How To Find a Mummy's Mommy's Mommy's Mummy? MtDNA.

Egypt is examining the DNA of the mummified foetuses buried with Tutankhamen. It's assumed they're his children, and his only known wife was the daughter of Queen Nefertiti. Queen Nefertiti's mummy has never been identified, but they've been running DNA tests on all their mummies, and hope to find a match.

Sharpened Edges

A few of the letters I scanned yesterday had been written in pencil, which tends to fade over the years quicker than ink. I used a filter on my graphics program to "sharpen edges". (I use GraphicConverter for the Mac, but many different graphics programs have this function.) I didn't delete the original scan. That way - if I want to try other techniques to improve the legibility, I can start with the original image.

(Click to enlarge)

I couldn't fit both images on my screen at the same time, so I show you more of the sharpened half. Both images are at 50% size. At 100%, you can squint your way through most of the non-altered text, but there are still some bumpy spots. At 50%, the altered text is still difficult in a couple of places, but at 100% it is readable.

My great-grandmother, Margaret Van Every, is writing to her daughter, Minnie (a great-aunt).

Dear Daughter Minnie,

As I have a few minutes time I will write you [a] few lines. We are all well but have not found a location yet [although] we have bought 35 [colonies] of bees. I believe this is good honey country but there is so many bees here it is hard to find just what you want. Agnes and I are here in town waiting for daddy to go look…

The dateline says Phoenix. I believe they didn't find a location there. They had purchased land in El Paso in January of 1917, which is where most of the family lived. They had a farm in Fort Hancock, TX, just south of El Paso. They often had multiple farms, but Phoenix is a good 450 miles from El Paso, so it's not likely. Agnes is the daughter of Willa Van Every, who wrote the poem, Mother. Willa died in 1916, and in 1917 Agnes, age 10, had moved in with her grandparents.

I have always had a large fear of bees, and apiarist is one profession I would never have considered as an option.

GBGames Statistics: Day One

Day One of the 2008 GeneaBloggers Games is near completion. We are supposed to keep daily stats.




GB Games - Team TransylvanianDutch - August 9

Competition: Go Back and Cite Your Sources
Event: Create Proper Citations
Number of Citations Entered: 0

Competition: Organize Your Research
Event: Create data entries in your database, or scan photos, or scan documents.
Number of data entries: 0
Number of photos/documents scanned: 20, comprised of 40 separate scanned images -- several documents were multiple pages in length. Documents included the Declaration of Intents for Barney, Solomon, Myer Wolf, and Israel David Newmark. Divorce documents for Myrtle Van Every and Dale B Ridgely. Several letters to and from the siblings and parents of Myrtle Van Every. A handful of photographs.

TV Commentator: Team TransylvanianDutch's post-scan usage of the "Sharpen Edges" filter in his graphics program to darken letters written in pencil was especially impressive. He should consider a post with before and after images.

TransylvanianDutch: hmm. Not a bad idea. Tomorrow maybe? It's getting late.

TV C: Tomorrow will be fine.

Have you seen the spider in my sidebar?

If you are a regular reader of this blog via an RSS newsreader you may be unaware of some recent additions to my sidebar. So I thought I would spend a post detailing what you can find there. (Yes, there is a spider, keep reading!)

At the top there are two links. One to a post that lists my ancestral surnames. The other link ("Genealogy Resources") is to a series of pages I put together listing and annotating online resources for the states of Missouri and Illinois, along with US and International resources.

Then there are links to subscribe to either my posts, or my comment threads via RSS. For those confused by RSS, there's also a widget where you can enter your email address, and receive the posts in your email. Then, as you scroll down, there's a translation widget that can translate the blog into a variety of languages. (Though I suspect the machine translation isn't that great. Phrases like "The spirit is strong, but the flesh is weak" might get translated to "The wine is potent, but the meat is tasteless." That's what you get sometimes when you ask a computer to do something.)

