State By State Research : Alabama

I want to tell you how wonderfully the writers of Family Tree Magazine fill their pages with such useful information.  For those of us who need that extra help with researching the archives of individual states, they have published a listing of websites that can be the portals to helping you with your historical and genealogical research.  I am going to review each of their picks by state.

Let's start with Alabama.

The Alabama Department of Archives and History  archives.state.al.us

This site has a search feature to look for names in the Civil War service cards.  It also has a search feature for the 1867 voter registrations.

Interested in microfilmed newspapers?  Well, they are listed in the catalogs, and some are available through interlibrary loan.

There are also links to find church records, local and county records and maps.

The Alabama History Timeline is quite fascinating.  It has quips of what was in the vicinity of Alabama going back to 10,000-7,000 BC.,,featuring information on Russell Cave in Jackson County which is a fine example of prehistoric geology.  Going forward, several Spanish explorers made their mark in the area, and the development of the Native American Creek Nation, along with other tribes formed from the earlier Mississippian peoples. There is information on schools, cities, forts, legislature, et. al.  Truly a go to spot for Alabama history.

Multi Media is not lacking on this website.  You Tube videos are abundant and cover a wide range of subjects.

This is certainly a website that I will bookmark, and I hope you do, too.

Thomas Young : Finding His History Among Land Warrants

I have found, with much success on  Internet sources, the histories of most of my husband's ancestry.  However, my research came to a halt when it came to focusing on Thomas Young.  Most of the census information that I had collected showed that he was born in Tennessee about the year 1797, plus or minus 5 years.  However, I have not been able to find the confirmation of his wife's maiden name, place of marriage, or his whereabouts prior to 1830, when he was listed as a resident of Illinois.

Noting that he may have been in the age brackets of those who served in the War of 1812, I decided to browse the roles of records on the www.Fold3.com website. As you can imagine, the name of Thomas Young was quite common.  How was I to find the correct Thomas, if indeed he served in the  War of 1812?

Shifting my thought process a bit, I decided to look into the Federal Land Warrants that were issued to veterans as payment for their service during the conflict.  Once again, I found the name Thomas Young to be very common.  But, I knew that he lived in Illinois in the late 1820s, as his oldest son was mentioned as having been born in the state.  So, let's check the land warrants that were issued to Thomas Young in Illinois. The Bureau of Land Management websites have this information.  There is a link to this information from  the Secretary of State of Illinois website, www.cyberdriveillinois.com

Bingo!  I found Thomas Young as having land warrant papers in Adams County, Illinois.  On the warrants, it lists what type of service he had completed, including the company that he served.

www.cyberdriveillinois,com,  Land Patents, Vol 150 page 213

This land warrant tells that Thomas Young served as a private in Reed's Company in the Corp of Artillery.  It is dated at the bottom of the page as October 1817.

There was yet another land warrant patent under his name, also in Adams County, Illinois, dated 1819.  So, now we know where he was hanging out at that time.  

Later on, I found several land patents that told Thomas Young had land from the Federal Government in  Schuyler County, during the 1840s.  This is the location where the bulk of information has centered on Thomas Young and his family.  

The National Archives has a few search features which allow you to search for the various units in the Tennessee Volunteer Militia for the War of 1812.  Finding Capt. James Reed, 2nd Regiment, West Tennessee Volunteers, Artillery Unit......Now I know even more.

Taking the information from the land warrant, and the unit information from the National Archives, and knowing that Thomas Young served in the artillery, Reed's Company, we go back to www.Fold3.com.  We have more information about him so that we can narrow which Thomas Young he was.

Fold3.com  image from the War of 1812 Record Index

We know a little more about Thomas Young with this research of his service during the War of 1812 and his land ownership in Illinois.  This give us many more clues to follow to find out more about him.  His pension files are at the National Archives.  Since his surname begins with Y, it may be a while before they digitize his paperwork and post it online.  Meanwhile, I know that he was around western Illinois during his young adult life after his military service.  I can go back to the census of Illinois and the Federal Government to find him as a land owner before 1830.

And that's a lot more than I knew before today.  Progress!

