April 29, 2013

Additional Liverpool Records on Ancestry

In many ways I find researching in England easier than in the U.S. due to the wonderful b-m-d (birth, marriage, death indexes beginning in 1837). Of course, the UK census records are less data-rich than those in the U.S. and the most recently released is 1911.

Ancestry has added additional resources for Liverpool, some starting as early as 1659 !
I am most interested in those covering the period of 1813-1837. 

If you had ancestors in Liverpool, this can be a great resource -- check it out.

April 22, 2013

Were There Ethiopians in Mississippi in 1917 ?

While perusing WWI registration records for the Watson family in Mississippi I came upon an unusual card listing race as ETHIOPIAN !


I was looking for the white descendants of my Rhode Island Watson line, so this jarred me into examining this branch of the family .. and, yes, they had been slave holders likely resulting in an expanded grouping of younger men named Wheeler Watson.  As I looked more closely, I found several young men of similar age with this name -- so I have more investigations ahead of me.

April 2, 2013

Mystery: Michael and Ann Coughlin 1860 Ohio

In trying to trace Irish born Ann Sheils who married Michael Coughlin and was known to have lived near Zanesville, Ohio in the 1860s I found this census record which could be a match for her.  Frazeysburg is about 15 miles from Zanesville.

Frazeysburg, Jackson Township, Muskingum County

Coughlin
     Michael          25  born Ireland
     Ann                21  born Ireland
     Mary A            4  born Ohio
     Margaret E      2 born Ohio

I have not been able to find any of them in 1870.  The girls would have been 14 and 12, generally not old enough to be out on their own.  

I've checked church and cemetery records -- no help there either.

Can anyone help me unravel this mystery?