Genealogy Treasures: A Watercolour Spurs Us to Find Out More

 

My husband's grandmother gave him this watercolour painted in 1916 by J. Ades Fowler. We did a little research and found that the artist's full name was Joseph Ades Fowler and he died 5 March 1921 in Huron County Ontario.

According to his death certificate, Joseph Ades was born in Brighton England on 19 August 1850. His profession is given as architect, which surprised me. I thought he would be listed as an artist but perhaps painting was a hobby and not a profession for him.

His death certificate also revealed that Joseph Ades had a son Henry Ades Fowler who was living in Maywood (?) Illinois at the time of his father's death. Joseph Ades was living in Goderich Ontario at the time of his death.

We're very interested in learning more about Joseph Ades Fowler! When did he come to Canada from England? Why did his son move to Illinois - and what happened to him? Did he have other children and if so, did they stay in Ontario or move to the USA?

How did Joseph Ades' painting end up in an antique store or auction? Was he a prolific painter? His work seems quite good, but did he only paint a few or did he paint dozens?

Did he design any of the buildings in Goderich?

If you are an antique hunter as my husband and I are, you know how compelling the stories of the person who owned the object are. Genealogy and antique hunting go hand in hand. We like to find out about the people behind the objects - the provenance as it is called by antique enthusiasts. Sometimes we've been lucky enough to meet up with a descendant, and sometimes the antique ends up being returned to the family.

So Joseph Ades Fowler - who are you and what buildings did you design and see built in your lifetime? Where are your children or grandchildren?

If anyone has any answers or any more clues, please leave a comment here on this blog. Perhaps with help we can find a living descendant.

 UPDATE Aug. 21, 2013: I received this email today:  

Several years ago you posted an inquiry (that I just saw) about a painting by Joseph Ades Fowler. I’m not very good at reading blogs and how to reply on them so not sure if you received any replies. Joseph Ades married by maternal great grandfather’s sister Mary Heathcote Green. Joseph came to Toronto, Canada, it seems by himself, around 1870. 

Two years later, in the spring of 1872 Mary came to Toronto from London England with her father Josiah James Green (a druggist/chemist), mother and 3 siblings. Joseph Ades and Mary were married in the fall of 1872. I don’t know if they knew each other in England but in researching the Toronto directories discovered they lived on the same street in Toronto so perhaps that is how they met! 

 I haven’t come across anyone else online researching my extended family but I do have some information on their family in my old research files (which I have yet to document) so if your questions about Joseph Ades haven’t already been answered let me know and I will dig in my files and send you some answers about his career and family. 

Thanks, Gayle Farnes

CSI Genealogy: Census Forms Help Organize FIndings

How many times have you taken a careful look at your genealogy research only to realize that you never did get around to hunting for Great Grandpa Joe in the 1850 or 1851 census? Have you ever taken a good hard look at the chronology of the family you are searching? How often have you looked over your genealogy research? You might be very surprised at the clues and facts you've missed along the way!

But how can we organize our research so that it's easy to see what we have, what we still need to find, and what we've missed?

This is where CSI Genealogy comes into play!

C=Charts S=Success I=Investigation

With CSI Genealogy you create CHARTS to have a SUCCESSFUL INVESTIGATION into your family tree.

I've already shown readers of this blog a CHART I created for assessment and tax records. I've also got a chart for all those census record years you find. This chart is for Canadian census records so they cover the years 1842, 1851, 1861, 1871, 1881, 1891, 1901 and 1911.

Using Excel I created empty columns for each census year. On the left I have empty cells for name of husband, wife and children. I also left spaces for "others" meaning anyone else who shows up on a census year.

So I find my McGINNIS family in 1861 and carefully list their names and ages. I do this for every census year. This helps me see at a glance who I am missing, what census year(s) I still need to find and when an ancestor goes missing or dies.

You may notice the tiny notations in 1881 column on this chart. These indicate "married" (md) and are just my way of knowing I need to look under a married surname for women. I also note it for males just to have a quick reminder that a son is married and may not be living with his parents that year

Because some census years ask for citizenship or immigration status, I have a spot for that too.

Lastly, I like to keep track of exactly where the family lived each census year. I only list the parents' location on this chart, but I have another chart for locations and land records that I'll show you another time.

Because there is room, I have noted death years on the right (but I'm creating a new chart which will have a column for death year and another for death location). I've also made notes which remind me of important facts. On this chart for my McGINNIS family, I've noted that their daughter Fanny was baptised in Guelph in 1847. That indicates to me that they should show up in the 1851 census but as you can see, I have not found them.

I'm not likely to find them as the first page of the census I need is missing - and I suspect they were on that page! But I still want to be reminded that they were in the area as early as 1847, because I may want to hunt for other records that will provide more information regarding their settlement year.

Every time I pull this chart for my McGINNIS ancestors out, I am reminded that I've never been able to find Joseph, his wife Fanny and their four youngest children in the 1881 Canadian Census. Yes, I've looked in 1880 American Census too with no luck.

I may never find them - they may have been on the move and missed both census years, or the Fanny and son Joseph I found in Guelph *might* be the right ones (and Joseph Sr might be dead by then, but then where is young Robert?) or ..... At this point I have no explanation but this chart very nicely reminds me to KEEP LOOKING! And if I never find them on a census for those years, perhaps I will find them in another genealogy record.

Letters as Loot - Fascinating Project of Leiden University!

Thanks to the subscribers of the New-Netherland mailing list discussing the New Netherland Institute online, I found Letters as Loot, an absolutely wonderful project by the University of Leiden.

Quoting from the Leiden University website:

The National Archives in Kew, UK hold a treasure that causes real excitement among scholars: the recently rediscovered collection of Dutch documents from the second half of the 17th to the early 19th centuries, comprising over 38,000, both commercial and private, letters. These so-called sailing letters were confiscated during the wars fought between The Netherlands and England.

The research programme Letters as loot: Towards a non-standard view on the history of Dutch aims at exploring this extraordinary and highly valuable source for a new history of Dutch.

The project comprises three sub-projects. Two cross-sections are made in the source material at a chronological distance of about hundred years: the first of the period 1665-1674 (2nd and 3rd Anglo-Dutch Wars) and the second of the period 1776-1784 (4th Anglo-Dutch War and American War of Independence).

Every month, a new letter is translated and posted online. In the Monthly Letter posted in May/June 2009 was a fascinating letter written in 1664 by my ancestor Hendrick Meesen Vrooman to his brother Jacob. Hendrick had recently arrived in New Netherland (present day New York) and wrote to tell his brother Jacob in Leiden all about the new land he had settled in.

What an insight into both my ancestor and the time period when the English took New Netherland and it became New York.

Hendrick says in his letter "Furthermore I let you know that there have arrived three English ships at the Manhattans with soldiers and they have claimed the land and they say that it belongs to their king. And Stuyvesant [the governor of the New-Netherlands] has given it to them without one shot, with an agreement."

I spent an enjoyable hour browsing the other letters held at University of Leiden website. Just choose English from the main page if you do not read Dutch.

FamilySearch New Projects Coming Soon

Friends at FamilySearch tell me that recently completed projects have been removed from the available online indexing batches and will now go through a final completion check process.

These projects will be searchable online at pilot.familysearch.org in the near future.

· Canada—1871 Mortality Census
· Mexico, Hidalgo—1930 Federal Censo
· U.S., Alaska—1920 Federal Census
· U.S., Indiana, Marshall County—Marriages, 1811–1959
· U.S., Illinois—1910 Federal Census
· U.S., Rhode Island—1905 State Census [Part 3]

Help Find American WW2 Soldier

Can anyone help Jill find this American WW2 soldier? Jill found his Dog Tags in Australia and has asked my help in finding out about Stanley



Details can be found at American WW2 soldier

Live Roots Adds Access to FamilySearch Record Search Results

According to LiveRoots.com you can now view results from the Record Search pilot from within the Live Roots website.

Quoting from Live Roots website:

The FamilySearch Record Search pilot include millions of indexed records, and is expanding each month. When you perform a search in Live Roots, you will see a link to the FamilySearch Record Search feature in the "Available Partner Services" section.

