52 Ancestors Challenge Week 48: "Overlooked" - Uncle Allen's Thrift Store Find

Just recently, the craziest thing happened. Something that could have been overlooked or ignored wasn't. 

My Uncle Allen loves to go to thrift stores. Loves it! He has several that he frequents. Just this past summer he went to one he hadn't visited before. There he saw a thin book that stood out to him because of the title; Southside Burial Ground, Ozone Park, NY, published in 1996. Allen's maternal grandparents, my great-grandparents, Charles Henry (March 26, 1896 - June 14, 1949) and Anna Sauer-Henry-Stoothoff (July 19, 1899 - May 8, 1986), grew up in Ozone Park, Queens County, New York and only moved to Nassau County, New York after they were married.

Charles died young; he was just 53 when he passed away in 1949 from peritoneal cancer, a rare form of cancer of the stomach lining. His widow, Anna, eventually remarried on October 7, 1963 to Frank W. Stoothoff (February 21, 1903 - September 17, 1993), her first husband's cousin. Oh yes, that's right; as if my tree wasn't messy enough. My step-great-grandfather was also my first cousin 3 times removed. Charles Henry's mother Annette Hinch-Henry (February 22, 1868 - March 2, 1952) was the younger sister of Frank Stoothoff's mother, Sarah Bridget Hinch-Stoothoff-Rhodes (July 25, 1873 - January 4, 1965).

When Uncle Allen came upon that book in the thrift store he immediately thought that I would love the book because it was about Ozone Park but he put it down. "Ah, I'm not gonna get it." He then continued to walk around the shop for a long time but before leaving he was drawn back to the book and decided to flip through it and stumbled upon the name Stoothoff in the text. He thought, "Well hot damn, I'm gonna get it for her." I don't know if he said hot damn but I imagine he did. He would say something like that.

When he gave it to me, we sat and talked about the Stoothoffs for a bit. My grandma wasn't particularly fond of her step-father but I am not entirely sure why. About 10 years ago or so, when my grandmother's memory was still a bit intact, we visited with some of her Stoothoff cousins, June and Dorothea McCowen. Their mother was Frank Stoothoff's sister, Ann Elizabeth Stoothoff-McCowen (June 20, 1895 - July 30, 1988). Their mother was actually named after my great-great grandmother, her aunt, Annette "Ann" Hinch-Henry, mentioned above. Anyway...

As soon as I got to June and Dorothea's house, one of them, I'm not sure who, told me that I looked like a Hinch. I look like my grandmother so, if grandma looks like a Hinch, then I do too. During that visit the sisters bestowed a photograph to me of my great-great grandma, Annette.  

She looks like Julia Roberts, doesn't she? But if Hinches look like Julia Roberts, I sure don't look like one of them. In any case...

June and Dorothea were very skilled genealogists and proud members of the Woodhaven Cultural & Historical Society. Sadly, Dorothea has passed since our meeting. 

When I sat down to read the book, this is what appeared on the verso (The verso is the back of the title page):

Get the hell out of here! I had to tell my Uncle Allen. When he bought it, again, he almost didn't buy it, he had no idea the authors were related to us. 

He and I talked for a bit about freaky things that happen like this and we both entirely believe it is an indication that the souls of those departed are still with us and trying to tell us something. I'm not sure what, but they are afoot, I am sure of it. Something made Allen go back for this book and I am so glad he did.

Thanks, Uncle Al!

52 Ancestors Challenge Week 47: "Wrong Side of the Law" - Albert Gardner's Brush with the Law Solidifies Name Changing

Oh this was tricky topic for me to address. Oh so many to choose from. What's a girl to do? I've got quite a few in my family who have had a brush with the law.

When I started my genealogy research over 30 years ago, I began on my father's side of the family trying to unpuzzle for myself some of the modern day connections I did not quite understand. I stayed on that side of the family for a very long time. I did not truly dig into my mother's lineage until after my grandpa passed away in 2004; about 18 years ago. 

That was in part due to the fact my maternal grandmother passed away before I was born so I had almost no source of information for her branch of my tree and my maternal grandfather was very reluctant to speak about his family history. He would answer my questions but I had to be very specific about those questions. 

I recall one time I asked him if he had any uncles to which he replied, "Oh yeah, sure." 

Silence. 

"Um, do you remember their names?" 

