"Taken with a Large Grain of Salt"

Take a look at that wonderful family pictured above.

They are the case study for my talk: "Taken with a Large Grain of Salt" -- Verifying Family Stories.

I can tell you that the Richardson family did not make it easy to verify the family stories, but I found success with other records beyond the usual (vital, census, immigration, land, probate, etc.)

I will be giving the talk as a webinar on Tuesday 3 March 2015, at 2 p.m. (EST).

I will be giving a longer version of the talk at the Worcester Chapter of the Massachusetts of Genealogists (MSOG) on Saturday 7 March 2015, at 10 a.m.  Non-members are welcome to attend but there is a $3 visitor's fee.

Here is the sign-in information from the National Institute for Genealogical Studies (NIGS) for the Webinar on Tuesday:

Join us on Tuesday, March 3rd at 2:00 PM EST when Erica Dakin Voolich presents "Taken with a Large Grain of Salt" - Verifying Family Stories".

Presenter: Erica Dakin Voolich is an author, blogger and teacher who has transitioned from using her problem solving skills in the mathematics classroom to solving family history problems.

Presentation Description: We collect family stories, but we can't assume veracity. Traditional sources don't always confirm the legend. Doing a case study, we look at other sources to verify the family information.

Time zones: Tuesday, March 3rd - 2:00 PM Eastern; 1:00 PM Central; 11:00 AM Pacific; 7:00 PM in London, England; Wednesday, March 4th - 6:00 AM in Sydney, Australia

MEETING LOCATION: http://genealogicalstudies.adobeconnect.com/lecturing/
(NOTE: No user name or password required. Please type in your first and last name; then click "Enter as a Guest".)  Please sign-in about 10-15 minutes early so that you are all ready to start at 2.

I hope you will be able to join me at one of the venues.
Erica


The link to this page is: http://genea-adventures.blogspot.com/2015/03/taken-with-large-grain-of-salt.html
©2015, Erica Dakin Voolich

A Genealogy Angel! a RAOGK* in action!

In a blog post on A Family Legend and The Rest of the Story
I mentioned:

"When I asked my mother about her Richardson family, she said they came from Belfast Northern Ireland to Canada.  After she died I found her 8th grade autobiography where she said 'the Richardsons were great landholders in the north of Ireland.  After awhile they came to Canada and settled in Quebec.'"

In that blog post I mentioned that:
I found the wedding of Robert Richardson and Sarah Allen, the parents of William Richardson in the Anglican Cathedral Holy Trinity Church in Québec on 25 May 1832.  William was born on 5 November 1835 in Québec City.  Robert was a cordwainer.  Sarah had four children before she died 28 January 1843, in Québec City.  Robert remarried, this time to Harriet Isabella Birch on 20 September 1843.  They had nine children.  Not all of his 13 children made it to adulthood.  In the 1851 and 1871 censuses, Robert says he was born in 1810 in Ireland.

I have not verified the "great landholders" or the "Northern Ireland." Robert did work as a cordwainer in Québec, he sounds like someone who is working for a living rather than managing an estate of some kind in Québec.  I have not found any passenger records bringing Robert to Québec -- so I don't know if he came as a young adult or as a child.  I haven't found any potential Richardson parents for him in Québec.  I have noticed there are many Richardsons in Northern Ireland, many of them named William Richardson and some own land.  Robert's first son was named William.  So, maybe that part of the story is true.  That is left to be investigated further.

This has been a challenge without much success for a number of years.

Then out of the blue, a genealogy angel appeared unexpectedly.  On 28 January, I received an message on Ancestry.com's Message Board.

From: Maria XXXX
Subject:  Hi from Ireland
My name is Maria XXXX and I live in Dublin.  I am currently
researching old newspapers in the hope of gathering information for
the family trees of several friends I am currently trying to help.  If I
happen across any that might be of interest to another family tree
then I try, where possible to track down that tree on ancestry so as 
to match them. ....

I do not know Maria, never heard of her, she's not related to me, she is searching for her friends and then doing this wonderful random act of kindness "If I
happen across any that might be of interest to another family tree
then I try, where possible to track down that tree on ancestry so as 
to match them."
So Maria is helping her friends AND the owners of their trees when she finds relevant obituaries.
Such a surprise.

So continuing with Maria's message:
... I believe the following death notice that appeared in 
The Montreal Daily Witness on the 26th Jan in 1875 belongs on
your Richardson Family Tree: "RICHARDSON -- In this city, on the
morning of the 26th January, Mr. Robert Richardson, aged 66 years,
a native of Cork, Ireland, and for many years a resident of Quebec. ...

A NATIVE of CORK!
Not exactly Belfast or Northern Ireland, But a place to start looking.
Maybe his family came from Northern Ireland Richardsons and moved to Cork and then he moved to Québec as a young man (before he married in 1832 and after he was born in 1810).
This opens up possibilities for searching.

