The Gen Project

I honestly try not to let my frustrations with certain aspects of online genealogy bug me too much, but sometimes you just have to vent a bit. So,if you hate to see negative words spoken, you may want to give this post a pass. On the other hand, seeing my personal pet peeve list just might inspire a few folks to see what can be done about some of the items on my list. These peeves are in no particular order.

• Message boards with topics introduced but answers that might be useful to others are invariably exchanged offsite through emails. This one drives me around the bend - in nearly all cases, the persons being discussed are long gone, so it’s not like their privacy is being invaded if details about their lives are shared.
• Self-professed ‘experts’ who can’t seem to resist jumping onto forum posts, even when they’re out of their area of expertise.
• Scolds who insist on chastising any poor soul who fails to construct a query properly.
• Websites with no apparent form of navigation and/or no real organization to the data being presented.
• List owners who take a scorched earth policy to even the slightest hint of criticism. It’s rather hard to make improvements when such listowners seem to be overly fond of unsubbing and/or banning anyone who dares to challenge them in any way.
• Websites that are nothing but links to other sites, usually those that require payment to access the records wanted.

This list is likely to have additions made as more peeves come to mind.

Here’s an article that I came across while researching my Bratton connection.

Apartment Owner is Freed of Charge

Neighbors Tell of Men and Woman in Scant Attire in Dr. Bratton’s Building

Dr. Edwin E. Bratton, who was arrested in the charge of owning a disorderly house, on South Fortieth street was discharged yesterday at a hearing held before Magistrate Dugan. The magistrate warned Dr. Bratton to look more carefully into the character of his tenants in the future.

The action was brought by members of the Housing Committee of the University of Pennsylvania who said that Penn students frequent the apartment house. At the hearing neighbors testified that they had seen men and women in costumes that had Aphrodite backed off the board, smoking and drinking in some of the rooms. Dr. Bratton in his own defense said he owns three large apartment houses and has more than 200 tenants. He said that he had ejected all tenants against whom valid complaints were made. The warrant for Dr. Bratton’s arrest was sworn by District Detectives Baker and McDowell at the request of George Nitzsche, chairman of the Housing Committee of the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Bratton, who is a Sunday School superintendent, is from Detroit and was graduated from the University of Michigan Medical School. He discontinued practicing several years ago. Several months ago, his wife brought suit for divorce alleging that she was unable to stand his “cave man tactics.”

Source: 1921-05-13. Philadelphia Inquirer

Sometimes you just have to smile at the way things were written years ago - though Dr. Bratton was cleared of the charge against him, it was clear that the writer wanted it to be known that there was still something rather unseemly about the man, or there would have been no need to mention his “cave man tactics” complained of by his wife. I haven’t actually identified Edwin yet, but I’m sure he will fit in somewhere in the family tree somewhere.

Sometimes you come across records that just don’t make sense or that contradict other records that are known to be valid. This can be a very frustrating experience and is probably more common when looking at older families that often used the same names many times over the generations. As a case in point, I was recently working on my ex-husband’s lines as my daughter has begun to show an interest in her roots. Since he had told me years ago that his parents both died when he was in his twenties, I was quite surprised to see a record online that appeared to show a much later death date for his father. What made the record so convincing at first glance though was that burial site listed was the same Perry County cemetery as the rest of his family and the birth date fell within the right span of years. Who was this guy? As it turns out, once I was able to obtain the obituary for the man, it was clear that he was not the right guy, but rather his first cousin, which explained why he was buried in the same cemetery as  some of the others I knew about in the family. In this case, there were two brothers who lived in the Perry County area who both had sons named Robert Wayne, born several months apart, probably named after an uncle who died young. Between the census records for the brothers and the obituary, it was possible to determine who belonged to which family, but it certainly wasn’t clear at first glance! Had I not had a bit of personal knowledge of the family though, I would have accepted the record as it stood without question, highlighting the necessity for doing the additional research to really verify our data.

Sometimes it can be really difficult to prove a line of descent for an individual, especially when that individual lived during the mid 1800’s. This is a period I often refer to as the black hole of records, as the folks who produce books of church records usually concentrate on records before 1800 and the census information does not become really helpful until the late part of the 1800’s. I have wished for years that some of my own ancestors had been a bit better about listing details in the records they left behind, such as where family members were buried.

A case in point is my great-great-grandmother, Amanda Gregg, born in 1835. From information copied from an old family bible years ago, I knew that Amanda was the daughter of Isaac and Hannah Gregg and that she had married David M. Reynolds in 1857, but I was having real difficulties proving anything substantial about her. I even knew what she looked like as the picture to the right, handed down to me by my mother, hangs in the hallway at my house. The 1850 census shows her in Kennett township in Chester County with her parents, Isaac and Hannah Gregg, at age 15. By 1860, she had married and shows up in Fulton township, Lancaster County with husband David Reynolds. By 1870, she’s back in Kennett, a widow with three children: Mary C., Albert and Isaac. Without the bible record, I would have no clue about Amanda and her husband and children, as I have yet to discover where she was married, or where she and David were ultimately buried. From the same bible record, I know that Isaac, the youngest son, was born at Peach Bottom in 1864 and lived for most of his life in West Chester and is buried at Oaklands Cemetery in West Chester, so perhaps Amanda will turn up there as well but I have my doubts as she is not anywhere to be found near Isaac’s grave at Oaklands. Both the Reynolds and the Gregg families were Quaker, so the most likely places to look for her and David will be in the Quaker meeting burial grounds in the area. I’m going to set an official goal of finding them this summer. My best guess is New Garden meeting, as the death notice for Isaac Gregg, Amanda’s father, states the he died in New Garden, though London Grove is also a possibility as David’s parents were married there in 1795.

It would be interesting to know just when the picture of Amanda was taken, as that might also provide some clues about where she ended up, but as it is, the picture will serve as a reminder to me that she remains a somewhat intriguing mystery to solve as she outlived her husband by nearly 20 years.

Sometimes you run across articles in the paper that just make you shake your head. Here’s one I found the other day:

WIFE SOUGHT TO PLEASE
Asked Ill Man His Choice of Undertaker

Pittsburgh, July 30. A decree of divorce was granted to Robert H. McConkey yesterday from Mrs. Mary McConkey.

McConkey alleged that last winter he was very ill and his progress toward recovery was materially retarded by his wife, who asked him every few minutes which undertaker he would prefer for his funeral. He says that in spite of his wife’s expectation he got well, but decided he needed a divorce. The court agreed with him.

McConkey is fifty-seven years old and his wife is several years his junior.