BGS Newsletter June 2021 Vol 119 Issue 84

Pres: Jim Winston Vice Pres: Elly Pollock

Recording Secy: Mary Roesler Treas: Open
Librarian: Larry Dennis, Property Manager: Open
Reporter: Melanie Ferguson
BS Property Manager: Mark D. Sharron
BGS Website:
www.baytowngenealogysociety,weebly.com
THE BAYTOWN GENEALOGY SOCIETY, INC. E-Mail: piper965@aol.com
ORGANIZED 1996 - 501 (©)(3)
©
NEXT BGS MEETING

The next BGS Meeting will be at the

Sterling Municipal Library on Monday, June 14, 2021 at 10:00 Am – 12:00 PM
We are limited to 15 people only!!! – No Exceptions!
Please sign up with Jim Winston – piper965@aol.com
Bring your Mask – don’t leave home without it!!
Hopefully we can resume our normal meetings in September - May

Heritage Circle Members

Larry and Lise-Marie Dennis – Supporter

Major Contributors: BGS have worked hard to make the society live up
Larry and Lise-Marie Dennis to its mission statement:
• To educate
Roy and Sandra Whitaker
• To teach
Joy Huntington
• To promote the interest and preservation of
(Thank You!!)
records
• To encourage historical research
• To support the Baytown Genealogical
Research Library

