ChicagoGenealogy: Research Insights from Study and Serendipity

Canoscan LIDE 200: Using Plexiglass to Flatten Documents

2012-01-26T09:07:00.000-08:00

Like many researchers, I use a Canoscan LIDE 200 to scan archival records where it's allowed. It's small (easily fits into my messenger bag next to my computer), lightweight (3.5 lbs), inexpensive (currently $75 on Amazon), convenient (connects to my computer with a USB cable), and it works great.

The challenge has been scanning tri-folded documents from a hundred years ago. It's impossible to flatten them so it's hard to keep them straight while closing the scanner cover. I've finally found a solution.

A few weeks ago I had the clerk at my local hardware store cut a piece of thin plexiglass slightly smaller than the glass on the scanning bed. There's a small lip around the scanning glass and when I set the plexiglass against it the plexiglass becomes a see-through cover. I put the paper on the glass, straighten it, bring the plexiglass down on the page, and make sure the paper underneath is straight. Then I close the actual cover and scan. The plexiglass doesn't seem to affect the image quality.

And what about stapled tri-fold documents that can't be unfastened? It's not always possible to use the plexiglass in those cases, but a double-thick file folder or piece of poster board used in place of the stiff scanner cover can make it easier to line up those documents for scanning.

Chicago Birth Registers: W. P. A. Entries

2012-01-25T08:05:00.000-08:00

If you look at the Illinois, Cook County Birth Registers, 1871-1915 on FamilySearch, you'll notice that some entries read "W. P. A." Members of the Chicago Genealogy Facebook group were pondering those entries last night and I realized that my thoughts on the subject were too lengthy for a Facebook post so I'll share them here.

First things first. What are the birth registers and how were they created? The short answer is that I don't know for sure. But, I have a guess that pertains to the books that were organized into alphabetical sections by month and year. (The earliest books are arranged differently.) Many early births went unrecorded, but when a record was created, I believe a doctor or midwife, or another person who attended the birth, filled out a birth certificate form and returned it to the county clerk's office.

At that point, I think the county copied the information from the birth certificate into a birth register and assigned a certificate number based on the line number for the entry. The registers would have provided a systematic way for assigning certificate numbers while serving as a detailed, chronological index to the actual records.


Example birth register page from 1913. (Year is recorded on the right-hand page but I've omitted that image to save space.) Notice that the lines were pre-numbered and that the writing is consistent up to the last few entries.

Let's look at an example page from a register that shows W.P.A. entries. Notice that the last six entries are in different handwriting. What's unique about them?

Register: Acerra (regular writing)
Certificate: 608 Maria Acerra, record not dated
Comment: This was probably the last entry made in March of 1913

Register: Altiger (dark pen)
Certificate: 609 Edward Atiger, record dated March 29, 1927
Comment: This certificate was signed by a doctor many years after the birth

Register: Arizzi (dark pen)
Certificate: 610 Laura Arizzi, record dated April 1, 1929 (regular form)
Comment: This certificate was signed by the father many years after the birth

Register: Taken Adler (dark pen)
Certificate: 611 George Adler, record dated March 18, 1929 (later form)
Comment: This certificate was signed by a doctor many years after the birth

Register: Taken WPA
Certificate: 612 Zosfia Andzejewska, no date (regular form)
Comment: This certificate appears to be from 1913 but the certificate number has been changed

Register: Taken WPA
Certificate: 613 John Adams, record dated March 30, 1914 (regular form)
Comment: This certificate was signed by a doctor in 1914 and the certificate number has been changed

Register: Anderson "Late Entry"
Certificate: 614 Douglas Anderson, record dated March 7, 1941
Comment: This certificate was "signed" by the father but the name is actually typed

The two W. P. A. entries come after births reported in the 1920s and before a birth reported in 1941. The Works Progress Administration was active in the 1930s and I think it's safe to assume that these entries were made by W. P. A workers.

So, why were the entries made? Notice that the two W. P. A. certificates had at least one thing in common. The certificate number was changed. It's possible that the workers were moving misfiled records.

The certificate numbers that were changed were low, as I'd expect for an "A" birth early in the year, so I decided to check the birth register for March of 1914 to see if I could find an entry for John Adams. It was there on line 458, just as I'd hoped. It looks like his certificate was originally recorded in the 1914 register and assigned a certificate number from there but that's misleading because he was really born in 1913. I think the W. P. A. workers were correcting that error and I think it's likely a bit of detective work would also locate a register entry for Zosfia Andzejewska.

1914 birth register page showing entry for John Adams on line 458.

Continuation of John Adams entry showing year as 1914.

The curious thing to me is that the W. P. A. didn't record the names in the registers when they fixed errors and that they didn't make notations by the original register entries to document the certificate number changes. If I had located the birth register entry for John Adams in 1914 and used the year and line number there to search for his birth certificate on microfilm, I would have come up empty-handed.

Two things come to mind as I bring this post to a close.

1) Thing aren't always as they would seem. Looking at the birth register entry for John Adams, it would make no sense to say that he was born in 1913, and yet ... Notice, though, that the register probably isn't a primary source.

2) I am grateful for the efforts of the countless individuals who have volunteered indexing time to make Chicago records accessible through FamilySearch.

Chicago Lying-In Hospital Birth Records

2012-01-05T13:03:00.000-08:00

When I look at birth certificates, I focus on names and dates and places--information I can add to a family tree. When I look at hospital records, I come face to face with the realities of giving birth. I think the records from the Chicago Lying-In Hospital and its satellite clinics provide fascinating and important family history details and I believe they merit a closer look.

The hospital records are listed in the Family History Library Catalog (FHLC) as Chicago, Illinois birth records, 1896-1933. The added author is Northwestern Memorial Hospital and I think the originals are most likely held by the Northwestern Memorial Hospital Archives.

These hospital books document services provided by four clinics connected to Dr. Joseph Bolivar DeLee, the physician who founded the Chicago Lying-In Dispensary at Maxwell Street and Newberry Avenue in 1895. Dr. DeLee was interested in improving birthing conditions and his clinics offered care to needy women while providing training opportunities for doctors and nurses in the emerging field of obstetrics. The primary clinic was Maxwell Station but others included Northwest Station, Stockyards Station, and the Chicago Maternity Center. The history of the Lying-In Hospital intertwines with other Chicago medical institutions and some related historical records, 1913-1943 can be found in the University of Chicago Library's Special Collections Research Center. Photos can be found here.

There are three types of clinic records available on the 14 microfilms--application books, birth books, and case books--and I will take a look at each of them in turn.

Application Books

Application books are available on 11 microfilms (1315895 to 1315905) and the FHLC identifies them by volume number and year range. However, some years are covered by more than one book (because the books are from different clinics) so it would be hard to know which film(s) to view without more information. I've created a key which can be viewed as a PDF here. The application books cover the following clinics:

Maxwell Station, Dec1896 – Jun 1932
Northwest Station, Sep1903 – Nov 1907
Stockyards Station, Aug1923 – May 1926
Chicago MaternityCenter, Sep 1932 – Aug 1933

There are two kinds of application books. The standard books, with the exception of the first one, have entries made on pre-printed forms. They are organized by the date of the woman's first visit to the clinic (births often happened a few months later) and recorded information generally includes name (either the woman's given name or her husband's), address, nationality, how the woman was referred to the clinic, information on previous pregnancies, and expected date of confinement. If the woman gave birth the birth date, sex, and weight of the child are noted. Beginning with Vol. 49, the forms asked for the birthplaces and ages of parents, but sometimes that section was left blank.


Example: Entries from the first page of the 1896 Maxwell Station application book

Example: Standard application book entries.

Eight of the earliest application books log house calls and I've indicated that on the key linked above. Entries in those books include name, address, including notations like "1 Floor Rear" to help the doctors locate apartments, the names of the physicians sent to assist, and the number of the bag that they carried. Time called, time started, and time returned are also noted along with the "nature of the case." In some instances the notes are detailed but if a birth was without complication, the entry might simply read "normal delivery."

Example: Page from a book listing house calls.

Birth books are available on 3 microfilms (1315995 to 1315997) and they are included on the key linked above. It's difficult to determine the exact coverage because the volumes include birth books, case books, and birth and case books and some aren't labeled with a clinic name. As a group, they appear to go from November 1898 through July 1933 with the bulk of them being from the Maxwell clinic.

Birth Books

The entries are chronological by birth date and span two pages. Information includes spouse with the patient's name to the right, for example, "Gold, Sam Tillie," the names of the intern and student assigned to the patient, an application number, a case or confinement number, and the diagnosis which usually reads something like "Normal L.O.A. Female 8#."

The birth and case book from February of 1900 gives detailed instructions for how to determine whether to assign a case or a confinement number. For example, full confinement cases received a confinement number, hospital cases received no number, and false alarms, abortions, midwife cases, postpartum cases, and treated pregnancy cases received a case number.

Example: Pages from Chicago Lying-in Hospital birth book, March, 1902.

The later birth books include obstetrical terms that were unfamiliar to me. In the example below, the word that begins with "ceph" is "cephalic" which, according to Wikipedia, means the head enters the pelvis first. "Para" refers to "parity," the number of times a mother has given birth. Comparing the notation for one of the births to the information on the corresponding birth certificate, it appears that this number refers to previous births. In other words a "I" would mean that the woman was giving birth to a second child. The abbreviations refer to the way the babies are facing. R.O.A., for example, means "right occipito-anterior."

Example: Page from a birth book showing delivery details.

It's possible to use the application number from a birth book to find the corresponding entry in the application book and following up in this way provides additional information, address, for example.

I think it's likely that the children listed in the birth books had birth certificates created and those records should be easily accessible at FamilySearch's Illinois, Cook County Birth Certificates, 1878-1922 database. Conversely, if you've found a birth certificate stamped "Chicago Lying-In Hospital," it should be easy to find the matching entries in the application and birth books.

Case Books

The birth book films include four "birth and case" books and five separate case books. The case book entries cover clinic visits that didn't result in confinement. Information generally includes names, application numbers, case numbers, and a diagnosis, "False Alarm," and "Precipitate Mid wife on case," for example. These books include numerous entries for miscarriages.

Example: Pages from a case book, July, 1908.

Observations

So, here's what I've learned so far from and about these application, birth, and case books:

If a family had enough resources to pay a doctor, you probably won't find a birth or clinic visit listed in these records. For example the Maxwell Station book for 1900 has a notation that says, "Not case for dispensary – can afford to pay doctor."
Some of the poorest women in Chicago had access to innovative medical care from the late 1890s forward. Even if a child was born at home, the birth might have been assisted by a skilled physician.
Many of the entries in the early Maxwell Street books are for Jewish women from Russia but other neighborhood women used the clinic, too.
The Stockyards Station books list religion. Notations include things like "Amer Cath," "Amer Prot Col," and Amer Prot" and this information might prove useful in looking for baptismal records.
Comparing hospital record information with birth certificate information I notice that there are sometimes minor variations. Name might be spelled differently, for example.
Sometimes the doctors recorded remarks about the health of an infant. For example, I saw notations such as "Upper lip shows imperfect union" and "Birthmark."
Sometimes the doctors were called to the home only to find they weren't needed. One note said "Met husband who said he had an other doctor & did notneed us.”
In the 1920s, the Stockyards book begins to mention payments. Notations include things like "Will try to give $5" and "$16.50" (I saw amounts ranging from $5 to $20) but some patients are listed as "Free Care."It's possible that these payments or donations were used to fund the construction of the new hospital.

What use might these records be? Here are some ideas that come to mind quickly:

Birth records are available for public searching up through 1922. If you want quick confirmation of birth without obtaining an actual birth record, these records might help.
A mother's medical history might provide some interesting insights into the makeup of a family. Was there a medical reason, for example, that there were large gaps between siblings' births?

If you've read to this point and find yourself thinking, "I wonder if my ancestor appears in the records?" post a comment. I'll gladly take a look at the records, time permitting, for the first person to ask.
____________________________

Related Links Collected while Researching this Post

Caroline Benoist Collection at University of Virginia School of Nursing
Caroline studied in-home delivery at the Chicago Lying-in Hospital and her papers include some publications from the same.

Syphilis in Pregnancy and Labor

Report of a study done at the Stockyards Station published in American Journal of Syphilis; follow the link and search the book for "chicago lying-in."

American Child Hygiene Association Annual Meeting Report
Search for "chicago lying-in"

Directory of History of Medicine Collections
A tool for finding the locations of archived hospital records.

Numerous additional references can be found by searching for "chicago lying-in hospital" at Google Books.

Divorce Case Listed in Tract Book

2011-12-08T05:30:00.001-08:00

Yesterday I learned that a document number listed in a Cook County tract book was actually the case number for a divorce granted in the Superior Court. Here's the story:

A few weeks ago, I visited the Tract Department in the Cook County Recorder of Deeds office (118 N. Clark Street, Room 120, Chicago, Illinois 60602 ) and got some help book and paging some c. 1910 documents that I wanted to view. As the clerk looked at the list, three document numbers stood out to her. One had the letters "M L" following the number. I learned that this means "mechanic's lien" and that those early records aren't available.

One of the other two numbers--six digits each--had "C" following it and the other had an "S." The clerk mentioned that they might be "corporation" documents. It seemed a bit odd--the transaction appeared to be between family members--but we book and paged them and I went across the hall to have the corresponding microfiche pulled. The clerk there told me those particular records would have to be retrieved from the warehouse, so I placed the order.

Yesterday I stopped in to view the two corporation records. I verified that the document numbers matched but the records were from the 1880s and the names and property descriptions weren't relevant to my search. I asked if there might be another set of records with the same document numbers and in talking to the clerk in the Tract Department trying to puzzle things out all of a sudden we both realized that the "C" might not mean "corporation" at all. What if it meant "Circuit?" And what if the "S" meant "Superior?" What if they referred to court records?

I went across the street to the Circuit Court Archives, checked the Superior Court index, and made a discovery.The document listed in the Tract Book (266999 S) was indeed the case number for a divorce granted to the two people whose names were entered in the book. I had actually made copies from that file a few weeks ago.

Looking at the tract book page again I see many things that I didn't notice before--in part because I was focusing on finding documents rather than understanding the index and in part because I should have put my glasses on the first time around. : )

(These entries were actually in the middle of the page. I moved them up so the column headings would be visible.)

First notice that the lines with case file numbers don't have a "Date of Instrument" date listed, just a "Date of Filing." It makes them stand out visually on the page. Second, notice that the first entry probably says "Di" in the Instrument column. I'm guessing that stands for "divorce." And notice that the note underneath seems to say "AmdBill" which I'm guessing means "Amended Bill."

I suspect I will find that the document number followed by a "C" is a Circuit Court case and looking back through my notes, I don't believe I've looked at that file. I'm hoping it might provide new insights into a complicated story. I also think a few of the other entries on the page might be for court documents as well and I plan to follow up.

I'm adding this image as a follow-up to the comment made by K Craine. I believe it shows the notation for probate.

Chicago Jewish Historical Society

2011-12-03T20:00:00.001-08:00

I'm working on a blog post about Northwestern Memorial Hospital Records which include birth registers from the Maxwell Station. One Google search led to another this evening and I landed on the page for The Chicago Jewish Historical Society.

If you have some time, check out their Journal Archive. Simply put, it's rich with history worth reading.

New: Cook County Marriage Index 1912-1924

2011-11-15T10:23:00.001-08:00

FamilySearch has Cook County marriage license images from 1871 to 1920.

A search of "Smith" at CookCountyGenealogy.com suggests that marriage licenses are available there from 1930 forward.

So what about the licenses from 1921-1929? Up until now, I've always said, "There's no public index. Just mail in a search request form to the Cook County Clerk's office." I've done that successfully for my own research.

Yesterday a fellow researcher (who wants to remain anonymous) mentioned an Ancestry.com database called Cook County, Illinois Marriage Indexes, 1912-1924, new as of 17 Oct 2011. The notes say "The majority of these records come from the years 1914-1923" but the index still opens up a few more years and gives us an alternate way of searching before 1921.

As you can see above, the index is alphabetical with both brides and grooms listed and it provides the name of the spouse, a date, and a serial number.

Comparing an entry with a marriage license (I chose Mary Appelman) suggests that the date is the marriage date (not the date the license was issued) and the serial number is the license number.

I can see a few ways that this index would be useful.

If you find a 1921-1924 marriage listed here, it's pretty certain that a $15 search request to the county will result in a "found" result.
If you can't find a marriage through 1920 at FamilySearch but can find the name here, it's likely that the license is online, just indexed in an interesting way. Keep looking. Search the Ancestry index by date, use other names to enter the FamilySearch database and then browse forward or backward to find the right license number.

One caution. The marriage indexes to 1916 available on FamilySearch microfilm include entries for licenses that weren't returned and so it can't be assumed that a couple married just because their names are in those indexes. (On the other hand, it's also not possible to assume that they didn't marry; it's possible the officiator simply forgot to send the license back to the clerk's office.) It would be tempting to use this new index to confirm a couple's marriage, but it's probably not wise without knowing how the index was created.

