Uncle Sam and Uncle Sam

Kathi mentioned that Footnote was opening its database of FBI files to free access until the end of August. So I headed on over to see what I could find.

I soon learned that Uncle Sam had a 3-page file on my "Uncle Sam".

Sam was my maternal grandmother's brother. As I've written before, he had a son named Everett born in 1906, who drowned in 1924 at age 17. He was also possibly married for a brief time to Everett's mother, but was single in the 1910 and 1920 California censuses, while Everett and his mother were in the Austin Texas censuses. In 1930 Sam was living in Kansas City, Missouri, where he died in 1933.

The FBI file is backwards, with page one being the last page filed, and page 3 being the first page filed. Here are selected excerpts from a letter that appears on page 3 (dated July 1918):

War Department
Information Bureau
Washington, DC

Gentlemen: I was married to S.O Van Every, March 20, 1917 in Jacksonville Fla., my husband gave his age then as 28 but on June 5th of last year he very suddenly grew to be 32 he did not register for the draft ... Mr. Van Every deserted me last December in Little Rock Ark. when he went to Oroville Calif. and Martinez, Calif. and became engaged to another ... Mr. Van Every I learn has been married before he married me but had not a divorce.

I would like to know where I stand...He is a native of Texas, his parents live in Fabens, Texas ... Before the war he was pro-German.

Very Truly
Mrs. SO Van Every

Page 2 of the FBI file an investigator writes that he visited "the Van Every ranch" but no one was home. He describes the ranch as 3-4 miles south of Fabens, Texas.

On page 1 there is a statement from Samuel’s mother, Margaret Jane Van Every, my great-grandmother.

My name is Mrs. M.J. Van Every, my son SO Van Every was born January 15th, 1886, near San Marcus Texas, and is now 32 years of age.

Then the agent writes:

Mrs. Van Every then presented the family Bible with record of births that had been kept by her for many years, and this record shows that on January 15, 1886 a son was born and that his name is Samuel Opham Van Every, the record of this Bible has not been interfered with since the birth of this subject was recorded therein as it is in perfect condition and shows plainly that there has been no erasures of any nature.

Investigation closed.

Closed?! The investigation has just been re-opened!

It appears there was definitely a woman very upset with my great-uncle who tried to attack him with anything she could think of (bigamy, draft evasion and pro-German sympathies.) How much of it was true? Anything? And dangit, why does she have to go by the name “Mrs. SO Van Every.” So dang unhelpful!

Of course, she gives a date for her alleged marriage. Unfortunately, my quick research turns up that Florida state records only go back to 1927, and I have been unable to find information so far on how to obtain Jacksonville (Duval County) marriage records. The county website only mentions birth and death records, so it is possible the marriage records aren't available. Though I've just begun to look.

From my grandmother's collection I have a photocopy of what most likely is the family record that appeared in the family Bible, and was shown to the agent. I've figured it was the type of record one would see in the front of a Bible, but wasn't certain of its origin. It's wonderful to see a reference to it.

This also illustrates that you don't need to actually do anything to have an FBI file - it's possible to get an FBI file if you anger someone enough that they write to the government and make claims against you the FBI needs to investigate. The claims may be true; they might not be true. But it's worth searching the database, as even the simplest of investigations might include facts about your relatives you didn't know.

Sigh

I sent an email to the Office of Student Records at a highly esteemed university regarding retrieiving student records of a deceased relative. This is how the response began:

This is a very commend request we as that you provide some type of documentation.

Well, I will have no problem providing the documentation, but it is taking great restraint not to respond, "I common you on your excellent grasp of the English language." Of course, I know if I do so, the odds of me retrieving the records will diminish. (So instead of responding sarcastically, I'm posting this on my blog.)

So...two tips for today.
1) Universities maintain historical records of students, and you can find the contact information for the Office of Student Records (or equivalent) on the university website.

2) Do restrain yourself from responding sarcastically when a clerk makes a spelling or grammatical mistake. At least until after you have retrieved every last bit of information that you imagaine you will ever have to retrieve from that clerk. (Even then, it's not nice, as we all do make mistakes from time to time. )

Punt: Part II

Sharon of BackTrack made some great suggestions in the comments to my last post.

1) PrivateEye.com

I entered the first name and middle initial of my cousin, and the surname that my previous search turned up. I also selected California. Unfortunately, date of birth isn't one of the search fields.

The free results gave me the Name, Age, "Past and Current Locations" (city, state), and "Possible Relatives and Associates." I am also told what public records are available - 3 categories: Phone numbers, Addresses, and date of birth. In this case all three types were available, but I would have to pay $2.95. (Not a lot, but I thought I would try the other suggestion Sharon made first.)
I did make note of the possible relatives.

2) Back to Ancestry - and their California Birth Records.

Sharon suggested I enter the possible married surname for the surname of the child, and the mother's maiden name that I knew, and see if there was a hit. A great idea I should have thought of.

And there were two hits! And both children appear in the list of "possible relatives" at PrivateEye.

So if we are going to stick with the football metaphor, I have scored, which is impossible with a punt in American football. Perhaps I should have referred to this as a Hail Mary Pass. And since PrivateEye provided me with married names for the children in the "Possible Relatives" section, I've found another generation in the California Birth records.

Now to write the letter.

Punt

Sometimes when researching, you have to punt.

I am very appreciative of the flexibility of Ancestry's search engine. On many databases, the surname field is required, but not at Ancestry. You can search for everyone named "John" across all their databases. The over 45 million results in their census databases alone probably isn't very useful, unless you were curious about the popularity of the name.

I remember last year I was searching for descendants of my great great grandfather, Selig Dudelsack's brother, Julius. I found Julius (who had changed his surname to Odelsohn) in the 1900 St. Louis census, and his oldest daughter was named Pearl. Pearl wasn't in the Odelsohn household in 1910. From her age in 1900 I knew the odds were that she had gotten married - but I had no clue who to.

So I punted with the information I did have
First name: Pearl
Place of Birth: Russia
Year of Birth: 1884 +- 1
Residence: Missouri

There was 1 result, and it was in St. Louis: Pearl Feldman. I went to the Missouri Death Certificates online, and found hers. Her father was Julius Odelsohn. The punt worked. (And a few months later when I looked up her obituary in the St. Louis Post Dispatch, I found about 100 living cousins.)

So today my mother gave me an assignment. She wanted to know where the two children of one of her cousins were. I had their full names from the Texas Birth Index. The son was easy to find - alas, in the Social Security Death Index. The daughter was more difficult, as daughters often are. And since she was born in 1940, there were no censuses to search. But Ancestry does have a Public Records Index, and many of the entries have ages associated with them. So I punted.

Name: First Name, Middle Name [Details not mentioned for privacy]
Birth year: 1940

That's all I gave it. Only 1 result in the Public Records Index. In the same town her mother died, and 30 miles from where her brother died. (Individually the first and middle names are fairly common, but not too many people use both.) Is it her?

If the town had a population of 1000, I wouldn't hesitate. However, it's Los Angeles, the second largest city in the United States. It could easily be a coincidence. But I have a name to research, and an address to which a letter could be sent. I'm not exactly sure what the letter would say....

Dear ___

If you are not ____(maiden name)____ I apologize for the inconvenience, and please discard this letter.
However, if you are...

52nd Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy

The 52nd edition of the Carnival of Genealogy has been posted at 100 Years in America.

If I counted correctly, there are 29 wonderful posts on the theme of age.

The 53rd edition (deadline Aug 1) will be a carousel edition:

The next edition of the Carnival of Genealogy will be a “carousel” edition. Just as carousels have a variety of animal figures so, too, will the next edition of the COG have a variety of topics. All subjects are welcome but please limit yourself to one submission. Submit any article you’d like (genealogy-related of course!) and if you'd like an introduction for it, please write your own.

More information here

World Digital Library

Albert Einstein's Declaration of Intent:

can be found in the National Archives' Archival Research Catalog and will be part of its contribution to the World Digital Library.

