Corporal Thomas Nelson, the Person I Wish I Had Known

Since I last wrote, in June, so much has happened with my research concerning Corporal Thomas Nelson.

I found that the rule of confirming research data is very important.  If you will recall, I had thought that his wife, Eliza, passed away in Wisconsin while living with a daughter.  Since then, I found that not to be true.
Eliza passed away in DuPage County, Illinois  on the 23 of January in 1920.  This is what I found in the Illinois Death Index :

Eliza Nelson
Birth Date:	abt 1851
Birth Place:	Virginia
Death Date:	23 Jan 1920
Death Place:	Hinsdale, DuPage, Illinois
Burial Date:	26 Jan 1920
Cemetery Name:	Bronswood Cemetery
Death Age:	69
Occupation:	None
Race:	Black
Marital Status:	W
Gender:	Female
FHL Film Number:	1562397

This is a document that I wish to order from the State Archives.  It lists her burial place as Bronswood Cemetery.  However, I read the original burial index, which stated that originally Mrs. Nelson purchased a burial place for her deceased husband and herself.  But a notation mentions that she sold  the plot that was meant for herself.  Furthermore, I believe that the records at the cemetery office do not have a record for her burial there.  I will visit the cemetery this week to confirm this and ask if they will allow me to see the plot purchase records for her husband and the adjoining lot.  There should be confirmation as to her selling a plot either to the cemetery or to another person, if indeed she did so.

Next, I browsed the Illinois Marriage Index for DuPage County, Illinois which can be found at this web address : http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/departments/archives/databases/marriage.html  It covers 1763 - 1900.  The index search shows this result :

• Illinois Statewide Marriage Index    ILLINOIS STATE ARCHIVES

Illinois Statewide Marriage Index

Search Criteria: Nelson, Thomas

Nelson, Thomas     Bussell, Eliza    1886 02 05   Vol 1  Page 99  Lic. 1287  DuPage County

The last name of Bussell sounded a little strange to me, so I proceeded to search this a little more. FamilySearch shows that her surname was Russell, which made more sense to me. However, It could also be Boswell.    It also stated the name of the officiate as Dorathy, P. M.  I assume the initials stand for Protestant Minister, but a little more research will make things more believable.

I attended the Federation of Genealogical Societies Conference in Fort Wayne, Indiana, in August.  Sitting in the audience of Tim Pinnick, a known African-American researcher, I learned more about the types of evidence and resources that I should be using for this couple.

Since I knew the town of residence, I proceeded to look for city directories for the Nelson family.  I did find one which I photographed with my cell phone.  It appeared that Mrs. Eliza Nelson lived on South Vine Street in Hinsdale, Illinois.  It matched with the census records that I found.

The Civil War Pension Index provided two cards : One which was for Thomas Nelson's application for an invalid pension in 1897, and another for the Widow's Pension application in 1911 where Eliza had applied for support.  Each has an application and certificate number.  I'll use those to request the compiled and full file for the supporting papers of each request.

A nice trip to the library in Hinsdale proved to be very beneficial with my work.  They had microfilm of The Hinsdale Doings, a local newspaper which is published weekly and provides many years of local information.  Looking at the first page of the 21 January 1911 edition, there I found a rather nice obit for Mr. Nelson.
After I research a bit more that is mentioned in the obit, I'll report back and reveal what more I have found on our Civil War Veteran that I Wish I Had Known.  Wish me luck.  This is getting good.

Writing About Someone You Don't Know, But Wish You Did

I have taken an inventory of burials at a local cemetery with the help of a few friends.   There were some mysteries that I had encountered along the way.  For instance, there was a tombstone issued by the United States government at the plot of a Civil War soldier, who was interred in the "single grave" section of the cemetery.  It was the only one of this type in this cemetery.

Thomas Nelson, a deceased veteran, was laid to rest alongside some of the older burials, and in the area of the only African American persons interred there.  Mr. Nelson was a black man who served our nation in the United States Union  Army, finishing his service with a rank of Corporal.  Here is photo of his stone :

My question is : Why is this man buried here in a cemetery in northern Illinois?  This is a predominantly white populated area, and has been since the 1840s.  Why is it that this man has no family buried near him?  How did he get here?  What is his story?

My quest is to find his military service records, find his family, and learn more about this "lone soldier" laid  in the back area of a very old cemetery.  I have found his service records from Fold3 at www.fold3.com.

