I've struggled for years to find time to do my genealogy research. And when I do find a piece of time - I often do a very bad job of documenting what I've done in order to try to find whatever piece of information I am searching for. So - I've decided to use this blog as a place to organize my thoughts on pieces of research that I find time to do. So for today - I'd like to talk about doing research on family in Illinois.
On this day in 1921 my great-great-grandfather, John Michael VanDerAa passed away.
The information that I have on John comes from an old family tree that my mother filled out in April of 1982. The information that she has on her mother's family came from my grandmother. It says the following:
John Michell VanDerAa
Born: May 6, 1878 in South Holland, IL
Married: July 27, 1900 to Agnes Santifort
Died: February 27, 1921 in South Holland, IL
Parents: Michell and Johanna VanDerAa
My first step was to log on to Ancestry.com and do a search for John VanDerAa. I found four different census records that began when John was just 2 years old and ended the year before he died in 1920.
The 1880 census shows him living with his parents - Michael and Johanna in Thorton, Cook County, Illinois.
The 1900 census shows him married to Aggie with a 5 month old daughter - Johanna. It confirmed that he was born in May but listed his birth year as 1877. It also gave a year for his marriage - 1899. Given that the census was done on June 16, 1900 and he was already married with a young daughter - I would say that my marriage information for him may be off by a year - and it's most likely that his marriage was July 27, 1899 - not 1900.
The 1910 census shows him living with his wife and six children (one of whom is my great-grandmother - Cora). It says he's been married for 11 years, is 31 yrs old and is a farmer.
And finally - the 1920 census shows him living with his wife and 9 children. This was just the year before his death.
So far the census information has reinforced the information that John was born in the month of May and has told me that he was most likely married in 1899 and not 1900. But I need to know more to confirm the dates that I have for his birth, marriage and death.
Ancestry.com had one other record for John and that was his WWI draft registration card. It was filled out September 12, 1918 and confirmed that John's birth date was May 6, 1878. So - I have some additional confirmation of his exact date of birth.
Next I did a Google search for "Illinois Cook County vital records" since it appears that John lived his entire life in Cook County. I found that Cook County has a website specifically for genealogists to retrieve vital records. You can do a search online and then request copies of the records to download to your computer and print. The website reminds you that it was not required for any records to be registered with the county until 1916 - although they have many records dating back to 1872. Unfortunately all records before 1872 were destroyed in the Chicago fire of 1871.
I tried searching for John's birth, marriage and death records, but did not have any positive results. I even tried searching using the Soundex Index instead of his exact last name. The Soundex is a single letter followed by 3 numbers that represent the consonants in the name. Unfortunately I had no success. You can fill out a form to request a physical search of the records. This has to be mailed to the county clerk's office and you have to pay $15 for the search (whether it is successful or not). I'm considering doing this for John's death certificate since it occurred after the 1916 date and should be filed in their office.
My next step was to search for information on FindAGrave.com. This website allows you to search for graves by name or browse by cemetery. When I couldn't find John listed by name, I decided to try to find a cemetery name where he may have been buried. I again returned to Ancestry.com and searched for records on his wife - Agnes. I found her name mentioned in some obituary records for a family member that was buried in Oak Lawn Cemetery in South Holland. Unfortunately when I looked at Oak Lawn Cemetery on FindAGrave.com - there were only a few graves listed and none were any family members.
It's now an hour past when I was supposed to go to bed - and I've made some progress - but my next step will be to follow up with my grandmother about other details she may know to help me find both a marriage and death record for her grandfather (Grandma - if you're reading this send me an email!!)
- Susan
Really cool Susan!
ReplyDeleteI have Van Der AA in my family tree.
ReplyDelete