Wednesday, June 29, 2016

The Simmons Adventure

I decided to tackle my Simmons family one year at SLC. I did some preliminary research. It seems that a gentleman had posted his Simmons lineage online with a series of pedigree charts. I made copies of the charts. I also found that the gentleman had enlisted a Salt Lake genealogy research firm to compile the genealogy. The professional hired had posted several queries about the Simmons clan. One of those posts led me to find out that James Morris Simmons had died in Carroll rather than Howard Co., IN. I drove up to Delphi and got a copy of James' death certificate. It gave his mother's first name as Dolly. The Simmons research gave her maiden name as Jennison, but other sources gave different maiden names.

Right off the bat, I was able to confirm Dolly Jennison as the mother of James, thanks to a Jennison genealogy.

I requested a meeting with the research firm that had done the Simmons research. The pedigree charts were sorely lacking in documentation. I asked the firm if it would be possible to get a list of sources used to compile the charts. The original researcher had recently passed away and his heirs would not release any part of the research to outsiders. The charts had since been pulled from the internet. I was given a pedigree chart, unsourced, for my line.

So, it was check the places and dates on microfilm at the FHL. I was relatively successful. I wonder what the heirs did with the research?

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