Keach a familiar name

Keach, that name sounded a familiar note.  It was Stacy Keach Jr. that played Mike Hammer the private eye.  When I found Keach in my database, I was intrigued.  Was there somehow a family connection?  Being the inquisitive person that I am, I had to check this out.  In my printout of missing individual ordinances, I found George M. and Olive Bernice Keach without sealings to parents. In my notes George had the following entry. 

From Jeff Smith in Farmington:  He [George] ran off to Colorado to work in a mine and was never seen again. But before he left he left Elizabeth with a son named Eckley Martin Keach. Eckley Martin Keach married a wonderful lady named Edrie McCoy. Edrie's mother was Lydia Bates McCoy. Lydia's mother was Electa Gee, who of course is Lysander's daughter.

I was not able to find any parents for George.  That will have to wait for another day.  I did find information for his son Eckley Martin Keach.  He and his wife had five or perhaps six children.  I went online to the Utah Death Certificates and was able to find death certificates for two of the children, Edgar Martin and Richard.  I also found Olive Bernice’s obituary on line at Deseret News.  I placed these sources on their records at Family Tree.  From the obituary I found the names of Olive’s sons and put them in my database.  From Dexknows, I found addresses and telephone numbers for the two sons.  Both still live in  Salt Lake.

Unfortunately, I did not find a relationship to Stacy Keach Jr., but it is just as well, because he spent time in a London prison for possession of cocaine.  He played the part of a detective, but did not obey the law. 

There is mention in my record of a child that was born about 1920, but there is no record that I can find of this child. 

Another mystery to be cleared up is the mention in the obituary of a brother Patrick Delbert Keach of Colorado.  There is also a duplication of Eckley Martin Keach Jr. He seems to have gone by the name of Lee Mac also mentioned in the obituary and duplicated in Family Tree with birthdays two years apart.

I am not as familiar with this branch of the family, so I will have to do more research.

Of interest to me was the child that died from complications of a prolonged labor in the breech position and died after living one hour.  This was not an uncommon complication in those days.  Today with monitoring and C-section that complication would be rare.

Alda Maryette Gee Paul and her records

Alda Maryette Gee Paul was my grandfather’s next to youngest sister.  For her era she was a premier genealogist and family historian.  My brother Martell in some way came into possession of some of her records (see below).  I received them from him and have had them sitting in my computer room for some time. (8 years)  I initially went through the records entering the data into Personal Ancestral File.  I only got about a quarter of the way through and then other tasks occupied my time.  I was always going to get to that, but the record got buried underneath some papers.  It was not in sight so it was out of mind.  

Saturday I was cleaning some papers off the floor behind my chair and found the records.  They were family group sheets in a cardboard binder held together with two brass fasteners.  The record was approximately 3 inches thick.  The paper was not acid free and was beginning to show the ravages of age.  The white sheets were now yellow and cracking.  I did not want to lose the information and I did not have time to manually enter the data at the present time.

I decided to scan the pages into my computer.  My scanner will scan one page every two seconds. It holds forty pages in the feeder at a time.  It took me some hours to do the scanning, but now the records are digitally preserved in PDF format. I plan to divide the pages among those of the family who are interested in helping me with the data entry.  There were 536 pages in the scanned document.  Some of the pages had writing on the back, but my scanner scans both front and back simultaneously, so this was not a problem.  Although Alda Paul did not cite sources on all the entries, there were some sources for many of her pages, which will help further in comparing the names with those in Family Tree.

I guess I will need to get up an hour earlier until I get the task done.  She was not discriminatory.  She filled out family group sheets for anyone with connection to the Gee name.  Some names are from England with no apparent connection to our Gee family.  

There is no rest for those engaged in this work.

To complete the information I wrote to my brother Martell.

My brother Martell explained the provenance thusly:

Many years ago, and I don't dare even try to guess how many, I was asking Mom about some family history, and she showed me that book.  I asked her something else, and she said that I should take it which I did.   Subsequently I looked through it and put some of the things into my PAF, which ultimately got put into FamilySearch.  How Mom came into the records is not known to me.  So I am afraid that provenance does not exist.  But for what it is worth, I did not make up the records, nor did I forge anything in that book.  I am guessing that it went from Alda to Mary Ellen Kerr Gee (or maybe William E. Gee), thence to Mary P. Stucki, thence to Mom.

I will explain how I think a Stucki (Price, actually) came into possession of Gee records.  As you know better than I, Grandma Stucki was really into Genealogy.  She spent some time with (uncle) Lynn, and told him of his ancestry, and got him into searching out his own family.  This led him back into activity in the Church.  Grandma Gee told me about that, and implied that she had a lot of respect for Grandma Stucki and her pursuits in family history.  So I think whatever records came to her that she did not know what to do with, she passed on to either Mom or to Grandma Stucki directly.

How did Alda Gee Paul decide to give the records to someone else?  Don't know.  maybe her family was not interested, and she wanted someone to do something with what she had done.  She may have even given the records to Grandma Stucki directly.  

That is the best I can do.  It is a mystery, which I do not expect to solve.

One other thought:  I kind o think that Mom gave me the records after I started to work for Family History, (about 1987-88 time frame) and I was on the kick of trying to connect us with someone in England.  I spent quite a bit of time trying to find Solomon's parents. And if I have the right book in mind, those sheets show lots of Gee folks:  Joshua Gee, some preacher Gee who was contemporary with Cotton Mather, etc.