Sam Fink's Marriage-Death Index Available on Ancestry

2011-11-01T10:58:00.000-07:00

A client let me know that Sam Fink's Index, more formally known as Cook County, Illinois Marriage and Death Indexes, 1833-1889 is now online at Ancestry.com. Great news! It indexes marriages 1833–1871 and deaths 1833-1889 that were mentioned in Chicago newspapers so it's a very useful pre-Fire resource.

In this post I'll tell you a little bit about the man who compiled the index, share tips on how to use the marriage and death index entries to find further information, and suggest ways to access the indexed newspapers from a distance.

Sam Fink

So, who was Sam Fink and why did he go to so much effort to make an index of Chicago marriages and deaths? According to his obituary--he died on a cruise ship at the age of 88 in February of 1999--he was "an attorney who made his living as an investigator and genealogist." (Chicago Sun-Times, 7 Feb 1999, accessed through GenealogyBank.com) He was a professional researcher who dealt "exclusively with problems of determining the true and lawful heirs in estate matters, trusts, dormant bank accounts, and insurance policies." (Flavin, Genevieve. "How to Hunt Your Heritage." Chicago Tribune (1963-Current file): B4. ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Chicago Tribune (1849-1987). Mar 22 1972. Web. 1 Nov. 2011 <http://search.proquest.com/docview/170291575?accountid=6327>.) I think he created this index as a tool to use in his work.

Marriage Index

The marriage index lists the names of the bride and groom, the date of the newspaper announcement, and a code for the newspaper that it appeared in. There are matching entries for both bride and groom so it doesn't matter which name you search. (If you can't find a newspaper article using information from one entry, search the corresponding entry to see if the information the same. It would have been easy for the typist to make a mistake.)

Marriage Index Example

These entries are also included in the Illinois Statewide Marriage Index. They show "Fink" in the license number field but don't provide the newspaper code.

Illinois Statewide Death Index Example

So, what do you do once you've found a match in the index? First, use the code to determine the newspaper title(s). Then search out the matching article.

Chicago Tribune *
Chicago Times %
Chicago Evening Journal $
Chicago Democrat #
Chicago Democratic Press #
Chicago Evening Post ?
Chicago Record-Herald "
Chicago Daily News @
Chicago Examiner ¢
The Inter-Ocean :

If you're in the Chicago area, these newspapers can be found on microfilm at the Harold Washington Library. Just take the L and get off at Library--State and Van Buren.

The Chicago Public Library website has some very helpful online information about local newspapers including a link to a timeline from the Encyclopedia of Chicago--which papers were published when--and a list of holdings with information on how to request obituary searches through your library's interlibrary loan department.

Chicago newspapers are also available at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library in Springfield. More information can be found on their Newspaper Microfilm Collection page. If you don't have easy access to the papers, Molly Kennedy, a researcher on our Genlighten.com site, offers newspaper searches with quick turnaround.

And some of the papers are online. The Chicago Tribune can be found at Fold3.com and ProQuest's Chicago Tribune Historical Archives is available through many libraries. GenealogyBank.com offers the newspapers listed below. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be possible to browse the pages and sometimes I find it hard to pull up matching entries using the name search.

Chicago Daily Times (1/16/1855 - 5/2/1856)
Chicago Herald (1/1/1890 - 12/31/1891)
Chicago Times (11/2/1854 - 7/3/1888)
Conservator (11/18/1882 - 12/18/1886)
Daily Inter-Ocean (2/15/1874 - 12/31/1896
Inter Ocean (6/5/1879 - 3/6/1896)
Pomeroy's Democrat (1/6/1869 - 2/15/1879)
Sunday Times (10/10/1869 - 12/31/1876)
Vorbote (2/28/1874 - 12/23/1876).

Death Index

Sam Fink's death index is divided into four sections: 1833-1874, 1875-1879, 1880-1884, and 1885-1889.


Death Index Example

Like the marriage index, many of the death index entries include a newspaper date and a code to tell you which title to check. An example would be the entry for Albert Francis Bullook below. Mention of his Albert's death occurs in the 6 Jul 1879 of the Chicago Tribune.

When you use the index you'll notice that some of the later death entries list a name, a volume, and a page number. Some entries, like the one for Mary Wilhemina Bulicek, include a volume and page along with newspaper codes and some, like the one for Mary Bull just provide a volume and page number.

The notes at Ancestry say "When the death entries came from Cook County death records, they list only a name and a volume and page number." The question is, what "Cook County death records" do these numbers refer to? I have an idea and I will follow up to see if I can learn more the next time I'm downtown. In the meantime, though, I don't believe they refer to the early register books held by the Cook County Clerk's Office. Those volumes were distinguished by letters.

So, how do you find a death certificate or a newspaper death notice when there's no newspaper date given? Here's one approach:

Volume numbers and the death dates they cover

1) First, check the key above to determine an approximate year of death. Mary's record is in volume 1 so her death was recorded between January of 1878 and August of 1879.

2) Next, search the Illinois Statewide Death Index for a matching entry. The likely match for Mary is listed under Wilhelmina: BULICEK, WILHELMINA 1879-07-03 CHICAGO 05 YR U 00003846

3) Use the death date as an entry point to searching newspapers. In this case the death notice was on page 8 the day after Mary's death.

If no newspaper code is given, follow the steps above to estimate the year of death and search the Illinois Statewide Death Index. Then use the information from that index to locate the death record on Family History Library microfilm or in the database at FamilySearch.

Cook County Naturalization: Stories from the Chicago Tribune

2011-10-27T17:42:00.000-07:00

Many years ago, I remember seeing a picture of newly naturalized citizens in our local upstate New York newspaper. They were smiling, maybe even holding flags, and I sensed that they had just done something meaningful and significant. I've always thought of my naturalized ancestors approaching the process in the same sort of way.

It wasn't until I did a search for "naturalization" in the Chicago Tribune Historical Archives that I realized there might be more to the story than a person's driving desire to become a citizen.

In October 1858, for example, the Chicago Tribune was encouraging two groups of individuals to naturalize--men of age who had arrived under the age of eighteen five or more years previous (they could naturalize immediately without filing first papers) and men who had filed declarations two or more years previous so that the waiting period to file the final papers had passed.

Why? Because the 1860 presidential election was coming up and the paper was eager to enroll more Republican voters. "Those who intend to vote the Pro-Slavery ticket need not apply for our assistance," the paper wrote. [1]

So what have I learned from the newspaper about the naturalization process in Cook County and what does it have to do with family history research?

1. Political parties encouraged aliens to naturalize as a way of increasing their voter pool. An October 1880 newspaper tells the story of an 81-year old Irish man who completed the naturalization process forty-nine years after he took out his first papers. The newspaper suggested that political party members "drew the octogenarian from his home and coax him to become a citizen so that he may help to diminish by one the minority for Hancock." [3] If your ancestor naturalized long after he was eligible, he might have received a little bit of outside encouragement.

2. If your ancestor naturalized in October, he might have been caught up in "The Naturalization Mill." In October of 1873 the Criminal Court was "working out citizens faster than a sausage-machine turns out sausages." [2] In October of 1880 the newspaper wrote, "the work of converting the subjects of foreign Kings, Emperors, or other potentates into citizens of the Great Republic is being very briskly carried on in all the courts of the city." [3] There were four courts that handled naturalization in Cook County early on--Circuit, County, Criminal, and Superior--and they sometimes held evening hours in order to accommodate the large numbers of people hoping to naturalize. If you look at the indexes (available on Family History Library film) you can see the entries swell during fall voter registration pushes.

3. The laws were sometimes bent. An 1873 article suggests "perjury is practiced with impunity" and that many of the men who naturalized were "no more entitled to vote than a citizen of Timbucktoo." [2] If you find a naturalization record with a date that seems to be too soon after the arrival date for your answer, don't rule it on on that basis alone. It also seems that many found it convenient to state that they had arrived a minors to avoid filing first papers. An 1880 article states "A very singular feature was that so many of the applicants claimed to have come to this country while minors under 18 years of age. It would seems as though Ireland, Norway, Sweden, and Germany must have lost all their boys about six or seven years ago." [4]

4. And then there was downright fraud. In December of 1873, a man who worked in the Criminal Court office, was convicted of issuing fraudulent naturalization papers to allow a fellow saloon-goer to vote. In this case, however, the man with alien status had no desire to vote illegally--it was the clerk who had initiated the process for him--and it was the clerk who was arrested. [5]

The Chicago Tribune published numerous articles on naturalization in the early years and if the subject interests you, I'd encourage you to browse the newspaper on the topic. If you come up with a find worth sharing, please post a comment.

_____________________________________

[1] ""Get Naturalized this Week." Chicago Press and Tribune (1858-1860): 0_1. ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Chicago Tribune (1849-1987). Oct 27 1858. Web. 27 Oct. 2011 <http://search.proquest.com/docview/168720474?accountid=6327>.

[2] "Local Politics." Chicago Daily Tribune (1872-1922): 4. ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Chicago Tribune (1849-1987). Oct 30 1873. Web. 27 Oct. 2011 <http://search.proquest.com/docview/171440065?accountid=6327>.

[3] "Naturalization Papers." Chicago Daily Tribune (1872-1922): 6. ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Chicago Tribune (1849-1987). Oct 27 1880. Web. 27 Oct. 2011 <http://search.proquest.com/docview/172289066?accountid=6327>.

[4] "Naturalization." Chicago Daily Tribune (1872-1922): 6. ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Chicago Tribune (1849-1987). Oct 28 1880. Web. 27 Oct. 2011 <http://search.proquest.com/docview/172275293?accountid=6327>.

[5] "Fraudulent Naturalization Papers." Chicago Daily Tribune (1872-1922): 3. ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Chicago Tribune (1849-1987). 1873. Web. 27 Oct. 2011 <http://search.proquest.com/docview/171460741?accountid=6327>.

John S. Allen: Violin Maker

2011-09-19T13:25:00.000-07:00

Today's post isn't about Chicago but it's about genealogy and another subject dear to my heart--fiddles and the people who make and play them. A few weeks ago a bit of insomnia brought me a couple of satisfying research finds, both fiddle-related, and today I thought I'd share one of them.

John S. Allen

On December 23, 2008, a fellow fiddler started a discussion on Fiddle Hangout titled "Who was John S. Allen?" I spent the holiday trying to answer that question. I knew that Mr. Allen had studied violin making with J. B. Squier in Boston, probably in the 1890s, and I knew that he had some connection to Battle Creek, Michigan, most likely moving there to work with Mr. Squier's son, V. C. but that was all I knew. Without an age or birth place or parent or sibling or spouse--some little something in addition to the name--I exhausted most all of the options I had and finally gave up the search.

Recently a Fiddle Hangout member who had seen the archived thread sent me some information on the Squiers and somehow in that I-can't-really-explain-what-prompted-me-to-do-that sort of way, I typed "john s allen" into FamilySearch. I glanced at some Michigan death results, clicked through on a few, and all of a sudden found myself staring at a name and an occupation: John S. Allen, violin maker. He died of meningitis in Mason, Cass, Michigan on 9 Mar 1901.

I don't know that this is the right man, but I think there's a very good chance that he is.

1) This man was born in New York. It's reasonable to think he might have learned his craft from a Boston master.

2) He died at the age of 26. That would explain why so little seems to be known about him. He didn't live long enough to become a well-known maker.

If this is the right man, then one of the violins he made, number 58, was finished in 1896 when he was a pupil of Mr. Squier. If the death certificate is correct, John was born in 1874 which means he would have been 22 at the time.

Further research tells me that John and his wife Pearl had a son Dell F. Allen, born 16 Dec 1900 in Mason. In 1920 Dell was living with his grandparents, Dell Forest and Alice L., in Chenango County, New York. The Social Security Death Index suggests that he died in Colorado in August of 1955.

Perhaps someday I'll find the time to learn more about Mr. Allen and his violins. If you happen to play one or if you happen to know the family, I'd love to hear from you.

Related census images

Now Online: Chicago Catholic Church Records to 1915

2011-09-17T16:48:00.000-07:00

You can now browse Archdiocese of Chicago Catholic church records online for free at FamilySearch and because the Archdiocese includes nearby towns, you will also find records for places like Oak Park, Evanston, and Cicero.

To access the images, you'll need to log into FamilySearch but if you don't already have an account, no worries. It's quick and easy to sign up and it's free.To find the images, go to FamilySearch, click on "US, Canada, and Mexico" under "Browse by Location," and scroll down to "Illinois, Chicago, Catholic Church Records, 1833-1925."

These records were digitized from Family History Library microfilm and even though the date in the title goes to 1925, you'll find that the records for most parishes end with 1915. That was the cutoff year when the records were filmed.

So, here are some tips for accessing the records.

1) Many of the books have index pages in the front.

2) If you're not sure which parish to search, locate the family's address in a city directory or on another record, a birth certificate, for example. Then use that address with the search tool at ChicagoAncestors.org to find out which parishes were close to the address.

3) If you're looking for a marriage register entry, find a copy of the marriage license first. Many will list the parish name. If the record doesn't, find the priest in a city directory to see where he was serving, or if it's an early marriage, try searching my priest/parish database for ideas.

4) It's helpful to narrow parishes by ethnicity. I usually use the list at POINTers in Person for that purpose.

Eventually, these records will be indexed, but in the meantime, happy searching.

Indexing Chicago Catholic Church Records: Tip for Reading Polish Surnames

2011-09-14T06:45:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in my previous post, I'm determined to contribute some time to indexing Chicago's Catholic parish records because I think it will create a much-needed resource for pre-Fire research and this morning I'm working on a page from a Polish church.
I'm familiar with the records and I've even bumped into a lot of Polish surnames in 5+ years of working with Chicago vital record searches but I'm still struggling to read some of the names.
This morning I was puzzling over the surname in this entry:

The "kowiak" was clear but was the surname really Autkowiak? It just didn't feel right.
I went to the Polish Genealogical Society of America (PGSA) website and pulled up the Dziennik Chicagoski Death Notice Index Search 1890-1929. I typed "kowiak" in the surname box, chose "wild card search" and hit enter. In this case, the answer to my question was on the first page of results.

Antkowiak. Of course! I know that "n" and "u" are often misread but it's so easy to forget when I'm reading names that are unfamiliar.
I suspect this database will prove to be a huge help as I work at accurately transcribing other names.
If you have other insights that will help make this project easier for other indexers, please post them as comments.

FamilySearch's Chicago Catholic Church Record Indexing Project: Please Help

2011-09-08T02:50:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I learned from the IL-COOK-CHICAGO-L mailing list that FamilySearch has begun a project to index Chicago's Catholic church records. The project title is

US, Illinois, Chicago—Catholic Church Records, 1833–1910 [Part A]

and the resulting index will give us powerful new ways to access these records.

Why is the project so important? Just off the top of my head . . .

1) It will create an index to pre-Fire Catholic deaths.

2) It will create a multi-parish index to pre-Fire Catholic births.

3) In many cases it will alleviate the need to try to guess a baptismal parish using a family’s address (which often doesn’t work)

4) It will be a useful tool for locating baptisms that took place in a parish
that wouldn’t have been the “logical” choice.

I don’t have a lot of free time—we are working very hard to meet our goal of having the new version of Genlighten.com ready for public beta by the site’s two-year anniversary this coming October—but I will do my best to contribute.

One of the things I’ve noticed searching for Chicago death records at FamilySearch is that there transcription errors that sometimes make it hard to pull records out of the database. This is inevitable, completely understandable, and I’m grateful to indexers who did their absolute best to decipher those hard-to-read records. But, as this new project begins, I’d encourage Chicago researchers who have experience working with the Catholic records and a familiarity with Chicago surnames to join in the project. I’m thinking the more pages that are indexed by people from the Chicago research community, the better the index will be.

And to that end, I’ve been thinking how much fun it would be to have a FamilySearch indexing party. I picture friends gathering around a table, laptops plugged in, batches downloaded and ready to go. Along with the clicking of computer keys, there’d be the occasional, “Please pass the chocolate-covered cashews?” and “Can anyone tell what this letter is?” Have any of you ever tried that? Was it fun?

The Search for Mrs. Nelson: Part 6

2011-08-21T14:02:00.000-07:00

The naturalization record for Sigurd Nelson that I ordered from the Iron Range Research Center arrived last Saturday and I'd give the process a 9 out of 10. The online index was easy to search, the online ordering process went smoothly, and communication from the Center was great. Three days before the document arrived I received a pleasant email letting me know that it had been mailed. The only thing that would have made it better? Receiving the record in digital format a few days quicker. (See The Search for Mrs. Nelson: Part 5)

If you've read previous posts, you'll remember that I am searching for the wife and child of a man named Sigurd Nelson. The researcher who's interested in them believes that they died of influenza before 1920 but he doesn't know anything more about them.

I have reason to believe that the Sigurd Nelson who was living in Duluth is the man the researcher is interested in and I was hoping that this Sigurd's naturalization record would give me the name of his wife and child.

Finally--a clue. The naturalization took place on 7 May 1920 and Sigurd's wife was listed as Myrtle, born 19 November 1899 in West Duluth, Minnesota.

A quick search of the 1920 census told me that Myrtle's middle initial was "L."

