Many thanks to Jenny Lanctot at Are My Roots Showing? for pointing out a problem with my blog that may have caused people who tried to post comments to get a virus warning from Blogger. I have deleted the problem blog from my blogroll, so I hope that has fixed it.
I am dismayed to see how many blogs and e-mail accounts are getting hacked and hope that I do not have to remove the blogroll altogether. I try to keep the "margin goodies" that Jenny mentioned to a minimum, but still!
So, hoping that someone will be brave and try to post a comment and let me know whether the attempt was successful or not...
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Friday, April 29, 2011
Follow Friday Newsletter: 29 April 2011
This Week in Genea-Blogging
Casting a nervous eye
on the reliability of various types of data storage/backup - James Tanner explains why he is never completely confident about this in “Reliability of the Cloud? Family Search Forums Still Down” at Genealogy’s Star. I love his “questions to self” at the end. Also from James Tanner this week: “Don’t rely on icons and stereotypes in historical research,” inspired by John Philip Colletta’s recent article in Family Tree Magazine.
Take this advice to heart
Paula Stuart-Warren provides some good suggestions for “Getting others involved in your genealogical society” at Paula’s Genealogical Eclectica.
Fun with Google Docs
The Minnesota Family Historian shows us another neat feature of Google Docs - making charts from spreadsheets - in “Fancy Chart How-To: Ethnicity in America.”
This day in history...
For a nice list of websites that do this, check out “Skillbuilder: Placing Your Ancestors Within Their Time” at the Leafseeker.
More neat map stuff
At Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter: “The Easy Way to Add Maps to Your Family History Projects.”
When the records changed
Daniel Hubbard at Personal Past Meditations examines what records were created as a result of the Civil War and Reconstruction, what you can find in Reconstruction-era records, and what unique information those records may provide in “Reconstructing the Post-War World.”
An unusual research aid
is examined by Kathleen Brandt at a3 Genealogy in “African American Research - Pre and Post WWI: The Green Book Travel Guide.”
More on preparing for the 1940 census
Jenny Lanctot at Are My Roots Showing? points us to some useful links and downloadable forms at her Research Toolbox website, Jenny-ology in “Preparing for the Release of the 1940 Federal Census” (there is also a comment from a representative of the Morse One Step website on the fact that there are actually 5 conversion tools on that site).
She did what I still wanna do...
Amy Coffin at We Tree found her 16th great-great-grandparent: “The Search for Number 16, part 1” and “The Search for Number 16, part 2.” Congratulations! I’m still hoping, waiting, thinking, planning, plotting....
Funniest post of the week
“Breaking News: Scientists Pinpoint the Origins of Piles of Genea-Crap” at Kerry Scott’s Clue Wagon. Not that any of us is guilty of any of this in any way....
Glad to see a couple of faves posting again: Consanguinity and Rainy Day Genealogy Readings.
This Week I Started Following These Blogs:
The Leafseeker
Climbing the Family Rosebush
From Helen V. Smith’s Keyboard
Generations Past
Janis’ Genealogy
Murmuring Trees
Who Does She Think She Is?
Heritage Paper Dolls
My Research Week
was not too bad. The main focus were two of my husband’s families, the Fichtelmanns and the Koehls.
This week I also finally set up a website at Weebly. Right now it is still Weebly-sponsored (= free; it may remain so until I see how much I will be using it). Does anyone else out there using Weebly or anything like it have any thoughts on sponsored versus own domain websites? Also, is this particular setup conducive to posting the kind of linked genealogical information in formats such as those provided by The Next Generation in Genealogy Site Building as demonstrated by Valerie Craft of Begin with Craft on her new website, BeginWithCraft.com (which I really like the look of, by the way)? I can generate web cards from my Reunion program, but I’m not sure whether the pages and linking system will be “clunky” or not. (Wow, those sentence certainly reveal my overwhelming ignorance in matters of web design.)
A Few More:
Since I post Follow Friday Newsletter on Thursday evening, I missed later “Great Discussion” posts. Here are a few:
Genealogy Leftovers - “Making Money from Genealogy”
Minnesota Family Historian - “Money Changes Everything - or Does It?”
JLog - “Genealogy, Computers & Money”
We Tree - “Money Changes Everything - Or Does It?”
GeneaBloggers - “Money Changes Everything - Or Does It?”
Genealogy’s Star - “More on money and genealogy? How can that happen?”
Genealogy Frame of Mind - “Yep Its That Free Genealogy Thing AGAIN!”
For more suggested blog reading
check out “Follow Friday: This Week’s Favs” at Jen’s Climbing My Family Tree, “Best of the Genea-Blogs” at Randy Seaver’s Genea-Musings, “Follow Friday: Around the Blogosphere” at Susan Petersen’s Long Lost Relatives.net, “Best Bytes for the Week” at Elizabeth O’Neal’s Little Bytes of Life, and “Monday Morning Mentions” at Lynn Palermo’s The Armchair Genealogist.
Casting a nervous eye
on the reliability of various types of data storage/backup - James Tanner explains why he is never completely confident about this in “Reliability of the Cloud? Family Search Forums Still Down” at Genealogy’s Star. I love his “questions to self” at the end. Also from James Tanner this week: “Don’t rely on icons and stereotypes in historical research,” inspired by John Philip Colletta’s recent article in Family Tree Magazine.
Take this advice to heart
Paula Stuart-Warren provides some good suggestions for “Getting others involved in your genealogical society” at Paula’s Genealogical Eclectica.
Fun with Google Docs
The Minnesota Family Historian shows us another neat feature of Google Docs - making charts from spreadsheets - in “Fancy Chart How-To: Ethnicity in America.”
This day in history...
For a nice list of websites that do this, check out “Skillbuilder: Placing Your Ancestors Within Their Time” at the Leafseeker.
More neat map stuff
At Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter: “The Easy Way to Add Maps to Your Family History Projects.”
When the records changed
Daniel Hubbard at Personal Past Meditations examines what records were created as a result of the Civil War and Reconstruction, what you can find in Reconstruction-era records, and what unique information those records may provide in “Reconstructing the Post-War World.”
An unusual research aid
is examined by Kathleen Brandt at a3 Genealogy in “African American Research - Pre and Post WWI: The Green Book Travel Guide.”
More on preparing for the 1940 census
Jenny Lanctot at Are My Roots Showing? points us to some useful links and downloadable forms at her Research Toolbox website, Jenny-ology in “Preparing for the Release of the 1940 Federal Census” (there is also a comment from a representative of the Morse One Step website on the fact that there are actually 5 conversion tools on that site).
She did what I still wanna do...
Amy Coffin at We Tree found her 16th great-great-grandparent: “The Search for Number 16, part 1” and “The Search for Number 16, part 2.” Congratulations! I’m still hoping, waiting, thinking, planning, plotting....
Funniest post of the week
“Breaking News: Scientists Pinpoint the Origins of Piles of Genea-Crap” at Kerry Scott’s Clue Wagon. Not that any of us is guilty of any of this in any way....
Glad to see a couple of faves posting again: Consanguinity and Rainy Day Genealogy Readings.
This Week I Started Following These Blogs:
The Leafseeker
Climbing the Family Rosebush
From Helen V. Smith’s Keyboard
Generations Past
Janis’ Genealogy
Murmuring Trees
Who Does She Think She Is?
Heritage Paper Dolls
My Research Week
was not too bad. The main focus were two of my husband’s families, the Fichtelmanns and the Koehls.
This week I also finally set up a website at Weebly. Right now it is still Weebly-sponsored (= free; it may remain so until I see how much I will be using it). Does anyone else out there using Weebly or anything like it have any thoughts on sponsored versus own domain websites? Also, is this particular setup conducive to posting the kind of linked genealogical information in formats such as those provided by The Next Generation in Genealogy Site Building as demonstrated by Valerie Craft of Begin with Craft on her new website, BeginWithCraft.com (which I really like the look of, by the way)? I can generate web cards from my Reunion program, but I’m not sure whether the pages and linking system will be “clunky” or not. (Wow, those sentence certainly reveal my overwhelming ignorance in matters of web design.)
A Few More:
Since I post Follow Friday Newsletter on Thursday evening, I missed later “Great Discussion” posts. Here are a few:
Genealogy Leftovers - “Making Money from Genealogy”
Minnesota Family Historian - “Money Changes Everything - or Does It?”
JLog - “Genealogy, Computers & Money”
We Tree - “Money Changes Everything - Or Does It?”
GeneaBloggers - “Money Changes Everything - Or Does It?”
Genealogy’s Star - “More on money and genealogy? How can that happen?”
Genealogy Frame of Mind - “Yep Its That Free Genealogy Thing AGAIN!”
For more suggested blog reading
check out “Follow Friday: This Week’s Favs” at Jen’s Climbing My Family Tree, “Best of the Genea-Blogs” at Randy Seaver’s Genea-Musings, “Follow Friday: Around the Blogosphere” at Susan Petersen’s Long Lost Relatives.net, “Best Bytes for the Week” at Elizabeth O’Neal’s Little Bytes of Life, and “Monday Morning Mentions” at Lynn Palermo’s The Armchair Genealogist.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
What I Learned Wednesday: 27 April 2011
This week I am learning more about research in New York. I received a couple of scans of Fichtelmann family death certificates from another Fichtelmann researcher, and I took that as a sign that I need to get on the ball with getting documentation for some of my husband’s families. I e-mailed Evergreen Cemetery in Brooklyn for burial information on Katharina Scherer Fichtelmann but have not received a reply, yet. I also mailed out request forms for death certificates for Julius Koehl and Josephine Lochner Koehl. My next task is to get in touch with Green-Wood Cemetery to find out how to get burial information for all the family members listed in the Koehl family plot.
Most of this involves straightforward research procedures, but it is still a bit of a change of pace from researching my own family, most of whom lived in the southern states. Initially, my main goal in researching my husband’s family was not very ambitious: I wanted to at least document each line back to the original immigrant - and since the earliest immigrants seem to have come over around 1850, with the majority arriving between 1890 and 1910, that’s not terribly far back to go. I also hoped to get some clue as to where in Italy/Germany/Romania the various families originated, but I knew that I could not count on this.
Surprisingly, thanks to my fellow Fichtelmann researchers Mary Lou Benjamin and J. E. Felbinger and to my in-laws’ fortuitous discovery of my husband’s grandmother’s birth certificate (which led to my discovery of the ship manifest giving her home town in Italy), I now have at least two new points of origin in Europe; a third location, Moinesti, Romania for the Greenbergs, is already known.
However, I am still interested in documenting the families here in the United States. For instance, it is intriguing that my husband’s great-grandmother and her sister were going to meet a Vincenzo D’Arco in New Jersey; his great-grandmother married a Nicholas D’Arco, so this may be a brother.
