Saturday, March 16, 2024

Why A Chromosome Browser Is Necessary To Prove Distant Ancestry

My mother's father's fan chart showing the problem lines


I'll outline my problem and why the lack of a chromosome browser prevents me from confirming, or disproving a theory. My brickwall is on the line of a 3rd great-grandmother. I'm using my mother's test, at Ancestry, to try to find her parents, with no documentation other than a couple census records from her children stating she was born in Tennessee. 

My 3rd great-grandmother's name was Sarah or Sally Campbell, she married in Indiana. She died young, and before the 1850 Census, so I don't have any information about her place of birth from a census when she was living. There was only one Campbell neighbor named James Trigg Campbell. There isn't much on him either. I assume they are somehow related? 

Using my mother's DNA test at Ancestry the only Campbell matches that are promising descend from George Lafayette Campbell. My mother has a number of matches from his line. He wouldn't be the father of Sarah Campbell but could be a cousin? Researching his family and possible parents has gotten me nowhere. Not many records were kept in Tennessee in that time period. 

Below is a chart with some of the matches my mother has with descendants of George Lafayette Campbell, and the cMs my mother shares with them

George Lafayette Campbell lived in Greene County, Tennessee. Tennessee is where Sarah's children said she was from. It would seem like I have found the right Campbell family for Sarah Campbell. The problem is my mother has another family line from Greene County, TN. 

Below you see photos of William Wray Forgey, Isis Browning his wife, and Elizabeth Wray his mother. Elizabeth Wray's mother was Sarah Campbell, our brickwall. Isis Browning, Elizabeth Wray's daughter-in-law, also had family from Greene County, Tennessee. Isis Browning's grandfather Nathan was born in Tennessee. His father Roger Browning migrated to Tennessee sometime in the late 1700s, and settled in Greene County, Tennessee. His son Nathan migrated to Jackson County, Indiana. It appears there was a migration pattern from that part of Tennessee to Jackson County, Indiana where most of my grandfather's family lived. 

What is my problem? My problem arose when I discovered one of the George Lafayette Campbell matches also was related to the Browning family. Other matches don't appear to be? The theory that we are related to the matches through Campbell could still be correct. 

Precise segment data would help me build out my segment map. My mother has 3rd cousin matches with Browning descendants. The only way to be sure all of these matches match through Campbell would be to make sure they don't overlap with the Browning matches or any other family line matches. Actually I don't know who Nathan Browning's mother was so we could be related to this family through his mother? Or one of Roger Browning's children could have had a non paternity event? So we may not be related through Campbell at all. The only way to be sure of anything, when it comes to more distant matches, is to have a good chromosome map. You would then be able to clearly see if  theoretical matches overlap with the correct segments.

A chromosome map, built with strong 2nd and 3rd cousin matches, is the best way to confirm a relationship. Above you can see my mother's chromosome map, with many 2nd and 3rd cousin matches. I could even add more segments if AncestryDNA provided this data. Ancestry has the largest database which would make it the best company to build out a chromosome map with. There aren't many records surviving from the early 19th century in many places. To use DNA where records don't survive the best way is to build a good chromosome chart. You can't verify distant relationships based on names alone on a family tree because we don't know if there are NPEs? We don't know if there are other relationships? Therefore, I can't be sure I've found, at AncestryDNA, the correct Campbells. 

Monday, March 4, 2024

The Best of RootsTech 2024/from my online experience




I didn't attend RootsTech 2024 in person, I streamed many classes live, and watched some later. I chose what I watched based on the projects I'm currently working on. Lately I've been working with deeds, photos, and my DNA results. I don't have as much time to work on my family history as I had in the past so I'm also interested in AI, and how it can save me time. 

I heard that a favorite presentation on AI was an in person class presented by Steve Little. I looked for a Youtube video he may have presented on the subject to get an idea of what he presented at RootsTech. I found a presentation on Youtube he gave in 2023, which was very good! It's called  "Empowering Genealogists with Artificial Intelligence 6 September 2023" on YouTube. 

