Archive for Genealogy

New Mexico is 100 Years Old Today!

January 6, 2012 Craig Family History, Genealogy, History

So what do Billy the Kid, Smokey Bear, Kit Carson, Microsoft, atomic bombs, and Isabella of Castile have in common?

They each in some way have iconic connections to our 47th state, the Land of Enchantment, which was admitted to the Union on January 6, 1912. And you can learn more about each of them and their place in New Mexico’s rich cultural history during GeneaBlogie’s All-New Mexico Weekend!

And there’s more! We’ll discuss conducting genealogical research in New Mexico and the genealogy of some of the leading figures in New Mexico history, which of course stretches back many, many centuries before Europeans and the first Africans arrived.

Check frequently during the weekend for something different each time.

O, Fair New Mexico, we love you so!

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The Zen of Genealogy & The Art of Rocket Science

December 30, 2011 Craig Family History, Genealogists:Taxonomy, Genealogy

I know some rocket scientists. Rocket scientists are friends of mine.

And I know something about rocket science itself. I was born several years before the Sputnik launch, and was in school after that event as America wrung its collective hands about “why Johnny can’t read” and whether American kids were up to competition with Communist Russian kids.

Then, as a child of the space age, I desired nothing so much as to be an astronaut. Living on a semi-secret atomic weapons base, I was surrounded by scientists, technologists, and engineers. And the aforementioned semi-secret atomic weapons base was adjacent to a large Air Force base, which housed several aeronautical laboratories as well as all sorts of aircraft and pilots to fly them. Between the main gates of the semi-secret atomic weapons base and the large Air Force base on Gibson Boulevard in Southeast Albuquerque, there was the Lovelace Clinic, where astronauts, starting with the first Mercury seven, came for their physical examinations. In our neighborhood, our neighbor across the street was a flight surgeon and his physicist wife, both then in their 30s.

I went to college at a small elite school nestled against the Rocky Mountains, in the shadow of Pike’s Peak. At that school, rocket science was a required course for everyone, even the humanities majors. I had been admitted with freshman honors to a large research university in the upper Midwest, but I chose the small, mountain school because the chances of achieving my occupational goal were, if you’ll excuse the expression, astronomically higher at the Front Range college. And I intended to discover the origins of the universe by visiting every part of it that I could in my lifetime.

Alas, my dream of being a rocket scientist was dashed early on, when at the midterm of my freshman fall semester, I had garnered no better than a “C” in one of my two-required-even-for-English-majors-math courses. (I had a “B” at that point in the other course). One day, my freshman advisor, a math professor, looked at my grades and said “You’ll make the Dean’s List, but man, you ain’t gonna be no rocket scientist at this school!” (With all due respect to rocket scientists, I should point out first, that he was an engineer by profession—probably from Georgia Tech—and, second, that’s not exactly what he said, but the words had the same effect on me.) By the end of the day, I was being welcomed to the political science department. (As a poli sci major, I still had to finish the math program, which was two more courses beyond the freshman two, and I had to take, as did all students, advanced physics, chemistry, aeronautical engineering, mechanical engineering, and astronautical engineering).

After I graduated, I became a I became a missile launch officer and learned a little more about navigation in outer space. Years later, I returned to the faculty of the school as a law professor to teach law to real undergrad rocket science majors. (Law, philosophy, psychology, economics, were required of all, even-for-the-rocket-science majors). At the same time, I was on the adjunct faculty of a well-known Midwestern university where I taught a graduate seminar in “space law and policy” to real rocket scientists, at least one of whom became a famous astronaut. And during this same time period, I served a tour in the office of the Secretary of Defense at the Pentagon in the program nicknamed “Star Wars” (by the press) as special counsel for space law, international law, arms control and treaty compliance. Here I interacted with some of the nation’s greatest rocket scientists.

So, I know a little bit about rocket science.

I also know a little bit about genealogy.

I know enough about each of them to say that genealogy is not rocket science. But that is merely to state a fact, not to denigrate genealogy nor to exalt rocket science. There are similarities, however.

When I was teaching law to undergraduates, mostly majoring in science and engineering, they would complain bitterly at the beginning of the semester about having to take what they called “fuzzy studies.”1 They claimed that courses like law, philosophy and psychology, lacked the pedagogical discipline and predictable structures of science and engineering. “Where are the equations?” they would lament. “The answers are too ambiguous,” they would object. “The processes are result- oriented,” they would loudly declare. (My favorite joke didn’t help: “Math Professor: What’s 2+2? Law Professor: Whatever my client needs it to be!”)

