SEARCHING
Lyrcs by Randy Seaver
(sung to the tune of "Searchin'" by the Coasters (1958))
(Gonna find 'em,)
(Gonna find 'em.)
I've been searching, un-huh,
Searching all my ti-ime a-way.
Looking for Thomas J. Newton,
I know I'll find him some day.
(Gonna find 'em,)
(Gonna find 'em.)
I've been searching, uh-huh,
Searching my time a-way.
Looking for Elizabeth Dill,
I know I'll find her some day.
If I have to walk a graveyard,
You know I will.
If I have to storm a library,
You know I will.
And if she's hiding up on Beacon Hill
I'm really gonna find her,
I just know I will.
Cause I've been searching,
Oh yeah, searching,
Searching my time away.
(Gonna find 'em,)
(Gonna find 'em.)
Elizabeth Shown Mills and
Arlene Eakle got nothing on me,
Christine Rose, Dick Eastman
And Megan Smolenyak, you see.
They can't find them either,
But I'm searching my life a-way.
I've been searching,
Searching all my time a-way.
I'm looking for William Knapp,
I know I'll find him some day.
I'm searching,
Oh yeah, searching.
(Gonna find 'em,)
(Gonna find 'em.)
I've been searching, uh-huh,
Searching my time a-way.
I'm looking for Cornelia Bresee,
I know I'll find her some day.
No matter where they're hiding,
They'll see me coming down the street.
Looking for all my Ancestors
Still hiding well from me.
I'm still searching,
Oh Lord, searching,
Searching my time away.
Yeah, Yeah.
But I'm like those genealogists,
who look in every place,
Trying to find records
It's a very long race.
I'm searching, uh-huh,
Searching my life away.
(Gonna find 'em,)
(Gonna find 'em.)
Really? When? Where? How?
Oh baby, you know what I want.
The words in parentheses are background singers. The lyrics don't match the music exactly, but what the heck. You get the idea. I wish I could sing. We could have a ball at a conference singing genealogy lyrics to old rock songs, eh?
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
My Grandfather, Frederick W. Seaver (1876-1942)
Frederick Walton Seaver was born 9 October 1876 in Leominster, MA, the son of Frank Walton and Hattie Louise (Hildreth) Seaver. He grew up in Leominster with his parents and brother, Howard. The family lived at what is now 149 Lancaster Street in Leominster.
Fred married Alma Bessie Richmond (1882-1962), the daughter of Thomas and Julia (White) Richmond, on 18 June 1900 in Leominster, MA. The picture below is of Fred and Bess before their wedding day.
Fred married Alma Bessie Richmond (1882-1962), the daughter of Thomas and Julia (White) Richmond, on 18 June 1900 in Leominster, MA. The picture below is of Fred and Bess before their wedding day.
After his marriage, the Frederick Walton Seaver family lived for a short time in Leominster MA at 149 Lancaster Street (with his parents and grandmother Hildreth), where their two oldest children were born. Fred was working in a comb-making factory in Leominster. In about 1905, he became a superintendent at another factory in Fitchburg. The family lived at 56 Linden Street there, where son Stanley was born. They bought a house at 116 Lawrence Avenue in Fitchburg where Ruth and Frederick were born, and the older children went to school at Highland Avenue School, then Maverick Street School, and finally Goddard Street School.
In the 1910 U.S. census, the Fred W. Seaver (it is indexed as Leaver in the census record) resided at 116 Lawrence Street in Fitchburg Ward 6, Worcester County, Massachusetts (1910 U.S. Census for Massachusetts, Worcester County, National Archives Microfilm Series T624, Roll 608, Page 193, Enumeration District 1745, Sheet 6B, dwelling #82, family #125, line 52). The family included:
* Fred W. Seaver -- head of household, male, white, age 33, married once, 10 years, born MA, father and mother born MA, speaks English, superintendent in a comb shop, a worker, owns home, with a mortgage, can read and write
* Bessie A. Seaver -- wife, female, white, age 28, married once, 10 years, 4 children, 4 living, born CT, father born England, mother born CT, speaks English, no occupation, can read and write
* Marion F. Seaver -- daughter, female, white, age 8, single, born MA, father born MA, mother born CT, attends school
* Evelyn Seaver -- daughter, female, white, age 7, single, born MA, father born MA, mother born CT, attends school
* Stanley R. Seaver -- son, male, white, age 4, single, born MA, father born MA, mother born CT, attends school
* Ruth W. Seaver -- daughter, female, white, age 2, single, born MA, father born MA, mother born CT, attends school
* James H. Richmond -- brother-in-law, male, white, age 23, single, born CT, father born England, mother born CT, speaks English, comb-maker, in a comb shop, a worker, 24 weeks out of work in 1909, can read and write
In about 1911, Fred was offered a position as superintendent at the Patton Manufacturing Company in Leominster, which made hairpins from celluloid material. The family moved to a large house on the factory site at 290 Central Street, where Edward and Geraldine were born. The house was on the main road from Leominster to Sterling and Worcester, with streetcar tracks in the middle of the road. There were several smaller buildings around the house - a barn which was used as a garage, chicken coops and rabbit hutches. A brook ran beside the house to the factory. The house was heated by warm air from the factory.
In the 1920 U.S. Census, the Frederick W. Seaver family resided at 290 Central Street in Leominster, Worcester County, Massachusetts (1920 U.S. Census for Massachusetts, National Archives Microfilm Series T625, Roll 747, Page 125, Supervisor District 3, Enumeration District 102, Sheet 14A, dwelling #175, family #288, line 1). The family included:
* Frederick W. Seaver -- head of household, male, white, age 42, married, born MA, father born MA, mother born MA, superintendent of a comb shop, a salaried worker, rents home, able to read, write and speak English
* Bessie R. Seaver -- wife, female, white, age 38, married, born CT, father born England, mother born CT, no occupation, able to read, write and speak English
* Marion F. Seaver -- daughter, female, white, age 18, single, born MA, father born MA, mother born CT, attending school, able to read and write, and speak English
* Evelyn Seaver -- daughter, female, white, age 16, single, born MA, father born MA, mother born CT, attending school, able to read and write, and speak English
* Ruth W. Seaver -- daughter, female, white, age 12, single, born MA, father born MA, mother born CT, attending school, able to read and write, and speak English
* Frederick W. Seaver Jr. -- son, male, white, age 8, single, born MA, father born MA, mother born CT, attending school, unable to read and write, able to speak English
* Edward R. Seaver -- son, male, white, age 6, single, born MA, father born MA, mother born CT, attending school, unable to read and write, able to speak English
* Geraldine Seaver -- daughter, female, white, age 2, single, born MA, father born MA, mother born CT, unable to read and write, unable to speak English
During the 1920's, Fred and Bess bought a cottage on the shore of Whalom Lake, between Leominster and Fitchburg. The family spent summer weekends there. Vacations were taken at Cape Cod on occasion.
In about 1927, the owner of the Patton Manufacturing Company, Barney Doyle, sold the factory to the Dupont Company, and the site closed on Central Street. Fred moved to the main plant in Leominster, and was superintendent of the toothbrush division there until his retirement. The family bought a house at 20 Hall Street in Leominster.
In the 1930 US Census, the Fred W. Seaver family resided at 20 Hall Street in Leominster, Worcester County, Massachusetts. The household included (1930 US Census for Massachusetts, Worcester County, National Archives Microfilm Series T626, Roll 964, ED 226, page 3A):
* Fred W. Seaver -- head, own home, worth $5,000, owns a radio set, male, white, age 52, married, first at age 25, can read and write, born MA, father and mother born MA, speaks English, superintendent in a celluloid company
* Alma B. Seaver -- wife, female, white, age 48, married, first at age 18, can read and write, born CT, father born England, mother born RI, speaks English
* Ruth W. Seaver -- daughter, female, white, age 22, single, can read and write, born MA, father born MA, mother born CT, speaks English, teacher in a public school
* Frederick W. Seaver -- son, male, white, age 18, single, can read and write, born MA, father born MA, mother born CT, speaks English
* Edward R. Seaver -- son, male, white, age 16, single, can read and write, born MA, father born MA, mother born CT, speaks English
* Geraldine Seaver -- daughter, female, white, age 12, single, attends public school, can read and write, born MA, father born MA, mother born CT, speaks English
The picture below is Fred Seaver taken probably in the 1930's.
During the Depression, Fred took a cut in pay at Dupont, and the bank foreclosed on the house. The family moved to an apartment on West Street in downtown Leominster.
Fred Seaver retired at age 65, and died shortly thereafter, on 13 March 1942, of prostate cancer at the home of his daughter, Evelyn Wood, in Andover MA. He is buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Leominster with his wife Bess and their first son, Stanley Richmond Seaver who died in 1910.
In the 1910 U.S. census, the Fred W. Seaver (it is indexed as Leaver in the census record) resided at 116 Lawrence Street in Fitchburg Ward 6, Worcester County, Massachusetts (1910 U.S. Census for Massachusetts, Worcester County, National Archives Microfilm Series T624, Roll 608, Page 193, Enumeration District 1745, Sheet 6B, dwelling #82, family #125, line 52). The family included:
* Fred W. Seaver -- head of household, male, white, age 33, married once, 10 years, born MA, father and mother born MA, speaks English, superintendent in a comb shop, a worker, owns home, with a mortgage, can read and write
* Bessie A. Seaver -- wife, female, white, age 28, married once, 10 years, 4 children, 4 living, born CT, father born England, mother born CT, speaks English, no occupation, can read and write
* Marion F. Seaver -- daughter, female, white, age 8, single, born MA, father born MA, mother born CT, attends school
* Evelyn Seaver -- daughter, female, white, age 7, single, born MA, father born MA, mother born CT, attends school
* Stanley R. Seaver -- son, male, white, age 4, single, born MA, father born MA, mother born CT, attends school
* Ruth W. Seaver -- daughter, female, white, age 2, single, born MA, father born MA, mother born CT, attends school
* James H. Richmond -- brother-in-law, male, white, age 23, single, born CT, father born England, mother born CT, speaks English, comb-maker, in a comb shop, a worker, 24 weeks out of work in 1909, can read and write
In about 1911, Fred was offered a position as superintendent at the Patton Manufacturing Company in Leominster, which made hairpins from celluloid material. The family moved to a large house on the factory site at 290 Central Street, where Edward and Geraldine were born. The house was on the main road from Leominster to Sterling and Worcester, with streetcar tracks in the middle of the road. There were several smaller buildings around the house - a barn which was used as a garage, chicken coops and rabbit hutches. A brook ran beside the house to the factory. The house was heated by warm air from the factory.
In the 1920 U.S. Census, the Frederick W. Seaver family resided at 290 Central Street in Leominster, Worcester County, Massachusetts (1920 U.S. Census for Massachusetts, National Archives Microfilm Series T625, Roll 747, Page 125, Supervisor District 3, Enumeration District 102, Sheet 14A, dwelling #175, family #288, line 1). The family included:
* Frederick W. Seaver -- head of household, male, white, age 42, married, born MA, father born MA, mother born MA, superintendent of a comb shop, a salaried worker, rents home, able to read, write and speak English
* Bessie R. Seaver -- wife, female, white, age 38, married, born CT, father born England, mother born CT, no occupation, able to read, write and speak English
* Marion F. Seaver -- daughter, female, white, age 18, single, born MA, father born MA, mother born CT, attending school, able to read and write, and speak English
* Evelyn Seaver -- daughter, female, white, age 16, single, born MA, father born MA, mother born CT, attending school, able to read and write, and speak English
* Ruth W. Seaver -- daughter, female, white, age 12, single, born MA, father born MA, mother born CT, attending school, able to read and write, and speak English
* Frederick W. Seaver Jr. -- son, male, white, age 8, single, born MA, father born MA, mother born CT, attending school, unable to read and write, able to speak English
* Edward R. Seaver -- son, male, white, age 6, single, born MA, father born MA, mother born CT, attending school, unable to read and write, able to speak English
* Geraldine Seaver -- daughter, female, white, age 2, single, born MA, father born MA, mother born CT, unable to read and write, unable to speak English
During the 1920's, Fred and Bess bought a cottage on the shore of Whalom Lake, between Leominster and Fitchburg. The family spent summer weekends there. Vacations were taken at Cape Cod on occasion.
