Talk Announcement - OPL: Managing Your Genealogy Research Project

 

I will be presenting an education session titled "Managing Your Genealogy Research Project" in the Auditorium of the Main Branch of the Ottawa Public Library (120 Metcalfe Street, Ottawa) starting at 7 p.m. on March 27, 2017. This will be a repeat of the well received session I presented at the Carlingwood branch of the Ottawa Public Library in May 2016.

I hope to see you there!

Summary

When we first start delving into our family tree research we often do it in a haphazard way. I will discuss tips and tricks to approach your genealogy research in a methodical manner. The session will touch upon using software or websites to record information, categorizing the information found, and alternate resources to fill in blanks in our research. Using real world examples, I will walk through some of the possible challenges you may encounter and ways to overcome them.

Talk Announcement - BIFHSGO: Searching Findmypast's Newspaper Archives

As part of the Before BIFHSGO Education Talks I will be giving a short education talk starting at 9 a.m. titled "Searching Findmypast's Newspaper Archives" before the main monthly meeting at the British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa meeting being held on March 11, 2017 at The Chamber, Ben Franklin Place, 101 Centrepointe Drive, Ottawa, Ontario.

After my talk, Gillian Leitch will be presenting "From Famine to Prosperity to the Longue Pointe Asylum: the Varied Life of John Patrick Cuddy" starting at 10 a.m.

Overview

Newspapers can be a treasure trove of details about families and events that aren't often found in the usual birth, marriage, death, and census records. The Findmypast world subscription includes newspapers from the UK, Ireland, Canada, US, and other countries. I will provide some tips for searching these often overlooked resources in our genealogy and family history research.

Backing Up What is Important

It is the first of the month and I wonder, have you backed up your valuable genealogy (and also personal) information?

PHOTO CREDIT: Roman Czarny ,"White Kettle Droping Water on Silver Laptop Computer"; posted at Pexels ("https://www.pexels.com/photo/laptop-guide-computer-levitation-74039/ : downloaded 3 Feb 2017); used under Creative Commons Zero (CC0) License.

I'm not just talking about the information on your computer where you might have pictures and electronic copies of documents that you have spent numerous hours finding and saving.

If you are someone that prefers keeping all your information in binders on shelves (or on the floor) of your home what is your backup strategy? Keep in mind that natural and human created disasters can happen at any time. Fires, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, and earthquakes happen all the time around the world.

• Have you recently, like in the past year, made photocopies of the pages in those binders and sent those copies to another family member for safe keeping?
• Have you digitized those one-of-a-kind photographs and saved the resulting image files somewhere other than your home computer?

At least with using binders, computer viruses and other malicious software can't destroy your years of research work. If you are someone like me that saves their almost exclusively in the computer, when was the last time you backed up those files? Are those backups kept in the same house as the computer?

Here is the strategy I try to use for backing up my computer files:

• Any time I make a large number of updates to my tree or at the end of a day of research:
• I backup the changes to a 64 GB USB memory stick¹ using the free version of 2BrightSparks' SyncBackFree. With a few clicks any changes are updated on the memory stick and it only takes a few minutes. I have two USB memory sticks are rotate between for my quick backups.
• I also use the backup option in my genealogy software, in my case Legacy Family Tree, to create a backup of my database. This automatically is saved in my free Dropbox account.
• Once a month I backup all the personal information on my computer to an external hard disk. That drive is not connected to my computer unless I am doing a backup.
• Periodically, but never often enough, I take one of my USB memory sticks to the bank and store it in my safety deposit box.

Since I also use Ancestry for cousin bait and automated searching I backup my trees stored on Ancestry just in case. Even though I use Legacy Family Tree for my primary database I have purchased Family Tree Maker so I can synchronize the Ancestry copy of my family tree and related documents to my home computer.

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1. Yes I have over 32 GB of genealogy related files including digital copies of out of copyright books.

Finding William Small Howe (part 4)

We last left Finding William Small Howe (Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3) with finding his death notice in the Boston Evening Transcript and the clue of "He was captain in the First Maine Cavalry." He would be the right age to serve in the American Civil War (AKA "War of the Rebellion" or "War for Southern Independence" depending on the side you were rooting for). So we might want to start there.

