Can you help us solve a family mystery?

This is a portrait of a family member from our father's side of our family.  Our dad remembers it hanging on the wall of his parents' living room, and thinks it first appeared there when he was about high-school age.  From what he always understood, it was someone on his father's side of the family, and he assumed it was his father's mother - in other words, our great-grandmother - but he's not positive, and I'm not yet convinced.  Whoever it is, the face, and particularly the eyes, are quite striking and beautifully executed.  We're hoping a more accurate and specific dating might help us narrow down the identity possibilities, and that's where you come in!

The mystery family portrait, painted on a sheet of metal.

Today, for the first time, I unpicked the nails from the back of the frame, hoping to discover a name scribbled on the reverse, or even a date written in the margins underneath the frame.  Alas, I didn't discover anything like that, but what I did discover was that this portrait is actually painted on a thin sheet of metal.  I assume it is tin.  You can see how the acid from the paint has begun to eat through the metal on the back.

The eerie imprint of the portrait on the reverse.

I don't know a great deal about nineteenth- or early-twentieth-century fashion, and I don't know anything about portraiture or painting from the turn of the century, either. Based on the little I do know about fashion, hairstyles, and accessories, it looks like this portrait could have been done any time between about 1880 and 1920. We're hoping some of you with deeper knowledge about the nuances of these decades in fashion and art could help us narrow that down a bit more.  When was painting on sheets of tin most popular?  What decade does this hairstyle or these earrings or this type of collar suggest to you?  Any insight at all in helping us solve this mystery would be most appreciated!

This Week in Genealogy: "Parental Wrath"

As we delve deeper into our genealogy research, we've started stumbling into some interesting stories.  Some are touching, like our great-uncle who owned a tavern that once belonged to his father.  Veterans returning home from WWII would find open arms waiting for them there, with assistance to help them get back on their feet; if they had no where to stay, he would let them board in the rooms above, paying only what they were able.  Some of our stories are disappointing, like our great-great-grandfather who seemingly abandoned his wife and eight children, disappearing to who knows where, never to be heard from again.  And some of our stories are heartbreaking, like our other great-great-grandfather who fought bravely in the cavalry during the Civil War.  He was wounded and captured, but made it home at the end of the war.  He married and had nine children, but was soon after admitted to a state hospital where he died several years later.  His wife passed away only two years after he did, leaving the children in the care of her brother, who had his own large family to support as well. 

But sometimes, the stories we find are just plain funny.  This example, in the article below, was published in the New York Times in 1902.  The young lady in the story is a member of a family which married into one of our family lines.  The story itself is amusing, but the prose and especially the quotes from her father make the article all the more entertaining!

Fun with Census Records: The Case of L.M. Montgomery

In a previous post, we used U.S. census records to trace the life of Laura Ingalls Wilder and her immediate family.  Now, we'll turn to our north and to another one of our favorite childhood authors and take a look at Lucy Maud Montgomery (1874-1942) using the same type of resource, this time in Canada.

Lucy Maud Montgomery at age ten in 1882.

Photo linked from wikipedia.

Lucy Maud Montgomery was born on the 30th of November 1874 in New London (then called Clifton), Prince Edward Island.  The first Canadian census in which we can track her is thus 1881, where we find her at six years old living in nearby Cavendish.  The trouble with this particular census is that it does not indicate the relationships of the individuals within a household, so without knowing a bit of additional information about LMM's life, things could get confusing at this point.  Here we see her, listed as "Lucy M. Montgomery," living in a household with McNeills: Alexander, Lucy Ann, Chester B, and Mary E.  LMM's mother died before young Lucy Maud was two, and her father shortly after relinquished his infant daughter to her maternal grandparents, the Macneills.  Maud was thus raised by her grandparents, who we see here with two of their children, Maud's uncle and aunt.

To view the complete record, click here, and then click on "view image."

