Tuesday, October 16, 2012
County genealogists to present Judge Koches with family history research
The Van Zandt County Genealogical Society will hold its regular monthly meeting Saturday, October July 27, 2012, at 2 p.m. at the Van Zandt County Library in the Buchanan Room, 317 First Monday Lane, in Canton. The featured guest is County Judge Rhita Koches. The program title is “The Genealogy and Family History of Judge Rhita Koches.”
Genealogy society VP Scott Fitzgerald and others have researched Judge Koches’ ancestry. The program title is “The Genealogy and Family History of Judge Rhita Koches.” The genealogists will be presenting their findings in the style of the popular family history television program, “Who Do You Think You Are?” This is the first program of its type for the Van Zandt County society.
The program will include interesting finds about Judge Koches’ family origins and also information about how people can search their own family history. The Society operates a library where anyone can come to do genealogy and local history research at no charge. Volunteers are always on staff to provide expert assistance, also at no charge.
Society meetings are held the fourth Saturday of each month, with a variety of speakers presenting educational programs throughout the year. Visitors are always welcomed, and refreshments are served.
For further information on society activities, call or visit the Library of Genealogy and Local History, located in the courthouse annex in Canton, 903-567-5012. The email address is vanzandtgensoc@etcable.net. (Meetings are held at the main library at 317 First Monday Lane. The main library itself is closed on Saturdays, but the meeting room is open.)
Hours of operation are from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday and Friday and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays. The genealogy library is also open Thursday evenings until 6 p.m.
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Workshop in Canton, Texas, Aug. 12, 9:30 to 2 p.m.
All are welcome!
The Van Zandt County Genealogical Society will hold a research workshop Saturday, Aug. 18, 2012, from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Van Zandt County Library in the Buchanan Room, 317 First Monday Lane, in Canton. Workshop leaders will help both beginning and experienced researchers move ahead with their genealogy.
The day-long workshop will begin with a session on basic research and will cover the gamut of genealogy topics, including birth, marriage, tax, census and death records. The new records available on the Internet and how to use them will also be covered. In addition, newspaper, funeral home, phone and business directories will be explored. Participants will also learn how to “Think Outside the Box” and to organize a genealogy research trip. A video outlining the rich resources of the Van Zandt County Library of Genealogy and Local History will cap the day.
Cost is $5. Participants should bring a sack lunch. Door prizes will be given.
Registration can be made in person at the Library of Genealogy and Local History at the County Courthouse Annex at the corner of Terrell St. and Hwy. 19 in Canton; by phone 903-567-5012; or by email at ellnwheeler@aol.com.
Society meetings are held the fourth Saturday of each month, with a variety of speakers presenting educational programs throughout the year. Visitors are always welcomed, and refreshments are served.
For further information on society activities, call or visit the Library of Genealogy and Local History, located in the courthouse annex in Canton, 903-567-5012. The email address is vanzandtgensoc@etcable.net. (Meetings are held at the main library at 317 First Monday Lane. The main library itself is closed on Saturdays, but the meeting room is open.)
Hours of operation are from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday and Friday and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays. The genealogy library is also open Thursday evenings until 6 p.m.
Thursday, March 29, 2012
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Monday, March 26, 2012
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Finding Mr. Right in 1940
A certain N.H. Hilyard from San Angelo, in 1940, would not hear of participating in the federal census that has occurred every 10 years.
The genealogist’s problem today is to find Mr. Hilyard and other ancestor’s on that federal census. The census records, which have been closed for 72 years, will be opened to the public for the first time on April 2. (As an aside, note that no microfilm will be released by the government – all data will be digital and on-line.)
It’s a genealogist’s heyday. Or more like “hay”-day, as in “needle-in-a-stack-of-hay.” The point here is that all 138 million records will be released without an index.
So, to find Mr. Hilyard or your ancestor in 1940, family historians must go to one of the geographical groupings and read through the handwritten census schedule line by line. Eye-wearying work, indeed, but it is the only way to locate a family until an index is produced.
Backing up a step, the researcher has to know which of these geographical areas, called “enumeration district” is the right one to scour. For that, we zero in on any known address of our ancestor.
Common tools to find old addresses are phone and community directories, old family letters, backs of photographs, inside covers of old family books and Bibles, tax records, property records, old newspaper reports or the previous federal census (the 1930).
That’s where N.H. Hilyard, despite his boast that he was never caught by the nose-counters is found! In 1930, his household address is recorded, and genealogists today can use that address to cross-reference and find the right enumeration district.
It will still be a line-by-line search from there to find him on the 1940 census, but it’s a start.
