Havana Nights

After the conclusion of the 1920 season, the Yankees went to Cuba to play exhibition games. George needed a passport.

Passports are rich with information. Birth dates, residing address, nativity, nativity of the father, names of companions, testimony from someone that knows you, plus a photograph.

Once again we use the Ancestry.com service to find George in the passport records. Click on the image to the right to enlarge. In some cases you may have to click again to make it larger.

George is residing at 674 west 161st Street in New York. However the instruction at the bottom of the second page says for it to be sent to the Ansonia Hotel. His father was native-born residing in Baltimore from 1871 to 1917.

There are two affidavits of identification. The second affidavit is from Brother Paul at St. Mary's Industrial School. He states that George was born May 18, 1894. Who knows what the source is of his error?

The document also states that his wife Helen would be travelling with him. There is a good photo of George. Half of Helen's face is obscured. However, there is another nice autograph of the Babe at the bottom of the first page.


LINKS

Ansonia Hotel

Ancestry.com

Copyright 2008, 2009 BabeRuthGenealogy

Go To War! - Part Two

At the start of World War II the selective service was already in place. The fourth round of registrations took place on April 27, 1942. It was called the "old man's registration" in that it registered men born between April 28, 1877 and February 16, 1897 (ages 45 - 64).

The registrations have to be searched through a subscription service such as Ancestry.com. Some libraries have this service available for free at their local branches. Be sure to call to see if it is available.

We revisited Ancestry.com. After signing in, there is a SEARCH dialog box. There appear four tabs above the box - Historical Records, Family Trees, Stories and Publications, Photos and Maps. Make sure that the Historical Records tab is selected. In the Name boxes we typed George Ruth and clicked on Search.

This takes us to a page with every historical record for anyone named George Ruth. There are censuses, marriages, births deaths, etc. Scroll down to military and click on World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942. There are 23 of them.

George Herman Ruth is the eighth one listed. We selected the View Image button and the following image appears to the right. Click on it to enlarge. It is the front side of the draft card.

George Herman Ruth is living at 173 Riverside Drive. His phone number is SC4 9118 He is 47 years old born Feb. 6, 1895 in Baltimore, MD. His wife is Claire Ruth and he is self-employed. At the bottom he has given us another autograph.

The back of the card is a physical description. George is 6' 2" and is 240 pounds. He has brown eyes, brown hair and a ruddy complexion. Click on the image to the right to enlarge.

If you are tracing a male family member born between 1877 through 1897, this resource is a good census substitute. The 1940 US Census will not be made available until after 2011.


LINKS

Ancestry.com

Copyright 2008 BabeRuthGenealogy

Go To War! - Part One

Draft registrations for World War I and II have recently come on-line. These documents not only contain the name and birth information of the registrant, they also may list his employer, address of his home and employer, nearest kin, telephone number and physical description, and signature.

The registrations have to be searched through a subscription service such as Ancestry.com. Some libraries have this service available for free at their local branches. Be sure to call to see if it is available.

We got on the Internet and visited Ancestry.com. After signing in, there is a SEARCH dialog box. There appear four tabs above the box - Historical Records, Family Trees, Stories and Publications, Photos and Maps. Make sure that the Historical Records tab is selected. In the Name boxes we typed George Ruth and clicked on Search.

This takes us to a page with every historical record for anyone named George Ruth. There are censuses, marriages, births deaths, etc. Scroll down to military and click on World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918. There are 77 of them.

We need to narrow our search. Fortunately there is a dialog box at the bottom of the list. We can select state / county / city of residence, birthplace and birth day / month / year. We are unsure where he is presently residing. We do know he was born February 1895. But there is some uncertainty if it was the 6th or 7th day. So we filled in the first and last name and the month and year and selected +/- 1 year.

The search returns 3 names Two of the three are George Herman Ruth. It appears that it is the same person but it is listed twice. Sometimes that happens. We selected the View Image button and the following image appears to the right. Click on it to enlarge.

It is not a good copy and is rather blurry. We can work at deciphering what it says or we can view a better image. Since George Ruth is a famous person, let us try a search with YAHOO for the following words "babe ruth wwi draft record". The first item returned has the title World War I Draft Cards: Babe Ruth.

