Sorting Saturday - the organization changes and continues

As much as I loved my new excel organizing chart it was beginning to be to cumbersome. Two many ancestors which created too many pages since each one had their very own page. Now I am not an expert at excel by any stretch of the imagination but when I think excel should do something I find a way to learn to do it and I did. I made a new chart and I love it. I just hope I don't find anything better.

My original setup was the same page for each ancestor and it looked like this only bigger and with more pages:

My new form is all in one and is much easier to work with. I give each document a code with a letter and number and that is how it is filed in a binder and if it is in the computer that code is attached as well. This helps in not duplicating documents as it seems I have the same ones saved over and over again. Go figure. I did not print out the very first column which has names and spouses listed.

The more I find the less I know

My number six ancestor to be filed neatly away in my new handy dandy organizational system is young Calvin's father John. John Burk is my brick wall, or should I say one of my brick walls. But really the one that causes me the most grief. It seems the more information I find on him the less I know or the more questions I have. There was a prompt on another blog asking who in history would you like to have dinner with and my answer was John Burk just to ask who his parents and grandparents were and where they came from so I could move on in this research.

John was born in Crawford, Ohio in 1833 when they did not keep birth records. I know this because his brother in law was kind enough to write a family history down with birth and death dates and his 2 times grand daughter was kind enough to share it with me. I also have a handwritten note with the same dates from someone in my grandfathers family. Sadly, these notes do not include his parents names.

John married Ellen Percey Hill from Jackson, Hancock, Ohio on April 4, 1863 and they had three boys, Calvin, William and Elroy (who died before his first birthday). The Burk family lived in Bath, Green Co., Ohio in 1870 and one year later Ellen died in Hancock Co. Ohio soon to be followed by John in 1872. The boys, Calvin and William were put under guardianship of their uncle, Ellen's brother Edward.

At one point in John's life he knew a man names JW Burns who transferred a patent over to John in 1870. This man lived in Medway, Ohio not far from Bath. Which raises questions of what did John do for a living? Did he work for this JW Burns? Were they related? Why did he get that patent and what was he going to do with it? As interesting as all this is it does not answer the question of who his parents are and where did they come from. The search continues!