How to Find a Professional Genealogist

Patti sent a query to Olive Tree Genealogy. Because of privacy concerns on my part, I'm editing out the details of the person Patti is looking for. Her main question can be easily answered.

I am doing family tree research and am looking for xxx born xxx 1936, Ontario County, Ontario Canada. Sc ottish/German Descent.
Went to University of xxx. Served with the xx in xx.His mother and Father were both dead by the time he was 28.

I am having trouble finding a genealogist who works in Ontario specifically.

Thank you for any help you can give me!

Patt,

All you need do is visit the APG (Association of Professional Genealogists) website and click on "Chapters" at the bottom of the page.

Then scroll down until you see "Ontario" and click on the link provided to go to the Ontario Chapter of the APG. Click on "Members" and you will see very long list of Genealogists who specialize in Ontario research.  For your convenience here is the direct link http://ocapg.org/members.html

You could have approached this in a different way - by joining and writing to the Ontario Mailing List on Rootsweb.

Ships Passenger Lists From Italy

John S. asked Olive Tree Genealogy for help finding a ships passenger list:

I am having difficulty finding the arrival record of my great grandfather in North America.  I know that he lived in the province of Cosenza, Italy & departed Naples, Italy in the 1884 time frame identified as Napoleon Bellaspica Lepera.  Are passenger departure lists available for Naples during this time frame?

John - Ships Passenger lists for North America are best searched by arrival country or port, not departure port. The manifests were made at the port of departure, then turned in at the port of arrival.

You should be able to find your ancestor in ships lists on Ancestry.com. These manifests are indexed and linked to online images for both Canada and USA.

Be sure to use wildcards when searching as Lepera could be easily misspelled or badly transcribed. I would  search using L*P*R* to pick up alternate spellings. Also, upper case "L" can be mistaken for upper case "S" by indexers so you may need to try a second search using S*P*R*

Happy Birthday to Ask Olive Tree Genealogy

Wow! Happy 3rd birthday!

January 3, 2009 was the date of my first blog post on Ask Olive Tree Genealogy.

Since then  I've answered 463 queries and challenging brick wall genealogy puzzles for readers.

Keep 'em coming, I love doing this!

It's also my youngest grandson's first birthday today.

Happy Birthday Sawyer!










Happy Birthday image courtesy of digitalart / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Searching for England Records Before Civil Registration

Christine asked about genealogy records in Durham England.

 I have stumbled on a brick wall that I cant seem to get past and wonder if you can help point me in the right direction.My Gt gt gt grandfather John reay( 1790c) and his wife elizabeth ? nee Barker(1796c born in whitby)  are named as parents of Edward REAY in Upleatham yorkshire in 1819 on the Baptism certificate( IGI).they then went on to have John and William 1926 [sic] Hannah 1831, Robert 1832, betsy ann 1836 in Shinclffe durham.

IN 1841 census  Elizabeth reay is listed as independant, and there is no sign of John.  I cant find birth certificates for the children, nor can i find any marriage for Elizabeth and John or any evidence he existed except for the baptism certificate. In 1851 elizabeth is listed as Murray and a widow in Hartlepool, but I have no idea who or when she remarried or when John ( supposibly died). Where can i search next??

Christine - You won't find a birth registration for the children because English Birth Registrations did not begin until 1837.

However you can search for Church and Parish records of baptisms and other vital records. Because I am not familiar with Durham research, I began with a quick Google search for Durham Church Records. Of course you can use any Search Engine you prefer such as Bing or Yahoo.

Durham Church Records are online at http://www.durhamrecordsonline.com/ and a very quick look under baptisms brought up the baptism record index for Betsy Ann, Hannah and Robert all baptised in Shincliffe. There is also a marriage in 1819 for John Rea [sic]. You may wish to consult this to see if it is the right couple.

I'd also check Durham University's databases online. I found that website with a Google search and notice they have Probate records.

You mentioned you checked the IGI but a better course of action might be FamilySearch collections that they have been putting online. I did a very cursory search and found the marriage of John and Elizabeth in the extracted marriages for York. They married 18 Aug 1816 in Loftus [Source: England, Marriages, 1538–1973]. So now you have other places to search. If I were you I'd start a timeline of findings so that you can get a sense of what location(s) you might find the family in.

