Michigan Genealogist Newsletter 1st Edition of 2009 Posted!

The first edition of the 2009 Michigan Genealogist Newsletter has been posted! You can read it here! Enjoy!

Genealogy and History Thoughts Column 17 - My Thoughts on the IGI and LDS Rite, Baptism of the Dead, Controversy

Last year, when the controversy between the Catholic church and LDS occurred over Catholic parish records, I thought about writing a column on, but I eventually chose to not do so because I waited too long to write my column. So, when I happened to notice Schelly's post on the news about the baptism of the President's mother, I thought I would write about my thoughts on this issue. (But, before I continue with my column, I just want to mention that I understand that the LDS rite, baptism of the dead, does not mean the deceased person becomes a Mormon after the rite or being listed on the IGI.)

So, what I think about this controversy? Well, to be honest, I am torn between two different views on the rite and IGI listings. On the one hand, I am bothered by the rite but my issue with the rite is due to the fact that I am an Evangelical Christian. On the other hand, I do not have a problem with deceased people's names being listed in the IGI as the IGI has been useful in my research. For instance, I would not have uncovered the birth date for my great-grandfather as quickly as I did if someone had not entered the put the information on the FamilySearch website. I have also found other information on many other ancestors, such as marriage and birth dates, on the site and was able to confirm that information by using it as a guide in my search for sources and further research. The IGI has been a wonderful tool in researching my family's history.

With that said, I also understand that other people might object to their ancestors being listed in the IGI. Do I believe that it is insensitive for a person to have non-related people baptized in this rite? Yes. Those who object to having their deceased relatives listed probably do so out of privacy, religious or other concerns, and I think it is rude for someone who is not connected to a person to have the rite done. (Of course, I have not had a problem with finding any of my ancestors in the IGI only because the ancestors listed are at least separated by a generation from my living relatives, and thus, I haven't had to worry about any privacy concerns.) I realize that the person doing so may be doing it out of the goodness of their heart, but if that person is not connected to the person baptized, I think it would be best for that person to not submit the person's name unless the family has given him or her permission to do so. (I do not have as much of a problem if that person is descended from an ancestor, although I think he or she should consider the feelings of other family members before submitting a name.)

So, what does one do if one wants to memorialize the deceased? Well, in the case of uncovering the names of Holocaust victims, I think the proper procedure would be to donate the research uncovered on victims to a Holocaust survivor group or museum, and allow the members of those groups to decide if and how they would like to memorialize the victims. In other cases, I would avoid baptizing anyone who isn't connected to the person doing the research, and for those are having dead relatives baptized, I would check with relatives before having the names posted on the internet. I think depends on the situation of each case.

Should one donate the names of their ancestors to the IGI, if the IGI has been useful to their research? I think it depends upon the feelings of the researcher and his or her family. As to whether or not I will ever submit ancestors whose names are not listed in the IGI, I am not completely sure what I'll do. Right now, I believe my answer is no due to the fact that I do not want to offend any family members and that I want to respect the privacy of my relatives. Of course, I might change my feelings in the future, but I don't know for sure. Of course, I do not believe there are easy answers or guidelines for all of the issues connected to this controversy.

So, what do you think? Am I right or Wrong? As always, you can leave your thoughts in the comments section.

A New Award!

I just learned that Diane of Random Relatives has awarded me the "One Lovely Blog Award." Thank you Diane!

So, what does one have to do after receiving this award? Well, the recipient has to nominate seven other blogs for the award. So, here are the seven blogs I am nominating:

1. Wendy of All My Branches Genealogy
2. Diane of CanadaGenealogy or 'Jane's Your Aunt'
3. Claudia of Claudia's Genealogy Blog
4. Greta of Greta's Genealogy Blog
5. Cheryl of In Deeds
6. Lori of Smokey Mountain Family Historian
7. Alana of A Twig In My Tree

Enjoy!

71st Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy Posted!

The 71st edition of the Carnival of Genealogy has been posted! You can read it here. The topic for the next edition will be on

Mothers! Mother’s Day is right around the corner and this is the perfect
time to honor your mother, grandmother, godmother, step mother, den mother,
aunt, neighbor, or friend who happens to be a mother. If you’ve written about
your own mother for the COG before, consider writing about another mom on your
family tree. Let’s make all our moms famous! The deadline for submissions is May
15th and next edition will be hosted at Creative Gene.

Enjoy!

Family History Center Visit 7

Yesterday, I visited the local Family History Center, and started to take a look at the two microfilms that had come in. I had only about an hour to do research, so I wasn't able to get too far into my research.

