Things are going great in the 1940 Census, the 1930 Census, the 1920 Census, and probably the 1910 Census. But you’ve noticed that the further that you go back the more bizarre the spellings of your ancestors’ names become. You’ve been able to come up with some alternate spellings and have located them in the 1900 and maybe the 1880 (cause don’t forget, the 1890 Census is toast – the burnt kind) Censuses. But it seems like they just fell off the face of the planet for the 1870 Census. And while you recognize that maybe they were census dodgers you know that they were here in the States way back to the Mayflower times because your great grandma said so.

Where are they?

I’ve got news for you… They’re probably there, but their name is so I recognizable that you might have just missed them. And while this is frustrating, it’s just a fact of history.

Why So Many Name Variations?

In an era when your name is equivalent to your identity, it’s often difficult for new researchers to understand why there seem to be an infinite number of name variations for a single individual. And why you can’t even catch a break when you’re looking at legal documents. After all, these days your legal name is your legal name, right?

A Largely Illiterate Society

Plain and simple, much of society was illiterate until the 1800s. When census enumerators and clerks of the court asked their name, the spelling was executed phonetically. Depending on the scribe you could end up with any possibility of different spellings for even the simplest of names. What complicates things more is the immigrant nature of our fledgling country. With an amalgamation of different nationalities what one person here’s phonetically could be completely different than what another person’s name really was! And when the only literate person was the scribe, no one challenged him!

Human Error Hundreds of Years After the Fact

With its roots as field of hobbyists, genealogy has often relied on volunteers to transcribe, compile, and index records. These tireless advocates give of their time freely and we should all stop to applaud them for their efforts. And because beggars can’t be choosers we all need to understand one thing right now.

People. Make. Mistakes.

*gasp* I know. It’s hard to take in. But since we’ve all seen those court record books and the smudgy pages of census records it’s completely understandable how people might make a mistake here and there when indexing and transcribing. And with each error, we get yet another possible name variation.

Names Galore! Now What?

Now that we’ve established that you can expect to find your ancestors by different names, what are we going to do about it?

1. Use a less restrictive search. Make sure that any tick-boxes for “Search Exactly” on the name field are removed. This will use a “sounds like” search or a search using the SOUNDEX. (Stay tuned to our beginning series for a post on the SOUNDEX and genealogy in the Olden Days.)
2. Use the WeRelate.org Name Variant Database for suggestions. This database has given name and surname variants, and offers a list of computer generated suggestions as well as confirmed suggestions by other researchers.
3. Expand your search to include wild cards. Many databases now rely on typical Boolean search techniques which will allow you to use a wild card placeholder for a single letter or string of letters. For example: if you were searching for the surname Smith but you weren’t quite sure how they spelled it you could enter something like “Sm*th*” into the search to indicate that you want to receive all results that match that pattern. Make sure you check the help files for each database to confirm that their searching allows wild cards and what format the while card should appear in.
4. Remove silent letters, or maybe add them! When I was a kid, I thought that “Wh” was a lot like “Qu”. Where ever you saw a W it must be followed by an H. This was particularly challenging for words like “well” and “sandwich.” And it could have been challenging for scribes too! Try taking out silent letters or adding silent letters to your ancestor’s surname and see if that changes your search results. For instance: Smith becomes Smithe or Smythe and Christianson becomes Cristianson. If you’re Irish/Scottish be sure to try Mc and Mac!

Happy searching!! I’m sure your family tree’s limbs have just gotten a whole lot broader!

This post was originally posted on 3 December 2010.

Today’s topic: Christmas Tree Ornaments: The Pickle

Some time after we moved to Leesburg, my mother and I stumbled across a tiny little German glass ornament of a pickle. It likely measurs somewhere around an inch and a half. It originally caught our eye because our family tree is filled with crazy ornaments like vultures, bunches of grapes, scandelous Adam and Eve and other oddities. However, along with the tiny little pickle ornament came an little card that told the story of the Christmas pickle.

A very old Christmas eve tradition in Germany was to hide a pickle [ornament] deep in the branches of the family Christmas Tree. The parents hung the pickle last after all the other ornaments were in place. In the morning they knew the most observant child would receive an extra gift from St. Nicholas. The first adult who finds the pickle traditionally gets good luck for the whole year.¹

My father’s family has German heritage so we decided that we would pick up this “tradition” and make it our own. Each Christmas Eve we would take turns hiding the pickle inside our tree and the finder would receive a special “pickle gift.” Friends, family, and neighbors alike all played our little game and have enjoyed this special little adventure each year.

