Family History Hints, Part 13

One of the first research options many people learn about, when starting their family history quest, is the FamilySearch website. But that one doesn't get expensive advertising like Ancestry.com, so if people aren't made aware of it, it can go unnoticed. Such was the case on Genealogy Roadshow, so I took on the task of introducing the staff to the free database collection, their microfilm collection, and the services of the Family History Library and satellite research locations.

Family History Center locator-www.familysearch.org

Is there a Family History (or FamilySearch) Center near you? And what is it anyway?

Way back in the time BC (before computers) - that would be the 1930s for our story - the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, decided that it would be a good idea for everyone in the Church (AKA Mormon Church) to know about their ancestors. The reasons for this are based in the religious tenets of the Church and are a topic for another time and place. So was formed the Genealogical Society of Utah.

The perfect storage place for family records was carved out of the granite hills in the Wasatch Mountains and vault rooms were formed to protect the most precious of documents and records of them for all the rest of time. And the microfilming crews went out to record documents in all the repositories of the WORLD that they could. Wow! Can you imagine?

OK, so here it is, the 1930s and beyond, and records that would be destroyed in WWII have been microfilmed and the reels tucked away safe from the War overseas. Yes, many records were destroyed, but many were preserved because of the Mormon Church’s filming efforts. Soon repositories all over the earth were asking the Mormons to come in and film their records so that they would be safe from natural and man-made disasters (just ask the people in New Orleans about the records that were destroyed during hurricane Katrina - bunches. But were they devastated? No. Why? The copies were safe on microfilms in Salt Lake City). Three cheers for record preservation (I’ll let you do that on your own time).

So many genealogists make pilgrimages to Salt Lake City to view these marvelous records for themselves. Everything is carefully catalogued (see earlier post about browsing and searching record collections) and easy to view. For free. (And the Family History Library in SLC has the most amazing chairs to sit in while viewing at a microfilm reader for, yes indeed, as much as 13 hours straight, at times - breaks are recommended, however.) But not everyone has the time or money to visit the library (originally the Genealogy Library, but now the Family History Library - considered a more user-friendly name - it was changed in the 1980s). What to do? Rent the films desired and have them shipped to your local Family History Center (AKA FamilySearch Center - though the name change here is a bit confusing with lots of controversy . . . don’t ask me about this). Rentals can be done via credit card, on-line, and films are shipped to the Director of the Family History Center (FHC) identified at time of ordering (for Corona, that means they come to me and I take them into the Corona FHC). The cost is a little less than $10 for a single reel (usually with thousands of document images) with a rental period of 90 days. Cheap at 10 times the price . . . to order a single one of those documents from the original repository would take about 4 to 8 weeks’ wait and probably $20+ for just one. Besides, the funding helps pay for the chairs in SLC (wish our FHC could requisition just one of those chairs!).

OK, so here is where we are, 2013. Over 200 film crews (that’s at least 2 people per crew) are filming and digitizing (more and more digital cameras are being used these days) all over the world. Each repository has its own specs, though, and those are written up in contracts. Some say that the records are not permitted to be digitized to put up on line. Others say that the only use can be in SLC, not to be lent to outside FHCs (there are thousands of these around the world and likely over a hundred in California, so there is probably one within a short distance of wherever you are). Some have no restrictions. In all cases, when the films are created, the repository gets a copy and a copy is put in the vault. When needed, another copy is made and sent out the Family History Library or to an outlying FHC. Some films are never used; others are used so often they start to get worn terribly. No problem - the original is still in the vault and never viewed; it is used to make a replacement copy.

No time here to go into the details of how many of these films are now available to us on line. That will have to wait until tomorrow.

One piece of trivia, though: When I said that the Family History Library was originally the Genealogy Library, the other reason for the name change is that so much more than genealogy is done there. You see (and I’m not suggesting a change in the name of the TV show), Genealogy refers to the Names, Dates, and Places of a person and his/her life (bor--ing). But Family History is everything else: the occupations, hobbies, incarcerations, education, awards, military experiences, religions, etc. that make up the life of a person and his/her family. So, I guess, we are really working on the Family History Roadshow . . . but that’s a mouthful.

