Jesse Joe's Letter

This week, I thought I would go back to revisit my first post and highlight the relationship between my grandparents. A few years ago, I was at my grandmother's house looking for writing samples to add to my family tree. I love seeing how different people write, and seeing signatures in particular. My grandmother showed me recipe cards her mother had written. She showed me letters between my great-grandmother and great-great-grandmother. Then, she gave me a letter my grandfather had written her while he was away on duty for the Coast Guard.

He started writing on 13th of July 1987, and he writes a little bit at a time so that it ends 23 July 1987. He is traveling across the Atlantic Ocean during the trip headed towards Thule, Greenland (which he writes as Tule Greendland.) All spelling is as he wrote it, except that he writes in mostly all capital letters, and I capitalized as I saw necessary instead.

Photograph of letter and envelope, taken 2017

It was written on standard yellow notepaper. (I say "standard" because I always remember it being at the house growing up, but it is larger than your typical 8.5"x11" paper. It's even longer than A4 paper.) It is written in pencil (except for the LOVE YOU DEAN at the top of the first page which is written in a pen or marker), and it's four pages single-sided.

LOVE YOU DEAN 

13 July 87 

Hey Dean, 

Well today is Monday evening, just a few lines to let you know how things are going. We are off New York about hundred miles or so, it has cool off nice now--when we departed Norfolk it was really hot. In my forward engine-room it was 127*F--the sea's have be flat, and a little foggy. Hope your operation will go ok for you. So far the engines are running fine. it was good to hear your voice Sat. befor we departed. How is David do-ing now? Throught I write you a little each day if I have time, and let you know what going on. Well untill later, miss you. 

It's now Thu. 16th. All this week it been really foggey. This morning is the first time it's been clear no fog. We are about 1 1/2 days behine our schedule due to operating slow in fog. Other than the fog the weather and sea's have been good. The temp is cooling off 50 and 60*F now. Well today you go to the doctor, I hope and pray everything will go well for you. Miss you alot Dean, I be so glad when you and I retire so we can be together and do all the thing we want to do together. How is the house floor support job coming along? So far all the engines and propulsion system's are operating good, no real problem's. I am go-ing to try to loose some weight this patrol if I can. I would sure like to get down to about 180 lbs. instead of 195 to 200 lbs. range. Sure wish I were back home, so I could do all the things I want to do. But I just have to wait. Well Dean, I write you more later on. Miss you and love you. 

Well, it's Saterday now, this morning the first iceberg was slicated. The sea's are picking up and it is raining. We got about 1,200 miles of open water untill we get to greed-land. My engines are operating good. Well that about all that is happening out hear. I hope and pray this letter will fine you doing ok. Sure wish I was back home instead of being out hear. There so much I want to do around the house, and be with you. I miss you alot's. As Brittany spend the night with you in our big bed? I bet she will be walking when I get back in Sept. We should be back sometime the first week of Sept. and are scheduled to go yard's for three month's Oct. and should be finish in the yards befor X-mas. Don't know where the yards will be, or what the ship will do after the yard's. Boy sure hope I can get the Gentian out of Ft. Macon Mar. 89. That would wipe my 30 years up. I sure going start putting the wheels in motion to get the Gential after the Northwind, I should be able to get it. How is David doing? I hope he got over his cold. Sure glad he got that state road job. Well Dean, don't know what all to say at this time, other than I love you and miss you. I write you tomorrow on Sunday. 

Hey Dean, it's Sunday evening, we are back operating in the fog real slow, it's raining out and it's getting colder in the 30's now and the rain is turning to ice on the deck's. Nice and warm in the engine-rooms. We are now schedule to get to Tule, next Sunday the 26th. There are alreadly two icebreaker up there from Canada. Really don't know why we are still going. If the Coast Guard alreadly got two icebreaker, other than to show the U.S. flag and say the North-wind made it to Tule Greedland. I hope it's asn't been too hot, like it was befor we departed on patrol. If I could send you some of this cold wether I would. Don't know what all to write about, other than to let you know I am thinking about you, and wish I was there with you. Sure do miss you a lots. I bet you have been staying busy around the house, cutting class, going to Jacksonville seeing my mama, taking your mama shoping, going to work in Morehead, ect. Try and take it easy some, and maybe take a weekend off and go see Frank and Fay, you need to get away some. Well Dean I close for now and write you more later on the week before we get to Tule, so you have a long letter from me. Miss you. 

