Saturday, July 25, 2020

1890 Census--Not Everything was Destroyed

The 1890 U.S. Census: Not Everything Was Destroyed

Beginning U.S. genealogists soon learn that the 1890 census records were destroyed in a fire in the basement of the Commerce Building on January 10, 1921. I wrote about this recently in What Really Happened to the 1890 U.S. Census? at https://bit.ly/32PUQyz.

Photo of the 1890 U.S. census taken after the fire.

Many people who would like to see these records just shrug their shoulders and move on.

A short search on the World Wide Web, however, soon reveals that not all of the records were destroyed.

In fact, the morning after the fire, Census Director Sam Rogers reported the extensive damage to the 1890 schedules, estimating that only 25 percent of the records were destroyed, with 50 percent of the remainder damaged by water, smoke, and fire.

Salvage of the water-soaked and charred documents might be possible, reported the bureau, but saving even a small part would take a month, and it would take two to three years to copy and save all the records damaged in the fire. The preliminary assessment of Census Bureau Clerk T. J. Fitzgerald was far more sobering. Fitzgerald told reporters that the priceless 1890 records were “certain to be absolutely ruined. There is no method of restoring the legibility of a water-soaked volume.”

Note: The statement “There is no method of restoring the legibility of a water-soaked volume” was undoubtedly true in 1921. However, had the fire occurred years later, many of the volumes could have been saved. Today, water-soaked documents can be freeze dried, removing the water without creating additional damage to the pages. Unfortunately, such technology was not available in 1921.

Speculation and rumors about the cause of the blaze varied widely. Many suspected that a carelessly discarded cigarette or a lighted match was the cause. Employees were questioned about their smoking habits. Others believed the fire started among shavings in the carpenter shop or resulted from spontaneous combustion. At least one woman from Ohio felt certain the fire was part of a conspiracy to defraud her family of their rightful estate by destroying every vestige of evidence proving heirship! However, the true cause of the fire was never proven.

At the end of January, 1921, the records damaged in the fire were moved for temporary storage. Over the next few months, rumors spread that salvage attempts would not be made and that Census Director Sam Rogers had recommended that Congress authorize destruction of the 1890 census. Prominent historians, attorneys, and genealogical organizations wrote in protest to Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover, the Librarian of Congress, and other government officials. The National Genealogical Society and the Daughters of the American Revolution formally petitioned Hoover and Congress, and the editor of the NGS Quarterly warned that a nationwide movement would begin among state societies and the press if Congress seriously considered destruction. The National Archives quickly denied that the records would be destroyed.

By May of 1921, the records were still piled in a large warehouse without proper storage. The records were quickly deteriorating as summer heat approached in the non-air conditioned warehouse. Census Director William Steuart ordered that the damaged records be transferred back to the census building, to be bound where possible, but at least put in some order for reference.

The water-soaked records remained at the census building for nearly eleven years, apparently not well cared for. In December 1932, in accordance with federal records procedures at the time, the Chief Clerk of the Bureau of Census sent the Librarian of Congress a list of papers no longer necessary for current business and scheduled for destruction. He asked the Librarian to report back to him any documents that should be retained for their historical interest. Item 22 on the list for Bureau of the Census read “Schedules, Population . . . 1890, Original.”

The Librarian identified no records as permanent; the list was sent forward, and Congress authorized destruction of the remaining 1890 census records on February 21, 1933. Despite assurance by census officials in 1921 that the damaged records would not be destroyed, government bureaucrats did exactly that in the 1930s. Even worse, damaged and undamaged pages alike were destroyed. The entire process was not well publicized, with only minor notes buried inside governmental reports. The date of the actual destruction of the 1890 census records was never recorded although it probably was in 1935.

It seems sad that Washington bureaucrats quietly destroyed these valuable records without public review and scrutiny.

However, the story does not end there. The bureaucrats overlooked some records!

