Ancestry Library Edition

Please visit our new blog address at: https://vwmfhcenter.blogspot.com/ 

 

A Basic Tutorial

By Lisa Rienerth

Before I begin with this library database, I want to list a few research tips.

1. Write down several different ways to spell the surname you are researching. It may show up in different variations, i.e. Johnson, Jonson, Johnston, Johnsen. 

2. Be open to information even though it isn’t what you think it should be. For example, you may have heard from a relative that your grandfather died in Ohio, yet you find a death record that shows he died in Pennsylvania. The death record is the primary source, so it is most likely the correct information.

3. Start with a broad search and then narrow it down. Start with maybe just the name and a place. You can always add more information to narrow down your search. 

4. Always revisit the website after a few months. They are continually adding more and more information.

5. Don’t trust the Family Trees on Ancestry. Use them for the clues they provide to search for additional records.

Now lets learn a little about Ancestry Library Edition....            

To open the site you need to go to the library's website at www.mcdl.info.

                              

                                   

Find "Genealogy & Local History" on the information bar and scroll over it to see the drop down menu. Click on "Online Resources".  

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

Click on the link listed in the "Online Resources". 

This will bring you to the Home Page. 

There are two ways to search. 

1. Click on Search at the top of the page and you will see a drop down menu. You can choose ALL CATEGORIES or filter your search to the group of records listed. 

2. OR Click on Begin Searching and filter the search on the next page.

Either way, the next page will show a Search Box where the information is entered. 

On this page the Search Box is on left with the filters to the right. Put the name of the person you are researching in the search box.  

You can use the filters to search by collection, i.e. Birth, marriage & death records.

 

If you want to add more information, such as birth or death dates, click on SHOW MORE OPTIONS and a drop down menu will open. Click on the "event" and more search boxes will open. 

After adding everything, click Search.

The information page will open.

On this page, the Filters are on the left and the information found is on the right. 

If you need to change or add information click on the "Edit" icon (the little pencil). If you want to start a completely new search click on the 3 dots next to the Edit icon. 

To be able to choose the group of records to search through, click on "Browse by category".  A list of record names, such as "New York State Census",  will open and you can click on the ones that relate more to your ancestor. 

You can click on the list of dates on the filter side to narrow the search even further. 

If you decide to open up the search to all of the records available, click on Clear All. 

To open up more information from the list of records on the right side of the page, you can scroll over the highlighted record name. A drop down transcription of the image will come up. 

Click on View or View Image to see the digital form of the record.

The image will open up in the view finder. 

The person you are researching will be highlighted on the census records, but not on other images. 

To Enlarge the image you will use the tool bar to the right. 

Click on the Save button to save the record to your device. 

Another way to Save the record is to click on the "Hammer & Wrench" icon. 

You can also find the print icon under here, along with a few more helpful tools. 

When printing it is helpful if you print the citation along with the document. This will help when you cite the source.

Also, follow the layout suggestion for a better copy. 

Sometimes a digital image is not available for a record. 

Only the transcription is viewable. However, always look for a FHL Film Number. This is the number for a Family History Library film. You can sometimes view these on the FamilySearch.org website.

The Medina Library VWMFH&LC will be doing a program on this website in the spring, so keep your eyes open for the event in the spring Library Live, which be available around mid-February. 

The Ancestry Library Edition website also has a great Learning Center. 

The Research Aids offers tutorials and additional information on the website and on researching. 

The Maps will centralize the instructional and research information to each U.S. state. 

These basic steps should be a good start to using Ancestry Library Edition for your research. Take the time to use the search aids and to just get familiar with the different tabs, records, etc.

Please remember this database is only available at home through our website until December 31, 2021. Then you will have to access it while you are in one of the Medina County District Library branches.

If you want to learn more about doing family history research make sure to take a look at the VWMFH&LC's History Guides including the new Guide for Beginner

Due to our holiday schedules there will not be a Blog for the next two weeks. 

Happy Holidays! 

NATIONAL COOKIE DAY!

December 4, 2021 was National Cookie Day

by Lisa Rienerth and Kathy Petras

According to the National Calendar Day website, we can thank the Dutch for the English word “cookie”. It is derived from the Dutch word koekie, meaning “little cake.” The origin of the cookie appears to begin in Persia in the 7th century, soon after the use of sugar became common in the region. They then spread to Europe and were common at all levels of society by the 14th century. Cookies arrived in America in the 17th century with macaroons and gingerbread cookies being the most popular. 

