November 9, 2012 - 2:16 pm
On 22 Oct 2012 we lost a beloved daughter, sister, mother, wife, aunt, cousin. This is the eulogy that was read at the 3 Nov 2012 memorial service held for her in Coffeyville, KS at the Emmanuel Southern Baptist Church:
EULOGY FOR KAY
The world was a different place in 1939. Franklin D. Roosevelt was the president, La Guardia airport opened for business in New York City, the first woman was elected dean of a US graduate school, John Steinbeck’s novel, “The Grapes of Wrath” was published and the “Wizard of Oz” and “Gone With The Wind” premiered. And something else happened. Every now and then God decides to add a little something extra special to the family of humanity and wraps it up in a bundle that we know as a little girl. This little girl was called Barbara Kay and on October 29th of that year, to her mother Lottie Mae’s delight, she was born in a place we know as Walnut Grove, Missouri.
And then in 1946 there was another momentous event that would change Kay’s life, she met her beloved Daddy, Ernest Ray Hayes. During the next several years Ernie and Lottie Mae, with Kay and sisters Blanche and Kathryn, aka Cricket, enjoyed life in Missouri as any family of modest means did. During this time, a fourth sister, Lexie, was born. In August of 1951 the family moved to Coffeyville, Ks and 5 years later the youngest sister, Debby was born.
My sister Kay had many interests: cooking, knitting and a great love of books and could often be found reading. Blanche told me how Kay would make her and Cricket go outside to play while she “mopped the floor”. Being the obedient girls that they were, Blanche and Cricket would go out to play and Kay would then lock the doors so they couldn’t get back in. Kay always told them it was because she didn’t want them walking on the floors until they were dry. After a while Blanche and Cricket would get thirsty and they’d knock on the door for Kay to let them in. But Kay would tell them the floors weren’t dry and they couldn’t come in yet. Blanche said though that when she and Cricket looked through the window, Kay was always sitting down reading a book. After two or three hours she and Cricket would be banging on the door because they had to go to the bathroom. Blanche said they would have to beg to get in before Kay would unlock the door. She adds that they never did wet their pants but they sure came close to it a few times! Now let’s think about this for a moment…. just imagine Blanche and Cricket going to Mom and whining about how Kay locked them out of the house. Then Mom asking them why Kay locked the doors and having to tell her, “Well she said she was mopping the floors”……, pretty hard to justify your complaint, huh? Yes, Kay had a great love for reading! Did I also mention she was very clever? Blanche also said about Kay, “She opened up new worlds for everyone. She is, and always will be, right by my side.”
Lexie was telling me that when she was about 3 years old, Kay, Blanche and Cricket were swinging in the porch swing. Lexie wanted to get up there and swing with them but Kay wouldn’t let her in the swing; therefore, none of the 3 was going to let her in. Lexie tried to climb up into the porch swing anyway, despite Kay telling her no. Lexie got a good whack from the swing for her efforts and ended up with a black eye! But Lexie also said that Kay was the one that taught her all those things that little girls need to know – how to dress herself and tie her shoes and to read.
When I was in grade school I had just finished reading “Little Women” by Louisa May Alcott for the first time. It was Thanksgiving Day and Kay called Mom and then spoke to me. She wanted to know what book I was reading and I told her that I had just finished “Little Women”. She asked if I had liked it and I said “Yes, very much.” At Christmas I opened my present from her and it was “Eight Cousins” by the same author. Kay had taken the time to talk to a much younger sister.
Kay and her husband Ed enjoyed a blessed relationship. Shortly after she passed, Ed wrote to Kay….”It seems that you always went out of your way to please me, sometimes to the point of being stubborn. I never knew you to think about yourself first at any time in our life. Just wanted you to know that I am a little upset that you started this adventure without me. You seem to have forgotten that I’m the one who always went first. Just saying. But I will catch up. We were always so good together. If we ever had a serious disagreement, I cannot seem to remember it. You were always so beautiful to me, your looks, actions, thoughts, concern for others, adventurous spirit.”
