NEW AUTOMATIC "SELECTIVE SERVICE" DRAFT REGISTRATION : OLD DRAFT REGISTRATIONS ARE VALUABLE GENEALOGY LINKS

CNBC New Draft Laws Starting Dec 2026

Oh, this change brings up so much history -

Not registering in the first place was one of the ways that some chose to evade being involved in war. Unpopular wars, wars not defined as wars or not officially declared, religious membership and non-violent lifestyles, and yes, the question of women's participation, all come to mind. There was no official involuntary service in the Revolutionary War because there was not yet a government of the United States and militia were voluntary and as for the Civil War, that's controversial too.

LETS LOOK AT THE HISTORY OF REGISTERING FOR THE MILITARY DRAFT (rather than voluntarily signing up for participation) IN THE UNITED STATES.

THERE WAS NO "SELECTIVE SERVICE" - DRAFT UNTIL WORLD WAR I

The SELECTIVE SERVICE ACT WAS passed on May 18, 1917, authorized the federal government of the United States of America to draft men for military service after voluntary enlistments for World War I proved insufficient, ultimately registering millions of American men between the ages of 18 and 45 in three waves.

REGISTRATION DID NOT and DOES NOT MEAN THE PERSON WILL BE DRAFTED TO SERVE.

The reason the Civil War enrollment is controversial is that this seems to apply to those to serve the Union, which won the war. An excerpt regarding the Civil War: No organized selection process. Those selected could pay cash in lieu of service, or hire substitutes. Induction was accomplished by district enrollment boards.

SELECTIVE SERVICE TIME LINE US GOV

I consider the most valuable of these draft registrations for most Americans researching at this point, is the World War I draft registration.  Many "industrial age" immigrants who arrived in the late 1800's and early 1900's registered for this draft, WHICH DID NOT REQUIRE A MAN BE A CITIZEN OF THE UNITED STATES. Often the man registering will state the date they entered the United States and where they were born, revealing the name of the town where you can look for church records.

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MEMORIAL DAY

In 1890 every state in the United States (then in the Union) adopted MEMORIAL DAY to honor those who lost their lives in the service of the United States Military.  Since then service members may have their service noted on their tombstone or have markers placed by local veterans' groups.

Here is the link to the VA where a description of headstones, markers, and medallions, is given. National Cemetery Administration Headstones, Markers, and Medallions

Read about the no-cost benefits for veterans.

SLAVE SOLDIERS FIGHTING FOR THE CONFEDERACY IN THE CIVIL WAR

Imagine being a slave and being told you will go to war, the Civil War, for the Confederacy, by the person who owns you! If a researcher finds that their ancestors who was enslaved was in the war, they may wonder "did he see action?"

The answer, generally but emphatically, is NO.  Confederate law prohibited it.  Yet, there were reports that this was so. And, there was always the possibility that a person who was forced to follow the troops as a cook or another useful supportive role could use that opportunity to escape or go north and join the Union Army! There is also another consideration. What if the person was a Free Person of Color and then joined up?

So, some of the things a researcher wants to do is to verify which company/troop the person fought in. Check the census or other records to see if that person reports being disabled or is not working for money after the war. Also see where they are living after that war. 

AMERICAN BATTLEFIELD TRUST : BLACK CONFEDERATES - TRUTH Excellent article!

Excerpt: Many Southern slaves took advantage of the fog of war to escape towards freedom. Before the Emancipation Proclamation was officially adopted, these escapes usually meant congregating around the Union armies that were operating in Southern territory. Vast columns of escaped slaves followed almost every major Union army at one point or another. These people, sometimes called “contrabands,” as in “confiscated enemy property,” frequently served as scouts and spies for the Union soldiers. 

...There were no black Confederate combat units in service during the war and no documentation whatsoever exists for any black man being paid or pensioned as a Confederate soldier, although some did receive pensions for their work as laborers.

... To be specific, in the “Official Records of the War of the Rebellion,” a collection of military records from both sides which spans more than 50 volumes and more than 50,000 pages, there are a total of seven Union eyewitness reports of black Confederates.

