While packing up some of my mother’s things I found an hold horn. She had a note packed with it that it had been her father’s and that it had belonged to his grandfather. I’m guessing that it was his Grandfather, Allen L. Pryor, who was born in 1816. My grandpa was raised on the Pryor farm near Gallatin, in Sumner County, TN. I’ve done a bit of research, enough to learn that it isn’t a powder horn. My mom’s note said that she remembered her uncle blowing the horn (that would have been Allen Gregory of Nashville) in the 1930’s. From some photos online it looks hunting horns that people blow to call in the hounds on a hunt. Any ideas of what it was used for in Tennessee? Did they have fox hunting in Tennessee? Do you have a Pryor family heirloom you’d like to photograph and share?
Ancestry has been adding more school yearbooks. I found Jessie Walker Pryor, a young lady who had graduated with an M.D. from the University of Texas in 1920. She is on the 1920 Census in Galvaston, Ward 1… recorded as a roomer and a student at the medical college. I was able to find her again in 1900 because of another enhancement on Ancestry. The past versions of the 1900 Census were at times illegible. The newer, clearer version on Ancestry shows Miss Pryor in living with her parents in Caldwell County, TX. Her father was born in Tennessee. Can we match this line up to their TN Roots?
US Census records will only take you so far in tying up the 19th Century relationships in your family tree. In 1880, almost a hundred years after the first US Census, relationships were recorded for the first time. Before 1880 it was guess work to figure out who was related to whom in a household. The 1900 Census introduced the question of how long spouses had been married which helped to determine when they were married.
Confirming a marriage can frustrate a dedicated family historian, the search is compounded by the lack of marriage records due to fires that burned court houses and record offices, and marriages that were only recorded in lost church registries, or performed by traveling preachers who didn’t keep records. Rather than relying on guess work or leaving a blank on a family group sheet I can suggest a trio of sources to confirm a marriage when an official record can’t be found.
Court Records: Court records can be a wealth of information. Lawsuits and wills can identify a spouse and may even mention the spouses’ siblings or other kin that can confirm relationships. These records may contain evidence of prior marriages, or clues the approximate date of a current marriage. My personal favorite of all court records are Divorces-they don’t even have to be your own kin’s divorce! I’ve had success finding affidavits in siblings or friends’ divorce records that confirm my own ancestors’ marriage date. Divorces at times occurred in counties different than where the marriage took place, so if marriage records were destroyed a divorce record in another county may still exist.
Civil War Pension Files: If a relative survived his service in the Union Army, the pension file index must be searched. The pension application process, especially when a surviving wife was the applicant, called for confirmation of the veteran’s marriage. The confirmation often took the form of an affidavit form or at times individual affidavits from people who knew the couple. The last pension record I requested contained an affidavit that told the marriage date, where it occurred, who officiated, and a description of an old traditional “shivaree” to welcome the newlyweds.
Google Books: With over ten million books scanned and available online at Google, you’re bound to find an ancestor in one or two of them! A search will turn up numerous genealogy digests and histories. The real treasure is in the biographies that gained in popularity around the mid 1870’s to the beginning of the 20th century. Some of these books were written as the nation became interested its history around the time of the centennial, while others were “vanity” biographies that prominent citizens purchased because their own history was included in the book. The biographies are usually first-hand accounts of the subject’s heritage, thus a reliable source to quote in documenting a family tree.
I remember the joy from years ago as new family history data became available online. Being able to search online was a cinch, so much easier than planning vacations around trips to libraries and historical societies. However the joy was dampened whenever I’d stumble upon an online pedigree that was foggy or completely incorrect. Almost ten years ago I became so frustrated with online genealogy errors I started my own surname website (Tennessee Pryors). Starting a website may not be your cup of tea, but there are three things you can do now to address incorrect data online and make a cleaner investigation path for future genealogy buffs.
