THE SUN

Quarterly Newsletter of the Florida Chapter of the Association of Professional Genealogists

http://www.apgflorida.org/

July 2009

Volume 4, Issue 3

14 April 2008

NEXT MEETING: Electronic Genealogy


We will hear all about electronic genealogy in Tallahassee on Saturday, May 3. Deanna Ramsey, vice president of programs for the Tallahassee Genealogical Society, will give the presentation, "Gadgets for the Family [and Professional] Genealogist," at 10 a.m. in the Arts Learning Gallery (1st flooor) at the Florida State Library and Archives building.

Chapter Vice President Jack V. Butler, who will lead the meeting, says that this is the Chapter's first meeting in Tallahassee and hopes distant members will car pool to the event.


Jack will encourage Chapter members to join the Florida State Genealogical Society for its publications and annual meeting registration discount as well as interesting FSGS members in APG. If you would like to tour the Florida State Library and Archives, please let Jack know in advance so he can arrange a tour.

If you need more details about the meeting, contact Jack. He encourages meeting attendees to research at the facility and visit the Museum of Florida History on the ground floor. The state library and archives are open from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and the museum from 10 a.m. to 4:40 p.m. on Saturdays.

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13 April 2008

Who's got a program and site idea for the next meeting?


President Alvie L. Davidson, CG, is taking ideas for a program and site for the next meeting, usually held the first Saturday in August.
Here are the 2008 meeting locations and dates: Bartow (central Florida), Feb. 2; Tallahassee (north Florida), May 3; open, possible Aug. 2; and the Chapter annual meeting during the Florida State Genealogical Society annual conference in Maitland (north of Orlando), Nov. 14-15.

At the last meeting on Feb. 2 at the Polk County Historical and Genealogical Library in Bartow, our Jack Butler reprised his FSGS Annual Conference presentation, "Read All About It! Finding Kin in Early Newspapers." He told us what information we can find in early newspapers and where we can find the newspapers, including a growing number of digitized newspapers on websites. He provided a handout listing resources and sites.

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Chapter's shining project debuts: A national position paper on records access and ID theft


After months of work and review, the Florida Chapter's showcase position paper, "The Case for Open Public Records," was released on March 21. APG headquarters issued a press release, "Genealogists Push for Open Records," and the complete text of the paper. APG asserted, "There is no proof that open records significantly contribute to ID theft or terrorism."

The document was covered by major genealogical media, approved by the Records Preservation and Access Committee (of the National Genealogical Society and Federation of Genealogical Societies), and praised by APG President Jake Gehring.

Writing in the March issue of the APG Quarterly, Gehring said, "... let me congratulate and thank the members of the 'Keep Genealogical Records Open Workgroup' (KGROW) and the Florida Chapter of APG for their significant and speedy work this last year to draft a position paper on open public records. Their work has really improved our ability to respond effectively to legislative issues as they arise." The position paper was posted on the APG website and RPAC website.

The position paper was prepared by KGROW, made up of three Florida Chapter members and two other experts. They are: Jean Foster Kelley, CG, co-chair; Richard F. Robinson, co-chair; Alvie L. Davidson, CG, information officer; Melinde Lutz Sanborn, FASG, Greater Boston Area Chapter; and Fred E. Moss, JD, LL.M., a legal advisor to FGS. KGROW disbanded when its position paper was made publicly available.

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About our members....


Alvie Davidson, CG, and Ann Staley, CG, and others will attend the 30th NGS Conference in the States and Family History Fair in Kansas City, Missouri on May 14-17. Who else is going? Please post on the Chapter mailing list....

Member profiles will resume in the newsletter's next issue... Chapter members agreed at the Feb. 2 meeting to write a letter of support on behalf of the Polk County Historical Genealogical Society Library to Polk County commissioners. Librarian Joe Spann, a new member of the Chapter, reported that the library is in serious financial trouble. It is one of the largest regional research libraries on the East coast and has hosted several Chapter meetings.

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07 January 2008

NEXT MEETING: Hear all about it


Jack Butler

You won’t “read all about it” here. Instead, you’ll have to come to our next meeting in Bartow on Feb. 2 to “hear all about it.” Vice President Jack Butler's presentation is “Read All About It! Finding Kin in Early Newspapers.”

The Saturday will start with our board meeting at 9 a.m., Jack’s talk at the general meeting at 10, followed by an option lunch with colleagues at a nearby restaurant. Members and guests are welcome to attend all three events. President Alvie Davidson asks members to bring ideas for programs and other chapter activities to the general meeting.

The board meeting and program will be held at the Polk County Historical and Genealogical Library, 100 East Main Street, Bartow (Phone: 863- 534-4380). The Library promotes its genealogical and historical collections as one of the largest in the Southeast U.S. After lunch, you may want to do some research or looking around in the library. It is open until 5 p.m.

One of the little used sources in genealogy research is early American newspapers. "They not only tell us where our ancestors were born, married, and died, but also how they lived," said Butler.

