Researching Your Ex-Slave Ancestor

Ancestry.com

Ex-Slave Pension Correspondence & Case Files
Many researchers of ex-slaves are unaware of the National Ex-Slave Mutual Relief, Bounty and Pension Association. They may have never heard of the Ex-slave Pension Club, the Ex-Slave Petitioner’s Assembly or of other ex-slave aid organizations.  However, a government investigation of these associations/organizations yielded records, correspondence and more dating between 1892 and 1922.  

What are These Files?

The Washington, D.C., Ex-Slave Pension Correspondence and Case Files include a collection of 8 Case files of the ex-slave pension movement which was modeled after the Civil War pension program for veterans.  Here is a full description of the collection: M2110. But, the following petition provides the best explanation of the mission.  

WHEREAS, Generation after generation of Colored people served this country as slaves for two hundred and forty-four years, or more and,

WHEREAS, This government owes the unknown and deceased Colored soldiers a large sum of money which is unclaimed, and,
WHEREAS, Many of these soldiers have brothers, fathers, mothers, and sisters among us, who are destitute and starving, and
WHEREAS, It is a precedent established by the patriots of this country to relieve its distressed citizens, both on land and sea, and millions of our deceased people, besides those who still survive, worked as slaves for the development of the great resources and wealth of this country, and,
 WHEREAS, We believe it just and right to grant the old ex-slave a pension 
THEREFORE, We the undersigned citizens of the United States of America, appeal to your Honorable Body to pass the Senate Bill, No. 1978, introduced, Feb. 6, 1896 by Senator Thurston of Nebraska, providing pension for Freedman, etc.

Researching These Files Before running to the online website, the researcher must know that although the almost 300 pages digitized on Ancestry.com is a good place to start (or NARA microfilm roll: M2110), DO NOT rely on the index tool to find mention of your ancestor. Some signatures and mentions of ex-slaves in the depositions have been overlooked or misspelled. 

 

Yet, a page by page scroll of this collection may uncover your ancestor and reveal information such as slave master, state and county of birth, and age.

Other Genealogical Data on Ex-Slaves

 
As these files were preserved as part of a federal investigation of fraud, within the Ex-Slave Pension Correspondence and Case Files depositions provide names, place of birth and residence of ex-slave ancestors. This deposition by I. H. Dickerson, a leader of the National Ex-Slave Mutual Relief, provides names of siblings, verifies his name slave name change, gives sisters’ married names and residence of family members, etc.

Certificate of Membership

Although each Ex-Slave Pension organization did not issue certificates, a few did. They provide a statement of : “I hereby testify that I was born a slave” followed by county (or city/county) and state.

Personal Letters

Through their fraud investigation, the US government also seized and archived many personal letters that involve the postmasters, townsmen, and leaders of the associations and recruitment flyers.

Although you can research these files by name, location, etc., I, once again, encourage the researcher to review each page.  
Kathleen Brandt
a3genealogy@gmail.com
Accurate, accessible answers

Plat Maps and Genealogy Research

Ohio Counties, Hamilton vs. Perry

Townships, Cities, Counties

To narrow our research we must take note of the county, city and township.  A good example is Reading township in Somerset, Ohio. A simple google search of Reading Ohio, takes you directly to Hamilton, County. In my case, this was the wrong Reading. Let’s not confuse Reading Ohio in Hamilton County (far south west side of Ohio) with Reading township in Somerset Ohio located in Perry County (east central).  Identifying the township will help you research your ancestor’s land plats and other genealogical records.

Reading Township in Somerset, OH.  Perry County

Using Plat/Parcel Maps
Some researchers look at land plats just to mark ancestors’ names. But they actually can give us so many additional genealogical hints: 1) Take note of the neighbors.  Our early immigrant ancestors often moved in clusters.  By noting their neighbors, you may find a migratory pattern, especially if they disappeared by the “next census.” This is when you should do a search on the full cluster to find your ancestor.  Another good reason to take note to the neighbors? They are often parents, sibilings or cousins. 2) Find Female Ancestors through Proximity. Often sons and daughters don’t move far. A tip to finding female family members is to check neighboring households.  Father’s often gave (or sold) land to son-in-laws, and so that missing daughter might be right next door. And son-in-laws may parcel out land for the wife’s family. Of course this is just a clue, you must research suspecting females to confirm parentage.  But, if you are looking for a Bridget  (like I was) there were two in the county; one living in the household right next to ‘ole Dad.  Voila! 3) Where Were Ancestors Between the Census. Speaking of “next census” land plats help us narrow spans between census, to determine when an ancestor settled in a new county.  The 1846 census identified my family and their 80 acres. Now I can further research the deeds, plus I know the township, range and section (Township 16, Range 16, Section 22).   

