Sicilian DNA Match- Nicholas Roccaforte

My DNA Match with Nicholas Roccaforte encourages me to "Invite Nicholas Roccaforte to Add a Family Tree."

My evening recreation lately has been browsing my AncestryDNA matches on my iPad while we watch TV.  I came across the name Nicholas Roccaforte as a DNA match and was immediately intrigued. There was no family tree attached to his profile so  I sent him an Ancestry in-house email as follows:

Hello Nicholas Roccaforte,
We are DNA cousins. I have several Roccaforte ancestors. I would like to help you build a family tree so we can figure out how we are related. 
I am a professional genealogist but I am offering my services to you for free because we are related. 
If you want to check out my credentials read one of my recent blog posts about another DNA cousin with an Omaha connection:
http://www.ancestorpuzzles.com/search?q=Cunningham+
I hope you will allow me to build your family tree so we can both figure out how we are connected. 

I quickly got a reply by email:

Nick-Where did your family come from? My father was born in Lentini, Sicily in 1889 and came to this country by himself' (we never knew why) at the age of 22. Nick Roccaforte

Then I replied back:

My great grandfather, Anthony Cimino came from Carlentini and his wife, Maria Ossino came from Lentini. They went to Omaha where their family was living.
What was the name of your father and mother?  I can look them up in the 1940 census and passenger lists. 

Mr. Roccaforte replied:

Nick-My father's name was Concetto Roccaforte and my mother was Eleanor DeFinis. Thanks, Nick

I was able to find a 1953 passenger list which appeared to show Concetto Roccaforte traveling back to Sicily. In 1953, he resided at 37 Bayview Ave, Norwalk Connecticut.  The 1953 passenger list appeared to show that he was either traveling to Lentini or he was born in Lentini.  He was on the Andrea Doria in Tourist Class in December 1953.

1953 Passenger List for Concetto Roccaforte on Line 13 for the S.S. Andrea Doria.

Response from Nick Roccaforte: That is my father and we lived at that address when I was in Jr. high school. He went to Italy to sell the family orange orchard left to him and his brother when their father died. All this info is part of my life. I turned 80 this past Sept. so I too go back a ways. My mother and father are both on the Wall of Honor at Ellis Island. Thanks, Nick Roccaforte

Further research led to the original passenger list which shows when he first arrived to the immigration station at Ellis Island. In 1912, Concetto Roccaforte traveled from Sicily to New York on the S.S. Principe di Piemonte.  The ship sailed from Palermo on the 6 July 1912 and arrived in New York on 20 July 1912. The ship had originally sailed from Genoa on 4 July 1912 and had hundreds of passengers already on board when it arrived in Palermo. In addition to Italians, there were lots of Greeks and Turks on the ship.

It took considerable effort to locate this particular passenger list as it is not indexed on Ancestry.com. The name of the ship and the date of arrival was identified on the Petition for Naturalization.  I had to browse the year 1912 for the passenger lists, then the month of July and then arrivals on the 20th and finally found the passenger lists for the S.S. Principe di Piemonte.  There were 171 images from this passenger list and Concetto Roccaforte was found on image 130.

The blue arrow shows where you can browse passenger lists on Ancestry.com

The passenger list shows Concetto Roccaforte on line 25 of the Ancestry.com image number 130 of 171 for the S.S. Principe di Piemonte. There also appears to be a grease pencil number 204 in the upper left of this image. Concetto Roccaforte is listed as age 22, single, male, last residence: Lentini. The name and complete address of nearest relative in Sicily is: a brother in Lentini but the name is hard to read.  It looks like it begins with an L.  The middle name of Nicholas Roccaforte is Lorenzo and that looks like one possibility for the name of the brother. Concetto Roccaforte was bound for New York, NY.

1912 Passenger List showing immigration of Concetto Roccaforte on Line 25.

Concetto paid his own passage to New York.  He was planning to join a cousin named Alfio Valenti at 326 E. 26th Street in New York. His personal description for height was 5' 2" fair complexion brown hair and brown eyes. His birthplace was Lentini.

This view of my family tree starts with my paternal grandfather and
it shows where the Roccaforte surname appears with a blue arrow.