But first, since he died in Lewiston, Maine, are there any online archives of papers from that time and place? The Google News Archives is to the rescue once again. On page 4 of the 5 o'clock edition of the August 25, 1891 Lewiston Evening Journal there is a several column inch article for the "Death of Dr. Howe." There is plenty of great information in the article to confirm what I've already found through other records but still no mention of his parents. Sigh. Yet there is a lot of new information about his life in Maine. Some details gleaned from the article include:

• He died Midnight Monday, 24 Aug 1891
• He came to Lewiston with his wife and daughter in 1885 from Pittsfield, Maine
• He was a homeopathic physician
• He was born in St. John, New Brunswick on 9 Feb 1834
• He was educated in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Horton, Nova Scotia, and entered Acadia College in New Brunswick but did not graduate
• He was active in the Baptist ministry up to the outbreak of war
• He enlisted in the D.C. Cavalry and, after consolidation,was in the First Maine Cavalry
• He was a commissioned  office and Chaplain of Company D in the First Maine Cavalry
• He was taken prisoner at the famous cattle-raid and for nine months was a prisoner in Libby
• He was at the battle of Five Forks where he was shot though the body
• After the war, due to his poor health, he studied medicine and graduated from Bowdoin Medical School in 1869 and the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York in 1870
• In 1883 he graduated from the Hahnemann School of Homeopathy in Philadelphia
• He was a member of the Blue Lodge and Chapter in Masonry
• He leaves a wife and a daughter upon his death and two children died previously, a son and a daughter

Wow!

A quick Google search on Maine Masonic Archives brought me to the Genealogy page of the Grand Lodge of Maine Library. I wasn't expecting to find too much information online there when I spotted, "The original files of the members of the Grand Lodge of Maine from 1820 to 1995 are digitized and online." Clicking in the provided link brought me to the "Genealogy & Family Information" page with a long list of PDF files and one of those files had William S. Howe's index card:

Could both of these cards be the same person? One is a Reverend and the other a Medical Doctor and William was both. Lodge 72 Pioneer is in Ashland and in the 1860 census that is where William S. Howe resided with Grace E. and Charles E. Lodge 125 Meridian is located in Pittsfield. Guess where the William S. Howe we've been following resided in the 1870 and 1880 census? Correct, Pittsfield. Finally, the obituary mentions that he will be buried under the direction of Rabboni Lodge of Lewiston. I would say that the two index cards refer to the same person but at different periods of his life.

We also have information that he enlisted in the District of Columbia Calvary and was later a commissioned officer in Company D of the First Maine Cavalry. A search of military records on Ancestry reveals several William S. Howe's resided in Maine with approximately the same birth year. So how do I figure out the right William S. Howe? Fortunately, on a pension index card I come across an image for William S. Howe with a widow Grace E. Howe listed as the dependent with services in "Corp. D. 1 Maine Cav." and "D, 1 D. C. Cav." I'd say this is the right person.

"U.S., Civil War Pension Index: General Index to Pension Files, 1861-1934," database and images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com/ : accessed 29 Dec 2016); card for William S Howe.

The index card includes several important details, those of the application numbers and certificate numbers for William's application as an invalid and Grace's application as a widow. As a to do item I've made a note to see about ordering document from National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). But that will be sometime in the future. Who knows what those documents will contain?

In the meanwhile, I also did a Google search for any books on the First Maine Cavalry. I came across the book "History of the First Maine Calvary, 1861-1865" by Edward P. Tobie that was published in 1887. This meant the book was out of copyright and might be available from the Internet Archive. A quick search there pulled up the exact book I was looking for. Hoping for an index at the back of the book I found something even better in the Index To Illustrations, a mention of "Howe, Capt. & Dr. Wm. S. Co. D" on page 273.

I still didn't have a document connecting William to his parents Charles and Hannah (Baxter) Howe. I had a lot of information on his life and his service though census records, letters in the First Maine Bugle publication, books, index cards, and newspaper articles but not what I was really looking for.

That is until I decided to do a little more complex Google Search with the key word:

william small howe maine -"sir william" -"sir howe" physician charles hannah

I needed to exclude Sir William Howe and that is why the minus signs in front of some of the key words. This is what appeared on my screen.

The first entry was the book "Obituary Record of the Graduates of Bowdoin Collect and the Medical School of Maine For The Year Ending 1 June 1892 [No. 3. Second Series]" and on page 106 is his obituary which starts with [emphasis is mine]:

"William Small Howe, son of Charles and Hannah (Baxter) Howe, was born 9 February, 1834, at St. John, N.B. ..."

and ends with:

"Dr. Howe married 10 December, 1857, Grace E., daughter of Charles and Margaret (Porter) Emery, who survives, with one daughter. Their eldest son, Charles Emery, died as he was about entering upon the practice of medicine, and an elder daughter, Annie P., died in childhood."

