WHITE HORSE

 

MOUNTAIN COTTAGE

Where do you think this is? 

 

MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE? TIME CAPSULES? LOVE LETTERS THAT TOOK DECADES TO ARRIVE IN THE MAIL? I LOVE THAT STUFF!

If you know about a Message in a Bottle that was washed ashore, or any Time Capsules that have been opened recently, or any Love Letters that took decades to arrive in the mail, I'd like to hear about them.  Comment!

I'm interested. I love that stuff!

USING NEW JERSEY AS AN EXAMPLE : THE HISTORIC STATE : STATE CENSUS ADVENTURE #5

  Some of my ancestry lived in New Jersey. New Jersey is a rather difficult state due to privacy laws and such. I remember years ago sending money orders to New Jersey for the death and other records that would "prove" what I had come up with and they were returned. Basically, if I didn't already know the information, then I could not have that information. Other researchers have told me about dealing with New Jersey (as well as New Mexico) and basically this is why I check certain paid databases every few months to see what, if anything, has shown up.

Here is our list of state census.

New Jersey - 1855, 1865, 1875, 1885, 1895, 1905, 1915.

History of New Jersey : Lenape Native Americans first, then Dutch and Swedish settlements.

NJ GOV STATE ARCHIVES START PAGE

Excerpt: State Censuses (1855 – 1915)

 • Taken every 10 years on years that ended with a 5 (1855, 1865, and 1875 are incomplete).

 • Certain individual counties have been indexed: Hunterdon County in 1875; Monmouth County in 1875 (available on-line at the Monmouth County Archives web site); and 1885 Camden (excluding city)

• Searchable database for Atlantic and Passaic Counties in 1885 available on our web site. These counties are the only ones we search through the mail. 

• Complete 1895 State Census is available on www.ancestry.com.

• The indexes to 1885, 1905 and 1915 State Censuses are available on www.familysearch.com.

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OTHER RESOURCES FOR NEW JERSEY might be found through the genealogy activist group RECLAIM THE RECORDS:

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WHITE BARN

 

MOON ON THE SNOW

 

SLAVERY IN PENNSYLVANIA : RESOURCES? : QUESTIONS FROM READERS of ANCESTRY WORSHIP - GENEALOGY

Question :

Growing up back east, I didn't realize there was ever slavery in Pennsylvania. But now I think one of my ancestors might have been involved in that. Can you give me some input on how to proceed?

Walter G.

Philadelphia area

Answer : Every few months I look at what's new on the popular Ancestry TM *** genealogy databases, as well as some others, and I ran a search for you.  At the top of the site there is an option for New Collections.  Actually this is where you find the entire "card catalogue." Run a search for Pennsylvania and run down the list.

Pennsylvania, U.S., County Records of Enslaved and Free People, 1780-1834 

Here are some things to consider:

1) The issue of slavery connects to Civil War records. Some slaves did fight. Some were forced to fight for the Confederacy. Some fought for the Union. And some escaped from slavery during this period - and signed up to fight for the Union.

2) Pennsylvania did not have the sharp Western and Southern boundaries it has today. Some of that territory belonged to Virginia where slavery was legal. (And Virginia included what is now mapped as West Virginia.) The Underground Railroad ran through Pennsylvania. 

3) This doesn't mean that the slave catchers stopped trying to capture escaped slaves just because they were in free territory. In Pennsylvania newspapers ads appeared offering rewards for captures. As well, you may find reportage, opinion pieces, and other information that shows what the arguments were, and who was who. Consider the Quakers and the Abolitionists. See if your ancestors shows up in any biographies and check the newspapers too.

4) If your ancestor did hold slaves in Pennsylvania, you may want to see if there are any wills or court records that mention the transfer or sale of slaves.

Actually, I've been planning some posts in January-February 2026 regarding Pennsylvania so do check back!

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*** This blog is not associated with the Ancestry TM genealogy database company.

FAMILY RECORD

 

A PATRIOTIC THANKSGIVING

Perhaps you family genealogists will ask your relatives about their

 politics or military service after you've given thanks this day.

