Challenges - Researching the family

     This week's #52Ancestors in 52 Weeks prompt is Challenges. My challenges are My Family.

Working on my family is something I don't do very often. Most of my research was done many, many years ago and I stopped mainly because I had hit some brick walls. These are just some of my challenges!!

Pogue family. I've blogged about the Pogue family before. They are a challenge. I don't know who James Pogue's parents are. He was born somewhere in Kentucky in 1807. It is possible his father was also named James Pogue, but I don't know for sure. There are more challenges with that family.

Rains family. I've done a fair amount of research on my Rains line. They came from Randolph County, North Carolina, to McNairy County, Tennessee, and then migrated into southern Illinois. When I did the research 30 years ago, i was sure I had traced the line back a few generations. But I've now come to realize I need to review everything. John Rains Sr. and John Rains Jr. may not be father and son -- something I didn't understand when I was a baby genealogist.

Denman family. Rachel Denman married Archibald McClerren in Tennessee about 1820.  Most records indicate she was born in Georgia about 1805. She may be the child of Moses Denman. But she might not be. She's a mystery and I know I need to dig into Georgia resources to learn more.

Cleveland family. Mahala Cleveland married Nathaniel Jones about 1835 in Franklin County, Illinois. Her father may be a John Cleveland. She definitely has brothers Evan, Jesse, and Andrew, also living in southern Illinois. But more research needs to be done.

Jones family. Well need I say more about researching a Jones family. Fortunately I'm researching Nathaniel and Moses - somewhat less common first names. But Yikes!! 

I have some of the same issues with my Edwards line -- it's another really common name. I've tracked them back through Simpson and Logan County, Kentucky, and then into Chatham County, North Carolina. But I swear, half of them are named Hugh.  

And then there are the Eastern European lines—my dad's paternal family and my mom's paternal family. I've barely begun that research because it includes geographical and language challenges. I've had better luck with my dad's maternal lines from England and Scotland, but there are mysteries left to uncover.

Someone once said that doing genealogy was like working a jigsaw puzzle without a picture. There's some truth there, but education, collaboration, and hard work can help form that picture and allow you to assemble the puzzle. Oh -- and time. You need to find the time to do the work!!!!

HE Was the Oldest Son - Overlooked

Although the oldest son, George Sampson was often overlooked!!

George A. Sampson was born on 8 June 1869 in Excelsior, Hennepin County, Minnesota.[1] The second child and oldest son of Leroy Francis and Eliza (Spaulding) Sampson, he lived with his parents and siblings in Excelsior and Chanhassen. His parents were born in Maine and Rhode Island, so he had deep roots in New England, as did many others in the area.

George's life was cut short at an early age when he died on 9 September 1890 in Excelsior, having never married. His cause of death was given as traumatic tetanus, which likely resulted from a puncture wound. He was working as a clerk at the time, so it seems unlikely that it was an on-the-job accident.[2] 

In 1890, there was no cure or prevention of tetanus, and it was usually a death sentence, killing 85% of those infected. Tetanus was incredibly painful. It caused muscle stiffness, including "lockjaw," muscle spasms, and difficulty swallowing and breathing. Usually treated with morphine or opium, patients were kept in dark, quiet rooms and sometimes fed by a feeding tube. There was little the doctors could do, and all the family could do was watch him die a painful, likely protracted death.[3]

George was just 21 years old when he died, barely a man. Yet his younger brother Walter was often described as the oldest son of Leroy and Eliza.[4] And while technically, after George's death, this was true, it still feels like George was "overlooked" in this description. Walter would have been better described as the oldest "living" son of Leroy and Eliza. 

The Sampson family was close-knit, so perhaps the loss of young George was just too much, and the family chose not to mention him. While others may have overlooked him, I suspect his parents never stopped thinking about their young son, lost to a disease that would soon be preventable and curable. 

This week's prompt for #52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks was Overlooked!

______________________________________________

1 No record of his birth has been found. The date is calculated from the age given on his death record.

2  “Minnesota County Deaths, 1850-2001,” digital image, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPS1-ZPPV : accessed 18 January 2025); entry for George A. Sampson, Hennepin County, 9 September 1890. FSL DFN 7552565, Image 1100.

