Member of ISOGG
Archive for March, 2012
News from around the web.
Go to Source
—
The census is coming! The census is coming! To be exact, the 1940 census will be released
in 14 days, at 9 a.m. April 2 at 1940census.archives.gov.
We’ve gone over how
to pinpoint your ancestors’ 1940 census enumeration district(s) so you can zero
in on their record.
Now, as a public service announcement to genealogists, we’re carrying this important
guest blog post from a noted expert in genealogical medicine regarding the 1940 census
and avoiding research-related injury. Take it away, doctor:
Hello, I’m Dr. I.M. Enumerator, N.O.T.M.D.
Significant clicking, scrolling and dragging will likely be required when you look
for your ancestors in the 1940 census.
And unfortunately, too
much mousing can lead to a painful condition called 1940 Census Clicker’s Wrist.
Because the 1940 records constitute the first digital census release, we doctors aren’t
sure what to expect. But those of us familiar with the condition’s close relative,
1930 Census Scroller’s Elbow, believe it could cause a sore wrist and forearm, stiff
“trigger finger” and inability to uncurl the fingers from a computer mouse.
Uncontrolled, 1940 Census Clicker’s Wrist could sideline your census search and require
professional extraction of the mouse.
But there’s no need to suffer. You can avoid the problem if you start this simple,
three-step census training program now.**
1. Perform two sets of 10 reps each, twice a day, with one of these:
2. Follow with three minutes of stretching.
For optimal census searching speed and performance, remember to taper
your training program during the last few days before Census Release Day.
If 1940 Census Clicker’s Wrist should strike you, stop mousing immediately and apply
ice.
Don’t let 1940 Census Clicker’s Wrist stall your search for ancestors. Start
your training program today!
**Consult your physician before beginning any census training program.
Thank you to the doctor for this crucial information. Next, we’ll talk about important
supplies to stock up on so you’ll be ready on Census Day.
News from around the web.
Go to Source
—
Just in time for the 1940 census hoopla to start, our new Genealogist’s
Census Pocket Reference puts resources, tips, lists and need-to-know facts
for searching all US censuses right at your fingertips, in a handy book that’s
also very cute (it really does fit in your pocket).
The Genealogist’s
Census Pocket Reference includes
- websites with census records and their coverage
- questions from each US census, 1790 through 1940
- maps of the territory covered in each federal census
- a key to common abbreviations in census records
-
instructions given to enumerators for each census (which affects how they were to
record your ancestors’ information) - US population and immigration trends revealed in census records
- explanations of special nonpopulation census schedules
- resources for state and international censuses
News from around the web.
Go to Source
—
“Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates Jr.” is a new series from Henry Louis Gates Jr., who previously brought us series such as Faces of America, African American Lives, and African American Lives 2. The show, which airs on PBS stations on Sunday nights, premieres March 25th, 2012 with singer/actor Harry Connick, Jr.
Last week I participated in a conference call with members of the show, including Senior Story Editor and Producer Leslie Asako Gladsjo and Chief Genealogist Johni Cerny. Also on the call, although only able to participate for a few minutes, was Henry Louis Gates Jr.
Here are some interesting tidbits about Finding Your Roots – and genealogy in general – that I learned from the conversation:
- Gates believes that genetic genealogy is deconstructing the notion of race; never has FTDNA or 23andMe returned an African American’s testing results and reported 100% African, for example. In other words, science is demonstrating that things are much more complicated than we would have guessed without the benefit of DNA.
- All guests on Finding Your Roots used both 23andMe and FTDNA for DNA testing – all African Americans participating in the series also used African Ancestry. While the guests receive all their results, we may not always see them.
- Many are still wary of genetic genealogy; many potential guests even turned down the series largely because of the DNA testing involved.
- Gladsjo and Cerny noted that DNA is just another tool for the genealogist; sometimes the guests’ DNA results were very interesting, and sometimes they were “pretty boring.”
I hope you’ll be tuning in tomorrow to see Finding Your Roots. I have a feeling that this is going to be a fascinating series.
By the way, did you catch last night’s episode of “Who Do You Think You Are” with Helen Hunt? It was another fantastic episode. Too bad they didn’t bring in DNA testing. With Hunt’s Jewish ancestry, it would have been a terrific opportunity to education viewers about the many unique facets of genetic genealogy testing in this population.
News from around the web.
Go to Source
—
With families, no matter what kind you inherit, at some point you want to announce you belong to it.