By the end of the semester, however, I had demonstrated to and convinced them that in the law, there are “equations” which when populated with the same variables produce the same results every time, with scientific regularity. (The trick is, however, the lack of exactness of any two variables in the legal universe. But then again that’s true in the physical universe as well). I had also convinced most of them by the end of the semester, that ambiguity is endemic to science; that without ambiguity there would be no science. They also came to accept that the “answers” in the fuzzy studies frequently were to be had by the same deductive and inductive processes used in science. That imagination and creativity are as important in the sciences as they are in the fuzzy studies. (It’s no mere accident that so-called “fuzzy logic” has played a key role in the 20th century/early 21st century scientific advances).

I don’t think I know any genealogists who are rocket scientists or any rocket scientists who are genealogists. But genealogy is like law and rocket science. All possess accepted conventions, regular processes, universally recognized methodologies, and require disciplined problem-solving. Serendipity mightily figures into all of these practices.

Rocket scientists don’t worry about who is a “professional” rocket scientist or who is a “hobbyist” rocket scientist. Among rocket scientists the term “professional” has less to do with pecuniary remuneration than it does with credibility. This term “professional” is either an adjective or a noun applied to one who displays qualities of “professionalism.” And while among rocket scientists degrees of professionalism may be suggested by credentials, or the lack thereof, that’s all they are–a suggestion, a rebuttable presumption. This same may be said of genealogy.

A rocket scientist becomes well-known by his work, his ethics, and his ability to communicate the essence of his work to the scientific community. The same may be said of genealogists.

Efforts to label genealogists based on credentials, or clientele, or celebrity are almost entirely exclusionary and useless. A reputation in the genealogical community that is based upon recognition of quality of work is the most valuable credential a genealogist may have. Having said that, let me offer some adjectives that are useful in vetting genealogists:
Responsible
Credible
Precise
Reasonable
Careful
Conscientious
Efficient
Accurate
Well-prepared
Respected
Responsive
Thoughtful
Creative

In genealogy and rocket science there is the danger that one can be trapped by formulaic orthodoxy. That is the antithesis of the scientific method and a great way to stifle productive inquiry. It is a form of laziness.

Not everybody can be or wants to be Robert H. Goddard or Werner von Braun. One may be perfectly happy and well-respected without being Elizabeth Shown Mills or Donald Lines Jacobus. The director of the local genealogical society in Chester, Illinois, or Thomaston, Georgia, each may be as “professional” as any FASG.

In 1930, Clyde Tombaugh, a 24 year-old Kansas farmer lacking any college education, discovered the dwarf planet Pluto. Volunteer and non-academics long have been the backbone of research astronomy. They form the considerable of core of workers seeking Extraterrestrial Intelligence. Similarly, volunteers and “no-name” workers comprise the largest part of the genealogical research community. They’re the ones who ferret out obscure local records, lecture for local societies, maintain family and local histories and index world and national records.

I have no bone to pick with the well-known genealogists. They’ve earned their notoriety. But I do think that far too much effort is spent on trying to create an occupational taxonomy for genealogy. Let’s forget about that and accept that the many individual paths to experience and wisdom lead to enlightment for all.

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My Teachers: Theodora Cooper (Gold Edition)

December 23, 2011 Craig Family History, Genealogy

Last week, technical difficulties prevented us from presenting this post in full. We now run it in its entirety.

 

Mrs. Cooper was my fourth grade teacher. I remember her (from the vantage point of a half century past) as an “older” woman with graying hair that probably had been blonde. Of course, as a fourth grader, I had no clue as to her actual age. All I know is that looked older than my mother who was 31 years old as I began fourth grade. She wore glasses which she kept on a chain around her neck. She dressed conservatively. I don’t recall her voice, but she liked to laugh when laughter was called for. Somehow, I associated her with the term “grandmother,” but I’ve subsequently learned that she was not ever a grandmother.

She liked to laugh when laughter was called for.

Here’s what I’ve learned about Mrs Cooper 50 years later:

Theodora Erikson was born in Oscoda Township, Iosco County 1, Michigan, near the shores of Lake Huron on 22 January 1907 2. She was the seventh of nine children3,4 of Charles Severin Erikson (8 Mar 1862-9 Jan 1933)5, 6 and Natale Erikson (7 Jun 1873-2 Aug 1941)7, 8, who had come to America from Sweden in the 1880s. Charles Erikson worked in construction for the township road department.