3 Battling Tetanus, Smithsonian  online article https://www.si.edu/spotlight/antibody-initiative/battling-tetanus?utm_source=chatgpt.com: accessed 19 January 2025.

4  “Minnetonka, The Minneapolis Journal, 11 April 1901, p.5, col. 5; digital image, newspapers (https://www.newspapers.com : accessed 19 January 2025).

Cathy and her Daddy

Most years, the #52Ancestors in 52 weeks challenge includes the prompt "FAVORITE PHOTO." While I don't think I've specifically written about my favorite, I have often posted the photo on Facebook.

Cathy and her Dad - George Robert Martin, 1952?

This is a photo of me and my daddy, George Robert Martin. The date is cut off, but I estimate it was taken sometime in 1952. 

My dad joined the Army in May 1951. When I was born in August 1951, he received a telegram informing him of my birth. 

Telegram announcing birth sent on August 29, 1951

At some point, he came home on leave, likely when the photo was taken. I have another picture taken on the same day. I'm wearing the same outfit, minus the groovy hat. 

Cathy and grandparents, George Michael Martin and Florence Halliday

It, too, is undated, but in this photo, I'm being held by my grandfather, Mike Martin. You can see the same house across the street as in the first photo, so I suspect the picture was taken at my grandparent's house in West Frankfort, Illinois. 

There are leaves on the trees, meaning the photo was likely taken in spring or summertime. By my apparent age, I am not even a year old, so the picture would have been taken in the spring or summer of 1952. This may well have been the first time my dad and I had met, and it was probably the first time I met my grandparents. It would be the first of many trips to visit with them.

In the Beginning

 

The New Year is the start of #52Ancestors in #52Weeks, prompts provided by Amy Johnson Crow. My goal is to write at least two blog posts a month from the prompts. So here goes.

 The first prompt for the year is In The Beginning. I thought I would start at the beginning of my genealogical research. I started my research in early 1977. I was home with two toddlers, bored and looking for a challenge. I had been a history major in college and was still very interested in history. (I had only graduated a couple of years before.) One day, I saw a class offered through the local community education program. The class was Genealogy Basics, taught at a local school in the evenings. So I signed up. 

The instructor was a man named Mr. Ingalls (and yes, I believe he said he was related to THAT Mr. Ingalls). If I recall, he was a member of the local LDS Church. He talked about basic research principles, handed out various forms, and, for three or four nights, walked us through all the steps we needed to get started. 

So, you might ask - how exactly do you remember when that class was offered? While I was sitting in a class, learning about genealogical research, everyone else in the country was sitting at home watching ROOTS on TV. I missed the genealogical event that got so many others started on their journeys. Instead, I got a good grounding in genealogical basics. 

So off I went on my own journey. I started working both on my family and my husband’s family. I sent out questionnaires to some relatives (we were at least 400 miles away from the closest relatives, and long-distance phone calls weren’t a thing back then.) I went to the local LDS center, filling out those little forms to order microfilm. I think the first film I ordered cost $1.25. Eventually, that cost went up to somewhere around $3.50. Then I’d sit back and wait for those films to come in. Of course, I’d also check through the microfilm drawer to see if someone else had ordered a film of interest. 

I made frequent trips over to St. Paul to the Minnesota Historical Society. While I had no Minnesota people to research, they had a great French-Canadian collection, and my husband’s maternal side was French Canadian. I subscribed to Everton’s Genealogical Helper and read through each issue, learning about various things and checking all the inquiries included from people all over. I wrote many letters to county clerks requesting copies of records, sent off those checks for $5 or $10, and anxiously awaited the return mail. I built lots of files, trying out various filing systems, labeling systems, etc. 

And then life got in the way, and for the next 20 years or so, I only worked on my genealogy in spits and spurts. I finally picked it up in earnest again about 15+ years ago, and it’s taken over my life. While I prefer modern-day digital records and organization, starting out the “old-fashioned” way gave me an excellent grounding in genealogical methods. 

And it all started, in the beginning, with Mr. Ingalls.