Mudlarking

 

Don't recall how I discovered mudlarking, but once I watched a few of Nicola White's mudlarking adventures walking the foreshore of the River Thames in London, I was hooked. London has been there for 400 years and as it sites where the tide sloshes the shores twice daily, Nicola (and many others) find all sorts of treasures, from old to new from valuable to silly.

Google defines mudlarking as "the activity of scavenging the muddy foreshore of a river, most famously the River Thames, for historical objects that have been lost or discarded over centuries.

Hers is not the only YouTube website for this type of adventure. Briefly there was Below the Plains, where the fellow would (with permission) dig into old outhouse pits and find hundreds of old bottles and other artifacts. 

And there are other good places to watch while eating lunch. SiFinds is one; Adventure Archaeology is another (they walk the banks of rivers in the US south); Bottle Fever is one. And if your interest is piqued, I'm sure you'll find others. 

Remember: these mudlarkers of any ilk are finding the artifacts from our ancestors' lives. 

Washington Place Names

There are so many itty-bitty places in our state that I'd never heard of or could pinpoint where they were on a map. How about you?

Venersborg, Clark County. This community was established in 1909 by the Swedish Land Co. on land owned by a farmer named Vener. 

Venice, Kitsap County. Known as Venice Landing, site of the longest wharf on Puget Sound (780') circa 1908, this Bainbridge Island community is the namesake of California's once artificially canaled copy of the Italian city.

Veradale, Spokane County. Namesake of Vera McDonald whose father helped plat the district in 1911. First named Vera but changed to Veradale in 1923.

Victor, Mason County. Source of the name was selected in 1892 when ships delivered mail to the "pigeon hole" post office house in the community's general store is unknown. This tiny community is near Belfair. 

Viti Rocks, Whatcom County. Names by Wilkes for Viti Levu, one of the Fiji Islands that was the home of a cannibal the expedition took prisoner and brought to the Pacific Northwest. 

Vega, Pierce County. Community on Anderson Island derived its name from Vegatorp, Sweden, home town of the first postmaster.

Stolen History

 

In September, two historic bridge marker plaques were pried loose and offered for sale on Facebook. Luckily, both plaques were recovered and returned to the Spokane Streets Department for re-placing on the Latah Bridge and Marne Bridge.

This sad occurrence got me to ask the question, "How many other historic markers, specifically tombstones, have been stolen?" BOY!

May 21, 2012, story on a Memphis, Tennessee, TV station: "A Memphis man was shocked to find more than one dozen tombstones in his backyard when he was clearing the area for landscaping. He said, "They were all buried in the dirt." Now he's on a mission to find the families to which the tombstones belong.

August 15, 2025, Girard, Kansas, story on a local TV station: "A routine event for the Crawford County Sheriff's Office turned into an amateur archaeology project this week when the department recovered a stolen pickup truck. In the bed of the truck they found a worn, broken headstone belonging to a gravesite. Time and exposure left the headstone difficult to read but it marked the grave of an unnamed infant and gave the simple epitaph: "Daughter of J.M. & ?? Johnson, born March 20 187?.  (?? means illegible). So sad.

August 30, 2025, Woodlawn Celestial Gardens, Compton, California: "Thieves took and damaged more than a dozen headstones from a historic cemetery in Compton...... one of the oldest and most historic cemeteries in the area. Celestina Bishop, the owner of the cemetery, said she believes the thieves took the headstones for the bronze and copper plaques. "It's just sickening!" Bishop mourned.

Googling for bits for this post, there were hundreds! Going back years! So, so sad. Let's hope our ancestors' cemeteries, wherever they are, are safe. 

Home Life in Colonial Days: Female Servants

 

Would you have qualified to be a housekeeper in 1780 in Pennsylvania? This ad was placed in the Pennsylvania Packet on 23 September 1780:

"Wanted at a Seat about half a day's journey from Philadelphia, on which are good improvements and domestics, A single Woman of unsullied Reputation, an affable, cheerful, active and amicable disposition; cleanly, industrious, perfectly qualified to direct and manage the female concerns of country business as raising small stock, dairying, marketing, combing, carding, spinning, knitting, sewing, pickling, preserving, etc, and occasionally to instruct two young Ladies in those Branches of Oeconomy, *, who, with their father, compose the Family. Such a person will be treated with respect and esteem and meet with every encouragement due to such a character."  (* Oeconomy: the practice of mangaing the economic and moral resources of the household for the maintenance of good order." 