Perhaps you'd like to write out some memories to contribute to the family history project?

 

AMAZING MAYFLOWER DESCENDANTS : TAYLOR SWIFT IS ONE OF THEM : HUMPHREY BOGART : KATHERINE HEPBURN : MARILYN MONROE : SEE THIS LIST!

United States Presidents, an astronaut, and many who went into acting and so many more; up to 3 million Americans! You can see why you just might qualify for the Mayflower Society; the odds may be in your favor! This site design was so much fun. You put your pointer on the photo and it flips to information!

AMERICAN ANCESTORS: MAYFLOWER PASSENGER LISTS  Click on the name of the passenger and read a small bio via the New England Historic Genealogical Society.  Other ships arrived to the colony and brought more people.  Not all passengers were pilgrims by the way. Then click to photos of present-day descendants.  These people are in Great Britain as well as the United States.

By the first winter half the original settlers had died.  Native Americans must have been keeping track of the new settlers. One Chief needed allies to fight with other tribes so a deal was made and this deal helped people survive. 

MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE

 

BEGINNER GENEALOGY MISTAKES : CAUTIONARY TALES

Have you just found my blog? Welcome!

This is my list of things that beginning genealogists often do that you’ll probably not find to be useful or even regret. Since I began researching, more than three decades ago, the genealogy world has changed significantly because of the Internet and databases. Also there is an epidemic of scams. Those changes make it easier than ever for people to do their own research. And to be mislead or conned. This list is made up of things I did or someone I know did and was affected by!

1) Posting for family information in hopes of reaching out to others who have already done the work so you won’t have to do it at all or do it alone, thinking you can just believe it and copy it.

It can be nice to have a collaboration but there’s no way to know from the start if the stranger you connected with does quality research, will respect you, or share in a fair way. Be especially aware that con artists and scammers may use your personal information… or even pose as a relative.

Ask yourself why you’d be comfortable virtually yet not want someone to have your home address!

Keep to professional standards! 

And then if you do find a collaborator, you’ll have something to offer.

2) Posting your research on databases or sharing it prematurely because it isn’t solidly backed up with documents. Many a beginner just doesn't know better. Your family stories are precious and can be part of your book but may not be upheld by research.

Rumors and speculation cannot substitute for a clear research path that others can follow and documents.   Don’t accidentally, through ignorance, lead other researchers wrong!

3) Not considering that charts you post may not please those who are not contacted first for permission. You may be well-meaning but they may not be interested or horrified!

Some sites prod you to provide photos, give them voice samples as you record stories to share with anyone in the world, and provide other information that can profile you. Adding live persons on a chart, even as an unnamed silhouette, is NOT protecting their privacy. Keep the research within the immediate family. Ask them first. Explain it to them. 

It’s still ok to print out and 'snailmail.'

3) Not reading the fine print about who owns your research or DNA information. How long is it yours or protected?  What about your copyright? When do you loose control of it? Can it be used by law enforcement? 

This is not just about you! You may die before they’re born but they still deserve to have privacy!

4) Using your full real name for the world to see. 

Choose a handle, moniker, or nickname or an icon to represent you. Unless you're up to no good it's OK.

5) Posting with a database that has no one to complain to if you're violated or is ineffective in helping when you are. There should be a way to have information that has been posted about you or your ancestors - correct or not - taken down because it is wrong or you think it's private. Beware if it’s stated that once you post it’s permanent.

Privacy laws which may vary from country to country.

6) Using an e-mail address for genealogy that you use for business or personal communication. 

Set one up just for research. I store research in a g-mail account that I never use for communication. You can store photos and documents in Blogger (set on private),  in Drive, etc. Since I've never shared that account with others I communicate with, I've received no spam or phishing. Set another up for genealogy communications.

7) Posting a person’s death certificate on a gravestone site even though the years have not gone by in which their privacy would be protected otherwise. No privacy in death either? Just horrible and violating of living persons medical privacy too.  Telling the whole world someone had died of alcoholism, cancer, or perhaps by suicide....  To me, well, to be nice, let's say it's bad karma. 

