Four Things To Remember When Asking a Stranger for Research Help

Charles Crow (and sons) and his Harness & Saddle Shop in SLC.

So you decided you are going to do some family history research. Good for you. Millions of people find it a satisfying, even rewarding endeavor. But like most people (well, everyone, really) you have run into the metaphoric brick wall. You've done the basics, like asking your living relatives, but you have reached the limit of what they can tell you. Public records have run dry and you have no idea how to proceed. There is someone you think might be able to help. You may have seen their name on message boards or in blog posts. Perhaps you noticed they are also working on the same line as you or perhaps they are an expert in the area you are lost in. Whatever the reason, you believe that he or she can help. The only problem is you don't know this person at all.

This is not a primer on how to find someone's contact info. I'm assuming you already have the right email address, but you are not sure what to say. It can be tricky, especially if you are like me and have introvert tendencies. With that in mind I'm going to pull from the scores (I don't think it has been hundreds) of people who have reached out to me over the last 9 years with varying degrees of success. So here we go...

1. Don't expect people to devote their time to your issue. 

This may sound harsh, but hear me out. Many people perform research for a living, or at least wish they could. Sometimes we Mormons expect other Mormons to donate their time and talents to the greater good. And while a bishop may ask a ward member who is a plumber to help out a needy family, it is a bad manners to ask strangers, even Mormon strangers for the same treatment, especially when we are not talking about necessities. While many people will be happy to help others - and I've had the family history consultant calling where I did exactly that - few have the resources to regularly give away their livelihood for free. (I know. I'm a cranky old man)

As an amateur, however, I don't make a living at this. And while I wouldn't lose any income, I have a life outside of my limited time dedicated to this hobby. So I will pick and choose the people I help and the people I direct elsewhere. Honestly, I am far more likely to help someone I know. Which brings me to the next point.

2. Introduce yourself first. 

Remember that although you don't know this person, you do know enough that they might have some knowledge you need. The reverse, however, is not true. They are not even aware you exist. Now is the time to fix that. Tell them who you are and how you know about them and why you think they will be able to answer your question. For Example:

Hi, my name is Bruce, and I am new to family history. My ancestors came to New York in 1854.  I understand from your blog that you are an expert in 19th century LDS immigrants and how they found jobs in New York. 

Notice I started with my name, and added my specific interest. I also stated how I came to know about this fictitious expert.

3. Offer something. 

It doesn't have to be grand or earth shattering. It shouldn't be too large to consume in a brief reading. But it should grab you expert's interest.

One of my New York immigrant ancestors found work making saddles, a job which included a contract for Johnston's Army. He would often have to deal with the procurement officer who had already made up his mind about the Mormons. Charles loved to relate how he told that officer that they were going out west to be licked.

The ones I receive that catch my interest tend to describe a story about a Tennessee Mormon conversion story. They are the hardest to find, especially when the subject is relatively unknown, because they rarely make it into the official record. So when someone offers one that has been locked away in a personal journal, hold me back!

Notice in my example I have yet to ask my question. While I tend to value getting to the point, most requests I receive get to the point far too quickly. Which brings me the item.

4. Don't ask for "everything."

Even if it is just on a particular family, its too much to ask. In some of the email contacts I have received in the last 9 years, the request was for exactly that.

Can send me everything you have on the [X family]? 

Uh, No!

First of all, I have no idea what you have and what you don't. There is no way I'm going to waste time sending you something you already have (see #1, above).

Second, I don't know what you have tried that isn't working. If you haven't even checked the census cause you don't know how, then you need serious help which I'm not inclined to give (see #1, above). Have you overlooked the 1870 census because your search has been too strict? I might know the one piece of info you need for a breakthrough which will let you continue finding more on your own. But because you were not specific about your problem (i.e. you can't find Charles Crow in the 1870 census) I can't tell you that he was listed as Henry Crow that year - his middle name - because his mother who lived with them that year answered the census taker and that was what she called him. (Note to family: I made that example up. Repeat with care.)

Third, I don't know what you really want. Are you looking for citations & references? Are you hoping for journals, letters, or stories? Do you just want enough dates to submit the name to the temple? Are you trying to go back one more generation? All of those things tell me what kind of family historian you are, and what kind of info you might think would be worth my time to send to you (see #1, above) (Note that if you are asking about a relative I just spend 6 weeks fixing, I will get protective)

Instead, pick one thing, THE item that has you baffled, and ask that, just that.

I know Charles' father was a needle maker in England, but I've always wondered how Charles got into the saddle making business once he arrived in New York. Was it a business that hired emigrants? Did the church have emigration agents who helped him find a job? Is there somewhere you can direct me that might have some hints about this?

Then let the stranger set the tone for how much she (or he) wants to share. I could go on about other things to be aware of, such as the size of your first email (Short. No more than 300 words.) and the need to proofread, but I think if we all could get these four right, I'll be happy. All told, a successful first contact with a stranger who might be able to help with your research can lead to years of collaboration. Take the time and the effort to do it right and although you may not get "everything" right away, you will be better off in the long run.

(disclaimer: I may be a cranky old man, but I secretly enjoy being asked, and helping people who share my interest.)

Elder Albert Lorenzo Cullimore (an Index)

One of the things I try to do when I start studying a particular missionary or just about anyone else, is sort out the sequence of events. When I have the luxury of multiple sources, I line them up to see if they agree with each other. In this case, my subject was Elder Cullimore. I have several sources; his own mission recollections, along with newspaper articles and official church records. I don't do this with every person I research. But it helps when I have several sources of varying reliability. This also lets me compare stories. If I am lucky, I'll find somethings his companions wrote about him, though I am seldom that lucky.

