Teaching night school - genealogy class Week 4

Last Thursday was the last class in the series. Much was covered quickly during the twelve hours.

During the last evening, we looked at using timelines and charts to sort out people with the same name, to ensure we have checked as many sources as possible for events in a person's life and to show conflicting information. Samples were given of each. One example, I used stemmed from some research I did last week concerning a tombstone I had seen at Greenwood cemetery. Those postings are shown on The Graveyard Rabbit of Grey County, Ontario - Tombstone Tuesday - Daniel and Agnes Trotter and Daniel and Agnes Trotter continued. I put the information that I found in a chart so that I can see the conflicting information that I was finding.

Part of the evening was spent talking about various ways to learn more about genealogy after the course was over -- blogs, podcasts, learning centres on various websites, magazines, books, genealogical societies, conferences, etc.

Before wrapping up the evening with a summary of key points, we looked at some websites.

I have uploaded for the students, copies of the presentations to slideshare but kept them private but they can access them through the "secret urls".

I thoroughly enjoyed the four weeks sharing my enthusiasm for genealogical research with the class.

Teaching night school - genealogy class Week 3

When I arrived to teach week 3, I was told I might not have Internet connectivity as the electricity had been out for several hours due to the high winds. Not a problem as that was not the focus of the class. I did check it while I was waiting for the students to arrive and I did have it, so it was there if I needed it.

We began with looking at the obituary that I had given them the previous week. This obituary was filled with lots of information about John Wright and his family. The purpose was to see what we could learn from it and then develop a plan on what more could be learned about him from the clues presented in the obituary. There were lots. Some of the class had done some searching in censuses, FamilySearch and one a reference in a book through Google Books. One census showed a son that was not listed in the obituary. The second wife may not have known about him.

Some had questions about automatedgenealogy searches so we went online to see what they had found. I gave them tips on how to narrow searches with the various filters and the ability to sort geographically.

Next it was time to look at Estate Records and the types of information that might be found in them. I showed examples of Estate records of three generations from my Hemingway family.

Josiah Hemingway's estate papers do not include any reference for the date of his death but includes the date of registration (28 December 1851) and the date the inventory was taken. The will was interesting as he included the stipulations that the heirs could not sue and the decision of three of his friends who were also his executors was binding and that his wife Anna would be maintained out of the property, in lieu of dower, as long as she didn't remarry .

The two eldest sons only received one pound each. [Land records likely will show that they had already received land.] Son Benjamin was to receive 20 to 30 Acres more than Moses. Now this might not have been a problem but Benjamin died several months later on 22 December 1851 without a will and before the property had been divided.

Benjamin's wife Harriet petitioned for guardianship. Six of the children were from Benjamin's former wife. Harriet and Benjamin had one baby. The names and ages of the children are listed. She applied for guardianship to be shared with family friend, Henry Sanders. Harriet was worried that her eldest son William, heir at law would not receive his father's share of property and that it would not be done fairly. The estate papers include detailed financial records as payments were made to old Mrs. Hemingway for her dower and other items such as school books.

These records were very important to me in my research as previous researchers had only mentioned two of Benjamin's children and these had been raised by Anna Holditch.

The third estate papers were those of Pauline (aka Perlina Ann) Hemingway. She died in 1904. Her will lists who would receive money from her estate. Included in the file was the list of the heirs, their relation to the deceased, their address and how much they would each receive. This was needed because of the Succession Act. One brother and one sister were to each receive one dollar. Several in her list were not related and some were cousins. Her half sister was to receive the residue after the division of the estate. After everything was divided, she received $948. This information gives further clues for more research.

The last will I talked about was that of my great-great-great grandmother Margaret Johnston who had itemized the items and who were to receive them. This gives an insight into her life.

We ended the evening talking about citations and their importance with an introduction to the formats used for different types of materials.

Once again, we had a very full evening. Next week is the last class.

Teaching night school - genealogy class Week 2

Once again we gathered with a group of seven.

Before starting on new material, we reviewed the first week's topic by looking at family group sheets and pedigree charts. Several had brought examples of original documents.

The evening focus was on birth, marriage and death (bmd) related records. As with all records, time and place are important factors in determining what is available. We identified many sources where we might find bmds.

