Hey all! Just a quick update for now to keep you all interested! This week we're celebrating my grandmother's 90th birthday! I'll be sure to let you all know how that turns out after it's over but the prep for that has demanded much of my time to get things ready. That being said I've had bits of time to work on my genealogy and am very happy to share that I am making great progress on locating my family members on the US 1940 census record. I owe this largely in part to Ancestry.com as they have finished indexing all of the census records so I can now find those hard to located people by searching for their names.
On that note, for those of you who are newer to genealogy research don't get discouraged if when you first start looking for someone you can't find them. I learned this that hard way after over-looking many documents because the name just didn't seem right. Something as simple as the last name Huffman can be incorrectly indexed as Hofman or some other variation of that name. Keep in mind that the people who are indexing many not always be able to read everything that was written. Hand writing can be a very hard to thing to decipher so you should always take a second look at names that seem close to yours because they may have just been misread
I'm hoping the newly indexed 1940 census records will help me clear up some questions about family members and lead me closer to the things I want to find. Hopefully I'll have more to update on next week after finding some more records and knocking some of these hints of my family tree.
Happy hunting genealogists!
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Saturday, July 21, 2012
Civil War military records & 1940s census progress
Hey fellow genealogists! Sorry for the long absence things have been kinda hectic around my house lately. Unfortunately my uncle lost his 3.5 year battle with colon cancer so we've been dealing with that and everything that comes with a death in the family; but I digress. So in my absence I haven't been able to spend as much time as I would like working on my genealogical quests, but I have come up with a few small things. Firstly I must say that attempting to hand search through hundreds of 1940 census records to find your family is exhausting. I have still yet to find everyone, but I'm making some headway. In my efforts to find all my living family members on the 1940 U.S. Census I have realized that I have a lot of those little hint leaves on my ancestry.com family tree (at last count about 340 total hints) and I must say it is driving me a bit bonkers. Hopefully when you hear from me next I will have been able to sort through some of those to eliminate them.
In other news, I have been attempting some more research on my 4th great-grandfather on my mother's side of the family. For those of you who may not remember I've written about him a few times; Familial Connections in a Strange Place & Finding Your Ancestry Isn't Always Easy. William R. Meek has been a bit of a mystery to my family as of yet and I'm really struggling to find out more about him with the records I have available to me. Now I know that he was injured at a battle in Georgia and died later of wounds he received there, his wife Rebecca remarried and her parents took in their only son William D. Meek. I've been searching for where the Meek(s) family came from and I'm still coming up blank and it is beyond frustrating. I was hoping that by finding William R. Meek's military records it would help lead me to his parents. Unfortunately, that was not the case but I did get some really interesting documentation to share with my family.
Through the National Archives I was able to order William R. Meek's Pension Records and Military Death Records. When they arrived it was like Christmas morning; I was so excited to dig into those records and see what they could tell me. The death records were fairly simple, mostly copies of casualty sheets and muster rolls all signed by commanding officers. The Pension Record envelope was a whole different story. While it didn't lead me to William R.'s parents; it did give me some insight into how things working in the 1960s after the Civil War. Most of the documents were depositions as to when William R. & Rebecca got married, doctors attesting to William D. being their child and all that good stuff. There were also papers in their about Rebecca's pension claim being denied because she had gotten remarried, and that William D. would get $8 a month until his was 16 years old. All in all unfortunately nothing helpful in the genealogical sense, but none the less exciting to look at.
Anyone have any suggestions as to what steps to take next? I'm stuck in Ohio in 1800 and I don't know who to get out!
In other news, I have been attempting some more research on my 4th great-grandfather on my mother's side of the family. For those of you who may not remember I've written about him a few times; Familial Connections in a Strange Place & Finding Your Ancestry Isn't Always Easy. William R. Meek has been a bit of a mystery to my family as of yet and I'm really struggling to find out more about him with the records I have available to me. Now I know that he was injured at a battle in Georgia and died later of wounds he received there, his wife Rebecca remarried and her parents took in their only son William D. Meek. I've been searching for where the Meek(s) family came from and I'm still coming up blank and it is beyond frustrating. I was hoping that by finding William R. Meek's military records it would help lead me to his parents. Unfortunately, that was not the case but I did get some really interesting documentation to share with my family.