1895 Sep 27 Set Apart
 Albert L. Cullimore Starts his Mission (part 1)
1895 Oct 2 Paired with Erastus Snow Larsen. Worked in Bedford County.
Albert L. Cullimore in Bedford County (part 2)
...the voice said "Leave," and our lives were spared - Elder Cullimore Part 6
The Wealthiest Man in Your Community - Elder Cullimore, Part 7
1896 Feb 8 Mentioned in Deseret News (DN) article. Working with James S. Farrell
1896 Apr 3 Mentioned in DN article. Working with Joseph D C Young.
1896 Apr 27 Paired with Robert George Archibald. Worked in Lawrence County
1896 May 4 Mentioned as working in Lawrence County with Archibald.
1896 May or Jun Traveled to Summertown (Lawrence County) with Elder Yardley.
"They All Know Me Around Here" - Elder Cullimore, Part 11
1896 Jun 27 Paired with John Jacklin. Worked in Lawrence County.
1896 Jun 28 Mentioned in DN article.
1896 Aug 5 Mentioned in DN article.
1896 Aug 15 Mentioned in DN article.
1896 Sep 18 Paired with Charles Collett Worked in Chester County.
1897 Jan 4 Mentioned in DN article.
1897 Jan 18 "Bring Them Outside" Elder Cullimore, Part 9
1897 Jan 31 Mentioned in the Southern Star as being "Mobbed"
"The Cyclone Came and Passed about 100 Yards from the House" - Elder Cullimore, Part 10
1897 Apr ?? Assigned as traveling/training Elder
1897 Apr 16 Mentioned by Elder Collett as his former companion.
The Unexpected Pin - Elder Cullimore Part 8
Albert L. Cullimore in Harden County (part 3)
1897 May 8 DN Article. Trained Isaac Ensign Freeman. Worked in Harden County.
1897 Dec 18 Mentioned
1897 Dec ?? Trained Milburn Benton Poole. Worked in Perry County.
Elder Cullimore and the Return of the Church to Cane Creek Part 4.
Elder Cullimore (Part 5)
1898 Feb 9 Additional baptisms at Cane Creek
1898 Mar ?? Cane Creek Branch re-organized
1898 Jul 24 Mentioned in DN article. Spoke at Mid Tenn Conf
1898 Aug 11 Released

Finding the Personal Stories Behind the Vital Stats

How do you research someone who was functionally illiterate? How do you learn the details of someone’s life who left absolutely nothing written in their own hand? The answer is simple, but deceptively so. Of course, you have to use only what others have written about them. But conceding that those kinds of sources are your only option doesn't solve the greatest problem with that approach. Since there is nothing written from your subject, there is no list, no master source for who your real sources might be. You know who your subject is but you don't know who wrote about them. So how do you find them? How do you find those sources?

You would correctly start with government documents. You could learn some vital statistics from the various Census records, marriages, births, deaths. Even taxes, court records, military and probate records if you are lucky. But these documents, no matter how useful, can only hint at your subject’s aspirations, disappointments, friendships, and allegiances.

If you are fortunate, your subject’s life intersected with the public consciousness in some way. Although my grandfather was not illiterate, I have been able to learn something more about him because his name shows up in a handful of newspaper articles. Nothing startling or scandalous, but simple events like a Millard County newspaper recording his weekend visit in 1931.

Being Mormon, I have been exposed to the wealth of information written by the ranks of LDS missionaries over nearly  two centuries. Some of it personal, but all of it hidden merely because much of it is unsearchable electronically. Jim Conder, an uneducated 19th century man, met dozens of LDS missionaries during the last 33 years of his life. One by one I have created a list of them, often by seeing what other missionaries have written in their journals. Each new – to me – journal entry has the potential of identifying the name of another missionary who in turn wrote his own tidbit about Jim and his family.

Once you have gone through the census and combed the marriage, birth, and death records, you will probably have the basics about a person. But if you want to write more, learn more, and get to know someone on a deeper personal way, there are still many choices to pick from.

• Local histories: Exactly what was historic enough to preserve is a matter of opinion. State and county libraries often have extensive records of what someone thought was important enough to save. The variety of these records never ceases to surprise me. I've seen a collection of high school essays, school yearbooks, newspaper clippings carefully re-typed, a whole community who allowed the handwritten notes in their family bibles to be transcribed, unidentified photos by the hundreds and much more. 
• Newspapers: What was news a hundred years ago would surprise you. Some papers printed the guest list at the local hotel each week. Or who was having a party on Saturday night. One ancestor made the papers because some of the animals he was raising for fur escaped their cages. The Utah Digital newspapers project has a large and growing repository (Tennessee, get the hint).
• Letters: These are sometimes printed in newspapers. LDS missionaries commonly sent letters to the editor just so they could be printed in their local paper. But they were also saved and donated to libraries and archives. Who else might have them? Relatives, friends, and who knows. My state has microfilm of people who wrote letters to the governor.  Few letters were ever indexed, so get used to reading flowery cursive scripts, one by one. 
• Journals & diaries: When written by friends and acquaintances, these can help you learn about some really detailed aspects of your subject’s life. One journal recorded every person the writer helped. From his daily notes I could see who was sick, who had stillborn children, who was having trouble with their landlord, who was growing corn, or watermelon, or tobacco. From that journal I can tell who was the drunkard in the community and who was the expert on herbal folk remedies. But the descendants of these people probably have no idea what has been written about their ancestor.
• City directories: Like the phone book (do we have those anymore?). Not only can you learn a person’s address, but also who was in business. Ours is a society of merchants. Many people tried to make a living by selling something. Most failed at it. But many survived just long enough to get listed. 
• Other options? You tell me. 

Getting Photo Copyright Permission from the Church History Library

Several weeks ago I began selecting which photographs I would like to use in my book on the Cane Creek Massacre. I was fortunate in that I had been able to identify several photos which had not been previously published and described as being connected to the shooting.  While most of the photos I was able to take myself, or at least speak with the owner about using them in my book, several were in the possession of the Church History Library, at at the very least they owned the rights to the digital version I was using in my manuscript. I figured I should, at the least, get permission to use them. Herein I will describe the process which I found surprisingly easy, if not completely straight forward.

After figuring out which photos I wanted to use, and which ones I got from the Church History Library (CHL), I combed the CHL website until I found the copyright request form for manuscripts, which appeared to be the closest to what I wanted.

Legal Stuff
Copyright Request - Manuscript

The form can be filled out by typing directly into it, but it can't be saved, only printed, so you can't start it and finish later. I have Cute-PDF so I got around that issue, but even with that I had to type it all at once. Mildly annoying.

