It’s exciting to start a new genealogy project. You have all the hope in the world of climbing your family tree. Discovering new information (or the hunt, as I like to call it) and telling your ancestors’ stories is why we’re so passionate about genealogy. However, I know there will be challenges, and when they come up, I need a sound system to help me through them.
In this latest Learn With Me series blog post, I’m going to walk you through the steps I take to research a new ancestor. I may know who they are, or I might not. Whatever the case, if you’ve ever felt stuck trying to figure out where to begin, this post is for you.
Today, I’m taking time away from client work and working on my genealogy certification portfolio to do some personal research. I thought you might like to come along and see what my process is like. Everyone does things a little bit differently, so hopefully you pick up a tip or two that will help you start your next project.
Choose A Family Line Or Ancestor To Research
First things first…you have to choose a family line you want to follow, and more specifically, a person. You won’t get anywhere if you jump around, so try to focus on just one.
My great-grandmother on my mom’s side is Laura Shown McKamey. I know about her and her husband, John Edward McKamey, but I know very little about her parents beyond the names on her death certificate: William Shown and Julie Thomas. So they will be the subject of my new research project.
Decide How You Will Record Your Information
Before you get started, you need to decide how you will record and keep the information you find. Will you rely on an online database, like Ancestry or FamilySearch? Will you keep it offline in your own genealogy software? For more on this, read “Why It’s Important To Keep Your Family Tree Offline.”
Both of those options are great for storing documents, but you also need space to write down your thoughts. I recommend opening a Word or Google Doc. I also keep a research log and timeline for each ancestor in Airtable, using the free version. But if you prefer, you can easily create your own timeline and log in Word as well.
Always Start With A Genealogy Research Question
Your research question should be one of three things: identity, relationship, or an ancestor’s actions. In this case, I want to verify the parents’ names on Laura’s death certificate, so it’s a relationship question.
You also want to frame the question so that you are very specific as to who you’re talking about and what you know about them.
Here’s my research question: Who are the parents of Laura McKamey, born in June 1880 in Tennessee, and married John Edward McKamey on 7 May 1900 in Anderson County, Tennessee? These unique identifiers help me to know that I’m referring to only one specific person.
In my blog post, “8 Ways To Improve Your Skills For Better Genealogy Research,” I talk about writing a research question and more. You can read that HERE.
To keep that research question in mind at all times, you can write it at the beginning of your project document.
What Do You Know?
Now is the time to write about what you know. I have Laura’s death certificate, so I’ll start with that. I write up the record in Airtable in both the research log and timeline sections:
What’s the difference between a genealogy research log and a timeline? Good question! A research log will keep track of EVERY search you do, whether you find something or not. A timeline will keep track of the times you do find your ancestors in a record, all the positive searches.
Now, I start writing in Word about what this document tells me. Here’s a short summary:
Abstract:
Name: Laura McKamey
Died: 22 March 1946 in Knoxville, TN
Age: 65 y 8 m 23 d
Birth: 29 June 1880
Husband and informant: J.E. McKamey [John Edward McKamey]
Cause of death: Diabetic coma (6 days)
Buried: Leach Cemetery, Lake City, TN
Father: William Shown
Mother: Julie Thomas
Make A Research Plan
Now that I’ve started with that first document, where do I want to go next? It’s always a good idea to have a plan for what records you want to search. It doesn’t have to be long; just some ideas to keep you on track.
My research plan would initially include:
- An obituary – they sometimes mention parents.
- The 1880 census – This is the census closest to Laura’s birth year. She could be living with her parents.
Next Step – Obituary
I found an obituary that includes no information about her parents.
Laura McKamey, age 65, wife of J.E. McKamey of Lake City. Died at 7:30 pm at Kingston Pike Hospital. Survivors: husband, sons, Owen E. of Knoxville, Kyle L. and Frank E. of Lake City; brother, Riley Shown of St. Louis, and sister Jane Murray of LaFollette, two granddaughters. Services are at 2:30 pm on Monday at First Baptist Church, Lake City. Burial Leach Cemetery. Funeral home: Martin’s in Lake City.
This correlates with the death certificate. It was probably J.E. McKamey who provided the information to the newspaper.
I updated the Airtable log and timeline with the obituary and made notes about there being no parent information.
