Finding and Binding

Best Practices for Archiving Genealogical Records

2018-03-03T10:52:00.001-08:00

From a Master in Library Science, records manager, and enthusiastic genealogist

That by-line is to say - don't take anything in this post as gospel. These are just what I have been taught, and what I have found works for me. That doesn't mean it's the end-all-be-all. Just recommendations.

One of my favorite facebook groups (and one of the only reasons I am still on facebook to be honest) is Random Act of Genealogical Kindness (RAoGK) - USA. It's a place where family historians can ask questions about records they are looking for, solicit help on brick walls they are trying to break down, post interesting genealogy related posts, etc. A post this morning prompted this blog post.

The question (or rather observation) was about long-term storage options for genealogical information. The poster says "One of the bigger problems I've come up on is the problem of long term storage. Most of the people did their family research a log time ago, years or decades ago. One guy inherited all of his fathers work that is still all in loose-leaf paper in file folders. Another saved her work in a genealogy software that is no longer supported.

"This is a problem that many industries and libraries are struggling with. You can't trust Ancestry to be around in 10 years. You can't trust a hard drive because it relies on a USB connection with future computer may not have. [MacBook Air, anyone?] You can't even really trust hard copies because fire is a thing."

Let's talk about that.

First, my qualifications.

I have a masters degree in Library Science, with a specialization in digitization and archival studies. I had entire classes on the question of long-term storage.

I have worked as a records manager for 2+ years, where I deal primarily with electronic records, and ensuring those records are in a permanent, archival format.

I work in digitization.

Now, the best practices that I have found through my education and experience.

- records should be stored in no less than two places, ideally not in the same place (e.g. a copy on the east coast, and a copy on the west coast, or a copy on a cloud and a copy on a hard drive)
- a cloud service is a great option, as this reduces the storage capacity needed on your computer, but SHOULD NOT be the only place the records are stored. What if the cloud runs out of space? What if the cloud service shuts down? What if you don't have an internet connection? (I can attest to that last one)
- hardware typically has a relatively short shelf life, so needs to be updated periodically. Hard drives last about 10 years, CDs and DVDs last about 5 years. So if you store your records on hardware, you need to make sure to create new copies of the records before the hardware is no longer accessible.
- if you choose to use a hard drive to store your records, a solid state drive (i.e. doesn't have any moving parts like a fan) tend to be the most reliable
- as noted above, technology is changing so quickly that the ability to read certain hardware is changing just as quickly. Good news is that data storage is becoming cheaper the better our technology becomes.
- download the actual images of off ancestry and save them some where else. Ideally, pdf or tiff/jpg format is the best (pdf is really just made up tiffs or jpgs)

Short story: Don't just rely on one storage source for any records that you really care about. Keeping the records in two or even three places means you can be doubley confident that they won't be lost to a disaster.

What not to do

Here's a few anecdotes from my own life of what NOT to do for preserving records. Perhaps this should be another qualification - I've done it wrong so many times that I have learned how to do it right.

Anecdote 1: My husband made fun of me the other day for pulling out my 1TB (which isn't a lot in today's world) external hard disk drive (i.e. not a solid state) that I bought on sale! for $200 like 8 years ago. For context, an 8 TB external hard drive sells for around $150 today. He made fun of me even more when I couldn't find the plug (!) so I couldn't even read the disc. Lesson: Don't lose the very-specific, can't be easily replaced cord that is the single way to access your records.

Anecdote 2: I found all of these great records for my Ladd family that I was researching. Then things happened and took me away from genealogy for a while. When I got back into it, some of the links for some of the records that I had found were dead. (I've also been hearing a lot of complaints about the access restrictions changing, so the records no longer being available like they used to be)

Lesson: DOWNLOAD THE ACTUAL IMAGES. Also CITE YOUR SOURCES. Luckily, I had recorded the sources well so I was able to track down the images again.

My current practices

I'm going to talk specifically about my current practices with my digitization business.

The best way I can think to do this is step-by-step.

I take the images with my professional grade DSLR camera. Once I get home from the archives, I download the images on to my computer and edit them.

After I edit the images, I upload them to a Google drive folder. This is what I send to clients. I keep both unedited and edited images. *The images are now in two places: my computer's hard drive and Google drive

I transfer the images to a solid state external hard drive. *The images are now in three places: my computer's hard drive, Google drive, and an external hard drive

About every 6 months, I burn DVDs of the images that I have taken in the past 6 months (I use DVDs because DVDs have a larger size capacity) At the same time, I delete the images off of Google drive and my computer's hard drive *The records are now in two places: an external hard drive and a DVD

Note: ideally, the client also download a copy of the images, or I sent them a DVD of the images

Now, as the records are not my own, I feel 2 copies of the images are sufficient. I keep 2 copies in case clients come back to me and some how lost access to their images (hasn't happened yet, but better safe than sorry)

Resources

https://www.archives.gov/preservation/formats

https://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/policy/transfer-guidance-tables.html - this is specifically for government records managers transferring permanent records to the National Archives, but if it's good enough for NARA, it's good enough for me!

https://www.archives.gov/preservation/technical/guidelines.html

My Love/Hate Relationship with the Pension Numerical Index

2018-01-03T17:39:00.001-08:00

The Pension Numerical Index. It's useless.

It's not really (sorry, Pension Numerical Index, I do love you), it just doesn't make much sense most the time.

Here's a case study where it actually is helpful (as well as how to read the card in general).

Case Study: Allen Simmons's pension index card

I had a client reach out to me today for help finding Allen Simmons's pension record. She had his CMSR index card, which lists his unit as Company C, Regiment 5, Pennsylvania Heavy Artillery

OK great. So I do what I usually do when looking for a pension index card: I browse the pension index. (I'm working on another post about searching vs browsing. Release date TBA)

So I browse...

and browse...

and...

Huh. That's a problem. According to the pension index, no soldiers from company C applied for/received a pension. I don't know that I believe that... Let's try the "Regiment 5th."

OK, not there either. When browsing fails, I resort to searching.

Searching "Allen Simmons" results in 1,487 matches.

So filter it by Civil War and PA only and...

3 matches. That's better.

One is the CMSR index card, which we already have. One is a census record. And one... one is the Pension Numerical Index.

This is the pension numerical index. Now let's talk about what information it can (and can't) give us.

First thing to know: the pension numerical index lists 4 things - an invalid (soldier) original (aka application), an invalid certificate, a dependent original (application), and a dependent certificate. These four are NOT related to each other, other than sharing the same number.

The number in the top left corner is the application and/or certificate number.

