Great-Great-Grandma's Facebook Status-Maybe

Ancestry.com is touting their new Facebook application In honor of that, I've dreamed up a little genealogy game/meme or whatever it's called of my own.

What's your great-great-grandmas' "status?" Since mine are dead, their location would be their place of burial.

So here goes:

• Annie (Murphy) Neill--died 1890s--buried West Point Cemetery, West Point, Hancock County, Illinois.
• Nancy (Newman) Rampley--died 1923--buried Buckeye Cemetery, Walker Township, Hancock County, Illinois.
• Franciska (Bieger) Trautvetter--died 1888--buried Bethany Cemetery, Tioga, Hancock County, Illinois.
• Florence Ellen (Butler) Sargent--Heaven only knows.
• Noentje Lena (Grass) Ufkes--died 1902--buried Immanuel Lutheran Cemetery, Harmony Township, Hancock County, Illinois.
• Frederickia Maria (Sartorius) Janssen--died 1913 --buried Immanuel Lutheran Cemetery, Harmony Township, Hancock County, Illinois.
• Anna (Fecht) Habben--died 1941--entombed Rest Haven Abbey Mausoleum, Carthage, Hancock County, Illinois
• Anna (Dirks) Goldenstein--died 1932--buried Golden, Adams County, Illinois.

Post your own great-great-grandma's "status" on your blog or here as a comment. 

Does Ancestry.com Know Their Illinois Counties?

It's frustrating when Ancestry.com is challenged geographically. It's even more frustrating when it involves my own research. It's fortunate I already know the area and have already seen the materials or I would be confused. Those who are new to research or researching in a given area have reason to be confused.

I was a little mixed up when search for my ancestor John Habben.

This is the "result" for a search on Jonn Habben-indicating that he's in Jersey County's Prairie Township in their atlas. This was news to me--I did not there were any Habbens in Jersey County. It turns out that there weren't. 

The map below is the one that is pulled up. It  is clearly Prairie Township in Hancock County. Frustrating, but at least I don't have new people to figure out. Just something to complain about. 

Gee whiz.

But there's more.

The image below claims to be from a 1908 Hancock County, Illinois set of maps. Last time I checked there was no Annawan Township in Hancock County, Illinois, and it appears that these maps from Henry County (where Annawan is located) were put into a set from Hancock.

I love the fact that these materials are indexed, but the conversion from the microfilm appears to leave a little bit to be desired.

Let's hope Ancestry.com makes the changes.

Update: Ancestry.com Does Know Where Bowen Isn't

An earlier blog post indicated that Ancestry.com had incorrectly classified the 1936 "Bowenite" yearbook from a Chicago area school.

The classification of this yearbook has been corrected--something I discovered yesterday while giving a presentation on Ancestry.com in Galesburg, Illinois.

Unfortunately Ancestry.com has several of the county land maps messed up still. We'll be posting an update about that over the weekend. I'd been hoping that Ancestry could correct those problems as well--but apparently not.

Sow Ten Acres of Spring Wheat in 1918

This item was also obtained from the  University of Illinois has the Farm, Field, and Fireside-Agricultural Newspaper Collection and was originally published in the Farmer's Review March 9, 1918.

George Sartorius of Hancock County, Illinois, is encouraging his fellow farmer to sow ten acres of spring wheat in this 1918 letter. His reasons are two fold: the weather has hindered the winter wheat and grain is needed for the war effort. 

[I've omitted the bulk of the letter here--the complete complete article can be viewed here.] He mentions the shortage of farm help due to men being drafted for the war effort and discusses the winter wheat crop, government prices, and the need for grain in some detail. 

George is a first cousin of my great-grandmother, Tena (Janssen) Ufkes [1895-1986]. They were grandchildren of Hinrich Ameling and Trientje (Behrens) Sartorius of Adams County, Illinois.

The complete article can be viewed here.

He's a Buck He Is-The Answer to the Census Name

Here is a more complete image that was the center of yesterday's post "What Is That Name?"

