Finding Amelia Small in FamilySearch Full-Text Search

Researching an Irish family in New York City can have its challenges. Some surnames were very common, and traditional naming patterns often resulted in many individuals with the same names across different branches of the same family group. The passenger lists of the mid- to late-1800s contain little identifying data. It can be difficult to trace these ancestors back to their place of origin in Ireland. With these challenges, one strategy to unravel the stories is searching for family units rather than individuals. The other strategy is to use collateral research.

Of course, I have searched through the unindexed probate and land records available on FamilySearch, but the indexes built into those records will only show the name the name of the main subject. The text of these documents may contain other names and events, and the Full-Text Search helps you find them!

I have been entering the names of these mysterious ancestors into the Full-Text Search and recently had a success connecting one ancestor to another relative who came to the US. This might open an opportunity to do collateral research. You can view a previous blog post describing how to use this tool at FamilySearch Labs: Full-Text Search.

I began at https://www.familysearch.org/labs, and entered the name my ancestor Amelia Small in the search box. Since this search focuses on pattern matching, remember to search for a woman’s birth name and married name. As a reminder, Full-Text Search works better by entering the person’s name between quotation marks into the Keyword field (rather than the Name field).

One of the results was intriguing. My ancestor Amelia Small’s name appears in a probate record, and the address is where she resided.  

Clicking on the record collection name at the top of the result opened a new tab with the record and the full transcript. The search terms were highlighted.

ChatGPT offered a better formatted transcription of the text:

…kin of the deceased, adopted child or children, as far as they are known to your Petitioner or can be ascertained by him with due diligence, are as follows:

JOSEPH N. MATIER, a nephew residing at 226 Bridge Street
FRANK A. MATIER, a nephew
CATHERINE P. MATIER, a niece
CASSANDRA L. APPLEGATE, a niece residing at Gravesend, L.I.
AMELIA SMALL, a niece residing at #364 Hart Street, Brooklyn.
BRIDGET MATIER, a widow of William F. Matier, who died at the County of Kings, on the 24th day of October 1901, residing at 694 Sackett Street, said Borough.
THOMAS MATIER, a grand nephew (son of William F. Matier deceased) residing at 694 Sackett Street, Brooklyn.
WILLIAM MATIER, a grand nephew (son of William F. Matier) residing at 694 Sackett Street, said Borough.

Amelia Small was an heir! I recognized her siblings from the family structure, and from the address listed for her. A list of heirs can be valuable, and in this case, it provided siblings’ addresses, women’s married names, and even a sibling’s death date.

Amelia was the niece of the subject of this document. I followed the back arrow to see the first page of the Application for Letters of Administration for the deceased, Thomas Kennedy, who had died intestate (without a will).

From Amelia’s death certificate I knew the names of her parents, William Matier and Mary Kennedy, both born in Ireland. Some pieces were falling into place. This suggests that Thomas Kennedy was Amelia’s mother’s brother.

There was some other information on that first page.

Thomas Kennedy had died at the Abbe[y] of Gethsemany [sic], Nelson County, Kentucky, on the 25th day of September 1901. This raised questions of whether he was a monk, a priest, or a visitor at the Abbey of Gethsemani is a Trappist Monastery located in Trappist, Nelson County, Kentucky.

While this document contained the explicit information (given by his nephew) that Thomas Kennedy had no wife or children, there might be other avenues to trace his life and connections.

There will be more in this blog to share what more was learned about Thomas Kennedy, and how it was learned.

FamilySearch Labs: Full-Text Search

If you don’t already have a free account for FamilySearch, you need one!

You may have used the indexes that are a part of court and land records will only list the principal people in the records. That means that you would find your ancestors’ probate records or the land to which they were a grantor or grantee.

But what about the other names that are mentioned in these documents? You have probably seen a will that includes a list of individuals inheriting something from the deceased. These lists may be very helpful, as they may reveal the addresses of relatives, or show female ancestors under their married names.

To find those other names in unindexed records, try the Full-Text Search experiment at FamilySearch labs.

FamilySearch labs is where users can try and test new tools that are under development.

Go to https://www.familysearch.org/labs, and Sign In. There are several ways you can sign in, and if you do not already have an account, select CREATE A FREE ACCOUNT.

Once you are signed in, you will see the available experiments that users can try and offer feedback.

Scroll down until you see “Expand your search with Full Text.”

Select “Go To Experiment.”

The Full-Text Search page gives reasonable cautions given that this is not a fully released project. Among them are that the experiment may not always be available and that there may be errors.

My recommendation is to begin by using the search box.

The search seems to yield better results when the name between is entered as a keyword and put within quotation marks. You can leave the name field blank.

Since this search is done by matching patterns in the text, try different searches using women’s maiden names and married names.

Keywords: “Amelia Matier”

Keywords: “Amelia Small”

Be prepared to search using variations on place names, or different places where your ancestor may have lived.  

Keep in mind that records that were not created in Brooklyn may appear in the results. This means that Brooklyn appears in them.