Using Linkpendium to Reach Your Research Goals

Linkpendium (www.linkpendium.com)  is one of those websites that clusters many links of research sources. It will help to find information to plug those holes of missing information in your family trees.

At first look, the Linkpendium home page appears to be very generic.  You might even be a bit skeptical, as there are no flashy designs or exotic colors in its design.  Don't let that fool you.  Look on...  It boldly states that it covers over 10 million genealogy links.  Is that enough for you? Or, do you need more?

Every state in the United States has it's own link, with sub-links that take you even farther into your research.  There are statewide links, county links and even some city/town links.  Further on, you'll see links to Church records, Cemeteries, Bible records, Newspapers, Directories, Court Records, etc.  The list is quite extensive.  

I will tell you that it does NOT contain every research link that you could ever need. There is a note at the end of most compiled link pages....Please, add your favorite Website(s) to this page!
yes, you can add a link to the list!!! How neat is that?  A collaborative effort!  

Linkpendium Logo

Researching in European records?  No problem if your interests include the United Kingdom and Ireland.  There are over 10 thousand links to resources in England, Ireland, The Isle of Man, Wales, Northern Ireland, Scotland, etc.  Once again there are specific links for each parish and county, and also for directories, vital, church, court and institution records.  

Lastly there are links to Surnames, worldwide.  I took the leap...and looked up the link to my maiden name : Bognar.....very Hungarian.  There I find many links regarding the surname : findagrave, wikitree, Rootsweb message boards, gazetteers, maps and newspapers.  Wow.  I will have to do some clicking on some of these to see what has been posted by others on the boards and trees, and also find out the distribution of the family name.  It appears there are mentions of the name in their lists of Indiana, Illinois and Ohio newspapers, too.  

1918 St. Louis City Directory, Bognar listings
found from the link to www.Fold3.com

As with the other pages, on the bottom you can click and add a link for a surname database.  If you have a website that is dedicated to your family/family name, don't hesitate to add it to the surname list of links.  It just might steer someone to your family site and you could make a connection to a cousin with additional information that you can't get anywhere else.  

Have I convinced you to visit Linkpendium?  Try it out, and pass on the goodies that you might collect.

Finding a Home of Ancestors in Lincoln, Nebraska with Today's Technology

Today I checked a family tree that I had listed on my Ancestry.com, www.ancestry.com,  member page.  A "shaking leaf" was hovering over the name my husband's great grandmother, Lizzie Hessler Reif.  My heart always leaps when I see one of those leaves, even though I have conditioned myself to keep calm, because most of the time the referenced information does not belong to my specific family member.  Hate when that happens.

I took a deep breath and clicked my way to the hint that Ancestry.com thought should be attached to Lizzie.  Well, this time they were correct.  It referenced a listing in the Lincoln, Lancaster County, Nebraska City Directory of 1929.

1929 R. L. Polk & Co., Lincoln City Directory,  page 444

So, I see that the home address was listed as 3093 Vine, and Lizzie was correctly noted as the widow of H. J. (Henry Jacob Reif).  Now that I have an address, I can use today's technology to find the location of this house.  I used Zillow.com, www.zillow.com,  to find the location by typing in the address on the home search page.  The location of the home quickly appeared on my computer screen.  This address is on a corner lot.

http://www.zillow.com/homes/3093-Vine-Street,-Lincoln-NE_rb/

I noticed that the home was currently not for sale, but the statistics of the home were available, including the number of bedrooms, number of baths, square footage of the home and the lot, and it's current value (according to Zillow statistics).  

On the right side of the page, a general information box repeats the same information, but lists the date that the home was built....1910.  OK, now this is getting interesting.  

I clicked on the "County Website" link and was able to view the current information from the Lancaster County Assessor / Register of Deeds.  There is a GIS tab to view the current photo of the home:

3093 Vine Street, Lincoln, Lancaster, Nebraska as of 2014

close up of the home address, 3093 Vine Street

Wonderful! What a great looking house.  But, I wonder what it looked like in years past.  After all, it was built in 1910, and I'm sure that it didn't always look this good.  Let's see what I can find by reviewing more information from the County Assessors website.  

