Avoid the Pitfalls of Sloppy Work

If you want your work as a family historian to be taken seriously, then avoid the pitfalls of Sloppy Work (F-) 

like the plague.

I know compiling your family tree is a work in progress, however, 

you must think logically and use some of those skills you learned in school! 

Everything you do in life, whether it is employment or a hobby, 

has its own protocol and vocabulary.

"through the rules we become conscious of wrongdoing." 

~ Romans 3:20.

To begin, gather your supplies. It is GOOD (A+) to have supplies and tools to work with. Go shopping if you must. Sign up for a library card at your local library or genealogy center and obtain copies of their pre-printed charts and forms or print your own! Purchase a file box for copies of printed records and photos. It's good to have access to a basic set of an encyclopedia. As you graduate from elementary research to intermediate and expert, you can add to your tool-bag as needed. 

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL =  Begin your genealogical education with a tutor or by reading everything you can lay your hands on about genealogy. Just like professional teachers take refresher courses from time to time, be sure to update your knowledge base from time to time as well. This includes watching videos.  For extra credit, join a genealogical society or attend a genealogical conference. If you don't know something, keep asking questions or google it until you get your answers. 

ARITHMETIC = It's good to use a timeline for each person's life - start with what you already know and begin with their birth-date, adding in each fact during their life-time, up until their death. Figure out their approximate age at each added date. Recording dates and calculating ages is a helpful tool for logically figuring out if that's your ancestor in an outside record. 

WRITING = It's good  to add dates and locations to all facts in each person's life-stream.

You get an A+ if you pair the names of the locations with their component part -- indicate whether it is a city, township, or county! [i.e.. Kansas City, Washington Township (Twp.), Jackson County (Co.), State of Missouri (MO.), United States of America (USA)]

It's good to add parentheses around a married woman's maiden name. [i.e. Gladys Esther (White) O'Neal]

Here's a tip = type in the source of your record when you scan your book page to upload to genealogy sites. Then you will never forget where you found it, because it will be meshed into your digital picture! 

SOCIAL STUDIES = It's good to add in additional national or regional historical event facts to their timeline that occurred during their life. I leave my ancestor's information in black and add in additional information in another color. 


It's good to remember in the New World what kind of roads (none to Indian trails) and transportation were available to our American ancestors - ships on oceans, walking, horses, boats on rivers, wagons, trains, horseless carriages, airplanes and rockets in that order. Twenty miles of travel by wagon was a good day! It took many months of twenty mile days to cross the North American continent from coast to coast. 

SCIENCE = Good traveling was mostly done between the late spring and early fall seasons. By fall, the grass had grown tall and the water sources would have been lower or dried up. 

There was safety in numbers for our pioneer ancestors. Migrating people groups had to contend with hostile natives, illnesses, lack of healthy food, clean water, thieves, and the terrain. Military forts, doctors, and trading posts were few and far between if they existed on the frontier.  It's good to find FAN's (friends, associates, and neighbors) of your relatives as their descendants may have additional information about them. 

READING = It's good to find at least three sources of data per date to prove your relative's parents, their name, birth, death and anything in between. Many of the "Documents of" type posts on this website shows the type of records I have collected and transcribed. The more I find, the better I will get to know my ancestors and their families. 

New information is good! And it is also good to remember to note that on your person's timeline at that moment! Otherwise you may forget!

SPELLING = It's good when you spell names correctly.  However, remember, that not all people spell well, so look for all possible variations when scouting for information.

It's good to know that your ancestor may have a name twin!  My husband has six in our Metro Area. Using your timeline (s), figure out if the newest record jives with what you already know about your person as far as their dates, locations, their age and so forth. If it doesn't line up, discard it or set it aside for the time being until you know more. I don't accept every leaf hint that shows up for my ancestor on Ancestry.com.  

And please, be mindful of your manners! (A +) 

Now GO And Have Fun! 