The best announcements at RootsTech 2024:
  • The new Experimental Full Text search at FamilySearch
  • Ancestry is going to allow you to view the shared cMs that your shared matches share with each other
  • MyHeritage has a new Newspaper site called "Old News" which it introduced at Rootstech
  • Recognize Ancestors is coming to Ancestry.com which will search their database of photos for possible matches to an unknown person in a photo
  • New and expanded ethnicity estimates will be coming to MyHeritage this summer
My Favorite RootsTech 2024 presentations:
  • You Can DO the DNA #1–Get Started (or Restarted) Diahan Southard
  • FamilySearch Tech Forum Craig Miller Michelle Barber Todd Powell Sarah Hammon Bill Mangum
  • AI and Genealogy: Trouble Ahead? Thomas MacEntee
  • Brick Wall Ancestors Need a Search Party Diahan Southard Janet Hovorka Crista Cowan
  • You Can DO the DNA #2–Get Your Best Ethnicity Estimate Diahan Southard
  • You Can DO the DNA #3–Light Your DNA Match List on Fire! Diahan Southard
  • Brick Walls! Real? or Created Through Faulty Research? Barbara Vines Little
  • You Can DO the DNA #4–See What DNA Success Looks Like: Real Case Studies Diahan Southard
  • Diseases our Ancestors Faced and How Those Illnesses Changed Our World Gregory C. Gardner
  • Finding Milly: Tracing enslaved ancestors using Experimental Search Andre Kearns 
  • What’s New at Ancestry® in 2024 Crista Cowan
I thought RootsTech 2024 was one of the best. There was more tech because of AI than in previous years. The shorter presentations, that were presented as a result of the COVID pandemic, weren't as detailed. The hour-long presentations were much better. The presentations I listed above will continue to be available to watch at the RootsTech site

Friday, March 1, 2024

The Experimental Search Is Back at FamilySearch! /How I use it to find everyone living on the same creek

 


Last July I wrote about the Experimental Search at FamilySearch, soon after that it no longer allowed non beta testers to use it. They have now opened it up for everyone again as announced at RootsTech 2024! It may not always be available to search as they stated. I'm definitely downloading everything I find. 

Right now the only US documents available for this every word search are online probate, deed records, and plantation records. Some are viewable from home, while others require you to view them at a Family History Center or Library. 

This is what the Experimental Search page looked like:


You'll find the new improved Experimental Search by clicking on FamilySearch Labs View Experiments (had to clear cookies to get to the new search because I had used the old one). 

This is where I found the link on my laptop. The link is on the FamilySearch homepage in the right column, on my laptop. I highlighted below where I found it.

Then you're taken to a page where you click "Expand your search with Full Text", 



I've used this search to find people using names, but at this point in my research searching for deeds using a creek name or landmark has been more useful. Researching people who lived on the same creek can help you find possible relatives also living in the same area. It's also helpful in collecting neighbors' names. Those names might be useful when it comes to migration patterns. 

Since I have not had access to the Experimental Search since July I have not been able to look for a new family creek location. I discovered I had the wrong creek location for my ancestor Moses Wray. I thought he lived on Maggoty Creek in Boones Mills, Franklin County, Virginia. No, he lived on a branch of that creek called White Oak Creek or White Oak Bottom Creek. When I asked about where the Wray land was when I visited the area around Maggoty Creek no one knew? If I asked around White Oak Creek they probably would have told me approximately where the Wrays lived. I'm hoping researching and plotting deeds will help me locate the precise location of the Wray land. 

After listening to a Legacy Webinar I decided to start plotting deeds again.

I've been using Sandy Knoll's Metes and Bounds Software to plot the deeds I have for my Wray ancestors on White Oak Creek. I've come up with many different geometric shapes. Moses Wray left portions of his land to his sons. I've been plotting those surveys. 



Here is a survey I created for one piece of their father, my ancestor, Moses Wray's land. 




