The National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections is a cooperative cataloging program operated by the Library of Congress. (A "union catalog" is the term for the result of recording and describing the holdings of multiple libraries, archives and similar repositories.) Only those libraries and archives who are not able to send their cataloging information to the large cooperative databases are eligible to enroll in this program. Each library sends the information about their documents to the Library of Congress, and the NUCMC Team will transcribe it and publish it for all researchers to see. So the NUCMC contains records from small town libraries and other collections that would be hard for the researcher to access from a distance.

Originally, the NUCMC Team surveyed eligible libraries and archives and published the results in many large volumes, which are still available in some libraries. The last print volume was issued in 1994. Now NUCMC is online; therefore, you can search for documents by family names or place names connected with the people you are researching. However, only those documents cataloged since 1986 are on-line. Items may include: letters, diaries, family bibles, family papers, photographs, maps, posters, charts, business records, church records, charity records, ethnic organization records, arts and cultural organization records, political organizations records, etc.

Each record in NUCMC gives a detailed description of the item and identifies the institution that owns it, either using a code or, in most cases, giving the full name and address. But remember, the original documents are not online; just a catalog of those records. To get copies of original documents, you must contact the institution that owns them.

In discussing our genealogy library with Billie Dancy, the head librarian at the Pleasanton Library, she suggested that rather than checking out some of our present collection, we plan to buy duplicate copies of the books we'd like to check out. We are now open for suggestions of which books to buy for circulation. Tell us your thoughts when you see us. One I know will be on the list is Organizing Your Family History Search by Sharon deBartolo Carmack.

The Pleasanton Library hours are:

• Monday - Thursday – 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.
• Friday and Saturday – 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Sunday – 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

A L-AGS docent is on duty at the library on Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Members who would like to serve as genealogy docents may contact president@l-ags.org.

The National Archives and Records Administration has issued a warning about the use of "sticky notes"* on important papers. The chemicals in the adhesive break down over time and cause deterioration in the paper, making the printing illegible. The Archives’ lab also found that the adhesive lifted the ink from photocopied images in as little as two weeks. In addition, the dyes used to color the "sticky notes" paper run when wet. This type of adhesive-edged note should never be used on any original documents, or on any photocopied items that are going to be saved.

This message is given at the request of the Sutro Library, a branch of the California State Library, 480 Winston Drive, San Francisco, CA 94132, 415-731-4477.

The Sutro Library is pleased to announce the addition of Saturday hours to their regular schedule. It will be open 6 days a week, Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

This extended hours program began Saturday, July 10, 1999, and will be open every Saturday except on official state holiday weekends.

This is a one year trial program. The financial ability to continue the program beyond June 2000 will be re-evaluated year by year.

Livermore Family History Center
Bill Silver, Director

The LDS Family History Center, 950 Mocho Street, Livermore, is open at the following times:

• Monday – 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
• Wednesday and Thursday – 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
• Saturday – 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

L-AGS members who would like to serve as docents at the Family History Center may contact Bill.

Pleasanton Family History Center
David and Lola Cummings, Directors

The Pleasanton FHC is located at the Pleasanton Stake on the corner of Valley and Paseo Santa Cruz. The building faces north and the entrance to the library is on the east side. The hours are:

• Tuesday, Wednesday – 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
• Friday – 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
• Saturday – 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The center now has four microfilm readers, four fiche readers, and two computers running the Family Search program. Non-LDS patrons are welcome.

The collection of L-AGS genealogy CDs located at the Pleasanton Library has grown with the addition of our spring order. Included are 4 CD sets purchased under the 50-50 plan and 4 CD sets purchased with donated funds. The new purchases add 22 titles comprised of 51 disks. Broderbund gave L-AGS a 20% discount for the purchase of their CDs and may do so again in the fall, providing our order totals more than $500. The complete list of our CDs is posted on the L-AGS web site via the "Libraries" page. The disks, except for those being used by donors, are ready for use in the carousels at the Pleasanton Library.

CD 019 - Egle’s Notes and Queries of Pennsylvania, 1700s-1800s (a L-AGS 50-50 purchase) contains images of all twelve volumes of William Henry Egle’s Notes and Queries published between 1894 and 1900.

CD 145 - Revolutionary War Pension Lists (a L-AGS 50-50 purchase) contains images of the pages from twelve volumes of Revolutionary War pension records originally published between 1792 and 1841.

