Genealogy travel in 2014 and open weekends for seminars

Paula Stuart-Warren  Seminars, Travel  Leave a comment

I just returned from a long trip that was mostly business related but I also enjoyed a few days in the warm sun of Arizona. The four days there went by too fast and I returned to snowy and cold Minnesota. I was in many states on this driving trip: Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Kansas, and Missouri. Each state has its own beauty and I reveled in it as I traveled.

As of today, the rest of 2014 will take me to Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, California, Pennsylvania, and Texas plus many other states via live webinars.

I have several large projects that need completion so I turned down some seminar invitations for this spring. I do have open weekends this fall and next winter and spring if your society is in need of a speaker. Just send me an inquiry via PaulaStuartWarren at gmail dot com. I can send your program chair all the details via email.

How do you pronounce some of the Minnesota town names where your ancestors lived?

Paula Stuart-Warren  Uncategorized  Leave a comment

So, how would you pronounce the Minnesota city name of New Prague? I can always tell when a new person is on a weather or newscast here. They usually pronounce it New Prahg. It’s actually pronounced New Prayg with a hard g.

City Pages has a neat article about “17 Minnesota cities and streets everyone mispronounces.” I don’t think everyone mispronounces these names but the article itself is good. Be sure to read the comments for more items.

Click here to read the article.

2014 Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh – registration is coming soon!

Paula Stuart-Warren  Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh, GRIP  Leave a comment

It’s just two weeks till registration opens for the 2014 Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh that takes place at LaRoche College in Pittsburgh. The Institute dates are July 20-25 and registration begins on February 12th. 

The Institute’s website has some great tips to prepare you for the registration process.

I hope to see many of you in the course I coordinate, “Intermediate Genealogy: Tools for Digging Deeper” but there are five other excellent courses that will also be offered in Pittsburgh.

While on the Institute’s website take a peek at the “On the Road” edition that will be held August 3-8, 2014 in Orchard Lake, Michigan (suburban Detroit). That registration begins on February 25th.

Mark February 12th on your calendar for Genealogical Institute of Pittsburgh registration

Paula Stuart-Warren  Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh, GRIP  Leave a comment

It’s just a bit more than two weeks till registration opens for the 2014 Genealogical Institute of Pittsburgh registration. (Fondly known as GRIP) There are six courses from which to choose and students may stay in a college dorm. The dorm and classrooms are a very short walk from each other. The cafeteria is in the same building as the classrooms. The 2014 dates are July 20-25.

I coordinate and instruct in Intermediate Genealogy: Tools for Digging Deeper.

Instructors:
Debbie Mieszala, CG
D. Joshua Taylor, MA, MLS
Paula Stuart-Warren, CG, FMGS, FUGA

Are you beyond the beginning stages of researching your family history? You probably have checked the basic records and done online searches but still have blanks to fill in. Maybe you need to gain more leads and judge the records but need some analytical skills for that. We will delve deeper into a variety of records, some that you may have never heard about, and where they may be accessed. During the week there will be some hands-on projects, small group discussions, and full class interaction as we develop research plans, delve into the records, and learn what may get those blanks filled in.

The class covers 19th through 21st century U.S. records and includes online resources. Prior to the course students will be able to send the coordinator a brief research issue of their own along with a listing of the U.S. places where their ancestors resided. The course includes some “homework” that is optional but highly suggested. Students often find they like those learning exercises. An extensive syllabus including online resources is provided.

While not required, it is suggested that you bring along a netbook, laptop, or electronic tablet for taking notes and for the week’s projects. Make sure you bring a copy of your research (either as a database or in paper form).

Debbie and I will also be teaching in Josh Taylor’s Pittsburgh course Becoming an Online Expert: Mastering Search Engines and Digital Archives.

Can’t make it to Pittsburgh? GRIP “On the Road” will be in suburban Detroit from August 3-8 with four courses. That registration starts on February 25th. Learn more about courses and registration for both cities here: http://www.gripitt.org/

Smithsonian preserving languages including Native American dialects

Paula Stuart-Warren  Languages, Smithsonian  Leave a comment

Yesterday’s Washington Post carried an interesting article about the preservation of languages including Native American languages. I can’t read or write any of these languages but often need to translate documents. I can use word lists and ask others for advice. The article “Smithsonian archives preserve lost and dying languages” is informative and exciting.

“The archives had been accumulating for more than 150 years, the findings of scholars, explorers, soldiers and travelers  . . .” It includes a “immense hoard of recorded voices, documents and other materials describing more than 250 languages from all over the world.”