More work needs to be done but it seems likely that my Rosa Roccaforte on the family tree above was possibly a sibling of the father of Concetto Roccaforte.  A visit to a Family History Center will give me access to all of the civil registration records for Lentini.  Stay tuned for an update on this case.

Watch Finding Your Roots: The Seedlings

If you like Finding Your Roots on PBS, you will absolutely love Finding Your Roots: the Seedlings.  I have been following the PBS genealogy series very closely this year.  Finding Your Roots airs on Tuesday nights at 8 PM Eastern Time and 7 PM Central Time.  The series schedule for the next three weeks features "Encore" episodes from previous seasons.  If you would rather not watch reruns for the next three weeks or if you are just curious about what Henry Louis Gates means by "Seedlings," you can watch three short videos online about Finding Your Roots: the Seedlings by clicking on the numerous hyperlinks to the Seedlings website in this paragraph.

It takes about 30 minutes to watch all three videos.  If you share my enthusiasm for the Seedlings program, please let me know by commenting on this blog or by sharing this post via social media.  I plan to share this information about the Seedlings with anyone who will listen.

Genealogists Beware of "Fake News"

Fake news is making headlines recently but journalistic inaccuracies are nothing new.  Genealogists searching for newspaper stories about elusive ancestors in the 19th and 20th century will need to be careful and search for additional evidence before jumping to an erroneous conclusion.

Here is one small case study involving the Glynn Family of Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania. James Glynn was born in January 1834 in Ireland. He immigrated to the U.S. about 1848. He married Bridget Dunn probably in New York in 1856. They had 15 children in 21 years in New York and Pennsylvania. James Glynn and his family are found in census records in Old Forge, Pennsylvania, in 1880 and 1900. He died before 1910 given the fact that his wife was a widow in the 1910 census of Old Forge.

Death certificates became required in Pennsylvania in 1906.  Nothing was found in the Death Certificate database for James Glynn.  He is also not found in any of the early death records of Lackawanna County.  The next step was to look for an obituary in one of the nearby Scranton newspapers.  Chronicling America has digitized images of the Scranton Tribune from 1891-1910 but no obituary was found for James Glynn.

Newspapers.com has several other Scranton newspapers in their collection including the Scranton Tribune (1894-1902), the Scranton Republican (1889-1936), the Scranton Truth (1904-1915) and a German language newspaper called the Scranton Wochenblatt (1869-1918).

Two articles were found describing funerals for John Glynn and James Glynn of Old Forge, Pennsylvania in April 1904:

When you look carefully at these two articles, you will see that all of the details are the same except for the names John and James.  I believe that the first article was a misprint and that it should have stated James Glynn instead of John Glynn.  Fortunately, there were two articles that allowed for comparison and analysis of the facts.

In addition two articles were found regarding a guardianship for James Glynn.  It appears that he may have become incapacitated and his wife, Bridget requested that her son, Joseph Glynn, be appointed guardian for his father.

Unfortunately, Family Search only shows the following available regarding Lackawanna County probate matters:

• Lackawanna County (Pennsylvania) probate files, 1878-1885

These additional facts concerning the guardianship of James Glynn help to accumulate a preponderance of genealogical evidence indicating that the death of James Glynn of Old Forge, Pennsylvania occurred on 18 April 1904.

Thurgood's Grandpa was a Buffalo Soldier in TX

Famous people fascinate us. Does their family history help to explain how they were able to achieve great things? The lives of the rich and famous continue to capture our attention and our imagination. The history of the ancestors of Thurgood Marshall is woven into the fabric of our nation's history.

An episode in the legal career of Thurgood Marshall is featured in the movie, "Marshall" that is currently playing in theaters across the country. Last week we explored some of the facts and the fictions portrayed in that movie.  This week we take a peak at the back story which helped to form a crusading civil rights attorney and Supreme Court justice.

The definitive biography of Thurgood Marshall is entitled Thurgood Marshall: American Revolutionary by Juan Williams published in 1998. In Chapter 2 of the biography, entitled "A Fighting Family," Williams states:

"Any attempt to know Thurgood Marshall had to start with his family and his hometown. His defiance of segregation, his willingness to stand up to powerful whites and his insistence that he was the equal of any man were rooted in his Baltimore family."

