Repost: Old Genealogies: Research Sources, Book Shelf and a Hat Tip

This was first posted almost three years ago. Since then the Internet Archive has nearly tripled its genealogy resources. (And it's still free.)

Just last week I consulted (via the Internet Archive) an 1868 book whose lengthy title begins "Some records of persons by the name of Worden" where I found a physical description of a sixth great grandfather, so I was excited to read a recent post in Vita Brevis by Emily Baldoni, New England Historical Genealogical Society's Technical Services/Metadata Librarian, about their project to make many of their late 19th and early 20th century genealogical writings available online. This is a big deal because, as Emily explains:

"NEHGS is sometimes the only library that holds a copy of the resource. In these cases, we are particularly happy to be able to preserve a digital copy and put it online so that it can reach a wider audience, now and for years to come."

I will certainly be checking out their collection.

The Internet Archive is also a great resource for books of interest to genealogists* This is how they describe their online holdings:

"The Archive's ever-expanding collection of genealogy resources includes items from the Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center in Fort Wayne, Indiana; Robarts Library at the University of Toronto; the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Library; Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah;, the National Library of Scotland, the Indianapolis City Library's Indianapolis City Directory and Yearbooks Collection, The Leo Baeck Institute Archives of German-speaking Jewry Leo Baeck Institute Archives, and the Boston Public Library.  

Resources include among many things books on surname origins, vital statistics, parish records, census records, passenger lists of vessels, and other historical and biographical documents."

Here's a tiny sample of the titles they have available.

[Source: Internet Archive]

And I found another Worden Book to peruse. (I've heard of it but have never seen a copy before.)

[Worden "a weir in the valley" by Waite W.Worden, 1992.

Source: Internet Archive; original source: Allen County Public Library.]

I've also found old genealogy publications via Google Books but, unlike Internet Archive, not every listing there is available digitally.


*They're claiming 53,534 results from a search for "genealogy."And it's free.

© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Book Shelf: Women's Work - The First 20,000 Years

During the excavation of L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland when a Viking-style spindle whorl was discovered, the archeologists broke out the bottle of champagne they had reserved for significant finds because it was proof that at least one woman had been there 1,000 years ago.*

The history of spinning and weaving fabric is a very long one and it was always women's work.

[Source: Amazon.com]

So if you want to picture the daily life of your distant female ancestors, it's a pretty safe bet that they were producing cloth (as Homer describes Helen of Troy doing in both the Iliad and the Odyssey).




*I'm currently reading The Far Traveler: Voyages of a Viking Woman by Nancy Marie Brown who looks at what we can know about a woman named Gudrid who is believed to have given birth to the first baby of European descent in North America. Homespun is described as "the Viking culture's chief export."


© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Book Shelf: Jamestown People to 1800

Deciding that it's time to take a closer look at my father's Warren lineage and its Virginia roots, I ordered Martha W. McCartney's 2012 book Jamestown People to 1800: Landowners, Public Officials, Minorities, and Native Leaders via Amazon and it arrived this morning.

[Amazon.com]

I already own another book by this author.


© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Book Shelf: Virginia Immigrants and Adventurers: A Biographical Dictionary, 1607-1635

If you have ancestors who arrived in Virginia in the early years of the colony, Martha W. McCartney provides an excellent place to begin your research.

It's available as new or used from Amazon or you can purchase the e-book through Google.


© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Further Speculation about William T. Slater's Yorkshire Roots

When William T. Slater, one of my maternal third great grandfathers, applied for citizenship in Jefferson County, Indiana, he stated he was 27 years old and a native of  "York County, England."* We've never been able to definitively trace William's antecedents to a specific location in Yorkshire so when this book came to my attention** I decided it might be worth a try:

[Yorkshire surnames: Are you a Brook, Haigh or a Hirst? Find out where your name came from 

The Huddersfield Examiner: 20 Dec 2015]

I first looked on worldcat.org hoping to find it in a local library but the nearest copy is 629 miles away in Salt Lake City and Amazon's vendor's asking price is $135. Fortunately I was able to find a bookseller in England for a fraction of that, although it turned out I had to pay extra because it's a brick of a book.

