Last post

Although I switched the feed from this blog to the new one and most people didn't have a problem getting new posts, I apparently forgot to post here that this blog will no longer be updated.

My posts will now appear on the blog section of my site, ShowMeAncestors.

Genealogy on TV

NBC and Fox have genealogy programs in development according to The Live Feed.

Tipping their hand?

The Ancestry Insider wrote today about an Ancestry survey and what it may reveal about Ancestry's future plans. There are some really good ideas among the list: specify interest by record type, add to your task list suggested next steps based on what you've already done, see indicators on search results that show which records have already been viewed, receive suggestions on where to search for missing information about an ancestor, correct fields other than names, add fields not keyed by Ancestry and access images as you would on a microfilm reader.

I'd still like to see Ancestry give each search a list of geographically relevant databases for the user to consider, and update that list as more become available like the family tree does with new hints. Many of my ancestors and the other people I research didn't move around much, and I would like to enter a range of years and a location and see which Ancestry databases are most relevant based on distance and/or jurisdiction (e.g. city, county, neighboring counties, state).

2008 and 2009

I'm a few days tardy with a summation of what was accomplished and how well I did with my plans in 2008, so here it goes:

• I'm still slowly combining databases into one.
  
• I'm also slowly adding information and images to my site, ShowMeAncestors.
  
• Nothing happened on the DNA front. I still believe that testing would be the fastest and cheapest way to at least get pointed in the right direction on at least two families.
  
• The local library reopened a little ahead of schedule in November (they had been closed since last December to remodel and expand). In addition to being very close to home, this may now be the most comfortable library in the area. Best yet, they purchased two digital microfilm scanners.
  
• I did make substantial progress while researching the ancestry of my two nephew's mothers. However, this is yet another example of me getting away from what I've deemed a priority and really need to be focusing on — merging databases.
  
• A photo of Emil LANKAU surfaced when I made contact with another branch of his descendants. This was very exciting. The photo also showed his wife, Alvina RICK, and just as I had suspected for a few years, we already did have a photo of her that was not labeled. (The theory had been that the photo was of my grandfather's two grandmothers because we knew who one of them was.)
  
• No news on the EBERT, HEATON, HUHN or LODENKAMPER brick walls.

Here is what I hope to accomplish in '09:

• Order records or outsource research in Germany on at least five different family lines. I didn't contact the Evangelical archives in Hessen like I wanted to last year for REINMÖLLER research, so that's on the list. And I now have leads for help in Bavaria and Niedersachsen to help with a few more families.
  
• Resume researching deeds. I started on this years ago, but got away from it.
  
• Get a new computer. Things are starting to drag, especially opening large image files.
  
• Convince one of my brothers into helping more. What's the best way to get someone addicted to genealogy?
  
• Make more of an effort to track down photos with a broader approach to contacting relatives.
  
• Pick one family, see what holes need to be filled and publish a book through Lulu or a similar service to see how well that process works.

What day were you born?

Randy at Genea-Musings recently asked two questions of his readers:

1. What day of the week were you born? Tell us how you found out.

2. What has happened in recorded history on your birth date (day and month)? Tell us how you found out, and list five events.

I had honestly never thought of this before, but I knew that my parents had to skip the wedding of my mom's brother because I was born that day. So chances were that it was on a weekend. And it was: Saturday.

Unlike others who have commented at Genea-Musings, I figured this out using the internal date calculator in my genealogy software, Ancestral Quest. Easy enough.

As for what happened in history on that day, like most everyone else I headed to Wikipedia. I also took a look at IMDB (one of my favorite sites), which keeps track of entertainment-related births, deaths and marriages.

Pearls Before Swine

Pearls Before Swine

Oh, well.

So much for the anticipated St. Louis County deed search. The records only go back 25 years.

More About the Online St. Louis County Records

As I mentioned at Transylvanian Dutch, the index to St. Louis County marriages is on microfilm and is available at three, if not more, different libraries in the area. I've never been to the County offices — I don't have much reason to go — but I'm sure they have a copy for public use, too. So the big deal is access to the index from home, or wherever you happen to be online, as well as ordering copies without having to go to Clayton.

