Maybe, just maybe a Rose isn’t a Rose

Maybe, just maybe a Rose isn’t a Rose. She might be a Rosario. William could be Bill or Bud or Buddy or Wm. John could be Jno, Jonathan, Joh…. Thomas – well that’s Tom or is it? I’ve seen Tho, Thos. Well, you get the picture.

When searching for your ancestors sometimes even knowing their names does not seem to help! It depends on who recorded the records. I found a website (and I’m sure there are others) that has a list of alternates for names. http://www.censustrail.com/ctrail/abbreviations.php

http://amberskyline.com/treasuremaps/x-prop.html also shows how some of these names appear in script in the records.

Finding your female ancestors can be even more difficult. Many women of Catholic European heritage were named Mary something and spent their whole lives being known by their middle names. The only records that would have their Christian names are the birth, marriage, or death records – just the ones you are looking for!

Another problem I’ve found with searching for women in newspapers is the more formal naming patterns. Many of my ancestors’ newspaper records show the women as nothing other than Mrs. Jones or Mrs. Parker or, if I’m really lucky, Mrs. James Parker.

Don’t forget that some of your immigrant ancestors may still use the “foreign” given name they were born with. Lewis could be in the very record you are looking at but he’s listed as Ludwig. Rootsweb has a great chart for researching foreign names across multiple countries and shows the name in different languages: http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~scoconee/names.html

The results are shown as .pdf files and you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader (or similar software) in order to read the results.

Don’t give up!

Happy Hunting!

Genealogy Research on Sale Today

Genealogy is on sale.

Family Tree Magazine 10 year archive on DVD is down to $50

http://www.shopfamilytree.com/product/10-years-family-tree-magazine-dvd/?r=ftemail011812&et_mid=534429&rid=2684660

the online Irish genealogy course is only $15 http://www.shopfamilytree.com/product/irish-genealogy-online-w8729/?r=ftemail011812&et_mid=534429&rid=2684660

and even more is on sale today http://www.shopfamilytree.com/category/special-sale/?r=50%sale_halfsky&icid=50%_halfsky

How about fold3.com for $49.95 instead of $79.95 until the end of the month!

Celebrate Fold3's 5th Anniversary with a
Special Limited-Time Offer.

Join Fold3 today and Save $30

I did not want you to miss these great opportunities. Don’t forget that GenealogyBank.com provides a full 30 day trial.

Happy Hunting!

Brickwall Resolutions

It’s a New Year and time to look at genealogy resolutions. Every year I go through what I’d like to accomplish with my family history research and then, when I review it in December – well, you know. What I’m going to do this year is be more realistic. Instead of saying “I’m going to solve some brick walls.” I will focus on one family.

I’ll take a look at the Beach family in New York City in the mid 1800’s. I’ll identify the siblings of my brick wall – Charles E Beach 1830-1889. I’ll find all the Federal and State Census records for his lifespan. I’ll record his address and look at historical maps (search www.Mocavo.com for historical maps) for churches in the area that may have records. Some school records are also available.

The Mocavo.com search produced an unexpected treasure trove of online historical maps from a special collection at the University of Texas – Austin library. When I tried the search from the library’s website I was stumped but Mocavo drilled right through the system and brought me to this page with lots of information.

Some of the maps online from Texas University Library

I’ll look at his occupation since many occupations are handed down from generation to generation. City directories list occupations, also. I use www.Cyndislist.com  to help find websites with these after I check www.ancestry.com.  I’ll look at his children’s records, also, since many of these records may mention family. Www.Ancesty.com  has yearbooks online, too. I’ll search newspaper records for the area he lived and the area his siblings lived using www.genealogybank.com. I was surprised to see that visits from relatives were newsworthy in Fulton County New York’s papers www.fultonhistory.com.

I’ll see if I can figure out which Charles E. Beach was a Civil War Veteran and which one was a deserter using www.itd.nps.gov/cwss/ or www.fold3.com . I’ll find obituaries for the siblings and children; maybe one of them mentions a hometown.