In the coming weeks I am hoping to build up a decent section in my Genealogy Toolbox for New York and New Jersey research.
Most of this involves straightforward research procedures, but it is still a bit of a change of pace from researching my own family, most of whom lived in the southern states. Initially, my main goal in researching my husband’s family was not very ambitious: I wanted to at least document each line back to the original immigrant - and since the earliest immigrants seem to have come over around 1850, with the majority arriving between 1890 and 1910, that’s not terribly far back to go. I also hoped to get some clue as to where in Italy/Germany/Romania the various families originated, but I knew that I could not count on this.
Surprisingly, thanks to my fellow Fichtelmann researchers Mary Lou Benjamin and J. E. Felbinger and to my in-laws’ fortuitous discovery of my husband’s grandmother’s birth certificate (which led to my discovery of the ship manifest giving her home town in Italy), I now have at least two new points of origin in Europe; a third location, Moinesti, Romania for the Greenbergs, is already known.
However, I am still interested in documenting the families here in the United States. For instance, it is intriguing that my husband’s great-grandmother and her sister were going to meet a Vincenzo D’Arco in New Jersey; his great-grandmother married a Nicholas D’Arco, so this may be a brother.
In the coming weeks I am hoping to build up a decent section in my Genealogy Toolbox for New York and New Jersey research.
Monday, April 25, 2011
Pet Post Roundup
The theme for Week 17 of Amy Coffin’s “52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy and History,” sponsored by GeneaBloggers, is: Pets. Did you have any pets as a child? If so, what types and what were their names. Do you have pets now? Describe them as well. If you did not have pets, you can discuss those of neighbors or other family members.
Well, as a matter of fact, I have posted on this subjects before. Lots of times. Lots and lots of times. So - here is a list of previous posts:
Memory Monday: Pets, Part 1
Memory Monday: Pets, Part 2
The Language of Cats: An Illustrated Glossary (my favorite pet post)
Wordy Wednesday: More from the Language of Cats - An Illustrated Glossary
Featured Feline Friday: R.B. Koehl
Wordless Wednesday: The Language of Cats, Continued
Silly Saturday: New Year’s Eve Nip Party
Wordy Wednesday: Our Office Assistants
Wordless Wednesday: Pipsqueak and a Friend
Memory Monday: We Were the Brady Bunch of Cat Families
Well, as a matter of fact, I have posted on this subjects before. Lots of times. Lots and lots of times. So - here is a list of previous posts:
Memory Monday: Pets, Part 1
Memory Monday: Pets, Part 2
The Language of Cats: An Illustrated Glossary (my favorite pet post)
Wordy Wednesday: More from the Language of Cats - An Illustrated Glossary
Featured Feline Friday: R.B. Koehl
Wordless Wednesday: The Language of Cats, Continued
Silly Saturday: New Year’s Eve Nip Party
Wordy Wednesday: Our Office Assistants
Wordless Wednesday: Pipsqueak and a Friend
Memory Monday: We Were the Brady Bunch of Cat Families
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Friday, April 22, 2011
Follow Friday Newsletter: 22 April 2011
This Week in Genea-Blogging
This one got my dander up ...
Not the post, but the book being reviewed. The Minnesota Family Historian addresses an ignorant slander of genealogists in “Book Review: The Genetic Strand.”
Topic of the week
Joan Miller at Luxegen Genealogy writes about “Genea-Bodies: The New Somebodies.” And now that term is showing up in lots of places! Be sure to read the comments as well. This discusison has generated follow-up conversations all over the place right now; I’ll list as many as I can at the bottom of this post.
If you have not checked out
Nancy’s My Ancestors and Me, you definitely should correct that omission. She does some of the best photo analyses - not necessarily for dating pictures, but for figuring out what is going on in a picture. This week she discusses a “Photograph After a Family Argument?” What do you think?
Bill West gets some of the neatest ideas
This week it was to check out his own birth certificate: “What I Learned from my Birth Certificate” at West in New England.
Another slant on the Civil War
Daniel Hubbard muses on the records left by the Civil War on “Seven Score and Ten” at Personal Past Meditations: A Genealogical Blog.
A useful new blog
is recommended at Family Tree May Contain Nuts (“Why I Oughtta!!!”): My Favorite Hatemail: Where mean comments go to die. I’m sure at least a few of us have received these.
See how the pros do it
in “Going to Salt Lake City” at The You Go Genealogy Girls. A good overview of how to plan, what to take, how to haul it around, and how to pace yourself.
Things come together in unusual ways
In “A Blog, An Obituary, and a Little 1892 Dress,” Barbara Poole at Life from the Roots explains how all these items are related and came together in a serendipitous string of events.
Congratulations!
to Gen Wish List’s Tina Lyons, who was recently elected Vice President of the Indiana Genealogical Society. Check out the story behind the story in “2011 IGS Conference Recap.”
Getting ready for the big event
At Nutfield Genealogy, Heather Rojo gives a “1940 Census Sneak Peak for Genealogists” as reported in a lecture by Jean Rudd at NERGC.
Keeping track of all that stuff
In “The Genealogy Digital Bookshelf,” Taneya Koonce of Taneya’s Genealogy Blog writes about setting up a new site, her Genealogy Digital Bookshelf, to keep track of e-texts she finds on the Internet Archive.
Uhhh ... check this out ...
“John does genealogy!” at Anglo-Celtic Connections.
Please read
“Death Never Gets the Final Word” by Nancy Shively at Family Tree Firsts. She is right. Genealogy is about “telling the stories of people who can no longer tell them themselves.”
General Land Office Stuff You Should Know About
Check out “BLM Website & NARA provide access to General Land Office paperwork” at DearMYRTLE’s Genealogy Blog.
This week I started following these blogs:
Another Day with Donna
Patching My Family Together
Stories from Many Moons Ago
The Researching Archivist
What’s My Lineage? Confessions of a Lineage Group Junkie
Life, Kids and Genealogy
My Favorite Hate Mail: Where mean comments go to die
My Research Week
There was no "What I Learned Wednesday" this week, and you know why? Because spring cleaning and research don't mix very well. This week's target was my home office. The surprising thing is that my genealogy files and materials were actually in pretty good shape. When I could see them. The problem was that many of them were buried beneath piles of non-genealogy junk. Now that all that stuff is cleared away, I'm ready to tackle my research projects and actually get something done.
More on Genea-Bodies, Fun, Profit, Careers in Genealogy, and Much More
GeneaBloggers - "Genealogy Blogging - For Fun or Profit?", "Careers in Genealogy - 'Off the Chart' Thinking," "Genealogy - What Do You Mean It Isn't Free?", and "How Do You Make Money in Genealogy?"
Genea-Musings - “Genealogy - for Fun or Profit?”, “Careers in Genealogy - My Choices Work for Me”, "TANSTAAFGS"
DearMYRTLE’s Genealogy Blog - “Bloggers and speakers and researchers, oh my!”
Clue Wagon - “In Which We (Finally) Discuss Taboo Stuff”
Tricks of the Tree - “Genea-Bodies: A Response to the Comments”
The Armchair Genealogist - “From the Archives: Can I Turn My Love of Genealogy into a Career?” and “My Career in Genealogy or Today I Made $1.28!!”
The We Tree Genealogy Blog - “Genealogy Blogging: For Fun or Profit?”, “Careers in Genealogy: Charting Your Own Course,” “Free Genealogy Isn’t Free,” and “How Do You Make Money in Genealogy?”
Minnesota Family Historian - “Genealogy Blogging - For Fun or Profit?”, “Careers in Genealogy,” and “What Do You Mean It Isn’t Free”
Amanda’s Athenaeum - “Genealogy Blogging - For Fun or Profit?: My Take” and “How Do I Make Money in Genealogy?”
Bayside Blog - “Diving in Thumbs First: My Take on the Paid Genealogy Debate”
Dr. Bill Tells Ancestor Stories - “Genea-opportunities - we each choose what is right for us”
Family History Research - “Joining the ‘Us vs Them’ Discussion”
Ian Hadden’s Family History - “The Pro Versus Hobbyist Genealogist Debate”
You Are Where You Came From - “Genealogy and Profit: A Hobbyist’s Perspective”
The Family History Researcher - “Charging for Genealogy Services Is Not Bad”
Genealogy Frame of Mind - “Let’s Keep All Genealogy Free...”
Genealogy’s Star - “Money, Money, Money and Genealogy”
The Ancestral Archaeologist - “Freebies of Choice”
I am sure I have missed quite a few posts and for that I apologize; there are also a number of discussions on Facebook.
For more suggested blog reading,
check out “Best Bytes for the Week” at Elizabeth O’Neal’s Little Bytes of Life, “Best of the Genea-Blogs” at Randy Seaver’s Genea-Musings, “Follow Friday: Around the Blogosphere” at Susan Petersen’s Long Lost Relatives.net, “Follow Friday: This Week’s Faves” at Jen’s Climbing My Family Tree, and “Monday Morning Mentions” at Lynn Palermo’s The Armchair Genealogist.
This one got my dander up ...
Not the post, but the book being reviewed. The Minnesota Family Historian addresses an ignorant slander of genealogists in “Book Review: The Genetic Strand.”
Topic of the week
Joan Miller at Luxegen Genealogy writes about “Genea-Bodies: The New Somebodies.” And now that term is showing up in lots of places! Be sure to read the comments as well. This discusison has generated follow-up conversations all over the place right now; I’ll list as many as I can at the bottom of this post.
If you have not checked out
Nancy’s My Ancestors and Me, you definitely should correct that omission. She does some of the best photo analyses - not necessarily for dating pictures, but for figuring out what is going on in a picture. This week she discusses a “Photograph After a Family Argument?” What do you think?
Bill West gets some of the neatest ideas
This week it was to check out his own birth certificate: “What I Learned from my Birth Certificate” at West in New England.
Another slant on the Civil War
Daniel Hubbard muses on the records left by the Civil War on “Seven Score and Ten” at Personal Past Meditations: A Genealogical Blog.
A useful new blog
is recommended at Family Tree May Contain Nuts (“Why I Oughtta!!!”): My Favorite Hatemail: Where mean comments go to die. I’m sure at least a few of us have received these.
See how the pros do it
in “Going to Salt Lake City” at The You Go Genealogy Girls. A good overview of how to plan, what to take, how to haul it around, and how to pace yourself.
Things come together in unusual ways
In “A Blog, An Obituary, and a Little 1892 Dress,” Barbara Poole at Life from the Roots explains how all these items are related and came together in a serendipitous string of events.
Congratulations!
to Gen Wish List’s Tina Lyons, who was recently elected Vice President of the Indiana Genealogical Society. Check out the story behind the story in “2011 IGS Conference Recap.”