The U.S. Archives sponsor this. Click on the following link: http://www.archives.gov/atlanta/wwi-draft/ruth.html

If we then click on the Larger View button everything is much clearer. George Herman Ruth is residing at 680 Commonwealth Ave., Boston Massachusetts. Date of birth: Feb. 7, 1894.Note that the year is off by one. This is not uncommon. He might have been confused or he wanted to appear older. The card further states that he was a natural born citizen in Baltimore, MD.His occupation is Baseball. His employer is Boston American League at Fenway Park. He is married and has a wife dependent on him. Her name is not listed.

His signature is at the bottom of the card. On the back of the card it lists that he is 6 foot 2 inches and of stout build. He has brown eyes and dark hair. The card is dated June 5, 1917

All males in the United States, born between the years 1872 and 1900, were required by law to register for the draft throughout 1917 and 1918. If you need to find a male ancestor born about this time and you cannot find them with census data, you may have better luck with this resource.

Next Posting: Part Two

LINKS

US Archive WWI Draft Card Image

Ancestry.com
Copyright 2008 BabeRuthGenealogy

Baltimore: Who What Where

Major cities have directories that go back to the 1700s. They provide important information such as full name, address, employment and individuals living at the same address. There was a need to locate residents of a community for delivery of mail and other goods, and governments kept track of residents for taxation. Genealogy societies, Archives and libraries have these available on microfilm. You have to go to the city or State in question to gain access. A good place to learn even more about directories is at the following link: AboutCityDirectories.

The directories were published to sell advertising space. Inside, outside and all around the margins are the sponsors. The image on the right shows an example of the 1906 Baltimore City Directory. This is two years after the great Baltimore Fire that destroyed much of downtown. The Hotel Rennert stresses that it is a fireproof building.

We will explore pre 1920 directories for the whereabouts of Babe Ruth's father. The directory for the year 1906, the directory is divided in two parts. The front part has all of the citizens alphabetized by last name. The back matter is alphabetized by types of business. The image at the right shows page 1730. George H. Ruth is listed about 10 names down from the second column. It simply states "Ruth Geo H, saloon, 406 w Conway". Further down is his brother " Ruth John A, propr Baltimore City Lightning Rod Works, 341 s Woodyear".

Some city directories are online and are free to access from a home computer. Once again we can use Heritage Quest that is accessible from Http://BCPLONLINE.org. A library card number is needed to proceed. We selected Research databases and then Genealogy. We clicked on Heritage Quest and entered our card number. We then selected Books followed by Publications. In the dialogue box we entered "Baltimore". The second and third items list Baltimore City directories for 1912 and 1913.

Select 1912 and go to page 1751 that appears to the right. George and John are living in the same locations respectively. John's occupation is Coppersmith.




Select 1913 and go to page 1769 that appears to the right. The following entry is shown"Ruth Geo H, (Columbia Harness Co) h 552 w Conway". The entry for his brother is on the next page that also appears to the right. It appears as "Ruth John A R, electrn, h 341 s Woodyear". Doing a Google search for "Columbia Harness" AND Ruth did not provide anything.





At this time the R L Polk Company published the directories. If we entered "R L Polk" in the dialogue box, 1277 books appear. Advance to the next page of results and the fourth result is the 1899 directory. Select that book and proceed to page 1244 that appears to the right. The entry for this time is "Ruth Geo H, (J A Ruth & Bro) 339 s Woodyear". Further down, the entry for his brother is "Ruth J A & Bro (John A jr & Geo H Ruth), lightning rod mnfrs, 341 s Woodyear". The houses are next to each other.



Historical Societies and Archives may also have old Telephone directories. Back then phones were still a premium item and not everyone is listed. The image to the left is the 1917 C & P Telephone Company book for Baltimore and Vicinity. On page 250 we find "St Paul 8335 Ruth Geo H, café 36 38 s Eutaw". Two entries down may or may not be his brother "St Paul 5632 Ruth John A, contr sand & gravel 213 Courtland". In the business section, George is listed under Restaurants.



LINKS

About City Directories

Baltimore County Public Library



Copyright 2008 BabeRuthGenealogy

1930

Last time, we found Ruth in the 1910 census using the on-line service HeritageQuest. It was easy because that census was indexed by name. The 1930 census is not fully indexed by that site. This time we will use the Ancestry.com Web site, which has a fully indexed 1930 census. Ancestry is a service that charges a yearly subscription fee. However, many libraries have it freely available for their patrons.

