Staats Place

Whew! With everything I’ve had going on, I’m not sure how I was ever able to work full-time. While I’ve still been going to work every day, the part-time summer schedule has given me a chance to get some things going that I might never have started had I been at my “real job” all day. “What have you been doing,” you ask?:

• I registered my business name, Staats Genealogical Services, and am gearing up to take clients. All I need to do now is find some of those, and I’m all set!
• Joined Ancestry.com’s Expert Connect service (although I am yet to do work through there).
• Completed my Society of Civil War Families of Ohio application and submitted it.
• I started ProGen8 in June. For those that have not heard of this, ProGen is an 18-month, mentor-led course examining best practices, professional standards, and genealogy-specific business concerns.
• I started the National Genealogical Society’s Home Study Course last month. I am currently about 1/3 of the way through that.
• Volunteered to write a couple of brief biographical sketches for the Lake County Genealogical Society’s “History Hall” project.
• While taking my son on two college visits to Marietta College and Ohio University, I hope to get a look at their libraries and special collections
• Family reunions successive weekends in July (McGinnnis family on the 17th and Johns family in the 24th) in Pennsylvania.
• After, the Johns Reunion on July25th, my mom and I are off to Kennett Square to hear a presentation on the history of the Quaker church there. Then it’s on to Delaware to dig into the Staats family again, with stops at the New Castle County Recorder’s Office, The DE Historical Society, the DE Archives, and also Friend’s Methodist Church to photograph the cemetery there. On the way back, we have a stop in Harrisburg, PA at the PA Archives planned.
• After all that, I want to spend a few days researching my wife’s family, learning my way around the Cuyahoga County Archives, Courthouse, WRHS Library, and also the Cleveland Public Library.
• With the extended hours, hopefully I can get down to the Ohio Historical Society a day or two this summer.
• Of course, there’s the brand new Ohio Genealogical Society Library I need to visit.
• Re-discover the Kirtland FHC! I have been a stranger there for sure lately. I need to focus on the next project and GET THOSE FILMS!
• I will be attending the Elizabeth Shown Mills workshop being put on by the North Hills Genealogists in Pittsburgh this fall.

I’m sure there’s a few other things that I have going on that I’m forgetting. Even though my brain hurts thinking about all the things to do, I am really excited to plow through them, learn lots, and have fun. Looks like I’ll need to revisit those Genealogical New Year’s resolutions I made and see where I stand at the halfway point!

How’s your genealogical summer going?

Yesterday we learned about the poetic form, Clerihew . Today, I came across a new word while scanning through Marietta College’s Special Collections page. Today’s fun word to know and share is

Incunabula

From Dictionary.com:

in·cu·nab·u·la

[in-kyoo-nab-yuh-luh]
–plural noun, singular -lum  /-ləm/
1.    extant copies of books produced in the earliest stages (before 1501) of printing from movable type.
2.    the earliest stages or first traces of anything.

I encourage you to visit the Dictionary.com link and play the pronunciation. I guarantee you will walk around saying it today.

In Marietta’s case, they list three incunabula, with the earliest publication date being 1489. Two of the three are bibles, which appear to be in Latin. The third is an interesting entry which I don’t completely understand:



Author – Boethius, d. 524. Spurious and doubtful works.
Title – Spurious and doubtful works. De disciplina scolarium. Latin
De disciplina scolarium cum commento notabili.
Publisher -[Strassburg : Georg Husner] 1495? (MCCCCXV)



Any ideas what this book might be? It appears to me, anyways, to be a book published in 1495 refuting the authorship or authenticity of the earlier work, De Disciplina Scolarium. But what is the business in English about the “Spurious and doubtful works”? Ah well – in any case, I got to procrastinate in an academic way, play around with a few websites, and learn a new word today!