It's pretty clear from a more complete picture that the "ham" belongs to the name above and that the enumerator simply could not fit "Cunningham" on the line above.

Ancestry.com originally indexed it as Beckham--but a correction has been posted.

As originally indexed, a wildcard search for Buck* would have located the reference, but a Soundex search would not have located it. The "right" name is "Buck," which makes the point that even though a name isn't supposed to have more letters, that it easily can and that wildcard searches may be helpful even when you think otherwise. 

They Are of the Worst Class of People

A search of GoogleBooks located a reference to the Mississippi murder and robber that Absalom Hooper was involved in. This item was located by searching for the year and a few other details of the event--not the name itself.

page 338 from the Manuscripts of the Earl of Dartmouth (citation below) contains an apparent reference to the "Murder on the Mississippi" which Absalom Hooper was apparently involved. It also suggests that there may be additional correspondence regarding this incident.

There's some general historical information here, including this statement:

"The murderers are now in custody, and are of the worst class of the people who have flocked to the Mississippi for the  past two years. As Mr. Chester foresaw, several of the first settlers on the river were persons who had fled from justice..."

That's always how one likes to see one's relatives described.

This reference was obtained digitally on GoogleBooks with citation information below:

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Reminder--we don't include complete citations on blog posts--just our personal preference. Complete citations are always included in Casefile Clues or you can learn about citations in Elizabeth Shown Mills' Evidence Explained. We always do include enough background information in blog posts that readers can find our original sources.If you think we don't, please fire off an email to me at mjnrootdig@gmail.com 

What Is That Name?

What is the name of this head of household?

We'll have the answer--and how Ancestry.com indexed it--in a later post.

Stay tuned...

Abfalom Hooper Was the Name

This is another account of the 1773 incident involving Absalom Hooper and several of his associates. The difficulty in locating this item was that the name was set in text as "Abfalom" and the image was indexed under that spelling instead of Absalom.

It indicates that the incident was originally attributed to the Spaniards.

Date: Thursday, September 2, 1773  

Paper: Virginia Gazette (Williamsburg, VA) obtained 

on 

 Genealogybank.com

I need to do additional searching on Genealogybank.com and on other sites in an attempt to learn a little more about this incident. Of course, there may be additional records besides those in the newspaper.

Whites Killed--Blacks Wounded--The Absalom Hooper Incident of 1773

A quick search on  Genealogybank.com  for our Absalom Hooper located some additional references to the incident--these providing more details than the earlier item that was located which was a public notice that they were wanted by officials. This is getting to be a very interesting discovery.

Date: Monday, August 23, 1773  

Paper: Boston Evening-Post (Boston, MA)--obtained 

on 

 Genealogybank.com

Another account of the incident was also discovered, similar in content to the one of 23 August 1773 shown above.The names of these men are helpful in that they give me names of associates of Absalom--associates are not necessarily discovered in a positive light. I may need to research these men further in my attempts to locate information on Absalom.

And making a chronology of the events would be a good idea as well.

Date: Friday, August 13, 1773  

Paper: Connecticut Journal (New Haven, CT)

-obtained 

 on 

 Genealogybank.com 

I'll need to search earlier papers for an account of the incident that apparently attributes the actions to some Spaniards.

Give a thought to searching for your ancestors in the newspapers at  Genealogybank.com.

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Reminder--we don't include complete citations on blog posts--just our personal preference. Complete citations are always included in Casefile Clues or you can learn about citations in Elizabeth Shown Mills' Evidence Explained. We always do include enough background information in blog posts that readers can find our original sources.If you think we don't, please fire off an email to me at mjnrootdig@gmail.com 

A Murder in West Florida and a Stooping Relative

This is going to take a little bit of work, but the reference does indicate some associates of my wife's probable ancestor, Absalom Hooper. 

According to this newspaper account Innis Hooper, Charles, Holmes, Absalom Hooper, Richard Holloway, and Reason Young were charged with the murder of five people and of robbing a batteau. The newspaper account gives some details about the case and their arrest. 

