Ancestry.com Discovers President Obama Related to First Documented Slave in America

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The latest press release (see below) from Ancestry.com describes how staff research connects our first African-American president to the first African slave in the American Colonies. The connection is on his white mother’s side.

PROVO, UTAH – July 30, 2012 – A research team from Ancestry.com (NASDAQ:ACOM), the world’s largest online family history resource, has concluded that President Barack Obama is the 11th greatgrandson of John Punch, the first documented African enslaved for life in American history. Remarkably, the connection was made through President Obama’s Caucasian mother’s side of the family.
The discovery is the result of years of research by Ancestry.com genealogists who, through early Virginia records and DNA analysis, linked Obama to John Punch. An indentured servant in Colonial Virginia, Punch was punished for trying to escape his servitude in 1640 by being enslaved for life. This marked the first actual documented case of slavery for life in the colonies, occurring decades before initial slavery laws were enacted in Virginia.
In the 372 years since, many significant records have been lost – a common problem for early Virginia (and the South in general) – destroyed over time by floods, fires and war. While this reality greatly challenged the research project, Ancestry.com genealogists were able to make the connection, starting with Obama’s family tree.
President Obama is traditionally viewed as an African-American because of his father’s heritage in Kenya. However, while researching his Caucasian mother, Stanley Ann Dunham’s lineage, Ancestry.com genealogists found her to have African heritage as well, which piqued the researchers’ interest and inspired further digging into Obama’s African-American roots. In tracing the family back from Obama’s mother, Ancestry.com used DNA analysis to learn that her ancestors, known as white landowners in Colonial Virginia, actually descended from an African man. Existing records suggest that this man, John
Punch, had children with a white woman who then passed her free status on to their offspring. Punch’s descendants went on to be free, successful land owners in a Virginia entrenched in slavery.
An expert in Southern research and past president of the Board for Certification of Genealogists, Elizabeth Shown Mills, performed a third-party review of the research and documentation to verify the findings.
“In reviewing Ancestry.com’s conclusions, I weighed not only the actual findings but also Virginia’s laws and social attitudes when John Punch was living,” said Mills. “A careful consideration of the evidence convinces me that the Y-DNA evidence of African origin is indisputable, and the surviving paper trail points solely to John Punch as the logical candidate. Genealogical research on individuals who lived hundreds of years ago can never definitively prove that one man fathered another, but this research meets the highest standards and can be offered with confidence.”
“Two of the most historically significant African Americans in the history of our country are amazingly directly related,” said Ancestry.com genealogist Joseph Shumway. “John Punch was more than likely the genesis of legalized slavery in America. But after centuries of suffering, the Civil War, and decades of civil rights efforts, his 11th great-grandson became the leader of the free world and the ultimate realization of the American Dream.”
More details and supporting information on this discovery and additional research on President Obama’s family lineage can be found at www.ancestry.com/obama.

New Finnish Detective Novel from James Thompson

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I’ve just learned that the latest detective novel by James Thompson is now available. It is named Helsinki White and features Inspector Kari Vaara. The new book is the third by Thompson with Vaara as the main character.

James Thompson, eastern Kentucky born and raised, has lived in Finland for over a dozen years and resides in Helsinki with his wife. His debut novel, Snow Angels, was selected as a Booklist Best Crime Novel Debut of the Year and was nominated for the Edgar, the Anthony, and the Strand Magazine Critics award. Before becoming a full-time writer, Thompson studied Finnish—-in which he is fluent—-and Swedish, and worked as a bartender, bouncer, construction worker, and soldier.

In addition to Snow Angels, Thompson has written Lucifer’s Tears, also featuring Inspector Vaara. I have read both earlier books, and look forward to reading Helsinki White, as it combines my interest in detective novels and current-day Finland.

WDYTYA Cast Is Revealed by NBC; Series Kicks Off on Feb 3

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I’m looking forward to Season Three of Who Do You Think You Are, the genealogically oriented reality show broadcast on NBC.