The premiere FREE cross-reference tools are located at www.stevemorse.org. The census records will be available, also free, on www.ancestry.com and www.familysearch.com. The official National Archives website has good up-to-date information as well as training: http://1940census.archives.gov.
Comments and questions to “Ask the Ancestors,” are encouraged. Lisa McKinney will lead a workshop on “Preparing for 1940” at the Van Zandt County Library in Canton on March 24 at 2 p.m. Contact her at begatbegat@yahoo.com for more information.
This is Part II of a
two-part introduction to the 1940 Federal Census release, which will take place
on Apr. 2.
A certain N.H. Hilyard from San Angelo, in 1940, would not hear of participating in the federal census that has occurred every 10 years.
“Uncle Sam never counted me and I never caught a census
enumerator making a nose count,” the 65-year-old told a reporter.
He’s just the sort of ancestor that most genealogists seem
to have encountered in their historical research.
The maddening sort!
Mr. Hilyard’s brag brought a “special visit” from a census
supervisor who, presumably, made sure that Hilyard’s name, age, household
information were all recorded for official government business – establishing
Congressional representation and (in those years following the Great
Depression) surveying economic data across the nation.
The genealogist’s problem today is to find Mr. Hilyard and other ancestor’s on that federal census. The census records, which have been closed for 72 years, will be opened to the public for the first time on April 2. (As an aside, note that no microfilm will be released by the government – all data will be digital and on-line.)
It’s a genealogist’s heyday. Or more like “hay”-day, as in “needle-in-a-stack-of-hay.” The point here is that all 138 million records will be released without an index.
So, to find Mr. Hilyard or your ancestor in 1940, family historians must go to one of the geographical groupings and read through the handwritten census schedule line by line. Eye-wearying work, indeed, but it is the only way to locate a family until an index is produced.
Backing up a step, the researcher has to know which of these geographical areas, called “enumeration district” is the right one to scour. For that, we zero in on any known address of our ancestor.
Common tools to find old addresses are phone and community directories, old family letters, backs of photographs, inside covers of old family books and Bibles, tax records, property records, old newspaper reports or the previous federal census (the 1930).
That’s where N.H. Hilyard, despite his boast that he was never caught by the nose-counters is found! In 1930, his household address is recorded, and genealogists today can use that address to cross-reference and find the right enumeration district.
It will still be a line-by-line search from there to find him on the 1940 census, but it’s a start.
The premiere FREE cross-reference tools are located at www.stevemorse.org. The census records will be available, also free, on www.ancestry.com and www.familysearch.com. The official National Archives website has good up-to-date information as well as training: http://1940census.archives.gov.
Comments and questions to “Ask the Ancestors,” are encouraged. Lisa McKinney will lead a workshop on “Preparing for 1940” at the Van Zandt County Library in Canton on March 24 at 2 p.m. Contact her at begatbegat@yahoo.com for more information.
Expert unlocks DNA for county genealogy society
Expert unlocks DNA for county genealogical society
DNA genealogy expert Debbie Parker Wayne spoke at February’s
regular meeting of the Van Zandt County Genealogical Society.
A hot topic in the genealogy field, as well as in law
enforcement and health care, DNA can seem technical and hard to understand. Ms.
Wayne, president of the Lone Star Chapter of the Association of Professional
Genealogists, put DNA in layperson’s terms.
Ms. Wayne compared the average genealogist’s understanding
of DNA and genetics to a hobbyist’s understanding of astrophysics.
“The backyard astronomer can watch comets without having to
get a Ph.D.,” she said.
In the same way, family historians can learn about Y-DNA,
mtDNA, and autosomal DNA, she said. And she went on to prove it in her lecture.
She said DNA is made up of “billions and billions of pairs
of chemicals.” DNA laboratories analyze these biological chemicals and sort out
the DNA “matches.”
·
Y-DNA can be used to follow a direct paternal
line through male ancestors. For genealogists in this culture, this equates to
tracing surnames. This is the form of genetic coding that resides in a cell’s
nucleus.
·
Mitochondrial DNA, or “mtDNA” in the
geneticist’s jargon, exists within cell structures known as mitochondria. This
form can be used to analyze direct maternal lines.
·
Autosomal DNA exists throughout cells and can be
seen as a mixture of a person’s entire genetic legacy.
Consumer testing can be had for all three of these types of
DNA, said Ms. Wayne. Prices, which were once prohibitive, are coming down, with
some tests as low as $99. So, in addition to untangling the technical
information about DNA, Ms. Wayne gave some consumer tips about purchasing
tests.
Some companies charge a monthly service fee for your data.
Ms. Wayne suggests downloading your raw data, no matter which company one uses.