This week Randy Seaver’s Saturday Night Genealogy Fun had us writing some bad poetry. I thought writing bad poetry wold be easy. It is easy when you are trying to write good poetry. However, it’s quite difficult to know when you have written a good bad poem.
A Clerihew, you ask? Randy’s instructions say this:

1) Write a Genealogy Clerihew (and what is a “clerihew” you ask? See Jim Smith’s post today for more details and his clerihew (briefly, a clerihew is a four-line irregular poem or verse that follows an AABB rhyme scheme. It is named for the birthday of Edmund Clerihew Bentley the inventor, aka writer, aka poet.”). If you’re feeling especially creative, write two or more!

2) Show us your genealogy clerihew in a blog post of your own, in a comment on this blog post, or in a Facebook comment or update. C’mon, dazzle your readers and friends with your poetry and creativeness.

Being a genealogist of course, I had to do some more research. Like most brilliant scholars in academic disciplines, I immediately went to Wikipedia. From there, I gleaned further insight:

A clerihew has the following properties:

• It is biographical and usually whimsical, showing the subject from an unusual point of view; it pokes fun at mostly famous people
• It has four lines of irregular length (for comic effect); the third and fourth lines are usually longer than the first two
• The rhyme structure is AABB; the subject matter and wording are often humorously contrived in order to achieve a rhyme
• The first line consists solely (or almost solely) of the subject’s name.

So without further adieu, I present my humble offerings:

This week’s Saturday Night Genealogy Fun instructions:

1) Find one of your ancestral homes on Google Maps (http://maps.google.com/).Select Map and/or Satellite view.

2) Find out if this location is shown in Street View.

3) Show us the pictures!!

4) Did you learn anything from this mission about your ancestral home? Is it still there? Has it been improved or modified?

As usual, I have taken Randy’s Saturday Night Genealogy Fun theme and gone a slightly different way with it. The area I will be looking at was formerly Appoquinimink Hundred, New Castle, DE. No longer known by that name, it is near Blackbird, DE.

After playing around with a couple of different locations, I started back into what has been the most challenging case in my research to date: the estate of Jacob Staats (d. 1783). The key to cracking this case, as well as decoding surrounding Staats families is going to be in the clues from land they owned. Records are scarce in this area in Colonial and pre-Colonial Delaware, and so are the names these Staats families used. They didn’t have much creativity when it came to baby names, I’m afraid. I won’t bore you with the details of the estate, but I will show you a few pictures of the property.

Jacob Staats purchased 150 acres of land in Appoquinimink Hundred, New Castle, DE in 1735. What is really amazing is how little the plat has changed over that time. It’s shape and description in deeds, as it compared to other Staats properties in the area, is key to sorting out who does and who doesn’t belong to this family.

The first drawing I have found of this property is from 1756. I need to get back to the DE Archives soon and verify the date, but I’m pretty sure that is correct. This drawing is not oriented with north pointing up – it was just drawn to fit the page.

Land of Jacob Staats, circa 1756.

When Jacob died in 1783, his estate was split into eighths. One of the heirs appears to have died, and that eighth split between the seven remaining shares. The land transactions are key to determining who the heirs to this estate are, as they are never named in any documents found to date. The only way to sort them out is to collect all related land transactions and match the land descriptions within them to this property.

One of Jacob’s sons, Jacob Jr. purchased most of the interest in his father’s land from the other heirs. When Jacob Jr. died in 1796, a drawing of the property appeared years later in the Orphans Court property appraisal performed in 1812. Note that the property is rotated 90 degrees clockwise in this picture. Also note that the widow’s portion is laid off, a part appears to be missing from one side, and a strange hook appears on one end. More about the hook in a minute:

Orphans Court drawing showing the property in 1812

I’m sure you’re asking, “This is neat and all, but when does Google Maps come in?” In order to try and find the property today, I needed a little more direction as to exactly where it is. Fortunately, it happens to have a side bordered by the Northwest branch of Duck Creek, which narrows it down some. Even more fortunately, in 1810, a survey was made in order to assess property owners a ditch tax who owned cripple property along Duck Creek. This map gives enough detail to know where to look. Note that the hook also appears in this drawing as a short branch of the creek and a cripple area.