Date: Thursday, August 4, 1774  

Paper: Rivington's New York Gazetteer (New York, NY)  obtained on 

Genealogybank.com

 Second half follows--first line repeated.

Date: Thursday, August 4, 1774  

Paper: Rivington's New York Gazetteer (New York, NY)  obtained on 

 Genealogybank.com

This account also provides a description of Absalom Hooper--he was about 5 feet 8 inches, stoops much, has fair complexion and is about twenty-nine or thirty years of age. 

Hopefully we'll have an update. One never knows the items one will discover in old newspapers. 

1852 California State Census Asks Previous Residence

Did you know that the 1852 California State Census asked for "last residence?" Good information to have.

1852 California State Census-Mariposa County, page 34 (handwritten upper right)--digitally located on Ancestry.com.

 And you thought only the 1940 United States Census asked for this information.

The second line on this page was the person of interest--and learning he'd been in Mexico before he was in California was a clue.

Now I've got to see if there are any extended family members who might have been in California in 1852. There might be some more "last residences" that I could use in my research.

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Reminder--we don't include complete citations on blog posts--just our personal preference. Complete citations are always included in Casefile Clues or you can learn about citations in Elizabeth Shown Mills' Evidence Explained. We always do include enough background information in blog posts that readers can find our original sources.If you think we don't, please fire off an email to me at mjnrootdig@gmail.com 

Rufus D Stephens Horse Claim from War of 1812

The researcher at the National Archives found some partial information on the Rufus D Stephens War of 1812 horse claim. 

Details are minimal, but the claim indicates he was living in Ontario County, New York, at the time of the claim. The name of the lawyer is also given.

Not a huge clue, but time may prove me wrong on just how helpful this might be.

One should never overlook any record--no matter how slight. This horse claim helps me tie a location to Rufus D. Stephens and in this time period that can sometimes be difficult to do.

Links to Old Research Guides at FamilySearch

On Genealogy Tip of the Day, I did a blog post with quite a few links to the research guides that were formerly on the FamilySearch website.

http://genealogysearchtip.blogspot.com/2012/10/research-outlines-us-and-some-european.html

It is a work in progress, but I'm glad to see the research guides are will around.

My email inbox tells me these guides are still extremely popular and that I'm not the only one whose not entralled with the wiki approach.

Please bookmark that post--we'll be updating.

Are the Research Guides at FamilySearch Gone?

I'm hoping that I am wrong, but it looks like the Research Guides at FamilySearch have been removed, having been completely incorporated into the research wikis.

I also hope that this is NOT true. I, for one, got a great deal of use out of the research guides. There are numerous reasons why I do not care for the wiki approach when it comes to writing content of this type.

Maybe someone will tell me that I've simply overlooked them and that the others who can't find them have missed them as well.

Tracking Down a Policeman's Career

Entry for Frank Vanderlinden, 1895 Chicago City Directory, obtained on  Fold3 .

Frank Vanderlinden was a Chicago City police officer for several years. I'm trying to determine when he enlisted on the force and approximately when he retired. Census records are one way to work on that, but the ten year gap between the enumerations and the lack of an 1890 census makes estimating his work time a little difficult given the time period when he worked.

Fortunately there are city directories that can help me with this problem. The image on this post comes from the 1895 Chicago City Directory obtained on Fold3. I'm hoping to use additional directories to fill in a few details about Frank. We'll have occasional updates on him as information is located. Frank's wife was Hannah Frame--sister of my children's great-great-grandfather William Frame.

Fold3 has many of the Chicago city directories online--and those for other cities as well..

Why You Should Get Away From The Trees

Several years ago, I made a "discovery" of the maiden name of one of my children's ancestors--a lady born about 1790 on the East Coast.

The discovery was easily made (and documented) through comprehensive indexes that had been created to records that previously were not indexed. Manual searches would have taken years to locate the information.

