The Strange Road to Samuel O. Tift

Yesterday was an exciting day, because when I opened up my mailbox, there was a lovely (and rather heavy!) packet from the Allen County Library inside... filled with 103 pages copied from the Journal of Southwest Georgia History. How I ended up ordering these pages tells a lot about the strange roads we walk through our research.

One of my husband's ancestors, Louisa P. Harvey, married a gentleman by the name of Samuel O. Tift in Key West Florida in 1842. Louisa and Samuel had two sons together, but in both the 1850 and 1860 censuses, Louisa is enumerated with the household of her parents... no sign of Samuel.

I've wondered for a long time what happened to Samuel, and as my recent research odyssey into the Tift/Harvey family began, I only knew that Louisa disappeared after the 1860 census--whether she died or had re-married was unknown.

The problem has been a perplexing one, so I hired an APGen researcher to check for (among other things) information on Samuel Tift. His search, beyond the couple's marriage registration, came up null.

Now, the Tifts as a family made quite an impact on Key West, making a fortune salvaging wreckage from ships that ran aground of Key West's treacherous reefs. Two brothers, Asa and Nelson, even funded the construction of some of the Confederate navy's first ships. But how Samuel O. Tift was related to the notable Tifts of the area was unclear. I hoped that somewhere in the copious documentation and primary sources related to the Tifts, there may just be something about him.

In the course of learning more about the Key West Tifts, I posted a message to the Tefft mailing list asking if anyone knew much about the family. In response, I was contacted by a gentleman who was kind enough to send me a short report for information he had collected on a Solomon O. Tift, who, it seems, was also known as Samuel! Being a quality researcher, this gentleman's work was cited properly, and his footnote read as follows:

This information originated with Debra Boswell Crosby at the Dougherty County Public Library in Albany, Georgia. It came from various records at the library, among them the diaries of Nelson Tift. She shared it with Judith Mitchell Bennett, a Tefft descendant, who in turn contributed the information to Pettaquamscutt historian A. Craig Anthony. Mr. Anthony kindly passed this info on to me. 

Wow! That's a pretty circuitous route, but I am cheered that the provenance of this information is, at least, documented.  It gives me a trail to walk backwards (dangerous for someone as klutzy as me), which is a lot more than I had before. As an added bonus, the report included a death date and burial location for Louisa, who, it turns out, died in 1863.

As Nelson Tift was a founder of Albany, Georgia, I was pretty sure that a publication somewhere, at some point, would have published out his diaries. And, indeed, a PERSI search showed me that they had been excerpted by the Journal of Southwest Georgia History... leading to the tasty packet that arrived in the mail.

So yes, I'm excited to learn more about Nelson Tift, and to find more information on my man Samuel/Solomon. And what a twisted road to walk... online records, onsite researchers, a mailing list, an email, and an order to ACPL... I like to think that somehow, after tossing in some phone calls and connecting with some of those historical experts, my research trail will lead me to the story of Mr. Samuel O. Tift.

In Which I Stop the Madness, and Start the Research Logging

Wow, when it comes to logging my research, I'm the absolute worst. Really, I'm pretty sure that on a list somewhere--existing, perhaps, solely in the mind's eye of the genea-god(s)--I am at the tip-top of the logging poo-poo list. Not because I've made it a mission to make myself run in research circles, chasing the tip of the same old tail, but because I'm lazy, and I hate to interrupt the mad rush of research momentum in order to make boring notes about something that I've already done. I'm much more interested in what I have yet to do.

That said, the other day, when I spent about an hour pouring through some online records at FamilySearch, only to realize that I had already done this particular exercise in futility, I realized that enough was enough.

So, I succumbed. I started an online research log.

Does this make me insanely pedestrian? Or stridently superior? I can't tell. All I know is that I opted for the convenience of Google Docs to create a spreadsheet that will allow me to track my research:



Each surname will eventually occupy its own page in the spreadsheet, accessible via a tab:



It occurs to me that eventually it will be very crowded down there, but we'll see how it scales, I guess, and go from there! At least I started, right? Surely that must count for something... Anyways, if anyone sees a glaring omission in this research log, let me know!

