Reviewing past research yields new results

June 10th, 2008

I had a conversation recently with a new genealogy friend about the value of reviewing family history research that we’ve done in the past.

We talked about how we may have missed clues years ago that would be obvious to us now that we know more about our families – and more about genealogy research techniques and records.

We also talked about the availability of new tools, especially those via the Internet such as databases, indexes, and digital images.

With that in mind, I decided to try to find the birth record of my great-grandmother’s sister.

I knew from the 1900 U.S. census that Emma STEFFENSON had been born in Michigan in September 1883. The family was living in Mason County, Michigan, in 1900 and had arrived in the area sometime in the 1880s. So, my assumption was that Emma had been born in Mason County.

However, in a previous search of Mason County birth records I had not found Emma’s birth record. Nor had I found her listed in the microfilmed index for Michigan births, 1867-1915. For years I thought Emma had probably been born outside of Michigan – like several of her siblings — or that her birth had not been recorded in Michigan.

I decided to search for Emma STEFFENSON’s birth on FamilySearch’s Record Search, a pilot project of FamilySearch Labs.

I ran a search for “birth/christening” records in “Mason, Michigan, United States” for the first name “Emma.” I left the last name blank.

I had decided to start with Mason County since that was the most likely birth place, and I left the last name blank because my STEFFENSONs have appeared in records with various spellings of their surname.

That search request gave me 153 results.

Then I narrowed the results further by selecting the “birth date” option and selected “1880-1889.”

That gave me 58 results.

I narrowed the results again by selecting the “last names” option and selected the letter “S.”

So now I had a list of the seven individuals with the first name “Emma” and a last name starting with the letter “S,” born between 1880 and 1889 in Mason County, Michigan.

Of those seven, the most likely result was a birth for “Emma STEVEN” on 22 Sept. 1883 in Ludington, Mason County, Michigan, to parents “Ivan STEVEN and Mary STEVEN.”

Emma’s parents’ first names would have been Swan and Mary. When I checked the digital image, however, Emma’s father’s first name did indeed look like “Swan” to me, rather than “Ivan.” The birth place for Emma’s parents was “Sweden,” which is consistent with other research results for this family.

I’m almost positive that I’ve finally found the birth record for my great-grandmother’s sister.

My success is mostly due to this new research tool, but it’s also because of my increased knowledge about genealogy research techniques in general and this family in particular.

It’s very possible that in previous searches I had overlooked Emma’s birth record because the last name was different that what I had expected to find.

Now if I only can find my great-grandmother’s birth record or birth place …

Posted in Michigan genealogy, Steffenson genealogy, genealogy research tips | 2 Comments »

FamilySearch Record Search boon to genealogists

June 5th, 2008

If you haven’t yet visited FamilySearch’s Record Search, it might be worth your time to check it out.

The free site has a number of genealogical collections, including census and vital records. Most collection are for the United States, but a few are for other countries.

For those of us with 19th century Michigan ancestors, it is a godsend because it includes Michigan birth records, 1867-1902; Michigan marriage records, 1868-1925; and Michigan death records, 1867-1897.

Michigan started statewide registration of vital records in 1867, and the records on FamilySearch’s Record Search are the copies sent to the state from the counties.

Early Michigan death records have been available online for a number of years from the Michigan Department of Community Health’s Genealogical Death Indexing System or GENDIS, but the FamilySearch site also links to the digital image of the record.

Within the first hour of visiting the site I found the birth record for my great-grandfather, something I had sought for years. I also found information about several of his siblings as well as other family members.

Because this is a pilot project, the entire site or certain record collections are not available at certain times. There are other quirks as well. One afternoon, for example, I found a death record linked to the digital image of a marriage record.

Overall, however, it is an impressive site that is easy to use. You can search for records in a number of ways — by name, life event, or place. You can further narrow your search results by gender, record collection, or other criteria.

You also can save copies of the digital images or copies of the record transcriptions to your computer for later review.

