Friday, May 30, 2008

8th Shades Of The Departed Guest Column Posted!

The eighth Shades Of The Departed guest column has been posted! The author of this week's column is Cherry Kinnick, and you can read the article here. Enjoy!

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Here's An Interesting Article ...

I just happened to notice this article on Stonehenge. I thought someone might find it interesting. You can read the article here.

Family History Center Visit 3

As I mentioned yesterday, I went to the local Family History Center earlier today. The microfilm for baptisms of the church that some of my British ancestors had attended came in, and I went in to see if I could find any of my ancestors listed.

So, how did I do? Well, I definitely hit pay dirt this time, at least in baptismal dates for my ancestors and their siblings. Of course, I haven't finished going through the microfilm yet, but I'm hoping to do so in my next visit. Hopefully, by that time, the other microfilm will have arrived as well. (And I will keep everyone informed on what I find.)

The baptismal records that I am looking at are from 1828 to 1900. These records list the name of the child and parents (without the mother's maiden name). The date of the baptism is given, and the residence of the parents is mentioned. Most of the time, the name of the town was only listed, but a few times street names and house numbers were given. The only disappointment that I had was that these records did not list the date of birth for the child that was baptized. Does anyone know how soon parents in England would have their children baptized after birth, especially when the parents went to the local Anglican church? Thanks.

Added Image For Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy

Yes, that's right. I've created and added an image for the Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy. You are free to copy it and post it to your blog. I realize the image is small, but if someone can make a better image, I will use that one instead. Thanks.

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Family History Center Research Update

I received a call yesterday from my local family history center informing me that one of my microfilms had come in. So, I'll be going tomorrow to do research. I'm excited because I have been barely able to wait for the films to come in. (I went to the center last week, but the films weren't in then, so I was unable to make progress in my research.) Wish me luck.

At The Beach ...

Since the topic for this upcoming edition of the Carnival of Genealogy is on either swimsuits or beach stories, I thought I would just share a few brief memories of being at the beach. (No, I am not going to post pictures of me or other family members in swimsuits. I don't want to embarrass anyone or have them get angry at me. Plus, I don't have any pictures of ancestors in swimsuits, so I'm going to opt out of the swimsuit category.)

When I think of beaches, I think of several different places: the coastlines of the Great Lakes, the beaches of Michigan inland lakes, the Outer Banks, the East Coast, and the coast of Florida, especially the coastline along the Gulf of Mexico. Of course, these are beaches that I have been to, so they are the ones that I picture when I hear the word, "Beach." But the beach that sticks out the most in my memories is the beach my family would go to when we visited relatives in Florida.

Of all the times that my family would visit Florida, it seems as though most of them were spent in Florida in the summer. Since we would visit during the warmest part of the year, going to the beach was a frequent activity. And yes, we would swim in the water, but would never go out too far. (The deepest we would go out was probably shoulder or neck deep. At least, while still being able to touch the floor. The only problem with being in the water constantly was that the water would wash off the sun screen, and we would end up getting sunburned. (I can get sunburned very easily, so every time I get burned, it hurts. The few times that I have been sunburned have been enough for me to want to stay out of the sun or put on as much sun screen as I can before go out into the sun. I don't like being out in the sun in the summer too long because of those experiences.)

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

How Does One ... ?

I was just wondering: Does anyone know how to create those pictures/images made for other carnivals? I was thinking of creating an image for the Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy, but I don't know how to make one. How does one create one? Would anyone be able to advise me? Thanks.

A German From Russia: Anton's Story

In the previous edition of the Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy, I wrote about my ancestor Caroline. Well, for this edition, I'm writing about her husband Anton (As I mentioned in the other post, I am not mentioning surnames to protect the privacy of others).

So, what do I know about Anton? Well, I just happen to know a little bit more about him than his wife. For starters, I have more than one record that gives the same date of birth. (He was born in the 1870s.) Plus, I know the names of a few of his siblings and possible siblings. (With Caroline, I still do not know the names of her siblings.) As in the case of Caroline, though, I still do not know where he was exactly born. All I know is that it was in the Russian Empire, possibly in present-day Lithuania. (Only the 1930 Census lists that as his place of birth. Other censuses say Russia.)

Anton immigrated to the United States in 1902. He came to the country through Ellis Island a few months before Caroline and their children, and went directly to Detroit, Michigan, where he would live for the rest of his life. (I think he earned enough to bring them to the U. S. within a couple of months.)

