Historic Oregon Newspapers Access - University of Oregon Access

As has been discussed in other entries and in the genealogy class if you've taken it, newspapers are an invaluable resource to the genealogist in their search for family roots.  Since there was no facebook or internet, both the mundane and sensational ended up in the newspapers way-back-when that can give clues to greater searches.  Finding the sources for the newspapers is another matter entirely.

As I was walking through the Beaverton Library, I saw an advertisement for yet another link for Oregon Historical newspapers.

http://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/

This is provided through the University of Oregon - the other site that is particularly useful is through the Multnomah County Library, reported to be the most comprehensive search and database resource this side of the Mississippi. However, as Multnomah County's resources require a library card which you may not have obtained yet (available to anyone regardless of residence) this link above could be another great place to start.  At any rate, here you go, have a look for free!

Local Genealogy Societies

Depending on where your research is concentrated, you may wish to consider joining a genealogical society dedicated to the locale you are primarily working in.

One of the local ones to this region is the Genealogical Forum of Oregon.   They have a library with over 30,000 hard-copy titles, actively work to index records that aren't as publicly accessible, membership gives you access to Ancestry.com for a fraction of the price as buying Ancestry outright as well as they have seminars from time to time and personal help that you can request.

There are many others in Oregon, but I just use this for an example - for a list of genealogical organizations in Oregon, click HERE.


If you're stuck, look for a genealogical society to the locale you work with primarily and see what benefits they offer and whether membership is for you!

Using Obituaries to Find Other Clues!

Another example - this provides a lot of clues to search!

Obituaries are some of the most fruitful sources of information you'll find.

Why?

Well, how many people get a book written about their lives if they aren't famous? 

Not many.

But obituaries?  Far more common and they contain a wealth of information about survivors, life stories, marriages, geography, migrations, political service - you name it. Although the more prominent they are the more detailed info they will have in the obituary but nevertheless, these are treasure troves of info!

Remember when you get hung up on someone and are having a hard time finding info, don't just try an obituary, try the obituaries of their relatives to see if they turn up as being mentioned in them. 

For example, I'm hung up on looking for more info Jasper Walling and Nelson Walling and am looking for where to look for records for them.

here's an obituary summary I found from Ancestry.com on their father (which leads me to the original copies).

Summary of Obituary in 30 Aug 1897, The Daily Idaho Statesman

Death of J. B. Walling
He passes away peacefully at his home on the Avenue
Was Ill for Seven Years
Large number of Descendents
Funeral to Occur this Afternoon

Jerome B. Walling died yesterday morning at his residence on the Hot Springs Road after a lingering illness of nearly seven years. (Article goes on to relate the following facts in a narrative)
Born in New York on August 24, 1809
Age 9 (abt 1818) moved with parents to Meggs County, Ohio
1825 moved to Fulton County, Illinois
Served in the Black Hawk War under Captain Maxwell
Married Sarah Leverton in Fulton County, Ill on March 4, 1829
Mrs. Sarah Walling died on 2 Apr 1890 
1837 the family moved to Iowa
1848 the family moved to Yamhill County, Oregon
1850 elected to the Oregon Territorial Legislature
1851 elected as a Yamhill County Commissioner and served for 4 years
1864 moved to the Boise Valley and resided there ever since
Was responsible for building the Walling Ditch which supplied irrigation water for land the city of Boise
Father of 16 children, 8 of whom survive him:  Lucy Loosley of Ft. Klamath, Or; Jeptha Walling of Tillamook, Or; Fletcher Walling of Salem, Or; Nelson Walling of Portland, Or;  Jerome Walling, California;  Mrs. Clara Mullancy, Glenns Ferry;  Mrs. Rosalie Gile Highland Valley, Idaho; Enos C. Walling, Boise.
75 Grandchildren and “goodly number” of great-grandchildren
Was a member of the Masonic Order for 60 years
“He showed good judgment and economy in his business transactions and always held the respect and confidence of his fellow citizens.”
Additional information about this story Description   Date 30 Jul 1897 Location Boise, Ada, Idaho, United States
Anyways, I found that Jasper was in California at the time of the Obituary, Nelson in Portland with a whole other treasure-trove of information!   About any of this could be a jumping off point for more research.

