The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration has finalized the new fee schedule by publishing its "Final Rule," NARA Reproduction Fee Schedule, in the October 13, 2000, Federal Register at page 60862.

The revised fees went into effect on November 13. New forms were available as of November 1, 2000. Some of the fixed fee order forms are:

• Copy of Passenger Arrival list (NATF Form 81) - $17.25
• Federal Census requests (NATF Form 82) - $17.50
• Land entry records (NATF Form 84) - $17.75
• Bounty land warrant application file (NATF Form 85) - $17.25
• Copy of complete pension file more than 75 years old (NATF Form 85) - $37.00
• Military service files more than 75 years old (NATF Form 86) - $17.00

I look at the calendar and realize that this is my last chance to write to you L-AGS members in a year 2000 Roots Tracer. I want to say "Thank You" to all of you for keeping our volunteer organization going throughout the year. We cannot say "Thank You" too much! I know that many of you have made wonderful contributions that most of us know nothing about. Sometimes this is helping answer a genealogical query from a stranger far away. Other times it is by providing treats and drinks at our regular meeting. Please keep up your good work. Let’s together try to make L-AGS an even better organization in 2001!

Our L-AGS guest book continues to be signed by visitors to our web site www.l-ags.org. So far this quarter, I count about 15 postings, compared with about 10 postings last quarter. There are visitors from 13 different states, England and Australia. We expect this interest to continue to grow. We have both long and short postings.

If you are interested in another local guest book, please check out the Livermore Heritage Guild’s guest book at www.LHG.org by clicking on "guest book." That’s where I "stole" this guest book idea that George, Larry, Vicki and Doug implemented!

Please send some photos, if you have any, to George Anderson for our L-AGS web site. I am embarrassed to admit that our web site says "New," but the latest photos are from last July. Let’s try to submit some newer photos from some of our meetings and activities.

We received sad news that the California Genealogical Society (CGS) will not sponsor a Genealogy Fair at the Pleasanton/Alameda County Fairgrounds in April 2001. In some respects, this is not surprising because Jane Steiner mentioned to me in April that vendor attendance was up, while genealogists’ attendance was down. In addition, the number of volunteers was way down compared to 1999! CGS will help sponsor a genealogy fair in the San Francisco area in the summer or fall of 2001. We should get more details several months in advance. I’m sure we will miss having the Pleasanton Fairgrounds as an especially convenient location for us.

Recently the Valley Times carried an article saying, "Half of U.S. homes have computers." The number of computers has grown from about 42 % in December 1998 to 51 % in August 2000 according to government statistics. Approximately 80 percent of these computers are connected to the Internet.

How does the national computer and Internet usage compare with our L-AGS members? Using an April 2000 roster, I found that we had 175 memberships which included 142 e-mail addresses. This means that over 80% of our group are computer and Internet users. L-AGS is ahead of Utah (66.1 %) and Alaska (64.8 %) which are first and second among the states. Arkansas (37.3 %) and Mississippi (37.2 %) ranked last and next to last! I assume that for e-mail comparisons, we should reduce these state numbers by multiplying by 80 percent.

I was pleasantly surprised to receive a "Certificate of Appreciation" from the California State Genealogical Alliance (CSGA) by mail in October from David Abrahams. I really feel this award belongs to all of us.

Why do I say this is "Our Award?" It is because of your many suggestions of possible program topics that we received this award. As I wrote in the November 1999 issue of the Roots Tracer in an article titled "Thank You To Our L-AGS Membership," you supplied more ideas than I did. Please remain alert for program ideas to pass on to our future L-AGS Program Chairpersons.

We can learn more about the California State Genealogical Alliance, its officers and its nearly 80 member organizations (including CGS and L-AGS) at their web site http://feefhs.org/csga/frg-csga.html.

Roland B. "Rod" Oxsen, a resident of Port Angeles, WA and member of L-AGS, died July 31, 2000, at age 62 at Olympic Medical Center, after a lengthy battle with cancer.

