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Many genealogists look to try to “jump the ocean” over to the old country when they reach the beginnings of their American ancestry. A great way to do this is through immigration records – it gives you an idea of where your ancestor was from.
Illinois has a great resource with the Cook County Clerk of the Court. Cook county contains Chicago, so many immigrants were naturalized there. If you have a midwestern immigrant ancestor, chances are they were naturalized here.
This database is “extra awesome” because it lets you search by town, as well. For example, some of my human’s ancestors were from Bivona, Italy. Searching for that I get:
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Interestingly, I know most of these last names. The site lets you click on a name to pull up more priceless information.
| Record Details for Volume 263 | |
| Page Number: | 230 |
| Declaration Number: | 129430 |
| FIRST NAME | LAST NAME | OCCUPATION |
| CARMELO | MILITELLO | LABORER |
| BIRTH CITY | BIRTH COUNTRY | BIRTH DATE |
| BIVONA | ITALY | 5/14/1871 |
| CURRENT ADDRESS | CURRENT CITY | |
| NOT GIVEN | LEMONT | |
| DEPARTURE LOCATION | ARRIVAL DATE | DECLARATION DATE |
| PALERMO, ITALY | 5/5/1903 | 3/8/1922 |
And if you wanted to, you could look at the actual record. However declarations of intention were kind of boring, as they were basically index cards containing the above information. The naturalization records, however, are amazing and usually contain a photograph!
Mucho Fishies,
BK
One of the things I’ve learned about recently is that many laws, both here in the US and abroad, name specific people in them – possibly your ancestor! In the US, there were many acts passed for the benefit of civil war veterans and their widows. in France, there were often memorials and other acts passed including your ancestor’s name. Actes en Ligne is one of the sites you can search for your French ancestors in. This includes marriage. Searching for one of my human’s ancestors with the last name Andre comes up with the following:
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Type of act:
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Marriage |
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Date:
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11 -10-1845 |
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First Name:
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Joseph ANDRE |
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Surname Forenames wife
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Agathe GRANDJEAN |
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City:
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On Cirey Vezouze – C. Zip: 54480 – INSEE: 54129 |
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Department:
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Meurthe et Moselle (54) |
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Transcript:
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| Date of validation: | 2006-04-09 06:23:25 |
My suggestion would be to use Google Chrome when using this site. Over the years I’ve gotten pretty good at scanning French, but it automatically translates in Google Chrome. At some point you need to use your judgment, because it appears from this Joseph Andre was a 22 year old potter – i.e. “earthenware turner.” Domenica’s last name was not Feathers, but “Plumes.” Mousing over the translation in Chrome gives you the original text and you can compare.
Mucho Fishies,
Bratty Kitty
For a while, I was researching a Canadian murder mystery. That project has stalled out somewhat while I await new resources, but I came across some great Canadian genealogy resources in the search. Canadian News Online is one of those resources.
When doing genealogy, you can either work on the “tree” or the “leaves.” The tree typically encompasses dates, names – the structure of your genealogy. The leaves are the details – stories, photographs, etc. The best resource for details, aside from family sources, are newspapers. Often small-town papers had gossip sections that would go so far as to say when people would visit with relatives in other towns. I found a story about my great great grand-kitty being thrown from a horse, escaping uninjured. These bits of flavor go far to making the people real who otherwise would just be a name, date, and nothing more. If I can’t get even that information, I like to research the place the people are from to get an idea of what life was like in that area during those dates. Newspapers can also help with that.
Mucho Fishies
Bratty Kitty
Dead Fred is a website of photographs. Basically, it started as a site to look at old photos and see if you could identify anyone in them (i.e., your old cousin “Fred”). Over time, it has developed into a more standard genealogy site offering photos for many surnames.
I check this site fairly often, about once a week. I have had updates surprise me. For example, I have the surname “Ripperda” in my history. Searching Ripperda in the quick search box, I get this: “http://www.deadfred.com/surnameIndR_05.php” a photo of Anna Ripperda Doyle and family. I happen to have her in my tree, and this photo was new to me! What a great resource.