Alternative Sources for Obituaries

Barbara over at Life from the Roots had a post up recently about finding an ancestor's obituary information in a book dedicated to obituaries for Yale Graduates. As anyone who reads this blog knows, I am almost obsessive in my newspaper research--and an exhaustive search for obituaries is one of the first tasks I undertake on an individual. Of course, life intervenes, and many times those searches come up blank.

So besides newspapers, where else can we turn? Books, as usual, to the rescue.

For example, there are the alumni obituary records such as the one that Barbara cited:


There are society and professional publications that note the passing of members, like this one from the New York Medical Society:


And there are publications put out by religious organizations that mention the passing of active members, like this one from the Reformed Presbyterians:


And then, of course, there are some of my favorites... those found in Pioneer and local history publications, like this one from the Firelands Historical Society, of Norwalk, Ohio:

As you well have noticed, these are all niche publications... not broad interest. While their coverage isn't comprehensive, these niche publications are great opportunities to put the minutia you have collected about your research subject to work. That symbol on their grave, the mention in the newspaper about how they served as President of a club... any of these can be pointers to an obituary in a publication which you'd otherwise probably ignore!

Devil's Advocate: The Mysterious Ms. Dexter

It felt good this week to blow some of the dust off of the genealogy files and delve back into the lives of some of my set-aside (but ne'er forgotten) kin. Something good about taking a break from your research... revisiting old notes and research trails leads one to notice the assumptions being made along the way. Some good, some great, some pretty awful.

On that tip, today I'm playing RDR: Devil's Advocate. Here I present a current problem, and play devil's advocate against my assumptions, making my researcher-self reason out and justify the decisions I've made along the way. Let's get devilish in our advocating:

Tell us about it, Jim (er, Jennifer)!
Everyone has their pet ancestors, the ones they turn to again and again, looking for new information, and rehashing old papers hoping to bring something new to light. One woman I have a hard time getting out of my mind is Mary C. Dexter, my husband's GGGG-Grandmother.

Born in Massachusetts about 1805 (as per census enumerations and her death certificate), Mary somehow managed to meet and marry a South Carolina native, Samuel Harvey, sometime in the mid-to-late 1820's (first child born abt. 1828). Mary died in Charleston, South Carolina on 21 March 1889 from old age and dysentery, and is, according to her death certificate, buried in Magnolia cemetery in that city.

So, Dexter, huh? Where in G*s name did you get that from?
Mary's maiden name is taken from the death certificate of her son, Charles Tift Harvey, who died in 1915. Her maiden name is either not asked or left blank on the death certificates for other children located thus far, so unfortunately I don't have a corroborating source. As a side note, the death certificate also says that Mary was from Boston, Massachusetts.

I haven't located any marriage records for Samuel Harvey and his wife Mary. Not yet, at least.

While I acknowledge that the information on the death certificate requires a circumspect handling, every other iota of information on that death certificate has been verified, and it has been spot-on every time. Charles' wife, while (of course) possibly wrong about her husband's mother's maiden name, was remarkably correct on every other piece of information she supplied in the death certificate... which makes me feel confident in the maiden name.

Also, it's the only lead I have.

You got nothing else? Not a thing?
Nope. No will, no probate, no court files, no headstone, no marriage documentation, no birth records for the children. Not yet, at least.

So... She's a Dexter(?). I'll give you that, since otherwise this project gets stuck up on the shelf. How are you looking to verify her maiden name?
With a gut feeling and some confidence in Mrs. Charles T. Harvey, I have set my sights on a possible coincidence--or, viewed alternately, a meaningful item that could prove fruitful.

The best lead thus far is that a man by the name of Edward Dexter (native of Massachusetts), who resided in Key West, Florida at the same time as Mary lived there with her husband Samuel Harvey and their children.