CD 155 - Civil War Confederate Pension Applications Index contains images of the pages of Samuel Sistler's book Tennessee Confederate Pension Applications Index as well as an alphabetical name index.

CD 201 - U.S./Canada Surname Folder Index provides unprecedented access to an index of over 100,000 unique surnames that were originally collected in surname folders at local libraries, historical societies, and genealogical organizations throughout the United States and Canada.

CD 202 - Virginia Historical Index (donation) contains searchable text of E.G. Swem’s comprehensive Virginia Historical Index.

CD 203 - The Complete Mayflower Descendant and Other Sources, 1600s-1800s, a 2-CD set, contains images of the pages from the following four texts: The Mayflower Descendant, Volumes 1-46 (including a comprehensive index set for Volumes 1-34); Mayflower Passengers, 1620; Middleborough, Massachusetts Vital Records, Volumes 1-2; and Pilgrim Notes and Queries, Volumes 1-5.

CD 205 - Virginia Genealogies #4, 1600s-1800s contains images of the pages from seventeen volumes of Virginia genealogies and family histories.

CD 207 - Local and Family Histories: Massachusetts, 1620-1930 (a L-AGS 50-50 purchase) contains images of the pages of seventeen comprehensive volumes of Massachusetts local and family histories.

CD 243 - Marriage Index: Indiana, 1851-1900 (donation) contains information on approximately 292,000 individuals who were married in Indiana between 1851 and 1900.

CD 256 - Passenger and Immigration Lists: Boston, 1821-1850 contains alphabetical listings of approximately 161,000 individuals who arrived at the port of Boston, Massachusetts from foreign ports between 1821 and 1850.

CD 257 - Irish Immigrants to North America, 1803-1871 contains images of the pages of twelve volumes of compiled passenger lists and includes lists of approximately 46,000 Irish passengers who arrived in the United States and Canada primarily in the nineteenth century.

CD 304 - Census Records: Indiana, 1860 (donation) includes information on over 1.35 million Indiana residents who were counted in the 1860 United States Census. Retyped and fielded for easy searching, the 1860 Census is especially valuable because it includes information on entire households rather than just heads of household. In addition, unlike census indexes which include just a name index, this Family Archive includes all of the information fields from an individual's census record.

CD 305 - Census Microfilm Records: Pennsylvania, 1850 (a L-AGS 50-50 purchase), an 11-CD set, includes not only an index to the 1850 Pennsylvania census but scanned images of the actual records themselves.

CD 306 - Census Microfilm Records: North Carolina, 1850, a 4-CD set, includes not only an index to the 1850 North Carolina census but scanned images of the actual records themselves providing an electronic name index that allows you to search for your ancestors quickly and easily.

CD 308 - Census Microfilm Records: Connecticut and Rhode Island, 1850, a 4-CD set, includes not only an index to the Connecticut and Rhode Island portions of the 1850 census but scanned images of the actual records themselves.

CD 356 - Passenger and Immigration Lists: Germans to America, 1875-1888 contains information from Volumes 32 through 56 of the same-named series published by Scholarly Resources, Inc., which was the first extensive, indexed source of German surname immigrants.

CD 449 - Local and Family Histories: New England, 1600s-1900s (donation) contains the text of twenty comprehensive volumes of New England local and family histories.

CD 450 - County and Family Histories: Ohio, 1780-1970, a 6 CD set, contains images of the pages of thirty-five comprehensive books of Ohio county and family histories, and includes information on approximately 700,000 Ohio residents and their families.

CD 500 - Southern Biographies and Genealogies, 1500s-1940s, produced in collaboration with the Harold B. Lee Library at Brigham Young University, contains the electronically searchable text of the pages of twelve books detailing the origin and descent of various prominent Southern Families

CD 600 - Huguenot Settlers in North America and Europe, 1600s-1900s contains electronically searchable text of the pages from seventeen volumes of French Protestant (or Huguenot) family and immigrant histories.

WFT 23-27 - The World Family Tree CDs contain actual family trees contributed by Family Tree Maker customers and other family history enthusiasts. Individuals are named, complete with event dates and family links where known. Some records contain additional source notes and biographical information. These CDs exclude information about living individuals except for their name, gender, and family links. All pedigrees can be exported as GEDCOM files.

The 1881 British Census and the National Index is a magnificent set of 25 CDs published by the LDS Church which includes information on England, Scotland, Wales, Channel Islands, Isle of Man and the Royal Navy.