The top section is the soldier whose original/application number is 881955.

This is useless. Not only does this card fail to list the full name of the soldier, it also says he's from Illinois, but that doesn't give us any valuable information about his service. On top of all of that, the third line is "Ctf. No." for "certificate number" - and there is nothing there. This isn't helpful, because a pension is filled under the certificate number, not the application number. On a good pension numerical index card, this line is filled out, giving you the number you need for when you fill out your request form (which is another post that I am working on...).

But not quite. This doesn't account for if the soldier had a dependent (widow, minor, or parent) apply for his pension after his death. And this is where my love/hate comes into play. If a dependent applied for a pension, the entire pension packet (the soldier's application, soldier's certificate, dependent's application, and dependent's certificate) will all be in the same packet. And if someone else applied after that person's death, all of the files would identified by that certificate number.

(Side note: it is possible that this soldier only applied for a pension and did not receive it.)

Moving on... The next section on the card is the person we are looking for: Allen Simmons, C 5 PA HA.

You'll notice there isn't a line under his name with a different number. This is ok, because this card is telling us that 881955 is his pension certificate number, which is the number all of his records will be filed under, given that there isn't a dependent pension under his name. Remember, the dependent's listed on his card are NOT related to Allen.

Next section is the dependent whose original/application number is 881955.

**Clarification: for the most part (I won't say always, because the only "always" is that there are always exceptions) the name listed is the soldier's name. The dependent's name would be listed on the index card found on Ancestry. Or can be found in the file itself.

Again, not entirely helpful as it lists the person's name as "Dun." As an example, I searched "Dun" on fold3. There are 303, 517 matches. Filtering by Civil War brings us down to 7, 285. Still not helpful.

(Warning: side track ahead)

BUT, if "Dun" was the person we were looking for (which would be highly unlikely, given that we don't even know his full name), we could find him using the certificate number that is listed under the name. Browsing the pension numerical index to card number 637154...

Look at the forth section - dependent certificate: His name is William G Dunham, Company G 3rd Massachusetts Infantry.

(side track over)

Back to our card 881955.

The last section is the dependent whose certificate number is 881955.

(My lines didn't show up, but they are there. Hopefully you are following.)

The "W" above the "Cft" means that this is a widow's certificate. Henry Monroe served in Company C 41st USC (U.S. Colored) Infantry and his widow applied for a pension and received the certificate number 881995.

And remember - NONE of the people on the pension numerical index card are related to each other. Numerical is key, everyone on a regular pension index card are related to each other in some way.

So that's it! That's the pension numerical index, and why I love it sometimes and hate it other times.

Questions? Comments? I'd love to hear what you'd like me to write about!

So you made it to NARA... Now what??

2017-05-18T16:35:00.000-07:00

Preface - this post is going to be long. Each section will be started with a header so you can skim through and only read the parts that interest you the most. And as an FYI - most/all of my dos/don'ts/tips/tricks will be written specifically about A1, the National Archives building in Washington DC. A2, the National Archives at College Park, has similar rules for the most part, but varies slightly.

First Things First: First Steps Upon Arrival

The National Archives on Pennsylvania Avenue (often called A1, as it the main building) is made up of two sides. You can't access one side from the other without having to exit the building and walk around to the other entrance. The entrance on the Constitution Avenue side leads to the National Archives museum. Honestly, except for us genealogical folk, this is what most people think of when they think "National Archives." This is where the Charters of Freedom - the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, Bill of Rights - can be found, as well as other important documents, exhibits, and the National Archives store. But the side that really matters [to us research types]... the research side. This wonderful world can be entered through the Pennsylvania Avenue entrance. First, you'll pass through security. Next, present your ID (or your research card if this isn't your first rodeo) to the guard at the center desk and tell them this is your first time. They will have you signed your name in a big logbook and give you an orange badge. Keep this badge on your person and where the guards can see it at all times. Next, proceed through the (very slow and sometimes dysfunctional) automatic glass doors. Say hi to the lovely staff at main desk (that was me at one point!) and they will direct you to the computers to your left. These computers have a 20ish minute slideshow for you to click through containing all the rules you will need to follow while in the research areas. Once you've done that, go though the glass doors adjacent to said computers and the lovely folk at the ID desk will get your information, take your picture, and issue you your research card. Now it's time to delve into research!

Requesting Your Records

This is going to apply specifically to requesting pre-WWI military pension and service records. All other records, the archivists in the consultation room will help fill out a card. As I was putting this together, I realized that this really should be it's own link - don't worry, I'll link it here when it's posted.

DOs and DON'Ts

(203 here refers to the central research room - the place you'll go to actually view your records)

DO show the guard your research card each time you enter and exit the room, even if you are just leaving to use the restroom.

DON'T take paper with you into 203 - unless you absolutely need it for your research, and then one of the helpful staff members will stamp it for you. Don't worry about bringing paper to take notes - they provide all the paper and various size index cards you could need up in 203.

DO bring a sweater, if you would like, 203 can get chilly at times. But if you choose to bring one, DON'T take it off and hang it on the back of your chair. If you bring a sweater, it needs to stay on.

DON'T talk on the phone while in 203 - if you need to take a phone call, you can step into the hall (this rule applies to all research areas - microfilm, consultation area, main floor research room, Innovation Hub, and central research room. Only place cell phone conversations are allowed is in the locker room, main lobby, and hallway outside of the main reading room.)

DON'T feel like you need to whisper - it's not a library. :) And whispers sometimes make it hard for the staff members to hear if you are asking them something. But keep it at a reasonable "inside voice" level - remember, others are researching around you.

DON'T lick your fingers to turn pages. You don't know where those hundred year old records have been, you know.

DO feel free to bring a camera but DON'T use flash photography. There are neat lighted camera stands in 203 where you can attach your camera to take pictures of the documents, if you'd like.

DO also feel free to bring a scanner, if you're brave enough to lug it around DC - only flat bed scanners are allowed, no scanners with feeders or hand-held scanners. There are scanners in 203 where you can scan to paper (on oversized, blue-tinted paper [don't ask me why its blue]) or, if you bring a thumb drive with you, to your thumb drive for 25 cents a page. There is also the "Innovation Hub" which has a bunch of scanners where you can scan your documents for free - after which the National Archives gets to keep a copy of your images, and you get to take you images home too.