One of my questions is where exactly on the White Oak Bottom Creek did the family live? 

Using the deeds I'm now collecting I'm sifting through them for clues to where I might find the land on a map. I might also be able to get enough information to trace land ownership to the present time so I can use a county assessor's map. 

The Franklin County Settlement map has a location called White Oak Bottom, but not creek, near the Blue Ridge mountains. Moses Ray is listed farther south. Going through a current parcel map for Franklin County online I found a man with the last name Wray is living on White Oak Creek road. His land is farther south than on the Settlement Map. So was the Wray land on the creek near the Blue Ridge mountains of farther south? What area does White Oak Creek Bottom encompass? 


I wondered if the Wray man was living on old Wray property. Doing some research it looks like he inherited land from his mother. His mother's family lived in the area for many generations just like the Ray family. This Wray man is a distant cousin of mine. I have not been in contact with him. 

I was paging through the books looking for people living on White Oak Creek, but that is very slow. Using the Experimental Search I've found a number of deeds for people on White Oak Creek. 

I found deeds for the family of my Wray cousin's mother's family on White Oak Creek Bottom. Measuring the distance from that land to the names on the Franklin County Settlement map their land is about two miles from White Oak Creek Bottom, and Moses Ray's land on the map. 



You can see the Wray man's land outlined in blue below. You can see where it is in relation to the northern county boundary. 



Yesterday I collected some of his ancestor's deeds. The deeds say his ancestor's land was on White Oak Bottom Creek. I was not sure if White Oak Bottom Creek was just the name of the bottom portion of the creek or the name of the actual creek. It appears the entire length of the creek may have been called White Oak Bottom.

The Wray man's maternal ancestor bought land on White Oak Creek in 1864. It appears to be the same land the family inherited. It also appears my Wray family land bordered the land of the Boitnott neighbors. They are not recorded as sharing a property line with this Boitnott family, but are with their neighbors. So they likely lived in that same area. 



I'm planning to continue to sift through all of the deeds recording the names of people living on the creek, plotting the deed surveys, and looking at clues in the deeds regarding land locations. One of a neighbor's deeds states his land was near a place called Mead Mill. Since Franklin County was carved out of many counties I need to research the same land in parent counties. 


I used "White Oak Bottom Creek" as the keywords when I searched. I then filtered the results for Virginia, by first clicking place as the United States, then clicking Virginia, and then Franklin County. Doing that I got 17 deed results. 



I will continue to sift the deeds for FAN club members (friends, associates, and neighbors) for land location clues, possible migration patterns, and family living in the same area. Experiment Search is a great time saving tool for researching deeds. Important information is buried in deeds nearly impossible to find without an every word search.



Tuesday, February 20, 2024

AI for Summarizing and Transcribing Documents

I listened to the Legacy Webinar, "AI and Genealogy: Trouble Ahead?", presented by Thomas MacEntee. He discussed using AI to summarize and transcribe documents. I tried this out, and it's really a great time saver! 
 
One of my grandmother's, Graciela del Castillo, was Nicaraguan. There isn't much published about Nicaraguan genealogy, and what's available. I was in contact with a Nicaraguan genealogy expert back in 2015. I've been going through his emails again as I work on my grandmother's line. He sent me a dozen emails with detailed information regarding Nicaraguan research. I was planning on summarizing the information and sharing it with a group I'm involved in. After listening to the webinar I decided to use AI to do it. Thomas MacEntee demonstrated three AI sites ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini. I tried out all three sites. I love information presented in bulleted lists, and asked that the emails be summarized that way. 

 Here is one of the emails I asked for a bullet list summary for:


Here is what the three AI companies came up with: 


Perplexity came up with the most detailed summary. ChatGPT was in-between as far as details. Gemini provided the shortest summary. I like that Gemini provided an introduction in bold script (also liked being able to save the answers to my Google Docs). 

I decided to ask Perplexity and ChatGPT to provide a bold introduction to each bullet point. 

