Madness Monday - James L. Clawson Jr.

My latest madness caused by an ancestor is my great-great grandfather named James L. Clawson Jr.

My madness comes from the mass amounts of unsourced and misinformation that is on the web for this line. My main frustration is that I have contributed to this misinformation before and despite my best effots to try and fix my newbie mistakes, I know that I will never be able to fully correct everything.

When I first began my research, this was a line that I commonly researched. I loved how easy it was to copy and paste information from other trees in Ancestry.com and FamilySearch. I was copying and pasting faster than I could keep up with and I never checked for sources. I rarely gave credit to the tree that I gained the information from. I didn't look at the information to see if it even made sense (a lot of did not). To rub salt into the wound, I began spreading this incorrect information all over the web - in fact, I was posting my family tree anywhere I could put it.

So last year, when I started my family tree from scratch (in order to make sure my research would be fully sourced and as complete as possible), I was forced to become face to face with a lot of my misinformation. While I've been posting the correct information that I've found thus far (and always including my sources), I still have a long way to go.

Just yesterday, I messaged 7 people through Ancestry.com about James L. Clawson Jr. I asked questions about the sources that people had to support a specific fact or event. I got my first response late last night. That response outlined an old tree that I had submitted to FamilySearch - and oh was it was full of incorrect information.

To be honest (and this is a bit embarrassing to admit), I almost cried in frustration. I know that I spent the first 5 years of my genealogy experience copying and spreading wrong information that was nearly completely unsourced. Yet, despite my best efforts over the last year to correct my wrongs, I haven't even made a dent.

So I replied to the first response and included the correct information, along with source citations for what I have. I also apologized for the wrong information that I had previously posted. I then offered to send him a .pdf file that includes what I have on the line if he wanted to provide his email.

So in my quest to find more information (that is correct and sourced) about my great-great grandfather, I am also on a quest to correct the misinformation out there. Oh it is going to be a looooooooong quest.

My Ultimate Genealogy Goal - SNGF!

It's time for Saturday Night Genealogy Fun again! Randy Seaver of the Genea-Musings blog has come up with a very thought provoking challenge for this week. (Read the instructions here)

Here are my answers:

My ultimate genealogy goal is to research my family tree with as many stories, details, pictures, and records that I can find. With my research, I want my descendants and relatives to understand where they come from.

As I age, I watch my family, especially my extended family, grow farther and farther apart. Our family get-togethers are less frequent and the family traditions are beginning to disappear. Ever since the "rock" of the family died in 2007, things have been different. Despite the efforts of some, things are just not the same. As our family traditions begin to disappear, I am desperately trying to record them.

But I need to organize all of the information that I collect into some form so that it will be meaningful to someone. I would like to create a general book on my genealogy. Then, I would like to create a book on my Dugger line (and indirect lines) from Tennesee, North Carolina, and Virginia. Finally, I would love to write another book on my German lines; Doerflinger, Keppler, and Harney.

I am still young, so I hope that I have at least 5 decades left to do this research (I'll be 70).

While I feel that I am definitely actively researching, there is a lot of priorities that I could change to make my goal a reality. If I quit blogging, facebook, reading blogs, and all of the other forms of social networking, then I would probably complete my goal a lot sooner. However, I am not willing to give up the social aspect of genealogy because it is just too much fun!

But honestly...I need to start focusing my research in order to accomplish more with my research. I really want to complete this goal.

How I Use Zoho To Stay Organized

Disclaimer: This article contains information about a website called Zoho. While I very much like the website, my opinion was not swayed by the company in any way. I was not contacted by the comapny to write about them or was I paid in any way for writing this article. Honestly - I just love this website and find it extremely useful.

One of my biggest problems when doing research is that I am doing research all over the place. I never know when I'll have free time at my boyfriend's house to do a search or when I'll have free time after studying to do a search or two. When I am researching, I used to write everything down on regular lined paper but I didn't always want to lug around all of my paper to all of these different places. I knew I had to come up with another way of doing things.

