Week 22: Uncertain
I'm well behind on the challenge here. The COVID-19 pandemic has left us all wondering what day it is, what week it is, what time it might be: in other words, uncertain! I've found it harder to focus recently than I did at the beginning of the lockdown, not just on genealogy but also on my sewing projects, keeping the house clean (we're not living in filth, but the Golden Retriever tumbleweeds are taking over under bookcases and tables), and running. But today I picked this topic up again, reading many of the stories other people had posted on Facebook about their own uncertainties. Some couldn't figure out who was descended from whom, or where they came from, or what their names really were. One person was able to post the letters of three different ancestors who had used the word "uncertain" in the text. But for me, the big uncertainty is James McDuff, one of my maternal great-great grandparents.
I realized that James was not going to yield easily to research many years ago when I visited the National Archives to look at census data on microfilm and discovered that, depending on the census year, he claimed to have been born in Ireland or New York or Connecticut. But, following the directions on this prompt, I've taken the opportunity this afternoon to research a little further on Ancestry.com where I've been able to look at the census data and Ancestry's transcription and found that it's a little clearer than I remembered from that trip the Archives, 37 years ago.
In a Territorial Census in Minnesota in 1875, it looks very clear that he was born in New York. His father was born in Ireland and his mother in Connecticut. However, I still have no idea of who his parents might have been.
In a total tangent, I found his widow, "Anne (sic) K. McDuff (wid James)" living with their oldest son Albert in Olympia, Washington in a city directory that must date from 1901 to 1905 which I know because she is listed on the facing page from Henry McBride, Governor of the State of Washington (his address was listed as the state capital).
I live in hope of at least discovering what year James died!
I realized that James was not going to yield easily to research many years ago when I visited the National Archives to look at census data on microfilm and discovered that, depending on the census year, he claimed to have been born in Ireland or New York or Connecticut. But, following the directions on this prompt, I've taken the opportunity this afternoon to research a little further on Ancestry.com where I've been able to look at the census data and Ancestry's transcription and found that it's a little clearer than I remembered from that trip the Archives, 37 years ago.
In a Territorial Census in Minnesota in 1875, it looks very clear that he was born in New York. His father was born in Ireland and his mother in Connecticut. However, I still have no idea of who his parents might have been.
In a total tangent, I found his widow, "Anne (sic) K. McDuff (wid James)" living with their oldest son Albert in Olympia, Washington in a city directory that must date from 1901 to 1905 which I know because she is listed on the facing page from Henry McBride, Governor of the State of Washington (his address was listed as the state capital).
I live in hope of at least discovering what year James died!
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