Do You Have Offsite Backups?

The Iowa tornadoes did significant damage. One of the homes that was destroyed belonged to a genealogist, destroying most of his collection of books and materials.

Do you have offsite storage of digital copies of your records and materials? What would happen if your home were destroyed?

Something to think about.

Waterloo Public Libary Seminar 6 Sept 2008

I will be presenting four lectures at an all-day genealogical seminar sponsored by the Waterloo [Iowa] Public Library on 6 September 2008 in Waterloo, Iowa. The topics have yet to be determined, but the date has been set and we will post details on the website as they are set. The library's event page can be seen here.

We will post additional information when available.

To bring Michael to your meeting or workshop, email me at mjnrootdig@gmail.com.

Family History Festival, Detroit, Michigan 27 Sept 2008

I will be one of the speakers at the annual Free Family History Festival co-sponsored by the Detroit Society for Genealogical Research and the Fred Hart Williams Genealogical Society on 27 September 2008 in the Detroit, Michigan area.

I will be presenting:

• Using Ancestry.com
• Problem-Solving Applied to Genealogy

For more information about the festival, visit the Detroit Society for Genealogical Research's website or the Fred Hart Williams Genealogical website.

Contact me at mjnrootdig@gmail.com for information on having me present at your meeting or workshop.

Presenting At Western Michigan Seminar 1 Nov 2008

I will be presenting two lectures at the 1 Nov 1008 Western Michigan Genealogical Seminar to be held in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The presentations will be:

• Seeing Patterns: Organizing Your Information
• Brick Walls from A to Z

More information is on the society's website.

Contact me at mjnrootdig@gmail.com to inquire about my presenting at your meeting or workshop.

Genealogybank suggestions and comments

I really like Genealogy Bank and encourage those who do not have it to at least give it a try for a month. However, after having used it extensively tonight, I have the following suggestions:

• Soundex searches
• have the option to filter out "just one state"
• allow us to track what results we have already seen
• the ability to view more than five results at a time

Don't get me wrong, I've made some really neat discoveries on Genealogy Bank some of which I have already blogged about. Items have been located that I would never have found any other way, several of which suggest additional records. Consider trying Genealogy Bank for a month and see what you think. One month costs certainly costs less than a tank of gas!

Suing the Railroad in 1897 for Wrongful Death

I knew cousin Frank Troutfetter was killed in a railroad accident in the 1890s, what I did not know was that his parents had sued the railroad for wrongful death. Now I have something else to look for. This was located on Genealogy Bank. They have apparently been adding newspapers recently as this reference was one I had not located when I had searched previously on the site a few months ago.

Paper: Colorado Springs Gazette, 18 November 1897.

Butte, Montana, Seminar--19-20 September 2008

I'll be making four presentations at the annual Montana State Genealogical Society Conference this upcoming September in Butte, Montana. The Society recently released a flyer on their website for those interested. I'm looking forward to my first trip to Montana.

I'll be giving the following lectures:

• Unnatural Process--Naturalization Records
• Researching Your European Origins Online
• Seeing the Patterns: Organizing Your Information
• An Introduction to Reading Non-English Handwriting

The seminar will be held at the Butte War Bonnet Hotel in Butte. There is more information on the Society's website.

Newspaper Ads May Reveal Clues

It seems like there's always something else about Philip Troutfetter I'm finding in a newspaper. This time it's not quite as scandalous as our previous findings, but it does provide a slight clue into his money lending activities before he left Colorado.

This reference was found on Genealogy Bank. I've found several other references to Philip Troutfetter there, but this one was a new one for me. Goes to show you that even the classified ads in a newspaper may yield clues. And it goes to show that OCR searches (such as the ones are at Genealogy Bank) can help a genealogist find things they never thought they would. Now I even have an address for him in 1897.

Date: 1897-05-23; Paper: The Colorado Springs Gazette

I always thought they were Short

It seemed to me that most of my branch of the Trautvetter clan were not very tall. It appears now that I was mistaken. In looking at the Illinois "old men's draft" cards available on FamilySearch Labs, I found my great-grandfather's brother, Henry Trautvetter.

The first image here is the front of the card, providing information on his name, place of birth, and employer.

The back side of his card indicates he was 6 foot 4 inches tall---a height I was not expecting. I didn't think any older members of this family were that tall. And his weight was only 140 pounds. Thinking there might be an error and that he was actually 5 foot 4 inches tall, I decided to view his World War I draft card.

Sure enough, that card, while not providing a specific height, indicates he was "tall." The image at the bottom of this post is Uncle Henry's World War I draft card. It is a little difficult to see, but his height is marked in the upper left hand corner of the back of the card (right half of the image) as being tall. So the entry on the World War 2 draft card likely is not an error.

I won't comment on the fact that he only weighed 140 pounds....

Henry is a brother to George Adolph Trautvetter (1869-1934), my great-grandfather.

Stimulus Payment Link at the IRS

Ok, it has nothing to do with genealogy, but the IRS has posted a link on their site to determine how much the stimulus payment will be and approximately when you will get it.

Ancestry.com released some IRS records recently, generally from the Civil War era. Unless great-great-great-grandpa is still alive, he's not getting a stimulus payment---it would have to be one heck of a stimulus!