The BCG Education Fund sponsored a full-day pre-conference workshop at the NGS conference today.  There were two parts, Dr. Thomas W. Jones on “Editing Your Own and Others’ Genealogical Writing” and Melinde Lutz Byrne on “Editor’s Ink: Writing for Genealogical Journals.”

For the pre-lunch session, I attended Dr. Jones’ lecture.  “Polishing is the greatest part of writing” according to Dr. Jones, it is also the hardest part.  When you begin writing you can start with anything: key terms, a description of what you want to say or full sentences.  If you cannot come up with anything to write, you probably should not be writing.  It is where you go from here, all the polishing, that is the difficult part.

I was amazed that as an NGS Quarterly editor, Dr. Jones routinely cuts 25-50% of the words sent to him.  The main rules for publication, after having interesting and well-done research, is to be concise, choose simple words and have a logical sequence.

After lunch, I attended Melinde Lutz Byrnes’ lecture, where she told us that “writing is thought.”  I learned that most journals have guidelines online that can help you decide if your publication should be submitted.

Prior to the conference Ms. Byrnes sent us a pdf of a rough draft journal article.  At nearly 30 pages long, this article was eventually cut down to 7 pages.  Our directions were to read the footnotes first, then the article, then turn each of the 90 paragraphs into 1 sentence and write 1 sentence that gives the overall theme of the article.

This will be the way I read every article in the future.  The footnotes give so much more information on the author and what you are about to read than I ever imagined.  This is apparently a tip from a well-known, long-term (and un-named) editor.  When an article is dense or confusing, turning each paragraph into a concise sentence makes it easier to understand.

These workshops made me more interested expanding my writing.  I am looking forward to combing my research for interesting and unique case studies that can be submitted to genealogical journals.

A hoard of genealogists is descending upon Cincinnati today to attend the 2012 National Genealogical Society Conference.  In order to make the most of your time, it is important to pre-plan your conference, or at least the first day.  Luckily, NGS has made a multitude of tools available to help in this planning.

• Syllabus, Daily Schedule and Exhibitor Listing
• The syllabus and daily schedule of events are available as PDF files on the NGS website for conference attendees.  By going through these, you can decide which lectures you want to attend during each time period.  Important items to keep in mind:
• Is the speaker one you want to hear?
• Is the topic important to your current level and interests as a genealogist?
• Is the session being recorded?  If there are two sessions you are interested in and one is being records and the other isn’t, go to the one that isn’t and purchase the recording for the other.
• Is the syllabus specific or general?  If the syllabus gives you a lot of information on a topic, including references for further research, you can go to a session with a more general syllabus that does not provide the information you need
• Use exhibitor listing to make a list of “must see” booths.  By planning this now, you will make sure you do not go home having missed the one organization you wanted to see.
• Mobile App
• There is a mobile app available for every device.  Download this to look at daily news flashes, the daily schedule, maps, and even tweets and photos from the conference.  The best part of the app is the “My Schedule” piece where you can keep track of which sessions you are attending and where they are located.
• Tips for First Time Attendees, Conference FAQs and What to Expect 
• These documents will give you an overview of important information on the conference.
• Social Media
• Look at the social media policy if you plan on tweeting or blogging during the conference.  The conference hash tag is #ngs2012.  You can also view all of the official conference blogger’s posts through a  Google Reader Bundle created by Accessible Archives
Using these tools will help make your conference enjoyable and productive!

In one week, the pre-conference workshops begin for the NGS Annual Conference in Cincinnati.  This will be my first national genealogy conference and I am very excited to be one of the official bloggers!  I will post daily about the workshops, lectures and special events I attend, as well as general information about the conference and Cincinnati.

Will you be at the conference?

My main goal for the 1940 census was to find all of my grandparents, as this is the first time any of them were listed on a census record.

Last, but not least, is Grandparent number 4 (according to my pedigree chart), Marlyn Whitehead.  She was also the last one I found, which is pretty ironic considering she was the one I most wanted to find.  My Gramma Casell has been with me every step of the way on my genealogy journey and I was very excited to find her on a census and show it to her. 

She took a while to find as the address I had for her parents in 1943 from a SS-5 form was not where they were living in 1940.  After asking her for other recommendations (after all, she should totally know where she lived at age 4), I learned that Ancestry.com’s personal subscriptions have city directories that library subscriptions do not.  One 2 week trial later, I had an address: 87 Ullman, Buffalo, Erie Co., NY.  She is listed with her parents, William and Vera (Gress), her five sisters and her grandmother, Elizabeth (Fink) Gress.

Source:

1940 U.S. census, Erie County, New York, population schedule, Buffalo, enumeration district (ED) 64-472, sheet 12B, dwelling 87, family 257, Wm. H. Whitehead household; digital images, National Archives and Records Administration, 1940 Census (http://1940census.archives.gov : accessed 3 Apr 2012); citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm T627, roll 02837.

My main goal for the 1940 census was to find all of my grandparents, as this is the first time any of them were listed on a census record.

Grandparent number 3 (according to my pedigree chart) and the third one I found (after failing at finding grandparent #4) is my maternal grandfather, Robert Casell.  He took a bit longer to find than he should have, as I had The Evangelical Lutheran St. John’s Orphan Home where he lived as being on Mineral Springs Road in Buffalo, Erie Co., NY.  Turns out it was a town over, in West Seneca.  Once I had that knowledge he was tremendously easy to find, as the orphanage is written in the enumeration district descriptions.

He is listed as 9 years old, with his brothers Alfred and James.  Their sister Beatrice is located 2 sheets later as “Beatrice Cassel” (the list is broken down by male and female).

