FHL:  LDS Family History library
FGR:  Family Group Record
BIR = Birth
MAR = Marriage

Living:  These individuals either are living or have no birth or death dates.  The program I have for "scrubbing" out information on the living individuals can't seem to realize that someone born in the 1600's must surely be dead by now.  If you need a name, write me.

<Any information inside these brackets is a date or place guessed by my computer, based on events of their relatives>

For Sources that are listed, I usually have more information.  The program that creates the webpages from my gedcom prints only the title of the source.  All the obituaries that are listed I do have copies of.

Chr = christening.  These dates don't show at all.  Demarests and most English families have christening dates rather than birthdates.  My program will not pick these up and show them as birth dates.  It chooses to leave them out.

BUR = burial.  These dates and places do not show either.

NOTES:  Most sources are found in my notes!
 

Because I believe documentation to be the only way to keep from having every single person duplicate every researcher's life-time of work, I've tried very hard to keep track of where my information was obtained.  I apologize because not all my sources will show with this program.  All the source notes put in automatically by the Ancestry File will not show.  It links them to a source on a name field that Gedpage doesn't pick up.  If you have a question about it, you can write me.  Also, PAF has not had source files until recently.  Because of this you will find most of my source information contained in the notes files.

As all research evolves, so has mine.  I started as a young college student at BYU just gathering information that other researchers had done.  Since there was so much and BYU has a large genealogy library, this was easy and fruitful.  I should say that my mother has done research for 30 years on her genealogy. I used her information and retraced her steps, documenting her work.

All the information for the Pease, Stanford, and Chapin lines plus their ancestors and families were obtained through the old family group sheets in the LDS Archives. Some were obtained through the Ancestral File , a 20 year old attempt at forming the first World-wide pedigree/family database.

How did we get all this information?

My family has been keeping family records for generations.  There are family Bible records and pictures  on some lines dating back about 6 generations.  To me, these BIBLE RECORDS are some of the most important records that could be kept. I'm sure they are not error free, little is.  But when a mother or father writes down the family information for their own records and satisfaction that is a pretty good source as far as I'm concerned.

I'm indebted to genealogists 100 years ago who decided to write BOOKS about some of the more noteworthy progenitors.  (And to my ancestors who never could throw a letter away.)  We have a letter from Edmund Dana Barbour who wrote the book about Capt. George Barbour's descendants asking for genealogical information from my family.  Then a flurry of letters from their relatives came stating their family information.  OLD LETTERS  are a wonderful source of interesting information!

In some cases all we had to go on were OLD STORIES and anecdotal information.   There were errors here, of course, but most of it was true and really quite wonderful!  My Great-aunt Ruth and her sisters said that Seth Baker came from Ninevee, New York and that Seth's wife's name was Ada Demeresque.  It turned out to be Nineveh, (The Plains area near Colesville) in Broome County, New York and Ada's last name was Demarest. These were corroborated through Census and other records.  Also, in this particular case, a very dedicated and generous researcher shared her extremely well-documented information on the family of Seth's father, Joshua Baker, who turned out to be a Revolutionary War Soldier.   In my husband's family, a family story got us through a name change in the Helvy-Cassady line.

Of course, the farther you go back the more you need to find other sources.  We've relied on BIRTH AND DEATH CERTIFICATES where available and on
FUNERAL PROGRAMS and OBITUARIES. We've looked at CEMETERY and CENSUS RECORDS.  I have CIVIL WAR PENSION FILES  on 5 of my 8 great great grandfathers.  We've searched county MARRIAGE & VITAL RECORDS.  We've even found errors in a few of them.  We've also used COUNTY HISTORIES and HISTORICAL SOCIETIES.  I've also used some
WILLS and LAND RECORDS, OLD NEWSPAPER ARTICLES & COURT RECORDS.

