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November 25, 1999
See Rhonda's Previous
Columns
Creedons
from England
Q:
I am looking for my great grandfather's information. His
name was James CREEDON and he was an immigrant from England. I can not
find out where he came into the US. I know that he married Mary SHEEHAN
of Topsfield, Massachusetts and they had 4 children: Francis (Mar 1904);
Ellen; Mary; and Paul all in Massachusetts. They then moved to West
New York, NJ (Hudson County) and they had another child Cathaleen. The
1920 census told us that when the census was taken James was 45 and
Mary was 38. I have posted messages for CREEDONs in Massachusetts but
no response. The genealogy library said that there is information on
CREEDONs in Topsfield, but that you must pay to find out the information.
They state that there is information in the Historical Collection of
Topsfield. I have looked at the Essex Books website and not found this
book. -- Donna
A:
The 1920 census may be the clue that is most important for your research.
Along with the names and ages of everyone living in the household, this
census also tells you when James immigrated and whether or not he is
a naturalized citizen. Naturalization took some time and there will
be an abbreviation in the one column and then possibility a date in
the other column. The abbreviations found most often include:
- Al - Alien (they have not begun the naturalization process)
- Pa - Papers (they have begun the process and are somewhere in the
middle of it)
- Na - Naturalized (they have completed the naturalization process)
Only if the individual has completed the naturalization process will
there appear a date in the second column.
Once you have determined the naturalization status on your ancestor
in 1920, then you can probably turn your attention to the Immigration
and Naturalization Service. After 1906, the INS was responsible for
the naturalization records for immigrants. If he either completed his
naturalization process or was in the middle of it in 1920, you can contact
the INS and request a copy of these records. This can take a little
time though.
Depending on where James was living in 1920 and when he was naturalized,
you may want to turn your attention to the records for that given state.
You can check at your local Family History Center to see what records
might be available that would be of help to you in this instance. These
records are likely to be at the state level, as opposed to the county
level where we find most of our records.
If you do not find anything in the catalog at the Family History Center,
do not assume that the records don't exist. It merely means that they
have not yet been microfilmed or that Salt Lake has not yet acquired
copies of the microfilms.
Another avenue to locate the films may be to look in the book The
Archives published by Ancestry. This book lists the various NARA
branches and details the holdings at each one. It could be that the
naturalization records you need can be found there and you can contact
the archives branch directly.
Once you have located the records, you will want to find the declaration
of intent. This application is the one to generally supply you with
the necessary information about when, where and on what ship your immigrant
ancestor arrived.
Too
Many Breeches
Q:
My surname is BREECH. How can I enter a search for this name
without getting hundreds of web sites about breech births, breech guns,
breech pants, etc. -- Judy
A:
What you are experiencing is a common complaint for those who have a
surname that has been incorporated into other things such as guns, animals,
and so forth.
In order to omit those sites that do not pertain to the surname, you
will need to use Boolean operators to help you in excluding those words
you don't want and including those that you do want. Booelan operators
include:
- AND = all query terms must be present
- OR = if any query terms are present it is a match
- NOT = excludes sites with those query terms
Many search engine sites will default to the OR system. That means
if you type in Breech genealogy the search engine will include
all those sites that have genealogy as well as those that are for breech
births and such. A friend of mine has come up with an excellent way
to determine what the search engine defaults to. You type in the term
pizza genealogy. If you get a lot of hits, then the search engine
defaults to OR. If you get no hits, then the search engine defaults
to AND. Once you know this you can tailor your searches appropriately.
Generally including something like:
Breech AND genealogy
will usually limit your search results, excluding those items you mentioned
above. However, you can also do a search such as:
Breech NOT birth
which will tell the search engine to include those sites that include
the word birth. Of course, because we are genealogists and are looking
for births, this may exclude a small selection of genealogical sites
as well.
You will need to experiment with the search engines to see what you
can narrow it down to.
RR in SSDI
Q:
Checking on some family members today in the Social Security Death Index,
I came across two men who had the letters RR and not the initials of
a State for the Place of Issuance. Can you tell me what the RR stands
for? Also, I never seem to be able to find women on the list, not even
under their husbands' surnames. What date did women get their own cards?
-- Beth
A:
First an answer to your second question about women. You are misunderstanding
the requirements for inclusion in the Social Security Death Index. This
index is not an index of everyone who has ever had or applied for a
Social Security card. This is an index of those deceased individuals
from 1962 to the present on whose behalf a death benefit check was cut.
