Carnival of Genealogy, 97th Edition

Welcome to the September 4, 2010 edition of the Carnival of Genealogy. The topic of this edition is: Research From Scratch! We've each put in a few hours of online genealogy research (OK, some put in a more than a few ;-) and we're sharing our results. The idea was to start fresh with someone we haven't researched before and see how far we could get using just online resources. I'm very impressed with the online research skills of our participants and I'm sure you will be too. Read along and see which resources we chose and what our results were. If you have a good online resource that one of our participants didn't use, leave them a comment. I'm sure they'd appreciate it!

The end of summer is here and autumn is knocking on the door. Make the best of the late summer harvest with a fresh fruit smoothie. Blend your favorite summer fruit with some yogurt and pour yourself a tall glass of yum! It will refresh you and provide a nice accompaniment to this edition of the COG. Enjoy your holiday weekend... the Carnival is back in town!

Randy Seaver presents Was Charlotte on the Orphan Train? posted at Genea-Musings, saying, "Family stories are sometimes right, and sometimes wrong. Charlotte's story, handed down to her descendants has some elements of truth to it, but also some clearly wrong facts. The good news is that I was able to connect second cousins, who can sort it out between themselves!" Randy hit the jackpot in his research! He was able to find all sorts of good information and string together a nice timeline of events. Randy's impressive online research skills are evident and his write up is clear and concise. He does an excellent job of presenting and analyzing information in true Randy form. Always a pleasure to read! This is how "The Master" does it!

Bill West presents PASSING IT ALONG: HELPING OTHERS FIND THEIR ANCESTORS posted at West in New England, saying, "I haven't done had anyone recently ask me to help them

climb their family tree but I have helped folks in the past and these are the sites I've used to do it." Bill has his own list of sources he checks when he helps someone get started with their family history research. What a great idea! It's a great list too. Wish I'd seen it before I did my own research project! Thanks, Bill!

J.M. presents The Limits of Online Research – A Case File posted at Tracing My Roots, saying, "I thought I was researching from scratch, instead I was seeing in practice the limits that exist when one does their genealogy research online. Come join me on my journey and I’ll show you what walls I bumped into online!" J.M. bumped into some walls that stalled out her research at some points but still she was able to make some good headway using just online sources. You'll sense J.M.'s frustration but also see what she was able to accomplish. I was impressed! She's not ready to give up her time in the archives though! Nice research and nice presentation J.M.!

Kerry Scott presents This Post Took Four Hours, Three Pop-Tarts, Two Cans of Pop and $146 posted at Clue Wagon, saying, "This is my first carnival ever, so I have no clue what I'm doing. If I've done it wrong or you need additional info from me, please let me know (you won't hurt my feelings). Thank you!" I'd say you hit a home run with your first article, Kerry! Great job! Caution: Kerry's article may make your mouth water and will likely make you giggle. Kerry did a great job with her internet research project. She sure knows her resources! Well researched, well written, well... what else can I say? It's a hit! Thanks for participating in the COG Kerry!

Apple presents David, Daniel, Donald! posted at Apple's Tree, saying, "I thought researching another woman's family back three generations would be a snap. Three or four hours, write about it and move on. Of course it didn't work out quite that way!" Ah, but Apple was up for the challenge! When she didn't find what she expected to find where she expected to find it, she went sleuthing from other directions. Apple is a fine example of what a great attribute tenacity is in a genealogy researcher. And her write up is easy to understand and follow with a tad bit of humor too. :-) Great sleuthing, Apple!

Cynthia Shenette presents COG 97: Researching "The Coldbrook Tragedy" (Part 1 of 4) posted at Heritage Zen:, saying, "I have been intrigued by the "Coldbrook Tragedy" for a number of years. Our assignment for this COG offered the perfect opportunity to research the topic at length. Because of the notoriety of the case, I was lucky and found a considerable amount of information online. I should add the disclaimer however, that my research has only "scratched the surface" of the information I believe to be available. Clearly on-site library and repository follow-up is needed." Cynthia did a terrific job of researching the Naramore family and presenting her findings! She had the kind of success I envisioned I would have with this type of project but did not. I am both impressed and amazed at what she was able to accomplish in just a few hours of online research. I especially liked her thoughtful analysis of her findings in Part 3. Great, thorough, job, Cynthia!

