Ancestry Saturday: When The Indirect Approach Just Won't Work

I've tried to be indirect.  Post it online with facts and assume the search engines will bring a change to correct the record.  That's the theory.

Theory and reality haven't met.

I wrote in November 2013 that I had discovered the death date for Phebe Ann Woodmansee to be 27 Jul 1883.  That piece was intended to convince some of the people with websites and Ancestry.com family trees to change their death dates.  There are at least 56 public trees on Ancestry.com and not one has changed yet. 

I pleaded in a piece in January this year for my fellow researchers to take the Worthington out of Thomas W. Sanders in their family trees.  Only one of 14 Ancestry.com has dropped back to a W.

Even worse, in September 2013 I presented a preponderance of evidence that his parent's were John and Emily (Jones) Sanders, not Thomas and Sarah (Ham) Sanders.  Yet, 10 of the 14 Ancestry.com trees still have Thomas and Sarah.  The other four have no parents listed.

It's time to set the record straight.

I made direct contact with many of the Ancestry.com fellow researchers.  Now, the changes are slowing coming about.

Ancestry Saturday: That W Isn't For Worthington

Don't call my third great grandfather Thomas Worthington Sanders anymore. 

I've updated my tree to show Thomas W. Sanders, but the "Cunningham Family Bible" reference to Winfrey T. Sanders has me better than 90% convinced that the W was for Winfrey, not Worthington.

I've written before about Group Think in Genealogy and advanced the thought further with With a Preponderance of Evidence.  Now, I hope this third column helps to remove the name "Worthington" from Thomas W. Sanders forever from my fellow researchers' family trees.

Ohio's sixth Governor with Southern Ohio roots named Thomas Worthington.  He's the one whose view from his Adena home served as the inspiration for the Ohio seal.  He, even, had Highland County, Ohio relatives so the name Worthington is prominent in the Sanders' families home area.

That doesn't mean Thomas W. Sanders is Thomas Worthington though.

I have yet to find a single primary or secondary record to document the W is for Worthington.  The bible record has Winfrey.  One Census has W.T.  His obit reads Thomas W. Sanders.  My Eastern Ohio cousin who did his research before the Internet, admitted he didn't know from where the name Worthington came.

For me, this all adds up to removal of the name Worthington from association with him.

Oh, and by the way, I now have a photo. My great grandfather, reportedly, was part of verifying this was him. Here is Thomas W. Sanders (1840-1899):

I give permission to anyone to use this photo for personal purposes as long as you agree to stop using the name Worthington as his middle name.  Agreed?

Ancestry Saturday: With A Preponderance of Evidence

The five-family chart for one of my Ohio ancestor-researcher cousins showed Thomas Worthington Sanders' parents as Thomas Moorman Sanders and Sarah Ham Sanders.  No less than 14 family trees on Ancestry.com did the same.  In fact, my tree did for a while too.  I labeled it "group think" in genealogy.

My latest hypothesis was that it was actually John Sanders and Emily Jones Sanders that were TW's parents.  I'm gaining pretty good support for that with a preponderance of evidence.

Item 1.  Nearly every researcher puts the date 22 Aug 1840 as the birth date for Thomas W. Sanders.  Yet, the Quaker church records for Thomas and Sarah Sanders don't show a son that year by that name.

Item 2. W.T. Sanders was in the 1850 Census with John Sanders and Emily Jones Sanders. 

Item 3.  Thomas Sanders was in the 1860 Census with them too and a sister, Martha.

Item 4. Thomas W. Sanders married Nancy Leaverton in 1863.

Item 5.  The 1870 Census had Thomas W. Sanders and his wife, Nancy, living with Martha Kerns, the married name of the daughter of John and Emily Sanders.

Item 6.  Another researcher reports possessing a family bible record, the "Cunningham Bible" that she says matches the birth date of Winfrey T. Sanders to 22 Aug 1840. 

Item 7.  The funeral home's 1899 burial record for my third great grandfather at the cemetery in Washington Court House, Ohio matches his birth year 1840 too.

Item 8.  No son named Thomas of Thomas and Sarah Ham Sanders ever shows up anywhere else. No other Winfrey or W.T. shows up either.

Item 9.  A researcher with thirty years experience and a professional genealogy pedigree told me that, indeed, she believes Thomas W. Sanders was the son of John and Emily Sanders.

Item 10.  An obit from the September 1899 edition of The News-Herald matches "my" Thomas W. Sanders with the birth date of Item 1, the spouse in Item 4, and the funeral in Item 7.

These add up for me.

So, though Winfrey Thomas Sanders becoming Thomas Worthington Sanders can be a bit confusing and may never get proven without a shadow of a doubt, a preponderance of evidence points to it being the case.

Mystery solved?  I say yes.

So, now who are the parents of John Sanders?

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UPDATE:  Item 10 was added in December 2013 to this updated column.  The obit really brings closure to this mystery.

Plus, I'm now unconvinced that Thomas Worthington Sanders has the Worthington name at all anyway.  I have yet to find a single government document, news article, bible record, Census, or anything considered a primary or secondary source of proof that uses that name.  It's a new quest to remove use of it everywhere I can.