I downloaded Ancestry.com’s new ap “We’re Related” on October 25th. The first day I couldn’t get it to stop loading the “Who are you?” page. I tried several times in the following week and always time out getting the “Error communicating with server, please try later. Error getting trees. We seem to be having trouble pulling up the roots.” Cute but annoying.
I’m not sure if it’s because my tree is so large or if there is some other issue on their end. I travel a great deal and thought it would be neat to find others who might be related to me. Definitely don’t use this if you don’t want your gps coordinates known!
Category: Tips
Genealogy Catch Up – Using the Extra Hour of Day Light Savings to Keep Organized
My goodness I accomplished a bunch last weekend with that hour of extra time! I’m taking the advice I preach and cleaned out my emails, making sure that I saved everything that was important to my desk top and if it was super important, to the Cloud. I use the free Dropbox. For information that may someday be important, I save the link to an Excel file I keep in Dropbox. For example, if there is a particularly interesting blog about clues from old photographs from Ancestor Cloud or Genealogy in Time Magazine, I copy the link in the Excel spreadsheet. One column is Topic, next is the link and the third is comments, if any. That way, if I ever have a brick wall or a client comes to me with a difficult quest with an area where I’m not an expert, I can quickly find useful information.
One email I had received from last month was for a special on Roots Magic. For my faithful readers, you know I dearly miss the simplicity of the old PAF that Family Search once provided for free. I switched to Family Tree Maker when PAF was dying and was happy until it stopped synching with my Ancestry.com tree. The many calls and emails I made between both organizations were pointless so I gave up and went to the Standard free version of Legacy. I liked it so much several months later I bought the Deluxe version. IMHO, Legacy has the BEST charts of any genealogy software product out there and is a bargain for the price. But back to the Roots Magic email, there was a special offer for $29.95. I thought I could do better so I hunted around and found I could get it for $20.00, along with an instructional ebook. I decided to make the purchase, download my GEDcom from Ancestry and upload to Roots Magic in preparation for when Ancestry.com and Roots Magic are able to synch like Family Tree Maker failed to do. I got my $20.00 price from the Association of Professional Genealogists but I also found it by looking for special offers. Here’s the link if you’d like to purchase it – ROOTS MAGIC SPECIAL.
Another special for the upcoming weekend – November 12-13 – is Arkivdigital will be free for everyone. If you have Swedish family it’s a must use. Yes, the records are in Swedish but there are helpful hints on their site or you could use Google Translate. Happy Hunting! Now back to Roots Magic…
I was pleased with how quick the upload was; Legacy takes a whole lot longer. After updating both Legacy and installing Roots Magic, I saved to the Cloud and to a stand alone hard drive as I am paranoid to lose the information.
While I was doing that, Hubby was working at his desk beside me. I looked over and what did I see but visions of holiday shopping appearing on his screen! So I gave him my gift list for this year – a new sewing box and three genealogy books. I did have to have him log onto my National Genealogical Society account to get a discount on the books but that was a good savings, too.
All that took up my extra hour but I felt so good about cleaning up my data I decided to move on to finishing the Canvas project I started in the summer. I’m just about done with our family poster. I think it’s a bargain for $34.95. Granted, I’m going to have to get it framed.
Haven’t checked out how to make one? If you click on EXTRAS on the Ancestry ribbon and then click on the drop down menu for Photo Books and Posters you leave Ancestry and go to MY CANVAS. To make a poster, click on their ribbon FAMILY HISTORY. You can import your Ancestry.com tree to their template and get creative from there. It’s an awesome holiday gift.
If only I could have an extra hour every weekend!
Records Breadcrumb Trail May Lead to Wrong Conclusions
I’ve been researching my Duer line lately with the idea that I’ll write a Kinship Determination from where my line begins, with Maria Duer, my great great grandmother, to my gateway ancestor, Thomas Stone Duer.
I’ve blogged previously about the serendipitous events and detailed how history repeats itself (see Circular Migration Patterns-How History RepeatsItself, 30 May 2015). After discovering the connection, I’ve become more determined to learn about the Duer Family.
