52 Ancestors – #3: Remembering a Visit to Grandma Grace’s House in Cleveland & Her Button Collection

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When I was seven years old, I visited Grandma Grace and her husband, Don Stafford, for a week at their residence at 1911 East 89th Street in Cleveland. It was really memorable to me because it was my first trip out of town, and, of course, I always enjoyed spending time with Grandma Grace and Don (her third husband).

The house at East 89th Street still remains today, and is apparently in good condition. I remember that Don rented out the second and third floors, but they still had plenty of room on the first floor. One thing that I remember about the house was that it had a wonderful front porch. When I began researching my family history, I drove by the house with the number 1911. Whoa! It didn’t have a front porch. Was I wrong in what I remembered?

As I learned more about historical resources that are available for family history research, I decided to see what I could learn from Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, which show the general layout of houses and commercial buildings in urban areas. The maps were produced by the Sanborn Fire Insurance Map Co. for sale to insurance underwriters to consult when they were writing fire insurance policies for home and business owners.

For the State of Ohio, the Ohio Public Library Information Network, OPLIN for short, has purchased the collection of Sanborn maps microfilmed by the Library of Congress. The maps have been digitized from microfilm and put online for library-card-carrying residents of Ohio at http://www.oplin.org/sanborn.

I checked for a map of E89th Street showing No. 1911, and found one created for 1951. Bingo! It showed the front porch that I remembered from my stay at Grandma’s house. It is outlined with a dotted line in the house in the red circle. Apparently, the porch was removed later rather than undergoing major repairs.

1911 E 89th Street_edited-1There was one other recollection from that long ago visit, and that was Grandma Grace’s interest in collecting buttons. Shortly after I caught the genealogy bug, an article appeared in the Cleveland Plain Dealer Magazine (10 Mar 1996, p. 4) about the Cleveland Button Society. I clipped that article and saved it.

Recently, for some unknown reason, I decided to do a Google search for the Cleveland Button Society. I got a hit at http://www.ohiobuttons.org/ClevelandClub.html, and it included a link for a contact. I immediately sent an email to her and she responded right away.

Dear Wallace,

This is your lucky day! I cling to bits of button collecting history.

At both national and state levels, members receive membership directories annually and I happen to have a 1945 national directory which does list Mrs. Grace Stafford. You can probably assume that she also held membership in the Cleveland Button Society as well. It was organized in February 1943.

How wonderful of you to recall this button memory. Are you a button collector? Do you know what happened to her buttons?

Also, as an aside, East 89th, from Chester north, has been designated a historical landmark. Your grandmother lived in a choice neighborhood.

Hope this helps.

Maxine Richmond, President
Cleveland Button Society

Of course, it helped! I sent Maxine’s message on to my siblings, Viena and Walfrid, and got an email back right away from Viena, who reported that she had one shadow box of Grandma’s buttons. Apparently, when Grandma died in 1948, Don sold off all but one of the button collection shadow boxes. Viena further reported that our mother was a bit miffed at Don for keeping only this particular shadow box, because apparently there were others that were a bit more fancy. In any case, my brother-in-law, Jim, photographed the shadow box that remains in our family’s hands and sent it along to me. I have included it in this post.

Photo--Buttons in shadow box

I also have included the membership directory scans that Maxine Richmond sent to me showing Grandma’s Grace’s name listed as a member of the National Button Society in 1945 (as Mrs. Grace Stafford).

Membership listing

 

Member Directory CoverThis exercise in family history research was rewarding to me because I was able to confirm two memories from that visit to Grandma’s house nearly 70 years ago.