Family History Hints, Part 12

Ente Provinciale Per Il Turismo. From the collection of Gena Philibert-Ortega

Wouldn't it be nice if the map never changed? Well, that is not practical, of course. The adjustments of boundaries have been necessary to accommodate politics, economics, ethnicities, and other elements. When America was young, it was subject to many, many boundary adjustments, causing the present day genealogist to be alert to historical issues as well as familial ones. And we won't even begin to discuss the boundary changes throughout Europe over the centuries! When we researched the cases for Genealogy Roadshow, we found it necessary to do our homework, which I explained to the staff expecting us to find whatever we sought:

County Lines, City Lines

My 3x great-grandfather was born in Montgomery County, New York. So was his first wife. His second wife was born in Herkimer County, New York. But they were all born in the same town: Stark. How does that happen? Simple: boundary lines change, counties get divided or combined, and some counties disappear altogether. But when that happens, the towns don’t move (though they may get re-named, as do counties, from time to time).

What does that have to do with genealogy? Everything! At least when one is researching for the records of an ancestor who may have been born in one county, got married in another, and died in yet another while never leaving the village in which he was born. So when I do research I must remember to look for records in the appropriate county. I need to know when counties were split or otherwise changed so that I can go to the correct county Courthouse or (if available on line) database. So when I look for the birth record (in this case, a baptismal record) of Edward Freeman, my g-g-g-grandfather, I must go to the library, historical society, and courthouse in Montgomery County. When I search for his marriage record for his first marriage, I also look to Montgomery County. But when I look for the marriage information for the second marriage, I find it in the historical society in Herkimer County.

Genealogists must be alert to the changes that take place in the geographic locations of their ancestors. There are many resources to keep them abreast of this information, but we can’t forget to look for it. And some records may have been transferred to the other courthouse so we should double check there for a probate record (it may not have been filed where the person died). That is why, when we attempt to pull a record from a distance (hiring an on-site genealogist to handle that), we might have to pay more if more than one location needs to be searched.

            Now you know what we do with all our time!

Family History Hints, Part 11

I grew up in a town of 35,000 people. I do believe I was the only person named Jean Marie Wilcox. But I have an ancestor, Johann Adam Hollaender, who was one of three with the same name, alive at the same time (many others with that name were alive before and after his time as a resident) in his small village of Edesheim, Germany (pop. 200 . . . then, the 1800s, and now . . . or at least very close to the same population today). In "the old days" - the days that we researched for much of Genealogy Roadshow - names were similar or identical among peers in the same location. And we got to figure out who was who. I explained the phenomenon to the staff:

You mean there can be two people with the same name and approximate age in the same town?

Oh, yes! It is quite common to find a name being repeated over and over. Often these people are related in some way, but that connection may go back quite a number of generations; this has confounded genealogists since they started recording family trees. Part of this is due to naming patterns and following traditions such as:

            First son - named for paternal grandfather

            Second son - named for maternal grandfather

            Third son - named for father

            Fourth son - named for father’s oldest brother

OK, so let’s take a patriarch:    John William Jones

            His oldest son is:   Patrick Steven Jones (after his father’s father)

            Next oldest son is:    Joseph Orin Jones (after his mother’s father)

            Next oldest son is:   John William Jones, Jr. (after his father)

            Nest oldest son is:  Peter Andrew Jones (after his paternal uncle)

Patrick has 4 sons as follows:

            John William Jones, II (named for paternal grandfather)

            Artimus Christian Jones (mother’s father’s given names)

            Patrick Steven Jones, Jr. (named for father)

            Joseph Orin Jones (named for father’s brother)

Joseph Orin Jones has 4 sons as follows:

            John William Jones, II (named for paternal grandfather)

            Adam Paul Jones (named for maternal grandfather)

            Joseph Orin Jones, Jr. (named for father)

            Patrick Steven Jones, II (named for father’s brother)

John William Jones, Jr. has 4 sons as follows:

            John William Jones, II (named for paternal grandfather)

            Lewis Carter Jones (named for maternal grandfather)

            John William Jones, III (named for father)