I have blogged about this person and her maiden name and how the connection was made several times. I've written about her (and her family several times). The blog posts with sufficient citation information are easy to access.

There are twelve matches for the husband in the "trees" at Ancestry.com. Not one of them has this maiden name for the wife. At this point, the discovery is not new. The problem is that the maiden name is not in the published genealogies on the family.

And the problem is that most of the trees contain information copied from other sources.

A quick google search would locate information on this female. I've actually gladly shared the information with others.

Are you only relying on the trees?

It's a good thing I'm not.

Basco Bulldogs 1930-1931

I remembered that I had this photograph from 1930-1931 with unidentified people in it.

I'm reposting it--the guys are the "Basco Bulldogs" from 1930-1931--at the Basco High School (Basco, Illinois). My grandfather, John H. Ufkes (1917-2003) is in it. I'm working on getting the names of the others in the photo.

Just a reminder about your own photos you may have that are unidentified.

Were the Frames in the Fire?

1870 U S Federal Census, Cook County, Chicago, Ward 4, page 246--obtained on Ancestry.com

I initially reviewed this 1870 census entry for the Frame family in Chicago in an attempt to determine if the family was in the fire or not. Obviously they all survived as they are listed in later census records.

But there are some interesting items about this 1870 enumeration:

• Husband Thomas is not listed. Thomas does not die until after 1910, so he's around somewhere.
• The value of the home is $10,000. This seems rather high given Thomas' occupation of painter and laborer. 
• The age of Hannah has been corrected. It's not obvious who made this correction.

While it's tempting to get distracted, I need to stay focused. The next step in this research is to find city directories for the 1870 era to determine where Thomas was located or where the Frames were actually living in 1870. Of course given the value of real estate, the family owned their home. But records of purchase were likely destroyed in the fire. 

I also need to find accurate maps showing where the fire actually destroyed property. 

You Can Just Type It In

Our recent post about place names at Ancestry.com brought some behind-the-scenes responses from readers.

Yes, you can just type in the location in the box and ignore the "drop-down" list. I typed in "altona" and obtained search results for that location.

However, if you have word in the location box at Ancestry.com when searching that is not from the drop-down menu, the restriction option on the location does not work and "neighboring" and other choices are not available.

I suspect that the "neighboring" option only works at the county level in United States census records, but I have yet to test this theory.

One More Sledd Slave Incident Account

Searches for more on the Sledd who murdered a slave in Bedford County, Virginia around 1810 located an additional reference on GenealogyBank from a newspaper in Pennsylvania. Apparently a politician in South Carolina was going to introduce a bill regarding the "murder of negro[s]." Whether this bill was precipitated by the Sledd incident I'm not certain, but it could not have been the only incident. 

I'm still working on locating the first name of this Sledd individual. I think that I've about exhausted online references and it's time to go to offline sources for more on this story. The newspapers on Genealogybank.com have been extremely helpful, but there are times where other sources need to be utilized. This is one of those times.

Date: Monday, March 4, 1811  

Paper: Washington Reporter (Washington, PA) --obtained on 

Genealogybank.com

Date: Monday, March 4, 1811  

Paper: Washington Reporter (Washington, PA) --obtained on 

Genealogybank.com

I had to split this reference up into two images for posting here. Apparently the Library of Virginia has records of the penitentiary, but records of individual prisoners do not go back this early. Local court records and local newspaper accounts are probably my best bet for additional information. The description of the beating is quite detailed in this newspaper account, including the application of a pepper and tobacco mixture to rub into the wounds.

Stay tuned.

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Reminder--we don't include complete citations on blog posts--just our personal preference. Complete citations are always included in Casefile Clues or you can learn about citations in Elizabeth Shown Mills' Evidence Explained. We always do include enough background information in blog posts that readers can find our original sources.If you think we don't, please fire off an email to me at mjnrootdig@gmail.com 

$90,000 in Her Purse

Date: Thursday, March 3, 1955  

Paper: Register-Republic (Rockford, IL)--obtained on 

Genealogybank.com

I don't think I'll ever find $90,000 in a purse on a buffet., but I did discover this item while looking for Rampley references in various newspapers on Genealogybank.com.