Through the National Archives I was able to order William R. Meek's Pension Records and Military Death Records. When they arrived it was like Christmas morning; I was so excited to dig into those records and see what they could tell me. The death records were fairly simple, mostly copies of casualty sheets and muster rolls all signed by commanding officers. The Pension Record envelope was a whole different story. While it didn't lead me to William R.'s parents; it did give me some insight into how things working in the 1960s after the Civil War. Most of the documents were depositions as to when William R. & Rebecca got married, doctors attesting to William D. being their child and all that good stuff. There were also papers in their about Rebecca's pension claim being denied because she had gotten remarried, and that William D. would get $8 a month until his was 16 years old. All in all unfortunately nothing helpful in the genealogical sense, but none the less exciting to look at.
Anyone have any suggestions as to what steps to take next? I'm stuck in Ohio in 1800 and I don't know who to get out!
Sunday, May 6, 2012
writing letters & DNA
Hello all! Sorry for the gap in posts but I've been in the process of giving my room a bit of a face lift with some new paint and new furniture so needless to say my genealogy research had to be put on hold for a bit. I've been muscling through trying to find the 1940 census for everyone in my family and I hit a bit of a snag on one of my branches. My paternal grandfather's mother's family, the Opalinskis, have been a bit of a pain in my butt when it comes to research. My great grandmother's brother and sister have been very allusive and hard to find in any records due to their parents dying so young. I've been in touch with children from both of those families and have recently yielded some interesting information. Bob Ryan is my grandfather's cousin, and is the son of Lillian and Patrick Ryan; or so I thought. Upon trying to find him at 10 years old in the 1940 census I realized I have no 1930 census. When I tried to find the 1930 census and came up dry I wrote Bob a letter detailing all the information I was missing and asked him for some help.
What came back in the mail was pretty interesting. He told me that he was born in 1930, which I knew; and that his father's name was Robert Wallace Smith. On top of that he also informed me that his original name had been Robert Wallace Smith Jr. His parents Lillian & Robert divorced when he was very small and Lillian remarried Patrick Ryan in 1935. So now I have even more of a mystery on my hands. I'm going to be spending the rest of the morning looking for Lillian & Robert Wallace Smith in the 1930 census and then Lillian, Patrick & Bob in the 1940 census. Here's to hoping I find something!
On a side note, I have been watching the Ancestry.com webpage for information about their DNA program and I finally got an email from them about 2 days ago. They are offering this program to Ancestry.com subscribers for only $99. They'll send you a DNA kit where you just need saliva and then you send it back to them and they will help you trace your family roots. I'm not very good at explaining how the program works so if you want some more information check out their website. Ancestry DNA
Happy searching everyone!!
What came back in the mail was pretty interesting. He told me that he was born in 1930, which I knew; and that his father's name was Robert Wallace Smith. On top of that he also informed me that his original name had been Robert Wallace Smith Jr. His parents Lillian & Robert divorced when he was very small and Lillian remarried Patrick Ryan in 1935. So now I have even more of a mystery on my hands. I'm going to be spending the rest of the morning looking for Lillian & Robert Wallace Smith in the 1930 census and then Lillian, Patrick & Bob in the 1940 census. Here's to hoping I find something!
On a side note, I have been watching the Ancestry.com webpage for information about their DNA program and I finally got an email from them about 2 days ago. They are offering this program to Ancestry.com subscribers for only $99. They'll send you a DNA kit where you just need saliva and then you send it back to them and they will help you trace your family roots. I'm not very good at explaining how the program works so if you want some more information check out their website. Ancestry DNA
Happy searching everyone!!
Sunday, April 8, 2012
how to get started on your 1940 census adventure
Well it's been a few days since the 1940 census was officially released by the National Archives and I'm sure many of you are excited to get started. Now the thing about the census being newly released, is that it has yet to be indexed. Now what that means to you as a researcher is that you have two options; A, wait about 6 months until Ancestry.com, Myheritage.com and familysearch.org have indexed all the census records, or B, do the leg work and hard searching yourself. I will warn you that doing this research yourself is going to be a bit time consuming, but depending on what kind of information you have readily available about who you are looking for it might be a little easier than you think.
