Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter

(+) From Lloyd's Library by Lloyd Bockstruck: Tapping the U.S. Serial Set

The following is a Plus Edition article written by and copyright by Lloyd Bockstruck.

One of the often overlooked sources for genealogical research is the U.S. Serial Set. It began as a 38-volume set known as the American State Papers. Records were arranged by subject in ten separate series. The more useful ones for tracking ancestors are Military Affairs, Naval Affairs, Public Lands, and Claims. Some of the series, notably the latter two, have been reprinted and improved with an every-name index. Although one can never eliminate in what context an ancestor might appear, the private claims from ordinary citizens are the richest sources for genealogical mining. Genealogists prefer nominal indexes to such records as their first choice and topical indexes as their second.

(+) Casefile Clues: Getting Occupational and Spousal Clues from an Estate

The following is a Plus Edition article written by and copyright by Michael John Neill.

Estate records can do more than tell us an ancestor died and how his property was settled. They can provide clues to an ancestor’s occupation, marital status of his heirs, and much more. Many times what the record tells us is not explicitly stated. We have to look a little deeper. In this column we return to an estate that was looked at earlier in Casefile Clues. Our previous reference to the estate of Peter Bieger in 1850s Illinois focused on his two minor children. We now return to that record to see what additional clues it provided about Peter and his family.

(+) Remember Everything

The following is a Plus Edition article written by and copyright by Dick Eastman. 

Please, no jokes about my advancing age; but, I do have a bit of a problem remembering things. Where did I find that web page about a new online database? What's the password for the web site I am trying to use? Where is the e-mail I received from a distant cousin? What time is my flight to Los Angeles tomorrow? Where are my car keys?

A program I started using a couple of weeks ago probably will not help find my car keys, but it certainly can help with the other questions. It allows me to easily capture information in any environment, using whatever device or platform I find most convenient, and makes this information accessible to me and searchable at any time, from anywhere. I can even enter data on the desktop computer at home and later find my notes on my handheld computer/cell phone.

(+) Along Those Lines By George G. Morgan: Why the Courthouse May Not Have the Records

The following is a Plus Edition article written by and copyright by George G. Morgan.

I enjoy visiting and researching in courthouses. I like the sensation of being surrounded by the history of an area in the various indexes, ledgers, record books, files, and loose documents. It is normal to think that all of the county records are going to be held there. Unfortunately, that isn’t always the case, and there can be a number of reasons for that. Let’s explore some reasons why what you seek may not be in the courthouse you visit.

(+) From Lloyd’s Library by Lloyd Bockstruck: Journals and Diaries for Genealogists

The following is a Plus Edition article written by and copyright by Lloyd Bockstruck.

Family papers such as diaries and letters are important genealogical sources. Not many family historians have such treasure troves among their possessions. Illiterate ancestors could not generate such records. A record that exists in a single copy has a precarious lifespan, so many such records did not survive. Migrating families also faced the reality of discarding non-essential personal property on their removals.

Simply because you do not discover personal papers of your ancestors does not mean, however, that they do not appear in the diaries and correspondence of others.

(+) Call in a Witcher

The following is a Plus Edition article written by and copyright by Dick Eastman.

How do you locate an abandoned cemetery – one with no headstones, no markers, and no evidence at all of being a cemetery?  You call in a witcher. I wrote recently about finding unmarked graves using high tech solutions. However, many people have been doing the same for years with decidedly low-tech apparatus.

A witcher is not a witch. In short, witchers are those who search for water, minerals, or other "disturbances" in the earth's magnetic lines. They are also called "dousers" or “dowsers,” and they use "divining rods" made of wood or copper or, occasionally, other materials.

Many people will tell you that witching doesn't work, that it's all hocus-pocus. There's only one problem: it has been demonstrated to work successfully hundreds of times. Dousing apparently is not 100% reliable but it does succeed in a high percentage of the attempts.

(+) Finding Unmarked Graves with High Tech Solutions

The following is a Plus Edition article written by and copyright by Dick Eastman.

One of the vexing problems with old cemeteries and historical sites is the difficulty of finding the locations of unmarked graves or buried foundations at the various sites. In many cases, the desire is to locate the graves so that they may be identified and left undisturbed by new construction. To be sure, the locations may have been marked at one time with wooden or even stone markers. However, the ravages of time, weather, animals, vandals, and acid rain over the years may have removed all traces of those markers. Locating unmarked graves is also vitally important in solving murder cases.

(+) Organize Your Life With a Wiki

The following is a Plus Edition article written by and copyright by Dick Eastman.