Now, Key West at that time was a pretty small place... just about 2700 people. One Harvey family, one Dexter family. Edward Dexter, as I mentioned, hailed from Massachusetts. Further research into his family revealed that he likely hailed from Boston, Massachusetts... the purported birthplace of Mary Dexter as well.

Samuel served, at least twice, along with Edward Dexter as Port Warden for Key West (1843 & 1851). And, like Samuel, Edward Dexter was a ship carpenter.

So, Mary Dexter resides in a small town, in Key West, Florida, in which her husband likely works and serves along with a man with the same last name, who also comes from her birth city. Pretty good, right?

Big coinkydink. Could be something. Might not. What's your plan to get to the bottom of this?

Well, since I live 3,258 miles from Key West, I did what any reasonable researcher would do. I contacted an APGen member who lives in Key West. I'm asking for some copies of marriage records that I have only seen the indices for,  and relying on this person's local expertise to guide the research to some sources that I may not be aware of.

Are you sure you're not just lazy?
Between my Northern and Midwestern ancestors, and my husband's ancestors in the South, I've  been researching in just about every state in the Union. My head hurts when I start thinking about doing all the required background research on the location. I'm a little tired, and not up to learning about Key West resources, when I can just hire someone to do it for me. So yes. Basically I'm just lazy.

I can't overstate how much I love laziness. After all, idle hands are... well, you know. Let me know how this turns out, so that I can tear the results to shreds!
I look forward to it.

Topics in Research-Was Iva May Insane? Part One.

What assumptions can we or do we make when we find research subjects enumerated in any of the euphemistically-named insane asylums of their day? Are such facilities and the privacy issues surrounding the records they generated guaranteed dead-ends? Or can we piece together details of their lives through careful and thorough research? In this post I lay out a current research dilemma--and brainstorm on the strategy most likely to yield answers to questions about this individual and her life.

The Problem
Iva May, daughter of Erie Alanson May and Martha C. Jones was born in California about 1885. At the time of the 1900 census¹, fifteen-year-old Iva resided at home with her parents. Her father, an active and involved member of his farming community, had two biographies written up in mugbooks in 1892 and 1905², both of which mention Iva as being "at home" with no further illumination.

By 1910, however, Iva is found in the Sonoma State Home (pictured above), where she is still residing in 1920³. Assuming the biography published in 1905 was honest and correct in stating Iva still lived with her parents, we can posit that Iva entered the facility in Sonoma sometime between 1905 and 1910, or between the ages of 20 and 25. Which leaves us wondering... what were the circumstances of her admission, and what was the nature of the illness or condition that necessitated her incarceration there in the first place?

Searching for an Illness
The California Home for the Care and Training of the Feeble Minded (as the facility was called until a name-change in 1909 to "Sonoma State Home") opened its doors in Sonoma County in November of 1891, with a mission to serve the needs of the developmentally disabled⁴.  The name can be misleading to modern researchers, however, as "mental illness" as a term has changed drastically since the opening of the facility to our present day. By the early 20th Century, the Sonoma State Home was caring for epileptics, autistics, and those with palsies. Anecdotally, the facility was also serving individuals diagnosed with social "behavioral issues" such as women deemed "oversexed", homosexuals, and juvenile delinquents⁵. 

In the 1892 mugbook biography of her father, Iva is mentioned as "at home and in pursuit of [her] education", raising interesting questions as to the state of her mental capacities. Was Iva born with any sort of developmental disability? If so, was sort of school was she attending? Was the assertion of her school attendance a glazing over of the truth of her condition? Or did her condition advance organically or come on with some sort of accident or trauma?

Census information is conflicting on this point. In 1900--when still in residence with her parents in Tulare County--in answer to the questions of whether she could read, write and speak English, the words "No" were originally written, then crossed out and the word "Yes" inserted above--in what seems to be a different hand. In 1910, her census entry notes "no speech" in regard to the ability to speak English. Her 1920 census information says she can neither read nor write.