And with that the request was emailed off. I neglected to include my manuscript and so a few weeks later I got an email asking for it. The legal office wanted to make sure that the way I was going to use the material was appropriate.

A few days after sending in my manuscript, I got an email detailing which photos I could use and which ones the CHL believed were not owned by them. In one case I was even told who had the copyright, which was pretty cool.

The process was mostly painless, except the request form, and took about 6-7 weeks.

Results:
4 photos approved
1 photo approved, but noted that there might be another copyright holder (the photographer)
2 photos the CHL had no copyrights and they are not sure who does
1 photo the copyrights belonged to Deseret News.

New CHL Online Catalogue

Several weeks ago, the Church History Library released its new online catalogue. Having already worked with the library remotely, I thought I would try out the new program.

The website, (http://churchhistorycatalog.lds.org/), was easy to use. I searched through the documents I have been considering looking up the next time I was in Salt Lake City, and picked one I thought was reasonably small: a page or two. Near the top of the page was a link for requesting that the document be scanned. The exact wording was "Request this item to be digitized"

I clicked on the link and was taken away from the church site, (with a prompt asking if I was sure I wanted to do that) which I thought was odd at first. The page that eventually opened gave me three choices, depending upon my request. The first was a general request, which seemed the most appropriate for me. I don't recall the other two. (This has actually been altered since then. Now it takes me directly to the correct request form. It even fills out the form, partially. And there is a note about a Digitization Fee, which I didnot get whan I made my first request).

Even though I am signed into my LDS account, I still had to fill out my name, email, phone number and zip code. Really it was very easy, so no complaints. I filled out the general request form and sent it off. Almost right away (less than 10 minutes), I got an reply, probably automated, saying I should have an answer by a certain date which in my case was 7 days out. I have no idea whether that is programmed into the reply or if that was an estimate based on the simplicity of my request. Maybe it is not automated.

Just six days later came the reply. A pdf file showing a scanned image of the file I wanted. It was one page and the scan was definately good enough to read.  I was pleased with the whole process. I needed no guidance or instruction, and I got exactly what I asked for. My only issue was I was given the impression that the image would be made available for vewing online. Instead I received an email attachment. I'm left to wonder if I misunderstood the intended process (which would not be unusual), or whether a different process was followed for some unknown reason. But my confusion on that point doesn't reduce the usefulness of this new service, and my excitment over new material to work with. Easily 9 out of 10. Maybe even 9.5!!! Thanks to the CHL!

OK! For those wondering about what I requested, it is a letter. I think the writer and the recipient might still be alive. So I was going to track them down. More on that on my next post.

Southern Colorado's Mormon Trail Digitation Program

Many of the saints who emigrated from Tennessee during the late 19th century, ended up in Colorado. Recently I found a site which is collecting photos documenting this. The collection is sponsored by the Alamosa Public Library System at their Southern Peaks Public Library [SPPL] building.

Old Mormon Trails, Colorado

SPPL received a grant from the Colorado Digitization Program (CDP) for a scan center in the library! We have scanned historical photos of early Mormon settlers that you can view from this web site. See what we have digitized!

You can find the collection at the bottom of this page, or go there directly. The first page is an index, showing a thumbnail of 12 photos at a time. The captions are visible only after clicking on the link to each photo.

What makes a missionary journal a good historical source.

In my chosen hobby, good sources are a valuable treasure. In that regard I have been fortunate. While researching Tennessee LDS history, I have run across several really good missionary journals. But I have also run across several abysmal ones. They have been so bad, that I have reflected on my missionary journal and just how much better I could have made it. I wish I had been given some examples of what good journal writing was before I ever started my mission. I can't go back and do it over. Anything I write today would be a recollection, not a journal. It isn't the same.

If I can't change my own, then perhaps I can improve the quality of the missionary journals being written today. How, you may ask? It isn't as hard as you might think. Today's missionaries may indeed have some really good writing skills. Yes, I'm an optimist. But any one of them could improve the historical value of their journal just by my placing a bug in their ear of what an amateur historian is looking for.

Every few months we invite the missionaries over for a visit. We live pretty far from the center of the ward, and from their apartment, so it usually ends up being about three times a year. Once they are in my home I try to expose them to some good examples of record keeping. Since most historical records are not on the missionary reading list, I usually start with a photo album, specifically my mission album. Every missionary I have met has been interested in looking through missionary photo albums. They might just be being polite, but it could also be interested in missionary stuff because they're missionaries.

Eventually, the discussion gets around to stories and myths the missionaries have heard in the course of their work. Missionaries are great about passing along faith promoting rumors, and I encourage it. But I am careful to add the caveat that rumors are not necessarily true. I have plenty of examples of ones that are not true. That gives me the chance to describe a few missionary journals I have read and what makes them interesting.

Honestly, that is usually all it takes to get them thinking about their own journals. You can almost see the gears turning in their head as I describe why I like certain journals and not others. To cinch the deal, I go back to my personal experience. I tell them I wish I had read a few good missionary journals before my mission.

Here are some points to consider for good missionary journal writing. I've never bored a missionary with this list, nor do I think I ever will, but I might pass it along to some future missionaries.

1. Use full names, at least once. Or at least as full as you know. You may know who "David" is right now. But by the end of your mission you may have met several Davids and your grandchildren will definitely not know. One journalist wrote about "S. Reed" is one entry. Fortunately he used Brother Reed's full name later on, since his first name was one I would never have guessed, Sirenious.

2. Use clear dates. Don't go crazy, historians generally don't care if the baptism started at 1:03 pm, but references to tomorrow and Friday are meaningful only if I know what today is.

3. Describe your feelings about specific events. Being particularly in tune with the spirit has benefits. You may not recognize it at the time, but it may mean a whole lot more when you look at it retrospectively. Don't go on for pages. Be concise, and direct. A simple straightforward description is usually the most insightful.

4. Write about others. A journal isn't just about you, it is about the people you meet; your companions, and the people you you talk to, both members and non members. Some very good journals I have read describe not only the people but also the nature of their relationship too. Were they friends? Why or why not? You don't have to like every body, just but don't be mean. 

