Keeping Your Genealogy Documents Organized

There are lots of programs out there to help you keep your genealogical data in order. To keep my tree in order I maintain a family tree on ancestry.com. Even if my membership to ancestry.com lapses from time to time they continue to maintain my tree as one of their sources; that way other researchers can see if they can connect to my research.

That is the tree though. How do you organize your documentation. If you are creating a tree full of data (names, dates of birth, dates of death, dates of marriages, various locations, etc.) you should be supporting that data with documentation; papers or electronic records. If you are not building a collection of such sources you are doing yourself and the genealogical community a great disservice. You must collect resources!

When you do collect sources, how do you maintain them?

I used to have this great system. Every document I obtained I made a copy of it for each family member named within it. I would then file it away in a folder for each individual. For example, I made 3 copies of my own birth certificate; I filed one in a folder for me, one for my father, and one for my mother. The system worked wonderfully. If you asked me about my dad, I would just bust out his folder and every document I had that mentioned him was right there. Great! Fabulous! 

The downfall of this system was the fact that it was so cumbersome. It would grow exponentially every year. It is one thing to have 3 copies of a birth certificate in 3 folders but consider, if you will, a will.

I have one will in my collection that is 14 pages long and names 28 relatives. In my old system that would result in 392 pages of paper. Think about census records; they name whole households which is not too weighty if you have 3 family members in a household but what about those families that consisted of 10, 11, 12, 13 children. Watch out photocopier!

So now I have another system in place; one that has significantly streamlined my collection. I developed an MS Access database in a graduate class I took. This database has changed my research life!

The database allows me to keep 1 copy of each document and link it to as many people as necessary. Each document is given a unique identification numbers and simply filed in the order in which I acquire them. Each individual is also given a unique identification number which allows me to pull up a list of all the documents a specific individual.

If you're a genealogy researcher I would love to hear how you keep your information and documentation in order.

Newspaper Articles Flesh-out the Life of Ambrose Weeks

In my opinion, the difference between calling oneself a genealogist or a family historian depends on what information you are gathering about your family. A family historian wants the stories. Filling in the names, dates, and location of life events on a chart is all well and good but if you don't invest some time in learning about the people and their stories what are you really doing this research for? What do all those names and dates and places mean to anyone if you don't glean a few good stories from your research?

Newspaper articles are some of the best resources to add some color to the family characters. If you have not spent some time searching historic newspapers for stories on your ancestors you are really missing out.

For some time now I have been fascinated with a man in my tree; Ambrose Weeks. What a great name, right? Ambrose.

Ambrose was the brother-in-law of my 4th great-grandmother, Lydia Smith-Losee. He was married to Lydia's sister, Elizabeth Smith-Weeks. It's a distant relationship but still one of great interest to me.

In the 1860 U.S. Federal Census, Ambrose is listed as 41 year of age, married to Elizabeth, living in Brooklyn, and employed at a furniture store. In the 1870 U.S. Federal Census, Ambrose and Elizabeth are living in Port Washington, Long Island, New York working as an undertaker. 

Now some might think that is a considerable jump in occupation but back then it wasn't all that far fetched. Furniture makers were often cabinet makers and coffins are nothing more than big cabinets. Making coffins could lead one to working for an undertaker; and that could lead to learning the funeral business.

It seems to me Ambrose was climbing the social ladder pretty quickly. In ten years to go from working in a furniture store to filling such an important role in the community as undertaker is pretty impressive to me.

However, I found a mention of Ambrose Weeks in the New York Times on November 24, 1873 in a section of the paper called City and Suburban News. Under a portion headed Long-Island it reads:

"Ambrose Weeks, of Roslyn, a cabinet-maker, made a desperate and deliberate attempt to commit suicide on Saturday morning by cutting his throat with a razor."

My God, how sad. 

Note that Roslyn is a neighborhood very close to Port Washington on the North Shore of Nassau County, New York.