One of the illustrations in the biography is this family tree for Thurgood Marshall:

Juan Williams is not the only one interested in the genealogy of Justice Marshall. I created a profile for Thurgood Marshall so I could search for records about his genealogy.

My Ancestry profile for Thurgood Marshall had 23 hints for records about him.

Ten Ancestry Member Trees contained records for Thurgood Marshall.
The Love family tree by Ancestry user jelf45 had 15 sources and 5 photos attached.

The Ancestry Profile of user jelf45 reveals quite a few details about the person and her family history experience.

The Thurgood Marshall family tree prepared by Ancestry user jelf45 is missing some of the details
from the biography by Williams but is quite extensive with many records and images attached.

I like the fact that this Ancestry user has noted the source of this photo from Google images.

The 1940 census shows Thurgood Marshall residing with his wife Viven
in an apartment building at 409 Edgecombe Avenue in New York

Thurgood Marshall began working for the NAACP in 1936 but curiously the 1940 census lists his occupation as "lawyer-Social Services Dept."

Thurgood Marshall was the son of William C. Marshall and Norma A. Williams.  The 1918 Draft Card for William C. Marshall shows that he was working as a waiter on the railroad and living in Baltimore with his wife Norma at 1632 Division Street. Not shown on this card is the fact that William and Norma had two boys named Aubrey and Thurgood.

William Marshall, the waiter, followed in the footsteps of his father who is shown here in this list of Stockholders of the Lexington Savings Bank published in The Afro-American newspaper published 13 Jun 1896 in Baltimore.

Thorney Good Marshall is the paternal grandfather and name sake of Thurgood Marshall.  Justice Marshall's birth name was originally Thoroughgood Marshall and he shortened it to Thurgood.  Thorney Marshall was also known as Thornton Marshall as shown in this record from the Baltimore City Directory.

Name: Thornton G Marshall

Residence Year: 1898

Street address: 433 Short

Residence Place: Baltimore, Maryland, USA

Occupation: Waiter

Publication Title: Baltimore, Maryland, City Directory, 1898

Notice how the persons of African ancestry are denoted with an asterisk in the City Directory above.

Thorny G. Marshall was enlisted in the U.S. Army on December 5, 1870 in Baltimore, Maryland by Captain Randlett. His birthplace was Accomack County, Virginia. He was 21 years and 3 months old. His occupation was waiter. He had brown eyes, black hair and a yellow complexion.  He was five feet and nine inches tall. He enlisted in the 24th Infantry, Company H.  He was discharged on November 30, 1874 for disability at Fort Brown, Texas near Brownsville.  SOURCE: Source Information
Ancestry.com. U.S. Army, Register of Enlistments, 1798-1914 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007.
Original data: Register of Enlistments in the U.S. Army, 1798-1914; (National Archives Microfilm Publication M233, 81 rolls); Records of the Adjutant General’s Office, 1780’s-1917, Record Group 94; National Archives, Washington, D.C.

The website for the Buffalo Soldiers Museum here in Houston states that the 24th Infantry was organized in 1869 after the consolidation of two other Black units, the 38th and 41st Infantry Regiments. For more than twenty years, the regiment occupied military posts in the southwest, protecting and maintaining peace on the turbulent frontier. In addition to battle engagements, the members of the regiment built roads, guarded stage stations, constructed and repaired telegraph lines, guarded waterholes, and escorted supply trains, survey parties, freight wagons and mail coaches, as well as performing scouting patrols.

The biography by Williams describes Thorney Marshall's military experience in detail [Page 20].  Fort Brown had a reputation as the "the most unhealthful and unpleasant U.S. Army outpost in the nation." Thorney's job was to ride shotgun for the paymaster as he traveled to various Army encampments on the Rio Grande every other month.  Thorney Marshall received praise from his superiors for his performance but he began to experience a series of illnesses culminating in "Chronic Hepatitis" which led to his medical discharge. After a period of recovery in Baltimore, he went back to work as a waiter and married his neighbor Annie Robinson in 1879.

One small part of the Thurgood Marshall story is that a Supreme Court justice was descended from a Buffalo Soldier that served in Texas. There are enough stories from the life and ancestors of Thurgood Marshall to make a thousand movies. If you have not seen the "Marshall" movie, please go see it and let me know what you think.

