Blind Spot

 

Do you have a genealogical blind spot? While tracing my ancestral states, I recognized a blind spot in my own research. Recognition is the first step in changing behavior. The second step is to tell family so that they will tease me about it forever. I'm counting on you, brother!

You've seen blind spots in online trees. Too many women without parents is one pattern that I see frequently. Women can definitely be hard to research, and my blind spot involves women, but in a subtle way. 

There are five factors that will move an ancestor into my "before and after" blind spot:

1. A late-life migration. 
2. Enough is known about the migrating family that research can proceed backwards in time.
3. Migrating away from a married child (generally a daughter) in my direct line.
   
4. The migrating family has a name that is challenging to research, with either a common name or a name that is often misspelled.
5. The migrating family is not the focus of research at that time.

A brief example of how this blind spot works is my 5th-great-grandfather, Thomas Carter. 

In 1834, in Morgan County, Illinois, he gave permission for his underage daughter to marry. That 1834 record created a dividing line in my mind. I was far more interested in his life before 1834 than his life after that date. His life and death after 1835 went into the blind spot due to the five factors.

Factor 1. Late-life migration. Thomas apparently left Illinois between the state census of 1835 and the federal census of 1840. His age is uncertain, but he was probably over 60 when he migrated. At that time, 60 would have been considered an old man.

Factor 2. Backward research is possible. I knew enough about where Thomas came from and his parents' names that I didn't really need to research forward and find his probate. 

Factor 3. Leaving a child behind. His daughter died young in Illinois, where her husband and her descendants lived for many more years. Originally I assumed that Thomas had also died in Illinois, but later learned from other researchers that he had migrated to Iowa, leaving behind his daughter and son-in-law.

Factor 4. Challenging name to research. A search on Ancestry shows over 100 men named Thomas Carter in the 1840 federal census. That was far too many to quickly analyze. 

Factor 5. Surname not in scope. Since my surname focus was on the allied Lake family, I set Thomas aside and pretty much forgot about him and his wife. I did no in-depth research on the Carter family and never even validated the research of my cousins. That all went into the to-research-someday list. You know, the research list that never gets done!

This is not the only ancestor that I've placed in this particular blind spot, unfortunately. One reconciled itself several years ago, which was the first time I recognized this blind spot. I thought it wouldn't happen again -- I was wrong.

So family, keep reminding me to check those blind spots! For my other readers, is there anything hiding from you? Do you see patterns of missed research?

Your American Ancestral Map

 

How many US states and Canadian provinces are associated with your family history? The question was asked as a survey sent this week from the New England Historic Genealogical Society. It's an interesting question if your ancestors, like mine, have lived for many generations in North America and have migrated from place to place. I was surprised at the number of states where my ancestors were born, lived and/or died.

So I invite you to grab a map and your pedigree chart and follow the trails of your various ancestral branches. The NEHGS was specific in their survey about not counting cousin locations and not counting short stays, but rather having a real ancestral connection to a place. But your curiosity can take you wherever you like.

My total was 25 states, plus unexpected burials in a 26th state and in Mexico. Those burials are quite a permanent connection, but not exactly a family association. For several end of line ancestors, I know a state of birth or of residence, but nothing about their ancestors who lived and perhaps died in those states.

NEHGS, with their focus on New England, asked about Canadian provinces, but not Mexican states. That is an unfortunate omission, as the US truly is a melting pot. My grandchildren would add locations in New England, Canada and Mexico to their maps. 

I hope you are inspired to map your ancestral history -- here's mine.

 

Photo Connections -- Part Two

 

A reader/friend/cousin-by-marriage shared that she made a new connection by paying attention to profile photos:

When I read your post about profile pictures I thought it a little strange, something that had to be a very rare occurrence. However, it seems even stranger after I had the same thing happen to me yesterday.
     
I was cleaning up some of the records I had posted on Ancestry. ... On some of the records I was drawn to the profile picture of one of the people who had saved the record.