1. Put up your own data – Many of the top genealogy websites give you the ability to post your own data. The LDS FamilySearch.org website allows visitors (church membership not required) to submit their own family data. Subscription websites like Ancestry.com offers the user the feature of adding multiple family trees, and even posting documents, photos, and other documentation. Genealogy.com also provides space to posting your own genealogy and family tree. Any of the community areas and message board areas of genealogy sites also allows you to post not just queries, but your own data and recent genealogy discoveries.
2. Ask information to be changed– I’ve communicated with other researchers with mixed results. Some are amiable to changing their family tree or posted data when provided with new data backed with good source information. Others are committed to information passed down from relatives, incorrect information from accepted genealogy books or other authorities, or in rare cases they are unable to login and access the data to makes changes.
3. Add comments– My personal favorite is to comment where ever the opportunity is given. The good news is that commenting is allowed in a multitude of places on the web. Ancestry.com understands that users have something to contribute and allows comments: add a comment to a census record, put a note on family tree, and identify name variations and transcription errors. Book reviews on Google Books or Ancestry.com is also a method of attaching your opinion and alternative information.
The Internet is always increasing in opportunities for an interactive genealogy experience. That means whether you’re an expert or a novice you can get involved. It’s time to take advantage of the opportunities to participate and help to increase the accuracy of online genealogy data.
Copyright 2010, Vanessa Wood
I’ve hit my share of “brickwalls” in the research of my own family tree. What I’ve learned is that our ancestors were much more mobile than we ever thought. To help you in your hunt for lost ancestors and the “missing links” that will solve your genealogy mysteries I’m sharing the strategies that have led to finding people you may think were dead or never counted on public records.
1. County Lines: The US was a rapidly developing country beginning in the 19th century. Geographic features sometimes blurred where one county began and another ended and at other times counties were added as governmental districts were reassessed and towns were incorporated or expanded. Whatever the reason don’t write off the potential that an ancestor may be in a different county than expected or that records may exist in multiple counties.
Tip: Look in neighboring counties and larger towns that may have grown in distant counties. I found more than one ancestor counted twice (and in two different counties) on the census records!
2. Migration: It’s known from even grade school history classes that there was a tremendous migration to the western United States and territories. When an ancestor goes missing from the records it’s a good practice to look in the records of adjoining states or newly opened territories. Learning when territories were opened for homesteading and where land was given for military service also helps in tracking down elusive ancestors.
Tip: Use Wikipedia to find dates counties were formed, territories were opened, and when states were granted statehood.
3. Reverse Migration: An avenue of genealogy research that is often forgotten is reverse migration-when the land wasn’t good for farming or the conditions were too harsh, or homesickness became too much, our ancestors at times went back home or returned to the East. My personal favorite example is the 1860 Census of Lee County, VA. The census taker not only was meticulous about listing the birth state of every resident, but also listed their birth county. The number of people born in Eastern Tennessee to parents who were natives of Lee County is fascinating.
Tip: Don’t rule out people of similar names but born in different states as possible kin to your ancestors. That person born in Missouri who shows up on a Virginia census may be a missing connection!
4. Traveling: We shouldn’t assume that traveling began with the invention the jumbo jet! I’ve found ancestors in New York hotels and on ship manifests either going to or returning from trips abroad. An ancestor’s occupation may have called for travel. For example I found people elected to political office living far from home in Washington, DC. I found one family who appeared to have disappeared on a UK Census!
Tip: Even when you’re convinced an ancestor was a non-traveling farmer, search border crossings, ship passenger lists, and even foreign census records-you may be in for quite a surprise!
5. Civil War: The War Between the States was the first war which caused a significant change in many of our ancestors’ locations. Troops were moved from North to South, and South to North, and from one side of the country to another. Crops were destroyed along with livelihoods causing families to move from homesteads. The African American population comprised largely of recently freed slaves, were first enumerated by name on the 1870 census after many had left the plantations where they lived prior to the War. I found one ancestor from Tennessee who was captured by the Union army in the North and remained there after his release.
Tip: When researching an ancestor who served in the Civil War be sure to look at their date and place of discharge as it can be a clue to where they may have stayed after the War.
Don’t give up. With perseverance you’ll find who you are looking for where you least expect to find them.
Copyright 2010, Vanessa Wood