Houston Police Department Records

 If a customer is interested in obtaining Houston Police Department records, try using this website for guidance: https://www.houstontx.gov/police/public_information.htm

It gives very specific information on what information can be released and how to obtain it. There is a lengthy list of record types, such as accident report, mug shots, citations, etc, and you can click on each type to find out who is the record holder, their contact info, and the criteria for record release.  The most common request type would probably be for Report - Police / Incident / Offense. A great deal seems to depend upon if the case was closed by conviction. 

JO

 

                BG

Northern Virginia Slavery Database

 This database searches enslaved ancestors using the birth, death, and probate records of Fairfax and Loudon Counties, Virginia from 1853 to 1859. These records exist because the Virginia General Assembly passed a law requiring the systemic statewide recording of births and deaths.

Try it here: http://novahistory.org/Slavery_Database/Slavery_Database.htm

JO

Our Black Ancestry

 
 
Our Black Ancestry is a non-profit organization devoted to collecting and sharing resources relating to African American genealogy. They also assist researchers in learning about their family history. The main hub of Our Black Ancestry is their Facebook group that boasts thousands of members. There are posts daily from people asking for help in their personal research and others relating to resources relevant to people researching the history of their African American ancestry. The website for Our Black Ancestry is https://ourblackancestry.com/index.php  and you can find and join their online group on Facebook by simply searching the name “Our Black Ancestry”. 


RS

Civil War Photo Sleuth

 With the aid of modern facial recognition, the mission of the Civil War Photo Sleuths to identity the names of every unidentified photograph of Civil War servicemen. Users of the site can upload photographs of unknown soldiers onto the website. The facial recognition software with scan the photographs and search their website['s online photograph archive for any possible matches to the soldier regardless of such differences as facial hair for example. 

You can read about Photo Sleuth here https://militaryimages.atavist.com/photo-sleuth-summer-2017

Their official website can be accessed at https://www.civilwarphotosleuth.com/

RS

Circus Historical Society

 Do you have stories of ancestors being in the circus? Were they trapeze artists flying high above a crowd doing death-defying stunts? Did they blow fire out their mouths or train elephants? If so,  the Circus Historical Society may be the place to go for genealogists looking to learn more about their circus performer ancestors.

The Circus Historical Society was established in 1939 for the purpose of sharing and preserving the history of the Circus. Genealogically relevant databases on the CHS website include circus performer biographies, census abstracts of people in different companies and city directories  or performers.
The CHS website can be accessed at https://classic.circushistory.org/about.htm .

RS

HistoryMakers

HistoryMakers is the largest digital African American oral history collection in the United States containing  over 148,163 stories collected from 2,691 African Americans of historical significance. There are a wide variety of topics and subjects that range from the importance of work ethic to being an activist discussed by everyone being interviewed. As always in oral history, questions revolve around people's origins and backgrounds as a way to understand who they are and how they became to be. Out of all the 2,691 interviewees, I was pleasantly surprised to discover an interview of my cousin Dr. Merline Pitre, a long-time History professor at Texas Southern History. She spoke of growing up in the small Louisiana community of Plaisance where my paternal grandfather was from and mentioned her grandmother who happened to be my great-grandfather's older sister. Because cousin Merline is a historian, she talked about the early schools and churches within the community and their histories and how my family contributed to it's founding. For me, her oral testimony added some cultural and colorful layers to my own family history and Louisiana Creole heritage.

If you're a genealogist exploring African American family history, one of your relatives may be one of the subjects being interviewed in HistoryMakers. HistoryMakers can be accessed free in the library and at home remotely if you have a Houston Public Library card.

RS

National Park Service Virtual tours

Did you know that you can take a virtual tour of National Parks on YouTube. Check out the National Park Service YouTube channel.  

Under the National Park Service website is a section called " Story Maps". Visit the locations through articles, pictures and videos. 

I clicked out the Story Map places of women suffrage. https//:nps.gov/articles/storymap-places-of-women-s-suffrage.htm

MH

Louisiana statewide marriage indexes 1946-1961

On June 24th 2020, Ancestry updated their Louisiana marriage database by adding statewide marriages from 1946 to 1961. The index names the bride and groom, the date they married, where and the certificate number. The index is part of the Louisiana compiled marriage index on Ancestry.



RS

Endangered Archives Programme

Archives around the world in danger of destruction, neglect, or physical deterioration are being digitized through the Endangered Archives Programme of the British Library. More than eight million images and 25,000 sound tracks have been digitized, including rare printed sources, manuscripts, visual material, and audio recordings.

 I was excited to find digitized deed books from Michoacan, Mexico that contain legal acts, surveys, village censuses, and letters.

Scroll down the homepage to view an interactive map of project locations.

JO

Defining the Colonies

Continuing The American Revolution series...

The American colonies were independent from one another in many ways, but they did share some similarities. The colonies could be defined as falling into one of three types: the corporate colony – Connecticut, Rhode Island – the colony’s residents made their own constitution which was ratified by the monarch; the proprietary colony – Maryland, Pennsylvania – the monarch gave the colony to a person; and the royal colony – New York, South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Massachusetts – a colony owned by the monarch. 

