Member of ISOGG
Archive for April, 2011
News from around the web.
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The free genealogy search engine Mocavo.com announced
today its added thousands of new sites to its index. That includes more than 3,000
genealogy blogs and other sites submitted by users since Mocavo.com
launched a month ago, such as DearMyrtle.com,
the Australian Cemeteries Index and TheShipsList.
Mocavo.com crawls websites similar to the way Google does, except it focuses on free
genealogy content—making it easier for you to find relevant family history information
on the web. You
can read genealogy-technology blogger Dick Eastman’s enthusiastic comments about Mocavo.com
here.
Click here if you’d like to
suggest a site to Mocavo’s developers, who plan to update the site more frequently.
News from around the web.
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—
Here’s that post
I promised on tracking down my grandfather in Texas church records using indexed
information in FamilySearch.org.
I kept up with my Google blog reader (sometimes at 3 a.m.) while on maternity leave,
so I noticed the regular record updates at FamilySearch.org. That’s how I got a surprise
hit on my grandfather while casually searching collections from states my ancestors
lived in.
The match, from the collection Texas
Births and Christenings, 1840-1981, has indexed information (so, no image
of the record itself) from a church baptismal register in Gonzales, Texas:
The information was close to a baptismal certificate I already had from our family
papers. In 1960, my grandma wrote the church where my grandfather was baptized to
request the baptismal record. Apparently she needed it so my grandfather, who didn’t
have a birth certificate, could participate in his company pension program. Here’s
what the priest sent her:
I was never 100 percent confident in the birth information on this certificate, since
it was created when he was almost 60 and my research gives two birthdates and places
for my grandfather. So I was excited when I saw on FamilySearch.org the microfilm
number for the original baptismal register (circled in red above).
I ran a Family History Library
online catalog search for the film number and found this catalog record:
It’s hard to read here, but the baptismal register is from Sacred Heart Church, formerly
called St. Joseph, in Gonzales, Texas, part of Archdiocese of San Antonio. (Note the
1960 baptismal certificate says St. James Church at the top.)
I printed this catalog page and took it to the FamilySearch Center to rent microfilm
no. 25152.
When the film came in, I quickly found my grandfather’s record (thanks to the page
number provided in my FamilySearch.org search result). Here’s the first page, with
my grandfather at the bottom:
My great-grandfather Mike Haddad appears in a few records as “Fadlo” (probably short
for his
pre-immigration name)—I believe that’s why he’s recorded as “Daddlod” here.
And the second page, with columns for the sponsors, the minister who performed the
ceremony, details on the person’s Confirmation (another Catholic sacrament, usually
received around age 13), and “remarks.”
See the note on the far right in the Remarks column? That reports my grandfather’s
marriage t0 my grandma in 1942 in Cincinnati.
The handwriting was uniform throughout the entire book. From the title and publisher
pages,
it looks like this was a blank register book printed in 1944, which someone later
filled in with information from diocesan church records going back to 1883.
My guess is that the (?) in the sponsor column next to Saida’s name—a symbol
also appearing by several other names on the page—means the person who copied the
original records into this book couldn’t quite make out the handwriting.
In 1960, when my grandma sent her request to St. Joseph, she must’ve provided her
marriage information. Then the priest who answered her letter would’ve looked at this
book in order to fill out the baptismal certificate, and added the marriage details
to the notes column.
So this still isn’t the actual record that was created in 1902 when my grandfather
was baptized, but I have more confidence in that 1960 baptismal certificate (and the
birth date it provides) now that I’ve seen where that information came from.
One question: Why does the baptism certificate sent to my grandma in 1960 say “St.
James” at the top, when the church register is from St. Joseph (later changed to Sacred
Heart)? Perhaps the diocese routed all records requests like my grandma’s to St. James?
What do you think?
Surname Forum Activity
———————-
Hi Folks,
DNA Day is April 15th! Starting at 12:00 PM noon) CT on April 14th (today), join the celebration!
