NAVIGATING ALONG the RIVER - Research Tips

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This is a post card with a photo of Evansville's St. Mary's Hospital submitted by TSGS member Claudia Gleason. She stated that this card was mailed 03 Feb 1910 (about 100 years ago!). Please click on the photo to get a larger image.
I may be using the modern campus at St. Mary's in the near future to have a pacemaker defibrillator installed to make sure my old engine is performing at maximum efficiency.

This reminds me of a good research tip to pass on. Since I judge the 4-H Genealogy project exhibits in several of the counties surrounding Evansville, I have discovered that many of the kids & their families do not think about where their family members were born or died. Taking Warrick and Posey counties as examples... at the time this postcard was created some people were being born or died at home, but as time went along more were going to the nearest hospital to have a baby or to get medical treatment and, hopefully, not to die. If they came to St. Mary's Hospital to give birth or died there, the place of the event would be in Vanderburgh County and that is where the event is recorded and certificates can be obtained. They may have been born and lived their entire life (and even buried) in Warrick or Posey County; however, their record of birth or death would be in Vanderburgh County.

Where there are rural counties surrounding a larger town or city... there may be only one hospital and that would be in the larger community. Check the county they lived in first. If you can not find a record of birth or death, check for a nearby county with a hospital. Also, consider this: your county may have had a hospital, but it was not the one your family would use. St. Mary's is a Catholic hospital, Deaconess is a Protestant one with Welborn being a Baptist hospital... religion affiliation might have played a factor, as well.

- Post card submitted by Claudia Gleason
- Article compiled by JGWest

From the FIRST MATE's PHOTO ALBUM...

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Prototype Coffin Screws Into the Ground to Save Space

Donald Scruggs has a ground-breaking new idea... the Screw-In Coffin!

"They're not making any more real estate; not until we colonize other planets at least. Laying out our dead horizontally, and leaving them in peace forever, is becoming an expensive proposition. That's why inventor Donald Scruggs has come up with the screw-in coffin.
Holding a body vertically, it is screwed down into the ground securely, to optimize graveyards' use of space. It can be screwed in manually or with a machine, and designed to take into account the density of the earth where it's used. Scruggs has installed the prototype below in his own California backyard, and is working on refining the idea. He even envisions a transparent model for those wishing a glamorous burial." [Discover]

- Photo taken by David Friedman via Discover

- This photo & article was posted on Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter

Evansville Family Doctor 1850-1860's

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The Evansville Museum...
has a very nice display of the office of
Dr. William M. Elliott
who graduated from Evansville Medical College in 1853.
[Read more by clicking on the sign below to get a bigger image.]


Dr. Elliott's Office in the lower level of the Evansville Museum.

- Photos taken & submitted by JGWest

Marker/Plaque/Monument Monday

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Evansville Fire Department
Hose House #14...

one of 2 fire stations scheduled to be closed this year - near St. Benedict's School, Memorial High School & University of Evansville (not far from The Little Sisters of the Poor Nursing Home).
It is the primary responder to my home, too. Was to be closed on Jan. 1st. - but, is still in operation after all of the protests... but one day they will quietly close it.

- Phot taken & submitted by JGWest

NAVIGATING ALONG the RIVER - Research Tips

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Family Traditions

First we need to define "family tradition" in regard to genealogy. Here, we are not discussing customs or lifestyles. We are talking about family stories that have been passed from one generation to the next. And like the game "telephone" where a player whispers a short message to the person next to them and that person passes the message to the next down the line to the last person who tells the group what the message is... which is usually way different than the original! Family traditions like most undocumented information if originally based on some sort of facts which can be helpful in our research. It can give us a theory to verify the story. Occasionally, we get something from another researcher that states "family tradition says," when in actuality, the information is a non-documented statement that the origin is totally unknown and did not get passed down from family members. Thus, it is of even lesser value than family tradition might be.