In about 1927, the owner of the Patton Manufacturing Company, Barney Doyle, sold the factory to the Dupont Company, and the site closed on Central Street. Fred moved to the main plant in Leominster, and was superintendent of the toothbrush division there until his retirement. The family bought a house at 20 Hall Street in Leominster.
In the 1930 US Census, the Fred W. Seaver family resided at 20 Hall Street in Leominster, Worcester County, Massachusetts. The household included (1930 US Census for Massachusetts, Worcester County, National Archives Microfilm Series T626, Roll 964, ED 226, page 3A):
* Fred W. Seaver -- head, own home, worth $5,000, owns a radio set, male, white, age 52, married, first at age 25, can read and write, born MA, father and mother born MA, speaks English, superintendent in a celluloid company
* Alma B. Seaver -- wife, female, white, age 48, married, first at age 18, can read and write, born CT, father born England, mother born RI, speaks English
* Ruth W. Seaver -- daughter, female, white, age 22, single, can read and write, born MA, father born MA, mother born CT, speaks English, teacher in a public school
* Frederick W. Seaver -- son, male, white, age 18, single, can read and write, born MA, father born MA, mother born CT, speaks English
* Edward R. Seaver -- son, male, white, age 16, single, can read and write, born MA, father born MA, mother born CT, speaks English
* Geraldine Seaver -- daughter, female, white, age 12, single, attends public school, can read and write, born MA, father born MA, mother born CT, speaks English
The picture below is Fred Seaver taken probably in the 1930's.
During the Depression, Fred took a cut in pay at Dupont, and the bank foreclosed on the house. The family moved to an apartment on West Street in downtown Leominster.
Fred Seaver retired at age 65, and died shortly thereafter, on 13 March 1942, of prostate cancer at the home of his daughter, Evelyn Wood, in Andover MA. He is buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Leominster with his wife Bess and their first son, Stanley Richmond Seaver who died in 1910.
"Ge-ne-al-o-gy" by Randy
GE-NE-AL-O-GY
lyrics by Randy Seaver
Sung to the music of "Surfin' USA"
by the Beach Boys (1962 - what memories!):
"Since everybody has a family
Across the USA
Then everybody be searching
for family histor-a.
"You'll see me in graveyards,
And in libraries too,
A white beard and sparse hairdo,
it's genealogy.
"Catchin' ancestors in Boston,
San Francisco C A,
Philly and Chicago,
and Washington D C.
"All over New England
And down Carolina way,
Everybody's gone searchin'
Family history.
"I'm still planning the road trip,
I'm gonna take next year,
Sprucing up my pedigree,
Finding stories to share.
"I'll be gone for the summer,
Seeing cousins and friends,
Tell my wife I'm researchin'
my genealogy.
"Wiltshire and Somerset,
Scotland and Ireland too,
Stockholm, Oslo, and Voss,
Toronto and Waterloo.
"All over the world,
And on the Internet too,
Everybody's gone searchin'
their genealogy.
"Everybody's gone searchin'
for family history."
I hope my cousin Brian Wilson doesn't mind.
lyrics by Randy Seaver
Sung to the music of "Surfin' USA"
by the Beach Boys (1962 - what memories!):
"Since everybody has a family
Across the USA
Then everybody be searching
for family histor-a.
"You'll see me in graveyards,
And in libraries too,
A white beard and sparse hairdo,
it's genealogy.
"Catchin' ancestors in Boston,
San Francisco C A,
Philly and Chicago,
and Washington D C.
"All over New England
And down Carolina way,
Everybody's gone searchin'
Family history.
"I'm still planning the road trip,
I'm gonna take next year,
Sprucing up my pedigree,
Finding stories to share.
"I'll be gone for the summer,
Seeing cousins and friends,
Tell my wife I'm researchin'
my genealogy.
"Wiltshire and Somerset,
Scotland and Ireland too,
Stockholm, Oslo, and Voss,
Toronto and Waterloo.
"All over the world,
And on the Internet too,
Everybody's gone searchin'
their genealogy.
"Everybody's gone searchin'
for family history."
I hope my cousin Brian Wilson doesn't mind.
Be Careful with Indexes in Ancestry
The key feature that makes www.Ancestry.com and other commercial web sites so valuable are the Indexes. Without them, we would be reading handwriting on page images just like we did with microfilm images in years past. The Indexes on genealogy web sites have many excellent features - wild cards, many search fields, exact or Soundex searches, etc. They significantly raise the odds of finding the information that we are searching for.
However, sometimes there are flaws in the indexes, or in the data indexed. I pointed out flaws in the California Death Indexes here some time ago. Now I have found another.
Ancestry has a database called "Indiana Marriage Collection, 1800-1941." The Ancestry source description of this database says:
"Ancestry.com. Indiana Marriage Collection, 1800-1941 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2005. Original data:
* Works Progress Administration, comp. Index to Marriage Records Indiana: Indiana Works Progress Administration, 1938-1940.
* Jordan Dodd, Liahona Research, comp. Electronic transcription of marriage records held by the individual counties in Indiana. Many of these records are on microfilm at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah."
One of my colleagues was looking for a marriage of Benjamin Reynolds to Cerilda Flinn in Indiana in the 1860's. If he goes directly to this database (which is a logical thing to do), he gets the following results:
* If he searches for the name as "Benjamin" and "Reynolds" - he gets 7 matches, but none to Cerilda Flinn.
* If he searches for the name as "Benj" and "Reyn" - he gets 9 matches, but none to Cerilda Flinn.
* If he searches for the name as "Ben" and "Rey" - he gets the 10 matches, but none to Cerilda Flinn.
* If he searches for "B" and "Rey" - he gets 82 matches, but none to Cerilda Flinn.
* If he searches for "Cerilda" and "Flinn" - he gets 1 match for Cerilda J. Flinn married to Benjamin J. Reynolds on 22 Sep 1867 in Crawford County IN. The same match comes up if he uses wild cards for Cerilda.
* If he leaves the names blank and searches for the Spouse name of "Benj*" and "Reyn*" - he gets 10 matches including the one who married Cerilda Flinn.
But if he didn't know Cerilda's given name, or surname, he would have missed out on this information. Before this search, he thought the name was Sirelda from another record. The Soundex search does not find the record with a given name of "Sirelda" because it works only on the surname. [As a side note, there are 31 "Cerilda" entries in this index! I've never heard the name before.]
I found this record just by happenstance. I put "Ben*" and "Reyn*" in the search box on the Ancestry main Search page. That gave me a long list of matches in different databases. When I clicked on the "Indiana Marriage Collection, 1800-1941" link, I found the record quickly. The search found the spouse's name in this search.
It is evident that the search box results for this specific database only finds the name in the "Name" column, not the "Spouse" column. The main Ancestry Search box finds both. I don't know if this holds for all databases or just this one. I tried more spouse's names in the database search box, and while many resulted in matches, some did not - I'm guessing 5% to 10% did not show up as a match.
The lessons here are:
* The Ancestry main search box may provide more matches than the specific database search box.
* Not all names of persons in a specific database are found by a search using "Given Name" and "Last Name" searches.
* In this specific database, some names of spouses are not included in the "Name" database - they apparently were not indexed.
* Searches in specific databases should include not only the search in the given name and last name boxes but should consider putting the target name in the "Spouse's Name" fields if that is available.
Is this www.Ancestry.com's fault? Maybe not, if they took the database from other sources (see above). Perhaps the WPA list did not include the name(s) missing from the "Name" column.
I am so spoiled by the availability of these databases with excellent indexes and search capabilities. If I don't find someone after I use all of my "tricks" to find them in an index, I often will assume that they aren't there. On census records, I have resorted to using spouse names when known, but I haven't used them on vital records indexes and other databases previously. I will now!
We need to remember that "Pobody is Nerfect." Not you, me, Ancestry, web sites, other researchers, etc.
However, sometimes there are flaws in the indexes, or in the data indexed. I pointed out flaws in the California Death Indexes here some time ago. Now I have found another.
Ancestry has a database called "Indiana Marriage Collection, 1800-1941." The Ancestry source description of this database says:
"Ancestry.com. Indiana Marriage Collection, 1800-1941 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2005. Original data:
* Works Progress Administration, comp. Index to Marriage Records Indiana: Indiana Works Progress Administration, 1938-1940.
* Jordan Dodd, Liahona Research, comp. Electronic transcription of marriage records held by the individual counties in Indiana. Many of these records are on microfilm at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah."
One of my colleagues was looking for a marriage of Benjamin Reynolds to Cerilda Flinn in Indiana in the 1860's. If he goes directly to this database (which is a logical thing to do), he gets the following results:
* If he searches for the name as "Benjamin" and "Reynolds" - he gets 7 matches, but none to Cerilda Flinn.
* If he searches for the name as "Benj" and "Reyn" - he gets 9 matches, but none to Cerilda Flinn.
* If he searches for the name as "Ben" and "Rey" - he gets the 10 matches, but none to Cerilda Flinn.
* If he searches for "B" and "Rey" - he gets 82 matches, but none to Cerilda Flinn.
* If he searches for "Cerilda" and "Flinn" - he gets 1 match for Cerilda J. Flinn married to Benjamin J. Reynolds on 22 Sep 1867 in Crawford County IN. The same match comes up if he uses wild cards for Cerilda.
* If he leaves the names blank and searches for the Spouse name of "Benj*" and "Reyn*" - he gets 10 matches including the one who married Cerilda Flinn.
But if he didn't know Cerilda's given name, or surname, he would have missed out on this information. Before this search, he thought the name was Sirelda from another record. The Soundex search does not find the record with a given name of "Sirelda" because it works only on the surname. [As a side note, there are 31 "Cerilda" entries in this index! I've never heard the name before.]
I found this record just by happenstance. I put "Ben*" and "Reyn*" in the search box on the Ancestry main Search page. That gave me a long list of matches in different databases. When I clicked on the "Indiana Marriage Collection, 1800-1941" link, I found the record quickly. The search found the spouse's name in this search.
It is evident that the search box results for this specific database only finds the name in the "Name" column, not the "Spouse" column. The main Ancestry Search box finds both. I don't know if this holds for all databases or just this one. I tried more spouse's names in the database search box, and while many resulted in matches, some did not - I'm guessing 5% to 10% did not show up as a match.
The lessons here are:
* The Ancestry main search box may provide more matches than the specific database search box.
* Not all names of persons in a specific database are found by a search using "Given Name" and "Last Name" searches.
* In this specific database, some names of spouses are not included in the "Name" database - they apparently were not indexed.
* Searches in specific databases should include not only the search in the given name and last name boxes but should consider putting the target name in the "Spouse's Name" fields if that is available.
Is this www.Ancestry.com's fault? Maybe not, if they took the database from other sources (see above). Perhaps the WPA list did not include the name(s) missing from the "Name" column.
I am so spoiled by the availability of these databases with excellent indexes and search capabilities. If I don't find someone after I use all of my "tricks" to find them in an index, I often will assume that they aren't there. On census records, I have resorted to using spouse names when known, but I haven't used them on vital records indexes and other databases previously. I will now!
We need to remember that "Pobody is Nerfect." Not you, me, Ancestry, web sites, other researchers, etc.
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Scanning a Photo Album
I've spent a good part of the day scanning individual photographs from my Aunt Gerry's collection. My goal is to provide a CDROM for my cousins with her photograph collection for Christmas. I have a good start on the loose photographs. I'm saving them as TIF files at 300 dpi and trying to label them by subject-date-location as best I can in the file name (which I can change easily later). Hopefully, I can put real captions on them digitally
somehow.
There are a few "new photos" for me - here is a picture of Gerry and her mother Bess getting off the train in San Diego just before my parents wedding in July 1942. From the left, the people are Lyle Carringer, Emily Carringer, Fred Seaver (my father), Dorothy Chamberlain (my father's cousin), Gerry Seaver (beaming at brother Fred), Bess (Richmond) Seaver (Fred and Gerry's mother), and Betty Carringer (my mother). Look at Fred's suit and the hats on all of the ladies - times have changed, haven't they?
somehow.