Maria left some wonderful records, however, they initially led me to a wrong conclusion. Years ago, I had found her obituary through the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center Obituary Index[1] but I couldn’t decipher it as it was in German and used Gothic script. Her daughter Emma’s death certificate stated Maria was born in Germany.[2] The obit and the daughter’s death certificate led me to believe that Maria was of German descent. By just looking at the surface, those two records reinforced what I already knew about my father’s long line of German ancestry; I had Leininger, Bollenbacher, Kuhn, Kable, and Kettering surnames sprinkled everywhere in my tree and all of them were German immigrants. No surprise that Maria Duer would have also been German. How wrong I was!
Maria was born in Mahoning, Ohio on 2 September 1833.[3] Adam Kuhn, Maria’s son with whom she resided at the time of her death and who was the neighbor of his sister, Emma, had served as Emma’s death certificate informant. It is understandable that Adam most likely identified himself with his father Henry Kuhn’s German heritage. German born Henry Kuhn was a prosperous citizen in Mercer County, Ohio and maintained a close connection with others who had immigrated from Germany. Henry and Maria had been married for 55 years so she, too, would have been known in the German community so her obituary in a German newspaper makes sense. After having the obituary translated, I learned that it never stated she was German but it did mention her German born husband. Daughter Emma died at age 50 after suffering long term physical abuse from her ex-husband of 25 years. Adam likely recalled his father’s birth place instead of his mother’s when he provided Emma’s death certificate information. In grief, he probably just made an error.
Census records, a second obituary in English, and a mug sheet entry all confirm Maria was born in Ohio and connect her to her parents, John and Mary Jane (Morrison) Duer. Maria Duer was once a brickwall ancestor but no longer! What a great lesson in making sure a reasonably exhaustive search was performed AND analysis of all the found records was done.
[1] “Maria Duer Kuhn,” obituary, Die Minter [Ohio] Post, 1 August 1913, page 1, col. 3.
[2] Ohio, Bureau of Vital Statistics, death certificate, “Emma Landfair,” number 12296 (stamped, 21 February 1914.
[3] 1850 U.S. census, Killbuck, Holmes County, Ohio, population schedule, page 245 (handwritten) dwelling 557, family 572, Maria Duer; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 16 October 2016); citing NARA microfilm publications M432_696.
1860 U.S. census, Liberty, Mercer County, Ohio, population schedule, page 141 (handwritten), dwelling 1008, family 1013, Henry and Maria Coon Jr.; Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 16 October 2016); citing NARA microfilm publications M653_1009.
1870 U.S. census, Liberty, Mercer County, Ohio, population schedule, page 15 (handwritten) dwelling 55, family 58, Maria Kuhn; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 16 October 2016); citing NARA microfilm publications M593.
1880 U.S. census, Liberty, Mercer County, Ohio, population schedule, page 7 (handwritten) dwelling 55, family 58, Maria Kuhn; Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 16 October 2016); citing FHL microfilm 1255048; citing NARA microfilm publications T9_1048.
1900 U.S. census, Liberty, Mercer, Ohio, population schedule, sheet 9 (handwritten) dwelling141, family176, Meriah Kuhn; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 16 October 2016); citing NARA with no further information provided.
1910 U.S. census, Liberty, Mercer County, Ohio, population schedule, sheet 9 (handwritten) dwelling 320, family 278, Miria Kuhn; digital image Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 16 October 2016); citing NARA microfilm publication T624_1214.
Ohio, Department of Health Division of Vital Statistics, death certificate, “Maria Kuhn,” state file number 41826, 22 July 1913.
“Marie Kuhn,” The Grim Reaper, The Celina [Ohio] Democrat, 25 July 1913, page 1, col. 4.
Compilers, A Portrait and Biographical Record of Mercer and Van Wert Counties, Ohio (Chicago,IL: A. W. Bowen & Co., 1896) 400-401; digital image, Google Books (https://books.google.com: accessed 16 October 2016).
Helpful Old Technology
I recently received a cassette tape of an interview done by a distant family member with one of my husband’s aunts in 2001. Both of those ladies have passed away and the tape became the possession of the interviewer’s daughter. She doesn’t have a tape recorder any longer and has a transcription so she was not interested in keeping the tape.
My husband’s Aunt Ruby was a sweetheart and with his Aunt Marge, always made me feel as I was part of their family. We had made a quick visit with her about 8 months after the tape was made but it wasn’t a happy time as I was in the area to bury my mother’s cremains so it never occurred to me to tape what became our last visit with Aunt Ruby.
