Census Sunday–John and Anna Pakledinaz/Pakledinac, 1930 US Census, Warren Township, Macomb, Michigan

It is Census Sunday and I am looking at the 1930 Census for the household of John and Anna Pakledinaz. Here is the transcription from the census:

1.  John Pakledinac, Head, owned No. 70 on the farm schedule on 13 mile rd., 45 yrs old, Mother/Father/himself born in Ireland, Native tongue: Irish, Immigrated 1905, Alien status, works as a farmer on a truck farm.
2. Anna, wife, 40 yrs old, Mother/Father/self born in Ireland, Native tongue: Irish, immigrated 1909, alien status, No occupation
3. Adam, son, 19 yrs old, born in Ohio, no school since 1 sept. 1929, Occupation: laborer on farm
4. Ligebth, daughter, 18 yrs old, born: Ohio, no school since 1 sept. 1929, no occupation
5. Tresa, daughter, 15 yrs old, born Michigan, no school since 1 sept. 1929, no occupation
6. Anna, daughter, 13 yrs old, born Michigan, no school since 1 sept. 1929, no occupation
7. John, son, 12yrs old, born Michigan, has attended school since 1 sept. 1929, no occupation
8. Rose, daughter, 10 yrs old, born Michigan, has attended school since 1 sept. 1929, no occupation
9.  James, son, 8 yrs old, born Michigan, has attended school since 1 sept. 1929, no occupation
10. Leona, daughter, 6 yrs old, born Michigan, no school since 1 sept. 1929, no occupation
11Joseph, son, 2 1/2 yrs old, born Michigan, no school since 1 sept. 1929, no occupation

Something's of note for myself:

• The surname is spelled with a C at the end, just like in his home country of Croatia/Slavonia. It is pronounced as a Z so I wonder how the spelling got that way on this Census – the Z ending if more familiar here in the States.
• I’ve already written about the Ireland/Irish stuff and disproven all of that and don’t think I’ll ever know where that comes from. You can read that post here.
• They lived on a farm in the Truck Farm industry and John worked on his own accord. I’m assuming this was a small vegetable farm on their own land. I need to do some research about truck farms in Michigan to confirm this.
• He also states that he owned this farm – so have to look into the land records for this.
• Both John and Anna lists their immigration years and that they have Alien status – I was hoping they would have put in their first papers for naturalization but I guess not – but that won’t stop me from looking.
• Their second child was born in Ohio in about 1912 and their third child (my grandmother) was born in Michigan in 1914. So, that narrows down a timeframe for their move from Ohio to Michigan.

If I’ve missed anything, please let me know if the comments.

Thanks for stopping by and keep diggin’ for that family.

Chris

Tombstone Tuesday–Harry Almer Lindsay

This week’s Tombstone Tuesday post is for Harry Almer Lindsay. He is not a blood relative, however, they are important to our family history and you can read my thoughts on this in my Blood is not always Thicker when it comes to Family post.

Harry is my great-grandfather, his son is Richard Almer Lindsay. My son is named after both of them. He hails from Maryland but also lived in Washington D.C.

His find-a-grave memorial can be found here.

Thanks for stopping by and keep diggin’ up that family.

Chris

John Pakledinaz–Immigration-Ship’s Manifest

This is the manifest¹ which shows Johann Pakledinac arriving in the United States. I am almost positive this is my great grandfather John Pakledinaz and that this begins the origins of our Pakledinaz line in the United States.

Here is what we can get from this manifest:

Ship: The Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse

Departure Port and date: Left from Bremen on July 25th, 1905

Arrival Port and date: Arrived the port of New York on August 3rd, 1905

Johann (John) was 20 years old when they arrived which matches with the birthday I have for him of 16 March 1885.

He was single

His occupation was a Wheel Wright

He was able to read and write

His was a citizen of the country Slavonia (which matches to what I already have as his birth place)

His race is listed as German (something that I did not know but makes sense since his future bride, Anna Maria Hinterhauser, is German)

His last permanent residence was the village of Tompojevci in Hungary (at this time Slavonia was in the Hungarian portion of the Austro-Hungarian Empire – Today it is located in Croatia – you can see it on Google Maps here).

His final destination was Youngstown, Ohio. He had a ticket to his final destination and he paid for the trip himself.

He had $4 on him.

He was going to join his cousin, Jakob Pakledinac in Youngstown Ohio 320 [I am not sure what the 320 means – could be an address but the rest of it is missing?]

One item which I find very interesting is that John immigrated in 1905 and his future wife, Anna Maria Hinterhauser, did not immigrate until 1909. They would meet, as family lore says, at Anna’s brothers house in Youngstown, Ohio. Anna arrived in the US in August of 1909 and she would marry John just 5 months later. Here is the interesting part:

John’s home village, Tompojevci, is just 61 km (38 miles) from Anna’s home village of Milititsch (now called Srpski Miletic). Yet, they meet and marry thousands of miles away from where they were born? Did they know each other prior or at least did their families know each other in the old country? Or is it just a big coincidence?

I’ll probably never know and I will always have the question. However, because their immigration was separated by 4 years I would guess that they did not know each other. Their families may have known each other in the ‘old country’ but they could have just met in the states as immigrants tended to settle in like areas when coming to the states.

If you see a connection or information that I am missing please leave a comment.

Thanks for stopping by and keep diggin’ for that family,

Chris

 

1."New York, Passenger Lists, 1820-1957," online images, Ancestry.com (http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=7488 : accessed 1 Oct 2013), manifest, Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse, 3 August 1905, Passenger #22, Pakledinac Johann.

