One Rhode Island Family

NERGC is held every two years in various locations around New England. This time the location was Manchester, New Hampshire.

Thursday
I arrived early Thursday morning to have breakfast with some Facebook friends. That was really nice and I met a woman from Concord Mass and someone from Nova Scotia, as well as Facebook friend Jennifer Zinck. They had some French Canadian roots. I don’t have that but I do have lots of Nova Scotia connections.

Reg Desk at NERGC

NERGC relies on volunteer help so I did my bit at the reg desk for a while on Thursday.  Then I attended a session sponsored by the Massachusetts Genealogical Council, “Access to Records for Genealogists: An Open Forum”.  Recent confusion about SSDI (Social Security Death Index) access was presented as an improv skit, and panelists answered many questions after that.  The point was stressed that methods of identity theft are constantly shifting and changing, and in fact the biggest danger recently has been theft through details copied illegally from medical records.  Branches of the federal government should be responsible to check the SSDI (and not be fooled) and ultimately, identity theft of living people is far more common and damaging.   Massachusetts remains one of only a few completely open vital-records states, and this group works to keep things that way.  From time to time, supportive genealogists may be called upon to contact their legislators on certain issues. After the session, I asked some questions I had about access to family medical records, and it was the most helpful discussion I’ve had on the subject, and I was given a contact in Rhode Island which I will follow up.

The exhibits opened at 6 p.m., and I enjoyed some special pricing on used books.  I found several books I have wanted for a while, plus two old books on Fitchburg, Massachusetts I’ve never seen before.

Maia’s Books in the exhibit area

Friday

On Friday morning I attended a session by Craig R Scott on “Researching Your French and Indian War Ancestors in New England”.  Craig is an entertaining speaker.  I don’t know of any ancestors of mine who participated in that war, but I now have a better idea of the chronology and geography of this complicated war, as well as an overview of the literature available.  I have heard Craig speak before, and he likes to help the audience understand the issues behind the conflicts, for instance, in this case, by showing us contemporaneous maps of eastern North America, one by the French, one by the colonial British settlers.  It was pretty obvious from the maps that the two sides had very different views of the territory. The books I plan to find next time I’m in a genealogy library are the set “In Search of the “Forlorn Hope”: a Comprehensive Guide to Locating British Regiments and Their Records (1640-WWI)” by John M. Kitzmiller II.  Apparently the book contains some FHL microfilm numbers to help you find the original records you need. I will also look at the compiled red Massachusetts Officers and Soldiers books.

The busy registration area

I was able to have lunch with fellow Rhode Islander Barbara, and Jennifer Zinck.  Jennifer was generous enough to answer a lot of questions I had about DNA testing.  One piece of advice, which I hadn’t really considered before, was to use testing on the earliest DNA possible, for instance, my mom and dad. If I ever get started on that, I now have some specific recommendations to explore.  Thanks, Jennifer!

Next, Jolene Mullen presented “Town Meeting Records of Connecticut and Rhode Island during the American Revolution”.  Jolene has made a study of these local records for the period of the Revolutionary War and had a lot of insight to offer on how to find the records and what information they may reveal.  It was a reminder of the wealth of information held in early town records, which I have heard before, and I think any difficult problem from these early New England towns could benefit from a reading of several years of town council records.

“Digging Up the Dirt on Your Farmer” by Lori Thornton came next, in which she reviewed a wide range of record sources for agricultural settings.  One resource that Lori mentioned, available in some libraries, is the Evans Early American Imprints.  Other sources mentioned included special census schedules, tax lists, patents, and sources for newspapers, particularly newspapers aimed at the farming community like “The Farmer’s Wife”.

Meanwhile, back in the exhibits, I purchased the first 11 volumes of the periodical “The Mayflower Descendant” for $11.  I visited the findmy past.com booth where I was able to search for records (in my case, from Surrey, England) on the laptop they had set up.  I also got a coupon for 40 credits which I can use at home to do some further searching, and decide about subscribing.

I loved this booth in the exhibits:

The Gravestone Girls make casts of actual gravestone art. Each piece comes with the details of the actual marker.

I think there would be many uses for these pieces, which were beautiful.

