I am in Shock

Karen Lips

1st Lieutenant
Joined
Jun 24, 2008
Location
Waxahachie,Texas
I recently joined Ancestry. Com and I found a Yankee in my family tree! He is my great great grandfather on my mom's side of the family. John Lovelace Foster fought for the Union with the 15th Regiment, Kentucky. He went in as a Sargent and came out a Captain. He and his wife later moved to Texas where they raised a family and lived for the rest of their lives.
 
As I have no ancestors that fought in the Civil War, it must be interesting to learn you had ancestors that fought on both sides. My brother recently did the Ancestry thing... and we learned a lot about our heritage. It was an eye opener.
 
Don't despair Karen, Ancestory.com could be wrong!

Years ago I submitted my genealogy to that website. It wasn't long before others were taking my ancestors (and my years of work) and putting them into their family trees even if there wasn't a fit. I even went so far as to email some of these people to inform them of their error but it did no good. I have always documented my work and where my information came from, not only to credit those sources, but to correct errors/changes if they should come up. No one on that site, including the host (Ancestory.com), cares about accuracy or verifying the sources; it's all about filling the branches in your family tree at $20 a month.
 
Don't despair Karen, Ancestory.com could be wrong!

Years ago I submitted my genealogy to that website. It wasn't long before others were taking my ancestors (and my years of work) and putting them into their family trees even if there wasn't a fit. I even went so far as to email some of these people to inform them of their error but it did no good. I have always documented my work and where my information came from, not only to credit those sources, but to correct errors/changes if they should come up. No one on that site, including the host (Ancestory.com), cares about accuracy or verifying the sources; it's all about filling the branches in your family tree at $20 a month.
I know for a fact that my great grandfather's side came to Texas from Kentucky after the Civil War. I realize I cannot accept everything I find on Ancestry.com at face value. I, too, have found mistakes. How could I do my own work to find out what is true?
 
I know for a fact that my great grandfather's side came to Texas from Kentucky after the Civil War. I realize I cannot accept everything I find on Ancestry.com at face value. I, too, have found mistakes. How could I do my own work to find out what is true?
I think one of the first things you should do is find out what county in KY your ancestors came from and the time period they lived in KY. Once you know that you can look them up in the census to verify they were there. In some of the soldier and sailor data bases, you can enter the name of your ancestor to see if there's a match. Once you know the unit he served in, you can then investigate if the is a unit history and what counties they were recruited from to verify if he lived in one of those counties. Hopefully he had an unusual name, it'll be easier to verify if you have the right person. If he did serve, did he apply for a pension? Pension records are available from the government and that may give you a lot of details. If he applied for a pension, a couple of people he served with had to verify they served with him which will give you more details.
Or you could work all of this from the rear end forward. From the information you found on ancestory.com, was his unit given? If so, then when he signed up there would be a record of his age, height, weight, eye color, occupation, etc., and the town he lived in when he signed up for service.
This is just a few things you could do. Searching for your ancestors is like detective work, and sometime when you hit a stone wall, you have to think outside the box. Since so many people lived in KY for a period of time before they moved to points west, most of the counties in KY have very good genealogy departments available on line.

Good luck in your efforts.
 
He and his wife later moved to Texas where they raised a family and lived for the rest of their lives.
What county in Texas did they move to and live in?
 
The guy in the 15th KY Inf. (USA) died on 23 Nov 1900. If that doesn't match what you know about him, then FWIW, there was also a John L. E. Foster in Co. G, 4th Kentucky Mounted Infantry (CSA). He was born circa 1842, mustered in 14 Sep 1861, discharged sometime after October, 1863.

The record on Ancestry.com may be correct but if it was recorded by another researcher, then you should approach it with a lot of suspicion without further corroboration. The standards of researchers vary widely and some will assume that he's the correct guy simply because the name matches.
 
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Hello Karen I became aware that most of my relatives were not only Unionists from the start but violently resisted the Confederacy here in Louisiana as time went by. Unlike you this revelation appeared to me as a juvenile and with my tender emotional dispositions it was quite a shock. It did compel me into a long investigation into all matters involving the Slaveholder Insurrection of 1861. Don't be unsurprise if some of those relatives of yours while enrolled in the Confederate Army would become deserters at some point.
 
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