Not much is happening on the list right now, so I thought some of you might
enjoy this one from Ancestry's weekly journal.
... Martha
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When You Assume - by Juliana Smith
"When you assume . . .." Whenever I hear that phrase, I flash back to "The
Odd Couple" episode where Felix Unger is in front of the courtroom with a
chalkboard warning of the dangers that come "when you assume." And while
assumptions in family history won't necessarily make or break any court
cases like it did for Oscar and Felix, it can waste a lot of precious
research time by taking you down roads that just don't need to be traveled.
Time and money can be wasted in researching the wrong records, in the wrong
place, or even the wrong person. Often we form our opinions without even
realizing we are doing it. So, here are a few things to think about.
IDENTITY -
This one is a biggie!
No one wants to waste time investigating someone else's ancestor, but it can
easily happen, particularly when you are dealing with common names. In these
cases, it is best to collect as much information as possible on each. By
creating a profile for your ancestor and others with the same name, you may
be able to separate yours from the pack. More information on this can be
found in these articles:
. Separating Men of the Same Name - by Patricia Law Hatcher
. Searching for Catherine Kelly in a Sea of Kellys - by Juliana Smith
ETHNICITY -
Assuming ethnicity can lead to big problems when you attempt to research
overseas, which can make for a very expensive error. But this is an easy
mistake to make.
You may have formed an opinion, without realizing it, based on your
ancestor's surname, but often surnames were changed-either Americanized to
help the family "fit in" better in their new homeland or sometimes to avoid
discrimination. My great-grandfather, John Mekalski, couldn't get a job for
a time because Polish people were being discriminated against. Because he
spoke fluent German, he changed his name to Wagner for a little while in
order to find work. He was not alone in this. In some cases, the name may
never have been changed back.
You may have also seen a place of origin on immigration records, like
passenger lists. This may only reflect the port a person sailed from
immediately before coming to this country, not taking into account that it
was only a stopover on their journey. If the record you have lists
Liverpool, Bremen, Hamburg, Amsterdam, Le Havre, or any of the other larger
European emigration ports, it may be that your ancestor was not necessarily
from there, but traveled to the port before sailing from it.
RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION -
In researching my predominantly Irish Catholic ancestors, I have to
occasionally remind myself that they weren't all Catholic. We have found
several ancestors in "Bishop Loughlin's Dispensations, Diocese of Brooklyn,
1859-66, Vol. I," by Joseph Silinonte. These dispensations were often handed
out for Catholics wishing to marry non-Catholics. This means that I will
most likely be finding some of my ancestors in non-Catholic church records.
We may also be tempted to think of our ancestors as having the same
affiliation that we do, but we need to remember that people may have
converted for any number of reasons. Residents of sparsely populated areas
may have attended the only church that was within a reasonable distance,
regardless of denomination. Religious affiliation may have changed with a
marriage between two people of different religious backgrounds. They may
even have changed to avoid persecution and prejudice. Whatever the reason,
it is important to keep an open mind when searching for religious records.
For more on finding religious records :
Locating and Using Religious Records for Family History - by Juliana Smith.
http://learn.ancestry.com/LearnMore/Article.aspx?id=1105&sssdmh=dm13....
o_iid=23557&o_lid=23557
Confederate soldiers...
They Gave Their Last Full Measure of Devotion.