(Mrs Cooper never mentioned her status as a first-generation American, nor anything about her Swedish heritage. How interesting that might have been to our class!)

“Teddy,” as she was called, attended Michigan State Normal College in Ypsilanti9. She was active in the Euclidian Club 10. This activity would serve her well in her later career. Teddy was also an active member of the Upsilon chapter of Theta Lambda Sigma sorority. 11.

Teddy eventually earned a Lifetime Certificate in Teaching from the Michigan State Normal School12(the school is now known as Eastern Michigan University). She taught in several rural and urban communities, including the village of Harrisville in Alcona County, Michigan13

She met and married Ray Cooper, a physician, and they took up residence in Albuquerque, New Mexico14 In Albuquerque, Teddy earned a Bachelors of Science degree in education from the University of New Mexico in 1948 15. When she thereafter began teaching for the Albuquerque Public Schools, Mrs Cooper was assigned to the elementary school at the semi-secret atomic weapons installation in southeast Albuquerque16 known as Sandia Base.

Sandia Base was the follow-on to the Manhattan Project and thus was the nation’s premier nuclear weapons base throughout most of the Cold War17. At Sandia Base Elementary School, Teddy Cooper taught the children of highly trained military personnel and civilian nuclear scientists. She spent twenty-five years at Sandia Base Elementary School before retiring.

Mrs. Cooper became very popular with her students, her colleagues, and the Sandia Base parents. She frequently teamed with her friend and colleague, Nathalie Harshman, to team-teach various subjects18 Around the state of New Mexico, she was regarded as an expert in the teaching of arithmetic, and frequently was called upon to attend teacher conferences to demonstrate her techniques19 She also enjoyed and excelled at the teaching of reading.

(I always thought of her as a reading specialist. My reading skills took a quantum leap forward under Mrs. Cooper’s tutelage and the use of the relatively new SRA Reading Laboratory, which I enjoyed immensely. She read to us and had us read parts of sevreal books, including Winnie the Pooh and Dr. Dolittle. I’ve never seen an adult laugh as hard as Mrs Cooper did watching my classmate Billy Smith do his impression of the Hefalump!)

Teddy Cooper was active in the Association of American University Women and the New Mexico Council of Teachers of Mathematics 20. She founded the Junior Red Cross chapter at Sandia Base Elementary School21 She was especially empathic with a great sense of humor.

Mrs. Cooper, the daughter of Swedish immigrants and a transplant to New Mexico from Michigan, taught us Spanish. After a year with her, I had nearly the same fluency as someone of comparable age who had been raised in the language. I was especially pleased that she selected me to play El mal lobo in the class production of Los Tres Cerditos.

On Friday, November 22, 1963, Mrs. Cooper had dismissed our class for lunch. When we returned, most of us had already heard the tragic news and were not surprised to find our fourth grade teacher weeping openly over the murder of the President of the United States 22 The President had visited Sandia Base less than a year earlier and his motorcade had passed down Wyoming Boulevard which ran directly adjacent to the school’s front lawn 23, Over the next several weeks, Mrs Cooper made special efforts to help her students cope with the emotional depression that had settled like a fog over the entire nation.

Teddy’s husband, Ray, died an early death and she never re-married. They had one child, Foster Cooper 24

Theodora Erikson Cooper died on Sunday, June 4, 2006 25, 26.
She was 99 years old. She is buried in Oscoda, Michigan.

 

Special Thanks to the Huron Shores Genealogical Society of Iosco County, Michigan, for their great resources which contributed to this piece!

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My Teachers: An Occasional Series

December 17, 2011 Craig Family History, Genealogy

A few months ago, I discovered that my elementary school has an “alumni page” on Facebook. People were posting about their various experiences in grade school and of course, about the teachers. Frequently expressed sentiments included “I wonder where Mrs. X is today?” or “I wish I could get in touch with Mr. Y.”

It was great fun sharing memories with folks and I found one of my sixth grade classmates on that page. I don’t think I ever expected to see or hear from her as I become a “junior” senior citizen.

Well, I, too, was curious about what had become of some of my favorite elementary school teachers. And not being able to leave well enough alone, I undertook, in what my wife calls my “copious spare time” [of course, that is her sarcasm] to find out about these teachers who had helped shape my foundations.

