This and That

 I've discovered continuing problems with my database.  I haven't contacted the software company to see what they suggest.  I think I first need to replace my computer and I'm waiting for my tax refunds to do that.  My database software is outdated; I haven't kept up with the newest editions but the problem (I suspect) is the age of the computer.  Memory problems begin at some point in the age of any computer.  It's definitely time for a new machine.

News of the one-name and one-place studies can be found in those blogs: Wormuth One Name Study, Beismer One Name Study and Rockland One-Place Study.   I have been working on the one-name studies most recently.  

In addition to the one-name studies, at WikiTree, I've been adopting orphaned profiles that are surnames in my family tree.  Orphaned profiles are profiles that were created by someone who is no longer there.  There are a lot of them.  Where the one-name studies include profiles of people with those surnames, wherever they may be, the profiles I'm adopting of other surnames are only in New York State where my families lived.  So far I've been adopting Odell, O'Dell, Flower and Flowers profiles, but, as I encounter them, I will be adopting profiles with any surname of my direct line ancestors.  Sometimes I do a search on just a familial surname and adopt any, in NYS, that are orphaned.  Since I have definitive origins for only one of my family lines, and I'm at brick walls on most of my family branches, it makes sense to adopt profiles with surnames that might lead to getting back another generation.

Because of my age and the increasing toll it's having my physical body, I've been preparing for the inevitable.  I highly recommend that everyone begin thinking about that beginning in your mid-30s, when it doesn't feel morbid; don't leave it to your family to deal with after you're gone.

It may feel distasteful but it's a gift to your family, if you take care of things like a will, burial arrangements, etc.

I will address this more later but, in this blog post, I want to say that I would be happy, if any of you reading this, would be interested in continuing this family history research.  I will be making arrangements to send various pieces of my documents, database, etc. to various historical and genealogical organizations.

I was just thinking, in the past couple of days, about all the blood relatives in my family tree and that pieces of them are in me; in my DNA.  Family history research reveals, if you will, the good, the bad and the ugly of families.  Family historians learn all kinds of things about individuals in their family tree.  I have identified, I think, some of the origins of some of my physical characteristics; at least, I'm guessing where they've come from.  Of course, that's only those from relatives and ancestors I've met or have photos of.  Going further back there's little chance of knowing.  Most of what we think of as ourselves is learned behavior; it can be unlearned and altered at will. Height, hair texture and color, color of our irises, etc. are inherited or hybridized from past generations.  Just that process is amazing.  I'll leave you with that.

Leave a note to tell me you've been here.  Thank you.

                              

Updates

 The Wormuth Name Study now has 235 profiles included, up a few from the last count.

The Beismer Name Study now has 238 profiles included, not much of an increase.

Nothing new on the Rockland One-Place Study.  

Most of the details about the studies will appear in the blogs, listed in the right-hand menu here.

I don't have a new computer and printer yet.  I waste too much time every day.

Upcoming plans for research are still on hold until it gets, consistently in the upper 50s or lower 60s and there are some spaces between rain.  I'm too old to want to run around the coutryside, outside, in the rain.

But, here are some things that I need to do over the next few months.

* find out what happened to the headstones in the Wormuth cemetery in Callicoon.

 * find out about burial in the Vandermark Family Cenetery in Debruce.  That's where I want to be, finally.

* find out about ground sonar/xray: how much it costs, if towns have their own equipment, etc.  I would like the Vandermark and Tyler Cemeteries to be done as part of a cleanup project.

* Visit the Old section of the Liberty, NY cemetery to find Joseph Odell's and Stephen Wormuth's burial places.  Good idea to call ahead to see if anyone there knows if there is a marker.

* Visit the town to see the actual death record for Joseph Wormuth where, so far, the only record of Harriet Barecolt, his mother, is found.  I have a transcription of the record, but I want to see the original and have been told that I can.

* Visit Craigie Clare in Rockland, Sullivan County, NY.

There are so many more things to do.  These are things that need doing away from here, where I live.

Please keep me in mind for copies of older family photos.

Please ask questions about the family histories.  If I don't know the answer, I'll try to find out.

Please leave a comment when you visit any of the blogs, if only to say you've read the latest blog.

Thanks.

                                                                      

Orthography - Spelling and Surnames

 Why am I writing a blog post about spelling in a blog about family history?  Because it's important. 

Throughout all the years that I've been researching all the branches of my family tree, I encountered variations in the names of ancestors.  Sometimes the number of variations of a person's name were so many and the time it took to look up every spelling that it was exhausting.

But, the fact is that the spelling of American English was not standardized until the early 1800s.

In addition, most people were not educated and were unable to read or write in our United States until the late 1800s and early 1900s.  Even then most did not attend school past a few years in elementary school.

The result is that the names in most early records were written by someone other than the person the records is about.  You will find records that were written by someone else and signed with and X that is indicated as "their mark".

Surnames, and even given names, were written as they sounded to the person writing them.  I often ask myself why they didn't ask how the name was spelled but they probably didn't ask because most people didn't know how their name was spelled.

I've begun to keep my eyes open for actual signatures of people but they don't appear that often and certainly not usually before the 1900s.

Even within a single document, written by someone whose job it was to write the document, even legal documents like wills, ordinary words, as well as names, can vary in older records.  If you look at a transcription of our own Constitution, you will see such variations.

Spelling could vary depending on the amount of education of the writer, the geographic area that the writer came from, the historic time frame of the document and personal spelling quirks of the writer.

So, a surname, in particular, can vary over generations, within a family.  

Why does it matter?  Because, being social animals, we need to understand each other when we attempt to communicate with each other.  

Most modern languages have a standardized orthography, so everybody understands how a word is spelled so everybody knows what word is being said or written so there is as little misunderstanding as possible.  Certainly, in terms of names, it can be very important to know who is being spoken or written about.

Also, originally, names meant something.  They were just a collection of letters strung together to make a sound.  They often told something about a person without actually seeing them.  The given name Rufus, for example, means red and was usually given to a male child with red hair.  

In the case of surnames, some told what occupation someone had, some were derives from a parent's name, from where the family lived, some on their physical appearance, etc.  That's a much longer subject and one that I'm not that interested in writing about but anyone can research that online.

My interested in this topic is that when we research our families, we need to remember that names, surnames and given names, vary in documents and sticking to the spelling that we're most familiar with is a mistake, if we really want to learn about our families.

I started the 2 one-name studies I'm conducting:  Beismer and Wormuth, because I've been frustrated with the variants and I'm hoping that researching the names will reveal more information about the various families and how they may be related or not.  

I don't have the origins of either family in my own family tree.  I have already learned, because of the variant spellings, that those variants often exist because of where those specific families were from.  If or how they were related will, undoubtedly, take much longer to determine.

Given Names

While you have every right to write your own name anyway you want (even though it may bug me), a name usually means something.  You may even have created a unique name for yourself, again, you have every right.  Does your name mean something, if it's a creation of your own?

Cultures vary in their treatment and their conventions of both surnames and given names.  I know what my given names mean; they suit me.  Interestingly, I know that I was to be called something else.  When I think about that name; it doesn't suit me.  I can't say why but it matters to me.

More about this in the blogs for the one-name studies, when I get to them.