Censuses Good For Serendipity

On my last trip to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, I solved a genealogy problem that has plagued royal researchers for years.

I discovered Queen Victoria was a 1-year-old child of William and Mary Phillips, living in Troup County, Ga, in 1870! And there was her older sister, Anna, who later married the King of Siam!

Of course, this is a joke, but it surely is fun reading old censuses. There really was a 1-year-old child named Queen Victoria on the 1870 Georgia census, but I highly doubt it was the Queen Victoria. Didn’t our ancestors have some interesting names!

Another tip I picked up - this one much more valuable - was to check the Leonardo Andrea Collection when seeking ancestors in North and South Carolina and Georgia.

Seems Mr. Andrea had a passion collecting information on families in these states and spent his lifetime doing just that. His collection of 188 family folders was microfilmed in 1974. Also filmed was his genealogical correspondence on these families - 21 rolls of film!

Look under “South Carolina - Genealogy” in the FamilySearch computer catalog at the Family History Center to check this listing for your names. Good luck!

In a previous column, I told about the large collection of English parish register books acquired by the Hayden Lake (Idaho) Library. While there, I randomly selected a book from the shelf and read about burial customs in England’s parish of Howden in 1659.

It seems the parish had set burial fees: fees for burial in the church, in the churchyard, with a coffin and without a coffin. In-the-church fees had more categories: “to ye M., to ye Cl., to ye Saxt.,” whatever that meant, and “in ye chancell,” doubled the cost. And this: Fee for burial “under and above seaven years.” Guess which fee was higher?

The January Reader’s Digest carried an article titled “Johnson’s List.” This powerful story told how Wayne Johnnie Johnson, now 57, survived years of brutal imprisonment in a North Korean camp during the Korean War.

His “list” was a roster of 496 men who died in that camp or on the march along the Yalu River; 496 men whose death date and place might never have otherwise been known to their families.

This article makes us realize it isn’t always 19th century dates and places that were missing as we dig for family information. How many blank spaces on pedigree charts were finally filled, thanks to one brave man? How many such lists are still hiding out there somewhere?

James L. Hansen, head reference librarian for the Historical Society of Wisconsin in Madison, will be the featured speaker at the Eastern Washington Genealogical Society’s Spring Seminar, April 12, at Cavanaugh’s Inn at the Park.

His topics will be “Researching in the States of the Old Northwest (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin),” “The Draper Manuscripts (a collection of original records from the Revolutionary War concerning the Old Northwest Territory),” “Research in Territorial Records” and “Getting Around the Lost 1890 Census.”

Registration is 8:30 a.m. Cost, $30 for EWGS members ($35 for nonmembers) includes handouts and lunch. Send your check to EWGS, P.O. Box 1826, Spokane, WA 99210. Include your EWGS dues of $20 and take the member price.

, DataTimes MEMO: Donna Potter Phillips welcomes letters from readers. Write to her at The Spokesman-Review, Features Department, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210. For a response, please include a self-addressed, stamped envelope.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Donna Potter Phillips The Spokesman-Review