Building a Family Tree: An Example on FamilySearch.org -- Project Five

This Project was suggested by someone who reads my blog posts. The people requested are Milton Short L2RB-M6M and Janet Yvonne Dent M8VZ-SLP. One of the reasons I use the four, big, online genealogy database and family tree programs is the advantage I get because of their automatic record hints. I used Milton Short's ID number to look for him in the FamilySearch.org Family Tree. The first thing I noticed was that his name was Hoyt Milton Short and that he had two FamilySearch Record Hints. This is an excellent reason for using FamilySearch as a repository for your own family history information. Since all four of the major programs provide record hints, I always suggest that people, when they are able, have a family tree on each of these programs: FamilySearch.org, Ancestry.com, MyHeritage.com, and Findmypast.com.

In this example, for Hoyt Milton Short, the first Record Hint is an Ohio County Marriage record. It is very likely that anyone born in or who lived for a period of time in the United States will show up with Record Hints if they lived in the last 100 to 150 years or so. People from earlier times may or may not have Record Hints. Here is the transcription of the marriage record from the first Record Hint. What also found out is that the record is restricted to viewing in a Family History Center. This means I might not see the original record for a while.

You might notice that this record has the groom's father's and mother's names. We have a start on our first step back one generation. I reviewed and attached the record to Hoyt Milton Short.

The FamilySearch Family Tree has a question about adding the parents. How do I know they are deceased? Well, they had a child in 1911 so they were born more than 110 years ago and I can safely state that they were deceased. Here he is with his parents.

Now, the family of Hoyt Milton Short ought to be in the 1910, 1930 and possibly the 1940 US Census records. Let's see what we can find. But first, let's add in his birth record from the Record Hint and standardize the birthdate and other dates and places. Once that is done, we can click on any one of the links to FamilySearch or the other partner programs and see what we find. Well, I found a death record for him in Ohio. So I will add that before going to the census records. Wait a minute. That record was already attached as a source. But the information from the record had not been added into his Vital Information section. It is important to add in all the information you find so that you can find more information.

Once this information is added in, we can search for more.  I quickly checked to see if there were any duplicate entries and then did another search on FamilySearch.org. Things immediately go more complicated. I found him in the 1940 U.S. Federal Census in Spencer, West Virginia but his wife is different than the one listed. Did he have a second wife? I also found him in 1930 U.S. Census living with his parents.

After adding in all that information, we have the following. Since the children were all born within 110 years and probably living, I left them out for the time being since living people are not visible in the Family Tree until they die. But anyone who wants to do the research on the children can go to the 1940 U.S. Census and find all the names. There are a total of six children. But this also shows the names of his grandparents, so they get added in. Here is the family at this point with Hoyt Milton Short as a child.

Now it is time to go back to the person who suggested all this in the first place and find out if this is enough to get them started. I see a number of Record Hints for the father, William Frederick Short and I expect that we can add in some more once the information is updated.

But what about the other person in the request, Janet Yvonne Dent M8VZ-SLP?

We do the same things I did above all over again. This time I will start with standardizing the dates and places. If you are reading this and wonder how to accomplish any of the steps, take a look at The Family History Guide for all the instructions you will need to do what I am doing.

http://thefhguide.com/

Now, back to Janet Yvonne Dent. We have some information about her, but not much. There is a death record attached and she has a husband. We also have the names of her parents.

Now, I am back to using FamilySearch and the partner programs to see if we can come up with any more records for this person. I also do a quick check for duplicates. The problem with finding more about this person is that she lived and died in the time period when privacy usually precludes finding many more records. It would be more productive at this point to research her parents and see if that produces any more information. So now, I am looking for a William Dent with a wife named Hazel Parker and a daughter named Janet Yvonne Dent.

I do start finding records including a marriage record for a child named Jerry Allen Dent, probably a brother of Janet Yvonne Dent. Since all these people are likely still living, there is not a lot of incentive for me to add them to the record, especially since no one could see them anyway except me.

Hmm. But I did find a marriage record for W W Dent and Hazel Parker in Arkansas.

Adding in this information will help. This is not a record of the marriage but probably the marriage license. But we can put in the year and the place. Arkansas does not have the best records in the U.S. but it does have enough to get us back a ways. I decided to add a few more marriage records and such to see if that helped find this family. There are several census records for the name William Dent, but I am looking for one with a wife named Hazel in the 1940 U.S. Census. I now start to get Record Hints from FamilySearch since I have corrected (standardized) the entries and added some information.

Some of these might be the wrong person or perhaps I have found the wrong person. So, I need to be careful in adding in the records. Well, here is the 1940 U.S. Federal Census record showing Janet as a child in the family.

Again, I did not add in possible living people such as the son, Jerry Allen Dent. The actual marriage record did come up as a Record Hint and that can be added in and marriage information updated.

This record is helpful because it has a specific residence in 1936. We are now well on our way to finding the next generation. Some of this information disagrees with what is already in the Family Tree so there will be further research needed.

Now I find the 1930 U.S. Census record and we are back another generation. Again, I am not adding in people who appear that they might still be living.

His parents are already in the Family Tree so we are linked to existing research and I have done what I needed to do, i.e. link the family. By the way, it appears that there are several duplicates in the Family Tree at this point that will need to be merged. There is also a lot of clean up work that needs to be done and some Record Hints to be added. See you next time.

Explanation of how this project began and why I am pursuing it.

In this project, I started out by picking a somewhat random person from my ancestors' descendants who lived in the 20th Century from the FamilySearch.org Family Tree and to hopefully show, step-by-step, the research needed to extend that person's family tree back several generations. Finding a person who has no apparent ancestors in the Family Tree is relatively easy for those who lived in or into the 20th Century. However, I am not able to use any of my own family lines because my direct lines all end back, at least, six generations. To clarify this project, I will not be reserving any of the people I discover for my own Temple List. I will simply leave the "green icons" on the Family Tree for that person's descendants to find and use for themselves. Please refrain from doing the temple work for people to whom you are not related.

Now, after I got going doing the research, I got a couple of requests to research some people further back in time. These turned out to be old, established "end-of-line" situations. Since my original idea was to demonstrate finding people, I started in on the more easier challenges. I may or may not find new people to add to the FamilyTree. Since the families I choose are in an "end-of-line" sort of situation, there is no guarantee that I will be any more successful than the average user of the Family Tree in finding additional family members. In any event, I hope that my efforts as recorded will help either the family members or others to find more information about their ancestral families and relatives.

Why am I doing this? For the past 15 years or so, I have been helping hundreds (thousands?) of people find their ancestors. I simply intend to document the process in detail with real examples so that you can see exactly how I find family lines. I simply want to show where those "green icons" come from. Since the FamilySearch.org Family Tree is entirely cooperative, I will simply assume that when I find a family that needs some research that I am helping that family. By the way, this is Project Five of the series because I intend to do this over and over with different examples.

There is another reason why I am doing this. Because I constantly offer to help people find their ancestors and I get relatively few that take advantage of that offer. I need to spend some of my excess energy.