Category: Genealogy

Genealogygirl’s Weblog

Genealogygirl’s Weblog

Posted on by Jack

While reorganizing the site, I looked around and realized I hadn’t posted much on genealogy lately. But I have been updating my genealogy pages so I suppose I’m not a total slacker in genealogy.

But while I was looking for some updates for my Irish surname page, I ran across a new blog I had not seen before. GenealogyGirl’s Weblog has some interesting posts. She has Co Antrim and other roots in and out of Ireland.

She doesn’t seem to post often but when she does the posts could be well worth your time as she sometimes posts transcriptions which may not be of general interest but are a great find if it happens to be the area your ancestors came from. Check this blog now and then. You may find something merely interesting or something priceless.

New generation Chromebook

New generation Chromebook

Posted on by Jack

I have previously talked about using my Chromebook for genealogy (Pros and Cons of Chromebook and Cons and Chromebook for genealogy).

I was pleased to see a TV ad the other day for the new generation of Chromebook. (I usually would not use “pleased” and “ad” together but it was a nice break from the political ads which are dominating the airwaves these days.) I do not plan on getting a new Chromebook but hope this new generation will spur interest and app development.

Dick Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter has a nice article about the new $249 Samsung chromebook.

William Riedy (Reidy) of Rathkeale, Limerick, Ireland to NYC

William Riedy (Reidy) of Rathkeale, Limerick, Ireland to NYC

Posted on by Jack

One of my intentions with this blog was to publish genealogy information – both general genealogy and stuff about my family. I noticed that I’ve been neglecting that in favor of politics these days. So here is some genealogy at last.

My great grandfather (GGF) William RIEDY of Rathkeale, Limerick, Ireland was born around 1861/1862 and emigrated to New York about 1880. We have not found a birth or baptismal record so the years is only our best guess. Hsi father Edward or Edmund RIEDY or READY married twice. First to Margaret CONWAY and then Mary SCANLAN in 1857. William was of the second marriage and we believe he traveled to New York city with his half-brother John. The surname has been recorded as REIDY, RIEDY, REEDY, and READY.

On December 24, 1895, he was injured in a blasting accident. My GGF was a wagon driver working on a construction site. A blast went off a few minutes early and a 150 pound rock was thrown 200 feet and landed on my GGF. The foreman was arrested and charged with reckless blasting. I actually saw a microfilm of a news article about this this summer in the NYC Public Library.

I have no idea how the foreman fared. My GGF never left the hospital and died about a month later.

More information is on my website at http://www.jackreidy.com/genealogy/family/reidy.htm

Free resource and free trial: Fold3 for genealogy and history

Free resource and free trial: Fold3 for genealogy and history

Posted on by Jack

Fold3

I just got an email from Fold3. Fold3 holds many documents of historical and genealogical interest. The emphasis is on military records but there are many others. Fold3 just added a set of records called Navy Casualty Reports, 1776-1941.

Free Trial

I had tried a free trial, stayed on for a year, but decided it wasn’t worth it for me after that. But I think I may try again.

But your family and situation are surely not the same as mine. So give it a try. By the way, it really was easy to leave paid membership and go to free membership. Of course, the free membership is the lesser of the two and many documents are called premium images and these are reserved for paying customers (after all, free doesn’t pay the bills). But with free membership you can search and see what is available.

But I think the best deal is to take the free trial and see what they have, including the premium images. If you think there is enoough there to be worth the price, just continue. But if not, simply inform them and move to the free membership. It doesn’t cost to look. You might find stuff duing the trial.

One of the things I had disliked during my trial was I thought the search function was kind of clunky (to use the technical term). A recent Fold3 blog entry discusses the improvements in searching. Here is a link to the Fold3 blog.

My brief experience indicates the search is much better now.

Somethings are free for everyone

Fold3 just added a set of records called Navy Casualty Reports, 1776-1941. Despite the name which would make you think these are Navy seamen only this includes both seamen and others who died in Andersonville Prison. These free offering may change from time to time so you might want to check periodically if you elect not to keep your paid membership.

I currently have the free membership and found a record on the death of Wiliam Greer on the USS Maine when it was blown up in Havana harbor in 1898. Oddly, Fold3 does not have the Spanish American War as a category but you can search by year or year range. Since this event led to the war but was not part of the war, I don’t know if it would have been included in that category even if they had one.

My visit to the National Archives at New York City

My visit to the National Archives at New York City

Posted on by Jack

Earlier this week I visited the National Archives at New York City (NYC) twice. I was very pleased with my visits. I was looking for naturalization records of 2 people in my family tree. Both were naturalized in NY courts in the late 1800s. I had located the relevant index record on ancestry.com that I had all the information I needed. I was almost 100% certain that the 2 index entires I found were my guys.

