Locality Guide: Needful Research Tool

 

Remember the old TripTik Travel Planners offered by AAA? When you were planning a trip, you'd contact AAA and ask for a customized TripTik and a little flip-booklet of all the roads, attractions, lodging and eats was furnished to you. It became the "bible" for your trip. 

I propose to you today that a Locality Guide for your genealogy research is parallel to the old TripTik. When you're "going to" (researching) in a particular place, don't you want to know the roads and places there?????  And, F.Y.I., creating a Locality Guide is  part of many how-to genealogical study courses. 

So. What to include in a Locality Guide? For imaginary visual impact, picture creating a Locality Guide for  Washington State or even better, a Washington State county. Here might be the chapters to include:

• Historical Background & Geography
• Local & County Government Agencies
• State or Provincial Government
• Laws
• Archives, Libraries, Museums, Historical Societies
• Historical Context Materials
• Research Guides
• Genealogy societies & Social Media
• Census Records
• Government Vital Records
• Maps & Gazetteers
• City Directories
• Newspapers
• Cemeteries & Funeral Homes & Onsite Grave Locators
• Religious Records
• Probate Records
• Local Land Records
• Federal Land Records
• Tax Records
• Immigration & Naturalization Records
• Military Records

Imagine searching out and then compiling all that information for your target research place!  Seems to me, it would just about guarantee success in your search. 

Robyn M. Smith on her website, Reclaiming Kin, describes what a Locality Guide is: "It's a document you create that contains key snippets of information relevant to genealogical research in a specific locale. The idea is to have one central guide that you can refer to time and time again when you are researching that place." I agree!

"Going Dutch"

 

It was once thought that the origins of the term "going Dutch," used when two or more people share an activity but agree to each pay their own way could be traced back to the 17th-century animosity between England and The Netherlands. The two nations were known to engage in frequent disagreements regarding political boundaries and trade routes, and 'going Dutch' was said to be a British slur referring to the Netherlanders' negative reputation for stinginess.

However, a closer look reveals that this expression was actually a 19th-century American creation. An 1873 edition of the Missouri newspaper The Daily Democrat called on "our temperance friends" to impose the "Dutch treat," in which "each man pays his reckoning," in local saloons as a means of combatting public drunkenness. 

The etymology of this use of the word "Dutch" can be traced to a community of immigrants who were not, in fact, from the Netherlands at all, but Germany....also known as Deutschland, whose phonological similarity to "Dutch" led to the common American misnomer "Pennsylvania Dutch."

Here are some other Dutch-related idioms that have made their way into the English lexicon:

• Beat the Dutch:  to exceed expectations
• Double Dutch: gibberish
• Dutch agreement: an agreement made while intoxicated
• Dutch courage: courage brought on by alcohol
• Dutch nightingales: Frogs
• Dutchman's draught: a very large beer
• 
  

(Thanks to the Viking Daily, Monday, April 15, 2024, aboard the Viking Kvasir.)

Railroad Land Grant Universities Part 2

 

Railroad Land Grants Part 1

 Rail lines have played a crucial role in the development of America. After the Civil War, rail lines accepted huge gifts of land to subsidize railroad construction and operations across the American Plains and Canadian Prairies. Leaders in both countries contended (and rightly so) that whoever controlled access across this region would control the Pacific Coast.

The rail lines across middle America differed from rail lines in the East. These lines fostered towns and communities. Between 1850 and 1871, railroad companies were given an estimated 185 million acres of land from individuals and from governments. The Federal Government offered 20 square miles of land for each mile of track laid in territories and 10 miles of land for each mile laid in states. These land grants were in alternate sections with the government holding every other section. 

Much has been argued about the this land-granting method: who got rich? No question, the rail lines were built. Too many politicians in Washington felt that the land in the west was desolate or frozen and of little worth. By 1900, when James J. Hill took control of the Northern Pacific and greatly expanded the reach of the rail lines and fostered extensive publicity to bring in settlers. The immigrants flooding into Eastern ports came for the exact purpose of buying land and were not disappointed. 

Another, lesser known, factor pushing development of rail lines across the plains and prairies was a sobering realization that America needed to consolidate her land holdings or possibly lose them to Texas or Mexico and maybe even to Britain and France. Washington politicians realized that the East could not afford to be cut off from the West. 

