What, No Leaves to follow ???

I was doing some screen sharing with DearMYRTLE and were talking about the Web Search feature. I noticed a Shaky Leaf on my Great Grandfather. I had some research for him, as I was reviewing my Census Records for "the family". But when I brought up the People Workspace, Family View, he had a new shaky leaf. Clicked on it, and there was a New Hint which was his Civil War Enlistment record. Wow. I hadn't seen that image myself, but I had notes from a cousin, that they had seen that record.

But that was it. I know I had looked for other Civil War records for him, with no luck. Where was his pension file? So, off to Fold3, where I have had luck with Civil War records. Nothing.

No more shaky leaves, nothing on Fold3, so what do I do. There has got to be more information about him somewhere.

I guess we get rely so much on those hints, that we, or at least I, get lazy. I know there my be more on him, or on his Civil War unit.

So, to the Web Search workspace. What I like about FTM2012, is that it pre-populates the Web Search screen with the information for the person you go to the Web Search Workspace From. In this case, my great-grandfather.

The top part of the page has the basic information, name, dates, places and relationships. And below that is the searching that you want to do.

I made my selections, which was "All Collections", but no Family Trees. Just below the Search button, is a view that will stay on the screen, of the data in my file on this person. Very handy when you start looking at results.

So, I clicked on the Search button.

Now we are talking. Kansas, Civil War Enlistment Papers. That is the shaky leaf I had seen earlier, but had not taken any action to merge that information into my file. Below that was another record on U.S. National Homes for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers. I had not seen that record before. The other hints will be taken care of soon, as they all are for my great-grandfather. For not having any Shaky Leaves, there is some good information here.

Below is his Civil War Enlistment image. I have seen his signature before, that what a gem this is.

That next hint really looked interesting, as it puts him into a Disabled Civil War Volunteer hospital. Dates, names, and places are listed.

What was interesting was the "Kind and Degree of Disability" entry, stating "Brights Disease of Kidneys". Will have to look that up, as well as some of the other terms on this document. He did die young,  with notes in my file that indicated that the cause of his death may have been Tuberculosis, Cancer of the Prostrate, and Heart Failure.

Another search result, provided the Pension File card, with a number on it. Sounds like a 'road trip' to NARA in the near future. Perhaps, Dear MYRTLE will show me the ropes to that repository.

A little more searching found more details on the Unit he served with, during the Civil War.

 Paging through the "List of Soldiers", here he is.

When the View Record link was clicked, this is what appeared.

Not bad, for not having any Shaky Leaves to follow.

Lesson Learned: The shaky leaves are the low hanging fruit, as I have heard it called. But don't forget to use the Web Search Workspace, to get to some of those other records.

Better get back to data entry, citing my sources, getting the new sources into the Template Feature, and managing the new media files that were included in the Search Results.


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Copyright © 2012 by H R Worthington