***

BUT THERE WAS AN EXCEPTION FOR A LITTLE WHILE

NATIONAL PARK SERVICE : ARMING THE ENSLAVED

Excerpt: Near 21st and Main Street in Richmond, Virginia, the first legally authorized African American Confederate soldiers were assembled and trained in the final weeks of the Civil War. Legislation passed by the Confederate congress on March 13, 1865, allowed for enslaved African Americans to be mustered and equipped on an experimental basis as combat soldiers. Before that date (less than a month before the end of hostilities in Virginia), Confederate law specified that only white men were permitted to serve as soldiers....

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FREEDMEN'S MARRIAGE BUREAU RECORDS 1846-1867 : USING THE ANCESTRY TM GENEALOGY DATABASE : LET THIS FUEL YOUR HISTORICAL RESEARCH!

I've posted about the Freedman * Bank Records before, but did you know that the Freedman Bureau also kept a record of former slaves (and some "free colored") who married soon after they were free from enslavement? 

In the past I've also posted on some methodology for African-American research, stating first of all it is American research and one ought to proceed with going back as neatly as possible, using census records, both federal and state, if possible. If a researcher can find their people on the census after liberation, they have some names. Other than that, there may be some oral history in the family but one must be careful to accept stories without some proofing. Our African-American cautionary tale is that upon liberation, a person could choose to change their surname and some did more than once, wanting to feel comfortable with that surname, and sometimes various family members chose various names. That said, I wonder how often that happened.

I explored this database for a few hours recently and want to give you some information that may be helpful.

So for the purposes of this post I'm using the Ancestry TM genealogy database. To find the database called Freedman Bureau Marriage Records you want to go into NEW COLLECTIONS (WHICH ACTUALLY ALLOWS YOU TO SEARCH THE ENTIRE CATALOG, not just recently added collections. You will see to the top left the words CARD CATALOG.) Put the word Freedman in the keyword search. You will see that you can search the  U.S.,Freedman's Bureau Records, 1865-1878

Then to the right bottom it says U.S., Freedmen's Bureau Marriage Records 1845-1867 

Remember that the NATIONAL ARCHIVES of THE UNITED STATES is usually the original or primary source for databases.

While the other records held in the overall records can be interesting, because if you may be able to find out who a plantation owner was, I like to focus on marriages because you have twice the chance of recognizing someone as an ancestor - a bride or a groom.  This may give you the name of a female ancestor by her married and maiden name.

My first impression was that I was able to easily pull up records without knowing any particular name simply by putting in the state. I also tried common names such as Smith, Watson, or Jefferson.

The database includes many states including, according to the database:
Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. NOTE THAT WEST VIRGINIA DID NOT YET EXIST so Virginia included what is now West Virginia and South Western Pennsylvania below the Monongahela River. However, I think you will find that this does not mean ALL THE INFORMATION EVER COLLECTED IN EACH STATE but that in some way that state is represented in the collection.

We can learn from exploring the database, even if we do not have an ancestor who was enslaved or are unsure of who was.

For instance, there may be questions such as if a person lived with another (without marriage) and for how long, how they were separated (dead, forced, separated by war, sold away), and the skin color of parents, partners, and others (mulatto, black, dark, white, yellow, milk.) Unlike the census in which a census taker might make the decision to list a person's color as they see it or because of community notions, in this case the person themselves is probably reporting parents who are not in attendance. In some cases the percentage of African- Black a person was given.  The persons who are marrying may be asked how many children they had with others and you might find a comment that they 'unitedly had children.' Once in a while the name of a former partner may come up.

THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND : The records were kept where the marriage was performed.

Just as many people who are part of the LBGT community rushed to be married as soon as it was legal to, many formally enslaved people who had been partnered without marriage rushed to be married.  It is not unusual to find that a particular Minister of the Gospel married twelve couples in one day. Perhaps your research can include the name of the Minister which might lead to the name of a church, church records, even church graveyard records.

