Correcting the McGee in Family Tree

On April 25^th I received an e-mail from my cousin Janet Pollei.

Hi Laurence,
 I find a file for Solomon McGee #L2RY-FVH with the same birth date as Salmon Gee KWJP-41C who has a read only file, so you can't combine them.   They are both listed as children of Zopher Gee.  This information was entered a year ago by David Turley. Perhaps it is a file that can't be corrected because of the "read only" set up for the files.
 I am in hopes that you may be aware of this entry and know how it can be removed or combined.
 Janet

I looked at the record on Family Tree and the sent the following to Family Search Support.

Someone has reserved ordinances for Solomon McGEE 16 October 1792 – 3 September 1845 • L2RY-FVH ​ as a child to the marriage of Zopher Gee KWVX-4VQ ​ and Esther Beckwith LZ2H-WP7 ​ on 18 April 2016
He has the same date of birth as Salmon Gee KWJP-41C who has a read only file because he was a general authority.. The date and place of death are the same as well. even if this is not reflected on Salmon's record in Family Tree. You may read his history on his record in Family Tree.
His son Lysander Gee completed all his ordinances

Solomon was not his given name and McGee was not his surname. and there are no sources attached to his record in Family Tree and the reason you gave for adding this name was GEDCOM file.

I maintain a database of 12956 individuals connected with Solomon Gee LZL9-B9S born 1698 in Devonshire, England. The name McGee does occur as some individuals changed the name, but the closest one is Solomon Everet McGee KHXC-G7Y born in 1843 in Massachusetts and died in Beaverhead, Montana in 1910, who was the son of Solomon Gee KLJJ-MCQ and Fanny Adams Wellman KLJN-B3B

Since there can be no changes to this record, I would suggest that you add his correct date of death and place of death. They are the same as noted in Solomon McGEE 16 October 1792 – 3 September 1845 • L2RY-FVH record. I have written to both individuals who have reserved ordinance for this man through Family Tree messages, because they have no other contact information. There is no need to duplicate these ordinances.

Laurence Gee
18 June 1934

Today ( June 21, 2017) I received an answer.

Dear Ivin Laurence Gee, 

RE: FamilySearch Support Case 03459562: Duplicate individuals with different names. 

Thank you for contacting FamilySearch Support and bringing your concern to our attention. We have resolved your request in Family Tree and encourage you to verify that the issue has been corrected as requested.

I looked at the record and the record for Solomon McGee was no longer there. 

I wrote the following back to Janet.

They finally removed Solomon McGee in Family Tree.

This is what I wrote to Support:

Salomon Gee
1794–Deceased  •  M5V7-8KM ​ is listed as a son of Zopher Gee
Zopher Gee
1763–1829  •  KWVX-4VQ ​
Salomon's birth date is listed as 31 August 1794 in Connecticut. This record was added to Family Tree by Family Search 1 July 2012.  I put in the discussion that this man should not be merged with Salmon Gee.
If you look at the birth date of his sister according to Family Tree record you can see that
Esther Gee
1794–1849  •  L433-7YT ​ was born 6 July 1794.  As a physician, I can assure you that at that time it would have been physically impossible for two children to be born to the same mother at those times.
I would suggest that you delete Salomon Gee
1794–Deceased  •  M5V7-8KM as a child of that family.  I have documentary evidence that there were only three children born to the marriage of Zopher and
Esther Beckwith
1770–1794  •  LZ2H-WP7 ​ and Esther died ten days before Salomon Gee
1794–Deceased  •  M5V7-8KM was born.
Sincerely,
Laurence Gee
18 June 1934

We will now see what happens at this juncture.  They never did correct Salmon’s death date on the record and I cannot do it, because the record is locked for editing.

Old money and Pride

Or the Altgelt and Stoltz families 

These two German families came to America.  They changed the spelling of their names to Stults and Outcalt or various permutations of the original. 