Here is Hugh John Montgomery, Maud's father, still on Prince Edward Island in that same year, 1881.  The widower returned briefly to his parents' home before departing for Saskatchewan.  In 1890, after he had established himself and a new home out west, Maud's father sent for her to come and live with him and his new wife and family.  Although she stayed with him for only a year, the 1891 census caught her with her father's family in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, just before she left to return home to the Macneills on Prince Edward Island.

This census, unlike the previous one, indicates the relationships of each member of the household, and also the place of birth of each individual and each individual's father and mother.  Here we see Hugh Montgomery at age 49; he was born on P.E.I., as were both of his parents.  His new wife, 28-year-old Mary, was born in Ontario.  Then comes 16-year-old Maud, who, as we know was born on P.E.I., as was her father.  But what's interesting is that it indicates her mother was born Ontario.  Clearly either the census taker assumed that Maud was Mary's daughter as well, or he was not told anything to the contrary for some particular reason or another.  Beneath Maud are her two new half-siblings, Katie and Bruce, as well as a Scottish servant.

To view the complete record, click here, and then click on "view image."

After the short stay with her father, Maud was glad to return to her roots on Prince Edward Island and she remained there until her marriage.  The 1901 census shows her living alone with her grandmother; her grandfather had died in 1898.  Things get more exciting, however, when you look at the household three below theirs.  Brother and sister David and Margaret Mcneill, here living with their adopted nieces, were the owners of "Green Gables" house, just down a path and across the road from Maud and her grandmother.  They were cousins of Maud's grandfather, and Maud spent a good deal of time visiting the pair when she was growing up.  They would later become one of the inspirations for Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert.

To view the complete record, click here. 

An easier-on-the-eyes transcription can be found here.

On 5 July 1911, L.M. Montgomery married the Rev. Ewan Macdonald and the couple moved to Ontario.  I have a feeling Maud got caught in between with this year's census.  Here is her husband listed alone without his new bride in Ontario, which implies this was taken prior to July.  I have been unable to trace the unmarried Maud on Prince Edward Island, however, so I'm assuming she was married and had left the Island prior to the P.E.I. enumeration later in the year.

L.M. Montgomery in 1907, just prior to the publication of Anne of Green Gables.

Photo linked from extraordinarycanadians.

Canada has not yet released the census records for any enumeration after 1911, so this is as far as we can go with Maud's life for the present.  While these few censuses (censi?!) don't come close to representing the full, varied, and very exciting scope of Maud's early life (they don't show her at college or boarding away from Cavendish as a teacher, nor do they show her living with her Campbell cousins, as she did for some months following the death of her grandmother while she prepared for her wedding), they do offer an intriguing glimpse of the places and people that structured her life.  We look forward to the release of additional records to see what else we can learn about the life of this influential and extraordinary writer.

In the mid-1990s, we visited Prince Edward Island several times to see the historic sites and places that were such an integral part of the life and works of LMM.  We've been feeling awfully nostalgic about those trips and recently dug out the photo albums to reminisce and wish ourselves back there again.  In an upcoming post, we'll share some of those photos (however old they may be now!) to give you a brief tour of one of our all-time favorite places to visit.  Hopefully one day (soon!) we'll get back there.  :-)

Fun with Census Records: The Case of Laura Ingalls Wilder

In keeping with our recent theme of genealogy, and to complement last week's release of the 1940 US census records by the National Archives and Records Administration, we thought it might amuse our readers to share some of the "fun" non-familial things you can also do with census records.  One of our favorite census-related pastimes is to try to locate some of the people of the past that we admire.  Here's a look at what we uncovered about one of them: our favorite childhood author, Laura Ingalls Wilder (7 February 1867 - 10 February 1957).  Laura is fairly easy to track through census records both because her name is relatively uncommon and because we already know a good deal about the relatives who might be listed with her at various points in her life, which makes narrowing the choices down to the Laura much quicker.

The three oldest Ingalls girls: l-r are Carrie, Mary, and Laura in the 1870s.

Photo linked from NewWorldEncyclopedia.org.

