Today I have worked on sorting generations and applying generation numbers to family group sheets. I am trying to rationalize how I keep the records on my home computer and help me to write the stories that relate to the family.

I have now placed on this site six generations of Anderson families. Members of this sixth generation were all born between 1832 and 1871.

A number of themes/strands begin to stand out in my mind as I work on the history: communities were small and siblings in one family tend to marry siblings in other families. In some cases these are first cousins. Example: Anderson generation four where Esther, Lydia and Rhoda Anderson marry first cousins James Horney, Paris Horney and William Horney, respectively. In the next generation, Esther and James’ children marry Thomas children: John Horney married Elizabeth Thomas; William Horney married Catherine Thomas; and Hannah married John Thomas.

As with much of America, the men were farmers and the women were “home makers,” though I doubt many of the women would actually use that identity. They were mothers, wives and daughters in this era. They did keep house, cook meals and look after their children and men-folk, but would not see themselves as home makers. These identities are given substance in later, 20th Century families.

Families were for the most part large and children were often lost early, though the records of our families do not show lots of deaths of children. However, an examination of birth dates in any given family will often show gaps in the sequence, birth often occurred every year to two years. As we examine those dates we will sometimes see a gap of three to four years, suggesting that perhaps a child was lost and not identified in the records.

Naming conventions among these families also begin to change as we come to the close of the 19th Century. Most individuals have a single given name and those names generally repeat those of earlier given to earlier generations. Just prior to the Civil War, children are given two names and that trend continues down through the following generations.

Finally, this sorting process has helped me grasp many of these trends and will help me keep in order the stories I write about them.