When I was in Germany in1997 to 2000, I started corresponding with their descendants and collecting information on the families. I filed this in my filing cabinet and added to the information from time to time. 

The other day I pulled out the folder and scanned in the documents. Then I started to enter the information into my genealogy program. I also compared this to the records in FamilyTree. 

I have spent most of the last 45 days working on this file.  Although it is not complete or edited, I will put it on my Google Drive and let those who wish to view it have access to it.  The document is 191 pages. 

Click Here for the Descendants of Johan Heinrich Stoltz

A positive outcome from being on Family Search Family Tree

I went to the mailbox January 12^th and to my surprise I found the following letter from Germany.

Laurence Gee

263 Edgemont Drive,

Utah, 84054

Vereinigte Staaten von Amerika

A genealogical request

Dear Mr. Gee,

E-Mail: kai.laUlenschlaeger@me.com

Dresden, den 6. Dezember 2016

we do not know each other, but I stumbled upon your name and address when researching

genealogical facts on my own family. It said online, that you wrote or owned a paper by the title of "Die Nachkommen des Johan Altgelt Statschoeffen zu Siegcn, Axtel Altgelt, Buenos Aires, Argentina" about the descendants of Philip Altgelt from Siegen, Germany.

Since I did not find any other information about that paper online, I decided to just write to you, asking, whether this information was right. And if so, it would be most interesting to me, knowing, if there is any way to acquire that paper for my studies. One branch of my family derives from the marriage of Adam Altgelt with Laura Tornquist, who went to Argentinia. The Altgelt-Family in Germany I am able to trace back until Henne Altgelt from Siegen, Germany, who was born 1404. But it is the stories and little side details,

that I love more than the bare facts. I hoped to find some of those in the named paper.

Is there any information, you can give me on this. I would greatly appreciate it and thank you in advance.

Witll best regards and

freundlichen Grullen,

Kai Lautenschlager

O course I had not hesitation in sending him and e-mail on the 12 January 2017.

Lieber Herr Doktor Lautenschäger,

Ich habe von Ihnen ein brief Heute bekommen.  Ich werde zwei Anhänger zu diese email zuknopfen. Leider ein Teil in English, Deutsch und Spanish.

Bitte mein schlechtes Deutsch verzheihen.  Ich habe nicht in eine lange Zeit mich in dieser Sprache geschrieben.  Ihr English is ganz gut.

Ich habe viel mehr Information.  Höffenlich werden wir uns noch mehr ins Verbindung  in der Zukunft setzen.

Viel Glück im kommenden Jahr.

 

I can read German and English.  I spent 5 1/2 years in Germany.  The last three years 1997-2000 in the Frankfurt area and have been to Dresden. Our son and his family are at present in Heidelberg.  He is doing research there.

I think I even had a photo of a Tornquist

Sincerely,

Attached to this e-mail I gave him my PDF file of the Nachkommen Johannes Altgelt that I posted on Johannes’ record in Family Tree and then 23 pages of the Descendancy of George Tournquist.

He promptly responded.

Dear Dr. Gee,
I was delighted to find your email in my inbox today. Thank you very much for the documents you sent along with it. I will take my time to study them intensively and find out about the connections of both our family trees. At first glance it seems that N° 5Fiii in your list of descendants (Adelaida Casilda Emelina Tornquist) is the meeting point of our family trees and I do have a lot of information on her descendants which are not listed in your documents. She indeed is my Great great great grandmother and was already known to my own grandmother, who is doing research in the 1960s adn 1980s. At the moment I am trying to use the Internet to get more reliable sources and copies of documents to retrospectively find out about the reliability of this information and you can be sure, that I will share that information with you, in case you are interested. I will try to use the next weeks to put together a document of this part of my family tree with the sources I already have and send it to you. 
Just as a little appetiser I can tell you that the granddaughter of the above Adelaida went back to Germany and married a man from Hamburg, with whom she had my great grandmother. And the Diehl-Family mingled again with this branch of the tree.