DON'T, and again I say, DON'T travel all the way to Washington, DC with the expectation of getting your father/grandfather/etc's WWI or WWII service record. When I worked there, it was the worst thing in the world to hear the someone traveled all of this way and have to tell them that it was all for nothing because their records weren't there :(

Must See Things at the National Archives

The Charters of Freedom - I mean, if you were that close and didn't see the Declaration of Independence etc, I think everyone back home is going to give you a hard time. But let's be real - they are pretty faded and there are usually always large crowds of people in the Rotunda. So don't expect to be reading them, but it is pretty cool to be that close to such hugely important pieces of American history. Also cool fact - the cases that the Charters of Freedom are kept in have vibration sensors so that if they sense an earthquake (or, you know, nuclear bomb blast) a steel plate will close over the documents and the case will be lowered into the ground. A guard told me that one day - but as we always say in my family, never let the truth get in the way of a good story.
National Archives College Park - 2nd largest government building by area (the largest being the Pentagon) pretty glass front - worth a visit
The old card catalog drawers in the main research room (203)
The view straight down 10th street to the American Art Museum and Portrait Gallery from the research room windows - when you are getting your records from the central desk in the central reading room, glance up and out the window directly in front of you. It's a great view.
The microfilm room - it's just cool
The elevators wide enough that FDR and his wheelchair/whole entourage could fit (I was once stuck on one of these elevators for a good half hour - but don't worry, their mechanics have since been updated. Still some of the slowest elevators in existence)
The view straight down Pennsylvania Avenue towards the Capital
The records - the focal point of the National Archives. Especially if it's a record relating to an ancestor of yours - there is nothing like holding that record in your hands

General Tips and Tricks

Depending on where you are staying, parking at a metro station and taking metro in will probably be easiest. Driving in downtown DC can be scary and you'll end up paying an arm and a leg for parking. Save yourself the trouble. More about metro here, including maps, ride planner, info about SmarTrip cards, etc. I don't even know if they still sell paper fare cards - but if they do, it's $1 more expensive per trip, so you might as well buy a SmarTrip card. Plus, you can buy unlimited day/week passes on your card. Every metro station has SmarTrip card kiosks.

There is a shuttle that runs between National Archives DC (A1) and National Archives College Park (A2) every hour on the hour. The first shuttle is at 8 am and the last shuttle is at 5 pm.

Rule of thumb - pre-WWI records are at A1, post-WWI records are at A2. Of course there are always exceptions to every rule, but for the most part this holds true. And post-WWI military records about individuals are located at the National Personnel Record Center in St. Louis

Prepare Before You Go - I would have a couple of specific things you want to research before you go. Remember, the National Archives does not have records like birth, marriage and death records - those would be on the state level. If you have the specific archives.gov catalog entry or military service/pension record index card, even better. At the very least (if you are researching an individual in the military), please have his service information. You could email ahead to let them know what you are researching and make sure they have it. But really - the staff and archivists are very helpful, so don't be afraid to ask questions.

Best time to go - try to avoid summer/spring break/any school break because there will inevitably by loads of school kids. And I mean that literally - buses come in packed with kids. I've seen the line for the museum side of the Archives wrap out the door and around the block. Good news - this doesn't really effect the research side at all. In fact, the research side isn't ever predictably super busy - Saturdays tend to be busy, and during the middle of the day is the busiest but it's never over-crowded. And then you have the random Tuesday that is very busy for no logical reason. [Tuesday here is used to represent any random day of the week]

The pull times are: 10:00 am, 11:00 am, 1:00 pm, 2:00 pm and 3:00 pm. No records will be given out from the main desk in 203 after 4:30 pm, as the Archives closes at 5. No records are pulled on Saturday, BUT if you have records on hold already, you can access them.

Records are held for 3 business days, unless you specifically tell the research room staff that the record can be refiled. You can also request an extended hold up to 5 business days. And that's from the last date viewed - each time you view the record, the clock resets.

Military Records: CMSR and pension indexes

2017-03-17T19:41:00.002-07:00

One of the original purposes of starting this blog was to share my love of genealogy as well as share my knowledge and things I've picked up along the way.

I've recently been doing a lot of research in military pension and service records at the Archives. My friend Joe* came with me the other day and made the comment "How are regular people supposed to know all of this?"

I'm really lucky in my combination of skills, education, and experience that makes me uniquely qualified to do genealogy research. As Joe pointed out, there are some things I learned in my work at the National Archives that "normal" researchers don't know. They can learn it, there just isn't anyone to tell them from the beginning like there was for me.

So I want to share some of that knowledge :)

First: what is a military pension or service record?

I'll answer the second part of that question first. A Service Record, or, fully, a Compiled Military Service Record (CMSR), is pretty much exactly what the name implies - a compiled record of an individual's service in the military. I'm not as familiar with records post Civil War, so I can't really speak for those. I would guess they would be about the same. But Civil War (and War of 1812, and Indian War, and everything preceding...) CMSRs are a series of cards that indicate an individual's service during the war. The cards will indicate things like the date and place that the individual enlisted, where they were at certain points during their service, how much money they were paid...

CMSRs were created around the turn of the 20th century from gigantic log books that were kept during the war(s) that recorded all of this information. Someone decided that it would be a whole lot easier to find a person in the huge log book (and therefore prove the individual's service, which is part of the requirement for obtaining a pension) if there were cards that indicated this information and then were compiled into one folder. So, it was someone's job (or lots of someones) to go through the log books and make a card every time someone's name appears. And then all of the cards for one person were put into a folder with his name and unit on it.

For the Civil War, all Confederate CMSRs have been digitized and are available on fold3.com. fold3 is own by Ancestry, and is a subscription service. Sometimes, local libraries will have subscriptions to fold3. Family History Centers of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints have access to fold3 available for their patrons. Find a Family History Center here. They are working on digitizing the Union service records, so some of them are on fold3 already, some are closed for digitization, and others are only available at the National Archives in Washington, DC.

I'll go onto pensions, then I'll return to CMSRs and show examples of what I'm talking about/what information you can gain from these records.

Pension records are when the individual returned, or didn't return, from the war injured or otherwise with his quality of life changed from what it was before the war. There are four general categories of pensions - invalid, widows, minors, and mother/father pensions. If the individual did return home, but was unable to work or carry on life as it was before the war, he could apply to receive a pension to ease the financial burden a little bit. If the individual didn't return home from the war, his widow, child, or dependent mother or father could apply to receive a pension. Sometimes, if the individual received a pension, but then passed away sometime later, his widow, dependent child, mother, or father could apply to continue to receive the pension. In some cases, the line continued and the dependent child applied after the widow died.

