Filling in the "Pieces" to Tell a Story

Have you ever thought about how your ancestors lived their daily lives? Who was president at that time?  What was happening in their community? 

What was near and dear to their heart?  Which interests did they have or what were their indifferences?  What were the local and global news of the day? 

Or, perhaps you know some things about your ancestor's life and events but need to gather more information to tie the pieces together.  Those "pieces" can sometimes be found in old newspapers specific to the county in which your ancestor lived.  Newspapers

can help make your ancestor's life "come alive" by providing facts about local events and/or happenings of the day.  It's another resource for obtaining photos of community events as well as national and global occurrences.

Do you know how they migrated to their final place of residence, where their parents and grandparents were born?  If doing African-American research, you need to determine where possible slaveowners migrated from and/or lived before arriving at their domicile. These and other similar questions may be answered by visiting FamilySearch and Heritage Quest Online.  At FamilySearch, there's a United States Newspapers link, Town Records link, Migration link, African American link, and helpful links including a United States Maps link.

Heritage Quest Online can be accessed for free using a library card issued through your local library and/or your school ID card. Heritage Quest Online contains links to books on family and local histories and one can search through selected Revolutionary War records, selected census records as well as a find a wealth of other related information.  African-American researchers can search for possible kin using the search feature for the Freedman's Banks records.

Well, don't delay, "get to searching!"  And, tootles till next time.

The USGenWeb Project

The County Clerk's Office in the town, city or parish where  your ancestor lived may contain that piece of information that you've been searching for regarding your long, lost and sometimes, forgotten loved ones.  Knowing the geographical location in which your ancestor lived can provide a wealth of information if you just knew where to look.  Well, look no further!  With just a few clicks of the mouse, you can access the USGenWeb Project's website!  What is the USGenWeb Project, you might ask?  Quoted from their website is the following excerpt:

"Welcome to The USGenWeb Project! We are a group of volunteers working together to provide free genealogy websites for genealogical research in every county and every state of the United States. This Project is non-commercial and fully committed to free genealogy access for everyone.  Organization is by county and state, and this website provides you with links to all the state genealogy websites which, in turn, provide gateways to the counties."

 Projects that are currently accessible at their website include:

1. The USGenWeb Archives Project
2. The USGenWeb African American Griots Project
3. The USGenWeb Genealogical Events Project
4. The USGenWeb Kidz Project
5. The USGenWeb Lineage Project
6. The USGenWeb Tombstone Transcription Project
7. USGenWeb Archives Sub-Projects.

Why don't you check them out and their resources as well at:  The USGenWeb Projects Index.

See you next week!

Attempting to Identify the Slave Owner in African American Research

African Slave Chains

For African American research, identifying slaveowners of your respective ancestors can at times be very challenging.  After you've found your African-American ancestor in the 1870 census, you can look for clues that may reveal a possible slaveowner of your family.  Although not always, but sometimes just by identifying a white neighbor of your ancestors in the 1870 census could reveal a potential slaveowner, especially if that white neighbor lived close to your ancestor.

Once you've identified a possible slaveowner, you can then look for the slaveowner in the 1860 census of the county that your ancestors lived in.  Additionally, you can began to search for records that a particular slaveowner had that may reveal information on any slaves that they owned such as wills and deeds.

One good place to check for these records would be the county clerk's office of the county that your ancestor(s) resided in.  And while for some African-Americans, the search may not be as promising depending on the county in which your ancestor lived and available records, for others, the search may yield some very promising results!

Tying It All Together!

After you've been doing genealogy for quite some time, and you've accumulated old photos, have discovered new ancestors, new information about these ancestors, information on known ancestors and descendants, have acquired birth certificates, marriage licenses, death certificates, census record information, oral histories, etc., you may want to think about recording this information in a Family History book. 

How do you go about it?  Well, for starters, you can type whatever oral and written family history information that you've acquired into a Microsoft Word document, Microsoft Works or Wordpad document or use whatever compatible program that you have installed on your operating system.

