Someone Peed In My Gene Pool! – A day in the life of the family historian…

April 8, 2017

Buchanan Family History

Buchanan Surname

The Buchanan Family sparked my interest in researching our family history. When I was a little girl, I heard that former President James Buchanan was my 5x great-uncle. So, naturally, I set out to see if that was true…and how he was related exactly. More on that later. And now here we are today.

I did a quick search on Ancestry.com to find the origin of the surname Buchanan. Buchanan originated in Scotland. Interestingly, my great aunt visited Scotland once, and when she returned, she reported that she felt at home there, like she belonged there.

Fortunately, Ancestry seems to have over 3 million records for the Buchanan surname, which is fantastic! Researching this line of genealogy should be pretty straightforward, right?

The Buchanan families seem to have immigrated all over the United States.

While it appears that most of them immigrated to the eastern regions of the United States, many also immigrated to Texas and California.

I don’t yet know where her parents were born, so I’m not sure how far back in the Applegate line they immigrated. Based on the time frame, I would venture to guess that it would’ve been her grandparents or great-grandparents who immigrated.

I wonder how our ancestors decided where to immigrate to. How did they decide where to go?

My DNA shows that I am 28% Irish, including Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. I think it’s safe to say I inherited a bit of Buchanan blood here.

According to Ancestry.com, most Buchanans came from Scotland and Ireland, with a select few from England, Great Britain, and Germany.

I would be interested in traveling to Scotland to see if I feel the same connection that my great aunt did when she went there.

That would be so cool to feel a deep-rooted connection in my ancestors’ area.

The Buchanan family probably immigrated to the United States between 1851 and 1891.

Again, I’d very much like to know why they immigrated. What prompted their decisions to leave? Where did they intend to go? What did they intend to do?

There are just so many questions!

The biggest spikes seem to be around 1870 and again around 1885. I wonder if something was going on in Scotland and Ireland in those years that prompted a decision to leave. I’ll have to look into that further. Maybe I could at least get a general idea of why they may have left.

Most Buchanans seem to have been farmers, which is pretty consistent with my research so far.

I’ve found that most wives prior to the 1900s were housekeepers or housewives, so it’s not surprising that 6% are included in this chart.

Farmers and Laborers were pretty typical jobs in the 1800s and early 1900s. I’ve seen many of each in all the lines I’ve researched.

I will be looking for any Buchanans with interesting jobs besides farming. I know there was a Methodist Pastor in this line, so that’s different from the norm.

I wonder what other interesting occupations I’ll find in my research.

Buchanan Members Researched So Far

Victor
William
Victor Thomas
William
Maurice Grant

Finally, the Buchanan family’s life expectancy has been pretty close to that of the general public.

It seems as though many lived to see their 70s.

I do find it interesting that life expectancy spiked in the late 1950s by over 20 years! It’s commonly known that technological advances began in the 1950s; perhaps this is the reason for the spike.

Researchers are still trying to determine the reasons for such differences. So, I will continue focusing on my own ancestors and let the scientists tackle that question.

There is not much information on this line just yet, as I’ve only researched one person so far. But, as always, I will come back and update this page as I find more information. There is so much to do, so little time!

It would be nice to know more about these ancestors. Where did they come from before Indiana? Why did they immigrate to the United States? Are there any notable or famous ancestors in this line?

Have you found Buchanan in your family tree yet? If so, I’d love to hear from you!

Even if you haven’t, have you found reliable places to research the history of your family name? I’d love to know where to go to find out accurate facts about surnames that can provide some of the history behind the name. Do share and let us know how you do it. Just drop a line in the comments below.

That’s all for now, I’ll check back regularly and update this page as I find additional information.

Happy searching!

~Kris

April 2, 2017

Weekly Recap – March 27-April 2, 2017

Where I Started

When I started this website, I had already worked on my family tree on Ancestry.com for several years. The problem was that I started as a beginner and did a few things I wish I hadn’t done. For example, I attached many personal family trees to my own, thinking it furthered my research.

I guess you could say it was a shortcut. But it led to many inaccurate facts being attached to my family tree, which has put up roadblocks (or brick walls) I’m now trying to work through.

When I started this website, I also started a new family tree on Ancestry.com. I left the old one in place but started a new one to start from scratch. I didn’t want to lose all of my work, but the old family tree got to the point where it was overwhelming to work on because I had too many hints and inaccuracies. So, I started fresh, with a clean slate.

