Google Earth

Google's latest cool tool is available with a free download.

[Tag: Google]

St. Louis naturalization records

It's old news, but the naturalization index created by the St. Louis Genealogical Society is great. No more hunting through the film version.

[Tag: genealogy]

Koch, Wiedey

The majority of the film I'll be ordering for the near future will have to do with the KOCH and WIEDEY families. Since the limit is three reels per order, there may not be updates on other surnames for a while.

[Tags: genealogy, Koch, Wiedey]

War of 1812

I really wish I had checked for War of 1812 records pertaining to the SHIPMAN family last year at the National Archives in D.C. Actually, I wish I had researched something else rather than spending the entire day on Civil War pension files. There were other items of interest on my list, but I just couldn't get through those pensions fast enough. Anyway...

At the time, though, I didn't know about the excellent book War of 1812 Genealogy by George K. Schweitzer, which I recently found at the library. I would highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in researching the available records.

[Tags: genealogy, military, Shipman]

Rick

It's a good thing I was contacted by other descendants of August RICK. They had mentioned the name Ida RICK, which was unfamiliar to me. After reviewing the St. Joseph Catholic Church (Freeburg) records I discovered my error; Ida was indeed the ninth child of August and Magdalena (MÜLLER). I would guess that this may be the only record on which Ida's name appears, since vital records were not standard at the time and she died a few weeks after being born.

[Tags: genealogy, Müller, Rick]

Arnecke

I've suspected (with help) for some time that the surname ARNECKE was relevant to us. Well, it is. It turns out that the German church records for the LANKAU family were easier to read than those created in St. Louis thirty years later. There is now no doubt that Emil LANKAU's mother was named Emilie ARNECKE, or that the family was indeed from Halberstadt, Sachsen, Preußen.

[Tags: genealogy, Arnecke, Lankau]

The genealogy of a television program

The Flash version of the website for Into The West has a family tree for the story's characters. Interesting.

[Tag: genealogy]

Citizenship

I've started to add a list of dates for various intentions of citizenship and final oaths of naturalization.

And you may have noticed that some of the old information on the site has been removed. This is temporary and the info will slowly reappear.

[Tag: genealogy]

Missouri Death Certificate Volunteer Project (1910-1955)

Finally. I recently finished my batch of transcriptions for the forthcoming state index. In all, there were 3688 entries for the year 1913 that covered 67 pages and part of a 68th, or from VAN HANDORF to ZWEIBARTH alphabetically. We're told the database will be online (at least 1910-1920) this summer and I can't wait. I'm a big fan of Illinois' work getting information online (and their IRAD system) and have been critical of Missouri's lack of similar info (and fees for the old records), but this death certificate database will be fantastic for myself and other researchers. True, I really don't have any pressing needs when it comes to 20th century research, but I hope to find out what happened to assorted siblings of my ancestors.

[Tag: genealogy]

Bull house

Third great-grandfather Fritz BULL was a bricklayer/maker by trade and his nephew built this house near St. Peters (before 1900), so there's a chance Fritz may have had a hand in constructing it. It's now too costly to move and a developer wants to build retail or office space — exactly what St. Charles needs more of!!! — so the house will be history soon.







[Tags: genealogy, Bull]

Avery family of Groton, Connecticut

After a slight detour from the southwesterly direction we should have been following the way home and directions from the helpful librarian at Bill Memorial Library (where the Bill family is buried in the backyard, overlooking the Thames River), we found the AVERY Memorial. (I didn't realize it until now, but Frederic BILL's second wife was an AVERY.)












[Tags: genealogy, Avery]

Bad Drivers

The other day CNN/Money ran an article about a survey conducted by GMAC Insurance "to gauge the driving knowledge and practices of the American driving public." It was found that drivers in the Northeast scored the worst. I first heard about this survey on Headline News after coming back from Boston. I realize that this one trip probably isn't enough to make a judgment, but when it comes to Boston I think the survey has to be onto something. Maybe it's the horrendously poor layout of the city streets, maybe it's the sheer number of people, or maybe those folks just don't care. I don't know, but it was an experience. (For what it's worth, the rest of the Northeast — at least on the highways/turnpikes — was fine.)

Venison, Donuts

Are there more whitetail doe roadkill in Ohio or donut shops (particularly Dunkin' Donuts) in Massachusetts? The answer may surprise you.