Kay’s oldest son, Keivan wrote Lexie, “She taught me how to cook and my love for cuisine and cooking my entire life. This is a huge personal priority for me. Travel, cooking, and enjoying a fantastic cup of coffee in any espresso form, all connect me to her and always have. Now I don’t have to text her, I’ll just whisper to her.”
Kay was more than a daughter, more than a wife, more than a mother, more than a sister, more than a relative, more than a friend. She was more than a strong woman who said what she meant and meant what she said. She was Barbara Kay, an individual, unique. Kay was the kind of woman who did what she said she was going to do. Once she made up her mind on something, you could be pretty sure that it was going to get done. When difficult times enter into our lives, we always have the opportunity to choose to become bitter or better. Kay strove to become better. She knew you only get one shot at life, so do your very best with it. As the ones left behind, there are things that we don’t want to happen but have to accept, things we don’t want to know but have to learn, and people we can’t live without but have to let go.
I’d like to read a passage for you from “The Little Prince:”
“All men have stars, but they are not the same things for different people. For some, who are travelers, the stars are guides. For many, they are no more than little lights in the sky. For others, who are scholars, they are problems. But all these stars are silent. You, you alone will have stars as no one else has them. In one of the stars I shall be living. In one of them I shall be laughing. And so it will be as if all the stars will be laughing when you look at the sky at night. You, only you, will have stars that can laugh! And when your sorrow is comforted (for time soothes all sorrows) you will be content that you have known me. You will always be my friend. You will want to laugh with me. And you will sometimes open your window, so, for that pleasure. It will be as if, in place of the stars, I had given you a great number of little bells that knew how to laugh”
You can shed tears that Kay is gone. It’s okay because our tears comfort us. But please also smile because she lived. You can close your eyes and mourn. But then open your eyes and see all that Kay left us. Be aware that a word someone may say will suddenly recapture a time, an hour, a day that brings her back as clearly as though she were still here. And when you look up into the night sky and see the stars, please blow a kiss and a blessing that way and smile, knowing that Kay is there.
~Written and read by Kay’s sister, Debra Hayes Brodbeck~
Posted in GeneaBlogs News, Genealogy, General & Misc, My Ancestors, Shared Ancestors News |
November 9, 2012 - 1:58 pm
Barbara Kay Vest Crowell,
29 Oct 1939 – 22 Oct 2012
Funeral services for Barbara Kay Vest Crowell, age 73, of Johnson City, Tenn., a former resident of Coffeyville, were held at 2:00 pm Saturday, October 27, 2012 in the chapel of Doak-Howell Funeral Home with Pastor Susan Springer officiating. Burial followed in the Crowell’s Chapel Cemetery in the Hall Mill Community at Shelbyville, Tennessee. Mrs. Crowell passed on Monday Oct. 22, 2012 at Johnson City (TN) Medical Center after a short illness.
Memorial services will be held in Coffeyville, Ks. at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, November 3, 2012, at Emmanuel Southern Baptist Church.
Born in Walnut Grove, Missouri, October 29, 1939, Kay was the daughter of the late Victor Lowry Vest and Lottie Mae Garrett. After living in Joplin, she moved to Coffeyville at the age of 11 with her mom and dad, Ernie, and sisters, Blanche, Cricket, and Lexie. She attended Field Kindley Memorial High School and Coffeyville Community Junior College. In 1958 she married Firouz Shahrokhi. Of this union two sons were born, Keivan in 1964 and Kimball in 1969. In 1976 she married Douglas “Ed” Crowell. Son, Joseph, was born in 1984 in Saudi Arabia.
Kay loved to do a great job of everything she committed to and enjoyed cooking and taking care of her family and home. Starting from a young age, she always wanted to travel and so she did, seeing many parts of the world with her husband and family. Throughout her full and busy life, she always found time for knitting. She finished a BS in mathematics at Middle Tennessee State University. She helped run and taught at Al Batin Academy in King Khalid Military City, Saudi Arabia, and also taught at Community High School in Unionville, TN, making many great friends and helping many lives as a teacher. She was Vice President and Retirement Plan Adminstrator at Valley Fidelity Bank in Knoxville, TN, worked as Administrative Assistant for Petromin in Riyadh, Saudi, Arabia, and as a real estate agent in Knoxville and Jackson, TN. Kay was founder, owner, and manager of Papillon Bakery in Shelbyville, TN.
