Genealogy Tip of the Day on Amazon.com

Readers who are fans of Genealogy Tip of the Day can now get Tip of the Day on their Kindle. The regular blog is on Blogspot. The Kindle version (currently $.99) is available through the Amazon.com website. Enjoy!

Genealogy Trips for Christmas

A genealogy trip makes the perfect Christmas gift. Consider joining me in Salt Lake or Ft. Wayne for a genealogy road trip in 2011!

• Allen County Public Library Trip with Michael John Neill in 2011
• Family History Library Trip to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City in 2011

Looking for Harm Habbus

I'm trying to locate information on a "Harm Habbus" who apparently was in Clayton Township, Adams County, Illinois, in 1872 or so.

This is part of an 1892 newspaper clipping from the Quincy [Illinois] Daily Journal that references Habbus as the father of a baby born to Volke Behrens, daughter of Ulfert Behrens in Clayton Township.

I'm working on an article on the court case for the next issue of Casefile Clues, but have been unable to locate any information on Harm.

Based upon the name and the location, I'm guessing he was a native of Ostfriesland, Germany. That's merely speculation on my part.

Last Day to Get Year 1 of Casefile Clues at Discount

Starting 20 November, back issues from Year 1 of Casefile Clues will only be available on Lulu.com. The price on lulu.com is much higher than what I've been selling issues for (right now it's $1.25 an issue). $20 will get you all of year 1 of Casefile Clues and is still an excellent bargain.

Here are Casefile Clues Topics from Year 1:

• 52--Benjamin Butler in 1880 and 1870--correlating an 1880 and 1870 census enumeration when the head of household has a different first name


• 51--Clarifying Clara--a widow's War of 1812 Bounty Land application


• 50--Special Examiner's Report--Discussion of testimony taken by a Special Examiner in a Union Civil War Pension File


• 49--Levi Rhodes' War of 1812 Pension--A discussion and and an analysis of a War of 1812 pension issued in 1871.


• 48--Determining Your Own Chain of Migration--Ways to determine the unique migration chain that your ancestor took


• 47--Finding the Ellen--Finding someone in an 1870 census when she's a child and I don't have the names of the parents. Discusses proximity searches, eliminating false matches, etc.


• 46--Ira Located--the correct marriage record for Ira Sargent was located. This issue includes the image and a complete transcription, an analysis, additional searches that were conducted, and where to go next.


• 45--Organizing My Search for Ira--discusses brainstorming to locate the parents of Ira Sargent, how and why records were prioritized, and how records would be searched.


• 44--Philip Troutfetter in the Special Collections of the Kansas State Historical Society--fraud, postal investigations, and abandoned wives--all from one relative.


• 43--Unacquiring Property--ways your ancestor might have "disposed" of his real estate.


• 42--Multiple Johns--two brothers with the exact same name--apparently.


• 41--Brick Walls from A to Z--the title says it all--ideas for breaking those brick walls


• 40--Finding John--analysis, including charts and maps, in an attempt to find a missing 1870 census enumeration.


• 39--Multiple Marias--Analyzing more than one 1893 obituary for a Swiss immigrant in Iowa.


• 38--From their Mouth to Your Screen. Discusses all the "filters" information passes through.


• 37--Pullman Car Company Employment Records. Discusses several employment records from the Pullman Car Company in Chicago. Discusses William Apgar, Thomas Frame, Louis DeMar.


• 36--Where are they in 1840? Analyzes an individual who is "missing" from an 1840 census. Includes a discussion of how he was "found" and how land records actually solved the problem. Discusses Abraham Wickiser.


• 35--A 1910 Birth. Analyzes primary and secondary sources for a date and place of birth in 1910 and how differences might not be all that different. Discusses Ida Trautvetter.


• 34--Ready to Go? Discusses some things to contemplate regarding your genealogy material before you die.


• 33--Where there is a Will there is Confusion. Analyzes an early 19th century will from Maryland and what the different bequests likely mean and what potentially brought them about. Also discusses different ways some things can be interpreted. Discusses John DeMoss.


