My family history is totally American and Western European, so whenever I do genealogy research, records pertaining to those two areas are the ones I am most familiar and comfortable with. Because of the request of two of my friends with Italian ancestry for help, I've dabbled in some Italian records, too.
But the world is a lot bigger than just the United States and Europe and I'm starting to realize that in my genealogy research. For me, personally, having a narrow geographical view of the world has been okay, and probably more than okay, as I really feel well-versed in a lot of those records because I have to use them so often. But I've recently gotten requests from friends with Caribbean ancestry for some help on where to look and what to look for, and so, since I'm in a lull in my own personal research, I've started dabbling in that.
The Family Search website is a particularly good place to start. They have an array of records online outside of the American-European genealogy sphere, although be forewarned, a lot of these records are not indexed. My best friend's family is from the Dominican Republic and with a name and date and place, I was able to find her grandfather's death record as well as his baptismal record (VERY enlightening and interesting), but it took hours of scrolling through page by page by page...yes, folks, genealogy is not as easy as "Who Do You Think You Are?" makes it seem! Luckily, I took five years of Spanish, so reading these records was a lot easier than whenever I use German records. Which is a lot.
Anyway, my sister has a friend who is Jamaican and whose grandfather was born in Cuba. He has questions about what his grandfather did for a living and any siblings he might have had. So the past couple of days I've been looking to see where he might be able to go to get those answers. No matter what kind of genealogy you're doing, you're going to have to go beyond records that have been put online. European and American family history is much more easily accessible online but even then you can't just depend on the Internet to do thorough research (although you can use the Internet to find out what on-site records might be available).
And of course the boyfriend's family is Honduran - there aren't many records from Honduras available online although Ancestry.com was very helpful in finding passenger manifests that showed his great-grandfather's many trips to New Orleans and provided a lot of good biographical information. More info may be available in Honduras - next vacation perhaps?
I also realized this weekend when my sister asked me where her friend might be able to find info on his grandfather that for people who don't do genealogy, they literally have no idea where to even start. For us, it's second nature to think "birth certificate, census, city directory, will, immigration" etc. etc. but the "lay person" if you will doesn't even know half of what's available to them. So you can be helpful to a friend (or a stranger) just by pointing them in the right direction. Plus, every genealogist uses different records and may have discovered something obscure but helpful that you may never have heard of, even if you're a well-versed genealogist in your own right - which is today's reminder of the importance of sharing!! :)
Rambling, done. Have a good week everyone!
Expanding my genealogical horizons - planning a visit to a Family History Center
A little late to the Family History Center game? Probably. My dad started his genealogy research on his Gorry line by visiting the local Family History Center and he found really great records to help get us started on that. I have been a great advocate of the FamilySearch website ever since they dropped all the user-submitted content and started uploading real primary and secondary sources. They continue to add records every day and thanks to the help of "civilian" volunteers, more and more of those records are getting indexed every day.
Another recent change to the FamilySearch website is that now you can order microfilm and microfiche to view at your local Family History Center online. I don't drive, which has been part of the reason I've never actually made a visit to my local FHC yet - I would have had to make a trip there to order records and then made another trip back to view them and it would have been a bit of a hassle.
Yes, sometimes I'm a lazy genealogist. It happens to the best of us.
But as part of their recent uploading records effort, I've discovered some great information about my Stutzmann family line, which until that info was posted, was a dead end at about 1775 in Grossbockenheim, Germany. But records from the local kirchenbuch (church book) and familienregister (family register) were transcribed that trace this line about three generations and 100 years further back. Which was an awesome find. But transcriptions are at best secondary or even third-generation sources, and sometimes there's pertinent information within the original document that the transcriber didn't feel was worth copying, but which you might find important or at least interesting, and so I finally bit the bullet and ordered my very first microfilms from the LDS. And because I always go big or go home, I ordered 5 of them. (At $5.50 a pop they're not exactly free but still waaay cheaper than ordering records from, say, the NYC municipal archives, state archives, or NARA).
The website said it could take up to six months for orders to go through, but I got the e-mail today that they had been shipped, which I'm very excited about. It's been awhile since I've felt anything but frustrated by genealogy research. The records are all in German of course but in the past few months where I've had some luck with my German lines I've gotten familiar with some of the important words and the layout of their records, so I'll brush up on that ahead of time and bring some cheat sheets with me, but I'm feeling really good about this. And if this experience continues to go well, I already have other records I've jotted down for other family lines that I'd like to look up on microfilm.
It's nice (and a relief!) to feel excited about genealogy again!
Another recent change to the FamilySearch website is that now you can order microfilm and microfiche to view at your local Family History Center online. I don't drive, which has been part of the reason I've never actually made a visit to my local FHC yet - I would have had to make a trip there to order records and then made another trip back to view them and it would have been a bit of a hassle.
Yes, sometimes I'm a lazy genealogist. It happens to the best of us.
