Scrutinize Your Sources Carefully Before Accepting Them as Set in Stone!

Mike asked:

I've been trying to find the ship my Great Grandparents arrived on and have been unsuccessful to date. I've checked Castle Garden and Ancestry both and come up empty.

My Great Grandparents, William and Mary Carey, were married in Ireland on Feb. 25, 1865 and arrived in this Country in either March or April of 1865. This is based on the 1900 Census Record, his Death Certificate, Obituary, the birth of their first son, which was in Jan 1866.

The only William Carey I found that could possibly have been him was on the Tripoli in 1866, but that was too late and no Mary was mentioned.

OLIVE TREE ANSWER: Hi Mike. You've written a good query except for one detail - what country your ancestors came to! You say "this country" but I don't know if that is USA or Canada. I'm kind of assuming it's New York because you mention checking Castle Garden.....

With that in mind (New York) you should be able to find a passenger list for the ship he arrived on. I'm sure you know already that ships passenger lists to USA were archived from 1820 on.

So, let's look at what you have:

You say they arrived together but perhaps they came separately. Mary coming first isn't as likely as her husband arriving first and her following but it's a possibility.

You have given your sources for their immigration date and that's good except I do want to point out that you can't believe the census year exactly. You always need to allow a year or two on either side, as folks often did not recall exactly what year it was when the arrived.

Death Certificates and Obituaries are only as good as the person submitting the information! So you always have to ask yourself - did the informant know the correct details? Did the informant understand the question being asked?

So taking all that into consideration it's my belief that the only reliable source you have is that January 1866 birth - and the only person who had to be present for that was the mother!

So I'd go back to Ancestry.com. if I were you and I'd search all ports (not just New York) in the range 1865-1867 and see what pops up. Also, search Canadian ports of arrival as the fare from Ireland to Canada was much cheaper than to USA and often immigrants arrived via Canada then went on to their final destination.

Also be sure to be creative in your search as the surname Carey might be spelled a variety of ways. A few that come to mind are Carrey, Cary, Carry, Carie, Carrie, Karey and so on.

Evaluate your Sources, Think Outside the Box!

Jim's Question:

My great grandmother was Frances Elizabeth (Fannie) Phillips. She was born 3 Apr 1868 (I believe in Wayne Co., TN) She died 21 Jan 1955 at the home of her youngest child, Grover Cleveland Phillips, in Lauderdale County, Alabama. I have run into solid dead-ends in trying to determine who her parents were, or her siblings, or any of her ancestors. I believe Phillips was her maiden name even though she married Solon D. Phillips. Solon was born in 1863 and died in Lauderdale Co., AL in 1902. Solon and his mother Hester moved to Lauderdale Co., AL from Wayne Co., TN sometime during the 1890’s. Any clues anyone can provide would be greatly appreciated.

OLIVE TREE ANSWER: Hello Jim - You've got some very good clues and details for your family.

You haven't said if you've found Fannie on census records. These should provide many clues for you - for example where her parents were born. I would start with 1930 and work backwards until the time of her marriage to Solon. Then use location clues to trace Fannie before her marriage. In other words look for the couple after marriage (location) then look for Solon before marriage to see where he was living. It is likely that Fannie was nearby. I use Ancestry.com for census records

Also, have you looked for that marriage record? I see from the 1900 census that they married circa 1885.

Another clue could be the naming of their children. Look to see if there is a pattern, perhaps they named children in honour of their parents. Speaking of children, have you looked for birth records or baptism records for them? They may provide their mother's maiden name.

Also death records. Find the death records, not just of Fannie but of her children. Any one of them might give her maiden name.

My next suggestion is to look carefully at the census records. Often families lived near each other. See who else is living near them in 1900.

My last caution is to be careful with those names! You call your ancestor Frances or Fannie but I see in 1900 she is indexed as Annie.

How do you know Fannie was born April 3, 1868? That's a very exact date of birth? The 1900 census says April 1871 so presumably you have a better source for your date? Be careful to evaluate your sources for each bit of information you have.
How reliable is your source for her date of birth?

Trying to Link Two Family Trees

Question from Rachel:

My 2nd grand great uncle was George B Burland b 23 May 1829 Loggan Wexford Ireland d 22 May 1907 Los Angeles California m Clarissa Cochrane b 29 Aug 1827 Ireland d 24 Dec 1890 Emmanuel, Montreal Quebec Canada. I bought a copy of A Cyclopaedia of Canadian Biography edited by Geo Maclean Rose 1888 pg 441-443. In the paragraph or two about George B Burland the article states that George B is related to Sir John Burland and through him to the de Burlands of Steying 1335. I did find a tree of the 1335 de Burland's but cannot get past Sir John and his family. Do you know how I could link the two families? My Canadian Burland cousins have been trying to do this for years...but to no avail. If you have even a hint of what next. The Burland that ends our tree for now and many years is John I Burland b 1720 Ireland d 1801 Ireland m Martha Sherwood b1719 Ireland d 1795 Wexford Ireland.

Olive Tree Answer: Dear Rachel - the only way to link two family trees is to independently verify them and then research either UP or DOWN.

In other words, if you are stuck on your ancestor John Burland born 1720 Ireland, switch over to the other family tree and start searching DOWN the generations.