New England colonies had townships oriented around the church. With Puritan roots and a high respect for the Bible, literacy was encouraged and universities like Harvard and Yale blossomed. As commerce boomed the church’s authority became slightly diluted. The predominant type of farm was a small farm supported by family labor. There was some slave labor, but the least in comparison to the Middle colonies and the Southern colonies. The New England colonies were very insular and excluded those of different religions or ethnicities.  While lacking diversity, they were able to unite quickly if their rights were infringed upon. 

The Middle colonies - New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware – were less of a coherent region. Marked by diversity and religious tolerance, this region was founded by Quakers, who promoted an internal moral spirit rather than a strict church structure. Immigrants from Germany, Ireland, and Scotland came to take advantage of lots of land. 

The Southern colonies considered themselves the most republican and virtuous of the colonies. Their society ranged from the extremes of aristocrats to a glut of poor, common folk. These colonies were structured around widely scattered plantations owned and controlled by Southern gentlemen, who managed local affairs and spent their leisure time gambling, horse racing, and drinking. This ruling elite ethos carried with it a spirit of entitlement and independence, that later inspired resistance to Britain’s infringement on their rights. Virginia believed itself as the leader of the South.  

Education was less important in the Southern colonies compared to the Northern colonies. The College of William and Mary was more about social training than academic learning. The University of Virginia was created by Thomas Jefferson for better academics, but it evolved into a party school, with drinking and boisterous activity, like shooting off guns. 

Slavery had a big impact on the tone of life. The population averaged 1.3 to 1.7 white males to 1 slave and in some colonies like South Carolina, there was a black majority. 

 JO

Independent Colonies

Continuing The American Revolution series...

While today we may take for granted the union of the American colonies as inevitable and logical, back in colonial times each colony was a separate entity unto itself, complete with its own distinct culture. The colonies had more in common with the mother country than with each other. As well as a lack of an emotional connection, the colonies also lacked physical connections. The lack of good roads discouraged trade and communication. Each colony saw to its own interests. 

Despite their independence from one another, there were three times prior to the American Revolution when the colonies united for purposes of self-defense. The first was in 1643-64 when New England colonies formed defense against the Dutch and Indians. The second attempt was spurred by actions of the British government. Fearful that the colonies weren’t loyal to the monarch, in 1686 the British government formed the Dominion of New England, which fused the New England colonies with New York and New Jersey and was ruled by unpopular governor Edmund Andross. When the Stuart monarchy fell in 1689, colonists were quick to topple Andross and his officers. The third attempt, known as the Albany Congress, came in 1754 as the colonies met to discuss relations with American Indians and defense against the French. 

For genealogy purposes, knowing the colonies were independent should alert the researcher to closely scrutinize an ancestor's movements between colonies. What may seem like an ancestor moving around could be a case of confusing two different people. Moving from one colony to another was not as casual as the movement we make between states today.

JO

International Causes of Death

If when looking at a death certificate you see a number listed by the cause of death, it may be a code from the International Causes of Death. First known as the International List of Causes of Death when adopted by the International Statistical Institute in 1893, this list created codes for the different causes of death as a means to codify mortality for scientific study.

The list is periodically revised and is now in its eleventh version. Links to the various versions are available here: http://www.wolfbane.com/icd/index.html.

Be sure to refer to the list most recently published before the person’s death, as the codes have changed over the years. If a person died in 1922, you would refer to the version published in 1920 to get the correct interpretation of the code.

In the example below, Augustina Villanueva died September 7, 1922 in Hidalgo County, Texas, with the code 189 written by cause of death. A look at the 1920 International List of Causes of Death shows code 189 to mean "Injury by animals (poisoning by venomous animals excepted)."

I did a quick search in the newspapers on ChroniclingAmerica and Portal to Texas History for mention of Ms. Villanueva's death, but didn't come up with anything. If I was going to pursue this further I would look for a coroner's report or look in non-digitized newspapers.

JO

The American Revolution - the British Colonist

What was it like being a white British colonist in North America?
You lived along the Atlantic shore board for purposed of communication and trade, and feared going too far inland because of Indians. If you were a white male, you may have been a small landowner, as 60% of white males owned land (a high rate of ownership in comparison to Great Britain). You may also have been a merchant or artisan.

You likely had decent clothes, a home, and economic independence. 

You were proud to be British and belong to an empire. You felt connected to other British subjects by shared culture, traditions, and language. You were in awe of the monarchy and felt you deserved the rights of a British subject. 

You may have also felt like a country bumpkin or felt irrelevant as a colonist on the edge of a wilderness. Colonists had a bit of an inferiority complex and may have been apologetic or embarrassed for their manners, their American-speak, lesser architecture, and coarser quality clothes. On the other hand, you may have boasted the colonies maintained pure England, and England itself was corrupt.

What was the British opinion of the colonists?
The British looked down on colonists as rustic and crude. British merchants would even send damaged goods to colonists presuming they wouldn't know the difference. 

Britain often left development of the colonies up to companies. There was a certain amount of neglect and absence of policies. It wasn't until about 1750 that Britain tried to rule.