 

Judy Russell is Keynoter for 2015 Ohio Genealogical Society Conference

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Even as the Ohio Genealogical Society is putting the finishing touches on its 2014 Annual Conference — 30 Apr-3 May, 2014, at Kalahari Resorts, Sandusky, Ohio — it is announcing the keynoter and venue for the 2015 Annual Conference. The following news release was issued yesterday by the event’s co-chairs Deb Deal and Kay Hudson:

2015 Conference Report

Deb Deal & Kay Hudson

25 January 2014

Sheraton Hotels & Resorts
75 East State Street
Downtown Columbus

The 2011 OGS conference was held in this hotel, then called the Hyatt on Capitol Square. It has
been totally redone by Sheraton. The former City Center Mall is gone and in its place is a
beautiful park surrounded by little shops and eateries. We hope to take advantage of the 1 ½
block proximity of the Columbus Public Library. Attendees will benefit from free wifi and
parking for hotel guests.

Keynote Speaker:
Judy G. Russell, The Legal Genealogist

A Certified Genealogist,SM, and Certified Genealogical Lecturer, SM, with a law degree, The Legal Genealogist Judy G. Russell is a lecturer, educator, and writer who enjoys helping others understand a wide variety of genealogical issues, including the interplay between genealogy and the law.

Visit her website and read her blog at: http://www.legalgenealogist.com/

Note: The dates for the event weren’t included in this announcement, but they are April 9-11.

I will be looking forward to this event, even as I put the finishing touches on my presentations on the program for the 2014 conference. Judy Russell is an entertaining lecturer. I have enjoyed — and learned from — all her lectures that I have attended. And I have found visiting her website to be worthwhile also.

BTW, my presentations at the 2014 OGS Conference are as follow: A two-hour workshop on “Rounding Up Records of Relatives in Ohio’s Western Reserve,” on Wednesday afternoon, and a lecture, “Searching for Your Scandanavian/Nordic Roots,” on Saturday morning at 10:15. Will I see you there?

52 Ancestors – #2: Learning About Matthias Flaugh, Revolutionary War Ancestor

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Johann Matthias Flaugh (also spelled Flach) arrived in Philadelphia in 1773 as a 19-year-old immigrant from Rimhorn, Hesse, Germany. He was my fourth great grandfather, living most of his life in America in Crawford County, Pennsylvania. I started gathering information on Matthias early in my involvement in genealogical research. More recently, I have benefited from information that has been made available online.

Early in my research, while doing a search on Ancestry.com, I learned that to settle up for his passage to America, Matthias became indentured as a servant for 3 years and 3 months to John Peter of Philadelphia in October of 1773.

On the free website Find-A-Grave.com, I learned that he was buried in Peiffer Cemetery, a small burial ground in Woodcock Township, north of Meadville, Pennsylvania. When I visited there, I was able to read his sandstone headstone, inscribed with the following text, which amazingly is still readable after nearly 200 years: “In memory of Johann Matthias Flach, a soldier of the American Revolution, born in Rimhorn, Germnay, on April 8, 1752 and died on Jan 20, 1834 at the age of 81 years, 9 months, and 12 days. Merciless death, unerring arrow, you have penetrated the old veteran’s heart. His whole life long he steadfastly defended freedom, which he fought to secure under the “great” Washington.”

Since discovering my connection to Matthias, I have documented my lineal descent from him to gain membership into the Sons of the American Revolution (SAR). I am a member of the Western Reserve Society, an area chapter of SAR.

During the research for my SAR application, I learned that Matthias served in what was known as the German Regiment. I did a Google search on the German Regiment and learned the basics about this component of the Continental Army.

Here is an explanation provided by Wikipedia.com:

The German Battalion or German Regiment … was an American infantry unit that served for about four and one-half years in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. Authorized in May 1776 as an Extra Continental regiment, the unit was recruited from ethnic Germans from Maryland and Pennsylvania. The Continental Congress appointed Nicholas Haussegger to command the battalion, which initially organized in the strength of eight companies. While the unit assembled at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a ninth company was added. The battalion fought at Trenton in December 1776, where its soldiers called out in German for the Hessians to lay down their arms.
A week later, the German Battalion was in action at Assunpink Creek where a number of its troops were captured, including Haussegger. The next day, the unit fought at Princeton. After Haussegger defected to the British, George Washington appointed Prussian volunteer Henry Leonard d’Arendt to command the battalion. The battalion served with the 1st Virginia Brigade at Brandywine and Germantown in September and October 1777. The following June the German Battalion fought at Monmouth. Late in 1778, the unit was assigned to Edward Hand’s brigade and served in the Sullivan Expedition in the summer of 1779. The battalion transferred to the New Jersey Brigade before being dissolved in January 1781.

