Today is Society Saturday and am I glad!

Today was the monthly meeting of the Pima County Genealogy Society. Although I live in Arizona, the only relatives I have that were born here are my children. Every one of my ancestors lived and died in the Midwest or New England states. So, why do I care about the local genealogy society, you might ask? Well...I'll tell you.

First, a little background. If you have been following my blog, you know that I uploaded a photo that I believed was taken in Kennebunk, Maine about 1900 in my post "Wordless Wednesday - Julianna Marie (Rasmusdatter, Christenson) Bye". A reader asked me if the building in the background was still standing, and I have been trying to find out ever since (see "Those Places Thursday - Is That Building Still Standing?") with no success. Today's PCGS program included a presentation on Google search tips. One of the many things I learned at that meeting was that you can upload a photo from your PC to Google images and search for similar images. If you are lucky, you just might find other photos of that object or place that will identify what and where it is. You can guess that I rushed right home and uploaded that image.

First, I uploaded the entire photo. The Google image search found that exact photo on my blog, and then gave me some interesting "visually similar images". One of those led me to an image at the New Jersey Historical Society website of two men with bicycles standing in front of a house that had been lifted off its foundation by a tornado in 1895 and dropped back down on its cellar. The house toppled over because it wasn't aligned properly. Go take a look at it...it's really interesting.

Results of uploading the full photo into Google images.

Next, I cropped out the people and uploaded just the building portion of the image (the top floor and the roof). This time Google returned very different "visually similar images", most of which were of ships and planes.

Results of uploading just the building into Google images.

While my search did not get the desired results, it was fun and interesting and I plan on trying it on other images as well.

The other presentation at today's meeting was on newspapers. I have been relatively successful in finding newspaper articles on my family by using GenealogyBank.com or NewspaperArchive.com. However, I have scanned copies of two newspaper articles that I have not been able to locate the newspaper in which they appeared (the original articles were cut out of the newspaper and the source was not cited). One is an article about my grandfather being arrested for bootlegging; the only clue I have is that his age stated in the article dates it between November 1942 and November 1943 and they gave the location of the still (in his home in Skokie, Illinois). The other article is about my uncle that was shot down over France in WW II and listed as MIA. The article published a letter of commendation sent to my grandparents by his commanding officer; the only clues I have is that I know he was shot down in June 1943 and my grandparents did not receive notice that he was alive until November 1943, and it mentioned that my grandparents lived in St. Augustine, Illinois.

I used some of the techniques that were taught at our meeting. We learned to Google "town name" newspaper (e.g. "Skokie" newspaper) to find websites for the newspapers servicing that town. Going to the newspaper websites gives you directions on how to find old articles in their archives. This usually involves contacting someone at the newspaper via email or regular mail.

I also searched the US Newspaper Directory, 1690-Present on the Library of Congress' Chronicling America website to find the names of newspapers that were operating in those cities in the 1940s and to find the libraries that hold microfilm copies of those newspapers. My next step will be to try an inter-library loan of the microfilms. This is way more tedious than finding the articles online with a search engine, but as we all know not everything is online. Sometimes you just have to do things the old school way.

There are many, many more tips we learned for using the Google search engine and for finding newspapers which I would have never found if I had not attended my local genealogy society's meeting today. If you are fortunate enough to have a genealogy society operating in your town, I highly recommend you look into the benefits they offer to their members. If you don't know what societies are close to you, try looking on the Genealogy Society Directory or Cyndi's List Societies & Groups.


Thanks for dropping by.

 



  Society Saturday is a daily blogging prompt from GeneaBloggers.

Those Places Thursday - Is That Building Still Standing?

Some of you may remember the photo I posted on my very first "real" post for Wordless Wednesday. If you have forgotten, you may visit it here.