I learned of this on the GenealogyBank blog

One way to name a kid

A Florida man has won £50 worth of petrol by agreeing to name his unborn son after a pair of radio DJs.

Source

At today's exchange rate, that's $100, and will buy 25 gallons of gas. At least if the guy had gotten the $100 in cash, he could have invested it in the kid's college fund. And in 18 years, perhaps it would have paid for a few textbooks.

I'm sure the guy didn't auction this off to the highest bidder.

Sheep

Last November I sent a Qualifying Request email to the International Black Sheep Society of Genealogists. I was accepted.

The society is for those genealogists who have discovered 'black sheep' in their family tree. There are a handful of 'deeds' that are automatic qualifiers:

Murder
Kidnapping
Armed Robbery
Treason
Theft of any item of fame
Membership in a famous gang, well documented
Political Assassin
Member of the FBI's Most Wanted List
Political Expatriate
Extreme Public Embarrassment
Involvement in Witchcraft Trials
Bigamy (outside the Mormon faith, which condoned it at one time)
Persons expelled from normal society
Convicted felons (documented)

In my submission I argued I qualified under two categories: Bigamy and Political Expatriate. Since then I have cleared the bigamist, who was a sibling of a great-grandmother, as it seems much more likely now he really did go through with a divorce, even though documentation hasn't been uncovered. There's still a possibility, but the evidence leans away from bigamy.

This leaves Political Expatriate. Even though they fall under an 'automatic qualifier' for this society, I don't really consider my Loyalist ancestors as Black Sheep. They chose the non-winning side in a war, so after the war, they had to flee. The winners write the history. My ancestors were the ones that were loyal -- which is admirable -- others committed treason. But treason isn't a crime if you're successful. I am happy the Revolutionaries won, but I am not ashamed of the stand my ancestors took.

So while I have been given permission to put the "IBSSG" acronym in my signature, I am refraining from doing so, until I discover someone in my tree who qualifies for a less defensible deed. I suspect I might.

Happy Bastille Day

In 1988 I caught Les Miserables on Broadway, and a couple years later I read the novel. Since then I've become a major Hugophile, and somewhat of a Francophile, particularly of their literature. (I'm also a fan of Montaigne, Moliere, Baudelaire, and the modern Oulipo movement.)

There used to be rumors in my family that the Cruvant surname had French origins, but I think that was based more on sound than on research. When research was conducted by a cousin, she found the surname most likely originated in Kruvandia, Lithuania.

I have found some 'French' ancestors though in my mother's lineage. I put the word in quotation marks, because the ancestors would have considered themselves German. A couple generations lived in Alsace while it was under control of Germany. It's now France, though, and it may be the closest I will get to claiming French heritage.

Age is Relative

Take some time to look over the data that you have collected on members of your family tree, and share a story of age with us … With the understanding that “age is often a state of mind”, share your family story about someone whose story stands out because of their age, either young or old.

For the 52nd Carnival of Genealogy, instead of focusing on one individual, I thought I would start by taking a look at some of the lifespan statistics that I was able to generate with my genealogical software. (see previous entry)

Ave Male Lifespan 61
Ave Female Lifespan 62

At first this feels a little low, but several lines go back a few centuries, when life expectancy was shorter, and infant mortality was higher.

Earliest recorded person with birth/death year
William HORTON, born 1550 AD

When I look at the record, it says “abt 1550” and since I didn’t do the research, I don’t know how the year was derived. William Horton’s grandson, Barnabas Horton, may be the earliest ancestor for whom I have an exact birth date. July 13, 1600. (Happy 408th Birthday!) Barnabas’s fifth-great granddaughter, Abigail Stuart, married Samuel Van Every, who had 22 children, one of which was my mother’s grandfather.

Age At Death &lt 1 = 3.4%
Age At Death 01 to 10 = 4.8%
Age At Death 11 to 20 = 2.8%
Age At Death 21 to 30 = 2.0%
Age At Death 31 to 40 = 5.3%
Age At Death 41 to 50 = 5.6%
Age At Death 51 to 60 = 12.6%
Age At Death 61 to 70 = 17.4%
Age At Death 71 to 80 = 20.2%
Age At Death 81 to 90 = 19.1%
Age At Death 91 to 100 = 6.2%
Age At Death 101 to 110 = 0.6%

I have no idea how this curve compares to that of other families. My gut instinct says the 11% for age 31-50 is probably higher than it is for the 'average family'. But what is the average family? I will look at this further a little later in the entry.

My database is small compared to some – at the moment slightly over 700 people, only half of them with known death dates. So the %s might very well change as I enter more records. Here are a few of the longer lived in my family:

People who lived over 100 years (only 2)
Israel David NEWMARK (1903 - 2004) 101
Joe WYMAN (1904 - 2007) 102

Israel David was my great grandfather, Barney Newmark’s youngest brother. However, due to being the same age as the children of his oldest siblings, he was was given the nickname, “Uncle Buddy.”

Joe was first cousin with my paternal grandmother. I'm not sure I ever met Joe, but I've met his younger sister several times, and she is still alive, and we've sent emails back and forth. She's already earned a place in at least the next category; hopefully she makes it to this one.

People who lived over 90 years
(there are 26, I'm going to mention a handful.)

Paternal grandfather's lines

Ida Adele KESSLER (1907 - 2003) 96

Ida married an “Israel David Newmark”, who happened to be the nephew of the one above, born 4 years later.

Cruvant William ALTMAN (1914 - 2008) 93

Cruvant passed away on March 15th of this year. He was a first cousin to my grandfather, and they were in a law practice together prior too WWII.

Bertha CRUVANT (1887 - 1978) 90

My great grandmother, she is he second longest living direct ancestor for whom I am certain about age at death. I was 9 when she died and I remember her well, but she was in a retirement home, and a wheelchair by then. I’ve enjoyed discovering photos of her from her younger years recently.

Paternal grandmother's lines

Robert Seymour Selig FEINSTEIN (1915 - 2008) 93

Seymour also passed away on March 15th of this year. I started to pen an entry about the Ides of March back then, but it didn't get finished. Seymour was another first cousin of my paternal grandmother.

Maternal Grandfather's lines

Berta DEUTSCH (1911 - 2003) 91

My maternal grandfather’s sister, she is the longest living member of my maternal grandfather’s lines. However, this is also the family I have the least records on, mostly due to it also being the family which, generationally, came to America most recently, with my grandfather (and Berta) having been born in Hungary.

Maternal Grandmother’s lines

Sarah SHOWERS (1762 - 1860) 98

She is a direct ancestor, however, her record says she died before 1860. There is no indication how the year was derived. It could have been significantly prior to 1860.

Elizabeth ROSENBERGER (1752 - 1847) 94

I have complete birth and death dates for Elizabeth which come from a Fretz Family History compiled in the 1890s, and is probably trustworthy. Her granddaughter Elizabeth Sliver married William Denyer, my mother’s second great grandparents.

***

I've posted before about several early deaths in my family tree, particularly in the Denyer line. While several of the early deaths were in the 1800s, when lifespans were shorter, I still thought the statistics for the Denyers seemed significantly lower than they should have been. I decided it was time to crack the numbers and see just how right I was.

My software doesn’t separate the lifespan statistics by families, but you can export Ancestors/Descendants into a separate GEDCOM, and then open the GEDCOM and run the stats. So that's what I did, and I had some numbers to compare.

"Direct Ancestors"
Starting with me, this GEDCOM had my direct ancestors, with no siblings.

71 males: Avg lifespan: 67
58 females: Avg lifespan: 68

I looked at this as a second control in the study, in addition to the 61/62 in the whole database.

Descendants of Israel David Neimark (his son Samuel was born in 1862, that's all I know)
55 males: Avg lifespan: 66
53 females: Avg lifespan: 74

Descendants of Me’er Kruvant (born before 1795)
116 males: Avg lifespan: 68
110 females: Avg lifespan: 70

These are the only two families I looked at for my father's side, as the other branches have less entries, making the significance of the data questionable. I question the siginificance of the data for the Newmark family as well, and wonder if the stats will look any different once I enter more of the information.

