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United States Public Records, 1970-2009

13 Mar By

If you are seeking to either fill in recent data in your research or trying to locate family members lost to you, then FamilySearch has the database for you. Their database “United States Public Records, 1970-2009” is similar, yet different to the Ancestry.com version of public records.

On 15 January 2015, I blogged on the Ancestry.com “U.S. Public Records Index.” It is taken from non-restricted records covers all 50 states from 1950 through 1993. The FamilySearch and Ancestry versions work very well together. The FamilySearch database is free.

The FamilySearch database indexes the names, birth dates, addresses, phone numbers, and possible relatives of individuals from throughout the United States. The sources include telephone directories, property tax assessments, credit applications and other records already easily available to the public.

It is important when using such a database that the information can be obtained with little effort elsewhere. The databases simply bring a variety of public sources into one searchable format. This means you may find the same person listed several times. A good explanation of what constitutes a public record in the United States can be found on the accompanying link to the database “Learn More” which directs you to the FamilySearch Wiki article “United States, Public Records (FamilySearch Historical Records).”

You will be able to track the movements of individuals; making this handy if you are researching living descendants of an ancestor. Where you have to be careful is you find multiple people by the same name. Knowing a specific birth date or year can help considerably. Also be aware one record may include a middle name and another one may not; yet they are for the same person.

If you contact someone through a public records database, that person may raise privacy questions. “How did you find me?” Simply direct them to the database itself and assure them you found them through the use of public records, not private records.

If you would like help with your genealogy needs please call 385-214-0925.

Genealogy in Black and White

17 Feb By

In researching a mixed-race nineteenth century family in Barbados, my goal was to trace the Afro-Caribbean and European lines. My difficulty was in determining the race of the people in the Anglican (Church of England) parish registers.

The church registers are indexed and scanned. Using the online indexes exclusively actually confused my understanding of the records. After reviewing the Anglican parish registers page-by-page and doing some historical research, I developed a context of the society and its records.

The Historical Context

The slaves were freed in Barbados in 1834. The Anglican registers did not list race. A transitional apprenticeship program for a few years was introduced at that time. In 1838 it became illegal to discriminate against people of color.

The Complexities of the Records

From 1834, many adults, who had been slaves, were baptized into this particular parish. No parents were listed. Prior to 1834 there were special Slave Registers of parish members. My assumption would be the main register was reserved for all free persons, white or black.

From 1834 former slaves were having children baptized. Surnames of these children, if there were any, were not mentioned. Afro-Caribbeans families had to be traced by first name only. These were recorded on the same pages as people with first and last names. My assumption was if there was no last name then they were former slaves. If surnames were given, then the family could be white or black. I further narrowed this by assuming those who signed with an “X” were either poor illiterate blacks or whites. That helped separate families further by economics. If they signed, then I assumed they were more educated whites.

After emancipation, the number of mothers having children christened with no fathers listed was staggering. Were these illegitimate births without surnames? My conclusion was not necessarily. I noticed that around 1842, most families listed last names and the name of the father was recorded. Perhaps the Anglican priest did not consider the father’s name or surname important. Perhaps he simply didn’t care. Possibly by around 1842 the priest was conforming to the new anti-discrimination law (1838).

Lessons Learned

The lesson learned was, had I relied only on the index to the parish registers I would have missed a great deal of important information. I would have confused the white, poor white, free person of color, emancipated slave and those without surnames from at least 1834 to about 1842. My conclusion was that there was a several year process that merged the Afro-Caribbean membership and the white membership into one parish. The process was so complex, that an accurate online index could not do the subject justice.

If you are seeking professional assistance with your genealogical research you may call us at 385-214-0925.

 

The Irish Hell-Fire Clubs

4 Feb By

The infamous Hell-Fire (Hellfire) Clubs is a fascinating and bizarre topic and has direct applications for genealogists. Trained historians have plowed through many of the same sources genealogists do in order to reconstruct the history of the Hell-Fire Clubs. This makes understanding how historians identify pertinent documents and then utilize them can provide lessons for all family historians. Plus, it’s a great story!