Pensions have the possibility of containing a wealth of information. When the individual applied for a pension, he had to prove service, as well as change in his situation. There are often affidavits from friends and family who knew him both before and after the war, indicating the change in his personality. There are surgeon certificates, from physical examinations from a surgeon indicating health issues. If the individual received the pension, there will be information about how much the pension will be for, as well as any increase or decrease in the rate of the pension. If a dependent applied for a pension, he/she would have to submit proof of relationship, so there is a chance there are things like marriage certificates, birth certificates, etc. (They also have to prove the invalid died, so there may be a death certificate). Every pension is unique, so there is no telling exactly what will be in the file without pulling it. (That's what it's called when you go an request it from the National Archives) There is some information that the index card will indicate and hint at the possible information in the file. I'll cover that in the examples section.

These poor people often had to jump through numerous hoops before they received a pension, so often there is a lot of information and often repeated information from different sources in the record.
Union pension records are located at the National Archives in Washington, DC. Confederate pensions were issued on a state-by-state basis and are located at the state of issuance.

Examples

Here I'll talk about the general information that can be gleaned from a CMSR/pension index card. In a later post, I'll go into more detail about requesting the records at the National Archives and the the information the can/may contain.

CMSR

Here I'll use the example of my very own ancestor's Civil War CMSR. Marion Snyder was my 3x great grandfather on my mother's side. He served in Company E of the 125th Ohio Infantry. But, as I'll show you on the index card, he also served in another unit.

This is Marion Snyder's CMSR Index card. At the top of the card, you see his name and unit. The spelling of his name at the top of the card is important here. Often, the name could have been misspelled in the log books. Or, it could have been recorded with initials instead of his first or middle name. They recorded it on the card exactly as it was spelled in the log book. After the fact, when they were compiling the cards into a folder, they did their best to indicate if there is a different name spelling of the same individual. The different name spellings would each be in their own folder, but on the index card on the section "see also," a reference to the different name spelling would be indicated.

Here's an example where that is the case ->

The index card will also indicate the individual's entering and exiting rank. As I mentioned earlier, Marion's index card says "see also Vet. Res. Corps." This is a reference to the Veteran Reserve Corp, a unit that individuals were often transferred to if they sustained illness or injury during the war that prevented their "normal" service, but that wasn't so severe that they could no longer serve. This reference section means that there is another service record out there for Marion Snyder. Service records were compiled according to unit, not individual. So if a single individual had service in multiple units, there would be a service record for each unit.

Pension

There are a few different pension indexes, so the index cards you find may vary.

Let's take a look at one example to see what we can learn.

As you can see at the top of the card, this is the pension index for Marion Snyder. Let's pretend we didn't learn about his service through the CMSR index card. We will relearn it all through the pension index card.

If Marion's widow or children had applied for his pension after his death, their names would appear in the section right under his name - Name of Dependent - Widow - Minor.

In the section just below that, we see what units Marion served in - F 8 V.R.C. and E 125 Ohio Inf. Let's break that down - the E is referring to the company designator, 125 is the regiment number, Ohio is the state served and the Inf stands for infantry. The "V.R.C." is another reference to the Veteran's Reserve Corps that I talked about above.

If we had previous known the unit that Marion had served in, this is how we could verify that this pension index is referring to him. This is especially helpful if the ancestor we are researching had common name. The fact that both units are listed here tells us that unlike the CMSRs, all pension records referring to a single individual are compiled into the same folder. If a widow or dependent had applied, those pension applications/certificates would be in the same folder.

The table in the middle of the card is the part that gives us the important information when it comes to requesting the pension. Reading from left to right - under "date of filing" - 1890 July 25 - is the date that Marion applied for his pension. This is important - if we knew that Marion had died in 1889, for example, than the Marion Snyder who applied for a pension in 1890 could not be our Marion.

The row indicates who is applying for the pension - the numbers are in the "invalid" row, so it was the soldier applying for the pension. Although invalid is a term that has come to mean someone disabled through injury or illness, it doesn't always mean that in the context of a pension. However, to receive a pension, soldiers often had to prove illness or injury that meant affected their quality of life after the war. For example - if they couldn't prefer the same job that they had before the war due to an injury, and could not therefore support themselves in the same way as they could before the war, they could apply for a pension.

The first column is the application number and the second column is the certificate number. Really, the most important number is the last one - the certificate number. This is the number that everything is filed under. The numbers are really meaningless at this point - they are really only given meaning in the context of the National Archives and pulling the record. The National Archives is made up of stacks - rows upon rows of records. The pension records are sorted into boxes and organized by number. Providing this number to the Archives will tell the "puller" - the person who goes and retrieves the record - where in the maze of stacks to go to find the particular record you want. But we'll cover that in a later post.

The last column is the state Marion filed for his pension from - Ohio. This doesn't always have to be the same state where the soldier served from. Here's something to keep in mind when searching ancestry.com and fold3.com for the indexes - Ancestry's index is searchable by state filed from, while Fold3's is searchable by the state served from.

At the bottom is listed the Attorney that Marion went through to apply for his pension. Meaningless, except for the fact that there were several big name attorneys in Washington DC that were almost exclusively pension attorneys, judging by the number of pensions they sponsored.

Let's look at one more index card.

This is the pension for John Doe.

We see that John Doe is an alias for John Brinnan. He served in Co. D of the 198th Regiment in the New York infantry. There are numbers in the second row of the central table - this tells us that John's widow applied for his pension to be transferred to her after his death. Her name is given in the name of dependents section just below the soldier's name - Hattie Brinnan. But since there is only a number in the application column, this means that she applied for the pension but her request was not approved. The dates on the far left are telling - John applied for the pension in 1910 and Hattie applied in 1920, meaning that John had died sometime between those two dates.

Here's an important note - see that number at the very bottom of the card? C2469705. This is called the "C number" - creative, I know. Basically, when the pensions were transferred from the Bureau of Pensions - a sub-section of the Department of the Interior - to the Department of Veteran's Affairs (VA) when the VA was created in 1930, the VA decided to renumber any active pension files. This number is important - if a C number exists, this is the number that the pension will be filed under and the one that the Archives needs to retrieve the file.

There is no hard and fast rule for where the pensions are located but generally pre-WWI pensions are located at the National Archives in DC, post-WWI are in St. Louis, and random pensions are still with the VA.

to be continued...

So that's it! A brief - it ended up not so brief I know - introduction into military records and their indexes. Coming up: how to request the records from the National Archives, and what is in the files. If you have ideas for posts or a question that you'd like me to answer, feel free to send it my way at k.ladd.research@gmail.com!

Disclaimer: I am not an expert. I have a lot of knowledge and experience but if I got anything wrong, please let me know!

