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!
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Friday, March 30, 2012
Familial connections in a strange place
For starters let me give you all some background information about myself. I grew up here in the Chicago suburbs & never in a millions years thought I'd leave Illinois to go to college. When that time actually came around I turned down schools in Illinois to pursue my dream of becoming a Forensic Chemist at Ohio University in Athens, OH. The campus was everything I could have ever pictured a college campus to be & strangely it felt like home. Little did I know that almost 3 years after leaving my beloved OU, I would find out why I felt so at home in the little town of Athens, Ohio.
This all started with the dream of being able to tell my maternal grandfather where his family came from. I knew so much about both my paternal grandparents and my maternal grandmother that I felt really bad we never were sure where the Meeks side of my family came from. Little did I know that I would be fighting and uphill battle to find my ancestors on my maternal grandfather's side of the family. Through the beauty of ancestry.com learned that my 3rd great grandfather was William Dalton & he was married to a Millie (Smith) Meeks, which led me to his father William R & his wife Rebecca. That is where I hit my first of many speed bumps. William R wasn't around for very long and I was at first confused as to where he could have gone. I then looked at the dates and realized that he disappeared during the Civil War. Some Google searches and lots of research later I discovered a family website belonging to a distant relative of who else? William R Meeks & his wife Rebecca! Lucky for me I had some other family members off of Ethel's branch who were just as interesting in our ancestry as I was.
On this website there was information pertaining to William R., the Civil War, and surprisingly enough; his parents. I learned William R joined the Union army in February of 1864 where he we in the Atlanta Campaign with none other than Major General William Tecumseh Sherman. Unfortunately he was wounded in Atlanta and died in Effingham in October of that same year. Now this family website listed William R.'s parents as a Ichanenstean and Mary Meeks. When I contacted the owner of the site she couldn't remember where she had gotten that information from, so the trail went cold.
Recently I tried to give it a go again at figuring out where William R Meeks and came from. I had an 1860 census from Effingham in which he was living with his wife Rebecca's family and it listed them as being born in Ohio. I knew where to start but narrowing down all the information I had was not going to be easy. I knew he was 25 in 1860 so he had to have been born about 1835 some time. I started looking for an 1850 census in Ohio with William on it with no luck. Then I cam across 3 Ohio census records from 1840 that had a William Meeks that was about the right age on every single one!! I was so confused and not even sure where to start. Then I got a bright idea. Lets look for that same family in the 1860 census and if William is still with them, then it's not my William. Well am I ever happy I did that because, I found him! I couldn't believe it. An enumerator of the census had typed in that his father's name was Johnathan & his mother's name was Mary. Upon further inspection it seemed pretty obvious to me that the census in fact said Ichanenstean not Johnathan, but maybe that was the "American" name for him?
I couldn't believe my luck. There he was, my 4th great grandfather in the 1850 census with his father & family. On top of all that, I couldn't even believe where in Ohio they were. Hocking County, which for those of you who don't know, is the county over from Athens (where I went to college). I did some more looking & found his parents and 4 siblings had actually came to Effingham with him and were there in the 1860 census. Now this census gave me some interesting information. I found out my 5th great grandparents, Ichanenstean & Mary, were bother born in Virginia. I also learned that William R. had NINE brothers and sisters. Next came the hardest step, finding an 1840 census. Those of you who are knew to this may not know but in 1840 when the census was enumerated they only listed the head of household. All other people, black or white, living in that household were tallied and placed into categories. Luckily since I had the 1850 census I could figure out who would have been on the 1840 and under what age/gender category they would have fallen.
I almost jumped out of my chair when I found it. I couldn't believe that all of my hard work was paying off. I didn't even stop to look at where in Ohio the census was from; just that I found a record for "I Meek" and that there were 9 other people living in the household that all fell under the right age categories. The next thing I looked for was to see if there were any black residents of the house, and to my great excitement, there were none. What I saw next really blew my mind. There it was, in the top corner of the census document, the County where my 5th great grandfather and his family was living in 1840. I couldn't believe my eyes . . . ATHENS! My family lived in ATHENS!! The county I called home for the greatest 4 years of my life was where my 4th great grandfather was born!