In 1953, National Archives found an additional set of 1890 census record fragments. These sets of extant fragments are from Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, South Dakota, Texas, and the District of Columbia. These surviving fragments were preserved and microfilmed. They are still available today, despite the “common knowledge” that the 1890 U.S. Census was destroyed in a fire.

Before you disregard this census, you should always verify that the schedules you seek did not survive. If you are looking for ancestors in 1890 in Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, South Dakota, Texas, or the District of Columbia, you might have a pleasant surprise. Be aware that the surviving records are only a tiny fraction of the total records, even for those states. Nonetheless, you won’t know until you check.

You can view National Archives Microfilm Publication M407 (3 rolls) and a corresponding index, National Archives Microfilm Publication M496 (2 rolls). Ancestry.com has obtained copies of these microfilms and digitized all the records listed there. Quoting the Ancestry.com web site at https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/5445/:

These records have been extracted from the remaining population schedules for the 1890 Federal Census, which was destroyed by a fire at the Commerce Department in Washington, DC on 10 January 1921. The surviving fragments consists of 1,233 pages or pieces, including enumerations for Alabama, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Illinois, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, South Dakota, and Texas. The records of only 6,160 of the 62,979,766 people enumerated survived the fire.
The original 1890 census enumerated people differently than ever before that time. Each family was enumerated on a separate sheet of paper. 1890 was the only year this was done.

The only surviving fragments are as follows:

Alabama—Perry County
District of Columbia—Q, S, 13th, 14th, RQ, Corcoran, 15th, SE, and Roggs streets, and Johnson Avenue
Georgia—Muscogee County (Columbus)
Illinois—McDonough County: Mound Township
Minnesota—Wright County: Rockford
New Jersey—Hudson County: Jersey City
New York—Westchester County: Eastchester; Suffok County: Brookhaven Township
North Carolina—Gaston County: South Point Township, Ricer Bend Township; Cleveland County: Township No. 2
Ohio—Hamilton County (Cincinnati); Clinton County: Wayne Township
South Dakota—Union County: Jefferson Township
Texas—Ellis County: S.P. no. 6, Mountain Peak, Ovila Precinct; Hood County: Precinct no. 5; Rusk County: Precinct no. 6 and J.P. no. 7; Trinity County: Trinity Town and Precinct no. 2; Kaufman County: Kaufman.

Fields in this database include: given name, surname, relationship, race, gender, age, birthplace, father’s birthplace, and mother’s birthplace. If you cannot find your family in this database, it may be useful to look at Ancestry.com’s 1890 Census Substitute.

[This information comes from Loretto Dennis Szucs and Sandra Hargreaves Luebking, eds. “Research in Census Records.” The Source: A Guidebook of American Genealogy, rev. ed. Ancestry, Inc.: Salt Lake City, 1997.]

Thursday, July 16, 2020

Syncing Between 2 computers--anywhere

Syncthing

This article is “off topic.” That is, it has nothing to do with the normal topics of this newsletter: genealogy, family history, DNA, and related articles. However, I believe it will interest many people, genealogists included, who use more than one computer.

Do you use two or more computers? Perhaps you have a desktop system and a laptop computer. Perhaps you use one computer at the office and a different one at home. Then again, perhaps you have two homes; a summer cottage or perhaps one home in the sunbelt and another “up north.” Do you keep separate computers in each location?
Perhaps you and a relative who is also working on the family tree want to keep genealogy information and old family photographs updated all the time in both of your computers in your homes. Whatever your situation, the question this article hopes to answer is, “How do you automatically keep some of the information up-to-date on both (or all) of the computers?”
The question can be answered with one word: Syncthing.