Cookies have been a part of our lives for a long time. To find out what types of cookies the residents of Medina County liked to bake in the days gone by, I turned to the local papers…

Medina County Gazette, 9 June 1882

This recipe was reprinted from another publication and it seems to be a type of sugar cookie.  If you are curious about the ingredient saleratus, it is the precursor to baking soda. Notice the lack of oven temperature and baking time. I am thinking this is because they did not have electric or gas ovens in 1882, but wood and coal burning stoves.

Medina County Gazette, 14 February 1908

Here is a recipe for Good Cookies. Do not try this recipe as is! It is missing a very important ingredient...FLOUR. 

I tried to make theses cookies thinking maybe they made some type of cookie without flour back in the day. However, the batter was like soup. So...I put the batter in a cupcake tin and tried baking it that way. Well...they kind of exploded in my oven....so be sure to add a cup and a half of flour if you make these and add a few teaspoons of vanilla for more flavor. 

You will also notice this recipe does not tell you what temperature to bake the cookies at or how long it would take. I baked my second batch..the one with flour & vanilla..at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes.

And...I only made a third of the recipe, because who needs 4 gallons of cookies? 

Medina County Gazette, 5 July 1918

The next recipe is from 1918 for Oatmeal Drop Cookies. It has quite a few ingredients which I do not add to my oatmeal cookies. One of them being "citron". Citron is a citrus fruit that looks a lot like a big, bumpy lemon.  Lemons and citrons grew in popularity during the 1918 influenza outbreak. Some how information began to circulate that the citrus fruits would keep you healthy and maybe even keep you from getting the flu. While this information was false, it did help lemon growers with their profits! 

The Lodi Review, 11 December 1947

This 1947 recipe for Chocolate Drops includes all the measurements, the oven temperature and the cooking time! However, it doesn't tell you what type of nuts you use for the chopped nut meats! Nut meats is just another term for the part of the nut people eat, but was it walnuts? Pecans? Almonds? I guess it is baker's choice. 

The Lodi Review, 22 July 1954

This Date with Spice Cookies recipe even has a border so you could "clip for your recipe file".  Mrs. Cliff [Doris] Padgett, sent in this recipe to the Lodi Review in 1954. I also baked these cookies. They were  delicious and easy to bake, because it gave you all the information you needed and none of the ingredients were unknown to me. 

These are just a few examples I found in the older local newspapers. Another place to find what types of cookies were being baked in Medina County is of course a cookbook. 

Old Cookbooks - Medina & MCDL

Published cookbooks are a great and popular way to share favorite recipes. The cookbook section at the Medina Library is still one of the most popular parts of the collection! And there are over 200 cookie cookbooks at the Medina Library alone!

The oldest cookbook at the Medina Library is a 1908 edition of  the Medina Cookbook that was compiled by the Ladies of the First Methodist Episcopal Church. 

Obviously a well loved and
well used cookbook

Treasure trove of family recipes, some written in "Fran's"
handwriting.

Besides all of the wonderful recipes printed inside, this cookbook, signed by "Fran", included pages at the back to write in your favorite recipes and it also contained recipes clipped from magazines and ingredient containers.  

Many organizations printed cookbooks as fundraisers, such as these:

Fundraising cookbooks from St Francis Xavier Church in 1970 and the Medina High School, class of 1996.

This cookbook is for sale at the Medina County
Convention & Visitors Bureau

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   And as recently as this past  Candlelight Walk in Medina, the 2021 Edition of the Medina Square Farmers Market cookbook was on sale.   These local cookbooks reflect their communities and provide names of some of our ancestors.

From 1990 through 2007, the Medina County District Library published a cookbook around the Holidays. Many delicious recipes were submitted by staff members. They were extremely popular with our members. For me, it is a trip down memory lane to see all the names of the staff that have come and gone in the 30+ years that I have worked here. 

Volume 13, published in 2003 was dedicated to cookie recipes.

MCDL Cookbooks

And December 3rd was National 3-D Print Day!

Did you see what they did there? 3-D Print Day on 3-December?

One of the joys of the VWMFH&LC's Makerspace is the 3D printer. You send an STL file to the Makerspace email address makerspace@mcdl.info and a few short hours and a little bit of money later and you have your 3D printed object.