The first census Laura appears in is from 1870, when we find her living in the "little house on the prairie" near Montgomery City, Kansas.  Here she appears with her parents, C.P. and Caroline, and her sisters Mary and Caroline.  From this record, we see that her father was born in New York, and that she, Mary, and their mother were all born in Wisconsin.  Younger sister Caroline, who was only two months old when the census was taken, was born in Kansas.  The last name has been spelled "Ingles," but with the soundex option for searching indexed names on familysearch.org, it's still easy to find.

Click here to view the full census page on familysearch.org.

By 1880, the Ingalls family has moved to De Smet in Kingsbury Country, Dakota Territory.  Youngest daughter Grace has been added to the family.  But what is so interesting about this particular record is that, in listing the occupations of each member of the household, it indicates that both Mary and Laura "help in keeping house."  While this would be only expected for teenage girls like them, the ordinary suddenly become more extraordinary when one realizes that Mary by this time was blind.  As the National Archives indicates, "Enumerators in that census [i.e. 1880] were instructed not to make such a note unless a daughter contributed substantially to the welfare of the household," so clearly Mary was an active and productive young woman, despite her quite recent illness and blindness.  It comes as no surprise, then, when Mary pops up listed as a student on the Iowa State Census for 1885 at the Iowa College for the Blind in Vinton, Iowa, which she attended from 1881-1889.

The 1890 census records were almost entirely destroyed by a fire in Washington D.C., so the next time we can trace Laura is in 1900, by which time she is living in Mansfield, Missouri, married to Almanzo Wilder, with a daughter Rose, who the census tells us was born in December 1886.  What is particularly satisfying about the 1900 census is that they asked for several very useful bits of information for the first time, including the number of years a couple had been married (Laura and Almanzo, we can see, have been married for 14 years already), and the total number of children a woman has had, with the number now living.  Laura reports two children, with only one currently living; those who have read her books will recall Laura's own emotional description of the birth and death of her second child in The First Four Years.

To view the full census record with additional information, click here.

Image linked from familysearch.org.

1910, 1920, 1930, and now 1940 (see page 5) (at ages 74 and 83 respectively!) find Laura and Almanzo still living in Mansfield (they would live the remainder of their lives there).  In 1930, Rose Wilder Lane rejoins her parents on their farm.  For this decade's census, new questions regarding occupation were added, and what is so great about this particular record is that it lists both Laura and her daughter as "authoresses" working in the industry of "novels."  How neat is that?  :-)

If you're interested in learning more about the full genealogy of Laura Ingalls Wilder, check out this page.  The National Archives also has a great resource page for teachers that uses the example of LIW to integrate census records into lessons on American history, literature, and politics.

The Ingalls family in 1894.

Photo linked from the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library.

And just in case you're wondering what became of the rest of the Ingalls family after Laura's marriage, here they are in 1900, still living in De Smet, with 24-year-old Caroline a printer (she worked for the town newspaper) and 22-year-old Grace a teacher.  Charles died soon after in 1902; in 1910, mother Caroline is listed as widowed, but still living with daughters Mary and Caroline.  Grace married Nathan Dow in 1901; she appears in 1920 and in 1930 with him.  Carrie married in 1912; here she is in 1920 with her husband, David Swanzey, and his two children from a previous marriage.  I haven't been able to locate either mother Caroline Ingalls or Mary Ingalls (who never married) in 1920, so I'm not sure where they were living from that point until their deaths; Caroline died in 1923 and Mary in 1928.