Survivors include her husband of 36 years Douglas E. Crowell of Johnson City, TN, sons, Keivan Shahrokhi of Miami, FL, Kimball Shahrokhi of Apex, NC, and Joseph Crowell of Portland, OR; mother, Lottie “Rickey” Hayes of Coffeyville, KS, sisters, Blanche Cunningham and Lexie McCoy, both of Coffeyville, KS; Kathryn Hammer of Pittsburg, KS; and Debra Brodbeck of Galveston, TX; and grandson Aaron Kian Shahrokhi. She was preceded in death by her beloved daddy, Ernest Ray Hayes.
Memorials may be made to the Salvation Army.
Posted in GeneaBlogs News, Genealogy, General & Misc, My Ancestors, Shared Ancestors News |
February 14, 2010 - 4:24 pm
You’re free to choose your friends, goes the old saying, but you can’t pick your family. But what if you could, at least genealogically speaking? Besides desiring colorful and interesting ancestors —a noble here on the family tree, a horse thief there—you’d probably want to pick a pedigree that’s relatively easy and richly rewarding to research. You’d certainly want to avoid having ancestors from places whose records have been destroyed, aren’t readily accessible or never got created in the first place. Unless you’re particularly enamored of scrolling through and squinting at microfilm, these days you’d wish for ancestors whose records are searchable online.
So with this ancestral wish list in mind: Which are the states where it’s easiest—by design or by accident of history—to research your ancestry? If you’re fortunate enough to have family ties to these “best” states for genealogy, count your blessings. The rest of us can only look on with envy and hope that someday, some as yet undiscovered branch of the family tree leads our research there. And what, on the other hand, are the states that present the toughest challenges to genealogists? These “worst” states may be dragging their heels in putting information online, or throwing up roadblocks to getting vital records. Or these states’ sad status may not be the fault of archivists and public officials: Maybe they suffered courthouse fires and other natural disasters in years past, or were unaccountably late to the vital-records-keeping party. It could be that the microfilming legions of the
Family History Library (FHL) have given these states short shrift. Adding up all these factors—with an admittedly large dose of sheer subjectivity—we’ve assembled a list of the 10 best and 10 worst states for doing genealogy. (If your ancestors come from the other 30, you can both burn with envy and take comfort in knowing that, well, it could be worse.)
Bringing Up The Rear
In the spirit of saving the best for last, we begin by counting down the 10 worst places for your ancestors to have lived. All is not lost, though—even in the dark depths of our list, we found bright spots to share.
10. New York
As you’d expect from a state that barely makes our “worst” list, there’s good news as well as bad if you have New York ancestors. Case in point: noteworthy state censuses (later ones specify the court where an immigrant was naturalized) and New York City’s wonderful coroner’s records. The handsome state archives Web site offers a database of New Yorkers in the Civil War. But that’s slim pickings online, we think, for a state as large and historic as New York. And the Empire State can be a nightmare for vital-records research: Genealogy requests for an uncertified copy of a record cost $22 and may take five months or longer to process. The state’s apparent indifference towards birth, death and marriage records dates way back: It didn’t even try to enforce record-keeping until the mid-1800s, and didn’t finally succeed until the 1880s. Vital records for New York City are kept separately at the municipal archives, and availability varies by borough.
9. Idaho
Rocky Mountain and Great Plains states pepper our “worst” list, in part simply because their history is more recent and rugged. Idaho stands out—not in a good way—because of its protracted territorial era, which put it in different territorial censuses for 1850 (Oregon), 1860 (Washington) and 1870 and 1880 (Idaho). In 1860 and 1870, parts of Idaho were in the Cache County, Utah, count. County boundaries proved equally shifty; Alturas County disappeared altogether. Idaho also caught on to vital records relatively late, starting with birth and death records at the county level in 1907 and statewide in 1911. Statewide marriage and divorce records didn’t begin until 1947. At least death certificates from 1911 to 1956 are searchable online and 183,000 marriages extracted from county records are in the Western States Marriage Records Index.
