Indexing Conundrum

I've been trying to work on a few leads for my Dellibac project lately (you can read more about that here or by clicking on the Dellibac tag) so I started a page by page search through familysearch.org for the Kankakee County, IL probate records for 1880-1881 to try and find an estate for Alexis Dellibac. Alexis, husband of Felicite nee Gaudreau, is thought by family members to have been the father of Moise, our current brick wall. None of this collection currently has an index, it's simply a browse page by page option, so as I was going through the pages I started to feel like I was wasting an opportunity to get at least a small part of the collection indexed since I had to go through them anyway. So I started writing down names and page numbers. Just a very simple index. I'm slightly more than halfway through the 1880-1881 book now but I'm finding some interesting things.

First, I'm finding some interesting things being recorded in the probate book. I think most of us have enough experience to know that probate books are not make up entirely of estates alone. The jurisdiction of the probate courts tends to vary from state to state, but usually they include at least estates and naturalizations but often you'll also see cases of insanity, adoption, and cases of moral charges, such as rape. All of these things have turned up in the book I'm currently looking at but a new one for me also turned up; Applications for a Certificate of Good Moral Character. Unfortunately, the two cases I've seen so far do not say what justifies the receipt of such a certificate, but apparently it involves someone nominating someone else to the court and presenting evidence that the presentation of the certificate is warranted. The court will then make a decision as whether or not they agree and if so, a certificate is awarded. I suspect we can find more information in the Illinois statutes, but so far I haven't been able to find an available version online to check. If I come across one though, I'll be sure to post any additional information that may be found.

The second issue I've encountered while going through this probate ledger is a much more common occurrence -- dealing with clerk handwriting. What do you do when the clerk's writing habits cannot help you to determine which letter is which while transcribing? Here's my example:

John Perry was nominated for a certificate of Good Moral Character by William Potter. As he appeared to the court, he gave his name with a middle initial. But is it an "H" or an "N"?

*

Based upon other names I've seen in the ledger, this looked like how the clerk wrote the letter "H" in the past.

**

But just a few pages back, I saw this:

***

It's clear that the clerk was not consistent in his writing habits. So using past examples to help determine whether John Perry's middle initial was "H" or "N" is going to be difficult. The "H" used for his middle initial is comparable to both the "H" used for the name Hamilton, as well as the "N" used for Northman. But the name Nathaniel is shown without the bottom loop so he has at least two ways of writing his upper case "N"s. So since John's Perry's initial is shown with that loop, I'm probably leaning more towards "H" as his middle initial. I even checked for John in Kankakee County in the 1870 and 1880 censuses on ancestry.com. The only John Perry enumerated in Kankakee Co. in 1880 is a one year old child living with his grandparents. In 1870, there is an adult John Perry in Kankakee County, but no middle initial is shown. Thwarted again, lol!

But what are your thoughts?

[* "Illinois, Probate Records, 1819-1970," images, Familysearch (https://www.familysearch.org: accessed 2 July 2013), Kankakee [County], 1880-1881, volume 8, page 339 (stamped). From Kankakee County Clerk's Office, Kankakee.
**"Illinois, Probate Records, 1819-1970," images, Familysearch (https://www.familysearch.org: accessed 2 July 2013), Kankakee [County], 1880-1881, volume 8, page 315 (stamped). From Kankakee County Clerk's Office, Kankakee.
***"Illinois, Probate Records, 1819-1970," images, Familysearch (https://www.familysearch.org: accessed 2 July 2013), Kankakee [County], 1880-1881, volume 8, page 317 (stamped). From Kankakee County Clerk's Office, Kankakee.]

Writing Research Plans - the Dellibac Example (part one)

Ok, so most of you know that I've been working on trying to isolate where my French-Canadian immigrant ancestor, Moise Dellibac, came from and hopefully be able to identify his parents in the process (or vice versa). The previous post with my Dellibac brainstorming can be found here . This is my first attempt at working with French-Canadian ancestors so much of the work is new. But anyone who has done any ethnic research knows that the very first step in working with immigrant ancestors is to start with any records they left in the US. You can't just jump ahead to their home country and hope to get lucky. So since Moise settled in and died in Kankakee County, Illinois that's where I've started.