What was difference between British and Colonial society?
While both the British and their North American colonists believed in social order, the colonies lacked the top-most and bottom-most levels. There was no aristocracy or peasant class. Instead, the colonies consisted of mostly middling folk, people who had emigrated from England for a better life, including third or fourth sons of gentry. In the colonies there was more fluidity in social classes.

Fine titles and clothes were more important in the colonies because they really showed status. If you had military service, you would insist on being called by your title for the rest of your life to claim a place in society. Important people sometimes were called Colonel or General even without military service, as an acknowledgment of their status. In colleges the classes were listed by rank, and the highest in rank gave the graduation address. This ranking could get contentious, and led to the evolution of grades as a means of judging by merit, not rank.

JO

The American Revolution - Introduction

I recently completed the online course The American Revolution through Open Yale Courses. I'll be posting multiple blogs about what I learned, and I welcome your thoughts and feedback. I would recommend the course as it's a great way to get a better understanding of the creation of all the documents our customers are seeking, such as military service records, pension records, land bounty records, and to get a better grasp of a huge period in American history.

Introduction to The American Revolution - things to keep in mind

The American Revolution and the Revolutionary War are two separate, different entities. The Revolution was a long cultural change in mindset, from loyal British subjects to Americans. The colonies weren't united or joined together. They often knew more about the mother country than about each other. The colonies stood apart from each other and had many differences.

Consider the meaning of words may have changed over time. One example is the word democracy, which now seems like a good idea, but in 1750 implied chaos. "Our real disease is democracy," said Alexander Hamilton in 1804.

Remember contingency. People at the time didn't know what was going to happen. They assumed anything could happen. Emotions were heightened, which explains the extreme rhetoric. A colonist participating in the Revolution may have had thoughts like maybe I'll get hanged, maybe I'll get shot, or maybe the Constitution will last four days.

JO

Coroner Records for Harris County, Texas, 1890s

An index to coroner inquest records for Harris County, Texas, 1891-1896, is available on Portal to Texas History at: https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth142194/.

It is a downloadable Excel spreadsheet with information from the Harris County Archives. The inquest information here is different from information in our book, Coroner's Inquests & Miscellaneous Records of Harrisburg & Harris County, Texas, 1884-1898 by Imogene Vick Macias, call number M152 HARRI TEX. The book states their information is from the Houston Metropolitan Research Center.

If a customer is searching for a coroner inquest in the 1890s in Harris County, you could refer them to both of these resources.

JO

The Atlanta Funeral Programs Collection

Atlanta Funeral Programs Collection

The Atlanta Funeral Programs Collection is part of the Digital Library of Georgia.  The collection contains over 3,300 funeral programs of African Americans beginning from 1886 to the present who lived mostly in Atlanta and surroundings areas.  These funeral programs provide genealogical details like birthplaces, years of birth, names of family members and brief biographical information for African American genealogists. The Atlanta Funeral Programs Collection can be accessed at:

https://dlg.usg.edu/collection/aarl_afpc?page=2&search_field=dummy_range




RS

            SAH Archipedia

The Society of Architectural Historians have created a free website of over 20,000 buildings, courthouse, and or historical structures. Researchers can search by state to view all the architectural structures; including pictures with historical data. The content is for architectural research, but we genealogists can use the information to!

Check it out:  https://sah-archipedia.org


MH

Connected DNA

Connected DNA is a website where customers can( for a fee) have their AncestryDNA  cousin matches converted into network graphs of  genetic clusters where it will allow them to visualize how each of their DNA matches are related to each other. Connected DNA is one of many tools genetic genealogists can use in order to advance their genealogical research and solve challenging brickwalls.
The link to the Connected DNA website is https://www.connecteddna.com/.



RS

Genetic Affairs news

Ancestry.com is no longer allowing the website Genetic Affairs to download DNA matches from AncestryDNA to create auto-clustering.  You can still use the Auto-clustering tools to download your DNA matches from FamilytreeDNA, 23andme and MyHeritageDNA.


RS

Becoming a Better Listener

Listening is hard work! Becoming a better listener means recognizing barriers that impede better listening and actively using good listening strategies. 

We may not listen well when the speaker is not talking loudly enough or has distracting mannerisms or appearance. Loud noises, interruptions, and even room temperature can also cause us to not listen well. 

Often when we’re listening, we’re also dreaming, judging, filtering, placating, sparring, or mind reading. 

A good exercise to raise your own awareness of these blocks is to write a list of people with whom you regularly interact and identify what might be getting in the way. An example could be a customer who always asks the same question every time they come in. Perhaps the block is the customer doesn’t understand the answer the way you’re saying it. Is there another way you can give the answer? 

The keys to active listening are: 

• When the other person starts talking, be quiet 
• Don't interrupt, wait till they’re finished 
• Refrain from judging or criticizing 
• Take notes, if appropriate 
• Have eye contact 
• Listen for overtones 
• Limit your own talking 
• Think like the other person 
• Ask questions 
• Face the person with an open, relaxed posture 
• Concentrate 
• Prepare (are there some blocks I’m putting up?) 

The above suggestions are from the City of Houston sponsored webinar, “Becoming a Better Listener.” 

JO