*Amusing - I started writing this post in January of 2015. Lots of stuff happened which took me away from posting for a while. One of those things that took me away - my "friend Joe" is now my husband Joe. :D

Enumeration Districts and How to Use Them

2017-03-02T17:04:00.000-08:00

Scenario: You have located a family in the 1930 census but can't find them in the 1940 census.

Case Study: Lawrence McGuire was living at home with his father Charles McGuire and mother Margaret in Brooklyn, New York in 1930. But where was the family in 1940? A simple ancestry.com search isn't bringing them up.

Let's take a look at the 1930 census and see what it can tell us.

There is the family in the 1930 census. I know, it's kind of hard to see. Here is a closer view:

McGire, Charles P. Head
--- , Margaret M. Wife
--- , Catherine B. daughter
--- , Anna I. daughter
--- , Thomas F. son
--- , Margaret M. daughter
--- , John J. son
--- , Lawrence C. son
--- , Helen R. daughter

(last name is misspelled, but that's them)

I'm not going to go over all of the information the census records tell us - I did a little of that in A Study in Census. I'm just going to point out the information that will help us find the family in the 1940 census.

First - the assumptions. For the purposes of our study, I am assuming that the family lives in the same house in 1940 as they did in 1930.

The first 4 columns of the 1930 census list this information:

In column 1, next to the McGuires we see "Brooklyn Avenue." Next to Charles McGuire, in column 2, it says "1661." So the McGuire's live in 1661 Brooklyn Avenue. Columns 3-4 don't really give us any useful information - they just number the houses and families that the census taker has been to that day.

Like I said above, we are going to assume that the McGuires lived at 1661 Brooklyn Avenue in 1940. But how do we find 1661 Brooklyn Avenue in the 1940 census? Rough estimate, there are hundreds of census pages covering Brooklyn.

We are going to find it according to enumeration district. As defined by the National Archives,

An enumeration district, as used by the Bureau of the Census, was an area that could be covered by a single enumerator (census taker) in one census period. Enumeration districts varied in size from several city blocks in densely populated urban areas to an entire county in sparsely populated rural areas.

Enumeration district maps show the boundaries and the numbers of the census enumeration districts, which were established to help administer and control data collection. Wards, precincts, incorporated areas, urban unincorporated areas, townships, census supervisors` districts, and congressional districts may also appear on some maps. The content of enumeration district maps vary greatly. The base maps were obtained locally and include postal route maps, General Land Office maps, soil survey maps, and maps produced by city, county, and state government offices as well as commercial printers. Census officials then drew the enumeration district boundaries and numbers on these base maps.

The enumeration district can usually be found in the upper right hand corner of the census page.

As you can see above, 1661 Brooklyn Avenue was in Enumeration District (E.D) 24-823 (the 8 looks like it could be a 5, but by comparing to other numbers on the page, I determine that it an 8).

So now we just need to go find E.D. 24-823 in 1940, right? Wrong. That would be way too easy. E.D.s change year by year. Luck for us, there is an awesome guy named Steve Morse, PhD, who gave us a handy dandy Unified Census ED Finder.

And as I'm writing this, I see that we could have just entered the address and found the enumeration district that way..... Shhhhhh. That'll be our little secret.

Under the heading "If you know the 1930 ED for this location enter it here" we will enter 24-823.

We get two possible EDs as an output. Clicking on the ED will take you to a page where you can select how you want to view the pages - NARA, familysearch, ancestry... Unfortunately now it's a matter of going through the census page-by-page until you find the person you are looking for. At least now it's 30 pages rather than hundreds of pages. As I'm going through, I am looking both for the street address (1661 Brooklyn Avenue) and the family name (McGuire).

Uh oh! I found where 1661 Brooklyn Avenue should be... but it's not there.

It skips from 1660 Brooklyn Avenue to 1664 Brooklyn Avenue.

If this happens to you - don't give up hope! It probably means that the family wasn't home when the census taker came 'round. Usually there is a section after everything else where the census taker goes back and catches the houses he missed the first time.

So we keep going.... and on page 3A of ED 24-2264B, there they are.

Here's why we couldn't find them - last name is spelled Maguire, not McGuire (or even McGire as the 1930 misspelling was), Charles is shorted to Chas, and Lawrence is spelled Laurence. Also, they are listed as living ay 1663, not 1661.

So there you have it! A brief introduction into enumeration districts and how to use them.

Edit: While writing this post, I discovered that Steve Morse has a functionality where you can simply put in a known address and it will direct you to the census pages... but that's not as fun. ;)

Why I bind

2015-08-17T11:14:00.001-07:00

I finally got my etsy shop up and mostly operable. I still have a few kinks to work out.

Although I have a short "about" page on the shop, I wanted to expound a little bit on how I got started bookbinding and why I bind.

I've always loved books. Looking back on my childhood, there are little influences here and there that all culminate in my everlasting love for books. The Pagemaster, Inkheart, books on how to make books... The same is true for my love of genealogy too, but that's maybe a post for another day.

My first actual exposure into bookbinding was really a matter of being in the right place at the right time. It was the end of my second year at college and I was working at the library. One of my classmates had taken the bookbinding class offered on campus, which is incredibly difficult to get into, as there are only 2 classes of 18 at a university of ~30,000 students. She told me that she had just emailed the teacher, showed up the first day, and got into the class. She encouraged me to email him, but said I most likely wouldn't hear back from him until I showed up at the class. So I did.

Turns out, the teacher of the bookbinding class also happened to be the head conservator at the book conservation lab at the library. That was a cool coincidence, I thought, as I was interested in art conservation. So, I emailed him, not expecting, as my coworker had said, to hear back from him.

Within five minutes I had an email in my inbox. He invited me to come visit him in the lab and chat for a few minutes and he would give me an add code for the class.

A few minutes turned into a few hours. Two hours later, I walked out of his office with an add code and a possible internship. Internship turned into job and I worked in the lab (and as the bookbinding TA) for the rest of my college career.

Anyway, I digress. That's how I was formally introduced to bookbinding.

If you know me at all, or have read any of the posts on this blog, or even read this post this far, then you know that I love books. I love all things about books. I love their contents, but I also love the physical object of the book. I really love old books, because of the history their pages contain. But I love new books because of their potential. Because of the opportunity of creating a history for the book. That's part of why I love bookbinding, because I have a personal and arguably very important hand in future history of that book.

And you, reader, have a little piece of history with every book you have. And you add to the history of every book you have every time you open it, read it, write in it, share it with someone you love.

I also bind as an expression of my faith and love of my Heavenly Father. He is the ultimate creator. Although I may not be able to create beautiful world upon worlds as He has, I can create and spread little pieces of beauty through my books.

