Hopefully this gets easier with practice: a possibly academic exercise in citing a microfilmed scrapbook

I spent a good hour trying to figure out how to cite one of the documents I received from the North Dakota State University (NDSU) Library Archives after locating it in the index. Here's the index entry:

"North Dakota Biography Index," database, NDSU Library Archives (http://library.ndsu.edu/db/biography/ : accessed 19 April 2014), entry for Mrs. John Ringquist.

I ordered a copy of the files from the archivist and received two newspaper clippings in PDF. They document a tragic accident that killed my 2nd great grandmother Anna (Nelson/Nilsdotter) Ringquist. They also provide information on her birth date, marriage year, church attendance, her female children's spouses as of 1924, and a hint as to her burial location. Less concretely, the provide a glimpse into the hard life of a homesteader and a woman who was a pillar of her small community. I'll probably talk more about Mrs. John Ringquist in a future blog post.

Figuring out how to cite the newspaper clippings took me a long time, probably because I tried to start at the wrong end - I skimmed through the templates in my database software and got more and more confused. What is a collection? A manuscript? Just "filling in the blanks" clearly wasn't working for me.

So I went back to the beginning. What is the purpose of citing sources? According to Evidence Explained [1], the purpose is two-fold: (1) To record the location so I or someone else can find it later, but also (2) to "record details that affect the use or evaluation of that data" (p. 43). Based on the index information above, I looked up the "publication" in Worldcat: North Dakota Necrology and started from the top - highest abstraction to lowest:

1. NDSU Archives is a repository for books and microfilms of interest to North Dakota history
2. They hold an archival microfilm of Necrology--North Dakota, 1920-1926 - the original book is held by the State Archives.
3. Necrology--North Dakota, 1920-1926 appears to be a bound, unpublished manuscript with hand-written page numbers and notations
4. I received digital copies of page 122 and 128 from Vol. 4 of the manuscript.
5. Those pages contain newspaper clippings with the subject, newspaper names, and publication date hand-written above each article.

It's pretty clear, now, what information I should convey. The first footnote would be something like:

"Ringquist, Mrs. John, Sheyenne Star Farmers Provost, New Rockford-N.D., 23 October 1924," North Dakota Necrology, vol. 4, p. 122; NDSUA microfilm CT253.N42 1996; digital photocopy provided by North Dakota State University Archives, Fargo.

I think this conveys not just where to find this (the NDSU Archives) but also what document I am actually looking at - a digital copy of a microfilm of a newspaper clipping.

This exercise may turn out to be purely academic, because I suspect what I'm supposed to do at this point is try to track down the original article context from the Sheyenne Star Farmers Provost...

[1] Mills, Elizabeth Shown. Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace. Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Company, 2012.

North Dakota archives: indexes and finding aids

Since my ancestors were largely pioneers and immigrants, like many Americans especially in the West, online genealogy resources seem to be both crucial and hard to find. Even agencies in small states can provide resources critical to genealogists even if their collection isn't completely digitized.

My 2nd great-grandparents John and Anna Ringquist immigrated to the United States from Sweden in the 1910s (I've posted John's naturalization record in a prior post). North Dakota's naturalization records from this period aren't digitized online, but there is a searchable index hosted by the North Dakota State University (NDSU) Archives. The records include nationalizations that occurred in North Dakota district courts between 1873 and approximately 1952. One tip I've learned is that it helps to get very creative with spelling - John's declaration of intent to become a citizen ("first papers") was indexed under Ringqvest.

Once the records are located in the index, they can be retrieved in person at the North Dakota State Archives (operated by their historical society), or an archivist will send a copy for a small research fee. In the case of Mr. Ringquist, the archivist used information found on the petition for naturalization ("second papers") to locate and send me the first papers as well.

Another great resource is the North Dakota Biography Index. This index accesses a large collection of compiled who's-who's, town histories, and biographical newspaper clippings. Although the sources are generally derived, they can be a good starting place for locating original records. In this database I found two items of interest: (1) Nnewspaper articles discussing the tragic death of Anna Ringquist, and (2) an index of the town history Oberon, N.D.: Echoes of the Past which appeared to contain biographical sketches of my ancestors the Woolley family and Simon family who lived in North Dakota at the same time as the Ringquists.

For the newspaper articles, I ordered a copy from the NDSU archives. Using the biographical information, I could locate Anna Ringquist's death certificate in the North Dakota Public Death Index. I also went year-by-year to locate John Ringquist's certificate as well.

For the town history, I borrowed the book through my public library Interlibrary Loan system. That is a topic for another blog post.

There are so many other North Dakota archives resources that I haven't explored yet!

My experience with the USCIS Genealogy program

UPDATE: This blog post has an update at the end.

My great-grandfather Hugh A. Thomson was born in Canada and emigrated to the United States in his early 20s. One of my earliest finds on Ancestry.com was an image from the US Naturalization Records Index:

Source Citation: US Naturalization Record Indexes, 1791-1992, database and images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : downloaded 4 April 2014); entry for Hugh Albert THOMSON, birth date 21 Feb 1903; citing National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Washington, D.C., Index to Naturalization in the U.S. District Court For The Northern District Of California, 1852 - ca. 1989, Microfilm: M1744, Roll: 151

At the time not knowing the difference then between an index and an original record, I added it to my tree as a citation of his birthdate, birthplace, and naturalization facts and went on my way.