For comparison, when I searching by putting her name in the Name field, there were 99,842 results. In the search results, you get the name of the record set and a preview of the parts of the record that match the search terms. Currently, the maximum number of lines appears to be four. This helps to see the context of how the search terms appear.

Clicking on MORE will give all the parts of the record that match. Clicking on the name of the record set (Steuben, New York, Marriage Records 1821-1923) opens a new tab where the record is accompanied by a transcript. The words from the search terms are highlighted in the document and the transcription.

Select “Summarize the document” for an AI-generated summary of the transcription. This may be helpful to assess the usefulness of the record, but I did not use it.

Use the Download arrow for options of what you would like to download. Choose if you want a PDF version with or without the highlights. You can also use the check boxes to include the Transcription and the Citation in the PDF document. The transcription and/or citation can also be downloaded without the image. (I downloaded multiple versions of the record including PDFs with and without highlights as well as JPG only.)

When you download the image, a pop-up box may appear offering the option to attach the record image to the Family Tree.

In another blog post I will show you one of the finds that I made, and the search that it commenced.

Give it a try and let me know what you find!

Tales from Morning Reports: From Duty to Death

Although it was not directly about my father’s service in Greenland, I learned a lot about the place reading Greenland’s Icy Fury by Hansen, who was part of the Ice Cap Detachment stationed in Greenland during WWII. These brave few men battled the elements and topography to provide weather information to the Allied Forces about the north Atlantic and Europe. In the book there was a mention of a soldier taking his own life in Southern Greenland (p. 3). I wondered about the circumstances, how these isolated men might have come to have this knowledge, and if perhaps this might have been a story that changed as it was repeated until it reached them at a later time. I also wondered if this soldier had been in my father’s Battery (Battery A, 500th Antiaircraft Artillery Gun Battalion).

Using the NARA Catalog, I searched for the Morning Reports of the 500th AAA Gun Battalion (shown in WWII Morning Reports using the NARA Catalog). Remember that when you traverse these records in ascending image order, you travel through them in reverse chronological order. In other words, as you go forward through images using the arrows next to the image number, you go backwards in time.

When I download Morning Reports, I typically download all of the Morning Reports for a whole military organization for each month, rather than just focusing on certain days or just when an ancestor’s name appears. There are common experiences within the units that may be expressed differently or in a different level of detail.

Going through the Morning Reports for the 500th Antiaircraft Artillery Gun Battalion, I located a report about the funeral service and burial of a soldier from Battery B. Battery B was stationed at Ivigtut [now Ivittuut], Greenland. Battery A, the battery to which my father was assigned, was stationed was stationed farther south in Narsarssuak [now Narsarsuaq]. Both are in the southwest of Greenland.

The story in Morning Report was very moving, describing the solemn ceremony that laid PFC Peter Golya Jr’s remains to rest in Greenland. The battery traveled to the the Green Valley Cemetery by barge for his funeral services for “Peter Golya Jr a well known and liked member of this organization.” The Green Valley Cemetery was listed as near Ivigtut in a finding aid for Cemetery Plat Maps in Record Group 92 (RG92) prepared by the American Graves Registration Service.

The next image sequentially (in my Firefox browser) was the Morning Report for the previous day, 25 September 1943, when not long after arriving in Greenland, PFC Peter Golya’s status had changed from duty to deceased.

I did more research into this soldier and found several records online with supplemental details. PFC Golya died as a result of a machine gun bullet perforating his head. He was 36 when he died. The hospital admission card recorded his death as being in the line of duty. In the hometown newspaper articles, his death was reported as accidental.  

The hometown local newspapers contained his obituary, accompanied by a photo, and the text of the telegram his mother received. The telegram contained the date of his death, and the fact that he died in the North American area. His obituary was titled: “Dupont Man Dies Serving His Country: Soldier Last Reported Stationed in Greenland Passed Away Sept 25. In Service 7 Months.”  When his remains were returned to the US, they arrived by train in 1947 escorted by a Staff Sergeant from the local area. Members the VFW Post, the American Legion, and Catholic War Vets met the train and escorted them to the fallen soldier’s father’s home. There was a military funeral, followed by a mass of requiem at his Catholic Church with the burial being in the parish cemetery.

As I located records, I added pieces of the story where I could. On FindaGrave.com I uploaded the Morning Report to the Memorial. I also created a subject page on Fold3 to collect the documents Fold3 had about him.

The records that were found pieced together a story of what happened to him and where. The Morning Reports were the only records containing details of the movement of the battery to bury him in Greenland. From the few words the reader learns about the soldier being well known and liked, and can imagine that cold barge ride, and march to the Green Valley Cemetery to bury a comrade who suffered an accidental death in the line of duty.

Resources that were located online (Note: some records can be found on multiple websites.)

