Tag: Family History Centre

52W Mark III – Week 43: Lost Contact

This week’s prompt for the 52 Ancestors Challenge is “Lost Contact”. Losing contact is one way of losing a connection. Sometimes losing the connection might be necessary.

There are countless ways as to why a tree is such an excellent metaphor for genealogy. One comparison that might not be considered so often is that, like a tree, sometimes one’s family history might need some pruning.

As our research progresses over time and we add to our trees, we might discover that there are branches that no longer belong, which should never have been there in the first place. They might have been grafted to our trees early on, when we were new to genealogy, and did not realize that the connection was not supported by the evidence. There might be branches that seemed to be supported by the evidence that was available at the time, but new evidence comes to light that disproves the connection. When this happens, we have to cut that branch and end contact with the false connection.

I know that sometimes many genealogists have had a hard time making the cut. After all, until the connection was disproved, the individuals on the branch were considered family.

Over the years, I’ve made cuts now and again. Some small, some big. A few years ago I found a significant cut I had to make for my 6xG Grandfather, James Turner (1715-1773). James is on a branch of my tree for which I’ve had less interest than others over the years. He was the great grandfather of my 3xG Grandfather, Preston Thomas (1814-1877). While I’ve done quite a lot of research on Preston – and written about him here many times – I have not done much research on his lineage. Most of what I have is names and dates I gathered in the mid-90s during my earliest visits to the Family History Centre in Burnaby, and never really looked at again very seriously. It comes as no surprise to me when I have to prune some of the branches on Thomas’s line, including the parents of James Turner (which I wrote about on Week 8 of the 2023 52 Ancestors Challenge).

The other branches of my tree that I know need some more serious research and that might result in some pruning, or at least some revision, are the paternal lines of my maternal grandmother, Helen Burgess (1921-1984). I have great confidence in the information I have for Helen’s grandparents and her attachment to them. However, I have doubts about the lineage of her great grandfather Franciscus “Franz” Lerner (b. bet. 1835-1840 – d. 1876 or 1877) and her great grandfather Georg Jacob Anton (1843-1908).

My grandmother’s is a descendant of Germans from Russia, which I have written about here quite often. Those ancestors are my most difficult branches to research, for many reasons.

For Franz, I am confident in the identity of his paternal grandfather [Franz Ignaz Lerner (1759-abt 1816 or later)]. The main problem is identifying his father. Franz’s father is one of either two individuals:

  • Michael Lerner born 11 Jul 1793 in Malsch, Karlsruhe, Baden, wife Maria Eva Eberle born 1793 in Pleisweiler, Bergzabern, Pfalz (although possibly Eva Eberle), or
  • Bernard Lerner born 27 Feb 1798 in Malsch, Karlsruhe, Baden, wife Barbara Heil born abt 1799 in Niederlustadt, Germersheim, Pfalz.

As for Georg Jacob, he might not actually be Georg Jacob. It is possible he is actually simply just Jacob. As for Georg Jacob’s father, the name I have is Johannes Anton; however, he might actually have been Peter Johannes Anton. Not only are the names I have slightly off from some other indicators, the birthdates I have for both is in question. Interestingly, the identity of their spouses does not seem to be as dubious. This leads me to believe that there is no mistaken branch here; rather, it is simply a matter of properly identifying Georg Jacob and Johannes.

I will add that even when I prune a branch, I keep a record of it. If large enough, I create a separate database for it; if not, I keep notes in my research logs or in the notes for the child whose parents I ended up cutting. That way I don’t retrace my steps or fall into old traps. Moreover, should it turn out the information actually was correct, I have it handy and can graft the branch back onto my main tree.

52 Weeks – Week 32: At The Library

Despite having spent the last two weeks on a staycation, I’ve done precious little genealogy. You’d think that with all that time, I wouldn’t be completing Week 32 of the 52 Ancestors Challenge with minutes to spare before Week 33.