Not everyone who died and who had a social security number will appear
in the SSDI, because not everyone has had a death benefit check cut
after they died.
Now on to your other question. The RR most likely stands for Railroad.
Up until 1964, railroad employees were assigned their own special social
security numbers. The key to this was the first three digits of the
social security number, also known as the area number. It is these three
digits that tell you a little about where the individual got their social
security card. And for those who were railroad employees, their social
security number begins with 700-729. If this proves to be the case,
then you will find that you may have some excellent records to turn
to.
In addition to having their own social security numbers, railroad employees
also had their own pension plan. Very seldom did they receive regular
social security as they fell under this other plan. The Railroad Retirement
Board was set up as a federal organization by Congressional acts in
1934, 1935 and 1937. According to the article "Railroad Records
for Genealogical Research" by Wendy L. Elliott, CG and found in
volume 75 (December, 1987) of the National Genealogical Society Quarterly,
"over one million railroad employees, eight hundred thousand spouses,
and two million survivors have received benefits from the Railroad Retirement
Board."e; (p. 271). That's a lot of family names.
Now, to research with the retirement board, it is necessary to be able
to supply them with some pertinent information, including:
- Employee's name
- Position
- Name of the railroad worked for
- Where employed
- When employed
The Railroad Retirement Board will supply information on those deceased
individuals that they find in their records.
In addition to the retirement board records, there are other repositories
that may be of use to you in a search for a railroad employee. There
are some museums and historical societies that have collections of old
railroad records for their region. You may want to consider hiring a
professional researcher or plan a trip to these archives and do the
research for yourself.
For more information on the records found at the Retirement Board and
about finding aids, you will want to read Wendy Elliott's article, National
Genealogical Society Quarterly which is available on CD-ROM through
Family Tree Maker or you
may be able to find back issues at your local genealogy library.
Baby Lafayette
Q:
I have found a George F. Lafayette in the 1900 census. It states his
birth place as New York in 1860. When I look at the 1860 census all
I can find is one George Lafayette and it gives his age as three years
old. It doesn't show his father or mother. I don't know where else I
can look. -- blafay
A:
It is possible that you are skipping some important steps in your research.
It is natural to want to jump from the 1900 census back to the 1860
census when we think we know all there is to know about a person. After
all, the 1900 census supplies us with the state of birth, and the month
and year of birth for our ancestor. It tells us how many years they
have been married and for the women it tells us how many children they
have had up to that point and how many are still living.
That is a lot of information and we sometimes don't take the time we
need to acquire the other records for these events. Now, there is not
going to be a birth certificate in New York for your ancestor. However,
other records may help you.
For instance, George's death records. This may have the names of one
or both of his parents listed. If you haven't already obtained a copy
of this, you will certainly want to. Another possibility is the marriage
certificate. While the certificate may not have anything other than
the names of the bride and groom and the information about when and
where they married, there is often an application on the other side
of the certificate or in the marriage register that does include the
parents' names for both the bride and groom along with other pertinent
information about when and where born.
Finally, I am intrigued by your mention that there were no parents
for George Lafayette. If you used an index to point you to that listing
in the 1860 census, you may not have gone far enough in your research.
Most of the published indexes to the census records that I have used
have included only the head of household, or the first person on the
next sheet (if a household was split over two pages on the census) or
in some instances if the surname of the individual differs from that
of the others living in the household. So, if you found George F. Lafayette
listed in the index and went to the page with him on it, it could be
possible that the rest of his family is on the prior page.
Generally, one does not find a three year old living alone. So, George
had to be living with someone. If not his own family as I have described
above, then possibly with a guardian or adopted family. If this is the
case, then it is possible that you can locate guardianship papers that
would detail the names of his deceased parents, at least the father.
See Rhonda's Previous
Columns
Rhonda R. McClure is a professional genealogist specializing in celebrity trees
and computerized genealogy. She has been involved in online genealogy for fifteen
years. She is the author of the award-winning The
Complete Idiot's Guide to Online Genealogy, now in its second edition.
She is the author of four how-to guides on Family
Tree Maker. In late 2001, she wrote The
Genealogist's Computer Companion. She is a contributing editor to Biography
Magazine with her "Celebrity Roots" column and a contributing writer
to The History Channel Magazine. Her latest book is Finding
Your Famous and Infamous Ancestors. She may be contacted at rhondagen@thegenealogist.com.
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