1910 Norway Census Released Today

The 1910 Norway census was made available to the public today for the first time. Click here to search. The Digitalarkivet is a free public service from the National Archives of Norway. Before today, the only nominative censuses publicly available were: 1801 1865 1870 1875 1885 1891 1900.

If you find working in the Norwegian language a bit intimidating, remember that you can embed a preferred language in the Digitalarkivet URL. For example:

The URL below goes to the 1801 census page for the farm Qverk in Eger (Eiker), Buskerud, Norway, where my great-great-great-great-grandmother, Johanne Pedersdatter, is living with her son Peder Nielssen and his wife Berthe Wernersdatter:

http://digitalarkivet.uib.no/cgi-win/webcens.exe?slag=visbase&sidenr=7&filnamn=f18010624&gardpostnr=96&personpostnr=2376&merk=2376#ovre

If I insert "&spraak=e&amp" (no quotes) immediately after the first question mark in that URL, then I get the page translated into English:

http://digitalarkivet.uib.no/cgi-win/webcens.exe?&spraak=e&slag=visbase&sidenr=7&filnamn=f18010624&gardpostnr=96&personpostnr=2376&merk=2376#ovre

I think that's pretty nice of the Norwegians, yes? And now I'm off to go search in 1910 and perhaps find some relatives who still live in Norway.

Two Days Left to Nominate Sassy Jane Genealogy

If you've enjoyed reading my blog the past few months, I'm asking that you nominate Sassy Jane Genealogy in Family Tree Magazine's 2011 search for the 40 Best Genealogy Blogs.

Go to:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/VWJZHKC

The URL is:

www.sassyjanegenealogy.blogspot.com

The answer to question #3 is:

8. New blogs: Was the blog you’re nominating launched during the past year? Categorize it here, even if it would also fit into another category.

The deadline is November 30.

Thanks very much – I appreciate your help!

Surname Saturday: Kate Middleton's Genealogy

Note: An update is available at the end of this original post.

My husband thinks I'm crazy, but I love a good royal wedding. Yes, I watched Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden and Daniel Westling's wedding on the Web last summer. He's from the same province as my ancestors, so I was obligated, of course. And they were nice enough to put his family tree up at Svensk Arkivinformation (SVAR). (No, unfortunately we're not related.)

So I was happy to hear about Prince William and Kate Middleton getting engaged. I know there was a little flap last summer when a biographer found a link to a black sheep member of the Middleton family tree. 

But since the engagement announcement, genealogists have been quick to establish that William and Kate are 12th cousins once removed through their common ancestor – the 16th century soldier Sir Thomas Leighton. (By contrast, William's grandparents, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip are third cousins, descended through Queen Victoria.)

Someone left this Middleton lineage on the comments section of a wire story, so I cannot provide attribution, but it's interesting indeed:

1. Edward III, King of England (b. 1312 d. 1377) m. Philippa of Hainault (b. 1314 d. 1369)
2. 
John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster (b. 1340 d. 1399) m. Catherine Roet (b. 1350 d. 10 May 1403)
3. 
Ralph Nevill, Earl of Westmorland (b. Abt 1364 d. m. Joan Beaufort
4. 
Henry Percy, 2nd Earl of Northumberland (b. 3 Feb 1393 d. 23 May 1455) m. Eleanor Nevill (d. 1463)
5. 
Henry Percy, 3rd Earl of Northumberland (b. 25 Jul 1421 d. 29 Mar 1461) m. Eleanor Poynings (b. Abt 1422 d. Abt Feb 1483)
6. 
Sir William Gascoigne of Gawthorpe (d. 4 Mar 1487) m. Margaret Percy
7. 
Sir Thomas Fairfax (d. 1520) m. Anne Gascoigne
8. 
William Fairfax m. ?
9. 
William Fairfax m. Lucy Goodman
10. 
John Fairfax m. Mary Birch
11. 
Benjamin Fairfax (1592-1675) m. Sarah Galliard
12. 
Benjamin Fairfax (d 1708) m. Bridget Stringer
13. 
John Meadows (d 1697) m. Sarah Fairfax (1654-1688)
14. 
Philip Meadows (1679-1752) m. Margaret Hall (1691-1765)
15. 
David Martineau (1726-1768) m. Sarah Meadows (1725-1800)
16. 
Thomas Martineau (1764-1826) m. Elizabeth Rankin (1771-1848)
17. 
Thomas Greenhow (1792-1881) m. Elizabeth Martineau (1794-1850)
18. 
Francis Lupton (1813-1884) m. Elizabeth Greenhow (1821-1892)
19. 
Francis Lupton (1848-1921) m. Harriet Davis (1850-1892)
20. 
Richard Middleton (1878-1921) m. Olive Lupton (1881-1936)
21. 
Peter Middleton (1920-) m. Valerie Glassborow (1924-2006)
22. 
Michael Middleton (1949-) m. Carole Goldsmith (1955-)
23. 
Catherine Middleton (1982-)

I have April 29, 2011, set aside on my calendar. How about you?

