It's Feb. 29th - Happy Leap Year Day!

c. 1908

Kia-ora Spaghetti Dinner for Lent

Yum....?

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Threat to the Social Securtiy Death Index

Fairfax Genealogical Society is sending out a

Call to Action:

THREAT TO THE SOCIAL SECURITY DEATH INDEX

Congress is considering legislation that could restrict the public's access to the Social Security Death Index. Researchers of history and genealogy must act quickly to oppose or amend the draft laws to protect legitimate access to vital statistics.

Currently, four bills are pending in the US Congress that would eliminate or curtail access to the Social Security Death Index on the Internet. These bills are:

              

• HR 3475, Keeping IDs Safe Act of 2011
  If enacted, this bill would effectively end public access to the death file
• S 1534, Identity Theft and Tax Fraud Prevention Act
  If enacted, this bill prohibits disclosure of the deceased's SSN in calendar year of death and calendar year following death
• HR 3482, To prevent identity theft and tax crimes
  If enacted, this bill prohibits disclosure of the deceased's SSN in calendar year of death and calendar year following death
• HR 3215, To prevent identity theft and tax fraud
  If enacted, this bill prohibits disclosure of the deceased's SSN in calendar year of death and calendar year following death

Why Genealogists Need the Social Security Death Index (SSDI) Genealogists support Congress's intent to protect Americans from improper usage of their personal information, and to protect them from identity theft. Rarely has it been documented that an individual's identity is violated by access to SSDI. Genealogists doing US research rely on the Social Security Death Index (SSDI). SSDI is a deterrent to identity theft. It prevents identity fraud, as it verifies a person's death. A study from May 2009 found that 13 million people are active researchers. Genealogy also is a serious profession. Genealogy assists in tracing family medical problems that are passed on from generation to generation. Genealogists work with coroners to find next of kin for the deceased. Genealogists work with military to locate relatives of soldiers who are still unaccounted for from past conflicts.

Contact Your Representatives in Congress Genealogists support Congress's intent to protect Americans from improper usage of their personal information, and to protect them from identity theft. U.S. Senators U.S. Representatives

The Great White Fleet

On this date in history 1909, The Great White Fleet returned to Norfolk, Virginia, from an around-the-world show of naval power.

The "Great White Fleet” sent around the world by President Theodore Roosevelt consisted of sixteen new battleships of the Atlantic Fleet. The battleships were painted stark white except for gilded scrollwork on their bows.
The fourteen-month long voyage was a grand show of American military sea power. The squadrons were manned by 14,000 sailors and made twenty port calls on six continents covering approximately 43,000 miles.

Search the names of over 14,000 sailors who sailed with the Great White Fleet

Gardening Old-world Style

In a May 24,1916, newspaper article, our Great-Grandmother Margaret (Busch) Welcheck's style of gardening has caught the eye
of gardeners as she entered the Cleveland Plain Dealer's annual
 Vacant Lot & Home Garden Contest .

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Finding a maiden name

Today I was able to locate the record of Robert Joseph Welcheck's first marriage.
We had learned of his first wife, Jennie, from the 1920 U.S. Fed. census giving her birth year of 1899 and marriage yr of c.1916.  Now know we have her maiden name of Soukup and date married as well as her birth date (as they made note of her 18th birthday for the marriage).

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Now she is no longer Jennie [wife of Robert J Welcheck] in my database; she is Jennie Soukup.

Nat Turner's 1830's Bible

This 1830's bible owned by Nat Turner is a gift from Maurice A. Person and Wendy Porter to the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture.
                  

Read the full Washington Post article:
Decendants of Va. family donate Nat Turner's Bible

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'The Shadow knows' - choose Blue Coal

c. March 1942

'Valentine Greetings' from Tangled Trees

Wishing you a special St.Valentine's Day!

