November 2005

Genealogy Gems:

News from the Fort Wayne Library No. 21, November 30, 2005

In this issue:

Tell a Story--Save a Story

1890 Special Enumeration of Union Veterans and Widows

Images of Our Ancestral Ships

Hotel of the month

Area Calendar of Events

ACPL Librarians on Tour

Driving directions to the Library

Parking at the Library

Queries for the Department

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Tell a Story--Save a Story by Curt B. Witcher

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As Thanksgiving marked the official start of the end-of-the-year holiday season, I hope that holiday itself provided you and your families with wonderful opportunities to share stories and memories from the past. Family gatherings, surrounded by good feelings and good food, are often great times to recall memorable, humorous, and touching moments from days gone by. I believe it is one of the most important things we can do during any holiday season--and it will certainly have a more lasting impact than any other gift we give or receive. In fact, it is the gift. I would like to challenge you this holiday season to give a true gift of yourself and your time. I would like you challenge you to both tell a story and save a story between now and the end of the year. Telling a story is simply that--taking the time to recall in whatever level of detail you‛d like a family story from your past and sharing it with another family member. “Telling” the story can take the form of a postal letter, an email, a telephone call, or actually talking with your kin in person over a meal, after church, on a walk, or wherever you‛d like to meet. The story can be simply your words or it can include a picture or document that helps illustrate the story. That‛s totally up to you. After all, it‛s your story! It is through the telling of our stories that we get family members interested in the amazing events and individuals that brought us to where we are today. And, the telling of family stories is a big part of getting others in our family interested in family history. We know that engaging in genealogy is so much more than a collection of names, dates, and places. Why not share that understanding with others? After you‛ve told your story, now you‛re ready for the second half of the challenge-- saving your story. And saving takes just a little more effort than telling. If you‛ve sent an email to tell your story, copy and paste that email into your favorite genealogy program--you know, the one you back-up religiously and frequently share with numerous family members just to ensure there is always a working copy around. Distributing your genealogical information to interested persons in your family is an important part of ensuring that your information is available to you if calamity strikes, as well as part of making it available for future generations of researchers interested in your family lines. If you‛ve shared your story by sending a postal mail letter, keep a copy of that letter in a special safe place with your other family documents and include it with those documents you may digitize or preserve in other media. If you‛ve shared your story by talking with a relative, take the time to key that story into your genealogy computer files or record it in some other fashion so it will not be subject to the passage of time and subject to failing memory. When we commit to telling and sharing our family stories, we are ensuring that important information is available for the next generation of researchers . . . and the generation to follow them. The Historical Genealogy Department along with the entire library system joins me in wishing you the safest of holiday seasons filled with many opportunities to tell and save your stories.

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1890 Special Enumeration of Union Veterans and Widows by Timothy Dougherty

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The loss of the vast majority of the 1890 U.S. census schedules is a challenge that faces many researchers. However, a special enumeration of Union veterans and widows was taken at the same time to assist with Civil War pension claims. Fortunately, much of this material survives. While this is no real substitute for the regular census, it may place an individual in a specific place and add color to a researcher‛s knowledge of him. This collection consists of 118 microfilm reels and is available in the Genealogy Department. Reels 1-117 include states alphabetically from Kentucky through Wyoming. Within states, the schedules are arranged by county. Records for states alphabetically before Kentucky, as well as half of the Kentucky schedules, have been mostly lost or destroyed. Reel 118 contains Washington D.C., and sparse fragments from California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana and Kansas. The schedules consist of two parts. The first part lists the name of the soldier, sailor, marine or widow, their rank, company, regiment or vessel, the dates of enlistment and length of service. Occasionally, a dependent mother may be listed. The second part includes the post-office address, disabilities incurred in service, and general remarks. Complaints like “chronic diarrhea,” “bloody flux and piles,” “deafness,” and “shot through foot” are among the multitude that may be encountered in the disabilities section. And along with any number of interesting entries, remarks recorded include items such as “sun-stroke at 1 st Bull Run,” “exposure while in service,” and “injured when horse fell on him.” It may be recorded that the veteran was pensioned or had been a prisoner of war or deserter, and in the case of widows, the husband‛s death date or details are sometimes included. As this information was collected for pension purposes, some fraud did occur. The researcher would be ill-advised to consider this exclusively a Civil War resource. Although the intention was to enumerate only Union veterans of the Civil War, many Confederate veterans were listed. Moreover, some schedules for southern localities are comprised entirely of Confederate veterans. Mexican War veterans were often incorporated, as were some veterans of the War of 1812 and various “Indian Wars.” In rare instances, veterans of foreign wars were included. An every name index to this set was recently posted at www.Ancestry.com. Other indices have been prepared for some states and are available in book format. Most of the printed indices do not give specific page numbers, but provide the Supervisor‛s District, or Enumeration District in which the veteran or widow is listed.