• Company F, 18 Regiment, U.S. Colored Infantry
• Enlisted at Janesville, Wisconsin, at the age of 26 on August 17, 1864
• He was 5' 8 1/2" tall, with black complexion, black eyes and black hair
• born in Alabama
• occupation : Laborer

  I have found a few census records noting his occupation as a laborer, living in the nearby town with a wife and children.  Noting that he was born in Alabama, I will have to search those records, in addition to marriage records, births of his children, and the death of his wife.  

But, as we all know, moving backward in time is the best way to chart the life of an individual.  So, I looked at the burial log of the cemetery and found the notation of Mr. Nelson.  The lot had been purchased by his wife, with a notation that the next lot was to be reserved for Mrs. Nelson.  It also gave the name of the undertakers and date of death, his age,  as well as his cause of death. He is the first name on this page of interments.

• died 17 January 1911, burial 20 January 1911
• cause : Organic disease of the heart
• age : about 85
• undertaker : Fredricks & Pfeifer

Not long ago, I found Mrs. Nelson's death in Wisconsin.  She had been living with one of her children at the time of her death.

My final goal : To learn about the life of this African-American man, Corp. Thomas Nelson, who is buried in a single grave, with no relatives interred nearby.  Somehow, I feel that there is a very interesting story to be told about Mr. Nelson.  When I have uncovered his past I will be sharing his story with all of you.

Go out and find someone that seems to have a mystery about them.  Research them and get to know them.  Then, share it with others.  Imagine how many new stories we can reveal.

Published Family Histories

Have you wondered  how to write a genealogy report or family ancestry story?  I like to read published ancestry books.  Recently I purchased "The Ancestry of Mayor Harold Washington" by Curtis G. Brasfield, 1993, Heritage Books, Inc., Bowie, Maryland.

I thought that it would be a good read about the first African-American mayor of the City of Chicago.  After reviewing just the table of contents, I was very impressed with the author's organization  of documents, tables and genealogy summaries.  In the second half of the book, Mr. Brasfield explained the methodology that was used in his research of the Washington family.  In my opinion, this was a very well crafted genealogy and biographical publication.  Well done, Mr. Brasfield.

In my experience with writing my own research projects, and reviewing the writings of other researchers, I have found various styles of organization of the vital records and general family stories.  There are so many ways that an author can present his/her research results.  However, finding just the right words to keep the reader interested and involved can be a task in itself.  Learning to write with excitement and describing the picture of the history and lives in a family are so important for the author to achieve.

I suggest that before you try to write a family history, genealogy report or ancestry, take a trip to your local library and read several works that have been published.  Take note of how the information is presented.  Are there parts of the work  that keep you intrigued?  What made it grab your attention?  Are there parts of the book that seem to be uninteresting?  What would make those parts more interesting to you?  Take notes from reviewing the works of others.  There is really no right way or wrong way to write your family history.  Whatever way you choose to present your work, make sure that it still grabs your attention time after time that you read your own work.  Make changes and ask someone else to review your work, asking for suggestions.

When you are sure that what you have written is the best work that you can present, then get it published.  Even if it is just a few copies for family members to keep, at least it is written and can be passed onto others.  But do consider giving a copy of your work to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City for their collection.  There are also fine research libraries in other states that will accept your work for their special collections.  Allen County Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana and St. Louis County Public Library in Frontenac, Missouri hold many published family histories.  Ask others for their suggestions about where to send your book.  Reading published family histories can be so interesting, and just might get you in the mood to finish that writing project that you never finished.

Family History Library
Salt Lake City, Utah

                                        

St. Louis County Library

Frontenac, Missouri

I'm looking forward to reading your work!

Learn a New Language

How many of you have found that your ancestors come from a foreign country?  I'd say about 99 percent of you.  So, chances are you will be confronted with looking at documents that will be written in a foreign language at one time or other.

Who knows how to read these foreign languages?  Many researchers can, and YOU can too.  Yes, you can.

Take a look at www.familysearch.org  and you will see a "Learn" tab.  There you will find many guides to help you translate your documents written in foreign languages.  Give it a try.

There are 6 online lessons in video and slide formats that help you to translate your documents and navigate your way through Italian records. In addition, there are lessons in Dutch, German, French, Norwegian, Polish, Russian, Portuguese and Spanish.

In addition, there are skill levels, ranked Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced.  What more can you ask for?  Well, you can ask if these lessons are free....YES, they are FREE.

So, learning to read these documents is one thing.  What about learning to pronounce the words correctly as you translate?  Take a trial of the many language tutorials that are out there ready for you to succeed.  My favorite is Rosetta Stone www.rosettastone.com   They have a free demo on their website.

