Saturday Night Genealogy Fun – Your Very Best 2011 Research Adventure

Genea-Blogger, Randy Seaver, each and every week, posts a blog about Saturday Night Genealogy Fun.

His challenge for today is:

It’s Saturday Night again — time for some Genealogy Fun (what else is there to do on Saturday Night?)!!
Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to:

1) Decide which of your (many?) genealogy research adventures in 2011 was your “very best” (your definition).

2) Tell us about it in a blog post of your own, in a comment to this blog post, in a Status report or comment on Facebook, or in a Stream note on Google Plus.

Well, I can do this one.

My very best was the study I did on Inferential Genealogy, a method of study by Dr. Thomas Jones.

Using this link, you can follow that journey (backwards)

http://worthy2be.wordpress.com/tag/2nd-life/

This was the outcome of studying Inferential Genealogy in Second Life, with that awesome group of people.

Besides the trip to the Civil War Museum in Harrisburg, several trips to Gettysburg, several other trips to Baltimore, I was able take a Name, mentioned in a PBS TV show, and find out how I was related to that Civil War Hero (David Ridgely Howard).

Along the way, found another connection to DearMYRTLE, a couple of days spending time with she and her husband, only to find that he and I had Revolutionary War gentlemen in the same unit at Valley Forge.

There is a PS: to this story. Over Christmas, the Gettysburg show on PBS was reshown. The kicker is, that at the very end of the discussion of Ridgely Howard (as they called him and where I started), was mention that his house was haunted.

Inferential Genealogy – Research Broadly

Its been a while since I updated this project. Haven’t stopped, but have taken a break.

In the mean time, I have been working on a Brick Wall for a Genea-Blogger, Randy Seaver. His “Brick Wall” came about the two of us using our favorite genealogy software. I have blogged about that on my Family Tree Maker blog.

This blog post is not about software, but a Road Trip I just returned from to address this brick wall.

Basically, Randy is looking for the Parents of Willam Knapp (1775 – 1856).

So, why am I interested? Easy, my wife has Knapp’s in her ancestry, and we have visited more than one cemetery looking for and at Knapp headstones.

To put this into perspective, I mapped out the Birth, Marriage, and Death Location on a Map.

William Knapp (1775-1856)

 

Consider: Birth 1775, Dutchess County, NY; 1804, Woodbridge, New Jersey; 1856, Newton, New Jersey.

I do NOT challenge or question any of Randy’s research. It is awesome. I have learned a couple of things from his research. My advantage, maybe, that I know these places. By car, mostly interstate, between Dutchess County and Newton is over 2 hours today. But to through in a 3 hour “detour” to Woodbridge, in the 1800′s, leaves me with some questions.

We have tracked my wife’s ancestors between the two end point a couple of time, no detours, didn’t pass go to collect our $200.00 and it’s on one road Route 94, in both New York and New Jersey. The cemetery visits were along that road. Goshen, mid-way is full of Knapp’s. More questions.

In reviewing Randy’s notes, included a comment about Dutchess County. I had one perspective of Dutchess County based on today’s maps. Not questioning the “starting” point for William, but to make sure I was looking at the Right Starting point. The pin-point on the map is close enough (for government work).

Consider this (from wikipedia)

Putnam County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York, in the lower Hudson River Valley. Putnam county formed in 1812, when it detached from Dutchess County.

OK, so now the “starting point” just grew a bunch. The good news, more places were we have found Knapps, the Bad News, more Knapps.

I need a (K) nap (p).

From my earlier experience with Baltimore, I had to get into my head the territory. (there’s a song in there somewhere). I bribed my wife into taking a road trip to see if we could find any of her Ancestors. She agreed and she took some research notes with her. That’s another story.

I did some looking at Find-A-Grave before we left. I knew that the Dutchess Genealogy Society / Library was closed today, but that was OK. I wasn’t sure where to start in Dutchess County (current county) but figured that where ever that library was, would be a good start. Find-A-Grave gave me a bunch of Cemeteries. Searched for Dutchess County for Knapp, found over a hundred possibilities, looked closer at a couple of “big hitters”. That is, a bunch of Knapps, but with 1700 headstones. Not looking for William, but perhaps a sibling, if there are any, or some other names to look for, trying to back into William’s family. Perhaps a book store or historical society looking for clues.

The clue there was to find out why William might have left Dutchess County, to head south to meet his wife. Have read some of the history of her family trying to find out if she had been somewhere before she ended up in Woodbridge. That wasn’t the case, in fact she had pretty heavy times to that area and Hackensack, New Jersey where she returned to after her husband died. So, at this point, William went south, but why.

More questions. Found an old book store, Nothing, zip, zero, Oh well. On the way to the first cemetery, we ended up on a road “New Hackensack Road” in New York. Not too far down that road was NY State Route 94. OK, what’s going on here?

