Self Seekers Newsletter, v.8, no.3

SELF SEEKERS:

THE SELF FAMILY ASSOCIATION QUARTERLY ONLINE NEWSLETTER SUPPLEMENT

Co-Hosts
Tim W. Seawolf Self
Barbara Ann Peck
[email protected]
Volume 8, no. 3 July, 2005
======================================================================= =======================================================================

WELCOME

Welcome to volume 8, no. 3 of the quarterly online newsletter supplement to "Self Portraits: The Self Family NetLetter," the Website dedicated to Self family research at http://www.selfroots.com

You are receiving this newsletter because you were kind enough to join "Self Seekers: The Self Family Association." We appreciate all of your contributions, large and small, and we hope you will continue to support our page, our surname list, and this newsletter.

=======================================================================

A NEW SELF SUMMER

It was just winter a few days ago--or so it seems. As I write this introduction, we Southern Californians are in the first days of our annual "June Gloom." We're behind much of the United States weatherwise--June is a "cool month" for us while our hottest days occur in August and September. Typically we get little or no rain from about May to October. Our Self ancestors migrated to other areas quite frequently. Getting used to different climates must have been a real experience for them! Regardless, summer--whether warm or cool, rainy or dry--was a time for everyone to enjoy the outdoors. The longer days gave even the most diligent farmer an opportunity to sip lemonade on the porch after a hard day's work. Picnics, dances, and other social events dominated the long, lazy weeks. Best of all, for the children, there was no school. Limited only by chores, they were free to spend their idle time fishing, swimming, and just enjoying being alive. We hope that your summer will echo the carefree atmosphere of those long-ago days. This is a time to visit with family and friends, to sit by the graves of loved ones, and to spend a few hours in the cool recesses of the library or courthouse poring over records for new ancestral discoveries. Have a wonderful time whatever you do, and we'll see you again in October!

A Good Idea: In the meantime, please join us at our VIRTUAL REUNION

===================================================================

SELF SEEKERS MEMBERSHIP FEES

If you haven't made your 2005 contribution yet, please do so now...

===================================================================

THE 1890 CENSUS?
by Barbara Peck
Edited by Tim Seawolf-Self

It would make a wonderful topic for a suspense novel: someone finds a second, hitherto unknown, copy of the 1890 Census hidden in a building in Washington, D.C. What do you think would happen next? Well, I know one thing for sure. Once its existence was made known, genealogists the world over would hardly be able to wait for it to be released online. They would pay heavily for a chance to answer all those riddles that seem impossible to solve without that lost documentation.

BRIEF HISTORY

The 1890 Census was hailed as the first really comprehensive population survey in the United States. The Censuses taken between 1790 and 1840 were <unfortunately> intended to provide simple counts of living individuals--only the head of household was identified by name while the rest were divided by age and gender. Between 1850 and 1880, all names were included, but you've probably noticed that the questions asked were not consistent in each decade. The authors of the 1890 Census were determined to gather as many facts as possible so that social needs could be recognized and social policies developed in addition to recording the number of people living in the country. With residents finally stretching from coast to coast, this Census was the first to be taken since the Western Frontier had dissolved into history. Some of the items recorded pertained to farms, businesses, wages, gender, birthplace, schooling, and a breakdown of ethnicity which included Chinese, Japanese, and "Civilized Indian" citizens as well as the familiar "Black/White" designation.

Because of the projected importance of the information to be accumulated--as well as the vast amount of data anticipated--the Government sponsored a contest to find the person or firm who could tabulate the figures more quickly than anyone else. The winner was a man named Herman Hollerith who used his Hollerith Tabulation Machine to complete the statistics tally in only 6 weeks. This feat is even more amazing when we realize that every element counted required re-programming of the machine. Hollerith saved the Government a great deal of time and money. This marvelous machine was in use until the 1920s. Though it used round holes in its electrical cards, it was the descendant of the system used on the Jacquard weaving machines in France as well as the ancestor of the rectangular punch card system used for class registration when I was in College. Hollerith himSelf went on to found his own company: IBM.

