Week 21: Yearbooks - Fort Leonard Wood Army Training Center

      Yearbooks are a fantastic source for locating pictures of your ancestors and learning more about a particular time in their lives. I have all my yearbooks from when I was in school from my Elementary years up to High School. I also have my parents' yearbooks in my collection now. Ancestry.com has been growing its yearbook collection as well and, thanks to them, I've been able to download many copies of ancestors' yearbooks. But there is a collection that I haven't found anywhere else as of yet. And this prompt is giving me the perfect opportunity to announce a project I've been working on as well.

    One yearbook I inherited that was in my dad's collection was his Fort Leonard Wood Army Training Center Yearbook from when he attended. He went through the training center in preparation for Vietnam. I remembered going through it with him one time before he had passed. He said they were stock yearbooks in which a section was added that included their photos. It still gave me an insight into the training he went through while attending the Army Training Center.

    Fast forward to last year when I went to the South County Antique Mall. I had a specific item I was looking for in the book sections when I came across the cover of a yearbook I was very familiar with. It was a Fort Leonard Wood Army Training Center yearbook. Granted it was from a different year, but it still resembled my dad's yearbook. I was so shocked anyone would sell their relative's yearbook. Soon after, I found more yearbooks from Fort Leonard Wood. My mind just couldn't process this. Do you know how many people I've seen post on the internet wishing they had their Father's yearbook or even just a photograph? That's when I came up with an idea.

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Read my blog post

Antique Malls and Fort Leonard Wood Yearbooks

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    After searching online, I have yet to find a Fort Leonard Wood Training Center Yearbook collection on websites like Fold 3 and Ancestry. I know every day more and more collections are being digitized and added to their sites, but they are usually behind a paywall. I wanted to make these yearbooks available to anyone and everyone. So that's why I would like to share the website I created just for these yearbooks.

www.FtLeonardWoodYearbooks.com

    This website is a collection of yearbook pages containing graduates from Fort Leonard Wood Army Training Center in Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. The years included will be 1959-1967. The focus will mainly be on the Vietnam War era. Please visit my site to learn more about this project.

    I am still working on getting the yearbook pages added that I have in my collection. It is very time-consuming typing all the names into the site and scanning the pages for viewing. My goal is to make this site searchable for anyone who visits which is why I am typing each name individually into the site. That way the search engine will pick up the names. That will be the last task I will work on, but for now, you can go to each yearbook and use Ctrl + F to search for a name. 

    If you have any suggestions, please let me know. I want this site to be as user-friendly as possible. I am also hoping to grow my collection very soon. I will be on the lookout for more yearbooks when I start going to yard sales, estate sales, and antique malls. 

This project is dedicated to my Dad and all those soldiers who fought in Vietnam. May their sacrifices never be forgotten.

SSG Dennis G. Fuchs

Week 18: Social

     When I think of the word "social", the first ancestor that comes to mind is my grandma, Ruth Wheeler. She was a very social person. She belonged to many organizations and groups that required quite a bit of socializing. I can't even begin to name all the organizations she was a member of (mostly cause I don't know all of them haha). But there was one group that she was a part of that I participated in every once in a while. Card Parties.

Me and my Grandma

    Yes, you read that right. Card Parties. What's that you ask? It's a gathering of a group where they play cards all day. Playing cards was a very popular pastime. It still is in some circles, but it was something women (majority of the time) would do during the day (in the 50s and 60s) while the men were at work. Ex. Bridge Club. But playing cards to pass the time has been around since the early 19th century.

    If my memory serves me correctly, my grandma's group would get together for big card parties once a year. They would rent out a hall, set up tables everywhere for the members to play cards, serve food, and even have door prizes and raffles. Those were my favorites. I would scan the tables of prizes to see what I would pick if and when my number would be called. Mom and grandma would give me (and my friend if I brought one) their door prize tickets as well. I know what you are thinking. That the prizes were the only reason I attended these card parties. Well, you would be very wrong. 