Getting ready for the big event
At Nutfield Genealogy, Heather Rojo gives a “1940 Census Sneak Peak for Genealogists” as reported in a lecture by Jean Rudd at NERGC.
Keeping track of all that stuff
In “The Genealogy Digital Bookshelf,” Taneya Koonce of Taneya’s Genealogy Blog writes about setting up a new site, her Genealogy Digital Bookshelf, to keep track of e-texts she finds on the Internet Archive.
Uhhh ... check this out ...
“John does genealogy!” at Anglo-Celtic Connections.
Please read
“Death Never Gets the Final Word” by Nancy Shively at Family Tree Firsts. She is right. Genealogy is about “telling the stories of people who can no longer tell them themselves.”
General Land Office Stuff You Should Know About
Check out “BLM Website & NARA provide access to General Land Office paperwork” at DearMYRTLE’s Genealogy Blog.
This week I started following these blogs:
Another Day with Donna
Patching My Family Together
Stories from Many Moons Ago
The Researching Archivist
What’s My Lineage? Confessions of a Lineage Group Junkie
Life, Kids and Genealogy
My Favorite Hate Mail: Where mean comments go to die
My Research Week
There was no "What I Learned Wednesday" this week, and you know why? Because spring cleaning and research don't mix very well. This week's target was my home office. The surprising thing is that my genealogy files and materials were actually in pretty good shape. When I could see them. The problem was that many of them were buried beneath piles of non-genealogy junk. Now that all that stuff is cleared away, I'm ready to tackle my research projects and actually get something done.
More on Genea-Bodies, Fun, Profit, Careers in Genealogy, and Much More
GeneaBloggers - "Genealogy Blogging - For Fun or Profit?", "Careers in Genealogy - 'Off the Chart' Thinking," "Genealogy - What Do You Mean It Isn't Free?", and "How Do You Make Money in Genealogy?"
Genea-Musings - “Genealogy - for Fun or Profit?”, “Careers in Genealogy - My Choices Work for Me”, "TANSTAAFGS"
DearMYRTLE’s Genealogy Blog - “Bloggers and speakers and researchers, oh my!”
Clue Wagon - “In Which We (Finally) Discuss Taboo Stuff”
Tricks of the Tree - “Genea-Bodies: A Response to the Comments”
The Armchair Genealogist - “From the Archives: Can I Turn My Love of Genealogy into a Career?” and “My Career in Genealogy or Today I Made $1.28!!”
The We Tree Genealogy Blog - “Genealogy Blogging: For Fun or Profit?”, “Careers in Genealogy: Charting Your Own Course,” “Free Genealogy Isn’t Free,” and “How Do You Make Money in Genealogy?”
Minnesota Family Historian - “Genealogy Blogging - For Fun or Profit?”, “Careers in Genealogy,” and “What Do You Mean It Isn’t Free”
Amanda’s Athenaeum - “Genealogy Blogging - For Fun or Profit?: My Take” and “How Do I Make Money in Genealogy?”
Bayside Blog - “Diving in Thumbs First: My Take on the Paid Genealogy Debate”
Dr. Bill Tells Ancestor Stories - “Genea-opportunities - we each choose what is right for us”
Family History Research - “Joining the ‘Us vs Them’ Discussion”
Ian Hadden’s Family History - “The Pro Versus Hobbyist Genealogist Debate”
You Are Where You Came From - “Genealogy and Profit: A Hobbyist’s Perspective”
The Family History Researcher - “Charging for Genealogy Services Is Not Bad”
Genealogy Frame of Mind - “Let’s Keep All Genealogy Free...”
Genealogy’s Star - “Money, Money, Money and Genealogy”
The Ancestral Archaeologist - “Freebies of Choice”
I am sure I have missed quite a few posts and for that I apologize; there are also a number of discussions on Facebook.
For more suggested blog reading,
check out “Best Bytes for the Week” at Elizabeth O’Neal’s Little Bytes of Life, “Best of the Genea-Blogs” at Randy Seaver’s Genea-Musings, “Follow Friday: Around the Blogosphere” at Susan Petersen’s Long Lost Relatives.net, “Follow Friday: This Week’s Faves” at Jen’s Climbing My Family Tree, and “Monday Morning Mentions” at Lynn Palermo’s The Armchair Genealogist.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Memory Monday: We Were the Brady Bunch of Cat Families
Here’s the story ... of a crazy lady ... who was bringing up two naughty little cats.
Both of them were ... spoiled rotten ... they were on their way to being feline brats.
It’s the story ... of a kindly fellow ... who was raising two furry felines on his own.
They were living ... like wild animals ... to spoil them he was prone.
Then the day came when the lady and the fellow ... met and knew that it was going to be their fate -
That this group must somehow get together ... and they sat down to appoint the fateful date.
The Crazy Bunch, the Crazy Bunch, that's the way we became the Crazy Bunch.
(OK, so that’s only 2+2, not 3+3, and the “revised” lyrics don’t scan so well - neither do the original lyrics. But the story is much the same.)
(A college friend’s family found Fred, along with his mother and siblings, in their back yard when the cats were abandoned there. We ran around catching all of the kittens, and I ended up taking Fred. He was with me in my dorm rooms and apartment throughout graduate school.
Near the end of my time in Cambridge, Rabbit was given to me by friends who found they were no longer able to take care of her. She and Fred hissed at each other at first, but then became best buddies.)
(Stu took Eleanor with him when he moved out of his college dorm room. His roommate had brought her into the room, but never took care of her and seemed to have forgotten her when it was time to move out. Cinder was given to Stu by a friend who was no longer able to take care of her. Cinder and Eleanor hissed at each other at first, but then became best buddies.)
(When I decided to quit graduate school and get a job in Northern Virginia, Stu and I planned to get married and rent a house in the area. Simple enough for two people with few possessions, but ... there were the cats.
The move from Cambridge to Northern Virginia was interesting. Stu and friend Dave drove a moving truck which had brake issues, and the cats and I rode with friend Steve in his car. To keep the cats calm, I purchased a sedative from the veterinarian and administered it to the cats right before we left.
Perhaps it would have been better just to deal with two frightened cats. During the entire trip (a long one) they howled and yowled drunkenly: “Aaa-wooooo!” “Yow-rooooo!”
Moving into the house with the cats was no better. For weeks and weeks the cats hissed and spat, chased one another, jumping up on tables, scattering and breaking dishes, and hiding under furniture when they ended up on the losing side. At best they tried to ignore one another, with Fred and Rabbit hunkered down at one end of the house and Cinder and Eleanor cowering at the other end.)
Both of them were ... spoiled rotten ... they were on their way to being feline brats.
It’s the story ... of a kindly fellow ... who was raising two furry felines on his own.
They were living ... like wild animals ... to spoil them he was prone.
Then the day came when the lady and the fellow ... met and knew that it was going to be their fate -
That this group must somehow get together ... and they sat down to appoint the fateful date.
The Crazy Bunch, the Crazy Bunch, that's the way we became the Crazy Bunch.
(OK, so that’s only 2+2, not 3+3, and the “revised” lyrics don’t scan so well - neither do the original lyrics. But the story is much the same.)
Episode 1 - In Which We Meet the Brinlee Kids
Fred - the Older Brother - was a charmer and a favorite with all.
He was something of a good-time guy.
Rabbit - the Little Sister - was the responsible one.
They were the perfect pair
... like bookends
... like yin and yang.
(A college friend’s family found Fred, along with his mother and siblings, in their back yard when the cats were abandoned there. We ran around catching all of the kittens, and I ended up taking Fred. He was with me in my dorm rooms and apartment throughout graduate school.
Near the end of my time in Cambridge, Rabbit was given to me by friends who found they were no longer able to take care of her. She and Fred hissed at each other at first, but then became best buddies.)
Episode 2 - In Which We Meet the Koehl Kids
Eleanor - the Older But Shorter Sister - was a bit of a yenta
and was always telling everyone what to do.
This tiny cat could bend any feline or human to her will
- or so she thought.
Cinder - the Baby Sister - seemed to be a bit of an airhead,
but had the sweetest personality.
Her talent was stuffing herself into small spaces.
(Stu took Eleanor with him when he moved out of his college dorm room. His roommate had brought her into the room, but never took care of her and seemed to have forgotten her when it was time to move out. Cinder was given to Stu by a friend who was no longer able to take care of her. Cinder and Eleanor hissed at each other at first, but then became best buddies.)
Episode 3 - “Together Yet Apart”
Cinder decided to jump into a packing box
and hope Dad would take the hint.
Eleanor acted out by reverting to old habits
and rummaging in the garbage for food.
Fred and Rabbit did not know what to do.
They tried to comfort one another.
(When I decided to quit graduate school and get a job in Northern Virginia, Stu and I planned to get married and rent a house in the area. Simple enough for two people with few possessions, but ... there were the cats.
The move from Cambridge to Northern Virginia was interesting. Stu and friend Dave drove a moving truck which had brake issues, and the cats and I rode with friend Steve in his car. To keep the cats calm, I purchased a sedative from the veterinarian and administered it to the cats right before we left.
Perhaps it would have been better just to deal with two frightened cats. During the entire trip (a long one) they howled and yowled drunkenly: “Aaa-wooooo!” “Yow-rooooo!”
Moving into the house with the cats was no better. For weeks and weeks the cats hissed and spat, chased one another, jumping up on tables, scattering and breaking dishes, and hiding under furniture when they ended up on the losing side. At best they tried to ignore one another, with Fred and Rabbit hunkered down at one end of the house and Cinder and Eleanor cowering at the other end.)
Episode 4 - “Together at Last”
Cinder made the first move.
The kids even started to sleep near one another,
especially when it was cold.
It was as if they had always been friends.
Finale/Jump the Shark/Teaser for Revamped Show
But there was a new challenge looming
... even more daunting than the integration of cat families.
Friday, April 15, 2011
Follow Friday Newsletter: 15 April 2011
This Week in Genea-Blogging
We like vintage everything
... but especially vintage ads. Read these. But not while you are drinking anything. “Vintage Ads to Make Your Jaw Drop” at Family Trees May Contain Nuts.
Well, Susan Petersen has gone and done it now
She has inspired me to try to create a website (as well as the final push to get off my tush and set up a Genealogy Toolbox). In “My New Website” on Long Lost Relatives.net, she introduces the website and describes how easy it is to use Weebly.com to create one.
And soon after I set up the toolbox
I read dkaysdays’ “Tuesday’s Tip: Build a Research Toolbox and Include Cornell’s Making of America” at the d kay s days blog. More excellent advice.