I missed the announcement of the “cast” which was revealed back on January 6. If you didn’t see the news release on another blog, I’m reproducing it below. You also might want to check out the WDYTYA website at http://www.nbc.com/who-do-you-think-you-are/.

NBC ANNOUNCES THE CELEBRITIES TRACING THEIR FAMILY TREES ON SEASON THREE OF ‘WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?’ PREMIERING FEBRUARY 3

January 6, 2012 10:40 AM
Tags: Blair Underwood, Edie Falco, Helen Hunt, Jason Sudeikis, Jerome Bettis, Lisa Kudrow, Marisa Tomei, Martin Sheen, Paula Deen, Rashida Jones, Reba McEntire, Rita Wilson, Rob Lowe, Who Do You Think You Are

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Martin Sheen, Marisa Tomei, Blair Underwood, Reba McEntire, Rob Lowe, Helen Hunt, Rita Wilson, Edie Falco, Rashida Jones, Jerome Bettis, Jason Sudeikis and Paula Deen Take a Look Inside Their Family Histories on NBC’s Genealogy Alternative Series Produced by Lisa Kudrow

UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif.– January 6, 2012– Viewers can take an up-close and personal look inside the family history of some of today’s most beloved and iconic celebrities when NBC’s “Who Do You Think You Are?” returns for its third season on Friday, February 3 (8-9 p.m. ET). The celebrities who star in the series are Martin Sheen, Marisa Tomei, Blair Underwood, Reba McEntire, Rob Lowe, Helen Hunt, Rita Wilson, Edie Falco, Rashida Jones, Jerome Bettis, Jason Sudeikis and Paula Deen.

From executive producers Lisa Kudrow (“Friends,” “Web Therapy”) and Dan Bucatinsky (“Lipstick Jungle,” “The Comeback”) – through their production company Is or Isn’t Entertainment and Shed Media U.S. (“Supernanny,” “The Real Housewives of New York City”) — “Who Do You Think You Are?” is an adaptation of the award-winning hit British television documentary series that leads celebrities on a journey of self-discovery as they unearth their family trees that reveal surprising, inspiring and even tragic stories that often are linked to crucial events in American history.

“We’re very excited about the stories we have this season. This fantastic group of people we have will take us to countries we haven’t visited before which is thrilling and gives us glimpses into crucial details of history that not only shaped their families, but our world,” said executive producers Kudrow and Bucatinsky. “This is what we love about this series; it’s so enriching for us the viewer, as well as the participants and their families.”

From Ireland’s freedom fighters to the American Revolutionary War, and from the African nation of Cameroon to Bulgaria, “Who Do You Think You Are?” will reveal the fabric of humanity through everyone’s place in history. Each week a different celebrity takes a journey into their family’s past, traveling all over the world. While giving viewers an in-depth look into their favorite stars’ family tree, each episode will expose surprising facts and life changing encounters that will unlock people’s emotions, and show just how connected everyone is not only to the past, but to one another.

Ancestry.com continues in its role as NBC and Shed Media’s official partner on the series, helping to provide the exhaustive research used to build each story. “‘Who Do You Think You Are?’ is such a beautiful showcase for the type of discoveries people can make through family history research,” said Josh Hanna, Executive Vice President for Ancestry.com. “We are extremely proud to help produce a program that inspires so many to begin their own journey of discovery and are excited to see it grow more this season.”

“Who Do You Think You Are?” is produced by Shed Media U.S. in association with Is or Isn’t Entertainment. Alex Graham, Kudrow, Bucatinsky, Jennifer O’Connell and Al Edgington are the executive producers. The unique, award-winning series is based on the popular BBC television documentary series from Wall to Wall Productions, created and executive-produced by Graham.

