Alien resident A-Files released for public access

According to a National Archives press release, more than 300,000 case files on US alien residents are now open to the public at the National Archives branch in Kansas City, Missouri.

While you can search for your names of interest online, you may only see the files in person or order copies. Click here to search for names in the Archival Research Catalog. Not all the hits returned are for A-Files, some are for armed forces service and other documents.

I found A-Files for TOLLIN, BANK, FINK and others of interest. The first screen after a search lists the names. Click on a name of interest and learn more about the file in general terms. Click on the "Scope & Content" tab for an A-File and learn the individual's birthdate and country of origin. For David Tollin: "This file consists of an alien case file for David Tollin. Date of birth is listed as 07/20/1898. Country is listed as Russia."

The press release indicated that these files are for those born prior to - and including - 1909.

Known as A-Files, they were transferred to the Archives from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS). They are only a small portion of millions of files that will eventually be transferred and opened to public access.

“The A-files are a key to unlocking the fascinating stories of millions of people who traveled to the United States in search of opportunity, including my own grandfather” said Archivist of the United States David S. Ferriero. “They include information such as photographs, personal correspondence, birth certificates, health records, interview transcripts, visas, applications and other information on all non-naturalized alien residents, both legal and illegal. The snapshot of American life that develops from each file can, in some cases, serve as a one-stop-shopping for researchers.”

The INS - predecessor to the USCIS - began issuing Alien Registration numbers in 1940, and began creating A-files in 1944. According to the agency, the files document the famous, the infamous, the anonymous and the well-known, and are an historical and genealogical goldmine. They hold numerous relatively modern documents in one file for a rich source of biographical information.

The files are subject to the 100-year rule, meaning they can can be transferred to the NA after 100 years from the birth date of a file's subject.

The Kansas City branch will hold all A-Files except from San Francisco, Honolulu, Reno, and Guam, which will be held at the San Francisco branch. Those files are being prepared for transfer.

Unfortunately, they are not online. They may be viewed in person by appointment at Kansas City or copies of files may be ordered for a fee. Click here to learn more about requesting A-Files.

Planning a trip to KC? The branch is open Tuesday-Saturday, 8am-4pm for research.

Read the complete press release at the first link above.

Geneabloggers discovers 13 new genblogs

Thomas MacEntee at GeneaBloggers is always on the hunt for new genealogy and family history blogs.

This week he's discovered 13 of them, bringing a total of 1,209 genealogy blogs at Geneabloggers.

The list - see it here - includes blogs focused on individual family history, Illinois genealogy, research service blogs, Maine and New England genealogy, Missouri genealogy, a genealogy vendor blog, Jewish and UK genealogy (Todd Knowles' blog, which Tracing the Tribe has previously noted) and DNA.

Thanks, Thomas, for all your hard work!

Missouri: Going home - to Greece

And what did you do on your summer vacation in 1974?

Rena Benrubi Abrams' high school graduation gift was a trip to Greece and a fortuitous sidetrip to Israel. She likes to tell her parents' story as it gives her the courage to go after what she wants.

Abrams' story is told in the St. Louis (Missouri) Jewish Light.

Rena Benrubi Abrams grew up wanting to be "That Girl," the stylish, ambitious character played by perky Marlo Thomas on the 1966-to-'71 TV sitcom. Nonetheless, Benrubi's parents decided that for her high-school graduation in Indianapolis, there could be no more fitting gift than a summer in Greece, their homeland.

Begrudgingly, 18-year-old Rena packed her bell-bottom jeans, peasant tops, wedge sandals and Jackie O sunglasses. In 1974, her first-ever airplane ride delivered her to her first-ever experience with a dirt outhouse, no telephone, no air conditioning, no TV and no American music.

In the Greek town of Naousa, she met her maternal grandmother, who slaughtered a chicken from the backyard and prepared it for dinner. In nearby Veria, where her father, Ruben Benrubi, had lived, old men reminisced about life before the Nazis and the startling horrors of war.

"These were stories and facts never mentioned to us as we grew up in suburban Indianapolis. But then again, we didn't know to ask," says Abrams. On Holocaust Remembrance Day April 19, she will pay tribute to her mother's Greek Orthodox family. They sheltered seven Jews during World War II.

She also visited her father's old home and, at his request, asked the current owner for permission to search the floor for money her father had buried before going to America.

Amazingly, Abrams says, she found a small leather pouch with several gold Turkish coins inside, buried in the dirt floor of a tiny closet. Though the coins were no longer legal tender, a Jewish jeweler, after biting the coins to ensure they were real, offered her $200.

With the money she bought an El Al ticket to Israel to see her father's few relatives, who had survived and resettled. One of the cousins she saw was a former teenager who had hidden in her maternal grandparents' attic for five years.

Read the complete story at the link above.

Missouri: The Freund Baking Company

KETC in St. Louis is compiling a site of stories of its Jewish community. The project is an outgrowth of the documentary, The Jewish Americans, and intended to complement it. There are some two dozen stories online now.

The project actively seeks appropriate stories and photographs about the Jewish experience in St. Louis.

The latest one, by Gladis Barker, is here.

Back in the 1850’s when Mrs. Moritz Freund baked Bohemian rye bread for her South St. Louis neighbors, she had no inkling she was starting an institution that was to become a lasting part of St. Louis tradition. Freund Olde Tyme Rye Bread – baked according to Mrs. Freund’s Old World recipe – has been part of the social history of St. Louis. One interesting fact was that Mrs. Freund oven was heated by cordwood supplied by a bearded, struggling farmer who was later to become President of the United States – Ulysses S. Grant!

Her bread was welcomed by the Union Army soldiers at Jefferson Barracks during the Civil War, and by succeeding generations of soldiers until the post was closed after World War II. ...

Do read the rest of this four-generation story and the others on the website.

Genes in Genealogy: St. Louis, Oct. 13

The St. Louis (Missouri) Genealogical Society will host a one-day event, "Putting the Genes in Genealogy," from 8.30am-3.45pm on Saturday, October 13. The featured speaker is Bennett Greenspan, founder and CEO of Family Tree DNA.

Click here for registration and and other details. The StLGS website also has a page on DNA.

The The St. Louis Genealogical Society is the largest local genealogical society in the US and is staffed by volunteers. Among its resources is a 20,000 research library.

The StLGS includes the Jewish Special Interest Group (J-SIG), which began in June 2005 as a revival of the Jewish Genealogical Society of St. Louis, formerly associated with United Hebrew Congregation. For more information, click here.

The genetics day will address the following questions: What is DNA? Why is it important in genealogy? What are those strange diseases our ancestors died from? How do I write a medical family history?

Sessions include:

DNA 101: In layman's terms, learn to understand the basics of this valuable new resource. What is DNA? How is it used for genealogy?

What Did They Die From?: Ancestors' strange illnesses and stranger "curing" methods. Family medical histories are easier to develop when you know what your relatives died from.

DNA 201: More detail on DNA testing: how testing works, what the numbers mean and how the tests can help your family.

Documenting Medical Family History: How to research causes of death and turn data into a medical family history.