            Patrick Steven Jones, II (named for father’s brother)

Peter Andrew Jones has 4 sons as follows:

            John William Jones, II (named for paternal grandfather)

            Christopher Alexander Jones (named for maternal grandfather)

            Peter Andrew Jones, Jr. (named for father)

            Patrick Steven Jones, II (named for father’s brother)

If everyone stays in the same neighborhood, we now have four cousins, all called John William Jones, II. Around family and the neighborhood, the patriarch may be called “John the elder” while the others are identified as John, Jr. (even though that isn’t his legal title), Willie-boy, Bill, and Johnny. Sometimes these calling names appear on documents; sometimes they use their legal names when signing or completing documents. How do we know which John William Jones, II is the right one?

To complicate matters, we also have five Patrick Steven Joneses - one the eldest (who might be called Patrick Senior), his son (who might use Patrick Junior), and then the three cousins, Pat the butcher, Steven, and P.S. Same problem with legal documents.

Does this happen often? Over and over. And frequently it is the cause for family trees to get all tangled with grafted branches and misplaced limbs. The genealogist has to use extra caution when trying to decipher these issues.

It is also common that, if a child dies, the next child will be given the previous one’s name (if they are of the same sex). So if, in our example above, John William Jones’s son Patrick dies before the next son is born, that child will most likely get the name Patrick. This is also true for female children.

Another not uncommon practice is, when a man loses his wife and then remarries (almost a necessity if he now has small children to care for), the first girl child born to his new wife will be named, in reverent memory, after the previous wife.

Now you see why there are times we have to search and then re-search to make sure we are following the right trees and why people will see the same name over and over and believe they are related when, indeed, the person may be a distant cousin or, possibly, not related at all.

Family History Hints, Part 10

It's so nice when records are indexed and we can easily search for our ancestors by just entering a name, date, place, and maybe additional data. But not everything is indexed and explaining this to those who don't understand, or haven't had experience with, the difference between doing a simple search in a few minutes and a lengthy page-by-page browse that can take hours or even days, was necessary when we worked on Genealogy Roadshow. Once I did so, they could comprehend why finding one ancestor might take a few minutes but finding another might take considerably longer.

Los Angeles Family History Library. Photo by Gena Philibert-Ortega

            What is the difference between Searching and Browsing to find ancestors?

When you want to find something on the Internet, the common practice is to Search for the item, picture, location, etc. by entering a descriptor in the search box of your preferred search engine (e.g., Yahoo, Google, Bing, etc.). We do the same thing for information about ancestors, though we often use specialized searches in particular databases on a variety of websites (FamilySearch, Ancestry, Fold3, GenealogyBank, etc.). This works fine when the materials have been indexed and the names are in the search engine; but what about the times when the records may be up on line but are not indexed? How do we find the people then?

This is where browsing comes in. In the “old days,” we browsed Census and other records by using microfilms. We scrolled from image to image, searching for the name we hoped we would recognize. And many of us still do that when images are not digitized and on line (most often, we head to Salt Lake City and the Family History Library, the largest records repository for documents from all over the world; but there are other repositories with microfilmed records - the National Archives, various libraries around the world, etc.). Today, many of those images are up on the Internet (most likely database collection: FamilySearch - the Family History Library’s on-line repository), but the names are yet to be indexed (yes, many are, but many are not) and we need to browse the images one by one to find the will, deed, or other document that we hope is there (when there is no index, we cannot be sure that the record is there at all, but it might be the best possible one to connect a person to a family so it’s worth the browsing). Some of these records are separated into location batches (e.g., by County within a given State) and that helps a great deal (presuming we know the location) and some of them include a type of index within the digitized records. (Note: in cases where a family lived in one area for a long time, we may need to check two or even three different counties in a single state for a single town because county lines are changed over the years, so we need to know that history as well.) These records are often difficult to decipher because many of them are over 100 years old. This can take a great deal of time.

Now, if the records we are browsing through are created in a non-English speaking country or from a non-English writing entity (e.g., the Catholic Church in any location - records are in Latin), then we are required to translate, interpret an older style of writing (Old English, Gothic German, etc.), while hunting the desired ancestor. The farther back we go in time, the more difficult the records are likely to be to interpret (not only because of the writing style, but the degradation of the documents affect their legibility).