But as part of their recent uploading records effort, I've discovered some great information about my Stutzmann family line, which until that info was posted, was a dead end at about 1775 in Grossbockenheim, Germany. But records from the local kirchenbuch (church book) and familienregister (family register) were transcribed that trace this line about three generations and 100 years further back. Which was an awesome find. But transcriptions are at best secondary or even third-generation sources, and sometimes there's pertinent information within the original document that the transcriber didn't feel was worth copying, but which you might find important or at least interesting, and so I finally bit the bullet and ordered my very first microfilms from the LDS. And because I always go big or go home, I ordered 5 of them. (At $5.50 a pop they're not exactly free but still waaay cheaper than ordering records from, say, the NYC municipal archives, state archives, or NARA).
The website said it could take up to six months for orders to go through, but I got the e-mail today that they had been shipped, which I'm very excited about. It's been awhile since I've felt anything but frustrated by genealogy research. The records are all in German of course but in the past few months where I've had some luck with my German lines I've gotten familiar with some of the important words and the layout of their records, so I'll brush up on that ahead of time and bring some cheat sheets with me, but I'm feeling really good about this. And if this experience continues to go well, I already have other records I've jotted down for other family lines that I'd like to look up on microfilm.
It's nice (and a relief!) to feel excited about genealogy again!
NBC Announces The Celebrities Tracing Their Family Trees On Season Three Of 'Who Do You Think You Are?' Premiering February 3
NBC Announces The Celebrities Tracing Their Family Trees On Season Three Of 'Who Do You Think You Are?' Premiering February 3
I hate how easy this show makes genealogy research look - on our NEHGS field trip, Cousin April and I teased online genealogist David Allen Lambert that we were waiting for him to simply present us with our completed family tree, drawn out on a fancy scroll and everything, like it happens for all the celebrities who visit the NEHGS on "Who Do You Think You Are?" - but I love that this show brings genealogy to the forefront of pop culture, I love seeing the excitement and wonder and awe each celebrity feels upon each new family history discovery, and I love that it might spark a genealogical interest in at least one viewer who is not me :)
Looks like a good mix of family history backgrounds - welcome back, show!
I hate how easy this show makes genealogy research look - on our NEHGS field trip, Cousin April and I teased online genealogist David Allen Lambert that we were waiting for him to simply present us with our completed family tree, drawn out on a fancy scroll and everything, like it happens for all the celebrities who visit the NEHGS on "Who Do You Think You Are?" - but I love that this show brings genealogy to the forefront of pop culture, I love seeing the excitement and wonder and awe each celebrity feels upon each new family history discovery, and I love that it might spark a genealogical interest in at least one viewer who is not me :)
Looks like a good mix of family history backgrounds - welcome back, show!
Wordless Wednesday: Heppenheim, Hesse, Germany, home of the Meinberg and Neher families, and Starkenburg castle
The village of Heppenheim in the Hesse region of Germany, ancestral home to my Meinberg and Neher families, from which my third great grandmother Eva Meinberg Haase (1861-1919) is descended. They were living here at least as far back as the late 1600s. This is the marketplace, with the medieval castle Starkenburg high on the hill - picturesque, right?
Tombstone Tuesday: Mel Blanc
My father is quite possibly more into headstones than I am. (He has a coffee table book idea of photographs of angel headstones). He e-mailed me this photo of voice actor Mel Blanc's headstone just last week. Good thing we have each other for this kind of thing. Someone normal who received this photo might think it was creepy. I just think it's cool. :)
Happy New Year everyone! May everyone have fruitful genealogy research in 2012!
Happy New Year everyone! May everyone have fruitful genealogy research in 2012!
The Poole puzzle
Since I love to jump all over the place when it comes to genealogy, this is a certain puzzle about another branch of my tree that I've been working on recently regarding my Poole family.
Annie Poole was my great great grandmother, born on Long Island about 1859, died Jan. 20, 1934 in Freeport on Long Island. This is the only photo I have of her, with my great great grandfather and her husband, Joseph James "J.J." Raynor:
Now, Annie's parents were Richard Poole (1820-1886) and Mary Story (1827-1902), who are both buried in Rockville Cemetery in Lynbrook, not far from Freeport and from Rockville Centre and Oceanside, where the family also resided. Annie's father and brother, also named Richard, were apparently somewhat well-to-do real estate magnates in the area, though I have yet to really delve into the details of the everyday lives of the Poole clan. Now, Richard who was Annie's father was the son of - who else? - Richard Poole (1790-1849) and his wife, Sarah Ackerly. (1795-1856), also both buried in Rockville Cemetery.
This is where the puzzle begins.
There are a few Poole families living in Nassau (then Queens) and Suffolk Counties in that time period, the 1700s and 1800s, and for the most part, they all seem to be related to or descended from one Pierce Poole. I do not know who Richard Poole the Absolute Senior's father is. I have a hunch I know who his mother was. Through the New England Historic Genealogical Society's website here, I found a will abstract for a William Johnson from 1818 that lists as an heir his grandson, Richard Pool, son of Mary Johnson, wife of Ezekiel Langdon. Now, I have not been able to corroborate my hunch with anything else - this document is all I have. But the time period fits with my Richard Poole and it doesn't hurt that my Richard Poole's possible mother and stepfather, Mary Johnson and Ezekiel Langdon, are also buried in Rockville Cemetery. Unfortunately, it would appear that Richard's father died before 1818 and his mother had already remarried, so the father is not named. Looking at other Poole will abstracts from that time period list no Richard as an heir. So I have this branch of my tree that stops at that point and is contemporary to a whole bunch of other Poole families in the area, but I am as of yet unable to connect them.
