Lineage Society - Hooray! The Gold Nugget

Hooray! I finally got a break on my grandfather's records. I had tried everything to find one piece of documentation that held all my grandfather's information. The death certificate was blank with no parents listed. The marriage application gave the mother's wrong last name. No birth record could be found for him in any county where he lived. His obituary gave his mother's wrong first name. So I had wracked my brain - what other piece of documentation could I get that would give me the information that I needed? Suddenly it occurred to me - his social security application! That would be the one piece of paper that he would have had to fill out himself. That would be the one government document that would still be available to obtain with just a little effort.

So I got it two weeks ago. After I opened it I did my own little happy dance right there in the post office parking lot. I was elated all week. It gave his full name as George Allen Dunn, address R.R. 4, Nashville, Ind., age 38, born Oct. 28, 1898 in Boone County, Ind. His father's name was George M. Dunn and his mother was Rose E. Ferguson. It was signed in his own handwriting (I recognized his handwriting) on June 4, 1937. It looked like two people had filled it out because some of it was printed and some of it was in cursive, but I know he had to have had direct imput on this document.

I didn't know that Social Security dated back that far - 1937. I'll keep this information for future use. I may be able to use it again for another ancestor's records. Now I can proceed forward on my application for Jefferson County First Families membership. This document was well worth the wait. Time to get back to my notebook to see which piece of documentation I'm going to have to look for next. One note, I received another copy of the same document a week later. Looks like they were making sure it got sent out.

Off to See the Wizards [of Genealogy]!

Hopefully we'll get to meet some new attendees from those of you that are going to the Indiana Genealogical Society's Annual Conference this Saturday, April 27. I try to attend every year hoping that the great genealogy wizards that be are going to bestow some new knowledge on me. Maybe as in the Wizard of Oz they will give us some great gift of wisdom to help us become better researchers. This year it is close to my home of Brown County, Indiana so I am really excited to go. This year's featured speaker is D. Joshua Taylor from the NBC television series, "Who Do You Think You Are?" I always look forward to hearing from a new speaker, a new perspective.

I have heard a few comments from those that have decided not to attend. To them I always respond that "you can never stop learning." Some of the titles could be presented a little more interestly, and many times that has helped me pick which session to attend. If a session title sounds particularly interesting I almost always pick that one. I've even attended sessions that I didn't think I would ever use just so I could further my own education.

So my collegues and I hope to see you there. If you happen to be driving down to Bloomington by way of Brown County be sure to enjoy our beautiful scenery and our little historic town of Nashville.

Lineage Society - More Document Problems

George A. Dunn and oldest child, Lucille ca. 1923

Another round of problems have surfaced with grandfather's records. For years I've tried to find a birth record for him. He was supposedly born in Hamilton County, Indiana on October 20, 1898. The neighboring counties were also checked: Boone and Tipton. The Dunn family was known to have lived in northwestern Hamilton County between Sheridan and Cicero so it was wise to check those two counties. If a doctor attended the birth he could have come from either of those areas too. The problem also came up with another one of his siblings so I'm assuming it was a home birth with no doctor attending.

Okay, so I don't have a birth record. What other records would be good to give a birth date and parents' names. There is the marriage record and the death record; these would be the next best alternatives. Going to get a copy of grandpa's death record was another big let down. It did give his birthdate so that would help. The problem was that the parents information was left blank. I thought in modern day America all information was required to be filled in on a death record. Grandpa died in 1978 in Bartholomew County. Isn't it required to have all this information on a death record?

The next record to try for was Grandpa's marriage record. He would have filled that in himself, and surely he would know who his parents were. So I made the trip to Johnson County, Indiana. On the marriage application it read George Allen Dunn to Goldie Edith Roberts. The birthdate was there. Okay, that's another piece of evidence for the birthdate. Reading on down Grandpa gave his father's name as George M. Dunn. Okay, that was right. Then he gave his mother as Rosa Woods. What! I well knew her last name was Ferguson. Where did he get Woods? I guess he could have been a little nervous before the nuptials and all of a sudden forgot his mother's name. Was it possible that the bride-to-be filled in the information and she just got it wrong. Grandpa, you're not helping!


