Skip to main content

It Is All About Location #52 Ancestors

 For years I didn't really give my ancestor's location much thought.  I noticed that my maternal second great grandfather was living in a new location for each census.  How many people move around that much?  One time I got curious and found a township and county map so that I could trace where he and his family were each decade.  It looked as though he moved around in a circle. After that, I didn't consider maps and locations of much importance.  I didn't think about how the area during that time was changing or how the boundaries may have affected their lives.  I didn't think about what history might tell me about the time period and how that affected their lives.  I didn't think about the fact that the ancestors being researched were on the frontier.  I definitely didn't think about what that really meant for my ancestors.  I had a lot to learn.

What does the actual study of location entail?  I started by finding a map of the area for the span of years I was researching.  While studying the map, I asked questions that would help me learn about the history of the area.  

To study location is to look broadly at your ancestor and their world.  Understanding the life of your ancestor is to understand the what, where, when, and why of their location.  Understanding their location leads to understanding the geographical, historical, cultural, and sociological aspects of the area and their affect on your ancestor. 

Once I embraced the study of location my research became more targeted, more organized, more efficient, more meaningful, and I was more successful.

Most recently, I was studying my maternal third great grandmother, Catherine Hoak Noel.  She was born in 1798 in Strasberg, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.  The bits and pieces of sourced data that I had placed her in Lancaster, Cambria and Allegheny Counties.  This led me to begin studying the history of Strasberg for the timeframe I was researching.  While this map is of the area in the early 1900s and not the time I was researching, it does provide a visual which matches the description of the town, "a linear city stretching for two miles along the Great Conestoga Road."  There are far more homes depicted than the dozen homes in the early 1800s! The road was a primary route that connected Philadelphia and Lancaster. 

T. M. Fowler 1903 of Morristown, PA (drawn and published by), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The question on my mind was how did they make their way to Western Pennsylvania.  Settlers used the Indian trails.  Those trails were widening to accommodate horses and wagons, as pioneers made their way west.  At the same time there were military roads that had been constructed and were also being used by the pioneers.

Catherine and her family moved west to Cambria County, which was formed in 1804.  The first area settled was Loretto.  The area was slow to develop with only 28 families in the original settlement.  It wasn't until the 1830s that the area began to grow quickly with coal mining and iron works as industries, and the arrival of the railroad.  

(c)2006 Derek Ramsey (Ram-Man) (from U.S. Census Bureau source), CC BY-SA 2.5 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5>, via Wikimedia Commons

Exactly when Catherine and her parents made the journey west, is still a mystery.  When were they in Cambria County?  How long did they stay?  When and where did she get married?  Census records place her and husband, Peter Noel, in Clearfield, Cambria County in 1830.  Catherine's parents, Jacob and Hannah Pugh Hoak are in Allegheny County in 1830.  There is a twenty year gap without a record.

Examining maps, asking questions and then studying the history and development of the area guides the research.  It is a focused, organized, and efficient approach to tracking down ancestors!  I am a believer in studying location and developing a Locality Guide to help me quickly find the resources I need.  Of course, there is more to the study of location and the development of a guide, but maps are one of the categories and the beginning of each of my research projects.  I really can't research effectively without first studying maps and then developing a Locality Guide,  it is time well spent. 


Studying location changed my approach to research and the level of success that I was having.  I was introduced to the concept and guided through the development of a Locality Guide by the Family Locket Team, Diane Elder and her daughter, Nicole Dyer.   



Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Curiosity - #52 Ancestors - Catherine Hoak Noel

Curiosity   Who was Catherine Hoak Noel? Why does this topic make me shake my head thinking I don't know what to write? Genealogy is all about curiosity. In fact, every discovery that has been made was because I was curious. One could say that curiosity is the foundation of genealogy! In fact, without curiosity there wouldn't be any discoveries nor that next odd and curious discovery that keeps a person digging! Today, I am curious about my maternal third great grandmother, Catherine Hoak Noel. She is one of those ancestors that seems to be a blip on the screen, pretty much invisible. Really though, she is a typical woman of the early nineteenth century. In nineteenth century American society, a woman’s role was predominately that of cook, wife, mother, and homemaker in a rural setting. Families were large. Women were relied upon to provide children who then supplied manual labor on the farm helping to maintain the family income and welfare. Women during that time enjo...
Post a Comment
Read more

Happiness Exudes - Favorite Photo #52 Ancestors

 It is difficult to find just one photo that can be labeled as the favorite.  Growing up I remember wrestling with the old suitcase that held all of the family photographs.  It was always fun to sit down with Mom and sort through them, looking and listening, as she told me stories. There were so many little photo booklets and loose photos in that suitcase and each one told a story.  They spoke of growing up poor.  They spoke of family picnics.  They spoke of sailors and soldiers.  They spoke of backyard parties in the fall, with a fire in a metal barrel for warmth, polka music playing and people dancing.  They spurred memories like the special diamond ring that Dad made me from a firefly when I was three or four.  Oh, how it sparkled! How in the world does a person select just one photo?  As I think about it, a person doesn't have to have just one favorite photo and just maybe because I am struggling to find just one, I am that person....
Post a Comment
Read more

Disaster Strikes Joseph B. Shaner Family #52 Ancestors

It was late December 1887, and a typical winter day for Joseph B. Shaner and family in Cowansburg, Pennsylvania.  The snow was banked against the house and streets were slick with patches of ice. The holidays were behind them and the family had settled into their usual routine.  Rebecca got up early to make lunches as family members readied themselves to brave the cold outdoors to make their way to work or school. Joseph headed to the Coal Mine near Lash Post Office.   Rebecca’s day had started like any other.  She did some laundry, cleaned the house, baked some bread and prepared a pot of beans for dinner.  Later that day she heard a shuffling at the door. Joseph was on a stretcher! Fellow miners carried him indoors. The men quickly explained that he had been injured in the mine.  Dr. J. D. Milligan attended Joseph that same day, December 29, 1887, stating that Joseph had been crushed by a piece of slate that had fallen on him. The fa...
Post a Comment
Read more