8. Oklahoma
Researching your Oklahoma ancestors is not always OK. Blame its peculiar past, from Indian Territory to overnight settlements after the land rush of 1889, requiring research in a mix of territorial, state and Indian records. That’s complicated by the loss of Oklahoma’s 1870, 1880 and 1890 federal censuses, although a special 1890 enumeration of seven counties survives and is indexed online. Even the 1900 census separates the former Indian and Oklahoma territories.
After statehood in 1907, vital records lagged in many counties until as late as 1930 and even then, are spotty until the 1940s—and there are no statewide marriage records at all. Oklahoma also lacks the wealth of online resources that many other states enjoy. But don’t despair: Land records and, for those with Indian ancestors, the Dawes Rolls can help get you past your Oklahoma roadblocks Sooner rather than later.
7. West Virginia
Like Oklahoma, the Mountaineer State suffers from a quirk of historical geography: Until the heat of the Civil War in 1863, it was part of Virginia. That means earlier records for 50 of West Virginia’s 55 counties (five were formed later) follow different rules and may be found in Virginia. West Virginia didn’t get its own census until 1870. Its oddball history also means that, despite being birthed after the US federal government, West Virginia was not a public-land state. Statewide birth and death records didn’t begin until 1917, but a fire destroyed most of them through 1921; you’ll have to look to county courthouses for earlier records, which date from 1853. It’s not all bad, though: West Virginia has put vital records on the state archives Web site.
6. Montana
Saddled with the burdens of relatively late settlement and sprawling size—with lots of wide-open space between its cities and its genealogical repositories—Montana has a confusing early history of changing governance. From 1860 to 1880, some residents may be listed in Washington, Nebraska or Wyoming. Although Montana became a territory in 1864, births and deaths weren’t recorded until 1895 and statewide registration didn’t begin until 1907. Even then, widespread compliance didn’t happen for deaths until about 1915 and births until after that. State marriage and divorce records didn’t start until 1943, but some 10,400 early county marriage records can be found in the Western States Marriage Records Index. Land records (Montana was a public-land state, so patents are online) and the Montana Historical Society can help fill in the blanks on your Montana ancestors, but other Web resources are as sparse as this giant state’s population. Microfilmed records at the FHL are slimmer for Montana than for most states, too.
5. Louisiana
With a history residents would characterize as “colorful” and frustrated genealogists might describe as “messy,” Louisiana is one of the rare states where researchers could face a language barrier: Some early records, reflecting that history, are in French and Spanish. Louisiana is also the only state to have “parishes” instead of counties, and many parish courthouses have lost records to fires or floods over the years. Records that survive are based on French Napoleonic practices, presenting researchers with such unfamiliar terms as “conveyances” (deed transfers) and “successions” (probate). You’ll also have to become familiar with notary records, such as those collected in the New Orleans Notarial Archives; happily, you now can access these online: Click here to browse the record volumes by the notary’s name and year. Except for New Orleans, birth and death records didn’t begin until 1914. Though records for scattered pre-1805 local censuses exist, Louisiana lacks any state censuses you could use to fill in the blanks.
4. Nebraska
Although the Cornhusker State’s archives holds many records, even more are scattered among Nebraska’s whopping total of 93 counties. Many counties began keeping marriage records upon formation, but few bothered with births or deaths until statewide registration began in 1904 (1909 for marriages). Complicating vital-records research still further, only immediate kin can access birth or marriage records more recent than 50 years. As for deaths, cemeteries aren’t much help in Nebraska because the state has so many scattered and un-transcribed tiny graveyards. A wealth of state and territorial censuses is the bright spot here, plus some church records that can help with vital-records gaps, federal land patents and railroad land records (although fire destroyed most Union Pacific records). Web and microfilm researchers will go away wishing their Nebraska ancestors had spent a little more time on records.
