Once Upon a Time...

Graphic provided by Steve Czajka.

Your family history should never start with those words! And others should never view your work as a fairy tale or a  fictional story.

But, how do you know if you are doing a good job?

Oftentimes, we do our research almost in a vacuum, with no feedback from friends and family. So if you are making mistakes, how do you know?

Besides constantly learning about proper research techniques (here is ONE opportunity), you want to always follow the Genealogical Proof Standard (GPS). The five essential principles of GPS, as stated on by the Board for Certification of Genealogists, are:

1. Reasonably exhaustive research of all resources available.
2. Complete and accurate source citations so that you, and others, can retrace your work
3. Thorough analysis of information found and correlation.
4. Resolution of conflicting evidence.
5. Soundly written conclusion based on the strongest evidence.

And, if you want to take your research one step further, you apply to a lineage society.

Logos of many lineage societies from the
Lineage Society of America site.

For many years, I mistakenly believed that joining a lineage society was buying bragging rights into an elite group. "I am better than you because my ancestor..." fill in the blanks. And while some groups might have embraced that notion in the past, that is just not true anymore.

Medina County Genealogical Society

Pat Morgan, President of the Medina County Genealogical Society, opened my eyes a few years ago and now I am a member of four lineage societies and plan on joining more.




Some of the really compelling reasons for joining a lineage society are:

1. Honoring your ancestors. They accomplished something that deserves to be recognized. Did they serve in the military? Did they pioneer and settle a new land? Did they survive harsh living conditions? Well done them!
2. It will improve your research. During the process of applying to a society, you must look very critically at the work you have done. Societies apply stringent standards to the applications and knowing that someone else is going to examine your research encourages you to do your best.
3. It will improve your documentation. Your sources for information have to be clearly and concisely stated so that anyone else can track down the source and see it for themselves. "Aunt Rosie told me so", isn't going to cut it.
4. By joining a society, you are certifying the facts of your ancestry. It has reliable resources and has been examined by by experienced genealogists and found to be accurate and true.
5. It is a means of preservation. All lineage societies save the application of successful members for future researchers. Your information isn't just stored on your computer or in your file cabinets.
6. Paying it forward. We have all benefited from either the work of other or their generosity with sharing information. Now you can share it with future researchers.

So, HOW do you join a lineage society?

This Sunday, October 14th, join Pat Morgan and the Medina County Genealogical Society, and Lauren Kunzman, Manager of the (soon-to-be) Family History Center at the Medina Library for their program First Families of Medina. They will explain the application process and standards of proof, and highlight helpful library resources. Your family does not have to be from Medina and you do not have to be applying to the First Families of Medina Society.

Sign up HERE.

What the Medina Library looks like when it is not covered in scaffolding and surrounded by construction equipment.

SOURCES:

Board for the Certification of Genealogists, "Ethics and Standards",  https://bcgcertification.org/ethics-standards/ 

Crow, Amy, Johnson, "Why You Should Consider Applying to a Lineage Society,  https://www.amyjohnsoncrow.com/why-you-should-consider-applying-to-a-lineage-society/.

French, Brian Britton, "Why Join a Lineage Society?', Lineage Society of America, http://lineagesocietyofamerica.com/why-join-a-lineage-society.html

Lineage Society Banquet and Research Trip

Gallipolis City Park, on the Ohio River
About 3 times the size of Medina's park on the Square.
Beautiful and relaxing!

You may remember my excitement when my application was accepted ford the Civil War Families of Gallia County several months ago. I talked about it in these posts:

• Update on Lineage Society Application   and
• New Year's Resolution.

The Lineage Society Banquet was on October 10th in Gallipolis. About 50 members and their families gathered to enjoy the great food and attend the induction ceremony. But the best part was meeting the genealogical society leaders and the other inductees. I was seated with a great group of people that willingly shared the stories of their ancestors. If it wasn't for the 4 hour drive, I would attend every year!

Other attending Civil War Inductees

Receiving my certificate and lapel pin. 

The Certificate and Lapel Pin.

But since it IS a four hour drive, I combined the banquet with a research trip. Here is what I did:

Prior to leaving:

• Made a list of information I wanted to find.
• Made a list of where to find that information
• Checked the hours of operation for the institutions I needed to visit.
• Checked the weather
• Printed Ancestor charts & Family Group Sheets for families in the area

Day One:

• Visited the first cemetery on my list - Maddy Cemetery - Success! I found my grandfather's tombstone. As I was only 4 years old when he died, I had never been before. I wasn't even sure he had a tombstone.
• Visited the second cemetery on my list - Good Hope - Success! I found my paternal grandmother's tombstone and also most of her family. The WILLIAMS family had donated the land for the church and cemetery.
• Found a possible link to my missing half brother.
• Got lost trying to locate 3rd cemetery on my list - Steward Chapel. And when you get lost in the hills of southern Ohio, you really get lost!!
• After dinner, I visited the library and checked the resources on my list - partial success. The sources were there, but didn't always have the information I wanted. Did find a clue to a possible father for my 3X great grandfather, John WILLIAMS.

