Genealogy and Local History Blog

Tagged: family history

Genealogy

MyHeritage Library Edition Now Available at Grapevine Library!

At Grapevine Library we’re excited to offer a new genealogy database – MyHeritage Library Edition™ (MyHeritage LE)! It’s an excellent genealogical research tool. In today’s blog we’ll take a look at some of its great content. MyHeritage LE is one of the largest, most internationally diverse genealogy databases of its kind in the world. It includes billions of historical documents from more than forty-eight countries, millions of historical photos, public records, indexes and additional resources. Available in forty-two languages, MyHeritage LE is the industry’s most multilingual family history research database. What Does MyHeritage LE Have? MyHeritage LE contains a wide variety of content, and more than 100 million records are added every month. This includes • Over 18.5 billion historical records world-wide • US federal census records from 1790-1950 with images • UK census records from 1841-1901 with images • Over five 5 billion exclusive family tree profiles from MyHeritage...

Uncategorized

A “Shirt factory at Grapevine”: How the WPA Provided Work for Grapevine Women during the Great Depression

Continuing our focus on how Grapevine dealt with the Great Depression, today we look at the Grapevine sewing room and how it developed. Sewing room projects were under the Works Progress Administration (later Work Projects Administration) (WPA), established on November 1, 1935 to provide work to unskilled women and to get them ready for private work, as well as to supply goods to a non-competitive market without purchasing power. Sewing rooms became the backbone of the women’s division of the WPA. On February 12, 1935, Mayor B. R. Wall “Signed [a] contract with Government for Shirt factory at Grapevine.” Later known as the Grapevine Sewing Room, it was located at 413 S. Main in the north half of the old City Hall, and it served as a means of employment for many Grapevine-area women during its existence. The room was prepared for use by local residents E. L. Jordan, who...

Genealogy

Revolutionary War Resource Gems You May Not Know About!

Most researchers are well-versed in the use of pension applications, bounty land warrant applications, and compiled service records in documenting Revolutionary War military service. These are the most commonly-sought resources pertaining to this conflict, but some lesser-known records are available that you may not be aware of. Records are also available that pertain to Americans who participated in numerous non-military ways. In this blog we’ll look at some of these resources; be sure to check them out later! Many of the following digital records are in the National Archives catalog and on the free website FamilySearch, both accessible from anywhere. If you don’t already have a free username and password for FamilySearch, you’ll need to create them to view images. War Department Collection of Revolutionary War Records (Record Group (RG) 93) The National Archives (NARA) created an artificial collection of Revolutionary War documents through purchase or copying from various sources,...

Genealogy / Local History

Buried Treasure in Underused, Little-known, and Untapped Civil War Resources!

In today’s blog we’re going to explore some underused, little-known, and untapped Civil War resources you can use to significantly enrich your family history. Most researchers are familiar with military pensions and service records, but the war generated many more records that you may not be aware of, and not all of them were official government records. Supplement to the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies This set of 100 volumes, edited by Janet B. Hewitt, supplements the Official Record of the Union and Confederate Armies (Wilmington, NC: Broadfoot Publishing Co., 1994-2001). The Supplement is divided into four parts (Reports, Records of Events, Correspondence, and Secret Service) and includes official accounts of battles, skirmishes, scouting expeditions, signal maneuvers, narratives of troop movements, correspondence, and intelligence files (Fig. 1). Also included are a few courts-martial, courts of inquiry, and court proceedings. Some of the material is specifically referred to...

Genealogy / Local History

Law and Order (and A Little Disorder) in Early Grapevine

The first law enforcement In Texas, Constable Thomas Alley, was sworn in by Judge John Tumlinson on March 5, 1823. A second constable joined Alley a short time afterward. Three months later, Alley and his colleague stayed to protect the local colonies while ten other men (including Tumlinson) were sent out to protect the range and guard the frontier. These men later formed the Texas Rangers. The Constables and Rangers joined forces and became an active group of roughly two hundred men. When the original Texas constitution was adopted, the constable was the only law enforcement defined by the document. Sam Houston formally separated the two groups. The constable would be elected by the people in each local area, known as precincts. The Texas Rangers became officers of the Republic of Texas. Both groups would be commissioned and report directly to the governor. Today that still holds true. When Tarrant...