However, it wasn’t until several years ago that I began doing some more research into the origins of the pickle tradition. As it turns out, the ornament’s legend is shrouded in mystery and likely more of a myth than a legend. Many have looked into the origins of the pickle tradition in Germany and have always come up empty handed. It appears that no one is familiar with this tradition in the Old World! This has lead to the hypothesis that the tradition is something of a German-American tradition.

Some claim that the tradition was formed around the time of the Civil War, originating from a young private born in Bavaria by the name of John Lower (sometimes seen as Hans/John Lauer) who had been captured at Plymouth, North Carolina in April of 1864. He was later taken to Andersonville, Georgia as a POW. This legend recounts that Lower was in poor health and starving at Andersonville. He felt sure that he was soon to die and begged a guard for a single pickle to satisfy his hunger before he died. The guard took pity on him and granted his request. Lower told his family that the single pickle must have been graced by God because it gave him the mental and physical strength to stay alive. After being released and reunited with his family he began the tradition of hiding a pickle in the family Christmas tree, the finder being blessed with good fortune and health for the coming year.²

It’s unlikely that anyone will ever be able to prove this family lore. However, there certainly was a John Lower who was a Private in Company H of the 103rd Pennsylvania Volunteers.³ He was captured at Plymouth, North Carolina and transferred to Andersonville, Georgia and later to Charleston, South Carolina to be released on 10 December 1864.⁴ Company H of the 103rd Pennsylvania Volunteers was recruited from Clarion County, Pennsylvania. In the 1860 U. S. Census from Clarion County we find a young 18-year-old John Lowery from Bavaria.⁵ He’s living with his parents George and Othella Lowery and five other siblings (the last three are indicated as being born in Pennsylvania). Based on the ages of the three youngest children, it is likely that the family immigrated the United States some time between 1848 and 1852.

We find John Lowers, 29, enumerated in the 1870 U. S. Census in Knox Township, Clarion County, Pennsylvania married to Frances with two young children and a man named, George Bindospher (his occupation is blank).⁶ One household above John and Frances is the household of George Lowers (55). George’s wife is listed as Priscilla (55) and they have two children Mary (15) and William (13).⁷ Mary and William’s ages correlate to the two youngest children found on the 1860 census and help to corroborate that this is indeed the same family despite the difference in name of George’s wife.

Continuing to follow John Lauer through the census records reveals that he continues to live in Knox Township, Clarion County in 1880, 1900, and 1910.^{8 9 10} The 1900 Census gives quite a few more clues about John Lauer and his life events. The census indicates that he and Frances have been married for 34 years, putting their marriage date somewhere around 1866, just two years after John was released from military prison at the close of the Civil War.¹¹ Additionally, in the citizenship information, the census indicates that he and his mother immigrated in 1846, his wife in 1854. There is no information given in response to the question on naturalization, however, other individuals listed on the same page have indicate a “no” in some cases. There could be additional information on John Lauer and his family in naturalization/citizenship records.

In John Woolf Jordan’s Genealogical and personal history of the Allegheny Valley, biographical sketches of both John and his father George Lauer can be found. John Lauer died in Clarion county on 28 April 1911. His biography indicates that he began farming his land after returning from war and remained on the same farm for the duration of his life. He married Frnaces Loll in Clarion County in November of 1848 and was reported as a “Republican in politics, and a Roman Catholic in religion.”¹²

Despite there being no mention of a blessed gherkin in Allegheny Valley, it is apparent that John Lauer is a real man with obvious German heritage. Whether an old family oral tradition from John Lauer or someone like him, or just a fictional legend, our family will continue to pass on the tradition of the Christmas pickle.

This post was originally posted on 6 December 2009

Today’s topic: Santa Claus

As much as I’d like to not begin by embarrassing my mother, alas, it is not possible. This picture is far too precious and far too good to keep from the rest of the world. And though it isn’t Wordless Wednesday, I think that this picture speaks for itself.

That’s my mom… on the left… screaming bloody murder. Apparently, in her very formative years, Santa Claus was an icon of terror rather than joy. Her brother, Robert, looks mildly annoyed at the scene that his baby sister is making.

