February 2023 – GenealogyAtHeart.com

An Ancestry.com Thank You and A FAN Club Hint

Before I begin with what I had planned to share today I want to give a shout-out to Nordia, a Customer Service Rep with Ancestry.com. Yesterday afternoon I discovered that, although I was signed on to Ancestry, I could not access complete information when I was researching. Some of the information was a blurry gray and when I clicked to view or save, I would get a pop-up telling me I needed to pay for membership. Umm, I took care of that back on February 4^th when I renewed. Evidently, the individual I spoke with did not provide me with a seamless transfer as I had asked. My “gift” membership expired on the 23^rd and he began the renewal on the 25^th leaving me in limbo on the 24^th.

I was in a panic as I had work for a client to do and Nordia saved the day. She canceled the original renewal and re-entered it with the date of the 24^th. By the way, if you are using a gift membership, you should get an email with a code. I hadn’t received that.

Personally, I’m not recommending Ancestry gift memberships. In 2021, I renewed that way as there was a Black Friday discount available. So, it was a gift I bought for myself. Ancestry changed its policy in 2022 so there was no gift membership discount for current members. After I received a renewal notice I called to ask if I should continue my membership as a gift or as a regular customer. That gentleman told me it was simpler to keep it as a gift so I did. Apparently, it wasn’t but I do appreciate the quick support and professionalism of Nordia.

Now, for my regular blog. . .

I reviewed the relationship analysis for John as the father of Thomas Duer that I blogged about last week and it struck me that there were two names that I did not have in my family tree – John Piersol and Robert McClelland. Both individuals were named in documents for both John and Thomas Duer. Who were these folks?

I quickly looked at who John Piersol married and discovered it was Anne Morrison. I have a bunch of Morrisons as Jane Morrison married Thomas’s son John Duer. Jane was noted to have received money from the guardian of one of Thomas’s children while her father, John Morrison, served as an appraiser for John Duer’s will.

I knew the names of Jane’s siblings but Anne wasn’t one of them. Was she related? Morrison is a very common name but interestingly, the only male was Jane’s father, John, in any record, I found in Trumbull County, Ohio through 1830. In the 1850 US federal census, Anne reported that she was born in Pennsylvania.

I looked for online public trees on Ancestry, FamilySearch, MyHeritage, Geneanet, and FindMyPast but did not find one tree that had information about Anne. Now that was startling!

Time to investigate Anne’s husband. I quickly discovered a county history that told his story. Born in Fayette, Pennsylvania, he traveled with his mother and step-father to what is now Bellaire, Ohio but he returned to live in Pennsylvania with an uncle. Hmm, John Duer had sold land that is now in West Virginia and across the Ohio River in Bellaire, Ohio. Did the Duers meet John Piersol on the frontier?

Another county history stated Anne was the daughter of Joseph Morrison of Fayette, Pennsylvania. Again, no public online family trees for Joseph. Honestly, I can’t remember the last time I didn’t find a public tree for someone I was searching for – I’m thinking it was back in the early 2000s.

John and Anne, as a tic mark, were in Trumbull County, Ohio by 1820 and remained there in the 1830 US federal census. John Piersoll signed as a witness to John Duer’s land purchase in 1826; the other witness was Thomas Duer. After Thomas’s death, Piersoll became the guardian of three of Thomas’s children.

Only identified family members, including in-laws, were involved in court guardianship records. It’s likely that the relationship between Piersol to the Duers was through his wife, Anne. I still have a long way to go but I just might have identified a brother of John Morrison. Love the FAN Club and using Mills’ Identity Triangulation method. Best of all, this took less than an hour to discover.

Duer Dilemmas

My long-time readers know my obsession with the Duer family. I’ve been good, though, and haven’t blogged about them in almost two years. Honestly, I have not researched their lines since the pandemic was full throttle.

Last month I watched a Legacy Family Tree presentation by Elizabeth Shown Mills who is, lucky for us, back from retirement. The lecture gave numerous ideas on how to problem-solve using “trivial details.” A comment she made resonated with me; there are going to be times that we will NEVER find a document that clearly establishes a relationship.

I’m one of those genealogists that believe that somewhere, somehow, that long-sought record will unveil itself and leave me with a happy ending. Too many Disney movies, I guess! The lecture made me come to my senses. It was time for me to resurrect, review, and re-analyze all of my Duer findings and move toward a conclusion.

