While I'm excited for the release of the 1940 census and am surprised by all the fanfare. Well, maybe not so much. My Google Plus stream was a bit inundated with blogs about the excitement, the reveal, the minutiae, the chase, the hunt. All signs indicated the ancestor season was open again with fervor surrounding the release of another window into the past.
I had my ticket and was one of the folks anxiously waiting for servers hosting the census to allow me a good connection to start the hunt. Wyoming, my primary quarry, became available later in the process. While frustrated by the wait, I knew would be worthwhile. Census takers in Sheridan County, Wyoming, were quite meticulous with good handwriting throughout, great notes indicating reasons for an extra space or why an infant had been crossed out--(the child was born after the cut-off date for enumeration, but still listed as a footnote to the census all the same.)
I poured over all of the pages for Sheridan County, my rat's nest of roots. I found the young men in their homes before enlisting in the service of their country, my great-grandmother, Alice (Van Gorder) Lupton, a widow since 3 December 1938, among so many other things.
While I found the release of the census to be another exciting time, I started thinking about a couple of loose ends in California. The release of the census is a chance to tie things together a bit more, right? I took a couple days away from the census and started looking for records of William F. Van Gorder, my great-great grandfather who left Wyoming sometime after being enumerated in February 1920 in Sheridan County. The Van Gorders homesteaded just across the Wyoming-Montana state line near present day Decker, Montana.
I have to confess there is a bit of a mental jumble here that my brain has mixed up things. As I write this, I realize that for a few years I had incorrectly processed time with William. I had thought that he had gone to California around 1940, several years after his wife, Axy, died in 1918 in Boulder, Colorado. The assumption of a California sunset for William was based on the fact that two of his children, Claud and Ivy, a lifelong bachelor and a spinster who lived together, moved there by the time of the 1930 enumeration. And, anyone who has spent a few years ranching in Wyoming and Montana and enduring the extreme conditions prevalent in this region, a California sunset seems to be a logical choice in life.
After pulling up the California Death Index on familysearch.org, I had to do some manual searching for William but found him to be a cooperative ancestor. I was excited to have a death date and the information to locate his death certificate. Feeling lucky, I opted to look for another couple within the same records, Samuel and Vina (Willis) DeLapp who lived in Santa Clara County.
I had previously located the 1910 enumeration for both Samuel and Vina--with a bit of excitement. Samuel was enumerated twice within a week. On 18 April 1910, Samuel and Vina were enumerated together, ages 85 and 84 years old. Five days later, Samuel is listed in the household of his son, John S. DeLapp as a widower. My search in the death records confirmed that Vina passed away on 22 April. And even though I was aware of the information in the enumerations previously, a bit of wind was sucked out of me upon validating the data. The implications that a census taker, perhaps the same one, knocked on the door of a family with a recently deceased loved one, seems ironic and surreal.
So, even with the excitement of the 1940 census, I found a couple of detours along the way that were equally satisfying.
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Thursday, February 2, 2012
The Lupton Diaries
I preface this with an apology as I am a new person to blogging. I have not posted anything recently due to winter ailments afflicting myself and my family. Being under the weather (and the blankets), I have had some time to ponder a few genealogical matters. The following is my latest submission, which I had meant to post on January 16th.
A few years ago, while visiting my grandmother and staying the night in her basement, I came across two diaries of my grandpa's from the late 1940s and early 1950s. Bound in black leather, the diaries were intended to be five-year diaries but were used instead for only a couple of years each. The space intended for additional years was used as extra writing space, in most instances.
I share the entry from January 16, 1948 as it records the birth of my mom and aunt. Having traversed the contemporary road that my grandparents traveled, I can only imagine the journey with my grandmother in the early morning hours in 1948. My understanding is that Ash Creek Road is much more developed today than it was in 1948 due, in part, to improvements made by oil companies. That being said, the road is a private road and maintained, as best as possible, by residents that live there. It is a road made of red shale that leaves a rusty red-brown dust on any vehicle willing to carry over the washboards that are an eternal feature along certain stretches.
The drive to the Lupton Place from Sheridan takes close to thirty minutes today. Recalling my own experience of driving my wife to the hospital in Salt Lake City twice in two years, I know the excitement and anticipation. Luckily, we only had to drive a few blocks up 700 East to reach our destination. There are so many things to consider about the mindset of my grandfather in driving his expectant wife to town. How did he react to her water breaking? Did he remain composed or was he scurrying about? What was the drive into town like? What was the delivery like? Was he involved?
The weather recorded for January 16, 1948 in Sheridan, Wyoming, where my mom and aunt (fraternal twins) were born, was cool, according to http://weather.org/weatherorg_records_and_averages.htm, reaching a high temperature of 19 degrees fahrenheit. The weather in my own lifetime has been increasingly milder, this year in particular with most of January reaching close to or over 40 degrees. I harken to say that I sound like an old-timer, recollecting the weather of my youth by saying, "When I was a kid the windchill was negative 45 degrees...."
Other entries in the diary include daily interactions with neighbors through helping with farming and ranching, community and family events. The entries are not elaborate affairs with feeling or emotion: they are simple accounts of the lives of rural folks. Also contained in the pages is an account of a rural neighborhood, roughly 20 years after being homesteaded, (give or take a few years in some cases).
