Archive for April 30th, 2010

by Sherry Stocking Kline
29 April 2010

I missed out on the first few weeks of 52 Weeks To Better Genealogy (check out this week’s challenge on www.geneabloggers.com)  began by Amy Coffin of We Tree, but there are such great weekly challenges there that I’m trying to join in all the fun!

I have to confess to something.  I’ve not really researched online library catalogs very much before.  I know that’s terrible,  because I could be missing so many great sources.  (I do check library catalogs IN the libraries). So,  it seemed like a great idea to use this blog challenge to ‘get my feet wet’ so to speak.

I began with the online catalog of the library at Kansas State University, my alma mater.  I thought that I might find histories, genealogies, and diaries.  So remember that I’m not real knowledgeable about searching the online catalogs, but anyhow, I didn’t find anything under the “Genealogy” search there.

I did find a link to a magazine database that I would absolutely LOVE to have access to. ProQuest.  ProQuest not only owns the Heritage Quest database that we all love to search, they also have copies of all types of magazine articles.  Type in Vitamin D, and you’ve got beau coup articles to read about the new discoveries science has made that Vitamin D plays in our health.

But I digress.  Anyhow, ProQuest magazines isn’t available to non-students.  So I pick up the phone, call the librarian, and ask if I can get a library card that will let me access ProQuest through the university website.  Alumni should have privileges, right?

Too expensive, the librarian said…

Apparently not. ProQuest is not available to non-students.  Too expensive, the librarian said.  But the very nice librarian sends me to the State of Kansas library website, goes there on her own computer and points out a free database that is similar to the ProQuest, called the Expanded Academic, and that shows promise for some of the non-genealogy research that I want to do.

Going on down the list of fun research tools available on State of Kansas library website, I find the Heritage Quest link!  Woo Hoo!  And I don’t have to in-put my library card number or pin number.  Better and better.

I Put in My Great-Grandmother’s Name…

I go to Heritage Quest and in the census, put in my great-grandmother’s maiden name, Martha Ellen Jones for 1910.  And got nothing.  Must have done something wrong. Usually there are hundreds if not thousands of Martha Ellen Joneses.  I’m just trying to figure out, if I can, what happened to her after the 1880 census.

All along I’ve been running under the assumption that she died, and that I just didn’t know where she died and was buried, but that may not be true.  She and great-grandfather may have ‘split the blanket’ and gone their separate ways.  Anyhow, I’m not finding her this morning.

So, on to the PERSI index at Heritage Quest, where I check out the name Stocking in the Revolutionary War database.  None of my ancestors are listed in this database.  But some other Stocking’s are, including Lemuel and his wife Ruth. Lemuel fought in the Continental Army from Massachusetts, and then there was Moses and his wife Elizabeth.  Moses was in the Navy.  While these folks are not my ancestors, there is a nearly 100% chance they are relatives, as so far, I’ve not connected with anyone with the Stocking name who is not related to me.

I Found the Original Stocking Ancestry…

Next, I search for books with the Stocking name, and find “The family of George Stocking”, Boston::  D. Clapp & Son, printers, 1896, 8 pgs.  How cool is that. This man is my first American ancestor.  A few years after he arrived, he was with Thomas Hooker’s party and helped found Hartford, Connecticut.   The information here is included, perhaps in its entirety, in the Stocking Ancestry updated and compiled by Hobart Stocking, but it was awesome to see an old copy of the original book.

George Stocking Family Book - Page One

I am Deacon Samuel’s descendant.

On the last page of this book, Page 8, that is on-line, it lists the Revolutionary War soldiers in the family, and there are more than were listed on the PERSI Revolutionary War database.  Hmm, maybe the George listed is one of my ancestors.

Stocking Family Book - Page 8

So here is another clue for future research!  And if this George is ‘my’ George, then I can join the DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution) in two different lines.

While searching, I also found three other books located in Kansas that may be available by library inter-loan.  Awesome!  Thank you Amy and Thomas for the inspiration!