When the tape was offered to me I was happy to get it – I’d love to hear her voice again. Problem was, who has a tape recorder anymore?
Evidently, I do. When the tape arrived hubby emailed several friends and colleagues to see if anyone had one we could borrow. No one did. Then it hit me! Several years ago, pre bluetooth, we used to use a boom box in the backyard on our deck. Had to think hard what we did with it and then remembered it was outside in a pool storage bench. Thank goodness it still worked!
Hubby transferred the tape to MP3 using the instructions from this site – How to Transfer Old Cassette Tapes to MP3 Files
The quality is not great – it was made in a nursing home greeting area and a restaurant so there is a lot of background noise. I’m still glad we have it and updated it to the latest technology.
If you have tapes and would like to update it is not difficult to do. I recommend putting that on your winter to do list and with the holidays around the corner, you might want to ask to borrow from family and friends if you don’t have a tape player.
It’s going to be a constant upgrade from one technology to another but I think the time expended is well worth it. Your descendants will think it’s awesome when they will see a picture of their 5th great grandparents and hear their voices!
Save Those Emails!
At the recent genealogical seminar I attended I met up with a colleague I had not seen since the National Genealogical Society conference in May. We were catching up and he mentioned he was still trying to recover about 13,000 emails that had been lost. That’s a lot of emails! Here’s how it happened:
In our area Verizon used to be one of our internet service providers. In April, Frontier purchased Verizon’s customers. The transition was not seamless; there was much service disruption but it appeared that most of the problems had been corrected. Then, with no warning, my colleague woke up one morning a few weeks ago and discovered that he couldn’t access his Verizon email account. He contacted Frontier who told him they had nothing to do with it and he needed to call Verizon. Verizon told him he was no longer a customer so he no longer had access to his emails.
It’s always difficult changing addresses, whether it’s in the real world or virtually, but it is even more difficult when one is caught unexpectedly. He had received no warning that the account would be terminated. His contract with Verizon was for 2 years and everyone in our area had been informed that Frontier would honor and continue the Verizon contracts through their expiration. I don’t even know how breaching the contract can be legal since he’s still under contract but that’s a whole different issue!
The colleague quickly made a gmail account and then began the arduous task of updating his email address all over the internet. Been there, done that, not fun!
Although hubby and I had a Verizon email account we rarely used it and I don’t think I’ve checked it in the last few years. In fact, I had forwarded the account to our gmail account at least five years ago. I completely missed that the account disappeared.
The wasted time in having to update to the new account, though, wasn’t the most upsetting situation. The loss of all the saved emails was the most devastating. I can only imagine!
Back in the day, like most Americans, we had an AOL account. We continued to use the account well into the 2000’s even though our children loved to poke fun at us old fogies still sticking with AOL. I pointed out I was being a loyal customer. So much for loyalty! About 2010 our account got hacked. We changed passwords. It was hacked again. AOL sent us a rather IMHO nasty email that warned us that our account would be cancelled if we continued to share our passwords with others. Huh?! We hadn’t done that. I was over them so I created a gmail account. Hubby wanted to continue with AOL so he once again changed the password. I spent a weekend updating the new account info to our many online accounts. Over the next few weeks I went through the saved emails and purged. Many, though, were of genealogical significance – notification of a cousin’s marriage, the death of an aunt, graduation dates and connections with long lost relatives who had found postings I had placed on bulletin boards. I forwarded those emails to gmail and placed them in a folder titled Genealogy. A few weeks after I completed the transfers, the account was again hacked. We received the same letter and this time, hubby was through with them. That account is still open and maybe once a year I go on it to see if any long lost relative has rediscovered my original tree on Rootsweb’s World Connect or one of those old bulletin board posts that I can no longer update to provide a newer email address. It hasn’t happened yet but who knows? Mostly I find a thousand junk emails that I delete en mass.
I now save emails that are of value to my computer and to a cloud. This way, if I have to abandon gmail for another email account I haven’t lost anything important. For emails that were of special importance, such as a photo or record attachment, I also attach to my tree, copy and paste the email contents into the citation. I feel very fortunate that my transition was on my own terms. Heed the warning!