5. Create a sample of events, instead of recording every instance. I read one journal which recorded the time the writer woke up, what he ate for breakfast, which days he stoked the fire, etc, for 40 years. While some of that might be interesting to some, most will find it difficult to read. Instead, reserve that kind of detail for special events, or if you want to record it, do it for one day each month. If you do go that route, make it Sunday for one month, Wednesday the next, and so on. The sample, even if it is an ordinary day, becomes an event because it isn't overdone.

6. Providing a detailed description can work for places too. When I got to a new area on my mission. I carefully described my impressions of the apartment, the chapel, and the geography. Because I didn't get transferred to often, I didn't overwhelm my journal with detail, yet I made sure I got detailed at least 7 times in 2 years. Granted, I would learn more about the area after I was there a while, but I could always write more later if I wanted.

7. Spelling is important, but not that important. I have learned more about how to pronounce place names in Tennessee (and in one case a companion's name) from the misspellings than from anything else.

8. While I would love for every handwritten journal to be easily readable, messy writing is not unique to the 21st century. Some people will provide some really beautiful handwriting, but most missionaries are average at best. Don't worry, as long as it can be read, few historians will think less of you for poor penmanship.

9. Technology is making everything easier, so take advantage of it. If you don't write you journal in a searchable format, someone will have to convert it later. Why not skip a step? A collection of emails is just as good and a handwritten journal. True, there is something to be said for seeing a journal in writing, but if given a choice of a photocopy of a hand written journal, and a reliable typed and searchable original, I'd take the latter.

10. Most importantly, this is your journal. Write about what you think is important. If you don't care about when you get up, don't record it.

I have to add this last disclaimer. Not all journals must be shared with posterity. Some should be destroyed. But that is a discussion for another day.

LDS Historical Geography

While trying to find information about which Ward my grandmother attended I came accross the following page at FamilySearch.org

https://www.familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/LDS_Historical_Geography

Most of the sources are only available in the library, though some have an online version. If you are really hard up for the information, you can pay to have the microfilm sent to your local Family History Center. But a few, like the card files, aren't even available that way.

But if you are writing a history of your ward and you need to know when it was organized or if you want to find out which ward your ancestor lived in, then one of the sources on this list might be really helpful.

Happy Halloween.

Family Papers

A few weeks ago my father sent me a handful of papers belonging to his father, Allen S. Crow. These were papers that my uncle had saved after my grandfather had passed away in 1993. My grandfather was a meticulous record keeper. He saved every paper that at one time was important, or at least he tried. His wife, my grandmother, balanced out his tendency to save paperwork by encouraging him to get rid of it all. I don't really know when most of his papers were thrown away. It may have been before grandmother's death in 1985 or after his death, but what I have in front of me today is a shadow of what he tried to keep.

That isn't to say he was a hoarder in the sense that we now see on television. When I was at his home it was always meticulously organized, if not strictly clean. The papers were kept where papers go, cabinets and file boxes. Items he showed off to guests were kept in display cases. There were no piles of items in every corner that he could not bring himself to throw away.  But there were things you might expect a normal person to keep, the bill of sale for a car, for example, except that he kept it for 70 years. And there were many of these kinds of paperwork.

In the end he probably saved too much paperwork. Instead of picking just the most important ones, or the most representative, he had too much for anyone to sort through. Whoever went through his papers was probably overwhelmed by the sheer volume and chucked it all. (note to self: go through my papers and chuck the ones I think aren't worth saving) The few papers that survived were at the bottom of a box that was overlooked in the purge. They give a glimpse of what he was doing, or trying to do, financially. There are a few personal items. A few photos. The obituary for his wife. A program from a daughter's missionary farewell. Some tracts from the RLDS church. But mostly it is financial paperwork.

So I have taken these papers on as a task. It is sort of my portion of a larger task to organize what we have on my grandfather before his children become too old to fill in the blanks. Already my uncle, who was sort of an amateur historian too (he collected their love letters), is no longer lucid enough to provide guidance, or even tell stories.

I'll be sorting though the papers and putting them into groups by content. From this I've created something like a finding aid and now I'm scanning the individual documents. I am even toying with OCR software to make the scans searchable. Then I'll burn copies to CD's for his children and grandchildren.

Finally the analysis. Every page, or group of pages tells me something about my grandfather. With my father's help as well as my aunts' I should be able to turn those pages into a narrative. And I'd like your help too. If you see something that I write that should be expanded or that you know a trick about how to find out more, let me know.

Can the Name of An Old Hometown be Misremembered?

A few weeks ago I was tracing the travels of William S. Berry for the several weeks before his death. One of the interesting side trips he took was to Wilson County, where he visited with his mother's relations. During that visit he went to see his the home his parent had lived in when he was born in a place he called Dresdon.

But no such place exists in Wilson County, at least not on records kept by the Tennessee State Library and Archives. The Berry family maintains that the Dresdon in question was actually in Weakley County, an assertion that does not bear out with the evidence, mostly because of the distance between the two counties and the impossibility of William making the round trip in two days.

The current line of reasoning I am working on is that William's journal was either mis-transcribed (I only have a typed copy, not a photo copy of the original) or that William misspelled the town’s name. The question is what could he have meant. I could find nothing even close to the spelling of Dresdon around which to form a theory.

That is until last weekend. In a local newspaper I found the following article about Mormons in Wilson County in September of 1884. The article started....

“The Drennan Settlement, more commonly known as the Hurricane district, is in Wilson county. and about sixteen miles south of Lebanon. The name Hurricane was bestowed on the district many years ago on account of its having been swept by a terrific hurricane, [probably a tornado] destroying many thousands dollars worth of property. The name Drennan was given to the neighborhood because an old man by that name lived for seventy years in the very heart of the district.”

The Hurricane district was a relatively successful area of Mormon proselyting. According to the article there were about 60 Mormons living there in 1884 when news of the Cane Creek massacre fueled threats of a similar violence in Wilson County. The local branch was at Baird’s Mill, described in the article as being about 7 miles north of old man Drennan’s house.

Today, much of the Hurricane district has been converted into the Cedars of Lebanon State Park. The park was formed from land that was purchased from local farmers who were in financial distress during the 1930’s era depression. The soil was generally of poor quality to start with and poor soil management had taken its toll.

