January 2022

Genealogy Gems:

News from the Allen County Public Library at Fort Wayne No. 215, January 31, 2022

In this issue:

Special Times and Special Months

Freedmen’s Bureau Online

“German Coast Families: European Origins and Settlement in Colonial Louisiana”

Technology Tip of the Month: Adobe Elements Version 2019--Draw Tools continued, Paint Bucket Tool

PERSI Gems: Major Snow Storms

History Tidbits: Presidential Pets

Genealogy Center’s February 2022 Programs

The Genealogy Center at RootsTech 2022

Staying Informed about Genealogy Center Programming

Genealogy Center Social Media

Driving Directions to the Library

Parking at the Library

Genealogy Center Queries

Publishing Note

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Special Times and Special Months by Curt B. Witcher

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2022 is well upon us with the dawning of February. I trust January has been a month of renewed connections with family members and family stories as well as a time to enjoy your family-history-related holidays gifts. Members of my immediate and extended family have made renewed commitments to “fill-in between the dashes” of our shared ancestors--to get more of the stories to complement the facts they gather. Some are going back to the websites of the large information aggregators and looking again, this time with fresh eyes, at all the silos of data. And they are finding more history and more context. Some of what is being found assuredly are newer data sets, but some have been there for years but not regularly used because they aren’t the census with the hatched, matched and dispatched records we frequently spend so much of our time searching. Here’s to more stories. While the shortest month of the year, February is filled with many special days. First and foremost, February is Black History Month. The Genealogy Center is hosting a couple of really fine programs to assist those exploring their African American roots and stories. On February 17, 2022 at 6:30 in the evening our local African American Genealogical Society of Fort Wayne is presenting part three of “Fort Wayne’s African American Founders.” Previous presentations in this series have not only highlighted the individual founders, their lives, and their families, they have also shown the records and shared the stories that evidence those lives. Learning about another’s records and stories often can inform us about records and strategies we should be using with our own families. Then a week later on February 24, 2022, also at 6:30 in the evening, Tim Pinnick is presenting “The Voice of the People: African Americans in the Early 20th Century.” Despite the Supreme Court sanctioned segregation and Jim Crow laws, the lives of African Americans were anything but dark and dreary. The vibrancy and accomplishments of Blacks were chronicled wonderfully through a number of important race publications that emerged in the early decades of the 1900s. Discovering and exploring these publications will lead to finding more of our African American stories. Tim is an amazing presenter, both with his deep knowledge and his engaging delivery. Registration links for these free virtual programs can be found a little further in this ezine under the Genealogy Center’s February 2022 Programs. February 10th marks the eighth anniversary of the passing of my father. As many of you can relate, some days it feels like it was just yesterday and other days it seems like forever ago. With my mother’s declining health, I have had the opportunity to assist her in cleaning-out some of the nearly innumerable boxes of, well, everything(!) that Depression-era children kept as necessities. What treasures I have found among the collections of filling-station loyalty mugs and other novelty drinking vessels, used aluminum foil and rubber bands, container caps, matchbooks from countless businesses, and scrap-paper enough to wallpaper the entire neighborhood . . . twice(!). I discovered amazing numbers of photographs from my parents’ early years that I had never seen before and also a trove of photographs from recent times. It is like I am meeting them for the first time. Several pocket-size five-year diaries were also uncovered, written by my mother’s godmother. Over the years I heard many stories about this great aunt but not much detail. Now I can read more stories in her own words. I am grateful for these treasurers in my midst. Here’s to an engaging February, filled with great programs and wonderful opportunities to make the time to find, preserve, and tell the stories you will assuredly uncover among your families’ treasures.

