#DiscoverFreedmen

The National Museum of African American History and Culture recently partnered with FamilySearch, the National Archives, the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society, and the California African American Museum to create a database of records of emancipated African Americans.

DiscoverFreedmen.org searches FamilySearch's collection of Freedmen's Bureau records. Established in 1865, the Freedmen's Bureau provided aid to recently emancipated slaves and poor whites in the South. The Freedmen's Bureau archives include marriage, census, land, court, school, and medical information from between 1865 and 1872. Because slaves were rarely recorded in pre-Civil War records, the Freedmen's Bureau is an excellent starting point for tracing enslaved ancestors.

 

Genealogy Research Day

Need help with a tough genealogy problem? Just getting started with your research? Drop in this Saturday to get one-on-one help with your genealogy and to utilize our print and digital resources. Join us in the Technology Lab or the Genealogy & Local History Room any time between 1-4 PM.

Books to break down your brick walls

Do you want to improve your genealogy research skills this year? Here are a few new(ish) books to help you master new techniques in the new year.

Advanced Genealogy Research Techniques by George G. Morgan
This book is all about breaking down your brick walls. The authors describe how to reexamine the evidence you have, how to use little-known resources, and how to develop research strategies to address your unique specific problems.

The Family Tree Guide to DNA Testing and Genetic Genealogy by Blaine T. Bettinger
This is the most comprehensive guide on DNA and genealogy. Understand the basics of DNA testing and how to interpret and incorporate your DNA results into your research.

How to Use Evernote for Genealogy by Kerry Scott
Learn how to organize your research (and your life!) with this helpful note-taking app. Store, organize, and share your documents, notes, photos, and audio files with Evernote.

Organize Your Genealogy by Drew Smith
One of my favorites! This excellent guide will help you organize not just your physical and digital files but also your research process, correspondence, research trips, and your educational goals.

The Troubleshooter's Guide To Do-It-Yourself Genealogy by W. Daniel Quillen
Go beyond the basics of genealogy research. Quillen provides in-depth explanations of records and advanced research techniques.

Unofficial Guide to Ancestry.com by Nancy Hendrickson
Explore all of Ancestry's vast collections and master the best search techniques for finding your ancestors. Also discusses Ancestry Family Trees and AncestryDNA.

Unofficial Guide to FamilySearch.org by Dana McCullough
Discover the best research strategies for using FamilySearch. Learn about their offline resources, family trees, and more.

Beginning Genealogy

New to genealogy? Attend our Beginning Genealogy class on January 17 at 2 PM. Learn the basic steps to get started with your research.

Register online or call the Reference Desk at 847-729-7500.

Name Changes at Ellis Island

One of the most common stories in American family lore is that officials at Ellis Island changed an
immigrant ancestor's name. It's a persistent myth and one that isn't true.

For the 125th anniversary of the opening of Ellis Island, Smithsonian.com examines the history of immigration in the US and explains the truth about immigration officials and names. Here are a few key points from the article:

Ellis Island inspectors were not responsible for recording immigrants’ names. Instead, any error likely happened overseas.

At the shipping line’s station in Europe, a clerk wrote the passenger’s name in the ship’s manifest, sometimes without asking for identification verifying the spelling.

The ship’s manifest was presented to Ellis Island inspectors after the boat docked. From there, the inspector would cross-reference the name on the manifest with the immigrant passenger, and also ask 30 questions to screen out rabble-rousers, loafers, or the physically and mentally infirm, but also to glean information on who they would be living with and where in America, says Urban. The inspectors also would see if the answers matched those recorded by the shipping clerk before departure.

“If anything, Ellis Island officials were known to correct mistakes in passenger lists,” says Philip Sutton, a librarian in the Milstein Division of United States History, Local History and Genealogy, at the New York Public Library, in a blog post delving into the name change mythology.

More commonly, immigrants themselves would change their names, either to sound more American, or to melt into the immigrant community, where they were going to live, says Sutton. If name changes happened with any frequency on Ellis Island, it was not noted in any contemporaneous newspaper accounts or in recollections from inspectors, Sutton says. 

It is also unlikely a foreign name would flummox an Ellis Island inspector. From 1892 to 1924, “one-third of all immigrant inspectors were themselves foreign-born, and all immigrant inspectors spoke an average of three languages,” says the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. 

Read the entire article to learn more about immigration in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.