As I was brainstorming ideas, I remembered a website that my boyfriend's dad told me about: Zoho.com. Zoho is a website that provides a huge variety of "collaboration and productivity apps" for free! These apps include a word processor, a spreadsheet creator, a presentation creator, an email service, a notebook (similar to the old Google Notebook), a wiki, a planner, and more! Each of these apps are free of charge and everything you save on there can be accessed anywhere there is an internet connection. This was exactly what I needed.

So I took my the ancestor that I was working on at the time, Friedrich Harney, and began to create my notes in Zoho Writer (the word processor). The sheet I create is unique and fits my needs perfectly because it is 100% adaptable. I included a breakdown of the major events in Friedrich Harney's lifetime, along with a breakdown of the sources for each event. This is extremely helpful since I hadn't picked up my Harney line in a long while and I couldn't exactly remember why I thought certain things about him. On this sheet, I also write about what I need to discover about him and any theories I have about him. This sheet provides me with an "at-a-glance" look at Friedrich Harney as a whole - including what I have on him, what I am missing, and any theories I may have. Another benefit? I can easily print this page out and place it in my notebook.

I also created a research calendar for Friedrich Harney in Zoho Sheet (spreadsheet program). If I wanted to I could create a Zoho Notebook for him that includes "clippings" from different websites. I could use Zoho Chat to collaborate with another researcher without having to download an instant messaging program like AIM or Windows Messenger. The possibilities are huge and adaptable to your needs.

In an age where everyone is beginning to move things online, I highly suggest that you check this website out. You can login with either a Google or Yahoo account, or you can create a Zoho account (I recommend doing this since it is required to have a Zoho account when using their apps in Facebook, etc.).

SNGF on Sunday Morning

Since I was not feeling well last night, I have postponed my SNGF until this morning.  Oh well - better late than never!

Here are the directions for this week's SNGF (originally posted on Genea-Musings):

1) List your 16 great-great-grandparents in pedigree chart order. List their birth and death years and places.

2) Figure out the dominant ethnicity or nationality of each of them.

3) Calculate your ancestral ethnicity or nationality by adding them up for the 16 - 6.25% for each (obviously, this is approximate).

4) If you don't know all 16 of your great-great-grandparents, then do it for the last full generation you have.

5) Write your own blog post, or make a comment on Facebook or in this post.

My only problem is that I don't know all of my great-great grandparents.  My biggest brick wall of all is of my great grandfather, George Rogers.  I know very little about him and nothing about his parents.  I also recently broke another brick wall on my great-great grandparent generation through another researcher, who is sharing information with me faster than I can verify it all and type it in!  Therefore, with these gaps in my family tree, I have decided to post the generation of my great grandparents (I know all of them!).

Here are my 8 great grandparents and all of their information.  In parentheses, I've included the ancestry for that person.  If the ancestry is in italics, then the ancestry is an educated guess since I don't have proof.

Monroe "Bum" Dugger: born on 20 Jan 1885 in Tennessee; married abt. 1908; died 21 May 1951 in Tennessee.  (English)

Matilda E. Clawson: born on 21 Mar 1886 in Tennessee; died 8 Aug 1936 in Carter County, Tennessee.  (English)

George M. Rogers: born abt. 1883 in James County, Tennessee; married abt. 1923; died in 1950s in Washington (English)

Julia Margaret Morris: born 28 Nov 1893 in Springfield, Greene County, Missouri  (English, French)

Maxamillian Adolf Doerflinger, Sr: born on 7 Jan 1873 in Missouri; married 17 Sept 1902 in Butte, Silver Bow County, Montana; died 16 Oct 1960 in Sacramento.  (German)

Marie Keppler: born Apr 1876 in Germany; died 16 Oct 1958 in Seattle, King County, Washington.  (German)

William Fredrick Harney: born abt. 1880 in Indiana; died 29 Oct 1956 in Seattle, King County, Washington (German)

Ethel Janice Weston: born Mar 1894 in Washington.  (Welsh, English)

Since I only did my great grandparents, I have to calculate my ancestry by using 12.5% per person (6.25% when two origins are listed).

