Urban Research
Written By: mic
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Jun•
30•14
Emergence of Cities
Early colonial America was a society of small farms and villages
City dwellers from England and Europe tended to settle in seaport towns along Atlantic coast. These towns became hubs for milling, shipbuilding and manufacturing.
The larger colonial towns became market centers and centers of government
1790 New York City had a population of 33,000, by 1860 Manhattan had 800,000 people
1790 Brooklyn had 5,000 by 1860 it had 265,000
1790 Philadelphia had 28,000 people and 565,000 by 1860
Climate, geography and emphasis on agriculture gave the South a slower growth pattern
As inland rivers were settled population expanded inland
Cities of Pittsburgh, Louisville, Cincinnati and St Louis grew on Mississippi and Ohio Rivers
With the opening of the canal system so grew the cities of Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, Milwaukee
On the west coast were Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Salt Lake City
In Texas, by 1860 Houston, Galveston, Austin and San Antonio were cities
By 1910 approximately 72% of all foreign born people lived in cities
By 1920 more than 50% of the US population lived in cities
Research Strategies
No two cities have a common heritage geographically, ethnically, politically, commercially.
One’s knowledge of how to research any city has to be self-taught.
Records in one city may be open in one city and closed in another, lost in another or never existed in another.
Cities all have something in common:
They have a reputation for being difficult to research, they have multi-layered bureaucracies, a sheer volume of records created by masses of people and a lack of indexes to find anything.
Advantages of researching in cities:
City governments require more information from their constituents than rural areas
Know the geography of the city to be researched. Know the approximate part of the city, a street name, an ancestor’s occupation, names of neighborhood churches and schools.
Extensive use of census records and city directories should be utilized.
As cities grew they engourged neighboring smaller wards, towns and boundaries constantly changed.
Different cities have different record keeping practices and locations where those records are kept.
Some records are kept on the city level while others may be kept on a county level.
Different cities have different access polices.
Some records are microfilmed, some not. Some digitized. Some records are available from the Family History Library, some not.
Best way to begin research in an unfamiliar city is to investigate the local library, historical and genealogical societies.
Many cities have research guides and large dedicated research facilities.
Visit the USgenweb.org website for the county of interest. They usually have Internet links to libraries, societies, cemeteries and other places or records of interest.
Printed research guides, if they exist, often give historical context and often give information about the various records available for research in a given city.
Most states have guides which include information about the cities within them.
The most comprehensive guide to printed genealogical records and finding aids was/is Printed Sources: A Guide to Published Genealogical Records published in 1998, edited by Kory Meyerlink.
Other sources useful to researchers:
Ancestry’s Red Book: American State, County and Town Sources edited by Alice Eichholz
The Source: A Guidebook Of American Genealogy (Third Edition) by Loretto Dennis Szucs
Record Types
Census:
Every name indexes have been created on Familysearch.org and Ancestry.com
When the online censuses fail to produce ancestors one might revert back to some of the old time research methods using Soundex, city directories and a book referencing 39 cities in the 1910 census titled: 1910 Index to City Street and Enumerations Districts. To use this last source one must find the ancestor in a city directory in 1910. The book lists streets of the city and the dates the census enumerator visited that street. NARA microfiche M1283.
Descriptions of Enumeration Districts 1830-1950 (156 rolls of microfilm) arranged alphabetically by state, county, city and there under by supervisor’s district. NARA microfilm T1224.
A way to understand answers or supposedly incorrect responses to census questions review the Official Instructions to Enumerators
Miscellaneous census schedules such as mortality, industrial, state censuses
Vital Records
Many vital records(birth, marriage, death) may be found online-
However, there is a back lash from states prohibiting vital records be published online and even making them private or extending the number of years the records may be held private.
Many birth, death and marriage announcements were published in newspapers and may be accessed through online digitized newspapers.
Many churches collected vital records early.
Many Cities began collecting vital records before states.
Birth records often include date, time and place of birth, sex of baby, name of infant and names of parents, sometimes place of birth of parents.
Sometimes birth announcements may have been published in newspapers.
State delayed birth records, particularly, those created in the 1930s for those wishing to establish a birth record so they could apply for Social Security.
Marriage certificates often list the name of bride and groom, date of marriage and officiant.
Sometimes the age and residence of the bride and groom are listed.
Marriage applications may exist and may have more information than the actual certificate.
Marriages or marriage announcements were common features of newspapers.
There may be indexes of marriages published in newspapers. These sometimes are found in digitized newspapers.
Death records in many cities began before the state registrations.
Death certificates often list name of decedent, date and place of death, age, birth date, birthplace, cause of death, names of parents, pronouncing doctor or official, cemetery, date of burial and possibly more.
Newspaper often carried information of violent death, death notices and obituaries. Many newspapers are now digitized and these records searchable.
Social Security Death Index is a list of people who have died who were eligible for death benefits from the Social Security Administration.
While death benefits have been paid since 1937 most names on the lists begin in the 1980’s or 1990’s.
Within the last year or so, the US Congress closed the lists for the most recent three years after a claim has been filed.
These lists are available online on Family Search. Org , Ancestry and several other websites.
Coroner inquests are reports of a coroner into the cause of unusual deaths.
These would be located in a coroner’s office and one of the more obscure records to be able to locate.
Undertaker’s records-these are private business records created by the funeral home about a funeral they may have conducted.