3. Alaska
Don’t blame the 49th state for its paucity of genealogical records: Alaska is not only new, it’s also vast and vastly different from the “lower 48.” Alaska’s genealogical troubles started soon after the United States bought it from Russia, when the 1870 census skipped the territory except for Sitka. Extant federal census coverage doesn’t begin until 1900—and don’t look by county, as Alaska doesn’t have ’em. Official vital records didn’t begin until 1913, though you can try church records before that date. Cemetery records are literally few and far between, given the state’s sprawling geography. And the Last Frontier State is still catching up with most of the lower 48 when it comes to genealogy Web sites. Land records, gold-rush papers and the National Archives in Anchorage are your best hope for tracing early Alaska kin.
2. Wyoming
Vital records are typically the Achilles’ heel of our “worst” states, and that’s certainly the case with Wyoming: Although the Equality State started recording births in 1909, these records are closed for 100 years except to immediate family—meaning only a year’s worth are accessible to researchers. Death records, which also began in 1909, are closed for 50 years. Marriage and divorce records didn’t start until 1941; their 50-year privacy window effectively makes only 1941 to 1959 available for research. Thank goodness, then, for the Western States Marriage Records Index, which lets you search some 23,000 early Wyoming county records. When you search, however, be aware of Wyoming’s rapidly evolving county boundaries, which shifted from just five counties in 1868 to 23 by 1923. Like Montana, its neighbor to the north, Wyoming can be found in federal land records. Also like Montana, Wyoming’s online and microfilm resources are scanter than most states. Another possibility worth a try is the Wyoming State Archives.
1. Mississippi
Poor Mississippi. Just as it ranks worst or near-worst nationally on measures such as income equality and obesity, the state also suffers genealogically. Not that there aren’t bright spots, among them a lengthy, interesting history and the relatively new home of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. That intriguing past, though, has Mississippi variously under ownership of the Spanish, French and British before becoming entangled with Georgia, Alabama and Florida. The Civil War, while enriching Mississippi’s military records, contributed to document-destroying courthouse fires. Overall, more than a third of the Magnolia State’s 82 counties have suffered records losses. Statewide birth and death records began only in 1912, with marriages and divorces lagging until 1926—and even then, there’s a gap from 1938 to 1941. Various territorial and state censuses can help when you hit Mississippi brick walls, and it is a public-land state. Further complicating Mississippi roots research, however, is the fact that it was one of only two states (the other being South Carolina) to have more slaves than free citizens in 1860. This high proportion of slaves means Mississippi is more prone to the challenges of researching African-American genealogy prior to emancipation. Combined with its courthouse losses—and not balanced out by many online resources—this inescapable difficulty drags Mississippi to the bottom of our list.
Leaders Of The Pack
Had enough wallowing in genealogical woes and bemoaning the hard hand history has dealt some places? Let’s turn our attention to the 10 best states for researching your ancestors. Here’s hoping your family tree leads you to …
10. Texas
Big isn’t necessarily better for genealogy, as we’ve seen, but Texas overcomes its 10-gallon size—and record disasters in some 40 courthouses—with a wealth of surviving records, helpful Web sites and a world-class genealogy research center at the
Clayton Library in Houston. Records date to colonial days, including Spanish and Mexican town censuses, and to Texas’ brief era as an independent republic, in the form of
citizen claims for government compensation. A
land-grant database lets you trace the Lone Star State’s settlement saga. Other stellar Web resources include the
Handbook of Texas Online, The
Texians and online family and
local histories. Besides the Clayton and an outstanding state library and archives, Texas boasts the
National Archives Southwest Region in Fort Worth, the
Dallas Public Library; and the
Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection at the University of Texas. Only somewhat tardy vital records—1903 for births and deaths, 1966 for marriages—and an absence of state censuses keep the Lone Star State from rising higher in our list.
9. Minnesota
Minnesota’s genealogical prowess begins with the state historical society, whose Web site overflows with research guides and databases of births (1900 to 1934), deaths (1904 to 2001), old photos, maps, even building and house histories. A People Finder lets you search the whole works with a single click. Offline, the society offers a Biography File of 100,000 cards indexing information about Minnesotans from publications in the society’s collections.