    Believe it or not, I loved playing cards from a young age. Especially Canasta. That was my game of choice. My mom and grandma taught me how to play so we could have great times when we would visit my grandma. Grandma loved playing cards. Especially Gin Rummy and Bridge. I have to admit, I never got the hang of bridge. But Canasta, oh I would go nuts over. We would go and stay with my grandma overnight (or for a weekend) and we would spend hours playing Canasta and eating Cecil Whitikers Pizza. Great times!

Canasta
Source: Wikipedia

    So when grandma started inviting Mom and me to her card parties, I was THRILLED! We would sit for the whole day playing Canasta. Grandma got to socialize with all her friends too. The ladies loved having a younger generation in the group that enjoyed playing cards just as much as they did. It shocked many of them when they learned I knew how to play Canasta and was good! Some of the ladies would even give us their door prizes just because. I wish I could remember the ladies my grandma introduced me to though. And I wish I had pictures from the card parties we attended.

    It became more fun when I taught my best friend Crystal how to play. Now there were four of us! She would come and stay at my grandma's with us and she would even go with us to card parties as well! I miss those days so much. Going to visit grandma and go to her card parties. They were such a great social event. I looked forward to them every year. 

    I do have one item that I won from one of the raffles they had. It is a rug that my grandma had made. She told me I should pick something I wanted, and I did. I wanted that rug. One, it was pretty, and two, my grandma had made it. Even then, I was a very sentimental person. That small rug is packed away at the moment, mostly because I don't know where to put it. But maybe one day I will get it out.

Great times. Great memories. I did teach my husband how to play Canasta so every once in a while we will play. I beat every time. Well, almost every time. He did beat me once. Haha! We did play once with his parents. And I never realized how much of a shark his mom is haha! She is excellent at Canasta. Beat the pants off me for sure.

    Card parties were a great social event. Did you ever attend a card party? Do you know how to play Canasta? Oh, you just became my new best friend haha!

Week 17: Document

     I really struggled with this prompt. It is such a simple prompt, but because of all the different possible avenues to take, I got tripped up. Nothing immediately stood out. Then it hit me. Why not write about what I am working on right now; which includes many documents. Perfect.

    I am currently in the process of digitizing a box of documents that belonged to my mom and dad. Something you might not think about digitizing. And more than likely, it's not in your collection anyway. What's that you ask? Tax documents. I know what you are thinking. Why wouldn't I digitize tax documents? Well, most of the time, people do not keep copies of their taxes past 10 years, or even less. Why would you? There is no need for them anymore. That's why I said it probably wouldn't even be in your collection anyway. Well, when it comes to my parents, as I've stated in the past, they don't get rid of ANYTHING!

    When I cleaned out my dad's filing cabinet, one whole drawer had tax returns going back to the early 1980s. I pulled them all out of the drawer and put them in a box to go through later. Later was a few months ago. As I started going through the envelopes, not only did I find their tax returns, I found receipts, canceled checks, notes, and more. Details about their lives for that year. Do you know how much information you can glean from these? It was at that moment that I decided to save the box to digitize. As much as I'd like to keep the originals, I just don't have room. So here I am now. Digitizing my parents' tax returns.

Receipts from 1985

    I will be writing another blog post later talking about the information you can learn from these documents. Some obvious facts and some not-so-obvious facts. And as the years went on, the requirements changed. As we get more currently, there are fewer and fewer extra documents. As I stated, some of the envelopes had returned checks. I scanned each one. It may be overkill, but I would rather do the extra work now than regret not doing it later. 

Drug Store Receipt
Jennifer Fuchs - 1985

    It is fun looking through receipts and such from when I was just a baby. Trying to learn more about my parents and their struggles trying to make ends meet. There were even medical receipts in these envelopes. I took the time to convert the income figure to today's amount to understand more. 

    So that's what I am currently working on. Pouring through many documents. Digitizing. Analyzing. Reminiscing. Definitely keeps me busy. I've been laid up with some health issues, so this works. What kind of documents are you going through right now?

Week 16: Negatives

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Week 16
There are some negatives to family history... Discovering something "negative" about an ancestor, not finding what you were expecting, and even film negatives. This week, explore one of those negatives. Maybe it will turn into a positive!

