Arthur was Black and according to family lore, he had a relationship and a whole other family with my nana, a white woman, during the 1950s and 1960s. In Missouri.

Fortunately, I did know my nana. But Arthur? He died before I was born. And I never got around to asking her about him. When I was young, he just wasn’t someone we were encouraged to ask about.

Learning about Grandpa Arthur is... complicated.

And in the context of all of this, I’m also trying to connect with relatives from his primary family… and I have no idea how that’ll go.

Where do you even begin with all of that?

Start Where You Are.

Well, I took a deep breath and started with what I knew.

I had his full name, birth date, death date, and the names of the children he had with my nana, and some photos and stories. I could also ask my aunts and my father if they were willing to share what they knew.

Work from Death

So I began working backwards from his death in 1991. This meant starting with the most recent and most accessible record to me— his obituary. One aunt had managed to save a copy from his funeral.

A portion of Arthur's obituary.

Obituaries are rich with information about the departed, and can include information on children, parents, siblings, birth and death dates, the funeral home, references to military service… all kinds of clues! I now knew his parents’ names, home church, school (and that he finished school), that he was in the Army, the types of employment he had, the names of all of his children and other living relatives (at the time), and even some personality traits that could give me a sense of who “Sonny Boy” was.

This allowed me to create a list of possible events, people, and institutions significant to his life. All of these things mean more records. More records mean more information.

His obituary also gave me the name of the funeral home that handled his service and the cemetery he was buried in. That’s SIX whole institutions that could have records relating to him:

1. Evergreen Baptist Church
2. Holy Angeles Schools
3. the Army
4. an employer
5. the funeral home
6. the cemetery

Now I could start reaching out to these places for records.

The Funeral Home and the Cemetery

First, I contacted the funeral home and cemetery. I hoped one of them would have records that could tell me who paid for his service. This could be the key to finding my other Dorsey relatives.

Unfortunately, the funeral home had already purged their records from 1991.

However! The cemetery had still records. They confirmed that he was cremated and the garden where his ashes were scattered. They knew who paid for his burial arrangements and offered to share my contact information with them. I’m hoping this individual is a relative from the other family.

Fingers crossed on that one.

The Death Certificate

Next, I ordered a copy of his death certificate from the California county he died in.

I love death certificates because they can provide a tremendous amount of information, including: birth and death dates, martial status, occupation, place of residence, causes of death, the names and places of birth for both parents, even the “informant” who confirms the death of the individual. I could go on for ages, seriously. But anyway, the “informant” is the person who provides the majority of the information on the death certificate. So, based on who the informant is, you can determine how reliable that information is.

A snippet of Arthur's death certificate.

Let’s say the informant on a death certificate is the adult son of a deceased mother. Depending on the nature of their relationship, this son might know everything about his mother. We can assume that the information is likely highly credible. But if the informant just happens to be a neighbor, well, the information might not be as accurate as you’d hope.

In my experience, I’ve found that the informant is usually a relative or other individual who had a significant relationship with the deceased. This can help you reconstruct relationships, especially for female informants who no longer carry their maiden names!

But I digress.

To order a death certificate, you need to know at least the name of the individual and when and where they died. Once you have that information, you can order the record through the county of death or state of death. I usually prefer the former because it tends to get processed faster (there are less records to look through in a county vs. a state, after all).

Once I got his death certificate, I learned several new things, such as:

• His exact years of military service (helpful for securing his military records)
• His social security number (that’ll be important later!)
• How he died (a stroke and other causes)
• That he was divorced (this means more records!)
• His address at the time (note to visit when I go to Oakland)
• His level of education (could I find school records?)
• The industry he worked in

I was also able to confirm information I already had, like the name of his father.

And get this. One of my aunts was his informant. If I had any follow-up questions, I could just ask her.

The Army

From his death certificate, I learned that Arthur was in the Army from 1948 to 1950.

You can request military records from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), but it can take months for your request to be fulfilled. So, I reached out to local sources first: St. Louis County’s libraries, historical societies, and the recorder of deeds. But in the end, all of them recommended reaching out to NARA.

What I wanted was his official military personnel file (OMPF). This file would tell me all about his military experience: his training, his performance, health records, disciplinary actions, dates of enlistment and appointment, you get the idea.

But I hit a roadblock. In 1973, there was a fire at the National Personnel Records Center and over 16 million official military personnel files were destroyed. This was significant for me because this included about 80% of the records for Army servicemen who were discharged between 1912 and 1960.

As I learned from NARA’s response to my request, that likely included Arthur’s file as well.

