ProGen 3 is now finished...NGS HSC CD 3 here I come

Well, yesterday was the last day for my peer group and I in ProGen 3. We are now finished with the course. Our last topic was on marketing strategies and business record keeping. We spent some time talking about what has worked for those with running businesses and those who are not currently "in business" yet got to ask some questions. We also spent some time talking about filing systems which was pretty eye-opening. I have to admit, I'm not much of a stickler with the filing. Oh, I have the file folders, and most are labeled, but they're scattered around the house rather than in one primary location. Next to the desktop computer, next to the netbook and printer, on the coffee table under the good reading light...you get the picture. It's not my fault though, really. I use my "files" everyday, whether it's for the ProGen assignments or the NGS HSC assignments, or just for my own project at the time. Ok, I could put them back in the file box or at least keep them all together, but what fun would that be? Besides, I like to be able to sit down, see a file and start getting back into it.

Speaking of the NGS HSC, I've gotten caught up on that now too. I finished up CD 2 with lesson 11 which was on migration. For the first assignment in that section, I had to print out/copy a few maps charting the migration of a family through three generations. I found some wonderful maps at David Rumsey's site, as usual, and was able to chart the Bromagem movement from Monongalia County, VA (now WV) to Montgomery Co., (and later, thanks to county boundary changes, Bath County) KY, to Greene County, OH, to Darke County, OH, to bordering Indiana counties including Randolph, Jay, Wells, and Blackford. I had to look at possible paths to and from each of the locations which was really interesting, to sit in front of maps that were pretty near contemporary to the subject I was tracking, and try to figure out how they would have gotten from one place to another. I found that the Ohio River was probably a major player for the Bromagems because they could pick it up outside Pittsburgh (Monongalia County is currently considered part of the Pittsburgh metro area) and take it into central Kentucky, near where they briefly settled. Then they could hop on the Little Miami River to head up to Chillicothe, OH and from there pick up a short road to the Greene County, OH area. If you still aren't familiar with David Rumsey's map site, at http://www.davidrumsey.com/, you need to head over there, bookmark it, and return as much as possible. The maps on the site are absolutely beautiful, plus pretty essential tools for the family historian.

The second assignment for this section was a pretty big one. I had to choose an ancestor and one census year in which he/she appears. Then compile a spreadsheet with at least 100 of that person's neighbors in that year and do the same for the next census year. So overall, you have a spreadsheet covering two census enumerations with at least 200 total included. Then, you go over both statistics looking for similarities, anything that can help you to group the people and figure how your subject fit into the mix when historical context is mixed with the social background you've just compiled. If your subject moved between the two census years, then you need to find out more, such as what was going on in that particular geographic location that may have contributed to a move. Was it religious? Social? Was there a conflict going on at the time? I chose to follow Emsley McMasters, the Methodist living in the North Carolina Quaker Belt during the Civil War. Obviously I had already discovered that the Quaker Belt area was struggling with some serious, violent and unstable internal warfare during the Civil War, as if being a country at war wasn't bad enough. So I knew that his move was likely to provide a safer and more stable home for his large family (there were 8 children living under his roof at the time of the 1860 census). Indiana would have provided the land but his destination in particular, Parke County, would have provided a strong North Carolina community as well as a community with an established Quaker contingent, so the values would presumably have been similar to what he, and subsequently, his children would have grown up with. It was also accessible to him from the very well traveled Wilderness Road which he could pick up outside Salisbury, NC and take west into Kentucky, where he could pick up the Ohio River and from there, the Wabash River, which runs along Indiana's western border and have several waterways branching off of it in the Parke County area.

All of this information was to be recorded in a report to complete lesson 11. I ordered the final CD of the course last week and it's already arrived so I've been taking a look at the workload and figuring out what needs to be ordered. The lessons this time cover, immigration, naturalization, military records, evidence analysis and kinship, and writing the biography of an ancestor. I did start poking around on ancestry a bit for the immigration and naturalization lessons and I think I got lucky. I'll post about that next...

Still juggling, and adding more to the plate

Well, I'm still working on getting caught up after my Dad's passing last month. I've got 4 assignments to finish up, 2 for the NGS HSC and 2 for ProGen, my NGSQ group meets next week to discuss a great article by Stephanie Evans (which I'll try to post about soon), I'm getting indexed entries and photos from the project in Parke County, IN and now I've just agreed to be a coordinator for a future ProGen group. Yikes!

The two NGS HSC assignments I'm finishing are Lessons 7 and 11. Lesson 7 is on Church and Cemetery records and I had to order an FHL film to view the records of St Martin's Episcopal Church in Marcus Hook, Delaware County, PA then do an inventory of what was on the roll. It was definitely interesting reading, however there was an issue with the film notes from the familysearch website not matching what was supposed to be on the roll. But for the most part, I did get to see the hand-written entries naming the first vestrymen for the congregation in 1724 and various early 19th century entries for baptisms, marriages, and burials. Cool stuff there. The second part of this lesson was to make a cemetery map. This was one of the assignments I worked on back in June when I took my research trip to Parke County. I did a map for the Linebarger Cemetery which is just outside Rockville, IN. I had some weather and time issues however, so the map is not yet complete as far as getting all of the names and transcriptions but I hope to be able to finish it up in the spring.