Or how about this diary entry written by Abigail Foote in 1775 in Connecticut. She set down her daily work and the entries run like this:

"Fix'd gown for Prude,--Mend Mother's Riding-Hood,--Spun short thread, -- Fix'd two gowns for Welsh's girls,--Carded tow,--Spun linen,--Worked on Cheesebasket,-- Hatchel'd flax with Hannah, we did 51 lbs apiece,-- Pleated and ironed,--Read a Sermon of Doddridge's, -- Spooled a piece, -- Milked the cows, -- Spun lines, did 50 knots, -- Made a Broom of Guinea wheat straw, -- Spun thread to whiten, -- Set a Red dye,-- Had two Scholars from Mrs. Taylor's,-- I carded two pounds of whole wool and felt Nationly (sic),-- Spun harness twine,-- Scoured the pewter."  

Dear Abigail also told of washing, cooking, knitting, weeding the garden, picking geese, dipping candles and making soap. AND she had time to visit friends!

(Donna: And these were the good old days???)

"Home Life in Colonial Days: Wigs"

 

Home Life in Colonial Days, by Alice Morse Earle, 1974,  is a book I keep on my genealogy shelf and refer back to often. Such interesting information about our ancestors!

Take the subject of wigs for men. Author Earle waxes poetically about this fashion:

"There was one fashion which lasted for a century which was so untidy, so uncomfortable, so costly and so ridiculous that we can only wonder that it was endured for a single season.... I mean wig-wearing by men. The first colonists wore their own natural hair. The Cavaliers had long and perfumed love-locks; and though the Puritans had been called Roundheads, their hair waves, also, over the collar and often hung over the shoulder. The Quakers, also, wore long locks, as the lovely portrait of William Penn shows. But by 1675 wigs had become common enough to be denounced by the Massachusetts government and to be preached against by many ministers while other ministers proudly wore them.

Wigs were called horrid bushes of vanity and hundreds of other disparaging names which seemed to make them more popular. They varied from years to year; sometimes they swelled out at the sides or rose in great puffs or turned under in heavy rolls or hung in braids and curls and pigtails. They were made of human hair, calves' and cows' tails, of thread, silk and mohair. They had scores of silly and meaningless names such as "grave full-bottom," or "giddy feather-top." 

They were bound and braided with pink, green, red and purple ribbons and sometimes all these colors on one wig. They were very heavy and very hot and very expensive, often costing what would be equal to a $100 today. The care of them was a great item, often ten pounds a year for a single wig and some gentlemen owned eight or ten wigs! Even children wore wigs!

After wigs had become unfashionable the natural hair was powdered and was tied in a queue in the back. This was an untidy, troublesome fashion which ruined the clothes for the hair was soaked with oil or pomatum to make the powder stick." 

Family Tree Magazine, Best Bet!

 

 

 

FamilyTree Magazine is my go-to-tutorial these days for holding-in-my-hands genealogy learning. I like "real" books; I like "real" magazines. If you do too, FT is for you!

For example, in the July-August 2025 issue there were articles on these topics:

• Ancestry.com has a digitized book collection! This includes local histories, directories, memoirs and more. Click to www.ancestry.com/search/collections/catalog and then search by title or keyword. (This is NOT a link; copy and paste it.) 
• 
  
• Annual list of 101 Best Genealogy Websites; marked if free or pay and whether first time on the list or was on previous lists. What a glorious guide!
• 
  
• "Signs of Life" was an article offering to "re-energize your efforts for strategies to access vital records."
• 
  
• I've read where most men in the late 19th century belonged to a Masonic lodge. Our ancestors were joiners and not just for the comradeship but for financial support to each others' families in times of trouble. So likely YOUR ancestor belonged to some fraternal organization. This article lists the basics of searching for such records.
• 
  
• Sunny Jane Morton is a regular (and top notch!) contributor to Family Tree Magazine. Her article in this issue on how to really evaluate and use the millions of new records' hints that are appearing on the major genealogy websites all the time. She offers 12 good tips on understanding this resource. 
• 
  
• DNA Ethnicity Estimates. This was the back page article by DNA expert, Diahan Southard. The submitted question was "why do my DNA ethnicity estimates keep changing?" How come last year my test showed I was 25% Swedish and this year it says I'm only 15%? What gives? Diahan wrote: "Think of it like this: When trying to match a paint color, you'll have a harder time with just THREE paint swatches than if you had 300. That's exactly what's happening with DNA testing. DNA testing companies are constantly expanding their reference panels (their paint swatches, if you will) to give you more accurate results." 