During the past 25 years members have volunteered

2021-2022 Membership Renewal 10/1/21
President’s Message
In September, The Baytown Genealogy Society, Inc.,
(BGS) will be celebrating its 25th anniversary. Since
our beginning 25 years ago, the members of the
hundreds of hours in making this organization a
success and a place of enjoyment and education for
its members and the citizens of Baytown.
With the destruction of our research library last year
and the impact of the Covid-19 virus, we are striving
to continue to adapt by hosting meetings at the
Sterling Municipal Library here in Baytown. While
our library holdings are currently in storage, it is the
hope of the membership that a new facility will be
forthcoming to ensure our longevity and service to
its membership and the community. Without
locating a research facility in the near future, the
organization will be forced to liquidate all of its
thousands of research holdings and equipment.
Without a research facility, the membership will
continue to learn and engage knowledgeable
speakers. The loss of a research facility will be
detrimental to our membership and to the
community.
We thank you and appreciate your understanding
during these difficult times while we endeavor to
locate a new facility!
James Winston
Jewish Research
Surnames were not changed at Ellis Island by the
clerks nor by the passengers themselves. Folks
used other names on passenger manifests, names
were misspelled at departure points in Europe.
There were instances of anti-Semitism when Jews
changed their names to obtain employment or entry
into colleges or golf clubs with “No Jews Allowed”
policies. Jews usually have several given names
and nicknames, and often in different languages due
to migration, geopolitical boundary changes, cultural
traditions, spelling or transliteration, levels of
education, or even the linguistic background of a
clerk recording an event.
The JewishGen Communities Database contains
information about 6,000 Jewish communities in
Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. This
database contains each community’s name in
various languages and political jurisdictions during
different time periods.
In the search results, hover your mouse over a town
name for additional information, or click on the icon
next to a community’s name to see a full page of
information – including maps, Jewish population
figures, and links to JewishGen resources for that
community.
(For a database of all one million localities in Europe,
North Africa, and the Middle East, search the
JewishGenGazetteer:
https://www.jewishgen.org/Communities/LocTown.a
sp
Here are a few more databases to search:
Unified Search
https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/all/
The JewishGen Family Finder
https://www.jewishgen.org/jgff/
The Family Tree of the Jewish People
https://www.jewishgen.org/gedcom/
The JewishGen Holocaust database
https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/Holocaust/
The Jewish Worldwide Burial Registry
https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/Cemetery/
Jewish Records at the Family History Library
https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/FHLC/
Ellis Island Foundation database
https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/EIDB/
The JewishGen USA Database
https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/USA/
The JewishGen Germany Database
https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/Germany/
The JewishGen Austria-Czech Database
https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/AustriaCzech/
The JewishGen Belarus Database
https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/Belarus/
The JewishGen Poland Database
https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/Poland/
The JewishGen Romania Database
https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/Romania/
 Scottish Prisoners of War
In the early 1650s, England defeated Scotland in
the Battles of Dunbar and Worcester. Almost
500 Scottish prisoners were transported to
America to become indentured servants—which
is why some of you might find Scottish surnames
in colonial New England genealogical records. In
2013, an archaeological discovery in Durham
led to the piecing together of their story: how
they came to be prisoners and how they fared in
the New World.
Of the prisoners captured there, some 300 were
sent to New England in the “John and Sarah“.
The ship was ordered to depart on Nov 11, 1651,
probably left in early December and arrived in
New England sometime in early 1652. Prisoners
on this second ship, the “John and Sarah” were
to be delivered to Thomas Kemble of Boston,
who would place the prisoners in indentured
positions to pay for their voyage.
“Banishment from Scotland to Colonial
America”
by Dr. David Dobson
(Excerpted from the Directory of Scots Banished to
American Plantations, 1650-1775. Revised and
Expanded Edition, by Dr. David Dobson.)
Banishment means exile from one’s hometown or
country and has long been used as a punishment for
political, religious or criminal offences. Initially
banishment and transportation were restricted to
serious crimes such as rebellion, rape, or murder, but
later was used for petty crime such as
theft. Banishment could mean exile from a specific
