Excuses For Knowledge Are Gone With The Wind

There was a time in the genealogy field when gaining new knowledge for me was limited to the books I could purchase, from attending an annual day long conference in the area, or by trial and error. The cost of going to Salt Lake City was beyond and still is my reach as well as so many of these amazing conferences held in areas like California, Arizona, Boston----well you get the idea.

Those days are gone and I am thrilled. I am actually in learning overload and loving it! There really isn't any excuse anymore for me that prevents my ability to gain further skill sets needed to improve my knowledge, assist in breaking through walls, and further round out the story while practicing the new skills.

And the best part? The cost, which involves nothing more than a pad of paper, a pen or pencil, a possible drive down the street, and some time.

Here is a list a recent opportunities as well as upcoming or continued opportunities:

Family Search has an entire learning center called "Research Courses" and its many categories include Research Principles & Tools (Descendancy Research, Inferential Genealogy, Using Research Logs, using different online databases, as well as other strategies), Reading Handwritten Records, USA Research (census, military, Colonial, Native American are among the list), Foreign Country Research (England, German, Spanish, Ireland, Italy, Russia, New Zealand, and Poland) as well as areas for Professional Genealogists. These are videos, many which include a handout to assist in the process.

Legacy Family Tree has a series of webinars that are excellent and well done. I have attended several and there are some worthy of thought upcoming including "More Blogging for Beginners" by DearMYRTLE scheduled for Wednesday, March 2nd, and "Building a Research Toolbox" by Thomas MacEntee  scheduled for Wednesday, April, 6th. What I appreciate is if I am unable to attend the discussion the webinar remains on Legacy for several weeks for review.

I am going to put in another plug for my nearby libraries as well. I am so impressed with the drive they posses to offer services that keep those of us interested in the historical aspects of our ancestors as well as to learn more about the resources that exist locally .

Willard Library (our local genealogical treasure for me) is the host of "Evansville and the Tri-Sate After the Civil War" to be held on Thursday evening, February 24, 2011 at 6:00 pm. Harold Morgan is a local author that has assembled several books including "Home Town History: The Evansville Indiana Area, A Photo Timeline", and "Home Front Heroes: Evansville and the Tri-Sate in WWII". Harold is an excellent presenter and I am sure there will be a crowd to see how Evansville and the area responded after the Civil War.

Evansville-Vanderburgh Public Library is in the midst of a series called "Preserving Our Past" that continues until May the 11th. Upcoming classes include: Maps (learning about our Digital Sanborn and Historic MapWorks collections), Historic Architecture, House Histories (what it is and how it can be used), Local History on Demand (learn about ContentDM), Scanning Documents and Photos, and Textiles.

I know there are other opportunities in each of our communities and online increasing all the time.

The Flood of 1937

Patricia Sides, the Archivist/Historian at Willard Library here in Evansville gave a presentation Thursday (January  27) on Evansville during the 1937 Flood titled "Water, Water, Everywhere" before approximately 40 guests as well as library staff during the lunch hour.

Pat did a very good job with the presentation, combining photographs from the ever growing collection that Willard has (many which are available for view online) with newspaper, oral, and other written accounts about the flood and the effects this devastation had on our city and so many others that were based on the Ohio River from Pennsylvania and other points east down the river to the Mississippi.

My parents were children at the time of the flood and I had the opportunity to ask my mother her recollections this week, not sure what she remembered. My mother told me that the house that she grew up in was not one of those flooded, so instead her father brought home a co-worker's family with two small boys who were not as fortunate. My grandmother was a hard worker and a spiritual woman, but I can only imagine how different that house must have been with three energetic children who my mother said would run around the circular layout of the main floor repeatedly. Mom also said that they kept their bathtub full of water everyday, which she didn't understand, and that men would come everyday and open the covers over the sewers to check the water level because they were blowing all over the city. (I learned today that because the water plant was well under water clean water was brought in for consumption, thus the full bathtub. The American Red Cross was very fearful at the time that there would be an epidemic of typhoid and/or scarlet fever, so precautions were taken very seriously),

Aerial View of Evansville (Knecht 2108) Courtesy of Willard Library

Listening to Patricia Sides in the presentation and in watching the photos, I gained a larger perspective for all that occurred here.

I didn't know that at one point the National Guard was brought in and martial law was enacted in order to protect property and people. Many people had evacuated. (Tonight my mother told me of a friend of hers that was on the last railroad train leaving the city and that water was actually lapping the wheels as they were moving down the track). I know of a family closer to Cincinnati  in which part of the family went to Indianapolis and the family never was able to reunite.

Patricia reminded us that this flooding came on the heels of a year of serious heat, a time of depression, and that the flooding was coupled with ice storms, snow, and other weather events. So much went on in this city during that time, and those of you that lived in adjoining areas know the story well. Because of the popularity of the session, Willard Library will repeat the presentation in the evening in April for those who could not attend today. I think I am going to attend again. As we all know, the more knowledge we have about the daily lives our families lived, the better.