"Robbie" Robinson has generously donated the following five new CD titles to our collection at the Pleasanton Library:

CD 15 - Family Pedigrees: Everton Publishers, 1500-1990
CD 18 - Everton’s Computerized "Roots" Cellar, 1640-1990
CD 192 - Genealogical Records: The Encyclopedia of Quaker Genealogy, 1750-1930
CD 193 - County and Family Histories: Pennsylvania, 1740-1900 (2 disks)
CD 335 - Census Index: Idaho, 1910

The total holdings are now 138 titles, or 262 disks. Jay Gilson, L-AGS Library Chairman, was responsible for selecting, negotiating prices for and ordering the CDs.

As most of you probably know, the LDS Church search site, at www.familysearch.org, is up and running. Dr. Saul Issroff, a member of an e-mail network I belong to in England, forwarded a "Primer about the LDS Search Site" during the past week. I have excerpted a few lines I thought might be useful to users of the site.

There are quicker ways to search the site than going to its home page. Try the following URLs:

For searching the name of a place: http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Library/fhlcatalog/supermainframeset.asp?display=localitysearch&columns=*,180,0

For searching a film number: http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Library/fhlcatalog/supermainframeset.asp?display=generalfilmsearch&columns=*,180,0

For searching the LDS library by author's name:

For searching surnames: http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Library/fhlcatalog/supermainframeset.asp?display=surnamesearch&columns=*,180,0

Our May speaker was Douglas Phillip Holmes, a professional genealogist from Sacramento who specializes in Portugal, the Azores, and Hungary. Doug's research shows his ancestry to be 43.75% Portuguese, 25% German, 18.75% Slovak, 6.25% Chilean and 6.25% Hungarian. In 1992 Doug began the Hungarian/American Friendship Society and began working on the first newsletter, "Regi Magyarorszag: Old Hungary." In 1996, Doug’s web site (www.dholmes.com) contains information on Portugal and the Azores Islands, Hungarian genealogy, Slovak genealogy, and genealogy gift ideas. Doug also writes genealogical articles for newsletters and newspapers.

Doug began by asking the audience for questions related to Portuguese genealogical research. One person asked why the handwriting seemed to be so small. Doug said that parish priests wrote most records, sometimes with beautiful handwriting. He also suspected this researcher might be trying to read 16-mm film with a lens intended for 35-mm film.

About 90% of Portuguese immigrants came from Portugal's Atlantic Islands - the Azores, Madeira, and the Cape Verde Islands. The Azores includes a group of nine islands located in the North Atlantic Ocean about 900 miles west of Portugal. A flood of Portuguese immigrants came after the California Gold Rush and the U. S. Civil War. Reasons for immigration include overpopulation and poverty. Places such as Sacramento wound up with large pockets of Portuguese families.

Portuguese research has some interesting aspects when compared to other ethnic research. The written records are often in "story form" and will include information on two generations or more. Also, the Azores/Portugal do not follow conventional naming traditions which make it difficult to trace relatives. There is no father/son naming pattern. Sometimes it appears that a family does not want the name of an ancestor to die out. The use of a nickname may be more fruitful in locating an individual in a community than a given name. A "devotional name" (de Jesus) will be used like a nickname. The name of a wealthy landowner, for whom someone worked, might be taken, possibly for additional prestige. There are also "double names" such as Doug's name - da Rocha Holmes. But researchers should remember that passenger lists usually use original names because papers needed to be presented for legitimate immigration to persons who were usually fluent in the native language.

Doug brought a copy of the book Portuguese Pioneers of the Sacramento Area, 384 pages, ©1990, from the Portuguese Historical and Cultural Society as a gift to L-AGS. This book was co-authored by his father, Lionel Holmes and Joseph D'Alessandro. It will be put in the L-AGS collection at the Pleasanton Library.

Our special "Thank You" goes to L-AGS member Bill Silver, who recommended Doug as a speaker.

In June, Kathy Watson of Lafayette presented ‘Using the Internet for Genealogy." She spoke at the California Genealogical Society (CGS) Fair at Pleasanton in April. Kathy and her husband, Marston, have a deep interest in their family history. Kathy started in earnest in 1994, Marston in 1992. She is leader of the CGS Computer Interest Group and the webmaster for CGS (www.calgensoc.org). Her presentation was "live" starting from the CGS web site where she followed interesting links to other genealogical web sites. Kathy and Marston are also personally interested in computers and having a presence on the Internet. The Watson Family web site reflects all of these interests. It includes family photos and it changes periodically to highlight different family lines.

