MY DIFFICULT RESEARCH INTO A PENNSYLVANIA GERMAN IMMIGRANT FAMILY : STEP NINE : POST #5

Step nine : Looking for participation in the Civil War

Since the family was on the 1860 census I wondered if we might find relatives who fought in the Civil War who might have been part of the family in Germany-Prussia but did not appear to live in the same house as the immigrant nuclear family group. In other words, perhaps brothers of the head of household. Once again the focus is on discovering where in Germany-Prussia the immigrants left so that I could get into those records and go back further.

There were TWO, one in the same county, and one in a county over.

Using the National Archives and the State of Pennsylvania Archives as well as FamilySearch I was able to find the cards for these two men. The cards showed some basic information on them including that one of them filed for disabled status pension. The question was if there is more information held that these cards lead to and what information it might have.  There was no way to prove that these two men who fought in the Civil War were relatives.

One must pay for this information, per name. I was told there was no way to tell what, if anything, of value might come up.  Because this is speculative, the client is thinking about paying for it.

Posts in this series will be brought up using the label PA-GERM research path

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MY DIFFICULT RESEARCH INTO A PENNSYLVANIA GERMAN IMMIGRANT FAMILY : STEPS SIX and SEVEN and EIGHT: POST #4

THESE STEPS SHOW AN EXPANSION OF RESEARCH from the focus on the 1860 immigrant nuclear family in Berks.

Step 6 :  Considering the formation of Counties (Philadelphia).

Philadephia County History from the Pennsylvania Historical Society

Looking for other families with the same surname in the larger, historical county and general area (Eastern Pennsylvania).  

As the population grew and settlements grew, more cities were established and counties that were large were divided into smaller ones.  Historical and map research - along with another check at census and in databases such as Ancestry TM and FamilySearch TM were in order.

For instance, someone might say that the ancestors lived in Philadelphia and you might think of the city as it is now, but they might have meant the county named Philadelphia that was cut into three: Philadelphia, Chester, and Bucks. So though my client's immigrant ancestors appear on the 1860 in Bucks, some family members might have been in Chester or Philadelphia Counties.

NOTE THAT DATABASES ARE NOT USING PRESENT TERMS BUT PAST TERMS. So when they lived there is important. What if a child's parents were living in Philadelphia County but when the child was born, that same area was Bucks?

Step 7: Looking at Plat maps of those counties that are available.

When it comes to map that show early land owners (usually farmers) sometimes the surname will relate to other documents held in an archive, sometimes not, such as land sales and purchases or transfers or wills.  It would depend on when exactly that particular county kept these records and if they still exist. We are used to, in modern times, a certain exactitude and knowledge and obedience to the law that did not always exist back in the day when a handshake could be a contractual agreement. So though I might use a database first, what's on a Plat map might not link to what's in the database.

The term for this type of map is a Plat Map.  It shows how land is divided into lots. Some maps will show early roads and other geographical features such as lakes and rivers which may bear the names of these early residents or pioneers. Some are housed in the National Archives of the United States.

Step 8 : Looking at the census for surrounding counties.

However on the census of 1850 in the county one over I did find the surname and it appeared that it might have been a school or some sort of skill based workshop.  Why? Because the 1840 only records the head of household (assumed owner or renter of a building) and the statistical count - a group of males who are teenagers.  I think a master and his apprentices were at that location!

Will there be any way to associate this particular man with the same surname with the family that settles in Berks?  It shows the German surname in Eastern Pennsylvania at a time when it's possible that a family member was there but went uncounted. What if the boys are his sons?  Well the ages are so close.  What if one is a nephew or a son?  A tantalizing possibility.

(Sadly, this went unproven but it is in the report given to the client.)

Posts in this series will be brought up using the label PA-GERM research path

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All Rights Reserved including Internet and International Rights

A LOCAL HISTORICAL SUMMER VACATION! SPANISH AMERICAN HISTORY

I've been visiting historical sites. But I have to tell you that when I first moved to Southern California and met people who were born and raised here (people who seem to be in the minority) they told me that there was NO HISTORY HERE. 

How could that be?

Hadn't they been taught some American History or some local history in school?

So I set out to learn the history of California, of the South West, and of my local area on my own.  I toured adobe houses, missions,  museums, and learned about what had been torn down via books.  Now I revisit some of these places.

First there is the history of Spanish Mission building.  There is also the history of Native American Tribes: California had so many natural resources that it was an area of diverse tribal cultures.  Then there was the Rancherio period; Spanish Land Grants which were later divied up.

One of the most interesting things I learned was that during the Spanish Land Grant and Rancherio period, before there was that surge of immigration from the east coast west, a few explorers and adventurers made their way west.  Most of these people were men, they were often Scottish, and when they MARRIED INTO SPANISH FAMILIES THEY BECAME CATHOLIC AND SPANISHIFIED THEIR SURNAMES.

Over the next couple posts, I urge you to learn your local history, especially as it becomes your family history at one point or another!

MAPS MAKE YOUR STORY SPECIAL

The use of MAPS is essential to your genealogy and using them can help you bring life to your heritage story. This is a step that a lot of people like to skip, but I advise it. Now that there are so many maps on line you may not need to get to a real map library, but personally I like the hands-on of a map library, pulling out a drawer and having a look a a great old paper or paper-canvas map, and some university geography departments have great collections! 

YOU WANT TO FIND MAPS that represent the features of the place you are researching designed at the time that your ancestors were living there. And then compare with the newer maps. 

Today MAPQUEST and GOOGLE MAPS are two of my favorite on-line resources. Newer maps have an advantage in giving you the highways and directions for getting there by car, when you take a family history trip to the Old Country. You can speed down a highway that goes through three countries in a few hours, a trip that took weeks by horse in the good old days... But here are some interesting features I have found on old maps that helped me tell the story of an ancestor... 

Native American villages, Indian Reservations, National Parklands (recently established), hunting trails, wagon train trails, historical markers and monuments. Bridges, golf courses, schools, the Masonic lodge, and the post office - all gone now (now the town's a slum). Plat Maps (farms) in Pennsylvania, maps of Spanish land grants in California, maps of land grants to Civil War Soldiers, maps of land won in the Georgia land lottery (the Cherokee were moved away). Maybe most important Maps that show old counties and how they were divided through the years and illustrate compromises between state borders; these help you situate research in the current county that holds the old county's records. You get the idea, so now get that map! 

DEPRECIATION LANDS - WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?

Depreciation Lands? You may have seen this on old Plat Maps or a reference in a Land Grant, Will, or Historical text. (Link now to the Pittsburgh Pennsylvania historical library!) Back during the Revolutionary War, many soldiers were solicited with a promise. If the war was won against Britain, and the land became the property of the fledgling government, the soldiers who could not be paid while active would be paid by being given a tract of land. These lands were granted and are DEPRECIATION LANDS... You see DEPRECIATION LANDS in THE ORIGINAL COLONIES, particularly in "frontier" places like Western Pennsylvania. Now what I wonder is why they weren't called APPRECIATION LANDS!