1846 Reading Plat Map: Township16; Range16; Section 22

4) Determine Topographical and Community Landmarks. One of my favorite purposes to look at plat/parcel maps is for assistance with pinpointing area churches, schools, etc.  It’s a great way to fill in the gaps of your ancestor’s daily life in any particular community. This 1875 Reading Township map verifies that my subject still owned the original 80 acres acquired by 1846.  

1875 Reading Township Parcel Map

This clue may also help the researcher narrow a death date.  Was the owner still living in 1875? Time to search the deeds.

Perry County Research
If you too are doing Perry County Research, a great place to start your search is at the Perry County Ohio US website.

Kathleen Brandt
a3genealogy@gmail.com

Flip-Pal Scanner President's Day Coupon

Coupon Through 22 Feb2012

About the Sketch Kit 

The Flip-Pal mobile scanner Sketch Kit allows you to annotate your photos or documents by drawing on the acrylic s heet with the included pen. You lay Sketch directly on top of what you want to scan, add dates, names and other notes right over the photo for example, then rescan without the Sketch. You’ll have two versions, one with important data and a clean version.

Here's the February President's Day coupon code for the Flip-Pal Sketch Kit. Good until 22 February 2012 or until supplies last. Order on Website - Shop.

Coupon Code: PDAYFPA 


When you purchase a Flip-Pal mobile scanner ($149.99), get a Flip-Pal mobile scanner Sketch Kit FREE (both items must be in your shopping cart) 

Coupon Code: PDAYCSA
When you purchase a Flip-Pal mobile scanner with Creative Suite Craft Edition DVD ($199.99), get a Flip-Pal mobile scanner Sketch Kit plus a package of Flip-Pal Window Protector Sheets FREE (all three items must be in your shopping cart) 

These Coupons are Good from February 15-22, 2012 (or while supplies last). 

Flip-Pal.com has become one of the most popular genealogists' tool especially at repositories that house originals. At a3Genealogy it is the scanner of choice in the field - Library of Congress, National Archives, State Archives - anywhere we need to reproduce originals. Secret: The mobile scanner is used to scan full size and oversize documents, like full newspaper page (not just photos).

The Flip-Pal is considered a flatbed scanner (in most repositories) and can be safely used with original documents. Perhaps this is why repositories that previously have not allowed scanners to be used in the past are now allowing the Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner.

Happy Shopping!
Kathleen Brandt

a3genealogy@gmail.com

Flip-Pal Affiliate: http://flip-pal.com/a3genealogy

Privacy Restrictions Keeping You From Research?

Yes, Actual book on Amazon.com

In the Name of Privacy

What do census records, voter’s registrations, and court dockets have in common? They all are sources exempt from the Privacy Act that can be referenced when searching for our ancestor’s vital records: birth, marriage, divorce and death.  Oh, and let’s not forget criminal records and professional and business licenses. They too are exempt from the Privacy Act.

In the name of privacy there are many access restrictions imposed by states, but the persistent family researcher may still uncover their ancestor’s vital records. The article Genealogy Research vs. Privacy Restrictions posted by Archives.com on 31 Jan 2012 gives the researcher a few options for ferreting our ancestor’s vital records when the Privacy Act gets in our way.

From State to State

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) policies of some federal and state repositories are often implemented in such a way that the “Freedom” part is buried in red tape. Privacy Act restrictions vary state to state and are implemented in the most creative ways. Restrictions of seventy five years seem to be favored by many states’ birth certificate access; as is fifty years for withholding death records.

And whereas some state and federal repositories have 50 or 75 year restrictions, others impose a 62 wait (i.e. Veteran’s service records). A few, like the Social Security FOIA now enforces a 100 year from birthdate (regardless of death date) restriction. If your ancestor had a 1912 birthdate, you can receive an unaltered social security documents this year. Later social security applications will be under the scrutiny of the agent who liberally uses a redaction tool to eliminate the useful information the family researcher is seeking.

Yet, privacy act implementations and restrictions should not prevent the family researcher from locating birth, marriage and death records. Plus, know that a few open states do exist. And others, like Pennsylvania, are becoming more genealogy-friendly, where access to birth, marriage divorce and death records is less of an obstacle course.

Kathleen Brandt

a3genealogy@gmail.com

Accurate, accessible answers  

Missouri State Sanatorium, Mt. Vernon

Did Your Ancestor Have Tuberculosis?
It’s not easy to imagine that our ancestor’s travelled a distance for health reasons. But tuberculosis was accompanied with the fear of rapid spreading. Isolation from the general public was necessary. To understand your ancestor’s removal from the household, you may need to understand the process of treating tuberculosis in the early 1900’s.

The Road to Better Health
According to the Missouri Rehabilitation Center website “a diagnosis of tuberculosis often meant impending death and the only known treatment for it was fresh air, sunshine, nutrition and bed rest. To keep the disease from spreading, patients were isolated from society.”

