Family Group Sheets

 A Family Group Sheet is a work sheet to record information on a family.

 

While an ancestor chart presents multiple generations of ancestors, a family group sheet focuses on the details of a family; a set of parents and their children. 

A family group sheet is created for each couple that appear on an ancestor chart.

If an individual has had more than one partner, a family group sheet is created for each couple.

Additionally, a sheet is created for each child and their spouse or partner.

A good family group sheet shows:

• The full names, including nicknames, of each person.
• The dates and places of births of each person.
• The dates and places of marriages of each couple.
• The dates and places of deaths for each person.
• Whenever possible, the sources of each piece of information is included.

Like the ancestor charts, family group sheets take many forms. Choose the one that best suits your needs.

• From the Medina  Library:   https://www.mcdl.info/sites/default/files/attachments/FamilyGroupSheet.pdf
• From Ancestry.com: https://www.ancestrycdn.com/support/us/2018/03/famgrec.pdf
• From the National Archives: https://www.archives.gov/files/research/genealogy/charts-forms/family-group-sheet.pdf 
• From the National Genealogical Society: https://bh9qf7dyqmpb4rk14s84y90-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Family_Group_Sheet_NGS_Final.pdf 

Also, most genealogy programs create family group sheets as you build your family tree. Here are three examples.

From Ancestry.com

Notice the difference in the layout with the couple's parents' names listed above the couple. Also, the spouses/partners of the children aren't listed on this sheet.

This family group sheet is from the popular program Family Tree Maker. The inclusion of thumbnail photos is a nice feature.

This sheet is from another popular family tree software program,  Roots Magic. 

Like an ancestor chart, a family group sheet quickly identifies what information is missing on each individual. 

• Look for events that are missing, i.e. birth, death marriage, etc. 
• Look for events that need better documentation.
• Look for events that need a more exact date.
• Look for events that need a more exact place.

A family group sheet organizes in one place the information that is known/unknown about a family. 

Notice all the missing information:

• No religion is listed for William Henry MASON or his wife Elizabeth HARMON. Church affiliation could lead to baptism, marriage or burial information.
• No military service information for William. He was too young to participate in the Civil War, but would have been old enough to serve in the Spanish American War. However, by that time he was the father of at least 9 children.
• The question mark after William's mother's name indicates that this information needs to be verified. It was listed on the death certificate of one of her children but no where else, as no marriage record has been found for his parents.
• Florence and George have no information listed for their deaths or marriages. There are several possibilities:
• The died before getting married. Death information for this time period and location is spotty. 
• They might have been using a middle name instead of their given names. What do their initials stand for? Can any records be found under that name?
• Marriage information for James Wilford and William Henry MASON is missing. There are numerous marriage records in West Virginia for these names.  More work needs to be done to detect which are the correct ones for these individuals.

How else can family group sheets aid your research?

• It can help your correlate and analyze information. In the example above, could obituaries of their siblings lead us to discover the death information for Florence, and George MASON?
• While filling in the family group sheet, you have to examine your original source again. The names of the children of this family group come from census records. Florence and George disappear from the family unit between the  1900 and 1910 census. Florence would have been when she was 16 years old in 1900 and 26 years old in 1910. Those are prime marrying years for girls of that time period. Now, we have a specific time period to look for either a marriage or death record. Also, we could look for a woman named Florence who was 26 years old in the 1910 census.
• Build up more clues to help discover harder to document events. In looking at the 1910 Census again (for this post), we see that the mother Elizabeth says she has had 9 children, 6 of whom are still living. So now we know that most likely Florence and George died sometime between the 1900 and 1910 censuses.
• Use blank family group sheets at family gatherings to help gather new information. This is particularly helpful for filling in the newest members for those families you don't get to see regularly.

Tips for filling in Family Group Sheets

• Use a pencil to fill in the information so that it can be easily corrected.
• Last names are written in ALL CAPITAL letter. 
• Women are ALWAYS listed under their maiden names.
• Fields listed as "Birth", "Marriage", "Death", etc, should have dates filled in.
• Dates are entered day/month/year
• Never use all numeral form
• For example, "11 January 1999" NOT "1-11-99"
• Most people have ancestors or relatives from other countries that list dates differently that we do in the U.S.
• ALWAYS use four digits for the year because as you get further into your research you will be working in multiple centuries, 1900's, 1800's, 1700's and 1600's if you are lucky!
• Places are listed from the smallest unit to the larges as in city or township, then county, then state, then country. Example: Seville, Guilford Township, Medina County, OH, USA
• Use standard abbreviations for states, months, etc, or provide a key to what your abbreviations mean.
• In the "CHILDREN" section, you do not have to repeat the surname.
• Create a family group record for each couple on your ancestor chart.
• If an individual had more than once spouse or partner, make a separate family group record for each additional partnership, especially if there were children produced.

