Tag Archives: Genealogical Societies

Jans Family Uses Genealogy to Pursue 300-Year Land Claim

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The family of Anneke Jans has been pursuing a genealogy project for over 300 years.

During all this time the family has been working hard to track down every single one of Jans’s descendants.

They are doing this not so much from a love for family history—but rather, to sort out the heirs to a contested land grant that was given to Jans by Britain’s Queen Anne in 1697!

collage of newspaper clippings about the 300-year land claim pursued by descendants of Anneke Jans

Collage of newspaper clippings about the 300-year land claim pursued by descendants of Anneke Jans

These three newspaper clippings from GenealogyBank’s historical newspaper archives help tell this unusual genealogy story.

The historical newspaper article on the right outlines the disputed property. It was published in the Cabinet (New York City, New York), 14 August 1833, page 3.

In 1888 the family intensified their efforts by organizing an unusually-named genealogical society, the “Anneke Jans Bogardus Literary Association,” which gathered all of the genealogical records of the family to help them properly document the descendents of the family.

The old newspaper article on the left reports on this incorporated genealogical association. It was published in the Evening Repository (Canton, Ohio), 20 June 1888, page 6.

Almost one hundred years later a descendant, William Brower Bogardus, placed a notice in a Texas newspaper announcing that he “has extensive collections” of records on the descendants of Anneka Jans Bogardus. That notice was published in the Dallas Morning News (Dallas, Texas), 20 October 1983, page 50-A.

Hmm…I wonder if William has all the records of the “Anneke Jans Bogardus Literary Association” since it started in 1888?

Genealogy Search Tip: Searching by Topic in GenealogyBank’s Database

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Being a genealogy site, most people use GenealogyBank by searching on the name of an ancestor. But there are other ways to search for genealogical information in GenealogyBank’s online database.

Did you realize that you can search using any topic or search terms? It is not necessary to always enter an ancestor’s name for every search you do. GenealogyBank makes it easy to research a specific historical event, place or war battle.

Let’s say you know, from an old family letter, that your ancestor fought during the Civil War’s Battle of Vicksburg, and you want to read all you can about the battle to learn something of your ancestor’s actions and understand a little better what he must have experienced.

GenealogyBank lets you do that—by simply searching on the historical Civil War battle without including your ancestor’s name.

Here’s how to search by topic in GenealogyBank’s database.

First, use the “Include keywords with search” box that appears on the search form on GenealogyBank’s homepage, and leave the other boxes blank. Remember: you do not have to search by personal name; you may search on any word that appeared in a newspaper, document or map.
Enter the search term Battle of Vicksburg into the box field and click on the green “Begin Search” button. As you can see on the Search Results Page, GenealogyBank has more than 20,000 documents in our database about the Civil War Battle of Vicksburg, including 17,245 newspaper articles!

Perhaps you want to start your genealogy research by reading contemporary newspaper reports of the famous Civil War battle. Click on the historical newspapers link to access the newspapers’ search form.

Then perform a search on the term Battle of Vicksburg and limit the year to 1863 by putting 1863 in the Date box.

This search query returns 2,983 news articles from our newspaper archive database about the Battle of Vicksburg, all written in 1863, including reporters’ first-hand accounts of the action, official military reports, maps, and other documents about that important Civil War battle.

Plenty of good newspaper readings to help you better understand what your ancestor went through, and thereby flesh out that name on your family tree!

Best Source for Finding Old Marriage Records!

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GenealogyBank is your best source for finding old marriage records.

Newspapers regularly published marriage announcements – like this one from the Weekly Pelican (New Orleans, LA) 26 Oct 1889.

Whether you’re looking for a wedding announcement published in 1802, 1862 or 1962 – GenealogyBank is your most comprehensive source.

TIP: Focus your search by the type of article.
In this example in the Historical Newspapers section – limit your search to only the marriage notices. Click on the highlighted topic and only the wedding and marriage announcement articles will appear in your search – saving you time.

Find and document your ancestors in GenealogyBank – the best source for old newspapers & documents on the planet.

Period!

Archivist of the US to speak at FGS Conference

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Breaking News:

The Federation of Genealogical Societies has announced that Archivist of the US David Ferriero, will be speaking at the annual FGS Conference – on Wednesday August 18th in Knoxville, TN.

He will be the luncheon speaker at the Focus on Societies Luncheon. His topic will be The Citizen-Archivist. He will also speak about the War of 1812 Digitization Project and have a question and answer period.

That same day he will also give remarks at the Librarian’s Day conference.

The FGS Annual Conference takes place in Knoxville, Tennessee from August 18-21, 2010. “Rediscovering America’s First Frontier” is the conference theme and it is co-hosted by the East Tennessee Historical Society and the Kentucky Historical Society.

Click here for more information on the annual FGS Conference.

Genealogists who make a difference: Doris Cozart

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Genealogists who make a difference


Doris Cozart, of Chillicothe, Texas has spent the past 40 years in genealogy – as a publisher, author and researcher. Active in multiple genealogical societies she is quick to help others find the information they are looking for.

Times Record News (Wichita Falls, TX – 21 June 2009).

She has now taken helping other genealogists to the next level.
She has opened a library and is making her extensive collection available to the public.

Hat’s off to Doris Cozart – a genealogist who is making a difference!


1870 Census now online

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FamilySerachLabs has now gone live with the 1870 Federal Census.

That site now has the 1850; 1860; 1870; 1880 and 1900 census indexed and available online. These indexes are free.

These are All New Indexes and Images.
I was using the various online census indexes to search for some of my relatives. There was a dark blotch on the page and it was difficult to make out the name. So, I went to the 1900 Census Index at FamilySerachLabs and was very surprised to see that the same image on this page was crystal clear – no blotch. Why – I asked? Answer – FamilySerachLabs made the extra effort to create all new digital images of the census pages.

The 1870 census is available in two formats:
Indexed and Searchable – search every name in the census for these States:

Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Dakota Territory, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Idaho, Maine, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon and Utah.

Browsable – lets you look at the digital images of each page in the census for All States except Kentucky, Vermont and Virginia.

FamilySearchLabs will be putting the rest of these census images & indexes online shortly.