Shed Media U.S. is noted for its strong characters and memorable casting, and produces several popular television shows including: Bravo’s “The Real Housewives of New York City,” “Bethenny Ever After” and “It’s A Brad, Brad World,” Lifetime’s “Supernanny,” VH1’s “Basketball Wives” and TLC’s “All American Muslim.” Is or Isn’t Entertainment has been developing and producing television, features and online content since Kudrow and Bucatinsky formed their partnership in 2003. It is best known for the critically acclaimed, Emmy Award-nominated series “The Comeback,” which made its own comeback on The Sundance Channel in 2011. The company’s critically lauded web-series “Web Therapy,” won the 2010 and 2011 Webby Awards for Best Online Comedy and was just nominated for a 2012 PGA Award.

The series made a ground-breaking web-to-TV move on Showtime this summer with 10 critically acclaimed half-hours triggering a season two pickup for Summer 2012 with an unprecedented line-up of guest stars including Meryl Streep.

Ancestry.com Inc. (Nasdaq: ACOM) is the world’s largest online family history resource, with approximately 1.7 million paying subscribers. More than 7 billion records have been added to the site in the past 15 years. Ancestry users have created more than 29 million family trees containing over 3 billion profiles. In addition to its flagship site www.ancestry.com, Ancestry.com offers localized Web sites designed for nine countries that empower people to discover, preserve and share their family history.

Working with Foreign Languages on the Internet

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In doing genealogical research, I often encounter documents or phrases in foreign languages that I would like to translate into English.
Over the years, there have been websites that perform translations for you online. In most cases these have been free, at least for single words and phrases. Some websites offered to translate longer passages for you for a fee.
Well, for me at least, the choice today is automatic: I use Google Translate for quick translations and even for translating documents. It doesn’t do a perfect translation, but it brings you close enough to understand what the creator of the words or document intended.
Most of my experience has been in translating Finnish into English. Recently, I have been working with a client whose ancestors came from Poland in the early 20th century. He has been able to provide me with a limited number of documents, including a record of birth and baptism for his grandmother. This record, or certificate, really, was produced in 1952 by a clergyman from the original church records.
In this case, I needed to translate from Latin into English. I found that I was able to do a rough translation of the document from Latin into English using Google Translate.
To fine-tune the translation, I accessed the Latin Genealogical Research Word List offered free, online by FamilySearch.org. Working with this word list, I was able to understand some of the terminology that didn’t translate smoothly in Google Translate. Working with these two tools, I was able to translate most–but not all–of the terms used in the document prepared back in 1952 by the parish priest.
I also needed to do a little research on the geography of the region in Poland to understand that the subject was born in the village of Dukla in southeastern Poland with a present-day population of about 2000. I learned this by looking up Dukla Poland in Wikipedia. I also found it listed in the website, JewishGen. The page on that website stated:

“Althought the town began in Poland, it was part of Galicia (an Imperial Province of the Austrian Empire) from 1776 to 1919.”

This cleared up for me why I was seeing references to Galacia in this and other Polish-related records.
This all confirms once again that the Internet has many wonderful resources for genealogical research.

Polish Research Leads to Learning About Centralia, PA on Wikipedia

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In doing some research for a client, I learned about the tragic story of Centralia, in Columbia County, Pennsylvania. I was pointed to this town by a passenger manifest reporting that a Polish immigrant (my client’s ancestor) was coming to America in 1910 to meet his uncle, who lived in Centralia. At the time, Centralia apparently was a coal-mining community, and from browsing through the census records for 1910, many recent immigrants from eastern Europe were living in the area, along with earlier immigrants from England and Ireland. Most residents were employed by the local coal-mining industry.

For a quick overview of Centralia, I went to Wikipedia. The entry for Centralia provided this information:

“Centralia is a borough and ghost town in Columbia County, Pennsylvania, United States. Its population has dwindled from over 1,000 residents in 1981 to 12 in 2005, 9 in 2007, and 10 in 2010, as a result of a mine fire burning beneath the borough since 1962. Centralia is one of the least-populated municipalities in Pennsylvania.