Then there is a series of Missouri, Illinois, and US research links. This is a subset of the links you will find by following "Genealogy Resources" at the top of the sidebar. I have more room over there.

Scrolling down you will see my blogroll, and then a list of my 10 most recent comments. Following my archives you will see a section labeled "Google News Search". There you can see a handful of news items for the key words: Genealogy, Ancestry and Family History - provided by Google News.

Finally you will see a "GeneaSpider". What's a GeneaSpider? He (or maybe she)'s a colorful spider that will crawl inside a box, following the movement of the cursor. S/He doesn't do anything else. But move your cursor around and watch the spider move.

And then there's a Google Ad. Since it's that low on my sidebar, I doubt very many people are going to click-through and earn me any money, but there's always the possibility.

My Favorite?

This is my first time participating in the Smile for the Camera carnival. The theme this edition is Your Favorite Photo. As I've read other participants comment, I agree, this is a very unfair challenge. I have favorite photographs of particular ancestors, but choosing among them puts me in an uncomfortable position.

My favorite photos are probably of those for whom I have the fewest photographs. The less photographs I have, the more I treasure those that I do. This narrows down the options, but certainly not far enough.

I have a large number of photographs of my four grandparents, and while rarer on my mother's side, I have a good selection of photographs of my eight great grandparents. It wasn't too difficult to create this tree:


My grandparents are on their respective honeymoons - both in 1937. As children, they were each in the photographs from which I took the faces of their parents, so the eight great-grandparents are roughly similar ages. (Except Samuel Deutsch on the far right, who was twenty years older than his wife, Helen.)

For truly rare photographs I have to go back one more generation, and I can only do this on one branch. I have photographs of all four of Melvin Newmark's grandparents: Moshe Leyb and Minnie Cruvant, and Samuel and Rose Newmark.

Narrowing my selection down to these photographs, the choice isn't difficult. My favorite was taken shortly after my father was born. (And I believe this is the first time I am violating an earlier decision not to post photographs of living relatives, but I don't think he'll mind.)

This photograph is special for several reasons. It is one of about 5 photos that were taken at about the same time - probably the same day or weekend - clearly for the same purpose – to celebrate four generations of Newmarks. Samuel died 3 years later.

On the far left is My father's grandfather, Barney Newmark, and grandmother Bertha (nee Cruvant). My middle name was in her honor, and my Hebrew name, Baruch, was in honor of Barney. In the middle is Samuel Newmark and Rose (nee Sandgart). Samuel appears in the other photographs that were taken on the same day or days as this one, Rose doesn't. This is the only photograph I currently know of that contains Rose. I assume it is her from her position – who else would it be? – but there are no other photographs to compare it to. The two people on the right aren't Newmarks. They're my father's other two grandparents, Herman and Annie Feinstein. The two couples knew each other as friends before their children married, and I have some wonderful pictures of the four of them vacationing together I will likely share at some time. So this photograph contains all four of my father's grandparents, and two of his great grandparents. It's hard to beat that combination.

But is this my favorite photograph of all of my family photographs? Of course not. No such photograph exists. But it's certainly 'one of my favorites'. And if I am asked this question again, I will choose another one of them.

False Start

The opening ceremonies of the GeneaBloggers Games were five hours ago at 3 pm Pacific. It was a beautiful ceremony, with a lot of well-designed flags, and music. Luckily, you can still view it yourself by just following the link.

I was supposed to wait until tomorrow to start competing. But unfortunately, the spirit of the games grabbed a hold of me, and I have suffered a bit of a false start. I transcribed six letters tonight. My transcription project is outside of the official competitions, so I am hopeful no one gets upset. All six letters had been scanned back in March.

On April 4th, 1926, my great-grandfather Melvin Van Every, living in Garfield, N.M., wrote to his daughter, Myrtle, my grandmother:

Our radio is fine. We got St. Louis one night but there are so many stronger broadcasting stations that some stations are hard to get. We can't get El Paso. We tried to get the Easter sunrise service at 6:00 this morning at El Paso but could not. We got the sunrise service at Los Angeles. It was fine.