You also have the ability to search a specific collection within the Record Search pilot from the corresponding resource page. Resources from the pilot are cataloged in Live Roots as soon as they are posted online.

I decided to give this new feature a try so went to the FamilySearch page on Live Roots. I was impressed with the speed of the search and the display of results but wanted to ask Illya D'Addezio, owner and creator of Live Roots, a few questions.

I wondered what the purpose was of adding this feature to the Live Roots website. According to Illya

The objective of Live Roots is to be a genealogical search "experience," not just a simple search engine. When you use a traditional search engine, the experience ends with a listing of results. With Live Roots, that's only the beginning. From the results, Live Roots shows you relationships between resources, and allows you to locate and/or preview related results from
other data repositories (e.g. Ancestry, Footnote, etc.).

What this amounts to is research efficiency, especially when your research involves a lot of repetitive searching, for example, a brick wall ancestor. Using Live Roots you can perform the same search across a dozen different repositories within a few minutes without ever having to reenter your search criteria or leave the Live Roots environment.

When I first used the new feature for FamilySearch, I mistakenly thought I was searching an index but Illya explained that it is not an index/image hosting
initiative, but a real-time, server to server access. This is the same as all of the other partner searches on Live Roots. A search on LiveRoots using the FamilySearch feature results in the LiveRoots server contacting FamilySearch server, obtaining the results and presenting them in LiveRoots in the format determined by Illya.

My concern that new records on Family Search would have a delay before being searching in Live Roots was put to rest when Illya explained this, because his method means that as soon as new records are available on the FamilySearch website, they are immediately available in the Live Roots experience.

My last question to Illya was "Why use the Live Roots FamilySearch feature rather than go directly to the Family Search website" He resonded that

"One of the main advantages to using Live Roots is the consistency it offers between the numerous data and book repositories, along with some of the
research management tools that simplify keeping track of when/where you found a useful resource. Bringing Family Search into the experience just adds to the efficiency, as now when you locate a record in Family Search, you can quickly see if
there are any related records in sites such as Ancestry or Footnote (and vice-versa)"

It's a great utility, and you really should try it out. Start your journey at the FamilySearch page on Live Roots.

List of Winners in OliveTreeGenealogy Birthday Celebration

As promised, the random draw for 5 lucky winners of the 5
amazing prizes offered by Footnote.com , Ancestry.com and GenealogyBank.com has been made.

The 3 winners of a Footnote.com Annual subscription are:

Lisarps@gmail.com

mcgivney@yahoo.com

Katfrmwi@aol.com

The winner of Ancestry.com Annual World Deluxe
Subscription is

kathie.fortner@yahoo.com

The winner of the GenealogyBank.com 30 day membership is

bpayne@xtra.co.nz

Congratulations to the 5 winners and thank you everyone for participating in this celebration. A huge thank you goes to Ancestry.com, Footnote.com and GenealogyBank.com for being so generous and supportive during OliveTreeGenealogy's
birthday.

If you are one of the winners, please contact me at olivetreegenealogy@gmail.com to claim your prize.

I'm already planning for OliveTreeGenealogy's 15th birthday party next year and MORE wonderful prizes!

The list of winners is also being posted on the OliveTreeGenealogy.com Birthday celebration page

And now - time for Birthday Cake!

Lorine

Don't Forget Olive Tree Genealogy's Birthday Draw on Feb 15

It's not too late! You have until Midnight EST Sunday Feb. 14th to enter the draw for one of FIVE great prizes for Olive Tree Genealogy's 14th Birthday Celebration!

You can read more about this Happy 14th Birthday OliveTreeGenealogy celebration and enter for a chance to win one of the 5 prizes

The draw for 5 lucky winners will take place on Feb. 15th. Names will be chosen from subscribers to the Olive Tree Genealogy newsletter, so for a chance to win, be sure you are a subscriber. You can subscribe to this free newsletter
(which comes out 3 or 4 times a month) to enter your name

Thanks to the generous support of Footnote.com , Ancestry.com and GenealogyBank.com
there will now be FIVE lucky winners in the Olive Tree Genealogy Birthday Draw!
Footnote.com has generously donated THREE Annual Subscriptions to their detabases for the Birthday Celebration! Footnote.com helps you find and share historic documents. Their website brings you many never-before-seen historic documents through their unique partnerships with
The National Archives, the Library of Congress and other institutions.

Ancestry.com , the world's leading resource for online family history, have generously offered to provide an Annual World Deluxe subscription as one of the prizes for the Olive Tree Genealogy Birthday Celebration! The World Deluxe Subscription includes historical records and images from the
United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland and more locations around the globe.

GenealogyBank.com is very kindly donating a free 30-day membership for unlimited access to their databases.
Genealogy Bank has the largest Newspaper Archive for Family History Research. Over 4,000 newspapers provide first-hand accounts about your ancestors that can't be found in other sources

Smile For The Camera: Be My Valentine

The word prompt for the 20th Edition of Smile For The Camera is "Valentine." Love is in the air, so celebrate with Smile by sharing a photograph of a Valentine; be that person or paper. The interpretation of Valentine is yours. Admission is free with every photograph!

This is a Valentine postcard from 1910 that I purchased many years ago. It was in a box of miscellaneous paper ephemera

It's an odd postcard in my mind, as the sender expresses no words of love or romance, yet has chosen a Valentine card image for Maggie (the recipient). Perhaps it was the only card he had on hand, or found in the shop, but it's always struck me as an amusing card for James to send to Maggie.

I've not done any research on Maggie or James so have no idea who they are! I'm sure Maggie at least could be found in the 1910 census records.


1910

Miss Margaret Rasch
146 North Division St
Buffalo N[ew] Y[ork]

Maggie

We have all got bad colds and the roads are very bad so geo [George?] hired Roy Smith to take you the machine [today?] You will get the machine before you do this card. [can't read this word] from James

2010 is the Year of the British Home Child

On Mon Dec 7 Parliament approved 2010 The Year of the British Home Child.

During the Child Emigration Scheme (British Home Children), between 1869 and 1939 (some up to 1948), over 100,000 children ages 1 - 18 were sent to Canada from Great Britain to work as farm labourers and domestics by over 50 Agents - Barnardo, Middlemore, Macpherson, Fegans, to name a few..

Events that have already taken place:
* New Brunswick Provincial Gov't passed 2009 Year of the British Home Child

* Nova Scotia the month of October 2009 was declared

* October 2010 issue of a stamp for the Home Child

* Australia Apologized to 10,000 Home Children immigrated there up to 1967

* Britain to apologize next year

Descendants make up 12%, over 4 million of the Canadian population.

2010 should be a year filled with special events, special displays in libraries and museums across Canada to honour them. If you are a descendant I hope you will get involved in planning some events.

The Welland Museum currently has a display for the Home Children until December 31st.

Maria Rye Home Children Database
Gail Collins 1869-1879 gcollen@sympatico.ca
Chris Sanham 1880-1896 chris@sanham.com

You can search theBritish Home Children ships passenger lists from 1865 to 1935 on Library & Archives Canada website.

If you find a name of interest, and if the child was a part of the Dr. Barnardo's homes, you can contact Barnardo's for the records. They can be reached at aftercare@barnardos.org.uk

My husband has a British Home Child in his ancestry and sending to Barnardo's for his records provided a wealth of informative genealogical detail plus photographs of the child when he was admitted to Barnardo's Homes in 1897.

Marj Kholi's Young Immigrants to Canada website is another must for those seeking a British Home Child ancestor. Descendants can also check the British Home Children Registry for a name of interest.

Another website of interest will be the British Home Children Descendants site.

A Piece of History? Is this a Photo of Annie Moore arriving at Ellis Island?

About a month ago, Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak, Genealogist & Family History Expert, wrote about the recent discovery of photos of Annie Moore, the Irish teenager who was the first to arrive at Ellis Island when it opened on January 1, 1892.

The New York Times published a photo of Annie A second photo of Annie with her daughter has also been found.

But now for the mystery which Megan needs our help to solve! There is a third photo which may be of Annie and her two brothers the very day they arrived at Ellis Island! Please read Megan's article, view the photo, and give this some thought.