Hello again, it's now Wednesday 22nd. We are operating real slow due to heave for and ice berg's. The temp. is in 30's & 40's. It now staying daylight almost 24 hrs aday. I been busy standing underway watches and doing paper work. The time seems to be going by petty fast. I know I be glad to get back home and see you. Then I got to drive my new truck some, sure have nice truck when I get that body put on. I miss you alots and think about us alots. Dean I love you. Well almost at end of this page, so I say buy for now. Write you a little more later. 

Hello again it's Tue 23th, we are schedule to get to Tule tomorrow evening or Saturday morning, and turn right around and escort a ship back out to sea. Then back to Tule and do it again. Hope we get mail call each time in Tule. Well Death as it now stand's will should be back in Wilmington Labor Day weekend sometime. But it don't look like we will have bery much time in our homeport, for we are schedule to be in the yard by 21st of Sept. and we won't know where the yard period will be untill first part of Sept. What little time we do have in our homeport should be maximum liberty time off. I talked to the EO today about taking 3 wk's off in October during the yard period, for I wanted to build another building. He said it should not be any problem taking leave in the yard's. So maybe Jr. and I can get started and have the foundation all done before the ship depart's for the yard's. Dean I sure will be glad when I can retire and stay home, and then when we want to go somewhere, we can do it together. Only 3 1/2 more year's. You think we can make it untill then? Looking forward of getting to Tule for mail call, and sending this letter. I hope everyone is doing ok, and thing's are going good for you. I know you have a lot on you. Dean take care of your-self, for I don't want anything to happen to you. Well Dean I close this letter for it's 4 pages long. And start another letter. Write when you have time, for as always getting mail from you makes my day brighter. 

Love always

Jesse

Update on the Harris Family Problem

I had my DAR Fall Forum this weekend, so I wasn't able to prepare a post again this week, but I did want to give a little update on the family I mentioned last week. I went to our local genealogy library on Friday with the rest of the State's DAR members. My one goal was to find information about this Harris line.

Long story short: I found information about the family, but I'm not sure how helpful it is yet.

I found a lot of records for my "son" Patriot, John, and his second wife. I even found where he adopted his wife's children from her first marriage. I have a sneaky suspicion though that the service currently linked to John may not be for John. The source of John's service is the fact that his wife Lavinia received land through a land lottery for being the "widow of a Revolutionary War soldier."

She had been widowed twice by this point though. Sometimes, widows had to prove they were married to the soldier during the time of service to receive benefits on behalf of the man. She didn't marry John until 1816. Her previous husband died in 1809, and they would have been married during his time (if he did in fact serve) during the War.

AND I still haven't proven his first wife yet (my ancestor's mom). I don't "have" to prove her name, but I feel like it would provide a better argument for my case if I can show the prior applications using Lavinia as Lucy's mom are wrong. (Not to mention proving they were wrong about her dying before they got married!)

Then, for David, my other Patriot -- and John's father -- I was able to figure out through some of the ladies who have higher levels of access to previous applications what the nature of Captain David Harris' service was. I was able to figure out the names of the men he supposedly served under, so that will make proving his service with a new source infinitely easier than trying to figure out who is who amongst all of the David Harrises around Georgia at the time.

I'll keep you updated on the progress with this family in future posts, but that's it for the update for now.

Gerald Dean Richerson

One of the perks to having such a "young" family is that I have known more than half of my great-grandparents. I didn't realize how unusual this was until I was in college and had been doing genealogy for a few years already.

I never knew my Mexican great-grandparents; they both passed away before I was born. While I didn't know them well, I did get to meet my dad's other set of grandparents as a child. My maternal grandfather's dad passed away before I was born, but I knew his mom very well. (She's the one that got me started on this crazy genealogy kick in the first place!) And my maternal grandmother's mom lived next door to us growing up.

My maternal grandmother's father, on the other hand, has always been a bit of a mystery to me. Even though he was still alive by the time I went to college, I never knew him. And, actually, it never dawned on me that I hadn't met him until I found out even he existed.

As a kid, you only know what you've been told, and I was told my "Grandma Grimm" was my granny's mom. Since I was never introduced to a person referred to as my granny's "dad," I kind of just assumed she didn't have one.

An excerpt from my Baby Book. (I don't even think my mom asked anybody for information. She put in whom she had met personally and left it at that.)

Then, one day, I can't quite remember if it was when I was in middle school or high school, we drove by a house. I don't even remember where the house was, except I am fairly certain it was still in North Carolina somewhere. When questioning why we were stopped on the side of the street in this seemingly random residential area, I was told my granny's dad lived in the house up ahead of us.

