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Grasshoppers

August 16, 2024

You’ve probably noticed that the Front Range is having a “grasshopper summer” this year. The critters are everywhere, hopping in all directions as you walk along paths and sidewalks. Gardeners are having fits trying to stop them from eating their tender veggies.

I planted a patch of basil this spring. I drooled over thoughts of pesto and caprese salad just a few weeks away. Until one morning, I noticed that my baby basil plants were covered in little grasshoppers. In short order, there were no leaves left, just little green stems sticking out of the dirt.

After I ranted for a while, I calmed down and realized that, for me, the loss of my basil was an annoyance, not a disaster. I could always buy fresh basil at a local farmers’ market or grocery store. It wouldn’t be the same, but I wouldn’t die due to the lack of basil.

A few generations ago, my ancestors wouldn’t have been as lucky as I am. For them, a grasshopper year like this one might have been a major disaster. The loss of a crop of alfalfa to the hordes of grasshoppers would have meant no winter hay for their cows and horses. It could have spelled the end of hopes for a good crop of corn to help pay the mortgage on the farm. It might have foretold a winter with little food for their family.

You may remember the trials of the Ingalls Family in On the Banks of Plum Creek, one of the Little House books. The family was left with no crops to sell and little food after swarms of locusts devoured all their crops. While the book is fiction, the insect plague was real. Grasshoppers and their kin such as crickets and locusts have long plagued farmers. In the United States, the midwestern and Rocky Mountain states have often been subject to “bad” grasshopper years when swarms of insects ate everything in their paths.

If you wonder whether your family suffered through one or more of these grasshopper years, you might want to check the Agricultural Schedules of the U.S. Federal Census. From 1850 through 1880, the government performed an agricultural census at the same time they made the population schedules.

These Agricultural Schedules give the name of the owner or manager of the farm and list information such as how many acres were improved out of the total acreage owned. They also give numbers of livestock owned, listed by variety. Cash value of various crops is also contained in these schedules.

This information can offer a window into the life an ancestor led. Was he well-to-do or just squeaking by? Did he have a lot of livestock or only a few? On an Agricultural Schedule for 1860 for Utah, I learned that my second great grandfather had a “partial crop failure due to crickets.” He was a young man at the time with several small children. It’s hard to image how he must have felt when he saw the grasshoppers devouring his hopes and hard work.

Agricultural Schedules are more difficult to locate than the usual Population Census Schedule. Some are digitized on websites such as Ancestry and Family Search, although only for some states. State Archives often hold microfilm copies of schedules for their state. The National Archives also holds microfilm copies of the Agricultural Schedules that can be viewed at the National Archives Building in Washington, D.C. Some of the regional NARA facilities also hold these microfilms as well.

“Grasshopper Years” are mostly a nuisance nowadays in the United States. They were a major natural disaster for some of our ancestors. Learning about their tribulations can put our own frustrations into perspective.

 

Carol Stetser

Researcher

Larimer County Genealogical Society

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Naturalized or Not?

Many genealogists think that the typical immigrant was naturalized as soon as possible after he arrived in the United States. While some were, a large number delayed becoming citizens for years, even decades after they were eligible. Still others never naturalized at all.

 

Americans tend to assume that everyone who lives permanently in the United States is a citizen. That has never been the case. At least twenty-five percent of immigrants who came to the U.S. never naturalized. Another portion did eventually become naturalized, but not until after years here.

 

The reasons that people didn’t become citizens are varied. Some planned to work for a while and then return to their home countries. Others, such as most Asians, were not eligible for citizenship until well after World War II. Until 1922, when they were finally able to vote, few women naturalized. Citizen or not, they still wouldn’t be able to vote. Even after 1922, some women did not feel that citizenship was important for them.

 

All of this can make it difficult to find a specific naturalization record. Before searching, it’s important to determine whether someone ever became a citizen or not. It’s also helpful to have at least a rough idea when someone might have naturalized.

