Big City Genealogy Research

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Big City Genealogy Research

• Cafi Cohen
• Education Chair
• SLOCGS

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Big City Genealogy Research

• OUTLINE
• Advantages/disadvantages
• Research process in big cities
• Urban research strategies
• Resources online and everything else

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Urban Research - Downside

• Bureaucracies
• Huge volume of records
• More unindexed records
• Difficult access
• Fewer volunteers
• More likely you will hire a researcher - APG
• Records in one large city will differ from those
  in another large city

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• Urban Research The Upside
• Cities w/RESOURCES to collect/disseminate info
• City governments get more info on residents
• Vital records may begin EARLIER than elsewhere
• Example 1878 birth return Chicago,
  IllinoisSource pilot.familysearch.org

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Genealogy Research Process

• Goal? Ask a question
• Existing research? Compiled sources?
• Research
• Find new data
• Original sources
• Organize data
• Filing
• Update database
• Documented family group sheets
• Analysis Correlation
• Set new goal, refine original goal

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Gen Research Process Modified for Big Cities

• Goal? Ask a question
• Existing research? Compiled sources?
• Pre-Research Each New Big City
• Research
• Organize data
• Analysis Correlation
• Set new goal, refine original goal

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Pre-Research

• Wikipedia articles
• History
• Jurisdictions
• Maps
• City Public Library website
• Online genealogy databases
• Google
• St. Louis genealogy
• italians chicago genealogy
• Record overview
• Ancestry use the Search Tab ? Card Catalog
• Family History Library Catalog

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Pre-Research Example

• St. Louis, Missouri

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• EXAMPLE St. Louis, Missouri Wikipedia info
• History
• 1830 population 5,000
• 1840 population explodes
• Influx of Germans, Bohemians, Irish
• Jurisdictions 1876 City of St. Louis secedes
  from St. Louis County became an independent
  city
• Map

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• St. Louis Public Library - Genealogy

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Google St. Louis, Missouri genealogy ?
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Record Overview - Ancestry
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Record Overview - FHLC
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Pre-Research

• Wikipedia articles
• History
• Jurisdictions
• Maps
• City Public Library website
• Online genealogy databases
• Google
• St. Louis genealogy
• italians chicago genealogy
• Record overview
• Ancestry use the Search Tab ? Card Catalog
• Family History Library Catalog

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Big City Research

• Create a Tool Kit Expect ?
• 1-5 hours to PRE-RESEARCH your big city

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Urban Research Strategies

• Difficult research
• Begin with your ancestral lines from rural areas
• In big cities, begin with less common surnames
• Shattuck before Kelly

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Urban Research Strategies

• Difficult research ? use proven techniques
• History geography pre-research
• Family sources first
• Solid generational links
• GPS
• Identifiers for direct/collateral ancestors
• Cluster genealogy

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• Family Sources First
• Info not necessarily available tomorrow
• Include collaterals
• Post your tree online post to message boards to
  find unknown cousins

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• Solid pedigree evidence links Genealogical
  Proof Standard
• Reasonably exhaustive SEARCH
• Complete source CITATION
• ANALYSIS correlation of evidence
• RESOLUTION of conflicting evidence
• Soundly reasoned written CONCLUSION
• http//genealogy.about.com/cs/citing/a/proof.htm
• Excellent article - genealogical proof standard

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Genealogical Proof Standard

• Nemonic ? SCARCApplications Brick walls
  Situations with conflicting evidence Big
  Cities ?
• Reasonably exhaustive SEARCH
• Source CITATION
• Source/information ANALYSIS
• RESOLUTION of conflicting evidence
• Written CONCLUSION

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• URBAN RESEACH STRATEGIES
• Difficult research ? use proven techniques
• History geography pre-research
• Family sources first
• Solid generational links
• GPS
• Identifiers for direct/collateral ancestors
• Cluster genealogy

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Identifiers for direct and collateral ancestors