There are a few "new photos" for me - here is a picture of Gerry and her mother Bess getting off the train in San Diego just before my parents wedding in July 1942. From the left, the people are Lyle Carringer, Emily Carringer, Fred Seaver (my father), Dorothy Chamberlain (my father's cousin), Gerry Seaver (beaming at brother Fred), Bess (Richmond) Seaver (Fred and Gerry's mother), and Betty Carringer (my mother). Look at Fred's suit and the hats on all of the ladies - times have changed, haven't they?
My next problem is the photo album. It is a "magnetic album" with many photos pasted down and a clear sheet over them. The pasted down photos won't come off, of course, and I'm not going to try. Some photos overlap others. The clear sheet can be raised enough that I can get the pages down on the face of the scanner.
The album has a comb binding, so the pages can lay almost flat. My plan is to lay each page of the album on the scanner flatbed and scan the whole page and save it. Then I hope to use the photo editor to select each individual photo off the image of the album page one at a time and save them individually. There are many photos in this album without captions or dates, and I'm just going to identify them as "album-page01-photo001" unless I know who they are. There are about 16 pages in the album.
Has anyone done this sort of thing before? Any advice?
My next problem will be using software to caption the photos that I have. What do you recommend? I have Picasa and Microsoft digital Imaging on my computer and don't really want to buy more software. I've seen photos online with captions and labels and tags, but am confused by what there is and what would be best. What would work best on a CDROM with a PDF format or in a Powerpoint slide show? What do you recommend?
AncestryPress Webinar available
An AncestryPress webinar (WEB semINAR) was held on 1 November 2007. The webinar can be viewed by clicking the link at the AncestryPress blog post here - it's down at the bottom of the post by Stephanie Condie - a link labelled "clicking here." This webinar presentation will be available until 31 January 2008. You can download the presentation slides as a PDF file. The link to the summary page that starts the presentation, and the presentation itself, are not able to be copied.
AncestryPress books are described in the presentation as:
"Ancestry’s brand new online self-publishing application presents new ways to preserve, share and give your family’s history as a gift. It also presents plenty of new avenues to explore, and plenty of neat features to master. Please join us for a 30-minute online interactive presentation where you’ll learn how to:
* Build a book, or let AncestryPress build one for you from your online tree.
* Bring your book to life by adding photos, historical records, maps, postcards, newspaper clippings, family recipes and stories.
* Customize the look and feel of individual pages by choosing backgrounds and fonts and adding embellishments.
* Create custom family tree posters and photo pages that you can frame and share with everyone on your holiday gift list.
I posted about my AncestryPress experiences in "Using AncestryPress to Make a Book - Post 2.0" and "Using AncestryPress to Create a Book." I was not complimentary to the final product - it really didn't suit my needs. But I'm willing to be shown the error of my opinions...
The Webinar presentation is excellent. Stephanie Condie shows a beautiful coffee table type family history book with many family photos, some stock photos, document images, etc. Then she shows the process used to generate many of the pages. I can see how this product can be very useful as a family history book that provides significant information to living family members about their immediate ancestors for whom there are photographs.
They took several polls during the webinar where participants could respond to questions, and they showed the poll results a bit later. These charts are not in the downloadable presentation.
They took questions and answers in the last 15 minutes of the webinar. Stephanie said that the current format of the book could not word wrap from page to page - you have to build each page separately using cut-and-paste. That was my biggest complaint about AncestryPress, and I'm glad that she addressed it.
Another question concerned the four generation limitation for the charts and the book pages - they said that they were going to increase the number of generations eventually.
If AncestryPress is something you might be interested in, I encourage you to click the link in Stephanie's post and watch and listen to the presentation.
AncestryPress books are described in the presentation as:
"Ancestry’s brand new online self-publishing application presents new ways to preserve, share and give your family’s history as a gift. It also presents plenty of new avenues to explore, and plenty of neat features to master. Please join us for a 30-minute online interactive presentation where you’ll learn how to:
* Build a book, or let AncestryPress build one for you from your online tree.
* Bring your book to life by adding photos, historical records, maps, postcards, newspaper clippings, family recipes and stories.
* Customize the look and feel of individual pages by choosing backgrounds and fonts and adding embellishments.
* Create custom family tree posters and photo pages that you can frame and share with everyone on your holiday gift list.
I posted about my AncestryPress experiences in "Using AncestryPress to Make a Book - Post 2.0" and "Using AncestryPress to Create a Book." I was not complimentary to the final product - it really didn't suit my needs. But I'm willing to be shown the error of my opinions...
The Webinar presentation is excellent. Stephanie Condie shows a beautiful coffee table type family history book with many family photos, some stock photos, document images, etc. Then she shows the process used to generate many of the pages. I can see how this product can be very useful as a family history book that provides significant information to living family members about their immediate ancestors for whom there are photographs.
They took several polls during the webinar where participants could respond to questions, and they showed the poll results a bit later. These charts are not in the downloadable presentation.
They took questions and answers in the last 15 minutes of the webinar. Stephanie said that the current format of the book could not word wrap from page to page - you have to build each page separately using cut-and-paste. That was my biggest complaint about AncestryPress, and I'm glad that she addressed it.
Another question concerned the four generation limitation for the charts and the book pages - they said that they were going to increase the number of generations eventually.
If AncestryPress is something you might be interested in, I encourage you to click the link in Stephanie's post and watch and listen to the presentation.
Should I add images to my FTM and Ancestry databases?
I'm a bit old fashioned sometimes in that I don't take advantage of the latest technological innovations immediately. I still don't have a cell phone, don't have a digital videocam, don't upload videos to my computer, etc.
I don't have any images in my genealogy databases. No family photos, no census images, no passenger list images, no vital records certificates, no Bible page images, etc. I do have lots of those items, but I haven't uploaded any of them into my databases currently in FamilyTreeMaker or into my Member Trees on Ancestry.
Why? Because my "Master" genealogy database is already up to about 20 megabytes. If I added, say 100 images, to that database it might grow to be 80 megabytes.
If I want to use something like FTM or AncestryPress to make a book, I would want to add images. Since I have images for the last 4 or 5 generations, perhaps I should make a smaller database with only 5 generations (perhaps 1,000 people at most) and upload images for those people.
In the past, I have made genealogy reports in word processing format and added photos and images to that word processing file, then saved them as a PDF or other document, printed them out, put them on CDs, etc. This has worked pretty well for me.
How have other researchers handled this problem? What are the benefits of adding photos and images to your genealogy databases in your computer and online? What are the drawbacks? What is the most effective way to share photos and document images with your family members? I would appreciate comments to this post, or a blog post in response, to help me deal with this issue. Are there articles or blog posts available on the Internet that discuss this issue?
I don't have any images in my genealogy databases. No family photos, no census images, no passenger list images, no vital records certificates, no Bible page images, etc. I do have lots of those items, but I haven't uploaded any of them into my databases currently in FamilyTreeMaker or into my Member Trees on Ancestry.
Why? Because my "Master" genealogy database is already up to about 20 megabytes. If I added, say 100 images, to that database it might grow to be 80 megabytes.
If I want to use something like FTM or AncestryPress to make a book, I would want to add images. Since I have images for the last 4 or 5 generations, perhaps I should make a smaller database with only 5 generations (perhaps 1,000 people at most) and upload images for those people.
In the past, I have made genealogy reports in word processing format and added photos and images to that word processing file, then saved them as a PDF or other document, printed them out, put them on CDs, etc. This has worked pretty well for me.
How have other researchers handled this problem? What are the benefits of adding photos and images to your genealogy databases in your computer and online? What are the drawbacks? What is the most effective way to share photos and document images with your family members? I would appreciate comments to this post, or a blog post in response, to help me deal with this issue. Are there articles or blog posts available on the Internet that discuss this issue?
Monday, November 5, 2007
Della's Journal - Week 45 (November 5-11, 1929)
This is Installment 45 of the Journal of Della (Smith) Carringer (1862-1944), my great-grandmother, who resided at 2115 30th Street in San Diego in 1929.
The "players" and "setting" are described here. Pictures of some of the players are here. Last week's Journal entry is here.
Here is Week 45:
====================================
Tuesday, November 5: A[ustin] went to the dentice. Betty did not go to school but no worse. I sent for Prosperity Bank to put in $4.50 so to renew My Unity and Wee Wisdom to Betty & Hazel from Ma for this Xmas Present.
Wednesday, November 6: Ma washed, I trimmed tree by clothes line. Betty went to school. I ironed in P.M. Emily got me two hats $2.00. Fred & Jessie called.
Thursday, November 7: I went down deposited $20. of Girls rent (took out $5), Pd 178.70 1st Instal= on Co tax on lots 8 & 9 & where Ed lives. Got two little tacks @ 10c each, Ma shoe strings 10c, book stamps 25c, & face powder 10c.
Friday, November 8: I told Mrs. Wilson that I could not rent to her next month. She said it was all right. Miss Thoren & I rode down to see parade for Fox Theartre.
Saturday, November 9: Ed over, we worked in yard, transplanted General McArthur rose, divided it into four, Ed too one, I set out three. I trimmed tree at N. corner of house. A[ustin] got his teeth Fri[day] paid $10. Gave Ed a $10 check. His grapes carried him two months.
Sunday, November 10: We did not go any place. Lyle's worked at home.
Monday, November 11: Armistice Day. Ma & I went down to see the Parade. It was nice. Then we walked down to Mrs. Shures. Came home on #7 street car. Lyle's went to the new Fox Theartre. Will Rodgers Picture. Said it was good & the new Theartre very nice.
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This was a fairly un-newsworthy week. Della's already thinking about Christmas. They seem impressed by the new Fox Theater downtown (although Della can't spell it correctly). There has not been a word in the Journal about the stock market crash that occurred on 29 October 1929.
I wonder where Mrs. Shures lived? Perhaps north of Balboa Park. The #7 street car went up 12th Avenue pout of downtown onto Park Boulevard and then east on University Avenue. The #2 street car went east on Broadway out of downtown and then north on 30th Street. Della and her family lived right on the #2 street car route - I remember the tracks running down the middle of 30th when I was a boy.
The "players" and "setting" are described here. Pictures of some of the players are here. Last week's Journal entry is here.
Here is Week 45:
====================================
Tuesday, November 5: A[ustin] went to the dentice. Betty did not go to school but no worse. I sent for Prosperity Bank to put in $4.50 so to renew My Unity and Wee Wisdom to Betty & Hazel from Ma for this Xmas Present.
Wednesday, November 6: Ma washed, I trimmed tree by clothes line. Betty went to school. I ironed in P.M. Emily got me two hats $2.00. Fred & Jessie called.
Thursday, November 7: I went down deposited $20. of Girls rent (took out $5), Pd 178.70 1st Instal= on Co tax on lots 8 & 9 & where Ed lives. Got two little tacks @ 10c each, Ma shoe strings 10c, book stamps 25c, & face powder 10c.
Friday, November 8: I told Mrs. Wilson that I could not rent to her next month. She said it was all right. Miss Thoren & I rode down to see parade for Fox Theartre.
Saturday, November 9: Ed over, we worked in yard, transplanted General McArthur rose, divided it into four, Ed too one, I set out three. I trimmed tree at N. corner of house. A[ustin] got his teeth Fri[day] paid $10. Gave Ed a $10 check. His grapes carried him two months.
Sunday, November 10: We did not go any place. Lyle's worked at home.
Monday, November 11: Armistice Day. Ma & I went down to see the Parade. It was nice. Then we walked down to Mrs. Shures. Came home on #7 street car. Lyle's went to the new Fox Theartre. Will Rodgers Picture. Said it was good & the new Theartre very nice.
--------------------------------------
This was a fairly un-newsworthy week. Della's already thinking about Christmas. They seem impressed by the new Fox Theater downtown (although Della can't spell it correctly). There has not been a word in the Journal about the stock market crash that occurred on 29 October 1929.