Tombstone Tuesday–Thomas & Susannah John

This weeks Tombstone Tuesday is for Thomas David John and Susannah Rowe. They are our 2nd Great Grandparents. This is how they fit into our ancestor line:

They are the parents of Selina Ann (John) Canter, our great grandmother

The Grandparents of Mary Elizabeth Jane (Canter) Shaw, our grandmother

Thomas and Susanna are immigrant ancestors having come to the United States from Wales in 1910 where they joined Susannah’s parents in Scranton, Pa.

Thomas died of Bronchitis and Susannah’s death is attributed to drowning by suicide. Her son, Thomas William died 2 years earlier (1913) and reports say that she never recovered from his death and suffered from extreme depression.

Thomas’s find-a-grave memorial can be found here. Susannah’s find-a-grave memorial can be found here.

Also buried alongside them is their son, David Thomas John, his find-a-grave memorial can be found here.

NOTE: The Tombstone date of Thomas’s Birth is wrong, he was actually born in 1859.

Thanks for stopping by and keep diggin’ for that family.

Chris

Where Did This Come From? Hinterhauser Bible?

I can add to the string of mistakes I’ve made when I was a very young and inexperienced genealogist. The document to the right is a scan out of a Hinterhauser family bible (transcription below). At least that is what I remember. See, although I have the scan saved on my computer I have nothing that tells me when I got it or from whom I got it.

I do remember that it was very early in my family history journey, probably about 2002. I know that it was the first big break-through of my search for Hinterhausers. Since I was in Germany at the time, I asked a co-worker to look at it and they explained the words to me and also that it looked to come from a Familienbuch or Ortssippenbuch. They helped me research a little which led me to finding these families in German records from the Batschka region of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and even back to the original German villages of our Hinterhauser line and also the most distant relatives I have found, my 6th Great Grandparents – Josef and Magdalena (Schwahl) Morlock. These are the parents of Katharina Morlock who are not listed on the bible page.

This is where this page fits into our family:

No 1841 marriage is Augustine Hinterhauser to Rosalia Csihas – these are my 2nd Great Grandparents. Their son, listed underneath them, Augustine is the brother of my Great Grandmother, Anna Maria (Hinterhauser) Pakledinaz. I have written about her in a couple different posts: Ancestor Appreciation and also on the Hinterhauser Page/Post.

This mystery page was very critical to my early search but due to my poor record keeping and just plain inexperience, I do not know exactly where it came from. 

My goal in sharing this is to 1) find out if I can locate some cousins who may even have the bible where this was written and 2) give a bit of advice to anyone just starting out – Document…Document…Document everything about everything you receive in your journey.

So, do I have any cousins out there that may have seen this page before? Maybe you have this mystery bible in your possession? Please leave a comment if you have any relation to these lines.

Thanks for stopping by and keep diggin’ for that family.

Chris

Here is the transcription and translation of that document:

Page 326

No. 1833 Hinterhauser Martin Son of H(interhauser). Martin & Anna Marie Scheuer 1

Katharina Morlock

____________

Son Of

No. 1834 Hinterhauser Martin & Katharina Morlock 2

Hinterhauser Josef & Frau Anna Teppert daughter of Andreas Tep. Susan Krembacher

Son of

No. 1835 Hinterhauser Josef & Anna Teppert 3

Hinterhauser Philippe Frau Madgalena Kehl daughter Andreas Keho Eva Umlau

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­_____________

Page 327 Son of

No 1837 Hintehauser Philipp & frau Magdalena Kehl 4

Hinterhauser Augustine Frau Rosalia Csihas daughter Josef C(sihas). Anna Maria Piller

______________

Son of

No 1841 Hinterhauser Augustine & Frau Rosalia Csihas 5

Hinterhauser Augustine Frau Elisabeth Stoos daughter Johann Stoos ?

Son of

Hinterhauser Augustine & Elizabeth Stohr

No 6 Josef Hinterhauser 6

Ipad For Genealogy–Pt 3–Password Overload!

This is the 3rd installment of a series I’m doing on how I use the iStuff (iPhone/iPad) for genealogy and general research. You can read the first posts here: Part 1 - Calendars and Part 2 - Free Cloud Storage.

How many different internet sites or apps do you have password protected? If you are like our family, there are countless numbers from bank accounts, emails, kids internet sites, school internet sites, etc... As family historians, we only add to the number of passwords with the internet and database sites that we may subscribe to. We have to keep track of those passwords and keep them close by when we need them while also keeping them protected. We started using one of those solutions about a year ago, it is called Cozi Password Vault.

There are lots of password vault apps out there and all pretty much do the same thing, they are the keeper of your passwords and other sign-in information that you need on a daily basis but just can't always remember. What separated Cozi Vault for me was the ability for it to sync between devices. I wanted to use it on my iPhone and iPad and also my wife's iPhone, and it works great.

In order for it to sync between devices, it is ultimately setup in the cloud so that may be scary for some. It is not that scary for me because I read reviews of things like this and also look at their security issues, I was impressed with what people had to say so we started using it and have not looked back.

Here is a list of things that we like about it:

1. Syncs between all our iStuff so I add/change a password for our bank account on my phone or iPad, it updates on my wife's phone automatically. This syncing does not have to take place on Wi-Fi, Cozi will use cellular service to keep everything in sync.
2. Not just for passwords, you can customize menus and data so you can store login information or just about anything that you want to remember for a site.
3. The database has places for the url for the site so you can access your password and then open up the site right from within cozy
4. It has a password generator - I have some accounts where I have to change passwords every 30 or 60 days and I cannot use a password that I used before so this generator comes in very handy.
5. With on click, your password is copied to your clipboard so you can paste it right into the site when needed.

