The January–March 2025 Issue of NGS Magazine is now Available

The January–March 2025 issue of NGS Magazine, Volume 51, No. 1, is being printed and is now available in the Members Only section of the website. Delivery of print copies depends upon USPS schedules. This issue’s theme is the Ohio Valley.

Editor’s Note by Deb Cyprych

In celebration of the National Genealogical Society’s 2025 Family History Conference in Louisville, Kentucky, this issue features articles about unique genealogical aspects of the Ohio Valley. The region includes parts of Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.

The Filson Historical Society is two miles from the conference site. Heather Potter surveys the Filson’s extensive manuscript, library, museum, and photographic collections documenting the Ohio Valley from the early eighteenth into the twenty-first century. The Filson’s research fee will be waived for NGS conference attendees.

Between 1840 and 1891, Lyman Draper travelled throughout the Trans-Allegheny West (including the Ohio Valley) to interview descendants of pioneers and record the history of the frontier between the 1740s and the War of 1812. His 491 manuscript volumes have not been digitized, and few are indexed. Mary E. V. Hill provides guidance for finding family information in the collection.

The federal government’s multiple goals for distributing land in the Northwest Territory led to notable complexity in Ohio’s land surveys and subdivisions. In part 1 of an article about the twelve major subdivisions, Liz Stratton explains their history, survey methodology, and genealogical uses.

As the border between slave and free states, the Ohio River was the target for thousands of enslaved people seeking freedom, and many were assisted in their journeys by the Underground Railroad. Columnist Kathy Petlewski describes source materials that can reveal information about the experiences of fugitives and conductors.

Two articles explore the tax theme of the previous issue. Judy Russell presents a system for finding pertinent federal and state laws in order to enhance a researcher’s understanding of specific tax records. Fiona Fitzsimons details the history and records of the Irish Valuation Office Archives, the Primary Valuation, and the Cancelled Books.

In other columns, Matt Weismantel outlines the value and process of strategic planning for genealogical organizations; Paul Woodbury examines the identification of paternal and maternal sides in DNA matches; and Robert Raymond demonstrates how knowledge of web address structure offers researchers several practical benefits. His column has taken the GenTech name in recognition of the long-term efforts of the group (now part of NGS) to promote the use of technology in genealogy.

The latest edition of the index to NGS Magazine authors and article titles, covering 2005-2024, is now online at ngsgenealogy.org/magazine. Log in as a member and click on Archives to see digital issues (in color for the past seven years).

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Features

Genealogy Research at the Filson Historical Society                                                                                    Heather Stone Potter

Finding Frontier Treasures in the Draper Manuscripts                                                                                  

Mary E. V. Hill, MLS, AG

Ancestral Clues in Ohio’s Unique Land Records: Part 1                                                                            

Liz Stratton

The Laws Behind the Records: Finding US Tax Laws                                                                                  Judy Russell, JD, CG, CGL

Irish Tax Records, Part 2: Valuation Office Records                                                                              

Fiona Fitzsimons

Departments

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE                                                                                                                  

David Rencher, AG, CG, FUGA, FIGRS, FNGS

EDITOR’S NOTE                                                                                                                                          Deb Cyprych

NGS NEWS                                                                                                                                           

Tales & Trails: NGS 2025 Family History Conference                                                                                  Juliana Szucs

REFERENCE DESK                                                                                                                                  

Source Materials for the Study of the Underground Railroad in the Ohio Valley                                          Kathy Petlewski, MSLS

DNA DISCOVERY                                                                                                                                    

Paternal or Maternal? Distinguishing Parental Sides in DNA Test Results                                              

Paul Woodbury, MEd, AG

SOCIETY FORUM                                                                                                                                    

Strategic Planning for Genealogical Societies                                                                                       

Matt Weismantel

GENTECH SOLUTIONS                                                                                                                            

The Power of Understanding Web Addresses                                                                                              

Robert Raymond

NGS Magazine is published quarterly to update members of the National Genealogical Society on NGS activities and to provide genealogists with special information and guidance on conducting effective genealogical research. The magazine is sent to libraries by subscription. Online access to NGS Magazine is available as long as membership is active. An index to the titles and authors of articles in issues from 2005 to 2024 is available at ngsgenealogy.org/magazine/.

