The History of Your Ancestors’ Baby Clothes
Valentine’s Day brings to mind visions of cupid, a baby dressed only in a nappy shooting arrows of love at unsuspecting couples. While this little cherub celebrates the holiday au natural, let’s take some time to talk about the fashion statements the babies in our...Technology United These Long-Lost Siblings 90 Years Ago!
It’s common to hear of long-lost relatives who rediscover each other online or through DNA tests. But nearly 100 years ago, another new technology–the radio–united a pair of long-lost siblings 40 years after one ran away.
This newspaper article reports that Alonso Jones’ children were sitting around one day in 1926 listening to the radio. Then they heard the announcer say, “Alonso Jones, wherever you are, listen…Your sister wants to see you at Worthington, Ohio. She has not seen or heard from you in forty years. You were born at Antiquity, Meigs County, Ohio, at the time of the Civil War….”
“You were reared by Captain William Roberts, an Ohio River flat boat man. You went with him on a produce boat when you were a boy and ran away while the boat was lying at the bank in Arkansas.” The article reports that the man telegraphed his sister and arranged to meet her. What a great story! And what a great family history find for anyone researching Alonso Jones or his sister, Mrs. Robert Eakin, or his guardian, William Roberts!
Salt Lake Tribune, January 1, 1926, p. 1. Digitized at Ancestry.com.
This article illustrates two fantastic tips for newspaper searching.
FIRST, I originally found this article in the Salt Lake Tribune, digitized at Ancestry. I was struck because the story was about people from Ohio and Arkansas–not Salt Lake. As we still see today, local news stories of the past were often reported in other cities. When searching digitized newspapers, don’t automatically discount search results that otherwise seem right but appear in out-of-town papers.
SECOND, curious about this story, I used Lisa’s search strategies from her book, The Genealogist’s Google Toolbox to search for more information about the people mentioned in the article. I got a hit on a possible match for the riverboat caption. I also found that the Google News Archive had this same article in The Evening Independent in St. Petersburg, Florida (shown above). The copy above is much clearer to read and slightly different. For these reasons, it can sometimes be worth looking for duplicates of news articles and/or obituaries for your relatives.
Want to learn more? Genealogy Gems Premium members can also listen to Premium podcast episodes GGP 36 and 3GGP 37 about newspaper searching (Lisa talks about Google News Archive in episode 37). Or get the ultimate scoop in How to Find Your Family History in Newspapers! It’s packed with inspiring family history finds in the newspaper and all the tools you need (online and offline) for finding your own.
Yay! More Digitization of Genealogy Records at the National Archives (US)
The US National Archives has signed agreements with FamilySearch and Ancestry to put more of the Archives’ unique genealogical treasures online. We think that’s worth shouting about!
The National Archives has been working with FamilySearch and Ancestry for years to digitize genealogical treasures from its vaults. Contracts have been signed to continue efforts with both partners to digitize even MORE genealogy records at the National Archives: MORE birth, marriage, death, immigration and military service records! Here are some highlights from the contract:
1. Partners will now “be able to post segments of large collections immediately, rather than waiting for the entire collection to be completed.” This sounds familiar to users of FamilySearch, which regularly dumps un-indexed chunks of digitized content onto its site just to make it available faster.
2. The updated agreement contains provisions to protect “personally identifying information.”
3. Ancestry will have a shorter time period (by 12-24 months) during which they have exclusive rights to publish the images together with the index. After that, the National Archives can put the material on its site and/or share it with other partners.
4. The National Archives “will continue to receive copies of the digital images and metadata for inclusion in its online catalog….The public will be able to access these materials free of charge from National Archives research facilities nationwide [not online]. Ancestry.com makes the digitized materials available via subscription.”
What kind of data is already online from The National Archives?
FamilySearch and Ancestry already host digital images of millions of National Archives documents: U.S. federal censuses. Passenger lists. Border crossings. Naturalization records. Compiled military service records. Freedman’s Bank and Freedmen’s Bureau records (the latter are currently being indexed). Federal taxation records. And the list goes on! According to the press release, before these partnerships began, “many of these records were only available by request in original form in the research rooms of the National Archives.”
Click here to search all the National Archives content on Ancestry (more than 170 million images; subscription required to view).
Just in case you’re wondering (and I was wondering), The National Archives isn’t playing favorites with their partnerships. This list shows that a National Archives partnership is pending with Findmypast. They’re already working with Fold3. I wasn’t surprised to see the John F. Kennedy Library on their list, but I wouldn’t have guessed the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland!
