A Sobering Visit

It was a sober day in NYC eight years ago when we visited the 9/11 Memorial and Museum and saw Stephen Kevin Tompsett's name on the Memorial and his photo in the Museum display. 

Stephen, an Australian victim, was my 3rd cousin. Robert and I both shed a tear or two during the visit as we heard the stories of victims and survivors of this tragedy.

Stephen's plaque

New York Geneanews

So excited to see this press release from FindMyPast. It's hard chasing New Yorkers from Sydney, Australia.

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Findmypast, one of the world’s fastest growing family history companies, partners with New York’s largest genealogical organization to bring wider access to New York records

Findmypast will be the new home of the New York Genealogical & Biographical Society’s Digital Library, offering millions of records from across the United States.

Salt Lake City, Utah, 11 February 2015. Findmypast and the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society (NYG&B) announced today that Findmypast will host the newly expanded Digital Library of the NYG&B. The partnership will provide additional membership benefits for the one of the nation’s oldest genealogical organizations, while also offering a stream of new content to Findmypast’s growing collections.

When launched, the expanded Digital Library will bring  millions of new records to members of the NYG&B, including the complete U.S. Census, 1790-1940; U.S. Passenger Lists, 1820s-1950s; birth, marriage, and death records from across the U.S.; the PERiodical Source Index (PERSI), and many more. NYG&B members will be able to create an online family tree at Findmypast, and use new features such as Findmypast’s recently launchedHints to accelerate their research.

The partnership will offer Findmypast’s customers access to new records from the state of New York, covering more than three centuries. Major collections that will be added to Findmypast include the New York Genealogical and Biographical Record which has been in publication for 145 years, vital records, bible extracts, cemetery transcriptions, and more.  

The two organizations will also work together to bring new content online over the course of the partnership. “The partnership is a terrific step forward for anyone researching ancestors from New York – we are delighted to join forces with such a historic organization to enrich the family history experience for Findmypast and members of the NYG&B,” said D. Joshua Taylor, Director of Family History at Findmypast. 

“Our agreement with Findmypast offers our members two very significant benefits—vastly more effective searching of the complete run of the NYG&B Record and other NYG&B online collections, and direct access to the growing United States collections onfindmypast.com. Findmypast subscribers also benefit significantly which makes the partnership a strong two-way street and thus sustainable for the long term," said McKelden Smith, the NYG&B's president.

-ENDS-

About Findmypast

Findmypast is an international leader in online family history and genealogy research with customers and operations in the United States, United Kingdom, Ireland and Australia. Its searchable online archive includes over two billion family history records, from parish records and censuses to migration records, military collections, historical newspapers, the Periodical Source Index (PERSI) and lots more. For members around the world, the site is a crucial resource for building family trees and making family connections.

 Findmypast has an unrivalled record of innovation in the field of family history, and works closely with the genealogy community, including local libraries, archives, societies, and other organizations from around the world, to preserve, digitize, and provide access to historical records. Findmypast’s historical records, advanced search tools and accurate data work together to help both professional and budding genealogists discover, explore and share their family stories.

About the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society

The New York Genealogical and Biographical Society has been a primary resource for research on New York families since 1869.  The Society’s mission is to help people of all backgrounds find their places in American history through family history and genealogy. The NYG&B offers educational programs, including a biennial, three-day statewide conference; two essential quarterly publications, including its scholarly journal, the NYG&B Record; and extensive resources online at NewYorkFamilyHistory.org. In January 2015, the NYG&B published its monumental, 856-page New York Family History Research Guide and Gazetteer, the first and only comprehensive guide of its kind in the United States.

How do you solve a problem like Maria?

Mr GeniAus rarely takes to the dance floor but last night found him waltzing down our hallway to pay a visit to my study. He could barely contain his excitement.

The GeniAuses last whirl round the dance floor

We've had over a week of wet weather so Mr G. hasn't been able to get out into the garden and play on his tractor. Co-incidentally he had volunteered my services to help a couple of friends solve some geneamysteries. I didn't want to be distracted so I showed him how to use Ancestry and a few other tools to help these folk out. Once he had done this I suggested that he look for articles about his grandfather  in Trove, that has kept him amused and satisfied for hours as there are lots of snippets about Ern's trotting horses. Mr GeniAus doesn't 'do' genealogy!