Graveyards that let people tromp and report are so irresponsible in allowing this to happen. Even people who did not want their death announced in obituaries … who thought of their religion, charities, marriages, and children to be their own business, are quickly violated when their tombstones are photographed and burials reported, especially upsetting when the religious cemetery claims burials are on sacred ground (which you probably paid more for). 

Why obits? It used to be so friends could give their condolences… I think obits are getting to be obsolete. When it the last time you found out a friend died that way? Oh and those prompts to send flowers! Funerals are already overpriced and so are cemeteries. Don't get me started!

8) Publishing for distribution - even to immediate family - in which you do not state references and do not state intellectual property information and do not state the expectations of privacy.  You can do all the right things to do so but in the hands of the wrong relative it all goes onto a database and the Internet. 

I personally use many databases. I do not post my research on any of them. 

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GENEALOGY FOR CHILDREN? : QUESTIONS FROM READERS of ANCESTRY WORSHIP - GENEALOGY

Q : At what age do you think children should get involved in genealogy?

A: My first response is MAKE IT FUN FOR THEM!

Like many things we teach children, we should take into consideration the stage of their development and innate intelligence and abilities. I've read that children do not actually understand that grandma is mother's mother for some time, until perhaps about the age of ten. They are not especially interested in reproduction until they themselves have the ability to. Until then the child may understand that the grandma is special to the family but not quite get the relationship... that grandma actually gave birth to or raised mom...

I feel a concern that children may think of genealogy as yet another subject they have to spend time on when they would rather be out playing or that it's more homework. It really isn't for everyone anyway and can be a rather serious subject.

I suspect the best thing to do as an adult is allow them to see what you're working on and talk to them about their heritage and tell family stories. 

You might get them involved in making artistic projects such as creating charts, putting together binders of their drawings, or scrapbooking greeting cards that have been sent to them. Give them books to read about their ethnicity or religion, or perhaps the history ancestors have lived through. 

You might ask them to help you in the kitchen and talk about these things while cooking a recipe that's been handed down.

I also think it can be interesting for children to interview relatives - including their parents and siblings.

Think of fun projects that can be completed in a couple hours or over the course of the school break or vacation!

Every once in a while a very young person will find genealogy fascinating on their own.

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LABOR DAY

 

A FATHER NURTURES A SON'S INTERESTS

It's not easy to find a free downloadable vintage public domain image of a father nurturing a son.

I think the dearth of these images, compared to those available for mothers and Mother's Day, is telling. 

ROCKING THE CRADLE

One foot out to rock the baby cradle at the bow, 

while sewing with two hands, 

a woman's work is never done.

in this vintage illustration provided by Graphics Fairy.

What memories do you have of your own mother. grandmother, and aunts?

ABOUT CHILDREN BEING "PARENTIFIED" : THIS WAS HOW LIFE WAS LIVED FOR CENTURIES : OPINION BY ANCESTRY WORSHIP - GENEALOGY

I recently read an article that was clearly influenced by the latest notions about child abuse coming from the psychology profession.  I remembered when I took Psych 101 in college and my professor said that one of the reasons the profession existed, a kind of manifesto, was to make the world a better place. Well, has it?  Sometimes I think this profession is responsible for making just about everyone diagnose-able in some way and looking for more patients. I'm all for children being wanted and loved, and parents taking responsibility for raising them  But the article railed against the latest notion of child abuse and that is "parentifiying" a child.

What this was explained to be, by this article, was children having to raise their siblings. Well, that is exactly how it worked in the past, when entire families had to work together also in the fields and many families had numerous children who had to help out in the house and yard and care for their siblings.  We called them "farm families" but it was not just agricultural life that required big families. Many immigrant families, and families in which both parents needed to work, relied on family members to also work, especially in maintaining the household and the younger siblings. Ten children - sometimes more - were not unusual.  Many of you are descended from families in which a mother had a child every couple years, had them in her own bed with a midwife, breast fed the babies, and the older children helped out as she went back to work cooking, cleaning, and doing the laundry.

