Mappy Monday: US Enumeration Maps on Family Search

Gosh I love a good map! Have been known in times past to grab an world atlas or the AAA Road Atlas off the shelf and just take a browse. It always made me happy. So now it makes me real happy whenever I find a good map that's also helpful in my genealogy pursuits.

Over at RootDig, Michael John Neill wrote about FamilySearch's browsable US Census Enumeration District maps, and you can see his post here. Usually, I am reluctant to jump into big browsable record set, but on Sunday morning it seemed the perfect thing to do, provided I had a big cuppa.

It was so easy to find what I was looking for that I almost felt like a hidden hand was guiding me, or maybe the path to what I was looking for was well organized. Yeah that's probably it. First you go here to FamilySearch and NARA's list of states and microfilm roll numbers. And thank you FamilySearch for scanning and putting these online! If you go there you'll see that it's pretty easy to scroll on down and find the state you're looking for.

I'm looking for Maryland so that's where I click. Now I'm into the pool and have to swim. It's a-browsing I do go. After a couple of stabs at it I find Baltimore city and Anne Arundel County, and then Allegany County which is located in the western mountainous part of the state and what I was looking for. There's a couple of maps and I am easily tempted to stop and take a meander but I press on and find the little mountain town of Frostburg where my family and ancestors come from. Here's the map I saved to the computer.

SOURCE: "United States Enumeration District Maps for the Twelfth through the Sixteenth US Censuses, 1900-1940," images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1942-35062-11566-70?cc=2329948&wc=92VW-3TT:1077258501 : accessed 29 Jun 2014), Roll 26, Maryland, Allegany-Worcester 1900-1940 > image 578 of 596; citing NARA microfilm publication M1882, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.


It might not look pretty or like much to you but it's solid gold to me! I could sit here all day looking at it and I just might. Here's a close up.

 

 

If you click to enlarge and look closely you'll see little dots. Those are buildings, such as residences. Imagine what you can do with that!

 

Did I mention I really like maps? Mappy Monday turned into Happy Monday!

 

 

A downtown view of Frostburg about 1906. You can see more of the album it came from by clicking on the tab "Album: Nat'l Pike" at the top. 

 

A fall view of Frostburg, 2012.

 

 

Mappy Monday is a blogging prompt fro GeneaBloggers.

 

 

The URL for this post is:

Military Memories: Figuring out who served in which war

While work continues in the background on our Farrell's Connections project (see some previous posts) I'm following the GeneaBloggers writing prompt for the month of May with short posts on Military Memories, from Jennifer Holik. One of the things that stumps me and gets in my way is trying to figure out which ancestors might have served in, say, the Revolutionary War or the Civil War. Have to confess to ignoring the Spanish-American War entirely. At least I've kept a list of Revolutionary War Patriots on a big post note next to the desktop computer as I stumble into them. But really, isn't that kind of pathetic? There must be a better way.

This morning I read a blog post with the solution to this problem from Michele Simmons Lewis who writes the helpful blog, "Ancestoring". Her post provided a very useful link to another blog run by Ancestry.com with a beautiful chart of each major war and the war years with a corresponding range of birth years. The Ancestry blog says:

You know you should look for military records for your ancestor, but what war did he serve in? Our friends over at Fold3 created this handy little infographic to use as a rule of thumb. There are exceptions to every rule, but this will get you started!

 

 

OK, now just to be clear, click here to get to the infographic. I'd love to post it here for your immediate enjoyment but also want to respect copyright of the Ancestry folks.

 

Thanks Michele!! I can not even begin to tell you how many times I've sat here counting on fingers trying to figure out if it was possible a particular ancestor served. Now if Randy Seaver over at Genea-Musings would just come up with some super slick way to search our tree programs for possible candidates... problem solved!

 

 

Enoch Clise (1843-1896), served in the Civil War, my second great aunt's husband who was mayor

of Frostburg twice. Frostburg is the little mountain town in Western Maryland where my  recent ancestors came from. Nice photo, huh?

 

 

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2014/05/military-memories-figuring-out-who.html



Military Memories: The Community

I'm home from the hospital and on the mend -- see "Sad Sushi" post -- and although the rehab exercises and all the rest wear me out, somehow the highlight of my day is the sweet escape that comes when I take a break and think about genealogy. How many of us love it and in times of trouble find that it can be very soothing to whatever ails us?

So the thought now is to pick up the GeneaBloggers writing prompt for this merry month of May with short posts on Military Memories and thought up by Jennifer Holik. There's a blogging theme for every day and that's going to work for me... and maybe you too, if you blog?

Meanwhile the work continues on the Farrell DNA project and I'll probably be posting on that as well. Cousin Rich and I are busy comparing DNA matches that are the result of Mom's recent AncestryDNA test. I have made some really nice contact with matches for the Farrells as well as for Mom's wonderful Whetstones, a House descendant, and now a Kobel cousin with a branch that spells it Coble. Who knew?

For this short post on Military Memories the topic is The Community. My family all lived in the little Western Maryland mountain town of Frostburg in Allegany County. When WWII broke out, the boys enlisted and went off to war. I did a post about the Kelly boys, Dad's brothers, going off and you can read it here. Dad wasn't eligible due to a childhood injury and he stayed at the home front.