Last night Mr GeniAus was very quiet until he came dancing down the hall. He had been on Ancestry (I hope it's ok for there to be two concurrent users on a personal account from the same house) trying to demolish a brick wall that had been bothering us for some years. It wasn't for a close relation but it was a case of someone disappearing into thin air that had us baffled. We could find no trace of Maria Gowans, daughter of Mr GeniAus' 3xGreat Uncle John Gowans, we still can't find her on the 1920, 1930 or 1940 US Censuses.

Why the excitement? He had found this death record from North Carolina:

Name:	Marie Gowans Grosvenor
Gender:	Female
Race:	White
Age:	88
Birth Date:	27 Oct 1867
Birth Place:	New Jersey, United States
Death Date:	10 Dec 1955
Death Location:	Asheville, Buncombe
Father's Name:	Unobtainable
Mother's name:	Unobtainable
Residence:	Asheville, Buncombe, North Carolina

I tried to calm him down but he was convinced, we knew Maria was born in NYC around October 1867 but still..... Off he went down the hallway again, after a while he returned with a marriage to a Charles A Grossenor (transcription error?) from the New York Marriage Indexes and a burial record for Green-Wood Cemetery, New York where Maria's siblings are buried. I checked the grave number for Maria's burial to see if she was near her parents. 

BINGO - she is interred in the same plot. It's the grave we visited in New York last year, it is a fine grave with a substantial memorial but Maria's name is not etched upon it. We were standing at her grave and didn't know it. When we asked at the Green-Wood Office for information on the grave they would not tell us anything, we had to write in and hire a genealogist to get further info, I would have happily paid a small fee on the spot for someone to pull the record. Wouldn't have been nice if they had given some assistance to two Aussies who had travelled halfway around the world in search of their ancestors. I need to purchase the marriage certificate, find a probate record and see what I can dig up on her husband but I am fairly sure that we have found Maria. She married late in life and probably had no offspring so there are no living Gowans cousins for us to find from that branch. 

Mr GeniAus at the Gowans grave April 2013

Back to the dance floor, I think that Mr GeniAus now understands why we genies get so excited when break down a brick wall. He certainly enjoyed his first Genealogy Happy Dance.

Surrogate's Court

A couple of months before setting off on our holiday I sent an email to the Surrogate's Court in New York, the body responsible for maintaining probate files, as their website advised that old files may take up to three weeks to provide. We were anxious to follow up on the probate for Mr Geniaus' Great-great-aunt, Anna Regina Gowans (nee Bouton/Bouten) in the hope it would give us clues to find living relatives.

When we didn't hear from the Court after a few weeks we wrote again; this message also went unanswered. Ten days out from our proposed visit we went back to the website and decided to try emailing another address. What a contrast! We received an almost immediate reply from Ms Suzan Tell explaining that, due to time constraints, we would not be able to see the probate file on our visit but that we would be able to consult the Liber (a book used for keeping a record of specific documents or events having legal effect) for the record).

NY Surrogates Court

When we arrived in New York City our first destination was 31 Chambers Street, the site of the Court. We  found our way to the Records Department where Ms Tell was on the desk. She remembered our email, apologised profusely for her colleagues' lack of attention to our query and procured the Liber for us to peruse. She helped us with photocopying and the application to view the probate file. She promised to scan and email the file to us once it was available.  While we were in the building we also took the opportunity to visit the New York Municipal Archives in the same building in the hope to find some clues on our elusive ancestor, Maria Gowans. Unfortunately we had no luck there.

Ms Tell was as good as her word. A couple of days ago the probate file arrived in the form of several attachments to an email. We are so grateful to Ms Tell for her kind, considerate and prompt attention to our issue. 

The Surrogate's Court is housed in a magnificent old building

Cousins in New York

We did something crazy last week - we collected a rental car in the middle of Manhattan in New York and had to negotiate our way out of the city. People in search of ancestors do silly things.

After negotiating our way down a busy 7th Avenue from Times Square we found 261 West 20th Street, the home of Mr Geniaus' 2xGreat-Uncle, John Gowans between about 1872 and 1882. John's wife and daughter lived at this address up until 1902.

