Insurance Policies

Genealogy tip for today: Genealogy from insurance policies

 

 

Now this is an interesting topic. “Whodathunk” you could get genealogy from insurance. But think about it. When you’ve taken out new insurance what are some of the questions they ask you? Exactly! And they did the same for your ancestors.  

However, to research genealogy using insurance policies takes a lot of patience and time to dig and dig to come up with anything worthwhile. Part of the problem is trying to find or maybe even guess what insurance company your ancestors may have had; then finding the headquarters and address of that institution. On top of that, there are name changes (example) and companies buying out companies so that you have to track the changes over time. This is not easy to do, but not impossible.

If you are one of the fortunate ones, you may find a name or date that you cannot find anywhere else. Maybe even that elusive maiden name. There are instances where it’s worth the time. Burned courthouse can really throw a blockade in your path, or just an out-and-out brick wall that you can’t seem to get around. So if you can track down an insurance policy it may provide you the information you can’t find anywhere else.

Genealogy Today  gives a list of some insurance companies that you can research. I suspect it is not a comprehensive list, but it will certainly give you a good start and might help you leap frog to other sites as well.

I discovered that the Denver Library has American Woodsmen Insurance ledger from 1901 to 1907. Also Genealogy and Family History.com has an excellent article on using insurance records for genealogy research. 

To research this more, use the phrase “using insurance policies for genealogy”– this gave me the best results. Look beyond the first page of hits. It was the 2d and 3^rd pages that gave me more pertinent information.

 

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In regards to blog sites for genealogists I have found some new information: it is an odd website for Genealogist.  I have never seen this website before till I was researching for today’s blog. (I couldn’t even really figure out its name as they use initials, and I don’t know what they stand for.) They provide access to US Court Records, US Dept. of Justice – NSOPW, US Public Records and a DMV locator. It’s a very plain, all-business, website to a variety of government records. Add this to your list of websites for Genealogists: Genealogy.us.org  It’s a good reference site. 

Regarding the Sanborn Maps, I have since come across a lot more regarding them. When you add the word Insurance to the title, i.e. Sanborn Insurance Maps, you get a lot more hits. Check this out Sanborn Insurance Maps  website for information I didn’t find before when we talked about these maps…

 

Today in History

 

1399 Richard II is deposed.

1568 Eric XIV, king of Sweden, is deposed after showing signs of madness.

1630 John Billington, one of the original pilgrims who sailed to the New World on the Mayflower, becomes the first man executed in the English colonies. He is hanged for having shot another man during a quarrel

 

1703 The French, at Hochstadt in the War of the Spanish Succession, suffer only 1,000 casualties to the 11,000 of their opponents, the Austrians of Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I.

1791 Mozart's opera The Magic Flute is performed for the first time in Vienna

1846 The first anesthetized tooth extraction is performed by Dr. William Morton in Charleston, Massachusetts.

1864 Confederate troops fail to retake Fort Harrison from the Union forces during the siege of Petersburg.

1911 Italy declares war on Turkey over control of Tripoli.

1918 Bulgaria pulls out of World War I.

1927 Babe Ruth hits his 60th homerun of the season off Tom Zachary in Yankee Stadium, New York City.

1935 George Gershwin's opera Porgy and Bess opens at the Colonial Theatre in Boston.

1938 Under German threats of war, Britain, France, Germany and Italy sign an accord permitting Germany to take control of Sudetenland–a region of Czechoslovakia inhabited by a German-speaking minority.

1939 The French Army is called back into France from its invasion of Germany. The attack, code named Operation Saar, only penetrated five miles.

1943 The Women's Army Auxiliary Corps becomes the Women's Army Corps, a regular contingent of the U.S. Army with the same status as other army service corps.

1949 The Berlin Airlift is officially halted after 277,264 flights.

1950 U.N. forces cross the 38th parallel separating North and South Korea as they pursue the retreating North Korean Army.