Miller County Historical Society Museum

Anyone with an interest in the history of Miller County (org. 1837) in central Missouri or in the pioneers who lived here ought to visit the Miller County Historical Society’s Museum. It is located next to the new courthouse in Tuscumbia.

The Miller County Historical Society began in 1979, with the museum opening in 1980 in the jail adjacent to the old County Courthouse. It moved, in 1991, to the former Anchor Milling native stone building as their exhibits expanded. The museum has recently been remodeled and a new wing added on for a genealogy library. Two historic log cabins have been moved to the grounds next to the museum and Nancy Thompson joined the museum as director.

They love donations of materials from the history of Miller County like objects and pictures for exhibits, and genealogy scrapbooks for the library. They have added many books, records such as probate, marriage, and obituaries and set up computers for online research too. Much of the county’s historical information has been made available on their website as well. Exhibits include the Civil War, quilts, the Osage River port and steamship history, Lee Mace and the Ozark Opry, an old country store, an old-fashioned schoolroom, and so forth.

The museum is run by volunteers and depends solely upon fund raisers, donations, and the society’s membership fees to run the museum. My husband is a life-time member. The cost of touring the museum is FREE.

Call, write, or see their website for current schedule and other information.

Miller County Historical Society Museum, PO Box 57, 2005 Hwy 52, Tuscumbia, MO 65082, 573-369-3500

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 Have you ever considered using calling cards or business cards to document your ancestor?

I was rummaging through some old business cards I had and found two that I can say with certainty fall into the historical document list as these people are no longer in the leadership role these cards portray. 

You are seeing correctly! I removed the personal telephone information from these two business cards, but all the other information for the Historical Society Museum is correct.

Dr. Harold Joe Pryor (1943-2021) 

~~ <> @ <> ~~

You might be interested in reading other posts that mention the Miller County Missouri museum:

• Portions of the Museum can be seen in episode 5 of season 9  of the television series  "Who Do You Think You Are" with actress Jessica Biel Timberlake.
• Museums
• (off-site) Miller County Museum's Facebook page and YouTube Channel


Written by Dolores J. Rush. Updated: 7/24/2021. 

Cite Your Sources!

Tools = Ancestry, Family Search, Find-a-grave and other genealogical websites are only tools to help you locate sources of documents to prove your ancestors existed, however, not all documents are online. Some you have to go dig out yourself from family members,  local libraries, inter-library loan and/or on-site such as in cemeteries, courthouses, FAN's (friends, associates, neighbors), and historical/genealogical society libraries and museums. I have said that genealogy is much like a scavenger hunt and a jigsaw puzzle all rolled into one!

3 Documents 4 Each Point = According to my schoolteachers, you should have at least three documents for each point you want to discuss in detail in a report and genealogy is essentially reporting on an ancestor. So in this case, to prove not only that your ancestor lived with three documents,  you also need prove each thing that happened to them during the course of their life with three documents apiece or more. And do not disregard the citations, for these help you prove your point(s), should you ever have to do so. Membership in various groups such as Daughters and Sons of the American Revolution or the Boone Society require these. And the more documents you locate, the better you will get to know your ancestor(s) as well.

Timeline = I found it most helpful to set up a timeline for both of the current ancestors I'm researching (my 3rd great-grandparents) with a birth and a death date and filling  in between those two dates with other documents.  It's a given that all people have at least two dates in their life-time -- a birth and a death, but generally, most people have more than that.

* birth records = (primary sources such as family Bibles, letters,  birth certificates, baby announcements, baptism/dedication/church/ministerial records,  census records, doctor/hospital records,   parental wills,  tax records, tombstone/cemetery records. Secondary sources such as published genealogies, county histories, magazine/newspaper articles, etc.)

* death records = (primary records such as family Bibles, letters, death certificate,  funeral leaflet, funeral home/mortician records,  tombstone/cemetery records, canceled checks,  military records, ministerial/church records, hospital/nursing home records, insurance papers, probated wills, and secondary resources such as newspaper death records or obituaries,   published genealogies, etc.)