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    Negatives are a thing of the past ever since everything went digital. No more having to wait to see if that photo turned out right. No more having to wait for a professional photo studio to make copies of your photos. No more waiting in general for your photos. I grew up with negatives so I'm very familiar with them. I even took a photography class my senior year in high school where I learned how to develop negatives and how to print my own photos. There are generations rising up that have no clue what negatives are.

negatives (noun): a photographic image made on film or specially prepared glass that shows the light and shade or color values reversed from the original, and from which positive prints can be made. Oxford Dictionary

    While going through my parents' basement, I have come across boxes of photos that include negatives. If you come across negatives in your ancestors' collections, DO NOT THROW THEM AWAY. Take some time and review the negatives. I've talked about viewing the negatives in a previous post.

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Read the post here:

Photos Scanned From Negatives

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Why should you keep the negatives?
    Believe it or not, there are a few things you can learn from the negatives. Even if you have examined the negatives & have seen you already have copies of these photos, do not get rid of them. At least not just yet. Do you have photos that you have no clue who is in them or where they were taken? Then read on.

Different types of negatives you might find

    When I was going through the negatives, I noticed photos I knew were in my collection as I have already gone through my parents' photos and attempted to organize them. But there were a few stray photos I had no idea where to put them. Who are these people? When were these taken? Where was this taken?

    Depending on the year the photos were taken, the negatives will either be individuals or in strips. If they are in strips, that is helpful with piecing together other photos. Because if a photo is next to another photo on the strip, then you know it was taken on the same roll of film, more than likely on the same day, for the same event. That came in handy when I found a picture of a turkey sitting in a kitchen on the same film strip as my grandparents. So I knew that photo was taken the same day.
    For individual negatives, that will be more tricky if they are spread out in a box. I got lucky because I found the original envelopes that the photos were put in after being developed. The photos were no longer in the envelope, but the negatives were. I was then able to piece together what photos went together. One was a gathering in my grandma's backyard. I was able to take all those photos and put them together in a group.

    Of course, the obvious next reason to keep the negatives is there may be photos on them that you don't have or have never seen. There were a couple photos I already had copies of, but on some negatives were photos I did not have in my collection. I was able to take a picture of the negative using the method I discussed in the blog post I shared above. 

    If you are having trouble figuring out the year or type of negative you have, check out this website I found that shows the different kinds of negatives that were available, the cameras that used those negatives, and the years they were manufactured.

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Guide to Negative Film & Camera Formats

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Now What?
   After you have scanned the negatives, checked the negatives, and learned everything you can about them, what should you do? I am a big supporter of keeping the old negatives just in case. It's like having an extra backup. But if you keep them, you need to make sure they are kept safe.

    The best way to keep them safe is to store them in archival-quality materials. You can order them from many online retailers. Place them in archive quality sleeves and then in archive boxes. Melissa Barker, The Archive Lady, talks more in-depth about this on the link below.

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The Archive Lady: Preserving Photo Negatives

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    What kind of negatives do you have in your collection? Have you checked them out yet? Have you made any discoveries going through them? Share them in the comments below. I'd love to hear about them. 

Week 15: How Do You Spell That?

     I can't tell you how many times my last name has been misspelled in my life. Both married and maiden! Most of the time people don't even ask "How Do You Spell That?" but just assume they know. I've made it a habit of spelling my maiden name every time someone asks for it to hopefully eliminate any confusion. Yeah, that still doesn't always work.
    As we do genealogy research, we will constantly come across surnames that were spelled in many different ways. Either because it was misheard, or the family was illiterate and couldn't spell to begin with. When I first started, I stuck with the belief if it wasn't spelled it was supposed to be, they weren't family. Yeah, that didn't get me far in my research. I've since learned that I have to be flexible with the spelling and prove the family connection by other means. So these are some of the most commonly misspelled surnames in my family.

Fuchs

    My maiden name is Fuchs. It is of German origin and is usually pronounced like "fyooks"; although I grew up pronouncing it a different way: "fyoosh". I have no idea why we did that or how it got started, but it must have at least come from my Great-grandfather, Michael Fuchs because my grandpa, George Fuchs and all his siblings all pronounce it that way. Anytime I had a new teacher at school, I had to correct how they pronounced it. So much fun! But that isn't even half the problem.

