Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Program Summary - "Using Federal Non-Population Census Schedules"

The Chula Vista Genealogical Society (CVGS) program meeting today was presented by Everett Ireland CG on "Using Federal Non-Population Schedules." The talk description and Everett's CV are here. There were 30 persons in attendance today.

Everett's talk covered the mortality, agricultural, social and industrial/ manufacturing census schedules taken by the United States since 1790. He discussed why the Federal government used non-population census schedules, when and how they were taken, where to find the existing schedules, and the information that can be obtained from each type of schedule. His six-page handout included a bibliography, examples of census headings, and a great table showing which records are available for each state for the 1850 through 1885 censuses. Not every schedule is extant for every year for every state.

Everett noted that there are fragments of the 1810 Manufacturers Schedule available, most of the 1820 Manufacturers Schedule is available, the 1830 Manufacturers Schedule is not available, and much of the 1840 Industrial (mining, commerce, agricultural, fisheries) schedules are available. For the years 1850 to 1880, the Mortality, Agricultural, Social and Manufacturing schedules are available, but not for every year in every state. In 1880, there is a DDD Schedule for Defective, Dependent and Delinquent persons. The 1885 schedules were done for only seven recently added states and territories.

He showed how the Agricultural Schedule could be used to determine how a certain individual's holdings grew or diminished over a 10-year period by comparing successive census records.

The presence of both a Population Schedule and an Agricultural Schedule permitted some studies of error and omission rates. One study found that 12% of the records were omitted, misspelled or illegible.

Everett's words of wisdom were to not overlook the non-population schedule, they provide many clues and information, they are hard to find, but offer great rewards to the researcher.

There are three books on Everett's bibliography that are available online:

* J.D.B. DeBow, The Seventh Census of the United States: 1850. Washington, D.C. Armstrong Printers, 1850.

* National Archives, Federal Nonpopulation Census Schedules.

* Carroll D. Wright and William C. Hunt, Senate Report, 1900. History and Growth of the United States Census. Washington, DC. GPO. 1900.

This was a helpful and informative program for all researchers in that it offered additional resources for those stymied by the lack of more traditional resources.

Monday, March 23, 2009

CVGS Program 25 March - Using Federal Non-Population Schedules

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The next program meeting of the Chula Vista Genealoigical Society is Wednesday, 25 March, at 12 noon in the Chula Vista Civic Center Branch Library auditorium. Everett Ireland, CG, will present "Using Federal Non-Population Census Schedules."

Where does one find non-population schedules and what do they tell us about our ancestors? These are typically referred to as “Occupational Schedule of the Federal Censuses: Agriculture, Industrial and Manufacturing, Mining and Fisheries.”

Many of these original schedules from 1850 to 1880 are hard to locate and have been lost or destroyed over the years. Those remaining are valuable additions to the facts about our ancestor’s lives. In 1918, they were given to State archives, historical societies and universities for preservation. The National Archives has attempted to microfilm as many of as possible to make them available to the public.

Everett Ireland has been an active genealogist for over 20 years and serves in several genealogical organizations. He is a past member of the Board of Trustees of APG, and currently is a member of the Board of Directors of the NGS. He has lectured at national conferences, and at genealogical society meetings and seminars in Southern California and the Midwest.

Mr. Ireland has published articles and reviews in genealogical publications, both locally and nationally on a variety of topics, including new technology for genealogical research, use of DNA and non-population census schedules. Professionally, after receiving a degree in Engineering Physics from the U of Michigan, Everett had a career as a government scientist in the field of military command and control systems. He has been a Certified Genealogist since 1993 and specializes in Southern California and Midwest America genealogy.

