Genealogy Clues

When I attended a Cajun music program last night I thought I was going to listen to just music but that wasn't the case. Musician and historian, Dennis Stroughmatt, shared a bit of the history of French music from Canada to Illinois and Louisianna. He related there were two areas of France that influenced music in Canada. They were Brittany and Normandy. Brittany has a Celtic background and they speak Gaelic. In Normandy, they were people of Dutch, Belgium, and German heritage. Could it be that my Shetler family did come from France to Canada? Possibly, Normandy? I've been told their name sounded more German than French. So this is a possibility. In census after census record, Adeline stated she and her parents were French Canadians. You never know where you may get a genealogy clue.

http://creolefiddle.com/creolefiddle.com/Home.html

Spelling Errors and the Census

It can be frustrating at times trying to finding census records for family members. It can be even more frustrating when researchers have to deal with spelling errors. When researching my great grandfather, Horace Sanders, I could not find his 1940 census record on Ancestry. He didn't die until the 1950's so I knew he was still alive during the 1940 census. It's rare for a person not to be enumerated but it did occasionally happen. Fortunately, I did find Horace's record on Family Search so I knew it existed although his record could not be found on Ancestry or so I thought. It wasn't until I was searching for Horace's soon to be daughter-in-law, Dorothy, that I found Horace. In the 1940 census, Dorothy was living in the household of Horace Souders not Sanders. Souders is not a name I would have ever considered as an alternative to Sanders but there it was Souders. Horace, his wife, Margaret, his two sons, Edward and Donald as well as Dorothy were all living at the same residence. Dorothy was a lodger.

To easily find Horace's 1940 census record, I edited his name to Souders and the 1940 census record immediately appeared as a hint on Ancestry. I changed Horace's surname back to Sanders after I added the record to Margaret, Edward and Donald. Just an added note that a few months after the census was taken Donald and Dorothy were married in Albany, Illinois.

So never give up when you cannot find a record. Try a variety of spelling variations for surnames. Check Family Search for records. Horace's 1940 census record was indexed correctly on Family Search and the record was also available to view.

Hugunin Family of Albany, Illinois

The following are newspaper transcriptions that I had transcribed a few years ago on the Hugunin family. A family I feel were related to my great greatgrandfather, David Byers born 1833 in Butler County, Ohio. 

JAMES HUGUNIN, passed away at his home in Upper Albany, yesterday afternoon at 1 o'clock p.m., after an illness of about three weeks. He was born Dec. 24, 1839, in butler county, Ohio, and came with his parents, to Albany when he was six years old. At fifteen he engaged in the river business, and followed that occupation for many years. He was a thirty-second degree Mason, belonging to the consistory at Lyons , Ia. , and for several years was master of the Albany lodge, No. 566, A.F. & A.M. He leaves a wife, and two daughters and one son to mourn his loss. - Sterling Evening Gazette 13 January 1906 p. 1; col. 2

ROBERT HUGUNIN - Rivermen are dragging the slough near the Docia in the hope of finding a trace of Robert Hugunin, who disappeared Sunday. They are using chain drags in efforts to locate the missing man. - Sterling Gazette 24 April 1917 p. 6; col. 1 

Robert Hugunin Was Not Drowned Was Verdict At Inquest 
The disappearance of Robert Hugunin, formerly of Albany , from his home at Comanche on the afternoon of April 15, had just been cleared, when his body was found floating in the Mississippi river on the Iowa side just above LeClaire. A post-mortem examination and inquest was held at LeClaire. The evidence showed that he had been dead some time before the body was placed in the river. The testimony of the physicians who performed the autopsy was that Hugunin's neck had been dislocated, the wind-pipe crushed, and there were scalp wounds. There was no water in the lungs, which showed conclusively that he was dead before the body was thrown into the river. The verdict of the jury was in accordance with the evidence. - Sterling Gazette 26 May 1917 p. 1; col. 2

SAMUEL E. HUGUNIN - Funeral service of Samuel E. Hugunin, 61, who died at his home in Albany Sunday after a brief illness with bronchial pneumonia, were held at the family residence at 2:30 o'clock Tuesday afternoon. Burial was in the Oak Ridge cemetery, Albany.
Contributed by Patritia Taylor - Sterling Gazette 24 March 1931 p. 2; col. 3

Save Iowa's History

I often grimace when people state that they are not “political”. Whether you are vocal or not we are all political by our actions. By not being vocal or not voting basically is saying that one is happy with the status quo. Whatever politicians do is fine by them. They don’t want to be bothered or really care.  Unfortunately, there are politicians that have their own agendas and are finding ways to use our laws to meet those agendas. By not speaking up it's giving them free reign to do whatever they wish to do.

