Like many of you, I was an Army brat. We brats know what it meant to move every year or so, following our fathers from base to base. We made friends quickly because we knew we’d be on the move again soon.

My family’s military history has a long reach: My father, grandfather, brother and uncle served in the Canadian Army while other relatives served in Highland Regiments in Scotland. My husband served in the U.S. Army, in two wars.

It used to take a lot of ingenious research to find our military ancestor’s records, but as with other records, it has become much simpler. We still have to work to find them, but at least now it can be done.

For research in the U.S., it helps if you know the regiment in which your ancestor served, or when he or she served. For starters, follow this online link, which will list all of the wars and when they took place: familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Ages_of_Servicemen_in_Wars.

This site lists wars in chronological order and by length, and includes the typical years of birth of the service members and their typical ages. This helps determine the war in which your ancestor fought. Click the highlighted blue name of the war in question, and the site provides even more information. Below the online chart are more links to U.S. military records.

World War II historian Eric Olson of Soulsbyville recommends an excellent book on U.S. Army records: “Finding Your Father’s War,” by Jonathan Gawne, helps you understand the myriad records involved in a typical search. Every chapter includes websites of the various WWII veterans’ record repositories, starting with the National Archives:  archives.gov/st-louis/military-personnel.

For the genealogist, the best chapter in Gawne’s book is “Finding Records: Next of Kin and the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).” He explains the forms needed to locate your ancestor’s army records, and discusses helpful information and documents you may already have. These include serial numbers, Military Occupational Specialty and Specification numbers, and other individual records such as dog tags, service records, Army mail, discharge records and death records.

Until the FOIA was passed, government agencies were under no obligation to help you find information. “Unless you are requesting material as the next of kin, you need to state that your request is being submitted under the FOIA,” Gawne advises.

Do you have memorabilia such as patches on your soldier’s uniform? In the chapter, “Introduction to Army Units,” Gawne describes and shows insignia worn by our soldiers.

Gawne’s book is available at your local library via interlibrary loan (free at the Tuolumne County and Amador County libraries; at the Calaveras County Library, $3.50), which draws from libraries statewide and beyond. Research book availability through the Sonora library’s online site, library.co.tuolumne.ca.us, or call the reference desk for help (533-5507).

A great first step in researching military records is to go to wiki.familysearch.org, enter your question in the search field – for example, “Tennessee Military” – and then click on search.

Did your ancestor serve in the Canadian Army? Check out this link: familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Canada_Military_Records.

Here you will find a comprehensive list of records for Canadian wars. For those searching during the years 1775-1789, your ancestor may have been a United Empire Loyalist. Loyalists were residents of the British North American Colonies who did not join the American Revolution between 1775 and 1783, instead remaining loyal to King George III. (In Canada they are honored, but in the U.S. they are not.)

In the strictest sense, these soldiers are defined are only those who served in a loyalist corps in the Thirteen Colonies. The American Loyalists who actually served the Crown must be distinguished from the more numerous “late Loyalists” who went to Canada from the United States, beginning in about 1790, for land or other economic opportunities.

Also, Cyndi’s List (free), at cyndislist.com/military-worldwide, covers most military records.

While Ancestry.com is a paid site, you can use it free at the Sonora Family History Center, 19481 Hillsdale Drive, and at Amador County Library’s main branch, 530 Sutter Street, Jackson.

Until next time, good luck with your research!

© 2012 Friends and Neighbors Magazine

For privacy reasons, later censuses are not yet released. The 1950 census is expected to be made public in 2022.

The 1940 Census is the first census made broadly available to the public online and free of charge. Previous censuses are available free online, but must be accessed at a Family History Center – more on those shortly – using Ancestry.com.

The first state to be indexed was Delaware. I was told that 3,000 volunteers were ready to index it within 24 hours of its release. So far, volunteers have indexed more than 34 million records.

Until the state you are searching is indexed, you will have to search through the census, street by street, frame by frame, to find your family – unless you know the enumeration district they lived in, which will narrow down your search considerably. Once the entire census is indexed, you will be able to scroll to your family name, click on it, and go to the page where your family is recorded.

The following link is important, not only to lead you to the 1940 Census Indexing Project and how to become a volunteer, but also to view a new and improved page that will launch you into the ever-expanding Family Search database: familysearch.org. This database, which belongs to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is free to all viewers.

Now, let’s go on an ancestor-hunting safari! I will take you step-by-step to using the Family Search database. The home page at familysearch.org automatically opens to the Records section. Here you can do a general search for an ancestor’s name by simply entering it, which will bring up every single record of that name throughout the world.