The Post-Holiday Jumpstart

Photo by Juliana Szucs

By Juliana Szucs 

Did you know that libraries and archives see a surge of interest in family history in the weeks and months following the holidays? I get it. I feel very nostalgic as the old year comes to a close. There is a strong pull to look to the past and see how we all got to 2025. Maybe it’s America’s 250th looming, but I’m extra fired up this year.   

As genealogists, our learning curve is long and it should never end. We’re constantly learning about the places and times in which our family lived, and we also rely on new genealogical tools and record collections that may be more accessible than before. These tools and the way we access records are constantly evolving. How do we stay abreast of these developments to keep our family history moving in the right direction?  

Fortunately, there is no better time to be a genealogist. Educational tools abound and can give our research just the jumpstart it needs. 

Read, Read, Read 

For a fun and educational read over the holidays, I grabbed a book about the Gilded Age in New York City. Although my ancestors weren’t the subject of the book, I learned more about the city as it grew from its early beginnings at the foot of Manhattan through its rapid expansion northward during the 1800s. Like the book's subject, my ancestors made some money in the mid-1800s by dabbling in real estate, buying property in upper Manhattan, and profiting from reselling that land as development moved north. Learning more about the historical context places our ancestors in the landscape of history and clues us into new avenues of research. 

Genealogical and historical periodicals can also shed light on history and introduce us to unfamiliar record types. Join local historical societies to learn the history of the areas where your research has taken you. Genealogical societies are home to experts, whether nationally like the National Genealogical Society (NGS), or locally for their particular location (and beyond). Ethnocentric societies can lend a hand in investigating ancestors with unique research challenges based on their origins and customs.  

National and regional publications can clue you into the latest methods and tools to take your family history to new depths.  

This month’s NGS Magazine does a deep dive into one of Louisville’s finest genealogical resources, the Filson Historical Society, as well as the Draper Manuscripts, a rich collection of manuscripts and records, largely related to the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, in what Draper called the “Trans-Allegheny West,” which includes portions of the Carolinas, Virginia, the Ohio River Valley, the Mississippi River valley, Georgia, and Alabama. Other samplings from the magazine cover US tax law (by Judy Russell, JD, CG, CGL) and Irish Valuation Office records (by Fiona Fitzsimons). 

The latest National Genealogical Society Quarterly (NGSQ) for December 2024, includes in-depth case studies that cover the use of indirect evidence, Y- and autosomal-DNA evidence, researching same-surname spouses, and the importance of researching your ancestor’s entire network, among many other helpful approaches to challenges that will have you inspired and researching more efficiently.  

And whatever you do, don’t overlook the footnotes in the NGSQ and similar scholarly periodicals. They deserve a read of their own. Here you can find family history gold. Unique collections that have been accessed for the research are brought to light, and you may find that records you may not have had access to in the past are now available in some new way.  

And if that’s not enough reading for you in these dark winter months, check out the book reviews. Titles reviewed in this past issue include, The Fabric of Civil War Society: Uniforms, (by Shae Smith Cox), Navigating Liberty: Black Antislavery Reformers in the Civil War South (by John Cimprich), and Genealogical Document Organizing: Paper Files to Computer Files (by William Dollarhide), among other notable titles.  

Hone Your Craft 

No matter how far along you are in your research, continuing education is a part of life, and nothing beats one-on-one interaction, via an in-person or online event. 

RootsTech, held in Salt Lake City will run from 6-8 March 2025, and we’re all prepping for the 2025 NGS Annual Conference in Louisville, Kentucky, 23-26 May 2025.  

ConferenceKeeper.org is your guide to what opportunities are available to you with a calendar of events that can be searched by keyword or date. Larger conferences are included, as well as smaller events at local libraries and societies. I looked around for about five minutes and found several local events and a lot of virtual events where I can learn from home, all cozy and warm in my jammies and slippers.  

ConferenceKeeper also has a list of dozens of genealogy-related podcasts you can listen to at your leisure. Great for when you are waiting somewhere or doing household chores, or even during those middle of the night wake ups. (Just be aware last time I did this, I found myself online looking something up at 3:00 a.m. because it just couldn’t wait until morning.)  