The collection is more comprehensive than I thought it was. You may read the article here. 

Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy 2013 goes out with a bang

Paula Stuart-Warren  Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy, SLIG, Utah Genealogical Association  Leave a comment

A week ago I was finished with the first day of teaching at the 2013 edition of SLIG. The week flew by and it now seems like a distant memory. That is sad because it was a fantastic week. I had a classroom full of wonderful adult students who participate in discussions, questions and the small group project. The Room Monitor, Phyllis Codling McLaughlin, was always attentive.

Christy Fillerup and her fellow Utah Genealogical Association SLIG staff greeted us warmly, answered any questions, and as always were cool, calm, and collected. Thank you all!

New Location
The 2015 SLIG will be the 20th Anniversary! I have taught and/or coordinated classes since the second year of SLIG. SLIG is so successful it has outgrown two hotels. In 2015 it will move to the Salt Lake Hilton for the week of January 11-16. Instructors and coordinators had a great tour of the Hilton meeting space last Friday afternoon. Impressive! It will give students more space in the classroom and provide room for consultations, small group discussions, and will be such an improvement.SLIG will run a shuttle to and from the Family History Library in the afternoons.

New title for Course I

At the request of SLIG Director, Christy Fillerup, I have changed the title of my course to United States Records and Research, Part I and Part II. The 2015 Part I will not be the same lineup as what students had in 2014. What was offered in 2014 will be offered again in 2016.

The new description: This beyond- the-basics course provides in-depth learning on 19th-21st century U.S. resources and the methodology for using them. Probe deeper into the content, origin, location, and interpretation of records. Informative and interactive classroom hours delve into significant records and strategies that take you beyond basic research tools both online and off. On-site Family History Library support and a computer lab from course instructors provide one-on-one assistance and guidance with your own research. Suggested prerequisites: experience researching in a variety of repositories, familiarity with FamilySearch.org and other family history websites, and previous class room learning related to family history.

See you next January!

Joy Reisinger, RIP my friend

Paula Stuart-Warren  Colleagues  4 Comments

It was 1982 or 1983. I was in the audience here in Minnesota listening to a genealogy lecture by a woman dressed in pink. All pink. That aside, she knew her stuff! Thirty years later, that lady, a special friend is gone.

Joy Reisinger was her name. One of her specialties in the field was French-Canadian and Canadian research. Her serial publication Lost in Canada takes up a bunch of space on my bookshelves and I am so grateful for her dedication to that publication. Of course we were cousins a lot of generations back on our French-Canadian lines, but that’s common.

We bonded over research, talking about our kids, and having fun together. She encouraged me to take many big steps in the genealogy world. Way back in 1988 when I was working toward my certification by the Board for Certification of Genealogists, she encouraged me and kept repeating this mantra: document, document, document. Always three times. The meaning was to be dang sure I had the proper documentation aka citations in what I submitted. I got the hint! She was a great mentor. I was tickled when BCG granted her the title of Certified Genealogist Emeritus, a well-deserved honor.

About that time in 1988 she gave me my first opportunity to lecture at a national conference when the National Genealogical Society held the event here in my hometown of St. Paul. I turned down the opportunity because I knew I wasn’t ready.

When my husband received a life-threatening diagnosis of a heart condition, she was there for us. She put us in contact with a relative with the same heart condition. When we felt too shocked by all this to make a planned visit to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, she practically commanded that we still go. She was right. That trip got us motivated to keep on living and enjoying the friendship of others.

I served on the Association of Professional Genealogists Executive Committee with her and her follow Wisconsinites, Jim Hansen and Beth Stahr. We had great meetings and the friendship grew.

I watched her topically index the syllabi from the Federation of Genealogical Societies and NGS conference. We would chat about how to index some of the lectures that just didn’t fit the parameters she had set up. I wonder if I still have some of her early editions of that indexing?

When my personal life fell apart in 2003 she was there to bolster me. She was the conduit between me and a minister who helped me immensely. I am grateful to her for bringing the Reverend Doctor David McDonald into my life. In the last several months, he has kept me informed of Joy’s condition and about the recent death of her daughter, Jane.

If you never saw Joy’s home library and the wonderful working space her husband, Jim, made for her, you missed some real gems. I coveted that space.

As time went one, we had some other common interests as professionals in our chosen field. Then when we became grandmothers it was fun to talk about the new generations in our families. Then she became a great-grandmother and I teased her about that.