A wiki is a website that allows for easy creation and editing of any number of interlinked Web pages. Wikis are often used to create collaborative websites and to power community websites.

The biggest example is Wikipedia.org, the huge online encyclopedia that has articles written by and updated by tens of thousands of contributors. Genealogy-specific wikis include the Encyclopedia of Genealogy at http://www.eogen.com, We Relate at http://www.werelate.org, and the new and still-under-development FamilySearch Research Wiki (The beginnings of the New FamilySearch Wiki can be found at https://wiki.familysearch.org).

Many businesses use wikis to create documentation (online user manuals) or to track the progress of a project.

(+) Casefile Clues by Michael John Neill: A Widow Proves Her Marriage

The following is a Plus Edition article that was written by and is copyright by Michael John Neill.

From a genealogy standpoint, the best pension file is one for a widow who can't remember where she got married. In this "Casefile Clues" column, we look at one such case which I found quite by accident.

The Revolutionary War Pension files are one of the really nice databases on Footnote.com. The microfilmed copies of these records were converted to digital format and placed on the Footnote.com subscription website. When these images were first uploaded, I almost did not search them. I thought I had already searched the pension files adequately for my families during that time period. I had used Virgil White's Genealogical Abstracts of Revolutionary War Pensions and had searched them for all the names of my Revolution era ancestors. But I went ahead and performed a search.

(+) Are You Still Printing Everything?

The following is a Plus Edition article written by and copyright by Dick Eastman.

Consider the environment. Do you really need to print out this article?

I occasionally receive e-mail messages from newsletter readers asking various questions about how to print the newsletter. I also frequently hear comments at genealogy conferences and elsewhere from family historians commenting on printing various online documents such as, "I printed it out to save it and..." or similar words.

I have one question: Why?

Plus Edition Newsletter Sent

To all Plus Edition subscribers:

The weekly Plus Edition newsletter was sent to your e-mail address a few minutes ago. It should have arrived by now. If you have not yet seen it in your in-box, check your spam folder. If it is not there, please contact your e-mail provider to see why it was blocked. (That happens often, especially to AOL, Comcast, cox.net and sbcglobal.net customers.) If you have any questions, please contact me.

NOTE: This week's entire Plus Edition newsletter is available at: http://www.eogn.com/wp/thisweek.htm. Don't forget that you can always read the latest Plus Edition newsletter individual articles at any time at http://www.eogn.com/wp/ (your user name and password are required to read the Plus Edition online).

Please note there are SIX Plus Edition articles, a new record for one week!

(+) Along Those Lines By George G. Morgan: Tracing Your Family Health History

The following is a Plus Edition article written by and copyright by George G. Morgan.

I’ve recently become more interested in my family health history. There is a distinct likelihood of genetic health traits being perpetuated throughout descendants. I was told many years ago that male baldness was a trait passed down from the mother’s side of the family. My mother wasn’t bald, and so I pretty much ignored this piece of information. Yet, my older brother is definitely losing his hair. I also learned about hemophilia, the genetic disorder that impairs the body’s ability to control blood coagulation, and its presence in the descendants of Queen Victoria’s descendants. Friends have suffered from various types of cancer, only to learn that the specific type is prevalent in their family.

(+) From Lloyd’s Library by Lloyd Bockstruck: Dr. Miller's Tennessee Records

The following is a Plus Edition article written by and copyright by  Lloyd Bockstruck.

Guardianships, apprenticeships, adoptions, and bastardy bonds are four types of court records which can be used to demonstrate filiation, ascertain births, and identify maiden names. County, district, and state courts as well as private legislative acts constitute the primary source material that family historians have to examine in quest of the proverbial needle in the haystack. In the case of the latter, igniting the haystack and reducing the chaff to ashes makes the search much more likely to be successful. In the case of the former, published abstracts and on-line databases are the best tools for accessing the enormous amount of genealogical data. Ideally, abstracts of the records need to be compiled on a state-wide basis for the best results.

(+) Can You Copyright Your Data?

The following is a Plus Edition article written by and copyright by Dick Eastman.

About once a week or so I receive an e-mail from a person who feels “ripped off.” Each e-mail comes from someone who expended a lot of time and effort collecting genealogy information about his or her ancestry and then decides to share the information with others. Some time later, that person finds the same information published elsewhere, apparently by someone else who “ripped off” the information from the first person. The usual questions are: “Is this legal? Can he do that?” and “Isn’t my data copyrighted?”

(+) Why Do We Care About Digital Image File Formats?

The following is a Plus Edition article written by and copyright by Dick Eastman.