I got so frustrated looking for Nelson and Jasper that I went back to their dad's obituary and found a bit more info that I'd overlooked and was able to fan out a bit more as well as glean some more information I hadn't used to round out some other information (like his military service!).

If you get stuck, also go back to the beginning or try working through other relatives as well, sometimes this can open the door you're looking for!

Works Progress Administration Cemetery Indexes

alllll been written down....

The 1930's were a new era of federal government bureaucracies.  All sorts of projects sprung up under the federal government, from building dams, to fixing highways to....genealogy!

In the 1930's President Roosevelt's "New Deal" also included a provision to index graves in the United State through the Works Project Administration (WPA).  While the WPA was controversial and considered wasteful by many (it even funded depression era tap-dancing lessons to lift American's spirits!) and eventually was terminated, the work done by the WPA has greatly benefited many aspects of genealogy including grave indexes.

While there isn't a single WPA grave index available online, they are slowly making their way to the internet and being indexed digitally.

Personally, while I am very fond of Find A Grave because of the easy accessibility, my ability to interact with others, request photos, include photos, attach obituaries and link family members, it doesn't have everything in it.

So, if you find you get stuck looking for a grave, do an internet search for a WPA Cemetery Index for the county/state you're looking for and you might just strike gold!  From there you can add an entry to Find A Grave and submit a photo request to confirm the info contained in the index.

As always, if a grave is unmarked anymore, request a photo of the empty spot so that others in the future know not to go looking for it still.

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!

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.

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,

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.

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.

Genealogy Sources & Resources

So you've started with yourself and are ready to branch out!   Now, what?  Where?  WHO?

Well, the "who" and "what" are up to you.

Who do you want to work on?  Who do you feel you should work on?  Who is going to be the easiest?

There's tons of genealogy to go around, and in terms of getting ordinance work done, I always recommend starting with the easiest people first - the ones who have the most info on them. Start with prayer.

Then when you have decided that, working on the internet is one of the easiest places to start that allows the most work for the least effort.  Although there are times when gathering actual research is necessary and desirable, internet research is one of the easiest places to start.

First you need to know there are holding periods on certain documents that you won't easily have access to right away - for example, censuses are released 72 years after they've been compiled. In the State of Oregon, all birth records have a 100 year restriction on them, meaning unless they were born 100+ years ago, you won't be able to get them, and death records have a 50 year restriction on them. (Click here for other states' rules)  Neither of those are really a problem because we can't submit names for those born less than 110 years ago unless we are the closest living relative.

So where do we start?  All of the following links are on the right of the page so you don't have to go through here again to find them.  I recommend bookmarking these on your web browser to make it easier to find them and use them.


Probably the best and most versatile resource for family history that you will pay for.  An excellent investment. Costs ~$150/year or ~$23/month for access to US records, more for overseas (But VERY worth it!!!! Every penny!) Available for free at LDS family history centers.
*Allows you to download photographs of documents
*Order copies of the original documents
*Print documents
*Link to others' works on your family tree
*Create a family tree others can see online.

New Family Search often will have links or trees of you family already completed by others who've done work before you.  There are also a host of other records available for free.

While I find I upload more into New Family Search than I download, I have had some fantastic success with New Family Search – both on the research side and on the temple records side. To access the research side click “Family Search Web Site” on the main page.

Rootsweb is primarily a message/research board that allows genealogists to connect with one another and post info.  Great place when you're stumped to post a question and find some info, also you can sign up for mailing lists by surname so you are notified anytime someone has a find related to a particular family/branch/name.

More information than you can possibly sort through.  (HUGE!  You *will* get lost in here it's so large and comprehensive and huge and huge and huge and huge and HUGE!)‏ Free – BUT may cost money to access links. It links to the resources that store the info you're looking for – (e.g. Maryland Vital Records, Tillamook County Historical Records, personal published family trees)

The United States Newspaper Program is a cooperative national  effort among the states and the federal government to locate, catalog,  and preserve on microfilm newspapers published in the United States from the eighteenth century to the present.  Your local library may have collections of newspapers as well.  Definitely try the Multnomah County Library link at right.

