All Categories - Genealogy and Online Research Claudia C. Breland

Help From Beyond

10/16/2023

When I became interested in genealogy after I inherited my grandfather's family papers, I turned to the public library (as always) for more information. Searching for Your Ancestors by Gilbert H. Doane was the perfect start for a beginner genealogist.
And just three or four years ago, after almost ten years as a professional genealogist, in a burst of nostalgia, I bought a copy of the 3rd edition on Ebay, for about $10. When it arrived I flipped through it briefly, reflecting on how much I've learned, and how much research has changed in the intervening years, and then put it on my bookshelf.

Recently I've been mulling over an idea of writing a genealogy mystery, taking place in Detroit and Beulah, Michigan, about 1922. My main character, upon inheriting a cottage on Crystal Lake, is met with some conflicting information regarding her parents and grandparents, and she starts on a quest to find some answers.
But how did you DO genealogy research in 1922? The internet and DNA were decades in the future, and so was microfilm. What I needed was a guide to research written back then.
So I turned to WorldCat, a world-wide library catalog. After I put in "searching for your ancestors" and saw the results, I started laughing. There, at the top of a list of over 4,000 titles, was my own book:

Scrolling through the list, I came (as expected) to Gilbert Doane's book. I clicked on his name, hoping to see some earlier editions listed, and stopped short when I saw a title with "University of Michigan":

This was published in 1923, right in the time period I was searching for. I needed to know more about Gilbert Doane, so I did a quick Google search and found a complete biography:

Wow! Not only did he get a degree in Library Science, he also worked at the University of Michigan as Assistant Librarian and Head Classifier from 1922 to 1925. I immediately decided on having him as a character in my book, giving good advice on genealogical research.
Reading further, I was astonished to find that he was ordained in the Episcopal Church and served as a priest in Madison, Wisconsin.
At this point I decided to take another look at my copy of Searching for Your Ancestors. I opened it up, and there on the very first page, I was astounded to see this label:

Folks, I don't recall ever owning this book before I bought it on eBay a few years ago. I have never owned or used a label like this, and I don't even recall seeing this label when I got the book.

As Albert Einstein once said:

No Such Thing as Coincidence

7/29/2022

(Or, getting a little help from The Ancestors.....)

In April of 2021, as I was sitting in my car dealership waiting for my oil change, I got a text from my cousin Dee, in Beulah, Michigan. Her husband Bob had died in March, and she was letting me know that there would be a short graveside service on Saturday, May 15. Up until then, I had no plans to travel because Pandemic, but just out of curiosity, I looked up plane fares to Traverse City. And found a round trip ticket for $275. That was too good to pass up, so I booked a flight and landed in Traverse City on May 13, for a week's stay in Beulah.
I had more than one reason to travel to Beulah. First of all, I was writing the history of a family that wasn't mine: the Case family, whose earliest settler in Benzie county, Lucius W. Case, arrived in 1860. And second of all, I had managed to contact the current owner of the house in Bear Lake that was built by my great-grandfather Henry Hickox Chase, and she had offered to give me a tour. (I'll have more to say about that in another blog post.)
I had my research agenda well-planned, and in turn (sometimes more than once) I visited the Benzonia Congregational Church, where I was able to view the original church register from 1860; the Benzie County Historical Museum, which had lots of original documents and primary information about the Case family, and the Benzie County Courthouse, where I made notes of several vital records. On my last day there, just before I left for Traverse City and my flight home, I met with Andy Case, the great-great-great grandson of Lucius W. Case, and owner of The Cherry Hut, a well-loved local restaurant famous for its cherry pies.
As we both sort of expected, Andy didn't have a whole lot to add to what I already knew about the Case family. I had brought along my latest book, a family history written for a client with North Carolina roots, and explained that this was the kind of family history I was envisioning. He looked through it thoughtfully, set it down and said, "You know, the Cherry Hut is turning 100 years old next year, and we have thought of doing some sort of commemorative album or something...." Before he could finish his sentence, my hand shot up and I said, "I'll write it!" I went on to explain why I was the perfect choice: I had deep roots in the area, I knew all the repositories and what they held, and I had been doing research as a genealogist and librarian since 1974.
We came to an informal agreement, and I flew home. The Cherry Hut was about to open for its 99th season, which (as always) was very busy, so it was actually not until November that Andy and I came to a firm agreement. Since neither he nor his staff had time to scan anything from their archives, they packed up the whole thing and shipped it to me, in a box that must have weighed at least forty pounds!

In the meantime, I had been busy researching online. The Benzie Shores District Library has scanned and digitized Benzie County newspapers dating as far back as 1888. I had a blast looking up articles about the Cherry Hut and its original owners, James and Dorothy Kraker, who began the restaurant as a simple roadside stand in 1922.