With best regards and freundlichen Grüßen

I wrote back and sent him 4 more documents in my possession on the Altgelt family and gave him the connection of my family to the Altgelts in America. (If you want the connection just let me know.)

I ask him what kind of a doctor he was and  sent him more information on the Altgelts from my file.

He responded.

I am a physician for psychosomatic medicine and run my practice here in Dresden since 2009. Mainly I am working with behavioral psychotherapy and I am still loving, what I am doing. Seeing that you lived in Montana, it might be interesting, that in 1988/1989 I was an exchange student in Billings, MT with a very dear family. That stay taught me very much and still today I think back quite often. I even utilize it by being able to administer psychotherapy in English language for foreigners here in Dresden.

Attached you will find the link to a booklet (PDF) of the information that I have on the ancestry and descendancy of ADELAIDA Casida Emelina Tornquist so far. It is the status quo of today and lacks some corrections and additions. But rather than work on it obsessively and never finishing it, I send you this version for your information and enjoyment. Whenever I do find more details, I will certainly let you know. And of course I am highly interested in tips, corrections or critical questions you may have as well as additional information that is still lacking in the booklet.

The PDF is 18MB, so I decided to just send a link to my dropbox:

This file printed out 166 pages of genealogy.  It was interesting to note that a number of the individuals had Family Tree Ids.  I wonder if he is a member of the church?

Now I have to enter the data into my Ancestral Quest Altgelt file.

Too Busy To Post

I have neglected to post what I have been doing, so I will give a brief account.

Report on ordinances that our family has accomplished in 2016.

Initiatory and Endowment 32

Sealings to Parents 17

Couple Sealings 2

Baptism and Confirmation 163

Initiatory 35 (separate from above)

Endowment 9 (separate from above)

There are probably more, but I didn’t keep and accurate record.

Altgelt Stoltz file

See the May post for the Altgelt Family Tree

When I was in Germany 1997-2000, I put together a file in PAF, which I named Altgelt Frankfurt. I received some documents from Beverly Bennett, a descendant of Alexander Scoby Standley.  It was a mimeographed copy of a genealogy written by Axel Altgelt who lived in Buenos Aries.  His family emigrated to Argentina and then he came back and looked at the records.  The document was called Die Nachkommen des Johannes Altgelt Statschöffen zu Siegen.  A link to this document that I edited and placed on his record in Family Tree is provided here. The document contains photos that we took when we visited the area as well as the original document.  Axel went back to Germany in 1937-38 to collect this information. Appended to this document is a Descendancy chart that I prepared from the data entered into  PAF showing the connection to Alexander Scoby Standley  and Philinda Upson his wife who were the great grandparents of my grandmother Mary Ellen Kerr Gee.  Also in this PAF file are the Stoltz family from Germany who married into the Altgelt line in America.  The name Altgelt was changed to Outcalt, Outcault, Altcelt, Outcelt, Outgelt and variations of that spelling when they came to America. The Stoltz family name changed as well to Stults, Stolts, Schulz and variations as well.  With the help of Family Tree, I have been able to add names for ordinance work on both these lines.  

When working on adding sources to this line one day, I came across a name on Find A Grave.  The information was there, but no photo of the grave as is sometimes the case.  Being curious I look at the submitter and there was an e-mail address.  I sent an e-mail and it got me in touch with Andrew Outcalt.  He is also a descendant of the Altgelts of Siegen.  He and I have corresponded and he gave me access to his site on Ancestry.com of 24.000+ individuals.  In addition he sent me 196 pages of genealogy written in Spanish by Carlos Altgelt.  Carlos was born in Argentina and is now living in Michigan.  He wrote a book entitled “The Boy Who Never Grew Up”.  I saw a copy of the book when we visited Barbara Bennett in Preston, Idaho.  I have tried to get a copy, but it is out of print.  Andrew Outcalt sent me a file with some excerpts from the book and gave me Carlos’ e-mail address.  I have communicated with him.

