Monday Musings

So why did I start this blog anyway?

I think it goes back to who I am and the influences my family has had on me.  It also has to do with the many moves my family has made.  Then of course, there are the family reunions we went to when I was younger.

I was born in West Virginia, lived in Lory, WV for a couple of years (I don't remember it), then moved to North Carolina.  After a couple of years we moved back to West Virginia and lived in Danville.  From there we moved to Cedar Rapids, Iowa and then to Albuquerque, New Mexico, before coming back to Danville, WV.  All of these moves gave me a sense that I needed an anchor.  I found that anchor to be family.

Except when we lived in New Mexico, we would always go to the KEENER family reunion.  It was for the children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren of E. H. KEENER, my great grandfather.  He and his wife Nettie raised five girls and a boy.  Every year we would gather at my great aunt and uncle's house in Greenbank, West Virginia for a weekend of catching up.  It was great for us kids, too, because there were a lot of us and we were all about the same age.

I really miss those reunions.  We haven't had one in about 15 years or so.  I think the younger cousins who have never been to the reunion are missing something.  One of the highlights was always the "home movies".  It was fun to see our parents and grandparents when they were younger running around and carrying on.

So I guess genealogy is for me, a way to connect to those relatives and ancestors I have never met.  And this blog is hopefully a way I can stay connected.  What does genealogy mean to you?  Does your family hold reunions?

Why Not Add Everything?

A few years ago, my mother found some websites dedicated to the KEENER surname.  There are a lot of KEENERs up in our family tree, so it wasn't unusual that my mother was searching.  She copied out the information into three Word documents.  She said she did not have time to go through them and verify anything and emailed copies of them to me.

I looked them over at the time and found a KEENER that was familiar.  "Great!," I thought, "I can add this now."

Then I remembered something I learned at the Boone County Genealogical Society meetings when I first got interested in family history.

NEVER add to your tree if you can't document the fact for yourself.  It doesn't matter if you are handed a chart or file with tons of sources.  Someone, somewhere could have made a mistake, been in a hurry, made a typo, or in some cases even made up facts so the person "fit" into their tree.

I want my genealogical charts and research to be very well documented.  Not only because it helps prove I am related to the people I say I'm related to, but also, to leave behind a clear trail for other researchers and (hopefully) my children.

Be especially wary of "family tree files" you find at some sites on the web.  Most I have seen are not documented and have no sources for you to check the facts they are presenting.  While this may be good for opening up a new line of your own research, it is not good to just cut and paste it into your tree.

Some trees I have seen online show parents having children after they (the parents) have been dead many years.  Does that make sense to you?  I didn't think so.

Back to the KEENER documents my mother gave me.  I did not have a chance to really look them over thoroughly until this past week.  I don't think that two of them pertain directly to the KEENER line I am following.  The third looks to be a goldmine.  I may, once I have verified it, be able to take my branch of the KEENERs back three (yes, 3) generations.  And the best thing is the document has an extensive list of sources at the end -- a map to the goldmine.

When I add this information to my tree, you better bet my mother and the person who put up the web page will be getting credit in my documentation and source listings.

In the words of a former President: "Trust, but verify."

Talk About It

The second best source (see the best source here) for finding leads for you family tree is... your family.  Talk to them.  Ask them questions.  They may have information on certain relatives that you don't have.  Do it now.  You are getting older and so are they.

This has been one of the research areas in which I am a poor example.  Until now, I have based most of my current research on what I have found on the Internet and at libraries.  I know that many of my older relatives have information and stories.  I have, until now felt that is was a bit intrusive to ask family questions.  I am getting over that.  I am starting to get into contact with relatives I haven't seen in 15 or 16 years.

When talking with relatives about genealogy it is good to prepare ahead of time a list of questions to ask.  Make sure to record the conversation - either audio or video so you can remember what was talked about.  Don't worry if you get side tracked.  Sometimes those off the subject topics tie into your family history.  Don't try to get answers to all your questions.  Leave something for the next time.

Once you have finished the conversation and are back home you will need to do two things.  Make a transcription so you know what information you have.  Then look for questions you did not get to ask, questions for which you did not get a clear answer, and new questions raised by the conversation.

Make sure you thank the relative and offer a copy of the audio or video and the transcription.  Also, see if you can set up another conversation to talk about your new set of questions.

As an alternate, you could have your conversation either by email or Facebook.  While both are good for a question/answer format and allows time for the person you are talking with to think about the questions, be careful not to overwhelm them with too many questions at once.

Who knows, maybe your conversations will spark something and you will get information about your relatives you didn't know still existed.

Start asking questions now.  Before it is too late.

Library Resources

One of the best resources you have is your local public library.  Most have some kind of genealogy room.  Some even host the local genealogical society.

