When I started this fun exercise there were two documents which were going to be the load stone of the whole project. These were the death certificate of Emma and James.
Within the first few days I had found mention of them on the national Archive. These document were almost 200 years old and the national archive did not want to transcribe the information. The normal sequence of events, was that I would find an entry on the archives data base, send in an email and like magic and a bit of effort from a lovely lady named miss ShoeShoe, I would get transcribed information. This time it was different, it was a different archive and full resistance was being given on doing any work. After trying to find an researcher to do it, I finally put in an order to eggsa. As promised six weeks later I was able to pay for the work they had done and I received the documents that I had wanted to start the whole family tree on.
Seeing as these document came after adding over a 1000 people to the tree, it was with a bit of trepidation that I viewed these information contained on the documents. I was pretty happy with what I had on the tree as I had tried to base it on proof of births and deaths. It turns out that death certificates are awesome documents and not creepy at all.
The leaps of faith that I had done, which I was not happy with was James Welch, the first one that came over with the 1820 settlers. What the 1820 settlers documents said and what I found out were not the same. I went with my gut and chose to believe the info that I had turned up even though it was not what I would have liked. I had made James 10 years younger than the documentation and Scottish. I had even found a whole lot of relatives to show where his genetics came from. I would need to delete all these people and throw out all I knew, depending on what was on a single piece of paper.
With great trepidation I found his death certificate in the many files held in the zip folder. with a quick double click, there it was. The actual pudding on which the proof was based. Well there it was. James had sneaked onto a boat pretending he was 24 when in reality he was only 15. His parents were stated and were the same as I had found and lastly, there it was, he was born in Scotland. Emma seems to have liked the tartan boys, with both her husbands coming from Scotland.
The next column of information was quite a shock. My dear Emma had not been chaste for the first 10 years of her marriage and waited until she was 25 to produce her first child. No the silly girl had popped out 3 children before Henry. There were 2 more girls after James and before Mary.
All told James and Emma had 8 children. What a shock. It makes it even more impressive that Emma managed to find a second husband.
James died at 53 and Emma was only 36. She managed to keep them all alive and run the farm. I had been so impressed with the fact that Emma had so few children. This fact now needs to be replaced with the image that I have allocated to all the women on the tree. Ladies, it is not a clown car! It is supposed to be used to craft exceptional humans, not just huge numbers so that the chances of your genetics surviving would be achieved.
We now get to Emma's info. What first amused me is that she maintained a lie for 45 years of her life. Emma was born in April 1821. She and James got married in May of 1837. Emma had just turned 16. We now fast forward to her second marriage. This happened in January 1862. By all that is mathematical Emma was about to turn 42. She now shaves a year off her age and becomes 39.
She dies 5 days after her birthday in the year 1908. This would have made her 87, but no as bold as brass she has it reported that she is 86. We now have a dilemma, did Emma get married a 15 and the original fact that she was born in 21 is incorrect or did the silly lady take a year off her age and maintain this lie for the last 46 years of her life.
The sad bit about Emma's death certificate is that of all of her 9 children, the youngest 2 girls predeceased her. She has now given me so many more family member's to find.
Thanks James and Emma, appreciate not only your lives, but also the the genetic contributions.
Have a good one.
Seeing as these document came after adding over a 1000 people to the tree, it was with a bit of trepidation that I viewed these information contained on the documents. I was pretty happy with what I had on the tree as I had tried to base it on proof of births and deaths. It turns out that death certificates are awesome documents and not creepy at all.
With great trepidation I found his death certificate in the many files held in the zip folder. with a quick double click, there it was. The actual pudding on which the proof was based. Well there it was. James had sneaked onto a boat pretending he was 24 when in reality he was only 15. His parents were stated and were the same as I had found and lastly, there it was, he was born in Scotland. Emma seems to have liked the tartan boys, with both her husbands coming from Scotland.
The next column of information was quite a shock. My dear Emma had not been chaste for the first 10 years of her marriage and waited until she was 25 to produce her first child. No the silly girl had popped out 3 children before Henry. There were 2 more girls after James and before Mary.
All told James and Emma had 8 children. What a shock. It makes it even more impressive that Emma managed to find a second husband.
James died at 53 and Emma was only 36. She managed to keep them all alive and run the farm. I had been so impressed with the fact that Emma had so few children. This fact now needs to be replaced with the image that I have allocated to all the women on the tree. Ladies, it is not a clown car! It is supposed to be used to craft exceptional humans, not just huge numbers so that the chances of your genetics surviving would be achieved.
We now get to Emma's info. What first amused me is that she maintained a lie for 45 years of her life. Emma was born in April 1821. She and James got married in May of 1837. Emma had just turned 16. We now fast forward to her second marriage. This happened in January 1862. By all that is mathematical Emma was about to turn 42. She now shaves a year off her age and becomes 39.
She dies 5 days after her birthday in the year 1908. This would have made her 87, but no as bold as brass she has it reported that she is 86. We now have a dilemma, did Emma get married a 15 and the original fact that she was born in 21 is incorrect or did the silly lady take a year off her age and maintain this lie for the last 46 years of her life.
The sad bit about Emma's death certificate is that of all of her 9 children, the youngest 2 girls predeceased her. She has now given me so many more family member's to find.
Thanks James and Emma, appreciate not only your lives, but also the the genetic contributions.
Have a good one.
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