The entry I enjoy the most is the entry for June 18, 1947. Written by my grandmother, it is a brief entry about their marriage ceremony. The wedding was held at the home of siblings Roy and Eunice Williams, my grandmother's aunt and uncle.
When my grandfather passed away in 2001, I spent time with my grandmother and had told her that I had cried a lot when I heard the news. After a brief pause, she confessed that she was afraid to cry fearing that she would be unable to stop.
The diaries offer some insight into the rural community that my grandparents both grew up and embraced. My grandfather was a member of the local school board and Farm Bureau while my grandmother was a member of the Lower Tongue River Women's Club, which consisted of various extended family members.
A few years ago, while visiting my grandmother and staying the night in her basement, I came across two diaries of my grandpa's from the late 1940s and early 1950s. Bound in black leather, the diaries were intended to be five-year diaries but were used instead for only a couple of years each. The space intended for additional years was used as extra writing space, in most instances.
I share the entry from January 16, 1948 as it records the birth of my mom and aunt. Having traversed the contemporary road that my grandparents traveled, I can only imagine the journey with my grandmother in the early morning hours in 1948. My understanding is that Ash Creek Road is much more developed today than it was in 1948 due, in part, to improvements made by oil companies. That being said, the road is a private road and maintained, as best as possible, by residents that live there. It is a road made of red shale that leaves a rusty red-brown dust on any vehicle willing to carry over the washboards that are an eternal feature along certain stretches.
The drive to the Lupton Place from Sheridan takes close to thirty minutes today. Recalling my own experience of driving my wife to the hospital in Salt Lake City twice in two years, I know the excitement and anticipation. Luckily, we only had to drive a few blocks up 700 East to reach our destination. There are so many things to consider about the mindset of my grandfather in driving his expectant wife to town. How did he react to her water breaking? Did he remain composed or was he scurrying about? What was the drive into town like? What was the delivery like? Was he involved?
The weather recorded for January 16, 1948 in Sheridan, Wyoming, where my mom and aunt (fraternal twins) were born, was cool, according to http://weather.org/weatherorg_records_and_averages.htm, reaching a high temperature of 19 degrees fahrenheit. The weather in my own lifetime has been increasingly milder, this year in particular with most of January reaching close to or over 40 degrees. I harken to say that I sound like an old-timer, recollecting the weather of my youth by saying, "When I was a kid the windchill was negative 45 degrees...."
Other entries in the diary include daily interactions with neighbors through helping with farming and ranching, community and family events. The entries are not elaborate affairs with feeling or emotion: they are simple accounts of the lives of rural folks. Also contained in the pages is an account of a rural neighborhood, roughly 20 years after being homesteaded, (give or take a few years in some cases).
The entry I enjoy the most is the entry for June 18, 1947. Written by my grandmother, it is a brief entry about their marriage ceremony. The wedding was held at the home of siblings Roy and Eunice Williams, my grandmother's aunt and uncle.
When my grandfather passed away in 2001, I spent time with my grandmother and had told her that I had cried a lot when I heard the news. After a brief pause, she confessed that she was afraid to cry fearing that she would be unable to stop.
The diaries offer some insight into the rural community that my grandparents both grew up and embraced. My grandfather was a member of the local school board and Farm Bureau while my grandmother was a member of the Lower Tongue River Women's Club, which consisted of various extended family members.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
A ditch that binds a community
Winter here in northern Wyoming has been mild thus far and I have been taking advantage of the 40 degree days as much as possible in restocking our firewood stores. Yesterday was degrees and I'm trying to figure which pair of shorts works for this time of year.
My mom has offered to help cut wood yesterday and we did so on the property of a cousin north of town. I was out last week and visited with the cousin and had visited with her for a few hours about various family stories. One thing that came up was an engineering project known as the Interstate Ditch. I had come across references to the ditch in a court case a few weeks ago and have heard it referenced by my mom over the years.
The ditch is an irrigation ditch built in about 1904 to convey water to a handful of farmers near Decker, Montana. The ditch provides water to several acres of land that would otherwise receive very little water for irrigation, besides the nominal spring and summer rains. While talking about the ditch, the cousin said that she had both the ledger and the minute book to the Interstate Ditch Company, of which she was the secretary. Without hesitation, she offered to loan me both, but I said that really the minute book was of more interest.
The book is an ordinary record book, with "Interstate Ditch Co." written in pencil on the cover. The first pages are a draft of proposed by-laws, followed by the by-laws that were approved. The minutes do not provide genealogy records per se, but add to the awareness of how the dynamics of a community organization changes over time.
The stockholders usually held a meeting once a year. Often the meeting was held before the spring irrigation started. What is curious is seeing the names in a somewhat fluid state. While reading the ledger, it was interesting to see the names change as one generation left and another took the spot, or a family name disappeared entirely, to be replaced by a new name.
The early names are ones that I am familiar with by proximity to family that I research, or in the case of E. A. Whitney, by reputation. Whitney was an early resident of Sheridan, Wyoming and continues to have an impact after his death through Whitney Benefits, a philanthropic organization. Whitney assisted the stockholders in the financial start-up of the company and the logistics of the stocks and in all things banking.
This is a unique record as it sheds light on the community workings, albeit an isolated section of a community based on the path of an irrigation ditch. The value is that it also shows what we as genealogists and historians already know--that often the work of people unfamiliar to us in the past has a lasting impact on those of us in the present.