I discovered quite a bit about them, not all of which in some cases was complimentary. But teachers are human beings like the rest of us. This undertaking in looking at the (mainly) women “behind the curtain” helped me to understand much about the way in which I was educated, including the biases (positive and negative) that inhered in that education. It actually heightened my appreciation for what they did.

So I commence here an occasional series about “My Teachers.” But, like all things, these genealogical vignettes have a context of time and place.

From second through sixth grades, I attended Sandia Base Elementary School at the semi-secret atomic weapons base on the southeast edge of Albuquerque, New Mexico. My classmates were the children of highly trained military personnel and civilian scientists, all working in the follow-on phase to the Manhattan Project. Most of our parents couldn’t speak about what they did or where they went to do it.

When my family arrived at Sandia Base in 1961, the historical context was shaped laregly by these ten facts:

1. Just over fifteen years had passed since the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the eventual end of World War II. [Think about how the last fifteen years of your life has passed!].

2. A mere fourteen years earlier, the Manhattan Project had been placed in the hands of the military’s Defense Atomic Support Agency at Sandia Base.

3. Nine years earlier, the United States had tested the world’s first “thermonuclear” weapon, with much of the heavy lifting of design and fabrication done at Sandia Base and nearby Los Alamos. [The test itself occurred at Eniwetok atoll in the Pacific, with many personnel from Sandia Base present.]

4. Six years earlier, the Soviet Union had tested its own hydrogen bomb.

5. Four years earlier, the Soviet Union had launched and orbited the first artificial satellite, Sputnik I, much to the consternation of the United States. There was much hand-wringing about whether our educational system was strong enough to have beaten the Soviets into space.

6. For much of the six years before we arrived at Sandia Base, the topic of racial desegregation of the the schools was at the top of the national agenda. President Eisenhower in 1957 used federal troops to enforce the courts’ orders to desegregate Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, over the objections of Governor Orville Faubus. Southern states, especially Virginia, had promised a campaign of “Massive Resistance” to school desegregation.

7. The same year we came to Albuquerque, Cold War tensions had been ratched up by the construction of the Berlin Wall.

8. Also, that same year, 1961, the Soviet Union again beat the United Sates in putting the first man into outer space.

9. In 1961, the end of the Civil War and emancipation of slaves were less than a century past distant.

10. New Mexico had not yet marked 50 years as a state; meanwhile, in the preceding three years, two new states had been added to the Union. That meant that some of my teachers had been born when there where just 45 stars on the Flag, and some even before that. All had grown up with a maximum of of 48 states in the Union.

These ten facts and their aftermath in a turbulent decade that followed, shaped the course that my teachers had to steer. I can appreciate that now like never before. And I’m most grateful.

Coming next: My Teachers: Theodora Cooper

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Blog Caroling: O, Little Town of Bethlehem

December 14, 2011 Craig Family History, Genealogy

Like many creative things in our Geneablogosphere, blog caroling owes its origin to the irrepressible footnoteMaven. Since I blogged earlier this month at the Catholic Gene [here] that my favorite Christmas Carol is O Holy Night, this evening here I’ll blog carol my second favorite Christmas song, with the mandatory Nat King Cole rendition.

O Little Town of Bethlehem

O little town of Bethlehem
How still we see thee lie
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep
The silent stars go by
Yet in thy dark streets shineth
The everlasting Light
The hopes and fears of all the years
Are met in thee tonight

For Christ is born of Mary
And gathered all above
While mortals sleep, the angels keep
Their watch of wondering love
O morning stars together
Proclaim the holy birth
And praises sing to God the King
And Peace to men on earth

How silently, how silently
The wondrous gift is given!
So God imparts to human hearts
The blessings of His heaven.
No ear may hear His coming,
But in this world of sin,
Where meek souls will receive him still,
The dear Christ enters in.

O holy Child of Bethlehem
Descend to us, we pray
Cast out our sin and enter in
Be born to us today
We hear the Christmas angels
The great glad tidings tell
O come to us, abide with us
Our Lord Emmanuel!

Words by Phillips Brooks (1835-1903); music by Lewis Redner (1831-1908). Brooks reportedly wrote the words on his return to Philadelphia after a trip to the holy land, where he was awed by the nocturnal sight of the town from the nearby hills.