So, the Duluth Sigurd Nelson married a woman named Myrtle L. sometime between 5 June 1917 (draft registration card) and 8 January 1920 and it's very likely that he married her in Duluth.

Even though the researcher told me that he thought the wife and child died before 1920, I don't think I can rule this person out. It's possible that the "before 1920" conclusion was made because the family hadn't been able to find the family in the census in Chicago.

So, what's the next step?

Go after a marriage record? The client gave me parent names. If they're listed, I would learn Myrtle's maiden name (if I have the right family and if she did die, perhaps she's buried with her family in Duluth?)and be certain that I had the right Sigurd. (The researcher gave me parent names.)

Look for the death of a Myrtle Nelson in Duluth just after 1920?

Look for Myrtle's death in Chicago?

Look for a birth record to a child born to Myrtle and Sigurd?

See if I can find Myrtle and Sigurd in the 1930 census to rule them out?

Check Duluth city directories to see if Sigurd appears and if he then disappears?

What do you think? I'd love to hear your ideas.

Cook County Circuit Court Archives: Criminal Case Index, 1873-1944

2011-08-19T08:49:00.000-07:00

Recently a researcher asked if I could check indexes at the Circuit Court Archives for a crime that happened c. 1922. I'm always happy to learn something new and so I said I'd give it a try. I'm no expert on using this resource, but maybe a few quick notes about my experience will be helpful to someone else.

The microfiche index with the title "Counter Index Alpha Criminal Div" is kept in a thick black notebook on top of the filing cabinets. It covers 1873-1944, but some years are missing.

The entries for the earliest years are docket book pages. Information includes the name(s) of the defendant(s), the indictment number, the reason for indictment, a dollar amount that's probably bail, and brief dated notations that probably document various steps as the case proceeds. One of the cases had a December 1879 entry that seemed to read "Cont [or Cout] by Agt" and an August 1880 entry that said "Stricken off &c."

The later years have index pages with columns that read "Defendant," "Original Indictment #," "Charge," and "Amt of Bail." The pages are numbered and a date (month/year) is often stamped on.

The entries aren't alphabetical, but they're grouped by first letter of surname in chronological order and they're fairly easy to search. In my search, I looked at names and then checked the Charge column to take a closer look at the cases that might have been a match.

So what kinds of cases are recorded in these indexes? Skimming a single page I found entries that included

Rape, etc.
Burg, etc.
Larcy
Asslt intent to murder
Con games

What's the next step if you find a match in the index? The best answer can be found on the Archives list of holdings. If the records are still available, follow up. If not, perhaps the information gleaned from the index would lead to newspaper articles or other indirect sources of information.

For my search, I didn't find a match, but the files for the 1922 cases aren't available anyway. If I had been successful, though, the indictment records still exist.

So, now that I've had a first-look at the index fiche, I'd like to give it another try and I'm looking for a test case. If you are researching someone who might be mentioned in the Criminal Case Index, let me know. If you can narrow down the date--perhaps the crime is mentioned in the newspaper--email me. If I choose your project to work on, I'll check the index and follow up for free as long as you give me permission to blog about the search. (Disclaimer: If I came across a large file and you wanted me to copy more than what I needed for my post, I'd ask you to help with copy costs.)

The Search for Mrs. Nelson: Part 5

2011-08-11T20:43:00.000-07:00

The researcher who is looking for Sigurd Nelson's family members provided me with new information a couple of days ago and looking back on it tonight, the birth place he sent reminded me of the World War I Draft Registration Card that I mentioned in a previous post.

The "Kristiana, Norway" from the email seems like a great match for the "Christiana, Norway" on the card for Sigurd Godferd Nelson. Earlier today I had a hunch that I might be on the right track. Now I'm thinking that I really might be.

The Duluth newspaper mentioned that Sigurd G. Nelson had naturalized with other veterans in 1920 and I decided to go looking for an online index. I found one at the website for the Iron Range Research Center in Chisholm, Minnesota.

A search for Sigurd Nelson brought up five possibilities with one clear match.

The fee to order the record was $10 and I went ahead and placed the request. If Sigurd filled out the usual forms, I'm very likely to find a spouse and child listed. If not, it was worth the gamble. I think I will put this search on hold until the record arrives and then pick it up again.

Fingers crossed. It would be so much easier to search for deaths if I had names.

The Search for Mrs. Nelson: Post 4

2011-08-10T09:40:00.000-07:00

Note: If you haven't been following my posts, you can find background information for the search in The Search for Mrs. Nelson and Child Begins.

A number of years ago I spent some time searching Duluth newspapers at GenealogyBank.com and so I decided to see what I could find out about Conrad and Sigurd Nelson using that approach.

A search for "sigurd nelson" in Minnesota newspapers brought up seventeen results. One was a mis-match. Seven were for a Sigurd G. Nelson who was an elected representative from Ironwood, Michigan. That left nine possibilities.

Among them I fould Sigurd the divinity student and Sigurd the young single man attending social events. It's possible this is the same person. Then I found Sigurd the soldier--possibly two men. One was mentioned as Sigurd and the other was mentioned as Sigurd G. Sigurd G. returned to be naturalized after the war. And then there were two mentions of a Sigurd being arrested for vagrancy, one before the war and one after. It's hard to tell if this is one man or two but it's likely that it's not the divinity student.

1912: Sigurd charged with vagrancy; testimony by boarding house matron from 615 W Superior who caught him going through another boarder's pockets

1915-Aug: Sigurd attends the birthday part for Miss Amanda Dignes, 27 N 66th Ave West

1915-Sep: Sigurd, a divinity student at Northwestern Theological College, goes to Chicago

1915-Nov: Sigurd Nelson to speak in the Norwegian-Danish M.E. Church

1915-Nov: Sigurd Nelson to speak in the Norwegian-Danish M.E. Church

1918-Jul: Sigurd Nelson among draftees leaving for Ohio

1918-May: Sigurd G. Nelson of 109 N 63rd Ave West is among draftees leaving for Ohio

1920-May: Judge grants citizenship to former soldiers including Sigurd G. Nelson

1919-Aug: Sigurd Nelson a guest at an Onaway Club Weiner Roast

1921-Jan: Sigurd Nelson is arrested for vagrancy

I'm not sure what to think except that the Sigurd G. who went to war is a possibility if the brother of the man I'm looking for was living in Duluth. I'll think on it over night and decide what my next step will be. In the meantime, if you have suggestions, please post.

The Search for Mrs. Nelson: Post 3

2011-08-10T08:55:00.000-07:00

Note: If you haven't been following my posts, you can find background information for the search in The Search for Mrs. Nelson and Child Begins.

The researcher tells me that Sigurd was born 13 January 1894 in Norway and I've decided to try to use that information to find a matching record in Ancestry.com's World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918.

I usually start with bare bones information to see what I'm up against and a search for "sigurd nelson" yielded 316 matches--to many to scroll through at this point. I edited the search and added a birth year of 1894 +/- 2 years. That narrowed the search to 218 results. I'm not 100% sure that he was living in Cook County at the time he would have registered, so I added a January birth month. This gave me three results.

*Sigurd A. Nelson, born 14 Jan 1892 in Illinois (living in Cook County)

*Sigurd Nelson, born 22 Jan 1893 in Wisconsin (living in Pacific, Washington)

*Sigurd Godferd Nelson, born 31 Jan 1894 in Norway (living in Duluth, Minnesota)

The birth dates for the first and third were close enough to earn a careful look.

The first man was married and was claiming an exemption because of his wife and because of his work for the telephone company. He was born in the United States. It's likely that he's the Sigurd A. that I'm inclined to rule out based on yesterday's research. (See Post 2)

The third man was single, born in Christiana, Norway. He was employed as a car repairer for a railroad. Checking my notes, the researcher hasn't mentioned Sigurd's birth town but he did give me additional information.

Sigurd had these siblings:

Hilda,1883
Conrad, 15 Jun 1885, married to Caspara Christenson and living in Berlin, New Hampshire in 1916. Son Arthur died at age 1.
Johann, 1889
Abraham, 1887
Sivert
Agusta

Their parents were Johannes Magnus Nilson 1852 and Anna Kristine Kristensen 1858.

I decided to look to for a draft registration card for Conrad to see where he was born. Searching with the birth month and year returned 384 possible matches, none with the exact birth date. I narrowed the search to New Hampshire with no luck. Scanning down the list, though, I found a John Emanuel Conrad Nelson born 11 July 1885 living in Duluth. (It wouldn't surprise me to find an unmarried brother living in the same place as a married brother especially since the researcher had suggested that Conrad might have taken care of Sigurd's wife and child when he went off to war.) This man's wife is listed as "Caspara" which matches the name the researcher gave me. I was hoping that the addresses on the two cards would match, but they don't.

I'm not one to jump to conclusions but when something seems promising, I like to follow up. I think my next step will be to find out more about this Sigurd and Conrad Nelson.

The Search for Mrs. Nelson: Post 2

2011-08-09T06:56:00.000-07:00

I am searching for the unknown wife and child of Sigurd Nelson. (See The Search for Mrs. Nelson and Child Begins for details.)

FamilySearch's Illinois, Deaths and Stillbirths, 1916-1947 seemed like a good first step because spouse names are included the database.

I chose the advanced search option typed in "sigurd nelson" with 1916-1922 with "Exact & Close match" selected. No matches were found. I removed the dates and searched again. This retrieved three records:

*Sigurd A. Nelson who died in 1944, wife Emma, parents listed

*Sigurd A. M. Nelson Jr., the son of Sigurd A. M. Nelson and Anna W. Bietan who died 23 May 1921. His birthdate was given as 20 Oct 1817 but he was three years old so he was likely born in 1917.

*Anna Cathrine Maurer who died at the age of 44, the daughter of Sigvard Nelson.

I decided to follow up on Sigurd A. M.

A search for "sigurd nelson" in FamilySearch's Illinois, Cook County Marriages, 1871-1920 brought up 13 matches. The researcher told me that Sigurd arrived in 1912, so repeated the search with a narrower date range and got five results. Four were for women named Sigrid. One was the match for the parents of Sigurd A. M.

Groom: Sigurd A. Nelson
Groom's Estimated Birth Year: 1891
Groom's Birthplace: Chicago, Cook, Illinois
Bride: Emma Bietan
Bride's Estimated Birth Year: 1893
Bride's Birthplace: Chicago, Cook, Illinois
Marriage Type: Marriage
Marriage Date: 06 Sep 1916
Marriage Place: Chicago, Cook, Illinois

I know that Sigurd was born in Norway but I can't rule out the match based on the groom's birthplace. The Chicago marriage licenses didn't ask where the parties were born; they asked where the parties were living.

I decided to learn more about Sigurd, Emma, and Sigurd, Jr. from the 1920 census from Ancestry.com.

According to the census, Sigurd was born in Illinois to Swedish parents and Emma was born in Illinois to German parents. Sigurd is an office clerk for a telephone company. Based on birth place, this doesn't seem like the person I'm looking for but I won't rule him out yet.

Notice that the marriage license lists the bride as "Emma Bietan" and the death record gives the mother as "Anna W. Bietan" and the census lists the wife as "Emma" with "Sigurd, Jr." in the household. I think Emma and Anna are the same person.

Looking back to the first death index search, there's a Sigurd A. Nelson with wife Emma who died 16 Jan 1944. I think I can cross this family off the list of possibilities.

So, back to square one a little farther ahead.

I decided to make a quick check of the directory at Footnote.com. The best choice was 1917 but there was only one image available. (I KNOW that but I always forget. I'll have to use the microfilm copy the next time I'm at the Family History Center.) I checked 1923 instead.

There were four people of that name in the city in 1923.

I think I'll poke around in World War I draft registration cards next to see if I can figure out where Sigurd was living and what his occupation was. If I had an address, I could look for matches in the Chicago Death Index, 1871-1933.

The Search for Mrs. Nelson and Child Begins

2011-08-03T05:10:00.000-07:00

Background

Recently someone asked for help finding out what happened to the wife and child of "Captain Sigurd Nelson." I haven't been able to turn up anything quickly but I think there are answers in Chicago records and I'm not ready to give up.

I thought blogging might be an interesting way to keep track of a multi-step search done over a number of days and so I offered to take on the project as a no-charge challenge in return for permission to talk about the search in a public forum.

The Starting Point

Name of wife unknown

Wife died in a flu epidemic, 1918-19??

Child of unknown age and gender also died from flu

Sigurd died at age 32 in 1926 and is buried at Montrose Cemetery

Sigurd has no grave marker and no family members are buried with him

Sigurd was born in Norway in 1894

Sigurd came to the United States in 1912 at age 18

Sigurd's military records destroyed in 1972 St. Louis fire

Sigurd had an older brother Conrad in Chicago

Conrad might have taken care of Sigurd's wife/child during the war

Other relatives buried at Mount Olive on Narragansett

Research Ideas

I can think of many ways to approach this search but I think the most obvious first step is to check FamilySearch's Illinois, Deaths and Stillbirths, 1916-1947. Spouse names are often included in the search results and a death record for a Nelson woman who died c. 1918 with a husband Sigurd would be a very likely match.

Norwegian Ancestors? Try the Pedersen Funeral Home Records

2011-07-28T06:27:00.000-07:00

Recently a client asked for help locating death information for members of a Norwegian family and made me think of the John M. Pedersen & Sons Funeral Home records that are available on Family History Library microfilm. If you have Norwegian ancestors who died in Chicago between 1899 and 1972, you might want to check these out.

Last night I took a look at the first few items on film 1672191 which covers part of 1913 through part of 1926. The first thing I noticed was that the volumes were indexed and the index included addresses, something that might be helpful when researching a family with a common surname. The handwriting was clear and it was easy to jot down page numbers of interest.

The volume I looked at was organized chronologically, one page, one person, and the page numbers were easy to read. The entries included the usual information about the deceased--things like name, death date, parents, birth date, and address--but they also included specific burial information including information about the service (location, time, officiating clergyman) and the burial (casket size and maker, method of travel to the cemetery, and expenses). If an obituary was published, the name of the paper was given. To get a better feel for what these records are like, take a look at the iPhone photo examples below.

So, why would you want to consult these records?

1) To learn if and where an obituary was published.

2) To obtain information about deaths after 1947 without ordering $15 death certificates.

3) To gather details about a burial.

4) To search for a Norwegian death when you can't find the name in a death index.

As I write this, I'm wondering if the funeral home records before 1910 would provide any information than the Chicago death certificates did during that time--spouse or parents, for example. I'll check the next time I'm at the Family History Center.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _

Update

I checked the volumes beginning with 1899 and similar to the early death certificates, the register didn't provide a place for parent names.

But, the register that begins with an August 1903 entry does include space to record that information. Most times parent names are left blank but a few are recorded. In the examples below, Violet Carlson's parents aren't listed on the death certificate but her father's name is given in the Pedersen register. This would be a valuable piece of information for a researcher trying to piece together a family, especially one with a common surname.

So, if you find a death certificate at FamilySearch for 1903 forward and if the undertaker is listed as "John M. Pedersen," it would be well worth checking these records.

Free Genealogy Workshops in Wilmette this Saturday

2011-07-27T18:14:00.001-07:00

If you're in the Chicago area, there are two free genealogy workshops at the Wilmette Family History Center on Saturday, July 30, both led by Denise Mortorff, a retired university lecturer from California with 35+ years of family history research experience.

10:00 am
FURTHERING COLONIAL ANCESTRY USING MEDIEVAL & EARLY MODERN RECORDS
Furthering your colonial ancestry requires resourcefulness. Move your search forward by learning the historical context in which you are searching, the knowledge and skills required to conduct research, record types, their availability and how to determine their ”fit” with your research needs.

11:00 am
YOU FOUND IT WHERE? ORGANIZATIONS & GENEALOGY RESEARCH WORLDWIDE
Thousands of organizations around the world house materials that can enable researchers in furthering their ancestry. Learn about organization types, how to identify those pertinent to your research needs, and ways to access their collections from a distance. Considerations in creating effective research queries will be presented.

If you're interested in one or both, feel free to email me for more information.

Finding a Story in Antique Photos

2011-07-23T06:07:00.000-07:00

Last week my husband's banjo teacher told me that a friend of his had uploaded scans of historical photos--including pictures of early musicians--to a Facebook account and that I should really take a look. I did.

One photo in particular caught my attention--a man and a woman standing side by side for the photographer. I don't know anything about the people in the photo but it was easy for me to imagine a story filtered through my own experience and imagination.

The man's coat--not a suit jacket, a coat--was heavy and hung from his shoulders in a box-like shape. The bottom of it was noticeably wrinkled and his pants were baggy and worn, his shoes coarse. His large hands were drawn up across his chest in an awkward sort of way but they looked strong, like the hands of a laborer. The woman cut a solid figure clothed in a dark dress with rows of light vertical dots and a wide ribbon at her collar.

The fascinating thing was that the faces of the man and the woman seemed to match. It's possible that they were brother and sister, but I don't think so. Some people say that people who have been married a long time begin to look alike. I think that might be true.