This is not a free app, I think it costs $1.99, not much when you think about the hassle it saves trying to remember all those passwords and login information.

I know there are plenty of these apps out there; which one are you using and why? Let us know in the comments.

Thanks for reading and keep diggin' for that family.

Technorati Tags: Ipad,Iphone,passwords,password vault

This Day in History–25 September

1854 – William Shirt married Elizabeth Pakeman in the little town of Chapel en le Frith, in Derbyshire, England. William and Elizabeth are our 3rd Great Grandparents in our dad’s paternal line. The are mentioned in our Surname Saturday – Shaw post.

 

 

 

Thanks for stopping by and keep diggin’ for that family.

Chris

Tombstone Tuesday–Selina Ann (John) Canter

Today’s Tombstone Tuesday post is for Selina Ann (John) Canter. Selina is our great grandmother (mother of Mary E.J. Shaw). She is an immigrant ancestor which I paid tribute to in this post: Ancestor Appreciation Day: My Immigrant Ancestors.

I created a find-a-grave memorial and you can find it here.

Thanks for stopping by, keep diggin’ for that family.

Chris

This Day in History–22 September

1795 – Simon Csihas married Anna Maria Schiebli, our 5th Great Grandparents. They were married in Batschsentiwan, Batschka, Austro-Hungarian Empire.

• Simon was born in Bohemia (Böhmen), 1751 and he died in Batschsentiwan on 3 November 1805.
• Anna Maria was born 15 Feb 1777 in Apatin, Batschka, Austro-Hungarian Empire.

1841 – Ottilie Barbara Jaeschke was born in Colonie Wilczak. She is my kids 4th Great Grandmother on my wife's side. She married Johann Ernst Heinrich Gierig on 2 April 1865 in Bromberg, Colonie Wilczak.

NOTE:   Not sure but we think Colonie Wiczak was located near the current town of Bydgoszcz, Poland.

Thanks for stopping by and keep diggin’ for that family.
Chris

Documenting the Present?

Are you documenting your kid’s life as you go? I thought about this the other day during my boy’s cub scout meeting. I was a cub scout when I was about their age, but all I really remember is going to the meetings and wearing the little blue uniform. I don’t remember what rewards, badges, or accomplishments I earned during that time. I kind of wish I remembered that or had something that told me.  I don’t want my kids, 30 or 40 years from now wondering the same thing. But how should I go about doing this?

We are already keeping some of the patches, belt loops, and certificates in a box, but what if this box gets damaged or lost? I think we need a backup plan. A scrapbook would work, but those are time consuming and have the same possibility of getting lost or damaged as the box. Then it hit me! My genealogy software would work great for that. It has an event process to enter awards, honors, memberships, etc… and I’ve used these for my ancestors but have not been very good at using them for documenting the present.

The boys cub scout and our daughters girl scout advancements and awards fit nicely within this program. I can add pictures of the events and electronic versions of their certificates. This is the perfect backup plan and something I should have been doing all along.

I think we get so caught up in finding out about our ancestors that we forget to think that our descendants are going to want to know about our life. I need to get better in documenting the present accomplishments of our family to help out our future generations who may want to know what we were up to. Remember, the past of the future is the present.

What present moments are you making sure you document? Have there been some that you’ve missed?

Thanks for reading and keep diggin’ for that family.

Chris

Tombstone Tuesday–George H. and Mary J. Shaw

 

Today’s Tombstone Tuesday post is for George Howard and Mary Elizabeth Jane (Canter) Shaw. These are my grandparents. They are mentioned in a couple past posts: Ancestor Appreciation Day and also Surname Saturday: Shaw. George’s find-a-grave memorial can be found here. Mary’s find-a-grave memorial can be found here.

Thank you for stopping by, keep diggin’ for that family.

Chris

Technorati Tags: Family History,Genealogy

This Day in History–14 Sept

1935 - Joseph Lucas married Teresa Barbara Pakledinaz. These are my maternal grandparents.

More about them and their lines in these posts:

• Surname Saturday - Lucas and Luksys
• Surname Saturday - Hinterhauser (Teresa's Maternal line)
• Surname Saturday - Pakledinaz Pakledinac
• Wordless Wednesday - Joseph and Elizabeth
• Military Monday - Memorial Day - Pfc Joseph Lucas

1962 – Happy Birthday to my Big Brother, Bill, veteran of the US Navy (although he has put a few pounds on since this picture was taken).

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for reading and keep diggin’ for that family.

Chris

Surname Saturday–Shaw

Guest post from my sister, Kathy Kayko. Thanks Sis!

Our Shaw surname originates from England. Our paternal 2^nd Great-Grandfather, Edward Barker Shaw, was born January 18^th, 1854 in Nottingham, England to Frederick Thomas Shaw and Sarah (Alcock) Shaw. Edward married Hannah Shirt, daughter of William and Elizabeth (Pakeman) Shirt, on April 28^th, 1878 in the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, in New Mills, district of Hayfield, County of Derby, England. Edward would immigrate to Toronto, Canada sometime in 1882, apparently to find a better life for him and his young family in the railroad industry. Hannah would follow Edward to Canada a year later with the first three of their nine children. Hannah left Liverpool in September 1883 with their daughter, Sara Ellen (5), and sons George Edward (3) and William T. (infant), aboard the S.S. Lake Winnipeg bound for the port of Quebec. Edward and Hannah’s other children, all born in Canada, are: Agnes (1885), Douglas Henry (1886), Mary Ann (1889-1892), Fred (1892), Alfred Norman (1893), and Hilda (1899). Their second child, George Edward Shaw, is our Great-Grandfather and another immigrant ancestor.