“Centralia was incorporated as a borough in 1866. The anthracite coal industry was the principal employer in the community. Coal mining continued in Centralia until the 1960s, when most of the companies went out of business. Bootleg mining continued until 1982. Strip and open-pit mining is still active in the area, and there is an underground mine employing about 40 people three miles to the west.

“All properties in the borough were claimed under eminent domain by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 1992 (and all buildings therein were condemned), and Centralia’s ZIP code was revoked by the Post Office in 2002. However, a few residents continue to reside there in spite of the failure of a lawsuit to reverse the eminent domain claim.”

Some maps on the Wikipedia entry for Centralia illustrate the result of the removal of buildings as a result of the mine fire. It’s really very sad.

My own family history involves immigration for employment in mining, at least tangentially. When my paternal grandfather came from Finland, he apparently had plans to go to Houghton, Michigan, where there was a mining industry very early in the 20th century. He came first to Ashtabula, Ohio, however, and stayed there, instead, eventually becoming a farmer in Ashtabula County.

Found: Cousins in Ancestry.com’s U.S. School Yearbook Collection

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Ancestry.com recently announced that it had expanded its U.S. School Yearbooks Collection. I tried it out and found my cousin, Milton Siekkinen, and his wife-to-be, Mary Jeanette Scovill, in The Dart, the 1939 Ashtabula High School yearbook. Milton was listed as a participant in Glee Club and Mixed Chorus. Mary Jeannette’s activities included Band (she was secretary-treasurer), Girl Reserves [?], Hobby Association, and Salesman [?]. Ironically, they were shown on the same page.

Following is the complete announcement by Ancestry.com:

ANCESTRY.COM EXPANDS U.S. SCHOOL YEARBOOK COLLECTION TO INCLUDE MORE THAN 150 MILLION RECORDS OF RELATIVES’ SCHOOL DAYS

PROVO, UTAH – August 24, 2011 – Ancestry.com, the world’s largest online family history resource, today announced a massive expansion of the world’s most extensive searchable collection of U.S. school yearbooks online. The company has added nearly 25,000 new yearbooks to the collection, which now totals over 35,000 and carries 155 million records encompassing the years 1884 to 2009. The U.S. Yearbook Collection includes close to seven million images from thousands of U.S. high schools, junior highs, academies, colleges and universities.

The U.S. Yearbook Collection provides candid photos and insight into a relative’s appearance and extracurricular activities during their formative school years. The information and images contained in the collection also reveal insightful historical and cultural trends about fashion, style, politics, sports and social beliefs over the past 125 years of U.S. history. With the addition of the new records, family historians can more easily find what their current family members and ancestors looked like as youngsters and discover the types of activities in which they were involved. This collection can help tell a more complete story by offering rich details and providing context about the time their family members were in school.

“Our school years are often some of the most memorable times of our lives,” said Josh Hanna, Ancestry.com Executive Vice President. “With the additions we’ve made to our U.S. School Yearbook collection, millions of Americans can experience their family members’ school years vicariously through the photos and records contained in this important collection. The details they include are often difficult to find, and while you’re searching, you might just find a famous classmate.”

For anyone interested in discovering their ancestors in the online yearbook collection, visit http://www.ancestry.com/yearbooks to search the full collection.

I would recommend that you check for your ancestors and even cousins in this database.

From Finland to America: How the Evert Huuskonen Family Traveled to Ashtabula County, Ohio

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(I wrote this piece a few years ago. Except as noted, the links in the end notes still worked as of 2011.10.06)–WDH)
By the time I first became interested in genealogy, my paternal grandparents, my parents, and all my aunts and uncles had passed away. There was no one to ask about the rustic wooden trunk in our attic. When my mother gave it to me, she said only that Grandma Huuskonen brought it from Finland.