So, there you have it: why we are thrilled with people who index old records and why we sometimes can be found banging our heads against the wall. But we shall recover to search (and browse) another day.

Family History Hints, Part 9

Explaining to non-genealogists why something as basic as a birth date can be a source of contention and/or confusion is not that easy. Today, knowing when and where we were born seems obvious, but life wasn't always that easy.

            Why do some people have different birth dates and places listed?

Birth dates are recorded on many different records throughout a person’s life. Obviously, a birth certificate lists the birth date and place, but, as discussed before, a delayed birth certificate might have erroneous information. A baptismal certificate often lists the birth date. If the family kept the records in a family Bible, the information may be recorded there as well. Sometimes, especially if the Bible is kept by a more distant relative who may not have received the information at the time of the event, it might be off by a day or two. Sometimes people “update” the family dates at a single time and when that happens, the data is particularly suspect (this we can usually assess when the writing is in the same hand, with obviously the same pen - ink faded at the same rate when dates may be 50 or even more years apart). Later in a person’s life, the birth date (and often place) is recorded on a marriage registration (license or certificate); if the person getting married lies about it (a birth certificate is required these days, but was not necessarily requested back in the early 1900s, the 1800s, or earlier), the married couple might fudge a little (a girl who is underage might lie that she is older; but an older woman getting married - especially for the first time - might say she is younger [both my grandmothers, who were significantly older than their respective husbands, said they were a few years younger]).

Whenever the Census was taken (Federal, State, or special - see one of the earlier posts), the ages of the household members were recorded. If the person giving the information didn’t know, then the date might end up being way off from the actual birth year. (If either grandfather had reported the ages of their wives, my grandmothers, they would definitely have been in error.)

When people fill out other documents (e.g., military draft, service, and pension records), they are asked for their birth dates and places. Sometimes (e.g., when parents are married only a few short months before the first child arrives, they actually “move back” the birth date of the child - at least, they tell their child that false date to keep from the embarrassment). So some people think they are a year younger than they actually are!

When a person dies, the SSDI (Social Security Death Index) often lists the birth date plus the obituary and death certificate also list the birth date. It is also often engraved on the tombstone. Those are all sources we look to to get a hint of a person’s birth date, but I have an ancestor who had about four totally different birth dates, depending on the record I examine (christening record, passport, marriage record, and death documents). So the genealogist has to evaluate all of the records and determine which, if any, are accurate. End result: often, confusion!

Family History Hints, Part 8

Image courtesy of  Surachai/www.freedigitalphotos.net

At one point during the research for Genealogy Roadshow, I was asked, "Where do you get these records?" I guess I didn't realize till then that what was "common knowledge" to the genealogists is foreign to those in other fields. I hope that the information I provided helped to enlighten the staff.

            “Where do you get these records?”

That is a common question, and sometimes we may be reluctant to give the answer, but not because we are trying to guard trade secrets; it’s because it depends on the record, the time period, the geographic location, privacy issues, and much, much more. Our on-line resources are not as prolific as the ads for Ancestry.com would have you believe. One archivist puts it like this:

//////  = the amount of information available to us on the Internet

//////////////////////////////// = the amount of information available to us on microfilm (repositories vary, but we most frequently use films and fiche from the Family History Library in Salt Lake, rented from them and sent to be viewed at local Family History Centers and Regional Libraries) much of which is being digitized to eventually go up on line.

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// = the amount of information in hard copy format at various repositories around the world (libraries, archives, museums, courthouses, cemeteries, historical societies, etc.), much of which will NEVER be on line

So trying to find a scarce record on-line is often an impossibility; we need to hire sub-contracting genealogists on-site to “pull records” from the repositories listed above. When we are “lucky” enough to locate something (a baptism record, the minutes from church meetings, etc.), we are thrilled. Renting microfilms takes time, but we have folks we know in Salt Lake who can go in and find a filmed document, if we know exactly what and where it is. However, often it’s an issue of scrolling through thousands of records (e.g., probate files) looking for the family of the applicant on possibly a dozen different rolls of film. This takes literally hours. I spent 5 days in Salt Lake, 8 hours a day, searching for one particular family and link. All I found was what it wasn’t.