Even when the couple appear on a register, rather than an individual slip of paper or form (not standardized from one state to the next), their ages are usually listed. These are adults who were generally born twenty or more years earlier. I found one record that said both persons were "free people of color" and I wondered if that meant "last week' or 'all along.'

As well, some of these forms or handwritten documents ask where the person is from. There may be the name of a place other than where the marriage took place. But you may just find a fantastic clue that the man served in the military, and most likely that means in the CIVIL WAR on the Confederate side!  If you see a line of abbreviations such as Pot. Co. C. 60 *** where it could say the name of a town or county or plantation, that means you were just given the company/troop information. You can then find what battles they might have served in...

In my next post, I'm going to write about the Black soldiers who fought for the Confederacy.

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* (I'm aware that the bank records seem to have the Freedman spelling while the other records are in plural, Freedmen.)

STATE CENSUS ADVENTURE ! #1 WHAT STATE CENSUS ARE AVAILABLE SINCE THE 1890 IS MOSTLY GONE?

Over the years many people have asked me how to start their research but also, some have come to me because they are blocked in their research.  It happens to me too but I love trying to figure out how to break that block or go around it and am often successful. Often it's simply knowing how to find the resources. - Christine

You may know the saying "The United States Census (meaning FEDERAL) is the BACKBONE of AMERICAN GENEALOGY."  While we wait and wait and wait for the 72 years that must pass before the 1960 census is revealed (April 1, 1960) to the public for the first time because we DO respect privacy (back in the day when privacy rights were understood as rights very few people lived past 72 years old) we can look back on previous census...

It's true that the FEDERAL CENSUS is the BACKBONE... though the 1890 barely exists... But it depends on what state and county you're researching too. The very LAST United States STATE CENSUS WAS IN 1985, and in Massachusetts. 

State census' certainly can help "fill the gap" when the 1890 census that you need is missing forever. 

So first, let's go to the NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF THE UNITED STATES for the definitive statement about what happened and what still exists! 

Here is the general consensus on that 1890! : fragments (that offer only a small percentage of the original data) are surviving for specific counties and townships in the states of Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, South Dakota, and Texas, plus a special schedule for Civil War veterans and widows. 

NATIONAL ARCHIVES RESEARCH CENSUS This is in more detail...

Excerpt: On January 10, 1921, a fire in the Commerce Department building, Washington, DC, resulted in the destruction of most of the 1890 census, to the woe of researchers ever since.

***

If you're researching KENTUCKY or OKLAHOMA you have half a chance! But, interestingly, the census of CIVIL WAR widows and some items of interests to Native Americans and African Americans are available. Forget WEST VIRGINIA! There has never been a state census in that state!

***

This is going to be a SERIES of POSTS and so I'm going to designate a TAG that will (eventually) bring them ALL up!

The TAG WILL BE  "STATE CENSUS ADVENTURE"

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VISITING THE SECOND OLDEST CEMETERY IN LOS ANGELES : HISTORICAL WILMINGTON CEMETERY : MY THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS AS A GENEALOGIST

I was recently able to visit the second oldest cemetery in Los Angeles, in Wilmington, California which is in the South Bay area not far from the Port of Los Angeles (which is the Ports of San Pedro and Long Beach).

WILMINGTON CEMETERY

People had begun decorating for the Day of the Dead celebration there with marigolds and other flowers and vibrant decorations. There are some fairly recent burials and a good number of them are of Hispanic people, likely Roman Catholic.  Many of these gravestones have images - be they photos or some new etching technology - of the person or the couple - who are buried.  It is my idea that some families are adding their loved ones to graves that have been in the family a while.

But more on the burials in a bit.

This is a flat gravestone cemetery and from the signage I had no idea how large it really is until I got into it. It's a square of land with some old trees not far from the railroad tracks with some of the containers that came on ships to the harbor visible.

It was established in 1857 by Phineas Banning. That means that it was in existence before Phineas Banning built his large house across the way in 1864. There are some very old burials there.