burgh or locality, but generally it included
transportation to the colonies and sale there into
indentured servitude for a period of years.
From the 1620s convicts were shipped from England
to the American colonies and from 1660s from
Scotland. During the seventeenth and early
eighteenth centuries transportation or banishment to
the colonies was controlled by the governments of
England and Scotland. In Scotland the Privy Council
had the sole right to banish people from the country
until 1671, when the High Court of the Justiciary--
which also had such powers-- was established.
The vast majority of Scots found in the Americas
during the seventeenth century arrived there as
prisoners of war, who as rebels were
transported. This started during the Wars of the
Three Kingdoms, 1638-1651, when Scots captured
by the Cromwellian forces, especially at battles such
as Preston in 1648, Worcester in 1650, and Dunbar
in 1651, were transported and sold as indentured
servants in New England, on the Chesapeake, and
in the Caribbean. Similarly, the attempts by the
Stuart monarchs to impose Anglicanism on Lowland
Scotland, which was overwhelmingly Presbyterian,
eventually led to armed uprisings by the more militant
Presbyterians known as Covenanters. The
Covenanter Risings were quelled by government
forces and a number of prisoners, considered rebels,
were banished to the American Plantations or
colonies. On a couple of occasions Covenanter
prisoners were released from jail and taken to
America by emigrant groups. In 1685 Scots Quakers,
bound for East New Jersey, were allocated
Covenanter prisoners, as was the Scottish Carolina
Company when it sent emigrants to Stuartstown,
South Carolina, in 1684.
The political union of Scotland and England in 1707
opened up the former English colonies in the
Americas to Scottish trade; consequently, the
opportunity to ship prisoners there increased. The
first occasion occurred in 1715-1716, with a Jacobite
Rebellion when about 600 prisoners were shipped to
the colonies for sale as indentured servants. Later in
1746, in the aftermath of the final Jacobite Rebellion,
about 1,000 men, women and children prisoners
were transported.
The British Parliament’s Transportation Act of 1718,
officially The Act for the Further Preventing Robbery,
Burglary and other Felonies, and the More Effectual
Transportation of Felons, allowed courts to sentence
convicts to 7 years transportation to America. This
statute this was modified in 1720 to authorize
payment to merchants to ship convicts. During the
eighteenth century several hundred non-political or
non-religious felons were shipped from Scotland
bound for the American Plantations, though they
represented only a small fraction of those shipped
from contemporary England or Ireland. Some felons AGSL Digital Photo Archive: South America
in the jails or tollbooths of Scotland applied to be http://uwm.edu/lib-collections/south-america
transported to America rather than rot in jail. After
1783 the British Government, no longer able to BYU Historical Photographs
banish people to the Thirteen Colonies, increasingly http://lib.byu.edu/collections/historical-photographs
used Australia as a destination for felons and political
prisoners. British Library: Picturing places
http://www.bl.uk/picturing-places
To purchase this book, visit Genealogical.com, Calisphere
3600 Clipper Mill Road, Suite 229, Baltimore, http://calisphere.org/
Maryland 21211 (800) 296-6687 CARLI Digital Collections
http://collections.carli.illinois.edu/
You may also want to check out their other books on Cincinnati Digital Library
“banished” emigrant records: http://digital.cincinnatilibrary.org/digital
Directory of Scots Banished to the American Plantations, 1650- Cornell University Library Digital Collections
1775. Second Edition
http://digital.library.cornell.edu/
The Complete Book of Emigrants in Bondage, 1614-1775
Digital Library of Appalachia
http://dla.acaweb.org/
More Emigrants in Bondage, 1614-1775
Flickr
Marriage Records? http://www.flickr.com/
Sometimes you cannot find a marriage record or
other documents showing their relationship. It may German National Archives
be lost or never existed. Many just lived together for https://www.bild.bundesarchiv.de/dba/en/
so long they were considered married. Some had
Getty Research Institute Digital Collections
private ceremonies. Benjamin Franklin and his wife http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/digital_collections
Deborah were never married, yet they lived together
and had children. They are buried next to each Harvard Digital Collections
other. Deborah was previously married to a man http://library.harvard.edu/digital-collections
who abandoned her. They didn’t have a marriage
record because there wasn’t one. Library and Archives Canada
https://www.bac-
bac.gc.ca/eng/collectionsearch/Pages/collectionsearch.as
You can check census records. The 1900 US Federal px
Census asks how long a couple has been married. No
date is given but you will have an idea, especially if Library of Congress Digital Collections
children’s ages are shown. You may want to check http://www.loc.gov/collections
old newspapers. Sometimes local churches may
have marriage records. National Archives Catalog
http://catalog.archives.gov/