1954 The first atomic-powered submarine, the Nautilus, is commissioned in Groton, Connecticut.

1954 NATO nations agree to arm and admit West Germany.

1955 Actor and teen idol James Dean is killed in a car crash while driving his Porsche on his way to enter it into a race in Salinas, California.

1960 Fifteen African nations are admitted to the United Nations.

1962 U.S. Marshals escort James H. Meredith into the University of Mississippi; two die in the mob violence that follows.

1965 President Lyndon Johnson signs legislation that establishes the National Foundation for the Arts and the Humanities.

1965 The 30 September Movement unsuccessfully attempts coup against Indonesian government; an anti-communist purge in the aftermath results in over 500,000 deaths.

1966 Bechuanaland ceases to be a British protectorate and becomes the independent Republic of Botswana.

 

1972 Pro baseball great Roberto Clemente hits his 3,000th—and final—hit of his career.

1975 The AH-64 Apache attack helicopter makes its first flight.

1994 Aldwych tube station (originally Strand Station) of the London Underground transit system closes after 88 years.

1999 Japan's second-worst nuclear accident occurs at a uranium processing facility in Tokai-mura, killing two technicians.

2009 Earthquakes in Sumatra kill more than 1,115 people.

Birthdays today      

 

1861 William Wrigley, Jr., founder of the Wrigley chewing gum empire and owner of the Chicago Cubs baseball team.

1863 Reinhard von Scheer, German admiral who commanded the German fleet at the Battle of Jutland.

1908 David Oistrakh, violinist.

1924 Truman Capote, author and playwright whose works include Breakfast at Tiffany's and In Cold Blood.

1927 W.S. Mervin, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet.

 

1928 Elie Wiesel, Holocaust survivor, writer, best known for his first book Night about his own

experiences in concentration camps.

1935 Johnny Mathis, singer.

1941 Samuel F. Pickering Jr., unconventional professor of English at the University of Connecticut in Storrs who was the inspiration for the character of Mr. Keating in the movie Dead Poets Society.

1955 Andy Bechtolsheim, engineer; co-founder of Sun Microsystems.

1958 Marty Stuart, singer, songwriter, musician ("Hillbilly Rock"); joined the renowned Lester Flatt's Nashville Grass bluegrass group at age 14; at this writing he hosts The Marty Stuart Show on RFD-TV.

1974 Daniel Wu, Chinese-American actor, director, producer (City of Glass).

 

Word for the Day

petard

PRONUNCIATION:

(pe-TAHRD, pi-)

 

MEANING:

noun:
1. A small bomb used to blast down a gate or wall.
2. A loud firecracker.

 

ETYMOLOGY:

From French péter (to break wind), from Latin peditum (a breaking wind), from pedere (to break wind). Ultimately from the Indo-European root pezd- (to break wind) which also gave us feisty, fart, and French pet (fart). Earliest documented use: 1566.

 

NOTES:

A petard was a bell-shaped bomb used to breach a door or a wall. Now that we have advanced to ICBMs, this low-tech word survives in the phrase "to hoist by one's own petard" meaning "to have one's scheme backfire". The idiom was popularized by Shakespeare in his play Hamlet. Hamlet, having turned the tables on those tasked with killing him, says:
    For 'tis the sport to have the engineer
    Hoist with his own petard

 

USAGE:

"Her attempt to rub salt in the wound had backfired. She had been well and truly hoist by her own petard."
Immodesty Blaize; Ambition; Ebury Press; 2010.

"Ned ... heard the petard exploding against the doors of the fort."
Dudley Pope; Corsair; House of Stratus; 1987.

Explore "petard" in the Visual Thesaurus.

 

Quote for the Day

Ultimately, the only power to which man should aspire is that which he exercises over himself. -Elie Wiesel, writer, Nobel laureate (b. 1928)

 

 

Today’s Recipe
Home Cooking

BananaBread

 

 

Ingredients

1 cup granulated sugar
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 large eggs
3 ripe bananas
1 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt

Directions

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Butter a 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan.