Look Again At the FamilySearch WIKI

 

As of few weeks ago, when I crafted this post, there were 150,162 articles under this Resource Guide on the FamilySearch.org website.  So what is the Wiki anyway?

The Research Wiki is a tree, online genealogical guide that lists websites and resources to help you find your ancestors from countries around the world. The Wiki is a community project where anyone can contribute.

What can you find on the Wiki?

• Genealogical databases and online resources 
• Genealogy research strategy and guidance
• Explanation of genealogy record types and their uses
• Locality pages for countries, states, counties and parishes with relevant resources.
• Topic pages about genealogy, such as Organize Your Genealogy, or Gazetteers.

Pro tips for navigating the Wiki:

• Don't search by name; individuals are NOT listed in the Wiki but you will find links to databases or other resources that may contain the information you seek.
• Do search by location; search by location, smallest to largest (parish/town, county, state, country). 
• Do check for pertinent records in each jurisdiction. 

Recommendations:

• For the country, or state, and/or county of your interest, consider printing out those pages for better study; keep them in your research notebook. 
• Do check for specific topics: Land records, Military Records, Church Records, Emigration, Immigration, etc. Such sites give you an overview while a locality search gives you specifics to that locale. 
• When you learn the European (or other) country of your ancestors' origins, go to that country and print out/really study that material....... your own personal self-help guide.

The bestest advice I can give you today is to grab a hot or cold drink, set a timer for a full hour, and go explore the FamilySearch Wiki! That's the "bestest" way to learn how to really utilize this fantastic FREE resource. 

More Bits Of This & That

 

A very sad cause of death. "It was determined on March 8, 1670, in Plymouth, that one Thomas Lucase died "hee being very ancient and decriped in his limbs and it being very cold and having drunk some drink, gott a violent fall into a ditch in a very dangerous place and could not recover himself but bruised his body and lying all night in the cold, soe he came to his end."  (Checked FindAGrave but did not find dear old Thomas Lucase.)

True story: Looking for hubby's ancestor in 1880, Anderson County, Texas, I typed in his name Charles Phillips. Result? Nada. Why? The enumerator wrote Charlie Phillips! Just a couple of letters can make a huge difference.

Remember to consider state censuses, especially for these states: Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota and Wisconsin. These states' censuses offer detailed information not found in the federal censuses. All are available via FamilySearch and Ancestry. (Donna: to add this bit, I thought to check a "known fact" that one state census asked folks' religion. I was wrong; not a one did.)

Interesting language, English. If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? A house burns up as it burns down. We drive on a parkway and park on a driveway. English is a crazy language for sure.

California Great Registers: These are a fascinating help to find California ancestors after the loss of the 1890 census and before the 1906 earthquake. The growth of the state's population after the gold rush in 1848 precipitated voter registration. The Great Registers of Voters was created by law on 19 March 1866. Each county was to keep a detailed list of their registered voters. These registers exist for the 50 counties that comprised California in 1872. Look for them on FamilySearch.

The Hessians are coming! The Hessians were German troops from the Hesse-Kassel in Germany who fought in the American Revolution. The British lacked enough trained soldiers so turned for assistance to the head of Hesse-Kessel whose first wife was the daughter of King George II. The soldiers totaled about 29,000 and approximately only 1700 returned to Germany after the war. Do you trace your line back to a Hessian soldier?

What is Pre-History? According to a documentary on the History Channel, anything that happened before the invention of writing is called pre-history, or prehistoric. Anything that happened after the invention of writing is called history."  Would you agree? 