I wonder where Mrs. Shures lived? Perhaps north of Balboa Park. The #7 street car went up 12th Avenue pout of downtown onto Park Boulevard and then east on University Avenue. The #2 street car went east on Broadway out of downtown and then north on 30th Street. Della and her family lived right on the #2 street car route - I remember the tracks running down the middle of 30th when I was a boy.
The First Genealogical Wave?
Megan Smolenyak has been on a genealogy cruise with 350 genealogists, and has what she thinks is the "first genealogical wave" on video at Roots Television. When I heard this, I thought "wow - a wave came over the ship and engulfed a bunch of genealogists" ... then I thought maybe they had everybody lined up at the rail waving goodbye to Megan or Dick Eastman or whoever. Well, I was wrong - you can see the wave here.
It took me three tries to understand what these folks were saying - it appears to be "Holy Jeans."
Why in the world would they do the wave and yell that? You would think they would have said "Hail Megan" or "Yay Dick" or "The Master Genealogist Rules." But no, they said "Holy Jeans."
Aha! Maybe it was "holy genes" - perhaps they had just seen a presentation about Biblical genealogy, or royal genealogy research. Were they worshipping some person named Jean? Or Gene? Or maybe two Jeans?
Then again, maybe I didn't get the context right - maybe it was "Hole-y jeans" meaning jeans with holes in them. If so, whose were they? Stone-died? Tie-washed? Blue?
Strange video - only 3 seconds. They need a little more explanation for us landlubbing genealogists. At least nobody shot the camera the bird - but how could you tell, it was only three seconds of video. And no one flashed the camera-man - I checked.
Couldn't we do this at a conference or in a stadium also? Will there now be contests at genealogy conferences to see who can get the biggest group of genealogists to shout something for the GeneaTube people?
UPDATE 7 PM: OK, I knew all along it was"Wholly Genes" but I thought somebody would appreciate my lame attempts at humor. However, nobody laughed except to think to themselves "he doesn't get it." Or worse! Of course, who would call a software company "Wholly Genes?" Sounds like a teenagers clothing outlet. Don't let me get started again. Get thee down irony, out satire, begone wit. Genealogists are supposed to be earnest, balanced and upright folks. Well, some of us are so tummy heavy we can't be balanced and upright for long. And don't call me Earnest. Nurse! Nurse! My jacket please - yes, the one that ties in the back. They're coming to take me away, ho ho, hee hee, ... I need a good genealogy puzzle to get back on track here, I guess. Dunham will probably ask us to find Jack Bauer's third mother-in-law's second husband's grand-nephew's third grade teacher's name. I pick Mary. I think he makes the puzzles up, frankly.
It took me three tries to understand what these folks were saying - it appears to be "Holy Jeans."
Why in the world would they do the wave and yell that? You would think they would have said "Hail Megan" or "Yay Dick" or "The Master Genealogist Rules." But no, they said "Holy Jeans."
Aha! Maybe it was "holy genes" - perhaps they had just seen a presentation about Biblical genealogy, or royal genealogy research. Were they worshipping some person named Jean? Or Gene? Or maybe two Jeans?
Then again, maybe I didn't get the context right - maybe it was "Hole-y jeans" meaning jeans with holes in them. If so, whose were they? Stone-died? Tie-washed? Blue?
Strange video - only 3 seconds. They need a little more explanation for us landlubbing genealogists. At least nobody shot the camera the bird - but how could you tell, it was only three seconds of video. And no one flashed the camera-man - I checked.
Couldn't we do this at a conference or in a stadium also? Will there now be contests at genealogy conferences to see who can get the biggest group of genealogists to shout something for the GeneaTube people?
UPDATE 7 PM: OK, I knew all along it was"Wholly Genes" but I thought somebody would appreciate my lame attempts at humor. However, nobody laughed except to think to themselves "he doesn't get it." Or worse! Of course, who would call a software company "Wholly Genes?" Sounds like a teenagers clothing outlet. Don't let me get started again. Get thee down irony, out satire, begone wit. Genealogists are supposed to be earnest, balanced and upright folks. Well, some of us are so tummy heavy we can't be balanced and upright for long. And don't call me Earnest. Nurse! Nurse! My jacket please - yes, the one that ties in the back. They're coming to take me away, ho ho, hee hee, ... I need a good genealogy puzzle to get back on track here, I guess. Dunham will probably ask us to find Jack Bauer's third mother-in-law's second husband's grand-nephew's third grade teacher's name. I pick Mary. I think he makes the puzzles up, frankly.
William Hutchi(n)son (1745-1826) Family History - Post 2
William Hutchi(n)son (born ca 1745 NJ, died 1826 Ontario) has been one of my stoutest brick wall ancestors for many years. I found several references to him in the various books about Loyalists who settled in New Brunswick and Ontario, but had not found real "human interest" stories for the family history book.
My first post about my 5th great-grandfather William Hutchi(n)son is here.
Thanks to Bev Franks in her WorldConnect database, there are quite a few stories for me to pass on to the family. Here is one of the stories from: E.A. Owen, "Pioneer Sketches of Long Point Settlement," published by Briggs, Coates and Huestis. Wesley Buildings. Toronto, 1898. This is a series of historical sketches, genealogies and essays which tell the story of pioneer life in the early days of Long Point Settlement, and depict the character and life work of the first cabin-builders. Pages 207-210:
-------------------------------------
"A Jolly Pioneer":
"CAPTAIN WILLIAM HUTCHINSON was one of Walsingham's jolliest old U. E. Loyalist pioneers. At repartee he had no equal among them. If he was not an Irishman, he was certainly equal to one in the large vocabulary of witticisms which he was able to command at all times and on all occasions. He was a tobacco chewer, and on one occasion Squire Backhouse lectured him in court for it. The Squire was very much opposed to the habit, and he told Mr. Hutchinson that tobacco chewing was a nasty, dirty, filthy habit, and that he ought to be ashamed of himself for indulging in it. "Yes," rejoined Hutchinson, "it is a n-a-s-t-y, d-i-r-t-y, f-i-l-t-h-y habit, and I am ashamed of it, but, your honor, it is the only one of which you are not guilty."
"Captain Hutchinson's home was in New Jersey, that little state whence came so many of our old pioneers. When the war of the Revolution broke out he remained loyal, and allied himself with the British army and did some good work as a scout. His military services were varied; and many stories are told of thrilling adventures and narrow escapes experienced by him during the war. On one occasion a scouting party to which he was attached was pressed into close quarters by a strong detachment of the rebel forces. Under the spur of the moment they secreted themselves in a clump of bushes, and the enemy passed so close to them that they could actually look into their faces and hear every word they uttered while passing.
"William Hutchinson was a widower at the close of the war, and in common with all the U. E. Loyalists, he found it necessary either to leave the country or swear allegiance to the new Republic. The latter he could never do, and so he fled to St. John, New Brunswick, where he married his second wife. In 1798, he came to Long Point with his family, and settled in Walsingham, near the Hazen settlement. His family consisted of five sons--Alexander, James, David, Joseph and George; and three daughters--Mary Jane, Elizabeth and Catherine.
"William Hutchinson was sworn in as a Justice of the Peace, and sat on the Bench as Associate Justice in the early years of the old Quarter Sessions at Turkey Point. He sat as Judge, or Chairman, pro tem, at a session during the June term, 1804; and in March, 1809, he was elected Chairman of the Court, succeeding Thomas Walsh, Esq. In 1804, he was made Associate Justice for the
Court of Request for Walsingham, and was reappointed for the same position in the following year."
------------------------------
This book covers his RevWar exploits less than Part 1, but has more background on William's life in Walsingham in Norfolk County, Ontario. The article includes a description of the children of William and Catherine (Lewis) Hutchinson. I posted what it said about Mary Jane Hutchinson, one of my 4th great grandmothers, here.
My first post about my 5th great-grandfather William Hutchi(n)son is here.
Thanks to Bev Franks in her WorldConnect database, there are quite a few stories for me to pass on to the family. Here is one of the stories from: E.A. Owen, "Pioneer Sketches of Long Point Settlement," published by Briggs, Coates and Huestis. Wesley Buildings. Toronto, 1898. This is a series of historical sketches, genealogies and essays which tell the story of pioneer life in the early days of Long Point Settlement, and depict the character and life work of the first cabin-builders. Pages 207-210:
-------------------------------------
"A Jolly Pioneer":
"CAPTAIN WILLIAM HUTCHINSON was one of Walsingham's jolliest old U. E. Loyalist pioneers. At repartee he had no equal among them. If he was not an Irishman, he was certainly equal to one in the large vocabulary of witticisms which he was able to command at all times and on all occasions. He was a tobacco chewer, and on one occasion Squire Backhouse lectured him in court for it. The Squire was very much opposed to the habit, and he told Mr. Hutchinson that tobacco chewing was a nasty, dirty, filthy habit, and that he ought to be ashamed of himself for indulging in it. "Yes," rejoined Hutchinson, "it is a n-a-s-t-y, d-i-r-t-y, f-i-l-t-h-y habit, and I am ashamed of it, but, your honor, it is the only one of which you are not guilty."
"Captain Hutchinson's home was in New Jersey, that little state whence came so many of our old pioneers. When the war of the Revolution broke out he remained loyal, and allied himself with the British army and did some good work as a scout. His military services were varied; and many stories are told of thrilling adventures and narrow escapes experienced by him during the war. On one occasion a scouting party to which he was attached was pressed into close quarters by a strong detachment of the rebel forces. Under the spur of the moment they secreted themselves in a clump of bushes, and the enemy passed so close to them that they could actually look into their faces and hear every word they uttered while passing.
"William Hutchinson was a widower at the close of the war, and in common with all the U. E. Loyalists, he found it necessary either to leave the country or swear allegiance to the new Republic. The latter he could never do, and so he fled to St. John, New Brunswick, where he married his second wife. In 1798, he came to Long Point with his family, and settled in Walsingham, near the Hazen settlement. His family consisted of five sons--Alexander, James, David, Joseph and George; and three daughters--Mary Jane, Elizabeth and Catherine.
"William Hutchinson was sworn in as a Justice of the Peace, and sat on the Bench as Associate Justice in the early years of the old Quarter Sessions at Turkey Point. He sat as Judge, or Chairman, pro tem, at a session during the June term, 1804; and in March, 1809, he was elected Chairman of the Court, succeeding Thomas Walsh, Esq. In 1804, he was made Associate Justice for the
Court of Request for Walsingham, and was reappointed for the same position in the following year."
------------------------------
This book covers his RevWar exploits less than Part 1, but has more background on William's life in Walsingham in Norfolk County, Ontario. The article includes a description of the children of William and Catherine (Lewis) Hutchinson. I posted what it said about Mary Jane Hutchinson, one of my 4th great grandmothers, here.
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Best of the Genea-Blogs - Week of October 28 to November 3
Here are my picks for great reads from the genealogy blogs for this past week. My criteria are pretty simple - I like posts that advance knowledge about genealogy, or are funny and/or poignant. I don't list posts destined for the Carnival of Genealogy, or my own posts (hopefully, others will do that!).
* "Using Ancestry: Census Searching Reminders" by Michael John Nell, posted on the 24/7 Family History Circle blog. Michael has excellent tips for finding your elusive ancestor in the census indexes on Ancestry.com. Read the comments too.
* "DNA Analysis of 5 People Who Helped Create America" by Blaine Bettinger on The Genetic Genealogist blog. Franklin, Jefferson, the Adams, Hamilton, and Lincoln DNAnalyzed a bit. Intriguing.
* "How to Innovate and Change the World" by Whitney Ransom on the WorldVitalRecords blog. This is a summary of a lecture she attended by Guy Kawasaki with the same title. Whitney then applies the techniques to WVR. Unfortunately, she missed points 1 and 2. Interesting advice. Does it apply to genealogy blogs?
* "Great Colonial Hurricane of 1635" by Lori Thornton on the Smoky Mountain Family Historian Blog. Lori found several descriptions of the hurricane of 1635 that thrashed the Northeast.
