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U.S. Census Collection Update
Head
of Household Index for 1910 Census: All States This database is an index to the head of households enumerated in the 1910
United States Federal Census, the Thirteenth Census of the United States. The
index, containing 32.2 million names, is not yet linked to the actual images
of the 1910 Federal Census that are available online at Ancestry.com, but the
index can be used to locate individuals in those images. A future project will
link the index to images.
The index covers all states and is available to subscribers to the U.S. Census
Collection on Ancestry.com.
Images can be browsed online at Ancestry.com.
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Honoring Our Ancestors
Finding
Knute Rockne
in the Ellis Island Database
by
Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak
Last month, I had the pleasure of attending the annual
Ellis Island Family Heritage Awards (http://ellisisland.org/awards.asp),
where they honor Ellis Island immigrants and their
descendants. This year's ceremony paid tribute to Martin
Scorsese, Paul Tagliabue, Knute Rockne, Robert Rubin,
and Dr. Harold Varmus, and under the new "Peopling
of America Award" (for immigrants who came through
other ports), I.M. Pei.
Where's Knute?
Honorees are presented an elaborately framed copy
of their ancestor's passenger arrival record, and while
I was at the event, I learned that the manifest that
included famed football coach Knute Rockne had been
particularly difficult to find. He had apparently come
to the U.S. from Norway as a youngster, but his name--like
those of many of our ancestors--had been a difficult
one to locate.
Always up for a challenge, I decided to have a go
at finding the record myself, and I discovered that
he was indeed remarkably well-hidden in the database.
In fact, his situation involved several of the unexpected
twists that can occur in the Ellis Island database
(EIDB), so I decided to share my search tactics to
illustrate how to ferret out your more elusive ancestors.
Data Gathering
Before attempting a search in the database itself,
I wanted to equip myself with a few details, so I began
by surfing the Internet using Google.com. By doing
so, I learned that:
--- The original form of Rockne was Rokne.
--- Knute was an Americanized version of Knut.
--- Knute had come here in roughly 1893 with his mother.
--- He was from Voss, Norway.
--- He was about five years old when he came.
--- His father, Lars, had come in 1891 in preparation for the 1893 Chicago
World's Fair and sent for his family afterwards.
--- The family had settled in Chicago.
This initial scouting was the equivalent of talking
with older relatives, had I been researching my own
ancestors. I had a lot to start with, but hoping to
squeeze out a few more bits and pieces of data, I decided
to search for the family in census records. It took
a little effort, but by focusing on Chicago and playing
with variations of first and last names, ages, and
other details, I found them in the 1900, 1910, 1920,
and 1930 census records. From inspecting these images,
I was able to learn that:
--- Knute's father, Lars, went by the name Louis in
the U.S.
--- His mother's name was Martha and she was born around 1859.
--- He had a sister, Annie, who was born around 1884 in Norway.
I
was also able to confirm the arrival year of 1893,
as this was the date consistently given in these
records. To see them for yourself, just search on "Louis Rokne" at
Genealogy.com (for the 1900 and 1910) and "Martha Rockne" at
Ancestry.com (for the 1920 and 1930).
Database Diving
With all this information assembled, it was time to go to the EIDB. Recognizing
that I was dealing with a lot of variables--not the least of which was that
Scandinavian names come in both farm and patronymic varieties--I decided
to use Steve Morse's search forms (www.stevemorse.org).
I chose his short form (gray) form because I find it to be the most helpful
for names that are prone to misspelling. And since Knut is one of those names
that seems to confound many databases, I opted to center my efforts on his
mother, Martha. While I could have played with any combination of selection
criteria, I made my first attempt with this trio:
--- First name starts with or is: Mart (I wanted to
be sure to find her even if she had come as the old
country version, Marta)
--- Town names starts with or is: Voss
--- Year of arrival is between: 1893-1893
Up
popped two hits, one of which was for Martha Pedersen
Rohne, age 34, with a residence of Vosservanger.
The age was right and I could easily see Rokne being
interpreted as Rohne, so this sounded very promising.
I clicked on the "scanned manifest" option,
but couldn't find Martha on the manifest that appeared.