Putting their interest in genealogy and computers together, they have started a business called "Genealogy on CD." They used this method to publish some of Kathy’s family history, which includes pictures, videos, and other information. Information on this service can be found at www.genealogyoncd.com.

If L-AGS members are interested in a copy of Kathy's handout, please contact me.

The annual L-AGS picnic substituted for our regular meeting in July. Our August speaker will be Linda Ashworth, Assistant Genome Center Director at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory whose topic will be "Genetics, Genomics, and Genealogy: A Common Root."

Wanda and I just returned from a family reunion in Louisiana. It was a very interesting event meeting my cousins from Louisiana, Canada, Northern Ireland, and England; sharing descendant charts, old pictures, and stories; eating catfish, jambalaya, and gumbo; and visiting the French Quarter of New Orleans and some old mansions along the Mississippi River. But, the most amazing thing to me is the vast amount of information that we all have accumulated in just over one year.

As some of you know, I have seriously been looking at the family of my great grandmother Caroline Kitchingham for just over a year. My dad’s cousin, Wayne Finn, had spent nearly forty years trying to determine who Caroline’s grandparents were. He had been to England a few times and hired professional genealogists. After all that time, he had come up with only eleven people who shared the Kitchingham name, plus a dozen or so who are related one way or another.

While Wayne was doing his research, two cousins in Louisiana, Richard Arnaud and Frank Martin, had also spent about forty years trying to find out where in England the Kitchinghams had come from. They knew where the first Kitchinghams had settled when they came to America and they knew how the family had moved south from Wisconsin to Louisiana, but they were still looking for the tie to England.

Using the Internet, they listed all of the Kitchinghams in the US (thank goodness the name is not Smith) and called them all. With one person they struck pay dirt. She gave them the e-mail address of a Peter Kitchingham who lives near London. He is perhaps the foremost Kitchingham expert in the world. Peter sent them a vast amount of information on the family and their origins and descendants in England. They in turn supplied Peter with information that he did not have on the Kitchinghams and descendants in Louisiana.

Then, a little over a year ago, another branch of the Louisiana Kitchinghams made contact with the nucleus group as did a Kitchingham from Northern Ireland. They found me from a query that I had posted at the County Kent web site. And the rest is history. In little over a year my list of Kitchinghams has grown from eleven to almost one thousand plus that many related offspring. It is amazing how the use of phone lists, queries, homepages, e-mail, etc., has generated so much energy in a group of people who didn’t even know that the other existed a short time ago. We now have a newsletter, we share vast amounts of information, and we just had a truly international family reunion of people who for the most part didn’t even know each other, but who left Louisiana as family. We are already planning our next international family reunion. It will be near the small village of Hartlip and the town of Rainham, in Kent, England, where the family roots are. I don’t think we will have catfish, jambalaya, and gumbo but we should have plenty of meatpie and warm beer, a lot of history and new cousins to meet.

Remembering always that they are engaged in a quest for truth, family history researchers consistently -

• Record the source for each item of information they collect.

• Test every hypothesis or theory against credible evidence, and reject those that are not supported by the evidence.

• Seek original records or reproduced images of them when there is reasonable assurance they have not been altered, as the basis for their research conclusions.

• Use compilations, communications and published works, whether paper or electronic, primarily for their value as guides to locating the original records.

• State something as a fact only when convincing evidence supports it, and identify the evidence when communicating the fact to others.

• Limit with words like "probable" or "possible" any statement that is based on less than convincing evidence, and state the reasons for concluding that it is probable or possible.

• Avoid misleading other researchers by either intentionally or carelessly distributing or publishing inaccurate information.

• State carefully and honestly the results of their own research, and acknowledge all use of other researchers’ work.

• Recognize the collegial nature of genealogical research by making their work available to others through publication, or by placing copies in appropriate libraries or repositories and by welcoming critical comment.

• Consider with open minds new evidence or the comments of others on their work and the conclusions they have reached.

There is a short six-lesson course offered on the NGS web site that teaches beginners how to record genealogical information, get started with family and published sources, find twentieth-century vital records, find earlier birth, death, and marriage information, and write source citations.

Upon satisfactorily completing the six online quizzes, the student will receive a certificate of completion and a $25 coupon that can be used toward tuition for the NGS home study course.