Here is a quote from the Syncthing.net website:
“Syncthing is a continuous file synchronization program. It synchronizes files between two or more computers in real time, safely protected from prying eyes. Your data is your data alone and you deserve to choose where it is stored, whether it is shared with some third party, and how it’s transmitted over the internet.”
In short, the name of “Syncthing” is appropriate. It is a FREE and open source piece of software that is designed to keep some (or all) of the information in 2 or more computers automatically synchronized all the time with minimal human action required. It works amongst side-by-side computers at home or computers separated across the country or even across the world.
Syncthing apparently can copy everything although I suspect the more common use is to duplicate only one or more folders (sub-directories) in two or more computers.
Syncthing is available free of charge for Macintosh OS X, Microsoft Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, and OpenBSD. The program has been available for several years and has many thousands of satisfied users. In short, it is well tested.
“Free and open-source software (FOSS) is software that can be classified as both free software and open-source software. That is, anyone is freely licensed to use, copy, study, and change the software in any way, and the source code is openly shared so that people are encouraged to voluntarily improve the design of the software. This is in contrast to proprietary software, where the software is under restrictive copyright licensing and the source code is usually hidden from the users.”
Syncthing is Private & Secure
Again, quoting from the Syncthing web site:
Private. None of your data is ever stored anywhere else other than on your computers. There is no central server that might be compromised, legally or illegally.
Encrypted. All communication is secured using TLS. The encryption used includes perfect forward secrecy to prevent any eavesdropper from ever gaining access to your data.
Authenticated. Every node is identified by a strong cryptographic certificate. Only nodes you have explicitly allowed can connect to your cluster.
Also:
Easy to Use
Powerful. Synchronize as many folders as you need with different people or just between your own devices.
Portable. Configure and monitor Syncthing via a responsive and powerful interface accessible via your browser. Works on Mac OS X, Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris and OpenBSD. Run it on your desktop computers and synchronize them with your server for backup.
Simple. Syncthing doesn’t need IP addresses or advanced configuration: it just works, over LAN and over the Internet. Every machine is identified by an ID. Give your ID to your friends, share a folder and watch: UPnP will do if you don’t want to port forward or you don’t know how.
In short, Syncthing is easy to use and doesn’t share any of your data on some questionable company’s web site. In fact, it doesn’t even upload anything to a web site or corporate server; all data is sent directly between the computers you specify and to no place else. If you still have concerns, you can even examine the source code yourself and even compile your own version of Syncthing. Syncthing is available FREE of charge.
I have been using Syncthing to keep several folders on two computers up-to-date with each other for more than a year and have been pleased with its operation. Even though these two computers are 1,200 miles apart, Syncthing has proven to be very reliable.
The local power companies and internet companies have dropped power and/or internet connectivity at each location several times. Once the power and internet connectivity has been restored, each computer has powered up, rebooted (see the owners’ manuals for information on how to automatically re-boot your computers after a power outage), and continued running Syncthing in normal operation.
You can read more about Syncthing or even download the free program at: https://syncthing.net.

Saturday, April 25, 2020

A Word About the Privacy of Your Genealogy and Other Information

A Word About the Privacy of Your Genealogy and Other Information

A newsletter reader wrote recently and asked a question that I think many people should think about. I replied to him in email but thought I would also share my answer here in the newsletter in case others have the same question.
My correspondent wrote:
I am relatively new to genealogy technology. Are there tips you can provide to ensure the security of personal information? Would building a family tree in software only my computer be more secure than syncing it to a webpage (like MyHeritage)? Is it a good idea to not include details (name, date and place of birth) for all living relatives and maybe back a generation or two? Thanks.
My reply:

Great questions! However, I don’t have a simple answer. In fact, I can offer several answers and suggestions.
The various web sites have lots of options to control your privacy, except for Facebook, a web site designed to steal as much of your personal information as possible and then to resell that info. You do need to read about each site’s privacy policies before using it. However, most of today’s online services have excellent methods of protecting your personal privacy and your sensitive information.
Unfortunately, the computer on your desk and your laptop computer and tablet computer probably have no such controls. Neither does your “smartphone” which probably contains more personal information about you than does any other computing device you own.

