Gerald Martin Sweere, 76, died Jan. 12, 2006, at Merit Care Hospital in Fargo, N.D. He was born Oct. 9, 1929, in Otter Tail County to Harry and Julia (DeBruyn) Sweere.
My deepest condolences go out to the family of Gerald. Expect to see his obituary posted here soon.
I found a few hours each day this week to peck away at more editing. I went through some old emails that Dick forwarded and entered more details from those. I’m grateful that he saved them from back around 2003 since I had lost them having to reformat my hard drive.
I’ve been slowly making my way through my copy of “Our Family Tree” by Verla Davie Sweere, wife of William C. Sweere. It’s tedious work because I’m not a great typist, and also because I find myself looking up counties for nearly every family.
There’s a method to this madness.
My goal is to record vital information for each individual so that any future genealogist who looks at this work can easily find the source of that information.
In order to do so, each person should have a first, middle and last name entered. The middle name is critical in some cases where names are repeated from generation to generation. You can see this tradition in my own paternal line where there are several men named “John” in every generation. In some cases there are even men named “John” in the same generation which have the same middle name! This is where the birth certificate comes into play. A birth certificate gives the mother’s maiden name, and that’s a definite way to determine which family this “John” belongs to.
But where do you find the correct birth certificate? In the county of birth. So, the county of birth then becomes an important piece of the puzzle, expecially because there are towns and cities in every state with the same names. This is where FireFox comes in handy. With tabbed browsing, I can have the page of the individual I’m working on open in one tab, and the Geographic Name Information Server (GNIS) page open in the next tab. GNIS is the search page for place names on the US Geological Survey website.
The same holds true for marriage and death records, as they are recorded in the county where the event took place.
As I said, it’s tedious work. But I’m doing it right and that’s what matters to me. It’s all good.
ex animo ~J