I believe I told you Josie is boarding two school teachers. Gets $60 dollars a month for the two. What are you looking for a new boarding place for? You said you had a good place. Our apples have just begun blooming. I will send you a bloom.

Attached to the letter is an 82 year-old flower blossom labeled "White Pear Red and White Apple." It's not the only dried flower that has been preserved with these letters.

Google Honors GB Games

Google likes to change their logo art for special events, and they have redesigned their logo today to honor the Genea-Bloggers Games

(Maybe they actually did this for the Olympics in Beijing)

Joshua: Would you like to play a game?

To honor the 2008 Olympics a certain group of Genea-bloggers are competing in several events.

I'm always up for a little competition, especially since the events are structured so we are competing against ourselves - not each other. Medals are awarded for how many tasks we complete - not to who does the most - so everyone could get Gold medals (or Diamond and Platinum medals since there are five levels of medals for each category in this competition.)

So the first thing I did was create my flag by going to the WeAreMultiColored site as suggested. It's the first thing I did, as I did this back in November of last year. Though I did make a small change to the flag I created back then.

The image of the vampire in the lower left has been added. It's a painting by Edward Munch (most famous for The Scream). I naturally added it to represent my Transylvanian ancestry. As I noted back in November, the Star of David represents all of my Jewish ancestry, but considering the flag is representing my blog as well as me, I figured I had to add something Transylvanian. And what's more Transylvanian than a vampire? So the flag combines the flags of the US, Netherlands and Israel, with a vampire for added flair.

So what are the Genealympic events, and which ones am I participating in?

1. Go Back and Cite Your Sources!

This is something I need to do, and I think I might even be able to reach the 50 citations necessary for the Platinum Medal. (Which is why I need to do this.) I am competing in this event.

2. Back Up Your Data!

While I already have my genealogy data backed up to an external hard drive, and a flash drive (which is also a USB watch, so easy to grab in case of fire) There are a few other suggestions in the instructions for this competition that I should consider - but not right now. I don't want to be too distracted from my other activities.

3. Organize Your Research!

I need to do many of these things, but not right now. However, one of the activities is "scanning 20 photos" or "scanning 20 documents." I'm confident I have enough to do this task 5-times over. I recently discovered a box full of letters. I figure if I scan 100 pages of letters I have definitely earned a platinum medal. I don't know if there are a 100 pages, but if I end up scanning all of them, and there are only 80, I'll be happy with the Diamond.

4. Write, Write, Write!

I'd probably be doing a couple of these tasks anyway, but I don't want to get distracted from the citations, and scanning, so I'm not competing. It's not like I need extra encouragement to write.

5. Reach Out & Perform Genealogical Acts of Kindness!

I was looking up obituaries for people through RAOGK during the spring. However, the local library isn't open on Sundays during the summer, giving me less time to spare on research. I might do a few of the other tasks, but not as part of the competition.

***
In addition to the citations and the letter scanning, I have a long-term transcription project of those letters. I'm going to tally for my own benefit how many letters I transcribe. It doesn't fall under any of the competitive categories, but there's no reason I can't use the "Olympic spirit" to challenge myself, even if no one else is doing it.

This post has been revised

53rd Carnival of Genealogy

The 53rd Carnival of Genealogy has been posted, and it's another wonderful carnival, filled with 39 entries in this carousel edition. My entry was the one on the St. Louis City housing conditions in 1908.

The topic for the next edition of the COG is, The Family Language...Does your family use words and phrases that no one else knows or understands? Where did they come from? Did you ever try to explain your "family language" to outsiders? Tell a story about your family-coined words, phrases, or nicknames. This topic was chosen by Donna Pointkouski who will be hosting the next edition of the COG at What's Past is Prologue. Thanks Donna! The deadline for submissions is August 15th.

