2019 New Jersey Research Trip: Newark

Posted on November 30, 2019 by Dawn Bingaman

The New Jersey Historical Society in Newark holds the trial notes for an ongoing New Jersey court case that started in 1844 that may involve this researcher’s ancestors. Time for a research trip.

New Jersey Historical Society, 2019.

I have been researching my New Jersey Carson family origins as best as I can from my home in the Pacific Northwest, in earnest, for two decades or more. I had vague hopes of visiting New Jersey to do on-site research for years, but no firm plans. This was the year that everything came together for me, and I was finally able to put my loafers on the ground in a two-part research trip to Newark and Trenton. I planned to visit libraries, archives, and graveyards and otherwise explore the area that my maternal ancestors once called home.

The first part of my trip centered on a visit to the New Jersey Historical Society in Newark. A friend and I flew cross-country to Newark, touching down on a Tuesday afternoon. We spent the remainder of the day getting our bearings and found that the historical society was housed in a lovely old building once known as The Essex Club. The next day, theater tickets in hand, we took the train into NYC for a wonderful matinee production of Hadestown, and dinner at Sardi’s. It was then back to our hotel before nightfall to further prepare. We chose to stay at TRYP by Wyndham, because of its proximity to the New Jersey Historical Society, which was just a short walk around the corner. A Starbucks is located conveniently across the park, too, as well as a Whole Foods.

The research objective that caused me to travel more than 2,400 miles was a case file within the manuscript collection of the Peter D. Vroom (1791-1873) papers. Vroom was a U.S. Congressman and Governor of New Jersey. He also was the attorney who represented a client named Daniel Carson in an 1844 lawsuit (Daniel Carson v. Aaron Eldridge). I have long been interested in New Jersey men named Daniel Carson; John Wesley Carson (1846-1925), eldest son of my 3rd-great-grandfather Charles Carson (1824-1863) stated in a Civil War pension deposition that his grandfather was named Daniel Carson.¹ It is the only clue we have as to the origins of the parents of Charles Carson. He offered no proof and did not elaborate in any way. He made no mention of his paternal grandmother.

Since my research to date had only uncovered two men named Daniel Carson of the correct age and roughly the right place in New Jersey to have potentially been the father of Charles, this was a lead that in my mind had to be followed up on as part of a reasonably exhaustive research plan. Recall that reasonably exhaustive research is the first tenet of the Genealogical Proof Standard.²

This case had been on my radar ever since I had first run across an entry on noted New Jersey author Richard S. Hutchinson’s website in 2004. His website is now offline, but at one time said this in regards to the land and property of Abraham Rogers: “The estate, which ought to have been considerable, was chiefly absorbed in a lawsuit between Aaron Eldridge and Daniel Carson, claiming under different wills, which suit Carson eventually won.”³

In 2010, I learned papers from the trial were held at the New Jersey Historical Society, and I reached out to them several times through email as I recall. When my inquiries went unanswered, I hired a New Jersey genealogist the following year to see if a local contact could make any inroads. The local researcher was successful, and she ultimately visited the library on my behalf to examine the case file. Mostly, I wanted to know whether the file warranted a trip by me. Yes, she said, as it contained hundreds of pages and had testimony from numerous parties, including information about various relations among the parties to Abraham Rogers, and to each of the claimants.⁴ No photographs or photocopies were permitted back then, so the genealogist was forced to review the file and make notes that she thought could be relevant. In her limited time with the file, she found no mention of my ancestor, Charles Carson, but did make note of several clues about another child of Daniel Carson. My curiosity was piqued, and I resolved to visit at a future date.

That date finally arrived on a sunny Thursday morning in September 2019. I had an appointment, set up by emailing the library about a month in advance. I was most eager to get started with my research but library hours were limited to 12pm-5pm. We were able to have a leisurely coffee break while we waited for the library to open. After registering and paying the daily $5.00 non-member fee, we locked our backpacks in the lockers downstairs and took the elevator up to the fifth floor with our laptops, where we were enthusiastically greeted by James Amemasor, the Library Research Specialist. He quickly pulled the box containing the case file so I was able to get to work after a brief orientation. The small library contains both open stacks and an archive, but sadly, no guest wireless access. Fortunately, cell phones are permitted, so I was able to use that to set up a hotspot to access my files and Evernote.

Unlike some other repositories I have visited, this private facility has a restrictive policy on taking photographs of items in their collection. However, it should be stated this policy has thankfully evolved in the past few years to permit at least some photos. Whether an image from a collection is permitted at all and how many images from the collection are allowed appears to me to be at the discretion of the Executive Director, Steve Tettamanti. He graciously allowed me to photograph about a dozen images for my personal use only from the case file. He completed a permission form for each request which we both signed off on. A large watermark was placed over each page, and I was allowed to take a snapshot with my cell phone. A donation of $1.00 per page was suggested. Because of the agreement I signed, I am unable to illustrate any of my findings on this blog, although a few general images that do not reveal specific content were permitted without the above conditions.