We could not make a connection with any of those, but I tried.

If you press me, I might be able to invent some more stuff about that, but it would be mostly invented, I am afraid.

MJ

I wrote back:

Alda Paul’s husband Clarence was a member of the church, but was inactive and received his temple ordinances posthumously. She was endowed after 24 years of marriage, but they were sealed posthumously.  They had 4 children.  The oldest was endowed at the age of 23 and sealed to parents posthumously.  The second daughter received the ordinances posthumously. The third child (a son) only lived a year. The third daughter received her endowment at the age of 64 and was sealed to parents after their death, but before she died.

Judging from the data that I have in my database, the grandchildren, for the most part, were late in receiving their ordinances as well.  Thus your assumption that the inactive posterity did not want the records is probably correct.  Alda preceded grandfather Gee in death by 6 years and grandmother Gee was still alive at that time of her demise.

And thus the records came into my hands and although I do not have a cave to hide them in I will try and see that the work is done for those individuals.

 

Processing Names in Family Tree

Today in Sunday School we went over how to process names for Temple Ordinances.  I wrote a little tutorial and posted it on the web.  Here is the link:
https://cd471846-a-62cb3a1a-s-sites.googlegroups.com/site/eagleridgenfs/family-tree/Processing%20Temple%20Ordinances%20in%20Family%20Tree.pdf?attachauth=ANoY7cqjeuXWUXjXPGqgFjaF5gW7LZhi0c6zlFzYacoYY5xvKo7azvwtysZdIiy9RLIE5j3MHug2ffSgD_dRQfAAj0dEmJZJ1Y0xvKkXAqssxz7wFpLxFuY3OCiU8Jxc3KJ8G-y6Q9DHZvyQ6NABSq2lJNydtfNvtT0CJT8tfrIBuIiOmFxmGqItFk-H2bo6fqJPwIHR4s7g1vRgk5tidogjsJmhe4Mhqfjj3gilYe2rbXvxxzNQZa9U3ylcspgSSeQZNNpDVLg2gxXEkyUxYWQ-mpvSD88Yrg%3D%3D&attredirects=0

Quoting Little Red Riding Hood:  "What a long URL you have grandmother, The better to confuse you with my dear."

There is also a tutorial on the subject on my Eagleridge website put out by the church, but most people don't look there.

Adding people to marriages in Family Tree

I was checking my list of Incomplete Ordinances. I found Ralph Dillard without a sealing to parents.  I put his name into Family Tree and found him and got the sealing to parents date.  I noted that he had no spouse.  I had one in my database.  Ilda Bernice Dunn.  I clicked on Add a Spouse and typed in the information that I had for her.  Family Tree had her information as a daughter of Ilda Bernice Bates and Oliver Cowdrey Dunn.  So now we have them as husband and wife.  There was no marriage information.  I had that information in my database from the Western States Historical Marriage Record Index. I added that information and put this in the explanations box:

Groom Last Name:             DILLARD Groom First Name:             Ralph L. Groom Residence:         Bride Last Name: DUNN Bride First Name: I. Berniece Bride Residence:         Place:   Dillon Date:    30 Jul 1932 County of Record:             Beaverhead State:             Montana Volume:             7 Page:             68

It is always imperative that we add sources to additions to the records in Family Tree.  I was fortunate to have this source in my database notes.

Unable to Merge

I have been editing the database for Lysander Gee.  I found a number of duplicates in my records and usually look them up on Family Tree to make sure that I have the data that they have.  Today I found that Mildred Rebecca Randall KWDS-3LV has a duplicate record K2HC-37D

The system will not allow me to merge these two records.  They are the same.  This is the message that I get.

Can't Be Merged At This Time

Do we know when these records can be Merged?

I sent this to support for an answer.

The following is the correspondence on this case:

Dear Brother Gee,

Thank you for contacting FamilySearch support regarding the error message you got when you tried to merge the two records of Mildred Rebecca Randall (Randell). We called earlier and left a message. Please accept this email as a response.

Although there are various contributors to these records, one of the contributors for both records is Church Membership Records. In other words, there are two membership records for this woman (most likely from the days when record keeping was less accurate). These records can only be merged by the church.

We will forward this case to the department that will review the case. However, there are discrepancies in the two records. The people who will review the case will want to know which of the two records is the most correct and why. If you have information that you can share regarding the validity of either record, please include it in a reply to us. Use the Reply feature of your email program to reply. Include the case number 2864931 in the subject line of the reply.

Thank you again for contacting FamilySearch Support. We look forward to hearing from you soon so we can dispatch the case to the proper department.

Sincerely,

FamilySearch
Patron and Partner Services

My Reply:

The following is the most correct record since it includes a good death date and both husbands. KWDS-3LV Is the PIN for Mildred Rebecca Randall (Randell).

Laurence Gee, M.D.

Dear Brother,

Thank you for your reply. We will send the case to the correct department for review. We appreciate your efforts in correcting church records, as well as your own.

Sincerely,

FamilySearch
Patron and Partner Services

The process took two days to complete.  We now wait for confirmation.  

