More Photos from the Smith Branch

 Cousin Andy Cracknell sent along some more photos from the Smith side of the family.

George Smith

Another great photo of my great grandfather George Smith was a pleasant surprise. A much younger photo which gives a real feel for him. Not smiling perhaps, but I see humor in the eyes.

Estill at work

Estill at work at GM Parks Steam and Gas fittings in Fitchburg. It later became Parks-Cramer.

Estill

We think this is Estill as a young man. Just FYI the name Estill goes way back in Letitia's Indiana family. It was originally a surname.

And now the biggest surprise for me. An actual picture of Letitia herself.

Letitia 

Not sure what's wrong with her eye in this picture. Maybe just some clumsy photo editing by an earlier source.

Letitia and Marion

And here she is again with her granddaughter Marion. The biggest surprise for me was NOT the photo of her. Look again.

the Morris chair

I was aware that this Morris chair that was passed along to me was a family piece. I just didn't know its origin. It's been recovered and refinished a few times, but it is a sturdy survivor.

Cora and Harry

Andy knew this was Cora Elizabeth, but not who the child was. I feel reasonably certain this is Harry, my grandfather. Check out the lounge and the wallpaper.

So nice to have these additional family photos.

Pruning and Maintaining my Tree

I hate loose ends. When I look at my online tree at Ancestry, nothing makes me crazier than seeing this

No birth or death date.

I was amazed at how often just entering a guess for the birth date will help. Start with a date the same year as the spouse's birth. Very often the hints on Ancestry just pop up.

And there we are! I never did find a sure death date for her, but I found a death date under Minnie Tapply. I used a resource I found looking for Dora North and Frank Summerfield Tapply.

So these entries for the reading of wills very often name the spouse as beneficiary (so you can be sure you have the right person with the myriad Tapplys and Tapleys) and give the place of residence. By entering this place in Dora North's  file, I found her death entry and I used the same method for Minnie.

I've been going through the tree trying this methods with people on both sides of the Atlantic, and I've at least got either a birth or death date for the older parts of the tree. Amazing how entering a date and possible location unlocks those doors.

The next problem I tackled was this:

I've been round and round on this portion of the Smith family. Marion L. Smith had four children. Two were named Dietche and two were named Otto. I felt sure that there had been two marriages, but I couldn't find any record anywhere for the two children or for her. And her second husband was Otto Dietche. Was this a record mistake? I didn't think so. Her marriage record and the census name her as a widow. So I went back to the son and tried again on Family Search.

And lo and behold this showed up:

There it is. Allan G Otto in Fitchburg, Massachusetts who seemed to have died just after the birth of the two children. So plugging THAT into the tree for father and Robert Allan Otto for the son, the hints just fell into place. I found a directory entry for Allan and Marian living in Fitchburg just a year before his death.  I also  found exact birth, marriage and death dates for the children and neatly tied up another loose end.

It doesn't work every time. Older records are difficult. Families with many people of the same name are almost impossible. But using FindaGrave, Family Search and Ancestry I've made good progress. I found a few duplicates, loose ends, branches that needed pruning altogether and satisfied my own urge to tidy up the tree.  It may only be January, but it's time to try a little spring cleaning.