1940 US Fed Census
Fuchs Family
Ancestry.com

    Do you see how it is spelled? It is too closely related to another word that is considered a cuss word. Oh yeah, this was grand growing up with a whole bunch of adolescent kids. One time a classmate got a hold of one of my papers and changed the 'h' to a 'k' (which is not hard to do) and then turned it in. So when it was time for the papers to be handed out, another student was reading out the names and said that word. Oh boy... I had to explain to the teacher I did not do that. And even showed them that the pencil mark on the page was different than my writing. That's just one example.
    Let me tell you, I have friends from high school that STILL don't know how to spell my maiden name. It usually ends up with extra letters or sometimes they drop the 's' on the end. I always felt like I was cursed. Once I started researching German records, I was curious to see how the spelling had changed if any. And it really didn't. Once I got into the records, I saw the surname "Fuchs" everywhere! And spelled like we spell it! But that still doesn't help me today when I meet someone new and I tell them my maiden name. 

Rickards

    I thought when I would get married my troubles would be over. Boy was I fooled. I think I have more trouble with this surname than my maiden name. Everyone always immediately thinks it's supposed to be Richards. I usually tell people it's Richards except with a 'k'. I have to admit even I had trouble when I first met my husband.
    Unlike with Fuchs, Rickards has been misspelled for YEARS. I've lost track of how many variations I have come across in my research. These are just some examples: Rickard, Ricard, Records, Rickert, Ricketts, and of course, Richards. It is unclear how the original was spelled, but research has suggested the original was Rickard. The family came from England, but I haven't traced the family back there myself. 

1850 US Fed Census Records Family Ancestry.com	1920 US Fed Census Richards Family Ancestry.com

Ilg (ILG)

    Now this surname threw me for a loop when mom first told me about it. I was like, um, what did you say? Haha! The 'i' in the surname makes a short i sound, like igloo. This is my grandma's maiden name. I had never heard of this name before and for sure never met anyone with this surname. This family line has been my most researched.

1930 US Fed Census
Ilk Family
Ancestry.com

    The family came from Germany in the mid to late 1800s. I've traced the family pretty far back in Germany and like Fuchs, Ilg was always spelled the same. But pronouncing it I believe is a little different. I think the 'g' makes more of a 'k' sound which makes sense why I've seen the surname spelled with a 'k'. I've seen it spelled Ilck and even Ilk, which is why I couldn't find the family easily in the 1930 census. It's also been spelled Illg, Illig, Ilges, Llg, Elk, and more. when I go looking for them in the City Directories, I have to check under all these spellings. 

    While I've run into other surnames that have been misspelled before, these are the top ones I've dealt with. It's best to include variations of spellings you've come across for the surnames in your tree for anyone who reviews your research or for your own personal notes. 

So, what surnames have you come across in your research that has been constantly misspelled? 

Week: 14: Check It Out! I wrote a biography

     March was a rough month for me, so I took a break from writing for the 52 Ancestors challenge. But I'm starting back up now with this week's prompt "Check It Out!" It seemed perfect for the announcement I had to make. You see, I've been laid up with a pinched nerve in my back for a month now. So in order to keep myself from going crazy, I worked on editing a biography I wrote about my 2nd Great Grandma, Pauline Ilg.

Cover of my Biography

    Shutterfly was running a special on their site last week. So I went to work on editing the book on their site. I've gotten books from their before and have loved the quality. I know I could have went with an actual book publishing site, but I decided on Shutterfly. And they did not disappoint.

    I wrote this biography in a series of five blog posts back in 2020. I shared them leading up to the anniversary of the death of Pauline. Below are all five blog posts that I turned into five chapters for the bioraphy.

Chapter 1: http://auntiejenstrees.blogspot.com/2020/03/pauline-ilg-brave-courageous-part-1.html

Chapter 2: http://auntiejenstrees.blogspot.com/2020/03/pauline-ilg-brave-courageous-part-2.html

Chapter 3: http://auntiejenstrees.blogspot.com/2020/03/pauline-ilg-brave-courageous-part-3.html

Chapter 4: http://auntiejenstrees.blogspot.com/2020/03/pauline-ilg-brave-courageous-part-4.html

Chapter 5: http://auntiejenstrees.blogspot.com/2020/03/pauline-ilg-brave-courageous-part-5.html

So here is the finished biography.
Check it out!!