Bits Of This 'N That

 

Would you guess that the world's longest known family tree is that of Confucius, 551-479 BC, the ancient Chinese philosopher. Confucius' descendants had a vested interest in keeping proper family records because successive generations were often honored with official positions and titles of nobility by various imperial governments. Today there are 80 generations on record; Google:  Confucius genealogy. 

Do you know what "handfasting" was? This was the term for a trial marriage. in the 1600s, there were strict laws in England and Scotland regarding marriage. So young couples in the area sealed a trial marriage by the joining of hands at the annual village fair. The couple would live together for a year, until the next fair, and if it was working out, they'd marry. 

A census enumerator sometimes had a dangerous mission. This story appeared in The Spokesman Review, 21 Feb 1935, and tells the story of the census supervisor of the 1935 farm census in this district:  "Boyd Carter, enumerator in the North and South Newport, Lenora and Furport Districts, is recovering from an attack of snow blindness and severe exhaustion suffered while at work in his precinct. Carter was found in a dazed condition in his parked car several nights ago. He was taken to Newport, and later to his home in Usk, where he is convalescing. Snow and long trips by snowshoe were blamed for his condition." (Charles Hansen submitted this bit to The Bulletin, Dec 2008.)

The Union side of the Civil War was fought mostly by boys and men under the age of 21, some 2,159,798 to be exact. Amazing. But that explains why Civil War vets lived until into the 20th century. 

Of our 50 United States, which ones do NOT have counties names for presidents? Talk about trivia, eh? They are Alaska, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey and South Carolina. Which state has the most counties? Texas, with 254 counties. Delaware has only three counties. George Washington's name was given to 31 counties nation wide. 

Was your ancestor a Texas Ranger? No, not a football player! Thank you, Google:  In the 1800s, the Texas Rangers evolved from a small, frontier defense force for the Republic of Texas into a statewide law enforcement body, primarily tasked with protecting settlers from Native Americans and bandits, maintaining order during the Mexican-American War, and later combating lawlessness. The Rangers were known for their equestrian skills, use of advanced weaponry like Colt revolvers, and their effectiveness in frontier conflicts, though they also developed a reputation for harsh and sometimes extra-legal actions, such as frontier justice and ethnic violence.  Google "Texas Rangers 1800s" for more information.

Records of Death

 

 

John Denver (real name Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr.) was and will always be my favorite musical artist. Sorry; had to start this post with something. :-) 

There are nearly 20 sources that will furnish family searchers with death information for an ancestor:

• Sexton Records (in cemetery office)
• Church or Religious Registers
• Burial Permit Registers
• Cemetery Plot Maps
• Grave Opening Records
• Lot Cards (in office; who's also buried nearby)
• Plat Records
• Family Bible
• Death Certificate
• Obituary
• Funeral Home Records
• Transit Permits **
• Doctor/Hospital Records
• Coroner Records
• Church Records
• Military Records
• Newspaper mentions

** A burial-transit permit, also known as a removal permit, is a legal document required to transport a deceased person's body, especially across state lines. It essentially serves as permission to move the body to its final destination for burial or cremation. A death certificate must be completed before the burial-transit permit can be issued. 

So if you cannot find great-grandpa's death documentation, you might try these ideas to dig a little deeper. 

Carrousel Rings

 
My son recently confessed to me. Back in about 1977, he stole some of the Spokane Carrousel rings and kept this one all these years. What was I to do but smile and grab the camera! 

Our Spokane merry-go-round opened in 1909. Besides riding round-and-round-and-up-and-down in wooden animals, a rider could stretch and reach for a ring with each circuit. If you got The Gold Ring, you won a free ride! If you plucked a dull-metal one, you tossed it into the clown's face and tried with the next go-round. If your aim was good and you got it into the clown's mouth, a bell would ring! 

Did you know that about 200 American towns have carrousels? The significant ones are listed in the National Register of Historic Places.... as is our Spokane Looff Carrousel. Binghamton, New York, is billed as the Carrousel Capitol of the World because they have SIX working wooden carrousels. 

There are still rings to grab for but nowadays they're plastic (much safer for tossing) and are often colored for the season. 

Want to know more? Click to www.carrousels.org. 

Do you remember reaching for a gold ring on the Spokane carrousel? I'd love to hear your story!

