Sunday, August 21, 2011

Footnote becomes Military Records Site

Image representing Footnote as depicted in Cru...Image via CrunchBaseI just received the email yesterday -  Footnote is changing its name to fold3.  Its new focus will be "offering the finest and most comprehensive collection of U.S. Military records available on the internet."  I about had a heart attack while simultaneously leaping for joy when I read those words.  What would happen to the records that were not related to the U.S. military?  I was relieved to read those records would remain on the new site.

My Norwegian ancestors were not much for wars, but by God if there was a war the U.S. was involved in, my Nussbergers and Butterfields weren't going to let it pass them by - even if they had to lie about their ages at the time of enlistment.  Some of them were eventually caught and kicked out of service, but most of these just joined a different unit and returned to battle.  Tenacious?  Yes.  Foolhardy?  Maybe... but they survived.

I can't wait to check out the new site!



Footnote is now Fold3
http://www.fold3.com/?xid=19
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Friday, October 9, 2009

New Discoveries in the Butterfield Diaspora

Judge in chambers swearing in a new citizen, N...
Most of us have skeletons somewhere in our genealogical closet.  Not that I am saying the kin mentioned in this post are skeletons in my closet.  One or two of them might have been skeletons in my ancestors' closets, however.

Many years ago, I was told by a psychiatrist he had found an "aunt" on my mother's side of the family who had been institutionalized for schizophrenia.  Naturally, I assumed he meant one of my mother's aunts and, for some reason, I assumed the "aunt" was one of my maternal grandmother's sisters.  Perhaps because my mother is always talking about how "insane" my grandmother was?

Well, I did find a relative in my family tree who was institutionalized, but she was not an aunt... more like a great aunt of my mother's.  I do not know why she was institutionalized.  I only know that she was institutionalized until the day she died.  The woman was my great grandmother's sister, Alice Edna Butterfield, my maternal grandfather's aunt.

I believe I have written about Alice Edna Butterfield before.  I am writing again because I found more information on this branch of the tree.  Alice married a man named Peter John Thue on 31 December 1900 and, so far as I know, her first children were a set of male twins named Curtis and Deward.  Peter John Thue was Norwegian, so we have a Norwegian line even on the German/English side of the family.  They are, of course, not directly related, but are cousins nonetheless and having experience researching my own direct Norwegian lines throughout Norway, I researched a bit of the Thue lines as well.  (No, I have not found any insanity.)

Curtis Thue married twice, both times to women of foreign birth.  His first marriage was to Dolores Medina, who was born in San Juan de Lagos, Jalisco, Mexico in 1912, came legally to the U.S. in the 1920's, became a U.S. citizen in the 1930's and died 19 December 1942 in Los Angeles, California.  Dolores had at least one child with Curtis Thue, so we have cousins with Mexican and, I am guessing, Spanish, heritage.  The fun part is that I get to learn how to do research in Mexico.  Fortunately, I already read Mexican Spanish and I speak Spanish, although not fluently, as well.  I do not expect to have an easy time of it, however, as I have seen old Spanish documents dating back to the time of the Missions and they are not the easiest things in the world to read, but I know I'll get through it because I also read German gothic script and if you can read that, you can learn to read just about anything!

Curtis Thue married a second time to a Lebanese woman, whose name I will not mention because she may still be alive.  I suspect they may have married in Lebanon, but in any case, if they had issue, we have cousins from the Middle East as well.

Before anyone sends me nasty grams, let me note that I do not consider having Mexican or Middle Eastern branches in the family tree a "skeleton in the closet."  In fact, I was delighted to find these branches of the tree because it illustrates how diverse one individual's heritage can be and if the knowledge that you might not be who you think you are doesn't deter racism, hatred, fear and prejudice, you are a lost soul indeed.  It should at least make you think twice before succumbing to knee-jerk reactions.


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Friday, June 26, 2009

I'm Keeping the Connection in Spite of all

After researching the whereabouts of Valentin Neuhardt and his family members and discovering their Ohio connections, I now believe my third great grandfather, Frederick Neihardt/Neuhardt, is not the son of Valentin Neuhardt and Catherine Schneider.  There was another Frederick Neuhardt, who lived in Ohio and better fits the profile of Catherine Schneider and Valentin Neuhardt's son.  Ohio Frederick's tree is listed in Ancestry member SueMeister223's Susan Rae Green Family Tree .

You see, Ohio Frederick has a much better claim to the Catherine Schneider/Valentin Neuhardt family than my Minnesota Frederick.

In spite of the error, I intend to keep Catherine Schneider and Valentin Neuhardt listed as Frederick Neihardt's parents until I figure out what to do with these "former ancestors."  I found valuable information regarding this family's immigration to the United States that does not appear to be listed on the other member trees on the Ancestry web site.  Either the tree owners are unaware of the information or they are aware of it and have not posted it to their trees for one reason or another.  Perhaps the information I attached to them will be of some service to those who truly are descendants of Catherine Schneider and Valentin Neuhardt.
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Thursday, June 25, 2009

Neihardt Civil War Pension Records

A :en:Roman Catholic :en:chaplain ministering ...Image via Wikipedia
I found Frederick Neihardt in the Civil War Pension Index:  General Index to Pension Files, 1861-1934 on the Ancestry web site.  I know he is my Frederick Neihardt because his widow, Elizabeth, is listed on the index card.  I also discovered my ancestor spelled his name "Niehardt" on the rare occasion, but, it would seem, his preferred spelling of the family name was "Neihardt."

I found Frederick Neihardt in the NARA T289 pension applications for service in the US Army between 1861 and 1917 on Footnote's web site and, there, I found his death date - 22 April 1872.  He died in "Hutcheson," Mcleod, Minnesota.  More evidence pointing to the probability Frederick Neihardt, the soldier, is my ancestor, Frederick Neihardt.  The application numbers listed on the Ancestry document and both Footnote documents match, so all three documents refer to the same soldier.

All three pension file records provide important and useful information about my third great grandfather, Frederick Neihardt.  Now to visit the NARA web site and pay the $75.00 for the full pension file and the $25.00 for the military file...
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Wednesday, June 24, 2009

after...


Revision Two.  Here is the same photo, completely revised in Photoshop Elements with the color cast removed.  Whereas Gaussian Blur was applied in the previous revision in GIMP, only Lens Blur was applied in Revision Two.  Yes, layers and multiply were again used.  I think I prefer this version of the photo... or, at least, I prefer Lens Blur to Gaussian Blur.  My opinion has nothing to do with the programs themselves.  Only technique.
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After...

Revision One.  I employed layers and "multiply" in GIMP to bring out the details.  Then, just because I could, I opened the image in Adobe Photoshop Elements and applied yet another layer of sharpening under the enhance menu with remove lens blur selected because I was not satisfied with the print quality.  I created three different sizes of this photo - 4X6, 5X7, and 8X10 - in Adobe Photoshop Elements and selected resample option bicubic smoothing because I was enlarging a nearly thumbprint sized photo.  Print quality was much improved.  Wish I had Genuine Fractals 6!

Before...

This is an image entitled "G-ma butterfield's house" my uncle sent me.  The "G-ma butterfield" referred to is Caroline (Harrington) Butterfield (1850-1936).  The identities of the individuals who are the subjects of this photo are unknown.  The photo appears, to me, to have been taken in the 1930's, judging by the clothing worn.  However, I am far from an expert on dating photos...