Archive Research Day

First let me say this trip was more fun than I anticipated!  Meeting my 3rd cousins from Michigan after being research partners for a year was the highlight.  We all had the same drive to learn as much as we could and hopefully find some missing links. Researching with family on the same project is refreshing.

The Schuylkill County courthouse archive department is in the basement, not surprisingly, with a designated area for researchers...two large tables with comfortable chairs surrounded by shelves of index binders, first by category, then alphabetically by date and sometimes gender. Those books hold the information needed to find the records in the record room.  The department was small and cozy, nothing like the industrial, high-ceiling, uninviting room I envisioned.

Ken and Ron ran a smooth tag-team. Ken announced the ancestor and what records were needed as Ron scoured the indexes for the ancestor's name. Sound simple? Not with 8 to 10 different Lithuanian surname spellings and given names repeated through the generations. Josephs, Peters, Annas, Marys over and over. This made Ron pause and recall what our god-fearing grandparents vocalized when something was "unbelievable" ....
"Jesus, Mary and Joseph!"

So there they were with open index binders and post-it notes keeping the research under control. The post-it notes were handed to our helpful assistant Abby, sending her into the depths of the record room to return with whatever we required.  The record books were huge and would fit right in the "Alice in Wonderland" world.

Ron, Kris and Ken

I assisted the guys using my prepared research on our shared family branch.  I jumped in where needed and took phone pics of what we found. Some records needed to be discussed to determine we had the correct family member. A few made us pause when we realized we were looking at our ancestor's own handwriting.

As my cousins "branched off" to another area of their family research, I had time to run down several records for my German branch before they locked the doors. The three of us were the only researches in-house and we made a day of it from open to close!

Fast forward to the aftermath...Our archive dive did not expose new information for our Mystery Man, Peter Jamitis, however, that's not to say there aren't hints to be found in the many new record images we have to reread and analyze. I'm ready to dig in!

Today's the Day

Heading off to Schuylkill County shortly in search of my Lithuanian ancestors' story.  I'm rarely late for any event and this is no exception. It's a curse sometimes because I'm too early and have to fill the time until I leave the house. So, here I am!

My Surface Pro tablet, paper tablets, phone, chargers, extra glasses (you never know, I could drop my only pair in excitement of a find!) and several pens...check, check, check.

My cousin called ahead and found the courthouse staff very helpful, digging out a few items for us to get a head start. I have several indexes to pull in case the staff cannot locate anything for us by surname. I already told you about the Lithuanian surname debacle, so this will be no surprise. The indexes will keep this trip from becoming a bust.

Once I get the hang of archive research, I'm quite sure this trip will be one of many.  The Lithuanians are my main concern, but I want to know more about my German, Irish and English branch, too.

Stay tuned...

Anticipation

After years of researching my family tree, I'm finally going to take the next step in the process. My first trip to a repository to search government archives is a week away.  My anticipation is ramping up for two reasons. Excitement for learning more about the Lithuanian branch of my tree is one.

The other is meeting my 2nd cousin for the first time.  Ken is making the trip from Michigan with his brother (who is my grandmother's godson) to meet me at the Schuylkill County Courthouse.  I have an hour drive, he has much more, but our drive to find facts about our family tree branch is equal.

Our immediate search is for family of Anna Jamitis, Peter's wife. Anna is our mutual great grandmother.  Our grandmothers were sisters Helen and Edith.  Though we know more about Anna than Peter, the mystery man, there are some leads Ken has exposed from a connection in Lithuania that we want to prove or disprove about Anna's family and the stories told to us. It's an important direction to pursue on our first trip to the archives.

Above is a picture Ken and I believe is Anna and Peter. We received it from a Lithuanian contact. I hesitate adding photos without a solid fact to accompany them. I personally think this couple is my great grandparents. Findings from this trip may help confirm this scenario.

I'm taking my tablet filled with facts and assumptions from my years of research. But, I've narrowed down and summarized the points of interest for this trip using Evernote, my favorite note-taking organizer software program.  It holds copies of census records, maps, death certs and obituaries from the newspapers plus docket information to look up marriage applications, wills and tax records.  The assumptions are at the ready to pursue the trail should we find collaborating evidence.

A new adventure in the new year...stay tuned....