Joseph Boyce Andrus History

I haven’t documented much of the work that I have done this past week.  I have been going through my records of the descendants of Lysander Gee to update the missing Individual Ordinances.  I have found a few ordinances that need to be completed.  I will wait until I have gone through all the 9 pages and then compile a list to share with members of the family.

Emma Maude Gee (my grandfather Gee's sister) was married to Joseph Boyce Andrus.  I found a history written by Betty June High, as told to her by her mother Thelma Maude Andrus High, a daughter of Joseph Boyce Andrus and Emma Maude Gee Andrus.  I felt that it was appropriate to put this in Family Tree.  In order to do this, I first put it in the Lysander Gee website and then made a link in the sources in Family Tree to the document on the Lysander Gee website.

The PIN for Joseph is: KWZX-2SB.

I also taught the Sunday school class how to print from Family Tree. Next week I will teach how to reserve ordinances in Family Tree.

The work progresses.

  

Uncle Ether

Today I added sources to grandfather Gee’s brother John Ether Gee KW8T-LDR.  He was always known in our family as uncle Ether. I found two census records one in Tooele and the other in Idaho. He also had a draft registration card on line so I included that. Family Tree did not have a place of death.  I found him in the California Death index, so I added that as a source and placed the information in his vital information.  I had the information in my database, but now I had a primary source to back it up. I also added a link to his grave marker in Ashton Cemetery.  I also wanted to give a link to a photo of uncle Ether.  I found one in a family photo of Erastus Rowe Gee and his family on my brother Martell.  I did not look in the 1940 census, but I assume that he is  there as well.

I undertook this exercise to show how different sources could be added to a record.  It will be helpful to those in the family history class in our ward.

Looking for missing ordinances

Today I finished syncing my descendants of Lysander Gee database with New Family Search.  There are 5206 individuals and 1480 marriages in the database.  Some time ago I printed out a list of missing individual ordinances.  There were 987 individuals with missing ordinances.  I compared them with New Family Search and was able to add ordinances for some of them.  

I printed out a new missing individual ordinances list.  There are now only 486 individuals with missing ordinances. Most of the missing ordinances are sealings to parents. The next  thing to do is to sort out all the individuals born before 1902.  If there is enough information on these individuals then I will process them for the required  ordinances.  I would be happy share with members of the family.  I suspect that I will not have enough time to do them myself.

Watching the Records

Today I received my weekly watch e-mail from Family Search.  It recorded the changes that I had made.  I only had four changes on records that I was watching. I was the author of two and there was one each from Julia Corry from St. George and Larry Jensen.

The most interesting of the two was the additions by Larry Jensen.  He added some sources to the record of Frances Gates Wiley.   Frances is the daughter of Maryette Rowe Gates Gee.  Of the most interest to me was a copy of the death certificate for Frances.  For some unexplained reason Maryette gave Frances to Simeon and Dorcas Milliken Andrews to raise.  The Family Tree record shows both sets of parents with the correct relationship status in each case.  There is an additional source added, that of the 1870 census where Frances age 23 is listed as the wife of James Wiley with two children.

The last source was a headstone from Find A Grave. 

Larry and I have corresponded over the years.  He is pursuing the descendants of Maryette and Hirum and I am concentrating on the descendants of Maryette and  Lysander.

Had I not placed a watch on Frances Gates Wiley, I would have missed this added information.

When I was growing up my parents read from the works of Munro Leaf.  One of these books was called the Watchbirds.  I am glad that I have Watchbirds watching my changes to Family Tree.  Do you have your Watchbirds watching changes to your ancestors?  Try it you might find it interesting.

Julia brought to my attention that Mary Elizabeth Bates the spouse of Orlando Lysander Gee has duplicate parents.  This needs to be corrected.  I will put this on my list unless Julia decides to make the correction.

There is work enough for all to do.  It helps to have helpers.

Correcting some more errors

Today I was looking at the records for Marie Antoinette Van Orden.  She was the wife of Thomas William Karren.  They were the parents of John Ether Gee’s wife Edith Elva Karren KW8T-LDT.  Someone had her married to John Oscar Gee, born in Indiana and died in Missouri.  She was listed as having two children, Caroline and Ruth with John Oscar Gee.  Of course we know that John Ether and John Oscar are not the same person, because they lived many miles apart at approximately the same time.

I had to add Elva as Edith’s middle name.  The birth and death dates were the same.  When I deleted the children from this non-marriage, the marriage went away and left her with the right spouse John Ether Gee with the correct three children.  Then there was another error.  It listed her with an alternate name of Edith Cunningham.  I deleted that and put as a reason the following:  Edith was not a Cunningham.  Mary Cunningham was married to John Ether Gee's brother Edgar Lafayette.

I went to Find a Grave and found a grave marker for Edith in the Pineview Cemetery in Ashton, Idaho.  I added that as a source to Edith’s record. 

For some reason the ordinances for Edith read invalid, but if one clicks on the name, her ordinances show up completed.  I guess that the manipulation did something to the data to alter it in such a way.  I will have to contact support and se if they can straighten that out.

I like being able to correct information.  It is less frustrating this way.

Dealing with Multiple Marriages

John Dodds Telford is shown as having multiple wives.

