Make sure the children from the Mil Info are added to the Grid

In continuing my task of matching children on the Grid with children from the Mil Info, I came across the following.

I was able to match 9 children on the Grid with 9 children on the Mil Info. There was one more child on the Grid, Jesse M born in about 1877. There was also one more child on the Mil Info, Arthur born in 1886. The inputter seems to have decided that Jesse and Arthur were the same child. They were not. Jesse had died before the veteran filled out his family circular in 1898, so his name was not listed in the Mil Info. In 1900, the veteran's spouse said that she had 12 children and 9 were still alive. In all likelihood, Jesse and Arthur (he was not on the 1900 census with his family) are dead brothers.

Please don't assume that just because you've found 10 children in the census and there are 10 children in the Mil Info that they are the same 10 children. They might not be. Before marking the MilIN? button, make sure the information you have in the Mil Info matches (or nearly matches or somewhat matches) what you've found in the census or other records. There is no reason to assume that Jesse and Arthur are the same child. Nothing in the census or Mil Info supports that assumption.

In this case, a child from the Mil Info (Arthur) was left off the Grid. This is a major inputter error.

Child in the Mil Info

As the Mil Info (pension) data is prepared to be added to the VCC data, I've been working on a list of names of people from the VCC data. I have to match the person from the VCC Grid to the person in the Mil Info.

I've noticed that sometimes the Mil Info says (CHILD) or (DAUGHTER) or (SON). DO NOT match this to a person on the Grid unless you have some identifying information. That is a birth date or a death date.

In one case, the soldier had three children on the Grid. The Mil Info listed (CHILD) twice. There was no other information about those two children. The inputter picked two of the children on the Grid and said they were the two children from the Mil Info. There is no way they could have known which two children were referenced in the Mil Info, so the MilIN? should NOT have been marked on the Grid.

In another case, there were two children on the Grid. The Mil Info listed (CHILD) twice. There was no other information about those two children. The two children on the Grid should not have had the MilIN? column checked, because there was no other identifying information. Even though you can't say those children were identified in the Mil Info, you don't have to add two extra children to the Grid. You have no evidence that the soldier had four children. You know he had two kids and two kids have been added to the Grid. I hope this makes sense.

When you mark a child (or anyone) on the Grid as being found in the Mil Info, that means there was information in the Mil Info that you were able to use to identify that child. If there is no identifying information, please don't mark that child as found in the Mil Info.

Use quality code 4 sparingly

Some of you probably remember back when we collected the Urban and USCT samples that we were sometimes inclined to take soldiers at a quality code (QC) 4 match. The idea was that even though we didn't have much supporting evidence, the individual was demographically similar even if he wasn't a perfect match. Then we could tell users that they were weak matches, and they could decide to drop them from the data they analyzed.

Now that we are searching for the soldiers' children, this doesn't really work. First of all, we don't want to spend two days searching for the 12 children of a QC4 soldier. Why waste all that time if they might not be the people we're looking for. Additionally, we have many more records available to make a solid match than we did for the previous samples. That is to say, most of the time, you should be able to find solid supporting evidence for the match you've made.

Because of all the great records available, we should only add a QC4 match (of soldier, spouse, child) to the grid on rare occasions. Use it sparingly. Occasionally, you can make an assumption and justify a QC4 match. I was trying to come up with an example of this, but it is so infrequent, that I couldn't. If you have to make multiple assumptions (even if those assumptions are logical and possibly correct) to add an individual to the grid, then you should not add that individual.

You should hardly ever add a QC4 individual to the grid. If you do, you should be able to defend the choice without making multiple assumptions about the individual or family. Just because a soldier is married, doesn't mean he has kids. Just because an individual is the right age in the right town doesn't mean she is the soldier's child. Maybe the child is related but is a niece or nephew, not a child. Make decisions based on all the information you have at your disposal. Whenever I'm tempted to take someone who is a weak match, I ask myself, "How do I know this is my person and not some random person with the same name?" What are the reasons to rule out this person?

This applies to both Project 1 and Project 2, but it is especially relevant to Project 2. Many of the birth/death/marriage dates change from decade to decade and sometimes the family structure has broken down. All this must be taken into account when matching individuals and families.

Many QC 4 matches will turn out to be wrong. It is so much worse to have wrong data than missing data.

