Finding the Patriot: Spanish American War and Records

• Spanish American War (1898) History
• Spanish American War Genealogy

The Spanish American War which resulted in the United States' base in Guantanamo Bay Cuba and the Philippines becoming an American Territory up until 1946.

In genealogy, besides censuses and obituaries, few things are as useful as military records to genealogy.

Given that the 1890 census burned in 1921(interesting article!) , and that many many of your recruits and draftees for a military campaign are between the ages of 16 (if they tell the truth about their age) and mid-thirties, military records of the Spanish American war - newspaper announcements, draft records, discharge papers, company movement announcements, stories of valor, etc., - will have a lot of men and families in them who were recorded on the burned 1890 census who are otherwise missing!

While war is a terrible enterprise in terms of cost (though oftentimes the cost of not going to war or losing is even higher) it provides a lot of records for genealogy, the Spanish American War is another instance!

LOST ANCESTOR! FOUND ANCESTOR! Asking for Help on the Web

One of the amazing resources I've found is Rootsweb online.  Rootsweb allows you to not only connect with mailing lists but also allows you to post questions that will often be seen by others working on the same line and get you some answers pretty quickly.

Rootsweb is free.

If you go to the Rootsweb Message Boards and go to the localities and categories towards the bottom - you can navigate your way through say the categories such as United States > States > Oregon > (unknown categories) Unknown > Begin New Thread and post a question that will usually get an answer.

I've had some amazing success this way, sometimes with more information than I can shake a stick at coming back at me from other genealogists.

One of the keys is to post a "well informed" query (Some guidelines and FAQ's here).   i.e. "Help me find my aunt!" isn't going to be of any use to anyone.

Here's a query I posted recently:
Delmar H Millican & Marie Sears Wedding? (1918)

I see in various censuses that Delmar H. Millican was married to his wife Marie (Millican) but am not able to find a marriage certification with her maiden name.

I have found both of them in the Oregon Marriage Index on the same date but not able to find their names together on a document.

Delmar H. Millican B~1897, Tillamook, Tillamook, OR
Marie (Sears?) Millican b~21 Nov 1901, California
Marriage 3 Aug 1918, Portland, Multnomah, Oregon

I've attached the Oregon Marriage Index for both names and the 1920 census, though that's pretty close for this work, if anyone has any more info on an actual wedding I'd be much obliged.

I immediately got a response from someone who had a better search of the Oregonian than I did:

Oregonian August 6, 1918 Page 16

DAILY CITY STATISTICS
MARRIAGE LICENSES

Millican-Sears - Delmar Millican 21, 499 North Twenty-First Street and Marie Sears, 18, 505 North Twenty-First Street

NOTE IN ALL THIS THE CITING OF SOURCES (I included a census so they can see the dates, locations and such) and they cited dates and pages and sources.

Now from here I might use this info to go find their headstones!  I could've found their headstones first or visa versa but always use one bit of research to find your next!

Document document document document document!  Genealogy without sources or documentation is mythology!

Another resource is to connect with people via Facebook and Ancestry and Family Search and Findagrave and any way that you can! I use facebook primarily for social networking and make sure that what I post is professional-enough to be shared with the world.  I've connected with 5th cousins who still have my last name and who are now members of the church and work on opposite ends of the family tree together.

 Use social networks!

To see an example of a "Well informed Querry" on Rootsweb, there's this link - here:

http://boards.ancestry.com/localities.northam.usa.states.california.unknown/13419.1/mb.ashx

You'll notice not only is the post "well informed" (anyone can look at it and know just about exactly what is going on or where to start looking) but I also attached copies of the documents I obtained my information from in both screen shots and file-saves (See this entry on screen shots and file saving formats).

The key in this case anyone can download a high-resolution picture of the files I uploaded, check my work, verify it for themselves, and in one case I was told I read the document wrong!  Had I not had a high-resolution image and a copy of the original, I might not have gotten that info!

Some genealogy is like this....always verify people know what they are talking about..

Coats of Arms, Heraldry & Family History

Heraldry is the profession, study, or art of creating, granting, and blazoning arms and ruling on questions of rank or protocol, as exercised by an officer of arms. Heraldry comes from Anglo-Norman herald, from the Germanic compound harja-waldaz, "army commander". The word, in its most general sense, encompasses all matters relating to the duties and responsibilities of officers of arms.To most, though, heraldry is the practice of designing, displaying, describing, and recording coats of arms and heraldic badges (To continue the article on this topic visit Wikipedia.)


Briefly, a "coat of arms" refers to a design on a shield or covering or coat over armor that identified you in battle - while you were in "arms" or ready for war. The European art of heraldry is nearly a thousand years old but is still practiced today in Europe.

According to England's College of Arms, there is no such thing as a coat of arms for a surname. The College of Arms states that unrelated families with the same surname will be entitled to completely different coats of arms and many will be entitled to no coat of arms. For any person to have a right to a coat of arms, they must either have had it granted to them or be descended in the legitimate male line from a person to whom arms were granted or confirmed in the past.

England's King Henry passed laws prohibiting the free design and wearing of armorial bearings, or personal coats of arms. In 1483, King Edward IV established the College of Arms--or Heralds' College--to "oversee and regulate the granting of coats of arms."

However, a coat of arms can provide some insight into some of your family history research and tell you a bit about where you came from. Remember your ancestry didn't end or begin with your coat of arms, and you're related to many more than just one name and the coat of arms may have been from a lineage you aren't descended from.

If you happen to find your particular ancestry's coat of arms you may be able to find some sweet memorabilia related to it at House of Names.

Some other resources can provide a bit of insight into the meanings on the coats of arms.

Have fun with this fascinating aspect of family history!

Genealogy By Nation - Working in Other Countries

Just a bit of diversity...

