CRAWFORD-L Archives

From:
Subject: [CRAWFORD] Fw: Fw: Ancestry Daily News, Newsletter
Date: Sun, 20 Jan 2002 12:10:57 -0800

More interesting information by George G. Morgan in Ancestry Daily
News.

Enjoy

Wanda



FREE! ANCESTRY.COM TRIAL SUBSCRIPTION.
If you haven't already subscribed to Ancestry.com, you'll want to
take advantage of this limited-time offer:
--- Make exciting discoveries about your ancestors
--- Easily access and search over 1.2 billion records
--- Build your family tree online
--- Free Ancestry magazine
Try It FREE!
http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=685&sourceid=1691

=====================================================================
GEORGE G. MORGAN: "ALONG THOSE LINES . . ."
"Covering All the Bases"
=====================================================================

I have been conducting another class in the series of Genealogy
Training Workshops at the MyFamily.com site for the last few weeks.
This one, the "Basic Genealogy Workshop," covers the essentials of
how to conduct research, what forms to use, how to record data, how
to work with libraries and archives on-site and online, how to obtain
and evaluate vital records and other materials, how to use the LDS
Family History Centers, and how to use some of the Ancestry.com
databases, and the Online Family Tree (OFT). It also covers the
wealth of freely accessible materials in the Ancestry Library.

I thoroughly enjoy these workshops because, not only do I get the
opportunity to share some of my knowledge, I learn a great deal about
other people's research, their successes, and their brick walls. I
always have such nice and enthusiastic people in the sessions and
this workshop is no exception!

Not everyone in the workshop is a beginner. Many of the participants
are experienced researchers seeking to improve their investigative
skills and expand their research scope to perhaps unknown or untried
resources and/or methodologies. We all know how easy it is to get
caught up in tracing one ancestor, even to the point that we cannot
see the proverbial forest for the trees. As a result, we sometimes
locate some materials and yet miss what might be otherwise obvious
resources. In "Along Those Lines . . ." this week, I want to examine
one such example raised by one of the Genealogy Training Workshop
participants this past week, and discuss some resources this person
could pursue.


THE ROAD BLOCK

We all have a line like this one. We know the details about a
grandfather, and the names and vital dates of his parents. However,
information about the grandmother is unclear and/or incomplete. We
cannot verify her parents with certainty, although we do have some
possible clues. Perhaps it is because she was known by one of several
names, or maybe because family tradition has it that she was part
Cherokee Indian. (At least the story doesn't hold that she was a
'princess' in this case.)

In this researcher's case, documentation on the grandparents is
scarce, with only two pieces of concrete documentary evidence:

1) Marriage license issued 11 November 1887, filed 30 December 1887,
Collin County, Texas; signed by bride/groom and J. W. Waddill, County
Clerk; marriage date 15 November 1887 for Jordan Hutto and Ellen
Chambers.

2) Death certificate: Ella Hutto, 5123 Colonial, Dallas, Texas;
female, white, married, born in Texas; died at St. Paul's Hospital in
Dallas, Texas, on 12 May 1929 at fifty-nine years one month and
sixteen days old; information given by R. C. Hutto, son. We also know
that she was buried on 13 May 1929 Crandall, Texas.

Both the marriage license and the death certificate are primary
evidence of the marriage and the death. The death certificate is
secondary evidence of Ella's birth, and from this we can surmise that
she was born on or about 26 March 1870.

Additional clues we have about the grandmother are as follows:
1) Her father was William Chambres (probably Chambers) possibly born
in Scotland; her mother was Gene Thomas, possibly born in Missouri.
The mother was listed as Jane (not Gene) on the 1900 census.

2) Ella signed the marriage license as "Ellen" but information from
the family indicates that her name was Mary Ella.

3) The family story has it that she was half Cherokee.


PLACES WE COULD CHECK

There are so many clues--and holes--here, I felt challenged to
investigate on my own, even though I know that my workshop
participant had already done some substantial research. In any event,
here are some of the places I checked:

ANCESTRY WORLD TREE - The most obvious place to start was here at
Ancestry.com with the vast resources of the combined Ancestry World
Tree/WorldConnect Project. Certainly I found my workshop attendee's
file, which had been uploaded. In addition, though, I located the
files of other researchers, including one last updated 12 January
2002. It was obvious that these two people needed to be in contact
with one another to collaborate and share details of their research
to date. What I did learn here, however, is that the husband's name
was Henry Jordan Hutto, which gave me more name information with
which to search. I also learned that his parents' names were Absalom
"Alfred" C. Hutto and Elizabeth Wiggins. Henry Jordan Hutto was
apparently born on 15 November 1853 in Alabama and died 5 November
1931 in Dallas, Texas.

LDS FAMILYSEARCH DATABASE - The FamilySearch database was the next
place I checked. Even in its massive files, I found nothing on either
family. More importantly, I found nothing on a William Chambres or
Chambers born in Scotland. A check of many individual Web pages
identified by FamilySearch for the Hutto and Chambers surnames also
drew a blank for me.

