Dick's Genealogy & History Corner

This is your last notice! This Wednesday is the first of a four part series, Faces of America hosted by Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates. He uses genealogy and DNA to explore the ancestors of 12 celebrities. Those profiled are:

• Professor and poet Elizabeth Alexander
• Chef Mario Batali
• Comedian Stephen Colbert
• Novelist Louise Erdrich
• Journalist Malcolm Gladwell
• Actress Eva Longoria
• Musician Yo-Yo Ma
• Director Mike Nichols
• Her Majesty Queen Noor
• Television host/heart surgeon Dr. Mehmet Oz
• Actress Meryl Streep
• Figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi

The programs airs in Rochester on WXXI at 8p.m. on Wednesday; elsewhere check your local schedule.

While doing a recent research project I ended up at the Rush Rhees Library at the University of Rochester. I tried to find the book in the stacks but it wasn’t there. I went for assistance to the reference librarian. She figured out that the book wasn’t in the library but was in their new annex. The annex is off campus in Henrietta. I had to make a phone call to make an appointment as the annex doesn’t allow walk-ins. It is in an old warehouse on West Henrietta Road and is stacked floor to a 16 foot ceiling with the overflow of books. It was apparent that they don’t get many visitors. The Rush Rhees Library has been running out of space for years. Creating the annex and placing books that are very old and don’t get much use will help make more space available for the always increasing collection at Rush Rhees.

As I mentioned in the previous post, the first law in New York State that dealt with adoptions was passed until 1873. The entire law is over here on Bastard Nation an adoptee rights website. Important parts of the law are that both adopting spouses must agree to adopt a child. If a birth parent is living, they must agree to the adoption. If the child is over age 12 then the child must agree to be adopted. Also, the adopted child did NOT have the right to inherit from their adopted parents. The adopted child did get the right to inherit at some time before 1900 but I can’t find any reference to the exact date.

I have another web page that I originally listed as private vital records that I now can tell that it is an index to other extracted adoption records from 1860 to 1917. I still am not able to say where these records came from under an agreement with the record holder. I will also send all the information I have from these records upon email request (except to tell where they came from). These approximately 1000 records show that were other organizations in the Rochester area that placed out children. There is a famous organization in New York City called the Children’s Aid Society. They are famous as the organization that had “Orphan Trains” that sent orphans from NYC on trains to the west. There was also a Children’s Aid Society of Rochester that was organized in 1895. I am not sure if they were affiliated with organization in NYC but I don’t think so. I have approx. 150 adoption records for this organization although these records usually don’t list birth parents names. This organization existed until after 1930.

Church Home of the Protestant Episcopal Church on Mt. Hope Ave. was organized in 1868. They were usually referred to as a place for older women. I have a few records mentioning that they did do a few adoptions in the early 1900s but the number was probably never more than a handful of adoptions. The organization still exists on Mt. Hope as Episcopal SeniorLife Communities.

Finally the Rochester Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children was formed in 1875 and worked to improve the life of children. In some cases, when they found a child in a terrible condition, they would end up with a child to care for. The number of adoptions done by the organization was probably less than a dozen. More probable is that they sent children to other larger organizations.

Child labor laws in the early 1900s finally put an end to the indenturing children. In the early 1920s New York State passed laws stating that organizations doing adoptions had to be licensed. That put an end to smaller organizations doing adoptions.

After I extracted adoption records, the question came up if the children were listed in the New York State Vital Record Index under their birth name or their adopted name. I just picked 8 children to look up and found 5 under their birth name and couldn’t find the other 3 under either name. Other sources including the NY State Department of Health website would make you believe that all birth records of adoptees have been been amended so that the indexed births would be listed under the adopted name. Further research on the web helped to understand how changes in laws effected adopted children. In 1924 a law was passed that said a judge COULD seal adoption records at his own discretion but it was 1935 when New York State sealed all adoption records. Then in 1936 the State passed a law that would amend birth certificates after an adoption.