"Yeah" 

Silence.

"What were their names?"

"Well, let's see. I had an Uncle Babe and an Uncle Blue-Eyes..."

"Grandpa, do you know the names your grandparents gave to your uncles?"

"Hmm. I'm not sure."

Another big obstacle in researching my maternal grandfather's branch of my tree has been the fact that there was a surname change. My Great-great-grandfather, Damas Desjardins, French-Canadian by birth, Anglicized his name to Thomas Gardner. I suspect this was in order to obtain more work and avoid ethnic discrimination. I cannot find anything official about the name change and back then, before Social Security, it was easier to assume an identity. Assuming an identity isn't always about evading the authorities.

In some records Damas appears as Damas Desjardins, in others as Thomas Gardner, in others as Damas Gardner, and still others as Thomas Desjardins. To make matters even more confusing, his offspring indiscriminately used either last name as well. His son, my great grandfather, Almond Desjardins, like his father also chose to use a more American sounding first name; Albert. Almond, a.k.a. Albert, was indeed born in the United States; his name just sounded very French.

This flip-flopping of names not only makes constructing searches more challenging,  it makes proving anything a daunting task. I often hear myself saying, "Well, yes, I know it says that but it is the same man." Anything I can find that helps me to solidify this family's surname change is precious to me.

This branch of the family has also had some run ins with the law in nearly every generation. Which brings me to an article from the Brooklyn Daily Star titled "Sing Sing for John Miller: L.I. City Man who Swindled Magnus Larsen Sent Up on Suspended Sentence - Five Others Given a Chance to Reform" from December 21, 1907. In it is mentioned Almond Gardner. The first time I have seen my great grandfather listed with his very French-sounding birth name and Anglicized surname. In addition to showing his name in that way, it also documents when the family moved from Queens to Patchogue, Suffolk County, NY. What a gem of a find!!

It reads as follows:

"Almond Gardner, a former Astoria boy whose folks now live at Patchogue, took a quantity of lead pipe and brass sewer traps from a house belonging to George B. Ruthman on Main street last November. He is only seventeen years old and has promised to behave."

Interestingly enough, 24 years later, Almond's baby brother, Damas Jr., who might have been Uncle Babe, is also arrested for burglarizing a house while in his teens. That time, though, the house was out in Patchoque and Damas Jr. stole an electric pump with his soon-to-be brother-in-law, Elbert King. I found that in a March 31, 1931 article in the Patchogue Advance titled "Young Men Arrested for Stealing Pump." Tsk, tsk, tsk. What is with these boys?

Had Almond not committed his juvenile crime, though, I might never have had such concrete proof that he was known by variations of the names Almond Desjardins and Albert Gardner. Additionally, I knew the family had moved to Patchoque between the 1900 and 1910 censuses. This article, though, helps me to narrow the date of the family's move to after November 1906, when the crime was committed, and before December 1907, when the article was written.

Run-ins with the law result in documentation of the on-goings of a family. It's not all bad.
 

52 Ancestors Challenge Week 46: "Tombstones" - Perpetual Care

It is a fairly frequent experience for me to venture out to a cemetery where some relative is interred to find there is no tombstone for them. I find unmarked graves sad and I wish I could afford to mark them all but, damn, headstones are expensive.

Last year I did a presentation for the Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center about a project of mine related to a family tombstone. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nw53oHpcfgA 

In brief, during the pandemic I planned a project to visit all the gravesites of my direct ancestors back to my 3rd great grandparents. In general that could be a total of 2 parents, 4 grandparents, 8 great grandparents,16 great-great grandparents, and 32 3rd great grandparents; a total of 62 souls in all. For me, though, both my parents are living as well as my nonagenarian grandma so I had the potential need to visit 59 graves. 

As a genealogist though, I have already visited many gravesites. After evaluating the "unvisited," my list was whittled down to 30 graves to visit. There are 9 I am still struggling to locate; most on my French Canadian lines, likely all in Quebec. That means I had to visit 21 unvisited gravesites for this project. I determined where I thought each grave was based on death certificates, obituaries, and/or family members. Fourteen of those 21 graves are in 6 cemeteries within the boundaries of the City of New York. 

Do you sense where this is going? 

Field trip! I visited all 6 of those cemeteries in one crazy day!

