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It's been 10 years since the last US census was released
to the public. In that time, genealogy has become one
of America's most popular hobbies. So what's going to
happen on Monday, April 1, when the 1930 census is
opened up for researchers at National Archives locations
across the country? Will genealogists be camped outside
NARA facilities in lines snaking around the building?
Will extra security be required to keep civilized order
at the microfilm machines? Will you finally discover
those missing limbs in your family tree? Family Tree
Magazine has national correspondents standing by, and
we'll let you know how it goes in next week's newsletter.
If you'll be one of the first in line to check out the
1930 census, let us know how it went! Send an e-mail
to genealogy-newsletter@fwpubs.com by April 2.
In the meantime, read on for ways to get ready!
P.S. It's your last chance to win an organizational
makeover! Submit your tale of organizational woe by
April 1 for a chance to win a family history-filing
makeover from Sharon DeBartolo Carmack, author of
Organizing Your Family History Search.
—Susan Wenner, Newsletter Editor
Genealogy-Newsletter@fwpubs.com
Countdown to 1930 Census
Are you ready for one of genealogy's most exciting
"premieres" in years? The 1930 census opening is just
days away, and to get you prepared, we've got highlights
from Family Tree Magazine's article on using the census.
For a more in-depth look at census research, check out
Kathleen W. Hinckley's new book, Your Guide to the
Federal Census (available at your local bookstore or online).
Also, visit these two Web sites: Obtaining EDs for the
1930 Census in One Step (Large Cities)
and the 1930
Census Microfilm Locator.
If you want to be part of the opening festivities,
here are the National Archives and Records Administration locations where the 1930 census will
make its debut, starting at 8:45 a.m. on April 1 (except
for the Northeast Region in Waltham, Mass., which opens
at midnight!):
- National Archives Building
Pennsylvania Avenue at Eighth Street NW
Washington, DC 20408
(202) 501-5500
- Pacific Alaska Region
654 W. Third Ave.
Anchorage, AL 99501
(907) 271-2443
- Pacific Alaska Region (Seattle)
6125 Sand Point Way NE
Seattle, WA 98115
(206) 526-6501
- Northeast Region
10 Conte Drive
Pittsfield, MA 01201
(413) 445-6885
- Pacific Region (Laguna Niguel)
24000 Avila Road, First Floor-East Entrance
Laguna Niguel, CA 92677
(949) 360-2641
- Pacific Region (San Francisco)
1000 Commodore Drive
San Bruno, CA 94066
(650) 876-9009
- Northeast Region (Boston)
380 Trapelo Road
Waltham, MA 02452
(781) 647-8104
- Northeast Region (New York City)
201 Varick St.
New York, NY 10014
(212) 337-1300
- Central Plains Region
2312 East Bannister Road
Kansas City, MO 64131
(816) 926-6272
- Rocky Mountain Region Building
Building 46, Denver Federal Center
Fifth Street and Center Avenue
Denver, CO 80225
(303) 236-0806
- Mid Atlantic Region
900 Market St.
Philadelphia, PA 19107
(215) 597-3000
- Southeast Region
1557 St. Joseph Ave.
East Point, GA 30344
(404) 763-7477
- Southwest Region
501 W. Felix St., Building I
Fort Worth, TX 76115
(817) 334-5525
- Great Lakes Region
7358 S. Pulaski Road
Chicago, IL 60629
(773) 581-7816
Launch Your Online Search for Irish Roots
Don't let your ancestral enthusiasm on St. Patrick's Day
fizzle out with the green beer! A new Web site may be
just what you need to jumpstart your Irish roots research.
From the creators of subscription database sites
Scots Origins and English Origins comes a free search
site called Irish Origins.
This search engine will comb 22,351 Irish genealogy Web
pages containing 1.4 million names for your ancestors.
These pages contain records such as census data, Griffith's
valuations, passenger lists, church records, convict
records and more. You'll also find information about
Irish record archives and other useful Irish Web sites.
Land Patents Site Up and Running
Several months after a federal court order shut down
all US Department of Interior Web sites, one of the most
popular ones for genealogists is back online. The
Official Federal Land Patent Records site is once again available
for searching 2 million land title records from 1820 to
1908. Frequent users may notice a new look and improved
features, including faster page loads, simpler
navigation, streamlined searches, more data fields and
a printer-friendly results page.