What Were the Hell-Fire Clubs?

So what were the Hell-Fire Clubs? They were secretive brotherhood organizations which ritually acted out and practiced anything counter-culture to their time period. They were founded by freethinking, living on the edge, Protestant elite gentry. The clubs were intended to counter the heavy hand of the established Protestant Church in every opposite way possible. Prostitution, sex, orgies, drinking, blasphemy, dark occult practices, and any other type of cultural depravity were accepted. Combine all that with rumors of Satan worship, homosexuality (illegal at the time), murder and human sacrifice and the Club’s reputation as a type of “holy other” would be solidified. By the 1770s the Hell-Fire Clubs had disbanded, but their influence remained in other groups such as the Pinkindindies and Cherokees.

Locations of the Irish Hell-Fire Clubs

The first Irish Hell-Fire Club was founded in 1735 in Dublin at Mount Pelier. There were three additional “regional” Hell-Fire Clubs in Ireland: Askeaton, County Limerick; Grangemellon, County Kildare and an unspecified location in the Midlands. However, there were other meeting places, such as Doonass, County Clare. Research shows these were rendezvous points for similar groups. The ruins of the Dublin Hell-Fire Club, is a tourist attraction. More can be found on the Abandoned Ireland website.

The Definitive Work on the Irish Clubs

The definitive work on the Irish Hell-Fire Clubs is Blasphemers & Blackguards: The Irish Hellfire Clubs, by David Ryan. An article by the author can be found on the Writing.ie website.

One fascinating aspect of this book is the author takes some of the same sources we would use in genealogy and reconstructs the history of a very secretive and forbidden society. For the family historian it demonstrates what can be done with sound logic, limited records and not being timid with controversial subject matters. Most of his research was conducted at the National Library of Ireland. His sources include private manuscripts, estate papers, print files, printed sources, newspapers and biographies. To use these sources to reconstruct a secret society is nothing short of amazing. We as family historians can learn much from such authors’ research by the manner in which they crafted their stories.

Additional Hell-Fire Club Information

To round out the story of the Hell-Fire Clubs, the English counterpart provides a rich supply of history and research. The best known is the elaborate Hell Fire Caves, which is a major tourist destination, located in West Wycombe, Buckinghamshire.An interesting commentary on the Hell-Fire Clubs comes from the Grand Lodge of British Columbia and the Yukon website.

A Word of Warning

A word of warning on topics such as the “Hell Fire Club.” If you are looking for history, be careful what you place in the search engine. You may get more than you bargained for, as all websites are not historical!

If you are seeking professional assistance with your genealogical research you may call us at 385-214-0925.

 

Lessons From a Mixed-Up Parish

22 Jan By

St. Michael’s Roman Catholic Cathedral, Chatham, Northumberland County, New Brunswick, may be the most ethnically and religiously mixed-up parish I have ever researched for an Irish family. Known as “Chatham Parish,” its records (1838-1899) are indexed and digitized as part of the “Acadia, Canada, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1670-1946,” on Ancestry.com. The lessons I learned from a page-by-page search for my targeted Irish family both amazed and confused me.

Chatham drew varied ethnic groups, with the Irish and French Canadians being among the largest. It was tough to rely on the index as the originals were complex. There were smaller pieces of paper inserted in the binding to reflect dispensations to marry, notices signed by non-Catholic spouses concerning their children’s religious upbringing, and of people requesting proof of their baptism so they could be married elsewhere.

Then there were the records of people converting to Catholicism; the assumption being in preparation for marriage. In most cases, they were absolved from heresy and conditionally rebaptized. The exception seemed to be the Lutherans from Scandinavian countries. They were absolved from heresy and received on a profession of faith.

So what did I learn? Religion was not necessarily clear-cut in these areas of diverse immigration. Sometimes who was the Catholic party was not always clear-cut. The fluid nature of church membership was not confined to the Catholic parish. It also occurred in the Protestant denominations.