The report of his attempted suicide was also reported in Newtown Register, The Brooklyn Daily Union, and The New York Tribune. The worst of which was the one I found in the Newtown Register. It read as follows: 

Ambrose Weeks, a cabinet-maker, attempted self-destruction by cutting his throat with a razor, Saturday. He inflicted a deep wound, but lives to try again.

To try again?? Really, Register, really?
 
Ambrose survived, though Register, as is apparent by another article found in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle from October 30, 1885 on page 6 which states that "Ambrose Weeks, of Hempstead, has sued August Belmont, Jr. to recover $35.33 for labor."

August Belmont, Jr. as in the man who built Belmont Park Racetrack here on Long Island; a very well-to-do gentleman of distinguished birth.

Photo of August Belmont, Jr. Taken 1904. From the Library of Congress.

One has to wonder if Ambrose ever got that money in light of the next article I found in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle from May 4, 1900 on page 11, it reads as follows:

Died in the Almshouse

Ambrose Weeks, Once a Wealthy Merchant, a Pauper, Deserted by Friends

Hempstead, L.I., May 4 - - Ambrose Weeks, who was at one time one of the prominent merchants of this section of the Island and who is connected with some of the best Long Island families, died yesterday in the almshouse at Hempstead.

He was at one time quite wealthy and was engaged extensively in the furniture business in Hempstead. Misfortune and reverses overtook him in his old age, when his relatives and friends also deserted him, he was compelled to seek refuge in the Town Almshouse in Uniondale, where he has been for some years.

Mr. Weeks was over 80 years of age. His funeral service will be conducted by the Rev. Henry B. Bryan, canon of the Garden City Cathedral.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Garden City Cathedral, or more correctly the Cathedral of the Incarnation, here in Garden City, Long Island, it is indeed a quite spectacular Gothic-style, Episcopal Cathedral.

This photo was taken in about 1885. Image is owned by the Cornell University Library, NY.

The saddest of all the articles though I think is this one appearing in the June 30, 1898 edition of the Newtown Register; a year before Ambrose's death. The mention was extracted from an article that appeared in the Hempstead Sentinel  on June 23rd. It stated:

Ambrose Weeks was 79 years old last week. He has been spending the winter on the farm and Saturday he was in the village "renewing old acquaintance." Shortly after the death of his wife some five years ago, he purchased a tomb-stone and had it erected beside that of his wife's grave in Greenfield Cemetery. It is lettered requiring only a date of death to complete it.

Oh Ambrose, I imagine you a sad, heart-broken man but I don't really know that. These articles do not clearly speak to whether Ambrose's own actions brought on his circumstances; maybe he was a miserly, cruel man unworthy of friends and affection or perhaps he was simply suffering through depression and misfortune and deeply misunderstood by those around him. Regardless, he certainly suffered in his final years alone, destitute, and estranged from friends and family; poor Ambrose. His sad story awakens in me an awareness of the harsh reality of existence. I imagine that had I know him I would have tried to adore him.

If not for these various newspaper articles, Ambrose Weeks would have just been another name on the tree; the husband of a 5th great-aunt who never had any children; no heirs to pass on stories of his character or experiences.

If researching your own family tree, do not disregard the importance of newspapers. They can fill in much of your family's story; bringing these names and dates to life again. If researching in the New York area, I recommend searching the Brooklyn Daily Eagle Online and the Old Fulton New York Post Cards website  for starters.

In Praise of the German Genealogy Group

On Sunday, January 27, I posted about my favorite family name; my great-great-great grandmother's name, Olivine Page-Ethier. In that post I mentioned how I have been unable to find her death certificate probably due to a misspelling of her name or an indexing issue. After writing that I thought, "Hell, why don't I just email the organization that put together that online New York City Death Records Database and see if they can help me." And so, that is exactly what I did.

By Monday at noon I had a response from a gentleman named Donald at the German Genealogy Group. He found an entry in the index that is most likely my Olivine:

Olevene Eltrier,  Age 70y,  Died 11-Dec-1906, Queens County, Certificate # 3434.