Do You Have Pictures? National Library of Ireland Digital Photographs

There are many digital photos being saved, some are http://www.nli.ie/digital-photographs.aspx
of people, activities, businesses, etc. Check them
out for locations of where your ancestors lived. National Library of Scotland
http://digital.nls.uk/gallery/category/photography
New York Public Library Digital Collections
http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/
University of Washington Libraries: American Indians of
the Pacific Northwest
http://content.lib.washington.edu/aipnw
YIVO Digital Archive on Jewish Life in Poland
http://polishjews.yivoarchives.org/
In Ireland, vital records (birth, marriage, death) are called
“civil registration” records. The Republic of Ireland and
Northern Ireland began keeping separate civil
registrations in 1921.
Churches were the first organizations in Britain to
record births, marriages and deaths. In 1538 Henry
VIII issued an order to every parish priest in England
and Wales to start keeping records of christenings,
marriages and burials. The government began
recording vital events later, when civil registration
began in 1837.
All the genealogy megasites have English and Welsh
church records, usually organized into record
collections covering all of England or Wales or
individual counties. (Many church records on
Ancestry and MyHeritage were licensed from
FamilySearchl)
FreeReg http://www.freereg.org.uk/
Free access to church baptism, marriage and burial
records from parish registers.
Discovering English Ancestors - http://dea.byu.edu/
GENUKI http://www.genuki.org.uk/
This site provides information on genealogy resources
Old Bailey Online http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/
Free Genealogy Websites
https://lisalisson.com/free-genealogy-websites/
Native American Burial Rituals
Native American burial rights were as diverse as the
various tribes. Some preferred not to touch the bodies
after death and turned the task to others. Some spent many
days preparing the body for the afterlife.
The Aleut people placed the body on a skin covered frame
where they died for a period of 15 days. On the 16th day
they embalmed the body and buried it.
The Arapaho tribe usually buried the body the same day
they died, and they were buried in their finest traditional
dress.
The Apache women began wailing at the time of death.
Members of the family would cut their hair to shoulder
length and heated horse bone and hung the hair in a tree.
They washed the body and combed their hair. Red ochre
and pollen were used to mark the face. The body and their
favorite possessions were taken by horse to the hills. They
placed the body in crevice in the rocky hills. They killed
the horse and placed it with the body along with their
belongings. All of those mourning went back to their
village by a different way from which they came.
When the Cherokee felt that they were dying, would
gather their children and give them advice and passed on
traditions. The bodies were placed in mounds surrounded
by rocks. The women would later bring baskets of dirt and
cover the bodies. In later periods, the bodies were buried
close to their homes or below the flooring. There followed
a seven day of mourning. Everything was considered
unclean and was either burned or destroyed. Even the
family members were ritualistically washed.
The Creeks wrapped the bodies in blankets and propped
them in sitting positions and set out eating utensils. They
laid canes on top of the graves and then covered them with
clay. The mourners would put bear grease and wood ashes
on their faces and then grieved loudly for four days.
The Navajo were afraid the spirt would return and buried
the bodies quickly in their best clothes. They did not want
to have contact with the bodies and used only a select few
from the village, usually slaves, to handle them. They
would put an extra set of clothes, food and water in the
grave. The mourners would walk around the grave in a
counterclockwise motion and sprinkle dirt into the grave.
The Sioux painted the body in red and dressed it in fine
clothes, then wrapped it in a buffalo robe with food inside
near the head. The body was either placed in a tree or on
an elevated platform and would remain there for a year
before it was buried.
Other Superstitions
The custom of wearing black became more popular during
the Victorian era. It was believed that black made the
living less visible to the spirits accompanying the
deceased. If the family could not afford the black clothing,
it was acceptable to wear a black armband. It was
generally acceptable for women to wear black for two
years. During the last six months they were allowed to
add some trim o grey, white or lavender. For other
members of the family who passed away, the morning
period was less.
It was also customary to close the parlor drapes. Even
neighbors often closed their drapes.
One custom was to touch the deceased hand or heart or to
give them a kiss. It was thought that a kiss would keep the
living person from dreaming about the deceased.
If the deceased was carried out headfirst, it was thought
that they might be calling another family member to
follow them, so they were always carried out feet first.