He was born in Livermore to Roland W. and Etta Emily (Stankey) Oxsen. His survivors include sons Daniel of California and Jason of Idaho; daughter Kerri of Seattle; sister Roetta Luckey of Edwards, California; and two grandchildren. Burial, beside his father, was in Escalon, California.

Our condolences go out to his family, friends and loved ones.

My search began with a single document. A birth certificate, issued in 1933, Alameda County, California. Father’s name, James Ingle; age 37; occupation, car salesman; birthplace, Ossawatamie, Kansas.

Never one to pass up a challenge, this was my first opportunity to put my genealogy research skills to the test – to search outside of my own family lines.

My friend Anna grew up in Livermore, raised by her mother and stepfather. She’d always known there was another father, but the one time she asked about him, her mother cried and refused to talk. Fast-forward 50+ years to the birth certificate. Her mother and stepfather had both passed away; it was time to search. Anna knew of my genealogy research and sent me the e-mail which led to this search.

Once I had the information from the birth certificate, my first stop was the Social Security Death Index (SSDI). I hit pay dirt with the first query. There was only one James Ingle who matched name, date and place of birth. His benefits were paid out in Kansas. I e-mailed my findings, and Anna said she’d get back to me. She wasn’t sure what she wanted to do, and busy with my own family life and work, I didn’t push. About six months later, I sent for the Social Security application for James Ingle. It arrived a month later. Anna had sent for it at the same time and when we reconnected we laughed at the coincidence.

The Social Security application was filed in the 1940s. It listed James’ date of birth, October 1895, his parents names and his place of birth. Armed with this information I surfed the net, using the Kansas GenWeb site. I immediately found a cemetery listing in Miami County, Kansas matching the name and date of birth. It was for James, his wife and an adult son. So far so good, everything matched the SSDI listings.

Now we were ready for a trip to the archives – census research. Again immediate success – family groups for James as a child with his parents and siblings all in Kansas, the right place at the right time. This was a blessing for our research. We also found James with a wife and sons. What fun to take a non-genealogist to the archives, teach her how to use the microfilm and find more than we imagined was available. Anna, a quick learner, was hooked.

Armed with this new information, I surfed back to the Miami County site, and requested a records check for the obituaries for James, his wife, and son. For a few dollars donation and a wait of only two weeks, I received them in the mail.

The obituaries were a gold mine of information. They listed family members, both living and dead, marriage dates, occupations and affiliations. From these we determined that James was married to his 2^nd wife when he died, and was apparently divorced when he was in California in 1933. One item stood out – James Ingle had run for sheriff in 1944 and had served for several years. I again e-mailed the Miami County genealogy society and asked them to search for any newspaper articles about the election and perhaps a photograph of James. I sent a check for $15.00 and awaited their response.

A few weeks later, an envelope from Miami County arrived. The handwritten address tells me this is personal mail – oh, so very personal, not the pre-stamped, computerized envelopes we receive every day. I ripped that envelope open so quickly; I was so excited. Enclosed were three articles about the race for sheriff in 1944. The very first article had a photograph of James! I could scarcely believe it; there he was staring back at me from the newspaper of Paola, Kansas. GOOSEBUMPS, hair standing up, goosebumps, genetics, DNA, all there looking at James Ingle. There is little doubt he’s Anna’s father. I could see it clearly. Anna has a lovely set of dimples and when we began this search only a few months before, I had asked Anna if her mother had dimples. She said no, she wasn’t sure where they came from. Well, now, I was very sure. Right there in the photo – James had dimples.

I called Anna, said I’d received the articles and was on my way to her house. (Of course I asked if I could come over.) Twenty minutes later she was smiling and reading about James’ race for sheriff. She wasn’t sure she saw the resemblance, but I was sure. She thanked me and I left her to her reading and thoughts.

A couple of days later, there was an e-mail from Anna. She’d shown the clipping to a friend, didn’t tell her why and asked her to look at the photo. Her friend said the same thing I had – this man looked just like her, dimples and all.