To help myself, and maybe even others who need help staying on track and developing and following a plan, I've decided to start researching the Dellibacs by the book. That is, following the formal practices I learned in courses like ProGen and intensive tracks at the Institute of Genealogical and Historical Research and the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy. The first step in this process was to conduct a record survey of what is available in my target areas. Since I'm starting with Illinois records first, I focused on the counties of Kankakee, where Moise died, and Iroquois, where he is first found in US census enumerations. My results can be found here and here.

The next step in the process is to start the research plan, taking into account all of the resources uncovered in the record survey. The plan MUST begin with a clear definition of the research problem or objective. In this case, my objective is to find Moise Dellibac's father/parents. I've determined that my primary objective is to find his parents. With that information, I can presumably figure out the area they were from.

Once you have your objective clearly defined, you can start building your plan of attack. For help in this area, I am especially grateful for chapter 14 of ProGen by Elizabeth Shown Mills, "Problem Analyses and Research Plans" written by Helen Leary, CG, CGL, FASG. On page 269, Helen describes the process of writing a research plan as being developed in three stages : analysis, refinement, and logistics. Once you've gone through all three stages, you'll have a final plan which will include lists of all the records that are searched at every repository you go to, every piece of information you're looking for at each of those repositories, and any additional information or anomalies involved in one or all of those record searches (ie. is the county you're working on a burned county and if so, how will you get around that problem). Also, if you need to report your findings in a particular format you would put that in your plan as well.

Finally, if you are crafting your plan for a client you're going to have time constraints and you need to make that known in your plan as well. This will greatly effect your plan because you may not be contracted for enough time to allow you to access and view all of the records and resources you uncovered in your record survey. Instead, you'll have to conduct an analysis of your survey and pull out which records you think will be most helpful; meaning, which resources would be most likely to produce the desired results to allow you to solve the research problem you stated at the beginning of your plan. If all goes well, these records will win the game for you. If not though, you'll have to go back to your record survey and devise a new plan, then request additional time from your client.

...on to part 2...

Finished the first research report for my Delibac project

I've finally put together my research report for my Delibac family project. The objective is for me to find out where exactly in Quebec Moise Delibac came from and if I can, try to find out who his parents were. The family assertion is that he is a son of Alexis Delibac and Felicite Gaudreau but up to this point, we had no concrete evidence for this. Here is my initial post on the problem/s I am hoping to work out.

I'm not a computer person so I did my research report on paper, and need to type it up and get it on the site. But I was thinking that maybe instead of typing up my research report, instead I would try to work up something like a tips and a template post, where I would give some tips and instructions from what I've learned in the past, and then post examples from my own report to show how I incorporated those tips. That might be more help to people than seeing a report for my own personal project. So I'm going to try and tweak my report this weekend and get my alternate idea up here soon. Keep your eyes open!

Kindof a funny new development

Alright, so I've been working on the initial records survey for a project focusing on finding the origins of Moise Dellibac, and hopefully proving his parentage in the process. My first step here is usually to scour the web for info and resources and that includes checking the website of the local genealogical society. The earliest confirmed location in the US that I've found for Moise is in Iroquois County, IL and as it happens the county has their own society with a pretty informative website . In the database section, they have included indexes to several collections of county records. So, like the diligent family historian that I am, I figured I should probably check all that could apply to my Dellibac family. For the most part, I came up empty which isn't really surprising since it looks like they were only technically in Iroquois County for perhaps the first few years of the 1850s before their home became part of Kankakee County. But I did come up with one rather interesting hit. Of all the records that they could have shown up in on this site, the potential father of Moise (the man who has been believed to be his father by the descendants of Moise's daughter, Josephine) appears in the Index for Criminal Cases. That's right. They don't appear in the tax list, they don't appear in the marriages section, or the online grantee-grantor index, not even the probate or civil court records. The criminal case files. The online index doesn't give any specifics about what Alex Dellibac was being charged with, but there are two continuous case numbers given in the index so I'm hoping there may be some interesting information included within at least one of those files.

