Selecting Records to Research, Part 2

By TCGS Member, Connie Estep

John Covey taught the June genealogy class continuing the subject of record selection. He

John Covey practicing what he teaches

started the class with “guessing games”, discussing the need for educated guesses as to places, dates, and name variations. He also talked about the advantages of learning the history and geography of areas people lived, especially as these can affect why they moved.  He provided a four page handout to accompany his talk. The handout is available on the TriCity Genealogical Society website under the Education tab, or by clicking here.

Selection criteria for choosing a record includes content (does it have the kind of information you are looking for), location and time period. Remember location boundaries can change (as did our own Benton County). Learning about the history of an area can save research time in cases of jurisdiction changes. Access can be another issue, so check to make sure you are allowed to visit the repository and can get copies of records. Reading records can be a problem when there are language differences or hard to read handwritten documents. Another challenge can be a very common family name; knowing at least a given name, and hopefully a middle name will help. The more you know about the person, the easier the research. John also recommends following hunches in choosing records.

John discussed research logs in detail. The most important reason for keeping research logs is that they provide a place to cite data sources. They can also help with search organization to know what has and has not been found. I often have periods of time between research sessions and find it easy to forget what I’ve done and what the next step is. This can solve that problem. He covered specific elements to record and a FamilySearch web address for a blank log. This blank Research Log can be filled out and printed from your computer. It can also be printed out blank and entries can be made by hand while researching.

 The next class in this series is September 14; we will learn about the Soundex system from Susan Davis Faulkner. Classes will continue through December before monthly TCGS general meetings from 6:15-6:45 p.m. This class was attended by 22 people.

County and State Records

By TCGS Member, Connie Estep

Brenda Chilton, Benton County Auditor, provided a wealth of information about public records at our meeting this month. The more current records may be seen electronically at the Auditor’s Annex in the Richland Fred Meyers complex, and in the Kennewick Annex at 5600 W. Canal. The full range of records is available at the Benton County Courthouse in Prosser.

A list of the types of records available with their date ranges can be found at http://www.co.benton.wa.us/pview.aspx?id=870&catid=45. Computerized records are available electronically and in hard copy from 2000 to present at the Clerk’s Office in Prosser and Kennewick. Additionally the records in the table below (copied from this same website) are available in original format, microfilm or as electronic images at the Clerk’s Office in the Benton County Courthouse in Prosser.

The above website directs people to the Washington Department of Health, Center for Health Statistics for birth, death, marriage and divorce certificates. The hot link to this site does not work, but if you cut and paste the department name into Google it will find the correct site. This is not a searchable site. You may order certificates (you provide full details) and you may also order a record search for $8 each. Their search range for births and deaths is July 1907 to the present. The search range for marriages and divorces is 1968 to present; for earlier records they direct you to local county records.

Record indexes and images are digitized from 1984 to present and marriage licenses from 1970 to present. These are searchable at the Benton County Auditor website BentonAuditor.com. Go to the Recording tab and click on “Recorded Documents Online”. You may search all record types or specify a record type. I poked around a bit with this search form and most of the records I found when searching “all record types” were land transactions. Land transactions do seem to happen more frequently in a lifetime than births, deaths, and marriages!

Pre-1984 indexes and images are available in Prosser on microfilm. You don’t need appointments for searching records in Prosser or Kennewick. They have terminals set up for people to use.

This table shows the dates for available records in Benton County. The county was formed March 8, 1905 from parts of Yakima and Klickitat County. If you need records earlier than that date, search records from those two counties.

Brenda also discussed other public record sources. Washington State Archives has a death records index from 1907-2000 and prison records. The nearest state archives regional office is in Ellensburg. A website about their holdings and how to contact them can be found at  www.sos.wa.gov/archives/archives_central.aspx. Be sure to call for an appointment before traveling. Washington was the first state to have a digital archives. It is located in Cheney.

Brenda gave a good overview of records available in Benton County. Research in other counties will most likely have some differences. If you plan to travel to other counties it’s best to do as much research as possible to know what to expect before you arrive and try to set up appointments!