Property image dated 2005 - 9 - 7

So this is what it looked like in 2005, before the latest improvements were made to the property.  The owner did a fine job of rehabbing this home, and should be very proud of their efforts.  

The property was last sold in 2009, and the County Assessor has posted the recent sales history of the property.

http://orion.lancaster.ne.gov/appraisal/publicaccess/PropertyDetail.aspx?PropertyNumber=1719302001000

By selecting the instrument numerals by sales date, you will be able to see the details of the sales, from both 2009 and 2005, which include the names of Grantors and Grantees.  I won't post those on this blog, due to my personal feelings about privacy, but they are a matter of public record and can be viewed by the public, free of charge from the Lancaster Assessor report. In addition, the Lancaster County Treasurer has posted the tax payments for this parcel by the owners since 1998, and can be viewed at http://lincoln.ne.gov/aspx/cnty/cto/property.aspx?vParcel=17-19-302-001-000.  I guess you can't hide anything anymore.  

A property status sheet is included by the County Assessor, which shows a history of building permits and inspections for this property :

http://orion.lancaster.ne.gov/Appraisal/PublicAccess/PropertyDataSheet.aspx?PropertyID=90570&PropertyOwnerID=469654&NodeID=11

All of this information about the home of Lizzie Hessler Reif, which started from a shaking leaf on the family tree from Ancestry.com has given me a glimpse into the neighborhood of this woman who was the great grandmother of my husband.  Hmmm. I wonder what he will think when I show him what I've uncovered for his family tree.  

Lesson : check each shaking leaf.  And, take what you have to the unlimited resources on the Internet.  You just might uncover some really neat stuff.  

County Maps and Family History Books - Where to Find Them

When researching your family history, there is a need to review the social, political, economic, geographic, religious and educational history of the area where your family lived.  Where can you find this sort of information?  Well, one place is right at your fingertips...

This website has been one of my favorite for years, and evidently the favorite of many other researchers, as it has been mentioned as one of the Family Tree Magazine's 101 Best Websites for several years.  

Found at www.mygenealogyhound.com , you can have access to county histories, family biographies, genealogy references and county map images.  Did I mention this website and it's listings are FREE?

Family biographies are now available for the states of Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Tennessee.  This website is constantly growing.  You can subscribe to a weekly newsletter, in which you will be advised of the new listings added periodically.  Browse the site for biographies by surname to see whether your family was mentioned in texts in more than one state.

I did a quick search for the BRYAN family name, knowing that it was quite important in the history books of Kentucky, and in the ancestry of my husband.  One of the returns was exactly what I was looking for :  

http://www.mygenealogyhound.com/kentucky-biographies/ky-jefferson-county-biographies/geo-b-eastin-genealogy-jefferson-county-kentucky-louisville-ky.htmlption

This excerpt is wonderful for me, because it just added more information to my husband's family tree which I did not have before now.  Try searching your family tree surnames, and see what results you can find.

Historical County maps are available to view for the states of Arkansas, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Oklahoma and Indian Territories, Tennessee and Texas.  More maps will be added in the future. State maps showing the location of each county can also be viewed.  

I searched for Fayette County, Kentucky maps to see if there would be something of interest regarding the BRYAN family.  Unfortunately, they do not have maps for the county, yet.  When searching for Jefferson County, Kentucky, there was only one from 1905, but with a note that there were more to come in the future.  Please check back again, soon.  

  Additional genealogy links are also listed, which include State county division maps, Articles about life in the United States prior to 1900, How to obtain a death certificate, Various genealogy and history news articles and Genealogy research in Missouri.  Also, there are links to various websites that may be of interest to family history buffs. 

Hearthstone Legacy Publications provides My Genealogy Hound for free.  However, Hearthstone Legacy Publications sells CD/DVD and digital downloads for county histories and genealogy titles for a wide variety of states. Census records and plat map books are also available.  Visit their website at http://www.hearthstonelegacy.com/ to review the extensive list.

My Genealogy Hound is a growing website.  Be patient with them.  And check back periodically, or, sign up for their free newsletter and keep abreast of their new content.