It may be rare, but I've met people in their teens and early twenties who took responsibility for younger siblings when parents died.  I've meet the teens who, being raised by single mothers, were the ones who were also caring for their parent who was terminally ill, while also going to high school. Someone had to step up to the plate, these people did, and I admired them for the courage and fortitude. (They're the kind of people worth hiring in the workplace too when their in home caregiving is done.)

In particular, back in the day, older sisters were helping bath, diaper, and feed babies, playing with them, and having their younger siblings tag along, watched out for them on the school yard, and in the process not only bonded with their siblings but learned the skills needed to be a mother themselves. 

This was how "baby-sitting" otherwise known as child care was perceived, which is why as a teenager I and so many others were paid, but barely, so that a neighbor could go out for the evening or take care of business elsewhere.

I realize that child labor is usually defined as labor in which a child earned money - outside the home - and did not go to school. However, children, especially sons, often worked with their fathers and other members of their family in the trades, learning skills such as weaving, tailoring, and cobbling, and were only considered qualified to marry if they could, through apprenticeship and moving into the family business or a trade guild, support a family.

I've been doing the genealogy for a family that landed in the United States as German immigrants to Pennsylvania after the American Revolution and it is clear on the census that the children were all working by the time they were teens. They may have gone to the first three grades, maybe eight, and then it was time to work at a bakery or as a seamstress.

Children were considered to be adults earlier back in the day, or, as a friend called them "small adults."  While I think teens today feel pressure to grow into adulthood too soon, I also see that parental expectations of their children is that they will not truly be released into adulthood until they are educated and have established careers.  All of this would be considered the indulgence of the rich a hundred or more years ago.

Do you have an opinion?

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PEACE BE WITH YOU

 

PRIVACY CONSIDERATIONS FOR THE GENEALOGY RESEARCHER : SENIORS ARE THE TARGET OF CRIMINALS : GRANDPARENT and LOVE SCAMS

PRIVACY CONSIDERATIONS FOR THE GENEALOGY RESEARCHER

It seems to me people are willingly - even joyfully - in the spirit of trust and sharing - giving over information that anyone can access.  This is simply not acceptable in today's world.

I've never posted my research findings on any database and ask that others who receive information from me do not either. Even those databases that suggest you only post the dead can easily be linked to those who are alive. In particular, death certificates revealing cause of death on Find A Grave tm are beyond irksome; no privacy for the dead? Or the family of the dead?

Then there are the prompts: for you to share photos and memories to the world. You really shouldn't... 

Sadly, criminals are using all these details to find and target individuals.

Several years ago a neighbor of mine told me his parents had sent their entire life savings to Mexico because a caller told them that their grandson had gone to a wedding there of one of his frat brothers from UCLA and had gotten drunk and in trouble.  This was the bribe the officials needed to let him out of jail there, the caller said.  Why linger in a rotten jail for years, pay Mexican lawyers, ruin his college career and life?  The caller knew the grandson's name, his fraternity, their names, and many other details that can be found on genealogy databases.

Would it be even more convincing if the caller knew what a person died of or what grandma looked like? Claimed to be at an event that you posted about?

Perhaps even more horrendous was the scam that a senior friend of mine - an intelligent woman with an education and years of experience as a teacher - got caught up in.  She had sent a significant amount of money to a middle-man/banker/broker in another country, knowing that the country is full of corruption, and did so on a monthly basis for two years. The purpose was in order to get a man out of that country. She had met the man in person. They talked about getting married. They were frequently in contact. I didn't ask why he didn't just travel to the United States on a tourist Visa and get married here or why she thought such a large sum was needed. Sure there were serious questions I had.  

However, came the day that she had no more money to send and she called her potential husband and told him so.  At that point the plan was for him to travel to Mexico. He was silent on the other end.  The middle-man/broker/banker was angry and told her she would not get any money back, having missed a payment.  A family member of hers - a business executive yet - believed in this story enough to offer to send the money. However, within a couple days she was getting text messages from two unknown parties - phone numbers from two different states in the U.S. but men with accents from this other country - and one said "Your man is married and his wife has put a contract out to execute you. But if you send me $2000 I will not kill you." This amount was even more than the monthly payment she had been making. These callers had her phone number, they knew her name, they knew she was a teacher. 

