Mozley-Van Natta article in Minnesota Genealogist

My great-great-grandfather-in-law probably didn't make many Baptist converts during his time in Green Lake County, Wisconsin (1846-1877), but he kept at it until his death there at age 55.

He and Elizabeth Van Natta had seven children. Two daughters and two sons have descendants. Their eighteen grandchildren divided into three roughly equal groups: farmers and blue-collar workers; white-collar workers from clerk to chemist; and -- lest we forget -- those who died young. Thanks to generations of careful family members we have several of his and Elizabeth's letters.

They gave their youngest son the middle name "Fremont" in 1862, which likely refers to John Charles Fremont, the famous explorer of the Far West, first major-party Presidential candidate to oppose slavery (1856), and an impetuous if not insubordinate officer in the Mexican War and the Civil War. A daughter was named after a then-famous Baptist missionary who died young overseas, Harriet Newell.

Thanks to Minnesota Genealogist co-editors J. H. Fonkert, CG, and Elizabeth Gomoll for accepting, editing, and publishing this article. Eventually portions of it will fit into a book on the family starting with Rev. Thomas's grandparents in England and including a first-hand account of their emigration from England in 1833.




“Midwest Migrations of Rev. Thomas and Elizabeth (Van Natta) Mozley and Allied Families of Pennsylvania and Wisconsin,” Minnesota Genealogist 48 (Winter 2017): 14-26.

Good lessons in NGS Magazine April-June 2012

You could get a darn good genealogical education just by reading every issue of the National Genealogical Society Magazine for a few years. The lessons are readable, bite-size, and engaging. This quarter, four how-to pieces stood out for me:

* Debbie Mieszala on plagiarism and how not to commit it. BTW, although I have heard rumblings to the contrary, there is NOTHING about blogging that makes plagiarism either necessary or acceptable. By linking as well as giving credit, bloggers can if anything credit their sources more easily than pen-and-paper writers can.

* J. H. Fonkert on using newspapers to (almost literally) bring an ancestor back to life. His own grandfather provides the example. I wanted to say that this works best when the ancestor is engaged in work that actually appears in the newspaper, but we won't know until we look!

* Kathy Petlewski on immigration research, a very helpful piece with a sequel promised. I especially appreciated the discussion of oft-neglected ports of entry Galveston and New Orleans. One point I would add: the several "waves" of immigration in US history have had their roots in politics. Going back to the presidency of John Adams, changing tides of political opinion (including episodes of fear and racism) have changed the immigration laws and often determined when a "wave" of immigration began and ended. (Those waves in the pool where we research aren't natural, dude. There's a wave machine out there.)

* Patricia Walls Stamm with a solid article on research planning. I appreciate these, because this is something I struggle with on a daily basis.

I also enjoyed records-oriented pieces by Claire Prechtel-Kluskens (did you know there may be Compiled Military Service Records for your Civil War ancestor that did not get filed in his "jacket"? and how to find them?), Bryna O'Sullivan on using Confederate pension applications in African-American genealogy, and Harold Hinds on autograph books, yet another underused genealogical resource.

This magazine alone is worth NGS's annual dues -- and as readers here know, NGS offers many other benefits as well!



All in NGS Magazine, vol. 38, no. 2 (April-June 2012):
Debbie Mieszala, "Stop, thief! A plagiarism primer," 17-20.
J. H. Fonkert, "The threshing engine: Newspapers breathe life into a photo," 25-31.
Kathy Petlewski, "Reference Desk: An overview of immigration records," 48-53.
Patricia Walls Stamm, "Targeted Research Plans," 44-47.

Harold Henderson, "Good lessons in NGS Magazine April-June 2012," Midwestern Microhistory: A Genealogy Blog, posted 21 May 2012 (http://midwesternmicrohistory.blogspot.com : accessed [access date]). [Please feel free to link to the specific post if you prefer.]

Midwesterners aplenty in September NGSQ

Three of the five main articles in the current National Genealogical Society Quarterly feature Midwesterners.

* The issue's premier logical puzzle -- "Finding a Man's Past Through His Children: Four Wives of John C. Fawkner of Kentucky and Indiana" -- is J. H. Fonkert's 20-page romp through indirect evidence tracking Fawkner through four marriages from Orange County, Virginia, to Kentucky and finally to Hendricks County, Indiana.

* Lynne Fisher correlates incomplete records to identify the Baden origins of Ludwig Fischer (1809-1875) of Wayne County, Michigan, and Cook County, Illinois.

* Ruth Randall tracks escaped slaves Washington and Lewis Giboney from Cape Girardeau County, Missouri, to Berrien County, Michigan . . . and back again.

Midwesterners in NGS Magazine January-March issue

If you're hungry for Midwestern genealogy, the current issue of the National Genealogical Society's NGS Magazine has four treats for you:

(1) Jennifer Holik-Urban's story on her WWI great-great uncle Michael Kokoska, who died in France but was eventually laid to rest in his family's plot in Bohemian National Cemetery in Chicago;

(2) Nancy Neils Wehner's story on tracing her WWII Navy grandfather, who enlisted in Omaha, trained near Chicago, and was finally assigned to Tank Ship LST-599 in Evansville (Indiana);

(3) Cari A. Taplin on her northwestern Ohio Sly family's "relationship" to the southern Ohio Slye family of TV cowboy Roy Rogers; and

(4) a bouquet of identity-determination case studies ranging over several states from Minnesota's J. H. Fonkert, CG.