About nine years ago, I got the trunk out of the attic and took a close look at it. I could see it had several travel stickers, one saying Cunard Line Steerage Baggage; another saying New York, and yet another saying Aurania. Could these be clues to Grandma Huuskonen’s trip to America?
When I mentioned the trunk to my brother, Walfrid, he answered that he had obtained some information about the Huuskonen emigration from Finland while attending FinnFest 95, an annual gathering of Americans of Finnish descent. The information came from a database called the Emigrant Register, compiled by the Institute of Migration of Turku, Finland.
The Institute is funded in part by grants from Finnish-Americans and the Emigrant Register includes passport application records and passenger records of the Finland Steamship Co.1 Today, the Register has grown to include some 450,000 records of Finns who traveled from their Nordic homeland to America, Canada, Australia, and other destinations around the world between 1892 and 1950, and it is available in English on the Institute’s website.2
The data Walfrid retrieved in 1995 showed that Ida Maria Huuskonen emigrated from Vesanto in Kuopio Province with children Edith, Emil, Wilma, and Mary in July 1903.3 The passenger records further specified that mother and children boarded the SS Polaris on 29 Jul 1903 bound for England, and that they would continue their travels to New York on the Cunard Line’s SS Aurania.
The price of the tickets for Ida and the four children was recorded as $27. The fact that the price is quoted in dollars rather than Finnish markka suggests to me that the tickets were paid for in America by Ida’s husband, Evert Huuskonen, who emigrated the year before. The tickets were for travel to Houghton, Michigan, which is a hint that Evert may have been working in Michigan when he purchased the tickets.
The website of the Finnish Genealogical Society (www.genealogica.fi) explains that the Polaris was operated by the Finland Steamship Co.,4 which had a monopoly on transporting emigrants from Hanko, a port at the southern tip of Finland, to Hull in eastern England. The website also provides the following information on the Polaris: Gross tonnage 2,018, top speed 13.5 knots, 250 ft long by 35 ft wide. Passenger capacities were 80 in first class, 18 in second class, and 167 in third class.
Once the Huuskonen family arrived in Hull, we can assume that they followed the usual transmigratory route across England. A website specializing in Scandinavian emigration provides background on this route.5 “Most of the emigrants entering Hull traveled via the Paragon Railway Station and from there traveled to Liverpool via Leeds, Huddersfield, and Stalybridge (just outside Manchester). The train tickets were part of a package that included the steamship ticket to Hull, a train ticket to Liverpool, and then the steamship ticket to their final destination — mainly America.” The website further mentions that immigrant trains usually left Hull at around 11:00 a.m. and arrived in Liverpool between 2:00 and 3:00 p.m.
Upon reaching Liverpool, the Huuskonens probably were housed in dormitory-type facilities owned by Cunard until they could begin the next leg of their journey on the SS Aurania. This ship, I learned by consulting The Ships List website, was rated at 7,269 gross tons.6 It had a top speed of 16 knots, measured 470 ft long by 57 ft wide, and had accommodations for 480 first class and 700 third class passengers. Built by J. & G. Thomson, Glasgow, it began service from Liverpool to New York on 23 June 1883.
My brother ordered a copy of our grandmother’s passenger manifest record from the National Archives, using the date and destination he obtained from the Emigrant Register. It listed Ida Maria Huuskonen, age 40 [?]; female; married; housewife; able to read and write; nationality, Finnish; last place of residence, Hango [Swedish spelling for the port city of Hanko]; destination, Jester, Ohio; possessing a train ticket; paid for by husband; possessing $10; joining husband, Evert Huuskonen, address Box 12, Jester, Ohio; in good health. It also listed the four Huuskonen children: Edith, 8; Emil, 6; Wilma, 4; and Marie [sic], infant. 7
