Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Finding Jessie... a Case Study in Locating Female Ancestors

One of my recent clients hired me to solve a missing person case. In her recent travels to Friesland she visited with family who told her of a sister to her grandfather who allegedly traveled to Grand Rapids, Michigan. But they knew nothing further. What had happened to her? Did she make it to Grand Rapids or did she decide against it? Did she marry? Die young? Bear children?

My job was to find her and to determine what became of her.

Female relatives can be quite the daunting task to decipher: they marry and change their names. And if you don’t know where to look, or who they married, it is easy to lose track of them. For instance, in order to follow any sort of paper trail on a female relative it is pertinent to know: 1) whom they married so as to continue the trace and 2) where they married in order to locate the marriage document. Without any of this information it is a total crapshoot. You would have better luck in Vegas.

I took the case not expecting to find her. I really had some serious doubts because I had nothing to go on. I had no proof that she ever stepped foot in Grand Rapids and a preliminary check in immigration databases drew a blank.

So what to do?

Her name was Tjitske POSTMA. Tjitske POSTMA was born 8 May 1887 in Wymbritseradeel, Friesland. Her father was Hendrik Pieter POSTMA (1841-1921) and her mother was Petronella GROENHOF (1850-1919). This was the information I was armed with.

I knew I had to first place Tjitske in Grand Rapids. That would be my first step. Ancestry.com is placing many city directories online: Grand Rapids, Michigan is included. My client’s grandfather arrived in New York City in 1906. Tjitske would have been 17. The earliest that I would think Tjitske might come to America would be 1907 when she was 18. But why?

What would be the reason for her coming to America? It makes sense that she would go where she had relation, and in this case that would be to South Dakota where her brother, Douwe, resided. But she didn’t. Family legend claims she went to Grand Rapids.

I could think of two reasons why Tjitske might have chosen Grand Rapids as a destination. First, she may have married OR planned to marry. Perhaps her husband (or fiancé) had family in Grand Rapids.

I searched the marriage records for the Friesland Province within the Netherlands but came up blank. Tjitske did not marry there or anywhere else within the Netherlands. So she did not marry and then decide to come to Grand Rapids as a new couple to make a better life for themselves.

And the fact that I could find no immigration record for Tjitske was elusive.

I poured through the city directories for Grand Rapids. Voila… there was a Tjitske Postma listed in the 1910 directory, page 884, as a maid living at 618 Wealthy Avenue. Could this be her? Did she come to Grand Rapids because of the promise of work?

The next logical step was to determine who she was working for to see if there was some possible connection. I cross-referenced the address of 618 Wealthy Avenue within the street listing of the same directory, page 1471, and determined that the home was owned by a Mr. Harm Hamstra. Now who was he?

Come to discover that Harm Hamstra owned a huge Dutch import business based out of Grand Rapids. He was the one to go to for anything “Dutch”: wooden shoes, food products, decorations, etc. His booming business venture had him traveling to and from the Netherlands to trade for goods – and this meant returning to his homeland… in Friesland.

It is possible, though not proven, that Harm Hamstra during one of his visits was in search of a maid. And perhaps his family knew the Postma family and he was aware of Tjitske.

Looking back at the 1910 Federal Census I was able to find the Hamstra family listed but not with Tjitske. They had another servant girl listed by the name of Cora Monsma. Cora left the family to pursue a teaching position in Muskegon, Michigan, so there was a vacancy.

There was no evidence that Tjitske came to America to work for the Hamstra family, that is only theory. She could very well have come to America and learned of the maid position through her church.

In any regards Tjitske curiously disappears from Grand Rapids after 1910. I searched the City Directories post-1910 and could not find her.

This could mean that she married and changed her name or… worse case scenario, she had died.

I had discovered that the Hamstra family attended the Christian Reformed Church in Grand Rapids. There was at that time three main Reformed bodies: the Reformed Churches of America, the Christian Reformed Church, and the Heritage Reformed Church (or True Dutch). That the Hamstra family attended the Christian Reformed Church made the church archives of this body the logical place to search for marriage records.

Again I came up blank. No banner ads (marriage announcements) had been published.

I then decided to search whether Tjitske had died.

Using FamilySearch.org I searched for “Tjitske Postma”. There were 1155 results. I refined this by adding the surnames of both father and mother: still way too many results and nothing relevant. Thinking that if Tjitske had been married and died young OR if her name had been Anglicized as so many Dutch names were, perhaps a better search might be for her parents.

I did another search for “Postma” adding a spouse surname of “Groenhof”. The first result on the list looked very promising. Found in the Michigan, Death Certificates database, 1921-1952, was a Jessie Veltman with parents, Heindrich Postma and Petermella Groenhof.