One of my readers asked if the building in the background was still standing as she wanted to look for it when she visited the area. It got me wondering, too. I have always admired the house but I never thought to look to see if it still existed. Sure, I thought, I'll find out where it was and let her know. It should be easy. I'll just look at the 1900 census again and get my 2nd great-grandparents' address because I'm fairly certain that was where the photo was taken. So I pull up Ancestry.com, view the census image, and find that no house number nor even a street name is written for them. Drat!

No problem. I'll just email the cousin that shared most of the photos I have of that family and see if he has an address, perhaps written on the back of the photo or something. No luck. He didn't have an address, either.

Now what? Oh! City Directories! Yay! So I check Ancestry.com and archive.org but I strike out there, too. Cyndi's List doesn't give me a link to a city directory, either. I had a copy of the Bye family page in the 1905 Town Register for Kennebunk and Wells, but it didn't have addresses.

I'm getting pretty desperate at this point. Where do I go from here? I consult Kathleen Hinckley's Your Guide to the Federal Census. Page 151 talks about Enumeration District Descriptions and Maps. She says that the E.D. descriptions are available in microfilm at the Family History Library. I think to myself, I can look up their E.D., find it on a map, and try to trace the route the enumerator took and at least get it fairly close. So, I check the FHL library catalog and proceed to order the film online. I get the message "The film you requested is already at your selected Family History Center. Please contact your Family History Center for viewing." YES!!!

At the first opportunity, I trek on down to my FHC to find the film. It's right where it should be. I'm on a roll (pun intended)! The description I found for Kennebunk, York county, Maine, E.D. 236 is "All that part of town lying east of the B. & M. R.R." Well! I found a really great map of 1895 Kennebunk in the American Memory Maps Collection. The B&M R.R. appears to be in the far south-western corner of town, which means that E.D. 236 is almost the entire town of Kennebunk.

B&M R.R., Kennebunk, Me., 1895 / G.E. Norris, Brockton.
Image from American Memory Maps Collection, Library of Congress.

Further review of Hinckley's book informs me that the FHL has photocopies of the census maps on microfiche, but I could only find them in book format in the catalog. It also says that photocopies can be ordered through the National Archives, however the URL she provided must be outdated because I get an error loading the page. <sigh>

It's time to change tactics. A more detailed study of the census page on which my 2nd great-grandparents appear, I note that while they are renting their home, the first two families on that page own their homes. Eureka! I can search the land deeds for those families and pinpoint their property. Since I believe the house in the photo is that of a neighbor, it very well could be one of their homes! I immediately return to the FHLC, locate the film number for the Deed Grantee index, v. 3-5, Kennebunk-Z, 1886-1905, and place an order.

As I was viewing the Deed Grantee index, I noticed that there are several deeds granted to the Tvedt family, one of whom is the father of Julian Tvedt, the boy in that photo. This got me thinking...by 1900, Julian was living with his aunt Hilda (Bye) Crowley and her husband, Cornelius Crowley, in Spencer, Worcester county, Massachusetts (see my previous post "Monday Madness - Religiously Insane!" for that sad story)...perhaps Julianna and Frances were visiting Hilda when that photo was taken and I am looking in the wrong location entirely!

By this time, some of you are probably thinking that I am wasting my time and that I should just contact the Kennebunk Historical Society and ask them if they are aware of where this unique building might be. I thought of that and wrote to them. They are willing to try to help me so I sent the photo and the census and crossed my fingers.

As I am very weak in the area of  land and property research, I want to continue on this path to gain the experience if nothing else.To that end, my next step is to order the deeds for some of the Bye neighbors and try to plot them on a map. I might also start looking in Spencer, Mass. for that building but I think I will ask the historical society there first, assuming the Kennebunk historical society responds with a negative.

I will post an update when I get some findings, positive or negative, from the avenues I am pursuing now. This is proving to be a much larger project than I imagined and is in danger of becoming the subject of a future Madness Monday post...

Thanks for dropping by.

 
  Those Places Thursday is a daily blogging prompt from GeneaBloggers.