Genealogy At Heart Website Update
I’ve been writing a lot about technology lately. I do love it but it certainly is a pain when it glitches! Last year I created a free website using Sidengo called www.GenealogyAtHeart.com. I linked my blog posts to it and featured genealogical special offers, photos of recent research trips I’d taken and information for clients who were interested in contacting me. In July, I received an email from Sidengo that in less than 3 weeks my account was going to be closed unless I moved to a paid option. I was leaving town for a two week research trip the next day, had a client deadline I had to finish before I left and was returning to my teaching job three days after the research trip ended so I felt rushed into making a decision. Hubby thought I should just pay up to make my life easier but I didn’t want to do that as I thought it was poor customer service to pressure folks into paying. During my evenings while I was on my research trip I searched for alternatives. I settled on another company but wasn’t really happy with it – I was only able to get one page so the website was a long scroll AND I couldn’t link to my blog posts so I had to list them which was cumbersome for readers.
In September, the Association of Professional Genealogists had a webinar about WordPress. I had explored them in July but didn’t find the site intuitive enough for me to figure out how to quickly put together my webpages. After watching the webinar I thought I’d give it another try and in just a few hours I had my webpages almost back to where it was from the beginning. It’s officially live so I’ll continue to post my blogs on blogspot and then archive at genealogyatheart.com. So, if you want to find an older post and you remember the month – you can look on blogger. If you can’t remember when it was published but are looking for the topic – visit genealogyatheart.com where I’ve tagged and archived by area.
Tips for Attending a Family History Day and What I Learned from Attendees
Originally published on genealogyatheart.blogspot.com on 9 Oct 2016.
October is Family History Month and if you’re a newbie planning on attending a local event to get some genealogical assistance, I’ve got some recommendations to make your experience a happy one:
- Bring what you know written down. Even better – bring how you know what you know! (Was it your parents who told you or did you find a record? It’s important to record where you got the information as you build your tree because trust me, before you know it you’ll have a lot of info and won’t remember where you got most of it!)
- Have a specific question you’d like answered in mind. Specific is not, “I want to know everything about my mom’s family.” Specific is, “I’d like to find out when my great grandmother Elizabeth Smithson died.”
- You probably have a lot of questions but rank them in order of your interest; it’s only fair as other people have questions, too, and are patiently waiting!
- Prepare yourself for not immediately finding an answer – very little is online so it might take a phone call, email, letter or a visit to discover the answer you seek. You might not ever find what your looking for, either. Today an attendee demanded of one of my colleagues that he find an obituary from 1877 in a rural area of Pennsylvania. Checked the largest town newspapers online but couldn’t find one. He had checked several databases (Chronicling America, Newspapers.com, GenealogyBank, Ancestry) so I recommended calling the local history center and asking what papers were in existence then. The woman was not happy and demanded that someone find the obituary immediately. We couldn’t give her what she wanted so she left in a huff.
- Remember to thank the researcher – they are volunteering their time and could be doing their own research instead of helping you with yours.
We had a nice turn out today at our county day and I met some incredibly wonderful folks with some very good questions and a few brick walls we were able to start tearing down. My three most memorable of the day involved:
- A woman in her 70’s who’s parents in their 90’s were still alive and all of them decided it was time to write the family history. They were having trouble starting because they wanted “to do it right.” HINT: There is no one way to do genealogy and that’s one of the major pluses for me! I showed several formats – Case Studies, Proof Arguments, Kinship Determinations, and several lineage forms. If you’re putting off writing because you don’t know where to begin just begin with whoever your favorite individual is. You can ascend or descend from there. I understand that footnotes/endnotes are a pain but citations are critical. How is anyone going to know where you found that document unless you write it down?! The lady today didn’t like the look of footnotes; I explained why they are often used over endnotes – people tend to not think the citation is important so they save paper by not copying them. I recommended that she use page numbers that say 1 of X so if someone does make a copy in the future they’d know they might be missing the endnotes. I think the family just needed reassurance that their work was not going to be up for a Pulitzer Prize. It’s okay if you aren’t an author; it’s not ok to let all that research go to waste by not communicating in the best way you are able to for the next generation.