Our research has just begun. We’re now searching for living descendants in Kansas. We found a family tree entry for one of Anna’s half-brothers, now deceased, contacted the contributor and are exploring the connections. Hopefully in another few months we’ll have living contacts and enough information to warrant a visit to Kansas.

This is a story passed down in one of my in-law families. It is given verbatim, except the family surname has been deleted. The events happened about 1910.

The Big Family Fight

One brother lived in Okmulgee, OK and the other lived in Talequah, OK. Both families lived in very small houses. The brother in Okmulgee was taking care of their bedridden mother. He pinned a note on his mother’s blouse, took her and her bed, put them on the train and sent them to Talequah. The note read, "It is your turn to take care of Ma for a while." He told the engineer of the train to stop at his brother’s house and deliver the note. The brother in Talequah, his wife and eleven other people were living in a small two-bedroom house. There was a big family fight over this, and some of them changed their names. The Okmulgee brother carried the fight a little farther. He had separated from his wife, and while she was working, he backed a truck up to the house and sold all of the furniture for $1.00. That also made the family upset. Now you have heard the story of the Big Family Fight.

Last week I was contacted by a person from New York who saw my DeGroat family name on our club’s "Surnames we are researching" site. She turned out to be my 3rd cousin once removed who lives in Queens, New York. Our common ancestor was born in New York in 1806 and had 14 children. My ancestor was the only child that moved to California. She said the family has been looking for my branch for over 40 years. She has the family history back 4 generations from what I had, and we are exchanging information. As coincidence has it, her 4th cousin (from my branch) is now living in Manhattan about 30 minutes away from her. They are now in touch. It is amazing to me that our club and the Internet united a family separated by over 3,000 miles and several generations. It is truly, a small world.

Elizabeth Montour was the daughter of a Delaware Indian who was the captain of a regiment of Delawares under George Washington. When Elizabeth wanted to marry Isaiah Cooper, a white man, her father disowned her. Isaiah’s family also disowned him, so the couple left their home in Kentucky and moved to Indiana. They had eight children of their own, and took in several orphaned children, as well.

Isaiah was one of the first county commissioners in Dun settlement in Owen County, Indiana. He donated land for the county seat, operated a ferry and was a Justice of the Peace in Washington Township. He stirred up trouble in town, was involved in some shady deals involving the court and was drunk much of the time. A jail was to be built, but it cost far more than estimated and Isaiah was partly at fault. He missed every meeting of the Board of Justices because of alcoholism and the Indiana Legislature impeached him. The family was disgraced and moved to Illinois.

Isaiah and Elizabeth took in a little girl named Esther Cowan. Her mother had died in childbirth and the father couldn’t take care of her. When the father remarried, the stepmother didn’t want the child. Elizabeth died when Esther was 12 years old and the stepmother decided that she would take Esther because she was old enough to work. Isaiah told the stepmother that he would bring Esther home the next day, but as soon as the stepmother was out of sight, he packed his saddlebags, put Esther in front of him on his horse and struck out for Oregon, joining a wagon train in Missouri. His daughters, Rachel and Mary, had gone to Oregon with their husbands, Henry and Daniel Matheny, in 1843. When they reached Oregon, they lived with Mary and Daniel. Isaiah’s sons in Illinois sold their father’s farm, as well as their own, and also moved to Oregon. Esther later married one of Isaiah’s sons, Enoch. Even though she was not born into the family, she lived all her life as a Cooper.

Many of the family went to California during the Gold Rush. Camp Fever (typhus) struck the camps and Isaiah Cooper, his son John, his son-in-law Henry, and his granddaughter, Sarah Layson all died and were buried in the Coloma cemetery near the Marshall monument.

Local transportation systems have always attracted investors for one reason or another. But when the Livermore Board of Trustees, in September, 1887 granted a 50-year franchise to operate a street railway in the community, it’s likely some local eyebrows were raised – a street railway in this town of about 1200 people??