As a result of more Google research, I learned that that a book had been written about this military unit, and its service during the Revolutionary War. The German Regiment of Maryland and Pennsylvania in the Continental Army, 1776-1781, by Henry J. Retzer, was published by Willow Bend Books, Westminster, Pennsylvania, in a revised edition in 2000. Publicity blurbs for the book stated that the author, using a variety of federal and state records, plus personal journals and letters, compiled a history of the German Regiment from formation to dissolution. Furthermore, it listed known officers and enlisted men.

That was enough to entice me to order a copy through Amazon and the slender paperback arrived a few days later.

Matthias was listed in the Regiment’s roster. Unfortunately there was no other information about him, but I did benefit from reading about the Regiment, including its stay at Valley Forge during the winter of 1777-78. It gave me a better understanding of what my ancestor went through during his service in the Revolutionary War.

I find it interesting that I descend from a German immigrant from Hesse, the region of Germany that supplied 30,000 Hessian mercenaries who fought with the British forces. Some Americans trace their ancestry back to Hessians who defected from their service with the British and stayed in America. In my case, my Hessian ancestor was here before the war began.

After the war, Matthias was still involved in military organizations. A recent search of Ancestry.com yielded the card for his burial in Peiffer Cemetery, created by the Pennsylvania Department of Military Affairs. It lists his participation in the Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, militia in 1784 and 1785, before he moved to Crawford County.

While in still Lancaster County, Matthias married Marie Arnold and they had four children there. The family came to Crawford County after Matthias acquired 200 acres in Woodcock Township. They then had four more children.

Details of the Flaugh family in Crawford County are found in History of Crawford County, Pennsylvania, published in 1885 by Warner, Beers & Co., Chicago. I found this volume in the Research Library of Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, years ago, and more recently I have accessed the same book in digital form online at https://archive.org. If you go to this website, enter the search term: History of Craford County, Pennsylvania. There are two volumes presented.

An especially important find came to me recently via Ancestry.com. A subscriber (identified with the user name of Windchime) added a document to her family tree describing the results of research in Germany on Matthias Flaugh undertaken on behalf of Miss Sara E Flaugh (now deceased). Ancestry.com detected a match with my research interests, and informed me about the possible connection. The document was a copy of an 11-year-old newspaper column written by a genealogist in Rimhorn, Germany, for a local newspaper. Here are excerpts:

20 Nov 1992 Odewald Weekly Paper, Thurs Jan 16 1987 pg 8
Headline: Rimhorner Fought for America’s Freedom Subject: Johann Matthias Flach left his native country in 1773; Peiffertown Cemetery last resting place.
By Ella Gieg, Rimhorn
Johann Matthias Flach came into this world on Apr 8, 1752 in Rimhorn. His parents were the baker Johann Philipp Flach and teacher’s daughter Hanna Elisabeth Merckel. To be sure, Matthias Flach never met his father, as the bakery owner died ten weeks before the birth of his son. As for the parents’ house, it became what is today the estate of the Hans Fleck family on Goldback Street in Rimhorn. This comes from the “Rimhorner Broullion,” a draft copy of a map from the year 1753 (Wertheim state archives) in which Philipp Flach’s widow is shown as owner of the plot of land. The married couple Flach had acquired the house with a farm that belonged to it on May 14 1745 at a public auction for 436 builders [an archaic form of German currency] … The widow with her three small children came through the early death of the husband Philipp Flach with difficulty and presumably she couldn’t keep her property. A daughter, Eva Maria, in 1760 married Johann Leonhard Gebbard who lived in the neighborhood, while of the second son Johann Georg there is no trace. Also not much was known of the emigrant Matthias until later times; it seemed certain that he was lost without a trace. Not until two Americans appeared in Rimhorn in 1986, with instructions from Miss Sara E. Flaugh, Meadville, Pa, and searched for the origins of their ancestors, could the related details of the whereabouts of Matthias Flach become known. Thus was his further journey through life carried out. … On the ship “Union” under Captain Andrew Bryson, the 19-yr old sailed over the great water and arrived in Philadelphia, where under the name of Johan Madas Flaugh on Sep 27, 1773, he gave his oath of loyalty to the English king in the business place of Mr. Robert Ritchie…

