Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Tuesday's Tip - turn the page

This is probably fairly obvious, but it is something I do not always do, especially online. 

This is the passport application for my uncle Edward McFadden (1889-1977) from April 1919 from Ancestry.com. 

Besides the information about him:
     1. born in Coal Center, Pennsylvania, 12 March 1889
     2. lives in Pittsburgh
     3. is a salesman
     4. visiting France and Great Britain as part of the Knights of Columbus War Relief
      Work
     5. left from New York

It also has information about his father, my great grandfather Dennis McFadden (about 1847-1924).
     1. Dennis emigrated from Londonderry Ireland about 1852
     2. he has no naturalization papers but a discharge from the US Army dated 25 July  
     1865
     3. he lived uninterrupted in the US for 67 years 1852-1919
     4. he lived in Coal Center, Roscoe, Monongahela & Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and
     also the state of Ohio

I logged on to check it a few times to verify the information.  For some reason this last time, I clicked the arrow for the next page and found this: 

Not only does it have his street address, and a physical description of Edward but also a photograph of him from 1919.  I believe this is the earliest photo of him that I have, the others being from the 1930's and 1977.

Then on the next page is the physical description again, along with a letter of introduction from a representative from the Knights of Columbus.



So to sum up, don't forget to turn the page.

8 comments:

  1. I wish I'd read this a year ago! I just found this out myself this week when viewing WWI and WWII draft registration cards.

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    1. I know I'm going to go through my files and double check other documents I may have missed things on.

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  2. Not only did this post alert me to look for passport applications, it reminded me to turn the page. I just did a post about "An Early Christmas Gift." Found a document in google books, and I mention it because not only did I need to turn the page but I needed to read very carefully what was there. If fact I'll be going through it many times while I am transcribing the letters of my gg grandfather.

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  3. I had something similar happen. In 1996 I received a 29 page typed family tree from a distant cousin. Very helpful cuz the last name was Miller and it's hard to keep all the Millers straight. In 2008, I received the same tree from another relative, this time names of cemeteries were added to the first couple of pages and I recorded those and filed the tree. A couple of weeks ago, I took it out again and discovered the second tree had 32 pages, somehow the first tree didn't have those last three pages!!!! So I learned alot more about the family, and I had it for several years.

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    1. Neat story, and why I still keep all my paper documents and files after scanning. You never know what you may have missed.

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  4. I am not perfect at turning things over either. However, I turned over a bracelet that I photographed and on the 'inside' I found "With Love, Louise". Aww... my grandmother gave my grandfather a great bracelet and inscribed it with her love. That way, when grandpa was fighting in World War II, he'd have her love on his wrist to remind him that she was keeping the home fires burning!

    In any case, I didn't flip the page but I looked at the opposing page of a marriage certificate once. I had saved a marriage certificate and cropped it in to the 'important facts' as it was a record with three certificates on one. One day I was reviewing the file and saw that the opposing page was blank, except for some handwriting across from the certificate belonging to my family. Wouldn't you know, I FINALLY found the name of my 3 great-grandmother's father. Woo-hoo.

    So yep, turn the page, look at the opposing page, turn things over. It takes time to be a natural at this, but when we do these things, we can learn new information. So cool to see the photo on the passport application. Lucky you!

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    1. That is cool you were able to find the name on the other page. I'm definitely more careful when cropping and copying now than when I started. Live and learn.

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