The good news is Cousin April and I will be investigating wills and land deeds for our common brick wall ancestor, Jacob Raynor, who lived in the same general area and time period, so I think when we continue that research, either through the Queens County Surrogate Court in Jamaica or at the Plainview Family History Center, I'm going to have to slog through some Poole wills and land deeds as well. Time to put the pieces of this Poole puzzle together!
Annie Poole was my great great grandmother, born on Long Island about 1859, died Jan. 20, 1934 in Freeport on Long Island. This is the only photo I have of her, with my great great grandfather and her husband, Joseph James "J.J." Raynor:
Now, Annie's parents were Richard Poole (1820-1886) and Mary Story (1827-1902), who are both buried in Rockville Cemetery in Lynbrook, not far from Freeport and from Rockville Centre and Oceanside, where the family also resided. Annie's father and brother, also named Richard, were apparently somewhat well-to-do real estate magnates in the area, though I have yet to really delve into the details of the everyday lives of the Poole clan. Now, Richard who was Annie's father was the son of - who else? - Richard Poole (1790-1849) and his wife, Sarah Ackerly. (1795-1856), also both buried in Rockville Cemetery.
This is where the puzzle begins.
There are a few Poole families living in Nassau (then Queens) and Suffolk Counties in that time period, the 1700s and 1800s, and for the most part, they all seem to be related to or descended from one Pierce Poole. I do not know who Richard Poole the Absolute Senior's father is. I have a hunch I know who his mother was. Through the New England Historic Genealogical Society's website here, I found a will abstract for a William Johnson from 1818 that lists as an heir his grandson, Richard Pool, son of Mary Johnson, wife of Ezekiel Langdon. Now, I have not been able to corroborate my hunch with anything else - this document is all I have. But the time period fits with my Richard Poole and it doesn't hurt that my Richard Poole's possible mother and stepfather, Mary Johnson and Ezekiel Langdon, are also buried in Rockville Cemetery. Unfortunately, it would appear that Richard's father died before 1818 and his mother had already remarried, so the father is not named. Looking at other Poole will abstracts from that time period list no Richard as an heir. So I have this branch of my tree that stops at that point and is contemporary to a whole bunch of other Poole families in the area, but I am as of yet unable to connect them.
The good news is Cousin April and I will be investigating wills and land deeds for our common brick wall ancestor, Jacob Raynor, who lived in the same general area and time period, so I think when we continue that research, either through the Queens County Surrogate Court in Jamaica or at the Plainview Family History Center, I'm going to have to slog through some Poole wills and land deeds as well. Time to put the pieces of this Poole puzzle together!
Genealogy field trip: NEHGS in Boston
Boy, it's been awhile!
Between being sick in bed unable to move and moving to a new apartment and crazy shake-ups at work, it's been hard to find time to do any genealogy, much less write about it. But I know the land of family history has been in all your capable hands, so I feel only slightly guilty!
So, back in May, when Cousin April and I were at the genealogy conference in Charleston, we signed up for the New England Historic Genealogical Society. While the society is, as it's name denotes, is predominantly a resource for New England genealogy, they do have records on most American states as well as some genealogical records. For anyone living in the Boston area, the society serves as a Family History center where you can order and view their microfilm holdings, and for anybody, like April and myself, who come from early colonial New York families whose American origins are in New England, the society can be a valuable resource. Their website can be found here (membership is required to view some of their online databases), but since April and I both had this past Thursday off, we decided to make a quick, one-day excursion to Boston.
From Long Island, with a bit of traffic, the drive is about 4 1/2 hours. Once there (bearing New York bagels for our Boston friends, only the best bagels in the world!), we got a personalized tour from the NEHGS's online genealogist, David Allen Lambert, of the society's holdings - microfilm, books, family histories, probate records, census records, etc., the archives, preservation and conservation, special collections, etc. April and I were in genealogy nerd heaven. You have to be a special kind of person to get super-excited over the fact that you are looking at a book from the 15th century. I'm just sayin'.
We had gone with the express mission to find something, anything on a particular family puzzle we are determined to solve on our shared family tree - the parentage of Jacob Raynor, who died in 1829. Unfortunately, hours of searching turned up nada, though David Lambert was able to suggest some further records we could check out back home in New York (and also tell us, based on some of the items listed in Jacob's estate inventory, that not only was he definitely a farmer, but that like other farmer's in that time period, he owned tools that suggested he also made shoes, probably in the winter months).
So, for April and I, the search for that Big Raynor Mystery continues, and I will update you as we continue our research, since we've decided that we'd like to be able to solve that mystery at least somewhat definitively and present it at the next Raynor Round Up next October, but the NEHGS holdings still impress. If you're in the Boston area and have family from that period/area, I recommend checking it out - though without the tour, the layout and procedure would have been a bit confusing, so read the guidelines on the website ahead of time or don't hesitate to ask staff for directions and help. April and I are already talking about going back again to pursue other branches of our trees (including, for me, the Poole Puzzle, which I will address in a next entry soon) that we think the NEHGS will be more helpful with.