Marshall: A Life Defined by the Rule of Law

Josh Gad, Chadwick Boseman and Sterling K. Brown in a scene from Marshall SOURCE: Time.com crediting Barry Wetcher / Open Road Films

I hope that you enjoy the "Marshall" movie as much as I did.  I am always intrigued by the challenge facing Hollywood when they try to portray historic figures like Thurgood Marshall, the civil rights crusader and Supreme Court Justice.  This biographical movie only features one case in an epic legal career. The movie does take a few liberties with the historical record but on the whole, I found the movie to be both highly entertaining and revealing of a "legal super hero."

One of the most admirable things about Thurgood Marshall was his absolute faith in the Constitution and our legal system.  He believed that the law not protest was the best route to change hearts and lead to equality.  One of the scenes in the movie shows Thurgood Marshall drinking from a "Whites Only" water fountain in a train station.  This is not something that Marshall would have done.  He was not a protester or a law breaker.  He believed in following and enforcing the constitution to eliminate unjust laws at the local, state and federal levels.  Marshall knew without a doubt that enforcing the constitution with a stellar legal defense was the best tool to achieve the aims of the NAACP.

Marshall carefully selected cases and plaintiffs like the one featured in this movie to bolster the NAACP Legal Defense fund.  He started his career at the NAACP as a one man band.  At the time he left his post at the NAACP he had recruited a small army of lawyers to carry the banner of freedom and justice for all.

The movie also gives a peek into Marshall's character as a man and a husband. He lived in Harlem during the 1930's Renaissance period and socialized with leaders in the arts such as Langston Hughes, Zora Neal Hurston and his college buddy, Cab Calloway.

Time magazine has an article online about the Marshall movie that gives some historical context about the particular case that is featured:    http://time.com/4972645/marshall-movie-true-story/ If you want the Cliff notes version of this article you might like this quote from the Time.com:

"At this point in his career, Marshall was better known to the public for his defense of criminals than for his attacks on Jim Crow," Juan Williams writes in his biography of Marshall. "He stood as a living, breathing shield for black people against the lynch mob as well as the judge's death sentence."

Juan Williams is interviewed extensively in an online documentary of the life of Thurgood Marshall: https://www.biography.com/video/thurgood-marshall-full-episode-2192395509. I am adding Mr. Williams biography to my reading list. One of the other quotes from this documentary that helps to give context to the movie was "Thurgood's coming!"

A New York times review of the movie explains why that phrase gave hope to a persecuted people:

In "Devil in the Grove," which won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction, Gilbert King wrote about Marshall’s heroic trial work. “Across the South,” Mr. King wrote, “in their darkest, most demoralizing hours, when falsely accused men sat in jails, when women and children stood before the ashy ruins of mob-torched homes, the spirits of black citizens would be lifted with two words whispered in defiance and hope: ‘Thurgood’s coming.’” (A film adaptation of “Devil in the Grove,” which focuses on a different case, is in the works.) https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/08/movies/thurgood-marshall-movie-chadwick-boseman.html

This image of Marshall at the defendant table was used in the documentary at Biography.com. This photo shows Jack Greenberg, second from left, in 1952 during the second trial of Walter Lee Irvin, third from left, who had been sentenced to death in a rape case. Thurgood Marshall is at the far right. This is not the same case as the movie but this image has some similarities to the one featured in the move. When Mr. Marshall joined the federal bench in 1961, he named Mr. Greenberg to succeed him as director-counsel of the defense fund.

"Thurgood's coming" to a theater near you.

This is an encore presentation of Thurgood Marshall on this blog.  Please take a look at my first blog post entitled, Showdown: Marshall vs. Scalia which is featured on the list of top ten blog posts in the left hand column here.

Defy Disasters: Digitize

Americans are reeling from the succession of disasters that we have experienced in September and October 2017, both natural and man-made.  I spoke to my brother, Faran, yesterday and his family was evacuated safely from their home in Santa Rosa, California.  Fires are still burning out of control in Santa Rosa but at least 1500 structures have been destroyed.  His house is safe right now but we know several others that suffered horrible tragedy in recent weeks.

Debris pile in front of a house in Dickinson, Texas that belongs to a member of my genealogical society.