FamilySearch’s Record Search is part of FamilySearch Labs.

Posted in Michigan genealogy, genealogy research tips | 2 Comments »

Civil War soldier Jordan BAILEY (ca. 1828-1900)

May 26th, 2008

In honor of Memorial Day, I’m posting a brief biographical sketch of my great-great-great-grandfather Jordan BAILEY.

Jordan BAILEY served in Co. D, 40th Georgia Regiment, Georgia Volunteers, Army of Tennessee, during the Civil War. He enlisted at the rank of Private in 1862 in Gordon County, Georgia. He was 34 years old and a married man with four children, ranging in age from 1 to 7 years. (Four-year-old George T. was my great-great-grandfather.)

Jordan, the son of George W. BAILEY and Elizabeth ???, was born on 14 April 1828 or 1829 in DeKalb County, Georgia. Many BAILEY researchers indicate that Elizabeth’s maiden name was DAVIS.

Jordan appears in the 1850 U.S. census for Walker County, Georgia, in the home of Elijah STANSELL. Jordan married Elijah’s daughter, Louisa Jane STANSELL, on 11 Aug. 1851 in Walker County, Georgia. The couple appears in the 1860, 1870, and 1880 U.S. censuses in Gordon County, Georgia, and in the 1900 U.S. census in Whitfield County, Georgia.

Jordan died on 17 Aug. 1900 near Dalton, Georgia. He was 72.

During the Civil War, Jordan’s unit participated in many conflicts, including those at Chickasaw Bayou and Champion’s Hill, both in Mississippi.

Jordan’s unit was part of the garrison that surrendered at Vicksburg on 4 July 1863. The men were exchanged and attached to Gen. Stovall’s Brigade, Army of Tennessee. They saw action in many conflicts from Chattanooga to Nashville.

Jordan saw his last action of the Civil War at the Battle at Resaca, Georgia, in May 1864. He was captured and spent the remainder of the war in Camp Morton. The former state fairgrounds at Indianapolis, Indiana, had been converted to a prison camp.

Jordan’s Civil War service may have taken a toll on his health. In 1895, Jordan applied for a Pension for Indigent Confederate Soldiers. (Jordan’s last name was spelled as “BALEY” on the application.)

Jordan described his health as “very bad.”

“I am afflicted with paralysis and suffer with pains in my side and back and I am almost blind,” Jordan said. “At times I cannot hardly see my way attall (sic).”

Jordan received the pension. After his death in 1900, his wife applied for a Widow’s Indigent Pension.

According to his military records, Jordan was 5 foot 6.25 inches tall. He had a dark complexion, dark hair, and blue eyes.

Jordan BAILEY and Louisa Jane STANSELL were the parents of 10 known children, all of whom were born in Georgia.

a. Rebecca J., born ca. 1853

b. Martha B., born ca. 1854

c. George T., born ca. 1856; married Sarah BROCK in Gordon County, Georgia, on 1 Dec. 1872; died ca. 1900

d. Leroy W., born ca. 1859

e. James E. J., born ca. 1863

f. Elizabeth A., born about 1866

g. Zachariah V., born December 1869

h. Joseph H., born March 1874

i. John E., born May 1875

j. Benjamin Boss, born 11 March 1877

Posted in BAILEY genealogy, Georgia genealogy | 2 Comments »

Part 6: Who is Birdie Winchester? And why do I have her stuff?

May 24th, 2008

Most mornings while drinking coffee, I surf the Internet. I usually start with the Weather Channel Web site to check the day’s forecast, and then I move on to CNN for national headlines. After that, it depends. Some mornings I’m focused on genealogy, some mornings on something else.

This morning I ran a search on Google for “Unity BOOMER.”

Unity was the daughter of Eliza and James FORTON and the sister of Esther FORTON. Esther married H.E. (Harlon) WINCHESTER, father of Birdie WINCHESTER. I guess that makes Unity a step-aunt to Birdie.