It's often reported that the 1890 Census was destroyed in a fire in 1921. The fire, though, was only the beginning. It was bound to happen. The Census Bureau, established in 1902, had expanded, and there was a desperate need for a National Archives building. It would be fireproof to preserve the country's historical records. Destruction by fire was the greatest fear among Bureau employees. In fact, some of the Special Schedules had already been consumed by fire in 1896. But when the dreaded fire broke out in the Commerce Building where the 1890 Census had been "temporarily" stored, it actually didn't do much damage to the records. The water used to put the fire out was the real culprit. Most of the 1890 Census pages, plus a few records from other years, were heavily blurred, stained and stuck together. People in those days were not familiar with the salvage techniques in use today. At first they planned on drying the ruined documents to avoid molding and then recopying what they could to fresh new pages. They didn't act on this plan, however, and when the time finally came to move into the new National Archives building, the records were considered to be beyond repair. In 1934, with the exception of a few fragments, the 1890 Census was destroyed over the protests of historians and archivists.

SALVAGE

You can read all about flood salvage on the Web. There are quite a few really good sites that describe the processes used to save print materials that have been damaged by water. While there are companies that perform these services and use some very sophisticated means, the basics are actually very simple. I know this for a fact because I was involved in a flood in the 1970s.

I worked in a college library on the East Coast. Our Art collection of several thousand volumes was housed in a separate building. One cold winter night, a custodian left a window open. The pipes froze, including those belonging to the overhead fire sprinklers. They burst and flooded the room, and the entire collection was damaged.

The staff pulled together and worked long hours--day, night, and even weekends--to salvage our books. Art books are almost never out of date, but they are often very expensive and thus not easily replaced. At first, most of us worked on wrapping them in newspaper so that they could be "freeze-dried" for later treatment. The freeze-drying step was necessary so that the excess water could be frozen and removed slowly by professionals at a later date, and treatment of these books could be attempted. Most of the freeze-dry candidates were books whose pages were clay-based, an ingredient very popular for volumes with those shiny plates and smooth backgrounds.

Later, I was put in charge of the drying room. The majority of our books were not full of clay-based pages, and so they could be dried fairly well with heat. First, the staff painstakingly inserted paper towels one by one between the soaked pages. Then the books were placed on end with the pages fanned out as much as possible. The heat was turned up in the area, at some times to over 90 degrees. Huge rotating fans were turned on to move the heat around through the gently riffling pages. Because the space was limited, the books were tested every hour or so, and those that had been successfully dried were shelved while more wet ones were put in their place.

The story had a fairly happy ending. All of the heat-dried books survived. Unfortunately, quite a few of the freeze-dried volumes--which were the most expensive group--didn't make it. The salvage company believed that we hadn't gotten to them soon enough after the flood, even though just a few hours had passed before someone noticed what had happened overnight.

IMPLICATIONS FOR SALVAGE OF THE 1890 CENSUS

Since our library was able to save the majority of our water-damaged Art collection using simple methods and lots of manpower, why wasn't the Census Bureau able to salvage the 1890 Census?

It seems that no one really knew why the schedules were rescued, then stored away again, and finally destroyed. It's possible that, as with the clay-based art books, those in charge waited too long to attempt the salvage operation. The pages may have swelled, curled, or dried out and started to crumble. They may have stuck together and bonded firmly over time, leaving chunks of paper that could not be pried apart. Perhaps their initial dampness led to mold and other fungal growth. We also need to remember that the Census, unlike the Art books, had been written in pen and ink and most likely blurred to the point that much of the data was unreadable. They may have been beyond even a massive copy project and as useless as they were finally declared to be thirteen years after the fire and flood.

WHAT NOW?