A group of local citizens, G. W. Comegys, George C. Stanley, E. R. Lilienthal and A. L. Seligman, petitioned the Town Trustees for the right to construct and operate a railway on the principal streets of the community. It was a tremendously ambitious project. The company (for which no name is known) proposed to install the necessary single and double track, "with all necessary and convenient switches and turnouts" on all lines, some running east and west, others running north and south.

The east-west lines were on:

• First Street, from P Street "to Adam Fath’s farm," at the eastern town border;
• Railroad Avenue, from the town’s west boundary to the Catholic church,
• College Avenue, from the western town line to Lizzie Street (now South Livermore Avenue).

The north-south lines were on:

• L Street, from Pine to "the town limit near Jessie Bowles house," i.e., Arroyo Mocho,
• Livermore Avenue and Lizzie Street, from Pine Street to the southern town boundary;
• Junction Avenue, from Pine Street to First Street, at the old Laddsville site.

The franchise also specified optional means of locomotion:

• horses and mules,
• wire ropes on cables running under the streets moved by a stationary steam engine,
• compressed air,
• electricity, or
• locomotive.

Any trenches or excavations were "to be filled in so as not to impair the use and enjoyment of such streets by the public." It also set a maximum speed at 8 miles per hour, and established the fare which was "not to exceed five cents each way for any distance over any of the lines of the railroad." Nothing in the franchise specifies where car barns were to be located.

Could this enterprise have been an effort to pre-empt an 1889 proposal to build a railroad called the Livermore Valley Railroad Company (LVRR) by tying up local real estate? The route announced for the LVRR was intended to come over the Hayward Pass and link Livermore with the San Joaquin Valley via Corral Hollow. It was to provide an alternative method of moving Livermore Coal Company products to market. But the coal mines failed before the railroad materialized.

But some progress on a street railway system must have been made. In the fall of 1908, a town crew excavating for a sewer line on Lizzie Street near College unearthed several lengths of rail and some badly rotted cross ties. Again in November, 1913, a crew uncovered more track and timbers on Lizzie Street near Eighth Street. These had most likely been laid to show some good faith effort toward constructing what could have been Livermore’s first transit system. It was only the old-timers in town that remembered the story of how the rails and ties got there in the first place.

The Beaver County Times:

A Pennsylvania doctor discovered his great-great-great-grandparents’ tombstones in a flagstone walk. Since his forebears’ graves are adorned with newer stones, he keeps the old ones in his yard.

First, a query:

Need information on BROWN, DURLAND, DUNN and HAWKESWORTH in Nova Scotia 1770-1870.
Please contact Carol Tucker, 8087 Arroyo Drive, #4, Pleasanton, CA 94588-8152.

The following "Brick Walls" were part of our Computer Interest Group meeting in September. If you have any suggestions to help these researchers, please contact them at L-AGS, P.O. Box 901, Livermore, CA 94551-0901.

Arleen Wood –

I need records for a birth in 1838 in Sweden and a marriage in Minnesota in 1873, and a lead to the "Fathers Register" in Sweden.

My brick wall is regarding Peter Englund. Church records in Comfrey, Minnesota state Peter Englund was born 13 Aug 1838, Tving, Blekinge [Sweden]. He married Kerstin Olofsdtr Stadig (Are, Jamtland Sweden) about 1873 in Minnesota. He named three of his sons Carl Albert (first two died), two others Edward and Johan. The death certificate of Peter Englund lists his parents as Hans Hansson and Mary.

According to his Intention/Homestead papers which I received from the National Archives, he immigrated to the US, arriving through Quebec about 12 June 1868. He located in Rockford, IL. In April 1872 he made declaration of intent to become a citizen of the US in Bloomington, McLean County, IL. In June 1872 he made application for Homestead in Brown County, Minnesota. His Homestead papers do not give any further information.

I found 3 Swedish passengers named Per Hanson on a ship list for the SS Belgian that arrived in Quebec on that date, but no other information. They came via Liverpool, England, traveling steerage. I hired a genealogist/researcher in Salt Lake City to research Peter Englund. She could not find him listed under that name, nor could she find a Peter Hansson in Tving.