Family tradition holds that he worked for Ford Motor Company when he came to the U.S. Of course, I don't have any other proof other than oral tradition. (I don't know if Ford keeps records of former workers. I guess I'll have to take a look and find out.) According to family members, he mainly worked in lifting the heavy steel presses. Other family stories mention that he was also an excellent tool and die maker. The one story, though, that sticks in my mind, is about his strength. Supposedly, he was strong enough that he could lift one end of a heavy, wooden table that typically could only be lifted up by three or four men. (So, if you could picture this, my ancestor would lift one end of the table while three or four men had to lift the other end, so that they could just move that table.) When I actually got to see a picture of him, though, I was shocked to see that he was small. He did not look as strong as these family stories said he was. (I should mention, though, that he was sitting down. That might explain why he looked small.) Even if the story is not exactly true, it is still a colorful story, and helps to paint a vivid picture of him.

I wish I could have met him, but he died way before I was born since family stories suggest he was an interesting person. The best I can do, though, is find out more about him than the little that I do already do now.

Monday, May 26, 2008

Genealogy And History News of the Past Week Or So

I realize that I did not do a post on articles dealing with genealogy and history in the news. So, to make up for that, I've decided to do a post on the news of the past week or so that it has been since my last post of this type. So, here are the news articles of this week so far and the past week or so:

I think I got most of the history and genealogy news. If I have missed any articles from the past week up to do, please let me know. Thanks!

Reseaching In FamilySearch Lab's Michigan Vital Records Databases

As you may remember, I mentioned a few days ago that FamilySearch's Record Search had added Michigan vital records to their site, and I thought I would do a post on my experiences so far in regards to using those three databases.

For me, the addition of the Michigan vital records is a great time and money saver because I have ancestors who have lived in Michigan for at least the past 150 years. Okay, I realize that not everyone has ancestor who lived that long in Michigan, but for me, I can easily search the databases for records of my ancestors and their siblings. I don't have to worry about having to drive to other counties or libraries in Michigan to look up microfilms of vital records. I can just get on my computer and look at the databases. So, for those of us who have Michigan ancestors, it saves a lot of money and time since the databases contain the images and are free.

Anyhow, I think I've said enough about that. (Can't you tell I'm excited about this?) And as I promised, I'll start writing about my experiences.

As I stated before, my family has lived in Michigan a long time, so I was able to find many records of my ancestors, their children, their siblings and their siblings' children. Some of the information I had before, especially for my direct lines, but it was still nice that I could save those images on information that I already had. Most of my information was written down on paper, so I didn't have copies of everything that I had researched so far. With the images being available, I could just save them, and look over them whenever I wanted to, in case I happened to discover even more information. (Note: When I say images, I mean the actual images to the record books, and not to certificates, so one could be able to see if there are other family members listed on that page.)

Of course, I also found some new information, especially when it came to the marriage records. I was able to find marriage records for two of my great-grandparents that I had difficulty locating before hand. Also, I was also able to find a birth and death record for one of my ancestor's children that I did not have any solid proof of before. Even though I have been able to find information that I did not find before, there were a few disappointments. I still could not find the record of my ancestor's third marriage, nor could I find some records of deaths that I knew that had occurred in that time period. (I was able to find those records before in the record books.) Since there were deaths missing, it is very possible that FamilySearch has not added all of the records for the time periods in the databases. Plus, I was disappointed that many birth records and the death records only showed one page of the record books. Until I read Miriam's post, I was unaware that was due to technical difficulties. So, hopefully soon, the databases will be updated, and I'll be able to find what I was looking for. Either way, I have already determined that these databases are very useful. So, what do you think about these three new databases? Please leave me a comment with your thoughts. Thanks.

Those Who Served ...

Since today is Memorial Day, I thought I would briefly mention some of my known ancestors that served in the military, to honor them. I will mention ancestors who served up to World War Two. And my ancestors are:

World War Two
My grandfathers (Names are not mentioned for privacy reasons.)
World War One
My great-grandfather. (He served in the British Army in France. I don't know any more than that.)
Spanish-American War
I do not know of any possible ancestors or siblings that served in this war.
American Civil War
My ancestor, Adam, and his relatives. (As I mentioned before in two previous posts: here and here.)
Mexican-American War
At the moment, I do not know of any ancestors who might have served. (It may still be possible, though.)
War of 1812
I might have ancestor who served, if I can prove that John Householder was the father of Barbara Householder.
American Revolution
I don't know if I have any ancestors who served. I haven't had a chance to determine that yet.
As you can see, I still don't know all of the possible ancestors who might have served. I have only included the World Wars and American wars as though are the only wars that I am certain that I had ancestors serve in. I did not include European wars (outside of the World Wars) because I have not had a chance to research if any of my ancestors did serve in other wars.

Happy Memorial Day!

I just want to wish everyone a happy Memorial Day!