As far as I remember, no one ever approached the house or tried to make contact with him; I just remember driving by the house that day. As if simply knowing he was a real person was enough for my mom and grandmother.

When I started doing genealogy, I asked my grandmother her father's name, but still to this day I haven't asked if she ever knew her father or why he wasn't around when I was a kid. (Honestly, it even took me a while to figure out that her mom had gotten remarried at some point because their last names weren't the same! I never met a "Grandpa Grimm," so again I just assumed there just wasn't one.)

Gerald Dean Richerson was born on 30 June 1921 in Long Lane, Dallas County, Missouri. My grandmother's birth certificate says otherwise. (Not that I hold much stock in what birth certificates say; my dad's says that his dad was born in Texas, instead of Mexico.)

From what I can tell, he was the oldest of eight children born to William Parker Richerson and Cleo Belle Triplett. He married my great-grandmother Jessie Roberta Ellis on 21 December 1942. Together, they had one child, Clara Dean Richerson, in 1943

As I mentioned before, I don't know what happened after my grandmother was born, but by 1947 Gerald was getting married to Hazel Corrine Jenkins in Santa Rosa, Florida. Hazel and Gerald had at least one child together, Barbara Louise Richerson, in 1949.

I don't know if Gerald stayed around long for his second wife and second child, but Gerald remarried a third time to a woman named Marjorie. They had at least the following children:

• John William Richerson, born 1963
• Marjorie L Richerson, born 1968
• Laura Richerson

The only other thing I know about Gerald is that he served as a pilot with the U.S. Navy. He served a year and a half in the military. He enlisted on 19 December 1957 and was released on 6 July 1959. I don't know any specifics on his service, but I do have a picture of him.

Provided by Thomas Cardenas

This was the first photo I saw of my great-grandfather. Since he was 36 when he enlisted in the Navy, and that is relatively old to have joined the service, I wonder what his reasoning was.  Whatever the reason, I think his experiences in the Navy directly affected his feelings about family. I think that's why he found a wife, and kept her, and had a family.

Based on everything I've been able to dig up on him, I don't think Gerald would have been an easy person to know, but I think I would have liked to have known him.

Photo provided by Thomas Cardenas

Gerald died on 28 March 2006 in Missouri. I don't know where he is buried yet, but I assume he is buried in Missouri. If anyone knows anything about Gerald, his second and third spouses, or his other children, please send me a message. I would love to find some answers for this part of the family tree.

Sources:

• Birth Certificate, Clara Dean Richerson
• U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007, Gerald Dean Richerson

How I Research, Part II

A couple of weeks ago, I started this mini-series on my tips and tricks on researching genealogy. During my first post, I discussed some of the types of forms I use to record my research. This week, I thought I would show you how I organize those forms after I create them.

Organization is something that is key when doing anything of the scale of genealogical research. It's important to realize, though, that organization is something that is often different for different people. What I think is organized, may look like a "hot mess" to someone else. It's all about how your brain works.

I'll even tell you now, I utilize several different organization strategies myself for different projects I'm working on. So, one of my methods may work for you; or all, or none of them may work for you. I'll do my best to show the differences in them though, and you can pick for yourself how you want to organize your own research. Since I do use so many different methods, I will only focus on one method in each post so I can more thoroughly explain each one.

First, for my direct line of ancestors, I have a single notebook set up.

It is currently housed in a 1-1/2" binder, and I have simply named it "Brittany's Ancestors." I have it set up with a couple of different types of dividers inside.

The dividers I use in my Ancestor Notebook

The first set of dividers is actually a set of dividers I have split up between two notebooks. It originally started as a set of eight-tab dividers that have an opening for you to label them yourself. (Half of the set is in my ancestor binder; the other half of the set is in my husband's ancestor binder. I used to keep us both in the same notebook when I first started working on his family. Now his family is more researched than my own! So he has another binder just for his family now.)

These dividers house my Ancestor Charts. The tabs are divided with a couple of different kinds of Ancestor Charts. The first tab is the straight line of ancestors -- the chart I showed you in my previous post. The second and third tabs are for Step-families and Adoptive families.

Stepfamily Ancestor Chart from Family Tree Magazine

Adoptive Family Ancestor Chart from Family Tree Magazine

These forms are also available from the Family Tree Magazine website and are great if you have situations like this in your tree where you want to research both a step-parent's or adoptive parent's lines. I don't have many adoptions in my family, but I have a slew of second, third, fourth, etc. spouses that I try to research in addition to my own ancestors.

