Big City Genealogy Research - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Big City Genealogy Research

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Tips for researching ancestors in big cities – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Updated: 31 July 2010
Slides: 57
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Title: Big City Genealogy Research


1
Big City Genealogy Research
  • Cafi Cohen
  • Education Chair
  • SLOCGS

2
Big City Genealogy Research
  • OUTLINE
  • Advantages/disadvantages
  • Research process in big cities
  • Urban research strategies
  • Resources online and everything else

3
Urban Research - Downside
  • Bureaucracies
  • Huge volume of records
  • More unindexed records
  • Difficult access
  • Fewer volunteers
  • More likely you will hire a researcher - APG
  • Records in one large city will differ from those
    in another large city

4
  • Urban Research The Upside
  • Cities w/RESOURCES to collect/disseminate info
  • City governments get more info on residents
  • Vital records may begin EARLIER than elsewhere
  • Example 1878 birth return Chicago,
    IllinoisSource pilot.familysearch.org

5
Genealogy Research Process
  • Goal? Ask a question
  • Existing research? Compiled sources?
  • Research
  • Find new data
  • Original sources
  • Organize data
  • Filing
  • Update database
  • Documented family group sheets
  • Analysis Correlation
  • Set new goal, refine original goal

6
Gen Research Process Modified for Big Cities
  • Goal? Ask a question
  • Existing research? Compiled sources?
  • Pre-Research Each New Big City
  • Research
  • Organize data
  • Analysis Correlation
  • Set new goal, refine original goal

7
Pre-Research
  • Wikipedia articles
  • History
  • Jurisdictions
  • Maps
  • City Public Library website
  • Online genealogy databases
  • Google
  • St. Louis genealogy
  • italians chicago genealogy
  • Record overview
  • Ancestry use the Search Tab ? Card Catalog
  • Family History Library Catalog

8
Pre-Research Example
  • St. Louis, Missouri

9
  • EXAMPLE St. Louis, Missouri Wikipedia info
  • History
  • 1830 population 5,000
  • 1840 population explodes
  • Influx of Germans, Bohemians, Irish
  • Jurisdictions 1876 City of St. Louis secedes
    from St. Louis County became an independent
    city
  • Map

10
  • St. Louis Public Library - Genealogy

11
Google St. Louis, Missouri genealogy ?
12
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13
Record Overview - Ancestry
14
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15
Record Overview - FHLC
16
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17
Pre-Research
  • Wikipedia articles
  • History
  • Jurisdictions
  • Maps
  • City Public Library website
  • Online genealogy databases
  • Google
  • St. Louis genealogy
  • italians chicago genealogy
  • Record overview
  • Ancestry use the Search Tab ? Card Catalog
  • Family History Library Catalog

18
Big City Research
  • Create a Tool Kit Expect ?
  • 1-5 hours to PRE-RESEARCH your big city

19
Urban Research Strategies
  • Difficult research
  • Begin with your ancestral lines from rural areas
  • In big cities, begin with less common surnames
  • Shattuck before Kelly

20
Urban Research Strategies
  • Difficult research ? use proven techniques
  • History geography pre-research
  • Family sources first
  • Solid generational links
  • GPS
  • Identifiers for direct/collateral ancestors
  • Cluster genealogy

21
  • Family Sources First
  • Info not necessarily available tomorrow
  • Include collaterals
  • Post your tree online post to message boards to
    find unknown cousins

22
  • Solid pedigree evidence links Genealogical
    Proof Standard
  • Reasonably exhaustive SEARCH
  • Complete source CITATION
  • ANALYSIS correlation of evidence
  • RESOLUTION of conflicting evidence
  • Soundly reasoned written CONCLUSION
  • http//genealogy.about.com/cs/citing/a/proof.htm
  • Excellent article - genealogical proof standard

23
Genealogical Proof Standard
  • Nemonic ? SCARCApplications Brick walls
    Situations with conflicting evidence Big
    Cities ?
  • Reasonably exhaustive SEARCH
  • Source CITATION
  • Source/information ANALYSIS
  • RESOLUTION of conflicting evidence
  • Written CONCLUSION

24
  • URBAN RESEACH STRATEGIES
  • Difficult research ? use proven techniques
  • History geography pre-research
  • Family sources first
  • Solid generational links
  • GPS
  • Identifiers for direct/collateral ancestors
  • Cluster genealogy