New customers:
Y-DNA12……$59
Y-DNA37…..$129
mtDNA……..$59
Family Finder …………$199
Family Finder + Y-DNA12…$258
Family Finder + mtDNA…..$258
Family Finder + mtFullSequence + Y-DNA67….$657
Upgrades:
Y-DNA12 add-on…..$59
Y-DNA12 to 37……$69
Y-DNA37 to 67…..$148
mtDNA add-on…….$59
mtFull Sequence upgrade……$199
Family Finder add-on………$199
To take advantage of these promotional prices use the coupon code: DNADAY2011
The coupon code will expire on Friday at midnight (CT).
These tests and upgrades may be ordered from your personal page at Family Tree DNA or from
http://www.familytreedna.com/group-join.aspx?Group=Munley
Please note, the Y-DNA67 to 111 upgrade will remain at the introductory rate of $101 (no coupon necessary) until the end of this promotion. The price will be $129 going forward.
Payment must be received at the time of the order. Valid only on products listed. No substitutions. This promotion was announced in advance, therefore no adjustments will be made on previous purchases. Offer valid from 12:00 PM CT on Thursday, April 14, until 11:59 PM CT on April 15, 2011.
This promotion is not valid in combination with any other promotions. Family Tree DNA reserves the right to cancel any order due to unauthorized or ineligible use of discounts and to modify or cancel these promotional discounts due to system error or unforeseen problems. Subject to change without notice.
Please pass this on if you know someone who might be interested.
Best regards,
Marianne Manley Granoff
Project Administrator
Munley/Manley Surname Project
granoff@zianet.com
News from around the web.
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—
In honor of the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War, each week we’re giving away Family
Tree Magazine‘s Life
in Civil War America book! Here’s our second winner:
To enter, like Family Tree
Magazine on Facebook and share on our page a Civil War ancestor story or a
tidbit from our Life
in Civil War America webinar or Life in Civil War America book. You can
also enter by posting a comment on any Genealogy Insider post about Life in Civil
War America (like this one).
Each Friday in April, a winner will be chosen from that week’s comments and wall posts,
and they will be notified by an announcement on Family
Tree Magazine‘s Facebook page. The
four winners will each receive a copy of the Life in Civil War America book.
Check our Facebook page and Genealogy Insider blog frequently for upcoming posts where
we’ll comment on and/or answer the questions we receive about Life in Civil War
America.
The sweepstakes starts April 6, and runs through April 29.
News from around the web.
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From April 10 to 24, digital content provider Gale is celebrating National Library
Week by providing free access to several
resources. Those include the NewsVault (more than 10 million pages from historical
newspapers and periodicals) and Slavery and Anti-Slavery: A Transnational Archive
(antebellum newspaper articles and books focused on slavery). Usually, you must use
Gale databases via libraries that subscribe to them, but you
can search the databases directly during this free access period.
It’s DNA Day! Today only (Friday, April 15), genetic genealogy company FamilyTreeDNA
is offering a promotional code you can use to get a discount on several types
of DNA tests. See
FamilyTreeDNA’s Facebook page for details.
Family Tree University professor Tim Pinnick sent us a note that he’s moderating the
new African-American-American
Newspapers forum on the Afrigeneas website. Stop
by to ask questions and share your finds from Black newspapers.
FamilySearch announced this week that it’s released 500,000 new US county marriage
records, as well as records from Costa Rica, England, India, Mexico, Nicaragua,
Peru and Spain, in the Historical Records Search. Click
here to see the list of the updated collections. (Look for our guide to the new
FamilySearch.org website in the September 2011 Family Tree Magazine.)
Subscription genealogy site Archives just announced
the addition of 3.5 million new US vital records to the website, including
the obituary index from the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center in Ohio (also
searchable here). Other updated collections come from Texas, Kentucky, Maine,
South Carolina, Arizona, South Carolina and Colorado.
iArchives, the records digitization arm of subscription site Footnote, announced plans
to collaborate with the Federation of Genealogical Societies to digitize 180,000 War
of 1812 pension applications. They’ll eventually be available on Footnote. Read
more details on the FGS Voice blog.
News from around the web.