Missing children

As you've all been working on assigning 2nd parents to the soldiers' children, a few of you have needed to request the family tree. The primary reason for this is that the original inputter forgot to search for one (or more) of the children. That is, there was a child on the Mil Info that was never entered on the Grid.

This is just a reminder to double check that you've added all children from the Mil Info to the Grid before you hit complete.

Mother-child relationships

This is just a reminder that you should always make sure the mother-child relationships on your family trees are correct. When Chris creates the GEDCOM files that you use for your trees, he has no way to put the correct child with the correct mother. We would like to add this information as a variable in our data. Chris will be going back to the trees to extract it.

It's really important that you take the time to make sure all the children are connected to the correct mothers on your family trees.

Ever had child

Those of you who are working on Project 1 might remember that there is a column on your input log called "Ever had child." I thought I'd give you an explanation of what the information in this column means. The 1s and 0s in this column don't guarantee that the soldier did or did not have children. They merely indicate that he might or might not have children. In short, the numbers mean the following:

• 1 = something is entered in the pension children fields
• 0 = nothing is entered in the pension children fields

If a 0 is entered in this column, all it means is that there was no indication in the pension that the soldier had children. There weren't any letters, affidavits, or family circulars that noted the presence or absence of children in the soldier's family. We just don't know if he had kids. Often, if the soldier had children we would find mention of them in the pension, but this is not always true.

If a 1 is entered in this column, it means that there is some indication in the pension that the soldier did or did not have children. There will be a 1 in this column if the pension contained any of the following kinds of information in Children: Name field in the pension data:

• a child's name
• (child) - indicating that there is evidence of a child, but no further information
• (no child) - indicating that somewhere in the pension it was stated that there are no children

Often, you'll see a 1 and be surprised that the soldier has no kids. That's fine. Other times you'll see a 0 and think the soldier is childless only to find out that he has 14 kids. That is a bummer.

I hope this information helps as you use the information in the Ever had child column.

Searching using family members

Here is some information from Sandy about searching for an individual on Ancestry and including information about family members - siblings, children, parents - in that search. These are just some things to keep in mind when searching and reviewing your results.

1) It looks like Ancestry searches for the siblings exactly even though you can't mark them exact. (I tested 1880, 1900 and 1920).

2) However, If you enter a person and list names of children in your search, Ancestry does not consider the children exact.  It orders the results with those at the top having matching children (all matches, followed by some matches, followed by no matching children)

3) Ancestry does allow you to input a parent's name and NOT mark it exact. After entering a parent's name, the results pop up with those at the top having a parent with that name, followed by other names that match the target person but without having a matching parent.

In summary:   It appears that the parents field is working fine (you can choose exact or not exact); the siblings are considered exact, and the children are not exact.

Where does the Mil Info about spouses and children come from? - Part 2

There are several documents in the pension, in addition to the family circulars, that provide information about veterans' spouses and children. A few are listed below. Sorry if I forgot any.

• Dependent pension applications. After the soldier dies, widows and children can apply for pensions. In her application, the widow might provide information about the children. Additionally, if she receives a pension. A pension drop card with her death date might be included. Minor children and those with disabilities could apply for a pension. A child might be dropped from the pension roles upon turning 16.
• Affidavits, letters, depositions.These documents are included in a pension because someone is trying to provide evidence in support of an application. These can be written by many different people and might include information for spouses and children depending on the nature of the document. Occasionally, a soldier is living with an adult child, often a daughter. She might write letters on the veteran's behalf or make claims to be reimbursed for money she spent for the soldier. This, along with family circulars, is where we might find a daughter's married name.
• Marriage certificates. This will provide information about the soldier's spouse. Some certificates have more information than others, but it's reliable information when included.

Much of the information about spouses and children provided in the pension is reliable as it is provided by the soldier or his spouse or comes from official document. We do occasionally get discrepant or incorrect data, but this information is generally accurate and useful.

Where does the Mil Info about spouses and children come from? - Part 1

Recently, I got a question asking for an explanation of where the spouse and child information comes from that are found in the Mil Info screen. I think I'll split the answer into two posts in case it gets a little long.

The primary source for spouse and child information in the pension record is what we call a family circular. In 1898 and 1915, the pension bureau sent the veterans on the pension roles a questionnaire seeking family information. Both family circulars have information about the spouse such as her maiden name and marriage date. It also lists any of the soldier's previous marriages. If the veteran's first wife died, he might mention her death date on the family circular.