Next Step – 1880 Census
Since Laura was born in 1880 and I haven’t found her in the 1880 census, this is the logical next step in my research. Her death certificate says she was born in June 1880. The 1900 census agrees with that (Laura was married and living with her husband in 1900). So, let’s look for a William Shown with a wife, Julie, and daughter, Laura, in Tennessee in 1880.
Tip: When I search for someone in a particular census, I like to go straight to that record set. You can do that in Ancestry by clicking Search/Census & Voter Lists/U.S. Federal Census Collection (under Narrow by Category)/Scroll down to the census you need and click on it.
Out of 36 hits, none of them were right. So, I tried looking for William as my primary person with a birthdate around 1855, making him 25 years old when Laura was born. This is just a good first guess. I looked at two results that could have been right, but there was no Julie or Laura in those households.
Finally, I tried searching for “Jul* Shown” in Tennessee. Thinking that her name could be Julie, Julia, etc, I tried using a wildcard. Eureka!
Living in Hatmaker, Campbell County, Tennessee, is Juliet Shown, age 41, a widow. The census was taken on 2 June 1880, so it is likely that Laura wasn’t born yet. I know this is the right family because Laura’s obituary mentioned a sister, Jane, and a brother, Riley. This household has those individuals in it.
Tip: Census records can sometimes be challenging to search, but keep trying all the possibilities you can think of. Don’t forget to use wildcards. Substitute * for multiple letters in a name or ? for a single letter. For example, searching for John* will find John, Johns, Johnson, Johnston, etc. As a last resort, you can go page by page and look at every entry.
Go back to your log, timeline, and Word doc and write up what you have found. Since Laura wasn’t included in this census record, I started a new Airtable base for Juliet and William. I did, however, include a line in my research log stating that I searched for Laura in the 1880 census and was unable to find her. That way, I know I won’t ever have to perform that search again.
Next Step – 1870 Census?
Now that I have Juliet in the 1880 census and have written up what that document told me, what would be the next step? If you said to look for her in 1870, I would say, probably not. Take a good look at the information found in the 1880 census. There are several older children born in Kentucky with a seven-year gap before Lathy and Riley, who were both born in Tennessee. That tells me the older children may have a different father.
So, instead of jumping right to 1870, let’s see if we can find the marriage record of Juliet and William. Did that record even exist during this time?
My go-to website to determine record availability is FamilySearch.
FamilySearch Records
Every county page on FamilySearch has the years records were available for birth, marriage, death, court, land, probate, and census. You can find these using the FamilySearch Wiki and searching for the county you’re interested in. And for more on the Wiki, read, “Why I Love The FamilySearch Wiki For My Genealogy Research.”
I don’t know whether they were married in Campbell County, TN or not, but it’s a good first step. Looking at the wiki, I see the following table:
Marriage records began in 1838, so let’s take a look.
I did not find a record online at FamilySearch, so I looked in Ancestry. They also didn’t have an image, but there was an index entry stating that Juliet C. Thomas married William C. Shown in 1875 in Campbell County, Tennessee. The marriage year of 1875 matches nicely with Lathy’s calculated birth date of 1876 (from the 1880 census). I’ll have to look further for an original record or contact the county directly for a copy.
Continue Searching
It appears I’ve found the right couple for Laura’s parents, but there is still much more to be done to confirm. I’ll continue to look for the original marriage record. Since it seems like Juliet may have been married before, I’ll look for that marriage record as well. And it’s ALWAYS a good idea to research the children. Their records may have information that wasn’t included in anything I found for Laura.
Regarding William, it looks like he died before 1880, so I’ll look for a death record for him and start to piece the family together going back in time.
And I will stop and write up what I find as I find it. I wrote a blog post about how important this step is. You can read it HERE.
Finally
In this blog post, I hope you see that genealogy research isn’t linear. As you start with one document and analyze it, you’ll have thoughts and questions. Write them down in a Word doc and think about where you should go next. Our brains start to make connections between records when we write. It’s a very important step.
Genealogy tip: Once you’ve written up your research, do a little digging into the historical or social context of the time you’re ancestors lived. Can you piece together a story that might reflect their life? That’s why we do this in the first place!
As you can see, researching your ancestor’s life can be a bit involved. If you need guidance, please don’t hesitate to call me. I’d love to help you tell the stories of your family! Click below for a 30-minute, no-obligation consultation.
