Recap of the Family History Seminar, “Family Research, Texas Style”

On Saturday, August 27, 2011, the DRT Library held its eleventh Family History Seminar, entitled “Family Research, Texas Style.” This year’s speaker was John A. Sellars, a fifth-generation native of Hopkins County, Texas, who has been conducting genealogical research at county courthouses and other repositories since 1985. An officer and active member of the Hopkins County Genealogical Society, Sellars has completed courses and been a lecturer at Samford University’s Institute of Genealogical and Historical Research.

John A. Sellars was the featured speaker at this year's Family History Seminar.

The seminar included four presentations by Mr. Sellars. His first lecture asked whether Texas should be considered part of the South or the West. His answer: based on the state’s history, which he explored during the session, Texas is part of both the South and West. Mr. Sellars also argued that researchers can’t do genealogy without knowing about the history of the time and place in which their ancestors lived. Indeed, stated Mr. Sellars, looking at history can help genealogists break down “brick walls” (i.e. barriers, problems, or dead ends) in their research. He ended this lecture by providing an overview of Texas genealogical records, describing their value and where they can be found in physical archives or through online resources.

Mr. Sellars’ second talk focused on using newspapers in genealogical research. As the news medium of the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries, historical newspapers contain a wealth of information. They’re a “great way to breathe life back into your ancestors,” Mr. Sellars said, although using them can be “rewarding and tedious” and require additional fact-checking. He recommended that genealogists start their newspaper research by conducting historical and geographical research of their ancestral homes. This will help identify state newspapers that may have carried regional stories; regional papers that perhaps included local stories about the county or community in which one’s ancestors lived; and regional religious newspapers for an ancestor’s denomination or religion. While several Internet sites provide access to digital copies of historical newspapers, Mr. Sellars reminded the seminar attendees that libraries and archives often have hard and microfilm copies of papers that are currently unavailable online.

Seminar attendees obtained much useful information from Mr. Sellars' four lectures.

In his third presentation, Mr. Sellars explored the importance of collateral research, or learning more about an ancestor’s siblings and their offspring. He noted that during the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries people usually moved and relocated as part of extended family, church, or ethnic groups; intermarriage between families was common. Researching cousins to the same extent as direct ancestors can lead to new information and discoveries. Cousins can be identified by using census records to study the neighborhoods in which ancestors lived; noting witnesses or administrators listed on deeds, probates, and other courthouse records; and consulting county histories and cemetery records.

In the final talk of the seminar, Mr. Sellars examined how to locate information about an ancestor who was a member of a Masonic lodge. In an 1897 article in the North American Review, author H. S. Harwood described the “Golden Age of Fraternity” at the end of the nineteenth century. He reported that fraternal groups like the Freemasons, International Order of the Odd Fellows, Knights of Columbus, Knights of Pythias, and Improved Order of Red Men claimed five and a half million members while the total adult male population of the United States was approximately nineteen million. Mr. Sellars recommended that genealogists first look for clues that their ancestor may have been a Mason or a member of another fraternal organization. Clues can be found on tombstones, in published biographies, or in photographs that show organization symbols. To research a Masonic ancestor, Mr. Sellars recommended that genealogists consult published sources as well as Grand Lodge and local lodge records, although some documents may not be available to the general public.

From left, Leslie Stapleton, DRT Library Director; John A. Sellars; and Madge Thornall Roberts, DRT Library Committee Chairman.

Many thanks to Mr. Sellars for providing such interesting and informative lectures. Library staff members and the Daughters of the Republic of Texas Library Committee also thank everyone who supported the Library by attending the 2011 Family History Seminar.

Eleventh Family History Seminar to be Held Saturday, August 27

Join us on Saturday, August 27, 2011, for our eleventh Family History Seminar, “Family Research, Texas Style.” Our special guest speaker will be John A. Sellers, a fifth-generation native of Hopkins County, Texas, who has been conducting genealogical research since 1985. His four talks will explore Texas’s historical place in the West or Old South, the Internet and historical newspaper research, the significance of ancestors’ cousins, and Masonic history and records.

Registration is $45 per person and includes a boxed lunch. Reservations will remain open as long as seating is available. Additional information about the seminar – including a schedule, biography of Mr. Sellers, description of each lecture, and registration form – is available on the Library’s website. You can also call the DRT Library at (210) 225-1071 or send an email to drtl@drtl.org if you have additional questions or if you want to reserve a spot at the seminar before submitting your registration form and fee.