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A post shared by Auntie Jen (@auntiejen82)

 

    I am so proud of this book. It looks amazing. The quality is just beautiful. As you can see, I ordered two copies to have on hand. When Shutterfly runs another special, I will order more copies for family members.

    I do hope to write more biographies of other family members and turn them into books. Who will I write about next? You will just have to wait and Check It Out later!

Maps of Clinton County, Missouri (How Galen & Pearl Met Cont.)

    The recent 52 Ancestors Prompt, Courting, took me down a road where I found more information than I was expecting. On my quest to learn more about the area where Mark's Grandparents met, lived, and were married, I came across some sources that opened up a new perspective for me. While researching the area trying to get an understanding of where everything was located (The School, the Church, the Swope Family, the Berryman Family, and the town), I discovered some maps of the town from that time period. I had mentioned that the town was small and surrounded by farms. I was curious how close everyone was to everything. Well, I was in for a surprise.

    To recap, Galen Swope would stay with his parents when he would come back to town from Kansas City and Pearl McGrew was renting a room from the Berryman family while she worked as a teacher for the Martin School. The 1930 Census shows where they lived.

1930 US Federal Census
Mildred Mcgrew
Platte Township, Clinton County, Missouri
Source: Ancestry.com

1930 US Federal Census
Galen Swope
Lafayette Township, Clinton County, Missouri
Source: Ancestry.com

    I found these maps online after doing a Google Search. The first map shows the Plats of land that belonged to J.A. Swope and R Berryman. The 1930 Census told me that they both owned their properties, so that told me to look at these maps. Look how close the Swope Farm and the Berryman Farm were to each other. 

    The second map shows the location of buildings. Black squares were houses. There were a couple of houses right near each other that could have the Swope's house and the Berryman's house. 

Map 1

Plat book of Clinton County, Missouri
Lafayette Township
Missouri Plat Books cir 1930
Source: Missouri Digital Heritage

Map 2

Plattsburg, Missouri
cir 1926
Source: Old World Maps
Courtesy of USGS

    There are a couple other things written on Map 2 that caught my attention. First, Martin School. That's the school that Pearl taught at. Map 1 does not have the school listed because the first map is for Lafayette Township only. Map 2 has Lafayette Township and Platte Township, where Martin School was located. So I found the Platte Township map & combined it with Lafayette. See Map 3 below. If you look in square 11, you will see a dark square which is labeled "school". Looking back at Map 2, you can see that is where Martin School was located.

Map 3

Plat book of Clinton County, Missouri
Lafayette Township & Platte Township
Missouri Plat books cir 1930
Source: Missouri Digital Heritage

    There was something else I noticed on Map 2. West of the Martin School is Lebanon Church. That would be the Lebanon Baptist Church that they attended. Now when you look back at Map 1, I circled a cross on that map. That would be the location of Lebanon Church. Do you see where that's located? Right next to the J.A. Swope property! So everything was right there along the same road.

    This is really neat! And helpful. I now have a better understanding of the area. Mark and I plan on making a trip out to this part of Missouri hopefully this year. When we traveled out there a few years ago, it was tricky trying to find where the old farmhouses were and where the location of the Church used to be. The cemetery used to be opposite the Church. While the church is gone, the cemetery is still there and that's where a lot of Mark's family is still buried... including Galen & Pearl Swope.

Lebanon Cemetery
Stewartsville, Missouri
Google Maps

Galen & Pearl Swope Headstone
Lebanon Cemetery
Stewartsville, Missouri
July 2014

    It's amazing what else you can learn about family when you start looking a little deeper. I never planned on looking up maps for the area. I never thought about looking up the location of the farms, the church, or the school. Just goes to show you, just when you think you can't research anymore, there is always something. 

Read the post about the Prompt that started this all here: Week 8: Courting (How Galen & Pearl Met)

Week 8: Courting (How Galen & Pearl Met)

Week 8:
The Week 8 theme is "Courting." Is it courting as in the law or courting as in romance? You decide! 