• 32--When There is No Probate. Some things to think about when there is no probate file.


• 31--Analyzing the Mortgage. Discusses an 1870 era mortgage in Illinois. Discusses John Ufkes and Rolf Habben.


• 30--Behind the Scenes Chaos. Discusses the importance of thinking about what "caused" a record to be recorded.


• 29--Un-American Activity. Discusses an invesigation by the fore-runner of the FBI into a German-American family in World War I. Discusses the Fecht family.


• 28--Do You Ear What I Ear? Discusses things to remember about how things are heard.


• 27--Analyzing Andrew Trask. Discusses work on an Mass. native (born ca. 1814) who lived in St. Louis, southern-Illinois, and western Illinois where he died in the 1880s. Focuses on analyzing and working on later records to discern patterns, etc. Discusses Andrew Trask.


• 26--Using Google Books.


• 25--Finding Valentine. Steps in locating a man whose only real mention is in an 1870 era estate settlement. Discusses how I organized my search for him.


• 24--The Brick Wall is in Your Head. Talks about ways you may have made your own genealogical brick wall.


• 23--You Ask and I Wonder. Things that pop in my head when a person asks a certain genealogical question.


• 22--Crossing the Pond.


• 21--One Clipping Leads to More.


• 20--Organizing 1870 Census Search--thoughts on organizing online census searches.


• 19--Public Sale--Analyzing an old sale bill.


• 18--Analyzing the Biography--Charting and Organizing what You Know Using a Biography


• 17--Working with the Professional. Getting started with the professional genealogist who is performing Chicago area work for me.


• 16--A Lot from Barbara's Lot. Clues from a series of records on a small lot in a town in rural Illinois betwen 1856 and 1905.


• 15--Finding Gesche's Girls. Tracking down an "evaporating" German native who "condensed" somewhere in the United States.


• 14--Jumpstarting Your Research. Just some ideas to get you started.


• 13--Brick Walls and the Census Taker


• 12--The Heirs Complete the Homestead


• 11--Is the Wrong Name Correct?


• 10--Connecting the Iras. Working to determine if two men of the same name are the same man.


• 09--Pre-1850 Census Analysis. Analzing pre-1850 census records for a family to determine the household structure. Discusses Thomas and Sarah Sledd.


• 08--Platting Out Thomas Sledd's Heirs. Platting out the estate division of the Thomas Sledd estate in Kentucky in the 1830s. Discusses Thomas Sledd family.


• 07--Looking for Ira's Lucretia. Working on my "brick wall" Ira through his sister Lucretia. mid-to-late nineteenth century work.


• 06--The Civil War Pension file of Riley Rampley. An overview of a Union Civil War pension record.


• 05--Finding a Chicago Christening. How a 1913 era Chicago christening record was found. Discusses Anna Apgar.


• 04--Multiple Parents


• 03--Preemption Claim. The Missouri pre-emption land claim of John Lake. Discusses John Lake.


• 02--Passport Records. Discusses an early twentieth century passport application. Discusses Robert Frame.


• 01--Lessons from an Estate Record. Analyzes an 1870 era Illinois set of estate records.

Other Back Issue Purchase Options:

• Issues 1-10 for $5.50


• Issues 11-20 for $5.50


• Issues 21-30 for $5.50


• Issues 31-40 for $5.50


• Issues 41-50 for $5.50

The whole set can be purchased from me directly for only $20.00 until 20 November 2010.

Nearest Relative on a World War Two Draft Card

I've been browsing the World War II "Old Men's Draft Cards" on FamilySearch looking for good signatures for my "Daily Genealogy Transcriber" page.

This is the card for Virgil Rampley, brother to my great-grandmother Fannie Neill. I really didn't expect her to be listed as the person who would always "know your address," but sure enough she was.

Of course, the relationship was not stated, but if I hadn't know where she lived during World War II this would have been a nice find.