1810 Ditch Survey showing Jacob Staats property, rotated to approximate correct orientation

The key piece of information that this map shows is the property’s orientation to the creek, and more importantly it gives a bridge name and the property’s location in relation to it. Now we have enough to look for it on a current map. A search for it on Google maps showed that, to my astonishment, the plat is almost identical today as it was in the 1700 and 1800s! I switched to New Castle County’s website, as it more clearly shows the plat lines than does Google. Most counties have a site you can access which shows current plats and allows you to see basic information about them. New Castle’s site apparently allows you to download images of more recent deeds via subscription, but I’ll have to check that out in more detail. Take special notice of the hook formed by the cripple, which you can clearly see in this aerial view (even though it is part of another property now).

Current plat of the former Jacob Staats property. Water features from the drawings are clearly visible here even today.

How cool is that?! It astounds me that the shapes have hardly changed from the 1756 rough drawing. You can even see the odd right-angle piece that appears in the adjoining property. You can see how you might be able to use a similar approach to locate your own ancestors property as it exists today. One of the things this exercise now allows me to do now is work backwards from the current owner to attempt to account for the deeds I have not been able to find. Who knows? Maybe this will even crack the case!

A little less exciting is the street view. Google didn’t have street view available for the street running in front of the property, but I could “look” towards the property from the intersection before it. This photo is looking towards the small area in the upper right corner of the previous photo that is not included in the red outline

Intersection of Townsend Rd and Sawmill Branch Rd. The Staats property is probably marked by the trees beyond the trailer in the foreground

Here is another photo from the same general area. This photo is looking from the bridge on Rt. 9 over Duck Creek. The Northwest Branch is not far around the bend in this photo. Turning the opposite way on Duck Creek would take you to the Delaware Bay, about 25-30 miles from the Atlantic.

Looking west from the bridge on DE Route 9 over Duck Creek.

Thanks to Randy for a really cool evening that may have created some new research ideas to solve an old problem!

This is great news for Ohio researchers who’ve had trouble getting to the Library and Archives the one day a week they’ve been open.
From the OHS Press release, which can be found at: http://www.ohiohistory.org/about/pr/060310a.html

Ohio Historical Center To Increase Hours, Add Free Parking July 1
Visitors’ Preferences Sought for Museum Makeover

(COLUMBUS, Ohio)- The Ohio Historical Society announced today that the Ohio Historical Center in Columbus will offer increased hours and free parking beginning July 1. In addition, the organization will involve visitors’ preferences in the planning process for upcoming changes to the center’s museum and library.

“We listened to our stakeholders and found a way to make it work within our budget,” said Burt Logan, OHS executive director and CEO. “The change in hours will increase customer service and provide additional opportunities to engage and involve visitors in Ohio history. By offering free parking, it will be more affordable for people to visit the museum, attend an event or use our services.”

Public hours for the museum and archives/library at the center will increase from one to three days and free parking will be available for all visitors at the center and for most special events at Ohio Village. The new hours will be: Thursdays from 10 a.m.–7 p.m.; and Fridays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. –5 p.m. The Ohio Historic Preservation Office and OHS business offices will continue to be open 9 a.m. –5 p.m., Monday through Friday. Museum admission will remain the same: $8 for adults, $7 for seniors (60+), $4 for youths (6-12) and free for children (5 and under) and Ohio Historical Society members. There is no admission fee to the archives/library and historic preservation office.

Logan said, “This was done after careful consideration of the effect of these actions on next year’s budget and staffing resources as well as the ongoing initiative to change focus of the museum and archives/library into a collections learning center. We’re still not up to a full week’s schedule yet after last year’s state funding cut, but we’re making progress towards that goal.”