Hackers around the world are constantly trying to access your computer at home (and millions of other computers) through the Internet. In addition, there is even more danger when you take your laptop or tablet computer or smartphone out of the home where it is exposed to loss, theft, and other risks.
Generally speaking, placing genealogy information or any other information in the cloud is more secure than keeping the same information in your own computer. I speak from experience; I had a laptop computer stolen a few years ago from the trunk of my automobile. The thief obtained everything: my bank account info, my credit card numbers, my Social Security number, the email addresses and phone numbers of most of my friends and business acquaintances, my family tree info, and more. Had I been smart enough to only keep that info in a secure area in the cloud, the thief would have obtained nothing.
I do that now. I still have backup copies of my family tree info stored in my own laptop and desktop computers. After all, family tree information isn’t secret anyway. Almost all genealogy information is publicly-available info available in various public government records and elsewhere. (Hey, that’s where I found it!) However, I now keep my bank account info, my credit card numbers, my Social Security number, the email addresses and phone numbers of most of my friends and business acquaintances, and more ONLY in the cloud and only by encrypting it first before sending it to a cloud web site. I never keep sensitive information in plain text on my own computers, not even in my home computer(s), where it can be accessed by online thieves and/or visitors to my home.
The backup copies are created automatically every few minutes by the backup software I use, even if I am sleeping at the time or out of the house on an overseas trip.
For the information I store on MyHeritage, I know the web site (and almost all other genealogy web sites) have excellent controls where names, dates, places of birth, and other personal information for all living people are never displayed to anyone else. When I log in with my user name and password, I can see that information. However, if you or anyone else looks at the information there that I made public, you do not see the personal information for living people.
I also keep backup ENCRYPTED copies in various locations, including one encrypted copy on my laptop computer, one encrypted copy in a plug-in external hard drive connected to my desktop computer, one encrypted copy in a backup service in the cloud that I pay for, one encrypted copy in Google Drive (which obviously is also stored in the cloud), and one UNencrypted copy in a relative’s computer. (She has an interest in genealogy and the two of us share a lot of ancestors. I am sure she will preserve my data in case I predecease her.)
By the way, I do keep a lot of non-sensitive information in my own computers where it is available to me and probably to thieves at all times, even without an Internet connection. Copies of most things are also kept online. My calendar, my shopping list, my favorite recipe for vegan chili, the jokes I collect, copies of my past newsletter articles, and hundreds of other items are not secret. I don’t encrypt those and don’t lock them up. Probably 98% of the things I save online and offline are not secret. Heck, if anyone wants a copy of those things, just drop me a note and I will send them to you! I don’t see a need for security for those items.
In contrast, anything that I wish to keep secret is kept under lock and key (the key is called “encryption”) only in secure web sites where I can access the information whether I am at home or traveling. Sometimes, “traveling” means that I am at the grocery store or at the doctor’s office, but I still might need to access the information while I’m out and about. I strive to have all information securely available at my fingertips at any time, regardless of where I am.
I also want to keep my information away from thieves, whether they are located overseas or if they are standing behind my automobile, attempting to break in and steal my laptop or tablet computer.
Your need for security will undoubtedly be different from my needs. However, I strongly suggest you think about what you need to protect and then create your own security plan to make sure your private information remains private. The word “encryption” should be a major item in your plans.
Suggestion: You also might want to read my other web site: the Privacy Blog at http://privacyblog.com/

Thursday, March 26, 2020

Coronavirus Stay-at-Home and Shelter-in-Place Map

Randy Majors Releases a Coronavirus Stay-at-Home and Shelter-in-Place Map

Randy Majors is a well-known programmer who creates applications from Google Maps that perform function the programmer at Google never dreamed of. To see some of his past accomplishments, read some of my past articles about his creations by starting at: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=site%3Aeogn.com+%22Randy+Majors%22.