March 6-12

The person I started the tree with was Viola Mildred Beyl. I started with her because I have little information on the Beyl family. The Beyl family is very special to me, so I was anxious to learn more about them. Naturally, I researched the next generation after Viola, starting with her father. I researched the following people in order:

The problem I ran into was that I hit a brick wall fairly quickly, after only three generations back. I paused at that point to write the Unsolved Mysteries page and spent many hours reviewing the different records I had for Jacob William Beyl Sr. and anything that looked like his parents. But that didn’t get me through the brick wall.

March 13-19

Since I couldn’t bust through that wall, I also researched siblings and spouses. So next, I researched in order:

Unfortunately, those folks didn’t reveal any additional facts to help me break through the brick wall. But they did reveal additional people to research. As people marry and have children, this brings additional people to the family tree that must be researched and documented.

March 20-26

One thing I’d like to prevent this time is winding up with 7,500+ hints collecting dust. That overwhelms me and makes me feel like I’ll never get done. It adds unnecessary stress to my work because I can’t catch up.

Logically, I know this project will not be finished in my lifetime. The stress doesn’t come from the pressure to finish it. What I do want to do, though, is get through all of the documented history to start researching and finding the deep, hidden stories of my ancestors’ lives—the kinds of stories that aren’t easily findable on Federal documents.

At the same time, there are several lines of people for me to research, so when I spend too much time on one line, I feel like I should be working on another.

And the hints are starting to add up again. I already have over 300 hints to work through with this little bit of work that I’ve done. So I started working through spouses and siblings this week and adding the initial person from a few other lines I’d like to research. I researched the following people this week in order:

Plan Going Forward

I need to make a plan to research my lineage systematically. I often struggle with deciding who to study at any given time, but now that I’ve started with a clean slate, I think I need to make a plan and stick to it. So, I plan to build my new tree from the ground up.

In other words, I will start with myself and build it back, one generation at a time. I’ve added myself, my sibling, my parents, etc., to my new tree and have added the basic details for each of us. I will continue to fill those in as I go.

In the meantime, I will start with one generation and research all the people within that generation. For example, I began with Viola Mildred Beyl. Once I’ve researched her, I will also research her spouse, children, and siblings. Next, I will move on to another person within the same generation. Again, once I finish that person, I will research their spouse, children, and siblings, including the spouse and children of each of the siblings.

I will continue from person to person until I have completed that entire generation. Only then will I move back to the next generation. This way, I will be able to balance out the work and ensure that I am researching each line and nobody gets left behind. That being said, since I started with Viola Mildred Beyl, I will spend this next week focused on Viola’s spouse, children, siblings, and the spouse and children of each of her siblings.

Extra Credit

This week, I did a few additional things to advance my genealogical experience a little bit further. While these tasks certainly aren’t necessary for every family historian, they are beneficial to me, and I would recommend them to anybody pursuing their ancestry.

Ancestry Academy Courses
Find A Grave Memorials
Grave Hunting
Grave Tagging

Ancestry Academy Courses

Getting Started on Ancestry: Starting Your Family Tree
Waiting for DNA Results? Start Your Tree Now!
When You Find a Brick Wall, Develop Foundational Thinking
State Censuses
The 1880 Defective and Delinquent Schedule
How to Customize Your Ancestry Homepage
How to Use Filters on Last Names in Ancestry Search
What is a Census Record?
Meet the Ancestry App: Your Family Story Anytime, Anywhere
Seek and Ye Shall Find: Become an Ancestry Search Expert

Find A Grave Memorials

I try to conclude each person’s story with their burial. I do this because the burial represents their resting place. Previously, it was quite difficult for family historians to find the graves and headstones of their ancestors…unless, of course, they had a lot of time and money to go grave hunting in various places.

I do not have that luxury. So, the Find A Grave website has been invaluable in helping me find where my ancestors are resting and obtain photos of their headstones. In most cases, I’ve been lucky enough to have somebody already taken and posted a photo of my ancestor’s headstone on the website.

In some cases, no such luck. When I find a memorial for one of my ancestors on the website, I double-check the accuracy of the information against the research I’ve done so far on that ancestor. If anything needs to be corrected, I submit the corrections so that the monument is accurate for other family historians and family members.

When I don’t find a memorial, I will make every attempt to get a photo and create one for them. Unfortunately, if I don’t know where the ancestor is buried, I can’t create a memorial. So, I do have a few family members who still need memorials, and I am working to find the appropriate information to create them.