Every country and culture has its own unique rules and contexts for doing genealogy in.  Even in the United States of America, different cultures are going to present different research issues in general (and specific individuals will present specific research issues within the general framework context), as are different geographical areas.  For example, Native Americans are different from White Americans in culture, meanwhile, you're making a mistake if you assume all White Americans share the same culture, language, views, history or practices.  Similarly with Native Americans.  African Americans aren't all from Africa.  African American is actually a "pop culture" phrase that isn't always accurate because there are many Blacks who are from the Carribean (i.e. Haiti) and even South America who aren't from Africa but are identified as such, similarly, Egyptians are litarally from Africa but may not be considered "African American" here in America.  This is just our modern age, never mind what you're working with going back in time!


The Church has put out a training website on many individual countries with links to lessons for working within those countries. 

Also, Cyndi's List has an alphabetized list of links, training and resources for a lot of countries.  If you're looking to work within Italy, for example, go down and click on "I" on her webpage and see the Italian links.

Remember, not all countries are going to have a lot of work done or going on in them depending on history or current world conditions (e.g. Democratic Republic of Congo), this is why I stick to the "low hanging fuit" and work primarily in the United States of America presently so I can accomplish more in less time with less effort and set aside more difficult stuff for a time when more is readily available.  But if you wish to head back overseas in your family tree?  Know before you go! 

Paying for Genealogy Websites?

Genealogy is the number one use for the internet.  Surprised?  I would have thought it was Facebook or Youtube but actually in terms of a general purpose, more genealogy is done online than any other hobby or pastime.

At some point in your genealogical journeys you're going to come across websites that want you to pay for access to their services (Ancestry.com for example).

Some websites are completely worth paying for (Ancestry.com for example). (Before you spend the full money on Ancestry, check out the Oregon Genealogy Forum where with membership you get an Ancestry subscription for a fraction of the cost)

Others?  Well, it depends.

On what, you ask?

Well it depends on your focus, your needs and your purposes.

My genealogy?  I'm primarily interested in getting enough documentation to submit names to the temples and just document a family tree while focusing on the low-hanging-fruit, while stories and photos are optional bonuses for me.  That means I find a lot of readily available info through obituaries, censuses and headstones that are publicly available and don't require me to become a Genealogy-Jedi specializing in Scottish-Clan-History.

For all of this, in terms of paid subscriptions I get along very well with an Ancestry.com and Archives.com subscriptions, use my Multnomah County Library Card for newspaper archive access online, and my free account at Findagrave and a bunch of other websites (at the right of the page) and I'm good to go.  I don't use Archives very much or get too much from it, but it was a fairly cheap subscription for a year and I've gotten a few things from it.

If you want actual copies of documents such as death certificates, you're usually going to have to pay for those from the State Archives, though you can go in person to the Capitol here in Oregon in the Archives and just pay for the copies - cheaper than ordering them online - more work but worth it.

Here's the guidelines I use on investments (or other endeavors) to determine whether it's a good investment and this works for genealogy as well.  It's called the NUDE model (it could be called the DUNE model so as not to offend sensibilities, but in my business line we tend to assess novelty before dependability because then we know what we're talking about first so we can decide if its useful next - the order is a progressive order this way).

To subscribe or not to subscribe, that's the question

• N = Novelty - how unique is what I'm paying for?  If you can get it somewhere else for free (New Family Search?) why pay for it?  Is their stuff so rare you can't get it anywhere else and do you NEED it?

• U=Utility - how useful is it?  It might be cool for genealogy but is it going to help you?  It might be rare but is it useful?

• D=Dependability - does it do what it says it will for what you need?

• E=Economy - do you get what you pay for?

Remember again, there are tens-of-millions of genealogy websites.  If you're going to pay for something, make sure you're going to use it, need it and can't get the stuff anywhere else for less.
I.E. don't pay $100 for a website that has only one document you're going to use unless you need to.

When you're brand new it might be tempting to throw money at every website that comes along (or be overwhelmed because you can't afford to) to find what you need, but as your experience increases you'll learn more what you absolutely need and what you do not.

Who's Who an' Where? Ancestral Distribution in the USA

Here's a map I snagged from Wikipedia about ancestral population distribution.  Interestingly, German is the largest ancestral heritage in the United States, Irish is another major one, though you have to remember population density in this map.  Some of the most heavily populated areas in the United States are predominantly Irish even though geographically they don't cover as much area. (Click the image to enlarge it).

Marriage & Searching For Women Ancestors

As was talked about in the entry on the censuses(eses) finding women ancestors can be difficult.

In future years working with women will be easier as more documentation is released in our modern society, but for the time-frame we generally deal with in genealogy (born +110 years ago) women weren't allowed to vote or own property for the majority of the world's existence and across the majority of the world's geography.  Additionally, their names changed with their marriages.  So on your family research fully one-half of your research is going to involve searching for people whose names changed at some point and there isn't always a record of when or where it happened or what it got changed to. This makes finding women particularly difficult in many instances.

Make sure you get my mustache in the center....

Historically, marriage was more than just a religious institution or a matter of love but a means for economic and temporal survival.  Even more often, marriage was a means of conveying land, preserving titles and family lines and this varied from culture to culture.  Marriage was very often a matter of function more than love.

The marriage of a younger woman to an older man was the norm in an age gone by as by then the man would have established himself and have a means to provide for his new wife and her youthfulness made her physically able to bear children and care for him in his older age.  It wasn't uncommon for an ailing veteran in his very last years to marry a girl of fifteen or so in order to give her his pension for the remainder of her life in order for him to be cared for in his dying days.  She would then re-marry and bring the pension with her into a new marriage.

Further complicating things is the issue that women married more than once very often.  Two and three marriages aren't unusual with harsh frontier lives.  Meanwhile death in childbirth would often leave men widowers with children later with step-mothers and the husband married multiple times.

Meanwhile, many censuses wouldn't record the names of anyone but the head of the household or there may have been a common-law marriage in various frontiers and so there may not have been a record of the marriage with relatives seemingly "coming from nowhere."  As a bit of trivia the youngest marriage contracted in the Oregon Territory was at 3 years of age (Fact I learned at the Oregon Trail visitor's center).

In your genealogical research you'll find eras in world marriage history that make the 1980's look like eras of marital stability.