Their son Edward is found in baptismal records as being baptised 01 November 1816 (not 1819 as you stated) in Loftus so it looks like they married just in time...

Barnardo's Children Query

Marg wrote to Olive Tree Genealogy with an intriguing query

My gt.gt grandfather died in 1882 and his wife just a year later (in Sunderland workhouse. ) I'd been told by someone that she thought the younger children were adopted and have found trace of one of them. But the youngest child isn't in any records that I can find, til he appears on familysearch.org [in the 1881 census]

He is Joseph D. L. Stansfield, born in approx. 1880, parents Thomas and Mary Ann Foster Stansfield (nee Maule). Someone has just told me that he thinks that Joseph was sent to Canada by Barnardos.

Ships Passenger List Parisian 1888

Dear Marg - There is a Joseph Stansfield who matches your Joseph on board the ship Parisian in 1888. He is part of a group of children with Maria Rye Homes, heading for Niagara-on-the-Lake in Ontario.  He is 8 years old. You can search the index on Collections Canada at the link above, or you can view the image on Ancestry.com

One caveat - he is misindexed on Ancestry as "Jno" (which is why using wildcards is an important tool in genealogy research) His is the last name on the graphic on the left. It is only part of the page of the ship Parisian's manifest.

There is a lot of information on Miss Rye's Niagara-on-the-Lake Home for children at Canadian British Home Children   Sadly there seems to be no information on where Miss Rye's records were kept, or even if they were saved when she was no longer in business. If your Joseph had been part of Barnardo's you could have sent for his records but Miss Rye was not a Barnardo home.

You can also find more information on Miss Rye and her home children at Immigrants to Canada
There are two researchers who are reconstructing her records as best they can. Please see this page for details

His marriage record is found on Ancestry.com dated June 24, 1908. His full name is given as Joseph David Lionel Stansfield and he is age 29, born England, a bookkeeper. He gives his mother's name as Mary A. Foster, but did not provide his father's name. His bride was Edith McCarthy and they married in Toronto.

You should be able to find him on the 1891 and 1901 census, perhaps even 1911. In fact I took a quick look and found Joseph and Edith with their two children in the 1911 census for Toronto. If you are using Ancestry.com he's misindexed as "Joye" but remember you can always search under his wife's name if you are unable to find him.

There are two sons - one is 3 years old and another son whose name is so illegible I can't even make an educated guess as to what it is. This son is 4 months old so I had a look and found the birth records of both children - Lionel Thomas Stansfield was born 25 May 1909 and his little brother Randolph Ferguson Stansfield was born 9 February 1911.

I think you should be able to find more about Joseph and his descendants with this start.

Give All Information When Writing a Query

 Teddi sent a request for help to Olive Tree Genealogy. Here is her email to me:

I have been searching for my grandmother, Theodora Marino Pensyl, for several years now. She was married in Elkton, Maryland, on August 31, 1939 to Charles Wilbur Pensyl from Bedford, Bedford County, PA. They lived in Philadelphia, Pa near Jackson Street and my mother was born on September 18, 1940.

My mother's names is Dorothy Alice Pensyl; she was christened at the Catholic Church in the early part of December, 1940. My mother never had a birth certificate.

She never met her mother and she was raised by her grandmother, Alice Pensyl, until she turned five; at which time she was able to live with her father and his new "wife" (although they never legally married).

We do not know if Theodora was dead, or living and not able to see my mother due to my grandfather's ability to keep her hidden. I have tried Ancestry.com and was unable to reach anyone for assistance. Any ideas you could give me would be greatly appreciated.

Dear Teddi

Sometimes when a reader asks me for help, I immediately have questions. In this case I'm wondering how you knows these exact dates of marriage and birth of her mother. Why am I wondering? Because if you have the marriage record it must surely show an age for Theodora - and that would at least give an approximate year of birth. The birth record of Dorothy may show more details. Both are worth sending for if you do not already have them. If you do have them, you should consider sharing the information found on them when writing a query on a message board or privately (as you did to me)

Even though you say your mother never had a birth certificate, it is quite likely that one was filed and can be obtained. It's worth requesting it. 