I showed an example of my great-grandfather's death information. In 1991, before the death registrations were made public through the Archives of Ontario, I applied for his death registration from the Receiver General's Office. I filled in a form giving his name and date and location of his death and along with my fee, sent it off by mail. When I received the extraction for genealogical purposes, I did not gain much information.

His age is given as 75.

His father's name was given as George and his mother's name unknown.

His son E.J. Iles was the informant.

Subsequent research led me to find the marriage registrations for both of George's marriages -- one in England and one in Ontario and both give his parents' names as James Iles and Louisa Belcher.

In 2008, the 1936 Ontario death registrations were released. I was able to view the death registration on microfilm. Ancestry.ca has only up to 1934 available at this time. Below is a partial shot of the information.

In the upper left hand corner, a note indicates that more information was added after the registration was filed.

Originally, the father's and mother's names were given as unknown.

The date of birth for George was given as 14 December 1860. As secondary information, it is not suprising that this information does not match other sources. I reviewed my findings with my class.

The last part of the evening included an introduction to Ancestry Library Edition and to useful web sites. I have my favourites tagged on del.icio.us at http://del.icio.us/researchergal. [this site is no longer accessible - 2021-07-07]

During week three, I will discuss Estate records, citations, land records and if time permits, using timelines.

Teaching night school - genealogy class

Thursday night, I taught my first night school genealogy class. Now, it wasn't my first teaching venture as I did teach in the elementary school system many years ago (30+). The first year, I taught grade 7 home room, geography, history and conversational French. The second year, I only taught French and that was at five schools.

I have spoken regularly over the years to our local genealogical society. Part of my work in the library was to teach staff mainly about how to use the library management systems. Since retirement, I have taught classes to the reference staff at the library on genealogy and answering genealogy and local history reference questions. I also have been working as a volunteer with the local historical society the last couple of years, teaching our research committee research methodology.

This night school class is going to be fun as it is a small group of eight who are very interested in learning about genealogy. I sense that they are interested in methodology and learning good skills so they can effectively use different resources.

With a small group, we will be able to interact and still cover quite a bit in the twelve hour course (three hours each night) but in that length of time I can provide only a taste of each topic we cover.

Week One - What did we cover?

I used PowerPoint to illustrate my talk.

Introduction of each other and of the course. The course will focus on Ontario records but others will be used to illustrate different points.

• Genealogy vs Family History

Basic Genealogy Processes, etc.

• Sources - Original & Derivative
• Information - Primary & Secondary
• Evidence
• Genealogical Proof Standard (a quick mention)
• Research Process - Having a plan

Then, I presented my ongoing research into finding the parents of my great grandmother, Emily Iles (nee Pugh). This showed starting with known information, information in obituaries, examples of conflicting information, use of Census records in Canada and England, getting help from someone on a mailing list, getting marriage and birth registrations from England, information gained from a website but is no longer available, information found on an extraction but how more and vital information is available on the original record, looking at names of witnesses and how the research still continues.

After a short break, they filled in a questionnaire so I could get further information on their level of experience in a number of areas and their interest in particular geographic areas.

We continued by looking at some of the basic ideas about genealogical research including home is where your story begins.

The last part of the evening was a look at census records. One important reminder in this area was to look at all images concerning a household not just the first image and also to look at the agricultural census. For one household, on the agricultural schedule, it states that only children were at home. I wonder who provided the family information.

We had a few minutes to look at http://www.automatedgenealogy.com/ This site, prepared by volunteers, provides searchable indexes and extractions of Canadian census and then linked to images at Library and Archives website. It includes the 1851/2 census for Canada (now Ontario and Quebec), New Brunswick is in process, the 1901 Canadian census, the 1906 census for Western Canada, the 1911 Canadian Census

We found the father of one of the students on the 1901 and 1911 census.

To prepare for week two, the students are to fill in a family group sheet for either their birth family or their current family and a pedigree chart with what they know.

They are also to bring with them one or two documents/sources of family history that might be useful in their research. We will discuss these next week and ask and answer questions about what is learned, who provided the information, and whether we are looking at original or derivative sources and whether the information is primary or secondary.

Next week's topic will be birth, marriage and death related records/sources.

A very full evening for everyone but I had the feeling that everyone was enjoying the process so far.