Courting: to engage in social activities leading to engagement and marriage - Merriam Webster Dictionary

    Dating as we know it today, did not really exist in our grandparents' day. Most of the time, instead of dating, courting took place. This involved two people getting together in social activities to get to know each other better in the presence of friends and family. Most of the time it was family. That was the case with my husband's Grandparents. 

    Samuel Galen Swope was born on August 15, 1895, in Clinton County, Missouri. He was the firstborn child of James Albert Swope and Mary Alice Hoover. The Swopes were a prominent family in Western Missouri around the Kansas City area and in the county where Galen was raised. Looking through the newspapers for the area, I found quite a few mentions of the Swope family in the "Happenings" or "Society" sections.

Plattsburg Leader
Plattsburg, Missouri
2 Jan 1914

Plattsburg Leader
Plattsburg, Missouri
9 Nov 1917

Plattsburg Leader
Plattsburg, Missouri
17 Dec 1920

    Pearl Mildred McGrew was born on June 6, 1907, in Kansas. She was the fourth child born to Reverand Hudson Taylor McGrew and Sadie Emma McCullough. As you can see, her father was a Reverand in the United Brethren Church (which eventually became a sect of the Methodist Church). The United Brethren Church had traveling ministers that were appointed to different churches in their area for a specific time. So Pearl's family moved around quite a bit.

    Since Pearl's father was a respectable man in the United Brethren Church, his children were also expected to be on their best behavior. Rev. H.T. McGrew was mentioned in the newspapers quite a bit as well. From the new appointments to the families he would visit and many other circumstances. 

Wichita Daily Eagle
Wichita, Kansas
15 Sep 1889

The Times
Clay Center, Kansas
3 Aug 1911

Lecompton Sun
Lecompton, Kansas
18 Jul 1902

Lecompton Sun
Lecompton, Kansas
5 Apr 1901

    Since both of them belong to very prominent families and their lives were documented publicly in the paper, they would have had to have been on their best behavior. When Mark asked his mom about his parents courting, she said she wasn't told much about that time except that they met in church and that they were not allowed to "date" so to speak in private. All their meetings would have been in public with family present. Thanks to newspapers, I was able to track some of the meetings.

    Mark's mom said they met in Church. This would have been the Lebanon Baptist Church in Clinton County, Missouri. The area consisted mostly of Farmland and the nearest town was Stewartsville. Plattsburg is about 15 miles south of Stewartsville and Lebanon Cemetery, where the Church used to be, is about halfway in between the two towns. Pearl moved to Stewartsville to be a teacher in the Martin School District. Mark's mom said this was a one-room schoolhouse. Pearl did such a great job as a teacher, they elected to keep her for three years. 

Plattsburg Leader
Plattsburg, Missouri
15 Mar 1929

Plattsburg Leader
Plattsburg, Missouri
13 Sep 1929

    As you can see, there are only eight students in this school, all ranging from different grades. We are talking VERY small town. So it would have only been a matter of time before Galen and Pearl met. Galen worked in Kansas City for a time, but he would frequently visit his family.

Plattsburg Leader
Plattsburg, Missouri
11 Jan 1929

    When Galen was back in town, he would stay with his parents, James & Mary. Pearl did not originally live in Stewartsville when she was hired as a teacher. So she rented a room from Rae Berryman and his family. When school was closed for the season, she would go back to visit her parents in Guilford, Missouri. As stated, this was a small town, so almost everyone knew each other. Everyone would make visits to each other's houses, they would attend church together and even celebrate occasions with each other. This would be perfect for Courting situations. As would be the case for Galen & Pearl. And it would then be published in the local paper for everyone to read about.

    Thanks to Newspapers.com, I was able to track down these articles. Articles mentioning dinners, reunions, health & well-being posts (who was sick, who was recovering), and who was visiting who. This made the courting process more apparent.

Plattsburg Leader
Plattsburg, Missouri
17 Apr 1931

Plattsburg Leader
Plattsburg, Missouri
6 Feb 1931

Plattsburg Leader
Plattsburg, Missouri
2 Jan 1931

Plattsburg Leader
Plattsburg, Missouri
13 Nov 1931

Plattsburg Leader
Plattsburg, Missouri
29 Apr 1932

    Soon after that last article, this one appeared in the newspaper.