I have set up a short general timeline of important dates in American history here. Begin with your ancestor's life dates per census records to figure out what they may have experienced during their lifetime. Be sure to figure their approximate age during these events. You may be surprised at what you discover.

Give credit where due = I cite or document my sources this way below, however there are other preferred methods too. Find the one you like and  consistently stick with that form. I'm using the one I learned in school.

* Citation form = Name of article and/or book. Author. Illustrator, if there is one. Publisher; city/state, copyright date. Volume number, if there is one. Page number. Repository location (where the material was found, so other researchers can also find it) or if retrieved from an online source, give website url/address. If shared with you from a family source, also acknowledge their contribution. 

Is it the gospel truth? = Documents can prove or disprove a family story. You begin with the family interview (memorized oral tradition) or family Bible (handwritten record), but then you go out and find other documents to go with it. Memory can sometimes be faulty or the tale may have been twisted in the telling. Remember the "Telephone" game we used to play as children?  Records can also be off  by a year or two, so take that into account. If the census taker did not have good spelling skills and if a transcriber of the records did not have much experience in reading the old script, there may be mistakes in written names, so look for all possible variations.

Be as Professional as Possible = I've been told by several genealogical/historian friends that they will dismiss a family tree as unreliable if there isn't any citations listed, so if you wish to have your claims about your ancestors to be taken seriously, you must cite all your sources as you find them.  Not everyone is endowed with photographic memory, so as you collect more and more information on your ancestor(s), you must add the sources in as you locate your material, because you won't remember them. Get OCD about it!

Good Hunting!


Update = Found a quote that goes quite well with this article:

"Unless you make notes as to the sources of your information they may not be available later for rechecking. Trust nothing to memory. Information that cannot be checked, compared or examined in the original will not bear much weight in genealogy. Be ready to back up all statements with the facts in black and white.

Thus being able to check sources of information is one means of determining the accuracy or competence of a report." ~ Harry W. Mills, Mt. Sterling, KY. Advocate 

"every fact not documented is mythology"

Colonial Dames of America

If you aren’t qualified to join the Daughters of the American Revolution but can prove that your lineage descends from pioneers who settled in America during the colonial days (from your school days, do you remember what the 13 original colonies were?), then perhaps this group is for you instead.

My encyclopedia seems to indicate that there are two groups of Colonial Dames of America. One was founded in 1890 and the other in 1891. The membership for the first depends on whether you are descended from an ancestor of distinction who resided in the colonies previous to 1776 or in the second, you were descended from a worthy ancestor settling in the colonies previous to 1750. Both groups collect and preserve records, documents, manuscripts, etc. that pertain to the colonies and the revolutionary period activities.

Most of my ancestors were ordinary men. Take for instance on my maternal grandfather’s side, the family traces back to a Peter ULLOM (me, mom, Grandpa John, Alford, Lorenzo Dow, Stephen, Peter). Peter was born in 1748 or 49 in Lancaster County, PA.

A cousin on my maternal grandmother’s side always told me I was descended from Robert MORRIS, the financier and signer of the Declaration of Independence, but it’s not been proven.

In years, we may be just shy of the requirement of colonial days, unless another family researcher has gone further back than I have. I’d love to know.

DAR: Daughters of the American Revolution

One of David’s cousins called him last year asking for help to fill out some admission papers for the local chapter of the  Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR). Her dad got sick shortly after that and we haven’t heard anything recently concerning her paperwork.

We talked to the regent of the local chapter at the Grinter Applefest in Wyandotte County, KS. last weekend. The DAR is a volunteer service organization dedicated to promoting patriotism, preserving American history and securing America’s future through better education for children. But in order to be a member, one must be a woman 18 years or older, regardless of race, religion, or ethic background, who can prove lineal descent from a patriot of the American Revolution. They have a DAR library and archives. The genealogy library is said to be the second largest research center in the world, with more than 300,000 files, 185,000 books, and 65,000 microfilms, in the national headquarters. The Archives has nearly 5,000 early American manuscripts and imprints.