HISTORICAL MARKER DATABASE - WILMINGTON

Excerpt: It is the oldest active graveyard in Los Angeles. Pioneer families buried here include Banning, Carson, and Sepulveda. There are 37 Civil War veterans, and soldiers from the Spanish-American War and from the Normandy D-Day invasion.

***

This is the cemetery used by some of the Bannings who lived in the Banning House. Which is a ten minute walk away in a beautiful well-kept park. 

The Banning family had a number of children who died as babies buried there.  And a wife who died relatively young.  A William Banning has a grave stone that states that he was born in Wilmington, Delaware in 1841 and died in Wilmington, California in 1891. Yes, Wilmington in California was named after the town in Delaware and the Bannings started out as Yankees, which might have everything to do with Phineas siding with the Union for the Civil War.

BANNING HOUSE - THE BANNING MUSEUM 

Excerpt: Phineas Banning—entrepreneur, the founder of the city of Wilmington, and “the Father of the Port of Los Angeles”—built the 23-room residence in 1864. Subsequent generations lived in it until 1925; in 1927 the residence, stagecoach barn, and the surrounding 20 acres of parkland were acquired by the City of Los Angeles.

***

It also not far from the Civil War Barracks which Phineas Banning donated to the Union Army during the Civil War.  DRUM BARRACKS ORG

The Drum Barracks has an archive but my experience with that was that they would prefer you do your research elsewhere since much or all of the archive is duplicated elsewhere.  Information I sent a few years ago was also not acknowledged. 

According to one of the employees of the Wilmington Cemetery, the land there used to be water wells for the merchants during Banning's time.

I spent about an hour walking around the memorials.  It is said that there are over 9000 burials there. Certainly it did not seem so, and there were areas where there were no gravestones at all.

To my reader-genealogy researchers, please remember this is the case with many cemeteries and one should not entirely rely on grave-stone databases. If you suspect or know that an ancestor was buried in a cemetery contact that cemetery for information. It helps if you have the death certificate that states the burial took place there, or a funeral home record.

I did not take photos of any of the graves, which I think of as disrespectful.

One of the most interesting was a small slab that announced the death of a one month old Japanese or Japanese-American baby.  

There is a street in Wilmington called Opp. Opp burials included someone born in 1848 who died in 1906. I imagine they may have had some land - a farm.

There is at least one 'died in Korea' marker, some that indicate World War II took their man, and a couple that indicated that the person had served in a state militia or reserve.  Last Memorial Day (2025) a local boy scout troop provided a memorial with the names of local men who had served their country.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if there were no longer wars on this earth?  (As I told a good friend of mine the other day who said "that won't happen," then I would like to be reincarnated on a better planet.)

The babies and children who died long ago made me think of vaccinations and what a difference they have made. Anyone who has seen the archival documents that reveal the babies and children who died of childhood diseases, the adults who died of TB, and the townsfolk who died of various 'plague' must know that.

Besides Mexican or Hispanic burials there were also some surnames that were Germanic or Italian or English.  I don't often visit cemeteries, but I'm intrigued by the art and design of some stones and try to imagine what ornate ones must have cost when they were made. There were a good number of Masonic symbols on graves in this cemetery.

I like to find not just the oldest burials but burials of those who got a long life out of this one. Here's a little name dropping. LIPKING 1822-1909, COATES died 1914 at 71 years old, OPP 1848-1906.

I have come to hate Halloween for all the gore and horror and fright and violence it now celebrates. We actually do not need to be exposed to more violence or participate in that. I'm into the acknowledgement of those who came before us though.  This is why, though I have no Hispanic or Mexican heritage, I'm more likely to contribute to a celebration such as Day of the Dead.  