Lesson 11, the second lesson I'm trying to get finished up, is the migration lesson. The first assignment is to print out an outline map or other map which you can then use to track the movements of a family group. I'll have to fill everyone in on this more later since I'm still in the middle of doing this but I'm using the movements of my Bromagem family for this one, showing their earliest known beginnings in Monongalia County, VA (now WV), then to Scott County, KY, and finally over to Greene and Darke Counties in OH and Randolph and Jay Counties in IN. The map is supposed to show the possible routes used to get to these locations as well and that is actually the part I'm researching now so I'll get back to that topic here once I'm finished with the assignment.

For ProGen, I'm working on the final 2 assignments of the group- the proof summary and the marketing plan. Initially I had thought to do the proof summary on the proving the parentage of Lillian Bromagen Stevens but once I got it all down, it ended up looking more like a case study than a proof summary. What that pretty much means is that there was no conflicting or indirect evidence. It all pretty much fell into place. The only real conflicting issue is the maiden name for her mother, which I've spoken about here in the past and which is an ongoing work-in-progress for me. So instead, I think I'm revisiting a different Bromagen issue for this assignment. I'll be going back over the work I did to prove that Lida Van Wormer was actually Eliza Jane Bromagen, sister of Lillian and eldest child of James Bromagen and Mary Jane Braden/Hawkins. Again, more on that when I know for sure which way I'm going :)

So that's the sum up for now. I'll have more details coming soon.

January ProGen 3 Assignment....phew!!

I'm completely burned out...well, maybe not completely. :) But I've just finished this month's ProGen assignment and it was rough. The topic was Evidence Analysis and it focused on the proper way to weigh and work with the evidence you have compiled to come to a well-founded conclusion. The assignment was to choose a subject that you've worked on in the past/been working on recently and gather all of your evidence together. Take the evidence and state what each item is (whether it is a census schedule, tax record, vital record, etc), what information it gives relating to the fact you're trying to prove, whether it is original/derivative, whether it gives primary/secondary information, whether it gives direct/indirect evidence, and whether it's credible. At the end of all of that, you state your conclusion based on the chart that you have created and what all of the evidence included tells you, how much weight to place on each, etc. What you're left with is what appears to be a chart which you can then use to write a formal proof report. As much as this entails a huge amount of work, it is so worth having that visual. It's really going to come in handy later on when we tackle that dreaded proof argument for a fact which is proved without the benefit of direct evidence.



To give a better idea of what these charts we are working on look like, you can check out pg 336 in Professional Genealogy or the back of the front cover of Evidence Explained. I think I may also try to find a way to get my own chart attached somehow. I'd love to get some feedback because some of the determinations made were not exactly clear-cut.

Working, working, working...

Hi all, I know things have been a little quiet this week. I got hit with a nasty virus or something earlier in the week that I couldn't shake until yesterday and then I had to play catch up with my ProGen assignment. This month we had to take the transcribed document that we worked up for last month's assignment and build a research plan for it. We also wrote our background resume, as if we were creating it for our BCG certification application. That was an interesting exercise for sure. I can definitely see where I'm lacking. I really need to get some article ideas on paper and try to get them out there. Yikes! Also this month, I've been working on Lesson 2 of the NGS Home Study Course. This lesson is called "Family Traditions and Family Records". The first assignment is to tell and then evaluate a family tradition. The second assignment is to make a list of family papers that you have been given by earlier generations and briefly tell who gave them to you, who had them before you, and what genealogical clues they contain.

And if being sick and working on two ProGen assignments and two NGS assignments wasn't enough, I've also been getting the brainstorming for my potential James Bromagem article on paper, finally. Seeing that you may be the only one in your ProGen group without published work really keeps you motivated!

Taking the initiative

So under the umbrella of educational opportunities I've been lucky enough to get involved with two online study groups. One is a monthly discussion of selected articles published by the National Genealogical Society's periodical, the National Genealogical Society Quarterly. I've been in the group since the fall of 2008, so not too long, but long enough to know that I've fallen into a great thing. If nothing else, it's a way to talk with others about the attributes of the Genealogical Proof Standard in action. As a visual learner, I couldn't ask for anything better than that because seeing it being done in print is a great way for me to learn how to do it in my own research.

The second group that I have just started this year is the third Pro Gen online study group. I waited several months for the group to start hoping that I would be able to grab a spot and sure enough, I did. So far we've had one discussion and it's already proving to be an invaluable resource. Not only do the group members get that interaction with others in the field that they may not otherwise have access to, but you also get the sage advice of a certified genealogist, or "CG", at each of the group discussions. The first discussion covered professionalism and ethics. Talk about a loaded gun. Seeing as how most of us fall into the category of "transitional" genealogist the discussion was essential to our ability to understand how a professional conducts his/her business as well as their research with clients as well as colleagues. With that discussion under my belt, on to next month's topic: educational opportunities! My favorite topic!