More Discoveries As I Climb my Family Tree

I have been away from this computer and blog for a very long time. There have been no posts for almost a year. Obviously, there is a reason; life has a way of diverting the paths of rivers and the direction of the humans living on Earth. That was the case with me and I hope to make good on my promise of more regular posts.

This post has to do with realizations I have come to in the past couple of weeks while visiting my daughter and grandchildren in cold, rainy, snowy Maine. This first-in-a-while post will not be too long but I hope it will be informative for anyone newly interested in genealogy, the process of climbing your own family tree. First, a short lesson in basic biology.

Every human has two parents. Each of those parents has two parents, and so on. In my own lines, the names of those humans are Wilkinson and Batty from my paternal side and Burke and Thompson from my maternal side. But each of those names will have different names since tradition had the women take the man's name. In the Burke case, the female line's name was RAYMOND.

In genealogy, each line deserves attention to detail; in my case, that is critical because of a lack of accurate information from my childhood. (In other posts, I have described how wrong I was about some early beliefs and how little information I have from my parents and grandparents - none, really.

To recap quickly, I thought my maternal grandfather was from Ireland and his wife, my grandmother, from Scotland. My beliefs were wrong on both accounts and I have verified (a very important step in genealogy!) that my maternal grandfather's line has a long history in northern Massachusetts. In fact, in the mail just this day, I received documentation that my 7X GGF (7th great-grandfather), WILLIAM RAYMOND, was born in Beverly, Massachusetts, in 1666, and he died there in 1709. I believe, though I have not completely verified, that my 8X GGF, WILLIAM RAYMOND was the first of my maternal grandparents' line to arrive in this country. According to my preliminary information, he was born in Glastonbury, England, and came west during the Great Migration, settling in Massachusetts Bay in British Colonial America, where he died in 1709.

I have not learned how he got here; whether he was a passenger on the Mayflower or another ship is part of my current research. As you can tell, picking one grandparent that I knew and following her ancestral path back to its origin leads to all kinds of new amazement.

And to think it all started when I learned her son, my grandfather, did not come from Ireland!

Why I Do What I Do: The Motivation That Keeps Me Climbing

I spent some time today reading an article about an interview a professional podcaster had with a famous multiracial journalist while she answered questions about her recent book about her life. One statement she said resonated with me and nicely summed up my own investigation of my family history, though it is very different from hers...mine is not multiracial and my Dad did not grow up in a Norman Rockwell postcard, though, like hers, my past emanates mostly from Western Europe. Here is what she said:

My father grew up in a Norman Rockwell postcard. His mother was a stay-at-home mom, his father was a rural mailman, they had six kids. But how did we get to be these people? We came from Europe and landed in Iowa. But why did we land in Iowa? And, more importantly, who was there before us?

Learning how "we" got to be the people we are; how "we" got here, wherever that is; why "we" landed where we did, whether Massachusetts, Utah, or New Hampshire, and not somewhere else; and who was there before us, well, those are the basic questions that constitute my interest in my family tree. That is why I do what I do; not merely to put a name before "...my (x)th great-grandmother," but to learn something about her, her family, her neighbors, what was happening in her world, why she made what would have been an expensive, arduous journey, and how it eventually influenced and impacted my own journey. Of course, I have specific questions:

• When and why did my Utah ancestors end up there?
• Where did they start from and why did they leave? 
• Who was the first Latter-day Saint in my tree and why did that person choose that specific Christian denomination? 
• All my LDS ancestors were all followers, but did that first one know Joseph Smith personally?
• Do I have a relative that came over on the Mayflower ship? 
• If not, which ship brought those early ancestors and were they related to any of the Mayflower passengers? 
• What kept my Salem, Massachusetts, ancestors from being hung as witches...or were some of them?

We all have a reason for pursuing an investigation into our ancestry and for making the climb up our family tree. For each of us, the answer is personal and correct...and different from the next person.

What is yours?

Speaking of Raymonds, as we were....

My great-grandmother's maiden name is BERTHA JULIA RAYMOND. She is the mother of my maternal grandfather, JOHN FRANCIS BURKE, and for my entire childhood, I only met her a couple of times, one of them being at her burial. I knew nothing about her past, though I assumed she was Irish because my childhood was filled with reminders that my Grampy John was as Irish as could be. I knew he drank - a lot - and had no reason to doubt the connection.