Both the man and the woman were staring straight ahead, almost emotionless, but the woman had threaded her arm through the crook of the man's and it seemed that their bond was strong. Whatever life held for them, they were in it together. I suppose I'm a romantic at heart but I loved looking at that photo and I've thought about it ever since.

Browsing the album reminded me of a batch of old photos that I once bought on eBay. Some of them are from Chicago photographers and I think it's likely that they're all Chicago-related. Only one has any identifying information. The back of the first photo below reads "Frank Myslinski, 21.E. 120 Str, Kensington."

After my experience looking at the Facebook album this week I thought I'd share the photos that I have. Peering into the pictures below, do you see a story? If you do, please share.

Fourth of July: A Cautionary Tale from The Chicago Tribune, 1907

2011-07-03T11:12:00.000-07:00

On July 4, 1907, The Chicago Tribune used a cartoon drawing to remind local folks to use caution when celebrating the holiday with fireworks and other explosives. (The image below is from The Chicago Tribune, 4 July 1907, p. 1 and it was accessed through Footnote.com.)

Unfortunately, the advice came too late for Mrs. Hart and her son. Her death certificate tells us that she died of "Organic Heart Disease" but apparently there's more to the story than that. (Death certificate image from FamilySearch's Illinois, Cook County Deaths, 1878-1922)

The Chicago Tribune reported that she "fell dead on her doorstep from heart disease when son and playmates exploded giant firecracker." (The Chicago Tribune, 4 Jul 1907, p. 1, col. 3 accessed through Footnote.com)

Have a safe and happy Fourth of July everyone!

Face to Face with a Marriage License Clerk

2011-05-27T18:22:00.001-07:00

It's funny how things happen.

This morning my husband was reading The Ancestry Insider and the blog post linked to a FamilySearch Wiki entry titled "Gretna Greens in the United States" and he sent me the link.

I knew I'd seen articles in the Chicago Tribune about the topic so I logged into Footnote.com and did a quick search and suddenly found myself face to face with Cook County's "Marriage License Clerk Salmonson." Did you ever wonder what the County Clerk's office was like at the turn of the century? Take a look at this photo and imagine yourself next in line to get a marriage license. "Name? How do you spell that? Residence? Age?" Peer into the photo below to see the clerk's office through your ancestors' eyes.

I've often wished that I could talk to some of the clerks from days gone by. I'd love to ask them about the records that they kept--how they were created and organized and stored. This is kind of a next best thing.

The article is from The Chicago Tribune, 27 April 1902, p. 56 and I located it using Footnote.com. Click on the image to enlarge it to full size.

Chicago, by the way, was a popular place for eloping couples to marry. And if you're looking for a "Chicago" marriage that's nowhere to be found, try places like St. Joseph, Michigan (Marriage Index, 1889-1925) and Lake County, Indiana (Indiana Marriage Collection, 1800-1941 at Ancestry.com).

Are Sources Ever Really Exhausted?

2011-03-05T10:53:00.000-08:00

An email from a blog reader a little over a week ago got me wondering. How many valuable records are there out there that we don't search for because we don't know they exist?

A number of years ago I discovered the Minnesota Historical Society has a collection of papers from James A. Smith, my husband's ancestor. It was an exciting find and I immediately called to see if I could get photocopies of everything in the file. I gave them my debit card number and waited for the envelope. Nothing came and I thought, "Oh, well."

And then a box arrived--a box with three or four inches of paper and a receipt for more than I usually pay for a week's worth of groceries. I was a bit poorer than I had expected to be but I was elated. Most of the papers documented activities of the Northwest Fur Company in the mid-1860s (James was a partner) but there were also some land records and other miscellaneous items.

A few years later I was able to go to the Minnesota Historical Society in person and I found myself with a few extra hours at the end of my visit. I asked for the box of James A. Smith papers thinking that it would be fun to see the original documents. Looking through the files I noticed a folder with family letters. Family letters? When I got my bearings I realized that the folder contained correspondence between my husband's ancestor and his ancestor's brother--letters written in 1835 at the time that James A. Smith first came Chicago. Those letters hadn't been included in the box of photocopies that I'd received and they answered many of the questions that I had about the Smith family's decision to settle in the west. Finding those documents was moving and memorable.

Last week I heard from a researcher, Elliott Malkin, who had a similar Chicago-related experience. He had researched his great-grandfather's life in depth and thought that he had exhausted all of the available sources until he received an email from the granddaughter of his great-grandfather's third wife. It's a great story and I asked him if I could share the link.

Read Hyman Victor Revisited. It's a wonderful example of genealogical serendipity and collaboration. And then, once you've finished the blog post, click on the "my website about his life" link to visit the website that Mr. Malkin created to document his grandfather's life. It's a very nicely done.

Genealogy-Related Focus Group Opportunity in Chicago

2011-01-12T08:46:00.000-08:00

If you live in the Chicago area and would be interested in participating in a paid genealogy-related 2.5 hour "market research discussion" organized by Schlesinger Associates on January 31 or February 1, email me and I'll send you the flyer.

This is not related in any way to ChicagoGenealogy.com or Genlighten.com. In fact, I didn't even qualify to participate! I received an email from Schlesinger Associates and offered to help get the word out.

I'm guessing, though, that it might be related to a post on the FamilySearch Facebook page yesterday asking for participants for a focus group in New York City. But, it's just a guess.

Finding Chicago Naturalization Records

2010-12-30T10:31:00.000-08:00

I was looking at FamilySearch’s historical records section over the holidays and noticed that the Soundex cards for Cook County naturalization were added on December 22. Now that they’re online for free, it seems like a good time to talk about Cook County naturalization research.

In this post, I’ll focus on finding the records, but I’ll try to share some of the interesting things I’ve discovered about the Cook County naturalization process in another blog post soon.

If you're looking for Chicago and Cook County naturalization records you'll want to begin with the Soundex index to naturalization petitions for U.S. District & Circuit Courts, Northern District of Illinois and Immigration and Naturalization Service District 9, 1840-1950. (I just call it “The Soundex Index.”) It’s the same as NARA publication M1285 and it includes entries for people who naturalized in northern Illinois, northwestern Indiana, southern and eastern Wisconsin, and eastern Iowa.

Online Access to the Naturalization Soundex Index

There are two places to access the index online. If you have an Ancestry.com subscription you can search the cards by name, year of birth, year of arrival, and state of residence in U.S. Naturalization Record Indexes, 1791-1992 (Indexed in World Archives Project.

If you don’t have an Ancestry subscription, you can now browse the cards for free at FamilySearch.org. They’re included in the historical records part of the site in a database called Illinois, Northern District Naturalization Index, 1840-1950.

Browsing the Soundex Images

Here’s my approach to browsing the images:

1) Use the Soundex converter at Rootsweb to find the correct Soundex code. Type in the surname, hit the "Get Soundex Code" button and you're done.

2) Select the correct Soundex range from the choices available at FamilySearch. (The link in this paragraph will take you to the correct part of the FamilySearch site.)

Example: B-653 Tekla to C-124 means that section will include B-653 surnames with given names starting with Tekla and run through the end of the C-124 given names.

3) Find a card with the correct given name using a high-low number game strategy. There are 6586 cards in the section that would include Charles Berman (B-655). I'd type 3000 in the image number box to get my bearings. The corresponding card is B-656 with a G given name so I'd try a lower number. Typing in 1500 brings up a card for B-655 with a J given name so I'd try again. Typing in 700 brings up an A given name for B-655. The number 900 brings me to a B-655 card with the name Charles John. If I chose that as my starting point I'd page through the images going backwards until I had exhausted the entries for Charles or similarly-spelled names and then I'd return to image 900 and page through going forward if I hadn't found the match.

The introductory pages to this index remind researchers not to overlook "initials, alternate spellings, and "old country" versions of names." Good advice.

Locating the Naturalization Records

Once you’ve found a card and saved it to your computer, you’re ready to locate a copy of the corresponding naturalization record. Check the court. If it says Circuit, County, Criminal, or Superior, the original records are at the Circuit Court Archives. If it says District, the original records are held by NARA. Records from all the courts are also available on Family History Library microfilm.

1. Circuit Court Archives

I can suggest four ways to get naturalization records from the Circuit Court Archives.

In Person: The Circuit Court Archives has the Cook County Naturalization records from the Circuit Court, County Court, Criminal Court, and Superior Court. If you live in the Chicago area, you can visit their office on the eleventh floor of the Daley Center to view the records (free) and obtain photocopies (minimal fee). The office is easily accessible from the L and the staff is very helpful and friendly.

By Mail: If you can’t visit in person, you can request the records by mail, but it’s a two-step process. Once you submit the order form the office will bill you for the copies and then send them out when payment is received. The cost is $2.00 for the first page and $.50 for each one thereafter (a naturalization record would have just a few pages at most) + a $15 mailing fee + postage.

Important Information to Read Before Requesting a Search

Mail-in Request Form

From Family History Library Film: Using the new catalog at FamilySearch, pull up records for “Cook, Illinois” and then narrow the search by clicking on the link for Naturalization and Citizenship. This will bring up a list of available records and once you’ve identified the correct reel you can order it in at your local Family History Center.

From a Local Researcher: If you don’t live in the Chicago area, it might be quicker and/or easier to request a lookup from a local researcher rather than ordering by mail or ordering FHL films. I can retrieve naturalization records at the Circuit Court Archives if I’m going downtown (send me an email) or KimStankiewicz offers the service through our Genlighten.com website.

2. National Archives and Records Administration’s Great Lakes Regional Archives

If the court is listed as District, then the original records are kept at the National Archives and Records Administration’s Great Lakes Regional Archives, 7358 S. Pulaski Road, in Chicago.

In Person: If you’re going to go in person, contact them ahead of time to double-check the search procedure. I have next-to-no experience doing research at NARA but it took a couple of visits for my husband retrieved a naturalization record for someone last year.

NARA Naturalization FAQ

By Mail: NARA’s website says that naturalization records must be obtained by written request and that it can be done in person or by mail, fax, email, or online. I tried the online ordering link earlier today (4 Jan 2011) and it wasn’t working so I couldn’t learn more about how that process works. The fees page on their website suggests that there’s a charge of $.75 each for record copies and that there’s a minimum $15 fee for mail orders.

From FHL Film: The District Court naturalization records are available on Family History Library microfilm. If you have access to a Family History Center you can order in the reels and obtain the records that way. Here’s a quick link to the film numbers up through 1947.

From a FHL Researcher: If you don’t have access to a Family History Center or if you’d like quick access to digital copies of the naturalization records, jorgfe offers that lookup on our Genlighten.com website.

This post has grown much long and taken much longer than I expected to write and so I'll wrap things up with a couple of links to not-to-be-missed pages.

Important Information About Cook County Naturalization Records (learn what kinds of information you can expect to find depending on the year the naturalization papers were filed)

Cook County Naturalization Declarations of Intention Index (search the declarations index online)

Stockyards Fire Anniversary: Who Died in the Fire 100 Years Ago?

2010-12-21T12:44:00.000-08:00

An article by Becky Schlikerman on the Chicago Tribune website--100 years since Stockyards fire raged--caught my eye this morning and turned my attention to a fire that happened in the city's stock yards one hundred years ago tomorrow. The fire marshal, James Horan, was killed in the blaze and his descendants will commemorate the anniversary of the tragedy with a wreath ceremony.

Mr. Horan's death certificate is available at FamilySearch and we can learn a lot about him from that record. He was born in Chicago in 1859, the son of Irish immigrants, and he had served the city as a fireman just short of thirty years at the time of his death. Notice how the names of the cemetery and undertaker are written. Is it possible that the family had a difficult time deciding where Mr. Horan would be buried? Or perhaps someone mistakenly wrote the wrong information and then corrected it? The informant, Daniel Horan, was Mr. Horan's brother and I can imagine him stepping in to help the grieving widow.

Today's article says that the fire "left behind 19 widows and 35 orphaned children" and I wondered who those unnamed people were. I searched the Chicago Tribune at Footnote.com and found several articles mentioning funerals for the men who were killed. Twenty-four people died as a result of the fire, twenty-three on December 22 and one on December 23. Twenty-one of them, members of the Chicago Fire Department, are memorialized on a monument at the Chicago Union Stockyards. Of the remaining three, two were "firemen" employed by Morris & Co.--Andrew Dymuran and Patrick Realph--and one was a messenger boy, Stephen Leen.

The Illinois Statewide Death Index entries for those who died in the fire are listed below. Click on the small images next to the death index entries to view the death certificates. (I located the records on FamilySearch using a database called Illinois, Cook County Deaths, 1878-1922).

BRANDENBURG, HERMANN G 1910-12-22 CHICAGO 41 YR 00001591

BURROUGHS, WILLIAM J 1910-12-22 CHICAGO 46 YR 00001592

COLLINS, PATRICK E 1910-12-22 CHICAGO 47 YR 00002883

COSTELLO, THOMAS J 1910-12-22 CHICAGO 30 YR 00002882

CRANE, NICHOLAS 1910-12-22 CHICAGO 36 YR 00002884

DANIS, EDWARD J 1910-12-22 CHICAGO 46 YR 00003820

DOYLE, DENNIS 1910-12-22 CHICAGO 51 YR 00003819

DOYLE, NICHOLAS D 1910-12-22 CHICAGO 27 YR 00003821

DYMURAN, ANDREW 1910-12-22 CHICAGO 23 YR 00003822

ENTHOF, GEORGE C 1910-12-22 CHICAGO 30 YR 00004369

FITZGERALD, JAMES J 1910-12-22 CHICAGO 31 YR 00005280

LANNON, ALEXANDER D 1910-12-23 CHICAGO 39 YR 00010632

LEEN, STEPHEN 1910-12-22 CHICAGO 16 YR 00010631

MCINERNEY, MICHAEL F 1910-12-22 CHICAGO 33 YR 00012830

MOORE, CHARLES N 1910-12-22 CHICAGO 28 YR 00021038

MORIARITY, ALBERT J 1910-12-22 CHICAGO 34 YR 00012040

MURASKI, GEORGE F 1910-12-22 CHICAGO 42 YR 00012039

POWERS, PETER J 1910-12-22 CHICAGO 34 YR 00014890

REALPH, PATRICK J 1910-12-22 CHICAGO 25 YR 00016424

SCHORSETTE, EDWARD D 1910-12-22 CHICAGO 27 YR 00018188

STURM, WILLIAM G 1910-12-22 CHICAGO 42 YR 00018189

WALTERS, FRANK W 1910-12-22 CHICAGO 57 YR 00021124

WEBER, WILLIAM F 1910-12-22 CHICAGO 35 YR 00021125

I haven't looked at these records carefully yet but it seems to me that each death certificate linked above will tell a story worth remembering--just like Mr. Horan's does.

_______________________________

If you're interested in learning more about the fire and its aftermath, the Chicago Tribune is a good place to start. Here are a few things that I learned as I searched through articles:

*Mourning clothes were provided to survivors free of charge by Charles A. Stevens' company. Employees went to the homes to take orders and measurements. (24 Dec 1910, p. 2, col. 6)

*Dennis and Nicholas Doyle were father and son. (24 Dec 1910, p. 2, col. 7)

*"Phone girls" handled a record number of calls during the incident. A number of them had relatives who died in the fire. (23 Dec 1910, p. 5, col. 6)

Pre-Fire Sinai Congregation Marriages

2010-12-16T09:37:00.000-08:00

It's quiet at the Wilmette Family History Center today and so I decided to explore the Chicago entries in the Family History Library catalog as a way of learning more about the new FamilySearch website.

One of the titles that caught my eye was Marriage and death records, 1861-1905 from Chicago's Sinai Congregation, Film 1013426, Item 16. The reel was available and so I decided to take a look.

The congregation's first service was held on 21 Jun 1861 and mention of it is made on the first page. The next page begins with January 1868 marriages and the entries seem to be numbered sequentially beginning with #91 and ending with #528. Following those entries there's a page that begins with marriage #1 from July 1861 (see the image) and the numbers then climb to #90. This means that there are approximately 150 pre-Fire marriages recorded in the book. It's a treasure of value to all of us but especially to those who have ancestors' names recorded there.

The register entries include the names of the bride and groom, the marriage date, and the marriage date according to the Jewish calendar. A few entries have additional information. For example, one mentions that the bride was from Valparaiso, Indiana and at least two others note that one of the parties was born Christian. Some previous civil marriages are also mentioned. The death entries seem few and hard to find but the one I saw provided the name of the deceased and a death date.

After looking through the book, I wanted to know a little bit more about the congregation and so I checked the 1870 Edward's Chicago City Directory (p. 931). At that time the Sinai Congregation was listed at "Van Buren street, corner Third avenue," one of five Jewish congregations in the city, and it had about 100 members.

The Chicago Sinai Congregation will celebrate its 150th anniversary in 2011. For more information about the congregation's history, visit their website.

The film says the original marriage and death book is held by the Jewish Archives in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Mother Reunited with Daughter: Chicago Daily Law Bulletin Follow-up

2010-11-30T09:47:00.000-08:00

A blog reader noticed an entry in the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin image I included in a previous post that referred to "People ex rel v Superior of House of the Good Shepherd" and wondered about the details of the case. I decided to follow up and obtained a copy of the file.