Or you can narrow the search by clicking on Search by Life Events or Search by Relationships (spouse or parents), or by a Batch Number you may have from previous searches. Then enter your information in the appropriate fields. This is a general search that will sift through 1,136 collections – more than 2.5 billion records. Be patient, it may take a moment or two.

If you know the exact region you want to search, scroll down and choose it from a list under Browse by Location while still on the home page.

Let’s choose Mexico. After clicking on it, a screen will appear with 48 Mexican data collections from which to choose. At the right you will see two columns. One is Records and the other is Last Updated. Under Records you will see how many records are in the collections.

Let’s look at the first collection – Mexico Census, 1930. (The 1930 census is the only federal census available for public review, but some parts are missing. Familysearch.org has what is available.) There are 3,129,551 records in that collection, and it was updated on May 12, 2011.

When you click on the collection name, it will take you to a screen where you can enter the name of your ancestor. A list of records for persons with that name then appears. Scroll through the list and choose the record you want to see. On the left of the screen, you are invited to search by birthplace to narrow your search. Also note the little camera icon to the left of the collection title. That tells us that you will be able to see the actual image in the census.

If you have viewed the Mexican collection before and just want recent additions, click on the heading Last Updated. At this time, a collection for Mexico, Baptisms, 1560-1950 with 44,105,755 records was updated on March 14 – that’s right! Forty-four million records are there for you to search absolutely free.

If you need help with these searches, come to any of the local Family History centers – branches of the Family History Library, the massive records repository of the LDS Church in Salt Lake City, Utah. The centers’ volunteers will be happy to help you use this great genealogy resource.

A caution: Remember that familysearch.org is for “name” searches, while wiki.familysearch.org is for information about “place” searches.

Until next time, good luck with your research.

Email genealogical expert Isabelle Drown at roots@seniorfan.com.

 © 2012 Friends and Neighbors

Isabelle Drown

The Tuolumne County Veterans Military Museum in Sonora is a great place to visit if your parents or grandparents served in the military. You won’t find genealogical records, but the museum’s treasures will help you understand their service experiences a bit better.

Curator Steve Wilson and volunteer Eric Olson treated me to a wonderful tour. They showed me men’s and women’s uniforms, weapons, photo albums, letters and more. Most of the items range from World War I to the Korean War, but I did see a picture album from the Civil War (under glass).

Particularly interesting were Korean War photos of veterans I know, including Glenn Morris,  along with three generations of the Marquez family in uniform (each  named Ernie) spanning the Korean, Vietnam and Gulf wars.

Olson is a World War II history buff and knows his stuff, which I learned the hard way. In a talk I gave, I said the Army had African-American combat soldiers in Belgium in 1943. He corrected me, saying that blacks served as truck drivers only, and in 1944.

Wilson set up all of the museum’s artifacts, and his knowledge of weapons and of WWII German history is extensive. Other volunteers include Jim Rucker, a WWII medical corpsman; Jerry David, a firearms expert; Bill Wilson, who served with the Canadian forces; and Dan O’Brien, a WWII vet and later mayor of Stockton. George Sanderson (the only former officer), Mario Salas and Ralph Lopez also share their knowledge.

The museum, at 9 North Washington St., is open 10am-2pm weekdays, 11am-3pm Saturdays; 533-0923. Wilson knows of other military collections held by private citizens locally and can refer researchers to them.

I always am amazed at the thousands of hours volunteers put into preserving local history – among them, Lynne Jerome, editor of Tuolumne City Memorial Museum’s newsletter. The Tuolumne museum has Summerville High yearbooks from 1913 to 1990, and class graduation photos from 1913 to 1960.

The museum regularly features pioneer families’ records and photos. Among those profiled: the Dahl, Baker, Duckwall, Ingalls, Johnson, Feriani, Malgesini, Ronten, Nelson, and Sullivan families. While on the ancestry trail, visit and take advantage of the museum’s research.

The museum has more than a half-century of no longer-published Tuolumne Prospector on microfiche (January 1901-August 1967). The paper’s value is in the everyday events recorded: engagements, baby showers, obituaries – the small-town news that people enjoyed reading and that genealogists are now seeking. The museum has random copies of the New Era from 1900-1918. What a find for genealogists, especially for those years when public records were not always kept.