I had the opportunity yesterday to spend a few minutes talking with Kaui Hart Hemmings, the author of The Descendants. She was very candid about her family history. That wasn’t at all surprising. I have read some of what she has written, including the 2008 article from which the above quote was taken where she shares her feelings about being adopted at age eleven by her famous step-father. She speaks about family. She writes about family. But, because her father is a well-known athlete and politician, most of what has been written about her family since her novel was made into an award-winning movie, references him.
Kaui told me that her mother has joked, “You’d think, reading all of these articles, you didn’t even have a mother.” So, I asked about her mom. ”My mother and I are extremely close. She lives just down the street and is helping me raise my two children.”
Kaui’s mother is a descendant of the Wilcox family. She traces her ancestry to a native Hawaiian who married a descendant of one of the Protestant missionaries who came to the islands from New England in the 1830s. She has a rich Hawaiian heritage. “My mom’s parents…,” Kaui says. “They were very concerned with nature and being connected to the elements and to each other. My mom was actually adopted by my grandmother. My daughter is named after that grandmother.”
Her mother was adopted. Kaui was adopted. And, Kaui revealed, her son was also adopted. She seems to know so much about the families each of them were adopted into, I asked her if she ever feels compelled to trace her biological family tree.
“I think, for me, I’m interested in my biological heritage for curiosity sake. The more knowledge the merrier. I didn’t have the emotional pull or need to learn more about my biological heritage, neither did my mother. But, I think it is interesting, following the clues and the process. I’ve collected what I can about my son’s heritage, his mother’s side anyway. But, we’ve almost had to remind ourselves that these people we call family aren’t our biological people, that we were adopted, that the prints of our DNA come from somewhere else. These families we’ve inherited are our family.”
Kaui Hart Hemmings
Before I let her go, I had to ask Kaui about one more thing. She’s quoted as having said once, “Growing up in Hawaii, I did not constantly think about my Hawaiianness.” Because Hawaii plays such a critical role in her famous story, The Descendants, I asked what she meant by that. She explained it this way.
“I’m writing right now about Colorado. It’s a vacation destination and you don’t often think about the people who live there. Hawaii is the same way. More important than the specific place is how the place shapes us. Ancestry is on my mind. How people we’ve never met before shape us and how the prints of their DNA are found in our own lives. I’m most interested in writing about how you find your fit and your place in your family. Declaring your part in the chain – defining your link. That plays a huge part in my books and in my searching.”
I love that – prints of their DNA, how place shapes us. In just a brief conversation, Kaui managed to put into words some of the very reasons why I spend so much time and energy researching my own family history. It’s not just about names and dates to fill in blanks on a family tree. It’s also about the stories of their lives, the history of the world around them. It’s about how that time and that place helped shape them and their choices It’s about how their choices helped shaped the world and the family that I’ve inherited.
Thanks, Kaui.
For the rest of you, be sure to head on over to our Facebook page where I invite you to discover your own island heritage and enter to win a trip to Hawaii.
Until next time…
News from around the web.
Go to Source
—
One in eight Americans claim Irish ancestry according to an American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2008. That works out to about 36 million people. But, as we approach St Patrick’s Day this weekend, I’m betting a whole lot more than that will be “getting their Irish on.” I know I’ll be wearing green and cooking up some corned beef and cabbage.
If you are looking for the specific origins of your Irish immigrant ancestors here are a few of my favorite tips and tricks for finding the exact piece of land your forefathers called home on the “auld sod.”
.
Exhaust all U.S. resources first
As tempted as we are to jump right into Irish research, do all the U.S. research you can first. This will save you from beating your head against the proverbial brick wall as you try to sort through all of the John O’Briens and William Kellys you will find.
Use records like naturalizations, obituaries, military service records and newspaper articles. Be sure to search for records regarding the children of your immigrant ancestor as well. You never know when the obituary of one of those children will list the birthplace of their father.
Research the lives and origins of the whole family. Also pay attention to friends, associates and neighbors. Who lived near, worked with, and worshipped with your ancestors? Could they have all come over from the same place in Ireland?
Once you have a location in Ireland, it will be much easier to narrow in on your ancestor in available Irish records.
.
Educate yourself about the Irish census records and census substitutes
The Irish censuses of 1821-1851 were destroyed in an explosion in 1922 during the Irish Civil War. The 1861-1891 censuses were also destroyed. The remaining censuses are 1901 and 1911. These are available for free at http://census.nationalarchives.ie.
There are some substitutes and other resources to help get around the missing census records. Which takes me to our next tip…
.