Between being sick in bed unable to move and moving to a new apartment and crazy shake-ups at work, it's been hard to find time to do any genealogy, much less write about it. But I know the land of family history has been in all your capable hands, so I feel only slightly guilty!
So, back in May, when Cousin April and I were at the genealogy conference in Charleston, we signed up for the New England Historic Genealogical Society. While the society is, as it's name denotes, is predominantly a resource for New England genealogy, they do have records on most American states as well as some genealogical records. For anyone living in the Boston area, the society serves as a Family History center where you can order and view their microfilm holdings, and for anybody, like April and myself, who come from early colonial New York families whose American origins are in New England, the society can be a valuable resource. Their website can be found here (membership is required to view some of their online databases), but since April and I both had this past Thursday off, we decided to make a quick, one-day excursion to Boston.
From Long Island, with a bit of traffic, the drive is about 4 1/2 hours. Once there (bearing New York bagels for our Boston friends, only the best bagels in the world!), we got a personalized tour from the NEHGS's online genealogist, David Allen Lambert, of the society's holdings - microfilm, books, family histories, probate records, census records, etc., the archives, preservation and conservation, special collections, etc. April and I were in genealogy nerd heaven. You have to be a special kind of person to get super-excited over the fact that you are looking at a book from the 15th century. I'm just sayin'.
We had gone with the express mission to find something, anything on a particular family puzzle we are determined to solve on our shared family tree - the parentage of Jacob Raynor, who died in 1829. Unfortunately, hours of searching turned up nada, though David Lambert was able to suggest some further records we could check out back home in New York (and also tell us, based on some of the items listed in Jacob's estate inventory, that not only was he definitely a farmer, but that like other farmer's in that time period, he owned tools that suggested he also made shoes, probably in the winter months).
So, for April and I, the search for that Big Raynor Mystery continues, and I will update you as we continue our research, since we've decided that we'd like to be able to solve that mystery at least somewhat definitively and present it at the next Raynor Round Up next October, but the NEHGS holdings still impress. If you're in the Boston area and have family from that period/area, I recommend checking it out - though without the tour, the layout and procedure would have been a bit confusing, so read the guidelines on the website ahead of time or don't hesitate to ask staff for directions and help. April and I are already talking about going back again to pursue other branches of our trees (including, for me, the Poole Puzzle, which I will address in a next entry soon) that we think the NEHGS will be more helpful with.
Genes tell a tale as big as Africa
From MSNBC.com: Genes tell a tale as big as Africa
And 30 seconds later...
Yes. I literally examined the two death certificates that fast and made a determination. I am just that good. Catharina Rhinehart is not my 5th great grandmother. She was born in New York and still married at the time of her death. My 5th great grandmother was born in Germany and a widow. As was Magdalena Reinhardt at the time of her death. The age is off by between 5-15 years, which is not uncommon for that time period, and I still have to cross check the residence at time of death, but her death certificate was presented to a son, Wilhelm. My 5th great-grandmother had a son, William/Wilhelm. But this is why I am sure it is her - she is buried in Weehawken Cemetery in Hoboken, New Jersey. Why is that significant?
My 5th great-grandfather, her husband, John Reinhardt, died in Union, New Jersey in 1870. My Reinhardts lived in the Hoboken/Weehawken/Union area for years. My gut is telling me this is her. My gut is wrong about a lot of things, but never about genealogy.
So, it's disappointing because it gives no maiden name, no parents' names, no specific place of birth. But a cemetery listing is HUGE. I have always wondered where John might have been buried in Jersey, and now I have a clue. So now I have another gravesite I get to look for - and an out-of-state one, too! For this New Yorker by way of muchos, muchos, muchos generations, finding a burial site out of state, even if it's just across the river, is EXTREMELY exciting.
It's the little things, people. I am off to look up this cemetery now to see if it still exists. Between Peter Stutzmann and Magdalena Reinhardt, I may have to schedule a Veteran's Day cemetery field trip for next week!
Yay! :)
My 5th great-grandfather, her husband, John Reinhardt, died in Union, New Jersey in 1870. My Reinhardts lived in the Hoboken/Weehawken/Union area for years. My gut is telling me this is her. My gut is wrong about a lot of things, but never about genealogy.
So, it's disappointing because it gives no maiden name, no parents' names, no specific place of birth. But a cemetery listing is HUGE. I have always wondered where John might have been buried in Jersey, and now I have a clue. So now I have another gravesite I get to look for - and an out-of-state one, too! For this New Yorker by way of muchos, muchos, muchos generations, finding a burial site out of state, even if it's just across the river, is EXTREMELY exciting.
It's the little things, people. I am off to look up this cemetery now to see if it still exists. Between Peter Stutzmann and Magdalena Reinhardt, I may have to schedule a Veteran's Day cemetery field trip for next week!
Yay! :)
Finally! NYC Municipal Archives comes through
I am not a patient person. Ask anyone I know. So the fact that I had to wait almost four weeks for the documents I requested from the New York City municipal archives, especially since I had provided both names AND certificate numbers, miffed me just a little bit. I get that they're busy - but don't they get how important my genealogy research is?? To me???