Patriotic Heritage Booth at River of Fire Festival

Patriotic Heritage Booth at River of Fire Festival

Columbia Park, Kennewick, Washington

July 4, 2016

Kieth Deaton,
as Abraham Lincoln 

This Independence Day celebrate our nation’s freedom while celebrating your family history. All of us have origins tied to the history of the United States. To help you discover your family’s history visit the Patriotic Heritage Booth at the River of Fire Festival.

The Patriotic Heritage Booth is a unique combination of members from the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Sons of the American Revolution, and the TriCity Genealogical Society. Various members of all of these organizations will join together for one day at Columbia Park while celebrating Independence Day. There will be many of them dressed in Revolutionary War era costumes. Come by the booth for selfies with these historical characters. The Patriotic Heritage Booth will sponsor a coloring contest and provide an opportunity for you to write letters to active military personnel. You can also get information on how to find out more about your family history while you visit this booth.

The River of Fire Festival has been helping our community celebrate the Fourth of July for 30 years. The River of Fire Festival is an all-day event held at Columbia Park. Activities begin at noon and include live music, a children’s area, and an assortment of vendors. This relaxing and enjoyable day will conclude with a beautiful display of fireworks from a barge in the Columbia River. The cost is only $8.00 per carload, which makes this an affordable gathering for the entire family.

Schedule highlights include an Opening Ceremony at 4:00 pm at the Columbia Park stage where Abraham Lincoln will be impersonated by Keith Deaton. Flags will be carried by the Sons of the American Revolution. Additional flags honoring our local fallen heroes will also be displayed. Live music by local bands will follow the opening ceremony and will perform until the fireworks celebration.

If you would like more information about the Patriotic Heritage Booth contact Susan Davis Faulkner at 509-554-1050 or denmother4@hotmail.com.

For more information about the River of Fire Festival go to https://cameoheightsmansion.com/blog/2016/05/river-of-fire-festival/

For more information about the Daughters of the American Revolution go to http://www.dar.org/

For more information about the Sons of the American Revolution go to https://www.sar.org/

For more information about the TriCity Genealogical Society go to http://www.tricitygenealogicalsociety.org/

###

Selecting Records to Research

By TCGS Member, Connie Estep

John Covey taught the May genealogy class which covered selecting records for your search. The first step is choosing a category of sources. The two main types are original sources (examples: birth certificates, city indexes, census) and compiled sources (examples: published family histories, periodicals). John provided a four page handout with many examples of original and compiled records. Click here to download a copy of the handout.

The next decision is to select the type of record. The handout has a list of different kinds of information with the types of records to search. From these select specific records, as you review them, make your notes on a research log.

Reference to research logs has come up in several of these classes. You can find a sample log at www.byub.org/ancestors/charts/pdf/researchlog.pdf. This one may be printed and filled in. There are several plusses to keeping a log. Most importantly, the log documents the source of the information. If you do not find the information you searched for in a source it’s a good idea to record that on your log also. By referring to your research log you can save valuable time in selecting records you have not looked at before.

Documents have different kinds of data. Usually a document will give the location of the event it is documenting. Depending on the event other information may also be on the document. My birth certificate gives my parents’ names, occupations, birthplaces, how many children my mother had before me and a reference to how many previous children of hers had died.

When beginning my family history search I started with Yakima city directories because a number of my relatives arrived in Yakima in the early 1900s. This let me gather the easiest information first. I didn’t keep a log, just made a list of my “hits”. Later I had to go through them again as I didn’t remember which names I had searched for unsuccessfully. The second time I took photos of each page with hits, and made notes of people I searched for unsuccessfully for each directory.  

For me this provided a great overview, including where family members lived, their jobs (and often employers), the names of their spouses, and sometimes if they paid county taxes. Since the directories often included county listings as well, I could see the ones farming in nearby communities.

The last section of this class was reference tools; this is a great section to review.  Political boundaries can change. A person born in our area in 1888 would have been an Oregon Territory resident, since Washington State wasn’t established until the next year. County boundaries can change as population fills in; Benton County was made from pieces of Yakima and Klickitat Counties in 1905. Gazetteers can help you find such changes. There are many other types of references listed as well.