I realized then that I was dealing with a mislinked
image. Having encountered this situation before,
I knew that the image was probably in the EIDB, but
that I would have to do a little more work to locate
it. I began by noting a couple of details from the
text information above the image: the May 30, 1893
arrival date and line number 597.
Missing Manifests
Armed with these bits of data, I returned to Steve Morse's site and chose his
missing manifests form, designed for just these situations. Toward the left
of the screen, I entered the date I had just copied and hit the "display" button.
This brought me to the opening page of the microfilm that contains the arrivals
for May 27-June 5, 1893.
Doing
a little mental math, I realized that I was looking
for a ship that had arrived about four days into
this ten-day period--or about 40% of the way through
the roll. Of course, this was only an approximation
as many ships could have arrived on one day and only
one or two on others, but I used this as a rough
estimate of how far to jump into the roll. On the
right of the screen, I could see that there were
a total of 717 frames (essentially the same as pages),
so I calculated 40% of 717 and went directly to page
286 by entering that number in the field called "frame" near
the center of the screen.
Page 286 proved to be the first page for a ship that
arrived on May 31st, so I knew I had gone too far.
I went back to page 250 and noticed I was looking at
distinctly Scandinavian names, so I thought I might
be in the right neighborhood. Inspecting the left-hand
column, I saw that the page contained listings for
216-72. I knew from a few minutes earlier when I had
scribbled down details from the text data in the EIDB
that the record I wanted was on line 597, so I used
the +1 navigation key to move forward through the pages.
My anticipation increased as I arrived at page 257
and scanned down for line 597.
There
she was: Martha Pedersen Rohne (and yes, it looked
like Rohne). Better yet, she was traveling with Anna
Larsdatter Rohne (age 8) and Knud Larsen Rohne (age
4). The names and ages all fit, Anna and "Knud" were
the children of a Lars, and their intended destination
was Illinois. I knew I had the right family.
Where There's a Will . . .
Looking at the record, I wondered why had Knute been so difficult to locate.
After all, "Knud Rokne" isn't that far off from the actual Knut Rokne. Playing
with possibilities, I discovered that the transcriber had missed the ditto
marks under Rohne in the mother's name, so the future football coach had
been hiding under the name of Knud Larsen. Had you thought to look under
that name, there were 95 candidates to explore. Even then, when you picked
the right one and clicked to see the manifest, you would have been taken
to the arrival for a different ship. Fortunately, even with obstacles like
these, there's almost always a way to find your ancestors in this amazing
database, so if Grandpa has eluded you so far, I hope you'll give it another
try!
Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak, author of Honoring Our
Ancestors (HOA), In Search of Our Ancestors: 101
Inspiring Stories of Serendipity and Connection in
Rediscovering Our Family History, and They
Came to America: Finding Your Immigrant Ancestors, can
be contacted through www.honoringourancestors.com.
Details
and links to upcoming events: www.honoringourancestors.com/schedule.html
Copyright 2004, MyFamily.com. All rights reserved.
ACCESS A PRINTER–FRIENDLY VERSION OF THIS ARTICLE, e-mail it to a friend, or submit your feedback.
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Ancestry Quick Tip
Quick Source Documentation
This is a little timesaving tip I use in PAF, but probably
would work with other genealogical software. When I have
a lot of information to input from a particular source,
I edit the source definition and insert a space in front
of the title. Then, instead of having to scroll through
the source list each time to find the source, it appears
at the top of the list. When I am done entering all the
data from the source, I just edit it again and remove
the space.
Randy Hutson
San Antonio, Texas
Thanks to Randy for today's Quick Tip! If you have a
tip you would like to share with researchers, you can
send it to ADNeditor@ancestry.com.
Quick Tips may be reprinted, with credit to the submitter,
in other Ancestry publications, so if you do not want
your tip included in a publication other than the Ancestry
Daily News and Ancestry Weekly Digest, please
state so clearly in your message. ACCESS A
PRINTER–FRIENDLY VERSION OF THIS QUICK TIP, e-mail
it to a friend, or submit your feedback.
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