During our 4th stop in the 2nd cemetery, my cousin Peter and I saw this site in St. John Cemetery in Middle Village, Queens, New York; Section 16, Row A, Grave 403. Can you pick out the grave for my 3rd great grandpa, Victor Henry (March 1838 - November 9, 1896)?

Yeah that's it. Right there in the middle. Broken. 

Like I said, it is rare my ancestors have a headstone so to find this one broken broke my heart. I immediately began a family campaign to replace the stone which was a process in and of itself (also discussed in the video). 

What I want to highlight here, though, is the hidden cost of replacing a headstone or erecting a marker on an unmarked grave. It is not just a matter of going to a stone carver and picking out something pretty to bear your loved one's name and dates of birth and death. Oh no, it is so much more than that. Depending on the cemetery, there may be many fees; fees to review their records, fees to remove the damaged stone, permit fees to allow the stone carver to place a new stone, and something called perpetual care fees.

Now maybe you'll be lucky to avoid all that but my ancestors were Catholics and in New York City. If yours were too, be prepared to pay up. Well, think about it. Any land in New York City is expensive and maybe the separation of church and state means a cemetery with religious affiliation doesn't have to pay taxes to the state on that land (I don't know) but even so, once a cemetery sells a plot, how do they continue to make any money? Someone has to pay the people who mow the lawn and manage the records, so most cemeteries charge maintenance fees to grave owners for that very reason.

So, perpetual care... According to the New York State Division of Cemeteries, "All cemeteries must cut the grass on all graves and provide some degree of maintenance to other types of final resting places." Cemeteries can sell “endowed” or “perpetual” care services, meaning the individual who buys the plot pays a fee to the cemetery. The cemetery holds or invests that money to earn profits thus being able to continue long term care beyond basic grass cutting, such as beautifying the cemetery with plantings, or cleaning the monument, or fixing pathways, etc. The contract between the cemetery and the buyer will show what care will be provided. 

When a family has bought perpetual care, that does not ensure the cemetery will be cared for in perpetuity. If the cemetery's investment does not generate enough income to cover cost of maintenance, the cemetery could fall into disrepair or the cemetery may ask, but cannot require, the family to increase the amount of money in the account. 

So, when a plot is purchased, the cemetery will ask the plot owner to pay a perpetual care fee. Frequently there was be an option to pay a lesser fee annually rather than a larger perpetual care fee. My family, not being financially well off, typically opt for the lesser annual fee. Then, time goes by and the plot owner stops paying it for whatever reason; maybe they themselves pass away as was the case with Victor Henry's son who bought the plot to bury his father. What this means is that the plot is left in arrears, which means you haven't paid your bill. 

That adds up over time and when the next burial comes around, or in my case, when someone wants to restore a headstone or erect a new one, you have to pay that accrued back care fee. 

My advice, just pay the perpetual care fee from the get go and communicate that to the family. That is why you find headstone that have "perpetual care" engraved on them. Sure, the cemetery may ask for additional funds but they can't demand care fees, not in NY they can't. Spare your descendants the expense and just pay the fee.

By the way, this is Victor Henry's new headstone; financed by many of his descendants and placed just in time for the 125th anniversary of his death. Without the exact dates of birth and death for all those interred, I opted to just put the years although I do much prefer when the whole date is present.

52 Ancestors Challenge Week 45: "Ghost Story" - An Apparition in Freeport

I don't really have family ghost stories, at least not one related to my family history. I mean both my sister and I recall separate instances of a ghostly apparition in the upstairs of our childhood home. The figure of a man dressed as a fly fisherman didn't seem to be a relative but ya never know.

My Uncle Walter, my uncle by marriage, now deceased, spoke of a home in his family located in Brooklyn that was haunted. Uncle Walter passed away in 2014 after a battle with brain cancer. Given that he is no longer with us I could not pin down a story. I clearly recall him referring to the "upstairs" of a brownstone being the residence of the specters and that he had either seen or hear a story of someone watching a toy roll back and forth across an upstairs floor. My sister recalls him speaking of sounds of a baby crying. Again, though, not really a ghost story I recall.