Please enter the auditorium through the Conference Room off the east library hallway in order to register your attendance, pick up handouts, buy an opportunity drawing ticket, and have a snack. There will be a brief business meeting before the speaker's presentation.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

CVGS Research Group Summary - 11 March 2009

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The Chula Vista Genealogical Society (CVGS) Research Group meeting today had only eight attendees, but it was a loquacious bunch. Fun, too, with lots of good research experiences this past month. We went around the table, and had these discussions:

* John F. has found that his daughter-in-law's ancestry in England has at least one first cousin marriage. He also received a ship's drawing and a booklet with information about his Hull and Gaylord families from the Mary and John 1630 Clearinghouse.

* Dick M.'s nephew in North Carolina had a box in his basement from his father's (Dick's brother) house. The box has many items from Dick's grandfather's life, including a baptism certificate from 1869, and information about the grandfather's second wife, who didn't die until 1989. Her obituary revealed her maiden name, that she had eight siblings, and worked with the IRS in Minneapolis. There was also a picture of Dick's grandfather with his Model T in about 1920. Dick has started to share his data on his uncle's life of crime with this nephew.

* Virginia T. phoned the Boone County, Indiana County Clerk's office for her marriage certificate, and got a lot more. In addition to the requested certificate, they sent her the marriage license application which had much more information, including parents names and the answers to questions about health, previous marriages, etc. She got to talk to a real person, who had the marriage certificate in her hands in two days.

* Shirley B. has been emailing with the granddaughter of her nice, who saw her genealogy data online. The results of a Y-DNA test on her cousin in Texas indicated that he doesn't match anyone else in the Wright Surname Project. The results of the test for another Wright cousin have not been returned yet.

* Pam B. hit the jackpot this month, finding the complete 52-page Revolutionary War Pension File of Isaac Johnson (of Connecticut) online at www.Footnote.com. She has been transcribing the pages (using side-by-side windows of the image and her word processor) and marveling at the detailed information. Then her monitor died.

* Gary B. is still working on his Roff line. He thinks that they were in Chautauqua County, New York in around 1805. He has been checking cemetery records online. We suggested that he check land, probate and tax records to establish residence, Quaker records for vital events, and the New York state census records too.

* Randy S. showed the nifty Y-DNA Haplogroup Migration Map he received from Genebase, and passed his 20-marker Y-DNA certificate around. He also related that there were no exact matches on Genebase, Ancestry, FamilyTreeDNA or Ysearch for his results. That's probably good, because there were no Seaver folks either!

* Pam wondered what records are available for the Spanish-American War, World War I and World War II. We mentioned that www.militaryindexes.com has excellent online listings, and that the National Archives site (www.archives.gov/genealogy/) describes their holdings. She also wondered about day-to-day events from the past. We suggested the free New York Times archives (www.nytimes.com) for 1851-1922.

The two hours went very fast, and it was great to see the steady progress being made by each participant.

Genealogy News for March

Here is the genealogy news for late February and early March:

1. INTERESTING GENEALOGY WEB SITES

a) http://www.AncestralAtlas.com - This web site combines family history information, input by the user, with maps that show the places associated with the events in the person's life. The site uses Google Maps.

b) http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/flash/ - This Newseum site has front pages of newspapers from around the world. That's interesting. The benefit of the site for genealogists is the links to the individual newspaper web sites which usually have archives.

c) http://www.glo.state.tx.us/archives/landgrant.html - The Texas General Land Office maintains the Land Grant Database which will let you locate your ancestor's land grant under that jurisdiction. The Land Grant Database contains a listing of all original land grants that have been issued an abstract number by the Texas General Land Office (GLO). This database does not contain information on the subsequent subdivision of this land. Record of subsequent sale, subdivision, etc, is a matter of county record.