New York State does offer an adoption registry and adoptees can get “non-identifying information about your birth parents even if they do not register with the Adoption Registry or consent to sharing.” If the adoptee and the birth parents are both registered, they can get current names and addresses. Otherwise, getting information from the State is currently impossible.

I have been working on extracting Rochester, NY area adoption records from the 19th century since last August. In the process, I have learned a lot about adoptions in New York State and how orphans were treated. Plus, I have found that there were more organizations out placing orphans in the Rochester area than thought.

Orphans are defined as children that have lost both parents. I found very few children that don’t have any living parents. Instead, more common was that one parent has died or left the home and the remaining parent was unable to care for the child.

New York State didn’t pass a law dealing with adoptions until 1873. Before then adoptions were often more casual. If a parent could not longer take care of a child they would give the child to a relative or neighbor. If no provisions were made for a child, the child became the responsibility of the Overseer of the Poor for the Town that they lived in. His responsibility was to make sure that the child was not a public charge so it was important to place a child with a family even if temporarily.

As the number of orphaned children increased, it became more difficult to place all the children. At a meeting of women in Rochester on 28 February 1837 (the same Rochester became a City) they formed “The Rochester Female Association for the Relief of Orphan and Destitute Children.” They decided to incorporate and settled on calling the organization the “Rochester Orphan Asylum.” When the Asylum opened on 2 April 1837, it housed nine children in a small two-story cottage with a garden, on South Sophia Street. The Asylum moved to a new building in Hubbell Park on 9 April 1844. I have had records of the Asylum for 1837 – 1839 online for about 8 years. The number of children in the Asylum grew rapidly and by 1850 the census shows about 75 children in residence. But those numbers only tell part of the story. The records of the Asylum were given to the University of Rochester and they are in the Rare Books and Manuscripts Department of the Rush Rhees Library (see a description of the collection). The early Admission Records show many children being left at the Asylum and being picked up at a later time by a parent. Those Admission Records also indicate that whoever left the child at the Asylum was expected to pay board. After a time when no board had been paid the Asylum could place out the child. Also some parents when leaving their children would sign them over to the Asylum. They too could be placed out. There are some Admission Records stating that the Overseer of the Poor had brought a child to the Asylum but they are rare.

The Asylum would place out children as either an adopted child or as a servant (or later as an apprentice). Some children were placed out on trial and returned later and then placed out again. After a while, the Asylum and the new parent(s) (or Master) would enter into an Indenture of the child. The Indenture said that the child was expected to be honest, obedient and behave. In turn, the parent had to give the child room, board and clothing. The child was also supposed to be given an education and also some training if indentured as a servant. When the child was of age, which was normally 18 for girls and 21 for boys, they were to receive a Bible and sometimes a new set of clothing. There are a few records of children being returned to the Asylum for being mistreated. I have indexed the indentures from a record book for the years 1837 to 1906 and created a new web page with that index.  A restriction from the University of Rochester (the current holder of the records) wouldn’t allow me to post the records but I will sent via email the record from the indenture book. One thing that amazed me was children that were adopted out of state even at an early date. For example, two children were adopted (as servants) by a man from Ypsilanti, Michigan in 1840. It makes me wonder how and why he got the children from Rochester and not someplace closer to his home.

I did post the entire records of burials from the Asylum from 1838 to 1905. Those records show that only a very small percentage of children died at the Asylum. The Asylum surely took good care of the children in their care.

The Asylum moved to their present site on Monroe Avenue in the early 1900s and they changed the name of the organization to Hillside Home for Children in 1921 and Hillside Children’s Center in 1940. I know that someone will ask about later records. Yes, there are registers of children admitted up to Feb. 1945 in the collection at the University of Rochester. And you can see those records by appointment with the Rare Books Department of the Rush Rhees Library at U. of R.