NGS also offers a selection of cloud-based courses that allow you to learn at your own pace. You can save $75 through 17 January 2025 on the most popular course, Foundations in Family History, when you purchase the bundle of all three modules with the discount code DISCOVER75.  

However you jumpstart your research this season, we wish you great success in 2025. Share your favorite tricks with us on our Facebook page. We’d love to learn your favorite ways to give your research a boost.

The December 2024 NGSQ is Now Online!

 

The December 2024 issue of the National Genealogical Society Quarterly, Volume 112, No. 4, is available online in the members-only section of the website and printed issues are being prepared for mailing.

CONTENTS

FEATURE ARTICLES

• “Using Indirect Evidence to Find the Father of Robert Y. Jones of Hopkins County, Kentucky,” by Faye Jenkins Stallings, CG
• “Parents and Siblings for William M. C. Leggitt of Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Kansas,” by Lana Leggett-Kealey, CG
• “Who Are the Children of John Bradley of County Tyrone, Ireland, Blair County, Pennsylvania, and Scott County, Iowa?” by Mary Kircher Roddy, CG, CGG

EDITORS’ CORNER                                                                                                                                    Rescue Mission

SIDELIGHTS                                                                                                                                              Advice for a Price

REVIEWS

• Woo, Ilwon. Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom. Reviewed by Janice Lovelace, PhD
• Newton, Maud. Ancestor Trouble: A Reckoning and a Reconciliation. Reviewed by Deanna Korte
• Nicholson, David. The Garretts of Columbia: A Black South Carolina Family from Slavery to the Dawn of Integration. Reviewed by Ruth Randall, CG
• Swarns, Rachel L. The 272: The Families who were Enslaved and Sold to Build the American Catholic Church. Reviewed by Nicole Gilkison LaRue, CG, AG
• Daniel, Larry J. Engineering in the Confederate Heartland. Reviewed by David M. Morehouse, JD, BCL, MSc, CG
• Dollarhide, William. Genealogical Document Organizing: Paper Files to Computer Files. Reviewed by Bryna O’Sullivan
• Cimprich, John. Navigating Liberty: Black Refugees and Antislavery Reformers in the Civil War South. Reviewed by Nicole Gilkison LaRue, CG, AG
• Harris, William C. Confederate Privateer: The Life of John Yates Beall. Mastering Spanish Handwriting and Documents: 1520–1820. Reviewed by David M. Morehouse, JD, BCL, MSc, CG
• Dollarhide, William. Genealogical Identification Numbering: Ancestors, Descendants, Collaterals. Reviewed by Bryna O’Sullivan
• Cox, Shae Smith. The Fabric of Civil War Society; Uniforms, Badges, and Flags, 1859–1939. Reviewed by David M. Morehouse, JD, BCL, MSc, CG

Note to longtime members and newer members who elected to purchase the print version of NGSQ when they signed up to become a member: The USPS is still experiencing delays in some areas. We apologize if your print copy is affected.

The National Genealogical Society Quarterly (NGSQ) is published four times per year, in March, June, September, and December.

A Genealogist's Holiday Tale

 

 

‘Twas the night before the holiday 

and in my abode 

No one was sleeping 

That’s the genealogist’s road. 

 

I should be wrapping packages,  

I know I’ve been told 

But this ancestor died  

At 115 years old, 

 

While it’s possible longevity  

runs in our genes 

I doubt this is right 

So you know what that means. 

 

The packages will wait 

I can wrap in the morn 

You see I must verify 

When this grandaunt was born.  

 

As I searched and I searched 

My frustration grew 

I tossed up my hands, 

“That’s it, I’m through.” 

 

Just as I was about 

To stop and to quit 

A spirit appeared  

To stop a hissy fit. 

 

She reminded me at once 

Of the holidays past 

The joy of our families 

Making memories that last.  

 

Their joys and their sorrows 

Their hopes and their dreams 

Shone down around me  

Like a million moon beams. 

 

All of their stories 

so big or so small 

came together to become  

the stories of us all.  

 

So I turned back to my task 

Remembering now 

It’s the who, when, and where 

The why and the how.  

 

I will solve this mystery 

And deck the halls 

Because preserving their stories  

Is the best gift of all. 

 

Wishing you and your family a joyful and memorable holiday season from the National Genealogical Society.