As for my son and his ring; he's put it safely in his keepsake box of treasures. Rightly so. 

Thoughts On A Silversword

 

The Silversword plant mirrors the human tale. At least to me.

The silvery hairs, fleshy leaves and low-growing rosette form the Haleakala Silversword ('ahinahina in Hawaiian) and grows only in hot, dry cinder slopes......... like the Haleakala Crater on Maui. These plants live between 3 and 90 years. They flower once, sending up a spectacular flowering stalk and then soon die, scattering drying seeds to the wind.

We humans are rather like this magnificent plant. We start as seeds, we grow in special locations for an allotted span of years and then we die. Our progeny, like Silversword seeds, have scattered to the wind.

If you go to Maui, do drive the twisty road to the top of Haleakala and take a stroll on the cinder paths among these fantastic plants.

 

Georgia's Virtual Vault

 

If you have Georgia research to do, you must investigate the Virtual Vault, an online feature of the Georgia State Archives. This is where records of interest to genealogists are digitized and made available for research. 

The masthead of the website states that this is "your portal to success to some of Georgia's most important historical documents, 1733 to present. The Virtual Vault gives access to manuscripts, photographs, maps, and government records. 

My research interest lies in Troup County. When I entered that into the search box, some 600 entries appeared before my eyes! I also need info from Wilkes County; wouldn't this make your fingers twitch??

How about this category (one of 53 collections/categories):

If you have Georgia ancestry, do check out the Virtual Vault!

Archaeology Magazine

 

Archaeology Magazine is the bi-monthly publication of the Archaeological Institute of America. Subscription cost is under $20 which is half what you'll pay for the issues at a newsstand. I really enjoy this magazine and learn so much history from it!

The July-August 2025 issue had a bit, "Legend of the Crystal Brain." This relates how in the 1960s the skeleton of a young man about 20 years old was found covered in ash lying on his wooden bed in the doomed city of Pompeii. In 2018, doing a more thorough study on this "man," some "fragments resembling obsidian" were found in the man's skull. The poor man's brain had been turned into glass by the extremely high temperatures of that volcanic ash.... over 950o! The scientist was quoted as saying, "We were looking into the brain of that young Roman who lied 2000 years ago---a brain that, perhaps, held his last thoughts before dying." How sad. 

Another fascinating bit was this:  "Cats curl up on couches in 1/3 of all American households. However, domesticated felines are not native to the New World but were introduced by Europeans. The earliest known cats in the present day U.S., an adult and a kitten, have been identified in the wreck of a Spanish ship that sank in Pensacola Bay in Florida at 1559. Cats were likely brought aboard to feast on rodents."

This magazine has articles of historic and archaeologic interest from all over the world......... from where our ancestors lived and still live all over the world. Try it; you might just like it. 

Civil War Research

 

Tomorrow is the EWGS Fall Workshop with the spotlight on Civil War Research. F.Y.I. Family Tree Magazine offers this 8-page, laminated, Cheat Sheet to help you "find military records and study the history" of the Civil War. Cost for this is $14.95, + p/h. This Cheat Sheet offers

5 Steps to Trace Your Civil War Ancestor:

1. Search the Civil War Soldiers & Sailors (CWSS) Database.... a free National Park Service site which indexes over 6,000,000 soldiers and 18,000 African American sailors. 

2. Obtain service and pension records (explains how).

3. Find burial information. (National cemeteries were established in 1862 for the Civil War dead.) 

4. Seek additional records (explains what/where).

5. Broaden your knowledge (gives great ideas). 

This Cheat Sheet then gives two pages explaining in more detail what the records contain. Also a map of the U.S. during the Civil War (Did you know that Oregon remained loyal to the Union?) and a Civil War Timeline (helps greatly to understand that conflict). The final page of this Cheat Sheet lists 17 websites and 24 books for your further study. 

One resource listed was The Civil War, a film by Ken Burns. I've viewed this; it's worth a second time around, especially if you have ancestors who participated in the Civil War.

Legacy Family Tree Webinars

 

Legacy Family Tree Webinars are one of The Best genealogical learning opportunities available to us these days. Why??

* Legacy Family Tree Webinars offer nearly 2500 presentations in their library.

* These presentations are from over 250 different presenters.