The website continues to explain the disappearance of our ancestors from the home. “Diagnosis of tuberculosis took six to eight weeks and because there were no medications to treat the disease, patients confined to the sanatorium spent months or years away from home. Reinfection was common and often necessitated a return to the hospital.

Drugs were developed in the 1950's that effectively controlled tuberculosis. Patients were able to go home sooner and were usually able to be treated in their local communities.”
http://www.muhealth.org/MRCHistory

With the control of tuberculosis, the Missouri State Sanatorium buildings were used for other services:

Sanborn Map, 1918

Here is a brief timeline of the institution’s name change:

Missouri State Sanatorium, 1907-1971

Missouri State Chest Hospital, 1971-1985

Missouri Rehabilitation Center, 1971-1985

University of Missouri Health Care, 1996-Present

Genealogical Data?

Genetic genealogy was not of importance before 2000 but researchers may find basic genealogical information such as: next of kin (emergency contact"), home address, occupation, age, etc. You may find additional information on his death certificate or in cemetery/funeral records.

By narrowing a date of hospital admission, you may be able to follow progress your ancestor's progress in the local (home)newspaper, especially if he lived in a small community.

Records and Searches

Early Missouri death certificates may note place of death as the Missouri State Tuberculosis Sanatorium in Mt. Vernon. Lawrence County. However this institution originally built for tuberculosis patients no longer exists, even though many of records still survive.  Today, associated with the University of Missouri School Medicine, the Sanatorium operates as the "Missouri State Rehabilitation Hospital" housing veterans and providing services.

The State Historical Society of Missouri in Columbia, Mo has a collection that researchers will not want to miss. The Stark, Lloyd Crow Papers, 1931-1941 has five folders of Sanatorium related documents:  

f. 761-792 State Hospital Number One, Missouri Sanatorium. Folder 791 has a list of employees and their rating

f. 943-994 Employment applications for positions at the State Sanatorium, Mt. Vernon, together with letters of recommendation. Folder 943 contains a list of employees.

Cemetery

The Old Sanatorium Cemetery interred patients as early as 1924. Here is an index of some of the burials: http://files.usgwarchives.net/mo/lawrence/cemeteries/sanitarm.txt

More photos
Visit the Missouri Digital Heritage website to see additional photos of the Sanitorium.

5 Tips to Reading (Outloud)

Beachum Papers and Letters
Itawamba Settler, Vol 31, No 4

Bane in Mississippi

Have you read your ancestor's personal letters? Deciphering some of these letters may depend on your knowledge of local speech patterns, dialect or accents. Up until today, I did not know bane meant anything other than poison. I looked it up in the Webster’s Dictionary and it also gave “woe” and “harm” as definitions and synonyms. However, none of these words reconciled the meaning of the paragraph above that was transcribed in the Itawamba Settlers, Vol 31, No 4.  (Note: I am a member of the Itawamba Historical Society. Itawamba is located in Mississippi and the society produces an informative newsletter, Itawamba Settlers). 

Here are a few tips to ease our experience of reading, defining and deciphering "new word in order to gain full comprehension of our ancestor's experiences. 

Tip 1: Phonetically - Read Outloud

We are accustomed to homonyms, so the occasional here vs. hear does not throw the reader for loop. We rarely take note.

However, if you are having trouble reading passages try pronouncing each letter. Usually a word will form.  Try it with the paragraph above.

Tip 2: Punctuation - Edit the Letter

Sometimes we have to reread a sentence for clarification, especially if punctuation is missing and there are 2-3 run-on thoughts and sentences without a discernible pause. Oh, I’m sure we can forgive the soldier on the battlefield if he didn’t take time to proof his letters.  Of course the periods may have been so lightly placed that they are no longer visible.  Well, that doesn’t explain the lack of capitalizing words to initiate a new sentence or thought.  But we can do it for him.

With pencil (and eraser) in hand capitalize letters, let's put in the punctuation to make concise sentences . By reading outloud and varying inflexion this can easily be accomplished.  Remember we are going for a clear thought, not necessarily excellent grammar.

Tip 3: Misspelled – Correct to Avoid Distractions

Some words are misspelled, but others must be vocalized for recognition. What I found interesting is words like “anxious” “cartridge” and “skirmish” were spelled correctly, but the following were among the ones misspelled:

seted = seated

helth = health

commcnsed = commenced

agane = again

thrue = thru

begane = began

I suggest we make a note of the correct spelling. This will ease the flow of the next read of this paragraph.

Tip 4: Apply Dialect - Speaking Bane

Voicing outloud aided me in determining “titust” was tightest. But it was the word bane, used four times in this paragraph and over a dozen in the entire letter that stumped me.