After the newspapers, my next target was land records. The first question in my mind was, "Who did the Krakers buy the land from, and how did they come to have so many cherry trees?" My next stop was FamilySearch, which I already knew had a good collection of records for Benzie County. According to their catalog, they only had deeds up to 1894, but they had digitized indexes up to 1923, which was all I needed. I began looking at the grantee (buyer) index for 1920-1923 for the name Kraker, to see when and from whom they bought their land on the North Shore of Crystal Lake.

Mind. Blown.

On April 11, 1921, James and Dorothy Kraker bought their land from my great-grandfather, Percy A. Reed.

According to this entry, the deed was recorded on page 117 of volume 50, which (of course) had not been microfilmed or digitized by FamilySearch. So I called on one of my many contacts in Beulah, who obligingly went to the courthouse, scanned the image and sent it to me:

Then I remembered that Percy Reed had written an autobiography, which was typed up by my cousin Dee. I remembered Dee telling me about Grandpa Percy's farm on the north shore, and I thought perhaps he had written about it. Sure enough:

This was an amazing find: not only did the Krakers buy the land from Percy Reed, but his son Maurice (my grandfather) helped plant the cherry trees.

Over the next several months my work life was concentrated on writing "the book", and with the help of numerous people, it was published at the end of May. You can find it on Amazon here, or if you're in Beulah, you can buy it at the Cherry Hut.

Sources and Why They Matter

10/17/2020

Yesterday's Sources

In my ten years as a professional genealogist, working with hundreds of clients and thousands of records, I have learned a lot about judging the quality of a source.Genealogists know that the closer a record is to the event in question, the more likely it is to be accurate. Original documents with primary information are best; sources with secondary information need to be explored further.
Sometimes you will have several sources that record the same information - but on digging deeper, you might find that the information is in fact, incorrect.

I have some examples:

1. People lie. All. The. Time. My paternal grandmother, Ruby Chase Reed died in 1962 when I was 8 years old, so I don't remember her very well. My paternal grandfather Maurice L. Reed died in 1970, and I inherited a treasure trove of family history papers, which included Ruby's death certificate. On that certificate, her date of birth was noted as 2/25/1892.

Check.

Florida State Board of Health, death certificate 686-53306 for Ruby Marie Reed (1962), Manatee County, FL.

When I found the marriage record for Maurice Reed and Ruby Chase (1918 in Columbus, Ohio, where Maurice was serving in the army), Ruby's stated that she was 26 years old on February 25, 1918, making her date of birth February 25, 1892. This can be considered as primary information, as Ruby signed the marriage license application.

Check.

"Ohio County Marriage Records, 1774-1993," Ancestry > Franklin > 1917-1920 > image 393 of 602, Franklin Co. OH marriage license no. 163, Reed-Chase (1918).

Going back further, to the first census that enumerated my grandmother, I found her living with her parents Henry and Ruth Chase in Bear Lake, Manistee County, Michigan. Ruby's birth was noted as Feb. 1892. This is also primary information, because presumably Ruby's parents (who would know) gave that information.

Check.

1900 U.S. census, Manistee Co. MI, population schedule, Bear Lake, enumeration district (ED) 27, p.2, dwelling/family 83, Henry H. Chase household; citing NARA microfilm T623, roll 698.

HOWEVER, when I looked at Ruby's birth registration on FamilySearch, I discovered that she was actually born on February 25, 1891. As it turns out, her parents had lied about her date of birth, and Ruby spent her entire life thinking she was a year younger than she actually was.

FamilySearch (familysearch.org/search/collection/1923472) > Michigan County Births, 1867-1917 > Calhoun > Births 1887-1895, v.C > image 148 of 259, Calhoun Co. MI, Birth Register 4:202, record 481, Rubie Chase (1891).

You might ask how I'm so sure her parents lied; perhaps it was just a transcription error on the 1900 census. The fact is, Ruby's parents Henry Chase and Ruth Strunk were married in December 1890 - just 3 months before her birth.

FamilySearch (familysearch/search/collection/1810350) > Michigan County Marriages, 1820-1940 > Calhoun > Marriages, 1887-1899, v.4 > image 92 of 359, record 1266, Chase-Strunck (1890).

2. Just Because Somebody Says So Doesn't Make It True
In the original papers I got from my grandfather was a fascinating account of the lives of his maternal great-grandparents, John Beem and Betsy Webb. What I had was a typewritten transcript of an article that was published in the Reading (MI) Hustler in the 1940s, written by John and Betsy's granddaughter, Ada Beem Fitzsimmons.

Over the years I've looked at a number of documents concerning this couple, including land transactions in New York and Michigan, and probate records for both John and Betsy. I have the privilege of owning Betsy's bible, handed down through generations. In it she wrote her name: Betsy Webb.

