I've been doing a lot of research over the past year and I keep finding gaps in information.
Everybody that has lived has not been a celebrity.
Everybody that has lived has not made a name for themselves.
Everybody that has lived has not been involved in the politics or social life of their communities.
There have been a lot of people who have lived quiet lives, working hard to put food on the table and a roof over their families' heads. They didn't get their names in the papers.
Its frustrating trying to find basic information about their birth, marriage or death, the births of their children, or their movement from one place to another.
There are people today who are relatively anti-social, who want to be anonymous, who don't want people to know where they live or much of anything else about them. There's nothing new under the sun. Every type of person who exists now, has always existed and probably always will. So, some of my ancestors and relatives didn't have a thought that some time in the distant future a descendant would be interested in their life.
Not everybody shows up in "official" records. Some marriages were Common Law, meaning they just lived together until everyone accepted that they were married; or they were married by traveling circuit riders who had the authority to marry people and didn't necessarily keep records. Children were born at home. People died at home and some were buried on their own land.
In New York State, "official" records were not kept until 1880: birth, marriage and death, but that didn't mean that there are records for all those births, marriages or deaths since then. People then, as now, avoided what they didn't want to do.
Also, many of those records have been lost through the years: fires, floods, mishandling, etc.
I've been working on my WikiTree profile for Hannah Chase Butler, my 3rd Great paternal Grandmother. I don't have a birth records for her. I don't have a marriage record for her. I have a transcript of her death record from the Town of Roxbury, NY, but it lacks her birth date and place, her husband's name, her parents' names and the name of the informant (the person who gave the registrar the information about her). This is not unusual and very frustrating for those of us who are trying to piece together the history of our ancestry.
There is now a mountain of information and records at various genealogical websites. Most cost a lot of money to use. I spend a lot of money to use them. A lot of them just renewed.
Even with all those resources available, I still haven't been able to find those records. Yes, it's possible they don't exist, were lost or destroyed or never existed. But, there is even more out there that hasn't been digitized or put online. Every time I fail to find something, I think about where else it might be. Hannah Chase married Barnabas Butler, probably between 1831 and 1833. Census records indicate that they both, at some point lived in Dutchess County and finally lived and died in Roxbury, Delaware County, NY. Where they got married I don't know.
They were people who did not get their names in newspapers. Usually:
from the Hancock Herald, Thursday, March 17, 1881:
"--The farm of Hiram Chase, situate in the town of Roxbury, containing
121 acres of land, was sold to Mr. Hannah Butler. Consideration $1,000."
What I do know is that there two kinds of records that I have not seen enough online: old newspapers and church records.
First, there are quite a few online sites that have old newspapers -- not enough. Many of the sites that have digitized newspapers and clippings mostly have major newspapers like the New York Times; and, many of the sites have a lot of overlap in what they have available, like streaming video channels and stores in shopping malls; the same thing over and over.
In my Links page, there are a few resources that give access to smaller, local newspapers where it is more likely for Hannah and Barney's marriage to appear. I still didn't find it because those sites don't have enough papers, don't have complete runs of newspapers. One that I relied on a lot was hacked or something a couple of years ago and hasn't been the same since.
If you find old newspapers, and I mean old, 1800s; don't throw them away, give them to your local historical or, better, you local genealogical society, if you can find one, or, if nothing else, contact me and I'll find somebody you can give them to so they're made available.
And, while I find church records, on various websites, there aren't enough of them still.
This is my plea to churches, to find your oldest records and contact your local historical society or genealogical society and work with them to get those records digitized and online. Families are looking for them.
That's is for now.