NARA

• Access to Archival Databases (AAD)

Fold3

• US, WWII Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946
• US, WWII Draft Registration Cards, 1940
• US, WWII Hospital Admission Card Files, 1942-1954
• US, Rosters of World War II Dead, 1939-1945

FamilySearch

• Military • United States World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946

Ancestry.com

• U.S., Headstone Applications for Military Veterans, 1861-1985
• U.S., Rosters of World War II Dead, 1939-1945
• U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947
• U.S., World War II Hospital Admission Card Files
• Pennsylvania, U.S., Veteran Compensation Application Files, WWII, 1950-1966

Findagrave

• A memorial for his burial in the United States

Google

• A finding aid for World War II Cemetery Plat Maps in Record Group 92 (RG92) prepared by the American Graves Registration Service listing the cemeteries in Greenland

Newspapers.com

• Hometown newspapers contained his obituary, and articles about the repatriation of his remains for funeral and burial in his hometown

American Battle Monuments Commission

I searched ABMC, but did not expect to find any record of his passing in this database, as there is no American Cemetery in Greenland. Through a FindaGrave.com search, I did find that his remains had been repatriated, and reinterred in the United States.

The WWII Hospital Admission Card Files are available on Ancestry.com and Fold 3. They contained only transcriptions of the Admission Cards, which including only summary data. Digging deeper into records from the hospital might not be helpful as it appears he died quickly after the injury.

A next step might be to look for his Individual Deceased Personnel File (IDPF). These records are separate from the personnel files that burned in the 1973 fire. As of writing this blog post, a small fraction of them are online at NARA, and PFC Golya’s is not among them. You can search at: https://catalog.archives.gov/search-within/297287480?sort=title%3Aasc

UK Outgoing Passenger Lists

Passenger manifests for those coming into the United States can be easier to locate than the outgoing passenger lists from the country of origin.

I was able to confirm the ship that brought Bridget (Delia) McMahon to the United States, and know the date as described in the blog post Finding Single Irish Women Immigrants to New York City . Recently, during a free period of access to Ancestry UK, I decided to find Delia’s record in the Outgoing Passenger Lists. It proved to be a slight challenge, with a reminder to be flexible and creative in our search terms.

The database on Ancestry UK is UK and Ireland, Outward Passenger Lists, 1890-1960. My plan was to search only that one database. Since I knew the ship and the date, I thought it would be simple.

I searched for Bridget McMahon, then used some variations on her first name that I had already seen such as: Bridget, Bdgt

These variations were also tried with variations of her surname, including McMahon and Mc Mahon (space after the “Mc”). All variations gave the same results.

The final answer was to use a wildcard: B*t McMahon

The first result shows an exciting variation: Bogt McMahon

Clicking to view the record brought me to this page.

The details for this passenger list are:

The next step would be to find the first page of the passenger list, which typically contains information about the ship and its voyage.

This record documented the beginning of Delia McMahon’s trip from Ireland to her life in the United States. It was also a good reminder to always remember wildcards.

Greenland in WWII (Background)

As part of researching my father’s WWII military service, I have been doing a lot of reading about Greenland, especially its WWII history. Greenland was the site of amazing stories of the US Coast Guard, the Sledge Patrol and weather observers who were isolated for months on end. There are stories of heroism, survival and loss.

Greenland has a strategic location in the North Atlantic. It was a advantageous stopping point for aircraft traveling between North America and Europe, and could provide a prime location for a sub refueling base. It is also where the weather for Europe originates, making weather observations there critical for operations in the North Atlantic and Europe. Ivigtut (now Ivittuut) also had the largest commercial cryolite mine in the world. Cryolite was used in making aluminum for building aircraft.

Greenland has had an interesting history of settlement and colonization. Greenland was under Norway’s control until the Kingdoms of Denmark and Norway joined together in 1380. In 1821, the Kingdoms separated and Greenland remained as a Danish colony under the Treaty of Kiel. In 1931, Norway made a claim to Eastern Greenland, which the Permanent Court of International Justice decided against in 1933.

The Nazis occupied Denmark on 9 April 1940 and exactly a year later, the US-Greenland Defense Agreement was signed with the Danish Minister in Washington DC. Even though the US had not yet entered WWII, the protection of Greenland was necessary under the Monroe Doctrine. That same day the agreement was signed, the US Marines and a surveyor party landed ashore. In July and August of 1941, US ships arrived in the fjords.

Prior to the Nazi invasion, Denmark had sent two years of supplies to Greenland. After the occupation of Denmark, 200,000 Greenlanders had to rely upon America for food and supplies. The US and Canada both provided supplies to Greenland, and both established Consulates there. During WWII, Greenland became self-governing, fueling a greater democracy for itself.

As strategically important as Greenland was to the Allies, it was just as important to deny it to the Nazis. That’s where my father and the 500th Antiaircraft Artillery Gun Battalion entered the story. They traveled in secrecy mere months after the disastrous sinking of the troopship USS Dorchester by a U-boat, notable for the heroic actions of the “Four Chaplains.” The AAA Battery to which he was assigned was stationed at the main US base at Narsarssuak (now Narsarsuak), which was the home of the Air Forces base codenamed BW-1 (Bluie-West 1).