We spent three days at the New Jersey Historical Society in all, roughly 15 hours of research time. It may sound like a lot, but I know I barely scratched the surface of what this research library has to offer. Having a few digital photographs of the attorney’s notes was invaluable. I was able to go back to my hotel room in the evenings, and become familiar with the handwriting, which was very difficult to read and transcribe, even for someone experienced in using historical documents from this time period. Literally, with about 20 minutes to spare, I found a mention of a previously unknown relationship that could break this line open. I remain guardedly optimistic that in the future I will be able to get a complete digital copy of the file that may further illuminate the relationships of the people in this community in the early 1840s.

I will cut to the chase here and not leave my readers in suspense. There was not a single mention among the many pages that I read of my ancestor, Charles Carson. Nothing. Perhaps it’s there and I just need more time with the file. Sometimes genealogy research is like that. I now need to move on and consider other hypotheses for the parents of my 3rd great-grandfather, Charles Carson.

Sources

¹ Deposition of Claimant, 20 Apr 1921, John W. Carson (Pvt., Co. K, 35^th N. J. Inf., Civil War), pension no. S.C. 218,816 (invalid), Case Files of Approved Pension Applications…, 1861-1934; Civil War and Later Pension Files; Record Group 15: Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs; National Archives, Washington, D.C.

² Genealogical Proof Standard, Board for Certification of Genealogists (https://bcgcertification.org/ethics-standards/ : accessed 30 Nov 2019).

³ Charles Robbins Hutchinson with additions by Richard S. Hutchinson, “John and Elizabeth (Pearson) Hutchinson Line,” The Website of Richard S. Hutchinson, (http://www.richardshutchinson.com/JohnHutchinsonPearson.htm : accessed 29 Nov 2004).

⁴ Elizabeth Pellicane, New Jersey [(email address for personal use),] to Dawn Bingaman, email, 30 Jul 2011, “Transcription and notes”; personal papers privately held by Bingaman, Washington.

Mueller, Mills & a New Approach to Pension File Transcriptions

Posted on April 22, 2019 by Dawn Bingaman

Inspiration often strikes when and where you least expect it.

I was reading part of the redacted Mueller Report earlier this week when I had an epiphany, inspired by Appendix B of the report, the Glossary. In it are listed persons and entities referenced within the report, in alphabetical order. Alongside each name are a brief description and the role they played in the investigation conducted by Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller into the 2016 Presidential Election and Russian interference into our democratic process.

Read the full text of this important document here.

But this article really isn’t about politics per se. Rather, it is about the insight I gained into how an experienced investigator organizes his information and reports on his research, an important process whether investigating crime, genealogy, or really any other topic that generates a volume of paperwork and digital files.

You see, I am in the position of having acquired two very lengthy and detailed Civil War pension files, one for John Wesley Carson (1846-1925), and the other for his maternal uncle, George Henry Carson (1834-1903), both of whom served in New Jersey regiments. These files combined are over 500 pages in length because a Special Examiner was appointed to investigate the validity of the pension claim in each case, likely due to a suspicion of a fraudulent claim. The Special Examiner himself compiled an index while conducting his investigation which is included with the file. The index briefs I have seen appear to be more in order of appearance and therefore are not as useful to me for my genealogy research. I need a more efficient way of managing the information contained within these files.

Dealing with such large files has left me a bit stymied. I have started and stopped my transcriptions more times than I can count, using various types of software tools to assist me in the capturing of the content of the files. Until very recently, I had settled on a combination of Microsoft Word and Excel, with Excel functioning as a table of contents and Word containing the transcribed text. Although this does work to a certain extent, there still are so many individual files that I struggle to manage them all. I aspire to the Elizabeth Shown Mills method as exhibited on her website Historic Pathways, where she has many examples of written research reports and research notes. In a nutshell, she puts everything pertaining to a single individual or an ancestral couple into a master report she calls “Research Notes”. It seems to me there is incredible value in writing up the research in this fashion and having it available in a single document, along with the source citation for each assertion of fact. Of course, I still will extract information and add it to my localized genealogy database, with various excerpts to accompany each referenced event.

Mills provides a framework, but the mechanics of tracking everyone mentioned, basic biographical facts and salient testimony about persons of genealogical interest eluded me. Until now. Where this all comes together is, with Mueller’s report as inspiration, I am now thinking that I can add an appendix to my transcription that briefly lays out in tabular format all of the people interviewed or otherwise mentioned within the many pages of the pension file, including the names, ages, addresses, and dates that the interview by the Special Examiner was conducted. When compiled, this table will ultimately represent the cluster or nexus of family, friends, associates, and neighbors, aka the “FAN Club”, a term popularized by Mills¹to be researched further to help resolve my genealogical questions about these Carson families.