The first microfilm that came in happened to be of marriages from St. Matthew's Church in Luton, Bedfordshire, England. I had hoped to find my great-great-grandparents marriage record in this microfilm, since it was the church where my great-grandparents got married. Although the records went back to the time of my great-great-grandparents' marriage, their marriage was not recorded in this church. I'll have to take a look at other church records in the area, and order another microfilm. (Of course, before I return the microfilm, I will double check to make sure that I haven't overlooked any of the marriages of my great-grandmother's siblings as well.)

So, after quickly determining that my great-grandparents were not in that film, I decided to look at the other microfilm. This microfilm contained the records of Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania's cemetery, church and bible records, and I quickly discovered that the microfilm contained a typed transcript of those records done by the local DAR branch in Huntingdon county. Despite being disappointed at not viewing the originals, I still decided to go through the film and see if I could find my ancestors mentioned. Unfortunately, I only got through about a third of the microfilm, so I'll have to make another trip to the center to finish going through the microfilm. Hopefully, I will get lucky and uncover more information on my ancestors on my next visit. Stay tuned for future updates ...

Google Analytics Report for April 2009

I cannot believe that April is already over, but since it is, that means it is time for another Google Analytics report! Here are the results for April:

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

1. United States - 470 visits
2. Canada - 43 visits
3. United Kingdom - 24 visits
4. Netherlands - 20 visits
5. Germany - 6 visits
6. Australia - 4 visits
7. South Korea - 3 visits
8. Israel - 2 visits
9. New Zealand - 2 visits
10. France - 2 visits

The top ten states in the United States, in number of visits, are:

1. Michigan - 84 visits
2. Illinois - 51 visits
3. New York - 41 visits
4. California - 34 visits
5. Virginia - 28 visits
6. Texas - 25 visits
7. Ohio - 22 visits
8. Tennessee - 21 visits
9. Colorado - 18 visits
10. Pennsylvania - 15 visits

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

1. Whitmore Lake - 57 visits
2. Hamburg - 9 visits
3. Washtenaw County - 3 visits
4. Algonac - 2 visits
5. Flint - 2 visits
6. Lansing - 2 visits
7. Muskegon - 2 visits
8. Kent County - 1 visit
9. East Lansing - 1 visit
10. Roseville - 1 visit

The top ten articles, in number of views, are:

1. 18th Edition of the Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy - 24 views
2. 34th Shades Of The Departed Guest Column Posted! - 17 views
3. More Death Records Added to the Seeking Michigan Site! - 16 views
4. Tombstone Maker Website - 15 views
5. Forgot To Mention: It Has Been Two Years! - 15 views
6. Researching My Central and Eastern European Female Ancestors ... - 13 views
7. 12th Edition of the Smile For the Camera Carnival Posted! - 13 views
8. 69th Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy Posted! - 13 views
9. Madness Monday - More on Irene Havens, Part 5 ... - 13 views
10. Question About Pre-1906 Naturalization Records ... - 13 views

Well, that is it for this month's Google Analytics report. To all my readers, "Thank you for reading!" Stay tuned for next month's report! Enjoy!

New Records Added to FamilySearch's Record Search

I forgot to mention this earlier, but over the past week, FamilySearch's Record Search has added a couple databases to their site. The records added were the 1892 New York State census, church records for a parish in Jamaica, and some more records for a diocese in Spain. I hope these new databases will help you with your research. Enjoy!

Saturday Night Fun - Date Calculations

For this Saturday Night Fun, Randy has challenged other genea-bloggers to post on the use of their genealogy software's date calculator to find a birth date, and I thought I would participate in this challenge.

I have two genealogy programs on my computer: Family Trees Quick and Easy, version 5 that I use to keep track of my ancestry and Family Tree Maker 2005 trial version, so that I can open any gedcoms e-mailed to me. (I cannot successfully open gedcoms with the other program for some reason.) So, for this challenge I will use the date calculator in the Family Tree Maker version.

For this challenge, I have decided to calculate the birth date of my ancestor, Irene Havens. My only record of death happens to be her tombstone which states that she died on March 16, 1876 and was 35 years, 5 months and 25 days old at the time of her death. (I have not been able to find a record of her death, but it is quite possible that it never got recorded. I have a couple of other female ancestors whose deaths do not show up in the Saint Joseph county, Michigan death records either.)

To calculate the date of her birth, I opened Family Tree Maker software and selected the date calculator under the tools menu. I then entered the date of death and age of death as recorded on the tombstone, and the calculator came back with the date of 20 September 1840, although it mentioned that the calculation result was ambiguous. I'm guessing that the calculator does not know if the year was a leap year or not, so I'll have to do a little bit more research to find whether or not that is the case for 1876. So, I might have the right day of birth, but I won't know for sure until I uncover a baptismal record. Hopefully, I will find one for her.