ANCESTRY.COM DATABASES - I next traveled back into the Ancestry.com
databases, seeking census information on the surnames of Chambers and
Chambres. In particular, I was interested in Texas census records,
especially in Collin County in which the marriage occurred in 1870.
I started with the AIS Census Indexes databases and searched for
Chambers in that county in 1850, and it confirmed that there was a
Chambers family in Collin County. On the eighteenth image of the 1850
Federal Census for that county (actual census sheet stamped as page
10), the E. Chambers family is listed. One of the sons is Wm. C.
Chambers, aged fourteen, who certainly could have been
Ellen/Ella/Mary Ella's father. He would have been approximately
thirty-four in 1870 when she was supposedly born.

My suggestion now was for the researcher to follow through in the AIS
Census Indexes to the 1860 and 1870 enumerations to locate both the
E. Chambers family and this William Chambers. In addition, I might
also suggest that research for the Thomas family (his wife) might be
undertaken in Collin and surrounding counties of Texas, or possibly
in Missouri in 1850.

There certainly were many matches in the Ancestry.com free and
subscription databases, but I didn't take the time to review all of
these. That will be part of the investigative joy for my workshop
participant who, by the way, among other things, gets a month's free
access to the Ancestry.com databases as part of the workshop
enrollment fee.

OTHER ONLINE DATABASES - I searched several other online databases,
including one other subscription database, without locating any other
uploaded files except those of my workshop participant.

USGENWEB SITES - I next explored some postings for the USGenWeb sites
in Texas and in Alabama. I turned up a posting in the Clarke County,
Alabama, queries area for "Jordan or Jerden Henry" Hutto, married to
Ella Chambers on 11 November 1887 -- the right corresponding date.
The parents' names, Absalom "Alfred" C. Hutto and Elizabeth Wiggins,
appeared again. I suggested that my workshop person make a connection
there.

MESSAGE BOARDS - I checked several online message boards including
the HUTTO and CHAMBERS boards at Ancestry.com. Both of these message
boards have hundreds of postings, which can be searched by given
name, location, or other keyword(s). I also suggested that messages
be posted here.

NATIVE AMERICAN MICROFILM RESOURCES - Since there is the family
tradition that the grandmother is part Cherokee, Native American
resources should be investigated too. The National Archives and
Records Administration (NARA) has produced microfilm of a number of
very important collections of Native American materials. Two of
these are the Dawes Commission Rolls and the Indian Census Rolls
(1885-1940), both of which might contain information useful in
corroborating or refuting the story that Ellen was part Cherokee.
These and other NARA resources are listed at NARA's genealogy page
at: http://www.nara.gov/genealogy

These microfilm can be accessed at NARA facilities, at some larger
libraries with genealogical materials, through the LDS Family History
Library in Salt Lake City, through the LDS Family History Centers,
and through various microfilm rental programs. Ancestry's excellent
book by Native American expert Kent Carter, "The Dawes Commission,"
provides incisive descriptions of these records and instructions
about how to maximize research in them.


IS THERE ANYPLACE ELSE TO LOOK?

While this may already seem like an exhaustive list, there certainly
are other resources to check. In addition to surname message boards,
there are surname e-mail mailing lists. There are also state, county,
and Native American message boards and mailing lists to read and
search -- and to which to post messages. Land and property records,
obituaries, wills and probate records, family Bibles, letters, and
many other materials are also excellent pointers to resource
materials. Courthouse records including tax rolls and jury lists, and
possibly religious institution records may help, too. (Could there be
membership records for the Chambers family in some church somewhere?)

My workshop participant asked for another set of eyes, although much
of the territory I covered so quickly has apparently been researched
in depth over the last decade. That doesn't mean that I didn't
uncover some new material or recommend some new research paths. All
of these possibilities I covered and suggested are solid examples of
how using your imagination and your expanding knowledge of record
types could really help you get past some of your brick walls.

Happy Hunting!
George


LINKS:

Ancestry World Tree (AWT)
http://www.ancestry.com/rd/awt.htm

FamilySearch
http://www.familysearch.org

Ancestry.com Advanced Search Page
http://www.ancestry.com/search/main.htm

USGenWeb Project
http://www.usgenweb.org

Ancestry Message Boards
http://boards.ancestry.com/

National Archives and Records Administration
http://www.nara.gov/genealogy/genindex.html#guides
(Scroll down to Native American section)

"The Dawes Commission and the Allotment of the Five Civilized Tribes,
1893-1914," by Kent Carter
http://www.ancestry.com/rd/prodredir.asp?sourceid=831&key=P1444
(On sale today)

__________________________________________________________________

George G. Morgan is a proud member of the International Society of
Family History Writers and Editors, Inc. (ISFHWE) at:
http://www.rootsweb.com/~cgc/cgc2.htm. He would like to hear from you
at but, due to the volume of e-mail, he is unable
to answer every e-mail message received. Please note that he cannot
assist you with your individual research. Visit George's Web site at
http://ahaseminars.com/atl for information about speaking
engagements.

Copyright

This thread:

• [CRAWFORD] Fw: Fw: Ancestry Daily News, Newsletter by