I finished my ancestor's biography! Sort of!

+17 votes
451 views

I've been working for a few months on the biography for my fifth-great-grandmother, Hannah (Stoneman) Davis, and I've finally finished it! 

https://www.wikitree.com/index.php?title=Stoneman-153

Or, you know, as much as anybody ever finishes anything in genealogy. smiley There are so many questions I still want to answer. Most notably, where in the world did her husband come from!? 

But I've finished a good first draft. And nobody in my real world is terribly interested in my great-great-great-great-great-grandmother, but I knew the good people of Wikitree would be. 

in The Tree House by Jessica Hammond G2G6 Mach 3 (34.5k points)
retagged by Jessica Hammond
As Caryl said, Very Well done indeed!  Awesome job.
It looks awesome!
This profile is absolutely MARVELOUS!!! The time, effort, and respect for your ancestor which you put into it are very evident.
Thank you, everyone!

Or, you know, as much as anybody ever finishes anything in genealogy. smiley There are so many questions I still want to answer. Most notably, where in the world did her husband come from!? 

by Jessica Hammond

.

You are so right about never really being finished!  I'm forever finding "just one more thing" I can add.  (Nice profile, btw.)

I also see you have a Pod Person!  cheeky  I have a few of those.  You know they existed because you have them in documents, but you can't find birth, or death, or both, so they must have just dropped down from the mother ship, yes  (I even created an image just for my Pod People.  (Feel free to use it if you wish.) smiley )

Thank you for sharing that wonderful product of your labors. smiley

That's a cute Pod People illustration.
Well done

11 Answers

+9 votes
 
Best answer

Remember the kids’ song, This is the song that never ends...?

I think this describes what you’re saying about genealogy!

by Pip Sheppard G2G Astronaut (2.7m points)
selected by Rubén Hernández
Ha! Yes. That is exactly right.
Thank you, O Graphics Master and all ‘round airplane electrician!
+13 votes
Nice work Jessica!  The profile is well written and your list of sources is excellent.  Very well done indeed.
by Caryl Ruckert G2G6 Pilot (205k points)
Thank you!
+8 votes
Awesome work, Jessica!  Very thorough.
by Carolyn Martin G2G6 Pilot (281k points)
Thank you!
+8 votes
You should be very proud of that profile.  Congratulations!
by Kathy Rabenstein G2G6 Pilot (316k points)
Thank you!
+6 votes
Great work, Jessica. Congratulations.
by Kenneth Evans G2G6 Pilot (245k points)
Thank you!
+6 votes
Very nice indeed. It shows how much work you did.
by Anne B G2G Astronaut (1.3m points)
Thank you!
+6 votes
Excellent well-written biography that explains sources and research efforts in a very readable fashion. I also have Shelby County roots. From your sources, it sounds like you have probably been to the Shelby County Historical Society in the old county jail. I found the folks there very helpful and a visit to the old jail cells (stacked with boxes of records and the like) to be quite interesting. Also, in the last year or two, they just received a huge cache of old newspapers from the local newspaper that was going to discard them. I was able to find the obit of a great grandfather from the late 1800's that help fill in some clues as to the family. Oddly, it named more of the female children than males, perhaps because they lived still lived in the area.
by Marty Acks G2G6 Pilot (152k points)

I haven't been to Shelby County yet, but I want to. I've exchanged emails with a woman who works at the historical society there, and she's been a huge help.  

But I still want to go there and dig through the records myself. It's an eight hour drive from my home, and I have to convince my husband and kids that central Illinois would be an exciting vacation destination. So far, they are unconvinced. smiley

LOL. I actually have convinced my wife to go along with my genealogy exploits. So we are do not appear to be related directly through Shelby County per WikiTree but suspect we may share some cousins. My ancestor from that area include: Bonham, Boys/Boyce, Freeman (not yours, I think), Gates, Hagerman, Patterson, Perryman. Other related families include Birkett, Foster. I may be down in Decatur next Friday visiting family, which also has very good Central Illinois focused records. Feel free to message me if you have an specific items you are looking for in the area.
None of your names look familiar to me either, but you're right; I bet we have a few in common.
+5 votes

I am not editor! but I noticed one type-o in the spelling of Tamar in just one spot where you list her name as Tamas Walker:

"

Another piece of the puzzle is a woman named Tamar Davis. Tamar was born in Virginia in about 1796.[36] In 1816, the Mount Pleasant Monthly Meeting - Hannah’s mother’s meeting - disowned Tamar Davis, now Tamas Walker, for marrying outside of the faith.[37] The man she married was Elias Walker, and Elias and Tamar 

by Dale Davidson G2G3 (4.0k points)
Thanks for catching that! I've fixed that now.
+3 votes
Excellent work!!
by Traci Thiessen G2G6 Pilot (293k points)
Thank you!
+3 votes
Beautiful work! (I do have one question, though. "MM" in the birth location data field seems to stand for "Monthly Meeting." Is that part of the location name, or an oversight? Might show up as a DB error.)
by Stephanie Ward G2G6 Pilot (117k points)
Hannah's birth would have been recorded in the minutes of the Monthly Meeting as her mother was a member. Most children of that time were born at home. Is there family lore that her mother went to Meeting expecting to have plenty of time to return home for her lying in but surprise ... Baby!?

Thank you for catching that! I've fixed it now.

That would be a great story if she was actually born at the monthly meeting, but she was not, as far as I know. smiley

+3 votes
Very well done!
by John Morgan G2G6 (7.9k points)
Thank you!

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