When my copy arrived I couldn't wait to see if Slater rates an entry. And it does! (However, Tiller which we believe to be his middle name, doesn't appear.)

According to Mr Redmonds this although this surname can be found thinly spread in many other English counties, it's in "the Pennine area where the name was exceptionally common: Lancashire, West Riding [Yorkshire], Staffordshire, and Derbyshire."

Concentrating on the West Riding this list of Slaters in Yorkshire that Christine found via FindMyPast several years ago hasn't changed materially.***

[findmypast.org]

Christine notes that the Wakefield individual died the in 1815 and I found that the Thornton William Slater was enumerated there in the 1851 English Census which leaves the one erroneously listed as born in Morley. Looking at the baptismal record the actual parish of birth was Leeds and the family's abode was Mill Shaw [Millshaw] a hamlet in Beeston which was a center of woolen cloth manufacture and is still considered an industrial area.

[Ancestry.com. West Yorkshire, Non-Conformist Records, 1646-1985 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. Original data: West Yorkshire Nonconformist Records. Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees, Leeds, and Wakefield, England:

West Yorkshire Archive Service.]

No occupation was listed for William Slater [Senior] but the only time that column seems to have been filled was only when the father was identified with a trade like mason, cordwainer, or clothier which is very seldom. Apparently being a mill hand wasn't deemed worthy of note. The initials purported to be the "Signature of Parents" are all in the same handwriting all throughout the register which would seem to indicate that none of the couples were expected to be able to sign their names.

I've found baptism records for four other children of this William and Mary Slater: Joseph (born 1789 in Churwell); Isaac (born 1790 in Millshaw); Betty (born in Beeston 1794) and Benjamin (born in 1806 in Mill Shaw).****

There's no proof that my ancestor was the William Slater born to this family but I think it's a definite possibility. To someone growing up in the bleak atmosphere of an early Industrial Revolution woolen mill town  and facing a future of unrelenting toil might well find "taking the King's shilling" an attractive idea since the bounty offered could equal several months pay.*****

However he found himself on board one of the over fifty ships comprising the British naval fleet invading Louisiana in 1815, it's clear that William Slater chose to end his military career then and there.

*Christine posted about her discovery of this record here.
**Sadly I don't remember who/where I saw the reference to this book so I can't give them credit.
***Except for the addition of a William Slater born in Whitby, North Yorkshire, in 1790 whom I'm ignoring for now.
****So far I haven't found other records for any these people.
*****Leeds, located 50-60 miles from the nearest port, wouldn't seem to be a likely place for a naval press gang.



© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Working on Wednesday: William Lofton (? - 1704) Transported Criminal or Indentured Servant?

Lately I've been looking at the upline of my maternal Slater/Wilson ancestors and this hint for William Lofton of Maryland, one of my eighth great grandfathers, caught my attention.

Since very few of the people whose lives are traced were convicts and my ancestor was among the minority who went on to establish families, own land and leave a will it seems unlikely he came as a prisoner.

A quick search on WorldCat informed me that the nearest copy of the source book Colonial Families of Maryland, Bound and Determined to Succeed is in the Los Angeles Public Library (112 miles away). However I was able to purchase an digital copy from Google Books for $15.12.

In his introduction Robert W. Barnes explains that he made a study of 549 transported individuals after their terms of service ended, 17 of whom were convicts.* This book details the lives of  102 of those people including William Lofton.

According to his research my ancestor was transported in 1673; no mention is made of where he departed from, any skill or trade he came with or how old he was when he arrived. However, William must have completed his service by 1690 when he married a woman we know only as Elizabeth and the couple went on to have five children.