So live in the present and create history with a book in your hand.

I Judge Books By Their Cover

2015-04-29T19:13:00.001-07:00

See, I told you I couldn't hold myself to too high a standard. But, I really do want to turn this blog into something so I'm going to try and be lots better at posting.

Guilty as charged. Being the bibliophile (or maybe even bibliomaniac [defined as: one having the extreme preoccupation with collecting books]¹) that I am, I can't help it.

The cover of a book is designed to draw you to the book, to make you want to read it. Granted, I have been known to collect books that I can't read, but that's beside the point.

For example, here is the most recent addition to my collection:

The Young Franc-Tireurs: and their adventures in the Franco-Prussian War, G. A. Henty

Honestly, I have absolutely no idea what it's about. But what a great cover, right? Titled The Young Franc-Tireurs and their adventures in the Franco-Prussion war, the preface starts by saying, "My dear lads: the present story was written and published a few months only after the termination of the Franco-German war." There is an inscription on the first page that reads "To Freddie from Robert Jones Christmas 1905." (Notes, pieces of history, like that are one of my absolute favorite things to find in books.) If you are interested in reading The Young Franc-Tireurs, it's available on Project Gutenberg.

Here are some other gems from my growing collection:

The Alhambra, Washington Irving

[read here]

Hadji Mourad Etc, Tolstoi (in French: translation of Leo Tolstoy's short story)

[read here: French, English]

Hilt to Hilt, John Esten Cooke

Again, I had no idea what it was about when I bought it. (for a dollar at Ken Sanders Rare Book in Salt Lake.) Come to find out [just now, as I am writing this, as I never thought to look earlier], John Esten Cooke is a famous Virginian author and Civil War veteran. Oh hey, I currently live in Virginia. That's cool. What's even cooler: Hilt to Hilt is subtitled Days and Nights on the Banks of the Shenandoah in the Autumn of 1864. I live near the Shenandoah! Go figure.

[read here]

My Lady Laughter: A romance in Boston town in the days of the Great Siege, Dwight Tilton

This one was a gift. I love that my family and friends know me well enough to know to buy me random, obscure, old, and beautiful books. Any book will do.

[read here]

Peter Wiffle: His Life and Works, Carl Van Vechten

This one has a map of Paris on the cover. So cool, right?

[read here]

Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte

engravings by Fritz Eichenberg

Maybe one of my favorite finds,

I'm on the lookout for this guy's matched pair, Jane Eyre

[read here]

Some of these books I bought having no idea about the contents of the book and honestly no intention to read, but purely for aesthetic reasons. After finding out a little bit more about the contents of the books, I do want to read them, but that's not going to stop me from judging books by their cover.

I confess. I am a bibliomaniac. I have an extreme preoccupation with collecting books. But I don't see that as a bad thing.

1 "Bibliomania." Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster. Web. 30 Apr. 2015. .^↩

My Moonshiner Ancestors

2015-02-26T11:27:00.002-08:00

I'm from real southern folk, y'all.

An often over-looked source of genealogical information is newspapers. There are many places to find historic newspapers - libraries, universities, Google, historical societies, etc. One of my favorites, and the best/most complete, is Chronicling America from the Library of Congress. From the website:

Chronicling America is a Website providing access to information about historic newspapers and select digitized newspaper pages, and is produced by the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP). NDNP, a partnership between the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the Library of Congress (LC), is a long-term effort to develop an Internet-based, searchable database of U.S. newspapers with descriptive information and select digitization of historic pages. Supported by NEH, this rich digital resource will be developed and permanently maintained at the Library of Congress. An NEH award program will fund the contribution of content from, eventually, all U.S. states and territories.¹

Upon searching said site for the keyword "Ladd," I stumbled upon this:

The Pickens sentinel. (Pickens, S.C.), 20 June 1882. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026913/1882-06-20/ed-1/seq-2/>

Wait, WHAT?

Here's the full story:

THE SENTINEL
D. F. BRADLEY, Editor
PICKENS C. H., S. C.:
Thursday, June 13, 1878

Murder by Revenue Officials - A Man
Shot Down in Cold Blood

On last Sunday, the 9th instant, about 1
o'clock, four Revenue officials by the name
of Mouse (or Moose,) Durham, Kane and
Scruggs, (we do not know their initials), went
to the house of Mrs. Ladd, a widow lady,
living in the mountainous section of this
county, and brutally murdered her son Amos
Ladd, a young man, aged about 21 years.--
We have not the full particulars of this most
atrocious and fiendish murder, but will give
briefly, only what has come to us, as we con-
sider it, well authenticated, and reserve fil-
ler particulars for a future time, when all the

facts can be properly brought out. It ap-

pears that the young man was standing, or

rather leaning, against the door facing, when

the Revenue officials rode up, or walked up,

(we believe they were walking,) and delib-

erately shot him dead on the spot without a

moments warning or an intimation of their

designs. The young man fell out of the door

lifeless, when the officials said to his brother,

"who have we shot!" The reply was, "you

have shot my brother." The officers then

turned and left the house, but concealed

themselves on a small hill near the house in

the brush, and remained there for some time,

for what purpose it is not known. They then

went to the store of Mr. King, some four mills

off, where they endeavored to hire a convey-

ance to Easley Station. Mr. King told them

that he could not carry them that evening,

but if they would wait until morning, he

would carry them. This they said, they

could not do, as they had business of impor-

tance to attend to and must go that night.

They then hired one mule from him, and

Kane rode rapidly for the Station, passing

through this place by a back way, about

dusk, and arriving at Easley, just in time

to take the 9 o'clock train going North. He

gave a negro ten cents to carry the mule to

the livery stable, with instructions to send

it back to Mr. Baylis Hendricks, at this place,

where the officials had told Mr. King they

desired the mule to ride to.

It appears that two shots were fired at

Ladd, the first taking effect and killing him,

while the second missed. From this fact,

and the fact that Kane rode off Mr. King's

mule, and left immediately on the train, it is

supposed he did the killing. The other three

went across the country towards Greenville

on foot, and at this writing we know not

where they are.