Top 12 National Park Projects
The US National Park Service is promoting the repairs,
overhauls and maintenance of some of our most historic
national treasures with a new "Top 12" list. This year's
top 12 preservation projects are taking place at:
- Federal Hall National Memorial (New York City)
- Everglades National Park (Florida)
- Independence National Historical Park (Pennsylvania)
- Yellowstone National Park (Wyoming/Montana)
- Padre Island National Seashore (Texas)
- Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine (Maryland)
- San Juan National Historical Park (Puerto Rico)
- Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park (Maryland)
- Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park (Alaska)
- Keweenaw National Historical Park (Michigan)
- Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site (Missouri)
- Lava Beds National Monument (California)
Learn more about these projects.
Family Reunions
Last May, I wrote about the Boozell Family Reunion that Phyllis Quarg (former president of the San Diego Genealogical Society) had planned in York, Pa. At the time, Phyllis showed me her reunion notebook, the e-mails she had sent to all the Boozells she could find, and the exciting plans for touring the family home and church.
I remember being impressed with her organizational skills, and surprised at what was involved in planning a family get-together. As a kid, my only memories of family reunions were bunches of people showing up at a park with picnics. Things have changed! The Boozell reunion, for instance, involved a pre-reunion trip to York, meetings with people from the visitors and convention bureau, a solid budget, arrangements for a bus tour of the area and a traditional Pennsylvania Dutch dinner.
I had lunch with Phyllis last week and heard how successful the reunion had been. Before going, she even had hardbound books printed about the family's history, and almost all had been sold to the family that gathered in their ancestral home. All the hard work had paid off—and now she has connections to relatives that will probably last a lifetime.
Do you have the bug to reunite family? If so, it's not too early to start planning:
• Thinking About a Reunion?
• What Should We Do at a Family Reunion
• Family Reunion Software
• Family-Reunion
Find more family reunion sites.
—Nancy Hendrickson, Contributing Editor
stjoemo@pobox.com
Hendrickson is a family historian, freelance writer and the author of two astronomy books. Browse the archive of her AncestorNews columns.
Italian Military Records
Q. My grandfather served in World War I in Italy and was a prisoner of war of the Austrians. Where would I find information on this beside getting his military papers? How would I ask for this information? I am assuming I would write to Lucca, Italy.
A: That is a tough one. You can get the conscription papers for your ancestor from Italy. Trafford Cole's book Italian Genealogical Records states that the conscription records are called registro di leva and list all males, listed by year of birth, within each military district. He goes on to say that the records are usually indexed and fairly easy to consult: "There are two copies of them; one is held in the military district, and the other copy is initially held by the procura della repubblica, usually at the court (tribunal) archive. After 75 years, the latter copy is usually turned over to the state archive and made available for consultation."
Cole goes on to describe how the military districts are divided. He also includes several examples of some of the documents.
The second type of military record is the registri dei fogli matricolare (record of draftee curriculum), which documents the individual's military service. In a separate document (sometimes they are included in the foglio matricolare) called the registro di ruolo (military record), other documents may be found.
My recommendation would be to read Cole's chapter on military records. I find no mention of where prisoner of war records would, if at all, be included. I would think they would be in the registri dei fogli matricolare or the registro di ruolo since this is the most logical place for them.
Lynn Nelson's book A Genealogist's Guide to Discovering Your Italian Ancestors has a short explanation of military records (pages 31-32 and page 86). She also states that few of these records have been filmed by the Family History Library so the researcher must write to Italy for them. Page 86 tells you where you need to address your inquiry (at the Archivio de Stato, or State/Province Archives).
—Marcia Melnyk
Melnyk is the author of The Genealogist's Question & Answer Book and The Weekend Genealogist.
Pose your question to our family history experts or browse the archive of Now What? Online columns.
Chart Smarts
This week's tip comes from Michelle Rickard
of Everett, Wash.:
"I am the family historian and reunion organizer for
both sides of my family. For each reunion, I print out
the descendants chart, which is easy to do with most
computer programs. This can be many, many feet long. But
that's OK—it really attracts attention at the reunion.