The date of the marriage is off by a few months but all the details appear to line up with what I have gathered over the years. I think I finally found the smoking gun. Without looking in many places and following the clues each document provided I would never have been able to confirm what I thought might be correct, that the William Small Howe, residing in Maine and married to Grace E. Emery, is the same William Small Howe, son of Charles and Hannah (Baxter).



Finally, may I introduce you to my third great-granduncle, Captain William Small Howe, M.D. of Company D of the First Maine Cavalry.

Edward P. Tobie, History of the First Maine Calvary, 1861-1865 (Boston, Massachusetts: Press of Emery & Hughes, 1887), 273.

Finding William Small Howe (part 3)

As we saw in Part 1 and Part 2 of Finding William Small Howe, after disappearing from the Colony of New Brunswick after the 1851 census William Small Howe was found in the State of Maine, USA. We still haven't found that smoking gun document that connects him with his parents after he moves to Maine but the evidence looks pretty good when it is presented as a bundle. So what else can we discover?

Since I have a paid subscription with Ancestry I will continue to search there...

The first hint that popped up is one from the U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current database. Since this is an index I want to check out the Find A Grave page to see if it is just a simple memorial page gleaned from other sources without a picture of the marker or, if we are very lucky, there will be a picture with other details provided.

And we are lucky!

The memorial has not just a picture of the marker but also a close up of the writing and calculated relationships.

Find A Grave, database and images (http://findagrave.com : accessed 6 Jan 2017), memorial page for Dr. William S Howe (1835-1891), Find A Grave Memorial no. 15825309, citing Pittsfield Village Cemetery, Pittsfield, Somerset County, Maine, USA; photograph provided by Jennifer Kelley.

But is this the right William S. Howe? We need to check the rest of the names on the marker. We find:

Grace E. Howe1	C. Emery Howe2	Annie P. Howe3

All three of those people were found in the 1870 Federal Census of Somerset County, Maine, USA in the household of William S. Howe. This looks to be the right family. Of course, that is assuming the family in the 1870 census is the right family. Might was well continue going down this rabbit hole unless some fact or event proves otherwise.

Now that I have the probable death date for William S Howe, Ancestry provided another hint. This time it is from the Maine, Wills and Probate Records, 1584-1999 collection. This collection has digitized images of wills and probates. A wonderful find! It is presented as a virtual microfilm and it isn't just one image but the will and probate file for William S. Howe goes from image 383 to image 405. We even find the will itself:

"Maine, Wills and Probate Records, 1584-1999," database and images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.ca: accessed 6 Jan 2017), William S Howe will dated 13 Jun 1891; citing Probate Court (Androscoggin County, Maine) 

William mentions his daughter Josie E. Howe and his wife Grace E. Howe. We saw them in the 1880 Federal Census, Somerset County, Maine, USA. So the will and probate appears to be for the same William S. Howe we have been following.

A hint from the U.S., Newspaper Extractions from the Northeast, 1704-1930 collection also appears. This is only an index and for the image of the index document it states, "Howe, Dr.,W.S., d. Aug,25,1891(T . Aug.26)". This is a pointer to the August 26, 1891 edition of the Boston Transcript. So, where do we find the Boston Transcript? The Vita Brevis blog of the New England Historical Genealogical Society posted on November 7, 2016 "Boston Transcript column now online" is a great write up on finding that newspaper so I will defer to them.

Unfortunately me for, the August 26, 1891 edition isn't in the Google News Archive. Murphy's Law strikes again...the August 25 edition has been digitized but not the 26th.

But wait a second

If I go to the August 25 edition and keep going through the pages I come to the August 26th edition. Interesting!

On page 8 of the Boston Evening Transcript under "Recent Deaths" I find this notice:

"Recent Deaths - Dr. W. S. Howe," Boston Evening Transcript, 26 Aug 1891, p. 8, col. 5; digital images, Google News Archives (http://news.google.com/newspapers : accessed 6 Jan 2017).

Captain in the First Maine Cavalry? I wonder where this will lead me?

To be continued...

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1. Find A Grave, database and images (http://findagrave.com : accessed 6 Jan 2017), memorial page for Grace E Howe (1834-1907), Find A Grave Memorial no. 15825313, citing Pittsfield Village Cemetery, Pittsfield, Somerset County, Maine, USA; photograph provided by Jim.

