Climbing a Small Genealogical Mountain

Crate of Ephemera

Most days of my week are spent digitizing original documents as part of the Subscription Data service at Genealogy Today. Every once in a while, I take a break from the normal routine and got digging through the boxes of unsorted materials that occupy one corner of the offsite storage facility that I lease. And today was one of those days.

These boxes are from estate sales and/or auctions, and are filled with all sorts of stuff. Most of it ends up being recyled, but there are quite a few genealogical gems (why else would I buy them right?). Today's mining expedition yielded 21 marriage certificates/announcements, a dozen or so passports, numerous death certificates, some coroner's inquests, burial permits and a variety of other nifty documents.

As I'm writing this post, my scanner is hard at work, processing the marriage documents. Earlier this week I prepped a stack of sixteen other marriage items; the combined set should go online this Sunday, and you'll be able to search through them here. Many of the miscellaneous items will trickle out to the free Family History Wiki later this week. The death items should go online the following week, and will be searchable here.

I guess this make me a genealogical "paper pusher," which is a good thing for those researchers who will end up making a "find" in these newly discovered items. For those of you whose interest has been piqued by the prospect of finding a marriage document, here are the years/surnames for the grooms:

1855/Hewson, 1867/Hughes, 1877/Maris, 1881/Blum, 1883/George, 1886/Moutzer, 1887/Jackson, 1887/Rogers, 1887/West, 1888/Atwood, 1888/Schaefer, 1891/Clopper, 1891/White, 1892/Robinson, 1892/Webster, 1894/Reese, 1895/Scotchmer, 1899/Berger, 1902/Ward, 1903/Prutton, 1905/Mackley, 1906/Hulseberg, 1909/Leppley, 1912/Moulton, 1916/Fredrickson, 1922/Borgstrom, 1922/Merritt, 1930/Runne, 1934/Hull, 1935/Stedman, 1940/Lowry, 1943/Bowers, 1946/Vetashiek, 1948/Horan, 1950/Fleury, 1954/Kuhl, 1964/Keller.

As many of these are handwritten, the names posted are subject to change when the documents go through the transcription process and review.