Maryville Daily Forum
Maryville, Missouri
2 May 1932

    As you can see in the articles, Pearl was invited to many gatherings at the J.A. Swope house (Galen's father). They were also invited to dinner at the Hoover's house (Mrs. Mary Swope's family). As stated before, they both attended Lebanon Baptist Church where Rev. H.T. McGrew preached at least once. 

    When I first saw these articles, I didn't think much of them. But this prompt caused me to look at them in a different way. In the way of Courting. You can actually see the courting process. The families were coming together for meals, celebrations, worship, etc. Then to the wedding shower and eventual marriage. I am looking forward to presenting this to my Mother-in-Law to give her a small glimpse into the lives of her parents and how they got together.

Something special to close out this blog post. A picture of Galen and Pearl on their wedding day & the newspaper article about the day.

Galen & Pearl Swope
1 May 1932

Plattsburg Leader
Plattsburg, Missouri
6 May 1932

This prompt also caused me to do some more research on the area they lived. If you want to see what else I found out, check out my next blog post: Maps of Clinton County, Missouri - (How Galen & Pearl Met Cont.)

Do you have any stories about your parents or grandparents courting??

Week 7: Landed

Week 6: Landed
The Week 7 theme is "Landed." There are many meanings of landed: to have arrived at a destination, to have been delivered, to own real property, to be part of the "landed gentry." So many ways you can go with this week's theme!

"The Eagle Has Landed" - Neil Armstrong, July 20, 1969

Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were part of the American crew that piloted the Apollo Lunar Module, Eagle. Neil said this now-famous quote to Houston after they landed on the moon. It is now a phrase that is used constantly to signify something has arrived.

    The phrase "Landed" I'm sure is used quite a bit in reference to many things. Especially when it comes to our genealogy research. When a family has moved to another location, they have landed. When they fly somewhere for vacation or to visit relatives and they arrive at their final destination, they have landed. But the first thing that comes to my mind is when our ancestors arrived on ships from their old countries.

    When did your ancestors "Land" in this new country? Do you know there are a couple of places to look for the exact date of when the "Landed"? There are a couple of places to check.

• Passenger Lists
• Passport Applications
• Census Records
• Naturalization Records

    These are just a few options. To read more in-depth about these, click here to read about Passenger Lists - How Do We Know With Database to Search?

    But did you know there is another place to find out when your ancestor's ship landed? I just happen to run across this while researching my 2nd Great Grandma, Pauline Ilg. Newspapers! That's right! Newspapers. I thought maybe they would give some announcement or something when new ships had come in, but it was actually something different.

    Newspapers were the best place to get information and to share information. From Bus Schedules to train schedules and even ship arrivals! While looking through each page of the New York Tribune, I came across a section called "Marine Intelligence". This section reports all kinds of information about the ships that were coming and going. This is where I found my 2nd Great Grandma Pauline's ship and her soon-to-be husband's ship. Now this is only helpful if have the actual name of the ship. There are no passenger names listed in these articles, just ship names. This clipping is for my 2nd Great Grandma's ship. She was on the Vessel EMS. Can you find her ship?

New York Tribune
3 Jun 1887
New York, NY
Source: Newspapers.com

    As you can see, you can find out when a ship has left, when a ship has landed, and even when a ship has passed others. Knowing what ship, she was traveling on, I was able to find when they left Bremen too. All from knowing what ship she landed on. This is just another great source to include with your records. 

    Now, this is just for the Port of New York. Since this is just for New York City, it doesn't include other ports in which your ancestors may have Landed. And this is just for the Port. Depending on when they arrived will determine where they were processed. Check here to see where your ancestors would have been processed: Castle Garden and Ellis Island.

    This section of the newspaper only started showing up because of The Great Migration. I am unsure of the exact date this section started to appear. There was no reason for them to share this information when many people were not immigrating. This only occurred because of the influx of immigrants and people needed to know when their families would be arriving. Always scan through newspapers for new sections that were added. They are a great source of historical information.

What other sections of the newspaper have helped you in your research? When did your ancestors "Land" in America? What do you think of when you hear the word "Landed"? Let me know in the comments!