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Does tracing your ancestors’ military service seem like an uphill battle?
For most wars after the American Revolution and the birth of the federal government,
you’ll consult the National Archives and Records Administration,
which has compiled service records, pension files and other federal records (some
are on microfilm and/or digitized, some are still only in paper form).
To see a list of what military records NARA has on microfilm, go
to its Order Online system, click Microfilm at the top of the page (ignore the
log in fields unless you actually submit an order), click Advanced Search, select
Military Service Records from the Subject Catalog pull-down menu, and click Search.
If you see a microfilm you’d like to search, you can look for copies of the film at
the Family History Library (and borrow the film
through a local FamilySearch Center) or see if the film is digitized on the free FamilySearch.org,
or on a subscription website such as Ancestry.com or Footnote.
If an ancestor fought in a Colonial war—that is, any war taking place before
the American Revolution—you’re more likely to locate state militia pay lists, muster
rolls and military hospital records in state archives and military historical societies
covering the war or the place where your ancestor enlisted. It’ll be easier to find
records if you can learn which regiment or company your ancestor was part of.
This is a little taste of the advice is from our new Military
Research Guide CD, which has Family Tree Magazine’s best in-depth guidance
and tools for researching ancestors who served in the US armed forces.
Click
here for more details about the research topics and worksheets covered in this
keyword-searchable, Windows- and Macintosh-compatible CD. It’s
available now at ShopFamilyTree.com.
News from around the web.
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—
The American Civil War began 150 years ago this week. But you already knew that. What
you maybe didn’t know is that the National Park Service has a Civil
War Sesquicentennial Home Page with a play-by-play of that first Battle of Fort
Sumter, as well as contemporary news reports.
As part of our Life
in Civil War America sweepstakes, we’ve heard from many of you who’ve taken advantage
of newly available Civil War records such as those
from Ancestry.com and the National Archives (free on Ancestry.com through April
14; you also can check
out Footnote’s Civil War records free through April 14) to start learning about
your Civil War ancestors.
Interested in taking your research further? Here are some resources that may help:
-
The Civil War Soldiers and
Sailors System: More than 6 million names of soldiers (those who served in
more than one regiment have multiple listings) from the Union and Confederacy, as
well as African-American sailors. You can learn basic service details, find regimental
histories and listings of soldiers by regiment, view battle summaries and see records
from Andersonville and Fort McHenry prisons.
-
Civil
War Women: Diaries, letters and other primary sources from Duke University
-
Civil
War Sesquicentennial Tools: Links to online tools and podcasts (such as Longwood
University’s weekly review of key Civil War events taking place exactly 150 years
ago) that help you research your family’s Civil War history.
-
Our
free Life in Civil War America On-Demand Webinar: Author and historian Michael
O. Varhola illuminates the sweeping changes and cultural norms that shaped the everyday
lives of soldiers and civilians during the war.
-
Civil
War Genealogy Toolkit: Link to state archives’ online Civil War records, Civil
War history sites, how-to articles, Civil War history organizations and more.
-
Military
Research Guide: Our free guide will show you how to research your Civil War
and other military ancestors.
Other Family Tree Magazine Civil War research helps include:
-
Ultimate
Civil War Anniversary Collection (a limited quantity is available of this Civil
War genealogy and history collection)
News from around the web.
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—
It’s been awhile. My first couple of days back at Family Tree Magazine HQ after
the past few months just taking care of this little guy
(look at those chubby little cheeks!) have been a whirlwind of figuring out where
our projects are and what’s going on in the genealogy world.
Here’s what my lovely coworkers had waiting for me on my first day back:
I’ve eaten, slept and breathed family history for the past seven and a half years
on staff at Family Tree Magazine. That’s in my job description.
But while I was on maternity leave, my genealogy life was a lot more like yours: Reading
news blogs and searching online databases when I had a few minutes, finding someone
to watch the baby while I squeezed in trips to the FamilySearch Center (baby
Leo even accompanied me on a short microfilm-requesting stop). I’d watch “Who
Do You Think You Are?” on Hulu in the middle of the
night while I was up with the baby.