I clicked the link to discover that this Jessie Veltman died on 16 February 1929 at the age of 41. She was born on 8 May 1887. There she was!



Tjitske’s name had been Anglicized to “Jessie”. And apparently she had married into the Veltman family.

I then turned to SeekingMichigan.org where the State Archives have digitized many death certificates from the years 1897-1920. Jessie’s death didn’t occur until 1929; however, I have found numerous post-1920 death certificates that have been scanned.

I was in luck. Jessie’s death certificate was on file and it proved, without any doubt, that this was my client’s Great Aunt. From the certificate the following information can be gleaned:

1) that Jessie Veltman’s name was “Tjitske”.
2) that Jessie died from “cancer of the stomach”.
3) that Jessie was married to a Sijske Veltman.
4) that Jessie was born May 8, 1887 in the Netherlands.
5) that Jessie’s father was Hendrich Postma.
6) that Jessie’s mother was Peternella Groenhof.
7) that Jessie’s last residence was at 1200 Hall St. in Grand Rapids.
8) that Jessie died on February 16, 1929.
9) that Jessie was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery on February 19, 1929.

Some very decent information. From that information I was able to trace Jessie back to 1910, discover the man she married, follow them up to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, find the names of their children to include a pair of stillborn twins, follow them back to Grand Rapids, Michigan, and to the place of Jessie’s death.

I was also able to find living family who had an old picture album that once belonged to Jessie. It contained pictures of her family… pictures that the present owner of the album knew nothing about.

So the point of this article is: never, never, never, give up. You never know where you will find an important lead that will snowball into further information. All it takes is one simple document, one tiny piece of information, to unlock the door for you.

I had never expected to find Tjitske Postma. Finding her was a real treat for me… and for my client. And I definitely never expected to find pictures of her and of her family: pictures that may have been lost to all time. In order to break through brick walls in your family tree you need to think differently: look for hidden resources and consider all the possibilities.

And should you ever need a lending hand... my services are available at GRAncestors.com.

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

DNA Testing - Which Company? Part One.

DNA testing for genealogical purposes can be an exciting venture, but it can also be a very costly and confusing one as well.  Many people jump in at the thought of finding lost ancestors, breaking through brick walls, and meeting new cousins around the globe.  But these outcomes are not a guarantee.   The only ancestors you will discover are the ones you already know – unless you are willing to spend a lot of time researching the past to trace into the future (I’ll explain more on this later).  And brick walls can be broken through but again it will take a lot of hard work and determination.  Cousins?  You will meet a few; however, you will discover that their family trees and your own don’t have any noticeable matches and this will leave you feeling confused and oftentimes bewildered.  

So what then?  Should you NOT be DNA tested?  I’m not attempting to steer anyone away from being tested.  I think it is a wonderful opportunity to assist in your genealogical practices: a method of extracting your deeper roots via a genetic code that can be wisely used to match against probable prospects.

I myself have utilized DNA testing in this manner.   As a male I have the opportunity to test for all three available DNA packages on the market: Chromosomal (Y-DNA) which tests the father’s line; the Mitochondrial (mt-DNA) which tests the mother’s line; and the cheapest option, Autosomal DNA which tests everything to include all the in-betweens.

Y-DNA testing will go back many centuries from father to son on up the line.  Similarly, mt-DNA will do the same for the mother’s line.  Both of these tests can be a bit pricey.  And then there is the cheapest option, Autosomal DNA which tests the genetic composition inherited from both sets of parents, thus being able to establish or suggest our ethnicity.

At the time of this writing the following companies offer DNA testing:

23andMe.com

This company, claiming to be the largest DNA ancestry service in the world, sells a single Autosomal DNA test for $99 for which they write, “trace your lineage back 10,000 years and discover your history from over 750 maternal lineages and over 500 paternal lineages.”  They used to offer health-related information based on that genetic composition that suggested probable dis-eases a customer might be prone to but the FDA got involved and shut the marketing of the health information down.  The FDA believed this outcome to be unsubstantiated.  Customers that were grandfathered in were allowed to view their health profiles but new customers will not be given any health-related information.

Personally I think the health information is quite accurate.  For instance I was tested to have an increased risk for Type 2 Diabetes, Gout, Gallstones, Multiple Sclerosis, High Blood Pressure, Scoliosis, amongst other things.  When I served in the Marines they monitored my blood sugar because I was borderline Diabetic.  I do have (or had) high blood pressure which is now controlled by eating properly and taking certain whole food supplements, and I was discovered to have scoliosis (curvature of the spine) when 13 years of age.  Co-incidence?  I don’t think so.  I think 23andme.com is moving genetic science forward into new territory… and anything new has always been feared and or ridiculed UNTIL it was finally accepted as mainstream science. 