Ida apparently had a traveling companion available to assist her with baggage. Nestor Karhu, age 28, male, single, a laborer, is listed on line 18 of the manifest, immediately following lines 13-17 listing Ida and her children.8 He was traveling to the same destination as Ida, and was also planning to meet Evert Huskonen [note alternate spelling], described as a friend. A search of the Emigrant Register reveals that Nestor was from Vesanto, as was Ida, and that he obtained his passport on 29 Jul 1903, the same day that Ida received hers.9
The manifest also stated that the Aurania departed Liverpool on 4 Aug 1903 and arrived in New York on Thursday, 13 Aug 1903. By doing some additional sleuthing, I learned some more details of the trip. In its daily Maritime Report for August 13, 1903, The New York Times stated that the Aurania made one stop in Queenstown, Ireland, on August 5, after departing Liverpool on August 4.10 The newspaper item further reported that the Aurania “arrived at The Bar at 9:56 p.m.” on August 12. The Bar was the entrance to New York’s vast harbor area and was considered the official end of an ocean voyage. In addition to passengers, the Aurania carried merchandise for Vernon H. Brown & Co.
According to the Times, the weather on August 12 was cloudy with a moderate breeze. The temperature hit the high 70s during the day, but dropped to 66 by midnight. Weather conditions were about the same the next day, when Ida and her four children rode a ferry from the Aurania to Ellis Island for processing as immigrants. From there, they probably went to Hoboken, New Jersey, and board a train for the trip to Ohio.
To find where Jester, Ohio, was, I consulted Julie Overton’s Ohio Towns and Townships to 1900.11 This excellent reference book published by the Ohio Genealogical Society explains that Jester was a hamlet on Lake Erie, just east of Conneaut. With that information, I was able to locate on the Internet a topographical map produced in 1906. It showed Jester in the very northeastern corner of Ashtabula County, halfway between Conneaut and the Pennsylvania boarder.12
Since their destination was in the vicinity of Conneaut, Grandma and the children probably were reunited with Grandpa at that city’s train station.
As we indicated earlier, Evert Huuskonen immigrated in 1902. Tracking down his passenger manifest record proved to be another learning experience because he followed a different route than we expected. In his Emigrant Register search, Walfrid learned that in 1902 our grandfather obtained a passport and a ticket to travel from Hanko to England on the SS Acturius, operated by the Finland Steamship Co. According to the Finnish Genealogical Society website, the Acturius was similar to its sister ship, the Polaris.
Walfrid’s search further revealed that Evert was to sail to America on the SS Tunisian. I looked for records of his arrival in American ports during a trip to the Allen County Library in Ft. Wayne, but came up empty. I posted a query on The Ships’ List about ports that received passengers from the Tunisian. Sue Wiggins, co-owner of the list, responded that because the Tunisian was owned by the Allan Line of Canada, its North American home port was the Canadian city of Quebec from May to mid-November.13 Also, passengers traveling to America via Quebec City were listed on manifests collected by immigration officials operating out of the St. Albans District, headquartered in New Hampshire. With this additional knowledge, I found Grandpa in the St. Albans District records at the National Archives in Washington.
The manifest for the S.S. Tunisian, sailing from Liverpool, 16 Oct 1902, and arriving in Quebec, Canada, 25 Oct 1902, lists Evert Huuskonen, male; married; age 29; occupation, laborer; able to read and write; nationality, Finnish; last residence, Wauper [?]; final destination, Ashtabula, Ohio; had ticket to final destination; paid for ticket himself; in possession of $20; joining friend, Vieko Pietihani [spelling?], whose address is Box 115, Ashtabula; in good health.14
The Ships List describes the Tunisian as a 10,576-gross-ton ship built by A. Stephen & Sons, Glasgow in 1900 for the Allan Line. It was 500 long by 60 ft wide with one funnel and two masts. Its top speed was 16 knots.15