The day ended with dinner with two genealogists followed by a bloggers’ Special Interest Group meeting.  Many bloggers attended – some of whom I met for the first time.  Heather Rojo was very involved in planning the event, assisted by several long-time bloggers including Midge Frazel.  Some people new to blogging also showed up, with questions.  It was a very interesting session.

Marian Pierre-Louis and Heather Rojo before the blogging event

Saturday

On Saturday I was interested in the session “Immigration Records at the National Archives” presented by Jean Nudd. This was an area I am not very familiar with and since there are few records for Canadian immigration, I really only have one person I will be hunting for. I took many notes about resources to pursue.

Queries board in the Registration area

I checked the Queries board one more time before leaving.  I would like to have attended the Saturday lunch, sponsored by the New England Chapter of the Association for Professional Genealogists which features tables on focused genealogical topics, for discussion, but I hadn’t been aware of it in advance, and didn’t purchase a ticket.

I think some of my discussions in between sessions and events were just as enlightening as the events themselves.  It was great to meet so many genealogists for the first time, and to catch up many genealogists I already know.

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Today was my last day at the conference, although a few festivities will keep going until brunch on Sunday. I attended only one session.

J. Mark Lowe presented “Finding Your Civil War Ancestors.” I was surprised when he began with census records. If you believe your ancestor served in the war, he detailed strategies for compiling a record of the service.  He pointed out that there are a lot of incorrect or incomplete reports out there.   Next he looked through Civil War Soldiers and Sailors. Then he looked at pension records. Ancestry.com and Fold3.com contain similar but not identical index card sets for this.  Ancestry.com has some NARA lists of hospital deaths, prisoners of war, etc. He went quickly through many helpful resources. Like many presenters he recommended NUCMC or WorldCat for locating obscure documentation, and also a Civil War collection at LSU. I found his style to be very accessible and helpful.

The trip to the airport was fun because I met a representative from GRIP, the weeklong summer Institute located in Pittsburgh. We chatted about the program and I hope to make it one of these years.

My impressions of my first conference are that it was a wonderful experience and something that I will do again from time to time when I can. I met so many of my social “network” and so many bloggers. I learned a lot. I sent 22 pounds of books home and I look forward to reviewing the syllabus and to the arrival of the three sessions I purchased on mp3.  I am grateful for the many bloggers who welcomed me and became friends.  I can’t thank you enough.

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Thursday was Day Three at the Federation of Genealogy Societies 2012 conference in Birmingham, AL.

I began the day with an 8:00 session by Craig Scott called “Researching Your War of 1812 Ancestors.” Craig is a wonderful presenter, incredibly knowledgeable and interesting. I learned a lot about military records and the war itself. For those not attending Craig mentioned a Family Chronicle magazine publication with a similar title. Also he said military searches would benefit by consulting the NARA holdings on microfilm. Check out Archives.gov and the NARA finding aids. It’s very clear that Craig’s research benefits from his familiarity with the story of the war itself, something that few Americans can claim.

Allen County Public Library exhibit – FGS 2013 will be very close to the library!

Next was Dean Hunter presenting “Doing English Research in a Computer World.” I was interested because I have not yet tackled the problem of my gg-grandmother Catherine Youngs who arrived from Surrey around 1843, family unknown. Immediately I could see there are sites I wasn’t aware of. Sites covered included FindMyPast.co.uk (now covered by a newer FindMyPast.com product), FamilySearch.org, Ancestry.com, FreeBMD.org.uk, www.nationalarchives.gov.uk, www.genuki.org.uk.

The Fun Stuff booth in the exhibits

The third session was “Smiths and Joneses: How to Cope with Families of Common Names” with Elizabeth Shown Mills. I won’t attempt to summarize here since her work involves many important principles. Visit her web site to get some inspiration at www.EvidenceExplained.com.  She is planning to put up a QuickLesson 11 which contains an example used in the class.

Find My Past booth

At lunchtime I was attending the NARA luncheon. The topic was the 1940 census. I had not really noticed the topic in advance and was not looking forward to a droning PowerPoint going through the census column by column.  So I was rather delighted with the presentation from NARA archivist Constance Potter. She chatted knowledgeably about interesting stories that can be found in the census, the purposes and strategies behind the questions, and encouraged us to take a good look around at this 1940 snapshot of America.