Update: A direct line from Henry VIII to Catherine Middleton has been established. And the New England Historic Genealogical Society has proven Middleton's ties to George Washington, Meriwether Lewis, and George Patton.

Nominate Sassy Jane Please!

Today I have a favor to ask. If you've enjoyed reading my blog the past few months, I'm asking that you nominate Sassy Jane Genealogy in the Family Tree Magazine's 2011 search for the 40 Best Genealogy Blogs.

Go to:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/VWJZHKC

The URL is:

www.sassyjanegenealogy.blogspot.com

The answer to question #3 is:

8. New blogs: Was the blog you’re nominating launched during the past year? Categorize it here, even if it would also fit into another category.

The deadline is November 30.

Thanks very much – I appreciate your help!

Archives News: Happy Thanksgiving from the National Archives

President Truman receiving a Thanksgiving turkey from members of the
Poultry and Egg National Board outside the White House, 16 Nov 1949
Harry S. Truman Library (NLHST)
[ARC Identifier 200138]

] 

Did you know that the Presidential tradition of pardoning a holiday turkey did not start with Harry Truman, as commonly believed? I had no idea the historical record was so murky – something genealogists are used to dealing with! – but the background for the custom is here. More at the jump.

Tuesday's Tip: Searching Maiden Names

Today's tip is going to be quick, since I have the feeling most people are digging out their stuffing recipes instead of searching obituaries this week. 

I'm continuing to mine the Proquest Obituaries database for paid death notices in the Chicago Tribune and it's paying off handsomely: I now have 342 death notices corralled. In fact, I'm discovering that searching this database (or other newspaper databases like Chronicling America or NewspaperArchive.com) is kind of like eating potato chips because I can't search or eat just one.

Lately I've hit a streak of large families with mostly daughters and I have no idea what their married names would be. And when the surnames are common ones, it leads to search results in the thousands and that's just not helpful. 

Some death notices or obits use the term "née," the French feminine past participle of naître, meaning to be born. So I structured a limited search on "nee Benson" and to my surprise Proquest loves the search term and returned wonderful results. 

Double-click on the image below to see that it returned 144 results.

Limited search on "nee Benson" in ProQuest Obituaries

From there, it was easy to search within the results window for the first names of my sibling sisters. Instead of hundreds of Esther Bensons, I had three and Ruttingh, Esther nee Benson was the one I was looking for.

Esther Benson search results

In the same set of search results, I found Esther's sister May. So give a "nee (maiden surname)" search a try - you may get some excellent results!

Thanksgiving Comes Early This Year

Another 15 million new indexed records in 34 collections from 13 countries? I'm definitely thankful for the beta site of familysearch.org. 

The list of new collections is here.

And the link to search the beta site is here.

Since my Austrians left from Antwerp, I'm particularly interested in Belgium, Antwerp Police Immigration Index, 1840-1930. 

Good luck and happy searching.

Wisdom Wednesday: These Are a Few of My Favorite (Genealogy) Things

I had a great time talking to Marcia Holstrom’s genealogy class yesterday in Campbell, California. I’m very glad we had enough time to go into depth on some of the finer points of scanning and organizing the results of our research.

Here are links to some of the things we talked about:

Graphics Software: 

GraphicConverter, which has many of the functions of PhotoShop, is available for Macs only as a shareware program at LemkeSoft.com. 

I have not used it personally, but Easy Graphic Converter looks similar and runs on all versions of Windows.

A bit more expensive but with more features and functionality is the home version of Photoshop from Adobe, called Photoshop Elements 9, available for Windows and Mac.

External Hard Drive:

Leading manufacturers of external hard drives include Seagate, Western Digital, and LaCie. I use the Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Desk 1 TB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive as my desktop external hard drive for backups. It comes with Windows-based backup software and connects to your computer via USB cable. I also use the Western Digital My Passport Essential 500 GB as a small portable external hard drive. It also connects via USB cable and also draws its power from your computer, eliminating the need for a separate power source.

Scanner:

I have a scanner as part of a multi-function printer, but increasingly I use a small, lightweight, and very portable scanner I bought this summer for a research trip. It has all the functions of a desktop scanner. Its portability makes it invaluable when visiting relatives and it also works nicely set up in front of the tv so that you can scan while you watch tv. The model I use is the Canon LiDE200 Color Image Scanner – $80 at Amazon. For $130, there’s a faster, newer version of the scanner available – the Canon CanoScan LiDE 700F Color Image Scanner.