But NARA did send me a certification of his military service, which confirmed the nature of his termination from service (“Undesirable Discharge,” which raises so many questions), how long he was in the Army, and his last rank.

I also did a quick search on Ancestry to see if he might have been picked up on a selective service record, also known as a draft registration card. Such records exist for male registrants between World War I through the Vietnam Era. These are also some of my favorite records because they give you physical descriptions of your ancestors and this is often the place where I see their signature for the first time.

Arthur did have one, which he filled out in 1950, just a couple of months after he left the Army.

Arthur's Selective Service Record (National Archives at St. Louis; St. Louis, Missouri; Record Group: Records of the Selective Service System, 1926–1975; Record Group Number: 147; Series: Post-WWII through Vietnam Era Selective Service Records, Missouri; Series Number: 147-76-0298).

The other side of the card shows his signature:

Arthur's lovely signature on the back of the card.

And a general physical description of him at the age of either 19 or 20:

Arthur's physical description.

From this record, I learned:

• He had not married yet
• His physical description
• He had a lovely signature
• His service number while in the Army

And I was able to confirm for a third time, the name of his father, Ollie, and his street address in Kinloch.

Other Institutional Records

Next, I’ll start reaching out to his most recent employer, his school, and his home church. These records are a little trickier to access to because these specific institutions either now exist under a different name or don’t exist at all anymore. They also don’t necessarily have any obligation to maintain their archival records—they could be lost for all I know.

Stay tuned to see where I go from here. (A sincere thanks to the Arts & Science Council for their support of this research through an Emerging Creators Fellowship!)

Getting Started with Family History Research

If you’re interested in researching your own family history, to recap, this is my approach for learning more about Arthur:

1. Start with what you know: Gather all the information you know about your ancestor.
2. Work backwards from death: What do the records at the time of your ancestor’s death tell you about their life? Do these records mention any institutions (ie. funeral homes, hospitals, schools, churches)? Remember: institutions mean records. Records help provide clues and confirm information.
3. Make a list of relevant institutions, people, and events: These are crucial to helping you identify more records and add context to your ancestor’s life.
4. Seek records from the institutions: Reach out to each institution and request records. If the institution no longer exists, reach out to the local library, archive, or historical society for help. These places can also help you learn about the history of these institutions!
5. Use the records to confirm information: Notice the similarities between records. What information can you confirm? What information conflicts?
6. Keep track of what you find in a timeline: This will help you identify gaps, put together your ancestor’s story, and surface new leads!

If you want to find some treasures to help you with the next steps in your research, make sure you have well-defined research goals before jumping in. Keeping your research goals organized keeps you focused. Sure, you can always type in ancestors’ names and important dates and sometimes, you’ll find something relevant. But what if you could increase the chances of finding something important?

I’ll show you what I mean by showing you how I searched Newspapers.com to find clues to a current research challenge.

Finding Newspapers on Steave Green

Lately, I’ve been piecing together the life of my great-grandfather, Steave Green. I had already gathered some newspaper articles containing his obituary. But there were still other events and topics relating to him and his family that I could find in newspapers.

I previously created a timeline of Steave’s life to keep track of his life events. I reviewed this timeline in order to find events that would be likely to be in newspapers. Then I put them in an Excel spreadsheet to create a list of things to search for.

I call it my “Newspaper Log”:

A screenshot of my “Newspaper Log

Each spreadsheet page has information relating to a specific family branch. I could even separate each page by individual instead if I needed to.

A screenshot of the Family Name tabs at the bottom of my newspaper log.

Creating the Newspaper Log

Using the following columns helps me keep my details straight and identify which newspapers to look through:

• Event/Topic: A few words that describe the event or topic I’d like to research.
• Possible Date(s): Either the date or range of possible dates that the event happened or that the topic was likely to be mentioned.
• Event Location(s): The possible locations where the event may have happened.
• Person(s): The individual(s) who may have been involved or may be mentioned.
• Additional Notes: Any extra research notes that may be helpful for my search.
• Possible Newspapers: A list of newspapers to start searching.
• Possible Keywords: Any search keywords I could use to help narrow my search.
• Relevant Sources: Other sources that verify that the event happened or that the topic existed.

Finding Newspaper Titles

If you don’t know which newspapers to search first, I recommend checking out the Library of Congress’s collection, Directory of US Newspapers in American Libraries. I’ve found it to be super helpful for figuring out what locations and time periods newspapers have covered.

An example of a newspaper from the Library of Congress’s “Directory of Newspapers in American Libraries” collection.

And if you scroll down further, it tells you which libraries have a copy of the newspaper and what format they have it in: A screenshot showing the “Libraries That Have It” section of the newspaper page from the Library of Congress’s “Directory of Newspapers in American Libraries” collection.