But what to do and how to find your women ancestors when their marriages aren't listed on censuses with their maiden names? 

One trick I've came up with works pretty well.  I knew for example that the marriage took place in Multnomah County, Oregon.  So I did a search of the Oregon Marriage index which doesn't always  list the groom and the bride together, but searched for just the bride under her maiden name and found the date she was married. 

Then I searched the index for *all* marriages on just that date in the same place (Multnomah County) and pulled out all the grooms names for that date and location.

Actually this couple almost looks happy

Then I searched for husband / wife combos under the married name until I found a document with the bride's first name and *a* husband off that list who was married that date.  I would correlate other info that I knew about the wife to see if that was indeed them, and would come up with *the* match I was looking for.

Previously what had been a dead-end was suddenly turning up names left and right and yielding a lot of fruit.

Later I found the bride marrying again under her married name and was able to find a second marriage which led me to the death of the first husband, and then her headstone with this info and then her obituary off the headstone info and used that to find other family marriages and married names.

It's all about using info that will lead you to other sources of info.

Other documents that will yield marriages are death certificates short of a marriage certificate, and newspapers often carried weddings depending on the era that you are working in, there are also wills, letters and stories if you can find them.  If you're working backwards, obituaries carry a lot of info.  Cemeteries and headstones will often have a maiden name in them for you to try searching by.

Additionally, middle-names can yield clues as to a matriarchal lineage as daughters often would be named after their grandmother or have their mothers first name as a middle name.

Becoming proficient at this will yield a lot of results but the key is to not get too hung up on a difficult line, keep learning, and be persistent and patient.  Don't forget to pray!

For more info on how to research women in genealogy - click here.

Genealogy from Africa!

Some lines are going to be easier to research than others, most notably those of royalty and in America notably that of government officials, land-owners, military or historical figures and going from there back to royalty.

Tuskegee Airmen - some of the most heroic pilots of WWII

Trust me, everyone's related to royalty and nobility at some point.  GREAT!  I wouldn't think that you're in line to become the king of the Isle of Mann anytime soon because that one got taken in 2007 by an American.  But we're also related to some not-as-historic individuals who were faithful and good people loved of heaven and who await this work to be done for them.  In fact, we're related to more of them than we are royalty.  And unfortunately the strange winds of circumstance and fortune make some records harder to find than others such as the records of African ancestors.

What does this mean?  Well it means that some aspects of the work are going to be more difficult and you'll rely on oral traditions and stories in many instances more than others.  But it also means you're going to be having a lot of success and that your work is less likely to have been done already and you have the potential to be one of the greatest blessings on earth to them through the veil as you do this work. Proceed with prayer!

If in doing your work you branch back over to the African continent, remember most of Africa was colonized by European powers at various points, most notably the British and French.  Large parts of Africa still speak English and French among other European languages. There is the possibility of tapping into family lines that have documentation in countries that were colonized and who kept records under the administrative rules of their respective empires.

For more tips and resources on doing work among African lines in America, check New Family Search, Cyndi's List,

Indexing! What is It? And Why Do We Need It?

Computers can't "read" these.  But YOU can.

You know all those billions of documents from a long time ago that we now have pictures of and have been scanned into microfiche and film?

No?

Okay, well you know there's tons of paperwork from a long time ago that records city populations etc.  But anyways, those documents get scanned to and get copied to digital copies because we can't pass around the originals so everyone can look at them.

INDEXING is where we transcribe the images into a database so computers can search the databases corresponding to the images because computers can't read old-timey handwriting or decipher it.

So lets say you're looking for Joseph Lark born in 1820 in Kentucky to William and Emma Lark both from England.   A computer isn't going to be able to search the images of those documents and find that information.  But if we have individuals like YOU who can read them and enter what's on them into a database, then we can use computers to search the contents of the images/documents so we can find what we are looking for and find the right image.  THEN people doing genealogy can find those documents, use the spirit to find out who's-who and submit the names to the temple for their ordinances to be completed so they may have an election to the celestial kingdom.

In other words, indexing is critical to genealogy.  Indexing is critical to temple work.  There is much work that can't be done yet because the documents haven't been indexed yet for people to be able to find.

 While we could pay people to do it, the cost would be enormous and quite slow for the amount of work required.  So instead, the church asks for volunteers to look at scans of old-timey documents such as censuses, immigration lists, draft cards, etc., and transcribe their contents into a database so that people can find what they are looking for in genealogy. In fact, the LDS church was instrumental in indexing the 1940 census that was released in early 2012 and the work of indexing 132 million records was completed in record time by indexing volunteers.

Each document is indexed twice by two separate volunteers and then if there's a discrepancy between their interpretation of the documents, an expert arbitrator reviews the discrepancies and determines the final outcome. 

Indexing is an excellent way to become familiar with the different types of documents as well as is some excellent practice on reading / deciphering old handwriting which you'll need to do this work.  There are a number of tools there that will teach you and give you clues on how to read and decipher the handwriting.

Old name abbreviations n' handwriting example from Rootsweb - you'll learn these!

You can index an entire census a bit at a time each day and they generally take me about twenty minutes apiece.  You don't have to finish it all at once, but you can work on a document five minutes here and there until you complete it.

One of the things I got to become proud of or watch for is my "accuracy" which the indexing program keeps track of which  can help you know whether you're beginning to understand what you're doing.  If you ever need something to do to feel productive online and you got tired of Facebook or don't do Facebook but want to do something different?  Try indexing!

To learn more about indexing or even get started on it - click HERE.   

Working Overseas: British Isles Genealogy

While it is very tempting to see just how far back you can go, one of the difficulties I've found with American genealogy is that most of our ancestors?  Came from somewhere else. 

And between here and there (usually) are two big oceans and very often a bunch of different languages.

This in mind, as my English / Irish / Scottish ancestry has been here so long (1620) and most recently I'm second generation French/Italian American, I've had some choices to make in terms of my family history.

I've decided that generally I'm not going to do extensive genealogy overseas for a few reasons (you have to decide for yourself what you wish to do).