• Needle in a haystack? Use identifiers ?
• Name
• Age/birth date
• Gender
• Birth/death place
• Residences
• Family members ?spouse, children, parents, sibs
• Occupation
• Ethnic group
• Religion
• School

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• URBAN RESEACH STRATEGIES
• Difficult research ? use proven techniques
• History geography pre-research
• Family sources first
• Solid gen links
• GPS
• Identifiers for direct/collateral ancestors
• Cluster genealogy

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• Cluster Genealogy
• Bag those collateralsBetter Christopher Kelly
  than John Kelly
• 1880 US census NYC John Kelly 771 hits
• 1880 US census NYC Christopher Kelly 11
  hits
• 1876 NY Times John A. Kelly, the man who was
  killed on Friday night, was thirty years of age,
  and although a dissolute character, was a member
  of a respectable family living at No. 199
  Mulberry street. He was a machinist by trade.

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Cluster Genealogy How-To

• Kimberly Powell article
• Sleuth Book for Genealogists
• The Family Tree Problem Solver

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• URBAN RESEACH STRATEGIES
• Difficult research ? proven techniques
• History geography pre-research
• Family sources first
• Solid generational links
• GPS
• Identifiers for direct/collateral ancestors
• Cluster genealogy

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Big City Sources Fun Tour

• Suggestions for first passes
• Examples
• Not a definitive list
• In-depth research ? Re-do the pre-research step
  Cast a wider net

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Big City Sources

• Vital Records
• Death Indexes.com
• City Directories
• Censuses
• Medical Records
• Newspapers

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Big City Sources

• Vital Records
• Online
• LDS microfilm, books, databases
• Local
• Library
• Courthouse
• Gen Society

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Online Vital Records

• DeathIndexes.com
• Google for others
• SEARCH TERMS Philadelphia marriage records
  - FOUND Philadelphia marriage index 1885-1951

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Deathindexes.com
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Spring Grove Cemetery, Cincinnati, Ohio
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• City Directories
• Use in conjunction with other sources
• Multiple years useful
• No directory all-inclusive
• More than one directory published some years

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• City Directories
• Put together families at same address
• Online, search on ADDRESS only
• Indirectly find deaths widows specified
• Discover occupations
• Track families through time
• Multiple years same address ownership?
• Frequent moves renter?

1876 NYC Directory at Ancestry
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City Directories
1885 Philadelphia, Footnote
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• Censuses
• 1850-1870 US census, cities divided into wards
• Dual US 1870 enumerations for
• New York City, Philadelphia, Indianapolis
• 1880 second enumeration for St. Louis
• Families listed twice in same census
• State and special censuses
• NYC 1890 Police census
• 1905, 1915, 1925 NYC state census

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James Pryor household 1870 NYC First Enumeration
11 Jul 1870
2nd Enumeration 19 Dec 1870
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Brooklyn, New York 1890 census
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4 June 1900 US Census 99 E. 110 Street, New York
City
7 June 1900 US Census 223 123rd Street, New York
City
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• Medical Records ?
• Medical category in city locations of the FHLC

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Family History Library Catalog www.familysearch.or
g
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Records Pertaining to Hospital on Blackwell
Welfare Island New York City, New
York Transcription 18 May 1910 Pryor James, age
80, born US, plumber Widowed Ward BAC Disease
20/880 Discharged 10 Sep 1910 Remarks 8
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Family History Library Catalog Boston
Massachusetts Medical Category
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• Newspapers
• NY Times online 1851-1925
• Historical Birth, Marriage, Deaths at Ancestry

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New York Times 1904
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1908 NY Times
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• Big City Research
• Beginner? Start elsewhere!
• Pre-Research
• History, geography, jurisdictions
• Sound pedigree links
• Genealogical proof standard
• Focus on IDENTIFIERS
• Pursue standard alternate sources
• Be prepared to hire a local researcher

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