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 1/278th,
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/ 128th 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.
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.
Copyright 1998-2005 Tim Seawolf-Self and Barbara
A. Peck, All Rights Reserved
Back to Menu
Go to Index
Go to Self Portraits