For example, my targeted husband and wife were listed as Catholic on their marriage. They were married by a Baptist minister, with the witnesses being Presbyterian. Depending on the censuses, the wife was listed as Catholic or Presbyterian. I finally proved she and her husband were at least from Catholic families, and they had one child christened by the Chatham Parish priest. The rest was up for grabs. Her second marriage was to an Anglican in the Anglican Parish. For the wife, the censuses revealed her father was born in England and her mother in Ireland. Perhaps another mixed-marriage!

My most important lesson was to be very careful with church records and always look at original registers rather than relying on an index. If I had only relied on the index, then I would have missed the entire context of what the Chatham Parish was all about.

If you would like professional help with your family history call us at: 385-214-0925.

 

U.S. Public Records Index

15 Jan By

I was consulting with a friend the other day who was writing his family history for publication. He was missing some details on distant cousins. I suggested he look at the two-volume “U.S. Public Records Index” hosted on Ancestry.com.

The “U.S. Public Records Index” is easy to overlook on Ancestry.com. You may have use the “Browse Card Catalog” feature to quickly find it.

The information, which frankly is public record, covers all 50 states from 1950 through 1993. It may be a little shocking for some to know what is considered public record in the United States. However, setting any concerns aside for the moment, be aware, Ancestry.com is simply hosting, not actually generating, the information. The data is already available to the public in other formats. Information may include:

  • A person’s first name, middle name or initial and last name
  • A street or mailing address
  • A telephone number
  • A birth date or birth year
  • An age

The information is taken from; voter registrations, public filings, historical residential records, various household databases, white pages of the telephone book, directory assistance records, marketing lists, and postal change of address forms. Now saying this, you have to be aware that sometimes an exact date is not attached to the information cited. Yet, for other entries, for the same person, a year is provided making it relatively easy to reconstruct a time line.

There are some limitations. Persons under 18 years old are not listed. Also you may have to look for a female under the name of a former spouse or partner. The best method I have found to use this database is to try all the name variations, such as Patrick Neil Kelly, Patrick N. Kelly and Patrick Kelly. Because the name is common, especially without the middle name, I try to find a birth date. For the deceased you can search the Social Security Death Index (SSDI) and usually get that. With a place of residence or a birth date, you will find the databases relatively easy to use.

When used responsibly, databases such as these can be a treasure trove of solid information from which to track down the various branches of your family.

If you would like professional help with your family history call us at: 385-214-0925.

 

 

Reconstructing the Membership of a Congregation

9 Jan By

Often we find the church records we need were destroyed, never kept, or begin late. There are ways around this difficulty, but you have to think in terms of documenting and reconstructing membership from other sources. It is not that much different than creating a “census substitute” for an area, knowing the first complete census was 1901.

I recently did this with a small congregation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS or Mormon) which met from 1850 to 1854 in Gorteen Townland, Geashill Civil Parish, County Offaly (King’s County). In 1854 they all emigrated. Here was my approach:

  • In early Mormonism, converts were expected to gather with the main body of the Saints to help build the Kingdom of God; known as Zion. From 1847 Zion was the Mormon colonies in the Rocky Mountain with Salt Lake City as its capitol. By understanding the historical context, this further opens up other records to help you. It also explains why all the Gorteen Townland Mormons were gone by 1854.
  • The Dublin Conference of the LDS British Mission has membership records 1850-57, and these provide the residence of the member; when they were baptized (adult baptism is practiced); removed elsewhere or emigrated. From these chronological records, I could identify all members from my targeted geographic area around Tullamore, County Offaly.
  •  I then utilized records at the Family History Library, Church History Library and the Daughters of Utah Pioneer Library, all within walking distance of the other in Salt Lake City. I looked for journals, histories, newspaper accounts and acquired originals from references I found online.

In the end, I could reconstruct the membership and what happened to them upon immigrating, crossing the Great Plains and what they found upon entering the Mormon Zion.