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Freedmen’s Bureau Online by Melissa C. Tennant

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The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Land was formed in 1865 to assist those formerly enslaved in the southern states. Records that can be found within these documents include labor contracts, rations, education, hospital, marriage, complaints, court records, and much more. An estimated 1.8 million individuals are now discoverable on the Discover Freedmen site , thanks to FamilySearch, National Archives (NARA), Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society (AAHGS), Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, and California African American Museum, along with 25,000 volunteers. The search box is for the first and/or last name of the person and links to FamilySearch  which hosts the index and the linked images. Once in the results page, you can filter by location, birth or death year, or the Freedmen’s collection, such as Hospital and Medical Records, Ration Records, Claim Records, etc. Ancestry  has launched the Freedmen’s Bureau collection with a new index of more than 3.5 million records. The search options are first name, last name, location, and/or birth or death date and location. You can learn more about this collection by watching the video at . Both of these sites require the user to have a free account to access the records. As with any digital collection, it is recommended to search each of the available indexes using variant search terms and name spellings as there can be differences in the indexing. Another way to explore these records is to browse through the documents for the region that your ancestor resided in. The years following Emancipation are complex and integral when searching for ancestors, so the best way to understand our ancestors is to try and comprehend the community and ideologies that directly impacted them. Mapping the Freedmen’s Bureau  is a great resource to learn more about the specific records for the region of interest. Using the map feature, select the Freedmen’s Bureau Office(s) in the surrounding area to determine which National Archives (NARA) microfilm numbers will expand your search. For example, the closest office to Auburn, Alabama, is the Opelika, Lee County, Alabama, Field Office and the records are available in NARA film M1900, rolls 27 and 28, which are directly linked to the FamilySearch images. From there, the user can see what specific types of records and timeframes are available for the locale, and then can browse through the images, learning more about the region. The site also provides Research Guides containing descriptive pamphlets from NARA concerning what is available for each state. The Freedmen’s Bureau collection is significant for anyone researching the Reconstruction era in the South, but especially for seeking African Americans in this extremely transitional time period. These records can provide such in-depth details about the region of one’s ancestors as well as their own personal stories. Take advantage of these free collections available online.

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“German Coast Families: European Origins and Settlement in Colonial Louisiana”

by Elizabeth Hodges

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Many family historians of German descent who can trace their family’s story back to colonial era Louisiana have a connection in one form or another to an area just outside of New Orleans referred to as “the German Coast.” The German Coast was a section of land along the Mississippi River that, after the removal of the indigenous Taensa community in 1715 by the French, was settled by German immigrants from 1718-1721 that were recruited by John Law and his Company of the West. One of the best, most thoroughly researched books on the German coast and these colonial era families is Albert J. Robichaux’s 1997 book “German Coast families: European origins and settlement in colonial Louisiana” (Rayne, LA: Hebert Publications, 1997. GC 976.3 R55GE). The findings published in Albert J. Robichaux’s book is the culmination of five years of research across five countries to locate the German towns of origin for the fifty-eight families that settled the German Coast of Louisiana. The book is organized into three major sections. The first section consists of nine chapters that provide historical context to the first German migration to Louisiana while explaining in great detail the potential issues researchers of the German Coast families might experience. The problems Robichaux describes such as spelling errors, destruction of records, and cultural biases of the scribes creating crucial documents are not unheard of in other areas of the world. However, some of the problems with phonetic spelling or attempted translation of German names and place names to French or Spanish can be particularly frustrating for researchers. For example, the book mentions a woman named Catherine Schaaf whose surname was written in various records as “Mouton.” This was presumably done by a French scribe who translated “Schaaf” (which in German is sheep) to the French equivalent: mouton. Another German Coast settler, Ambroise Heidel, was listed on records as being from the town of Neunkirchen. Robichaux points out that there were 52 towns by that name, but a French scribe would not have necessarily thought to include “near Wurzburg” in the record. By explaining inconsistencies like these in gross detail, Robichaux’s book can give family historians who are struggling to find records an explanation as to why they are struggling and new ideas on how to search for records. The second section is a collection of thoroughly researched genealogical reports organized alphabetically by the family’s surname. What many family historians would appreciate the most when reading this section is the fact that Robichaux includes the search results of all the ancestors he researched regardless of whether or not there was a positive or negative outcome. By detailing the sources consulted for individuals or families he could not find much information on, family historians can focus their efforts trying to find other sources that might not have been available in 1997 when “German Coast families” was published. The third section of the book is a collection of translated documents such as the 1724 Census of the German Villages, a “List of those who have received a birth, death, and marriage certificate, Karlsruhe, Baden, Germany,” two ship passenger lists from 1720, additional information on the Stein family, and various letters from German Coast residents of note such as Carl Frederick Darensbourg and Judith Opperman. The fifty-eight families that were enumerated in the German villages in the 1724 census had a large number of descendants spread across the entire state and beyond, so “German Coast families: European origins and settlement in colonial Louisiana” is an excellent resource for any family historian with German Louisiana ancestry.

