May 8, 2017
When it comes to family history there is always more work to be done, even on family lines you may have thought were complete. During a recent GenealogyBank search, I discovered an inconsistency between the old newspaper article I was reading and the information I already had on that relative – meaning I needed to do additional research.
I would never have discovered this had I not dug deeper into GenealogyBank’s Historical Newspaper Archives.
I began my original search using the last name Wright, the surname of my fifth great grandfather, Robert Wright (1737-1818). Robert lived in Carmel, Putnam County, New York, so I included the keyword “Carmel” in my search.
This search brought up over 40,000 results, so I drilled down a little further by restricting the search to newspapers published in New York only.
The first result of this narrower search was the obituary of “Margery, wife of William Wright.”
A quick scan of FamilySearch told me that William (1781-1858) was Robert Wright’s son, making him my fifth great uncle. After finding William in my family tree, I looked closely at the obituary to see if there were any new details about this family that I could add to my own notes.
Right off the bat, I discovered an interesting inconsistency: according to the obituary, Margery’s parents were James and Mary Sloat, but her FamilySearch entry lists “Abigail” as her mother, with no other spouse listed for her father. Notice also the spelling of Margery’s name. Marjory is one of those names with multiple alternate spellings, very common in 18th and 19th century records.
So, what are the correct names for Margery’s parents? This family history mystery will require more research…
Genealogy Tip: When you find marriage, birth, or death records for known ancestors in GenealogyBank, compare the dates and names in them to the information you already have in your own records – you may find inconsistencies that you need to resolve next.
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