I have used similar approaches with the Plymouth Brethren (Christian Brethren) to reconstruct membership for particular congregations in Ulster. I utilized the 1901 and 1911 censuses as my foundation as these do ask religious affiliation. Then I could compare my reconstructed congregation with Brethren directories and other sources.

The rule of thumb here is to not give up. When your records are scarce, be very creative and definitely “think outside the box.” You may be surprised what you discover!

If you would like professional help with your family history call us at: 385-214-0925.

 

 

Records So Bad You Laugh or Cry

30 Dec By

There are times in Irish research, where a record was kept so poorly that you either laugh or you cry. I had this happen recently when researching in the Catholic registers of Moylough & Mountbellew, County Galway. I had access to two different microfilming editions of the originals, and I utilized them both. Here is what I found out:

  • Several priests were serving the parish at the same time, each with his own record keeping style.
  • A common writing style in the christenings was to list the parents as Pat and Mrs. Sullivan. In this case, I could not trust whether the female godparent was listed by her maiden or married name.
  • Another common writing style was Pat and Mary Sullivan. In this case, I still could not assume the female godparent was listed by her married or maiden name. However, I had to wonder if whatever the surnames were of the godfather and godmother, if this could have been Mary’s maiden name.
  • Place names were commonly abbreviated. M. Bellew was obviously Mountbellew, but something like C. Bridge or B. Bridge required some thought. Perhaps, Carrickbridge and Ballybridge.
  • The writing was so poor that Pat Sullivan could just as easily have been Bat Sullivan for Bartholomew rather than Pat for Patrick. If the mother or godmother was listed with the first name of B. it was assumed this meant Bridget, K for Catherine; with M. being the mystery name of Mary or Margaret.

The bottom line is no index, not even one I could generate myself, could be used as the final word on what was preserved in this parish register. However, I knew what surname I was looking for and felt confident I could at least read that name accurately. So I could still research my targeted family. With my list of everybody by the surname in question documented, whether as a parent or godparent, then I could line up my findings and begin reconstructing various branches of the family.

The moral to this is even with access to an index online; I still had to go through them page by page. No index will be accurate for this parish as that is just not possible, and it’s no one’s fault.

If you would like professional help with your family history call us at: 385-214-0925.

Who Performed the Marriage for Your Ancestors?

1 Dec By

Often we neglect an important piece of information on a marriage record which can be utilized to further our research goals. This is the name of the person who married the couple. There are several reasons why this is important. I will offer a few examples.

J. P. Marriage: If a Justice of the Peace (J. P.) performed the marriage, then my assumption is they went down to the courthouse and the ceremony occurred in the J. P.’s Office. That means a church marriage probably did not occur. While this is not unusual in itself, it does raise some questions. Why would a Catholic couple be married by a J. P. if there was a resident priest? My first guess would be it was a mixed marriage, with one party being non-Catholic, and a church dispensation could not be obtained for whatever reason. Knowing one party was not Catholic is important. Another reason may be the couple was not religious or have a denomination they leaned toward. Again, that could be an important clue, steering your search away from church registers.

M. G. Marriage: When a Minister of the Gospel (M. G.) marries a couple; that in itself has to be taken with some care. What is an M. G. anyway? Don’t assume the clerk did not classify a Catholic priest as an M. G. Depending on the civil clerk, an M. G. may be the same as a P. P. (Parish Priest). The name of the M. G. is important.

Identifying a Church: If you don’t know what church your ancestors attended, then you can learn this by researching the M. G.. This can be accomplished through directories, published histories, or through an Internet search. This applies equally for both Catholics and Protestants. Once you know what congregation, parish or denomination, the M. G. served; then you can proceed to search the correct church registers.

Although the name of the person performing the marriage may seem unimportant, if you do not know the name of a congregation or even denomination, this is the best way to identify that.

If you would like professional help with your family history call us at: 385-214-0925.