The remainder of the newspaper report provides information similar to what I had already learned through research in American sources.

So after many years of looking—and through finding material provided by others—I finally have a much more complete picture of the life and times of my ancestor, Johan Matthias Flaugh, including his early life in Germany.

Accepting the Challenge: 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks — #1 Frank Nikkari

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Today I accepted the challenge issued this morning by Amy Johnson Crow in her blog, No Story Too Small, of posting a blog once a week for a year about an ancestor. Go to http://www.nostorytoosmall.com/posts/challenge-52-ancestors-in-52-weeks/ for details from Amy.

My first post will be about my uncle, Frank Nikkari, who emigrated from Finland in 1904 with three siblings. I posted about the Nikkari family under “Where’s Otto? The Final Chapter” on 17 Oct 2013. Since that time, I have received a nice history of the Nikkari family written by Anita Ligon Miller, a daughter of Hilda, one of the eight Nikkari children to make their way from Pori, Finland in 1904. She was assisted in the project by Amy Deegan Mazzoli, a niece. Before I began researching the Nikkari family story, I did not know of any of Frank’s relatives.

While doing my research, mostly online, I learned considerable detail about Frank’s parents and siblings. When I reached out late last year to some descendants, I was rewarded with many exchanges of information. During these exchanges, I shared my finding of the fate of Otto Nikkari, the main subject of my blog posting in October. Go here to read that story: Where’s Otto? The communication exchange has resulted in Anita sending me “The Nikkari Family from Pori, Finland” just before Christmas. And that is why I am creating this blog posting to start the 52 in 52 challenge.

I knew the broad details of Frank Nikkari’s life. I knew, for example, that he was a carpenter most of his adult life (and that was appropriate, as Nikkari translates roughly into carpenter in English). But Anita’s publication provided some details I wasn’t aware of. For example, Anita wrote that “When his sister Hilda became seasick [during the voyage across the Atlantic in 1904] and stayed below, he visited her, gave her comfort, and showed his concern. She remembered his kindness always.”

Here are more quotes about Frank from Anita’s family book:

He stayed on the family farm in Kaleva, Michigan, for a while, but was in NYC certainly by 1912 working on skyscrapers. He had a lift-threatening fall from a high-rise, which injured his spine. Hilda remembers he was in the hospital for about a year, and she visited him there every day she had off.

Frank had his father’s carpenter skills. He made high quality furniture by hand and out of beautiful woods. He gave his niece Amy (Hilda’s youngest daughter) a beautiful desk he made by hand.

He wanted to visit Hilda in Bisbee, but Edith [Frank’s wife, and my aunt] could not leave her mother (who was ill and lived with them). After retiring in 1956, he came to Phoenix for a mini-family reunion. This would be the first time he was with [brother] Charlie, and [sisters] Amelia and Hilda, since arriving in America. Frank stayed with Amelia. Charlie, who came from Los Angeles, probably stayed at a nearby hotel with his wife and step-son. Hilda was living with her daughter Anita at the time.