It's just funny to me. In all of my initial searching during this first step, I get a hit in the criminal case files for the county. Yeah, that sounds about right for my family :)

Thinking of trying something new

Ok, a while back ancestry.com was running a promotion where they would allow access to a handful of World Collection databases for free. One of those databases that was open was the Drouin Collection. For those who aren't familiar with this, it's a set of Catholic church records from primarily Quebec (though I understand there is a sprinkling of records from Ontario and other denominations included on the original film though not in the ancestry collection). The records stretch as far back as the 17th century and go all the way into the 20th. It's a huge, huge collection of the births, marriages, and deaths of French Canada and this was the first time I was able to take a look at any of it since I don't have a subscription to the World Collection, and my French is a little rusty. What happened though, is that my interest turned towards my Dellibac French Canadian ancestors and now I'm thinking I might try and run with it. There are some issues though that have been and/or will prove to be a bit sticky....and I'm not just talking about the fact that it's been more years than I prefer to count since I took high school French. Here's what I know so far:

The Run-Down-

Moise Dellibac first appears in the 1855 Illinois state census living in Iroquois County. He appears to be the head of a fairly young family with himself aged 30-40, a female aged 20-30 (presumably his wife, Anastasia Mombleau), and two males under 10. In 1860, the family is found in Kankakee County (which was formed from part of Iroquois County) with "Moyse" aged 35, his wife age 27, and three boys Frs H 4, Henry 2, and Charles 3 months, all born in Illinois. Illinois took another state census in 1865 where "Moses" is shown in Kankakee County, as of 40 and under 50, a female of 30 and under 40, and three boys 10 and under. In 1870, they are again in Kankakee County; Moise 45, Anastasie 38, F Xavier 15, Henry 13, Charles 11, Moise 4, Narcisse 2, and Josephine (my Great Great Grandmother) 1 month. The last census appearance for Moise is in 1880, where the family is again in Kankakee County. Moise is now 61 years old and his wife "Nestage" is 50. They have 6 children living with them; Xavier 24, Henry 22, Moses 14, Narcisse 11, Josephine 10, Carine 7.

Where the problems begin-

Moise's death: Anastasia was living alone as a widow in 1900 and most family members show that Moise died in Illinois (probably Kankakee County) in 1896. This information is unconfirmed and unsourced. An attempt to find a death record was attempted earlier this year, but there is no record of a death for him at the county courthouse for anytime before or after 1896 and he is not listed in the pre-1916 death index for the state.

When they came over: Through the range of all of these enumerations, the children are listed as having been born in Illinois but both parents were born in Canada. No passenger list has been found for either Moise or Anastasia (with her maiden name or as Moise's wife). No marriage for Moise and Anastasia has been found either in Kankakee or in the Illinois Statewide Marriage Index. This doesn't necessarily discount their marriage however, since the marriage records of Iroquois County for the period covering the 1850s and early to mid-1860s were burned in a courthouse fire in the late 1860s. They could have come separately, perhaps with their parents or siblings and then married in IL or come together as a newly married couple from Canada and started their family once they got here. Either way, there is no marriage record found and no passenger list for either of them.

Names: Also, the names are an issue when searching for this group. Moise is often found as Moses, Dellibac can be spelled any number of ways (including Delibac, Delliback, Deliback, De Lubac, etc.). Anastasia is found with all manner of weird spellings, both for the full given name as well as for a shortened version, like Nestage, sometimes with a random "z" thrown in for no reason. When trying to search for her family, to look for relatives who may have lived nearby, Mombleau could be Monbleau, Mombleaux, Montbleau or Montbleaux, etc. Also, let's not forget that since they were French Canadian, there may be what's known as a dit name that I'm not aware of. I've heard these French call names in several of the NGSQ articles that are case studies for primarily Louisiana families but since I haven't researched anyone of French ancestry before, I've never had to figure this part out. But this may be an issue here and without knowing what that dit name might have been, I don't really know what name they could be under, especially where the passenger list search is concerned.