Archival Supplies:

Hollinger Metal Edge is the leading supplier of genuine archival supplies. All of their products are very trustworthy.Light Impressions carries genuine archival supplies for storage your vintage photographs. Unfortunately, their order fulfillment for small personal orders is very, very poor.

My new e-book:

My e-book on today’s topic, Sassy Jane’s Guide to Organizing Your Genealogical Research Using Archival Principles, is available for $10.50. The e-book is 40 pages and includes all of the organizing principles we covered today, with specific screenshots for illustrations. To order, email me at sassy.jane.mail [at] gmail.com or visit PayPal.

Feel free to use the comments button below for any questions you may have. Thanks for having me speak - I enjoyed it.

Tuesday's Tip – FamilySearch Labs "Standard Finder" & Place Name Searches for Genealogy Research

Today's tip is about the inelegantly named "Standard Finder" that's currently in development in the labs at Familysearch.org. For those of us doing research in Europe (and other locations) where the borders changed frequently and place names were transliterated between different languages, the Standard Finder is a potentially great resource. It should help simplify how you do place name search in the Family History Library Catalog by providing a list of the standardized entries for place names in the catalog.

If you've heard my talk on organizing your family history research, you know that I'm a big fan of controlled vocabulary (i.e., stating something the same way each time) and authority files (keeping lists of what those standardized place and surnames are).

For example, when researching my Kirschstein line, I found a Hamburg departure record saying my great-grandfather Bruno left from Rawitsch, Prussia. Today that's Raciwz, Poland, as a quick Google search will tell you. But searching the Standard Finder, I also learn other variant names I could be searching, what the LDS standardized name is, a (current) country code, GPS coordinates, and a mysterious "Identification Number" that currently doesn't have hot links yet. Double-click on the image below for a legible screenshot:

FamilySearch's Standard Finder in action, with the search term "Rawitsch, Prussia."

The Web site states, "Standard Finder is a FamilySearch Labs application which provides access to standardized information for names, locations, and dates. These databases are used by several FamilySearch applications to assist researchers in searching for exact spellings as well as for indexers who enter information used for RecordSearch.

As can be imagined, the immensity of the data being collected and cross-references is enormous and will not always be correct. If you come across information you feel is incorrect please use the feedback link so we can continue to make corrections to better this data for future work. As you search please remember too that historical perspectives affect the usability and correctness of the data.

As a standalone application, Standard Finder can be of assistance to researchers in determining proper spellings of locations, checking if locations exist as well as determining alternate name spellings/variants to expand research."

So before your next search on a place name in the LDS Family History Library Catalog to see if they have microfilm on a location of interest to you, search the Standard Finder first to see if you have the standardized place name correctly identified.

Comments and feedback about Standard Finder are welcomed at: standardfinder@familysearchlabs.org.

Follow Friday – WitnesstoWar.org & Saving Family Members' Military Service Memories

www.witnesstowar.org

Today's Follow Friday is a Web site called Witness to War: Preserving the History of Combat Veterans. With Veterans Day fresh in our minds, I think this could be a great resource for genealogists. 

I think the site is pretty new and should be of interest to genealogists not only as a potential source of information, but also as a place where you can upload and share interviews with military members of your families.

The origins of the project lie with the Atlanta World War II Roundtable, a group of over 150 veterans and history enthusiasts who meet monthly to hear speakers tell their individual war experiences. "After several years of informal interviews with veterans, the project was formalized in 2002 after a chance encounter with a special group of veterans.... The Witness to War Foundation was initially launched to capture the stories of its members. The project expanded through the support of several individuals and groups listed in the Acknowledgements section to include many other veterans."

The contact information for questions, to donate content for use on the site, to sponsor the site, or if you live in the Atlanta area and would like to be interviewed for the Witness to War project is:

Emily Carley

Witness to War

c/o ISG

5555 Triangle Parkway

Suite 300

Norcross, GA 30092

emily@witness-to-war.org

Archives News – Veterans Day (U.S.) & Accessing Military Records at NARA

How does the National Military Personnel Records Center (NPRC) process requests for military service records? How many requests are received each week?  And how long does it take? Find out at http://tiny.cc/NPRC.

The NPRC is a division of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). To commemorate Veterans Day, the National Archives today launched its ninth “Inside the Vaults” video short featuring the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, Missouri. Archivist of the United States David S. Ferriero says, “As a Navy veteran myself, I know the importance of having access to military records. The NPRC preserves and makes these records available to those who have served our nation.”

The three-minute video short, “America’s Veterans and the National Archives,” is a journey inside the vaults of one of the NARA's largest operations. The video features National Archives employee and veteran Ricky Moe as he traces his own military file.
 

