Last time, we looked at an orphaned genealogy profile I found (and adopted) on WikiTree. The poor man's tree didn't even exist really - just his name (Luther Cogwell Whittlesey) and dates and those of his wife. I plan to fix this.
So, from my search results, I feel very confident that we can round out his tree very nicely and maybe tie him into my own lineage. (With both Cogswells and Whittleseys going a long ways back.)
Entering Family Search results...
Because of the cool way WikiTree did the search, I didn't have to do a whole lot - I was quite impressed. But you can still see how things searched on the left...
Note: Even though we knew the birth year of Luther, we still give a healthy spread around it on Family Search to hopefully take into account errors and estimates. It also included his wife in the searches.
We have a large number of results that are very promising. It also suggests that his middle name is Cogswell, so very suggestive that he's related to that lineage as well - increasing the chances that he's related to me.
So, let's open the top search result. (I open it in a new tab so that I don't have to repeat the search.
This is a death record which includes his son's name as well as his wife's name (confirmation that we have the right people.) If I click on the image, I will get to look at the actual information. (Sometimes, there are extra bits of interesting information in there.)
Sometimes, from this page, it's a little difficult to work out who it was who died, but as I look at the record, I realize it was the son's death certificate.
This certificate will help me enormously in starting to piece together this man's genealogy.
So, let's stick our new information into the profile at WikiTree.
Adding a Person
First, I'm going to add this child to Luther's profile. From his page, I click on "edit" then "add child" (on the right-hand side of the screen on PC - scroll down a bit to find it on smaller screens.)
When I click on this, it opens a new tab for me to add this child...
Option A is only needed if you already have a WikiTree profile number for the person being added. I'm sure I'll run into one of those for you at some point.
Option B is for everyone else.
Although some of the information fields aren't in the most logical order, there is a method to this madness as well - in that WikiTree then attempts to discover whether there's someone in the database already which closely matches your new person. In Luther, the son's case, there wasn't an obvious match, but I'll almost certainly run into one of those later.
Scroll down and fill in the remaining fields (as you can) including a source.
You'll note that the location fields do an excellent job of narrowing down the location. I've (thus far) only found a couple of locations where I had to make a better note on the profile, so it's pretty good.
The part I've highlighted at the bottom right of the above image is the source - as copied off the Family Search record. This is what you want for the "source" in the profile.
You ideally want certificates for birth, marriage and death at the minimum. ("Hatches, matches and dispatches" in genealogist lingo.) Censuses are awesome sources of information as are obituaries and any newspaper article concerning your family.
Adding Information
Now that Luther Cogswell Whittlesey's son (Luther Joseph) has been added, we need to make sure all three of the relevant people for this record have the appropriate information on their profile.
On Luther Cogswell Whittlesey's profile page, I (again) select "edit" and start adding the information from this death certificate. There's no amazing new information about the older generation, so I just put the source in the references section of the profile edits for both Luther and his wife, since they're both mentioned.
All of the profile text areas are set up the same way - bio info above and references at the bottom. It keeps it tidy. I'm trying to keep my sources in chronological order, though sometimes that's hard (as we'll see later on the Ancestry source citations.)
Finally, before you add the changes, say why you made them... Here, I have highlighted my explanation - the death certificate of the son. It will help others in the future understand your changes and how trustworthy your source might have been. Death certificates are pretty much considered definite proof - though sometimes information, like a mother's maiden name, has been long forgotten.
So, now I save my changes and add the info to the other people listed... noticing that I have a bonus piece of info on the actual certificate itself... Luther Joseph's son's name - as well as Luther's occupation. And this is how the family is pieced back together.
After I added Joe, his family tree looks like this:
That's just from one good record.
I'll add everything else I find that looks good from Family Search - just on Luther Cogswell Whittlesey.
Where I am now...
Before I started on this task, there were no descendants and no ancestors... nothing except a single couple living in Texas.
I did see a possible census hit for Luther before he married, but I want to see another connection to his parents first, especially being that they were not from Texas. Saying that, if this connection is correct, it's even more likely that he's a relative of mine as it gets closer to where my Whittlesey and Cogswell ancestors were living.
Next time, we'll continue with some of my Ancestry results... let's see if we can find some census records.
Cover image from PxHere. Screen shots taken from my own research.
Past Issues
| Issue No. | Subject |
|---|---|
| 1 | Why do Genealogy? |
| 2 | What to do or not do in your genealogy & a note about literacy |
| 3 | Sweden: patronymic names and church books |
| 4 | Happy-go-clicky - Just say NO!!! |
| 5 | Records - Not Created Equal |
Lori Svensen
author/designer at A'mara Books
photographer/graphic artist for Viking Visual
(Buy my work at RedBubble, TeePublic, PicFair and DeviantArt.)
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(Buy my books at Books2Read and at LBRY)
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