The Family Tree Problem Solver: Tried-And-True Tactics for Tracing Elusive Ancestors (12 page)

Zilpha Rogers 1810–1832

Figure 4-2
Robinson Cemetery, Hickory County, Missouri.

After getting a specific name to search for in Tennessee from the gravesite — Daniel Rogers — I found that he was listed as head of household in the 1830 Henderson County, Tennessee, census. The households next to him were those of Mary Boswell and Edward Boswell. Matthew was also head of household in Henderson County, but listed twenty-three pages away on the census. I might have searched dozens of families named Rogers if I had started in Henderson County rather than looking for Edith's own family in Missouri.

Third, study collateral relatives to find ancestry. Second and third cousins with many different surnames share a common ancestor. Those cousins may have records that your direct ancestors didn't create. Or you may discover your ancestry by the back door. You may not be able to prove that your ancestor is the son of a certain man. However, if you can prove that an individual is your ancestor's brother or sister, and you can prove the parentage of the sibling, you automatically find the parents of your ancestor. In 1850 a woman named Sarah Cassett appeared on the census with the individual I was studying, John E. Spangler. There were many families named Spangler living in Adams County, Pennsylvania, at that time. After finding far too many named John, Jacob, and Abraham, I decided to investigate the less common name of Cassett. David Cassett married 10 April 1834 in the Lutheran Church at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Sarah Spangler. Was it the same woman with John Spangler in 1850? No one named David Cassett appeared in the 1850 census. No one named David Cassett left a probate record, but surprisingly, Sarah E. Cassett did. She died intestate, leaving minor children. John E. Spangler applied for guardianship and the record gave his relationship to the deceased: “she was a sister of the petitioner.” (See
Figure 4-3
.) He then identified her father, and therefore his own, as William Spangler. (See
Figure 4-4
.)

Figure 4-3
Petition of John Spangler to become the guardians of Sarah Cassett's minor children.

Figure 4-4
Identification of John Spangler and Sarah Cassett's father as William Spangler.

Guardianship records are invaluable to genealogists, because the people appointed guardians of minor children are almost always family members. They may be from the wife's side or the husband's, but the vast majority of the time they are relatives. If something tragic happened to young parents, wouldn't you expect family members to assume the care of the small children?

The fourth reason to study collateral relatives is to find the ones who died single or without children. It is common for people with no children to have more money than those who do. In order to find the many brothers, sisters, and perhaps cousins of your solitary ancestors, the best method is to locate the probate or will of those siblings who did not marry or who died without children. Often their wills named nephews and nieces, brothers and sisters, and sometimes even parents. Intestate proceedings may be even more important than wills, because the court would have insisted that all property owned by the deceased must be distributed to all the heirs according to the probate laws in effect at the time.

The following deed abstract, which names thirty-three heirs, is just one of many such examples:

Putting the family together from this deed and one other that was recorded a few pages away — naming those called “unknown heirs” in the deed above — carried the line for the common surname
Caldwell
back to Kentucky and then to Virginia, three generations previous to the man who died without children.

The fifth reason to study collateral relatives is that they probably generated documents that can be used to circumvent holes created by missing or destroyed records. For example, if our ancestors settled in a county whose records later burned, we may find surviving records for collateral relatives to reconstruct information that was lost.

The sixth reason is to establish genetic links. More and more, genealogy is seen as an important tool for tracing patterns of inherited traits and illnesses. More than three thousand out of ten thousand known diseases and medical conditions have a strong hereditary component, and new ones are found every day. People who are aware of their predisposition to certain diseases can do much to help themselves, either by changing their diet or behavior, or by early detection of a potential problem. Genealogists can make people aware of their genetic family history. Moreover, studying the genes of cousins may also help prove or disprove ancestral lines. It is vital to remember that biology has no relation whatsoever to surnames — genes strictly follow bloodline descents.

And finally, studying collateral kin may reveal naming patterns, identifying unusual given and middle names used by a family.
Called
onomastics
,
the study of names can aid in finding those missing links and branches.
If you are researching a common surname, given names of several family members can make it easier to distinguish your Brown or Jones from the others.

The first step in creating the web of a collateral family is becoming familiar with the kinship terms used during the time period you are researching. You must remove cultural and time blinders that may lead you to assume that terms used a century or two ago have the same meaning today.

M. Halsey Thomas, who edited
The Diary of Samuel Sewall 1674–1708
, attempted to identify in his annotations all the people to whom Sewall referred. He commented, “Sewall uses the word cousin as we would kinsman. His parents, uncles and aunts, siblings and children were called by our terms, but all other relatives near and remote, connected by blood or marriage, were cousins. Our footnotes show how remote some of these relationships were.” Unfortunately, Thomas was not always able to discern the relationship, but surely Samuel Sewall knew exactly how those people were related to him. Thus, it is worth investigating what, exactly, the relationship was when a colonial diary or account book refers to a “cousin.”

Kinship terms can become very important in analyzing the records that use them.
Following are some of the terms used in American society to identify collateral relatives. In the colonial era, terms such as cousin and nephew had different meanings than in modern times. An “in-law” was usually a stepparent, a “cousin” could be a nephew, and a “nephew” could be a grandchild.

AFFINITY:
A relationship that exists because of marital ties. “In-laws” is the contemporary term.'

AUGMENTED FAMILY:
An extension of the nuclear family that includes people bound together by law and marriage, rather than by blood. Examples include half-siblings, adopted children, stepchildren, stepparents, and stepsiblings.