Genealogy

Ancestors in the City? Find Them (and More!) in City Directories

City directories were created for salesmen, merchants, and others interested in contacting residents of an area. They’re especially helpful for genealogical research in large cities, where a high percentage of the people were renters, new arrivals, or temporary residents. A directory may be the only source to list an ancestor if he or she was not registered to vote and did not own property. These publications are a gold mine for genealogists. They can tell you much more than simply where a family or an individual lived. Depending on the directory, and whether you follow a string of directories chronologically, you could find: The earliest known “city directory” was printed in New York in 1665. It included 255 names of households, mostly Dutch, and was arranged by the name of the street on which they lived. You can see it in the digitized book  The Memorial History of the City...

Genealogy / Local History

Genealogy and The Great Depression

(Credit: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16629774) Oh, say, don’t you remember, they called me AlIt was Al all the timeSay, don’t you remember, I’m your palBuddy, can you spare a dime? Source: LyricFind – Songwriters: E. Y. Harburg / Jay Gorney – Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? lyrics © Songtrust Ave, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC US government responses to the Great Depression of the 1930s generated some unique resources for genealogists and family historians. Today we’re going to look into some genealogically valuable records generated as a result of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal and see how they can be used to enhance family history research. We need to look for these records for two main reasons. First, the Depression was an all-encompassing event that changed family narratives. Second, how relatives responded to or weathered such a crisis formed an essential aspect of family history....

Genealogy / Local History

Ancestors Fall on Hard Times? Check Out the Poorhouses!

(Wythe Co. poor farm image credit: By Nyttend – Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=57704286) What is a poorhouse? Simply put, it’s a county- or town-run residence where paupers were supported at public expense. It was known by several names – almshouse/alms house, poorhouse/poor house, poor farm, county farm, county home, and workhouse. And it’s possible that an ancestor or other family member may have spent some time in one. American poorhouse resources are little-known or vastly underutilized. According to Linda Crannell, formerly known as “The Poorhouse Lady, “The poorhouse seems to remain so invisible to us today. This is despite the fact that the poorhouse was probably one of the most extensively publicly document institutions in 19th century America.” These institutions have not been places that genealogists would normally think to look for when dealing with “disappeared” ancestors. This blog will demonstrate the value of poorhouse research, availability of poorhouse...

Genealogy

Territorial Papers of the United States: A Genealogical Goldmine

The Territorial Papers of the United States are the best-known source of territorial records. The published twenty-eight-volume set of transcribed, indexed, and annotated documents pertaining to the administration of some of the territories of the US covers the Old Northwest, the Southeast, and Midwest: Before a state became state, it was a territory with an appointed territorial governor along a territorial legislature and other governmental offices. And where there is government, there is paperwork: listings of officials, petitions to the government, correspondence of the territorial governor, letters back and forth among governmental officials, slavery issues, Native American affairs, etc. Some History For years, these records were ignored and just housed in various agencies (Department of State, Library of Congress, the then-Department of War, etc.) until the 1911 publication of the Calendar of Papers in Washington Archives of the United States (to 1873) by David W. Parker. The preface to this work laments the...

Genealogy

Start Your Own Genealogical FAN Club!

The FAN club is a term coined by renowned genealogist Elizabeth Shown Mills. “FAN” stands for “Friends, Associates, Neighbors”, and refers to researching the cluster of people who interacted with your ancestors. This principle is also called cluster or collateral genealogy. Researching people within this cluster can provide insights into your ancestors’ lives, as well as help answer thorny questions your direct research hasn’t been able to resolve (“I can’t find this guy ANYWHERE! Where the heck was he?” or “Which of the six John Smiths in this county is mine?” or “Who was Nathan Pyeatt’s (1787-1812) mother?”). The FAN club is a great tool for proving relationships, establishing identities, and busting through brick walls. Many printed and on-line resources contain case studies demonstrating how you can use records of friends, associates, and neighbors to obtain the answers you’re looking for. Some of the best case studies using the FAN...