Here is Megan's plea:

If you have expertise in facial recognition, architecture, the history of Ellis Island or the Barge Office that preceded it, or in any area that might contribute to the resolution of this mystery, please post comments here or email me, whether they support the claim or refute it.

New Vietnam War Records Free during February on Footnote.com

FOOTNOTE.COM AND THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES RELEASE NEW VIETNAM WAR PHOTOS AND RECORDS ONLINE

-Over 27,000 Photos And Records Are Added To The Largest Online Vietnam War Collection-

This Press Release just arrived from Footnote.com . I will be exploring the collection myself later this morning!

Lindon, UT – February 4, 2010 – Today Footnote.com announced a major addition to its Vietnam War Collection: Army Photos and Unit Service Awards. Now totaling over 100,000 photos and documents, this collection helps visitors gain a better perspective and appreciation for this often misunderstood event in U.S. History.

“Our partnership with the National Archives has proven to be invaluable as we work to make these records more accessible,” explains Russell Wilding, CEO of Footnote.com. “Previously you were required to travel to Washington, D.C. to see these records. Now anyone can access the original records through the internet.”

Army Unit Service Awards include documents relating to Presidential Unit Citations, Valorous Unit Awards and Meritorious Unit Commendations. These were usually awarded to units going above and beyond the call of duty, and in most cases, showing exceptional valor. These documents contain:

Dates of service
Duties performed
Letters of recommendation

The Army Photos feature various activities of the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. In nearly every case there is a caption or description of what was happening and the names of the soldiers featured in the photos. Everything ranging from daily duties to Bob Hope’s Christmas program is captured, providing a glimpse into what life was like for the soldiers.

“My dad is a Vietnam War hero, but I rarely can get him to share his experiences from the war,” says Justin Schroepfer, Marketing Director at Footnote.com. “Going through these photos allowed me to visualize a little more what he went through and the sacrifices he made for his country.”

In addition to these new records, the Footnote Vietnam War Collection also includes:

The Interactive Vietnam Veterans Memorial – featuring service records for each name on the wall
Photos of the Marine Corps in Vietnam - color
Photos of the Marine Corps in Vietnam - black and white

Footnote.com will continue to work with the National Archives to add more Vietnam War content online.

“These documents and photos tell a part of the Vietnam War story that you just can’t find in textbooks,” explains Russell Wilding, CEO of Footnote.com. “It’s imperative that we preserve and share this side of history for future generations. We are encouraging everyone to come to Footnote.com and enhance these stories by adding their own comments, photos and documents.”

The Vietnam War Collection will be made free to the public during the month of February. To view these documents, visit www.footnote.com/vietnam.

Win 1 of 5 prizes from Footnote, Ancestry & GenealogyBank for OliveTreeGenealogy's 14th Birthday!

This is an update to my earlier announcement about OliveTreeGenealogy's upcoming 14th year of bring online.

I'm so excited to announce that thanks to the generous support of Footnote.com , Ancestry.com and GenealogyBank.com
there will now be FIVE lucky winners in the Olive Tree Genealogy Birthday Draw!

Footnote.com has generously donated THREE Annual Subscriptions to their detabases for the Birthday Celebration! Footnote.com helps you find and share historic documents. Their website brings you many never-before-seen historic documents through their unique partnerships with
The National Archives, the Library of Congress and other institutions.

Ancestry.com , the world's leading resource for online family history, have generously offered to provide an Annual World Deluxe subscription as one of the prizes for the Olive Tree Genealogy Birthday Celebration! The World Deluxe Subscription includes historical records and images from the
United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland and more locations around the globe.

GenealogyBank.com is very kindly donating a free 30-day membership for unlimited access to their databases.
Genealogy Bank has the largest Newspaper Archive for Family History Research. Over 4,000 newspapers provide first-hand accounts about your ancestors that can't be found in other sources

You can read more about this Happy 14th Birthday OliveTreeGenealogy celebration and enter for a chance to win one of the 5 prizes

The draw for 5 lucky winners will take place on Feb. 15th. Names will be chosen from subscribers to the Olive Tree Genealogy newsletter, so for a chance to win, be sure you are a subscriber. You can subscribe to this free newsletter
(which comes out 3 or 4 times a month) to enter your name

The website for “Who Do You Think You Are?” launched today

The website for “Who Do You Think You Are?” launched today and can be accessed here: http://www.nbc.com/who-do-you-think-you-are/. The website features bios of the celebrities featured in the show, photos, and several video clips as well as articles on how to get started in family history.

The family history-focused series will lead seven celebrities on a journey back in time as they discover more about the ancestors who came before them. Lisa Kudrow, who executive produced the show, will be featured in the episodes, along with Sarah Jessica Parker, Spike Lee, Matthew Broderick, Susan Sarandon, Emmitt Smith, and Brooke Shields. Ancestry.com is a partner with NBC on the show. Tune into NBC Fridays 8/7c beginning March 5.

Hawass To Announce King Tut DNA Results : Discovery News

Hawass To Announce King Tut DNA Results : Discovery News

Posted using ShareThis

This is a fascinating example of the use of DNA in Genealogy research. If you haven't had your DNA done yet you may want to try it.

Fast track your genealogy with a DNA test. Contact others sharing your ancestry, learn where your ancestors originated.


I had my brother submit his DNA for testing so that we could search our male McGinnis ancestry. It was very helpful and quite fascinating!

12 Months of Finding Ancestors: Life Insurance Records (Part 2 of a 12 Part Series)

Welcome to Part 2 of a 12 month series about finding and using less obvious genealogy records to find ancestors. Last month we talked about Medical Records and how they are often overlooked in our ancestor searching.

This month let's explore Life Insurance records. These can be difficult to find, and you will have to be very creative in your hunt for survining records. But you can start with a check of local archives as well as websites for various insurance companies. At the Insurance Company websites be sure to look to see if they have a historical archives.

Family Tree Connection holds many Insurance Company records You can search for a name of interest but must purchase a subscription to view details.

Some records are in books. We were lucky enough to inherit a book called "Report of the Superintendent of Insurance of the Dominion of Canada for the Year Ending 31st December 1890"

The book was published in 1891 in Ottawa, Canada, and included in its pages are approximately 60 pages of names of shareholders and guarantors for various Insurance and Assurance Companies across Canada.

The date for the list of names is 1890 and the wonderful thing about these is that they include people from all over Canada, as well as USA and Europe.

Each individual has a residence listed, in some cases, an actual street address. What really intrigued me about these lists was that the residences included such places as:

Ontario, British Columbia, Nova Scotia, Scotland, New York, Quebec, Vermont, Pennsylvania, NWT, England, Illinois, India, Newfoundland, Manitoba, Cape Breton, Jamaica, Ireland, Kentucky, Tennessee, Massachussets, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Channel Islands, and Wales.

These lists can be used simply to verify that an individual lived in a certain place in 1890. They also contain quite a bit of detail for some entries, which are terrific clues for further research. We transcribed the names in this book and have placed them online for genealogists to search

You can see a list of the Company Records that we have transcribed and published online. Just click on any link to view the list of names. This is an ongoing project for OliveTreeGenealogy.com and you will have to check back to see when it is updated with more names.

The complete list of Company Records follows:

* The Accident Insurance Company of North America (List of Shareholders)
* The Boiler Inspection & Insurance Company of Canada (List of Shareholders)
* British America Assurance Company (List of Shareholders)
* Canada Accident Insurance Company (List of Shareholders)
* The Canada Life Assurance Company (List of Shareholders)
* The Citizens' Insurance Company of Canada (List of Shareholders)
* Confederation Life Association (List of Shareholders)
* The Dominion Life Assurance Company (List of Shareholders)
* Dominion Safety Fund Life Association (List of Stockholders)
* Dominion Plate Glass Insurance Company (List of Stockholders)
* Eastern Assurance Company of Canada (List of Shareholders)
* Federal Life Assurance Company (List of Shareholders)
* Guarantee Company of North America (List of Shareholders)
* London Life Insurance Company (List of Shareholders)
* Manufacturers' Accident Insurance Company (List of Stockholders)
* Manufacturers LIfe Insurance Company (List of Shareholders)
* North American Life Assurance Company (List of Guarantors)
* Quebec Fire Assurance Company (List of Stockholders)
* Royal Canadian Insurance Company (List of Stockholders)
* Sun Life Insurance Company (List of Shareholders)
* The Temperance and General Life Assurance Company (list of Guarantors)
* Western Assurance Company (List of Shareholders)

I urge researchers to hunt for Life Insurance records for an elusive ancestor! It is another set of records that is not often thought of but the details you can find about an ancestor can be quite thrilling!