Tuition is $60 for NGS members. Nonmembers enroll at a higher tuition rate. By submitting a pre-enrollment form, you can study Lesson One and preview the Lesson One Quiz free of charge before deciding to enroll in the course. You can enroll online with a Visa or MasterCard, or you can print out the enrollment form and submit it to the NGS Education Department by mail or fax.

For information on the online course, go to the NGS web site (www.ngsgenealogy.org), select "Education" on the left side of the screen, then select "Introduction to Genealogy: An Online Course," and finally select "About the Course." The course is available to: individual members and nonmembers.

In their April 1999 newsletter, the California Genealogical Society announced completion of the indexing of the 1890 Great Register of Voters for San Francisco. This was the final county to be completed in a state-wide indexing project started in 1991 and organized by the California State Genealogical Alliance (CSGA). CSGA plans to publish the complete, state- wide index in hard copy first, followed later on CD- ROM. It is intended to help fill the gap left by the missing 1890 federal census.

Castle Garden was the predecessor to Ellis Island. In 1855, this old fort was designated an immigration station. At this time it was still under the supervision of New York State. In 1882, a change in the laws allowing immigrants into the country resulted in Castle Garden coming under the jurisdiction of the US government. It was in 1890 that the tide of immigrants became too much for Castle Garden and the US government began to look for a more suitable site, ultimately settling on Ellis Island.

Unfortunately, the records for much of the time that Castle Garden was in operation are unindexed. The New York City passenger lists from 1847 to 1896 are unindexed. This means one needs to know more exactly when an ancestor arrived. A year can easily result in searching an incomprehensible number of films line by line.

See if your ancestor was naturalized. It is possible that in locating his naturalization records you will be better able to narrow down the arrival time of your ancestor. And if you are lucky, you will learn the name of the ship he arrived on.

FROM: Family Tree Finder, 9 Apr '99 rhondam@sodamail.com, via San Joaquin Genealogical Society Newsletter, Vol.20, No. 3, May-June, 1999.

The Cumberland Gap National Historical Park has recently initiated an extensive project to gather a list of names of people who traveled the Wilderness Road and came through the Cumberland Gap. In addition to their names, the Park would like to gather stories about these ancestors to make them real people and not just names. The Historical Park is attempting to restore the Gap to the way it was 200 years ago and to re-establish the Wilderness Road. This will allow visitors to the Park to retrace the footsteps and experience the same emotions as our ancestors.

For those interested in submitting their ancestors to the list of names, the information the project requires is your name, address and phone number, e-mail address if applicable, your ancestor's name, date, notes that you might care to add such as stories carried down or information you have obtained through your research, and permission to pass information to others.

The Confederate Home Messenger was published monthly from October 1907 until December 1911. It included news and stories from the residents of the Confederate Veterans Home located in Pewee Valley, Kentucky (Oldham County). The Home opened in 1902 when it was purchased for $12,500 by the State of Kentucky and operated for thirty-three years. It housed one hundred and twenty-five veterans at any one time and many of the veterans are buried in the Confederate Cemetery nearby. The book, 217 softbound pages, has been indexed and contains more than local news. Articles were written about various unit flags, meetings, celebrations, last roll call, other deaths, reunions, regimental histories, donations, generals and other leaders, lists of inmates, friends and relatives who came to visit, and it even contains some poetry. Each issue of the Messenger was four pages for the subscription price of ten cents per year.

This book is a genealogist’s dream, packed with all sorts of information about the Confederacy. It is a great addition to anyone's library and extremely interesting to read.

To purchase a copy, send $25 plus $3 shipping and handling to:

Mr. James R. Hicks
3715 Stratford Lane #1
Louisville, KY 40207

Return to the Table of Contents.

Return to the L-AGS home page.

L-AGS member David Abrahams forwarded the following information to your editor: It is reported that the Hamburg Immigration Lists for the years 1890-1893 will be on-line starting in October 1999. Each month another year will be added. For more information, see the web site listed here:

http://www.hamburg.de/fhh/behoerden/staatsarchiv/link_to_your_roots/english/

Salt Lake City is so engrossed in genealogy that even department stores carry supplies. But it seems one store hired a sales lady who was unaware of such merchandise.

So when a genealogist came in and asked her where he could find the family group sheets, she stammered in some shock: "Uh, all we have are king and queen size sheets."