Cookie Cutters

Once you find your favorite cookie recipe, you may want to use a cookie cutter to shape the cookies into cute and whimsical shapes.

Here are some really cute cookie cutters printed on the Makerspace's 3-D Printer:

Cookie cutters created on the 3D printer

And yes, you can make 3-D cookies using cookie cutters created on the 3-D printer:

Images taken from Thingiverse.com

You can easily find ready made files on these two web sites:

https://www.thingiverse.com/

https://www.myminifactory.com/

If you are artistic and tech savvy, this YouTube video shows how to use Adobe Illustrator & Tinkercad to create your own 3-D file designs - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvcO2Pavwdo

I do wish the cookie cutter files came with the perfect recipe for the 3-D cookies.  After multiple FAILED attempts, I've decided I don't have the patience for 3-D cookies. The bear and the tree cookie shapes from the photo above swelled and closed up the "slots" that were suppose to fit the pieces together. However, several of the cookie shapes are new favorites in our house.

My daughter put some highlights on our new
favorite cookie shapes.

By the way, while the "blob" cookies from my experiments may have looked inedible, they were still quite yummy!

Sources for newspaper cookie recipes:

• National Day Calendar,  https://nationaldaycalendar.com/national-cookie-day-december-4/
• Medina County Gazette, 9 June 1882, page 3
• Medina County Gazette, 14 February 1908, page 2
• Medina County Gazette, 15 July 1918, page 4
• The Lodi Review, 11 December 1947, page 9
• The Lodi Review, 22 July 1954, page 3
• April White, https://aprwhite.com/portfolio/how-the-influenza-pandemic-popularized-lemons/

Considering DNA Testing for Genealogy?

 

Considering DNA Testing for Genealogy?

With the holidays, most of the leading genealogy DNA testing companies have their kits on sale.

Before you splurge for the cost of one, for yourself or as a gift, make sure you are aware of possible consequences.

On December 1st, the Library is offering a one-hour class on the basics of genealogical DNA testing, the types of tests, and a comparison of the five major testing companies: 

• 23 and Me
• Ancestry DNA
• FamilyTree DNA
• Living DNA
• MyHeritage DNA.

See examples of ethnic origin and relative finder reports from each of the companies.

Most people don't put much thought into testing before they swab their cheeks. This class urges you to think before you buy.

The class is from 6:30-7:30 p.m. 

Sign up HERE.

Beginner's Kit & Basic Genealogy DNA Class

 by Kathy Petras

New incarnation of the Family History Guide

Introduction to Family History: a guide for beginners

The Beginner's Genealogy Kit provided to novice family historians by the Library has undergone a transformation. Restyled as an Introduction to Family History: a guide for beginners, it has a more polished look and is now a booklet. The previous kit was a collection of handouts inserted into a folder.  

Previous Beginner's Kit

The new Guide covers the six major steps of beginning family history research:

1. Getting Started - with whom do you start?
2. Searching Your Home - what you already know.
3. Write Down What You Find - forms, formats and documenting what you find.
4. Interview Your Relatives - getting the most from their knowledge.
5. U.S. Census Records - documents where your ancestors lived and when they were there. Contains clues as to where to look for other documents.
6. Search for Vital Records - official documentation of the most important or "vital" events in everyone's life.

The Guide also contains many tips for organizing your records and covers special topics such as DNA Testing. 

Stop by the service desk in the Virginia Wheeler Martin Family History & Learning Center on the second floor of the Medina Library to pick up a copy or access it online at: Introduction to Family History: a guide for beginners

Considering DNA Testing for Genealogy?

With the holidays, most of the leading genealogy DNA testing companies have their kits on sale. Before you splurge for the cost of one, for yourself or as a gift, make sure you are aware of possible consequences.

On December 1st, the Library is offering a one-hour class on the basics of genealogical DNA testing, the types of tests, and a comparison of the five major testing companies: 23 and Me, Ancestry DNA, FamilyTree DNA, Living DNA and MyHeritage DNA.

Most people don't put much thought into testing before they swab their cheeks. This class urges you to think before you buy.

The class is from 6:30-7:30 p.m. 

Sign up HERE.

THE BLOG IS TAKING A SABBATICAL NEXT WEEK FOR THANKSGIVING DAY

IT WILL RETURN ON DECEMBER 1ST.