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Images of Our Ancestral Ships by John Beatty

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Many genealogists are interested in finding images of the ships that brought their ancestors to the New World. A standard and much-used source is Michael Anuta‛s Ships of Our Ancestors, which includes pictures mainly of steamships from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. If your ancestors came at an earlier time period on a sailing ship, however, you may want to try M. V. and Dorothy Brewington‛s Marine Paintings and Drawings in the Peabody Museum, a two-volume work published in 1981. The Peabody Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, contains one of the largest collections of marine and ship images in the United States, including many one-of-a-kind paintings from the nineteenth century. The Brewingtons collected most of these images, arranged them by artist, and assigned them numbers. A full index to the ships appears at the end under “Vessels.” Barks, schooners, sloops, brigs, naval vessels, clipper ships, pilot boats, and yachts of international registry appear in high quality images, some of them in color. Often additional information is included, such as the date of the ship‛s construction, its tonnage, its registry, and the provenance of the painting. Use the books cautiously. Many of these vessels did not transport immigrants, but were used for military, pleasure, or commercial purposes. Sometimes different vessels had the same name, and additional research may be needed to determine if the ship depicted is the same one that sailed the Atlantic in a particular year. For example, a search under “Water Witch” reveals a brig, a schooner, a sailing vessel, and a steamship, all with this name. A careful reading of an ancestral passenger list manifest may determine not only the name, but also the type of vessel that transported your ancestor, which will aid in making a positive match with an image.

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Preservation Tip of the Month by Becky Schipper

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ACPL‛s Preservation Technician Becky Schipper offers advice on conserving your documents: Documents can be cleaned using a document cleaning pad. The pad should be squeezed over the soiled areas allowing the powder to fall on the document. Gently rub the powder and then remove the residue with a soft bristled brush. These pads should NOT be used on fragile documents or photographs. [Editor‛s note: Lineco Document Cleaning Pads are easily available on the internet, if you cannot find them locally.]

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HOTEL OF THE MONTH

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Each issue we will feature a local hotel, for visitors from out-of-town. Baymont Inn 1005 West Washington Center Road, Fort Wayne 46825 phone 260-489-2220 fax 260-489-4579 or call toll-free 1-877-BAYMONT The Baymont Inn stands in the commercial area on West Washington Center Road, with a wide variety of restaurants, from McDonald‛s to the Red River Steakhouse, nearby. Rooms include breakfast (waffles, French toast and boiled eggs), newspaper, high-speed internet access, dataport phones, premium cable television, coffee makers and a fitness center. You can request rooms with microwave and refrigerator. Pets are welcome. The library is five miles away on the quick route to downtown via Lima Road. Room rates start at $65.

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AREA CALENDAR OF EVENTS

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Allen County Public Library 3 rd floor atrium display area Passages: Immigration Allen County Genealogical Society of Indiana (ACGSI) Refreshments at 6:30 p.m., meeting at 7:00 p.m. Questions: contact Marge Graham, 260 672-2585 or gramar57@aol.com. ACGSI has a new website. The URL is www.acgsi.org. Katie Bloom tells us: “Adam Barrone is doing a great job with this page. Look for some surprises in the coming months.” Wednesday, 14 December: Dupont branch ACPL. Craig Berndt: Interurbans of Northeast Indiana, a PowerPoint presentation with maps, photos and historical background. Computer Users Group Wednesday 21 December: Aboite branch ACPL, 7:00. Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) First Wednesday of each month in the Genealogy Department 9am – 7pm. Expert help from members of the DAR in becoming a member of that organization

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ACPL LIBRARIANS ON TOUR

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The genealogy librarians are staying around home this month, celebrating the holidays and maybe adding to their own genealogies!

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DRIVING DIRECTIONS TO THE LIBRARY

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Wondering how to get to the library? Our exciting transition location is 200 E. Berry, Fort Wayne, Indiana. We will be at this location until late 2006. We would enjoy having you visit the Genealogy Department. To get directions from your exact location to 200 E. Berry, Fort Wayne, Indiana, visit this link at MapQuest: http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?country=US&countryid=250&addtohistory=&s earchtab=address&searchtype=address&address=200+E+Berry+St&city=Fort+Wayne&s tate=IN&zipcode=46802-2706&search=++Search++&finditform=1 From the South Exit Interstate 69 at exit 102. Drive east on Jefferson Blvd. into downtown. Turn left on Barr Street to Berry Street. The library is located on the corner of Berry and Barr Streets. From the North Exit Interstate 69 at exit 112. Drive south on Coldwater Road, which merges into Clinton Street. Continue south on Clinton, the library will be on your left when you cross Berry Street. From the West Using US 30: Drive into town on US 30. US 30 turns into Goshen Road. Coming up to an angled street (State Street.) make an angled left turn. Turn right on Wells Street. Go south on Wells to Wayne Street. Left on Wayne Street. When you cross Clinton, the library will be on your left on Wayne Street. 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 into downtown. Turn right on Barr Street. Turn left on Berry Street. The library is on your left on Berry Street.

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PARKING AT THE LIBRARY

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Lot in front of the library, east side of the lot. Available for short-term library parking. Limited to one hour. There are handicapped parking spots near the door. Tippman Parking Garage Clinton and Wayne Streets. Across from the library, however the skybridge is NOT accessible. Hourly parking, $1.25 per hour up to a maximum of $5.00 per day. Park Place Lot Covered parking on Barr Street at Main Street. This lot is one block away from the library. Hourly parking Monday through Friday, 9am to 6pm. Street (metered) parking on Wayne Street and Berry Street. On the street you plug the meters 8am – 5pm, weekdays only. It is free to park on the street after 5pm and on the weekends. Visitor center/Grand Wayne center Covered parking 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 5pm and 11pm.

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GENEALOGY DEPARTMENT QUERIES

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The Historical Genealogy Department 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 Historical Genealogy Department, 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.FriendsOfAllenCounty.org. Scroll down toward the bottom of the first screen where it says, "Enter Your Email Address to Subscribe to "Genealogy Gems." Enter your email address in the yellow box and click on "Subscribe." 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 GenealogyGems you just received or send an email to kspears@acpl.lib.in.us with "unsubscribe e-zine" in the subject line. Ryan Taylor, editor