As so often happens, I wandered off on a tangent. I did not have death records for my ... 3rd great grandparents, so I was looking at one of their children on FindAGrave. Someone had left flowers and there was the same profile picture! That let me know that she was also working of this mystery branch of the family. That caused me to look more closely at the other people in the cemetery. And there was the stone of my great grandparents.

... I contacted the person, who it turns out is a cousin of this mystery branch. She said that the profile picture was of her favorite video game character.

How Many Profile Photos Have You Uploaded ?

As I went on my profile photo changing mission this weekend, it was surprising how many different family history websites I needed to check. 
 
Figuring out which photo to use is probably the hardest part of the process. Having just one photo to choose definitely means being able to move quickly through the sites to make the update. 

Including this blog, nine sites now have nearly matching profile photos. One broken site remains to be updated. There are also a couple of sites with subscriptions that are temporarily lapsed.  

Can you find a photo connection or can you be a photo connection for your cousins? Please join me in making sure your profile photos show your consistent, smiling face.
 

A Face Breaks a Brick Wall

 

You've put your profile photo on Facebook and other social media, but what about the genealogy sites that you use? Genealogy is often a collaborative effort -- another form of social media. Have you uploaded your profile photo to sites like Ancestry and MyHeritage? If so, do you use the same photo on all those sites?

I haven't done as well as I could, but was recently reminded of just how important that consistent profile photo can be. Thanks to a DNA match who uploaded the same photo to Ancestry and MyHeritage, one of my most challenging brick walls was demolished. It was that profile photo which grabbed my attention.

When you look at your DNA matches, which ones intrigue you? The matches with photos always lure me first, while the others are all just a forgettable blur. 

I was specifically looking for matches related to the surname Vosseler. One of my family testers (with a photo) has a MyHeritage match to a gentleman of that name who lives in Germany (with no photo). 

Looking at seven shared matches, there are five matches with triangulated segments (example boxed in red), which is an important clue. Two of the seven matches have profile photos.

 

 

 

 

The gentleman near the top looked familiar and the segment was triangulated with Mr. Vosseler. I had seen that photo on Ancestry DNA. Why had I seen it? This was an important match.

 

Going to the same family tester on Ancestry, I was able to find the man in the match list. He had the same photo, though the two sites show it a bit differently. The face was the same and there were far more shared matches on Ancestry, some with a much higher shared cM level.

 

Using the shared matches from Ancestry, I was able to identify a surname of interest, build a tree, and demolish the 20-year-old Vosseler brick wall.

 

Looking at these nine matches to the highest match, there are only two photos, the first being the face that broke the wall. 

 

 

Sadly, with both Ancestry and MyHeritage, there are very few profile photos in this entirely random look. 

The moral of the story? Upload a profile photo. Be a welcoming and consistent face to your matches and collaborators. 

There is a lot of advice online about good profile photos. I'll be updating mine soon. Will you join me?

 

A Family or A Drink

Does 21 days of family make you want a drink? What if the family is named the same as a drink? Does that call for a double? I'm not much of a drinker, but recent family research has me thinking a bit too much about alcohol.

Searching the web for members of the Martini family turns up a lot of lovely photos and recipes. Unfortunately, finding the people isn't quite as simple as finding the drink.

October 2020 brings us the 21-day Family Connections Experiment. It's encouragement to connect with family past and present. For me that includes blogging to connect the past and present and to toss out some cousin bait.

The Martini Connection

Katherine Vosseler Wittekind Martini is the ancestor of dozens of my cousins. She is a new DNA discovery that is the key to demolishing my long-standing Vosseler (Vossler) brick wall. I hope this brief sketch on her life will help me connect with some of her descendants, my cousins.

Katherina Vosseler was born on or about January 14, 1835, in Württemberg. I have found four different birthplaces for her, so will not speculate. The birthplace most often found in online trees is probably a misreading or misinterpretation of one of the other three records.

She immigrated to the United States, where the first confirmed record of her presence is the birth of a daughter, Mary Margaret Wittekind, in Kansas in September, 1858. There is a possible marriage to Mr. Wittekind in Ohio, but that is also speculative.

