The treasure of Jasper County -- 1918 women's registration!

As part of the national mobilization for World War I, in April 1918 thousands -- perhaps millions -- of American women filled out cards giving their names, ages, birth countries, marital status and husband's name if any, employment if any, educational level, skills, and detailed health status. All this was done under the auspices of the quasi-governmental Council of National Defense.

In Jasper County, Indiana (population under 14,000), more than 3,200 of these cards were preserved. According to Sue Caldwell, the Indiana Genealogical Society's county genealogist for the county, a cabinet was specifically designed to hold them. The cabinet resided in the Rensselaer courthouse for years

"prior to being given to the Jasper County Historical Society for display in their museum. Unfortunately, the members looked on the old cabinet as a treasure to be displayed and for many years didn’t recognize the value of the contents. It is not known what other counties did with their cabinets or registration cards. Research is continuing to locate the balance of Indiana’s registration records."

 Above is the front side of one of the Jasper County cards, for 66-year-old Miss Elizabeth E. Alexandera of Kniman, who was knowledgeable about dairying, gardening, poultry raising, cooking, housekeeping, and sewing and millinery. (The back had room for remarks and health issues.) The historical society has indexed the cards by name, husband, and address, but the index is not yet on line. Plans for analyzing and imaging the cards are afoot.

Caldwell notes that

"Fields were provided for age, country of birth, country of naturalization, color or race, persons dependent upon them, present occupation and by whom employed, education level completed and details on advanced education, and the type of business experience and training broken down into 154 different categories. Women could volunteer to be trained in some categories such as making bandages for the Red Cross. Comments were to be made on the 'Personal Equipment' of the woman including health, physical defects, voice, sight, and hearing."

Jasper County is big enough to have a historical society, and small enough that these days the society is open just six hours a month. These cards are not known to have survived in any other Indiana county, nor had the state archives staff ever seen one. Says Caldwell, "These cards could be the greatest genealogical find of the last hundred years if cards from all of the states could be located. No other survey contains the mass of data about women that the registration cards do."

A seemingly well-documented Wikipedia article surveys the CND's history and refers to a 1984 scholarly book by William N. Breen, Uncle Sam at Home: Civilian Mobilization, Wartime Federalism, and the Council of National Defense, 1917-1919, available in numerous college and university libraries. A quick Google search reveals that many states do have records of the Council for National Defense in their archives. It's not clear whether any of them include any of these registration cards. The agency also appears in National Archives Record Group 62.

If nothing else the cards offer brief glimpses of life 95 years ago:

Mary Prohosky (Mrs. J) “cannot talk English and is not able to do hour work. Went to school in the old country and is not the same in here.”

Miss Nettie J Ellis had a Dayton, Ohio address, but was serving as acting principal at Monnett School.

Belle Warne’s card noted “This woman is physical unable to do anything and has six children under eight”.

Julie Nafziners was “born in France, naturalized US, 4 yrs experience in a post office and 4 yrs experience as a bookkeeper”. She also attended Onarga Seminary.

Stella Newbold has “14 yrs experience in teaching music, but health has failed since injured in tornado”.

Olden Ouida has “2 ½ yrs in Mexico—knows some Spanish, 2 yrs work under Kate J Adams of Coulter House Chicago. Can use typewriter. Has travelled all over U. S. capable, reliable, has ability (executive ability)”.

Almira Prather completed a card but disclaimed any responsibility for the war work because she didn’t start the war.

Anyone with thoughts -- or better still, knowledge -- about these cards and where any more like them may be found, inside or outside of Indiana, please comment below, or communicate with Sue Caldwell at suecald1 "AT" embarqmail "DOT" com.
.


Harold Henderson, "The treasure of Jasper County -- 1918 women's registration!," Midwestern Microhistory: A Genealogy Blog, posted 17 April 2013 (http://midwesternmicrohistory.blogspot.com : accessed [access date]). [Please feel free to link to the specific post if you prefer.]

Some Good Words for Ancestry in General and Ancestry Trees in Particular

Eight years ago I was searching, as hard as I knew how, for one of my granddaughter's great-great grandfathers. From his approximate birthdate in the 1920 census, I knew he should be in the WWI draft registrations . . . but I didn't know where. At that time I used a genealogy database, and with unusual faithfulness at the time I entered the following:

. . . did not register for the WWI draft in Atlanta, Georgia; Tuscaloosa, Alabama; or Mayes, Carter, Cherokee, Muskogee, Tulsa, or Wagoner counties, Oklahoma (including the cities of Tulsa and Muskogee).

I conducted this search in August 2004 at the Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center, using (if memory serves) the best available interface: a card catalog file of registrants organized geographically by draft board. It took a while. (Now I wish I had a picture of it!)

Recently I picked up this thread and quickly found him in Ancestry's on-line index -- he was in a different Oklahoma county, with a fairly informative draft card as these things go.