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Don’t Cry About the SSDI

November 8, 2011 Craig Family History, Genealogy

Last spring we did a two part series on the Social Security Death Index and it progenitor, the Death Master File. The posts are here and here. The series was prompted in part by reports of errors in the Death Master file, especially those which reported living persons as deceased.

We learned that nearly 90% of the information in the DMF comes from “first-party” reporters, that is, family, friends and funeral homes. About 5% of the information comes from States and federal agencies and the remaining 5% from postal authorities and financial institutions.

In terms of errors, the Inspector General of the Social Security Administration reported in 2009 that 89% of the errors in the DMF were the fault of SSA staff input mistakes. First-party errors comprised between 3.4% and 4.1% of the errors. The lowest error rates were from state reports (0.7% for non-electronically transmitted records) and 1.5% for states enrolled in SSA’s Electr9nid data records program. [The VA also had an error rate of 0.7%].

Now, as of November 1, 2011, SSA will no longer include state records in the Death Master File. Much has been written about this, including its potential impact on genealogists.

To understand what has happened, it is useful to examine the history and the legislation on the topic. The Death Master File was made public in 1980 as a result of a lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). We’ve talked about FOIA as a genealogical tool in this space before. See the posts Getting Info from the Government–FOIA 101, FOIA Spotlight: The U.S Deparrtment of State,  and My FOIA Request Update.

The purpose of FOIA is to make available federal government information to the public. There are numerous exemptions to FOIA. The 1978 lawsuit, Perholtz v. Ross, in the U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia was settled by a consent decree between the Government and plaintiff Perholtz, who apparently sought the SSA’s death information to sell to businesses that might have need to verify deaths.

The first point is, then, that the DMF hasn’t really been public very long. The second is that from 1980 to 2002, state information was not used in the DMF. In 2002, in part in response to a 1998 SSA IG report, the SSA started down the road of electronic reporting from states. By 2008, only 22 states participated in the SSA’s Electronic Data Reporting (EDR) project.

The third point concerns why the SSA has withdrawn state records from the public DMF. The law which authorized the SSA to compile death information in the first place was intended to prevent overpayments and fraud in federal benefit programs.  The statute is codified at Title 42, United States Code, section 405(r)[originally section 205r of the Social Security Act of 1935]. The law requires  the SSA to establish a program under which States voluntarily contract with the SSA to periodically furnish the SSA with information on the death certificates filed with them so that necessary corrections may be made to the beneficiary records maintained under the social security program. This provision was added as part of the Social Security Amendments of 1983, Public Law 98-21.

But part of the 1983 Amendments provided that:
Information furnished to the Commissioner of Social Security under this subsection may not be used for any purpose other than the purpose described in this subsection and is exempt from disclosure under section 552 of title 5 and from the requirements of section 552a of such title.

The reference to section 552 is to FOIA; section 552a is the Privacy Act. The 1983 amendments took state-provided information out of the realm of public record as an acknowledgement of differing state rules about the privacy of such information.

As much as I hate to see governmental restrictions on what ought to be public information, I can’t say that this restriction will have a significant impact on genealogy.  Recall that 90% of the data in the DMF comes from first-party reporters, not states. So at least 90% of the data is unaffected. Some genealogists may have to dig a bit deeper into other sources in some cases. Recall also that states differ concerning the restrictions on vital records. Thus, in some cases, what’s no longer easily gotten via the SSDI, may still be relatively available from state sources. And even though the SSA is going to pull existing state records from the DMF, that does not invalidate the data. Nor in my opinion should make that data non-citeable. The citation should include the date the information was obtained from the SSDI and the source of the SSDI (remembering the distinction between the SSDI and the DMF).

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Getting Back to Some Hard Genealogy

October 5, 2011 Craig Family History, Genealogy

It took a near-disaster in the form of a hard disk failure to bring me back to doing some basic genealogy. I took me a week to recover and reassemble my files, which had been backed up onto three different systems. The redundancy was a fortunate thing born out of some lethargy in organization. As a fortuitous happenstance, I lost not a single file.

But as I reassembled and reorganized my files (an ongoing project), I came across several items that I had not looked at in awhile. That fired up the research imagination and fueled a new round of seeking some of my MIA ancestors.