Right after I wrote
“What I Learned Wednesday” and mentioned the Genealogy Toolkit and Family Tree Magazine’s list of Civil War resources, I saw The Genealogy Insider’s “Civil War Genealogy Resources,” including Family Tree’s “Civil War Genealogy Toolkit.” Some useful sites there.
In line with the Civil War themes this week
Daniel Hubbard at Personal Past Meditations: A Genealogical Blog has written about “The Census Goes to War.” He includes some surprising details about the enumeration of slaves in the censuses.
Print ‘em and save ‘em
At The Erudite Genealogist, Jennifer has posted “Research Trips - What to Bring and Planning Tips” in response to Kathleen Moore’s request for advice at The Misadventures of a Genealogist. This is an excellent list with explanations for why these items will be useful.
Another handy-dandy reference sheet
comes from Phillip Trauring at Blood and Frogs, who has created an aid for “Finding US Naturalization Records” on his blog (it is under the “Naturalization” page, which contains a list of states, cities, and years for which naturalization records can be ordered from the National Archives). Very helpful! He also has a fascinating post on “Jewish Gravestone Symbols” (and it doesn’t hurt that there is a Star Trek reference in it, too).
Oodles of free books online - including genealogy books - yours for the taking
as cataloged by James Tanner at Genealogy’s Star in “Read genealogy books online - a survey of sources.” You know you’re drooling.
Read the final chapter ...
of the story of Heather Rojo’s ancestor’s Revolutionary War discharge paper at NARA in “The National Archives - They read my blog!?” at Nutfield Genealogy. Why our National Archives really are a treasure.
Two things that cause a lot of detours
Leslie Albrecht Huber writes about “Two Common Mistakes People Make Tracing Immigrant Ancestors” at The Journey Takers Blog. I bet we’d be rich if we had a dollar for every time a researcher made one of these mistakes.
Make sure that everyone can enjoy your blog
In “Is Your Blog Accessible?” Denise Olson at Moultrie Creek Gazette passes on some tips for ensuring that our blogs are accessible to people with disabilities.
The “what” and “where” of probate
Randy Seaver’s “Tuesday’s Tip - Find Probate Records of your Ancestors” at Genea-Musings outlines the information you can find in these records and where you are most likely to find them. I would add local libraries to the list (at least in some counties) as another good place to check for microfilms of probate records.
Don’t miss
“Myrt’s Day at the Archives” at Dear Myrtle’s Genealogy Blog - she describes in detail the procedures researchers must go through at the National Archives and the methods she uses for making copies of documents.
Never stop learning
Debbie Parker Wayne at Deb’s Delvings in Genealogy has some excellent ideas on “Educational Sources for Historical Context” for our family histories, including a few less traditional resources.
I really like this list
Marian Burk Wood’s “Wisdom Wednesday: Five Things to Do Before I Become an Ancestor” at Climbing My Family Tree. Superb advice which covers a lot of territory.
And finally
The event we’ve been waiting for ... "The Civil War Genealogy Blog Challenge Is Here!" at Bill West’s West in New England blog. (Bet I’m not the only blogger who was writing, writing, writing and rushing, rushing, rushing.) Bill has done an outstanding job of writing up this impressive collection of posts!
Wow. This was a busy week.
For more suggested blog reading,
check out “Best of the Genea-Blogs” at Randy Seaver’s Genea-Musings, “Best Bytes for the Week” at Elizabeth O’Neal’s Little Bytes of Life, “Follow Friday: This Week’s Faves” at Jen’s Climbing My Family Tree, and “Monday Morning Mentions” at Lynn Palermo’s The Armchair Genealogist.
This week I started following these blogs:
A Patient Genealogist
Adventures in Brown County Genealogy
Branches of Our Tree
Collecting dead relatives ... and live cousins!
Finding Kline
Judiology
Remembering Those Who Came Before Us
Who Knew?
The New Genealogist
Up In The Tree
Bogs and Brooklyn
My Research Week
As mentioned in my previous post and above, I have been inspired by Susan Clark of Nolichucky Roots to follow her new theme, Civil War Saturday, and by Susan Petersen of Long Lost Relatives.net to set up a website and to put my genealogy toolbox on a separate page on my blog before migrating it to the website. So that’s a bit of what I did this week (well, I set up the Toolbox, at least). And, in addition, to my Civil War-related research, I worked some on one of my husband’s lines, the Fichtelmanns.
Thank you to Hillary at Telling Their Tale: The Stories of My Ancestor for the One Lovely Blog Award. Check out her blog!
We like vintage everything
... but especially vintage ads. Read these. But not while you are drinking anything. “Vintage Ads to Make Your Jaw Drop” at Family Trees May Contain Nuts.
Well, Susan Petersen has gone and done it now
She has inspired me to try to create a website (as well as the final push to get off my tush and set up a Genealogy Toolbox). In “My New Website” on Long Lost Relatives.net, she introduces the website and describes how easy it is to use Weebly.com to create one.
And soon after I set up the toolbox
I read dkaysdays’ “Tuesday’s Tip: Build a Research Toolbox and Include Cornell’s Making of America” at the d kay s days blog. More excellent advice.
Right after I wrote
“What I Learned Wednesday” and mentioned the Genealogy Toolkit and Family Tree Magazine’s list of Civil War resources, I saw The Genealogy Insider’s “Civil War Genealogy Resources,” including Family Tree’s “Civil War Genealogy Toolkit.” Some useful sites there.
In line with the Civil War themes this week
Daniel Hubbard at Personal Past Meditations: A Genealogical Blog has written about “The Census Goes to War.” He includes some surprising details about the enumeration of slaves in the censuses.
Print ‘em and save ‘em
At The Erudite Genealogist, Jennifer has posted “Research Trips - What to Bring and Planning Tips” in response to Kathleen Moore’s request for advice at The Misadventures of a Genealogist. This is an excellent list with explanations for why these items will be useful.
Another handy-dandy reference sheet
comes from Phillip Trauring at Blood and Frogs, who has created an aid for “Finding US Naturalization Records” on his blog (it is under the “Naturalization” page, which contains a list of states, cities, and years for which naturalization records can be ordered from the National Archives). Very helpful! He also has a fascinating post on “Jewish Gravestone Symbols” (and it doesn’t hurt that there is a Star Trek reference in it, too).
Oodles of free books online - including genealogy books - yours for the taking
as cataloged by James Tanner at Genealogy’s Star in “Read genealogy books online - a survey of sources.” You know you’re drooling.
Read the final chapter ...
of the story of Heather Rojo’s ancestor’s Revolutionary War discharge paper at NARA in “The National Archives - They read my blog!?” at Nutfield Genealogy. Why our National Archives really are a treasure.
Two things that cause a lot of detours
Leslie Albrecht Huber writes about “Two Common Mistakes People Make Tracing Immigrant Ancestors” at The Journey Takers Blog. I bet we’d be rich if we had a dollar for every time a researcher made one of these mistakes.
Make sure that everyone can enjoy your blog
In “Is Your Blog Accessible?” Denise Olson at Moultrie Creek Gazette passes on some tips for ensuring that our blogs are accessible to people with disabilities.
The “what” and “where” of probate
Randy Seaver’s “Tuesday’s Tip - Find Probate Records of your Ancestors” at Genea-Musings outlines the information you can find in these records and where you are most likely to find them. I would add local libraries to the list (at least in some counties) as another good place to check for microfilms of probate records.
Don’t miss
“Myrt’s Day at the Archives” at Dear Myrtle’s Genealogy Blog - she describes in detail the procedures researchers must go through at the National Archives and the methods she uses for making copies of documents.
Never stop learning
Debbie Parker Wayne at Deb’s Delvings in Genealogy has some excellent ideas on “Educational Sources for Historical Context” for our family histories, including a few less traditional resources.
I really like this list
Marian Burk Wood’s “Wisdom Wednesday: Five Things to Do Before I Become an Ancestor” at Climbing My Family Tree. Superb advice which covers a lot of territory.
And finally
The event we’ve been waiting for ... "The Civil War Genealogy Blog Challenge Is Here!" at Bill West’s West in New England blog. (Bet I’m not the only blogger who was writing, writing, writing and rushing, rushing, rushing.) Bill has done an outstanding job of writing up this impressive collection of posts!
Wow. This was a busy week.
For more suggested blog reading,
check out “Best of the Genea-Blogs” at Randy Seaver’s Genea-Musings, “Best Bytes for the Week” at Elizabeth O’Neal’s Little Bytes of Life, “Follow Friday: This Week’s Faves” at Jen’s Climbing My Family Tree, and “Monday Morning Mentions” at Lynn Palermo’s The Armchair Genealogist.
This week I started following these blogs:
A Patient Genealogist
Adventures in Brown County Genealogy
Branches of Our Tree
Collecting dead relatives ... and live cousins!
Finding Kline
Judiology
Remembering Those Who Came Before Us
Who Knew?
The New Genealogist
Up In The Tree
Bogs and Brooklyn
My Research Week
As mentioned in my previous post and above, I have been inspired by Susan Clark of Nolichucky Roots to follow her new theme, Civil War Saturday, and by Susan Petersen of Long Lost Relatives.net to set up a website and to put my genealogy toolbox on a separate page on my blog before migrating it to the website. So that’s a bit of what I did this week (well, I set up the Toolbox, at least). And, in addition, to my Civil War-related research, I worked some on one of my husband’s lines, the Fichtelmanns.
Thank you to Hillary at Telling Their Tale: The Stories of My Ancestor for the One Lovely Blog Award. Check out her blog!
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
What I Learned Wednesday: 13 April 2011
This week most of my research dealt with the Civil War, thanks to Bill West at West of New England and his Civil War Challenge.
The main thing I learned was that it is good to have a Footnote account. That way I can keep a lot of my documents on a particular person relating to a particular event in one place. I also learned which ancestors for whom I have not downloaded documents, and I remedied that this weekend: Richard Mason Brinlee and William T. Sisson.
There is either a real mystery or a mysterious dearth of documents surrounding the Fifth Texas Partisan Rangers. Four of the five Brinlee brothers claimed to have fought with this group - one has partial records, one has no records but his widow did get testimony from two guys who are listed with the Fifth that her husband had served with them, and for the other two brothers who claimed to have served with this unit (including my great-grandfather, who served with the Sixth Cavalry prior to serving in the Fifth) there are no records. My husband says this is simply a result of the nature of partisan units and of Trans-Mississippi operations during the war in general, but I am hoping to find some other evidence or indicators of their service....
Although a few years ago I did send off to the National Archives for the Civil War Service records for several of my ancestors, it is definitely easier to work with the documents on Footnote. For one thing, I have a better chance of finding all of the documents for an ancestor who served in different units. As I remember the experience with NARA, you had to specify one ancestor and one unit per order, and if you were unaware of service by that ancestor in another unit you would miss out. I do wish it was a bit easier to manipulate things and organize images into subfolders on Footnote. So far organizing images mainly consists of connecting them to the pages I set up for various ancestors.