I once came across a story in a newspaper about a ghost in the town of Freeport, Long Island, New York where my Losee family lived. Several of the articles, and yes, there were several, mentioned an encounter between the specter and a John Losee. I am not entirely sure that the John Losee in the article was indeed my relative though. The articles describe him as a young man with the middle initial R. My great-great grandfather, John M. Losee Jr., would have been about 23 at the time and although that sounds young to me now, hmm, the article gave me the sense that this was a teenager interviewed.

The story I first saw appeared in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle on November 19, 1893, page 20. (See below for article, followed by a transcription for those who cannot read the image).

An Apparition in Freeport

It Appears to be a Man Seven Feet High and Waltzes on One Foot

Freeport, L.I., Nov. 18 - Fearful hearts are beating in this village to-night. Fathers have deserted warm firesides and mothers have sent their sons forth to rid Freeport on an apparition. Men are patrolling the streets armed with weapons of war of modern and ancient make, ready to shoot the strange being if it appears in their path.

The apparition made its initial appearance in Freeport's streets a week ago. It has held undisputed away after nightfall ever since. The vicinity of lower Main Street has been the favorite haunt of the mysterious being. That portion of the street is lined on both sides by large trees and is shrouded in deep gloom after nightfall. Aside from the attractions mentioned it is a favorite spot with the youth of the place.

Miss Pauline Klein was being escorted home by Joseph Bennett of Hempstead. When near a place known as the Dell Raynor property a man jumped from behind a tree. He began a high-kicking act on the sidewalk. Miss Klein uttered a piercing shriek and clutched Mr. Bennett's arm.

"Oh! Joe! Joe! what is it!" asked the young woman, in husky tones. Before Mr. Bennett could reply, the strange being made a dash for the couple. Miss Klein and her escort fled down the street. Finally when forced to stop for want of breath, they turned and looked back. There was no one in sight.

The apparition has been seen several times since that night and has frightened a number of persons. Martin Acorn, employed as a hostler in a village hotel, had a lively experience with the apparition last night. A little later John Losee walked down Main Street whistling the "Girl I Left Behind Me," when the apparition jumped from behind a house and began to waltz towards him on one foot.

Those who have seen the "terror" describe him as a man 7 feet in height, with red flowing side whiskers and a face as white as snow. His face looks as if it was painted. His clothing is ragged, and, in running, he has a knee action like a trotting horse.

It makes me laugh what was taken for news, then and now to be honest. The story was also covered in the New York Times, The World, The Buffalo Currier, The Buffalo Weekly Express, and The Sun. Yes, prominent publications. The Sun was the paper in which, just 4 years later on September 21, 1897, Francis Church responded to 8 year-old Virginia O'Hanlon with the now famous line "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus." And as Virginia's papa said, "If you see it in The Sun it's so."

The Buffalo Weekly Express had more lurid details of John's encounter with the apparition running around Freeport in it's November 30th coverage.

John R. Losee got closer than either of the preceding witnesses. The shape appeared to Losee while he was going home about 10 o'clock on Thursday evening (probably November 23, 1893). Losee agrees on the eight feet tall and white hair on the face, and adds that the features looked like a man and wore very ragged clothes. Losee was walking in lower Main Street when the creature attacked him. Losee reached out his hand to catch the monster, but it dissolved as it had done in the presence of Austin Ellison, Losee says you can't hear the ghost's feet strike when it runs.

Now the apparition is 8 feet tall. Grew a foot since the last newspaper. The November 26th edition of The World revealed that the culprit had already been unmasked though; like a scene from Scooby Doo. It was no other than a few high spirited local young men. 

As was stated in The World at the time, the so-called ghost first appeared here [Freeport, Long Island, NY] on Nov. 12 [1893]. From that time until last Thursday [Nov. 28] the entire town has spent more or less time hunting the apparition or fleeing from it. On that night one of the "ghosts" was caught.

The air of this place seems to have been filled with all the ingredients that make what are known as practical jokers. It appears not that this air affected some of our young men. Charles H. Lott, Jr., was the first affected. Dressed in a gunning suit of heavy brown canvas and a "sou'wester" hat he was on his way to the bay late Sunday night, Nov. 12, when he suddenly came across Joseph Bennett and Miss Pauline Kleinert sitting on the front stoop of the young woman's home. Thinking to elude  them Lott was sneaking around the house when Bennett caught sight of him and started towards him. Lott then started  on a run across the lots and soon outdistanced Bennett, who returned to the young woman. They discussed the matter and came to the conclusion that they had seen a ghost. The following Wednesday [November 15] night a "ghost" in the person of Harry Smith, twenty-two years old, appeared on the main road and was chased by quite a crowd. The "ghost" was lost in the woods. Smith had conveniently climbed a tree.