OBITUARIES – Obituaries are an excellent source of info as they list churches, family, occupations, where born, where died, years of immigration and much much more! land recordedStuck?  Try an obituary! Definitely try the Multnomah County Library Link at the right.






LAND RECORDS!  Land records can help you establish time lines of residence, and other family life events & locations including schools, cemeteries, work – you name it!  People “lived” around where they lived! Got one of your immigrant family members who claimed they came to the US to meet a brother on 5th street in Chicago that nobody can find anything on? (I do!) Land records can help you with things like this! (Heck, you can build a legacy just off land records alone!)


The National Archives specifically has veterans records on file that you can request.  You can order medals – you name it!  In addition there are other genealogical resources, historical documents and more.  Another invaluable resource to use online or at one of the centers (If you're near DC, Atlanta or Anchorage).

There are no records of Indian genealogy before American record keeping began.  At some point in your genealogy, if your family has been in the US for any length of time, you're likely to come across a branch going back into “Indian Territory.”  While going “back” may not be possible, you can “branch forward” and “out” - it needn't be a “dead” end.

Looking to find what happened to your family in the civil war?  Civil war records can provide insight into pensions and family benefits and can be an indirect link to other family members.  Also if you can find where someone may have been killed in the war, you might find where they were buried.  You can also find survivor's records and enlistment papers.  A veritable smorgasbord of info!

Daughters/Sons of the American Revolution are lineage based membership organizations for women/men who are descended from a person involved in the American war for independence.  Like other sources, this can be used to establish identity or secure more information to spread your search out.  Given that many revolutionary patriots were first and second generation Americans, these can take you back overseas and provide a missing link!  I've found some impressive pedigree information off of DAR/SAR applications often going back seven and eight generations.

Millions of Americans came to the Land of the Free through Ellis Island.  The Ellis Island Foundation has links to ship passenger lists, immigration lists and records of entry. Operation as an immigration inspection station began in 1892. Wanna find out when someone got here and how they got here, or where they came from and branch back overseas? Try the Ellis Island Foundation!

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS!  
Another resource on just about anything you might like to look up. This can even include historical documentation on notable persons in your lineage who might have records on file here.

Museums, Libraries and Historical Societies.
Many museums and libraries have genealogy libraries in them.  You will often find original documents from local history.  If you call a museum to ask what they have, ask if they know anywhere else to look in your quest.  I've even found artifacts on display that belonged to my family in some museums I've been to! 

 Bring cash to pay for copies, paper or a laptop to take notes, if you have a portable scanner that hooks up to your laptop – that's just fantastic!  Plan on spending some time and go early because you'll probably have to do your research there and you'll get sucked into the work.  Be prepared to make an appointment.  Other times, you'll meet others working on the same family line and can compare notes or the librarian can help you network resources. Often they have many books particular to the genealogy of the region that branch back into other parts of the world.  Some resources are available only at that library and may not be available online, so going to a museum or library can be a worthwhile trip.

Can be used to research topics or garner sources in greater detail on various historical events, places or people.  Statistically said to have fewer errors than Encyclopedia Britannica.  Use it to learn about censuses, towns you are researching, particular names, battles, events - Wikipedia is an amazing resource!

Is a volunteer program to put genealogy resources onto the web to make them easier to find for free.  more links to county, city and state genealogy resource websites for free.

Provides links to the state archives of each state – including adoption records, probate records, you name it!  You may have to pay for the resources once you locate them. But, once you receive a document – scan it – and put it out on the web for others!

And here's where you can put it! Consider documenting your progress on the world wide web and putting your research where others can find it. Blogger will allow you to create a free blog.  I write about progress on my family history, upload photos and other information here that are a bit more difficult to find. It helps me keep track of where I am if I set my genealogy aside for a while.  It also allows me to write things easier than I might be able to otherwise such as stories from my family. (www.blogger.com).