Descendants of William Denyer (1794-1848)
121 males: Avg lifespan: 53
103 females: Avg lifespan: 61

Descendants of Andrew Van Every (1798-1873)
93 males: Avg lifespan: 49
82 females: Avg lifespan: 48

Quite a significant drop.

The argument that it is due to pre-20th century data is possibly negated by comparison to the Kruvant family, as I have information that goes back to the late 1700s for them too, in Lithuania. However, when they immigrated to America, they immigrated to urban St. Louis, not rural Texas. Life expectancy can change based on geography.

Whatever the causes, I definitely confirmed that the life expectancy for the Denyers and Van Everys was sadly lower than for the rest of my family tree.

Yes it can, now.

Randy Seaver at Geneamusings has been asking whether various genealogy software can display a list/report of selected people and their ages at death, or at least the top 20 in descending order.

I noted in the comments that iFamilyForLeopard could get them in a list by those who lived over 100, over 90, and over 80, but not descending order within the 10-year groupings. I'd actually noticed this a couple days earlier as I had been thinking about the topic for the upcoming Carnival of Genealogy, age. (I hope to finish writing that entry later today.) However, iFamilyForLeopard is continually being updated, and the developer releases a new version for download once or twice a month on average. These releases are actually several version numbers apart, whenever a significant number of upgrades have been made. You can special request the current release to be emailed to you. [All upgrades to the software are free.]

I suggested the modification to the report in their forums, and within 2.5 hours, the modification had been made. (As someone with programming experience, I had a suspicion my request was on the simpler side of some requests that get made in the forums, but I was still impressed.) I requested the new version, which was 2.411, so I was able to see it in action.

Here are some screenshots to go along with the instructions I gave Randy in his comments.

Step 1: From the 'Reports' drop-down menu, select 'Statistics'.


Step 2: A window will open with some general information on the number of births, deaths, marriage, pictures, sources, and a few other types of records. At the bottom of the window, click on 'Show Lifespan Info'. Another window will open providing you with a choice of three sorts: 1) Family name, First name; First name, Family name; Age at Death. I selected the last.


Step 3: the report won't fit on one screen, so you can scroll down to see more:

As you can see we start off with some overall statistics.

Num Males
Ave Male Lifespan
Males who died under 20 yrs (#)
Males who lived over 80 yrs (#)
Males who lived over 90 yrs (#)
Males who lived over 100 yrs (#)

Num Females
Ave Female Lifespan
Females who died under 20 yrs (#)
Females who lived over 80 yrs (#)
Females who lived over 90 yrs (#)
Females who lived over 100 yrs (#)

Earliest recorded person with birth/death year

Age At Death < year =" %"
Age At Death 1 to 10 = "%"
11 to 20 = "%"
21 to 30 = "%"
31 to 40 = "%"
41 to 50 =" %"
51 to 60 =" %"
61 to 70 =" %"
71 to 80 =" %"
81 to 90 =" %"
91 to 100 =" %"
101 to 110 =" %"

And if you scroll down more, you see the list of ages at death

You could scroll down further and see the complete list of those who died from 80-89. You will notice that you have the option to either close the window, if you are happy just viewing it, or print it. It 'prints' to an .rtf file, and it opens in TextEdit.

[note: the family information in the images above will actually be discussed in an upcoming entry.]

Friday Five

1880 - Talleyrand Farnell - Columbia, FL - age 3
1900 - Launay Sunday - Wayne, MI - age 9
1910 - Bastille Millet - Ascension, LA - age 11
1920 - Storm Wall - Jackson, MO - age 10
1930 - Jack Necker - Los Angeles, CA - age 1

All the names above come from the named censuses, and have something to do with each other. In this case, a holiday on Monday.

O Microspatula, My Microspatula

Ode to a Microspatula

O device made from steel
of the stainless variety
so thin, yet so shapely –
How can I ever repay?

Some use your strong metal
to extricate staples, spread
adhesive, or separate pages
which have become attached.

You help me to rescue
the memories of my past
from the sticky undersides
of their present enclosures.

O device made from steel
of the stainless variety
so thin, yet so capable –
How can I show my gratitude?

©2008 John C Newmark

They were designed for chemists.
The National Archives recommends using them to remove staples and other fasteners.
Librarians and Bookbinders find them useful as well.
I'm thankful to Sally Jacobs, The Practical Archivist, for suggesting their usage in extricating photographs from sticky photo albums.

This is what mine looks like:

Readability

While some are encouraging others to procrastinate with wordles (see earlier post) and other timewasters, I thought I would provide a website you could visit to find out something potentially useful about your blog. How readable is it?

You can give your blog (or any website) a readability test

Below are the results for this blog.

(Note: The script only computes the results for the page you provide...it doesn't search your archives. Therefore, to find the URL I would enter, I clicked on the 2008 archives link in my sidebar.

This is the URL: http://transylvaniandutch.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2008-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-06%3A00&updated-max=2009-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-06%3A00&max-results=50

If you ignore the gobbledygook, you can see there are three variables that are easily modifiable - a beginning date, an ending date, and a maximum number of posts. I made the necessary changes so that every 2008 post of mine would appear on one page. Therefore the statistics below represent my average for the entire year so far.)

Reading Level Results

Total sentences 5180
Total words 49461
Average words per Sentence 9.55
Words with 1 Syllable 32003
Words with 2 Syllables 9804
Words with 3 Syllables 5252
Words with 4 or more Syllables 2402
Percentage of word with three or more syllables 15.47%
Average Syllables per Word 1.56
Gunning Fog Index 10.01
Flesch Reading Ease 65.48
Flesch-Kincaid Grade 6.50

Interpretation:

My blog falls somewhere inbetween 6th and 10th grade level reading. I consider that good. I wouldn't want my writing to require higher than a high school education to read. Supposedly it is roughly equivalent to the readability of Time and Newsweek.

Flesch Reading Ease is a 100 point scale, the higher the number the easier it is to read. 60-70 is a recommended target, which I seem to fall smack dab in the middle.

Steve Morse One-steps Cook County Vitals

Steve Morse on his website has added a Cook County One-Step for searching Cook County's new Vital Records.

There are two big improvements in his search script over Cook County's. Instead of computing the soundex code, you can select 'sounds like', and his code will compute it for you. Also, if the search results contain a marriage record, there will be a link to click on for the spouse.

TransDutch Wordle

FootnoteMaven started it. Others soon followed all over the GeneaBlogosphere. I couldn't resist either.


Above is a word-cloud created from the words in my blog. You can create your own here.

Mathematics

Arlene Eakle has a good post on the different types of mathematical gaffes genealogists make. She categorizes four types: Fuzzy, Bogus, Destructive, and Speculative

I don’t believe I have yet succumbed to either the bogus or destructive. If I don't have enough data to even speculate, I don't. I don't mind blank spots on the record, as it reminds me where I need to conduct more research.

I have utilized both fuzzy and speculative math, but always made notes as to the logic that led to the conclusion. My best example is the birth date of my third great grandmother Gitel Slupsky, mother of Selig Dudelsack. Both of them changed their surname to Feinstein in America.

Gitel immigrated with her son, Selig, in 1890, and is buried in St. Louis. I have visited, and photographed her tombstone. It says she died on the 19th of Av in 5666. A Hebrew-Gregorian date converter tells me this is August 10, 1906. (Or August 9th, since the Hebrew day starts at sunset the night before.) The tombstone also says she was born in 1831.

However, her death record says she was 60 years, 5 months, and 21 days old when she died. (At least according to the abstract – I haven’t seen the original. The address on the death record matches the address on the 1900 and 1910 census for the family, so there is no confusion of names.)

That’s rather exact, and I calculated a birthday of Feb 17, 1846. I couldn’t find an online calculator for this, so I had to rely on my own math and calendar skills, which could have been off.

Finally, just to confuse matters further, the 1900 census says she was born in January of 1840.

