The 'Brick Wall Box'

Today at our Sept meeting Bob Weaver started a project called "The Brick Wall Box."  Anyone who is "stuck" whether it is a real brick wall or you just need some help and advice.  Look for this little red box on top of the file cabinet behind the Gen Room desk.  Take a form, fill it out with your problem.  Give us enough information to identify the person you're stuck on.  Give full names, years of birth and death and dates and places where they lived and as much additional information as you have.  One of our volunteers will take your request, investigate it and let you know what we recommend as a course of action.

You can also eMail your brick wall to roots.branches.volusia@gmail.com

Be sure to leave your contact information, preferably an email address.  We'll do everything we can.

Jerry

September meeting

We had a great meeting yesterday.  The lesson by Rosemary Sutton was standing room only and the general meeting was packed.  Kim Dolce gave a good presentation about the newspapers available on the VCPL web site.  She had a handout for everyone which I will put on our web site as soon as I can.  The minutes of the board meeting and minutes of the general meeting will also be posted ASAP.

The Fall 2012 newsletter is finished.  Linda Williamson has proof read it and I have some corrections to make then we'll get it out.

There were several visitors present and several took membership applications.

There was hesitation to pay a years dues when we're nearly in the fourth quarter.  Perhaps we should allow new members to have their membership begin in the new year after a certain date.  What do you think?

Jerry
                                                                   Kim Dolce

                                                                The general meeting.

Most Esteemed Ancestor Contest

R&B Members;

I just received a message from Howard Fisher.  So far he has received NO entries to this contest.  We asked Howard to take this on, now it is our responsibility to participate in this contest.

Please sit down and write up an entry.  Tell us who your most esteemed ancestor is in 500 words or less.

You can bring it to the meeting on the 16th or eMail it to Howard (Esteemed Ancestor@howardfisher.com) or bring it in or mail it to the Gen Room (131 East Howry Ave, DeLand 32724-0612 Attn: R&B Gen Soc.)

The prizes are $100 first place, $50 second place and $25 third place.  It's really pretty easy money and will be fun.

The deadline for submission is November 15th, plenty of time to write an entry.

FOLD3 from Kim Dolce

Fm: Kim Dolce

5 Sept 2012

Hello;

 

You may or may know that Volusia County Public Libraries recently added Fold3 to its list of databases.  Fold3, formerly Footnote, is a combination of genealogy and history sources, and it can be accessed from home as well as in the library.  I'm attaching the press release here and hoping you can share it with your genealogy societies.

 

Thanks!

 

Kim E. Dolce
Genealogy/Reference Librarian
Daytona Beach Regional Library
105 E. Magnolia Ave.
Daytona Beach, FL
386-257-6036 ext. 16315
kdolce@co.volusia.fl.us

New historical and genealogical databases available at

Volusia County public libraries

The Volusia County Public Library has added Fold3 History and Genealogy Archives Plus and The Holocaust Archives to its online eResources.

Fold3 combines an unprecedented collection of original historical documents and personal histories including convenient access to US military records. Included is access to several special collections, including the African American Archives, American Revolution Archives, Native American Archives, US Bureau of Investigation Case File Archives, and World War II Archives.  Another addition is the Holocaust Collection. Through their partnership with the National Archives, Fold3 has scanned and indexed valuable records that tell the story of the Holocaust. Patrons can explore everything from Holocaust assets to death camp records to interrogation reports to the Nuremburg trials.

Library card holders can access these and other databases at: www.volusialibrary.org/VCPLeresources.html Learn more about the library system at www.volusialibrary.org, or by contacting your local branch.

2013 Speakers

2013 TENTATIVE SPEAKER SCHEDULE

It will be a great year, here are some of the great speakers Bob & Carol have scheduled

This schedule may change, we'll keep you updated.

Here is the present listing of speakers and topics for the Jan thru April meetings for 2013.

Date               Speaker                      Topic
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1-20-13    Louise Caccamise          History of DeLand Street Names

2-17-13    Ann Staley                        Overlooked Research Sources:
                                                                   A Gold Mine To be Discovered

3-17-13    George Morgan               Alternate Records You May
                                                                   Never Have Considered

4-21-13    Barbara Costello              Historical and Genealogical
                                                                   Treasures in the Government
                                                                   Documents at the Stetson
                                                                   DuPont-Ball Library.

                                                                   Note: Barbara is the Government
                                                                   Documents/Research Librarian at
                                                                   Stetson University.