2. Find A Grave, database and images (http://findagrave.com : accessed 6 Jan 2017), memorial page for C Emery Howe (unknown-1882), Find A Grave Memorial no. 15825300, citing Pittsfield Village Cemetery, Pittsfield, Somerset County, Maine, USA; photograph provided by Jim.

3. Find A Grave, database and images (http://findagrave.com : accessed 6 Jan 2017), memorial page for Annie P Howe (unknown-1876), Find A Grave Memorial no. 15825317, citing Pittsfield Village Cemetery, Pittsfield, Somerset County, Maine, USA; photograph provided by Jim.

Finding William Small Howe (part 2)

I'm still trying to figure out if the William S. Howe found in Maine, USA, husband of Grace E, is the same as the William Small Howe, my 3rd Great-Granduncle, husband of Grace E. The last we left the family I had found William S. Howe in the 1860, 1870, and 1880 censuses of the United States of America in Maine.

Maybe any records left by William S. Howe's children will help so I turn to the various census enumerations for help. In 1860 a son, Charles E., is found. But no such luck finding any additional records online such as a birth registration. In 1870 a daughter, Annie P.,is now in the family. Yet no birth registration is found online...sigh. Unfortunately a trip to Maine is out of the question at this time to check with the town clerk in Ashland for any records or with the State Archives in Maine.


In the 1880 census a third child, Josie E. is found. We get lucky with her when an Ancestry leaf appears beside her name. She marries Walter Woodruff Parmalee on September 16, 1902.

Ancestry.com, "Maine Marriages, 1892-1996," database index, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com/ : accessed 12 Feb 2012), entry for Walter W Parmalee and Josephine E Howe, married 16 Sep 1902; citing Maine State Archives. Maine Marriages 1892-1996 (except 1967 to 1976).

Yet the image presented by Ancestry only has the marriage details.

One tip when looking at Ancestry images is you need to look at the image before and after also. In this case the next image is the back of the record of marriage and it has the important clue!

Ancestry.com, "Maine Marriages, 1892-1996," database index, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com/ : accessed 12 Feb 2012), entry for Walter W Parmalee and Josephine E Howe, married 16 Sep 1902 (back of page); citing Maine State Archives. Maine Marriages 1892-1996 (except 1967 to 1976).

Here her father is recorded as William Small Howe, dead. His occupation was physician and he was born in St. John, New Brunswick. This is a great find.

Possibly a Google Search will provide us some clues. Here we find William Small Howe, a physician in Lewiston, Maine, USA.

General Catalogue of Bowdoin College 1794-1889; PDF Download, Google Books (https://books.google.ca/ : downloaded 2 Jan 2017), 116.

Looks to be the same person.

One thing to note, Saint John, New Brunswick is the closest major city to the area of Kings County where the Howe family lived. It wouldn't be unusual for his birth place to be listed as St. John. It seems like the William Small Howe in the record of marriage as the father for Josephine E Howe and the entry in the Bowdoin College is the same person.

A very recent find (literally as I wrote this blog) in the Daniel F Johnston's New Brunswick Newspaper Vital Statistics has this from the Saint John New Brunswick Courier:

m. Woodstock (Carleton Co.) Thursday 10th inst, at residence of bride's father, by Rev. Thos. Todd, Rev. William S. HOWE, Pastor of Baptist Church, Chipman (Queens Co.) / Miss Grace E. EMERY, Woodstock.

This seems to be an announcement of marriage for the the same William S. Howe we have been tracking. One thing I have found when researching a number of my Howe ancestors is that they have often taken up the calling of Baptist Minister. But still no document that clearly establishes that William Small Howe here is my 3rd Great-Granduncle. But is certainly seems like it is the right person.

Remember the "C.B." as the occupation for William S. Howe in the 1860 Federal Census of Maine? Could it stand for "Cleryman Baptist" or something like that?

To be continued...

Finding William Small Howe (part 1)

For those that chase down the various lines of siblings of their direct line one of the challenges faced is when the brothers and sisters move away from the homestead. Sometimes the family members stay in the same area and you can find them in previous or subsequent pages in the census. Other times, it can become a challenge. This is the case of William Small Howe.

In the 1851 census of Upham Parish, Kings County, New Brunswick we find the household of Robert and Sarah Howe with their son Edwin, Robert's grandmother Esther, Robert's mother Hannah, and Robert's siblings including an absent William, age 23 years, native born (that is, born in New Brunswick), a blacksmith.