I have chosen Feb 17, 1846 as the date to enter on her record, because there is logic behind it, and it is nice to have a logical exact date, but I've described where I got that date, and all the variations from other documents in my notes.

As a side note – Arlene Eakle leads into her discussion on math with the ‘gaffe’ that Senator Obama made when he said he had visited 57 states. For those who are confused how one can make that gaffe even due to lack of sleep, reading the Snopes article on this topic is revealing. Many people think Obama said 57 when he meant 50. However, he had visited 47 states at the time, and it’s not too difficult to imagine where someone might slip and say ‘fifty’ instead of ‘forty.’

Missouri Courts

All My Branches Genealogy mentions MissouriCaseNet's Your Missouri Courts, where you can search court records throughout the State of Missouri.

I found cases that went back to the 1970s, though it feels strange looking through the pages of results. There are a handful of cases I might consider notable in my research. For example, there were a few divorces, and I could write down a date.

However, I'm not interested in knowing which of my cousins had state traffic tickets, or which of my cousins was a repeat DWI offender. (More than not being interested, I'm not sure I wanted to know.) There were also personal injury suits that were filed that I don't find exciting, either. Though part of my lack of excitement probably stems from the fact they don't provide the details, just the names of the parties, the type of charges, and the outcome.

Another reason for my lack of excitement is that they are all rather recent activities. I either know these people well, or they are distant cousins.

However, there is the possibility if you have relatives in Missouri you will find out something about them in this database.

Samuel Joseph Newmark (1863-1940)

This is the fourth in a series of Brick Wall posts.

Samuel Joseph Newmark was born in Warka, Warsaw, Poland on Oct 7, 1863. He married Rose Cantkert. (That's the best guess at the spelling of the name that was written down on the birth certificates of three of her children as Sandgart, Sonka, and Sankad. It is my understanding that the 'C' in Polish is pronounced 'Ts'.) Rose was born in approximately 1865.

In 1893 they immigrated from Poland to England with sons Sol, Barnet, and Max, and daughters Nellie and Bella. In London they had three more children - Kate, Cecile, and Israel David. In two voyages in 1908 and 1909 the family immigrated from England to the US, settling in St. Louis. Samuel, and most of his sons, were tailors.

We know that Samuel's father's name was Israel David. We think his wife's name was Leah. Samuel almost certainly had siblings, but nothing is known about them.

The photograph in this post was discovered today in a photo album. It was taken in 1938.

CoG: 51st Edition

The Carnival of Genealogy: 51st Edition has been posted at Destination: Austin Family

It is filled with entries about men and women who have or had an Independent Spirit.

The 52nd Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy will focus on the simple topic of AGE.

With the understanding that "age is often a state of mind", share your family story about someone whose story stands out because of their age, either young or old.

More information here

Missouri Records Databases

Inspired by a comment in the prior post, here's a list of Vital Records and related databases/indexes I know about for the state of Missouri. If anyone knows of any others, mention them in the comments.

Missouri State Archives: Missouri Birth and Death pre-1910 (free abstracts)
Missouri State Archives: Missouri Death Certificates 1910-1957 (free images)

St. Louis Public Library: Obituary Search, St. Louis Post Dispatch Obituary Index(1880-1926,1942-1945,1992-2006) and St. Louis Argus Obituary Index (1915-1927,1942-1945) [the search link is in the process of combining the information in the two indexes] This provides date and page number, but saves a lot of time if you have access to the microfilm.

Jackson County Department of Records: Marriage Licenses
(free images - and up-to-date. Currently through July 1, 2008)

[The St. Louis Genealogical Society has a database for St. Louis Marriages from 1804-1876 for members only. This same database is also available through Ancestry.com.]

While these aren't related to Vital Records, I also consider them worth noting:

Missouri State Archives: Naturalization Records (1816-1955)
[Note: While they include "St. Louis City" in their indexed column, I think they only have the pre-1906 naturalizations, which they got from the St. Louis Genealogical Society)

St. Louis County Library: 1906-1928 Naturalizations in St. Louis (index with both Library and LDS film numbers)

CookCountyGenealogy Tip

Here's my first tip on using the CookCountyGenealogy website that I mention in the previous post.

When searching the marriage database you might be a little disappointed with the results at first.

(click to enlarge)

As you can see, it provides the name you searched for, and the date of marriage, but not the spouse. You don't have to order the certificate, though, if all you want is the spouse's name. The results also provide you with the "file number". And as you can see in the search box, you can search by file number and the year.



When you do that, you get both entries. So it's a two-step process to figure out who someone married.

Cook County Vital Records

Cook County's (Chicago's) Vital Records! They're here! They're here!

These are indexes - you still have to order the certificate from the Cook County Clerk office at $15/per, however, you can download the images (tiff files) immediately. The images have the words "For Genealogical Purposes Only" stamped on them, however, this doesn't effect readability much once you zoom in on a particular area of the image.

Records date from 1872

Birth certificates - 75 years or older
Marriage licenses - 50 years or older
Death certificates - 20 years or older

I may have found the site before they officially announced it...as I can't find a reference to it in a news search. However, I arrived there by clicking on the 'genealogy' link at the County Clerk site.

It doesn't say whether or not they've finished entering all the data yet, but I am having difficulty finding records I know have to be there. My great-grandmother Helen Deutsch died in 1958, in Chicago. I can't find her record.

The marriage of Adolph Rosenblum and Sarah Deutsch is listed in the Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, which goes up to 1900. That index says they were married in Cook County, on 2/18/1900. I can't find them on the Cook County site. I've even tried their soundex search.

So, it's not perfect. But it's exciting.

Note: As it was pointed out in the comments section, earlier when I read the "more info" and "FAQ" pages of the website I missed their statement that there are 8 million records, and they have only entered 6 million of them so far. This explains the gaps.

Wordless Wednesday: Happy Independence Week (Canada and US)

Source: high school commencement speech, 1987, John Newmark

The Siblings of Samuel Deutsch (Rosenblum, Greenfield)

This is the third in a series of “Brick Wall” posts. I have actually discovered a few leads in the past couple days on this branch of the family which provide a little more hope than previously.

Samuel Deutsch (1861-1938), his wife Helen Lichtman Deutsch (1881-1958), and six children (Jean, Edward, Maurice, Ted, Martin, and Berta) immigrated to America in 1913 from Nagayalmas, Hungary. The town, in the Transylvania region, is now part of Romania.

(Helen actually arrived a year earlier to earn money for the rest of the family to make the trip.) In 1914 a 7th child, Allen, was born. They all settled in Chicago, Illinois.

According to family records, Samuel’s parents were Abraham Deutsch and Sarah Weiss. I have no information on them except for their names.

Martin, Ted and Berta recorded a family history audiotape in the 1970s, and they knew their father had had several siblings, and they had cousins in America, but they hadn't seen them in years and their memories were hazy. They were able to come up with a handful of names, though their certainty was low. They also knew that Samuel had had a wife prior to Helen in Hungary, and six children who decided not to come to America. They didn't know any names.

A couple days ago my mother had a phone conversation with the daughter of Jean, and her memory was also now hazy, but Jean had been the eldest child, and her daughter recalled a few more names of Samuel's siblings (but not that of his first wife). Plugging the names in Ancestry.com has resulted in a few interesting leads

Likely siblings of Samuel:

David Deutsch – it is thought he was in America only briefly and returned to Hungary. However, a son of his, Herman, settled in Michigan, was a teacher, and he changed his name to Herman Dexter. It’s not believed he had any children. David may have had a few daughters who stayed in America, and their names may have been Hannah Goodman, Celia Palmer and Bertha Newman.

Sarah Deutsch – married a Rosenblum, and had six children. One son named Daniel, and five daughters.

A very likely family has been found in a Rootsweb forum post – a Sarah Deutsch and Adolph Rosenblum who lived in Chicago. Their children were Daniel, Pauline, Frances, Esther, Julia, and Lillian. In 1930 Julia Rosenblum had married David Mittelman. [The post is dated back in 2003, and the poster has not responded to a query I made a month ago.]

