31 Days To Better Genealogy: Getting Started

31 Days To Better Genealogy

 

Amy Johnson Crow has started a movement to help focus and fine-tune our family history research process to achieve results. The timing isn't random, October is Family History month in the United States and what better way to celebrate than by digging in and uncovering a few new pieces of information on a stubborn ancestor.
  

This challenge has some heavy lifting. This is not 31 Days to Dabble in Genealogy, Amy has tasked us with doing better by guiding us through a series of exercises that call for review, analysis and contemplation of our findings. Here is how I started. 

Day 1 Decide What You Want to Find

I will focus on one ancestor, Anna Pearl Scott Allen. Anna is my maternal great grandmother. I've blogged about Anna here previously, isn't she lovely? 

I am curious about the outliers I have in Anna's information. Clark County Kentucky seems to be her home base. However, I have a marriage in Indiana and her death in West Virginia. More verification to do and original records to be requested.  

Day 2 Timeline

Anna's timeline is reasonable and I am able to include several key events in her life.

-- 1878 Birth Kentucky
-- 1880 Residence Blue Ball, Clark County Kentucky, Age 3
-- 1896 Marriage Jeffersonville, Clark County Indiana
-- 1897 Daughters Birth Kentucky
-- 1899 Son's Birth Winchester, Clark County Kentucky
-- 1900 Residence Winchester, Clark County Kentucky, Age 23
-- 1910 Residence Winchester, Clark County, Kentucky, Age 30
-- 1913 Death Huntington, Wayne County West Virginia
-- 1913 Burial Winchester, Clark County Kentucky

Day 3 Review The Census

I have located Anna enumerated on three US Federal Census documents: 1880, 1900 and the 1910.

-- 1880 Blue Ball, Clark County Kentucky, Age 3 with parents and siblings
-- 1900 Winchester, Clark County Kentucky, Age 23 with husband, two children and 
    brother-in-law
-- 1910 Winchester, Clark County Kentucky, Age 30 with husband, two children, sister
    and a boarder

The census did not reveal any new information or clues. The husband and children listed were as I expected them to be. The fact that Anna's sister is living with them in 1910 makes sense as she is listed as a widow. 

After the first three days (that took me a lot longer than three days) I have two takeaways for my research surrounding Anna.

1. Request her original marriage license from Indiana
2. Request her death certificate from West Virginia

Why do I have a sneaking feeling this list is going to get a lot longer?