18th Edition of the Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy

Welcome to the eighteenth edition of the Carnival of Central and European Genealogy! The topic for this edition was on Easter and Passover traditions. Although this is a small edition, here are a few Easter and Passover traditions:

First off, we have an article from Greta Koehl of Greta's Genealogy Blog, who is also a submitting an article to this carnival for the very first time. In Easter Traditions in the Eastern Churches: The Easter Basket, she writes about what types of food go into the basket, and she includes a recipe a dish that is included in the baskets.

Next, we have two articles from Schelly Talalay Dardashti of Tracing the Tribe: The Jewish Genealogy Blog. In Passover Memories: NYC, Teheran, LA and Part 2, she writes about her experiences celebrating Passover in New York City, Iran and Los Angeles.

Last but not least, we have an article from Donna Pointkouski of What's Past is Prologue. In Happy Dyngus Day!, she writes about the Polish tradition practiced on the Monday after Easter.

Well, that is it for this edition. I hope you have enjoyed this edition as much as I enjoyed reading the articles. The topic for the next edition will be on food! Does your family have any traditional dishes that came from Central or Eastern Europe? Do you have a favorite dish from Central or Eastern Europe? You do not have to have Central or Eastern European ancestors to participate in this carnival. The deadline for the submission of articles will be May 20th and the edition will be published on the 22nd. You can submit your articles here. Enjoy!

Family History Center Update

I just received an e-mail from the local Family History Center and learned that two of the microfilms I ordered have arrived. I know that one of the microfilms is of the church and bible records of Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, but I am unsure of what the other microfilm is because I only ordered one microfilm from Pennsylvania this time around. I did order two microfilms of church records from England, so it is possible that one of the microfilms is from England. Either way, I'll find out which microfilm that one is the next time I go to the center.

Reasons Why I Haven't Posted Too Much Lately ...

As you have probably noticed, I haven't posted very much over the past few weeks. Part of the reason for the lack of posts is that I haven't felt like posting very much, and secondly, I've been doing research into one of my German branches. Most of the research has been with secondary sources, but I believe I have made some more connections on my Cotta ancestors. Of course, I'll have to back up the research with primary sources, but so far, the secondary sources (consisting primarily of biographies and history books) have been consistent. Either way, I'm thrilled to uncover new information.

So, I've been a bit busy, but I do plan to post other articles soon. I am still back-logged, but I hope to finish those posts soon. It just might take a while. Stay tuned ...

Question: Does Anyone Still Want to Submit Articles?

I forgot that yesterday was the submission deadline for the 18th Edition of the Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy, and since I forgot, I'm willing to push back the deadline for the submissions and the publishing of the edition. Is there anyone who still wants to submit an article? Please let me know.

Also, I am still looking for people interested in hosting future editions of the carnival. Here are the months still available:

• May
• July
• August
• September
• October
• November
• December

If anyone is interested in hosting, please contact me at jess_history at yahoo dot com. Thanks!

70th Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy Posted!

The 70th edition of the Carnival of Genealogy has been posted! You can read it here. The topic for the next edition will be on

Local History! As genealogists, we are used to tracing our ancestors and
the history of the places they lived. But not all of us live where our ancestors
did - do we take the time to see the history all around us? Use some of your
investigative skills to research the house, street, or town/city where YOU live.
Write about an interesting person, place, or event of local history. The
deadline for submissions is May 1st. This edition of the COG will be hosted by
Donna at What's Past is Prologue.

Enjoy!

12th Edition of the Smile For the Camera Carnival Posted!

The 12th edition of the Smile For the Camera Carnival has been posted! You can read it here. The topic for the next edition will be on

All Creatures Great And Small. Show us a photograph of the family pet. The pet
that made it into every family snapshot. That pampered pet your ancestors took
to the photographic studio to immortalize in an expensive photograph. The best
friend who was there for your ups and downs.

Enjoy!

Question About Pre-1906 Naturalization Records ...

A few years ago, I found my ancestor's naturalization paper in the State of Michigan archives, and since this naturalization occurred before 1906, I figured that this was the only record. Lately, though, I have been wondering: Should I be looking for an additional record even though this is before 1906? I still am not having any luck in determining where my ancestor was born, and I wonder if there is more than this half-page to his naturalization record. Does anyone know?

Although I have posted the image so that other genealogists could look at the record, I have covered up the last name to protect the identities of living relatives.

Any thoughts or suggestions are appreciated. Thanks!

Forgot To Mention: It Has Been Two Years!

I just realized that I forgot to mention on March 18th, that I began this blog two years ago. I didn't think about that fact until I noticed that other genea-bloggers were posting posts on their anniversaries.