One is the issue of languages - I don't speak but one other language of my ancestry fluently enough to allow me to work with foreign language documents without extensive and time consuming help from Google Translate.

The other is that of resources.  Going to my local historical museum in Alto Pascio, Toscanna, Italy for a day visit just isn't in the cards.

HOWEVER, I speak good English really well!  And resources for American genealogy are abundant for me here which means I can contribute much more to the work by working and staying here in America than I can by about anything I'd do going overseas.  That and its less expensive to work here primarily.

So unless I find a family tree or a treasure trove that takes me overseas fairly effortlessly, I've personally decided to focus here in the United States.

But I did find a UK website for British Isles Genealogy if you're interested in doing some work over there as a place to start without having to purchase the international subscription of Legacy (which is free at Family History Centers).  Additionally, Cyndi's List has an extensive link to the UK  as well as New Family Search has some resources as well.

Some things to know about the UK.

Often, the Canadians, New Zealanders, Irish etc., are all called "British" in some records.

Britain is the name of the island.
Britania is the ancient name for the island nation.
England is one of the countries there.
The United Kingdom consists of the constituent countries of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
The Commonwealth or Commonwealth of Nations, formerly the British Commonwealth consists of those nations who recognize the Queen of Enland, Elizabeth Windsor as their monarch, and as of this writing consists of 54 member nations.

Have fun!

Finding the Patriot: World War I and Records

• World War I (1914-1918) History
• World War I Genealogy

 "It will be recalled that the year 1914 found all the major nations of Europe flexing their military muscles.  It was inveitable that the slightest miscalculation in diplomatic relations might turn loose a churcning volcano of human destruction.  The spark in the powder keg was the assassination of the heir to the Astria-Hungarian throne by a member of the Serbian secret society.  This occurred June 28, 1914.  Austria Hungary had been looking for an excuse to take over Serbia, and therefore her troops began marching in.  This angered the (Russian) Tsar because Serbia was on his own calendar of conquest so  he declared war on Austria-Hungary.  Germany came to the defense of Austria-Hungary and declared war on Russia.  At the time France was an ally of Russia, so Germany used this as an excuse to declare war on France.  This brought England into the war as an ally of France.  Thus the machine of war began to roll" (Skousen, W., 1958, p. 106-107).

The United States were neutral during most of the war though they continued to trade with the UK and her allies much to Germany's chagrin.  Germany declared later that anyone trading with her enemies was an enemy to Germany.  With the sinking of the Lusitania in 1915, and later the Zimmerman Telegram in which Germany telegraphed Mexico to join them in a war against the United States, President Wilson asked for a war to end all wars and the United States entered the war on April 6, 1917.  The US entry into the war proved decisive and turned the tide of the war towards the English and French alliance with the war being won by 1918.

An important part of WWI documentation is the draft cards because: identified parent, place of birth and date of birth.  Many of these can be found on Ancestry though New Family Search has many listed as well.

Many Italians volunteered to serve in the war on the American side - the highest proportion of any ethnic/cultural group, so draft cards can be a gateway back across the ocean to a lot of Italian genealogy.  Note: Italians did/(always will) - write their first name last, and last name first.  When looking for Italian records check first/last name and last/first.

Explore the links above for a smorgasbord of genealogical information.

Valid / Reliable Sources and Info

What constitutes valid and reliable info and research in genealogy?

This is where YOU have decisions to make.

For YOUR family tree, YOU have to prayerfully decide whether YOU consider a source of information reliable and valid based on what you have learned in your history in many instances and the Spirit can help you with this. 

So in terms of submitting ordinances for the temple, regardless of whether you submitted George Washington to be sealed to your mother and claimed George lived in our day, cool as that might be, even with the priesthood it wouldn't be a legitimate sealing.

However, given the importance of the temple ordinances and the given that not everything is documented and some things can be known from family histories and stories, the church doesn't require extensive documentation for an ordinance to make sure its valid. Yet.  

Regardless, your family tree wouldn't be very reliable nor would it be valid either.

So what does make info reliable and valid?

Usually with genealogy we are dealing with documents on paper (sometimes etched in stone, or worth a thousand words at a time in a photograph).  There usually is more than one piece of info we can obtain from an ancestor on a piece of paper and more than one should match other documents' info, or we should have verified more than one before we can look at a document and say "YUP! That's him!"

For example, lets say you're looking for Jim Jones in documentation and you know nothing else about Jim Jones other than his name.  Nothing.  If that's all you have, I would say you don't have enough info to do any research on the individual anyways - you've got a rumor if even that, not a person.

But you can't then pick up a census from any time period or location and find a Jim Jones and say "YUP! That's definitely him!"  Or find Jim Jones on forty censuses around the country and say "Man, Jim really got around!"

However, if you knew Jim Jones was

• born on July 7, 1957 
• in Portland, Multnomah, Oregon 
• as the adopted step-son 
• of  Tim and Fredricka Jones 
• and born at Emmanuel Hospital 
• and resides on Creekside Court in Milwaukie, Oregon 
• and graduated from Milwaukie High School in 1975 
• and did a stint in the US Navy as a Machinists Mate 
• on the USS Belleauwood from 1975-1979 
• and now works for Intel

and you found a photograph of a guy at a circus in black and white with the sole label on it of "Jim Jones" you still wouldn't say "YUP! That's him! Found a picture of my uncle!"

Or if you found a circus-ticket stub attached to a crayon colored drawing with "Jim Jones" scribbled at the top - similarly you wouldn't say "YUP! That's him! Found my uncle's art-work!"

Now if you found a photo with a caption, "Jim Jones with mother Fredricka and father Tim at Portland Circus, 1967, age 10" You might go, "ah....maybe we got something."

The example highlights a few things: the amount of info as well as the nature of the document itsself.  Not all documents are "equal"in this work.

And a few pieces of info should match up between what you know and what you're looking at/for.