Cream the sugar and butter in a large mixing bowl until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

In a small bowl, mash the bananas with a fork. Mix in the milk and cinnamon. In another bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Add the banana mixture to the creamed mixture and stir until combined. Add dry ingredients, mixing just until flour disappears.

Pour batter into prepared pan and bake 1 hour to 1 hour 10 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Set aside to cool on a rack for 15 minutes. Remove bread from pan, invert onto rack and cool completely before slicing.

Spread slices with honey or serve with ice cream.

 

ENJOY!

 

Now You Know!

 

 

Sanborn Maps

Genealogy tip for today:
 

 

Sanborn Maps

 

Genealogy Tip for today:  Maps are something you don’t necessarily think of as being important for genealogy research. But they do tell a story. They give a picture of a geographical area at the time of publication. Given that, old maps are of great significance, some more than others.  

A set of the most popular maps for genealogy research are the Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps. Digital Sanborn 1867-1970 website says this – “A Visual Expression of History. Produced for over a century, more than 660,000 Sanborn maps chart the growth and development of more than 12,000 American towns and cities. Sanborn maps are large-=scale plans of a city or town, drawn at a scale of 50 feet to an inch. They were created to assist fire insurance companies as they assessed the risk associated with insuring a particular property, the maps list street blocks and building numbers including numbers in use at the time the map was made and previous numbers.” 

Problem is they are hard to track down. The older ones are in the public domain, but that doesn’t totally help any. Several places have them, or have access to the ones that pertain to a given state. The difficulty is in the access. Library of Congress has them. Many public libraries have them. Proquest has them. Even the above mentioned website, Digital Sanborn, has them. But you have to have a library card, a subscription, a ‘username and password’ to get in. One site I found requires a username and password but doesn’t tell you how to get one.  

A site that seemed to be the most helpful was the Geo-search site. It lists many places that have these maps. For Arkansas, the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville’s library has Sanborn maps for Arkansas in their list of databases. If you are reading this outside of Arkansas, look at your state’s university’s library website and see if they have Sanborn maps for you state.  

It may be a little bit of a job to track down these maps, but once you figure out where you can get access, it will be worth your research of those maps. If you know of a library that has Proquest, they too, have access to the Sanborn Maps. They’re out there! But it’s like a Treasure Hunt to find them.

 

 

Today in History

Marathon Man

490   Athenian and Plataean Hoplites commanded by General Miltiades drive back a Persian invasion force under General Datis at Marathon.

1213 Simon de Montfort defeats Raymond of Toulouse and Peter II of Aragon at Muret, France.

1609 Henry Hudson sails into what is now New York Harbor aboard his sloop Half Moon.

1662 Governor Berkley of Virginia is denied his attempts to repeal the Navigation Acts.

1683 A combined Austrian and Polish army defeats the Turks at Kahlenberg and lifts the siege on Vienna, Austria.

1722 The Treaty of St. Petersburg puts an end to the Russo-Persian War.

1786 Despite his failed efforts to suppress the American Revolution, Lord Cornwallis is appointed governor general of India.

1836 Mexican authorities crush the revolt which broke out on August 25.

1918 British troops retake Havincourt, Moeuvres, and Trescault along the Western Front.

1919 Adolf Hitler joins German Worker's Party.

1939 In response to the invasion of Poland, the French Army advances into Germany. On this day they reach their furthest penetration-five miles.

1940 Italian forces begin an offensive into Egypt from Libya.

Cave Paintings in Lascaux Caves

1940 The Lascaux Caves in France, with their prehistoric wall paintings, are discovered.

1944 American troops fight their way into Germany.

1945 French troops land in Indochina.

1969 President Richard Nixon orders a resumption in bombing North Vietnam.

1977 Steve Biko, a South African activist opposing apartheid, dies while in police custody.

1980 Military coup in Turkey.

1990 East and West Germany, along with the UK, US and USSR—the Allied nations that had occupied post-WWII Germany—sign the final settlement for reunification of Germany.

1992 Space Shuttle Endeavor takes off on NASA's 50th shuttle mission; its crew includes the first African-American woman in space, the first married couple, and the first Japanese citizen to fly in a US spacecraft.