George was born November 1^st, 1879 in Openshaw, Lancashire, England. He would marry Elizabeth Jones on July 15^th, 1903 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. George was an active member of The Grand Lodge of Masons in Ontario, Canada from May 1921 until his death on November 20^th, 1944 in Toronto. George and Elizabeth would have two children, George Howard (1904) and Stewart Edward (1907). Stewart would marry but had no kids, he died June 25^th, 1972 in Toronto. George Howard is another of our immigrant ancestors, and our grandfather.

George H. was born June 29^th, 1904 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He immigrated to Detroit, Michigan March 29^th, 1926 via the D&W (Detroit & Windsor) Ferry probably to secure a job in the automobile industry as he worked as a tool & die maker for most of his life. He met our grandmother, Mary Elizabeth Jane Canter^[1], in Detroit where they were married February 28^th, 1930. George and Mary would live their entire life on Rockdale Avenue in Detroit. George H. died October 1^st, 1964 and is buried in Parkview Memorial Cemetery in Livonia, Wayne County, Michigan. Mary would follow George in passing 25 years later, on November 26^th, 1989. She is buried alongside her husband.

---

[1] The Canter surname was originally Cantello or Cantelo in their homeland of Wales – it was changed upon entering the United States. Their story will be in a future post.

If you find a connection with our Shaw’s, please leave a comment.

Kathy

Technorati Tags: Genealogy,Family History

Ipad For Genealogy–Part 2 FREE Stuff

I started off with Part 1 talking about calendars and you can read that here.

For this post I am going to talk about FREE stuff when it comes to online or cloud storage.
Everyone likes free stuff.

I have been a longtime user of Dropbox and just not for my genealogy stuff; I use it for everything that I want to access across my digital platforms. However, the Dropbox free account only offers 2GB of storage (with referrals you can get more) and I have been pushing that limit. So, I have recently been exploring other options to add to my free cloud storage because I just don’t want to pay for it. So, here is what I am doing and how I now have 32GB of free cloud storage.

1. Dropbox (2GB). This is my goto storage just because I have been using it for so long and am comfortable with it and it plays very nicely with everything. However, like I mentioned, it only comes with 2GB for the free account. I am pushing that limit.
2. Google Drive (15GB). Since I use Google, I have free storage with them called Google Drive. I have not really used this too much in the past and I really don’t know why. However, I‘ve linked my storage to all my devices and will now play with it. My initial thoughts is this is where I will store word processing and excel spreadsheets that I need to update on a fairly routine nature. Research logs, biographical sketches, research notes, etc… Google drive is the the goto place so you don’t have to buy Microsoft Office. I’m beginning to like it a lot.
3. SkyDrive (7GB) by Microsoft. I’ve had this for awhile but did not like it in the past because it seemed glitchy and didn’t seem to play nice with others. The primary purpose of this was to sync Microsoft product specific information and I didn’t use Microsoft stuff for portability, I have Apple stuff for that. However, Microsoft has updated something and it is working a lot better and more like the other cloud storage products. After linking my account and downloading the app it seems to be a great place to store things that you want to have access to but may not update – static pages of information. I am a den leader for one of my boys Cub Scout dens so I am using this for all that information. Seems to be working great so far.
4. SugarSync (5GB)– this is the newest to my cloud storage apps. It seems to be very comparable to Dropbox, just a very different interface but not too difficult to work around. I am using it the same that I use Dropbox just with different stuff; I put all my schoolwork and military history research sources in here. The hardest part of SugarSync was actually getting the free storage, it isn’t obvious on their website. You have to first download the desktop application and then create an account from there. You then get the option to accept their free account – although it keeps defaulting to try and get you to opt for the paid version. But, 5GB of storage is perfect for what I need it for.

So, there you have it – I went from 2GB of free storage with Dropbox to 32GB of cloud storage in just a couple of days. It may seem inconvenient because stuff is located in different folders or apps, but it only took me a day or so to get used to where I put stuff – I don’t even have to think about it now.

Do you use free cloud storage? Did I miss a good one? Let us know by leaving a comment.

Thanks for reading and keep diggin’ for that family.

Chris

P.S. I will be making periodic updates to this post to let everyone know how each is working out.

Technorati Tags: Ipad,Cloud Storage,Genealogy,Family History

Temptation!

This is a guest post by my wife, Michele. Thank you, Dear!

Do you tend to “branch out” on your quest for answers in your genealogical research? Are you even tempted to do so? And by branching out, I don’t mean finding a person where you have to use Google to figure out how you are related, like your maternal grandmother’s second cousins brother twice removed kind of thing.

Here’s a little example of my temptation. My great uncle, William V. Capen, was a pilot stationed in France during WWI. He died November 3^rd, 1918 from injuries received in an airplane accident, just days before the war ended. By studying his obituary, I found that not only were his parents and 3 sisters mentioned, but also a fiancée. The lives of the surviving family members can be traced throughout my ancestry, but I often wonder what happened to the fiancée? Did she eventually find her Mr. Right and live happily ever after or was she so grief stricken by the loss? Was she accepted by the family and did they stay in touch? Many, many unanswered questions.

I imagine it being like the best book you ever read being turned into a Hollywood movie. Suddenly, the main character of the book that was a villain with jet black hair and who dies in the end, turns into the blond surfer dude that gets the fair maiden and lives happily ever after; a major disappointment. So, do I really want to know the answers? No, not really…some things are just better left tucked away in the little closet of my imagination.