People who have sent in [to the show] their queries after 20 years of searching are not likely to have their question answered by us. Not unless we happen to luck into it. But we keep waving our magic wands . . . sometimes cracking them over our heads. 

Family History Hints, Part 7

Genealogists understand that the spelling of a name is a fluid thing, over the years; but often our clients, "newbies," and those not familiar with our field are very stubborn about accepting alternative spellings of the name with which they identify. We understand, but the Genealogy Roadshow staff did not always do so. Sometimes the spelling controversy confused folks so it was necessary to educate on this element of genealogy research.

               What’s is a name?

“We don’t spell the name that way,” is something I hear a lot at the National Archives and the Family History Center, where I volunteer. The fact is, if a surname hasn’t been altered over the years, I am quite surprised! Whether the name is Smith (Smyth, Smythe, Smid, Smeth, etc.) or something less common like Chlarson (Clarson, Claussen, Charlson, etc.), finding a name spelled different ways within a set of records (or even on a single record) is more common than people think.

Why the alternate spellings? Often it goes back to the time when people couldn’t read or write and they had no idea how to spell their names (first, middle, last). If asked, they might say, “It’s spelled just like it sounds!” (That way they didn’t have to admit having ignorance about their own monikers.) So “Trapschuh” comes out Trapshoe, Troppschuh, and any number of other variations. Also, the writing itself is often hard to decipher. In Gothic German, an “h” frequently looks like a “g,” and vice versa, so the “original” “Trappschug” ended up “Trapschuh.” No surprise there. In the Old English, the “thorn” is often misread (it should be read as “th,” but appears more like a “y”). So a common error in transcription of “the people arrived” is changed to “ye people arrived.” That actually changes the meaning!

Some people’s names were changed when they came to “the new country” and altered the spellings so that they appeared more American. Germans might drop the umlaut over the U (ü) or write it in an alternate manner: “ue,” which means the same thing. Sometimes, if their name meant something specific, such as an occupation, they would translate it into English. Mueller then became Miller (the direct translation). Schneider became Taylor or Tailer.

Some people changed names to reflect their situation (I already discussed the common name “Freeman” to describe the person who gained freedom for something or another). Some changed them to disguise who they were or their relationships to others of the same name (after the Oklahoma bombing there were instances of people named McVeigh who changed their names legally to avoid stigma). Then there is my friend whose father hated his surname - Druckenmuller - and changed it to “Graves” (that’s supposed to be more pleasant??). She didn’t find out until she was an adult.

Whatever the reason for the changes, Genealogists need to be mindful of alternate spellings. While many search programs will check these (e.g., if I enter “Wilcox” into a search, it will check for “Welcox,” “Willcocks,” and even “Wilcockson” . . . some even add “Wilson,” though that doesn’t compute in the Soundex style search - topic for another day). But these programs will not check for non-obvious alternate first letters. My Yucker family also goes by Yonker, Jucker, Yuker, and Euchre (as well as other variations), so if I am checking an index for the name (say, the DAR Patriot Index), I need to look under “E,” “J,” and “Y,” and may check “U” as well, just in case. If the index is spread over 4 or 5 (or more microfilms, I have to order all the ones that might be applicable). More time and money.

So there you have it: in genealogy, spelling doesn’t count, except when it is your time and money spent to find the elusive ancestor.

Family History Hints, Part 6

Family trees provided the Genealogy Roadshow research team with a great starting point. Sometimes we would have to create these from the text information provided by the applicant, but sometimes folks had already posted a tree on line or could provide a GEDCOM. While better than nothing, sometimes it was just a little better. In some cases, it was worse (when a tree was compiled with unverified information and seemingly pieced together like a crazy quilt). It was necessary for the Roadshow staff to understand how trees and their usability figured into our job as researchers.