The three libraries I am most familiar with are the ones I will talk about today.  They are the Boone-Madison Public Library, Ritchie County Public Library, and Martinsburg Berkeley County Public Library.

Boone-Madison Public Library is a special place for me.  It is the place I first found others looking into their family trees.  And as it happened they were looking at different branches of my tree.  I learned the basics of genealogy there.  The library is also home to the Boone County Genealogical Society, the group I went to when I first started.  They were, and are, a bunch of knowledgeable, helpful people.

Ritchie County Public Library moved into a new building last year.  The have a nice "genealogy room" on the second floor.  They mostly have local genealogy items, but they do have a pretty good selection of West Virginia historical books.  I even found a book on Pocahontas County there that has some of my relative in it.  If you need documents from the courthouse, it is only about 3 blocks away.  So if your are in Ritchie County, it is a good place to make your base.

This leaves my current local library, Martinsburg Berkeley County Public Library.  Both the library itself and it's online resources make it a good tool for genealogical research.  They have a nice genealogical/WV history room and a fairly large selection of books about West Virginia.  They have a library subscription to Ancestry.com that you can use on a PC in the library if you have a library card.  Using your library card you can also access Heritage Quest's US Census database and images even from home.  The library also has a link to WV Info Depot, which allows free access to archived newspapers in West Virginia, the US and some foreign papers as well.  Contact me if you want the ID and password, or better yet, go to your local library in West Virginia and ask them for it.

The library is one of the best and cheapest sources for a genealogist, not only in the information they contain, but in the work space they provide.  And happy, helpful librarians done hurt either.

Millie NELSON found!

When I first got interested in genealogy, my Mother told me about the story of Millie Nelson.

Apparently Millie, who was not married, came up from North Carolina with her brother Joe, her three children, and a bunch of other Nelson relatives sometime in the 1830's.  Talk about scandal!  This was extremely scandalous for the time period and for the family.

Of course, I wanted to know more, enquiring minds and all that.  So I borrowed my Mother's copy of the "Branches of Turtle Creek" by W. W. Nelson and started reading.  Not much more information was available.

 "About 1838, it seems, a whole colony of Nelsons and near relatives came up from North Carolina to what is now Boone County -- but what relation each one was to the other is a question that no one seems to be able to answer."

It goes on to talk about the brothers and then it talks about Millie.  With no mention of a husband, it talks about her seven children and a bit about each one.  Nothing too scandalous there.

Flash forward about 40 years.  I recently saw my aunt at my step-father's funeral.  At the dinner afterward, she turned to me and said, "I found Millie."
I sat there for a few seconds and about 3 different Millies ran through my brain.  I asked, "Millie Olden?"
And she said, "No, Millie Nelson."
I asked her where she had found the information and she said from a website.  I asked her to send me the link.

I went to the house that night and did a web search on Millie Nelson.  The last time I had searched was about seven years ago and did not find anything.  Right off the bat I found not one, but two websites.

The first was a forum for the Genealogy(.)com site.  It listed Millie, her children, her brothers, and... her parents and grandparents in the Nelson line.  They had indeed come from North Carolina!

The source listed for this site was the second site I had found in my web search.  I found it to be well organized, apparently well sourced, and full of information.

Of course I copied down the information and the sources to check.  I didn't just copy and paste the new information into my tree.  (More on why in a future post.)  I am now in the process of going through and verifying the sources for the information.  I don't want errors creeping into my tree.  If it all holds together, then I will have taken back the Nelsons two more generations than I currently have.  I also have some ideas for sources that would add to the information I found.

A week after the funeral, my aunt got home and emailed me the link she promised.  It was the same as the second site I found in my search.

Just because you looked for something and didn't find it, doesn't mean the information isn't out there.  It just means you didn't find it.  Look through your family tree and see if you have a "brick wall" you haven't looked at in a while.  Check again, you may be pleasantly surprised.

If you have any questions or comments, or if you find you are related to me, I would love to hear from you.  Leave a comment or send me an email.

See Ya Later!

My Current Most Used Site

Welcome (or welcome back) to Mountain Roots.

Today I am going to write about my favorite vital records site.  Anyone care to guess what it is?

It is a vital (excuse the pun) resource for anyone looking up family history information in West Virginia.  And the best thing about it is it's free!

I am talking about the West Virginia Vital Records Search Page maintained by West Virginia Archives and History.  I am almost always using it.  I am amazed at what I can find there and am equally amazed that the fine folks in our State government provide it to everyone.

The site is basically a database of births, marriages, and deaths in West Virginia.  Each record in the database is linked to an image.  For births, the image is usually a whole page from the county's birth record book.  Death record's images are usually from the county's death record book.  Frequently there is an image of the actual death certificate as well.  In a lot of cases, the older marriage records in some counties are the "old timey" full or half page marriage record.