If your Minnesotans lived in the northern mining country, the Iron Range Research Center has plenty of ways to help you dig for them. The Land of 10,000 Lakes is also notable for remarkably few leaks in its records, including comprehensive territorial, state and federal censuses; BLM public-lands files; and vital records (county births and deaths starting in 1870, statewide births beginning in 1900, deaths in 1908, marriages not until 1958). Probate records date to territorial days. Military records include bonus payments to veterans and their survivors from the Spanish-American War through Vietnam.
8. Utah
Alone, the presence of the Family History Library in Salt Lake City would probably be sufficient to land Utah on our “best” list—but that globe-spanning repository is only the beginning for Beehive State researchers. Don’t overlook the state historical society, state archives or the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints’ archives. Utah also abounds with Web resources, such as the Cemetery and Burial Database, the 1904-to-1956 Death Certificate Index and the Utah Census Search and Mormon Pioneer Search. Plus, 338,000 Utah marriages are covered in the Western States Marriage Records Index. Census-wise, the US government counted Utah Territory starting in 1850; territorial censuses exist for 1856 and 1872. Utah was also a public-land state. Other than lagging a bit with statewide vital records (1905 for births and deaths, with full compliance later still) Utah lives up to founder Brigham Young’s visions of the promised land, at least for genealogists.
7. Illinois
Home to the National Archives and Records Administration’s Great Lakes Region and the renowned Newberry Library, Illinois is a great place for your family to be from. One of the first states to post genealogical records online, the Land of Lincoln serves up a 1763-to-1900 marriage index, two death indexes (pre-1916 and 1916 to 1950), military and veterans records from the War of 1812 on, land records, and servitude and emancipation records here. If you’re looking for more—or want copies of records—the Illinois Regional Archives Depository (IRAD) catalog tells you where to go next. Although statewide birth and death registration lagged until 1916, counties were required to keep these and marriage records beginning in 1877. You also can find Illinois kin in federal censuses starting with 1820, 10 territorial and state enumerations and a shelf-load of city directories.
6. Wisconsin
As with many of our “bests,” excellent online resources first popped Wisconsin onto our radar. These are mostly efforts of the Wisconsin Historical Society, where you can search more than 150,000 obituaries and biographical sketches, a million births, a million marriages, 400,000 deaths, 16,000 historical and biographical articles, Civil War records and veterans’ censuses. If you’re a member, the society’s Wisconsin Genealogical Research Service even does the work for you. Add the Dairy State’s wealth of state and territorial censuses, federal land records, county and local histories, probate records, naturalization papers and vital records (which in some counties begin with marriages in the 1820s) and you have plenty of resources worth, well, milking. The state didn’t begin keeping vital records until 1907, but Wisconsin has plenty of other ways (such as an abundance of church records) to get the genealogical goods on your ancestors.
5. Arizona
Here again, we confess to being seduced by the ease and power of a state’s online records. Arizona, however, stands alone in this instance: It’s the only state to post searchable databases of birth certificates (1855 to 1932) and death certificates (1844 to 1957), which you can then—here’s the clincher—click on to view PDFs of the actual records. Note, too, the chronological reach of both certificate collections (encompassing some delayed certificates), which puts to shame even many states that entered the union long before Arizona got its star in 1912. The Grand Canyon State’s history is further captured in seven territorial censuses (not all complete, but all available and four indexed), Great Registers of voters from 1882 to 1911 (later for some counties), the 100,000-name Arizona Biographical Database, and the state library’s newspaper collection dating from 1864. Besides that excellent state library and archive, Arizona also boasts the country’s largest FHL branch Family History Center, in Mesa; and the University of Northern Arizona’s Colorado Plateau Digital Archive, which hosts a searchable collection of photos, letters, diaries and the like. The only hitch comes with marriage and divorce records, which—although starting back in 1864—are archived by each county’s superior court. But don’t fret: Arizona has only 15 counties, an added genealogical boon.