            On-line vs. Off-line Family Trees

It is not unusual for people to speak in jargon when talking about their family history work and you might hear people say “I have my family in FamilyTreeMaker” or “I use PAF” or “Can I send my GEDCOM?” or “I have my tree on Ancestry - I can send you a link to that.” These are referring to the different forms of software used to enter and adjust one’s “tree” or “pedigree” or where the information can be found on-line. There are two types of family trees: Internet, or on-line, and off-line pedigrees that use genealogy software.

On-line trees are a way to share one’s family with the world (or just select people, as determined by the privacy settings). These on-line trees allow everyone, only specifically designated people, or no one to edit (like a wiki). Privacy settings vary and exposure to the general public also varies. Some of the most common places to find these are on Ancestry.com, RootsWeb (“World Connect”) and FamilySearch, but many other on-line genealogy services also allow people to post their trees at those locations. Of course, people often also post their trees to their own personal websites or on lineage sites maintained for the descendants of the family (e.g., most of the more well known families in American history have on-line trees). Frequently, the source citations for these on-line trees are weak or non-existent. Genealogists have a saying: “Genealogy without sources is fiction.” And if those sources are on-line trees that have no source citations, they have no firm basis in fact and we are hesitant to use them for anything more than clues to actual sources. And people frequently “copy and paste” trees found on line to their own web pages, perpetuating errors and the lack of citations. On-line trees are never to include names or information about living individuals (though the tree owner - the one who posted it - may include his/her name and information; that’s a personal choice).

Off-line trees, using genealogy software, are not accessible to the general public (unless they are posted to the web using that option within the software). These often include names and other information about living individuals because they are accessible only to the author and the people with whom that author shares them (cousins, siblings, etc.). Another advantage to using genealogy software is that it is accessible on the computer but doesn’t require an Internet connection. Software can also be adapted to smart phones, allowing the historian to check on an ancestor while visiting a cemetery, library, or any other location without carrying a computer with him/her.

Some of the most popular forms of software are FamilyTreeMaker (an Ancestry product revised every year), RootsMagic (an independent company that interfaces directly with information on FamilySearch, allowing the user to download from that website and upload to the on-line tree there), Legacy (also independent company), The Master Genealogist (a rather elaborate software form that takes a long time to master), and Personal Ancestral File (PAF - developed by FamilySearch and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints). This last one is being phased out because FS is not a software company and no longer has technicians available to assist people if they have problems. There are many other ones, but I’m sure you don’t care about all the ones flooding the market. These are all specifically for PCs. Some have applications for the MAC, but the primary one used for that option is called Reunions. Major differences among these include cost and user-friendliness. PAF is free; Legacy and RootsMagic both have free options that are limited in their options. FTM, because it is annually updated, gets quite costly, as does TMG. Complete software packages start around $30 and go up from there with downloadable updates as needed (sometimes free, sometimes for a small additional charge).

The term GEDCOM means Genealogy Data Communication and was developed by the LDS Church technicians so someone’s tree that was created on, say, FamilyTreeMaker (FTM) can be transferred to someone else who prefers, perhaps, RootsMagic. Sometimes the transfer can cause some data to be lost, but the primary information gets through so that is why we keep asking for GEDCOMs. Source citations are inserted into the program as we go along with our research and are printed out (or not) by selecting our preference of format when printing reports and/or charts. These sources are also transferred when using a GEDCOM and they are things we look at very closely as these are used to determine the competency of the research exhibited.       

Using the software, we can view a family tree as Family Group Sheets (allowing us to see all the children of a specific family, then switch to a different spouse to see other children, etc.), a direct lineage of a person (the pedigree format), a narrative report (putting all the data of the family, or the individuals we select, into a readable format, connecting generation to generation with a recognized numbering system), and many other charts and forms. This allows the genealogist to view the family in the format that is most comfortable for him/her.