Genealogy Tip of the Day Is Available on Kindle

For those who have seen my "Genealogy Tip of the Day" blog, it is now available via Amazon.com on your Kindle.

Visit this link to subscribe http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004C44H1S

Visit Genealogy Tip of the Day at http://genealogytipoftheday.blogspot.com/

World War II Draft Registation Card

This is the World War 2 draft registration card for my Granddad Ufkes. Over on "Genealogy Tip of the Day" we discussed these cards briefly today in terms of how to access them.

The cards from the "Old Men's Draft" are publicly available, but this card is for one of the younger guys and has to be accessed individually and I had to prove Granddad was deceased.

These are a wonderful source. Might have to write about them for an upcoming issue of Casefile Clues.

New Samples of Casefile Clues

We have two NEW free samples of my weekly how-to newsletter, Casefile Clues. To receive the PDF files as an attachment, simply send an email to

casefileclues@gmail.com

to make your request. Your email address will not be shared, given out, etc.

Thanks!

Friend Discount on Casefile Clues

Current subscribers can get a free month when a friend subscribes to Casefile Clues. It's this simple, your friend needs to use this payment link INSTEAD OF the regular one. This link tells me it was a "friend" susbscription, allowing me to track it.

When your friend subscribes, they should put YOUR name and email in the memo box. That's why it is important they use the link in this blog post. Your friend can request sample copies of Casefile Clues at samples@casefileclues.com.

Oh, this offer ends on Friday at noon West Coast Time.

Questions? Email me at mjnrootdig@gmail.com.

William Rampley in 1900 Census in York, Pennsylvania

This is a copy and paste job on part of the 1900 census for W. A. Rampley who appeared in several newspaper entries n the newspaper archive atGenealogyBank.

He apparently is listed as a "Carriage Builder," aged 33 years old and born in Maryland in the 1900 Census at Ancestry.com. Note that his mother is also in the household. Her census entry indicates she is born in Pennsylvania and yet William indicates his mother was born in Maryland. Obviously something is not quite correct with this enumeration. The inconsistency is minor but this should be noted when transcribing the record.

Carriage Shop Burns

Another neat discovery on the newspaper archive atGenealogyBank, again on W. A. Rampley of York, Pennsylvania.

This article from October of 1899 in the Philadelphia Inquirer indicates that Rampley's carriage factory burned on 11 October 1899. Next goal is to try and find him in the 1900 census as hopefully he's still there.

Might work this up for an issue of Casefile Clues, not yet certain.

Help Wanted in 1899

This ad comes from the 6 May 1899 Philadelphia Inquirer, under the "male help wanted" section.

W. A. Rampley is looking for a carriage painter for his shop in York, Pa.

I'm not certain how, but Rampley is likely a relative of some shape or other to my own Rampley family from Harford County, Maryland.

This gem was discovered while looking around on the newspaper archive at GenealogyBank.

62 Issues of Casefile Clues for $16!

It doesn't get any lower than this. Today (through midnight west coast time on Wednesday 10 November), we're selling our first 62 issues for $16! That's over 440 pages of how-to advice, complete with illustrations, explanations, and citations (starting in issue 10). Remember, our focus is on explaining research, not selling advertisements, promoting other products, etc. Casefile Clues has no advertising in the newsletter or on the website.

Orders can be processed securely here with a credit card--a PayPal account is not necessary.

Spread the news! I'm working on obtaining new material for upcoming issues and this is our little "fundraiser" for that effort.

A Distressing Accident

While looking around on the newspaper archive atGenealogyBank, I discovered a reference in the Baltimore Gazette and Daily Advertiser from 18 August 1834. Apparently John A. Rampley, the youngest son of William Rampley, fell off a load of hay into some water where he drowned.

William was a brother to my ancestor, Thomas Rampley.

This newspaper account is the only reference to the son I can find.

As they add more newspapers, perhaps I'll make more discoveries. Based on this, it appears that the son died on 2 August 1834.