The ditch provided water to the land that would eventually be owned by Preston Wagner, son of William Wagner, who was a neighbor of other kin. William Wagner was also an early president of the ditch company and a substantial shareholder. The land that Preston Wagner homesteaded on is now owned by the cousin who loaned me the minute book, and borders land that my great-grandparents, Ralph and Cora (Williams) DeLapp lived on.
The ditch itself is substantial--an average-sized man would be hard to spot walking in it and might be able to jump across it with a running start. It may be just a ditch to some, yet I find it surprising that something so ordinary has such a complex and rich history.
My mom has offered to help cut wood yesterday and we did so on the property of a cousin north of town. I was out last week and visited with the cousin and had visited with her for a few hours about various family stories. One thing that came up was an engineering project known as the Interstate Ditch. I had come across references to the ditch in a court case a few weeks ago and have heard it referenced by my mom over the years.
The ditch is an irrigation ditch built in about 1904 to convey water to a handful of farmers near Decker, Montana. The ditch provides water to several acres of land that would otherwise receive very little water for irrigation, besides the nominal spring and summer rains. While talking about the ditch, the cousin said that she had both the ledger and the minute book to the Interstate Ditch Company, of which she was the secretary. Without hesitation, she offered to loan me both, but I said that really the minute book was of more interest.
The book is an ordinary record book, with "Interstate Ditch Co." written in pencil on the cover. The first pages are a draft of proposed by-laws, followed by the by-laws that were approved. The minutes do not provide genealogy records per se, but add to the awareness of how the dynamics of a community organization changes over time.
The stockholders usually held a meeting once a year. Often the meeting was held before the spring irrigation started. What is curious is seeing the names in a somewhat fluid state. While reading the ledger, it was interesting to see the names change as one generation left and another took the spot, or a family name disappeared entirely, to be replaced by a new name.
The early names are ones that I am familiar with by proximity to family that I research, or in the case of E. A. Whitney, by reputation. Whitney was an early resident of Sheridan, Wyoming and continues to have an impact after his death through Whitney Benefits, a philanthropic organization. Whitney assisted the stockholders in the financial start-up of the company and the logistics of the stocks and in all things banking.
This is a unique record as it sheds light on the community workings, albeit an isolated section of a community based on the path of an irrigation ditch. The value is that it also shows what we as genealogists and historians already know--that often the work of people unfamiliar to us in the past has a lasting impact on those of us in the present.
The ditch provided water to the land that would eventually be owned by Preston Wagner, son of William Wagner, who was a neighbor of other kin. William Wagner was also an early president of the ditch company and a substantial shareholder. The land that Preston Wagner homesteaded on is now owned by the cousin who loaned me the minute book, and borders land that my great-grandparents, Ralph and Cora (Williams) DeLapp lived on.
The ditch itself is substantial--an average-sized man would be hard to spot walking in it and might be able to jump across it with a running start. It may be just a ditch to some, yet I find it surprising that something so ordinary has such a complex and rich history.
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Creating a custom chart
For the past week or so, I have been working on a project that has encountered a few pitfalls along the way. I started charting a unique family group with the basis being homesteaders in northern Sheridan County, Wyoming, specifically near Acme and Monarch, Wyoming.
I started the process using information I have compiled over the past few years, as well as personal knowledge of many of the relationships. The chart is intended to show as a graphic the kinship ties of many neighbors in the Lower Tongue River community.
The following statistics can be found in this particular group:
I had started this process by asking for suggestions in the Transitional Genealogists Forum message board. Several suggestions came in for using a mind map, which is often used for mapping workflow, ideas or concepts, but has some additional utility. I found it to be a great playground, but wasn't the fit for what I was attempting. I was also referred to genograms, of which I am familiar and have played with GenoPro a couple of times. I again didn't feel this was adequate for my purposes.
I remembered that Rootsmagic has a charting program bundled with it, which I thought should work given the user-friendliness of the larger program. I launched myself into Rootsmagic Chart with mouse clicks blazing a path for my creation. A few hours of adding lines, adjusting lines, planning and replanning how to incorporate additional names in to a tight spot, I finished. I was happy with the finished product....until I wanted to save it. It turns out the program will not save a file in anything besides a proprietary extension. On top of that, it won't allow users to print, returning the message, "Wallchart printing is disabled in the demo version."
Bummer. The program info under the Help tab indicates it is version 1.02 and is copyrighted by Rootsmagic, Inc. 2003-06. And the red flag in my head goes up and the mental party balloons quickly deflate. Back to brainstorming. I wonder about the program in question being packaged with the larger program when it has no real use to any user, aside from being a place to sketch ideas out.
It turns out the solution is a pretty handy one. OpenOffice Draw is a perfectly capable program for creating custom charts with much ease. I kept my earlier attempt open and created a newer and fresher chart, of which I can say was a bit easier and seems to be more appealling to the eyes than the end result in Rootsmagic Chart. Sometimes the simple solution is one that is overlooked by wanting something fancy and created by a genealogy-related company.
I started the process using information I have compiled over the past few years, as well as personal knowledge of many of the relationships. The chart is intended to show as a graphic the kinship ties of many neighbors in the Lower Tongue River community.
