52 Weeks to Better Genealogy: Family Search Pilot

Week 10's task (developed by my friend Amy of We Tree and hosted by Geneabloggers.com) was: Investigate Family Search Pilot, which is part of FamilySearch.org. This is a wonderful collection of records which literally grows every day. In the middle left of the page is a link that says “Browse our record collections.” Click it and pick a region. Search collections outside your research interest. Investigate the types of records collected all over the world and see how they differ from those with which you are familiar. If you are a genealogy blogger, pick a type of record from another country and share your observations about it.

I took a look at the information from Germany, but was not successful in finding anything - I have had more luck with the regular Family Search International Genealogical Index.

Under the Canada, USA, and Mexico region, my eyes were immediately drawn to the red-starred (new or updated!) Illinois, Cook County Birth Certificates Collection, 1878-1922. Since I have LOTS of ancestors born in Cook County (and I was too), I checked this one out!

I found birth certificates for my great uncle Lee Pape and great aunt Rhea Pape, but not my paternal grandfather or his other four siblings, despite the time period being correct. However, it is a work in progress, so I'll keep checking. I also found birth certificates for five of the six children born to August S. and Emma Pape Childs, as well as the marriage certificate for the latter two in the Illinois, Cook County Marriages, 1871 - 1920 collection. I'm hoping the information on these will help me eventually figure out just how Emma (who gave Great Aunt Martha Pape Bleidt a photo of my great-great-grandparents) is related in the family.

I also found a birth certificate for a Joseph Dienes, the tenth (and previously unknown to us) child of great-great-grandparents Frederick and Regina Matthias Dienes. He was stillborn on May 13, 1880, and with this information I also found him on the 1880 US Census Mortality Schedule in Ancestry.com.

There are a lot of other records in here I'd like to explore, including Louisiana Deaths 1850-1875 & 1894-1954, Texas Deaths 1890-1976, and llinois, Diocese of Belleville, Catholic Parish Records, 1729-1956 (this is where the Matheis family, who were Catholics, lived in the 1850s, and I may be able to find Illinois Governor William Henry Bissell's baptism in these records as well).

I'm so thrilled with this collection that I signed up to be an indexer. I think everyone researching family history should give this a try. For one thing, it will give you an appreciation of the difficulties in reading poor handwriting and faded documents, and perhaps more patience when you have difficulty finding records because of how they were indexed.

© Amanda Pape - 2010

Surname Saturday: MATHEIS

Valentine (appropriate this weekend!) Matheis, a great-great-great-grandfather on my father's side, came to the United States from Bavaria, Germany, on the ship Harmonie, which sailed from Le Havre, France and arrived in New Orleans on November 7, 1848. The ship's manifest shows a Mathis [sic] family with Valentine, age 40, Catherine [Rheinhold], age 40, Leonard [aka John], 3, and Valentine, 1/4. The next family listed on the manifest was a Katzenmeyer family, Shely, 55, Levita or Sevita, 22, Wilhelm, 16, Joseph, 9, Barbera,8, Regine, 10, and Catherine, 3. Regine [Regina] and Catherine are actually Matheis kids, probably becoming friends with little Barbera Katzenmeyer on the 55-day voyage and being mistakenly listed as part of her family.

Unfortunately Valentine's wife Catherine died, apparently in 1849, as the 1850 census lists Valentine as a widower. He and the four children are living with fellow German cabinet-maker John Egly, his wife Anna, and their children Peter, Celia, and Detleff, in Centreville Township, St. Clair County, Illinois.

Sadly, Valentine passed away in 1854. St. Clair County records showed that, in Belleville on August 13, 1855, "Regina Matheis, Catherine Matheis, Leonard Matheis & Valentine Matheis, his minor heirs," were put under the guardianship of a Peter Diehl. Regina, my great-great-grandmother, born August 17, 1837 in Bavaria, would have been just about to turn 18.

Peter Diehl and his family are still living in St. Clair County on the 1860 census, but the Matheis kids are now gone. Where are they? Stay tuned to find out...

© Amanda Pape - 2010