“The many wives of John Dodds Telford”

Charlot Angeline Baker, Dolly Ann Coultrin, Maria Coltrino, Emeline Seely Baker, Sarah Ann Barker, Deborah Elizabeth Walker, Hannah Richmon, Nancy Coltrin, Clara W Tilbetts , Anna Walker,  Georgia Bradley Curry,  Lucinda Sproat Rosanna Tebbets, Thankful Cotton  Marinda Colton  and Caroline Colton.

I wrote this in the notes on John’s record in my database.

“The history that I have of John Dodds Telford lists only his wife Sarah Matilda Coltrin. He was not married to any of these other women while they were living. All were sealed to him posthumously. There have been disputes placed on these marriages, but they fall into the same category as the sealings of the Cotton girls to Brigham Heber Telford and Erastus Rowe Gee. We will have to wait for the millennium to get the parties involved to come to an agreement. From NFS Support is this explanation: 'For this period of time, this was not an unusual practice. We have records of men in the early church sealing as many as 200 women to them. It was from their point of view to provide the blessings of exaltation to those persons.'”

I removed the marriage relationship to the following women.

Georgia Bradley Curry

Maria Coltrino

Dolly Ann Coultrin

Hannah Richmon

Deborah Elizabeth Walker

Sarah Ann Barker

Emeline Seely Baker

Rosanna Tebbets

Marinda Colton

Thankful Cotton

Caroline Colton

Charlot Angeline Baker

Lucinda Sproat

Anna Walker

Nancy Coltrin

These women still show up in the sealings to spouse information in the Family Tree data, but are not visible to non-members of the church.

I added a death date and place to John Dodds Telford’s Record in Family Tree to replace deceased.

The next record that I addressed was that of Brigham Heber Telford.

He had two wives sealed to him posthumously.

Thankful Cotton and Hanna Cotton

These were removed in a similar manner

Now Brigham Heber Telford has only one wife Emma Gee, Lysander’s daughter.

Another Day Some Other Changes

Almon Gee marriage to Almira Harriet Littlefield, this marriage never took place.  Almon was not born until after the death of Harriet.

This marriage was deleted.

October 29, 2012 changes to Family Tree.

Martha Brewer Gee 1838-1870 never married in this life.  She was sealed posthumously to Aoret Lucius Little Hale.  This marriage was deleted.

There is a duplicate record in NFS for Martha Brewer Gee. M9TL-TTY This is assuredly the same person, but I have chosen not to combine the record, because the sealing to Spouse was done posthumously in the Logan Temple December 3 1891, the same date as she was sealed to her parents. The name of the spouse is in error and should be Aoret Lucius Little Hale, a neighbor of Lysander Gee's and the man to whom Lysander gave his son Robert to raise after Maryette died. See “Life and Times of Lysander Gee” (unpublished as of this date.

Attached a history of Salmon Gee jr. [Lysander’s brother] to his record.  I checked for duplicates and found a Salmon Heath.  I marked the records as not a match.

Attached a source to the record of Susan Elizabeth Gee the wife of Elam Luddington.  A transcription of his autobiography mentioning his marriage to Susan.  I also found some more descendants of their daughter Adelade that I did not have.  They will be added to my database.

Their daughter Ellen Susan Luddington married Frank Thompson Lincoln and had 4 children.  There were only two listed in Family Tree.  I added one and the other one will be added shortly.  I found Ellen listed in the 1880 census with three children living in Sugar House.  The oldest son George Frank was not listed. My notes indicate that he was “Blessed 5 June 1873  by William Atkinson North Kanyon Ward Record Film # 1035837 FHL

Not in IGI March 2009”

He apparently died before 1880 because he was not listed in the census.  His brother Frank George is listed in the 1880 census as the oldest child.  My notes indicate:

Death Certificate in File The person giving the information was Nancy S. Lincoln 1977 South 11th East.

The information I have about Nancy is from a census. 1910 Census Salt Lake City, Salt Lake Utah

Street location is Eleventh East, which is the same on the death certificate

Lincoln F G, Head, male, white, 37, married 9 years, born Utah, parents born in Utah

Lincoln Nancy, wife, female, 32, married 9 years, 3 children, 3 living children, born Utah, Parents born England

Lincoln Doris, daughter, female, 7 years, single, born Utah

Lincoln, Frank, son, male, 5 years, single, born Utah

Sarah Caroline Gee, Lysander’s sister has 9 possible duplicates.  None of them match.  I marked them all Not A Match.

Lyman Omer Littlefield was an acquaintance of Lysander’s from Farr West. He wrote “Reminiscences”, which was published. A copy is in the Church Historian’s office. He was sealed to Lysander’s sister Sarah Caroline Gee by proxy. "On the 5th day of September 1888 Amanda M. Gee was sealed to Lyman O. Littlefield and on the 6th day of Sept Sarah Caroline Gee was Sealed to Lyman O. Littlefield also Theresa Gee acting for the two girls. Brother M. C. Edlefson Sealing them.who also sealed all for us except those sealed on the 13th who were Sealed by brother M. W. Merrill." Papers of Lysander Gee

More Corrections

Work done October 26, 2012

Erastus Rowe Gee K2QE-QNQ marriage to Mary Cotton 1700-1776.

This marriage never took place. Mary was dead before Erastus was born.

The marriage was deleted.

Joseph Boyce Andrus marriage to Lydia Rosette French.  Lydia was married to Joseph’s twin brother Benjamin Boyce Andrus.  The children listed for Joseph and Lydia belong to Benjamin and Lydia.  They are partially duplicated in each marriage.

