Having fun

Historical Note: 

"There were many Munsee villages, each with a population of a few hundred people, located along streams and in places where brooks flowed into the Hudson, and on bays and harbors. The communities of the Esopus and Warranawankong stretched from the Catskills to the Highlands of the Hudson, while along Haverstraw Bay were those of the Haverstraw. From Nyack south to the Atlantic Highlands and the Raritan were the Tappan, Hackensack, Navasink and Raritan, who were also called Sanhican. To the south and west in New Jersey were the Aquackanonk, around Paterson, the Pompton along the Passaic, and Whippany and Muscenetcong further south. To the east of the Hudson were the Wappinger, Kitchawanc, Siwanoy, Wiechquaeskeck, and Rechgawawank, whom the Dutch called Manhate. On Long Island were Canarsie, Rechowack or Rockaway, Massapequa, and Matinecock. Other Munsee bands lived in Orange County, north-western New Jersey, and along the upper Delaware River in New York and Pennsylvania. In colonial times their principal village was on and near Minnisink Island in the Delaware just below Port Jervis. While over the years these have been called separate tribes, all were Munsee-speaking and Munsee-related peoples. The name Munsee is primarily linguistic and its literal meaning is "person from Minnisink"." -- from Indians of the Lower Hudson Region: The Munsee, by Julian Harris Salomon, Historical Society of Rockland, County, New City, NY, 1982, pp. 14-15. 

News: 

    I recently rejoined WikiTree. I hadn't even visited the site for a long, long time. When I rejoined most of my family profiles were still there but orphaned so I adopted them back. And, there were a couple of glitches that the volunteer staff there fixed for me. 

    Despite my reservations for posting family trees online, I highly recommend WikiTree. It's free -- completely. I still have my reservations. While there are privacy settings, it's still possible for the information to be collected and used and sold by others. 

    Still, I've already "met" a couple of previously unknown actual relatives there. 

    The standards for profiles, if I try to meet them, is making me more organized and meticulous in my research and recording keeping. 

    There are some really nice features like combining the output from several DNA testing sites and matching to members; like being able to collaborate with other researchers of your family; like being able to add tags and categories to your ancestors' profiles so other people searching in geographic areas or for Civil War veterans, for example, or in cemeteries, will find your ancestor. 

    I'm having a lot of fun trying to get my ancestors' profile just right and all the best information and sources added. In trying to do so, I've been digitizing my documents and will get back to doing the same with my photographs. I've also come up with some, hopefully, more useful revisions to a variety of indices I need to keep myself organized and to find things again. Keeping up with and organizing correspondence has always been difficult for me, partly because I'm researching ALL my family lines, but also because, despite being a librarian, I'm not a very organized person by nature. Slowing down to make a record of what I've done and how to find it again, is just not in my nature -- but I can do it; and I need to do it. 

Visit WikiTree and search for your ancestors. See what's there. 

A New Mystery: 

    Discovered while digitizing documents and entering data in WikiTree.

    Minerva A. Odell, formerly Oliver, was one of my paternal great great grandmothers.

Pretty, huh? I don't know how young she was in this photo. 

    I have her death certificate, 2 copies actually, and was in the process of digitizing and indexing it when I discovered something. I'm not sure if my 2 copies are 2 copies or 2 separate death certificates of 2 different people. 

    The copy that I know is for my grandmother (it's just easier at some point to call all my various degrees of grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc. a shortened version of the title, in this case, grandmother) has her name, dates, husband, parents, undertaker, place of burial and name of family informant. All of which are familiar. 

    This document is a transcription signed by the registrar of Meridale, NY. Many, maybe most "official" vital records that you receive from town, county and state offices are transcriptions because many, maybe most "official" records are in thick bound books that are very difficult to copy and there is, of course, huge resistance to dismantling those books in order to digitize or photocopy the records. 

    he problem with transcriptions (as well as the original, actually) is human error. Transcriptions are usually supplied on a pre-printed form that may change over the years. Recent transcriptions I've paid for have caused me to call whichever official to ask if there is any additional information on the original that is not on the transcription. In many cases, there has been. In this case, everything looks fine. 

    The other "copy" is also a transcription, signed by a deputy registrar of the Town of Meredith.

NOTE: Meridale is a small village in the Town of Meredith. Some villages have their own village clerk, some have not, in which case the records are kept in the Town. 

    This 2nd "copy" is on a green safety paper form supplied by the State of NY, with a small box of information: some official numbers, name, date of death, date of filing, place of death, official town or village. That's it. Sometimes, the local official completing the form will add more information to the side of the form's boxes. 

NOTE: When I started all this research over 40 years ago, copies of "official" birth, marriage and death records cost about $5, depending on where you requested them. They are now, "officially", $22 dollars -- for a photocopy or a transcription. Some local village and town clerks are more reasonable and send them out for $10. Documents, of various kinds, from historical societies, etc., from the DAR, from the National Archives, range from that $10 up to more than the NYS cost of $22. The costs for National Archives documents depend on the size of the file you request but I've never found it to be any more than NYS's price. 

    In any case, this 2nd "copy" has the name Minerva JUNE O'Dell, not Minerva A., which is what her name is everywhere else - so far. It also has a different death date; almost 2 years before the document that I know is for my grandmother. 

    So what's up? I have no idea. 

    I've already emailed the Town Clerk of Meredith (the village and the town are now one, administratively). I supplied a lot of information from the documents. It will be interesting to see what I get in response. 

    I also did a little online searching to see if I might find a Minerva June O'Dell living in Meredith, the same time as my gg grandmother, Minerva. I did not. I don't know the age of Minerva June at death. Could she have been a child? I have no record of my relatives having another child. 

    While writing this, something else occurred to me and I checked, quickly, through the families of the children of my gg grandmother, Minerva, and I have found 2 possible children that it might be but very little information about either.  I'll wait and see. 

So, that's it this time. 

Wear a mask. Get the shots. Let's do all we can to nip this virus in the bud and get back our lives.