Also at the museum: The single-page telephone directory from 1950, when old-style crank phones and party lines, on which your neighbor could listen in, were the rule. But things changed fast: By the late 1950s, with a loan from the Rural Electrification Administration, the Tuolumne Telephone Co. had installed the nation’s first direct-dial long distance system.

Visit the museum at 18663 Carter St., 1-4pm Saturday and Sunday; 928-3516. Visit online (tuolumnecity.wordpress.com) to see the museum’s collections, which include family bibles that came around the Horn or by covered wagon to California.

Hopefully, this will help you find your elusive ancestor. Until, next time – good luck with your research.

Sonora resident Isabelle Drown is a genealogical expert who recently completed a year-long sabbatical in Salt Lake City, Utah.

© 2012 Friends and Neighbors Magazine

The Hunter's Dream

Returning from my 18-month Family History mission in Utah, I walked into the Carlo M. DeFerrari Archive in Sonora wondering, “What’s new?”  Directly in front of me was a huge painting called “The Hunter’s Dream.” To my left were several more paintings and artifacts, and to my right sat County Historian Carlo De Ferrari and archivist Charlie Dyer.

I knew I was about to hear a good story, and I wasn’t disappointed.

The artist who painted “The Hunter’s Dream” was Benjamin Willard Sears (1846-1906), son of William and Jane Sears. Ben was born in Connecticut in 1846, joining his father in 1862 in gold mines near Sonora. He came via Panama, which must have been a story in itself! Ben moved to San Francisco where he learned the “Black Art” – photography – but soon was intrigued by oil painting. Unable to afford proper canvases, he painted on anything he could find – pie tins, wood, saws, plaster walls, canvas from old buggies … even rocks.

Ben was one of Sonora’s early and very prolific painters, the proverbial starving artist trying to support his family. In archived journals you will find fond references to the curtain in Turn Verein Hall (at the site of today’s Courthouse Square in downtown Sonora), which was an oasis of culture in the mid-1850s. On the stage curtain, Sears painted a scene of a campfire with smoke lazily rising through pine trees, which fascinated our early residents as they waited for plays to start.

But back to “The Hunter’s Dream.” It was painted on buggy canvas, and the clock hanging on a tent in the scene points to 11 o’clock. “What is the significance of 11 o’clock?” I asked. Carlo told me it’s customary for Elks Lodge members to raise their glasses at 11pm to toast deceased members.

In this 36-by-55-inch painting, a small deer hangs in front of another tent while a huge elk – their dream elk – dominates the camp scene. This is a must-see. Did the Elks Lodge commission Sears to paint this? I didn’t get a definitive answer.

When Sonora’s City Hotel was taken down, a great effort was made to save the mural Sears painted on the wall, but it was impossible to keep the plaster wall in one piece.

Back to the archives: The paintings to my left are El Capitan, Upper Yosemite Falls and High Sierra Lake, also painted by Ben Sears. Until now, these have never been on public display: Give yourself a treat by taking a peek at them.

I want to point out that the painting called “High Sierra Lake” was damaged beyond repair – at least, that is what owners Carlo and Harriet De Ferrari thought. They had loaned it out for a public event and when returned, it was torn in four places with a piece missing from the center. Charlie showed me pictures of the damage, complete with attempted scotch-tape repairs. What a mess!

To the rescue: Dennis Garcia of Gemini Restorations. Just as we had great artists in the past, we have great artisans in the present. This craftsman took the painting to his Sonora shop and performed magic. If I hadn’t seen the “before” pictures and the finished product, I would not have believed it. Thank you, Dennis, for restoring a beautiful painting to us.

Ben Sears became good friends with William Hartvig, who was Harriet Hartvig De Ferrari’s uncle (Harriet is Carlo’s late wife).

Because of that friendship, we now have several of Sears’ paintings – referred to as the De Ferrari/Hartvig collection – in the De Ferrari Archive. The archive is behind the Tuolumne County Library, 480 Greenley Road. Hours are weekdays by appointment; call 536-1163.

One painting by William Hartvig, which Dyer calls “Golden Trees along the River,” is particularly intriguing. Born in 1846 in Louisiana, Hartvig married Louise Keefe. In Sonora, he was a Justice of the Peace and a city councilman, but he earned his living painting houses. The business shingle that hung in front of his shop is now on display in the archive.

Hartvig and Sears were often found painting on the rocks in Yosemite – that is, until the Army, then in charge of keeping order for the Park Service, caught them and made them scrub the rocks clean. (Does it hurt you as much as it hurts me to know how much we lost because of that order?)