From computer systems that track each request to the painstaking work by conservators to reconstruct documents damaged by the devastating 1973 fire, the video features the work of NPRC staff.
 

The National Personnel Records Center is a central repository of personnel-related records, both military and civil service.  The NPRC’s provides access to records requested by  Congressional offices, Government agencies, military veterans, former civilian Federal employees, family members, as well as genealogists, researchers, and historians. Records include military personnel, health, and medical records of discharged and deceased veterans of all services during the 20th century, as well as medical treatment records of retirees from all services, as well as records for dependent and other persons treated at naval medical facilities.

“Inside the Vaults” is part of the ongoing effort by the National Archives to make its collections, stories, and accomplishments more accessible to the public. The film series is free to view and distribute on NARA's YouTube channel at http://tiny.cc/Vaults.

Created by a former broadcast network news producer, the "Inside the Vaults" video shorts series presents behind-the-scenes exclusives and offers surprising glimpses of the National Archives treasures. These videos are in the public domain and are not subject to any copyright restrictions. The National Archives encourages the free distribution of them, so link away!

Archives News: New Alien Records Released at NARA

For the first time, more than 300,000 case files on alien residents of the U.S. who were born before 1909 are now open to the public at the National Archives regional facility in Kansas City, Missouri. The "Alien Files" – commonly referred to as "A-Files" – were transferred to the National Archives from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) and are only a small part of the millions of case files that will eventually be transferred and opened to the public. 

The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), the predecessor agency of the USCIS, began issuing aliens Alien Registration Numbers in 1940, and on April 1, 1944, began using this number to create the A-Files.

The National Archives states, "A-Files are a rich source of biographical information in that they contain relatively modern immigration documents, all in one file. Since the early 20th century the United States collected increasing amounts of information from immigrants and A-Files from mid-century hold a wealth of data, including visas, photographs, applications, affidavits, correspondence, and more."

A-Files are eligible for transfer to the National Archives 100 years after the birthday of the subject of a file. The National Archives regional facility at Kansas City will maintain A-Files from all USCIS district offices except San Francisco, Honolulu, Reno, and Guam. Records for those areas will be housed at the National Archives in San Francisco because of the significant research use of related immigration files there. A-Files may be viewed in person by appointment at the National Archives regional facility in Kansas City, Missouri, or copies of files may be ordered for a fee. 

Information on how to request copies of A-Files is located here. Search the Archival Research Catalog (ARC) first to find out if NARA currently has an A-File for a specific individual before you make a request.

How to Submit Requests

Nara accepts research requests either by e-mail, snail mail, or fax only.

• E-mail: Afiles.KansasCity@nara.gov
• Postal mail:
  National Archives at Kansas City
  Attn: A-Files Request
  400 W. Pershing Rd.
  Kansas City, MO 64108
• Fax: (816) 268–8038

Visiting in Person (by appointment only): 

• Address:
  400 West Pershing Road
  Kansas City, MO 64108
• E-mail: kansascity.archives@nara.gov
• Phone: 816-268-8000
• Research Room Hours: Tuesday-Saturday
s: 8:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.


Follow Friday – HistoryOrb.com

Today's Follow Friday is HistoryOrb.com, which has a great today-in-history archives containing more than 200,000 important events, famous and celebrity birthdays, and famous deaths from the past six thousand years. The archive is fully searchable, both by date and by keyword, via the today-in-history search engine.

It's a great help with genealogical timeline composition and I like it especially because it has data for American, Asian, European, Latin American, New Zealand, and Russian history, as well as an Economic History section.

Give it a try and let me know what you think.

Tuesday's Tip – *Not* Using a Perpetual Calendar

The tip for this Tuesday is so transparently obvious I'm probably outing myself as duh-humb. But here goes. 

I do a lot of searching for death notices in Chicago newspapers. In fact, paid death notices are a vital source for anyone researching in metropolitan areas. 

So I have over 240 death notices that have really informed my research. But those death notices usually only say something like "Services on Tuesday at 2 p.m." So for each death notice, I'd have to open up a perpetual calendar (I really like the one at www.timeanddate.com/calendar) and set the year and figure out the burial date from the perpetual calendar. 

That takes a lot of time – time I could be spending finding more death notices. So last week while I was hip-deep in ProQuest Obituaries, the light went on. I'm on a full page of death notices and somebody somewhere on that page must mention the date in connection with services. And they do – every time! 

Example: This death notice for Emma Anderson specifies "services Saturday 10 a.m." The Delbridge death notice the next column to the right says services will be held "Saturday May 4." The answer was right on the same page, inches away.

This is approximately two million times faster (time scientifically determined) and I can't believe it took me 200 death notices to figure this out. D'oh is me!