The Beginning Genealogy classes are scheduled through December (except July and August) before monthly TCGS general meetings from 6:15-6:45 p.m. This third class was attended by 32 people and continues with a well thought out research plan.

Don't Forget Church Records

By TCGS Member, Connie Estep

Church records may be able to fill in our research blanks, especially since governments did not always require recordings of births, marriages, and deaths. Richard Kyle, Librarian and Resource Specialist for the Yakima Valley Genealogical Library, discussed on-line access to church records.

Church records vary by denomination and may include births, marriages, deaths, christenings, baptisms, and confirmations.  Sometimes they will have newsletters that could provide a more personal glimpse. Kyle recommended FamilySearch Wiki as a starting place. For U.S. church records go to familysearch.org/wiki/en/United_States_Church_Records. The Wiki is searchable by country and denominations. (In case you haven’t used it much, the Wiki has a treasure trove of genealogy help, from basic concepts to very specific details. It is well worth the time to get to know this site.) For many years the Catholic Church allowed the LDS Church access for copying records. They no longer allow this. Google is also a good place to search for church records.

Kyle also recommended cyndislist.com that many of us are familiar with, plus two I never heard. Gengophers.com he said has a faster interface than FamilySearch. The other one, MooseRoots.com, he also said was very fast. These are both free sites; MooseRoots requires registration and log-in. Both sites offer a paid subscription to avoid pop-up surveys.

Kyle also discussed searching U.S. Census records not yet indexed or for family members not showing up in indexes. Since the censuses are handwritten lists they can be hard to decipher. These lists were made by the census takers (enumerators); each enumerator had a district. To search the handwritten lists you need to know not only the city the person lived in but also the address or the general neighborhood to find the right enumeration district.

Both the National Archives federal census website (archives.gov/research/census) and the FamilySearch Wiki provide specific information (finding aids) to help your census research. I played around a bit with both archives.gov and the FS Wiki and found the Wiki was recently upgraded. If you have problems with the Wiki, try the federal site.

To record information from the hand written lists, Kyle recommended downloading census research forms and hand writing the information to make it easier to refer to. With each census the list of questions was usually changed somewhat.

Kyle also discussed resources of the Yakima Valley Genealogical Library (available for our free use).  Go to yvgs.net for more details. Fifty-one people attended this meeting.

It's A Wrap - Archived Document Contest Winners

This last year we have been entertained and amazed with various entries to the Archived Document Contest. The contest began 1 April 2015 and ended 31 March 2016. The goal of the contest was to prove that not all genealogical records are available online while simultaneously celebrating computerized genealogy.

The contest was open to the public. All that was needed to enter the Archived Document Contest was a scanned image of a document that was not found online. Individuals wanting to enter the contest uploaded these scanned images to the TriCity Genealogical Society Facebook page with an explanation of where the document was found and how it tied into the researcher’s family history.

Each month entries were bundled together and sent to a panel of judges. The judges reviewed each entry and selected one entry as that month’s winning entry. Prizes typically encouraged computerized genealogy and included digitized subscriptions to magazines like Internet Genealogy and Your Genealogy. Other prizes were subscriptions to online databases like Mocavo, Newspapers.com, and Fold3.

True celebration, however, came in the excitement of what was discovered by the documents that were found in offline repositories. As we read the entries we cheered for many tender facts that would not have been discovered by simple queries entered into large databases.

There were a total of 33 entries submitted. The majority of these documents came from family archives, but not necessarily the archives of the home. Many important documents came from collaboration efforts and were provided by relatives who were excited to share their treasures. Here is the breakdown of where documents were found that were submitted to the contest.

·        Family Archives - 13

·        Family History Library and Family History Centers – 9

·        Government records (city, county, and state) – 4

·        National and State Archives – 4

·        Local non-government agencies (funeral homes, museums) – 3

It is important to note the variety of repositories that held information shared in this contest. The Archived Document Contest showed us that when researching family history all of these repositories should be explored.  