Since the funeral director is the creator of a death certificate it is in these records information from a family is collected for the purpose of completing the death certificate.
The funeral director also is the one in charge of arranging for the funeral as well as the burial.
If a funeral home is no longer in business it is possible they sold out to a competitor, partner or new buyer and their records were turned over to the succeeding funeral home as a part of the sale.
Cemetery records: Cemeteries may be church cemeteries, publicly owned by a city, a family cemetery on private property, an association owned cemetery or a for-profit corporation cemetery.
The owner of the cemetery maintains the records of the cemetery.
In the more modern perpetual care cemeteries the corporation must maintain an equity account to provide funding for the future care and upkeep of the cemetery.
Websites such as Findagrave.com and billiongraves.com contain images of grave stones and information on people buried in cemeteries as well as lists of those buried in a cemetery.
It is common on USgenweb.com websites to list cemeteries in a county and often have lists of burials in the cemeteries.
Maps
Many city maps are described and can be viewed and downloaded from American Memory Project at the Library of Congress.
Among the most used city maps are ward maps, fire insurance maps, and panoramic or “bird’s-election districts and maps of the city at varying dates showing incorporation of new areas throughout the city’s history.
Some states have independent cities separate from the county in which they lie. Dallas, Irving, Farmers Branch, Highland Park etc separate from Dallas County. Plano separate from Collin County.
Naturalization Records
Since many residents of cities were foreign born naturalization records are important to researchers.
Until 1906 naturalization was strictly a function of the courts.
People could be naturalized in any court of record.
A court of record was a court which had a clerk maintaining records.
Such courts might be called County, City, Municipal, Criminal, Police, Marine, mayor’s Court as well as many other names.
People could choose their court or the city may have designated a specific court within their jurisdiction to handle naturalizations.
In October 1906 Congress created the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization to standardize the system.
This resulted in more questions of immigrants and filing duplicate copies of all petitions in the bureau office in Washington.
To find naturalization record one needs the case number.
A comprehensive guide to information for naturalization research sources is in They Became Americans: Finding Naturalization Records and Ethnic Origins by Loretto Dennis Szucs.
Another way to search for people is prior to secret voting are ward voting registers, Precinct block books and other voting records may have been maintained and might be found in municipal archives.
Court Records
Probate records are the most commonly used for identifying heirs.
Some courts have comprehensive master indexes while in other jurisdictions one must search each year for cases.
Docket books can be searched to case file numbers.
Sometimes these cases are housed in warehouses.
Researchers should check with a court as to proper procedures obtaining a case file.
Many cities issue licenses for businesses
Many cities maintained the poor.
If an indigent non resident person were in town, the court minutes might reflect the person being escorted to the city or county line.
Minutes of city courts are usually published and printed and held on file at a city library or other municipal archives.
Federal courts handle cases between individuals in more than one state or interstate commerce or may be courts of appeal from lower courts.
IRS disputes and Bankruptcies are federal jurisdiction.
Claims in the Southern Claims Commission in the 1870’s are federal
Prohibition cases may have been state or federal
Tax, Business, Occupational and Labor Records
Bankruptcy and tax records lead to other records such as professional, business and employment records.
Automobiles, dogs, signs, building permits, occupational, occupant-establishment and an unlimited number of items and services are taxed or otherwise regulated with permits and taxes required and cities collect all they can, therefore there may likely be records of the same still extant.
Many businesses and occupations require licenses which might be filed on the city or county level.
Many national professional organizations may have member lists dating back to the beginning of their organization. Either or both the national and local group may have these lists.
Reporting agencies such as Dun and Bradstreet which began in 1842 maintained records and ratings of financial worthiness of business throughout the US.
These records are still available. Usually these records are found in a financial collection such as at the 5th floor Dallas Public Library.
Museums of industries or history may local or national records of that industry such as maritime museums, railroad museums, cotton, manufacturing, etc
Railroad retirement Board has information on RR retirees after 1939
Many municipalities have personnel records of former city employees especially fire and police.
These records may be in the department or the municipal archives.
A productive source for local genealogical research is community newspapers. Here are found school and church and neighborhood news
Some city neighborhoods may have their own museum, historical societies or library collections.
Ethnic Sources
Genealogical and historical societies collect and preserve local records pertinent to ethnic groups within the city.
Search the Internet for groups of any ethnic group. Search “ethnic organizations” (then your state or city)
Settlement houses and ethnic aid societies sprang up in cities to aid members and recent and old immigrants from the old country.
They offered help looking for jobs, food, shelter, help learning how to assimilate.
They often operated or supported ethnic newspapers
Archives and Societies
National Archives houses millions of court records concerning urban dwellers, court records, naturalization records, military records, cases involving federal crimes, federal land records, tax records, bankruptcy, and more
State Archives houses state tax, military, land, statewide registrations of birth, marriage and death, maps, newspapers, photos
County Archives maintains and preserves the records generated by the county and city agencies-birth, marriage, death records, voter lists, coroner’s case files, township and ward maps, probate and estate records and records of other county
Municpal Archives do not exist in every city but if they do exist they would hold records generated by the municipality serving its inhabitants.
State Local Historical and Genealogical Societies collect records, books and historical items of a local region.
They often maintain collections of genealogical importance and often maintain a library or local interest and genealogy.
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