As planning continues for the collections learning center project, the new hours will allow for increased public input into exhibit and educational concepts being considered. Testing with visitors will begin later in the summer and results will have a significant role in shaping what people can see and do at the Ohio Historical Center in the future.

“Previous studies have shown that the public wants more direct access to the society’s extensive collections, more opportunities for hands-on experiences and ways to explore history using current technology,” Logan said. “The increase in public hours will allow us the opportunity to continue those studies and involve more customers in the planning process.”

According to Logan, the collections learning center project is being created in phases over the next few years as state and private funding becomes available. As part of the development phase, much of the behind-the-scenes work, such as cataloging and putting OHS collections online, has been accomplished. In addition to public testing, over the next several months, the public will be able to see more collections on view than ever before.

The Ohio Historical Center is one of 58 historic sites and museums administered by the Ohio Historical Society, a nonprofit organization that serves as the state’s partner in preserving and interpreting Ohio’s history, archaeology, natural history and historic places. The headquarters for the historical society, the center will be celebrating its 40th anniversary in August 2010. For more information about programs and events, call 614.297.2300/800.686.6124 or visit www.ohiohistory.org/OHC.

After my own struggle to name my genealogy company and a recent thread of the same topic on the Rootsweb Transitional Genealogists Forum, I decided to reveal the names and marketing slogans from a brainstorming session that didn’t make the final cut for one reason or another. Feel free to use any of these if you think they fit your needs.

Best Guess Genealogical Services – “Why waste valuable research time breaking through brick walls? Using our hi-tech programs and “CloseEnough” algorithm, we’ll take the human element out of research so you can’t blame us later.”

Ouija! – “Let your own ancestors spell it out for you!”

Looking Past the Obvious – “Our advisors can create a compelling mystery out of the simplest of cases. We will never finish before the maximum time you’ve allotted – we promise.”

Family Fabrication – “The only guaranteed-results genealogical company! If we can’t find your family, we’ll craft a well-told, fascinating, “based on real events” story you can post on the internet and pass on for generations

Relatively Accurate Genealogy – “It’s a pretty safe bet that your ancestors are related.  Each family we put together is probably going to have the same last name.”

Family Tree DNA Discoveries: Examining Your Twig and Berries- “We won’t settle for a mere cheek-swab”

Searching For A Clue – “Need research assistance? So do we.”

Ancestral Acquiescence – “Looking for an Indian Princess? Think you’re related to royalty? Then who are we to disagree? We’ll write up your history just as you envisioned it.”

Yesteryear’s Research Tomorrow – “As the name implies – we’ll break down your brick walls…and we hope to get to that tomorrow.”

Who Do I Think You Are? – “Send me your mother’s maiden name, your social security number, and a bank account number. The results may surprise you. ”

So yet again, I steal Randy’s entertaining Saturday Night Genealogy Fun theme and run my own way with it! This week’s instructions say:

1) Go to http://www.google.com/ and enter a search term and click on the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button.

2) Try your name, your local society, favorite genealogy terms, whatever you want. Do at least three, and as many as you want if you have time. Be creative! Have fun!

3) What did you learn from this exercise?

This week, prepare yourself for 16×16, Round One of the “Google ‘I Feel Lucky’ Challenge”!

In the red corner, we have the Team Paternal, consisting of all 16 of my paternal ggg grandparents. These hardy folks hail mostly from Ohio, but do have representation from Pennsylvania, Delaware, Iowa, and Ireland. All except one currently reside in Noble County, OH. (And will for the rest of time)

In the Blue corner – Team Maternal. Far from a girly team, this 16 member team discriminates on the basis of birthplace: PA only need apply. For all eternity, this team has aligned themselves roughly in a line stretching from Brookville to Kittanning, although there are a couple whose whereabouts are unknown.

The Contest: Which team can get the most “I feel lucky” searches to jump to a page featuring their members. LET’S GET READY TO RUMBLLLLLLEEEEEEEE.

