Are we "sucking the fun" out of genealogy?

I don't want this blog to become a set of opinion pieces, and have avoided writing such posts in the past, but several somewhat overlapping discussions over the last few weeks on the APG members mailing list and several blogs have me wondering about that decision.  The discussions may be occurring elsewhere too:  I don't use Facebook, Google+ or Twitter much, if at all, for genealogy, although I've tried.  While this blog isn't designed to be opinion oriented, I reserve the right to state my opinion in the occasional post, and this is one of them.

Differences of opinion and differences of perspective on certain topics do not mean people are angry or mad or upset at each other, or that there is "high drama," "frothing at the mouth," "hostility," "turmoil," or "ruffled feathers."  It is normal and natural for people to have differences of opinion.  It would be a horribly boring, backward, and stagnant world if we did not.   Even firmly held and firmly stated opinions aren't a bad thing.  Heck, some of us with firmly held opinions have been known to change our minds, or at least come to understand (after considerable discussion) why others see the issue differently.  Once people understand the different perspectives, they can work together to cooperate on solving problems and reaching mutually agreed upon goals (well, except in the current United States Congress, but I digress).

Some of us even enjoy listening to, learning from, and discussing opposing opinions. It is from such discussions that new ideas, eventual consensus (or at least majority opinion), change and progress comes, although it can be tedious and difficult at times.  Almost nobody actually likes change. 

Clearly (and perhaps even repeatedly) stating an opinion does not mean the person stating that opinion is a snob, trying to dominate the discussion, putting down people who have a different opinion, or trying to force someone else to change.

I think the issues I've seen discussed lately are important, if not critical, topics, at least indirectly, for everyone involved in genealogy, whether a newbie hobbyist, an oldbie hobbyist, a society volunteer, or a professional genealogist.  Among them, in no particular order are: 

*the mission, goals, objectives, and membership policies of the Association of Professional Genealogists

*the continued existence of genealogy societies in general

*the responsibility, if any, for genealogy bloggers who report research results to cite their sources

*the responsibility of all of us to contribute to the field, not just "take"

*how best to communicate with each other in a rapidly changing techno-world

*how to improve the status of genealogy in the academic world

*how best to engage those who do not speak up on blogs, listservs, or other online media

and one that I've not seen specifically discussed, but that I think may be an elephant in the room: 

*generational and cultural differences in how we perceive and approach everything from technology to communication to differences of opinion.

If you don't have an interest in one or more of these topics, fine.  That's your right.  But please don't assume that those of us who are interested, or who enjoy a good debate, are somehow taking the fun out of genealogy. As my friend Harold Henderson commented, please just "avert your eyes." 

This post was not inspired by any particular person, post, comment, topic, or event.  For a variety of opinions on these and related subjects, I would point readers to the following recent blog posts (and the accompanying comments), all by people I admire and consider to be representatives of the future of genealogy.  While I do not always agree with them, and they do not always agree with each other, I'm confident the future of genealogy is bright because of (not in spite of) their firmly held and firmly stated opinions:

Christy Fillerup, "What Have You Done for Me Lately?" Living Ancestors blog, posted 29 Dec 2011 (http://livingancestors.blogspot.com ).

Michael Hait, CG, “My last word on GeneaBlogging and the Paradigm Shift,” Planting the Seeds: Genealogy as a Profession blog, posted 6 January 2012 (http://michaelhait.wordpress.com ).

Marian Pierre-Louis, "All This Nonsense About Blogging," Marian's Roots and Rambles blog, posted 5 January 2012 (http://rootsandrambles.blogspot.com ).

Kerry Scott, "In Which I Sentence A Whole Bunch of Genealogists to a Game of Angry Birds," Clue Wagon blog, posted 4 January 2012 (http://www.cluewagon.com ).

  

The Murder of Isaac B. McCollum

Or was it a "killing?"  The answer to that question may depend upon whether you were a family member, and whether you were on the Union or Confederate side during the Civil War.

Isaac B. McCollum was probably not yet a teenager when his family moved from Greene Co., Tennesseee to Harrison Co., Missouri in the 1850s.^[1]   Missouri was a border state which sent men to fight on both sides.  Although Tennessee voted to secede from the Union in 1861, there were many in Greene County who remained loyal to the Union, including Isaac's uncle, William S. McCollum, and several of Isaac's cousins.