The following statistics can be found in this particular group:
- There are 49 individuals, of which 23 (46.9%) were homesteaders
- Of the 23 homesteaders, nine were female (39.1%); 14 were male (60.8%)
- Of the 23 homesteaders, six that had a spouse that also homesteaded
- The largest consanguinaity group consists of seven individuals, relating to the Van Gorder family
 |
| A chart created by Open Office Draw |
I remembered that Rootsmagic has a charting program bundled with it, which I thought should work given the user-friendliness of the larger program. I launched myself into Rootsmagic Chart with mouse clicks blazing a path for my creation. A few hours of adding lines, adjusting lines, planning and replanning how to incorporate additional names in to a tight spot, I finished. I was happy with the finished product....until I wanted to save it. It turns out the program will not save a file in anything besides a proprietary extension. On top of that, it won't allow users to print, returning the message, "Wallchart printing is disabled in the demo version."
Bummer. The program info under the Help tab indicates it is version 1.02 and is copyrighted by Rootsmagic, Inc. 2003-06. And the red flag in my head goes up and the mental party balloons quickly deflate. Back to brainstorming. I wonder about the program in question being packaged with the larger program when it has no real use to any user, aside from being a place to sketch ideas out.
It turns out the solution is a pretty handy one. OpenOffice Draw is a perfectly capable program for creating custom charts with much ease. I kept my earlier attempt open and created a newer and fresher chart, of which I can say was a bit easier and seems to be more appealling to the eyes than the end result in Rootsmagic Chart. Sometimes the simple solution is one that is overlooked by wanting something fancy and created by a genealogy-related company.
Monday, January 2, 2012
Homestead records of Sheridan County, Wyoming
I live in a small town and it always feels good when I enter the Wyoming Room at the Sheridan Fulmer Library. I feel like Norm from the 80's television show, Cheers. They know me by name there and by now they know some of the family I am researching.
While at the Wyoming Room a couple of weeks ago while conducting some routine data collection, the manager, Judy Slack, asked if I wanted to look at the homestead records they had acquired earlier in the year. I've been meaning to work on local homestead records for sometime and have to admit that I am not very knowledgeable about the homestead process. I do know that I have several homesteaders in my family and that the files the Wyoming Room obtained might be worth looking at.
About the records: The State of Wyoming initially had several boxes of records stored in a storage unit in Cheyenne, and apparently not in ideal circumstances at all. There was a gap by the door of about 4-5 inches which allowed a considerable amount of snow and particulate matter to invade the storage unit. The state decided it no longer wished to keep the records and offered them to the Sheridan Fulmer Library. Judy and her crew sorted through the boxes, many of which were moldy and unsalvageable.
Once the sorting and processing was completed, approximately 25 boxes of various records remained. Many of the records are regarding failed homesteads, one of which is a grand uncle of mine, Ned Lupton. Other records are regarding issues that regarding Desert Land entries and water, as was the case with Ernest Kester, another relative.
The diamonds in the rough were bits of information that I doubt I would ever have found elsewhere. In the file for my great-great grandfather, Gideon Lupton, was paperwork requesting a refund for his homestead money. He started to suffer from paralysis on January 6, 1913 and could no longer work the land and had no money to hire the work out. This is the newspaper 10 November 1919 article from The Sheridan Enterprise:
The funeral home record doesn't shed much additional light on the cause of death and states paralysis as the cause of death. While I claim to no medical training, I think this indicates the possibility of a stroke.
I am quite amazed that I located a specific reference to the date when he became ill, which I think is quite unique.
Another unexpected twist came when I found a rather large file for a woman named Amelia Wagner. I am not related to her but she and her husband were neighbors to other kin, the Schreibeises and Robert and Elizabeth Williams, my great-great grandparents. Amelia was a teacher to several members of my family. Her husband, William Wagner, was a well-known rancher known for his large stone house, which he built by hand.
The paperwork, it turns out, was a court case tried in district court over whether the Wagners filed a false land entry because of timber, stone and minerals that were available on the property. Allegations also surfaced that the land was worth more for the coal than anything else and should have been sold at a higher price. The testimony of Mr. Wagner is nearly 60 pages long and a bit tedious, but gives a good impression of the landscape in the area. There are also about 20 pictures in the back that were used as exhibits, as well as two maps, one of which was marked on in the courtroom by Mr. Wagner himself. The pictures show the coal mine that Wagner had constructed for personal consumption, as well as the lay of the land in question.
The added bonuses are two of the witnesses for the defense, Frank Lupton, my great-grandfather and Jacob Schreibeis, a member of other kin that ties in to more contemporaneous times. (Frank's daughter, Violet, married Jacob's son, George.) The testimonies are great to have found.
What shines through in all of this is a bit of humor. The Luptons that I descend from have a great sense of humor and I laughed at the very start of Frank Lupton's answers. When asked what his occupation was, Frank answered, "My occupation I guess would be farmer." Apparently he didn't feel that was substantial enough and continued with, "I don't know what else, digging in the dirt."
While at the Wyoming Room a couple of weeks ago while conducting some routine data collection, the manager, Judy Slack, asked if I wanted to look at the homestead records they had acquired earlier in the year. I've been meaning to work on local homestead records for sometime and have to admit that I am not very knowledgeable about the homestead process. I do know that I have several homesteaders in my family and that the files the Wyoming Room obtained might be worth looking at.