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Technology Tip of the Month: Adobe Elements Version 2019--Draw Tools continued, Paint Bucket Tool by Kay Spears

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Of all the tools in Adobe, this is one of the simpler ones. When I have occasion to use it, I always use it in conjunction with other tools. The Paint Bucket Tool icon looks like a paint bucket with paint dripping out of it. How you use it depends on what you want to do. Because it can do so many things to your image, I’m going to call it the “experiment-big-time” tool. Let’s imagine that, for some reason, you have a white floor in your home. You want it to be blue, so you go to Lowes and purchase a can of blue paint. When you get home, you open the paint bucket and pour the blue paint on the white floor. Now, you have a mess. But, you also have blue paint on top of the white floor. And that basically is what we are going to do with our Paint Bucket Tool. You just won’t have a mess to clean up. Open an image. I’m going to open a color image, but the paint bucket works just as well on black and white. Make sure your Layer Palette is open, because we are going to add a New Layer for our paint. Add a new layer and name it “paint.” We are going to work with our Eye Dropper Tool and our Paint Palette. Select your Eye Dropper tool, and find a color anywhere on your image, and then click on it. Notice the two little squares that were black and white. Those are your foreground and background colors. When you click on a portion of the image, the black square color will have changed to whatever color you selected with your eyedropper. You have also loaded that color into your Paint Bucket. If you don’t like that color, you can change it by clicking on the Foreground color again. This will open up the Color Palette, and you can select a different color if you want. Once you are happy with the color you’ve loaded, click on the Paint Bucket Tool. The options available to you with this tool are: Fill, Pattern, Mode, Opacity, Tolerance, Anti-alias, Contiguous, All Layers. For this experiment we are going with our default settings. Also, depending on the version of Adobe Elements you have, these options will be in different locations. If you have a version older than 10, these options are at the top. Version 10 and after have the options at the bottom. But all versions have these options. Make sure you have your New (Color) Layer selected; bring your cursor over your image and click. That layer will now be totally filled with whatever color you selected. Now experiment with the color layer. Change the Blending Mode from Normal to one of the other options available in your Layer Palette. Change the Opacity. Make another different color layer, experiment with that. Select only a portion of your image and add color to that, then experiment with it. If you have more than one color layer, you can move them around to see what happens. Remember to change your Foreground/Background colors back to the default when you're done. You can do that by clicking on the itsy-bitsy black and white squares located below the bigger black and white squares You might have noticed that there is a Pattern option available with the Paint Bucket. Personally, I’ve never been particularly impressed with this option. Some patterns are interesting, but they are patterns. I don’t like to see patterns in my work. The Paint Bucket tool does not give the option for Scaling of the pattern. The only way you can Scale a pattern in Elements is by creating an Adjustment Layer on your Layer Palette, and adding a Pattern Overlay. We will talk about the Layer Palette another time. And that is the basics of the Paint Bucket Tool. Very simple. And, like everything in Adobe Elements, don’t be afraid to experiment. See how far you can stretch it. Next article: Adobe Elements Version 2019: Draw Tools continued: Gradient Tool

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PERSI Gems: Major Snow Storms by Adam Barrone and Mike Hudson