Before writing this article, I fantasized for months about finding a lost copy of the 1890 Census. I even considered the possibility that some genealogical information could be extracted from the Hollerith punch cards, wherever they might be. But I know that there really is no hidden copy. And I know that the punch cards only tabulated data--they didn't list the names of individuals. The emphasis was on quick tabulation of data. As in the pre-1850 Censuses, genealogy was only an afterthought, if it was considered at all.

My next thought was: Why not try to reconstruct that Census? It would be a mammoth project, but it shouldn't be so formidable if it involved hundreds of people each working on a small piece of the whole. After surfing the Web for awhile, I realized that others had had the same thought way before me. There are some sites that are doing just that! I found that quite a few had pieced together the population of a city or county from local directories, public records, and other resources. While the years may be slightly off--i.e., 1889 or 1891 rather than 1890, these documents still provide a good snapshot of the households enumerated in 1890. Actually, the standard ten years between Censuses is quite a long time and would naturally cover hundreds, even thousands, of changes than, say, a five-year period. And I also found at least one ambitious site that was attempting to pull all of this data together with the eventual goal of reproducing much of the lost Census of 1890.

What can you do? The answer is simple: you can contribute to the reconstruction. If you have any information, look up the 1890 Census on the Web and find a Website that is attempting to gather 1890 information (there are quite a few of them). Choose a site that is preparing FREE reconstruction. This particular census is too important to limit its use to paying customers. If you have access to a local or county directory from the years 1889-1891, transcribe the data and donate it to the site. If you don't, you might want to contribute your own verified family data. Although there are few people, if any, alive today who were also living in 1890, there are still enough of us who remember ancestors and relatives who were part of that lost era. Write down what you can complete with names and dates--make ancestral charts--gather up information from your gedcoms and other research and give that to the site you choose to work with. Every household recorded is a major step forward. It's just possible that your work may be more accurate than that of the Census Taker, so if you found the usual errors in other decades, this is your chance to set the record straight!

SUMMARY

The tragedy of the 1890 Census is a also a tragedy for every genealogist in the United States. Its loss leaves a 20-year gap in recorded documentation--nearly the span of an entire generation. Entire families could have been formed and then scattered in the time between 1880 and 1900. We've seen that there are very simple salvage methods to repair water damage if they are applied as quickly as possible. Sadly, the government's priorities for over a century had been solely with statistical data and not with the human lives recorded in those pages. Once those numbers had been collected, the schedules themSelfs were of little importance. This attitude caused a long delay in the construction of a National Archives building. It led to the casual storage and eventual destruction of an entire Census. We hope that someday the bits and pieces will come together so that the 1890 Census exists once again, this time online and on film, backed up in many ways and stored in many places. Let's also hope that it's never too late for our ancestors to stand up and be counted.

(NEXT: "REVIEW OF SARUM")

===================================================================

WALL OF HONOR
Honoring Our Cousins Serving in Active Military Duty

submitted by Cousin Barry

For some time now, I have been thinking about our men and women in uniform who are serving their country in the War Against Terrorism. Thousands of Americans have put their lives on hold to take up arms to serve and protect not only our freedom, but also the freedom of citizens of other countries. A great number have even paid the ultimate sacrifice. America has lost some of its best and brightest for the cause of freedom abroad.

It may surprise some to know that some Selfs and Self relatives are among those honorably serving in the U.S. Armed Forces in places like Iraq and Afghanistan.

I would like to invite our membership to join me in honoring all Self related individuals who are now serving or who have recently served in the War Against Terrorism. I personally know of at least two. One is currently serving in Iraq and the other recently served a tour of duty there and I believe is now back in the United States.

Please submit the names and any biographical information you wish about the service person and his or her family. A photograph of the relative (preferably in uniform) would add to the biography. Feel free to be as brief or as detailed as you wish.