Kudzu has taken over this meadow and is encroaching on the gravel road.
Along with wild turkeys, this what I did find when I got lost looking for
Stewart Chapel Cemetery.

Day Two:

• Visited the courthouse for marriage, estate and land records:

  

  Gallia County Court Hose

• 1 marriage record not found - Success! (That is a good thing when you are trying to prove that your grandfather didn't marry a second woman and commit bigamy!)1 marriage record found - Success!
• Estate records in index. Courthouse staff recommended the Genealogical Society.
• Land records - found & copied - Success!!
• Visited the Genealogical Society, which is right around the corner from the courthouse.
• Copied several estate records
• Determined they didn't have any pertinent family histories.
• Bought a book needed for my personal library.
• Learned how to pronounce Gallipolis! galla - POlice! 
• Neglected to check lineage files for useful information.

• LUNCH! at a nearby sports bar
• Returned to the courthouse for additional estate record. It wasn't the one I needed. But I helped another researcher use the estate indexes!

Dr. Samuel L. Bossard Memorial Library

• Returned to the library for a possible obituary. Not found!
• Went to health department for 1 death record and 2 birth records
• Photographed the death record and 1 birth record. Second birth record not found.
• Returned to the hotel to evaluate results. I found:
• I now have the proof I need for First Families of Gallia County and Ohio in the land records! (More on that next week!)
• Found married names of a number of daughters in the estate records.
• Search for missing half brother goes on. The lead didn't pan out.
• Found a truly sad family story. My grandmother's brother was suicidal and was committed to the Athen's State Hospital for about a year. His uncle was already a patient there. A young man of about 20, he was depressed because of being diabetic and a troubling love life. He died less than 10 years later from his diabetes.

Grandmother Stella Belle Barry Rose Johnson

Day three:

• Returned to the second cemetery, Good Hope, and brought flowers to my grandmother's grave.
• Found the third cemetery - Stewart Chapel - at the end of a steep, windy, dirt/gravel/mud lane! Success! Brought flowers to my 3X great grandparents gaves, Othey & Emily Swain. She is the ancestress who was supposed to be 3/4 Cherokee.
• Stopped by the church hall where the banquet was being held to see if the ladies needed any help setting up. They had finished and left.
• Returned to the hotel to type up some notes and get ready for the banquet.
• BANQUET!

Grandpa Johnson's tombstone. Nellie was
never his wife. That is the marriage
record I didn't find!

Day four:

• Returned to Maddy Cemetery and brought flowers to my grandfather's grave.
• Returned home.

Day five - ???

• Organize and input all the new data!  Still working on that!!

Lineage Society Update

I got in! My application to The Society of Civil War Families of Ohio was accepted!

Next April, in Mason, Ohio, I will attend the Ohio Genealogical Society (OGS) Conference and The Society of Civil War Families of Ohio banquet and receive my certificate and my pin!

You might remember that I was a little nervous about this application, as OGS is known for its stringent lineage society application process.

I covered the application process in two earlier blog posts:

• New Year's Resolution Update

• New Year's Resolution

Now, my dilemma is... Do I apply for First Families of Ohio?

First Families of Ohio pin.
Isn't it pretty!?!

The application would be nearly identical. I would just have to prove one generation past my Civil War ancestor and prove that his father was in Ohio before 1820. This gets a little trickier, because of the lack of birth and death certificates in this time period. I will have to rely on wills/estate records and land records to prove First Families eligibility. But I am so close!!

If you still don't understand why anyone would want to apply to a lineage society, or have questions about how to go about it, the Medina County Genealogical Society has a very nice article about it in their latest newsletter:

THINKING ABOUT A LINEAGE SOCIETY ??
Do any of these statements reflect your genealogy research:
 My parents and/or grandparents and/or ancestors lived in Ohio before 1914.
 My great grandfather or great uncle served in the Civil War and lived in Ohio.  I learned that my family once lived in
Medina County.
 Whenever I tell my family about these ancestors that I have found, they politely smile, nod their heads and change the subject.
For once it would be nice to have someone tell me “Congratulations” with regards to my research and place on “A+” on the papers I would show them!!”
If you have answered “Yes” to any of these statements, you should consider submitting your research to a lineage society. When your papers are accepted, your work is acknowledged as meeting genealogy standards. Your ancestors are remembered
forever in the collection of the lineage society. Fellow genealogists are acknowledging your accomplishments and publish this in their publications.
Still, you may hesitate to take the time to follow through on this effort. For most people, they are intimidated by the application process. The purpose of this article is to advise our membership that lineage support will be available before and after all future chapter meetings. Board members have lineage experience with Ohio Genealogical Society, our own chapter lineage society, as well as Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) and Sons of the American Revolution (SAR.) The members will be happy to answer your questions, review paperwork suggest areas of research and/or share our previous applications. We hope to show you that the process to honor your ancestors in a lineage society is very rewarding and not as difficult as you think.