My Excellent Newfoundland Adventure – Part 4

After our orientation at the Maritime History Archives and The Rooms, most participants spent the remainder of the first day conducting independent research at The Rooms.  Those who had prepared in advance and/or had a list of research goals, were able to hit the ground running and get a great deal accomplished.  In this regard if you are planning on making a trip to Newfoundland to conduct family history research, the following four tips should help you understand and make the best use of the research process:

1. Watch the online seminar entitled Researching Your Newfoundland Ancestors Part One, prepared by Judy Lucy of NEHGS   This presentation serves as a basic introduction and gives a bit of history and discusses research resources. I understand that a Part Two is in process, so be sure to check back at that site.
2. Review the research outline prepared by the Family History Library entitled Newfoundland Research Outline.  While this outline has not been updated recently, it does provide a good overview and you can check their Research Wiki or google any of the facilities mentioned for updated information.  You should be aware that Newfoundland was an independent British North American colony until 1949 and as a result research tips and suggestions referencing Canadian records are not applicable before 1949.
3. Download a copy of the Guide to Genealogical Material  in the Newfoundland & Labrador Collection prepared by the A.C. Hunter Public Library.
4. Find the region of Newfoundland where your ancestors settled and find out as much as you can from on-line resources (Wikipedia, Grand Bank’s, mapping the areas, and Google searches) as well as local library resources (use Worldcat to find brick and mortar facilities in your area that may have books of interest and check out Archives.org or Google Books for books that that are out of copyright and can be viewed online as well as snippets of books that are in copyright and can be viewed online and/or purchased for download). 

At the outset, researchers at The Rooms are required to apply for a registration number (a $10 fee and your registration is good for life).  The Rooms is an archive, which means that materials are maintained and retrieved by the staff.  Each day I filled out a form requesting the material I wanted to review and it was provided to me, one item/file at a time.  This is done so that materials are maintained properly and also to make more of the materials available to everyone.  Due to the nature of some of the materials, only pencils are allowed for manual transcription.  I was especially happy that I had brought my notebook computer as I found transcribing by hand very slow going indeed.  The Rooms has lockers (great for stashing your computer when you leave for lunch) and The Rooms Cafe is open during The Rooms hours of operation (great for a coffee break or a meal – the views are amazing).

The first and third day of the seminar, I reviewed the King’s Cove Roman Catholic Church records which consist of baptism and marriage records.  These records have been reviewed and partially transcribed and can be found at Grand Bank’s.  The first thing I noticed was that these records were photocopies of the church register, some pages had been copied out of order and others were duplicates.  The register was filled in by a number of parish priests over a long period of time and handwriting styles, spelling of surnames, and the amount of information added to each entry varied from priest to priest.  I did find that as time went by I became better able to decipher the handwriting, but if I had been limited to a few hours to review the information or if I had been unfamiliar with the surnames in the various communities, I would have easily mistaken the names of the various parties.  My research process consisted of determining if the entry was either for a surname or community I was interested in and, if so, entering the information into an Excel spreadsheet. 

As I mentioned in a previous post, the King’s Cove Register cannot be photocopied, however, finding your ancestor’s entry and transcribing the information is a thrill.  When I found my grandfather’s baptism entry (at the bottom of a page and rather hard to read) I noticed that a later entry had been added referencing his marriage to my grandmother in Cordova, Alaska.  It appeared that the priest performing a marriage (in another community, province, or country) oftentimes provided the information to King’s Cove parish.  I made a point to return to these records the following week during my post-seminar research.

Next time ~ The Maritime History Archives at MUN.

One of My Favorite Things – Microsoft Excel

As anyone in my family will tell you numbers are not my thing.  I think that is why I never had much use for Microsoft Excel in the past.  However, Excel has become “my new best friend!”  In my previous post I mentioned that I acquired a great deal of "raw data" or genealogy information while researching online sites and at the FHL.  Now I was in St. John's for a limited amount of time and I wanted to "fill in the blanks" and see if I could acquire additional raw data.

First, a little background.  The Rooms (PANL) does not allow researchers to photocopy church records and most of the vital records registers are on microfilm (there are no provisions for scanning microfilm records at PANL – I believe they allow photocopying of microfilm but I decided it would be easier and less expensive to transcribe the information). 

While I was at PANL and the Centre for Newfoundland Studies (CNS) I decided that I would make a point of transcribing the following:

1. King’s Cove Roman Catholic Baptism Records – this record appears to be maintained only at PANL and at the Archdiocese Archives at Grand Falls (which does not appear to be open to the public)
2. King’s Cove Roman Catholic Marriage Records – same as above
3. Newfoundland Vital Statistics - Birth Register, 1898-1923 (Books 4 - 13)
4. Newfoundland Vital Statistics - Marriage Register, 1922-1923 (Book 10)
5. Bonavista South Region – Voters’/Electors’ Lists – The 1928 Voters’ List is on-line at the Grand Bank's site, however there are several additional Voters’ Lists located at CNS and PANL.  While I was there I photographed the following Lists – 1890, 1900, 1928, 1932, 1946, 1948, 1955, 1962, 1966,  1972, 1975, 1978, 1985 and 1988.
6. Bonavista South Region - Directories - Various of the directories have been transcribed and are on-line at the Grand Bank's site, however, it was nice to be able to photograph the directories (included various advertisements) as well as photograph some of the more recent directories - 1877, 1956, 1959, 1964, and 2008. 