Soon, though, I got curious. It seemed like I had so much information - a petition number, an alien registration number... could I find more? Web searching lead me to the US Citizenship and Immigration Service Genealogy program. The USCIS is responsible for keeping many federal immigration records between the years 1906 and 1956.  This includes naturalization certificates, petitions, alien registration files, and Visa files. There is some overlap with the holdings of the National Archives, and the USCIS holds only record copies of some records that NARA has originals for. However, I could not find Hugh's records in the NARA online search.

Due to privacy concerns the USCIS indexes are not searchable by the general public. The process they follow is that the public submits an index search request on an ancestor (if the ancestor's birth date is less than 100 years ago, they will also ask for proof of death). The fee for this service is $20 as of Apr 2014 and the search can be ordered and payed online. After about 3 months, the searcher will receive a letter in the mail with the list of results from the 5 kinds of files that USCIS stores. The searcher will log back in and order copies of the records, which range in price from $20 to $35 depending on if the record is microfilmed or hard copy.

If a researcher is sure that they have correct record numbers, such as a C-file number (which is the number at the top of the index card I show above) or an AR-number (the Alien Registration number at the bottom of the card), the researcher can skip the index search process and order the record directly. However, if the record cannot be found, there is no refund!

Of course, I had to make this process difficult in two ways: (1) I lost my index search result letter, and (2) I mis-typed the Alien Registration number into my index search result request, so I did not receive a confirmation of the existence of that file!

Thankfully, the USCIS Genealogy program has both an email address and a support phone number. I emailed them and after about 1 month received a response that included a scan of the letter. Considering the response I expected was "Tough tootie, give us another $20," I thought that sending a copy of the letter was very gracious and good customer service. I have sent them another email notifying them of my second screw-up so we will likely have to wait another month to see their reply. I will likely end up ordering the AR-file with the number I have.

In short, although the process is very slow and costs more than ordering vital records, I think that the USCIS Genealogy program can be a very valuable resource for people with recent immigrant ancestors. I have already ordered a copy of the certificate of naturalization (the original records of federal naturalization certificates are at the National Archives) and should have that in a few months. I will provide another update then.

UPDATE #1 16 Apr 2014: Just hear back from the USCIS Genealogy archivists and if they can find an Alien Registration record to match the number I sent them, they will include it in the record search I've already ordered.

The Ragu Challenge: Johan Olson Ringquist Birth

One of the genealogy blogs I follow closely is Dear Myrtle. Her tips and pointers are always clear and helpful although I have not embraced the video bandwagon. I started this blog partially to enter The Ragu Challenge which is practice for making persuasive arguments about family history events (not to mention citing my sources without the aid of a "fill in the blank" program). Perhaps as a side-benefit some cousin will find this blog and help me research my Swedish roots!

1 Event

Johan Olsson Ringquist, my 2nd-great grandfather. was born on 10 December 1874 in the parish of Ivetofta, Kristianstad, Sweden.

2 Paragraphs

Johan first appears in the parish birth record for Ifvetofta, Kristianstad, Sweden with a recorded birth date of 10 December, 1874[1]. The informant for this record is likely either Johan's mother or one of the witnesses listed in the record. The household examination of Nr. 2, Gualöv Parish from 1892-1899 asserts that Johan Olson Ringquist was born on 74/10/12 (year, day, month) in Ifvetofta[2]. In 1908, Johan filed a naturalization petition at the District Court in Eddy County, North Dakota and asserted that his birth date was the 10th day of December, 1874, also in Ifvetofta, Sweden[3].

From this evidence, we can conclude that Johan Olsson Ringquist was born in Ivetofta Parish, Kristianstad County, Sweden in 10 December, 1874. All three documents are original records (including the petition for naturalization which is noted as being original and not a record copy) and the birth record was likely informed by a first-hand witness to the birth.

[1] Ivetofta Parish (Kristianstad County, Sweden), Födelse och Dopbok [Births and Baptisms Book], 1861-1879, vol. CI:7, p. 131, Johan, födelse 10 Dec 1874; digital images, Swedish Genealogy - ArkivDigital (http://www.arkivdigital.net : downloaded 16 Mar 2014).

[2] Gualöv Parish (Kristianstad County, Sweden), Husförhörslängder [Clerical Survey], 1892-1899, vol. AI:10, p. 12, line 23, Johan Olsson Ringqvist; digital images, Swedish Genealogy - ArkivDigital (http://www.arkivdigital.net : downloaded 16 Mar 2014).

[3] Eddy County, North Dakota, District Court Naturalization Records, vol. P-9, p. 52; photocopy provided by the State Archives of the State Historical Society of North Dakota, Bismark, ND.

3 Sources

Eddy County, North Dakota. District Court Naturalization Records. State Archives of the State Historical Society of North Dakota. Bismark, ND.

Gualöv Parish (Kristianstad County, Sweden). Husförhörslängder [Clerical Survey], 1892-1899. Digital images. Swedish Genealogy - ArkivDigital, http://www.arkivdigital.net : 2014.

Ivetofta Parish (Kristianstad County, Sweden). Födelse och Dopbok [Births and Baptisms Book], 1861-1879. Digital images. Swedish Genealogy - ArkivDigital, http://www.arkivdigital.net : 2014.

Starting a blog...

...is usually the first sign that my interest in a hobby is waning! Hopefully this blog will buck the trend.