As her father was an educated man--he worked in government in the Dakota Territory and published a newspaper in Tulare County, California--it can be assumed that his children would be educated to the best of their ability, suggesting that Iva's lack of literacy was not the result of family culture but of her own limitations. If Iva could, indeed, read and write in 1900, but by 1910 was seemingly mute, then trauma or a sudden onset of illness could be presumed. If not, the 1892 biography is now suspect, and we can suppose that Iva was born with developmental difficulties and was moved to a facility perhaps as her age (and the age of her parents) increased.

As to the fate of Iva after 1920, not much is currently known. Iva has not yet been located under her maiden name in the 1930 census. No other information found on her father, Erie May, mentions Iva (including his 1942 obituary⁶, which only mentions his son and second wife as survivors); an obituary for her mother who passed away about 1926 has not yet been found. A 1973 death notice for her brother Erie Howard May makes no mention of his sister.

Strategizing the Research

All of this leaves us with a number of questions: From what illness-or what kind of trauma-did Iva May suffer?

At what age did Iva May enter the Sonoma State Home? Did Iva ever leave the home? Or did she die there? If the latter, when did she die, and is she buried on the grounds? Most importantly, what records can be consulted to answer these questions?

Hospital Records
Records for patients (inmates) of the Sonoma State Hospital survive in the inventory of the Department of Mental Hygiene, and reside in the California State Archives, Inventory F3607⁷, but are restricted. As per an e-mail exchange with an archivist, "Records held at the California State Archives that are exempt from the disclosure under any California Law are completely open 75 years after the last date on the record.  Patient information falls under this 75 year rule." Under this rule, most of the applicable records of inmates discharged or deceased (which run through 1949) will not be available until somewhere around 2025. Some admission record books and application lists should now be available for research, and will have to be consulted on a trip to the Archives in Sacramento. 


Superior Court Records
According to a 1914 publication⁸, California law stipulated that parents or guardians interested in admitting a charge into a facility for the feeble-minded had to petition the Superior Court in their county of residence. If approved, the Judge would refer the charge for admission. Tulare County Superior Court will have to be contacted in regard to availability (if any) of applicable records.


Newspapers
Newspapers in the time period may have addressed Iva's move to the Sonoma State facility. This would particularly be true if her incarceration was the result of an accident or sudden onset of a malady. A review of local papers in the estimate time period of 1905-1910 (ideally the Daily Tulare Register⁸) should be undertaken.

In Part Two of this post, I hope to shed some light on the mystery of Iva May, and share with you the results of the research strategy outlined above. It is possible that until the full release of inmate records from the State Home this matter cannot be fully resolved, but alternative sources must be consulted in the meantime!

---

Footnotes


1. See 1900 US Federal Census, ED 63, Sheet 2A, Poplar, Tulare, California, Dwelling no. 24, Family No. 26, Household of Erie A. May (lines 5-8). According to this census, Iva was born April 1885.

2. See Guinn, JM, Historical and Biographical Record... of the San Joaquin Valley, California, 1905, page 1218. See also, Lewis Publishing Company, A Memorial and Biographical History of the Counties of Fresno, Tulare, and Kern, California, 1892, page 522.

3. See 1910 United States Federal Census, ED 168, Glen Ellen, Sonoma, California, Sheet 12B, Sonoma State Home, line 60. See also 1920 United States Federal Census, ED 135, Sheet 7A, Sonoma State Home, line 49.

4. History of Sonoma Developmental Center. As accessed 21 May 2010.

5. See Black, Edwin; Eugenics and the Nazis -- the California connection, from The San Francisco Chronicle, 09 Nov 2003. Black's article delves into the darkest aspects of the California Mental Hygiene Department's history, particularly that of enforced sterilization projects and the specter of eugenics. The Sonoma State Home (and its director, Fred O. Butler) were notorious (if legal) offenders. For a great post on this issue and the Sonoma State Home, see Comstock House History's post here.