I’ll refer to the state guides from Family Tree Magazine www.familytreemagazine.com either from each magazine, the CD for state research, or the 10 year annual magazine collection. Good state resource lists are available in other books and publications, too: www.rootsweb.ancestry.com, www.researchguides.net/census/state.htm , and The Red Book (included on some of the Family Tree Maker resource CD’s.) I won’t neglect county records and historical societies in my research.

Some of the state projects at Rootsweb

So, I wish each of you success in breaking through at least one brickwall this year. Break the project down in to manageable pieces and fill in the blanks as you go. Don’t spend all you time on one project but do allocate some time for a specific piece of the project.

There are many other brickwall techniques and step-by-step guides and I’ll provide more here as we go along.

Happy Hunting!

2012 is a Great Year for Genealogy - 1940 Census

Oh, goody 2012 is going to be a great year for genealogy!

First the 1940 census will be released on April 2, 2012. YEAH! For all of us trying to put places together with our recent ancestors this is a great event. Please be aware, though, that indexing will not be completed for quite a while. This is not a small project by any means.

If you go to Google and search for “1940 census release date” this is just a few of the results:

 Extract of Google Results for "1940 census release date"

You will note that some of the normal subscription sites will be allowing access to the 1940 census for free. This is probably because it won’t be indexed. I noticed that Ancestry is permitting free access through the end of 2013 and can’t help but wonder if this is also the target date for indexing. Indexing is vital if you want to be able to type in search information like your ancestor’s surname, given name, or other vital information. Without indexing we will only be able to browse through the data. So, between now and April 2, 2012 I have some things on our “to-do” lists.

1.  Locate the people or holes in your research for 1940.

2.  Figure out what area they might have lived in.

3.  Figure out who they might have lived with.

4.  Use currently available documents to help establish residency.

a.  City Directories

b.  Year-Books

c.   Newspaper Articles

d.  Shared family trees

5.  Determine their census enumeration districts so you will be ready! I recommend the tools at: http://stevemorse.org/census/ed2040.php

6.  Sign up with one of the free sites to help index!

https://familysearch.org/volunteer/indexing

Family Search is constantly soliciting for people who would like to index records as are many lineage societies. Get a head start and index records now for other projects because when the 1940 census is released many of these other worthwhile projects will languish until the 1940 records are done.

The 1940 census asked LOTS of questions! The whole list is available at: http://www.1940census.net/1940_census_questions.php

The one set of questions that struck me was asking for occupations for anyone over 14. I think asking any current 14 yr. old what his or her occupation is would be shocking. Some of the more helpful questions include (for women only): How many marriages? How many live births? And the very helpful question – What language was spoken in early childhood?

So - be prepared and

as always,

Happy Hunting!

Don't Keep Quiet About Your Research

Tell everyone in your family you are researching your family history: after all, it’s their history, too! Santa brought a very special gift to me this Christmas. My first cousin once removed – my mother’s first cousin, knew I was doing research so …. He took it upon himself to re-visit the cemetery in Pennsylvania where so much of our family was buried. I’m sure I met him a long time ago but do not remember where or when but he remembered that I was doing research. He had visited the cemetery previously but the office was closed, the gravestones and property were in deplorable condition and we gave up ever finding more information on any of our relatives there.

Well, surprise! The former cemetery owners repurchased the property, re-opened the office, weeded and mowed, and righted the stones! Bill spent quite a bit of time getting all the plot records and even sketched out the plots. Then, the biggest thing – he sent the information to me. I now have 13 burial cards from Montrose Cemetery that I never had before and lost hope of ever seeing.

So – Merry Christmas to me!

I write this to let you know that you, too, may have a relative who still lives in the area of your mutual ancestors and might be willing to do a little leg work for you, too.

The other “take away” is that cemeteries change hands and what might have once been a lost cause can suddenly be a treasure trove of information. So don’t write off any avenue of research forever. It would be wonderful if the same thing would happen in Cobb Creek Cemetery in Philadelphia but I’m not hopeful. Just the same – I’ll keep checking.

