The theme for Week 8 is "I Can Identify." Genealogy research is about identifying the correct people to attach to our family trees. Who have you worked hard to identify? Another way to interpret the theme would be to highlight someone like my grandfather, who could spot (and correctly identify all kinds of mushrooms. (My sisters and I never got the knack of doing that!). Click here to check out all the themes for 2023.
For me, I can identify who my person isn’t. What do I mean? When searching for your family member, make sure to record those people who have the same name, that you figured out is not your person.
Case in point: I was helping a friend solve the problem surrounding her relative George W Summers. Her cousin shared a family group sheet where George was one of the children. The Family Group sheet did not cite any sources. She was given a will of George’s step father who listed all his step children. Therefore, we knew George did exist and belonged to his parents.
This branch of her family hailed from Missouri and she loves that Missouri has birth and death records online.
Even though the information on the Family Group Sheet for George did match a death record, the record did not list his parent's or spouse. So, the next question was, how did her cousin know this was the correct George?
Her cousin listed George's spouse as Phoebe Dee Dork, however the Death Certificate didn’t list Phoebe as a spouse but as an informant. Next, we found George's Find a Grave record based on the Death Certificate that didn’t have parent's however had Phoebe (the informant) as a daughter.
We searched for all George Summers’ Death Certificates and found another possibility. This Death Certificate listed his parents, which didn’t match our Family Group sheet however listed his wife as Eunice Phoebe Dee. Next, we found his Find a Grave record which was tied to his wife Eunice Phoebe Dee Rork.
This means her cousin now has the wrong death information and the wrong spouse. Each fact tied to two different George Summers.
After searching through some census records, we determined that neither of these George's was her George. At this point I didn't want to forget all this information since it took us several hours to sort through this mess. Also, we did prove who George was not.
Therefore, in the Family Tree Maker software program under the person notes for George Summers, we documented who George was not. These extra notes will prevent us from sorting through these two George's again. Plus, if someone else tries to pass one of these George's as her George, she will have these notes to remind her why they are not her George.
Therefore, remember to document why you exclude people and facts just as you need to cite your sources. This will save you needless repeated research, whether it's positive or negative information. Thus, this is how I can identify who my person isn’t.
Have fun and remember to Just Do Genealogy!
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