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We, in northern Indiana, are expecting our first major snow storm of the season with images of the blizzard in the Northeast fresh on our minds. While we won't see the level of snowfall and winds recently recorded in the Northeast, we, too, will be spending much time and effort with shovels, plows, and show throwers. Below, we share PERSI citations which shed light on past efforts to dig out. Try a Periodical Source Index search here: https://www.genealogycenter.info/persi/ C. F. Shaw dies shoveling snow, bio., tribute, Norfolk Daily News excerpt, 1860-1912, NY Madison County (NE) Remembers, Vol. 34, Issue 162 (Mar 2013) Colorado Medland railway snow plow photo, 1890 Colorado History Now (Dec 2002) Dolly Bentson recalls shoveling snow at 3 a.m., n.d., n.p. Lifestory (Letter Rock Publications, Manhattan, KS), Issue 118 (Apr 2011) E. Bowman patents railroad snowblower, 1904 Bruce County (Ontario) Historical Society Yearbook (2006) Farmer Arthur Sicard invents first snow blower, 1927, Quebec Beaver: Canada's History Magazine, Vol. 85, Issue 6 (Dec 2005) No more snow plowing of driveways, 2001, Minerva Minerva (NY) Historical Society Quarterly, Vol. 32, Issue 2 (Jul 2001) Railroad transit snow plow at the Park Street railroad yards photo, c. 1940 Dorchester (MA) Illustration of the Day, Issue 1466 (2011) Rotary snow plow in railroad service, 1869+ Heartland Rails (3 Rivers Railroad Heritage Council, IN), Vol. 21, Issue 5 (Dec 2013) Rotary snow plow, uniquely Canadian invention History Magazine (Feb 2013) Snow shovellers photo and snow storm notes, 1908, 1899 Nostalgia Magazine USA Edition, Vol. 2, Issue 2 (Feb 2005) The night the cat and snow plow fell through the Iron Bridge, Michael Meier memories, photos, 1950 Liberty School News (German Settlement History, Inc., Ogema, WI), Vol. 16, Issue 3 (Dec 2014)

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History Tidbits: Presidential Pets By Allison DePrey Singleton

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As we approach Presidents’ Day, let’s take a look at some of the overlooked members of each administration: presidential pets. Did you know that there were multiple opossums, raccoons, and even bear cubs kept as pets at the White House? Very few presidents did not own pets while at the White House. Only John Quincy Adams, James Polk, Andrew Johnson, and Donald Trump did not own pets during their tenures. Every other president had at least one pet, and many of them had full menageries. The pets ranged from the conventional, like cats and dogs, to the unusual, such as pigs, cows, goats, and snakes. Theodore Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge, and John F. Kennedy had the most pets of any of the presidents. Theodore Roosevelt’s children contributed to the large number of pets associated with his presidency. They had guinea pigs, Shetland ponies, a hen, a lizard, a Manchester Terrier, a Hyacinth macaw, a garter snake, a pony, mutts, terriers, a black bear, piebald rat, a badger, a Pekingese, a pig, a rabbit, a Saint Bernard, a Chesapeake Bay Retriever, cats, a laughing hyena, a barred owl, and a one-legged rooster. Calvin Coolidge had two sons who also contributed to his menagerie. They had white Collies, a wirehair fox terrier, an Airedale terrier, a Shetland Sheepdog, Chow Chows, a Boston bulldog, a Belgian Sheepdog, a black and white English Setter, raccoons, a donkey, canaries, a yellow bird, a songbird, a goose, a bobcat, cats, lion cubs, a pygmy hippopotamus, a wallaby, a duiker, a black bear, and pekin ducks. The presidential pets of John F. Kennedy, while numerous, were significantly fewer than those of Roosevelt and Coolidge and included a poodle, a Welsh Terrier, a cat, a canary, parakeets, ducks, a bay Yakut pony, a Connemara pony, another pony, a Doberman Pinscher, hamsters, mutts, a Cocker Spaniel, a German Shepherd, a rabbit, and a horse. During the twentieth century the public began to take notice of the presidential pets. One of the most famous presidential pets was Murray the Outlaw of Falahill, or Fala, the Scottish Terrier owned by Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt. After coverage by the news media, Roosevelt gave a speech in which he contradicted the claim that the dog was left behind on a trip and that taxpayer money was used to retrieve him. Richard Nixon also gave a speech about his dog named Checkers in order to refute the claim that he was using a political fund improperly. He stated that the only gift he was given that he refused to return was Checkers. Both speeches were considered successful. Politicians have been using their pets to garner support and to appear more relatable to the general public. Some presidents have even waited until they were in the White House to adopt pets. Most recently, the current president even adopted a cat, a type of animal he has not had in recent years. The White House does a great job of keeping the public informed on the comings and goings of presidential pets.

