Walking in their Shoes

Most of us genealogists have wished one time or another that we could really “know” how our ancestors lived. We want to know what their world was like. What was a typical day like in the life of our ancestor? How did our ancestors handle life’s challenges? In other words, we wish we could walk in their shoes.

For many of us one of the most fascinating times of our ancestors’ lives is when they emigrated from their homelands. What made them leave? How did they feel about leaving?  What was the journey to America like for them? Where did they first settle in America?

I stumbled across a travel diary written in 1833 that gave me the opportunity to follow the journey of a party of Swiss German emigrants through France to the port of Le Havre, across the Atlantic Ocean, across the eastern part of the US on the Erie Canal and down the Mississippi River to St. Louis. How did I find this wonderful piece of history?

I had been preparing for a research trip to Chicago for several months. I described this preparation in my posts of June 24, 2012,  July 4, 2012, and August 21, 2012. 

I learned from reading genealogical how-to books how important it is to prepare for a research trip by studying the websites of the sites you plan to visit. When I looked up the Newberry Library website, I found there is an on-line catalog that you can use from home to search for materials.  Many libraries and archives have this feature, so it is a good idea to check out the availability of catalog searching at home no matter your research destination. This could you save valuable on-the-ground research time. 

In the Newberry on-line catalog, I searched for: “Swiss immigration to America,” and on the third page of the results, this title leapt out from the rest:

New Switzerland in Illinois : as described by two early Swiss settlers, Kaspar Köpfli and Johann Jacob Eggen in Spiegel von Amerika and Aufzeichnungen aus Highlands Gründungszeit / translated from the German by Jennie Latzer Kaeser and Manfred Hartwin D, 1977, Book  Library Location: General Collections 2ndfloor  Call Number: F550.S9 S8131987  

On the first day of my two-day sojourn at the Newberry, I went to the second floor and filled out a research request form for the diary. The document was written in 1833 by Joseph Suppiger, Jr., a nephew of Dr. Kaspar Koepfli, who was the leader of the group who were heading to America.

As I leaved through Mr. Suppiger’s diary, I was astounded to find that so many of the concerns of these nineteenth century travelers were similar to the ones we have today. Although technology has changed dramatically and made much about moving around the world or within a country easier, some things don’t change, such as:

• Having to plan ahead: starting back at home the traveler looks into modes of transportation, plans an itinerary, makes a budget
• Before a big move, people tend to get rid of extra furniture, large pieces that would cost too much to ship or transport. Sometimes under the pressure of moving deadlines, people are forced to part with possessions for much less than they think they are worth.
• Often times, when a traveler gets to the place that he or she saw or read about in a brochure, the actual accommodations don’t match up
• On the road breakdowns may occur when they are least expected
• Unexpected fees, tolls and other costs can overwhelm a traveler’s budget
• Travelers look for guidebooks and tips from those who have gone before

Fishing Boats Leaving the Harbor, Le Havre {{PD-1923}},wikimedia.org 

I felt so privileged to travel with Mr. Suppiger across France to the port of Havre, to see with his eyes what the country was like and to watch the leaders in his group negotiate with wagon drivers and inn keepers on the road to the port city. Then Mr. Suppiger introduces his reader to the perils of seeking a seaworthy boat in which to cross the Atlantic. And that is no easy task. It seems that even back then, people tried to cheat travelers out of their money through scams ranging from taking deposits on ships that never showed up or that were in such poor condition that no person in his/her right mind would trust them to cross the ocean to promising stellar accommodations and delivering standing room only on the deck, if you were lucky.

Winter North Atlantic - Water over deck and hatches, storm with huge waves, wikimedia.org

And how many of us long to know what the ocean voyage to America was like for our ancestors? Mr. Suppiger keeps us so well informed of the weather conditions, the food, the scenery, and the types of accommodations suffered by passengers that we feel we are right there with them.

Once the Swiss party reaches New York, we get a real treat: we see the New York of 1833 through Mr. Suppiger’s eyes:
 “The shops here rival in splendor those in Paris. I would not have expected to find shops filled with such fine wares….It is much more agreeable to walk through the straight, regularly laid-out streets here than in Paris.” (p. 89)

Below we see an example of  19th century New York department store architecture, albeit some years after Mr. Suppiger's visit, in this photo of Bloomingdales, a company that was started in 1860 by two brothers named Lyman and Joseph Bloomingdale. 

Bloomingdale's 59th Street store in New York in the late 1800s. Photo: Courtesy Of Bloomingdale's / SF

The next part of the diary takes us up the Erie Canal, from Albany to Buffalo, and what a journey it is! We have the rare opportunity to see America the way it looked in the early 1800s as Mr. Suppiger describes the land that he sees as the boat goes up the canal.