The funeral will take place from his late residence of No 42 St.
Charles Barromee street, on Thursday, the 28th at 2.30 o'clock p.m.
thence to Mount Royal Cemetery.  Relatives, friends and
acquaintances are respectfully invited to attend without further
notice.  Quebec papers please copy."  I hope this helps with your
research.  Slan, Maria"

I followed Robert Richardson in the church records in Québec City for his two marriages and the births of his 13 children, and the deaths of a few of them.  I followed him in the local directories as a shoemaker, until he wasn't there any longer.  Then I found him and his wife Harriet Isabella Birch living with one of their children in Montréal and did have his death and burial there in 1875 -- matching exactly the information here.

But, I did not have his final address in Montréal, the fact that he told people that he came from Cork.
So, this was a wonderful gift from Maria in Dublin!

The other gift was Maria also took the time to transcribe a document from the Montreal Daily Witness (26 January 1875, page 3) that was not easy to read (she generously shared the link too in another message):

 

Thank you Maria from Dublin, you are a wonderful genealogical angel to be finding and sharing these obituaries with unsuspecting folks around the world who need your help!



*RAOGK = a "Random Act of Genealogical Kindness" -- just not from that very special website which was recently revived after the death of it's original site manager.

The link to this page is http://genea-adventures.blogspot.com/2015/02/a-genealogy-angel-raogk-in-action.html
©2015, Erica Dakin Voolich

One More Scrapbook Revelation and a P.S.

Who is this sweet little girl?  

Why is her picture on a cover of a magazine including an article about "Blind Man's Bluff"?

This is Martha Elnora (Mattie or Nora) Worthington Richardson.
Either Mattie or her mother, Elnora Esther Cobb Worthington, created a beautiful scrapbook full of pictures from the DeMorest's Monthly Magazine that I wrote about in a series of blog posts.

In my third post about the scrapbook, I wrote:

Since initially posting about my family's scrapbook initially in A Scrapbook with a Surprise, little did I know how this would challenge me to find out more.  I had no idea that so much could be learned from what looked like a simple scrapbook full of period pictures.  I shared some of that adventure in Some Logic, Some Help, and "Ask a Librarian" or two ... Gives an Answer.   Well the adventure continues and, as the blindfolded person in the above picture, I feel as if the clues are all around me -- IF I could ONLY see them!

Here's my latest update on the adventure.

Discovering that the scrapbook was made from a copy of the Congressional Record (45th Congress, 1877-1879) led to one question after another about not only the Congressional Record but also the history of scrapbooking in an attempt to date the album.

The help of many people made this story possible:
Gena Philibert-Ortega (http://philibertfamily.blogspot.com), Ellen Gruber Garvey (author Writing with Scissors: Am. Scrapbooks from the Civil War to the Harlem Renaissance), Madaleine J Laird (www.kinfolit.com), Connie Reik (Tisch Library, Tufts U), George D Barnum (Agency Historian Government Printing Office), and John J Devine (Boston Public Library, Social Sciences and Governmental Information Department).
Thank you.

Now, you can read the whole story in one article in the Winter 2015 issue of Crossroads, or in my series of blog posts:
A Scrapbook with a Surprise
Some Logic, Some Help, and "Ask a Librarian" or two ... Gives an Answer
Blind Man's Bluff ... Is that What this Scrapbook Playing with Me?

The conclusion, included in the article but not in the above posts is this:
In order to date the scrapbook, just finding the year of publication of the pictures in it and year of publication of the Congressional Record that was being used was not sufficient.  We needed to know when the volume became available to the general public.  The congressional sessions that it covered, ended in February 1879.  After editing, reviewing, etc. it would then go to press.  Now, the turn around is about 18 months.  How long it was then, is unknown.  The clue would be when would it have arrived at the Depository Libraries around the country.  The congressmen would have had it to share with constituents about the same time.  So, checking with the Boston Public Library, the date it was checked into the BPL collection was 2 September 1884 -- 5 1/2 years after it the congressional session ended.

A post script:
I thought my blog post ended there, with knowing the possible date of the acquisition -- what else was there to learn?

Well, George D Barnum, after seeing the article in the Crossroads, emailed me:

Erica,
I just looked again at the article, and I couldn’t resist passing this thought along: I don’t believe I’d seen a photo of the binding of your scrapbook before.  It’s a very standard GPO binding of its time. The marbled paper on the boards of the front and back cover would have been made here at GPO (believe it or not, we still do it for some things, although not the bound Record any more).    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiDPY3wprkQ

GB

Thank you George for that last clue and interesting video.


©2015 Erica Dakin Voolich
The link to the page is http://genea-adventures.blogspot.com/2015/02/one-more-scrapbook-revelation-and-ps.html

Robert Richardson, who are you? Mary Curtis, who are you? Thomas Richardson, who are you?

