McDonough County, Illinois Genealogical Society 15 June 2009

I will be presenting "Brick Walls from A to Z" at the monthly meeting of the McDonough County, Illinois, Genealogical Society on 15 June 2009. More information on the society and their meeting location is available on their site.

Knox County, Illinois Genealogical Society Meeting 9 March 2009

I will be making a presentation at the monthly meeting of the Knox County Genealogical Society on 9 March 2009 on "Brick Walls From A to Z." More information on the society is available on their site.

Village Genealogical Society-Hot Springs Village, Arkansas

I will be the presenter at the Village Genealogical Society's annual workshop on 21 March 2009 in Hot Springs Village Arkansas.

I will give the following lectures:

• Rearching the Entire Family
• Problem Solving Applied to Genealogy
• I Found it; Now what?
• Tried and Tested Tidbits
  

More information on the society (including workshop information) is on their website, including a PDF version of the workshop flyer. Hope to see you there!

U.S. National Homes for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, 1866-1938 at Ancestry.com

Ancestry.com has recently added U.S. National Homes for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, 1866-1938 to their library of databases.

A quick search found my uncle Claude Sartorius, shown here in the roster for the hospital in Danville, Illinois. He was also listed in a hospital in Dayton, Ohio, for a while as well. This reference provided information on his enlistment in the army. I actually had not done too much research on Claude, but now that I'm armed with a little more information I might.

1870 Census on Family Search-Location Searches

Maybe I'm just really obtuse, but if it is there I am overlooking it.

Is there a way on the 1870 census at FamilySearch to search for John Smiths in a specific county?

Classification Record

This is part of my grandpa Neill's World War II Classification record received from Selective Service. I never looked at it in as much detail as I should have.

It says that one of his classifications is IVA--which I have been told is a deferment for men who had completed service. I'm confused as to what this means as I was unaware of any military service for my grandfather. I guess I will have to go digging.

Chicago Area Vital Records on Family Search

Family Search has announced that the following is on its site and presently is 62% complete.

• 1878-1922 Birth Records for Cook County, Illinois

Yeah!

Case File Clues

I've been writing for Dick Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter since the end of 2008. To help keep me organized and to assist readers find old articles, I've starting post brief information on each article on a new website:

Case File Clues-- http://www.casefileclues.com

Articles will be blogged about on this site briefly about a week after they run in Eastman's Newsletter. I always had difficulty finding older material on Ancestry's site when I wrote for them and thought this would be a way for me and readers to easily locate material.

Suggestions for article ideas are always welcome.

More Can they Read?

This is the last one. I can't decide whether to laugh uncontrollably or become seized in a fit of anger.

John Newman was supposedly born in 1781 and is having a son born in 1662. The son William died in 1729...decades before the father John is even born. Not to mention the son William hops all over to get married. Was born in New Jersey, married in Maryland, married in London, and married again in Cecil County, Maryland.

But parents being born after the child...gotta love that.

Can People Even Read?

I am so thrilled to learn that my ancestors were saving their embryos in 18th century Maryland. Apparently Walter Newman died in 1729. His wife died in 1716. And here they are having a son in 1760!

Imagine that. William Newman (the first child shown) did exist, and was born ca. 1760. He only married Cassandra Tippet once. The image shown here indicates they were married twice.

Don't believe everything you read online. Check and doublecheck. This file had an Ancestry.com world tree as it's "source." And I use that word loosely.

More articles on Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter

Another "Casefile Clues" column has been published in Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter. This one focuses on a series of quitclaim deeds, what they were and what they meant. The article can be viewed by "plus" viewers of the newsletter.

Casefile Clues: Behind the Quitclaim Deeds