* "Can Kalonji get his Sons of the Confederacy Membership? Maybe DNA Can Help" by Taneya on Taneya's Genealogy Blog. I thought that this was the best post for the Carnival of Genealogy on DNA. It combines family stories and traditional genealogy research techniques to figure out how to use DNA to prove a patrilineal ancestry. I know I'm violating my rule, but it's my blog.
* "FamilySearch vs. Ancestry.com" at the Ancestry Insider blog. Someone may know who this blogger is, but s/he's not telling. Even more interesting are the comments - especially the discussion the costs and benefits of new database content, and how it affects subscription prices.
* "My Ghost Story" by Renee Zamora on Renee's Genealogy Blog. This was the best genealogy Hallowe'en story of the week. Ever had this feeling?
Those are my "best of" for the week - I hope you enjoy them, and learn from them, asm uch as I did.
* "Using Ancestry: Census Searching Reminders" by Michael John Nell, posted on the 24/7 Family History Circle blog. Michael has excellent tips for finding your elusive ancestor in the census indexes on Ancestry.com. Read the comments too.
* "DNA Analysis of 5 People Who Helped Create America" by Blaine Bettinger on The Genetic Genealogist blog. Franklin, Jefferson, the Adams, Hamilton, and Lincoln DNAnalyzed a bit. Intriguing.
* "How to Innovate and Change the World" by Whitney Ransom on the WorldVitalRecords blog. This is a summary of a lecture she attended by Guy Kawasaki with the same title. Whitney then applies the techniques to WVR. Unfortunately, she missed points 1 and 2. Interesting advice. Does it apply to genealogy blogs?
* "Great Colonial Hurricane of 1635" by Lori Thornton on the Smoky Mountain Family Historian Blog. Lori found several descriptions of the hurricane of 1635 that thrashed the Northeast.
* "Can Kalonji get his Sons of the Confederacy Membership? Maybe DNA Can Help" by Taneya on Taneya's Genealogy Blog. I thought that this was the best post for the Carnival of Genealogy on DNA. It combines family stories and traditional genealogy research techniques to figure out how to use DNA to prove a patrilineal ancestry. I know I'm violating my rule, but it's my blog.
* "FamilySearch vs. Ancestry.com" at the Ancestry Insider blog. Someone may know who this blogger is, but s/he's not telling. Even more interesting are the comments - especially the discussion the costs and benefits of new database content, and how it affects subscription prices.
* "My Ghost Story" by Renee Zamora on Renee's Genealogy Blog. This was the best genealogy Hallowe'en story of the week. Ever had this feeling?
Those are my "best of" for the week - I hope you enjoy them, and learn from them, asm uch as I did.
35th Carnival of Genealogy is Online - a must read!
The topic for the 35th Carnival of Genealogy was "Do you have a family mystery that might be solved by DNA?" Blaine Bettinger at The Genetic Genealogist blog offered to analyze a submitted post for questions or family mysteries that might be solved using genetic genealogy.
Blaine really did a great job with this Carnival - it is posted at http://www.thegeneticgenealogist.com/2007/11/04/carnival-of-genealogy-35th-edition/. There were 19 submissions by bloggers about DNA analysis, plus two concerning bio-ethics. Blaine's analysis of each post was excellent.
My submission was "Ancestral Clues from DNA Studies." Blaine neatly summarized my meanderings with "Although a Y-DNA test only reveals a tiny portion of your ancestry, why stop with a single Y-DNA test? Why not test your other male lines? Randy points out that this has its own challenges (extensive paper trail research, finding people who will undergo testing, finding someone to pay for it!), but it can be well worth the effort."
If this subject interests you, please take the time to read the Carnival post and every post in the Carnival. They are all good!
The next edition of the Carnival of Genealogy will be a “carousel” edition. Just like carousels have a variety of animal figures on the ride so too will the next edition of the COG have different topics. All topics (genealogy-related of course!) are welcome. Submit any article you’d like. This edition will be hosted by Jasia on the Creative Gene blog. The deadline for submissions is November 15.
Please submit your blog article to the next edition of the Carnival of Genealogy using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.
Blaine really did a great job with this Carnival - it is posted at http://www.thegeneticgenealogist.com/2007/11/04/carnival-of-genealogy-35th-edition/. There were 19 submissions by bloggers about DNA analysis, plus two concerning bio-ethics. Blaine's analysis of each post was excellent.
My submission was "Ancestral Clues from DNA Studies." Blaine neatly summarized my meanderings with "Although a Y-DNA test only reveals a tiny portion of your ancestry, why stop with a single Y-DNA test? Why not test your other male lines? Randy points out that this has its own challenges (extensive paper trail research, finding people who will undergo testing, finding someone to pay for it!), but it can be well worth the effort."
If this subject interests you, please take the time to read the Carnival post and every post in the Carnival. They are all good!
The next edition of the Carnival of Genealogy will be a “carousel” edition. Just like carousels have a variety of animal figures on the ride so too will the next edition of the COG have different topics. All topics (genealogy-related of course!) are welcome. Submit any article you’d like. This edition will be hosted by Jasia on the Creative Gene blog. The deadline for submissions is November 15.
Please submit your blog article to the next edition of the Carnival of Genealogy using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.
James H. Remley (1911-2007)
This obituary appeared in the 4 November 2007 edition of the Boston Globe (posted on www.legacy.com here):
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"Passed away at Maine General Rehabilitation and Nursing Care at Gray Birch in Augusta on Nov. 1, 2007, at the age of 95. He was born Jan. 21, 1912, to Sarah Ellen and Frederick Lloyd Remley of New Castle, Pa., the town in which he grew up. His entire career was devoted to music education. He graduated from Indiana State Teachers College in Indiana, Pa., with a bachelors degree in music in 1933 and received a masters degree from New York University in 1938.
"He taught music in several Pennsylvania school systems and finally accepted the call to be supervisor of music in the Newton (Massachusetts) Public Schools in 1940, from which he retired in 1970. He was instrumental in establishing a for-credit music curriculum in the schools that received national attention. In addition to his school activities, he directed local choral groups and church choirs and was invited to direct All-State Choruses in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Long Island. He was a part-time faculty member at New England Conservatory of Music in Boston and Lasell Junior College in Newton. He inspired both students and adults with his conducting skills, charisma, and passion for music.
"He married Inez Virginia Hysong in 1938. They were parents to Virginia Elaine (Perachio), Sarah Jane (Southmayd), and James Howard Jr. Inez died in 1969. In 1970 he married Geraldine Seaver who preceded him in death on April 26, 2007. He is survived by his three children, all of whom attended the Newton Public Schools, (listed above); their spouses, Adrian A. Perachio, Willliam W. Southmayd, and Deborah M. Remley; seven grandchildren, Nancy Alice Perachio Clough, Elise Virginia Perachio, Daniel, Glenn Christopher Perachio, Susan Remley Southmayd, David Webster Southmayd, Katherine Inez Remley, and Lauren Elizabeth Remley; and three great-grandchildren, Madison Ann Southmayd, Kyle William Southmayd, and Carson James Perachio.
"The family wishes to recognize and thank the kind souls at Granite Hill Estates, Maine General Medical Center, and Maine General Rehabilitation and Nursing Care at Gray Birch for their care and devotion during their fathers last months of life. Anyone wishing to honor his lifelong commitment to music may contribute to the Lasell College Annual Fund (in memory of James H. Remley), 1844 Commonwealth Ave., Newton, MA 02466. Those wishing to commemorate his longtime and beloved summer residency on Lake Cobbosseecontee may contribute to the Friends of Cobbossee, P.O. Box 5003, Augusta, ME 04332. Services and burial will be private. "Music hath no other end than the glory of God and the recreation of the soul". J.S. Bach. "
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Isn't that a wonderful obituary? I know that Jim's children and grandchildren were very proud of their father's accomplishments and the life he had lived.
Here is a photo of Gerry and Jim Remley on their wedding day in 1970:
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"Passed away at Maine General Rehabilitation and Nursing Care at Gray Birch in Augusta on Nov. 1, 2007, at the age of 95. He was born Jan. 21, 1912, to Sarah Ellen and Frederick Lloyd Remley of New Castle, Pa., the town in which he grew up. His entire career was devoted to music education. He graduated from Indiana State Teachers College in Indiana, Pa., with a bachelors degree in music in 1933 and received a masters degree from New York University in 1938.
"He taught music in several Pennsylvania school systems and finally accepted the call to be supervisor of music in the Newton (Massachusetts) Public Schools in 1940, from which he retired in 1970. He was instrumental in establishing a for-credit music curriculum in the schools that received national attention. In addition to his school activities, he directed local choral groups and church choirs and was invited to direct All-State Choruses in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Long Island. He was a part-time faculty member at New England Conservatory of Music in Boston and Lasell Junior College in Newton. He inspired both students and adults with his conducting skills, charisma, and passion for music.
"He married Inez Virginia Hysong in 1938. They were parents to Virginia Elaine (Perachio), Sarah Jane (Southmayd), and James Howard Jr. Inez died in 1969. In 1970 he married Geraldine Seaver who preceded him in death on April 26, 2007. He is survived by his three children, all of whom attended the Newton Public Schools, (listed above); their spouses, Adrian A. Perachio, Willliam W. Southmayd, and Deborah M. Remley; seven grandchildren, Nancy Alice Perachio Clough, Elise Virginia Perachio, Daniel, Glenn Christopher Perachio, Susan Remley Southmayd, David Webster Southmayd, Katherine Inez Remley, and Lauren Elizabeth Remley; and three great-grandchildren, Madison Ann Southmayd, Kyle William Southmayd, and Carson James Perachio.
"The family wishes to recognize and thank the kind souls at Granite Hill Estates, Maine General Medical Center, and Maine General Rehabilitation and Nursing Care at Gray Birch for their care and devotion during their fathers last months of life. Anyone wishing to honor his lifelong commitment to music may contribute to the Lasell College Annual Fund (in memory of James H. Remley), 1844 Commonwealth Ave., Newton, MA 02466. Those wishing to commemorate his longtime and beloved summer residency on Lake Cobbosseecontee may contribute to the Friends of Cobbossee, P.O. Box 5003, Augusta, ME 04332. Services and burial will be private. "Music hath no other end than the glory of God and the recreation of the soul". J.S. Bach. "
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Isn't that a wonderful obituary? I know that Jim's children and grandchildren were very proud of their father's accomplishments and the life he had lived.
Here is a photo of Gerry and Jim Remley on their wedding day in 1970:
Saturday, November 3, 2007
Passing the torch to the next generation
My father was born in 1911, the fifth of seven children born to Fred and alma Bessie (Richmond) Seaver. Six of them lived to adulthood and married. Five of them had children of their own. The youngest child was Geraldine Seaver, who married in 1970 to James Howard Remley, a widower. Aunt Gerry passed away in late April, and I memorialized her here and here.
Jim Remley died on 1 November at the retirement home where he lived near Augusta ME. He was almost 96. He had a son, two daughters, and seven grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren if I remember right.
Jim was a lot of fun to be with. He loved his family, and enjoyed hearing about our family. He told good stories, and had a lot of wisdom to dispense. I loved Jim. Not just because Gerry had loved, married and cared for him as they grew older, but because he was such a gentle, happy and kind man.
Our best memory of Jim and Gerry was the family trip we took to New England in 1982. Our girls were 8 and 5 years old, and loved visiting places, exploring and trying new things. Going to visit Jim and Gerry at their summer cabin in the Maine woods on Lake Cobboseccontee (about a mile from the road on a dirt road) was the highlight of a wonderful vacation. The girls took to Jim right away - they went digging for worms in the woods, they went fishing off the dock on the lake, and went for boat rides to the store at the end of the lake, where he bought them treats. One night, they splurged (and went shopping) and brought live Maine lobsters to the cabin and the girls played with them (carefully!) on the floor before they went to their steamy reward. Jim and Gerry were really special people to our family.
About ten years ago, Jim asked me if I could find anything out about his family. He told me the basics about his parents and grandparents that he knew from the family papers, but wondered where the Remley name came from. I jumped to the task and quickly found information on his ancestors, and took several lines back into the late 1700's. The Remely immigrant came into eastern PA in about 1750 as I recall. I wrote up what I had and sent it to him, and he passed copies to his children. We got to know all three of his children over time, and they really appreciated what I found out and passed around. I'm so glad I did that.