Who knew that the report on a current criminal inquiry could aid me in my genealogical research? It was not an outcome that I predicted by any stretch of the imagination.

Sources:

¹ Elizabeth Shown Mills, “QuickLesson 11: Identity Problems & the FAN Principle,” Evidence Explained: Historical Analysis, Citation & Source Usage (https://www.evidenceexplained.com/content/quicklesson-11-identity-problems-fan-principle : accessed 21 Apr 2018).

Caroline Carson: A Contented Old Woman

Posted on October 6, 2018 by Dawn Bingaman

A 1914 newspaper account of the life of 84-year-old Mrs. Caroline Carson, a resident of Chambersburg, New Jersey for fifty years

As genealogists, we search tirelessly for records for our ancestors that we then piece together in an attempt to create a narrative about their lives.

No matter how deftly woven, we know their stories are more than just a composite of various facts culled from easily obtainable records: birth, marriage, census, death and burial records. Lacking oral interviews, diaries or letters written in their own hand, how are we to truly get to know the individual as a person, when they lived and died long before we walked on this earth? Since time travel isn’t really a thing yet, I would argue that one way to pick up traces of our ancestor’s lives is to immerse ourselves in their world by reading the newspaper from their hometown. Beginning in the mid-1800s, often even small towns had at least one newspaper that reported on hyperlocal news items. Even seemingly mundane events or activities may have been reported, such as who was visiting whom, who was conducting business in the county seat, who was ailing or admitted to the hospital, who bought or sold real estate, who got an increase in their pension and such. The smallest bit of information can be the one clue that breaks open your research. All of these news items can either be plotted as data points in your genealogy software of choice or on a timeline. The information from these news items can also be used as pointers for research in other record groups.

Sometimes diligent newspaper research will be rewarded with something more than a snippet; you may get lucky and find a longer piece published about an ancestor. I was delighted to have found this 1914 article in an online historical newspaper archive about my 3rd great-grandmother, Mrs. Caroline Carson, of Chambersburg, New Jersey, in south Trenton. Certainly, she was interviewed by the reporter, so this is a first-hand account of her life in her own words, with additional observations made by someone who was in direct contact with her. It was fortuitous that she was interviewed and her story published when it was, as she died the following year.

I shared this news item years ago with several close cousins who are also direct descendants of Mrs. Caroline Carson. Today, I share it with you here as well.

[transcription begins]

MRS. CARSON, AT 84, IS UP DAILY AT 5

“One of the most contented old women in Trenton today is Mrs. Caroline Carson, a widow, who is in her eighty-fifth year and who resides with her daughter, Mrs. Amanda Hart, at 100 William Street, in the Eleventh Ward.

Mrs. Carson is a helpless invalid and has been such for the past five years. Her husband, Charles Carson, who was a sawyer at the old Hutchinson Bow Factory, was killed in 1866, when he fell on the large circular saw and his body was nearly cut in half.

The old lady was born on a farm near Allentown January 17, 1830. She says that she worked on a farm in her younger days and, from force of habit, she cannot sleep after 5 o’clock in the morning and she invariably retires at 8 o’clock. She has lived in the old borough for the past fifty years and says that when she first became a resident the borough was a vast commons, corn fields and apple and peach orchards. She has never ridden in an automobile, nor has she ever been inside of a moving picture theatre. She passes her time in sewing and in reading the Bible.

Her eyesight is remarkably good and her hearing is still acute. She says that since the old borough has grown into a city the noise is somewhat disturbing to her. She says that although she had her residence in the old borough for the past fifty years, yet during the most of that time she practically lived in the country, walking home every day after work and leaving early for work the next day.”¹

[transcription ends]

The article is chock full of details one would never normally learn, and that I would not know without having read her newspaper. I am curious whether she ever did get to see a movie or ride in an automobile before she died.

A summary of facts stated or suggested in the newspaper article, in timeline format:

Notes:

This birth date conflicts with other sources, and it is unclear which is likeliest to be correct. Other dates given for her birth are 02 Jan 1829 (family record, plus her age in at least three Federal census entries suggest a birth year of 1829), 01 Jan 1830 (death certificate). A May 1835 date of birth from her 1900 census entry is an outlier and probably was not supplied by her.
The place of birth stated in this article is new information. From prior research it was clear she married in Monmouth County, New Jersey, thus my inference is that she likely lived in Monmouth County at least for a time prior to her marriage. First marriages often occur in the brides’ hometown in this era.
Residence of Chambersburg tracks with other records.
The year of her husband’s death is incorrect in this account. Charles Carson actually died three years earlier, in 1863. Other blog posts that I have written on the subject of his death are here and here. The circumstances of his death as described are likely to be accurate and align with information discovered previously in other news articles.

