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I have just finished up a small genealogy organizing project. This client had information that three individuals had gathered over more than 100 years! I used the charts, certificates, letters, and notes to create a large family tree with appropriate genealogical documentation.
P.A.T. D-ring binder with slipcase, sections are divided by P.A.T. and , photos are mounted on acid- and lignin-free paper.
What an event! Rootstech 2022 was an amazing couple of days. There were some technical issues for the first part, but they seemed to work out after a bit.
I very excited to hear about the coordinated efforts between Family Search and Ancestry using artificial intelligence to index the 1950 US Census that will be released to the public on April 1st. Volunteers will be able to request locations and/or surnames to verify once the index has been created. It is only a week away.
It is going to be like I got another feather in my cap, having worked on the 1930 US Census at the National Archives prior to its public release and having worked as an enumerator for the 2020 US Census.
I think that far too often we are distracted when we are working on most things in our lives that we don’t fully focus on what we should be. While bikepacking with my family this summer, I came across this sign, 4 days later when we were passing this same town on our way home there was a similar sign. It was obviously not a road, but is part of the I&M Canal Path. It appears as if too often people are paying too much attention to their GPS and not the road. (Note the single track down the middle and the narrow passage next to the utility pole.)
I&M Canal Path near Illini State Park
When I am doing research or look at what others have put together, I always verify the information that they give me, as too often people are careless or do not fully vet the information that they are gathering. Are we making assumptions about those we come across? Are we finding someone with a similar name in a document and assuming it is the person we are looking for?
For a project my senior year in high school, I did a family history project on the David Newton Dague family. I assumed that the child, Shirle was female. Shirle was born in 1881 and died in 1897, so did not appear in any available U.S. Census record. Besides family records, I had some pages from Carrie M. Dague’s The history and genealogy of the Dague family and on page 168 she has the spelling of the name as Shirley. I think it was a novices mistake that my 17-year old self made to assume that a Shirle/Shirley was female and not having seen the movie Airplane. If I had been careful I would have also realized that on the same page, she lists my great-aunt Joann as John. Thankfully, it was not a generational connection, so did not send me branching off into someone else’s tree.
It wasn’t until 2014 when I was researching this line some more, that I came upon a newspaper article indicating that the son of David Dague had passed away that I corrected my mistake.
It is not unknown that there are great inequalities among the genders in family history research. It is much more difficult to find information on women who often could not own property and were excluded from voting registers and many census records. Even in the recent past, a woman might be listed in a document only as “Mrs. Robert Smith”, but not under her own name. I am in reference to records in the United States, in other cultures women might not be listed on records at all, or might only be listed as “first daughter.”
However, even with that disparity between the genders, there is an even greater disparity between the races. Black Americans were excluded from many local, state, and national records for centuries in this country and the early founding. Even after emancipation, institutional racism and intimidation prevented many from being listed in voting registers, owning real property, and being listed in local and region histories.
Sample birth register within the Caribbean- Civil Registration, 1859-1978
Currently, the Caribbean- Civil Registration, 1859-1978 has only 3% of the records indexed to make them searchable. This is a wonderful opportunity to help to make what few records we have available to be accessible to all. It is listed as an intermediate level of difficulty; however, in the records that I have completed I have not found it to be that level. So log onto your free Family Search account and get indexing.
Family History is not just about researching your ancestors and finding information on them, it is also writing your own history for those who come after you. What a great thing you can do for them, not to mention the mental health benefits you can reap, by writing your experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Join me for a live webinar April 30th at 7PM CT to discuss writing ideas, journaling prompts and more. Contact me at research@finderskeepers.family for meeting login information.
How are your hands?
Are yours in as bad of condition as mine with all of the handwashing?
What events were celebrated at home?
April Fool’s Day is a big event at house. We had to get a bit more creative since we couldn’t run to the store for supplies.
Be skeptical of the accuracy of materials posted on-line as they have not been vetted for accuracy.
A free “one family tree” website hosted by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In a one tree format all individuals are connected within the family tree, it is open source such that anyone can make edits. All images have a delay in their posting as they are reviewed by a human prior to going live and have to meet decency standards, which exclude explicit materials, and also hate speech, like images related to Nazi’s or the SS.
Uploaded image on FamilySearch.org for Lewis Brunson and Catherine Keaton Carling
While the image could look better, all images list who uploaded them and you can contact the contributor via e-mail or through the messaging on the website.
Another on-line family history website with individual trees. There is a fee to join, but it can be accessed at many public libraries and at Family History Centers
All US Passports Applications after 1914 have a photograph included with them. Passports would be issued to a whole family group rather than just an individual, if more than one person was traveling. As a result the photographs could be of more than one person. They are not the standardized passport photos of today and could be a portrait or a family snapshot. A database can be accessed here: United States Passport Applications, 1795-1925 on Ancestry or at My Heritage.
Carl Ludwig Ferdinand Stelter’s photo from passport application dated 9 May 1922
Local, military, and published family histories can be a source of photographic materials. It was common in the mid-19th century and early 20th-century for communities, often at the county level, to have local histories written about the history of the local area and feature short biographies of prominent people in the area and those willing to pay a fee to have themselves featured in the publication. Local histories can be found at genealogical libraries, local Family History Centers, Google Books, and Internet Archive.