This discovery apparently hit the wire services in 1955, which was why a newspaper in Rockford ran it. Fortunately those newspapers are contained in Genealogybank.com. Rockford, Illinois, is a distance from both locations mentioned in this article--Decatur, Illinois and Plymouth, Illinois, making the point that sometimes things get published in papers a distance from where they happened.

I'm not related to "Mrs. Lloyd Rampley," but Lloyd Rampley is a "double" first cousin to my grandpa Neill.

There would be good clues in this clipping for someone researching her family--beginning with a search for the records of the settlement of this estate which are probably on file in the Macon County Courthouse. Given the likely size of the estate, there likely will be a variety of records.

Somehow I doubt I'll ever find $90,000 in a purse on any piece of furniture, buffet or not.

More Down Home Places Ancestry.com's Never Heard Of

Sometimes I just think Ancestry.com's not all that worried about those of us with ancestors who lived in rural America. They just cannot seem to include some place names in their database. I realize the places I'm discussing are not metropolitan in nature, but it would be nice to be included.

Ancestry.com contained no entry for Altona, Knox County, Illinois as of 6 October 2012--yet it clearly exists.

Apparently there are two additional places that Ancestry.com has never heard of:

• Altona, Knox County, Illinois
• Walnut Grove Township, Knox County, Illinois

Neither of these locations come up on the drop down menu when searching at Ancestry.com and yet they appear in the 1940 Census database as extracted locations. This is the latest in a series of omissions of locations in Ancestry.com's database of places and frankly I can't understand. Like the others that have been mentioned earlier, these are known places. 

And the problem I have with this is that, we rely on Ancestry.com to be accurate. When there are omissions that can clearly be found, it makes one wonder what other things might be missing.

Ancestry.com's list of locations showed no entry for Walnut Grove Township, Knox County, Illinois as of 6 October 2012.

Sometimes it really feels like I'm the only one who really is bothered by the lack of a set of complete place names in the Ancestry.com database.

There's still no Prairie Township listed in Hancock County, Illinois, either:

No Prairie Township, Hancock County, Illinois, shown on Ancestry.com's list of locations as of 6 October 2012.

I originally blogged about the Prairie Township problem in March of 2011. Yes, March of 2011. 

This little 'ol blog probably doesn't warrant enough traffic to really attract attention to the issue although I did communicate with Ancestry.com staffers about it a year or so ago, but apparently this problem just does not warrant any concern on the part of Ancestry.com. 

Oh, yeah. West Point, Hancock County, Illinois, and Basco, Hancock County, Illinois, don't appear in the list of locations either. But I won't bore readers with more images. 

How Fast Do Blog Posts Get Into Google Search?

Blog posts made on Blogger.com apparently turn up in search results within a minute.

A minute after making my post about Cyndi Howells' missing keys, the post showed up in search results. That's fast.

Not certain if results made on non-Google blog sites show up that fast though. This screen shot shows the time--one minute after the post was made.

Cyndi Howells' Missing Keys

This is a joke that has been turned into a test to see how fast this blog post shows up in google searches.

My genealogy friend Cyndi Howells (of Cyndislist fame--http://www.cyndislist.com) is missing her post office keys and I told her she "lost them on the internet" and that she should google them.

Now I'm curious how soon this post comes up when a google search for "cyndi howells missing keys" is conducted.

Oh, here are her keys--after all, they were lost on the internet.

Citing the Barn

Here is how I decided to "cite" the barn that has the year of immigration for one of my families that was mentioned in an earlier post:

Edward Habben Farm (Hancock County, Illinois, west of Carthage on Highway 136, southeast corner of the southeast quarter of section 21 in Prairie Township), barn, personal observation by Michael John Neill, September 2012.


I decided to pattern off the rural grave marker model in Elizabeth Shown Mills' Evidence Explained. .