There was rationing and everyone of my age has heard stories about the scarcity of tires, cars, and sugar as well as the use of Ration Books and coupons. I guess that I'm lucky to have all of Mom's stories about the war years in Frostburg and the munitions plant where everyone, including Dad, worked. The local movie theatre had bond sales before the main feature. No new pots and pans nor new sheets for the newlyweds. There was a housing shortage too and rentals were all but impossible to find. One of my all time favorite movies about this era is "Since You Went Away" made in 1944 and every time I see it I think that it could have taken place in Frostburg, with some minor adjustments.

Mom and some of her friends worked during the war. Before the war she found it difficult to get a job and through the help of a friend worked in the Five & Dime. It didn't last long, and my impression is that she wasn't too serious about it either. But when the war started it was much easier for women to find work, good work. And they found fellowship there too, sharing the good and bad.

I think Mom found the work at the textile mill where fabric for parachutes was manufactured a bit more challenging than the work at the Five & Dime. It contributed to the war effort. I might not have this absolutely right (and Mom will let me know) but the guys who were her bosses thought she was just another dumb blond and often made sport of her work efforts. On her own she organized a way to record measurements (or something to do with numbers) and it blew them away. "YOU did this?!" they asked her in disbelief. Sure she did. She'd just never been challenged before. I guess that probably happened to a lot of women who worked at interesting jobs during the war and were good at it and enjoyed it too. I think that it must have given Mom a sense of "can do" that stuck with her and was put to good use when she took up genealogy in the 1970s.

Everyone in town had a Victory Garden. Everyone always had a back yard garden for vegetables, fruits, and wine grapes anyway so to continue it into wartime just made easy sense. Putting up or canning vegetables and meat they hunted was very common. Jams and jellies too. But doing without sugar was a real hardship. And watch out if you ask Mom what she thinks about margarine. Can't stand it to this day!

Little Frostburg had just been through the Great Depression and before that, reversals at the many coal mines in the area. The townsfolk were naturals at economizing and doing without and then finding clever ways to substitute.

A postcard sent to Dad from one of his brothers.

 

 

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2014/05/military-memories-community.html

Wordless Wednesday:)

Wordless Wednesday is a blogging prompt from Geneabloggers! Me, wordless?!

Frostburg, Allegany, Maryland. Ca. 1930s.

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/09/wordless-wednesday.html

Wisdom Wednesday: Stuff I Learned This Week

Here I am on Wednesday again, considering how very much I don't yet know, but am working on it. So it's time to take up the GeneaBlogger's Blogging Prompt called Wisdom Wednesdays, and see if I've learned anything this week.

First and because I blogged about it last week, I've graduated from newbie to almost intermediate. In a comment for last week's Wisdom Wednesday post, Doug tipped me off to the IGHR Course 2 listed as Intermediate and with a great definition of just what that means, and pointed out that it could be time to stop calling myself a newbie. So thank you, Doug Williams!! I can check off most items on the list which you can find here. The two areas where I'm as lost as a babe in the woods are source citations and court house research. Mom did all the court house stuff but she's told me about her adventures. Hearing about a thing is not the same as doing a thing your very own self, so I'll keep it in mind should the need arise.

I need source citation help! There's a lot of info out there on source citation, and I have read Evidence! Citation and Analysis for the Family Historian by Elizabeth Shown Mills. I bought it because her landmark book scared the daylights out me... and that's some real honesty right there, folks. Here's a blog post by James Tanner at Genealogy's Star blog that sets the lay of the land for me, which you can find here. Yes, I do believe what he's saying and I see the need to site sources properly, if for no other reason than to be able to find my own silly way back to that source with a juicy bit of data.
Reading that Mills book as I did I came to see that not too much of it rubbed off. I guess my next step is to assemble a list of learning experiences that fit into my learning style, which is experiential. It helps to know what learning style you are. A learning plan is needed. Once I have a list of resources I'll be able to try out a couple and then settle in to learn something that does stick. But what I'd really like to have is a workbook or online experience of typical citations that I can do and learn that way. Anyone know where to find that?

Wow! I really appreciate the Family History Writing Challenge! The resources and blog posts and forum are fantastic and well beyond my wildest dreams. Have always thought that writing is like physical conditioning in that the more you do it, the easier it comes, and the more you want to do it. With a little encouragement we who want to write some family history can get stuff done. So thanks to all participants over at the FHWC!! I'm learning a lot! Drop by and see what's going on and be sure to click on the Forum tab at the top. It's not too late to join us:)

DNA... they received my sample at 23andMe! I know because I got an email from them, and have also received email newsletters. I can and do click through to read more and learn as I go. Cool. Here's a link to their blog.

And last but not at all least, a big rousing Thanks to Jana over in the blog neighborhood at Jana's Genealogy and Family History Blog who does a thing on Friday for Fabulous Finds. Here's a link to the last one here. Last week's post let me know about something I really needed to know about and that's how to download your Blogger and WordPress blog posts! Isn't that wonderful?! Click here to go and find out about downloading your Blogger or WordPress posts.


Photos of the day from the Archive:

From a photo album of the National Pike by E. Gilbert Erwin.
Click on tab above to view the album in its entirety.

The old Castleman Bridge is still there and was recently refurbished.

 

Below, Dad and Mom, Easter Sunday 1941,

On the Castleman Bridge.

Nice shoes and hat!!

Isn't she cute?

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/01/wisdom-wednesday-stuff-i-learned-this.html