Same blog, new look!

I'm very excited to re-launch Talking Box Genealogy!  TBG now has a new look and a new home at http://talkingboxgenealogy.com/.  Please update your bookmarks to reflect my new address.  RSS feeds can be updated by using http://talkingboxgenealogy.com/feed/.  No more posts will be added to this blog so please direct all future interactions to http://talkingboxgenealogy.com/.  Thanks for stopping by!

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: #2 - Shirley Bowlby

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Shirley Bowlby

We're getting some freezing rain in Kansas City this weekend so I decided to post another catch up for the 52 Ancestors challenge.  Today I'm hightlighting my husband's maternal grandmother.

Some basic facts:
Name: Shirley Bowlby
Born: 25 January 1924
Parents: Sherry Victor Bowlby and Gertrude Viola (Warren) Bowlby
Spouse: Earl Leslie Nickell
Marriage: Date Unknown
Died: April 1982

Shirley was born 25 January 1924.  She was born to Sherry Victor Bowlby and Gertrude Viola (Warren) Bowlby.  She married Earl Leslie Nickell sometime before 1943.  Earl and Shirley had children but in the interest of privacy I won't list their information.

I suspect Shirley lived most of her life in Kansas.  I believe she was born near Wichita, Sedgwick, Kansas because she's listed on the 1930 census with her parents at the age of eight in Wichita, Sedgwick, Kansas.

Bowlby family listing in the 1930 U.S. Census

And then again at the age of sixteen in Clark County, Kansas.

Bowlby family listing in the 1940 U.S. Census

Shirley died in April 1982.  She's buried next to her husband, Earl, in Resthaven Cemetery in Wichita, Sedgwick, Kansas.

Shirley A. Bowlby Tombstone
Resthaven Cemetery in Wichita, Sedgwick, Kansas

I don't have much more information than that on Shirley.  Here's my genealogy list for Shirley:

Have:

• 1930 U.S. Census
• 1940 U.S. Census
• Find-A-Grave Listing

Need:

• Birth Certificate
• Death Certificate
• Marriage Certificate
• Check for appearance in Kansas State Census'

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Earl Leslie Nickell

I’m a little behind on the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge but I’m going to jump in with ancestor #1 and play catch up.  This week I'm highlighting my husband's maternal grandfather.

Some basic facts:

Name: Earl Leslie Nickell

Born: 24 July 1918

Parents: Delbert A. Nickell and Allie (Maiden Name Unknown) Nickell

Spouse: Shirley Bowlby

Marriage: Date Unknown

Died: November 1965

Earl was born 24 July 1918.  World War I was raging in Europe though, unknown to most of the world, it would end in a few months.  He was born to Delbert A. Nickell and Allie (Maiden Name Unknown) Nickell.  He married Shirley A. Bowlby sometime before 1943.  Earl and Shirley had children but in the interest of privacy I won’t list their information.

Earl lived most of his life in Kansas.  I believe he was born near Long Island, Phillips, Kansas because he’s listed on the 1920 census with his family at the age of one in Long Island, Phillips, Kansas.

1920 U.S. Census for Delbert Nickell and family

Earl served in the military during World War II.  His enlistment date is shown as 4 November 1943 and enlistment location was Denver, Colorado.  From his enlistment record on Ancestry.com I can see that he completed four years of high school and was skilled in woodworking occupations.

Earl died in November 1965.  He’s buried next to his wife, Shirley, in Resthaven Cemetery in Wichita, Sedgwick, Kansas.

Earl L. and Shirley A. Nickell Tombstone
Located in Resthaven Cemetery in
Wichita, Sedgwick, Kansas

I don’t have much more information than that on Earl.  Here’s my genealogy list for Earl:

Have:

• 1930 U.S. Census 
• 1920 U.S. Census
• Listing from U.S. World War II Enlistment Records from Ancestry.com 
• 1925 Kansas State Census
• Find-A-Grave Listing 
• 1940 U.S. Census

Need:

• Birth Certificate 
• Death Certificate
• Marriage Certificate

Challenge Accepted: 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Challenge Accepted!

 

I’m a member of several different genealogy groups on FaceBook.  You might not normally think of FaceBook for genealogy but it’s a great platform for communicating with other genealogists!  While browsing the posts of the Genealogy Bloggers group, I ran across a post from one of the members talking about this blog challenge she was going to join called 52Ancestors in 52 Weeks.  Someone else had linked to their blog in the comments and I wandered over to her blog and found the link to the original poster’s challenge post.

