New Images: The Iowa State Census

Ancestry.com announced last week that they have digitized and indexed all of the "readily available" Iowa State census records between 1836 and 1925. Living in "next-door-neighbor" state Missouri, I thought that was good news. I knew I was bound to have the occasion to use this resource at one time or another. That occasion just came sooner than I thought!

I was contacted a few days ago by a researcher from Iowa who was studying the surname KUNZE, which is one of the collateral lines in my HACKMANN research. Not having spent much time on the Kunze line, I took a couple of days to get "up to speed." In the process, I found that some of the Kunze's had moved from Warren County, Missouri to Cass County, Iowa. This gave me my first reason to check out the new digital census images on Ancestry.com.

What a pleasant surprise this was! The first year that I needed was 1915. Expecting to see a typical census page with entries for multiple people, it was surprised to find it in the form of census cards...apparently one for each person. It contains all the usual information that you'd expect to find on the census: name, sex, race, age, birthplace, marital status, occupation, etc. There were a few additional details that I didn't expect. It asked for the total earnings for 1914, and the extent of education, breaking it down between "Common", "Grammar", "High School" and "College." One last item that is helpful from a genealogical standpoint is the question about "Church Affiliation." The answer is typically a denomination, but especially of the person in question is living in a small town, that information gives us a great clue as to where to look for any church records that might be helpful. The only downside I saw to this system is that you have to wait for each person's individual card image to load....it's not possible to look at a whole family at a glance like you can with the "ledger" style of census'. Still, it's a great resource to have.

Next I looked for this person in the 1925 census. What a goldmine! The depth of information provided on this census is unlike any other census I've ever seen. We're used to scrolling across one line on one page for information about one person. But on the 1925 Iowa state census, each person's line stretches across as many as three pages! In addition to the "usual" information collected on censuses you'll also find mother's maiden name and father's full name, their birthplaces and the year of their marriage. Although it's not unusual to find a question about military service, the 1925 census has columns for three wars: the Civil War, the Spanish American War, and the World War...and asks veterans not only which war they served in, but which branch of the service, and what state they enlisted or were drafted from. Great information!

I haven't had the time or the reason to check out the earlier Iowa state censuses yet....and although they aren't as complete as the 1915 ad 1925, it's great to have a resource to pinpoint your Iowans between the Federal censuses. If you have Iowa ancestors and access to Ancestry.com, either at home or through your library, I urge you to investigate this. It may open some previously closed doors.

Fun Genealogical Fiction: Torie O'Shea Mysteries

There are lots of fun "genealogy" based works of fiction out there, but my favorite is Rett MacPherson's series of "Torie O'Shea Mysteries." Torie O'Shea is a genealogist in a small predominantly German town in Missouri. She works at the local Historical Museum, and her genealogical activities usually have her on the hunt to solve various mysteries that crop up.

I enjoy the mild humor and the down to earth characters. In each book we find Torie, her husband and children, her wheelchair bound mother and the local sheriff, who is married to Torie's mom. There is also a great "supporting cast" of local friends and neighbors that carry over from book to book. As a heroine, Torie is likable, plucky and irreverent.

The picture that MacPherson paints of a small Missouri town of German heritage is very familiar to me. Although "New Kassel" is fictional, it could easily be based any of the typical little German towns that line the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers.

The list of Torie O'Shea Mysteries is getting longer:

1997 Family Skeletons

1998 A Veiled Antiquity

1999 A Comedy of Heirs

2000 A Misty Mourning

2002 Killing Cousins

2003 Blood Relations

2004 In Sheep's Clothing

2005 Thicker Than Water

2006 Dead Man Running

2007 Died in the Wool

I started with Family Skeletons, and have worked my way down the list. I just checked out Dead Man Running from my local library, and am looking forward to starting it. They are definitely light reading -- but I enjoy the genealogical references, and watching Torie use her research skills and resources to solve each mystery.

If you have any favorite genealogy-related fiction books, please leave your recommendations in the "Comments" section below.

Enjoy the books!

Deciphering "Old" German

One of my recent undertakings is working on my church's Historical Committee. The committee's job is to take the mostly disorganized records that have accumulated over the last 114 years and create a Church Archive. Since one of the original seven founders of the church was an ancestor of my husband, this has been more of a genealogical pleasure than a chore! I get a little thrill every time I open up a box of ledgers and find the entries full of familiar names.

As the original members of the church were the children of German immigrants, and they lived in a fairly isolated area, as a rule, they only spoke German. This continued until sometime during or shortly after the first World War. None of the volunteers in our group speak or read German, so trying to decipher enough of the early records to even figure out what they are has sometimes been a challenge! We tried copying down the words and then using a German/English dictionary to look them up, but the handwriting (although beautiful) was still difficult to read.

I recently stumbled across a website that has been very helpful! It's called Omniglot, and here is a link to their German (Deutsch) page. What I found so helpful about this site is that it gives examples of the various alphabet scripts that have been used in the German language over the years, with English equivalents. The "German handwriting" style used at that time was called Sutterlin script -- and although it somewhat resembles the English alphabet I grew up with, enough letters are different to make it a real challenge! Having a "key" to the letters has been a real boon. For instance, finding out that what we thought was a lower case "f" was really an "h" has made a big difference in our translation successes!

It would still be a lot easier if at least one of us on our committee could read German (one of us does have plans to take classes). We do have resources in our area, and someday we'll undoubtedly arrange to have someone transcribe the old German texts for us...but in the meantime, this website has helped us decipher enough to be able to catalogue the record books!

Happy Hunting!