If you know that Jim

•  was born in Oregon, 
•  and his mother was born in Germany in the 1930's 
• and his father in the Soviet Union in the 1930's, 

and you find a census for Oregon that lists him as

• a step-son 
• born in Oregon
• and his parents as Jones, T. and Jones F. 
• and his parents as being born in Germany and USSR, 
• and him being 2 years old on a 1960 census (even though those aren't released yet - humor me)

then I'd say you've possibly got the right person.  

If they were born in Indiana and Michigan and the census says Iowa and Michigan, I'd still say "close enough, I think this is it."

Now if you find an individual who matches all these details and you find something related to them being a paraplegic at the state mental hospital and you know they joined the Navy, despite those details adding up, the last three details are disqualifiers.

In short, you have to pay attention and slow down a bit and take your time.

• Also, are you looking at an original of the document or a transcription?  
• Are there sources to the transcription/document? 
• Sources to the story?

It takes some time to get used to working between ten documents and putting that kind of information together in your head, but you get used to it.

Speed will come in time as you come to know who you're working with and learn trends and nuances that are common to the work.  

In the end for your family tree - YOU have to prayerfully decide and consider and I testify, the spirit will help, can help and does help in this work as it is very important. This is by no means complete, but it gives you an idea and an overview of what to consider in this work.

Enjoy the journey and take in the scenery

Census Records: How to Read Them

Census records are what I call "the doorway to genealogy" and are the single most common document / record I and many others use in genealogical studies.  For this purpose, learning how to use them is critical to your success.

Here's a presentation by Ancestry.com that gives a bit more insight into the 1930 census and how to read and glean information from a census that might otherwise not be immediately apparent.

Censuses in the US

Mandated by the federal government and taken every 10 years beginning in 1790 for enumerating congressional seats and government program funding. Censuses were taken before 1776 in the British Colonies but not as regularly.

Currently there is a “72 year rule” in which censuses are released to the public 72 years after their making to protect private information.  The 1940 census was released in 2012.

Documents like censuses were taken at various times of year.

They usually have a column that asks the age of the people in the home but not always month/year of birth.

The people answering the door to the census takers often made mistakes on family members' ages among other things.

Usually this gives you a range of  +/- 1year, sometimes +/-2 years in estimating birth-dates. Anything beyond the +/- 3-5 years and I start questioning if I have the right person. I start identifying them by their family members' ages, birth places, names and relationships.

This leads you to often put for birth-dates “About” the year born or the likes.
(Next time you're at the temple, look at your card and if you see their birth as being “about” - you know what happened!)

For example

In the 1880 Census, taken on January 8th, 1880, Elizabeth Franks is listed as being 25 years old.

Given that it is only the 8th of January, the likelihood of her birthday being between Jan 1st and 8th is pretty slim – could be – but unlikely.

Also given that we don't know who answered the door, or if they knew what they were talking about, or if the census-taker even wrote it down properly, or if it got copied properly, you'd mark her date of birth as “About 1855" in your records UNTIL you find another record that conclusively demonstrates that her birthday was one year or another (Headstones, anyone? Marriage records?  Obituary? Social Security Death Index?  State Death Index? Family story? High school records? )
  
                      GREAT! You've found “Elizabeth Franks”!

However - now – when searching for further info on Elizabeth Franks you've got a couple of issues:
1) You need to give a spread of years for her birthday when searching for her (which is fine because there are many errors between documents on birthdates anyways and you'll see this if you haven't already).
2) If she was married on the document, and if you don't know who her father was or her maiden name, now you have a hard time finding records specifically related to her birth – though you have a rough estimate of her birth year.
3) If she wasn't married on the document, until you find a marriage certificate or a document of her marriage, you don't know her married name you're going to be looking for. 

BUT, you've got a bunch of other info that can give clues to finding other information in the future. 

In addition to federal censuses there were also state and Indian censuses and schedules.  I obtain most of these from Ancestry.com but they can also be obtained from the National Archives and State Archives of the individual States. 

To see the tables of Federal, State and Indian Censuses click to continue:  

Looking for the Patriot: American Civil War & Records

• The American Civil War 1861 -1865 (History)

• The American Civil War Genealogy

Sometimes called the "war that hasn't ended" - the deadliest war in American history, resulting in the deaths of 750,000, with an estimated ten percent of all northern fighting-age males and thirty percent of all southern fighting age males killed.  

Remember to check draft records as you search. Many records are indexed by enlistment location rather than name, so you'll need to know where your family member lived at in order to make best use of records.

The Confederates started conscription because they needed soldiers and began that in February of 1862.

The Union liked the idea and so they began the same in March of 1863.

Military pensions were not paid to confederate soldiers, and the pensions paid out by the individual states were very small but pensions are another means of tracking down your ancestors. 

National Archives (Link on the right) contain just about every single record you could want to find on the Civil War with Union records being the most detailed.  The nearest National Archives office is up in Seattle, call ahead, go early and be prepared before you go and you should find it a very fruitful visit. 

Looking For The Patriot: Colonial Wars & Records

Before America was an independent nation, a number of wars were fought on this continent between the European powers often called "Colonial Wars." Chances are pretty good that somewhere you're related to or descended from someone who fought in those wars on one side or the other. This is an overview of the wars with a bit of genealogy on some of the larger wars. For a complete listing of wars as well as some great resources, click HERE. What follows are some of the more notable wars.

COLONIAL WARS

• King Philip's War  1675-76 (History)
• King Philip's War Genealogy

 King Philips War was named after one of the native chiefs who was called "King Philip" It was very violent and the most devastating of all wars.  Nearly drove all the English out of the North American continent.  There were 90 English settlements, 52 attacked, 12 completely totally destroyed by the natives. In this war, the natives were using fire-arrows into the log cabins and they just BURNED!  As the people fled, the natives killed them, if they didn't flee, they went in and killed them.  King Philip was defeated ultimately.

• King William's War 1689-97(History)
• King William's War Genealogy

King William’s War (the first of the French and Indian Wars) began in New England as an extension of the war between England and France, when in July 1689 the French governor of Canada incited the Indians to brutally attack Dover, N.H., then known as Cochecho.