Information I am seeking:

1. Birth records of Peter in Tving, Blekinge, Sweden.
2. Marriage to Kerstin/Kristina Olson Stadig, which supposedly took place in Minnesota "near the Twin Cities" in 1873.
3. Someone suggested a "Fathers Registry" in Sweden. Is anyone aware of that resource?

Dorothy Bevard –

Who were parents of James Cook, born 1843 in NY? How do I find a detailed history of Tom Thumb of Barnum and Bailey Circus fame?

Great grandfather James Cook, born 1843, NY (died ? when, where), was living in Portage, Columbia County, WI, according to the 1880 census. We have been told he died in an institution with Huntington’s Disease, maybe in Kansas, but I’ve not found any trace of records in WI or KS. I have found no Cook connections for family of James Cook. Who did James Cook belong to? Where did he live? Who else had HD?

Great grandmother Eliza Cornelia Hambidge Cook was born 14 Feb 1844, NY, mother unknown. Her father, Robert Louis Hambidge from England, is said to have been a manager for Tom Thumb of the Barnum and Bailey Circus. Another brick wall. Recently a Hambidge in London contacted me online from the LAGS site. He said there had been a Hambidge circus connection in London in the mid 1800s through WWII. He would check for managers. This seemed like a snap to locate the England tours of Tom Thumb, but the wall has not cracked yet. Eliza was said to have been raised in a NY convent, but I’ve had no luck finding any records on that. Eliza was listed in the 1900 census living in Abilene, Dickinson County, KS married to Orin Ingram.

Eliza’s daughter, Fannie Rose Cook married William Henry Bevard II and had a daughter and 3 sons – William III, who died of HD, Charlie and Albert who died in their early 40s but with no known symptoms of HD. Violet was located in 1976 and did not appear to have the disease at age 70. She was not the most forthcoming with family information. At age 21, she had married her mother’s oldest brother, Moses Darius "Charlie" Cook, age 65, who had 4 daughters older than his wife. Is that a sorta my own first cousin or mama?

This Cook family connection has been very difficult. Until I started researching in 1976, there had been no contact with any Cook or Bevard relatives since the summer of 1934 when Don’s mother, Agnes, removed the 5 children never to see their father again.

In August Hayward Area Genealogical Society member, Joan Dickinson Soo, presented A Genealogist’s Guide to Documentary Editing. Through the course of Joan’s easy teaching style it became quite clear why genealogists need to be familiar with editing that does not change the idea or content of a document. Even within this style of editing there is a conservative, moderate and liberal style. Joan presented a detailed ten-step checklist for editing original documents. You know those letters or diaries that you are fortunate to have in your possession and include in your written history. Think about it – as a researcher, what do you expect from transcribed documents?

David Abrahams, member and past president of L-AGS, gave an informative presentation in September entitled 20^th Century Immigration. Many members of David’s family came to America in the early part of the 20^th century. In order to learn more about them David has made it his business to learn how to research immigration and naturalization records. He presented information on where the records are located, how to obtain them, and showed various types of immigration and naturalization records that are available to researchers.

At the October meeting, Hayward Area Genealogical Society member Kenneth Felton, presented an informative talk on the little known subject of United States Passport Application Records. These are passports issued by the United States Department of State. If you are fortunate enough to find these records on your ancestors you could be in for a wealth of genealogical information. Some files even include passport style photographs. If you have an idea that your ancestor was an early traveler you may want to look into passport applications. Passports were not always required prior to 1941. But many citizens did obtain a passport, primarily for the protection that a passport provides. Although not an easy search, The Family History Library www.familysearch.org has over 1,000 rolls of passport application records. There are some indexes.

