I started out in genealogy research the way many do. While creating my family tree online, I would connect with other trees, and if their additional information made sense I added it to my tree, especially if the information was in multiple trees. (Many of you are gasping or shaking your head right now! So am I!) I soon learned that accepting data without documentation will get you in a lot of trouble. Unfortunately, I didn’t learn it quite quickly enough.
Last month I took a day trip to the Los Angeles Public Library with a group from the San Diego Genealogical Society. I began the trip with a couple of research goals in mind, but when none of those panned out, I just started searching records regarding the surnames and geographical locations found in my tree.
I found many maps showing locations of property in central Illinois that family members owned in the 1800s. I found cemetery transcriptions from Shelby County, Illinois and marriage and death record transcriptions from Hardin County, Ohio. But the biggest treasure trove turned out to be a couple of biographical sketches I found in an 1887 biographical album for Champaign County, Illinois.
I already had in my possession a transcription of the Bailey and Trotter family history as told by Henry E. Bailey, my grandmother's grand uncle. Henry was 83 when he set out to tell his family’s story, and I found it a little difficult to follow in places. It didn’t help that he didn’t always use the same name for a given relative. But it is also telling when several times in the narrative he says, “Do you get me?” I love that he took the time and found it important to write this history for us, though, and will always be grateful to him for it.
The two biographies I brought home from LA were for Jefferson and Hiram Trotter. I knew that Hiram was the brother of my 3rd great-grandmother, but I wasn’t sure if Jefferson was related. I started re-reading Henry’s account and was startled to find Jefferson listed. He was not a direct relative, so his relationship to Henry’s parents was described in one of those “Do you get me?” paragraphs. But his story is important nonetheless because he was with Henry’s father Silas when he died. They and a 3rd relative were trying to make it home from an aborted trip to find gold in California, when Silas was taken ill. Medical help was too late and Silas never made it home to his wife and seven children. He was only 38.
Henry explained that Jefferson was his mother’s cousin. Jefferson’s father was Matthew Trotter, brother of William Trotter, his mother’s father. That’s as far back as we had been able to take our Trotters—to the brothers, Matthew and William—until I put my tree online, that is. Most of the other trees I found listed another William as William’s father. I didn’t notice then that there was no mention of Matthew in those trees. And I was enough of a "genealogical newbie" at the time that I didn't track down sources before adding the elder William to my tree.
However, the biography of Jefferson that I found last month lists his father as Matthew, as Henry said, but it goes further and lists Matthew’s father as Matthew, who was born in Ireland in 1717. Since the younger William was Matthew’s brother, the elder Matthew was his father also. (Do you get me? LOL) I have spent the last few days removing the elder William and those connected to him from my tree--about 30 people. But I am now getting the correct Trotters (and source citations!) added.
I’m laughing as I read over what I just wrote. It sounds like one of those brain-teaser puzzles. I guess I should be asking, “Can anyone figure out Jefferson’s relationship to me?” (Sorry, I can’t offer a prize, except bragging rights!)
