Surname Variations

These are some of the surnames I'm researching in my family history. I will continue to update this list as I work on different families.

Below each surname are the spelling variations, the dates found in records, and the location where the ancestor lived at the time.

ARMITAGE (Abel, Elizabeth)

• Armitage - 1841-1861 Yorkshire, U.K. Censuses; 1880 U.S. Census
• Harmatage - 1870 U.S. Census, Steubenville, Jefferson, Ohio
• Armiddage - 1874 final naturalization record, Jefferson County, Ohio
• Armatage - 1875-76 Steubenville (Jefferson County, Ohio) City Directory
  

BICKERSTAFF (Augustine, William, Ellis, Edward Jesse, Emma)

• Bickerstaff - early 1800s-present, Jefferson, Mahoning, & Trumbull Counties, Ohio
• Biggerstaff - (Ellis) 1890-1907, Civil War Pension File; Jefferson, Mahoning, and Trumbull Counties, Ohio; Alleghany and Westmoreland Counties, Pennsylvania
  

GERNER

• Gener - 1926 - Pennsylvania Death Certificate Index, Butler County, Pennsylvania

Spice Cake, Oat Cookies - from Gramma's Webster's Spelling Recipe Book - Family Recipe Friday

Gramma Emma Bickerstaff Meinzen wrote these recipes in pencil. The paper may have originally been a light off-white color and the handwriting may have been darker, but time has muted the pencil and deepened the paper's color so that the handwriting nearly disappears. On the image you see below the color has been altered so that the handwriting is visible.

There aren't any surprises in these recipes. We rarely use lard these days but it was common in the early 1900s. There are no mixing or baking directions, also common for the time. In the Spice cake recipe she used one large bracket to indicate that the soda and baking powder should be mixed into the flour. When I bake this cake I will omit the nut meats and bake in a 350-degree oven. When I try the cookies I will substitute Crisco for the lard. Gramma may or may not have used Quaker Quick Oats which were introduced in 1922. There's no date on the spelling tablet or on any of the recipes.

I was talking with a friend today about food and cooking. She said someone had come to her home and couldn't figure out what there was to eat because there were no boxes of mixes or other prepared foods; no microwave meals in the freezer; no pre-prepared food at all. My friend makes real food, from scratch. These recipes from Gramma were written when prepared food probably included things like saltine crackers, rolled oats, canned soup, and pre-ground coffee. I still like real food from scratch best.

Spice cake
2 cups brown sugar
1/2 " butter
2 eggs
1 cup sour milk
2 1/2 " [cups] flour
1 teaspoon soda }
1 [teaspoon] B. P. [baking powder] } in flour
1 [teaspoon] cinnamon
1/2 [teaspoon] nutmeg & cloves
1/2 cup nut meats

Oats cookies
2 cups flour
2 [cups] oats
1 [cup] lard
1 [cup] sugar
2 eggs
pinch of salt
1 cup raisens [sic]
1/2 [cup] milk
1 teaspoon soda in milk
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Thoughts on the SSDI

Most family historians and genealogists know what the SSDI is but there are many who visit genealogy blogs who may not know what it is, what has happened to it, and why it's important to keep it publicly accessible. This post is primarily for those readers.

The Social Security Death Index (SSDI) is a list of people who have died who had social security numbers. It tells the name of the person, approximate date of birth, month of death, location where the last benefit was paid, and the social security number. Until recently the SSDI was available publicly, at no cost, on rootsweb and one or two other websites. Family historians used it, banks used it, the IRS should have used it.

Late last year the SSDI was removed from public access. I don't know specific details of its removal but I understand that people have been stealing social security numbers of deceased individuals by claiming them as their own or as those of sons and/or daughters on income tax returns and in various other ways. Cheaters.

If you ever searched for someone who lived or died during the last century, you know how helpful the SSDI can be. If you ever needed to learn the social security number of a deceased family member, you know the importance of the SSDI. We all know that the IRS could create a computer program to search the social security numbers on income tax returns, thereby stopping theft of social security numbers.

The Records Preservation and Access Committee (RPAC), a joint committee of the Federation of Genealogical Societies, National Genealogical Society, and International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies, initiated a Stop Identity Theft Now campaign by creating a petition at We the People, Your Voice in Our Government. If you agree that the SSDI, properly used, could be more helpful open than closed, I encourage you to sign the petition. More than 21,000 signatures are needed by March 8.

