City Directories

This is the time of year when many of us send holiday cards to friends and family.  We use phone books, either paper versions, or, more increasingly, online versions, to find the addresses we do not have.

Prior to the creation of phone books, people and businesses were listed in city directories.  We have city directories available from 1844 to present, although some years are unavailable.

Although the census is helpful, using these directories allows us to have a more complete picture of where our ancestors lived.  They also allow us to find out where those ancestors hiding on the census lived, so that we can search the proper enumeration district.

Those people with ancestors in Syracuse are more lucky than most in relation to city directories.  Many of the directories tell if a person has died, married (and to whom) or moved (including forwarding city) over the past year.  If you relative suddenly disappeared over the course of your research, the city directory may be able to tell you what happened.

Have you used city directories in your search?  Have they helped you break a brick wall?  Tell us about it in the comments section below.

New York State Comptroller’s Office Tax Assessment Rolls of Real and Personal Estates

Although our collection focuses on Syracuse and Onondaga County, we also hold items of interest for those without ancestors from the area.  One of these collections is the New York State Comptroller’s Office Tax Assessment Rolls of Real and Personal Estates (excluding New York City).

Beginning in 1799, all tax commissioners were required to send copies of the county’s tax rolls and a list of unpaid taxes to the State Comptroller’s Office.  If you had an ancestor who owned real or personal property in New York between 1799 and 1804, these lists, available on microfilm, will give you information on the real estate or personal property and taxes paid (or unpaid as the case may be).

For more information on what is available please view our new finding aid.

Happy Hanukkah!

Happy Hanukkah to all of our patrons celebrating the Festival of Light!

If you are researching your Jewish ancestry, we can help!

A few resources we offer are:

• Churches, Synagogues and Mosques : miscellaneous churches and organizations, newspaper clippings
• Frumah Packard Cemetery, Syracuse, N.Y.
• Ancestry.com, in-library usage only, which contains databases such as
• Jewish Transmigration Bureau Deposit Cards, 1939-1954 (JDC)
• U.S: Boston Arrivals of Jewish Immigrants from HIAS Records, 1882-1929
• U.S.: Selected Jewish Obituaries, 1948-2002

New to tracing these ancestors?  Hit a brick wall and need new ideas?  Here are some guidebooks that could help.

• From generation to generation : how to trace your Jewish genealogy and family history by Arthur Kurzweil
• Discovering your Jewish ancestors by Barbara Krasner-Khait
• Avotaynu guide to Jewish genealogy by Sallyann Amdur Sack

Have you searched your Jewish ancestry?  Do you have any tips to share with others?  Please post them in the comment section below.

Create Your Medical Family Tree

Did everyone see the Post Standard article yesterday titled “How to create your medical family tree“?  Tomorrow, Thanksgiving, is National Family History Day and the article recommends talking with your relatives about their health history.

By getting three generations of history, you can see trends that may be important to you and your descendents.  Diseases such as diabetes, cancer and heart disease can, but do not always, run in the family.  You should discuss what you have found with your doctor.  In order to make talking with your doctor easier, the Sugeon General has created My Family Health Portrait, an easy to use site that will generate reports for you, for free.  You can save the information to your computer or on Microsoft’s Health Vault.  For a list of questions, view the bottom of the article or print this guide.

Have you prepared a health history?  Why or why not?

Preparing for Thanksgiving

Our hours this week:

Wednesday: 11am – 5pm

Thursday and Friday: Closed

Saturday: Back to normal

As you celebrate Thanksgiving this week, remember to bring family group sheets to be filled in, to write down the stories you hear and to write down the traditions you and your family have for the holiday.  This is also a wonderful time to bring a tape recorder or digital video recorder and interview relatives.  Although it may not seem like it now, in the future, your descents will want to know how you and your family celebrated holidays such as Thanksgiving.  Then, on Saturday, come visit us to find sources that will prove the names, dates and stories you now have.

Technology for the Genealogist

The Central New York Genealogical Society held a program Saturday on new technology for genealogists.  Here are a few more technologies you may be interested in:

• eBook Readers.  Whether Sony, Nook, Kindle or iPad, you can do more than just download genealogy books, you can use it to assist in your research.  These devises all allow the user to upload pdf documents.  Most genealogy programs all you to save your charts as a pdf.  By uploading this to your eReader, you will have all your research with you in a compact, easy to carry device.
• QR Codes.  Quick Response codes are small bar codes that are scanned by a smart phone camera, decoded by a reader on your phone and then take you to a URL or show you text.  In genealogy these can be useful in a multitude of ways, such as allowing other genealogists to see your blog or surname interests from your business card.  Additionally, Timeless Footsteps has just created a QR code you affix to a tombstone, allowing others to learn more about the person buried there.  This business card sized plaque will allow others to see photographs, life stories and find connections to other researchers.  It even connects the person to information on FamilySearch and Ancestry.  FOr further QR code information, view Thomas MacEntee’s posts.
• GPS.  Not the genealogical proof standard, but global positioning system.  GPS mapping technology is currently being used to help genealogists find cemeteries and grave sites.  By having an exact coordinate, it is much easier to find the location of a grave site than by wandering up and down rows of tomb stones, particularly if your ancestor does not have a stone.  A helpful guide to GPS mapping, written by Michael T. Booth, is located here.
• RootsTech.  If you are interested in not only learning more about the combining of genealogy and technology, but also helping to drive it, a new conference is being held in February in Salt Lake City.  RootsTech is going to look at current and emerging technologies and how they can help genealogists.

What technologies do you use for your research?  Which would you like to use?

Lucy Blanchard Tombstone and Civil War Records

Photograph from http://localhistory.morrisville.edu/sites/cwrt/blanchard.html

On Saturday, the tombstone of Lucy J. Blanchard was unveiled at Oakwood Cemetery in Syracuse.  Lucy was a nurse during the Civil War.  Upon her death in 1911 she was buried but did not get a tombstone.  For more information on Lucy, please visit this page.

Are you researching people who were involved in the Civil War?  We can help!  Some examples of sources we have are:

• In the library, you can use our Civil War database.  This database indexes Onondaga County soldiers and sailors incluing regiment information. The records are from a database compiled by the late Robert Nostrant.  Explanation of codes can be found by entering the word [codes] in the NAME field. (23,485 records)
• View Syracuse newspaper articles on the Civil War and obituaries on NewspaperArchive.com, available at home with a library card through our database page.  We also have these Syracuse newspapers on microfilm in the department.
• Not sure if your ancestor was a veteran?  Check the 1890 Union Veterans and Widows of Union Veterans of the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps on Ancestry.com (in library only).  Additionally, the 1910 census asked if the person had served in the Union or Confederate Army or Navy.  You can view the 1910 census records on HeritageQuest.com or Ancestry.com (in library only) or on microfilm in the department.
• Ancestry.com also has a tremendous amount of Civil War collections you can search.  For further information, view the listing here.
• We also have books on Civil War genealogical research, both in the Department and on the third floor of the library in non-fiction.  To search the catalog, go here.

What records have you had success with while searching your Civil War ancestors?

Welcome to the Local History & Genealogy at the OCPL Blog!

Welcome to the blog of the Local History and Genealogy Department of the Onondaga County Public Library.  We are a respected research center with extensive collections on genealogy and local and state history that offers a rare and treasured view of the people, places and history of Syracuse and Onondaga County, New York.

Our blog will introduce you to our collections, databases, and exhibits, as well as examples of how to do research using the items we own.  We will also alert you to genealogical related happenings in the Onondaga County area.  Please comment and also let us know if there is anything you would like us to post on.