In August, we had a great discussion of things we can do to interest others in genealogy. Most of the ideas were geared toward younger children and teens, but these same ideas may interest our adult relatives, also. Some of the ideas were:

• Make a small scrapbook of photos for each grandchild, with pictures of them growing up and being with their grandparents and other relatives.
• Take children along on an excursion to a cemetery. Take photos and make rubbing of headstones.
• Create and play a family history trivia game.
• Create a crossword puzzle of genealogy terms or family history facts.
• Research the kinds of vehicles your ancestors had available and make a scrapbook about them.

Books with a genealogical theme are available for all ages. These include fiction as well as beginning genealogy books. Check www.amazon.com for titles. One interesting title is Do People Grow On Family Trees? Genealogy for Kids & Other Beginners. In addition to basic genealogy, it also discusses immigration and social history in an easy to read format.

In September, we watched a videotape detailing how to organize your family history. Hosted by Mary E. V. Hill, she explains her system of using color-coded hanging files, filing folders and filing boxes to help create order out of the piles of information that genealogists collect. These tapes may be borrowed from the L-AGS videotape library.

Then in October, members shared tips and tricks that they have found useful in their research. George Anderson suggested going to our web site, using the google search engine www.google.com and entering "genealogy tips" as a search phrase. He received a list of 100 sites with "genealogy tips." Debbie Pizzato gave a presentation on the importance and helpfulness of timelines. Kay Speaks told us how she prints her family history information on 5x8 index cards to take with her on research trips.

Please join us for our next session on the third Thursday in November.

The CIG meets once a month to hear speakers on a wide variety of genealogical computer related subjects such as software (new, revised, how to use it, etc.), hardware (computers, storage devices, scanners, cameras, printers), web sites, useful CDs, etc., that help us in our quest for genealogical information. Often we have very useful handouts and even a door prize or two now and then. During the last several months we have had speakers on various topics:

• using handheld computers and interfacing with desktop machines,
• the tangled relationships among the many computer genealogy companies and how it affects us,
• and a demonstration of digital manipulation of old and damaged photographs (their enhancement, removal of watermarks, scratches, and even replacement of missing sections).

We will not have a CIG meeting in November or December because of conflicting holidays. We hope to see you after the first of the year when we plan to hear from software producers, what’s new in hardware and software that might help genealogists, and also which internet providers will best met your needs.

During the school year we meet the fourth Thursday of every month except November and December at 7:30 at the Livermore Adult Education Building, 543 Sonoma Avenue, Livermore. URL for a map to the school: www.l-ags.org/sonoma.html

Members needing help with a computer problem may call one of the mentors listed in the Member’s handbook.

The L-AGS Family Tree Maker (FTM) Focus Group meets the first Thursday of the month at 7:30 at the Livermore Adult Education Building during the school year, 543 Sonoma Avenue, Livermore.

We are primarily a group of FTM users (from beginners to experts) who discuss problems and solutions, share successes, answer questions and in general help each other with the Family Tree Maker software. At some of our last meetings we have discussed why a person might want to upgrade to Version 8 of Family Tree Maker, printing useful charts and other documents, and the subdividing of FTM files into subsections that can be sent to specific relatives. The members of the group have generated an enhancement list that has been presented to FTM for action.

All people interested or potentially interested in Family Tree Maker and related software are invited to attend.

Return to Table of Contents

Return to Table of Contents

Return to Table of Contents

Return to Table of Contents

Wilma Myers:

Return to Table of Contents

Return to Table of Contents

Return to Table of Contents

L-AGS Future Programs

Return to Table of Contents

Return to Table of Contents

September 12-15, Quad Cities, IA and IL – Federation of Genealogical Societies Annual Conference "Great River Bend Genealogy – A Heartland Gathering." Web site www.fgs.org, e-mail: fgs-office@fgs.org , or phone: 1-888-380-0500

Return to Table of Contents

The following pages are still open for adoption:

• From the Attic
• Meetings/Seminars
• Life in the Past Lane

If you would like to be responsible for one of these pages, please contact Vicki Renz or Debbie Pizzato for more information.

Return to Table of Contents

Return to Table of Contents

Return to the L-AGS Home Page

Last modified 8 April 2004 vlr, 10may04.0547 gwa