1851 census of Canada East, Canada West, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Kings County, sub-district 42, Upham, p. 37, Household of Robert; RG 31; digital images, Ancestry.com, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com/ : accessed 6 Oct 2011); citing citing Library and Archives Canada microfilm C-995.

William Small Howe is known to be still alive in 1853 due to the deed between the Heirs and widow of Charles Howe and Robert Howe that was found in the New Brunswick Deed Registry Books for Kings County

New Brunswick, Kings County Registry Records 1785-1914, K2: 355, Heirs and widow of Charles Howe to Robert Howe, 1 Jul 1853; Provincial Archives of New Brunswick, Fredericton; RS 89 F6237, item 12200.

However, after 1853 he seems to disappear from the records in what later became Canada.

The question that always arises is did William Small Howe die between 1853 and the date of the 1861 census? If the answer was yes, is there any evidence such as a grave marker, a few lines in the newspaper, or a will? If the answer is no, where did he disappear to?

Once again, those often overlooked land records come to the rescue.

The 1885 there is a deed made between William S. Howe and William Franklin Howe.

Kings, New Brunswick, County Deed Registry Books, 1780-1941, K-4: 173, William S. Howe and wife Grace E. to William Franklin Howe, deed, 8 Jul 1885; digital images, FamilySearch.org, FamilySearch.org (https://familysearch.org/ : accessed 5 Feb 2012).

William Franklin Howe is my 2nd great-grandfather and the son of the Robert Howe from the previous deed. But is this William S. Howe the same person as the William Small Howe that I'm looking for? There are some clues that might be able to help me. In 1885 William S. Howe:

• is residing in Lewiston, Maine, USA
• is a Doctor of  Medicine
• is married to "Grace E."

Can I find a William S. Howe married to Grace E. in the 1880 census of the USA somewhere in the State of Maine (warning, rhetorical question)?

1880 U.S. census, Somerset County, Maine, population schedule, Pittsfield, enumeration district (ED) 170, p. 12, dwelling 106, family 120, household of William S Howe; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com/ : accessed 5 Feb 2012); citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm T9, roll 487.

So a William S. Howe, born in New Brunswick, father born in New Brunswick, mother born in Massachusetts, a homeophic [sic] physician, married to Grace E. was found in Pittsfield, Maine, USA. But is this my William Small Howe since I know his mother was born in New Brunswick? His age is out by a few years in this census based on what was recorded in the 1851 census. His son's name of "Charles" is the same name as William's father. That might be a clue or just a red-herring.

We need to keep working back in time in the hopes of finding a clue...

1870 U.S. census, Somerset County, Maine, population schedule, Pittsfield, p. 1, 322 [stamped], dwelling 2, family 2, household of William S. Howe; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com/ : accessed 5 Feb 2012); citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm M593, roll 559.

1860 U.S. census, Aroostook County, Maine, population schedule, Ashland, p. 10, dwelling 57, family 57, household of William S. Howe; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com/ : accessed 5 Feb 2012); citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm M653, roll 434.

As a side note, the occupation of "C.B." in the 1860 census in Maine is curious. It isn't blacksmith or physician and all the other occupations on the page were written in full. Yet another mystery.


If this is my William Small Howe then finding him in the 1860 census of the USA would explain why I couldn't find him in the 1861 census of New Brunswick.

To be continued...

The Return

Dear gentle reader, it has been a long time since I last wrote in this blog. I'm sorry for dropping off the face of the blogosphere without notice but life (and death) has a way of changing one's focus. Genealogy and this blog had to take a backseat to other aspects of my life.

The biggest change was the death of my father, Ronald Warrener McKinlay, in September 2015. The challenge of witnessing his passing and subsequently completing his Ontario Death Registration document along with helping in writing his obituary took more out of me than I expected. Combine that with a full time job and also learning that Richard Noel Frizell, the husband of my late grand aunt, passed away in December 2015 I found that I just didn't feel like recording any more deaths. Genealogy was no longer fun. It is only recently that I have started back researching the various branches of my family lines.

The posts will not be on a regular schedule. However, I will try to write something up on a weekly basis about my genealogy research and how I answer the various questions that always seem to crop up when delving into one's family history.

I do hope you will stay tuned to see what I have learned over the past year and a half and what I will learn in the future.