 Also, try Babbel
learn.languages.online.babel.com   which also has a free demo.  You can always browse your local library for a taste of what kind of textbooks are available.

 And, don't forget Worldcat  www.worldcat.org that can help you to locate where you might find resources in your area.

Several schools, Junior Colleges and Institutes offer foreign language course for the general public.  Check out those catalogs, or visit their web sites to see what they might offer.  Its a bit more fun to take these courses, as you will mix with other who are interested in the same subject and you can learn to converse with others, instead of a computer screen.

Have fun.  Ciao!

Italian Research

There are so many resources available to research Italian genealogical and historical records.  I just want to mention one that I happened upon just today.

This one is new, at least to me.

www.italianimmigrants.org

Italian Immigration Data : 1855 - 1900 

copyright 2013 by Crafted Knowledge

Thank you, Crafted Knowledge !!! They state that this entity has a goal to make educational and historical information available and free to the public

This site is invaluable for those of us who are continually looking for those pesky Italian names that are "creatively" spelled by transcribers of immigrant ship lists of passengers.

You know the names that I am talking about.  I know that you have seen them, and chuckled, like I do.


This database allows you to search for your Italian Immigrants name.  So far, so good.  But what makes this different?  You can search by first name, last name, AND by one letter at a time, as such:

names beginning with A, search by:

A
Aa  Ab  Ac  Ad  Ae, and so on
Aaa, Aab, Aac, Aad, Aae, and so on
Aaab, Aaac, Aaad, Aaae, Aaaf, and so on

You get the picture.  They bring up all names that have those criteria.  Click on the "suspected name" and you'll see where they have appeared on ship manifests,

Example:  a surname search with Aad returns this result:

#	NAME	AGE	GENDER	FROM	DEST	COMPT	SHIP	ARRIVED
0001	Tre Aado	31	M	Italy	USA	Steerage	Rugia	05-12-1890

Cool, huh?  But wait, there's more!  Click on the name of this passenger, Tre Aado, and see what happens....voila!  A Passenger Record for Tre Aado who arrived in 1890

Passenger Record for Tre Aado

record id 271754 date arrived 05-12-1890 name Tre Aado aka names gender, age Male, 31 relation occupation Laborer literacy destination USA purpose Staying in the USA city residence U native country Italy embarkation port Hamburg & Havre travel compartment Steerage ship name Rugia

Neat, huh?  But wait, there's more!  Select the name of the ship, Rugia, and see what happens....bing, bang, boom...  you get a list of all passengers who have appeared on the manifests of the Rugia. If you select the date of arrival, 5-12-1890, results will contain a list of all passengers who arrived on that very date, not just on the Rugia, but every other ship that arrived on that date.

OK, you can also search for a specific ship.  Across the top of the HOME page, select Immigrant Ships List.  

Here you will be treated to a whole list of ships, in alphabetical order, by date of arrival, number of Italian passengers, departure port and native country (Italy) and destinations listed by the passengers.
Scroll through the list to find the Rugia (hint, it's on page 17), and you will see a listing of every arrival date of the Rugia.  It appears that this ship was in operation from April of 1889 until November of 1894.  These dates of arrival ARE NOT in chronological order, so be sure to look closely at this table of information.  The date of arrival for our passenger, Tre Aado, shows that there were 280 passengers from Italy, and the ship departed from Hamburg and Havre, as seen here :

05-12-1890

280

Hamburg & Havre

Italy

USA

If we selected the date, 05-12-1890, the results would be a complete list of passengers on the Rugia from that date of arrival.  These passengers are listed in alphabetical order.

In my opinion, this is a step up from other online references for Italian immigrant ships.  I will certainly be using this site on my future projects.  What a great find!


The Reference Sources for this data is listed as below:

1

wikimediafoundation.org - The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc

2

gpo.gov - The U.S Government Printing Office (GPO) provides publishing and dissemination services for the official and authentic government publications to Congress, Federal agencies, Federal depository libraries, and the American public.

3

archives.gov - The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

4

data.gov - Open datasets generated by the Executive Branch of the Federal Government (USA)

Related Resources, Advocates, Supporting Contributors, Etc.

1

ancestry.lookupthe.name - Genealogy and ancestral name database

2

Jacksonville Law - Law archive for the Jacksonville Florida area.

3

PopularNameList.com - Look up information on popular names from A to Z. You can find thousands of data connections for names listed in our online guide.