Regina Deutsch – married Nathan Greenfield

I found a Nathan and Regina Greenfield in the 1930 Chicago census, with children Gertie, Milton and Irving. Country of origin being Hungary.

Nephew of Samuel

Sigmund Deutsch

I found in Chicago a Joe and Eva Deutsch with sons Sigmund and Albert, living on the same street as Samuel and Helen in 1920.

There are enough names here I should be able to locate some cousins with a little help from the Chicago Vital Records which are supposed to come online at some point in the near future. Before then I might make a trip to the local library and browse through the Chicago city directories for 1923 and 1928, but I'm not sure if they will provide more information than the census already does. Unfortunately, after 1928, the next Chicago city directory at my local library is from 1973.

Independent Spirit

With the upcoming July 4th holiday, there is no more perfect time to honor someone from your family whose life can be summed up in one word --INDEPENDENT! Do you have a relative who was feisty, spoke their own mind, was a bit of a free spirit? Anyone who most people might consider a “nut” on the family tree but you know they really just followed a “different tune?” We all have at least one person whose character and habits may have made them seem “ahead of their time” and now is the chance to tell us their story.

Considering the theme for this issue of the Carnival of Genealogy I decided after some thought that the nuttiest thing anyone can ever do is leave family and friends behind and move to another country, or continent. Even moving across several states in the US was pretty nutty until recent generations. Which, of course, means most Americans have a family tree filled with these nuts, unless you are 100% Native American, or all of your ancestors were brought here against their will.

For the most part, it doesn’t matter what was happening in the country of origin. Even when pogroms occur nearby, rational thinkers will often assure their neighbors “it won’t happen here.” However, once it arrives, escaping isn’t the same as immigrating by choice. Still, the rational thinkers often stop escaping once they cross the border into the nearest city/country they feel safe. They don't go any further.

So here are my known direct ancestors who were nutty enough to leave everything behind. I include some who fled, but who went a little further than most, or were pioneering in some other fashion. The list results in a collection of intersecting geographical trails.

1. Barnabas Horton (1600-1680). At some point between 1633 and 1638, Barnabas Horton traveled from Mowsley, England to America. He settled in Southold, Suffolk County, NY, on the east end of Long Island.

2. Myndert Fredericksen (1636-1706), along with brothers Carsten and Rynier, left Holland and arrived in New Amsterdam prior to 1656. They were the sons of Frederick Van Iveren, and their surnames followed the Dutch patronymic tradition. Their children returned to the surname Van Iveren, which later morphed into Van Every.

3. Henry Rosenberger (1685-1745) left Germany and arrived in Franconia, Pennsylvania prior to 1729.

4. Hans (Weaver John) Fretz (1704-1772) left Alsace, Germany and arrived in Bucks County, Pennsylvania approximately 1720.

5. David Van Every (1757-1820) and his wife Sarah Schauer, along with their parents McGregor Van Every and Michael Schauer, helped settle the Canadian side of Niagara. They fall in the category of ‘escapees’; however, they may have been the first United Empire Loyalists to settle the land.

6. Israel Swayze (1753-1844), the grandchild of Barnabas Horton's great granddaughter, Penelope Horton, made the trip from NY to Ontario in 1789. Due to the year, I have unconfirmed suspicions regarding the impetus of his journey.

7. William Denyer (1794-1848) traveled from Hampshire, England to Bucks County Pennsylvania, prior to 1821 when he married Elizabeth Sliver, a second great granddaughter of Henry Rosenberger, and a great-granddaughter of Hans Fretz. The Denyers, along with their son, Ebenezer, then journeyed to Texas.

8. Samuel Van Every (1820-1888), born in Dumfries, Ontario, made the trek to Michigan between 1852-1855. His son, Melvin (1863-1929), went further south to Texas, where he met Ebenezer Denyer’s daughter, Margaret.

9. Moshe Leyb Cruvant (1857-1911), along with his wife, Minnie Mojsabovski, and two children arrived in St. Louis, Missouri from Cekiske, Lithuania about 1886.

10. Selig Dudelsack (1860-1915), his wife Anna Perlik, and their children came from somewhere near the border between Russia and Poland. They arrived in St. Louis in 1890.

11. Morris Blatt (1862-1926) arrived in St. Louis from Losice, Poland, with two daughters prior to 1893.

12. Samuel Newmark (1862-1940) and his wife Rose (possibly Cantkert) first journeyed from Warka, Russia in 1892 and arrived in London, England. In 19041907 Samuel and his 1821-year-old son, Barney spent 3 years2 months exploring Canada and the US, retuning to England in 1907 – apparently with the advice that the family should move again, because they did in two waves in 1908 and 1909.

13. Samuel Deutsch (1861-1938), his wife Helen Lichtman, and seven children left Nagyalmas, Hungary in 1913 and settled in Chicago, IL.

14. I will include my grandmother, Myrtle Van Every (1900-1951), in this nutty bunch, because she left both parents and several siblings behind in Texas, and moved to St. Louis in the 1920s. Not a new country, but a fair distance. She would meet up with Martin Deutsch, son of Samuel and Helen, in 1933 when he moved from Chicago to St. Louis following a job offer.

It wasn't until 1933 that all the branches of my family had arrived in St. Louis. 36 years later I was born, uniting all the disparate threads together. (Though the threads had united twice prior with two older siblings.)

There are also several unknown threads. For example, I don't know what areas of the world Sarah Hartley's ancestors originated. Her daughter Margaret Denyer has the middle name McAlpin suggesting the possibility of some Scottish or Irish heritage. And Sarah claimed to be 1/8 Native American.

National Archives Archival Databases

The National Archives (NARA) provides free access to their Archival Databases.There are a large variety of records there, including the WWII Enlistment Records. (I know I've browsed through their records before, but I hadn't double-checked the data I had previously retrieved from Ancestry.com.)

They list my great uncle, Mandell's occupation as salesperson, which suggests the person who entered the data at Ancestry.com did mistake a '175' for a '170' (see previous entry). It also suggests that there was some way to indicate on the record which of several occupations in a particular category applied.

Confirming this is that a first cousin of my grandfather, Cruvant Altman, was a lawyer. He was classified under category 22 on his enlistment record. On Ancestry's record it says correctly, "Barber or Lawyer". However, NARA is more specific with "Lawyers and Judges".

Neither provide the image of the original document, but it looks like NARA's records provide better detail.

WWII Army Enlistment Occupational Codes

When I found my great-uncle Mandell Newmark's army enlistment record at Ancestry.com, under Civil Occupation it said: BANDSMAN, OBOE or PARTS CLERK, AUTOMOBILE.

When I showed this to my parents, they scratched their heads in bewilderment. Everyone knew that he had worked in a local clothing store. Mandell was killed in action in 1945, and while his two brothers survived the war, both are now deceased. However, a close friend and classmate of Mandell's survives, and she has remained in touch with our family over the years. She also has no recollection of Mandell playing a musical instrument.

I found a list of Civil Occupation Codes at a Kansas GenWeb site, which cites the National Archives as its source.

One mistake I made was reading the entry as two answers. BANDSMAN, OBOE or PARTS CLERK, AUTOMOBILE is only one answer. Code: 175. If you fell in either category, you got the same code.

There are other weird combinations.
Code 022 is BARBER or LAWYER. (Some barbers used to be known for 'bleeding you dry', but they used a razor.)

Code 042 is CAMERA REPAIRMAN or CHIROPRACTOR (because repairing your back is the same as repairing your camera.)

Code 024 is BLACKSMITH or BAND OR ORCHESTRA LEADER (Band leader.) or MUSICIAN, INSTRUMENTAL (Bandsman.) or BANDSMAN, CLARINET or BANDSMAN, CORNET OR TRUMPET or BANDSMAN, DRUM, BASS or BANDSMAN, DRUM, SNARE or BANDSMAN, EUPHONIUM OR BARITONE or BANDSMAN, FLUTE OR PICCOLO or BANDSMAN, FRENCH HORN or BANDSMAN, SAXOPHONE or BANDSMAN, TROMBONE or BANDSMAN, TUBA

I am unable to explain why the Oboe isn't under code #024. And what is a Blacksmith doing there?