The German Genealogy Group and the Italian Genealogical Group have worked together to make very important New York City based indexes available online to all members of the genealogy community. One of the many databases they created is the New York City Death Records, 1891-1948 database which is available for free online. For anyone who has New York City residents in their family tree these databases are a godsend. They facilitate the ordering of records from the New York City Municipal Archives. Just the index alone is helpful in determining dates of death for your ancestors. However, whenever possible a genealogy researcher will want a copy of that document to examine the details and support their data.

The Death Record database was the one I was complaining about in my earlier post, though. To search it you need to have at least 2 letters of the person's last name. If the name is spelled wrong that can pose a challenge. However, the organizations have access to the full database and were obviously able to search the index in a different way to provide me with the information that I needed.

With the information Donald gave me, I can now order Olivine's death certificate online with enough information to make the process move quickly and more efficiently. I could have provided the Municipal Archives with what information I already knew but now I have a specific certificate number and an exact date of death.

I could also go to the New York City Municipal Archives and view the document on microfilm for free and make whatever notes I would like. While at the Municipal Archives if I choose to purchase a copy of the death certificate there is a fee for the copy; $11. If I order the document online it costs $17.50 with shipping and handling.

And it just so happens that I am going to have about two hours to kill in Manhattan before a class which is being given just a half mile from 31 Chambers Street where the Municipal Archives is located. Given that the two hours will be prior to when the Archives closes at 4:30...  YAY! I will see you then, Olivine!!

I can not thank Donald enough for responding to my email. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

A Murder-Suicide in the Family Makes the Front Page

On June 24, 1908 former President Grover Cleveland died. As expected a majority the newspapers were dedicated to stories of his life and presidency. Had Great-great Grandpa Victor Henry waited just one more day to murder his wife's cousin and take his own life we might never have had this story. 

The day before, on June 23, 1908, the article transcribed below appeared on the front page of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 

It is interesting to note that Mary Cassidy was born Mary Hinch and was the cousin of Victor Henry's wife, Annette Hinch-Henry. The previous year, Victor's mother Mary Henry was living at the same address at which this murder-suicide occurred. It was the home in which Victor's mother died. Based on those details, with some certainty, I can assume that the property was owned by some member of the family; who exactly, though, I am not sure.

The article below is pretty salacious. I have my doubts that Mary and Victor were having an affair. I suspect he suffered from some mental illness and somehow thought this woman was living rent-free in his mother's house; all speculation on my part though. 

I have one digital photo of Victor. It is a digital photo taken of the picture in a photo album. It was not taken straight on and thus there is some distortion in the image; seems appropriate though.

KILLED COMELY WIDOW WHO SPURNED HIS LOVE

Ozone Park Man, With Wife and Family, Wanted Her to Elope
 
REFUSAL COST HER HER LIFE
 
After Killing Her Victor Henry Sent Three Bullets Into Own Body and Soon Died
 
Victor Henry, an Ozone Park painter married and having a family, shot and killed Mrs. Mary Cassidy, who refused to elope with him a week ago, in the back yard of her home, 95 Water street, Woodhaven, at 10:05 o'clock this morning, and then, turning the revolver on himself, sent three bullets into his heart.

After running twenty yards, following the shooting, Mrs. Cassidy fell to the ground and died in ten minutes. Henry lived for half an hour, but was never conscious during that time and consequently the motive for his act could not be secured from him. Henry had a wife and three children, who live in a tenement just north of Broadway, on Wyckoff Avenue, in Ozone Park.

From the back stoop of her residence next door, Mrs. Joseph Herzog watched every detail of the tragedy from Henry's first arrival at the house to the time that Mrs. Cassidy breathed her last. At twenty minutes of ten she saw him come through the front gate and walk to the rear of t he house where, in the thick shade of a grape arbor, Mrs. Cassidy, who was forty-five years old and comely, was bending over a wash tub. 

They talked in a low tone at first, according to the story told by Mrs. Herzog immediately after the shooting. In a moment Mrs. Cassidy cried in angry tones: " I don't want you to come around here any more. You have a wife at home. I want you to stay away."