Family tradition maintains that during the war, Isaac's father Alexander was taken by northern soldiers to St. Louis and tried "three times as a southern sympathizer, but was never convicted."   Isaac is said to have fought as a Confederate while his brother, William, was a Union soldier.  On 23 Jul 1864, Isaac was "plowing in a field when two Northern men shot and killed him. Neighbors offered to lynch the murderers but his father... said 'No, it would just cause more bloodshed.' On Isaac's tombstone in Harrison Co. it states that he was murdered and lists the names of his murderers."^[2]

 An 1888 Harrison County history paints a somewhat different picture:

 "Killing of McCollum. - In July, 1864, George Williams, a returned Federal soldier, attempted to disarm Isaac B. McCollum, a Southern sympathizer, and in the quarrel which ensued the latter was shot and killed.  Williams received a shot in the leg, but was not otherwise injured.  He was indicted for the killing only a few years ago, and after quite an extended and exciting trial, was cleared." ^[3]

How can we resolve the conflicting elements in this story?  What else do we need to know?  What do we need to confirm?

While it may seem elementary, one must first confirm the date of death.  Death certificates or registers do not exist for this time period in Harrison Co., Missouri, so the best source will be tombstones.  Does Isaac's tombstone really name the people who shot him?  The answer seems to be "Yes."  Multiple transcriptions of Phillebaum Cemetery near Bethany, Missouri provide a death date of 23 Jul 1864 and state "Murdered by G. Williams & T. L. Sullivan." ^[4]

Next Steps (Research Plan):

1. Confirm the gravestone inscription, if possible. [In late July, 2011, I attempted to photograph the tombstone, but the cemetery was too overgrown to proceed].
2. Newspapers are not known to exist for  Harrison Co. for the time of Isaac's death, but it is possible the story may have been reported in other localities such as Daviess Co. or Kansas City.  
3. Another avenue for verifying the story and determining more details may be Harrison Co. court records.

This simple family story also raises other questions.  Was Isaac a Confederate soldier or sympathizer?  What about his father Alexander?  Did brother William serve in the Union army?  I'll try to deal with these issues in a subsequent post.

Sources:

^[1] Walter Williams, ed, History of Northwest Missouri (Chicago/New York:  Lewis Publishing Co., 1915), Vol 2, p. 698.

^[2]  Debby Strong Taylor, "McCollum Family History (1724-1984)" (typescript, Gate City, Virginia:  December, 1984), p. 19.

^[3]History of Harrison and Mercer Counties Missouri from the Earliest Time to the Present, (St. Louis and Chicago:  Goodspeed Publishing Co., 1888), pp. 285-286.

^[4] Maxine Taraba, Harrison County Missouri Cemetery Records (to 1984), (Decorah, Iowa: Anundsen Publishing Co., 1985).  See also FindAGrave.com and USGenWeb Project’s “Harrison Co., MO Cemeteries” at www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~moharris/hccem.html, last viewed 9 Jun 2011.

End of the Line Descendants: Sarah Ann (Harrison) Sellers (1850-1921)

We all have "end of the line" ancestors, those great+ grandparents of how-ever-many-generations that we either have not yet traced, or who seem to be our brick walls.  They are the pot of gold we so often seek.

But what about the "end of the line descendants" - the people on our family trees who never married, or if they did, had no children?  They may be identified with a name, birth date, and death date on a family group sheet, but like Rodney Dangerfield used to say, they otherwise seem to "get no respect."  But they were real people, with real lives, real joys, and real sorrows, and they deserve to have their story told.

It isn't unusual for me to find myself piecing together the life of a distant cousin, aunt, or uncle only to have it finally click in my brain:  that person left no descendants.  Who will remember them and tell their story?  Perhaps I'm subconsciously drawn to them because some day, I will join their ranks.

One such distant shirttail relative of mine was Sarah Ann Harrison. While at least ten public trees at Ancestry name Sarah's father, Henry Brooks Harrison, only six record her name.  Of those, only one person (who has two at least partially duplicate trees) has attached any census records, and he identified just three of the six censuses on which she should appear.  One tree names her husband as John Sellers, and none include a source citation for her marriage to Hiram Sellers.  No single Ancestry public tree included her complete date and place of birth, the date and place of her marriage, the name of her husband, and the dates and places of her death and burial, even though most of the information is readily available online.^[1]

Although this level of incompleteness is not unusual for many online family trees, it may be especially common for "end of the line" people like Sarah.  So, to set the record straight, Sarah Ann Harrison, the only child of Henry B. Harrison and his first wife Euseba Evans, was born probably on 10 Oct 1850 in Greene Co., Tennessee.^[2]  Her parents had married nine months earlier on 19 Jan 1850 in Greene County.^[3]  Sarah married at the age of 35, on 1 Nov 1885 in Harrison Co., Missouri, the widower Hiram C. Sellers.^[4]  She died on 29 Jun 1921 in Ridgeway, Harrison Co., Missouri and was buried the next day in the Ridgeway Cemetery.^[5]

I can't tell Sarah's full story without research in records not available online, but I can easily develop a basic timeline that tells me where geographically to look.  If you have access to Ancestry.com, you can see the rest of that outline here.^[6]  If you don't, here is what it more or less looks like (you can read this chart, at least on my set-up, by clicking on the image, then right click, View Image, then enlarge):

Unfortunately, when a public tree profile is printed, the links to websites outside Ancestry, like Sarah's burial information at FindAGrave and the Harrison County, Missouri USGenWeb page, are not included.