2. NEW GENEALOGY DATABASES

a) at www.Ancestry.com - subscription site (US = $155.40, World = $299.40) - now available for FREE at San Diego FHC (Institution with World databases) or San Diego City or County Public Libraries (Ancestry Library Edition). Ancestry has over 7 billion names in over 27,200 databases. See new content at http://www.ancestry.com/search/rectype/recent.aspx. New databases this month include:
* 1916 Census of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, which contains 1.7 million names and more than 38,000 images of original Census pages.
Many books and records from Canada, Australia and Germany (need world subscription)
* Iowa State Census Records, 1836-1925 (updated)
* U.S. Civil War Soldiers Records and Profiles
* Louisiana Slave Records, 1719-1820 (updated)
* Confederate Applications for Presidential Pardons, 1865-1867
* Georgia Confederate Pension Applications, 1879-1960
* Historic Land Ownership and Reference Atlases, 1507-2000 (updated)
* Kansas State Census Collection, 1855-1925 (updated)
* Selected U.S. Naturalization Records – Original Documents, 1790-1974
* Abraham Lincoln Papers
What's coming soon at Ancestry? Check out http://landing.ancestry.com/comingsoon/.

b) www.WorldVitalRecords.com - subscription site (US = $39.95 for 1 year, World = $119.95 for 1 year) -- now available for FREE at the San Diego FHC. Over 11,000 databases, over 1.35 billion names. Recently added content is at http://www.worldvitalrecords.com/recentcontentlisting.aspx. New US items are FREE at WVR for 10 days. New databases include:

* Ten new databases of birth, marriage, and death records, stories and histories, and census and voter lists from Genealogical Publishing Company. The content is from Connecticut, Kentucky, Maine, New York, Virginia, and Wales.

c) www.Footnote.com - subscription site ($69.96 annual retail, $11.95 monthly) - now available for FREE at San Diego FHC. They offer 7-day FREE trial. 455 Titles; over 50 million images, over 1 million free; over 90 million Footnote Pages. Content list at http://www.footnote.com/documents.php. Information added this month includes:

* Civil War Union Soldier Service Records: Mississippi; Missouri; Utah Territory; Dakota Territory
* Danish West Indies - Slavery and Emancipation (1672-1917)
* Military Intelligence Division - Negro Subversion (1917-1941)
* Secretary of the Interior - Suppression of Slave Trade and Colonization (1854-1872)
* Board Commissioners - Emancipation of Slaves in DC (1862-1863)
* Court Slave Records for DC (1851-1863)

d) www.GenealogyBank.com - subscription site (trial $9.95 for 30 days, $69.95 for 12 months). It has archives for over 3,800 U.S. historical newspapers in all 50 states, from the 1600s to the present day, with over 257 million family history records, over 30 million obituaries from more than 1,150 newspapers in more than 139 million historical newspaper articles, and more than 11,700 historical books.

* Added 40 titles from 22 states

Genealogy Bank modified their search engine to include:
1. Limit search to most recently added content
2. Search multiple states at once
3. Search multiple cities (Click on a state and you'll see the list of cities)
4. Search multiple titles (Click on the cities and you'll see the list of newspapers)
5. Narrow search by article types (look on the left column once you've done a search)

e) http://pilot.familysearch.org/ - the LDS FREE site for indexed and browsable databases -- recently completed projects:

* 1920 United States Census: Added California
* 1915 South Dakota Census (New and complete
* 1925 South Dakota Census (New and complete)
* West Virginia Births (Updated, now complete)
* West Virginia Deaths (updated, now complete)
* West Virginia Marriages (updated, now complete)
* Illinois, Cook County Birth Certificates (New, almost complete)
* Illinois, Cook County Birth Registers (New, not complete)

3. GENEALOGY EDUCATION

a) The 40th Annual Genealogy Jamboree, hosted by the Southern California Genealogical Society, will be held Friday through Sunday, June 26-28, 2009, at the Burbank Airport Marriott Hotel and Convention Center, in Burbank, California. Jamboree will offer over 100 lecture sections over the three days, nearly 25% more sessions than were offered in 2008. For up-to-the-minute Jamboree information, subscribe to receive email updates on the GenealogyJamboree Blog at www.genealogyjamboree.blogspot.com. Sign up to receive your copy of the Jamboree program in snail mail here: http://tinyurl.com/SendJamboreeStuff.