What’s “removed” really mean?

You’ve all heard the term: X cousin Y times removed.  It’s about time to demystify exactly what this term is telling us.  Are you ready for an “Ah-HA!” moment?  Removed simply means that the two individuals are from different generations.  The number of times removed indicates how many generations separate the two individuals!  If you keep that in mind when you’re trying to figure out cousin relationships you’ll never get lost!

Then who’s my second cousin?

Remember, we just said that for someone to be your X cousin Y times removed they have to be a different generation from you.  Your second cousin is from your generation, but the common ancestors that you share are your Great-Grandparents (or, your grandparent is a sibling to your cousin’s grandparent).

If you’re still confused you can use this handy little tool to figure out your relationship to your cousin:

If you’re really the more manual type (or maybe your family reunion doesn’t have internet access), you might want to download our handy-dandy “Demystifying the Cousin Conundrum” form.

 Demystifying the Cousin Conundrum

Begin at the beginning

The beginning is actually the end in genealogy – start with the most recent person on your tree… YOURSELF!

Start by setting aside some time to go through your own records.  Ensure that you know where your birth certificate is, your marriage certificate, any records that might pertain to your own identity and space in history.  Think about all the records that might give future researchers a clue about who you were.  Collect those records and store them in a safe location (make copies!) and write a narrative about your life.

If this sounds like I’m telling you to write your autobiography that’s close, but not quite.  Rather than trying to finish this task in a single sitting, schedule time on your calendar to spend 15 or 20 minutes a day on writing your memoirs.  You know yourself better than anyone!  Write down the important facts, dates and events and add in some personal accounts.  My great uncle hand wrote his memoirs when his memory started to fail because he wanted his children to know things about his life that only he could divulge.  Now we have a beautiful life history that not only tells us about his accomplishments but it’s a testament to his era in history.

Don’t just focus on the dead

How many times have you heard, “Oh, if only I could ask Aunt Betsy… she knew everyone and everything that went on in Smallville!”  Don’t wait till Aunt Betsy’s gone to reminisce about what she knew!!  Your best resource about your past is your present… your living relatives.  My mother and I searched and searched for an obscure fact about a collateral relative.  When we happened to mention in passing to my grandfather he chuckled and said, “Why didn’t you ask me?  I have your answer right here,” as he drew a book off his shelf and pulled out a newspaper clipping that had the exact answer we searched months for.

Even if you think your great aunt is crazy or that your second cousin once-removed might not know, talk to them anyway!  What’s the worst that can happen?  You might have to continue your research on your own, but at least you’ll have strengthened the bond of family and kinship by having a wonderful conversation with a relative!

Work from the known to the unknown

It’s very, very tempting to skip around in your family history.  But skipping around can lead to sloppy mistakes, unverified ancestors, and a whole lot of notes that won’t make much sense several years from now.

That’s not to say you shouldn’t save every scrap of evidence that you run across on the surnames you’re researching!  Au contraire!  You should save them.  Those very notes might one day connect a gaping hole that you have in your family tree.  But instead of focusing your efforts on volume focus your efforts on a directed course of action.  Create a general surname folder that you can store all of the loosey-goosey things that you find related to your surname that don’t add up.  One day, you may go back and find just the piece of information that you need.

When you go to research, have a plan.  And always work from what you already know backward to what you don’t know.  Take the notes that you got when you talked to that second cousin twice removed and verify them with evidence.  It’s likely that in the documents you find, you’ll find more clues to where you should look next.  Each time, you’ll inch back a little further.  Be patient!  You’ll get back to the first immigrant ancestor soon enough.  Then, making the leap across the pond will be a whole different story.

The three things to remember when starting to climb that tree

Because they’re so important, I’ll reiterate what we’ve discussed:

1. Start researching (and writing!) with yourself.  Make a plan to write down your memoirs a little at a time; and don’t cheat yourself out of this important treasure!
2. Talk with your living relatives about your past.  Your grandparents, great aunts and uncles, and cousins are wonderful resources to learning about those outer branches.  Don’t wait.  Life is too short to have “could’aves, would’aves, and should’aves.”  You’ll thank yourself in the long run even though it’s hard to pick up the phone and make that first call.
3. Always, always, always start your research with what you already know.  Verify facts and look for clues in the documents you retrieve.

We’d love to know about your plans to write your memoirs or chat with relatives!  What things do you hope to learn about from your living ancestors?!