Win an Ancestry.com Annual World Deluxe Subscription!

It's Almost Time for "HAPPY 14th. BIRTHDAY OLIVE TREE GENEALOGY!!" Subscribers to my free Olive Tree Genealogy newsletter will be entered in a Birthday Draw to win one of three terrific prizes. Join today for a chance to win!

To celebrate this 14th birthday I'm giving away 3 genealogy prizes. Thanks goes to Ancestry.com , the world's leading resource for online family history, who have generously offered to provide an Annual World Deluxe subscription as one of the three prizes for the Olive Tree Genealogy Birthday Celebration! The World Deluxe Subscription includes historical records and images from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland and more locations around the globe.

Winners will be chosen from a random drawing of subscribers to Olive Tree Genealogy newsletter. The draw will take place on February 15, 2010 and winners notified by email. Read more about our Birthday Celebration taking place February 15, 2010.

Win $500 of Ancestry.com Products!

Win $500 of Ancestry.com Products! If you are a Facebook fan and email your Facebook username to sweeps@ancestry.com, you will be entered to win an Ancestry.com Prize Pack.

Prize pack includes a 1-year World Deluxe subscription to Ancestry.com, Family Tree Maker 2010 and a MyCanvas photo book.

Read the Contest Rules

Meeting Cousins

Today I happened on a wonderful shout-out written by Kathryn Lake of Our Ryckman Roots

I'm quite honoured to have been chosen as the subject of Kathryn's blog post Follow Friday: Olive Tree Genealogy

Kathryn wrote some really lovely and generous things about Olive Tree Genealogy, which I appreciate very much. Thank you Kathryn!

Kathryn and I share a distant Ryckman ancestor and it has been a pleasure "meeting" Kathryn through e-mail and Facebook.

Have Feet, Will Travel

How mobile were our ancestors? Most of us tend to think of our ancestors living in the 18th and 19th centuries for example, as staying pretty close to home. Of course many of them traveled great distances by ship to immigrate to the New World. But once they got to Canada or America, did they travel as frequently as we do?

I was guilty of believing that travel any great distance was difficult. But then I stumbled on letters written by my great-great grandfather Levi Peer to his mother Elizabeth. One letter was sent by Levi from his home in from Halton County Ontario to his mother Elizabeth (Marical) Peer in Hamilton County Illinois in February 1847. In that letter Levi tells his mother

"I had some thought of coming to see you last fall but it so happened that I fell in with an opportunity of purchasing some land... which caused me to omit my visit..."

This casual remark in an 1847 letter made me sit up and take notice. Obviously my assumptions of limited travel were erroneous! Assuming that Levi would not have walked the entire way from Ontario to Illinois, I had a look at the map. It became fairly evident that Levi could have taken a stagecoach to a bigger center, then hopped aboard a ferry or raft (commercial, not Tom Sawyer type!) or boat to travel down the Ohio River from Pennsylvania.

The Ohio River flowed westwardly and became a convenient means of westward movement by pioneers traveling from western Pennsylvania. There were many Ohio River boatmen and boats to choose from. There are several cities in Illinois that are on the Ohio River and Levi would simply have chosen a stop near his mother's home which was in or near Shawneetown Illinois.

And so my pre-conceived ideas of limited travel for our ancestors was put to rest. We should not assume that they did not travel far and wide to visit loved ones. And thus we should keep our minds open to the possibility that we might find an ancestor in a genealogy record far from where we expect him to be.

What's In a Name?

Years ago, I hit the proverbial brick wall when searching my great grandmother Mary Elizabeth (Vollick) Peer's ancestor trail. We had no family lore to follow as clues, and no one had any knowledge of the family.

Through census records as well as birth and marriage certificates I was able to trace the line back to a Loyalist named Isaac Vollick. Isaac fought with Butler's Rangers during the American Revolution. After the Revolution ended, he and his family settled in the Niagara area of Upper Canada (now Ontario Canada). But there the trial ended. This was back in the days when the Internet was in its infancy, and thus no online searching was available.

Visits to Archives, Libraries and ordering in dozens of microfilms yielded one small clue - that Isaac had come from Albany New York. But try as I might, I could find *no* evidence of any family with the surname Vollick in New York before the 1780s which was the time period I was interested in.

In my research in Ontario records I had found the surname VOLLICK recorded in a variety of ways - including Follick, Voleck, Valk, Valc, Valic, and Volleck

I therefore knew to be creative in my hunting in New York records but I hit a dead end. Seeking help, I began writing queries and mailing them to various Ontario Genealogy Newsletters. And then one day, success! Another researcher wrote to me informing me that the Vollick surname was originally Van Valkenburg. She gave me sources and directed me to a 2-volume set of books published on the family.

That contact was my jumping off point and from there I was able to trace Isaac Vollick's family line back to the 1600s. I did not rely blindly on the published books on the family, but used them as clues, double checking every "fact" presented before accepting it.

And so my long search for my Vollick ancestry led me down a very different path than what I had anticipated - to the Dutch Van Valkenburg family. I did gather many facts and stories about Isaac the Loyalist and have written about that briefly on From Van Valkenburg to Vollick & Follick: Isaac Van Valkenburg, aka Vollick & Follick, the Loyalist

I also learned that besides being very creative with spelling of a surname, genealogy researchers also must keep an open mind to the possibility that names change over time. They can change slightly or drastically! We must be aware of the possibility of such a change, whether it was a matter of a non-English name being converted to English (such as my French Le Roi/Roy family changing to Larroway once they settled in New York) or for other reasons. Don't assume that the surname you are tracing was always what you think it was!

Featured Genealogy Records: Arkansas Naturalization Index 1809-1906

Arkansas Naturalization Index 1809-1906 has been transcribed by Olive Tree Genealogy Team and is free and online at NaturalizationRecords.com.

Surnames A-M are currently online with the rest to follow.

NEW! Share Discoveries on NewspaperArchive.com!

I've discovered another new feature on NewspaperARCHIVE.com And I like it!

After logging in, or creating a new user profile, you can click on DISCOVERIES. Next click on SHARE DISCOVERIES.

I logged into the Facebook suggestion (of course you will need a Facebook account which is free) The image is what I see on the new page that loads.



Now I can share any discoveries I've made! First I have to find a newspaper article I want to share. Then I create my discovery. As the website states, you can share your discovery in 5 easy steps

1) Give your discovery a title
2) Choose one or more topics to best describe your discovery
3) Insert any images you would like to post from your computer
4) Write some text describing your discovery
5) Click "save" to publish your discovery!

You don't need to know any html coding because Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically, and lines and paragraphs break automatically. If you know how to use html there are codes that will work in the text field and NewspaperARCHIVE.com has included a list of allowed coding

When you are all done, you can choose another discovery to share or you can preview your first entry. If it is as you wish, you simply click the button labelled "SAVE NOW TO SHARE"

What I like about this new feature is that you can share your discoveries of ancestors on Facebook, or simply file the discoveries on the website for others to find. You can search through discoveries made and shared by other individuals, by topic, simply by clicking on EXPLORE DISCOVERIES in the side bar menu.

A nice feature and one that is in Beta so I'm assuming it will only get better!

Current FamilySearch Indexing Projects

FamilySearch Indexing is excited to announce a new Portuguese interface for the program. The first project available in Portuguese is a collection of marriage certificates from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Other new projects this week include the 1910 Census for four states, as well as records from Canada and Germany.

