Genealogists to the Rescue!

A Facebook post I received this morning called for help:

FB friends, we need help! We bought this cedar chest at an estate sale and found it had a hidden drawer underneath. In it was a stack of letters, drawing of a house, marriage license and birth certificate. The letters are addressed to Arlise Mord at Methodist Hospital in Sioux City and are from 1947. They are postmarked from Wausau, NE. There are also letters from Arlise to Stanley W. Anderson in Sioux City. There are baccalaureate and commencement notices from the School of Nursing, 1949. Arlise's birth certificate (Mar. 7, 1928) to Arthur Emanuel Mord and Esther Helen Larson (maiden name). He was a farmer in Wausau. The wedding license is for Arlise and Stanley (am guessing the letters were their courtship while she was in nursing school.) Everyone loves a "happily ever after", so PLEASE SHARE THIS, we would love to give it all back to their families!

Immediately after posting this I had time to do a quick Findagrave search. Arlise Anderson came up with a full obituary.  Wow - wish my family were that easy!

AncestryHealth and AncestryDNA

A recent Genealogy In Time article about Ancestry’s future growth strategy caught our attention. What was most disturbing is that Ancestry has sold its DNA sequences to Calico, a Google affiliated company. Here is the 2013 announcement about Calico.

“MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA – September 18, 2013 – Google today announced Calico, a new company that will focus on health and well-being, in particular the challenge of aging and associated diseases. Arthur D. Levinson, Chairman and former CEO of Genentech and Chairman of Apple, will be Chief Executive Officer and a founding investor.

Announcing this new investment, Larry Page, Google CEO said: “Illness and aging affect all our families. With some longer term, moonshot thinking around healthcare and biotechnology, I believe we can improve millions of lives. It’s impossible to imagine anyone better than Art—one of the leading scientists, entrepreneurs and CEOs of our generation—to take this new venture forward.” Art said: “I’ve devoted much of my life to science and technology, with the goal of improving human health. Larry’s focus on outsized improvements has inspired me, and I’m tremendously excited about what’s next.”

We don’t doubt the philosophy behind this company – quality of life – is an important one. What concerns us is the privacy issue. Not only will over a million people who have had their DNA tested through Ancestry have their sequence available to another company, that information is accompanied by extensive family trees. And who else might gain access to this information?

We think it would have been a much better idea if Ancestry had first gotten permission from those who had had their DNA tested through that site. But then, it is about money.

African American Research Tips

Last Wednesday evening our genealogical society had the honor to host Char McCargo Bah, owner-CEO of Finding Things for U, LLC. Ms. Bah educated those in attendance with her presentation: We Were Always in the Courthouse: What You Can Find in African American Court Records.

Char’s Hints:  You can’t research African American ancestors without tracing the white population. No one is an island; we are all part of a community.

Don’t skip anything when researching genealogy. At some point you’ll come to a brick wall and you’ll need that piece of information you skipped over. If you’re using information that has been passed down, understand that additional records have become available since older genealogies were done.

Cite, cite, cite - If/when you publish, you’ll need  accurate citations - Char makes sure she has three sources to document each fact. Make life easier for yourself, cite as you research. Use cluster research or collateral lines.

Cohabitation records – African Americans that were married before the Civil War could go to the courthouse to have their marriage recorded. This applies to divorce as well, and this may be the first record of the couple’s children. In divorce cases they have to present their marriage license. One stop shopping!  The children are listed. Divorces are found in courthouse records with siblings and neighbors testifying. The only grounds were adultery and desertion. If adultery, there had to be numerous witnesses. The court would have lists of people from whom they took depositions.

Know correct terms; know the county. Not all records are on line. You may have to go to the courthouse.

Dispute of property: Division of Slaves.  You have to understand African Americans were considered property, and when people were taken to court, it was because slaves were property that had to be divided equally.

Keep in mind - Some court cases lasted 30-40 years. Some court cases brought slaves back in to verify the owner and owner’s family to settle land disputes.

Many African Americans went to DC to get married. DC was a popular honeymoon spot because of the availability of hotels that would allow blacks. Unfortunately, DC marriage licenses didn’t ask parents’ names.

Prior to 1865, the free people of color in Virginia were required to register every 2-3 years (Register of Free Blacks). Those lists are in local courthouses. They had to carry their free papers on them. This law was passed 1790, and took effect early 1800s. In Virginia when freed by their owner, an African American had one year to leave. They had to petition to stay and that had to be applied for and approved. Black Code Laws; some of these laws continued after Civil War into the Jim Crow period.