Now I'm doing my own research and relying mostly on primary records.  I do acknowledge the research of others.  I think it would be ridiculous not to, but I like it to be well-documented, if possible.  I realize that 30 or 40 years ago when some people went about genealogy for their own amusement there wasn't the emphasis on documentation that there is now and much of that is not documented.  I don't think it wise to rely on it solely, but I count it as good information.  One lady I wrote to said she'd been researching the Boyer's for 30 years (mainly one or 2 families) and she had gathered a lot of very good information.   Most of it is NOT re-documented, but I don't think it possible to spend that long on one or two families and get entirely bad information.  I've also known primary records to get messed up as well.  My own marriage information and at least one of my great-great grandmother's is incorrect in county records.  You'll notice my information is a conglomerate of well-researched and not so well researched information. You'll be able to tell the difference from the notes and sources provided.

Most recently, I've used the query system on the USGenWeb and the RootsWeb system of MAILING LISTS and have been very successful.   Genconnect and the Surname Search Engines to find out all kinds of things.  I've connected with all kinds of researchers and distant cousins.  In many cases they've provided well-documented lines and have given me all kinds of information I don't think I'd have found otherwise.  (i.e. the whereabouts of Amboy, Oneida, New York.  The only one still available is in Oswego County 2 counties away!  One Allen researcher wrote and told me of a small village of Amboy that used to be on the outskirts of Camden, Oneida, New York!!  All that is left of it now is an old Cemetery.  I was thrilled to find it at all!)  I've found cemetery information and all kinds of family information here on the web.  It has really helped me with real research, but it is the people behind the computer programs that have provided the most wonderful help that deserve the most praise and thanks.  If you haven't contributed to RootsWeb (a group that is providing much of the genealogy webspace needed for many volunteer programs like USGenWeb), please consider doing so.  I'll provide links  for the on-line resources on this links page. Call numbers of books & important film numbers will be included on the Surname Resources Page as time permits.

After the events of the last several months, I feel it necessary to say a bit about accuracy.  NOTHING IN THIS FILE OR ON THESE WEBPAGES IS GUARANTEED 100% ACCURATE.  I've done my level best to make sure that the information contained in these pages is accurate to the best of my knowledge.  Because people are human they make mistakes, and so do I.

If you disagree with my information, please first check the Errors page before you  write.  If you disagree with my methods, you may not want to rely on my information as absolute fact.  I encourage you to look at it, copy, and redo the research.  If you find errors, don't be upset with me or disillusioned.   Just let me know about the mistakes and the research that backs up your findings.  We can work on this process of discovery together.  I have corrected problems as they have become known to me, and I will make every effort to do so in the future. (Early Puritan New England is probably the easiest place to make research mistakes.  How many Samuel Bliss's does it take to get confused?  1-- because each of his children will name a child Samuel Bliss including the Samuel, Jr., who is child of the first.  The problems recently discovered are mostly of this nature.)   I also will post the information on the Errors page with NEW beside it to make sure people become aware of it.  I won't change my information without proper documentation, however. This information is as accurate as it can be at the present time.

To me having a web page is a little like hanging a stained, white, wrinkled sheet on a clothesline in the sun.  Between the wind ironing out the wrinkles and the sun exposing the discolorations to the sunlight, I ought to come out with an improved sheet when I'm done.  I hope it works the same for family history information!

EXCLUSION! One definite exclusion to the general good accuracy above is the line that connects to the English Kings.  When I downloaded it from the LDS Ancestral File, it was a MESS!!  Each person was in there multiple times and I'm sure that what I have left, even after it was cleaned up, is far less than accurate.   They now have special researchers who work exclusively on the time frame prior to 1500, and much of this is either already cleaned up or will be in the future.  If anyone has a more accurate version of it, I'd like to see it.  I know it goes back much further, but the line isn't that important to me so I haven't bothered to download it.  I'll wait for a better cleaned up version to be available.  Be advised:  THE LINE FROM SAMPSON LEONARD AND MARY FIENNES ON BACK IS RIDDLED WITH ERRORS.  I'm not researching this line and don't plan to.  I keep it in there mostly for curiosity's sake.
 
 

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Wednesday, 10-Jul-2002 16:27:39 MDT