These are just a few of the resources to use and is by no means the end, this is just the start, but it should put you on your way!

Gemeteries & Gravestone Genealogy Work

Cemeteries can be one of the best places to do genealogy work.

Why?  Because information is "carved in stone" and often you'll find relationships even by proximity in the cemetery that can provide hints and clues.

On a spiritual side, I've often found inspiration while working in the cemeteries leading me to find graves and markers that otherwise couldn't be found.  Those beyond the veil are clearly vested in this work and I've often felt their spirits present while working in the cemeteries or while dedicating the resting places of the deceased.

One of my favorite online cemetery resources is Find A Grave (www.findagrave.com - also on the sidebar of the webpage).  Find A Grave contains virtual memorials of individual graves, photos of headstones and family members, obituaries, timelines and even has family relationships linked to other cemeteries - a sort of virtual / tangible family tree if you will.  You can request photos of gravesites if they are missing, or add photos if you wish and even leave a virtual flower or message if you wish on the memorials online.  You can volunteer and respond to photo requests and go locate graves that are on Find A Grave and then upload them for other genealogists around the world so they can do their work and I've found this work very satisfying. You can create a free "account" or login/register and create a profile and connect with other genealogists through this work.

You can search cemeteries with it, but beware, not all cemeteries are in it, neither are all interments.  While I've had tremendous success with Find A Grave, sometimes I have to do my own work.

So how do you find where someone is buried in the first place?

Well, you can search Find A Grave for starters - provided you got the name and location right. 

If you know where in the world the person died, I've had tremendous success working through obituaries in the newspapers through the Genweb Obituaries (Also on the side of the webpage) as well as through the Oregonian Archives found at the Multnomah County Library Online (Also found on the side of the webpage - need a library card though, free, just go downtown to get it with your ID - *totally* worth it). Other times, I've just had to be persistent with Google until I "dug something up."

Obituaries are fantastic because they contain *so* much information in a narrative format including married names of daughters, occupations, places of birth, previous marriages, ,military service, emigrations and lastly - places of burial. 

Unmarked grave next to spouse

Even when you find a place of burial, not all graves are marked.  Oftentimes you'll find family members were poor and so they were interred without a headstone and the place recorded but otherwise, there's nothing there.  Sometimes stones get overgrown with grass and sink below the surface, other times they are vandalized or disintegrate due to ice/snow making them shatter and other times if the cemetery is anywhere near where flooding is a possibility, entire cemeteries can be moved/destroyed/buried by a flood (That's always interesting to work with).  Other times, the cemetery its self may be manually relocated with some loss of stones / documents in the process.

Sometimes I have found headstones by poking into the ground with my weed fork (See cleaning headstones) and then excavated and lifted them up to the surface and carefully re-placed them on top of the grave (make sure you follow etiquette when you do this - *don't* break a stone - *don't* leave a mess - *don't* interrupt or distract from a funeral or grieving visitors).

My recommendation is if you know where someone is buried and there's no marker, for documentation purposes, take a photo of the place anyways just so you know you got the photo and don't keep thinking you've never researched the spot.  An unmarked but known patch of grass can be meaningful as well to some people.  Or, if the spouse's (or other family member's) headstone is still standing and the person of interest's headstone is nowhere to be found, but geography of the cemetery indicates that they may have been buried next to them, take a photo of that gravestone with the space next to it.

abandoned cemetery

There are a few different types/conditions of cemeteries though.

There are abandoned cemeteries - their name aptly describing them.  Often on private land, or even government land, overgrown and forgotten, often undocumented, have fun with these.  I recommend saying a prayer when working with one of these because its about the only way to find your way around - and I have.

Untended cemeteries don't have a groundskeeper so to speak, they may be fenced off and occasionally mowed and be on private or government land, but they don't have an office or maintenance or sprinkler systems or anything, and may only (if you're lucky) have records in the form of an old forgotten book chained to some part of the cemetery - shot in the dark on these.  However, to visit these you might/might-not have to obtain permission from the land owner.  Be polite, do your research, follow etiquette and you should have no troubles with these. Usually I'm able to walk right into these without needing to ask permission.