This is the family group sheet for Lunas JOHNSON and Stella BARRY, who were married on 21 Dec 1918 in Gallia County, Ohio. Notice that they both had at least two other partnerships (underlined in purple), some of which also resulted in children. Not all of the partnerships were marriages. From this sheet we find that we need to make 4 additional family group sheets.

So remember...

Family Group Sheets are an essential tool for gathering information,

 guiding your research, and are easily filled out.

As always, if you have any questions, please contact your Medina Library Genealogy Team:

me-team.genealogy@mcdl.info

or

330-7252-0588 ext. 5017

Introducing the Digital Archives of MCDL

MCDL is excited to announce that we now have a Digital Archives. These archives will include 60,000+ pages of Medina County newspapers, covering 1830 to 1996. This resource opens up many possibilities for family and local history research.

Below you will find a few Frequently Asked Questions (and their answers) about the archives’ contents and how to use it.  

If you’d like to learn more about searching the Digital Archives, join our virtual program Finding Your Family in the News on Tuesday, February 23rd at 6:30 PM.  Register to attend at this link:  https://medinacounty.evanced.info/signup/EventDetails?EventId=42729&backTo=Calendar&startDate=2021/02/17 

How do I access the Digital Archives?

It’s easy!  There are no fees and you do not need to log in.  Just click https://www.mcdl.info/newspapers.  

This link is accessible from everywhere and anywhere.  It will include all of the newspapers in the archives from 1830-1977.  (To access more recent newspapers in the archives, you’ll need to visit one of the MCDL library branches.)

What’s included in the Digital Archives?

Here are the titles that will be included in the database.  Some of the titles are still being added to the archive, but we hope to have them all available by mid-March. 

• The Constitutionalist – 1830-1840 – 24 pages ​

• Ohio Free Press – 1832 – 1836 – 27 pages​

• The Watchtower – 1838 – 1842 – 616 pages​

• The Democratic Whig – 1845-1853 – 26 pages​

• Medina County Democrat – 1852 – 1854 – 24 pages​

• The Medina County Republican – 1867 – 1868 – 53 pages​

• Medina Mirror – 1854 – 1868 – 399 pages​

• Medina County Gazette – 1854 – 1926 - 28,893 pages​

• The Young Folks Gem / Apple Blossom – 1875 – 1876 – 120 pages​**

• The Lodi Review – 1888 – 1955 – 3,897 pages**

• Bowman's Facts and Fun for Farmers – 1933 – 1951 – 44 pages​**

• Medina Trading Post – 1934 – 1964 – 28 pages ​**

• Bank Notes – 1944 – 1971 – 1,328 pages​**

• The Madison Pickle Vine – 1944 – 1946 – 192 pages​**

• The Medinamite (MHS Newspaper) – 1944 – 1946, 1981 – 1983 – 289 pages**

• Match Tips – 1950 – 1956 – 266 pages**

• The Lodi Advertiser – 1955 – 1987 – 19,904 pages​**

• The Review Chronicle – 1989 – 1993 – 3,635 pages​++

• Crossroads – 1994 – 1996 – 336 pages​++

** = title to be added soon

++ = title available at library branches only

Where are the originals of these newspapers?

Some of the newspapers were in MCDL's collection, but many were loaned to us by the Medina County Historical Society and the Lodi Harrisville Historical Society. All of the papers will also be available on microfilm at MCDL. Digitizing these historic documents makes them more accessible to researchers and helps preserve them, by reducing wear-and-tear on the originals.

How do I search the Digital Archives?

At its simplest, you can search the archives with keywords.  Any word(s) or phrases can work - names of ancestors, geographic locations, historic events, weather… literally, any word you can think of!  (You could even search for all occurrences of the word “the” in the archives!)  