Of course, as readers of this blog will remember, those memories were wrong. My maternal grandfather was born and raised in Wilton, New Hampshire, and his BURKE roots go way back. His mother's RAYMOND roots go even farther, as I have recently discovered.

Ancestry.com, the 'big dog' in the family tree yard, recently completed a major upgrade of their systems, part of which was adding online access to major databases kept at the LDS Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah, the single largest repository of genealogical data in the world. I have been searching those records to trace my own USA-based roots because doing so is a lot easier than tracing my non-USA roots...no travel is required and the records, themselves, are more standard and of higher quality.

I have validated that my RAYMOND roots came to what was called British American in the mid-1600's, what we now know as Massachusetts. Many of them settled in an infamous place named Salem, Massachusetts. In fact, my early searching those data pointed me to what is an amazing, somewhat disturbing, possibility...at least two of my ancestors might have been hanged during the infamous Salem Witch Trials of 1692:

• Hanged on June 10 - Bridget Bishop, Salem Town
• Hanged on August 19 - John Proctor, Salem Village

Salem Town and Salem Village were political designations of two areas with differing opinions about life. This difference was one of the causes of the fear and animosity that gave rise to the Witch Trials.

Many of the details so far match pretty well, but I have a lot of work to do before I know if these two are, indeed, my ancestors. Validating their death dates is what I am working on now. I want to be sure; messing with this kind of fame is not something done lightly. There are many women named 'Bridget' and many men named 'John Proctor' in that time and in my own tree.

For a guy who used to think his entire ancestry was from England, Scotland, and Ireland, this amazes me. But this was a terrible time in our very young country; I have to figure out how I feel about this.

Joshua Raymond, sure, but...

...which one?

This post comes from my experience as a non-professional, self-trained amateur/novice genealogist. I hope other "beginners" can benefit from these comments.

One of the main problems I mentioned in an earlier blog post and am now finding (as I get way up my family tree to the ninth great-grandparent level) is determining which of the same-named people is my relative and whether that person is in the correct family tree spot if there is more than one similar name. Here is a good example to illustrate the problems with common, frequent use of the same name in generations "back then."



I am looking to validate my 9th great-grandfather, JOSHUA RAYMOND, and found this in a document called "North America, Family Histories, 1500-2000." You will first see this:

• Joshua Raymond, who <married> 31 Aug. 1719, Elizabeth Christophers, daughter of John Christopher and Elizabeth Mulford, was a son of Joshua Raymond and Mercy Sands of Block Island, who were <married> 29 April, 1682 was grandson of Joshua Raymond and Elizabeth Smith of New London, who were <married> 10 Dec., 1659, and settled at New London, where he <died> 24 April 1676.

The short paragraph continues to name more "Joshua Raymond's," none with middle names, several with spouses named "Elizabeth" and what I assume is accurate factual data about their birth, marriage, domicile, and death. This is not enough information for me to decide which name belongs in the 9th great-grandfather slot, if any of them do, and highlights the danger of just putting a name you might be looking for into your tree because an online database has an easy, familiar name without validating the person's specific relationship to you.

In my case, one or all of these Joshua Raymonds are most likely related, but I cannot be sure where to put them in my genealogy based solely on this information; besides, the language in this paragraph and those before and after is very confusing, something that is common in very old documents. I will have to keep looking for validating clues...dates, names, places, some kind of 'newspaper' reports (though keep in mind the time period is mid- to late-1600's and early 1700's, when Massachusetts was known as Massachusetts Bay in British America), and other documentation.

I must continue to challenge myself to be skeptical of similar names without removing much of the uncertainty; adding the wrong person can make the complex search algorithms used by the genealogical database owners take me down a rabbit hole that will only distract me from the already-complex enough journey up my own tree.

The Joy of Genealogy

Readers of this blog will remember that the challenge of finding and validating information as I make my climb up my family tree is part of the joy. It is also frustrating and infuriating, but it is always fun. Here is more fun I have had this past couple of weeks.

I am a paid member at Ancestry.com's All-Access membership level, which includes everything Ancestry owns and has access in their massive database...all USA and world genealogical records as well as Fold3 military records, and the basic level access to Newspapers.com. The past couple of weeks have revealed so-far-unvalidated facts about my distant ancestors that have totally surprised me. The readers I mentioned earlier might recall my earliest memory of family history was of four immigrant grandparents, a memory that I have since proven to be false; instead of a strict immigrant background, I also have been amazed to find a long family history in southern New Hampshire and northern Massachusetts. This week has increased that amazement.