25
Identifiers for direct and collateral ancestors
  • Needle in a haystack? Use identifiers ?
  • Name
  • Age/birth date
  • Gender
  • Birth/death place
  • Residences
  • Family members ?spouse, children, parents, sibs
  • Occupation
  • Ethnic group
  • Religion
  • School

26
  • URBAN RESEACH STRATEGIES
  • Difficult research ? use proven techniques
  • History geography pre-research
  • Family sources first
  • Solid gen links
  • GPS
  • Identifiers for direct/collateral ancestors
  • Cluster genealogy

27
  • Cluster Genealogy
  • Bag those collateralsBetter Christopher Kelly
    than John Kelly
  • 1880 US census NYC John Kelly 771 hits
  • 1880 US census NYC Christopher Kelly 11
    hits
  • 1876 NY Times John A. Kelly, the man who was
    killed on Friday night, was thirty years of age,
    and although a dissolute character, was a member
    of a respectable family living at No. 199
    Mulberry street. He was a machinist by trade.

28
Cluster Genealogy How-To
  • Kimberly Powell article
  • Sleuth Book for Genealogists
  • The Family Tree Problem Solver

29
  • URBAN RESEACH STRATEGIES
  • Difficult research ? proven techniques
  • History geography pre-research
  • Family sources first
  • Solid generational links
  • GPS
  • Identifiers for direct/collateral ancestors
  • Cluster genealogy

30
Big City Sources Fun Tour
  • Suggestions for first passes
  • Examples
  • Not a definitive list
  • In-depth research ? Re-do the pre-research step
    Cast a wider net

31
Big City Sources
  • Vital Records
  • Death Indexes.com
  • City Directories
  • Censuses
  • Medical Records
  • Newspapers

32
Big City Sources
  • Vital Records
  • Online
  • LDS microfilm, books, databases
  • Local
  • Library
  • Courthouse
  • Gen Society

33
Online Vital Records
  • DeathIndexes.com
  • Google for others
  • SEARCH TERMS Philadelphia marriage records
    - FOUND Philadelphia marriage index 1885-1951

34
Deathindexes.com
35
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36
Spring Grove Cemetery, Cincinnati, Ohio
37
  • City Directories
  • Use in conjunction with other sources
  • Multiple years useful
  • No directory all-inclusive
  • More than one directory published some years

38
  • City Directories
  • Put together families at same address
  • Online, search on ADDRESS only
  • Indirectly find deaths widows specified
  • Discover occupations
  • Track families through time
  • Multiple years same address ownership?
  • Frequent moves renter?

1876 NYC Directory at Ancestry
39
City Directories
1885 Philadelphia, Footnote
40
  • Censuses
  • 1850-1870 US census, cities divided into wards
  • Dual US 1870 enumerations for
  • New York City, Philadelphia, Indianapolis
  • 1880 second enumeration for St. Louis
  • Families listed twice in same census
  • State and special censuses
  • NYC 1890 Police census
  • 1905, 1915, 1925 NYC state census

41
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42
James Pryor household 1870 NYC First Enumeration
11 Jul 1870
2nd Enumeration 19 Dec 1870
43
Brooklyn, New York 1890 census
44
4 June 1900 US Census 99 E. 110 Street, New York
City
7 June 1900 US Census 223 123rd Street, New York
City
45
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46
  • Medical Records ?
  • Medical category in city locations of the FHLC

47
Family History Library Catalog www.familysearch.or
g
48
Records Pertaining to Hospital on Blackwell
Welfare Island New York City, New
York Transcription 18 May 1910 Pryor James, age
80, born US, plumber Widowed Ward BAC Disease
20/880 Discharged 10 Sep 1910 Remarks 8
49
Family History Library Catalog Boston
Massachusetts Medical Category
50
  • Newspapers
  • NY Times online 1851-1925
  • Historical Birth, Marriage, Deaths at Ancestry

51
New York Times 1904
52
1908 NY Times
53
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54
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55
  • Big City Research
  • Beginner? Start elsewhere!
  • Pre-Research
  • History, geography, jurisdictions
  • Sound pedigree links
  • Genealogical proof standard
  • Focus on IDENTIFIERS
  • Pursue standard alternate sources
  • Be prepared to hire a local researcher

56
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