Irish Census and Search Forms Uploaded!

     

National Archives Building

     Some fabulous records came online yesterday.  The Irish National Archives  in conjunction with findmypast have uploaded the fragments of the 1821, 1831, 1841 and 1851 Irish censuses along with the Census Search Forms!  This is part of the 100 records in 100 days promise from findmypast, and they are free.  There are really not many surviving census fragments, (I didn't find any ancestors though you might), but the Search Forms contain many more names and most if not all counties are included. 

     The forms are tied to the Old Age Pension Act of 1908, which covered England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales; it granted pensions to those over 70 with an income of less than £31 10 00 annually.  Proving one was over 70 presented a problem in Ireland. Civil registration didn't begin there until 1864, so anyone born before that year had no documents to prove their age.  The solution was to show that the person in question had been enumerated in the 1841 or 1851 censuses, which in 1908 still existed.  The forms officials used to find the applicants in the census included more information than the census itself, they also asked for father's name and the mother's maiden name.

     On this search page, you plug in the county you're searching, and a page of hits appears, at which point you can sort by last name or address.  The beauty of these records is that in addition to learning mother's maiden name, many more persons can be found in them than in the census fragments which are quite limited.  Of course the individual had to be alive in 1908, over 70, and living in Britain or Ireland, so famine immigrants naturally wouldn't be found among these records.

     This record set will be uploaded to Family Search soon, and  records from the Valuation Office are slated for release before long.  What a wonderful time to be an Irish researcher!

Tuesday's Tip/ Searching The Chronicling America Site

     

Great Hall of the Library of Congress

     In my search for ancestors I sometimes find a Google search will bring me to the Library of Congress newspaper site "Chronicling America".  It's a handy resource to have, but the search terms are not highlighted on the page when you come in via a Google search, and directions for searching individual pages is quite complicated, at least for me, to wit:


Searching newspaper pages is also possible via OpenSearch. This is advertised in a LINK header element of the site's HTML template as "NDNP Page Search", using this OpenSearch Description document.
Page search parameters:

• andtext: the search query
• format: 'html' (default), or 'json', or 'atom' (optional)
• page: for paging results (optional)

Examples:

• /search/pages/results/?andtext=thomas
  search for "thomas", HTML response
• /search/pages/results/?andtext=thomas&format=atom
  search for "thomas", Atom response
• /search/pages/results/?andtext=thomas&format=atom&page=11
  search for "thomas", Atom response, starting at page 11 

     Yikes!  I don't think so.  I have discovered however, rather than reading the entire page one can convert the said page to an easily searchable PDF by clicking the PDF button atop the newspaper page image.  You can also do an advanced search once you get to the site, but it's more involved than converting, and sometimes I'm in a hurry--so many ancestors, so little time!

Grandma Galloway And The Haunted House

Cottage at Hydesville

      Yesterday I wrote about my 4th great-grandmother Armina Galloway and her peculiar living arrangements.  Since I'm always looking for clues, (some might say I don't know when to stop), I checked the internet for some histories of Hydesville, the hamlet founded by Armina's employer Henry Hyde.  I also checked New York land records at Family Search to see what Henry's holdings might be, with an eye to finding the house Grandmother got for a "kernel of grain".  After searching ten years worth of records I gave up, in that short time Henry had amassed hundreds of acres, no telling which property it might have been.

     The histories I read were more illuminating.  If you grew up in the Rochester, New York area as I did, at some point you would have heard of the Fox sisters.  I heard the story years ago, but had forgotten that the site of their home was Hydesville!  But let me begin at the beginning-- in 1815 Henry Hyde built a cottage on property he owned and as others built homes nearby, it became known as the hamlet of  Hydesville.  The history gave the names of subsequent occupants of the cottage over the years, but it didn't go back far enough for my purposes.  It occurred to me however, the Hydesville cottage could very well have been the property Grandmother lived on previous to living with Henry.  The home was described as "humble with two fair sized parlors, a bedroom and pantry on the first floor, with stairs leading to a half story above."  Not the sort of residence a well off doctor would live in for long, probably a temporary residence while his mansion was being built.

     After Henry Hyde's death, ownership of the Hydesville property passed to his son who in 1842 rented it to the Bell family-- this is where the legend of the haunted cottage begins.  As the story goes; Mrs. Bell, covetous of the lovely goods shown her by a traveling peddler, murdered the man and buried him in the cellar.  Soon after, mysterious noises began to be heard within the walls, and before another year passed, the Bells left for parts unknown.  The next occupants were the Weekman family.  They too heard the strange noises, and their children reported being touched by a "cold hand".  One daughter even claimed to have seen a vision of a man in the cottage.  Shortly after that, the Weekmans also fled the cottage.

The Fox Sisters

     In December of 1847, the place was again rented out, this time to the Fox family.  The noises resumed, along with the sound of footsteps and the movement of furniture.  Supposedly the Foxes were able to communicate with the spirit causing the phenomena and claimed he was the peddler who visited the Bell family years earlier, and that he had been murdered in the house.  Kate and Maggie Fox, the two youngest daughters were said to be the most attuned to the spirit, and soon after became well known, traveling  all over the states of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and beyond demonstrating their ability to commune with the dead.  They are credited with the founding of "Modern American Spiritualism".