“Make sure you know what you’re ordering and what you’re
paying for,” she said. In addition to her website, http://debbiewayne.com, she also recommended
the International Society of Genetic Genealogy website, http://isogg.org. A Texas-based company with the
largest database for comparison is Family Tree DNA at http://www.familytreedna.com.
The most important factor in hiring a testing company for
genealogical matching is how big its database is. The more test results a
company has, the more possible matches are available.
Ms. Wayne also said that genealogists should be aware that
tests can only “support, not prove,
relationships.” Certain tests, however, can rule out some family relationships.
The tests are “not a magic bullet. You still have to
research the old fashioned way. (DNA) is not going to replace your paper
trail.”
In other business, the Van Zandt County Genealogical Society
also applauded that “paper trail” research by awarding its 65th
“First Families of Van Zandt County” certificate to descendants of pioneer
William Pate Carter. Charles William Archer and his sister Janice Morris of
Dallas each received certificates based on family research.
The Society honors those whose research proves an ancestor
who was in Van Zandt County by December 31, 1860.
Archer’s research states “William Pate Carter followed his
father, Solomon Carter, and his brothers to Van Zandt County between 1855 and
1858. He first settled at Four Mile
Prairie and later farmed in the Tundra community.”
Carter served as County commissioner in 1878 and 1880. He
died in 1903 and is buried at Cool Springs Cemetery.
For those who want to research ancestors from Van Zandt
County or elsewhere, the Society maintains an in-depth genealogical library in
the Van Zandt County Courthouse Annex, including books, periodicals, microfilm
as well as digital information.
Volunteers staff the library full time.
Volunteer genealogists also serve the public by offering research
services to family history buffs all over the nation.
Publication of genealogical and historical information is a
major emphasis for the Van Zandt County Genealogical Society. The Society also maintains an award-winning
website, http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~txvzcgs/vzgs.htm.
Meetings are held at 2 p.m. the fourth Saturday of each
month at the main Van Zandt County Library on Hwy. 859, and newcomers are
always welcome.
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Looking forward to looking back to 1940
1940 is just around the corner! The genealogist’s dream, which comes true every 10 years, is the release of millions of public records that might include information about our ancestors. The 1940 Census, closed due to privacy rules for 72 years, will be released in one month. It’s time for genealogists to prepare!
The federal census, the most recent of which was taken in 2010, was established by the U.S. Constitution in Article I, Section 2: “The actual Enumeration shall be made within three years after the first meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent term of ten years, in such manner as they shall by law direct.”
Despite its patriotic origins, the census has always been suspect. A modern children’s book, “Tricking the Tallyman,” highlights the first census in 1790 and some citizens who thought the “tallyman,” or head-counter, was some sort of government spy who would tax the people. The main purpose was and is to count the population to establish Congressional representation, although many other uses have developed over the centuries. Of course, to genealogists, the main purpose is to help us sort out our pedigrees!
A certain N.H. Hilyard from San Angelo, in 1940, would not hear of participating in the census.
“Uncle Sam never counted me and I never caught a census enumerator making a nose count,” the 65-year-old told a reporter, prompting a “special” visit from a census supervisor.
The 1940 census, coming just between the Great Depression and WWII, was big news across the U.S. It began in 1937 with a postcard count of the unemployed and with a massive map-making project for census takers. The maps eventually numbered about 130,000. A “trial census” was held in St. Joseph and Marshall counties, Indiana, in August 1939.
Today’s logistics engineers would be impressed with preparations for the tally. When time came for the census to begin, forms, envelopes, pencils and stationery were shipped to San Francisco and other points distant from Washington, D.C., first. The census kits filled 29,500 special wooden boxes and were treated “like gold bars,” according to news reports of the day. It took 56 railroad cars to transport the official materials.
Personnel management was massive, too, and of great interest to the populace, who had just lived through a depression where there were very few jobs to be found. The federal government hired more than 120,000 census employees. This “census army,” was armed with 328,000 pencils and was trained in census schools across the nation. Abridged instructions were 20 pages!
“A few times in the past, members of Congress have sent in applicants who could not read and write, and there have been instances in which the Bureau had to use them,” according to the Trenton, N.J., Sunday Times-Advertiser, on July 1939. As genealogists, we cringe to see this because we’ve sometimes read mangled information in the old records that can only be explained by such a statement.
It was not only humans who worked on the census. People were fascinated by a “robot army” of business machines—not a humanoid robot like we would think of today—was used to process census data. Mechanical card punches numbered 850, and there were 600 machines called “verifiers.” Fifteen “gang punches, 515 duplicating key punches, 35 tabulators and 65 duplications machines stood ready to sort and organized 138 million records, the largest census to that date.
