1850 Census

In trying to sort out my Merrell and Long lines of New Jersey, this helpful census entry popped up from 1850.  (At this point I don't know what connection, if any, this family has to do with my lines.)

(Springfield is now in Union County, but was in Essex County in 1850, so we use the place name description accurate for that period of time.  Union County was not created until 1857.  Parts of Springfield Township remained in Essex County and became Millburn, which is where this family is found in the 1860 census.)

Beginning in 1850, the federal census listed all members of a household- not just the head of the household.  This is great, except that the relationship of each member to the head is omitted.  This feature was not added until 1880.

This census taker went above and beyond, recording little tidbits of information along with the names.  In the above entry, the older ladies of the household, Catherine Meeker and Elizabeth Long, are listed as "wid" or widowed.  (As a word of caution:  a woman enumerated without a husband was not always a widow, even if indicated in her social condition from 1880 forward.)

Harriet Meeker (born Long), age 22, is listed as "his W," indicating that she is the spouse of John Meeker, and not a daughter of Catherine Meeker.  When viewing a census from 1850, 1860, or 1870, it is very easy to mistake the wife of a son as a daughter of the head of household, as the daughter-in-law may be intermingled with the other children of the same age.

23andMe Price Increase

After years of decreasing prices for DNA testing for genealogy, I am sad to write that the price has increased.

23andMe is reviving its DNA-based health related testing, doubling the price for a kit from $99 (US Dollars) to $199.

The autosomal DNA test from the two other major genetic genealogy testing companies, FamilyTreeDNA and AncestryDNA, remains $99.

The frustration in using 23andMe for genealogy is that a lot of consumers tested their DNA for health purposes, not genealogy.  You choose which part you wish to participate in- genealogy or health or both- but family researchers are plagued with DNA cousins with no interest in communicating who posited themselves in the genealogy pool.

The effect of this price increase may drive genealogy DNA customers away from 23andMe to one of the other companies.  If you are serious about finding relatives, your DNA needs to be at all three companies anyway.  But frustration will increase as more people test for health and not genealogy, artificially increasing the genealogy pool available at 23andMe.

Book Review: The Porcelain Thief

I enjoyed reading The Porcelain Thief by Huan Hsu.  Huan recounts his genealogical escapade in China, though he did not realize that he was researching his family's history until he neared the end of his journey.

Huan was born in the United States and is of Chinese heritage.  He knows little about his family's history.  He becomes fascinated with the family story of burying porcelain in the backyard before fleeing for their lives.  Huan decides to track down this old homestead and the porcelain.

Uncovering his family's history in China is extremely difficult.  He is fortunate to have living family members in China, one of whom employs Huan at his company, providing him with legal permission to stay in China.   Huan must learn the Chinese language and learn how to navigate the political and social customs of this culture so foreign to him.

As researchers of our family's history, we can identify with Huan when he tracks down elderly family members and tries to extract relevant information from them.  He learns that photographs and records were destroyed; people, places, and memories lost over the years; graves vandalized, moved, or reburied under new construction.

Huan's family's struggles reflect the struggles of China as a whole.  The family was torn apart by war, invasions, political movements, and major cultural shifts- in every generation.  His family's history is mostly oral, and as Huan discovers, will remain so without the availability of records.

While interviewing his grandmother's aged sister, Huan realizes:

"She wasn't making up her memories, but they had unmoored from their original context and drifted into a mosaic with no beginning, end, or order.  It wasn't all that different from my own uncertain understanding of how the fragments of our family history fit together, or what was real and what was imagined, and with fewer and fewer people to ask for the truth."

The homestead where the porcelain was supposedly buried was "forfeited" by the family when they fled.  Huan and his family likely have little legal recourse to reclaim the property, and digging for the buried porcelain is prohibited as it could indicate that the family may have a claim against the current corporate industrial owners.  The entire neighborhood was razed, as was most of their family's discoverable family history.

Some family pictures survived.

One of my favorite quotes from the book,
referring to China's attempt to "catch up"
with technology and industry by copying.
United States patent and copyright laws mean little.
If someone could re-do this with more artistic flair,
that would be great.

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.  If you have an online presence and interest in reviewing books, give this program a try.