Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

Ordering my first vital record

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Today I was trying to fill in some blanks on my great grandmother, Hattie’s, info. I wasn’t able to locate her on the 1880 census. I believe she was born in 1875 and married in 1897 and since the 1890 census was destroyed in the fire, the 1880 census is my only chance to verify her living with her parents.

Since I’ve decided I will not move up a generation until I have a good source to link generations (in other words, I think I know who Hattie’s parents are, but I don’t have proof, so I’m not willing to enter them into Reunion until I do), I feel a little stymied at my inability to at least use the census to verify her parents, as I’ve done with my other great grandparents.

When searching by her name and her parents’ names failed, I tried browsing the enumeration district from the 1880 census that Hattie’s husband, Elmer, was living in, thinking that’s how they might know one another. No dice.

I did find the death certificate and the Civil War pension application for the person I think is Hattie’s father, so I’m all jazzed up to enter him into the software. But I’m waiting until the relationship is verified.

So I decided to try to get a copy of her death certificate. I found an index entry in the California Death Index via Ancestry.com. So I did a google search to see how I could order a copy.

Here’s where my big tip comes in: One way I was searching (via Ancestry, I think) took me through VitalCheck, which charges a $12.95 service fee on top of the $16 fee Alameda County charges. That seemed exorbitant to me, so I went back to google and found that I could order directly from the Alameda County Recorder. No processing fee, not even a shipping fee if I go with standard postal mail, which I did. To be fair, the VitalCheck order included expediting, I believe. But I have no need for expediting–there are plenty of relatives to research while I wait. So now I’m feeling very good (and a little smug) about saving 13 bucks.

When I receive the death certificate, which will won’t be at least for a few weeks, I’ll post about the information I gleaned from it. I did a google image search and found a death certificate from the early 1970s that included parents’ names, so I’m hopeful I’ll be able to definitively make the link between Hattie and the couple I think are her parents!

A peek into social history

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One of the things I love about family history research is that even census records can give you a little peek into the lives of people who lived before us. The fact that these people are related to us makes it even more interesting.

For example, I found my paternal grandmother, Beatrix Rasco, on the 1920 census. She was living in Plainview. Texas. with her family, on a farm. She was 13 years old and in school. She could read and write. In my experience, when a student is listed on the census, the occupation field is left blank or the word None is entered. In my grandmother’s case, her occupation was Farmer. Her little brother, Wilson, who at 7 was not in school, could not read or write and his occupation was listed as Farmer. (Their father was a farmer, as was their big sister, Lessie, who was 18 at the time. Their mother had no occupation listed.)

When I was 13 I think I babysat for some money, but my biggest worry, besides boys, was making sure I was able to watch Happy Days on Tuesday evenings. It’s hard for me to imagine life as a teenage girl farmer. Or a little boy who worked a farm but didn’t go to school and couldn’t read. (Though, to be fair, I don’t know at what age most kids started school back then. I’ll have to look into that.)

Kids today would probably consider my childhood deprived, since we had no computers, VCRs, cell phones (smart or otherwise) or, of course, internet. But by comparison to my grandmother’s childhood, it seems like I was living in the lap of luxury.

I can’t wait to have more glimpses of the past via my family history research!

Census connections

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The 1940 census is out and, thanks to my mother’s good memory, I was able to find her on the 1940 census. She was born in 1933, so this is obviously the first census I read her name in. Such a thrill!

I noted that, according to the census, my mother’s brother, Joe, was born in Georgia. This was a big question mark for me, because I’d never, ever heard talk of my family living in Georgia. I figured I’d ask my mother about it next time I see her.

I posted a link to the census page on my personal Facebook page and my first cousin, Joe’s daughter, Janis, commented. That allowed me to ask her about the Georgia connection and she told me that our grandparents had lived there the year after they were married (they were married in 1930) and that my grandfather was a door-to-door lingerie salesman!! I’d never heard that before, but apparently my grandmother told Janis stories of living in Georgia.

I went back to the 1930 census and saw that at the time of the enumeration (April 1930) my grandfather was living with his parents and was listed as a “Commercial Traveler” for an adding machine company. I have a copy of his marriage license application, just a month later. So some time in 1930 (Joe was born in 1931), my grandfather went from selling adding machines in Missouri to selling lingerie in Georgia. I wonder how that happened?

By 1933 when my mother was born, my family moved back to Missouri. I’m going to see if I can get the story from my mother. This is such a springboard for conversation.

I love the connections the census allows us to make about our family members’ lives. I also love that posting about the 1940 census allowed me to make that connection with my cousin, who had this knowledge about our family that I’d previously known nothing about. And, of course, I love that Facebook is helping me make these connections.

Yet another reason I love family history research!

I’m torn: facts or narrative

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As I contemplate the immediate direction I want my family history research to take, I’m torn. Part of me wants to start by verifying all the facts I’ve seen online by finding primary documents or other documents I can use for verification. But the other part of me wants to know the stories. I want to try to get to know these ancestors and figure out how they lived.

I’ve been led to believe that some of my ancestors crossed the Atlantic ocean on the Mayflower. Others lived in the wilds of Kentucky and hung out with Daniel Boone. Another helped settle New Amsterdam. This is interesting stuff. I want to learn more about it and perhaps write about it.

But that feels like putting the cart before the horse. Sure I can get the thrill of learning how my ancestors lived, but if I don’t verify the data, will I know they’re really my ancestors? Does that really matter?

I’ve decided that the right thing for me to do is to work on verifying data, via primary sources and census records. I like the investigative nature of tracking down documents. And I do care that the stories that I’ll eventually be learning about are truly for my ancestors.

In a way, though, I can do both. I don’t have to verify every ancestor before starting to learn the rich facts about the lives of ancestors I do verify. It’s starting to feel clearer. I’ll start researching the most recent generations, verifying facts and when I’ve worked my way back to someone particularly interesting, I can stop and start digging into their story, if I want.

Ah, that feels like a good plan.

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