Trimming your Family Tree, Good or Bad?

I try not to go too far off the beaten path where my Family Tree is concerned. For example, I do add the parents of people who married into my family. I don’t necessarily research the parents any further than their names, however if their names were given on a marriage record, then I will add them to my tree. It is through these names, that I might find siblings that marry into various branches of my tree.

Anyway, while researching a first cousin 3 times removed, I found that she died quite young. Then her husband remarried. I decided to add the second spouse, since there were several census records, where this 2^nd wife is living in the home with her stepson, my 2^nd cousin 2 times removed. When I added her, I ask myself, should I add the 2^nd wives’ parents? Or is this going too far off the beaten path? 

When I do my family research, I want to make sure I actually have the correct records that go with my family before I key in any new information. I find it is easier than to just accept every hint that comes my way and sort things out later. Therefore I open multiple documents (tabs) on my browser. I also try to put these documents into chronological order by dragging the tab to its proper placement, with oldest event on the left and more current on the right.

As I was going through documents after my first cousin 3 times removed died, I found one census record where the the niece of the 2nd wife was living in the household. Then I found that this same niece married her stepson, my 2^nd cousin 2 times removed. As per my normal routine, from the marriage record I added the niece’s parents where the father is the brother of this 2nd wife. However, without their parents’ names, I would not know of the relationship between the 2nd wife of husband of my first cousin 3 times removed and the wife of my 2nd cousin 2 times removed.

Therefore I now have the Father-in-law of husband of 1^st cousin 3x removed and Mother-in-law of husband of 1^st cousin 3x removed. Plus my 2^nd cousin 2 times removed father-in-law shows up as Brother-in-law of husband of 1^st cousin 3x removed instead of what I would like to see of Father-in-law of 2^nd Cousin 2x removed. The program knows the relationship, for whatever reason, has decided to show the other relationship.

So each of you will have to decide how far is too far off the beaten path with adding people to your family tree.

Who is Elizabeth Sponable Chapman?

My current summer project is to clean up and deal with all the documents I have stored in my “Working” Genealogy subfolder. This folder is where I gather documents as I am trying to verify who may fit somewhere into my family tree.

Anyway, I came to an Obituary Clipping from an Unknown newspaper as follows:

I must admit, I am unsure where I found it which doesn’t surprise me since I saved the file on Dec 23, 2013. What I am sure of, it was not found on Newspapers.com because I have looked and I cannot find it there.

Therefore: Who is Elizabeth Sponable Chapman, sister of Abram and Nathan Sponable and Mrs. Frank Williams and aunt of Mrs. George Weaver?

Doing a quick search in my files, I do find only one Nathan Sponable and no Abram Sponable and no Frank Williams. However my Nathan has only one sibling listed and that is Catherine.

I do an Ancestry search for Nathan with a brother Abram and find that they may be the children of Harman Sponable and his wife Elizabeth. The 1860 Census in Oppenheim, Fulton County, New York also listed my Catherine, along with a Lydia and Mary. The Nathan from my files is the son of Harman and Elizabeth and thus I feel like I am successful in placing Nathan and Abram in the correct family.

The above obituary states that Elizabeth has a sister Mrs. Frank Williams of Gloversville. After digging around in other people’s trees on Ancestry, I find a 1929 obituary attached to Deila Sponable as Mrs. Frank V Williams. Deila's obituary states that her brother Nathan survives her. 

I find several trees with Nathan’s obituary attached that states that he is the last of a family of nine children being the son of Elizabeth Kring and Harmon Sponable. It states that one of his daughters is Jeannie D Weaver and since Elizabeth’s obituary also states that her niece is Mrs. George Weaver, I feel confident I have found the correct family for Elizabeth Sponable Chapman. However, I am not finding an Elizabeth in the family and to be honest, I am not finding nine children either.

Going forward to the 1870 Census for Harmon Sponable, I find he has seven children, Catherine, Nathan, Abram, Lydia, Mary, Delia and Walter. Based on the ages, there are gaps for other children between Lydia and Mary and Delia and Walter. So perhaps the other two children died between census years. The New York State Census of 1855, 1865 and 1875 do no list any additional children and thus no additional clues were found.

Back to my question, who is Elizabeth Sponable Chapman. This leads me to start looking at the daughters of Harmon and Elizabeth, perhaps the process of elimination will work.

I already had Catherine Sponable married to Henry Bettinger in my file. I find Mary's 1899 obituary where she is listed as May Sponable and is married to Alfred C Bame. May’s obituary states she is survived by three sisters, Mrs. Henry Bettinger, Mrs. Friend Chapman and Mrs. Frank Williams. As previously mentioned above, Deila Sponable’s obituary has her married to Frank V Williams and I already had Catherine married to Henry Bettinger. This leaves Lydia. 

