My Custom IDs...or Lack There of...to the Rescue

When I started using RootsMagic, I decided that I needed to start with a new wing of my family so that I would really learn to use the software well. I started from scratch with my Murphy family. As is my usual practice, I added a user-defined fact (LDOF) so that I could use my custom IDs:

Here's the breakdown of the custom ID:
Living = Living people
Lurk = People born 1940 or earlier (I set up Google alerts looking for obits.)
D = Dead but I don't have an obit or a Find A Grave memorial
O = Dead and I have an obit but no Find A Grave memorial
F = Dead and I have found a Find A Grave memorial but I have no obit

FO is the ideal state. Every entry in the database has a custom ID added. I use the ID to figure out what I should be searching for when looking at a given entry in the database. Click here to see more about how I create and use custom IDs.

As happens to all researchers from time to time, I went down a false path. The family name was Littlejohn. In my usual overachieving manner, I had managed to track down obits and added additional spouses names. By the time I figured out that I had the wrong name, I had added quite a few people. I thought, "Ugh, how am I gonna find them all?" I flipped to my list view (People tab in RootsMagic) and voila...I was missing a custom ID for every person I had added! I usually add the custom IDs as one of my last steps when I add people to my database.

In this instance, I could click the LDOF column heading to sort database entries by custom ID and get everybody in the Littlejohn group in one part of the list...because they had no custom IDs. As I deleted based on family heads, I could look at the list and watch as the Littlejohn group got smaller and smaller.

Using the custom IDs have always allowed me to focus my research efforts but I never envisioned the opposite holding true; that is, the lack of IDs could be used to make changes--in this case, a correction--too.



Staying Connected Pays--Hinerman Update

When we last left Catherine Agnes (McKinley) Hinerman, I had requested a death certificate. Requesting the certificate was the suggestion of a kindly stranger, who sent me the address for an ordering spot. The objective was to see if the certificate included the name of the cemetery where Catherine is buried. It did!

You can find Catherine's memorial on Find a Grave (76781021).

So with a little hint and $9.00, I was able to change Catherine's custom ID from O for obituary to FO for Find A Grave and obituary. If you missed the posts about the custom ID field, I use a series of IDs in a custom ID field that my software includes to help me target my searches.

A new use for the custom ID

I've written before about using a custom ID in my genealogy software (PAF). I've discovered a new use!

I've been in a lull lately. I've been picking up bits and pieces while searching, but nothing that would cause me to write a blog entry. So I decided I'd start at the top of my list and start posting bios for some of the people in my database. One of my stated purposes for the blog is to post bios for each person in my database. Well in any list, the people without last names, that is, the women who married into the family, are at the top of the list. I started with Agnes (Mrs. Howard Ashworth Blair) adding information based on her husband Howard Ashworth Blair.

After I completed the post, I realized that I had no way to tell who in my database had a basic bio on my blog. I immediately reverted to my custom ID field and added a B (blog) for each person that was included in the Howard Ashworth Blair posting.

I've posted additional bios and continued to add a B to the custom IDs for each person included. I can look down my Custom ID column and see exactly who has a bio and who doesn't.

Custom IDs...the tool that keeps expanding...

Fletcher Researcher

In the flurry of all the British research, I happened upon another researcher who is working on the Fletcher line. His name is Peter and he lives in the U.K. I've sent him a gedcom with everything I have on the Dodd line. Thanks to the recent British Bonanza, I had something to send him! Anyway, if you're a Fletcher researcher, here's the address to Peter's website: www.fletcherfamilytree.net.

Here are the Fletcher's from my family tree:

Agnes Dodd d/o Joseph and Agnes (Anderson) Dodd
m 26 Mar 1895 St. John, Dukinfield, Cheshire
Arthur Fletcher b. 1875 Hyde, Cheshire

Agnes and Arthur had the following children:
Percy Vincent Fletcher b. 25 Jan 1896
Mary Louisa Fletcher b. 11 Jul 1897
Hepzibah Fletcher b. 10 Oct 1899
Jack Fletcher b. Mar 1903

After all this activity, I'm back in a lull...gets bits and pieces as I go back and concentrate on people who have the Custom ID of D for dead (or based on their date of birth, probably dead). Genealogy can be a goulish pursuit.