So I fully support 23andMe.com in their foresight and wisdom to launch into new territory.  In my opinion they should be allowed to continue their health investigations, questionnaires, and publishing of possible risk factors WITH a disclaimer to the end-user that these claims are not definite but probable.

My Experience with 23andMe.com

My ethnicity was determined to be 99.9% European with the following breakdown: 18.6% British & Irish; 9.1% French & German; 1.4% Scandinavian; 66.5% Nonspecific Northern European; 4.3% Nonspecific European; and .1% Unassigned.

This composition comes from 31 tested populations worldwide.  Because it is Autosomal it includes DNA inherited from both sides of my family – with no way of telling what percentages I received from what parent.  

If I were to have any complaints with the genetic composition determined by 23andMe.com it is that it is not specific enough.  As you can see there is a large segment (70.8%) that in labeled ‘nonspecific’ European.  I would like to have that segmented percentage broken down.  Certainly there are populations that can be tested in these European countries that can offer a bit more in regards to ethnicity suggestions.  Other testing companies don’t seem to have a problem with this.

23andMe.com matched we with 991 relatives, two 2nd cousin relationships (which I knew), two 3rd to 4th cousin relationships (which I didn’t), and many 3rd to distant relationships.  A pet peeve of mine, and it has nothing to do with any testing company, is that many testers hide behind a shroud of privacy never revealing their ancestral surnames or even their own name for that matter.  What is the sense in being tested if you don’t plan on making matches with other people?  I’ve introduced myself to many matches only to have my introduction declined or never answered.  I just don’t get it.

Most of my 991 matches (and this number grows constantly as new testers are matched) will NEVER be linked to my family tree.  The surnames they give do not match my own.  And the distance between us could be too great to make any sort of relationship finding useful.

AncestryDNA

A newcomer to the scene of genetic testing is Ancestry.com’s own AncestryDNA.  AncestryDNA offers a full-range of testing: Y-DNA, mt-DNA, and Autosomal DNA.  The Y-DNA test costs either $149 for a 33 Chromosome test or $179 for a 46.  The mtDNA test will cost you $179.  And combined the cost is either $328 or $358.  The Autosomal DNA test is regularly priced at $99.

Personally I don’t feel AncestryDNA’s Y-DNA testing at the 33 and 46 chromosome levels is sufficient to establish any sort of relationship.  In my opinion this low level of testing can establish too many false leads.  I would think this testing should be amped up to either 67 or 111 levels.  This higher level of testing paints an entirely new picture sifting low-level results while keeping only the best.

My wife and I have both been tested through AncestryDNA.  I paid for the mtDNA on myself, manually entered my Y-DNA results from another company, and took the Autosomal DNA test.  My wife only took the Autosomal DNA test.

AncestryDNA’s Autosomal test reveals a bit more than does 23andMe.com.   With AncestryDNA it is estimated that I am 100% European with the following genetic breakdown: 34% Europe West (Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein – also found in England, Denmark, Italy, Slovenia, and the Czech Republic); 33% Great Britain (England, Scotland, Wales – also found in Ireland, France, Germany, Denmark, Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, and Italy); 16% Scandinavian (Sweden, Norway, Denmark – also found in Great Britain, France, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, the Baltic States, and Finland); 11% Ireland (Ireland, Wales, Scotland – also found in France and England); 3% Italy/Greece; 2% Finland/Northern Russia; less than 1% Iberian Peninsula; and less than 1% Europe East.

These figures are quite a bit different from that suggested by 23andMe.com.  I think AncestryDNA’s suggestions are closer to the truth.  My father is Dutch.  He comes from a long lineage of Dutch marrying only Dutch.  And my mother’s line does have English, Scottish, and Irish with a bit of German… all which are suggested by AncestryDNA.

Because Ancestry.com is such a large company I have many more matches with varying degrees of confidence that there is a common ancestor we share: some as high as 96%.  And the user testees are much more likely to have an established family tree for comparison.  I like that.  

Unlike 23andMe.com I HAVE found new cousins with proven relationships through Autosomal testing.  And I’ve even been privy to new information learned from these cousins – information I would not have come across on my own.   But I have learned nothing new through either Ancestry.com’s Y-DNA or mtDNA testing.

I think AncestryDNA’s claim to fame is in its Autosomal DNA test.  The other tests have fallen to the wayside.  They are still there, they are still being offered, but they are not as popular.