Unfortunately I have been unable to find anything back further than that, but just knowing that I have more than a collegiate connection to Athens is good enough for me at the moment.
This all started with the dream of being able to tell my maternal grandfather where his family came from. I knew so much about both my paternal grandparents and my maternal grandmother that I felt really bad we never were sure where the Meeks side of my family came from. Little did I know that I would be fighting and uphill battle to find my ancestors on my maternal grandfather's side of the family. Through the beauty of ancestry.com learned that my 3rd great grandfather was William Dalton & he was married to a Millie (Smith) Meeks, which led me to his father William R & his wife Rebecca. That is where I hit my first of many speed bumps. William R wasn't around for very long and I was at first confused as to where he could have gone. I then looked at the dates and realized that he disappeared during the Civil War. Some Google searches and lots of research later I discovered a family website belonging to a distant relative of who else? William R Meeks & his wife Rebecca! Lucky for me I had some other family members off of Ethel's branch who were just as interesting in our ancestry as I was.
On this website there was information pertaining to William R., the Civil War, and surprisingly enough; his parents. I learned William R joined the Union army in February of 1864 where he we in the Atlanta Campaign with none other than Major General William Tecumseh Sherman. Unfortunately he was wounded in Atlanta and died in Effingham in October of that same year. Now this family website listed William R.'s parents as a Ichanenstean and Mary Meeks. When I contacted the owner of the site she couldn't remember where she had gotten that information from, so the trail went cold.
Recently I tried to give it a go again at figuring out where William R Meeks and came from. I had an 1860 census from Effingham in which he was living with his wife Rebecca's family and it listed them as being born in Ohio. I knew where to start but narrowing down all the information I had was not going to be easy. I knew he was 25 in 1860 so he had to have been born about 1835 some time. I started looking for an 1850 census in Ohio with William on it with no luck. Then I cam across 3 Ohio census records from 1840 that had a William Meeks that was about the right age on every single one!! I was so confused and not even sure where to start. Then I got a bright idea. Lets look for that same family in the 1860 census and if William is still with them, then it's not my William. Well am I ever happy I did that because, I found him! I couldn't believe it. An enumerator of the census had typed in that his father's name was Johnathan & his mother's name was Mary. Upon further inspection it seemed pretty obvious to me that the census in fact said Ichanenstean not Johnathan, but maybe that was the "American" name for him?
I couldn't believe my luck. There he was, my 4th great grandfather in the 1850 census with his father & family. On top of all that, I couldn't even believe where in Ohio they were. Hocking County, which for those of you who don't know, is the county over from Athens (where I went to college). I did some more looking & found his parents and 4 siblings had actually came to Effingham with him and were there in the 1860 census. Now this census gave me some interesting information. I found out my 5th great grandparents, Ichanenstean & Mary, were bother born in Virginia. I also learned that William R. had NINE brothers and sisters. Next came the hardest step, finding an 1840 census. Those of you who are knew to this may not know but in 1840 when the census was enumerated they only listed the head of household. All other people, black or white, living in that household were tallied and placed into categories. Luckily since I had the 1850 census I could figure out who would have been on the 1840 and under what age/gender category they would have fallen.
I almost jumped out of my chair when I found it. I couldn't believe that all of my hard work was paying off. I didn't even stop to look at where in Ohio the census was from; just that I found a record for "I Meek" and that there were 9 other people living in the household that all fell under the right age categories. The next thing I looked for was to see if there were any black residents of the house, and to my great excitement, there were none. What I saw next really blew my mind. There it was, in the top corner of the census document, the County where my 5th great grandfather and his family was living in 1840. I couldn't believe my eyes . . . ATHENS! My family lived in ATHENS!! The county I called home for the greatest 4 years of my life was where my 4th great grandfather was born!