The need for disaster preparedness for family historians has become more urgent than ever.  For those of us who have accumulated massive collections of genealogical papers and books, the dilemma is clear.  Paper records do not survive in a flood or a fire. Members of our Bay Area Genealogical Society lost their papers and books in the flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey. One way to defy these disasters is to digitize our genealogy papers as much as possible.

I use this SD card with USB and type-C connectors to quickly download pictures from my camera phone.

I use several devices to digitize records and photographs but a few of my favorites are my camera phone, my sheet-feed scanner and a micro SD card reader with USB 3.0 and type-C connectors.  I do not claim any technical expertise, but these are devices that work for me.  If you have other suggestions on how to approach the digitization challenge, please feel free to comment below.

I love using my camera phone to digitize because I always have it on hand.  Camera phones make it possible to quickly make a snapshot of a family photo at a reunion or a page in a book when you are visiting  a genealogy library.  One technique to record the source of these photos is to write down the date and where you are or who you are visiting on a piece of paper and then make a quick snapshot on your camera phone to reference later. When copying a book, I also copy the title page, table of contents and the pages on how to use the book.

I have tried a few mobile phone apps for scanning but generally I just use the camera app.  My camera phone synchronizes with iCloud in an automatic back-up process. I pay Apple $.99 per month for 50 gigabytes of storage. So far this has been sufficient for my purposes.  The only down side of accessing photos on iCloud is that it takes a little while to download them to my PC.

If I am in a hurry to access images from my phone, I use my I-drive device from Omars.co. Here is a hyperlink to a similar product description: SD card reader with USB 3.0 and type-C connectors.  This device works with Iphone, Ipad and Android products.  One end of the device fits into the type-C connector on most phones.  When I am using my device, I select the images from the camera roll that I want to transfer to the SD card. Then, I transfer those images from the phone to a folder on the card.  I give the folder a unique name that I will recognize when I plug the card into my PC. I used this device today to get images for this blog post.

This SD card is the perfect bridge linking your type-C devices to computers. Direct plug-in  allows for speedy transfer from smart phones.  The product literature says that you can transfer files in high speed: USB 3.0 connector: maximum reading speed at 85 MB per second; maximum writing speed at 60 MB per second.

Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500

The ScanSnap unfolds to reveal the sheet feeder on the top and the receiver tray on the bottom.

I am attempting to purge all of my binders and file cabinets full of genealogical papers.  My favorite device for that purpose is my Fujitsu Scan Snap S1500 scanner.  I am sure there is lots of competition to this  device so use this as more of an example of a method than a product endorsement.  I have been very happy with its ability to scan both sides on one pass.  I try to limit the stack of papers to 15-20 pages so some documents have to be done in several parts. 

The Fujitsu website says that the Scan Snap S1500 scanner has been replaced by the  ScanSnap iX500 but it appears that the S1500 is still available for purchase at some locations.

The scanner creates a pdf document that can be edited with the bundled pdf software. If you are scanning ruled paper, you will have to delete the back side of the page if there is no writing on it.  One of the advantages of this pdf editing software is that it allows you to convert the document to text using optical character recognition.  When the text on your original document is pretty clear, the OCR works really well. When you are scanning text from a newspaper clipping, it is usually easier to make a transcription rather than use OCR.

Perhaps your local library or genealogical society could purchase a scanner for patrons and members to use.  For example, the Clayton Genealogical Center of the Houston Public Library has a variety of scanning devices available for use. On October 18 the Clayton Library is offering a class on how to use their photo scanner.  The details are here: Scanner Class.

Don't miss the latest episode of Finding Your Roots on PBS:

Tonight at 8/7c on PBS

Finding Your Roots | Episode Two "Unfamiliar Kin"

Featuring Fred Armisen, Carly Simon and Christopher Walken

For more information: Finding Your Roots

Reunion with Sibs Yields Fun Pics

Reviewing family photos with your siblings is a fun thing to do when families reunite.  My brother, Faran Cimino hosted us at his house on September 17 and my sister Vicky Smith brought some old family photos that she gave to me and Faran.  I made copies of all of the pictures with my smart phone and downloaded them into a folder on my PC for editing.  I copied both sides of the photo with my camera phone if it had anything written on the back. 