Next question - have you found Charles and Theodora on the 1940 census? That would be very helpful to know because that will give you an age for Theordora and a location of birth.  It will also give the place of birth of her parents plus more detail.

Being curious, I had a quick look on Ancestry and I also googled the names. I found several queries you posted over the last several years. To my surprise you gave tidbits of information with each one - different each time - about Dorothea. I suspect you didn't realize how important and helpful each of these little pieces of information could be.

For example in one query you said Theodora sometimes went by Dottie. So that is another name under which to search, and I suspect Dorothy is yet another. In another query you mentioned you thought she had a sister Annette and a brother or father named Leo - these are names you can also search for online. It's crucial to provide these bits and pieces to anyone whose help you want whether on message boards or via email. Even family lore can prove helpful when facing a challenging research puzzle.

So please send for the birth and marriage records and let us know here on the Ask Olive Tree Genealogy blog if you have any other details (plus that all-important 1940 census record!)

Analysing Clues to Help You Figure Out Where to Search Next

Sherri asked about her grandfather's death:

I have been looking for information for about 5 years about my grandfather who is named Burrell Charles Ball first married to Doreen Roxie Morcombe (from Omemee) and then afterward I think Estelle Ball was his wife.  Burrell’s brother I know was from Emily Twp, Albert and he died a few years back and Burrell died around 1993 but I do not know when, where, how etc. 

Also Russell Charles Ball was their father and I believe he lived in Lakefield but there is little information about any of them.  I know there was a fire in Russell’s Lakefield home where he had Burrell, Albert and Barbara E. Ball (I think).  He was married to Julia Secreta Wood that I believe died when she was young.   Where can I go to find out more information?

Olive Tree Genealogy Answer:

Hello Sherri. Since you did not provide an estimated year of birth for Burell, I had to hunt on the 'net to find some mention of him.  Luckily I happened on one of your message board posts where you stated he was born circa 1920 and, best of all, that he was in WW2.

His military service is a great clue and means there are a number of steps you can now take:

Step One:
Did you know that you can send for his military file from Library and Archives Canada? This will give you lots of detail about your grandfather, and may include his death date and location.

Step Two:
Also you can search the online records of the Legion Magazine's Last Post. These are death notices for servicemen and women. Burell is found - just conduct a search under his name. His death date is given as November 14, 1992 (no location). So if he were my ancestor my next step would be to write to the Legion Magazine and ask if they have any other information on Burrell.

Step Three: 
Write to the Legion Branch (Haliburton) where Burrell was a member. Ask if anyone remembers him or if there is more information available. 

There are other steps you can take even with the few clues you have given me.

Step Four:
Send for Burrell's birth certificate from the Registrar General in Thunder Bay.  This will give you an exact date and location of birth, as well his parents' names and ages. With any luck the info found there will lead you to finding his parents in the 1911 census or in earlier records.

Step Five:
Lakefield is in Peterborough County so I would write to the Peterborough Museum & Archives and ask if they have any information on the family.

Burrell's Parents
Now, turning to Burrell's parents. You don't seem to have found the information available on Russell and his wife Julia. Ancestry.com has Ontario marriage records to 1927 online. The marriage of Russell Charles Ball age 29 to Julia Secreta [sic] Wood age 19 is found in Peterborough County 6 June 1917.  You will want to obtain this record. Julia's middle name appears to be a mistranscription of the actual name given in the image.

 Ancestry.com has very nicely shown that there are other records online for Russell and Julia - namely Russell's birth, 1891 census, 1901 census, 1911 census, Julia's birth and her death. Their places of birth and parents' names are found in the record of marriage record.

Next, since Lakefield was mentioned by you, why not search the online Lakefield Cemetery website? I did, and found Charles Russell Ball, Julia and several other Ball burials. You may be able to match some of them with whatever you find in the census records. This will give you some family groups with dates.

Summary:
Going clue by clue I've now found Russell Charles Ball's birth record, marriage record and burial. Each new bit of information was a clue I used to find another bit. I have also found his parents' names and  their deaths too. Their deaths provided me with their locations of birth.

There is much more available online but I'll leave you the fun of following the trail I started for you.