Jack will tell us what we can find in the early newspapers and where to find the newspapers. As more old newspapers are digitized, they are much easier to search. He was selected to deliver a similar talk at the Florida State Genealogical Society annual conference in Orlando last November.

A former college instructor, Jack is publications coordinator and board member of the Tallahassee Genealogical Society and editor of its quarterly magazine, The Tallahassee Genealogist.

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Our president says: 'I want everyone to feel that our meetings are worthwhile'


By Alvie L. Davidson, CG


I first want to say that I deeply appreciate the membership electing me president of APG Florida. I promise I will do my very best to maintain the chapter as one of the best in APG and provide members with valuable networking and learning opportunities.

Everyone should try to attend our first meeting of the year on Feb. 2 at the Polk County Historical and Genealogical Library, 100 East Main Street, Bartow. Our new vice president, Jack Butler, will reprise his FSGS conference talk, “Read All About It.” This will give our members an opportunity to hear a very fine talk that they may have missed and to get to know Jack better. Bring any ideas you have for meetings or to improve our Chapter. Please see a previous article in this edition for more details on this meeting.

Secondly, I want to keep our meetings interesting so everyone will feel they were very worthwhile. I would also like to vary the locales of our meetings more. We have not had a meeting in Tallahassee, so I would like to have one there at the Florida State Library, possibly on 3 May. This might seem a bit far for some to travel, but we can arrange car pooling. What better way is there to network with colleagues, attend an informative meeting, and maybe do some research?


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Members hold annual meeting, Road Show consultations at FSGS conference in Orlando


Amy Giroux and Donna Moughty run our vendor booth while Dick Robinson and Yolanda Campbell Lifter (distant cousins) operate the desk at the Road Show
[Photos by Melody K. Porter (booth) and Ken Macomber (Road Show)]



You could find Chapter members everywhere at the Florida State Genealogical Society conference in Orlando last November. They were organizers, officers, speakers, attendees -- and even door prize donors. The Chapter also held its annual meeting during the conference and ran its APG Florida information booth.

But one of the most appreciated events was the Chapter's second annual Road Show, where 11 members helped attendees one-on-one with genealogical problems for free.

The four-hour show was another great success, according to its chairman, Ken Macomber, CG. He said the feedback was "extremely positive." All participants who completed feedback forms indicated they would like to attend the event again in the future. One person commented, "...this is a great thing to offer."
Members who provided advice were: Jack Butler; Pam Cooper; Alvie Davidson, CG; Sherril Erfurth; Amy Giroux, CG, CGL; Debbe Hagner, AG; Yolanda Campbell Lifter; Ken Macomber, CG; Donna M. Moughty; Gladys Friedman Paulin, CG; and Richard Robinson.

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Persistence pays

(Every researcher should read this story. It is a detailed account of how one of our members solved a brick-wall problem. Don't let its length intimidate you. Reading it will be well worth your time. – Editor’s Note)






By Gladys Friedman Paulin, CG, Winter Springs




My client’s family immigrated to Canada from Romania about 1912. In 1920, they moved to the United States, entering at Portal, North Dakota in November 1920, and continuing on to Jacksonville, Florida, where they had family.

In 1927, the parents divorced. The husband remarried and moved to Brooklyn, New York. The U.S. census for 1930 lists the mother as divorced and living with her seven children in Jacksonville; all were listed as aliens. Part of my charge was to obtain naturalization records for the family. The papers for the father in Brooklyn were indexed online and easy to locate on LDS microfilm. The search began for those who lived in Jacksonville. First stop, the National Archives. There was no microfilm publication covering Jacksonville federal court naturalization records. Publication M1547 which covers much of Florida did not include Jacksonville or Duval County. A search of the Family History Library Catalog for Duval County provided only a record for military naturalization in World War I. U.S. court listings for Florida showed a federal district courthouse in Jacksonville in the Middle Florida District.

At this point, I enlisted local help and contacted C. Ann Staley, CG, who lives and works in that area. Ann checked the Duval County courthouse and found no records or index listings for my client’s family. She then visited the federal courthouse and was advised by the naturalization clerk that copies of those files could only be released to the naturalized person. And no, Ann could not check the index and neither would the clerk.

Several days later, I called the courthouse and ended up speaking with the same clerk, who wanted to send me to the local office of the Department of Homeland Security. [Explanation: the current U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service—USCIS—is an agency in the Department of Homeland Security.] I politely explained that I did not want current USCIS records, but U.S. court records from the 1930’s for individuals who were deceased. She said that she could only release copies to the person naturalized. I again explained that these people were no longer living and asked if I could obtain copies by sending the court a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. She quickly said yes, of course, and agreed that would solve the problem. I completed a form G-639 for the two individuals for whom I had death certificates, attached copies of the certificates to the forms, and mailed them to the address she gave me. Of course, the envelope was returned as not deliverable without a room or suite number. I called the courthouse again, obtained that information from the operator, and remailed my request.