If the deceased lived a good life, it was believed that
flowers planted on the grave would bloom otherwise,
weeds would grow.
Mirrors were covered to prevent the spirits from entering
the portal to the other side. If not covered, it was believed
that the spirt would be stuck and that the mirror would
have to be broken to release the spirit.
Adoption Websites
Searching for your adoptive information requires a lot of
time and work. Get a current copy of every bit of
information the state where the adoption took place makes
available. Laws may have changed so if it has been
several years, check again as laws may have changed.
Review every bit of information and ask questions of
everyone who may have information and are willing to
share. They may be more willing to share now.
Review the current DNA tests and see if there is one which
will help provide more information. The autosomal DNA
test may be offered by different testing companies. Test
will each.
Share your information as many states have changed their
access. Also search databases and add your info if you
have already done so in the past.
There are online support groups which you can join and
share DNA information.
National Council for Adoption:
https://www.adoptioncouncil.org/
This site includes adoption-related news and legal notes,
plus links to other adoption resources.
Origins Canada:
https://www.originscanada.org/
Categorized links ca help with your US or international
search.
AdoptioNetwork: http://www.adoption.org/
Info for everyone in the adoption “triad”-adoptees, birth
parents and adoptive parents.
AdoptionSearch: http://www.adoptionsearch.com/
Adoption-focused search engine.
Bastard Nation: http://www.bastards.org/
Activist site for adoptees to learn about legal issues. The
site’s action alert has the latest on adoption-related news
and court decisions.
Reunion Registry: https://www.reunionregistry.org/
Free online registry affiliated with international locator.
Shea’s Search Series:
https://www.plumsite.com/shea/series.html
Detailed and well-organized guide to looking for birth
families, from deciding to search through petitioning the
court.
Adopted.com: https://www.adopted.com/
A full-service adoption resource site and registry. Users
can create a profile and search the registry by place and
date of birth, among other options.
Adoptees’ Liberty Movement Association:
http://almasociety.org/
The ALMA’s site offers a national registry for adoptees
and birth parents. Registrants place in a databank the sex,
date of birth and place of birth for the child, which is the
extent of common information known by the adoptee and
natural parents.
American Adoption Congress:
https://www.americanadoptioncongress.org/
An international organization, the AAC is devoted to all
aspects of the adoption and birth family search process.
Donaldson Adoption Institute:
https://www.adoptioninstitute.org/
Although no longer an active organization, an archive of
the DAI’s work remains online and accessible.
Findme.org:
http://findme.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=Main
Easy to search registry, organized by birth date.
Also, there are many books on adoption. Check your local
library for lists.
Did Your Ancestor Come to the US Alone?
When your ancestor immigrated alone, it is more difficult
to research. Make sure that you have all the records
available. Be sure to include those that are not online. If
they died, check to see if there are death certificates or
registers. If so, try to obtain copies of the original
documents. The original documents may contain actual
information that was not included in other documents.
Also, do not forget to check microfilm collections. You
may also want to write to local churches where they settled
or had children baptized. Church records may contain
information that is not readily available online. Look for
census records, deeds, witnesses, etc. Jewish and Italian
immigrants often lived in neighborhoods and were active
in social organization that reflected their original origins.
Also, look for various spellings of the name. Often a DNA
test may be helpful.
Names Passed Down
While you may think a name was passed down from a
family member, you may find that it was not a close
relative. In researching, you may find that the name was
from several generations back. Be sure to check farther
back in your ancestry. Do not assume it is from the first
name you find. It may be another person you have not
found. You may never know for whom the person was
named. You may locate a middle name but not the first
name. It may just remain a mystery.
The Great War
Have you forgotten WWI, also known as the Great War or
the “forgotten war”? Most remember WWII more that
WWI. The US really did not want to get involved.
Following the sequence of events, the US finally engaged
in the war.
While you may not have given much thought to the term
“World War”, the following involvements, will clarify
your thinking! It will also give you some thoughts about
not finding ancestors of that period.
1914
July 28: Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia
Aug. 1: Germany and Russia declare war on each other
Aug. 3: Germany and France declare war on each other
