In January, I committed to in-depth research on the under-documented women in my family tree. I had hopes of researching one woman every 1-2 months. My first foray into this type of research, however, took over three months!
There were a lot of things I learned doing this research and writing Mary Jane's story. Here are some of them.
Things that went right
Discovering and using a wide range of resources—I enjoyed finding and
using a terrific range of resources discovered while I created a
locality guide for Erie County, New York, and added to my Ontario,
Canada, locality guide. I have begun to gather many Cleveland and
Cuyahoga County, Ohio, resources and have started a locality guide for
that as well, including maps, websites, record sets, etc.
Fleshing out several periods in Mary Jane's life—I feel good about the details I was able to bring to her story by researching various social history aspects of her times, such as life in the Hydraulics neighborhood of Buffalo, what contributions she might have made on the Grantham farm, historical medical treatments for lockjaw or breast cancer, and what Catholic church life was like in the 19th century, among others.
Writing from Mary Jane's perspective—I literally added a heading "Mary Jane's Perspective" to my drafts so that I would remember to look at events from her point of view. I'm not sure I was always successful, but it was my priority.
Filling in the details on her family—In the course of this research and creating Mary Jane's life timeline, I discovered more about her parents, siblings, husband, children, etc. I made a previously unknown connection between the Saul family and the Cassidy family. I discovered that Buffalo and North Evans, Erie, New York, were family localities. I learned how Mary Jane's husband and three of her sons died. I also definitively linked her husband Philip Cassidy with his brother Daniel and sister Elizabeth, confirming a family cluster.
Writing an entire life story—I'm grateful that I was able to complete this story, taking Mary Jane from her early life until death.
Implementing what I learned in the book Telling Her Story—My inspiration for this project was the book Telling Her Story: A Guide to Researching and Writing about Women of the Past. It's somewhat difficult to tell the story of someone you've never met. You must make sense of their life from a distance, using documents and social history to paint the picture. But you also can't fictionalize or stray from the truth. It's a careful line to tread. I couldn't put words in Mary Jane's mouth, but I could theorize what she might have thought or may have felt. It was tricky.
Things that didn't go to plan
Underestimating time needed—Underestimating the amount of time needed to really research one of my "silent" women ancestors was one mistake I made.
Not finding the marriage record—Though I've completed pretty exhaustive research, I still have not uncovered Mary Jane and Philip's marriage record. A proof argument is on my to-do list.
Finding mistakes later—I'm human. I've begun to add some of the 200+ facts I learned over the course of this research to my Ancestry tree and the FamilySearch Family Tree profiles for these ancestors. Here and there, I've found a mistake that I need to fix. They're not major mistakes, but I still wish I hadn't made them.
Getting Burned Out—I must admit, by the last post, I was
getting burned out. Mostly, it got harder to find the creativity needed to tell the story in an engaging way.
Things that I will do differently
Wait to publish an entire story—In the future I will not publish any posts until I know for sure that I am completely done researching. I often found records after the fact that were pertinent to something already written and published. I must admit, I have a hard time stopping when I'm in a research groove; there always seems to be just one more thing I can look up to flesh out a particular episode. But I need to have the entire picture before writing.
What's up next?
In January, I took the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy course on material culture (or the study of "stuff" that we leave behind), taught by Gena Philibert-Ortega. During the course, I began a project researching a small booklet that belonged to my grandmother, Margaret Katherine Simonik (1913-1988), as a window into her life. My theory is that she used this booklet while preparing for her Catholic confirmation in 1926.
Researching material culture is similar to genealogy in many ways, including creating a research question that guides your research plan. The research question I devised during the course is:
What were confirmation rites & traditions in a Slovak Catholic church and community in the 1920s in southwestern Pennsylvania?
This research fits in with my larger goal to research several women ancestors in depth. Look for a post on this project here later.
Until next time...
© Nancy Gilbride Casey, 2025. All rights reserved.
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You are so kind to comment, Sandra. Thank you. (Hope to see you soon!)
ReplyDeleteThanks Diane. I love a good debrief!
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed your analysis. Sometimes, I find that waiting to write when you're done, that the writing doesn't happen. Perhaps writing as you research and then when you're done, put it together to publish.
ReplyDeleteThat's a good thought. I often do write sections as I research, but I pulled the trigger too soon this time in some instances. Thanks for reading and commenting.
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