 Desperately Seeking Sarah

As my sole remaining Loyal and Constant Reader, you recall that I have spent years trying discover information about my maternal gg-grandmother, Sarah Gilbert Johnson, said by family tradition to be an Indian. Here’s what we know about her:

  • She seems to appear with her husband on the 1870 US Census in Liberty, Clay County, MO [The entries are for “Johnson” (no first name; male, black, farmer) and “-------”, female, black, “keeps house.”]. I think this refers to her because they are the only black Johnson couple in the county without any children and their ages are within an appropriate range.
  • She seemingly appears on no other census records after 1880, by which time she has six children, living with Ezekiel in Kansas City, MO.
  • “Zeke” marries one Irena Neal in 1885; suggesting that Sarah has died.

We then undertook the following search efforts:

  • Searched US Censuses 1850 & 1860, for “Sarah Gilbert.” We looked in Clay, Platte, and Jackson Counties, Missouri. We chose these counties for their proximity to the site of her marriage and where she lived in 1880. We didn’t find her in those places in those years.
  • We searched marriage records in Jackson County, Missouri and found that several “Sarah Johnsons” had married after 1880. A possible implication here is that Sarah did not die in the 1880s, but was divorced from Zeke. There is no further evidence that would allow a conclusion on that theory,
  • One clue I found tantalizing from the Kansas state census is a woman named Hannah Gilbert, married to one William Gilbert. This family is African American. Could they be Sarah’s parents? However, they appear for a brief while, then vanish from the records. There’s no reasonable path from them to Sarah.
  • We looked at marriage records for Clay County and Jackson County in Missouri. We found no Gilbert other than Sarah herself, marrying Zeke in 1867.
  • We examined a limited sample of newspapers from the appropriate times and locations; again we found no Gilberts.
  • We examined the pre-1910 Missouri Death Certificates from the Missouri State Archives. This was also unproductive (as it might be if our supposition that she died in the 1880s in correct; Missouri didn’t have mandatory death certificates until 1910).
  • We examined the post-1910 Missouri death records for Jackson County and the counties comprising the greater Kansas City area. There are several “Sarah Johnsons” listed. However, further identifying information is missing. For example, one “Sarah Johnson” had a unknown birthplace and unknown parents.

Part of our thinking about the methods shown above was to locate collateral relatives of Sarah’s who might lead to a clue about her. But the main assumption we made was that Sarah was born and lived in the greater Kansas City area her entire life. This theory would have Zeke perhaps having known her or known of her before he joined the Army and returned to marry her. Or the other possibility is that he met her upon his return from the Army.

Thinking about Zeke and Sarah marrying after his return from the war brought me back to the realization that he was mustered out of the Army in February 1866 in Huntsville, Alabama. He married Sarah in September 1867. What was he doing in that intervening year and a half? Well, for one thing, he was finding his way back to Kansas City.

So suppose Zeke met Sarah somewhere along his way back to Missouri from Alabama?

What route and what mode of travel did he take? How long did it take him to make the homeward journey? Did he perhaps stop in St Louis where he had been inducted? Did he meet Sarah there? A reasonable route on the nearly 700 mile trip would pass through Nashville and St Louis. The answers to these questions may shed light on the origins of Sarah Gilbert.

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Reference Review: African-American Genealogy at a Glance

September 19, 2011 Craig Family History, Genealogy

Just the other morning, a young protege was saying that her research seemed unfocused and that she thought she needed to go someplace other than her usual research venues. I talked a few ideas with her. Then, the next day, I received a review copy of Genealogy at a Glance: African American Genealogy Research. My protege’s dilemma was solved (almost)!

A 2011 addition to Genealogical Publishing Company‘s series, Genealogy at a Glance, this four page reference is by Michael Hait, one of the points of light in the sometimes foggy world of genealogical research. (Wait, did you say four pages? Yes, yes I did say “four pages!”).

Okay, so I was skeptical, too, that such a topic could be adequately and accurately reduced to just four pages of text. But as I studied it, I found it to be concise, easy to understand, yet accurate and comprehensive. Hait covers the field very nearly completely in the space allotted. From “Basic Research Sources” to “Free African Americans in the North and South” the author gives tips and reference citations. He tells where to find the records (many have limited availability).

This reference is useful for novice and experienced researchers alike. It certainly is a road map of sorts for the newcomer; for the old hand, it may jog a memory or inspire a new approach. For all experience classes, it can provide an organizing template for research.

The material really is usable “at a glance.” Hait’s writing is direct and active; the editorial lay out is easy to follow. At the end, he includes a short list of online resources and a “Further Reading” section.