Grave Hunting

Grave hunting may sound a little creepy. I go hunting in nearby cemeteries for specific graves. There are people, just like me, who are searching for the graves of their family members for various reasons. If they are unable to find them, they may submit a photo request asking for someone in the local area to take a picture and post it online for them.

Since I rely on this to find my own family members, I feel it is important for me to give back. So when I find photo requests for graves near where I live, I’ll take a trip to the local cemetery and try to obtain a photo for them.

This week, I requested a photo for Grover Thomas Beyl, as he was the only ancestor I worked on recently who didn’t have a photo and doesn’t rest close enough that I can get it myself.

I know there are mixed feelings about people photographing headstones of people who aren’t their own family. Unfortunately, some folks get offended by this, or when it causes unintended grief or heartache for someone.

From my experience, I can say that when I go out to a cemetery for this purpose, I pay the utmost respect to each grave I visit. When there is trash around the area, I pick it up. When overgrowth grows on the headstone, I pull it and clean it up. When the flowers and memorabilia have fallen over, I pick them up and set them right. This is my way of respecting our ancestors before us…whether they are my own ancestors, or not.

Grave Tagging

I found another website this week that is trying to provide services similar to Find A Grave. Billion Graves sends volunteers to local cemeteries to take photos of each cemetery’s headstone.

As you take the pictures, Billion Graves attaches a GPS tag to that headstone. This allows people to find the graves of their family members online and know exactly where they are on the map. This week, I tagged 562 graves in a local cemetery.

They also have people transcribing the headstones so that they are searchable within the database. This allows family historians like me to find the resting places of their family members and obtain the dates of their birth and death. This week, I transcribed 105 headstones.

Wow, so I did a lot of extra credit work this week!

I feel good because I can give back in these ways to help others do the same things I do for their families. It was a busy week, but I am pretty happy with what I accomplished.

With that…it’s time to start next week!

Take care,

~Kris

April 2, 2017

Weekly Recap – March 27-April 2, 2017

What’s New This Week?

My hints have increased a bit this week, but I was able to work through enough that they didn’t increase significantly.

One major obstacle with the hints is that you wind up finding a wife and several children for each person you research. Finding multiple people adds several more hints to work through.

As I find these additional people, I add them to my list of people to research. Naturally, as I research those people, I will work through their hints and clear them from this list. But, of course, working through those people will also add additional people to my list.

I’m reasonably sure I’ll never get my hints down to zero. I’ll never be able to get through all of them unless I hit so many roadblocks that I run out of people to research. I don’t see that happening…at least not any time soon.

March 27 – April 2

This week, I focused a lot on researching people I had already researched earlier in the month. One of the Ancestry Academy courses I watched last week suggested that you always do a Global Search on each person. You never know what you’ll find.

This week, I focused a lot on doing a Global Search on each of the people I had already posted about. Their posts have been updated with the additional information I found in the Global Search.

I researched the following new people this week:

I haven’t yet hit a brick wall with the Applegate line. I was at one, but when I researched George Washington Applegate, I was able to get that wall down rather quickly. I knew her married name since I had already done Elsie Mae (his daughter). I found a death certificate for George Washington Applegate that gave her married name as the informant, which provided a whole lot more details on him and broke down that brick wall.

I have not published posts for all of these folks yet, but as I do, I will return to this page and update the links to them.

Plan Going Forward

In my previous Progress post, I laid out a plan for continuing my research. I need an organized plan to accomplish all of this systematically.

I planned to start with one generation and research everyone within that generation. For example, I began with Viola Mildred Beyl. Once I’ve researched her, I will also research her spouse, children, and siblings.

Next, I planned to move on to another person within the same generation. Again, once I finish that person, I will research their spouse, children, and siblings, including the spouse and children of each of the siblings.

I planned to continue from person to person until I had completed that entire generation. Only then will I move back to the next generation. This way, I will be able to balance out the work and ensure that I am researching each line and nobody gets left behind.

That being said, I started with Viola and had already done her siblings and parents, as well as her father’s siblings and parents. So, I was already a few generations back on her line. I also focused last week on Global Search. So, I have several other family members from Viola’s generation that still need to be researched. I will be focusing on them for now. That includes their spouses, siblings, and children.

Extra Credit

I did a few additional things this week to advance my genealogical experience a little bit further. While these tasks certainly aren’t necessary for every family historian, they are beneficial to me and, therefore, I would recommend them to anybody pursuing their own ancestry.