Recently, as most genealogists know, Indiana’s history was in danger and now Iowa’s history is in danger of being lost or made unavailable. Other states have made it extremely difficult to nearly impossible for genealogist to obtain information on their ancestors. We are all dealing with the loss of the Social Security Death Index.

To say, you are not political is basically saying you just don’t care. Please care and sign the petition to save Iowa's history. 

https://www.change.org/p/iowa-department-of-cultural-affairs-terry-branstad-state-historical-society-of-iowa-save-iowa-history-restore-funding-for-the-state-historical-society-of-iowa-libraries-and-archives-keep-physical-records-of-iowa-history-accessible-to-all

Naming Patterns...Who is Who?

Researching our families can be difficult enough as it is but when you also take in consideration naming patterns it can get darn right exasperating. I became aware of naming patterns when I was researching my Scottish families. Names that kept repeating themselves in my family were: Alexander, William, and James for the males and Henrietta for the females. There's no set rule but this is one variation I found:

Male children in order of birth: father's father: mother's father; father; father's oldest brother; father's second oldest brother; or mother's oldest brother.

Female children in order of birth: mother's mother; father's mother; mother; mother's oldest sister; mother's second oldest sister; or father's oldest sister.

Other naming practices: Often times when a child died the next child born of the same sex would be named after the child that had died. Sometimes when a wife died and the husband remarried the next female child might be named for his deceased wife. Other nationalities often used naming patterns, too.

Figuring out if your families followed a naming pattern just might aid you in finding more of your family.

Link of interest: http://genealogy.about.com/od/naming_patterns/

An Unexpected Find

Today, I visited the Cordova, Illinois library looking for an obituary for my great uncle William Thompson's first wife Mahala Jane Durbin (1907-1972). I found while researching online that the Cordova Public Library had an obituary collection and the collection included an obituary for Mahala. Unfortunately no one knew anything about an obituary collection. The good news was that the library had published a history and genealogy book, "Cordova Illinois Then & Now Revisited 1836-1976-2001". Its a 125th anniversary commemorative publication of the town. In the book there are 5 pages about Mahala Durbin's family and even pictures of Mahala when she was young. What a find! The book was free and it contains 346 pages of family information and local history.

Cordova is located in Rock Island County on the banks of the Mississippi River. It's a neighboring county of Whiteside where most of my ancestors lived. At one time people would travel up and down rivers much like we do today on highways. I've learned that it's always a good idea to check neighboring towns for ancestors. So one of my goals has been to learn more about towns in my area. Cordova is one of the towns that I didn't know very much about so I was thrilled to find this book.

I may not have found what I was looking for today but to me the book is far more valuable than an obituary would ever be. It contains a wealth of information on local history and the photographs are really priceless.

I haven't given up on finding Mahala Jane Durbin's obituary. It's just going to take a little more researching. Stay tuned...


Link of Interest: http://cordova.lib.il.us/roots.htm

RootsMOOC

This morning I attended part of the first module of RootsMOOC: An Introduction to Genealogy and Family Research. This course is being sponsored by The Z. Smith Reynolds Library at Wake Forest University and the State Library of North Carolina. It is free to attend but you must be registered to participate. The course is intended for beginners but advanced researchers will benefit from it as well.

I am really impressed with the class so far. I attended the introduction and read some of the discussion comments. It looks like there’s a very interesting conversation going on there. The next section will go into more details about using various forms for research. The first module will be offered for three weeks so there's plenty of time to view each segment and to comprehend what is being presented. Since the course has been recorded participants can view each segment as many times as they wish. You can stop the video, take notes and replay anything you might have missed. In fact, when I watched the opening and introduction over I picked up on a few additional points that I had missed.

I am excited that this class is being offered. I’m often asked how one starts researching their family history. This isn't always an easy question to answer. Most people want an answer that will tell them instantly everything they ever wanted to know about their family with the least amount of effort. The fact is genealogy and family history takes a lot of work and patience. This is not what most people want to hear.