 

 

 

 

Reading Between the Lines as a Research Strategy

13 Nov By

I was researching a Scots-Irish man, and I had his marriage record from 1818 in Knox County, Tennessee. He had children by 1820, somewhere in Alabama. His remarried wife shows up in Pike County, Illinois by the 1830s. That was all I knew.

The migration pattern itself was not unique, but getting some firm facts about my subject between the 1818 marriage and the early 1830s was most difficult. With no place to really start, I decided, he had to die in the county where his wife remarried. She had little children, which required support rather quickly.

I found her remarriage in neighboring Greene County, Illinois in 1830. That gave me a potential death date for my subject; 1824 when his last child was born and 1830. The potential death place would logically be Greene County, Illinois.

To solidify this, I found her second husband in the 1830 Census of Greene County and took note of his “neighborhood” since no township was listed. I also looked for other people with the surname of the first husband. I found one in Roodhouse Township in the land grants and the census. Further research revealed this other person served in the War of 1812 in the 1st East Tennessee Regiment, which recruited in part out of Knox County. Coincidence? I think not.

Since the second husband didn’t live to the 1840 Census, I took the “neighborhood” from 1830 and compared it with grants. I formed a “neighborhood” in White Hall Township which forms the southern border of Roodhouse Township.

So what did I learn? First I figured my subject most likely settled around his relatives in Roodhouse Township. He died leaving no record. Logically he was probably buried in the now abandoned graveyard in Roodhouse Township with no tombstone. This was where others with his surname were buried. His widow met her second husband, who was landless, and living in the designated 1830 “neighborhood” in White Hall Township. They met and married because they did not live that far apart, and she had small children to support.

All this was “reading between the lines.” None of it can be proven other than exploring common surnames and reconstructing “neighborhoods.” Without a probate, guardianship, land or tombstone, the closest I may ever come to documenting my subject’s death is 1824-1830, in Roodhouse Township. All reading between the lines.

If you would like professional help “reading between the lines” of your family history call us at: 385-214-0925.

Calculating Event Dates to Prove a Link

6 Nov By

I could not find the marriage in Massachusetts for an Irish immigrant couple around 1859 or early 1860. I knew their first child was born on 9 December 1860. To make matters worse, I found a 12 October 1856 marriage of a couple with the same first and last names, but they were some 25 miles away from where the first known child was born. Since Irish Catholic names can be common, I had to wonder if this was even the right couple? The 1856 marriage also listed the bride’s father with a different given name.

I developed a strategy on the spot. I looked for children of the 1856 couple. In this case, the birth and death databases on FamilySearch were very helpful. They showed the 1856 couple had a child die on 14 August 1858 and they had a second child born and die on 28 September 1859. No civil births were registered.

Now that I had this information I had to figure out just how it all fits together and if the couple married in 1856 was really the ones I was looking for. To accomplish this I chose one of the many calculating databases on the Internet. You would typically use these in calculating birth dates found in death records and tombstones where it states someone died on a date, being so many months and days old.

Using the calculated birth dates, I then used the death fields and put in that “birth date” and calculated 9 months to get the date the child was conceived. This process provided a time line of this family chronologically:

  • 12 Oct. 1856: Marriage of the parents I was wondering about, which was documented.
  • 11 Feb. 1857: The first child was conceived according to the calculation.
  • 11Nov. 1857: The first child was born according to the calculation.
  • 14 Aug. 1858: The first child dies and this is documented.
  • 28 Nov. 1858: The second child was conceived according to the calculation.
  • 28 Sep. 1859: The second child was born and died and this is documented.
  • 09 Mar. 1860: The known ancestor was conceived according to the calculation.
  • 09 Dec. 1860: The known ancestor was born and this is documented.

Everything fit perfectly which provided the evidence the couple married on 12 October 1856 was the same as the parents I was looking for at the 9 December 1860 birth. Now I could begin the process of researching the parents some 25 miles from where I had originally documented them.

If you would like help in researching your Irish Immigrant ancestor, please call us at 385-214-0925.

 

 

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