* These presentations span 26 different categories.

* These presentations are offered in 11 different languages.

* These presentations are FREE ON DAY OF and then go into the library.

* Membership is $49 annually which gives you access to the entire library, day or night, on your schedule.

There will be 10 presentations offered in October:

* Oct 1, 5:00am, EST, David Ryan, Irish Public Records Fire & Genealogy

* Oct 1, 2:00pm, EST, Blaine Bettinger, Understanding Ethnicity in DNA

* Oct 3, 2:00pm, EST, J.H. Fonkert, Ten Tantilizing Sources

* Oct 3, time TBA, Janice Nickerson, Ontario Genealogy

* Oct 8, 8:00pm, EST, James Biedler, German Genealogy

* Oct 10, 2:00pm, EST, Orice Jenkins, Betsy Grant: A Fight for Freedom

* Oct 14, 9:00pm, EST, Shauna Hicks, Australian Post Office Directories

* Oct 21, 2:00pm, EST, Gilkison & LaRue, A Coast to coast identity story

* Oct 22, 2:00pm, EST, Melissa Barker, Finding Females in Local Archives

* Oct 24, 2:00pm, EST, Art Taylor, Use AI to organize digital photos

* Oct 28, 2:00pm, EST, A MyHeritage Webinar

* Oct 29, 2:00pm, EST, Kory Meyerink, Colonial NY Research

Why not have a learning listen???

Cemetery Types

 How many types of cemeteries are there, would you guess? 

 Abandoned cemeteries

 Church cemeteries

Family Cemeteries

Military Cemeteries

Religious Cemeteries

Aboveground Cemeteries - Deep South

Pet Cemeteries

Cliff Cemetery-China

Garden Gems in Washington

 

Thanks to Ice Storm '96, the Moore-Turner Heritage Garden was rediscovered. Built between 1889 and 1932 as a residential garden but was largely abandoned in the 1930s and the historic home demolished in 1940. Although the Spokane Parks & Rec Dept acquired the property in 1945, most of what was once a beautiful garden (complete with pond--see above then and now) was lost to memory and time.

Fast forward to today when after extensive research and recovery (and clearing away of Ice Storm debris and plants gone wild), the garden is once again open for visiting. Tiz a small garden; in less than an hour you can walk all the paths (beware: they're mostly uphill).

Washington boasts many similar wonderful gardens. Let's go and aren't we lucky!!

* Seattle - Dunn Garden

* Seattle - Highland SeaTac Botannical Garden

* Seattle - Japanese Garden

* Seattle - Chinese Garden

* Spokane - Manito Park Garden

* Yakima - Ohme Gardens

* Federal Way - Powells Garden

* Bainbridge Island - Bloedel Reserve Garden

* Port Angeles - Port Angeles Fine Art Center (is a garden!)

October Workshop: DO NOT MISS IT!!

 

I am 100% positive that I-90 runs both east and west. :-)

 

Seattle to Spokane - 4 1/2 hours, 270 miles

Yakima to Spokane - 3 hours, 200 miles

Kennewick to Spokane - 2 hours, 140 miles

Coeur d'Alene to Spokane - 38 minutes

And we here in Spokane have lots of motels!! Or ask a friend for a B&B (bunk and bathroom)!! 

Awesome Websites

 

Few posts back I spotlighted Roxanne Low and her list of "Free Genealogy-Related Internet Sites." Remember? Did you take time to looksee any of them?? Today I highlight some of those opportunities!

* www.abmc.gov  --  The American Battle Monuments Commission website features a database of nearly 218,000 American war dead from WWI and WWII who were buried in overseas cemeteries. The site also includes 94,000 more names commemorated on Tablets of the Missing.

* www.easycalculation.com  --  calculate how many years, months and days have elapsed between two dates. 

* www.deathindexes.com  --  A directory of links to websites with online death indexes, listed by state and county. (Get it? A listing of links to online death indexes!!!)

* www.genealogylinks.net  --  Over 50,000 links to resources in the US, the UK, Europe, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. (If you've stuck with the "tried and true" websites, why? Why not try this?)

* https://gravelocator.com/va/gov  --  A VA site, updated daily, offers searches of veterans and their family members buried in most any military cemetery.