However, as a possible candidate for the Berry home I rate this only as "fair". It is certainly within the range of a two day round trip, from Shop Springs, even if he walked. And the name is a close match. Even the presence of an LDS community nearby lends credibility to the theory. But all this is very circumstantial. The article did say Mormons had started preaching there in about 1878. And William Berry's parents joined the Church in 1842. Although the two date aren't necessarily incompatable, it does mean that I will need better than circumstantial evidence.

My next step is to find a photo copy of William Berry's journal.

Third Tennessee Infantry

This post could be entitled "Don't believe every thing you read on the Internet." More on that later.

For my birthday I received  a couple of books that are out of print. One of them was a book on a Civil War era unit titled "Holding the Line: The Third Tennessee Infantry, 1861-1864."

This particular unit was of interest to me because of its rosters included several people who were connected to the Cane Creek Massacre directly or indirectly. One of the most prominent names was William James "Jim" Conder, at whose home the massacre occurred, and whose sons were killed there. The other name most closely associated with the massacre is David Hinson. Both of these men served in company H of the Third Tennessee Infantry.

The book is based almost entirely on the writings of Flavel C. Barber, an officer with the Third Tennessee Infantry. He kept a journal and wrote letters, but the most important source for me were two rosters that Major Barber took, one in 1862 and another in 1864. In each he noted the names of men who had served and if they were no longer serving (due to death, capture, discharge, ect.) he noted why.

I was fascinated to find on the list the Conder brothers. Actually it was the older Conder brothers: Jim Conder, and his brothers to be exact. Along with David Hinson, all of them fought and surrendered at Fort Donaldson, were imprisoned at Camp Douglas in Illinois, and exchanged September 23, 1862.



Conder, G. H. [George Henderson Conder]: Fought at Springdale, fought at Chickasaw Bayou, Fought at Port Hudson, Captured at Raymond Miss, escaped and deserted 1863. [Henderson later joined the church and emigrated to Colorado]

Conder, J. W. [John Wesley Conder]: Fought at Springdale, fought at Chickasaw Bayou, Fought at Port Hudson, Wounded at Raymond Miss, Absent from Jackson, Chickamauga, and Missionary Ridge due to injury. [John was among the wounded who were left behind during the retreat. He died from his injury at Raymond, but Major Barber didn't know that.]
 
Conder, M. L. [Martin Luther Conder]: Fought at Springdale, AWOL from Chickasaw Bayou, Fought at Port Hudson, Captured at Raymond Miss, escaped and rejoined unit on July 30, 1863, deserted Sept 6, 1863.

Conder, W. J. [William James Conder]: Furloughed home Sept 30, 1862 from Jackson, Miss., and deserted. [Jim joined the Church in 1879 but never left Tennessee]


Hinson, David: "Discharged or disability" from Jackson in October 1862. [Killed at Cane Creek Massacre Aug 10, 1884]

This last entry was a bit of a surprise for me. I had until now relied upon the research of Charles Hinson, a descendent of David Hinson and a prominent member of the Maury County Historical Society. In his biography of David he wrote among other things the following sentence.

David fought in every battle the 3d Tennessee took part in for the remainder of the war. He was paroled after the Confederate surrender in North Carolina in April, 1865 [see here]

I had not been able to find any evidence for this statement so far. But I trusted his statement because of his reputation. Now given that I have found evidence to the contrary, I have to say I am a little disappointed. I should have known better. I should not have taken his research for granted. It may be that I will find that David joined some other unit where he served out the war. There were also several guerilla units that operated during the Civil War, the membership of which we know very little. But it really doesn't matter. What I will take away from this is that I assumed someone's research was correct, a mistake I don't intend to repeat.

Elder Robison's Visit to Cane Creek

Off and on for the last year I have been working on a book about the massacre. At each point in my research I come upon oddities that I can’t explain. As I work through the details I have been finding simple explanations that fit perfectly. William S. Berry’s visit to his father’s home in Dresdon, for example, makes no sense unless you agree he lived in Wilson, instead of Weakley County. Another issue is the visit of Elder Willis Eugene Robison to the Conder home immediately after the massacre.

For those who don’t recall, Elder Robison heard rumors about the Cane Creek Massacre while he and his companion were waiting for the other four elders (Gibb, Jones, Berry, and Thompson) to meet them at Blue Creek near McEwen Tennessee. But by Monday night, the four had not shown up,so they became concerned. Tuesday morning they headed back into town to discover rumors about the massacre the previous Sunday. Concerned about the welfare of the missionaries and members at Cane Creek, Elder Robison puts on a disguise and makes his way to the Conder home. There he gets first hand info about the massacre, is reassured about the survivors welfare and then escapes back to McEwen, Tennessee.

He started from McEwen and went to Gillam (now Tennessee City) where he caught a train south to Centerville. From there he walked. But from there his description is a little odd. He says he followed an old railroad to the Buffalo River. Centerville in almost due north of Cane Creek. The Buffalo River, however, is south and west of Cane Creek. There is no way he could have walked from Centerville to the Buffalo River and then to Cane Creek in a single day, never mind that even if he did, he would have to go considerably out of his way.

I started to worry that Elder Robison made up the story of visiting Cane Creek. It seemed an odd thing to make up. But people tell tall tales all the time. I figured I could prove it one way or another by looking at the details of his journey the same way I did for Elder Berry.

He claimed to have started walking south from Centerville along what he described as a railroad bed destroyed in the Civil War. I figured that would be a good place to start. Railroad hobbyists document a lot when it comes to old railroads, and Civil War buffs are everywhere around here. But it turns out Elder Robison was wrong about this one. There is a railroad bed that heads south from Centerville. But it wasn’t destroyed during the war, it was built to support the iron furnace industry. There were several of these furnaces built after the Civil War, but the iron ore was just not rich enough in this part of Tennessee to support the industry. Several attempts were made, but they all failed to turn a profit. A few miles north of Cane Creek the rail bed comes to Beaverdam Creek at a town called Aetna, not too far away from a small town called Buffalo. Could Elder Robison just have got the name of the river wrong?

To test this I looked at one more clue. As he left the Conder home, Jim Conder gave him directions to follow the moon so he could avoid the roads in order to reduce his chance of being caught. Elder Robison followed his directions and ended up at the spot where he said the railroad crossed the Buffalo River.