Christine

ALLEN COUNTY INDIANA LIBRARY : ACPL GENEALOGY CENTER OFFERINGS : AFRICAN AMERICAN GATEWAY

ALLEN COUNTY GENEALOGY CENTER : AFRICAN AMERICAN RESEARCH 

There is a lot to find here about African Americans in the United States but the list of other countries intrigues me:

Africa Bahamas Barbados Bermuda Brazil British Isles Canada

Caribbean Cuba England Europe France Grenada Haiti

Ireland Jamaica Latin America Liberia Mexico Netherlands Norway

Oceania Philippines Sierra Leone South Africa West Africa West Indies

I clicked on Sierra Leone and discovered that some Black people were loyalists to England and can be linked to Nova Scotia. I went back and clicked on the subject of RECONSTRUCTION. Up comes a list of books that focus on the Freedman's Bureau as well as politics.

Definity explore these offerings!

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LIFE IN THE 1800's YOUTUBE STATION : PRESERVED TESTIMONIALS OF PEOPLE BORN IN THE 1800's

LIFE IN THE 1800's YOU TUBE STATION is my number one choice because it features film and audio of real people who were born in the 1800's. I was quite amazed that some of these films existed as filming then was far more expensive than it is now.

I hope these films will inspire you to do some of your own testimonials; interview on film or just let people talk.  

Titles include Civil War soldiers talking about fighting in the civil war, Bertrand Russel talking about his grandfather meeting Napoleon, once enslaved people talking about slavery,  a pardoned train robber, a witness to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, the Wild Wild West and many more simply fascinating accounts.

LIFE IN THE 1800's YOU TUBE STATION : Day after Lincoln's Assassination  By going to this link you will be taken to the video and be able to go to other videos on the station.  Advertising exists on the videos.

Photographer Born In 1843 Talks About the Wild West - American Homesteaders

QUESTION FOR YOU!  DOES THIS INSPIRE YOU TO RECORD YOUR OWN TESTIMONIALS FOR YOUR DESCENDENTS?

Posts like this one can be found by clicking on the label YouTube Station Recommend

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HOW DOES SHE FIND THE NAME OF THE SLAVES WHO MIGHT BE HER ANCESTORS? SHE HAS THE NAME OF THE SLAVE OWNER! (A BIT OF A TUTORIAL!)

Q

Hi AW!  I've got the name of the slave owner. How do I find the names of the slaves he owned, which I think includes a line of my ancestry?

Hannah

A 

I'm impressed Hannah; I'm going to believe you without knowing how you found the name of the slave owner, and for the purposes of this answer, for the sake of other readers of Ancestry Worship - Genealogy BlogSpot, I'm going to go over some aspects of African-American genealogy research.

First, it's American research. So, do your UNITED STATES CENSUS work as far back as you can. Something I used to do all the time with microfilm, and I think we should still do in databases, is to examine the pages of the census for the surrounding area when we find a family group - just to see if there are others local who might have the same surname or be related. So forward and back, please!

The first United States census in which the freed slaves are named is 1870, which was after the Civil War. Until then people other than the head of household (Be that free or not) were counted as statistics and names were not given. But if you can find the family on the 1870 you probably already have the names of some people who were in slavery in the location. (If by chance any of your ancestors fell into the category of Free, you may be able to go back by comparing the people on the 1870 with those statistics re living in the same area and same head of household as well.)

Do the census work for the SLAVE OWNER if you find one - and any legal documents pertaining to them and their family regarding inheritance.

A caution when using databases. Often I skip the question of race or color as I think this has been subjective. I will note it, but it may not be the same answer for the same person as the decades go by.  (B - Black.  N - Negro.  M - Mulatto (mixed race). W - White.)

Check the FREEDMAN BANK RECORDS just in case. I personally have not had a whole lot of luck with these but I have once or twice had a breakthrough - because the persons had unusual and consistent names. 

My photo of part of the exhibit which is a display in a hallway.

YOU MAY WANT TO VISIT THE LOS ANGELES PUBLIC LIBRARY - CENTRAL "DOWNTOWN" TO SEE A SMALL BUT WELL DONE EXHIBIT ABOUT THE FREEDMAN BANK RECORDS. It was put together by librarians from the Genealogy and Economics departments and is in a hallway.

