Introduction to German Research for North Americans

By Michele Simmons Lewis, Student So why would a native German take the German Records courses offered at the National Institute for Genealogical Studies? Most of the research I have done in the past 23 years has been in American records not German. I mistakenly thought that German family history research was pretty much impossible for those living in the United States. Although I was born in Germany, I came to the US when I was only six years old so I don’t have a good working knowledge of German geography or history. I do not know the laws that govern civil vital records, the traditions that govern the church records nor do I have knowledge about what records are actually available. These are the things I need to know, and the things I am counting on The National Institute for Genealogical Studies to teach me. Introduction to German Research for North Americans is my first course. In the first module, we learn the four essential things you need to know about an immigrant before you can do more in-depth research. I had the funniest problem with this week’s assignment! I needed to make a table of my German immigrant ancestors to include these four essential pieces of information. As far as I know I don’t have any German immigrant ancestors because my mother and I are the first immigrants. My family, both past and present, are in Germany so I contacted a genealogist friend of mine and borrowed a…

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Maps and the US Census

By Shannon Bennett, Student I love maps. Really, maps are a fantastic research tool, and even more important when you are using census records. Think about it, why do you think that would be the case?  I can think of several reasons; hopefully mine and yours match. Boundaries in the U.S. shifted, changed, and morphed over the years into what we know today. During western expansion, borders could be re-written almost overnight. Think about how many times over the course of the 10 years between enumerations this may have happened. In fact, your family may never have  actually picked up and moved but that doesn’t mean that they are listed as living in thave actually when the next census came along. Frustrating isn’t it? That’s why I was excited to see a section about maps included in the US Census Records  course . You should have access to the maps for the all of the places you are researching. It can really help you put the information you learn into perspective. Particularly, like I already said, if you know your family never moved but the census states differently. Locating those shifting boundaries is like turning on a light bulb on in a dark room sometimes. Maps can also help you determine how the territorial and state boundaries shifted over various years.  Even better, sometimes territories had their own censuses. This makes knowing when states formed from them even more critical. These territorial census records are interesting but they don’t always contain…

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Blogging about German Courses: Meet Michele Simmons Lewis

We are happy to announce that Michele Simmons Lewis is joining The National Institute as a blogger. She’ll be blogging her thoughts as she proceeds through the German Records Certificate program. Before you read her posts, we thought we’d sit down and ask her a few questions. The National Institute: How long have you been doing genealogy? What got you started? Michele: I have been doing research for 23 years. My dad accidentally let a family skeleton slip and I was determined to either prove or disprove what he said. I ended up disproving it and I haven’t stopped researching since. What amazes me is how much things have changed in those 23 years. When I first started everything was done on paper and the only way you found information was by doing onsite research. The National Institute: Do you have a favorite research project ? Michele: One of the biggest projects I am working on is determining the parents of James Simmons of South Carolina. He migrated with his family to the Mississippi Territory in about 1798. Right now I am plotting out all of the original land owners in Perry County, Mississippi. I am tackling it one township at a time using the records at the Bureau of Land Management. James had three parcels of land and I want to analyze all of his neighbors to see if I can find any sort of familial links. Perry County is a burned county as was its parent county, Greene County. It goes downhill from…

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There’s More to the US Census

By Shannon Bennett, Student How many of you knew that there were other types of US Census schedules?  If you did know, did you know how many different types there are? I knew about a couple of them but I had no idea that there were so many. Non-population schedules are great ways to gather more information about the family and the community you are researching. They can tell you about the job people held, if they lived on an Indian Reservation, what animals or crops they raised, about the industries in the town, and even information about their deaths. That is a lot of information, a lot of really good information, which can not only lead you to more information but in some instances it could give you a completely new insight into the environment they worked and lived. Over half of the 1890 Veteran’s Schedule was lost with the destruction of the 1890 Population Schedule, but I have to tell you it is a schedule I love to search (to read more about Veterans Schedules see the FamilySearch Research Wiki). While not many of my direct line ancestors are in it (majority of the Alabama to Kansas forms were destroyed, and my family hails from Indiana) I was lucky enough to find additional information on many of my husband’s trickier lines. I also learned that I need to go back and look at the Agricultural Schedules. Some non-population schedules are available from Ancestry.com . Unfortunately for me, they…

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Associations and Occupations

By Shannon Bennett, Student Do you ever read something and feel your head getting full? That feeling of “oh no, this is a lot of stuff, how am I ever going to remember it all?” Well, that’s the feeling I have right now after finishing the next section of the English: Occupation-Professions and Trades course. This last week I learned more than I ever knew about associations. What are associations you ask?  Well, there were three main types we studied: guilds and livery companies, trade unions, and professional associations. I thought I knew what the last two were, but I was wrong. However, I didn’t know anything about guilds and livery companies. I was really intrigued to learn about the livery companies of London. No, I don’t have ancestry from there (that I know of) and no, none of my ancestors were of those trades (once again, that I know of) but the history of those companies was simply fascinating. Livery companies were guilds in the City of London known for their livery, or dress colors they wore, which represented the guild on state occasions. The members of the guild entitled to wear the colors were known as the “livery” opposed to the “freeman” who were waiting to be promoted to the livery as vacancies happened.  It is important to note that livery companies were not found outside of London.  These organizations in other cities or boroughs were known as guilds when located outside of the City. We learned about…

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