My County research is rather limited because most of my St. Louis ancestors stayed within the City limits, but I have used the County marriage index on microfilm several times (though it's been a while). I'm certain the index covers the 1960s, but I think it probably goes even further: late '70s if not early '80s.

About the price ... if this system is what I hope it will be, $5.95 seems to me to be the perfect fee for online access.

Putting aside my personal needs, which are plenty in the City of St. Louis, the City should be doing this kind of project ASAP. I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but the original City marriage records (pre-1900) are in horrible shape and need to be digitized if for no other reason than preservation. There are a couple versions of microfilm available (one once described as a "bootleg" by a City staffer due to its inferior quality and apparently unauthorized filming), but they're not easy to use. The easiest version to read is the original books. But these are no longer available to the public. Yes, an archivist will do lookups, but I'd rather do it myself. What I've seen on microfilm is illegible (laughably bad) in some sections.

The City should partner with the StL Genealogical Society (for volunteers) and the Mo. State Archives to digitize the complete index and records (applications and licenses). Then the City could put these online and charge a fee. The City is always complaining about money ... here you go.

And while they're at it, someone needs to rescue the "unknown" or "lost" naturalization records from wherever those are hidden away. If the condition of the records is the main concern for not having these available to the public for years (decades?), one would think time passing by is not helping the situation.

Coming Soon: St. Louis County Online Records

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: St. Louis County to let users access documents online.

If the City of St. Louis ever offers something similar, my credit card will get quite a workout.

(Note: The article makes reference to the City of St. Louis actually having some records online. As far as I can tell, though, the only available records are deeds from 1982 to at least 2000, and the fees for searching are far from being genealogy-friendly.)

One of "those" genealogies

While using the book search at HeritageQuest Online for a surname in a sister-in-law's and nephew's ancestry, I came across a succinct little treasure of names and dates for several generations in a book that, from the title, appears to be something you'd find in a library and think, "This looks legit." So, I went to the beginning of the chapter to see whose ancestry was being written about. The first sentence read:

"**** ******** ***** is of Swiss, German, Dutch, French, Scotch, Irish, Welsh and English ancestry, which has been traced back several centuries on many different lines, and on one line back to Adam and Eve, naming the direct ancestor in every generation back to the Garden of Eden."

I was relieved to find that the surname of my interest is not connected to the supposed Adam and Eve line — which wasn't even listed in detail, by the way — but I'm still going to use what I found as a road map. Thankfully, the info for the family I'm researching appears to be plausible.

Yeah, about that idea ...

Ding, dong, the checklist is dead ... at least in paper form or as a spreadsheet. What I'm going to do instead is create a new page on ShowMeAncestors.com for each individual with the same template as my checklist. I've been doing this for a few weeks. It's going to be a long process, but no longer than doing it as I had originally planned.

I'll still be able to print out the web page to see what I've done and still need to do and take that hard copy on the road, but I felt that having my database(s) (still working on the eternal plan to combine them), a web site and a paper trail was too much redundancy. And, hopefully, this will attract others to share their research on the site by filling in the holes I don't have time to research.

Cook Co. records online; let's see how long the server holds up

John at Transylvanian Dutch has found that the Cook County Vital Records site is now live.

I just purchased and downloaded a marriage certificate a few minutes ago. The site is fairly easy to use. One minor complaint: wild card searches aren't an option. Instead, soundex is supported. (Why? The Missouri State Archives has shown how to make an effective search tool that isn't overly complicated.) Not a big deal, though. This site will likely become hugely popular and, hopefully, this shows other counties that digitization projects can and should be done.

Great find, John!

I think I'll buy lottery tickets tomorrow...

Like Apple, I also won a prize in The Buick Heritage Sweepstakes. And like Apple, I don't win prizes...ever. But that's probably because I rarely enter these types of contests. (I actually shocked myself in that I apparently used one of my primary email addresses for this, rather than one of my spam dumps. This was months ago and I had completely forgotten about it.)