I am not a veteran, but I do have a patriotic heart. I will break the ice by providing information on at least one of my military relatives. I think this will be a nice way to honor our fine men and women who are in military service. They are part of us and are playing a very vital role in events that are making world history daily. Let us not forget them and their sacrifice.

Sgt. Jeffery A. Butler, age 35 of Madisonville, Tennessee is serving in Iraq with the Army National Guard, Troop B 1/278^th, based in Sweetwater, Tennessee. Jeff arrived in Kuwait Thanksgiving Day, 2004 and has been in Iraq since the first of December. His F.O.B. (Forward Operating Base) is currently located about 50 miles north of Bagdad. They run combat patrols everyday, do raids and escort missions. They are presently attached to the 1/ 128^th INF. Their actual unit is the K-Troop out of Jamestown, Tennessee. Jeff is scheduled to come home for a 2 week visit in June.

Sgt. Jeffery A. Butler

Jeff’s wife, Kaye Butler, is the leader of the Family Readiness Group for the Sweetwater, Tennessee unit of the Army National Guard. Her responsibilities include offering moral support to the spouses and families of soldiers who are serving with her husband in Iraq. The group meets once monthly and in addition to offering moral support they also offer some financial assistance to families of the soldiers. The group also sends care packages to the soldiers in Iraq.

Jeffery A. Butler Family

Sgt. Jeffery A. Butler Family

===================================================================

PLEASE CONTRIBUTE BIOGRAPHIES AND PHOTOS TO US

===================================================================

MINOR SELF LINES
part 7
by Barbara Peck and Tim Seawolf-Self

In 2003, we presented an article on the major unconnected Self lines. Now we'd like to concentrate on the minor lines that are still not connected to Olde Robert Selfe, even by "best evidence." In this installment, we've included Self branches from Iowa, Kansas, and Kentucky. We hope to feature more small family lines in the following newsletters.

IOWA

L. A. SELF: Who was L. A. Self, born 1850 in OH, married to Mellir [?], born 1860 in PA, and living in Mills County, IA in 1900? His children were born in different states: Lina B. (1884 in KS); Lida H. (1889 in AR); Agnes P. (1892 in OH); and Lewis H. (1896 in IA or MO).

KANSAS

THOMAS SELF: Born--possibly in England--in 1836, Thomas Self was in Johnson County, KS before 1860. He m. in KS., Mary Middleton, b. 1845 in MO. Their child, S. W., was born in 1876. Did Thomas really come from England? And what do the initials S. W. stand for? Is this child male or female? There was an orphan in the same county named Samuel W. Selfe about 1900, but if this was S. W., son of Thomas, he would already be 24 years old and on his own. Samuel W. Selfe had a sister named Ethel.

LEAVENWORTH SELFS: There were a lot of African American Selfs in Leavenworth County, KS. We'd like to know their family origins. We'd also like to know if ALL the Selfs in that county were Black or if there were white Selfs as well.

CORDELIA C. SELF: Cordelia Self was born in 1851 in MO of KY/IN parents and had brothers Alfred and James. She married 1868 in MO., William Brummett, and had two sons, William and Charles. The family moved from MO to Marshall County, KS.

KENTUCKY

JOHN R. SELF: We should be able to place John R. Self, born 1848 in VA and his wife, Julia, born 1852 and d. 1921 in KY, but we can't. The couple lived in Barren and Hart Counties and had six children, Lillie (1879), Sallie (1880), Cecil (1881), Maggie (1884), Katie Lee (1890), and Mary (1893)

CAROLINE JANE SELF: We know her exact date of birth (Apr. 27, 1859) and her exact date of death (June 11, 1911). We know her husband's name: Washington Johnson Lewis. We know that this family lived in Barren County and had 10 children: Walton, James (1875), John (1876), Nancy (1878), Joseph (1881), Guy (1885), Paul (1887), Allen (1890), Thadeus (1895) and Edward (1898). But we don't know anything about Caroline's ancestry.