I’ll do another post about what I discovered on that FamilySearch microfilm. But I
definitely feel more one with you!
I hope you can offer some advice: How do you fit genealogy into your everyday life?
When do you squeeze in your online and library research? Thanks!
News from around the web.
Go to Source
—
In honor of the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War, each week we’re giving away Family
Tree Magazine‘s Life
in Civil War America book! Here’s our first winner:
To enter, like Family Tree
Magazine on Facebook and share on our page a Civil War ancestor story or a
tidbit from our Life
in Civil War America webinar or Life in Civil War America book. You can
also enter by posting a comment on any Genealogy Insider post about Life in Civil
War America (like this one).
Each Friday in April, a winner will be chosen from that week’s comments and wall posts,
and they will be notified by an announcement on Family
Tree Magazine‘s Facebook page. The
four winners will each recieve a copy of the Life in Civil War America book.
Check our Facebook page and Genealogy Insider blog frequently for upcoming posts where
we’ll comment on and/or answer the questions we receive about Life in Civil War
America.
The sweepstakes starts April 6, and runs through April 29.
News from around the web.
Go to Source
—
Spoiler Alert: If you don’t already know what happened during Ashley Judd’s
episode of “Who Do You Think You Are?” you are about to find out.
Actress Ashley Judd has proud southern roots. Her mother Naomi Judd and sister Wynonna
Judd are country music superstars, and Ashley is an eighth-generation Kentuckian on
her Judd line. So she got a few surprises when exploring her father’s family.
Judd began her search by meeting with her father Michael Ciminella in Louisville,
Ky. While looking at a photo album, Ciminella tells Judd about Elijah Hensley, an
ancestor who fought in the Civil War. Judd searches for Elijah on Ancestry.com, discovering
Hensley served in 39th Kentucky Infantry for the Union.
This leads Judd to the State Archives in Frankfort, Ky., where she finds Hensley’s
muster cards, indicating he enlisted at age 15 and was captured 32 days later. He
was held for about five or six months in a prison in Richmond, Va., and was released
in a broad exchange of Kentucky prisoners. He was later wounded in the Battle of Saltville
and taken prisoner a second time. He was discharged in 1865 because of disability.
The search continues in Saltville, Va. Muster cards indicate Hensley’s right leg was
amputated on the battlefield by medics. An historian demonstrates what the amputation
would be like, horrifying Judd. He also explains that Hensley’s regiment would have
retreated at the battle and left those injured to be taken prisoner by the Confederacy.
Judd then reads a brief write-up about Hensely, indicating he worked as a farmer in
Kentucky after he was honorably discharged. (For
more on tracing your Civil War roots, see our Ultimate Collection.)
Judd then heads to New England Historical Society in Boston, Ma., to research her
paternal great-grandfather William H. Dalton. Death records indicate Dalton’s grandparent
were E. & E. Brewster, a long-standing New England surname. NEHGS researches trace
the Brewster lineage back 12 generations to William Brewster, who was born in 1566/7
England and was bailiff to the Archbishop of York. He immigrated to America in 1620,
coming over on the Mayflower and signing the Mayflower Compact. (For
more on Massachusetts research, see our state bundle.)
The travelers on the Mayflower were fleeing religious persecution, so Judd travels
to York, England, to find out more about Brewster and the Pilgrims. She discovers
William Brewster was a gentleman who attended Cambridge and looked after the archbishop’s
affairs.
Around 1607, Brewster became a central figure of the Puritans, a group of religious
radicals who wanted to separate from the Church of England. He was summoned to court
for speaking out against the Church of England and tries to flee the country. He first
travels to Boston, England, and is soon jailed. Judd looks in his cell where a plaque
dubbing him the “pilgrim father” hangs.
Brewster was imprisoned for months; upon his release, he traveled to Holland, where
there was some degree of religious freedom. About 10 years later, Brewster obtained
a charter from King James to settle Plymouth.
“WDYTYA” airs Fridays at 8pm EST on NBC. Check the Genealogy Insider blog for a brief
recap of each episode.