The last few times we were in Salt Lake City together I watched her struggle with breathing in the high altitude and due to her own physical issues. We even had one hospital visit there when she was suffering too much. She wanted to go alone but I told her it was my turn to help her. I was so scared we were losing her then.

There’s so much more I could tell you about Joy and what she has done for the field of family history but I should get back to working on my own renewal portfolio for BCG. I am sure she is waving her finger at me and telling me to do so!

Goodbye my friend. Thank you for letting me join you in so many parts of your journey in this life.

Minnesota Genealogy: Finding Divorce Records

Paula Stuart-Warren  Archives, Divorce Records, Minnesota Historical Society, Newberry Library  4 Comments

Learning that a family member may have been divorced 50, 75, or 150 years ago might yield a temporary shock to your system. It might also yield a plethora of family history details.

Divorce in the past is different from divorce today in some ways. Societal and family pressures may have caused a family or individual to hide the fact that a divorce took place. An abandoned woman may have listed herself as still married or as a widow and never filed for a legal divorce. Some couples just lived apart without benefit of a legal divorce. In Native American communities, tribal culture often considered divorce as simple as the couple separating and being involved in a new relationship. This practice veered toward official court proceedings in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. 

The impetus for consulting divorce or marriage dissolution files varies. For most family historians, the reason is not salacious, but to gain additional family details and to help understand family relationships. I once had a
client who wanted divorce files for several living family members. My immediate reaction was an uncomfortable feeling. My reason was strengthened by the fact that I knew some of the family members. When working on locating current people in legal matters such as research involving current probate, land, tribal enrollment, or mineral rights, I would look at the files but chose not to do so for that client.

Reasons for a divorce
A cause for the divorce cause was usually listed in the proceedings before no-fault divorce became common. It might have been a situation where spousal abuse occurred, adultery, one spouse deserted the other, one may have been intemperate in drink or financial matters, or one or more of many other reasons for the split. The details may be painful to read, but often explain family stories and problems. In my own family, I was 26 when I found out that my father had been previously married.

In the 1970s, the reasons given for filing divorce underwent a dramatic change. According to a 2010 article in the Wall Street Journal, “California adopted the first no-fault divorce bill in 1970; by 1985, every other state in the nation—but one—had passed similar laws. In New York, the miserably married must still charge each other with cruel and inhuman treatment, adultery or abandonment—or wait one year after a mutually agreed legal separation—in order to divorce.”(1) Minnesota’s no-fault divorce became law in 1974.(2)

The information shared in the balance of this article pertains mainly to historical divorce records, with a focus on Minnesota. The Constitution of the State of Minnesota states “Divorces shall not be granted by the Legislature.”(3) Previous to the adoption of the constitution, the territorial legislature granted a handful of marriage dissolutions.(4)

Keep in mind that one party to a divorce may have moved beyond Minnesota and filed in that location after meeting any residency requirements.

Case Files
Since enactment of the state constitution, divorce in Minnesota is generally a District Court matter. For past years, this equates to a county level civil court proceeding. In recent years some rural county courts no longer operate separately, but may have a court system combined with one or more counties. However, the divorce should still be recorded in the county where it was filed. The historical case files for many counties have been transferred to the Minnesota State Archives and are housed at the Minnesota History Center in St. Paul. This is the home of the Minnesota Historical Society (MHS).

In some places, the name or “jurisdiction” of the court in which the divorce proceeding took place may have been different in early years of a county. For example, in Ramsey County in the time period of the 1860s and 1870s some divorces also occurred in the Court of Common Pleas.(5)

Pay attention to historical county boundary changes in Minnesota. One great source for this is the Newberry Library’s Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.(6)

The most interesting part is the case file that generally contains details including the names of the parties, names and birth dates of minor children, place and date of marriage, current place of residence for each party, affidavits from relatives, and decisions regarding custody and financial care of any children. In some cases, you will find paternity discussions. Those were the days before DNA testing. The content will vary depending upon the time period and the reason for the divorce. Other pertinent records, but with less details, may include a court docket, court minutes, judgment books, final decrees, and may vary depending on the county and state where the divorce occurred. Don’t stop researching if you only have a copy of a divorce decree. If you aren’t sure of what all these terms mean or what the records might contain, check Black’s Law Dictionary or a Works Progress Administration inventory of county records.(7)
                   
Indexes
Civil court case files are in numerical order. The case file number was assigned when the court action was initiated; thus the number is basically chronological. We might guess the approximate date range yet we may not be sure of the actual filing date due to many factors. Some cases were not settled quickly and that could give us a problematic sense of the date. A spouse may have delayed filing in hope that a reconciliation would occur. In the 19th century civil case files may be mixed with criminal case files and other civil matters. Don’t be surprised if not all civil case files have been retained. Generally it’s a storage space issue in either the county or the state archives.