William's name appeared as a head of household in Spes Utij Hundred in Baltimore County, Maryland, beginning in 1695 and continuing until 1703. Here's a transcript of the list from 1699 (his name-misspelled-is the last one on the second page):

[Maryland historical magazine by Browne, William Hand, 1828-1912;

Dielman, Louis Henry, 1864-1959; Maryland Historical Society. Source: Archive.org]

No date of death is given but he was buried April 13, 1704, and his estate was inventoried in July of that year. The year of his wife's death is uncertain--October 20, 1703 or 1704.





*Here's my descent from him:

[Ancestry.com]

*In fact very few convicts were sent to Maryland until 1718 when Parliament passed the Transportation Act.



© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Fantastic Find: Texas and the Civil War

Half of my eight great great grandfathers fought in the Civil War. One, Willet O. "Dick" Worden, was a private in the Iowa 24th Infantry, and of the three who were Confederate soldiers*, two were in Texas and I've never been able to locate them in online military records.

So when this email from the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA) arrived in my inbox this morning I jumped at the chance to learn more about what happened in Texas during the war.

Of course I don't expect to find any mention of those ancestors who reputedly enlisted in Texas regiments, but since we do know where they were living at the start of the war this information may help me focus on likely military units they would have served in.




*They were John Warren Avery (of Mississippi); the Texans were J.T.S. Warren and Abner Webb.



© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Book Shelf: "A Pictorial History of the Silent Screen" by Daniel Blum

A sample of what this book contains (from the very earliest movies in 1889 to the end of 1930, when movies had fully transitioned to sound).  Here it covers some of the movies that came out in 1918, including Tallulah Bankhead and Theda Bara.

I don't know what happened to my copy of "A Pictorial History of the Silent Screen" by Daniel Blum, but as a teenage movie buff in the 1980's I would spend hours looking through it.

A young-looking 21-year-old Daniel C. Blum, posing for his passport photo, filed prior to a world-wide tour he was to make with his father Daniel Blum.  Passport Application Form for Native Citizen, Daniel C. Blum, Washington, D.C., 1 Jun 1921, NARA Passport Applications, January 2, 1906 - March 31, 1925, Roll 1636, Certificate: 45213; digital image, Ancestry.com database U.S. Passport Applications, 1795-1925 (https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=1174 : 27 Feb 2018).

The author, Daniel Blum (1899-1965), was an editor of Theatre World and Screen World annuals, and compiled various works on show business (an obituary can be found in "Daniel Blum, Editor, Dies," The Baltimore Sun (Baltimore, MD), 25 Feb 1965, page 19, col 2; digital image, Newspapers (https://www.newspapers.com : 27 Feb 2018).

The book is available for free at the Internet Archive.  There are many used and new copies at Amazon.

This must have been a very interesting book for the first generations of people who grew old with the movies.
Only a few years before this book was published the classic Sunset Boulevard (1950) was released, a story of a movie star Norma Desmond (played by Gloria Swanson, superstar of the silent era) who refused to acknowledge the passage of time.

Surely some of our ancestors in the 20th century were movie fans, and I wonder who their favorite actor or actress was?  And did they follow these fashions?

I looked through my various newspaper subscription services, and sure enough many newspapers mentioned or reviewed the book when it originally came out in 1953 (I find reviews in 1953 and 1954), and was mentioned well into the 1980's as a reference work (before the Internet).

An example of the book's mention in a newspaper: in Sarasota, Florida, the wife of Harry Benham (a local who had been in some silent movies) was compelled to buy a copy to see pictures of her husband.  Loveless, Hattie,"City Trailer Park Activities," Sarasota Herald-Tribune (Sarasota, FL), March 28, 1954, pg 17; digital image, Google News (https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=A7-hzOuI2KQC&dat=19540328&printsec=frontpage&hl=en : 27 Feb 2018).

And sure enough, there is Harry Benham (portrait and film clip of him in "Merchant of Venice" (1912).  (page 27)

I need to look through my tree and see which of my actor/actress relations (I have a few) might make an appearance in this work.

Fun fact:  the Harrison Ford of Han Solo fame wasn't even the first famous Harrison Ford!  Here is a clip of Harrison Ford (1884-1957) in 1916 in "The Mysterious Mrs. Musslewhite."  (page 119).

© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

From the Probate Files: Richard Woodward - Chester County, Pennsylvania - 1706

Ancestry's online databases weren't very helpful in regard to the will of my maternal ninth great grandfather Richard Woodward. All I could find was this:

[Ancestry.com]

And I found nothing at all on FamilySearch.

But I persisted because, as you will note, one of his children was "Martha, wife of --- Baker" and therefore my 8th great grandmother. Fortunately an earlier Woodward published a book in 1879* about the family (available through the Internet Archive) which includes a transcription of Richard's will.

[Genealogy of the Woodward family of Chester county, Pennsylvania, with an appendix giving a brief account of the Woodwards of some other portions of the United States. by Lewis Woodward, b. 1848. From the collection of the Boston Public Library. Internet Archive.com]

(As you can see Martha's bequest was "five pounds in monys or a Cow equivalent to the sum" while her sisters Jane, Mary and Sarah each were to receive twenty pounds, perhaps because Martha was already married which they were not.)**

It appears that the house in Thornbury Township that Richard lived in before he removed to Middletown is still standing and it was documented in the 1930s by the Historic American Buildings Survey which stated that "Significance: This house, although much altered, is of interest because the original section was possibly built in the last decade of the 17th century."

[SOUTH FRONT AND EAST SIDE - Richard Woodward House, Concord Road (Thornbury Township), Westtown, Chester County, PA

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. ]

[ WEST AND NORTH SIDES - Richard Woodward House, Concord Road (Thornbury Township), Westtown, Chester County, PA.

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.]

[FIRST FLOOR, EAST WALL FIREPLACE - Richard Woodward House, Concord Road (Thornbury Township), Westtown, Chester County, PA.

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.]

[SECOND FLOOR, HALL - Richard Woodward House, Concord Road (Thornbury Township), Westtown, Chester County, PA.

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.]

Here's how I'm descended from Richard Woodward:

[Ancestry.com]

*Here's the title page:

**Of his sons, only Joseph (not the eldest) inherited property. The others had to settle for "four shillings or a pair of gloves".



© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Book Shelf: Good Wives: Image and Reality in the Lives of Women in Northern New England, 1650 - 1750

The title of this book attracted me because I'm alway trying to understand what the lives of my many-times grandmothers were like. I'm not sure if any of my direct ancestors lived in the precise area covered here but I don't imagine that the experiences of women south of Boston were markedly different, indeed the author acknowledges that in her preface.

[Published by Random House, available through Amazon.com]

[Map of Northern New England as described by the aurhot]

Here's quote from the author's preface:

Good Wives was originally published in 1980. I bought it for my Kindle.



© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Book Shelf: History of Agua Caliente Springs and Ague Caliente Regional Park

Growing up in San Diego with parents who had learned to love the desert long before I arrived in their lives, for me the place named Agua Caliente never was the one in Tijuana. Until I was about 12 we spent almost Christmas and Easter vacations in that county park located in the middle of the vast Anza Borrego State Park.*

Over the years I've written several posts about Agua Caliente Regional Park including one about Mary's Store and earlier this year I got an email from Fred Wills who wanted to know if he could use the pictures from our blog in the history he was writing about the park. I'm sure it was a pleasant surprise when I not only agreed but informed him that I had more pictures to share. My only requirement was that I get photo credit and a copy of his finished book.

[Courtesy of Frederick H. Wills]

Well, I met up with Fred and Stephanie at the Mission Valley Library yesterday for the return of my color slides together with my copy of the final product and I'm happy to report that it's a very attractive and informative history of the area that I'm looking forward to reading.**

If you would like your own copy, you can reach the author at:

Frederick H. Wills
Desierto Relampago Books
2918 Naugatuck Avenue
San Diego, CA 92117




*In fact Mother told me that I took my first steps there.
**And there I am on the cover, waving at the camera.



© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Book Shelf: Plymouth Colony: Its History & People 1629 - 1691

Although my Worden ancestors rate just two mentions* in this book, I'm looking forward to reading Eugene Aubrey Stratton's history of Yarmouth. After all, the Wordens weren't my only ancestors who lived there and I've been neglecting them while concentrating on my favorite lineage.**

[Image: Amazon.com]

The book is described as "the first comprehensive guide to Plymouth Colony" and I alway enjoy learning more about the daily life of my ancestors.


*"Old Worden (dead)" on page 66 and his son Peter Worden II in a list on page 445.
**You can be sure if I find out anything, I'll be sharing it here.

© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Book Shelf: "On Writing Well" by William Zinsser

My library copy of "On Writing Well" by William Zinsser.  I'm sure it's available at most public libraries, and is available at Amazon and other online bookstores.

Blaine Bettinger ("The Genetic Genealogist") recently mentioned that Tom Jones recommended "On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction."  That is all the endorsement I need!  I am not happy with my current writing skill level so I hope reading this will help improve my blog postings.



© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Book Shelf: "Danzig Chronik eines Jahrtausends" [Danzig Chronicle of a Millennium] by Hans Georg Siegler

I think that the George Hartley who applied for this 1794 Seamen's Protection Certificate in Philadelphia is likely a brother of Solomon Hartley.  If George was born in Dantzig, Poland, and was the "son of George Hartley labourer of Dantzig" then I think it is likely that labourer George is also possibly Solomon's father.  Solomon's three sons all considered Solomon Hartley to be foreign-born, either from Poland or Germany.  Solomon had "Pitsborough" [Pittsburgh] as his birthplace in his Seamen's Protection Certificate, I know not why at this point.  George Hartley Mariner, 3 July 1794, Proofs of Citizenship Used to Apply for Seamen's Certificates for the Port of Philadelphia, 1792-1861, NARA M1880, Roll 1; digital image, search for "George Hartley" on Ancestry (http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=1928 : accessed 18 Jul 2017).

Since it is possible that my earliest known Hartley ancestor Solomon Hartley (1775-1815) was born in Gdansk/Danzig/Dantzik, Poland, based on what I've been able to gather so far, I think I need to concentrate my research efforts in that area, around that time (I also need to research in Amsterdam around 1794, which is where the above George Hartley came from on his journey to Philadelphia).

"Dantzik" closeup from "Carte de la Mer Baltique" (1773) by Jacques Nicolas Bellin, from the David Rumsey Map Collection.

Finding information on that particular time period (about 1775) on Gdansk online, however, has proven to be more difficult than I originally expected.  I will need to consult books, and apparently most not in English, if I am to get a better understanding.

To that end, I ordered "Danzig Chronik eines Jahrausends" by Hans Georg Siegler as a start to building my knowledge.  It's written entirely in German, but I have Google Translate to help:

The whole book is an account, year by year, of happenings in Danzig/Gdansk, from roughly the 900s to 1990.  I need to check the FamilySearch catalog and WorldCat to find more works on the area in the 1700s.  I am assuming at this point that most of these works will not be English.

Ideally I would pay a specialist in Polish/German history to give me an overview of the situation in the 1770s, and some ideas on where to start for records (and then do that research for me), but that would cost more than I can afford at this point in time.

If there are any descendants of Solomon Hartley who would be willing to pay a professional for this search, that would be great! If anyone ever does that and finds some answers, please let me know if I am at least on the right track (and maybe who Solomon Hartley's mother was?).




© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Book Shelf: "Those Roving Rittgers" by Joyce Rorabaugh

Snapshot of FamilySearch's copy of the "Those Roving Rittgers."  

Available for free online at FamilySearch, as well as for purchase for the hard copy version at Amazon, this work is a must-have for any Rittgers descendant working on their genealogy.

John Rittgers and Catherine Comer, the ancestors who started this line, are my 4th great grandparents.

