Down the Genealogy Rabbit Hole Again - Finding Mr. Newmyer's First Name

My friend and genea-blogging colleague Miriam Robbins contacted me on Facebook last week, saying:

"Randy, I know you gather Seaver info on people, even if they may not be related to you. I found an article about some Seavers in Muskegon County, Michigan in an online historical newspaper on the White Lake Library website:   http://c349810.r10.cf1.rackcdn.com/029607.pdf#search=wilkinson&page=1.

I wrote back to her, thanked her, and noted that, based on the article she found, I had found obituaries for three of the Seaver siblings in the article on FamilySearch, which included the spouse's last names.  I added all of that to my RootsMagic family tree.

One of the obituaries mentioned that the married surname of one of the sisters was Newmyer.  No first name.  I added Mr. Newmyer to my RootsMagic file too as a spouse. 

Over the weekend, I TreeShared the RootsMagic tree to my Ancestry Member Tree.  Here is my RootsMagic screen today before I jumped in the GRH (Genealogy Rabbit Hole):

At this point, I know nothing about Mr. Newmyer, husband of Helen June Seaver (1922-1981), who is not my relative, but who is in my Seaver files. 

As you can see on the screen above, because I TreeShared Mr. Newmayer with my Ancestry Member Tree, Ancestry.com immediately looked for records that matched my information - namely, married to Helen June Seaver. 

Today, I clicked on the yellow light bulb on the line for Newmyer, and the WebHints for Mr. Newmyer opened:

There are nine Hints on Ancestry and 3 on Findmypast.

 I clicked on the Ancestry WebHint number, and saw the list of Ancestry WebHints:

Rather than add information from the Ancestry records on the list to my RootsMagic person, I chose to click on the "Show on Ancestry" button and then on the "Hints" page for the profile, which showed me the nine Hints:

The 1943 marriage record for Abe Newmyer and Helen June Seaver in Michigan is there, as is Abe Newmyer's birth date and death date from the Social Security Death Index.  There are several other useful records for Abe Newmyer also. 

I added the birth, marriage and death records to my RootsMagic profile for Abe Newmyer.  The profile now looks like this:

I decided I wanted a bit more.  Is there an obituary for Abe?  YES!!!!  On GenealogyBank, which I won't show, but lists his children, the name of his first wife and current wife, his children, his other relatives, and the names of his deceased relatives (parents, spouses, children). 

That's a pretty good haul for a ten minute jump into the GRH.  Now I can TreeShare Abe Newmyer to my Ancestry Member Tree to update his profile, and then match him or add him to the FamilySearch Family Tree (only because he is deceased) - perhaps that will help someone else researching Abe.

This is why I use RootsMagic TreeShare.  I can add reliable information quickly, add source citations, download records (if necessary, I didn't in this case since he isn't my ancestor).

Some astute readers may ask:  "Why don't you just use the WebHint capability to add events, dates, places and persons to your RootsMagic tree?"  The answer is simple for me:

*  I want to look at the actual records, if possible, and judge that they pertain to the person at hand.

*  I don't want to add extraneous Ancestry Events to my RootsMagic tree.

*  I don't want to add Ancestry-crafted source citations to my RootsMagic tree, because they are not Evidence Explained quality.

On to the next "Seaver spouse with no first name," or "Seaver spouse with no surname," in my RootsMagic database.  This is fun!

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