OK so... IF YOU HAVE THE NAME OF THE SLAVE OWNER and the NAME or/and LOCATION of the farm, plantation, or place of residence for the slaves, CHECK THE LOCAL HISTORY to see if there is any mentions. Is there a biography of the slave owner, for instance? A biography might lead you to more information about the slave owner and who his or her relatives are: Wills or Bills of Sale may have more information.

Check to see if there are any genealogy groups local to that area, especially with African-American focus. (At the same time be careful to discern what "oral history" and archival documents or support documents there are.)

Check to see if there are any existing local newspapers and how far back they go, likely news that may apply will mention the slave owner.

But to be more focused on your question THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES brags that it has the largest collection relating to the African- American experience.

Also check SLAVE NARRATIVES. https://www.loc.gov/collections/slave-narratives-from-the-federal-writers-project-1936-to-1938/about-this-collection/

Excerpt: Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938 contains more than 2,300 first-person accounts of slavery and 500 black-and-white photographs of former slaves. These narratives were collected in the 1930s as part of the Federal Writers' Project (FWP) of the Works Progress Administration, later renamed Work Projects Administration (WPA). At the conclusion of the Slave Narrative project, a set of edited transcripts was assembled and microfilmed in 1941 as the seventeen-volume Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States from Interviews with Former Slaves. In 2000-2001, with major support from the Citigroup Foundation, the Library digitized the narratives from the microfilm edition and scanned from the originals 500 photographs, including more than 200 that had never been microfilmed or made publicly available. This online collection is a joint presentation of the Manuscript and Prints and Photographs divisions of the Library of Congress.

I'm going to this link https://guides.loc.gov/manuscripts-illustrated-guide/african-american-history

Excerpt: The Manuscript Division has one of the nation's most valuable collections for the study of African-American history and culture. The Library's holdings include information about slavery and the slave trade as well as other aspects of plantation life. Papers of slaveholders provide one view of slavery, and slave narratives give another. Diaries and journals further illuminate lives spent in slavery and freedom. The manuscripts of black and white abolitionists such as Frederick Douglass and Salmon P. Chase describe the efforts of those who attempted to alleviate the plight of slaves, and the records of the American Colonization Society detail the saga of African Americans who left the United States and established the West African nation of Liberia in the mid- nineteenth century. Papers relating to black participation and victimization in the Civil War abound, and African-American history during Reconstruction is reflected in collections pertaining to newly elected black officials such as John Mercer Langston, Blanche K. Bruce, Hiram R. Revels, and Francis L. Cardozo.

https://www.loc.gov/item/mm82057687/#:~:text=Correspondence%2C%20speeches%2C%20writings%2C%20court,during%20the%20American%20Civil%20War. This is the link to the Black History Collection. (I'm aware that Black is a preferred term these days, but for the purposes of our research we search for a collection title as it was when it came into being and we will encounter other terms we may not like as well.)

Correspondence, speeches, writings, court records, slave records, slave deeds, emancipation and manumission papers, birth and marriage records, wills, family and genealogical papers, military records, financial records, ships' papers, broadsides, newspaper clippings, printed matter, and other papers pertaining to African Americans from the colonial period through the early twenty-first century. Subjects include the slave trade, slaves, medical care of slaves, fugitive slaves, abolition, emancipation, manumission, freed persons, civil rights, political rights and suffrage, and military service, in particular, during the American Civil War.

THERE ARE OTHER COLLECTIONS AT THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES THAT MAY BE OF VALUE, but again, don't forget the more local resources, and that includes the small libraries in small towns and historical society collections!

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UNDERGROUND RAILROAD QUILT CODES

SMITHSONIAN FOLK LIFE MAGAZINE : UNDERGROUND RAILROAD QUILT CODES 

Did slaves and Underground Railroad participants set out quilts that were maps to freedom, signals that it was a good time to leave, or that a particular house was a safe house on the way to Ohio Territory?