My memories of many events in my childhood is pretty fuzzy.  I think I have tried to bury some of my unhappy memories. Good memories have been lost in the collateral damage. Old pictures can bring some of those memories flooding back. The picture below was one of those good memories.

Kitten rescue at 2352 Craig Avenue, Sacramento, California about 1961
Left to right: Vicky Cimino, Elaine Kelly, Vince Cimino and Nick Cimino with hands on hips.

I am estimating that I was about seven years old which places the date at 1961. It appears that I was pretty proud of myself for crawling under our house and rescuing this litter of kittens.  The mama cat had delivered her kittens inside the foundation of our fireplace.  We could hear the mewing in the vicinity of our fireplace so my parents sent me into the crawl space on the rescue mission.  It was a difficult extraction process reaching inside the opening in the bricks. 

We are all standing near the opening to the crawl space and "Gram" Elaine is holding a tray of kittens with a dish of milk. Vince is wearing a Yogi Bear sweatshirt. Our father was a telephone installer and you can see the telephone connection on the wall.  I crawled under the house several times to add telephone wire as we had phones in several rooms of the house. Our mother probably took the picture. Gram Elaine was always a "sharp-dressed" woman.  A few years later Gram Elaine was back at the house full-time when our Mom spent several months in the hospital.

Gram Elaine drove a red Corvair Monza convertible to her secretarial job at the State Capitol.  I was allowed to go out to the car and start the engine on the frosty mornings in Sacramento.  I would also get a ride to school at my junior high school which was once named Charles Goethe and has since been renamed to Rosa Parks Middle School.

Here is a chronology of all of the schools that I attended in and around Sacramento:

• 1960-1963 Freeport Elementary Grade 1-3, 2118 Meadowview Road Sacramento, CA 95832  
• 1963-1965 John Bidwell Elementary Grade 4-6 accelerated, 1730 - 65th Avenue Sacramento, CA 95822  
• 1965-1966 C.M Goethe Jr. High School [renamed Rosa Parks Middle School] 2250 - 68th Avenue Sacramento, CA 95822  
• 1966-1968 John Still Jr. High; 2250 John Still Drive Sacramento, CA 95832  
• 1968-1971 J.F. Kennedy High School, Graduation 1971; 6715 Gloria Drive Sacramento, CA 95831  
• 1971-1973 Cosumnes River College; 8401 Center Parkway, Sacramento, CA 95823  
• 1973-1975 U.C. Davis, graduation June 1975, B.A. Political Science 

Vicky shared a couple of other pictures that illustrate our experience at Lake Tahoe where Gram Elaine and Grandpa George lived:

Faran is facing the camera in this shot that was taken on the Valhalla beach at the south shore of Lake Tahoe.  The back of the picture was marked August 1972 so Faran was nine years old. My back is to the camera.  This may explain my basal cell carcinoma that I had removed from my back a few years ago.

Vince and Faran Cimino are playing in the snow at Lake Tahoe. The estimated date on this one is 1965 or 1966. We were very fortunate to be able to spend many weekends and vacations with our grandparents who lived in South Lake Tahoe.

Here are some family group shots that we took in front of Faran's house.

Mark Smith, Vicky Cimino Smith, Denise Brooks Cimino, Brina Cimino, Faran Cimino and Nick Cimino

Faran, Vicky and Nick

Faran displaying his Ford Falcon "Woody" Wagon

Faran has adorned his classic car with surf decals.

Faran, Denise, Brina and Cameron Cimino.
The phone booth in Faran's yard is a nice tribute to our father's career at the phone company.

Drilling Deeper with Genealogical Proof Standard

Here is an outline of a presentation that I gave last night at the Humble Area Genealogical Society. I highly recommend that you visit the website of the Board for Certification of Genealogists for more information on this topic: https://bcgcertification.org/ethics-standards/

Additionally, the following BCG website page that shows work samples can be used as a model when developing a genealogical proof: http://www.bcgcertification.org/skillbuilders/worksamples.html

The following text and images are extracted from my presentation entitled: Drilling Deeper with GPS: Case studies demonstrating the Genealogical Proof Standard.  I have added hyperlinks which will lead you to more information on particular aspects of GPS.