 

Unfortunately, there is no comprehensive index to naturalizations. Before 1906, any court in any jurisdiction could naturalize someone. This includes federal, state, county and municipal courts. These records are scattered in various online and offline collections. Large online websites such as Ancestry and Family Search, state archives and local courthouses all contain naturalization records. After 1906, most naturalization records were done by the federal government. Information concerning them can be found on the National Archives website.

 

Luckily, there are some common records that can help in a naturalization search. Censuses, military and homestead records are readily available online. These records indicate someone’s citizenship status at the time of the record. Checking them first can save you the time and frustration of a search for non-existent records.

 

Check at the National Archives website (http://www.archives.gov) to find a listing of what the various censuses and military records contain. In general, censuses between 1900 and 1950 include a column for citizenship. Most of them merely indicate whether someone was naturalized or not, but the 1920 census indicates the year in which a person was naturalized.

 

Draft registration cards for both World War I and World War II will indicate a man’s citizenship status.

 

The various homestead acts of the 19th century required that the person filing for a homestead be a citizen or in the process of becoming one to receive title to a property.

 

Keep in mind that the various records detailing someone’s citizenship status are only as accurate as the person who supplied the information. For example, an ancestor of mine lied on his homestead application saying he was a “natural born citizen” even though he was born in Canada to non-American parents. The ancestor was successful with his lie. He got title to his property. However, later census records indicate that he was an alien, not a citizen, through the rest of his life.

 

Naturalization records can help build a picture of your immigrant ancestor, but not everyone who came to the United States became a citizen. Keeping this fact in mind will help avoid frustration when searching for these elusive records.

 

Carol Stetser

Researcher

Larimer County Genealogical Society

Genealogy Varies

August 2, 2024

Everybody’s genealogy journey is different. Many years ago, when I began the search for my family’s roots, I took classes to help me figure out how to proceed. The classes taught me that I should begin with myself and move backwards from there. They introduced me to various records such as censuses and vital records that could help me with my search for the past.

 

What the classes didn’t explain very well is that everyone’s genealogy varies. Of my eight great grandparents, seven were born outside the United States. This has meant that many of the usual records that are recommended for U.S. researchers don’t apply to me. For example, many of my families don’t appear on censuses before 1900 – they weren’t in the United States at that time.

 

Very early in my research I learned that I would need to “jump the pond” if I wanted to expand my family tree beyond ancestors from the 20th century.

 

I remember making trips to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City with genealogy friends. They’d immediately head for the published genealogy books on the top floor. I, on the other hand, headed straight for the basement floors where the European records lived. Very few of the books and microfilms pertained to my late arrival ancestors. One of my friends commented that it was as if I were on a different trip than the rest of them.

 

My genealogy process was different than most of the genealogists I knew, but that’s how genealogy is. Not everyone’s ancestors arrived in North America at the same time. Some of us have centuries of American history to study when we try to understand our ancestors’ lives. Others of us have only a few decades to American history which pertains directly to our families. We all start our American research when our ancestors arrived here – whenever that was.

 

For some of us that is 1607 in Jamestown or 1620 in Plymouth. For those folks, there are many genealogies and other books written about the people who arrived then. In earlier generations, genealogy was primarily geared towards people whose ancestors arrived in the colonial period. Organizations such as the Mayflower Society and Daughters of the American Revolution limit their members to those who can prove their descent from early Americans.

 

Nowadays, genealogy is more inclusive. Ancestors who came to America in the late 19th century and even the 20th century are common subjects of modern genealogical studies and books. Using records such as passenger lists and naturalization records, many of us have learned a lot about our immigrant ancestors.

 

Digitization of records has made records from overseas widely available too. Many countries outside the United States have active genealogical communities who are happy to share their families with scattered cousins from America.

 

No matter when your family came to America, their stories are waiting for you to discover them. They’re all worth researching.

 

Carol Stetser

Researcher

Larimer County Genealogical Society