Steve's Genealogy Blog » Family History Library

My Last Day in Salt Lake City

Steve — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 23:30:58 +0000

: Family History Library

WOW! What a great time I had in Salt Lake City. I managed to obtain copies of an enormous number of original sources (and quite a number of derivative sources, too!).

As genealogists, we often classify information as primary or secondary, depending on whether the source was generated at the time the event occurred, by someone who was a witness to the event (primary) or whether the information in the source was provided at a later date or by a person who was not a witness to the event (secondary). We also realize that a source can contain both primary and secondary information. For example, a death certificate may contain primary information about the death, but secondary information about the birth.

However, even before we consider whether the information is primary or secondary, sources can be classified as original or derivative sources. Original sources are the first place where the information was recorded and derivative sources include indexes of records, transcripts of records, and abstracts. More about all this later.

It’s late here in San Francisco, and I’m ready to call it a night. My flight back from Salt Lake City was pleasant and largely uneventful, except for an unfortunate encounter between the plane’s engine and a bird during the landing. Well, thanks to the skilled pilots at Southwest Airlines, we landed safely in Oakland, despite the rather odd experience of landing with the aroma of roast poultry in the cabin!

I have a lot to report about the conference itself and the information I found at the Family History Library. Check back later to see some of the most interesting documents I found and details about the sessions of the United Polish Genealogical Societies Biennial Conference.

GuestBlog from Ceil Jensen

Steve — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 09:15:31 +0000

This morning, I’m grateful to Ceil Jensen for providing a GuestBlog (I’ll provide my own blog at the end of the day). I asked her to write a bit about her own research at the Family History Library this past week. By the way, last night at the conference banquet, Ceil showed us the multimedia presentation she promised would have us dancing in the aisles! More about that later! Here’s Ceil’s blog:

I spent a week in Salt Lake researching material for my forthcoming book “Sto Lat” A Modern Guide to Polish Genealogy. The most interesting find was the cattle brands registered to the Polish ranchers in Bexar Co. ,Texas. I had never thought about that aspect of western life in terms of the Poles. An article in the Summer 2001 “Polish Footprints” published by the Polish Genealogical Society of Texas showed brands registered to Poles including Anton Kobus, Joseph Michalsky and Jacob Lubinsky. It was serious business. The article was illustrated with a “Certificate of Registration of Marks and Brands” registered in Karnes Co., Texas.

Ceil

First Day at the Family History Library

Steve — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 18:27:53 +0000

Right now, it’s about noon in Salt Lake City, and I’m writing from the Family History Library (FHL). My plane was about two hours late last night, and I arrived at the hotel after midnight, but I still managed to get to the FHL before 9 AM this morning.

When I arrived at the FHL, I retrieved the five vault films I had previously ordered, and I ordered an additional five films which should arrive on Monday. I found what I was looking for in four of the five films. I found seven relatives, including my grandfather, Michael Danko, in the Massacusetts World War II Draft Registration Cards for men born between April 28, 1877 and February 16, 1897. By the way, the FHL has the draft records for Massachusetts, but some of the WWII Draft Records for Ohio are online at the National Archives website.

The big find for me, though, was on the fifth film I ordered: Naturalization Information for my grandfather, Kostanty Niedzialkowski. The film contained my grandfather’s Certificate of Arrival (showing a date of arrival of 24 May 1910), his Petition for Naturalization (dated 18 Jul 1939, and his Declaration of Intention (dated 27 April 1955). I already had a copy of his Certificate of Naturalization, dated 1955, but I also previously had a copy of his Declaration of Intention, dated 02 June 1917! The 1917 Declaration stated that it expired seven years from the date signed, so I guess my grandfather made his Declaration of Intention in 1917, the Declaration expired in 1924, so he made another Declaration in 1955, at which time he actually did become a citizen.

Time for me to get back to my research. I’ll post some of these records I found, but I probably won’t be able to do that until I get back home next week.

Heading to Salt Lake City

Steve — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 11:28:19 +0000

My flight to Salt Lake City leaves from Oakland at 7:30 PM tonight. I’m all packed, but I’m not sure I’ve ever really been ready for a genealogy research trip. I’ve been preparing for the last couple of months, trying to get my Family Tree Maker files in order, trying to organize my sources so I don’t spend time looking up documentation I already have, and searching the Family History Library (FHL) catalog for the books and microfilms I want to see while I’m at the FHL.

I found a bunch of films that were in the Granite Mountain Vault, so about two weeks ago I sent off an email to the FHL asking if they could get those films to the FHL in time for my visit. Two weeks is a good lead time for this task; one time I only gave them a week and they weren’t able to get the films in time for my visit.

One unusual set of films I want to look at is the Massachusetts Selective Service System Registration Cards [World War II]: Fourth Registration. These cards represent older men, born between 28 Apr 1877 and 16 Feb 1892, who registered for the draft in 1942. I set up a custom report in FTM to find any men in my file for whom I had recorded a birth, marriage, or death in Massachusetts, and who were born in the appropriate period. This gave me the names of 55 men to look up in this set of films. Unfortunately, this collection includes 166 microfilm reels, all of which are in the vault! I guess nobody knows about this set of records and has never requested them before! Well, I couldn’t order all 166 reels, so I ordered the four I thought would be the most relevant for me. When I get to the FHL on Friday, the first thing I’ll do is order some more films and hope that they’ll arrive before I leave on Tuesday.

Some of the other sources I plan to look at are:

Petitions for Naturalization for Worcester Co., Massachusetts,
Selective Service Records and Exemptions as Aliens for Massachusetts in 1917-1918
Roman Catholic Church Records of Butrymance Parish in Lithuania (1834-1841)
Roman Catholic Church Records of Saint Krzyza Parish in Warsaw (1826-1876)
Roman Catholic Church Records of Krasne Parish in Poland (1657-1892)
Roman Catholic Church Records of Szwelice Parish in Poland (1780-1890)
Protestant marriages in the District of Bedford, Quebec (1804-1879)
Non-Catholic Civil Registration Index for Bedford, Quebec (1899-1989)
New Brunswick Vital Statistics from Newspapers (1784-1896)
New Brunswick Births, Marriages, and Deaths (1801-1925)
Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography

I’m looking forward to seeing Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography. There is one biography in particular I’m interested to read, but this source is rather notorious for containing at least 200 fictitious biographies! Most family historians don’t trust published genealogies that don’t list the sources of the information, but here’s a case where the source might not be trustworthy, either!

So, I should have plenty to keep me busy! I’ll let you know how things are going!