Searching for Newspapers

So with my log in hand, I can start searching for newspapers! I know that I want to find information about the history of Steave’s employer, Dennings Point Brockway Brick Works, and the work-related accident that caused his death. Learning more about his employer could lead to more records and provide more information about the nature of his work.

Unfortunately, a quick location search on Newspapers.com told me that they do not have any newspapers based in Beacon, New York. I would have to check with local public libraries and archives for Beacon newspapers. But Newspapers.com does have newspapers from the Poughkeepsie Journal and the Poughkeepsie Eagle-News.

Newspapers.com results for two Poughkeepsie, New York newspapers.

Google Maps told me that Poughkeepsie isn’t too far away from Beacon, should their newspapers could be a good place to start.

A map showing the distance between Poughkeepsie, New York and Beacon, New York

What Did I Find?

My initial searches of “Dennings Point Brickworks” and “Steave Green” and “January 1959” didn’t lead to articles that referenced Steave’s accident (which occurred sometime in late January 1959). However, by expanding my search to include the 1950s and the 1960s, I found some pretty interesting articles related to his employer.

In 1950, employees at the brickyard were on strike. As many as 700 workers between Beacon and Albany were involved. It’s possible Steave was part of it too!

I wonder: when and how did the strike end?

He Ran Away

For years, my grandmother and her siblings didn’t know who their paternal grandparents were. Family lore says their father, Steave Green, ran away from home in Lake City, Florida and moved to Fishkill, New York. He took his old Ford and drove straight up to New York for work and a better life. No one knows why he ran away– he didn’t talk about home or his childhood.

In 1929, he moved into a boarding house with the couple who would become his in-laws. Inevitably, he met his wife shortly thereafter. Three years later, they married in Beacon and then lived in Dennings Point for some time. After they started building their family, they moved permanently to Beacon.

Steave in a household with his future in-laws (United States Census, 1930)

We didn’t really know where to start with Steave. Most events in his life, from 1929 until his death in 1959, were firmly accounted for. We knew that he worked at Dennings Point Brick Works, Brockway as a brick setter. He was a church-going man, attending Springfield Baptist Church on Beekman Street. He had a few cars. Steave was friendly, much more boisterous than his more reserved wife. His amicable nature probably helped him get odd jobs around town in-between shifts at Brockway. Everyone knew him.

The earliest stages of his life were a mystery. Except for the fact that he might have had a sister.

Origins of a Unique Spelling

Despite an inability to read or write, Steave could write his name and often spelled it with an “a.” Perhaps he had wanted to stand out from a sea of other “Steve Greens.” Despite this, his name was often recorded using a variety of “Steve” spellings, including “Stephen,” “Steve,” and “Steave.”

Placing Steave

Each census record from the 1930 to 1940 confirmed both his and his parents’ birthplaces: Florida. According to his World War II Draft Registration Card, his birthplace was Lake City, Florida.

The front of Steave’s draft registration card, with his place of birth highlighted. (1942; Draft Registration Cards for New York State, 10/16/1940 - 3/31/1947)

So I started with his death certificate. If his wife (who would likely be the informant) knew anything about his previous life, she would have put his parents’ names on the document, right?

I submitted my request and waited a grueling year to finally receive the document from the New York State Department of Health’s Office of Vital Statistics. Still no parents to be found. But it did confirm his birth place of Lake City, Florida.

A snippet of Steave’s Death Certificate (1959)

His children were right, he didn’t talk about his parents with anyone. This record and his obituary showed that his wife, Susie, didn’t know who they were either.

When in Doubt, Create a Timeline

I decided to create a timeline, working backwards from his death in 1959 to confirm what I already knew and identify what was missing. City directories, census records, death records, obituaries, and oral histories helped me piece together nearly 30 years of his life.

The Social Security Claims Index Record that was the key! (U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007)

But it was an index record to a claim on his Social Security that helped me take a step closer to his early life. Once I had his Social Security number, I could create a FOIA request for his original Social Security Application, also known as his SS-5 form. Finding this form can be crucial for verifying a birth date and place, full name, employer, and most importantly for me, the names of parents.

The Social Security Administration was formed as a part of the Social Security Act of 1935 and applications were accepted in the years after. For more about Social Security records, I recommend this post.

FOIA Requests

FOIA stands for “Freedom of Information Act.” To submit a FOIA request, go to FOIAOnline.gov and click “Create a Request,” then select “Social Security Administration” as the agency. From there, follow the prompts to request your SS-5. You’ll need your ancestor’s name, date of birth, and social security number. Any additional relevant information is helpful too!