Online Census

Once again I've learned not to stop with a census search on Ancestry.  I was looking for the Roger Tolles family.   Roger appears in the 1820 Census in Phelps Twp., Ontario County, New York.  He is said to have died "when Charles was only 7" so about 1830.

Ancestry doesn't find him in any other census.  His wife was Mariah Dean so, if Roger died  before the 1830 census she should appear with the children, probaly near by.  

Searching for Mariah Tolles with every imaginable variation of the spelling of Tolles doesn't get a hit at all on Ancestry and Heritage Quest has no index for 1830 but I know she must have been there.

Going to the printed index for the 1830 New York Census (available in the Gen Room) I find a Mariah Toles with this listing in the index:  TOLES, MARIAH   YA_ES  314   BENTON.  I remember that her son Henry had married in Penn Yan, Yates County, New York in 1848.  This must surely be her.

So, how to get to the actual census page?  Heritage Quest Online has the entire census from 1790 to 1930.  It is much like microfilm, no index, just crank through and hope you find something before your eyes blur over.  There is, however an option to SEARCH BY PAGE NUMBER.  Great, page 314.

Big snag, they want a roll number before you can enter the page.  Roll number is not provided by the printed index.

Here's how to get around the problem:  Selecting BROWSE and filling in the date, 1830, state, New York, County, Yates and location, Benton takes you to the first page of the Benton census and provides this: Series: M19 Roll 117 Page 291. Now, with the roll number go back to SEARCH BY PAGE NUMBER.  Enter the date, the roll number and page 314 from the printed index.

There it is.  One more clue to the Tolles family.  She is shown age 30-40 with six children, 3 girls and 3 boys.  This pretty much confirms Roger's death as before 1830.   The question, what happened to the 6 children from Roger's first marriage?

I pick Mariah (aka Ara Mariah) up again in the 1850 Census living with her daughter Harriet (Tolles) Morrow in Pulteney, Steuben County, NY then the whole family moves to Indiana.

Big surprise.  Both Mariah and Roger are listed in the  "Cemeteries of Steuben County Indiana" as being buried in the Circle Hill Cemetery, Angola, Indiana, Sec 7 Lot 14.

How this is possible I do not know.

On to the next hill ;-)   If this was easy it wouldn't be any fun.

Jerry

Western New York old newspapers

You may have seen the information about the Fulton NY web site that has old newspapers.  There are over 19,648,000 pages in their collection.   Both Esther Gould and Pete Harrington have mentioned it and I put it in the news letter a while back.  I myself didn't pay much attention until last night.

I'm researching Dr. Roger B. Tolles, trying to find who his father was so I can link him to all of the Tolles mentioned in Donald Lines Jacobus' "Families of Ancient New Haven".  It as been an impossible task so far. Many people have entered information on the www that is undocumented and much of it demonstrably false.

To facilitate my search I drew up a time line then went to Google Maps and cut and pasted until I had a map that showed all of the places I knew Roger and his family had been.   Those places included the Western NY counties of Genessee, Ontario, Yates and Steuben.

Nearby Oswego county caught my eye as one of my own lines lived there before they migrated west.  My eye wandered over the map of Oswego and there was Fulton!  Hmmmm, not far from the area I am searching, I remembered the Fulton site that Esther talked about.

How fortunate that I remembered that site.  It is a wonderful resource.  I found small mentions of my Dr. Roger B. Tolles in Geneva NY Gazette 1818-1823 and Geneva NY Gazette Advertiser 1829-1832. Nothing that broke down the wall but additional clues to establish that this man actually lived and worked in the area.  I was afraid, until now, that he was a ghost.  I would have loved to have found an obituary but haven't given up hope.

I was impressed enough with the site that I made a small donation via Pay Pal and have left a note for my daughter to donate some of my many external hard drives for their use "when I don't need them any more" (as my Grandmother used to say.)

Newspapers are becoming more and more available.  Most are on subscriptions sites but every now and then one encounters an obscure site like this that provides the service FREE.

Hopefully, as time goes on, the subscription sites will "merge" until we have just one or two sites and only one subscription fee with access to all digital newspapers.  It is beginning with Ancestry's purchase of Archives.com.  Some see this as ominous, I think it is inevitable and will benefit researchers.

So don't overlook old newspapers, Google has many, Chronicling America (Library of Congress) has many, including many of the DeLand papers.  

Florida Online Historical Newspapers lists all FL papers available from various  sources.
https://sites.google.com/site/onlinenewspapersite/Home/usa/fl

And, if you have family in Western New York go to Old Fulton NY Post Cards http://fultonhistory.com/Fulton.html  and search their collection.

Jerry