In addition, I was alerted to some information on a public user tree on Ancestry. Not only had the tree owner found information we didn't have, s/he had post images of the sources they used as well. These were derivative sources but they were a good start, especially given that they named said great-great grandfather's father!

Many of us complain regularly about both Ancestry the megabusiness and the often dubious contributors to public family trees. But we should also keep those complaints in perspective: compared to what alternative?



Harold Henderson, "Some Good Words for Ancestry in General and Ancestry Trees in Particular," Midwestern Microhistory: A Genealogy Blog, posted 4 January 2013 (http://midwesternmicrohistory.blogspot.com : accessed [access date]). [Please feel free to link to the specific post if you prefer.]

Hidden in plain sight: Indiana Historical Society manuscripts

As a member of the Indiana Historical Society, every other month I get a newsletter, INPerspective, in the postal mail from the society. I always turn to the page near the back full of fine print that says, "New in Collections and Library," and look at the manuscript collections that have recently been "processed, cataloged and made available for research," as we say in archive world.

In the May/June issue, my eye fell on "Martindale Family Papers, 1839 to 1948," IHS collection M 1026. I went to the "Manuscripts and Visual Collections" page and then to the on-line finding aid for this collection. Hello, any researchers in Warren County? That was the home base for this family. The bulk of the collection is financial papers and accounts for their farm and business operations, but also some World War I information, including "a panoramic photograph of the all black 317th Trench Mortar Battalion, 92nd Division taken upon their return home."

At this point I took a look at a nearby collection in the M's: "Methodist Episcopal Church Cicero Circuit Records 1845-1861," IHS Collection SC 2553. Of course it helps to know stuff, like where Cicero is. This collection consists of just one notebook, about the circuit centered in Jackson Township, Hamilton County, Indiana: "Minutes are largely concerned with the licensing of preachers and exhorters. In other sections of the book are a list of members; marriages 1845-1849; baptisms 1847-1848; and genealogical records of the Bowman and Gipps (Kipps) families." Anybody got a mid-19th-century brick wall in Hamilton County?

The point? You never know until you look. It's true for books, web sites, and most of all archives.

Note: Many of the collections listed on the IHS web site don't have on-line finding aids. Do yourself a favor and stop by their actual building soon (Tuesday-Saturday). It's also the best parking deal in downtown Indy.


Harold Henderson, "Hidden in plain sight: Indiana Historical Society manuscripts," Midwestern Microhistory: A Genealogy Blog, posted 25 May 2012 (http://midwesternmicrohistory.blogspot.com : accessed [access date]). [Please feel free to link to the specific post if you prefer.]

Madison County Harvest in Illinois

From southwestern Illinois, Illinois Harvest has recently digitized the following:

Hair, James T. Gazetteer of Madison County. Alton: James T.Hair, 1866. 292 pages.

History of Madison County, Illinois. Edwardsville: W. R. Brink & Co., 1882. 600+ pages.

Zimmermann, Henry W. His Story of Bethalto. Bethalto: [s.n.], 1921. 282 pages. Detailed accounts of local soldiers in World War I.

Flagg, James S. Our 150 Years, Madison County, Illinois, 1812-1962. Edwardsville: East 10 Publishing, 1962. 64 pages.

March OGSQ

By the table of contents, the new issue of the Ohio Genealogical Society Quarterly has 20 articles! Here are some of the more substantial ones:

"Ohio Hospital for Epileptics, Gallipolis, Gallia County," by Jean Overmeier Nathan [access to its records at the Ohio Historical Society are extremely limited, but at least the 1900 census of its residents is public]

"William Justice Burgenmeyer, Butler County," by Calvin Burgenmeyer

"1900 and 1901 Deaths in Cincinnati, Ohio, with Burials Outside of Hamilton County," by Kenny R. Burck, Doris Thomason, and Kay M. Ryan

"The Perrysburg Journal 1855 Extractions," by Lolita Thayer Guthrie [Wood County]

"Paulding County Soldiers," by Terri Gorney [clippings from the Paulding Democrat in 1918]

"A Section of the Rural Directory of Sandusky County, Ohio," by Jean Overmeier Nathan

"Ohioans on the Move: Biographical Record and Portrait Album of Tippecanoe County, Indiana Part II," by Jean Overmeier Nathan

War is hell

J. Mark Lowe, CG, of Robertson County, Tennessee, came just far enough north this weekend to touch the tippy-toe of the Midwest -- he gave four informative and engaging lectures at yesterday's Indiana Genealogical Society's 2008 annual meeting in Evansville. (He also blogs occasionally at Keeping The Story Alive.)

If you left early, you missed his most hard-core talk, on World War I records. Years ago he interviewed 44 WWI veterans in his area about their experiences. When asked about their experiences in that war, almost every one began by saying words to this effect: "I've done everything I could in my life to forget it."