Scholefield Family Tree
I was rereading posts after a Moore family researcher found the blog and asked about James Armour Moore and his wife Matilda Jane Bennett. There must be some element of synchronicity here because a few nights ago I presented a class called “Using Records to Suggest the Next Step.” It seems unrelated, but I was encouraging the attendees to reexamine their records for additional research leads. I needed to do exactly that — recheck my own work.
Quite a while back, I found a census record that connected a Horace Moore to the family as a possible sibling of James.1 This hint should be followed up because it could lead to information about James’s parents. (And I was afraid I was stuck!)
In 1880, Horace Moore was living in Alameda, California, and was a clerk in a bookstore. His wife was named Ann. Members of the family I was searching for were living with them.
I went to familysearch.org and checked for Horace Moores born about 1821 as a possible match to the Horace in 1880. I found an IGI record “Horris Hawkins Moore,” son of Michael Moore, who was christened in Rye, Westchester, New York.2 The father’s name and place look familiar to me because I had also found a similar entry for James Armour Moore.3
If you’ve never tried it, you should check out the “batch search” function available in familysearch. When you find a record, you can search the source the record came from for additional records in that source. This is great because if a person’s birth record is indexed, you can search for any siblings whose birth was recorded in the same source. To search this way, check the bottom of the individual record screen and click on the number which is provided as a “batch number.” Once you have arrived at the new search window (with the batch number filled in for you), you can search for all persons with the same last name or other qualifiers. The other numbers will lead you to additional information about the source. In this case, you will discover that the records of Christ’s Church in Rye was transcribed in the New York Genealogical and Biographical Record. The issues are available in the online Family History Archives at BYU’s website.
Using the batch search, I found that the record I had previously located for James A. Moore was in the same source — along with two additional apparent brothers. Michael and Susan Moore had four boys christened at Christ’s Church in Rye: Horris Hawkins Moore c. 24 Jun 1821, John Jacob Moore c. 1 Apr 1823,4 James Armour Moore c. 1 May 1825,5 and Samuel Armour Moore c. 22 Jun 1827.6 Because of the census record, I feel reasonably confident in connecting the members of this family into the tree.
1. See post dated 13 Sep 2008.
2. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints [LDS], “International Genealogical Index,” database, FamilySearch (http://www.familysearch.org : accessed 28 Jan 2010), North America Region, entry for Horris Hawkins Moore, christened 24 Jun 1821, Rye, Westchester County, New York; citing FHL microfilm 0,962,876 (The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record), batch no. C510161.
3. See post dated 8 Dec 2008.
4. LDS, “International Genealogical Index,” database, FamilySearch, North America Region, entry for John Jacob Moore, christened 1 Apr 1823, Rye.
5. LDS, “International Genealogical Index,” database, FamilySearch, North America Region, entry for James Armour Moore, christened 1 May 1825, Rye.
6. LDS, “International Genealogical Index,” database, FamilySearch, North America Region, entry for Samuel Armour Moore, christened 22 Jun 1827, Rye.