Genealogy Tips
Genealogy Before Technology
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by Carolyn Ann Howard
This blog post was updated 20 Aug 2021
I'm looking through my father's records, amazed. Oh, the theories that went back and forth between my father, his sister, and others who were early Howard researchers.
I remember doing a bit of genealogy in the 1970s when thinking about writing a history of Monticello, Indiana, the town where I grew up. It was grueling. Hours in front of the microfilm, looking at every single name on the census record, hoping against hope that the person you were researching was at the very beginning of the file or that the file was small. Or that your eyes hadn't glossed over thereby missing the information needed. We had no search engines. We were the search engines! Click on photos to enlarge
I remember doing a bit of genealogy in the 1970s when thinking about writing a history of Monticello, Indiana, the town where I grew up. It was grueling. Hours in front of the microfilm, looking at every single name on the census record, hoping against hope that the person you were researching was at the very beginning of the file or that the file was small. Or that your eyes hadn't glossed over thereby missing the information needed. We had no search engines. We were the search engines! Click on photos to enlarge
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| Book kindly sent to me concerning John Harbolt from Monticello, IN |
Information was slow and hard to come by, especially if a person lived far away from the area they were researching. Instead of looking up records on-line, a genealogist would have to send away for records and usually for a fee. Afterward, they would have to wait for weeks and weeks until finally the new information arrived in the mailbox. Maybe the new information was a break-through. Many times, unfortunately, it wasn't.
On one of my several research visits to Monticello, which is 5 hours away from my home, I was, as usual, excited. What interesting information would I find? I had invested much into taking this trip, but it was only for 2 days. I should've called ahead. (Maybe I did. It's not like me to not plan everything.) When I got to the library on the second day to search through microfilm, I was asked to leave. The preschoolers were there for their movie. I begged the librarian to let me stay, but she wasn't having any of it. So much for that.
My first day was spent at the Monticello (White County) Historical Society, which was wonderful. A tip if you're planning a trip, though, definitely call ahead. A later trip to Indiana State Historical Society was also productive as, indeed, most trips to historical societies go well.
A great genealogical tool available in on-line places at Google Books or Archive.org, for example, are the various county histories written in the early part of the 20th century. Many of these books were out-of-print in the 1970s and now are freely available on-line! If my memory is correct, I paid $22 for a History of White County, Indiana, where Monticello is the county seat. What a treasure trove of information! This volume is now available free-of-charge at books.google.com. Go specifically to books.google.com and type in "History of White County, Indiana" and BOOM! It comes up as the first choice. Try this for the county where your ancestor lived. You might find out some stuff about them that you didn't know before!
One way of making your ancestors come to life is to make a timeline of things that happened during their lifetime, such as wars, presidents, epidemics, weather or even just when the county fair was that year. These early histories can help a lot in building such a timeline. If you use the Life Story feature in Ancestry, they try to do this, but its better when you do it for yourself.
As a funny aside, John Harbolt, the man from Monticello I was researching, it was said in the History of White County, Indiana, that he "went west to die." Ahhhh. When I first stumbled upon Find-A-Grave nearly forty years later, on a whim, I looked up his grave. I found out that John Harbolt had gone to Kansas. I contacted the person who made the Find-A-Grave page, and she laughed. White County history states that he "went west to die." Their history states he "left the east so he could live." And live he did. He took a wife, who apparently was the life of the party, and had children.
One regret is that we had a family who went to our church in Monticello who was descended from the Harbolt family. I didn't realize it, though, until many years later. Too bad. But it is something to keep in mind should you pick up fresh research. You might actually be socializing with people related to the person you're researching.
Facebook is also a great place to connect with all those cousins you're bound to find through your research. This has been the most rewarding part of being a family genealogist.
Back to my father's records. Dad's sister had written letter after letter to the Wyoming County, New York Historical Society. I think the society may have gotten tired of the many inquiries. Many letters back to her started with "I'm sorry it has taken so long to respond to your latest inquiry. We really have nothing more we can tell you about your ancestors."
In particular, it seems the Howard family was quite interested in the fate of George Washington Howard. His family is all together on the 1850 and 1860 census records, but he isn't with them. He appeared later in Michigan. Theories abounded. Did he change his name? Perhaps the family is mistaken in whose family he really belongs. One theory - I kid you not - was that one of our forebears "turned into George Washington Howard." Another person turned into George Washington Howard? Abracadabra!
Another example is our forebear John G. Howard. For some reason, my family decided to rename him Jacob Howard, because they had found a Jacob Howard in the 1810 and 1820 New York census records. I found John Howard in the 1810 and 1820 census records living in Grafton, New York, the place where our John Howard lived. The new technologies and applications allow us to do this work quickly and easily.