The moon is pretty predictable. To figure out where the moon was that night it would be a simple matter of figuring out which night he was there and find the right charts.

He arrived at the Cane Creek at about 11:00 p.m. on August 14th, 1884, and left two hours later at about 1:00 a.m. the next day. According to the US Naval Observatory’s website, moonrise on that day was at 11:43 p.m., placing the moon in the east, just above the trees at about 1:00 a.m. on the 15th as Robison left the Conder home. The moon would appear as a waning crescent with 43% of the Moon's visible disk illuminated. The moon’s position at moonrise at that time of year would have been in the northeast.

If you drew a line from the Conder home toward the northeast, in about five miles you would come back to Aetna exactly where the railroad bed crosses Beaverdam Creek.

It is unlikely Elder Robison could have described the correct position of the moon, at the right time had he not actually been there at the right time and in the right place. His directions are too precise, even if he got the name of the river wrong.

Where is Dresdon Tennessee?

This is a story in which I almost make a fool of myself. But before I do, I want to let you check my work. I started out trying to track the travels of Elder William Shanks Berry just prior to his being killed in Aug 10, 1884. One aspect that confused me was that he noted that he was visiting his relatives and that he went to see his father’s old cabin in Dresdon, Tennessee. But at no time could I tell that ever went to Dresden in Weakly County Tennnessee where so many biographies say he was born. So I started tracking his travels day by day, using his journal as a guide.

Elder Berry’s visit with his relatives comprise much of the month of July. Starting on the 4th of July which he spends in Nashville, he makes his way east of the city by train to Lebanon, the Wilson County seat. From Lebanon he walks and hitch-hikes seven miles to the tiny postal town of Shop Springs. There he meets several relatives. Some he even meets by accident. At one point he asks a total stranger if she knows where Mrs. Sims lives and it turns out he is talking to Mrs. Sims herself.

Over the course of three weeks he meets dozens of cousins and spends his time, apparently sans companion, visiting and collecting names. It is almost as if he is writing for his mother’s benefit, elaborating on his exact relationship only when it comes down to second and third cousins, and then only by adding who their parent or grandparent was, as though that were enough to properly identify their relationship.

At one point he made a side trip to his father’s old cabin.

Thursday July 17th. I went to Shop Springs post office to send a letter home.

I walked to Dresdon, Tennessee and saw my father’s house. It is 18 by 30. It is made of logs and lumber. The two chimneys are of stone and brick. It has one door in the west, one in the north and one in the south. The windows and in the west, north and south and two up stairs. There is a spring about 6 rods south east of the house. There are few peach and locus trees about the place. I met and old black man by the name of Eliga Tompson. He said he knew my mother. He said his father was Joe Shanks and that he belonged to grandfather Shanks. He said he saw my father have a fight with Bill Belt. I stayed here all night.

The next day he walked back to a cousin’s house in Shop Springs. So where ever he went it wasn’t too far from Shop Springs.

From this I start thinking... maybe he wasn’t born in Dresden, Weakley County, but in Dresdon, Wilson County. It isn't uncommon for genealogist to know only the town and have to look up the county from an index of some kind. But a quick search turned up no such location. I checked with historians more familiar with Wilson County and still nothing.

I started to doubt myself when I found an 1840 census listing Jesse Berry (William’s father) as living in Dresden, Weakley County. Maybe they moved from Wilson County to Weakley County and William was just confused when he named the place in Wilson County Dresdon. Not everything people write in journals is correct.

But the 1840 census doesn’t name anyone except the head of household. So it might not even be the right Jesse Berry. And as I start looking at birth records for each of William’s siblings, I start to see more conflicts. Some were born in Lebanon in Wilson County, others were born in Dresden in Weakly County. And there doesn’t seem to be a pattern for when they moved from one spot to the next.

I start looking at the support documents others have collected for the Berry family living in Weakley County. None of them are really county specific. But marriage records in Tennessee are specific to the county where the marriage was issued. I know Jesse married Armela Shanks in 1820 in Wilson County. Their oldest son John Williams Berry, William's older brother, was married in Wilson County in 1842.
I know they joined the church in 1842, though the baptism record doesn’t say where or by whom they were baptized. By 1844, they are living in Nauvoo, where Jesse died and was buried.

So here is my theory. The family knew they lived in Dresdon, Tennessee. So that is what they recorded. Years later, more nitpicky genealogists filled in the counties where the family had left it off. Not knowing where Dresdon was, they looked it up. What they found was Dresden, in Weakley County. They assumed it must be the right one, since it was the only one they found. I know I haven't proven this theory yet, so help me out here. Are there holes in my logic, and how would you go about proving or disproving this?

Ward Christmas Activity

My ward is having a Christmas Party with a Nauvoo 1843 theme. We're supposed to come in costume and we have a host of activities that are meant to enhance the experience. different auxilaries have "booths" that correspomd to spots in old Nauvoo; a bakery, the Red Brick Storehouse, and more. I suggested we make little posters that tell a brief history of some one there, perhaps relatives of ward members or people from Tennessee who lived there. Maybe a quote from their journal like the signs along Pratt Street in Nauvoo today.

So yesterday at church we asked the ward members for the names of their relatives at Nauvoo, if they have any. I'll gather same names of those from Tennessee and we'll see what we come up with. For relatives, so far we have Patty Sessions, Alpheus Gifford, Calvin Fletcher, Edward Miller, Gilbert Belnap, Parley Pratt, Stephen Markham, Mary Curtis, Charles Lambert, Ann Cannon, and Daniel Miller. I also want to include saints who lived in Tennessee but later moved to Nauvoo, like Hayden Wells Church, Lavina Murphy, Randolph & Myrza Alexander, and Mary Abel.

Really this is not more difficult than a blog post. And I certainly don't want anything longer than a blog post, probably much, much shorter. Have any of you done something like this before? And do you have any suggestions?

History is disappearing while we wait

When I moved into my new home, I learned that one of the people who lived relatively nearby that I had been hoping to talk with had recently passed away. It was disappointing. An entire perspective on the past - her perspective- is now only to be had second hand. Well, just the other day I learned another person I had hoped to talk with has passed away as well.