Check Irish record collections available on Ancestry.com
Go to the Card Catalog. Filter by location to Europe | Ireland. That will give you a complete listing of all databases containing Irish records. Filter by collection to see the different types of records available. There are over 28 million Irish records online at Ancestry.com as of the writing of this post. Be sure to explore all 150+ database titles to see which ones might be pertinent to your family history. And, when you click through to a database you are interested in, be sure to scroll down past the search box to read the database description.
.
Look for free resources available online elsewhere
A couple of my other favorite free resources for Irish research are:
Missing Friends Advertisements in the Boston Pilot – These advertisements were placed by people looking for immigrants who came to the United States. Many list the relationship to the person they are looking for and the town in Ireland they came from. These records cover the years 1831-1921 and can be found at http://infowanted.bc.edu.
Will calendars for Armagh, Belfast and Londonderry from 1858-1943 can be found at the website for the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland. Abstracts from these records contain not just the name of the deceased but sometimes names of family members the left for America as well.
.
Watch the Find Your Irish Ancestors in America & Ireland webinar for more clues and tips
Under the Learning Center on Ancestry.com, you will find Webinars. There is one there called Find Your Irish Ancestors in America and Ireland. This is a full hour of great ideas from two of the best Irish genealogists around. Be sure to watch this for more tips and tricks to finding your Irish ancestors as well as some ideas for learning more about them in Irish records.
.
For a quick tutorial on how to use some of the resources mentioned in this blog post, feel free to watch the Ancestry LIVE broadcast I did earlier today.
Now, I just need to find some time to sort out what I know about my great-great-grandfather, John O’Brien, who was born in either Ireland or Ohio in either 1829 or 1835. (The man couldn’t keep his story straight.)
Until next time…
P.S. One other free resource that we discussed in the chat after the broadcast is GenUKI.
News from around the web.
Go to Source
—
For those of you who are new to genealogy, you may be wondering why you haven’t received any hints leading you to 1890 census records for the people in your family tree. Here’s the story. The 1890 U.S. Federal Census was stored in the Commerce Building in Washington D.C. In 1921 there was a fire in the basement of that building. About 1/4 of the census was destroyed by fire. Another 50% of it was ruined by smoke and water damage. In the mid-1930s the remainder of the census was destroyed by government order.
1890 U.S. Population Density
For those of us who use census records as the beginning steps for sketching out the structure of our families, that gap between 1880 and 1900 seems huge and, sometimes, insurmountable. A lot can happen in twenty years.
There are plenty of other records available that can help you trace your family through the end of the 19th century. Here are a few of my favorite.
.
State Census Records
Many states took censuses on “off” years from the federal government, most commonly on the “fives.” Using the Card Catalog, do a title search for “State Census” and see what comes up. To solve the 1880-1900 gap challenge, look specifically for censuses taken in 1885 or 1895. As of now we have the following censuses for that time period online at Ancestry.com:
- Colorado (1885)
- Florida (1885)
- Iowa (1885, 1895)
- Kansas (1885, 1895)
- Michigan (1884, 1894)
- Minnesota (1885, 1895)
- Nebraska (1885)
- New Jersey (1895)
- New York (1892)
- South Dakota (1895)
.
City Directories
While these will likely only list the adults in the household (and sometimes only the head of household), city directories are a great resource for tracking your family through the 1880s and 90s. Using the Card Catalog, filter to directories, then state, then decade to see what is available. Once you find a person you are looking for, try a surname search on the same street to see who else shows up in the same neighborhood or place of employment.
.
Newspapers
Newspapers are another great way to track your family, especially if they came from a smaller community where local happenings were big news. Be sure to check out the large newspaper collection on Ancestry.com – again, using the Card Catalog, filter to Newspapers, then state, then decade to see what shows up in the same time and place as your family.
.
If you want a quick video tutorial about searching the state censuses and the city directories, watch my Ancestry LIVE broadcast from earlier today.
Until next time – Have fun climbing your family tree…
News from around the web.
Go to Source
—
Need a My
Family Tree Research Planner?
50 percent off!
Our downloadable
guide to tracing immigrant ancestors?
50 percent off!
A 2010 Family
Tree Magazine back issues CD (after all, it’s text-searchable and takes up
a slim quarter-inch of bookshelf space)?
54 percent off!
You’re probably getting the gist by now: For the Amazing
Deals Sale at ShopFamilyTree.com now through Sunday, lots and lots of genealogy
how-to books, print back issues, CDs, article downloads and more are at least 50 percent
off.