HALLOWEEN GHOST STORIES

Halloween is almost here and it is time for some ghost stories. Let's revisit a few places in Medina County to help you get into the spirit of this spooky holiday!

Please remember these stories are just local folklore. My information is not based on fact, only hearsay and newspaper articles. However, you will see a few places that I have done some minimal research and have updated the information. 

MEDINA

The Corkscrew Restaurant fka The Burnham House

This Victorian Home has had many names in the past 130 years. It is said that Nelson Burnham built the house in the late 1880's and it was known as the Burnham Home. The interior of the house was arranged at the direction of Mrs. Burnham herself who desired the structure to be one of convenience. Through the years it has been…The Homestead Restaurant, Great Expectations, Penny’s Poorhouse and it is now The Corkscrew Saloon. The spirits seemed to start making themselves known when it was Penny’s Poorhouse. Penny Codarini, the former owner, was always happy to talk about the haunting and felt that they must be children, due to the prankish types of incidents. Her and her husband experienced moved furniture, missing items, someone walking up and down the stairs and she even heard her name being called.

 The last time I was there I heard this story…They were setting up one of the upper rooms for a private dinner party. The table was all set with napkins and silverware and when the server came back up to make sure nothing was forgotten the silverware was all a mess and salt was spread all over the table….Like Penny said…Childish Pranks!

Medina Gazette, 10 March 1882, p. 5

I did find an obituary for the original owner Mr. Nelson T. Burnham. It states he died in the home, and according to other records, just when it was being completed. Maybe he is still there....

Spitzer House Bed & Breakfast 

 Built in 1890 by Ceilan Milo Spitzer, it is said to be haunted by several ghosts. There are two haunted rooms in particular. One of the haunted rooms is called Ceilan’s Room and the second one is called Anna’s room. Anna was Ceilan's step-mother. It is in Anna’s room that a ghost of a servant girl appears on a regular basis. The dining room is also said to be haunted. The voices of two men can be heard there. Other incidences include hearing the piano play, lights turning on and off, slamming doors and light touches and taps from an invisible source.

The Medina Library 

Note: The Franklin Sylvester Room is no longer a room at the library.  A renovation was done and the resources were moved into what is now the “Local History Room”. 

The Medina Library has a century long history of serving the community. The original library was built on its current site with funds donated by Franklin Sylvester and opened in 1907. Unfortunately, Mr. Sylvester passed away in May of 1907, without getting to see his library completed. In his will, he left the library an additional $4,000. It is said that Mr. Sylvester was under the impression that the library would always remain named the Sylvester Library. However, the library is now known as the Medina Library…not the Sylvester Library. This may be upsetting to him and he likes to remind us he is still here. His presence has been felt by a few people in the former local history room and some saw a figure of a tall, dark man. You can see Mr. Sylvester’s portrait hanging above the fireplace in the 1907 room…..

The 1907 Room 

This room is the original part of the library. When a local ghost hunter group did a program here at the library a group of people went into the 1907 room. They were able to get responses to questions on a lighted meter. It seems that a young man may be in this room. Others have felt a “presence” in this room…come and see if you do.

Sérénité fka The Medina Steak House & Saloon 

Harrison Blake built the building in 1858. Over the years the building changed hands and provided different services. It was said to be a hotel, a boarding house, a grocery store, a saloon, and a steakhouse.

The former employees say the spirit here isn't mean, just mischievous. For example, silverware ended up being switched around on the tables, a plate on the wall got turned over, and sometimes spirits were seen walking through the building.

Medina Gazette, 19 Feb 1979, p. 2

Anna is said to be one of the ghosts who haunt this restaurant. She is said to be a friendly and helpful spirit. Some say that when a fire broke out on the second floor, Anna helped to contain the fire and saved the building. There are beams in the attic that still show the scars of this fire.

Medina Gazette, 9 March 1906, p. 8

I was able to find 2 Anna's connected to the building. There was a cook there when it was the Miller Hotel whose name was Anna Tibbetts. 

Medina Gazette, 24 July 1945, p. 1

The other "Anna" was a Julia Anna Miller. She and her husband, Andrew G., ran the Miller House from 1902-1917. 

 

LIVERPOOL

Cry Baby Bridge – Abbeyville Road

The story goes that in the 1950’s a young girl threw her baby off the bridge in an effort to hide her pregnancy. Supposedly if you park under the bridge and turn off your car it will not start again until it is pushed out from under the bridge. It is also reported that you can hear a baby crying whenever it is a silent night.