- A lovely lady who wanted to know why her step-grandmother who she had never met was mean. What I loved about this woman was her matter of factness; she wasn’t emotional about the situation. Instead, she just wanted an explanation for why the older lady had been reportedly so miserable. I thought this was extremely interesting as most people don’t even fully research their blood relatives and here was someone who wanted to know about a step relative. I was able to find the woman’s death date in California and showed her the familysearch.org wiki so she can get further information about the many places out west the woman had lived. I also recommended she check out GoogleBooks and Hathi Trust for more information about events that were occurring at the time the grandma was residing in an area – like the dust bowl, for instance. I think that would have made me miserable! We were unable to find a marriage record or a death date for her grandfather but we did narrow down some cemeteries that she can contact to see if he is buried there. (Not on Find-a-grave, Billion Graves, etc.)
- A woman who brought in the earliest photoshopped photo I’ve ever seen! Seriously, don’t know who or when it was done but some family member took a photo taken circa 1872 of a couple seated holding a baby and cut a photo of another baby out and pasted it over the woman’s lap. It was done fairly well, too. Weirdest thing I’ve ever seen! The family was afraid to remove the glued on kid, understandably, so I recommended taking it to a professional photographic restorer. For someone who just deleted all of her photos from her phone in error, I’m clearly the wrong person for the job! But the photoshopping brings up lots of interesting questions – why did someone do this? What’s underneath? Who did that? Who’s the baby? I have a tentative hypothesis that the family will have to pursue but my theory is this: Eleven months after the immigrant couple wed in Newark, New Jersey a male unnamed baby was born. The baby died 2 weeks later; he had been named Henry in the death records. The couple had another baby the following year. I suspect they had the first picture taken holding the dead baby as they looked miserable. Not having the money to sit for another photograph they had a picture of their second child taken and then wishing they had taken a photo when she was younger, cut it out and placed it over the original photo. The couple had 5 children, one every year, and then the father died. The mother died 2 years after him. The youngest two children were raised in an orphanage. Using GenWeb I was able to find where the orphanage records are housed. There was a memorial on find-a-grave for the couple but not for the baby. I recommended calling the cemetery to see if he was buried in plot 1 as the father was buried in plot 2 and the mom in plot 3. Hmm…who else could have been in plot 1 but the baby with no stone because they couldn’t afford one? Only way to find the answer is to make a call!
Happy Hunting!
Saving Photos
Originally published on genealogyatheart.blogspot.com on 5 Oct 2016.
I’ve been on a technology kick lately and here’s why – I did something incredibly dumb and I don’t want you to do it!
We have a nice older digital camera that we rarely use. I rely on my phone for pictures of events and when I research as I prefer the document to be digitally available instead of having to lug the book to the copy machine, pay, and come home with yet another piece of paper that I have to then scan to save.
Yes, the camera phone has made my life better but I had taken so many pictures in the past two years that it stopped uploading about 45 photos ago. Now I knew this because I kept getting a warning that I was out of space but it was one of those things I put off correcting. I decided I wasn’t going to buy more space because I really needed to get into the habit of cleaning out the photos shortly after I’d taken them.
We were going to have an event at my primary job that involved taking lots and lots of photos over a short period of time. Charged the camera and put in a new SD card but I wanted a backup in case the old camera failed. I started going through the phone photos and hitting delete one by one. I guess I got a little over enthusiastic (actually, I got distracted by a phone call on the land line) and must have hit something wrong as I deleted everything at once. Oops!
I know what I lost and most are thankfully, somewhere else. I lost a picture of my son petting an armadillo he had rescued out of our hot tub last summer. The armadillo was making eye contact with him and looked like he was eternally grateful for being saved. I texted the pic to my daughter who promptly replied son better wash his hands as to not get a disease. So I have that picture in my texts.
I lost a picture of a peregrine falcon that landed on my fence during the hurricane but that’s okay, too, as he now lives in my hood so if I want, I can retake his photo.
What I’m upset about is birthday photos of my husband for the last two years. I don’t post to Facebook and I wouldn’t have texted them because everyone who cared was here. I know I was the only one taking photos so they’re gone for good. Hubby could care less but I’m kicking myself for being a goof.
Hard way to learn my lesson but I think I won’t be repeating this mistake.
A New Way to Identify Name Variations
Originally published on genealogyatheart.blogspot.com on 18 Sep 2016.
