Genealogy

Many people have contacted the Society asking about a specific Morrison family history. 

Unfortunately, the Morrison history is rather loosely collected. Given the variations in the surname spelling, as well as past and present locations, it can be hard to nail down certain folks. Over the years, folks left Scotland and Ireland and moved to the far reaches of the World. With some ancestors, we may know why and when they left. With other ancestors we do not know why, other than they did move. Some members of a family may have moved away; others stayed home. It can seem like an impossible task. 

So, what is a person to do? Here are a few thoughts and ideas to try:

1. Start with yourself. Write your family history the best you can.

2. Subscribe to an online service like one below. Starting with yourself, load in all the information you know about your family. It does not have to be 100% accurate, but as accurate as you know.

3. Talk to your elders! Find out their stories before it is too late. When/where/how did Grandma and Grandpa meet? How did their parents meet? What did they do during their lives?

4. Talk to other relatives like aunts, uncles, cousins, and close family friends. Your father may have been named for a close friend of his father.

5. Getting accurate records from 150+ years ago is possible. It may not tell you about Joe and Sarah’s lives; but they can tell you when they were born, baptized, married, where they lived at a census, when they died, and where they are buried. 

6. Some resources are:

*Newspaper archives for wedding, birth, legals, property sales, and obituaries.

*Family Bibles

*What do other family members know?

*What documents are in that shoe box in the basement? Look for birth, marriage, and  death certificates. These can also give other information like parent’s information (age &  occupation), where they lived at that point in time, causes of death, and where they are  buried.

*Contact local Historical Societies for information.

A quick note when dealing with an oral story is where the person was when the event happened. Were they adults who were part of the event? Were they a small child when the event happened? Was the event told to someone years later when they were a small child?  Each of these people can present a different perspective of the same event. Be patient. Eventually, you will get to the truth, or as close to the truth as you can.

At some point, you will reach a wall, and you cannot see a way over or around it. Walk away and come back in a few weeks or months. Sometimes, a hint or new information, will jump-start the research and lead you into a new direction.

For instance, while researching my wife’s family in England, I was presented with two separate families that were related and overlapped, but I could not fully connect them. I could not figure it out and for over a year, it drove me crazy.  One summer, while visiting one of my wife’s aunts in England, I mentioned this puzzle to her. She said, “There was a story about a relative marrying his widowed, sister-in-law.” While this was a common practice, I had simply not considered this. When we got home, I looked at this with a different view.

Sure enough, these two families were headed by brothers, Thomas and Matthew. To make it harder for me, 100 years later, both married women named Elizabeth and had a few children.

Matthew’s Elizabeth passed away from some illness and Thomas was killed, in France, in World War One. Matthew married Thomas’s Elizabeth, merging these two families. Matthew and Elizabeth had one child together, my wife’s maternal grandmother. Problem solved!

Lastly, if you reach an end and cannot see anything else, there are professional genealogists out there who, for a fee, will investigate your family tree.

Below are some sites that are in the public domain. 

The Clan Morrison Society of North America is not endorsing any of them, simply providing their information.

Note that these may have subscription-based fees. The fees may increase depending on the level of subscription/options that you need.

My Heritage https://www.myheritage.com

Ancestry.com https://www.ancestry.com/

Find my Past https://www.findmypast.com

Genes Reunited https://www.genesreunited.co.uk

Genealogy.com https://www.genealogy.com

Family Search https://www.familysearch.org

Rootsweb https://www.rootsweb.com

DNA testing has become popular. Here are some DNA Testing and mapping services:

Ancestry.com DNA https://www.ancestry.com/dna

23 & Me https://www.23andme.com

Family Tree DNA https://www.familytreedna.com

If/when you reach that wall or have simply exhausted yourself from research, there are professional genealogists available who, for a fee, will take over your research for you. Here are some, or you can simply do an online search.

Again, The Clan Morrison Society of North America is not endorsing any of them, simply providing their information.

Southern Shores Genealogy https://southernshoresgenealogy.com

Legacy Tree https://www.legacytree.com

DNAngels https://dnangels.org