Past and Future carnivals can be found on the Carnival of Genealogy index page.

Mother - by Willa Van Every (1890-1916)

Here's a poem I discovered in a box of my maternal grandmother's. A poem written by a sister of hers. Willa only lived to the age of 26.

Mother - by Willa Ann Van Every (1890-1916)

When Sammie cuts his fingers with a case-knife in the shed
'Tis mother wraps a bandage on and puts her boy to bed.

And when Evva dons her gown to visit in the town
The same deft hands arrange the lace and smooth the ruffles down;

When Pa comes home most tired to death and takes his easy chair,
'Tis mother brings his slippers and pats him on the hair;

It's mother here and mother there: "Where is that book I brought?"
"The hanger on my coat is off!" "Where are those pens I bought?"

Now Myrtle cannot find her hat -- she left it on the floor --
And grandpa wants the liniment; the butcher's at the door.

Poor Mrs. Means is sick a bed; Miss Newwed needs advice
About the way to boil an egg -- she never could cook rice!

The sociable is shy a cake; the church bazaar is short --
Will mother help to run a booth or serve with Mrs. Bort?

From morn til night she moves about, precision is her tread --
No wonder mother sometimes faints, and goes worn out to bed!

Her days are marked by kindred ills and putting things to right;
And close, at last, with counsel wise, and "tucking in" at night.

Ah, mother, purest of the pure; unselfish in her love,
May God reward and comfort thee with blessings from above,

And may thy ministrations fall on hearts that knowing worth,
And praise thee: "Mother, queen of home and angel of the earth!"

And when thy sun of life has set, below the western crest,
May angels crown thee with the days, of everlasting rest!"

"From Willa"

---

Willa mentions three of her siblings in the poem: Samuel, Myrtle, and Evelyn -- Myrtle being my grandmother. On the 1900 census a few homes away I found a family that might have the surname Bort, and another the surname Mien (Means?). I can't find a Newwed. (Is this a description as opposed to a name?)

There's no date on the poem, but I believe it was probably written about 1905. Willa would have been 15 in 1905, 'Sammie' would have been 19, and 'Evva' 13. Myrtle was born in 1900, so it has to be after then.

How reliable is the poem? Did her mother help out with sociables and church bazaars? Did they have an easy chair - or did that just rhyme well with 'hair'? A poem isn't the same as an official record, and it's not uncommon for young poets to 'stretch' for rhymes.

The most confusing part of the poem is the reference to her 'grandpa.' Both her grandfathers (Ebenezer Denyer and Samuel Van Every) died before she was born. Her grandmother, Sarah Hartley Denyer did remarry, and it's possible the grandfather referenced is her step-grandfather George Foster.

There are a few lines in the poem that strike a chord of memory suggesting she's borrowed a few phrases from other sources. The lines that reverberate the most for me are "It's mother here and mother there." (though I'm pretty sure the original had a different word than 'mother' which makes it very hard to Google) And "Grandpa wants the liniment; the Butcher's at the door." Once again, there's been some word replacement.

The rhythm of the poem is very similar to Edgar Guest, though I'm not sure how well-known he was prior to 1916 (which is when his collection, Heap o' Livin' was published.) I think his popularity came later. Someone I showed the poem to suggested it sounded a bit like James Whitcomb Riley, which better fits the dates, though I still can't find the originals that are causing this sense of poetic deja vu.

note: I am interested in finding the original poem(s) because that would indicate the poets that Willa had read, and patterned her poem after, revealing more about her. It's certainly not a question about originality, as there is a lot of personal detail.

St. Louis City - 1908

For the 53rd edition of the Carnival of Genealogy, which is a carousel edition, I thought I would go back to the theme for the 47th edition, in which I didn't participate. I couldn't decide what to write about at the time. The theme was "A Place Called Home." We were to describe a place where our ancestors lived. I know a few names of European towns where my immigrant ancestors came from, but little more than that, and I didn't have the time to do the research. Many of the immigrants settled in St. Louis, which is where I have spent all but a few of my college years so I didn't think about it as an ancestral home.