¹“Mrs. Carson, at 84, Is Up Daily at 5,” Trenton (New Jersey) Evening Times, 08 April 1914, p. 5., col. 3; digital image, NewspaperArchive (https://newspaperarchive.com : last accessed 15 Sep 2018).

Census Comparison Worksheet Revisited

Posted on March 22, 2018 by Dawn Bingaman

Some time ago, I revised an Excel census comparison worksheet created by another genealogy blogger and provided an example of its use on this site. I have had enough requests for a blank copy of my census comparison workbook that I am making it available for download for those who would like their own copy.

Download blank census comparison Excel workbook
[Revised 20 Jan 2020 to correct date formatting]

Technically what I have created is called a “workbook” rather than a “worksheet” since I added additional tabs to the original sample worksheet for census images and citations. I will use the terms worksheet and workbook interchangeably though to refer to the download.

The main form allows for the input of five different census enumerations for a single family and can be printed out on a standard 8.5 x11 inch sheet of paper if desired. In my 2016 example, I tracked the Charles and Caroline Carson family of New Jersey through the censuses of 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880 and 1900 and extracted that information onto my form. Note that much of the 1890 U.S. census is unavailable and therefore not included in my example. Doing this type of work forces one to analyze each individual census to pull out the relevant facts. Combining multiple census entries into a single form allows for correlation of the data and enables one to make determinations as to whether the correct family has been identified each and every census year.

I thought in addition to providing the Excel download that it may be useful for some to learn how I use the workbook. If you are in that camp, read on. I upgraded from Excel 2010 to Excel 2016 since the original post so the screenshots may look slightly different than before.

How to use the workbook

If a couple has more than nine children, additional rows can revealed. This form actually includes spaces for a total of 14 children. This couple had fewer children, so I simply hid the rows. To unhide, select rows 34 & 45, right-click and choose Unhide from the context menu that pops up.

Unhide rows to reveal the spaces to track additional children

If a child was not yet born, or if someone died and would not have been included in the census for that year, then I shade the cell in the column so I know that they should not have been counted and I do not have to keep looking for them. Select cells under the appropriate column, right-click, and choose the paint bucket icon. Click the down arrow to the right of Fill color and select any color. I use a light gray.

Shade cells of unborn children or deceased persons for easier tracking

If you want to add another sheet to the workbook to include an image for another enumeration, click the plus (+) sign near the bottom of the workbook.

Add another sheet to the workbook

To rename your new sheet, right-click and select Rename. Type in a new name, ideally something short, but descriptive, like the census year.

Rename worksheet to “1900”

To move your new worksheet to another location in the same workbook, hold down the left mouse button and drag it so it appears in chronological order.

Move the new 1900 sheet to the right, after 1880

Change the entire sheet background to white to remove the grid lines for individual cells by going up to the area to the left of column A and above row 1 and clicking there. Your entire sheet should turn gray to indicate that it is selected. Then click the paint bucket and choose white for the sheet color. The columns and rows remain on the worksheet, they just are not visible.

To add a census image, click on the worksheet corresponding to the year of the census. Click in cell B3, then choose Insert > Pictures from your toolbar and navigate to the folder you stored the image. If you just downloaded it, the image is probably in your Downloads folder.

Insert census image at cell B3, just below the census citation

Change it up

This is your workbook, so feel free to edit it accordingly. In the above example, the main form was designed to show a single family across five census enumerations. If using that approach, you would need a separate workbook in the event of a second marriage, especially if there were additional children. If you want to focus on an individual and include all marriages and children from all of those marriages, make those changes.

Here is an example of another workbook I created to show one woman, her two husbands and children by both marriages.

This census comparison worksheet shows extracted information for Jane Amanda Carson and husbands Joseph Kuhn and George E. Hart in five Federal census enumerations (1880-1930).

Final thoughts

Remember that you can revise the workbook to include any census listings of your choice, but I would recommend only including those from 1850 and later where each person in the household is listed. Better forms are available to track censuses between 1790-1840 that only list the head of household, with everyone else represented by a tick mark in broad age groupings. An example by Bill Dollarhide is featured here.

Make sure that you download a copy of each census that your family appears in and attach it to the appropriate tab in the workbook. In genealogy, there is no guarantee that the record you find today will be available tomorrow, or that you will be able to locate it again. Unfortunately, websites do go offline, and sometimes genealogy records are later restricted, so download them as soon as you find them. Keeping everything together in one workbook will make your genealogy research easy to find and easy to review at a later date.

Have fun census tracking! Hopefully the effort will yield new insights in your genealogy reasearch.

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