And Another Interesting Article on the Civil War ..

I just happened to notice this article about the surrender document that ended the U. S. Civil War, and I thought someone might be interested in it. You can read it here. Enjoy!

2 More Days? Maybe ....

The submission for this upcoming edition of the Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy is supposed to be the 4th. I haven't received any submissions so far, so I was wondering if I should extend the deadline. If I do, the deadline will not be until either the end of August or early September. The topic for this edition is carousel, so submissions can be on anything that deals with either Central or Eastern Europe. I have created a poll, and I would appreciate any feedback or suggestions about the deadline. Thanks.

17th Shades Of The Departed Guest Column Posted!

The seventeenth Shades of the Departed guest column has been posted! The author of this week's column is Sally Jacobs, and you can read the column here. Enjoy!

Google Analytic Statistics For July 2008

It's that time for another one of my monthly reports. Here's the statistics for July 2008:

The top ten countries, in number of visits, are:

1. United States - 637 visits


2. United Kingdom - 28 visits


3. Canada - 19 visits


4. Israel - 16 visits


5. Australia, Ireland, and India - all tied at 5 visits


6. Netherlands, Germany, Portugal, France, and not set - all tied with 3 visits


7. Spain and Hungary - both tied at 2 visits


8. (and through 10.) Peru, Philippines, Brazil, Russia, Italy, Finland, and Estonia - all tied at 1 visit

The top ten U. S. states, in number of visits are:

1. Michigan - 140 visits


2. California - 59 visits


3. Texas - 58 visits


4. Not set - 51 visits


5. Illinois - 33 visits


6. Ohio and New York - both tied at 24 visits


7. Washington - 21 visits


8. Virginia - 20 visits


9. Massachusetts - 19 visits


10. Utah - 18 visits

The top ten cities in Michigan, in number of visits are:

1. Whitmore Lake - 99 visits


2. Oak Park - 10 visits


3. Grand Rapids - 5 visits


4. Southfield - 4 visits


5. East Lansing and Utica - both tied at 3 visits


6. Berkley - 2 visits


7. (and through 10.) Morley, Traverse City, Ann Arbor, Livonia, Madison Heights, Royal Oak, Clinton township, Clawson, Ferndale, Muskegon, Franklin, Sterling Heights, Grand Ledge, and Jackson - all tied at 1 visit

The top ten most read articles for this month were:

1. 9th Edition of the Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy - 46 views


2. Genealogy and History Thoughts Column 14 - 38 views


3. Tombstone Maker Website - 27 views


4. FamilySearch Lab Adds More Databases to Record Search - 26 views


5. Somewhat Of A Home - 24 views


6. What on Earth? This Is A Stupid Lawsuit ... - 23 views


7. Google Analytics' Statistics: Results For June 2008 - 20 views


8. Another Twist To The Postmortem Photo ... - 17 views


9. Update On That Lake Ontario Shipwreck ... - 16 views


10. No! Ancestry's New Search Is Worse ... and Ages and Ancestors ... - both tied at 15 views

Well, that is it for this past month's results. To my readers, thank you for reading my blog!

Here's Another Interesting Article ...

I just happened to notice this article today, and I thought I would post the link to it today. It has to deal with an issue in U. S. history, and you can read it here. Enjoy!

Poll Results!

The poll has now closed, and the results are in! The question for this poll was, "Which area would you like to see a history post on?" Five people voted, and the results are:

• Michigan - 2 votes
• United States - 2 votes
• Europe - 0 votes
• Non-western countries - 1 vote

Well, it looks like I will be doing a history post on Michigan sometime in the future. I don't know when I'll post this history article, but I will post it sometime. To those who voted, thank you for voting.

Ancestry's Switched Over to the New Search ...

I just happened to take a look on the ancestry.com's home page and recently added page, and it appears to me that they have switched their system over to the new search. I think that is a mistake, and I wrote why I thought so in a previous post.

Out For A Picnic ...

A few days ago, I learned from a post on Terry's blog that Bill West had started a mini-meme/carnival on picnics, and I thought I would contribute some of my memories of family picnics.

Most of the time that my family has had a picnic has been due to either being part of a group or club event, part of a family trip, or part of a visit to a beach. At these picnics, we primarily ate hot dogs, chips and maybe potato salad. Sometimes, we had sandwiches instead of hot dogs. It just depended upon the situation. We mainly brought along food that could be kept in a cooler or could be made easily. In addition the food, we usually brought along cans of pop and bottles of water. Of course, one cannot forget to bring plates and utensils, and we primarily brought paper products along so that we could easily throw this stuff away. The stuff we brought was fairly simple as the simple stuff was easiest to bring along, and did not take very much time to prep or cook the food, if that was needed at all.

Many of my memories of family picnics mainly consist of stopping off somewhere to have lunch (instead of going to a restaurant) while we were on a family vacation. In that situation, we were most likely to eat sandwiches as that was the easiest to bring along on a car trip. As you can see, our family picnics were pretty simple and basic.