b) The National Genealogical Society (NGS), headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, announced the 31st Family History Conference to be held at the Raleigh, North Carolina Convention Center 13-16 May 2009. This premier event features more than 160 exciting educational sessions and workshops by many of the top names in family history research from North Carolina and around the nation. The variety of topics—from beginner workshops, to understanding and using DNA testing for family history, to finding resources for Native American, African-American, Scots- Irish, and other ethnic groups, to complex problem-solving, and more—provide tools for everyone from the merely curious to those who aspire to become credentialed or professional genealogists.

c) Family Tree Magazine is offering a free download of a 42-page e-Book - Best of the Photo Detective. It contains photo historian Maureen A. Taylor’s best tips for identifying mystery family photographs. You have to sign up for a free email newsletter from Family Tree Magazine.

d) Thomas MacEntee of Chicago has been named the Genealogy and Technology Editor at www.Examiner.com, an online news magazine. You can read his frequent column at http://www.examiner.com/x-3932-Genealogy-and-Technology-Examiner.

e) Everton's Genealogical Helper magazine will change from six issues a year to four issues a year, effective in March. It is avaialble for a PDF download for $12 per year.

4. SOFTWARE

a) RootsMagic, Inc. announced RootsMagic 4 public beta, the latest version of the award-winning genealogy software which makes researching, organizing, and sharing your family history easy and enjoyable. During the public beta period, all are invited to download and experience the software, free of charge at http://www.rootsmagic.com/preview. The FREE version expires on 31 March.

b) Wholly Genes Software has announced the release of The Master Genealogist version 7.04. This new release of the powerful genealogy program for Windows adds a few new features and fixes. You can read the entire list of changes at http://www.whollygenes.com/forums201/index.php?s=6b6d037a232afbbd43724361e4fb49fe&showtopic=11266.

5. ANNOUNCEMENTS

a) http://www.newspaperarchive.com/free-seven-day-trial.aspx - NewspaperARCHIVE offers a FREE seven-day trial subscription to their historic newspaper collection. Note that you have to provide a credit card and cancel your free trial before the seven days is up.

Monday, March 2, 2009

Genealogy Days in Chula Vista - March 2009

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The Chula Vista Genealogical Society events for March 2009 include:

** Saturday, March 7, 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., CVGS Research Trip to the Escondido Family History Fair. Attendees must have registered for the all-day Family History Fair. CVGS members will car pool from the downtown parking garage.

** Wednesday, March 11, 12 noon, Chula Vista Civic Center Branch Library (365 F Street) -- CVGS Research Group meets in the Library Conference Room. We will review the latest genealogy news, share success stories and information, and discuss members research problems, and potential solutions, based on the collective knowledge and wisdom of the group.

** Wednesday, March 18, 12 noon, Chula Vista Civic Center Branch Library (365 F Street) -- CVGS Computer Group meets in the Library Computer Lab. We will visit some helpful genealogy web sites. This is an opportunity for those members who haven't used computers for genealogy research to practice with a mentor to guide them.

** Wednesday, March 25, 12 noon to 2 p.m., Chula Vista Civic Center Branch Library - CVGS Program Meeting in the Auditorium. After a brief business meeting, the featured speaker will by Everett Ireland who will speak on "Federal Non-Population Census Schedules."

** Monday afternoons (12 noon to 2 PM) - March 2, 9, 16, and 23 - Genealogy Table Talk with Dearl Glenn and John Finch in the Family Research section of the Chula Vista Civic Center Library. They are ready and willing to help people with their research, discuss a problem or success, or just tell stories.

The Chula Vista Civic Center Library is located at 365 "F" Street in Chula Vista - between Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue, midway between I-5 and I-805 (take the "E" Street exit from the freeways).

We welcome guests and visitors to our CVGS programs and events - if you are in the Chula Vista area and want to attend our events - please come and introduce yourselves. If you have questions, please email Randy at rjseaver@cox.net or phone 619-422-3397.