Backpost 17 October 2008

I found the husband of Flora Rutter! The elusive Landry. For some unknown reason I never checked the 1900 US Federal Census. I have update their pages, so go look.

Backpost 2 August 2008

I attended the Southern California Genealogy Jamboree last month. One of the booths was for Genline, a Swedish records search engine. I have Swedish ancestors, so it's great! Since Sweden hasn't been invaded since the 1400s nor fought a large scale war on its soil, all their church records are intact. And records they have-every year the parish (church) took a census. They also have the usual birth, death, and marriage records, as well as "move in/move out" which tracked when and where people can from. The program is great except for the fees (some things are free) and the fact that it's all in Swedish. The search engine is English, but none of the records are translated. There are a few Swedish-English dictionaries online, but none are complete. Does anyone know how to read Swedish?

Backpost 10 April 2008

Cyndi's List for the win. I was unable to find the symbol on Katherine Cole Shaw's grave marker through Google (I searched different combination of the letters). Through Cyndi's List I found a link for old organizations in the U.S. There was the information I needed. FECMU stands for Faith, Endurance, Courage, Modesty, and Unselfishness. It is the motto for the Royal Neighbors of America, the women's auxiliary for the Modern Woodmen of America, which her husband was a member.

Backpost 15 March 2008

My grgrgr-grandfather, Alonzo John Rutter, fought in the Civil War. I know he had health problems from his service due to the 1890 Veteran's Census and his death certificate. However, according to Ancestry.com's Civil War Pension Index, he never filed for a pension. I was playing around on a new (for me) site, Footnote.com. Low and behold, Alonzo did receive a government pension! I like Footnote because you can buy individual records rather than pay for a yearly subscription. So now I have Alonzo's pension index card, and have sent away to NARA for his pension file.

Backpost 24 January 2008

Recently I visited the grave of my grgr-grandfather, James Elzra Shaw, for the first time. On his stone was a symbol I had never seen before. His wife, Katherine, who is buried next to him, also had a symbol on her stone. I tried Google searching both acronyms, but came up with nothing. Today I was flipping through a 1900 Sears Roebuck catalog I have and came to the fraternity jewelry section. There was the symbol I could not find! It turns out James belonged to the Modern Woodmen of America. I still have yet to identify Katherine's symbol. If you recognize it, please e-mail me. The point of my story: you never know where or when you might come across a bit of information, so keep your eyes open!