On May 1 2012 I put the following note on Joseph’s record In NFS:

Joseph Boyce Andrus has mistakenly been named Joseph Benjamin Andrus in some of the records attached and combined with this one. Emma Maude Gee is the spouse. The unknown spouse listed here and the four daughters associated thereto do not belong to Joseph. They belong to his brother Benjamin Boyce Andrus. I have contacted New Family Search and they have declined to correct this. I have contacted Roger Bohman who has contributed to this record, but he is unable to edit the relationship. We await the time when we can correct this record.  

Also in the disputes on this record were the following comments:

Relationship to spouse: Lydia Rosetta French Note: Lydia Rosetta French was married to Benjamin Boyce Andrus, the twin brother of Joseph.

1 year ago by TrudaWhitfield1

Relationship to spouse: Lydia Rosetta French Note: Lydia Rosetta French was my Grandmother, and not the wife of Joseph Boyce Andrus. Her husband was Benjamin Boyce Andrus, twin brother to Joseph Boyce Andrus

1 year ago by TrudaWhitfield1

The time has come and this marriage will be deleted.

A second marriage with an unknown spouse lists two children; Margaret Grace and Ruby Jacquetta.  These are the children of Lydia and Benjamin.  This marriage will also be deleted.

The record of Joseph Boyce Andrus and his wife Emma Maude Gee is now correct.

Salmon Gee the father of Lysander was never married to Deborah Reed.  This marriage is deleted.  For some reason the program hung up and would not let me delete the relationship.  I will try again later.  I was successful.

Added the death date for Sarah Watson Crane Gee.

William Gee the father of Zopher and the son of Solomon is linked on NFS and Family Tree as being married to Mary Harwood Barnham.  I have been over this previously, but was not able to get support to correct it.  Her husband was William McGee from Guilford North Carolina.  I am deleting this relationship [William gee to Mary Harwood Barnham]. The program would not let me delete.  I will try again later. I was successful,

Sarah Caroline Gee and Lyman Omer Littlefield were never married in this life.  This marriage was deleted.

Here I must note that although the marriages above were deleted, the sealings that were done remain intact.  They can be viewed by scrolling down and looking at the temple ordinances.  The proposed opening up of Family Search Family Tree to the general public will not allow viewing of the ordinances by non-members of the church.

Look here for further corrections.  I am in the correcting mood.

Cleaning up the marriages

I logged into Family Search Family Tree today and cleaned up the marriages of Lysander Gee.  The record now shows the correct information according to Lysander's records.  [He was only married to three women] The posthumous sealings were deleted as noted below and Rozelia was removed as a child of Amanda Sagers.

Rozelia Bowley Gee was attached in NFS and Family Tree to the marriage of Lysander Gee and Amanda Sagers.  Since she was in fact the daughter of Lysander and Theresa Bowley Gee this relationship was deleted.

Phoebe Strickland was never married to Lysander Gee.  She was married to John Riggs.  This relationship was deleted.

Patience Bowley was never married to Lysander Gee.  She was married to John Baer.  This relationship was deleted.

Helen Kingsley was never married to Lysander Gee.  As far as can be ascertained she never married.

Anna Bowley was never married to Lysander Gee.  As far as can be ascertained she never married.

I intend to go through the records on Lysander's descendants and clean them up.  Then I will go to the ancestral line. The results will be posted here.

More Family Tree

Last week my cousin Janet Pollei asked me to give a presentation to the people at her family history library.  As part of my demonstration, I added a link to a photo of Lysander in the record under sources.  Then Una Jean Peterson asked me if his record was complete.  I looked at the record and put together a PDF file which you can find at the following link:
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxseXNhbmRlcmdlZXdlYnNpdGV8Z3g6NDA0ZDAyYTc0OTQ1MzcxZg

Just click on the link and you will find the information that I put together.  In the next few days I will try and clean up the information. If you have any objections, please let me know.

Family Tree

With New Family Search being phased out and Family Search Family Tree being phased in, I decided to try my hand at looking at my ancestral records in Family Tree and see if I could find anything that needed to be corrected. 

One of the things that I noted right away was the marriage date of Solomon Gee to Deborah Huntley.  Someone had put the date 0808 as the marriage date.  Later there was a dispute on this record mentioning the date 0808 a being impossible since the real date was 1732 and Solomon was born in England in 1698. 

Using the edit features of Family Tree, I was able to remove the erroneous marriage date and now it is correct.  I was also able to remove an unknown spouse that was connected to my great grandfather’s brother.

Since many of my relatives do not have a watch on their ancestors and relatives in New Family Search or Family Search Family Tree, I have decided to document the changes that I make here on my blog.

My first priority is to sync my 18-page list of missing individual ordinances of the descendants of Lysander Gee.  I am half way through the list. 

Thus this may become a journal of corrections to Family Tree.

The Gee to McGee shift

I have been working on the descendants of Lysander Gee and his 21 children synching their records with New Family Search.  Yesterday I came across an individual by the name of Floyd T. Huntington.  He was married to Hazel Gee or Hazel Bates Gee in my record.  She is Listed In the 1910 Census in the household of Floyd G Gee age 23

Also listed in household were:

Father Austin, married, White, age 52, married 30 years, born in Utah, Father born in Ohio and Mother born in U.S.