FRANCES SELF: In Calloway County there lived the family of William Rufus and Frances (Self) Boggess. Their son, William Rufus, was born in 1897 and d. about 1980. Who was Frances Self? And were there more children born to this couple?

JULIA A. SELF: Julia Self was born 1820 in Carroll County, KY. She m. William Dickens, b. 1795 in KY. They had at least two children: William (1835) and Davis (1841)

UNKNOWN SELF: There was a Self man in Daviess County, KY whose wife was named Catherine (maiden name unknown). They had two sons: Harbert (1862) and Charles (1871) Who was this mystery man?

WILLIAM SELF: Born in TN in 1857, William Self and his wife, Cassandra, lived in Daviess County. Their children were: Columbus (1879 IN); Charles H. (1888, IN); Jim (KY), Stirman (FL); Alma (IN); Eunice (KY); Willie Pearl (1897 KY)

CHARLES H. SELF: Another Daviess County resident was Charles H. Self, born Aug. 23, 1870 in KY. He died July 5, 1963 in Shelby County, KY. His wife was H. Medora (or Medora A.) Self (1866-1940). Their children: J. Addie (1893) and B. Ayer (1899)

THOMAS C. SELF: We don't know who Thomas C. Self's wife might have been, and his only daughter, Mary J., lived just over a year, dying in 1869. Thomas was born Feb. 20, 1836 and d. Jan. 12, 1878 in Daviess County, KY.

E. J. SELF: Here's another Self with only initials as a clue to his lineage. He was born in KY in 1853 and lived in Edmonson County. He married an unknown woman. His children are just as elusive as he is: M. M. (1880); L. B. (1881); and N. M. (1885), all females.

JOSEPH W. SELF: Married Feb. 8, 1870 in Fayette County, KY to Mary Jane Tillett (1848-1915), Joseph W. Self (1851-1870) had seven children: Emma (1871); Joseph (1875); John (1877); Nancy (1879); William O. (1880); Kittie B. (1883); and Texas Lill (1889).

NATHANIEL J. SELF: Another Fayette resident was Nathaniel J. Self, born in 1850 and d. in 1924. His wife's name was Amanda. His children were: Nathaniel N. (1874); Wade (1880); and Lizzie (1889)

JAMES SELF: Father of namesake James (1850), James Self was born in 1829 in Fayette County, KY. His wife, Mary, was born in 1832.

ALLEN SELF: Allen Self was born 1855 in KY and lived in Fayette County. He and his wife, Palmyra (1865), had at least two children: Myrtle (1882) and Bettie (1886)

MARTHA JANE SELF: Martha Jane Self, wife of Amos Spears (1873), was born in 1859. The couple and their three children Lafayette (1874), Marion (1877), and Margaret (1878) were in Floyd County in 1880.

JOHN E. SELF: Mary (1842), Ann (1848), Helen (1849), John R. (1850), and Martha (1853) were the children of John E. Self (1821) and wife Ann (1819) of Hart County, KY. John R. could be the one who lived in Barren and Hart (see above)

JOHN W. SELF: Yet another John Self of Hart County was John W. Self, born 1857. His wife's name was Julie, and she was born in 1859. Their five children were: James (1890), Johnnie (1892), Rosa (1895), Homer (1897), and Belle (1899)

UNKNOWN SELF: We have no information on this Self. We know that he was married to Sarah, b. 1812 in VA. There were at least six children in this Hart County family: Harriet (1841), Isaac (1859), Thomas (1862), James (1863), Laura (1866), and one with a very strange name that is something like Lricahow (1868)

WILLIS SELF: Henderson County was home to Willis Self (1854) and wife, Lucy (1856), in 1880. At the time of the Census, they had two children: Rendon (1877) and Frances (1879)