This is what Perplexity came up with:


This is what ChatGPT came up with:


ChatGPT didn't provide an introduction for each bullet point, as I asked. I like what they came up with anyway. Perplexity did exactly what I asked. 

I was about to get a pen and paper ready to start summarizing these emails. I'm glad I listened to the webinar first! I'm sure these summaries are better than what I would have come up with. 

 

Tuesday, February 13, 2024

A Couple Family Valentines

 

The only photo I have of my parents when they were dating in 1962

Going through old boxes I found some old Valentines.

This one below was from my father, Bob, to my mother, Edna, when they were dating in 1962. The front is made of padded cloth. The verse is very romantic! 






Another family Valentine I found has velvet on the front. Probably 50 some years old? 


Happy Valentines Day!

Thursday, February 8, 2024

Automating the Genealogy Process to Save Time

Unless you enjoy spending long hours in front of a screen, automating genealogy tasks can free you from long hours analyzing DNA results, writing reports, and looking through your work for errors. There are people who work 40 hours, and more, a week who would benefit from more genealogy task automation. 

I really got to thinking about time saving tools after listening to a couple of great webinars at Legacy Webinars. "Explore Uncharted Paths in Tracing Brick Wall Ancestors Through DNA Network Graphs" and "Artificial Intelligence and Genealogy: New Beginnings in 2024" provide examples regarding how automation can save time. 

Analyzing DNA results is very time consuming due to the number of matches most of us have. Going through matches searching for shared matches is the best way to determine how we are related to someone. One method at AncestryDNA is using colored dots to sort matches into groups based on shared matching. It's easy to pick a match, click on them, and see which matches are shared in common and place color coded dots by their names. There might be a dozen shared matches. You can then click on these dozen shared matches individually and see matches you share with them. As you work through matches, and shared matches of matches, and their shared matches this gets very time consuming. Automating this process would save time. The companies could run a program to place color coded dots for shared matches or provide us with cluster charts. 



MyHeritage allows their customers to generate cluster charts from their shared matches.Their charts are quite simple, but helpful. Even more detailed charts could be produced by companies. If you watch the webinar about graphs you can see all of the possibilities. 

Family Tree software, such as RootsMagic, produce barebones narratives using our family tree details. AI sites like chatGPT can produce more polished readable narratives based on the narratives produced using your family tree software. You need to suggest a style to chatGPT to get an end product you like. Even then you may want to edit the wording, but it's still time saving. The more readable narratives can help you find errors and make details pop out you might have missed. Producing some of these narratives I found I had information in my tree I now disagreed with. 

I liked how this narrative about my del Castillo family came out using my RootsMagic information and chatGPT here's a sample:

"Through the centuries, through wars and revolutions, through migrations and milestones, the del Castillo family remained bound by a thread of shared history and shared destiny. Their story, etched in the annals of time, stands as a testament to the enduring power of family, love, and the human spirit."

I thought that was actually appropriate for this family. Sounds a little grandiose but the family was involved in the politics of Nicaragua, one ancestor serving as president during a civil war. 

This Moses Wray example is a little flowery for my taste, but the fact he died at age 75 jumped out at me more than it would in a barebones narrative:

"By 1786, Moses Wray's name echoed through the valleys of Franklin County, Virginia, marking his claim once more. But the winds of time whispered a somber tune, and Moses passed on before the autumn leaves could paint the hills in shades of gold. He took his final breath before the 4th of October 1802, at the age of 75, leaving behind a legacy woven into the very fabric of Bedford and Franklin County."

Ancestry is offering DNA customers an AI feature which they can use to get more information about their ethnicity predictions. It provides some background on the culture and region  someone is predicted to have ancestors from. 



An important use of AI is for OCR, which allows for faster indexing of records. Language translation is another very useful feature. 