In any event, I ran the search to see if my post from yesterday had been indexed by Google. Unity was mentioned in yesterday’s post because she had been listed in Eliza FORTON’s will, and sure enough, my post was the first return for that search this morning.

The third of three returns was a link to information about a tombstone for Unity BOOMER, wife of Benjamin BOOMER Jr. The tombstone is located in Bristol Cemetery in Genesee County, Michigan, so the location was right for it to be the same Unity BOOMER.

After doing some additional searches and checking my records, it appears the link I found this morning is indeed for the tombstone of Unity FORTON BOOMER. I said “appears to be” because the information about the tombstone lists her death date as 20 July 1916, and I have an obituary for Unity FORTON BOOMER that was published in April 1916.

Unity BOOMER’s obituary, published in the 20 April 1916 issue of the Flint Daily Journal:

“Mrs. Unity Boomer of Flint Twp. Dead

“Mrs. Unity FORTON BOOMER died this morning at 7:30 o’clock at her home in Flint township of the infirmities of age. She was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. James FORTON of London, England, and was born in London in 1835, coming to America when a child. Her parents made their home in Detroit and after residing there for three years they came to Genesee county and made their home in Burton township. She was married to Benjamin BOOMER on November 16, 1854. She was a member of the Bristol M.E. church and was very active in church affairs.

“Mrs. BOOMER leaves two sons, Clarence and Clement of Flint township, one daughter, Mrs. Florence GOTSHALL of Mundy township, three sisters, Martha YOUNG and Victoria SHATTUCK of Corunna and Esther WINCHESTER of Detroit, and four grandchildren.

“The funeral will be held on Easter Sunday. Fifteen years ago on Easter Sunday a daughter of Mrs. Boomer was buried.”

Posted in FORTON genealogy, Michigan genealogy, WINCHESTER genealogy | No Comments »

Part 5: Who is Birdie Winchester? And why do I have her stuff?

May 23rd, 2008

One of the most surprising items among the papers that may have belonged to Birdie WINCHESTER was a will written by Eliza FORTON of Genesee County, Michigan.

The will, dated 12 Jan. 1876, was written when Eliza was 70 years old. It lists Eliza’s son Ebenezer; daughters Eliza, Esther, Martha, Mercy, Unity, and Victoria; and a grandson, Frederick L. ARNOLD. All of the daughters, except Esther, appeared to be married; they were listed as Eliza JACKSON, Mercy ARNOLD, Unity BOOMER, Martha YOUNG, and Victoria YOUNG POWERS.

I didn’t recognize any of the names, and I wasn’t aware that any of my ancestors had lived in Genesee County. Yet my dad had found the will, along with a package of letters and other information, in his home after my mom’s death.

I zeroed in on the will, thinking it would have some important clues for my family history.

This is what I have discovered so far about Eliza FORTON and her family:

1. Eliza’s husband, James, died on 8 Oct. 1873, about three years before Eliza wrote her will.

2. Eliz died on 28 April 1881.

3. Eliza and James FORTON were both from England.

4. The family first appears in the Genesee County, Michigan, census in 1850.

5. A James FORTON, possibly the same one who ended up in Genesee County, appears on the 1840 Michigan census for Wayne County.

6. According to the 1850 census, Unity was born about 1836 in England. All of the older children – James Jr., Mercy, and Ebenezer – were also born in England.

7. Daughters Martha, Esther, and Victoria were all born in Michigan; Martha, the oldest, was born about 1838.

8. The above birth places and dates narrow the date of this family’s arrival in Michigan to about 1837.

9. Son James Jr. wasn’t listed in the will because he died on 7 Nov. 1875 in Saginaw County. That was about two months before Eliza penned her will. According to his death record, he was born 2 April 1834 in London, England.

10. Daughter Esther, who was not married at the time the will was written, later married H.E. (Harlon) WINCHESTER, Birdie WINCHESTER’s father. This means, of course, that Esther FORTON was Birdie’s step-mother, and Eliza FORTON was Birdie’s step-grandmother.