However, you can do more (and probably better) than just sign the petition. You can write a letter to your U.S. representative and senator and send or fax a copy to Congressman Sam Johnson, chair of the House Ways & Means Committee, where discussion of the future of the SSDI is now taking place. Click here to see a sample letter and use the links to find who your senator and representative are.

Losing the SSDI is one more step away from access to precious documents and records.

If you'd like to learn more about the campaign, please go to SSDI Call to Action at the RPAC website.

Invalid Pension: $8.00/month - Civil War Pension File

While working my way through Ellis Bickerstaff's Civil War Pension File I realized that most of the documents in the file are ones that Ellis, his attorneys, or doctors sent to the pension office. A few are documents completed and retained by the pension office; it's likely that a few of them are duplicates of ones sent to Ellis.

After Ellis's initial claim request, he was given a pension number which follows his paperwork through the pension file. Every paper has that number, even the earliest papers when he had not yet been approved for a pension for his service in the Civil War.

Ellis was examined by two physicians who submitted affidavits on "Additional Evidence" forms. Dr. W. J. McDowell submitted an affidavit on December 11, 1890, which, in part, reads:

I have personally examined the applicant Ellis H. Biggerstaff of Co. D. 157 Regt, Ohio [illegible] [illegible] on this 10th day of December 1890–
I find him with history and present existence of Catarrhal trouble and chronic bronchial troubles. Symptoms. Headache, discharge from the nose, cough and almost constant throat iritation [sic], and reports constant tendency to take “cold” - Inability to withstand exposure. Has had trouble with his stomach and bowels, – gives history of lung trouble Unable to work any whatever for several months at a time. – There is some dullness on percussion over left lung . – Applicant states that he suffers constantly with his lung –––
I further declare that I have no interest in said case and am not concerned in its prosecution.
Wm. J. McDowell [signature]

Two weeks later, Dr. R. F. Gant examined Ellis and submitted another affidavit in which he stated:
Ellis H. Biggerstaff Personally appeared at my Office for examination for pension. I find the applicant Suffering from Chronic Catarrh and Chronic Bronchitis. The symptoms [illegible] are headache, (almost continuously) discharge from the posterior naries, constant irritation of the naries and throat, with cough and constant secretion from bronchial tubes. Halking [?] and spitting with pains in lungs. Petitioner claimed to have had these troubles for years, incapacitating him to perform manual labor to considerate extent, being obliged to have his work [illegible] indoors in cold or rough weather. Being a carpenter by trade his work necessitates him to be outdoors a good deal of his time in this way is hindrance to some extent in his work. Applicant is a soldier of company (D) 157th Regiment of Ohio State Guards Volunteer.
I further declare that I have no interest in said case and am not concerned in its prosecution.
R. F. Gant, MD [signature]

In a Surgeon's Certificate, form 3--111, the examiner concurs with the findings of the other two physicians. The next document (by date) is "Invalid Pension."

Ellis was awarded a pension of $8.00 per month commencing on July 26, 1890. Ellis began the paperwork to obtain a pension on July 19, 1890, and after 8 1/2 months was finally approved.

The value of $8.00 in 1891 was approximately equivalent to the value of $192.00 in 2010.

(You can click on any image to view it larger. When you're finished looking, click the back arrow on your browser.)



Also about Ellis Bickerstaff's Pension File:
Ordering Civil War Compiled Military Service Records
Reviewing Civil War Compiled Military Service Records
Ordering a Civil War Pension File
His Civil War Pension File Arrived
Civil War Pension File: First View
Civil War Pension File: Inventory
Civil War Pension File: Chronological Overview of Papers Pertaining to Ellis
Claim for Disability Pension - Civil War Pension File

Musings on Books, Bytes, and Josh Coates

Despite the expanse of a century or more between my ancestors and me, I suspect we share similarities. Speaking of my ancestors living their lives and me living my life.... We experienced and know our own personal pasts because we lived through them. Living through present circumstances, we know how we fit into our own environments though outside our personal environments there are aspects of the present which are beyond our knowledge and understanding. And the future, it seems, is (sometimes far) beyond our imaginations. I particularly felt this way after listening to Josh Coates' keynote address at the Friday morning session of RootsTech two weeks ago.

For those of you who don't know Josh Coates, he is the founder of Mozy, the online data storage back-up company. He knows about data storage, the topic of part of his address. He mentioned clay tablets and disks as early forms of data storage but he spent more time talking about data storage on computers, explaining the various sizes of -bytes and how much data they store.