Goldie Dunn and baby son, Vonda ca. 1923

Next let's try the obituary. Someone in the family most likely gave that information so maybe all the information I need will be there. So I trucked on over to the Johnson County library to look at newspaper microfilm. Looking for that ONE piece of information that I need maybe the obituary will be it. Reading on down the obituary it gave his birthdate and a birthplace, Boone County. Well, that will help. At last, a birthplace is stated in writing. Now for the parents - the father was stated as Mose Dunn. Mose was George M. Dunn's nickname, that will do. And, I do have his father's correct name on the marriage record. The mother's name was stated as Loretta Ferguson. Now what! Where did the name, Loretta, come from? Why is it so hard to find his mother's correct name? I've never came across so many errors and ommissions on any one person as Grandpa Dunn's records. You would think it would be harder to get information before the 1900s. I guess I'll have to treat this one the same way as Rose Etta Ferguson's records. I'll have to use all these records and try to explain the discrepancies on my application for the First Families of Jefferson County.

Then, I had another idea come to me. I do my best thinking in the morning it seems while I'm driving to work or cleaning house. What other documents could I find that would give me the information I needed? I need a document that Grandpa would have filled out himself. I need a document that requires complete information - a government document of some sort. Then it came to me - a document I have ordered only one time before, but it solved another big genealogy problem. I had gotten this document for another grandparent in the past that had a mysterious past and it helped to solve the mystery. I looked on-line. How can I order a Deceased Person's Social Security Application (form SSA-711)? I looked on Ancestry.com and got my Grandpa's social security death information. The link on Ancestry did not lead me directly to a place where I could order the application. So I clicked on Google and did the search. Now I just have to wait. I'm a little excited - please Grandpa I hope you got this one right! It may take a few weeks, but I need this document so I can wait patiently. I'll let you known how it turns out, keep your fingers crossed!

Lineage Society - Document Discrepancies

Rose Etta Ferguson-Dunn

I finally took a day to go collect documents for my immediate family. I started early on a Wednesday morning and set my trip meter on my car. I was curious as I started out my day as to how many miles I would end up driving for the day. I covered a four county area of Brown, Johnson, Shelby, and Bartholomew in central Indiana. From my checklist of 40 documents to collect I already had most of them from previous years of doing research on my Ferguson family. The only ones I still needed to get were for my immediate family. I still needed my father’s birth certificate, two of my grandparents’ death certificates, and one great grandmother’s death certificate. The reason I had never gotten hers is that I had seen the information a few years back and it was incorrect. So now I need to decide if I can use this as a form of proof for something else – maybe her birthdate or proof of a burial place.

Here is my dilemma. Rose Etta Dunn’s documentation has been sketchy at best. According to her obituary in Johnson County she “was born at Madison in 1865 and had moved to Johnson county nearly twenty years ago living for fifteen years in and near Trafalgar.” It named her children one of which was my grandfather, George Dunn, of Johnson County. There were no other details about her husband, her other residences, or her parents. From that I had to find out who her husband was and where were they married. I did have some information from her other children about her husband and where they lived before coming to Johnson County. There was no marriage record for her in Johnson or Jefferson Counties. So the next thing to do was to get her death certificate.

Her death record gave sketchy information.
Age 64, spouse George Dunn, died August 4, 1928, buried at Greenlawn Cemetery in Franklin. Her father was David Ferguson and the mother was unknown. By this time I had found that her father was John B. Ferguson from her marriage record so the last name was correct but not the first. She did have an uncle by that name though.

For her marriage record I had previously written to Hamilton County Library’s Genealogist to see if they had any info on this family. They very graciously mailed me a huge envelope filled with goodies on my family. One of these was Rose Etta Ferguson
S and George Dunn’s marriage record. Their marriage record (application) stated his name was George M. Dunn of Sheridan and gave his full information. For Rose Etta hers said her name was Rosette Furguson, she was 26, and of Sheridan also. Her father’s name was John B. Furguson and her mother was Lida Lowell. George and Rosette were married on Feb. 18, 1892. Another page was from another marriage book that showed the marriage license information. This page was very enlightening. I had never been able to connect Rose Etta back to Jefferson County with any parents in the census until I got this one. At the top of the page it read George M. Dunn to Lusetta Ferguson. At the bottom they both signed their names as G. M. Dunn and Rosette Ferguson. That was a shock, no wonder I couldn’t find her. Did she change her name? Did she just not like the name Lusetta and prefer to be called Rosetta? The name Rose Etta or Rosetta is the name she had gone by all her life except for the time she lived in Jefferson County. So now I ponder what her full name was – was it Rose Lusetta Ferguson – maybe Etta was short for Lusetta? Or maybe she just didn’t like Lusetta and just started using Rosetta instead.


