Halloween Edition: A Turkey of a Will

Here’s a little treat for you trick-or-treaters out there in genealogy cyberland. Even the editor of the paper this article ran in—the October 18, 1894 London Times, published in London, Ohio—recognized what a fun piece he had on his hands.

Without further ado, I give you:

Queer Will

       Jonas Good, a resident of Ross county, Ohio, has had his will probated in Chillicothe. The will is a very queer document and was written by himself and is as follows:

       August 31, 1894, last request and testament of Jonas Good: At my request I have about three or four acres of corn on the uplands of L. B. James, and it is my request for Moses Good, my nephew, to take it in his care and see to it until said corn be ready to cut up, and also want the said Moses Good to sell the said corn and pay to Frank Vincent $5 of the corn money, and the balance of the money that is left after paying Vincent is to be equally divided between Polly Good and Leroy Good, her grandson, and the balance of my goods and chattels also to be in charge of Moses Good, except my garden stuff and turkeys, which I want my niece, Eliza Carroll, to take in charge; to gather the garden stuff and see to the turkeys.

Isn’t that a hoot? And the thing is, as odd as Jonas’ requests are, this is actually a great will, because it names people and states their relationships to each other. If only some of my ancestors had thought to do that…

I hope Moses took care of that corn and Emily saw to the turkeys, so old Jonas won’t be tempted to play any ghostly tricks tonight. Happy Halloween!

--Shelley

Source: “Queer Will,” The London Times (London, Ohio), 18 October 1894, p. 1, col. 3.

And Now We Are Three!

Three years ago, I ventured out into the wide, wide world of cyberspace and posted my first welcome message here at A Sense of Family. It’s been a great three years, and I want to take a moment to reflect and thank everyone who reads and subscribes to this blog for making it so rewarding.

In looking back, I’m struck by three things: how fast time goes, how many more resources for genealogy are online today, and how many wonderful people I’ve come to know through blogging. Since I haven’t figured out a way to slow the speeding days, weeks, and months down, I’ll stick to talking about the other two things here.

In the fall of 2010, most of my searches on the FamilySearch website gave results from the Ancestral File, Pedigree Resource File, and IGI. I couldn’t have imagined the scope of databases under the FamilySearch umbrella today, or the ease of having so many actual record images at my fingertips 24/7. And that’s just one website. Think of all the expansions at Ancestry and Find My Past in three years’ time. And the rise of new companies that serve the genealogical community—Mocavo, for instance. Not to mention the proliferation of smartphone and tablet apps like BillionGraves (I could barely text on my 2010 cell phone). It seems like everyone—from the federal government to state archives to county offices to local genealogical societies—is making an effort to improve access to historical records online. And the ways to learn about genealogy have exploded, too (think webinars and study groups). I know there are some challenges, such as threats to the Social Security Death Index, but the progress is truly phenomenal when you stop to think about it.

Reading blogs is one way I try to keep up with all that change. Bloggers are generous with sharing information and tips. It helps to hear about other people’s experiences as we navigate the ever-changing landscape of 21^st century family history research. Every blog has a voice, and behind that voice is a person. In my experience, the people who write genealogy blogs tend to be passionate, helpful, smart, involved, and genuinely nice people. After reading someone’s posts for a period of months or years, you come to know them a little bit, so when you meet for the first time, there’s a quick bond. You know just what to talk about. I’ve met many fellow bloggers at genealogy conferences and institutes who have become good friends, and I treasure those friendships. There are many others I hope to meet someday.

Mostly, I want to say thank you, readers, for taking precious time out of your days to read my posts. Thanks especially to those who reach out to leave a comment here or contact me by email. It makes my day to know I’ve helped or touched someone. It’s also a thrill to hear from a distantly-related cousin who’s just discovered my blog. Connecting with people regardless of the boundaries of time and space is what it’s all about, after all. That’s the magic that keeps me sharing those stories, reviewing those resources, and talking about those tips.

So please join me in raising a toast to being three!

--Shelley

Related Posts:

Celebrating a Year of Firsts—My Blogiversary

And Now We Are Two—MyBlogiversary

Ballenger Ancestors: Saturday Night Genealogy Fun

Randy Seaver, author of Genea-Musings, always comes up with a fun challenge each weekend. This time he prompted me to explore a genealogical numbering system I’ve never used before. Here’s his “mission”:

Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible! music) is to:

1)  Do you know what a "Henry Number" is?  It is a descendant numbering system from a specific person. The Wikipedia article for Genealogical Numbering Systems describes it as:

"The Henry System is a descending system created by Reginald Buchanan Henry for a genealogy of the families of the presidents of the United States that he wrote in 1935.[3] It can be organized either by generation or not. The system begins with 1. The oldest child becomes 11, the next child is 12, and so on. The oldest child of 11 is 111, the next 112, and so on. The system allows one to derive an ancestor's relationship based on their number. For example, 621 is the first child of 62, who is the second child of 6, who is the sixth child of his parents.  In the Henry System, when there are more than nine children, X is used for the 10th child, A is used for the 11th child, B is used for the 12th child, and so on. In the Modified Henry System, when there are more than nine children, numbers greater than nine are placed in parentheses."