2003 UN lifts sanctions against Libya in exchange for that country accepting responsibility for the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988 and paying recompense to victims' families.

2007 Joseph Estrada, former president of the Philippines, is convicted of plunder.

2011 In New York City, the 9/11 Memorial Museum opens to the public.

 

Birthdays today:

Richard Hoe

1812 Richard March Hoe, who built the first successful rotary printing press.

1829 Charles Dudley Warner, essayist and novelist who, with Mark Twain, wrote The Guilded Age.

1880 H.L. Mencken, journalist and iconoclast known as the "Sage of Baltimore."

1888 Maurice Chevalier, singer, dancer and actor.

1892 Alfred A. Knopf, American publisher.

1910 Alexander D. Langmuir, epidemiologist, created and led the U.S. Epidemic Intelligence Service.

Jesse Owens

1913 Jesse Owens, track and field athlete who won four medals at the Berlin Olympics  in 1936.

1931 Kristin Hunter, author (God Bless the Child, The Survivors)

1931 George Jones, country singer

George Jones

1943 Michael Ondaatje, Canadian novelist and poet (The English Patient).

1949 Charles "Chic" Burlingame III, pilot of American Airlines Flight 77, that was high-jacked and flown into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, by terrorists.

1956 Brian Robertson, singer, songwriter, musician (Thin Lizzy, Motorhead, Wild Horses bands).

1956 Richard "Ricky" Rudd, known as the "Iron Man" of NASCAR racing; he holds the record for the most consecutive NASCAR starts.

1981 Jennifer Hudson, singer, actress; numerous awards include a Grammy (Jennifer Hudson, 2008), and Oscar, Golden Globe and British Academy awards (Dreamgirls, 2006).

Word for the day:  

protege

PRONUNCIATION:

(PRO-tuh-zhay, pro-tuh-ZHAY)

MEANING:

noun: One who is protected, guided, and supported by somebody older and more experienced.

ETYMOLOGY:

From French protégé, past participle of protéger (to protect), from Latin protegere, from pro- + tegere (cover). Ultimately from Indo-European root (s)teg- (to cover), which is the ancestor of other words such as tile, thatch, protect, detect, and toga. Earliest documented use: 1786.

USAGE:

"'I'm proud of him,' Big Tigger says of his protege."
Chris Richards; Peter Rosenberg; The Washington Post; May 31, 2013.

 

Quote for the day:

It is a glorious thing to be indifferent to suffering, but only to one's own suffering. -Robert Lynd, writer (1879-1949)

 

Today’s Recipe

Super Moist Roasted Turkey

 

Ingredients

  10- to 12-lb. fresh whole turkey or frozen whole turkey, thawed
  1 cup Mayonnaise
  1 large shallot or onion, chopped
  1 Tbp. chopped fresh rosemary, sage and/or thyme*
1 envelope Roasted Turkey gravy mix, prepared according to package directions

Total Time

3 hr 35 min

 

Servings

8 servings 8

 

Preparation

Preheat oven to 425°. Remove giblets from turkey cavities and rinse turkey inside and out; pat dry with paper towels. Season, if desired, with salt and freshly ground black pepper; set aside.

Combine Hellmann's® or Best Foods® Real Mayonnaise, shallot and herbs in medium bowl; set aside. Starting at neck opening, gently loosen skin on turkey and evenly spread 1/2 of the mayonnaise mixture under skin. Tie legs together with kitchen string.

Arrange turkey, breast side up, in large shallow roasting pan with rack; rub remaining mayonnaise mixture over outside of turkey. Tent with heavy-duty aluminum foil. Decrease oven to 325° and roast turkey 1-1/2 hours. Remove foil and continue roasting, about 1 hour, basting occasionally with pan juices, until thermometer inserted in thickest part of the thigh reaches 165°. Let stand covered loosely with foil 20 minutes before carving. Serve with hot Roasted Turkey gravy.

 

 

 

ENJOY!

 

Now You Know!