The Holy Bible, Containing The Old Testament and The New (Philadelphia, PA: H. Adams, 1828), originally owned by Betsy (Webb) Beem, now owned by Claudia Breland.

I've stood at their gravesites in Hillsdale, Michigan

Betsey and John Beem gravestones, Berg Cemetery, Camden Township, Hillsdale County, Michigan; personal visit, September 2015.

In 40-plus years of research, I have never seen their names recorded as "John Reed Beem" or "Elizabeth Webb". However, there are over 160 family trees on Ancestry that has them by these names.

No matter how many times this is repeated on the internet, it's simply not true.

3. Dig Deep to Find the Original Source

I've written in this blog many times about my frustrating search to find my Grandma Ruby's Civil War grandfather, Mr. Prosser. What I had to start with was admittedly not much - a scribbled family tree, and the obituary for Ruby's mother, Ruth Chase, that stated she was born as Ruth Prosser in Hillsdale, Michigan in 1860.
At least 10 years ago I was looking at the page for Hillsdale County, Michigan on US GenWeb, and saw that they had a transcribed list of all the Civil War soldiers who enlisted from Hillsdale County. I looked through it, and the only Prosser listed was Lewis Prosser, age 17, who was in the 2nd Michigan Cavalry, Co. G. Well, that couldn't be my great-great grandfather, because he would have been in his mid-forties. I kept searching.(And I've been kicking myself for the last 3 years....)
DNA came along, and I found a 2nd cousin with the surname Prosser, and asked him to take a DNA test. His Ancestry DNA results led me to a certain Lewis Prosser, who had a wife and children in La Porte County, Indiana. When I realized that he might be the answer to my brick wall, At that point, it didn't matter what the transcribed (possibly incorrect?) info was about the Lewis Prosser in the 2nd MI Cavalry, I knew I had to get his military records, held at the National Archives in Washington, DC. When I received them, I had my answer - Lewis Prosser was 44 years old, born in Oneida County, New York.
After I discovered this, the next time I was visiting the Archives of Michigan in Lansing, I took a look at the original book that the online listing on US GenWeb came from:

Michigan, Adjutant General's Office, Record of Service of Michigan Volunteers in the Civil War, 1861-1865 (Kalamazoo, MI: Ithling & Everard, 1905?), 2nd MI Cavalry, p.125.

When I pointed this out to Kris Rzepczynski, the state archivist, he said, "Well, let's look at the original; it's on microfilm. And thus I got to look at the original, hand-written register, recorded at the time of the event, of the roster of Company G, 2nd Michigan Cavalry.

According to the original hand-written register, Lewis Prosser, age 44, from Hillsdale County enlisted at Detroit on Sept. 14, 1862.

Imagine. If I had tracked down the original record when I first saw that listing on US GenWeb, I would have saved myself ten years of frustration.

Today's Sources

When the internet became popular it became apparent that anyone could publish just about anything online. You can find out how to make a carrot cake, how to learn watercolor painting, and how to pick plants for your yard based on your location. You can also find websites (and groups) that assert the Holocaust didn't happen, the earth is flat, and that the astronauts of Apollo 11 never landed on the moon.
In today's political climate, it's more important than ever before that we depend on news sources that are trustworthy. I did not realize that I was depending on sources that were less than truthful - because they were telling me what I wanted to hear - until I saw this media bias chart:

www.adfontesmedia.com"Media Bias Chart, 6.0," AdFontes Media (http://www.adfontesmedia.com: accessed 20 October 2020). Used with permission.

This chart is fascinating - it rates news sources and places them in a continuum, from far right to far left, fact-based to extremely biased. Once I saw this chart, I started concentrating my news sources at the top center, within the blue dotted line, as being the most reliable, fact-based and the least biased: Washington Post, the New York Times, Associated Press, NPR, PBS, and the Wall Street Journal. With most of these, I can "like" their pages on Facebook, and at least see the headlines. I have subscribed to the Washington Post (having overheard a well-known and well-respected genealogist rave about it), and will probably subscribe to the Atlantic.

The news sources at the bottom of the chart are "selective or incomplete story, unfair persuasion," and "propaganda: contains misleading information". This includes titles such as Occupy Democrats, Palmer Report, Daily Kos (from the far left), and Daily Wire, NewsPunch and Fox News (on the far right).

Another good source to check your sources is a website called Media Bias Fact Check. This website rates over 3000 news websites for accuracy and bias. Recently, a story made the rounds online about thousands of ballots being found in a dumpster in Petaluma, California. One of the news sources is USAReally, with the headline "Landfill workers in California hide tens of thousands of discarded ballots":

However, a quick check on Media Bias Fact Check shows that this is a questionable source, and ORIGINATED IN RUSSIA.