While talking to my mother and grandmother last night, they asked if I had found my great grandfather yet.  Since I had not looked, but was certain I could find it easily due to having the house address, I was on the search for Alfred Casell on South Division Street in Buffalo.

I was rather surprised when listed below Alfred were all four of his children!  I have read about other people finding their relatives in two or more places at once in the census, but I have never had this with my family (they were a stay-put kind of people), so this made me very excited.

How does this happen?  I know for a fact that my grandfather and his siblings were in the orphanage from 16 Oct 1939-26 Jun 1947, as I have the paperwork from the orphanage.  It is possible they were visiting home on 1 April 1940 (or the day the census taken arrived, if directions were not followed properly) and were therefore included in both.  According to the sheet, one of the people Alfred was renting space in the house to provided the information, so it is also possible that he did not understand the directions on the census or was unaware that the children had moved to an orphanage after their mother died.  They also may have been confused as to the permanent location of the children.  Either way, it is pretty cool to see my grandfather not once, but twice on the census.

Sources:

1940 U.S. census, Erie County, New York, population schedule, West Seneca, enumeration district (ED) 15-179, sheet 6A, p. 2898 (stamped), dwelling St. John’s Orphan Home, family (blank), Robert Casell; digital images, National Archives and Records Administration, 1940 Census (http://1940census.archives.gov : accessed 3 Apr 2012); citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm T627, roll 02532.

1940 U.S. census, Erie County, New York, population schedule, West Seneca, enumeration district (ED) 15-179, sheet 7A, p. 2898 (stamped), dwelling St. John’s Orphan Home, family (blank), Beatrice Cassel; digital images, National Archives and Records Administration, 1940 Census (http://1940census.archives.gov : accessed 3 Apr 2012); citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm T627, roll 02532.

1940 U.S. census, Erie County, New York, population schedule, Buffalo, enumeration district (ED) 64-60, sheet 15B, dwelling 469, family 240, Alfred M. Casell household; digital images, National Archives and Records Administration, 1940 Census (http://1940census.archives.gov : accessed 3 Apr 2012); citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm T627, roll 02824.

Mrs. R. Donald Coppola and Miss Dorothy H. Dehn, C.G., editors, Records of St. John’s Orphan Home 1865 – 1961 (Buffalo, New York: Abilgal Filmore Chapter, DAR, 1981), 20.

My main goal for the 1940 census was to find all of my grandparents, as this is the first time any of them were listed on a census record.

Grandparent number 2 (according to my pedigree chart), and the first that I found yesterday is my paternal grandmother, Agnes Nuwer.  She was 2 years old and living in a house of Westwood Road, Alden, Erie Co., NY, with her parents Albert and Edna (Roll), siblings Richard, Marilyn and Albert, Jr., and cousin Henry.  According to my Uncle Al, Henry was actually living with them as a paid farmhand, which shows why the earlier you become a genealogist the better, as I would have never known this otherwise. 

Three families before them, Albert’s parents, my great-great-grandparents, John and Anna (Zeapfel) Nuwer, are listed with their daughter Charlotte.

Sources:

1940 U.S. census, Erie County, New York, population schedule, Alden, enumeration district (ED) 15-2, sheet 1A, p. 115 (stamped), dwelling (blank), family 2, John Nuwer household; digital images, National Archives and Records Administration, 1940 Census (http://1940census.archives.gov : accessed 3 Apr 2012); citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm T627, roll 02526. 

1940 U.S. census, Erie County, New York, population schedule, Alden, enumeration district (ED) 15-2, sheet 1A, p. 115 (stamped), dwelling (blank), family 5, Albert Nuwer household; digital images, National Archives and Records Administration, 1940 Census (http://1940census.archives.gov : accessed 3 Apr 2012); citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm T627, roll 02526. 

After not being able to look at any images of the 1940 census yesterday, I made a lot of progress today, finding all 4 of my grandparents!  The fastest way I found to search the images was to download the entire enumeration district and then flip through it in Windows Live Photo Gallery.

Grandparent number 1 (according to my pedigree chart), and the second found today, is my paternal grandfather, Theodore Acquard.  In 1940 he was 6 and living on a farm on Alleghany Rd. Bennington, Wyoming Co., NY.  He is listed with his parents, Florian and Stella (Karpinski), younger brothers Daniel and Ronald, grandfather Joseph Acquard and uncle Walter Acquard.  His name is misspelled as “Theadore”.

Source: 1940 U.S. census, Wyoming County, New York, population schedule, Bennington, enumeration district (ED) 61-8, sheet 7B, dwelling (blank), family 150, Florian Acquard household; digital images, National Archives and Records Administration, 1940 Census (http://1940census.archives.gov/ : accessed 3 Apr 2012); citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm T627, roll 02816. 

The 1940 US census was released this morning! My plan was to look for my easy to find grandparents before work and then focus on the harder to find ones this evening. Hahahah… The demand on the archives.gov site meant that this was not possible, but I am hoping to be able to find everything tonight or tomorrow. Until then, I index!

Were you able to find your relatives on the 1940 census yet? Have you began helping with the indexing project?

After attending Family History Day, I had a list of sources to look for.  At the top of this list was checking to see if any of my ancestors would have been listed on a census mortality schedule.  My 4th great grandfather, John George Zeapfel died 17 Oct 1879 in Lancaster, Erie County, NY.  Searching for him on Ancestry did not yield any results, but reading mortality schedule did:

This shows he died of consumption and that there was not a doctor present at the time of his death.  It also gives his birthplace (Alsace, France), occupation (retired farmer) and marital status (widow).  Since NY state did not have death certificates this early in most cases, this is the only place to find some of this information.