Came to the first cemetery, Bethel Baptist Church of Shenandoah Cemetery. Small and very nice. My Find-A-Grave printout said there were 42 interments there, most that have been posted were, in fact, Knapps. From the parking lot in two directions, you could see Knapp headstones.

I usually try to find the history of a Church if there is one. There was a car in the parking lot, but nobody was home. Ran down my first set of batteries, had to go back to the car for the back up, and on my way back for more pictures. the Pastor of the Church walked to his car, and wanted to know if he could help. History? nope, BUT … like that word … but “I know someone who does”. Actually he gave me two names. He pointed me to a Headstone, which is where I was headed back to, and one of the names used to be the Historian for East Fishkill, which is not far from where we were. AND (more good news I hope) he is a genealogist. Quick Email to Randy for “future reference” and posted a picture to Facebook.

Isaac Knapp - Founder of this Cemetery

 

OK, so he died in 1859. I wonder.

Although that is where we are right now, but I just found a couple of other bits and pieces to look for.

On the trip to Poughkeepsie, I was expecting to find a Negative Source. Some hint as to why Randy hasn’t been able to find any information. But, I know have a contact who might be able to shed some light on why can’t we find William Knapp, any historical event (like a burnt court house) that causes us not to be able to find any records, why would young Knapp go down to New Jersey?

The term “I know a guy” has been running through my mind on the return home from this trip.

Lesson Learned: Keep looking. Look sideways (look for siblings or descendents of siblings), Ask a local Historian; Keep asking questions. I have the questions, but may have found someone with an answer or two.

Inferential Genealogy–Genealogy Software

As you may have guessed by now, most of what I have been doing is inputting all of this collected information into a Genealogy software package. There are many choices, but I have been using the Family Tree Maker program for a number of years. I have shared a couple of outputs from that program for this project, and here is a link to another feature I used.

Civil War Map

What was demonstrated in that Blog, was how I created a Map of the various battles that the 2nd Infantry Regiment, Maryland fought in.

Each of the squares is a battle location. In the database is details on each of the battles, but this gives me an idea of how far they traveled.

Inferential Genealogy–Another Record set

I just posted the results of looking at another Record Set (Exhausted Research) for this project. This time, it was on the military unit the David Ridgely Howard Served in.

Instead of duplicating the blog, here is a link to the blog post.

Military History in FTM2012

I ended the post with this:

The point of this, for me, was to have a view in the Ancestry Member Tree, and in FTM2012, an overview of this Civil War Regiment. When reviewing my Civil War hero, and his dates,  I have a good idea what battles he fought in.

He enlist on August 21, 1862, but into the 1st Regiment Maryland, so would have been in the initial organization of the 2nd Regiment. He was wounded on July 3, 1963 at the Battle of Culp’s Hill. This would have put him at the battle of Centreville and Winchester, Virginia and the first day’s battle in Gettysburg for this unit on July 2.

He missed the Battle at Martinsburg, but returned to the battle at Cold Harbor, Virginia.

He was wounded on the 2nd date’s battle at Weldon Railroad, Virginia and would be out of the rest of the war, as he lost his leg in Weldon Railroad battle.

Initial Summary of David Ridgely Howard

In the mail today, I received a book “Marylanders in the Confederacy” by Daniel D. Hartzler, Willow Bend Books, Westminster, Maryland, 2001. In it, in one sentence confirmed by findings on Page 3.

“The 1st Marland under Kenley was the only Maryland regiment on the Union side. The Confederate Marylanders on the other hand, embodied faith and pride of the state. Not a historic family of Maryland was not represented in the Maryland Line. Five grandsons of John Eager Howard, of Cowpens carried sword or muskets in the 1st Maryland Regiment.”

Cowpens was a battle in the Revolutionary War with General George Washington. So, John Eager Howard is the “grandfather” that was talked about in the PBS series Gettysburg.

John Eager Howard (1752 – 1827) and his wife Margaret Oswald Chew (1760 – 1827) had 10 children. Two of their sons were James Howard (1797 – 1732) and Charles Howard (1802 – 1869) had the “5 grandsons”

Charles Howard and son Francis (Frank) Key Howard (Key from Francis Scott Key) were captured in Baltimore by the Union Army.

Sons Edward Lloyd Howard and McHenry Howard served in the 1st Maryland.

James Howard had three sons that served, John Eager Howard (1797 – 1870), James McHenry Howard (1839 – 1916), and David Ridgely Howard (1844 – 1927).

The best that I can tell, at this point, is the all 5 of John Eager Howards grandsons were at Gettysburg in 1863.

My calculations would make David Ridgely Howard my 5th Cousin, 4 times removed. I now have a Confederate Civil War Hero. Not to mention that my Great-Grandfather, Samuel Worthington, was a Union Civil War Hero.