The Witches Ball – Myrtle Hill Cemetery

There are two legends associated with this grave site. The first one is that there was a witch who practiced witchcraft near Myrtle Hill and was stoned by the townspeople. The second story is that there was an insane woman who poisoned her family and threw them down a well. In either case, it is said she is buried beneath the ball and some say that she was buried standing up. They say that the ball is warm when it is cold outside and cold when it is hot outside. It also is said that snow and leaves will never fall on the tombstone. Others have reported an eerie feeling of being watched while standing near the marker. The marker is actually just a unique stone marking the final resting place for the Stoskopf family.

RIVER STYX - GUILFORD TOWNSHIP

River Styx Railroad Bridge**

On March 22, 1899, Railroad Engineer Alexander Logan ran Train No. 5 along the Erie Railroad near the River Styx Bridge, traveling at nearly 80 mph. He would never meet his destination. The engine mysteriously jumped its tracks, turned over and crushed the engineer to death. No one knows what caused the train to derail, but most agree that Logan’s heroic decision to stay on the train and steer the engine saved the lives of others on board. Witnesses say that when Logan’s body was later recovered, his hand was still clutched to the throttle. Two weeks before this tragic accident, Logan confided to his colleagues that he believed he would die on that engine. Since the fatal accident, strange events have been reported on and near the River Styx Bridge. Just a few months later a local doctor and his friend witnessed a phantom train plunge from the bridge covered in flames. They said they actually heard the passengers screaming. However, when they reached the bridge to help, the train was gone. Some have been foolish enough to walk the trestle and were cut into pieces from on-coming trains and the bridge has been the site of some suicides. In addition, a strange fog has been seen to suddenly appear, and there have been a high number of car accidents on River Styx Road below the bridge, involving people who claimed to have seen something falling from the bridge. Are all of these strange incidents related to the 1899 train disaster? Or is there something much older and sinister at work here?

**After further research it has been shown that the train accident did not happen on the River Styx train trestle in Medina County...it actually happened 6 miles south on the River Styx train trestle in Rittman, Wayne County.  Right name...wrong county. 

Cincinnati Commerical Tribune
23 March 1899, p. 1

River Styx Cemetery –  River Styx Road

Locals say they have sighted a ghost on multiple occasions at this cemetery. At around the turn of the century, a few residents supplemented their income by robbing local graves and selling the corpses to medical schools in Cleveland. Grave robbing became such a problem that the folks in River Styx started burying their dead in out-of-town cemeteries. One family even constructed an above-ground stone vault at River Styx cemetery in an effort to thwart would-be thieves. On the property is the abandoned underground vault built into the side of a hill and barred by a rusty metal gate.

I went to this cemetery to get some photographs. I had planned on entering the cemetery to take pictures, but got an uneasy feeling, and I couldn’t seem to talk myself into going past the wrought iron gate and into the cemetery. The whole time I was there it felt as if I was being watched. The brave person that I am…I quickly took my pictures and left.

HINCKLEY

Hinckley Historical Society fka The Hinckley Library 

This 1845 home belonged to Vernon Stouffer, founder of the Stouffer food corporation. It became a public library in 1973, and during renovations several staff members reported ghostly manifestations. The apparitions of a young woman in an old-fashioned blue dress and a man in a hat were seen on the stairway. A workman encountered a ghostly figure on the basement stairs. Others have felt strange presences on the upper floors and witnessed poltergeist effects, such as books being thrown off the shelves. It has been suggested that the ghosts are Orlando Wilcox and his daughter Rebecca, who lived on the site during the Civil War.

SPENCER

Spencer Cemetery - East Main Street

Spencer Cemetery is just east of the town center. Strange things are reported there from time to time--chiefly the bizarre sight of an actual, metal, real-world lantern floating free in the air as if held by invisible hands. According to local stories people have approached the lantern and passed their hands above, beneath, and around it, finding no strings or apparent trickery of any kind. Sometimes a smaller lantern is seen floating near the original.

These are just a few of the spooky places in Medina County. If you want to find more you can always check out one of the Haunted Ohio books from the library. Medina County is usually mentioned at least once in this series.

If you think your house is haunted and want to know who may be haunting it come to the Medina Library's Virginia Wheeler Martin Family History & Learning Center and we can get you started on researching your home's history.  

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!