You can also began to scan the old photos and paper documents into your computer so that they can be incorporated into whatever genealogy software program that you decide to use.  Most of these genealogy software programs have user interfaces that are user friendly and once you have everything typed, saved, proofed and/or uploaded, you're ready to put together a family book on you and your family!  One such genealogy software package that I've used in the past is Family Tree Maker software.  For instance, it has Family History pages that allow you to record your ancestor's name, date of birth and death, marriage date, places lived, spouse information and birth of children, their marriages, spouse's names, etc. It also creates various Descendant family tree charts and Ancestor charts plus other charts and can create cherished and memorable family books for you and members of your family.

So if you're interested, you can click on this link: 2013 Best Genealogy Software Comparisons and Reviews to peruse the various genealogy software programs available and hopefully, you'll be inspired to one day create your own family history book for you and the descendants of your ancestors!

The Freedmen's Bureau Records for African-American Research

In researching one's ancestors, oftentimes, it becomes necessary to try to bridge the gaps in their lives (those empty periods in their lives to which you don't know what was happening in their lives).  Following your ancestors down through the ages from census year to census year, which spans a 10, 20, 30+ year gap (as the census was taken every 10 years), a need exists to try to tell a story by formulating known events in their lives.  Well, what if you really didn't know anything about your ancestor's lives, whether it was the town in which they lived, who was president at the time, or what was going on in their daily world?

For African-Americans, the Freedmen's Bureau Records may be able to at least help you tell a story about what was going on in your ancestor's lives after slavery (assuming your ancestor was a slave) and/or during Reconstruction (assuming your ancestor lived in Texas, as did my maternal ancestors).  'What are the Freedmen's Bureau Records', you may be asking?

(http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/resource/freepix.htm)

The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, known simply as the "Freedmen's Bureau" helped newly freed slaves in the South from 1865 to 1872 and during the Reconstruction period.  Originated by President Abraham Lincoln, it was a federal government agency and was part of the United States Department of War.  It's operations were disbanded under President Ulysses S. Grant. The following excerpt is taken from Wikipedia:

"The Freedmen's Bureau Bill, which created the Freedmen's Bureau in March 1865, was initiated by President Abraham Lincoln and was intended to last for one year after the end of the Civil War.[2] The Freedmen's Bureau was an important agency of the early Reconstruction, assisting freedmen (freed ex-slaves) in the South. The Bureau was part of the United States Department of War. Headed by Union Army General Oliver O. Howard, the Bureau was operational from 1865 to 1872. It was disbanded under President Ulysses S. Grant.[2]

The Bureau encouraged former plantation owners to rebuild their plantations, urged African Americans to gain employment, kept an eye on contracts between labor and management, and pushed both whites and blacks to work together as employers and employees rather than as masters and as slaves.[3] (Wikipedia)

Where might you find these records?  The Clayton Library Center for Genealogical Research has acquired these records.  (Clayton Library Center for Genealogical Research.) These records are on 32 rolls of microfilm at Clayton.  An excerpt from an article, entitled, "Clayton Acquires Texas Freedmen's Bureau Papers" written by Patricia Smith Prather, offers more insight into these dynamic records. (Clayton Library Friends)

"The extensive Freedmen’s Bureau Papers will give researchers first-hand and detailed accounts of the activities going on in many Texas counties between September 1865 and December 1868. These papers are especially helpful to those documenting community and county histories during Texas Reconstruction. Genealogists will want to check roll 19, which contains an alphabetical listing of persons employed by the Freedman’s Bureau from April 1866 to December 1868. A few of the agents were African-Americans, including Ben O. Waltrous, who helped write the Texas Constitution of 1869, and George T. Ruby, who was elected to the Texas Senate in 1870.

Anyone researching criminal activity during Reconstruction in Texas should examine roll 32, which contains three volumes of records of criminal offenses from September 1865 to December 1868. Most of the entries pertain to crimes committed by whites against freedmen, but there is also white-against-white crime, freedmen-against-freedmen crime, and freedmen-against-white crime. This is primary resource material. Among the offenses were whippings, shootings, and killings. The records give the city and county where the criminal acts took place, the name and race of both the criminals and victims, the nature of the crime, and the recommended punishment.

The best place to start reading this voluminous collection of hand-written materials is roll 1 because it contains a typewritten overview of the collection as well as an explanation of the mission of the Freedmen’s Bureau. It also contains the list of contents of the materials on each of the 32 rolls." (Clayton Library Friends.)