New Projects in the Past Two Weeks

· Brasil, Rio de Janeiro—Matrimonios, 1900–1910 [Piloto]
· Canada—1871 Mortality Census
· Deutschland, Westfalen, Minden—Volkszählung, 1880–1900 (In partnership with Mindener Geschichtsverein)
· U.S., Florida—1910 Federal Census
· U.S., Georgia—1910 Federal Census
· U.S., Kansas—1910 Federal Census
· U.S., Louisiana—1910 Federal Census
· U.S., Rhode Island—1905 State Census [Part 3]

Recently Completed Projects:

· Canada, British Columbia—Deaths, 1872–1986 [Part 3]
· France, Paris—Registres Protestants, 1612–1906 [Part B]
· Jamaica, Clarendon—Births, 1878–1930
· U.S., Alabama—1910 Federal Census
· U.S., Arizona—1910 Federal Census
· U.S., California—1910 Federal Census
· U.S., Colorado—1910 Federal Census
· U.S., Connecticut—1910 Federal Census
· U.S., Delaware—1910 Federal Census
· U.S., District of Columbia—1910 Federal Census
· U.S., Idaho—1910 Federal Census
· U.S., Ohio—Tax Records, Post-1825 [Part 2]
· U.S., Rhode Island—1905 State Census [Part 2]
· Venezuela, Mérida—Registros Parroquiales, 1654–1992 [Parte 1]

Shaking the Tree - Adding zest to the names

Recently I did some genealogy research for a friend. She has Newfoundland and Nova Scotia ancestry, and I'm not very familiar with either location re what genealogy resources are available. It's been fun finding out what records each Province has, and where they are kept.

I already knew about the wonderful Nova Scotia Historical Vital Statistics online but had no idea what genealogy is available online for Newfoundland.

To my delight, I stumbled on Newfoundland Grand Banks website. Many happy hours later, I had a pretty good outline of my friend's ancestry back several generations, proven with census, parish records, burials and other online records.

But I had no meat! All I had were names and dates. I really wasn't sure how I would find more detail to flesh out the lives of even one of her distant ancestors, but decided to have a quick look at Ancestry.com I really didn't expect to find much since it was Newfoundland I was focusing on (and it didn't become a province of Canada until the 1940s). To my surprise I found my friend's great grandfather in 1927 on board a schooner sailing from Port Aux Basques Newfoundland to the harbour in New York. He was listed as one of a 6 man crew on the Schooner General Byng.

Of course I googled the schooner name and was excited to find photos of its construction in 1918 and of it sinking on the Atlantic Ocean in 1928. Even more amazing was a photo of the 6-man crew in the lifeboat being rescued when the schooner sank!

Then I found a small notice that the crew from the General Byng went on to another schooner which later was lost at sea on a return journey from Portugal to Newfoundland. The entire crew, including my friend's ancestor, were never found.

That little excerpt on a website led me to NewspaperARCHIVE.com where I spent some time searching for any instances of the General Byng or General Gough. To my surprise (and delight!) there were several stories over the years, including the story of the sinking of the General Byng and the loss of the General Gough.

I have put together everything I found for my friend's ancestors, including printouts of the newspaper pages. It's bound and ready for her to pick up and enjoy! I hope she likes the zest along with the names and dates, for me it's like icing on the cake.

CSI Genealogy

How many times have you taken a careful look at your genealogy research only to realize that you never did get around to hunting for Great Grandpa Joe in the 1850 or 1851 census? Have you ever taken a good hard look at the chronology of the family you are searching? How often have you looked over your genealogy research? You might be very surprised at the clues and facts you've missed along the way!

But how can we organize our research so that it's easy to see what we have, what we still need to find, and what we've missed?

This is where CSI Genealogy comes into play!

C=Charts S=Success I=Investigation

With CSI Genealogy you create CHARTS to have a SUCCESSFUL INVESTIGATION into your family tree.

For example I am searching several families in one specific location in Puslinch Township, Wellington County Ontario before 1851. Records for that time period are sparse but there are some "Census" and Tax Assessment records that tell a lot about a family.

In order to figure out if there were more children I missed, or other clues I overlooked, I created a chart. Along the top are the years - 1833, 1834, 1835, 1837, 1839, 1840, 1841, 1842, 1843 & 1844. These years refer to the Assessment/Census years that haVe survived for Puslinch. Then I notate each year with a "C" or an "A" so I know whether it's a "Census" or a Tax Assessment record I'm viewing.


Down the left column I put the actual headings used in each of those years - the Lot and concession Number where the family lived, Number of Acres of land cultivated and then the breakdown of family members by Males and Females, within the age groups provided.

I can print these blank charts from my computer, and then by hand fill in what I find. This allows me to see at a glance what records I still need. I can also compare numbers and ages of family members each year. This tells me if I'm missing someone in the family, or if perhaps a family member died or married and moved out of the home.

Using my chart tells me at a glance when the family first arrived in the area. In the case of the family I am showing here, they do not appear until 1839. This fits with land records and other records indicating that is when they left Ireland for Canada.

These early Ontario "Census" records also give the family religion which is very helpful in searching for early Ontario births, marriages or deaths. In this case my notation of "RC" means Roman Catholic. I know to search the available Catholic church records now.

In the example chart I am showing here, I also made a separate spot for the 1842 Census as it has different column headings than the others. On the right side of the page, in the empty space, I scribble my own notes. In this case, knowing some of the family members from later census years, I am able to see what years I have an extra child (notated with a ? mark).

I create one chart for each family I'm searching and find this helps me tremendously in looking back over my old research, carrying on with new research and finding clues I overlooked!

It also gives me more of a sense of the family other than dates and names. For instance in 1839 when the family first appears in Puslinch, they have a farm of 100 acres and managed to cultivate 5. By 1840 they had cultivated 6, then 10 and so on until 7 years later, by 1844, with a lot of hard work, they had cultivated 35 of those 100 acres.

Who Do You Think You Are?

"Who Do You Think You Are?" premieres Friday, March 5 (8-9 p.m. ET) and gives viewers an up-close and personal look inside the family history of some of today's most beloved and iconic celebrities.

Among the celebrities featured are Matthew Broderick, Lisa Kudrow, Spike Lee, Sarah Jessica Parker, Susan Sarandon, Brooke Shields and Emmitt Smith.

Ancestry.com is NBC's official partner on the series. From executive producer Kudrow ("Friends," "The Comeback") - in conjunction with her production company Is or Isn't Entertainment and the U.K.'s Wall to Wall productions - "Who Do You Think You Are?" is an adaptation of the hit BBC television documentary series created and executive-produced by Alex Graham. [Press Release]

12 Months of Finding Ancestors: Medical Records (Part 1 of a 12 Part Series)

Welcome to Part 1 of a 12 month series about finding and using less obvious genealogy records to find ancestors.

An excellent set of records to find out more detail about an ancestor are medical records. Often you will find information about family members - parents and siblings or other relatives.

Medical records will be found in various repositories, depending on the town, province, state, county or country you are looking in. It also depends on the year of your interest (privacy laws differ in every country) and the type of medical record you want.

For example you might want asylum records or hospital records or medical records from a prison or institution.

The first step I suggest is to search the Family History Library Catalog. This will allow you to see what records, if any, have been microfilmed by the Family History Library in Salt Lake City Utah. I did a quick search by title for MEDICAL and found over 300 sets of records including the following examples:

* Danvers (Mass.) medical records, 1878-1917 Massachusetts State Hospital (Danvers, Massachusetts)
* City of Halifax and Town of Dartmouth medical examiners' reports, 1895-Jan. 1931 Halifax and Dartmouth (Nova Scotia). Medical Examiner
* Applications for medical licenses, 1788-1848 Lower Canada. Provincial Secretary (while not medical records of patients, this would be an excellent resource for anyone seeking an ancestor who was a doctor)
* Kentucky medical history, WPA research project records, 1801-1940 Redmon, Sherrill
* Medical account books of Thomas Henry Dunn in Middlesex County [Virginia] 1852- 1853 Dunn, Thomas Henry
* Medical bills, 1826 Dunsfold (Surrey)
* Medical or physicians registers, 1886-1982 Prince Edward County (Virginia). Clerk of County Court

Next, look at what medical records are held state-wide or province-wide or county-wide. Find out what has survived, where it is stored and what you are allowed to access

Then look at what medical records are held locally (by city, town, township, parish, etc) Find out what has survived, where it is stored and what you are allowed to access

When I wanted to find out what happened to my husband's great grandfather's sister Ada, all I had to go on were whispers that Ada had died in the insane asylum in London Ontario in the early 1900s.