As of this post, the fee is $21 for a copy of your ancestor’s SS-5 application. Mine arrived a few weeks after I requested it.

Steave’s SS-5

And then, there it was:

Father’s Full Name: Robert Green

Mother’s Full Maiden Name: Lizzie Brighton

What was curious was that he had listed his birthplace as “Charlotte, North Carolina.” I hadn’t seen North Carolina mentioned in any of his records before. But I knew this was him. The birth date, employer, his current city, and his signature matched all of the other records I had found.

Steave’s signature on his SS-5 form. Notice how it looks similar to the signature on his WWII Draft Registration Card!

What’s Next

With this information in hand, I have what I need to start building Steave’s household in Lake City, Florida. I also had the clue that he could have had a sister. Since I now have his mother’s maiden name, I can also look for other Brightons in the area.

If I came up empty in Florida, I could also scour Charlotte, North Carolina’s records. What if he had lied about Florida being his home?

Regardless of where this discovery takes me, I can finally tell Steave’s children who their paternal grandparents were.

The searchable directory has been live for almost two years (!) and currently has about 200 digital projects in its collection. That being said, it could be even better.

Improved Searching

Currently, projects can be searched for by keywords. To further fine-tune the search capabilities, I plan to include location-based, time period-based, and event-based searching. For example, if you want to know what digital Black History projects related to the 20th century exist, you will be able to search on that.

Bulk-Importing = Faster Uploads

I typically update Digital Black History as I am able. This involves adding content to a CSV file and uploading it to the website’s database. By creating an interface directly on the website that enables me to upload the files, the process will be a lot smoother.

Project Pages

When I originally created the website, I wanted projects that were listed to have an easy way to share their needs with the public (ie. volunteers, donations, etc). To help realize this feature, I plan to create dedicated pages for each project, which will include additional information and project needs.

User Accounts

I’m still considering this feature. Website visitors would be able to create accounts so they can easily favorite projects to review later and directly submit projects to the directory.

Do you have some ideas for features you’d like to see me include in the website upgrade? Let me know in the comments below.

In the meantime, stay tuned for more details when these features go live!

Enjoy Digital Black History? Consider donating to the project here.

Basically, the point is to make you a better “Gen Techie.” Because you know, Genealogy + Tech.

Why tech tutorials?

I feel like sometimes there’s this misconception that genealogy should only be done in libraries and archives and that you can only output your research in the form of analog materials (ie. books). While it’s true that your should always do your research in those places and books are pretty fantastic, I don’t think you should stop there.

We should be creative with our findings, especially if we want to reach the relatives who yawn at the sight of our research binders.

There’s some tools out there that can make it easier (not to mention, more fun!) to share your research. I wanted to share what I’ve learned and hopefully make tech a little less scary and a lot more accessible.

GenTech 2021 Schedule

The 2021 episodes are still pre-recorded, but they’re released every other Sunday afternoon (for the most part!).

Here’s the 2021 schedule:

Although the episodes are pre-recorded, feel free to reach out if you have questions about how to use these tools.

And to stay up to date on the latest GenTech happenings, check the page here.

Have you used something that you’ve learned from a GenTech episode? Let me know in the comments below.

But I’d also be lying if I said that that was the only reason. There’s a very selfish aspect to it as well. The research is part of my self-care routine. Research helps you relax? Well, it’s not as crazy as you might think.

You see, my favorite definition of self-care defines it as such:¹

Any necessary human regulatory function which is under individual control, deliberate and self-initiated.

Self-care provides you with the opportunity to control at least one thing in what might otherwise be a stressful day or busy afternoon. You choose something personal to focus on your precious energy on. The act is necessary to ground yourself and calm your mind. Self-care doesn’t have to be a hobby– it can just as easily be something simple, like drinking tea before bedtime. It’s something important enough that you purposely dedicate time to it.

When the world isn’t making any sense, I retreat into the past and find comfort in the stories that I discover and the ones that I have yet to unearth. I lose myself in the research in the same way that you lose yourself when you’re binge-watching a great show. And somewhere along the way, I find comfort in knowing that no matter how crazy the world might be, it’s nothing compared to my ancestors’ own struggles. It makes me feel grateful, humble, and regal even when the world may not see the same thing. Each new document I find fills me with warmth. The act of reaching out into the past centers my spirit and caresses my brow. And if I get stuck or can’t figure something out? It’s okay. It gives me the freedom to truly explore and dig deep into something I’m passionate about.