A Wedding Feast

As you read in an earlier post, Peter and Anna's young life and their arrival from Lithuania is a mystery. I never met them which is all the more reason to get to know their story. I met their children, my great aunts and uncles, at an early age and can recall specific events in Schuylkill County we were all together.

Since I lived in Reading, these occasions were mostly weddings and funerals.  As a young girl, I was in awe of the elaborate feasts presented to attendees. I was equally naive about the person feted at these "up home" events since my place in the family was a granddaughter or great niece of the extended family we were visiting. So, after introductions to my elders and being compared to myself in size from the last time they saw me, my attention turned to the abundance of food tabled for the occasion.

Specifically, weddings. My brother and I never saw anything like it. A fire company hall or church social hall held long tables, end to end, filling the space to capacity less the obligatory dance floor.  Each table was served home-style with bottomless dishes of the most delicious food we ever had in our short lives. But, wait there's more.

The caterers cleared the tables, the guests mingled with the bride and groom and the band began to play.  And as if by magic, there appeared on each table various homemade cakes.  Not just one cake, several cakes per table...chocolate, spice, applesauce and carrot are the ones that caught my attention.  And eat we did.

These memories are so embedded in my mind because our family meals rarely included seconds or desserts. It's not to say we starved or felt deprived. My mother just followed the way she learned growing up in a German heritage home. Frugal covers it for the most part. And as I reflect now, the events were mainly on my father's side. The Lithuanians.  Add dancing the polka to this mix and this seven year old had the time of her life.

The Mystery Man

Most of my research in the last 6 months has been reexamining my family tree information for my Great Grandfather Peter Jamitis in my paternal line. Peter was Lithuanian, though at times the historic records show him as Russian, Russian-Polander, Russian-Lithuanian and Prussian.  I've determined this is due to the regime his birth home was ruled by when he answered the question of nationality on census forms, draft records or his marriage application. Lithuania had several border changes during his lifetime.

There's also issues with surname spellings.  I've seen Zamitis, Zemaitis, Gemaitis, Zamitus, Zimits...you get the idea. Jamitis is the only spelling I knew until I started my family tree. This issue alone made the research process lengthy within the United States record repositories.  Image this Lithuanian answering port authority's questions to board the ship for America and a census-taker's ears hearing this new language probably for the first time.  Phonetic spelling of surnames was most likely the option taken in this instance.

Peter is a mystery from the time he was born in 1870 until I find him in Pennsylvania in 1899 applying for a license to marry Anna Ambrosavage, also a Lithuanian who immigrated to the United States. And don't let Anna's surname spelling comfort you... that's another post.

I see him with Anna and their first born in the 1900 census and the next three censuses through 1930. Each census adds more children and more conflicting information, mainly event dates. Naturalization records have escaped me even with 1903 recorded as the year this citizenship event happened.  I was so hoping to find the petition or the application for Peter for there is much to mine from these records, opening the gate to finding his place of birth in Eastern Europe.

My next step is to visit the courthouse and search for wills, deeds, land records and the like. It will be my first time researching physical records and it's a fact that visits to your ancestor's county seat can unblock the the wall when online indexes and documents are fruitless.  Perhaps starting with the physical records was the best plan for Peter.  In hindsight, yes. But the enormous amount of online records available to genealogists the last several years is hard to resist from the comfort of your own home.

The 52-week Ancestors Challenge

How timely. I commit to start writing about my family tree with little knowledge of the art and what do I hear about on a December 2019 podcast, the 52-week Ancestors Challenge.

The commitment to write about a new ancestor each week for a year sounds heavy, but only if you make it so. There are no written rules or challenge police to hold you to the 52 writings. It is meant to be a personal challenge to start the conversation, a road map, a plan, a niche of time out of a week to put something down "on paper".

It's a free-flowing challenge not meant to stress you out, but to allow you to hear the information you gathered over the years, really hear the words instead of the facts. I'm sure just this alone will help find the gaps in the story you didn't know were missing or add questions to the follow-up research.  Should you find everything is in place, then the challenge is now the reward for all your hard work.

To understand the concept as it was told on the podcast, follow the link to Amy Johnson Crow's podcast page to hear it in her own words.     52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

If this is something you could get into yourself, sign up with Amy Johnson Crow using the link above. I just did.