I also finally picked up my latest issue of Family Tree Magazine and found a great article on some of the best websites for Civil War resources; of particular interest are the best state-based sites. These will go into my new Genealogy Toolbox (a separate page on this blog). Of course, right now it is just an empty page, but I have plans!
The main thing I learned was that it is good to have a Footnote account. That way I can keep a lot of my documents on a particular person relating to a particular event in one place. I also learned which ancestors for whom I have not downloaded documents, and I remedied that this weekend: Richard Mason Brinlee and William T. Sisson.
There is either a real mystery or a mysterious dearth of documents surrounding the Fifth Texas Partisan Rangers. Four of the five Brinlee brothers claimed to have fought with this group - one has partial records, one has no records but his widow did get testimony from two guys who are listed with the Fifth that her husband had served with them, and for the other two brothers who claimed to have served with this unit (including my great-grandfather, who served with the Sixth Cavalry prior to serving in the Fifth) there are no records. My husband says this is simply a result of the nature of partisan units and of Trans-Mississippi operations during the war in general, but I am hoping to find some other evidence or indicators of their service....
Although a few years ago I did send off to the National Archives for the Civil War Service records for several of my ancestors, it is definitely easier to work with the documents on Footnote. For one thing, I have a better chance of finding all of the documents for an ancestor who served in different units. As I remember the experience with NARA, you had to specify one ancestor and one unit per order, and if you were unaware of service by that ancestor in another unit you would miss out. I do wish it was a bit easier to manipulate things and organize images into subfolders on Footnote. So far organizing images mainly consists of connecting them to the pages I set up for various ancestors.
I also finally picked up my latest issue of Family Tree Magazine and found a great article on some of the best websites for Civil War resources; of particular interest are the best state-based sites. These will go into my new Genealogy Toolbox (a separate page on this blog). Of course, right now it is just an empty page, but I have plans!
Sunday, April 10, 2011
The Civil War and My Ancestors
Bill West of the West in New England blog issued a challenge to all genealogy bloggers with Civil War-era ancestors:
“Did you have ancestors in America on 12Apr 1861? If so, where were they
and what were their circumstances? How did the Civil War affect them and
their family? Did the men enlist and did they perish in battle or die of illness?
On which side did they fight, or did you have relatives fighting on BOTH sides?
How did the women left at home cope, or did any of them find ways to help
the war effort? Were your ancestors living as slaves on Southern plantations
and if so when were they freed? Or were they freemen of color who enlisted
to fight?”
All of my ancestral lines were in this country by 1800, so all of them were involved in or affected by the Civil War. The only family for which I know nothing about their experiences in the Civil War would be the family of my brick-wall great-grandmother, Lizzie Smith Brinlee.
That still leaves quite a few families to cover, so I am going to follow Susan Clark’s lead at Nolichucky Roots; she gave an overview of her ancestors‘ involvement in the Civil War and plans to cover each person’s or each family’s involvement in a series of posts under the theme “Civil War Saturday.” In this post I will provide an outline of all of my ancestors who fought in the Civil War and of the nature of involvement of the families, including some mysteries surrounding the deaths of some of the ancestors and what is known about some of these families’ views on slavery, the Union, and so forth. I have found quite a bit of material in the form of service records, pension applications, unit histories, and other items; some of it has been transcribed and analyzed and some has not.
To the extent possible, I will include both direct ancestors and “collateral” ancestors (uncles) in the participants in the war, except for the brothers, half-brothers, and brothers-in-law of my two great-great-grandfathers who fought in the war (I have not yet researched in depth beyond these two great-great grandfathers, although I know who their families were). So in addition to these two great-great grandfathers, there will be three great-grandfathers and those of their brothers and their wives’ brothers who were old enough to fight.
As far as I know, all of my ancestors who fought in the Civil War fought on the Confederate side. However, it appears that not all of them were wholeheartedly anti-Union. There is at least one family who owned slaves. Another family, according to family lore, also owned slaves, but I have so far not been able to find any proof of it. This seemingly small number of slaveholding families may be due more to financial circumstances than conviction, however.
So this post is essentially a research outline summarizing what I already know and setting out what I need to find more information on. I will organize it by family name.
Brinlee
The Brinlees are the known slaveholding family. In her article on Hiram Brinlee (Sr.), Bessie Sims Sheppard writes that the family is “recorded on the Slave census, Collin County, 1860, as having eleven slaves” (“Brinlee, Hiram” by Bessie Sims Sheppard in Collin County, Texas Families, Volume One, edited by Allison Ellis Pitts and Minnie Pitts, Champ, published 1994 by Curtis Media, Hurst, Texas; p. 42), but I can find only five listed. There is no record for this family on the 1850 Slave Schedule, although it is possible that one of the many misspellings of this family name make them hard to find. (See my post “Restore My Name - Slave Records and Genealogy Research”).
According to the family story, all five sons of Hiram Brinlee, Sr. and Betsy Ann McKinney fought in the Civil War, but I am not so sure about the youngest son, William Hiram Brinlee, who was born in 1848 or 1850, depending on the source you read (all agree that sources vary on his age). So far I have found no records of his service, though I do find reference to it in an article by Aurelia Borgan Brinlee in Collin County, Texas, Families (“Brinlee, William Hiram,” p. 48), wherein she writes that he “enlisted in the home guard unit under Capt. Tom Scottby” and that he later “officially enlisted at Mill Creek, Oklahoma in Company K of the 5th Cavalry, Martins Regiment under General Gano.” This appears to be the same group in which his older brothers Richard, David Francis, and Hiram Jr. (second tour) served in. Tracking these records down will be one of my Civil War research tasks.
Richard Mason Brinlee (1836-1911) (great-great uncle): Enlisted on 5 July 1862 at age 25 as a Corporal in Company K, Martins Regiment Texas Cavalry (5th Partisan Rangers) at McKinney, Texas and appears on a muster roll for 1 January to 1 July 1863. According to the Statement of Service Slip in his Oklahoma Pension Board file, there are no further records on him, including prisoner of war records. Another area to be investigated. My first stop will probably be to check pension records in Oklahoma, since his third wife/widow, Nancy Ann Herrell Brinlee, apparently received a pension for his service.
George Robert Brinlee (1838-1927) (great-great uncle): Company D, Sixth Texas Cavalry (Stone’s Regiment, 2nd Cavalry). The cards in his compiled service record indicate that he enlisted 13 March 1862 at Camp Mulberry, Arkansas.
Hiram Carroll Brinlee (1844-1920) (great-grandfather): I have his Confederate Pension Application, his widow’s Confederate Widow’s Pension Application, and his compiled service record for his first tour of service. The story goes that he enlisted near the beginning of the war, was discharged because he was found to be too young for service under the Conscript Act, and re-enlisted later when he was older. I used this hint to figure out a period of time within which his birthday should fall (see my post “Tombstone of Hiram C. Brinlee”). Hiram is also listed in Company D, Sixth Texas Cavalry (Stone’s Regiment, 2nd Cavalry). He joined on 10 September 1861 in Dallas, Texas at the age of 17. He is shown as having been discharged on 13 June 1862 on a Register of Payments to Discharged Soldiers. His pension application indicates that he had also served “under [General] Gano for about 1-1/2 years.” I do not have records of that service; they may have met the same fate as those of his brothers Richard, William Hiram, and David Francis in that group (Fifth Partisan Rangers).
David Francis Brinlee (1846-1893) (great-great uncle): I do not have service records for him, but according to the Confederate Widow’s Pension Application of his widow, Sarah Ann Hendricks Brinlee, he served in “Co. K; Martin’s Regiment, and Gano’s Brigade.” So, ditto the above on finding other records. Witnesses T. J. Cloyd and Dallas Sparin confirmed that he had served with them in D.C. Haynes’ Company in this unit for about a year and a half. I do find a Thomas J. Cloyd and George M. D. Sparlin listed as having served in the Fifth Partisan Rangers.
Moore
This family, which I initially regarded as “just a plain old farming family,” but loved anyway and wanted to research in depth, has turned out to be very interesting. One item of interest is that there appears to have been a big streak of pro-Unionism in this family. I had no inkling, but a genealogist who does a lot of research in Anderson County, South Carolina and nearby areas pointed this out to me; through several clues in names and associations and several articles in the local newspapers she found on my great-great grandfather William Spencer Moore, she indicated that the signs were that the family was pro-Union even before the war, and the fact that Spencer Moore ran for local office as a Republican after the war was not an aberration but a continuation of his beliefs from before the war. Spencer’s wife Emily Tarrant Moore was in all likelihood a member of the Greenville County Tarrants, one of whom was a well-known Emancipating Baptist named Carter Tarrant. When I finally found Preston Moore in Izard County Arkansas on the 1870 census, he had a year-old son named Ulysses. This will definitely be a major research focus for me.
Preston Moore (ca 1843-bef 1878) (great-great uncle): Covered in my posts “Searching for Preston Moore” and “The Two Preston Moores.” I have his compiled service record, a couple of prisoner of war records, and a unit history that includes his name.
Harlston Perrin Moore (1845-1921) (great-grandfather): I have his Confederate Pension Application and his widow’s Confederate Widow’s Pension application. His service is outlined in my post “Featured Family Friday: Harlston Perrin Moore and Martha E. ‘Mattie’ Lewis.”
William Brewster “Bruce” Moore (1851-1924): His obituary in The Greenville News, dated 29 July 1924, describes him as a “Confederate veteran, 73 years of age.” However, unless he was something like a drummer boy near the very end, he probably did not serve, as he was not quite fourteen years old at the end of the war.
Norman
The Normans do not appear to have owned slaves. I don’t know whether they were pro-slavery/pro-Union or anti-slavery/anti-Union.
Joseph Madison Carroll Norman (1833-1901) (great-great grandfather): He is listed with two different units (Company H, 25th Alabama Infantry and Company B, 3rd Alabama) and Company C at the Camp of Instruction, but I do not think he saw much service. I have his compiled service record, his Confederate Pension Application, and his widow’s Confederate Widow’s Pension Application. His service timeline, as far as I can reconstruct it, is as follows:
Company H, 25th Alabama Infantry: March-April 1862. He was admitted to the 1st Mississippi C.S.A. Hospital in Jackson, Mississippi on 19 March 1862 and discharged from service on 16 April 1862. He writes in his Confederate Pension Application: “At Corinth Miss I was taken down with Rheumatism and been a sufferer every since.” A physician, Joel Chitwood, testified that he suffered from “spinal affliction and rheumatism of the left arm and hand” and that he was “able to perform only one-fourth manual labor,” and neighbors Thaddeus Wheatly and Mitchell Blackburn confirmed that he was in “poor circumstances.” His Soldier’s Discharge gives the date 28 March 1862.
