October 2021

Genealogy Gems:

News from the Allen County Public Library at Fort Wayne No. 212, October 31, 2021

In this issue:

Putting the Family Back into Family History--Adding Context and Character to Our Ancestors

Tracing Immigrants through the Port of New York: Early National Period to 1924 0

“Harrison County, Indiana Marital Adventures (Divorces, Adultery and Bigamy) 1809-1856”

Technology Tip of the Month: Adobe Elements Version 2019--Brush Tools

PERSI Gems:

Library Catalog Insider: Nonfiction Shelf Location

History Tidbits: The 1902 Kosher Meat Boycott

Genealogy Center’s November Programs

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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Putting the Family Back into Family History--Adding Context and Character to Our Ancestors by Curt B. Witcher

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I hope your Family History Month was filled with many engaging activities that truly helped you add context and character to the lives of your ancestors. Sometimes I think we are so concerned about getting back one more generation that we don’t fully and completely get to know those ancestors we have already identified. We know that building context is critically important in getting the complete, true stories of our families and avoiding those research brick walls. We also know that sharing the stories of our ancestors’ lives gets others in our families interested in continuing our research and preservation efforts. Children and grandchildren are interested in hearing much more than simply the begets and begots. They appreciate hearing what life was like when parents and grandparents were kids, what an elementary school day was like, what first jobs were like, and how much the hourly rates were. To be sure, young people are quite interested in their families’ stories. A colleague, Allison Singleton, and I spent two class periods at Wayne New Tech, a local high school, this past Friday. We had the great pleasure of listening to high school freshmen talk about and demonstrate the family history projects they had been working on this semester. Oh, my goodness, were they impressive with their creativity, the details they discovered about their families, and their interest in telling others about it. It was amazing! One student made a Monopoly game out of her family’s history; another honored the military service of both of his grandfathers; one freshman traced his heart-line through family artifacts including a still-working generations-old music box, finding facts along the way that his grandmother did not even know; still others made impressively interactive webpages (look out Ancestry.com!); and one individual wrote and performed a rap number about several generations of his family. Again, truly amazing! In one of our virtual offerings this past month, we discussed some keys to finding and adding context and character to our ancestors’ lives. I proposed we should use geographic area, ethnicity, religious affiliation, occupation, and time period as search criteria when looking for context for our ancestors. We really need to move beyond just looking for surnames. Additionally, we discussed some major, free online sites where we could deploy the above mentioned search criteria. They are listed below. “Chronicling America” provides 18.7 million newspaper pages from across the country. “DPLA: Digital Public Library of America” provides 44,918,855 images, texts, videos, and sounds from across the United States. ”Internet Archive” provides more than 40 million texts and videos in which much history can be located. “NUCMC: National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections” gives tremendously detailed descriptions of tens of thousands of manuscript collections from across North America.

“WorldCat” provides more than two billion items described in more than ten thousand libraries’ online catalogs. From these major sites, we can springboard into a multitude of other sites rich with data on our ancestors’ lives. Finding our families’ stories should be at the very core of what we do. Increasingly when I hear individuals lament that their families are not interested in their genealogical work, and that likely upon their demise, their families will make a quick trip to the landfill with it all, I have to wonder if that is really our fault. Is it the result of us not sharing the stories we have uncovered in our families’ histories? I have yet to meet a person who isn’t extremely interested in the stories of their ancestors when presented with those narratives. And I have been at this for quite a long time. So, with the approaching holidays, I invite you to take the time to fill the conversations with the stories of your family. It could make for your most memorable Thanksgiving ever.

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Tracing Immigrants through the Port of New York: Early National Period to 1924 by John D. Beatty, CG

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American family historians seem to take a visceral interest in identifying their immigrant ancestors, the ones who made the intrepid voyage across the Atlantic to become the first family member of their line in the New World. Ship manifests offer an important source for finding these immigrants, but unfortunately, few such lists exist before 1800. For the port of New York, through which most immigrants entered America in the nineteenth century, most records begin in 1820. Many (but not all) of those surviving lists have been digitized and are searchable on Ancestry. Some genealogists who look only at passenger lists may not be aware of the myriad other immigration records associated with New York that have considerable genealogical value. The perfect guide for introducing these records is Anne Sibert Buiter’s “Tracing Immigrants through the Port of New York: Early National Period to 1924” (New York: New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, 2020), GC 929 B87t. Buiter, a professor of Economics at the University of London, presents an overview of passenger lists, naturalization records, passport records, foreign departing passenger lists, newspaper accounts, and foreign emigration records, all sources familiar to most genealogists. She also explores some less well-known sources, including immigrant bank records, shipping articles, quarantine records, hospital records, and mutual aid society records. Some chapters are devoted to particular records, while others focus on records for various major ethnic groups. They include Irish, Germans, Italians, Austro-Hungarians and Poles, Jews and others from the Russian Empire, Puerto Ricans, and Afro-Caribbean immigrants. These chapters contain illustrations of records, background history, overviews of important laws affecting immigration, and extensive annotations. For example, in the chapter on German immigration, Buiter features a graph showing the dates of peak migration, a short background history on nineteenth century emigration from the Germanic countries, tips and sources for reading German handwriting, an overview of German port records by state, and a list of useful websites and books. The chapter on Irish immigration examines resources and record groups both in Ireland and New York. This guide follows in the tradition of excellence set by the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, which has previously published an acclaimed statewide guide to New York records. If you have immigrants who passed through New York City, this volume is worth a look.

