All My Ancestors

Lidian at The Virtual Dime Museum blog tagged me for the meme currently making the rounds.  In my quest to find fresh topics to write about by using other blogger’s suggestions, I decided I’d participate.  In one of my lives, I’m a librarian, which doesn’t make me an expert–just makes me nervous about committing. 

What issues/topic interests you most–non-fiction, i.e,cooking, knitting, stitching, there are infinite topics that has nothing to do with novels?

I love all of the above and more.  I tend to like to read about cooking more than actually performing, my shoulder has started hurting so my knitting’s going by the wayside, and genealogy and knitting long ago took over my stitching obsession.  However, almost any sort of craft “how to” I enjoy, especially if it deals with paper or fabric.  And then there’s all my genealogy and local history books–can you ever really have enough?

Would you like to review books concerning those?

Not particularly, at least in any formal fashion.  It takes time away from actually doing–the knitting, crafting, genealogy.

Would you like to be paid or do it as interest or hobby? Tell reasons for what ever you choose.

I’ve done some of the crafting and genealogy for pay and as a hobby.  I love them both, though doing it for money puts more pressure on me.  If this question refers to the writing of reviews, I tend to do it in a more informal manner–I’ve written formal reviews in a former academic life, for no $$$, of course.

Would you recommend those to your friends and how?

As I said earlier, my recommendations tend to be more informal.  I do have a  “visual bookshelf” on my facebook page, and I have some of my books up at “Library Thing,” so I suppose that could count as recommendations.  I haven’t figured out how to do it on my current blog.  But any recommending I do really tends to be more informal–especially if I come across something that I know a friend is interested in–that’s the librarian in me, I guess.

If you have already done something like this, link it to your post.

I don’t think I’ve done this–I’ll go back through my posts to be sure, but I don’t think I’ve done it here.  I usually recommend Emily Croom’s Unpuzzling your Past as my favorite beginner’s “how to” genealogy book, but that’s more likely to occur in my classes than on my blog.

….as for tagging others, I think I’ll let this branch of the meme die with my posting–I’ve read lots of others and I suspect its time has come.   On the other hand, if you’re reading this and want to take it further, consider yourself tagged.

1 Comment »

I found this article in the 4 January 1935 McAlester, Oklahoma newspaper, of course, while looking for something else. That this couple, James Mills and Sarah Keifer, had gotten married in a Civil War army camp piqued my interest. Seventy years married is a lot of years! There is a lot of great genealogical information in this article–I hope their descendants have a copy.  And I loved the comment that their wedding provided a break from the monotony of army camp.

1 Comment »

. . .about the couple who went to a vaudeville show, got married on-stage on a whim and $25? I heard the story on Morning Edition this morning. Eighty years later, they’re still married and using the china they bought with the money.

No Comments »

It’s kind of pathetic to go to Ireland and be thrilled about watching a television show, but I did get to watch “Who Do You Think You Are?” and it was great fun. The family story for Griffith Rhys Jones was partially true and partially not so much true. Isn’t that the way it goes?

Today I visited the National Library and looked in the room for “chasing ancestors,” as our hotel guy calls it. I went into the room and picked up a handout or two, but no Irish relatives popped out. Don’t think I have any.

Ireland is indeed a magical place–we’ve covered the more rural Kenamare and have spent the last few days in Dublin. I look forward to being home, but it’s been a grand trip. Brilliant, as they say here.

1 Comment »

This week at work I’ve been researching an Oklahoma family who had a family member imprisoned just prior to statehood. They said the family tradition was that he was at McAlester–site of the federal penitentiary here in Oklahoma.

However, a visit to the state’s Department of Corrections website about the establishment of “Big Mac” states it was not built until 1908. It goes on to say that inmates from Kansas were returned to Oklahoma to build the prison. I would have assumed that prisoners from that time period were sent to Fort Smith and maybe Muskogee–there was a federal court there, not sure about a prison. But this indicated to me that they were also sent to Kansas–guess that makes sense since it’s a neighbor and it did have federal prisons by then.

Materials I found on the family indicated that the man in question had served his time in Detroit prior to Oklahoma statehood in 1907. I wondered if this could be another Detroit besides Detroit, Michigan, but after a bit more digging, I believe it must have indeed been in the Motor City.