Among the pictures in the box of family pictures was this handsome gentleman.  Written on the back:

"Robert Richardson

(father of Thomas Richardson

who married Mary Curtis)"

From my untrained eye, the photo seems to be an ambrotype (1855-1865).

It was with the photos of my Richardson family.  I have a Robert Richardson (1810, Ireland - 1875, Québec City & Montréal Canada) married twice first to Sarah Allen (abt. 1815 - 1843, Québec City) in 1832 and Harriet Isabella Birch (1818, Québec City - 1902, Montréal) in 1843.

Robert and Sarah had a son Thomas Richardson born 27 October 1837 in Québec City.  I have not found any marriage of him to to anyone, let along a Mary Curtis.

Robert and Harriet had a son Robert who lived less than a year (August 1846 - 13 April 1847).

Maybe, there was another son of Robert who produced a grandson named Thomas who married Mary Curtis.  With a large family you'd expect some potential candidates.

Robert had 14 children with his two wives, at least 5 children made it to adulthood and 6 are known to have died in childhood.  There are potential possibilities of fathers for the Robert shown in the photo:  Thomas (b. 1837), Charles (b. 1848), Frederick (b. 1852), Arthur Henry (b. 1855).  But age wise, any of these sons having a son Robert as early who was an adult to fit the dates of the picture seems improbable.  Their  brother, my Great Great Grandfather William, did not have any son named Robert.

Clearly, this was someone possibly connected to my Richardson family who had very few pictures of family members.  Cousin in Canada?   Cousin in USA?  Cousin in Ireland?

Maybe our Robert had a not-yet-identified brother,  who had a son Robert with a son Thomas?

Another possible clue:  when I was researching my William Richardson (pictured in 4-generation picture above), son of Robert Richardson and Sarah Allen, I contacted the Bank of Montreal.  The Archives shared their records of William and mentioned a Robert Richardson who also worked for the bank.

Any information will be gratefully accepted as I try to figure out my Richardson family.

And if Robert Richardson above is your ancestor, maybe we are cousins!

Mild-mannered Clerk or Secret Service Agent ... The Sequel!

In Mild-mannered Clerk or Secret Service Agent ... The Rest of the Story! I wrote about Harry Bogart Richardson's exciting adventures in the Secret Service chasing counterfeiters in Denver.  I included newspaper clippings of arrests and mentioned that I had confirmed that he worked for the Secret Service for 2 years, 1907-1909.

What I didn't have was any of the actual daily records of his life in the Secret Service -- if there was newspaper coverage of arrests and investigations, there must be more details.  I also have wondered why would someone who in all the decades in the US census was selling insurance or bonds or working as a clerk would have decided to become an Operative for the Secret Service?
The actual records from the National Archives might answer some questions.

Oh how revealing those records turned out to be!

One letter, dated 28 November 1906 from the Chief, thanks Harry for information sent to the Secret Service,

BUT  "in the hope we may be able to see you down here later on"  and is addressed "dear Dicky"

This sounds like John Wilkie, the Chief of the Secret Service, already knows Harry Bogart Richardson.

The next communication to Harry from John Wilkie  is 15 March 1907, 

telling Harry that his appointment has gone through -- not telling him what it is-- that comes on 18 March, sending him to Denver to report to Lucien Wheeler in the Quincy Building at a $4/day per diem.

Among the letters in the files from the Secret Service is a letter from Harry to John Wilkie, explaining why he needs the job.

"The present state of the stock market has virtually put me out of business, as the people with whom I deal are ... less interested in Wall Street-- Consequently they are either out of funds or are looking for bargains.."

A financial crisis starting after the Stock Market peak in 1906, developed into the Panic of 1907.  Clearly, the normal life of commenting to Chicago to sell stocks or bonds or insurance was not such a secure living for a family of 4 -- time to check with your friend who used to be a journalist in Chicago who then went on to be the Chief of the Secret Service, maybe he would have some work to offer.

This was just the beginning of Harry's adventures.

He spent the next year chasing folks involved in land fraud in Denver and the year after that chasing after counterfeiters.  There are many pages of daily reports in the National Archives about the day to day life of the agents in Denver.  They documented everything (not all of it is so exciting as the newspaper stories might lead one to believe).

This year's book for the family is the story of Harry's year chasing counterfeiters -- it has all the details of the daily life of the agents in the Denver office.

So, if you are interested in what the life of a secret service agent was like, or if you have some ancestor that the operatives where chasing in Denver, feel free to read Mild Mannered Businessman or Secret Service Agent or even buy it from Lulu.com.  I donated copies to Allen County Public Library, New England Historic Genealogy Society, Oak Park Public Library, and St Louis County Library (NGS collection).  I have donated my previous books to libraries and historical societies and encourage others to do likewise.  

The link to this article is http://genea-adventures.blogspot.com/2015/01/mild-mannered-clerk-or-secret-service.html

©Erica Dakin Voolich 2015