CLERK, CLOTHING STORE, unsurprisingly, doesn't have a code. It's likely the enlistment official was told to choose a category they thought to be closest. In their position, I might have decided, depending upon my uncle's duties: 055 - CLERK, GENERAL, or more likely, another interesting combination: 170 - ENGINEERING AIDE (DESIGNATED FIELD) or SALES CLERK.

There was also the choice 010 - NOT ELSEWHERE CLASSIFIED (But I suspect this category was discouraged.)

Final note: It just occurred to me the Ancestry.com enlistment records don't show the images for the original documents. Someone hand entered all the data, and probably read the code on the document, looked the code up on the chart, and typed out what it meant. Depending upon handwriting a 170 could look like a 175.

Literary Quote

The Letters of Victor Hugo From Exile, and After the Fall of the Empire
Translated by Paul Meurice
Published 1898
Pages 204-205

Albert Caise had published a genealogy of Victor Hugo in which be assigned him the arms of the Hugos of Lorraine. An anonymous writer discussed this in the Figaro asking where Hugo, Bishop of Ptolemais, was to be placed in the genealogy.


To Albert Caise
Hauteville House, 20th March 1867

The point raised by the anonymous writer to whom you refer admits of the simplest explanation. These matters are of very slight importance, but what is certain is that you are right and that the anonymous writer is not wrong. The relationship to the Bishop of Ptolemais is a tradition in my family. I never knew more than what my father told me about it. M Bury, formerly a notary at Epinal, sent me some documents of his own accord which are among my papers. Personally I do not attach any importance to genealogical questions. The man is what he is; his value is what he has done. Beyond this all that is added to or taken from him is nothing. Hence my absolute contempt for genealogies.

The Hugos from whom I am descended are I believe a younger and possibly illegitimate branch which had come down in the world through poverty and misery. A Hugo was a breaker up of boats on the Moselle. Mme de Graffigny (Francoise Hugo, wife of the chamberlain of Lorraine) addressed him as my cousin. The “wise and witty anonymous writer” is right; there were a shoemaker and a bishop, beggars and prelates, in my family. This is more or less the case with everybody. There are very curious instances of it in the Channel Islands (see Les Travailleurs de la Mer – Tangrouille) In other words I am not a Tangroville. I am a Tangrouille. I have no objection. If I could choose my forbears I would rather have a hard working cobbler for an ancestor than a lazy king.

Sarah Ann Hartley Denyer Foster (1836-?)

This is the second of a series of posts that I am putting together to hopefully get seen by those doing searches on their surnames.

Sarah Ann Hartley, was my second great grandmother, and I carry her mitochondrial DNA. According to most census forms, she was born approximately 1836 in either Mississippi or Arkansas, or Texas.

In 1850 there is an Eliza Hartley in Houston County, Texas, with two sons Samuel and William. In a different household in Houston there is a Sarah Hartley of appropriate age who might have been acting as a servant of some sort. There are no other Hartleys in the 1850 Texas census, but they might not have been in Texas yet.

In 1854 Sarah married Ebenezer Opham Denyer in Gonzales County. (G-d bless Gonzales County archivists who managed to keep a marriage certificate for over 150 years.).

In 1860 a Samuel Hartley is residing with Sarah and Ebenezer in Hays, Texas.

Sarah Hartley and Ebenzer Denyer had four children – two sons and two daughters. Mary Susan Denyer and Ezekiel Denyer both died as infants. Samuel William Denyer married Alice Gollihar, and Margaret McAlpin Monteroy Denyer married Melvin Elijah Van Every. Margaret Denyer and Melvin Van Every were my great-grandparents.

Ebenezer Denyer died in 1872. Sarah Hartley Denyer married George Foster in January of 1874. Sarah and George had three children: Eliza, George, and Sarah. (It could be a coincidence of given names, but their daughter Eliza, and Ebenezer’s son Samuel William, make me think that the 1850 Hartleys in Houston County, Texas may be the right ones.)

According to a Rootsweb Community post Eliza Caroline Foster was born in 1875, and she married a William T. Reeves in 1892. George William Foster was born in 1877, and died in 1957 according to his death certificate. The informant on his death certificate was Sarah Ann McCarty. According to her death certificate, she lived from 1887 to 1961. Her parents were George Foster and Sallie Unknown.

It's possible George Foster had a new wife, but I don't think so. I think the informant got the first name of the mother wrong. [See comments. Sally is a nickname for Sarah.] It would mean that Sarah Hartley, who according to the 1860-1880 censuses was born about 1836, would have been 51 years old when her last child was born. However, while unusual, that's not impossible. My Aunt Minnie wrote about her grandmother Sarah as someone she remembered, and Minnie was born in 1884. Sarah had to have lived at least until the early 1890s for Minnie to have her recollections.

I am in contact with some cousins who are also descended from Margaret McAlpin Denyer. Thanks to Texas birth and marriage records online, I've been able to trace the generations of Margaret's brother, Samuel, and I've written blind letters to a couple descendants, but with no response. Not everyone is interested in extended cousins.

I don't enjoy writing blind letters, but I'm going to write to some descendants of Eliza Foster as well, since several generations of her family remained in Texas. Sarah Ann Hartley claimed to be 1/8 Native American, but I have no details on her ancestry, and it's possible the children of her second marriage were better at passing down the information.

I'd also love to find descendants of any siblings of Sarah. Some possibilities in the censuses appear below.

Census Records

1850 Houston County, Texas

Household #1
Hardey Ware – age 71 - Unknown
Sarah Ware – age 56 - Georgia
Sarah Hartley – age 14 – Mississippi

Househould #2
Eliza Hartley – age 32 - Tennessee
Samuel Hartley – age 18 - Mississippi
William Hartley – age 6 – Texas
6 Wheelers – ages 0-36

1860

Household #1
Hays, Texas
4 Lawlins – ages 1-33
E. Danner – age 32 - Louisiana
Sarah Danner – age 22 - Texas
Sam Hartley – age 26 - Texas

[I am relatively certain this is Sarah (Hartley) Denyer and Ebenezer Denyer. Ebenzer was born in Pennsylvania, but he traveled through Louisiana to get to Texas, and the Lawlins probably provided the information. I suspect Sam is a brother of Sarah.]

Household #2
Leon, Texas
William Hartley – 31 – Mississippi
Elizabeth Hartley – 26 – Mississippi
Jno Hartley – 4 - Texas
Albert Hartley – 1 - Texas
11 others age 3-46

1870

Household #1
Hays, Texas
Samuel Hartley – age 30 – Arkansas
Margaret Hartley – age 22 – Louisiana
Children: Caroline, Virginia, Amelia
3 Rawls (age 11-42)
[I have found a Rawls genealogy online and it is the family of Samuel’s wife Margaret.]

Household #2
Hays, Texas
Sarah Denyer – age 30 – Arkansas
Ebenezer Denyer – age 43 – Pennsylvania
(Samuel) William Denyer – age 4 – Texas
(Margaret) McAlpin Denyer – age 2 – Texas
4 other Denyers age 10-18 (Children of Ebenezer’s deceased brother)

1880

Hays, TX
Sarah Foster – age 44 – Arkansas
George Foster – age 40 – England
Samuel (William) Denyer – age 14 – Texas
Margaret (McAlpin) Denyer – age 13 - Texas
Eliza Foster – age 6

Jewish Waldheim Cemetery - Chicago, IL

Images of graves submerged in water appear in the newspaper. My first thought was for my great grandparents - Samuel and Helen Deutsch - buried there, somewhere.

Coincidentally, on Monday, I discovered the cemetery's online request form Elsewhere I read they will email photographs, so I sent in a request. I haven't heard back, though the website says to give them 3-5 days, so I could hear tomorrow - if the graves are accessible.

