A Digitization Wish on Fold3 and Other Sites

I don't normally post blog updates that are short, but...

Who knows what was in this
envelope returned to the
Pension Office?

Using the images of War of 1812 pension files at  Fold3 would be easier if there were some type of notation as to what image "front" goes with what image "back." Sometimes one can tell (because of worn edges in the pages or holes that can be matched up, etc.) but other times it is extremely difficult to pair pages up correctly. Analysis is hindered when this matching cannot be done.

And letters that were taken out of envelope? No idea there either.

Guessing is not good.

Fold3.com's Civil War Pension Filming Taking Longer Than the War

[note: This commentary only discusses digital images of pensions on Fold3.com. Orginals are still available at the National Archives.]

Fold3.com has been working on the "Civil War 'Widow's Pensions' " for  a while. In fact I can't remember when the project actually started. But looking at their blog posts it appears that they've been digitizing these images since at least 2008 and are now 5% complete.

It's now 2014. That's 6 years. The Ameican Civil War itself didn't last that long.

The screen shot in this blog post indicates that the project currently has 5% of the images posted. Even if I don't count 2008 or 2014 (which is already nearly 1/6 over) in my computations, that means that the project has been up and running for all of:

• 2009
• 2010
• 2011
• 2012
• 2013

That's a safe 5 years to get 5% of the records uploaded (if they've been working longer than 5 years that's an even slower rate). 

It's a basic arithmetic problem to determine that if 5% of the job gets done in 5 years, it will take a total of 100 years to get 100% of the job done. No calculus or fancy math necessary. That's a long time to wait unless there's someone in the Fold3.com kitchen waiting on a big ol' batch of images to get all good and done.

That's 95 years to go. 95. And that's a lot longer than the Civil War. Not as long as pensions were granted, but it's darned close.

Am I missing something? 

Is my math wrong? If I'm missing something, I really hope someone can point it out to me.

Great-great-grandma Rampley had to wait 10 years to get her pension. I'm going to have to wait longer than that at this rate. 

Actually, my longest lived ancestor got to be 91. 

I'm out of luck.

[note: readers who want to obtain copies of Civil War pensions can still do so through the National Archives.]

Exhausting Those Homesteaders Who Regularly Attend Church in Nebraska

Genealogists talk about "exhaustive search" and what it entails. Generally speaking, it means look at all material that could reasonably answer the question at hand. I understand the concept of "exhaustive search," it does serve a purpose. And I do "get" why it is important--largely because there are people who only research one or two documents and declare themselves done.

Not me. 

I prefer to use "brute force" research. Get everything you can. Everything. And then keep looking and realize that there may always be something you have yet to uncover. But really, you never know what a record will say until you have seen it. Records that contain affidavits are particularly rich in "who knows what they'll put in there."  Such is the case with the homestead application of Jurgen Ehmen in Dawson County, Nebraska.

Renke Kaiser is one of the witnesses in Ehmen's claim from the 1880s.

Where We've Lived Before

Kaiser documents in his affidavit where Ehmen lived before settling in Nebraska, beginning with Ehmen living in Illinois in the 1860s. Kaiser states that he has known Ehmen for over twenty years, apparently since they were living in Illinois.  One of the neighbors mentioned in Kaiser's statement is Focke Goldenstein--actually a relative of Ehmen and the great-grandfather of yours truly.

Testimony of Renke Kaiser, 23 November 1887, Completed Homestead application of Jurgen  Ehmen, Dawson County, Nebraska, Township 11 North-24 West, section 18; digital image,  Fold3.com.

Kaiser indicates the Illinois counties in which Ehmen lived. This was a significant clue as the ethnic group (Ostfriesen) of which all these men were members settled heavily in Adams County, Illinois, and Dawson County, Nebraska. But Knox County, Illinois? That was an unusual place for an Ostfriesen to live and a place that warrants research as to why Ehmen was there (supposition is that he worked for the railroad).

Going to Church

Kaiser even states that he seens Ehmen regularly at church on Sunday and that the church was "near there."  One doesn't always think of homestead records as providing clues as to church attendance. But there it was.

Testimony of Renke Kaiser, 23 November 1887, Completed Homestead application of Jurgen  Ehmen, Dawson County, Nebraska, Township 11 North-24 West, section 18; digital image,  Fold3.com

Ehmen's other witness Eime Friesenborg also indicates in a statement from the same date as Kaiser's that he also sees Ehmen at church every Sunday. His statement includes similar statements about Ehmen's residences before he lived in Nebraska and that he had known Ehmen for twenty years.

Of course, Goldenstein probably attended the same church as the other men. And the reason why Goldenstein did not testify in Ehmens claim: relatives were not supposed to appear as witnesses in these claims.

Brute force with some finesse and some time spent reading. It may be just what your research needs.

Alfred Butler's Pension Index Card

This images if of a pension index card for Alfred Butler who served in the US Civil War from Michigan. This image was obtained on Fold3.

Organization Index to Pension Files of Veterans Who Served Between 1861 and 1900, Michigan Calvary, 9th Unit, Company K, Card for Alfred Butler; digital image, Fold3, (from National Archives Microfilm Publication T289) 1 March 2013.