Do you have any stories you are tempted to search out but won’t because you are afraid you might be disappointed? Let us know in the comments.

Michele

Photo courtesy of: D. Boyarrin

Technorati Tags: Family History,Genealogy,Family Stories

Rookie Mistake–Source Documentation

I am working on my genealogical documentation, as stated in my previous posts: A New Start and also Slow and Easy. I have run into yet another snag in my previous research and documentation, that if done correctly the first time, would have saved much time now.

The current problem is within the marriage of John and Anna Pakledinaz (my great grandparents). It is not that I do not know when or where they were married, I am confident I know this information. They were married on 15 January 1910 in Youngstown, Mahoning County, Ohio. The problem is with my documentation of this information. Here is a list of my sources/information:

1. Back in 2000, I wrote to the Youngstown Diocese to find out about St. Joseph Church and the marriage record of John and Anna. The Chancellor wrote back that same day saying the church does not exist anymore but she has the records in her office. She gave me the information I requested, here is exactly what she wrote: "There is a marriage record for Pakledinaz/Hinterhauser. Although the record is difficult to read, as it was written in cursive Latin and fountain pen, it looks like the name is Joannes(John) Hinterhausen and Annam (Ann or Anna) Pakledinaz. The witnesses were Adam Willie and P_____ (unreadable) Flagger. January 15, 1910: married by Rev. J. W. Klute. The parents' names are not listed.” NOTE: The last names are reversed for John and Anna?  
2. The day after that email traffic, the Chancellor typed and certified a Certificate of Marriage with the seal of the Chancellery and sent it to me. (I only have the certificate, I did not keep the envelop or anything else she may have sent with it). (Again the last names are reversed for John and Anna).
3. I also have another Marriage Certificate in my possession, although this is a copy. This is a certificate obtained May 7, 1951. This lists the same information but does not reverse the last names and does list the name of John and Anna's parents (Score). It also says on the lower left corner, "Vol 1 Page 133.

What I have is pretty good evidence to prove the marriage of John and Anna on 15 January 1910 in Youngstown. However, here are the questions I have when trying to put these sources into my database and my rookie mistakes when I got these sources.

For #2, I do not know if any other information came with the certificate since I did not keep the envelope. I also do not know which type of source was used to compile the information although it sounds like the church book as was mentioned in #1 above. I would much rather have a photo or copy of the original church book, then I can evaluate what was written for myself and see if the names were actually reversed in the book or was it a mistake of the Chancellor who gave me the information.

For #3, where did this information come from, where did it originate? Where did I get it from? This was obtained in 1951 and it is singed by a Reverend, so I'm guessing that it came from church records. But if this did come from the church records then why did it contain the parents names and #2 did not? I'm guessing that the vol 1 page 133 is showing the book it came from, but who has that book? If the Chancellor does then why does it not have the parents name again? Maybe this record is from the official court records for the marriage and the vol 1 page 133 refers to their documentation at the courts?

All these questions frustrate me because most could be answered if I would have kept better record of my sources. This is what I am learning:

1. It is not enough to document your source information, you must also know where that source came from. Ask the questions! I could have asked the chancellor’s office in the email chain about #1 and 2 but I did not.
2. When you receive a copy of a source from someone else, whether it be in the mail or in email or in person, keep everything that accompanied that source - the envelope , the original email and all accompanied emails. Then make a note of everything that came with it and from whom you received it so you do not question yourself later, as I am doing now.

One of the reasons that I started this project, which I call my restart, is to find instances just as I am describing. I've learned a lot over the last several years about research and documentation, stuff that I wish I knew back in 2000 when I made these mistakes. But, I was a rookie way back then and I'm sure I'm going to find a lot more just like this.

What kind of rookie mistakes have you found in your own research? Have you fixed them? Leave a comment and tell us about them so we can all learn from each others mistakes.

I hope that someone can learn from my mistake here and not repeat it. Thanks for reading and keep diggin' for that family.

Chris

Note: I have written of John and Anna a couple other times, you can read them in these posts: Surname Saturday - Paklendinaz - Pakledinac and Pakledinac- Irish? and also Ancestor Appreciation Day: My Immigrant Ancestors.

iPad/iPhone for Genealogy and Research - Pt. 1

I am assuming that I am not alone when I confess that the search for technology which will make my life easier is an addiction for me. I'm convinced that there is some form of new technology that will improve every part of my life and my workflow. I can spend hours researching different technology which will improve my workflow and make me a better researcher, more organized, a better time-manager, etc... you get the picture.

So, I figured I would try and pass on some of the apps and other technology stuff that I use in this digital research age.

The first thing to talk about is the general stuff everyone gets with the iPad/iPhone - the synchronization of your calendar and emails.

I have an iPad (obviously, or I probably wouldn't be writing about using it for research and genealogy) and I also have an iPhone as does my wife. We use gmail as our main email provider and have a family email address in which we also use the calendar. Before we got our istuff we did not use the shared google calendar very much since we had to be on a computer to look or add anything - it just wasn't very convenient. Once we both got our iPhones the convenience was there so I synced our gmail accounts and we were able to share a calendar real-time. I can update from my iphone while at work and within a minute or so my wife sees the update to our calendar. But, it is more than a real-time sharable calendar.

Probably like most, I have more than one email. I have the family email but I also have a personal email and also one for my genealogy. These are all gmail based and all attached to my istuff so I can review and respond to emails anytime. I also use the calendars associated with these different gmail accounts. I use one for my blogging editorial calendar (I'll talk about this in another post) and I also use another calendar for my day job. Using my istuff to link all these together, all my emails and all my calendars are with me whenever and wherever I go - very convenient and very portable.

