Spring 2006
Harvestings
Newsletter of the Greater Lowell Genealogy Club
sites.rootsweb.com/~maglgc
Upcoming Events:
June Meeting: Sunday, June 11, 2006, 1pm to 3ish, Laura Bedard's house, 6 Logan Ct., Hudson, NH. We have planned a potluck picnic and elections.
HAVE A GREAT SUMMER!
WATCH FOR THE SEPTEMBER ISSUE!
June Meeting: Our June meeting, which is a pot luck luncheon, will take place at Laura and Roland Bedard's home at 6 Logan Court, Hudson, NH. We NEED volunteers to help with the set up and clean up.
Elections will be held regardless of the number of members present. Please let us know if you are interested in holding office in any position. Our current secretary, Barbara Poole is leaving and Laura Bedard has volunteered to run for that position. Our current slate for the officers is: President, Diane Laferriere; Vice-President, Maureen Famolare; Secretary, Laura Bedard; Treasurer, Karen Jeffers. If any member would like to run for any position, please let Maureen, Diane or Karen know.
Directions to Laura's house are: Take Rt. 3 north to exit 2 to DW Highway/ Hudson. Keep left at fork in ramp and cross bridge to Hudson. At end of road, (Hudson Wal-mart will across the street from you) turn left onto Lowell St. Go down the road a bit, pass T-Bones. At the next light take a right onto Library St. Follow Library St. to light at center of Hudson. Take a sharp right onto Highland St. A little more than a mile down the road, turn left onto Scottsdale Drive (also labeled Highland Woods). Take second left onto Logan Court. Look for the Pumpkin Colored House, this is Laura and Roland's home. If you get lost, call Laura at 603-598-0834 and she will be happy to guide you there.
Past Happenings:
February Meeting: Cancelled due to snow. Elections were postponed and will be held at the picnic. Elections will be held regardless of the number of members present!
March Meeting: The meeting was held at Essex Society of Genealogist in Lynnfield. Immigration and Naturalization was the topic of the day. Some interesting facts gathered by Karen at the meeting.
Naturalization Records: From the 1790's to the 26th of September, 1906, requirements for naturalization were; you lived in the U.S. for five years, you lived in the state where you were applying for one year and you had to have a good moral character with witnesses to attest to your character. The paper trails for naturalization are declarations of intention and the petition for naturalization. Neither of these at this time were sent to Washington, they could be anywhere in the U.S. court system. If you are lucky at best you will get date and place of birth along with date and port of arrival. Certificates of naturalization went home with the new citizen. Don't look for them unless you have lots of old family papers!
After September 26, 1906, records were sent to Washington, D.C. on standardized forms. Information included on these new forms was name, date of birth, occupation, vessel and date of arrival, port of departure and arrival, and name, birth date, and birth place of wife and children.
Before September 22, 1922, women automatically assumed their husband's citizenship. This means a natural born American woman who married a foreign national lost her American citizenship, even though she never left American or possibly even knew of the ruling. After this date women no longer changed citizenship through marriage. If one of your female ancestors married a foreign national before this date, there will be a paper trail to regain her citizenship, unless she didn't bother to vote.
Immigration records: After 1820 a manifest of passengers was
BOARD MEMBERS:
President - Maureen Famolare -
978-663-6491 - [email protected]
Vice President - Diane Laferriere -
978-649-3855 - [email protected]
Secretary - Barbara Poole -
978-454-8046 [email protected]
Treasurer - Karen Jeffers - 978-663-3664
required for all ships arriving in U.S. ports. Included were name, age, sex and occupation. After July 1907, a name and address of a friend or relative in the old country was required. This could be really nice to know!
Another interesting fact is the St. Alban's District Records include all Canadian border crossings from July, 1895 until 1924. Until October of 1906, Canadians were not included in these records. Oh, by the way the records are not complete, but try anyway. You just might be lucky.
April Meeting: The meeting was held at the Pollard Library. The members in attendance voted to watch Cryptic Clues in the Bone Yard by Sharon DeBartolo Carmack. There are lots of very good hints on this video. If you missed it, you may borrow it from the club. Members in attendance were: Diane Shields, Don and Madeline Pattershall, Susan Fougstedt, Mary Latham, Laura Bedard, Ed and Yvonne Miller, Therese Masson, Diane Laferriere, Margaret Leedberg, Karen Jeffers and for a little bit, Maureen Famolare.
From Our Members . . .
Interesting People From Yvonne Miller's Past
My 6th great-grand-Uncle Joseph Hains/Haynes/Hins was born 1689 and died 1756. He was a very busy man during his lifetime, having sired 22 children!
He married his first wife Marguerite Marois in 1710. She gave birth to 5 children and died in 1717 during the last birth.