I have been going through this information and comparing it with Family Tree and entering the data into my Ancestral Quest database. This database has 2,615 individuals and 857 marriages at the present time. My plan is to go through the data and add to my database and compare with Family Tree. This takes time.

There are Altgelt families that emigrated from Germany to Argentina, Uruguay, and the United States.  The earliest Altgelt is Henne Altgelt born in 1404.  There were bakers and priests (Lutheran) and even one Catholic bishop of Mainz, Germany as well a governor of the state of Illinois (John Peter Altgeld).

Butlers (the medieval kind)

I have been reviewing the Butlers of St. Brides (Sir John Butler 1285) and his posterity that lived in Dunraven Castle and updating the information in Family Tree and my database.

There are records on Family Tree that I have corrected on Thomas Lamrock Butler and his wife Dinah David.

Bailey

Because Penelope Bailey was not married in the church to Joseph Brown the pastor would not christen the children with the surname of Brown and they were christened with the name Bailey.  Thus, the children on my records have the middle name of Brown and the surname of Bailey.  They apparently kept that Brown Bailey even after they moved to Utah, but it did not go more than three generations.

John Smith and Phebe Gee

I have been working on the descendents of this couple. Phebe is a descendant of Solomon Gee and Deborah Huntley.  In recent investigation and comparing with Family Tree I have been able to add individuals to this database and straighten out the records on Family Tree. There was one child of this couple that I was missing in my data.  By corresponding with Jan Byg she gave me the name (Serena/Syrena Smith) and there are three records for her in Family Tree, but none list her parents, so now we can connect the daughter and have her sealed to her parents.

Descendants of Solomon Gee and his first wife Susannah Clark

I have been going down the descendancy tree along the Powers line.  Susannah only had one child Sarah and she married James Douglas.  They had a daughter Phebe who married Nicholas Powers.  One of their children was Reverend Aaron Powers who was a Methodist Episcopal minister. He later joined the Mormon Church but became dissatisfied and joined the Missionary Baptists where he remained until his death. In Politics, Aaron was a Democrat up to the time of the Abe Lincoln nomination for president. He then switched to being a Republican.

I added a number of individuals both to Family Tree and to my database. There are 12,858 individuals in this file with 4,281 marriages. 

Descendants of Lysander Gee

I keep finding new individuals who are related to Lysander.  This file is separate from Solomon’s although it contains some of the same individuals. There are 5,598 individuals and 2,361 marriages.  I did a study and found that 20% of his descendants were either not members of the church or had had their ordinances done posthumously. Who says that all the work is done for those of pioneer ancestry?

John Ulrich Stucki

Great grandfather Stucki hired Julius Billeter to research the Stucki family in Zürich and the neighboring cantons in Switzerland.  I put all these in my Stucki database.

In addition I have a Teilungsrechnung (a document detailing the distribution of the estate of a relative Frau Elise Götz - Brack, born in 1881).  She left quite an inheritance.  My mother got 38.80 Swiss Francs. I took all these names and put them in a spreadsheet with the ID from Family Tree.  I sent the results to a cousin Afton Bartlett who works in the Family History Library.  There were a few individuals that were not in Family Tree.  They will need to have their ordinance work done.

I have printed and bound the following documents.

Solomon Gee Descendants one Generation

Letters from Laurence to Alice 1958

Letters from Hawaii 1984-1985 from Pearl Gee

Surname Gee in my database

The Gee-Crouch families

The Ancestors and the Children of John Wright Clark and Myrtie Julia Cowen

John Wright Clark and Myrtie Julia Cowen and their Family

Descendants of John William Trussell

Journal of Marion Joseph Kerr 1892

Donated the missionary Journals on CD of William Erastus Gee and Robert H Skelton to the Harold B. Lee Library at BYU.