Jasia presents Looking For Ancestors posted at Creative Gene. I had high hopes in beginning my online research project but it didn't take long for me to get frustrated with a lack of results. I thought it would be easy to find some of my friend's family history. That was not the case. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted! Note to self: Some of your own research breakthroughs came just when you were at the point of giving up. Don't give up!


Donna Pointkouski presents Climbing up Gene Kelly's Family Tree posted at What's Past is Prologue. I wondered if anyone would think to try researching someone famous... Leave it to our Donna to be the one to do it! Great idea, Donna! You'll definitely want to visit Donna's blog to see where she got the information she started with and how far she was able to get. As usual, Donna presents her information in a very engaging manner. It's a fun read! Thanks, Donna!

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~*~*~*Feature Article *~*~*~

Dorene Paul presents Learning More about Joseph Willmann posted at Graveyard Rabbit of Sandusky Bay, saying, "In "Learning More about Joseph Willmann" Dorene from Ohio shares her results of searching online resources about an ancestor of her co-worker."  A round of applause for Dorene who did a fantastic job of researching her co-worker's great grandfather! Her research was thoughtful and she used a wide variety of resources. Her article not only took us step by step through her research process but she included images of what she found as well. From Missouri to the German/French border, Dorene takes us down her successful research path making it all sound so logical and easy. Ha! We know better Dorene! Terrific job! 


Please join me in congratulating Dorene for being the Featured Author of the 97th Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy!

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That concludes this edition of the Carnival of Genealogy. I hope you've learned some good lessons and benefited from our online research projects. I especially enjoyed reading about our participant's thought processes in choosing the resources they did. I got some great ideas for my own research. What about you?

Call for Submissions! The topic for the next edition of the COG will be: Document Analysis! Show us a document that helped you break down a brick wall on your family tree. Discuss the information that appears on the document and how it contributes to your family history. The deadline for submissions is October 1, 2010.

Submit your blog article to the next edition of the Carnival of Genealogy using our carnival submission form. Please use a descriptive phrase in the title of any articles you plan to submit and/or write a brief description/introduction to your articles in the "comment" box of the blog carnival submission form. This will give readers an idea of what you've written about and hopefully interest them in clicking on your link. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Thanks for the poster, fM!

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Looking For Ancestors

I’ve probably mentioned before that all of my ancestors came from Poland, and they all came during the 1880-1925 migration period. Only 2 of my 4 grandparents were here in the U.S. a hundred years ago. All 4 of my grandparents settled in Detroit, Michigan when they first arrived in the U.S. and none of them ever moved beyond the city limits. Furthermore, 3 of my grandparents lived within 45 miles of each other in Poland before they immigrated to the U.S. So you can see how all of my genealogy research has had a very narrow focus.

Given that set of circumstances, I’ve done relatively little research in U.S. records compared to my genealogy friends who can trace their ancestors back to the Mayflower. Pre-1900 U.S. Census records... never saw one. Civil War Pension Records... nope, none of those either. Probate or land records. Zilch, zip, nada. Now Catholic church records I’ve seen aplenty, both in the U.S. and in Poland. But I’ve long been envious of those who get to research records written in the English language as opposed to all the Polish, Russian, and Latin records I’m used to. I chose the topic for COG #97 (3-5 hours of online research on someone not related to you) based on my desire to try my hand at researching some good ole American records. Here’s what I’ve discovered...

It’s not easy in English either!

The information provided to me for my research project came from a friend. His great grandfather was Jewish and his great grandmother came from the south. Oh boy! Totally different research than I’m used to! I had visions of finding his family members in Holocaust survivor records and in stories of Civil War battles. The following information was provided to me: His grandfather, Charles Goldwater, was born in Michigan in 1941. He didn’t know when or where he died. Charles’ parents were Solomon Goldwater, born in 1909, place of birth and date and place of death unknown, and Hattie Mae Tyler, born in 1905 and died in 1995 in Michigan. He didn’t know for sure where Hattie Mae was born but she was “from Tennessee” and was believed to have married Solomon Goldwater there. Marriage date unknown.