As a reminder, my family comes from two main lines: Wilkinson and Burke. My paternal Wilkinson side were immigrants; that much is verified. Finding and validating information from them is very difficult because they hail from England...the records I have found so far are frustratingly slim.

My maternal Burke side, on the other hand, is where the excitement and discovery are happening.

Ancestry.com recently updated their system with significant improvements and access to the LDS Family History Library in Salt Lake City, the largest single repository of world genealogical data. In doing these upgrades, they have made more information available in a much easier to read format. That, in turn, makes finding, validating, and/or excluding clues to my past much easier.

If the information I have found recently is validated - a process I take very seriously because of my background as an investigator - then my own Massachusetts ancestry now goes back to at least my eighth-great grandparents on my maternal great-grandmother's maiden side, Raymond.

For those not familiar with genealogical references, that would be my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandparents, WILLIAM RAYMOND, SR., and his wife, HANNAH BISHOP, from Beverly, Massachusetts.

The farther back I go in time, the more rigorous I must be to ensure I am putting accurate information in my tree and not just pluck names out of a hat because they sound right; there are many similar names, both within a family and in neighbors, so care is required. I have a lot of work ahead of me, but so far, I have validated enough information to give me a high degree of confidence in my findings and I have to tell you this is about as exciting as I have been in a long time. Learning that my own family was involved in pre-Revolutionary War New England amazes and astounds me. In fact, back then, according to local probate records, Massachusetts was called "British America."

I am so excited to keep my search going to find out just how far my roots spread. Am I related to someone on the Mayflower or one of the other ships that came to the New World early on? Which of my relatives was the first to arrive? Since their arrival in the 1600's, how and why did they come here? If they fought in our Revolutionary War, did they fight with the English "Redcoats" or for the British American revolutionaries?

My journey up my family tree continues as the tree grows taller and fatter.

So You Found a Whole New Line of Relatives

While looking at the 1900 U.S. federal census to validate one name I found on a gravestone marker, EDWARD H BURKE, I discovered what I think is an entire new line of relatives. Let me explain.

First, as you might recall from my previous posts, I have a lot of "John Burke" relatives, including my maternal grandfather, JOHN FRANCIS BURKE. In fact, I started looking at him when I started this climb up my own family tree years ago. In the process and in addition to John Francis, I found John Edward, and two John Richard's, a generation apart, though they are not shown as "Senior" and/or "Junior." There is also EDWARD HENRY BURKE, brother to my maternal grandfather, who is married to CATHERINE PALMER FAUSTINE. It is while looking into her records and her gravestone that I found what I think are new ancestors.

While looking at the Salem Ward 3, Massachusetts, 1900 Census, taken 06 June 1900,  I discovered a previously unknown family with the same last name as my known relatives,  but none of whom show up in my current tree. In the order they are listed on the Census, they are:

• JOHN F BURKE -- born Dec 1838 (Head)
• MARY A -- Jan 1866 (Wife)
• JOSEPH P -- May 1888 (son)
• WILLIAM H -- July 1889 (son)
• MARY M -- Aug 1882 (daughter)
• ELIZABETH E -- Oct 1893 (daughter)
• FRANCIS T -- Oct 1896 (son)
• CATHERINE -- May 1900 (newborn daughter; no middle initial shown)

My next project is to determine if these Burkes are my relations. The name, city, state, and timeframe match, but "Burke" is a very popular name in that time and area, so much care must be taken before adding them to the tree.

So far, there are possible entries in 1910 and 1930 Censuses, but Baby Catherine does not show up; perhaps she died in childhood or her name was misspelled - a KATHERINE T BURKE does show up in the Salem, Mass, birth records, but the original find does not include a middle initial. More validation is needed.

For beginners like me, finding familiar names is very exciting and possibly important. It is also critically important that these names be properly vetted and validated before assuming they are ancestors. For me, adding these names to my family tree on Ancestry.com and Family Tree Maker allows their powerful search algorithms to work for me by going places I cannot go and searching records I cannot access personally. I am suspicious and cautious. Until this new family is validated, I am not prepared to say I have new relatives.

But this is the exciting part of genealogy, isn't it?