Estate: Location, location, location

I have read numerous articles, blogs, etc., discussing how important place is in genealogy.  So, having that message knocked into my thick skull, I've joined The Society for One-Place Studies.  My one-place study is of the town where I grew up, Jacksonville, Florida.  My husband was born and raised in Jacksonville.  Even though I was born in Long Beach, California, I lived in Jacksonville since I was 7 years old, from 1954 to 1980, so I consider it my home town.  I told my Florida native husband and other Floridians I've met that I've been "Floridated."  We only moved into the next county to the south because my husband had rural fever.  He didn't want to be a city boy anymore, but I have to say, I miss the suburbs.

Those of you interested in one-place studies may find my one-place study blog at One-Place Study: Jacksonville, Florida.  

The first entry is a welcome message, telling a little about me, about Jacksonville, and about the scope I envision for my one-place study.  The second post tells of Jacksonville's place in the early 20th century as "Hollywood" before Hollywood was Hollywood -- the important role it played in the history of early silent movies.

My family lines do not go back far in Jacksonville, not as far as my husband's family does.  But even his family connection to the city goes back only as far as 1925, when his paternal aunt was born here.  Next in time is my husband, born in Jacksonville in 1946.  Our older daughter was born here in 1971.  Her sister, born in 1972, was born in St. Petersburg, Florida, as my husband was stationed there on active duty in the U.S. Coast Guard.  Our son-in-law was born in Jacksonville, also in 1972.  His family came to Florida from Missouri.  The latest family member born in Jacksonville is our grandson, born in 2004.

However, Jacksonville has longer connections to my own family than the birth of our older daughter.  My mother and father, and my sister and my brother, lived here during World War II, when my father, an officer in the U.S. Navy, was stationed at Naval Air Station Jacksonville as a flight instructor.  

This area of Florida has roots in Spanish Colonial Florida, and I will be presenting information on that history as well as more modern information.  Jacksonville has a rich history, and I'm going to delve into it.  Come along for the ride.  You may be surprised.

Luring my Grandson into Genealogy

 My grandson Victor, who is now 20 years old, has always wanted to hear family stories, especially stories of the years my husband and I spent in the U.S. Coast Guard.  I have told him other family stories, as well.

He visited me a couple weeks ago or so, looking for instruction on how to apply the standards in the section of the Chicago Manual of Style on source citations for one of his college classes.  He had a paper to write, and needed the format for writing his source citations.  He mentioned that he had another paper to write, and would have to pick a topic.

Aha! thinks wily grandma.  Maybe I can get him interested in genealogy.  So I suggested that he write his paper on how to begin investigating one's family history.  Not a recitation of his family history, though he might include some examples therefrom, but the how-to of beginning to gather documentation, analyze it, and draw conclusions from it.  He said he would have to run that by his professor.

He called today and said the professor had given him the green light.  So he will be over sometime during the week or the weekend, and we'll talk about it.  I have a one-lesson talk called "Bare Bones," which gives the most basic information about the subject.  I think I'll use that as a basis for instructing him on how to do this.

And I'll give him a few family stories, too.  Not for the paper, but as an incentive to him to think about delving into his family history.

Randy Seaver's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Unusual Cause of Death

Hey, I'm actually posting this on Saturday!  It's time for Randy Seaver's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun and this Saturday's task is to answer:

1)  What is the most unusual cause of death you have discovered for your ancestors?

2) Tell us about the most unusual cause of death you found in your own blog post, in a comment on this post, or in a Facebook Status  post.  Please leave a link on this post if you write your own post.  

I would venture to say that having one's head crushed by a railroad-yard donkey engine is rather unusual, in the grand scheme of things.  That was the cause of death of my maternal grandfather, Benjamin Franklin "Frank" Reed [1].  The death occurred in Detroit, Michigan, 20 October 1917, two months before my mother's first birthday.  The specific cause is entered on the death certificate as "crushing injuries to head; run over by steam engine."    