A check of USA Today (a much more reliable news source) will reveal that these were actually envelopes from the 2018 elections.

My point (in one of my longest blog posts in the last 9 years) is that whether you're interested in the past or the present, it's vitally important to use the best sources you can.

Facts matter. Sources matter. Truth matters.

Another Leaf on the Family Tree

9/22/2020

After over 40 years of research, I thought I had found all the children of my 3rd great-grandfather John Reade.

As I discovered recently, I had not found them all.

When I first began researching my family history I was fascinated by the stories my grandfather Maurice L. Reed had written about his great-grandfather, John Reade. He was born in New Hampshire about 1812, and ran away from home when he was a young adult.

He ended up in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, where he met and married his first wife, Katherine Kettering. Their son James Lawrence Reed was born there in 1839, and by 1849 the family had moved to Kalamazoo County, Michigan. In 1850 John and Katherine and their 3 children were living in Alamo, Kalamazoo County, which is about the time John changed the spelling of his last name to Reed.

1850 U.S. census, Kalamazoo Co. MI, population schedule, Alamo, p.50B, dwelling 718, family 732, John Reed household; citing NARA microfilm M432, roll 353.

I knew from my grandfather's notes that James Lawrence Reed had a half-sister named Caroline.

When I began doing internet research, I discovered Carrie's marriage to Seth Dusenberry in 1873; her father John Reed was the officiant.

FamilySearch (familysearch.org/search/collection/1810350) > Van Buren > Marriage certificates, 1867-1895, v.B2 > image 101 of 356, Van Buren Co. MI Marriage Book B2:98, line 1408, Seth Dusenberry & Caroline V. Reed (1873).

Carrie Dusenberry's death certificate stated her mother's name as Amelia Houseman.

.Michigan Dep. of Health, death certificate 61-5281 for Carrie Dusenberry (1945).

Over time, other searches revealed that John and Amelia had three other children, John Edgar, Gilbert and Georgia. John Edgar Reed married Hattie Beagle in .Allegan County, Michigan in 1884, and died in Muskegon County in 1923. Gilbert Reed married Minnie Splitstone in Newaygo County, Michigan in 1893; he died in Muskegon County in 1916. Georgia Ella Reed married James Mallory and then Robert Brown; by 1930 she and Robert were living in Los Angeles County, California.

Michigan Dept. of Health, death certificate 61-551 for John Edgar Reed (1923).

Michigan Dept. of Health, death certificate 551 for Gilbert Reed (1916).

1930 U.S. Census, Los Angeles Co. CA, pop. sched., Covina, ED 907, p.4A, dwell./fam. 96, Robert Brown household; citing NARA microfilm T626, roll 124.

So, to recap, John Reade had a total of seven children:
Three with his first wife Katherine Kettering: James Lawrence, Laura and Ezra (the latter two probably died young)
Four with his second wife Amelia Houseman: John Edgar, Caroline, Gilbert and Georgia.

And with that, his family was complete.

Or so I thought.

Last month I was taking another look at my DNA matches, because you never know when you'll discover something new. I entered "Reed" into the search box at the top of my list of matches, and looked at the results.

When I looked at the family tree of one of those matches, I saw that his great-great grandmother Tressie Reed was born in Michigan about 1853, and married Richard Carr.

A few minutes' research led me to her 1902 death certificate, which named her parents as John and Emilie Reed

Michigan Dept. of Health, death certificate 125 for Tressie Carr (1902).

I realized with growing astonishment that Tressie was possibly another child of John Reade and Amelia Houseman. Then I thought indignantly, "But where was she in the 1870 census?" I took another look at the 1870 census of Allegan County, Michigan, where I knew Amelia was living with her youngest children, Gilbert and Georgia. And there she was - under another name. I had looked at this census entry many times, and always assumed that Theresa Hewett was a boarder or housekeeper. I never even considered the possibility that she was Amelia's married daughter.

1870 U.S. census, Allegan Co. MI, pop. sched., Allegan, p.43A, dwell. 240, fam. 247, Amelia Read household; citing NARA microfilm M593, roll 660.

My next task was to find Theresa's marriage record, which I discovered on FamilySearch's microfilmed marriage registers of Allegan County, Michigan. Theresa and Tom Hewitt were married by her father, and one of the witnesses was her mother. (The other witness, Mariah Merchant, was Theresa's half-sister; Amelia's daughter by her first marriage.)

FamilySearch (familysearch.org/search/collection/1810350) > Allegan > Marriage certificates, 1867-1882, v.4 > image 55 of 335, Allegan Co. MI Marriage Register 4:13, line 123, Tom Hewett and Teressa Reed (1868).

By 1870 Tom and Teresa must have been separated, because Tom Hewitt married Hattie Wilcox in 1871. Theresa married Richard Carr by 1876 when their first child Richard H. Carr was born. I have not yet found a divorce record for Tom and Theresa Hewitt, or a marriage record for Theresa and Richard Carr.