I see a lot of uses for graphs and AI in helping to save time on tasks I'm not that interested in spending time on. Writing research plans, narratives, and other reports would be a good use of AI technology. I hope companies will see the advantages of new technologies and offer them to their customers. There are tools we can use right now ourselves, but other tools would have to be produced by DNA companies since we don't have access to the information to produce our own graphs of shared matches, for instance.
 

Monday, January 8, 2024

Examining Middle Names for Clues

 

 Early on in my genealogy research I discovered a middle name could be a mother's maiden name. My great-grandfather William Wray Forgey's middle name was his mother Elizabeth's maiden name. His aunt Polly Thurman Wray was given her paternal grandmother's maiden name as her middle name. After these early discoveries I looked at middle names very carefully for clues to their origins. 

William Wray Forgey's maternal grandmother Sarah Campbell-Wray's family is a brickwall for me. We don't know who her parents were? She was born about 1812, possibly in Tennessee.  According to some posted family trees her full name was Sarah Cloud O'Briant Campbell. I've been looking at these middle names to see if they might provide clues? I've looked for those names in the area of Indiana she married and lived in. Those names haven't pointed to any solution to who her parents, or even siblings were. I haven't even found the source of those middle names. 

Sarah's daughters' middle names appear in a family bible and other documents. Polly Thurman Wray is confirmed to have her maternal grandmother's maiden name, but her other daughters' middle names are a mystery. One daughter was given the middle name Temple and another daughter Willington. I haven't been able to connect any of these names with my Indiana family. A son was given the name Harrison as a middle name, and that surname belonged to an uncle through marriage, on the Wray side. 


My ancestor Elizabeth Wray's middle name was Jane. Often family first names are recycled as middle names. Jane could have been a relative of Sarah Campbell? 

Researching deeds I found a James Trigg Campbell. He appears to have a relationship with the Wray family living near them, and trading land with the family. James Campbell isn't an uncommon name, but I felt like the middle name Trigg could point me in the right direction, as middle names had in my past research. Sadly, no.

When I visited a Lynchburg cemetery during the summer I noticed a tombstone with the middle name Trigg on it. Possibly Trigg was a middle name used in the past without any significance? 


I visited the historic house Sandusky in Lynchburg, Virginia which was once owned by an Otey family. That name was used as a middle name by some of our Wray distant cousins. I told the historian at the house my relatives used Otey as a middle name and wondered if they were related? He said sometimes middle names were just names of neighbors. Middle names could be a clue to where the family lived, but may be the name of a relative.

 

Middle names are sometimes added to ancestors' names by people researching their family trees. The fact the name Oat has been added to my ancestor Benjamin Wray's name is a pet peeve of mine. I have found no documents with the middle name Oat, yet most online trees state his name is Benjamin Oat Wray. In 1757, when the older Benjamin was born, middle names were uncommon. There was a Benjamin Oat Wray who was a descendant of Benjamin. This man has a death certificate and lived in an era when middle names became more common. There was another descendant of Benjamin named James Oat Wray. Maybe someday we'll find out the significance of the name Oat? It's a mystery so far. 



Middle initials can be important when it comes to identifying men with the same first and last names living in the same area. The middle initial D was added to my ancestor James Owens name to set him apart from other James Owens living in the same county. That initial led me to accurately identify him in his father's estate settlement resolving a brickwall. 

Other times family tree researchers have added middle initials. This can happen when a name was abbreviated with the last letter of the abbreviation being written in superscript (raised above the text). In one case the middle initial A was added to one of the Benjamin Wray's names. Actually that was part of the abbreviation of the name. Benja was an abbreviation commonly used in the past. 


Once a wrong middle initial or middle name has been added to an ancestor's name it's nearly impossible to correct. It just keeps getting recopied. 

We have relatives who use Washington as a middle name, as a tribute to their hero George Washington. No clues there. Sometimes the middle name comes from a person someone admires. 

Sometimes middle names have been useful in confirming relationships and sometimes they are a total mystery. Maybe some day some of these mystery middle names will lead to solving a brickwall.