The premise of the challenge is to have a weekly blog post devoted to a specific ancestor.  The post can contain anything: a research problem, photograph, stories or a combination of anything focusing on that ancestor.  And it’s not just limited to blogs!  In her challenge post on No Story Too Small, Amy Johnson Crow encourages people who don’t have blogs to post on FaceBook, send an email to family members, write something in a journal or anywhere else for that matter.

After reading some of the blog posts I was inspired to participate in this challenge.  My "blog fodder" for 52 Ancestors is going to be my husband's family, who I've just begun researching.  I'm excited to be participating in the 52 Ancestors challenge.  Why don't you take the plunge and join me?  Anyone can participate in the fun!

A New Year

After a taking a brief hiatus from blogging for the holiday season I decided a good first post for 2014 would be a review of accomplishments for 2013 and a list of goals for 2014.

I was very excited to get back into working on my genealogy in 2013 after several years of not working on it.  In March I attended the Genealogy KC conference and attended some fantastic sessions on subjects ranging from brick walls to DAR genealogy.  After attending that conference and talking to my mother about what I learned, she mentioned that we should be able to join DAR and that lit my fire.  I began researching DAR chapters, located the patriot I could connect to, chose a DAR chapter to work with and began the process of proving my lineage to Guian McKee.

In June I married my husband.  D1 has not only been tolerant of my genealogical craziness but he's encouraged me every step of the way, from getting paperwork for my DAR application to traipsing through cemeteries to take pictures of unknown gravestones for Find-A-Grave to stopping at out of the way cemeteries to just walk through and look at the old tombstones.

In July I took the big leap and started TBG.  It's been a lot of fun writing about different genealogy items.  It wasn't a goal of mine in 2013 to start a blog but it's definitely been an accomplishment.

My big accomplishment for 2013 was completing my application for the Daughter's of the American Revolution.  I'm very excited about having made my goal of completing the application, obtaining all the required documentation and submitting it to the chapter I selected by the end of 2013.  I'm currently awaiting a response from National about the acceptance of my paperwork!

Looking forward to 2014, here's a list of the things I hope to accomplish:

• Continue the research I've begun on D1's family and start collecting proof of lineage (on a side note, it's pretty amusing to me that I discovered D1 and I share a common ancestor around 8 generations back, LOL!)
• Once my application to DAR has been accepted, start work on adding one additional patriot to my file, submitting paperwork for the additional paperwork by the end of 2014.
• After acceptance of my DAR application, obtain my first DAR pin.
• Make a genealogy trip to Danville, Illinois to see the grave of my third great-grandfather and visit the genealogy library to see if I can find any information on my family there.
• Make a trip to North Dakota to visit family and obtain more genealogy information on my paternal family.
• Increase my participation in the Billion Graves transcription project.
• Get a new copy of my great-grandmother's obituary
• Get the genealogy document hard copies sitting in piles around my house organized.
• Print and organize all electronic copies of genealogy documentation
• Finish attaching electronic copies of records to applicable persons in my genealogy database.

Wow, that's a large list.  I realize I probably won't get all of that accomplished but if you can't shoot for the stars, why bother right?

I hope all my wonderful readers and followers are having a great year so far.  Tell me, what's on your genealogical to-do list this year?

Genealogy Basics: The 1910 Census

Continuing our recent discussion on census records, today we're looking at the 1910 census.  The 1910 census was enumerated beginning 15 April 1910.  Let's look at the actual census record to see what information can be extracted from this census.  Using my great-grandpa Edward's census listing, let's look at what can be discovered about his family:

1910 Census record for Edward Bell Conwell, Sr. and family

Edward B. Conwell, Sr. is listed here with his wife, Zella, and children Edward B., Milford, Mildred and Frank.  Breaking the census listing down into three parts will help us view the information a little easier:

Section #1 of Edward Bell Conwell, Sr. and family 1910 census record

The first two columns are not numbered but they contain information on the abode:

• Street, avenue, road, etc. (name)
• House number (in cities or towns)

Columns #1-#2 contain additional information on the abode:

• Number of dwelling house in order of visitation
• Number of family in order of visitation

I see that Edward and his family are living on Cyprus Avenue (the street name got partially cut off but it does say Cyprus Avenue).  So this is another address that I can go look up to see if the house is still standing.  Add that to my list of genealogy things to do.