Other cemeteries have groundskeepers and are constantly managing the land and have a records office and may even have hours when they are open or shut like Willamette National Cemetery in Portland.  Some may only allow flat headstones so they can just mow the place without having to go in between gravestones.

Some of the larger cemeteries may have records they allow you to search online, others like some Jewish Cemeteries may require you to have a membership to search interments.  Others may be on tribal lands and have their own special rules for access.  Others may not have any online records (hence the usefulness of Find A Grave et. al) and require you to go to the office during working hours, drop your names off and come back in two hours after they find them.  Sometimes, if the interment is a child and is recent, they will not disclose the grave location without immediate family permission.  I've not yet had any charge me to look up an interment. 

BONUS - some of the larger cemeteries not only have the files of the interments but will sometimes carry additional information related to the cause of death, death certificates, the funeral service and other info and will provide you with copies of them at your request.

Oftentimes families will purchase a large plot ahead of time to be buried at.  So you'll head off to a quadrant and may find one giant monolithic headstone where the names of family members are etched each time someone dies with smaller or headstones or none if they stack the coffins on top of each other in the ground.  I've not yet had family who have been wealthy enough to purchase a tomb complete with glass French Doors with everyone's coffins neatly stacked inside, though I've been to plenty of mausoleums in this work - both indoors and out. Mausoleums are nice because the photography is always easy as the sites don't weather as badly as gravestones do, though getting a photo of the final resting place can be challenging if the place is fifteen feet up in the air on the side of the wall.

Depending on the age of the cemetery (out west we generally don't go back beyond the 1830's - unlike back east or even in Europe) even if it is manned, some parts of the cemetery may not have been documented (or lost records in a fire/flood) and so they may not know where an interment is.  However again, if you know a spouse/family member, and they have a blank space next to the spouse, with a bit of prayer and consideration, sometimes you can make that leap of faith.  If you document it, document your leap-of-logic/deduction in your notes.

If you're going to go to the cemetery and have to work with office staff, be sensitive to and respect any differences in religion (I never bring mine up), be polite, ensure you go early enough to allow them time to help you out.  If you're planning on doing any photography, I recommend going early enough in the day that the light is good, and while you're there?  Photograph a few other headstones as well and create a memorial/ load them up into Find A Grave for someone else down the road.

I strongly recommend, if possible, taking your children with you as it can be a great family outing and allows a wonderful talk about gospel topics.  However, ensure that children are socially appropriate to the setting in all instances (mine run around in the abandoned cemeteries or as long as nobody else is there and they don't step on the headstones and show respect to the place - though if you're feeling particularly spiritually in-tune, I've found children bring a wonderful spirit with them to such a place) and make sure your work doesn't detract from the setting or any events that may be taking place in the cemetery that day.

Don't forget to look at the backs of the stones as well for any information contained on them (if they are standing upright obviously)!

If you feel really motivated, compile a spreadsheet of graves and cemetery layout if the cemetery doesn't have records and you can submit this to Find A Grave for that cemetery or even publish it on a genealogy blog.

Lastly, one of the greatest assets again is that headstones often contain additional family relationships or even personal info (military service) on them so they can really be a great boon to your work!  Don't just look at the gravestone you came for, look at the graves around them - often you'll find graves of infants who died in between censuses that you've never found before who are part of your ancestry.  Actually, very often you'll find far more of these than you would expect.  Try to learn the history of the cemetery you're working in before you go as well.  Many of them have a history that is associated with certain areas of their layout that will provide clues into other aspects of your work, such as the influenza pandemic that hit Portland in the early 1900's with many of the flu victims being buried in a particular part of the cemetery just in order to keep up with the burials.

While working in cemeteries is one of the gravest works I do with genealogy, I also find it one of the most satisfying because I get to work with something tangible and know that my ancestors and their friends stood where I am standing and I know why they were there and when it happened, and it gives me a bit of time to reflect on the plan of salvation.

Enjoy your work.