About the records: The State of Wyoming initially had several boxes of records stored in a storage unit in Cheyenne, and apparently not in ideal circumstances at all. There was a gap by the door of about 4-5 inches which allowed a considerable amount of snow and particulate matter to invade the storage unit. The state decided it no longer wished to keep the records and offered them to the Sheridan Fulmer Library. Judy and her crew sorted through the boxes, many of which were moldy and unsalvageable.
Once the sorting and processing was completed, approximately 25 boxes of various records remained. Many of the records are regarding failed homesteads, one of which is a grand uncle of mine, Ned Lupton. Other records are regarding issues that regarding Desert Land entries and water, as was the case with Ernest Kester, another relative.
The diamonds in the rough were bits of information that I doubt I would ever have found elsewhere. In the file for my great-great grandfather, Gideon Lupton, was paperwork requesting a refund for his homestead money. He started to suffer from paralysis on January 6, 1913 and could no longer work the land and had no money to hire the work out. This is the newspaper 10 November 1919 article from The Sheridan Enterprise:
I am quite amazed that I located a specific reference to the date when he became ill, which I think is quite unique.
Another unexpected twist came when I found a rather large file for a woman named Amelia Wagner. I am not related to her but she and her husband were neighbors to other kin, the Schreibeises and Robert and Elizabeth Williams, my great-great grandparents. Amelia was a teacher to several members of my family. Her husband, William Wagner, was a well-known rancher known for his large stone house, which he built by hand.
The paperwork, it turns out, was a court case tried in district court over whether the Wagners filed a false land entry because of timber, stone and minerals that were available on the property. Allegations also surfaced that the land was worth more for the coal than anything else and should have been sold at a higher price. The testimony of Mr. Wagner is nearly 60 pages long and a bit tedious, but gives a good impression of the landscape in the area. There are also about 20 pictures in the back that were used as exhibits, as well as two maps, one of which was marked on in the courtroom by Mr. Wagner himself. The pictures show the coal mine that Wagner had constructed for personal consumption, as well as the lay of the land in question.
The added bonuses are two of the witnesses for the defense, Frank Lupton, my great-grandfather and Jacob Schreibeis, a member of other kin that ties in to more contemporaneous times. (Frank's daughter, Violet, married Jacob's son, George.) The testimonies are great to have found.
What shines through in all of this is a bit of humor. The Luptons that I descend from have a great sense of humor and I laughed at the very start of Frank Lupton's answers. When asked what his occupation was, Frank answered, "My occupation I guess would be farmer." Apparently he didn't feel that was substantial enough and continued with, "I don't know what else, digging in the dirt."
Friday, December 30, 2011
12 Goals for 2012
I was reluctant to make a list of resolutions, and have leaned more to a list of goals. While I have tried resolutions before, I've decided that resolutions are more than likely going to be broken. It also seems that resolutions are things that need "fixed".
I don't think my genealogy needs fixed, tweaked, yes, but fixed? Nope. I have made a list of goals, some of which are pretty simple things for me to dabble in while others are going to require some brain power and quality time researching. Some of my goals are specific projects that I'd like to finish and put on the research shelf for the next phase.
Any suggestions for furthering my goals would be appreciated as I'm not opposed to advice.
Happy New Year's to everyone!
I don't think my genealogy needs fixed, tweaked, yes, but fixed? Nope. I have made a list of goals, some of which are pretty simple things for me to dabble in while others are going to require some brain power and quality time researching. Some of my goals are specific projects that I'd like to finish and put on the research shelf for the next phase.
Any suggestions for furthering my goals would be appreciated as I'm not opposed to advice.
- Finalize my obituary audit for Sheridan County, Wyoming
- I have been auditing the obituaries of the various branches in my family that are in Sheridan County. I maintain a spreadsheet in which I list the newspaper in which the obituary was published, date, page, and column number.
- To finish this goal, I need to organize the obituaries in a solitary file with the spreadsheet file. I also need to print the obituaries with the publishing information printed at the bottom of the page and organize them in a binder, with an index.
- Master using the Cloud.
- I have recently started using Dropbox and SugarSync for my genealogy files. I am looking forward to developing a greater mastery of both of these tools. When I am at the Sheridan Fulmer Library, I prefer to go with a pencil, notepad and a flash drive (with Rootsmagic installed), just in case.
- I also use Google Docs quite a bit to accomplish much of my research at the library. I recently discovered that Microsoft has its own online version of Word in line with what Google does with its word processing and data management programs.
- Redefine my workflow
- This is one of my pitfalls. I have a lot of "irons in the fire" with research and being a stay at home dad. My biggest challenges are what I think of as the "Goldfish factor". Goldfish supposedly have an attention span of only three seconds. While I do not have an attention problem, maintaining focus on specific projects and not being distracted by things I find while I am working on a particular project is a problem.
- Part of the solution will be setting up a secondary monitor for our desktop. I loathe having switch between tabs and/or windows. Also, it will help if I am looking at a record that I am trying to enter data from into a word processing document or spreadsheet. I'm awaiting a splitter cable in the mail for this to happen.
- Work more with Photoshop
- I have an older version of Photoshop that I would like to start using on both pictures I have personally taken and those from my genealogy collection.
- I recently purchased a couple of books for working with older pictures which I hope to utilize in 2012.
