Motivation Monday ~ Make documents easy to read



Image courtesy The Graphics Fairy

Super Simple Tip # 3: Bigger is better. The library at the Wisconsin Historical Society has a printer that produces 11" x 17" copies (they also have every census record on microfilm). Enlarging records makes them easier to review. A quick look without a computer screen or magnifying glass in the way often yields clues previously missed. A folded 11x17 fits perfectly in a manila folder.

Only a Genealogist

Is it really possible to be THIS EXCITED about microfilm?!? YES, YES!! It is, it really is!!

Okay, it may be more than just the microfilm. I think it has alot to do with allowing myself some time to review my files, create a research plan, and wander the web in search of resources. Finding the resources, well, that's the icing on the cake!

My 3rd great-grandmother is known only as Margaret. She appears in just one census; 1860 Virginia. In the next census, her husband is married to someone else and Margaret seemingly ceases to exist.

BUT today, because I scheduled time just for Margaret, I found information about records that may help me find her. The Family History Library catalog has a film of an 1853-1885 birth register from the Roanoke County Courthouse in Salem Virginia. I can start there, looking for her children born in 1857 and 1858. This same roll of film contains an 1853-1881 death register which contains a record (according to FamilySearch) for a Margaret Jane Littrell who died in 1867 while married to Chas. W. Littrell.

I'll order the film next week during my visit to the FHC and start the waiting process. Regardless of which way the wind blows, this is one EXCITING day!!

Surname Saturday ~ Grosse, Gury, Schmitt

Fashionable women ~ 1850

I'm enamored with my paternal French line; learning to speak French while driving, reading French history books, translating birth records during my lunch hour, ordering films from the Family History Library every Tuesday evening. Some might say I've become addicted, but that's not true. I've been addicted all along.

New clues show themselves frequently, but most often they come accompanied by more questions. 

The knowns:

• My 3rd great-grandfather, Nicolas Schmitt, was born in 1813 in Hellimer, Moselle, Lorraine, France.
• His parents were Francois Schmitt and Elisabeth Grosse.
• His wife was Marie-Anne Gury, born in 1818 in Francaltroff, Hellimer, Lorraine, France.
• Nicolas had at least two siblings, younger sisters Elisabeth and Barbe.
• He traveled to America with his eldest son Jules in April 1854.
• Nicolas and his family settled in Cincinnati Ohio.
• Several children, including my 2nd great-grandmother emmigrated to Chicago where they raised their children.

The unknowns:

• When did the remaining family members arrive in America?
• What happened to Francois, the last child born in France?
• What happened to Joseph, the first child born in Ohio?
• Did Jules really die in Ohio, or did he relocate to Chicago leaving his wife and children behind?
• Was Nicolas the first, one of several, or the only Schmitt that left France?
• Where is the elusive marriage record of Nicolas and Marie-Anne?
• and so many more unknowns; far too many to list.

The next steps:

• Order microfilm for 1792-1810 birth, marriage, death records for Hellimer.
• Continue checking the mailbox for the will that will tell if the French-born Ohio-residing Emile Schmitt who married Mary Kauffman is "my" Emile.
• Translate Barbe's birth record; it includes her parents' ages.
• Search passenger lists for my 2nd great-grandmother and her siblings.
• Determine whether the brother mentioned as co-owner of John Schmitt's restaurant in Chicago is Jules.

And so, as we French say, la recherche se poursuit!

Good Old-Fashioned Microfilm

Technology is amazing, isn't it? The information we desire can be ours with just a few clicks on the keyboard. Well, most of the time anyway.

Every time a human comes in contact with a record the chance for error is increased. The person listening to a name misspells it, the person transcribing the record misreads it, the person indexing the transcription mistypes it and so on. Computers, as wonderful as they are, are limited in the logic they can find in illogical files. There are many research situations in which the only way to move forward is to step back.

Some surnames can be spelled in such a variety of ways, that no matter how creatively we search the index, it's nowhere to be found. Trying every imaginable spelling only takes us as far as OUR imagination. Perhaps the person inputting the information was even more imaginative.

Looking at a list of names with our human eyes allows us to make connections a computer can't make. Recently we found an obituary for the surname ICE. In the newspaper the name had been written ISE. Analyzing the clues contained in the record verified this was the correct person. A simple mistake.

Mildred Bjorn was mentioned in another obituary. You might think her surname is a candidate for errors, but it was her given name that was the stumbling block. It was indexed as Meldrett. The Swedish accent of the child's mother and the intake clerk's phonetic spelling combined to make this creative record challenging to locate.

The search capabilites of newspaper subscription sites are amazing. I have located many ancestors this way. But when the publication isn't available online or the computer search comes up blank, it's time to head for a good old-fashioned microfilm reader.