6. See The Oakland Tribune, "G. A. R. Post Becomes History as Last Member Passes Away", 08 September 1942, Page C17.

7. See Online Archive of California.

7. NY State Report on Provision for the Mentally Deficient, available at Google Books here.

8. Applicable holdings at the Tulare Public Library, Tulare, CA

A Capital Idea! [Quick Tips]

I was sitting at my computer in my home in California the other day, ruing my lack of digital access to a certain year-span of Charleston, South Carolina newspapers. I had been making good progress researching a particular family of Charleston (we'll call it family "A"), but realized that my goal of searching on family members in newspapers was impeded by the gap in digital coverage. Frustrated, I decided to shift gears and pick up on some research on a different family (family B) living 155 miles away in the state's capital, Columbia.

As I was poking around in a very robust archive of Columbia papers, which included the year-span I was ruing just moments before, I decided to give in to a whim and searched on the surname of family A in the Columbia paper archive.

Imagine my surprise when the search yielded five results from 1908, all pertaining to an ancestor who had been arrested and tried for embezzlement during his work with a railroad company! Needless to say, I hadn't heard about this mini-scandal from family members, so the articles took me completely by surprise. As the ancestor was eventually acquitted of all charges, it was probably a case of "best left to forget", which the family tried to do, and moved on accordingly.

Days later, when doing a search in a newspaper archive for Augusta, Georgia, I tried the same family A surname, and found another article on the arrest and trial, this time with more details than even the Columbia papers offered. The embarrassment for the family was obvious--I could almost hear them moaning, "how many papers are they going to print this in?!?" The re-occurrence of the articles has led me to plan on making a thorough search in national-scope databases for occurrences of this ancestor's name in this time period. It's something I had never thought to do before, but armed with this new knowledge, I am excited to see what tidbits and details other articles may mention. At the very least it will keep me busy until the day I have access to those Charleston papers... either in-person or via the internet.

So what's the lesson here? Obviously, not everyone we're researching "makes the paper" in other states (for better or worse), but who's to say that they didn't? Papers in a state capital often include items of interest from all over the state- so there's a perfect place to start on searches when you don't have access to the papers in the town or time that you need. Think outside of the geographic box when performing your digital newspaper searches; you may just find something of intrigue and import which you never even thought would be there!

Food for Thought [Random]

I have just finished up reading Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, which explores the divergence in the rise of dominant social forces across continents. In other words, how come Europe came to dominate across the globe, instead of being dominated by someone like the Aztecs or the Australian aborigines?

Anyways, it was a fascinating book, and well worth a read. But in the epilogue, Diamond had a great sentence which really struck me as pertinent to anyone doing research, especially genealogists:

"Naturally, a host of issues...remain unresolved. At present, we can put forward some partial answers plus a research agenda for the future, rather than a fully developed theory."

And this from someone who wrote a 450 page book on the subject! It occurs to me that all genealogy is really a process in motion, and never quite put to rest. The fumbles, I think, come when we fail to engage in the ongoing development of our research, constantly pushing ahead with a "future agenda for research". Granted the complexity of history and the nuance of every single human life, we're writing and researching essentials that are not easily, if ever, captured.

It seems a great lens to approach each research subject, when we ask "who was this person, and what was their life like?" What is our partial answer? What is our agenda for further research? At what point do we call our theory "the story" and what steps do we take to document it?

The Lay of the Land [Quick Tip]

Happy New Year!

Did you notice, in the rush of the holidays, that Google Maps has added a new terrain feature to their site?:



Obviously, this has huge implications for genealogy researchers, for whom an awareness of natural travel barriers like mountains, rivers, etc. can be helpful in determining behaviors of ancestors.