Unfortunately I have been unable to find anything back further than that, but just knowing that I have more than a collegiate connection to Athens is good enough for me at the moment.
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Cemeteries are more helpful than you think
So it's about time I talked about something that I think is an important part of genealogical research; cemetery visits. Now I realized due to geographical restraints this is not necessarily something everyone can do, but if it is at all possible I highly suggest it. Not only are cemeteries always quiet and even sometimes extremely beautiful, but they can actually give you some clues about your family members. Sometimes just based on whom someone is or isn't buried next to you, can determine their relationship.
For example, my great grand uncle on my maternal grandfather's side; Frank Keilhack, has two children. Presumably in the early 1900s one would need a spouse to have children. I have not found said spouse, and upon visiting his grave at St Joseph Cemetery I found that he shares a headstone with 3 other people; his parents and his brother Robert (who had a very short life). Also upon finding Frank's obituary there was no mention of a left behind spouse, only his 2 children. This would lead me to believe she was not very important to him. To go along with this, sometimes cemeteries can give you spouses you weren't even totally prepared to look for. I went to Concordia Cemetery to find some family members on my maternal grandfather's grandmother's side of the family; the Tjardes family. I found a great grand aunt and her spouse & then what seemed to be to be 2 mysterious people by the names of Grace & Julian Law who were buried on the same plot. Now at first I figured those two graves sites had been sold at some point and weren't part of the family plot. This is where the people who work in cemetery offices are amazingly helpful. The woman who runs the cemetery was able to look up the card for the plot and let me know that those graves had not been sold and they in fact belonged to my great grand uncle who owned the whole plot. To make a long story short, turns out the Laws were the daughter and spouse of the people I was looking for.
Cemeteries can also give you information on children you never knew existed or children you knew were born, but then lost track of. This is extra useful if your family was around in the early 1900s. The records were not the best that were kept around that time, especially if you're looking into infant or small child deaths. On the same trip to Concordia Cemetery I was told by the wonderful woman in the office that the other pair of great grand aunt & spouse I was looking for had 4 other people buried with them on their lot. Turns out one was their adult daughter who had never married and died; the other 3 were unmarked graves for babies. She did have the names for me, which after I got home and looked through my binder, turns out there were 3 of the 9 children they had that I had lost track of.
Cemeteries can be a daunting and scary thing for some people. However, if you can make it work I would definitely suggest making the trip. Charge your camera battery and take lots of pictures too, you never know what you may come across. One of the joys I've gotten out of these cemetery visits is being able to share it with your family members. Sometimes the greatest pleasure of doing genealogy work is to be able to tell your grandparents something they never knew about their family or to take them to a grave of a long lost loved one. If you're lucky enough to have family that died in the early 1900s (not that people dying is lucky but you get what I'm saying) I would highly recommend trying to get to those cemeteries. Upright monuments were very popular back then and you never know what kind of interesting "architecture" you may see at a cemetery. The prettiest cemetery I've been to lately was Forest Home Cemetery in Forest Park. It is a marriage of 2 older cemeteries; Forest Home & German Waldheim.
For example, my great grand uncle on my maternal grandfather's side; Frank Keilhack, has two children. Presumably in the early 1900s one would need a spouse to have children. I have not found said spouse, and upon visiting his grave at St Joseph Cemetery I found that he shares a headstone with 3 other people; his parents and his brother Robert (who had a very short life). Also upon finding Frank's obituary there was no mention of a left behind spouse, only his 2 children. This would lead me to believe she was not very important to him. To go along with this, sometimes cemeteries can give you spouses you weren't even totally prepared to look for. I went to Concordia Cemetery to find some family members on my maternal grandfather's grandmother's side of the family; the Tjardes family. I found a great grand aunt and her spouse & then what seemed to be to be 2 mysterious people by the names of Grace & Julian Law who were buried on the same plot. Now at first I figured those two graves sites had been sold at some point and weren't part of the family plot. This is where the people who work in cemetery offices are amazingly helpful. The woman who runs the cemetery was able to look up the card for the plot and let me know that those graves had not been sold and they in fact belonged to my great grand uncle who owned the whole plot. To make a long story short, turns out the Laws were the daughter and spouse of the people I was looking for.