The following Monday, I received a call from the same clerk stating that I could not have the information since I was not the individual who was naturalized. [BACK TO SQUARE ONE!] I then requested a written letter denying my request; she said she couldn’t do that; I explained that under federal law, a written FOIA request required a written response. She then said I would need to speak with her supervisor. [Hooray, I thought.] So she transferred the call and I left a message for a person whose voicemail message gave her name and title as Director of Court Operations. That director returned my call the following day stating that she had checked the court indexes and the surname I was seeking did not appear in their records. She then informed me that the period I was interested in was not handled by the current Middle District of Florida, but that Jacksonville had been part of the Southern District in that time period. When the new district was established, earlier naturalization records had been sent to the National Archives in College Park, Maryland! [Note: National Archives policy calls for court records to be held in the pertinent regional archive, not at the national level.] The director agreed to send me a letter and advise when the district had been changed, which she did. [1962]

At this point, I went back through my research log and papers. I rechecked NARA’s Southeast Region (Morrow, Georgia) Web site and did not find Jacksonville or any of its counties listed under those locations for which the region held naturalization records. I reread the report from Ann Staley and noted an LDS film number for World War I period naturalizations held at the Duval County courthouse. I went back to the Family History Library catalog and did a film number search. Lo and behold, up comes a list of all the items on that film including two covering naturalization records for several Florida counties; clicking on the one which included Duval County brought up a large record which included many films from 1920 to the 1950’s. It so happened that this was only days before a scheduled trip to Salt Lake City. There, in the Family History Library, I started going through those rolls of film starting in 1929 and continuing to 1948. Each film was labeled “Jacksonville Naturalization Records” and contained several volumes of records, all from the U.S. Southern district court for Florida in Jacksonville, each volume with its own index. I was able to locate the complete naturalization files for the mother and six of her children.

Lessons learned:



  • Don’t take no for an answer.


  • Go back and review everything in the file when it looks like you reached the proverbial brick wall.


  • Always be polite.


  • Always ask for replies, especially negative ones, in writing.

To cut this saga short, I have contacted NARA in Morrow, Georgia, who have confirmed they have the original files; when asked why they are not listed in NARA's online catalog, the reply was that now you know they are there! I have also sent a copy of the LDS catalog pages to the federal courthouse in Jacksonville and advised them that the records are in Morrow, NOT in College Park.

For all: The LDS catalog title is: “Declarations of intentions 1920-1967 and Naturalization Petitions, indexes 1892-1932 Duval, Hillsborough, Monroe and Marion Counties, Florida, and the first film number is 2110001. When searching the LDS catalog it will be found under the location Jacksonville, but not under Duval County or just Florida. I guess I forgot one of the basic rules for searching the LDS catalog: search under every possible applicable jurisdiction, not just the one where it is supposed to be!

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New administration brings new ideas

Bringing fresh ideas to the table, the Chapter's 2008 board will gather for its first board meeting on Feb. 2. The meeting is open to members and guests.

The board meeting will be held at 9 a.m. at the Polk County Historical and Genealogical Library, 100 E. Main St., Barlow. The general meeting will follow at 10 pm.

Here is a list of 2008 board members, past president, and committee chairs:

2008 OFFICERS

President - Alvie L. Davidson, CG, Lakeland
Vice President – Jack Butler, Woodville
Secretary - Ann Mohr Osisek, Maitland
Treasurer - Amy Larner Giroux, CG, CGL, Orlando
Chapter Representative – Ann Staley, CG, Jacksonville

PAST PRESIDENT

Past President – Jean Foster Kelley, CG, Tampa

2008 COMMITTEE CHAIRS

FSGS Vender Booth - Alvie L. Davidson, CG, Lakeland
Membership - Debbe A. Hagner, AG, New Port Richey
Nominating - Open
Newsletter - Richard F. Robinson, Boynton Beach
Programs - Open
Publicity - Open
Webmaster - Amy Larner Giroux, CG, CGL, Orlando

























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Meet new member Eileen Taft




[Editor’s Note: This is the first of a regular series on new and current members of the Chapter. Today we feature Eileen Taft, a new member. Another new member, Jacqueline Reiss of Inverness will be the subject of a future story.]

Eileen Taft is a person who knows where she’s going. She walked up to Chapter booth at the FSGS conference last November, and joined with enthusiasm.

Taft, of New Smyrna Beach in Volusia County, is one of the Chapter’s newest members. She has researched families for more than a quarter century. She has a passion for genealogy. She tells prospective clients on her website, “It’s (family research) a lot of fun for me!... I would be thrilled to help you find your family’s ancestors… I love solving a mystery!”

With a BBA in finance, Eileen specializes in immigration, naturalization, Jewish, German, American and Italian American research in the 19th and 20th centuries. She specializes in research in Florida, Georgia, and the South, and her related services are editing and teaching.


Welcome, Eileen, to the Florida Chapter!

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