Catching up

I have not been posting to this blog, but have been busy.

I sent this as an e-mail to my cousins and family.

A few weeks ago I was on Family Search because someone had made a change on a record that I had put a watch on. 

It led me to pull out my Stoltz/Stults files. I had received quite a lot of information from a lady by the name of Denise Rosenbluth. She and a lady by the name of Ora Porter Wood had done a great amount of research on this family. 

I had not been working on this line since I was in Germany. I had entered the names into PAF and called it my Altgelt Frankfurt file. 

I came across someone in Family Tree who had a source from Find A Grave. When I looked at the record I was curious as to who had entered the information since there was no cemetery noted in Germany. 

I emailed him and he replied and gave me access to his website with 24,000 individuals going back to 1404.  His name is Andrew Outcalt.

I have received some files from him, which I would like to share with you. 

I have been working on the Stambaum pictured above and making sure that all the names are in Family Tree. 

This is a preliminary report. I am happy to answer any questions you might have. I have a great deal of work yet to do.  I attached a tree document to show how my family is connected to the Altgelts.

More correspondance with Family Search

Details: Laura Gee 1878-Deceased • 9NQL-T1X listed as Male Laura Gee 1878-Deceased • 9VY9-3B5 Female. She is listed as a female in this family in the 1880 and the 1900 census I am unable to merge these two because of the difference in sexes. Please refer to Data Administration

Details: Harry Lukin 23 April 1897 – Deceased • L76B-JLK Female the source lists this as questionable sex. Parents are John Lukin Deceased • L76B-JLL Ernnretta Ken Deceased • L76B-JLG Here is the real Harry Harry Lukin 1897-1967 • KZZ4-WZZ He is a male. Parents are John Luken 1858-Deceased • KHYT-3D2 Emeretta Kerr 1860-1880 • LCVD-3F Because the two Harrys are of different sex I cannot merge them. I have eliminated the duplication of parents and now both Harrys appear in the same family. One with a birth date 2 days after the other. I would appreciate it if you could send this to Data Administration for correction.

More merging in Family Tree

In looking at the descendants of Solomon Gee database, I found the following information. It comes through the descendants of Salmon Gee.  

Annie Marilla Davis KWCF-64W 8 July 1875 – 1 April 1971
All ordinances complete
And
Annie Mayrilla Davies
8 July 1875 – Deceased • K2W9-MFN
ordinances only partially complete, but the baptism and confirmation dates are the same for both individuals..
Seem to be the same individual. I am unable to merge.
Sincerely,
Laurence Gee, M.D.

Dear Ivin Laurence Gee,

RE: Annie Marilla Davis KWCF-64W

Thank you for contacting FamilySearch Support and bringing your concern to our attention.  The duplicate membership records have been combined into the Person Identification (ID) referenced above.

Sincerely, 

FamilySearch Data Administration 

Duplicates Abound

Family Tree is a work in progress. Today I found a duplicate that I could not merge, so I sent the following message to Family Search.

Darcus Ann Wiley

1884-1931    •  K2HX-V98 is the wife of

Daniel H. Simkins

5 January 1883 – 21 January 1951  •  KWJ8-8ZV

They have 5 children listed

She is also listed under the ID of LKVB-MZL with no children.

The program will not let me combine the two individuals, although they are the same.

Would you please forward this to Data Administration for correction?