While Team Paternal jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead, they quickly faded. A strong surge by Team Maternal gave them four hits and the victory in this week’s contest.

What I learned: That search engines dominate the results – sometimes without even matching the search string exactly.Even when I entered what I thought was a unique name, something else came up.

Also -  my ancestors clearly did not understand the future importance of SEO. You would think a self-respecting 19th century farmer wouldn’t be so shortsighted. Sure – electricity wasn’t even on the visible horizon, let alone computers and the internet, but let’s not make excuses for them.

Who did match?

Team Red:

Jesse Brock Pickering, Rueben Paul Summers, Violet Amos Franklin

Team Blue:

Alexander Harrison Deemer, Bennewill Snyder, Salome Doney, Archibald Ruffner

I can hear you saying, “Oh great, here comes another blogging theme,” but alas, no. It basically means that I have had this quote floating around in my head, have been trying to define exactly how it applies to genealogy, and haven’t had time to completely formulate my thoughts yet . So before it becomes lost in the nether regions of my brain,   I throw it out there for you to get stuck in your own head, and hopefully, reply with your own thoughts. A little interactivity is a good thing.

Check out the book for the full description of the quote’s context, but a little background:

The quote is from Malcom Gladwell’s book, Blink: the power of thinking without thinking (Gladwell, Malcolm. 2005. New York: Little, Brown and Co. ). The quote is not about genealogy, per se, but about problem-solving and decision-making.  Gladwell relates the story of a war game staged between joint US forces and a simulated rogue military commander. This war game, called Millennium Challenge, pitted two conceptual opposites against each other.

The Joint Forces had an awesome array of weaponry. intelligence, and decision-making procedures in place.  The rogue commander had experience and spontaneity. Theoretically, the deck was heavily stacked in the Joint Forces favor favor. They set up  their siege according to plan. They took (they thought) the enemy’s communication out. They amassed overwhelming amounts of boats and troops and waited for their successes to pile up. They never did. In fact, they were a dismal failure as the enemy reacted in a way they couldn’t fathom nor account for with their behavior charts, planned responses, or administrative lag.  Before they could even fire a shot, they were ambushed and suffered catastrophic losses. They were baffled.

Talking about the war game, Paul Van Riper, the “rogue commander”, commented:

“The elements of national power were diplomatic, informational, military, and economic. That gives you DIME. They would always talk about the Blue Dime [Chris' note: Blue was the Joint Forces team.] Then there were the political, military, economic, social, infrastructure, and information instruments, PMESI. So they’d have these terrible conversations where it would be our DIME versus their PMESI. I wanted to gag. What are you talking about? You know, you get caught up in forms, in matrixes, in computer programs, and it just draws you in. They were so focused on the mechanics and the process that they never looked at the problem holistically. In the act of tearing something apart, you lose its meaning.”
(Gladwell p. 125)

The questions I pose are these: Have you ever been guilty of this micro-focus and rigidity in your research endeavors? Can you give an example of a time when stepping back allowed you new insight, which then allowed to focus back in on the correct details?

I’m still tossing around my answers to these and similar questions, but I find my time being spent almost exclusively lately on learning about genealogy rather than actually doing it. I am getting caught up in the processes. I feel like I need to remind myself that the desired result is not adherence to a strict regiment, but to solve a problem or series of problems. However, I also feel that the rigor of studying and being exposed to different process will ultimately provide some structure, and allow a more productive and successful “spontaneous” reaction when researching in the field.

Again – I am still formulating these ideas – this is not a finished thesis by any stretch, but I really look forward to some of your thoughts.

Memorial Day Weekend seemed a fitting time to post a little tribute to my Civil War ancestors, Archelaus Osborne and Alexander Staats. By complete coincidence, these two also happen to be the subjects of my application to the Society of Civil War Families of Ohio lineage group, which I have finished up and am getting ready to send off.