Free Registration Drawing for our 2011 Family History Research Trips

Blog readers know that I am leading a research trip to the Family History Library in Salt Lake and a research trip to the Allen County Public Library in 2011. Trip dates are these:

• Salt Lake--17-18 May 2011
• Fort Wayne--3-7 August 2011

From now until 30 November, we are holding a drawing for a free registration for each trip(drawing is for registration ONLY--hotel, transportation, expenses are the RESPONSIBILITY of the winner). However a free registration will save on your trip expenses. The links above explain more about each trip.

To enter the drawing for the Salt Lake Trip, send an email to saltlake-drawing@casefileclues.com.

To enter the drawing for the Fort Wayne Trip, send an email to acpl-drawing@casefileclues.com.

Be certain to let your friends know!

Joseph Oades Homesteads in Nebraska.

This is one page from the homestead proof for Joseph H. Oades, one of the husbands of Emma Sargent.

The testimony, made out on 6 January 1876 indicates that Oades had a wife and eight children. I'm not certain right now how that fits into what I have on Joseph and Emma--they are living in separate households in the 1875 Nebraska State Census, but this document may still be referring to her as his wife. I'm going to have to sit down and look at the children from the 1875 in both households to see just how reasonable this is. To be really honest, I just searched for Joseph Oades on Footnote.com on a whim to see what results there were.

I also need to obtain divorce records for Joseph and Emma as she married again in Iowa and he lives in Nebraska for some time after this homestead was completed.

This record was scanned and indexed Footnote.com which is where this image was lcoated. Footnote.com is adding the homestead records to their website.

We'll have updates here on the blog and probably a longer article in an upcoming issue of Casefile Clues.

Seminar in Redwood City, CA.

I will be giving 4 lectures this Saturday in Redwood City, CA for the San Mateo Genealogical Society.

There's still room and late registrations are possible.

The flyer is available online at: http://www.smcgs.org/temporary/fall_2010_seminar.pdf

Questions can be emailed to programs@smcgs.org

I'm related to a President's Wife and Why Genealogists Will Have Work For a Long Time

I finally got the "famous relative" section of the trees at Ancestry.com to work. I've posted the image showing the connection of my great-grandmother, Tjode Anna Goldenstein to Cornelia Melyn, the supposed 3rd grandmother of Julia Gardiner, wife of President Tyler.

The lineage of my great-grandmother is correct. The earliest ancestor shown is Ancke Jansen, who died in Ostfriesland, Gemany in 1719. Ancke is the mother of Johann Hinrichs, who died in 1768 (my line) and the mother of Johan De Lange, born in 1728. Ancestry gives this relationship 4 stars (out of 5) for reliability.

There are other interesting things in the lineage on the right, including a person born in 1848 having a child born in 1628. Clicking on the graphic will pull up a larger image.

I love the indexes and other finding aids Ancestry.com has to census and other original records. This stuff is something else.

Holding Court at the Opera House

In reviewing images for the latest issue of Casefile Clues, I noticed something in a 1907 partition suit petition for Hancock County, Illinois. Court was not being held at the courthouse--it was held at the Opera House in Carthage.

I wondered about this, then I remembered that the October 1907 term of court was being held when the current courthouse was being constructed on the site of the old one.

I never thought about where they had court during that time until I ran across this reference. Anne's partition suit was the topic of issue 9 of Casefile Clues.

Casefile Clues Discount for Facebook Fans

Tip of the Day now has 1737 fans on Facebook. To celebrate, fans can subscribe to Casefile Clues, for $17.37, fans can have their new subscription to Casefile Clues start with issue 9 (coming soon) and get issues 1-8 at no charge. Subscriptions can be processed securely here (a PayPal account is not necessary). More about Casefile Clues is on our website.

If you're not a fan of "Genealogy tip of the Day" on Facebook, search for us("genealogy tip of the day") there.

Shooting Nicholas Trautvetter

I ran across this item on been searching for members of the extended Trautvetter clan at GenealogyBank.