From the online databases and images that formed the basis of this outline, the bits and pieces of a story for Sarah begin to emerge.  As is often the case, there is conflicting evidence to be resolved, such as whether she was born in 1849 or 1850.  I will demonstrate how to begin to tell a more complete story for Sarah and resolve the conflicts in a subsequent post.

---

[1] Data based upon a search completed 31 Dec 2011 using the Recent Member Connect and Family Tree Hints feature at Ancestry.com.

[2] "Missouri Death Certificates," digital images, Missouri State Archives, Missouri Digital Heritage (http://www.sos.mo.gov/archives/resources/deathcertificates/ : accessed 31 December 2011), death certificate 14635 (1921), Sarah A. Sellers.

[3] "Tennessee State Marriages, 1780-2002," database and images, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : accessed 31 December 2011), for Henry B Harrison and Eusebia Evens (1850); citing Tennessee State Library and Archives microfilm, not further identified; from unspecified Greene Co. marriage register, p. 332, marriage 1759.

[4] Harrison Co. Genealogical Society, Harrison County, Missouri Marriage Records (1881-1899) (Bethany, Missouri: n.p., 1988), p. 49; citing Book 1, p. 416.

[5] "Missouri Death Certificates," death certificate 14635 (1921), Sarah A. Sellers.  Also, Phil Stewart, cemetery surveyor, "Henry or Ridgeway Cemetery, Harrison County, MO," database, Harrison County, MO Cemeteries (http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~moharris/hccem.html : accessed 31 December 2011), for Sarah A. Sellers and FindAGrave.com (www.findagrave.com : accessed 31 December 2011), Find A Grave Memorial# 21747604 for Sarah A. Sellers.

[6] Connie Sheets, "Milligan-McCollum Families of Greene Co. TN and Harrison Co. MO," database, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : accessed 31 Dec 2011), for Sarah Ann Harrison.

Did Thomas McCollum (1751-1806) Have a Middle Name?

Probably not.

More than 80 trees on Ancestry.com record Thomas McCollum's name as "Thomas I. McCollum."  Yet I've never seen him referred to as anything other than Thomas McCollum in original records, or in family records dating from 1915, 1953, and 1984.

Did someone dig up a new clue? I wonder in what document, since no sources are cited that I haven't seen?

I believe I have discovered the probable source:  in late 2008, someone first attached a page from "Tennessee Soldiers in the Revolution" to his Ancestry tree. That tree displays as "Thomas - I. McCOLLUM."

 "Tennessee Soldiers in the Revolution" is an index; the entry is McCOLLUM, THOMAS, I-13-2. The I refers to a volume number.

Corroborating evidence supporting my theory that more than 200 years after his death Thomas McCollum gained a middle initial that is a volume number can be found at RootsWeb WorldConnect and the IGI, where only a few of the 25 or so entries include the I. as a middle initial.  While I haven't reviewed all the entries, the ones I've checked that don't include an initial pre-date late 2008.

Can anyone provide a copy of or source citation to an original record that lists his name as Thomas I. McCollum?  What is the evidence supporting the notion that the Thomas McCollum listed in "Tennessee Soldiers in the Revolution" is the same Thomas McCollum who died in Greene Co., Tennessee in 1806?

History Resources

There is a great set of links to historical maps, photos, and other information on The Historical Society blog.  While it's intended for teachers, genealogists will surely benefit.

I was aware of several of the sites, but certainly not all of them. I could browse for hours (make that days).  Enjoy!

The Trouble with Thomas

One of the reasons I complete so few "reasonably exhaustive searches" is because every time I think I'll be able to concentrate on just one ancestor, another turns up to distract me!  Usually, he (or she) arrives in the form of a distant cousin who contacts me out of the blue.  But in the case of Thomas McCollum and his wife Mary Veneman (Van Eman), it's all my fault. 