I've been adding information from this work to my tree.  In the past year my father has gotten a wave of Rittgers cousin DNA matches at Ancestry so I want to be able to pinpoint how I'm related to any given Rittgers kin.  The amount of information collected in this work is almost overwhelming, which is wonderful.

The description for the edition sold at Amazon is as follows:

John A. Rittgers immigrated from Prussia around 1795 to escape the turmoil of war there, married Catherine Comer and settled in the area of what is now Luray, Virginia, staying there until 1816, at which time he and his family moved to central Ohio. John and Catherine produced nine children, and these form the second of nine generations of descendants who spread from Ohio to various other states such as Indiana, Iowa and Missouri. Most of the book is about these descendants, following which there is an appendix of five generations of the ancestors of Catherine Comer. The main portion of the book uses a combination of the formats known as the Modified Register System and the Henry System, so that each descendant's name is accompanied by a number which indicates the person's generation and his or her position within the nuclear family. This book is called Volume One in the hope that, as a result of its exposure, readers will contact the author with additional information which might one day permit the compilation of a second volume. The full-name index contains about 5,000 names, of which 1,838 are Rittgers descendants. (1998), 2015, 5½x8½, paper, index, 306 pp.

© 2016 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Book Shelf: May Tibbetts Jarvis at the New England Historic Genealogical Society

Yesterday Christine posted about a letter sent by the New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) thanking May Tibbets Jarvis* for her contributions, assuring her "they would never be allowed to leave the Library."

I decided to check up on them and here's what I found:

[Results of Author Search for May Tibbets Jarvis at NEHGS website AmericanAncestors.com]

*Christine's paternal 2nd great grand aunt.


© 2016 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Book Shelf: Letters from Alabama on various subjects

My paternal fourth great grandfather Henry Avery's name appears on a "List of Letters, 9 Jan 1819, remaining in Huntsville Post Office" so my eye was caught by Donna R. Causey of Alabama Pioneers recent reference to Anne Royall's description of "some settlers of Huntsville & Madison County, Alabama," in her 1830 book Letters from Alabama.

[Book digitized by Google from the library of New York Public Library and uploaded to the Internet Archive by user tpb.]

I've already posted about Phillip Henry Gosse's eyewitness account of life in Alabama in 1838 in his book with the same name and now I'm looking forward to reading what Mrs. Royall had to say about the state.

[Alabama. Drawn and Published by F. Lucas Jr. J. Cone, Sc. (1822). Source: David Rumsey Historical Map Collection.]

[Detail of above 1822 map of Alabama, showing location of Huntsville.]

Here's a description of her I found at the Library of Congress's website:

"Early in the 19th century the newspaper Paul Pry dedicated itself to exposing political corruption and religious fraud. It was edited by the audacious Anne Newport Royall at a time when few women were newspaper editors and even fewer were willing to take on the establishment. 

The Library's collection of the works of Royall include nine volumes of travel books, one novel and two newspapers that together span more than 30 years -- from Presidents Monroe to Pierce. Royall's travels took her from Louisiana to Maine, and her observations of the people and places she encountered provide a rich glimpse into antebellum America. As the self-appointed guardian of democracy, Royall exposed graft and corruption wherever she went. Her boldness and tenacity were remarkable in an era when society was obsessed with the trappings of gentility."

© 2016 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Book Shelf Revisited: The Development and Growth of City Directories

Christine's post earlier today about city directories reminded me of a century-old book on the subject I found on Google books last year. In its 152 pages A.V. Williams attempts to give a historical overview of city directories all over the world. In his introduction Mr. Williams states that he's "selected the oldest and most populous cities by which to show the progress made in the directory business." (Sadly San Diego didn't make the grade.)

[The development and growth of city directories, A. V. Williams. Williams directory Company, 1913.

Source: Google Books. Original from the New York Public Library] 

I'm including his section on Philadelphia's city directories in its entirety as a sample of his style. Because the Philadelphia lead the way, Mr Williams devotes more space to it than most other U.S. cities.

 

My original post is here; the book is available as a free e-book here.

© 2016 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.