Mother Phoebe, married, White, age 42, married 30 years, born in Utah, parents born In U.S.

Austin and Phoebe had 8 children and 6 were living at that time.

Floyd G. Gee's Wife Amanda age 23 married 0 years with one living child Born Colorado Parents born in Tennessee

Brother Earl age 19 single born in Idaho

Brother Howard 17 single born in Idaho

Brother Lavery(n) 11 single Born in Idaho

Sister Hazel 9 single Born in Montana

Stepson Ivan Morning, single age 4, Born Colorado, Father born in Illinois, mother born in Colorado

I found Floyd T. Huntington listed in New Family Search married to Hazel Evelyn McGee.  This Hazel was born in Lima, Montana in 1902.  From previous research on this family, I know that Phoebe Gee, Hazel Gee’s mother was living in Lima, Montana at about that time.  This was too much of a coincidence.  I believed Hazel Bates Gee and Hazel Evelyn McGee were the same individual.

I typed into Family Search Record Search the name of Hazel McGee and found her in the 1920 Census living in the household of Francis J. Long and Phoebe Long.  From the marriage records of Idaho we learn the following:

Groom Last Name:             LONG

Groom First Name:             Francis J.

Bride Last Name:                GEE

Bride First Name:                Phoebe

Place:     Mountain Home

Date:      09 Sep 1913

County of Record:               Elmore

State:      Idaho

Volume:                 22

Page:     23

The 1920 Census records lists the following:

Hazel E Mcgee
residence:	, Canyon, Idaho
estimated birth year:	1901
age:	19
birthplace:	Montana
relationship to head of household:	Step Daughter
gender:	Female
race:	White
marital status:	Single
father's birthplace:	Utah
mother's birthplace:	Utah
film number:	1820290
digital folder number:	4300161
image number:	00490
sheet number:	12
	Household	Gender	Age	Birthplace
self	Francis J Long	M	59y	Ireland
wife	Phoebe A Long	F	52y	Utah
	Laverne J Long	M	21y	Idaho
	Hazel E Mcgee	F	19y	Montana

This was the proof that I needed to convince me that Hazel Evelyn McGee was Hazel Bates Gee.

I wrote up a case in my Adventures in New Family Search, which I entitled “The case of the elusive non-member descendant”  I described finding Floyd George Gee, Hazel’s brother and getting an obituary. (See the following link.)

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxlYWdsZXJpZGdlbmZzfGd4OjQ4ZTMyNjEwZmNkNzk2MGY

Now I had two names for the same individual each with a different PIB number in New Family Search.  I clicked on possible duplicates, but it would not bring up the other name for Hazel.  Hazel Evelyn McGee did not have any parents listed.  I tried adding her as a child by trying to add a parent (Austin Gee).  This worked, but then left her father Austin with a child with no mother. When I tried to add Phoebe, using Family Tree, the system would not let me do it.  I went to New Family Search and added her to her mother and father as Hazel Evelyn McGee and then combined her with herself (Hazel Bates Gee),  Now the record is straight as you can see from the following link:

https://familysearch.org/tree/#view=tree&person=LHD3-3ZK 

 https://familysearch.org/tree/#view=ancestor&person=LHD3-3ZK&spouse=KXZD-SBZ

I next added some sources to document my conclusions. 

Just scroll down to sources.

I am not sure how these links will work so I have put the above information with screen shots into a PDF file and placed it in my Adventures in New Family Search with this link.

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxlYWdsZXJpZGdlbmZzfGd4OjVmNDM3OWJlOWJmNjNhM2I

Photos in Family Tree

A week ago last Sunday I presented a Power Point Presentation to our class in Sunday School on Family Tree.  One of the members of the class said that there was no way that you could attach a photo to a record in Family Tree, but that they were working on it.  I said, yes there was, but you had to know how to do it.  I should not have shot the balloon, but I had just done something in Family Tree and knew that photos could be attached, but in a round about way. 

Today I just loaded a photo of Nancy Jane Rawlins Kerr to Find a Grave.  You can find a link here:
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=59515978

This adds a photo to the photo of the grave marker in Find A Grave and I added the link by creating a source in Family Tree.  There are more neat little tricks which I am looking forward to learning.

Stay Tuned.  I just experimented an  found out how to add her photo here.  You will never  know what you can do until you experiment.

Marlow Cemetery

Here is a link to some family photos of the Gee cemetery.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PiMgpDt388_Ck2dvCfIfDH2qh0H4NLVksdpMz6iI554/edit

Back again after a pause

Well I am back again meddling in the records, but this time on the Kerr line. As you may or may not know great-great grandfather Robert Marion Kerr had two wives who were cousins; Nancy Jane Rawlins and Margaret Elzirah Rawlins.  They were married three years apart.  In New Family Search and also in Family Search Family Tree there were two children listed in the families of both marriages.  In order to correct this in New Family search, I would have had to submit this to the Data Administrator for correction.  Now in Family Tree I was able to correct this by submitting just an explanation.  I brought up the family and clicked on edit relationships and deleted the relationship of the two boys that did not belong to Nancy Jane Rawlins.  Since both individuals had the same PIN number the relationship to the correct mother was not affected.  I should have taken screen shots to demonstrate how easy this was, but there are more errors to correct and I will remember to document my work.

