Basic Discovery
Exercise:
1. Contrary to popular belief, you
don't have to be dead to be listed in AncestryLibrary
and can frequently find useful information in the U.S. Phone and Address
Directories, 1993-2002. You may even find your marriage license. Search for
your own name in AncestryLibrary
and report the results.
I searched by my maiden name and
located 110,199 records. In the search
filters you can click and drag each search element from broad to exact search
information. When I move my first and
maiden names to exact and click update, six records are located from the public
records and phone and address directories.
These records are of previous residences.
When I did a similar search for my
married name, I found 336,891 records. The exact search also resulted in six
finds. However, none of these finds were
information about me. Rather 5 results
of people with the same name as me and the sixth an anomaly. I would guestimate that since I have been
married for nearly four years, my marriage in young enough to not be included
in these records.
2. In AncestryLibrary, search for
a grandparent or great-grandparent and see if you can locate them in the
census. Report your findings.
I did a search for my dad’s
mother. Interestingly enough, the first
census record I located was for my dad’s grandmother, and I was unable to locate
my grandmother in the census records. I
was, however, able to locate her social security death record in a general
search. In suggested records, I also
found the two census records for the two decades before she married my
grandfather. In the latter of those records
included information such as my grandmother’s birthplace, occupation, and
income. In 1939, my grandmother was twenty-seven
years old. She was a school teacher, and
was one of four people who lived in a home owned by the school. She worked at the school for 36 weeks that
year, and had an income of $540.
3. In AncestryLibrary, type
"South Dakota" in the location box and click Search. On the left side
of the next screen is a link for Pictures. Click Pictures, see what's there,
and look at one or more. Report your findings.
I can view the varied picture categories
from the list on the left-hand side of the screen as well as the Categories tab
at the top of the results window. Having
both of these views could be helpful for locating relevant information.
Most of the images from this
search come from yearbooks. The next
group is from the Library of Congress.
But most interesting, the third largest group of pictures is from Sears,
Roebuck. From the looks of it, most of
these are from maps of South Dakota that could be purchased in the Sears
catalogues. This reminds me of when I was
a child and spent the night at a classmate’s house. We slept in the attic of her house, and found
a pile of old Sears, Roebuck catalogues that were her grandmother’s.
Fifth on the categories list was
headstone photos. This really doesn’t
surprise me, but reminds me of a trip I took with an aunt and uncle who do
family genealogy. We took several
detours on that trip to visit cemeteries to make rubbings of headstones of
deceased family members. It was a great
time. Just what every child wants to do
on their summer vacation. Out of
curiosity, I filtered for exact matches to see if any familiar names were
present. None of the headstones matched
an exact search for South Dakota.
4. In HeritageQuest, there are over
28,000 family and local histories in their online historical books. Search for
a place or browse the publications. Report back on something that interested
you.
In the books section I searched
for information on a family ancestor who had been tried and convicted of
witchcraft during the colonial times around the Salem Witch Trials. I did a search for her name, the state of Connecticut,
and the keyword witch. I received
several matches for this search, and they were in order by relevance. The first few received the highest rating
with all relevance bars shaded. I was
skeptical as I started looking at one of these publications; the first hit
contained her name, but I was unsure about the dates. The next hit referred to witchcraft, but it
was referring to another woman who had been accused and hung. Then, on the third hit (page 251), there was
a note that I most definitely know is my ancestor, explaining that she has been
indicted, convicted and executed for witchcraft. How these documents have been digitized to
the extent of making searches like this possible is such a wonderful
resource. If I have been searching a
paper copy of this book, I most likely would have given up much sooner than
three hits.
5. In Sanborn Maps, select South
Dakota. Then select your town or a town with which you are familiar. Choose a
date. Look at the first page containing the Index. Then navigate around the
pages and see what you discover. Try to find a building on the map that is
still in use today. Report your findings.
I
was sad that the first 5 towns I was interested in selecting were not
available, but that is what you get in rural South Dakota. I selected Brookings in August of 1884 (three
years after SDSU was established in 1881).
Although many of the buildings in this image do not appear to be the
same as those present today, I can recognize (or maybe guestimate is more
appropriate) where the information on the map would be present today. Main Street is still Main Street, and the
angle of the path on the southern portion of the map is most likely were the
railroad angles across the south side of town which used to be the outer
limits. The details contained in the map
are interesting. The map key includes
details such as which buildings were stables, windows and shutters, and
materials used to construct the buildings (brick, stone, frame). I was unable to locate where any of the SDSU
campus was located. However, the Campus
on the Hill most likely was not directly connected to town at that time.