My first step was to find out if that asylum was still in existence. I discovered it was, but under a different name.

Next step was to phone the current hospital that used to be the insane asylum and ask about their records from 1900-1920. They informed me those were deposited in the Ontario Archives based in Toronto

Next I visited the Ontario Archives website, looked for what they had in medical records. There they were:

RG 10-279 London Psychiatric Hospital patients' clinical casebooks 1867-1906
RG 10-280 London Psychiatric Hospital patients' clinical case files 1906-1974
RG 10-281 London Psychiatric Hospital patient registers 1870-1957
RG 10-282 Records of the Medical Superintendent of the London Psychiatric Hospital 1878-1970
RG 10-283 Records of the Bursar of the London Psychiatric Hospital 1865-1923

Next I emailed the Archives to inquire about obtaining Ada's medical files. They conducted a search and emailed back to inform me that Ada's records were there (100 plus pages!) and that they were available if I submitted a Freedom of Information request. This of course is specific to Ontario and that is why you must search your own area's privacy laws and regulations once you find the medical records you need.

A little tip - if submitting a request for information in Ontario under the FOI (Freedom of Information), you have two choices. You can use an FOI request form which requires payment.

To avoid payment, you can simply write a letter stating your name, what information you are requesting, and that you are requesting this under the Freedom of Information, and send that letter to the instutition or repository that holds the records you want.

After submitting my FOI request via letter to the Ontario Archives, they copied Ada's file, censored it (but not too much was blacked out) and mailed the copies to me. This file contained a wealth of detail about poor Ada and what happened to her, when she died and the official cause of death, but the files also contained information on Ada's parents, including copies of letters sent by her brother and mother to the hospital.

All in all it was a lengthy task to find those medical records but well worth the effort.

It's Almost Time for "HAPPY 14th. BIRTHDAY OLIVE TREE GENEALOGY!!"

HAPPY 14th. BIRTHDAY OLIVE TREE GENEALOGY!!

Did you know that my website Olive Tree Genealogy will be 14 years old this
February? That's right! Olive Tree Genealogy actually began sometime in the
winter of 1995 but it wasn't until February 1996 that it was given space on the
old Rootsweb site. Imagine – I've been around on the Internet for 14 years,
that's a LONG time for a website!

You can read a bit about me or see some of the early versions of Olive Tree Genealogy at
http://www.olivetreegenealogy.com/olive-tree-genealogy-history.shtml

To celebrate this 14th birthday I'm giving away 3 genealogy prizes from names
drawn at random from subscribers to my Olive Tree Genealogy newsletter. The draw
will take place on February 15 and winners notified by email.

I'm working out the details of the prizes and will let everyone know in a week
or so what they will be. So please let your friends and family know about this
draw for prizes coming up in a month. Anyone can subscribe to the newsletter at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OliveTreeGenealogy/

Family History Day 2010 — Boston

Family History Day 2010 — Boston

Saturday, February 20, 2010 – 8 am to 4 pm

Westin Copley Place, Boston, Massachusetts

Ancestry.com and the New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) are excited to sponsor a Family History Day in Boston. The day will include

* 6 fantastic classes to help you grow your tree

* Ancestry.com experts on hand to answer your questions

* Chances to meet one-on-one with genealogists from NEHGS

* Opportunities to have photos and documents scanned on high-speed scanners
And much more!

The cost for attendance is only $30, which includes parking. Register today to attend Family History Day 2010 in Boston!

Happy Belated Birthday to AskOliveTree Blog

On Jan 3rd, AskOliveTree Blog was one year old. In that year, I answered 247 questions from genealogy researchers. Phew! I hope my answers were helpful.

I know there are 365 days in a year but I had surgery and was hospitalized for some of those, then recovering and unable to sit at the computer for almost a month. So all in all, I'm pretty happy with my record!

Answering one query each day is almost impossible, so this year (2010) my more realistic goal is to respond to 5 queries each week. Can I do it? 5x52=260. I almost made it last year!

I do have more surgery looming on the horizon. Two, actually. The next one is March 1, 2010 and I don't know what the recovery period is for that one. But I'm still going to try to answer at least 5 queries each week, so wish me luck! Send your challenges, puzzles and brick walls to askolivetree@gmail.com

Almshouse & Poorhouse Records online

Almshouse & Poorhouse Records Search New York Almshouse Records 1782-1813. Records contain name of ancestor, date admitted, age, where from or born, complaint [illness], discharged, died, remarks. Start with New York Almshouse 1782-1813 Surnames 'A'

These records contain such detail as

1811 Oct. 11. Conlin, Mary age 38 from/born Ireland, Drunken Vagrant discharged Apr 11, 1812

1811 Nov. 26 Aimes, Henry age 52 from/born New York died Aug 17, 1812

1812 Jan. Anderson, Mary age 36 from/born New Jersey discharged May 5, 1812 sent to asylum

1807 May 7 Arden, Thomas Jefferson, Bastard, 5 months at nurse with Mary Parker

New Wildcard Search on Ancestry.com

Ancestry.com announced a change to their search capabilities yesterday. I played with it for a few hours and was impressed! Before the change you had to use three characters and then either a * or a ?.

For example to search my maiden name McGinnis, you had to put MCG* to get variations of the ending of the name (innis, innes, ennis, ennes, uinness etc) But that didn't pick up MacG starts or McI starts or such variations as Magennis. So it was time-consuming and sometimes impossible, to think of all possible mis-indexed or mis-spelled variations.

Now you can put a wildcard first, such as *innis or ?cGinnis to catch all of those spellings and variations.

Try it. You'll like it! But you need to know the rules as posted by Ancestry.com:

Either the first or last character must be a non-wildcard character. For example, Han* and *son are okay, but not *anso*

Names must contain at least three non-wildcard characters. For example, Ha*n is okay, but not Ha*

You can use two wildcards in your name searches: the * (asterisk or star) and the ? (question mark).

* matches zero or more characters (example M*n*s picks up McGinnis, MacGinnis, McInnes, Magenis, and so on)

? matches one character only (example McGinn?s picks up McGinnes or McGinnis)

A really useful application of this new wildcard search capablity is the ability to replace the first letter of a surname! This allows for mistranscriptions or misindexing of such letters as "L" for "S" or "W" for "M" or "J" for "T". So if your surname of interest is Loomis, look for *oomis and that will pick up Soomis or other misrecorded names

Yesterday I was looking for a man named Lewis. But that name can be spelled Louis, and of course, mis-spelled in many ways. So I searched for l*is (remember, you must have 3 non wild-card letters) and bingo, there he was, as Louis.

I love this new search and am so glad Ancestry.com decided to set this up for researchers

More Online Naturalization Records

Today I spent several hours working on my NaturalizationRecords.com website. I fixed several broken links on the USA state pages of online Naturalization Records, and added many new links to new Naturalization Records I found online.