Family History Hints, Part 5

From the collection of Gena Philibert-Ortega

Of course, on Genealogy Roadshow we had a number of stories that involved people in the military, so some explanation of the uniqueness of military records was called for. Sometimes we were asked for records that simply were not available to us so an explanation of that was also needed:

Military records - Why they are valuable to genealogists

• Vietnam War is too recent for us to have access to the records, unless direct relations.
• Korean War is also too recent for most records.
• WWII is also very recent (comparatively) so the records available to us are limited. For WWII, older men were expected to register for the draft (called the “old men’s draft”) and we can access those draft records, but not the ones for the younger draftees (in general).
• WWI draft records, among others, are more accessible to us. Most men, age 18 and over, had to register for the draft and their records are available on line. The exceptions are those who enlisted before needing to register for the draft; there are no draft cards for most of these.
•  Civil War records, housed at NARA 1 (Washington, DC) require on-site pulling for our purposes (we can order these, but it can easily take 2 months to receive). There are 2 types of records:

           
Military - generated at the time of the event. These include muster rolls, captures, injuries, deaths in the field, etc. If it happened during the War, it should be in this collection.

• Pension - generated after the War as a result of the Pension Acts (one passed in 1862, but rarely involved as most soldiers were unaware of that one; and one passed in 1890, which most veterans - invalids, they were called . . . that is INvalid, not inVALid). These records require the veteran and/or his widow, to prove eligibility - that they can no longer work to supply a living for themselves and/or their families. They require affidavits signed by those who know the applicant(s) and medical examinations. They also include letters and documents detailing needs - lists of children, spouse, and dates and places of births, marriages, and, as applicable, deaths. These provide invaluable information for genealogists. Files range from a page or two to reams of letters, applications, and affidavits. If there is a pension record, it should be pulled! Also included: any bounty land information.
• War of 1812 - Same as above (Civil War) - Bounty Land more likely to be involved.
• Revolutionary War - Same as above (Civil War).

 Females who can prove direct line relationship to Revolutionary War soldiers are eligible for the DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution) and males who can provide that proof, the SAR (Sons of . . .). The value of these groups: scholarship money for their children or themselves; proof must be indisputable. (Only for Patriots, not Loyalists; many of these soldiers are already listed in the Patriot Index of the DAR and, when that happens, the acquisition of the application can provide much additional family information. Applications can be retrieved within a couple of weeks; maybe less.)

Many military records or indexes (telling us that people were in the military and that records exist but not giving specific data) are available on Ancestry.com, FamilySearch, and, most extensively, Fold3.com. When we find references at these locations, we are encouraged and suggest pulling the records (if not posted . . . which many are not and won’t be for some time). All military records are kept at the National Archives and Records Administration 1 (Washington, DC). Some are kept in other NARA offices, but not here in So. Calif.

Family History Hints, Part 4

The staff on Genealogy Roadshow was unaware of the various sources available to us and were probably as pleased as we were to discover how much was accessible on line (though hardly everything we needed, of course). I followed up on the Census discussion (posted yesterday) with more detail on how we could learn about the whereabouts of the applicants' ancestors:

I’ve been talking about the problems that exist when people assume things about the records we use. Here is a follow-up. 

US Census records included more and more (or different) information in almost every successive year. As I mentioned before, 1790-1840 censuses listed heads of household only. But in 1850 they included the names of all people in the household, with their ages, but did not indicate how the people were related to each other. Since many people took in family members, a child in a home, even if he/she had the same surname as the “man of the house,” could not be assumed to be his child. By 1880, they learned. This helps a lot. Also, eventually occupations, birth locations (and, in time, locations of the births of each listed person’s parents). In 1900, things got even better - that census included the birth month and year; but that info was not repeated in later years. We do get information about when the people got married, how many times they had been married (not consistently, but sometimes), relationships to head of household, income information, property value, and education all give us a sense of who the people were. Hence, the use of these documents to get rolling on who the people were.

When we add City Directories (the precursors to telephone directories), we can learn if people moved between years of the census. But they are not all on the Internet, so sometimes we have to contact libraries in other areas for information from the directories that might be helpful. This involves searching in individual volumes . . . and it can be long and tedious, especially if alternate spellings of a name need to be considered.

One word about names: people often altered names (and for many reasons), so a Velton could be a Felton; a Bounder could be a Pounder; a Kroch could be a Crock; etc. So when we look in indexes, we have to look for alternate spelling options . . . again, time consuming.