Patterns:

Bow Tie - Dress in disguise to appear of higher status.

Bear Paw - Follow an animal trail through the mountains to find water and food.

Log Cabin - Seek shelter now, the people here are safe to speak with.

Drunkards Path - Zig Zag as you go along incase you are being stalked by houndes.

Double Wedding Ring - It's now safe to remove chains and shackles. 

 *** This article suggests that the book about the codes, a popular book that I read years ago, is controversial... 

Well, I believe it.  I loved this book!

TRAVELS WITH GEORGE : PRESIDENT WASHINGTON'S BARGE - THE GREETING IN NEW YORK : ABOUT THE STATUE OF LIBERTY

Excerpt and Notes: Page 43-34  (Washington goes by barge to New York from New Jersey and his presidential barge is  greeted by a flotilla....

"... This forty-five foot open boat featured an awing and cushions and was towed by thirteen oarsmen dressed in white.  Washington was accompanied in the barge by a group of dignitaries...  But the New Yorkers were just getting started....

(There was singing - groups of singers - greatly effecting the President.)

Suddenly the waters surrounding the barge erupted into foam.  "At this moment a number of porpoises came playing amongst us, as if they had risen up to know what was the cause of all this joy." But the most impressive sight was still to come as the barge continued its advance toward the New York City waterfront.  "We now discovered the shores crowded with thousands of people.  Men, women, children.  Nay I may venture to say tens of thousands; from the fort to the place of landing although near a half a mile, you could see little else along the shores in the streets and on board every vessel but heads standing as thick as ears of corn before the harvest."  (quoting Boudinot)

(Still, this display just made Washington more anxious about his new role and how he might please the people.)

Excerpt: (Author Nathaniel Philbrick and his wife go to Battery Park - where the Statue of Liberty is.)

... "And yet we did see quite enough: The Statue of Liberty looming above the water, her oxidized copper skin darkened with verdigris  I had always thought the statue depicted the goddess of liberty standing proudly with her gilded torch held high --a welcoming beacon of hope for the millions of immigrants bound for nearby Ellis Island throughout much of the twentieth century.  But once our boat, appropriately named Liberty, had taken us to the landing spot on the south side of the island. I could see that, no, the goddess was not standing still;she was striding forward, the broken shackles of a chain at her feet.

The Statue of Liberty, I soon learned, had been inspired by the abolition of slavery during the Civil War.  A gift from France, it had been left to the Americans to raise the money for the statue's 150 fott-high- pedestal.  Fund raising had lagged until the newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer appealed to the readers of the New York World and raised a significant portion of the required fields.  The Statue of Liberty was finally dedicated in 1886."

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AUTRY WESTERN HERITAGE MUSEUM - CIVIL WAR and the WEST - EMPIRE and LIBERTY

THE AUTRY - OFFICIAL SITE

Just went to see a terrific exhibit - three hours in the hall - where I learned so much more about our American history, how complicated the question of slavery was throughout what would become our nation, back in the day when half of it was still territory, in dispute.

So here's a little story.  Twenty or more years ago it was still not acknowledged, despite the documents that genealogists would find, not even by some college history professors, that some Native Americans had slaves.  I myself found documentation proving this in a western county of North Carolina, but it just wasn't acknowledged.  A research friend of mine actually went to a professor at a college in Florida where he had once attended to discuss his findings and was told to his face that this had "never happened."

But this exhibit admits it.  Even the Cherokee chief John Ross had slaves.

Could it be that people did not see much difference between a slave and chattel labor?  It seems so.
In fact, the very poor who survived through chattel labor were in a class only slightly higher than a slave and individual circumstances being what they were, might not have actually been better off.  They might not have been "owned" the same but their living conditions could be deplorable.

I had not known that coal miners also hired and imported immigrant labor where men were put under contract to work.  I'd known about servants who came into the early colonies and worked years to pay off the price of their ticket, but didn't know this happened in the mid 1800's during the Gold Rush.