- Newspaper article audit for Sheridan, Wyoming to 1922
- The Wyoming State Archives has Sheridan newspapers scanned and searchable to 1922 on the Wyoming Newspaper Project site. This project is in a similar vein as the obituary audit, including a spreadsheet, printing, filing and indexing the articles in a binder for easy access.
- Kinship affiliations in the Lower Tongue River Community
- This is actually a project that I have been spending a great deal of time on, much to my delight. The Tongue River area in northern Sheridan County, Wyoming, is a watershed for my genealogy research. Having read Dr. Carolyn Earle Billingsley's book, Communities of Kinship: Antebellum Families and the Settlement of the Cotton Frontier, I hope to document the unique kinship neighborhood the Tongue River area families formed in the early 1900s.
- The initial phase of this project has been creating a chart documenting the homesteaders and marriages which connect other homesteaders.
- The next step with the chart will be to incorporate different elements to reflect the dates of the homesteads and marriages. I am hoping to use some color for a more vibrant presentation as well.
- Keep a journal
- I have always enjoyed reading and writing and even fancied myself as a writer in college. The more I have gotten into genealogy, the more I realize how much has been lost by people not writing about each other. Given the various devices and distractions of modern life, I have found it difficult to sit long enough to do anything, let alone write. While my wife and I wait for our boys to fall asleep in their beds, I usually think about the things I should be putting down on paper...unless of course I fall asleep in the process.
- Be more creative
- While I enjoy the facts and research aspect of genealogy, I'm looking to expand the creative presentation side of things a bit. I have a small trove of old family pictures, letters, etc. that I would like to scan and use in some artistic ways.
- Spend more time in the basement
- I have a room in the basement that is all mine, full of research, filing cabinets, Jimmy Hoffa and everything I wanted to know about my family history but have forgotten. I have a bunch of things that need to be organized in my space...just need to book some time.
- Conduct onsite research at Tongue River locations
- After a day trip with my mom, aunt, sister and my boys to some of the old homesteads this past summer, I'm hoping to spend more time in the area. Finding some inspiration from DearPhotograph.com, I'm hoping to take some of the old pictures from family collections and locate where they were taken. Some of this goal coincides with the creative goals for the year.
- I also have a metal detector now and am hoping to revisit the site of an old rural school (I have permission in advance from the landowner) and see what I might be able to find.
- Education
- Continued genealogy education is always something I strive for and in 2012, I'd like to consume as much information as I can. I recently purchased Colleen Fitzpatrick's, The Dead Horse Investigation on Amazon.com and am looking forward to that for additional photography research info. I also plan on pouring over Elizabeth Shown Mills' new webpage to learn from a genealogy master.
- Community involvement
- While I have indexed for Familysearch.org in the past, I'm looking this year to help a bit more locally at the Sheridan County Museum. I'm scheduled to meet with the director next week to start as a volunteer for scanning pictures.
Happy New Year's to everyone!
Friday, December 23, 2011
The stolen identity of Ava Pilcher, or how the SSDI is being scapegoated
Facts. Truth. Provenance. Objectivity. We, as genealogists and researchers all desire these things. Yet, we are constantly at risk of losing access to records, oftentimes, because of our antithesis, misinformation.
The rise of genealogy and macrohistory in general have created pockets of resistance to genealogists, which threaten the history of the average person. Much of this resistance, in my opinion, is fear mongering. For members of Congress to claim the Social Security Death Index as a considerable weakness in keeping social security numbers out of the hands of criminals is based on two things: emotions and misinformation.
Much has been made about the Social Security Death Index and recent events regarding the future access to it by genealogists. The Internet is rife with the same few stories of identity theft and what appear to be articles lacking reliable facts that specifically prove the SSDI is a problem with identity theft. Implying the SSDI is at fault and proving it are two wholly unique positions.
One only needs to search the Internet for queries about stolen SSNs to realize that there are more instances of people taking advantage of their jobs and selling stolen SSNs or hacking computer systems and retrieving such information, than of the SSDI being abused. In fact, I have yet to see any data from government or private entities that specifically refers to the SSDI being abused or used in inappropriate ways. There is a distinct difference in facts and suppositions, and this is a case where the people pursuing the SSDI are severely misguided.
A concern with the SSDI is that people are guided by their heartstrings. I don't intend to come across as callous or being unsympathetic, but when a story makes the news about a criminal using the social security number of a recently passed child, it particular, it doesn't mean that a genealogical source was compromised. In genealogy we talk a lot about pedigrees and provenance. These cases all need to be looked at in that regards--who was in a position to take advantage of the situation from the time the child was ill to the death of said child.
I suspect more often than not, that someone who handled the paperwork along the way is responsible. In my queries regarding such stories, all I can find are articles where the implication is that the SSDI is the culprit. None of the stories I have found are well researched as they take members of Congress as being the end all authority on these matters, nor do they address what past research by Javelin Strategy & Research has shown: that a considerable amount of identity theft is committed by persons close to the victim. In findings published in the 2009 Identity Theft Survey Report, Javelin reported that 43 percent of identity theft cases were committed by people known by the victim. That means that 2 out of 5 cases of identity theft are committed by friends, family or acquaintances. Does that mean we need to legislate families and "friends"?