It seems a writ of habeas corpus was filed by a man named Miles Martin on behalf of a child named Sylvia Lear who was living at House of the Good Shepherd as Minnie Bell Pursell. According to the document, "Sylvia was some years ago stolen from her mother and the parties who took her have since died and the child falling into other hands, at last was placed in said House of the Good Shepherd to avoid the care and Expense of providing for such child."

The petition continued: "...the mother of said Sylvia after diligent Search and Enquiry for her child she having the only lawful right and custody to the care Custody and Education of said child, at last found out, that her said daughter was confined in said House of the Good Shepherd and that she demanded her said child of the Mother Superior of said Institution and was refused as well that she might see [her?] child at all."

The judge wrote "Let the writ of habeas corpus issue pursuant to prayer of within petition." It was dated Jan. 3, 1880 but the year was actually 1881.

Reading through the document, I wondered about Sylvia. Who was she? What happened to her? I checked the Chicago Birth Registers, 1871-1915 at FamilySearch's Record Search thinking she might have been born in Chicago but no good match turned up. Then I checked the Cook County marriage index to 1920 thinking she might have stayed in Chicago and married, but no luck.

Then, I tried a search for "sylvia lear" in the Chicago Tribune at Footnote.com and found one match from 5 January 1881. I thought it would be a quick mention of the case in a legal column but the headline read "Mother and Daughter. A Strangely Romantic Story of Two Cities. Reunion of Mother and Child after Thirteen Years' Separation. An Intensely Dramatic Episode in Court Yesterday."

The lengthy report details the story of a young Peoria Christmas bride waiting for a groom who never came. Seven months later, July of 1868, she gave birth to a "female child" who was named Sylvia Lear and given to her married sister to raise. Four years later the young bride learned from her dying sister that the child had been left at a hotel in Peoria because her husband was unwilling to provide support. The baby was given to a woman named Ellen Kirby, who married Sanders, and later married Purcell. Mr. Purcell died. Mrs. Purcell died, and Sylvia ended up at House of the Good Shepherd. The story includes many more details than I have summarized her and it's worth taking the time to read it. Article Image

Sylvia's mother's name isn't mentioned beyond "Carrie" and "Mrs. W" in order to protect her privacy and, for the moment anyway, I think I will respect that. Still, I wonder what became of Sylvia Lear?

Restoration of Pre-fire Naturalization Records

2010-09-20T10:12:00.001-07:00

38163 Petn of D H Schwahn to restore record of naturalization

In a previous post, I mentioned finding the entry above in an 1881 Chicago Daily Law Bulletin and I promised to follow up. I asked the Circuit Court Archives to have the file brought in from the warehouse and I returned to view it last Friday.

The file held no surprises. Mr. Schwahn naturalized in 1865 and all record of his naturalization was destroyed in the Chicago fire in 1871. He petitioned the court to have the record restored and it was.

So, what do we learn from the documents? First, that Mr. Schwahn was very likely naturalized, as stated, on or about 1 November 1865. Second, that he had "resided within the limits and under the jurisdiction of the United States for and during the full term of five years last preceding said 1st day of November" and "more than one year immediately preceding the said date in the State of Illinois." We also learn that he renounced allegiance to "the Emperor of Germany whereof he was heretofore a subject." In other words, we learn that he was from Germany and that he arrived in the United States 1860 or earlier. We also learn that nearly twenty years after he was naturalized he had reason or desire to have note of it restored to the Court records. In some cases, this information might provide valuable clues to follow up on.

A typescript of the document is given below.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

In the matter of the petition of }
D.Henry Schwahn for the restoration } Petition
of the record of his naturalization }
as a Citizen of the United States }

And said matter having come on this day to be heard upon the petition filed herein, and upon proofs, and evidence heard in open Court and it appearing to the Court therefrom, the Court finds:

That on or about the first day of November AD 1865 said petitioner appeared in this Court and showed to the Court that he had resided within the limits and under the jurisdiction of the United States for and during the full term of five years last preceding said 1st day of November and more than one year immediately preceding the said date in the State of Illinois, and that during said term of five years, he had sustained a good moral character, and appeared to be attached to the principles contained in the Constitution of the United States and well disposed to the good order, well being and happiness of the same, and that two years and upwards had elapsed since said petitioner filed the declaration of his intention to become a citizen of the United States, according to the provisions of the several acts of Congress heretofore passed on that subject.

That thereupon said petitioner in open Court took and subscribed he oath required by the laws of the United States, to support the constitution of the United States and to renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to every foreign Prince, Potentate, State or Sovereignty whatever, and more particularly all allegiance which he in any wise owed to the Emperor of Germany whereof he was heretofore a subject.

That thereupon an order was entered by this Court finding all the foregoing facts, and ordering that the said petitioner be, and he was thereby admitted to all and singular the rights, privileges and immunities of a naturalized citizen of the United States, and that it be certified to him accordingly.

That thereupon a certificate of such naturalization was issued to said petitioner out of this Court under the seal thereof and signed by the Clerk of this Court.

That afterwards and on the 9th day of October 1871 the records of this Court including the record of the said order, and also the said certificate of naturalization issued to said petitioner were totally destroyed by fire without the fault or neglect of said petitioner and that said defect cannot be supplied by any certified copy of said order or certificate, and the loss or destruction thereof, unless supplied, may result in loss or damage to this petitioner.

That the substance of said order was as herein before set forth

And the Court being now fully advised in the premises, it is ordered adjudged and decreed by the Court that the substance of the said order of naturalization as herein above set forth, be and the same in hereby restored of record.

McCoy Brothers Gravestone Benefit Concert

2010-08-29T09:16:00.000-07:00

There's something you should know about me before you read this post. If I had all the time and money in the world, I would sit around all day alternating between two things: genealogical research and playing my fiddle. Well, maybe three things. I'd probably need a bit of chocolate to keep me going.

I like history. Chicago history. And I like music. And when something captures those things together, it catches my eye.

A few weeks ago I learned that there will be a benefit concert at the Old Town School of Folk Music on Sunday, October 3, to raise money to purchase gravestones for the McCoy brothers, Chicago musicians who died in 1950 and were buried in unmarked graves. I thought I'd help get the word out. There will also be guitar, mandolin, and body percussion workshops and a walking tour of the Restvale Cemetery that day.

I don't know much about the McCoy brothers--only what I read at the tribute website--but I like them. I like that music was their passion. And I like that there are people who value their music and want them to be remembered.

If you can't make the concert, consider donating a few dollars to a good cause.

Exploring the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin: Part I

2010-08-20T17:41:00.001-07:00

A couple of weeks ago I was searching microfilm indexes at the Circuit Court Archives looking for a divorce entry and I came on some pages that I found close to impossible to read. The writing was small and faded and I had to give up. Unfortunately, I didn't find the divorce in any of the other years I looked at and so the search is hanging.

And soon after, I met a Family History Center patron who has been unable to find a naturalization petition for his grandfather. It's possible the process was never completed but the researcher isn't ready to give up.

In both cases I wondered if there might be an alternate way to search for court records, and the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin came to mind as a possibility. I learned, some time ago, that it's a good way to search for adoptions (see this post and I wondered if it might be a good tool to use to search for divorces and naturalization records, too.

I was able to find one copy of the Bulletin online at Google Books. It's from 1881.

I haven't looked at earlier or later volumes and so I don't know if this one is representative of all of the volumes or just those published in the 1880s, but I'm guessing the information is similar.

So, what's in it?

The first page includes the upcoming day's calendar for the following courts:

Superior
Circuit
Appellate
County

The District Court is also mentioned later in the volume.

The calendar is followed by lists of cases arranged by court. Headings include

New Suits
Judgments
Miscellaneous Orders

And there are specific mentions of bankruptcy, chattel mortgages (deferred payments on furniture and musical instruments), bills of sale, and trust deeds, mortgages, general assignments. I even stumbled on an adoption in the County Court.

Petn of W B Engel et al to adopt child

Divorce cases are listed and the entries could serve as an alternate index. Here ar some example entries:

37111 Linns B Bentley v Lucy Bentley. Bill for divorce. H F Vallette solr.

36995 Meiter v Meiter. Ord for deft to pay $50 solrs fees and $8 per mo alimony.

I believe the number in front of the entry could be used to order the file in from the warehouse at the Circuit Court Archives.

Unfortunately, it's hard to tell if naturalizations were routinely listed. I searched using variations of "petition" and "naturalization" and came up empty handed except for five entries to restore records.

38163 Petn of D H Schwahn to restore record of naturalization

I'm curious to know what these cases were about and I will try ordering in a file the next time I go downtown. I'll also try to find an index entry for an 1881 naturalization so that I can see if mention of it appears.

Watch for "Exploring the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin, Part II." And in the meantime, if you have a few minutes, you might want to explore the Bulletin on your own. If you find something interesting, please post a comment.

Illinois Statewide Deaths Indexed a FamilySearch

2010-08-14T19:13:00.000-07:00

FamilySearch's Record Search continues to grow and yesterday (August 13) a new series was added. The title is Illinois, Deaths and Stillbirths, 1916-1947 and the description reads "Name index of deaths and stillbirths in Illinois, 1916-1947. Includes records for Cook County and Chicago." The corresponding images don't seem to be online but the index provides a wealth of information (if listed on the record) including birth date and place, parent names and birth places, spouse name, burial date and place, and occupation.

If you want a copy of the actual record I will continue to offer access to the Chicago records (and some Cook) unless they go online for free and you can get the statewide death records from Molly Kennedy. (See "Lookups Available")

You can also order the films through any Family History Center. The cost is $5.50 + any notification fee a center might add and the reels usually arrive in about 2-4 weeks depending how often a center orders and whether or not a film is on backorder.

If you find a Chicago/Cook record, 1916-1922 listed in the statewide index, you should check FamilySearch's Illinois death certificates and stillbirths, including Chicago, 1946-1947 to see if the image is available there. Between 1916 and 1922 there should be some overlap in the two databases. Note the subtle differences between two entries for the same death.

Collection: Illinois, Deaths and Stillbirths, 1916-1947
Note: Image not online
Name: Thomas A. Bielby
Titles and Terms (original):
Death Date: 21 Aug 1916
Death Place: Chicago, Cook, Illinois
Gender: Male
Marital Status:
Race or Color:
Age: 42
Estimated Birth Year: 1874
Birth Date:
Birthplace: Chicago, Ill
Father: Thomas W. Bielby
Father's Titles and Terms (original):
Father's Birth Place: New York
Mother: Catherine Reordan
Mother's Titles and Terms (original):
Mother's Birth Place: Ireland
Occupation: switchman
Residence: Chicago, Cook, Illinois
Street Address:
Spouse:
Spouse's Titles and Terms (original):
Spouse's Birthplace:
Burial Date: 24 Aug 1916
Burial Place: Chicago, Cook, Illinois
Cemetery: ...
Informant:
Additional Relatives:
Digital Folder Number: 4152370
Image Number: 1603
Film Number: 1852282
Volume/Page/Certificate Number: 24078

Collection: Illinois, Cook County Deaths, 1878-1922
Note: Image online
Name: Thomas A. Bielby
Titles & Terms:
Death Date: 21 Aug 1916
Death Place: Chicago, Cook, Illinois
Gender: Male
Race (Original): W.
Race (Standardized): White
Death Age: 42y 6m
Estimated Birth Year: 1874
Birth Date:
Birthplace: Chgo., Ill.
Marital Status:
Spouse:
Spouse's Titles & Terms:
Father: Thomas W. Bielby
Father's Titles & Terms:
Father's Birthplace: New York
Mother: Catherine Riordan
Mother's Titles & Terms:
Mother's Birthplace: Ireland
Occupation: Switchman
Street Address: 346 N. Lockwood Ave.
Residence:
Cemetery: Lyonsville Cem.
Burial Place:
Burial Date: 24 Aug 1916
Funeral Home:
Informant:
Additional Relatives:
Film Number: 1276305
Digital Folder Number: 4004836
Image Number: 690
Reference Number: cn 24078

Census Search: City Directory Approach

2010-08-14T07:42:00.000-07:00

Recently, I wanted to find a family in the 1900 census. I was told that they lived at 708 Melrose from 1896-1903 and so, theoretically, they should have been enumerated at that address. (I double-checked the 1896 and 1901 city directories and that was the address given.) Unfortunately, a name search of the 1900 census yielded no match.

It's possible to the maps at A Look at Cook to determine the enumeration district in order to page through a census, but it's also possible to use a neighbors approach now that the Chicago city directories are online and searchable at Footnote.com.

In this case, I searched the 1901 directory by address (708 Melrose, 706 Melrose, etc.) looking for a name that I thought would easily appear in the census index at Ancestry.com. (Note: It's important to put the search terms in quotes, e.g., "704 Melrose") Carl Schmidt at 706 Melrose was a possibility but the name was too common. Eventually, I found Richard E. Pause at 702 Melrose and I was able to easily locate him in the census. Scrolling down the page, the entries jumped from 704 to 710 making it appear that 706 and 708 were skipped.

I followed a similar approach to locate the odd numbers for the same street thinking that perhaps the entries were made out of order. This page shows 707, 709, and 711.

I'm thinking it's possible that the families living at 708 Melrose were, indeed, skipped, but why? I notice in the 1900 city directory that there's a business listing for Bruno Rohden (stove repairs) at 708 Melrose. Is it possible that 708 Melrose was a storefront and that the enumerator didn't check to see if anyone was residing at that address?

What do you think?

Researching Polish Ancestors? New Translation Guide Available

2010-08-07T19:27:00.000-07:00

I've volunteered at the Wilmette Family History Center for a number of years and one of the perks in serving there is the chance to meet many talented and downright-pleasant-to-get-to-know researchers. Judith Frazin is one of them. She's the author of A Translation Guide to 19th-Century Polish-Language Civil-Registration Documents
(including Birth, Marriage and Death Records) and the newest edition of the book recently won her an achievement award from the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies.

If you are researching Polish ancestors, as many people who have Chicago roots are, take some time to explore this book!

Sample pages including table of contents

Check WorldCat to see if there's a copy available at a library near you. (The Wilmette FHC has one, if you're in the area.) If not, you can order it through the Jewish Genealogical Society of Illinois website.

One Person, Two Death Records

2010-07-13T15:00:00.000-07:00

This is one of those not-sure-what-it's-worth-but-it's-fun-to-ponder posts.

I was searching for a death record online at FamilySearch.org's Record Search and I happened on two death records for the same individual.

WACHOWSKI, ADAM 1908-07-16 CHICAGO 06 MO U 00019664

I wasn't surprised. I knew that from 1908-1915 there are two sets of records for Chicago--but I had never really compared certificates from both sets before.

I believe the first record, the one with hurried handwriting stamped with numbers and a date, is the original, and the handwritten number in the top right corner is the certificate number--the one you find in the online index--and that's how those records are arranged.

I think the second record is a copy of the original probably made at the Cook County Clerk's Office. Notice that it has a different number in the top right corner--a register number--and that's the way those certificates are organized.

Things to notice . . .

The original certificate has the register number written on it in two places. The two records are connected.

The information on both records seems to be exactly the same.

The original record seems to have been torn from a book of records. The duplicate seems to be part of a book.

Things to wonder . . .

What does the number "33717" on the original certificate mean?

What does "See Book of Corrections Letter W Page 364 Line 17 (Bessie Wachowski)" mean? On later records I've seen certificates of correction. What is it about this record that's wrong? Or do these records reflect a correction? Is information from the Book of Corrections available from the county clerk's office?

Was Bessie Adam's mother?

The cause of death has the number "105" written next to it. Was that a code for "gastroenteritis" and/or "malnutrition?" I think the answer to that is yes--gastroenteritis. Take a look at a record with the same cause of death and same code. And notice that the cause of death code doesn't appear on the copied record. Who put that code on? Who kept track of that information? What was done with it?

What discoveries have you made about the death records at FamilySearch's Record Search? Feel free to post a comment and share.

Picasa for Family History Documents

2010-06-03T15:44:00.000-07:00

I'm a fan of Picasa, a photo editing program that's available for free download from Google, and I mostly use it for organizing, tweaking, and sharing scans of genealogical documents.

A Picasa tutorial is beyond the scope of a short blog post, but I thought it would be useful for me share a list of the features I find particularly helpful with some simple directions on how to use them.

ORGANIZING

Select Images to Appear: You can decide which images appear in Picasa by selecting folders under "Tools" then "Folder Manager."

Organize Images: Move images from folder to folder by dragging and dropping. You can also rearrange images within a folder using the same approach.

Rename an Image: Click on an image to select it, then hit F2. Type the new image name in the pop-up box.

Rename Multiple Images: Select multiple images (holding down Ctrl lets you do that) and then hit F2. Type an image name and the selected images will be renamed in sequential order. For example, decree.jpg, decree1.jpg, decree2.jpg, etc.

TWEAKING

If you open Picasa and double-click on an image and you'll see three tabbed menus appear on the left: Basic Fixes, Tuning, and Effects. These menus are key.

Rotate an Image: Click "Straighten" under the "Basic Fixes" tab; use the sliding bar to rotate the image left or right, then click on "Apply."