Company C, Camp of Instruction, Talladega, Alabama: 1 Sep 1862-6 May 1864
Company B, 3rd Alabama: 18 May 1865 (contained on a list of paroled prisoners of war). Either his unit had been rolled up into the 3rd Alabama or all of the prisoners were lumped together under this unit.
Lewis
Three sons of Elisha Berry Lewis and Martha Poole served in the Civil War; two of them died. Martha died some time right before or during the war, and after the war Elisha Berry married Frances Eleanor Campbell Bailey, the widow of John Marion Bailey. John Marion Bailey fought in the same unit as Elisha Berry's two oldest sons and died in the war. I do not yet know what this family’s beliefs were regarding slavery and the Union. There is some evidence that two youngest sons (too young to serve) may not have been of the same opinion. William Henry Lewis, who served as Sheriff of Dallas County, was known to have prevented a couple of lynchings in Dallas, one of a black man and one of a man suspected of having a black mistress. He corresponded with relatives in Iowa who were known back home in South Carolina to have been abolitionists. On the other hand, the youngest son, John Sloan Lewis, is described in an article from the Dallas Morning News as a “Wade Hampton Man.”
James West Lewis (1835-1904) (great-great uncle): Served as a private in Company B, 4th South Carolina Infantry. I have his compiled service record.
Samuel D. Lewis (1840-1864) (great-great uncle): The details of his service can be found in my post “Transcription Tuesday: The Death of Samuel D. Lewis.” I have his compiled service record and some information from unit histories.
Manning P. Lewis (1843-25 March 1865) (great-great uncle): You can see that Manning Lewis’ death from wounds occurred only a few weeks before the end of the war. He served as a private in Company D of the 1st South Carolina (Orr’s) Rifles. He enlisted on 20 July 1861 at Camp Pickens. I have his compiled service record and some unit history information.
Sisson
I cannot find any evidence that this branch of the Sisson family owned slaves and do not know what their views on slavery and the Union were.
William T. Sisson (ca 1826-1894) (great-great grandfather): He served as a private in Company H, 25th Alabama Infantry. He enlisted on 24 November 1862 in Talladega, Alabama. He was paroled as a POW on 20 May 1865 in Talladega, Alabama. I have his compiled service record, his Application for Relief by Soldiers Maimed or Disabled during the Late War under Act approved February 28, 1889, and his widow’s Confederate Widow’s Pension Application. According to his service record, he did extra duty as a teamster. In his Application for relief he states that he was shot in the leg at Chickamauga in October 1864 [? the Battle of Chickamauga took place in September 1864]. In her Confederate Widow’s Pension Application, William Sisson’s widow, Susan Caroline Tant Sisson, indicates that a previous application (apparently the Application for Relief) was turned down because he owned too much property to qualify.
Floyd
According to family lore, the Floyds owned slaves, but I have not been able to find any records to back this up, yet. Some information on this is provided in my post “Memory Monday: A Family Story.” Another Civil War-era mystery concerns the cause of death of several relatives who died during this time (it was probably from illness, but we do not know for sure): Nancy Finley Floyd, wife of George Floyd, who died in 1862, and Absalom C. Matlock and Nancy Malvina Harris Matlock, parents of Angeline Elizabeth Matlock, who died in 1865 and 1864.
Charles Augustus Floyd (1840-1894) (great-grandfather): He served as a private in Company F, 6th Texas Cavalry. I have his compiled service record. He enlisted on 9 September 1861 in Dallas, Texas. Then there is the “Floyd Family Legend,” according to which one Floyd brother served as a Confederate and another served for the Union; after the war, they farmed side by side but never spoke to one another again. I think this legend is pretty much busted; you can judge for yourself by clicking on the link to the post.
As indicated in the “Floyd Family Legend,” I do not know whether either of the other two Floyd brothers who would have been old enough to serve did serve or not (for either side):
David Harriet Floyd (1836-ca 1867): No record.
Henry Oscar Floyd (1843-1862): See my post on “Henry Oscar Floyd.” He is The Big Question. If one of the Floyd brothers did serve for the Union, he would probably be the one (he reputedly died in Illinois in 1862), but I haven’t found any records for him.
Smith
I suspect the father of Susan Elizabeth “Lizzie” Smith Bonner Brinlee, my great-grandmother, may have served in the Civil War. But I don’t know, because I have not yet found her family.
I would love to have appended a beautifully written list of sources at the end of this post, but it is getting closer and closer to midnight and this is a big honking article with a whole bunch of sources. If you are interested in the sources for any of this information, just contact me and I will provide them.
Friday, April 8, 2011
Follow Friday Newsletter: 8 April 2011
This Week in Genea-Blogging
A favorite subject in these parts:
Sharing with other researchers. And Kerry Scott at Clue Wagon asks “What Happens When Cousins Won’t Share?” She gives several examples of legitimate or understandable reasons for not sharing, especially when the cousins in question are not into genealogical research. Several of the commenters address other cases we may have encountered - fellow researchers who take, don’t attribute, and don’t share. Hot Button Time.
Ah, we’ve been to this play:
A Comedy of Errors: My Family in the Census - Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3. Author - Cynthia Shenette, Heritage Zen. Your assignment: Read. Discuss. Take test in Part 3. Discuss again.
Hair, hair everywhere
... and there is no escape! At least not for Joanne of Keeper of Records, who seems to be followed by the stuff these days. Check out her series on “Victorian Hair Art” (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3).
Why we do it
At Family Cherished, Valerie Elkins’ post on “Getting Personal” illustrates one of the reasons she does genealogy - gaining perspective and wisdom - in a most touching way. Most of us can strongly identify with the reasons cited by Valerie for doing genealogy in this series. For me the “dirt-poor family from Alabama” is also a strong point of identification, as I can see much of my paternal grandmother’s family experiences.
No Clooz
Jennifer Trahan writes about “My Decision Not to Use Clooz Anymore” at Jennifer’s Genealogy Blog and cites the shortcomings that led her to her decision.
Are we compulsive, too?
Ruby Coleman at The You Go Genealogy Girls has some interesting thoughts on what it means to be “Obsessed with Genealogy” (which, as you may have gleaned from the header to this blog, describes the author of this blog, too).
A great account of a research trip
Read Valerie Craft’s post on her recent research trip, “In Which I Am Chased By Dogs,” at Begin With Craft. Priceless.
Let’s Talk Cloud
In “Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining,” Lorine McGinnis Shulze describes and compares several different cloud computing services at Olive Tree Genealogy Blog. Excellent information on what aspects of each service make them most useful for particular applications.
Too exciting for words!
Cheryl Palmer’s “Great Swedish Adventure” (now at Part 7) is now at an advanced stage - the final 10 are to be chosen soon. Check out her latest report at Heritage Happens!
Common sense and solid research
are often in short supply. In “Can I read this stuff? Part Five of the limits of genealogical research,” James Tanner at Genealogy’s Star discusses why “Copying is not research” and why we must strive to avoid emulating the phenomenon described by Donald Lines Jacobus: “... the type of professional incompetent who believes that the printed word can never lie." If you have not read the previous four installments of this series, they are worth checking out as well.
Get out your hankies ...
and read a wonderful story. No spoilers. Read Sheri Fenley’s “Moments Like This Are Why I Love My Job” at The Educated Genealogist.
And do NOT forget
The 104th Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy - "Cars as Stars" - at Jasia's Creative Gene!
For more suggested blog reading,
Check out “Best of the Genea-Blogs" at Randy Seaver’s Genea-Musings, “Follow Friday: This Week’s Favs” at Jen’s Climbing Your Family Tree, and “Monday Morning’s Mentions” at Lynn Palermo’s The Armchair Genealogist.
This Week I Started Following These Blogs:
Eckstel: An Ancestral Blog
Retracing the Past
Telling Their Tale
The Pursuit of Joe Mangiafico and His Roots
My Link to the Past
Trails of My Imagination
My Research Week
was pretty well described in the previous post. So now there is a new family line to search - the Rossis of Vietri sul Mare, Italy. And possibly the De Donatos as well.
A favorite subject in these parts:
Sharing with other researchers. And Kerry Scott at Clue Wagon asks “What Happens When Cousins Won’t Share?” She gives several examples of legitimate or understandable reasons for not sharing, especially when the cousins in question are not into genealogical research. Several of the commenters address other cases we may have encountered - fellow researchers who take, don’t attribute, and don’t share. Hot Button Time.
Ah, we’ve been to this play:
A Comedy of Errors: My Family in the Census - Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3. Author - Cynthia Shenette, Heritage Zen. Your assignment: Read. Discuss. Take test in Part 3. Discuss again.
Hair, hair everywhere
... and there is no escape! At least not for Joanne of Keeper of Records, who seems to be followed by the stuff these days. Check out her series on “Victorian Hair Art” (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3).
Why we do it
At Family Cherished, Valerie Elkins’ post on “Getting Personal” illustrates one of the reasons she does genealogy - gaining perspective and wisdom - in a most touching way. Most of us can strongly identify with the reasons cited by Valerie for doing genealogy in this series. For me the “dirt-poor family from Alabama” is also a strong point of identification, as I can see much of my paternal grandmother’s family experiences.
No Clooz
Jennifer Trahan writes about “My Decision Not to Use Clooz Anymore” at Jennifer’s Genealogy Blog and cites the shortcomings that led her to her decision.
Are we compulsive, too?
Ruby Coleman at The You Go Genealogy Girls has some interesting thoughts on what it means to be “Obsessed with Genealogy” (which, as you may have gleaned from the header to this blog, describes the author of this blog, too).
A great account of a research trip
Read Valerie Craft’s post on her recent research trip, “In Which I Am Chased By Dogs,” at Begin With Craft. Priceless.
Let’s Talk Cloud
In “Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining,” Lorine McGinnis Shulze describes and compares several different cloud computing services at Olive Tree Genealogy Blog. Excellent information on what aspects of each service make them most useful for particular applications.
Too exciting for words!
Cheryl Palmer’s “Great Swedish Adventure” (now at Part 7) is now at an advanced stage - the final 10 are to be chosen soon. Check out her latest report at Heritage Happens!
Common sense and solid research
are often in short supply. In “Can I read this stuff? Part Five of the limits of genealogical research,” James Tanner at Genealogy’s Star discusses why “Copying is not research” and why we must strive to avoid emulating the phenomenon described by Donald Lines Jacobus: “... the type of professional incompetent who believes that the printed word can never lie." If you have not read the previous four installments of this series, they are worth checking out as well.