Sharon Marovich gave us further insight into Sears not just as a painter, but as a poet, in a 1976 article in CHISPA, the county historical society’s quarterly publication. Sears’ poem reflecting his and our love for Tuolumne ends with these lines:

There is something nearer, dearer,
Than her mines of precious gold,
Something that we cannot tell you
And that never will be told.

It’s good to be home again! Until next time, good luck with your research.

Isabelle Drown

Included in the De Ferrari/Hartvig collection is a small, beautifully presented painting of what some believe to be Bret Harte’s cabin by Otheto Weston (1895-1990), a well-known Columbia artist and writer. The archive holds her “Portfolio of Sketches,” including those of historic buildings throughout the foothills. She was born in 1895 to Evelyn McCormick, a very well-known artist whose works now hang in the Monterey City Hall and other public offices.

A HISTORY MYSTERY: Who was Effie?

During one of her entertaining performances, Linda (Hardluck Lin) Clark was entrusted with an old diary for further research. She asked me for help finding its back-story. The diary covers the early history of James B. Sanford and the love he left behind when he came out West. Her name was Effie. He did marry someone else here in the West, but it is evident he always held a place in his heart for Effie. (Oh, I do love a good love story!).

Sanford worked in these places: Wisconsin Bar (there were two, one in El Dorado County and one in Amador) where he joined his cousins; Hangtown (Placerville), Wise Bar, Jimtown (Jamestown) and Strawberry Ease. Other names mentioned are Heriford, McColley, John and Jim Dallery, Ida Shirley, Sarrah Vamp and Emma Parker. Dates range from late 1854 through 1884. If anyone can help solve this mystery, contact Linda at hardlucklin.com.

© 2011 Friends and Neighbors

The United Kingdom of Great Britain includes four countries: England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Note: Northern Ireland is in the northeastern part of Ireland, while the rest of what was known as Ireland before 1922 is called the Republic of Ireland; it comprises five-sixths of the Island and is known in Gaelic as Éire.

FamilySearch.org has just published two new collections, which include images of various records. One is the England, Norfolk Bishop’s Transcripts, 1685-1941. This collection includes 210,055 images of births, marriages and deaths. Find it at familysearch.org/search/collection/show#uri=http://hr-search-api:8080/searchapi/search/collection/1823613. Follow the hyperlinks to choose between the records of the Archdeaconry of Norfolk and the Archdeaconry of Norwich.

A little background might be helpful in understanding the various church records for England. Simply put, a Chapelry is usually a smaller and rural church attached to the Parish Church. The minister there and in the Parish church kept the birth, marriage and death records. Once a year, since the 1600s, these records were copied and given to the Bishop (thus Bishops Transcripts or BTs) who then made a copy and gave them to the Archbishop (thus the Archbishops Transcripts – ATs).

You can see that the process lends itself to error, and yet amazingly, there are so few errors! But it is a wise researcher who searches both sets of records as quite often, the Bishop would include information not in the Parish Registers, or failed to include all of the information in the Parish Registers.

To make using the various jurisdiction records a wee bit easier, there is a site called “England 1851 Jurisdictions,” found at maps.familysearch.org. This is a great English research aid! Just enter the county in the search field. An information bubble will appear, asking if you want to see a list of all parishes or contiguous counties (for those who have to search surrounding parishes).

If you choose the parishes’ hyperlink, up comes another information bubble. Now here’s the really neat thing – off to the left you’ll find a tab named “layers.” Click on it to see various designations such as Division, Province, Hundred, Poor Law Union, etc. These represent various records where your Norfolk ancestor might be hiding.

With the name of the record, you can now go to the list of collections at FamilySearch.org to see if the collection you need has been published. Web address: familysearch.org/search/collection/list#page=1&region=EUROPE.

Or, you can go to the classic site (familysearch.org) and use the Library catalog to find the film of the records you want: familysearch.org/eng/.

One search field that should not be overlooked is the Poor Law Union record. One statistic given is that 20 percent of England’s populace was at one time or the other in a workhouse. Newly published: the England Norfolk Poor Law Union Records, 1796-1900, with more than 38,000 images. Find it at familysearch.org/search/collection/show#uri=http://hr-search-api:8080/searchapi/search/collection/1824706.

Several excellent websites carry information about the English workhouses. Peter Higginbotham has done an exemplary job at workhouses.org.uk/. Another good site is freebmd.org.uk (free is always good!). This site allows you to search the English civil registration index and is an ongoing project, which includes FreeCEN (census data) and FreeREG (Parish Registers).