Without a full every name index, finding your family can be a bit challenging.  However, there are plenty of resources out there to help you.  The finding tools at stevemorse.org are extensive to say the least.  But what is best is that there’s a finding aid for everyone!  There are so many different ways to find your family that surely one method must lead you in the right direction.  The key to any of the finding aids is locating the Enumeration District for the 1940 Census.  One great way to do this if you already know where your family member lived in 1940 is to use the Enumeration District maps.

I was recently searching for my Great-grandfather and his family and I began by using the 1930 Enumeration District (ED) conversion tool that was provided by Ancestry.com (they use the Steve Morse Indexes).  I was frustrated because the ED that they produced certainly didn’t have a listing for Adolphus/Dolphus Thomey on any of the 50 pages that I so carefully paged through.  However, I remembered that on the actual Steve Morse site there is a tool for locating the ED via maps!

The ED Map tool is less specific than the other ED finding aids, but it might actually get you closer!  Try following these steps.

Step 1 – Find Your Ancestor’s Address

Ideally, you’d like to have the exact address where you ancestor lived in 1940, not earlier and not later.  But many of us are challenged to know these details.  You can often find an address from city directories or even from the 1930 Census.  If you’re fairly confident that your ancestor lived in the same place in 1930 and 1940 then you’re probably safe with the census data.  If not, then you ought to go looking around in city directories, newspapers, or even draft card registrations to try to find a more current address.

I found Adolphus’s address from the 1930 Census.  I tried cross checking it with city directories, but I was out of luck with the research that I could do on the internet; 1930 would have to do!

1930 U.S. census, Pulaski County, Arkansas, population schedule, North Little Rock, enumeration district (ED) 62, p. 15A (penned), dwelling 339, family 411, Adolphus Thomey; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : viewed 12 April 2012); citing FHL microfilm 2339827.

If you’re not familiar with address on census records, let me give you a brief tutorial.  The tall column that spans the entire length of the left hand side of the forms was for enumerators to record the street that they were on.  Some were diligent and made incredible notes when streets ended and when they began.  Some were not so diligent and didn’t record anything.  Be hopeful that your ancestor’s enumerator was at least somewhere in the middle of the road.  Be sure to look above and below the line that your ancestor falls on as the notation may be small and where ever the enumerator was moved to write it!  The first column after the street name area is the street number that the enumerator recorded for the household. Trust that these could be an approximation, but it will get you close!

So, for me, I found that Adolphus Thomey lived at 622 Olive, North Little Rock, Arkansas.

Step 2 – GoogleMap Your Ancestor’s Address

GoogleMap of 622 Olive Street, North Little Rock, Arkansas

First, use GoogleMaps to locate your ancestor’s home on a map.  This is helpful both to give you a good point of reference and to check out the area cross streets.  Some of the cities don’t have all of the streets indexed so you won’t be able to use the regular ED finding aids that will narrow down the potential EDs by street level.  This is where the maps will help you immensely!

I punched in my Great-grandfather’s address from the 1930 Census and off I went…

From this map I can easily see that he lived fairly close to the river (an excellent land mark) and he lived north of 6th Street, west of Cypress and east of Main.  That will give me a good idea already of the general location.

Step 3 – Find the Enumeration District Map on stevemorse.org

Once you know the address and the general location you’ll need to head over to stevemorse.org and get the actual ED map using his tool (this link will take you right there!).

The tool requires you to select the state, county and city that you’re searching for and the result will be a link or a set of links.  Depending on how urban the area was, you may have to look through several ED maps to find the one that contains the area of your ancestor’s address.  Once you find the correct ED map, compare your Google map to the ED map.

1940 Enumeration District Map for North Little Rock, Pulaski County, Arkansas.; digital images. Steve Morse One Step Finding Tools (http://www.stevemorse.org : viewed 12 April 2012; citing NARA 1940 Census Maps for Enumeration District Numbers).

In the map above you can see the GoogleMap that I found of Adolphus’s address and then I’ve marked the area on the ED map that corresponds to the general area of the GoogleMap.  It clearly falls within the 60-109 ED.

Step 4 – Search the Pages of the 1940 ED You’ve Located!

Now all that’s left is to do a page by page search of the 1940 ED that you located on the map.  Occasionally you may find your ancestors on the line between districts and you may need to search more than one ED, but it will certainly narrow the field!