**Just a note on the links I've provided with each census.  Where available indexed online with free access, I've provided a link to the image for each record.  When the online image is available only via a subscription service (we've been using Ancestry.com), I provided a link to the indexed record on familysearch.org, though it does not include free access to the document image itself.  Whether available to be viewed online or not, the documents are all in the public domain, and print copies of the records are freely accessible at numerous sites around the country, if you're interested in taking a look at any of them yourself.**

Finding Family Faces

One of the most exciting - and most frustrating - parts of beginning a genealogical journey is delving into boxes full of old family photos. Sometimes you get incredibly lucky and discover that some wonderful ancestor with incredible foresight thought to label some of them with names and/or years and/or places. This has proven a rarity in our family, but when it does happen, it makes us prodigiously happy.  :-)

When we were in middle school, we discovered three old photo albums stashed away in a drawer at our grandfather's house. He gave them to us and we took them home and looked through them, but at that time never asked him to tell us more about who was in them. Oh, how we wish we had! About a month ago, we dug them out of our parents' basement and looked through them again for the first time since we got them. We were thrilled to see that two of the three were labeled, and though it took some work deciphering the handwriting, we were able to figure out what some of the names and labels said. Unfortunately, much of the time that we could read the names, we had no clue who the person was or how or even if they were actually related to us.

As our research into our family history has progressed, we've gradually begun to match personal histories with all those individual names in the albums, and identify their relationships to the other people in the pictures, and to ourselves. It's so exciting when a name we're seen only on the back of an old photo suddenly pops up on another branch of our family tree. That was the case with these two little boys, Francis and Jack.

Francis and Jack, 1923.

One of the albums we have is from our great-aunt M and though it only contains about a dozen pictures, it has proven one of the most useful family-deciphering tools we've yet come across. Fortunately for us. she labeled almost all of the pictures with a date, names, and even in some cases the place where each photo was taken. From this, we were able to learn that the photo album was put together when she was about 16 or 17, in 1923. Francis and Jack are part of this album, but all we had to go on for identification purposes were their names and the date. We didn't know if they were family friends, neighbors, or relatives.  As we've learned more about our great-aunt's mother (our great-grandmother) and her family, we discovered that Francis and Jack were M's cousins, the two sons of M's Aunt C (our great-grandmother's sister). Much to our delight, this solved another mystery from this same album. A couple pages after Francis and Jack is this photo, labeled simply "Aunt C" (to clarify, the photo includes her full first name, but we're omitting it here for privacy).

"Aunt C" in 1923.

When we first saw it, we have no idea who "Aunt C" could be or which branch of the family she came from. Now, not only do we know who Francis and Jack are, but we also know what their mother looked like. It's the little victories like these that make genealogy so addicting a treasure hunt!

Great-aunt M also labeled herself in group photos, often along with the first initial and last names of the friends that appear with her. In several photos like this one, we can see what M looked like around age 16, and we also know who she was close to. Using the traces of information M left behind for us, we've been able to find a couple of her friends with their families on census records and thus have learned a little about the non-familial relationships that also helped shape our family's past.

Great-aunt M (far right) with her friends in 1923.

Now if only every ancestor had the diligence and foresight to label like Great-aunt M...

1940 U.S. Census Released Today!

Being new to the world of genealogy, today's release of the 1940 U.S. Federal Census by the National Archives is an exciting event for us!  Census records have been extremely helpful for us, not only by providing us with the location of many of our ancestors, but also revealing their birth years, where their parents came from, and where they worked.  Many times, they have also introduced us to new members to add to our family tree.

One set of our grandparents in the mid-1940s.

United States census records remain private, held at the National Archives, to be released to the public only after 72 years.  There were some new questions added on the 1940 census that had not been asked previously.  For example, for the first time, the enumerator marked who was providing the information for each individual household.  You can view a complete list of the questions and blank census forms here.  This has me thinking back to the 2010 census we just filled out.  Do you remember what questions they asked?  I wonder if the information I provided will be useful to my ancestors 70 years from now?

Our grandmother's eldest brother F in uniform in 1944.

Do you know many members of your 1940s family served in the

war that defined this decade?