Some of their activities involve awarding scholarships and financial aid to students, locating and marking historical landmarks and graves of countless Revolutionary War patriots, volunteering at VA hospitals, preserving local landmarks and historic structures in communities across the country, conserving pre-Industrial American decorative art objects, giving copies of the DAR Manual for Citizenship to immigrants studying for naturalization and becoming docents at local museums.

I was interested in learning that over thirty DAR state societies maintain a state or period room at the National Headquarters in Washington, D.C. and the Kansas Chapel contains stained glass sunflower windows assembled from twelve panels removed during the 1967 remodeling of the Carnegie Library in Wichita. The sunflower is Kansas' state flower. Talk about preserving history! *smile*

David’s 5th great-grandfather, Abel Stout, from New Jersey, fought in the American Revolution.

For more information on either the local chapter  or the national organization check out their websites.  

Revolutionary War Ancestors: 
Fletcher, William (1750-1792), DAR #A209074
Griffin, Richard (name posted on DAR plaque at the Montgomery Co, KY courthouse).
Morgan II, Morgan (1737-1797), DAR  #A080522
Stout, Abel (1740-1797), DAR #A110657
Todd, Peter ( 1756-1841), DAR #A114383

Possible Ancestor:
Morris, Sr., Lewis (1726-1798), DAR #A101275

Church Records and Christian History

Recently, our church cleared out some closets. The matter of what to do with old church documents such as address directories, baby dedication records, baptismal records, board minutes, old Sunday church bulletins, death records, membership transfer records, old newsletters, and so forth came up for discussion. To my knowledge, the collection hasn’t been cataloged since our 50th anniversary celebration several years ago and boxes, photograph scrapbooks, and filing cabinets have been stashed away in various available cubbyholes in our church.

Grandview Church of the Nazarene

These papers are not only important to document our church family history, but are also important to family historians/genealogists as well as to Christian university students and seminarians for various research papers and projects. American civic vital records only go so far back, so then, one may find information on ancestors in church records if they still exist.

David has always been interested in Christian history since his student days at Mid-America Nazarene University in Olathe, KS., particularly the Reformation period. I only became recently interested in church history when we began to homeschool our son in his fifth grade year of elementary school. We looked for a Christian-based history curriculum beginning in our home states since we live close to many important US history sites we could visit on field trips to supplement the curriculum. Not finding any, I began my own little research project which has since "blossomed” into a bigger project than I realized, namely, a timeline of Missouri and Kansas Christian history and two family history-related blogs, this one and the History Nut. 

Some time ago, David and I went to a genealogy lecture at our local Genealogy library. Angela N. Stiffler, former director of William Jewell University's Partee Center at Liberty, MO. was one speaker and the other was Barbara Bueller, herself a Lutheran. Both spoke of the importance of Christian and family research in Missouri which has been gleaned from church, ministerial, and district accounts. Since that time, I’ve gotten acquainted with Nancy Erhlich, a Heartland Presbyterian Church Historian and Stan Ingersol, the Nazarene Archivist. They all say the same, either keep your collection together (some churches now have a heritage room), transcribe it into a church history book (send a copy to your local genealogy library) or donate it to your local denominational archivist before you toss the records in the trash bin. Paper copies are best as technology changes way too fast. Family historians will thank you.

A Transcribed Example of Church Minutes:
Lulbegrud Primitive Baptist Church Minutes: 1793-1804. 

Example: a copy of my husband's church membership transfer document. Click on image to enlarge if you wish to view details.

More Repositories and Archives: 
Allen County, Indiana Public Genealogy Library Bible Records 
Bible Records Online

Primitive Baptist Library, Carthage, Illinois. Head Librarian: Eld. Robert Webb.