In the cemetery there are 200,000 graves, only a fraction near the river. I live five hours away by car, and haven't been to the cemetery. My mother attended an aunt's funeral there five years ago. My great-aunt is likely a safe distance from the flood waters, though -- the newspaper says only the indigent have been buried there in recent years.

A map I found of the cemetery suggests the graves of my great grandparents are probably safe. They are in Section 37, (aka Progressive Order of the West), which is apparently to the East of Des Plaines Avenue, separating it from the river. I don't know how far East, or how far the river has flooded.

Even if their stones are safe, my thoughts go to the heartrending photographs. They are family of others.

Dudelsack Dudelzak Dudelczyk

This is the first of a series of posts that I am putting together to hopefully get seen by those doing searches on their surnames. Most of these are what are referred to as “Brick Walls,” though I think usually that is used to reference lines you are attempting to expand further generationally. I don’t have high hopes for this with most of my Polish, Russian and Transylvanian ancestors. It might happen, but I am more interested in finding cousins. (Theoretically finding cousins could also help me find a way around the wall)

My website is already at the top of the list for searches on "Dudelsack," but the other variant spellings actually seem to be more common, and I haven’t written a post yet that gathers all the information that might catch the eye of a cousin researcher.

Generation One: Simcha Zelig Slupsky

I know nothing about him. His given name appears on his daughter’s tombstone in the traditional fashion of “Gertrude daughter of Simcha Zelig” (In Hebrew). The surname is the name passed on by family oral tradition. More about that later.

Generation Two: Gertrude (Gerte) Slupsky (1846-1906) married Samuel Harry (Shmuel Zvi) Dudelsack. They had six children: Yidel, Selig, Gershon, Selma, Toba, Belle and Sprinsa.

Gerte Slupsky's birth year is a guess. Her death record says she was 60 years and 5 months old when she died, which would indicate she was born in 1846. However, her tombstone says she was born in 1831, which means she would have been 75 when she died. She immigrated with her son, Selig, and died in St. Louis, MO.

Generation Three: Yidel, Selig and Toba immigrated to America. Yidel became Julius Odelson (Odelsohn). Selig became Selig Feinstein. Toba, back in Russia, married Aaron (Aron) Oberman, and in America became Tillie Oberman.

Julius, his wife Jennie (likely his second wife), and most of their family moved to Chicago. Julius probably died in Chicago before 1916.

Tillie died in 1935, and is buried in St. Louis, MO with her husband Aaron.

Research suggests there are Dudelzaks in the US and Argentina. I have no idea if they’re related. The name seems to come from players of a particular type of bagpipe, and several different Dudelczyk families could exist.

My great-aunt who passed down the information said that Gershon, Selma, Belle and Sprinsa remained in Europe. However, Selig, Yidel and Toba immigrated in the 1890s, leaving a few decades their siblings, or the next generation, could have followed and still have escaped the Holocaust. It's possible they immigrated to somewhere other than the US (there seem to be some Dudelzaks in Argentina, for example), or immigrated to the US, but didn't know how to make contact since the previous generation had all changed their surnames.

We don’t know what city our Dudelsac family came from. The best information we have is for Selig’s brother-in-law Jacob Perlik who put down Szdobeitzen, Poland/Russia on his naturalization papers. No such city exists, but ‘Dobryzn’ is close, as is ‘Shebreshin‘.

Slupsky surname: There was a Slupsky family in St. Louis at the time Gertrude and her son Selig immigrated to America. It’s a logical theory that they are related, and may have been the reason St. Louis was chosen as a destination, though while I have communicated with a descendant, no connection has been made.

My great aunt has been 100% correct with all the other names she provided, so there is no reason to suspect she is wrong with ‘Slupsky’ or the given names of Selig, Yidel and Toba’s three other siblings. Her accuracy with dates, on the other hand, was very poor, but it’s not uncommon to have a greater facility at recollecting names than dates.

This covers what I know of these generations. I have made contact with some of Julius's grandchildren, and they have kept in contact with each other, so I don't think there are any stray Odelsons that I won't ultimately be able to find.

I've made contact with one Oberman, though he is in his early 90s and hasn't kept in touch with the rest of his family. He gave me a few leads on finding others.

I'd really love to find out if any descendants of Gershon, Selma, Belle or Sprinsa exist.

Any descendants of Dudelsacks, Dudelzaks, Dudelczyks, or variations are welcome to email me at the email address at the top of the sidebar, and we can compare notes to see if we are possibly related.

Texas Death Records at Family Search Redux

Two months ago I wrote about finding a few Texas death records at FamilySearch's new record search. In particular, Everett Van Every's, a first cousin to my mother who died at age 17. I had begun to question the family story that my grandmother's brother had had a child, but it turned out his marriage had been brief, and the child had remained with the mother, which is why Uncle Sam was single on all the censuses.

The death records at FamilySearch didn't have the images associated with them. I emailed FamilySearch and their response was a reminder they were in pilot stage, they would enter beta testing later in the year, and then even later fully release the project. I wasn't upset by the response, and completely understood. (I expected them to direct me to the LDS microfilm available at FamilyHistory sites, actually, which they didn't, though I suspect most if not all of the records they are scanning in and indexing are available that way.)

Realizing I could be waiting awhile for the images, I searched for other sources. I found someone at RAOGK willing to look up and copy Everett's death certificate, as well as one for my great Aunt Minnie. I paid them a minimal copying fee. (I asked them to look for the death certificate for another great-aunt, Willa, who died in 1916, but they were unable to find her in the state archives.)

I noticed a couple weeks ago that the Texas death records at FamilySearch now have images. If it had taken 6 months I'd have been fine with my impatience, but 6 weeks I feel a little silly. Still, I didn't spend much.

Everett did drown, as family records had indicated, and the death certificate names the creek (Barton Creek near Austin, which appears to be a popular local swimming area.)

I have a lot of relatives in the FamilySearch database, and have spent some time looking at various certificates I wouldn't likely have actively pursued.

George William Foster was the son of Sarah Ann Hartley and George Foster. Sarah was my second great grandmother, through her prior marriage to Ebenezer Denyer. The informant on George William's death certificate was Sarah Ann McCarty. I knew from some Rootsweb forum posts he had a sister named Sarah Ann, so I suspected this was her. I found Sarah Ann McCarty's death certificate easily, and it says she was born in 1887 to George Foster and Sallie Unknown.

I then wondered if the informant didn't know Sarah McCarty was named after her mother, and got the name wrong, or whether my great great grandmother had died and this was a new wife for George.

I'm pretty certain it's the former. It would mean that Sarah Hartley, who according to the 1860-1880 censuses was born about 1836, would have been 51 years old when her last child was born. However, while unusual, that's not impossible. My Aunt Minnie wrote about her grandmother Sarah as someone she remembered, and Minnie was born in 1884. Sarah had to have lived at least until the early 1890s for Minnie to have her recollections.

My only complaint with the database is a complaint I have with Texas history. They apparently started requiring death certificates in 1903, which is actually seven years earlier than Missouri, but they weren't completely successful at enforcing this until the 1930s. I'm not sure if the index at FamilySearch is 'complete', but they indicate that most deaths between 1890-1903 were not recorded, as well as many deaths between 1903 and 1930.

The death certificate for Aunt Willa who died in 1916 might not exist. However, I and my mother have recently made contact via letters and email with some of her cousins in Texas and California, and I am sure they will have more information on Aunt Willa, cousin Everett, and perhaps they may even know when and where Sarah Hartley died.

The 50th Carnival has been posted

Rembrandt, and his pup, would like you to know that the 50th Carnival of Genealogy has been posted. Filled with stories about dogs, cats, and other animals.