Corbitt Marie (Collins) Knopp went by Marie

I've continued to pursue death dates and obituaries for everyone in my list with a custom ID of D (dead or probably dead based on their date of birth). It's been slow going as I've been tracking down local libraries and contacting them to see if they offer an obituary lookup service.

In addition, I've added a few requests to Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness. RAOGK volunteer Raymond in the Dallas, Texas area responded almost immediately with an obituary for Marie.

Marie already had a memorial on Find A Grave; however, it was under Marie. Most of the records I have found for her were under Corbitt. Therefore, I added a second memorial and cross-referenced it to the first momorial. See 6734531 and 67581124 on Find A Grave.

Raymond also told me that he couldn't find an obituary for Marie's husband:
Donald Richard Knopp
b. 12 Jun 1926 Minneapolis, MN
d. 18 Mar 2005 Irving, TX

Marie is buried in a national cemetery. Therefore, I'm assuming that Donald was also buried in the same cemetery. I've requested a photo of Marie's gravesite in the hopes that the F.A.G. volunteer will notice and take a photograph of Donald's gravesite too. We'll see.

In the meantime, I'm still in hot pursuit of the right library. When I'm successful, I usually end up making a donation to the library when they don't have a fee for the service. I figure if I have to go back to them a little bit of cash will grease my way into their good graces. After all, many times, librarians are looking up obits for me in their spare time...time that they could use for their own pursuits.

Joseph went by J. C.

One of the best aspects of using the Custom IDs for each of my family members is that it causes me to concentrate on the entries that need work. As I've said, I'm working my way through the Ds (dead or should be dead based on DOB). I do two things with D entries:

1. Concentrate on getting death info if it's missing (date and place).
2. Figure out where I might find an obituary.

Thus it was with J. C. who was missing a date and place of death. Based on city directory entries in Ancestry, I knew his DOB was 30 Jul 1934. Based on family member's obituaries, I knew he was living until about 1995 but was dead by 2005 and that he lived in Mascoutah, Illinois. This information gave me a framework to search SSDI. But I couldn't find anything under Joseph. I finally searched for all McKee entries in Illinois with a date range and found him under J. C. with the correct DOB. Here's the entry:

Name: J. C. McKee
SSN: 494-36-0495
Born: 30 Jul 1934
Died: 15 Oct 1994
State (Year) SSN issued: Missouri (1951)

My next step of course it to try to figure out what newspaper his obituary might have appeared in. I'll also know to look under J. C. as well as Joseph C. Based on Pipl entries (www.pipl.com), J. C. and his wife Carol, have children, which puts me in touch with living relatives.

P. S. Forgot to mention that J. C. is the son of Ivan Joseph McKee (FAG memorial 7907325) and Emma Merdell Deppe (FAG memorial 7907322).

Custom IDs and Barbara Jean (Boyce) McGuire

I've written before about having a custom ID that I use to code my files. Here's a list.

F = I've made an entry on Find a Grave.
O = I've found an obituary. The ideal custom ID is FO.
D = The person is dead or probably should be dead. I may or may not have a date. If I don't have a date, I have to look for one. If I do have a date, I need to find an obit.
L = The person is getting older and I should be searching the Web for an obit.
- = The person is most likely living and not about to die anytime soon.

The genealogy world with its vitals can sometimes have a bit of a ghoulish aspect to it. My brother-in-law fell over laughing when I told him that L stood for lurking and that I routinely lurk on the Web looking for obits. He immediately demanded to see the custom ID on his entry in my database. He's not quite old enough yet to have earned an "L" status.

All of this leads to Barbara. I was lurking on the Net...looking at all my L people...when I came upon Barbara's obit. As usual it provided all sorts of information that I didn't have before. Click here to see the obit.

Unfortunately, the obit doesn't include a burial location. So I've changed Barbara's custom ID to O. If a memorial doesn't turn up on Find A Grave in the next few weeks, I'll have to decide whether to contact a family member. I can use Pipl.com to get contact info for the people mentioned in the obit.