Of course this had to be connected to the man she thought to marry. She called the local police who told her to block the number and there was nothing they could do about the money sent to another country. Sadly, because this is a love scam, she believed the execution threat was a scam but not the monthly payments.  She went back to work in order to continue earning enough. 

Unfortunately there are those criminals who target people who believe in love and are kind and generous. These criminals leave you broke, heartbroken, and fearful.

Please - I caution you - be especially careful when the genealogy database prompting you to give up your photos and memories and much else - HAS NO OPTION FOR YOU TO TAKE THOSE THINGS DOWN.

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BIOGRAPHY and THE WRITING OF YOUR FAMILY HISTORY : HERE'S AN INSPIRING EXAMPLE

I was attracted to this book at the library, England's Mistress - the Infamous Life of Emma Hamilton, by Kate Williams, because of its lovely cover. I've read many biographies and memoirs. This impressive one is about a person born in poverty, the lowest of the low, who managed to make it through the ridged English class system and become the wife of Sir William Hamilton. Born Amy Lyon, this woman went from being an orphan to working as a child laborer, from prostitute to mistress to wife. She also became an actress and singer, and was imitated as a force in fashion back in the day. She became the personal friend of a Queen or two. She was exceptional by beauty but also seized every opportunity to educate and improve herself. I think it's one of the most wonderfully written biographies I've encountered. But why?  Because the research and writing brought forth the realities of life in England - as well as Naples (Italy) - in the late1800's.

I present it here because I want to remind my readers to seek out biographies of their ancestors. They probably do not have whole books written about them hundreds of years after their deaths. However, you may find that a person is included in a local biography, a town book (like a yearbook created by a proud town about their pioneers and citizens), newspaper articles, and such. There are still many books on library shelves that have not been digitalized - not scooped up by the big names in genealogy databases.

But also, in writing your family history, in putting a person in their life timeline, you may want to also explain their times - the history of the place they lived - and what it was perhaps like for your ancestor to live in them. 

You of course quote and attribute the passages you use in your work.

Here are some excerpt examples from the book that are excellent.

From page 5, year 1764, in a small village just outside Chester across the Dee River.

Emma's parents were married on June 11, 1764, in Great Neston church. As the wedding was held on a Monday, it is unlikely that any relative...attended.  Like many workingmen, Henry was illiterate and signed the register with an X, Mary also signed with a cross....  First babies were often conceived outside of wedlock; indeed, many communities encouraged it to preclude the disaster or marriage to an infertile wife. .... At twenty-one, Mary was a drudge in a dirty hovel, her day consumed by domestic chores, in a village populated by people who were, in the 1850's according to visitors, "as primitive as their village was secluded."  At four she awoke to fetch water, light the fire, and prepare Henry's breakfast... After he left at five, she began her daily battle against the dirt that silted up the windows and covered every surface with a grimy film. (Coal dust) Outside her window lay a treeless expanse of  scrub scarred by heaps of coal waste, and cheap stone cottages blacked by sooty rain. She knew that soon after she gave birth, she would be expected to work in the mine with the other women.

WHAT DAY OF THE WEEK WAS THE MARRIAGE OF YOUR ANCESTOR HELD? WHAT MONTH? 

Excerpt page 6 : Emma was baptized on May 12. On the register, her name looks like 'Emy" but Emma herself always claimed it was Amy. a common name in the Kidd family. ... One in three children like Emma died within infancy, but she was born in the best season for survival; disease was more virulent from June to September, and babies died of cold from November to February. There was hard work ahead for the infants who lived. Denhall employed most children over nine or ten as cheap labor. All the girls born in Ness were, by the age of ten, pulling baskets to the surface every day, covered in dirt and regularly harassed by the men.  At the end of the day, they returned home to cook and clean for their family or, as was near as likely, since many women died in childbirth, stepmother.

WAS YOUR ANCESTOR EMPLOYED IN COAL MINING?  A CHILD LABORER? 

Excerpts such as these, when appropriate, add color to your family history book, but also give the reader an opportunity for understanding.

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