ROBERT R. SELF: They lived in Mercer County, KY and had three children: John Ray, Lola (1883), and Dottie (1888). Robert R. Self (1855) married Susan Parlee Davenport (1855-1937) in 1882. A note says that Robert was related to John Self (1814) and Liza Self (1824)

ELIZABETH SELF: Elizabeth Self was born in 1863. Her mother's maiden name was Gaskins. She was married in MO in 1881 to Leslie Bell Smith. Their children were: Anna Pearl (1882), William Marion (1884), Jesse Leroy (1887), Myrtle Leora (1889), Charles Wilburn (1891), Clarence Oliver (1893), and Martha O. (1902)

GREEN SELF: Who was Green Self, b. 1807 in SC? He m. 1837, Susan Gatton, although in the 1870 Census her name is given as "Sarah." Their children, born in Spencer, KY., were: Bell (1844), Marion (1845), Mariah (1850), Alice (1852), and Samuel (1854)

SUSAN SELF: Possibly related to Green Self, Susan Self was born about 1825. She m. 1846, Joseph Shields, and also lived in Spencer County, KY. Another source gives the marriage date as 1836. We know that one son, Mahlon, was born in 1847. There are no dates for the 3 other known children: Thomas, Sallie, and Morrison.

UNKNOWN SELF: His wife's name was Mary, and she was born in 1829. His children were: Malissa (1847), Sarah (1849), and Mary (1853), and they lived in Warren County, KY.

JOHN SELF: Yet another John Self, born about 1820. His wife was Anna Logston. Their children were: Hattie Mae (about 1850); Willie (about 1855); and Savannah (about 1855).

A. E. SELF: She was the mother of William Riley Herron (1857-1930) and James C. Herron (1865-1949). Her husband was William Riley Herron. She was born about 1825.

HOLLIS SELF: Born in 1829, he married Elizabeth, born 1830. Their daughter was named Phebe and was born in 1861.

UNKNOWN SELF: She married a man named Grisson and had a child named Mary. Mary Grisson went to Missouri and married James Alexander London in 1861 in Madison County.

SUMMARY

If you know about any of these Selfs from Iowa, Kansas, or Kentucky, please send us a chart or gedcom showing their ancestry. In the issues to follow, we'll be listing other "Loose Ends" from other states. You'll find these people listed on the "Loose Ends" section of "SelfSite" as well. We'd just love to put them in their place!

(NEXT: Minor Self Lines, part 8)

Maybe your ancestors used to tell stories about life in the "old days," stories you remember hearing as a child. Please tell us about them. We will even supply editing and formatting; but we'd all love to know about daily life in the Self families of old--and you may be able to help. Please contact us. And please state that your story is specifically for the newsletter.

LOOSE ENDS

Please go to our "Loose Ends" subsection at our SelfSite at RootsWeb.

DEAD ENDS

Please go to our "Dead Ends" subsection at our SelfSite at RootsWeb.

SELFS IN SPACE

What would you like to see here? This space is reserved for any topic of interest to Self cousins. Express YourSelf!!

If you do not wish to receive this electronic publication, please take a moment to e-mail us.

====================================================================

DISCLAIMERS OF WARRANTIES AND LIABILITY

Some parts of this newsletter contain information contributed by individuals. The editors may not monitor or censor the information placed on these Pages. We do not invite reliance upon, nor accept responsibility for, the information posted here.

Each individual contributor is solely responsible for the content of their information, including any and all legal consequences of the postings. We are in no way, in whole or in part, responsible for any damages caused by the content in this newsletter or by the content contributed by any person.

We do not warrant, or guarantee any of the services, products, or information used for these pages. We do not make any warranty, expressed or implied, and do not assume any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any of the information disclosed in this publication, or represent in any way that the use would not infringe privately owned rights.

NOTICE: The information in this newsletter is Copyrighted, and must not be used for any commercial purposes or republished in any form without prior permission. This newsletter is copyrighted, except where previous copyright applies.

Back to Menu

Go to Index

Go to Self Portraits