So three out of the four documents I requested were waiting for me in the stack of mail when I got home. The first, Peter Stutzmann's death certificate, is definitely my Peter Stutzmann. I knew it the moment I saw the address at which he died, 54 Morrell Street in Brooklyn. That's where the Stutzmanns were living at that time (1892). Disappointingly, it does not provide his parents' names, though I had wanted that only to verify information I already had, but it did confirm for me that he died in New York even though he pretty much didn't live here - according to his death certificate he had only been living here for four months. And it gives me the cemetery he was buried in, Evergreens, so now I can find his gravesite. So that's kind of cool. Peter Stutzmann, by the way, was my great-great-great grandfather, from Grossbockenheim, Germany.
I received two other death certificates, too - one for Catharina Ann Rhinehart and one for Magdalena Reinhardt, both died in 1887, on the suspicion that one may be my fifth-great grandmother, who went by a variety of first names and who may have died in Brooklyn in 1887. Unfortunately, neither gives parents' names, which was what I was really hoping for, or a maiden name, which would have helped confirm or eliminate, but it gives addresses and the names of children to whom the certificate was delivered, so I have clues to work with, but I am going to have to examine both of these documents much more closely before I can make any kind of determination, but I will keep you posted.
Happy weekend everyone!
So three out of the four documents I requested were waiting for me in the stack of mail when I got home. The first, Peter Stutzmann's death certificate, is definitely my Peter Stutzmann. I knew it the moment I saw the address at which he died, 54 Morrell Street in Brooklyn. That's where the Stutzmanns were living at that time (1892). Disappointingly, it does not provide his parents' names, though I had wanted that only to verify information I already had, but it did confirm for me that he died in New York even though he pretty much didn't live here - according to his death certificate he had only been living here for four months. And it gives me the cemetery he was buried in, Evergreens, so now I can find his gravesite. So that's kind of cool. Peter Stutzmann, by the way, was my great-great-great grandfather, from Grossbockenheim, Germany.
I received two other death certificates, too - one for Catharina Ann Rhinehart and one for Magdalena Reinhardt, both died in 1887, on the suspicion that one may be my fifth-great grandmother, who went by a variety of first names and who may have died in Brooklyn in 1887. Unfortunately, neither gives parents' names, which was what I was really hoping for, or a maiden name, which would have helped confirm or eliminate, but it gives addresses and the names of children to whom the certificate was delivered, so I have clues to work with, but I am going to have to examine both of these documents much more closely before I can make any kind of determination, but I will keep you posted.
Happy weekend everyone!
Just in time for Halloween...some more cemetery wandering!
I actually didn't go into this cemetery yesterday, since I had an appointment I had to get to, and I've definitely been to more rundown, spookier cemeteries than this one, but it was pouring rain and just so dark and gloomy out, and the entrance with the leafless vine was kind of creepy, that I had to stop and take a few photos. This is the church cemetery at St. Boniface Catholic Church in Elmont, on Long Island, just over the border from Queens County. I love cemeteries but I think even I would get a little spooked by actually being in a cemetery on Halloween, especially on a day like this!
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| St. Boniface Catholic Church cemetery, Elmont, New York. Taken Oct. 27, 2011. |
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| Through the gate at St. Boniface cemetery, Elmont. Oct. 27, 2011. |
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Some Halloween genealogy fun: Prince Charles claims Vlad the Impaler as ancestor
With Halloween right around the corner, I thought this was a fun/scary genealogy story. Not sure I'd want to be related to someone who inspired one of the most iconic, scariest vampires ever, but we don't choose who our family is! :)
Prince Charles claims Vlad the Impaler as ancestor
Prince Charles claims Vlad the Impaler as ancestor
Blast from the past: Old Bethpage Village Restoration
Old Bethpage Village Restoration, opened in 1970, recreates a typical mid 19th century Long Island farming village, with preserved and reconstructed buildings from all over Long Island. It's like a very tiny Colonial Williamsburg - you can go inside the buildings, which are set up with furniture and knick knacks and paintings from that time period, and staff dressed in costume will give you the history of the house, or demonstrate some skill or trade that villagers might have used.
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| Main road to the crossroads |
I have always had fond memories of going here on field trips when I was a kid in school - I loved going to the general store for old fashioned candy and a cup of birch beer. I always felt like I was transported back in time. But the boyfriend had never been, so we went over the weekend - it was a blustery but sunny day as we walked around the town square watching 21st century kids playing with 19th century toys, visited the Powell farmhouse (and I cringed as he tried to feed one of the cows), looked at the goods (real 19th century paint powder!) and advertisements in Layton's store. One house was so tiny his head was nearly touching the ceiling and with Halloween so close, I was kind of hoping but kind of not hoping we'd see a ghost.
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| The boyfriend doesn't even look like he'll fit in this house! |
Probably the coolest thing, though, was Noon's Inn, which was an East Meadow tavern that served mostly local farmers looking for a drink at the end of the day and 14 hours of manual labor. The original location of the Inn was two blocks away from where the boyfriend grew up and lives, and it was built circa 1830, though restored to what it would have looked like about 1850 - which was about the time my family was living in East Meadow (my great great grandmother Delia Dauch Berg was born in East Meadow in 1858), so her father and brothers might have actually stepped foot in that building!