While scanning the Tunisian’s passenger manifest, I noticed that Kalle Hytonen also was traveling to join Vieko Pietihani in Ashtabula.16 This was interesting because his surname was the same as my grandmother’s maiden name. How he might be related to our Grandma we still haven’t figure out yet. He may have returned to Finland because I’ve found no other references to him in U.S. records.
The Nestor Karhu who traveled with Grandma Huuskonen, however, is another matter. According to the 1920 census, he was living in Conneaut, married to a Finnish girl, and raising a family of four children.17 The census even revealed that he was a repairman for the Nickel Plate Railroad.
So how did Grandma Huuskonen and the four children travel to Ohio? Some more historical detective work suggests the probable route was a train trip that would last for more than 14 hours.
The website of the Liberty State Park in New Jersey describes how new arrivals in America would continue their journeys. After being processed at Ellis Island, the website explains, immigrants took steam launches for a short trip to the New Jersey shore and its several railroad terminals. There, the immigrants purchased tickets and boarded trains that would take them to their new homes.18
Railroad maps of the period show two competing railroad routes for travel to Conneaut in Ohio. One route would be on the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western (D L & W)line from New Jersey to Buffalo, New York, and continuing along the Lake Erie shoreline on the Nickel Plate line to Conneaut. If the Huuskonens followed this route, they would have headed for the Hoboken Terminal of the D, L, & W Railroad to board the train that would take them to their new home in Ohio.
In fact, a timetable in the 1910 Guide to Railroads lists three daily Nickel Plate connecting trains traveling this route.19 The 1903 timetable probably would have been similar.
Separate cars would have been provided to carry immigrants from Ellis Island to destinations along the route, including those throughout Ohio, and in Indiana and Illinois, and on to Chicago.
The first leg of the trip, between Hoboken, New Jersey, and Buffalo, in western New York State, was scheduled to take 12 hours and 30 minutes. At the end of this first leg of the trip, the train would wind its way slowly through a complex maze of rail lines, because by 1900 Buffalo was recognized as having one of the greatest railyard facilities in the world.20 The train would pause at the D, L & W passenger station in downtown Buffalo to let off passengers and to take on new passengers heading to points west. The Huuskonen family, however, probably would continue its trip to Ohio in the same passenger car.
From Buffalo, the train would travel 115.7 miles along the Lake Erie shore, through Erie, Pennsylvania, to Conneaut, their destination just inside the Ohio border. The final leg of the trip, according to the schedule, would require 2 hours and 20 min.
Another route would have been on the New York, Lake Erie & Western line that avoided Buffalo and headed more directly across Pennsylvania to Ohio. The Huuskonens would have transferred to a station in Jersey City, NJ, to board this train. The railroad was later known as the New York Central Rail Road.
We can imagine the happy scene when the train pulled into the Conneaut station and Grandma Huuskonen and the children were reunited with Grandpa Huuskonen.
They no doubt were happy to see him after nine months of separation. They also would be happy about completing a trip that began approximately three weeks earlier and covered more than 4000 miles by railroad in Finland, England, and America, and by steamship in Europe and across the Atlantic.
Researching the immigration routes that my Huuskonen ancestors followed in 1902 and 1903 has been very rewarding. I was particularly glad I had undertaken the first steps in this investigation before I visited Ellis Island five years ago. I was able to imagine my grandmother–with three young children in tow and carrying an infant–shuffling through the long inspection lines with other immigrants, and keeping track of her wooden trunk with all the family’s possessions.
I believe Grandma Huuskonen would be pleased to learn that her trunk, now more than 100 years old, has been moved out of the attic and into a corner of our living room, where we use it to store photo albums and family memorabilia.