2)  Go to your first known ancestor with your birth surname and calculate your Henry Number from that person.  Show each generation of your line of ancestors with your birth surname with their Henry numbers.

3)  How did you calculate the Henry numbers?  What do these numbers tell you?

4)  Tell us in your own blog post, in a comment on this blog post, or in a Facebook or Google+ post.

My first known ancestor with my birth surname, Ballenger, is Charles Ballenger, born 29 March 1815, possibly in Fairfax County, Virginia. He lived most of his adult life in Athens County, Ohio, then moved to Delaware County, where he died 19 October 1891. According to the Henry system that Randy explained, Charles is ancestor number 1.

Here is my Ballenger line with their Henry numbers:

1             Charles Ballenger (1815-1891)

18           James Madison Ballenger (1855-1913)

181          Charles Cleveland Ballenger (1882-1953)

1813        Lloyd Russell Ballenger (1911-2002)

18132      Edward Ballenger (living)

181321    Shelley Ballenger Bishop (living)

Figuring out the Henry numbers was relatively easy, because I already have a complete list of the children in each generation. I simply went to my family database in Reunion for Mac, my software of choice, and found the birth order for each of my direct ancestors (all males, since this is my birth surname). I also consulted a previous blog post, Surname Saturday: Ballenger Family, which gives the names of everyone in the families. I had to make one decision: whether or not to count an unnamed infant who lived only four hours (she was an older sister of Lloyd Ballenger, my grandfather). I did count her, because she was a very real baby to her parents, which made Lloyd their third-born child.

The most widely accepted genealogical numbering systems today are the Register System, developed in 1870 and used by the New England Historic and Genealogical Register, and the NGSQ System, developed in 1912 by the National Genealogical Society Quarterly. The NGSQ System is sometimes called the Modified Register System. A short book published by the National Genealogical Society called Numbering Your Genealogy provides a good overview of both of these systems, and it also briefly describes the Henry System.

While I don’t think I’ll ever use the Henry System in my own research or writing, it was fun to experiment with it. I’ve read about it before, but there’s nothing like a good hands-on exercise to help me understand it. Isn’t that true of a lot of things?

--Shelley

Related Posts:

Surname Saturday: Ballenger Family

James Ballenger Suddenly Stricken

The Ballenger Family, Christmas 1942

The National Mall at Night

On a recent visit to my son in Washington, D.C., I had the pleasure of seeing the memorials on the National Mall illuminated at night. They make a stunning display on a warm September evening. On one end, the Lincoln Memorial rises majestically over the Mall.

The words above Lincoln’s head read: “In this temple as in the hearts of the people for whom he saved the Union the memory of Abraham Lincoln is enshrined forever.”

The walls on either side are inscribed with the Gettysburg address and the second inaugural address, in which Lincoln urged, “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”

Somehow, these wise and clearly heartfelt words seem just as appropriate today as they did in 1865.

The view from the Lincoln Memorial stretches over the long Reflecting Pool to the new World War II Memorial and the Washington Monument. Currently, the Washington Monument is undergoing reconstruction and is surrounded by scaffolding. Although a bit of an eyesore by day, the scaffolding creates a beautiful effect at night, as it illuminates the entire monument in brilliant light.

Walking the length of the Reflecting Pool, which takes about 15 or 20 minutes, brings you 80 years forward in time, to the World War II Memorial. 

Fountains splash high arcs of water over a central pond, flanked by two arches, one named “Atlantic” and the other “Pacific.” The names of the battles in the European and Pacific theatres are inscribed on the respective sides. Tall pillars adorned with wreaths, each bearing the name of a state, ring the plaza. The effect is humbling, yet serene.

President Truman's words remind us that "Our debt to the heroic men and valiant women in the service of our country can never be repaid. They have earned our undying gratitude. America will never forget their sacrifices."

In the quiet of the night, the march of history seems alive in the lights of the National Mall, reminding us of the leaders and conflicts that have shaped our nation, and the hopes of peace through the years.

--Shelley

Getting a Haircut: Wordless Wednesday

This photo, from the collection of my grandmother, Nora (Eberhard) Ballenger, is one of those rare candid shots we all wish we had more of. When she looked through pictures with me many years ago, Nora identified the people in this photo as her parents, Mary (Comfort) Eberhard and John Llewellyn Eberhard. Mary is giving her husband a haircut outside on a bright, sunny day. It appears to be spring or summer.

In dating this picture, I had to ask myself, “Who would have been the photographer?” Most pictures I have of the family show them posed and wearing their best clothes. Here, Mary and Llewellyn seem unaware that their picture is even being taken. They are in their everyday attire for a day’s work on the farm. Since it’s highly unlikely that a roving photographer just popped by the farm one day to snap some pictures, the person who took this shot was probably one of their older children. I do have a few other similarly-sized candids from this time period, such as Harold Eberhard in a “sports car,” Harold with a milk wagon, and Harold holding his youngest sister. Harold, the second oldest of eighteen children, was born in 1896. He seems to have liked the camera. If he took this picture when he was in his mid-teens to early twenties, it dates the photo to about 1910-1920.