The new links I added are:

* Surname Index to Jefferson County, Alabama Naturalization Records, 1887-1911
* Faulkner County Arkansas Declarations of Intent
* White County Arkansas Declarations of Intention
* World War I soldiers who applied for naturalization at Camp Pike, Arkansas
* Index of Declaration of Intention for Citizenship - Douglas County Colorado, 1871 to 1938
* Larimer County Naturalization Index (1885-1958)
* 1917 Enemy Alien Registration Affidavits for Johnson County Kansas , index of affidavits available at the National Archives, includes name, date of birth, city and country of origin, and women's maiden names
Naturalization records at the Johnson County Archives in Olathe, Kansas
* Sedgwick County Kansas Declaration of Intentions 1870 to September 26, 1906
* Name Index to St. Paul, Minnesota, Naturalization Records (1859-1916)
* Missouri Naturalization Records, 1816 - 1955
* Cape Girardeau Petitions, Name index to naturalization petitions ca. 1908-1979, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Missouri, Southeast Division, Cape Girardeau Missouri,
* Hannibal Petitions, Name index to naturalization petitions ca. 1907-1973, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Missouri, Northern Division, Hannibal Missouri,
* Jefferson City Petitions, Name index to naturalization petitions ca. 1938-1982, U.S. District Court, Western District of Missouri, Central Division, Jefferson City Missouri,
* Joplin Petitions, Name index to naturalization petitions ca. 1931-ca. 1969, U.S. District Court, Western District of Missouri, Southwest Division, Joplin Missouri,
* Springfield Petitions, Name index to naturalization petitions ca. 1911-ca. 1983, U.S. District Court, Western District of Missouri, Southern Division, Springfield, Missouri,
* St. Joseph Petitions, Name index to naturalization petitions ca. 1908-1976, U.S. District Court, Western District of Missouri, Northern Division, St. Joseph Missouri,
* Lincoln Nebraska Petitions, Name index to naturalizations petitions ca. 1932-1980
* Norfolk Nebraska Petitions, Name index to petitions ca. 1929-1942
* Chadron Division, Name Index to Naturalization Records, Including Declarations and Petitions, U.S. District Court, District of Nebraska, in NARA's Central Plains Region
* Hamilton County Ohio Probate Court Archived Records Search Naturalization Index (1856-1906)
* Shelby County Tennessee Naturalization Records 1856-1906
* Declarations of Intent 1894-1920 Sheridan County, Wyoming

Choose the state you wish to search for ancestor naturalization records by going to the USA Naturalization Records page and using the clickable USA map.

What does a Petition for Naturalization Tell Us?

Petitions for naturalization before 1906 usually show only a name, former allegiance, and date of naturalization.

Petitions for Naturalization after 1906 have information that has been verified and matched to an immigration record. Any immigrant arriving after June 29, 1906, could not naturalize until their immigration record (a passenger list) was found.

Since 1906, after an immigrant filed a Declaration of Intention or a Petition for Naturalization in a naturalization court, the Bureau of Naturalization was called upon to provide a certification of the immigrant's arrival record.

The certification, called a Certificate of Arrival was sent to the courthouse, and this allowed the immigrant to naturalize.

Examples of various Petitions for Naturalization are shown online on NaturalizationRecords.com The 1795 Petition for Naturalization for Patrick Ryan in Pennsylvania is lengthy but tells us little about Patrick.

In contrast, the 1906 Petition for Naturalization for Christopher Alt in Baltimore Maryland gives occupation, date and place of birth, date of immigration, port of departure and port of arrival, names of children plus dates and locations of births

Even better, the 1912 Petition for Naturalization for Jacob Imfang of Pittsburg Pennsylvania gives occupation, date and place of birth, date of immigration, port of departure and port of arrival, name of spouse, names of children plus dates and locations of births

New Year's Genealogy Resolutions

2010 is here. Another New Year for Genealogy. Have you made any Genealogy Resolutions? I decided that this year I would set a few goals (resolutions). Hopefully I'll stick to them!

1. File my genealogy papers. This goal really is the only one I should make. Given the dozens of tubs, piles of overflowing paper copies defying garbage, and general abundance of papers, this goal will take me all 365 days! But being an optimist, I've set more goals for 2010

2. Finish my books on the Peer Family of North America. I am so close to completing Volume 1! All I need is 2, perhaps 3 weeks of uninterupted time. That's possible isn't it?

3. Prove my SHUART family connection. Find more supporting evidence or better yet - conclusive proof - that my Elizabeth Shuart is the daughter of Henry Shuart and Rachel De Grauw.

4. Enter new-found genealogy data the same day I receive it! No more reading it and setting it aside

5. Go through my filing cabinets and enter genealogy data that I received, pored over in my excitement, then promptly set aside to enter "later".

Even though this is only 5 goals/resolutions, I think it is about all I can realistically expect to complete. I'll let you know on Jan. 1, 2011 if I was successful.

Hopefully you have some well-intentioned genealogy goals too. Let's hear about them! Feel free to post a comment here on Olive Tree Genealogy blog

All Saints' Anglican Church destroyed by fire

All Saints' Anglican Church in Whitby, Ontario was destroyed by fire a few days ago. This church was founded in 1864 and has been in use since that time.

Investigators think that the fire may have been set deliberately and when I read this all I could think about was the church records. Were the church registers of baptisms, marriages and burials or deaths destroyed? Are they safe?

No one was hurt in the fire (a blessing) but it's a tragedy and hopefully the guilty culprits will be found and punished to the fullest extent of the law

Ask Olive Tree Genealogy a Question

Do you need help finding an ancestor? Do you have a genealogy question you would like to ask me? Do you want to know where to find certain genealogy records? Let Lorine help! Every day I will choose one question to answer. Send your query about your ancestors to me then check back here to see if it has been answered. Please take a few minutes to read other queries that I've responded to so you get an idea of the kind of query most apt to be chosen.

Here are a few of the December 2009 queries asked and answered on Ask Olive Tree

* Searching for a Portuguese Ancestor
* Obtaining New York Vital Statistic Records
* Finding an ancestor with an unusual surname
* Don't Trust Family Lore as Absolute Fact
* Writing a Good Query
* Finding Genealogy Records in Russia
* Finding a Swedish Ancestor on a Ships Passenger List
* Be sure to gather all data before you jump ahead in genealogy research
* Finding an Ancestor in 1910 Census using City Directories
* Finding an Ancestor's Death Record
* Searching for American Legion Inventory of Military Graves
* Using National Archives UK to find Australian Ancestor

Submit your genealogy challenge to AskOliveTree@gmail.com

St, George Utah Family History Expo

Don't miss the 6th Annual St. George Family History Expo February 26-27, 2010 in St. George Utah.

This Family History Expo is your chance to learn about your family origins

Two Genealogy Subscriptions for One!

NewspaperARCHIVE.com & World Vital Records have a great offer this Christmas Season. Subscriptions to both for the price of one!

Give a gift of genealogy to yourself or a loved one by signing up for this special buy one, get subscriptions to both websites and their wonderful genealogy data.

Form 30 Border Crossings 1919-1924 at Library & Archives Canada

New - Microform Digitization of Border Crossings at LAC (Library & Archives Canada)

Form 30, Border Entry Records, 1919-1924

These records are not indexed at the LAC. According to LAC "The records were microfilmed in quasi-alphabetical order and the digitized images for Forms 30A (Archived) can be searched in that order in Digitized Microforms (Archived).

You can also search the INDEX to these records on Ancestry.com

1839 Petworth Emigrants Ships Passenger List

Thank you to Brenda Dougall Merriman for the following announcement

Colonel George Wyndham was the son of the third Earl of Egremont who was instrumental in the large Petworth Emigration of 1832-1837 to Canada from southeast England.

Wyndham also sponsored emigrations from his estates in Ireland, but only the first was conducted under similar care and conditions as those of his father. Now, historian Wendy Cameron has uncovered a list of that first group sent from Ireland in 1839 on the ship Waterloo. The list includes names, ages, family members, and their locations in January 1840. The names of most towns and townships are in the old
Newcastle District of Upper Canada, but some went on to the United States.

For more information, please visit our Petworth Emigrations website. We also have a group presence on Facebook called Petworth Emigrants.

Arizona Family History Expo

Don't miss the 2nd Annual Arizona Family History Expo January 22-23, 2010 in Mesa Arizona

Family History Expos are opportunities to learn about the techniques and technology available to trace your family origins

Sharing Memories: A Genealogy Journey (Week 1)

A few months ago I talked about Memory Books and Genealogy Journal writing

It's important as genealogists that we not forget about writing our own story. Yes, we all want to find information on our ancestors and once we find it, most of us will put it in booklet form to share with other family members. But what about our own memories? We may think writing about ourselves is boring or egotistical but stop and think how excited you would be if you found a journal or memoirs that your great great grandmother kept!

I began my Life Story last year. As I mentioned in my previous posts, I started with my first memory and tried to keep my journal chronological. It was a matter of writing down my memories of each year of my life - or so I thought! That soon proved to be very difficult. I got confused - had I written about my mother falling on the ice her first time skating? Or my father dressing up as Santa then giving out the wrong presents? I simply could not recall what I had already written and what was a memory that had just surfaced.

