For the past while, I have been searching for birth records of the children of Catharine Canter and Thomas Eblin. I mentioned earlier in a post that I have had little luck. I am beginning to wonder if they moved frequently during those early years of marriage, so I will have to start searching for other residences. On another note, I spent 5 hours at the family history library today in Salt Lake, with only two successful searches. I have come to the conclusion that genealogy has times of drought and times of plenty. Currently I am in a drought. I want to keep searching for the missing birth records and marriage records of this family, but I have yet to touch the 4th generation in my 4-generation project. I only have 3 weeks left, so because of time constraints, I have to move on and leave the major problems for later research.
As a Family History major, I have fallen into the trap of the Family History Library Catalog. Don't get me wrong, the Family History Library is a wonderful resource, and its catalog aids researchers in finding microfilms and records. However, the way it categorizes records does not always suit a project. The catalog breaks down records by county jurisdiction. Usually, this works just fine to find our ancestors. However, county boundaries change. Your family may have been in one county for 50 years, but suddenly disappear. The county still exists, the family is still alive and living in the same place as far as you can tell, but they are no longer in the county records. A slight shift in the boundary may have placed them in a neighboring county. Or, often families on or near county boundaries may report to whatever courthouse is closest, not necessarily which county court house they belong to. As genealogists, we need to remember to take a step back, and forget about boundaries. Families were not trapped by invisible lines in the dirt. They may have owned land in another county, or may have friends and family living in another county they would visit often. If we take a closer look at where those friends and family are located, we may find that they are really just down the street.
The trap of the FHLC that I fell into this week was slightly different, though. Sometimes we get so caught up in searching in our counties and neighboring counties, that we forget to step back and look at the statewide records and collections. I have been searching for death records in Ohio in the 1900s, and searching the counties provided few results. I was then informed that the FHL has microfilmed all death certificates for the state of Ohio. I wasn't finding them in the county collections, because they were listed in the Ohio State catalog. I guess we all have to learn by experience.
In my Professional Genealogy class with Dr. Ryskamp, we are discussing the application process for certification or accreditation. I have heard countless times that it is highly recommended that you accumulate at least 1000 hours of experience in the area you wish to certify in. I had originally been under the impression that these were to be strictly research hours on various projects in the given area. Dr. Ryskamp clarified that hours spent in any genealogy courses, conferences, etc. that apply to your area of emphasis or to general genealogical research count toward the 1000 hour recommendation. Family History majors usually are closer than they think to their hour requirements by the time they graduate. Thanks for the clarification Dr. Ryskamp!
I have been searching for the birth records of the children of Thomas Ashbury Eblin and Catharine Rebecca Canter. I have now searched three counties Thomas and Catharine are known to have lived in, with only 3 out of 11 birth records found. However, one of the films was rather faded, and I have been told that the new computer microfilm readers in the library can read difficult films. Technology once again saves genealogy (that is if I can find the children among the washed out entries).
I have been working this week again on the family group of George Madison Canter and Elizabeth Hannah Gilliland. I have to say, Ancestry.com has made my life so much easier this week. I was able to find nearly all siblings in all census years available, and I have now narrowed down my list of possible children deceased before 1900. I also was able to track down some death dates thanks to Ancestry.com's Ohio death index database. I would love to order the death certificates, but lack the funds to order all of them. However, I am accepting research donations. :)
Has this ever happened to you:
I have been researching the Canter family in Ohio and have been fairly successful in finding records for Catharine Canter/Eblin. However, I have been researching her siblings with less luck... that is until now. Until only recently I did not know the married names of Catharine's sisters. Then I found an old family history that listed the married names of those sisters. As I was looking through some old census copies of Catharine's household to answer some new questions, I noticed that it appears that her sisters were listed on the same census page under their husbands' households. All this time it has been right in front of me, and I just wasn't looking.
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