Mr. John L. Gravley came to town Sunday

night and informed Trial Justice Taylor of

the murder, who at once issued a warrant

and placed it in the hands of the Sheriff, and

that officer at once started in pursuit of the

murderers. Mr. Gravely had been informed

that Hoffman was one of the party, and was

the only one known by the parties giving him

the information, but from Mr. King's state-

ment, who knows the men, it is possible that

a mistake was made, and that Hoffman was

not with the party; if he was, he did not go

to King's store. When the Sheriff arrived at

Easley he learned of the flight of Kane and

on Monday morning as soon as the telegraph

offices were opened, sent off the following

message:

EASLEY, PICKENS Co., S.C., June 10, 1878

To the Chief of Police of Greenville, Spar-

tanburg, Charlotte, and Columbia. A man

by the name of Ladd, was brutally murdered

in this County yesterday by five Revenue

officers, named Hoffman, Cain, Scruggs,

Durham, and Mouse. The have fled. Look

out for them. JOAB MAUDLIN. S.P.C

As above stated, it is probable that there is

a mistake as to Hoffman being with the party,

but as to the others, there is no mistake, for

Mr. King and others know them well.-

It is likely, if Kane kept on he had left

Charlotte before the Sheriff's telegram reach-

ed that place, and may succeed in making

good his escape for the time being. The

others, we think, will be captured.

From all the facts gathered by us, we

pronounce this one of the most fiendish,

cold blooded murders ever committed in this

County. But we will refrain from further

comments until the case has been properly

investigated.

Since the above was put in type, Sheriff

Mauldin has received the following telegram:

"Kane, Scruggs, Durham, and Mouse, sur-
rendered to the Sheriff of Greenville."

JNO. G. Greer, Chief Police.

The Greenville News speaking of this, the

surrender of the parties says: Why they did

not go to Pickens C. H. and surrender to the

Sheriff of that County, we are not informed.

The reason may be, that they suppose at

Greenville they may, like Deputy Marshal

Springs did a few day s ago, for a similar

outrage, give a bond, with negro sureties,

for their appearance at Court.

The Pickens sentinel. (Pickens, S.C.), 13 June 1878. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026913/1878-06-13/ed-1/seq-2/>

The follow up to the case, which took place four years later (the poor mother!), which I have included at the bottom of this post, includes names such as Salathiel (the brother to the murdered), Adeline Redmond (the sister to the murdered and wife of noted moonshiner Redmond) and Milly (the mother of the murdered). Given that Amos and Salathiel are both family names in my ancestry, and the this takes place in Pickens, South Carolina, where my family is from, poor Amos Ladd has to be related.

Let's figure out how.

From the newspaper articles, this is what I know:

Mother - Milly Ladd

Children - Amos, Salathiel Ladd and Adeline Ladd Redmond

The murder happened in 1878, when Amos was about 21. So he was born in 1857 or so.

My 3x great-grandfather Joseph Balanger Ladd was born in 1845, so Amos, Salathiel and Adeline are all in his generation.

You remember that post when I was talking about my ancestor Salathiel/Thile/Thyer/Theo/etc.? He was the brother of my 4x great-grandfather Pleasant Easley Ladd. That makes him my 4x great-uncle. He was married to Millie. A few of his children, according to the censuses²: Salathiel (Thail M. in the 1850 census; Martin in the 1860 and 1870 censuses), Adeline (Malinda A in the 1860 census, Adeline in the 1870 census) and our poor Amos (Amos in both the 1960 and 1870 censuses).

So Amos and I are related through my 5x great-grandfather, John Ladd, who was Amos's grandfather. So we are 1st cousins, 5x removed.

Moonshining in the mountains of Appalachia. Real southern folk, y'all.

Further reading: In doing research, I found there are actually books written about this! Once Upon A Time in Pickens County - The Amos Ladd and Lewis Redmond Story is an .Old Pendleton District Publication. And King of the Moonshiners: Lewis Redmond in Fact and Fiction is all about Adeline's notorious moonshiner husband, Lewis Redmond. Apparently he was an "archetypal moonshiner," a "national celebrity," a household name, and had the reputation of the most dangerous man in southern Appalachia.

Here's how the story wrapped up:

The Pickens sentinel. (Pickens, S.C.), 13 April 1882. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026913/1882-04-13/ed-1/seq-2/>

TLDR: The murderers were found not guilty. :( Poor Amos.

1 http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/about^↩

2 This is partially a false statement - the censuses didn't list relation to the head of the household until 1880. I am fairly sure that this are his children, and I have some other records to support this.^↩

AG/CG

2015-02-11T10:06:00.002-08:00

I'm currently working on becoming an accredited genealogist (AG). I would like to get my certification (CG) too someday. Ultimately, I would love to research full time and be paid to travel the world and research in various archives.

As far as I can tell and what my research has told me is that the main difference between the AG and the CG is scope of focus. The CG is more generalized while the AG specializes in a region of your choice. (I am focusing on Mid-South: North and South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Missouri, and Tennessee.) The AG process is intense, requiring a minimum of 1000 research hours, at least 500 of which are actual research as opposed to education, and 80 hours in each of the states in the region of choice. Then there is an 8 hour written test, where they test your ability to transcribe and abstract handwritten records, identify different types of records, etc. etc. And then they put you in front of a panel of specialists in that region and they grill you on what you did and didn't do. Basically like a thesis defense. Oh, and I forgot to mention the four-generation project with a 60 page research report.

If you know me, you know I tend to exaggerate. The report only has to be 25-40 pages.

So basically it's scary. And intimidating. I'm taking part in a study group right now with one other student trying to get her AG and two mentors to help us through the process. And by student I mean she has been researching full time for years and is already a CG. (And I was told the CG is harder to get than the AG.) Our mentors are super specialists and extremely knowledgeable about research and about the process of accreditation. They are amazing and I'm so lucky to be learning from them all.

And then there is me.

I think that there is a stigma - and some of it might be in my mind/due to my own self-doubt - about how young I am. It's automatically assumed that because I'm so young, I can't possibly have experience or know what I'm talking about. I was once asked by a researcher to speak to someone more "knowledgeable" than I - and when my supervisor gave the lady the exact same answer I had already given her, I felt validated in the knowledge that I actually do know what I'm talking about. But sometimes, I doubt myself.

And then there are finds like that find I made yesterday that restore all confidence plus some.

George James Smith¹ was orphaned at a young age. He was born in 1927 and by 1930, he was in an orphanage, along with his older brother. He remembers nothing at all about his parents. The story goes that they were killed in a car accident. Who are they?

A. Through a series of email correspondence and internet searches, I tracked down the people who are in charge of the records from the orphanage the boys were in. It appears that in order to get the information, I have to submit a request and obtain the permission of the birth parents. Uh... (I have yet to call and speak to someone to explain my goal and situation. I called, but it went to voicemail.)

B. I found a birth certificate for both him and his brother listing a mother's name as Emma Taylor. (spelled differently on each certificate) No father's name listed.