Aug. 4: Germany declares war on Belgium, United
Kingdom declares war on Germany
Aug. 6: Austria-Hungary declares war
on Russia, Serbia declares war on Germany
Aug. 12: United Kingdom and France declare war
on Austria-Hungary
Aug. 22: Austria-Hungary declares war on Belgium
Aug. 23: Japan declares war on Germany
Aug. 25: Japan declares war on Austria-Hungary
Aug. 28: Austria-Hungary declares war on Belgium
Nov. 2: Russia and Serbia declare war on the Ottoman
Empire
Nov. 5: United Kingdom and France declare war on
the Ottoman Empire
1915
May 23: Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary
Aug. 21: Italy declares war on the Ottoman Empire
Aug. 28: Italy declares war on Germany
Oct. 14: Bulgaria declares war on Serbia
Oct. 15: United Kingdom declares war on Bulgaria
Oct. 16: France declares war on Bulgaria
Oct. 19: Russia and Italy declare war on Bulgaria
1916
March 9: Germany declares war on Portugal
March 15: Austria-Hungary declares war on Portugal
Aug. 27: Italy declares war on Germany, Romania
declares war on Austria-Hungary
Aug. 28: Germany declares war on Romania
Aug. 30: Ottoman Empire declares war on Romania
Sept. 1: Bulgaria declares war on Romania
1917
April 6: United States declares war on Germany
June 27: Greece declares war on Austria-
Hungary, Bulgaria, Germany and the Ottoman
Empire
Aug. 14: China declares war on Germany
Dec. 7: United States declares war on Austria-Hungary
Adapted from the July/August 2014 issue
of Family Tree Magazine
red indicates the Central Powers and blue indicates
the Allied Powers.
Fold3 has some of the best military records – (requires
subscription)
Look to state archives
Research military history and maps
Why Did Your Ancestors Move?
Weather events may have led your ancestors to move
because of property loss, occupational change, illness or
the death of a loved one. Disasters or other weather-
related events have also caused genealogical record loss.
Major Epidemics Caused Death and Relocation
Keep in mind the following epidemics when researching
your ancestors:
Timeline of Major US Epidemics
1721 smallpox (New England)
1770s smallpox (Pacific Northwest)
1772 measles (North America)
1793 to 1798 yellow fever (recurs in
Philadelphia)
1832 cholera (New York City, New Orleans and
other major cities)
1837 smallpox (Great Plains)
1841 yellow fever (Southern states)
1849 cholera (New York City)
1849 cholera (New Orleans, St. Louis and
along the Mississippi River)
1850 influenza (nationwide)
1851 cholera (Great Plains)
1852 yellow fever (nationwide, especially New
Orleans)
1853 yellow fever (New Orleans)
1855 yellow fever (nationwide)
1862 smallpox (Pacific Northwest)
1865 to 1873 typhoid, yellow fever, scarlet
fever recur (nationwide)
1867 yellow fever (New Orleans)
1878 yellow fever (lower Mississippi River
valley)
1916 polio (nationwide)
1918 Spanish influenza (nationwide)
1949 polio (nationwide)
1952 polio (nationwide)
You may want to add the following to the list:
2020 – Covid 19
2021 – Covid 19
Are You Prepared for Disasters?
Do you back up your data? How Often?
Do you keep copies in the cloud? Out of town?
Do family members have a copy?
Remember a tornado can accompany a rainstorm?
Hurricanes are destructive in the Southern states.
So, you have a copy of your data backed up in a cloud
but what about the boxes and notebooks of paper,
charts, copies of birth certificates, marriage licenses,
death certificates, etc.? Within minutes strong
winds from a tornado or hurricane can obliterate
your entire home and even cause death. Will
someone in the family be able to access your hard
work and carry on or at least donate it to a local
genealogy society or library? Do they have
passwords, etc. to access your data? If your hard
work cannot be accessed or found, why do you
bother to spend time and money on creating your
genealogy????? Think about it!
 The Baytown Genealogy Society, Inc.
Membership Application
Individuals and Households

Membership: New Renewal Date:

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*Includes annual membership plus a household member, if (Check level in box at left)
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Make checks payable to Baytown Genealogy Society and
mail to: The Society needs your help. How would you like to help?

Treasurer
Baytown Genealogy Society, Inc.
PO Bo 2486
Baytown, Texas 77522-2486

The Mission of The Baytown Genealogy Society Inc. is to help and serve the charitable, educational and scientific needs of its members
and that of the general public in the study and research of their family heritage and the historic settings in which their ancestors lived. Our
mission includes regular meetings which are open to the public with a variety of programs and seminars on all aspects of genealogical
research. Also. the society’s extensive reference library is open and available to the public providing many resources for researching their
family history.
The Baytown Genealogy Society, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) Organization Dues run October 1 to September 30 of each year. Dues
paid in June-September will be applied to the following dues period of October thru September 30 of the following year.