I'm in the process of reading through all the letters, and if they're just conspiracy theories, they're getting shredded. I don't want to be the bearer of falsehoods. I understand the speculation, particularly in the era prior to technology when records were so difficult and many times expensive to come by. I'm sure it was fun to ask all the questions, no matter how stupid some of them were, in the end. They have no place in our modern era of genealogical research, though. Questions, certainly. Theories, yes. Conspiracies? Definitely not.
It was truly the voice of reason that stated, calmly, George Washington Howard left his home at the age of 14, because he didn't get along with his stepmother.
My relatives went back and forth and back and forth trying to figure out what happened to George Washington Howard. I'm grateful that someone knew the answer, but getting to that answer was truly overwhelming. And unnecessary.
I'm still looking for George Washington Howard in the 1850 and 1860 census and also for Henry Albert Howard in the 1860s. I may never find them but it won't be for lack of trying. In the meantime, however, no speculation is required.
On one of my several research visits to Monticello, which is 5 hours away from my home, I was, as usual, excited. What interesting information would I find? I had invested much into taking this trip, but it was only for 2 days. I should've called ahead. (Maybe I did. It's not like me to not plan everything.) When I got to the library on the second day to search through microfilm, I was asked to leave. The preschoolers were there for their movie. I begged the librarian to let me stay, but she wasn't having any of it. So much for that.
My first day was spent at the Monticello (White County) Historical Society, which was wonderful. A tip if you're planning a trip, though, definitely call ahead. A later trip to Indiana State Historical Society was also productive as, indeed, most trips to historical societies go well.
A great genealogical tool available in on-line places at Google Books or Archive.org, for example, are the various county histories written in the early part of the 20th century. Many of these books were out-of-print in the 1970s and now are freely available on-line! If my memory is correct, I paid $22 for a History of White County, Indiana, where Monticello is the county seat. What a treasure trove of information! This volume is now available free-of-charge at books.google.com. Go specifically to books.google.com and type in "History of White County, Indiana" and BOOM! It comes up as the first choice. Try this for the county where your ancestor lived. You might find out some stuff about them that you didn't know before!
One way of making your ancestors come to life is to make a timeline of things that happened during their lifetime, such as wars, presidents, epidemics, weather or even just when the county fair was that year. These early histories can help a lot in building such a timeline. If you use the Life Story feature in Ancestry, they try to do this, but its better when you do it for yourself.
As a funny aside, John Harbolt, the man from Monticello I was researching, it was said in the History of White County, Indiana, that he "went west to die." Ahhhh. When I first stumbled upon Find-A-Grave nearly forty years later, on a whim, I looked up his grave. I found out that John Harbolt had gone to Kansas. I contacted the person who made the Find-A-Grave page, and she laughed. White County history states that he "went west to die." Their history states he "left the east so he could live." And live he did. He took a wife, who apparently was the life of the party, and had children.
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| John Harbolt's brother, Billy. Courtesy of White County Historical Society |
Facebook is also a great place to connect with all those cousins you're bound to find through your research. This has been the most rewarding part of being a family genealogist.
Back to my father's records. Dad's sister had written letter after letter to the Wyoming County, New York Historical Society. I think the society may have gotten tired of the many inquiries. Many letters back to her started with "I'm sorry it has taken so long to respond to your latest inquiry. We really have nothing more we can tell you about your ancestors."
In particular, it seems the Howard family was quite interested in the fate of George Washington Howard. His family is all together on the 1850 and 1860 census records, but he isn't with them. He appeared later in Michigan. Theories abounded. Did he change his name? Perhaps the family is mistaken in whose family he really belongs. One theory - I kid you not - was that one of our forebears "turned into George Washington Howard." Another person turned into George Washington Howard? Abracadabra!
Another example is our forebear John G. Howard. For some reason, my family decided to rename him Jacob Howard, because they had found a Jacob Howard in the 1810 and 1820 New York census records. I found John Howard in the 1810 and 1820 census records living in Grafton, New York, the place where our John Howard lived. The new technologies and applications allow us to do this work quickly and easily.
I'm in the process of reading through all the letters, and if they're just conspiracy theories, they're getting shredded. I don't want to be the bearer of falsehoods. I understand the speculation, particularly in the era prior to technology when records were so difficult and many times expensive to come by. I'm sure it was fun to ask all the questions, no matter how stupid some of them were, in the end. They have no place in our modern era of genealogical research, though. Questions, certainly. Theories, yes. Conspiracies? Definitely not.
It was truly the voice of reason that stated, calmly, George Washington Howard left his home at the age of 14, because he didn't get along with his stepmother.
My relatives went back and forth and back and forth trying to figure out what happened to George Washington Howard. I'm grateful that someone knew the answer, but getting to that answer was truly overwhelming. And unnecessary.
I'm still looking for George Washington Howard in the 1850 and 1860 census and also for Henry Albert Howard in the 1860s. I may never find them but it won't be for lack of trying. In the meantime, however, no speculation is required.
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