George and Rosetta's Marriage Record

These two marriage documents were the best proof to link her to her parents back in Jefferson County. So now the question is what do I do with her death certificate? Do I use it and attach an explanation with my First Families application? Should I not even include it so I won’t confuse the application people? Would it be best to include all her documents and explain the discrepancies. Would this help to improve my overall application for First Families? That would probably be the best route to go, but I’ll have some thinking to do. By the way at the end of my day I had logged over 119 miles- yikes!

Lineage Society - Records Survey

George A. Dunn (left) holding Lucille, Smyser boy, George's wife, Goldie holding Vonda, and other Smyser children - Trafalgar, Indiana.

I'm going to use this blog as a journal to detail my journey to become a member of a local lineage society, "Jefferson County, Indiana First Families." Last blog post I gave an overview of what I wanted to do. Now I'm going to get started by surveying what records I already have and what records I still need to get. I found an old 3 ring binder that I wasn't using and put in some tab dividers - one for each generation of ancestor. They start with me, then my father, Vonda, then third is my grandfather, George Allen Dunn, fourth is my great grandmother, Rose Etta Ferguson, fifth is her father and my ggreat grandfather, John B. Ferguson, and finally his father, Joel Ferguson. I thought about adding another tab for John B. Ferguson's wife, Lydia Ann Lovell, and her father Jonathan Lovell. Jonathan came to Jefferson County about the same time as Joel Ferguson. I still may do that later on. For now I'm going to concentrate on the Ferguson line.


Next, I made a checklist of what documents I need to get together. I'll need a birth and a death record of some sort for each person. Then finally I'll need to get land documents to prove where and when Joel Ferguson first settled in Jefferson County. Birth and death records are relatively easy to get for the later generations. My father recently passed so I have a death record for him. My grandfather's death record can be gotten from the county he died in so that will be my next task. As for a birth record for dad, I don't have that one either so I'll have to get that one. My grandfather, George, doesn't have a birth record because I had already tried to find that years ago. He was born in Hamilton County and they had no record for his birth. I had already checked in the neighboring counties, Boone and Tipton, and found none there either. I can probably use his death record as an alternate record of his birthdate.



The next generation, Rose Etta Ferguson was born in 1864 before Indiana required Births to be recorded so I'll have to come up with an alternate source such as her death record or marriage application. I already have both of those. The same goes for John B. Ferguson. He was born in 1817, so I can probably use his death record to get his birthdate from. As for Joel Ferguson he died in 1869 so that puts both and birth and death records before the Indiana requirement. So I'll have to use alternate forms of documentation for his dates also.

Next, I'll have to get together land records for Joel Ferguson which I had already done a few years back. I started to gather all the documents I have and pulled them from my files. They'll go in the 3 ring binder. I also put the checklist in the very front of the binder so I can check off what records that I have already put in the binder. The ones I still need to find will be on the checklist unmarked until I get them. Alternate documentation can be gotten from burial/cemetery records, obituaries, census records, marriage records, etc. I can make a note of that on my checklist as I go. I know in the early years of my genealogy research I was a little lax at documenting my sources. I'll need to make sure I have a source noted on the documents I already have. Time to get to work.

Lineage Society - Ferguson line

John B. Ferguson - Olive Branch Cemetery

Well, I've finally succumbed! I always looked upon Lineage Societies as a waste of my time. I saw no benefit in it to me as a genealogist. Now I'm going to go through the application process for the main purpose of getting my family published at least in the local Genealogy Society. I have one family line that I can say is one of my more favorite familys to do research on. My Ferguson line from Jefferson County, Indiana was one of my real research ventures and I learned a lot in the process. I also think that going through this application process, compiling my records, and putting together my presentation will be another good learning experience. It will be a good test to see if I have been doing my documentation the way it should be done. I already have most of my records together when I did the research on my Ferguson a few years ago. Now when I start reviewing all my records I'll soon be able to tell if I really am prepared or if I'll have to start over.