• Queen Anne's War 1702-13 (history)
• Queen Anne's War Genealogy Links

This time, France, England, Natives AND SPAIN on the American continent around the New York area. (Trivia: America used to be known as "Columbia" after Christopher Columbus, with the "ia" generally meaning "land of" - or land discovered by Columbus - eventually being called America in reference to the explorer Amerigo Vespucci).

• King George's War 1744-48 (History)
• King George's War Genealogy

 Back to between England, France and the Natives but up over the Acadian Peninsula this time, the fourth of a series of wars between France and England and the natives, while it ended in 1748, it left many unresolved territorial disputes that resulted in further wars such as the...



 

• French and Indian War 1754-63(History)
• French and Indian War Genealogy

The French and Indian War was a seven-year war between England and the American colonies, against the French and some of the Indians in North America. When the war ended, France was no longer in control of Canada. The Indians that had been threatening the American colonists were defeated. This war had become a world war. British Colonists wanted to take over French land in North America. The British wanted to take over the fur trade in the French held territory and colonists fully participated in this war. Both these facts were to have a profound effect on the future of the colonies.

British soldiers fought against French soldiers and Native Americans. Native Americans joined in the battle against the British because they were afraid the British would take over their land.

The War officially came to an end on February 10, 1763, with the signing of the Treaty of Paris. France officially ceded all of its holdings in North America, east of the Mississippi; while regaining the Islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique. The most long lasting effect of the war was not negotiated between the parties rather, it was the effect the war had on the American colonies. The cost of the war and of controlling the newly acquired territories was high. The British looked to the colonies to help pay those costs. That began the long spiral of events that led to the Revolution.

However, lest the causes of the revolution be watered down to simply England expected colonists to pay taxes, and the colonists throwing a child-like temper tantrum refused, see the Declaration of Independence for a list of grievances that sparked the American Revolution.

• Revolutionary War: 1775-83(History)
• Revolutionary War Genealogy.

Was actually a civil war between English loyalists and English separatists or revolutionaries.  Those loyal to the King moved across the St. Lawrence river into Canada, some stayed permanently and others came back after a few generations, into Michigan and other northern states.  

You may find relatives from Ohio, Illinois, etc., who look like they came from "nowhere" - check the New England Register and see if they were there before the Revolution and then left for Canada.

Most important records from this war are the pension records.  Those pensions lasted a LONG time.  Often old ailing veterans would marry a 15 or 16 year old girl to care for him and when he died, she got the pension for the rest of her life which means a fifteen year old girl could marry a man who was a boy in the Colonial Militias as a drummer or other position, he might be 70 or so in the 1850's and then she live another sixty years beyond that.

Indexes to the revolutionary war records are found in the State Archives. You can get name, birth, serial number and physical description of individual veterans. Physical descriptions were used to identify corpses in the wars.

If you don't find the pension records, it may just mean that he didn't take the pension or didn't need it and he was healthy and went on his way.

No single archive is going to hold all the records.

Don't forget to check the Daughters and Sons of the American Revolution Home Pages (On the right of this webpage). 

Three kinds of pensions were given:

• Disability/invalid - suffered physical disabilities in the line of duty.

• Service pensions - stayed in for a time - like a retirement

• Widows pension - for wives who's husbands were killed or he got it for a certain period of time and she was entitled to it for the rest of his life.

From 1776-1878 this law was changed on the widows 14 times. Widows were offered a pension if he was alive and in the service when married.  Examples of changes in the laws:

1838 - she received a pension if married before January of 1794
1848 - pensions were given if married before 2 January of 1800
1853 - all restrictions relative to date of widows marriage were eliminated (married in time?  She gets the money)

A fire in 1800 - destroyed almost all the pension records in the war department. Other records available however as talked about above.


New England Historical Genealogical Register: Contains all the records from the time the pilgrims landed at Plymouth until the Revolution.

General Military Terms

1. Volunteer - "Take me I want to go!"
2. Conscription - "I'm not going" "Oh yes you are!"
3. Draft - got a lot of volunteers by those who were trying to avoid certain duties imposed by the draft - i.e. if you don't want to serve in the Army in Vietnam you can volunteer for the Air National Guard Reserve as a secretary in a military library in Oklahoma, one weekend a month, two weeks a year.

For more military entries click on the tag "Military" on the right under "Tags n' Topics"

Books: "Hidden Sources" - Laura Szucks Pfeiffer

Image from Amazon - don't try to click - it won't work

If you're looking to go beyond "Ancestry" and the online sources, this is the book to read: "Hidden Sources" by Laura Szucks Pfeiffer.

This covers in brief Admiralty Court Papers to Works Progress Administration Papers with everything in between.

If you'd like to know not only what some unique sources of genealogy are when you come across them, as well as where to find them and how to use them, this book will definitely give you a leg up on the topic and push your genealogical research ahead!

Avaiable HERE on Amazon.

Temple Submissions: REQUIREMENTS!

The amount of information required to submit an ordinance to the temple is very little actually.

They are:

• A name. Not even a full name.  A first initial with a last name is really all that's required. 
• Approximate date and location of one life event (preferably birth)
• Gender

That's it!

 Input that into Family Tree and you're good to go!

If you get to family photos like this...stop going.  You're in the 1500's.

It is not required but it is helpful if you have a source for your info and can document how you know the information - memory of someone, family bible, census, birth certificate, grave stone, history compendium etc.)

Now obviously the more info and life events you have the better because you can be sure you're working with the right person and not submitting invalid work.

It helps when you have a death date as well because then you know if you need to look for a marriage possibly, or if you even need to do a baptism.  If they died before age 8 this isn't necessary and Family Tree won't let you do it.  But if you don't have the info of a death, then you can submit it, but you could be submitting an unneeded ordinance.  However, given the nature of genealogical research, obtaining a death date isn't always possible so it isn't required.

Except for a few well documented lines of royalty – most genealogy sources, documentation and resources are  considered unreliable or in-valid before 1500. Generally you will run into issues with Family Tree trying to enter new data from before 1500 for this reason as it won't let you do it without requesting special permission.

Once you've submitted your work to Family Tree you have two options: 1) do the ordinances yourself or 2) release them for others to do.