 

In my database I only have George McCauslin Kerr and his brother James Harvey Kerr listed as children.  I will have to research the situation.  If this is correct, George and Joseph were twins and both were born and died on the same day.

Elzirah must have died in childbirth, because she died 9 days after the birth of her son James Harvey.

Another mystery to be solved.

Sophia keeps mainfesting her presence

Or you can't keep a good woman down for long.

My cousin Janet wrote me the following e-mail. It is referred to in my previous post.

Laurence,

   I looked in Zopher Gee’s file today and yet another child has appeared, Sophia Tinker along with Salomon Gee.  I sent a feedback to the Support group to try to get them to remove the names and the following is their reply. 

Dear Janet,

Thank you for contacting FamilySearch about children who do not belong in a family.

Since you did not submit the information, you will probably have to provide proof the children do not belong there. If you send it to us we will see what we can do about correcting the situation. Click on the "reply" button at the top of this email.

Best wishes in perfecting your genealogy.

Sincerely,

FamilySearch
Patron and Partner Services 

You may get them to respond better especially with the email you sent to those who put in Salomon Gee’s name.  I wonder where Sophia Tinker came from and it should be so obvious that she does not belong to Zopher Gee.  It is discouraging to try to keep this file cleaned up.   I don’t have the patience you do and the ability to reason it all out with the submitters, so I best leave the negotiating to you. 

 I so appreciate all you do.

   Janet

Dear Janet,

I noticed last night that Sophia was again attached to Zopher. I thought we had cleared this up, but it keeps on showing up like a bad penny.

Here are the links to my previous investigations.  I will contact them again.

The Sophia Tinker Gee Dilemma

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxseXNhbmRlcmdlZXdlYnNpdGV8Z3g6NTEwODdhYzNiN2UwZTU4OA

Solving the Sophia Tinker Dilemma

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxseXNhbmRlcmdlZXdlYnNpdGV8Z3g6NmI2NDBiMTBkOTY1MDk1Zg

I will contact Support.  I had this cleared up at one time and have not gotten a watch notice that any one was fiddling with the record.

After I get the case submitted, I will give you the case number and you can respond to that email and have them look at the case number for proof.  That way we might get prompter action.

Thanks for keeping up on the records.

This is the case that I submitted to NFS Support;

8/1/12 7:50 PM
Closed

Sophia Gee again
I received this e-mail on:

April 9 2012
Dear Ivin Laurence Gee,

RE: Zopher Gee KWVX-4VQ
Esther Beckwith LHF7-QYG

Thank you for contacting FamilySearch Support. Zopher Gee and Esther Beckwith no longer show Sophia as a child. Thank you for bringing this concern to our attention.

Sincerely,

FamilySearch Data Administration
----------------------
(CaseID:2548410)
----------------------

I noticed last night that Sophia was again attached to Zopher. I thought we had cleared this up, but it keeps on showing up like a bad penny.

Here are the links to my previous investigations.
The Sophia Tinker Gee Dilemma
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxseXNhbmRlcmdlZXdlYnNpdGV8Z3g6NTEwODdhYzNiN2UwZTU4OA

Solving the Sophia Tinker Dilemma

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxseXNhbmRlcmdlZXdlYnNpdGV8Z3g6NmI2NDBiMTBkOTY1MDk1Zg

August 2, 2012 I received the following e-mail from Support.

Dear Erinna Marie Schulz

Thank you for contacting FamilySearch regarding L72W-3SG Sophia Tinker not being the daughter of KWVX-4VQ Zopher Gee and LHF7-QYG Esther Beckwith.

Your case has been reviewed and was forwarded to experts in the department for further examination. You will be contacted by them directly when they have completed their investigation. Please be aware that it may take some time before they are able to get back with you. No other action on your part is necessary.

Do not work on this area of your family tree until this problem is resolved.

Sincerely,

FamilySearch

My reply to Janet is as follows:

Dear Janet,

Now I am Erinna Marie Schulz.  Boy are these people mixed up.

I later in the day received the following e-mail. (Notice that they now have my correct name.)

Dear Ivin Laurence Gee,

RE:  Zopher Gee PID # KWVX-4VQ
        Esther Beckwith PID # LZ2H-WP7

Thank you for contacting FamilySearch Data Administration.  Zopher Gee and Esther Beckwith no longer show with Sophia Tinker as an incorrect daughter in their family on new FamilySearch.  Thank you for bringing this concern to our attention.

Sincerely,

FamilySearch Data Administration
----------------------
(CaseID:2705821)
----------------------

I sent Janet the following e-mail

Dear Janet,

It looks like we were successful again.  I hope this will put this to rest for good. On NFS Esther is listed as having two spouses, Zopher and unknown, but when you click on resolve duplicate spouses, it brings up the message there are no duplicate spouses.  This may just be a fluke in the program.

Thanks for keeping me informed. Cooperation is really necessary in this work.

 Who knows how long this will remain in this condition?  Stay tuned.

Names that look the same are not always the same person

This is a case that I have been working on recently.  I finally got Support to change the record, but someone is messing around with Zopher's family.  More on that later.

Unknown individual to me
Salomon Gee Person identifier: M5V7-8KM

There are two combined records both from Family Search for this individual.

Possible duplicates reveals only one individual, Salmon Gee Person identifier: KWJP-41C with 50 combined records.