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“Harrison County, Indiana Marital Adventures (Divorces, Adultery and Bigamy) 1809-1856” by Elizabeth Hodges

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Under many circumstances, uncovering documentation of domestic conflicts amongst our ancestors can be a challenge— regardless of how recent or distant in time the conflict occurred. For researchers who can trace their families to Harrison County, Indiana, in the early to mid-nineteenth century, “Harrison County, Indiana Marital Adventures (Divorces, Adultery and Bigamy) 1809-1856” (977.201 H24KL) is a valuable resource. Abstracted in 2012 by Lynne Morris Keasling and Sharon Davis Uhl, this volume brings to the forefront some of the earliest domestic conflicts documented in the Harrison County, Indiana Clerk of Court Archives. These domestic conflicts ranged from those desiring a divorce for a variety of reasons to instances and patterns of blatant domestic violence. This volume connects the original complaints found in the County Clerk’s Archives to the Court Order books for disposal of cases. Uhl and Keasling explain in their introduction that many of these cases were not recorded in the Order books and only appeared in a Judges Bar Docket book, so they included a notation if either record of the original complaint or the disposal of the case was not located. Additionally, Uhl and Keasling include contextual genealogical information they uncovered in other records, such as the census, other marriages, and records relating to military service under each entry. The introduction states that potential discrepancies exist between the marriage dates listed in complaints compared to the county marriage books, because many people did not correctly remember their marriage date. This is an important fact to keep in mind if you are on the hunt for a marriage record, and it is also an important reminder that our ancestors’ memories are not infallible. The case of Eliza and Davice Lance is a clear example of how Uhl and Keasling were able both to link multiple court records that spanned across several years together and provide additional genealogical information for context. On September 4, 1847, Eliza Lance, the plaintiff, requested a divorce from her husband David Lance on the grounds of abuse. According to her statement, in August of 1847 David physically attacked her and on multiple occasions threatened to murder her. After a graphic description of the incident, the record states, “The conduct of the said David has been such to render it unsafe for her any longer to live with him.” This case was disposed of on October 12, 1847 after Eliza Lance dismissed the case. The court record immediately following this in “Harrison County Indiana Marital Adventures” is “State of Indiana vs. Lance, David.” According to the record, David Lance had murdered his wife Eliza. David was prosecuted on two counts of murder on November 30, 1849, and was sentenced to “prison at hard labor for the rest of his life” (Uhl & Keasling, 2012, 56). At the bottom of this record, Uhl and Keasling included a note stating what happened to Eliza Lance’s children based on the 1850 census. While “Harrison County Indiana Marital Adventures (Divorces, Adultery and Bigamy) 1809-1856” is in no way light reading, it offers clear insight into the types of domestic issues our ancestors encountered, and how the legal system attempted to manage them.

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Technology Tip of the Month: Adobe Elements Version 2019--Brush Tools by Kay Spears

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Let’s take a look at the Brush Tools. The Brush Tools are located under the Draw category in the Tool Box. Guess what? The tool even looks like a paint brush!! In this version of Elements there are three kinds of brushes: The Brush, Impressionist, and Replacement. When using these brushes, be aware that two of them can be destructive to the image you are working on. Make sure you always work on a copy of the original photograph, and not your only digital copy. Another tip: I very rarely use the brush tools for restoration. When one is working on “restoring” a photograph, painting something on that old photograph is not a good idea. It’s fairly easy to spot a photograph someone has used a paint brush on. You might ask, well when would you use a paint brush? I would use a paint brush if I were involved in creating any kind of graphic design that required drawing or painting. I’m not saying you can never use a paint brush for restoration, but just be very careful when you do. Let’s open an image. The first thing we are going to do is create a New Layer. Name the layer “Paint.” The Paint layer is the one on which we are going to experiment. Now click on the brush tool. The Brush Mode allows you to pick the type of brush, the size, and the opacity. You may also change the blend mode. There is an additional Brush setting dialog box and Tablet settings (in case you have a stylus pen instead of a cursor). You should also become familiar with the Color Palette. At the bottom of the Tool box are two square boxes, a black one and a white one. These are your default colors. When you click on either one of these, you can change the color. Just remember, the black is Foreground, the white is Background. You can reverse them or change them. You can also revert back to the default colors by clicking on the tiny black/white color squares below the larger ones. Now experiment with your brush on the Paint Layer. Doodle to your heart’s content. Change the colors, the blending modes, the brush size…see what this tool can do. You can add more layers, and just keep painting away. Because you are doing all of this on new layers, you can delete any of the ones you don’t like and not damage the bottom layer, which should be the photograph. There is another Brush mode called an Air Brush. This tool should give you an effect that looks like an Airbrush. I suggest you experiment with that tool by changing the blending and opacity. Play with these two brushes. In the next article we will look at the two brushes that could be problematic to your original photograph: The Impressionist Brush and the Color Replacement Brush.