Charles Hinson was a descendent of David Hinson. He was a dedicated Methodist, but found the resources of the LDS Family History Library quite valuable.  I have spoke with several people who met him. He was friendly and did not share his ancestor's animosity toward the Church. He knew about his ancestor and the relationship he had with the Missionaries and the LDS Church. If one Family History consultant is to be believed, he even appoligized for his ancestor's actions, though I hardly believe it is even necessary. Anyway, I have been able to use his research into David Hinson's life as a significant starting point.

What I regret is that over the last two years, although I have wanted to meet with him, I have been unable to do so. I could say it wasn't from a lack of trying, but that wouldn't be strictly true. I have tried, just not very hard. So now I have only the research he left behind. I know he must have been so much more than just that.

I almost didn't write this post. While I am sensitive to the fact that when people die they leave behind loved ones who wish they didn't have to go, what I am trying to say is that every day the past slips a little bit further away from us. It doesn't wait until we have time to seek it out.

Using Publications for Research

When I was in high school I read book called Megatrends by John Naisbitt. Part of his reasearch methodology involved newspaper analysis. The author described the origin of that process, which was first used during World War II to assess enemy casualties. The official reports from Germany often under represented the scope of the negative effects of the war. But local newspapers proudly reported the names of those who died in the service of their country. By collecting together local newspapers, Allied intelligence could tabulate the total German deaths. It would take a week or more to get the newspapers, but in the end they could get accurate numbers.

Not having any real formal training in historical research, I have had to use the tools I already knew. One of them was collecting small details from periodicals and putting them together to create a wider view. For example, the Liahona was a monthly(ish) newspaper of mission activity for initially the Southern States Mission and later other missions too. The newspaper reported number of baptisms, branches formed, arrivals and transfers of missionaries, and more.

Just picking one stat reported I can look at how perceptions of missionaries were changing in Tennessee. The chart below tracks the number of times missionaries asked for food and lodging but were refused during the first six months of recording. The number of missionaries was relatively constant staying between 15 & 16 for each conference for the entire six months.

So for a short time in 1904 there was a spike in the number of time missionaries were refused entertainment in middle Tennessee. I would love to know why middle Tennessee had such a negative atitude toward LDS missionaries in the spring of 1904, while at the same time east Tennessee did not. As I plot out this same stat for other time periods and other areas will I see something more? Is this part of a southern-states-wide trend? What made the two areas almost trade places by the summer? Maybe one conference reported the number of times they were refused [I had to try six homes before I found a place to stay] while the other reported only the nights they had to sleep under the stars. I don't know the answers, but now I have questions.

I have been asked where I find my stories, so many about such a small area. Well, with a small amount of raw data, I can formulate questions about what I want to look at next. Having a question I want to answer is a great place to start.

Here is a sample of the other things reported inthe Liahona during those same six months.


Tennessee Conference Presidents and their addresses [August 1st, 1903]
Middle Tenn.—U. G. Brough, 535 N. E. 2d St., Nashville, Tenn.
East Tenn.—Geo. A. Laugston, care C. B. Madaris, Dayton, Tenn.

Subscribers to the Liahona [7 February 1904]
The Liahona had 22 subscribers in Tennessee. The two Conferences in Tennessee have seven hundred twenty-three members.

Arrivals and Appointments
On March 28th, [1904] ... John Woodward and Thomas E. Nuttall, Middle Tennessee; J. W. Ahlstrom and J. H. Walton, Jr., East Tennessee.
April 17th, [1904] Z. C. Whittle and John G. Shields, Jr., Middle Tennessee;

Transfers [10 May 1904]
A. C. Hull, Georgia, to act as President of the East Tennessee Conference;

Died [11 June 1904]
James Underwood Ennis, of Liletown, Green county, Tennessee, died at the age of 23 years, in Indianapolis, Ind., but his remains were shipped home for interment. Brother Ennis was a promising young man and one who was ever proud of fhe fact that he was a Latter-day Saint.

Meeting of Conference Presidents [12 July 1904]
Dates and locations of future conference meetings
Mid. Tenn., Aug. 7th, [at] Glanraven;
East Tenn., Aug. 14th, [at] Void;

Ward Conference

I was sitting our ward conference last Sunday and I began to contemplate how this modern conference would fit into the context of the dozens of historic conferences about which I had read. It started with the sustaining of the Officers of the Church. The High Councilor was reading from a list of names, as he should, and the list included not only church-wide officers, but also stake and ward leaders. As he read, I thought to myself, that list is probably going into a history archive of some sort, or at least it should. I’d love to see a collection of such lists for any of the branches I have been studying. That and maybe the minutes.

Conference minutes are one of my chief sources about what happened at the various conferences in Tennessee. But they included not only who held what positions but what songs were sung, who said the prayers, who spoke and about what did they speak. Sometimes the list even included a list of attendees. I suppose that some of this is collected today, though certainly not all of it.

There are other sources too. Journals, letters, newspaper articles, and more recorded the events where branches were formed, leaders were called, released, or whatever. Ordinary people kept records too.

At the 1787 constitutional convention one delegate kept personal notes on each of the attendees. His notes are a rare window into the men who were there.

Our minutes are not as meticulous today as they were 125 years ago when the Southern States mission was just getting started. But there were about 200 people at our ward conference this year. I wonder how many might write something about today's conference.

Will historians 125 years from now lament the lack of records kept by ordinary people today? Are there missionary journals kept today that compare to the journals stored in the church archives? Do we save, or even write letters the way we used to? Do we record our life experiences as if we were documenting history? Maybe we, as historians, should remember to take some time create the type of documents we wish someone had created for the subject we are studying.

An Hour in the Archives

Most of you reading this are probably thinking this is about the Church Archives. Well, it isn't. I live some 2,000 miles from the Church Archives, so if I go, I'll want to spend more than a hour there. No, this is about the Tennessee State Library and Archives in Nashville. I go to the Archives to find stuff I can't get on-line. I don't usually get more than an hour at a time, and sometimes I get less. But you can accomplish a lot in just an hour. Every state capital probably has a similar institution. Even our public library has some of the same services at the reference desk. So if live or work near an Archive like this and you are wondering if you can do somethin in only an hour, the answer is Yes!