Some nice people at the DAR booth in the exhibits

Next was Pamela Cooper presenting “Pensions of the Poor.” Pamela discussed some military pensions, early care of the poor and the gradual evolution of the idea of supporting mothers with dependent children: “Mothers’ Pensions.”  The biggest incentive for the state was the idea that work would distract single mothers, and children would be neglected and turn out badly. She also pointed out that the questions you see in the early 1900′s census (for women) about children born and children living were a way for the states to gauge, statistically, the situation of mothers prior to developing programs of support.  These programs began in many states in the early 1910s. They generally ended around 1935 when the federal Aid To Families With Dependent Children program began. Finding these state records can be difficult; see her web page for some known sets.

Book purchases so far. Maybe this is it?

The Extended Exhibit Hall Hours were tonight from 5 – 8.  Prizes were given out and it was a fun time.  sigh.  I didn’t win anything.

FGS President Pat Oxley offering some final prizes in the exhibits. Oh yes, those ARE cupcakes waiting to be served.

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Thank-You board offered by FamilySearch, signed by 1940 census Indexers.

The next post in this series is located here.

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I am attending the Federation of Genealogy Societies Conference in Birmingham, Alabama this week.  Day One, Wednesday, was mostly devoted to society sessions and activities.  While interesting, I thought 2-1/2 days of genealogy sessions would be overwhelming enough, so I made other plans.

I hoped to go to the nearby Linn-Henley Research Building at the Birmingham Public Library and pursue some research on my ancestors that spent some time in Tuscaloosa before the Civil War.   I also hoped to visit the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute if I could manage it.  In many ways, the Civil Rights Institute would be a very personal family history journey since my parents took part in several aspects of the civil rights movement.

Birmingham Civil Rights Institute

So I spent the morning at the Civil Rights Institute.  Once inside, no pictures are allowed.  I learned the story of the struggle for basic human rights that took place in the deep south over a period of 400 years, from slavery into its aftermath.  Birmingham was, famously and tragically, an extreme example of oppression and hatred based on race.  Government, controlled by whites after Reconstruction, made sure to use the law to legitimize the customs they preferred.   Basic rights of citizens, such as voting, were denied to many blacks in the south.  After World War II, what was unacceptable became unbearable.  Nowhere, perhaps, was the struggle more difficult or monumental than Birmingham.  It is no wonder that Birmingham was the focus of many efforts of Dr. Martin Luther King.

And Birmingham had its own powerful leaders in the fight, including Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth. The struggle fought issue by issue, for voting, riding buses, eating in restaurants, getting government jobs, education … without the federal government stepping in at many times, and the efforts of attorney Thurgood Marshall to make that happen, success would have been in serious doubt.

Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth

As I learned more about the civil rights activities of the early 1960′s I felt a deep connection to the struggle that was playing out in the exhibit.  My mom had participated in several of those events.  My parents had a vision about the world and tried to live it (still do, in fact).  My memories of those years include, as a 5 or 6 year old, looking at the news on our black and white television with my brothers and sister “looking for mommy,” to see if we could see her in any of the large crowds.  As I stood in the museum I was that little girl again, looking for mom in the 20 foot image of the March on Washington, or the pictures of protesters in buses.

What I hadn’t expected was that as I was looking at images from 1963, I was also wondering about my family’s history of 1863 when some of my northern family spent about 20 years in Tuscaloosa.  I thought of my great great grandmother Emma Lamphere, who was a little girl during the civil war and experienced the hatred and violence of that era.  Could she ever have pictured her great granddaughter (my mom) returning to Alabama 100 years later to help to bring some peace and justice to those that (I suspect) Emma felt should be oppressed and marginalized?  Legacies are never as simple as we would like them to be.  I had to admit that I have connections to both sides of this dreadful fight.

I left the museum newly determined to learn more about the Tuscaloosa portion of my family history.  I passed the 16th Street Baptist Church, site of one of the many Birmingham bombings of places used for civil rights gatherings, and Kelly Ingram Park, where young protesters were treated brutally by Birmingham police in 1963.

Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, site of one of the many Birmingham bombings. Although many will remember that four Birmingham girls were killed that day, fewer know that two teenage boys were killed by gunfire on the same day, one by a policeman and one, randomly, by a white teenager who was sentenced to six months in prison. No one was brought to justice for the bombing until 40 years later.

I arrived at the Linn-Henley Research Building at the Birmingham Public Library around noon and spent the afternoon there.  If any FGS attendees were missing from the conference, they were surely here.  The rooms were filled with researchers.

Linn-Henley Research Building at the Birmingham Public Library

There were more Alabama resources there than I had ever seen.  Shelves and shelves of local histories, some of them privately published or reprints of university theses. There were several large sets of compiled indices that I had only heard of, never seen before.  I spent hours looking through them.  I turned up very little directly about my family, other than some evidence of Confederate Soldier service by two of my gg-grandmother’s brothers.  But I was able to photograph an entire hundred-page book containing three accounts of the 1865 experience of the city of Tuscaloosa, for examination later.  With little direct evidence to go on, I will start the real research with learning about Tuscaloosa.

The main reading room at the Linn-Henley Research Library

All in all, I wonder if my visit to the Civil Rights Institute didn’t teach me more about my family history than any library could.  That, and meeting up with my fellow bloggers, who I am now realizing can be reliably found in the hotel bar each night.  Those conversations were wonderful.

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Now, on to conference sessions!  The next post in this series is found here.

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I am attending the Federation of Genealogy Societies Conference in Birmingham, Alabama this week.

My plan for Tuesday was just to get there safely, hoping for no airline problems or weather delays.  The Bloggers Dinner was scheduled for 5:30, sponsored by FamilySearch.com.

That worked out fine, except there was a long wait for the hotel shuttle from the airport.  I befriended some very nice staffers from the New England Historic Genealogical Society, including the head of research services and some marketing folks, who will be setting up an NEHGS booth in the Exhibits.  They liked my story about finding my ggggg-grandmother crossed out of the family bible at NEHGS.  We were remarking that it’s quite a miracle that the page was ever preserved where I could find it.  I am so grateful that a place like NEHGS exists.

At the dinner I met Thomas McEntee for the first time.  He gave out the Blogger Beads which were donated by Dear Myrtle and GeneaWebinars.com.

blogger beads

So I’ll be wearing those during the conference.

The dinner was sponsored by Family Search.  I sat with (seriously, this happened) Dick Eastman, Mr. Myrt, Michael Hall (Deputy, Chief Genealogical Officer, Family Search) and several other friendly people.  Mr. Hall and I had a terrific talk about his Fall River, Massachusetts roots and how he traced his family.

The Family Search folks had several messages for the community of genealogists:

• First and foremost, they are deeply grateful for the volunteer indexers that have worked on projects, including the 1940 Federal Census.  They have created an “Indexer Community” booth in the upcoming Exhibits here where conference attendees can write messages thanking the indexers. Let me write my message here (I only indexed a little bit):  you guys are awesome, and should be justifiably proud of your high level of accuracy.  As an end user I can tell you that I do not see the mistakes in Family Search 1940 census that I saw in Ancestry.com.  Just sayin.  thank you.
• Another message about the Family Search indexing is that people are asking for a way to correct indexing in cases where they know there was an error.  Such functionality is coming.
• Since the need for great indexing in today’s digital world is only increasing, they have launched an ambitious and important project:  the U.S. Naturalization and Immigration project.  Far larger than the 1940 census, it will take years, but with the help of all of us, they are very hopeful that this can be accomplished.
• Readers can register for RootsTech 2013 now for the low price of $119.  Use the code BLOG119.
• They discussed their digitization of their microfilm, which will take some time, but is on track.  They also pointed out that in their book section (which is growing all the time), they are planning to build an electronic library borrowing function for copyrighted works.

Personally, I am grateful for Family Search since they make original records (or in some cases, index records only) plus compiled books available to the public for free.  By and large, nothing will improve quality more than easy access to records.

After the dinner, I introduced myself to some other folks in the room.  I had a wonderful gab session in the bar with fellow bloggers Linda McCauley, Jenny Lanctot, and Kathy Chastain.

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The next post in this series is located here.

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