With that Mrs. Cassidy resumed her washing and Henry bent over to make a reply, which was not audible to Mrs. Herzog. Henry continued talking for over two minutes when Mrs. Cassidy again stopped her work and exclaimed: "What! My money?" Henry again made a short reply and then, with an oath pulled the revolver from his pocket, pressed it against the side of Mrs. Cassidy's head and fired. 

With a scream that could be heard for blocks, she jumped toward her murderer and then ran wildly from under the arbor to the back fence, where she dropped to the ground, moaning and with the blood spurting from the wounds in her head.

Henry never moved from the spot where he stood, but turned the gun on himself and dropped by the side of the half-filled wash tub after the three bullets from the .32 caliber revolver had entered his breast.

Arthur M. LaPage, who lives at 88 Water Street, was also a witness in the murder and suicide, and when he saw Mrs.Cassidy fall telephoned to the Richmond Hill police station for the ambulance. Then he summoned neighbors, who rushed to revive her with stimulants. She died while they were attempting to pour whisky down her throat. 

Forty-five minutes after the police had been notified by telephone, the ambulance from St. Mary's Hospital in Jamaica arrived, but Ambulance Surgeon Voltz, who came in it, found his services were not needed. With his permission, and the consent of the police authorities, the bodies were removed to the morgue of Edward J. Ruoff, Jr., in Ozone Park.

Mrs. Cassidy moved with her four children to the Water street house, from Newark, N. J., after the death of her husband on February 29. Henry appeared at the house for the first time in the second week of May, and was assiduous in his attentions to the widow. He was well known in Woodhaven, and his visits became a scandal in the village.

Favorite Family Name: Olivine

One of my favorite family names is Olivine. It was my 3rd great-grandmother's first name; Olivine Page-Ethier. Being French Canadian, her maiden name, Page, would have been pronounced p-AH-j. And you pronounce Ethier with "air" at the end. OH-li-veen   P-AH-j   E-th-eee-air. Sounds so very....French.

The first time I came across her name was on a plot record I purchased from Calvary Cemetery in New York City. At the time I ordered the record all that I knew was that my great grandfather, Albert Gardner (also known as Almond Desjardins) was interned in the plot.

The cemetery, as I recall, told me he was interned with three other individuals but I had to pay an exorbitant amount of money for the to tell me the names and dated of burial for those people. I don't remember the exact amount of the fee but I remember thinking, "WOW" and I had to literally save up the money to order the record. I think it was $100. Now in their defense, their records are not fully digitized their clerks have to search through indexes and microfilm to provide the information. It is time consuming especially given the fact they have over 3 million internments and it is one of the oldest cemeteries in New York City.

In any case, when I received the plot record, this is the information I received:

Section: 36          Range: 10          Plot: G          Grave(s): 16
Recorded in the name of: Thomas Desjardins
Deed #: ___          Date of Purchase: June 4, 1903

Deceased Name, Date of Burial, Age at Death, Birth Place
Alinna Ethier, Dec. 14, 1906, 70, Canada
Edward Desjardins, Jun. 4, 1903, 1, NY
Clement Monno, Oct. 11, 1911, 3 ms., NY
Albert Cardner, Feb. 15, 1946, 54, US

There are several "errors" in the information I received from Calvary Cemetery. For example, Albert's last name was Gardner not Cardner, to my knowledge Monno was spelled Mono, and Thomas Desjardins was really Damas Desjardins. But such resources are primary sources for the date of burial, not necessarily for the other facts.

I believe the Alinna Ethier listed here is really Olivine Ethier, the mother-in-law of Damas (or Thomas) Desjardins. At first I thought her name was Alinna, just like the document states but giving up the notion of correct spelling I came to discover several records for Olivine; the 1900 U.S. census has her living with son Edward in Manhattan, she appears in the 1881 and 1871 census of Canada, and I found her marriage and birth records in the Drouin Collection of vital and church records from Quebec.