Surely those accustomed to Southern dialect deciphered it easier. But not until I tried it in a regional twang (as good of a Southern accent a Kansan could do), did I claim victory.

bane =been

(Well I knew he wasn’t referring to poison, woe or harm).

Tip 5: Analyze – Elements of Writing Style and Transcriber Errors

In analyzing personal letters it will behoove the reader to loosely apply the “elements of literature.”  Analyzing setting, speaker, and speech or diction will assist the reader in applying the correct meaning to a passage.  

“…I thought I had seen servis [military service?] before, but this has bane [been] a little the titust [tightest] of all.
I have ran some very narrow risk but have passed unhurt as yet. “

I’m left to wonder if the original is clearer. Would I have transcribed these sentences with the same outcome? Viewing the original will answer some of the question, but  this is what I have right now. And, we are grateful that the Itawamba Settlers printed this transcription of the Beachum Papers and Letters from their collection.

Kathleen Brandt

a3Genealogy@gmail.com

Accurate, accessible answers

Find A Case

Legal Records Hold Background Information
Of course as genealogists we know legal documents can reveal our ancestors’ social history, family relations, work environments and more. But have you actively searched for these legal documents. Find A Case search is an online holding of over 5.5 million legal cases. I did an inquiry for Harold Strader, my father and grandfather’s name on the Find A Case website.  And expecting nothing, I was quite surprised. The day of Pappo’s stroke was chronicled in Find A Case: Strader v. Kansas Public Employees Retirement System. This Kansas Supreme Court case detailed information on my Grandfather’s health, the day he had a stroke, where he worked and more. I never knew there was such a Kansas Supreme Court case.  

Find A Case includes court cases from a vast library of state and federal court records, including the U.S. Supreme Court, the Federal Circuit Courts, the Federal District Courts and all state appellate courts. Many of our libraries date back to 1930, with some dating back even further, like the U.S. Supreme Court which dates back to 1886.

All US Supreme Court cases may be found as early as 1886 the state of Florida State Appellate Courts date as early as 1910 and Montana 1925. There are many Federal Circuit Courts, and Federal District Courts that date as early as 1930. Even Puerto Rico court cases are included in the State Appellate section for cases dating after 1998.

I Was Four When He Had The Stroke!
All I can remember is the principal coming across the hall to the kindergarten room and asking me to take a phone call. I was 4 years old and it was 9 Sep 1965. Grandma explained that I needed to tell Daddy that Pappo was very sick. Daddy was to call immediately.

I attended kindergarten at the same school that my father taught 5th grade. Brother Lance was in first grade down the hall.  And Daddy was upstairs (that’s where they taught the big kids).

I hung up the phone and walked quickly (running not allowed) to my father’s classroom. He was teaching Math at the time. His back was towards me, and all the big 5th graders stared at me when I entered the room. It was hot, the windows were opened and it stunk.  Grant Elementary, an all black school, was down-wind from the slaughterhouse.  

Daddy rescued me from my paralyzed state at his classroom door, and picked me up.  I remember feeling safe but having difficulty giving the message. I concentrated. Grandma said it was VERY important and she had repeated it twice on the phone. I was in Kindergarten and a big girl.  Plus Lance would tease me if I got it all wrong. He was mad I got to go to kindergarten at the age of four. He had to wait until six.

I stumbled over the message, but managed to get out that Pappo was VERY sick and Daddy was to call Grandma immediately. Lyons Kansas still had a pseudo party line, so finding Grandma wasn’t an issue I imagine. I don’t remember writing down a phone number. But I do remember relating that Pappo was at the hospital.

Daddy was proud of me, but he took Lance and me out of school. We picked up Mama in the Dodge Dart from Northeast Jr. High School where she taught, and we went home, and got the “little boys” Baby Rhett was only 12 weeks old. The next few hours were hectic: suitcases diaper changing, and then the long ride to Lyons, KS.  Grandpa had had a massive stroke.

I don’t remember Grandpa before the stroke. I remember sitting in the parking lot holding the baby while my parents went into the hospital. I remember Todd hanging out the car window trying to get us all into trouble. He was only 2.5 but already misbehaving. I didn’t get into trouble, but Lance and Todd did.

Grandpa was paralyzed on his left side but was able to regain his speech. He was left handed so I only knew him to have horrific handwriting using his right hand. His car was a stick shift, and he put a ball on the steering wheel so he could drive it. Sometimes his reflexes were slow, so by the time he shifted the gears and regained the steering wheel ball, we were heading towards the middle of the street. But it was the one sheriff town of Lyons Kansas. Pappo died in 1994.

The day of his stroke was chronicled in Find A Case: Strader v. Kansas Public Employees Retirement System. I never knew there was such a Kansas Supreme Court case.

Kathleen Brandt
a3genealogy@gmail.com
Accurate, accessible answers