If you want, you can also browse through surnames. I find this helpful as often times surnames can be mispelled or may have evolved over time. For example, the last name Ripperda was also spelled Riperdag, Ripperdoff, Riparda, etc etc.
Mucho fishies,
Bratty Kitty
The first database I’d like to discuss is the OPA or Online Public Access database at NARA (the National Archives). They are currently overhauling this site, and there are frequent down-times. These are usually listed right on the search page. The National Archives are furiously attempting to digitize access to millions of records. Unfortunately, the search function is still clunky and almost all documents are not viewable from the site. However! Knowing of the existence of a document about a person can be wonderful. Be warned, I did not start with an easy one. This one often requires the use of TWO websites.
My human had a great uncle, Paul Cuozzo, who died in the Korean War. She had already found some amazing information through another website (another story for another day.) However, plugging his name into the OPA database reveals:
Korean War Extract Data File, as of April 29, 2008 , 06/28/1950 – 03/10/1954
National Archives Identifier: 2240988
Creator(s): Department of Defense. Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness. Defense Human Resources Activity. Defense Manpower Data Center. (1997 – )
DISP|||||| O-2262850|V|L|ACTIVE – GUARD/RESERVE|CUOZZO PAUL A|A|ARMY|2LT|O01|1542|INFANTRY
Now I know the Archives identifier and following further, I can search ARC (The Archival Research Catalog) with that identifier number. It brings me to a card catalog page:
Korean War Extract Data File, as of April 29, 2008 , 06/28/1950 – 03/10/1954
ARC Identifier 2240988
File Unit from Record Group 330: Records of the Office of the Secretary of Defense, 1921 – 2008
| Creator(s): | Department of Defense. Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness. Defense Human Resources Activity. Defense Manpower Data Center. (1997 – ) (Most Recent) Department of Defense. Washington Headquarters Services. Directorate for Information Operations and Reports. Statistical Information Analysis Division. (ca. 1997 – ) (Predecessor) |
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| Type(s) of Archival Materials: | Data Files |
| Contact(s): | Electronic and Special Media Records Services Division (NWME), National Archives at College Park, 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD, 20740-6001. PHONE: 301-837-0470; FAX: 301-837-3681; EMAIL:cer@nara.gov. |
| Coverage Dates: | 06/28/1950 – 03/10/1954 |
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| Date Note: | Although the agency created this file starting in about 2001, it concerns records of military personnel who died as a result of the Korean War from 1950 through 1954. |
| Part Of: | Series: Defense Casualty Analysis System (DCAS) Extract Files, compiled ca. 2001 – 04/29/2008, documenting the period 06/28/1950 – 05/28/2006 |
| Access Restriction(s): | Unrestricted |
| Use Restriction(s): | Unrestricted |
| Online Resource: | Access to Archival Databases (AAD) system |
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| Online Resource URL: | http://aad.archives.gov/aad/fielded-search.jsp?dt=2512&tf=F&cat=WR27&bc=,sl |
| Online Resource Note: | This file can be searched online via the Access to Archival Databases (AAD) system. |
| Variant Control Number(s): | Download Display Identifier: DDI XMIS Number: 099292 This is the agency electronic documentation file. XMIS Number: 099293 This is the data file. |
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Ooh, did you see the “Online Resource URL”? I did! So I can click that and it takes me to ANOTHER database! *Whee*!
Go to that, and search for Cuozzo brings this result:
| View Record | SERVICE NUMBER | MEMBER NAME | MEMBER SERVICE CODE | MEMBER BIRTHDATE | HOME OF RECORD CITY | HOME OF RECORD COUNTY | HOME OF RECORD STATE CODE | INCIDENT OR DEATH DATE | CASUALTY CATEGORY |
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O-2262850 | CUOZZO PAUL A | Army | 19180000 | NEW YORK | KINGS | NEW YORK | 04/06/1951 | KILLED IN ACTION |
Well, now I know his service number, which is very helpful if dealing with the military.
If you click “view record” on the left, this is what you get:
And voila, yummy juicy information. This makes me want to eat tuna.
Anyway, stay tuned for news & more databases. Keep trying with OPA! It’s hit or miss, but when you do find something, it’s delicious, like birds.
Mucho Fishies.
Genealogy Kitty
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