Each day I sat down at the microfilm reader with my notebook computer to read and transcribe the information.  This is where Excel came in to play.  A caveat - I was not all that familiar with using Excel for data entry of text but having played around a bit with the program, I have determined that it is a real timesaver (check out the on-line Microsoft Office tutorials to learn how to make the best use of Excel).  I took a look at each series of documents I planned to transcribe and determine how the information was entered in the document.  Next I made a worksheet for each document I planned to review.  For my purposes I set up the worksheet based on the order the information was presented in each document as it made it easier to input the information (with Excel you can always rearrange the columns after the fact). 

For instance, for the King’s Cove Baptism Records the church register tended to be in the following order:

Date – Child’s Name – Sex - Father’s Name – Mother’s Name – Place of Baptism – Sponsors – Priest – Additional Information

 An example of the data entered in from the Register

I entered the information on a worksheet for each volume, book or reel so that I would be able to write up a source citation for my work AND entered the information in individual cells so that it would be easy to work with later.  Additionally, I put all of the information from each individual worksheet into a summary worksheet, entitled “Sorting Reel” (the combined information for any series of records) and in this worksheet I added columns for RIN, MRIN, Notes, and Source (a reference to my scanned jpeg which enables me to cross-reference my genealogy program and my scanned documents).  The Notes column gave me a place to make any notations, for example - unclear spelling, notes included by the priests, prior marital status, thoughts on any potential relationship.

Once all the information is entered in Excel, it becomes a simple matter to use the sort and/or filter functions to zero in on information important to a particular researcher.  For example, having entered all of the information from the King’s Cove Baptism Records into Excel I am now able to search by surname and get all children of a particular couple, search by community, search by surname of either parent, spouse(s) and/or child (which I can confirm by searching through my marriage worksheet or my death worksheet). Now, when I work with my genealogy program, I am able to tell if I have included all marriage, birth, baptism, and death information (and cite to the appropriate records).  Additionally if a fellow researcher or potential relation contacts me, I can quickly find information that may be of interest or use to them.

My Sorting Reel Page – Sorted Alphabetically

As you have probably gathered, I am not only interested in my particular family but also the community and surrounding communities.  My grandfather left home at an early age and he died long before any family members became interested in genealogy.  We do not know where all of his relatives scattered and I have found that tracing my Keough family involves working backwards, forwards and sideways. As a result and due to the distance involved in Newfoundland research, I found the best use of my time to be acquiring as much information as possible from  all the research facilities available to me.  Entering all of the information into my Excel worksheets and my Legacy Family Tree database is definitely a work in progress!

Final Thoughts: 

1. If you do not use Windows and/or Microsoft Excel, there are several open source programs available to you, including Google docs Spreadsheet.
2. How do you organize your research information, what has or has not worked for you?

Next time ~ back to the Newfoundland Research Seminar.

My Excellent Newfoundland Adventure - Part 3

On Monday all the participants met up and went to The Rooms at PANL and the Maritime History Archives at MUN for orientations given by the Archivist at each facility. 

A view of The Rooms - PANL - A Great Place to Research!

A view from the inside of The Rooms 

PANL is an amazing purpose-built museum and archives overlooking St. John's.  The building was designed to resemble a fishing room and the views are spectacular.  The Rooms provides a comfortable, spacious and lovely area to conduct genealogy research.  The entire staff is friendly, helpful and willing to provide suggestions to assist with your research both at PANL and at other facilities located in St. John's.  Their website is very informative (be sure to check out their family history page) and a summary of their holdings is listed on-line.  You can get a head start on locating documents and microfilm by planning ahead and they can also assist with distance research.  If you are planning a research trip to St. John's, check out their website at The Rooms.

The Maritime History Archives - right on the MUN Campus

The Maritime History Archives is located in the basement of the Mathematics Building at MUN.  Although it does not have the grandeur of The Rooms, their Archivists and their holdings are outstanding.  Both the Ryan and the Matthews collections are maintained here (be sure to check out their digitized collections online) as well as student papers relating to numerous Newfoundland communities and families.  There are several indices to help you locate information.  Be sure to check out The Maritime History Archives.

During the remainder of the week, participants choose whether to research at PANL or MUN and were provided with transportation from the hotel to either site.  Some participants branched out on their own and went to the Crown Records Office, the Land Records Office, local churches, or the Centre for Newfoundland Studies (also on the MUN Campus).  During the week I focused on researching at PANL and the Maritimes History Archives.  I had a very good experience researching at both locations but I honestly think I would have had the same experience had I gone to St. John's on my own.  The City tour and the Whale Watch Puffin Boat tour were both very informative and enjoyable.  I do think that the City tour would have been better scheduled on the first day of our trip rather than the last day and it would have served as an ice-breaker of sorts among the participants.  I would definitely suggest that anyone going to St. John's take in a bus or walking tour to get a feel for the layout of City early on in their stay.

Next time ~