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Genealogy Center’s February 2022 Programs

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Join us for another month of free, virtual programs! February 1, 2022, 2:30 p.m. EST “Downeast Ancestry: Tracing Your Family Tree in Maine” with B.J. Jameison - https://acpl.libnet.info/event/6114697 February 3, 2022, 6:30 p.m. EST "Using the Genealogical Proof Standard and DNA as Power Tools and Problem Solvers" with John Beatty - https://acpl.libnet.info/event/6109928 February 8, 2022, 2:30 p.m. EST “Introducing the 1921 Census of England & Wales” with Jen Baldwin - https://acpl.libnet.info/event/6109977 February 10, 2022, 6:30 p.m. EST “City Directories: More than Basic Facts” with Melissa Tennant - https://acpl.libnet.info/event/6111750 February 15, 2022, 2:30 p.m. EST “Discover your Family Story at the RI State Archives” with Rich Hite & Ashley Selima - https://acpl.libnet.info/event/6110836 February 17, 2022, 6:30 p.m. EST “Fort Wayne’s African American Founders—Part 3” with the African American Genealogical Society of Fort Wayne - https://acpl.libnet.info/event/6110907 February 22, 2022, 2:30 p.m. EST “Finding Periodical Articles About Your Geographic Area of Interest Using PERSI” with Curt Witcher - https://acpl.libnet.info/event/6137001 February 24, 2022, 6:30 p.m. EST “The Voice of the People: African Americans in the Early 20th Century” with Tim Pinnick - https://acpl.libnet.info/event/6110940 Please register in advance for each program.

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The Genealogy Center at RootsTech 2022

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Join us for the FREE 2022 Virtual RootsTech event and learn new ways to take your family history research to the next level. Registration for this amazing event is now open. Simply go to the RootsTech website: www.familysearch.org/rootstech/next. The Genealogy Center’s very own, Allison Singleton, will be presenting a couple of programs during the conference, and you can discover the Allen County Public Library exhibitor booth featuring new resources and materials from the experts at the Genealogy Center. Family history research starts with a question. As you enjoy the RootsTech sessions, be sure to let us know if you have any family history questions of your own via our booth chat. The genealogists at the Genealogy Center would love to help you dig deeper to find the answers to your family’s mysteries. So be sure to register for this free event and visit the Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center-Visit Fort Wayne booth!

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Staying Informed about Genealogy Center Programming

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Do you want to know what we have planned? Are you interested in one of our events, but forget? We offer email updates for The Genealogy Center’s programming schedule. Don’t miss out! Sign up at http://goo.gl/forms/THcV0wAabB.