Possibilities-

Anastasia is found in Kankakee County in the 1900 census living alone as a widow. She is shown as the mother of 10 children, 5 then living, and her immigration year is given as 1848. She is still there in 1910, no immigration year is given, and thanks to familysearch.org I can see that she died in Minnesota in 1919 (her son, Moise/Moses was living there at the time of the 1920 census so presumably she had gone to live close to family right before her death). While this record has been indexed on that site, very little information is shown and it is undetermined whether information was included on the original and just not transcribed onto the website or if the pertinent information regarding birth was omitted by the informant. Either way, I need to order the record just for confirmation of her death, if for nothing else. But that still doesn't help me too much with figuring out when they came to the U.S. and where in Quebec Moise had come from.

For Moise's place of birth, it may be helpful to track down the marriage and death records for the children. However, several of them died between 1855 and 1900 so I will definitely need to comb the death records to find out who died when and then go into the marriage records to find out when the girls married and who they married. The marriage records might end up being the most helpful since place of father's birth was on the marriage registers in Kankakee County around this time. Though Josephine's marriage records (she married a couple of times) don't get much more specific than Canada or French Canada, she was one of the youngest children so it would be worth going after the vital records for the older kids to compare. For all of this, the fact that the family was Catholic might end up helping me pinpoint all of the vital records, if I can find out which church they attended and then whether the records are still extant.

Also, though no death record was found for Moise, he may have had a probate case opened up. When I was in Kankakee earlier in the year, just for a brief look around, I was able to take a look at Dellibac land transactions in the deed books for the years around that questionable 1896 death date for him. There was some activity in that pre-1900 time frame to suggest that something might be going on, but I would like some additional time to see if a probate file was opened. If not, more time to go into what was happening with the land to help me narrow down when he could have died.

Another big thing with this group is that they were constantly living near extended family members. A family group with an older Dellibac is shown directly below Moise on the IL census enumeration sheet of 1855. Alex and Felicite (Gaudreau) are presumed to be Moise's parents by family members, though again, no one has presented any sourced information on this. His first appearance on census enumerations also happens to be the sheet of the Iroquois County IL census of 1855, which could be an indicator that they might have come over together though, like Moise, no passenger list has been found for him. A Joseph Dellaback is also shown on that 1855 census page in close proximity to Moise and Alex as a male age 20-30 with a female the same age. He cannot be found on schedules after that.

So I think that's the full round-up of info for now. I'm not sure if I want to jump into this, it's going to be a lot of work, and I'm not sure how successful I'll be since there are a few things here that will be new to me. But I really would like to be able to at least narrow down when Moise died a little better, and find out when he might have come over, whether it was as a married man or single and he married in Illinois, where in Quebec he came from, and whether Alex and Felicite were really his parents.

...And this all snowballed from one free week of access to one of the World Collection databases on ancestry.com. Kindof hard to think that if all this happens from one database, what would happen if I had full access to the collection? Yikes!

Not having much luck

While I'm waiting for all of my records and microfilm to show up, I thought I'd try to find some additional passenger lists on ancestry. While most of my immigrant ancestors, the Kleinerts, the Boldas, the Siegmunds, all came from parts of pre-20th century Germany, I also have one branch of French Canadians who came over and settled in Kankakee County, IL. There has already been some extensive research on this family, the Dellibacs, including a good deal of research on their Quebec origins. But I was hoping to find a passenger arrival record for the immigrant ancestor, believed to be Moise Dellibac. I've done a quick search on ancestry and came up dry so this one will be a little more complicated than finding the record for Julius Bolda. Maybe this can be my interim project...you know, another one. Apparently I just can't sit still and wait. In any case, this sounds much more interesting.