One tree I explored even added Elizabeth as an extra child to her tree in this family and had a copy of the obituary attached. Perhaps this is where I found the obituary, and since I knew there wasn't an Elizabeth listed as a child of Harmon and Elizabeth Sponable, I saved the file for future research. It states her death as 1913. If the death date is correct, it makes her birth year about 1858 because the obituary states she was 55 years old.

I find a 1905 New York State Census for Friend Chapman and Elizabeth Chapman, which list her estimated birth year as 1856. However, neither name brings up any more Ancestry Suggestions. 

I do a little more digging and find tons of City directories, and finally find a 1900 Census in Gloversville, Fulton County, New York that list Lizzie Chapman’s birth date as Nov 1854 in New York. This date is the closest to Lydia Sponable whose estimated birth year is 1853 based on various censuses. It states that her and her husband have been married for 19 years and they never had any children. That puts her marriage date to about 1881 and the 1880 US Census is the last I find Lydia. Could Lydia and Elizabeth be the same person?

Is Elizabeth the middle name for Lydia? By 1910, Elizabeth is a widow still living in Gloversville. I don’t find her after 1910 and thus the death date of 1913 could possibly be correct.

In Conclusion, Harmon and Elizabeth Sponable had seven children that lived to adult hood. Of their four daughters, only Lydia is unaccounted for as an adult and this is when Elizabeth starts to appear as a married woman. Harmon and Elizabeth’s child May also known as Mary, obituary listed a sister as Mrs. Friend Chapman of Gloversville. The 1900 US Census from Gloversville, has Friend Chapman and his wife, Lizzie as being married for 19 years with no children and Lizzie’s birth is listed as Nov 1854 which is in line with various early census records for Lydia Sponable. In 1881, there is a City directory from Gloversville that list Della Sponable and Lydia Sponable as glove makers at the same address. The 1910 US Census from Gloversville Ward 1, Fulton, New York gives Lizzie Chapman’s occupation as Glove handwork. Therefore, Elizabeth Sponable Chapman, wife of Friend Chapman and Lydia Sponable daughter of Harmon and Elizabeth Kring Sponable most likely are the same person.

What kind of Genealogy Researcher are you?

I realized that it appears I am a gatherer. I go around researching my family and gather information and documents. What I am not doing, is taking the time to update my genealogy software database with the information that I have been gathering.

So if I don’t add the new facts and people into my tree, are they really related to me? Well of course they are, however, how would I know? 

Plus, I have found that I am gathering the same information that I gathered two or more years ago.

Why? Well, back in 2000 when I realized that I should be citing all my sources, I also developed a rule that I would not put any new fact or person in my tree that I wasn’t willing to cite the source at the same time. I didn’t want to add anymore non-sourced facts into my tree. My other goal was to source the facts that have no sources as I was researching that person or branch of the family.

This method does work well, until about 2015 when I was elected to be my local DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution) Registrar. I found myself spending so much time on my perspectives’ applications that I didn’t have time to do my own research. Or should I say, inputting my own research. I was researching my family as a break from doing applications. I gather information and copied it into a “Working” directory, so I could find it again. There it would sit.

This summer, my big goal is to go and clean out my “Working” directory. To make matter’s worst; I have several “Working” Directories. I have some on various cloud services, along with my laptop. I am travelling, thus I am unsure if I have any on my desktop. I would be surprise if I didn’t.

So now as I go through my laptop "Working" directory (the smallest folder), I am bringing up my genealogy software. I check to see if this information has already been cited in my database. Then I check my well organized “Genealogy” folder where I store a copy of my documents and see if I have a copy of the information there. Also, I am fixing my naming conventions in the folder where I am checking for the document. I am making sure they are all named consistently. It is so much easier to find items when I use the same format. Plus I am checking my source citation for the fact too. Are they consistent with others, I am fixing those earlier ones, where information wasn't quite complete. I am also, making sure that every citation has a document in my “Genealogy” folder.

If you are curious about my “Genealogy” folder, check out my old blog post “Organize your Computer Files” http://simplygenealogy.blogspot.com/2013/01/.

This process might seem boring, however I am doing a little new research on the one person that I am revisiting based on my “Working” folder. I also check the working folder for all items that pertain to this same person. I am pretty good on my names, thus I usually have all the documents for one person sorted by their name, since this is what I usually name them in my “Working” folder.

So back to work I go, heigh ho! What kind of Genealogy Researcher are you?