The two family circulars differ slightly in their questions about the veteran's children. The 1898, circular asks, "Have you any children living? If so, state their names and the dates of their birth." Therefore, only living children will be listed. The 1915, circular asks the veteran to, "State the names and dates of birth of all your children, living or dead." So, if the veteran lives to 1915, this circular might list more children than the 1898 circular.

This information is provided by the veteran to the pension bureau. Please note, that the circulars do not ask for the child's gender. The pension inputter inferred the gender of each child based on the name given. These circulars are also where we often get the living/dead date. If the child is listed on the 1898 circular, then we know the child was alive in 1898. If the child is listed on the 1915 circular, but not on the 1898, then we can infer that the child was dead by 1898.

This is where we get most of the information about spouses and children. A few other sources will be discussed in the next post.

When the soldier and his family live outside the US

Recently, we had a soldier from Ireland. He was never found in the United States census and his children were all born and lived in Ireland. It was not uncommon for foreign-born soldiers to return to their countries of birth after the war.

Here are some things to keep in mind if you encounter this situation:

• Make sure you enter ALL the soldiers children on the grid. Even if you never find them on a census manuscript, you need to add them to the data. Add the spouse as well (if she had children with the soldier)
• If you have evidence that the soldier, his spouse, or his children were living outside the US during a given census year, then mark that decade on the grid with black Xs (not searched) instead of yellow Xs (not found). If they live outside the country, then they are not at risk to be found in the census.
• Even if they live outside the country, go ahead and search for death information, just in case. Family Search is a good place to do this because you can access international records. If you don't find death information for the soldier, his spouse, or his children, mark the death column with a yellow X.

Any questions?

Don't forget...

Just a few reminders.

• When you're working on a soldier, don't forget to update/check household 0 and bring it up to our current standard.
• Don't forget to change the names to match what is written on the manuscript.
• ALL of the soldier's children must be added to Grid and searched in all decades they are alive.
• If, based on your work, you think a couple of the children in the Mil Info are the same, there is no need to add the duplicate to the Grid or search the child twice. In this situation, you have more information than the original pension inputter had.
• If the Mil Info says (child), (child) without any other identifiable information, and you've found three children, there is no need to add these two "extra" children to the Grid.
• If the Mil Info says (child), and there is other identifiable information (such as a birth date) that does not match the information you've found, then you need to add that child to the Grid and search.

More link rates - All daughters

We know that locating daughters in the census can be difficult. As the following table shows, we do a pretty good job.

	1900		1910		1920		1930		1940		Ever Linked		Death
# Searched Project 1-White non-POW	5,103		4,937		4,747		4,443		3,937		5,606		5,606
	# found	%	# found	%	# found	%	# found	%	# found	%	# found	%	# found	%
All Daughters	4,158	81.5	3,728	75.5	3,407	71.8	3,049	68.6	2,359	59.9	5,598	99.8	4,017	71.7
Outside Veteran's Household	2,143	42.0	2,972	60.2	3,134	66.0	2,991	67.3	2,355	59.8	4,178	74.5	na	na
# Searched Project 2 - USCT	856		851		827		797		775		940		939*
	# found	%	# found	%	# found	%	# found	%	# found	%	# found	%	# found	%
All Daughters	497	58.1	344	40.4	249	30.1	172	21.6	121	15.6	937	99.7	261	27.8
Outside Veteran's Household	155	18.1	229	26.9	218	26.4	167	21.0	121	15.6	416	44.3	na	na
# Searched POW	3,661		3,546		3,396		3,182		2,863		4,100		4,100
	# found	%	# found	%	# found	%	# found	%	# found	%	# found	%	# found	%
All Daughters	2,903	79.3	2,541	71.7	2,300	67.7	2,008	63.1	1,549	54.1	3,881	94.7	2,749	67.0
Outside Veteran's Household	1,347	36.8	1,945	54.9	2,117	62.3	1,981	62.3	1,547	54.0	2,758	67.3	na	na
# Searched Andersonville Siblings	267		257		243		227		204		282		282
	# found	%	# found	%	# found	%	# found	%	# found	%	# found	%	# found	%
All Daughters	205	76.8	173	67.3	159	65.4	137	60.4	104	51.0	282	100.0	171	60.6
Outside Veteran's Household	128	47.9	141	54.9	146	60.1	136	59.9	104	51.0	203	72.0	na	na

*Some death information was not searched as the child lived outside the US at time of death.