Madness Monday - More on Irene Havens, Part Five ...

I've noticed that several genea-bloggers are taking part in a meme started by Amy Crooks, and I thought I would participate in this meme.

For this edition of the Madness Monday, I've decided to focus on my mysterious ancestor, Irene Havens, and post another article in my series on her. In my previous post, I mentioned the discovery that I made about Rhoda's parents. What I did not add at the time of that post was that I had also some additional information the mysterious Clarissa Mandigo that I recently mentioned in another post.

After looking up Rhoda's death record, I only came to the conclusion that the 1850 Rochester, New York census that included a Clarissa, Rhoda and Hirena Havens was the correct census when another genealogists suggested that the Hirena might be my ancestor in response to my request for help in finding Irene Havens in the 1850 census. (Up to that point, I wasn't sure if that census was the correct one as I have found an 1860 census that included a Rhoda Havens family living in Clinton county, New York. That family, that I mentioned in a previous post, happened to be the wrong family, and it was only Rhoda (Havens) Lang's death registration that revealed how incorrect my assumption was.)

Once I came to the conclusion that my Havens ancestor lived in Rochester, New York before coming to Michigan, I decided to figure out why I could not find the right Rhoda Havens in the 1860 Census. (I could find Irene, but Irene was living with a different family.) This time, I decided to look in Saint Joseph county, Michigan for the Mandigo family, and I came across the household of Archibald Mandigo. Archibald's household included a Clarissa and Rhoda Mandigo, and I began to suspect that Rhoda was listed under the Mandigo name instead of her own name. I also suspected that Clarissa Havens had remarried after the 1850 census to Archibald Mandigo. At the same time, the same genealogist who helped me, pointed out a biography of a Robert Mandigo as a source I should look at, and after viewing the biography, I decided to look for Archibald Mandigo's family in the 1850 census to prove or disprove my speculations. I found Archibald Mandigo and his sons living in Webster, Monroe county, New York in the census, and noticed that a female was not present in the household. This suggested to me that Archibald was probably a widower at the time of the census, and that Archibald might have married Clarissa. To further solidify my suspicions, I decided to go through the Rochester City Directories for 1849 and 1851. In the 1849 city directory, I found a Clarissa Havens mentioned, and in the 1851 city directory, I found a Clarissa Mandigo listed. Again, I suspected that these Clarissas were the one and same person, but until the Rochester, New York newspaper indexes were put online, I did not have a way to confirm my suspicions.

After going through the newspaper indexes, I discovered that Archibald Mandigo did marry a Mrs. Clarissa Novens (I suspect that her surname was misspelled), and that a Darwin Havens had married a Miss Clarissa Howe a few years earlier. I also discovered that Archibald had married a woman previous in the 1830s, and I suspect this woman had died before the 1850 census. To confirm my hypothesis, I needed to find out what the newspaper announcements said, and I put a look-up request on the Monroe County, New York Rootsweb message board, and a few days later, I received an e-mail from an man named Jim, who offered to do the look-up for me.

Due to the fact that this post is getting quite long, I will, for next week's Monday Madness, continue with the research into Irene Havens, and I'll mention the information that Jim uncovered. Eventually, I do plan on posting the sources I have used in my research so far, and I'll try to include my sources at the end of the next part. Stay tuned ...

Happy Easter!

I just want to wish everyone a happy Easter! Enjoy!

Family History Center Visit 6

Earlier today I visited the local Family History Center in my area, and I took a look at the microfilm of Trippstadt's death records from 1803 to 1839. I was able to find four death records for members of the the Kees and Cotta families, among which one of those death records happened to be for the Christoph Friedrich Cotta that I wrote about last year. The other three death records were of his grandchildren who died young, and I was able to print out images of all four of the death certificates.

After looking at the death certificates, I took a look again at the tax assessments for Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, and I tried to find my ancestor, Benjamin Oswalt, listed in the tax records before 1823, but I was unsuccessful in searching the townships of Henderson, Porter and Huntingdon. I did, though, find information on a couple possible Householder ancestors. If I am going to find Benjamin in the tax records before 1823, I will have to order the other microfilms of tax records and look for him in other townships. I was unable to print out copies of the pages of those assessments because I ran out of time for research.

Before I left the Family History Center, though, I ordered three more microfilms. Two of those microfilms are of church records in England and the third microfilm is of church records for Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania. Hopefully, I will find more information on my Oswalt ancestors when the Pennsylvania church records arrive. Stay tuned for further updates ...

Happy Passover!

I just want to wish everyone a happy Passover! Enjoy! (I think I might be a little late in posting this, and if so, I am terribly sorry for not posting this yesterday.)