The Alfred Butler on this pension index card is likely the son of my ancestor Benjamin Butler who was in Davis County, Iowa, in 1870. Apparently Alfred remained in Michigan when his family moved west sometime in 1850s. There are several reasons I want to see the actual material in Alfred's pension, most notably information on where he was born any affidavits made by indidividuals who claimed they had known Alfred before his service in the war.

I know little about the Butler family during the Civil War time period and any information may help me to further my research.

There was an application made by a widow of Alfred, but as there is no certificate number given, her application was apparently denied. There was also a children's pension what was approved based upon Alfred's service as well.

Alfred died in 1895 and the card indicates a reference to George A. Stevens. It may be that Butler's widow married Stevens and that her marriage and his pension were the basis of her denial.

Reminder: This card is a finding aid. Details it provides should be validated with actual records whenever possible and should be considered seconadary information.That does not mean the information is incorrect, but there is always the possibility that information was copied incorrectly. The card was not meant to be a transcription or official copy of the documents it references.

Stay tuned, we'll have a brief update when the digital images of the files have been received.

 Citation reminder: We are a strong believe in citing genealogical source material in the spriit ff Evidence Explained. However, we choose not to include properly formatted citations in these blog posts. There's always enough information in the post to create a citation and full citations are included in my how-to newsletter Casefile Clues.

Fold3 SSDI and Other Searches Working

I've been told by my contact at Fold3.com that the problem with the Fold3 SSDI has been corrected. The searches that I had difficulty with earlier are now working.

Thanks to Fold3 for taking care of this.

SSDI Has One or No Matches at Fold3.com--Which Is It?

Update (2:58 pm Central--11 January 2013): Fold3.com is aware of this issue and the development team is working on it. I don't think they have a dartboard with my picture on it (grin!) 

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[original post]
Hopefully I'm am doing something wrong.

I have searched for my grandfather in the version of the Social Security Death Index that appears on Fold3.com.

I used Internet Explorer:

I used Google Chrome:

Both times I received interesting results--1 Match is indicated in the gray area and yet it says "No Matches found for john ufkes."

Mark me down as confused.

There are actually four John Ufkeses in the Social Security Death Index (using the one at GenealogyBank -but other versions also give individuals dying in the following years:

• 2006
• 2003
• 2000
• 1967

The last three are all first cousins--but the SSDI won't tell you that!

Hopefully someone can point me out on what is up with the SSDI at Fold3.com. Try it yourself and let me know if you have any thoughts. 

Harming Aaron and the Unit Index at Fold3.com

This started out as a post about Aaron G. Firman's Civil War pension cards and has morphed into a discussion of "name prejudice" and a little interesting nuance to the "organizational index" to Civil War pensions on Fold3.com. 

This is the "General Index" pension card for Aaron G. Firman (Fairman) who served in a Vermont unit in the Civil War. It is available on Ancestry.com.

U.S., Civil War Pension Index: General Index to Pension Files, 1861-1934, Record for Aaron G Firman; digital image on Ancestry.com, 11 December 2012

For reasons that elude me, at some point Aaron starting being referred to as Firman instead of Fairman. Of course, since his widow was receiving a pension in 1864, he died during the war.

If I didn't know better, I might be tempted to think his first name was "Harm" instead of Aaron--largely because I have more ancestors named Harm than I have ancestors named Aaron (always keep in mind the prejudice of any transcriber when using record indexes). But I digress.

At any rate, this card indicates that there was a minor's pension and before that a widow's pension. Those records can contain significant detail on the family and should be viewed where possible.

The index card indicates that Aaron was in Company I of the 7th Vermont Infantry. There should also be an "organizational" index card for Aaron. Not that I really need it in this case, but this alternate index is helpful when General Index cards are difficult to read, indexed incorrectly, etc.  These cards (the "organizational index" cards) are indexed at FamilySearch (free) and the digital images are hosted on Fold3.com (the cards are also microfilmed in NARA T289 Organization Index to Pension Files of Veterans Who Served Between 1861 and 1900, compiled 1949 - 1949, documenting the period 1861 - 1942).

These cards on Fold3.com are supposed to be easy to browse and usually they are--except for Aaron.
The image below shows how Aaron's card is filed on Fold3.com in the organizational index--notice all the "[BLANK]" entries:

Aaron's unit is on his card as shown above. I'm not certain why it is filed on Fold3.com the way it is.

A card filed the right way should have the correct "drill down" information and details as this card does for an Illinois veteran:

You can see the state and unit information in the red box just as it is on the card. This allows Fold3.com users to manually browse these cards, which I like to do so that I can see other men in the same unit who obtained pensions, like below:

Fold3.com allows me to browse a list of all the men in Company D of the 78th Illinois Volunteer infantry who received a pension. A nice feature.

But for some reason, some units are not posted in this fashion on Fold3.com -like Company I of the 7th Vermont Infantry:

So when using the "organizational index" at Fold3.com  keep in mind that some units may be classified as [BLANK].

Don't ask me why--we're just passing along information.

[these comments are current as of 12 Dec 2012]