Compiled by Dolores J. Rush. Updated: 2/17/2020

News!

4 Feb 2024 = Jeanette (Jeffries) Rush Pestock passed away. 

8 July 2023 = First time since Covid Lockdown, we had a Rush Reunion! Theme: Western. 

29 November 2022 = The compiler of the genealogy, The Rush Report (see below) passed away today. Our sympathy goes to Gaynelle Jenkins Stoddard Moore's (age 90) family. Legacy #38289024 and Findagrave #255427023

18 May 2022 = George Allen Robertson passed away. He was 84 years old. 

15 Feb 2022 = Vera Loree (O'Neal) Lane passed away. She was 82 years old. 

18 Dec 2021 = Robert "Bob or Robo" Lawrence Lane passed away. He was 80 years old. 

8 Apr 2021 = Dorthy Mack, genealogist for the Boone Society passed away. She stopped here after a Boone Reunion in 2016 and we took her out to eat. Here's a photo of the two of us together. 

27 Apr 2020 = Miss Lily Dog, abt. 10 yrs, passed away during our coronavirus lockdown. 

Oct to Dec 2019: CONTRIBUTED TO: Generations, a Journal of  M.A.G.I.C. (Midwest Afro-American Genealogical Interest Coalition).

26 Oct 2019: NORMAN W. RUSH, 87, passed away.

2 Oct 2019: BARBARA CHASE PURTELL, 88, passed away. 

30 Sep 2019: PINKIE ANN (BIAS) CARRENDER, 78, passed away.

13 Jul 2019: RUSH REUNION. 

14 Jul 2018: RUSH REUNION. 

4 Apr 2018: ROSCOE W. RUSH, 92, Mary's Home. Died.

 7 Oct 2017: HISTORICAL CHRISTIAN CHURCH MARKER DEDICATION. New Santa Fe, Mo. (present day Kansas City, MO). This was my contribution to the event - a coloring sheet of the historic New Santa Fe, MO. Christian Church. 

8 Jul 2017: RUSH REUNION. 


Jan-Mar 2017. CONTRIBUTED TO: Generations, a Journal of  M.A.G.I.C. (Midwest Afro-American Genealogical Interest Coalition).

9 Jul 2016: RUSH REUNION. 

8 Nov 2015: SOLD OUT! Gaynelle Jenkins Moore compiled and published several books of her family history and its allied lines. The 2003 "Rush Report," is one such book and it is of the descendants of William and Henson Rush, along with the allied families of Bittle, Farley, Johnston, Loveall, Mertell, McAlister, Spalding, Williams and Winters. It covers 3433 descendants and 15 generations on 530 (8 ½" x 11") pages. It has over 200 photos with an index and comb binding.

Previous books were "The Spalding Report," "The Jenkins Family @1998," and "Eugene, Missouri: The Town that Lived (and Died) with the Railroad." Her newest book is "The Loveall Report" published in 2010. Each of her books were published in limited editions. For a hard  copy, check out the Miller County, MO. Historical Museum's archives in Tuscumbia, MO. or the Mid-West Genealogy Center, Independence, MO. 

19 Sep 2015: CONCERT. Border Ballads by Hank Roberts and Tom Raffiner. 


11 Jul 2015: RUSH REUNION. FREE Fan Template


29 Jun 2015: BIRTHDAY.

19 May 2015: PRESENTED PROGRAM. My husband and I traveled to Lincoln, IL to give a presentation about my 3rd great-grandparents, Eld. Martin and Kiturah (Fletcher) White. Martin was Logan County, IL's very first elected representative in the Illinois State Legislature. This was the write-up in the paper advertising my very first program. 

19 Oct 2014: CEMETERY PHOTO DAY.


 29 Sep 2014: MELBA K. RUSH, 78, Bonner Springs. Passed. 


14 Sep 2014: GENE E. RUSH, 80, Kansas City, Kansas, died. 


12 Jul 2014: RUSH REUNION. 

22 Mar 2014 = ORDER NO. 11 MARKER DEDICATION. I represented the third of the families who returned to Bates County, MO after the Civil War.