I am not certain how Nicholas Trautvetter is related (or even if he is), but this family always causes the best type of newspaper articles to be written.

This one made two points that have nothing at all to do with the Trautvetters.

The first is that searching of sites that use OCR technology requires some thought. This article was located by searching for "Trantvetter" instead of Trautvetter.

This article was also in a St. Louis newspaper, the St. Louis Republic on 3 March 1897. This is quite a distance from where the murder took place.

Watch those spellings and consider the possibility that a newspaper item could appear hundreds of miles from where your ancestor actually lived.

Genealogy Magazines, Newsletters, Speakers, etc.

This is more opinion than usual. And it's not as organized as I usually am, but that's because my thoughts on this subject are somewhat in flux.

Genealogy print magazines continue to "bit the dust." A genealogy magazine in the UK, Practical Family History, will cease publication in the near future. Ancestry magazine recently ceased publication as well and others in recent years have also stopped publication.

Part of this is due to general trends in the publishing industry and part of it is due to the fact that some genealogy how-to magazines are really not responsive to the needs of the genealogy "public" and that editors of some (not all) genealogy magazines are not actually genealogists. Many of the editors got "into" genealogy because they were hired by a company to edit a genealogy periodical. In some cases, that's part of the problem. Some editors understand editing, but they do not understand genealogy and they do not understand what genealogists need and want in a genealogy periodical. And when editors change, the focus of the periodical changes which also can lead to a decline or change in readership. Some former genealogical periodicals really "watered" down their content in an attempt to reach the masses. The problem is that long-term subscribers were put off by the change.

New readers, who liked the "fluff," were not likely to be long term subscribers, at least in my opinion. A few of the beginners got "converted" to long-term genealogy researchers who end up needing more than fluff after a while. A high number of beginners move on to something else besides genealogy for a variety of reasons. Both groups are not going to renew their subscription. When you are reaching out to beginners, and only beginners, you constantly have to reach out and get new subscribers because experienced people don't want beginning articles all the time and those who lose interest do not renew their subscription anyway.

Periodicals that focus on light pieces end up repeating content after a while. And to be frank, after you've run 6 articles about the 1880 census what else is there to say?

Genealogy newsletters and magazines used to be the place to find out about "news." With the internet, that's no longer true.

Some may say that the blogs are the place to learn genealogy "how-to." I'm not certain of that myself. Most blogs are about personal research and (in my opinion) very few really explain the "how" of research. It takes a great deal of time and practice to write how-to material clearly. Some that do, don't really explain the research adequately or the explanations offered indicate the researcher might not have quite as much experience as they think they do. For many blogging is a great way to share research with others and to reach "new" relatives. There are not so many that really offer expertise to the intermediate or advanced researcher. And the people who have that level of experience often do not have time to really write well on their blog for free. Time blogging takes away from other revenue producing activities.

Some magazines tried to be all things to all people. The problem is that it shows. Trying to please everyone means that you actually please very few people. I see genealogy newsletters (both paid and free) that write on topics where it's clear to those with some experience that the writer really does not know their stuff.

The same can be said of some speakers and lecturers. I recently heard a presenter make a presentation about their research in early twentieth century records. Very interesting and, for the most part, well put together. It was a well-done presentation.

As attendees do, a question was asked that had nothing to do about the presentation. It focused on early seventeenth century research in frontier New York. I'm asked questions that have nothing to do with the lecture I gave and about which I am nearly clueless. I usually indicate that, without using the word "clueless" of course, and provide a general reference and indicate the researcher search for case studies on similar people in the same location for approaches if I can't think of any off the top of my head. The speaker gave an answer and several research suggestions, but it was clear that the question was out of her area of expertise because her answer referenced records that were not available during the frontier period and an approach that was more appropriate for an urban ancestor. She wanted the audience to think she had an answer for every question and "knew everything."

I've always been a big fan of admitting when you don't know something.