The Ohio and Erie Canal in 1902 Source: http://ech.cwru.edu/ech-cgi/article.pl?id=OAEC Wikimedia.org 

In many places he describes seeing virgin forests with a few very small settlements cropping up here and there. He is very excited when he sees small hills that break up the monotonous flatlands.  Suppiger is amazed at the traffic on the canal:

“The activity on this canal must be seen to be believed. Not the busiest waterway in Switzerland…can be compared with it. There are said to be thirteen hundred canalboats operating on it.” (p. 100)

Duchess (steamboat) promotional handbill, front. Printed ca. 1888, wikimedia.org

At the end of the canal in Buffalo, the group engages a steamboat for the trip down the Mississippi to St. Louis when the diary ends. In order to provide the reader with an idea of what the new world was like to these Swiss emigrants, the editor, John C. Abbott, included portions of two more documents written by other members of the group.

First, we need to clarify that Dr. Kaspar Koepfli and his party did not purchase land in St. Louis or any other place in Missouri for a couple of reasons; one being that they found no parcel that had sufficient cleared land ready for farming. And second, they did not want to settle in a state that allowed slavery.

Flag map of Illinois, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported, wikimedia.org

After much searching, Dr. Koepfli and his group purchased a site 30 miles from St. Louis across the Mississippi in Illinois that they named “New Switzerland” and which was later called “Highland.” Dr. Koepfli described the land as:

“…a lovely district, richly endowed by nature….You will find it has good, fertile soil in which most products can be raised at a profit. There is prairie as far as one can see, with sufficient grazing for herds of a thousand cattle….Also, there is enough wood in the forests for building a large number of farms. The region has good water, with springs in the woods….it is near enough to the Mississippi so that produce can be hauled to St. Louis without great expense.” (p. 136)

One of the most valuable parts of the diary and the accompanying descriptions of New Switzerland are the notes to those who follow. Here Mr. Suppiger and members of the Koepfli family offer their advice to perspective emigrants. It is so like a Frommers Guide that I wonder once more, is there anything new under the sun?

 So ends the journey to New Switzerland. I hope that you can find this book and get a glimpse into 19^th century America.

Using a Digital Camera to Copy Documents

On September 19, 2012, Legacy Family Tree offered one of its series of webinars. The subject of this webinar was how to use a digital camera to make very good copies of documents, presented by Mary E.V. Hill.  You can purchase a CD of this webinar at Legacy Family Tree.

But why would you use a camera when portable scanners, even hand-held ones, are now available? In many archives and libraries, scanners are not allowed. On the other hand, digital cameras, if you turn off the flash, are accepted by most research institutions as safe to us on fragile documents. And in some instances, such as when you need to copy many documents on a microfilm reader, using a camera can make the job go fast.

Ms. Hill begins her presentation with a description of the basic features you need in a digital camera if you want to make excellent image copies. Perhaps the most important feature you need is a function wheel which allows you to turn off automatic mode and to make changes to the auto settings.  Leaving your camera on automatic setting does not result in good quality document copies. Later in the webinar Ms. Hill explains that genealogists need be concerned with just a few settings, thereby reducing performance anxiety in some of us less technical people.

Ms. Hill states that there are only four basic functions that you will need to control (using function wheel) in order to make great copies, and she shows you how to set each one (great visuals):

1.    Flash on/off
2.    Macro or Tulip (close-up)
3.    Film speed -- International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
4.    White balance (to get the best possible color)

After the function wheel, there is another feature Ms. Hill recommends if you are in the camera purchase mode. And that is a flip-out LCD preview screen. This allows you to easily shoot from the different angles. 

Finally, Ms. Hill suggests several accessories to make your digital camera document photographing go very smoothly. First, a copy stand can give you stability and hands-free, close-up, stable picture-taking. Second, a camera clamp (such as the Sunpak ClampPod Pro) allows you to a fix your camera on to a microfilm reader in order to photograph the projected  image. Ms. Hill goes through this process in the webinar, showing you where to clamp the camera for the best shots. A third recommended accessory is the tripod. Ms. Hill suggests that you consider selecting a tripod with a reversible center pole which allows you get closer to an image in certain situations while keeping everything in focus.

While researching about taking digital document photos, I found a site by Adam Costanzo. Mr. Costanzo delves deeper into some of the ways you can improve your digital photos of documents. I find reading about the same subject by several authors helps my learning. 

After listening to Ms. Hill’s webinar, I felt energized and ready to outfit myself to take some digital document photos at the Family History Center near me. This presentation took me from knowing nothing about this subject to feeling confident in my ability to take on this project.

Categories: genealogy education, genealogy tools

Putting my Chicago Ancestors in their Historical Context

I have often read this advice in genealogy literature: go beyond putting names and dates on your ancestors by digging into history to put them into the context of their times. What occupations did they have? What was their socio-economic level? What was going on in their neighborhoods, in America, in the world? And that’s what I wanted to answer for my Chicago ancestors.

Attribution: Flanker, wikimedia

My great grandfather, Henry Kreis, was a teamster in the late 1800s in Chicago. But what did a teamster do in these early pre-highway, pre-eighteen wheeler truck days?