Be sure you search siblings on every generation line of each family. One sibling may provide you with genealogical information on another generation, while your own direct ancestor has drawn blanks. See Searching Siblings in Family Tree Researchfor more help with this.

Do not believe everything you are told, or that you read in a book. You must use sources to verify what you hear or read. Remember, Genealogy Without Sources is Mythology!

Verify Genealogy Records fournd online

Debra's Question:

Maybe you can help me . I found some information about Daniel Hilgenberg on the Hillenburg Blog.
It said that some of Daniels sons had married Cherokee girls.Know i have been searching for awhile.and I`m a member of Ancestry.com, and I have all of daniels Kids and who they married and their kids .But when i read the Blog article ,It got me thinking ,That some of his sons had married Cherokee girls and during the time of the " Trail of Tears " that some of the Hillenburgs where sent on the trail of tears .and that this persons Gr grand father would visit his relatives out in Oklahoma . Know the person that wrote this is ( samuel Hillenburg ,the father of Daniel Hillenburg ) . Then also is said on my mother side her grmother Carrie (Simmerman) Pruett , always said that she was part Indian .But i`m having trouble finding it too!

Olive Tree Answer: Hi Debra. It's really important to verify information you find online. Unless the blog where you found the details on your ancestor Daniel Hilgenberg or Hillenburg has sources, you need to write and ask where the author got his information. There's an article you might like to read, called Genealogy Without Sources is Mythology! and another one that I think will help called I Found My Great Great Grandfather Online -- Now What!!???

Finding Proof of Unsubstantiated Family Trees

Robin asked

I'm trying to research an ancestor in New York. I've been given the information that he was born in Ireland in 1812. He died in New York (possibly NYC) on March 9, 1897. His name is Robert Graham and he married a woman named Jane. They had a daughter named Elizabeth, who was born in New York,November, 1845 and died in Oakland, CA, May 1906. But, I unfortunately don't have any documentation to prove any of this information. I'd like to know the best way to follow up on the documentation for this information? What do you suggest as the next step? Thank you, in advance, so very much for your help!!!!

Olive Tree Answer: Robin, it sounds like you have family lore or a family tree you found online. Since you have dates of birth (unproven) and death (also unproven) you have several census years you can search for verification of names and ages

The first census you should find Elizabeth on is 1850, then 1860, 1870, 1880, and one more in 1900 before she died. I like to use Ancestry.com for census records.

You can also search California Death Records for her death. You can order California Birth or Death Certificates Online from VitalChek back to July 1, 1905

Once you have established the family group (Elizabeth and her parents and siblings) plus approximate years and locations of birth, you can branch out to other source documents.

How to Obtain Complete Details from an index-only database

M. R. asked

I am trying to figure out if the birth record that I found on ancestry.com and listed below could be my great uncle's (Morris Yudin/Judin) or one of his brother's (Sam/Shamer, Abraham/Abram, Israel/Yrael) because the year is approximately right. (according to Morris's marriage certificate he was born in 1877) I believe the family was originally from Sharkovshchina (the American pronunciation of the family's original home was "Sharkoytzin" according to my uncle), part of the former Empire of Russia in the late 19th C., but present day in Belarus. I just found out that the father's name for the above men was Yehuda Leib Judin/Yudin (Lewis/Louis in English) and the mother's maiden name was Malka (Mollie) Shapiro (I don't know the Russian equivalent of Shapiro).

I would like to know:

1. Would a child born in one location have a birth registered in a location about 115 miles away at that time?

2. more information about that particular index entry, ie child's first name, parents name's, etc.

3. What is "Yehuda"?? the first name, the patronym or something else? On naturalization records/marriage records the father's name was only listed as Leib, but family just told me about the "yehuda" part, although there was an illegible word on a ship manifest before the word, Leib (you commented on this in a June 3 response, Tips on reading handwriting in old documents)

Thank you again for your help.
Jewish Gem

Belarus: Mogilev Male Birth Index, 1862-1893
about Yudin
Last Name: Yudin
Father: Leiba
Birth Year: 1879
Index: 248

Olive Tree Answer: Hello again! As always you have written a very concise and easy to follow query, so I thank you! I have left your query intact but am only going to answer questions #1 & #2 today.

Re #1 - The short answer is "yes". Anything is possible. The couple may have taken their newborn child to visit family and then decided to register the birth. There could be any number of reasons why a child's birth might be registered some distance from its home.

Re #2 - Whenever you find a database, whether it is online or in a book or on microfilm, always read the Source Information. Sometimes this is in the preface or at the end of the database. You have to look around for it but somewhere there should be an explanation of what the database contains, and how you can obtain full details if it is an index.

In this case if you go to Ancestry.com and use their Card Catalogue to get to the specific search page for Belarus: Mogilev Male Birth Index, 1862-1893 you will find your answer. Under the search box, there is a paragraph titled Source Information, then a paragraph titled About Belarus: Mogilev Male Birth Index, 1862-1893 and lastly this statement

Where to go from here:
For more information about this database, please visit the JewishGen website:
Mogilev Birth Index for Boys, 1864-1894

There is a clickable link to the website and a very complete explanation of how to obtain the full birth record. Please keep us informed as to how your search is progressing!