Crop an Image: Click "Crop" under the "Basic Fixes" tab; draw a box around the portion of the image you want to save and click "Apply" when done. If you're not happy with how the cropped image turned out, click "Recrop" and try again.

Tweak Brightness and Contrast Automatically: Click "Auto Contrast" under the "Basic Fixes" tab; if you're not happy with the result, just click "Undo Auto Contrast." If Auto Contrast doesn't work, click on the "Tuning" tab. Move the sliding bars to tweak the image.

SHARING

Print an Image: Click on the image(s) you want to print. Click on the "Print" icon at the bottom of the page. Use the resulting menu options to assure that the image will appear on the page the way you want it to.

Upload an Image to a Picasa Web Album: Web albums are a great way to keep, backup and share images. Click on the "Upload" button and follow the instructions. Images will be sent to a folder associated with your gmail address and once they're there you can rearrange them, add captions, and share links to individual images or a folder. It's a convenient way to back up the files and it's a nice way to make sure they're accessible from any place you have Internet access.

Emailing Images: The one thing that hasn't worked well for me is the email option. I find that the documents shrink somewhere along in the process and the resulting images may not be large enough to be read easily. (If anyone has a solution to that problem, please let me know.)

These are just a few ideas but I'd encourage you to explore the program to discover other useful features and if you discover one, please add a comment to this post.

Finding Chicago Death Records that "Aren't On" FamilySearch: Indirect Approach

2010-05-22T14:46:00.001-07:00

I recently received a request for help in finding a death certificate for William J. Quinn. It doesn't come up easily in search results at FamilySearch's Record Search even though it's there.

QUINN, WILLIAM J 1892-01-21 CHICAGO 04 MO U 00014953 COOK

Here's how I found it:

I checked the Cook County Coroner's Inquest Index. If the name was there, William would have had a coroner's death certificate (different from the inquest) and I don't think those records are online. Searching "Quinn" and scanning for the death date, I didn't find a match.

Next I used Stephen Morse's One Step access to the Illinois Statewide Death Index to find "Q" deaths for January 1892. (The certificate numbers for Chicago death records before 1916 group the records together by first letter of surname within each month.)

I found a number of possibilities and so I chose the one that I though had the best chance of being indexed correctly: Charles Quinlin.

QUINLIN, CHARLES 1892-01-26 CHICAGO 11 MO U 00014952
QUEHL, INGER L 1892-01-16 CHICAGO 75 YR U 00014955
QIANI, CAROLINA 1892-01-08 CHICAGO 06 MO U 00014957

I searched Record Search for "Charles Quinlin" and narrowed the results to Cook County death certificates by clicking on the "Collection" link at the top of the page.

In this case, Charles' record came up easily and it happened to be one certificate away from the one I was looking for. I clicked to move one record forward and discovered that was #14951 and I was looking for #14953. I moved one record the other direction and located the record for William J. Quinn.

Looking at the record, I could see where an inexperienced indexer might read the surname as "Luinn" so I searched for that. No luck. So I tried Tuinn. No luck. So I searched William J. and found 151 close matches but no luck. So I tried Nilliam. And then I decided that it wasn't all that important for me to figure out how the record was indexed. My goal was to find the record and I did.

So, the short of it is this: if you don't find an early Chicago death record on Record Search, check the inquest index. If the name isn't there, locate the index entry in the Illinois Statewide Death Index. Then use Stephen Morse's One Step to find certificates beginning with the same surname letter for the same month and year. Search for nearby certificates, then once you're in the database, page through looking for the correct number.

If the name is on the coroner's inquest index or if you find a gap in numbers where the certificate should be, you are welcome to email me for help.

Using Birth Registers to Search for Birth Certificates Not Coming Up on FamilySearch

2010-05-08T07:08:00.000-07:00

I’ve had a number of researchers tell me, “I can’t find a birth certificate for that person on FamilySearch’s Record Search. It must not be online yet . . . “

I’m going to stick my neck out here. I suspect (but don’t know for certain) that the birth certificates available on FamilySearch now include all of the Chicago records that were available when the records were microfilmed.

My guess is that if a researcher can’t find a birth record online, it’s for one of two reasons:

1) The birth wasn’t reported so there’s no birth certificate to be found.

2) The name is misspelled in the index.

One of the best ways to check for both possibilities up through 1915 is to use the Chicago birth registers which are also online.

A little bit of background. It seems reasonable to me that the birth registers were created to log birth certificates that were returned to the county. The entries in all but the earliest books group names together by the first letter of the surname for each month. For example, all the “G” entries for April 1901 would be together, followed by all the “G” entries for May 1901, etc. The entries aren’t alphabetical. They’re in certificate number order which makes me think that the numbers were assigned as the records were recorded in the books.

So, because of the arrangement, it’s possible to use the registers as an alternate index if you know the month and year of birth or if you have a good deal of patience . . . .

Here’s how to do this at FamilySearch using an example of an “S” birth from January 1891:

1) Navigate to the search page for “Illinois, Cook County Birth Registers, 1871-1915.

2) Type a common name with the same letter of the name you’re looking for in the surname box and type the year of birth in the year ranges boxes. In this case, I'm looking for an "S" birth, so I’ll use “Smith." For surnames beginning with other letters, you may have to try a few different names to be able to find a register in the ballpark of the month/year/name you're looking for.

3) Browse to find a birth from the same month you’re looking for. In this case, “Henry Smith” born January 1891 will work.

4) Click on the name, then click on the small thumbnail in the upper right-hand corner to view the register image.

5) Use the arrow buttons to navigate back to the beginning of the “S” section for January 1891. The month is usually on top of the left-hand page; the year is on top of the right-hand page. Each page has fifty entries and in my experience, even common letters of the alphabet have just a few pages to check.

6) View each register page looking for a match. I often look at the surname, the birth date, the mother’s name, and/or the father’s name.

A few tips on using the birth registers:

1) The catalog entries in the Family History Library Catalog can help you figure out the arrangement of the register entries. For example, in this case, the December 1890 “S” births came just before the January 1891 S” births. For some years, they might be in different books.

2) The register entries cross two pages.

3) For some of the later years, you might find stillbirths or infants who died soon after birth listed at the end of each section.

4) If you find a matching register entry, there should be a matching birth certificate and if you’re using film, you can use the register number to find the certificate. Most certificate numbers have five digits but you might see just two by the names on the page. Look at the very top line to find the other digits.

5) If you find a matching entry and want to locate the corresponding record on FamilySearch but haven't been able to pull it up there before searching the name, try searching for other names on the register page. If you can find a close certificate, you should be able to easily navigate to the right one.

If the birth certificates were assigned numbers when they were entered in to the registers then I think it’s unlikely that many were missed. If a certificate didn’t have a number, it couldn’t be filed away. And as long as a birth was recorded under the proper first letter, then it should be possible to pick out a match in the register even if the name is badly misspelled. Based on these two assumptions, if you don’t find a matching entry in the birth register, then it’s very likely there is no birth certificate to be found on FamilySearch.

If that turns out to be the case, there are a number of things you can do. Here are some ideas:

1) Look for a delayed birth certificate
2) Look for a baptismal record
3) Look for a Social Security application
4) Check for a passport application
5) Check for a school record

Chicago Telephone Books, 1878-1971

2010-01-16T11:12:00.000-08:00

This morning my husband and I drove down to the Harold Washington Library at 400 S. State in Chicago so I could explore the resources available at the library for Chicago research—specifically telephone books and newspapers other than the Chicago Tribune. There was a public parking lot just around the corner from the library and the all-day weekend fee was $10.00. Not bad. (During the week parking would cost about $21 but it's easy and inexpensive to get to the library by public transportation, too.)

This blog post will focus on telephone books. The first Chicago telephone book appears to be The Telephone Journal, vol. 1, no. 1, published in October 1878. (For a short history of the telephone in Chicago see FundingUniverse.com's page for Illinois Bell Telephone.) The first book includes information about the telephone service along with a three-page “List of Subscribers”--names of businesses and a few individuals along with an address and numbers for “wire” and “call.” It also includes a three-page “Business Directory” which lists establishments by category much like a modern yellow pages.

Curious to know if your ancestor was an early adopter? Check the three subscriber pages linked from the top of this post. The printouts weren't the best, but the images should be readable. Make sure to read the instructions for how to make a call on the top of page one. Reading them made me grateful for my cell phone.

As you'd expect, the number of subscribers increased year by year and the later books include many more personal names than the earlier volumes. I didn’t explore in detail, but it appears, at quick glance, that the books mostly include heads of household much like the city directories do.

So how useful would the telephone books be for genealogical research? I'd be curious to hear your experiences using them. But in the meantime, here's my quick take:

If you're researching the early years when city directories are available, I think they're the first-choice resource. A quick comparison of an 1886 city directory and telephone book makes that pretty clear.

Telephone Book: 7071 Skinkle, J. W. residence 543 W Monroe

City Directory: Skinkle, Jacob W. pres. Beck & Hopkins' mnfg. co. 390 Carroll av h. 543 W. Monroe

But, if you're researching a family after 1928 and need to know an address or establish that they were living in the city, the telephone books would likely be useful.

Unfortunately, the later directories have tiny print and I found the one film I checked (from the 1930s) challenging to read. I don't think I could have gotten a good printout of it but I could have read it well enough to make a careful transcription to go along with a paper copy. I asked about the possibility of using my portable microfilm scanner to get good images, but the person who could tell me yes or no wasn't in today.

I'm planning to offer lookups in the Chicago telephone books in the near future. I don't expect to get many requests, but I think the research might occasionally be helpful.

So, where was Albert S. Bowman in 1900?

2009-12-16T10:55:00.001-08:00

A Little Holiday Fun:

A one pound box of Fannie May chocolates to the first person to find a particularly elusive Albert S. Bowman in the 1900 census for me. The images below show Albert with his family in 1880 and as a single man (I'm pretty sure this is the right person) in 1910. An 1897 city directory shows him living at 224 N 8th in Philadelphia.

Additional Information:

He doesn't seem to appear in the 1900 Philadelphia directory unless he had temporarily changed occupations.

He may have also gone by A. S. Bowman. I don't know what the "S" stands for.

Important Rule for the Challenge:

I have done quite a bit of online research on Albert and his family and there is no need to spend time looking for any other census records or related documents unless they will help you in your search. No reward for anything other than the 1900 census page.

The Fine Print:

I have no idea whether or not Albert appears in the 1900 census, although he should be there, right? If no one is successful with the search, I reserve the right to eat the box of chocolates myself.

Ready, set ...

Okay, remember--the first person to post a comment that leads me to the census image wins. (Once you have it, just tell me enough that I can find it on Ancestry or Heritage Quest or FamilySearch.) And if you have any questions, just post them for my reply.

... go!

Introducing Genlighten.com

2009-11-26T10:01:00.001-08:00

As many of you know, Dean and I have been working on launching Genlighten.com for a couple of years and we now have a slide show online which explains what we're up to! Please take a look. Cynthia

Introducing Genlighten.com

View more presentations from Genlighten.com.

The "Burial Permit Index"

2009-11-24T19:18:00.000-08:00

What should we call this index?

If you search the Family History Library Catalog at FamilySearch.org you will find a resource listed under “Illinois, Cook, Chicago - Vital records – Indexes” called "Indexes to deaths in the city of Chicago during the years 1871 to 1933 : showing name, address and date of death" created by the Chicago Board of Health. It’s a very long, descriptive title, but it’s somewhat misleading.

It’s true that most of the people listed in this index died in Chicago, but the index also includes people who died outside the city. And, in fact, a note in the catalog says, “These indexes are believed to be for burial permits, the actual deaths having occurred both in and outside the city of Chicago, often times out of state.” That’s probably why some researchers call it the “Burial Permit Index,” but that’s misleading, too. As far as I’ve been able to determine, the numbers given in the index don’t lead to burial permits; they lead to death certificates and/or death register entries.

For lack of a better title, I often refer to the index as the “Chicago Death Index, 1871-1933” (CDI) as a short way of distinguishing it from the Illinois Statewide Death Index online.

What’s the index like?

The CDI is arranged alphabetically by surname, then given name, then death date. For example, a John Smith who died in 1888 will appear before a John Smith who died in 1902 and both will appear before a John C. Smith who died in 1872. Each entry includes a name, a place of death, a death date and a few codes and numbers which I’ll talk about later.

What makes this index useful?

I’ll list a few answers to this question and then illustrate the points with a case study from the lookups that I did today.

· The index includes deaths between 1871 and 1878 that aren’t in the online index. If you find an early entry here, you can be pretty sure that the county clerk’s office will be able to provide you with a transcription of the record if you send in a $15 request.

· The index lists place of death. If the death was in Chicago, you’ll see a street address. This can be very useful if you’re trying to figure out when someone with a common name died if you have a last-known address from a directory or census or other source. If the death was somewhere else, you’ll see a city and state. Sometimes people who are buried in Chicago aren’t in the online index because they died some place else—like Michigan. A quick check of the CDI can sometimes save a lot of time and frustration trying to pull an index entry out of the online index when it just isn’t there. Out-of-town death records for 1909-1915 are available on FHL microfilm. In most cases, though, I think it's best to try to get a copy of the original death record from the place where the person died.

· The index lists stillbirths for some years. (I haven’t focused on these entries and so I’m not able to provide additional information about what years are covered or how to find the corresponding records. There are some stillbirths listed with the Illinois Statewide Death Certificates, though.)

· Sometimes names are spelled differently in this index than they are in the online index.

· Sometimes a year is wrong in the online index. Cross-checking with this index can help you figure out where to look for the death record.

So what about the numbers in this index?

This index appears to provide register numbers. For deaths from 1916 forward, the register number is the same as the certificate number from the online index and you can use it to locate the actual record on FHL microfilm.

For deaths between 1878 and 1915 the register number is different from the certificate number and it can’t be used (directly) to find a death certificate on FHL microfilm. However, if a name is in the index, it’s very likely that there is a corresponding index entry in the online index and it’s worth digging for it using Stephen Morse’s One Step access if it doesn’t pop up immediately.

For deaths between 1908 and 1915, there is a small subset if FHL microfilms arranged by register number as well as an overlapping set arranged by certificate number. The numbers from the CDI can be used to find records on the register number films. (It’s not obvious from the FHLC which films these are; it’s best to use my key which is available on the Wilmette FHC website.)

So, how about a case study?

Today I was looking for three deaths from the 1890s, none of which seemed to appear in the online index. (I'm going to change the name to Smith but the details remain the same.)

Minnie Smith 9/16/1893
Lilly Smith 1892
August Smith 4/2/1891

Using Stephen Morse’s One Step site, I was able to find an index entry for Minnie. She was listed under “Winnie.”

SMITH, WINNIE 1893-09-16 CHICAGO 40 YRU 00001369

I then found two possible matches for Lilly:

SMITH, LILY 1892-11-15 CHICAGO 06 YRU 00001710
SMIDT, LILLIE 1892-07-01 CHICAGO 01 YR U 00000804

In the CDI, one of the two was listed with the same address of death as Minnie—most likely the record the client was searching for.

August was a bit more difficult.

I didn’t find any good matches in the online index for him but searching the CDI I found an entry for

Smith Augustus F 4 2 1892 [2 Apr 1892]

The chances of two August[us] Smiths dying on the same day and month are small and so my guess is this is the person the client was searching for even though it was off by a year. (Hopefully the client will be able to tell based on address, occupation, birth place, length of time in Chicago, etc.)

I went back to the online index and was able to pull up the matching entry. It was listed under the initials G. F. but based on the address of death it was the match.

SMITH, G F 1892-04-02 CHICAGO 67 YR U 0001418

I might have stumbled on the index entry for G. F. if I had looked closely at death dates for every Smith who died between 1890 and 1892 (I often broaden the date range because sometimes dates are wrong) but the Chicago Death Index made the search much simpler.

Now the question is this: If the death certificate just has initials, where did the name listed in the CDI come from? If I figure it out one of these days, I’ll post!

Polish Newspaper (1908-1917) Dziennik Zwiazkowy Online

2009-11-13T19:47:00.000-08:00

This evening, I was looking for online newspapers that might help me with a bit of research I'm doing on a composer by the name of A. S. Bowman (I'll blog about him soon) and I stumbled on a resource that might be of interest to those of you who have Polish ancestors in Chicago.

It looks as though the first ten years (1908-1917) of Dziennik Zwiazkowy, “Chicago’s largest and oldest Polish newspaper,” are available online for free.

The newspaper is part of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's Illinois Digital Newspaper Collection. Other titles include Barrington Review, Southern Illinois Journal, and several newspapers from Quincy.

For online newspapers from other states, check out Penn Libraries research guide titled Historical Newspapers Online. It's the web page that led me to the Illinois newspaper page.

Cook County Indigent Burials, 1911-1971

2009-10-28T07:34:00.000-07:00

Another guest post written by Barbara, a fellow researcher at the Wilmette Family History Center. This time she shares information about searching indigent burial records.

My cousin and I have been trying to track down my “Prodigal Grandmother” for over a year now but have had no luck. Information from her step-niece seemed to indicate that she was quite poor and might have died indigent in Cook County.