Here's a typical street map view of Belt, Montana, a residence of my great-grandfather Peter Shannon:



Compare the information available through the street map to that available from the new terrain view, and you can see how the terrain view could influence my understanding of Peter's activities and movements around this town:

An Experiment in Online Research [Random]

(Sorry about the lack of a post on Friday of last week. I had what amounted to one of the MOST hectic weeks on record for me, including a sick toddler and multiple runs to the DMV (long story). At any rate, I think I'm back and on track now, so hopefully things will resume as normal... )

I decided to conduct a bit of an experiment and just have fun researching some of the inhabitants of the lovely Rose Hill Cemetery which I posted about on my Graveyard Rabbit blog last week. I wanted to see how much I could dig up on these individuals just using the resources available to me online.

Since I can't afford to order any records right now, and since holidays have me too busy to get out to the library, these research results should be taken with a grain of salt. That said, I am amazed at what I was able to dig up with some good online resources and a few hours.

My first subject was little Walter Holt:



I was unable to find out anything directly about Walter (I need to run to the California Genealogical Society or the Pleasant Hill Library Genealogy Section to see if there is information on his death and burial). But I was able to find out A LOT about his family, and how the course of their lives played out.

The Holt Family

I began by locating the family in the 1900-1920 census enumerations in Woodland, Yolo, California, using the names of the parents from Walter's grave marker. The 1900 census shows three Isaac Holts residing in California, and only one with a wife named Julia, to whom he had been married 27 years. In 1900, the couple is enumerated with daughter Grace, born February 1880 in California.

In both the 1900 and 1910 censuses, Julia states that she has two children alive out of four children birthed. Research in Woodland newspapers (detailed below) indicates that along with Grace, Isaac and Julia's other surviving child was Arthur Edward Holt. Thus the family structure (including information detailed below) is something like this:

Isaac Henry Holt (b. Abt. 1852) m. Julia Canify(1) (b. Abt. 1854)
I. Walter L. Holt b. Abt. April 1873, probably California
II. Arthur Edward Holt b. Abt. 1875, California
III. Grace Mays Holt b. Abt. 1880, California
IV. UKNOWN Holt b. UNK, UNKNOWN location

East Coasters Gone West

According to her obituary(1), Walter's mother Julia (Canify) Holt married Isaac Henry Holt in New Haven, Connecticut in 1872. The couple (she from New York, he from Massachusetts) moved out west to Martinez, Contra Costa, California in 1874. (This information ties the couple back to Contra Costa county where Walter was buried.)

I am still unable to locate the family anywhere in California for the 1880 Census, despite the fact that the couple and at least two of their children should be present at least somewhere in California at the time. Searches in Arizona, Nevada, Oregon and Washington also came up empty.

We know that Walter was buried in 1882 in Rose Hill, but that area is located outside of Antioch, which is about 20 miles east of Martinez (the community Julia's obituary mentions as their residence from 1874 until 1886). The father, Isaac, is registered to vote in Contra Costa in 1884(2), but it is unclear where exactly in the county they were residing at that time. Therefore, we can tie the family to California at the time of Walter's death, and we can even point to their residence in Contra Costa, but I cannot confirm the family's residence via the 1880 census, nor can I currently find any direct information on Walter himself (at least online).

Moving On Up

Again according to her obituary(1), Julia Holt and her family moved north to Woodland, Yolo, California in 1886. We find them there, residents of #306 Cross Street, Woodland, California in the 1900-1920 censuses.

At this point information on the family is interestingly easy to find thanks to the small town paper The Woodland Daily Democrat. One of the highlights includes an article I had actually indexed on my website, which concerned the son Arthur shooting his sister Grace in the foot(3):

ACCIDENTAL SHOOTING

Last night about twilight, Arthur Holt, who lives with his parents on Cross street, near Cleveland, shot his sister in the right ankle with a No. 22 Ballard rifle. Both claim that the shooting was accidental. The little girl suffered very much from the hurt. Dr. Beebe was called, but did not remove the ball, as it had entered near the ankle joint, and he thought it best to allow it to remain a day or two.