From the Ancestry.com home page we click on "Search" and then select "US Federal Census" on the right hand side. The searchable censuses range from 1790 to 1930.

After selecting 1930 we type in George's name. There are 192 results. We trim that down by entering a birth year of 1895 +/- 2 years. This time we get 15 results. The eighth result down is George H Ruth living in Manhattan, NY. Clicking on the icon to the right brings up the actual image.

George is living at 345 W. 88th Street. The head of household is Carrie Merritt, age 59. Her sons are Eugene (38) and Hubert (34). George is then listed as the son-in-law to Carrie. He is 36 years old born in Maryland and his occupation is Baseball. Listed below Ruth is his wife, Clara (30) who was 17 when she was first married. Also listed are Clara's daughter's Julia (13) and Dorothy (9). Click on the image to the right to view it.

George Ruth cannot be found in the 1920 Census. Perhaps, we can find out more information about his wife's family for that year. The 1930 Census indicates that George's wife and mother-in-law were born in Georgia. We searched to 1920 Census using the name Carrie Merritt and entering Georgia for her place of birth. We get 6 results. The last one listed is in Manhattan.

Carrie (47) is living at 219 W. 80th Street. She is widowed and born in Georgia. Her daughter is listed as Clara Hodgson (22). Clara has a daughter, Julia (3 6/12). Also listed is Carrie's son Eugene (27). Click on the image to the right to view it.

This is as far as we can go for finding George Ruth in Census data. There is a restriction of over 70 years before a census is made available to the public. 1940 should be available in 2012. We could use census data to map out George's parent's families prior to 1900. For now, we will keep this project simple.

Next time we will take a look at some city directories.


LINKS

Ancestry.com

NEXT POSTING: City Directories

Copyright 2008 BabeRuthGenealogy

1910

In the last entry we used a free census search service for the 1900 U.S. Census. The service provided by FamilySearch.org did not provide an online search for later than 1900. Many LDS Family History Centers have access to other online services that are free to use. Find a FHC that is close to you by clicking on FHCSearch. Another place for free online searches are in the public libraries. Some public libraries such as the Baltimore County Public Library offer the ability to search from home using your library card number.

We used the online site at http://bcplonline.org and selected "Research Database" from the left-hand side. We select "Genealogy" and it gives us the choice of using Ancestry.com or HeritageQuest. Both are available at the library computer but only HeritageQuest is available from home. After selecting the site, we are prompted to enter our library card number. We are then given six areas to search. For now we select "Census". We type the Surname: RUTH, Given Name: GEORGE, Census Year: 1910. Click on "Search" and a list of states appear for George Ruth. Select the state of Maryland, which has four choices.

Clicking on RUTH, George H. age 15 brings up the image for St. Mary's Industrial School. The image is of poor quality and difficult to read. George H. Ruth is the 41st item down and does not tell us much, other than his age and that he is a "pupil". Click on the image to the right to view the actual image.

Back on the HeritageQuest site, click on the back-arrow and select George H. RUTH age 39. George, Sr. is the 81st item down. The address is 400 or 406 Conway Street. The father is a proprietor of a saloon. The mother has had seven children but only two are surviving. George, Jr. is listed again as well as his sister Mary age 9. You may view it by clicking on the image to the right.

In the 1900 Census, Catherine Ruth was born in Maryland and both parents were from Germany. In 1910 it shows that her parents were born in Maryland. It is a reminder that this information must be taken "with a grain of salt".

George Herman Ruth, Jr. cannot be found in the 1920 Census. This was the time, when he was sold to the New York Yankees. Maybe, he was moving around at the time and the Census taker missed him. In my experience this does not happened very often - but it does happen.

Unfortunately, the HeritageQuest site has not fully indexed the 1930 Census. Next time we will find him at one of the subscription sites.

LINKS

FamilySearch.org

Nearest FHC

Baltimore County Public Library Search


NEXT POSTING: More Non-Vital Records

Copyright 2008 BabeRuthGenealogy

Oh Pioneers!

The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints is also known as the Mormon Church.