Unfortunately, the indexes for some of these are not part of the county record collections at the state archives. If you are onsite at MHS, other county records such as judgment books, minute books, registers of actions, or court dockets may have an index and lead you to a case file number. Then it’s a matter of ordering the box which contains that case file number. MHS has extensive finding aids with such details. MHS also fills requests for persons out of the area, and it would be wise to first contact the probable county for the case file number. The MHS website has details on ordering records.

In civil court indexes whether at the courthouse or MHS, you should be able to find one of the spouses in the Plaintiff Index and the other in the Defendant Index. For the majority of women that means you must have their married name.

“Modern” Divorce records
The Minnesota Department of Health kept an index to Minnesota divorce records from 1970-1995. It is searchable online at Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org.

Beginning in 1980 it is Family Court that should be contacted. For example, in Ramsey County, Minnesota, the jurisdiction changed in 1980.(8) Records through 1979 are a Civil Court matter. Some Family Court files are at MHS, but there may be access restrictions. The MHS online catalog states such cases.

The bottom line is to look for Minnesota historical divorce records in county level court records. In other states, learn more about the court system and where the divorce file may be found. As with other court records and terminology, it varies from place to place. For more recent divorces, the location to check is usually Family Court.

Then there are the Minnesota relatives who went to Nevada or to Sioux Falls, South Dakota to get divorced (or just married). That’s fodder for a future article as is my father’s divorce story.

_______________________________________________
(1) “Breaking Up is Hard to Do,” Wall Street Journal [online], 13 August 2010, http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052748704901104575423341295531582. Viewed 1 November 2013.

(2)  Minnesota Legislative Reference Library. “Minnesota Women’s Legislative Timeline Significant Legislation Passed by the Minnesota Legislature Since Suffrage” (1919-2010)  http://www.leg.state.mn.us/lrl/womenstimeline/details.aspx?recid=20. Viewed 1 November 2013.

(3)  “The Constitution of the State of Minnesota Republican Version Signed August 29, 1857, Article 4th, Sec. 28.” Viewed 1 November 2013 at http://www.mnhs.org/library/constitution/pdf/republicanversion.pdf

(4)  An Act to Dissolve the Marriage Contract Between George Wells and Catherine Wells, His Wife. Session Laws of the Territory of Minnesota Passed by the Legislative Assembly at the Session Commencing Wednesday Jan. 1, 1851. (St. Paul: James H. Goodhue, 1851). Chapter 22, March 28, 1851. Viewed 1 November 2013 at http://books.google.com.

(5)  Minnesota Historical Society, Minnesota State Archives, Ramsey County Court of Common Pleas, “An Inventory of Its Civil Case Files,” page 5. http://www.mnhs.org/library/findaids/ram-ct05.pdf. Viewed 1 November 2013.

(6)  Newberry Library. Atlas of Historical County Boundaries. A Project of the William M. Scholl Center for American History and Culture at The Newberry Library in Chicago. Accessible at http://publications.newberry.org/ahcbp/. Address current as of 1 November 2013.

(7)  Bryan A. Garner, editor. Black’s Law Dictionary. 9th ed. St. Paul: Thomson West, 2009. Also available in various electronic formats. The early editions of Black’s are usually better for older  terminology. An example of a county records inventory is Minnesota Historical Records Survey. Inventory of the County Archives of Minnesota: No. 87 Yellow Medicine County (Granite Falls). St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Records Survey, 1941. Surveys were published for 44 of the 87 counties in Minnesota. They were also published for many counties in other states. The unpublished manuscript surveys for other Minnesota counties may be found in the extensive collection of Works Progress Administration files at MHS. These surveys are described here: http://www.mnhs.org/library/findaids/00695c.xml. MHS also has some published county archives surveys for other states. A list is here: http://www.mnhs.org/genealogy/family/genieguide/wpa_county02.htm. Viewed 1 November 2013.Many of these county level record inventories have been digitized and may be seen at http://www.hathitrust.org/.

(8)  Ramsey County Divorce Records. http://www.co.ramsey.mn.us/ph/vr/divorce_records.htm. Viewed 1 November 2013.