Author Archives: Rebecca

Rebecca’s Reel Hints: New Year, New Genealogical Project

Posted on January 16, 2012 by Rebecca

What’s the point of genealogy project? Sure, it’s to uncover a family’s history. But the real mission should be clear: results!

Nobody wants to spend time on a project that goes nowhere. That’s a frustrating experience that you shouldn’t ever endure. So to kick of the new year, in the next few months I will focus on one genealogical project and show you how to get real, tangible results.

No, that may not mean having one hundred new ancestors’ names by next Tuesday. I won’t be getting into a specific record group or telling you where on the internet you can find that answer you’ve been looking years for.

Rather, I’d like us to put one project on the fast track and show you a proven method for organizing the research. In the next few months I will go into detail about:

1. Goals and Background Information
2. Timelines and Maps
3. Research Plans
4. Writing as a Research Method

We’ll take each of these, break them down into small goals, and move forward slowly but surely. By the end of these four organizational steps, you’ll be surprised at how much you do and don’t know about your own research.

Step One: Goals and Background Information
1. Define your goal. We hear the word “goal” and our eyes roll back into our heads. It’s as if we are conditioned to hate having goals. But take a deep breath. A goal is just a road with a sign saying, “This way to your destination.” If you don’t know where you are going, how are you going to get there?

Write down your goal. Be specific. Do NOT say, “I want to prove myself all the way to Charlemagne.” Do say, “What happened to Uncle Dolphus after the Civil War?” or “Who are Grandma Eulalee’s parents?” Even if you want to prove your relationship to a Revolutionary patriot, you still have to do it one generation at a time; make each generation a separate goal.

So, what is your goal? Write it down and refer to it frequently.

2. Write the background information. This is simply a summary of what you know about the ancestor and WHY you know it. It may be full of blanks like:

“Uncle Dolphus was born in 1836 in Livingston County, New York. He never married. He moved away from the family after ____. He was living in Solano County, California by 1881. He died _____.”

The blanks are just as important as what you do know. They help us focus on the missing pieces.

3. Use footnotes.  Be careful; sometimes the “facts” are actually misleading. That’s where footnotes come in. The footnotes tell you and other researchers you may work with in the future how credible your information is. Do I know for sure that Uncle Dolphus never married? The footnote would say that it was a family story passed down by his great-niece. This isn’t the greatest piece of information; the source is too far removed from the events.  How do I know that Dolphus was in California? The footnote would show that he and the other siblings quitclaimed their father’s home and property to his little sister, Anna. I have the probate file book, page number, and year. I use Elizabeth Shown Mills’ Evidence! or Evidence Explained! to keep my footnotes consistent. Use any footnoting system you want, just make sure you are citing each fact you claim, and where it came from.

4. Collect as much info as possible. Where does the data come from? You need to go digging in your own house. In my case, it almost felt like archaeology: the strata of paper and photos was so thick! I dug out all the paper relating to Uncle Dolphus; all the printed pages, research notes, everything. Then I re-read it all. I realized I’d miss-remembered some things, such as thinking someone said he had died in San Diego County instead of Solano County. I found that I had some information I hadn’t quite put together before. In writing out, in paragraph form, what I did know and footnoting each fact to say why I knew it, I got a better hold on the problem.

To summarize:
1. Make a focused goal.
2. Get out all the papers and information you have about that person or family.
3. Write your background information with blanks and footnoted citations.

Feel free to write and tell us how you’ve done, and if you learned anything new. We would love to hear from you.

Next month: Timelines and Maps.

Rebecca’s Reel Hints: A Time to Give

Posted on December 14, 2011 by Rebecca

After hearing amazing stories on the news the other night about people who gave their time and money to local charities, I felt guilty for not doing more – especially in this season. No matter what you celebrate this month, many of our traditional celebrations focus on giving. I have active children and a busy schedule, and wondered how I could give more.

As I was pondering this, I realized how much I was already giving and how many opportunities there are for someone with my genealogical skills and interests. I thought back to the time I served at the local LDS family history center, the lectures I had given pro-bono for local groups, the cemetery indexing and photographing project I had been involved in, time spent talking to new genealogists about their projects and offering advice, and the regular meetings of an online genealogical educational group I help with (http://progenstudy.org/). While I don’t have the ability right now to work in a soup kitchen or help build homes, I still lend my time and expertise voluntarily.