"One of the core tenets of Mormon faith is that the dead can be baptized into the faith after their passing. Baptism of the dead evolved from the beliefs that baptism is necessary for salvation and that the family unit can continue to exist together beyond mortal life if all members are baptized.

"Mormons trace their family trees to find the names of ancestors who died without learning about the restored Mormon Gospel so that these relatives from past generations can be baptized by proxy in the temple. For Latter-day Saints, genealogy is a way to save more souls and strengthen the eternal family unit." (Source: PBS.ORG)

As a result, the Mormons collect records from around the world. They are microfilmed and stored in a climate-controlled repository that is inside a mountain. Everything of interest to a genealogist - Church registries, Censuses, Civil registrations of births, marriages and deaths and more.

You don't have to visit Utah and you don't have to be a Mormon to see the films. Find a nearby LDS Family History Center by clicking on the following link: FHC. When you are ready to view a particular film, go to that center and fill out a few cards and it will be loaned. There is a charge of a few dollars to cover postage. After a week or two, you will be notified that is available. The center has microfilm readers that are free to use.

The main site to begin searching is at http://www.familysearch.org. We can search the library catalog by selecting "Search" from the pull-down menu and selecting "Library Catalog". When the new page appears, we then select "Key Word Search". When the dialog box opens we enter the name of Babe Ruth's first Baptism Church - "St. Peter the Apostle, Baltimore". We see that they have records available from 1872-1901 on "CD-ROM no. 1240". Not all church records are available for viewing especially if they have Baptisms going up until recent times.


1900 CENSUS

We have already finished with Ruth's vital records. Let us scope out his life with Census data. The U.S. Census takes place every 10 years in years ending with "00". Censuses beginning with 1850 listed every person by name along with their age, sex, race and place of birth and occupation. By the time of the 1900 Census additional items were added such as the place of birth for each individual's parents, the number of children that a woman had, the number of years of marriage, immigration year, etc. In urban areas the street number and name were included.

We will view the actual census image by using the pilot site at http://search.labs.familysearch.org/. Under the pull-down menu of "Search Records" click on "Record Search Pilot". In the center of the page is a world map. We want to click just above it on "View all Collections". On the next screen click on "1900 United States Census". A dialog box appears. Fill in First Name: George, Last Name: Ruth, Place: Baltimore, Maryland and select "Search". The third name down is George H Ruth born 1871. Click on his underlined name. Over to the right is a brief summary. Better yet, let us look at the actual image. Click on the document image on the far right. If you have a cable connection, it appears instantly, DSL takes about ten seconds, and a land-line seems forever.

The display that appears has a slide called a "Zoom". Adjust the Zoom until the document is readable. You can also choose to print the entire page. Examine the fields at the top of the census - Location, Name, Relation, Personal Description etc. Position the cursor over the center of the image. Press the left mouse button down and move the mouse. This will move the image. Let go of the button and the image will stop. Use this technique to move the viewing area to the bottom left of the image.

Georhe H Ruth is the 38th item down. He is living at 339 South Woodyear Avenue, which is a block west of the B&O RR Mount Clare Shop. The next two sets of number are for the census taker to total the number of dwellings and number of families. We learn that George is the Head-of-household, white, born Jan 1871, 29 years old and married for 6 years. He and his parents were born in Maryland. His occupation is a "Lightning Rod Agent". He can read and write. He owns his house free of mortgage.

George's wife, Kate was born July 1874, 25 years old. So far, she had 3 children but only 1 is still alive. She was born in Maryland but her parents were born in Germany.

George, junior was born Feb. 1895.

Living with them is a family named Brundig. Living next door at 341 is John A Ruth who is also a lightning rod agent.

Censuses have a lot of useful information in rounding out a person's life. We must be guarded in accepting information such as name spellings and birth dates. The census taker generally spells the names as they sound to him. Sometimes the family is not home and a neighbor gives estimates to the ages and names of the occupiers. Also, if the questions seem too private, people will lie.

Click on the image to the right to see the lower half of the Census sheet.

Next time we will take a look at some other free and pay-for sites as we explore the 1910 - 1930 Censuses.

LINKS
Mormons

Mormons on PBS

FamilySearch.org

FamilySearchPilotSite

Nearest Family History Center

Pioneer Day


NEXT POSTING: More Non-Vital Records

Copyright 2008 BabeRuthGenealogy