Mid-year Evaluation

We have arrived at the mid-way point of the calendar year and it's time to evaluate the genealogical goals of this year! I'm proud to say that I've stayed on schedule for my once a month visits to the Minnesota Historical Society and have mined a great deal of information for myself, my research buddy out in Salt Lake City and have assisted another beginning friend in a few visits there to get her "feet wet", so that she can continue in her own family history research. On my nephew's new wife's line, I added three generations without breaking a sweat, using online sources.

On the search engine "magic formula", well, that goal continues on! I feel like there is a magical combination but I still haven't found it in its entirety. I would like to continue on in preparation for my A.G. certification but I haven't even touched it this year. I will get a rudimentary family website up this summer on one of the German immigrant lines that I have been struggling with for years and I hope to write and submit a few genealogical journal articles for publication this year as well.

Newspaper columns

I've been toying with the idea of proposing a local genealogy newspaper column for beginners to teh hobby and intermediates who have dabbled in family history. I've looked at some other long-running columns and the usual online columns and blogs, like Eastman's, and I believe that I can do a good job here for the local market. I have the expertise, knowledge, decades of experience in dealing with the public and teaching genealogy workshops.

Now I'm researching what it takes to "pitch" a column to a newspaper and then I'll prepare a proposal. What are your suggestions?

Oldest Church in Minnesota

Just in driving around in rural Minnesota, I am always struck by the fact that we actually set up signs marking our church buildings, old as well as new. So one of my thought questions for the month was: which is the oldest church in Minnesota?

Research shows that the oldest established church building was St. Felix Catholic Church in Wabasha, built in 1842, destroyed by fire in 1874 and rebuilt in 1893. The "oldest church in continuous use in Minnesota" is St. Peters in Mendota, built of limestone in 1853. And the oldest church building in Minneapolis is Our Lady of Lourdes Church, down on Nicollet Island, built in either 1855 or 1856, depending on the source you consult for the historical data.

Indexing Errors on Census Records

Once again, caution for the researcher used to quickly finding names on census indeces, such as Ancestry.com- these indexes are NOT infallable! In checking for a family that resided in the same Wisconsin county for nearly sixty years, I was baffled by them NOT turning up in the 1930 census in the same locale. So today, I decided that perhaps a page by page manual search, like I used to do, was in order, to satify my feeling that they hadn't moved or that their surname was misspelled or whatever might have happened, hadn't happened absolutely, beyond a shadow of a doubt; so I could, in all good conscience, begin to search for where they might have migrated to.

Guess what? There they are- name spelled the same way it has been for sixty years, in the same small town that they have been all along, still married, still in the same occupation. I then rechecked the index, using the exact information from the census entry, and they don't come up at all. Error and wasted time- but I was not deterred nor should you be. If you believe a family would still be in the same locale in a census, check page by page yourself to be certain that no errors have occurred.

Chicago Police Department Homicide Record Index

Another unusual record source: the Chicago,Illinois police department index of homicides 1870-1930. Check it out at http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/GenealogyMWeb/chrisrch.html

The index search page has you type in the name and the possible matches are brought up, with details on the name of the deceased, the volume and page of the record, event date, and for some entries, the "name of other persons involved". If there a missing relative or the possibility of a homicide in the family in Chicago, you should check here. You could solve another family mystery.

Success in the search!

Small town newspapers

As I was visiting my home town last weekend, I had a chance to read the local newspaper and must make mention of this helpful fact- small items that one would never expect, become part of the "news" that is reported. In my example, the fact that the public pay phone in the local police station was back in service made the front page, left hand column on the Saturday paper. Now if small details such as these are recorded, imagine how helpful the society or local news page will be for your genealogy research!

WWII Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946

Ancestry.com has another fine database for you to check- the WWII Army Enlistment Records. Over 8 million men and women enlisted, and while this is not the entirety of the list,it can be another helpful resource for your family history. You will find the usual name, date of enlistment, serial number, birth year and place and the enlistment information that you would expect, as well as education level, marital status, height and weight.

In checking on my grandfather, I see that he listed a year of college, which I am fairly certain he never attended, but I should check, since it is not something that I ever asked directly while he was alive- we always focused on the "war stories" and his discussions of the occupation of Japan as a Military Police Officer, a job he genuinely enjoyed.

Summer Family Reunions

Summer is a vacation, traveling time of the year and we have opportunities to attend family reunions all around the country. I just attended an annual reunion in southern Wisconsin that has run for 79 years now, with descendants of the Julius Rohrbeck family gathering in the Columbus area for a family reunion, picnic and softball game with ice cream at the end of the game.

We average 80- 100 people every June from all over the country and some relatives bring photos and everyone brings family news to share from those who can't attend. A few years back, a family quilt was started with each family asked to contribute a square that represents them and then we add to the quilt and display it each year. We recognize achievements, births, weddings and deaths. Genealogy information is always exchanged and we are enriched by contact with cousins, great uncles and aunts and new friends as we gather. Postcards are mailed out to remind folks of the date and place for the reunion but we traditionally have held the second Sunday in June for the event.

If your extended family doesn't hold a reunion yet, maybe you should consider starting one and have the tradition extend to your own children and grandchildren! My own children are amazed at how much of a family resemblence exists between the Smith first cousins- some of them can easily pass for siblings, even down to their mannerisms, even though they are raised in separate parts of the country and have rarely seen one another growing up.