Why is that?  I think most people take the DNA test hoping to discover their ethnicity.  And only the Autosomal test is able to suggest this.  Plus because the price of the Autosomal test is so low compared to the more exhaustive test, it is in better reach for most people financially.

My wife’s own testing was a bit more generalized than mine.  She descends from Central American native Indians that mixed with the Conquistadors.  She is tall, slender, with high cheekbones, dark hair, and definite “indian” features.  AncestryDNA did account for this Indian composition categorizing it as: 57% Native American (North, Central or South American).  This is NOT specific enough.

It was interesting however to see where the other 43% of her genetic composition derived.  Surprisingly it was not all Iberian Peninsula (Spain).  This only made of 8% of her genetics.  Her breakdown was 10% Italy/Greece, 8% Iberian Peninsula, 7% Great Britain, 3% Asian, 3% Irish, 3% European Jew, and less than 1% each: Finland/Northwest Russia, Europe West, Pacific Islander, and West Asian. 

Because I did not feel that lumping all Native Americans into one category was sufficient enough to establish my wife’s tribal composition I turned to a lesser-known company that specializes in this information.  And I wouldn’t doubt that Ancestry.com one day purchases this company because of the phenomenal job they have done with testing native cultures around the world: information that is valuable for summarizing genetic matches.

DNA Tribes

Found at DNAtribes.com, this company also tests the Autosomal DNA inherited from both parents BUT this company compares that DNA with over 1,200 ethnic groups found in 32 regions around the globe!  But would this test reveal my wife’s Native American tribal composition?  

Soon after testing we received a 10-page PDF report detailing my wife’s genetic profile.  The first 6 pages explained the process with colorized maps showing the various tribal regions.  And they are quite detailed.  The 6th page explains the scoring methods used by the company to suggest match likelihood with any given native culture.  The final 4 pages were labeled as strictly confidential in nature.  Page 7 shows all alleles tested and their results.  Page 8 shows native population match results with map.  Page 9 shows global population match results with map.  And finally page 10 shows world region match results with map.

According to the report my wife tests high for: 

Otomi (Ixmiquilpan Valley, Mexico); and Hna Hun (Otomi) (Hidalgo, Mexico); Huastec (Hidalgo, Mexico), amongst others.  These are all Mexican native cultures.  But there were also a few Peruvian cultures that matched.

Interesting to say the least.  My wife remembers hearing her father talk about the Huastec culture, how his side was descended from this mountain-dwelling people.  Her father is quite tall, perhaps the mixture with Europeans originated in his lineage.  Her mother is much shorter.  It may be assumed, not proven, that her lineage descends from the Otomi culture.

The Huastec culture is a pre-Columbian culture that constructed cities and step pyramids, carved elaborate sculptures, painted pottery, but wore no clothes.  They were defeated in 1450 by the Aztec armies under Moctezuma and again in 1519-1530 by the Spanish Invaders who quickly converted the natives to Roman Catholicism and/or sold the natives into the Caribbean to be used for slave labor.
Because my wife knew about the Huastecs, to a certain degree, and because DNA Tribes placed the Huastec culture near the top of my wife’s ethnicity, it proves the reliability of this test.  We found the test to be extremely accurate in its predictions.

The test costs either $139.99 for a 22 marker test OR $159.99 for a 26 marker test.  

The one thing I didn’t like about the test results was the way the results were delivered.  Instead of pointing us to their website where we could log-in and view the results, they emailed a PDF report.  This report if lost cannot be reclaimed.  It is lost forever.  I had a hard time finding it for this article.  I have since printed it out.

I feel DNA Tribes is able to give those lumped into “native cultures” by other testing companies a more accurate picture of their genetic composition.  It certainly did for my wife.  She now knows with a near absolute certainty what ancient tribal cultures she descends through.  

FamilyTree DNA

Then finally there is the grand-daddy of them all… FamilyTree DNA.  There is a reason that 90% of all genealogists recommend FamilyTree DNA.  I will be exploring these reasons in Part 2 of this article.


Monday, February 24, 2014

Photo Mystery Solved

I am a trained Screenwriter. One of the first things we are taught, and what separates "good" screenwriting opposed to "novice" or "bad" screenwriting is the adage, "pictures speak louder than words". We write in terms of visuals allowing the pictures to describe the context or subtext.

In Genealogy, pictures hold the same meaning. We can get a lot out of a picture oftentimes breaking through an unidentified picture through visuals contained within: people, place, and setting.

One such picture is the following (resized for web composition).



