Happy Anniversary Henry & Sarah

186 years ago today, Henry Hays, my 4 times great grandfather, married Sarah Eakle, in Washington County, Maryland. I am grateful for their union, the children that were born, and the fact they later moved to Illinois. Without all those steps my father, most likely, would not have met and married my mother.

Henry Hays is the ancestor that I am most curious about and that has me the most stumped.

It is believed that he was born in Washington County, Maryland in 1808. But, the earliest mention I have of Henry is in the marriage index for Washington County, Maryland. And, the earliest original record I’ve found for Henry Hays is a land purchase in 1843.

Nothing before their marriage in 1832.

I am curious about Henry’s earlier life and about his parents. Ultimately I would love to know the nationality for Hays. It could be English, Irish, Scottish, and even French.

If you are researching Henry or another Hays / Hayes line from Washington County, Maryland, let’s connect. If you’ve taken a DNA test, let me know which ones. Depending on what you’ve taken, we can compare results.

2018 Goal Achieved

It was a productive year. My favorite goal this year was my version of 52 Ancestors. I was inspired by Amy Johnson Crow’s “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks.”

I needed a systematic way to work through my gedcom file. I have been working from the same file since I started building the tree in 2003. After moving between several genealogy file management systems, my sources were junky, incomplete, or non-existent on earlier added profiles. Locations were not uniform. And, somehow the notes had duplicated multiple times. I didn’t know where to start. When I looked at the full file, I was overwhelmed. Continue reading 2018 Goal Achieved

WWI Research Ideas

Last week, I had the pleasure of listening to Janis Minor Forte discuss records generated by the WWI selective service registration process. The DuPage County Genealogical Society hosted her talk, “Even Gangsters Had To Register: WWI Draft Cards and the Selective Service Records They Produced.”

I never knew that so many documents were created beyond the draft registration cards. The big questions is whether they were kept by an ancestor’s home county. Continue reading WWI Research Ideas

#wednesdaywisdom with NARA’s Virtual Genealogy Fair

Today’s a great day to access genealogy instructional videos through NARA’s virtual genealogy fair.

Visit https://www.archives.gov/calendar/genealogy-fair to view the agenda or go straight to their YouTube channel to watch the current session live. https://www.youtube.com/user/usnationalarchives

If you can’t join the sessions live, the recordings to this year’s sessions will be available through the YouTube channel.

If you can’t get enough information, check out the recordings from previous five years of Virtual Genealogy Fairs.

#genfair2018 #genealogy #WenesdayWisdom