The Drilling Deeper Metaphor is appropriate for Texas because our oil industry is going back to these historic oil fields to extract every last drop.  Genealogists also need to "drill deeper" using the Genealogical Proof Standard as a guide.

Genealogical Proof Standard- GPS
• Purpose of GPS: show minimums for work to be credible.
• Five elements to GPS:
1. Reasonably exhaustive research conducted.
2. Each statement of fact has source citation(s).
3. Evidence is reliable & skillfully correlated and interpreted.
4. Contradictory evidence has been resolved.
5. Conclusion soundly reasoned and coherently written.
• Any proof statement is subject to re-evaluation when new evidence arises.

Five Questions regarding the Genealogical Proof Standard (GPS)
• Q1:Who? A: Board for Certification of Genealogists & Christine Rose 2005 publication entitled (Genealogical Proof Standard: Building a Solid Case)

• Q2:What? A: Method for Solving Gen. Problems 

• Q3:When? A: Prior to Publishing
• Q4:Where?         A: Gen. Journals, Books and Online
• Q5:Why? A: a) Accepted Standard to Build Solid Case, b) Indirect Evidence                                                          Method, c) Tool to Resolve Conflicts

Reasonably Exhaustive Search: Texas Online Records
• Online Texas vital records
• Portal to Texas History
• Geography and Biography at Handbook of Texas Online
• County records- clerk, district clerk, libraries, GenWeb
• Texas taxation records
• County appraisal district websites
• and many more...

Reasonably Exhausive Search: Texas Archives
• Genealogy & local libraries
• History libraries
• Regional archives
• Courthouses
• College & University Libraries & Archives
• Church Archives
• Fraternal Archives
 
Case Study #1: Buried in Colorado County:  Frank E. Little 1855-1908

Why was Frank Little buried in the Oakes Family Cemetery? What was his connection to the Oakes Family.

 • Historical Context
“ROCK ISLAND, TEXAS (Colorado County). Rock Island, on U.S. Highway 90A fifteen miles west of Eagle Lake and twelve miles southwest of Columbus in southwest Colorado County, was settled in 1896 as part of a land promotion scheme on the Texas and New Orleans Railroad. ..The town's original name was Crasco, after nearby Crasco Creek, but in 1897 the citizens successfully petitioned the post office department to change the name. Charles Petersen, a large landowner, renamed the town for the Rock Island Railroad Company. In August 1897 Petersen was appointed the first postmaster of Rock Island, and the old Crasco post office was closed. From an original core of thirty-nine farming families, the population of Rock Island had grown to 367 by 1904 and had reached an all-time high of 500 by 1925. ..”

Does "conduct a ranch" mean that he was a ranch foreman or did he purchase a piece of land in a land promotion scheme?

 • Reasonably Exhaustive Search: Oakes Family Cemetery
o Nine marked graves most related to John C. Oakes
o      There were no land records involving Frank Little so maybe the ranch foreman was the more reasonable conclusion.

John C. Oakes owned several parcels of land on which he was conducting ranch operations as shown in this tax record.

Current landowners might know more about the cemetery and the Oakes family history. The mapping function of the county appraisal district website offers some great images to help illustrate your family history and put the ancestors in a geographic context.

The is the outline of the original land grant held by John C. Oakes.

All of these images from the county appraisal district website offer interesting geographic details including this satellite view. The ownership information in the appraisal district database allows a genealogical researcher to contact the current owner for more information about the history of the property.

 • Reasonably Exhaustive Search:
o Appraisal District Land Records
 Name of Property Owner
 Mailing Address
 Property Address
 Wrote two letters with SASE & my full contact info
 Asked for info on cemetery & Oakes family history
 Both owners emailed back
 Spoke to both owners on phone

There were no death certificates available for Colorado County in 1908 on Ancestry.com or FamilySearch.org but Colorado County had these images from the original death ledger. A visit to the courthouse is an essential element of a "reasonably exhaustive search."

o Death Certificate
 Earliest year available online for Colorado County death certificates is 1902. Then there is a gap in the records until 1909.
 However, even though the online records show a gap for 1908, it does not mean that records do not exist
 The Family Search Catalog shows microfilms of an index and death records for Colorado County Texas which includes 1908
 Notes on the content of the film state: Microfilm of originals in the Colorado County courthouse in Columbus, Texas. Includes general index with some volumes individually indexed.
 County clerk website offered a search for a fee. Call first!
 County courthouse had a 1908 death ledger entry for Frank Little

For more information on the Frank Little case study, please read the following:

http://www.ancestorpuzzles.com/2016/09/drilling-deeper-in-lonestar-state-frank.html

 Case Study #2:  Buried in the German Society Cemetery, Houston
Fredericka Brenner nee Eggert 1828-1901

The numerous birth dates and locations shown for Fredericka Brenner can be resolved by "drilling deeper" into parish records in Germany.

