Hello, cousins!
One common task that I have never been any good at keeping up on a regular basis is "documenting what I've done". Keeping track of how long I've worked on family history, who I've researched, where I looked - I have never kept track of that anywhere. As a result, I sometimes end up doing the same work over again before I realize I've already looked at a particular database or followed a dead-end trail.
Since I need to start doing that, and I also feel the need to keep you posted on my latest activities, I'm going to try making Monday "Log Day" and post a sort of newsletter every week. Since there were four full weeks in January, plus last week, this inaugural note will cover those first five weeks.
Research:
For the most part, I've been copying over territory that I've already covered in the past and building WikiTree profiles for my "Great 28" - my grand/great-grand/2nd-great grandparents. My goal here has been to make sure everyone has a full biography with source citations, with the extra step of making sure there is a profile for each of my Grands' siblings.
I started on familiar ground, making sure that my great-grandfather, John Quincy Callin, and his siblings were updated - easy enough, since The Callin Family History already contains fully sourced bios for each of them. The same goes for his father, John Henry Callin; but his mother, Amanda Lydia (Walker) Callin turned out to need a lot more work. (See "Find of the Week(s)" below for more on her.
I spent some time improving the biographies for John Q's wife, Bertha May (Greenlee/Cramer) Callin, and since she only had one half-sibling, I moved on to her parents.
Find of the Week(s):
1. Amanda Walker's family: on 17 January, I updated the bio for Amanda's mother, Lydia Bowen. I was reasonably sure I had enough information to identify her father and added his existing profile to hers. This opened up a whole new area of future research for me to explore and connects my little branch of the WikiTree World Tree to a very large body of information. I still need to add Amanda's siblings, but I have a plan to follow, so I will get back to that branch in a few weeks.
2. While working on Bertha Greenlee Callin's family, I found Newspapers.com has added some papers from Hancock County, Ohio, and that allowed me to add some color and detail to the bio of her father, Allen Marion Greenlee. (And then I spent far more time than I intended to, adding various Greenlees to the tree!)
3. Because I've neglected the other branches of my ancestry while working on The Callin Family History, I decided to jump over to my maternal grandmother's side and added all twelve of her father's siblings. In the process of doing that, I was able to puzzle my way through a brick wall! For now, I've put my theories together on Josephine (Plumsted) Tuttle page - I expect to work my way back to that page in a few weeks and see where they lead!
4. Moving on to my maternal grandfather's family, I found quite a scandalous story while adding his dad's siblings - in particular his uncle, Samuel Rufus Fraley. Lots of interesting Newspapers.com links there!
Correspondence:
I had two people contact me through Ancestry in January. The first asked about my connection to the late Sandra Kay (Dobson) King (1947-1970). (See this previous post on the Dobson family.) It turns out that Sandra was adopted by the Dobson family, and now I know a bit more about her story.
The second wrote to ask me about some documents I had saved in Ancestry connected to my 3rd cousin, 2x removed, Keith Harlan Kinsey. She had seen a 2018 obituary for her mother among the documents I had saved and asked me to delete it "because it is not accurate information". I suggested that it would be better to correct it so that when other researchers (inevitably) find that obituary again, they are more likely to find the annotated version with the correct information. I haven't heard back from her, but I hope that she didn't think I was arguing with her or being stubborn. I think I can guess what information in the obituary might be upsetting to her, but I really don't know until she tells me. Then I can annotate the obituary and cite her as the source for the corrected information.
Updates:
The Book:
The Callin Family History is almost ready to publish!
I have been tangling with Word to try to build a Name Index and a Placename Index, and Word is winning. On the bright side, I've learned a few things about building Indexes (Indices) that will help me next time I do something like this. But on the downside, including either Index would put my page count well over the limit of 800 pages. I have a couple more things to try to "slim down" the Name Index, but I think I'm going to end up having to publish without either one.
Other than that, all that is left to wrap up is creating the cover, and making final adjustments to the page numbering and layout.
The other thing impacting this project is House Hunting. My lovely bride and I are buying a house in San Antonio, and it looks like we'll be moving in about four weeks! Exciting - but time-consuming. Still, I would like to get this book out before I turn 50... this spring.
Secret Project 1:
I have one more book project I am eager to announce, and it is probably going to be ready about the same time as The Callin Family History. All I am willing to say at this point is that it is a) Civil War-related, and b) written by my great-great-grandfather, John Henry Callin.