During this time period, the Eberhards lived on a farm near Galena in Harlem Township, Delaware County, Ohio. So by using a bit of deductive reasoning, I have a place and approximate date range for my photograph.

Isn’t it fun to get a glimpse of an unguarded moment in the everyday life of our ancestors?

--Shelley

Related Posts:

Harold Eberhard, Sports Car Driver

The Legacy of Mary Comfort Eberhard

Eberhards at Otterbein Cemetery

Thanks for the great conference, FGS

It’s been a week since I returned from the 2013 Federation of Genealogical Societies Conference at the Grand Wayne Convention Center in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and I’m still buoyed by the energy of the conference and trying to absorb what I learned. Although I didn’t have time to write daily capsules, I want to say thank you to the FGS planners, presenters, and exhibitors for a very successful conference. Here are some of the highlights of the week (in no particular order) for me:

Methodology lectures—the FGS schedule was loaded with lectures on intermediate and advanced genealogical methodology, and I tried to take full advantage of the offerings. I attended all of the presentations by Elizabeth Shown Mills, CG, CGL, FASG, FNGS, FUGA, and Thomas W. Jones, PhD, CG, CGL, FASG, FUGA, FNGS. They were fantastic, as expected, and gave me much to think about. Now that I’m home, I want to refine my hastily-taken notes, burn the information into my brain, and apply the concepts to my own research.

Resource lectures—I learned about researching orphaned, surrendered, and adopted children from Jeanne L. Bloom, CG; finding and using records in upstate New York from Karen Mauer Green, CG, FGBS; and interpreting English parish registers from Paul Milner. These, too, were excellent, and I can see immediate applications with the families I’m working on. There were a number of other presentations I wanted to attend but couldn’t due to schedule overlaps—a quandary at any good conference. Hopefully, I’ll be receiving the recordings I ordered soon.

Exhibit Hall treasures—the spacious exhibit hall was filled with booksellers, vendors, and representatives from societies, companies, and organizations aimed at the family history market. The Bureau of Land Management printed out land patent certificates from their website on parchment paper, with official seals. I now have heirloom quality certificates for three of my ancestors who bought land from the federal government. How cool is that? I enjoyed talking with FamilyTreeMagazine, the New England Historical and GenealogicalSociety, and Gary Clark of PhotoTree.com. I scored color historic maps from Michiana History Publications, bargain used books from the Ohio Genealogical Society, and new ones from Maia’s Books and Family Roots Publishing. The tote bag FGS gave registrants came in pretty handy for getting everything out to the car at the end of the week.

Association of Professional Genealogists luncheon—my bet is that no one in the sold-out APG luncheon audience will ever forget the clever presentation by John Philip Colletta, PhD. His phantom Power Point slides will be legendary for years to come. We’re talking laugh-so-hard-you-cry, standing ovation here. Who said genealogists don’t have a sense of humor?

Late night research party at ACPL—with the help of some tasty vegan cookies and pastries, entertainment from a Civil War-era dance group, and dozens of hardy (or crazy?) researchers, the Genealogy Center at the Allen County Public Library rocked on Friday night. I didn’t quite make it to the midnight hour, but almost. ACPL put out the red carpet for conference attendees all week, adding a dynamic dimension to the overall experience. 

Denise Levenick (aka The Family Curator) and yours truly, late night at ACPL

Diane Loosie

FamilySearch blogger dinner—I enjoyed hearing about all the up-and-coming developments at FamilySearch, including their prototype Family Discovery Centers with oral recording studios. I met the new director of the Family History Library, Diane Loosie, who has plans for collaborative work stations and more. Paul Nauta demonstrated enhancements to their online Family Tree and told us that the 2014 Roots Tech conference will be broadcast in 600 satellite locations around the world. Wow!

Talking and visiting with friends, old and new—a genealogy conference offers a chance to “talk shop” with others who share a passion for family history. From each other, we pick up stories, ideas, and strategies. I’ve met a number of people at conferences that I now consider good friends. We talk, laugh, offer support, and have a good time. Since genealogy is usually a solitary pursuit, it’s nice to have a chance to get together.

On Saturday afternoon, D. Joshua Taylor announced that donors to the War of 1812 Preserve the Pensions fund, together with matching pledges from FGS and Ancestry.com, had raised over $92,000 at the conference. This money will go toward digitizing War of 1812 pension files at the National Archives. The images will be made available free of charge on Fold3.com indefinitely. Now that’s a win-win situation.

Congratulations to the team of hard-working volunteers who made this year’s FGS Conference such an enjoyable and productive one. Fort Wayne was a delight to visit. Well done!

--Shelley