11:55 AM  Sign in at the front desk. At the TN Archives, you have to register as a user to get by the guard at the front door. Registering means you can get a parking pass (free!!) and a card to give to the guard each time you visit. The log book shows only the number on your card so the log book maintains privacy while still keeping track of who is using the Archives.

11:58 AM  Asked the librarian at the reference desk for a book showing the State Senators. Turns out there is a collection of biographies for each of the State Senators. I'm interested in Thomas A. Kercheval and any one else with that last name. Turns out there is only one. The biography offers a more accurate set of dates for his service as Senator, making him in the right place and the right time to author a law which prohibited the teaching of polygamy in Tennessee. I make a copy of the biography (30 cents for 2 pages) and place the book on the cart for re-shelving. Total time: 12 minutes.

12:10 PM  Made my way to the Manuscripts division to find out how to look up court cases. After describing what I was looking for and confessing I didn't know how to find it, the archivists cheerfully helped me out. One showed me the right finding aid for court minutes in Anderson County, Tennessee in 1900 and how to locate the microfilm when I had the number. The microfilm library here is self serve, though they don't want you to refile the films when you are done. I locate a microfilm reader with a copy machine attached, load the film, and scroll to the index. I find three entries for D. J. Eaton and write down the page numbers, five in total. I scroll to the pages I want and make some copies. I have to copy a couple extra pages to get the entire event, but 7 pages (and $1.75) later I rewind the microfilm, place it on the re-shelf table and move on. I wasted 3 minutes getting correct change for the microfilm copier, but I'll do better next time. I didn't waste time trying to decipher the archaic handwriting. I can do that at home or in the hotel next time I am at a client site. If you are lucky, your archives may have software for copying images from microfilm to a pdf file for free. You only have to provide the storage medium. Tennessee's archives, however, does not. Total time: 15 minutes.

12:25 PM  Having completed my predetermined tasks, I go to the reading room and walk back to the section on Lewis County. I already knew where it was but if I didn't I could have just asked. I pull three books which I have seen before, but didn't previously have the time to go through. One is a WPA manuscript from 1938 on the history of Lewis County probably written originally in 1909. In it I find a reference to the Condor family arriving in the area in 1808, when it was still part of Hickman County. I note the reference data and the page number. Another book is a list of members of the Church of Christ covering the same area as Cane Creek. I saw a few names I knew, including at least one who was an LDS member in 1884 but joined the Church of Christ in 1896. I should have made a copy, but it slipped my mind. The last book was court minutes from just before the Civil War. I skimmed from 1854 to 1858 looking for "whatever." I found only a handful of events of interest to me. Most involving relatives of known vigilantes and other key figures like Tom Garrett and John Carroll all in positions of importance and influence. Noticing my time was about up, I placed the volumes on the re-shelving cart and collected my things. Total browsing time: 35 minutes.

1:02 PM Signed out at the front desk, richer in knowledge and $2.05 poorer.

Your results may vary, but even not knowing where to go for some of the stuff I wanted, I accomplished two specific tasks in 28 minutes and had time left over for browsing. The trick? No trick really.

1. Know what you want to find out before you arrive. I had names and dates written on a piece of paper based on the on-line research I had already done. The more you already know, the easier it will be to find when you get there. Notice I didn't spend any time at the card catalogue. I can do that at home. 
2. Don't be afraid to ask for directions. The librarians and archivist want you to succeed. They aren't always right, but they know the archives better than I do. Of course, they are not volunteers, they are paid to be there. Their livelihood depends on knowing this stuff when a legislator come over from next door.

[disclaimer: I don't always find what I am looking for when I go to the archives. But I always enjoy myself.]

A Law against teaching polygamy in Tennessee

Sometimes my personal interests take me in random directions. For example today research ...

Several months ago in the New York Times dated February 28, 1885 I found the following article.

Nashville, Tenn., Feb 27. - The killing of Elder Gibbs and Berry, Mormon missionaries from Utah, and John R. Hudson and Martin Conder, Mormon converts, on Cane Creek, Lewis County, last August, caused Senator Kercheval to introduce a bill in the State Senate to define and punish the crime of teaching the doctrine of polygamy. The Senate to-day passed it by a vote of 25 to 2. The measure provides that a violation of the act shall be punished by a fine of $500 and imprisonment not to exceed three years, at the discretion of the court. Several Mormon Elders are at work in the State.

It was interesting but not much there. Nut just last week in Andrew Jenson's Church Chronology is the following entry.

1885 Apr 9: The Tennessee Legislature passed a law forbidding the teaching of polygamy in that State

OK, so the dates don't match. That isn't a big deal, is it? One of the should be right. So I figure I'll go lookup the actual record from the Tennessee Legislative history. A quick search online turned up .... nothing. Well, not nothing. I found indexes for Tennessee legislation from 1796 to 1850. And the State Archives have legislation online from 1955 to the present. But nowhere could I find 1885. Sounds like I need to make a trip to Archives in person. Fortunately for me it is a short lunch hour trip. Maybe next week when I'm back in Nashville.

So I thought what about this senator Kercheval? He might be a lead. Turns out Thomas A Kercheval was a State Senator from 1865 - 1869. He was Mayor of Nashville three times; from 1871-74, 1875-83, 1886-88 but from 1883 to 1886 he was not a state senator nor was he Mayor. So how could he have sposored a bill in 1885? This is getting strange

Congregations in Lewis County Tennessee

On my last trip through Lewis County I noticed that just about every church I passed was "Church of Christ". It surprised me, because I had always thought of Tennessee as firmly in the Southern Baptist Convention. So I started to pull some data.

Turns out that there are 17 Church of Christ congregations in Lewis County. But only 6 Southern Baptist congregations. The clincher is the size of the congregations. There are 2,032 total Baptists in Lewis County, but only 1,663 total members of the Church of Christ.

These numbers are a blend from 1990 and 2000, so they are a little old. The total population of Lewis County in 2000 was 11,367. The survey methods actually locate all adherents in the county the congrgation is located. So all LDS members for Lewis Count would be reported in Maury County or Perry County depending upon the Ward to which they belong.