More changes to Family Tree

Alvah Gee
1835 – Deceased • MCS3-75B
is listed as a female
The following is posted in the discussions on this individual:
Relationship to parent: Electa Gates Note: This is a duplicate sibling. Alvah is a male. This Alvah is a female -- not accurate.
4 years agobyChuck Golding
Edit|Delete
Person note: This is a duplicate sibling. Alvah is a male. This Alvah is a female -- not accurate.
4 years agobyChuck Golding
Edit|Delete
Relationship to parent: Alva Gee Note: This is a duplicate sibling. Alvah is a male. This Alvah is a female -- not accurate.
4 years agobyChuck Golding
Edit|Delete
Birth: 1835 prob. Birmington, Vermont Note: This is a duplicate sibling. Alvah is a male. This Alvah is a female -- not accurate.
4 years agobyChuck Golding
Edit|Delete
Gender: Female Note: This is a duplicate sibling. Alvah is a male. This Alvah is a female -- not accurate.
4 years agobyChuck Golding
Edit|Delete
Name: Alvah Gee Note: This is a duplicate sibling. Alvah is a male. This Alvah is a female -- not accurate.
4 years agobyChuck Golding
Edit|Delete
The correct Alva is
Alvah Julan Gee
21 July 1824 – 19 July 1909 • KJCJ-6XL
I am unable to merge because of the sex difference.
Today I removed the child from both parents,
I do not know if you needed to be aware of this.
Laurence Gee
18 June 1934
 
Ordinances performed under wrong gender patron requests deletion of record. Verified information and submitted to another department for further review. Email was sent to patron. 

They responded:

Dear Ivin Laurence Gee,

RE:  Alvah Gee  MCS3-75B 
Thank you for contacting Family Search Support and bringing your concern to our attention.  The record listing the incorrect gender no longer displays in Family Tree. 
 

Sincerely, 

Family Search Data Administration 

Now the record is correct.  

Anna and Hannah Rawlins

I get a weekly e-mail from Family Search.  Sometimes I find that there are errors in the records.  Here are some that I found recently. I used the e-mail embedded in Family Tree to write a message to someone who had put a record on Joseph Sharp Rawlins family.

In the 1880 census the family consists of the mother Anna (really Hannah Stringfellow) and the daughter Anna (probably Hannah Marie).

Obviously Anna LJRN-3R8 and Hannah Marie KWC3-MPH are the same individual born the same year  They should be merged. Do you want to do this or do you want me to take care of it.

Sincerely,

Laurence Gee, M.D.

 

They have not responded, so I will merge the two.

 

I also found a record that needed correction, so I wrote the following to support.

 

Sarah Gee
16 September 1867 – 28 July 1931 • KWDM-HC6 ​
Although there is a sealing to parents for Sarah noted on 8 August 1979 in Ogden. This child was born in the covenant, the parents were sealed in Lysander's and Theresa's home in Salt Lake by Brigham Young on 18 July 1850.
LYSANDER WAS SEALED TO THERESA AND MARYETTA AT THE SAME TIME. THIS WAS BEFORE
THE ENDOWMENT HOUSE WAS BUILT. THEY WERE SEALED IN LYSANDER`S HOUSE BY BRIGHAM YOUNG. Reference Sealings Microfilm Number 0183374 found in the Family History Library second floor in the special collections. The sealing was at the Gee's house in Salt Lake City on July 18, 1850 at 5:10 P.M. The entry is found on page 725. Witnesses were Truman O. Angell and Thomas Bullock.

Laurence Gee 

 

They responded:

 

Dear Ivin Laurence Gee,

 

RE:Sarah Gee 16 September  KWDM-HC6

Thank you for contacting FamilySearch Support and bringing your concern to our attention.  The born in covenant (BIC) information has been added to the membership record.

Sincerely, 

 

FamilySearch Data Administration 

I found another error while looking at the descendants of Erastus Rowe Gee and wrote the following:

Today I discovered that three children of John Ether Gee KW8T-LDR were actually the children of his brother Edgar Lafayette Gee KWC1-XLF.

I have successfully removed Olive Gee LJTN-ZXT and combined her with Olive Gee KWCQ-GJ3 and Clendon Edgar Gee LJTN-ZFX and combined him with Clendon Edgar Gee KWCZ-BDF.