How many of us have a family tradition that there is Native American blood in our ancestry? My mother's mother's family often spoke about our family having Indian ancestors. No one could tell me on which branch or who was Native American or any other clues that could help me research the facts. After years of researching all of these lines back as far as I could go... I did not find anything that suggested any connection to Native Americans. However, one day I did discover a connection in a story in an early history book that stated some of my ancestors being massacred by a renegade tribe of Indians. A woman and her children were kidnapped with some being brutally murdered including a young baby. The woman and one daughter were my direct ancestors. Could it be that my family passed down a story of this horrible tragedy that over the generations turned around to embrace Native Americans as family? Several years later, I learned of a branch of this same family had applied for a claim for Native American's benefits with some facts in the application that made it seem very probable that there was Native American ancestors. So it seems that the family tradition had some merit after all and now I know where it comes from.

Family traditions generally contain partial truths that are vague and often mixed-up with missing facts and the source of how the tradition began. Often these stories are passed along because of vanity to connect with someone famous. I suspect every WEST in the United States has a story of how they are related to Lord De La Warr (Thomas West)... a Colonial Governor. There is a state & river named for him - Delaware! The Delaware Indians were named indirectly for him. They called themselves "Lenape;" the British called them Delaware for the river where they resided. My West family has many stories of our descent from this very famous early American Colonial family. However, the "proof" is very circumstantial and weak in regards to genealogical standards. And, according to Family Tree DNA where the results of my family were taken... there is a y-DNA group who have shown their descent from Lord Delaware's family that does not match our y-DNA West group. It seems that this family tradition has no merit.

- Compiled by JGWest

From My Email Box - "Links & Other News!"

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Ohio Valley SAR Chapter member John Van Zandt sent me this info: "This email came to me from the Mississippi Society President on 7-13-2010." Hopefully by this time next year, you will be able to view SAR applications on Ancestry.com. The SAR has signed a contract with Ancestry which provides that Ancestry will digitize and index ALL SAR applications, and will post on their website those applications that were approved through 1970. - Joseph W. Dooley, NSSAR Genealogist General

This is a neat photo gallery that Don Counts forwarded to me: Captured: America in Color from 1939-1943 – Plog Photo Blog... These images (70), by photographers of the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information, are some of the only color photographs taken of the effects of the Depression on America’s rural and small town populations. The photographs are the property of the Library of Congress and were included in a 2006 exhibit Bound for Glory: America in Color. This is on the DenverPost.com site.

Virginia L. Aldridge sent this via the invander@rootsweb.com email list: Subject: Re: [INVANDER] Browning Funeral Home Records [Her message was in response to people posting that they could not get the Browning Online Genealogical Database to upload.] "I had a similar experience recently. I believe they might have changed the name for the web page, as when I did a Google search I had no trouble locating it. Here is the link I put on my Resources Online page: http://browning.evpl.org/ "

This from TSGS Program Chair Becky West: "Remind everyone that starting at our 14 Sep 2010 meeting, we will begin the meetings at 7:00 PM this is one half hour earlier than it used to be... this is the new time as voted into practice by the TSGS members."

Deborah Hull sent this via the MyFamily.com site - Our Breckinridge, Hancock and Ohio County Cousins: "Found this at Access Genealogy." http://www.accessgenealogy.com/worldwar/kentucky/breckinridge.htm

Access Genealogy claims to be the largest free genealogy web site not owned by Ancestry.com! And it has some great data... check it out.

Tombstone Thursday - Gaultney

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Locust Hill Cemetery

Evansville, Indiana

Civil War Section

Fleety Gaultney

Died 12 July 1930

Accoring to the Browning Online Genealogy Database, he died on 19 Jul 1930 and he was only 49 years old... died at the Marine Hosptal. He was survived by wife Hattie and 3 sisters: Mrs. Emma Parker, Mrs. Joe Haas, & Mrs. Edgar Schmitt.

- Photo taken & submitted by JGWest

[Tombstone Thursday is dedicated in memory of Donald G. West 1952-2000]