You also have an option to search with “All Of The Words” in your search query, an “Exact Phrase,” “Any Of The Words” in your query, or “None Of The Words” (or mix and match these options).  You can narrow down your findings by limiting the dates included in the search, or which newspaper title you are searching.  

What do I do when I find an article I want to keep?

The archive has a few options for saving your discoveries.  You can download an entire page as a PDF, or use the cropping tools to save an article of interest as a JPEG.  You can print articles, plus add titles, tags, and even colorized filters to cropped articles.  

Here’s an example of searching and saving records: 

I was interested in learning more about the robbery of the Ohio Farmers’ Insurance Company.  From other sources, I knew that the robbery had occurred in some time in 1865.  Here’s how I searched to find contemporaneous articles about the event.  

Initially, I searched on the “Exact Phrase” of “Ohio Farmers.” 

That returned over 1,000 results -- more than I wanted to browse through and read!  

So, I refined my search.  I added a “Any Of The Words” field and entered the terms “robbery” and “theft.”  These terms now searched the database for any page of the newspapers that included the phrase “Ohio Farmers” along with either the word “robbery” or the word “theft.” 

This search returned 80 pages of newspapers that matched these terms.  Still more than I wanted to read through.  

Lastly, I added a date to my search.  Since I really wanted articles from the year of the robbery (1865) but didn’t know the exact date, I set the date field to “Between: “01/01/1865” and “12/31/1865.”  These search terms with a narrowed date range returned just four results!  

All of the search results looked promising, so I clicked on Page  2 of the Medina Gazette, from July 8th, 1865.  It was just what I was looking for: the article revealed that the robbery had occurred on April 3, 1865 and that the thieves had taken nearly $50,000 worth of bonds!  

You can download the entire page, with just the click of a button (circled in orange). It will save as a PDF to your computer or device.

To save just your article, click the "Crop" button (circled in orange) and adjust the height and width of the box around your article...

...then follow the steps and click print or save (circled in orange). If you save the article, it will download as a JPEG to your device.

Here is the article, in case you want to read it!

If you need assistance with using the Digital Archives, register for our class on 2/23 or email the MCDL Genealogy Team with questions at me-team.genealogy@mcdl.info. We hope you enjoy searching in this new resource!

Ohio Presidents - More Than Just Dates

Many people think genealogy research is just about finding the basic information for their ancestors, i.e. birth, marriage and death records. However, if their research stops there they are missing out on a large part of their ancestor’s life. Finding out about the events which occurred between those dates makes it a family history instead of just a family tree...with all branches and no leaves. 

Since it is February and we celebrate President’s day on the 15th, I thought I would illustrate what I mean by using the Ohio men who became President to show how there is so much more to them than just the dates. 

First, I will give the basic information - The BRANCHES of the Tree 

Then I will add to this information with a little more details of the President's life - The LEAVES of the Tree

William Henry Harrison – 9th President

BRANCHES:

Birth: 9 February 1773

Marriage: 25 November 1795

Death: 4 April 1841 

Harrison's Land Record from www.glorecords.blm.gov

LEAVES:

Harrison was not born in Ohio. He was actually born in Charles City County, Virginia. Ohio claims him as one of theirs, because he settled in Hamilton County, Ohio along the Ohio River early in the state’s history and was living there when he became President. He was also the last President born before the United States became independent.

He married Anna Tuthill Symmes in Hamilton County. However…when he asked Anna’s father, John Symmes, for permission, her father refused. William and Anna had to elope and marry in secret.


Harrison became President on the 4th of March 1841 and delivered a 1 hour and 40 minute inaugural address, the longest in history, in wet and chilly weather. Tragically, he became ill after the inauguration and died 31 days later in Washington D.C. He was the first President to die in office.

Ulysses S. Grant – 18th President

BRANCHES:

Birth: 22 April 1822

Marriage: 22 August 1848

Death: 23 July 1885






LEAVES:

Grant was born in Clermont County, Ohio, a town along the Ohio River. It took his parents over a month to name him. They finally named him Hiram Ulysses. However….the Representative that arranged for his appointment to West Point, submitted his name as Ulysses Simpson Grant. He was never able to get the academy to fix it and supposedly he didn’t care for his original initials, H.U.G., so he just continued to use his new name. 

