Richard Sperry in Puzzilla

Puzzilla Ancestral Chart

January 8, 2019 - I'm back at the Family History Centre for my Tuesday evening shift - our first shift after the Christmas break and everything is breaking down on us. Makes for some excitement. My computer lost the network connection and none of my shortcuts or Chrome work. The lightbulbs in the computer room were burnt out and now the printer is offline.

But I'm busy with my latest discovery. I haven't looked at Puzzilla for some time and thought I would see how things were looking these days. I typically use this site to link to my FamilySearch tree and then explore the descendancy lines to fill in more of the collateral lines - cousins, aunts and uncles along my direct line.

This time I went directly to my Dad's line and looked at the ancestral chart.  Just a quick glance and it is obvious where I may need to do some clean up of duplicate relationships/names. (circled in green above)  This represents the families of the Richard Sperry (1606 - 1698) and his son Richard Sperry (1652-1734). I did some searching on this name as it was familiar and spent the next hour reading multiple websites recounting the history of the family in early America and the connection to two of  the 59 judges who signed the execution order for King Charles 1 and escaped to America to avoid a rather nasty execution - at some point taking shelter in what is now called "Judges Cave" near their home and being sustained by Richard Sperry or his son.

If you want to learn a little more, check out these two genealogical pages.

Richard Sperry in WikiTree
Richard Sperry in the Evans Family WebPage
Richard Sperry in CommonHeroes3

So instead of successfully cleaning up this issue with my tree, I enjoyed my time learning more about my ninth great grandparent.

That is okay because I am looking forward to learning more about how to clean up issues (merging records, restoring records and cleaning up the attached sources) in my FamilyTree on FamilySearch at the January 24th community class put on by the Family History Centre. Cleaning up records that have been duplicated, merged and have multiple links and problems is one of the most time consuming and often frustrating parts of dealing with a common family tree. A little extra help and information can help me avoid adding to the confusion. The class begins at 7:00 pm if you are interested in coming along. You can register ahead of time at http://genwebworks.net/cfhc.htm or just show up - you will be welcome!

If you are interested in learning how to use Puzzilla and setting up your own FamilyTree with a free FamilySearch account, drop by the Family History Centre - there are friendly volunteers here to help you.