I have a few more ideas on genealogy publishing, newsletters, etc. but won't share those here because I'm trying to use them to market Casefile Clues. I've always been wary of people who claim to share "everything they know" about a certain industry, marketing method, etc. Usually people who "know everything" know enough not to share it. For the same reason, I don't believe people who claim to give investment advice. If the advice is so great, why aren't you using it youself?

Sharing what you know about genealogy research is a little different--lots of people aren't going to do it anyway as sometimes it's boring and tedious and people tend to avoid things that are boring and tedious.

James Pollard on GenealogyBank

I've been searching for Emma Sargent's five husbands at GenealogyBank. Emma was born in Canada (probably Ontario) about 1840, the daughter of Clark and Mary (Dingman) Sargent. You'd think with that many, there'd be something.

I did run across this little gem, but it really didn't provide any direct clues and I need to confirm there weren't other James Pollards in the immediate area. I know that Emma and her James Pollard were in the same area of Iowa that this clipping mentions.

Hopefully we'll have an update on Emma. I've written about her for Casefile Clues in the past.

GenealogyBank has an interesting collection of older newspapers. Like most commercial newspaper sites, the coverage is hit and miss in some cases.

What Software Do You Use?

I was asked this question at a recent seminar I gave.

The answer I gave was "none."

It was an honest answer. I don't like telling attendees I use something that I don't. I really don't use a genealogy database of my own all that much. There are times when I think I should and I have used one in the past. I know there are several very capable programs out there. Because of how I research and the fact that I am constantly researching something for the newsletter Casefile Clues, I haven't taken the time to perform data entry into an actual genealogy database in several years. However, that doesn't mean that I don't extract data and use a computer to sort and analyze it. I just don't use one of the traditional genealogy databases to do the work.

Why?

I tend to find genealogy databases limiting--at least for how I work. Most of the families I'm working on have numerous conflicting records, missing pieces, inconsistencies, etc. I like to perform analysis and write up as much as possible my thought process as I transcribe. For some, this would seem the ideal reason to use a database. For census records, I have charts I use to extract the data to assist with analysis. I have a variety of charts and tables I use.

Does this occasionally get repetitive? Yes sometimes it does. Could I better manage footnotes and sources? Yes.

But I like the freedom that a word processing document gives me. Would it be helpful to have a software program "generate" the text of a genealogy report from the information already entered in my database? Perhaps. But I'm not writing compiled genealogies of several generations. I don't want to write compiled genealogies. That simply is not my interest. My preference is to write about the analysis of records and what they say and where the research should continue. For me that helps me research and discover more information.

I realize this may sound like heresy, but I don't think it is the end of the world if you don't put all your information in a genealogy database. I've made significant discoveries in the last several months on my great-grandmother's parents who married in Iowa in 1870. They both were part of a migration path that began for both their families in New England in the early 1800s. In the process of that research, I've written up most of what I have found. I've incorporated tables and charts where necessary. I've used maps (both contemporary and modern). I've used record images obtained from a variety of sources. Putting this together in chronologies and writing up my process and reasoning so that it made sense to me (and to others) has been invaluable.

The process of that writing has given me a long list of things to do. That list is in a chart, with goals and priorities attached. I love to use charts and tables for those things (attendees at the recent Tennessee Genealogical Society seminar KNOW that I like tables and charts). I just don't have information put in a "genealogy database" per se. My "to do" list on the family is fairly long as it is and as I discover more and incorporate that into the material I already have, the list gets longer. Are there things I might notice if I used one of the main databases for the information? Perhaps. There might be a time when I start entering the information into a database.

But for now, I'm making enough discoveries and have enough analysis to keep me busy that I don't find the need to stop for data entry. Transcribing, analyzing, and explaining my rationale in my word processing documents on my family keeps me occupied enough.

And that's ok.

Upcoming Speaking Engagements

As a reminder, I'll be speaking at the following venues this fall:

• Germantown, TN--Tennessee Genealogical Society--16 October 2010
• Redwood City, CA---San Mateo Genealogical Society--6 November 2010

Visit the links above for more information or contact me about setting up your own seminar.