Click
here to see everything included in the sale. Remember, in ShopFamilyTree.com you
get free shipping on orders over $25 (and digital downloads count toward the total).
News from around the web.
Go to Source
—
-
Genealogy and family network website MyHeritage now
has a feature that lets members easily create family calendars. You can choose
from 15 designs and 28 languages, and create a calendar in one click. It’s automatically
decorated with your family photos and populated with birthdays, anniversaries, holidays
and other events from your MyHeritage.com family site. You can add or change events
and photos, too, and purchase your calendar for as low as $19.95 plus shipping.
-
For anyone researching WWII servicemembers, subscription site Fold3 has added the WWII
European Theater Army Records, a collection—currently 57 percent complete—of
administrative documents dating from 1941 through 1946. They include personal accounts
and reports, phone books for US Forces in Paris, troop provisions recorded by the
Army Exchange Service and more. Search
the collection here with a Fold3 subscription.
-
Family tree wiki site WikiTree.com has
started a Genealogist-to-Genealogist Sharing Network (aka G2G). It’ll allow
researchers (whether or not they’re WikiTree members) to ask other genealogists for
help on topics such as general genealogy, research brick walls, or how to use WikiTree.
-
FamilySearch added 20 million new, free records to FamilySearch.org this week
for Canada, Chile, New Zealand, Portugal, Sweden, and 13 US states. The release includes
9 million California death records and 5 million Nevada marriage records. See
the list of updated databases and link to each one here.
-
Florida International University (FIU) has acquired Felix Enrique Hurtado de Mendoza’s
collection of thousands of books, handwritten and typed letters, photos and other
primary documents relating to Cuba and Cuban genealogy. They include rare 17th-
and 18th-century books, out-of-print publications, and thousands of unpublished genealogies
and family manuscripts. FIU is now raising funds to create a Cuban center for genealogy
centered around this collection. Read
more about the Felix Enrique Hurtado de Mendoza collection here.
News from around the web.
Go to Source
—
I grew up thinking I’m an eighth Irish, through my great-grandmother Mary Norris.
But my genealogy research has since revealed that I’m only 1/16th Irish—Mary’s father
was from Ireland, but her mother was German.
And this little guy is 1/32nd Irish:
So this St. Patrick’s Day, Leo and I will have to make the most of our respective
slivers of Irishness.
Whether you’re a lot or a little Irish, you share heritage with the second-largest
heritage group in the United States. Here are some more stats:
-
50,000 to 100,000 Irish came to America in the 1600s, and 100,000 more in the 1700s.
Eight signatures on the Declaration of Independence belonged to men of Irish descent. -
In the American colonies, up to 90 percent of indentured servants were Irish.
-
About 250,000 Scots-Irish settlers from Ulster province arrived in the United States
during the Colonial era. They were descended from Scottish and English tenant farmers
settled in Ireland during the Plantation
of Ulster. -
In the century after 1820, about 5 million Irish arrived on US shores. Irish made
up almost half of all US immigrants in the 1840s and one-third in the 1850s, the decades
of the Great Potato Famine. -
Today, Massachusetts is the most Irish state, with about a quarter of the population
claiming Irish roots.
FamilyTreeMagazine.com has some great advice for tracing your Irish roots:
-
Tracing
Irish immigrants through Canada -
Where
to search the 1901 and 1911 Irish censuses free online -
10
Best websites for tracing UK and Irish Roots -
Tips
on discovering your ancestor’s place of origin in Ireland
For in-depth help researching your Irish ancestors, take
a look at our Irish Ancestry Value Pack, with:
- how-to guides
- the Genealogist’s Guide to Discovering Irish Ancestors book download
-
the Irish Research 101 Family Tree University Independent Study course
The Irish Ancestry Value Pack is just
$49.99 this month.
News from around the web.
Go to Source
—
Just a quick reminder that our Online
Census Secrets webinar is this Thursday, March 15, at 8 p.m. ET.
Family Tree Magazine publisher Allison Dolan will share key facts about censuses,
where to find free census records and what to expect when the 1940 census is released.
She’ll also show you how to use the major online collections to find your ancestors,
using real examples from webinar viewers to demo census search strategies.
Click
here to learn more about the Online Census Secrets webinar.
And our Indiana
Crash Course webinar is right around the corner next Tuesday, March 20 at 8 p.m.
ET. If you have Hoosier ancestors like I do, click
here to find out more about this learning opportunity.