I find it a constant source of amazement that so many records were kept correctly and survived, in spite of being transcribed so often. Gone are the days when it was necessary to travel to Salt Lake City to use the Family History Catalog or make a trip to England to search the original records.

Until next time, good luck with your research!

Sonora resident Isabelle Drown is a genealogical expert who recently completed a sabbatical in Salt Lake City, Utah. Contact her at roots@seniorfan.com.

© 2011 Friends and Neighbors

Isabelle MacLean Drown

Genealogy miracles small and large have been experienced by most family history researchers … and recently, I watched one unfold.

Have you ever bumped into a good friend while in a distant city – what a thrill to see them – someone from home!  And if that doesn’t happen, the next best thing is to be in the Family History Library in Salt Lake City and take a book off the shelf to find it was written by a good friend from back home in Sonora. Her name is Kristine Childres and “Tuolumne County, California marriages 1850-1900” is her book, full of lists of marriage details of brides and grooms.

I was standing there between the stacks of books, marveling at this labor of love, when a lady, frustrated and annoyed, pushed past me… her look was enough to make me try to excuse myself for breathing.

I held out Kristine’s book, muttering “… a friend – marriages – Tuolumne…” and that was all I managed to get out before the lady – her countenance changed from annoyance to hope – took my book!  As I watched her retreating back, I thought, “Well, she could have at least said, “May I?”  But I decided the better part of valor was to reach for another book and forget it.

Minutes later, she walked toward me again. This time I gripped my book tightly. Even though her face had been transformed into a wreath of smiles, she wasn’t going to get this one!

“I found them!  After all these years!” she said, almost reverently. Yes, the impatient, frustrated lady (and which genealogist hasn’t been there?) had found a long-sought-for marriage record for her ancestor.

Coincidence?  That I was standing there, holding the exact book that held the answer to her research?  I don’t think so!

How many such gifts, similar to that, have our local historians given us? Their efforts are often taken for granted. Most simply donate their books to a history or genealogy society without even looking for recompense.

This is my salute to local historians such as Kristine Childres, well-known in Sonora for the many volunteer hours she devotes to preserving local history.

Darlene Mills wrote “C.H. Burden Undertaking Company burial records, 1890-1953.”  Darlene alphabetized burials, giving the name of the deceased’s age, death and burial dates, and the cemetery where the deceased was buried.

J. Carlyle Parker wrote “Memorial and biographical history of the counties of Merced, Stanislaus, Calaveras, Tuolumne and Mariposa, California.” He created a personal name index from memorial and biographical histories.

Viola McRae, Mary Ann Devalle, Shirley Drake, authors of “Index: The Saga of Old Tuolumne, by Edna Bryan Buckbee, New York, 1935.” McRae and Devalle transcribed this index from “The Saga of Old Tuolumne.” Shirley Drake then produced this index.  

Thomas Robertson Stoddart wrote, “Annals of Tuolumne County” with an introduction, critical notes, and index by Carlo M. De Ferrari.  The notes are so well-documented by Carlo, the county historian, that I am tempted to suggest that anyone wanting to begin research in Tuolumne County should study this valuable book first.

Mary Grace Paquette authored “Then Came the French: The History of the French in Tuolumne County, California.” It contains a history of the French Argonauts who arrived in Tuolumne County during and after the Gold Rush, and tells of their contribution to the county’s development. It also includes biographical material on many of the county’s early French settlers.

Calaveras County also has several historians who have preserved its history. In the Family History Library catalog you will notice that Calaveras County has 13 categories, with multiple books and films.  I noticed how many excellent lists were contributed by the county clerk – which really means a small army of unsung volunteers worked together to make it happen.

Edith Gunn Jensen and Bernice Murphy Olsen compiled a tome entitled “California Motherlode Records” with Calaveras births from 1856-1915. The Calaveras Genealogical Society has great offerings of research gems in, “The Froghorn” (I love that title!).  The FHL has editions from Spring 2006 to Fall 2010.

Richard Coke Wood presents otherwise forgotten lists such as honor roll lists of students in 1871 in his “Calaveras: The Land of Skulls.” It is so well documented – a researcher’s dream. Edna Bryan Buckbee (1876-1956) is a daughter of Southern Mines pioneers and presented a treasure of illustrations in “Calaveras County: Gold Rush Stories.”