Column #3 is the name of each person whose place of abode on April 15, 1910, was in this family (surname first, then first name and middle initial if there is one) and column #4 is the relationship of the person to the head of the family:

• Conwell, Edward B. - head
• Conwell, Zella - wife
• Conwell, Edna M. - daughter
• Conwell, Edward B. - son
• Conwell, Milford R. - son
• Conwell, Mildred A. - daughter
• McCabe, Sarah A. - mother-in-law

Columns #5-#11 are personal description data:

• Sex
• Color or race
• Age at last birthday
• Whether single, married, widowed or divorced
• Number of years of present marriage
• Mother of how many children: Number born
• Mother of how many children: Number now living

This is pretty self-explanatory information, though it does bear mentioning that at this time Edward was 41 (Zella's age on this census is unreadable), married to Zella for 10 years and they had a total of six children, with four still living.  This tells me I need to look for some deceased children prior to 1910.  Using earlier census records will help me narrow down the years I need to check for those children.  Sarah's number of children is also listed so I know she had six but the number still living is unreadable.

Great information to get off this census is the age at last birthday, their marital status and number of years of present marriage, the number of children born and number now living.

Moving on to part #2 of the census record:

Section #2 of Edward Bell Conwell, Sr. and family 1910 census record

 
Columns #12-#14 are nativity information:

• Place of birth of this person
• Place of birth of father of this person
• Place of birth of mother of this person

This is also really great information because, if I didn't already have places of birth for each person and their parents, this census provides it.  Keep in mind this information is only as good as (1) the person giving the information and (2) the person writing the information down.  But it gives you a clue where to look.

This census enumerator has taken the time to list each person's birth location and the birth locations of their parents (as provided by the person providing the census information).  As you can see, everyone was U.S. born and most were born in the Midwest in either Kansas, Missouri, Illinois or Ohio. 

Columns #15-#16 are citizenship information:

• Year of immigration to the United States
• Whether naturalized or alien 

Again, by this time all my family was U.S. born so none of these columns apply.

Column #17 is whether the person is able to speak English or not and if they were not English speaking, the enumerator was asked to list what language they spoke.  The entire family was able to speak English.

Moving on to part #3 of the census record:

Section #3 of Edward Bell Conwell, Sr. and family 1910 census record

 
Columns #18-#22 are occupation information:

• Trade, profession, or particular kind of work done as spinner, salesman, laborer, etc.
• General nature of industry, business, or establishment in which the person works, as cotton mill, dry goods store, farm, etc.
• Whether employer, employee or working on own account
• If an employee: Whether out of work on April 15, 1910
• If an employee: Number of weeks out of work during the year 1909  

From this we can see that Edward Sr. was working but his trade and industry are mostly unreadable.  I'm going to have to see if I can find a better copy somewhere.  Great-great grandma Sarah was working as a laundress for a private family.  They were both working on their own account.  Neither one was out of work as of the enumeration date and neither was out of work during 1909.

Columns #23-#25 are education information:

• Whether able to read
• Whether able to write
• Attended school any time since September 1, 1909

Edward Sr. and Zella are the only ones listed as being able to read and write.  Their daughter, Edna, is the only one listed as having attended school that year.

Columns #26-#29 are ownership of home information:

• Owned or rented
• Owned free or mortgaged
• Farm or house
• Number of farm schedule

I'm somewhat disappointed that there's no information listed in these columns for Edward and his family.  I have no idea if they rented or owned their home in 1910.

The last three columns are kind of interesting bits of information:

• Column #31: Whether a survivor of the Union or Confederate Army or Navy
• Column #32: Whether blind (both eyes)
• Column #33: Whether deaf and dumb

I didn't expect to see any information in these columns for my family honestly.  I know none of the last columns applied to any of them but column #31 (Union/Confederate military survivor) is great information for genealogists since it gives a clue to military service.

The 1910 census can contain some great information for genealogists.  There are several ways to access the census records, from using Ancestry.com (if you don't have a paid subscription to Ancestry, check out your local library or Family History Center for free usage opportunities) for indexed images to using some of the non-indexed sites and paging thru the census record pages one by one.  I prefer the indexed version, however, going through page by page can wield treasures of its own.  Additional family members have been discovered in this manner and it can also give you a picture of who was living around your ancestor.

Next week: the 1900 census!