The general authorities have asked us to have ordinances performed in "a reasonable amount of time" - in other words if you can't do them in "a reasonable amount of time" release them for others to do. 

It is not advised to hold onto a multitude of ordinances that you will not be able to perform yourself because this work needs to be done and the amount of work that needs to be done is immense.  The more work that is done allows other work to be done through the veil and into our lives and extends blessings around the world.   My personal recommendation is to hold onto those that are closest to you and allow others to be blessed by your work around the world as you submit it.  I may hold onto a few names for my trips to the temple but generally as soon as I submit them I release them to the temple to free more people up through the veil to help with the work.

Temple Submissions: THE RULES!

Temple ordinance submissions are very sacred and should be treated as such.  When you submit a name to the temple, you are affecting the priesthood, the House of the Lord, and even the lives and memories of the living in many instances as well as the wishes of the dead while they were living.

We believe in following the laws and respecting the wishes of others as Latter Day Saints and this is especially true with temple work. Not following the rules can result in some high-profile consequences, unwanted attention and even damage the work of the Lord.

This could be your name

So your name could end up in the news as single-handedly alienating an entire religion and you could win a personal call / letter from SALT LAKE CITY or the FIRST PRESIDENCY to YOU PERSONALLY!  (And not for a good reason either.)  The First Presidency recently stated with this event that these types of actions may result in disciplinary action or affect your ability to submit temple work.

Be aware the rules on genealogy submissions to the temple change from time to time from Salt Lake, so check on them periodically in New Family Search to make sure you're compliant. 

So what are the rules?

As of this writing they are, briefly:

• Must be deceased +1 year (366 days unless its a leap year then 367).

• If you are not closest living relative, must have been born +110 years – otherwise have permission from closest living relative - currently defined in New Family Search as in this order: living spouse, adult child, parent, adult sibling. (The age recently changed from 95 to 110). 

 It is noted on New Family Search that if you are not that individual doing the submissions and you don't have permission, then perhaps you should wait for hearts to soften or for a more appropriate time. 

• No Jewish Holocaust Victims you are not directly related to unless you have the written permission of every single living family member (or want to end up in the news and tarnish the reputation of the church and hinder the work from going forward, which I don't recommend.)

• No celebrities (unless you're related to them and can prove it).

You can submit names of family members who don't meet these requirements into New Family Search without doing the ordinances for them, or if you wish to keep them until the time is right for them to be done, reserve the ordinances to be done by you and hold off until the time is right to do them. Otherwise they can be done by other church members.

If the Lord can wait and has commanded us to wait or not do it, then we can wait and follow his instructions.  Doing genealogy and following the rules is as much an act of faith as it is an act of service.

On a spiritual note, the choices and friendships and relationships we have in this life carry consequences into the life that follows, and that includes whether temple work gets done or is desired not to be done by those still living.

Remember that this work ultimately will be completed, so be patient in this regards.  You will eventually find those whose families have put a hold on their work and refuse to let their work be done, I have found several.  I am a relative/descendant of the Fancher Wagon Train that was killed at Mountain Meadows, and understandably, those closer to the deceased than I am do not desire the Latter Day Saint church doing temple work for their deceased relatives who were killed there and have put a hold on their work and will not allow it.

Tempting as it may be in this instance...I wouldn't recommend it...

In the instance above, a church member decided to do a high-profile forbidden baptism contrary to the rules, and then an ex-member who is a journalist went searching for high-profile forbidden baptisms / rule-breaking and then broadcast it immediately to the world after snagging screen shots of it.  There are many forces  at play in this work and its best to stick to the ones that will bring about good rather than risking damaging the work.

Be patient.  There is much other work to be done in the meantime without breaking rules and harming the work.

In short, stick to *your* genealogy.  Elvis and Anne Frank will be just fine without your help at this stage and are in the Lord's hands.

Genealogy Tip: FOCUS!

Genealogy is not an exact science.

You will have to look for clues and be open to possibilities and “develop leads.”  You'll run into “dead ends” and even have “cold cases” that lie for years before something comes up that you need. Other times you'll have fantastic finds and treasure troves of success!

To make work easier – focus on one family at a time. Meaning, one set of parents and their children at a time, or one individual.  It's very easy to go “hog wild” and run down roads of links and get lost in the work and end up with a mess you can't sort out.

As you find info, you're going to come across other branches of family.  Save them as you come across them but keep focused on the family or individual you're working on so that you can complete your work.  Take your time to verify your work and document it in your family tree software as you go.

Meanwhile, don't get so hung up on an elusive/difficult individual that you completely stop working on your family tree.

Some info may not be available yet.  Sometimes you'll need to take a break. If you feel like you're not having success, set that person aside and try someone or something else!

Think Outside the Box!!!

Some branches of family history are going to be easier to track and find than others.
The easiest records to find are those of white, male property owners, government officials, of royal descent or historical figures.

Meanwhile, often in genealogy there's a tendency to focus on “Going back.” Don't forget you can also branch out to the sides and come back to the future – or at least the present! Marriages, cousins, in-laws, all are part of your family that you can add to your tree!  Don't get totally hung up on just “going back.”

So! Where Ya From? Geography in Genealogy.

Um, not a good time in history to sound like you're from....um....anywhere...

Many of the same political considerations apply to geography as to names – it might not have been expedient to be named “Adolph” freshly from “Germany” at one point in history while job hunting. 

You're Irish with an Irish name? Pretty much blacklisted you at one point in American history.
 
So people might say they are from somewhere else with a different name.  Record keepers might not have known or cared what the difference was between two locales at some points and wrote down what was convenient or common. Or their friend answered the door and was dared to lie to the census taker or a child answered the door and was thinking of grandma instead of mom's place of birth, or they write down a place of birth just so long as it starts with an "I" (or pick a letter) even though its totally different than where they are actually from (Iowa vs. Indiana vs. Illinois...I find this sooooooo often on records.).  Sometimes I swear that the census takers swept through town and then wrote down the names and households and places of birth from memory the next day rather than at the time at the home they were at. 