I was reading the article Guild of One-Name Studies Is Now Available at FamilySearch.org in The Genealogy News recently and thought I’d check out the database on Familysearch. On a few lines, I trace everyone who has that name in the US in an attempt to make a connection across the pond. Stop and read the article and then come back to my blog.
If you followed the articles link to Familysearch, (added here in case you didn’t), and you enter a surname in the search field, you probably were disappointed. I know I was! I first added HARBAUGH and got links to everything but Guild Of One-Name Studies. I know family historians, some quite renown, have traced the name back to a HARBO who was a court scribe in the 1200’s in Denmark. I expected to find that and more but all I got were records of Harbaughs.
I then typed in LEININGER and got lots of IGI records but nothing for the Guild of One-Name Studies.
Then it hit me! On the left hand side, I should have scrolled down and filtered out everything but Guild of One-Name Studies.
I still got nothing for Harbaugh and Leininger but when I entered KOS I got Cass and Coss,
Next I tried KABLE and that’s when it occurred to me – duh – this could be an innovative way to come up with surname variations! My Kables were listed as Cable, Cabel, Kabel, Cobbold and Cabot. I would have never come up with Cobbold and Cabot.
Next I tried DUER and got Dewhurst. Now that was very interesting to me as I’ve been heavy into deeds and wills of my John Duer in Trumbull/Mahoning Counties, Ohio who died in 1831 after his son, Thomas, and I keep seeing Dewhurst in the records. I pronounce Dewhurst as doo’ herst but I guess it could be pronounced doo’ ers. Hmm.
We’ve all seen creatively spelled names, likely recorded from pronunciations, in records but I’ve never been really good at coming up with more than obvious variations. I’m adding this tool to my genealogy tool box!
Researching at the National Archives
Originally published on genealogyatheart.blogspot.com on 14 Sep 2016.
My two most favorite locations to research are the Family History Library in Salt Lake City and the National Archives (NARA) in DC. Actually, NARA is by far the archive that I hold dearest to my heart as it’s the place where I am able to hold in my hands documents that my ancestors held years before. It’s a connection like no other!
It was my final day in the Capitol and as I was headed to the airport in late afternoon, I had with my my suitcase. My sister-in-law had dropped me off at the commuter station close to her home at 9 AM and it was a straight line to the archive.
Took this pic as I came up the steps from the train:
The building isn’t crooked – I was after being on the road for several days!
This view is of the researcher’s entrance – it’s around the side of the building from where the public enter to view the exhibits. Think National Treasure’s entrance.
Going through security was not a problem and the guards pleasantly directed me to the locker room. For a quarter I could get a large locker to place my suitcase and purse. I hadn’t taken off the Kindle’s sleeve so I was sent back to place it with the rest of my belongings. The Kindle and/or a laptop is permissible but cannot have the cases with them. I also took with my my handy dandy plastic Baggie of goodies.
I was prepared and had viewed the Powerpoint presentation at home prior to my trip. The ppt had been updated the week before, however, so I was required to take a few moments to read it. You can check out Researcher Presentation here.
As with the Library of Congress, researchers must obtain a Research Card. You cannot preregister but there was no wait and within minutes I was on my way. The card you receive is free and valid for 1 year. Make sure you have a drivers license or passport with you!
I was directed to a desk where the kind ladies helped me complete the pull request paperwork. Since I had already checked out their holdings I knew exactly what I wanted to get. I highly advise you to do the legwork at home and save time while there. It’s amazing how quickly time flies when you’re into the documents!
The document pull requests must be turned in by the time deadlines or you miss that window. The pull times are 10, 11, 1, 2 and 3. I had already missed the 10 AM – when they open – as I had to get my Research Card. No worries, I was ready for the 11 AM pull. In the meantime, staff directed me to the microfilm room and I was happily viewing Postmaster Records from the late 1800s on several family members.
I was able to save what I found to my thumb drive but you have to put money on your card. A staff member helped me and I decided it was best to use my charge card to guesstimate how much I would spend. I wasn’t sure if the records I was requesting from the pulls were what I wanted and I didn’t want to put more money on the card than needed as I wasn’t planning on being back soon and you can’t get a refund once money is placed. The staff member suggested $5.00 and as it turned out, he was exactly on the money!