This does not even touch the number of local historians who selflessly donate time, effort and always the cost of carrying out their projects. Just look around when you go to a Tuolumne or Calaveras genealogy society meeting, or as you visit the local archives, museums, historical societies or LDS Family History Center. There you will see just some of the people quietly working to preserve our precious history. Give them a pat on the back for their efforts.

Until next time, good luck with your research.

Sonora resident Isabelle Drown is a geneaological expert currently completing a one-year sabbatical in Salt Lake City, Utah.

© 2011 Friends and Neighbors

Isabelle MacLean Drown

For instance, those of you who have Revolutionary War ancestors, check out this new collection: “United States Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land Warrant Application Files,” available free at this site. There are about 80,000 land warrant applications in this collection and your veteran ancestor’s file could consist of anywhere from one to 200 pages.

Search tips: On the home page, either enter your ancestor’s name in the search fields or click on “All Records Collection.” Browse down the list or enter the country you want in the search box. When you find it, if it has a little camera icon at the left of the collection name, that means that you can browse through the original records.

To refine your search, click on “advanced search” and enter the ancestor’s name, his parents’ name, or a date or other details you may have. Then look at the list of records that will contain the name you entered, either as a parent or child; click on the “view image” button, which will take you to the original record.

The value of these records lies in the contents, which include the veteran’s name, age, residence, date and place of birth, spouse or widow with marriage and children’s information. If a widow was applying for compensation, she was listed by name, along with all children under age 16, with birth dates, who were fathered by the veteran. It is good stuff! Finding a whole family listed together – in the early 1800s – what a gift.

For those who are having difficulty pinpointing your ancestor who lived in the San Francisco area, check out this free collection on the same site: “San Francisco California Area Funeral Home Records, 1835-1931,” consisting of 61,186 images. This collection has various records that were maintained by several San Francisco funeral homes. The records have been indexed alphabetically by surname and record type. It has been found that the earlier indexes are more complete, and some indexes are for persons with given names only, and Chinese and Japanese burials.

As beta is still in the building stage, there will be hiccups for a while as engineers perfect the site, but the experience for most people viewing it is a successful one. When you have gone through the list of collections and chosen one to research, take time to click on the “Learn More” button and read about the history of the collection – it will give you some needed insights to using it and what to expect from it.

No matter who we are and how wonderful our family is, we will find illegitimacy in our lines. If you can’t handle the thought, don’t go any further with your genealogy, as I guarantee you will run into this stumbling block otherwise known as a brick wall.  For many researchers, that line grinds to a halt. But let’s not give up. As the Church Parish or State would end up being responsible for the upkeep of the child, they often went to great legal lengths to find the name of the father and to force him to pay for the child’s upkeep.  And some really scary stories come with this fact.

For instance: In England, if a woman was found to be “with child” and no husband, various means were employed to make her give up the name of the child’s father. When all else failed to extract that name, the midwives were instructed to wait until she was at the height of her labor, and most likely to be the angriest with the father, to ask his name.  (That was dirty pool!)

So, make sure you take a good look at familysearch.org and its Family History Library Catalog for Church and Court records for the country you are researching, to discover how the child was supported. Also, if in a census you see a couple past the years of childbearing with an 8-month-old child listed as a son or daughter, take a good look at the older children on the census. Most likely you will find the mother there, listed as a sibling to her child.

Some of the references made to illegitimacy will be as follows: by-blow, baseborn child, wood’s colt … that has inference to when a horse was let out to run in the woods and came back – with a colt.

Besides the FamilySearch Beta site, you will find many excellent collections on the Web now. Just Google your area and the type of record you are seeking. What would we do without Google?

Until next time, good luck with your research!

Sonora resident Isabelle Drown  is a genealogical expert currently on a one-year sabbatical in Salt Lake City, Utah.

© 2010 Friends and Neighbors

Isabelle MacLean Drown

“If you don’t stop wasting, you’ll land me in the poorhouse!” was a phrase that many of us who were Depression babies grew up hearing.

Poorhouses have been with us for hundreds of years – and many people have been forced to go there as a result of economic failures. They existed in almost every country, and went by other names such as almshouse, workhouse, poor-farm, city home or industrial home.

If one of your ancestors or an entire family missed a census, it very well could be they were regrouping in a poorhouse. Not a happy situation for them, but for today’s researchers, trying hard to break through those genealogy brick walls – well, these poorhouse records could be the loose brick for which they’re looking. You see, because the governments of most countries sent tax money to the poor, they wanted to know how their money was being used; therefore, the names of each and every person entering these institutions were recorded. Now, we just have to find those records.