Char’s website can be found at: http://theotheralexandria.com/biographic-infoformation2/

St. Joseph's Home Franciscan Sisters on Facebook!

I just learned that the Franciscan Sisters in Peekskill, New York (formerly St. Joseph's Home) have a Facebook page!

Visit them at: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Franciscan-Sisters-of-Peekskill/113565338676429

My St. Joseph's Home blog posts consistently have the most views, and the most comments. I am so glad the Sisters are reaching out to the many people whose lives they have touched over the years.

Another Anomaly in Fredericksburg, VA Marriages

I love genealogy research because I am always learning something. Three years ago we volunteered to digitize Fredericksburg, VA marriages so the wealth of information on those documents would be available for genealogists tracing their ancestors in this part of the country.

We learned as we went along that marriages taking place in this town were not just local folks, but for couples coming from the northern states and states to the west. This made sense since Quantico Military base is close by, but then we ran into the anomaly in 1939-1940 when we learned the northern states started to impose wait periods and required blood tests.

Last week when we got to the 1916 and 1917 Fredericksburg marriages we ran into another anomaly. Working back, we did 1917 first. In that year there were no marriages performed during the month of May. Since the names were filed alphabetically, and we were refilling them by month, it wasn’t like we missed a folder or that one had been misfiled.

We went to the archivist and explained the “empty” month. He jumped on the Internet and brought us information that explained the U.S. Selective Service Act was enacted 17 May 1917. Those married and providing sole income and with dependents under the age of 16 were classified as “exempted, but available for military service.”

We didn’t go back through the first months of that year to see how many men married divorced or widowed women with children, but that might have been an interesting statistic to find. Being married before the month of May 1917 was definitely an advantage when it came to draft eligibility.

Then in 1916 we ran into the same thing, this time there were no marriages in the month of June. In a cursory search I learned the National Defense Act was enacted 3 June 1916, getting Americans prepared for entry into WW I. Why this affected marriages during that month, I can’t say, but it did make for an interesting day!

Who’s Dana Walker?

Today I returned to my research on the family of Ezra and Caroline (Lanning) Tucker. To refresh my memory and to tighten the prose I started at the beginning.

After reading through the introductory material, I read through the documentation I had accomplished so far on each family member.

In the write-up on Ezra and Caroline’s grandchild, Jay Doolittle, I wrote that in 1900 Jay ran a grocery store in the small rural village of Covert, Seneca County, New York. Jay employed Dana Walker (b: March 1877) to drive the grocery wagon around the countryside. And that was it. On to the next descendant.

Today I realized that a number of times I have found a “servant” or “farm hand” living with my ancestors. I would note them in the household, but then dismiss them as far as any further research. Until today.

I wondered, who is Dana Walker? I spent a couple hours in an attempt to fill in his life.

From The Farmer Review of 16 March 1901 I found that Dana Walker and Miss Ada E. Hall, both of Farmer, were united in marriage Wednesday 13 March 1901 by the Rev. C.H. Moscript. I believe Ada (b: abt 1883) was the daughter of Porter and Claudia Hall of Seneca County, New York.

In 1904 Dana left Jay Doolittle’s grocery store, using his contacts through the grocery wagon to find work at the nearby Rappleye farm.

At some point Dana Walker returned to work in the grocery business because on 18 July 1913 the Interlaken Review reported that Dana resigned his position with the H.P. Minor store and traveled to Portland, Michigan to assist his recently widowed mother. 

Not so much information on the life of Dana Walker, but at least it is a start and I will keep an eye out for him if he intersects with my family line in the future.

Ireland Reaching Out

This morning I registered with Ireland Reaching Out, a “global network for people of Irish Heritage.”

With a great grandfather named Patrick Doyle, I didn’t think I had a chance of finding him in Ireland.

Ireland Reaching Out is a community of volunteers and family researchers working to make those connections. It is a great marketing tool for Ireland, and a great asset for those of us just starting to search across the pond.

It is easy to register. Just put in your email. An email is sent to you with further instructions and a password into the site. One glitch, however. I never received the original email. This morning I put in my email again, being told that email was already taken, and did “I” forget my password? [smile]

I clicked “forgot my password,” even though I had never been sent one … and I did receive the next email. I was able to reset my password, and from there you can chose if you know your parish or if you don’t. I selected “don’t know,” and from there a message board appeared. I put in my gr-grandfather’s information, as much as I know, and now hope some volunteer or researcher will be able to help me.

We have shared this website with those we know researching their Irish ancestors. I will let you know if I have any success.