Frank’s niece Amy, who lived in Ohio, would bring Hilda to visit him in Ashtabula. Hilda’s other daughter, Helen, came from Virginia to visit him in the hospital in 1966.

Frank died in 1966. Unfortunately, I do not at the moment know any details of why he was in Ashtabula General Hospital, or the cause of death. The death record I have for him at this point is the computerized record offered up by Ancestry.com.

Frank’s social security application and the 1940 census do place him, wife Edith, and son Melvin in New York City for a period of time. Frank and Edith lived in Ashtabula after his accident and returned there by 1941. During the war years, he worked as a carpenter. On his Old Mans’ Draft Registration, in 1942, he listed his employer as Hunkin-Conklin Construction Co. and place of employment as Goodyear Tire Co.

My brother, Walfrid, remembers more about Frank than I do, and he said that Anita’s book filled in some blanks for him and corrected some memories he had–particularly about his construction site fall and injury.

In another recollection about Frank’s carpentry skills, my cousin, Joyce, daughter of Hugh Huskonen, younger brother of Edith and older brother of my father, Walfrid, recalls when Frank came to their farm in Williamsfield, Ohio, to replace the wood flooring in the dining room.

As a side note, Hugh was the only Huskonen sibling to stay with farming, the occupation of their father and my grandfather, Evert Huskonen. My father, Walfrid, and another brother, Emil, left farming to become a patternmaker and a railroad engineer, respectively.

Yes, I think I can meet Amy Crow’s challenge of posting about relatives once a week for a year. Watch this space.

Hiding the Past–a Novel about Genealogy–Is My First Ebook Purchase

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Here is the summary provided by Goodreads about the new novel, Hiding the Past, by Nathan Dylan Goodwin:

Peter Coldrick had no past; that was the conclusion drawn by years of personal and professional research. Then he employed the services of one Morton Farrier, Forensic Genealogist – a stubborn, determined man who uses whatever means necessary to uncover the past. With the Coldrick Case, Morton faces his toughest and most dangerous assignment yet, where all of his investigative and genealogical skills are put to the test. But others are also interested in the Coldrick family, people who will stop at nothing, including murder, to hide the past. As Morton begins to unearth his client’s mysterious past, he is forced to confront his own family’s dark history, a history which he knows little about.

On the strength of this and other notes about the book on the Internet, I downloaded Kindl Reader for PC and ordered the book from Amazon.com. Cost was $3.49. It is my first ebook purchase, and it went very smoothly and quickly. But then I have order many books and other items from Amazon over the years and I know their electronic ordering setup is top-notch.

I have started reading the ebook on my Win 7 laptop, and it seems to be quite easy to page along. One advantage: I can adjust the size of the type, and that sometimes is useful for my senior citizen eyes. One thing becomes clear on the first page of the prologue: a character smells fumes and identifies them as “petrol.” Obviously, the book is set in the U.K. That’s OK as I am a devotee of the detective series presented under the banner of Masterpiece Mystery, by PBS.

The book starts out with the death of the protagonist’s client under suspicious conditions, so this mysterious element appeals to me, along with the genealogical theme.

We’ll post a review later after I have read the book.

Ancestor’s Life Recorded in Newspapers

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Nelson Dinghman (b 1818-d 1907) was my great great grandfather. When I was growing up, I never heard a word about him, even though he had lived only about 15 miles from my childhood home in Andover, Ohio. Early on in my involvement in genealogy, I looked for information about Nelson and learned that he migrated from Montgomery County, New York, in 1841 to Salem Township, Mercer County, Pennsylvania, where he eventually purchased and farmed a large tract of land.

His early life is detailed in History of Mercer County, published in 1888. I first found this book in print form at the Western Reserve Historical Society <www.wrhs.org> Research Library. Since then, I have found the same biographical material on the Mercer County Genealogical Society website on Rootsweb.com <http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~pamercer/PA/Biographies/nelson-dingman.htm>.

