And annoying myself in the process…
William Wiseman was The Legal Genealogist‘s 5th great grandfather.
And, according to published family histories, he was born 282 years ago today, on the second of February 1736.1
So when that popped up in my On This Day program,2 you know I was going to think to myself, what better day than today, Saturday, the day on which this blog focuses on my family, to visit William and share a bit of his story?
He’s an interesting character in so many ways — except for his name and maybe his birthplace, for example, there’s absolutely nothing in this tombstone inscription that’s demonstrably accurate.
There’s no evidence that he was born in 1741, his estate was probated years before 1830 so the death date has to be wrong, and — sigh — our William isn’t the William who actually did provide support to the Revolutionary troops (although our William is credited for it).
So I set off to start gathering information about However-Many-Greats Grandpa William, starting with the information about his birthdate and supposed birthplace. And had just smugly documented the fact that that supposed birth “in the city of London, in St. James, Clerkenwell Parish, in the year of the Lord 1736, on February the second”3 surely wasn’t supported by the records of St. James, Clerkenwell Parish when it dawned on me.
This was all sounding very very familiar.
Way too familiar to be coming just from my genealogical research into William which, I recall, was some years ago.
Even the image I captured of the page of the published St. James parish record book showing that the only William Wiseman baptized there was baptized nine years before our William’s supposed birth4 seemed way too familiar.
I tiptoed over to the website.
Opened the main blog page.
Hit the search box and entered the name William Wiseman in quotes.
And, of course, up popped the all-too-ironically-titled blog post “From the state of confusion,” researched, written and posted just about exactly one year ago.5
And telling the story of “that annoying William Wiseman.”
Sigh…
So today’s post is a whole lot more about me annoying me than it is about William annoying me.
Whether it’s because I’m busy — and I certainly am — or getting older — and I certainly am doing that too, but I find myself more and more doing dumb things like researching the same ancestor twice or ordering the same birth certificate twice because I don’t remember and/or haven’t documented properly and/or haven’t checked to see whether I’ve done that research or ordered that certificate before.
I keep promising myself that one of these days, when I get around to it, I’m going to get organized.
Sure I am.
Sigh…
Image: Inscription from William Wiseman tombstone, private cemetery, Avery County, North Carolina, memorial no. 5372212; digital image, Find A Grave (https://findagrave.com : accessed 2 Feb 2019). Photo by Chet Walker, Find A Grave contributor no. 47314925, used by his general grant of permission.
Cite/link to this post: Judy G. Russell, “Visiting William,” The Legal Genealogist, posted 2 Feb 2019 (https://www.legalgenealogist.com/blog : accessed (date)).
SOURCES
- Thomas C. Chapman, A Wiseman’s family : Anglo-Saxons of the Carolina Hills (Redwood City, Ca. : p.p., 1960). See also Maribeth Land Vineyard and Eugene M. Wiseman, William Wiseman and the Davenports (Franklin, NC: Genealogy Publishing Service, 1997), 6-9. ↩
- A fabulous add-on to The Master Genealogist that was created by John Cardinal. See On This Day (http://www.johncardinal.com/otd/ : accessed 2 Feb 2019). ↩
- Chapman, A Wiseman’s family : Anglo-Saxons of the Carolina Hills. ↩
- Robert Hovenden, editor, “A True Register of all the Christeninges, Mariages, and Burrialles in the Parishe of St. James, Clarkenwell, from the Yeare of our Lorde God 1551”, 20 vols. (London : Harlein Society, 1884-1894), II: 153; digital images, Google Books (http://books.google.com : accessed 2 Feb 2019). ↩
- Judy G. Russell, “From the state of confusion,” The Legal Genealogist, posted 3 Feb 2018 (https://www.legalgenealogist.com/blog : accessed 2 Feb 2019). ↩
Oh good, it’s not just me who does this!! Phew! I had a blog post ready to publish, but then wondered if I’d written about his wife or parents, since I had photos of the place he was born. Only to find oh-yes-indeed I’d written a post on him three years ago. I heaved a heavy sigh and chose another ancestor and started a new post. Personally I blame my cat Zoe for distracting me!
I’d have been happy to find I’d written about him three years ago. But last year? Sigh… the only thing worse was when Angie Bush mentioned me in a conference presentation I was attending and asked me to confirm that I’d written a blog post about a DNA tool and I seriously didn’t remember having done so. I had… about 10 days or so earlier. Sigh…
Since President and V.P. of the club are already taken, can I be secretary?
On the positive side, when I do it again, I sometimes see something I didn’t see the first time or I find a document or clue that wasn’t available when I looked yesterday.
I have also stopped relying on folders on my computer to organize my work. Yes, I keep things there in the folder for that couple but it doesn’t do any good if I don’t look in the folder a couple of times a year. I’m printing stuff off these days and keeping it together in a file folder which I am likely to look through when I’m working on someone. This works better for me. And those things that turn out to not be for that John Jones I can write right on the page why it isn’t.
Whatever works. Which doesn’t include not remembering / not checking… 🙂
I am reminded of *Groundhog Day,* a 1993 film where the character played by Bill Murray finds himself living the events of the same day again and again. And it’s Groundhog Day today! So, I think this is wonderful, and a great nudge for me to remember not to repeat my labors, which I might have done before, I don’t know…lol And I want to try to figure out if I can recall how the movie ended! P.S. they made the movie over again a few years ago
Welcome to my world, my dear cousin! I’ve been going through paper files, with the idea of really getting these files organized and labeled. I must have at least 18 copies of some things because I printed it out “again” just in case I was remembering wrong about doing it already!! At least I’m going to have a lot of paper to recycle!!!
Hmmm… I may have to hire you to come take care of mine… 🙂
I’ve also done this, Judy – doing the same research twice or more! This is good reason for me to log in my research. I think this happens to a lot of us who do things quickly and efficiently. We mark it off our mental list, with a burst of “feel good-I’m done” hormones and then move on. Later, the part of the brain that hates clutter takes it off the table.
My brain doesn’t hate clutter. I wish it did. Instead, it revels — and drowns — in it.
Oy
Good luck with that “getting organized” thing. I’ve got piles of papers that are about to topple over and cover my desk that is already covered with other papers. Someday, maybe.
Tell me about it. Good thing the health department doesn’t inspect genealogists’ offices… 🙂
I will write a blog post then publish it “private” so that only I can see it. Then when I can’t remember if so have written about a certain subject, I search my blog for it. I figured out this system after writing several posts about the exact same thing.
Smart!
I’ve done the same thing. I even have a spreadsheet to keep track of the ancestors for whom I’ve written articles and will forget to update and check it. Maybe I should find a new hobby — something that does not require much thought.