I scanned this photo in at a 600dpi resolution saving file as a TIFF. The TIFF format is a lossless file type meaning that no information is lost; and saving at 600dpi is a good quality resolution capturing the most pixels from the original photo.

I use both Windows and Mac computers. One program that I really like is PhotoScape. PhotoScape was initially written for Windows PCs but they recently released a Mac version, though the Mac version has fewer features.

PhotoScape allows me to zoom in, play with contrast and brightness, amongst other tweaks. There are many other programs for both Windows and Mac computers that do the same thing, I just use PhotoScape as a matter of preference.

The above photo was found in an inherited collection. It was not identified. We had absolutely no idea where the photo was taken or whose grave monument was pictured. Neither did we know who was pictured facing away from the camera.

I decided to put the photo to the test. First thing I did was to auto-level and auto-context the photo. I then zoomed in on the stone to see if I could read any words thereon. I could see some very light text that I had never seen before: this can't be seen on the photo in its regular square size.

Playing with the brightness and contrast I was able to make out a few words inscribed on the stone:

SARAH WELLS and WM BULL, the latter transcribed twice, both above Sarah's name and beneath it.

I took these names to FindaGrave.com to see if anyone had created a memorial for either name AND to see if perhaps a photo had been taken of the same stone as pictured.

To my luck and amazement... it had! http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=pv&GRid=19421740&PIpi=17253609

The stone is taken from about the same point of view. You can see the same markers behind the monument. It is definitely a match.

This monument belongs to William BULL (1689-1755) and his wife, Sarah Wells BULL (1694-1796). They were buried in Hamptonburgh Cemetery, at Orange County, New York.

The monument was erected by William and Sarah BULL'S descendants.

The next thing to determine is the date of the photo. I will contact the Hamptonburgh Cemetery to determine the date of the monument's erection. That might be a clue as to the photo's date. Perhaps, and my best educated guess, the woman pictured in the photo was one of the descendants who donated funds to have the monument erected.

I will post more as I know more. At least I have taken a previously unknown photo, unmarked in any way, and determined who it belongs to. I have posted this photo the memorial page of William and Sarah BULL found at FindaGrave.com.

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Seeking Michigan - a Treasure Trove of Resources for Your Michigan-based Ancestors

Family historians with Michigan-based ancestors have something to cheer about... it's called, Seeking Michigan.org.

Seeking Michigan is run by the Michigan Historical Center and it includes Archives of Michigan research guides, indexes, a blog, and other resources all from the Michigan Historical Center and Archives of Michigan staff.

As a genealogist I use this phenomenal website for two main reasons.

MICHIGAN DEATH RECORDS 1897-1920

First, Seeking Michigan's most popular online collection is its Michigan Death Records, 1897-1920. With more than a million records, and with new material being added on a regular basis, this database allows the download of death records for your ancestors if they occurred in Michigan AND if that death took place in the time frame given.

There are some records post-1920.

And this is FREE. There is no cost to you. What a wonderful tool! I have personally downloaded hundreds of death records from this Seeking Michigan database. The records for download are high-resolution scans of the actual death certificate, not a transcription.

You can search using an advanced tool that allows you to refine the results by County. If you don't find your ancestor at first, try entering name variations. Here is what I do:

1a) search by known last name
1b) search by known last name and county
2a) search by first name
2b) search by first name and county

I had a recent client who hired me to find her Great Aunt who was rumored to have come to Grand Rapids, Michigan around the early 1900s. No trace could be found of her.

Without much to go on I decided to search Seeking Michigan's Death Record database. Perhaps she died early. It was worth a shot.

I entered her known last name. Nothing.

I then entered her first name which was in Dutch. A few results, but no matches.

I then reran the search but used English variations of her given Dutch name. This time I was successful in finding her. Though there were numerous matches, one stood out from all the others because, fortunately, her maiden name was also inserted on the death certificate.

MICHIGAN 1884 AND 1894 CENSUSES

Another important database that I use frequently is the Seeking Michigan 1884 and 1894 Census.

While the 1890 Federal Census was destroyed leaving a large gap between the Census years of 1880 and 1900, this gap can be overcome with the Michigan 1884 and 1894 Censuses if available: some of the 1894 Michigan Censuses are missing (destroyed).

This database can help the family researcher determine children born and/or deaths during this 20 year gap (1880-1900). I have found so many important clues using this database that I might otherwise never have found.

There are several other databases found on Seeking Michigan but the two mentioned in this article are the two I utilize the most, both for myself and for my clients.

So bookmark SeekingMichigan.org and browse the numerous resources to be found there.