Briefly, my 5th great grandfather, John Duer (1748-1831), died after my 4th great grandfather, Thomas Duer (1775-1829) so Thomas and his family were omitted from John’s will. Another daughter of John’s who had died early was also omitted, however, her only son was named in John’s will. None of Thomas’ children were named. Thomas had died intestate (of course). The family originated in New Jersey; only one document there ties John and Thomas together but doesn’t state a relationship. That document was both men witnessing a will for a neighbor.

John is found in a deed in what is now West Virginia. He made the purchase in 1792 but didn’t move until about 1797. By 1805 he was in Trumbull County, Ohio. As was Thomas. There is no deed for either John or Thomas in the early years in Ohio but they are on tax lists, next to each other. Property maps show them residing next to one another.

And that is all I have. Not!

Using what Mills discussed, I pulled out every document I had for both men and created a different timeline than I had previously done. This time I made 5 headings – Date, Event, Place, Source(s), and Name. I began with the earliest records I had for John. Some of the sources, I’ll admit, are stinky like this for birth – http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/b/e/a/Scott-C-Beal/GENE4-0004.html (no source) – though I recorded each as together, clues are provided. In the Name column, I recorded who was named in the record. The few that showed John and Thomas together I highlighted in pale green. I then went through Thomas’s records and fit them into the same timeline in chronological order. This is where I realized there were many more connections between the two men – guardianship of Thomas’ children, land sales among the surviving family members, and religious affiliation. I highlighted those in pale orange. Yes, it is an ugly color scheme but it does stand out.

I then wrote 9 pages of relationship proof. It also includes DNA. My plan is to share this with colleagues over the next few weeks for their insight. Possibly, I’ll be publishing it, too. I may even approach a lineage society and complete an application.

My husband remarked, “So, you’re now done with the Duers.” I thought, “Is one ever done with a line?” You know the answer. No, in analyzing the John-Thomas information I noticed some very interesting (to me!) nuances. I decided to take on a major Duer surname study of the New York, Antigua, and possibly Connecticut lines in the hope of identifying their shared relative. Clearly, they all had a shared relationship both in the Caribbean and in the Colonies. It also involves John Duer’s maternal grandfather, Daniel Hollingshead, who I have written extensively about. During the pandemic, I was able to find how Daniel, a Presbyterian, was related to the Quaker line. I was unable to understand his relationships with the New York Duers who married into the Alexander family, as Daniel did, but those Alexander families don’t seem to connect, either. It is a convoluted mess! As you can see by the tree shown at the top of the page, every generation of every line has a John, Thomas, William, and Daniel. And, they intermarry. And, they don’t leave a lot of records. And researchers confuse them, particularly the Ohio and Pennsylvania John’s Revolutionary War Service. It’s going to be fun to sort this all out so look forward to more blogs about my Duer Dilemma!

DNA Match Unexpected Find

I bet you think this blog is about unexpected parentage but it’s not! I had a wonderful surprise in late January that I just have to share.

I have tested with Ancestry.com, National Geographic, 23andMe, and MyHeritage.com. The reason is that the companies’ tests are not identical. I wanted the large database that Ancestry offers, the amount of Neanderthal and Denisovian identified by 23andMe, and to better explore my eastern European background at MyHeritage. I uploaded the results from Ancestry.com to GedMatch and FamilyTreeDNA, too. This gives me an even larger match potential.

Typically, I get emails from the companies telling me when I have a new match but it’s usually for a 4th or 5th cousin. I’m not quite sure why I didn’t receive an email from MyHeritage.com with a 1st cousin once removed or 2nd cousin match. I was working with a Client and showing her how to explore matches when I logged on to MyHeritage and discovered I had a new closely related match. WOW!

I have to admit I was anxious to get in there and start investigating. Minutes after I left the Client I was online looking at the small family tree associated with the match. None of the names were familiar. I was certain I was going to find an unexpected parent result. I messaged the submitter questioning our relationship. I provided my email address if they preferred to correspond that way.

The following day I received an email that surprised me. The online tree didn’t match any of my family’s known names because it wasn’t for the individual’s DNA sample. The person was overseeing the DNA for a “friend” and had linked it to a tree that had no genetic relationship to the friend.

The person who managed the DNA checked with the DNA owner and was given permission to share their connection with me. Surprisingly, they were not a 1st or 2nd cousin but a 4th cousin. We shared 5 segments, the largest being 74 cM. I hadn’t thought much about DNA from that particular line I haven’t researched adequately.

I wrote back thanking the manager and then received another email asking if I had family photos. I did not but responded I would love to see one of my great-grandparents.

