Perils of Changing E-mail IDs

Considering changing your e-mail provider? Do so at your own peril. That involves changing your e-mail ID, and that’s at cross purposes with genealogy on the Web.

Every time I get frustrated with my internet provider I’m tempted to teach it a lesson and find a new one. But after stewing a bit I come to the realization that venting my spleen in such a fashion would cut me off from innumerable genealogists “out there” who might try to answer one of my numerous queries.

Surely I’m not the only cybergenealogizer who has received e-mail from a query that has sat for ten years or more on a Web server. It has happened to me several times. Just now I’m sorting through McKenzie genealogy with a new-found cousin (she found me from an ancient query) in McMinnville, Ore., and we both have information the other hasn’t.

16-Year-Old Corpse Hosts BBQ

Last month I was the guest of honor at a BBQ hosted by my 91-year-old cousin, Glenna, in Placentia, CA. It was my sad duty to tell her that she died in 1994 and is moldering in a grave in Michigan. I soothed the message by telling her she is the best-looking cadaver I've ever seen.

What?

Shortly before driving from Washington down to Placentia to genealogize with Glenna, I was on Ancestry.com where I discovered a pedigree chart that informed me of Glenna's demise.

No one does very much genealogy without making a mistake here and there, and I've certainly made a few; but this one was a doozy. The person who posted it said he will resurrect Glenna. I hope he already has because Glenna is a vibrant and delightful old gal. Hope she won't mind me saying that. At 91 she is an arbiter in the Mormon Church's extraction program. Volunteers extract government documents, such as censuses. Each record is extracted twice, by different extractors. A computer compares each extraction. If there is any, even minor, discrepancy, the records are forwarded to arbiters who decide which, if either, was accurate.

Hope you enjoy this jovial reminder that genealogy is like walking on ice. We must have evidence to support our conclusions, and just like ice on a lake or pond, they need to be strong enough to bear the weight of our conclusions.

Terry

ELUSIVE JOHN DAY (1806-1842)

Seventy years ago my fifth cousin, Glenna Bailey (now Goodlad) began the search for our common ancestor, Virginia-born John Day. I joined the search a couple of decades later. We're still looking, and even have hired professional genealogists with "nil" success. Well, we've eliminated a number of suspects, but haven't found the elusive rascal. But we haven't given up.

We are uncertain of when or where John was born. I strongly suspect that he was born before 1806, but that's the date some researchers have used. A herd, pack, flock, or gaggle of John Days inhabited Morgan County, Kentucky, during the first half of the nineteenth century and we have been unable to determine which one is our John, except for a marriage entry for John and Elizabeth McKenzie (1799-1861).

They are the parents of Rufus Morgan, Jemima and Theodore Barber Day. Elizabeth also is the mother of James Johnson McKenzie, we know not whether via a previous marriage or without benefit of clergy. JJ's obituary refers to John as his stepfather. Reference also is made to other siblings, not named. So Elizabeth apparently had other children as well, before marrying John.

Elizabeth is the daughter of Isaac McKenzie (1764-1831) and Virginia Jean Johnston. JJ's obit says the family arrived in Lancaster, Grant, Wisconsin, August 10, 1840, having over-wintered in Edgar County, Illinois, on their way from Morgan County, Kentucky.

John and Elizabeth were among a passel of Days and McKenzies who migrated to Grant County, WI, 1839-1855, most of them from Kentucky.

And then there was a diaspora with some Days and some McKenzies winding up in Oregon and Washington.

After the Civil War, Jemima's and Ted's families then both moved first to Iowa, then to Kansas. Then, in the 1880's, they went their separate ways; Ted to Oregon and Jemima (married to Antone Bailey) to California.

Welcome to Genealogizer's Blog

I have been genealogizing for more than half a century. My main interest is the Day line and associated Willis, Barnes, Clarke, Pettit, Wilding and McKenzie lines. My Day brick wall is John Day (circa 1809-1842). A cousin started the search for John in 1939 and we are still hunting the rascal. He was born in Virginia, lived several decades in Morgan County, KY, and died in Lancaster, Grant, WI. His wife, Elizabeth McKenzie, descends from Mordoc McKenzie, who immigrated from Glasgow to Virginia.

My goal is to push the Day line back a few more generations, and to collect data on all of his descendants.