And Theresa's 1902 death certificate showed that she was living in Newaygo County, Michigan; the same county where her mother (remarried to Arvi Parmer) and brother Gilbert were living in 1900.

1900 U.S. census, Newaygo Co. MI, pop. sched., White Cloud, ED 100, p.2, dwell.47, fam. 48, Gilbert Reed household; citing NARA microfilm T623, roll 735.

Welcome to the family, Theresa.

I'm sorry I took so long to find you.

Rest in peace.

Beyond Ancestry.com: Dig Deeper into Family History

5/3/2020

Recently I was researching the family of Michael and Margaret McCormick, who lived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the early 1900s. Michael was born in Ireland in August 1869 and worked as a laborer; the family lived at 332 Cantrell Street.

1900 U.S. census, Philadelphia Co. PA, pop. sch., Philadelphia, ED 991, p.4, dwell.78, fam. 80, M. McCormick household; citing NARA microfilm T623, roll 1479.

DNA test results and matches led me to discover that Michael had an older brother Thomas McCormick and younger sister Delia McCormick, who also lived in Philadelphia during the same time period. The death certificates for all three of these McCormicks named their parents as John McCormick and Mary Morgan.

I found their census records and marriage records; the three couples were married in Philadelphia between 1893 and 1900.

"Pennsylvania Marriages, 1852-1968," database, Ancestry, (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 4 May 2020), McCormick-Lyons, 1895.

"Pennsylvania Marriages, 1852-1968," database, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 4 May 2020), McCormick-Murphy, 1893.

"Pennsylvania Marriages, 1852-1968," database, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 4 May 2020), Kelley-McCormick, 1900.

Now before I go tearing off to look at Irish records, first I want to know more about these people's' lives in Philadelphia. One of the questions in the back of my mind is, "Why did Thomas, Michael and Delia come to Philadelphia? Why not New York City, or Boston, or Baltimore?" Perhaps they had someone - friends or family members - waiting for them.

First I decide to plot their addresses in 1900 on Google maps. Delia McCormick (just before her marriage to John Kelly) was a domestic servant in a household on 1811 Walnut St. Thomas and Margaret McCormick were living at 204 Mifflin St., and Michael and Margaret McCormick were living at 332 Cantrell St. They lived fairly close together, near the waterfront on the Delaware River.

The next step in research is to find their marriage records, in hopes of finding out where they were married; since most family members were buried at Holy Cross Cemetery, I would assume that I'm looking for Catholic records. Catholic marriage and baptismal records usually list sponsors - who may be extended family members.

FamilySearch (familysearch.org/search/catalog/217392) > Marriage licenses no.64200-64799 1893 > image 1026 of 1941, marriage certificate no. 64518, McCormick-Murphy (1893).

FamilySearch (familysearch.org/search/catalog/217392) > Marriage licenses no.81100-81699 1895 > image 619 of 1927, marriage license & certificate no. 81289, McCormick-Lyons (1895).

FamilySearch (familysearch.org/search/catalog/217392) > Marriage licenses no.122800-129399 1900 > image 108 of 1962, marriage lcertificate no. 122831, Kelley-McCormick (1900).

Thomas McCormick and Maggie Murphy were married by Rev. John J. Ward; Michael McCormick and Maggie Lyons and John Kelley and Delia McCormick were married by Rev. Anthony J. Zeller. On the last marriage record is a notation: "Sacred Heart". That may be a clue to the name of the church. Is it possible they were all married at Sacred Heart?
I decide to look at newspapers to find out more about these priests, in order to verify what church they were with. I found two articles that verified both Rev. Ward and Rev. Zeller were priests at Sacred Heart.

“Votes are Coming In,” Philadelphia (PA) Inquirer, 13 May 1900, p.2, col. 4; digital image, Newspapers.com (http://www.newspapers.com: accessed 4 May 2020).

“Solemn High Mass,” Philadelphia (PA) Inquirer, 9 April 1896, p.4, col. 1; digital image, Newspapers.com (http://www.newspapers.com: accessed 4 May 2020).

My next stop was to visit the Catholic Heritage Archives of Philadelphia, to look at marriage registers.

Their parish registers for Sacred Heart of Jesus church in Philadelphia South begin with 1871 and go through 1919. Sure enough, I find the entries in the parish register for all three marriages, along with the names of witnesses.

Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic Church, parish register of marriages, 1871-1919, p.189, no. 60, McCormick-Murphy (1893); digital image, Catholic Heritage Archive (https://www.catholicheritagearchive.com/: accessed 2 May 2020).

Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic Church, parish register of marriages, 1871-1919, p.213, no. 44, McCormick-Lyons (1895); digital image, Catholic Heritage Archive (https://www.catholicheritagearchive.com/: accessed 2 May 2020).

Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic Church, parish register of marriages, 1898-1908, p.95, no. 47, Kelley-McCormick (1900); digital image, Catholic Heritage Archive (https://www.catholicheritagearchive.com/: accessed 2 May 2020).

All three couples had witnesses, which need to be explored further.
What's more, in browsing through these marriage registers, I found another McCormick: John McCormick married Sarah Bernadette Boyle at Sacred Heart in 1895. Could he be related?

“Sacred Heart Marriages, 1871-1898,” Catholic Heritage Archive (http://www.catholicheritagearchive.com: accessed 4 May 2020), p.211, no. 36, McCormick-Boyle (1895).

When I search for a family tree on Ancestry for this couple, I see that John McCormick was born in Pennsylvania about 1883, the son of Dennis McCormick and Ellen Murray.

When I check on the creator of this tree, he's not a DNA match. However, he administers no less than SIX Ancestry DNA kits that are a match!

So yes, I think that John McCormick, son of Dennis McCormick, is probably a relative.
The focus on my next segment of research will be to look through the parish registers for Sacred Heart. The McCormick/Kelly families I'm researching had a combined total of fifteen children between 1894 and 1915; with all those baptisms there should be some extended family members as sponsors. I'll look through the marriage registers, as well.

And just as I suspected, it looks like our McCormicks had family here - waiting for them.
I was amazed at how much more information I found about these families by moving away from Ancestry to other websites and databases. In this research, I used FamilySearch, Google Maps, Newspapers.com, and the Catholic Heritage Archive. And as I always tell my audience at the end of every single presentation I do:

There is always something more to find!

Libraries and Archives I Have Known

10/18/2019

Prompted by a recent posting on Facebook, I thought it would be a good mental exercise to list all the libraries, archives, courthouses, historical museums and other repositories that I have personally visited in my 45 years of researching family history.

Florida State University Library, Tallahassee
Florida State Library, Tallahassee

Seattle Public Library, Seattle, WA
Tacoma Public Library, Tacoma, WA
Pierce County Courthouse, Tacoma, WA
King County Courthouse, Seattle, WA
King County Archives, Seattle, WA
Grays Harbor County Courthouse, Montesano, WA
Aberdeen Public Library, Aberdeen, WA
Everett Public Library, Everett, WA
Snohomish County Courthouse, Everett, WA
Washington State Archives, Puget Sound Region, Bellevue, WA
Washington State Archives, Northwest Region, Bellingham, WA
Washington State Archives, Southwest Region, Olympia, WA
Washington State Library, Tumwater, WA
Kitsap County Courthouse, Port Orchard, WA
Lewis County Historical Museum, Chehalis, WA
Lewis County Courthouse, Chehalis, WA
Heritage Quest Research Library, Sumner, WA
Vancouver Public Library, Vancouver, WA
Jefferson County Genealogy Research Center, Port Townsend, WA

Oregon State Archives, Salem, OR
Genealogical Forum of Oregon, Portland, OR

Michigan State Archives, Lansing
Library of Michigan, Lansing
Hillsdale Public Library Mitchell Center
Hillsdale County Courthouse, Hillsdale, MI
Newaygo County Courthouse, White Cloud, MI
White Cloud Public Library, White Cloud, MI
Fremont Area District Library, Fremont, MI
Newaygo County Museum and Heritage Center, Newaygo, MI
Clarke Historical Library, Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, MI
Barry County Courthouse, Hastings, MI
Saginaw County Courthouse, Saginaw, MI
Grand Rapids Public Library, Grand Rapids, MI
Charlevoix County Courthouse, Charlevoix, MI
Manistee County Courthouse, Manistee, MI
Manistee Public Library, Manistee, MI
Manistee County Historical Museum, Manistee, MI
Benzie County Historical Museum, Benzonia, MI
Benzie County Courthouse, Beulah, MI
Benzonia Public Library, Benzonia, MI
Otsego County Courthouse, Gaylord, MI

LaPorte Public Library, LaPorte, IN
LaPorte County Courthouse, LaPorte, IN
LaPorte County Historical Museum, LaPorte, IN
Michigan City Public Library, Michigan City, IN

North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh, NC
North Carolina State Library, Raleigh, NC
Forsyth County Central Library, Winston-Salem, NC
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Public Library, Charlotte, NC

Family History Library, Salt Lake City, UT

Beware of the Holes in That Online Database

9/16/2019

Recently I was asked by an out-of-state client to obtain her father's death certificate. Leo Wallick died in either Pierce or King county, about 1960. I narrowed down the date by finding his death notice in the Seattle Daily Times, on 11 March 1961.