Letho Lafayette Gee KWZ6-BFP has already received his ordinances. The Letho L. K2W8-CTB in this record is not the son of John Ether Gee, but of his brother Edgar Lafayette Gee KWC1-XLF. When I try to combine these two records, I cannot merge these records. Could you please have Data Administration take care of this for me?

Laurence Gee, M.D.

 

They wrote back:

Dear Ivin Laurence Gee,

 

RE:  Letho L Gee, Membership PID:  KWZ6-BFP

 

Thank you for contacting FamilySearch Support and bringing your concern to our attention. The duplicate membership records have been combined into the Person Identification (ID) referenced above.

 

Sincerely, 

 

FamilySearch Data Administration 

Now Letho is with the right family.

 

 

Anna and Verena Stucki in Family Tree

Anna Stucki and Verena Stucki have records that needed attention on Family Tree. 

Click Here for the link to Evernote.

More Stucki and allied Families on Family Tree

In going through Julius Billiter's records, I am trying to merge the duplicates and add individuals not in Family Tree.

Margaretha Stucki married Heinrich Wiesmann.

Click Here for the records I put on Evernote.

Stephen Rowe Gee and Thalia Watson

When I looked at this record, I always go and look for duplicates.  I found some for Thalia.

Click Here for the information on the merge and what I did to see if we could get two daughters sealed to the parents.

Moser and Stucki on Family Tree

In working on Family Tree I try to clean up records.  Some of these require merging to get one correct record. Here is an illustration:

Click Here

I am testing a way to put screen shots on my blog and this is an experiment.

Finding Names and attaching as sources in Family Tree

 Laurence,

This is Deborah Hines Engman. Somehow, my father, Richard Alyn Hines and his brother, Norman Russell Hiines, my uncle were recorded by you as deceased. Just want you to know they are very alive, just watched conference and ate dinner with my dad, and just talked to my uncle this week. I have put in a request that this status be changed. My father is an endowed member, has served as a Bishop, Stake mission president etc. He doesn't need to be baptized...lol.  Norm, though, is not a member, but is still alive so no work can be done, yet... :)

Sincerely,

Deb Hines Engman

Dear Deborah,

I looked for both of these individuals on Family Tree.  I can find neither of them.  Perhaps if you could let me know the ancestral line, so I can find out how that came about.  I apologize for any inconvenience that this has caused.  When I find an individual, I search for records for sources. I only work on lines that are direct ancestors and their descendants.  I would be happy to correspond with you further to see how we are related.

Sincerely,

I wrote on April 12 2015

Here is a screen shot from Family Tree.  I descend from Andrew Jackson Kerr's LHLK-RV6 Grandfather William Jasper Kerr 9QY3-5LJ.  The line is as follows. William Jasper Kerr, (son) Robert Marion Kerr, (son)Marion Joseph Kerr, (daughter) Mary Ellen Kerr, (son) Ivin Lafayette Gee, and me.

I got the names from census records. (1940) and put them in to Family Tree when I entered the source on 7 March 2015.  I did not know that they were still living and apologize for any inconvenience that this may have caused.

There is a story about Josephus Kerr

L8SH-CK2

or as he is known by Joseph Kerr, which I have not added to his record in Family Tree because I am still trying to document that this is the same Joseph.  Joseph Kerr was crippled from birth and served as a spy for the American forces in the Revolutionary War against the British, If you want a copy of this,let me know.

Sincerely, 

Laurence Gee

How to merge and not to merge

Click Here

I worked up this little file for my adventures in Family Tree.  I thought you might be interested in it. It is on my Family History instruction website.

A reason to put contact information into Family Tree

A reason to put contact information into Family Tree

It is always frustrating to me when I look at a record of an individual and see that someone has added some information or reserved an ordinance and they have not included any contact information.  They may have more information that you would like to ask them about, or they may have entered data in error or gotten the relationships wrong. 