With that information, I started my research on Ancestry.com. I was hoping to find a census record listing Solomon and Hattie Mae Goldwater (Charles, born in 1941, was too young to be found on a census record but he could have had older siblings). No such luck. I did find a Solomon Goldwater in the U.S. Border Crossings collection who was born in 1907 in Canada and came to the U.S. in 1923 with his mother and siblings. I thought that might be promising, made a note of it, and went on to look for more records. I looked through the census records but didn’t come up with anything. Nothing in the SSDI either. I did see the alternative spelling of “Goldwasser” for Goldwater and made a note of it. However, there weren’t any Solomon Goldwassers born about 1909 in the census records either. Jeez. I hate when that happens.

At that point I decided to give Hattie Mae Tyler a try. I put her name in the search box at Ancestry.com to see what I could come up with. I found a few Hattie Mae Tylers in the census record collections born about 1905. The problem was, none of them were in Tennessee, and almost all of them were listed as black. Our Hattie Mae Tyler wasn’t black. I tried just entering “Hattie Tyler” but that generated pretty much the same information. The most common near spelling was “Taylor” instead of Tyler. I’m not an expert on southern drawls but I’m thinking “Taylor” could easily be mistaken for Tyler by a census taker. I made a note of it and went on looking for records on other web sites.

I found Hattie Mae Goldwater on the RootsWeb SSDI. Finally some new info! Now I had her date of birth and date of death. Her SS # was issued in Michigan, place of birth not given in the online database.

Next stop was FamilySearch.org. I put in Solomon Goldwater, Charles Goldwater, and then Hattie Mae Tyler and Hattie Mae Goldwater. Nothing promising for those names. On to FindAGrave.org.

A search for “Goldwater” on FindAGrave didn’t give me Solomon but it did give me Charles. I’m certain it’s the right Charles Goldwater because the person who created the record (not related to Charles) included the death notice which named Charles’ children. The living children’s names matched the names I was given by my friend. Charles Goldwater died in Oceanside, San Diego County, CA in 2002.

On to Joe Beine’s Online California Death Records and Indexes page. I put Charles Goldwater into all the databases that made sense but didn’t come up with any new clues.

Back to Ancestry.com, this time in search of Charles Goldwater. I found his SSDI listing with his first name misspelled as “Charales”. I didn’t find Charles in the military, immigration and travel, newspapers, photos and yearbooks, stories, tax, or reference collections, but I did find several addresses for him in Utah and California for the years preceding his death in the directories collection.

I tried another search for “Goldwater” born in Michigan + or - 5 years of 1909 hoping once again to find Solomon on a census record. I found a “Lewis S Goldwater”, just a year old, on the 1910 census in Detroit and wondered if the “S” might stand for Solomon. His father’s name was listed as “Ann”. OK, that makes no sense. I’ve heard of “A Boy Named Sue” but not Ann ;-) I clicked on the image but couldn’t read the handwriting. So off I went to Heritage Quest to cross check the name they have for Lewis S’s father. I couldn’t read the handwriting on the image there either but the person who transcribed it called it “Solomon”! Aha! Now we’re getting somewhere. Where? I dunno. The mother’s name is listed as Louisa and Lewis S is their only child. I went on to check for the family in the 1920 census and found them listed as “Sol” and “Lena” Goldwater and son “Lewis” still in Detroit, no other children. I also found this family on the FamilySearch.org site but not on Ancestry.com. In the 1930 census, Sol doesn’t appear. Lena is listed as the head of household and Lewis is now Louis. No other children or boarders. Could this Lewis have taken the name Solomon? Inquiring minds would love to know!

I could think of quite a few more web sites to check for information but at this point I’d put in 6 hours of research time. Much as I wanted to go on, I thought it best to wrap up the research and write up this article. I’m no where near those Holocaust survivor records or Civil War battle stories I envisioned. Of course I didn’t expect to get that far in a few hours of online research. But I can’t even find census records for Solomon Goldwater or Hattie Mae Tyler or the names of their parents. I did learn Hattie Mae’s birth and death dates and the date and location of Charles Goldwater’s death. But that’s about all I have accomplished in 6 hours of online research.

I’m sure I’ll take this research further at some point. Ordering Hattie Mae’s social security app may give me her place of birth and/or her parent’s names. But then again, maybe not. I’m not sure where I’ll look next for Solomon. This has been a fun but frustrating bit of research. I had hoped to accomplish so much more in 6 hours, lol! Oh well, it was fun while it lasted!