[Art: Self-Portrait in Oriental Costume - Rembrandt - 1631]

The theme for the 51st Carnival (deadline July 1) is Independent Spirit:

"The topic for the next edition of the Carnival of Genealogy will be: Independent Spirit. With the upcoming July 4th holiday, there is no more perfect time to honor someone from your family whose life can be summed up in one word – INDEPENDENT! Do you have a relative who was feisty, spoke their own mind, was a bit of a free spirit? Anyone who most people might consider a “nut” on the family tree but you know they really just followed a “different tune?” We all have at least one person whose character and habits may have made them seem “ahead of their time” and now is the chance to tell us their story.

Pet Sounds

The theme for the 50th edition of the Carnival of Genealogy is family pets. There are six pets I would like to honor, though I don't have a photograph of three of them.

I've mentioned Daisy before. She looks a little less like a bear in this photo. Most bears don't wear pajamas. Most dogs don't either, unless there are creative, but slightly cruel children about.

Daisy joined the family a year before I did. I am told she was jealous at first of all the attention the new baby got, but soon she learned I meant more table scraps. She was half-springer spaniel, half-poodle, and a scholar-athlete.

She leapt over the backyard fence within hours of coming home from her early surgical procedure. She was always a runner, but she loved riding in cars, so once she got away you wouldn't be able to catch her, unless you were in a car. Then she would gladly jump in. Any car.

Watching my brother, sister and me come inside after playing in the backyard, she saw us ring the doorbell, and how the door miraculously opened. At least, that's what we think went through her mind, because she decided to give it a try. I'm told the first time she did it, my mom went to the back door, looked around, saw just the dog, and shut the door. When it happened 10 seconds later, she opened the door, and then Daisy did it live for her. We'd put her outside in the back during dinner parties, and then have to explain to the guests when the doorbell rang, "it's just the dog."

I heard last night a story told that one day she got loose and ran, and we couldn't find her in the neighborhood. She returned home at 2 am, jumped the backyard fence into the backyard, and rang the bell.

Daisy died when I was in sixth grade.

Molly was our next dog. She was all Springer Spaniel. She didn't ring the doorbell, though we did try to teach her. What we didn't realize is that every dog has to find their own trick. She learned how to play the piano.

We didn't immediately spay her. It was the 1980s, and the spay/neuter crusade hadn't really hit full-force yet. We decided we would wait until after she had puppies. We found a professional breeder with a stud, and Molly had a litter of 8. While we had prepared a comfortable bed for her to have the puppies, she chose my bedroom, where she would often sleep at the foot of the bed. (Not a surprising choice, actually.) We got her to the room we wanted her between puppies 2 and 3.

I was home after college when she died.


Benny, another Springer Spaniel, followed. My parents decided they didn't want to spend the time training a puppy, so they found a 1-year old from a breeder. Apparently a family had bought him, but the check bounced, and they ended up returning him. The breeder was sure she would have to keep him herself, until we came along. I thought we should name him Bouncer, but we kept the name the breeder had given him.

While I spent a couple years in the same house as Benny, I did move out, and he was the first pet that I saw grow up from afar. The picture above isn't the most flattering. Benny liked the pool, but mostly as a large drinking bowl. He wasn't a fan of swimming. This surprised us since we figured all Spaniels by nature should be attracted to water, but every dog is an individual. Here he is riding on a raft, and drinking from the pool.

When Benny died in December of 2004, my parents debated whether or not there should be another. They did get another Springer puppy. Her name is Katie. (Though I will follow my standard rule of not posting photographs of the living without their approval. And anyway, while she is very sweet - and her favorite trick is retrieving a tennis ball thrown into the pool - I can't claim her as my dog. Her favorite playmates who visit are my niece and nephews.)

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I had three other pets as a child. They were mine, and only mine. They were a trio of hermit tree crabs. I don't think a photograph was taken of them, or at least, I don't have one in my collection. I named them Sabrina, Kelly, and Jill. If you grew up watching television in the 1970s, like I did, you probably know who I named them after.

Barack's Birth Certificate

To combat the rumors that Obama was really born in Kenya, or his birth name wasn't really Barack Hussein, Obama's Presidential Campaign has released his birth certificate.


The certificate has also appeared on The Daily Kos.

Ancestry's Newspaper Archives

The Genealogue mentions that Ancestry has doubled the size of its Newspaper Archives. (and access to the newspapers is free until June 19th)

I checked it out and found this article in The Galveston Daily News, November 29, 1914



Is M.E. Vanevery, Melvin Elijah Van Every, my great grandfather? Berclair, Texas is only about 100 miles south of San Marcos, and 160 miles south of Caldwell, where I know Melvin and his family had farms between 1900-1920. Beekeeper (aka Apiarist) was his primary profession. I don't know how long it lasted, but I think he had a creamery as well. (The business didn't last more than five years, as I know the family was in El Paso by 1920, which is 650 miles from Berclair. All distances computed by Google Maps)

Several of the images I tried to access in the database are broken; I suspect this is only temporary. I had particular lack of success viewing any of the ones from the El Paso Herald-Post, for the Benold surname. There are several, including what I expect is my Aunt Minnie's obituary, and I'm curious to see if it matches the one I retrieved through RAOGK a month or so ago.

My search on my own surname in Missouri didn't turn up much - though I did find an article in a Jefferson City, MO newspaper about (I think) a first-cousin of my father's who was active in McCarthy's presidential campaign in 1968. When I searched in Illinois, though, I did find several articles on a first cousin of my grandfather, who lived in Chester, Illinois. Including an obituary for his wife's mother, and an engagement announcement for his daughter. (I also found some articles on a Ben Newmark who was involved in the Al Capone trial. I have no idea if I'm related to him.)

Since newspaper archives aren't indexed, per se, but the searches are based on OCR (Optical Character Recognition) I usually have difficulty searching on my surname alone, because I get a lot of articles about athletes setting a "new mark." About half the hits are surnames, and the other half sports articles. It is impossible for me to search on the surname Denyer, because anything of interest is buried in stories about Denver, CO. There's not much that can be done about either of these because if the software requires an exact match, with the low-quality of some of the scans of fading newspapers, lots of articles will be missed.

Indexes v Databases

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Here is the St. Louis Obituary Index at the St. Louis Public Library website. It covers obituaries that appeared in the St. Louis Post Dispatch 1880-1927, 1942-1945, 1992-2006. Each year is divided into three separate lists alphabetically. If you know what year someone died, it's very easy to look up the date of their obituary (or burial permit) if it appeared in the newspaper. (The library has an index for The St. Louis Argus as well, organized in the same fashion). However, if you don't know the date, most people will find themselves looking in every year's list for their surnames.

After a certain point, it is probably likely that any organization that is indexing a project that large will ask themselves...wouldn't a searchable database be easier to use? And their new Obituary Search is definitely easy to use. (I just discovered it this week, and so far they've entered the data for the Post Dispatch, 1880-1925 and 1942-1945.) You can search by surname, first name, or initials, though only the first 100 results are listed.

It will be somewhat sad, though, to see the indexes disappear, as I suspect they will, once they are done catching up in the years entered into the database. Because there is one advantage of indexed lists over databases. They show up in Google search queries. You have to know the databases are there in order to search them.

Still, I'm not complaining. The database is an improvement. And I am definitely happy the staff at the library is taking the time to make the information available online.

Carnival of Genealogy

The Carnival of Genealogy has been released. Filled with photographs of swimwear models and beach stories.

The theme for the 50th edition will be Family Pets

Bring out those old photos of Snoopy, Garfield, Rex and Bob! Tell us the funny, charming, and cute stories about the pets you remember or remember hearing about. Introduce us to the furry, feathered, and scaly members who have a place on your family tree! The deadline for the next edition is June 15, 2008.

more information

Tale of Two Cities

The Missouri Archives reports the scanning of death certificates from 1910-1957 has been completed a year ahead of schedule

Meanwhile I am hopeful that in Cook County, Illinois, where they had originally scheduled their index to go online in January, and then pushed it back six months to July...that there isn't soon another revised release date...

Ahh, well, even if there is, I realize that not every locale can have the same glorious success with volunteers, and I will celebrate whenever it happens.