I did a google search on the “history of teamsters in Chicago” and came up with a reference to Dr. Liesl Miller Orenic, a professor at Dominican University in Chicago, who is working on a history of Chicago’s Teamsters Local 743. I hoped that Professor Orenic might be able to steer me towards some sources on early teamsters in Chicago, so I e-mailed her:

“I am a genealogist and recently found out that some of my Irish ancestors were teamsters in Chicago in the 1880s. I have tried looking for definitions of "teamster" in the 1800s but can only find very general meanings. On the a3 Genealogy blog, I found this definition: "The Online Etymology Dictionary states a teamster is “a person who drives a team of horses, especially in hauling freight.” Can you direct me to any… information on teamsters in early Chicago?”

I wanted to find answers to these questions: What was a typical day like for a teamster? What skills did a teamster need? What kind of living did a teamster make?

I am always amazed by the kindness and willingness of people to share their knowledge. Professor Orenic suggested a book by Dr. David Witwer, Corruption and Reform in the Teamsters Union; a preview of the book is also on-line.

 

In the first chapter of Professor Witwer’s book, “Building a Teamsters Union” p. 8, he explains the impact of the urbanization of America in the late nineteenth century on the occupation of teaming:

“By the end of the nineteenth century, commercial growth had transformed American cities, in turn fueling dramatic changes in the teaming industry. As railroad traffic increased and cities expanded, the business of hauling goods grew in size and scale. Teamsters formed both the first and the final links in the transportation chain. They brought goods to and from railroad depots, freight yards, and shipping docks; they also ferried people around the growing city. Most urban residents were too poor to own and maintain their own carriages. They depended on teamsters to transport them to locations not served by public transportation…. The 1860 U.S. census listed seventy-seven thousand teamsters nationwide…by 1900 more than a half-million men worked as teamsters.3” (footnotes not given in books.google.com preview)

On pages 9-10, Professor Witwer gives a detailed description of how many hours a day a teamster worked, what he did during that time, and how much he was paid:

“The hours were long because a teamster was responsible for maintaining his horses and outfit (wagon and harness) and because he worked for as long as there were deliveries to make. Typically, he would arrive at the stables by 5 a.m. to water, feed, and hitch the horses. Deliveries were made all day, and then at the end of the day he returned to the stable, where, before leaving, he watered, fed, and groomed the horses. Often a teamster would not get home until 9 or 10 at night….A teamster worked such hours six days a week. On Sundays, when there were no deliveries, the teamster came in to clean and oil the harness, grease the wagon axles, and, once again, feed and water the horses. For all of this he received between $8 and $12 a week.”

On pages 8-9, Witwer outlines the tasks teaming required, thus refuting the claims in the 1860 US Census and elsewhere that teaming was an unskilled endeavor:

South Water Street, NARA, wikimedia.net

“The census, along with many observers, described the occupation of teaming as unskilled. Those more closely connected to the working life of a teamster, however, questioned such a classification. As one team owner noted, “To drive such a team through the labyrinths of other teams, and among the cars in winter weather and escape crash and wreck requires capacity.” In fact, teaming demanded both craftlike skills and clerical abilities. A good teamster knew how to manage horses. He could get his team to pull heavier loads and deftly maneuver them in the most difficult situations. “The man who can take a team of horses and get the work out of it while at the same time keeping it in good condition and spirits, and keeping clear of accident in the crowded streets of the city deserves commendation,” observed one team owner. “He will,” the owner continued, “have his hands full.”5 When he was out making deliveries, a teamster served as the main contact between his employer and the customers. Thus he often had to be able to read and write. In many cases he served as a combination record-keeper and salesman. He built the business up by bringing in new customers, and he smoothed over day-to-day problems to keep old customers happy. 6” (footnotes not given in the books. google.com preview)

Now I had my answers. I know what my teamster ancestors did on a typical day. I have put them into historical context.

But Professor Orenic had suggested another resource to give me a taste of the history of Chicago so that I might more fully understand the times my nineteenth century ancestors lived in. This program is:

Chicago: City of the Century (a PBS documentary) which gives the history of Chicago from the early 1800s to 1900. I found that you can order this program on netflix.com. It is a 4-DVD set, and what a wild and wonderful time you will have from your front-row seat, watching Chicago grow from a swampy backwater to the second largest city in America. 

The narrator tells the story of Chicago through the exploits of colorful business men and entrepreneurs, politicians, dedicated social reformers and the thousands of working men, women and children who lived, worked, and died in the city in the nineteenth century. You can find a transcript of the program online.

This experience reinforced several of the tenets of genealogy:

• To understand your ancestors, you need to go beyond names and dates. Put flesh on the bare bones.

• Find out how they lived and what the world was like during their lifetimes. Search for books and articles to find this historical context using online sources such as google.com, books.google.com, scholar.google.com; and checking out non-computer sources such as libraries and historical societies.

• Search for experts in the fields of knowledge that you are interested in. Read their books. And very often, if you contact them, they will give you suggestions and lead you to additional sources.

Categories: genealogy professional