QUESTIONS TO ASK YOUR RELATIVES ABOUT RELIGION AND SPIRITUALITY

I recall that my dad used to advised that, when visiting, to talk about the weather.  What he meant was that controversial subjects were to be avoided.  Politics...  Religion... Perhaps knowing that these subjects will spark debate - or worse, arguments - during a family get together is trouble and, sure, I wouldn't want you to create an uncomfortable situation at a gathering. But then he was of the Silent Generation, and the Silent Generation wasn't talking about a whole lot.  

Things have changed, at least in some places and sometimes.

I can say that it came as a relief to learn that my ancestors were of various Christian denominations, which I wouldn't have suspected based on my upbringing. In my heritage - and I only know this because of genealogy research I have Roman Catholics, Greek Catholics, Reform Protestants (Calvinists), Lutherans, and also, it seems - some would say this doesn't fit the religion category - a Mason.

And so maybe getting a conversation going with relatives about ancestral religious or spiritual beliefs starts with past rather than the present.

It could be that you can't find what you need in the church records of the assumed Faith because those ancestors were converts or belonged to another religion.  And got buried in a churchyard or Faith based cemetery. 

And it seems like everyone in past generations belonged to some church or temple or organization ...

QUESTIONS

Was John baptized?  Who were his godparents?

Did he take part in rituals such as Communion, Confirmation?

Did John belong to a church as a teenager, as an adult?  

Did he sing in a choir?  

Did he do volunteer work for the church? 

Was he devout?  Or Religious. (Did he consider becoming a priest or minister or monk?)

Did he change religions? If so, why and when?  (Some families simply went to the closest church, wherever they moved to. Perhaps John was in a cult?) 

Did he get married in a church? How was it decided where he would marry?

Did he have children? Were they raised in a religion?  (This might bring up some different responses if the marriage was a "mixed marriage."  For instance, perhaps the children were allowed to join a different church or make up their own minds about spirituality as adults, 

Where is he buried? (Is this a Faith based cemetery?) or was he cremated?  Where are his ashes?

These questions can always spark a departure in the conversation. Back when I took Anthropology 101, it was noted that the definition of religion was "a way of life." Life in America has changed. Regular attendance at church services was normal for many people prior to the changes of the 1960's. Today many have decided that church is not for them.  As genealogists, we are looking for church records in addition to or instead of civil records to find our ancestors.

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IF YOU or AN ANCESTOR WERE MEMBERS OF LATTER DAY SAINTS THERE IS A 1960 CHURCH CENSUS as well as 1914, 1920, 1925, 1930, 1935, 1940, 1950, 1955

This is a census of the members...

FAMILYSEARCH CHURCH CENSUS  This is an information page and will bring up some data but you'll have to go into your FamilySearch account to go further.

Excerpt: Church census records include censuses for the years 1914, 1920, 1925, 1930, 1935, 1940, 1950, 1955, and 1960. Included with the 1914-1935 census are some delayed birth certificates which originated in the Church Historian's Office and a few Salt Lake Granite Stake genealogical survey cards. The records are arranged alphabetically by the head of the household. Microfilm of original records in the LDS Church Historian's Office, Salt Lake City, Utah.

Church records are kept by many denominations. For instance for Roman Catholics the records are usually in the Diocese archives. And church records are usually of baptisms, marriages, and deaths, while sometimes there are also records of Confession, Communion, and Confirmation, as well as Converts

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HOW TO DEAL WITH SURNAME MYSTERIES #3 THE RATHER RECENT NOTION OF SURNAMES : AFRICAN AMERICAN - BLACK

HOW TO DEAL WITH SURNAME MYSTERIES  #3  THE RATHER RECENT NOTION OF SURNAMES  :  AFRICAN AMERICAN - BLACK

Some people are telling me that using the term "Black" is now correct rather than African-American. Well....  all things being not equal...

I know that European-American is the equal of the term African-American but in the United States anyway, we have a very mixed society. I feel as if the term Black (or White) is actually general and assumes much based on a visual interpretation of someone's body. 

To learn what specific country or tribe one's ancestors left perhaps a DNA test is what to do. For today, using these tests, a person can say they are Nigerian-American... 

Using traditional genealogy, the find of archival documents, I've helped more than one person discover their American slave ancestors. But in one case we learned their Black ancestors were not slaves at all but were "People of Color" who came free and into New Orleans. 

We cannot assume that every person we encounter whose skin is of a darker shade has African roots, or if they self identify as Black, that they are of slave ancestry.  And as for Reparations, we cannot assume every person's roots were in Slave-America.

A person needs to ask themselves WHY they are doing genealogy. There are very many reasons why. If meeting people you are genetically related to is the reason, you no longer have to totally rely on documents held in archives. If you are preparing for Reparations, well I suspect a DNA test will be required plus the genealogy. 

African-American slaves...  on records in the United States, rarely are listed by names recorded in Farm Books or census. Slave Schedules on the 1850 and 1860 Federal United States Census offer statistics. But then, early census in the U.S. also only listed the head of household and statistics. Sometimes on contracts for buying or selling of slaves people are named. There has been some inference that when a White slave-owner does list the names, it is equal to recognizing those people as his genetic children. That assumption may be going too far. 

The Library of Congress has the largest collection of interest to those researching African slave ancestors. In addition, Slave Narratives, taken by writers employed by the Works Project Administration re President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, is held by many libraries. Recently on YouTube I found some RECORDED slave narratives! 

As for surnames, after liberation, some ex slaves did take the name of the slave-owner - the estate they lived on, without being genetically related to an owner...