Click to read more National Archives gems on our website:
Celebrate the U.S. Constitution with National Archives Resources
National Archives Digitizing Projects: Colonial, WWII, Jewish and More
National Archives Regional Facilities Closing or Consolidating
New U.S. WWI Military Records for Genealogy
Topping the list of new and updated genealogy records this week are United States military records. Ancestry.com has a new collection of U.S. Navy Muster Rolls and an updated collection of historical postcards. Enjoy a special interview with military expert Michael Strauss on how he solved an old postcard mystery! Also new this week are WWI U.S. records at FamilySearch for Michigan and Utah, which you can access for free online.
Featured: U.S. Navy Muster Rolls
Ancestry.com has a new collection of U.S. Navy Muster Rolls, 1949-1963. From the description:
“These records were created to document enlisted Navy personnel assigned to each and every discrete Navy command (known as “activities” in Navy terminology), such as ships, aviation squadrons, air stations, bases, stations, training centers and schools, flag staffs, and Marine Corps units.
“Arranged by two-year chronological subseries (1949-1950, 1951-1952, 1953-1954, 1955-1956, and 1957-1958), followed by single-year subseries (1959-1971). Each subseries is arranged by “activity number,” a unique number assigned to each ship, unit, and command within the Navy. Each activity’s muster rolls are arranged in chronological order by quarter, typically with enlisted personnel arranged by rate and thereunder alphabetically by surname.
“Beginning in the spring of 1956, officers precede enlisted personnel, with officers arranged either alphabetically by surname or hierarchically by rank. Personnel diaries, which precede each quarter’s muster rolls, are arranged chronologically by date.”
Historical Postcards
Ancestry.com also recently updated their collection of U.S. Historical Postcards, 1893-1960. You might be wondering how historical postcards would be valuable to your genealogy research. The collection description sheds some light on what you can use this database for:
“This database contains over 115,000 historical postcards with photos of places in the United States. Each postcard caption has been indexed and may be searched by keyword or location. The database also includes the city, county, state, and postcard era (estimated year range) for most postcards.
This database is primarily useful for obtaining a photograph or picture of a specific place in time. If you do not already have pictures of the places your ancestors lived, historical postcards are a good alternative to personal photos.”
In the video below: A captivating story unfolds of old postcards from WWI that are snatched from oblivion by Michael Strauss, who is the Genealogy Gems Podcast Military Minutes man. Michael shares the story of how he found the historic postcards on eBay, and the research process he followed to identify their author. These are strategies that you can use in many areas of your family history research!
FamilySearch
You can explore even more new WWI records for genealogy thanks to FamilySearch’s newest additions to their free records.
- Michigan, Census of World War I Veterans with Card Index, 1917-1919
- Utah, World War I County Draft Board Registers, Name Index, 1917-1918
- Utah, World War I Service Questionnaires, 1914-1918
These records may help you find out more about your ancestors who served in the military during WWI. Depending on the collection and record, you might find:
- name of Veteran;
- serial number;
- address;
- place and date of birth;
- nationality;
- color;
- occupation before and after the war;
- marriage date;
- wife’s name,
- birthplace and date;
- names of children and their birth dates;
- parents’ names and addresses;
- first camp entered and date;
- rank, company, and regiment;
- transfers and promotions;
- battles engaged in;
- discharged date and reason, and additional information.
If you don’t find the person you’re looking for, FamilySearch has these helpful suggestions for next steps:
- Look for variant spellings of the names. You should also look for alias names, nicknames and abbreviated names.
- Look for an index. Local genealogical and historical societies often have indexes to local records.
- Search the records of nearby localities (or military units, counties, parishes, etc.).
More Military Records with Michael Strauss
Michael Strauss is our resident Military Minutes man for The Genealogy Gems Podcast. He first debuted on the show on episode #207, where he talked about draft registrations. Click here to listen to the episode and download an exclusive free 4-page handout! For more expert military research tips and insight, browse Michael’s many articles on our website by clicking here.
About the Author: Lacey Cooke has been working with Genealogy Gems since the company’s inception in 2007. Now, as the full-time manager of Genealogy Gems, she creates the free weekly newsletter, writes blogs, coordinates live events, and collaborates on new product development. No stranger to working with dead people, Lacey holds a degree in Forensic Anthropology, and is passionate about criminal justice and investigative techniques. She is the proud dog mom of Renly the corgi.
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