At the beginning of the month, I had the opportunity to present with another member of my local genealogy society to a local breakfast club. Our topic was “Getting Started With Researching Your Family.” During the presentation I realized I do not have any of my ancestors added to my watchlist in FamilySearch.
Last week, after adding all direct ancestors and their siblings to my watchlist on FamilySearch, I was taking a look at the family of John F. Flock and Amner Caroline Ramsey. I noticed that I did not have death dates for several of their daughters. The shiny blackhole was calling my name again.
Did I jump in? Of course! I started by reviewing each daughter’s details page. The key was to notice that Laura Flock had marriage information added by another researcher. Using the married name, I was able to locate a gravestone on FindAGrave. I was excited to see Laura’s memorial page had been linked to some of her siblings. I suddenly had married names for several of the other daughters.
Along with many new facts to add to the family tree, there was an obituary added to the memorial page at FindAGrave for Elsie Clara Flock. The obituary stated that Elsie and her husband had moved to Fall River, Kansas about 1910. And it all started to make sense!!
I had always wondered why Effie Flock and Abraham Strickler had moved to Fall River, Kansas. Now I have a clue, Effie and her family moved at the same time as her little sister, Elsie, and Elsie’s family. I am still not sure what enticed the families to move such a distance. Maybe someday that little piece of information will float to the surface.
Effie and her daughters left Fall River only a couple of years later after Abraham passed away. Elsie remained in Fall River, Kansas until her husband passed away in 1938. Elsie then moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado.
I started by adding people to my watchlist to see what facts were getting added/changed to people I am related to. I ended up adding more information because another researcher had done just that. The one marriage fact opened up a whole can of new facts about the family. I have heard people voice concerns about others being able to make changes in FamilySearch. This is just another example of why it is a great idea. Distant cousins have different information then I do, together we can paint the fuller picture of our ancestors.
“I have heard people voice concerns about others being able to make changes in FamilySearch.”
And that’s why my family has people in it that I’ve never heard of and that I can’t find any reason for them to have been added. Never on a census, never a birth, marriage, location, death for them. Some were spouses, not children and their parents surely were not a part of my ancestor tree. The familysearch trees are the most messed up mess I have ever seen.