Are you interested in giving back to the genealogical community? Let me tell you about some of my favorite places, and maybe you will find a project that fits your schedule and interests:

  • www.DeadFred.com. This is literally genealogical treasure hunting. When people find old photos or even family bibles that are thrown away or sold at swap meets and antique shops, they “rescue” them and put them up on this site, looking for a home. You can go there to look for your own long-lost relatives or put up some photos you have found.
  • www.USGenWeb.org. This is a hub for state, county, and town sites created and maintained all by volunteers. Contact the site manager of a town or county you are interested in to see if there are projects you can help with. When I did it, I was sent a few pages from an old index to re-type. I re-transcribed them into a word document, sent it back to the site manager, and it became a new online resource for out-of-town researchers.
  • www.FindAGrave.com. A great project for your family, church group, scout troop, or genealogical society. Volunteers photograph headstones and monuments from a cemetery and put them up on this site. You can submit one photo that you already have or hundreds taken by yourself and friends on a sunny afternoon. Check with the local sextant or cemetery manager if you plan to do a whole cemetery to make sure you would not be interfering with any funerals.
  • FamilySearch Indexing. The LDS Church is famous for their microfilm collection and they are organizing an ambitious project to digitize and index these valuable resources. Check out https://www.familysearch.org/volunteer/indexing. There is an online tutorial to teach you how to index, and lots of help along the way.
  • www.worldmemoryproject.org. Ancestry.com and the Holocaust Memorial Museum have partnered to create the world’s largest online resource for information about victims of the Holocaust. Thousands of volunteers worldwide have added 873,000 records that are now searchable. Contributing is free and easy to do for anyone with a computer and a few hours to help.

There are so many more ways to use the talents you have as a genealogist to give back to others and encourage a love of family history, I wish I could name them all here. If you know of a special group or project, or just want to tell about a giving experience that you have had, write us and let us know.

This holiday season, celebrate random acts of genealogical kindness. After all, not every gift can be wrapped with a bow.

Rebecca’s Reel Hints: The Hidden Gems of City Directories

Posted on November 14, 2011 by Rebecca

What is a City Directory?
It’s the phone book; pre-phones, of course. City directories were printed lists of people in a city and its surrounds, with business advertisements, home addresses, family names and occupations, and information about the city. It is a valuable source for finding families according to their location, occupation, race, and community that can seriously supplement the years between censuses. The following is not a complete description of all city directories everywhere, but it will get you started…

Short History of the Directory
The first city directory was published in Baltimore in 1752 and next in Charleston in 1782. These were compiled by private companies, and had no government regulations guiding their creation or publication. You may find a city with more than one directory in a year, or missing a few years, depending on the success of the company at the time. Large cities and their suburbs are more likely than a small town to have a directory.

What Can I Find in A Directory?
Directories vary over time, depending on the size of the city and sophistication of the company providing the publication. As with all genealogical records, the earlier directories have less information than later ones. You may be able to find:

  • Name and address, sometimes birthplace
  • Occupations
  • Name of wife, adult children, relatives, and boarders in household
  • Other persons of same name in city or on the same street – browse by surname AND street name in later directories
  • Advertisements for business
  • Sometimes death listings for the last year or women listed as “widow”
  • Histories and facts about the city and MAPS!

 

Where Can I Go to Find a City Directory?
There is no one place that will have every city directory in the United States, but the Library of Congress gave it a really good try (www.loc.gov). Not only do they have the largest collection, they have early phone books as well. The best places to start are at the county library or historical society; check the state archive, local university libraries, and state library as well. The trick is that not every directory may be in each place. You may find a few years you need at the historical society and a few more at the state archive. Keep digging! Some may be in their original paper form, and some may be on microfilm. Many places are digitizing their directories: try a Google search for the place plus the word “city directory.” Ancestry.com and other places have some online, but don’t forget about the vast holdings of the Family History Library: order a microfilm of the directory to come to you at your local Family History Center (https://www.familysearch.org/films/).

Some Hints for Success:
Number one rule of reading any genealogical index: Don’t just read the page with your ancestor’s name on it – read the introduction and explanations at the front as well. The same goes for city directories. There are some great tidbits of information that could guide your search. For example, in an 1869 Boyd’s Directory for Washington DC, it reads “Many of our streets need renumbering, especially 7th, 9th, and F streets, and Pennsylvania and New York avenues. There are squares having duplicate numbers, and in some cases triplicate numbers. In fact, the whole city ought to be renumbered.” There are abbreviation tables, maps, city histories, lists of names omitted from the index, and (best of all) sometimes listings of how certain surnames were spelled multiple ways.

You’ve Got to Try This!
If you haven’t cracked open a city directory to find an ancestor before, now is the time. I am working with a client problem right now that I could not be solving without the directories. The ancestor lived in that critical time between 1790 – 1840 when censuses are so limited. In the censuses I found three men named John. In the directories I found six men named John, their occupations ranging from “cordwainer” (shoemaker) to mariner, plus their addresses and other people with the same surname living near them. Put city directories at the top of your research to-do list, and dig a little deeper for those mysterious ancestors!

Cemetery Special: Rebecca’s Reel Hints

Posted on October 14, 2011 by Rebecca

Arthur Brisbane sagely pronounced, “The fence around a cemetery is foolish, for those inside can’t come out, and those outside don’t want in.”