Happy New Year and Happy Hunting!

(Regular weekly blogs will now resume.)

Holiday gift giving

Sorry for the posting delay but we were out of town visiting the kids! Arizona was gorgeous this time of year and we visited some amazing historical sites and walked back in time through an old (circa 1000 A.D. cliff dwelling.) I bet there were some stories there!

I wanted to share some gift giving ideas with you – both for other genealogists and your own family. First, many subscription sites have sales this time of year. Either the annual subscriptions are discounted or the subscription terms are extended. Now that the free access for the Social Security Death Index (SSDI) is gone, if you are feeling particularly generous, how about giving a gift subscription to Ancestry.com? A six month US membership is $12.95 per month. You don’t have to give the whole world or even a whole year.

Worldvitalrecords.com (now a MyHeritage site) offers annual and monthly subscriptions for 89.99. The annual subscription includes free Family Tree Builder software CD. A month’s subscription is 16.25 so you don’t have to break the bank to give a month’s worth of searching before committing to a year. The 3 day trial is just not enough to figure out what databases you will want to use.

Fold3.com (now part of Ancestry.com) is 79.95 per year and includes the ability to upload your own information for sharing with other researchers. Fold3 refers to the third fold of a flag representing the veterans for the service and sacrifice.

Genealogy Bank is 69.95 for a year and has a lovely 30 day trial. This site is great for printed articles and has one of the most current SSDI’s I’ve seen.

Americanancestors.org (the old NEGHS.org) is great for those of us with New England, New York, and increasingly – just American Ancestors. They even have gift certificates!

OK – that’s enough for the websites, now onto what you can give from your own research. How about a family chart? It’s a little late to order the fancy ones but the office stores like FedEx office will print on large paper. We did a 30” by 6’ family tree roll for some relatives one year. The best thing you can do, though, is set the recipient as the “home” person before preparing the chart so the relationships are specific to that individual. I know that Family Tree Maker software accommodates this very well and won’t mess up your work. Just don’t forget to set it back before you start researching again.

You could also print some of the documents you have to make the family history come alive. If you’ve scanned photos into Picasa, then the movie and CD features can make the gift very special.

Have a great holiday season and Happy Hunting!

We will always remember

For those of us in the United States, this is a memorable day. The attack on Pearl Harbor solidified the US’s involvement in World War II. This anniversary reminds me that our veterans and their spouses are getting old. If you have not taken the time to ask them where they were on Pearl Harbor Day – today’s the day. If you were alive for Pearl Harbor Day – it’s time to write down your remembrances.

Don’t forget that many served on the home front in volunteer capacities not just as enlisted personnel. Get the stories from the women! These are the stories we don’t read about. What jobs did the women hold until the men came home? How did this affect their lives and choices.

The Library of Congress has a Veteran’s History Project: http://www.loc.gov/vets/ for recording your stories. There are even forms and interview questions. Don’t wait. We are losing this opportunity. There are also Honor Flights from across the country to Washington, D.C. for veteran’s to visit the WWII memorial. I’ve read about some of the flights not being able to get enough WWII veterans and so they are filling the flights with Korean Conflict veterans. This is not to belittle the Korean Conflict service but to point out how precious the time is for the WWII stories.

If it were not for a stop by our home on his way to a reunion with his unit,  I never would have heard about my Uncle Jim’s two narrow escapes. The harrowing tale of being shot down behind enemy lines and living off raw rabbit meat for a month in a French cave might have died with him.

If I had not hung around my Dad while he was cleaning out desk drawers one day, I would never have seen and read (and since transcribed) his WWII strike journal which detailed each of his Air Corps missions. The patch below and photo were part of his collection. Dad - Clifford Ralston Beach Jr. is the young man on the left.

Enjoy your genealogy research but don’t forget to preserve the stories for future generations.

Happy Hunting!