The Jefferson County Genealogical Society offers a program called "The First Families Program" for those who want to prove that their ancestors was one of the early settlers to that county. They have three options and the first of which I'm going to try for is 'Frontier Family. I have shared with other Ferguson researchers my research on the Fergusons over the years. I have most of my documentation already collected on the earliest ancestors in that line. Now all I have to do is go back and get together records on my later ones such as my father and his father; something I had neglected to do in my great hurry to see how far back I could go. My line of ascent past my dad goes as such: my grandfather - George Dunn, my greatgrandmother - Rose Etta Ferguson, my gg grandfather - John B. Ferguson, my ggg grandfather - Joel Ferguson.



Joel Ferguson was born abt. 1772 in Virginia, died Sept. 21, 1869 in Jefferson Co., Indiana and is buried in the Demaree Cemetery. He came to Jefferson County via Shelby County, Kentucky abt. 1815. I need to prove that Joel Ferguson was in Jefferson County by 1820 - that will be the thing I need to prove. He is in Switzerland County, Indiana in the 1820 census. All I need to find out is if that part of Switzerland County later became a part of Jefferson County. Joel Ferguson first married in 1815 to Peggy Hannis, a widow of Charles Rogers. Then by 1816 they were supposedly in Switzerland County when their son, James was born. Joel hadn't purchased any land so I don't have a deed to fall back on. Peggy died sometime around 1820-21. On January 6, 1822 Joel Ferguson married a second time to Mary Ann 'Polly' Booth. They had nine children. It was with this second marriage that Joel and Polly got their land grant.

Unfortunately that is too late to use as proof of residence before 1820. The second option that the "First Families Program" offers is the category 'Founding Family' which you only need to prove residency by 1860. at the very least I will try for that one with the intent on going all the way back to 1820. This is going to be a lot of work, but it might be fun! You can check on the program at their website: www.jeffersoncountygenealogicalsociety.org

Investigating an Incorrect Obituary - George M. Dunn

George Monroe Dunn

An obituary is only as correct as the information that was reported by a third party. If you ever have to write an obituary please don't forget every member of the family even if you don't particularly like the person. What you put in writing will be there for an eternity. With the recent passing of my father an incorrect obituary was printed in one of our local newspapers. The paper did print a correct one a few days later, but that first information that was put out is still in everyone's mind that first read it. It named me and my sister as stepdaughters to our father, when in reality we were both adopted by both our parents. Also, his wife of 50 years was completely omitted. This is especially harmful for genealogists - we need the correct information. Maybe in 20 years or more when we are both gone, someone will find this obituary and wonder "who was his wife?" Then they'll have to go through all the trouble to look for a marriage record. Then they'll see the marriage date and wonder again "how did these girls become stepdaughters to this man?"

This problem also came about a few years ago when I found my great-grandfather's obit.
“January 9, 1933 - Noblesville Daily Courier.
ANOTHER CIVIL WAR VETERAN DIED SUNDAY - George M. Dunn, one of the last civil war veterans of Hamilton county, died Sunday morning at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Mary Hatfield, in Cicero., with whom he had been living for several months, at the age of eighty-seven . . . He served three years in the civil war . . . his death leaves less than thirty-five of these veterans still living in the county . . . The deceased spent most of his early life in the vicinity of Boxleytown. His wife died many years ago. He is survived by the following children: Mrs. Mary Hatfield, Mrs. Maggie Scott Miller both of Cicero, Mrs. Josephine Adair of Riverside, Calif.; Fred Dunn, of Maywood, Calif.; and Charles Dunn, of Indianapolis.”



I had heard stories from family members that George had outlived three wives. So here it was - his obit, great grandpa George had been married before and here were the names of his other children. I know I had the right family from all the other evidence I had collected. I relayed all this information to my father and he said he remembered having an uncle Charles. Dad used to go visit him in the summers when he maintained a vegetable stand at the old Farmer’s Market in Indianapolis. But I don’t know why his family back in Johnson county had been left out of the obituary like they were never a part of George’s life. The obit never named the other wife that he had survived either.

There were clues here, but a lot of work had to be done to fill in all the holes. There were birth records to be found on all the children - whose names were given as their parents? There were marriage records to be collected - maybe they would help fill in some of the gaps? Where were these other people buried, where did they live, did any of them keep in contact with their half brothers and sisters? Then there would be questions that would probably never be answered such as why were all the other children and other wives omitted? This one took a while to investigate, but at least the few clues that it left gave me something to start on. Omissions are the hardest to find and correct. So if you find yourself in a position to create an obituary please make it correct to the best of your ability.