If you are using some of this istuff and you do not have your calendars and emails synced up, I would highly recommend it and it is really easy - any google search will bring up instructions on how to do it.

Like I said, I use google for mail and calendars and find it really easy - if you use some other calendar and email provider with your istuff let me know how it works in the comments.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for another post about how I'm using the iPad and iPhone for my research. Keep diggin' for that family.

Chris

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Surname Saturday–Lucas and Luksys

As far as our maternal side, this surname has been the biggest brick wall.

My Grandfather, Joseph Lucas, whom I have written about in a previous post, is the son of Roman Luksys and Catherine Paskruba.

Roman Luksys can also be found as Raymon or Raymond. He was born approximately 1880 in Poland and listed his native tongue as Polish. He immigrated about 1904. He said, in the 1920 census that he put in his first papers for naturalization. I have not found them. Their first stop in the states was Worcester, Massachusetts where their first three kids were born, Marvella (1906), Joseph (1907), and Edward (1909). Then they moved to Detroit, Michigan where their next two kids were born, Anthony (1912) and Theodore (1915).  They changed their name to Lucas sometime between 1912 and 1920.

Catherine can also be found as Katie or Katherine. I did write a little bit about her in this Census Sunday Post. She was born about 1883 in Poland and she listed her native tongue as Polish. Catherine’s maiden name is Paskruba and she married Roman about 1900. She immigrated with him in 1904 or maybe followed the year after.

That is it, that is all I have been able to come up with for this family. I have followed every clue at least once and did write about them in my Ancestor Appreciation Day Post. I will not stop until I find their origins in Poland.

Do you maybe have a connection to this family?

Thanks or reading and keep diggin’ up that family.

Chris

Technorati Tags: Family History,Surname Saturday,Genealogy

Pakledinac-IRISH? What to do with Disproven Info!

I did not think Pakledinac sounded like an Irish name? Nor does Hinterhauser sound Irish. But to my surprise, in the 1930 Census, John Pakledinaz and his wife Anna (Hinterhauser) were born in Ireland and actually spoke Irish. Hmmm??

Obviously this is a mistake. Unless the enumerator was drinking a little too much when they passed by the Pakledinaz household that day, I am chalking this information up as false probably due to a communication gap – John and Anna were not native English speakers and probably had hard accents.

I know it is false because many other sources have John from Croatia (the now term) where his native tongue was Croatian and Anna from Austria-Hungary where her native tongue was German.

So, what to do with this information?

I could basically ignore it and just act like it isn’t there; that may be the easiest thing. But, what of future researchers who get my information? If I do not mention this and basically do nothing with the information then couldn’t that discredit anything else I have. It would be like I missed it – then that would bring the question of what else have I missed.

Document and move on!

The correct thing to do, as far as I am concerned, is to document the information within your database and list your analysis as to why this is false. I use Legacy Family Tree so I use the advice I got from Geoff Rasmussen on the Legacy Family Tree website. I will add events for both John and Anna for Nationality and Language Spoken but I will edit those events and put Disproven Nationality and Disproven Language Spoken (see screenshot below).  I will then add my analysis or

reasons for why this information is false.This also goes on to show how to record conflicting and alternate information.

Whichever database or software you are using to record your family research may have a different way of recording disproven information but the important thing is that the information is recorded in your research.

How do you record disproven or alternate information?

Thanks for reading and keep diggin’ for that family.

Chris

Surname Saturday–Hinterhauser

 

The Hinterhauser name comes to us from Germany. Martin Hinterhauser, my 5th Great Grandfather, was born on 9 February 1751 in Kartung-Sinzheim, Schwarzwald, Baden. This little village is located off Autobahn 5 in Germany, just south of Karlsruhe in the current German State of Baden-Württemberg.

Martin is one of our Immigrant Ancestors. In 1786, Martin and his 1st wife, Franziska Binder, traveled down the Danube river where they stopped in Vienna on 22 May. Martin said he was a peasant farmer and carpenter, he was 35 years old and a Catholic. He was on his way to the Batschka region of Hungary, to a town called Fillopowa, which is now called Backi Gracac and located in Serbia.

It is in Filipowa that Franziska must have died as Martin married my 5th Great Grandmother, Katharina Morlock on 24 April 1787. They moved to the village of Brestowatz, not far away from Filipowa sometime around 1789 and this is where Martin died on 27 September 1793.

The next few generations of Hinterhauser's would move around the region between the villages of Fillipowa, Brestowatz, Weprowatz until my 3rd Great Grandparents, Phillipp and Magdalena Hinterhauser settled in the village of Milititsch. It is here that our next immigrant ancestor would be born.

Anna Maria Hinterhauser, born 28 February 1890 in Milititsch, Batschka, Austro-Hungarian Empire. She is my Great Grandmother and wife of John Pakledinaz. Anna, at the young age of 19, would risk everything to find a new life in America. She made her way across Europe to the port of Le Havre, France and boarded the S.S. Mexico on 7 August 1909.

She arrived at Ellis Island on 20 Aug 1909. She paid her own passage and had $15 in her possession at the time and said she was a servant. She said she was traveling to Trenton, NJ to join her cousin. Not sure if this is an error at Ellis Island but Anna's brother, Adam, was already living in Youngstown, Ohio and this is where Anna found herself. Her and John met through Adam and were married just five months after Anna's arrival in America.

Thanks for reading and keep diggin’ for that family.