I decided to take a look at the 1900 federal census for Detroit. Sure enough, part of Ward 7 was a listing of the prisoners in the “House of Corrections.” There were probably about 350-400 male prisoners listed and 75 female–on separate pages, of course. But my estimate is that 15 or so of the male prisoners were from “Indian Territory” or Texas. I did not find the person I was seeking, but I believe he served his time a little later, about 1902 or so.

I used the “Ask a Librarian” function on the State of Michigan website and got a prompt response. Sure enough, even though the Detroit prison was not built as a federal prison, there had been a public law passed in 1899 that enabled them to contract for federal prisoners from other states.

Another lesson learned. A confirmation that there’s usually a grain of truth in family stories, but they must be confirmed. And who would have thought that persons from Indian Territory would serve time in Michigan? And, again, I’m reminded of how grateful I am to have such great access to this sort of info from the comfort of my computer chair.

One more bit of info for those of you who are interested in McAlester’s history, and we frequently get questions about ancestors who were imprisoned there–the listing for the cemetery at the prison is online. Over 300 of the graves have entries at FindAGrave. It’s listed as Department of Corrections Prison Cemetery in Pittsburg County, Oklahoma. Just so you know.

1 Comment »

This is a fun site–The Baby Name Voyager.

You can track the popularity of a first name through history.

It also pretty much confirms my theory that if your name is any iteration of Debra, I can guess your age within 5 years.

No Comments »

Guess what Mr. and Mrs. Never M. Fail named their newborn son in 1935?

Never M. Fail, Jr.

No Comments »

Through interlibrary loan, I ordered a roll of microfilm from Clark County, Indiana, hoping to find a “local” record of Anne Pamela Green Ball’s death that I’d found in the New York City newspaper.

I haven’t found one yet, but I did find some other information on the family I’ll post in another entry.

Much of the business of the day was printed in those early newspapers. I found lots of advertisements for merchants, minutes of the local medical society, ads for sheriff’s sales for back taxes, a few notices of runaway slaves, and then notices of spousal abandonment– usually the husband writing about the wife. As a child in the late 1950s and early 1960s, I remember seeing notices like “I will be responsible for no debts other than my own” in our small town local newspaper and asking my mom what they were for. She told me it usually meant the people were getting a divorce and this was part of the process.

The earlier matrimonial-distress notices I saw in the Indiana Intelligencer and Farmer’s Friend were much more descriptive. Here’s on from William W. Love, posted 1 January 1822.

Doesn’t he sound pained? I thought this was was a little more dramatic than the others I’d read, but what made it really different was what immediately followed:

I looked up “Replication” at Online Etymology Dictionary, and sure enough, it’s meaning has changed from how we use it most often today. It was formerly a legal term for a reply, “to answer to a legal charge.”

Mary is the only wife I’ve found who published a response. And she’s obviously not shy about answering each of William’s points. Now I’m curious about Mary. As far as I know, she wasn’t one of my relatives, but I’d be proud to be her descendant.

There is, by the way, in the paper about a month later, a statement that Mary has filed for divorce from William. Looks like Mary was indeed free to express her own opinion, despite William’s notice to the contrary.

No Comments »

Last week at work I was looking through one of the cases for a family who had been denied membership on the Cherokee rolls about 1896. The file was a large one–about 62 pages–all sorts of affidavits and appeals. The family and their attorney were pleading their case, claiming descendency from a Cherokee woman back in North Carolina.

One affidavit was from a man who had known the Cherokee woman’s brother. When the brother was dying, he was evidently in a store, laying on a counter. A bystander asked why someone didn’t take the man to a bed so he could be more comfortable.

“That counter’s a good enough place for an old indian to die” was the reply.

This was offered as proof that the family was indeed Indian. in a legal document. under oath.

No Comments »

I’m not sure that anyone really reads this blog, but if you’re out there, let me encourage you to use the opportunities that may come to you during the holidays to learn more about your family’s health history. About Genealogy has a good story, with a link to a free piece of software to help you at http://genealogy.about.com/od/health_history/a/medical.htm.

You doctor will be thrilled to have this info and it may even improve your quality (and quantity) of life.  There are good tips on what to look for as well as what to do if most of your family is deceased or you don’t have access to the information.

No Comments »