When I teach people to get an account on Family Tree, I always encourage them to at least enter their e-mail address as contact information.  I enter everything in the contact information so that it will be available.  When there are questions, I want patrons to be able to contact me.

This was more than helpful when about 1 week ago I received a phone call.  It was from the church.  I thought I recognized the voice, so I said hello Dr. J. L. Smith.  It was not Dr. Smith, but a man by the name of George Wood. He explained that he was calling me about some records that had been dropped off at the Family History Center in Annapolis, Maryland by the relatives of a man that had died. His family was not members of the church and was going to destroy the records, but decided to give them to the family history center. If this sounds familiar, it is the way that the records of Lysander Gee came into the possession of the church historians office.  Brother Wood explained that he was the director of the Annapolis Family History Center. He had looked at the records and family group sheets and then went on Family Tree.  He saw my name associated with a record of one of the man’s ancestors.  He called me to ask if I wanted the records. He said that there were a number of the individuals on the family group sheets that were in Family Tree, but there were some that he could not find.  He said that there were some written histories as well. I responded that I collected information like that and would be happy to pay the shipping if he would send them to me.  I had no idea of the extent of the information.  He verified my address as it appears on Family Tree and said that he would send me the records.

When I returned from our trip to Phoenix at 11:00 p.m. last night, I looked at the mail in the box.  There was a large heavy package in the box.  I was tired and decided to open the box in the morning.  Today after I got back from my early morning meeting, I opened the box. It weighed 12 pounds.  Inside were a blue book of remembrance and a bound volume of family group sheets and a stack of loose papers 2 inches high. 

From the book of remembrance I learned that the owner was Robert Wayne Beck and was born 14 January 1930 in Eureka, Juab, Utah.  He was not in Family Tree, but his father, mother and two siblings were.  I knew that he was dead, so I entered his name and information into Family Tree as a son.

Here is a photo of the box.

Here is a photo of the documents.

 I went on the Internet and found an obituary.

Robert Wayne Beck

Bob Beck was born in Eureka, Utah but spent his adult life in Maryland. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1949 and served 4 years most of that on two Navy ships, the U.S.S. Mullany and the U.S.S. Yosemite. He worked for the Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Co. for over 33 years, retiring in 1987.

Bob was at the cutting edge of new broadcast technology, including the creation of microwave systems for radio and television broadcasters. During his early years with C & P he helped set up this new system in the White House. This allowed the President to address the nation from the White House requiring minimal telephone company involvement. He spent a great deal of time at the White House (including Camp David) and local broadcast stations during this period.

Special Navy training brought him to Washington, D.C. where he met and married Joan Cass. Last September they celebrated 62 years of marriage. They raised two sons and traveled extensively across the U. S. and later internationally.

Bob and Joan were always a devoted couple who enjoyed doing things together. Besides travel, they were always boaters on the Potomac River and the Chesapeake Bay. This eventually made them leave Clinton, where they spent 20 years, and brought them to live in Annapolis. They were members of the Annapolis Power Squadron for many years.

Bob is survived by his wife Joan and two sons, Robert Wayne Beck, Jr (wife Susan) and Christopher Cass Beck (wife Karen), and 7 grandchildren – most around him when he passed away on Monday April 14, 2014.

A memorial gathering will be held on Saturday, April 19 from 1-4 PM at Taylor Funeral Home, 147 Duke of Gloucester St., Annapolis. Internment will be in Arlington National Cemetery at a later date. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Hospice of the Chesapeake, 90 Ritchie Highway, Pasadena, MD 21122 or the Anne Arundel County Library Foundation, 5 Harry S. Truman Parkway, Annapolis, MD 21401

Accompanying the obituary was a photo.

When I put the information into my Ancestral Quest program, I found that he was my 4^th cousin.  He descended from Sarah Caroline Gee, the sister of Lysander Gee who married first Timothy Botsford and second James Wesley Webb.  He is descended from this second marriage.