A concession to space, no doubt, was the omission of special collections at academic research institutions such as the Louisiana State University Libraries or the University of Virginia, which house many files of slave-owning families.

But nonetheless, Michael Hait, who writes the African-American Genealogy Examiner column, scores again with this simple, but elegant reference guide. Check out Michael’s own websites at haitfamilyresearch.com and Planting the Seeds.

Genealogical Publishing Company is the world’s leading publisher of genealogical books and CD’s, with over 2000 titles in its catalog.

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September 11, 2001: All History is Personal

September 11, 2011 Craig Family History, Genealogy

[Prologue: The following is merely a rendition of my personal experience on September 11, 2001. It is not particularly poignant or profound; merely observational. There are no stories of extraordinary heroism or the like. It is, however, a bit out of context, since like all historical pieces, it's part of a larger story about being in Washington--that is, official "Washington," in the four years after 9/11/2001, a story I'm just beginning to tell.]

I flew into town arriving late that night. At the hotel, the desk clerk told me that there had been some mistake in my reservation and I could stay there just one night and I’d have to find accommodations elsewhere for the remainder of my stay.

I made a quick call to one of my contacts and she said that they would work the issue in the morning, but that I should bring all of my luggage with me because I’d be moving to another hotel. They wanted to see me in the office at 8:00 a.m.

Certain that the greatest adventure of my life was about commence, I hurriedly readied for bed to get a good night’s sleep. The President of the United States about a week earlier officially had informed the Senate that he was nominating me to be Assistant Secretary of the Interior, in charge of the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Park Service. And now the Senate had scheduled the first of two committee hearings on my nomination. It would be in four days.

As I drifted off to sleep in Alexandria, Virginia, I glanced at the clock. It was 11:30 pm, September 10, 2001.

*** *** *** ***

I took a taxi to Main Interior, located about equidistant between the White House and the State Department. The area was becoming familiar, as I had been there several times since the President had announced his intent to nominate me in August.

I was escorted to an office on the sixth floor where I would “live” while being briefed and prepared for the Senate hearings. As I settled in (with all of my luggage in tow!), I was struck by the surreality of it all. I was not rich or famous; I was just a guy from suburban Sacramento; an ordinary guy with a dog and a mortgage on what could be said to be a modest ranch-style house. Yet, here I was in the Nation’s Capital being prepared to meet the Senate of the United States!

My first briefing that morning was to be with the Interior Department’s liaison with the Defense Department, on issues that concerned both departments. My briefer was a smart and savvy Air Force colonel named Tom Lilly. We had met during one of my earlier visits and had gotten on well. (I was a colonel in the Air Force Reserve and had served twice at the Pentagon).

Tom and I had just begun to discuss business when one of us noticed flames leaping into the sky as we looked to the south from the sixth floor of the Interior building. Tom stood up for a better view.

“That’s the Pentagon that’s on fire!” he said. I came to the window and could see that he was right. Having worked in the building and being familiar with its construction, I wondered aloud what on earth could have caused such an enormous fire. Only a major explosion could . . . .

I was pondering the perplexing possibilities and rejecting each one out of hand, when Tom said, “Let’s go turn on CNN.” We went two offices down the hall toward the Deputy Secretary’s office and found an empty room with a television in it.

CNN wasn’t yet reporting the fire at the Pentagon. There was apparently a bigger story:

An airplane had struck the World Trade Center in New York City. Tom and I found this as implausible as the fire at the Pentagon. The CNN anchors were speculating about a “navigation error.” But Tom and I both had sufficient knowledge of aviation to know that a “navigation error” was the least likeliest cause. Somebody had deliberately flown that airplane into the building . . . but why and how. . . and who? We had not yet connected the dots with the Pentagon fire.

As we watched, a second plane came into view and struck the other tower! We just stood there, horrified.

At that moment, someone came running down the hall, saying, “Prepare to evacuate the building! There’s a car bomb at the State Department [which turned out not to be true].”

Evacuate the building? And go where? Because of the reservations glitch. I didn’t have anywhere to stay in the Washington area. I was still a civilian as far as the federal government was concerned. What should I do?

I first contacted my family in California and let them know I was okay for the moment, but that I had no idea where I would be for the rest of the day. As I continued to ponder my next step, the Deputy Secretary stuck his head into the room and said, “You’re coming with us!”