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| Recreated bedroom |
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| The general store - birch beer, anyone? |
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| Noon's Inn, from East Meadow, is on the right. |
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| Terrible photo, but this was a map from 1840 on the schoolhouse wall. On the bottom righthand corner, you can see Raynortown, the old name for Freeport, which is where I live...love it! |
Quick Monday post...
Monday's are super busy at work, but I came across this story today on CNN.com by Mark Whitaker. I always enjoy reading about how someone got interested in their family history, the hows and whys they decided to dig a little deeper. Whitaker also gives some good tips for anyone who not only just wants the dates and facts, but the stories behind the stories - he interviewed old family members (with more than a little insistence and cajoling it sounds like) and asked them for any paper documents - books, diaries, letters, etc. - that they had held on to from back then, which I thought was a great idea. You never know who has what, or what they have that will give you more info, even if it's just a glimpse into "a day in the life" of that person - my grandfather was a packrat, and because of that, we have his father's daily planner, documenting the ordinary ins and outs of his routine, including work, card games with friends, visits to family members, for the entire year before my grandfather was born. Ordinary, every day things that tell us a little more about who these people were. Anyway, nice story at CNN. Check it out if your Monday is a little less hectic than mine! :)
Shout-out of the day: Italian Genealogical Group
I have not a drop of Italian blood in me, but I have to give mad props, again, to the Italian Genealogical Group for having been an invaluable resource to me in my family history research. You can see where their work started, what with all the Italian immigrants who came through/ended up in New York City, but for anybody who has late 19th century and/or early 20th century family history in New York City (that would be all five boroughs), you are doing yourself a great disservice by not visiting their website. While you can't find actual records or record information on their website, the group's many wonderful volunteers have put in countless hours indexing the vital record holdings for the city's municipal archives. That means that when visiting the archives in lower Manhattan or sending away for them from the archives' website, you save both time and money by already having a spelling (for those of us whose families loved to spell their names every which way imagineable under he sun) AND a certificate number.
I especially wanted to give them a shout-out today because as I've been going through my laundry list of records I need, I found in their index two certificates I have been searching for for YEARS - the birth certificate of my great grandfather, Frederick Stutzmann (listed under Fred Stutzmann) and the death certificate of HIS grandfather, Peter Stutzmann, who I could never prove emigrated or died in New York City instead of his native Germany, even though I had somewhat reliable information saying he died in New York on January 10, 1891. Well, thanks to a search just 5 minutes ago on IGG's site, I found a Peter Stutzmna who died in Brooklyn on January 10, 1892. I can't know for sure yet that this is MY Peter, but my gut is telling me that it is, and when it comes to genealogy, my gut is always, always right.
You can find the Italian Genealogical Group's website here.
I especially wanted to give them a shout-out today because as I've been going through my laundry list of records I need, I found in their index two certificates I have been searching for for YEARS - the birth certificate of my great grandfather, Frederick Stutzmann (listed under Fred Stutzmann) and the death certificate of HIS grandfather, Peter Stutzmann, who I could never prove emigrated or died in New York City instead of his native Germany, even though I had somewhat reliable information saying he died in New York on January 10, 1891. Well, thanks to a search just 5 minutes ago on IGG's site, I found a Peter Stutzmna who died in Brooklyn on January 10, 1892. I can't know for sure yet that this is MY Peter, but my gut is telling me that it is, and when it comes to genealogy, my gut is always, always right.
You can find the Italian Genealogical Group's website here.
Doing your genealogical laundry
Laundry isn't fun - it involves a lot of sorting and organizing and gathering and folding, which is the WORST - luckily, genealogical laundry doesn't involve the folding part, but sometimes, researching your family tree isn't about making new, exciting discoveries. Sometimes it's about just the nitty-gritty, the mundane task of figuring out what it is that you have and finding out what it is that you need. And not even in the sense of "Who was Great grandpa's parents?" In the sense of "I know everything there is to know about Great grandpa, now what documentation do I need to back that up?"
Lately I've been floundering, family history-wise. I have a lot of loose threads, a lot of incomplete information, a lot of new, exciting paths to continue down, but a lot a lot A LOT of rounding out the picture of people I've researched for years and know all the facts about but none of the story in between. It's been overwhelming and honestly, boring, all at the same time, and so I've just ignored it. Ignored it, ignored it, ignored it, and during Family History Month, too! ::shakes head::
So today I'm making a list, a laundry list if you will. I decided to check out the Italian Genealogy Group's website and it turns out they've added some new records to their index, and so I decided to look back at my own records and see what was missing. Some people I have death dates for because I found an obituary, but I have no death certificate. Some people I have a birth date for because of a census record but I have no birth certificate. I'm concentrating on my Queens-Brooklyn-Manhattan crew because city records are easier for me to get my hands on than Long Island records, but there are a lot of important corroborating records missing from my collection. And now that I have my list and can see the gaps, I can go about filling them in.
It's not the exciting work, but it's the necessary work...