Archelaus Osborne, (1840-1921) Company D, 92nd O.V.I.

Archelaus Osborne served as a private and musician in the Company D of the 92nd regiment O.V.I from 6 Aug 1862 until the company mustered out in June  1865. I’ve not done extensive research on the 92nd, but it is clear that they were very actively engaged for most of their existence, as the list of conflicts shows: Tullahoma Campaign, Chickamauga Campaign, Battle of Chickamauga, Chattanooga Campaign, Battle of Missionary Ridge, Atlanta Campaign, Battle of Resaca, Battle of Dallas, Battle of New Hope Church, Battle of Allatoona, Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, Battle of Peachtree Creek, Siege of Atlanta, Battle of Jonesboro, Sherman’s March to the Sea, Carolinas Campaign, Battle of Bentonville

An early photo of Dr. Alexander Staats (1838-1913). Company E 88th O.V.I.

Alexander Staats‘ service was brief – only eleven months from August 1864 to July 1865. However, his time in Company E, 88th O.V.I. was clearly a life-changing period. For the time of Alexander’s service, the 88th was stationed at Camp Chase in Columbus, OH. During the war, his interest in medicine was piqued, and at the close of the war, Alexander devoted himself to the study of the discipline. He first attended Starling Medical College (now part of Ohio State) in Columbus and graduated from the Cincinnati College of Medicine and Surgery in 1868. He practiced in Sarahasville, OH briefly, but became well-established in Summerfield, OH where he engaged in the practice of his profession until his death in 1913.

This small tribute closes with a really cool photo sent to me by Stephen Botley (who also sent the Osborne photo above). This is a Civil War reunion photo taken in Noble County, OH. I’m not 100% sure on the year. Archelaus Osborne is circled. I have not been able to tell if Alexander Staats is in the photo or not. If you have a Noble County ancestor, and can pick him out in the photo, let me know. It would be cool to ID as many as possible. Clicking on the photo will take you to the uploaded version’s full size. I also have a larger version for print. If you would like a copy, just let me know, and I’d be glad to email one. Enjoy the holiday weekend!

Noble County, OH Civil War Veterans' Reunion, year unkown

Discovering Clues To Date Your Old Photographs

When: Thu, May 27, 2010 10:00 AM – Thu, May 27, 2010 12:00 PM
Where: Morley Library,184 Phelps Street Painesville, OH 44077-3976Map

Lake County Genealogical Society

Discovering Clues To Date Your Old Photographs (Kelly Holderbaum, Summit County, OGS) A Workshop – bring some of your own photos.

For more info about the Lake County Genealogical Society and their upcoming events, see: http://www.morleylibrary.org/genealogy_lcgs.htm

Thursday will be a busy day for me, but I plan to get out to this meeting. In preparation, I am posting a couple of photos that I will be taking copies of to see if I can get some idea as to timeframe. For this project, I am rustling up one of my favorite surnames: the McGinnis family. If anyone would like to shout out their thoughts, shout away!

Picture #1: This picture was sent to me by a relative of William McGinnis (1850-1902). She believes that William is in the bottom right. But there is no indication who the other men in the photo are. In order to take an educated guess, I need to know approximately when the photo was taken and haven’t made much progress. Any takers?

Mystery Men. One is surely William McGinnis, but when was this taken?

Picture #2/3: These two photos were sent to me by the same cousin. According to her information these are the parents of William- James McGinnis (1819-1893) and Elizabeth Moore (1831-1910). However, I’m not sure that these pictures go together, or that the man is James McGinnis. He looks much more like photos of his son, Harvey McGinnis, but there are no other pictures of James that I am aware of for comparison. The woman does, in fact, look like Elizabeth, based on other photos. I would like to find out when these photos were taken to determine their identity as accurately as possible.

James and Elizabeth? Harvey and Ella May? Harvey and Elizabeth? "Time" will tell!

Hope to see you local folks Thursday!