Chris

Morals and Ethics of the Family Historian

There has been some discussion on a couple other blogs this week about how we, as historians, should deal with things we find that might not be 'politically correct' in today's standards. You can read the discussion over on Genealogy’s Star blog and he older post over at Dear Myrtle’s blog so I will not get into the specifics of that discussion. But, those discussions tie into recent discussion I have had in a couple of my history classes - does the historian have moral and ethical responsibilities in their work? And if so, who is the historian responsible to?

Jonathan Gorman, Professor of Philosophy, wrote an article titled "Historians and Their Duties" which talks about this subject and which we used in class to discuss the topic. Gorman basically says that historians do have an ethical and moral responsibility to our audience and it really boils down to telling the truth.¹ I have not really given much thought to our moral and ethical responsibilities, but the class and blog discussions made me start to think about it and I have come up with my perception and thoughts.

First, the morals and ethical values are going to differ depending on who you are, your society, your religious preferences, your era, etc... People throughout the world are going to have different viewpoints on what is morally and ethically acceptable. As historians, we need to keep that in the back of our mind and try and keep our own moral and ethical values out of our written word, as much as possible - just like we try to keep our own bias out of our work.

Second, we have to remember that we are researching and writing about the past. The moral and ethical values can be very different for someone who lived in the 19th century. When we are researching and writing about those in the past, we have to try and think within the context of whom we are researching. What did they consider as morally acceptable? For instance, if we are writing about the experiences of our female ancestors from 100 years ago, we have to realize that what women were expected to do and what they were excluded from doing is very different than what we think today. It doesn't matter if we disagree with how women were treated in the past, we have to interpret and then write from the perception of the people of that time.

One last thought that can plague the family historian and one that, I think, separates us, the family historian, from other historians. We are generally researching and writing about our own family. We have a true emotional connection with the people we are writing about and we have an even more emotional connection with our intended audience - other family members. As we discover facts and stories about our distant ancestors, we will probably discover things that they did that were perfectly acceptable in their time, like owning slaves, but are completely forbidden in modern times. Or we may find information that living family members may not want to know. We have to decide what to do with those facts.

For instance, maybe one of your living ancestors was adopted and you have uncovered who the biological parents are. Your  ancestor has never had any interest in knowing who their biological parents are. Do you include the information or discreetly hide it? What if the scenario is a little more complicated. Maybe your adopted ancestor is not still living so you think maybe it is OK to share what you found about the biological parents. Before you do that, did you think about the other adopted siblings of your ancestor? Did you think of the biological mother or father? They have lives and families that may be dramatically affected by your findings?

As an academic historian, I would say that we have to include those facts because if we do not then we are not telling the true story of the past. However, as the family historian, we have to consider our audience and that Great Grandma Edna may be crushed to hear such a story. It may not be acceptable to some people in the family, who are still alive, to have 'shady' characters or 'black sheep's' in their past.

There is no true 'right' answer to these moral and ethical concerns that will apply to everyone. I think it really comes down to each of us, the family historians, to be able to face ourselves each morning that we wake up and know that we did the 'right' think - whether we cover up a 'questionable' ancestor or post it out there for the whole world to see.

What do you think our moral and ethical responsibility is as family historians? Have you found information similar to what I’ve described? What did you do with it? Let us know in the comments.

Thanks for reading and keep diggin’ for that family

Chris

¹ Johnathon Gorman, "Historians and Their Duties", History and Theory, Theme Issue 43 (December 2004), 115

Black Sheep photo courtesy of Leon Riskin on Flickr

Skeleton photo courtesy of Andrew Ballantyne on Flickr

Technorati Tags: Writing,Historian,Historian's Duties,Morals,Ethics,Family Historian,Genealogy

Slow and Easy - With a Few Distractions

Its been a week or so since my restart. Things are going pretty good and I think I can pat myself on the back.

I have been able to start on my photo organizing adventure using Photoshop Lightroom and have been making some ok progress reviewing information in my genealogy database. 

I said I was going to start with our parents but I started with our Great Grandpa Pakledinaz. Not sure why I started with him, but at least I started. I use Legacy Family Tree as my database so I want to make sure I am taking full advantage of the software and entering sources correctly and as intended by the software. So, as I go through each entry in my database I am also verifying the source and entering it correctly.

Even though I would much rather be on the search for new information, I am very glad that I am taking a back-to-basics approach. I have only reviewed a few things so far, but I am finding holes in my previous research and finding new things out. For instance, in 1910 our Great Grandma Pakledinaz stated that she spoke German and not English on the census. I knew she spoke German from talking with family, but I did not know that she immigrated to the States (1909) not being able to speak English. Adds a new dimension to the struggle she must have faced uprooting herself and traveling thousands of miles to start a new life at 19 years old. Kind of puts some things in perspective for me and I really want to find out more about her life. Which leads to the difficulties of this week: I have come down with and must battle RDS (Research Distraction Syndrome).

I have been quickly diverted so many times this week into doing actual research and not sticking with my plan of just working with what I have. I find myself entering the 1930 Census information and notice I do not have the 1940 downloaded yet, so off I go to Ancestry.com to check it out. Before I know it, I’m looking at military records, public data records, etc… And not for John Pakledinaz, but for any and all other Pakledinaz that comes up in a search. I must stop this – I would be much further in my restart, if it weren’t for RDS.

I am making a new pledge to fight and refrain from RDS until I can get what I already have completed, which I am guessing will take about 1 year. Sounds like a lot but I have a lot of information also.

For those that have tried what I am doing, do you find you come down with RDS? Let us know in the comments section how you fight RDS.

Thanks for reading and keep diggin for that family.

Chris

Technorati Tags: Family History,genealogy,Distractions,Research

 
 

 

Census Sunday–1930 Who is Frank Goodman?