It’s also my act of rebellion in a couple of different ways. I refuse the mindset of a society that dismisses the history of African Americans. By the time I’m done, my ancestors’ names will be known and future generations of my family will be able to rattle off names and stories like it was second nature. But I also rebel against the present: I refuse to be broken down by that same society that tells me that reaching for your dreams is impractical.

Audre Lorde said it best:

Caring for myself is not self-indulgent, it is self-preservation and that is an act of political warfare.

It is a self-care activity that gives me something to look forward to and envelopes me in peace. It excites me in just the right way, as I wonder– what will I learn today? What other mysteries have I missed? Who is left out there to remember?

1. Alexander Segall and Jay Goldstein (1998). “Exploring the Correlates of Self Provided Health Care Behaviour”. In Coburn, David; D’Arcy, Alex; Torrance, George Murray. Health and Canadian Society: Sociological Perspectives. University of Toronto Press. pp. 279–280. ISBN 0802080529. Retrieved 7 November 2018.

Social media makes it easy for users to post all kinds of information about their lives online. Pleasant interfaces make users willing to reveal personal information, which become a product for social media companies and a small part of a user’s larger digital footprint.

But what does this mean for descendants who become interested in the life you led?

We Have… Technology

Every device and online application that you use retains information about you, whether you give it up knowingly or not. In other words, not only is Facebook publishing your status update and counting how many people “liked” your post, but it’s also tracking how many times you’ve logged in and who you chat with most often. Mobile apps like Uber are keeping track of places you travel back and forth from the most. Online bank accounts track where you’re making your purchases. Email contains a wealth of personal and professional information.

It doesn’t seem so far-fetched that family historians could be digitally “thumbing” through your inbox when Google already lets developers scan the contents of your email.

We should all come to terms with the fact that the information we post online today will be accessed by researchers tomorrow.

There’s already been some discussion about what happens to the social media profiles of the dead (Forbes). Facebook and Google have even started offering the ability to manage your “digital afterlife” and assign a proxy who can maintain your digital assets once you pass on. Still others have acknowledged their digital information and passed it on to their descendants in wills. But how viable is it for individuals to continuously pass their information down to each subsequent descendant?

Think about all of the online accounts that you maintain. It’s likely that your heirs will be unable to decipher all of your digital assets (Unless you provide them with explicit documentation, of course. But who has the time for that?). How would they manage it and pass it down once they die? There is no doubt that pieces of your identity will get lost in the process.

No matter how intimidating the massive pile that is your digital legacy looks, future genealogists and family historians will need to have the patience to dig through it all.

I Predict…

In the near future, genealogists and family historians will be able to access this information for research purposes. Genealogists will further specialize, as is necessitated by the diverse array of digital information that will be available to mine from. Much like today, professionals and family historians alike will need to have an understanding of where specific information is located. But instead of thumbing through family photo albums, they may be looking through your Facebook photos.

The Future of Historical Documents

Future genealogists will be able to dig deeper into family stories than ever before. Census records will still be a necessary research document, but in the future, they won’t be handwritten anymore, which means that your descendant will know exactly how to spell your unique name. Whether or not a question is answered will be completely on the enumerated and never again on the enumerator. There will be a much wider breadth of options to choose from in many categories, including race and ethnicity, and we will have defined them for ourselves, offering our descendants the opportunity to put our responses in a societal context.

The tools we use today will provide an abundance of document types for future researchers to explore!

Facebook profiles will make it easier to verify family and friend relationships. Future family historians will know what schools we attended, what items we were selling, and who wished us a Happy Birthday. On a scarier note, profiles will also make it easier for them to learn who you dated, how long you were in a complicated relationship, or even the cringey poetry that you wrote online as a teenager. NextDoor profiles will detail neighborly squabbles and LinkedIn profiles will list our workplaces, skills, and connections. Google Docs will showcase unfinished projects and school assignments. Usernames to various accounts may provide clues to birth years and maiden names. Just imagine the connections and new research leads that these genealogists will make!

The Life You Sell

There will be plenty of opportunity to trip up your descendants, however. The lives that people lead on social media are often only the idealistic versions of their reality. We could be very well be providing enough false information that no one will trust the content of our posts and tweets. Conflicting information from family members, friends, and social media profiles will certainly make research on your life much harder.

Would Researchers Pay Someone For All That Information?

They could, and they might also not have any other choice. Social media networks have been able to evolve over the past three decades, but who knows what the future holds? With all of the data that they’ve collected, they could easily become the next Ancestry.com for ancestors in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Some social media companies are already aware of the possibility of retrospective features; consider Facebook’s somewhat controversial “x years ago today” posts. Just don’t be surprised when these social media networks become genealogy companies that sell our information back to our families.