Unlike the other ancestor chart, which is clearly laid out for you to number them, these charts do not include any kind of internal numbering pattern. I have chosen not to number these lines myself, but I have considered it for some of my collateral lines where I may need help remembering who the central person in the chart is. (For my own ancestors, when I see my dad's name in the middle of the chart, I know we are talking about some of his step-parents; I don't need a note that tells me my dad is "person 2 on chart 1.")

The second set of dividers I have in my ancestor notebook is from the "Ready Index" line from Avery.

Avery Divider that I use for my Ancestor Notebook

It has 15 numbered tabs that you can customize only from the Table of Contents page. It worked great for me though because I have it set up so each number is a "generation."

Generation 1 is me and my husband.
Generation 2 is my parents.
Generation 3 is both sets of my grandparents.
Generation 4 is all four sets of my great-grandparents.
... And the pattern continues.

For each generation, I keep a couple of different forms in there. I have my Family Group Records with the Source Summaries printed on the back. I discussed these forms last time, so I won't go over these again. I will say though, that sometimes I will print out a very small (about 1" wide) copy of a photo for each person, sometimes a tombstone if that's all I have, and tape it next to the person's name. I only do this for the "parents" on the Family Group Sheet since the children in the family are positioned so close together. So far, I have only done this with some of my husband's family though.

I also have copies of a couple of those records that I had already printed out or photocopied. Not every family has copies of records in the notebook. Even in the ones that do have records, not every family has all of the records relevant to them in their section. I stopped printing them out after a while, and I simply keep digital copies now. More on my digital organization in another post.

IT IS IMPORTANT TO NOTE: Do not store original documents with your research notes, even if everything is acid-free and you think it's okay. Use the strategies I discussed in my last post on Archiving instead. Among other reasons, you'll thank me when you accidentally leave your notebook somewhere and either forget it or it otherwise gets damaged.

I also have a couple of the other forms Family Tree Magazine provides on their website set up in each of the generation sections. The Military Records Checklist and the Census Checklists are definitely my favorites.

I'm actually in the process of redoing my Military Records Checklists because I used to just list all of my direct ancestors in one big list, so the "big list" is in the front of my notebook before my Ancestor Charts. Now, I am working to set it up the same way I do my Census Checklists.

A page of my "big list" for the Military Records Checklist from Family Tree Magazine

You'll see, I block out the options that are outside my ancestor's lifespan. This gives me a clear view of what branches/engagements I should spend my time researching for each person.

One thing I will mention about this form is that it is centered around American military records. The chunk of ancestors at the bottom of this form without any marks is from my Mexican side of the family. This form doesn't work very well for them -- another reason I wanted to re-do this form and switch it over to individual family units. I'm hoping to create my own checklist of sorts for other countries' military records sometime down the line.

For my Census Checklists, I have a new page for each individual Family Group Sheet. This way, aunts and uncles get accounted for in each census as well as direct ancestors.

A page of my Census Checklist from Family Tree Magazine

It takes up more pages this way compared to my old method of listing just my direct ancestors in a continuous stream. It's hard to see in the above photo so I've attached a closeup below, but you'll notice I don't just "check" whether or not I have a copy of the person's census record; I write in the location I found the person in the census. I like doing it this way because it helps me see at a glance if families moved as a unit or if certain branches left on their own.

Closeup of Census Checklist shown above showing locations of census records found

You'll also notice the worksheet only goes up to the 1930 census. I have added a column for the 1940 census in the margin of the document. In a few more years when the 1950 census is released to the public, I will need to make my own version of this document if Family Tree Magazine does not update theirs by then.

I'm hoping, with the Military Checklist broken up this way too that I'll be able to see if entire sets of siblings joined the military, as was often the case in my husband's family, or if only a handful of siblings joined, or if there was any impact on joining the military when a parent served.

The last thing I have in my notebook, though not always in each section, is a small to-do list written on regular, college-ruled filler paper. I keep a much larger to-do list in my Family Tree Maker program, and the Checklists I use serve as their own kind of to-do list showing which records I still need to find; but if there is a particular place I want to remember to look for a record or a particular story I want to remember to try to prove or disprove, I will often keep a note of that in with that family's worksheets.

That about covers it for this particular notebook. Again, this set up may work for you, or it may not. I'll discuss some of my other notebooks and their purpose and organization techniques in future posts.