He then remarried for a second time to Dorothee Lessard in 1718. They produced 5 more children. She died in 1725.
He married his third wife Marie-Francoise Pinel in 1726. Marie-Francoise died 1729 during the birth of their 2nd child.
Lastly, Joseph married Catherine Migneron in 1732. She produced 10 more children and survived Joseph who died in 1756!
Of all the 22 children, 11 died during their 1st year. Others died later on in childhood. There were, however, some females who survived to maturity but only 1 male survived to his 28th birthday and died childless. So, that this was the end of Joseph Hains surname line.
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If you can't get enough of genealogy and you like to read murder mysteries then you'll be very happy with the combination of both in books offered at Amazon.com. Go to www.amazon.com, then click on books. Do a search by author, title, or "genealogy mysteries". There are new and used copies for sale. I've been very happy with the "very good" used ones. So far I've read "The Heir Hunter" by Chris Larsgaard. The main character researches for heirs to unsettled estates. It's a real thriller.
Rett MacPherson is a favorite of mine with her Torie O'Shea series. Torie is genealogy's answer to Jessica Fletcher of "Murder She Wrote"
Enjoy,
Yvonne Miller
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Family Lines:
Joan E. Ogg:
Donovans of Lowell
Cryans of Lowell
Sullivans of Lowell
Contact information: joan,[email protected]
Edward F. O'Toole:
O'Tooles of England, 1860 to 1873
O'Tooles of Northern Ireland, 1840 to 1860
Lardners of Lowell
Rileys of Lowell
Contact information: [email protected]
_____________________________Tidbits from Barbara Poole:
Newsletters, Blogs and New Magazine
So much of my information comes from the genealogy newsletters I subscribe to. All four are free. There has been a big change in several of the newsletter formats. The two mentioned in this paragraph have gone to a blog format (blog explained later). Most have archives where you can look at past articles, and if at any time, you decide you don't want the publication, it is easy to unsubscribe. Three are delivered weekly, on different days and one is now monthly. Not discussed is the newsletter by RootsWeb, which is free, but to which I no longer subscribe. Four is enough for me.
My favorite newsletter is by Dick Eastman and you can subscribe by going to www.eogn.com and sign up for the Free Standard newsletter. This is delivered every Monday, with updates during the week (a new feature of his). You can also get his more detailed version for $20 per year, and receive it Sunday evening. Dick Eastman tends to have very up-to-date bits of information. The second newsletter discussed is The Ancestry Weekly Journal (formerly the Ancestry Daily News), in blog format since March 2006, and more changes are in store for this newsletter. It arrives every Monday and to sign up, go to www.Ancestry.com and select The Learning Center tab, on the right side is where you can sign up for the free version.
I also receive The National Genealogical Society's newsletter on a monthly basis. To subscribe, go to www.ngsgenealogy.org and under tab for NGS Publications, select the UpFront With NGS. And, The New England Historic and Genealogical Society's free newsletter delivered on Wednesday. To subscribe, go to www.newenglandancestors.org and on the home page is a link to sign up to eNews.
The first two newsletters are in blog format. From Wikipedia, the definition of Blog means: A blend of the terms web and log (usually shortened to blog, but occasionally spelled web log or weblog) is a web-based publication consisting primarily of periodic articles, most often in reverse chronological order. The first two newsletters allow you to make comments and read what others have written. It is a nice way to exchange information. Often there is an archives of past issues, a calendar, and various tidbits from the author.
There are now many blog sites devoted to genealogy. There is one that I have followed since its inception. The creator is Steve Danko, he and I took an on-line course together from Ancestry.com. Please see his site at www.StephenDanko.com and it will give you an excellent idea of what a blog is, and his is excellent.
Another blog devoted to genealogy is www.genealogyguys.com maintained by two well known genealogists.
A new genealogy magazine has arrived on the scene; it is Internet Genealogy and can be ordered as a hard copy or downloaded from the internet. Barbara Poole has ordered the hard copy and Diane Laferriere has the downloaded copy (different prices for each). To order go to: http://www.internet-genealogy.com/ and you can see the specifics as well as download a preview issue.
______________________One Simple Question
By Diane Laferriere
Part 3 -continued
Recap: Looking for Mary (Thompson) Hohmann, she was the wife of Louis. She was born in Massachusetts, married 1900 in London, England, when did she die and where is she buried? Their daughter Aileen was born in Boston in 1905. Their son Karl was born in Boston in 1906. Her husband Louis died in 1927 in Derby, Connecticut. I am waiting for a call to hear whether he is buried there and if his wife is buried with him. I also requested the Internment records from Mt. Feake Cemetery in Waltham for Mary's mother Marcalena Thompson.
When I opened the envelope from Waltham's Cemetery department, I was very surprised to find that not only was Mary's mother buried here, but also her sister and brother, but she was not.