Let's ponder this for a moment:
So, if I were to tell you that your biggest threat of having your identity stolen is someone close to you, what would you do? Legislate? Would you propose congressional legislation mandating all family and alleged friends no longer interact with you or have access to you because of the potential risk of them betraying you? Would you take 40 percent of the people you know and remove them from your life because the statistics indicate they are potential Brutuses and Judases? I suspect that most people would keep these people within their circle of friends and family because the inherent value of being surrounded by people whose company we enjoy, regardless of the risk. Remember, Brutus and Judas were close associates of the people they betrayed. I focus on this because the biggest risk in the 2009 report by Javelin is people we know and associate with. Not strangers, but omeone we may have a connection with--a blood relative, a high school friend, a neighbor, a social acquaintance.
We have a greater risk of being betrayed by people we know than any other source, yet Congress seems to focus on the smaller and implied risk that the SSDI poses.
The SSDI is not Judas or Brutus. It is a tool that is being scapegoated by politicians. In an article published by the Scripps Howard News Service in November of this year, a story was written about an incident involving a young girl who died in 2010. The father filed his income tax to have it rejected by the IRS as his daughter had been claimed as an independent of someone else. The story can be found here. While this is a tragic story, we must deal with the facts and examine what the article says versus what is implied. Emotions often cloud facts, especially in these matters.
As a parent of two young boys, I can appreciate the severity of this situation and disclose this for not wanting to seem unsympathetic. I would be furious if this happened to my family, as Mr. Pilcher has every right to be. As a genealogist, I am concerned that the truth is implied here and the access to a tremendous research tool is being targeted incorrectly, or at least until all the facts are on the table.
I have take lines, as best I can without removing the contextual information, and snipped these for analysis below:
The article closes with:
After examining the article, I'm starting to wonder if maybe the IRS is more responsible for the incidences of fraud than the SSDI could ever be. The IRS has all the resources to locate the responsible party, determine the process used to steal the identity and shed light on the real facts behind this story. The story highlights two things: a tragedy that has been highjacked by emotions and a bureaucracy that seems a bit callous to say the least. While I understand the IRS is limited by laws put in place for protection, these same laws are inhibiting justice and logic.
The facts in this article are that Ava Pilcher died in 2010 and that she was claimed by another party as a dependent on their tax return. Her father, Matthew Pilcher had his 2010 tax return rejected because Ava had been falsely claimed by another party. The IRS has the record of the culpable party and cannot divulge such information.
What is implied is that because Mr. Pilcher found Ava's social security number on the SSDI, it is at fault. He makes that as his claim, but cannot properly prove that position because of the IRS being unable to share who claimed Ava on their tax return. The tax return claiming Ava Pilcher would shed light on how the information was gathered based on the identity of the responsible party. Mr. Pilcher implies the SSDI is where the information was gathered but cannot prove this as fact.
The point in all of this is that the known facts of this case are a few and not very good ones at that. Also, the IRS is in a seemingly good position to find the responsible party, possibly absolving the SSDI of blame and punishing the criminals that perpetrated this act.
This does not preclude the possibility the SSDI was used in this case. It does show that we cannot tell one way or the other the culpability of the SSDI because of the lack of information. A lack of information does not indicate guilt or innocence, more that there is a need for further facts for the objective analysis that we, as a genealogical community, routinely hold ourselves to, and must demand of Congress.
The rise of genealogy and macrohistory in general have created pockets of resistance to genealogists, which threaten the history of the average person. Much of this resistance, in my opinion, is fear mongering. For members of Congress to claim the Social Security Death Index as a considerable weakness in keeping social security numbers out of the hands of criminals is based on two things: emotions and misinformation.
Much has been made about the Social Security Death Index and recent events regarding the future access to it by genealogists. The Internet is rife with the same few stories of identity theft and what appear to be articles lacking reliable facts that specifically prove the SSDI is a problem with identity theft. Implying the SSDI is at fault and proving it are two wholly unique positions.
One only needs to search the Internet for queries about stolen SSNs to realize that there are more instances of people taking advantage of their jobs and selling stolen SSNs or hacking computer systems and retrieving such information, than of the SSDI being abused. In fact, I have yet to see any data from government or private entities that specifically refers to the SSDI being abused or used in inappropriate ways. There is a distinct difference in facts and suppositions, and this is a case where the people pursuing the SSDI are severely misguided.
A concern with the SSDI is that people are guided by their heartstrings. I don't intend to come across as callous or being unsympathetic, but when a story makes the news about a criminal using the social security number of a recently passed child, it particular, it doesn't mean that a genealogical source was compromised. In genealogy we talk a lot about pedigrees and provenance. These cases all need to be looked at in that regards--who was in a position to take advantage of the situation from the time the child was ill to the death of said child.
I suspect more often than not, that someone who handled the paperwork along the way is responsible. In my queries regarding such stories, all I can find are articles where the implication is that the SSDI is the culprit. None of the stories I have found are well researched as they take members of Congress as being the end all authority on these matters, nor do they address what past research by Javelin Strategy & Research has shown: that a considerable amount of identity theft is committed by persons close to the victim. In findings published in the 2009 Identity Theft Survey Report, Javelin reported that 43 percent of identity theft cases were committed by people known by the victim. That means that 2 out of 5 cases of identity theft are committed by friends, family or acquaintances. Does that mean we need to legislate families and "friends"?
