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Ancestors of Mary Lula Whitehouse
The G in this title stands for genealogy. I have been asked by my children where they should begin to work if they want to pursue their G line. Their G line, of course, is both my ancestors and those of my husband. For the benefit of not only my own children, but also of others connecting into this G line, I will post a brief summary of direct lines dating back to 1500 which is the beginning of the Medival project. The Medival project, sponsored by the LDS church, is housed in the Salt Lake Archives and is dedicated to gathering every possible source of records throughout the world pre-dating the year 1500. It is my understanding that full time missionaries are systematically extracting every name from these sources onto individual entry submission forms for the Ancestral File and the International Genealogy Index.
The work of assembling these individual entries into pedigrees and families is considered a future challenge for electronic technology; however, these names have been included on AF disks and placed into beta test sites for volunteers who are willing to work through pedigree lines and report problems. I participated in one of these beta sites in 1995 in Idaho Falls Family History Library tracing my own direct lineage back to the year 6 A.D. where it connected several lines into the "Traditions of the Prophets". In the tracing, I identified and reported three loops which were debugged; however, such crossing of lines existed that tremendous duplication occurred saturating the record with unnecessary entries. One of my children identified these duplications and elliminated them in our personal family record, but it took such great effort, I have come to understand the wisdom in the counsel to leave pre-1500's research for new technology to untangle. Keeping this counsel in mind, my page will not predate the fifteen hundreds except to list names encountered at end-of-line. For those wishing more, I did assembled pedigrees and family groups from 1500 to end-of-line on the test disks, so they are available now on the Ancestral File in any LDS Family History Library. It took me three hours a day--four times a week--for three months to GEDCOM it all, and it took my son two hours a day--five days a week--for three months to clean out the duplication. The hard copy record fills two 18 inch tall computer paper boxes. A duplication of medival project effort is not necessary.
This page will also follow the counsel to carefully document four generations. I find a five generation tier fits nicely on standard looseleaf binder paper. Using myself as the first entry, four generations completes the page. The magic about this measurement is that these generations encompass the sandwich generation. Pre-dating this time the matriarch took great pride in the control of the family bible and maintained an accurate family record by adding each name as it appeared. By the time my grandchildren are born, the vital statistics go to the state house via computer within hours of the event. My generation of record keeping is sandwiched between these two accurate methods. During my generation, the war years hit and matriarchs went to work in factories barely able to keep mouths fed, leaving little time for family get-togethers or energy for record keeping. Then the economy reflexed, the car became affordable, and families spread to obtain work in growing industry and changing technology. This created a mobile society where living in the same home area as parents or grandparents changed dramatically. Simantaneously, medical miracles increased the life span of the elderly sandwiching my generation--living parents to care for along with pressure to earn support for children's college educations. All this has made the idea of time to research genealogy a nightmare. A documentated four generation sheet bridges this sandwich generation of records. In my own family, I have one child born in Pennsylvania, one in Georgia, two in Texas, and one in Virginia. How could a later generation know where to look for my genealogy if I don't keep it? A one page carefully documented sheet of four generation ancestory is very important and wise. With this much documented record assembled, younger genealogists will know where to put their effort. It is my attempt to provide this link on this page.
I am engaged in making briefs that note where I have lost ends of lines, where unresolved problems have occurred leaving weakly documented links, where duplications of records exist, and where documentation is completely lacking even though names have come from reliable sources such as living ancestors. I will also include locations of others interested in specific lines if they have agreed to make their effort public. I am aware that AF records accommodate documentation information in the "notes" feature as well as posts names and addresses of persons who have submitted. I am not attempting to duplicate that effort, nor do I guarantee that my understanding of everything is correct. My purpose is simply to give background information to help family members who express, "I want to do something in genealogy, but I don't know where the line stands. What has been done, and what hasn't? Who is working on it? What do I need to do?"
Parents teach (the best they can) their families to fly (the best they can). Some members fly higher than others, longer than others, and faster than others, but all eventually land together to taste of death and the grave. They leave behind various types of records of their flight resembling a huge patchwork quilt held together by stitches of varying degrees of strength and beauty. This page records the patchwork of my ancestors. The patches vary in strength and beauty as do the stiches that holds the ancestral family together.
The Modern Mother
A modern mother is explaining to her little girl about pictures in the family photo album. "This is the geneticist with your surrogate mother and here's your sperm donor and your father's clone. This is me holding you when you were just a frozen embryo. The lady with the very troubled look on her face is your aunt, a genealogist."