My grandfather and grandmother were married 25 November 1913, and had three children [2].  The first child, my uncle Don Reed, was born seven months before the wedding.  According to my mother's sister, my aunt Margaret, the Reed family "ganged up" on my grandmother, Ruth [Nave] Reed, and took the two younger children, daughters, away from their mother and had them adopted within the family, by two of their uncles and their wives.  They would have looked down on her, following the ethos of the times, for "loose morals" in having engaged in premarital relations.  They probably also were not happy with her working as a telephone operator, as she had a mother and a son to support.  In those days, "decent" women stayed home rather than being in the workforce.  

My aunt also said that my grandmother had a sad life, and indeed she did.   You may read her story here .  Married to a woman he loved but his family didn't, with three children in a rather short span of years and the animosity of his family toward his wife, it could have been a stressful time for my grandfather as well as for my grandmother.  The one photo I have of my grandmother shows her with a sad expression on her face.  So I wonder if perhaps it all got too much for my grandfather, and in a moment of utter despair and hopelessness, he decided to lay his head down on the railroad track.  How many ways can one get one's head crushed by a railroad engine?

He could have tripped and fallen.  I wonder if any record exists with the railroad or in some other office that would have more detail?  This was before some of the more common and useful railroad records existed.  Any suggestions would be welcome. 

[1] State of Michigan, Department of State, Division of Vital Statistics, Transcript of Certificate of Death, Benjamin Franklin Reed.  Verified by Glenn Copeland, State Registrar, Michigan Department of Community Health, Lansing, Michigan, 3 April 2009.  Registered no. 10695.

[2]  "St. Joseph, Indiana, United States records," images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org /ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-LBLF-9DV5?view=index : Jan 25, 2025), image 108 of 818; Indiana. County Court (St. Joseph County).  Citing Marriage Record 1912-1913, Vol. 25, page 88.

 

Joplin Note-taking Software: I use it to keep my research logs.

 I have been the world's worst about keeping a research log.  I have tried all sorts of forms published by a whole variety of companies and individuals, and nearly all, if not all, of the ones listed on Cyndi's List.  None have been satisfactory.  I like a lot of detail, and most of these forms do not have enough room for the completeness I crave in making research log entries.

I have tried various templates that others have created for their research logs.  Ones that use Excel or another spreadsheet software, I still find too much of a strait-jacket, and I'm not all that smart about spreadsheets, anyway. 

Because of the above difficulties, I just haven't been good about keeping a research log.

On my way to other things online, I ran into a software package that I have found ideal in meeting my criteria.  Joplin is a free, open-source note-taking software that is flexible and adaptable.  I can make a "notebook" for each individual in my family tree, and enter free-form, detailed notes and source citations.  I am not restricted by the inflexibility of a form.  For each source I locate, I enter a brief description of the fact(s) found in each source document.  I can comment on the reliability of the source, whether it is original or derivative, and on the information in the source, whether it is primary or secondary, and how the source stacks up as evidence.  Then I enter the source citation.  

When I need to document a statement in my blog, an analysis of the information found in a source, a posting on Ancestry.com in my trees, or whenever I need a source citation, I can simply copy the citation I have entered for the source under each individual that I have already created in my notes in Joplin.

Here's a sample of an entry in Joplin for research on my great-great-great granduncle Major Wellman Packard, of my father's paternal line, concerning his kinship to Nathaniel Strong Sunderland, another great-great-great granduncle through my mother's paternal line:

"Major Wellman Packard and Nathaniel Strong Sunderland married to sisters: Packard to Ellen Harris; Sunderland to Rachel Harris.  Both men wrote receipts to the Estate of Israel Harris, father of Ellen and Rachel, for having receive the bequests; their wives, daughters of Israel Harris, also signed.

"Last will and testament of Israel Harris. Montgomery County, Ohio, Estate Files, Ca. 1810-1887; Probate Place: Montgomery, Ohio. Ohio, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1786-1998: Montgomery County, Estate Files, Volume C, page 477. Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/8801/images/005885619_00381?pId=11232916. (Last accessed 21 January 2025)"

The entries are made in RichText format, which most word-processing programs, even proprietary ones like Microsoft Word, can interpret.  Joplin has apps for a variety of devices, including mobile phones for on-site research.  It can accommodate photos taken with a phone's camera.  The program can use videos, photos, and audio files, too.

So I'm getting better about keeping a research log, now that I have found a software package I am happy with.