The official census date was April 1, 1940, but some work did not begin until the 2nd because workers wanted to make sure that “April Fool’s Day” would not interfere with door-to-door workers’ welcome. Census workers in the cities were allowed two weeks to finish their count, and rural workers had 30 days. The results were to be compiled and returned to Congress in eight months.
The results have been locked in government archives since that time, closed to the public. When released, the first job of genealogists will be to create an every-name index. (Genealogists are beyond “cringing” when they hear that this huge data dump has no inherent way to zero in on a particular ancestor. Line-by-line reading of an entire geographical area, known as an enumeration district, will be the only method, until an index is produced.)
Read Part II in the next issue to find out what you need to know on Apr. 2 in order to find your “people” and find out whether N.H. Hilyard’s claim to have never been counted in six decades was true.
“Ask the Ancestors,” is a family and local history column by genealogist Lisa McKinney. Comments and questions are encouraged. Ms. McKinney's next workshop on “Preparing for 1940” will be at the Van Zandt County Library, 317 First Monday Lane, in Canton on March 24 at 2 p.m. Contact her at begatbegat@yahoo.com for more information.
The federal census, the most recent of which was taken in 2010, was established by the U.S. Constitution in Article I, Section 2: “The actual Enumeration shall be made within three years after the first meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent term of ten years, in such manner as they shall by law direct.”
Despite its patriotic origins, the census has always been suspect. A modern children’s book, “Tricking the Tallyman,” highlights the first census in 1790 and some citizens who thought the “tallyman,” or head-counter, was some sort of government spy who would tax the people. The main purpose was and is to count the population to establish Congressional representation, although many other uses have developed over the centuries. Of course, to genealogists, the main purpose is to help us sort out our pedigrees!
A certain N.H. Hilyard from San Angelo, in 1940, would not hear of participating in the census.
“Uncle Sam never counted me and I never caught a census enumerator making a nose count,” the 65-year-old told a reporter, prompting a “special” visit from a census supervisor.
The 1940 census, coming just between the Great Depression and WWII, was big news across the U.S. It began in 1937 with a postcard count of the unemployed and with a massive map-making project for census takers. The maps eventually numbered about 130,000. A “trial census” was held in St. Joseph and Marshall counties, Indiana, in August 1939.
Today’s logistics engineers would be impressed with preparations for the tally. When time came for the census to begin, forms, envelopes, pencils and stationery were shipped to San Francisco and other points distant from Washington, D.C., first. The census kits filled 29,500 special wooden boxes and were treated “like gold bars,” according to news reports of the day. It took 56 railroad cars to transport the official materials.
Personnel management was massive, too, and of great interest to the populace, who had just lived through a depression where there were very few jobs to be found. The federal government hired more than 120,000 census employees. This “census army,” was armed with 328,000 pencils and was trained in census schools across the nation. Abridged instructions were 20 pages!
“A few times in the past, members of Congress have sent in applicants who could not read and write, and there have been instances in which the Bureau had to use them,” according to the Trenton, N.J., Sunday Times-Advertiser, on July 1939. As genealogists, we cringe to see this because we’ve sometimes read mangled information in the old records that can only be explained by such a statement.
It was not only humans who worked on the census. People were fascinated by a “robot army” of business machines—not a humanoid robot like we would think of today—was used to process census data. Mechanical card punches numbered 850, and there were 600 machines called “verifiers.” Fifteen “gang punches, 515 duplicating key punches, 35 tabulators and 65 duplications machines stood ready to sort and organized 138 million records, the largest census to that date.
The official census date was April 1, 1940, but some work did not begin until the 2nd because workers wanted to make sure that “April Fool’s Day” would not interfere with door-to-door workers’ welcome. Census workers in the cities were allowed two weeks to finish their count, and rural workers had 30 days. The results were to be compiled and returned to Congress in eight months.
The results have been locked in government archives since that time, closed to the public. When released, the first job of genealogists will be to create an every-name index. (Genealogists are beyond “cringing” when they hear that this huge data dump has no inherent way to zero in on a particular ancestor. Line-by-line reading of an entire geographical area, known as an enumeration district, will be the only method, until an index is produced.)
Read Part II in the next issue to find out what you need to know on Apr. 2 in order to find your “people” and find out whether N.H. Hilyard’s claim to have never been counted in six decades was true.
“Ask the Ancestors,” is a family and local history column by genealogist Lisa McKinney. Comments and questions are encouraged. Ms. McKinney's next workshop on “Preparing for 1940” will be at the Van Zandt County Library, 317 First Monday Lane, in Canton on March 24 at 2 p.m. Contact her at begatbegat@yahoo.com for more information.
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