The bottom line in all this is if my family is somehow related to the WINCHESTERs, I am not related to the FORTONs – and vice versa.

None of these clues have helped me figure out why my mom had this information in the first place, but I’m enjoying the mystery nevertheless.

Posted in FORTON genealogy, Michigan genealogy, WINCHESTER genealogy | No Comments »

School bombing prompted migration from the area

May 18th, 2008

Today is the 81st anniversary of the Bath School Massacre, the largest mass murder in Michigan’s history. Forty-five people were killed on May 18, 1927, when Clinton County’s Bath Consolidated School was bombed by a local resident.

The bombing hurt the entire community – not just the people in the school at the time. According to the memories of one survivor:

“After all this happened many families left Bath. … Bath was almost a ghost town for many years.” – My Scrapbook on the Bath School Bombing of May 18th, 1927 by Gene H. Wilkins (2002), p. 56.

Much has been written about the horrific event. Two good starting points to learn more are the following Web sites.

The Bath School Disaster, managed by James L. Daggy, includes information about the victims of the tragedy, the transcript of the coroner’s inquest, a digital copy of the 1927 book The Bath School Disaster by Monty J. Ellsworth, and other links and related materials.

Ronald D. Bauerle, a family member of one of the victims, manages anther Bath School Disaster Web site. It includes photographs, transcripts of newspaper accounts of the event, and other information.

Posted in Michigan genealogy, disasters and ancestors | No Comments »

Internet Archive features sources for genealogists

May 16th, 2008

Earlier this year I read that a number of B Horror Movies were available on the Internet Archive.

For those of you who don’t know, the Internet Archive is a non-profit organization that offers free and permanent access to historical collections in digital format.

I love those old B Horror Movies, so I checked out the site and was pleased to see a number of movies that I had enjoyed years ago now available for free online.

But what does this have to do with stuff about genealogy?

After checking out the movies and classic television programs, I ran a search on the Internet Archive for “genealogy” and found that the site also has much of interest to family historians.

Among its texts (books), audio and video files, software, and archived web pages are family histories, county histories, and podcasts (audio files) focusing on “how-to” techniques and other information about genealogy research.

For example, when searching on the term “genealogy” in the “text” area the more than 1,500 returns include family histories, such as William Bird Wylie’s Bird Genealogy (1903) or Helen Morrill Guilford’s Guilford Genealogy (1918).

There are county and state histories, such as Myers’ History of West Virginia (1915) or Oren Frederic Morton’s A History of Preston County, West Virginia (1914).

Among the audio files are several podcasts of DearMYRTLE’s Family History Hour, such as the one from 20 June 2006 that focuses on www.Genline.com, the premier website for Swedish Church Records.

Books and maps can be viewed online or downloaded for later use; similarly, podcasts and videos can be used online or downloaded.

So whether you’re looking for B Horror movies or digital books or something else entirely, check out the Internet Archive.

You might be surprised at what you find.

Posted in West Virginia genealogy, genealogy research tips | No Comments »

A Bevy of Halls – Part 3

May 15th, 2008

When I first started researching my HALLs I wasn’t sure in which direction to turn.

My great-grandfather had “appeared” in Ludington, Mason County, Michigan, in the 1890s.

He supposedly was born in Saginaw County, Michigan — or Ontario — but I couldn’t find a record of his birth.

One of my first clues with his family came from a newspaper article about his funeral. Not an obituary – an article about his funeral.

There was an obituary, of course. It was published in the Ludington Daily News on 11 Nov. 1940. It listed one brother and one sister as survivors but didn’t include their names.

I was disappointed until I found the article about his funeral, which listed the names of out-of-town guests:

“Out of town persons who attended the rites were Mr. and Mrs. Vern HALL, Mrs. Maud HALL, Mrs. Olive LENICK and Charles HALL, all of Bay City.”

Bay City is located in Bay County, the county just north of Saginaw. Now I had a place to continue my search.