Arthur Holt is about sixteen years of age, and enjoys a very unenviable reputation. The neighbors describe him as being the worst boy that Woodland has ever had the pleasure of raising. The shooting occurred in this way, according to the statement of one of the neighbors, who seems to think it was not altogether accidental:

Mrs. Holt had sent the boy on an errand, and he took the gun with him. As he remained away much longer than was necessary, the mother sent her little girl to find him. She is about ten years old. She met him on Cleveland street near Clanton's corner, and asked him why he had been gone so long. He commenced cursing and said it was none of her business. They walked along together, she expostulating with him and he abusing her, when the gun was suddenly discharged. The little girl screamed, and Mr. and Mrs. Clanton ran out to see what had happened. The little girl was lying in the street, and said she was shot. The boy said, "Oh, for God's sake shut up your crying. You are not hurt. It would not go through your shoe." Nevertheless, she was hurt and the blood was flowing freely from the wound. The little girl was taken to ther home, and Dr. Beebe called. Both claim the shooting to be accidental.

Arthur and Grace

Apparently Arthur eventually grew out of his more malicious phases, as by 1895 he was being commended for his work as a driver with the local volunteer fire department(4). He moved from Woodland about 1898(5), and eventually settled in Oakland, California. He married first Elizabeth Dowell (date unknown) from whom he was divorced in 1904(6). He eventually married Margurite UNKNOWN about 1906(7), with whom he resided in Oakland, Alameda, California. Arthur has not been identified in the SSDI, nor in the California Death Index (this index does not begin listing deaths until 1940). Arthur was mentioned as alive at the time of his father's death in 1932(8). No descendants have been identified from either of Arthur's marriages.

Grace married Johann Christian "Joe" Hedeman in 1907(9). Her husband was the son of C. J. Hedemann, a notable immigrant from Denmark who, among other things, served as Danish consul in Hawaii. Grace is found in the 1910 and
1930 US Federal Census in Honolulu, Hawaii(10). The couple had at least one child, Mildred(11). Grace's date of death has not been identified.

Julia and Isaac

Julia Holt died 03 June 1929 and had an extensive write-up in the Woodland paper(1). According to her obituary, she was buried in the Woodland cemetery.

Isaac Henry Holt died on 29 June 1932 in Honolulu, Hawaii, where he was residing with his daughter, Grace(8). There was no mention about his place of burial in the obituary:

PIONEER OF WOODLAND DIES IN HONOLULU

Isaac H. Holt, retired brick mason, who was one of the pioneer residents of Woodland, died in Honolulu June 29th at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Grace Holt Hedeman.

News of his death came in a brief message from Mrs. Hedeman. No particulars were given in the letter.

During his residence in Woodland, Holt lived at 320 Cross Street. His wife died years ago and three years ago he left for Honolulu, where he has since resided with his daughter, Mrs. Hedeman.

Fireplaces and chimneys in many of the older residences in Woodland were constructed by Mr. Holt, who was regarded as an expert in his line.

He was a member of Woodland lodge No. 156, F. and A. M.

The only survivors are his daughter, Mrs. Hedeman, and a son, Arthur E. Holt of Oakland.

Final Notes on Walter

There remains some investigative work to be done regarding Walter himself and establishing the residence of the Holt family at the time of his death and burial. There are a few publications of Contra Costa death notices and burial records which need to be checked for information on Walter. I am hopeful that the identity of the other unknown Holt child may also be obtained by this library research, assuming the child (or young adult) died in this area.

Until then, I am pretty amazed at what great information was found on the family thanks to coverage of their lives through their local paper. I am a HUGE proponent of newspaper research, and I think this research experience is indicative of how newspapers can fill in so much in a research history.

---

References:

(1). "Mrs. Holt, 75, Resident of Woodland for 41 Years, Dies", Woodland Daily Democrat, 03 June 1929, Page 1, Column 3. Accessed via Newspaperarchive.com. Some supplemental research was run on the surname Canify, but no results turned up. This may be a mis-spelling of another surname, but I'm at a loss as to what!