Spring 2014: TRANSCRIPTION CONTRIBUTION. I extracted information from cookbooks, old magazines, and vintage valentines for the Missouri State Genealogy Association Journal (MOSGA). One was a series of articles called "Missouri Contributors to National Women's Magazines."

5 Dec 2013: LORETTA A. SCHOLTZ, 90, Kansas City, Kansas, passed away

8 Oct 2013: PHYLLIS A. RUSH = July 6, 1948-October 8, 2013.


13 Jul 2013: RUSH REUNION. Another Poem

25 Jun 2013: PEGGY SMITH HAKE, 77, of Independence, formerly of Miller County, MO, passed away. Kinship -- Mrs. Hake was David's fourth cousin through the LOVEALLS.

14 Dec 2012: WILLIAM E. RUSH (1919-2012) passed away. 


 2 Aug 2012: ARCHIE TRUEMAN RUSH, Jr. passed away. 


14 Jul 2012: RUSH REUNION Poem and Recap Article


26 Jan 2012: GOLDIE (WINTERS) HOOPER HARRISON passed away. 

11 Nov 2011:  WEDDING: Eldon Church of the Nazarene, Miller County, MO. Pastor Jerry FRYE officiated at not only the bride and groom's wedding, but also the bride's mother and father’s wedding and it was like a reunion of the RUSH and CARRENDER families with three hundred guests, at least! 

11 Nov 2011: VETERAN TOMBSTONES: Two new tombstones have been ordered and delivered from the government for family Civil War veterans - Rev. Alexander SULLENS, Spring Garden cemetery and Isham GORDON, Eugene cemetery. Both will be set later this week. 

16 Jul 2011: STATE FAIR. One of the highlights of country life is exhibiting or working in county or state fairs. While listening in to several conversations going on around me at the reunion, I heard rumors that there might be exhibitors at one of the upcoming county fairs? Great show and tell for all the kid’s hard work this past year in 4-H, Future Farmers of America or in scouting.
I know that several family members have worked at or exhibited at our state fair in Sedalia, Missouri in the past. If you have won a ribbon, congratulations! Please make a note of it in the comments below and tell what you won the ribbon for so all of us can congratulate you also!

9 Jul 2011: RUSH REUNION. Great success! It looked as though we had some newly built picnic tables with stained wood at the shelter, so that was a welcome sight! Sunday morning we attended church at Eldon Church of the Nazarene. I saw quite a few of the Rush family there! Very good sermon on family! Isn’t it amazing how timely God is?

30 Jul 2010: LARRY "KELAN" SPALDING, Age 74, passed away Friday, 30 Jul 2010, in Springfield, MO.

10 Jul 2010: RUSH REUNION. The day dawned beautifully; not too warm with a nice breeze under the picnic shelter at the Eldon Air Park. I heard that Friday's pool party had a good turn-out, but we missed several at the potluck on Saturday. You know one can't beat a picnic to the park with good company and making memories with the kids and grandparents. 

19 Jun 2010: NEW TOMBSTONES. Last year, just before the annual Rush Reunion, two new tombstones were placed on the graves of brothers, James M. "Kain Tuck" Rush and John William Rush, who fought in the Civil War together in the Rush Chapel Cemetery. The Rush family collected enough money last year to replace ten gravestones that were badly deteriorated. They were replaced with new ones by the Kidwell Monument Company, Versailles, MO. in May.

6 Jun 2010: VIANNA LOUISE (FARLEY) STEEN, 72, of Independence, Missouri, passed away. 

Spring/Summer 2008: TRANSCRIPTION. "The Pioneer Wagon" Journal of the Jackson County, MO. Genealogical Society.

Compiled by Dolores J. Rush, Updated: 5/25/2022