Yesterday, I just happened to check my Member Connect list at Ancestry, and saw that a cousin from my Jones line had saved a census record for Lucinda McCollum to his family tree.  What the heck?  The McCollums are on my mother's side, and have no connection to my father's Jones family.  Intrigued, I poked around on his public family tree, sent off an e-mail, and discovered he is also my cousin through the Van Eman line.  He is an experienced researcher, so it was a fun discovery.  

Of course, he wants access to my family tree. Which, well, doesn't exist in online form.  While I have a private tree at Ancestry, it is small, doesn't include any of the surnames we share, and is there only for the purpose of experimenting with Ancestry features.  (The little green leaf actually is pretty cool, as long as you use it mostly for Historical Records Hints not Family Tree Hints).

I've struggled for a long time trying to figure out the best way to "publish" my discoveries so  they will be available to future generations.  I still don't know the answer, but I spent all day yesterday creating a new family tree on Ancestry by uploading my Legacy database for 4 generations of descendants of Thomas and Mary McCollum, attaching census and other Ancestry records to it, and linking it to other online sources like Find-A-Grave.  I think it is a mess, and quite incomplete, but already it is probably more well-documented than most of the dreck one finds there.

Which brings me, finally, to the title of this post.  Poor Thomas McCollum.  He never gets the attention he deserves.  I've had a tendency to think of this family as "already done," but that clearly is not so.  Every few years, he arises from his 200 year old grave and reminds me he's there, just waiting for some one to correct his record.

What needs to be corrected?  For starters:

• Deeds in Greene Co., Tennessee prove he had only 8 children who survived him.   Most online trees list 10 or more.

•  I've never seen anything stating his middle initial is "I."  Where did that come from?

•  I've never seen any evidence, except family tradition, that his father was James McCollum, let alone that his mother was Elizabeth Parker.  

• People have joined the DAR claiming he served from Cumberland Co., PA.  Others claim he was paid for service from North Carolina.  There was a Thomas McColm (sic) in the 1790 census in Cumberland Co., PA, but some suggest our Thomas may have been in Greene Co., Tennessee (previously Washington Co., NC) by that date.  How do we know it was our Thomas who served from Cumberland Co., PA and not some other Thomas?

•  If he was from Cumberland Co., PA, how and when did he meet his wife?  It doesn't take much sleuthing to discover the most likely possibility:  Maryland, where her father, Nicholas Van Eman, lived before moving to Yohogania Co., VA (which later became Washington Co., PA) .  One only has to check the 1850 census for his daughters who lived until 1850 to discover that all three (enumerated in three different counties of Tennessee) were reported to have been born in Maryland between the years 1774 and 1789. 

 I wrote in more detail about some of these issues back in 2006 on the McCollum Mailing List.  Perhaps it's time I start working on this project in earnest.   I hereby declare publicly that Thomas McCollum is my primary target for the rest of 2011!   


 

Finding a 19th Century American Farm Family in Argentina: Sarah Anderson and Moses Hougham

Experienced genealogists know that family traditions and online family trees are filled with errors, and that relying on the Internet alone is not a good strategy.  My experience searching for Sarah (Anderson) Hougham, my paternal great-grandmother's sister, reminded me, however, that one ignores family traditions or online family trees at their peril, and that the Internet is powerful and constantly changing.

A mystery that has long fascinated me is "What became of Sarah Anderson and her husband Moses Hougham?" All I first knew about the Houghams was on a scrap of paper, probably written by my aunt in the early 1930s, listing my great-grandmother's siblings, with their birthdates.  Next to Levina Anderson's name is written "one who married Houghman (sic) and went to South America.  Address was Mrs. Moses Houghman Rosario, Tala, Entre, Rios, Republic Argentina."^[1] However, Levina Anderson never married, died at age 19 in 1857, and is buried in West Cemetery, Eagleville, Harrison Co., Missouri.

In 1994, I checked a microfilmed marriage index from the Family History Library (FHL) and discovered that it was Sarah Ann Anderson who married Moses Hougham in DeWitt Co., Illinois in January, 1844. Today, it is much easier to find the marriage on the Illinois Statewide Marriage Index. Later that year, again using FHL microfilm, I found Sarah and her family in the 1850 census living in McLean Co., Illinois, ^[2]  but I could not locate them in subsequent U.S. census records.   (Sarah's maternal grandmother, Rachel Downey, lived with Moses and Sarah Hougham in 1850, but Rachel is another story).

When did the Houghams move to Argentina? How could I find them there? Why would a Midwestern farm family move to South America? Do I have cousins still living in Argentina?