I immediately searched for his name on the Washington Digital Archives, and was very puzzled when my search for Leo Wallick's death yielded no results.

I did another search, using the last name only, and got a short list:

What do you do when an online database doesn't contain the record you were expecting to find?
Check to see what records are included.

I noticed something odd in this short list of records. Do you see it? The death index from the Department of Health includes the years 1907 to 1960 and 1965 to 2017. The years 1961 to 1964 are on microfilm only. Which means I had to fill out the request form and mail it in order to receive the death certificate.

I had another good example just yesterday. I was searching for a marriage record between Perry Baldwin and Virginia Arend, and had found both an engagement notice and a marriage license application in the Cincinnati Enquirer from November 1938.

"Interesting Engagement," Cincinnati (OH) Enquirer, 13 February 1938, p.94, col. 3. It was an "interesting engagement" because Virginia was marrying an older widower with five children.

"Marriage Licenses," Cincinnati (OH) Enquirer, 18 November 1938, p.21, col. 4. It should be noted that just because a marriage license was obtained does not mean the marriage took place on that day, that month, that location, or at all.

My first thought in looking for a marriage record was FamilySearch, which has (currently) 46 collections of Ohio records. I decided to try "Ohio County Marriages, 1789-2013. I filled in the search box, and searched with the two surnames Baldwin and Arend (and then each one separately), and widened the date range to 1938-1940. No results.

What do you do when an online database doesn't contain the record you were expecting to find?
Check to see what records are included.

In this case, I clicked on "Browse through 1,547,844 images" at the very bottom of the page. I was presented with a list of counties, and I clicked on "Hamilton". And there I found my answer: the Hamilton county marriage records in this collection stopped at 1931.

Genealogists are persistent by nature, and I wasn't about to give up. I did find the marriage record I was looking for, online, although it wasn't on Ancestry or FamilySearch.

Where did I find it? Well, that's the subject for another blog post!

Letter from 1839

7/31/2019

Columbus, Ohio
23d Oct 1839

Dear Mother Dickson,
You will doubtless think strange that I write you from this place so long after our departure from Penny. A brief history of our journey so far will explain -
We Started from Bethany friday after we left Penny. being detained there by the rain. Saturday came up the lake, and had rather a pleasant side, the lake was remarkably still for this Season of the year. We landed at Fairport, Ohio where we procured a span of horses for our carriage and went to Warren, Trumbull Co. where Elder Haines formerly practiced law - when we landed at Fairport, we took our course to Warren that we might go down the Canal to Beaver on the Ohio river; when we got there, the Canal was not in use - we hired another Span of horses and driver who took us to Beaver, 20 miles below Pittsburgh on the River -
By the way, when we got to Buffalo, we fell in company with a Gentleman and lady from St. Louis, and who were on their way from N.Y. home. he was obliged on his way home to go to Pittsburgh, consequently he must land at Fairport and take the same rout which we came; His earnest Solicitations was the occasion of our choosing to land at Fairport. The Gentleman's name is Smith, a Clothing merchant, his wife was a Miss Brown, probably Hicks knew him; we found them to be very companionable indeed; during the day we rode and told stories, evenings Sing and amuse ourselves in various ways. when we arrived at Beaver the river was low and no possibility of our getting passage down in some time; rather than stay there and wait a chance to go down the River, in a month or leave our carriage, and commence an endless journey in the stage & ride day and night, I purchased a good span of horses and started from Beaver last Friday, one week after I left Bethany, with a conveyance of our own and independent of the world. we have had remarkable good fortune in getting good entertainment Since we Started - we landed from the lake Sunday and since then we have put up every night in County Seats with the exception of 2. We came from Fairport here by way of Cardon, Warren, Beaver, New Lisbon, Canton, Wooster & Mt. Vernon - we arrived in town to-day about 12 o'clock, we have had every thing good to eat to day and now it is night.
I am writing and Lucy Ann is sewing, tearing up one cap and making another one. She keeps up remarkable good spirits, much better than I could have expected, she has been very well I think, so have I we were neither of us sick wile on the lake, yet nearly all others were. Today we have visited the States Prison, State House, been upon tops of houses and all about tomorrow we start our journey again; we are going to Springfield, where we shall determine whether we shall go through by land on the National Road or go down to Cincinnati and then down the River. could I be sure the weather would be as fine as it has been thus far I should deter.
mine upon going by land, but I fear that the rain will soon come and break up the road, you may think us by this time much fatigued, but not so. we are just getting used to it, we feel perfectly contented. we have a $500 carriage, a Span of horses worth 200, and plenty of money, and I think the prospect ahead as fair as ever.
Saml & Alanson probably are gone from Penny. Lucy Anne expresses great hopes that Alanson will go to school with Saml. She often speaks very warmly of her Penny friends and especially those who so particularly signalized themselves as such for the last few days of our stay in Penny. She very often expresses a wish that she might see Mary Anne. I think if anything could contribute to her happiness, it would be the company of Mary Anne. Lucy Anne sends to her, her best wishes and purest regards, she also wishes to be remembered to Mrs. Sherman, Mrs. Graves, Mrs. Bailey and Louisa Stoddard and all others of her friends in Penny.
We hope to hear from you as soon as we arrive at St. Louis, and that you are well and happily situated. I will write to you again when I get to St. Louis, perhaps before. John is along with us to make sport for us, he is as full of his nonsense as ever he goes as driver. He sends his best wishes to his friends in Penny, and of course to Mary Ann.
Well I have just been looking back to see what I have written, and find it a scrawl, without system and very hastily written and that just as it came in to my mind so excuse this and I will be more particular next time. I don't think of any thing more to write now, so I will bid you adieu.