However, a couple months ago I found the St. Louis 1909 Sanborn Maps online, and since I knew street addresses for where my great-great grandparents were living at the time, mostly gleaned from city directories and the Census, I downloaded the specific maps for their neighborhoods.

A week ago I started doing some research on the neighborhood for the Newmark family.

(click any image on this page to enlarge it.)

The Newmarks immigrated in 1909, and in the 1910 and 1920 census Samuel and Rose Newmark, my great-great grandparents, were living on Wash Street, a block or two West of Carr Square Park. The blue writing on the image is where I have marked their 1910 and 1920 addresses. Wash Street is now Cole Street as can be seen on this map - courtesy of Google.

The park still exists. I've actually driven by several times. The United Way of Greater St. Louis is located at 11th Street and Cole. The quickest route to business meetings I've attended there takes me straight down Cole.

"In 1908, the Civic League of St. Louis conducted a study of a slum neighborhood. Known as Carr Square, one area contained as many as 1900 residents per acre. The average living space was 16.9 square feet per person. There was an average of one bathtub and four toilets for 2479 people. The average rent was $1 a week. Human waste and garbage accumulated in the few open spaces. And in these ill-ventilated, foul-smelling shacks and cellars were found saloons, bakeries, groceterias and laundries."

Souce: "Beyond the Orphanage", Peggy Thomsan Greenwood, 1991

The article above didn't provide the boundaries of the Carr Square neighborhood that was studied by the Civic League. I realized it may not have included the tenements my great great grandparents lived in, but since they lived near the park with the same name, I knew it was likely close.

I searched online through some local library catalogs looking for this report. I had no luck, and broadened my search, and struck paydirt - I found a report online - at Harvard, of all places.

Housing Conditions in St. Louis, Report of the Housing Committee of the Civic League of St. Louis, 1908

I downloaded it. In my glance through the 90 pages I am unable to find a reference to the Carr Square neighborhood, so I'm not positive it is the report referenced in the article on orphanages. It's possible Carr Square was mentioned in an associated report. However there are almost 90 pages on a section of St. Louis City that lay a couple blocks East of where Sam and Rose Newmark lived. The study says the area is representative, though of other sections of the city.

Here's the map of the area the study did cover:


7th and 14th Streets are the East/West borders. While Sam and Rose were outside the boundaries, within the boundaries is the corner of 8th Street and Biddle where my other great-great-grandparents, Selig and Annie Feinstein, lived between 1896 and 1906. (It's a little hard to read, but Biddle Street is the second street from the right on the map) My great-great grandparents Morris and Minnie Cruvant lived at 7th and Biddle in 1897. And the last set of my paternal great-great grandparents, Morris and Mollie Blatt, lived at 10th and Biddle in 1896. It's possible the conditions were different ten years prior to the study when the Blatts and Cruvants lived there. I doubt they were very different for the Feinsteins two years prior to the study.

The disturbing image of a shared wall between a privy and a bakery oven, which I posted on Wednesday, came from this report. There are other equally disturbing images, and descriptions. It's difficult to imagine living under these conditions, but it is clear half of my ancestors at least did so in the early 1900s.

As a historical note -- if you look at the Google Maps image above, you will notice the area west of 20th Street bordered today by Cass and MLK Jr. Drive, there is a lot of land unbroken by roads. In the 1950s the buildings there were torn down and an infamous housing project was built by the same architect who would later build the World Trade Center -- Pruitt-Igoe.

Note: Further reading of the report indicates the statistics in the report match up with those in the paragraph quoted from "Beyond the Orphanage" - therefore the "Carr Square" neighborhood references the entire neighborhood covered by the 1908 report.