If you have as many West Virginia ancestors as I do it is virtually one-stop shopping.  (Did I mention the site is free?)


Once you have found the record you are looking for, you can save the image to your computer.  Don't forget to document the search terms you used and the URL of the image, so you can look them up later.  I have a folder on my computer that is full of ancestor's records I have not added to my tree or documented fully yet.



There are a couple of issues with this site.  I don't consider them major issues, but I think you should know what they are anyway.

Almost all of the images are formatted in such a way that when you try to print them out, the image is squished and distorted.  I have not found this a big issue because I am more interested with the information contained in the images and transcribing the information.  The images on your screen will be large and detailed.

The other issue is that the database is not always accurate.  But you will find this issue in just about any genealogical database.  The issue comes down to trying to decipher the old and sometimes faded handwritten records into names, dates, and places.  But if you are really into genealogy, this is the kind of thing you love.  Trying to puzzle out who, where, and when is a lot of fun.

Remember, this site does not list all births, marriages, and deaths in West Virginia.  For privacy reasons, they have limited the years in their database.  The cut-off years are different for births, marriages, and deaths.  There is also some difference in what years each county covers.  See the site for a listing of what records are available for what counties in what years.

For the records it does contain, it sure beats a trip to multiple county courthouses.  If you need help with this site or some tips, please let me know, I would be happy to help.

Let me know what you think of the site!

First Things First

OK, so you want to start finding out where and how people fit on your family tree.  You don't need to find a book at the library, you don't need to log on to the internet, and you don't have to pay money to one of those "Book about your Surname" books you see advertised.  Amazingly enough all you need is paper and a pencil or pen.

Your family tree search begins where it should begin, with you and your family.  Yes, you are your first resource.  Just sit down and write out the facts you know.  When and where you were born.  What are the names of your parents?  Do you have siblings?  Write them down, too.  Did your family move while your were growing up?  List the places you lived and the approximate time you lived there.  Remember, if you don't have all the answers now, that is OK.  Just mark them for researching later.

Now, list, if you know, where and when your siblings were born.  List when and where your parents were born.  Then start on your grandparents.  You probably know more than your think.  Continue listing parent's siblings and grandparent's siblings if you know them.  Do you know any of your great-grandparent?  Write them down, too.

Have you amazed yourself at how much you remember?  Look over what you have written down.  Do you see anything you don't know?  Are there any gaps?  Make a list of the things you don't know.  Things like:  What was my father's mother's maiden name?  What is the name of my mother's oldest brother?

Congratulations, you now have the beginnings of your family tree.  And you even have your first list of things to research.  Over weeks and months to come, I will be sharing what to do with what you have written and where you can go to find the answers you are looking for.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave a comment for me or send me an email.

Surname Listing is Up

I put my list of Surnames up.  There is a link near the top of the left hand column.  So far I have sixty-eight different surnames listed.  I will be updating as I find more to add.   If one of them is yours, I wouldn't mind hearing from you.

Welcome to Mountain Roots

Hi, my name is Leigh Ervine.  I have been interested in genealogy for most of my life.  I think I first got the "bug" when I was about 10 years old and have been pursuing it on and (mostly) off ever since.

Through the years I have made some progress in extending my family tree back a few generations.  Along the way I picked up a few tricks and tips I will be passing on to you.

I expect to update this blog at least once a week, but probably more frequently.

If you are just beginning your search or if you have spent the past 50 years stuck at a "brick wall", maybe something you see here will give you a spark.

This blog will not get very far without readers and collaborators.  I have some ideas on where I think this blog should go.  But I welcome and encourage your ideas too.  You are very much urged to ask questions, make suggestions, tell a story, and collaborate.  We are all working towards the same goal.

If you are coming here to find quick answers to your genealogical questions, you have probably come to the wrong place.  Genealogy takes some time, even when aided by software and the Internet.  You will not find my family tree here online.  I like my privacy.  I will share my family tree with those who are researching the same family or if we have a possible common ancestor.

You will find a list of Surname and Locations I either have already researched or am currently researching listed on the Surnames Page found in the left hand column.  (Currently working on it.  It will be up shortly.  It is up now.)

You will find helpful links to genealogical sites in the right hand column. They will be put up as I talk about them here on the blog.  If you have a favorite let me know.

You will find genealogical blogs and a short list of my other blogs listed in the left hand column.  These blogs will be listed as I talk about them.  These blogs will either be about genealogy in general or genealogy in West Virginia.

If you don't see your favorite genealogy site or genealogy blog listed, send me a comment or email.

EXPLORE, QUESTION, SUGGEST!  I look forward to hearing from you.