On August 16, 1860, Catherine Wittikind married John Martini in a civil ceremony in Leavenworth County, Kansas Territory. The Martinis soon moved to Missouri, where their oldest son was born in 1861. They were living in St. Louis by April, 1863, when their second son arrived. They moved to Centralia, Illinois, in 1873, where the last two of their children were born.

Katherine had at least one child that did not survive to adulthood; however, seven children did survive. They are:

1.  Margaret Mary Wittekind Brightfield, born September 18, 1858 in Kansas, died September 11, 1940 in St. Louis, Missouri
2.  John L Martini, born May 16, 1861 in Missouri, died January 08, 1936 in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois
3.  Henry Martini, born April 09, 1863 in St. Louis, Missouri, died April 01, 1936 in Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California
4.  Josephine Alphena Martini, born December 27, 1869 in St. Louis, Missouri, died January 07, 1937 in St. Louis, Missouri
5.  Anna J Martini, born December 17, 1871 in St. Louis, Missouri, died June 20, 1961 in Maplewood, St Louis County, Missouri
6.  Eugene Martini, born April 09, 1874 in Centralia, Marion County, Illinois, died August 30, 1963 in Springdale, Washington County, Arkansas
7.  Emma Martini, born April 28, 1878 in Centralia, Marion County, Illinois, died June 10, 1961 in Maplewood, St Louis County, Missouri

John Martini served the Union, from Missouri, during the Civil War. He operated saloons and boarding houses while living in St. Louis. After moving to Centralia, he opened a restaurant and bakery in the downtown business district. He was a sponsor of an 1881 county history book, which includes a few useful bits of information. 

1881 History of Marion and Clinton Counties

 

Katherine purchased three town lots in 1877, in Centralia, in her own name, as Illinois permitted a married woman to own property without her husband. This was unusual at the time. I speculate that, having been widowed young, she wanted to own property as a protection against a repeat occurrence.

By the time of the 1880 census, Katherine and John had taken into their household her much younger half-siblings, John and Mary Ellen Vosseler, who had been born in 1868 and 1870, respectively. The census taker spelled all the surnames incorrectly, leading to my years of difficulty in finding the Vosseler children and also hiding the census record from Martini researchers.

Katherine Martini died fairly young, in 1887, triggering probate in Marion County for her property. She was buried in the Martini family plot in New Picker's (Gatewood Gardens) Cemetery in St. Louis. John Jacob Martini died in the Soldier's Home in Leavenworth, Kansas, in 1909, and was buried in the same plot. 

Katherine's burial permit tells us her age, by which her birthdate can be calculated. It is an important clue in the search for Katherina Vosseler Martini. 

 

If you are a descendant of Katherine, please leave a reply or use the contact form on the right. I'd love to connect!

The Case of the Missing Matches

Soon many DNA matches will quietly vanish from our Ancestry DNA match lists. Will you miss any of your matches?

• I will miss Elaine, a 90-something woman who has amazing knowledge about the complex web of our German roots.
• I will miss Mandy, a young mother who may connect with either German or Swedish ancestry, but is a fun contact.
• I will miss Lou, an African-American man who is probably a descendant of my Alexander ancestors, slave owners in South Carolina.

I told you about Lou a year ago in The Case of the Missing DNA. Comparing notes from various DNA tests and web sites, Lou and I discovered that Ancestry had ignored about 10 cM of our matching DNA, placing our match at a low 8 cM.

Now Ancestry plans to drop matches that are under 8 cM. Will I keep Lou as a match? What matches will Lou miss? Will he be able to solve the mystery of his South Carolina roots?

It's a challenge for the descendants of enslaved persons to find ancestors before 1870. Loss of low-level matches will increase the difficulty of finding those distant cousins. In this time of racial enlightenment, Ancestry is moving in the wrong direction.

Instead of hiding matches and ignoring strands of DNA, Ancestry needs to improve their data science capabilities. Yes, as a data scientist, I understand that is easy to say and hard to do. It's time for Ancestry to do the hard work.