I was happy to find Adolphus and his family right where the were in 1930… at 620 Olive Street… seems like this enumerator counted the houses differently!  Note: My great-grandfather changed his name from Adolphus to Dolphus.  The story goes that he was not a fan of Hitler from the very beginning and he didn’t want any associations to the ruthless dictator so he dropped the “A” from his given name.  That’s why we see him here in the 1940 Census as “D Thomey”.

1940 U.S. census, Pulaski County, Arkansas, population schedule, North Little Rock, enumeration district (ED) 109, p. 6B (penned), dwelling 154, D Thomey; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : viewed 12 April 2012); citing NARA records T627..

The release of the 1940 U.S. Census is finally here! (OK, I'm a little trigger happy... it will be out tomorrow at 9:00am) Hopefully you've done your extra research and prepared by finding all those potential enumeration districts for your ancestors that were living in 1940. And if you haven't, that's OK, the census pages aren't going anywhere... you can do your prep research right along side your census searches if you need to!

Hopefully last month we inspired you to join the 1940 U.S. Census indexing project sponsored by FamilySearch and you've already downloaded the software and taken a crack at the simulation pages. But if not, please consider helping out with this fantastic project. The more volunteers we have the faster an every name index will be produced. It only takes a few minutes of your time to index an entire pages of the census and it doesn't cost you a thing! Please sign up today!

To get your MyNeChimKi's Genealogical Resources desktop calendar follow these instructions:

You’ve forgotten where you found all of that information.

Citation, Citation, Citation

It’s OK, it happens to all of us.  It’s happened to me, and it will probably happen again.  That’s why it’s so important to cite your sources!  You might think that citations were just for those college papers that you wrote so long ago, but really they’re the most important part of your genealogical research.  They give you and anyone who follows your research a link back to the repositories and records where you found the evidence and facts.

Your citations don’t have to be textbook perfect, but they should at least include the date that you viewed the record, where you found it, and the volume (if applicable) and page number.  And write the citation immediately after you photocopy the records so you don’t forget!  If you’re copying out of published genealogies or a book of indexes, abstracts or transcriptions, spend the extra dime or quarter and copy the title page of the book.  With the title page, you’ll always have a reference back to that book and the publication information; you’ll still need to write the date you found it and where you were… but the rest of the information is already cited for you!

And what’s also incredibly important is that you come home from your research trips and attach that source information to your ancestors in your genealogy software.  I’m horrible about this task.  I get all excited about what I’ve found, I make my citations on the backs of all my photocopies, I come home and… and all the papers get tossed into my filing drawers. The info never makes it into my RootsMagic tree.  Don’t follow my example… transfer the information to your software!  When you start to ask questions about what to research next, having those source citations in your software will help keep you on track, prevent you from researching the same thing twice, and it will give you a clearer picture of the holes that you still have in your research.

Examples of Citations

I’ve pulled a couple of images from my files to show you what I’m talking about.

Example #1

The first example is of a quick citation that I made on the title page of a book that I photocopied.  I just wrote down a quick notation about the date and the repository.  All the other information that I could want to know is contained on the title page and the verso page.

In a footnote this little citation would become:

Gregory A. Boyd J.D., Family Maps of Union Parish, Louisiana: Homesteads Edition (Norman, Oklahoma: Arphax Publishing Co., 2005), 73, 76.

Example #2

The second example is from a document that I requested be copied by a librarian.  A thorough librarian will provide the citation for you on the reverse of the document.

In a footnote, this citation would become:

Obituary, The Barnesville Gazette, 29 May 1890, Obituary of Joseph H. Slade.

For the Serious Geni

If you’re interested in a more formal approach to source citations, Elizabeth Shown Mills’s Evidence Explained [affiliate link] is one of the most complete compendiums of source citations for genealogists out there.  It is considered to be the reference for sourcing genealogical records. I won’t lie… it’s a tome.  At nearly 900 pages it’s not something that you can take around easily to the different research repositories so that you’ll always know exactly which citation pattern to use, but it’s a very handy book for your personal library.

And you’re in luck!  For today only (that’s 30 March 2012), Genealogical.com is offering this book at a 40% discount!  That’s right… today you can purchase Evidence Explained for just $35.95!!  That’s a steal I wouldn’t pass up… I paid full price for my copy.