Free access to digital images of the census will be available today, April 2, at 9:00am EST on 1940census.archives.gov.  Beginning at 8:30am, on the same website, will be a live webcast of an opening ceremony.  Information from the census is not yet indexed, but if you know where your ancestors were living, you can use the enumeration district to locate them.  Ancestry.com has access to the images as of midnight and will immediately begin uploading the images to their website.  Several organizations have plans for immediate indexing of the census to make searching for family names possible.  FamilySearch, along with some other organizations, are sponsoring this website and blog, which are rallying people to help index the census as quickly as possible once it is released, so that it can be made available to as wide an audience as possible.  Another fun site was the facebook page of the National Archives where fun photos and facts have been posted.  I've enjoyed counting down the days with these organizations and look forward to witnessing all of the events throughout the day today.

For those of you who have been anxiously anticipating the 1940 census release to locate some of your ancestors, we wish you the best of luck in your research!  Happy 1940's Day!

This Week in Genealogy...

Last weekend, we began to search through boxes of old pictures, documents, and mementos that both of our parents inherited from their respective parents.  Here's one set of our great-grandparents in some of the oldest pictures from our collections:

A and H with our grandmother E, second half of 1923.

Both A and H immigrated from Finland in the 1910s.  We've discovered that they arrived separately and eventually met in Maine, where they married.  Their marriage certificate, which we found on ancestry.com, lists all of their parents' names, which no one in our family ever knew before.  Neither of their parents immigrated with them, so we're wondering why both A and H elected to come to America alone as young people.  Did they each come with a church group, with cousins, with friends, or by themselves?  Where did they go when they arrived, and what did they do to support themselves in the years before they were married?  We're currently trying to trace each of their immigration records, but it is proving considerably more difficult than we anticipated.

H with our grandmother E in 1924.

Their daughter, our grandmother E, was born in 1923. She was an only child, and even after she was married, her parents lived close by and remained an active part of their grandchildren's lives. Our father was very close to his grandmother H, and when I was born on her 89th birthday, I was given her name as my middle name. Ashley was later given H's middle name as her own, so we both feel a special connection to H and all that we're now learning about her, even though neither of us had the privilege to know her.

H in the 1920s.  We haven't yet been able to place where

or exactly when this picture was taken.

As a minor fashion-related observation, note that H wears the same watch in each of the pictures.  In our grandparents' wedding picture, the same watch appears on her daughter E's wrist, evidently our grandmother's very special "something old."  Now if only we could find that watch...

Let the Genealogy Research Begin!

Researching our family history has always been on our “we should really do that” list.  Now, thanks to a some recent interest from one of our cousins, we are elbow deep in index cards of possible ancestors and copies of census records.  We started with what we know and what our parents could tell us.  Unfortunately, our grandparents are no longer with us to share their memories and we have very little to begin with. 

One set of our grandparents, married in 1946.

A few weekends ago, we attended a genealogy workshop at the Connecticut Historical Society, where we gathered some tips on how to get started and how to begin to organize and coordinate what information we find.  The CHS Research Center is an excellent resource, especially for local history, so we spent the afternoon following the workshop in the Research Center gathering what we could find to help us get started.  We have since spent countless hours online digging for more.  Most of what we have found was through HeritageQuest Online, FamilySearch.org, and ancestry.com.  Luckily, our last name, and most of our other related surnames are fairly uncommon, so any information that is available has been pretty easy to spot (except when people decide to change the spelling of their names!).  We have several census records, a few military records (more are on order from the National Archives), town directory listings, and a sprinkling of immigration and naturalization records.  At this point, I think we have exhausted the online records and we have plans to visit the CT State Library this weekend to see what we can find there. 

Our other grandparents, married in 1950.

We have made a few connections between family lines, but still have a long way to go.  We have one line that we can trace to the Civil War (including a Medal of Honor recipient!) and we think they've been in the U.S. since at least the middle of the 18^th century.  The other lines of our family were immigrants to the U.S. in the generation of our great-grandparents.  We hope to share some fun stories with you all as we continue to unearth them.  Have any of you embarked on this journey of family discovery?  Any tips or recommendations, especially for foreign research, would be most appreciated!