Xmas in July

Last night I was helping my mother organize photos, and a previously undiscovered box was found in a storage room. This box contained about two dozen letters from my great grandfather Melvin Van Every to my grandmother, Myrtle Van Every, (in addition to another dozen I had found in another box and had begun to transcribe.)

It also contained a letter my great grandmother, Margaret (Denyer) Van Every wrote to my grandmother at some point in time before 1923 (I think it was written in 1919 or 1920.) Margaret consoles her daughter on a divorce. I already knew about a later marriage to a Dale Ridgely, but I now know my grandmother had at least three marriages. (The divorce papers from Dale Ridgely were also in the box providing the exact date of marriage - and an unexpected location - Oakland, California. hat marriage certificate will now be easy to obtain, though I now have another to search for.)

There was a sizable collection of telegrams and letters my grandfather sent my grandmother in the 1930s and 1940s.

I found high school and college transcripts for my grandmother.

There was also a handful of unused humorous holiday postcards. The references to the New Deal suggest they were either purchased or received by my grandmother in the early 1930s.

Wordless Wednesday

(click to enlarge)

Caption: "The back wall of this privy vault is the wall of the oven of the adjoining bakery."
Source: Housing Conditions in St. Louis: Report of the Housing Committee of the Civic League of St. Louis, The Civic League of St. Louis, 1908, p. 22.

Creative Non-Fiction

The FootnoteMaven writes an introduction to the genre of Creative Nonfiction, for those considering how to put their research into book form. I don't think I'm close to this, as I have only begun to research.

However, one of the links at the end of her post is to Creative Nonfiction (CNF), a literary journal for the genre that is approximately 15 years old. I remember reading the first three issues as textbooks in a college writing course back in 1995. I wasn't aware they were still around.

From the submission guidelines of the journal, one gets a good idea of how they define the genre:

What we're looking for:

• Strong reportage
• Well-written prose, rich with detail and a distinctive voice.
• An informational quality or instructive element that offers the reader something to learn (an idea, concept or collection of facts, strengthened with insight, reflection and interpretation.)
• A compelling, focused, sustained narrative that is well-structured, makes sense and conveys meaning.

Of course, bloggers write a lot of Creative Non Fiction, without perhaps knowing it. Whether the blogger is providing a narrative of what happened in their kitchen a couple hours previously, discussing recent political events, or writing about a tragic accident involving a great-uncle and a chiffonier. That entry, which I wrote last October, is probably the best example of Creative Nonfiction on my blog, though it is tragic, and borrows a lot from an audio transcript of my grandfather and one of his brothers.

However, any blog entry qualifies if it informs (provides tips on research, or information on ancestors), and does so via a narrative (This morning I drove to the library not knowing the treasure trove of information I would discover in the microfilm drawers...). Those who are scared by the novel-length form might prefer a series of essays on the life of each ancestor.

I would also like to expand the definition of the genre by eliminating one word from the guidelines CNF provies. Which word? "Prose." Poetry should be included in the genre. And not just poems that are written in a 'dramatic narrative' form, as if enough poems are grouped together, they can form a narrative. (Edgar Lee Masters, Spoon River Anthology would be a perfect example of Creative Non Fiction - if he hadn't fictionalized the town, and the residents.)

Those who are seeking an alternative Family History structure might find a series of poems more fitting to their writing strengths. Or they might find a poem is a great way to open each chapter in a prose work.

Jacksonville, Florida City Directories

The Jacksonville, Florida Public Library website has a nice set of local city directories. Most of the years between 1891 and 1925 are either scanned in and browsable, or 'under construction'. When a year is selected, thumbnails are loaded for every page, which can take a couple minutes, but then it is very easy to browse through the directory.

There were no Van Everys in the 1916-1920 directories, neither my great-uncle Samuel, nor his alleged wife (see previous entry). Of course, her letter in his FBI file only said they were married there, not that either of them lived there.

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