Get out your hankies ...
and read a wonderful story. No spoilers. Read Sheri Fenley’s “Moments Like This Are Why I Love My Job” at The Educated Genealogist.
And do NOT forget
The 104th Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy - "Cars as Stars" - at Jasia's Creative Gene!
For more suggested blog reading,
Check out “Best of the Genea-Blogs" at Randy Seaver’s Genea-Musings, “Follow Friday: This Week’s Favs” at Jen’s Climbing Your Family Tree, and “Monday Morning’s Mentions” at Lynn Palermo’s The Armchair Genealogist.
This Week I Started Following These Blogs:
Eckstel: An Ancestral Blog
Retracing the Past
Telling Their Tale
The Pursuit of Joe Mangiafico and His Roots
My Link to the Past
Trails of My Imagination
My Research Week
was pretty well described in the previous post. So now there is a new family line to search - the Rossis of Vietri sul Mare, Italy. And possibly the De Donatos as well.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
What I Learned Wednesday: 6 April 2011
The weekend started out with lots of promise: promise of time to spend researching my family. As it wore on, however, that promise started to disappear, sucked up by household chores and the need to take advantage of fleeting good weather to pull weeds, run errands, and do other so-not-genealogical chores. By Sunday evening, I could see that research time was once again going to be limited to a couple of late-evening hours: maybe a little bit of transcription or some entry of information into my genealogy database. In other words, a bit fat zero for for the week.
Then I got a call from my mother-in-law, who was replying to some questions I had e-mailed her. I had asked her to help me narrow down the dates of death of a couple of her aunts so that I could request copies of their Social Security applications, which, I hoped, would contain the maiden name of their mother, i.e., my mother-in-law’s grandmother. She told me what she could remember about the aunts - including lots of reminiscences - and although she wasn’t certain about exact dates, she thought the ones I had sounded right.
She continued to remember family stories, the subject switched over to my father-in-law’s family, and he came to the phone to talk to me. Suddenly he remembered: “I think we have some kind of document with Judy’s grandmother’s name on it.” He must have started to rummage through some documents, as I could hear him describing the documents - birth certificates, marriage certificates, death certificates. I held my breath; this was genealogical gold he was talking about. “I still can’t find one with her name.” At this point I didn’t care; what he was looking at was what I wanted, no matter which relatives they concerned. “Oh, here it is, Judy’s mother’s birth certificate: “Her name was Angiola [later changed to Julia] D’Arco, her father’s name was Nicholas D’Arco, and her mother’s name was Vengenza [he spelled it out] Rossi.”
Bingo.
Now I didn’t even need to send off for the aunts’ Social Security applications (though I probably will, anyway); as a matter of fact, I sort of had her name already, though I hadn’t realized it: it was on the 1910 census.
I just thought the census taker who had recorded the Nicholas D’Arco family in 1910 couldn’t figure out the names.
Well, maybe he couldn’t spell them very well, but he had them right:
Dargo, Nicholas
Vincenza Rose [Rossi]
Rosie Rose [Rossi] [this is the name that really threw me for a loop]
To my amazement, I was able to find Vincenza/Vengenza and Rosie (listed as her sister on the 1910 census) on my first try at the Immigration Records on Ancestry using the year of immigration provided on the 1910 census - 1907. She had originally been transcribed as Vincenzo Laughter - the transcriber’s attempt at the word “daughter.”
The entry on the passenger list is another goldmine of information - if only I can read it all. (Note: The line above the entries for Rosa and Vincenza is included in these images in an attempt not to cut off any information.)
Last Permanent Residence: Salerno [and what looks like] Cava [de] Tirreni
Name and address of nearest relative or friend in country whence alien came:
mother/grandmother - De Donato [?Angela], Cava [de] Tirreni
Final destination: NJ, Jersey City
By whom was passage paid: Brother-in-law
Whether going to join a relative or friend; and if so, what relative or friend, and his name and complete address: Brother-in-law, Vincenzo D’Arco, 225 Fairmont Av., Jersey, NJ
Place of birth: Salerno, Vietri sul Mare
A few things are not quite clear, both literally and figuratively.
Is Rosa/Rosie Vincenza’s mother or her sister; the passenger list indicates twice that she is her mother, while Rosie is described as her single sister on the 1910 census. She is old enough to be either. Because Italian women did not take their husbands' names, she would appear to be her sister. If she is her mother, she either shared her husband’s name or Vincenza could actually be an illegitimate child.
I do not yet know how brother-in-law Vincenzo D’Arco was related to Vincenza’s future husband Nicholas D’Arco - perhaps a brother?
In the last image, I cannot make out what the “mark of identification” is in the first column of the middle line. And I am not quite sure about the name of the “mother/grandmother.”
This is definitely a brickwall breakthough, but I learned something even more important this week: when you interview relatives, don’t take it for granted that they are aware that items such as vital records are important information to a genealogist. I never asked my in-laws these questions; now that my father-in-law knows how important such documents are, he is going to scan them and send them to me.
Then I got a call from my mother-in-law, who was replying to some questions I had e-mailed her. I had asked her to help me narrow down the dates of death of a couple of her aunts so that I could request copies of their Social Security applications, which, I hoped, would contain the maiden name of their mother, i.e., my mother-in-law’s grandmother. She told me what she could remember about the aunts - including lots of reminiscences - and although she wasn’t certain about exact dates, she thought the ones I had sounded right.
She continued to remember family stories, the subject switched over to my father-in-law’s family, and he came to the phone to talk to me. Suddenly he remembered: “I think we have some kind of document with Judy’s grandmother’s name on it.” He must have started to rummage through some documents, as I could hear him describing the documents - birth certificates, marriage certificates, death certificates. I held my breath; this was genealogical gold he was talking about. “I still can’t find one with her name.” At this point I didn’t care; what he was looking at was what I wanted, no matter which relatives they concerned. “Oh, here it is, Judy’s mother’s birth certificate: “Her name was Angiola [later changed to Julia] D’Arco, her father’s name was Nicholas D’Arco, and her mother’s name was Vengenza [he spelled it out] Rossi.”
Bingo.
Now I didn’t even need to send off for the aunts’ Social Security applications (though I probably will, anyway); as a matter of fact, I sort of had her name already, though I hadn’t realized it: it was on the 1910 census.
I just thought the census taker who had recorded the Nicholas D’Arco family in 1910 couldn’t figure out the names.
Well, maybe he couldn’t spell them very well, but he had them right:
Dargo, Nicholas
Vincenza Rose [Rossi]
Rosie Rose [Rossi] [this is the name that really threw me for a loop]
To my amazement, I was able to find Vincenza/Vengenza and Rosie (listed as her sister on the 1910 census) on my first try at the Immigration Records on Ancestry using the year of immigration provided on the 1910 census - 1907. She had originally been transcribed as Vincenzo Laughter - the transcriber’s attempt at the word “daughter.”
The entry on the passenger list is another goldmine of information - if only I can read it all. (Note: The line above the entries for Rosa and Vincenza is included in these images in an attempt not to cut off any information.)
Last Permanent Residence: Salerno [and what looks like] Cava [de] Tirreni
Name and address of nearest relative or friend in country whence alien came:
mother/grandmother - De Donato [?Angela], Cava [de] Tirreni
Final destination: NJ, Jersey City
By whom was passage paid: Brother-in-law
Whether going to join a relative or friend; and if so, what relative or friend, and his name and complete address: Brother-in-law, Vincenzo D’Arco, 225 Fairmont Av., Jersey, NJ
Place of birth: Salerno, Vietri sul Mare
A few things are not quite clear, both literally and figuratively.
Is Rosa/Rosie Vincenza’s mother or her sister; the passenger list indicates twice that she is her mother, while Rosie is described as her single sister on the 1910 census. She is old enough to be either. Because Italian women did not take their husbands' names, she would appear to be her sister. If she is her mother, she either shared her husband’s name or Vincenza could actually be an illegitimate child.
I do not yet know how brother-in-law Vincenzo D’Arco was related to Vincenza’s future husband Nicholas D’Arco - perhaps a brother?
In the last image, I cannot make out what the “mark of identification” is in the first column of the middle line. And I am not quite sure about the name of the “mother/grandmother.”
This is definitely a brickwall breakthough, but I learned something even more important this week: when you interview relatives, don’t take it for granted that they are aware that items such as vital records are important information to a genealogist. I never asked my in-laws these questions; now that my father-in-law knows how important such documents are, he is going to scan them and send them to me.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Sharing and Scholarship
The recent subject on GeneaBloggers’ Open Thread Thursday - “Collaborative Genealogy” - as well as Kerry Scott’s post “What Happens When Cousins Won’t Share” at Clue Wagon, James Tanner’s post “Who reads all these genealogy Blogs anyway?” at Genealogy’s Star, and the presentations given at the recent Fairfax Genealogical Society Spring Conference by Warren Bittner and Leslie Albrecht Huber (“What I Learned Wednesday: 30 March 2011”) have got me to thinking further about a subject that has fascinated me since almost the very beginning of my journey in genealogy: How family historians and genealogists do their research and share their research, and what parallels and contrasts exist between their research methods and modes of sharing and those of the academic community.
It is true that there is no sharp line between genealogy/family history/local history (G/FH/LH) and the traditional form and subjects of research of the established academic community. However, while acknowledging the broad zone of overlap, we also have to recognize that G/FH/LH is still woefully underrepresented in the halls of academe.
Yet I have come to regard the G/FH/LH community as an “Alternate-Universe Academia,” and it is a world that I prefer by far to live in compared to the traditional academic one.
I had a chance to live in the traditional World of the Ivory Tower. My subjects of study were Slavic Studies and Linguistics. If you want to make a living off of degrees in those subjects, your main and possibly only alternative is that Ivory Tower. Yet I ended up putting the knowledge I gained to practical use; I am a translator in real life. (If you don’t think that profession requires or does justice to those degrees, I have a nice little lecture that I would be prepared to deliver.)
There were many reasons I ultimately opted for the “ABD” instead of PhD, including financial ones, but at the top of the list was the realization that I did not really want to earn my living in that academic world.
Yet, much later in life, I found in the genealogy community, in particular among the genealogy blogging community and my “research cousins,” the elements that were missing in academia. And I don’t think I’m alone. It may be that many of the people who are considering second careers in genealogy see the attractive options of a stimulating and enjoyable, if not terribly lucrative, profession.
What does the G/FH/LH world offer that is in short supply in academia? I don’t want to be too harsh in my criticisms of the academic world - after all, it has been many years since it was my home - but first and foremost among the attractions of my “new home” is the free and generous exchange of information. I’m not saying all is perfect here; plagiarism on one end and “jealous hoarding” of information on the other exist in both worlds. But generosity in this area seems to be far more prevalent in G/FH/LH. And this may be due to the presence of a far larger proportion of dedicated amateurs compared to professionals. After all, a professional in both worlds has to build a reputation through original research, which means that sharing tends to occur mostly through publication of completed research.
