Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.
— John Adams
Say Anything …
… prior to 1660 only five persons out of over 33,000 had genuine middle names.
— Kent P. Bailey & Ransom B. True [1]
[1] Kent P. Bailey and Ransom B. True, A Guide to Seventeenth-Century Virginia Court Handwriting, Second Reprint 2015 (Richmond, Virginia: Virginia Genealogical Society, The Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities) p29.
Say Anything …
If an unsourced, private tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, serious genealogists cheer.
— Serious genealogist
18,312 and Counting
Our focus shifted in 2021 from the Watne branch to the Spratlin and Knight branches. In May 2021, we made a major breakthrough in the Spratlin line, realizing the widely-held belief that James Spratling (1742–1812) was the son of John Spradlin (1712–1769) and Mary English (1713–1756) was pure fiction, fake genealogy. We also invested considerable time improving the Knight family profiles on WikiTree in an effort to more widely disseminate recent research into the Knights of colonial Virginia.
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Doveryai, no proveryai.
— Russian proverb
Say Anything …
Is the genealogist insisting on sourced facts the whacker or the mole in Whac-a-Mole?
— kms
17,350 and Counting
The early part of 2020 was devoted to finding Alpheus Adam’s maternal line using a combination of genetic genealogy and old-fashion research into the history of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Canada and the United States. And 2020 closes as we found possible parents for Andrew Porter Sr. in County Donegal, Ireland.
Say Anything …
By a curious quirk of human nature, rather than Mother Nature, every American family of the surname Washington is related to George, all Adamses are of the family of John Quincy, and all Jeffersons are cousins of Thomas—at least as far as family traditions are concerned.
— Elizabeth Shown Mills, C.G., F.A.S.G.
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If you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?
— Coach John Wooden
Twenty-Fourth Census of the United States
Beginning today, households across the United States will receive U.S. Census Bureau mail detailing how to respond to the 2020 Census—the 24th Census of the United States.
To mark this important occasion, we jump back to 15 Apr 1910—the beginning of the 13th Census of the United States. Our Stanley Wetherbee served as the enumerator for Fairmount Township (pop. 320), Fairmount Village (pop. 387), and LaMars Township (pop. 287), Richland County, North Dakota.
In 1910, enumerators were hired through the civil service system after a prolonged disagreement between Congress (favoring patronage positions) and President Theodore Roosevelt (favoring civil service positions).
Stanley visited households in Fairmount Township from 18 Apr to 25 Apr, Fairmount Village from 26 Apr to 3 May, and LaMars Township from 4 May to 7 May. He may have taken 24 Apr off. So he enumerated 994 persons over 19 days, about 52 persons per day.
Stanley appears to have made one mistake though. He seems to have forgotten to visit his own family. In 1910, Stanley was likely still living with his parents Homer and Florence Wetherbee, and his four younger brothers. We have looked high and low, far and wide—there is no Homer Wetherbee family in the 1910 US Census. So North Dakota’s population was not 577,056, but instead 577,063.
Under the 72-year rule, the National Archives and Records Administration will release the original 2020 US Census returns to the public in 2092. Until then, only statistical reports that do not identify individuals will be released. Genealogists will have to wait.
Stanley George Wetherbee (1890–1971) is 2nd great-uncle of MKS in the Wetherbee branch.