The Catholics had three small orphanages. St. Joseph’s German Orphan Asylum, near St. Joseph’s Church, was formed in 1863; St. Mary’s Boys’ Orphan Asylum was formed in 1864 and had a home at or near St. Mary’s Hospital; and, St. Patrick’s Orphan Girls Asylum was incorporated about 1900. All three merged in 1942 to form St. Joseph’s Villa, which is located on Dewey Avenue in the Town of Greece. The records of St. Patrick’s and St. Mary’s Asylum are at St. Joseph’s Villa, 3300 Dewey Ave., Rochester, NY 14616. The records for St. Joseph’s Asylum ended up at Catholic Family Center, 87 N. Clinton Ave., Rochester, NY 14604. I haven’t heard of anyone getting any data from either organization. If I am wrong please tell me by adding a comment. Another organization; Sisters of Mercy, Industrial School (AKA Rochester Benevolent and Scientific and Industrial School of the Sister of Mercy) was in existence by 1897 to at least 1907 and was primarily a school. They did do a very few adoptions.

For Jewish orphans there were two orphanages. The Jewish Orphan Asylum of Western NY was organized in 1877 and located on North St. Paul Street. It closed in 1928. It is not known what happen to the records of this organization. The second Jewish orphanage was the Jewish Children’s Home. It opened its doors in 1914 for Orthodox Jewish children. It closed in 1947. The admission records are at the Rare Books, Manuscripts and Archives Department of the Rush-Rhees Library at the University of Rochester. Supposedly for the entire existence of the organization there were only 341 admissions.

Continued in next post.

A lot of other blogs are carrying news of an official website for the NBC series “Who Do You Think You Are?” I can also add that I saw a promo for the series this morning during the Today Show. That means that NBC has some confidence in the series.

Rochester Historical Society re-opens their museum in the Rundel building in downtown Rochester on Feb. 16th. Formerly the Society had been located in “Woodside,” their home on East Avenue. Woodside was sold in 2008 and the Society has been setting up space for their vast museum collection in the Rochester Public Library’s Rundel building.  There is a good article on the Democrat & Chronicle website about the collection and a couple of pictures.

Admission price will be $3 ($5 for families or for archive use). They are open 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Tuesday through Thursday.

If you have wanted to share your genealogical data on the internet you could create a website with that data. That was usually rather complicated for most people and very few people have done that. You could also create a GEDCOM file from your genealogy program and upload it to Ancestry, WorldConnect on Rootsweb, Family Search and other places. I put family data on Family Search many years ago but you couldn’t make corrections to data that you submitted. I also uploaded data to WorldConnect but to make corrections or even add a single person you have to delete your old data and then upload a new GEDCOM of data. I have found that some people have put the same person’s data on WorldConnect two or even three times. Then there are some people’s data  in all the major databases that are uploaded by many people. I have an good example…

Oceanus Hopkins was the son of Steve Hopkins and his second wife, Elizabeth Fisher. They came on the Mayflower to Plymouth in 1620 and, in fact, Oceanus was born on the journey on the Mayflower. His name came from the fact that he was born on the Atlantic Ocean and there has only ever been this one person named Oceanus Hopkins. I did a search on some websites to see how many records that they had of Oceanus. Ancestry has him in their “Public Member Trees” 2461 times. Also Oceanus is in their “Private Member Trees” 644 times and in the “One World Tree” 24 times. To make matters worse, 1171 records in the “Public Member Trees” have Oceanus born in Mayflower, Arkansas in 1620. WorldConnect has data on Oceanus submitted 1115 times. Then I checked the older data files on Family Search. In their “Pedigree Resource File” is data on Oceanus 393 times. Then I looked at the “Ancestry File” and there is only one record for Oceanus Hopkins in there. A possible explanation for just one record, later.