Railroading: A Way of Life

Indiana is often called the "Crossroads of America". Given that, it seems only appropriate that so many men in my family served for the railroad on both sides of my line.

L & N Railroad Company (courtesy of Willard Library)

One of my father's favorite stories to tell is the day he left from the train depot in Evansville to go to the front during World War II. As the train left the station it needed to slow a little further down the street, where his father, a crossing watchman was working. My father came to the window and addressed his father who was not known for open emotion. My grandfather saluted him in response before the train gained speed and headed west. What a moment that must have been.

Dad at spot of his father's stand

Last year, our family learned that the spot where my grandfather's stand stood for years was being demolished due to new interchanges on a Highway through the city. I contacted our mayor's office who in turn contacted the railroad and the demolition company and we gained permission to take one of the metal poles that the stand had been built upon as a momento both of that special day but also because of the tie it held for my father to his father, who had died many years ago. Mr. Tucker had the opportunity for a promotion that meant the family would move to Mascoutah, Illinois, but due to the pleas of his children who did not want to move, he turned down the promotion.

My father grew up at what he calls the L & NY in Evansville, a series of section houses actually placed between the tracks at the railroad company. According to the 1930 United States Federal Census for Pigeon Township, Vanderburgh County, Indiana conducted on April 15 there were 18 households living between those railroad tracks with a total of 68 men, women, and children. I can only imagine how those section houses must have rocked every time a train came through.

Israel McDaniel as Watchman

My father's grandfather, John Rankin Tucker, once worked as a section worker near his home in Maunie, Illinois My father's maternal great-grandfather, Israel McDaniel, worked for the railroad in both Maunie, White County, Illinois and later in Evansville, Indiana. A cousin speaks of coming over on the train to visit Israel. His favorite activity was to put a record on his player for their listening pleasure. Israel and his wife Clyde Bell McDonald still had two sons living at home while he worked in Evansville- Roy and Harry. He would leave a list of tasks for them to do in Maunie and as he left the depot in Maunie Israel would immediately be calling down the street for his sons about these same tasks if they were not completed.


(Note: This photo is well damaged and needs some TLC to be upgraded, but I had to inlcude it in this entry)




All of those who have read the entries of the journal by my maternal great-grandfather, John James Raley, may not know that most of that was written while he was away from his family working at one his positions for the railroad. John becamed trained in telegraphy as a young man at a drugstore in Ohio County, Kentucky after attempting farming. At one point John also ran a "hotal and bar room" in Ohio County, but he always returned to the railroad.   The train companies he worked for included The Southern Express Compnay, the CO & SW Railroad Company, the Ohio Valley Railroad Company, and the Newport News & Mississippi Railroad Company. In the course of his job he and/or his family moved more than 20 times throughout Kentucky, Tennessee, and Southern Indiana. At one time John moved his wife, Caroline, and their 3 young sons they had at the time into a rented room in Warrick County, Indiana while he went to work in Rilpey, Tennessee. How she was able to do that I do not know! Later, one of their sons followed his father into the same career.                   

The railroad has played an important role in the lives of my ancestors, both professionally but also in the ways that their families lived. Many memories are still shared around the dinner table at special events about these days. I am grateful for the ties that bind us all, just as the trains themselves bind us throughout the country, especially in its hey dey.

This entry was written in conjunction with The Blogger's Almanac available through FamilyCurator.com.

Amanuensis Monday- Raley Journal

I missed some time with this due to health issues, but wanted to come back to it. I decided to just share one story today that my great-grandfather, John James RALEY decided to include about a relative instead of more of the ancestry overall. I love the stories. I have to admit that with the recent discussions regarding copyright within our blogging community I have had to give some thought to this journal and the implications. I do know that he wrote this so that he had a history of his family, and I know that he gave it to my grandmother, but I would have to trust that people can distinguish the facts which can easily be verified through documentation (as I have for my own sourcing) from his own writings, which need to be creditied to him, so with that in mind, I would ask someone to contact me if they need further information. With that out of the way, here is an interesting story:

" Uncle Benjamin Pierce way back in the years from 1850 to 1865 was right wealthy. It was said that he was easily worth $30,000 back in those days but he died a pauper and was buried by the good people of Boonville, Warrick County, Indiana. Uncle Ben bought and paid for his coffin several years before he died and took it home and kept it under his bed in his bedroom, and sometimes in the fall of the year he would gather and hull walnuts enough to fill the coffin and take them home and put them in it. He was buried in it when he died at the age of 89 years. He bought the coffin from the people that own the coffin factory on the corner of Main and Michigan Streets, Evansville, Indiana, got in it, laid down, stretched himself out, and told the man that he bought it from that the thing was just the right size for him."