Grave markers may not always be the most reliable evidence especially if they are placed decades after the events. The German Society Cemetery known now as Washington Cemetery did not exist until the 1880s. Do not misinterpret interment dates as death dates. For example, Mina Brenner died in 1876 and was relocated to the new family plot in 1889. Henry August Brenner is known to have been buried in another cemetery.  The marker was placed recently by a descendant who was attempting to reunite the family after the fact.

The church burial record gives a place of birth for Fredericka Brenner nee Eggert as Steinke in Saxony. The parish records in Germany need to be searched to reveal the precise location and date of the birth.

It is helpful to include the page and column number in a newspaper citation. Unfortunately, this obituary record does not reveal the names of the "several children." Probate records also need to be searched to meet the "reasonably exhaustive search" standard.

For more details on the Fredericka Brenner case study, please go to this blogpost:

http://www.ancestorpuzzles.com/2016/08/it-takes-village-in-german-genealogy_29.html

Case Study #3:  Murder in Stafford:  Rev. Robert S. Sloan 1858-1916

• Obituary - 23 October 1916 Brenham Daily Banner-Press

• Rev. Robt. S. Sloan 1858-1916
o 1858 Born near Washington on Brazos to Maria Jordan
o 1884 Constable Pct. 1 & active Republican
o 1886 accused as Democratic “bulldozer”
o 1892 Black Elephant Saloon
o 1892 son Sam death by train
o 1900 Baptist minister & financial agent for Central Texas College Waco

• 1892 Advertisement Brenham Banner

• 1903 The Democrat (McKinney, Texas)

• Who Shot R.S. Sloan?

• Frank Robinson Indicted 1917

• Was he guilty?
• What was his motive?

• R.S. Sloan, Camptown Cemetery, Brenham, Texas

Robert S. Sloan is one of my favorite case studies and I have written about him in the following blog posts:

http://www.ancestorpuzzles.com/2015/04/the-mysterious-bob-sloan-his-journey.html

http://www.ancestorpuzzles.com/2016/10/historic-adventures-in-brenham-tx.html

http://www.ancestorpuzzles.com/2015/05/assassin-of-bob-sloan-convicted.html



Building a Solid Case with GPS
• The Process by Christine Rose p. 1
o Conduct a reasonably exhaustive search among a variety of records
o Determine the class for each piece of information within the record, i.e. whether it is
 Direct or Indirect Evidence
 Original or Derivative Source
 Primary or Secondary Information
o Weigh each piece of data keeping in mind WHO furnished info & WHY
• The Process by Christine Rose p. 2
o Evidence must all point in same direction. If not that evidence must be negated or refuted.
o If evidence points in same direction, & no other conclusion can be reached then case has passed GPS and is solid
o Write up the conclusion. Include an explanation of any opposing evidence and how it was resolved. Include citations.

Evidence Process Map- Elizabeth Shown Mills

A Metaphor for Genealogical Proof: The Jigsaw Puzzle- T. Jones, 2010
• Do the puzzle pieces belong to your ancestor puzzle?
• Do you have the puzzle pieces in the right place and in the right direction?
• With a sufficient number of pieces, a clear picture or reliable answer may emerge even when pieces are missing.
• Just as a picture emerges from assembled puzzle pieces, genealogical proof rests on the sum of evidence.

Summary Advice by Cimino
• Question every date, place and name on any publication or original record
• Look for the original source of all data
• Look for every possible record source in online sites, microfilm, books, and archival repositories
• Transcribe, analyze and compare every source record for every detail it contains
• Write and re-write the story based on available evidence at every phase

For more information on Genealogical Proof Standard, please visit the following site: