Jarvis Family Genealogy

This is a slightly edited repeat of a comment I made yesterday morning on the George and Ann Prior Jarvis family message board.

Margaret Jarvis Overson, the daughter of Margaret Jarvis and Charles Defriez Jarvis, spent many years working on a large blue book containing the genealogy of the Jarvis and Overson families. It is an amazing compilation and the amount of work and expense that it took to put it together back in the days before the internet is mind-boggling. She published the 710-page book in 1957 and there are various copies in family and library collections. We are trying to make sure a copy of it is available online.

Right now, I am going through my Ancestry.com Jarvis Family Tree, making sure the family is complete. I am working to make sure all the children and grandchildren and their families are properly entered and documented. I am finding that in most cases, Margaret Overson's data was correct. When I find information that disagrees with a family tree created by someone else, I am relying on primary or other secondary sources to choose the most accurate data.

So far I have worked through the George Frederick Jarvis Family, the Margaret Jarvis Family, and am currently working on the Ann Jarvis Milne Family. I am very appreciative of those who have created thorough family trees on Ancestry, since that drastically cuts down the amount of work it takes to process these hundreds of people. I've particularly relied on the trees of Doug M- and Alexandra H-, and others too numerous to mention.

So if you are a Jarvis descendant, what can you do to help create this master family tree for the Jarvis Family Association?

1. Send a copy of your documented family line back to George and Ann Prior Jarvis in GED format so I can add it. My email address is on the sidebar.

2. Let me know if you have done research back past George and Ann and have compiled accurate family trees of the Jarvis and Prior families in England. I can see family trees on Ancestry and New Family Search, but some of the information may be due to computer matching, and I haven't looked closely yet to see what is correct and what is due to computer matches and mismatches.

3. Look at the current family trees in your line of descent and let us know if the information is correct.

4. Send family photos and original documents that you may have in your family collections, particularly of George and Ann Prior Jarvis children and grandchildren.

5. Go through your family line on New Family Search, the genealogy site of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, if you have access. If you have documented names, dates, and other events, select the correct information and add documentation. Don't select information unless you have proof, please, and when you select places, make sure they are in the format City or Town, County, State, Country with everything spelled out, checked for accuracy, and correctly punctuated, for example, St. George, Washington, Utah, United States. Names and places should not be written in all caps. Please do not change information on common pioneer ancestors unless you have documentation.

6. If the biography of your Jarvis ancestor (a child or grandchild of George and Ann Prior Jarvis) from the Margaret Jarvis Overson book is not on The Ancestor Files, let me know and I will add it and provide it to the Family Association website. So far I have Samuel Walter Jarvis and his two wives, Margaret and Charles Defriez Jarvis, Heber and Susan Jarvis, Emeline and Thomas Cottam, and Victoria and George Miles. See here:

http://theancestorfiles.blogspot.com/search/label/Jarvis%20Children