Here is my ancestry: 37.5% German, 50% English, 6.25% Welsh, and 6.25% French.

This weeks SNGF is very eye opening.  I've realized just how many holes are in my genealogy and how I need to refocus my energy to fill in those gaps.  I think there are parts of my family tree that are too intimidating to tackle because of some sort of research challenge.  Therefore, to force me to face my fears, I am going to be writing about each of these ancestors, just to show to the world (and myself) where the holes are.  With each writing, a plan will also be included of places that I can look to find the answers.

Dynastree Now Offering Free 14-day Trial

This is a press release from Dynastree.com, which I felt was appropriate to share since I just did a review of the website. Please forward any questions about the website to Nils Schnelle, Dynastree.com's press contact (her contact info is included in the press release).

Free 14-day trial subscription to dynastree’s premium
version
Hamburg, July 29, 2009 – The family network dynastree.com
just deployed a new version which comes with several new features and
improvements.

Dynastree would like to offer all users the possibility to test
the premium subscription with its many additional features, free of charge and
with no obligations. Therefore, it is now possible to get a 14-day trial period
of the premium services, which can be canceled at any time during the trial
period.

This gives users the opportunity to test the many additional premium
features dynastree offers before actually subscribing. The premium features
include full usage of the recently introduced extended search, a premium family
page, automatic profile match, and more. The free PDF-files of one’s family tree
included in the regular premium subscription are not included in the free trial
subscription, but it can be converted to a regular subscription at any time.

It is now possible to create different kinds of lists from the family
trees, including a list of ancestors, a list of descendants, a birthday list,
and a family list. The lists adhere to official genealogical standards and are
numbered following the Kekulé-system, an internationally accepted system that
numbers male descendants with even numbers and female descendants with odd
numbers, starting at 1 for the original person. Premium users can create as many
lists as they like, at no additional charge.

The new features also include the possibility to upload documents of
all kinds, such as genealogical records, letters, certificates, etc. These can
be shared with family members also active on dynastree, allowing the users to
access such documents remotely.

Furthermore, the hinting on dynastree has been improved. The number of
matches for each profile is now displayed for each user, premium users can
access the actual matches to find possible relatives and collaborate with
them.

Profile of dynastree.com
According to experts, dynastree.com and its international language versions have been among the fastest growing social networks worldwide in the last two years. By now, more than nine million families have created their tree at dynastree.com, and more than 15.000 new family trees are added each day. The venture capital
corporations Neuhaus Partners and Hasso Plattner (co-founder of SAP) Ventures
recognized the young start-up’s potential early and support dynastree.com as
investors.

Dynastree.com was founded by the experienced internet entrepreneurs
Daniel Grözinger and Sven Schmidt. They have already founded and maintained
several internet projects since studying together, such as getgo.de (an online
ticketing service), and the FIFA Soccer World Cup Ticketing Center (responsible
for managing the ticketing for the FIFA Soccer World Cup in Germany in 2006).

Press Contact
Nils Schnelle
OSN Online Social Networking
GmbH Heimhuder Straße 72
20148 Hamburg
Germany

UK +44 20 7193 2208
US +1 201 399 2207
Email: press@dynastree.com
Web: http://www.dynastree.com/press
Blog: http://www.dynastree.com/blog

OSN Online Social Networking GmbH
Managing Directors: Dipl.-Kfm. Daniel Grözinger, Dipl.-Kfm. Sven
Schmidt
Heimhuder Straße 72, 20148 Hamburg
Tel.: +49 40 793 064 76 Fax: +49 40 415 457 14
District Court of Hamburg, HRB 101865, VAT ID: DE814883851