Gowans home - 261 West 20th Street, New York

Our next stop was in Brooklyn and was the reason why we got a rental car to travel south rather than taking a train or 'plane. We wanted to visit John's grave in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn. Through the Brooklyn tunnel we went, down a couple of freeways, around a block or two and we found ourselves at Green-Wood. The first entrance we tried was closed for repairs.

First try at accessing Green-Wood Cemetery

After negotiating a few one-way streets we found ourselves at the imposing main entrance to this cemetery which is a National Historic Monument that is the final resting place for over half a million former New Yorkers. The gateman who welcomed us was incredibly helpful, he gave us maps, guidance and answered our questions with a smile. What a wonderful ambassador he was for the institution; how welcome we felt. He directed us to a computer where we entered the names of the deceased we were seeking; after doing this we were rewarded with printed maps with an x making the exact location of each grave we were seeking.

Inside the impressive main entrance of Green-Wood

A drive around the perimeter of this beautifully maintained cemetery brought us near the location of the Gowans grave. With our map in hand we located the Gowans grave within a few minutes. Of course we got a surprise. The monument was rather grand (although much smaller than some of the others at Green-Wood); as expected we found that John, his wife Anna Regina Bouton and their son James Gowans were interred in  the plot. We discovered that Anna's parents were also interred n the grave but  that Ida Rust (Anna's sister) who was also buried there was not mentioned on the monument.

Mr Geniaus at the Gowans grave

The information etched on the monument has given me extra clues as I continue the hunt to find Gowans cousins in the US.

My next stop was to find the grave of a Gowans niece, Agnes Korwan, who was mentioned in Anna Bouton's probate record that I had found earlier in the week at the New York Surrogate's Court. This grave was more modest than the Gowans one but it gave me approximate dates of birth and death to follow up.

Korwan grave

At our next stop we were looking for the grave of a Gowans Great-niece, Edna Germer, who was also mentioned in the probate document. Unfortunately we could not locate this grave as I imagine there was no headstone.  We then went back to the cemetery office to seek more information about the graves, their inhabitants and to see if we could find any clues to assist us. We did find another Germer grave near the site of Edna's resting spot; I need to find out if these people are relations.

Not the Germer grave I was seeking

The woman who dealt with us in the cemetery office was the complete opposite of the man in the gatehouse. She was as cold, uninterested and unhelpful. After our interaction with this woman we left the cemetery office  feeling rather flat. We had travelled half way around the world to seek information and all she would give us was the email address of a researcher which was not what we needed; we needed advice on how to access the information in the cemetery records and were quite prepared to pay for this help and information. This woman who did not listen to us and did not try to ascertain what we wanted also gave us the 'phone number of the Municipal Archives that we had already visited; I doubt that these archives would give us answers to the questions we had. This woman was an exceptionally poor representative of a most impressive site.

We were most impressed by the standard of maintenance that was evident throughout Green-Wood Cemetery, the gardens and monuments were in good order. The management are to be congratulated on their attention to this historic site.

One of the lakes at Green-Wood

View of Lady Liberty from Green-Wood

Blurred vision brings bounty

My new glasses just don't seem to be doing their work as my eyes are very tired......but the bounty received has made the discomfort worthwhile.

Together with Mr Geniaus, my research assistant, I spent quite a few hours at The Family History Library looking for info about his 3 x Great Uncle, John Gowans, who moved from Scotland to New York around 1860. We are particularly interested in locating any descendants.

As time is short I printed out all the information I have on John and his two children and told Mr Geniaus to ask one of the mob of consultants/volunteers in the library for assistance while I set about other tasks. After talking to three helpers who were very friendly but not too fmiliar with New York records Mr Geniaus realised that he could search the catalog all by himself.

While I found a number of references in newspapers and directories and to John and his son James Mr Geniaus found some promising microfilms and repaired to the US Floor to take a look at them. Bingo! He found three death certificates: one for John, his son James and his wife Anna Bouton. I just googled the cemetery, Green-Wood in New York, in which Anna and James are buried and found that thye have a database of burials on their site. I now have the location of their shared grave. I am sorry that I am not visiting New York on this trip - I guess we will just have to return to visit the graves.

We already knew that there was a daughter Mira or Maria who we have found on three censuses, the latest being 1900 and was hoping to find either a marriage,