52 Ancestors Challenge Week 42: "Lost" - Research Stymied by Disasters, Part 1

This topic brought to mind the considerable number of records lost to genealogists due to fires and natural disasters. Loss of life is of the highest concern, of course, but these disasters can go beyond the destruction of buildings and landscapes to damage invaluable records and images of our cultural heritage. So many events like these have impacted and hindered my personal genealogy research that I am going to do this in 2 parts. Here is part 1:

1. The Destruction of the 1890 U.S. Federal Census

Who amongst us genealogists doesn't wish this record set had survived?? Any American genealogist quickly comes to learn about the destruction of the 1890 U.S. Federal Census. Often it as brushed off as the result of a fire but the truth is the 1890 census records sustain two fires; one on March 22, 1896 and another on January 10, 1921. Ultimately, though, it wasn't destroyed by a fire; it was destroyed by Congress in 1935.

The first fire, on March 22, 1896, was in the Department of the Interior's storage space in Marini's Hall on E street in Washington, D.C. That fire destroyed and/or damaged most of the special schedules; the ones related to mortality, agriculture, etc. The second fire occurred on January 10, 1921 in the Commerce Building in D.C. That destroyed about 25% of the population schedules and cause smoke and water damage to another 50%. The damaged records then sat in a warehouse until Congress authorized its destruction on February 21, 1933. The actual destruction didn’t take place until 1935.

Based on the existing aggregate data it represented a population increase of about 25% since the 1880 Census. That increase was in part the result of a tremendous amount of immigration that took place between 1880 and 1890. It also would have reflected a great amount of westward migration. Not to mention that it was the first census to be tabulated by a machine known as Hollerith’s Machine. Technology! In it, respondents answered questions about immigration, naturalization, military service, and the maternity questions regarding the number of children born and living.

Less than 1% of it did survives. Perhaps you are lucky enough to find your ancestors in the fragments that exist from Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, South Dakota, Texas, and the District of Columbia. Give it a shot. Take a look. My family isn’t in there but maybe yours is. About 6,000 names are listed.

There have been far too many instances in my own research when making the jump from the 1900 census back to the 1880 census has proven to be impossible. 20 years is a lot of time for lives to change drastically; marriages, name changes, deaths, loss of infants, relocations, etc. I can attest that is is possible to miss something you never ever had. 

2. U.S. Military Personnel Records, NPRC Fire of 1973

Ever try to get your ancestor's records of service from WWI or WWII from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)? No luck, right? Yeah, me too. 

That is because on July 12, 1973, a devastating fire ripped through the 6th floor of the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) in St. Louis, Missouri. Of the 22 million individual files that were stored on that floor alone, approximately 16–18 million Official Military Personnel Files (OMPF) were destroyed. This vague number is due to the fact that the records had never been indexed, microfilmed, or duplicated. There is no database or registry to check on what was lost. Each file was as specific and unique to the individual as was their military service from basic training and burial.

In 1956, the Department of Defense constructed its six-story, state-of-the-art archives building outside of St. Louis to serve as the NPRC, which was formed in an effort to streamline federal agencies archival processes and house service records of all federal civil and military service personnel.  By the time of the fire in 1973, the NPRC had amassed a collection of about 52 million individual personnel records. The building's major flaw was that it lacked a sprinkler system. Yeah, for real. That seems ridiculous to us now but at the time of its construction there was a strong fear that such a system's potential to cause water damage was more likely than the occurrence of a fire.

That fire, though, burned for over 22 hours. Forty-two fire districts worked together to contain the fire to the 6th floor. Fortunately, no one was killed or injured, but the fire caused the roof to collapse and the heat was so  prolonged and intense that metal shelves and filing cabinets melted. Water and debris were everywhere. Records were reduced to ashes. It is estimated that 80% of the Army personnel records for those discharged between November 1, 1912 and January 1, 1960 were destroyed as well as 75% of the Air Force's personnel records for those discharged between September 25, 1947 and January 1, 1964 (with names alphabetically after Hubbard, James E.). To this day the cause of the fire is unknown.

Once extinguished, though, the painstaking effort of restoration began. The July heat and humidity in St. Louis created circumstances ideal for mold growth and thus approximately 90,000 cubic feet of documents needed drying immediately. Ultimately, vacuum chambers in the nearby McDonnell Douglas Aircraft Corporation plant were used to squeeze literally tons of the water out of the salvaged records. 

The NPRC’s work to restore and reconstruct these records continues to this day. The Center’s treatment labs use the latest technology to make remaining damaged files legible again. However, the sad reality is that the vast majority of records were reduced to ash. No technology can make ashes legible. Typically NARA can prove a veterans eligibility for benefits or next of kin entitlements from auxiliary records not originally stored with the rest of the files. Unfortunately, auxiliary records only tell part of the story the. The fuller history of an individual's military service is often just lost forever.

3. The New York State Library Fire of 1911

On March 29, 1911, a fire in New York's State capitol city of Albany, destroyed an enormous amount of historical and genealogical records. The New York State Capitol building is currently the seat of New York's state government, but in 1911 it also housed the State Library. The fire started in the Assembly Library. Fueled by the abundance of paper, some dating back to colonial New Netherland, the fire quickly spread down the hall to the nearby State Library.

Unfortunately, the Library and all its materials were scheduled to move to a new building on January 1, 1911 but due to construction delays all materials were still in the Capitol building when the fire occurred. The more famous, horrific Triangle Shirtwaist Co. factory fire happened in Manhattan just 4 days before the Capital fire. The conflagration of these events led to the a strengthen of building codes and safety laws in New York State and eventually nationwide.

Nearly half a million books, stacked floor to ceiling on pine shelves, were destroyed as well as over 300,000 manuscripts and the entire card catalog consisting of nearly 1 million records. In fact, only about 7,000 books and 80,000 manuscripts were saved through the heroic efforts of several librarians.  Present day researchers of New York history owe a great debt to the librarians who risk their lives running around the burning corridors to save books and documents.

Like with the aforementioned fires, as soon as the building was safe to enter, the recovery effort began. And again, even the many volumes that escaped the flames were severely damaged from smoke and/or the water from the firefighters efforts to extinguish the fire.  Researchers and librarians often come across tangible evidence of the fire in the form of documents charred around the edges or shriveled from water damage. Among some of the important documents saved was the original Emancipation Proclamation, written in Abraham Lincoln’s own hand.

With my deep New York roots, it is hard to estimate what more I might be able to learn about my family history if those resources had they survived. By the way, according to Capitol lore, the ghost of sole victim of the fire, 78-year-old night watchman, Samuel Abbott, is said to haunt the Capitol’s fourth floor where his body was found.