* https://glorecords.blm.gov  --  Use this site to search through more than 5,000,000 federal land title records (1788 to present). (Did your ancestor homestead or buy land from the federal government?)

* https://digital.newberry.org/ahcb  -- The Newberry Library in Chicago website is one of the best places to trace shifting county lines and the records that went with them.

* www.usgs.gov/programs/national-geospatial-program/national-map  --  Looking for an obscure ancestral locale? This website offers help to finding that "old" place with the "new" name.

Castle Garden: Another Look

 

Before Ellis Island in New York harbor, there was Castle Garden. Let's look again:

• Castle Garden as immigrant station opened in 1855
• Certainly there were immigrant arrivals prior to that year
• What became Castle Garden was a military fort from 1808-1855
• After Castle Garden closed as an immigrant station, it became an entertainment center

New York officials realized by 1819 that "immigration was anything but organized." There were several proposals for a solution; that solution was to use Castle Garden. Remember it was first a military fort and then entertainment venue and did not become an immigrant arrival station until 1855. It opened on 3 August 1855. 

• Roughly 2 out of every 3 immigrants to the U.S. between 1855 and 1890 (approximately 8.5 million people) passed through Castle Garden.
• But the place was not really equipped to handle such crowds; "overcrowding and understaffing led to scenes of confusion and congestion that became infamous in their own right." 
• By the 1880s it was obvious that a new solution must be found.
• After much verbal wrangling among New York politicians, the Federal Government had had enough and in February 1890 New York officials were told the news. 

Castle Garden officially closed its doors on 18 April 1890; in its final years, it processed 364,086 immigrants. By year's end, the building was transferred back to the city. The Barge Office was used as the immigrant arrival center between 18 April 1890 and 31 Dec 1891 while construction on Ellis Island was complete. The new facility on Ellis Island began receiving immigrants on January 1, 1892. Over the next 62 years, more than 12 million immigrants would arrive in the U.S. via Ellis Island.

Where are the Castle Garden records?

• Unfortunately, some of the CG records were lost in a fire that burned Ellis Island to the ground in 1897 but many still exist. 
• Check with FamilySearch.org
• Check with Ancestry.com

If you type: Castle Garden Immigration: A Genealogist's Guide, by Katharine Andrew, offered free on the FamilyTree Magazine website, you'll get all your Qs answered!

    

Parade Floats

 

Honest, this postcard shows "Our Baked Big Potato Float" that appeared in a Spokane parade; no date on the image. A baked potato float in a parade? How wild is that? And the big-hatted bakers walking alongside? And pulled by horses? And the railroad logo??

Thank you Google: "Parade floats were first introduced in the Middle Ages. Churches used pageant wagons as movable scenery for passion plays and craftsmen with artisan guilds built pageant wagons for their specified craft."

I confess to you that when I asked Google for unique or weird or crazy parade floats I wasted too much time laughing at the images that Google shared. I dare you to try it for yourself!

How about these:

  Thankfully, there are more beautiful parade floats than crazy ones:

FamilySearch Record Collections

 

It's back to learning time, back-to-school time, right? How about taking a deeper look at the Major Records Collections offered for free at FamilySearch.org?? Think you might oughta take a looksee??

• US Census
• 1790-1950 federal censuses
• Various state censuses
• US Vital Records
• B-M-D indexes for many cities and states
• Social Security Death Index
• Find A Grave Index
• BillionGraves Index
• US Probates & Wills
• Various state and county records
• Freedman's Bank records
• US Military Records
• WWI and WWII draft cards
• WWII enlistment records
• Civil War service and pension records
• Revolutionary War pension and service records
• Canadian Records
• 1851-1911 censuses
• Passenger lists
• UK Records
• B-M-D register indexes
• 1841-1911 censuses
• WWI service records
• Outgoing passenger lists
• Irish Records
• Civil Registration indexes
• Catholic parish registers
• Valuation Office books
• German Records
• B-baptism-M-D records
• Germans to America index
• Mexican Records
• Baptisms - M- D records
• 1930 census
• Immigration Records
• LOTS of passenger lists
• Border crossing records from Canada and Mexico
• US passport applications
• Naturalization records and indexes for various states and counties
• Newspapers
• Obituaries from GenealogyBank and various publications