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PERSI Gems: by Adam Barrone and Mike Hudson

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Last month’s “PERSI Gems” foreshadowed the ghostly festivities at the end of October. Our PERSI staff wanted to celebrate Halloween 2021 just a bit more by highlighting how articles found through PERSI may be full of the bizarre, gruesome and the macabre. It certainly demonstrates that one can find just about anything using the “Periodical Source Index.” Try a search here: http://search.findmypast.com/search/periodical-source-index Hoping these horrors won’t keep you up at night, here is a sampling from the “dark side” of PERSI. Thomas Cooper death notice, body tossed in ditch with wife's consent, d. 1589, Staplehurst, Eng. (Kent Family History Society Journal, v.3:n.9, Dec. 1982) Cat-killer on the loose, makes seal-skin caps out of pet cats, Havana Journal item, Jan. 1893 (Schuyler County Historical Society, v.50:n.4, Dec. 2014) Samuel Baldwin burial at sea, to prevent wife from dancing on his grave, Lymington, England (Nova Scotia Genealogist, v.31:n. 3, Fall 2013) Martha J. Nowland vs. Edwin R. Nowland divorce, he threw filthy green frog at her, 1900 (Indiana Genealogist, v.25:n.2, June 2014) Francis Speller death, his cat ate holes in his face and parts of his body, d. 1768, Cranfield, Eng. (Essex Family Historian, n.123, Mar. 2007 – Note: this was headlined “Catastrophe”!) Young man diverting himself with flounders put live one in mouth and died, July, 1745 (Essex Family Historian, n.151, Mar. 2014) Tennessee Gibson death, corpse found with snuff adhering to her lips, d. 1859, Lawrence Co., AR (Tidbits of Lawrence County History (AR), n.1, 2014) John Olliver of Ferring, the gloomy miller, kept coffin under his bed, funeral note, d. 1793 (Essex Family Historian, v.18:n.2, Jun. 2008) Fanny Adams murdered by Frederick Baker, Royal Navy canned meat nickname Sweet Fanny Adams, 1867 (Root & Branch (West Surry Family History Society), v.10:n.2, Aut. 1983) Philip Jones burial notice, a bed of earth left between him and his wife, per his instructions, 1759 (Bristol & Avon Family History Society Journal, n.135, Mar. 2009) John Horwood hanging for Eliza Balsum aka Balsom murder, book bound in his skin, 1821+ (Bristol & Avon Family History Society Journal, n.138, Dec. 2009) Mrs. Deakins death after being sweated two hours in a horse dunghill, d. 1763, Dartford, England (Cambridgeshire Huntingdonshire Family History Society Journal, v.3:n.3, Aug. 1981) Emma Hills baptism, covered in hairy spots, mother scared by Newfoundland dog, 1835, Coveney, Eng. (Cambridgeshire Huntingdonshire Family History Society Journal, v.4:n.8, Win. 1984)

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Library Catalog Insider: Nonfiction Shelf Location by Kasia Young

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Hello fall! As promised, this month we will discuss the NONFICTION shelf location that you might encounter when using The Genealogy Center’s catalog. Let us get started! Begin by going to our website at https://acpl.lib.in.us/genealogy (or GenealogyCenter.org) and typing your search query. We recommend that after you click FIND and get the results list, you select “Genealogy” from the BRANCH facet. Shelf LOCATIONS can be seen either in the results list under “REFERENCE where?” green button, visible on the right-hand side of the title; or, in the item record view, in the ITEMS tab under LOCATION. At this time, all materials classified as 909-912 (stacks 72-74) and 910.4 (stack 21.5), 929 to 929.19 (stacks 72-78), 960, 970 and 971 (stacks 78-80), 973, 973.001 and 973.2 (stacks 163-166), and 973.894 (stack 171) show up in our catalog as NONFICTION. Keep in mind that we are continuously updating our catalog, and hoping that in the near future, all our shelf locations will be updated accordingly. Make sure to refer to our Subject Index and Location Guides to help you find the materials you need. If you need further assistance, ask one of our genealogy librarians, either in person, by phone 260.421.1225, or email: Genealogy@ACPL.Info.

