Some Tidbits on Why I Love (Hate) Technology

These past few weeks, I have found myself organizing my research in ways that will make it easier for me to identify individuals and place them in my family tree. I receive between 10 and 15 emails per week from various people researching their family tree. I try to answer each email within 24 hours, but sometimes have difficulty locating the name - usually when I can't get to my ancestry file.
So, I have printed off each of the 32 branches of my family tree. It also gives me an idea of where I need to focus my research over the next little while. There are obvious gaps that need further study.
One thing I like to do on a regular basis is to use World Vital Records to find vital news records to help me in both filling in information that succeeds normal vital stats years. It also provides context for the individual within a time, within a community, and is otherwise nice to have. WVR's Paper of Record resources have been down for the past three weeks. I pointed out the problem about a week ago and still have not had it fixed. I wouldn't be so upset usually, but I would love to have the news article on my ggg grandfather's shooting (Jame William Harris) to go along with the death record and family stories.
I guess that's why technology is such a fickle mistress. While she intrigues me with her ease of access, she is quick to turn access off at the most inopportune times. Just when I need something, a whole group of records data goes down. Hopefully, it is not as big of a problem as when Paper of Record had difficulties in record retrieval - that took almost six weeks!

When It Rains, It Pours

Since my last post, it had been pretty quiet. Then, in a matter of 48 hours, everything changed.
First, I got in contact with Deb Glover, UE. She has been researching the Glover family, whom Sarah Ann Glover (1838-1915) is a member of. She is my great great great grandmother, who married Frederick Cline (1830-1896) and subsequently had my great great grandmother (and twin), Alfretta Amelia Cline (1861-1941).
Unlike most of my research, I had used another researcher's information to fill out the Cline branch. This researcher is well known in Norfolk County, so I will not give his name here. Fortunately, there are some researchers out there that do make sure their research is valid and accurate - Deb is one of them. She let me know that my suspicions were correct. My Cline branch was incorrect!
I had looked at the 1852 and 1861 Census of Upper Canada and found a Clement and Catherine Cline as heads of the household that my Frederick Cline lived in. This was in discordance to LPS's "research" that said Frederick and Olive (Nunn) Cline were his parents. Deb put the final nail in the coffin on that matter - her research was conclusive in the fact that Frederick's parents were Clement Cline and Catherine Powers.
So, I have been working furiously this weekend getting the Cline branched researched. On Thursday night, I was browsing the Norfolk County message board and came across a thread titled, "James Harris shooting in 1876 - newspaper article?" About three months prior, I had come across a death record for James Harris, born about 1828 in Upper Canada, who was shot by Constable McKay "endeavouring to make him prisoner." I had then pulled the newspaper article in the Simcoe Reformer. None of the information, except for the name, birth date and location of the shooting, led me to conclusively identify the man as my great great great grandfather, James William Harris. So, I put it in my Ancestry shoebox.
The thread, though, showed that I was right to suspect the man being my ggg grandfather. Jim McCallum and Helen Bingleman commented that this was my ggg grandfather and had both historical and familial proof positive to the identity of James Harris.
So, guess what? I have another avenue to research! Jim sent me some information - 50 pages - to pour over. I have to send some information back soon. He also sent a picture of my great grandparents, Robert Henry Mudford (1884-1976) and Stella Harris (1891-1950). My mother is flabbergasted - Stella (Harris) Mudford looks uncannily like Stella Ruth (Dedrick) Shelly! I guess the namesake was a good choice!

Not Much Happening

There's not much happening this week. I received a couple of emails about two separate branches. The first one is from my cousin, Connie, the daughter of my cousin, Marion. Marion is the benefactor of the original collection of my family photos. She has over a dozen photo albums that belonged to her mother, Mabel Luedell (Shelly) Pretty, pictured to the left with her husband, Harry "Pete" Leighton Pretty. Great Aunt Mabel was the sister of my Grandpa, Harry Walter Shelly. The email contained numerous pictures with names and dates. I have the pictures, but I think I might have some of the names wrong.
Every so often, someone corrects me on a genealogy mistake. I enjoy criticism and reviewing by peers - it adds credence to my research. This time, Deb Glover suggested that I have the wrong parents for Frederick Cline (1830-1896). This weekend, I'll take the time to review her suggestions (i.e., to look at the 1861 Census of Upper Canada). I will have to take a couple of hours to review the research I have done, compare it to the Norfolk Cline researcher's findings and correlate to Mrs. Glover's.
The picture to the left gets me nostalgic for the days when we used to go up to Bracebridge to visit family. We would stay with Uncle Pete and Aunt Mabel, and be awakened by the smells of breakfast and quite talk between my grandparents and various family members. My Aunt Mabel was the eldest of the clan, and held both a place of honour and love in our hearts. She died the same year my Grandpa passed on, signalling the end of an era. I truly miss both people, and wish - like most family historians - I had just a few minutes with them to tell how much I appreciated them and to get a few questions answered. You see, not much was spoken about my great grandfather's siblings. Aunt Bertha Robb used to visit, but nothing was ever said about the sad demise of Grandpa Frank's younger brother, or the absence of his other siblings, Emma Ruth Bye, Charles Theodore Shelly (who died young in 1948), or of Deli Labetus, the missing sibling. Just one more minute ...