A few hours later I received the photo above which not only shows one of my paternal great-grandmothers but also her parents, my 2 times great-grandparents! I had never seen them before.

I so greatly appreciate this distant cousin sharing the photo with me. Turns out, we live only 2 hours from each other. I will be updating those lines this weekend and sharing my findings with my newfound relative.

DNA matches can provide more than unexpected parentage – they also can unveil unexpected photos.

Genealogy Tech Tips – Easy Computer Backups

With the weather outside frightful, I decided it was time for me to clean my computer. I must admit I do not back up as frequently as I should. I did find a way that made the task quick and easy.

First, I never save to my computers. The reason is that I have been burned in the past by them dying unexpectedly. I got into the habit when I was working as a counselor saving to a cloud. Originally, I used a thumb drive but I’ve lost or broken too many and the switch to the cloud made my files accessible anywhere, anytime. I’ve used several cloud companies – OneDrive, Dropbox, and Google Drive. None are perfect but I prefer Dropbox. I do pay for a larger amount of storage. My phone photos go to Dropbox now as they used to go to Google Photos but a year ago, I noticed that some were missing and the transfer stopped entirely last June. My husband’s phone photos go directly to Google Photos but he, too, experienced missing photos.

As I mentioned in last week’s blog, I am having difficulty synching Ancestry.com with RootsMagic8. I tried it again after I blogged and it still didn’t work though I can synch to version 7. I also tried downloading my Ancestry.com tree, which is large, to Legacy Family Tree but was unable to do that, either. I don’t want to post the new tree to MyHeritage.com, which now owns Legacy. I have a tree on MyHeritage that I do not update as I don’t have time to keep all my online trees up to date. I have enough info on FamilySearch, Geneanet, FindMyPast, and MyHeritage to connect with other researchers. I then direct them to Ancestry which is my most accurate tree.

Sidenote: Several readers have commented that they are also experiencing difficulty with RootsMagic8. One recommended looking into Family Historian as an alternative and I plan to do that. Thanks, readers, for your input!

Due to my synching issues, I decided I should also back up my existing Google Photos, my husband’s photos, and Dropbox to a stand-alone hard drive. I had purchased a Backup Plus before I relocated but hadn’t gotten around to using it.

Stand-alone drives aren’t immune to failure, either, as while I was attempting to backup my husband decided he would clean some old drives he had. Three of five would not open. He’s working on it and is fairly good with tech so I’m confident he’ll figure it out. He recommended I save to two different drives, keeping one at our home and another at one of our adult kid’s house. That way, if something happens to one, there is a backup to the backup. Yes, this is paranoia but it is also my life history and that of my ancestors since I’ve gone digital. When tech changes, these drives will have to be updated to whatever device replaces them so know, in the tech world, you aren’t ever done. LOL, kind of like genealogy!

BACKING UP DROPBOX:

I looked everywhere on Dropbox for information on how to back up the files but found nothing. A Google search gave me several methods but none worked for me. It directed me to the ribbon to click on “Backup tab” which I didn’t have. Another suggestion was to go to Settings and click “Preferences” which I also didn’t have.

Determined, I just experimented and discovered it’s super easy – just right-click on a file folder, scroll down to “Send to >” and select where you want the file duplicated. I chose Backup Plus which went to my E drive as that was the name of my stand-alone hard drive. This took some time as I have LOTS of files but it worked well. Once in a while, the program would stall as it could not find address info. I clicked “Okay” to transfer without the data. I was able to open the file from the stand-alone hard drive with no problem.

BACKING UP GOOGLE PHOTOS TO DROPBOX:

The time spent on the transfer depends on how much media you have. I have tons since I began using Google Photos in the early 2000s.

First, to access your photos, click on the grid symbol

on the ribbon on the right side of your main Google search page.

Select “Google Photos”

Find Settings, mine is on the ribbon on the top right, the middle gear symbol:

Scroll WAY DOWN to find “Export your data”:

Click Backup.

The page will show you that the “Export is in progress…”:

I haven’t gotten the email yet. I probably should not have tried to export both my and my husband’s photos simultaneously.

When I receive the email I will save it to Dropbox and then, follow my instructions above on how t save it to my external hard drive.

BACKING UP WEBSITES:

If you have a website, you might also like to save its content. I periodically do that by using a product called UpdraftPlus Backup Restore. I’m not providing the instructions here because I have an older version I probably should update. Sigh, tech is constantly changing!

Now that my files are in tip-top shape I’m ready to spend time on what I really love to do – find and analyze records!