On Sunday [Nov. 26] last, Allison [I think this is really Austin as mentioned in the article above] Ellison who had been Smith's confederate, dressed himself in feminine attire and startled half the town by running like mad through the main streets. Through the efforts of Smith a crowd gave chase and followed "Ghost" Ellison to a pond, where the crowd lost sight of him. He had unhesitatingly plunged into the water and swam away.

The next evening [Monday, Nov. 27] William Bouschier, one of the reputable young men of the town decided to catch the ghost. He did so. Louis Friedman, employed by Henry Mead's bakery, had arrayed himself in all the clothing necessary for a well-equipped ghost and late at night started out. He had not gone far when Bouschier got on his track and caught him in the woods where Friedman, fearful of a beating made known his identity.

So let's see that "ghost" was at least 4 people -  Charles H. Lott, Jr., Harry Smith, Austin Ellison, and Louis Friedman. Not exactly a witch hunt but a little mass hysteria for the village.

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.

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. 

52 Ancestors Challenge Week 43: "Organized" - Write Your Own Forward

Very often though I have heard others describe me as organized. My office is pin straight so sure, I appear to be. I should probably go through all my filing and get rid of old stuff I no longer need but at work everything is in order. It has to be or it would look like my bedroom which looks like a bomb went off in it. I thought, "oh, if I just had some time at home I'd get that all in order too" but nearly 2 years of working from home and that didn't change. Thanks, COVID.

Anyway, this organized bit...

 

We talk about how to keep our research organized but it is also important to get a clear understanding of how the resources we use are organized by their creators.

 

Recently I used a book called Long Island Genealogical Source Material [A Bibliography] by Herbert F. Seversmith, Ph.D., F.A.S.G and Kenn Stryker-Rodda, Litt.D., F.A.S.G. which is a special publication of the National Genealogical Society (NGS), Number 24 published in Washington, D.C. in 1962.

 

I used it in person at the Huntington Historical Society in Huntington, New York. However, it is available online at archives.org: https://archive.org/details/longislandgeneal00seve/page/n1/mode/2up 

It has a strange configuration. After the forward, which you should always read, it contains 4 parts: 

1. The Bibliography of Sources arranged alphabetically by author's surname
2. A list of Places with reference to the bibliographical sources in part 1
3. An alphabetical list of library symbols used in part 1
4. An alphabetical list of Libraries 

You have to read that forward to understand how this information is arranged. One might want to jump into the bibliography but the best way to begin is to start with part 2 - the list of places.

There you look up the community you are interested in researching. The name of the town will followed by numbers; hopefully several numbers (see snippet of page 100).

 Those numbers refer to the listing in part 1. So, for example, for the hamlet of Merrick there is local history information available using source #440.

Source #440 is the entry above by Charles N. Kent.

At the end of that entry you see strange abbreviations: DLC, MWA, N, NBLiHi, NJQ, NN, NNC, NSmB. Each of those correspond to a significant repository which you can find named in part 3.

• DLC = Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
• MWA = American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, MA
  
• N = New York State Library, Albany, NY
  
• NBLiHi = Long Island Historical Society, Brooklyn, NY (now the Brooklyn Historical Society)
  
• NJQ = Free Public Library of the City of Orange, NJ
  
• NN = New York Public Library, New York City, NY
  
• NNC = Columbia University, New York City, NY
  
• NSmB = Smithtown Public Library, Smithtown, NY

You would then have to look up those locations and in 1962, you would have had to go to one of those places to use that resource. With the existence of the internet maybe you can find the resource online now, but maybe not. And maybe the repository no long holds the resource. Call in advance to find out.

My point to sharing this information, is not only to inform other researchers of Long Island history of this valuable bibliography and directory, but to also underscore that it really doesn't matter how you organize your own research materials, as long as you leave some instructions for future researcher to understand your madness, to understand the system you use. Sure you can attend all sorts of classes and webinars on how best to organize your genealogy research BUT - - you can just organize it in whatever way works for you. All you have to do is leave some notes about how you organize your stuff. Write your own forward to your collection of personal research resources.