C. I started searching the state death indexes for two individuals with the last name of Smith²who died sometime between 1927 (birth year) and 1930 (when the boys are in the orphanage).

After more hours of this than I maybe want to admit.... I went back to square one and threw away everything I thought I knew.

What did I really know?

I know that George Smith was born in 1927.
I know that by 1930 he was in an orphanage, which means:

either one or both parents had died
or both children were given up for adoption.

I'm going to operate under the guess that one or both parents had died.

I know that according to the birth certificate, the mother's name is Emma Taylor .
I don't know that the parents died in a car accident. That's a family story and as we say in my family, never let the truth get in the way of a good story.

So with that, I broadened my search. Instead of looking for two people, I started with finding just one of them. Since I knew the mother's name, I started there.

And what do you know.

After searching for the mother, I ended up finding a death certificate for a Phillip James Smith, married to a Emily Tailer. I was 85% sure this was likely my guy. Here's why:

His death date was in the right range - 1928.
The wife's name was pretty similar to the name I was looking for - both first names starting with the same letter, last name a logical misspelling of the known last name.
Last name was the last name that I was looking for.
Middle name was the same as the individual I started with.
First name was the same as another boy with that last name in the orphanage in 1930. Another son?

After doing more searching, I'm 99.9% sure that he's my guy.

That was yesterday. And I've already traced four generations.

(said very humbly) Aren't I amazing?

1 Names have been changed to protect the privacy of the individuals involved.

2 Luckily, the actual last name that I am working with is a little bit more unique.

A Study in Census

2015-02-08T07:30:00.000-08:00

Census records are probably my favorite type of record because of the assortment and wealth of information that they can provide. Of course like all records, census records aren't perfect. The information on the census was enumerated by people going around the country to each and every house and writing down the information. This is not a perfect method for a couple reasons:

What if they miss someone? Can (and has) happened
Usually one member of the household relays the information to the enumerator. (This is usually indicated by some sort of mark next to their name) I don't know about you, but my dad has a hard time remembering my name. I've been called "ErBryJaKylie" more times than I can count. (Kidding, sort of. Love you dad :) ) So there are bound to be errors depending on which member of the family reported the data. Birth dates and ages change by a couple years, names change from first name to middle name to nickname, even birthplace changes.
Not only is the person who is reporting the information human, the person writing down the information is human. They write it as they hear it. Accents can make this fun, especially in the south, where my family is primarily from. Let's take my ancestor Salathiel as an example. In addition to Salathiel, I've found records listing him as: Thile; Thyer; Theo; Theal; Thyre; Thiel... The list goes on.

Just because the census was taken by the federal government does not make it an official document as far as name spellings, ages, etc. are concerned.

Now let's use an example to see what kind of information we can find just off the census. My lovely cousin Becky suggested Edith Wimbish Powell, a relative of ours and a second mother to her. Edith passed away in 1960 and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery, along with her husband, a marine who served in World War I.

The first step is to find her date of birth, so that we can find which census she would first appear on. This will hopefully give us the name of her parents.

Here is her interment record for Arlington National Cemetery. It gives us a ton of information (husband's name, husband's military service, address at date of death...) but as this is a study in census, we are mostly concerned with the birth date: December 11, 1892. This means that the first census she would appear on is the 1900 and she would be 7-8 years old, most likely living with her parents.

So....

Here we are.

The family appears down near the bottom of the page.

There, on line 40, is our Edith. She's 7 years old, born Dec 1893. (See? Not perfect)

Let's look at the type of information this census gives us.

Column 4: relationship to the head of the house hold. Edith is the daughter. Columns 5 and 6, race and sex. White and Female. Columns 7 and 8 provide the birth date and age information. Columns 9 though 12 aren't really applicable to our Edith - they ask if the individual is married, for how many years, and how many children the individual has. Columns 13, 14, and 15 tell us the place of birth, place of birth of Father, and place of birth for Mother, respectively. Edith and both of her parents were born in Virginia. 16-28 don't apply to Edith, but do to her father, Eppy. 19 - Occupation: Eppy was a farmer. He can read and write (columns 22 and 23), Owns his home (25) free (26) and it is a farm (27) with 191 acres (28).

Also listed on the census are her parents, Eppy and Celeste, and siblings, Florille, Kathleen, Eppie Y (Younger?), Aida, Willie, and Sandy. Now here is something interesting - on line 44: Rebecca Wimbish. Thank goodness for listing the relationship - this is the head of the household's mother, Edith's paternal grandmother.

We know the name of Rebecca Wimbish, Edith's grandmother. We know that Eppy was born in 1869. Putting those two pieces of information together, if we look for Rebecca in the 1870 census, we should find her with her husband and son, Eppy.

And here they are:

[William Wimbish, Edith's paternal grandfather, is at the bottom of the first page, and then the family continues onto the second. Members of the household: William (41), Rebecca (37), Ada (15), William (13), Eppy (11), Edward (10), Elisha (8), Louis (6), Jon (2) and Rebecca Barksdale (69). Because this last individual has a different last name and is the age to be a mother of one of the parents, we can make an educated guess that Barksdale is the maiden name of Rebecca Wimbish. This is only a guess - with more research, this was proved wrong.]

More proof that censuses, while great, aren't perfect: according to the 1900 census, Eppy Wimbish was born in 1869, so we anticipate him to be 1 year old on the 1870 census. He is actually 11 on the 1870 census. So somewhere someone got their information wrong - probably the 1900 census taker.

Now, according to the 1900 census, Rebecca Wimbish was born in 1834. She would then first appear on the 1840 census. So why didn't we go there to find her with her parents? A. We would need to know her maiden name to find her with her parents and B. up until 1850, the censuses were enumerated with head of the household's name only, with numbers indicating the ages of the other members of the house.

So there we have it. There is an, albeit incomplete, glance at Edith Wimbish, her parents, and paternal grandparents, using only the census.

See why I love censuses?

Statement of Purpose

2015-01-28T06:57:00.000-08:00

The purpose of this blog is two-fold: to share and to educate.

To share - I am notoriously bad at sending letters (sorry, Jarom, Jeff, Sterling, etc.), sending emails (sorry Grandma and Grandpa), and keeping blogs updated (sorry http://mist-of-silver.blogspot.com/ and http://with-an-e.blogspot.com/). My goal is to change all that. Well, the last part at least. This blog will serve to share what I'm up to in my research and book-making, -collecting, -fixing, -everything endeavors.

To educate - Hopefully as a side-effect of the above, I'll be able to share something that illuminates, educates, or otherwise teaches someone something. How's that for vague? Can't hold myself to too high of standards. ;)