I opted to attempt to look for as many family members as possible on my own. Now keep in mind, I am doing research for all FOUR of my grandparents and their ancestral lines, so needless to say I've got a loooong road ahead of me when it comes to the 1940 census. I started off my going through each of my family tree binders and making a list of the people who should be alive and on the 1940 census. I then went through all those people and made note of their status on the 1930 census as well as an pertinent information on that census; i.e. enumeration district, city ward and address. I typed all this information up so that I could have it available and easy to read whenever I wanted to search for my family. One issue that I'm sure will be prevalent for most people is going to be whether or not you can read the census taker's handwriting, that is something you will just have to work with or decided to wait on that family till the records have been fully indexed.
As far as what site to start looking at I would suggest ancestry.com. They took longer to get their census records up, but I think you'll find that in comparing the same images from all three sites available that ancestry.com's are much cleared and easier to read. Ancestry also has a TON of links and things to help you with your search. To get yourself started I suggest this: Your Guide to Finding Ancestors in 1940 Census Images. It is a great step by step run through of ways to look for your family in the 1940 census. There are pictures and detailed information on places to look for more information. I also would suggest checking out this website, 1940 census general information. It has a list of all questions asked on the census, as well as a very easy to read, printable census form. I printed this so I can easily go through the census and see what I'm looking at.
I headed on over to ancestry.com and with the information I had on my great grandparents, Andrew and Elizabeth Panfil, I successfully found them on the 1940 census record. If you have them on the 1930 census I suggest looking in that same areas again for them. On the search page you can click on "already know the enumeration district from 1930?", it will prompt you to choose the State, then County & then district from the previous census. From there you just have to look at every image and try to find your family. Where I have hit a brick wall so far is that there are family members who were still too young to be out on their on in 1930, but now in 1940 there are no longer at home. I have no information as to where they might be that I know of, so unfortunately there I will probably be stuck waiting for the indexes to come out for cetrain people.
Happy hunting genealogy nerds!
I opted to attempt to look for as many family members as possible on my own. Now keep in mind, I am doing research for all FOUR of my grandparents and their ancestral lines, so needless to say I've got a loooong road ahead of me when it comes to the 1940 census. I started off my going through each of my family tree binders and making a list of the people who should be alive and on the 1940 census. I then went through all those people and made note of their status on the 1930 census as well as an pertinent information on that census; i.e. enumeration district, city ward and address. I typed all this information up so that I could have it available and easy to read whenever I wanted to search for my family. One issue that I'm sure will be prevalent for most people is going to be whether or not you can read the census taker's handwriting, that is something you will just have to work with or decided to wait on that family till the records have been fully indexed.
As far as what site to start looking at I would suggest ancestry.com. They took longer to get their census records up, but I think you'll find that in comparing the same images from all three sites available that ancestry.com's are much cleared and easier to read. Ancestry also has a TON of links and things to help you with your search. To get yourself started I suggest this: Your Guide to Finding Ancestors in 1940 Census Images. It is a great step by step run through of ways to look for your family in the 1940 census. There are pictures and detailed information on places to look for more information. I also would suggest checking out this website, 1940 census general information. It has a list of all questions asked on the census, as well as a very easy to read, printable census form. I printed this so I can easily go through the census and see what I'm looking at.
I headed on over to ancestry.com and with the information I had on my great grandparents, Andrew and Elizabeth Panfil, I successfully found them on the 1940 census record. If you have them on the 1930 census I suggest looking in that same areas again for them. On the search page you can click on "already know the enumeration district from 1930?", it will prompt you to choose the State, then County & then district from the previous census. From there you just have to look at every image and try to find your family. Where I have hit a brick wall so far is that there are family members who were still too young to be out on their on in 1930, but now in 1940 there are no longer at home. I have no information as to where they might be that I know of, so unfortunately there I will probably be stuck waiting for the indexes to come out for cetrain people.
Happy hunting genealogy nerds!
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