Jim was the last of the "11th generation" of the Seaver family (counting from the immigrant Robert Seaver who came to Roxbury MA in 1634, and including spouses in the generation). It was fittingly called the "greatest generation" in popular books and media. I'm not sure that that generation was "greater" than the generation that fought and won the Revolutionary War, but that's a minor quibble.
Now the family torch has been passed from their generation to the "12th generation" - my generation, and that of my 2 brothers and 8 first cousins. We range in age from 52 to 81, and we have 21 children between us, scattered across the country living productive lives.
I'm feeling a bit older now - I'm officially in the "elder" class now in my extended family. I'm supposed to be noble, wise, fun, and happy. Right now, I'm just sort of sad. I'm also very thankful for Jim and his life. Thank you, Lord, for Uncle Jim.
Jim Remley died on 1 November at the retirement home where he lived near Augusta ME. He was almost 96. He had a son, two daughters, and seven grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren if I remember right.
Jim was a lot of fun to be with. He loved his family, and enjoyed hearing about our family. He told good stories, and had a lot of wisdom to dispense. I loved Jim. Not just because Gerry had loved, married and cared for him as they grew older, but because he was such a gentle, happy and kind man.
Our best memory of Jim and Gerry was the family trip we took to New England in 1982. Our girls were 8 and 5 years old, and loved visiting places, exploring and trying new things. Going to visit Jim and Gerry at their summer cabin in the Maine woods on Lake Cobboseccontee (about a mile from the road on a dirt road) was the highlight of a wonderful vacation. The girls took to Jim right away - they went digging for worms in the woods, they went fishing off the dock on the lake, and went for boat rides to the store at the end of the lake, where he bought them treats. One night, they splurged (and went shopping) and brought live Maine lobsters to the cabin and the girls played with them (carefully!) on the floor before they went to their steamy reward. Jim and Gerry were really special people to our family.
About ten years ago, Jim asked me if I could find anything out about his family. He told me the basics about his parents and grandparents that he knew from the family papers, but wondered where the Remley name came from. I jumped to the task and quickly found information on his ancestors, and took several lines back into the late 1700's. The Remely immigrant came into eastern PA in about 1750 as I recall. I wrote up what I had and sent it to him, and he passed copies to his children. We got to know all three of his children over time, and they really appreciated what I found out and passed around. I'm so glad I did that.
Jim was the last of the "11th generation" of the Seaver family (counting from the immigrant Robert Seaver who came to Roxbury MA in 1634, and including spouses in the generation). It was fittingly called the "greatest generation" in popular books and media. I'm not sure that that generation was "greater" than the generation that fought and won the Revolutionary War, but that's a minor quibble.
Now the family torch has been passed from their generation to the "12th generation" - my generation, and that of my 2 brothers and 8 first cousins. We range in age from 52 to 81, and we have 21 children between us, scattered across the country living productive lives.
I'm feeling a bit older now - I'm officially in the "elder" class now in my extended family. I'm supposed to be noble, wise, fun, and happy. Right now, I'm just sort of sad. I'm also very thankful for Jim and his life. Thank you, Lord, for Uncle Jim.
The American Genealogist - January 2007 Issue
The January 2007 issue (published September 2007) of The American Genealogist (TAG) arrived yesterday, accompanied by the index for the 2006 issues. This is Volume 82, Number 1, Whole Number 325.
Here is the Table of Contents:
* "Ryurik and the First Ryurkids: Context, Problems, Sources, by Norman W. Ingham and Christian Raffensperger - page 1
* "Legalities and Stubbornness" - page 13
* "The Two Bad Marriages of Ruth Aldridge of Smithfield, Rhode Island " by Richard H. Benson - page 14
* "On the Supposed Royal Ancestry of John ap Edward, Evan ap Edward, and William ap Edward of Pennsylvania" by Stewart Baldwin - page 17
* "'Aye, But'" - page 31
* "The English Origin of John Baisey/Baysey of Hartford, Connecticut: Cousin of the Olmstead Family of Hartford" by Leslie Mahler - page 32
* "Much Demented - or Lamented" - page 38
* "Anthony and Grace (---) (Hall) White of Watertown, Massachusetts" by Glade Ian Nelson - page 39
* "Card-Playing and 'The Corrupting of Truth' " - page 48
* "Enigmas #23: Was Capt. Rufus Gardner of New London, Connecticut, a Son of Capt. Christopher Gardner of south Kingstown, Rhode Island" by Roger D. Joslyn - page 49
* "Of Nightgowns and Childish Misapprehensions" - page 62
* "The English Origin of William Dudley of Guilford, Connecticut" by Martin E. Hollick - page 63
* "Theatrical (and Ecclesiastical) Skullduggery" - page 75
* "One Wife Too Many? Two Wives Too Many? 'How It Is and How It Was' " by Ronald A. Hill - page 76
* "Editorial Notes and Observations: Church records; 'Modified Register' or 'NGSQ Style'?; Congratulations to Joe Anderson; The 2006 index and contents." - page 78
* "Book Reviews" - page 80
The book reviews were for:
* "Descendants of John Cox of Abington, Indiana, and Joseph Cox of Hampton, Illinois" by Ruth Ann Hicks and William Jerome Utermohlen (Rockland, Maine, Penobscot Press, 2007).
* "The Genealogist's Address Book: Listing More than 28,000 Organizations Worldwide," compiled by Elizabeth Petty Bentley, edition 5.3, PDF format on CD-ROM (Woodsboro, Md., Bentley Enterprises, 2006).
TAG is my favorite genealogy journal because it has more articles about my New England ancestral families than any other periodical, even the NEHGR. It has the occasional article on medieval genealogy (this issue it's about the early Rus people), Royal ancestry, studies of enigmas, English origins, and the short filler pieces that are often humorous or at least strange.
TAG is a stand-alone publication, not affiliated with a genealogy society or commercial company. The editors are David L. Greene, Robert Charles Anderson and Josepg C. Anderson, who are all Fellows of the American Society of Genealogists - a select group!
Here is the Table of Contents:
* "Ryurik and the First Ryurkids: Context, Problems, Sources, by Norman W. Ingham and Christian Raffensperger - page 1
* "Legalities and Stubbornness" - page 13
* "The Two Bad Marriages of Ruth Aldridge of Smithfield, Rhode Island " by Richard H. Benson - page 14
* "On the Supposed Royal Ancestry of John ap Edward, Evan ap Edward, and William ap Edward of Pennsylvania" by Stewart Baldwin - page 17
* "'Aye, But'" - page 31
* "The English Origin of John Baisey/Baysey of Hartford, Connecticut: Cousin of the Olmstead Family of Hartford" by Leslie Mahler - page 32
* "Much Demented - or Lamented" - page 38
* "Anthony and Grace (---) (Hall) White of Watertown, Massachusetts" by Glade Ian Nelson - page 39
* "Card-Playing and 'The Corrupting of Truth' " - page 48
* "Enigmas #23: Was Capt. Rufus Gardner of New London, Connecticut, a Son of Capt. Christopher Gardner of south Kingstown, Rhode Island" by Roger D. Joslyn - page 49
* "Of Nightgowns and Childish Misapprehensions" - page 62
* "The English Origin of William Dudley of Guilford, Connecticut" by Martin E. Hollick - page 63
* "Theatrical (and Ecclesiastical) Skullduggery" - page 75
* "One Wife Too Many? Two Wives Too Many? 'How It Is and How It Was' " by Ronald A. Hill - page 76
* "Editorial Notes and Observations: Church records; 'Modified Register' or 'NGSQ Style'?; Congratulations to Joe Anderson; The 2006 index and contents." - page 78
* "Book Reviews" - page 80
The book reviews were for:
* "Descendants of John Cox of Abington, Indiana, and Joseph Cox of Hampton, Illinois" by Ruth Ann Hicks and William Jerome Utermohlen (Rockland, Maine, Penobscot Press, 2007).
* "The Genealogist's Address Book: Listing More than 28,000 Organizations Worldwide," compiled by Elizabeth Petty Bentley, edition 5.3, PDF format on CD-ROM (Woodsboro, Md., Bentley Enterprises, 2006).
TAG is my favorite genealogy journal because it has more articles about my New England ancestral families than any other periodical, even the NEHGR. It has the occasional article on medieval genealogy (this issue it's about the early Rus people), Royal ancestry, studies of enigmas, English origins, and the short filler pieces that are often humorous or at least strange.
TAG is a stand-alone publication, not affiliated with a genealogy society or commercial company. The editors are David L. Greene, Robert Charles Anderson and Josepg C. Anderson, who are all Fellows of the American Society of Genealogists - a select group!
What does this mean?
I got an email from Ancestry.com with the subject "New content has been added to your family tree." The body of the email said:
"Randy,
Our family tree is growing.
2 people have been added:
Unknown
Check out all the new updates or add your own memories "
So I clicked on the two links and both took me to my Ancestry account and showed me data for "Unknown," who was the third wife of Robert Seaver (1608-1683) whose name I don't know, and also to my own name at the "Check out all ..." link. Huh?
I uploaded my 20,000 name master database to Ancestry yesterday as a Private Member Tree because I wanted to work more in the AncestryPress feature and to find more famous relatives. The only way I could do that was to have my people in an Ancestry database that can be matched to someone in the OneWorldTree database, which includes the famous people.
I'm wondering why I got only two links in the email? I guess I'm glad I didn't get 20,000 links! Will I get new links every time I add someone to my database?
I'm conflicted about making my databases into Public Member Trees. The databases include all of my research notes and research plans. The names, dates, places and relationships are not sourced as Facts, but there are sources in my Notes. I am willing to share my genealogy data but not the real fruit of my labor - the research notes, at least at this time.
I guess I could make a GEDCOM without the Notes and upload that into a Public Member Tree and submit it to WorldConnect. That at least would make my data available to other researchers. It might also overload my email inbox with messages from other researchers.
"Randy,
Our family tree is growing.
2 people have been added:
Unknown
Check out all the new updates or add your own memories "
So I clicked on the two links and both took me to my Ancestry account and showed me data for "Unknown," who was the third wife of Robert Seaver (1608-1683) whose name I don't know, and also to my own name at the "Check out all ..." link. Huh?
I uploaded my 20,000 name master database to Ancestry yesterday as a Private Member Tree because I wanted to work more in the AncestryPress feature and to find more famous relatives. The only way I could do that was to have my people in an Ancestry database that can be matched to someone in the OneWorldTree database, which includes the famous people.
I'm wondering why I got only two links in the email? I guess I'm glad I didn't get 20,000 links! Will I get new links every time I add someone to my database?
I'm conflicted about making my databases into Public Member Trees. The databases include all of my research notes and research plans. The names, dates, places and relationships are not sourced as Facts, but there are sources in my Notes. I am willing to share my genealogy data but not the real fruit of my labor - the research notes, at least at this time.
I guess I could make a GEDCOM without the Notes and upload that into a Public Member Tree and submit it to WorldConnect. That at least would make my data available to other researchers. It might also overload my email inbox with messages from other researchers.
Seminal Dates in English Genealogy
The Family Research - English, Scottish and Irish Genealogy blog always has interesting posts and links. Today, one of them is to a web page titled "A Millennium of Records, Seminal Dates in English Genealogy" by Roy Stockdill, written in 2004. The page is at http://www.archivecdbooks.org/resources/info/sdates.html
There is also a link to the article "The Newbies Guide to Genealogy & Family History" by Roy Stockdill at http://www.genuki.org.uk/gs/Newbie.html.
Both of these pages are very helpful to researchers interested but inexperienced in English genealogy, like me. I've added them to my Favorites list.
There is also a link to the article "The Newbies Guide to Genealogy & Family History" by Roy Stockdill at http://www.genuki.org.uk/gs/Newbie.html.
Both of these pages are very helpful to researchers interested but inexperienced in English genealogy, like me. I've added them to my Favorites list.