Ancestry Academy Courses

I did not take Ancestry Academy courses this week as I focused more on research and graves.

Find A Grave Memorials

I do not have that luxury. So, the Find A Grave website has been an invaluable asset in finding out where my ancestors are resting and obtaining photos of their headstones.

In most cases, I’ve been lucky enough that somebody has already taken and posted a photo of my ancestor’s headstone on the website. In some cases, no such luck. When I find a memorial for one of my ancestors on the website, I double-check the accuracy of the information in the memorial against the research I’ve done so far on that ancestor. If anything needs to be corrected, I submit the corrections so that the monument is accurate for other family historians and family members.

I submitted corrections for several ancestors I researched this week and linked them to the appropriate family members where possible.

I requested photos of two graves this week, and those requests were filled promptly. So I now have the graves for those folks and have updated their posts accordingly. I also took a small road trip to visit Viola Mildred and Charles Beckett Buchanan. I photographed their grave and created memorials for them on Find A Grave.

Grave Hunting

Grave hunting may sound a little creepy. What I mean by this is that I go hunting in nearby cemeteries for specific graves. There are people, just like me, who are searching for the graves of their family members for various reasons. If they are unable to find them, they may submit a photo request asking for someone in the local area to take a picture and post it online for them.

This week, I requested a photo for Elsie Mae Tudor. She was the only ancestor I worked on recently who didn’t have a picture and didn’t rest close enough for me to get it myself. I have not published her post yet, but when I do, it will have her grave included, as the request was filled promptly.

Grave Tagging

Billion Graves sends volunteers to local cemeteries to take photos of the headstones. As you take the photos, Billion Graves attaches a GPS tag to each headstone. This allows people to find the graves of their family members online and know exactly where they are on the map.

This week I tagged 430 graves in two local cemeteries.

They also have people transcribing the headstones so that they are searchable within the database. This allows family historians like myself to find the resting places of their family members as well as obtain the dates of their birth and death.

This week I transcribed 605 headstones.

Wow, so I did a lot of extra credit work this week! I feel good in that I can give back in these ways to help others do the same things I do for their families. At the same time, Billion Graves has now rewarded me with a free month of BG+. This gives me several super helpful features that will help me keep track of my ancestors on that site.

It was a busy week, but I didn’t get as much done as I wanted to. That’s alright. I’ve spread out my plans for this week a bit throughout the next three weeks so that I have more reasonable expectations of myself.

With that…it’s time to start next week!

Take care,

~Kris

April 1, 2017

Applegate Family History

Applegate Surname

John Edward Beyl’s marriage to Edna Mae Applegate gives me a whole new line of ancestors to research. My initial search on the Applegate surname looks promising.

I did a quick search on Ancestry.com to find the origin of the surname Applegate. It appears to be a variant of Applegarth, which comes from the northern Middle English word gate or road.

Fortunately, Ancestry seems to have hundreds of thousands of records for the Applegate surname, so this may be very promising when researching this line of genealogy.

It looks like most of the Applegate ancestors immigrated to New Jersey. Many also immigrated to other areas of the Northeast, including Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. But of course, there are some scattered throughout the rest of the United States.

Naturally, I will be looking for how they got to Indiana. Edna Mae was born in Indiana, which is not to say that her immediate ancestors originated there. But they ended up there, so I will be looking for where they were immediately before Indiana and where their arrival point was.

It seems that many Applegate immigrants came from England, while many others came from Great Britain. A couple came from Denmark, and one came from Ireland.

Since 12% of my DNA comes from Great Britain, we could assume they immigrated from Great Britain, although I’m not into making assumptions about genealogy.

That could come from a different line. So I’ll have to research this further.

Most of the Applegate families seem to have immigrated between 1851 and 1890.

There was a pretty big spike in 1857. It would be interesting to find out what happened that year, if anything, that caused so many more to come over.

This time frame would appear to be the time of Edna’s great-grandparents. I’ll definitely want to confirm this.

I haven’t seen any passenger lists for this line, though I’ve only done the research for one person so far. Hopefully, I’ll find more on them soon.

As expected, most of them were farmers, and many were Laborers. I’ve found a lot of Laborers in the Beyl lineage. I’m guessing I’ll also find many more in the Applegate lineage. But you never know.