So after months of mulling this over I've decided on a new method of writing my own life story. This new method will keep me on track, and will help get rid of confusion - did I or didn't I already talk about an event.

I will write about my memories of the past - memories of my family (parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and siblings), memories of special events, stories told by my parents or grandparents, my time at school, as a child, a teenager, an adult, newly married - in short it will be my life story but broken into events (topics) rather than chronological.

My hope is that my readers will follow along with me on this genealogy journey. I invite you to start your own journal and write along with me day by day, week by week and month by month. I will share some of my stories as I go along, and it would be wonderful if readers shared theirs too by using the comment feature on this blog, or by posting to your own blog.

I'll be writing my journal using various topics as a guideline, and I'll keep my journal for that week following the topic guidelines. A weekly topic will keep us writing daily in order to complete the topic by the end of the week!

A few suggestions are

* Buy a good book to keep your Life Memories in. I write in leather bound journals from Iona Handcrafted books, simply because I like how they feel and look important! They look like something that won't be tossed in the trash 50 years from now. That's important because I"m writing my memories for my descendants - children, grandchildren, great grandchildren not yet born. So I don't want to write in something that could easily be discarded in the future simply because it doesn't look worth saving

* Combine facts (where you went to school, names of teachers, where you lived) as well as emotions - happy and sad. Remember these are your memories so it's up to you to decide what you want to share. But don't overlook the sad moments too.

* Stay focused on the topic but jot down other memories that pop into your head as you are writing. You will be amazed at what memories surface as you are putting your thoughts down on paper. You can add those jot notes later when we get to a topic that fits.

* Don't type your memories - writing them by hand gives your descendants a sense of YOU - your style, your emotions. Handwriting is a reflection of our personality.

* choose a daily time period to write. If you can get in the habit of writing at the same time each day, you will find your journal writing flows more easily. Write early morning with your cup of tea or coffee. Write just as you are going bed or after supper when the children have gone to bed. Whatever is a good quiet time for you. I try to set aside 30 minutes each day. I don't always write for that 30 minutes, sometimes all I manage is 5 or 10! But that's okay.

I'm going to begin my Sharing Memories Journal this month with a topic suitable for the season, so drop back tomorrow to see what topic I've chosen to start my Genealogy Journal. Hopefully you will join me to begin recording and saving your own precious memories of your life to date.

To find all our Sharing Memories Topics, just click on the SHARING MEMORIES label in the right side bar of this blog or on the SHARING MEMORIES label of this post

WW11 Collection FREE on Footnote.com in December

Exciting news from Footnote.com!

FOOTNOTE.COM HONORS WWII VETERANS WITH THE FIRST-EVER INTERACTIVE USS ARIZONA MEMORIAL

-Footnote.com Opens Their WWII Collection Free To The Public During December-

Lindon, UT – December 7, 2009 – In honor of Pearl Harbor Day, Footnote.com announced today that they will make the largest interactive WWII collection on the web including the Interactive USS Arizona Memorial free to the public during December. Featuring over 10 million records, documents and photos from the National Archives, this collection helps family members and historians better understand the people and events of WWII.

Included in this exclusive collection is the Interactive USS Arizona Memorial. This online version allows people to view the actual wall of names and search for those they know. An interactive box for each name on the wall features additional information about each veteran and includes a place where anyone can contribute photos and stories. View the Captain of the USS Arizona, Franklin Van Valkenburgh, on the interactive wall.


It’s estimated that a little over 2 million WWII veterans are still alive in the United States today. However, thousands of veterans are passing away every month taking with them many of the stories from WWII. Footnote.com is making an effort to help preserve these stories by digitizing documents from the National Archives and providing interactive tools to help people connect with each other.


Christina Knoedler from Pennsylvania used the Missing Air Crew Reports on Footnote.com to discover information about her father-in-law, who is a WWII veteran. “The other night, I showed him what I had found,” explains Christina. “He couldn’t believe that these papers existed. They had not only his name but also his buddies’ names. He started to reminisce and it was quite an evening. This will allow me to go back and document many more events in our family’s history for the generations to come.”


The Missing Air Crew Reports are just one of the record collections found on Footnote.com. Other WWII collections on Footnote.com include:


Pearl Harbor Muster Rolls
U.S. Air Force Photos
Submarine Patrol Reports
Japanese Air Target Analysis
Army JAG Case Files
Navy JAG Case Files
Naval Press Clippings
Allied Military Conferences
Holocaust Records

Sullivan Co. Tennessee Genealogy Database

The Sullivan County Department of Archives and Tourism announces its newest addition of the Lane Genealogical Research Database to its Special Collections.

Donald W. Lane, Ph.D., has donated his research database containing names and genealogical information on approximately 350,000 individuals and over 139,000 families primarily from the East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia region.

The following family names are found in the database: Allen, Alley, Anderson, Arnold, Babb, Bailey, Baker, Baldwin, Ball, Barker, Barnes, Barnett(e), Begley, Bellamy, Berry, Bishop, Blair, Bledsoe, Blevins, Bowen, Brickey, Brown, Burke, Campbell, Carter, Castle, Childress, Christian, Clark, Cole, Collins, Compton, Combs, Cox, Crawford, Cross, Culbertson, Darnell, Davidson, Davis, Dean, Dingus, Dockery, Dougherty, Edwards, Elliott, Estep, Fields, Flanary/Flannery, Fleenor, Fletcher, Ford, Frazier, Gibson, Gillenwater, Gilliam, Graham, Gray, Hale, Hall, Hamilton, Hammond(s), Harris, Hensley, Herron, Hicks, Hill, Hillman, Hilton, Hood, Horne, Horton, Jennings, Jessee, Johnson, Jones, Ketron, Kilgore, Lane, Lawson, Light, McClellan, McConnell, McDavid, McMurray, Meade, Miller, Moody, Moore, Mullins, Nickels, Osborn(e), Owens, Pendleton, Penley, Pennington, Peters, Phillips, Pierson, Porter, Powers, Price, Quillen/Quillin, Ramey, Reed, Rhoton, Roberts, Robinette, Robinson, Rogers, Roller, Salyer, Sanders, Shelton, Smith, Stallard, Stanley, Stapleton, Starnes, Stewart, Strong, Taylor, Templeton, Thompson, Tipton, Vaughn, Walker, Webb, Wells, White, Williams, Wilson, Wolfe, Wood.

The database is available Monday to Friday at the Sullivan County Department of Archives and Tourism. Visit the website for more information or to find out what other genealogy items are held at the Archives.

Richard Pence, 1932-2009

Richard Pence was a long-time member of NGS who contributed his many talents to the organization, especially in the early days of computer genealogy. We are saddened to learn of his recent death. A memorial service will be held on Saturday, January 9, from 2 to 4 p.m. at the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association Conference Center located at 4301 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington, VA 22203 Source: Upfront with NGS.

Read Richard Pence's obituary

Home!

Lorine is back - and I hope to be blogging on a daily basis SOON!

Surgery was successful, I spent 4 days in hospital and am home but very very tired. Sitting at my beloved computer is not something I can do for long periods, but every day I get a little stronger.

Thanks for my readers' patience, and I will be back on a more regular schedule as soon as I can.

I hope your genealogy hunting has been successful while I've been offline and I'll scout around to find out what's new in the online genealogy world ASAP.

NGS Research Trip to Salt Lake City, 24-31 January 2010

The National Genealogical Society is sponsoring a research trip to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City for the last week of January 2010. This is the eleventh year for this educational event, and it will be co-led by Shirley Langdon Wilcox, CG, FNGS, and Marie Varrelman Melchiori, CG, CGL.

The trip package price includes seven nights at the Salt Lake City Plaza Hotel, located next door to the Library. The Plaza is ideally located with access to the library, shopping malls and restaurants. Also included in the price are an informal reception on Sunday evening, pizza on Wednesday, and a last night dinner. Other meals are at your own expense, and airfare and personal expenses are not included. Complete details at http://www.ngsgenealogy.org/cs/research_trips