Grant & Dent Marriage Record

He was introduced to his future wife, Julia Boggs Dent, through her brother who went to West Point with him. There is a story that Grant was riding in a carriage with her and came to bridge where the river was flooding. He assured her he would safely get her across, but she said she would still cling to him no matter what. When they successfully crossed he asked her if she would "cling to him the rest of their lives". He married Julia in St. Louis, Missouri at her family’s plantation. Grant’s parents were so unhappy that he was marrying into a family who held slaves they did not attend the wedding. 

President Grant was in office for two terms, 1869-1877. During his time as President, he supported amnesty for Confederate leaders and protections of the rights of African-Americans. He also signed legislation making Yellowstone National Park one of America’s first national parks. 

Ulysses S. Grant died in Saratoga County, New York from throat cancer. An estimated 1 million persons turned out for his funeral procession. He was temporarily laid to rest near Sarasota Springs, but in 1897, President McKinley had him buried in New York City overlooking the Hudson River. 

Rutherford B. Hayes – 19th President

BRANCHES:

Birth: 4 October 1822

Marriage: 30 December 1852

Death: 17 January 1893

LEAVES:

Hayes was born, two months after his father’s death, in Delaware County, Ohio. He was raised by his mother and his maternal uncle. 

RB Hayes Obituary

  

He married Lucy Ware Webb in Cincinnati. She was a college graduate from Wesleyan Women’s College making her the first First Lady to have graduated from college. 

Hayes won the 1876 election after a special commission was formed to investigate disputed electoral votes. The tension was so high he had to secretly take the oath of office in the Red Room at the White House. 

As President, he was a proponent of civil rights and education for all. He also signed a bill that allowed female attorneys to argue cases before the U.S. Supreme court. Hayes followed through on his pre-election promise of only serving one term.

R.B. Hayes died at his home in Fremont, Sandusky, Ohio. He caught a chill on a train ride from Columbus to Cleveland where he then suffered a heart attack. He made it back to his home where he died a few days later. 

James A. Garfield – 20th President

BRANCHES:

Birth: 19 November 1831

Marriage: 11 November 1858

Death: 19 September 1881

LEAVES: 

U. S. Civil War Index

Garfield was born in Cuyahoga County, Ohio in a log cabin built by his father.  He had a rough childhood, losing his father early and living in poverty with his mother. 

While a student at Williams College in Massachusetts he dated two women at the same time, Rebecca Selleck and Lucretia Randolph. Garfield ended up marrying Lucretia in Hiram, Ohio. During the Civil War he began as a lieutenant-colonel for the 42nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry and fought in the battles of Shiloh and Chickamunga. He resigned with the rank of major general. 

Garfield did not accomplish much as President because he was assassinated four months into term.  He was shot by Charles J. Guiteau, who tried and failed to get a position under Garfield’s administration. The President died two months later in Elberon, New Jersey where he was taken upon his request. Some believe he died due to the unsanitary methods of removing the bullet by the doctors. Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, tried unsuccessfully to locate the bullet with a metal detector he invented. 

Benjamin Harrison - 23rd President

BRANCHES:

Birth: 20 August 1833

Marriage: 20 October 1853

           6 April 1896

Death: 13 March 1901

LEAVES:

Harrison, the grandson of former President William H. Harrison, was born in his grandfather’s home in Hamilton County, Ohio. 

He married Caroline Lavinia Scott at her home in Oxford, Ohio. They had been secretly engaged in 1852, but she wanted to finish her education while he studied law. They were married by her father, Reverend John W. Scott. Caroline died of tuberculosis on 25 October 1892, two weeks before the election for Harrison’s 2nd term.

Almost 4 years later Harrison married Mary Scott Lord Dimmick in New York City. She was a widow, 25 years younger than him and his late wife’s niece. His children from his first marriage were extremely upset and did not show up for the wedding. 

While President, Harrison appointed the first African-American to a high ranking role in government. He appointed Frederick Douglas, a former slave, as minister to Haiti in 1889.

                                                                                                                                                                      

Death Certificate 

Harrison died from pneumonia in Indianapolis, Indiana and is buried there next to his first wife at Crown Hill Cemetery. A bulk of his estate went to his second wife and their daughter, but due to the bad relationship with his older children, a much smaller amount was allotted to them.