For me, genealogy and family history is a journey. One that can be most rewarding. As a life-long learner I am always eager to learn new ideas and better ways for doing genealogy research. My interest in this course includes learning ways to teach others how to research their families. I know how I do research but I've learned the hard way. I want to be able to teach others the correct way from the very beginning so that they can be successful in researching their family history and stories. Hopefully their journeys can be just as rewarding.


Link of Interest:

https://www.canvas.net/browse/reynoldslibrary/courses/intro-to-genealogy








stories.  

Webinars

I'd like to create a page just for webinars but I haven't figured out how to add pages to this blog yet. So instead I'll post the upcoming webinars for this week. This is a busy week for genealogy webinars. Pre-registration is a must. Some societies will provide handouts to all attendees and other ones only to members of their society. If you enjoy a particular society it's worth the cost of a membership to be able to view past webinars and to obtain copies of the handouts. The handouts often provide links and reference notes for more information. The following webinar list is not complete. I'm sure there are other webinars that I don't know about.

March 17:
The Board for Certification of Genealogists  (BCG) will be hosting James M. Baker presenting, "Elementary, My Dear Watson! Solving Your Genealogy Puzzles with Clues You Already Have," at 7:00 p.m. CT. Note: This webinar has already reached it's limit of 500 attendees. 

The Association of Professional Genealogist (APG) will be hosting Paula Stuart-Warren presenting, "Are You Ready to be a Professional Genealogist?" at 8:00 p.m. CT.

March 18:
Legacy Family Tree Webinars will be hosting Judy Wight presenting, "Irish Genealogical Records in the 17th-19th Centuries," at 1:00 p.m. CT. 

Georgia State Genealogical Society will be hosting Thomas MacEntee presenting, "Managing the Genealogy Data Monster," at 7:00 p.m. CT.

Southern California Genealogical Society will be hosting Lisa Louise Cooke presenting, "Get the Scoop on Your Family History with Newspapers," at 6:00 p.m. PDT.

March 19:
Florida State Genealogical Society will be hosting Claire V. Brisson-Banks presenting, "Attacking Brick Walls Using Technology and Traditional Methods," at 7:00 p.m. CT.

That's all for now.

Creating A Strong Foundation

This past month one of the blog posts I especially enjoyed was from Donna Moughty's Genealogy Blog titled, "Creating A Strong Foundation." Donna lays out a path to follow for genealogy research. It's an especially good post for beginners to read and a good review for experienced researchers. Without a good foundation we cannot expect our research to be considered complete.

Donna Moughty is a professional genealogist specializing in Irish genealogy. I first heard her present for Legacy Family Tree Webinars and have been a fan of hers ever since.

Link of Interest:

"Donna's Irish Genealogy Resources." 

Kindred Voices

On Friday, March 6th, Legacy Family Tree's webinar host, Geoff Rasmussen, presented a webinar about his serendipity moments that led him to write his new book, "Kindred Voices: Listening for Our Ancestors." The webinar about Geoff's serendipity moments will be available for free indefinitely on www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com. If you need inspirations or have ever had doubts that your ancestors wanted to be found, you won't after watching this webinar. As Geoff said you only have to look with your heart.

I have had several seredipity moments of my own. One in which led me to information and never before seen photographs of my great, great grandfather, Luman Wakeman, which I will be sharing more about soon.

Welcome to Rock River Heritage and beyond...

The Rock River Valley

Welcome to my genealogy blog “Rock River Heritage and beyond…” The Rock River Valley located in northwestern Illinois gets its name from the river that flows through it. The Rock River's source is in central Wisconsin just north of Horicon Marsh. It meanders in a southwesterly direction and flows almost 300 miles where it eventually joins the Mississippi River at Rock Island, Illinois. Rivers were often what brought settlers to an area and towns would soon build up along their waterways. My families came to the Rock River Valley and settled in towns along the river and in nearby communities. The "beyond..." in my title is for families that lived in places other than the Rock River Valley. Most came from the east and northeastern parts of the United States and some came from Canada, Ireland and Scotland.  I've created this blog mainly to learn more about my ancestors; their history and the history where they came from. I won't only be writing about my families. I intend to share research tips, sites of interest and other genealogy related topics as well. Genealogy has been a life-long pursuit of mine and I especially enjoy sharing what I have learned with others. I'm really looking forward to learning more about my ancestors. 

Link of Interest: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_River_(Mississippi_River)