By noon I was on another floor asking at the desk if my items had been pulled. They hadn’t yet so I sat at a table and waited.
It was a Thursday midday in July and the place was hopping! Every table in the room was taken. The adjacent room was almost empty but those tables were reserved for Congressmen so the remaining researchers had to share space.
A kind researcher had noticed me downstairs earlier and asked me if I had found everything. I told him that my pull hadn’t come through yet. He suggested that I ask the staff member in another room as he found his request there. Sure enough, there was my goodies!
I’m not going to bore you with the process but this is government so you’ve got to sign and sign again and make sure you’re signing in the right place on the right color paper. Don’t worry – the staff is patient and kind and will help you if you forget what you learned in the ppt.
I had requested 3 pulls and all 3 had information. There are limits – from their website:
“The limit is four original files for each researcher for each pull during a business day up to 24 files in a given day.”
When I come back I plan on bringing my husband to expedite the process.
I sat in awe and read the War of 1812 pension petition of my 3 x’s great grandmother Mary “Polly” Dennis Hodge Adams Elder Search. You read that correctly – she was married four times, outliving 3 of the husbands. Her first husband, John Hodge, went off to the War of 1812 leaving her 8 months pregnant with twins in the wilds of Ohio. She survived the childrens’ births, he did not. I’m descended from her second husband, Edward Adams.
Polly couldn’t write, as evidenced from her X mark. One of her sons and daughters from her marriage to Edward accompanied her and signed the pension request.
I wanted a copy so I went back to the staff member where I had obtained the record and he helped me set up the document on the printer. They use blue paper so as to make sure that no one is walking out with an original. I had put money on the card in the microfilm room so it was quick to make the copies. I signed the document back in and then went through the process with the other two documents, one at a time.
I got teary eyed when I read the Civil War record of my husband’s 2nd great grandfather, Samuel Samuelson, who was the first of our surname. I knew he had sustained an injury but I didn’t know he had become a POW and was traded back to the Union, only to go on and fight another day. Wow.
The last document was another one of my husband’s great grandfathers, John Anderson Long, who had also had a lengthy enlistment in the Union. He had fled Tennessee in the 1830’s as his anti-slavery stance had gotten him in serious trouble. He eventually settled in northern Indiana and that’s where he enlisted when the war began. I hadn’t known he was a teamster. The documents contained his medical history – he had once had pneumonia but recovered.
Unfortunately, it was time to leave as I had a plane to catch. I was directed to the desk where the staff looked through all of the items I had copied and secured them in a locked bag:
All I was allowed to keep out was my locker key and Research Card. I then took these items to the guard desk who cleared me to leave the room. I gathered my belongings and ironically, got a call from my son. He was in the process of getting security clearance for his job and he had called to vent that the security company had not been able to verify his employment from 3 years ago at a local hardware store. I had to laugh – here I was holding documents from the 1840’s through 60’s and there’s no records from 3 years ago locally. I understand how it happened – the store was sold and the new owners didn’t have the old owner’s records. Son had a W-2 but the company wouldn’t take it because they said anyone could make one of those up. I guess they could but I don’t think like that. I suggested he track down the old owner and ask him for verification which he did.
After the phone call I proceeded to the exit, which is the same place as the entrance. The guard opened the bag and returned my items to me. They had locked my suitcase upon entering the building and asked if I wanted it unlocked. It was a carryon and I didn’t need anything in it so I opted to leave the lock on.
I did complete a comment card – I was so impressed with the staff’s professionalism, especially after the lackadaisical attitude of the Library of Congress employees, I had to let the top brass know.
I’m hoping that next summer, I can take the week long class at NARA in July and spend more time. I’m already making a list of who I want to research.
I was sad to end my research trip but thankful that I had the opportunity to do it. I hope that you have gained some tips and tricks next time you are on a GLAM (Gallery, Library, Archive or Museum) quest. The trip took me through public (county and city libraries), private (DAR), and national genealogical repositories (NARA, Library of Congress). Each have their own processes and it’s best to know before you go. Take the time to read online the hours of operation, explore the collection holdings and make notes of what you want to see while you’re there. The findings may leave you with additional questions and a run through a different bread crumb trail than you expected but I assure you, it will be fun and thought provoking. I can’t wait to do it again