William McKinley – 25th President

BRANCHES:

Birth: 29 January 1843 

Marriage: 25 January 1871

Death: 14 September 1901

LEAVES:

William McKinley was born Trumbull County, Ohio and later his family moved to Mahoning County, Ohio. He enrolled in the Union Army at the outbreak of the Civil War and by the end was a major.
He married Ida Saxton in Canton, Ohio where they lived until his Presidency. Ida began having epileptic seizures and considered an invalid the rest of her life. McKinley took such good care of her in private and in public, that it was remarked that he was making it pretty hard for the other husbands in Washington D.C.

Leon Czolgosz

The Spanish-American War was fought during McKinley’s Presidency. The war lasted 3 months with America being the victors. Because of this and the improving economy, he won his second term election.


To celebrate the victory he began a cross-country trip. One of his stops was in Buffalo, New York, where he was assassinated by Leon Czolgosz. Czolgosz had wrapped his hand in a bandage where he hid a revolver. As McKinley went to greet him, he shot him twice.

William Taft – 27th President

BRANCHES:

Birth: 15 September 1857

Marriage: 19 June 1886

Death: 8 March 1930

LEAVES: 

Taft and Herron marriage record

William Taft was born in Cincinnati, Ohio where he married Helen Herron. 

Taft was President from 1909-1913. While living in the White House he got stuck in the bathtub due to his large size and had to have a special tub made for him. 

He was the first President to throw the first pitch of the baseball season and the first to own a car. 

In 1921, Taft was appointed to the Supreme Court. With this appointment he became the only person to hold a position in both the Executive and Judicial branches of the U.S. and was also the only former president to swear in an incoming President. 

William Taft died at his home in Washington, D.C. His funeral was the first to be broadcast over the radio. He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery with John F. Kennedy being the only other President buried there. 

Warren Harding – 29th President

BRANCHES:

Birth: 2 November 1865

Marriage: 8 July 1891

Death: 2 August 1923

LEAVES:

18 Feb 1911

  

 Warren Harding was born in Corsica, Morrow County, Ohio. As a young man he was a Newspaper Publisher in Marion, Ohio. His Newspaper, The Marion Weekly Star, did not do well in the beginning. However, once Harding married a young divorcee, Florence Kling De Wolfe, the paper’s success began to grow. She helped with the financial end of the business and was able to make it a profitable endeavor. 

Harding won the 1920 presidential election and became the first sitting-senator in American history to win the Presidential election. He was also the first president elected after women were given the right to vote.  Two years into his term he decided to take a tour of the United States and became the first President to visit Alaska. However, when he reached San Francisco, California he was not feeling well and was diagnosed with pneumonia. A few days later he was feeling better, but unexpectedly died on the evening of August 2nd.  Some say he died of a stroke, others a heart attack and a few others….poison...but that's even longer story...

Now...without scrolling back up to the top... how many of the birth, marriage and death dates do you remember?

How much of the "LEAVES" information do you recall? 

I hope this clearly illustrates how additional information helps form a memorable picture of the people that are being researched. How it will make your ancestors come to life and give a greater significance to your family history....to have a beautiful family tree with branches full of leaves! 

If you want to pursue your research beyond the dates, keep reading our blog to learn the different techniques and resources you can use to add the stories to your family history. You can also contact us at the Virginia Wheeler Martin Family History & Learning Center by emailing us at: me-team.genealogy@mcdl.info or call 330-725-0588 x 5017. 

Sources:

William A. DeGregorio with updates by Sandra Lee Stuart, The Complete Book of U.S. Presidents, 8th Edition, (Fort Lee, NJ: Barricade Books, Inc., 2012). 

Ohio History Central, www.ohiohistorycentral.org.

Duksters, www.dusksters.com/biography/uspresidents.

Rutherford B. Hayes Library and Museum, www.rbhayes.org/hayes/biography/.

Ohio Secretary of State, www.ohiosos.gov/profile-ohio/people/ohio-presidents.
.

Family Search, www.familysearch.org.

Ancestry Library Edition, www.AncestryLibrary.com, accessed through library database.

Newspaper Archives, https://access.newspaperarchive.com/, accessed through library database.

Newspapers.com - World Collection, https://newscomwc.newspapers.com/, accessed through library .
database.

U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, General Land Office Records, https://glorecords.blm.gov

The White House, https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/presidents/.

Ohio Memory Collection, https://ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/.