I’ve found that most wives prior to the 1900s were housekeepers or housewives, so it’s not surprising to see the 6% in this chart. I’ve also seen a few Carpenters in there, but again, that’s on the Beyl side.

It’s interesting to see a few Blacksmiths in this line. I hope to find one or two among my ancestors…just because I dare to be different.

Edna’s father was a Drayman who owned his own house. I just learned that a Drayman is a person who delivers beer for a brewery. That is different, I like that…alcohol aside.

Applegate Ancestors I’ve Researched So Far

George W. Applegate
- John William Applegate
- Edna Mae Applegate
- Elsie Mae Applegate
- George Thomas Applegate

Finally, the Applegate family’s life expectancy has been pretty close to that of the general public.

It seems as though many lived to see their 70s.

Researchers are still trying to determine the reasons for such differences. So, I will continue focusing on my own ancestors and let the scientists tackle that question.

It would be nice to know more about these ancestors. Where did they come from before Indiana? Why did they immigrate to the United States? Are there any notable or famous ancestors in this line?

Have you found Applegate in your family tree yet? If so, I’d love to hear from you!

That’s all for now, I’ll check back regularly and update this page as I find additional information.

Happy searching!

~Kris

March 9, 2017

Beyl Family History

Beyl Surname

I haven’t found much about the Beyl surname online yet. I am still in the early stages of my research on this line. Quick searches on the history of the name Beyl yield very few results, if any, which makes it challenging to determine its origin.

I’ve only found one website that provides any description for the name, but it isn’t a reliable site for genealogical purposes. It is more of a touristy site that encourages you to purchase memorabilia featuring what they claim is your coat of arms. Anyway, it stated that Beyl is a Danish name derived from the word “bayer.” Bayer means one who came from Bavaria.

However, I found that Ancestry.com lists the meaning of the Beyl name as a variant of German Beil.

So, naturally, I queried the site for the meaning of the Beil surname:

In the limited research I’ve done on this line so far, I’ve found that the Beyls immigrated to the United States from France. So the question is, can I trace them from France to Germany? Only time will tell at this point.

Ancestry also provides a helpful page with basic statistics for the Beyl line in the United States. According to the United States Federal Census, most Beyl families resided in the northeastern region.

The New York Passengers List indicates that most immigrants came from Germany, with some also arriving from the Netherlands, Prussia, and Italy. So far, I’ve only traced my line back to France. According to Ancestry.com, the Beyl Family Origin comprises four families from Germany, three from the Netherlands, two from Prussia, and one from Italy.

They also show that there are three Civil War Service Records for the Beyl surname, all of which are on the Union side.

Interestingly, I found that one person in my line, Jacob Beyl, who was listed as an Unassigned Indiana Volunteer for the Union side, appears to have been injured in the war. I haven’t found much on that, but I will be doing further research to see if I can identify what happened.

Ancestry reports that most of the Beyl ancestors were farmers. A good portion were laborers. I have found both in my line. There were also some Saloon Keepers as well as horse car drivers.

I did find a site that listed a couple of Beyl settlers in the United States during the 18th Century. One was Johan Peter Beyl, who landed in Pennsylvania in 1747. Another was Johannes Beyl, who landed in Pennsylvania in 1754.

I do not yet know if either of these is related to my line, but I will attempt to confirm or deny this during my research.

Beyl Members I’ve Researched So Far

- Jacob William Sr

Ultimately, it seems that the Beyl family’s life expectancy has been relatively similar to that of the general public. Some died young, around 50 years old, while others lived to be around 90 years old. But the majority seem to pass away around 70 years old.

I know this is very little information to provide so far. However, as I mentioned earlier, I have only recently begun researching this line and hope to add a great deal more information shortly.

It would be nice to know more about these ancestors. Where did they originate before arriving in France? Why did they immigrate to the United States?

I hope to find a wealth of information on this line, as it holds particular significance for me. Have you found Beyl in your family tree yet? If so, I’d love to hear from you!

Even if you haven’t, have you found reliable places to research the history of your family name? I’d love to know where to find accurate information about surnames and their history. Do share and let us know how you do it.

That’s all for now, I’ll check back regularly and update this page as I find additional information.

I’ll leave you with a common Genealogy phrase:

This packrat has learned that the next generation will value most is not what we owned, but the evidence of who we were and the tales of how we loved. In the end, it’s the family stories that are worth the storage. – Ellen Goodman, The Boston Globe

Happy searching!

~Kris