We look forward to seeing you on August 27th!

Recap of the Family History Seminar, “Investigating Your Family History”

This past Saturday, August 28, the DRT Library held its tenth Family History Seminar. This year’s speaker was Kelvin L. Meyers, a contract forensic genealogist, researcher, author, and lecturer.

A family tree from a genealogical manuscript that contains the history of several surnames, including Cordero, Odoardo, Ponce, Joanes, Bustamante, Manaldo, Trevino, and de la Riba. The document dates from 1755 and was compiled in connection with a Cordero-Bustamante marriage.

The seminar included four presentations by Mr. Meyers. His first lecture focused on overcoming challenges associated with identifying female ancestors; such obstacles arise from the status and limited legal and economic rights of American women in the past. Reflecting these circumstances, women traditionally changed their surname when they married, are largely absent from records such as property tax rolls and court and legal documents, and were frequently overlooked in many published genealogies. Mr. Meyers recommended gathering evidence about female ancestors from a variety of sources and tracking the men with whom she was associated, namely her father, brother(s), and husband as well as their wider circle of relatives, associates, friends, and neighbors.

Mr. Meyers’s second lecture focused on using church records, which he described as “vast” and potentially invaluable but also “underutilized” and challenging. In order to tap into these materials, a genealogist must first use a variety of  evidence to determine his or her ancestors’ religious denomination. Next, s/he must then determine where that denomination’s records are currently located.

A family crest in the Cordero family genealogical manuscript.

In his third presentation, Mr. Meyers reminded the seminar participants that our ancestors “did not live solitary lives”; rather, they “lived, loved, hated, sued, were sued, and died all within” particular groups of people. In other words, neighbors weren’t merely people who lived next door; rather, they were significant in the lives of our ancestors. Neighbors include more than just those people who lived geographically near our ancestors; additionally, they could also have been members of the same extended family, ethnic group, military unit, migration group, profession, fraternal organization, socioeconomic group, or church. Neighbors can also appear in ancestors’ records as, for example, an executor of an estate, guardians, witnesses, plaintiffs or defendants, debtors or creditors, and buyers or sellers of property. Mr. Meyers recommended collecting, analyzing, and correlating information about neighbors as thoroughly as if it was about your ancestors.

Mr. Meyers’s final talk focused on researching “those ancestors we don’t talk about.” Records that document such lives and circumstances can provide a wealth of information, but they are largely unexplored. Mr. Myers encouraged participants to make use of records such as those of civil and criminal courts and institutions such as hospitals, prisons, orphanages, and veterans’ homes.

The first page of the section documenting the history of the Bustamante family, contained within the genealogical manuscript.

While each of Mr. Meyers’s lectures focused on a particular topic, throughout each one he also provided general advice that is worthwhile for beginning and experienced genealogists. Some of his advice included:

• Slow down! Don’t just photocopy or transcribe the information you need and move on; instead, examine and explore records more closely when working with them.

• Let your ancestors be who they were as individuals and within their own time and place.  Read social histories to learn about historical contexts that shaped your ancestors and their lives.

• Genealogists need to understand the records of the state in which they are researching, i.e. the system that determined how records were created and maintained. Guides to conducting research in particular states are available through the National Genealogical Society and other organizations.

• Always work from the known to the unknown. This usually means, for example, starting with the present and working your way backwards through the past and increasingly distant generations.

• Make use of available resources such as digitized records and published sources and abstracts. However, when possible, also examine the original materials, too; you may discover additional or different information.

• Consider taking a class in old handwriting.

• Remember that most of the time the person who created the record wrote down what he heard. As a result, be sure to check for alternative, phonetically similar name spellings.

• Once you find the specific record you were searching for, examine other records from that same time period and area.

• Remember that genealogy is never finished.

• When evaluating records, ask yourself these questions: Who created it and why? What was their motive? What was their bias? What other clues does this document provide? Is there a preponderance of evidence that something is true?

• If you’re having trouble locating information about your ancestors, expand your circle to include their neighbors. Also, look beyond convenient records to documents that may be more obscure or more difficult to find and access.

• Remember the distinction between primary and secondary sources. Moreover, keep in mind that a primary source can contain primary and secondary information. For example, a death certificate includes information about the deceased’s date, place, and cause of death; this information is reported by a physician and/or others who witnessed the event and is thus primary information. However, a death certificate may also contain additional biographical information about the deceased, including his or her date and place of birth and the names of his or her parents and spouse. Generally, this information is documented by someone who was not an eyewitness to its occurrence. As a result, it would be considered secondary information contained within a primary source.