Despite what the email stated, I did not receive "a hardcover copy of 'In Search of Our Roots: How 19 Extraordinary African Americans Reclaimed Their Past.'" Instead, the package contained a book about Oprah Winfrey's ancestry, written by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. I'll probably give that book, and the DVD, to my library. Oh wait, they're still closed. Only six months to go...

I will be keeping the Family Tree Maker software because I've never given that a test run. On the other hand, I'm so entrenched with Ancestral Quest that it's highly unlikely I'll switch, meaning the software will either be given away to a family member (one sister-in-law has shown somewhat of an interest in genealogy) or I'll let a society have it for a raffle.

Thanks, Buick!

Impressive Stats

Missouri State Genealogical Association: MISSOURI DEATH CERTIFICATES DATABASE (1910-1957).

Gas and Genealogy

Earlier today, Jasia asked whether the high cost of gas was affecting our research. Answer: sort of. Work at this time of the year is very busy, so my ability to research is severely hamstrung to begin with. Couple that with the price of gas, and heading to a cemetery a few counties away or a repository a few hours away just doesn't make a lot of sense.

To get around this situation, I've found myself using FindAGrave.com a lot recently, despite my initial (and continuing) reservations about the site. I've also been using Google Books to find tidbits of interest and then ordering photocopies from libraries in Ohio and Georgia. And I've been meaning to write about this, but if you can find someone with reasonable rates, by all means enlist their help in obtaining documents.

Columbia, Missouri, and Springfield, Illinois, are both less than two hours for me. While Columbia is primarily known as the home of the University of Missouri (Mizzou), there is a fabulous state-wide collection of newspapers on microfilm at The State Historical Society of Missouri whose facility is on the campus. And in Springfield you can find death certificates, obits, military records, etc., at the State Archives and Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library.

I once read a message board post that indicated an individual would get Missouri obituaries from Columbia for (at the time) a few dollars per copy. Lacking time, I tried him out and was very happy with the results. As soon as I put together another list, I'll be using this person's services again. (If you need Mo. obits, contact me and send you his email address.)

Armed with a "to get" list of death certificates, obituaries and other assorted records of interest, a trip to Springfield has yielded big results multiple times in the past. Now, gas for that 4-hour round trip costs more than I want to spend, especially with the bulk of my research there having been completed. And can you put a price on the aggravation of three to four hours on a four-lane highway with many others who think 75 or 80 mph is a good starting point? (Yes, I often drive like my grandpa used to.)

I've been aware of a Springfield-based researcher for a few years, but decided now was the time to try her. Hiring out research takes away some of the fun, but her fees are very reasonable, she doesn't screw around (like someone I almost hired on the East Coast last winter) and she's very fast. Molly has a website, so I don't think there's any harm in giving her some free advertising: Illinois Genealogical Research by Mollx. Again, highly recommended.

And of course, there's always RAOGK.org.

Interesting...

Study says near extinction threatened people.

Humans lived in tiny, separate bands for 100,000 years.

"Germans in America" on local PBS station, 4/6

A few minutes ago I received an email from G-SIG (German Special Interest Group, a cooperative effort of the St. Louis Genealogical Society and the German American Heritage Society of St. Louis) with news that "Germans in America" will be airing on the local PBS affiliate next Sunday at noon. It looks like the series will air over the next month.

It was mentioned that in Part One the MUENKS family is mentioned. One of the MUENKS girls married an EBERT, so I may see some cousins on TV next week.

Goethe-Institut USA

KETC, Channel 9

A Haunted Place

From The Razor.

My "Midland Accent"

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Midland   "You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.
The South
Philadelphia
The Inland North
The Northeast
The West
Boston
North Central
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

This test doesn't go far enough. Those from St. Louis have some peculiar pronunciations. I know I do. So, I don't think it's entirely accurate to state I don't have an accent. In fact, I probably tend to sound more country than I really am.

While I'm not as exaggerated as some, when describing Highway 44 I do tend to say it as "farty-far." And I'm pretty typical for around here when I say "warsh your hands" rather than the way it should be.

(As seen on Genea-Musings.)

Missouri State Archives New Release

Carnahan Announces Completion of Landmark Historical Project: Online Death Records Database Help People Find Family History.