I have written several times about the method of creating and preserving digital images. I have also written about scanning old photographs as well as scanning of various printed or hand-written documents, as well as the better file formats for saving and distributing these scanned images.

A few days ago I wrote a Plus Edition article: (+) Preserving Documents Digitally. In that article, I only wrote briefly about file formats, but those few words generated several questions from newsletter readers. Today I thought I'd discuss image file formats a bit more in depth.

(+) Casefile Clues by Michael John Neill: One Little Clue Breaks Through

The following article was written by and is copyright by Michael John Neill.

The estate settlement of Michael Trautvetter was a genealogist's dream. His death in Hancock County, Illinois, on 11 June 1869 with no spouse or descendants meant that his estate had to be distributed amongst his siblings or their heirs. There were several Trautvetters of about the same age whom I had long suspected were siblings. The estate settlement confirmed the relationships among several German natives born in the late eighteenth century. Once I analyzed the relationships completely, I noticed another entry that warranted further research. It turned out this "innocent" reference lead to more information that I ever suspected.

It was the sole entry on the income side of Michael Trautvetter's estate settlement:

20 March 1871 "...Amt. recd from Saml Geisler Atty on Note & Mortgage Collection in Kentucky $525.00"

(+) A Wi-Fi Hotspot in Your Shirt Pocket

The following is a Plus Edition article written by and copyright by Dick Eastman.

I recently purchased a new gadget and have fallen in love with it: a tiny wireless device that connects to cell towers many miles away, makes high-speed data connections, then re-broadcasts the signals on Wi-Fi wireless networking to local laptop computers, handheld computers, and smartphones (cell phones with built-in computing capabilities). I now have long-range wireless networking available wherever I go.

This battery-powered device is so tiny that I could carry three or four of them in a shirt pocket. I find it easier to slip it into a pants pocket so that I can carry a “personal Wi-Fi hotspot” with me wherever I go. When I give my next presentation at a genealogy society event, I probably will be carrying my Internet access in my pocket.

(+) Along Those Lines: Mining Small Museums by George G. Morgan

The following is a Plus Edition article written by and copyright by George G. Morgan.

I enjoy visiting small museums when I am traveling, especially when I am on a genealogy research trip. You never know what you will find in the collections of historical museums. Some of these facilities are the repositories of records that you might have expected to find in courthouses, government offices, libraries, churches, local societies and organizations, and in private collections. Let’s explore some of the types of materials you are likely to find in a small museum.

(+) From Lloyd’s Library by Lloyd Bockstruck: Huguenot Wills and Georgia Newspaper Extracts

The following is a Plus Edition article written by and copyright by Lloyd Bockstruck.

Bridging the Atlantic is one of the challenges facing genealogists in North America.  Whether the founder of a family is a colonist or an immigrant, the research strategies for determining the ancestral home in the Old World are much the same.

In Henrico County, Virginia, Peter Massot styled himself late of Valon in Vinary in France in 1710, Paul Diveraz dit Dumersat styled himself a native of Paris, Gideon Chambon identified himself as a native of St. Saforin in Vinaray, John Cairon as late of Lauveresses in Quercy in France, Jacque LeGrand as late of Lahaye in Holand, Abraham Michaux as a native of Cedent in France, Charles Perault as late of Bordaux,  and Peter Dutoit of Moudon in Switzerland. These colonists were founders of Huguenot families in the New World. They came from French speaking parts of Europe and were Protestants. More than any other ethnic group in the colonial period, the Huguenots took great pride in their heritage and sought to leave a paper trail behind for their offspring to rediscover the family’s origins.

(+) Casefile Clues by Michael John Neill: Judge, I'm Leaving the Wife and Kids Behind

The following is a Plus Edition article written by and copyright by Michael John Neill.

Husbands don't often write letters to judges telling them they are leaving their new wife and her children behind and taking off for greener pastures. However, that is exactly what George Fennan did in the late spring of 1856 in Warsaw, Illinois. Why George wrote the letter begins approximately six months earlier in the late fall of 1855—all of which is documented in records of the local county court.

German emigrant Peter Bieger died in Warsaw, Illinois, in November of 1855, leaving behind a wife and two infant children. The tavern owner was not wealthy and did not leave a large estate, but it was fortunate for me that he did own the village lot on which his tavern and home were located. Because of this, his estate  warranted a probate settlement and a guardianship case for his two daughters. Even though his wife survived, a guardianship for his children was necessary. Given the laws of the time, his widow, Barbara, could not “automatically” manage her children's inheritance. Someone would have to be appointed as the children's guardian to handle their inheritance. A mother could be appointed her children's guardian, but usually the guardian would be a male family member or relative.