Many thanks to Mr. Meyers for providing such thought-provoking information and to the participants who attended this year’s Family History Seminar.

Click here for a full citation of the documents and images included in this entry.

Tenth Family History Seminar: “Investigating Your Family History”

Join us on Saturday, August 28, for our tenth Family History Seminar, “Investigating Your Family History.” Our special guest speaker will be Kelvin Meyers, who is a contract forensic genealogist, researcher, author, and lecturer. His four talks will explore how to find female ancestors; locate and use church records; research ancestors’ neighbors; and access prison, asylum, and court records.

Registration is $45 per person and includes a boxed lunch. Reservations will remain open as long as seating is available. Additional information about the seminar – including a schedule, a biography of Mr. Meyers, a description of each lecture, and a registration form – is available on the library’s website. You can also call the library at 210-225-1071 or send an email to drtl@drtl.org if you have additional questions or if you want to reserve a spot at the seminar before submitting your registration form and fee.

We hope to see you on August 28th!

Review of the Family History Seminar, “Land Research Workshop”

From left to right, Elaine Milam Vetter, DRT Library Committee Chairman; Donald Raney; Leslie Stapleton, DRT Library Director.

On Saturday, September 5, the DRT Library held its ninth family history seminar. This year’s speaker was Donald Raney, a sixth-generation Texan who has been an active genealogist for more than thirty years. He teaches genealogy courses at Richland College in Dallas and has presented sessions at many genealogical conferences throughout his career. His recently published book, Martin Varner, Texas Pioneer, 1785-1844, is about his great-great-great-grandfather.

Even though land records can be difficult to locate, navigate, use, and interpret, Mr. Raney began the seminar by arguing that they remain a highly valuable resource for genealogists for several reasons.

• Before 1850, over 90% of American males owned land. This means that, if you had ancestors in the United States prior to 1850, chances are that you can find information about them in land records. This is important, asserted Mr. Raney, considering that many landowners were ordinary farmers who may have left a limited trail of records besides land documents.

• Land records can assist in differentiating between individuals with the same name living in the same area at the same time.

• Land records were among the first documents reconstructed after fires at county courthouses. These recreated records were based on landowners’ copies of deeds. Thus, while fires, wars, and natural disasters have destroyed other types of documents that might be helpful for genealogists, land records are usually still extant.

While Mr. Raney also talked about Texas land records and historic routes of migration in the United States, his primary focus was how to conduct genealogical research in state land states and federal land states.

Map showing federal land states in blue and state land states in cream. This image is used courtesy of www.nationalatlas.gov and does not belong to the DRT Library.

State land states are those states that retained the right to dispose of land within their borders. Lands in these states were never part of the public domain. The twenty state land states include the original thirteen colonies (Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia) plus Maine, Vermont, West Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Texas, and Hawaii.

The remaining thirty states are federal land states. When the United States was established, the state land states retained title to all public land within their boundaries. However, all of their land claims outside their boundaries were ceded to the United States government. As new territories were purchased or ceded to the federal government, title to all vacant lands in these territories was vested in it. These new territories became the public domain, and the federal government controlled the distribution of these lands.

Donald Raney speaking at the Family History Seminar.

Mr. Raney explained that genealogists need to be aware of the significant differences that exist between state land states and federal land states, which include:

• How land was organized and measured: In state land states, land was described using metes and bounds, a method of surveying property which made use of natural physical and topographic features (e.g. trees, creeks, rivers, and swamps) in conjunction with measurements and artificially designated objects or places. By comparison, land in federal land states was divided using the public land survey system, which created grids of townships and ranges that were then subdivided into smaller sections.

The survey field notes (first page only shown here) taken for land David Crockett received in Bexar County are typical of the metes and bounds method.

Diagram showing how land in federal land states was divided into grids. This image is used courtesy of www.nationalatlas.gov and does not belong to the DRT Library.

• Where land records can be found: In state land states, records documenting original landowners (i.e. individuals who acquired property from the government) can be found in the appropriate state archives. In federal land states, these documents can be found in agencies of the federal government such as the National Archives and the Bureau of Land Management. In both types of states, subsequent landowners can be found in deed indexes and books, which are located in county records.