I simply registered, requested the records, examined them a few minutes later, and then bought copies for 75 cents per page. Unfortunately, the courts of the 1800s did not seem to require very much information so there were only 4 pages of records available and I bought them all. Therefore, the total bill came to $3.00 and I had copies of the whole court record for both. I learned only a few things I had not known from the index so that was disappointing but still well worth 3 bucks.

By the way, you are under no obligation to buy the copies if you don’t want them. But who would not want them if they were the people you are looked for. Still, nice to know in the event that the record turns out not to be the person sought.

The National Archives at New York City is in the process of moving so all records are not there but the naturalization records are there. Here is the National Archives press release.

So for now they are still at Varick and Houston streets in Manhattan but the big move is expected in a few months. Here is a link to the National Archives at New York City so you can get the latest info and you can easily get from there to the main national archives page in case you are interested in another location.

The people there were so helpful and recommended an external site (the German Genealogy Group ) with a naturalization index. Two evenings later, I was checking on that site and found a potential match for John Tracey and decided to revisit the NYC National Archives to be sure.

Since the index record did not have all the info they needed to find the original court record, they checked the record on Fold3. With the info I had found on the German Genealogy Group website, they easily found the index in Fold3 which had additional information. It had both the information they needed to find the court record but also enough info that I knew this was not the John Tracey I has looking for. So I did not get the record I hoped to find. But it was not a wasted trip as there plenty of other things to do.

I had initially thought I’d title this post “Not my John Tracey” but it is really about the NYC archives and how nice and helpful the staff and volunteers are so I decided on “My visit to the National Archives at New York City”.

Certainly worth a visit if you are interested in genealogy and visiting NYC.

Chromebook for genealogy

Chromebook for genealogy

Posted on by Jack

A couple months or so ago I bought a Chromebook . For those who not familiar, it is a small computer, very light, highly secure, and it starts up very quickly. Here are the specifications of my model .

My ChromeBook model has both WiFi and a small data plan from Verizon. I use it mainly as a WiFi but the Verizon connection is nice because there are a few occasions when you need to connect but just can’t find WiFi. Since the many of the functions do not work if you lose your WiFi connection, the data plan is very helpful. My understanding is that it is a prepaid plan (and you paid for it with your chromebook) and it is renewed every 30 days by either Google or Samsung. So if you use all your data for the month you have the option of buying more data from Verizon or just waiting until the next 30 cycle.

So after that lengthy introduction, I can get down to why I was writing to begin with. I am spending a few days in New York City and decided I would use the time to look up some genealogy stuff. I have my family tree on Ancestry and thought the Chromebook would be a great way to have my genealogy with me in case I needed to look something up.

Of course you could just do things the old fashioned way and write down what you need, But if you are in a place with lots of information, you could decide to look up someone or something which was not anticipated. In my experience that happens alot when you are in places with lots of information.

For example now I am sitting in the library of the New York Historical Society. I had requested a few items (books and manuscripts) this morning before I came. (This part of the post was writen while I was waiting for my requests.) And depending on the results, I can access the online catalog and request more with my Chromebook (since they have WiFi here). This is particularly nice if you find something unexpected and wish to follow-up. I can also take notes with my Chromebook.

I visited the New York City main library (5th Ave and 42nd St) and made good use of their WiFi. The National Archives in New York (Houston and Varick Streets) does not have WiFi but they do have public access computers. I did use the verizon connection with the Chromebook to briefly check some information I had on the Google Drive but should have thought to write down.

It was a very nice genealogical visit to New York City and I made good use of the Chromebook. I’ll havee to write a bit more about this visit and the Chromebook. I have uploaded this to my blog from Google drive with my Chromebook.

Murder and Suicide in Broadway Hotel dateline 1887

Murder and Suicide in Broadway Hotel dateline 1887

Posted on by Jack

I went to Green-wood Cemetery in Brooklyn to find the grave of my great great grandmother and instead found a stone that lead me to the story of a murder. And a potential tie between my Greers and members of the Peerage.

I was looking for the grave of my great great grandmother named Ruth Greer. I knew her son (actually a stepson, William Greer) was buried in Green-wood Cemetery in Brooklyn and so I looked there. They have an online database of burials which makes it easy to check.

I was pleasantly surprised to find a Ruth Greer buried there (section 4, lot 21072) about the time we thought our Ruth may have died. So that was the easy part. Continue reading “Murder and Suicide in Broadway Hotel dateline 1887”