So land grants acted as a form on non-cash subsidy, making the construction of extremely expensive rail lines across 1000 miles of unsettled land financially feasible for private companies. Ultimately this newly settled land would allow the creation of many thousands of new farms, ranches, mines and towns.

German Webinars & German Databases

 

I've belonged to the German Genealogy Group for several years and have ALWAYS gleaned information from their monthly 14-page newsletter (comes via email). They specialize in "things German" and offer nearly 24,000,000 imaged records on their website. If you have German roots, you better check this out: www.GermanGenealogyGroup.com. Membership is $15 annually.

Legacy Family Tree Webinars will present German History For Genealogists on Wednesday, October 16th at 2:00ET. "Knowing the most important dates in German history can be helpful to your research."  This webinar is free on the day it's presented; thereafter it goes into their vast library which you can access for a $49 annual membership fee.  They have handouts too! To register, go to https://famlytreewebinars.com/webinar/luther-napoleon-and-the-kaiser-german-history-for-genealogists. 

The Kentucky Genealogical Society will present Finding a German Parish Record on Tuesday, October 15th at 7:00ET. To register go to: https://kygs.org/event/finding-a-german-parish-and-online-parish-records.

The Sept-Oct 2024 issue of Family Tree Magazine features an article discussing the history of German civil registration, civil record formats, how to locate German civil records plus other tips. Many libraries carry this magazine or you can order a copy (or subscribe??) by clicking to Family Tree Magazine. 

My maternal grandmother was 100% German. I remember visiting her and being treated to smerkase (probably got that wrong) but it was a toasted piece of dark bread, spread with cottage cheese and topped with jam.  Mighty darn good, too, I do recall. 

And did you know that the U.S. Census Bureau confirms that as a people, we are fully 1/4 of German ancestry. Interesting. I am, are you???

Genealogy Shows & Movies

 

I've discovered that there are more genealogy-related movies available to me on my iPad that I'd have guessed!  I just watched (for free on YouTube!!) Yesterday's Children, where Jane Seymour in today's time is driven to learn about a family 80 years ago in Ireland and reunite that family. It was SO good. 

And certainly Finding Your Roots is THE NUMBER ONE genealogy show on public TV. Did you realize you can watch PBS shows on your phone, Kindle or iPad for free????

And of course there are more history-museums-archaeology type videos posted on YouTube than you'd have time to enjoy. There is the History Channel, Archaeology Channel, etc. All free!

So no need to watch dreary, depressing, or silly TV shows unless that's your thing. There are genealogy shows to enjoy!!!

Roosevelt Roots in the Netherlands

 

Did you know that FDR had Dutch roots? I did not but I learned that factoid on my spring 2024 trip to Holland. 

The forefather of the Roosevelt family of New York was a man named Claes Martenszen van Rosevelt. Five of his children were baptized in the Reformed Dutch Church in Amsterdam, although the family probably lived in what we'd today call a suburb, Oud-Vossemeer.  In 1655, Claes had moved his family to Manhattan and bought a farm. 

The website for the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library & Museum lists the complete ancestral pedigree of FDR as well as listing his descendants. 

The little town of Oud-Vossemeer is very proud of its connection to the American Roosevelt presidential family. They have established a website (www.rooseveltoudvosemeer.nl) and here's what I learned: 

The Roosevelt Foundation of Oud-Vossemeer was established on September 17, 2015.

Its goal is to set up and maintain an information centre that allows visitors to discover more about the place of origin of the American presidential family Roosevelt. Exchanging and spreading information on this subject to organizations and persons is also part of our objective. Amongst other things, the foundation organizes exhibitions in order to realize this goal.

A continuing big question is were FDR and "Teddy" related? Well, distantly.

Theodore, 1858-1919, s/o            FDR, 1882-1945, s/o

Theodore, 1831-1876, s/o            James, 1828-1900, s/o

Cornelius, 1794-1817, s/o            Isaac, 1790-1863, s/o

James, 1759-1840                        James, 1760-1847

Why the discrepancy with dates for James???? Well, that's what Google found for me.............. you check it out. :-)