You most likely noticed that there have been a bunch of documents showing up on the blog lately – census reports, marriage certificates and the like. We have a temporary subscription to Ancestry© and I have been using it to gather information.  Using an online genealogy service like Ancestry© has the potential to provide huge amounts of information. They have family trees, census records, marriage records and other resources located in one place.

I have hesitated to use a service like this before due to the cost, but it does let you look at a large number of records in one place. Many of the records are available from other sources, but it may take longer to find them. Sometimes you need to order the documents either via inter-library loans or from a government entity. There may be search or mailing fees associated with getting documents.

Filling in the gaps

My focus has been on filling in gaps in the information we have, such as where I only have a first or last name for a spouse. For example, I know that Conrad Straub, born in 1821 in Germany, emigrated to America in 1832, married a woman named Laura. I searched for information on Conrad and saw that there are census records in 1860 that show him married, but in 1850 he wasn’t. As I continued to search, I found him married to a Laura Diville (also Teufel – German for Devil/Deville). The children match who we have, and the locations match as well. I am fairly certain that this is the correct person.

I also discovered that her father, George Diville, and Conrad’s father, Markus traveled to America on the same ship. The Manchester arrived in New York on August 22, 1832. The two families lived next door to each other in Ohio.

Image is of a ship's manifest listing passengers on the Manchester, which arrived in New York on August 22, 1932
Markus Straub and his family on the manifest for the Manchester.
Image is of another page of the Manchester's manifest for that voyage, showing the Diville family.
We see George, his wife Saloma, his parents, Sebastian and Egadda, and his brother Andrew on another page of the manifest. Their name has one l, not two on this record.

Markus last name is spelled Strope on this record. I have also seen Stroub an Stroup on some documents. The Divilles are spelled Devile on the manifest.

Exact or Broad Searches

To do a search, you put in as much information as you have about a person. Data such as name, birthdate, death date, relatives, places they have lived and so on. Ancestry© then sifts through its records and finds “best” matches for the person.

The software they use for searches lets you set the level of match you want. You can tell it to look for exact matches or set the search to more broad terms. If you try to be exact, you will get very few if any matches. Due to the inexact nature of most of the records, as I talked about here and here, using broader terms will get you more possible matches.

It’s important to remember that these are only possibilities. When you start looking at the information provided, keep a skeptical eye on the details.

We tried researching Walt’s 3 times great-grandfather, James Anderson Hole. He is listed as part of several possible families, with no way to determine which family he is part of.

James is listed as:

  • the son of a Jonathan and Lucinda Baker Hole
  • the son of a William Hole
  • the illegitimate son of Sarah Hole
  • he was raised by a different Jonathan Hole and his wife and took the name Hole because they had no children of their own. Jonathon Hole is also sometimes listed as Sarah’s brother

This matches the information we discovered on a trip to Darke County, Ohio when we were doing research some years ago. And we still have nothing definitive to put him with any of these families.

Is the information accurate?

Once you have the list of matches, it’s time to start sifting through the matches to see if this is really the person you are looking for. Does the age roughly match? Birthdays were not always closely tracked, and ages may have been estimated. If you are within a year or two, it’s worth taking a closer look.

Are the other people on the document relations that you know of? Grandparents, parents, and siblings should be close to who you expect to see. If the parents are completely different names, then keep looking.

Is the location of the paperwork in the general area you were expecting? If the document says it was recorded in California, but the family was living in Iowa at the time, chances are good it may not be the right person.

Image shows a partial page of a census record for Darke County Ohio, in 1880.
This census record shows John Swisher Hole and family. The information for the children’s ages and the birthplaces for his parents match what we know.

Sometimes you will find children from one family attached to another. We have found where the children of a family (ie: John Smith born 1942) are attached to the family of his uncle (John Smith born 1915), because they have the same name. We know that these children don’t belong with their uncle and aunt but the information in a family tree is based on what was input by a person on the best information they had at the time.

Hopefully this information is valuable to you if you are doing family research.

You can find out more about Ancestry on their website. There are other collective websites, such as Family Search, My Heritage, and US Gen Web.