End Notes
1. Institute of Migration, online , background information on the Institute downloaded 22 Jul 2003.
2. Passport/Passenger Search, Emigrant Register, Institute of Migration, online . The search function requires payment of a modest fee for an annual subscription..
3. Emigrant Register, Institute of Migration, Turku, Finland, passport and ticket data for Evert and Ida Maria Huuskonen and children, extracted by Walfrid E. Huskonen at FinnFest 95, Portland, OR. Copy in possession of the author.
4. Emigration, Finnish Genealogical Society, Helsinki, Finland, online information on Finland Steamship Co. downloaded 22 Jul 2003.
5. 100 Years of Emigrant Ships from Norway, Norway Heritage, online , information on transmigration from Hull to Liverpool downloaded 22 Jul 2003.
6. Ship Descriptions, The Ships List, online , entry for SS Aurania downloaded 22 Jul 2003.
7. Entry for Ida Huuskonen and four children; SS Aurania Passenger Manifest, 13 Aug 1903, p. I, Lines 13-17; Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving in New York, 1897-1942; Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, Record Group 85; National Archives Microfilm Publication T715, roll 382.
8. Entry for Nestor Karhu; SS Aurania Passenger Manifest, 13 Aug 1903, p. I, Line 18; Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving in New York, 1897-1942; Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, Record Group 85; National Archives Microfilm Publication T715, roll 382.
9. Emigrant Register, Institute of Migration, Turku, Finland, online , passport and passenger entries for Nestor Karhu downloaded 21 Jul 2003.
10. “Maritime Report,” The New York Times, New York, 13 August 1903, page 11. From microfilm at the Cleveland (Ohio) Public Library.
11. Julie Minot Overton, with Kay Ballantyne Hudson and Sunda Anderson Peters, editors, Ohio Towns and Townships to 1900: A Location Guide (Mansfield, Ohio: Ohio Genealogical Society, 2000), page 191.
12. USGS 1900 Era Ohio Index, online , Conneaut Quadrant, 1906, showing Jester, Ohio, downloaded 22 Jul 2003.
13. Sue Wiggins, “Re: Query about Allan Line,” e-mail message from to author, 29 Jan 1998.
14. Entry for Evert Huuskonen, SS Tunisian Passenger Manifest, 13 Aug 1903, p. E, Line 22; Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving in St. Albans, Vermont, District, 1895-1954; Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, Record Group 85; National Archives Microfilm Publication M1464, roll 15.
15. Ship Descriptions, The Ships List, online , entry for SS Tunisian downloaded 22 Jul 2003.
16. Entry for Kalle Hytonen, SS Tunisian Passenger Manifest, 13 Aug 1903, p. E, Line 15; Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving in St. Albans, Vermont, District, 1895-1954; Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, Record Group 85; National Archives Microfilm Publication M1464, roll 15.
17. Nestor Karhu household, 1920 U.S. Census, Ashtabula County, Ohio, population census, City of Conneaut, ED 30, Sheet 5-B, 131 Garden St., dwelling 80, family 102; National Archives Micropublication T625, roll 1345.
18. Liberty State Park, New Jersey, website
19. Photocopies of the relevant timetable pages of the 1910 Guide to Railroads were supplied to the author by Robert Gillis, Denville, NJ.
20. Milestone Dates of Buffalo New York Central Terminal website. [As of 2011.10.06, this link is no longer working.]

Launching a New Blog about My Genealogy

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For a couple years now, I have been publishing a blog called NEOhio Genealogy Blog. It has provided me with a platform for commenting on genealogical resources, events, and news in Cleveland, Ohio, and the 12 counties in Northeastern Ohio (aka the Western Reserve).

Now I think I have the hang of blogging, so I am starting a second blog. This one will focus on recording my personal activities in genealogical research, hence the blog’s name: Collecting Ancestors.

I’ve used this name with the full knowledge that the practice of collecting names and dates is looked upon with disfavor by some serious genealogists. But the practice of collecting can be serious too. There are serious collectors of cars and stamps and antiques. These collectors pay attention to the provenance of their collectibles. In the same way, I intend to write about how I have “collected” ancestors, and researched the facts about them that establish and prove descendency.

In publishing the blog, I plan to describe some of the techniques I have used, along with the successes and failures that I have encountered along the way.

I believe the blog will provide me with a means of tracking my genealogical research activities in a more organized fashion.

Finally, because blogging is a type of cloud computing, I will be able to access it for creating new posts and for reading old posts wherever I am.