Of course, plagiarism in one form or another is rife in both communities and inhibits sharing in both communities. Amateur participation can have a negative effect, most often in the form of proliferation of bad information (which has its own parallel in shoddy scholarship in the academic community).
Professionals in G/FH/LH - at least the ones I’ve had experience with - associate more freely with amateurs and appear to extend a greater degree of professional respect to them. There is a bit more of the “democracy” I referred to in “Toward a Genealogical Democracy.” And there is no denying that a tremendous contribution to the common fund of knowledge has been made by engaged amateurs.
Part of the attraction for me is also the real sense of community I get in G/FH/LH. The enthusiasm for our subject and the charge we get out of sharing it with others really infuses so much of our community interaction. This is an element I can definitely say I found lacking in academia. I realize that counterexamples to the democratic and community aspects are not rare among genealogists and that pretense, snobbery, and credentialism are not unknown in our community, but I do not believe that they define it.
The “sharing” element of G/FH/LH figures prominently in the high level of volunteer efforts. Look at Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness, Findagrave, GenWeb, and indexing volunteers, just for starters. And another kind of volunteer efforts - those made by many of our bloggers in posting information and hosting events that bring the genealogy community together - enable close connections to genealogical societies and institutions and bind the genealogy blogging community together in a way that I have never really seen in the academic world. Learning is equated with fun in shared events such as “Saturday Night Genealogy Fun” and the free-for-all chat of GeneaBloggers Blog Talk Radio.
There is just a different feeling here and sharing - in spite of plagiarism and in spite of Name Collectors - is a big part of it. The joy of collaboration is what I enjoy the most: the thrill of being hot on the trail together with others who share your passion: pooling information, skills, and resources to get to the truth and make our research as effective as possible. And this - something I believe is closer to the academic ideal of learning for learning’s sake, learning for the joy of it - is the quality that I believe the academic community really needs to relearn from the Genealogy/Family History/Local History community.
It is true that there is no sharp line between genealogy/family history/local history (G/FH/LH) and the traditional form and subjects of research of the established academic community. However, while acknowledging the broad zone of overlap, we also have to recognize that G/FH/LH is still woefully underrepresented in the halls of academe.
Yet I have come to regard the G/FH/LH community as an “Alternate-Universe Academia,” and it is a world that I prefer by far to live in compared to the traditional academic one.
I had a chance to live in the traditional World of the Ivory Tower. My subjects of study were Slavic Studies and Linguistics. If you want to make a living off of degrees in those subjects, your main and possibly only alternative is that Ivory Tower. Yet I ended up putting the knowledge I gained to practical use; I am a translator in real life. (If you don’t think that profession requires or does justice to those degrees, I have a nice little lecture that I would be prepared to deliver.)
There were many reasons I ultimately opted for the “ABD” instead of PhD, including financial ones, but at the top of the list was the realization that I did not really want to earn my living in that academic world.
Yet, much later in life, I found in the genealogy community, in particular among the genealogy blogging community and my “research cousins,” the elements that were missing in academia. And I don’t think I’m alone. It may be that many of the people who are considering second careers in genealogy see the attractive options of a stimulating and enjoyable, if not terribly lucrative, profession.
What does the G/FH/LH world offer that is in short supply in academia? I don’t want to be too harsh in my criticisms of the academic world - after all, it has been many years since it was my home - but first and foremost among the attractions of my “new home” is the free and generous exchange of information. I’m not saying all is perfect here; plagiarism on one end and “jealous hoarding” of information on the other exist in both worlds. But generosity in this area seems to be far more prevalent in G/FH/LH. And this may be due to the presence of a far larger proportion of dedicated amateurs compared to professionals. After all, a professional in both worlds has to build a reputation through original research, which means that sharing tends to occur mostly through publication of completed research.
Of course, plagiarism in one form or another is rife in both communities and inhibits sharing in both communities. Amateur participation can have a negative effect, most often in the form of proliferation of bad information (which has its own parallel in shoddy scholarship in the academic community).
Professionals in G/FH/LH - at least the ones I’ve had experience with - associate more freely with amateurs and appear to extend a greater degree of professional respect to them. There is a bit more of the “democracy” I referred to in “Toward a Genealogical Democracy.” And there is no denying that a tremendous contribution to the common fund of knowledge has been made by engaged amateurs.
Part of the attraction for me is also the real sense of community I get in G/FH/LH. The enthusiasm for our subject and the charge we get out of sharing it with others really infuses so much of our community interaction. This is an element I can definitely say I found lacking in academia. I realize that counterexamples to the democratic and community aspects are not rare among genealogists and that pretense, snobbery, and credentialism are not unknown in our community, but I do not believe that they define it.
The “sharing” element of G/FH/LH figures prominently in the high level of volunteer efforts. Look at Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness, Findagrave, GenWeb, and indexing volunteers, just for starters. And another kind of volunteer efforts - those made by many of our bloggers in posting information and hosting events that bring the genealogy community together - enable close connections to genealogical societies and institutions and bind the genealogy blogging community together in a way that I have never really seen in the academic world. Learning is equated with fun in shared events such as “Saturday Night Genealogy Fun” and the free-for-all chat of GeneaBloggers Blog Talk Radio.
There is just a different feeling here and sharing - in spite of plagiarism and in spite of Name Collectors - is a big part of it. The joy of collaboration is what I enjoy the most: the thrill of being hot on the trail together with others who share your passion: pooling information, skills, and resources to get to the truth and make our research as effective as possible. And this - something I believe is closer to the academic ideal of learning for learning’s sake, learning for the joy of it - is the quality that I believe the academic community really needs to relearn from the Genealogy/Family History/Local History community.
Saturday, April 2, 2011
What (and Who) I Hope to Find on the 1940 Census
This weekend Randy Seaver’s Saturday Night Genealogy Fun at Genea-Musings is as follows:
3) Where did your ancestral family members live in 1940 on Census Day? Have you found all of the addresses in city directories or telephone books? Please list the ones you know the addresses of, and the ones you need to find addresses for.
Most of my ancestral family members were living on farms at this time, so I do not know exact addresses, but I generally know counties and often the towns near which they lived. These are the main ancestors I will start looking for:
My great-grandmother Susan Elizabeth “Lizzie” Smith Bonner Brinlee. I imagine she will be in Collin County, Texas, living with her son Odell Brinlee and his family, or possibly with another son, Austin Franklin Brinlee. I am especially interested in finding more information on her, because she is my brick wall. Will this census finally provide an accurate age for her?
My grandparents Lawrence Carroll Brinlee and Sallie Frances Norman Brinlee. They will be living in Fannin County, Texas, somewhere near Bonham. I believe my Aunt Sarah Evangeline Brinlee will already be married and out of the house, but my father and most of his brothers will be living at home.
My grandparents Kirby Runion Moore and Eula Amanda Floyd Moore. They will be living in Baylor County, Texas, near Bomarton. I believe their four youngest surviving children (the youngest, Ray, died in 1932) will be shown living with them. My mother will be with her first husband; I believe they were still in Baylor County, but they might have moved to California. Baylor County has never had a very large population, so I will be going over all of the images; there are bound to be numerous other relatives living there.
My great-grandparents William Henry “Jack” Norman and Sarah Jane Sisson Norman had died during the previous decade, but a number of their children would have been living in Fannin County, or perhaps in neighboring Hunt or Grayson counties. I am particularly interested in finding my Great Uncle Oby Norman, whom I could not find on the previous three censuses. I know that in 1925 a son, H.P., was born to Oby and his wife Edith Beulah Watson Norman; H.P. died in 1928 and was their only child as far as I know. On the 1930 census I found Edith living alone in California and in that same year she travelled to Hawaii alone. Where was Oby? The separation was apparently not permanent; they lived together in California until Edith’s death in 1956.
Lizzie Brinlee was the only one of my great-grandparents who was alive in 1940, but I do hope to find all of the siblings of my grandparents who were still living. Most were in Texas, but a few may have been in California. Of course, I do not have exact addresses for these siblings, but I will start by looking near where they lived on the 1930 census.
I am disappointed that the parents’ birthplace will not be included, but I do hope that the question on who provided the information will help me to judge its accuracy.
3) Where did your ancestral family members live in 1940 on Census Day? Have you found all of the addresses in city directories or telephone books? Please list the ones you know the addresses of, and the ones you need to find addresses for.
Most of my ancestral family members were living on farms at this time, so I do not know exact addresses, but I generally know counties and often the towns near which they lived. These are the main ancestors I will start looking for:
My great-grandmother Susan Elizabeth “Lizzie” Smith Bonner Brinlee. I imagine she will be in Collin County, Texas, living with her son Odell Brinlee and his family, or possibly with another son, Austin Franklin Brinlee. I am especially interested in finding more information on her, because she is my brick wall. Will this census finally provide an accurate age for her?
My grandparents Lawrence Carroll Brinlee and Sallie Frances Norman Brinlee. They will be living in Fannin County, Texas, somewhere near Bonham. I believe my Aunt Sarah Evangeline Brinlee will already be married and out of the house, but my father and most of his brothers will be living at home.
My grandparents Kirby Runion Moore and Eula Amanda Floyd Moore. They will be living in Baylor County, Texas, near Bomarton. I believe their four youngest surviving children (the youngest, Ray, died in 1932) will be shown living with them. My mother will be with her first husband; I believe they were still in Baylor County, but they might have moved to California. Baylor County has never had a very large population, so I will be going over all of the images; there are bound to be numerous other relatives living there.
My great-grandparents William Henry “Jack” Norman and Sarah Jane Sisson Norman had died during the previous decade, but a number of their children would have been living in Fannin County, or perhaps in neighboring Hunt or Grayson counties. I am particularly interested in finding my Great Uncle Oby Norman, whom I could not find on the previous three censuses. I know that in 1925 a son, H.P., was born to Oby and his wife Edith Beulah Watson Norman; H.P. died in 1928 and was their only child as far as I know. On the 1930 census I found Edith living alone in California and in that same year she travelled to Hawaii alone. Where was Oby? The separation was apparently not permanent; they lived together in California until Edith’s death in 1956.
Lizzie Brinlee was the only one of my great-grandparents who was alive in 1940, but I do hope to find all of the siblings of my grandparents who were still living. Most were in Texas, but a few may have been in California. Of course, I do not have exact addresses for these siblings, but I will start by looking near where they lived on the 1930 census.
I am disappointed that the parents’ birthplace will not be included, but I do hope that the question on who provided the information will help me to judge its accuracy.