The Society meeting today was fun and informative. I loved how he said," Go ahead
and read it." Then everyone one chuckled or so it seemed it tickled everyone.
Now whom am I speaking of, why the speaker of today's event is who. Wayne Anderson
whom is from north county area, at least that is what was implied.
I thought his hand out for the first talk fit the bill very well. I am not sure how
I would have made the second one different but when dealing with the three lines of
confusion it tended to get confusing to follow some times. I think the point was
well taken that just because the records imply one thing does not mean it is the
right fact for that situation or family.
His first talk on WHEN THE ABSENCE OF INFORMATION WAS A CLUE, discussed the lack
of records and naming patterns used in Sweden and other countries. The patronymic
naming patterns and the use of the man named LARS his son was son and daughter
was dotter Lar son and Lars dotter. He followed this out a couple of generations
showing how the names change as the descend from Lars. This method was used until
into the 20th century.
When working with the absence of sources, one must use a compilation of data
to find the end results, also ask for help when you are in need, proving what
you have learned so it will hold up to scrutiny and is accurate.
He stated in 1686 all Parishes in Sweden had to keep records of all the citizens.
They also did a Annual Clerical Survey, including people moving in and out of the
area. People seemed to need to get approval from the church to move from one
place to another. I understood that they did this until 1991.
Military had Muster Rolls which also kept track of where their service men
were at all times. Sometimes these were well kept as I understood it and alas
some times not as well. These Rolls would list the parents and where the individual
was from, birth, christening and their children. But they only mustered in the
spring and were let off in October. His ancestor served for more than 20 years this
way but because he had no permanent home to go to he was a wanderer. So records
were way more difficult. It was the Service records in the end that saved him.
Service men were given different names when entering the service and many applied to
plants, animals and places. Ironic if a person left the service the one replacing
him may be given the same name. It must have been terribly confusing to company
comandants to keep track of his men.
He also mentioned that almost all of Sweden at this time was farmers and farms
were given names and that also can become involved in the naming of a person, If
I understood him correctly. He mentioned women kept their name for life, even
afte marriage it did not change. Men's names as you can see obviously could and would
change a few times in their life time.
In regards to records kept it came to light that a class of people were basically
left out of the rolls and they were the ROMA (gypsy).
It was his use of many sources that helped him to determine what he was not finding
and to resolve his issues with the ancestors. It also took many trips to SLC and
over seas to realize what he was missing. Once it was obvious then he could apply
himself to that situation and resolve the ancestry of the family.
Yes, he descends from Gypsy's I truly envy him. but I do not envy him the work
and patience it took him to resolve his brick walls.
WHAT WE LEARNED ON THE WAY TO PROVING SOMETHING THAT WAS NOT TRUE
The second talk was on a family that was in Maryland and North Carolina, it also
came with many discrepancies. It seems he has a very prominent line in this region
and no one seems to have done a major research to resolve some glaring discrepancies
in the lineage. Aha, 1. a mother can not have a child when only 5 years old.
He commented that when your using a tree on Ancestry make sure it is documented and
documented properly or to only use as a guide. I have also found that to be true.
Due to the lack of data in the time period he was searching it was hard to gather
the evidence needed to verify or prove right or wrong the trees already on line
regarding this family.
He took us through the steps he used to verify the correct lineage of three lines
on this tree. These lines tended to interlink so I think that is why he used all
three but it was a wee more difficult to follow.
Much of the land inherited was under English Common Law which meant if the
1st son was alive he inherited the land with out WILL. No paper trail then occurred.
17th Century Parish records were Register's of the people, Court Records, Land and
Wills were the most evident for research. Most links are located via land and
Wills in this time period. I thought it interesting he did not mention tax records.
English Common Law is as this: no Will needed if they had a oldest son to enherit,
or could be willed to the oldest son with a stipend to others, only descendants
by full blood could inherit, a widows dower would cover the needs of the widow
until she died or remarried. The land stayed with the son it never went to the widow.
The dower share was normally 1/3 of profits, lands etc. This was to support her
til her death.
In the absence of data one has to set up a hypothesis of what is needed. One
is then to work on that and not get off the path or you can get into big trouble.
Check the Facts, is Hypothesis true or not, check out all data, construct a time
line, what are the requirements for proof.
A big comment he made and showed us is to check the original sources because
ABSTRACTS are copied and errors can be made.
Lastly, just because 100 people have a tree with this data does not make it
true only the proven sources can justify the real answers to the lineage.
SO THIS GOES BACK TO SITE YOUR SOURCES. :>)
No comments:
Post a Comment