Through searching the internet I discovered that Cook buried their indigent at Oak Forest Cemetery on the grounds of Oak Forest Hospital. There are no visible grave markers there to indicate where the indigent are buried but there is microfilmed information on who was buried in the cemetery and where.

The South Suburban Genealogical and Historical Society (www.ssghs.org) has a large room in a public building in Hazel Crest and they house the microfilmed records of the infants and adults who were buried by the County from 1911 until 1971. After 1971 the indigent were buried in Homewood.

Adoption Research: Using the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin to Find Birth Names

2009-10-27T14:33:00.000-07:00

I have learned a lot from conversations with other researchers and recently a patron at the Wilmette Family History Center told me how she found a birth name for her father who was adopted in 1927. The resource she used was new to me and I was intrigued. I thought others might benefit from her experience and so I asked her to write a guest post for my blog. She graciously agreed and you’ll find her contribution below.

Update (15 Dec 2009): There are two Genlighten.com providers who can help find adoption information in Cook County:

Chicago Daily Law Bulletin search for petitions to adopt for Cook County, IL only, 1854-present from barbpete

Illinois Adoption Lookup for Cook County, Chicago, 1934 - 1963 from julic

My sincere thanks to Barbara, the author of this guest post.

ADOPTIONS IN COOK COUNTY

Unknown to most adopted people and their families, there is a record that can be easily accessed that will give the birth name of the child given up for adoption in the majority of cases: the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin (CDLB). Adoptions are legalized through the county level of the court system and the petitions to adopt are posted in the CDLB and list the adoptive parents and the infant or child they wish to adopt.

The Rinn Law Library of DePaul University on 25 E. Jackson in Chicago has all of the CDLBs on microfilm and, most importantly, THESE RECORDS ARE PART OF THE PUBLIC DOMAIN AND CAN BE ACCESSED BY ANYONE! The library is located on the 5th floor and the microfilms are kept behind the check in desk.

The CDLB is very organized and the section where the petitions are listed is usually on page 3 or 4 under “New Cases” for County Court, which always falls after the Superior Court listings and before the Probate Court ones. Since the CDLB is published daily there are only 6 to 10 pages at most so one can search through a lot of records relatively quickly. My own successful search for the birth name of my father, who was adopted as infant in 1927, took a scant few hours and some of that time was wasted in looking through the Legal Notices sections for Adoption Notices. The only time adoptive parents post an Adoption Notice is when the biological father or family of the child has not consented to the adoption, or the infant’s identity was truly unknown (i.e., a foundling).

The other mistake I made was in looking in the CDLB issues that were published less than 6 months after the birth of my father -- the child has to have been living in the adoptive household for a minimum of 6 months before they can petition to adopt. I found his petition was filed almost exactly 7 months after his birth so it is a strong possibility that he may have been 1 month old at the time of his surrender to my grandparents.

Once you have the birth name you can look for the birth mother in other documents, e.g. census data, birth indexes (for the mother’s name), etc.

For those whose adoptions took place in other counties or states I recommend contacting Melisha Mitchell, founder of the White Oak Foundation (www.whiteoakfoundation.org). Melisha is a great resource and passionate advocate for adoptees and their families. It was she who told me where to find these records and of the 6 month waiting limit. Her website is chock-full of information and has many links to other resources as well.

Lookups through Genlighten: I Tried on Your Shoes Today and I Like Them

2009-10-12T13:48:00.000-07:00

Two blog posts in one day. I’m on a roll. And no, I haven’t done a bit of housework but I did shower. That counts for something.

So, a little background to start. I’ve been doing lookups for about five years and people are always asking me, “Do you know how I can find someone who does what you do in … ” You name the state or country. And my answer has always been, “No.” And people have also asked to pick my brain about how they might offer lookups like I do as a way of earning a bit of extra income.

Well, a couple of years ago, in the spirit of my husband’s entrepreneurial 3rd great grandfather who came to Chicago in 1835 to open a hat and cap store, we decided to address those questions and with the help of some experts in website design and coding www.genlighten.com is now up and running in private beta. (Private beta just means that we need to give you a registration code if you want to try it out and we’re happy to do that. ChiGen_1 will work.)

The site is a work in progress and we are still testing and tweaking, but it works! It makes ordering and offering lookups pretty simple and we’re excited about the possibilities that it offers to both “providers” and “clients.” If enough researchers embrace it, it will make it easy to find lookup help in many areas of the country and world and it will make it easy to offer lookups to those who need them.

So why am I writing about this today? Well, it just so happens that one of the providers currently on Genlighten offers lookups in Kane County, Illinois and it just so happens that I am researching a few families who lived there. I just picked out two death record entries from the Illinois Statewide Death Index and a marriage entry from Elgin's Gail Borden Library's Local Newspaper Index and sent them off to a researcher who will now retrieve the matching records and upload the scans to Genlighten for me. Today I’m wearing the same shoes that those of you who send me requests wear and it’s fun! I’m looking forward to getting those records as much as I think someone of you look forward to hearing from me. And, yes, I’m itching to order a few more things that I think will be of interest.

If those of you who try the Genlighten site have the same kind experience that I just had, well, I think we might have something there.

Sometimes Children Just Want to be Found

2009-10-12T12:45:00.000-07:00

Last week I received a request from a researcher who had an urgent need for information from a death record so that she could prepare for an upcoming trip to Chicago. I told her I thought I could help and that I would have the record for her the next day.

Unfortunately, when I got home from the Family History Center I discovered that I had scanned the wrong certificate. It’s an easy mistake to make and it doesn’t happen often, but it does happen. I locate records using a regular microfilm reader and then I transfer the film to my scanner where I peer through a tiny magnifying glass to move the right frame into the scanning window. Sometimes it’s easy to misread the numbers.

So, having made a promise, I went back to the FHC to get the correct record. And it’s here that the story begins. I noticed that the child died of diphtheria and I remembered that the record that I had scanned by mistake had been for a child of the same surname so almost without thinking I moved the film one record forward to take a look. The next certificate was for a child who died of the same disease at the same address. Very likely a sibling. And the next record was for yet another child. Same disease, same address.

Within the space nine days in the summer of 1894 this family lost three young children, ages 3, 5, and 8, to diphtheria. I felt a deep sense of grief as stood by the reader. But I felt something else, too. I felt as if those children had wanted to be found. And I learned later that the researcher had been looking for members of this family for fourteen years.

A lot of times people people say, “Oh, you’re so good at finding death records” and it’s true that my experiences over the last few years have taught me a lot about how to search. But I can take no credit for this find. I think it was supposed to be and I think that I was simply the one given the privilege of making it happen.

How lucky I am to have a job with perks like that.

How to Find Chicago Birth Certificates at FamilySearch

2009-09-18T17:52:00.000-07:00

A number of researchers have asked me how to find Chicago birth certificates at FamilySearch.org and so I've put together a quick tutorial which can be found at http://bit.ly/151sg7

If you have questions that the tutorial doesn't answer, just let me know!

Happy Birthday, Lucy Theodate Holmes

2009-07-04T11:30:00.000-07:00

One of the challenges in doing research in Chicago and Cook County is that many early births weren’t reported to the county clerk’s office. In other words, many people born in the late 1800s and early 1900s in Chicago didn’t have a birth certificate.

Baptismal records are usually a first-choice option for proving a birth date when no birth certificate can be found, but United States passport applications are another good source of birth information. They can be found on Family History Library microfilm, but they have also been available for some time on Ancestry.com.

Here’s an example from my own research of how helpful they can be.

For a number of years I have been gathering information about the family of H. H. Holmes, one of the the subjects of Erik Larson’s best-selling book The Devil in the White City. Holmes and his wife Myrta Z. Belknap had a daughter named Lucy and I was interested in finding a birth record for her. I started the search based on a couple of sentences from Larson’s book:

In the summer of 1888 her parents [Lucy’s mother’s parents] moved to Wilmette, Illinois, where they occupied a pretty two-story house on John Street, opposite a church. Lonely, sad, and pregnant, Myrta [Lucy’s mother] joined them at the house and there bore a daughter, Lucy. (p. 65)

A Wilmette birth would have had a Cook County birth certificate (they were kept separate from the Chicago birth certificates) but I wasn’t successful in locating an entry for Lucy in the Cook County birth registers on my first try (the registers serve as a helpful index to birth certificates) and even after I learned her birth date, I still wasn’t able to find her name in the register. I also checked the Chicago birth certificates with no luck.

Then I read in the program syllabus from the 2006 National Genealogical Society Conference (in Patricia O'Brien Shawker's "Passport Applications: Introduction and Background") that passport applications sometimes include birth dates and that passports were required for travel at the end of World War I. I knew that Lucy had been in Europe about that time. I ordered the appropriate microfilm through my local Family History Center and found the application for the passport she obtained to travel to Europe in 1918 for “Y.M.C.A. Overseas War Work.”

It was quite a find. From the application I learned that Lucy was born “on or about the 4th day of July, 1889” and this was supported by an affidavit from her mother, Myrta B. Holmes. I finally knew when she was born.

I also learned that her middle initial “T” stood for Theodate which meant that she was named after her maternal and paternal grandmothers, Lucy Thyrza Beers and Theodate Page Price. This was particularly interesting to me. Did it mean that Myrta knew something of H. H. Holmes’ parents, and if so, did she know them as “Holmes” or did she realize that her husband had been born “Herman Webster Mudgett?” Or did it mean that Holmes, without explanation, had suggested Theodate, his mother’s name, as a middle name for his daughter?

And I discovered (I have no reason to suspect that the information on the passport application is false) that Lucy was born in Englewood, Illinois, and not in Wilmette as I had previously thought. (An Englewood birth, by the way, would still have a Cook County birth certificate and so I still do not believe that her birth was reported.)

In this case the place of birth was significant. If Lucy was born in Englewood, she might have been born in the apartment above the drug store that Holmes ran. Holmes castle, according to The Devil in the White City, was only half completed in the summer of 1889 and Holmes didn’t move into the building until the following year. (p. 71) And if Lucy was born in Englewood, it seems reasonable to assume that Holmes attended the birth. This opens up all sorts of questions about the relationship between Myrta and her husband. Did Myrta go to Englewood just before Lucy’s birth or did she, perhaps, move back with Holmes before Lucy was born after spending time in Wilmette with her parents? (Holmes eventually built a duplex in Wilmette and Myrta and Lucy lived on one side and Myrta’s parents lived on the other.). And, if Holmes attended the birth, was he the only one there? Or would Myrta’s mother have perhaps been there, too? What was it about the relationship between Myrta and Holmes that allowed her to survive unlike many of the other women he was attracted to?

These questions fascinate me and I hope, one day, to find some answers, but back to the topic at hand. The important point here is this: If you’re looking for evidence of a birth in Chicago and haven’t had any luck finding a birth certificate, consider taking a look at passport applications. You might find yourself well-rewarded. In this case, I not only found a birth date and place, but the passport application included a photograph of Lucy in her late twenties. I was finally able to “meet” the person that, through other research, I had come to know so well.

Today is the 120th anniversary of Lucy Holmes’ birth. Happy Birthday, Lucy.

____________________________

Images used in this blog posts are from Ancestry.com. U.S. Passport Applications, 1795-1925 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2007. Original data: Passport Applications, January 2, 1906-March 31, 1925; (National Archives Microfilm Publication M1490, 2740 rolls); General Records of the Department of State, Record Group 59; National Archives, Washington, D.C.

Marriage License Mystery

2009-06-09T19:09:00.000-07:00

Marriage license mystery on my hands . . .

Looking at the Chicago Tribune for June 17, 1890, p. 2 at Footnote.com I find that a marriage license was issued to Samuel Prince and Rachel Provolsky, but I don’t see their names in the Illinois Statewide Marriage Index and I need the license number to be able to find the license on microfilm.

Fortunately, the lists that appeared in the newspapers were arranged in license number order and so it’s not hard to deduce the license number based on index entries for the surrounding names. The following chart shows what I found using the online index.

Jan Jetonicky (153867)
Charles Foster (153868)
Samuel Prince
Wenzl Plefka (153870)
Omund Lindberg (153871)

Based on this, the license number for Samuel should be #153869 and I find an entry in the hand-written marriage index books (on microfilm) which confirm this.

However, when I look at the marriage license film, #153869 is not a license for Samuel and Rachel. It’s for James Gething and Bertha Bonk and their names appear in the online index. But, based on a quick quick check of the hand-written marriage index books James Gething’s name doesn’t seem to be there.

GETHING, JAMES BONK, BERTHA 1890-06-21 / 00153869 COOK

The marriage license numbers weren’t reused during this time period and so there should be only one record for any particular number.

I’m thinking I could scroll through the license film to see if the record for Samuel is misnumbered but I think there’s more to this search than that. Something out of the ordinary is up, but what? I wish I had quick access to the marriage license applications to see if James Gething’s name appeared there, but I don’t.

I’d love to hear your suggestions for how to proceed. Maybe the mystery will solve itself when these records go online at FamilySearch's Record Search pilot.

UPDATE: Quick update: License 153386 is for Frank Herle and Eva Greiner with a date of June 4.

One possibility is that the license number was written wrong on the license and thus "misfiled" according to that incorrect number but I didn't see the Prince license scrolling through the 153800s and because I think my chances of find the license are getting smaller and smaller I have to stop somewhere. I think it's time to wait and see if the license appears on FamilySearch's Record Search pilot . . .

Happy Birthday, Benny Goodman

2009-05-30T09:31:00.000-07:00

I'm listening to a 100th anniversary birthday tribute to Benny Goodman on WDCB's Swing Shift--wonderful music--and then I got to thinking . . . He was born in Chicago.

To view his birth record at FamilySearch Record Search, follow this link, click on his name, and then click to view the image.

http://tinyurl.com/nldjua

Happy Birthday, Ben!

Researcher Finds Needle in the Haystack

2009-02-23T17:33:00.000-08:00

I received an email from one of my clients and I think she’s come across a wonderful example of how powerful the Record Search pilot site is. With her permission, I will post her note here in a slightly edited form.

Thank you, Margie!

Cynthia

________________________________________________________________________

When the Chicago birth certificates became available [at www.familysearch.org] I pulled up everyone I could think of. I was looking for two sisters, Mabel and Joan Hayes.

I found Joan.

Baby not yet named
Second baby, two living
Father, Joseph Hayes, born in Pontiac Illinois, age 37, laborer
Mother Hannah Austgen Hayes, born in St. John, Indiana, age 31

I could not find Mabel. When I search for the name Austgen, I came up with

Mary *BROWN*
First baby, one living
Born December 29, 1910
Father, Joseph BROWN, born in Pontiac, Illinois, age 37, laborer
Mother, Hannah AUSTIN BROWN, born in Dyer, Illinois, age 29

Dyer is in Indiana, not Illinois, and is right next to St. John. The birth places of the parents matched so well!

This looked suspiciously like Mabel's birth certificate. Mabel's middle name could be Mary, her middle initial is M. I ordered the death certificates, and … guess what Mabel's birth date is: December 29, 1910! And on the death certificate, her father is born in Pontiac, her mother in St. John.

Can you believe it! It has the … wrong family name! I noticed it wasn't filed for more than a month after the birth. It’s like the doctor said, “What was that name? Something common? Oh, yeah, Brown.”

Funny thing, I NEVER would have thought of looking for the Hayes family under Brown!

Chicago Births at Record Search: When the Index Doesn't Match the Record

2009-02-20T18:59:00.000-08:00

My husband pointed me to a blog called "TransylvanianDutch" which mentions the Cook County birth records online at FamilySearch Record Search. The author spotlights a birth record that's indexed as "Clifford Paul Cruvant" but clearly says "Edward Cruvant" and asks "What was the indexer looking at?" He goes on to say, "I want to know what that document is, what other information I might expect to find on it, and where I can get a copy of it."

I think I can be of help here.

The indexer must have been looking at the Certificate of Correction which was filmed just after the original birth certificate. This correction form doesn't seem to be included with the linked records on the FamilySearch Record Search site but it is available on Family History Library Film 1288077. The Certificate of Correction is numbered the same as the birth record and it includes the child's name as it appears on the certificate, the corrected name, the birth date and address, and the name of the person who submitted the correction. I suspect it also includes the date the correction was made, but the bottom part of this particular record isn't readable.

In a similar instance, one of my clients found an index entry for a birth register page that included a father's name, but that information was covered by a piece of paper attached to the register page on the linked scan. (The paper was probably a birth certificate form or a correction.) On the film, though, the next image is of the same page with the paper lifted to show the information underneath.

The Chicago Fire: Was Your Ancestor Insured?

2009-01-24T12:42:00.000-08:00

My husband's ancestor, James Ayer Smith, arrived in Chicago in the spring of 1835 with plans to open a hat and cap store, and in August of that year, his father sent him a letter with some very detailed advice on how to succeed.

In closing, he wrote, "There has been a heavy fire at Cleveland & I hope you will not fail to have insurance made on your stock immediately to the full amount Your affectionate Father Chas. Smith." James appears to have taken that advice.