Friday, November 2, 2007
FTM 2008 Webinar Available
A Webinar (a WEB semINAR) was held on Thursday, 25 October at 8:30 EDT to demonstrate FamilyTreeMaker 2008 and answer questions the attendees had concerning FTM 2008. The Ancestry.com Blog post with the link into the Webinar is at http://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry/2007/10/31/event-archive-now-available/.
You can watch and hear this webinar until sometime in early 2008 (I saw the date but can't find it now!). You do have to register your name and email to watch the demonstration. The total time is just over 1 hour.
There is a Powerpoint style presentation with over 140 slides, most of them screen shots showing how FTM 2008 works and the different menus, tabs and options. You hear the lecture but don't see the speakers. You can download the presentation to your computer (13.4 mb).
After viewing the webinar, I have a much better understanding of the capabilities and features are of FTM 2008. I understand why they had to build a new version. Some of the features, especially the maps and web integration are pretty cool (assuming you have a fast Internet connection and an Ancestry subscription, of course).
They answer some common questions at the beginning of the presentation, and then answer questions from webinar participants at the end (you hear the question and response - no visuals).
I encourage anyone interested in genealogy software to spend the hour to register, connect, listen and watch the webinar.
I downloaded the slides so that I can show a few of them to the curious members in our society. This would be a great society presentation for FamilyTreeMaker to take on the road. Wanna come to Chula Vista - it's warm in the winter!
You can watch and hear this webinar until sometime in early 2008 (I saw the date but can't find it now!). You do have to register your name and email to watch the demonstration. The total time is just over 1 hour.
There is a Powerpoint style presentation with over 140 slides, most of them screen shots showing how FTM 2008 works and the different menus, tabs and options. You hear the lecture but don't see the speakers. You can download the presentation to your computer (13.4 mb).
After viewing the webinar, I have a much better understanding of the capabilities and features are of FTM 2008. I understand why they had to build a new version. Some of the features, especially the maps and web integration are pretty cool (assuming you have a fast Internet connection and an Ancestry subscription, of course).
They answer some common questions at the beginning of the presentation, and then answer questions from webinar participants at the end (you hear the question and response - no visuals).
I encourage anyone interested in genealogy software to spend the hour to register, connect, listen and watch the webinar.
I downloaded the slides so that I can show a few of them to the curious members in our society. This would be a great society presentation for FamilyTreeMaker to take on the road. Wanna come to Chula Vista - it's warm in the winter!
FTM 2008 Books - my wish list
Ben Nettesheim on the FamilyTreeMaker part at the Ancestry.com Blog wanted to know what users really wanted for the Books portion of FamilyTreeMaker 2008 in his "Question: What About Books?" post. He makes some interesting observations, like:
* Ancestry Press is not, nor was it intended to be, a replacement to the old book building capability available in previous versions of Family Tree Maker.
* The offline book building option will be available next year. As a result, the finished product is not set in stone.
I provided my opinion as to what the FTM 2008 Books capability should be to satisfy my needs. I put them in as a comment on the blog and on the FamilyTreeMaker feedback form. Hopefully, they will get read and acted upon.
My comments made on his blog are below:
-------------------------------------
"Thank you for the opportunity to offer my opinions. Here is what I want for the Books portion of FTM 2008 and beyond.
"1) The ability to incorporate descendants reports, ahnentafel reports, pedigree charts, family group sheets, pictures and document images, and text items into a book in the order that I choose. With the ability to have text footnotes and source citations. With an index and Table of Contents and List of Illustrations. Just like we have had in FTM 2006 and before.
"2) However, I would like to be able to export the book to a Word Processing file (especially Microsoft Word!) with the Field codes for the TOC and Index included so that I can edit the book as I wish before I publish it. Presently, the only way to get an index in FTM 2006 and before is to get a PDF format which cannot be edited. The alternative is to collect the edited reports in the Word Processing program and add the Field Codes by hand or with a macro - with 100 pages and maybe 2,000 names, that is time consuming. It’s impossible for a really big book.
"3. For the ahnentafel reports, I would like the option to not include the children listing in the report. This type of name list is very useful to me and others and the lack of it has been a gripe for years. Even lowly PAF can do this. It’s simple. Please?
"4. For the descendants reports, I would like the choice of Register and Modified Register (NGSQ) formats. These are the standard for publications and web pages. The FTM 2006 and before has this option and does an excellent job of them.
"5. For any report or book, I want the ability to tie Sources for Facts to the text Notes - so that a transcribed or abstracted deed, will, census record, Bible record etc. can be given a source number and citation in a Footnote. In FTM 2006, you can add a Fact with a Source, but only by putting the transcription or abstract in the Footnote can you tie the text to a source. Does that make sense? I hope so!"
-------------------------------------
In general, I really like the way FTM 2006 and before does descendants reports, ahnentafel reports and books. I would like to see Facts, Sources and Notes integrated somehow, and the Field codes for the index produced in such a way that my Word Processor can read it. I also really want an Ahnentafel List - just names, dates, places, no kids, no notes, no sources.
What I didn't say was that most of what I "want" and "need" are available in other software packages - RootsMagic, Legacy Family Tree and The Master Genealogist have all of those, I believe. If FTM wants their product to be the choice of professionals, who often recommend software to other users, they need to stay up with the competition. And do it better. Fast.
* Ancestry Press is not, nor was it intended to be, a replacement to the old book building capability available in previous versions of Family Tree Maker.
* The offline book building option will be available next year. As a result, the finished product is not set in stone.
I provided my opinion as to what the FTM 2008 Books capability should be to satisfy my needs. I put them in as a comment on the blog and on the FamilyTreeMaker feedback form. Hopefully, they will get read and acted upon.
My comments made on his blog are below:
-------------------------------------
"Thank you for the opportunity to offer my opinions. Here is what I want for the Books portion of FTM 2008 and beyond.
"1) The ability to incorporate descendants reports, ahnentafel reports, pedigree charts, family group sheets, pictures and document images, and text items into a book in the order that I choose. With the ability to have text footnotes and source citations. With an index and Table of Contents and List of Illustrations. Just like we have had in FTM 2006 and before.
"2) However, I would like to be able to export the book to a Word Processing file (especially Microsoft Word!) with the Field codes for the TOC and Index included so that I can edit the book as I wish before I publish it. Presently, the only way to get an index in FTM 2006 and before is to get a PDF format which cannot be edited. The alternative is to collect the edited reports in the Word Processing program and add the Field Codes by hand or with a macro - with 100 pages and maybe 2,000 names, that is time consuming. It’s impossible for a really big book.
"3. For the ahnentafel reports, I would like the option to not include the children listing in the report. This type of name list is very useful to me and others and the lack of it has been a gripe for years. Even lowly PAF can do this. It’s simple. Please?
"4. For the descendants reports, I would like the choice of Register and Modified Register (NGSQ) formats. These are the standard for publications and web pages. The FTM 2006 and before has this option and does an excellent job of them.
"5. For any report or book, I want the ability to tie Sources for Facts to the text Notes - so that a transcribed or abstracted deed, will, census record, Bible record etc. can be given a source number and citation in a Footnote. In FTM 2006, you can add a Fact with a Source, but only by putting the transcription or abstract in the Footnote can you tie the text to a source. Does that make sense? I hope so!"
-------------------------------------
In general, I really like the way FTM 2006 and before does descendants reports, ahnentafel reports and books. I would like to see Facts, Sources and Notes integrated somehow, and the Field codes for the index produced in such a way that my Word Processor can read it. I also really want an Ahnentafel List - just names, dates, places, no kids, no notes, no sources.
What I didn't say was that most of what I "want" and "need" are available in other software packages - RootsMagic, Legacy Family Tree and The Master Genealogist have all of those, I believe. If FTM wants their product to be the choice of professionals, who often recommend software to other users, they need to stay up with the competition. And do it better. Fast.
Out D@mn Sp@m
Arrggghhh. This blog has survived for over 18 months without a major spam attack. Consequently, I've kept comments open to anyone without moderation or word verification.
This morning, I enabled registration and word verification in order to stop the ongoing sp@m attack. I got about 60 emails this morning with comments - one for each post. The comments are about prescription drugs. The spammer has a long way to go, however!
I figure that most of my readers, at least the ones who comment, are registered with Blogger anyway, so it will be a small distraction to most commenters. Of course, I don't get many comments anyway.
Back to genealogy ... by the way, have you seen my Genea-Journal posts over at the Geneaholic? Read all about my so-called genealogy daily life. It's probably much more than you really want or need to know. It's all part of my therapy. How's that for a nakedly obvious blogflog?
This morning, I enabled registration and word verification in order to stop the ongoing sp@m attack. I got about 60 emails this morning with comments - one for each post. The comments are about prescription drugs. The spammer has a long way to go, however!
I figure that most of my readers, at least the ones who comment, are registered with Blogger anyway, so it will be a small distraction to most commenters. Of course, I don't get many comments anyway.
Back to genealogy ... by the way, have you seen my Genea-Journal posts over at the Geneaholic? Read all about my so-called genealogy daily life. It's probably much more than you really want or need to know. It's all part of my therapy. How's that for a nakedly obvious blogflog?
Today is "Gramp's" 116th Birthday
My grandfather, Lyle Lawrence Carringer, was born 116 years ago today, on 2 November 1891 to Henry Austin and Della (Smith) Carringer in San Diego, California. He saw so much in his lifetime of 85 years, and enjoyed almost every minute of it, often expressing awe and wonder at nature, engineering feats and science. I believe that he had a wondrous life.
Lyle was over-protected as a boy because his parents had lost a baby boy in 1890. His parents built a house on 30th Street in San Diego and owned most of the block. He learned from the school books of his parents - the McGuffey's readers and almanacs - and attended school, graduating from San Diego High in about 1912.
Here is a picture of Lyle as a boy of 4. Check out the hair and the outfit.
We always called him "Gramp" and we always went over to "Gram and Gramps house." I think my mother called him Dad and my father called him Lyle.
His legacy was threefold. One was financial - the real estate holdings that he built up over his lifetime provided a decent retirement for him and for my parents, and an excellent inheritance for my brothers and I. More importantly, the legacy of kindness, love, thrift, and happiness provided a wonderful example to his grandsons. Lastly, there was the wonderful stash of family history material - papers, books, photos, movies, memories.
I miss him greatly. I wish that I could have him back for just a month or so - to ask him questions, to hear more about his family, his life and experiences, to thank him for loving me and molding me and providing the impetus to study genealogy and family history.
Who do you miss the most? Who had a wondrous life in your family? Who loved you and molded you? Tell me about them - please?
Lyle was over-protected as a boy because his parents had lost a baby boy in 1890. His parents built a house on 30th Street in San Diego and owned most of the block. He learned from the school books of his parents - the McGuffey's readers and almanacs - and attended school, graduating from San Diego High in about 1912.
Here is a picture of Lyle as a boy of 4. Check out the hair and the outfit.
Lyle was curious and inquisitive, and as a boy and teen he explored San Diego and environs on foot or on his bicycle, and on the trolley that ran down 30th Street to downtown. He started working at age 15 as an errand boy at Marston's a downtown department store, and learned how business worked.
As a young man, he stood 5 foot 7 inches and weighed 123 pounds dripping wet. So, he enlisted in the Marines in 1917, but never got out of San Diego, serving at the PX in Balboa Park. He had met, and then married in 1918, Emily Kemp Auble and they soon had a baby - my mother, Betty, who was an only child. Soon, they built a house on the same block as his parents and settled in, with Emily's mother, a widow. The book case in the home was full of popular novels, travel stories, popular magazines and the encyclopedia. Lyle progressed at Marston's and eventually became the accountant and the paymaster for the store.
Here is a picture of Lyle, Emily and Betty in 1919.
Like most people of the time, he had his own account book to tally his income and his expenses. Four of these books still exist - from about 1920 to about 1945. In them, he counted the eggs collected from the henhouse and sold, the daily expenses at the grocery store, his income and bank deposits, the trials, tribulations and expenses of driving and maintaining the car (tires were very fragile, the roads were terrible), and details of where they drove and with whom they visited. The details are fascinating - to me, at least. On the home block, there was always plenty to do. More houses were built for rental, and his parents house was moved from the corner to the center of the block. Repairs to the homes and rentals were endless, furniture was bought, sold or scrapped, gardens were put in and tended. I have rental agreements, rent receipts, home repairs and appliance purchases for the years 1940 to 1975.