Wednesday, December 13, 2023

Learning about Ancestors from Eulogies and Obituaries/And where to locate them

 


I first discovered the value of a eulogy for family history research when I received one for a great-great aunt, Bridget aka Sister Mary Kathleen Mullen, from an aunt. She was a Catholic nun. The eulogy states she was from Galway; my father thought our Mullen family was from Cork. He probably was told his grandmother, Helen Mullen-Mason, left the port at Cork and thought the family lived there. The eulogy also gave the names of her parents, Patrick Mullen and Mary Huvane. I had never heard anything about the surname Huvane until then. My grandmother, Dorothy Mason-Kapple, and her siblings knew the maiden name of their grandmother, Mary Huvane-Mullen, but I didn't. I guess I just never asked. I should have asked more questions. 

Relatives are a good source when looking for eulogies. The more relatives, including distant relatives, you collaborate with the more likely you can find something like a eulogy. I've also gotten prayer cards with information about the deceased from distant relatives. 

After learning the maiden name of my great-great grandmother I began researching the surname Huvane. To some family members the name seemed foreign. They thought it might be Spanish? Maybe the name came from Spanish Armada survivors? Once I had internet access in the 1990s I was able to find Huvanes living in the San Francisco area. I made contact with them and they shared the information they had about the family, and they shared some research done in Ireland by a researcher there. He stated the name Huvane, a variant of Huane, was likely a variant of Hoban. 

This Huvane family also attempted to help me learn more about my Mullen family. Our shared Huvane family relatives lived near the Mullens, in Pollaturick, Ireland, they of course were cousins of their family, and mine. My new cousins gave me contact information for a Mary Ellen Mullen-Thornton, they received from relatives in Pollaturick. She was the only Mullen closely related to me still alive, being that she was the first cousin of my grandmother Dorothy. The relative also stated that some of the Mullens lived in London. I wrote her a letter but never heard back. She was born in 1921 and was likely in poor health, or living in a care home when I wrote her. When I visited Ireland, and the townland of Pollaturick in 2019 a neighbor told me Mary Ellen was in a nursing home. The family hadn't lived on the land in decades because Mary Ellen's husband had land in another townland where she lived after her marriage. 

Asking questions on Facebook in 2021 I discovered Mary Ellen Mullen-Thornton was still alive, and 100 years old. Until then I had no idea she was that old! I was very surprised. Her aunt, Sister Mary Kathleen Mullen, was 103 when she died. This family has a longevity gene.

Fast forward to December 2023. I learned that Mary Ellen had died in November 2022. This month is a busy month in the United States with Thanksgiving, and Christmas coming, so I missed that funeral stream on YouTube. Googling her name and the places she lived I found an obituary. Internet obituaries are free and easy to post so they are very common. Often funeral homes put these on their websites. Commonly these obituaries include a photo of the deceased, and sometimes there is a slideshow with multiple photos that include family members. I've seen photos going back to the deceaseds childhood. I've also seen videos posted with these obituaries. 

A video produced by the family of my father Robert's first cousin can be viewed at this link . This video, with photos, helped me identify some unmarked photos. 


I've found many obituaries for relatives who died before the internet in old newspapers. Sites like newspapers.com or newspaperarchive.com are great, but you have to pay to view the obituaries. Chronicling America is a free newspaper site, but I haven't had any luck there myself. An Irish newspaper site with obituaries is Irish Newspaper Archives.

Mary Ellen Mullen-Thornton's obituary provided the names of her children, which I didn't have. It confirmed two of her children lived in England, and one in London. The letter proved to be correct, one of her children did live in London. Great to see a photo of my grandmother's first cousin too! 