Another Reading Challenge!

I just learned about a another reading challenge from Lori's post. This time, the reading challenge is to read 3 military history books by November 11th, and you can read more about it here.

I think I have three military history books that I have not read yet that will work just fine for this reading challenge. Oh, and by the way, I am still reading my fifth book for the summer reading challenge.

Family History Center Visit 10

Earlier today, I went to the Family History Center as I learned that one of my microfilms had come in. It turns out that the microfilm of death records from Trippstadt, Germany had finally come! As you can imagine, I was quite excited, and I went over to the Family History Center soon after learning that it had come.

Well, when I got a chance to look at the microfilm, I realized that I had the wrong years. It turns out, I had accidentally written the number for the film below the film I wanted. Although that might seem disappointing, I did find someone from that family in the death records. So, it wasn't a total loss. Of course, I did print out the death record, and as soon as I can transcribe and translate the record, I'll post about my findings.

Now I am just waiting for the last microfilm I ordered to come. I'm hoping it comes in soon. Stay tuned ...

Well ... Would You See This?

I just happened to notice this announcement in one of Miriam's posts. This announcement is reassuring. Well, I guess I'll continue to volunteer as an indexer.

One More Week?

I think everyone has one more week to submit their articles for the next Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy. The topic for this edition is a carousel. Submissions are due on August 4th, and I will post the carnival on the 5th. I realize this is fairly tight for a deadline. Should I extend the deadline? Please let me know if you need more time. Thanks.

Another Column Added!

I have finally finished writing column number 16 of my Genealogy and History Thoughts columns, and I have posted it. You can read it here. Enjoy!

What Happened To Harvey?

I've written about a missing person in my family before, but I've only written in general terms, not specifics. (Anyhow, I am writing this in the hopes that someone might be able to suggest other areas I should look for information.)In fact, I did not even mention the name of the person that I am looking for, and since I did not do that in the first place, I'll start by giving the name of the person I'm searching for: Harvey Benjamin Oswalt.

What I know about Harvey

I don't know very much about Harvey, but here is what I know so far:

Harvey was born in December of 1861 in Michigan, according to his father's pension file, and was Adam's oldest son and child. In the 1870 census he was living with his parents, and his age was given as 10. (All the ages of the children were rounded up by a year.) Sometime between 1872 and 1880, Harvey's mother died. (I still do not know when she died exactly, but his youngest brother's biography suggests about 1875-1876 as a death year.) Between the 1870 and 1900 censuses, I do not know where he was. I cannot find him in the 1880 census, and I also checked the social statistics schedule for St. Joseph County, Michigan for him. Yet, I could not find him. In the 1900 census, I found him living in Three Rivers and working as a day laborer. After 1900, I cannot find him in any other federal censuses. All I know is that when Adam died in September of 1910, Harvey's youngest sister did not have a clue as to where he was.

Could some family traditions be clues to Harvey's whereabouts?

My grandfather's aunt apparently never told my grandpa about Harvey. She did mention, though, that Henry (another one of Harvey's younger brothers) supposedly went to New Mexico or Texas and died out there between 1925-1929. At the moment, I have only been able to prove that Henry lived as far west as Clinton, Iowa, and that Henry died in 1927 in Michigan. I sometimes wonder, though, if it was Harvey who went out west and died between those years as well. The other family story that my grandpa's aunt passed down was that there was an Oswalt who was a horse rustler. I have not been able to prove or disprove this family legend, but I sometimes wonder if she was referring to Harvey.

Some possible records I could look for Information

• 1884 Michigan State census - I've looked for other Oswalt family members in this census, but I have not done so for Harvey. My first guess as to which county to look at is St. Joseph County.
• 1894 Michigan State census - I still have not checked this census for any of my Oswalt family.
• Other state censuses - I might need to the state censuses for Illinois, and see if any censuses for the 1880s and 1890s exist. Why? Adam and his son, Henry, lived in Rockford, Illinois sometime between the late 1880s and 1890s. (Henry continued to live there until 1910.) Could Harvey have moved out there with them?
• Probate packet - I still have not had a chance to obtain Harvey's probate packet in the St. Joseph County, Michigan's probate office. All I know is that the reason for the packer is given as missing. (I hope to be able to get a copy of the packer sometime in the future.)
• Other records - I'm not sure what other records I should check. The only record source that I can think of is court minutes for St. Joseph County, Michigan. I'm at a loss as to obtain or find the court minutes. Does anyone know how to obtain court minutes? Other than that, I have no idea as to what records I should look at.

Which record should I look through first? Any suggestions or advice is welcome. Thanks.

7th Edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture Posted!

The seventh edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture has been posted, and you can read it here. The topic for the next carnival will be either on genealogy research plans or learning more about Irish culture. You can find more information here. Enjoy!