Lately I've been floundering, family history-wise. I have a lot of loose threads, a lot of incomplete information, a lot of new, exciting paths to continue down, but a lot a lot A LOT of rounding out the picture of people I've researched for years and know all the facts about but none of the story in between. It's been overwhelming and honestly, boring, all at the same time, and so I've just ignored it. Ignored it, ignored it, ignored it, and during Family History Month, too! ::shakes head::
So today I'm making a list, a laundry list if you will. I decided to check out the Italian Genealogy Group's website and it turns out they've added some new records to their index, and so I decided to look back at my own records and see what was missing. Some people I have death dates for because I found an obituary, but I have no death certificate. Some people I have a birth date for because of a census record but I have no birth certificate. I'm concentrating on my Queens-Brooklyn-Manhattan crew because city records are easier for me to get my hands on than Long Island records, but there are a lot of important corroborating records missing from my collection. And now that I have my list and can see the gaps, I can go about filling them in.
It's not the exciting work, but it's the necessary work...
Wordless Wednesday - John Ricklefs, 1936
Not great quality, but a photo of John Ricklefs - looks like he might even be wearing glasses - from the Feb. 7, 1936 issue of The Hartford Courant, now aged 50 years, upon his return to Connecticut after serving about 13 years, 7 of those in solitary confinement, in prison in Massachusetts aaaand...no more words! :)
Wordless Wednesday - Grandpa with Barbara Eden and Joe Garagiola
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| I Dream of Jeannie :) |
My grandfather, Elmer Gorry, used to work on the Orange Bowl Parade for NBC. In this pic he's with Barbara Eden (Jeannie from I Dream of Jeannie for those too young to know) and Joe Garagiola, center - I don't know who he is but apparently he used to be a Major League catcher and was a panelist on The Today Show. Barbara and Joe were both the hosts of the parade that year, which I believe was 1985.
Info found on John Ricklefs in The Hartford Courant
So, as I mentioned in my last post, thanks to a tip from fellow blogger TCasteel over at Tangled Trees, I was able to find more information on the criminal hijinks of Great Uncle Jack Ricklefs in the newspaper archives of The Hartford Courant. I found several stories from 1919, when he escaped the prison in Wethersfield, and several from 1936, when he was returned to Connecticut by the state of Massachusetts (where he served time in prison during the years in between) to be tried for that escape and finish serving the remaining original sentence.
The more I read about John, the more I shake my head at either his stupidity or his stubbornness, in that he seems to be stuck in an endless loop (and I'm not sure if it's by choice) of going to jail, either being released or escaping from said jail, then being arrested within a year or so for the very thing that he was previously in jail for, only to be sent back to jail and the cycle continues. But these last few stories made me very sad for him. But also very angry. I kinda wanted to reach back in time and smack him upside the head and just shout, "Stop it already!" at him.
::Sigh::
Okay, so as we already know, he was one of four prisoners to escape from Wethersfield prison in December of 1919, and I found some fun articles talking about the many escapes from that prison in that time period, whether due to negligience or complicity on the part of prison staff. I also found a fun editorial calling this particular group of escaped convicts kinda stupid for choosing to break free in the middle of winter. I think I concur. Anyway, within a day they were all captured except for John, who we already know ended up in prison in Massachusetts just two years later. But I knew very little about his time there, especially since I've reached a brick wall in obtaining his prison records from the state archives there since I don't know when John died. But the articles from 1936 fill in some of the very sad and somewhat horrible details of his years there. I will summarize:
The more I read about John, the more I shake my head at either his stupidity or his stubbornness, in that he seems to be stuck in an endless loop (and I'm not sure if it's by choice) of going to jail, either being released or escaping from said jail, then being arrested within a year or so for the very thing that he was previously in jail for, only to be sent back to jail and the cycle continues. But these last few stories made me very sad for him. But also very angry. I kinda wanted to reach back in time and smack him upside the head and just shout, "Stop it already!" at him.
::Sigh::
Okay, so as we already know, he was one of four prisoners to escape from Wethersfield prison in December of 1919, and I found some fun articles talking about the many escapes from that prison in that time period, whether due to negligience or complicity on the part of prison staff. I also found a fun editorial calling this particular group of escaped convicts kinda stupid for choosing to break free in the middle of winter. I think I concur. Anyway, within a day they were all captured except for John, who we already know ended up in prison in Massachusetts just two years later. But I knew very little about his time there, especially since I've reached a brick wall in obtaining his prison records from the state archives there since I don't know when John died. But the articles from 1936 fill in some of the very sad and somewhat horrible details of his years there. I will summarize:
- He was arrested in Massachusetts for his specialty (although you'd think he'd be better at it by that point, it being his specialty and all) of breaking and entering and sentenced to 12 to 15 years. He was given an additional 3 years for, big surprise, a failed escape attempt.
- We have more aliases to add to the list following True Name John Ricklefs. The list now reads aliases John Anderson, Harry Young, Robert Johnson, James Hamilton, James Ricklefs, and Henry Johnson. It's definitely a method of keeping the cops from finding you quite as easily but I would be super confused as to what name I was using when.
- He ended up serving 15 years in several Massachusetts prisons, including Deer Island, New Bedford, and Charlestown.