Also up for going against stereotype:  Prostitutes in the Wild Wild West, often depicted as willing and having a great time of it, when it's known that sex trafficking went on.   (I've known about the situation in San Francisco with imported Chinese women and children, often put in cages and locked underground, even given the tools to commit suicide once they became infected with VD, but somehow I bought the movie depictions of White Women going west for the opportunity to make money the only way they could among the gold miners.)

A simply amazing array of  historical objects, paintings, proclamations, and other museum-worthy items are on display, along with some diary narratives read by actors at the touch of a button that give various perspectives.

****

This brings up the USE OF DIARIES and NARRATIVES in your genealogy an history research.  Some of you may know about the SLAVE NARRATIVES that were collected by the WORKS PROGRESS ADMINISTRATION which are on a searchable database.  Additionally, you may find narratives in other places, such as written narratives available through FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT REQUESTS, as well as some military related documents.  WILLS can also be a form of NARRATIVE.

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PLAT MAPS ARE AN OPPORTUNITY TO LEARN LOCAL HISTORY : KID GENEALOGY

I'm not sure how "Plat" maps got their name. 

(If any of my readers know the answer to that, please leave a comment!)

Plat maps are maps that often feature the property lines of farms or rural areas, areas that may now be cities or suburbs.  In a way they are like zoning maps today.

Plat maps have the names of the owners of that land on a specific year and can tell you so much about the early settlers of an area,  and lead you to more information such as who got Land Grants, names to search for in early wills and land sales, etc.

Something that can be a fun early genealogy research lesson for kids is to find the Plat map for where you live now and see how many of the roads, lakes, and other geographical features bear the names of those early settlers say right before and after the Civil War.

I like the big old fashioned maps that have been replaced by digitalized editions on the internet as I find them far easier to read, but if you live far away from a library that houses the big maps this is a good option. Locally, you might find that a historical society or university library has a collection that you can use without being a member or student.

After the American Revolution, many soldiers who fought for little or no pay and lived were rewarded with land.  These are called "Reparation Lands."  Not exactly "40 acres and a mule" but something like that.

Looking at the same area before and after the Civil War is also an interesting history lesson.

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GETTYSBURG NATIONAL PARK - 150th ANNIVERSARY LINK HERE!

This is the 150th anniversary of the Civil War battle of Gettysburg. 

Here is the link to the park and the special celebrations: GETTYSBURG PA - CIVIL WAR - 150th ANNIVERSARY  JULY 1-4 amazing events!

AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY MONTH IS A GREAT TIME TO START YOUR AFRICAN-AMERICAN GENEALOGY RESEARCH - SOME THINGS TO LOOK FOR

You don't have to be African American to do African American history or genealogy research. Many White Americans go back a few generations and are surprised by the fact that they have an ancestor of a different race, or that someone related to them once owned slaves. Likewise, DNA projects are revealing that most African-Americans by now have some White DNA.

Besides following census and city directories and military records, here are some other documents to look for:

In 1863 when Black soldiers were recruited to serve the Union side of the Civil War, their services was documented. Look for COMPILED RECORDS FOR THE U.S. COLORED TROOPS which can take you to PENSIONS. These will include a soldier's rank, company, and regiment in the U.S.C Infantry, his pension number, and a death date in some cases. The service records can be extensive starting with enlistment places and dates.

Southerners who lost property in the Civil War sometimes made a claim for reimbursement. Look in THE SOUTHERN CLAIMS COMMISSION files. There are sometimes testimonials of great detail. This would include property owned by free persons who were once slaves.

THE FREEDMAN BANK RECORDS can also be helpful. Because freed slaves were allowed to pick their own name (first and last), and sometimes picked one and changed it again, or siblings took different surnames, and many of the records are not easily linked to a census or other record because many slaves moved, this database may not be useful to the majority. However, once in a while a researcher finds gold. Start by running the more unusual names in your family.

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CIVIL WAR ON LINE EXHIBIT THROUGH NATIONAL ARCHIVES

And here is the ONLINE version of the CIVIL WAR exhibit!