Dec 7 2012

Searching for Family?

English: The historic Davidson Building, completed in 1890, Ellensburg, Washington. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Many of us have found that the use of the internet has been very useful in finding family members. BUT, at times it has been very disappointing. One will find so many hits that one does not know where to start, or that most of the list is not related to what we are searching for.

To help us out there has been many a book and article written. One book that I have found very useful is ‘Google Your Family Tree’, by Daniel M Lynch. It is written for the Google search engine, but most of the methods do apply to other search engines.

Then there are the surnames that are so common one cannot tell the difference between their Smiths and Jones. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surname for information about the use of names. These very common names can produce so many hits that one will never review them all.

Along this same line there are the surnames that are also given names, which lead to another direction when searching. The likes of Albert, Austin, Berry, Buck, Henry, Jared, June, Lewis, Martin, May, Mitchell, Robert, William, Wilson and on and on to list just a few. This will produce many double hit, the same hint more than once.

We also have the surnames that are common words such Baker, Bell, Bray, Buck, Deck, Finch, Leader, June, Maple, Miller, More, Mason, Moss, Peed, Realing, Ruff, Rush, Shepard, Spark, Street, Shepard, Taylor, Wood and etc., which will lead one to an endless list of hits.

I am going to address this last group of surname types, I have recently had experienced issues with two of them, Peed and Realing. As one can imagine, when searching on “Peed” one is going to get all kinds of hits. This be a Family rated site, I will try to be nice. This will lead one to hits about ones pet and a lot of college students. As one of the people I was searching about, lived in a college town. The “Realing” hits were a bit nicer, but there was a lot of realing going on out there, even though it is misspelt.

Searching for William Jasper Peed.

So what did we know about this William Jasper Peed, he was born in Tippecanoe County, Indiana, in about 1861, died in Seattle, Washington in 1930. He raised a family in Ellensburg, Kittitas County, Washington. While there he was a saddle maker and owned his own shop. According to family stories, he had a pair of twin sisters that died real early in life, he had been to New Mexico and Colorado before heading to Washington. Per a census, his father was born in Kentucky, but no name for either parent.

Search found many William Peed’s along with many other type of hits. These hits included an 1870 census listing a William Peed with a Father of William and a Mother of Mary Peed and many children. Included in the listing was several “Mitchells” that lived with this older William Peed.

So by entering “William Peed saddle maker” without the quotes I got a few hits in an Arkansas City Traveler newspaper that had been partially transcribed, http://www.ausbcomp.com/~bbott/cowley/oldnews/papersup/ . Some of these short articles were of the “Social” page and several stories with a “Will” and “Linnie Peed” mentioned. The Social Editor just happens to be Mary Peed. There was a Mary Peed listed in the 1860 census listed above. One of the stories was about that Will had bought a saddle shop from a brother was a Mitchell. The following are a few of those stories.

Arkansas City Traveler, June 5, 1878.

WILL. PEED wants everybody to know that he has purchased the harness shop of J. I. Mitchell, and will sell horse equipments, make or mend harness, and do everything in the saddlery line that is needed.

Arkansas City Traveler, April 14, 1880.

Will Peed has taken his departure for Santa Fe. Will has resided here for several years, is a good workman, and has many friends.

Arkansas City Traveler, November 24, 1880.

Will Peed took his relatives and friends by surprise last Monday noon by returning from his six months’ sojourn in the mountains of Colorado and New Mexico. He looks well enough for all practical purposes, and intends to return in the spring.

Mary’s first marriage: Hixson, Mary and Mitchell, William, 1841 Mar 19

The above information led me to find several William Peed’s at http://www.findagrave.com including one with a four sided stone. On this stone are several including a wife and several children. Two of the children (girls) were born after the mother that is listed died. These girls were (per the stone) born about 3 months apart. The stone has the date of death May 20, 1861, aged 5 Mos. and the other Sept 19, 1861, Aged 1 Year. By doing the math, there is 3-4 months difference in the birth dates. These entries may be wrong as the stone appears to be a lot newer that is was set up many years after any of the listed deaths. The dates are about right to be the “Twins” that are in the family stories, and they would never be listed in a census. On this same stone is the Wife of William, Minerva Died April 7, 1854. Also one of “The twins” was Minerva K, who was born about Sept 1861, so the first wife could not be the mother. It appears that these girls were born to the 2^nd wife Mary, and one was named after the 1^st wife. The stone even say Dautrs of W & M Peed, see an image of the stone.

Since then, this search has led to other hits which have paid off. I have been able to include many generations to the Peed line, in addition to several other married in lines. Just by adding additional information in the search, about an occupation, location or any other known data, one just may find a Gold Mine.

By DaveA • Research Tips • 2 • Tags: Arkansas City Traveler, Family, Mexico, New Mexico, PEED