REMEMBERING GALVESTON STORM OF 1900
(Please be aware this post was written in 2003 and published at that time in the Houston Chronicle (Houston, Texas) newspaper. Some of the news in this post, therefore, may not be current. Current and future posts on this blog may revisit and update news on this and other posts on this blog. If you have questions and/or suggestions, please send Mic a note using the comment page -Don’t forget to use the orange “subscribe” button to receive new posts-Thanks, Mic)
Each September I try to write something about the 1900 Galveston Storm and report on the progress of my colossal study to identify those 7,000 to 10,000 people who perished during that horrific night in September 1900.
The basis of my research evolves from the Final List of Dead published in the Galveston newspaper in October, a month after the storm. The list semi-named about 5,000 victims who died in the storm. Many were listed as Mrs. Smith and five children or Mr. Jones, wife and two children. I wanted to know more about them. Who was Mrs. Smith or Mr. Jones and what were their spouse’s and children’s names? The goal of the Galveston Storm Project, therefore, is to better identify those listed in the death list.
In Phase Two of the project which has been completed I searched through the 1899-1900 City Directory and was able to identify many of the heads of family on the list.
Phase Three will involve searching through the 1900 census, locating people identified in Phase Two and extracting additional information about each of them. The census should reveal such information as the names of each person in a household, ages, places of birth, occupations and other miscellaneous information. I have also been fortunate to have had a number of people call or write with information on their own family members who died during the storm.
Those interested in learning more about the Storm should visit the Great Galveston Storm project website at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~barnette/ . Included on the website is a serialized story of the Storm: Before the Storm, The Approaching Storm, During the Storm, After the Storm and Since the Storm. The website also contains the Final List of Dead.
Anyone knowing anything about anyone listed or not listed on the website who died in the Storm is asked to contact me at mic@barnettesbooks.com .
FAMILY TREE MAKER SOFTWARE CLASS
Paula Perkins will lead an Organizing Your Family Research With Family Tree Maker Software class Wednesday September 17 from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. . This one-time four hour class will be held at Houston Community College’s 1681 Cartwright campus in Missouri City.
Through demonstrations, students will learn step by step how to organize, document family information and sources and publish a family book. Registration for this class is $39. For more information and to register, contact HCC at 281-835-5539. Please note pre-registration is required.
SURFING THE INTERNET
I will be leading a Surfing the Internet for Genealogy class at Houston Community College’s 1681 Cartwright campus in Missouri City. This one session class is a live four hour virtual tour of some of the most helpful and notable genealogical websites on the Internet. The class will be held Thursday September 18 from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Registration for this class is $39. For more information and to register, contact HCC at 281-835-5539. Please note, pre-registration is required.
NEW PLACE FINDING SOFTWARE AVAILABLE
Progeny Software company is offering a free World Place Finder CD just for the asking. Just key in the name of a place anywhere in the world and the program will list every known place by that name including the city, county, state and country plus the longitude and latitude. The CD contains over 3.3 million place names from all over the world.
The Word Place Finder was developed as a part of another much more powerful CD, the World Place Advisor. The World Place Advisor works in conjunction with other software databases such as one’s genealogy software. The program will search through genealogical databases and notify one of typos and misspellings and advise one of the correct spelling or missing county, state and country information plus the latitude and longitude helping maintain geographical precision one’s genealogical databases.
World Place Finder is free and World Place Advisor is $34.95. There is a $6 shipping charge on each CD. Either CD may be ordered from Progeny’s website at http://progenysoftware.com/ or call them at 1.800.565.0018. Visit the website for more information on the programs as well as information on other Progeny software products.