On July 21, 2011 I sent the following e-mail to those contributors that were listed on the record at that time. Today the only Contributors that are listed on the record are as noted above. (Family Search)

Dear patrons,

My cousin Janet Pollei brought the following problem to my attention. I would appreciate it if you would look this over and see if you have any more information that I might not be aware of. I would like to make sure that we have the correct data before NFS switches entirely to Family Tree.
This is taken from C.E. Benjamin’s book; “The Descendants of Solomon Gee of Lyme Connecticut”.
40. ZOPHER GEE, (William, Solomon), b. 28 AUG 1763 Lyme, New London Co.,
Conn. d ..14 AUG 1829 New Lyme, Ashtabula Co., Ohio married 13 NOV 1788 Lyme, Conn. Esther Beckwith b. 6 JUN 1770 Lyme, New London Co., Conn. d. 31 AUG 1794 Lyme, Conn. bur. Old Stone Church Cemetery, Lyme, Conn. daughter of Zenas Beckwith and Anna Harris.
Only three children are listed for this marriage.
Esther Beckwith Person identifier: LZ2H-WP7
38 contributors to her record
52 combined records.
NFS Lists a son Salomon Gee Person identifier: M5V7-8KM
2 combined Records both by Contact name: Alice Colby Volkert
This additional child was not present a couple of months ago when I looked at the record.
Date of birth is listed as 31 August 1794, the day that Esther Beckwith died. There is no death date noted for this person in the record.

All the ordinance work for this individual has been performed except the endowment which is reserved by Contact name: ChristensenGeraldineHope1 E-mail address:geri.christensen@gmail.com
Esther Gee, the third child of Zopher and Esther was born 6 of July 1794 in Lyme, New London Connecticut. 

It seems strange to have twin children born so far apart with no family record of the occurrence.
In the notes on Salomon we find the following: Contributor: Alice Colby Volkert
Contributor: FamilySearch
Sources are ContributorFamilySearch Source Source type: Other, Repository name: The Temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Repository city: Salt Lake City, Repository state: UT, Repository country: USA, Repository postal code: 84150, Event date: 20 Mar 2007, LDS temple record number: 725155093, Contributor: TEMPLE, Contributor of repository: DATA_ADMIN Source Source type: Other, Repository name: The Temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Repository city: Salt Lake City, Repository state: UT, Repository country: USA, Repository postal code: 84150, Event date: 20 Mar 2007, LDS temple record number: 725155097, Contributor: TEMPLE, Contributor of repository: DATA_ADMIN Source Source type: Other, Repository name: The Temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Repository city: Salt Lake City, Repository state: UT, Repository country: USA, Repository postal code: 84150, Event date: 20 Mar 2007, LDS temple record number: 725155092, Contributor: TEMPLE, Contributor of repository: DATA_ADMIN Source Source type: Other, Repository name: The Temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Repository city: Salt Lake City, Repository state: UT, Repository country: USA, Repository postal code: 84150, Event date: 20 Mar 2007, LDS temple record number: 725155095, Contributor: TEMPLE, Contributor of repository: DATA_ADMIN [ These records come from the proxy ordinances performed as listed below]
Kevin Merrill Contact name: Kevin L Merrill E-mail address:merrill30@gmail.com
Contributed to the record
The ordinances listed in NFS are:
Baptism 26 Feb. 1999 Los Angeles
Confirmation 10 June 2000 Detroit
Initiatory 14 September 200 Detroit
Endowment Reserved
Sealed to Parents 24 July 2003 Detroit

Possible Duplicates
Salmon Gee spouse Sarah Watson Crane MMQ4-BCQ
(This is the older sibling of the individual in question.)
Salmon Gee spouse Deborah Reed. KWJP-41C
(This is the same older sibling of the individual in question. Lysander Gee sealed Deborah Reed to his father Salmon in the Logan Temple 6 September 1888, ninety-eight years after her birth. Deobrah Reed was Lysander’s wife’s (Theresa Bowley) aunt. This was never a marriage in their lifetime.
I do not believe the individual Salomon Gee Person identifier: M5V7-8KM ever existed as a son of Zopher Gee and Esther Beckwith. There is no documentary evidence of this event.
Esther only had three children and not four. In comparing the dates of birth of Salomon to his supposed sister Esther, New Family Search records indicate that Esther was born 6 July 1794 and Salomon was born 31 July 1794, the day that Esther Gee died.
Where did the record come from? I think that perhaps someone combined a possible duplicate that was floating around in the NFS database, perhaps from extraction. It certainly did not come from someone familiar with the Gee family genealogy.
I would appreciate any enlightenment that you might be privy to.
Sincerely,

Laurence Gee, M.D.
On looking at the record in Family Tree Alice Colby Volkert removed the relationship of this individual to Zopher and Esther as parents on 21 July, 2012.

I would appreciate it if you would consider this information and then decide whether it would be better for DATA ADMINISTRATION to deal with this problem.

Sincerely,

Laurence Gee

Dear Ivin Laurence Gee,
RE: Salomon Gee

Thank you for contacting FamilySearch Data Administration.  We have edited the record for Salomon Gee and he no longer appears with these incorrect parents. Thank you for bringing this concern to our attention.

Sincerely,

FamilySearch Data Administration