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

Prairie Patrimony

I have always been a big fan of this book and have mentioned it in numerous lectures. It is the study of farming and inheritance trends in several Illinois farm communities from the mid-19th century to the mid-20th century.

The author studies one Ostfriesen community in Illinois. When I read her comments, it was as if she had looked at my genealogical research, and grown up in one of those areas as I had. "Unwritten rules," the importance of the homeplace, were all issues she talked about as she discussed Ostfriesen immigrant farmers. She studied non-Ostfriesen Germans and "Yankees" as well. As the descendant of all three types of families (my Mother is Ostfriesen and my Dad is non-Ostfriesen German and "Yankee") the differences she points out really hit home when I thought about my different families and how certain things were done.

Anyone with farm ancestors in the Midwest in the 19th century would be well-served by reading the book. I've read mine several times.

The book is Prairie Patrimony: Family, Farming, and Community in the Midwest (Studies in Rural Culture). The author is Dr. Sonya Salamon and it was published by North Carolina University Press.

Working on Illinois Mental Health Records

My current project (on the big long list) is to try and get the mental health records of Ira Sargent from the Illinois state hospitals in Bartonville and Jacksonville. Ira was sent to Jacksonville in ca. 1906 and then to Jacksonville a few years later.

The records are under permanent seal by Illinois statute and are housed in the Illinois State Archives (I think). I'll keep readers posted on my attempts to locate and obtain these records.

1886 Hancock County Directory Being Reprinted

I am again reprinting the 1886 Directory of Hancock County, Illinois. This book was originally published in Burlington, Iowa, by T Wright. This directory includes town and farm dwellers. The rural part of the county is divided into the respective townships.

Cost is $34, which includes postage. Book is softcover. Orders will be shipped after February 20. Only a limited number will be reprinted.

More information is available on our site at www.rootdig.com/1886.html

A Few Spaces Left

We have just a few spaces left in our May 2009 genealogical research trip to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City.

Our trip size is kept small to ensure that everyone is able to get their questions answered and the help that they need. We begin preparing this week, but will still accept new registrants. Our online preparation continues until shortly before we leave for Utah. Everyone arrives on their own and we meet at the hotel the first evening for an informal session and an orientation to the library. I make morning presentations (an hour long only) and am available for consultations while the library is open.

We would love to have you join us. More details are available on our website at www.rootdig.com/slctrip.html or I can be emailed at mjnrootdig@gmail.com.

Michael

From Squire to Prince

From Squire to Prince; Being a History of the Rise of the House of Cirksena (published in 1901) is one of the books I discovered on Archive.org. The House of Cirksena is a history of the Counts of Ostfriesland and was written by Walter Phelps Dodge.

Like other books on Archive.org, it can be downloaded as a text file or as a PDF file. The image on this blog post comes from the PDF file.

Hancock County, Illinois Books on Archive.org

For those looking for Hancock County, Illinois books on Archive.org:

History of Hancock County, Illinois, together with an outline history of the State, and a digest of State laws - Gregg, Thomas, b. 1808. cn16Keywords: Hancock County (Ill.) -- History; Hancock County (Ill.) -- Biography

Portrait and biographical record of Hancock, McDonough and Henderson counties, Illinois : containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens of the countyKeywords: Hancock County (Ill.) -- Biography; McDonough County (Ill.) -- Biography; Henderson County (Ill.) -- Biography

Biographical review of Hancock County, Illinois : containing biographical and genealogical sketches of many of the prominent citizens of to-day and also of the past - Hobart Publishing Company, ChicagoKeywords: Hancock County (Ill.) -- Biography; Hancock County (Ill.) -- Genealogy

Biographical review of Hancock County, Illinois : containing biographical and genealogical sketches of many of the prominent citizens of to-day and also of the pastKeywords: Hancock County (Ill.) -- Biography; Hancock County (Ill.) -- Genealogy

American aerial county history series : (Volume 16 (HANCOCK)) - Drury, John, 1898-Keywords: Farms -- Illinois; Illinois -- Pictorial works; Illinois -- History

Images from Archiveorg

I've been playing with the scans of books on Archive.org.

There are a great number of books scanned on this site. There are

five scanned books from Hancock County, Illinois alone and thousands of others. The images on this post are from Thomas Gregg's 1881 History of Hancock County, Illinois, parts of pages 569 and 570 (a biography of James Rampley). I downloaded the entire book as a PDF file and can even do full text searches. This is really neat.

I located quite a few histories of Adams County, Illinois, and will be searching those as well. One can easily spend hours and hours at this site.

Columns for Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter

The following are my columns for Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter that have gone "live" since I started writing for Eastman's in late December. We have now given my column a tagline: "Casefile Clues." This will be the new heading for all material.

• In Context
• Poor Farms and State Hospitals
• Wrong Names and Early Babies-Working with an 1880 Census Entry
• Casefile Clues: Working With Directories
• Casefile Clues: Off the Map Migration Chains

I'm looking forward to putting together more columns. I'll be focusing on actual research case studies and welcome suggestions for topics and content (mjnrootdig@gmail.com). However, I am unable to research for others.

Currently Open Famous Census Search Contests

Currently open Famous Census Search Contests:

Mae West 1930
Spencer Tracy 1920
Richard Nixon 1930
Georgia O'Keeffe 1930
Glenn Miller 1920
George Burns 1920
Hank Williams, Sr. 1930
Thomas Edison 1870
Bob Hope 1910

More information about the contest is on our site at:http://www.famouscensus.com/labels/contests.html

Thanks.Michael

Famous Census Search Update

We announced our latest Famous Census Search contest earlier this week and so far no winners or submissions. Richard Nixon in 1930 is the latest addition to our list of contests.

Our currently open contests can be viewed on our Famous Census site. A new one will be announced there later today.

Genealogical Society of Southern Illinois--17 Oct 2009

I will be presenting a seminar for the Genealogical Society of Southern Illinois on 17 October 2009 in Carterville, Illinois.

Topics and other details have not yet been set. More information will be posted here and on the Society's website. Stay tuned.

Genealogy Computing Week 2009

We still have openings in our week-long series of genealogy workshops at Carl Sandburg College in Galesburg, Illinois, during 9-13 March 2009.

Days and topics include:
· 9 March 2009-Using Ancestry.com
· 10 March 2009-Using Footnote.com
· 11 March 2009-Using FamilySearch.org
· 12 March 2009-Using Land Records
· 13 March 2009-Genealogy Problem Solving
· 14 March 2009-Using Non-English Language Records

Our program is unique here in the Midwest and we welcome anyone to join us for one or more days. Class size is small and we are informal, but informative.

Registration is ala carte--sign up only for those days which interest you. Galesburg is easy to get to via interstate and Amtrak does serve Galesburg (but you'd need a rental car while here--Enterprise has a facility next to the train station). Registration is only $40 per day.

More information is available on our website at http://www.rootdig.com/sandburg.html. Questions can be emailed to me at mjnrootdig@gmail.com.

First Winner in our Famous Census Search Contest

I'm a little bit delayed in posting this, but we have our first winner in the "Find the famous person in the census" contest: Marilyn V. of Maryland found Buffalo Bill Cody in the 1860 Census. She wins a copy of Elizabeth Shown Mills' Quicksheet for Citing Online Historical Resources.

I'm working on a page on that site to just list our winners.

We have several open contests, just waiting for players and winners.

Census Search Contests

Our find the famous person in the census contests have returned and have been announced on our sister site, www.famouscensus.com.

1930 Hank Williams, Sr.
1870 Thomas Edison
1910 Bob Hope

More details are on the respective pages. Good Luck!
Michael