However, I have not been able to find her death certificate. Since she was living in the City of New York in 1900. I assume she died in the City of New York in 1906. The online index to the New York City death certificates can not be browsed by date though. At present you must provide at least two of the first letters of the last name to conduct a search. Ethier must have been misspelled or improperly indexed. Oh, indexes.

In any case, this beautiful name, Olivine, did not trickle very far down the family tree. She did give the name to one of her daughters but that is where it seemed to stop. Perhaps it was just too French to survive in the grit of New York but it is oh-so pretty.

Slave-owners in my Tree

Recently Cousin Lisa asked me if we had any slave owners in our family. Having such deep New York roots one might think that, no, we couldn't have possibly owned slaved; New York is a northern state. You might be surprised though to learn that New York did indeed uphold the institution of slavery until 1827. In 1799 New York State passed an act that gradually emancipated slaves but all slavery was not abolished in the state until 1827.

On the side of the family that Cousin Lisa and I share I have not found slave owners. However, that is the side where I just found my American Revolutionary patriots so I would not be surprised if I find some slave owners on that side too. In the 1700s slavery was ubiquitous.

In any case, several years ago a researching cousin shared with me a transcription of the will of my 7th great grandfather, Uriah Bedell (1733-1815). I was very young at the time; only a few years into my research. Maybe I was 18 at the time; I am not sure. I am sure I was devastated though. There among the shares of land and endowment to the Presbyterian Church of Hempstead, Long Island were his "negro-boy" Tone and "slave-girl" Freelove. I was DEVASTATED! 

The only solace I could take was that he clearly states that when each of these people reach the age of 23 it was Uriah's will that they would be set free. Additionally, it was not my ancestor who inherited a slave; although that provided little comfort. I am descended from his daughter Phebe Smith who is named in the will though.

I can not wrap my modern-day, liberal mind around the fact that anyone ever thought owning people was an okay thing to do. I don't care if it was a desirable show of wealth or a acceptable necessity of the time, how could anyone have thought that slavery was OK - - ever? I don't get it. Especially this man so pious in his behavior that he leaves a huge sum of money to the church at which he was a deacon. It just befuddles me.

Smith Cousins on Fire Island in 1857

I like to go off on genealogical tangents which means I like to explore the lives of indirect relatives. Cousins are the best gifts ever! I mean, think about it, if there are several kids in a family maybe you are not directly descended from the one who inherited the family history. Maybe some distant far off cousin out there got the good stuff; the info, the heirlooms. Thus I like to poke around the tree.

This past summer I came across the administration papers of Rebecca Raynor's estate. Rebecca Raynor was my 6th great-grandmother. She was born in June of 1769 and died February 14, 1855 in the city of Hempstead, New York.

She was married to Jacob Raynor; my genealogical nemesis. I have been searching for some sort of real records on that man for years; he is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma. Jacob and Rebecca had to have been cousins, though, of some degree as she too was born a Raynor.

In any case, upon reading through the administration it names her two surviving children and all of her grandchildren. What caught my attention was the granddaughter, Hannah Smith wife of Benjamin Smith of Fire Island Beach.

Fire Island Beach? Who would have lived on Fire Island in the 1850's. Fire Island is part of the barrier islands along the South Shore of Long Island, New York. Nowadays it is a pretty hip, happening place; most noted for the large homosexual community that takes up residence there in the summers.

Why was this cousin living there in the 1850s? Well a little poking into the census and I found that Hannah Smith's husband, Benjamin Smith, was actually the Fire Island lighthouse keeper. In fact, he was the first keeper; appointed there in 1853.

I wonder what life was like for the lighthouse keeper and his family back then. I know some of the older boys were listed as lighthouse keepers assistants back in the 1860 census. From that census I know Hannah and Benjamin Smith had at least 8 children: Willet Smith (born circa 1835), Samuel Smith (b.c. 1839), George Smith (b.c. 1843), Phebe Smith (b.c. 1845), Miles Smith (b.c. 1849), Bedell Smith (b.c. 1852), Franklin Smith (b.c. 1853), and Josephine Smith (b.c. 1855).