Johnnie William Snellgrove is the next person to look at in the Langford descendancy research project. He is the oldest child of Henry J. Snellgrove. The next step is to review records hints, attach records, and clean up both my Ancestry profile and FamilySearch profile for Johnnie. This includes adding a spouse and children if the record hints include that information.
We arrived at Johnnie by following this descendancy path:
Table of Contents
Step 1: Review Record Hints for Johnnie William Snellgrove
Starting on Ancestry, the profile for Johnnie was created by attaching records to Henry J. Snellgrove, specifically the 1910 and 1920 U.S. Census records. These records listed Johnnie as a child of Henry J. and Leah Snellgrove. The approximate birth year was 1904 in Georgia.
The FamilySearch profile had a more complete birth date and place and no death date. Johnnie William Snellgrove has a spouse named Leah R. Walker. There were several record hints that needed to be reviewed and attached. Reviewing the profile and record hints helps to provide some background as the record hints are reviewed and attached at Ancestry.
Spelling Johnnie’s name
Johnnie’s name varies in the records. His first and middle names are switched. Sometimes there are initials. In one case his name was transcribed incorrectly.
- Johnie Snelgrove
- Johnie W Snellgrove
- William J Snelgrove
- Johnnie William Snellgrove
With these variations, how do you choose the name and spelling for the profile? There are different views on what should be done. I tend to go with what the family chose for the spelling, even if it might have varied over time. For example, I chose to follow the name used on the obituary and headstone because family members would have been involved with those things.
The family spelled the name Johnnie William Snellgrove in the obituary and on the headstone. Choosing this name spelling required changing the spelling on FamilySearch. The Snellgrove family spelled the name either with one or two L’s. Johnnie’s branch of the family used two L’s. This was also supported by the records which included two L’s in the name. The only exception were the census records where an enumerator may have chosen their own spelling variation.
Step 2: Attaching records
The record hints for Johnnie included his wife and child’s name. The Social Security death index record for his daughter indicates his daughter is also now deceased. This mean we can add his wife Leah and his daughter Martha to the tree and also to FamilySearch. By adding these two individuals, the tree has now grown another generating forward in time.
Reviewing and attaching the records helps to reveal more about Johnnie. He worked as a machinist for a railroad. Johnnie was 38 years old when he registered for the World War 2 draft, but it’s not clear if he served. He likely continued to work for the railroad until his retirement because he received a pension from the railroad.
At this step, work back and forth between Ancestry and FamilySearch. Attach all the records to the Ancestry profile and then do the same at FamilySearch. I will often do a bit more searching to look for additional records that may not have appeared as records hints. Additional searching found Johnnie’s draft card, the 1950 U.S. Census, and his pension record.
Step 3: Adding new information and cleaning up FamilySearch
To continue forward in the research, the next step is to look at Johnnie’s wife Leah and daughter Martha, reviewing their record hints and attaching sources. As these record hints are evaluated, additional people are added to the tree. For Martha this includes adding her spouse and possibly her children.
When the record hints are evaluated for Martha, it is possible to run into living people. It is not recommended to add living people to FamilySearch. Living people are not publicly viewable so long as they are marked as living. Instead of continuing forward with living people, stop and go back in time and start working forward again. For example, I would go back to Henry J and Leah Snellgrove’s next child, who is likely deceased.