I recently signed up for the Ancestry.com World Explorer Plus “Package,” which includes access to Newspapers.com and Fold3.com. The access to Newspapers.com <www.newspapers.com> proved to be a real boon in learning about Nelson’s later life.

I did a search for Nelson Dingman (without specifying any other information or filters) and came up with 27 “hits” for him in the newspapers of the day in Greenville, Pennsylvania, which is the main large city in northern Mercer County. An obituary was among the finds, along with several items about minor court cases involving Nelson and his sons regarding care during his retirement from farming. Based on all this online information, and especially with the additon of the newspaper reports, I will be able to construct a rather detailed article about my great great grandfather.

What Does Your Family Tree Look Like?

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You have an opportunity to find out this coming Friday, November 29, at the Western Reserve Historical Society <www.wrhs.org>. The Society is holding a Family History Festival from 10 am to 5 pm, with a wide variety of activities for the whole family. WRHS Staff and volunteers will be on hand to help you investigate your family history, ethnic foods will be served, and there will be interactive family activities throughout the History Center complex.

Here is the news release provided by WRHS;

Interested in Your Family Tree? Make a Discovery at the Family History Festival November 29, 2013 at the History Center, University Circle
A Signature event at Western Reserve Historical Society that can connect you with your family’s heritage in Northeast Ohio

CLEVELAND, OH – Ever wondered about your family history? Where you come from and how you might be related to a community business or a TV personality?

You can make these and many more discoveries at the Family History Festival held on Friday, November 29, at the Western Reserve Historical Society’s History Center in University Circle. After you spend Thanksgiving Day with your family, bring them to the Family History Festival to learn about your roots together. Admission to the festival is $10 for adults, $5 for children ages 3-12 and free for WRHS members and children under the age of two. Activities for all ages will be included.

The Family History Festival features the WRHS Research Library’s genealogical materials, ethnic and community archives, information from genealogical and heritage societies, staff presentations, and more. Sessions will help participants learn about initiating research into their family tree.

“History is personal. Each family has a unique story with links to triumphs and challenges, humor and surprises,” said Kelly Falcone-Hall, Interim CEO of WRHS. “Our Research Library has a wealth of resources to help the family researcher. Our Family History Festival will introduce visitors to the vast assortment of materials WRHS has that act as ‘starting places’ for their quest. We have census records, city directories, photographs, diaries, genealogical books and family trees, marriage and death records…everything you need to begin researching your family’s past.”

While visiting for the Family History Festival, visitors will also have the opportunity to visit the luxurious Dior & More – For the Love of Fashion exhibit, plus the historic cars and airplanes in Setting the World in Motion and REVolution, exhibits in the Crawford Wing of the History Center. All public spaces in the History Museum are included in the admission to the Family History Festival.

Activities planned include:
Research Library:
Find Your Roots
• Genealogical Activities & Instruction: Research Library Staff and Volunteers will assist visitors with starting a Family History project. Learn how to begin your genealogy and the sources available at WRHS. Free 5-generation charts will be distributed to all beginning Family Historians.

Family History Hunt & Family/Youth Activities
• Surname Search: Look up the meaning of your Surname/Last name!
• Birthday Search: Using the Plain Dealer microfilm collection, look up the day you were born! Find out the headlines, weather, sports highlights, comics, prices of shoes, clothing and furnishings! Make copies and give as gifts!
• History Detective Hunt: pick up a library map and guide to discover treasures in the library
• “This Day in History”: visitors can view hard copy Cleveland newspapers printed 50 years ago and 150 years ago!