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History Tidbits: The 1902 Kosher Meat Boycott By Allison DePrey Singleton

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“The man is the head, but the woman is the neck. And she can turn the head any way she wants.” – My Big Fat Greek Wedding This quote relates well to the Kosher Meat Boycott that affected New York City in the spring of 1902. The meat industry, or the Meat Trust, sought to increase the retail price of meat, and Kosher meat became even more expensive as a result. Observant Jews could only eat Kosher meat, and it had to follow specific preparation guidelines that made butchering more time consuming. The price of Kosher meat went from 12 cents to 18 cents, which would be a change from $3.83 to $5.74 a pound in today’s prices. Kosher butchers, protesting the wholesale price increase, attempted their own boycott on May 11, 1902, but eventually they succumbed to the urging of the meat industry. The Jewish women of New York City were displeased at the increase, and many were priced out of being able to purchase meat for their families. They took matters into their own hands. Led by Sarah Edelson and Fanny Levy, a group of more than 20,000 men, children, and mostly women flooded the streets on May 15, 1902 to protest the increased prices. They destroyed the meat in the butcher shops and threatened anyone trying to purchase meat. Property was damaged and people were injured. Police arrested only 85 people, most of whom were women. The organizers of the boycott worked to raise money for bail, convinced others to support the boycott, and continued to take to the streets to stop people from purchasing meat. They even went so far as to go door to door to make sure that no meat was being purchased secretly. Many Jewish women of the Lower East Side became vegetarians to prove their point. As recent immigrants, they saw the United States as a place where they could voice their opinions and protest perceived wrongs. Their boycott spread throughout New York City and even made it to other cities, such as Philadelphia. The meat industry finally lowered their prices to 14 cents or $4.47 in today’s prices. It only took three weeks and the organizational skills of many women to bring down the meat industry. Learn more about this event in “The Great Kosher Meat War of 1902: Immigrant Housewives and the Riots that Shook New York City” by Scott D. Seligman. Sources: Feldberg, Michael. “Jews in America: The Kosher Meat Boycott of 1902.” Jewish Virtual Library. Accessed October 29, 2021. https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-kosher-meat-boycott-of1902. “Homemaker Activists.” Tenement Museum, August 4, 2021. https://www.tenement.org/homemakeractivists/. HYMAN, PAULA Ε. “Immigrant Women and Consumer Protest: The New York City Kosher Meat Boycott of 1902.” Women and Politics, 1994, 212–26. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110971088.212. Seligman, Scott D. The Great Kosher Meat War of 1902: Immigrant Housewives and the Riots That Shook New York City. Lincoln, NE: Potomac Books, an imprint of the University of Nebraska Press, 2020.

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Genealogy Center’s November Programs

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We have a full month of virtual offerings for you! As we draw closer to the holidays, make plans to spend time with the Genealogy Center. To learn more or register for the programs, visit https://genealogycenter.org, call 260-421-1225, or email Genealogy@ACPL.Info. Please note that all of these programs are virtual, not onsite, except for the November 17, 2021 program. It is both virtual and onsite. November 2, 2021, 2:30 p.m. ET: “Voter Registrations: Hidden Clues for Genealogy” with Rebecca Koford - https://acpl.libnet.info/event/5769018 November 4, 2021, 6:30 p.m. ET: “Incorporating Newspapers into Your DNA Research” with Elizabeth Hodges - https://acpl.libnet.info/event/5769014 November 9, 2021, 2:30 p.m. ET: “Finding Our Fathers; Understanding African American Fraternalism” with James R Morgan III - https://acpl.libnet.info/event/5776038 November 11, 2021, 6:30 p.m. ET: “Fireside Chat - Military Records” with The Genealogy Center Staff - https://acpl.libnet.info/event/5776052 November 16, 2021, 2:30 p.m. ET: “Saving Your Story: Preservation 101 for the Family Historian” with Annie Halliday - https://acpl.libnet.info/event/5769131 November 17, 2021, 6:00 p.m. ET; “Black in Indiana: The Black Experience in Early 1800s Indiana” with Eunice Brewer-Trotter - https://acpl.libnet.info/event/5752797 November 18, 2021, 6:30 p.m. ET: “Social History of Early Massachusetts” with Seema Kenney - https://acpl.libnet.info/event/5769152 November 23, 2021, 2:30 p.m. ET: “Mayflower Research” with John Beatty - https://acpl.libnet.info/event/5769441 November 30, 2021, 2:30 p.m. ET: “Intergenerational Storytelling and Family History Activities for Families” with Chelsea Johnson - https://acpl.libnet.info/event/5769480 Please register in advance for each program.

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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 e-zine" in the subject line. Curt B. Witcher and John D. Beatty, CG, co-editors