     The sisters later admitted it had all been a hoax, and died in poverty.  But the true believers still carried on the new religion.  As for Grandmother?  She would have lived in the cottage long before the supernatural disturbances if she lived there at all.  But it's sort of fun to speculate. 

    

The Things You Come Across In Land Records

    

     

 
     For no particular reason I've been thinking lately about my 4th great-grandmother Armenia or Armina Galloway who was born around 1776 in Massachusetts.  Probably because I know next to nothing about her and it bugs me.  I don't even know her maiden name, though I suspect it may have been Russell since she chose that name for her second son.  For that matter, even the spelling of her first name is uncertain, in the 1850 census it is "Armenia" and in the 1855 it is Armina.  I've done searches using her husband's name and her first name, <"George Galloway" Armina>, but all the results I get are for some British politician named George Galloway and the country of Armenia or my own blog.

     Looking at Galloway land transactions in Wayne and Ontario Counties in New York on Family Search, I was surprised to see in the grantee index, "Armina Galloway" in 1825!  Women didn't buy much land in 1825 New York, so that was unexpected.  Upon looking up the original deed, I found it wasn't a deed at all, it was an agreement between Armina and Henry Hyde--
  January 8, 1825
     Know all men by these presents that I, Henry Hyde of Lyons, NY do agree with Armina Galloway of the same place, that she may have the use of the present dwelling house and lot where she now lives for the yearly rent of one kernel of grain, so long as she may live on the said premises in person, or she may rent the same and have the rent herself as long as she will take good care of said Hyde and his children at the said Hyde’s expense of provisions, clothing etc. at his own dwelling in said Lyons. 
    Witness my hand at Lyons the 3^rd day of January, 1825. N.B. If the said Armina should choose after living with said Hyde to return to her present dwelling she may have the privilege as above stated.

     I was unsure what N.B. stood for, so I consulted Wikipedia which states it's an abbreviation for the Latin Nota Bene, meaning, "note well".  Today we would just write "note" in a document to emphasize the subject being addressed.  Besides learning a little new Latin, I also found that the learned Henry Hyde and the 1855 census taker both spelled Grandmother's name, "Armina". 

    I love the kernel of grain as rent and was curious about Henry Hyde.  I found for sale here a diary from his early years, and if I had $2,000 I didn't have any use for I would purchase it, however...
This is a description--
    Dr. Henry Hyde (1774-1828), was from Milton, Vermont and in 1810 he went to Ohio looking for land.  Not finding what he wanted, he returned east and purchased a farm near Lyons, NY.  

    I also found him in the 1820 census of Lyons with a large family.  He went on to found the town of Hydesville near Lyons, so I guess he could afford to let property for a kernel of grain.  It appears his wife had passed away by the time Armina agreed to take care of him and his family, but three years later, Henry himself passed away at age 54.  I wonder if the agreement continued in force?  I found it odd that she agreed to live with Henry, a man about her own age, while her husband George was still alive, but I imagine free rent would be hard to pass up.  I'd love to fill in these details someday, so I'm keeping my eyes open for new documents coming online.

Friday's Photo/Lena Grimes Massachusetts

     This picture was taken in Woburn, Massachusetts,  a little over nine miles from Somerville where in the 1900 census, we find 6 year old Lena living with her parents. Lena was born in August of 1893 to Herman Grimes, a produce dealer, born in Vermont, and his wife Juliette, a native of Massachusetts. This family later moved to Melrose, Massachusetts.

Where Do Old Posts Go To Die?

      

                                                                                                Oscar Kosy

      Easter is almost here, meaning the Easter rush will soon be over and the bakery I work for will, in the immortal words of President Warren G. Harding, "return to normalcy".  At that point I will get a few days off!  Which means I am already plotting what to do with the time, genealogically speaking.  One option that comes to mind is re-posting my family information to all the message boards.  It may seem like a simple thing, but for some reason, (laziness?) I've been putting it off.

     Why go to the trouble to re-post data and queries I already have out there?  For one thing, over the intervening years I have discovered much more data on my family lines and found allied families and new locations to be investigated.

     For another, I don't know about you, but if I see a post from oh say, 1999 or thereabout, the odds are very good I won't bother to pursue it.  I may use the information, if any, that it contains as clues, but I tend not to reply to old posts.  They won't see it, their e-mail address has probably changed, (mine has), they may not still be researching...et cetera.

     I can't be the only pessimist out there, some of my message board posts are quite ancient and people are probably ignoring me!   However, when I think of the  herculean task of re-posting all my lines, (and it's not really--I'm such a total wuss), I decide to put it off for another day.  No more!  This week I am going to begin new posting; I will let you know if this results in anything useful, but in the meantime, I'd love to know if anyone else out there disregards the older posts?  Please tell me I'm not the only one.

Tuesday's Tip/Digital Newspaper Search

    

      I recently stumbled across this site, Elephind, whose stated goal is, "to make it possible to search all the world's historic newspapers from one place."  They aren't there yet, but with 2,447 titles, they are well on their way.  

     There is a basic search, and advanced search function, along with a page of tips for searching and a list of titles.  You can also browse the newspapers.  New pages are being added regularly, so this site is worth checking periodically.