• Megabyte (MB): a 300-page book
• Gigabyte (GB): the human genome, read aloud. It would take almost 10 years to read it.
• Terabyte (TB): paper equal to 32,000 trees, each 18" in diameter
• Petabyte (PB): 1,400,000 truckloads of paper with 1 ton of paper on each, or approximately 1 million tons of paper
• Exabyte (EB): about 30,000,000,000 (30 billion) trees cut down and turned into paper (or, all the trees in the U.S. which are 8" or larger). It would take 105 years to read 1 EB of data reading at 300 MB/second (that is, reading one 300-page book per second).
• Zettabyte (ZB): equal to all the grains of sand on every beach in the world times 7 if each grain = 1 kilobyte (KB) (According to James S. Huggins' Refrigerator Door, one typewritten page equals two KB.)
  

When I try to contemplate the need to store even one gigabyte of data it boggles my mind. Yes, I have an 8 GB flash drive but what writing could I put on it to completely fill it? Can I possibly write enough that it would take nearly 10 years to read? How many pages of a journal would I have to fill each day and for how many years to use one GB of storage? At some point in his presentation, Josh Coates said, "This is your life!" My life is not that big or long or interesting. Even if I wrote about all the lives of all of my ancestors, I do not think I could use 1 GB of storage. (Yes, I understand that images use much more space, but I'm just talking about words right now.) Honestly, how much storage space does one person need? After a person dies, what will happen to all the stuff that's been stored?

As I pondered this idea of one person needing to store that much data, I remembered an "article" that had come to me via email in 1998 with the title, "B.O.O.K. - New Technology." It was written before the creation of Nook, Kindle, and so many other portable, electronic devices. You might enjoy the humor.

B.O.O.K. - New Technology

Announcing the new Built-in Orderly Organized Knowledge device (BOOK). The BOOK is a revolutionary breakthrough in technology: no wires, no electric circuits, no batteries, nothing to be connected or switched on. It's so easy to use even a child can operate it. Just lift its cover!

Compact and portable, it can be used anywhere -- even sitting in an armchair by the fire -- yet it is powerful enough to hold as much information as a CD-ROM disc. Here's how it works....

Each BOOK is constructed of sequentially numbered sheets of paper (recyclable), each capable of holding thousands of bits of information. These pages are locked together with a custom-fit device called a binding which keeps the sheets in their correct sequence.

Opaque Paper Technology (OPT) allows manufacturers to use both sides of the sheet, doubling the information density and cutting costs in half. Experts are divided on the prospects for further increases in information density; for now BOOKs with more information simply use more pages. This makes them thicker and harder to carry, and has drawn some criticism from the mobile computing crowd.

Each sheet is scanned optically, registering information directly to your brain. A flick of the finger takes you to the next sheet. The BOOK may be taken up at any time and used by merely opening it. The BOOK never crashes and never needs rebooting, though like other display devices it can become unusable if dropped overboard. The "browse" features allows you to move instantly to any sheet, and move forward or backward as you wish. Many come with an "index" feature, which pinpoints the exact location of any selected information for instant retrieval.

An optional "BOOKmark" accessory allows you to open the BOOK to the exact place you left it in a previous session -- even if the BOOK has been closed. BOOKmarks fit universal design standards; thus, a single BOOKmark can be used in BOOKs by various manufacturers. Conversely, numerous bookmarks can be used in a single BOOK if the user wants to store numerous views at once. The number is limited only by the number of pages in the BOOK.

You can also make personal notes next to BOOK text entries with an optional programming tool, the Portable Erasable Nib Cryptic Intercommunication Language Stylus (Pencils).

Portable, durable, and affordable, the BOOK is being hailed as the entertainment wave of the future. The BOOK's appeal seems so certain that thousands of content creators have committed to the platform.

Look for a flood of new titles soon.

Sitting with a book beside me and a keyboard and screen before me, I am in the past, present, and future. With books I am completely comfortable. With bytes, not so much, though I make a dedicated effort to help my brain assimilate this new knowledge. I'm caught in the present, comfortable in my own environment, yet working hard to meet the advances of the future as they become part of my present. How about you?

Happy Valentine's Day, Friends.

Eureka! I Found Him!