I remembered that in Ireland funeral services are streamed on YouTube or the churches website. The Mullen family church St. Joseph's Milltown, Tuam, Galway, Ireland, streams funeral services live. Unfortunately, after a short period of time they make them private. You need the link to view them. Thankfully, I was able to get a link from the church to view her funeral mass from last year. Unfortunately her family didn't give the eulogy. The priest did and he provided some interesting information. He confirmed that she was born in Pollaturick, when times were hard and no one had any money. Her occupation was housewife. He said she could speak Irish. He didn't know Irish was spoken in the village during her lifetime. Her aunt, my great-grandmother, also spoke Irish. He stated one of her daughter's names was actually Bernadette, which wasn't in the obituary. Dette in the obituary is apparently a nickname for Bernadette. 

The name of the care home Mary Ellen lived in was named during the service. The neighbor I spoke to was correct; she was in a nursing home. 

Prayers were said for the Thornton and Mullen families. It was nice to hear the Mullens acknowledged. 

The priest also stated that some of her siblings died shortly after birth. He also said her brother Patrick died as a teenager, which doesn't seem to match some information I have? I know he was born in 1919. A Patrick Mullen sold land in Pollaturick in 1950 which I assumed was him. Maybe I'm wrong? Patrick Mullen isn't an uncommon name in Ireland. 



The reason I'm interested in information about her family is I would like to know if they have any old photos of my great-great grandparents? 

All of my great-grandmother's siblings, except for Michael Mullen, Mary Ellen's father, left the area. He inherited the family land. Mary Ellen was the only one of his children that lived long into adulthood. For this reason the Mullen family land was passed down to her. Her father's house, not lived in for decades, was falling apart when I visited there. I assume she was born there in 1921? My great-great grandmother was present at her birth according to her civil registration record. 


Interestingly Mary Ellen Mullen-Thornton was present when her grandmother, my great-great grandmother, Mary Huvane-Mullen died, according to her death record. 


I'm hoping to find a way to get in contact with Mary Ellen's descendant's in hopes they might have photos?

Obituaries and eulogies are great sources for family history. You can find obituaries online, and in newspapers, and sometimes in books. Family members might keep copies of eulogies, and some churches now live stream funerals on the internet. Also family members may have made videos of a funeral service. A relative may have presented a eulogy for a relative, friend. or neighbor, which may include information about themselves, and the area they lived in. Because of Covid restrictions many churches now stream their services. We now have more places to glean information from. 






Wednesday, November 15, 2023

Court Papers/ Determined Papers Franklin District Court Virginia

 


Looking for a court record regarding my Wray family I discovered the Chancery Court records online at Virginia Memory aren't always complete or thoroughly indexed. If your family lived in the counties of Franklin, Bedford, Campbell, Pittsylvania, Patrick, and Henry you might find a court case that your family was mentioned in using another source called determined papers at FamilySearch. These files were created after court cases were determined. It is nice to have the more complete files available at the FamilySearch site. Since these records were filmed, in 1976-1977, some of the file pages have become separated and aren't in their original file. That's why the recently scanned files at Virginia Memory aren't always complete.

You can  search the FamilySearch catalog using the keyword determined and the link should come up for this record set. You can also search by county, and then find the link under court records. Elizabeth Shown Mills pointed this record set out to me. Somehow I overlooked this valuable source. Honestly wish more YouTube family history videos would focus on these little known types of records. 

These records aren't indexed. If you are looking for a particular court record and have dates you can just search around that date. Knowing when the case was finally settled helps. Generally all the paperwork was filed together when the case was determined. 

You can search these records page by page or just look at each cover page. The cover page will generally be written on paper folded longways, which looks like a book spine. If you've done courthouse research you will quickly spot the cover pages. 



Things I found included in these determined files:

Case details:


I saw some newspapers in the files:


Lists of witnesses:


There was a legal dispute over the tax lists and  full tax lists were included in a file:



Interesting the time court would meet is outlined in this document. Since there wasn't good lighting available sunset ended the court day. 


The cases often involved slaves. If someone is researching slave ancestry these records do provide the names of slaves. Also there are cases involving land disputes which include land records and sometimes land surveys. 

Court records are a very important source for family history, especially in the south where vital records weren't introduced until the twentieth century.