That was the first question that popped into my mind (after I picked my jaw up off the ground) when I searched and found my Lucas line in the 1930 census. Then I wondered, “Why is Great grandma Lucas living with him?”, Oh Wait!  Because she is married to him? WHAT?!? What happened to Great Grandpa Lucas?? Ok, is this the right family? – YES, there is Grandpa Joe Lucas and his brothers, all listed as sons.

So, after calming down somewhat and scanning the census again just to make sure I read things correctly, I called my mom. She knew nothing of a Frank Goodman and she also never knew her Grandpa Lucas as she was told he died before she was born.
This census has brought a few questions, obviously. What happened to Great Grandpa Lucas? Was he already dead at this time or did they divorce?
Who is this Frank Goodman and why didn’t the family know about him?
All of this occurred before the 1940 census came out and I have been at a standstill about answering these questions (mainly due to a lack of research time). Once the 1940 census hit I found Great Grandma Lucas again but not under the name Goodman as in 1930. She is now listed as Katherine Lucas, head of household and widowed. That answers the question of why the family doesn’t know or remember Frank Goodman; he wasn’t around for very long. However, it presents many other questions about him and the relationship with Great Grandma Lucas, which will be explored in another post.
The questions concerning Great Grandpa Lucas still remain also. I do not know what happened to their marriage or what happened to him. These are the mystery’s that keep our search interesting and fun.
Census records, as we all know, are great sources for our family search. They can answer many questions but they can also present many more questions and mysteries for us to follow up on, just as this 1930 census has for my Lucas ancestors.
What surprising information did you uncover from a census? Was it known to family?
Thanks for reading and keep diggin’ for that family.
Chris

Technorati Tags: Family History,Genealogy,Census,Census Records

Surname Saturday–Pakledinaz–Pakledinac

Pakledinaz joins the family as my maternal great grandfather, John Pakledinaz. John is one of our immigrant ancestors and it seems that he hails from the town of Tompojevci, which is located in Croatia now, where he was born 16 March 1885. He emigrated from there back in August of 1905 on board the SS Kaiser Wilhelm. He said he was joining his cousin, Jakob Pakledinaz, in Youngstown, Ohio.
Youngstown is where he met and married my great grandmother, Anna Hinterhauser in 1910. They moved to the Detroit area sometime between 1912 and 1914 where they would live out their life.
Not much is known of the Pakledinaz family prior to John. I was able to get a record of a baptism from the church records near Tompojevci, which I am pretty sure belongs to our John. And this gives me his parents names: Markus Pakledinac and Elizabetha Prankovic. He has the cousin, mentioned earlier and he also had a brother, Joseph (Josip). Joseph changed their name to Parker sometime between 1910 and 1920 and in 1920 they lived in Ohio, this is where I lost most of the family. I know that their daughter, Cecelia Mathis moved to Detroit at some point. I know this because in 1957 she was assaulted on Wayburn street in Detroit. She died a couple of days later from the wounds received in the assault - her assailants got away with a whole $2. 

The cousin that John came to join is Jack (Jakob) Pakledinaz, but none of the family remembers there being a Jack. He and his family also lived in Ohio and emigrated from Tompojevci around 1901. 
There is one burning question and story within this family. One of John's daughters had heard that the family, back in Croatia, owned vineyards. Joe, John's brother, was supposed to be taking care of those. However, the story goes that Joe sold all the vineyards and kept the money, which caused, understandably, some rift within the family. 
We may never know if this story is true or anything further of the Pakledinaz family as that part of Croatia was ravaged by the wars in the Balkans. From what I have been told of the records for the area, most were destroyed during the war. I have some information on other Pakledinac's from the same are in Croatia but just do not know how they fit in. I am lucky to have the birth and baptism records I found and if this is all I can get, then I am happy. However, it will not stop me from searching and maybe we can uncover clues which will lead to more discoveries of this family.
What direct family line has given you the most trouble? What did you do to help breakdown those foreign brick walls?
Thanks for reading and keep diggin’ for that family.
Chris

Technorati Tags: Pakledinaz,Pakledinac,Family History,Genealogy,Surname Saturday,Immigrant,Immigrants,Hinterhauser

A New Start

It has been a very long time since posting, almost 2 years to be exact. Not that I have not been thinking of the blog or my family history pursuits, these are on my mind nearly everyday. However, life events sometimes take over. I have retired from the military and with this came a move from Germany back to the states and a job search. Found the job but it was not where we expected. We planned on living in Michigan, my roots, but the job has taken us to South Carolina.

We are now finally settled in our new location, the kids are in a school that they like, and it just may be the right time to commence this journey again.

This does not mean that I have unlimited time to research and write. I still have a full time job and I am also pursuing a Masters Degree. Add the time with the family and time management is going to be a must for me.

My re-start will consist of a re-evaluation of sources and information beginning with our parents and then moving on down the line; an almost from scratch re-start but not quite as extensive as Kellie over at the Leaves of my Family Tree blog. I will also start a project to get control of the many family pictures I have accumulated over the years. Some are already digital but many are not so I will be spending much time at the scanner. I will be using Adobe Lightroom to manage this photo collection. I already use Lightroom as another hobby of mine is photography so that is no cost to me. I got the inspiration and idea to use Lightroom from The Family Curator.

So, I am planning on knocking out a post at least every other week or so. I hope to do more but I need to be realistic about what I CAN do and not what I WANT to do.

So, how many more of you out there have restarted after a long break? What advice can you give?

Thanks for reading and Keep Diggin’ for that family.

Chris

By the way, I did update my Surnames list so check out that page.

 

Photo from: Next TwentyEight