Throughout his four lectures, Mr. Raney discussed land records within the broader context of history and provided specific, practical information about how to access such documents. He talked about the history of how land has been distributed and acquired throughout American history as well as how governments have recorded those processes and transactions, arguing that using land records requires an understanding of these topics. Additionally, Mr. Raney described numerous places – including archives, libraries, and websites – where land records can be accessed and provided tips and methods for effectively using land documents for genealogical research.

Seminar attendees came away with much useful information from Mr. Raney.

Armed with protractors, participants practiced mapping land boundaries and drawing plats using the metes and bounds method of land measurement and description.

Many thanks to Mr. Raney for providing such thought-provoking information and to the participants who attended this year’s Family History Seminar.

Click here for a full citation of the documents and images included in this entry.

Ninth Family History Seminar: Land Research Workshop

Join us on Saturday, September 5, for our ninth Family History Seminar. This year’s seminar will be a “Land Research Workshop” focusing on land records as an important resource in genealogical research. Participants will learn how to locate and use different types of federal and state land records such as maps and deeds. Our special guest speaker will be Mr. Donald Raney, a sixth-generation Texan who has been an active genealogist for over thirty years.

Registration is $45 per person, which includes a box lunch. Reservations will remain open as long as seating is available. Additional information about the seminar is available on the library’s website; you can also call the library at 210-225-1071 or send an email to drtl@drtl.org if you have further questions.

We hope to see you on September 5th!

Review of the Family History Seminar, “Bursting Through Brick Walls”

From left to right, Leslie Stapleton, DRT Library Director; Connie Impelman, Library Committee Chairman; and Lloyd de Witt Bockstruck.

This past Saturday, the DRT Library held its eighth annual Family History Seminar. This year’s speaker was Lloyd de Witt Bockstruck, an award-winning and well-respected librarian, author, lecturer, and genealogist. Mr. Bockstruck has been a librarian at the Dallas Public Library since 1973 and currently serves as the supervisor of its genealogy department. He has also been a faculty member at the Institute of Genealogical and Historical Research at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama, since 1974.

Mr. Bockstruck began the seminar by establishing a general framework or approach to genealogical research. He posed four questions to which both novice and experienced genealogists should return as they investigate their family’s history:

• What do I want to find out or prove/document?
• What kind of record would contain that information?
• Where is that record located today?
• How do I access those records?

These questions hint at one of the ideas underlying Mr. Bockstruck’s talk, namely the need for genealogists to think about the connection between an event in the past and how that event is represented in recorded history. He urged seminar participants to use record-generating events in their ancestors’ lives to guide their investigations. While typically family history researchers focus on an ancestor’s birth, marriage, and death, other events such as buying or selling land, attending school, serving in the military, and being involved in court disputes also generate records that contain information about an ancestor’s life.

Mr. Bockstruck answers a question during one of his presentations.

The title of this year’s symposium was “Bursting Through Brick Walls,” and Mr. Bockstruck’s four presentations focused on illegitimacy; substitutes for birth and death records; pitfalls commonly encountered by genealogists; and onomatology, or the study of names. Individually and collectively, these talks offered guidance to participants on how to solve problems that might derail further genealogical investigation or prevent continued progress.

Mr. Bockstruck described many types of archival records that may contain information of importance to family history researchers. These include records of schools and universities, churches, and courts as well as newspapers, wills and probate documents, letters, and diaries. Records of federal, state, and local governments also contain a wealth of information for genealogists, who can utilize, for example, records pertaining to adoption, military service, voting, land transactions, coroners’ investigations, and each branch of government.

Seminar participants await the beginning of Mr. Bockstruck's presentation.

Once a genealogist has located and accessed a record, he or she then faces the challenge of interpreting its content. To successfully accomplish this, Mr. Bockstruck argued, a genealogist needs to become familiar with the time and place in which his or her ancestor lived, i.e. the historical context in which the original records were created. Specifically, Mr. Bockstruck emphasized how interpreting legal circumstances and word usage in older documents from a twenty-first-century perspective can result in a genealogist drawing incorrect conclusions from a record and spending a significant amount of time pursuing irrelevant lines of inquiry. Thus, Mr. Bockstruck urged participants to familiarize themselves with the customs that were known to and practiced by people living in the past.

Many thanks to Mr. Bockstruck for providing such thought-provoking information and to the participants who attended this year’s Family History Seminar.