Monday Madness - Religiously Insane!

"Hans O. Tvedt, a Norwegian of this town went to Insane Asylum in Augusta a few days ago. He is said to be religiously insane."  This was an entry made in Andrew Walker’s diary on Friday, 6 November 1896 (Kennebunk, Maine).  The subject of that entry was the husband of my Great-Grandaunt.

Hans Olaves Tvedt was born about 1855 in Østre Molands parish, Aust-Agder, Norway to Samuel Joakim Tvedt and Marthe Olsdatter.[1]  He married Clara Eugenie Bye, daughter of Carl Olavus Hansen and Julianna Marie Rasmusdatter, between 1880 and 1883 probably in Arendal, Aust-Agder, Norway.[2]  It is believed that Hans and Clara immigrated to the U.S. in either 1880 or 1884. His younger brothers, Anthon (Antoine) Marthin Tvedt and Samuel Marthin Tvedt immigrated in 1880 and 1884 respectively.[3]  The brothers settled in Kennebunk, York county, Maine.  Hans created a successful leathergoods business in Kennebunk where they manufactured leather trunks from leatherboard.  They actively recruited other Norwegians to immigrate to Kennebunk to staff the factory, which is presumably why Clara’s family came to the U.S.

So, what happened to Hans in 1896?  He went from a prosperous businessman living the American dream to a raging lunatic at the insane asylum within 16 years or less.  Well, to begin with, he and Clara had only one living child, Julian Martine Tvedt (discussed in a previous post), who was born in Maine in 1888.  While I have been unable to locate any records, we can safely assume that Clara either miscarried or lost children before and maybe after Julian.  Clara died on 6 March 1895 of consumption.  Hans sold his leathergoods business to his brother Samuel shortly after.  Hans must have been consumed with grief.  His son Julian was only six years old when he lost his mother but his father was apparently unable to care for him; Julian was sent to live with his mother's sister Hilda (Bye) Crowley.  

Hans was admitted to the Augusta Mental Health Institute on 21 October 1896, 20 months after Clara’s death, and remained until his death nine years and seven months later.  The Augusta Mental Health Institute’s records are difficult to decipher.  Below is the transcription as best as I can make it out:

21 Oct 1896: Hans Tvedt of Kennebunk, 1st ad., Native Sweden, age 35, was admitted to the Augusta Mental Health Institute. Religious id?????  predominate. Thinks his friends have turned against him.
30 Oct 1896: Very delusional and despondent.
5 Nov 1896: Delusions in regard to religious matters.
10 Jan 1897: No improvement mentally. [This is repeated for 1 Apr and 10 Apr 1897]
20 Jan 1899: Well disposed. Has fixed delusions.
30 Jan. 1900: No change in past year.
18 Mar 1901: No change in past year.
14 Dec 1902: Much the same.
12 ??? 1903: In good physical health. No change mentally.
19 Oct 1903: ditto
15 Sept 1904: Much the same in every respect.
5 May 1906: Recently became very much excited and noisy
8 May 1906: Very much exhausted. Mania is exhausting.
12 May 1906: Died this morning. Exhaustion Mania

Here is the record that was sent to me. If anyone can make out some of the words that I was not able to, please let me know.

 

Acknowledgement: My cousin, Karl Bye, found much of the information in this story. He discovered the diary entry and the information about the leathergoods business. Thank you for sharing your finds with me, Karl! It inspired me to research poor Hans' story a little further.

Thanks for dropping by.

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[1] 1865 census for Christiania, Norway, Samuel Joaki Tvedt household, numbers 22 thru 29, 0918 Østre Moland.

[2] Marriage record has not been located to date. Place of marriage is assumed based on the parish where her sister Marie Elevine Bye’s 1881 birth was recorded. Marriage date is estimated based on assumption that they were married before they immigrated.

[3] Antoine and Sam’s naturalization petitions.  No immigration or naturalization records have been found for Hans.

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