- Seven of those years he spent in solitary confinement. In a Feb. 22, 1936 article, it reads: "Ricklefs told the court that during his confinement in Massachusetts ... he was kept for seven years in a "blind door cell," from which he was removed only 15 minutes at a time, five times a week for exercise." A parole officer corroborated his story.
- From same story: "'This man has been severely punished,' Judge Jennings said to State's Attorney Hugh M. Alcorn. 'I don't see how he's kept his sanity.' ... Ricklefs, whose home was on Patchogue, L.I., is now gray-haired and stoop-shouldered, with a mild, bespectacled face. His pictures at the time he was an inmate showed him to be sturdy with strong, hard features."
Another "A-ha!" moment, brought to you by SHARING
They teach you to do it in kindergarten, and now as a genealogist more than 25 years later, I am reaping the benefits.
As my regular readers know, I love newspaper archives. They are by far my favorite hidden treasure for family history research. It's through newspaper archives, mostly found on http://www.fultonhistory.com/, that I've been finding clues and tracing the criminal exploits of the notorious Ricklefs brothers, my family's (so far) most colorful characters.
Because they lived in the New York metro area, http://www.fultonhistory.com/ and http://www.chroniclingamerica.com/ have both been instrumental in my research on these two troublemakers. But John in particular spent a large part of his criminal career in prisons in New Jersey, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, which newspapers are sparsely archived, if at all, on those sites. A Google search of newspaper archives for each of those particular states turned up pretty much nothing.
Now today, several weeks after my Ricklefs searches stalled out, along comes a post by TCasteel over at her genealogy blog, Tangled Trees, about Wikipedia having a listing of both free and pay newspaper archive sites for various countries and pretty much every state in the U.S.
I feel the genealogy itch coming back to my fingertips...oh, how I have missed you!!
At first, I was most excited to check out the New Jersey archives for possible information on John's arrest there, but searching every spelling of his name (damn those Germans!!) proved fruitless. So? Off to Connecticut.
Pay dirt.
The Hartford Courant, a paper I'd never even heard of, has it's archives online courtesy of ProQuest (which Cousin April has told me about many times before and which I had filed away in my already over-filed brain and never used; apparently if you go to your local library, you should be able to use their version for free, though printing fees may apply) ... anyway, I had to pay to view and print copies of the stories I found, but it wasn't that expensive and the truth is you're almost always going to have to shell out something, even if it's a "donation" in order to get the good stuff in genealogy. But I found eight articles about John, from his escape from Wethersfield prison in 1919 to his return in 1936, with quite a few details about his stint in several Massachusetts prisons (including an escape attempt, of course, and solitary confinement) in between.
So I will be going through those articles this weekend. That's what a genealogist considers good, clean weekend fun.
But the point is, even when your search stalls, it doesn't mean it's over. Sometimes you need to step away for awhile just to get a new perspective or, you know, retain your sanity. And sometimes someone else will share a tip or skill they discovered or learned which will prove helpful to your own search. So make sure you pay it forward, ok?
:)
As my regular readers know, I love newspaper archives. They are by far my favorite hidden treasure for family history research. It's through newspaper archives, mostly found on http://www.fultonhistory.com/, that I've been finding clues and tracing the criminal exploits of the notorious Ricklefs brothers, my family's (so far) most colorful characters.
Because they lived in the New York metro area, http://www.fultonhistory.com/ and http://www.chroniclingamerica.com/ have both been instrumental in my research on these two troublemakers. But John in particular spent a large part of his criminal career in prisons in New Jersey, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, which newspapers are sparsely archived, if at all, on those sites. A Google search of newspaper archives for each of those particular states turned up pretty much nothing.
Now today, several weeks after my Ricklefs searches stalled out, along comes a post by TCasteel over at her genealogy blog, Tangled Trees, about Wikipedia having a listing of both free and pay newspaper archive sites for various countries and pretty much every state in the U.S.
I feel the genealogy itch coming back to my fingertips...oh, how I have missed you!!
At first, I was most excited to check out the New Jersey archives for possible information on John's arrest there, but searching every spelling of his name (damn those Germans!!) proved fruitless. So? Off to Connecticut.
Pay dirt.
The Hartford Courant, a paper I'd never even heard of, has it's archives online courtesy of ProQuest (which Cousin April has told me about many times before and which I had filed away in my already over-filed brain and never used; apparently if you go to your local library, you should be able to use their version for free, though printing fees may apply) ... anyway, I had to pay to view and print copies of the stories I found, but it wasn't that expensive and the truth is you're almost always going to have to shell out something, even if it's a "donation" in order to get the good stuff in genealogy. But I found eight articles about John, from his escape from Wethersfield prison in 1919 to his return in 1936, with quite a few details about his stint in several Massachusetts prisons (including an escape attempt, of course, and solitary confinement) in between.
So I will be going through those articles this weekend. That's what a genealogist considers good, clean weekend fun.
But the point is, even when your search stalls, it doesn't mean it's over. Sometimes you need to step away for awhile just to get a new perspective or, you know, retain your sanity. And sometimes someone else will share a tip or skill they discovered or learned which will prove helpful to your own search. So make sure you pay it forward, ok?
:)