As I researched this column, I learned that a couple hundred years ago, there was no great shame attached to “going to the poorhouse,” as I had been led to believe. In past ages, a town’s wealthy citizens were expected to help the poor, or paupers, as they were called, and considered it a privilege to exercise charity – that is, until they themselves fell on hard times, mostly due to calamities like the bubonic plague.

After that, the paupers were required to work for their keep, resulting in becoming indentured to the “master.” And with that came the pauper auctions – yes, a white slave trade. This was carried out in all countries where governments had established poorhouses, including America and Canada, and as late as the 1870s.

Linda M. Crannel, known as “The Poorhouse Lady,” has done a remarkable job of gathering these records for American poorhouses.  Lucky for us, she has created a website with the genealogist in mind. Go to www.poorhousestory.com and search by state for the records. Make sure you read her “Letter to Genealogists” and other items she has posted.

In Scotland, before 1845, heritors, who were the landowners of the parish, were expected to pay for the upkeep of the church, minister and schools. They were also responsible for caring for the poor. It seems that at one time or other, most inhabitants needed help, and the heritor kept a record of their names. These records are kept at the National Archives of Scotland. You can also go to www.familysearch.org and in the Family History Library Catalog, search under Scotland, [County], [Parish] – Poorhouses, Poor Law, etc. The microfilms can be obtained and viewed at the Family History Center in Sonora (536-9206).This same procedure can be used for searching for the poorhouse records of any country – they all had to take care of their poor.

What about that ancestor whom you know was on that ship but he just disappeared? If he landed “without a penny to his name” he was sent to a poorhouse – most times in the very port where he arrived. Start by checking the “Poor” records for that port.

Don’t forget to Google your city or state or province or country, and add “poorhouse” for a surprise at the records revealed. A sampling:  www.institutions.org.uk/workhouses/ireland/ireland_workhouses.htm,

or www.jstor.org/pss/2990410 for the Genealogy of a German Workhouse.

The first time I saw a record of one of my ancestors dying in a poorhouse in Scotland, I was sent into a “Why didn’t the family take care of her?” tirade – that is, until I began to study the economy for that area and time, and saw that she probably was kept from dying on the streets, as it was a time of real poverty for everyone. And then again, she may have been so cantankerous that no one wanted her to live with them – who knows.

Until next time, good luck with your research!

Isabelle Drown of Sonora is an author and genealogical expert currently on a one-year history mission in Salt Lake City, Utah. Email her at roots@seniorfan.com.

­­ Copyright © 2010, Friends and Neighbors Magazine

Isabelle MacLean Drown

Thanks to the generosity of our Tuolumne County Archivist, Charlie Dyer, I am holding in my hands a real treasure – more valuable than gold! I realize that saying such a thing in the Mother Lode is like swearing in church, but it’s true. Charlie gave me Otis Rosasco’s new book, “Early Day Tuolumne County Cattlemen: 140 Years of Rosasco Ranching.”

I have looked at many family histories, and this one is right up there with the best. There’s no wasted space – even the inside of both covers are filled with cattle brands and marks filed in Tuolumne County. He has listed the owners alphabetically with their brands, the ear marks and the date they were filed. And that’s just the beginning. This man is leaving a wonderful legacy for his family, complete with pictures of six generations of Rosascos, and for the community. He gives the history of many Tuolumne landmarks, and the added personal touch makes it that much more interesting. It’s available from the Tuolumne County Historical Society (209/532-1317), $30 for non-members, $25 for members.

Turning to genealogical research, one of the queries I hear most often goes like this: “I can trace my family back in the censuses to the 1800s but they only say that they were born in Ireland – not where in Ireland! How do I find out?” Well, those Irish ancestors are giving their family genealogists a heck of time, but we’ll find them. New databases are being released onto the Internet daily. I hope that the following sites will give readers some new hope and direction.

www.proni.gov.uk, Public Records Office of Northern Ireland
The Ulster Covenant archive and Freeholders records held by PRONI have been digitized and indexed and are available on this website. These online archives are fully searchable and have links to digitized images of the original documents. Their project to index and digitize 1858-1900 wills will be a welcome help.

www.newenglandancestors.org/database, New England Historical and Genealogical Society
As Irishmen arrived in America, they lost track of one another and began advertising in the Boston Pilot newspaper to find their missing relatives or friends. The Pilot printed some 45,000 “Missing Friends” advertisements from 1920-1931. Now you can access this list, valuable because a full description of the “seeker and/or the sought” is recorded with birthplace and other information about this “mobile, impoverished, immigrant population.”