Names of places change over time as well as well as spelling of them.  Towns disappear, get swallowed up, names get shortened.

For example, Dearborn Illinois is now Chicago!



Yamhill, Oregon used to be called Yam Hill, and the Nestucca Valley used to be called Nestockton here in Oregon.  Clark County Washington used to be Clark County, Oregon when Oregon was a territory extending up to Canada.

Entire country names change – Yugoslavia doesn't even exist anymore!  There are two Irelands.

Street names change, highways get re-routed, roads get lost, county names change, territories become states by different names, counties come into existence – geography can be challenging and very interesting to locate people by!

Also, remember, there are multiple places with the same name! All fifty states have a town/city called "Aurora" and there are thirty two "Springfields" outside the US in the UK/Commonwealth, and Wisconsin has FIVE towns by that name in different counties!

If you wish to go further in your research, don't forget to use Google and Wikipedia – you can learn how to read a Township map among other things.

The internet is your friend!  However, too often we don't use it to our best advantage!  Do research while doing your research!  Take time to learn geography while doing your genealogy and keep these things in mind while you're doing your work.

What's In A Name? (Names in Genealogy!)

No comment....

CONSIDERATIONS: Genealogy may require a bit of above-average insight.

Examples:   A child may go by their full name in childhood, and then go by a nickname or even their middle name when they are older (or visa-versa).

For example – Jacob John Sturzenegger later becomes simply Jack Sturzenegger making it look like there are two separate people in the family.

HOWEVER:
If Jacob and Jack share the same date and place of birth
When Jack is around, Jacob John is mysteriously nowhere to be found on the documents
When Jacob is present, Jack is gone
We know that “Jack” is a nickname for Jacob
We might safely conclude (not assume!) they are one and the same. 

People making government records in times gone by are the ancient equivalent of going to the DMV to get high quality service.  They aren't paid that much and there's no real incentive to get it right and they hire whoever they can find.Without modern equipment, records were written by hand, sounded out according to their best ability according to various levels of education, filtered through languages and accents in a rush just to get the work done.Then it was stored on paper in non-watertight storage after being written with a smudgy quill/fountain pen and copied by hand with another quill/fountain pen by someone else with the same qualifications.
  

Additionally, you're “going back in time” on these documents and photos.  Names were very different than they are now in many cases.  Prediline?  Is a girls name, apparently.  Google can help you determine unusual names or unusual variants and their histories.

For one family, the surname “De la Mere” became “De la More” and then “More” and ultimately evolved into  “Moore.” Take your time to figure it out!
 

(Prediline is a girls....name?.....Predline?  Is that a "P"? A "T"?)

When deciphering handwriting on a document, if you come across an unusual letter or letters that you can't quite make out, or a name that is unfamiliar:

Compare it to other letters on the document in that document-writer's handwriting. Compare it in the context of other words you do know or can read so you can decipher what you're reading.

George Pleasants - Great! Know what a "P" looks like on this one!  It was a "P".

Immigrants to the US often changed their names to reflect their new citizenship. 

Various political winds (Such as World War II) might induce a family to change their name or go by a new alias.  Many Jews adopted German/French or other names in WWII.  

Alberto Georgio Carrara from Italy became George Albert Carrara from the United States!

Johan Freidrich Sturzenegger from Germany became John Fredrick Sturzenegger from the USA!

For example, I did find a census with a “John Chinaman” on the record of a set of prisoners (1870's here in Lafayette, Oregon).A further examination of the census listed him as a “prisoner” to the head of the home (One of my ancestors was a jailer who apparently “worked from home”).
His race was listed as “Chinese.”
Given the racial sentiments of the time, it is possible the white men couldn't pronounce his name, didn't care to, or given the cultural differences of the time – he wasn't talking and telling anyone his name. And so! Introducing: John Chinaman!

The name is John Wayne (Chon Wang)

Don't forget misspelled names! 

I've even seen Sturzenegger rendered Sturzengwyr – making searching for a name difficult.  Some of them way worse than this! Pay attention to variations and expand your search to include or account for them!

Very often you'll find ancestors listed in archives/records only by a first initial followed by a misspelled last name.

Try searching using just a first initial, or even just a last name or misspelled variant of the last name and see what results you bring up.
Very often:

L E S S  I S  M O R E

For example, while searching for Verne Millican in Yakima City, Yakima County, Washington, I might just search for a last name, first initial, in Washington and put the date of birth as “about” to see what comes up.  Sometimes I'll leave the location out to see if they pop up somewhere else!

Often if you're too specific in your searches, you won't turn up what you're looking for.


                                         Will the REAL Michael Bolton please stand up?

I'm the REAL Michael Bolton

 Just because the name is correct, doesn't mean you have the right person.

There is more than one “John Smith” in the world (No really! There are probably at least two!) and more than one “Michael Jordan.” Or even “Sr.” and “Jr.” in a family yet they may not have written “Jr.” or “Sr.” on every document. Beware of same names with similar birth dates and verify through other pieces of info such as birth place, parents' places of birth and so on. 

I'm the FAMOUS Michael Bolton

 Pay attention to birth dates and birth places and parental names when you start dealing with individuals with similar names.  Trust me, having the right name but wrong person can wreak havoc on a tree after you've done a ton of work on it, then you have to undo it, and depending on how you have them woven in, it may or may not be a lot of "fun" to undo.

Stuck on an incomplete name?  Try a “Wildcard character” such as a “*” or a “?” when using electronic media. 

For example, you know the first part of the name, but not the last part – or there are variations of the last part of the name – i.e. Millican/Milligan/Milliken/Milligen.

 For your search “Milli**n” or “Milli??n” or even “M*” (Depending on the software program you're using).

In the end, you'll develop a feel for names, people and places the more time you spend on this, but in the end?  SLOW DOWN.  Haste makes waste!  You'll get more done taking your time than you will running helter skelter down the wrong family limb and causing yourself to have to do more work later or creating work that you really can't use.  Slow down, enjoy the spirit, take in the scenery and have fun!