CNYGS Meeting This Saturday!

Tree Talks Is Looking For Input

Central New York Genealogical Society and Tree Talks is looking for your help!

Have you ever come across some records in the Central New York area that you wished were more widely available? Now's your chance! Contact Jenn or Chris and see if they might be able to get them in an issue of Tree Talks:

Tree Talks Seeks Your Help

Now that so many important records for genealogists are online, Tree Talks is in a position to be more creative with December issues. Do you know of any unusual records that exist in your town or a Central New York town of interest to you? Please check with your local town offices, historical societies or anyone who might have such unpublished information. Some examples might be prison, shopkeeper, orphanage or animal owner records. If you find some potential records, please contact Jenn Eshbaugh at cnygs.treetalks@gmail.com or Chris Wilcox at cwilcox@twcny.rr.com. Thank you!

CNYGS All Day Conference- Michael Strauss

Adventures in Military Records

CNYGS’s upcoming speaker, Michael Strauss cost me $70 last year. Am I upset? No way! I’m thrilled! The records that I had despaired of getting were worth every penny of what I spent on them.

It all started last spring while sitting in a session at the New England Regional Genealogical Conference (NERGC) in Springfield, Massachusetts. Michael was talking about military records, in particular those from the world wars. As many of us are already all too well aware, a fire in Saint Louis in 1973 destroyed many records. Destroyed were about 80% of the Army and 75% of the Air Force records for a good share of the 20th century. I had tried over 20 years ago to get the records of two WWI Army veterans. Those of my maternal grandparents-- to no avail due to this fire. Some have been reconstructed over the years. There are more becoming available all the time through this process.

I talked with Michael after the presentation and he encouraged me to try again. Perhaps my grandparents’ were some of the lucky records that had been reconstructed and now available. That hope, along with some tidbits he had mentioned about Seabees during World War II encouraged me to try the requests again. However, this time I ordered with a twist to them. This time I sent 3 requests instead of 2. The first was for my grandmother's World War I Army Nurse records. The second was for my grandfather's World War I Calvary records. The new request was for my grandfather’s Seabee records when he reenlisted during World War II.

It was a very busy time during the early part of last summer and I set the responses aside when the first two came back with no records available. I had almost forgotten completely about them. Then one day, going to the mailbox I found yet another envelope from NARA. For that $70 mentioned above, I could get what was left of the records of Marion Wooster when he served in the Seabees. You better believe a check went out by return mail!

A couple weeks later a fat envelope arrived. I eagerly went through it. Much of what was there, I had already found on my own. However, papers backed up family stories with the facts. There were a few new tidbits, such as whom Grandpa had worked in the years before re-enlisting. Some of the records were about his prior service and included stuff about Grandma as well. Did I have her naturalization papers already? Yes, but here was another copy along with their marriage certificate. Invaluable papers to have if I hadn’t already have them.

My uncle, their youngest child, has done a lot of genealogy over the years. But, with age and illness, he has now stopped doing any research. Much of what I knew about his father’s service, I had gained from him. He especially knew about the time in the Seabees, as he had been an adolescent during that time. I took this envelope of papers to him one afternoon. We spent well over an hour looking through the papers together. He was delighted to see all this information. My uncle was particularly fascinated about his father’s work history. He sat there remembering names and places from his childhood. In fact, of all the papers in that envelope, this was the only page he wanted to keep a copy of.

Michael won’t be talking about the world wars at the upcoming presentation. But I’m sure he’ll join me in urging you to send out requests for those records. It costs nothing to ask, if they find something, you can decide then whether to order the records or not. Meanwhile, I’m looking forward to hearing what new tidbits and record groups he will introduce us to that might expand some of my searches!

CNYGS First Spring Meeting Is Next Week!

This meeting is coming up rapidly! Don't forget to attend it should be a good one!

CNYGS Is Getting Ready For March!

It may still be January, but they're getting ready. Here's the announcement for the first meeting of the year.

Don't Forget Saturday's Meeting!

Upcoming CNYGS Meeting

There's been a change in the next Central New York Genealogical Society meeting. Here's the flyer for the new speaker:

Up the North River

On Saturday, we took a quick trip along the North River, aka The Hudson River from earliest settlement to 1800. This was the theme of both the first presentation and the all day conference at Central New York Genealogical Society. Jane Wilcox, an expert on the Hudson River area of New York State, gave four separate presentations.

Many people think of the earliest settlers to this area as the Dutch who settled New Netherlands with Fort Orange. They would be wrong. Actually, the Walloons, a group from Belgium came here before the Dutch, who had claimed the territory, arrived. They were the very first settlers after the Native Americans and blazed the way for the other settlers.

We learned, also that there were a few more groups of various ethnicity and religions that settled this area during the time period. Jane asked for guesses in the beginning of the lecture. The answers ranged from single digits up to about 20. Having heard the lecture before, I jokingly put out an answer of 100. I knew mine was too high, but knew there was many more than most in the audience imagined. The actual answer was somewhere around 45, depending on if she had actually found all or not.

A Tale of Woe is an interesting case study that Jane presented next. Starting from the mention of an unmarried relative in a printed genealogy, she brought to life one of her collateral ancestors. Probate and court records, among other sources were able to reconstruct the life of this woman who fought the conventions of the day. She disagreed with her brothers on matters and brought a child into the world just before she died, still unmarried. The case study describes what happened to this child as well. In an interesting twist, we found that the president of Central New York Genealogical Society, Chris Wilcox, is also a relative of this woman on a different line of descent.

