July 15, 2014

We are fortunate to have the US Censuses, which were taken every 10 years starting in 1790, for our genealogy research.  We are even more fortunate if our ancestors lived in a state at a time when the state conducted independent censuses typically in the years ending in “5,” i.e. 1905, 1915, 1925, 1935, etc.  The information in the state censuses aren’t usually as detailed as the US Censuses; however, they are irreplaceable for locating a missing ancestor between US Censuses.

The 1925 Iowa State Census

With this knowledge as backdrop, I stopped dead in my tracks when I learned what the wonderful State of Iowa asked of its residents in 1925. On page one of each series of names you find the usual name, family members, relation to head of household, age, sex, marital status and by default the location.  Really, pretty rich information for a state census.

Here’s Pietro Cervetti and his family in the 1925 Iowa State Census.

Page TWO!

But lo and behold, if you turn the page there is more information on the family.  There is a “Page Two” and sometimes a “Page Three” for each family surveyed in the census.  Before you dismiss this as a head count of their cattle, which would be interesting but not worth getting too excited about, read on.

Page Two asks for “Place of Birth of Each Person Enumerated.”  Okay, that’s nice.  Then it asks for “Name, Place of Birth, Age, and Place of Marriage of Parents (of each person enumerated).”  Wow.  And the Census Takers said, “here, future genealogists, the gift of parental information all gift wrapped for you.”  So, if you have ancestors, who lived in Iowa in 1925, go now – right now – to the 1925 Iowa State Census.

Here’s what you’ll find.  Here is Page TWO for the same Pietro Cervetti.

We learn that he was from Italy, and we learn his parents’ names are Pacifico Cervetti (Pietro named a son after him.) and Julia Madici, both from Italy.  In all honesty, this was already known information, but this is a second source and it is in writing.  But wait!  It gets better.  Remember, the census asks for this information for every respondent.  So Pietro Cervetti provided the same information for each of his children, which would reflect the birth origins of he and his wife.  Pietro was very helpful in that he didn’t give just “Italy” as his birth origin and that of his wife.  No, he gave the home towns!!!  Pietro is from Corsica, and his wife, Julia is from “Franel.”  If that’s not worth the price of admission, I don’t know what is.

Where IS This Golden Census?

The good news is that Ancestry (www.ancestry.com) has the 1925 Iowa State Census digitized and indexed.  (The indexing is for page one only reflecting your ancestor and not his/her parents.)  So you can either access this through a personal subscription or through a library or archive, which offers access for free.

If your ancestors either settled in or migrated through Iowa in the mid-1920s, I would strongly encourage you to check out this census.  Further, if you’re like me and dutifully found your ancestor in the census and only found page one, go back.  Find the census again and turn the page.  It’s well worth your efforts.

Happy researching!

June 27, 2014

I didn’t know my paternal grandparents.  Unfortunately they passed years before I was born.  So the only visual images I have of them are the pictures in family albums. And like most family albums there are the lovely wedding pictures, staged family pictures, and conventional, ready-to-be-framed anniversary pictures.  All of which paint a very respectable, church-going image of my grandparents. But then I found these pictures, which open a window to what must have been a whole other side of my grandparents that maybe their children didn’t even know about.

 

This is my grandfather, William Francis (Bill) Watson.  He was b. 1889, d. 1957 both in Wichita, Kansas.

I think the picture is very striking.  It looks like it could have come out of a film noir movie or the Tennessee Williams play, The Glass Menagerie.

It was probably taken in the late 1910s or early 1920s as he sat outside a factory or warehouse in downtown Wichita. The photo adds personality and life to his story.  At one point in his life he was a young man eager to make his way in the world.

 

This picture is of my grandparents, William Frances (Bill) & Cathryn Ernstmann Watson.  They were married in 1915 in Wichita, so this was probably taken in the late 1910s or early 1920s.  I believe it is outside of their home.

That’s a motorcycle they are on!  I just don’t think of ” my grandparents” on motorcycles!  And look at the cap and goggles he’s wearing.   They look like a very cosmopolitan “fun” couple.  Not unlike the picture above they seem to be ready to take the world by storm.

These are just two samples of the unconventional pictures I’ve found of my family members.  I would encourage you to look beyond the formal portraits in the albums to see what treasures may be in store.  They may very well add an interesting dimension to the lives of your ancestors.

Happy researching!

May 26, 2014

Here’s the problem I invariably run into using FindaGrave. (FindaGrave is a free website with north of 116 million headstone citations, images and memorials. For more on FindaGrave, check out my blog post.)  I find my ancestor’s headstone.  Great!  Now what do I do?  I have a couple less than satisfactory options.

• Bookmark the URL (webpage) that has the citation.  Then over time I have a zillion bookmarks that aren’t connected to any family information.
• Take a screen shot with “print scrn” on my laptop and save that image in my file.  That works, too, but I lose the URL (web page) and I get a bunch of silly ads with my image.
• Right click on the image and save the picture of the headstone.  I don’t have ads now, but I’ve lost the provenance of the picture.  Further, not all findagrave citations have images.  And many have additional information worth capturing.  Neither scenario is addressed with an image capture.

Frustrated, I had the bright idea to use Evernote’s Web Clipper.  (Evernote is a free organization tool that allows you to capture notes, images, webpages, documents, etc. all in one place.  For more on Evernote, check out my blog post.)

The Web Clipper Toy

I just discovered the web clipper for Evernote, which is a free application that is easily downloaded here.  It integrates into your browser – Google Chrome, Internet Explorer among others.  Then when you find a page that has an image, article, FindaGrave page or anything you want to save just click on the elephant icon (Evernote logo) next to your browser bar (where you type in the website name, i.e. www.findagrave.com), and it will capture the either the whole page or part of the page and save it to Evernote!

Frank E. Williams

Frank E. Williams is my husband’s maternal grandfather.  A geologist and professor at Pennsylvania State University, he served as a member of the SIS (Secret Intelligence Service) later known as the CIA during WWI.  He’s buried at Arlington Cemetery in Virginia.

You can see his FindaGrave listing INSIDE of an Evernote note at the top of this post.  Not only does the Evernote automatically capture the image and surrounding text, but it also captures the URL from which the page was taken, titles the picture – Frank Ernest Williams (1877 – 1960) – Find A Grave Memorial – and date and time stamps the note creation.

Further, I can add tags to the Frank E. Williams note to help me locate it or associate it with my research.  Good tags might include “Foulk Family,” since he is part of my husband’s tree, or “WWI veteran” because they reflect information I know about the subject but is not evident in the document.  If you’re wondering why I didn’t tag it “Frank Williams” or “FindaGrave” those bits of information are already in the note title, which is by default every word searchable in Evernote.

FindaGrave and Evernote are just wonderful tools for the busy genealogist.  Try using them together to make them even more powerful.

Happy researching!