I knew that Marcalena (also known as Lena) died in 1914, but I found out that Mary's older sister Alice died in 1889, and that her brother Raymond died in 1937. I wondered if Mary was buried with her husband in Connecticut, I hoped I would hear back from them soon.
Finally, I got the call from the record keeper for Oak Cliff Cemetery. She left me a voice message the Louis was buried in a single plot and there were not any other Hohmann's buried there.
I thought about going to the City library in Waltham to search for Raymond Thompson's obituary, sometimes siblings are listed, either living or deceased. As I searched on the internet for the name of the library and their hours, I noticed that I could send an email to the research librarian. I emailed the date of death and the name of the deceased; I included my mailing address and offered to pay any fees. A few days later, I received a copy of the newspaper page containing Raymond's obituary. He was a member of the Waltham Police force for 15 years; he had retired 13 years prior to his death. He left his wife, a daughter, a grand daughter and his sister, Mrs. Louis Hohman of East Orange, NJ. So now I know that she was still alive in 1937 and still in New Jersey. Maybe I need to be searching in New Jersey for her death records. I really wish the 1940 census was available; at this point I am stuck on where to search next.
After about a month of not doing any research on this family, I got an email from my friend's cousin. He was searching on the internet for information about the Oak Cliff cemetery in Connecticut and found this story in the newsletter for The Greater Lowell Genealogy Club. He emailed me and sent me a lot of information; he too is searching for Mary's death record. His grandmother was Aileen, the daughter that Mary lived with in New Jersey. He was able to tell me a family story that when his grandparents separated around 1940, his great grandmother (Mary) left New Jersey and went back to Waltham to live with her son, Karl. He did not think that Mary had died in New Jersey. He was also told a story of how Mary was working for an eccentric lady and her dog, and died of a hemorrhage while taking out a can of coal ashes. I sent a request to the Waltham City Clerk for the death record for Mary. They could not find the record. While writing this, I looked at my request again and realized that I had asked for Mary's death record using her maiden name, not her married name. No wonder they didn't find anything! I am sending a new request to the Waltham City clerk to have them search for Mary Hohmann's death record, not Mary Thompson.
Part 4 - to be continued
Hints from the Internet:
Not getting responses from your Mailing List and Message Board queries? Go back and look at your posts - do your subject lines stand out from the others or do they say generic things like “looking for IPSTONES”? If you're posting on the IPSTONE board, pray tell, who else would you be looking for? Put in names, dates (circa or estimated years are OK) and places in the subject line and in your messages. Don't be lazy and just hit REPLY to some else's message about trying to find IPSTONES in Norway or Ohio, especially if yours are in Wales or California.
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The general rule about recording localities (places) is to start from the smallest and go to largest: village/town, then county/parish, then province/state, and finally the country. If you know only the town or city in which a genealogical event occurred, consult a gazetteer to find the name of the county, parish, province, etc. that it is in.
When you know the U.S. town, but not the county, type in the name of town and state. Or leave the state blank and be given a list of all states with that town.
http://resources.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/townco.cgi
Put the U.S. county's name and leave the state's name blank and you will get a list of the states with a county by that name. Or if you want a list of all a particular state's counties, just type in the state and leave the county blank
http://resources.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/county.cgi
Can't figure out some country or regional abbreviations? Check here:
https://support.rootsweb.com/codes/codes1.html
Stumbled over an abbreviation you can't find the answer to? Check “Abbreviations Found in Genealogy” here:
https://sites.rootsweb.com/~rigenweb/abbrev.html
Lost in the British Isles? Here is its country and county codes:
http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/Regions/Codes.html
Looking for Maps, Gazetteers & Geographical information?
http://www.cyndislist.com/maps.htm
See also Dictionaries & Glossaries on Cyndi's List:
http://www.cyndislist.com/diction.htm
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Information - P-L-E-A-S-E
If you have any ideas for speakers, day trips or general meetings, OR if you have any interesting tidbits of information contact:
Maureen - [email protected]
Karen - [email protected]
Form for Sharing Information to appear in newsletter
Member's Name _____________________________________________
Contact Information (E-Mail, Address or Phone - You choose.)
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Lines Being ResearchedPlaceTime
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Brick Walls I need help on:
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Use another sheet of paper if needed (or the back of this sheet).
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DUES!!!!!!!!
The membership rates are as follows:
___ $10.00 per Individual
___ $20.00 for a Family
___ $5.00 per Senior (age 62 and over)
Enclosed please find $_________ for 2006 dues.
Name __________________________________________
Address__________________________________________
__________________________________________
Phone __________________________________________
E-mail __________________________________________
Send form and check to:
Greater Lowell Genealogy Club
c/o Karen Jeffers
35 Franklin Street
N. Billerica, MA 01862-1441