Weekly Updates at the GHLL

Genealogy and History Data Updates April 30 - May 6, 2012.


We have extra exciting updates this week at the GHLL!

Another great guest post for the Branching Out Newsletter is from none other than Randy Seaver! We also have highlighted a recently launched website (that is so much more) The In-Depth Genealogist.

Musings On A Munday Follow The Travel Routes And Advice

I'm pretty sure at one time or another that someone has told me to look at possible travel routes my ancestors may have taken. Routes in context to the travel options available in the appropriate time period, such as the railroad. At one time or another someone, maybe several someones, told me to map out the locations where I knew my ancestors lived. I might have even attended a class, or four, that stressed using Google Maps to help visualize our family in their locations. I apologize to each and every one of you, that shared that very valuable information with me, for ignoring your advice.

Had I taken your advice I might not have limited my searches to only the counties my ancestors actually lived in. I might have taken into account that they had to get from one place to another, thus crossing through other counties and states, possibly creating records in those counties as well. Lesson learned...finally!

GHLL Weekly Updates

Genealogy and History Data Updates April 23 - April 29, 2012.

The contributors at the GHLL just keep adding and updating!

Mocavo My New BFF

Why? This---------->

I've been looking for my grandparents marriage for 10 years. I spent 30 minutes on Mocavo and there it is! This index is from the Greater Omaha Genealogical Society's website and Mocavo has it indexed frontwards, backwards and sideways!!

Mocavo The Search Engine for Genealogists

Disclosure: I was given a complementary Mocavo Plus subscription for review.

I've recently taken some time to explore Mocavo. The first thing I noticed...they have this blog indexed forward, backward and sideways!

My father's line is Baudermann and there are just not that many of them out there. Similar to other search engines, the first 3 to 4 pages of the Mocavo search results, for Baudermann, are my blog posts. It's always fun to see your blog posts show up, but I really would like some new material.

Mocavo Plus makes it easy to exclude my blog posts from the results. On the Advanced Search tab is a field to enter exclusions. I typed "Desperately Seeking" in the exclusion box and my blog posts were eliminated from the results. I chose not to type in my full blog name, as I was afraid putting the word "Surnames" in the exclusion box may eliminate some valid results.

Without using the exclusion box, Baudermann returned 886 search results. When I exclude Desperately Seeking I have 64 results.  I may have gone a little overboard in posting about this family! In addition to fewer links to review, I can tell their relevance immediately. I see website addresses for: Find A Grave, Ancestry.com, Genforum and Rootsweb...exactly the sources I am looking for. What a time saver! Mocavo is acting as my research assistant and "screening" my results, I like that.

Mocavo Plus also allows users to upload a GEDCOM to their site. The file can remain private (what's the point) or it can be made public and searchable. I will try this feature next. Maybe I will find there are more Baudermann's out there than what I think.

Thanks Mocavo!

GHLL Weekly Updates

Genealogy and History Data Updates April 16 - April 22, 2012.

Updated resources for California, Colorado and Connecticut.

Time to Reveal This Month's GHLL Blogger

Aprils guest GHLL newsletter author was Terri O'Connell with a wonderful post about being a good genealogy neighbor.

Terri is also our April Blogger of the Month! Thank you for participating Terri and supporting the Genealogy and History Links Library community.

Phantom Family in the 1940 Census

I have my first 1940 census image for my family but I didn't find it! I've not been doing any searching for my family in the 1940 census yet. I have a few families in rural areas that should be easy to locate. However, the ones I'm really interested are in urban areas, I think, and I'm not up to scrolling through pages and pages to find them just now.

Thanks to an eagle-eyed cousin (who found me through this blog) I have the census image for my Dad with his mother, two brothers and two cousins...according to the census. They were enumerated in Union Township in VanBuren County Arkansas. What's so interesting about this census image? It may be best for me to start a list!

 

1. Violas last name....wrong! Should be Vanderman, not because that was her actual last name because it's not. Her last name should be Baudermann (maiden name Smith). When Viola left her first husband she started using the last name of Vanderman. I will cut Viola some slack on this one and say the enumerator just spelled it wrong.
2. Violas marital status...wrong! She was not a widow, her legal husband outlived her by two years. Viola never bothered to get a divorce.
3. Violas place of birth...wrong! Viola was born in Illinois according to every previous census and her death certificate.
4. Howard's place of birth...wrong! I have Howard's New Jersey birth certificate.
5. Carol's place of birth...wrong! (are you sensing a pattern here?) I have Carol's New Jersey birth certificate.
6. Weetie and Beetie are Wyoudia and Beatrice. I will go with what is listed as nick names, I knew Wyoudia as Weedie. But they were not Viola's nieces nor were they born in Missouri. Viola later called them her step-daughters even though she never married their father. Speaking of which, where is their father George Emery?
7. Weetie and Beetie last names...wrong! Their last name was Emery.

This isn't the first document that I have found in which Viola was "creative" with the facts. I'm not at all surprised that she gave misleading information. Oh, I forgot to mention...her first name isn't even Viola!!! It's Una...add it to the list!

So, what is right about this census data? Viola did live in Nebraska from 1900 to 1910, giving her some connection to Nebraska. Viola did have sons named Howard and Carol and step-daughters Weedie and Beatrice. The ages of those listed all agree with other documents I have. Carol, enlisted in the Army in 1942 and gave VanBuren Arkansas as his residence. I also remember him talking about being in the CCC camp in Arkansas. I have photos of this family with VanBuren Arkansas listed as the location on the back.

Is this my father and his family? I believe it is, what are the odds of finding another family with that combination of names with the same birth dates in a location they should be in? (go easy on me proof police).

What I keep thinking about the most is what if I was just starting out my research on my Dad's family and this is the first document I had? I would be chasing a phantom family for sure! What a mess that would be. And, by the way...Una/Viola is the daughter of my Mary/Martha Smith person...why am I not surprised??? :)

On Your Mark, Get Set...

GO!

GHLL Weekly Updates and the 1940 Census

Genealogy and History Data Updates April 2 - April 8, 2012.

This week's Website of the Week features.....you guessed it, the 1940 Census!!

Happy Census Hunting!!

1940 Census Video 4

Originally posted September 3, 2011

The National Archives has made available a series of videos for the 1940 census.    
This is video 4 Census of Agriculture.

Watch Video 3 here.

Like A Good Neighbor Geneabloggers Are There

Sorry, State Farm, I couldn't resist!

The April edition of Branching Out is now available on the GHLL site. Our guest author for this month is Terri O'Connell of Finding Our Ancestors, her article is titled "What Kind of a Neighbor Are you in The Genealogy Community?" This is certainly something to think about. Thanks Terri!