My eldest son and I attended the monthly on-line meeting of the B.C. Genealogy Society (BCGS) earlier this week. Otherwise, even with a four-hour block of time to myself today in which I planned to tackle some long-outstanding genealogy tasks, I got through exactly three documents. However, what I have managed to do is create all sorts of family memories, especially with our sons. We’ve had lots of outings around our city and participated in all sorts of fun activities, many of which were on the kids’ bucket lists. Creating family history is just as important and fun as studying it!

One thing we didn’t get up to was a trip to the library, which is normally a regular part of our lives. We love outings to the library, which is easy since we live so close to the Steveston branch of the Richmond Public Library. The kids have had library cards since they were very little. In fact, our youngest went to pre-school in the same building as the library, so it was easy to pop in for a library visit.

Trips to the library were also a regular thing with my family when I was little. My earliest memories include trips to the library with my parents – I can remember doing so as far back as when I was three years old. Family trips to the library continued even into high school, although by that time I was going there more often on my own. Nevertheless, I became quite familiar with my parents’ reading interests while cultivating my own. Usually I’d read not only the books I signed out, but often those of my parents, especially my father. He tended to read a lot of biographies and non-fiction, which was closer to some of my interests.

I also loved the school library. In grades five, six, and seven, I volunteered in the school library. Most days of the week I’d be there after school. The librarian was extremely encouraging and supportive. My favourite activity was helping the librarian with the bulletin boards she was always creating to promote reading. They often had a seasonal theme and more often than not involved some form of play on words. It was always a great source of pride when the librarian liked one of my ideas and let me design a bulletin board using my idea.

I needed proof of residence to get a library card with the city library. I hadn’t yet received any bills with my address on it and none of my ID had my new address. Luckily, the library accepted any postal mail with your name and address as proof of residence, so I used this letter and the envelope in which it came as proof of residence. The library accepted it and I have had that library card to this day.

After graduating with my history degree, I had a summer job as a librarian’s helper in a small government agency. A year later, after I found a career-path job, I took on a second part-time job at the local library for the extra income. I was worried during the job interview, as I had inadvertently incurred some late return fines that I hadn’t yet paid. Lucky for me, it wasn’t an issue. My job mostly involved shelving books and packing shipments for inter-branch returns, but it was a fun place to work and I got to know a lot about how libraries work.

Of course, libraries are a large part of genealogical research. In the days before on-line research, I was quite dependent on the LDS Family History Centre in Burnaby. From the Vancouver neighbourhood where I lived in the 90s, the Burnaby FHC was a 90-minute bus ride each way. I made that trip a lot. After I actually moved to Burnaby in the early naughts (twenty years later, I still don’t know what we’ve decided to call the first decade of this century!), I never visited the place. Developments in technology had minimized the need to so.

One library I wish I could visit in person more often is the BCGS Walter Draycott Library. It’s a wonderful library. In fact, it’s almost TARDIS-like. It seems so much larger on the inside than it appears from the outside. Unfortunately, it’s a 90-minute round trip and its Saturday hours conflicted with our children’s activities. However, due to the kids’ activities coming to a halt due to COVID, my eldest son (who is also a BCGS member) and I have been able to make the trip to the BCGS library after it reopened following its closure due to the pandemic.

It’s bigger on the inside!

We’re very lucky to have such a gem of a resource, even if we’re only able to take advantage of it infrequently. Of course, with two weeks off work, you’d think I’d be able to squeeze in a visit – if only the BCGS Library wasn’t closed for the summer break!

It was only near the end of my time off that I realized that I could have gone to the Cloverdale Branch of the Surrey Public Library, which has an amazing family history library. The irony is that our most recent family staycation activity took us within 100 meters of the library. In addition to genealogy, our eldest child is crazy for anything transportation related, and whatever the eldest is interested in, little brother is too. So we took them to ride the historic tram operated by the Fraser Valley Heritage Railway Society. Big brother doesn’t have to know that we were practically across the street from the genealogy library.