The afternoon started with a lecture on the tenant farms of the Hudson Valley. We learned about the patents and manors. These consisted of vast holdings by the wealthy of thousands of acres in this area. For decades these lands were rented. Thus, the people that settled here were unable to own the land themselves. Even without deeds to the land, there are various ways to trace these settlers as Jane showed us in this lecture. Many of the leases are for three lives. What surprised many is that this is not three generations, but for the lives of three people mentioned within the lease. It could be a husband, wife and child or three brothers or any combination of people that had an interest in the land. Once the last of them died, the lease would revert back to the landowner.

Finally, we had a whirlwind tour across Upstate New York. We learned about various libraries, archives, historians, historical societies, genealogy groups and online sources for information on our ancestors. Using a small sample from each category, Jane demonstrated what a rich variety of resources are available and how to make use of each of them.

Jane Wilcox All-Day Conference Next Week

Don't forget! This all day conference with Jane Wilcox is coming up next Saturday!

Upcoming Conference At CNYGS with Jane Wilcox

Here is an upcoming CNYGS all day event with Jane Wilcox! Mark your calendars. I've heard most of these talks at regional conferences and they are good. If you haven't heard them already you don't want to miss this event. If you've already heard them, you probably would enjoy hearing them again!

David Kendall At the CNYGS Fall Meeting

This Saturday the Central New York Genealogical Society will have the first of its' fall meetings:

Upcoming CNYGS Meeting- May 20th

April's CNYGS Meeting

Next month's CNYGS meeting is an all day meeting. Mark you calendars! 

Central NY Genealogical Society Spring Meetings

We are pleased to announce our upcoming two-part program meeting on Saturday, March 18, 2017 from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. The start times are approximate.

 

1:15 – 3:15 p.m.     “The Military Tract – Revolutionary War Bounty Land in Central New

  York” - Skip Duett

 

New York State awarded New York Revolutionary War soldiers bounty land in the Military Tract in Central New York. Comprising 1,680,000 acres, it covered all of the present day counties of Onondaga, Cortland, Cayuga, and Seneca, as well as parts of Oswego, Tompkins, Schuyler, and Wayne counties. This military bounty land opened up Central New York to white settlement and left an enduring system of land designation that survives today. Your New York Revolutionary War soldier may be identified in Military Tract documents. Understanding New York State bounty lands can help you make sense of land transactions in the region, regardless of when your ancestors lived there.

 

3:15 – 4:00 p.m.     A Brick Wall Roundtable Discussion

 

A brick wall roundtable discussion with Skip Duett, Janeen Bjork and CNYGS members will follow Mr. Duett’s presentation. “Breaking through Brick Walls, One Brick at a Time.” will be presented by Janeen Bjork. Janeen will give a quick lesson on OCR (optical character recognition), the technology that allows scanned newspapers to be indexed and searched online. You will learn how to get around the limitations of OCR to unearth hard-to-find items. Janeen will share the methods she used to break through the brick walls for her toughest genealogy commission - multiple generations of O'Briens, starting out in County Cork, Ireland and continuing to Monroe, Orleans and Onondaga counties.

 

Mark your calendars for our Full-Day Conference on April 22, 2017. Pamela Vittorio, APG, will present a variety of topics.

 

9:00 - 10:30 a.m. - Bust Walls or Break Ground: Tips & Techniques for Solving Genealogical Problems in the mid-1800s

 

10:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. - Early Irish Immigrants to Canada & the U.S.: The Peter Robinson Settlers (1823 & 1825)

 

12:00 - 1:15 p.m. - Lunch: bring your own, or visit a local restaurant.

 

1:15 - 2:45 p.m. - The U.S. Sanitary Records: Tracing Women's Roles During the Civil War

 

2:45 - 4:00 p.m. - Was Your (Great) Grandma a Suffragette? Records for the Women's Rights Movement: 1848-1920

 

 

For the latest news on our 2017 programs, including any venue and parking changes, please check our website:

 

http://www.cnygs.org

 

You can also find CNYGS updates on Facebook:

 

http://www.facebook.com/cnygs

 

Note: Members attend for free; guests pay $5 (half day) on March 18th; guests pay $15 (full day) on April 22nd; If interested the best option is to apply for annual membership

 

Upcoming DNA Meetings

For those in the area trying to keep up with DNA, the CNYGS Special Interest Group has announced their upcoming meetings. Don't forget also, the all day meeting tomorrow with Blaine Bettinger.

On February 9th, 2017 the DNA interest group will meet at the Manlius Library at 1 PM. Skip Duett will be lecturing

            Y-DNA - Tracking the Male Lines

                                What is Y-DNA

                                How does Y-DNA fit in/compare with other types of DNA

                                Haplogroups

                                STRs vs SNPs

                                Levels of Testing - number of markers

                                Looking at results on FTDNA - Matches, Migration Maps, STR Results

                                Looking more closely at matches

                                Participating in Projects - Surname, Location, Haplogroup

                                       Y-search.org

                                 Case study - Howards

On March 9th, 2017, the DNA interest group will meet at the Manlius Library at 1 PM. Janeen Bjork will be lecturing

On April 13th, 2017, the DNA interest group will meet at the Manlius Library at 1 PM. Janeen Bjork will be lecturing