All winning entries were automatically entered into a separate contest to determine the winner and runner-up for the full year. The first place prize was a one year subscription to Ancestry.com. A runner- up prize was a one year subscription to Find My Past.

The judging panel had a very difficult job in selecting the two winning entries from a collection of twelve entries that were already deemed superior. They did select Margie Stein Beldin’s entry submitted in April 2015 and Loren Schmid’s entry submitted in February 2016.

Margie Stein Beldin -
Archived Document Contest Winner

You can read Margie’s entry by going to http://tinyurl.com/MSBIreland or you can read the TCGS blog article about her entry at http://tcgs1961.blogspot.com/2015/05/archived-document-contest-april-winner.html. She shared with us her struggle of reading old handwriting found on a preprinted form. In her search she collaborated with other researchers, asked assistance from an expert genealogist, kept her research current by reading various publications, and emailed the National Archives. She never gave up and she was rewarded with her 2^nd great grandfather’s Declaration of Intent. She is also awarded a one year subscription to Ancestry.com. The judges felt that Margie had used many traditional research methods in order to fulfill her quest.

Loren Schmid -
Archived Document
Contest Runner-Up

Loren Schmid, on the other hand, won the runner-up prize for using more modern techniques. In his February 2016 entry he shared how DNA research opened up many doors. You can read his entry by going to blog article about her entry at http://tinyurl.com/zwo6l4k. There is a TCGS blog article about Loren’s entry at http://tcgs1961.blogspot.com/2016/03/susan-davis-faulkner-to-purchase.html. Loren shared with us the success that can be found by using DNA to find researchers to collaborate with. He also gave us wonderful examples of how collaboration can be enjoyed and reciprocated.   

Thank you to everyone that participated in this contest. Those that submitted entries helped us to learn from their success stories. A huge Thank You goes to our panel of judges. Their input was essential to the success of this contest. The Judges were Bill Floberg (Chairman), Mary Kay Walker, and Walt Wood.

2nd Genealogy Class: The Research Process, April 13, 2016

By TCGS Member, Connie Estep

Now that we have recorded all the family information we know, it’s time to begin the research process. With the wealth of information on the internet it is very easy to get sidetracked. That’s why we need a plan before we start. Instructor Margie Beldin provided a detailed outline for making that plan in her handouts available at the TCGS website (click here to go to the Education page).

Her advice is to work on one family at a time and include all family members, their friends, associates, and neighbors (the F.A.N. Club). Margie included a worksheet template for recording our research plans. Besides working on one family at a time, Margie says we should limit the research to one individual in the family and one specific question at a time. Here again this will keep our research from getting sidetracked on rabbit trails. She suggests we pick off the easiest objectives first.

A little time spent planning where to search can help this process. Margie provided a copy of the U.S. Record Selection Table with sources for life events. She brought a copy of the book The Source: A Guidebook of American Genealogy, Third Edition (the latest version) by Szucs & Luebking containing just under 1000 pages of resources. Both Richland and Kennewick Family History Centers have copies of this. Kennewick may have the latest version but Richland does not. Ancestry.com Family History Wiki has the latest version available to anyone.

It also helps to learn about records in the places your family members lived. The Ancestry.com Family History Wiki also has the Red Book: American State, County, and Town Sources. Red Book is organized by state and is very easy to use. It led me quickly to my mother’s California birth record (I knew the date and town) and the information that birth records were not kept in Kentucky when my father was born. The Kennewick F.H.C. also has the Red Book.

The research plan template in our handout is a place to record the family and person we will research and what we want to know about them. (Remember, one question at a time!) Adding the sources we want to check will make it easier to focus our research. I’ve found this especially helpful when I’m going to the Family History Center or to Yakima for research.

The Beginning Genealogy classes are scheduled through December (except July and August) before monthly TCGS general meetings from 6:15-6:45 p.m. This second class was attended by 26 people and gave me great ideas for my research. The 3^rd session of Beginning Genealogy will be on Recording and Sourcing. Don’t miss it!