4

Immigrant Legal Resource Center - National non-profit resource center that provides legal trainings, educational materials, and advocacy to advance immigrant rights.

5

LawHelp.org - Information to help you with problems related to housing, work, family, bankruptcy, disability, immigration and other topics.

6

ww2enlistment.org - searchable archive for World War II era Army enlistment records

7

Law Library of Congress - With approximately 2.65 million volumes, the Law Library’s collection of primary and secondary sources constitutes the largest legal collection in the world.

101 Independence Avenue Washington, DC 20540-4860

Hungarian Research

The Genealogy News - weekly edition

OK, so not too long ago I mentioned the GenealogyToday.com postings that give you sort of an index on the most recent blogs and articles written regarding genealogy and historical research.

Today I received the most recent notice from this service.  Boy, am I excited.  I had been trying to do a little research on the Hungarian side of my family. I don't speak or read Hungarian. There were only a few FHL films available to view the civil records of my ancestors' hometown. I really had not been able to get as far as I would like with my Hungarian research. But today I have new reasons to be exited about reviving my interest in this part of my heritage.

The first posting on the GenealogyToday.com notice was Hunting Hungarian Heritage.  The resource was from GenWeekly, and this article contained the most comprehensive information that I need to restart my Austro-Hungarian genealogy research.

The first part of the article give a rather nice history of the area we now call Hungary.  Then it gets to the meat of the information that made me click my heels.  They mentioned a list of heritage organizations and their locations. Contacting these could be a good move.

• American Hungarian Federation (AHF) - Akron, OH
• (American Hungarian Folklore Centrum (AHFC), Bogota, NJ. Online at http://www.magyar.org
• American Hungarian Reformed Federation (AHRF), Washington, D.C.
• Hungarian American Coalition (HAC) (Magyar-Amerikai Koalíció [MAK]), Washington, D.C.
• Hungarian Association of Cleveland (Clevelandi Magyar Társaság), Cleveland, Ohio
• Hungarian Cultural Foundation (HCF), Stone Mountain, Georgia
• American-Hungarian Foundation (AHF), Hungarian Heritage Center, New Brunswick, New Jersey
• Hungarian Reformed Federation Library and Archives, Bethlen Home, near Ligonier, Pennsylvania

Next, they listed books that are focused on Hungarian Genealogy and Heritage

• "German towns in Slovakia & Upper Hungary: a Genealogical Gazetteer," by Duncan B Gardner, Lakewood OH. Family Historian, 1991 3rd edition, revised and expanded.
• "Contents and addresses of Hungarian archives: with supplementary material for research on German ancestors from Hungary," by Edward R Brandt, Baltimore MD. Clearfield, 1998.
• "Handy Guide to Hungarian Genealogical Records," by Jared H Suess, Logan, UT. Everton Publishers, 1980.
• "Major Genealogical Record Sources in Hungary," by the Genealogical Society of Utah, Salt Lake City, 1972.
• "How & Where to Research Your Ethnic-American Cultural Heritage: Hungarian Americans," by Robert D Reed and Danek S Kaus, San Jose CA. R and E Publishers, 1994
• "Austro-Hungarian Genealogical Research," by Samuel Falkenstein; Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Genealogical Library, Avon OH; the compiler, 1985.
• Records of Genealogical Value for Hungary," by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Genealogical Dept., Salt Lake City, UT, 1979.
• "Radix - Genealogy Research in Hungary;" eBook, in English. This is a web site devoted to Hungarian genealogy. Some features are free to the public, while others require a fee. Site includes a collection of about 800 pictures from old Hungary, as well as an extensive list of links to other Hungarian genealogical sites

Several websites were mentioned for further direction

• http://www.iabsi.com/gen/public/CensusMain.htm - link to various online Hungarian censuses.
• Your Guide to Researching Your Hungarian Ancestors - a private page with various links.
• http://www.hungarotips.com/genealogy/link.html - links to Hungary related genealogy sites.
• http://hungariangensocietycleveland.org/ - example of an organization concerned with Hungarian research. They have meeting lists, a list of useful book titles, and the like.
• http://www.online-ofb.de/ - a list with clickable links to extracted data. Includes some towns in Hungary. One of the few places that has actual families linked together.
• The Federation of East European Family History Societies (FEEFHS) and also http://www.feefhs.org/links/hungary.html - the starting places on the great FEEFHS web site (the Federation of East European Family History Societies home page and the starting page for Hungary). This is a great organization with many pages of links and clues.
• http://www.hungaria.org/hal/genealogia/index.php?&newsid=316 - Hungarian Online Resources (Magyar Online Forras). Tremendously informative.
• Radix - the Radix web site with links to gazetteers, directories, etc.
• http://search.ancestry.com/Places/Europe/Hungary/Default.aspx - a commercial (pay) web site that allows cross searching of multiple databases.
• https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/show#uri=http://hr-search-api:8080/searchapi/search/collection/1743180 - an LDS web site which allows searching of indexed records.
• http://www.genealogia.hu/english/ - the Web Archive of Hungarian Genealogy home page.