What is it, really, that fascinates us about cemeteries? Because, to be honest, if you are reading this you have to admit you are one of us – the Cemephiles. I think what we genealogists love is the continued remembrance…. We love the idea of commemorating those who have gone on, and seeing their names literally “etched in stone” as some small indicator of a life lived. One of my favorite things about cemeteries is the symbolic art. We see small lambs or stone shoes for children’s deaths; broken columns for a ‘life cut short.’ Doors indicate passage into the next life and hope in an afterlife. We marvel at how many different kinds of flowers, carved into the rock, can mean so many different things. Cemeteries are hopeful and forlorn, paradoxically romantic and miserable at the same time.

To genealogists, a cemetery is a treasure trove! While hunting in the cemetery for your ancestors, remember these hints:

1.Whether a cemetery is big or small, it will take a long time to find your ancestor if you do not have the section and plot numbers and a map to go with it! Some are online, some are at local historical societies, and some are at the cemetery office.

2.Where did the records go? All cemeteries make records, but not all of them survive. Most are housed at the sexton’s office on the cemetery grounds; some have been moved to the historical society or town clerk. Often these records can tell you so much more, such as multiple burials in the same plot (such as a child and an adult), but only one may have a stone. There may be copies of the obituary or legal papers included.

3.Don’t clean the stone without asking. If you and the sextant decide that the stone is not so fragile that it can be cleaned, use only water and a very soft brush (no wire brushes!) No shaving cream, no ammonia, no chemicals. What you do today may increase the disintegration of the stone ten years from now. The stones are much, much more fragile than they appear.

4.Photograph the stone while squatting in front of it. It sounds obvious, but we cemephiles get a little excited sometimes and take the picture while standing, and we lose half the inscription.

5.Need more light? Make a reflector. Take some cardboard, about a yard square, and cover one side with aluminum foil. Or you may have one of those reflective windshield covers already in your car. Use it to catch the light to shine on the headstone for your photograph.

6.Check all sides of the monument. You never know what you may see: other names, monument maker marks, or personal messages from the family. Check around for other family buried nearby.

7.Ask the sextant about the funeral homes that serve that particular cemetery. Ask if funeral homes that have gone out of business have been bought out or left their records to a newer funeral home. Often you can make an appointment to ask about your ancestor’s records.

8.Be extra nice! Cemeteries and Funeral Homes are private businesses. They do not owe you anything, even access to your ancestors’ records. Ask politely and respect their wishes.

9.Post your photo online. Register the photos of your ancestors’ monuments for free at either www.findagrave.com or www.interment.net, or both! This gives the opportunity for others to contact you because you share an ancestor.

Cemeteries are one of the most fragile genealogical record types we have. Through neglect, vandalism, and the passage of time, many stones become worn, illegible, or broken. Let us respect and preserve them. A life not forgotten is a life that still lives on.

Rebecca’s Reel Hints: Social Security and Delayed Birth Certificates

Posted on September 14, 2011 by Rebecca

So, you’ve been searching for Grandpa’s birth certificate but just can’t find it?  Let’s pretend Grandpa was born in 1900, but the county clerk informed you that their county’s birth records do not start until after 1910.  What do you do?  Answer: If Grandpa was a working adult after 1937, try requesting a form SS-5 and go back and ask that county clerk about delayed birth records! 

Some states began early birth registration (such as New Jersey in 1848 and New York in 1881), but most did not, and even when they had state-wide registration, compliance was not strictly adhered to across the country until after approximately 1915.  Check individual states for their birth registration dates, each state is different.  Consequently, some people born as late as 1910 may not have an official birth record.  With the announcement of the Social Security Act in 1935 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, our ancestors quickly realized the benefits of this program and were anxious to sign up.  The first payments began in 1937 (http://www.ssa.gov/history/hfaq.html.)  But there was a problem –participants needed a birth certificate to qualify.  To satisfy the requirement, people went back to their birth counties for a “Delayed” Birth Certificate.  This was, in effect, an affidavit signed by someone who was present at the birth (a parent, midwife, or older sibling).  More often than not, these are filed separately from the other birth certificates, so you need to ask or search for the delayed certificates specifically.

If you know or suspect that an ancestor was issued a Social Security number (it may be listed on the death certificate, or you may find them on the Social Security Death index at http://ssdi.rootsweb.ancestry.com/), you can order a copy of your ancestor’s SS-5.
The SS-5 is the application for a social security number, and it usually lists the ancestor’s birth date, place, parents’ names, and current residence.  For a copy of the order form, go to http://www.ssa.gov/online/ssa-711.pdf; costs range from $27 to $29.  Hint: Not everyone who applied for a social security number is on the Social Security Death index.  They may have died before receiving a benefit, but you may still find an application for them.

Never think your genealogical journey is over just because you’ve had a bump in the road.  There are so many types of records to open our understandings about our ancestors’ lives.  We at Reel Tributes enjoy hearing how you have been able to use some of our blog articles to help you in your ancestral quest.  Write your comments and let us share in your adventures in family history.  Keep checking back for more hints and inspiration from our staff.