I either tack it to the wall or roll it out on a line of
long tables. Then I have lots of pens and a tape recorder
handy. As people come to check out the chart, I can record
their comments and stories. I also invite family members
to write on the chart, putting their name, mailing address,
e-mail address and phone number by the branch of tree
they are 'fixing.' This is not as neat and tidy as an
8 1/2x11-inch piece of paper, but it reaps much more
information, new family stories and everyone is always
amazed at how large our family really is."
Editor's note: Look for Family Tree Magazine's guide
to creating family tree charts (including a free blank tree
suitable for framing!) in the June issue, on sale April 23.
 If you have a great idea for discovering, preserving or celebrating family history, we'd love to hear it. E-mail us your tip at genealogy-newsletter@fwpubs.com with "TIP OF THE WEEK" in the subject line. If we publish it as a Tip of the Week, you'll win a free copy of The Genealogist's Companion
& Sourcebook by Emily Anne Croom.
Be first to check out these new articles on our Web site:
Military Web Sites
Want to put the "story" back into your ancestors'
military history? If you've already slogged through all
the compiled service records, pension files, muster
rolls and special census records that you can stand,
enlist the help of these Web sites to bring your
family's military heritage back to life.
A Chronology of Conflict
Americans have fought in many conflicts and wars since
the United States was settled by Europeans in the 1600s.
Which wars were your ancestors part of? Which ones did
they live through? Find out with our complete
chronology of US military actions, from colonial
uprisings to world wars. This timeline is a Family Tree Magazine Web exclusive.
Overwhelmed by the number of family history-related Web sites popping up? FamilyTreeMagazine.com sorts through them all—whew!—to bring you only the very best. We recommended the following as Sites of the Day during the last week:
• Society of American Archivists: A Guide to Donating
Your Personal or Family Papers to a Repository
Archive your family history.
• California Birth Records and Certificates
A database of births from 1905 to 1995.
• Speaking Leaves
A new outlet for your written and visual art.
• TheShipsList
Learn about your ancestors' journey to their new home.
• FedTribes99
Search by location for names and contacts.
• Ancestor Genealogy Photo Archive
Find your family photos.
See today's Site of the Day on our home page and keep checking daily for more top picks! You can also suggest a site by clicking here.
Mortality Schedules
 The mortality schedules (1850 through 1885 and 1900 in
Minnesota only) reported the names of persons who died
during the 12 months preceding June 1 of the census
year. In other words, persons who died June 1, 1849,
through May 31, 1850, are listed in the 1850 mortality
schedules. Deaths that occurred after the census date
were not supposed to be reported, although enumerators
sometimes made such errors, which benefit genealogists.
Since death certificates were not generally created until
around the turn of the 20th century, these one-year death
registers created every 10 years provide an invaluable
amount of data for historians and genealogists.
Mortality schedules are available for examination at the
National Archives and the Family History Library, and can
be purchased from Heritage Quest. The records have been
indexed and are described in Thomas Jay Kemp's The American
Census Handbook (Scholarly Resources, $29.95).
Mortality schedules recorded
- name of deceased
- age
- sex
- color (white, black, mulatto)
- free or slave (recorded in 1850 and 1860 only)
- married or widowed
- place of birth (state, territory or country)
- month of death
- occupation
- disease or cause of death
- number of days ill
- whether father or mother were of foreign birth (added in 1870)
- birthplace of parents (added in 1880)
- place where disease was contracted (added in 1880)
- how long the deceased person had been a citizen or resident of the area (added in 1880)
- page number and family from population schedule (added in 1880)
—Excerpted from Your Guide to the Federal Census by
Kathleen W. Hinckley, $21.99. Reprinted here with
permission from the publisher, Betterway Books. Available
in bookstores or online.
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A Genealogist's Guide to Discovering Your English Ancestors
Begin researching your English ancestry today!
April 2002 Issue
Table of Contents
Visit the
Family Tree Bookstore
for advice from the experts at
Betterway Books
Your Guide to the Family History Library
($19.99, pb)
by Paula Stewart Warren & James Warren
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