History.com’s article How Far Back Can You Actually Trace Your Family Tree? A very broad question leaving a very generalized answer.
My Stay Awhile and Listen category is so others learn my story and how I see the world. Not only in general but deeper understanding how I believe things move over time and space, how things are connected and more importantly in this installment is keeping everything open though anchors and broad understanding in terms of scope and depth. This article is a good place to use and start sharing my stories depth, together.
The introduction to this I was pleasantly surprised to see how accurate it was. Our journey into where we have been truly does start with stories told at the dinner table, well that may not be accurate for all families today although in some form the stories are still shared. The introduction doesn’t hesitate to introduce how often these stories are often half remembered through generational story telling. It there falls to what a majority think of genealogy, depending on records. Quickly my mind digressed with their statement.
Records are important, but records are not your family tree. Yes, most think of it as building a family tree. I typically separate my meaning of a family tree with generally agreed term of researching records. For me being a genealogist is really becoming the family historian. The keeper of your families storied past both good and bad. Focused on the story rather than judgement of right or wrong. Right or wrong is impossible to define uniformly in all cases for every individual; except for some exceptions such as theft, murder, etc., physical acts against another rather than moral and ethical decisions made.
First heading, Why We Started Tracing Family Trees. This focuses on inheritance, social standing, etc. This scope of definition is tough for me to logically align knowing what I know about history through time. Yes, it may have accomplished the goal, you found you are connected to nobility and deserve social standing through proximity. However, subjective to the people is were you accepted as the nobility heritage you proved? Results were individualist and not the same in all cases. Some found themselves as outcast nobility long before they proved nobility.
Next up, The Earliest Surviving Ancestry Records. The author starts where many will expect. In 1538 when England Parrish’s were ordered to keep records under the reign of Henry VIII… Sorry, I simply cannot encounter his name without thinking of the song… “I’m Henry the VIII I am, Henry the VIII I am, I am”… this is from 1910, by Fred Murray and R. P. Weston. But more on that another time… The Council of Trent in 1563 set requirements for the Catholic religion to keep records of baptisms and marriages. Concluding in the U. S. in 1790 with the first census.
The author goes on with other areas where to start and about historical record keeping. Concluding on starting with building your own family tree on MyHeritage.
Records… Records… Records… Always the starting point, but history is the stories.
A real record versus story comparison. A personal journey in history and genealogy.
My Great-Great Grandfather is Joseph J. Allard, migrated from Canada to what is today Brown County, Wisconsin around 1840. His wife, Adelaide Lafond gave birth to their first child in 1842 in Wisconsin. This is a short six years after Wisconsin became a territory.
Easy with this family stops here with researching documents. Historical records such as those listed in the History.com article will quickly unravel a massive spiderweb to unweave. You see during that time and throughout their lives there were two Joseph Allard’s living in the same area, attending the same churches, schools in either a close proximity or same community. But complexity doesn’t stop here. Logically one could assume you could substantiate the difference by their wives names. Superficially I would agree. However, my lens is different and for me it was good to be that way.
Researchers abound today who still confuse these two families as they quickly discover both Joseph’s had wives named Adelaide. Next logic is profession and age. They were both farmers and both about the same age. Compounding it is deeper research revealing they even went into a partnership with an eighty acre land purchase. Genealogists in this family have mixed children between parents. Some listed as belonging to one actually are the child of the other. And still when others with more detailed stories try to point out discrepancy with their research we are met with resistance.
It is historically recorded stories creating clear distinction between these two families. Joseph J and Adelaide have to very distinct children tied directly to a verifiable event. The Apparition of the Virgin Mary, in Champion, Wisconsin. The National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion, formerly known as Our Lady of Good Help is the shrine commemorating the only Church recognized apparition of the Virgin Mary in the United States. Those children are Marguerite and Zoe Allard.
Marguerite was the right hand of Adele Brise, the child who saw the apparition of Mary. Zoe donated the statue that stands today in the basement marking the very spot the apparition appeared to Adele. The statue was shipped from France as Zoe journeyed to France with Fr. Crud on his journey back home.
This is an amazing story as in the basement of the chapel you will find crutches. The crutches are testament to a treatment created by Zoe while in France, treating leg injuries requiring crutches at the time for the duration of the injured lives. Zoe also taught her methods in Detroit. Major accomplishment in France was she along with some doctors opened a hospital dedicated to this treatment. Unfortunately records are spare today because the hospital was completely destroyed during World War I.
Zoe finally took her final vows when in her 60’s, in France.
This detail to stories, separating facts and being precise is poured into AniMap’s story.
My thought involved in unraveling my families genealogy is my normal. Everything must go from A to B to C to etc. Without breaks in logic such as do I have the correct Joseph Allard, is this my Joseph Allard’s Zoe and Marguerite. Large chunks of time passed digging, sorting validating. Using the Shrine historians, the Green Bay Diocese historical archivist. Then discussions with these people finally connected the chain, without doubt in my mind that this is where I have been. It is this research that correct another source indicating Fr. Crud sent the statue when I had reason to believe it was Zoe. Confirmation came from the Shrine historian, Zoe was the source of donation for the statue standing there today. Now Joseph J, Marguerite and Zoe family is truly proven to be my Great-Great Grandfather. Showing where stories provided more validation than records alone.
Connection to AniMap, each decision on preparing presentation of this massive dataset was sticking with actual verifiable proof. Example, you cannot research Wisconsin before 3 July 1836. Simply because this is when the Michigan Territory became the State or Michigan and the Wisconsin Territory was formed. Before this date, the land that would become the Wisconsin Territory did in fact exist, but your story and record search would then begin in some other territory or state. Showing it any other way will create blockers.
My goal is not blockers, but to give you a tool that opens doors for you to discover the earlier chapters of your families story.