Image of the Stock Farm of John H Miller found in History of Miami Country, Indiana: a narrative account of its historical progress, its people and its principal interests by Arthur L Bodurtha accessed on archive.org
There were two histories written of the 99th Indiana Infantry in the Union Army, the first in 1865 and the second in 1900. Jacob E Marsh was a sergeant in Company D, his photograph and a brief sketch of his life are included in the second publication.
SGT Jacob E Marsh of the 99th Indiana Infantry. Image from New History of the 99th Indiana Infantry: containing official reports, anecdotes, incidents, biographies and complete rolls by Daniel R Lucas; accessed from archive.org
Mabel Dague with two new teachers at Classen High School, photo by Ronald Pyer, 26 August 1952, published in the Daily Oklahoman 28 August 1952 from the Oklahoma Historical Society
There are many local historical societies in the US. Many counties have historical societies whose missions are to preserve the history of the local area and the families that have lived within its borders. Many religious groups, fraternal organizations, and immigrant ethnic groups maintain histories of the people within their groups.
I will be hosting an online course LIVE on Wednesday, March 25th at 7PM CT, on finding photographic materials in your family history research. I will be discussing finding not just photographs of ancestors, but other materials such as images of churches and military units.
Please e-mail me at research@finderskeepers.family and I will send you an invite to the call.
**UPDATE** I am trying out a new platform and thought that I would need to send an invite to each person attending. That is not the case. You can call in or join via Google Hangouts Meet. I will have slides, so being able to see my screen would be useful.
Join Hangouts Meet
meet.google.com/ect-obin-rmv
Join by phone
+1 419-684-2016 PIN: 719 658 110#
Mabel Dague with two new teachers at Classen High School, photo by Ronald Pyer, 26 August 1952, published in the Daily Oklahoman 28 August 1952 from the Oklahoma Historical Society
Life has certainly changed over the past couple of weeks. There are typically a couple of ways in which to get a copy of a civil war pension file.
Electronically request one from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). According to NARA’s website, this is currently the only way to request records. The current cost is $80 for the first 100 pages of the record. If there are more than 100 pages, you will be notified regarding the cost for the remaining pages. I have had a response since they have been closed about a records request that I had put in.
When things are working as usual, you can also request the records in person at the NARA location in Washington, DC and view them for free in the records room. There is a minimal charge for making copies. As with any archive, check with the staff regarding how copies can be made.
If you are not in the area and have a large number to request, it can be cost effective to hire a professional genealogist to review and copy the records for you. The Association of Professional Genealogists has a directory of individuals by location.
I was fortunate to work at a large scale research project at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in Washington, DC and the National Records Center in Suitland, Maryland for 18 months in which I daily handled Civil War Pension Files and Medical Records and Military Service Records. It was a treasure trove of information on the soldiers and their families.
United States Civil War and Later Pensions is an enormous record group at NARA and the National Records Center. Pensions began to be issued to disabled veterans in 1862 with laws making major changes to the qualifications being made in 1872, 1890, and 1906. According to the Social Security Administration, by 1910, 90% of living Union veterans were receiving a pension.
There are indexes to Union Pension Records with nearly 2.5 million Index Cards. There are several ways to search the index files; Family Search has United States Civil War and Later Pension Index, 1861-1917 and United States General Index to Pension Files, 1861-1934; Ancestry’s Index is the same as the latter from Family Search ; and Fold3 has Organization Index to Pension Files of Veterans Who Served Between 1861 and 1900. I recommend that you look at all three.
Each of the databases yielded a different card on the same person, which will give you the necessary information in order to request their full pension records; however, they also give important information regarding the veteran and their families. We find out not only the service information for David N. Dague within the index cards, we find his wife’s name- Matilda J., the mailing address in Perry, Oklahoma (if the name sounds familiar watch Far and Away with Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman), the monthly pension amount- $15-50, and David’s date and place of death.
From United States Civil War and Later Pension Index, 1861-1917
From United States General Index to Pension Files, 1861-1934
From Fold3’s Organization Index to Pension Files of Veterans Who Served Between 1861 and 1900, Indiana, Infantry, Regiment 155, Company A
If you do not have subscriptions to Ancestry.com or Fold3, you can access them at Family History Centers or your local library. Many community libraries have the databases available at the library or remotely with your library card number. Family Search can be accessed through any computer; however, you will have to create a free account.
Next: Requesting Civil War Pension Files
Christina Kassabian Schaefer has created a wonderful resource for finding information on women in family history research in her book, The Hidden Half of the Family: A Sourcebook for Women’s Genealogy. While the book was originally published in 1999 the book remains relevant to current research in family history.
Find a copy using Worldcat.org
She begins by going through various resources in the United States that are relevant to researching women. Then she describes laws that affected women over the past 1500 years and how those laws affected the everyday lives of women and the records that contain information on women. She then describes each states’ history, the location of records, laws affecting women, and a reference list.
While so many records have been digitized, the information that is contained in this book gives detailed information on how to access the information. Conveniently, she gives NARA record groups and FHC film #s of various records which greatly reduces the amount of time needed to access those records. Family Search’s film library can be accessed by film number on their website.
If you want a copy for yourself, it is available as an ebook, new, and used from online retailers.