Or, better said, I found his name (misspelled!) in the online index to Pennsylvania Death Certificates. A few years ago I requested my great-grandfather Fred Gerner's death certificate from the Pennsylvania Department of Health. They took my $17.00 and returned a "No Record Certification" of death saying they couldn't find any record of him. I guessed Fred's surname name was probably misspelled in their indexes.

Tonight when I learned from Claudia's Genealogy Blog that the Pennsylvania Death Index was available online, I immediately went to the website and began searching name variations for Gerner. I was almost certain I would find him under "Garner" but he wasn't there. Then I began to think of misinterpretations of handwriting and continued down the pages to the names beginning with "Ge." Sure enough, there was "Gener, Fredrick K., Bruin, died March 26." His certificate number is not completely legible but I hope the employees at the public records office will be helpful.


Finding Fred's death certificate is important to me because I am optimistically hopeful that the names of his parents will be on it. From his youngest daughter I know that his parents' names were known to family members but when I asked her for information she was in her late 90s and couldn't remember their names.

Thank you, Claudia, for posting the link, and thank you, Governor Tom Corbett for approving PA Senate Bill 361.

I don't know how long it will take for a death certificate to arrive but perhaps I'll be writing about another named generation in the next month or so.

An additional note: I don't have a death certificate for my great-grandmother Tressa Rose Froman Doyle. I found her in the index, too. I will be sending two requests in the same envelope. I'll be looking forward to my colorful return-addressed envelope in the mail in coming weeks.

One more note: It looks like I'll be waiting longer than a few weeks. The website states, "Mail requests are processed in approximately sixteen to eighteen weeks from the date of receipt." I've been patient this long, I guess I can continue to be patient.

Family Heirlooms - Abundant Genealogy Week 6

Sometimes I forget I have things that once belonged to and/or were made by my parents and other ancestors. I decided to make a list, as far as my memory takes me today, and make more additions later. Now that the list is made I should photograph these things and write about them.

It's hard to say for which I'm most grateful. Some of them in combination speak of one aspect of the life of a family member and are things that were a part of my childhood. Other treasures hold no actual memory of my ancestor and yet our hands meet across time as I touch the same thing he or she touched. Some are more present in my life and are in use often; others are seldom seen. Either way, I'm grateful for all of them.

Heirlooms in my possession either permanently or on temporary loan

• my father's roll-top desk
• several small chests of drawers that my father used for watch parts and other small items with drawers are about 1" high and from 18" to 22" wide (You can see two of them on top of the desk in the photo at the link above)
• small parts, papers, containers, and tools from inside my father's desk
  
• a mending basket and a button basket that belonged to my grandmother
• a pink depression glass lidded jar that my mother used in the kitchen
  
• my grandfather's fedora
• a rocking chair that one of my great-grandfathers made for my mother when she was a child
  
• a framed village scene that hung in my grandfather's barber shop (which my grandmother was going to throw it out and I rescued)
• several journal books that my father kept to record the repairs he made and the cost of parts to make the repairs on houses he rented to others
  
• two rectangular metal baskets my father used to carry tools to make the above repairs
  
• my mother's photo album (on temporary loan, as I understand it)
• my grandmother's photo album (also on temporary loan, as I understand it)
• my grandmother's recipe box and a spelling tablet she used to copy recipes
• several pieces of jewelry from my mother, father, and grandmother
• a metal belt buckle with the letter "G" in its center which my mother once said belonged to my grandfather, Gust Doyle
  
• one of my father's tobacco pouches
• my mother's 1941 black Singer sewing machine (which I still use)
• a double wedding ring quilt made by my great-grandmother (generously given to me by my brother)
• a double- or queen-size Dresden Plate quilt top pieced by my mother
• a single-size Dresden Plate quilt my mother pieced and she and my grandmother quilted
  
• a set of hot-pads crocheted by my grandmother
• linens embroidered by my grandmother
• a family Bible that belonged to my great-grandparents (which doesn't have and never had family information pages)
• ephemera and scrapbooks from my mother
  
• more to remember
  

I have a post in progress about my mother's rocking chair.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
This post was written to participate in Amy Coffin's 52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy which is hosted on Geneabloggers. The theme will change weekly and may be posted any day of the week. This week's theme was family heirlooms. (For which family heirloom are you most thankful? How did you acquire this treasure and what does it mean to you and your family?) This challenge ran from Sunday, February 5, 2012 through Saturday, February 11, 2012. I invite you to participate if you'd like.