http://wiki.familysearch.org, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
This site is a great help researching any country. But back to Ireland: At this site, along with other important research aids, is an informative document on Irish names. It’s important that you understand that nicknames were the custom. You could be diligently looking for a Delia, not knowing that the name given her at birth was Bridget (who would have figured that Delia was a nickname for Bridget?). Phidelia, Bidelia, Biddie and Bride were also nicknames for Bridget. And how they get Polly out of Mary Ann is beyond me. Also, in Ireland, the prefix “Mac” means “the son of” and “O” means “the grandson of.”

www.genuki.org.uk/big/
This free site is a must for those researching the United Kingdom and Ireland … many excellent sources! Just click on the area you are interested in and start absorbing the information.

www.angelfire.com/de/BobSanders/81Intro.html
Out of the kindness of their hearts, many people have compiled Internet databases for the benefit of others. This one was created by Bob Sanders, a researcher from Wales who extracted the names of all the men aboard ships in the United Kingdom from the 1881 Census. Who knows: maybe Great Grandpa was aboard one of those ships and didn’t really run off and leave his family.

Until next time, good luck with your research!

Isabelle MacLean Drown of Sonora is an author and genealogical expert currently on a one-year family history mission in Salt Lake City, Utah for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Email her at roots@seniorfan.com.

Isabelle MacLean Drown

Your ancestry is Native American and you want to find your ancestral records. Your parents and grandparents have told you stories, but you wonder where to go from there. Perhaps the following will be of help to you and Myrtle Franks of Sonora.

“I don’t have much information, but I wonder if you can help me,” Myrtle asks. “I thought my mother said her mother was Cherokee, but my brother thinks she said Chickasaw. I know that my grandfather was German and his name was Roth or Ruth and my grandmother’s name was Myrtle Lulu, but I don’t know her maiden name.”

I am not as familiar with Native American research as I would like to be and was mentally thrashing around, trying to figure out what I could do to help Myrtle. As fortune would have it, while at the Family History Center (FHC), Alexis Halstead of Sonora came in with a book borrowed from the Tuolumne County Library. I couldn’t believe my eyes! Its title is “Tracing Ancestors Among the Five Civilized Tribes,” by Rachal Mills Lennon, who traced 19 branches of her family tree through five North American Indian tribes.

I flipped through and found a treasure trove of record sources – the exact record references for which so many of you are searching.  As I clutched the book, wondering how to hijack it from this nice lady, she offered to let me read it for a couple of days. Good decision, Alexis!

Lennon does a masterful job of taking us through research, step by step.  She addresses various situations such as being faced with finding a full-blood Indian and a Caucasian or a full-blood Indian and a Black marrying; or identification by Clan or by Tribe. She explains some of the taboos that might make research more challenging, such as, “…a genealogical significance existed among the Choctaw, for whom it was taboo to speak the name of the dead or for wives to speak the names of their husbands.” In my mind, that would definitely put a damper on oral history.

She explains the differences between various Indian Affairs departments of the U.S. government, such as Agencies, Factories and Superintendencies; Factories and Traders; Removals and Reserves and Post-removal records. But it was the “Final Rolls” on page 64 that caught my attention. Here you will find record sources pertaining to “Citizens by Blood; Citizens by Marriage; New Born Citizens by Blood; Freedmen (African Americans whom the Indians had held in slavery but later freed and admitted to tribal membership); New Born Freedmen; Minor Freedmen; Delaware Indians Adopted by the Cherokee,” etc.

When Indians applied for land and were qualified or disqualified, this information was recorded: “Name, roll number; Age, sex, degree of Indian blood; Relationship to head of the family group; Names of parents; References to enrollment of earlier rolls; Miscellaneous notes regarding a) births, deaths, and marriages; and b) actions and decisions by the commission and the Interior Department.”

While it was a big pain for your Native American ancestors to provide all this information, it is a genealogical treasure for you. Again, thank you to Lennon for her excellent efforts and to Diane Manley, FHC director, who has agreed to buy a copy for public use at the center, 19481 Hillsdale Drive. The book is also available on Amazon.com or by special order from bookstores.

I hope this helps you, Myrtle. Please contact me if you need further help.

Until next time, good luck with your research.

Email Isabelle at roots@seniorfan.com or write to her at FAN, 171 N. Washington St., Suite A, Sonora, CA 95370.