4. Missouri
Another online pioneer, the Show Me state shows you a wealth of resources at its superb Missouri State Archives site. A birth and death records database encompassing 185,000 pre-1910 entries from 87 counties will help you overcome Missouri’s relatively late statewide vital- records start. You’ll also find databases of death certificates (1910 to 1957), naturalization records (1816 to 1955), court records, land patents and even coroners’ inquests, plus searchable military records on more than 576,000 Missourians from the War of 1812 to World War I. Missouri is also home to the National Archives Central Plains Region facility in Kansas City, the Missouri Historical Society Library and Archives in St. Louis, and the Midwest Genealogy Center in Independence. A public-land state whose federal census enumerations date to 1830, Missouri presents plenty of research tools and remarkably few potential roadblocks (which include the loss of most of its territorial and state census records). But even the famously destroyed 1890 federal census can be partly replaced if your ancestors lived in Missouri cities, most of which conveniently have city directories for 1889 and 1890.
3. Virginia
The Old Dominion State has one unassailable advantage over the other 49, epitomized by that word “old”: America started here in 1607, bequeathing Virginia centuries of records. Not all have survived, it’s true—39 county courthouses lost records to fires or other calamities over the years—and Virginia’s vital records are not as neat as you might like (though birth and death registration began in 1853, there’s a gap from 1896 to 1912). But the sheer volume of other records makes up for these glitches. The Library of Virginia excels at making these resources available, with online offerings including land patents and grants, 6,000 scanned family Bible records, birth and death register indexes (1853 to 1896), wills and administrations (to 1800) and Confederate pension applications. Where gaps do exist in Virginia records, you can try plenty of other sources, such as tax lists, city directories and church records. Virginia also excels in paying genealogical attention to its records, oodles of which have been transcribed in publications such as Cavaliers and Pioneers and the Virginia Genealogical Society Quarterly.
2. Washington
A perennial “101 Best” honoree, the Washington State Digital Archives just keeps getting better. At last count, this ambitious effort to digitize the Evergreen State’s past topped 75 million records, with 63 million of them searchable—many linked to record images. Holdings vary by county, but include birth, death and marriage records; territorial and state censuses dating to 1847; the 1860, 1870 and 1910 federal censuses; military records; land records; naturalization papers; and even a database of the state’s physicians. Equally impressive is a project to digitize historical Washington newspapers from the state library’s collection of more than 40,000 microfilm reels. To date, 19 newspapers variously covering 1852 to 1892 have been scanned and made searchable, including a search by personal names. Offline Washington research riches include the National Archives Pacific Alaska Region in Seattle. A public-land state, Washington didn’t begin statewide birth and death registration until 1907 (but many counties had jumped the gun by 1891) or marriage records until 1968 (here, too, many counties already were recording marriages). With few historical flaws and two outstanding digitization projects, Washington ranks No. 2 on our best list—but with a footnote: Next time, we wouldn’t be surprised to see it rise to No. 1.
1. Massachusetts
Some consider tracing their ancestry back to the Mayflower the Holy Grail of genealogy. But whether your Massachusetts ancestors arrived in 1620 or long after the Pilgrims, you’ll find a bounty of records for researching them. Any other state would be notable just for a repository like the Massachusetts State Archives, whose Web site includes an index to vital records (1841 to 1910) and an in-progress database to more than a million arrivals through the port of Boston (1848 to 1891). But Boston is also home to the New England Historic Genealogical Society and its library of more than 200,000 books, periodicals, and microform materials, plus 1 million manuscripts. Members ($75 per year) enjoy online databases with more than 110 million names and volumes from the series The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England and The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. Massachusetts boasts not one but two National Archives facilities, both covering the Northeast, in Pittsfield and Boston. As for censuses, federal coverage starts at the very beginning, in 1790, with only a few hiccups in 1800 (but a 1798 tax list can help). State head counts in 1855 and 1865 happily coincide with a peak immigration period. Statewide vital records began in 1841, but town records for the most part date to each locale’s founding. City directories as old as 1789 can fill gaps. Military records are another treasure trove for Massachusetts research. And if you do happen to have Mayflower ancestors, these folks have been genealogically documented more than any other Americans. No wonder their Massachusetts landing pad is the top US launching point for roots research.
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