RootsMagic and Getting It Right

Going Live With RootsMagic

Happy Holidays everyone! I’ve been busy making some changes to my genealogy database, so I haven’t posted in a while. I have decided to move away from Ancestry.com as the basic organizer for my family tree data. I transferred everything from that online site to my home hard drive using RootsMagic software. It’s easy to use, powerful, and designed to work with many of the “pay for play” sites. RootsMagic also has something unique when compared to other genealogy programs out there, in that it allows you to post your entire tree, publicly, on their server for free.

You can see ours by going here.

RootsMagic also allows you to research your tree through several of the aforementioned paid sites, as well as FamilySearch.org, using their “hint” systems that connect back to it. Additionally, over the last few years, I’ve had a real problem with people denying my request to collaborate on Ancestry. I’ve sent many messages to people using Ancestry’s internal mail only to have those messages ignored. Many of my cousins have incorrect data on their trees, but really don’t seem to want to take the time, or have the time, to make the corrections.

It’s not all bad, though. I did connect with one of our cousins on Ancestry recently who has been very helpful and cooperative. She is (Delinda) Lee Shaw, from Benton, TN. Benton is located in the Smoky Mountain Triangle I refer to in RED RIVER TRAILS. Lee has contributed greatly to the Hogue/Hogg research out there and works hard to get things right. Thanks so much for the contact, Lee!

Let’s Get It Right (As We Can!)

All that brings us to another subject of today’s blog post, namely, getting things right. Or, as right as you can using the information that is available to you. I hope that my new RootsMagic software will help with the overall accuracy of my tree.

One of the “brick walls” on our family tree, occurs in the lineage of my great-great-great grandmother, Hollin. Hollin married William G. Hogue around 1815 in North Carolina. We can only guess at this because no evidence of their marriage has been found, or, is at least not known to me. Hollin is in three census reports; 1850, Murray County, GA, 1860, Blount County, TN (those both along with William), and 1870, Cherokee County, NC (Living with her daughter Piercy Hogue Crisp). Her name was spelled differently on all three reports, Hollen, Hollin, and Hollan, respectively. Hollin has not turned up anywhere else during my research, outside these census reports.

Hollin’s name is listed, however, on several family trees appearing on the internet (mainly on Ancestry) as Hollin Hollace Hafer, or even Hollace Hofer. One tree has her listed as Hollis Hollin Hafner. How did this happen? Likely it occurred due to the incorrect interpretation of her name by someone indexing the various census records, and then again by someone using that bad information. I’ve always had the image in my mind of a little old Mormon lady in Salt Lake City, with her bifocals all steamed up, trying to make some sense out of the lousy reproduction of the 1870 census. Please check out these pics below:

Don’t Click On It Until You’re Sure It’s Real!

When that Ancestry drop down hint appears, her name is now Hollace Hofer! I hope you amateur genealogists (like me) out there don’t fall for this false information. Think about it logically for a minute. Why would a 73-year-old blind woman, who has been widowed for nearly five years, and, was married to the same man for about fifty years, now living with her oldest daughter, give the census enumerator her maiden name? I’ll tell you why. She wouldn’t. Her daughter wouldn’t do it either. Not even 148 years ago. To me, it’s not really a question. If you look as closely as you can to what was recorded, her last name is clearly written as Hogue, not Hofer, or Hafer, or Hafner, or anything else. The 1870 census of this county is a little faint and worn, but it is still readable.

To my cousins out there who have clicked on someone else’s information on Ancestry to add it to their own family tree, please reconsider and make sure that info is correct before adding it. I’m sure I have done the same thing. I’m in the process of checking out my different family lines right now. I understand the excitement of discovering something new. That’s why I’m still working on building my family history. In fact, just this week a cousin gave me some information that corrected a previous assumption I had made on my Gatlin line.

I’m Big On The DNA

As I mentioned in RED RIVER TRAILS, I am a big believer in the scientific accuracy of DNA testing. For instance, say your family lore indicates that great grandma Mary was a Cherokee. Your mtDNA test comes back showing no Native American ancestry is detected. Great grandma wasn’t a Cherokee after all! The work of Dwight Hogge on the Hogg DNA Project (go here), has sorted all the different Hoges, Hoggs, Hogges, and Hogues into distinct family lines, backed up and confirmed by DNA evidence. I feel the path of our ancestors is clear; it does NOT lead back to William Hoge and Barbara Hume, immigrants from Mussleborough, Scotland.

Many of my Hogue cousins out there still have not accepted this evidence as fact. They still have their trees going back to William and Barbara instead of to our John Hogg, who died in North Carolina in 1795. In some ways, I almost feel responsible for this misdirection. I thought this notion was true back when some of my tree ideas were published online back in the 90’s. DNA evidence has changed the accuracy of those ideas. This blog is dedicated to correcting that error. I hope that my Hogue cousins will do the same.

As I always say, if you think you have the correct Hogue ancestry path, please prove me wrong! Just make sure the evidence is real and likely not refutable. I am open to any discussion that gets things right! That’s why I called this blog The Hogue Connection!

That’s enough for now. They say a good blog post should be, at minimum, 300 words, and this one is already 975! Thanks for visiting and please check out some of the links above. Keep on diggin’! Oh, and BTW, RootsMagic is not endorsing me to mention their product. I just think it’s cool. You can return to the Home Page by clicking here.