When he lost business property in a fire in 1857, he received a $3000 settlement, with payments shared by six insurance companies. And in 1871, when The Chicago Fire hit, he was once again well insured. For example, James A. Smith & Co. had a policy from Washington Insurance Company purchased in August, 1871 in force through November of the same year "against loss or damage by fire ... on Furs manufactured or unmanufactured, also on Wearing Apparel manufactured in whole or in part of Furs or manufactured entirely of any other materials, Fur and Buffalo Robes and Lap Blankets left with them for safe keeping and for the deliver of which to the owners, they have made themselves responsible, loss or no loss, contained in the fourth story of the four story brick building with stone front known as Nos 34 and 36 Washington Street Chicago Illn." The policy was sold by Miller & Drew on La Salle in Chicago and the $10.00 premium provided $2500.00 worth of coverage.

Based on a list of policies held, goods covered, and settlement amounts, James appears to have had at least twenty-eight policies in effect at the time of the fire. But what about your ancestor? Was he or she insured?

Because extensive damage meant an unusually high number of claims, many insurance companies filed for bankruptcy and court documents related to these proceedings include lists of creditors--people with claims.

For example, creditors of The Republic Insurance Company of Chicago, Illinois listed in papers published by the District Court included the following:

RESIDING IN CHICAGO, ILL.

John Cronin $250
Charles E. Crandall $500
C H McCormick $27500 (one of many entries for him)
Mrs. K Fishback $200
Patrick Murphy $381.06
Methodist Book Concern $2500
Gilbert Hubbard Co. $453.22

And the list goes on--three pages, four columns each, with tiny type. And that's just one insurance company. There are similar documents for many other companies included in the James A. Smith papers.

Unfortunately, the names on the lists aren't alphabetical. It would take some time to search for a particular name, and if the name was common, "Patrick Murphy," for example, it would be hard to determine whether or not the person listed was actually an ancestor. But if you are researching a unique name, it might be worth taking a look.

Lists of creditors are available from documents included in the James A. Smith papers, held by the Minnesota Historical Society, but they may also be available from the courts which handled the bankruptcy proceedings. Two of those mentioned in the James A. Smith documents include the District Court, Northern District of Illinois, and the District Court, Northern District of New York.

[With the exception of the letter from Charles Smith to James A. Smith which is held by the Chicago Historical Society, all other documents mentioned and/or shown in this post are from the James A. Smith Papers held by the Minnesota Historical Society.]

Gleanings from "Legal Friend of the People"

2009-01-13T01:56:00.000-08:00

In January, 1911, the Chicago Daily Tribune began publishing a column called “Legal Friend of the People.” Readers wrote in to ask questions about legal matters and topics ranged from what to do about a neighbor’s bothersome ducks to marriage, probate, and citizenship. For genealogists, this column is a rich source of information about the laws of the times.

Below are some examples of the kinds of things I've learned from the Legal Friend. (I have access to the Chicago Tribune Historical Archives online--the source of the columns mentioned below--using my Chicago Public Library card.)

4 Mar 1912, p. 8: The legal age of a woman is 18; legal age of a man is 21.

11 Mar 1912, p. 8: Illinois law states that a divorced person must wait one year before remarrying; in questionable cases, couple should be remarried

11 Mar 1912, p. 8: Common law wife has same rights as any other wife, but definition of common law wife is strict; best to have legal marriage performed

18 Mar 1912, p. 10: Indiana marriage license is not good in Illinois

28 Mar 1912, p. 10: Nevada laws permit remarriage within months of a divorce; marriage there under those circumstances would be considered legal in all other states.

1 Apr 1912, p. 10: Nieces and nephews would inherit if unmarried uncle dies with no living parents or siblings

8 Apr 1912: Legal name change can be done through Circuit Court for about $15; Slight change in spelling wouldn’t require legal proceedings

12 Apr 1912: Aliens who have served in the United States military can receive citizenship with petition (no previous declaration of intent) and have only to prove a one-year residence

15 Apr 1912, p. 10: Wife desertion punishable by a fine or imprisonment; husband cannot be brought back from another state

29 Apr 1912, p. 10: If a man marries under an assumed name, he should obtain another license in his real name and be married again

6 May 1912, p. 4: Statute prohibiting marriage in Illinois during the first year after divorce went into effect 1 Jul 1905

3 Jun 1912, p. 6: Seventeen year old girl married without parental consent, lived with husband four months then went home; he cannot support her; marriage can be annulled

17 Jun 1912, p. 6: Statue prohibiting common law marriage went into effect July 1 … [year is difficult to read; probably 1900 or 1909]

19 Jun 1912, p. 6: If a spouse leaves for more than two years, it is grounds for divorce

5 Jul 1912, p. 6: If a father gains citizenship before his son turns 21, the son automatically becomes a citizen; if the son reaches 21 before the father gains citizenship, the son can file his own petition

8 Jul 1912, p. 4: Illinois divorce cases usually called within a couple of months of filing

27 Nov 1916, p. 8: Minister visiting from another state can marry an individual who has obtained a Cook County marriage license

22 Oct 1917: Man married in Florida, wife left him in England, and he is back in the United States; he would have to get a divorce before remarrying here

17 Dec 1917: Law making it illegal for divorced persons to marry until a year had passed went into effect 1 Jul 1905

24 Dec 1917: Woman divorces in Illinois, goes to Michigan to marry an Illinois resident and returns; “Evasion Act” might make marriage invalid

31 Dec 1917: A marriage between persons who used assumed names to get license is legal, but the parties are subject to punishment; Crown Point marriages are not announced routinely in Chicago in a public way

30 March 1918: No “statutory limit” on when a marriage license has to be used

20 May 1918, p. 6: A marriage license from Indiana can’t be used in Illinois

3 Jun 1918, p. 8: Marriage license generally issued by County Clerk; offices not open on Sundays

The Problem with "Only"

2009-01-11T20:42:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure I'm the best one to point this out. After all, I earn extra income by looking up Chicago birth, marriage, and death records for researchers for a small fee. But, on the other hand, one of my goals is to educate researchers on which Chicago and Cook County records can be found where, and I think this falls under that umbrella. So, here goes . . .

I was just searching Ancestry.com, hoping to stumble on some information about a person I'm researching, and I ended up in the Cook County Death Index, 1908-1988. It's a handy resource, but I think one small tweak needs to be made to the results page.

When I rolled over the "Purchase from Cook County" link, the pop-up read "Indexes have been made available here at Ancestry, however, images and original certificates are only available through the Cook County Clerk's office" and the word "only" isn't quite right. Chicago and Cook County death records up through 1947 are available both in Springfield and on microfilm that can be viewed at or borrowed from the Family History Library in Salt Lake. And, in the Chicago area, they're available at the Wilmette Family History Center.

It's likely that the word "only" is there because it's much easier to phrase it that way than it is to try to explain that some records are available from a number of repositories while others are only available from the clerk's office, but it would be better to just leave the "only" out. Most people would just click through and purchase the records from www.cookcountygenealogy.com anyway.

I applaud Ancestry and the Cook County Clerk's Office, by the way, for teaming up to make this index and the corresponding records easily available to researchers. I really do. Sometimes people ask me, "Can you get records after 1947? and sometimes they mutter, just a tiny bit, when they find out that I can't, and that they will have to pay $15 for whatever they need. My reply? It costs money to preserve valuable records and to build applications like the new Cook County vital records website and $15 is money well spent if you need a record to keep your research moving forward.

Searching Chicago City Directories at Footnote.com

2008-12-29T07:38:00.000-08:00

Chicago city directories, seventy-three volumes covering 1843 to 1923, are available on Footnote.com and because they are fully searchable, they offer plenty of research possibilities to those who learn how to easily access them. Here's my approach:

1) Log into Footnote.com and select BROWSE, NEWS AND TOWN RECORDS, CITY DIRECTORIES, ILLINOIS, CITY DIRECTORIES--CHICAGO. If you want to search every year available, scroll down and type in your key word(s) in the "Search within: News and Town Records » City Directories » Illinois » City Directories - Chicago IL" box. If you want to search a specific year, read on.

2) Click on the year you want to search. Then, type the surname you're looking for into the "Search within" box at the bottom of the screen. Scroll through the results until you find one that is close to the name you're looking for. "1843 » Rhines, Henry (p. 23)" will bring you to a page that begins with Rhines, Henry. If you were looking for "Roth" or even "Smith," you could navigate to the Rhines page and then use the small thumbnail navigation bar at the bottom of the screen to quickly locate the page you really needed. The rollover feature makes that easy to do.

But don't just limit your searches to names. Over the Christmas holiday, I had the pleasure of starting a small curiosity project of my own--trying to find out more about a Boston violin maker named John S. Allen--and searching known business and home addresses allowed me to find others who were working and/or living at the same addresses--though not necessarily working in the same business or living in the same apartment. I also tried searching "violin maker" and "violinmaker" (they brought up different entries) to see who else might have been working in the city in the same year.

Two Sets of Death Certificates--1908-1915

2008-07-26T12:35:00.000-07:00

Between 1908 and 1915, there are two sets of Chicago death certificates listed in the Family History Library Catalog. One group (the largest) is organized by "certificate number"--the number you find in the online index. The other group is organized by "register number"--the number you find in the Chicago Death Index, 1871-1933, a microfilm index.

So, what's the difference between the two groups? In some cases, but not necessarily all, the record found in the register number group appears to be a copy of the original death certificate. The writing is neat and in one hand.

However, I don't think all of the records in the register number group are copies. I was unable to find a death record on a certificate number film today--it seemed to be missing--and when I located the corresponding record on the register number film, the record looked to be original.

Chicago City Directories Online

2008-07-26T12:31:00.001-07:00

More are more Chicago city directories are appearing online.

A number of years are available in PDF format at www.chicagoancestors.org (Look under the "Tools" tab.

Directories are also available at www.footnote.com. This is a subscription site, but you can access it for free at Family History Centers that have the portal set up on their computers.

A list of some online Chicago directories is available here:

http://chicagogenealogy.com/chicago-city-directories.html

Parent Names on Pre-1910 Infant Death Records

2008-07-26T12:28:00.000-07:00

Chicago death certificate blanks didn't have a place to record parent names until 1910 but if you find an infant in the index under "Unknown SURNAME" it's very likely that the actual record will read "Child of Given Name and Given Name SURNAME." If you're looking for infants who were born and died between census years, it's worth checking the death records for unknown infants.

Finding Parishes with ChicagoAncestors.org

2007-11-27T05:19:00.000-08:00

The Newberry Library has just published ChicagoAncestors.org which lets you "discover the past by address" and I've used it a couple of times to successfully determine which Catholic parish a family attended.

Want to give it a try? First you'll need an address. You can obtain it from a number of sources including birth certificates, death certificates, and city directories.

Once you have the address, type it into the address box on the main page.

At the bottom of the results screen you will see "Religious Institutions." Click on the + next to "Roman Catholic Churches." You will then see the names of the parishes closest to the address along with their locations on the map. If you click a parish name you will get information on the history of the church and Family History Library film numbers for any records that have been filmed.

Wonderful new tool!

Website Updates in Progress

2007-10-11T12:37:00.000-07:00

Some of you may be wondering why I'd upload my new website pages when they're not quite done. Have to say, I'm wondering that myself at this point! No, seriously, I've been working on them on and off all summer, pushing hard the last few days to get them done so I can move on to other projects, and knowing that they're "out there" gives me the drive to wrap things up even though my brain is tired . . .

It's not hard to find Chicago vital records, but it's certainly not straightforward. There are a lot of ifs and thens and I've been trying to pull them together into once place while at the same time keeping things as simple as I can. Quite a challenge.

It'll probably take me a few more days to iron things out and then I'll let the pages sit and go back for a "final" tweak sometime before the year's over.

1900 Census: Background Information

2006-12-25T07:21:00.000-08:00

An article called "How the Census Was Taken" appeared in the Chicago Daily Tribune on 21 Aug 1900. Here are some things I learned from it:

The census was to reflect the population as it was on June 1. Anyone who died during the fifteen days "succeeding" to that was to be counted. Births later than June 1 weren't to be recorded and individuals who were in jail on June 1 but released before the enumerater arrived were to be recorded as prisoners.
Thirty interpreters were used in areas with languages other than English.
Enumerators were paid by Washington according to the number of names they recorded.
Enumeration took 15 days but "more than double that time" was spent on corrections and complaints.
Complaints included enumerators skipping hotel guests; a number of men were put in charge of investigating and correcting returns

Another article stated that enumerators wore badges and that the census books were 2 ft x 1 ft.

Cook County Birth Registers

2005-03-16T07:20:00.000-08:00

Spent some time looking at the 1890/91 Cook County birth register yesterday. The names are in A-Z order for each month (someone must have had all of the certificates before making the entries or recopied them?), but I noticed that there are some miscellaneous names at the end of each month--something important to keep in mind while searching.

Stillbirth Entries in Chicago Death Index

2005-03-12T11:44:00.000-08:00

The Chicago Death Index (aka Burial Permit Index) lists some entries for stillbirths (SB) before 1916 but where are the certificates?

Cook County Deaths: IRAD vs FHL Films

2005-03-04T13:10:00.000-08:00

I did a bit of detective work today and I now believe that the early Cook County death certificate films at IRAD are exactly the same as the ones available through the Family History Library. The IRAD film that I looked at had the FHL film number on the box and the certificate numbers on the reel (and the gaps) matched those on the FHL film perfectly.

Undertaker's Reports on Burials, 1863

2005-03-04T12:38:00.000-08:00

Went down to IRAD at Northeastern Illinois University on the advice of a fellow researcher and had a wonderful time looking at the Undertaker's Reports on Burials for Jan-Jul of 1863. They are similar to the death registers I've seen--name, death date, age, cause of death, birthplace, cemetery name (if I remember correctly)--and I'm told that IRAD has indexed them and that the index will eventually be made available.

Chicago Birth Certificate Film Oddities

2005-03-03T15:23:00.000-08:00

When I first started doing lookups, I had to look at up to four films to find some of the death certificates in the teens--until I figured out the pattern and the exceptions to the pattern. Now I need to do the same thing with the birth certificate films. Apparently, for some years (in the teens?), the December birth certificates for one year were filed with the certificates from the beginning of the following year. What this seems to do is push the months off the expected pattern. For example, with three repeats of certificate numbers, I'd expect them to be Jan-Apr, May-Aug, Sep-Dec, but it looks like sometimes April may actually be in the second group: Dec-Mar, Apr-Jul, Aug-Nov? Time for a bit of new sleuthing.

Census Fun

2005-03-03T15:16:00.000-08:00

Spent some time looking for John Oates/Oades in the 1870 census this week.

John Oades (Oates) born 8-15-1819-England-farmer
Wife: Cecelia-born 4-12-1816-England
Son: Richard-born 1841-1842-England
Son: William? -single-born in IL? 1855 or so
Son: Fergus-born-6-1843-England
Daughter: Ablen (Ellen) IL-1858
Son: Edwin -9-23-1866

I got side-tracked by a John Oats married to a woman of the right name with a son Fergus in the household, wrong age, and then stumbled on the right family searching for people named John, born in England, in Cook County. If I hadn't known that they had lived in Northfield in 1880, I might have skipped over it.

HORDS, JOHN (1870 U.S. Census)
ILLINOIS , COOK, NORTHFIELD
Age: 55, Male, Race: WHITE, Born: ENGL
Series: M593 Roll: 213 Page: 459

Missing Cook County Certificates

2005-03-03T15:07:00.000-08:00

Groups of Cook County death certificates from the late 1880s appear to be missing, not only on the Family History Library films, but also on the IRAD films, even though there are entries in the index for them. (So, was the index created before the certificates were lost/destroyed or was the index created, not from certificates at all, but from registers?)

They don't generally appear interfiled with the Chicago certificates, but I was lucky enough to find one that way this week.

EBBENS, SJOERT

02/27/1903

COOK COUNTY

39 YR

00003830

COOK

Interesting thing was that the certificate actually seemed to be a Chicago form which might explain why it was filed where it was.

Not in Death Index?

2005-02-16T21:24:00.000-08:00

Searched the online death index yesterday for an entry for Margaret Lamb, buried 14 Dec 1894, but couldn't find her even using the One-Step and searching for "M" "L" "1894." So, I tried the Chicago Death Index (microfilm). I didn't see a match under "Margaret" but then my eye caught a "Maggie" a few lines above and the date was close enough that it struck me it was a match. Knowing that she was there, I decided to scroll through the death certificate film for "L" for December 1894 and it didn't take too many cranks to find her death certificate. The handwriting is dark and thick and the surname could be misread as "Laub" or something similar but I still can't find an entry in the index even WITH the correct certificate number.

Rule #1: Even if a name doesn't appear in the online index, don't give up!
Rule #2: Don't overlook nicknames . . .

Time to Blog?

2005-02-16T20:57:00.000-08:00

It's been a year and a half since I launched www.chicagogenealogy.com and I've learned a lot about Chicago vital records from all the lookuping I've done since. Just recently, I've begun to think that I should keep track of the odd things I see, the new things that I learn, and maybe blogging would be a good way to do that.