In late 2007, I stumbled across the Argentina National Census of 1895, with images, on the Family Search pilot site. After searching for Moses Hougham with no results, I remembered that married women often use their own surnames in Spanish-speaking countries. So, I plugged "Sarah Anderson" into the search engine, and there they were: Moises Hougan, age 74, a farmer, and Sara Anderson, age 72, both born in N.A. (North America), living in Rosario del Tala, Entre Rios, Argentina.  The census indicates Sarah had 5 children and had been married for 52 years.

I had confirmed the Anderson family story: Mrs. Moses Hougham did live in Argentina!  But would I be able to find more about them? I obtained some information on how to research in Argentina and discovered there were still people living in Argentina named Hougham.  However, other research priorities, and life's daily responsibilities, took priority and I soon put Sarah and Moses aside.

Yesterday, on a whim, I tried again. Although Hougham is an uncommon name, it can be difficult to search because it is often spelled or indexed incorrectly. After poking around on Google and Ancestry Public Trees, I discovered the family may have lived in Oregon before moving to Argentina.^[3]

Armed with the Oregon clue, I found the Moses Hougham household in Lane Co., Oregon in 1860, although Ancestry indexed them as Mack and Elizabeth Hougan.^[4]

On Google Books, I found an 1886 Catalog of Machinery Manufactured by the Westinghouse Company containing a testimonial from Moses Hougham of Rosario, Argentina, probably written in 1885, extolling the virtues of a grain separator:

Putting together the information that can be gleaned from the 1850 and 1860 U.S. census records, and the 1895 Argentine census, Sarah Anderson and Moses Hougham were probably the parents of five sons:

• John Hougham, b. about 1845 in Illinois.  He lived with the family in the US in 1850 and 1860.  According to an extracted marriage record in the IGI, Juan Hougham married Eladia Garcia on 17 Apr 1880 in Rosario, Colonia, Uruguay.  Could this be the same person?

• Evan Hougham, b. about 1846 in Illinois. Perhaps he died before 1860, as he is not living with the family in Oregon.

• Anderson Hougham, b. about 1856 in Oregon.

• A[a]ron Hougham, b. about 1861 in North America, probably Oregon. Aaron, his wife Adela Peyrot, and three young daughters (Sara, age 3, Elena age 2, and Evangelina age 1 1/2), were enumerated next to Moses and Sarah in Rosario del Tala in 1895.

• Noe (or Noah) Hougham, b. about 1863 in North America, probably Oregon. He was living with Sarah Anderson and Moises Hougham in Argentina in 1895.

I can't find the family on the 1870 or 1880 US census, so they may have moved to Argentina as early as the  mid-1860s.

Much work remains to answer my questions, but in about 30 minutes online, I narrowed the time frame for their move by more than 20 years (about 1863 to 1885, instead of 1850 to 1895),  I found more details about the family, and I have new clues to investigate.

Additional Notes and Sources:

^[1] I am embarrassed to admit that, while I remember seeing this handwritten document in my youth, I cannot find it in my files.  All I have is this transcription, probably typed by my mother in the early 1960s.

^[2] 1850 U.S. census, McLean Co., Illinois population schedule, Randolph Grove, p. 86 (stamped), 171 (penned), dwelling 1461, family 1494, Moses Hougham household; digital images, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com: accessed 28 Oct 2010); citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm M432, roll 117. 

^[3] Fosilfndr (user name), "Boyer Family Tree," entry for Moses Hougham, Ancestry Public Member Trees. This tree provides source citations for the 1850 census, a family bible for Moses' father Isaac Hougham, and "Illinois Marriages, 1790-1860."  It lists 6 children:  Noah, Richard A., John G., Evan G., an unnamed boy born in 1856, and Aaron, b. 30 Aug 1861 in Portland, Oregon, d. 20 May 1909 in Rosario, Argentina.  The dates and places of birth and death for Aaron are said to be from the back of a photograph.  The tree also states Moses Hougham died in October, 1898, "shipwrecked in Argentina," but provides no source citation.

Also, Barbara Jean Barbre Evans, Hougham family file, Nancy McNabb's HomePage.  Mrs. Evans indicates that "supposedly, two of Isaac's sons settled in Argentina," but she names only Moses and several daughters as children of Isaac Hougham.  She states that Aaron Hougham "married ____ Piamontes (born 23 Oct 1859, St. Germanstowne, Italian descent)," providing the same dates and locations of birth and death as the Boyer Family Tree.

^[4] 1860 U.S. census, Lane Co., Oregon population schedule, Eugene, p. 257, dwelling 148, family 148, Moses Hougham household; digital images, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : accessed 28 Oct 2010); citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm M653, roll 1055.