What's NEW at FamilySearch

 

Here is the latest news regarding FamilySearch which I learned during RootsTech 2025 presented by Todd Powell, Tree Product Manger:

• FamilySearch has nearly 24 million monthly visits
• 1.68 billion persons in Family Tree
• 156 million persons added to Family Tree in 2024
• "a person is never deleted for good!"
• "FamilySearch is the largest linked tree as of 2024"
• Nearly 20 million memories attached
• Nearly 3.5 billion sources added (up 1 billion in 1 year)
• Nearly 5.6 billion digital images
• Nearly 700,000 digital books
• Nearly 20 billion searchable names
• Can search in 48 different languages (Arabic the latest)
• Are 6580 FamilySearch centers in the world
• The goal is to correctly/accurately identify each person
• Striving to slow down inaccurate merging

Todd smiled and said, "As each of us improves the documentation for each ancestor or person in our tree, we can increase the odds of folks making goofy changes....that does drive us crazy!"And he explained that they're really concerned about and working on fixing wrong matches and "people changing stuff without documentation."

He ended his lively presentation with this:  "Quit complaining... learn to use the available tools to full advantage!!' 

Back to School

 

Honoring my "teacher" ancestors today.

On the left is Efa Hope Carr, 1889-1980. She was a primary school teacher in Nashville, Washington County, Illinois. She wanted to marry Melville Potter but they delayed their marriage because once married, and "being a woman of carnal knowledge" she could no longer be a teacher. Needing that money to start their lives, they waited a year but finally did marry in 1917. 

On the right is husband's mother, Esther Mary Oswald, 1913-1998. She graduated from Cheney Normal School (now EWU) in 1930 and by age 18 was teaching in rural Newport, Washington. She remembered that some of the boys in her class were her same age. Still a teacher, she married Chuck Phillips in 1941. By start of the school year 1942 she was pregnant and assumed she'd have to quit teaching. But no, the war was on and too many male teachers had gone off to war, and, as she told me, "they said to just put on a smock and go to work." So she did. 

WHAT a difference between then and now! First, a 4-year Bachelor's Degree is needed to become a teacher (plus more schooling for higher education). And, according to Google:

Moral requirements for teachers today center on ethical conduct, professional responsibility, and fostering a positive learning environment. These include prioritizing student well-being, maintaining confidentiality, demonstrating respect and fairness, and upholding honesty and integrity in all interactions. Teachers also need to be competent, accountable, and committed to ongoing professional development. 

When my daughter, Jane, was in 5th grade, her young man teacher was Mr. Lannigan. He was married and they were expecting their first baby and Mr. Lannigan took the kids through all nine months of that journey. Jane loved it and never forgot Mr. Lannigan. 

Pest Houses

 

Perhaps an unfortunate ancestor spent time in a pest house? Why? What were "pest houses" anyway? (The above image spotlights a YouTube video.)

"Pest House," is the sad term for an isolated hospital, often away from towns, often shoddily built and poorly maintained and the condition of those housed there was often quite awful. 

Back in the day, people with contagious or communicable diseases such as leprosy, TB, cholera, diphtheria, smallpox, typhus and many more, were shunted away from society for there was no effective treatment or cure. Such unfortunates were isolated until they either somehow recovered or died. "Municipalities in the day didn't want to waste county money on caring for the walking dead." (HereLiesAStory.com, 16 Jun 2023)

Arrival ocean ports often had quarantine areas...as did our own Washington:

(U.S. Marine Quarantine Hospital on Diamond Point, between Sequim and Port Townsend 1905.)

In the early 1900s, Spokane County had a "pest house" located in Riverside State Park, near the Bowl and Pitcher, to isolate those with contagious diseases.

Seattle's "pest house" was on Beacon Hill, a location chosen "due to its proximity to a town dump and a gully used for waste disposal." The description of this place reads like a horror movie script: "filthy floors, leaky roofs, lacking proper sanitation, totally dilapidated." (The place was destroyed by fire in 1914 and the site became a golf course. HistoryLink.org, #2157.)

Blessedly, the need for such places disappeared with the advent of vaccines to cure many diseases. Do watch that YouTube video.