Very Respectfully,
Your abt. friend
S.D. Barlow

P.S. I left my bosom Pin on the curtain. I want you to keep it

Give my respects to Marcus Walter and all the friends. It is now morning, the weather cloudy and smoky, but the road to Springfield fine being McAdamized and as hard as one continued rock.
Be happy for "allswell"
S.D. Barlow

Note: this letter was in the papers of my Aunt Ethel, and I made a photocopy several years ago. I still need to do research to find where Steven Douglas Barlow and his wife Lucy Anne Dickson fit into her family.

That Divorce Record? It's only an email away

7/11/2019

I've known for a long time that my 2nd great-uncle Charles Prosser was divorced from his first wife, Amanda, ever since I found him and his second wife Anna on the 1900 census of Chicago, Illinois.But I didn't know when or where until Ancestry introduced a new collection, "Michigan, Divorce Records, 1897-1952". There I found that Amanda Prosser had sued for divorce on the grounds of desertion, first filing in December 1884. For whatever reason, the divorce was not final until 1899.

"Michigan Divorce Records, 1897-1952," Ancestry > 1897-1923 > 1897 Alcona-1898 Eaton > image 487 of 695, Summary of Returns Relative to Divorces, St. Clair County, Michigan, p.451, no. 322-6, Amanda Prosser vs. Chas D. Prosser (1884).

I knew I wanted the original divorce papers, but it wasn't until earlier this year that I finally emailed, then called the St. Clair County Clerk's office in Michigan to ask. Their response was that the record was only one page, but it was worth getting. Soon afterward, I received it in the mail.

St. Clair County Clerk's Office, Divorce record for Amanda and Charles Prosser (1899), Port Huron, MI.

It didn't take me long, looking at this page, to realize that it solved a mystery. Several years ago, I found a birth announcement for Charles and Amanda's son, born on 15 April 1886.

"Born," Crawford (MI) Avalanche, 15 April 1886, p.4, col. 2

Looking at the divorce record, it's obvious to me that son was James L. Prosser, who would turn 14 "on the fourth day of April 1900". And he was listed with his father Charles and stepmother Anna on the 1900 census of Chicago:

1900 U.S. census, Cook County, Illinois, population schedule, Chicago, enumeration district (ED) 274, p.5B, dwelling 57, family 110, Charles Prosser household; NARA microfilm T623, roll 255.

Like many census records, this has more than one error. Lewis Prosser (evidently named for both grandfathers, James Qua and Lewis Prosser) was born in April 1886, not 1894, and was sixteen years old, not six. Charles Prosser and Anna Leguille had been married in Chicago just the year before, in August 1899. Evidently he was an honorable man (unlike his father) and waited until the divorce decree was signed in July 1899 before marrying again.

I haven't found out what happened to James Lewis Prosser, but it's only a matter of time. For me, genealogy is a life-long pursuit, and there's always something more to find!

Don't Be Satisfied with a Database

5/11/2019

Sometimes I feel like I sound like a broken record. From my 40+ years of research, when I tell clients, friends, family, the people in the classes I teach to go after the original record, it's from long experience. I had a good example of this the other day, when I was researching a client's birth family. On Ancestry, there is an entry in the California Birth Index, 1905-1995 for Walter L. Geldert, who was born in Los Angeles in 1922.

However, I was just not satisfied with this - as a genealogist, I always want more information. I wondered if FamilySearch would have a different record, and it took me all of 3 minutes to find it.

FamilySearch (familysearch.org/search/collection/2001287) > Los Angeles, Los Angeles > Birth certificates 1922 no 12000-14362 > image 1972 of 3069, birth certificate 13543 for Walter Lawrence Hathaway Geldert (1922).

This birth certificate tells me Walter's full name, the hospital where he was born, the full names and ages of his parents, where his parents were born, and the fact that he was the first child of this marriage. I'll take this over a database any day.

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