I must mention that a researcher by the name of Lisa Alzo, of Ithaca NY, is a well know speaker and writer on Eastern European genealogical research. Anything that she has written is worth looking at! See her article at: http://internet-genealogy.com/austriahungary25.htm.

Cyndi's list is mentioned, along with FamilySearch, GenWeb and other better known sites

http://www.cyndislist.com/eastern-europe/bmd/ - contains links to various Hungarian birth, marriage and death records

http://www.cyndislist.com/eastern-europe/census/ - gives links to various Hungarian censuses.

http://www.cyndislist.com/eastern-europe/general/?page=2 - contains several links to Hungarian web sites.

http://www.cyndislist.com/eastern-europe/maps/ - just what it says - links to various maps of the area.

http://www.cyndislist.com/germany/societies/ - this has links to various German groups whose ancestors were from Hungary.

https://www.familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Hungary_Genealogical_Word_List - exactly what it says!

Hungary GenWeb - the GenWeb site for Hungary

http://www.hungarianvillagefinder.com - the Hungarian Village Finder and Gazetteer, a subscription site of more than 30,000 place names.

Remember that some articles from GenWeekly are written exclusively for GenealogyToday.
The source for this article:
Source Information: GenWeekly, New Providence, NJ, USA: Genealogy Today LLC, 2013.

As I posted previously, I heartily endorse GenealogyToday.com and hope that you make good use of what they have to offer, too.

The Weekly Genealogist - NEHGS

Do you put yourself on email lists for updates with societies and clubs?

Here is one that I highly recommend: The Weekly Genealogist, published by the New England Historic and Genealogical Society.  Their website : www.AmericanAncestors.org

NEW ENGLAND HISTORIC
GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY





Why do I love this newsletter?

They advertise special events sponsored by NEHGS.
Ancestry Day is March 2, 2013 in Boston, Mass. at the Sheraton Inn.  Sounds like fun to me.  Hope they have nice weather.

They give updates to the NEHGS staff.  David Allen Lambert is the new Chief Genealogist for NEHGS.

They advertise their special interest groups and activities and meeting dates.  FYI they have an Irish Genealogy Group which plans to meet on January 26, 2013.  If you are in Boston that day, you might just want to drop in.

They review new research websites.  This week they featured the Old Connecticut Path website, with a brief history and explanation of the significance of the information found here.  The Old Connecticut Path connected Cambridge to  Hartford.

There is always a Name Origins article.  Do you know the origins of the name NATHANETTA?
     As noted in today's article:
 From the male name NATHAN + diminutive suffix –etta. Nathanetta Frances (Arey) Gray, born 13 May 1860, the daughter of James R. and Lucy (Grush) Arey, died in 1890 in Rhode Island. Nathanetta was likely named after her maternal grandfather, Nathan W. Grush. (“Richard Arey and Some of His Descendants,” Register 87 (1933):18; Rhode Island Statewide Death Index, 1890–1900, #1890-714–17.)  

The Weekly Genealogists Survey asks readers to respond to a general genealogy query with a multiple choice answer.  The survey results are always posted the following week.  This week they ask if readers have discovered any maritime occupations in their family research.

Next is the Public Spotlight.  This is my favorite post of the Weekly Genealogist.  It is not just for New England research, but for all American research.  Today is devoted to library, cemetery, obits, directories  and images of Saginaw, Michigan.  Very cool stuff.

Stories of Interests always includes articles that may have been missed from publications of the many posts from research organizations/authors.  Interested in  the menu fare from President Abe Lincoln's second inaugural luncheon?  You can read about it in today's posting.

Lastly, there is always a reminder of the many Classic Reprints available at the bookstore from NEHGS.  From personal experience, you can get some great publications if ordered through them.  Sure, you might be able to read some of these online, but, how neat is it to have them in hand when you don't have electric power to turn on your PC (or Mac).

Ok, enough free advertising for NEHGS.  You get the picture.  I really like this weekly newsletter.  And, you will too.  Give it a try.  It's FREE.