52 Ancestors Challenge Week 42: "Lost" - Research Stymied by Disasters, Part 2

Continuing my report of famous, or infamous, events that destroyed significant genealogy resources in my own research: 

4. The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake 

At 5:12 a.m. Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, one of the deadliest earthquakes in U.S. history struck the northern coast of California. It occurred prior to the development of the Richter magnitude scale, but it is estimated to have been a 7.9 magnitude quake. It was soon followed by devastating fires that lasted for several days. It is estimated that more than 3,000 people died. It has been suggested that hundreds of fatalities occurred in the Chinatown area of the city that went unrecorded. The total number of deaths is still uncertain but over 80 percent of the city was destroyed.  Approximately 300,000 out of 410,000 residents were left homeless. Newspapers described vast areas, including Golden Gate Park, as covered with makeshift tents for more than two years following the event. It is said that more material was removed from the aftermath of the 1906 earthquake than was dug out of the earth to build the Panama Canal.

An inestimable numbers of vital artifacts and records were lost when the city institutions were reduced to ruins. The fire that resulted from the quake covered over 490 blocks. It burned for four days until rain helped to extinguish it. It consumed City Hall and its Hall of Records which house all the city's vital records. It also destroyed libraries, courts, jails, businesses, at least 30 schools, and more than 80 churches. The earthquake still serves as a demarcation in the City's history; there is City history and City history prior to 1906.

It was, however, the first widely photographed natural disaster in history. So we have pictures of the aftermath, but not images of those records which may have included the birth of my great-great aunt's husband, Thomas Leechin.

I believe Thomas was born in San Francisco on November 11, 1891. We are not entirely sure though. He may have been born in China. We're not even sure if he was of 100% Chinese ancestry though. His mother may have been an American. Anti-Asian policies and discrimination caused many Chinese immigrants to fabricate their records at that time often referred to as being a "paper son." Paper sons or paper daughters is a term used to refer to Chinese people who were born in China and illegally immigrated to the United States by purchasing documentation which stated that they were blood relatives to Chinese-Americans who had already received U.S. citizenship. So Thomas's origin story is unclear. If his 1891 birth certificate could be found for him in the city where he recorded he was born, San Francisco, we might have been able to know his family's origin but we know there are no birth records for that city prior to 1906 unless the family held on to the originals. So, insert shrug here.

5. Ellis Island's Fire in 1897

Have you ever been to the Statue of Liberty? When you were standing on line, the remnants of a brownstone behind you was actually remains of Castle Garden. The first American immigration station. It was opened in 1855, pre-dating Ellis Island and post-dating the arrival of most of my people. Although, I'm not entirely sure of that. I haven't had great success finding many passenger lists.

Between 1855 and 1890, more than 8 million people arrived in the United States through Castle Garden which was operated by New York State. In April 1890, the U.S. government assumed control over immigration and established a temporary processing center in lower Manhattan called the Barge Office while Ellis Island facilities were being constructed. Ellis Island's immigration processing center opened on January 1, 1892. It was constructed entirely of wood. 

Danger! Danger! You know what's coming...

During the early morning hours of June 15, 1897, the fire which burned for nearly 2 hours, left all but 3 stone structures standing on the island. All that remained was the engine house, the electric and steam plant, and the doctor's house. The main building, which was 750 feet long, 250 feet wide, and three stories high was gone as was a restaurant, laundry, morgue, storage house, the pier, and, you guessed it, the record building. All gone.

Fortunately, all of the 222 employees and immigrants on the island that evening were rescued. No lives were lost but all the records for passenger arrivals at Castle Garden from 1855 to 1890, the Barge Office from 1890 to 1891, and Ellis Island from 1892 to 1897 we're destroyed.

For the next 3 1/2 years, authorities went back to using the old Barge Office while a new fireproof structure was being built on Ellis Island. On December 17, 1900, the new steel, brick, and stone building opened on Ellis Island. The port was permanently closed for immigration processing in 1954.

 

In a nation of immigrants, having a major port experience a fire after one of the largest period of immigration could have been completely devastating in terms of records. Fortunately, the U.S. Customs Office also collected passenger lists so while the Ellis Island Foundation’s Passenger Search does not include ship manifests for years prior to 1897, Customs Lists for those passengers arriving at New York from 1820 to 1896 do exist. Quite similar to a ship manifest, these records detail each passenger’s name, age, country of origin, as well as how many pieces of luggage they carried. 

6. Bombing of Four Courts, Dublin, Ireland, 1922 

Not all disasters destroying documentation occur on U.S. soil. I just happen to have had ancestors here for a very long time and thus I have learned most about disasters that get in the way of my research. There are surely many many other abroad. Of of course, there was the Four Courts bombing in Dublin in 1922 during the Irish Civil War. 

Located on the north bank of the River Liffey, Dublin's Four Courts building opened in 1802. Originally, it held the four courts, thus the name - the Chancery, King's Bench, Exchequer, and Court of Common Pleas. In 1922, the Public Records Office was within the Four Courts building complex. Two days into the Irish Civil War, on June 30, 1922, a massive, deliberate explosion destroyed hundreds of years of documents. The explosion was so loud that it was heard up to 20 miles away and so forceful that fragments of mediaeval manuscripts were found strewn miles away from the site.

The deliberate destruction of national libraries, museums, and cultural artifacts has been considered a war crime since the 1954 Hague Convention. Not that this stops such destruction. In 1992 hundreds of years of civil records were destroyed deliberately during the Siege of Sarajevo wiping out over a million culturally valuable objects and irreplaceable records. But I digress - -

The Irish Public Records Office housed many genealogical treasures including the Irish census returns dating back to the first, most comprehensive one in 1821. Only fragments of the census remain. It also housed original wills dating back to the 16th century and more than 1,000 Church of Ireland parish registers filled with baptism, marriage, and burial records. Nearly everything they held was lost.   

Too often, though, I hear claims that ALL of Ireland's records were lost and as a result tracing your Irish ancestors is impossible. That simply isn't true. The destruction of the Public Records Office is certainly a hindrance to researching Irish ancestry but many valuable records remain. For example, baptism, marriage and burial records for Roman Catholics, Presbyterians, and Methodists were not housed at the Public Records Office. Nor were Griffiths Valuation; the primary source of land and property records for the middle of the 19th century. A good number of indexes to wills and probate bonds survive.  Much of your success in Irish research, though, depends on if you know where your Irish relatives lived. I, however, don't know where all my Irish ancestors were from. Well, I know where my Hinch and Hughes families were from but my Fays, Grays, Kelleys, and Joyces - - I have no clue. And could you get more common Irish last names? Sometimes with a less common surname you can pinpoint regions where the names were more prominent but seriously - Fay, Gray, Kelley, and Joyce???

There is debate and controversy surrounding the party responsible for the bombing but regardless of the culprit, the destruction of the Public Records Office is disgraceful. It wiped out priceless records of Irish history, robbing future generations of their heritage.

A century later we are all still trying to assemble bit and pieces to fill the gaps from copies, indices, and notes from people who researched the collection pre-1922. Ireland’s Virtual Record Treasury research project is underway, though, working to retrieve as many of the duplicated documents as possible through other archives. Some records were rescued. Three hundred bundles of documents which were retrieved from the fire were locked away for the last century in the National Archives and they are being digitized for researchers to access. Some of these records date back to the 14th and 15th centuries. So there is still hope that someday some resource will surface to assist me in my quest, but I feel the grief of that disaster frequently.