We got down to Interior’s basement parking garage into a car owned by Associate Deputy Secretary Jim Cason. Heading out of the building and onto 19th Street, we could see chaos ruling the city. The streets were clogged with thousands s of people, most walking or running, heading toward Virginia.

The traffic moved very slowly. I had no idea where we were headed. The two official guys kept referring to a site by a code name. We listened to Washington’s all-news station WTOP, and heard that the White House staff and the First Lady had been evacuated and heard a repeat of the report of a suspected car bomb at the State Department.

After a long ride through nearly impossible traffic we arrived at the site where the Interior Department executive staff had relocated; all but the Secretary were present. There were computers set up all around thins place monitoring the events that continued to unfold. Conflicting reports about the hijacking of a number of planes continued to come in. Another plane was said to be “missing.”

When we had been there for about half an hour, the Secretary arrived with her security detail. She had been taken away from Main Interior before the general evacuation was ordered. A few minutes after she arrived, her security people received a message. She was to leave the present site immediately. And she did.

Shortly after the Secretary’s departure, the Deputy Secretary announced that the rest of us would be heading to yet another site, identified publicly only by a code name. We left in the car immediately.

What I can say about this second site is that it was in a state some distance from Washington (not Maryland or Virginia), and that when we arrived, it appeared that the whole Interior Department headquarters had been replicated there. I was quite impressed with the diligence that must have gone into the effort. But still it was surreal . . . like a Tom Clancy novel come to life.

Because I had all my luggage with me, I was among the best prepared to stay there for awhile. Few others had changes of clothes and toothbrushes with them!

By now, we knew that the United States had been attacked by foreign terrorists and had a pretty good idea of who they were.

These events transpired so quickly that I had little time to think about them. On another day that week, we returned to Washington; the Pentagon was still burning. Needless to say, my confirmation hearings were postponed indefinitely. I had to hang round Washington for some period of time because nobody knew what was going to happen next and there were no planes flying to California.

I got restless after a few days and opted to take Amtrak back to California. The train was overloaded and it took four long days to get to Sacramento. During the trip, the train ran out of food and the toilets overflowed. I was glad to be home.

[Epilogue: Less than twelve hours after I arrived home, I was summoned back to Washington. I returned on a nearly empty United Airlines flight nonstop from Sacramento. And so began one of the most unusual decades of my life and in our Nation's history.]
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Welcome The Catholic Gene

September 3, 2011 Craig Family History, Genealogy

This morning, I awakened to things usual and brand-new! The usual thing was that my mother-in-law, aged 90, was up and watching Mother Angelica on EWTN [Eternal Word Television Network; Comcast channel 233 in the Greater Sacramento area]. (My mother-in-law’s family has been Catholic since at least 1722; which I believe is about when  Mother Angelica commenced her television ministry!) The unusual thing was that a new blog appeared in my reader!

The Catholic Gene has gone live on wordpress.com! The brainchild of the well-grounded Donna Pointkouski, it’s a blog  “dedicated to the faith of our fathers and mothers…and their ancestors.  This blog will feature articles by a diverse group of authors who share a strong Catholic identity and a love for genealogy. Join us as we share about genealogy, the Catholic faith, and anything in which those two worlds intersect.”

The Catholic Gene features some of the most well-regarded writers in the geneablogosphere: Donna, of course, of What’s Past is Prologue;  Jasia, the multi-talented writer and photographer who publishes Creative Gene and is the Queen of the Carnival; Denise Levenick, the fabulous Family Curator and Shades The Magazine’s Penelope Dreadful; Lisa of the Smallest Leaf, our exemplary expositor of Eire (and more! ); the incomparable Steve Danko; the esteemable Lisa A. Alzo; prolific author Cecile Wendt Jensen, of the Wolverine State; the most Educated Genealogist I know (and the one who’ll keep us on the path to salvation [or not] with her Get Out of Hell Free cards), Sheri Fenley.

And somehow, this great group asked moi to join!  Thank you!

The first post is up now at The Catholic Gene; and tomorrow (Sunday, September 4, 2011) a special treat: The Carnival of Genealogy will be hosted at The Catholic Gene! The topic is “Ancestors’ Places of Worship.”

Update: One member of our group not mentioned above is the extraordinary footMaven, our favorite Lutheran and honorary Catholic [we'll forgive that stuff back in the 16th & 17th Centuries]. She and her family could use some good old fashion prayer right now, so please remember them.

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