I often see comments from people in different groups who don’t understand why anyone would research beyond their direct family line. I find it hard to not research my extended family. Is it just a trait of my family to have open doors? So many of the Censuses I come across have an extra family member. Often it is parents, but I have found nieces and nephews, sisters and brothers, grandchildren and in-laws all living in one house.
I had this family picture that confused me because I couldn’t find a Minnie in the tree who fit in this time period. The photo was labeled Minnie and Grandma Marion. She is pictured here with my great grandmother Marion (Robertson) Kirkwood 1854-1936. I found her listed in this Census from 1911 as the daughter of Walter and Marion. Minnie was only 6 in 1911 and Marion would have been 50 when Minnie was born. It seemed very unlikely.
I searched and searched for a birth certificate for Minnie Kirkwood on Scotland’s People. Eventually I turned to a Facebook group for researching Scottish Ancestors. A very kind gentleman found the birth certificate for Minnie. He was worried I would be upset finding out Minnie was ‘illegitimate’ it does actually say that on her birth certificate. I hate that term but love that her family was at a place where they could take her in as their own child. Minnie is the daughter of Jessie Kirkwood the second child of Walter and Marion. Jessie was working as a domestic servant in the home of the man who is the father of Minnie. They did put his name on the birth certificate which I guess does not always happen.
My Scottish ancestors often had extended family in their homes. The partial Census I have posted here is the home of my 3rd great grandparents, Nicol Kirkwood and Elizabeth (Craig) Kirkwood. This Census is from 1841 in Old Monkland, Scotland. The first two are Nicol and Elizabeth, next is George, my second great grandfather who is 21. Nicol and George are both Colliers, meaning coal miners. There are four more siblings of George. Elizabeth, 15 is a servant. Grace is 12 and does not yet have an occupation. Walter is 10 and is also a collier, and Janet is 6. There are two more family members living in their home. Janet (Ferguson) Craig at 85, is the mother of Elizabeth (Craig) Kirkwood. The final one surprised me and took me a little while to find the double connection. Helen Guy is the niece of Elizabeth (Craig) Kirkwood. Helen Guy and George Kirkwood, my second great grandfather marry in 1841. With the 10 year old of Nicol and Elizabeth already at work in the mines, I am assuming they were not a wealthy family. It happens quite often that elder family members are living with one of their children even when they probably do not have the space or the funds. Family is supported.
Here is another example of how extended family helped me solve a puzzle. I knew my 4th great grandfather was named Daniel Smith (1775-1864) and I knew his wife was named Mary. Finding Mary’s surname was I thought not going to happen. I found this family record on Family Search. It lists the parents and each of their children along with their birthdates and even the death of Mary. But still she is listed as Mary Smith! I began paging through the individusl records one by one. I kept finding each birth Certificate and each had the mother listed as Mary~.
Eventually I began to find death certificates. Still I was running into the same problem, Mary~! But eventually persistance pays off. Only one of the children had a full name for his mother on his death certificate. Now I know my 4th great grandmother is Mary Runnell! Without looking for all of the birth and death certificates of the siblings I may have never found that answer.
The last way extended family has helped in my research is a little different. My great grandfather on my dad’s side had left home at a young age and changed his name. We knew him as Benjamin Cook. The family rumor was he had changed his name from Koch to Cook. I thought he was born in Germany and like many believed the story that names were Americanized at Ellis Island or whereever they entered the country. This turns out to be a myth as well, if names were changed it was the immigrant themself who did the change.
I was really new to research and found this roadblock very frustrating. I hired someone to help me figure out a little more about Ben Cook. She found a couple of news articles and lead me to the Digital Archives of the Belle Plaine Community Library in Belle Plaine, Iowa. This has been a wonderful source of articles for so many of my family. One of the articles was about the funeral of Ben Cook which states he had two brothers who came from Watertown, Wisconsin for the funeral.
There were a surprising number of Koch families in and around that part of Wisconsin. I had it narrowed down somewhat but I was still stuck as to which family was his and did he change his first name as well as his last. Here is where the extended family twist comes to play. A son of my niece was doing a family genealogy project, his neighbor happened to be a genealogist and she helped him out. They found the will of Ben Cook’s father. I caught the connection on thru lines with Ancestry. I noticed this tree had a father for Ben and wrote to them wondering if they could help me out. It turned out the next door neighbor was on Ancestry and had created a small tree for my niece’s son. My own living extended family helped me figure out Benjamin Cook was Bernard Koch when he was born in Wisconsin to Anton Koch and Maria (Lemair) Koch.
It wasn’t too long after this when Bernard became Benjamin and moved to Iowa. His parents and two older brothers were born in Prussia and he along with the rest of his siblings were born in Wisconsin. Extended family can make research a cooperative experience, take all of the help you can get because there is always more to research.
I hope you can gather clues from your extended family, living or deceased, it can be a real break through.
My Tree in the Forest 