History Center:
• Attend presentations on Family History throughout the day, including Regina Williams, Ph.D., author of Black America: Cleveland, Ohio.
• Explore Kidzibits
• Create and take a family tree
• Enjoy story time and old-fashioned toys and games
• Tour the new REVolution exhibit about the history of automobile design and technological changes in America. Post family road trip and first car memories on comment boards
• Are you from the east-side or west-side? Write about Cleveland memories evoked by that debate in the East vs. West exhibit
• Tour the Hay-McKinney House and learn the stories of Mrs. Hay, the McKinney family and the prominent Clevelanders who helped to shape the city
• Try your hand at quilting or the Collective Art Project ongoing all day
• Capture your family in a caricature by the Caricature Guy
• Enjoy regional and ethnic foods for lunch or a snack

Reinberger Lobby:
• Family History Exhibitors
• Find Flags of Your Ancestors on a specially decorated Christmas tree

For family researchers and genealogists, special topics in the collection that are helpful include:
• African American Archives
• Irish American Archives
• Italian American Archives
• Cleveland Jewish Archives
• LGBT Archives

The Western Reserve Historical Society History Center is located in Cleveland’s University Circle at 10825 East Boulevard. Museum hours are Tuesday – Saturday, 10 am to 5 pm; Sunday, Noon to 5 pm. Admission is $10/adult and $5/child age 3-12. Western Reserve Historical Society members and children two years and under are admitted free of charge. Group rates are available. The History Center is handicap accessible, and includes an elevator to various levels of the museum.

I know I will be there, not so much to do personal research, but to help others learn about their ancestors and family history. Hope to see you there.

Vital Records Provide Background for JFK Assassination

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The Ancestry.com Blog posting for Nov 20, 2013, illustrates how vital records can provide much background information for an historical event, in this case the assassination of John F Kennedy, on Nov 22, 1963. The title of the blog: “Looking Back at the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy in New Online Historical Record Collection – See more at: http://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry/2013/11/20/assassination-john-f-kennedy-historical-record-collection/#sthash.TBMaOdtO.dpuf”

Ancestry used this blog post to announce the introduction of 6.5 million new birth and death records from the Texas Department of State Health Services. An official from Ancestry.com provided the following comments:

Dan Jones, Vice President of Content Acquisition at Ancestry.com: “Stories can be gleaned from every record we put on Ancestry.com, whether it’s an ancestor’s personal story, or an important moment in our nation’s history. For example, just a few records in the newly-available Texas collections paint a picture of the events surrounding JFK’s death. These records can provide a similar level of insight to those with Texas family histories, who will find great amounts of information in these record sets.”

Included with the blog are the president’s death certificate, as well as those of Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby.

BTW, the newly available online vital records collection from Texas includes the amended birth certificate for Lyndon B Johnson, who assumed the presidency upon the death of John Kennedy. The collection spans nearly a century: from 1890 to 1980.

I will be checking this collection for details of several ancestors and relatives who lived in Texas.

Workshop: “Create a Free Family Tree in FamilySearch”

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On January 4, 2014, the Genealogical Committee of the Western Reserve Historical Society <http://wrhs.org> will present a hands-on workshop, in which you will learn how to use the website FamilySearch.org <http://familysearch.org> to create a free, sharable family tree, print out family group sheets and ancestor charts, and use the microfilm collection of the Family History Library in Salt Lake City through the WRHS FamilySearch Auxiliary Library program.

This workshop will run from 1 pm to 4 pm, during which you will be able to use a computer work station at WRHS to create your tree (If you have a laptop, you may bring it along and use it to create your online tree using the Society’s free Wi-Fi service.). After you create your tree, you will be able to print out and take home an ancestor chart and family group sheets. To get started with your online tree, bring whatever information you know about parents, grandparents, and earlier generations. Through FamilySearch.org, you will be able to search for new information about people you enter in your tree. You then will be able to access the online tree from your home Internet connection to show relatives and friends—and to add new information as you acquire it. Privacy Note: Information about living people in your tree online will not be disclosed to other viewers.

There is a fee of $15 for this workshop, for which you will receive not only the instruction on creating your tree, but also valuable guide material to take home with you. Registration required: www.wrhs.org (go to online calendar of events) or by email to mailto:foxreinhardt@usa.net (include “FamilySearch Workshop Registration” in the subject line).