But I think for the purposes of this post we need to go to the fact that most enslaved people did not go on record on U.S. census - and other documents - as having surnames until they were freed.  We have some incorrect notions about what happened when being free was official as well, as history and genealogy has proven this depended very much on individual situations, places and dates. We may know that slaves wanted to escape, wanted their freedom, and some managed to do this because of the Underground Railroad, but others had no idea what was next for them. Slavery was an economic system and the slave was tied financially to the slave holder, but emancipation did not always or automatically mean that the now free person was going to leave the homestead or plantation, not right away anyway. They needed to find viable employment and a place to live. To pack up and leave on foot on short notice to nowhere?

For many reasons people like to stay put. Our economic situation in large cities right now is typical.  Many people have become homeless because they can no longer afford to live where they have for years but they are not moving out of their home turf. They have no urge to leave a place they have become accustomed to, where they feel connected, where they know some people, how to get around, and where to find what they need.  

Not everyone wanted to leave a warm climate for a cold one. How do you know for sure that moving to a northern city will be a positive move? Point is, Emancipation came. The day came in which a person who never earned an income - or a viable one - but who had at least a rudimentary roof over their head, clothes on their back, and food in their stomach, was going to have to find some other way to earn money, a living, and pay for these things. Some slave owners did decide to go ahead and pay their ex-slaves or let people remain on the property. The Big Plantation existed but believe it or not most Slave Owners had only one or two and sometime the Slave lived in the house with the family.

As slaves did not have the right to property such as land or have money in a bank account until they were freed, the Freedmans Bureau created the first place for them to do that, the Freedmans Bank. Unfortunately, this bank didn't last and was only in operation for a short while.

The Freedmans Bank records I've used are rather limited, but I've found some valuable information in them because the person's name was unusual, or the person had not moved from where they had a bank account and were also on census. 

Freed people were told they could choose their own surname.

Though once enslaved, many chose the name of a President of the United States, such as Jefferson or Washington, though they were not slave owned by these men. 

THERE WAS NO LEGAL REASON WHY ANY ONE PERSON HAD TO ACCEPT OR USE a SURNAME meaning that members of the same family could choose different surnames or a person could try out a surname and decide on a different one. This is a research obstacle that one can sometimes not surmount, though I've had some great luck along with determination to find more information on people's ancestors who were once slaves. You may have to do some of the most dogged but incredibly interesting research that goes well beyond what databases can offer. 

I find that information held by churches can be valuable in this quest. Also carefully inspect death, birth, and marriage certificates for any notes that might have been made. I've found mention of a person's previous surname, not related to earlier marriage, in a few of these documents. When you find the name of a Slave-Owner or ex-Slave Owner, you may want to look for any legal documents such as land purchases and wills in order to learn more. Some of these landowners had land in more than one locality but, especially if they were rich and had many slaves, they may also be mentioned in local histories.

The African-American - Black way in contemporary times is to invent and create interesting and unusual given names, almost as if the surname is not so special. It's because of these given special names that I've been lead to some useful information. 

This post is one of a series on the subject.  Click on the tag Surname Help - AWG to get to the posts.

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DEDUCTIVE REASONING in GENEALOGY - NARROWING DOWN THE AGE OF DEATH TO FIND THE RECORD

Now that I've had my big breakthrough in my Polish line research, I've easily gone back a few generations but records I focused upon and would like very much remain missing or undiscovered. They are yet to be indexed for sure.  I've not found that the death records have much to offer in identifying who the dead person was married to. The death records seem to be the least indexed as well.

TO FOCUS and potentially reduce the time spent on looking for records page by page here is what I do.

I look at the marriages of the children.  If there have been two - three - four - marriages, I look at the marriages of the children from those marriages too because in these records there is a notation about each partner's heritage.  If possible start with the first married child and work forward in time.  If it says the parent is p.d. (parent deceased) you'll know that at the date of that wedding, that parent is dead.  Or both are.

ie. Jan's marriage  1835 parents both alive

     Marianna's marriage 1838 note that her father is diseased

      Sophia's marriage 1843 note that both parents are deceased.  

Therefore I know that I need to look from 1838 to 1835 for the death of these children's father.  And from 1843 to 1838 for the death of these children's mother.

QUESTION : WHAT CAN I USE TO SUBSTITUTE FOR A BIRTH CERTIFICATE I CAN'T FIND SO I CAN APPLY FOR SOCIAL SECURITY FOR MY GRANDMA? : QUESTIONS FROM READERS of ANCESTRY WORSHIP - GENEALOGY

Question for ANCESTRY WORSHIP GENEALOGY

Grandma was born in a foreign country and has no birth certificate. She doesn't know where she was born. She came here as a small child and doesn't know for sure if her parent's were naturalized. To be honest, we are not sure how old she really is. She might have been adopted informally - brought over with relatives. She doesn't drive. She doesn't vote. Grandpa had his own business. We don't know if he paid taxes or what. None of this was a problem until, reckoning she's 65, we decided to help her apply for Social Security. How can we document Grandma?

Answer: If Grandpa had his own cash business and never paid into Social Security or didn't pay into the program long enough, Grandma may not be eligible! Have you asked Social Security? Does Grandpa or Grandma have a Social Security number? If so there must be some record of him and her, so my guess is she does not. I would check on grandpa and a legal marriage first.

OK. I would try using church or temple records, some evidence of her having a child who was born and baptized long ago, her wedding record, something like that. Social Security used to accept this kind of evidence that a person was old enough to mother or father, but these days who knows just how old is considered old enough! Pull up census records and anything else you can to BUILD A TIME LINE full of evidence of Grandma's life.

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