I can tell you that while at Clayton perusing these records on microfilm, it was very interesting to discover what was happening in these ex-slaves lives at the time and what they had to endure, whether it was intimidation, whippings, beatings and/or murder.  It was a crazy time, but it was what was happening in a lot of the lives of the freedmen of Texas.  And these records provide details by giving names, counties and descriptions of the attacks and assaults.  Additionally, on the positive side, these records also provide other details and information regarding the building of schools and enrollments for black children during that time in the South.

Chief Bowles and General Sam Houston

Great-Great Grandmother, Harriet

My maternal ancestors are from East Texas.  Collateral families are from Smith County and Cherokee County near East Texas.

When interviewing a great grand-aunt several years ago (Birdie), she remembered the words of her grandmother, who is also my great-great grandmother "Harriet".  Birdie recalled the words of her grandmother who would gather the grandchildren and take them out in the woods of East Texas in or around San Augustine, Texas.  She would show her grandchildren the actual marks that the Indians made on the trees as they fled East Texas.

Upon doing some research about the Indian population in and around East Texas, I discovered that Chief Bowles, a famous chief of the Cherokee tribe who knew General Sam Houston personally, lived somewhere in the vicinity of Cherokee County and/or Smith County.  These counties are adjacent counties to San Augustine County, Texas.

Anyhow, if you know your history, there was a famous battle that took place between Chief Bowles and his followers and the Texas Calvary in 1839 after the president of the republic of Texas, President Mirabeau Bonaparte Lamar ordered the removal of Chief Bowles and his followers from Texas.  During the battle that ensued, Chief Bowles was killed and from what I've read in other accounts, some of his followers that managed to escape ran to the woods of East Texas and hid out.  Perhaps this is why my great-great grandmother, Harriet, knew firsthand what she was talking about and was able to share a piece of visual history with her grandkids.  Little did she know that her tidbit of information that she shared with her grandkids at that time would trickle down and be passed on to her great-great grandkids and descendants as well.

Please read these links for more information regarding Chief Bowles and General Sam Houston of East Texas.  (A Biography of Duwa'li (Chief Bowles) ) and (The Cherokees of Texas).  Of course there are other links and information regarding Chief Bowles and General Sam Houston of Texas abundantly available on the web.

Start With What You Know!

Jot down your parent's names first, and work backwards.

Are you interested in finding out who your ancestors were?  There's a great repository in Houston called "Clayton Library Center for Genealogical Research."  Please check out their link at Clayton Library Center For Genealogical Research. When I first started out years ago, I regularly frequented Clayton Library who has so much to offer a budding genealogist.  Your stop at the Reference Desk at Clayton puts you in touch with the Reference Librarian who is able to point you in the right direction after you explain just what you're looking for.  Or perhaps you don't have a clue!  Not to worry.  The folks at Clayton will get you started on a fantastic journey into exploring and discovering your family tree.

I'm sure they'll tell you to start with what you know and then work backwards.  Start with your parents and grandparents and then work backwards.  Your parents and grandparents, both maternal and paternal, probably have a wealth of information to share with you.  Better capture and record those precious memories that your mother and grandmother are itching to tell you about.

At Clayton's website, you can click on "Research" where you'll find invaluable information and forms to get you started. Clayton Library Center For Genealogical Research.

Basically, to find your people in the census, you'll need to know the county in which they lived and, of course, their first and last names.  One thing that a reference librarian told me at Clayton, when checking the census for ancestors and family, was to make note of the entire page and several pages thereafter once you find your family/ancestors in the census.  Those names that appear on the census page sometimes before and after your family member are more than likely related to your ancestors!  In other words, you've found some collateral family members!  Other names on the page that you find your ancestors on are, of course, their neighbors.  The names of neighbors are important for the times that you may encounter "gaps" in your research.  And you will encounter some gaps.  For the census year(s) that I wasn't able to find an ancestor/family member, I would immediately look for those possible collateral names and/or those neighbors that my ancestor lived close to on previous censuses.  You just may be able to find a "lost" relative or family member just by knowing those "extra" names on the census pages, as names were not always spelled or pronounced correctly by the enumerator.

Well, I hope that you were able to gain some more insight about genealogy with this post and are confident enough to get your feet wet and go do some researching!