Just by looking at these three databases you can see that there are many duplicates in every database. It would be much better to merge the data of a single person from many submitters. That’s what you would do in your own genealogy data. That is also what the new genealogy wikis are doing. They use the same method (wiki) that is used on Wikipedia. That is, that any registered user can submit data or make changes to a page (or in this case, a person) that already exists. There are already some databases websites that are using the wiki technology. One website that I mentioned in an earlier posting is We Relate. It does most of the things that you would expect a wiki to do and when I searched for Oceanus Hopkins, he was in the database twice. In this case, Oceanus was listed as the son of Stephen Hopkins by both his first and second wives. In the well respected The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620 – 1633 (1995) by Robert Charles Anderson it says on page 988 that Oceanus was the child of the second wife, Elizabeth Fisher. I could correct the data on We Relate but I would rather merge the two sets of data into one but quickly gave up after trying and failing. We Relate just seems to leave me wanting it to work easier.

Currently in the later testing stage is “New Family Search.” As it stands now, you have to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (AKA the Mormons or LDS) to get access. From the previews I have seen, it is much easier to use and maintain the data of a person. Hopefully it can get out of the testing stage and let the rest of us get a chance to use “New Family Search.” Rumors are that should happen sometime this year. I think, but can’t prove, that when I searched for Oceanus Hopkins on the old “Ancestral File” and found only the one record that it was the result of the corrections made by the “New Family Search” program. I know that at one time there were many records in the “Ancestral File” for Oceanus. Also when I look at the submitter of the data on Oceanus it shows 39 different people submitting the data. So that is another indication that the data has been merged. That also means that I might be able to correct some of the mistakes that I made many years ago when I submitted my family data. The only real problem with wiki pages is data battles where one person will correct a page and then another person will change the data back to the original and then it is repeated over and over. In those cases, the website can put the page on hold and has to arbitrate the fight. The LDS has the resources to moderate any wiki battles.

I hope that “New Family Search” will be available to everyone soon as I have much new family data to share.

Here is a preview of the series “Who Do You Think You Are?” that starts on March 5th on NBC.

I have run GenWeb of Monroe County since 1996. I consider it a service and have never been much concerned if it is popular or not. Over the last couple of weeks Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings has been posting some rankings on the major genealogy sites. He has been using the statistics from Quantcast who does free rankings of the top one million websites. Just for the heck of it, I did a search for mcnygenealogy.com and was very much surprised that it even showed up. The statistics on mcnygenealogy.com show that this week it is the 259,899th most popular website on the internet. Those rankings change weekly. Supposedly that means that GenWeb of Monroe County is more popular than Roots Television. That is hard for me to believe. Depending on what number you believe is the total number of websites on the planet, then GenWeb of Monroe County ranks in the top 1% of the internet. According to the statistics, GenWeb of Monroe County has 4200 visitors a month. For some unknown reason, 36% of the visitors are under age 17 . Then 81% of visitors have some college education. Those statistics don’t make any sense because there can’t be very many people that are under age 17 and are attending college.  Statistics are interesting but what makes the website is the content. I am still adding more content in the future.

I’ve said it before that I have used the upcoming genealogy program “Who Do You Think You Are?” as a running joke. It first was going to be broadcast in April 2009 and then summer of 2009. Then it showed up on NBC web pages as starting in the fall of 2009 but never actually showed on the schedule. NBC is canceling the Jay Leno Show and that leaves 5 hours to fill. There will be a couple new drama shows to fill the spots and others are moving from earlier times to 10 p.m. That leaves some open spots in early evening. One of those spots is being filled by “Who Do You Think You Are?” Really! I’m not kidding this time.

It is on an NBC Press Release that the first episode of WDYTYA will be broadcast at 8 p.m. (eastern) on Friday, March 5th. The WDYTYA website says that “a celebrity embarks on a journey of self-discovery and unearths his or her family tree – revealing surprising, inspiring and sometimes tragic stories that are often linked to events in American history.” The only celebrities mentioned on the website are Lisa Kudrow (who also the producer), Sarah Jessica Parker and Susan Sarandon, Other non-confirmed celebrities may be Spike Lee, Matthew Broderick, Brooke Shields and Emmitt Smith.

Meanwhile, the companion book; Who Do You Think You Are?: The Essential Guide to Tracing Your Family History was originally going to be published on Dec. 31, 2009. Then the published date was moved back to March 15th. Now, the publish date on Amazon shows as April 15th.