(2). See "1884 Voters of Contra Costa County" from the Contra Costa County Genealogical/Historical Societies.

(3). "Accidental Shooting", The Woodland Daily Democrat, 28 April 1891, page 3, column 4. Accessed via Newspaperarchive.com.

(4). "Hook and Ladder Company", The Woodland Daily Democrat, 11 December 1895, page 3, column 4. Accessed via Newspaperarchive.com.

(5). "On the Eligible List", The Woodland Daily Democrat, 27 July 1903, page 1, column 4. Accessed via Newspaperarchive.com.

(6). "Events of Interest in Woodland", The Woodland Daily Democrat, 09 June 1904, page 1, column 1. Accessed via Newspaperarchive.com.

(7). See 1900 US Federal Census, ED 106, Oakland, Alameda, California, Sheet 5A, lines 35-36, #612 Eighteenth Street; 1920 US Federal Census, ED 90, Oakland, Alameda, California, Sheet 14A, lines 4-5, #746 19th Street; 1930 US Federal Census, ED 14, Oakland, Alameda, California, Sheet 5B, lines 82-83, #746 19th Street.

(8). "Pioneer of Woodland Dies in Honolulu", The Woodland Daily Democrat, 07 July 1932, page 1, column 4. Accessed via Newspaperarchive.com.

(9). "A Marriage of Interest", The Woodland Daily Democrat, 04 March 1907, page 1, column 3. Accessed via Newspaperarchive.com.

(10). See 1910 US Federal Census, ED 30, Honolulu, Honolulu, Hawaii Territory, Sheet 10B, lines 44-46, #1269 Matlock Avenue; 1930 US Federal Census, ED 75, Honolulu, Honolulu, Hawaii Territory, Sheet 1B , lines 72-82, #601 Judd Street.

(11). See 1930 USFC for Grace Hedemann, no. 10 above. Grace is widowed in the 1930 census and enumerated in the household of her mother and father in law, along with her own daughter Mildred.

Research Options Online [Tidbits]

Today I ran across a great post on mashable.com regarding online tools for researchers. It covers some options that were omitted from my discussions of Google Notebook and Google Notebook Alternatives.

Definitely worth checking out if you are shopping around for a new online note-taker.

Finding Images in the Deep Web

[Via ResourceShelf]: The Association of College and Research Libraries presents a listing of some prominent online image repositories.

This is a perfect example of what lurks within the deep web!

Trawling the Deep Web

When it comes to research, I am a firm believer that whatever I am looking for exists, and if it exists it is probably online (or will be at some point). Needless to say, I have alot of unbridled optimism, and infinite patience for the blossoming of the internet.

Along those lines, I was thinking about the "deep web" or "invisible web" which alludes to the gazillions of bytes of information out there on the internet that are not accessible via traditional search engine results. This includes, of course, things like information stored in databases... the life blood of the online genealogy researcher.

Some Resources

I found a great article from OEdb which provided some interesting links for exploring the deep web. Of special note are the following sites:

• Librarian's Internet Index
  
• Intute
  
• The Internet Public Library
  
• direct search (skip the search box which seems to be inactive, and go for the directories listings)
  

Some Rethinking

Ultimately, of course, we can't believe that a link to some deep, as-of-yet-undiscovered database will solve all of our research problems. The truth is that the deep web is not so much invisible as it is demanding... demanding that what can be wandering, aimless time spent on the internet take the same disciplined, goal-oriented approaches that most research resembles. The deep web reminds us that we must reassess and re-evaluate the ways in which we work online, in order to maximize both the efficiency and integrity of our internet research.

This article, from UC Berkeley, says it all, and provides a fabulous matrix for rethinking your approach to online research. My goal is to follow the guidelines set out here and re-research a current brick wall. Perhaps the issue is not that the information is not out there, but that only that I am unable to find it. Optimistic? Perhaps, but the only down-side is a more thorough understanding of what is and is not currently available online on a given topic. And that's not much of a down-side, now is it?