I don’t know how many newspapers published articles like this, but if you haven’t searched for an article published after a funeral, it might be worth your time to do so.

It was for me.

These names and the location of Bay County opened a door to my great-grandfather’s family.

Posted in HALL genealogy, Michigan genealogy | 1 Comment »

Part 4: Who is Birdie Winchester? And why do I have her stuff?

May 13th, 2008

Three photos were among the papers that may have belonged to Birdie WINCHESTER.

Found among papers belonging to Birdie WINCHESTER.

Two of the photos had nothing written on the back. On the back of the above photo was some writing, almost as if Birdie (I assume) was using the photo to write herself reminders.

Back of photos belonging to Birdie WINCHESTER

On one edge of the photo there are some numbers: “ 1870, 1841,” etc., as if she were trying to figure out someone’s age.

On the opposite edge of the photo there is the phrase “2 picture frames” and below that: “1 – 12 x 15” and “1 – 10 x 12.” It appears that she wanted to purchase two picture frames of those dimensions.

On another edge of the photo it says: “Mark Twains works.” Under that is says something that I originally thought illegible and then “Head Wilson.” On the third line is another word that I can’t read.

My first thought was that “Head Wilson” might be the identity of the woman in the photo, but then I decided to run a search on Google for “Mark Twain works” and “head wilson” to see if there were any interesting returns.

Indeed there were.

It turns out Mark Twain wrote a story titled “Pudd’n’head Wilson.”

Now when I look at the illegible word on the second line it does look like it could be “Puddn.” Is this a reference to the Mark Twain story? And why? Especially jotted on the back of a photo?

The final notes on the photo are three lines located in the center. Each appear to be a first name, a number, and another name. Perhaps they are addresses of friends? I believe they are as follows:

“Kits 1017 Oakland
“Maude 221 Barnes
“Esther (?) 218 Smith”

These three lines partially cover the notes about Mark Twain, as if they were written after the Mark Twain jottings.

None of these notes, however, appear to give any clues to the identity of the woman in the photo.

Perhaps reading the Twain story or searching city directories and census records for the possible identity of Kits, Maude, and Esther may shed some more light on this mystery.

Posted in Michigan genealogy, Uncategorized, WINCHESTER genealogy | No Comments »

Memorial Day good time to profile military ancestors

May 12th, 2008

I once read a suggestion, urging genealogists to honor their military ancestors by writing a profile of one of them for Memorial Day.

I thought it was a great idea.

As most of you probably know, Memorial Day in the United States is a day set aside to honor those who have died in our nation’s service. This year Memorial Day falls on Monday, May 26.

Last year I wrote a biographical sketch of H.E. (Harlon) WINCHESTER, a Michigan Civil War soldier. He did not die serving the Union; however, I still wanted to honor his service to his country.
As far as I know, he is not one of my ancestors, but I have an interest in his family.

This year I will profile one of my Civil War ancestors who fought for the Confederacy.

In the meantime, I’d like to urge you to consider writing a profile for one of your military ancestors. You can post it on your blog or another Web site or on a mailing list. For example, I posted Harlon’s biography on the MI-Genealogy mailing list and the Genealogy of the Winchester Family Surname web site.

You also could share your biography in many traditional ways — by sending it to your interested family members, for example, or donating it to a genealogy collection at an appropriate archives or library.

If you don’t know whether one of your ancestors served in the military, there are many great sources to help you in your quest, such as the National Archives web site Research in Military Records and the Web sites connected with the USGenWeb Project.

I’ve discussed a number of sources for military records in my books, Michigan Genealogy: Sources and Resources and Virginia Genealogy: Sources and Resources. Of course, the sources are specific to those states. More information about my books, including limited previews, is available from my publisher’s web site, Genealogical Publishing Co.

Let me know if you write a biography, where you shared it, and if you connected with any distant “cousins” as a result.

Good luck!

Posted in Michigan genealogy, Virginia genealogy, WINCHESTER genealogy, genealogy research tips | No Comments »

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