Unlike most of his early projects, Randy’s latest product is not genealogy-related. He writes:
“To try to help get the information out there, I’ve compiled and have been maintaining a live up-to-date map of all of the U.S. states, counties and cities that have implemented Stay-at-Home/Shelter-in-Place Orders (as well as states with order to close all non-essential businesses. It’s a very actively changing map as you can imagine.

“The map shows where Stay at Home, Shelter in Place and Non-essential Business Closure orders are CURRENTLY in effect or IMMINENT according to official government websites or reputable news sources.”
You can find the Coronavirus Stay-at-Home and Shelter-in-Place Map at: https://www.randymajors.com/p/coronavirus-on-google-maps.html

Ancestry now offers FREE Access to Millions of Historical Records from the U.S. National Archives

Ancestry now offers FREE Access to Millions of Historical Records and Images from the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

The following is an extract from an article by Ancestry CEO Margo Georgiadis describing the company’s actions to support our community during this time of uncertainty during the CoronaVirus pandemic. The article was published in the Ancestry Blog at https://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry/:
Ancestry has collaborated with the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration to offer temporary free access to millions of historical records and images from the federal government. And we will continue providing free online tutorials and video courses to help people get started with family tree building. For more information, click here.
You can read the full article at: https://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry.

Tuesday, December 31, 2019

The Cost of Getting Genealogical Records from the Government Could Go Up Nearly 500%

The Cost of Getting Genealogical Records from the Government Could Go Up Nearly 500%. An Effort is Underway to Stop That.

I have written before about this outrageous proposal to increase fees nearly 500%. However, it is great to see CNN pick up the story and give the effort to stop the increase even more publicity. With millions of readers, a story in CNN can generate a lot of publicity.

The new article by Harmeet Kaur on CNN may be found at: https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/29/us/immigration-records-uscis-fee-hike-trnd/index.html.

My earlier articles may be found here and here.

Sunday, December 29, 2019

Nebraska Death Index (1904-1968) is Now Online

The Nebraska Death Index (1904-1968) is Now Online

Thanks to Reclaim the Records, the Nebraska Death Index (1904-1968) is now available to everyone online. Even better, access is available free of charge.
According to the Reclaim the Records web site:
“In May 2019, citing Nebraska’s Public Records Law, Reclaim The Records made a request for “a copy of the Nebraska Death Index and/or finding aid to deaths, from its onset to 1968”. You can read the whole request on our website (PDF), if you want, because we like making all our correspondence and court cases public.”
You can read much more at: https://www.reclaimtherecords.org/records-request/26/.

FamilySearch Releases GEDCOM Version 5.5.1

FamilySearch Releases GEDCOM Version 5.5.1

GEDCOM is an abbreviation that stands for GEnealogy Data COMmunications. In short, GEDCOM is the language by which different genealogy software programs talk to one another.
GEDCOM was developed by the Family History Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints (LDS Church) to provide a flexible, uniform format for exchanging computerized genealogical data.
(See my 2014 article, GEDCOM Explained, at https://blog.eogn.com/2014/05/24/gedcom-explained/ for a more detailed explanation of GEDCOM.)
GEDCOM is not a program. Instead, it is a specification of the method that different genealogy programs should use to exchange data. The purpose is to exchange data between dissimilar programs without having to manually re-enter all the data on a keyboard. A GEDCOM file is a plain text file (usually either UTF-8, ANSEL or ASCII) containing genealogical information about individuals, and meta data linking these records together.

