Pomeroy – On Granny's Trail

Wild West Digitized: Arizona records

Posted on July 18, 2013July 19, 2013 by Dayna Jacobs - "On Granny's Trail"

This is second in a series of posts about the digitized records available at Familysearch. I hope you’ve had a chance to explore the California records I listed, and that you made some new discoveries. So far, there are only 7 collections of Arizona records, but they include some essential ones:

Arizona digital collections at Familysearch as of 18 Jul 2013

Arizona Deaths, 1870-1951 is not as current as the database online at genealogy.az.gov because the Familysearch source is microfilm, and the genealogy.az.gov source is the government records which are added to each year (50 years back due to privacy). However, if you are looking for someone in that range, you will get an image of their death certificate in Arizona Death, 1870-1951:

AZ death certificate — Sarah Matilda Colborn (Pomeroy) death certificate, 1926

Here is the death certificate of my ancestor, Sarah Matilda Colborn who was married to Francis Martin Pomeroy. It’s nice to have a vital record for someone born in 1834. If you found a death certificate for someone who died in the 1870s you could conceivably have direct evidence of a birth date in the 1700s. (Of course it would be secondary vs. primary direct evidence, but still – not bad!) And who wouldn’t want to discover or verify an individual’s parents’ names—especially the mother’s maiden name? There’s nothing like a good death certificate to thrill a genealogist, and to get you back another couple of generations on your pedigree chart!

Here is a record from Arizona, Births and Christenings, 1909-1917 for a child born to Sophia Isadore and Frank T. Pomeroy in 1914:

While this is an abstract rather than an image, it does give a film number for further reference. Also, the record collection pre-dates Arizona statehood (1912) by 3 years, which is notable.

So all you folks with Arizona roots, have at it! I know I’ve already found a bunch of records I need to connect to folks in my Family Tree.

Census, Church records, FamilySearch Wiki, Friday Finds, LDS Church Censuses, Research tips

New LDS Census images posted

Posted on July 10, 2012September 16, 2021 by Dayna Jacobs - "On Granny's Trail"

I recently posted about a little-used resource for researchers who had LDS church members in their family 1914-1960. This is the collection of LDS Church Censuses 1914-1960. The FamilySearch Wiki lists the contents of the censuses for each year. Each family in the worldwide church was counted beginning 1914, continuing every 5 years after 1920. 1945 there was no census taken because of the war.

I had known about this collection but never accessed it until this week. Here are images of the Franklin Thomas Pomeroy family in the 1914, 1925, and 1935 LDS Censuses.

F T Pomeroy LDS Church Census 1914 FHL film 245253 — Franklin Thomas Pomeroy family, 1914 LDS Census, FHL microfilm 245255

There are columns for age, gender, priesthood office, marital status, and church record number. There is a category for “where born” with columns for Utah, Arizona, Europe, Asia, Islands of Pacific, and Unclassified. The Ward and Stake is also identified, which can lead one to other LDS church membership records, such as records of ordinances, minutes of meetings, and genealogical surveys.

Since U.S. federal censuses were taken every 10 years–1910, 1920, 1930, 1940–the LDS Censuses falling in-between those years are nice to have. Here is the 1925 census:

F T Pomeroy LDS Church Census 1925 FHL film 245255 — Franklin Thomas Pomeroy family, 1925 LDS Census, FHL film 245,255

Notice that Sarah Matilda Pomeroy is enumerated with the family—she is Franklin’s mother—and the additional detail for “when born.” We also now have evidence of Sophia Isadora’s maiden name—Morris.

Here is the 1935 LDS Census:

F T Pomeroy LDS Church Census 1935 FHL film 245255 — Franklin Thomas Pomeroy family, 1935 LDS Census, FHL film 245, 255

Included in this census is the city or town of birth, and a street address. You might consider marking a map in Google Earth to show all the places where a family is known to have lived. Also, use the street view to take a walk around their neighborhood! It may have changed, but then again it may not have. At the bottom of each census for every year is, “checked with ward record by [signature].”

I am pretty enthused about this record group and plan to use them to launch into ward minutes and membership records next time I am in Salt Lake City. I expect to find details of my ancestors’ lives, such as service in callings and various ordinances received. If you have any LDS ancestry these church censuses might lead you down some interesting trails!

Biographical

Stories added to “On Granny’s Trail”

Posted on February 19, 2012July 6, 2012 by Dayna Jacobs - "On Granny's Trail"

I have added an area called “stories“, which will be a place for biographies, autobiographies, letters, and any other interesting personal records. The first group of records added are biographical sketches for Francis Martin Pomeroy, Hyrum Bowles Morris, Franklin Thomas Pomeroy, and Sarah Matilda Colborn Pomeroy; also included are some letters from Sophia Isadora “Dora” Morris Pomeroy to sons Karl Pomeroy and Ivan Pomeroy, some memories of Kathleen and Allen Lee Gooch, and two brief autobiographies written by Ivan Pomeroy.