WRHS Spring Seminar: Thomas Jones on Establishing Genealogical Proof

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Most of us have an ancestor who, for various reasons, is difficult to “prove.” Such a case can be about a person for whom key records are missing or were never created, or it may involve several people in the same locality with identical names and similar ages.

At one time, genealogists borrowed the concept of preponderance of evidence from the legal profession as a means of proving relationships in such cases. That concept fell out of favor in the genealogical community in the late 1990s. The Genealogical Proof Standard (GPS) became the model for proving a relationship in the absence of clear, direct evidence. GPS consists of five components: thorough research, informative citations, analysis and comparison, conflict resolution, and a written supportive narrative.

The challenge then was how to become proficient in applying GPS? In May of this year, a workbook by Thomas W. Jones was introduced to directly meet this challenge. In announcing publication of Mastering Genealogical Proof, the National Genealogical Society stated:

Mastering Genealogical Proof aims to help researchers, students, and new family historians reconstruct relationships and lives of people they cannot see. It presents content in digestible chunks. Each chapter concludes with problems providing practice for proficiently applying the chapter’s concepts. Those problems, like examples throughout the book, use real records, real research, and real issues. Answers are at the back of the book along with a glossary of technical terms and an extensive resource list.

Thomas W. Jones, who has pursued his family history since he was fifteen, is an award-winning genealogical researcher, writer, editor, and educator.

The Genealogical Committee is bringing Dr. Jones to WRHS on 29 Mar 2014 for an all-day seminar with the theme “Establishing Genealogical Proof.” Here is the schedule of his presentations:

9:00 – 10:00 – What is the Standard of Proof in Genealogy?
Learn about the Genealogical Proof Standard, its five elements, and how each element contributes to convincing proof. Examples will demonstrate the standard’s application to simple and complex situations that genealogists frequently encounter. It will answer the question, “How much evidence is enough for proof?”

10:30 – 11:30 – Using “Correlation” to Reveal Facts that No Record States
Through explanation and examples, learn why, and how, to compare and contrast genealogical evidence and information to reveal a variety of genealogical “facts.”

1:30 – 2:30 – When Source Don’t Agree, then What?
See why genealogical sources can disagree and how to detect the “truth.” Also discover three ways to resolve conflicting genealogical evidence and how to present the resolution in a polished genealogical product.

3:00 – 4:00 – Can a Complex Research Problem be Solved Solely Online?
Step by step, attendees will suggest online sources and research strategies for tracing an ancestor who seems to disappear and reappear. The interactive case study will show both how such cases can be solved online and the limits of material online today.

Dr. Jones is editor of the NGS Quarterly, Board for Certification of Genealogists trustee and past president, and former Association of Professional Genealogists trustee. A professor of education at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., he is a genealogical educator who speaks and writes frequently on genealogical evidence, proof, and problem solving.

Here are the contents of Mastering Genealogical Proof:

Chapter 1 – Genealogy’s Standard of Proof
Chapter 2 – Concepts Fundamental to the GPS
Chapter 3 – GPS Element 1: Thorough Research
Chapter 4 GPS Element 2: Source Citations
Chapter 5 GPS Element 3: Analysis and Correlation
Chapter 6 GPS Element 4: Resolving Conflicts and Assembling Evidence
Chapter 7 GPS Element 5: The Written Conclusion
Chapter 8 – Using the GPS
Chapter 9 – Conclusion
Appendix A – Pritchett Article
Appendix B – McLain Article
Glossary

Mark your calendar now and watch the WRHS website WRHS for details about online registration.

Mastering Genealogical Proof is available from the publishers, the National Genealogical Society, at http://www.ngsgenealogy.org/cs/mastering_genealogical_proof as well as from Amazon.com at http://www.amazon.com/. It also will be available for sale at the seminar.