Le Saint-Jean-Baptiste & Fille du Roi Jeanne Chevalier

    
The ship Le Saint-Jean-Baptiste captained by Pierre Guillebaud departed Dieppe at the end of June in 1671 with 120 girls.  Listed among the 104 Filles du roi from the Paris area and northern France was our ancestor:

 Jeanne CHEVALIER , de par. St_Jacques, v. Dieppe, Normandie.   

A normal crossing took two and a half months. The Le Saint-Jean-Baptiste  arrived in Montreal in August 1671.  Upon arrival the Filles du roi were entrusted to a woman, from France or the colony, who protected them and kept them under strict discipline until married where she would attend and sign as witness to the nuptial agreements.

"The St-Jean Baptiste" was a 295-300 barrel vessel. The dimensions of a boat of 300 barrels would have been 76 feet in length, 27.33 feet in width and 10.5 feet in depth if using George Fournier’s method which he described in his book, Hydrographie, published in 1643. This type of boat was called a galleon and could be armed if needed.


On its return to Dieppe on 10 January 1672, the vessel brought back from Nouvelle-France beaver skins, moose, stone, wood, pitch, and other rare items.


Jeanne Marguarite Chevalier is the 2nd of our ancestors to be listed as a passenger on this ship.

1716 Burial record for Jeanne Chevalier of Riviere-Ouelle, Quebec

Jeanne Chevalier was born c.1644 in Dieppe located in Normandy, France, the daughter of  Jean Alexander Chevalier and Marguerite Scorban.  Married three times, her parents are named differently in each record; so we also see her father listed as Jacques Chevalier and her mother as Marguerite Scoriman and later LeNormand.

Jeanne and her second husband, Robert Levesque, are our ancestors.
She died in Nov 1644 at the age of 72 and is buried in Riviere-Ouelle.
You can see written in the margin of her burial record a notation that states she was the 'widow of Robert Levesque'.

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Monument for Robert Levesque & Jeanne Chevalier of Quebec

While not a tombstone, this monument remembers ancestors 

 Robert & Jeanne (Chevalier) Levesque

(our 7th G-Grandparents).

 The granite monument is about six feet tall and is located in the section of the Rivière-Ouelle cemetery reserved for ancestral families.

 (Photo: Studio Photo Guy Duguay, La Pocatière, QC)

1892 Atlas of Cuyahoga County & Cleveland, Ohio

This 1892 atlas includes official maps, records, and surveys, including 52 plates for the City of Cleveland.  It also contains historical sketches, biographies and business references.  Use the link below to view the atlas courtesy of the Cleveland Public Library Digital Gallery.

Atlas of Cuyahoga County and Cleveland, Ohio (1892)

Cleveland Public Library map collection
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Support access to Virginia's Vital Records

As shared by the Fairfax Genealogical Society:

 The current policy of the Virginia Department of Health restricts access of the public to vital records.

The proposed VA Senate legislation, SB 660, would require that these records be turned over to the Library of Virginia and thus to the public. 

This legislation deserves our support. The letter below can serve as an excellent model to voice your support:

Dear Senators:

I urge you to support SB 660 to reform Virginia’s vital records system and join our neighbors in North Carolina and West Virginia in making public vital records more accessible to the public. Senator Blevins plans to offer a committee substitute which will make it clear that once vital records held by the Virginia Department of Health (“VDH”) are no longer

“closed” they must be turned over to the Library of Virginia (the Commonwealth’s archival agency) for access by researchers.

As an example of VDH’s position, the department said last year that it is still “studying” whether it should turn its 1853 – 1896 vital records over to the Library of Virginia. No other state agency refuses to turn over public records to the Library of Virginia for public access or tries to restrict copying of archival records. Virginia is a national leader in technology and online accessibility, but VDH has not yet received that message.

I am a long time resident of Virginia, a family history researcher, and a steadfast voter. I was born in Minnesota, but I am very proud of my ancestors’ roots in Virginia well before the Revolutionary War. Please support SB 660 to make these public records accessible for genealogical and historical research.

Please Support SB 660 Vital Records Reform

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Wordless Wednesday: Freshen up

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