All of today’s more popular genealogy programs will import and export GEDCOM data. However, the GEDCOM standard first adopted in 1985 did not envision today’s environment of multimedia files, such as digital pictures, video, audio, text files using non-English alphabets (Cyrillic, Bulgarian, Hindi, Chinese, Japanese, Hebrew, and other languages), links to external data stored in the World Wide Web, and many more commonly-used standards of today.
Over the years, the GEDCOM standard has been updated several times with each update adding new functionality and significantly improving the standard. However, because of the constantly evolving improvements in genealogy programs, data transferred via GEDCOM often has not been perfect. After transferring from one program to another, manual “clean-up” has often been required to fix any data that was not transferred properly.
Now FamilySearch has released a new update: GEDCOM 5.5.1
This is the first update in ten years. The new GEDCOM 5.5.1 standard may be found at: https://edge.fscdn.org/assets/img/documents/ged551-5bac5e57fe88dd37df0e153d9c515335.pdf. The most important part of that document is listed in the section entitled Modifications in Version 5.5.1 that starts on page 6 of that document.
While there are numerous changes and clarifications, perhaps the most interesting items are the new tags added in GEDCOM 5.5.1:
EMAIL electronic mailing address
FAX FAX address
FACT A fact or characteristic.
FONE Phonetic variation of a text.
ROMN Romanized variation of a text.
WWW Web Home page address.
MAP Pertaining to maps.
LATI value of a latitudinal coordinate pertaining to the place of an event
LONG value of a longitudinal coordinate pertaining to the place of an event.
What will the impact of GEDCOM 5.5.1 mean to non-programmers?
Nothing will change immediately for most users. However, the new update does mean that the programmers who write the many genealogy programs will need to update their products and then release new updates. As these updated products become available, anyone using a newly-updated genealogy product that conforms to GEDCOM 5.5.1 can exchange data with more accuracy with anyone else who is also using a GEDCOM 5.5.1-compatible genealogy program.

New York City’s “Island of the Dead” to Become More Accessible

New York City’s “Island of the Dead” to Become More Accessible

I have written about Hart Island several timers. See http://bit.ly/36eLN8L for my past articles.
Hart Island has long served as New York City’s “Potter’s Field,” the place of burials of mass graves containing the remains of paupers, unidentified individuals, still-born babies, and AIDS victims. More than one million people are buried there.

Approximately 1,200 burials, some of them unidentified people, still take place every year. Adults are buried in pine coffins stacked three deep; children five deep in plots of 1,000. The boxes are marked with numbers not names, and there are no gravestones. Small white markers indicating the trenches dot the island’s burial grounds.

Relatives are only allowed to visit on two designated days a month, while correctional officers escort media to Hart Island just twice a year.
Until recently, the island was maintained by inmates from nearby Rikers Island, one of America’s most notorious jails. Last month, New York’s city council voted to end prison control of Hart Island by transferring jurisdiction to its parks department, in a move hailed by activists. It also pledged to start regular ferry services. Relatives may soon start visiting the graves of the deceased.
You can read more in an article by Peter Hutchison at https://yhoo.it/2OUdzBI.

Wednesday, November 13, 2019

Reclaim the Records Introduces the Online New York City GEOGRAPHIC Birth Index

Reclaim the Records Introduces the Online New York City GEOGRAPHIC Birth Index

The following is a quote from the latest Reclaim the Records newsletter:
INTRODUCING THE NEW YORK CITY GEOGRAPHIC BIRTH INDEX
A new tool to find people born in New York City in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, especially if their birth records had spelling variants or poor handwriting
Hello again from Reclaim The Records! We’re that little non-profit activist group of genealogists, historians, teachers, journalists, open government advocates, and other troublemakers who fight for the release of historical and genealogical materials from government agencies, archives, and libraries.
Today, we’d like to tell you about some new historical records that we’ve acquired, which we’ve put online for free public use, for the first time anywhere! They’ve never been available outside of New York City before.
Introducing the New York City GEOGRAPHIC Birth Index! This record set is an index to all births in New York City from roughly 1880-1912 (or 1917-ish in some cases outside of Manhattan). But unlike a typical birth index arranged by surname or by date, this one is arranged by the child’s place of birth, the actual exact street address! Hence the term Geographic.
We think there’s about 2.8 million names in here, maybe more.

You can read more in the newsletter’s web site at: https://mailchi.mp/reclaimtherecords/introducing-the-new-york-city-geographic-birth-index.