Let's ponder this for a moment:
So, if I were to tell you that your biggest threat of having your identity stolen is someone close to you, what would you do? Legislate? Would you propose congressional legislation mandating all family and alleged friends no longer interact with you or have access to you because of the potential risk of them betraying you? Would you take 40 percent of the people you know and remove them from your life because the statistics indicate they are potential Brutuses and Judases? I suspect that most people would keep these people within their circle of friends and family because the inherent value of being surrounded by people whose company we enjoy, regardless of the risk. Remember, Brutus and Judas were close associates of the people they betrayed. I focus on this because the biggest risk in the 2009 report by Javelin is people we know and associate with. Not strangers, but omeone we may have a connection with--a blood relative, a high school friend, a neighbor, a social acquaintance.
We have a greater risk of being betrayed by people we know than any other source, yet Congress seems to focus on the smaller and implied risk that the SSDI poses.
The SSDI is not Judas or Brutus. It is a tool that is being scapegoated by politicians. In an article published by the Scripps Howard News Service in November of this year, a story was written about an incident involving a young girl who died in 2010. The father filed his income tax to have it rejected by the IRS as his daughter had been claimed as an independent of someone else. The story can be found here. While this is a tragic story, we must deal with the facts and examine what the article says versus what is implied. Emotions often cloud facts, especially in these matters.
As a parent of two young boys, I can appreciate the severity of this situation and disclose this for not wanting to seem unsympathetic. I would be furious if this happened to my family, as Mr. Pilcher has every right to be. As a genealogist, I am concerned that the truth is implied here and the access to a tremendous research tool is being targeted incorrectly, or at least until all the facts are on the table.
I have take lines, as best I can without removing the contextual information, and snipped these for analysis below:
“We were able to go on a website and found all her information there. The Death Master File is where they (crooks) got that information,” Pilcher said.This statement, combined with the paragraph at the bottom doesn't make for a fact. While Mr. Pilcher may have found the information on the Death Master File, it doesn't rule out other possibilities.
The Social Security Administration, as part of an investigation by Scripps Howard, acknowledged in June that it accidentally lists about 14,000 living Americans each year in the death database.The article continues on to say:
There is little grieving parents can do to protect themselves if thieves decide to take their dead child’s name, birthdate and Social Security numbers. Identity crooks need only file for a tax refund before the family can.Really? I think there is a way to prove that the Internal Revenue Service bears the brunt of fault in this case. To claim a deceased child on one's tax returns, the IRS requires a SSN, or if a SSN is not available, "a copy of the child's birth certificate, death certificate, or hospital records instead". This information is located under the "Social Secuity Numbers for Dependents" section on this page, maintained by the IRS. This means that the theft of the child's identity could also have been committed by someone who handled the paperwork or was close to the family.
“Criminals have found the perfect loophole,” said Joanna Crane, former manager of the Federal Trade Commission’s Identity Theft Program. “It doesn’t give the IRS time to detect that something is wrong. By the time they do, the money is already out the door.” [Emphasis added]This statement should be sounding alarms. So the IRS has some role in allowing identity theft to occur? The information published in this article implies the SSDI was where the information was gathered by the person(s) responsible.
The article closes with:
Pilcher, the Maryland dad, wants policy changes — and justice. Although federal authorities refuse to provide any details about who claimed Ava on their tax return — the IRS says it cannot divulge private information about anyone’s tax filings — Pilcher vowed to find the culprit.So, the IRS is capable of helping Mr. Pilcher save the identity of his daughter and they even have the paperwork that shows who stole her identity. Heck, they even paid that person money.
“I don’t care how long it takes,” he said. “I’m going to find out who did it!” [Emphasis in bold added]
After examining the article, I'm starting to wonder if maybe the IRS is more responsible for the incidences of fraud than the SSDI could ever be. The IRS has all the resources to locate the responsible party, determine the process used to steal the identity and shed light on the real facts behind this story. The story highlights two things: a tragedy that has been highjacked by emotions and a bureaucracy that seems a bit callous to say the least. While I understand the IRS is limited by laws put in place for protection, these same laws are inhibiting justice and logic.
The facts in this article are that Ava Pilcher died in 2010 and that she was claimed by another party as a dependent on their tax return. Her father, Matthew Pilcher had his 2010 tax return rejected because Ava had been falsely claimed by another party. The IRS has the record of the culpable party and cannot divulge such information.
What is implied is that because Mr. Pilcher found Ava's social security number on the SSDI, it is at fault. He makes that as his claim, but cannot properly prove that position because of the IRS being unable to share who claimed Ava on their tax return. The tax return claiming Ava Pilcher would shed light on how the information was gathered based on the identity of the responsible party. Mr. Pilcher implies the SSDI is where the information was gathered but cannot prove this as fact.
The point in all of this is that the known facts of this case are a few and not very good ones at that. Also, the IRS is in a seemingly good position to find the responsible party, possibly absolving the SSDI of blame and punishing the criminals that perpetrated this act.
This does not preclude the possibility the SSDI was used in this case. It does show that we cannot tell one way or the other the culpability of the SSDI because of the lack of information. A lack of information does not indicate guilt or innocence, more that there is a need for further facts for the objective analysis that we, as a genealogical community, routinely hold ourselves to, and must demand of Congress.
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