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Genealogy Center Social Media

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Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GenealogyCenter/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/genealogycenter/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ACPLGenealogy

Blog: http://www.genealogycenter.org/Community/Blog.aspx

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/askacpl

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Driving Directions to the Library

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Wondering how to get to the library? Our location is 900 Library Plaza, Fort Wayne, Indiana, in the block bordered on the south by Washington Boulevard, the west by Ewing Street, the north by Wayne Street, and the east by the Library Plaza, formerly Webster Street. We would enjoy having you visit the Genealogy Center. To get directions from your exact location to 900 Library Plaza, Fort Wayne, Indiana, visit this link at MapQuest: http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?formtype=address&addtohistory=&address=900%20Web ster%20St&city=Fort%20Wayne&state=IN&zipcode=46802%2d3602&country=US&geodiff=1 >From the South Exit Interstate 69 at exit 302. Drive east on Jefferson Boulevard into downtown. Turn left on Ewing Street. The Library is one block north, at Ewing Street and Washington Boulevard. Using US 27: US 27 turns into Lafayette Street. Drive north into downtown. Turn left at Washington Boulevard and go five blocks. The Library will be on the right. >From the North Exit Interstate 69 at exit 312. Drive south on Coldwater Road, which merges into Clinton Street. Continue south on Clinton to Washington Boulevard. Turn right on Washington and go three blocks. The Library will be on the right. >From the West Using US 30: Drive into town on US 30. US 30 turns into Goshen Ave. which dead-ends at West State Blvd. Make an angled left turn onto West State Blvd. Turn right on Wells Street. Go south on Wells to Wayne Street. Turn left on Wayne Street. The Library will be in the second block on the right. Using US 24: After crossing under Interstate 69, follow the same directions as from the South. >From the East Follow US 30/then 930 into and through New Haven, under an overpass into downtown Fort Wayne. You will be on Washington Blvd. when you get downtown. Library Plaza will be on the right.

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Parking at the Library

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At the Library, underground parking can be accessed from Wayne Street. Other library parking lots are at Washington and Webster, and Wayne and Webster. Hourly parking is $1 per hour with a $7 maximum. ACPL library card holders may use their cards to validate the parking ticket at the west end of the Great Hall of the Library. Out-of -county residents may purchase a subscription card with proof of identification and residence. The current fee for an Individual Subscription Card is $85. Public lots are located at the corner of Ewing and Wayne Streets ($1 each for the first two half-hours, $1 per hour after, with a $4 per day maximum) and the corner of Jefferson Boulevard and Harrison Street ($3 per day). Street (metered) parking on Ewing and Wayne Streets. On the street you plug the meters 8am – 5pm, weekdays only. The meters take credit cards and charge at a rate of $1/hour. Street parking is free after 5 p.m. and on the weekends. Visitor center/Grand Wayne Center garage at Washington and Clinton Streets. This is the Hilton Hotel parking lot that also serves as a day parking garage. For hourly parking, 7am – 11 pm, charges are .50 for the first 45 minutes, then $1.00 per hour. There is a flat $2.00 fee between 5 p.m. and 11 p.m.

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Genealogy Center Queries

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The Genealogy Center hopes you find this newsletter interesting. Thank you for subscribing. We cannot, however, answer personal research emails written to the e-zine address. The department houses a Research Center that makes photocopies and conducts research for a fee. If you have a general question about our collection, or are interested in the Research Center, please telephone the library and speak to a librarian who will be glad to answer your general questions or send you a research center form. Our telephone number is 260-421-1225. If you’d like to email a general information question about the department, please email: Genealogy@ACPL.Info.

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Publishing Note

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This electronic newsletter is published by the Allen County Public Library's Genealogy Center, and is intended to enlighten readers about genealogical research methods as well as inform them about the vast resources of the Allen County Public Library. We welcome the wide distribution of this newsletter and encourage readers to forward it to their friends and societies. All precautions have been made to avoid errors. However, the publisher does not assume any liability to any party for any loss or damage caused by errors or omissions, no matter the cause. To subscribe to “Genealogy Gems,” simply use your browser to go to the website: www.GenealogyCenter.org. Scroll to the bottom, click on E-zine, and fill out the form. You will be notified with a confirmation email. If you do not want to receive this e-zine, please follow the link at the very bottom of the issue of Genealogy Gems you just received or send an email to kspears@acpl.lib.in.us with "unsubscribe ezine" in the subject line. Curt B. Witcher and John D. Beatty, CG, co-editors