Cemeteries can also give you information on children you never knew existed or children you knew were born, but then lost track of. This is extra useful if your family was around in the early 1900s. The records were not the best that were kept around that time, especially if you're looking into infant or small child deaths. On the same trip to Concordia Cemetery I was told by the wonderful woman in the office that the other pair of great grand aunt & spouse I was looking for had 4 other people buried with them on their lot. Turns out one was their adult daughter who had never married and died; the other 3 were unmarked graves for babies. She did have the names for me, which after I got home and looked through my binder, turns out there were 3 of the 9 children they had that I had lost track of.
Cemeteries can be a daunting and scary thing for some people. However, if you can make it work I would definitely suggest making the trip. Charge your camera battery and take lots of pictures too, you never know what you may come across. One of the joys I've gotten out of these cemetery visits is being able to share it with your family members. Sometimes the greatest pleasure of doing genealogy work is to be able to tell your grandparents something they never knew about their family or to take them to a grave of a long lost loved one. If you're lucky enough to have family that died in the early 1900s (not that people dying is lucky but you get what I'm saying) I would highly recommend trying to get to those cemeteries. Upright monuments were very popular back then and you never know what kind of interesting "architecture" you may see at a cemetery. The prettiest cemetery I've been to lately was Forest Home Cemetery in Forest Park. It is a marriage of 2 older cemeteries; Forest Home & German Waldheim.
The thing I really thought was cool about this cemetery was the way it was laid out. You could tell that the roadways had been brick at one point because through the cracked old concrete a few were still sticking out. The thing I liked the most was the walking paths that had been put into place. In the late 1800s and early 1900s cemeteries were often gathering places for families in the city. There weren't many city parks at the time so this was often the cleanest, quietest place to get together. The grave plots are also raised off the road and lined by concrete curbs. It gives the cemetery this kind of eerie old world charm to it.
And on a last note . . . only 36 more days till the 1940 census is release on ancestry.com!!
Thursday, December 22, 2011
eerie family connections
With Christmas coming up I figured I'd make a stop at one of the last cemeteries on my list at the moment for the Meeks family. My mother's cousin Cindy died from Cancer in 1981 when they were 19 years old. She was the only daughter of my great aunt & uncle and they just haven't really been the same since. I never knew Cindy since she died about 6.5 years before I was born. Luckily she's buried close by, in a very nice mausoleum.
Now here is where the connection gets eerie. My mom and her cousin Cindy were very close, they were only 4 months apart. Now Cindy dies in 1981, my parents marry in 1984 and I arrive on July 19, 1987 . . . Cindy's birthday. Now you might be saying to yourself, what's so weird about that. Well here it comes. Apparently one of Cindy's cancer nurses was my mother's delivery nurse. Straaaaange. Now at least it doesn't get any eerier than that, though I'm not sure how it could possible get eerier; unless I looked just like her (which I don't . . . . I don't think).
Well that's all for tonight. It's time for me to work on some more last minute research before the family is here on Sunday to celebrate Christmas. Happy Holidays!! See you all in the new year!
Now here is where the connection gets eerie. My mom and her cousin Cindy were very close, they were only 4 months apart. Now Cindy dies in 1981, my parents marry in 1984 and I arrive on July 19, 1987 . . . Cindy's birthday. Now you might be saying to yourself, what's so weird about that. Well here it comes. Apparently one of Cindy's cancer nurses was my mother's delivery nurse. Straaaaange. Now at least it doesn't get any eerier than that, though I'm not sure how it could possible get eerier; unless I looked just like her (which I don't . . . . I don't think).
Well that's all for tonight. It's time for me to work on some more last minute research before the family is here on Sunday to celebrate Christmas. Happy Holidays!! See you all in the new year!
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