Putting the Pieces Together

In an ideal world, each of our ancestors would have written their own personal histories complete with photos. Unfortunately, most of the information we have are christening records, census data, and death certificates. Is it possible to piece together someone's life with facts and figures?

When I was creating a book of my direct ancestors, I tried to get a full five generations. When researching the lives of 62 people back to 1796, there aren't a lot of recorded stories. What I did have were vital records, great for genealogy, so-so for family history. But when that's all you have, you pull a Tim Gunn and make it work!

Step 1: Just the Facts

Take my ancestor John Fry, for example. I have the bare-bones facts to create a life sketch. He was born May 10, 1815 in Sacombe, Hertfordshire, England to John Fry and Martha Mountford Fry. He married Sarah Hulls April 2, 1839 in Bengeo, Hertfordshire, England. He died November 2, 1879 in Iowa Township, Iowa. If I want to put an entire life sketch together, I'll need more than that.

Step 2: Check for Sources

John has a few sources linked on FamilySearch—a passenger list, christening, a mention in a daughter's christening, a mention in marriage entries, and three census records. Now it's time to delve into each source and see what details I can find.

Step 3: Glean the Info

1. June 4, 1815, he was christened in Sacomb, Hertford, England.
2. When he married Sarah, he was a blacksmith and she a servant.
3. 1841, he lived in Hereford with his wife Sarah and daughter Ann.
4. August 21, 1842, his daughter Eliza was christened in Bengeo by the same vicar that married he and Sarah, John Byde. They lived on Port Hill.
5. 1861, he lived in Watton-at-Stone with his daughter Eliza, son William, and daughter Alice in a cottage attached to a marine store dealer shop. John was a marine store dealer, Eliza was a dressmaker, and William was a bricklayer laborer.
6. 1861, he sailed to New York City with his wife Sarah, daughter Alice, and sons James and John on the ship Underwriter. His occupation was laborer.
7. 1870, he lived in Jefferson Township, Harrison County, Iowa with his wife Sarah and sons James and John. He was a farmer, Sarah kept house, James was a day laborer, and John worked on the farm.
8. October 22, 1885, his son James married Amanda Mcgavren Johnson in St. John, Iowa.

Step 4: Search the Web

In order to frame his life, I turn to the internet for more details. I look up the various christening locations to see if I can determine what churches they took place in. I search all the towns listed to see what they were like at the time he lived there. I search "marine store shop" to see what he actually did for a living. I also look up the ship "Underwriter" to see if there are any interesting facts about it. Here's what I learned…

John was likely christened at St. Catherine's, the only church in Sacombe. It is largely 14th Century, but was restored in 1855-56. It was used as a location for the movie Enigma about the codebreakers of Bletchley Park in WWII.

The Church of St. Catherine in Sacombe, Hertfordshire, England

Since John and Sarah were married in 1839, the ceremony had to have been at St. Leonard's Church. It's the oldest building in Hertford, dating back to 1120.

Marriage record of John Fry and Sarah Hulls

St. Leonard's Church

Marine Store Dealers began selling components of old ships to mariners. As a whole…they were junk dealers. They bought and sold used cordage, bunting, rags, timber, metal, and other waste materials. It created a barter economy trading crockery, hardware, fur, wool, etc. It's likely John dealt in the latter as Watton-at-Stone was miles from the sea.

After the Underwriter brought John and his family to New York City, it was purchased by the Union Navy for use in the Civil War. It was outfitted as a gunboat to block southern ports. In 1864, it was captured by a Confederate boat crew. There wasn't steam up for it to run, so they burned it.

Artist's rendition of the attack on the USS Underwriter

While living in Harrison County, Iowa, John and Sarah were baptized members of The Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on April 30, 1871. His death date comes from their church records.

Step 5: Putting it All Together

Even though I don't have a written history of John Fry, I've been able to assemble a life sketch that can help frame the places he lived and work he did. Through research, I gained a connection to my ancestor that wasn't there before.

The Gift of Indexing

The major events in our ancestors lives have likely been recorded on paper. From birth and marriage certificates, to ship manifests and military records, there is a wealth of information out there. Thanks to technology, history is no longer just available on paper in isolated locations. FamilySearch has taken photographs of these priceless documents and volunteers throughout the world transcribe the information to make it searchable. This is called "indexing."

Over one billion records are now searchable since the volunteer effort began in 2006. I have benefited immensely from not only volunteering as an indexer, but from the records that others have transcribed. An example of this is with my ancestor, Robert Hutchinson.

When visiting my parents last month, I was able to go through my grandmother's photo album and digitize the pictures. After I got home, I was trying to organize them in chronological order the best I could. When I got to one labeled "Robert Hutchinson," I had to refer to FamilySearch. I learned that he is my great-great-uncle and was just seven years older than my grandmother. He was born in 1901 and died in 1918. Since he was wearing what looked like a military uniform, I wondered if he had died in WWI.

The only sources available on FamilySearch were three images of his headstone and three mentions in family members' obituaries. I clicked on one of the headstone sources and saw that it was in Rockland, Idaho. Engraved were his birth and death dates, along with "BURIED AT SEA."

At this point, I was intrigued. He died October 13, 1918 and the war ended that November 11. How sad that he died one month before the conflict was over.

I wanted to know more details, so I searched Ancestry's website, but came up empty-handed. Ironically, when I used Google to search, two results came up on Ancestry. The first was a departure manifest for the ship "Caronia," leaving New York City, September 30, 1918.

From that manifest, I learned he was a Corporal in the in the Army Motor Transport Corps, trained to repair Army vehicles. I wish I knew how old he was when he enlisted since he shipped out at 17 and was already promoted beyond Private.

The other result was the return manifest for the ship arriving November 7, 1918. I was confused on why he would be on a return manifest when he was buried at sea when I scrolled to the top of the document. On it was stamped the word "DECEASED" in red ink. He, along with 73 other soldiers, died on that ship.

I still didn't know how they died, but I had the ship's name so I did a Google search for that and the year. One of the results was a book on Amazon that contained letters from a soldier that was also that ship. In the product description, it ended with, "Twelve days after the last letter [September 29, 1918], he dies of the Spanish flu aboard the HMT Caronia en route to England and is buried at sea."

The Spanish flu, an H1N1 virus, was the deadliest pandemic in history. It killed between 50-100 million people, one of whom was my great-great-uncle, Robert Hutchinson. It was insanely contagious and, once infected, the sick died quickly. It's no wonder the sailors were buried at sea and the ship returned so quickly.

I am able to share Robert's story with my family, and with you, all because the ship manifests were indexed and searchable.