Excursions to Balboa Park, La Jolla, the beach, Tijuana, or the mountains were weekly occurrences. There were cousins in Whittier and they often visited them, stopping at Knotts Berry Farm in Garden Grove for dinner. The family took several long road trip vacations - going all the way to Victoria BC one year - and the journal tells all about it (where they stopped, who they visited, how much things cost, etc.) - fascinating!
My mother married in 1942, and I was born in 1943, my first brother in 1946, and my second brother in 1955. My father went into the Navy in 1944 and my mother and I moved back in with her parents. My grandparents doted on me, told me stories, took me places, and let me explore my little world. My grandfather had a movie camera, and I have many 8 mm films of my early childhood. I believe I got my love of history, geography and family from my grandparents - nurtured in my early life by time spent with them.
This is a picture of Lyle and his grandson in 1945 - obviously happy to be so high up in the world.
After his parents died in 1945, Lyle inherited the whole set of property. They moved into his parents home and sold the second home and the vacant lots on the south end of the block (which was my ball field playground). With these proceeds, they bought a small parcel of land on Point Loma with a postcard view of San Diego Bay. They built a home on the lot and moved into it in 1951. This home became our Christmas haven - since it had a fireplace, and we spent many happy Christmas Eves snug in our makeshift beds waiting for Santa to visit us.
Gramp took us fishing down on the Bay, out to the end of Point Loma to visit the lighthouse, and explore the tidepools, or we climbed the hills and explored the canyons near their house. He had always collected stamps and had many overseas correspondents. He went monthly to the Post Office to buy sheets of new stamps, and often gave plate blocks and single stamps to my brothers and I for our collections.
Lyle finally retired in 1961 after 55 years at Marstons, and settled into his retirement. He still came over to the 30th Street property and worked on the buildings and the gardens. And to see his daughter's family and to talk to his grandsons - to hear about their education and exploits and dreams. He was so proud that his daughter and grandson had attended and graduated from college.
Here is a photo of Lyle and Emily in about 1970.
He succumbed in 1976 to colon cancer, and his dear Emily joined him soon after. Their deaths pained me, but became the catalyst that made me examine my own life and beliefs, and firmed up my life's goals.
My grandfather was the most moral, upright and intelligent man I've ever known. He spoke quietly, listened well, even to his loudmouth grandsons, and enjoyed good humor. He never lost his sense of awe and wonder.
During his life, he witnessed and experienced - either in person or via newspapers and TV - the development of the automobile, the movie camera, running water and toilets in the home, the washing machine, dishwasher, and refrigerator, dirt streets to interstate highways, telegraph to radio and television, barren scrub land to Balboa Park, the San Diego Zoo and Palomar Observatory, gliders to airplanes to blimps and rocket ships, Sputnik to the moon landing, war (Spanish-American, WW I, WW II, Korean, Vietnam), peace, boom times, recession and depression times, 16 Presidents, a 58 year marriage, the birth and growth of a daughter and three grandsons. It was a wondrous life.
The best thing he ever did, perhaps intentionally or perhaps subconsciously, was to spend endless time with his family - wife, daughter, grandsons and friends - telling them stories, listening to their stories, hopes and dreams, playing board or card games, and encouraging everyone he met to be a good person - to be the best they could be.
We always called him "Gramp" and we always went over to "Gram and Gramps house." I think my mother called him Dad and my father called him Lyle.
His legacy was threefold. One was financial - the real estate holdings that he built up over his lifetime provided a decent retirement for him and for my parents, and an excellent inheritance for my brothers and I. More importantly, the legacy of kindness, love, thrift, and happiness provided a wonderful example to his grandsons. Lastly, there was the wonderful stash of family history material - papers, books, photos, movies, memories.
I miss him greatly. I wish that I could have him back for just a month or so - to ask him questions, to hear more about his family, his life and experiences, to thank him for loving me and molding me and providing the impetus to study genealogy and family history.
Who do you miss the most? Who had a wondrous life in your family? Who loved you and molded you? Tell me about them - please?
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Footnote.com Special Offer
I received an email from Footnote.com, with this special offer:
======================
"This special offer is our way of thanking current and past registered members for their Basic Membership. For a limited time you are invited to upgrade your Basic Membership to an Annual All-Access Membership for only $47.95! That is a 20% savings on the regular annual membership price of $59.95. Click the following link to sign in and take advantage of this limited time offer.
"www.footnote.com/specialoffer
"Why Upgrade?
"With a Basic Membership to Footnote, you can access Spotlights, Story Pages, and a few free titles. With an Annual All-Access Membership you can view, download, and print millions of documents and images on the Civil War, Lincoln assasination, Revolutionary War, WWI and II, Confederate amnesty papers, Texas birth and death records, and more! In addition, during an Annual All-Access Membership you will get millions of new documents for about $4 a month. Upgrade now!
"Offer Ends November 8, 2007"
===========================
Have you looked for information on footnote.com? Perhaps it contains that critical piece of information that you need in your genealogy search. You can "test drive" Footnote with a free Basic Membership. They do have several free access databases.
======================
"This special offer is our way of thanking current and past registered members for their Basic Membership. For a limited time you are invited to upgrade your Basic Membership to an Annual All-Access Membership for only $47.95! That is a 20% savings on the regular annual membership price of $59.95. Click the following link to sign in and take advantage of this limited time offer.
"www.footnote.com/specialoffer
"Why Upgrade?
"With a Basic Membership to Footnote, you can access Spotlights, Story Pages, and a few free titles. With an Annual All-Access Membership you can view, download, and print millions of documents and images on the Civil War, Lincoln assasination, Revolutionary War, WWI and II, Confederate amnesty papers, Texas birth and death records, and more! In addition, during an Annual All-Access Membership you will get millions of new documents for about $4 a month. Upgrade now!
"Offer Ends November 8, 2007"
===========================
Have you looked for information on footnote.com? Perhaps it contains that critical piece of information that you need in your genealogy search. You can "test drive" Footnote with a free Basic Membership. They do have several free access databases.
NARA wants your comments
I received the November issue of UpFront, the monthly newsletter from the National Genealogical Society (NGS), today. It had the following letter concerning the National Archives request for public comment on which databases they should digitize:
=======================
"The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is seeking public comment on its draft Plan for Digitizing Archival Materials for Public Access, 2007-2016. This draft plan outlines our planned strategies to digitize and make more accessible the historic holdings from the National Archives of the United States. A copy of the draft is available at http://www.archives.gov/comment/digitizing-plan.html.
"The document is divided into several sections. The first section, INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND, provides information on NARA's mission, our archival holdings, and our past experience with digitization, to give you the context of the draft Plan for Digitizing Archival Materials for Public Access, 2007-2016. Section II, PLAN OVERVIEW, describes our planned goals, activities, and priorities for digitization. Sections III through V provide listings of current digitization activities being carried out by NARA and through partnerships to digitize and make available archival materials. Appendix A contains draft operating principles that we are using as we enter into partnerships and Appendix B references relevant NARA guidance that applies to handling of archival materials being digitized and the technical guidelines for image creation and description. NARA in particularly wants your comments on Sections II, III, V, and Appendix A.
"It is important that we receive as much public input on this plan as possible so that our plans adequately reflect the needs of the public. Comments are due to NARA by: November 9, 2007. Send comments to: Vision@nara.gov or by fax to 301-837-0319.
"Thank you for taking the time to comment. Please forward this e-mail to any other genealogist that you may know."
=======================
I posted about this in "NARA Digitization Plans" in September. However, I didn't make a list of databases I would like to see digitized. Here is my short list in priority order:
1) Pension Files from all Wars
2) Military Compiled Service Records from all services and wars.
3) Naturalization records from all Courts
4) Passport applications
5) Native American records
6) African-American records
7) Federal court Records - criminal, civil, etc.
8) Land entry and patent records
9) Any other database with names and dates and events.
I know that some of these are already digitized or in the process of being digitized. The naturalization records are usually in State or Local courts - but they could be collected and put in one database.
What other databases would you like to see digitized? Tell them.
If you haven't sent your comments to NARA, I encourage you to do so - be a part of the solution.
=======================
"The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is seeking public comment on its draft Plan for Digitizing Archival Materials for Public Access, 2007-2016. This draft plan outlines our planned strategies to digitize and make more accessible the historic holdings from the National Archives of the United States. A copy of the draft is available at http://www.archives.gov/comment/digitizing-plan.html.
"The document is divided into several sections. The first section, INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND, provides information on NARA's mission, our archival holdings, and our past experience with digitization, to give you the context of the draft Plan for Digitizing Archival Materials for Public Access, 2007-2016. Section II, PLAN OVERVIEW, describes our planned goals, activities, and priorities for digitization. Sections III through V provide listings of current digitization activities being carried out by NARA and through partnerships to digitize and make available archival materials. Appendix A contains draft operating principles that we are using as we enter into partnerships and Appendix B references relevant NARA guidance that applies to handling of archival materials being digitized and the technical guidelines for image creation and description. NARA in particularly wants your comments on Sections II, III, V, and Appendix A.
"It is important that we receive as much public input on this plan as possible so that our plans adequately reflect the needs of the public. Comments are due to NARA by: November 9, 2007. Send comments to: Vision@nara.gov or by fax to 301-837-0319.
"Thank you for taking the time to comment. Please forward this e-mail to any other genealogist that you may know."
=======================
I posted about this in "NARA Digitization Plans" in September. However, I didn't make a list of databases I would like to see digitized. Here is my short list in priority order:
1) Pension Files from all Wars
2) Military Compiled Service Records from all services and wars.
3) Naturalization records from all Courts
4) Passport applications
5) Native American records
6) African-American records
7) Federal court Records - criminal, civil, etc.
8) Land entry and patent records
9) Any other database with names and dates and events.
I know that some of these are already digitized or in the process of being digitized. The naturalization records are usually in State or Local courts - but they could be collected and put in one database.
What other databases would you like to see digitized? Tell them.
If you haven't sent your comments to NARA, I encourage you to do so - be a part of the solution.
The Future of Genealogy - My Turn
At the CVGS "Genealogy Online" seminar two weekends ago, I was asked the question "What is the future of genealogy on the Internet?" I wish I could remember the things that I rattled off in my two minute response - it was at the end of my four hour stand-up stint and I was a bit fried. Having had almost two weeks to think about it, and having reviewed previous predictions by connected genealogy writers here and here, I'm ready to respond - and will muse on the next five years..
1. The future of genealogy research is limitless - genealogy will always be with us to the end of time because enough people will always want to know about world history, local history and family history. In five years, doing effective research may be considerably faster to perform due to the presence of more original documents on the Internet.
2. Genealogy research will always require working with original documents, derivative documents, government records, record indexes, family histories, locality histories, family trees, etc. "Every" document will not be imaged, digitized and indexed - there will always be records not available on the Internet.
3. More images of original and derivative documents will be available on the Internet every year. The number of document images has exploded in the last 5 years - to the benefit of all researchers. Effective use of the images requires accurate indexes.
4. More indexes of person names and locality names will be available on the Internet every year. Indexes are essential for finding of and the effective use of document images. The indexes need to permit sound-alike and wild cards, and specific phrases, in order to consistently find person names. Search engines will have these capabilities also.
5. Freely available records (mainly indexes and transcriptions) will proliferate on the Internet at sites like www.rootsweb.com, www.usgenweb.org and www.worldgenweb.org. There are many other sites with data posted by volunteers and organizations.
6. The LDS church effort to image, digitize and index the records by volunteers on over 2 million microfilms and over 1 million microfiche will continue at a fast pace and New FamilySearch will be used to access those records and images. In 5 years, New FamilySearch may have most of the US census records, many vital records indexes and many military records indexed and available - but there will be many records currently on microform left to be indexed - land, probate, tax, directories, etc. When the latter records have been indexed, then more research breakthroughs will occur. New FamilySearch will continue to collaborate with other libraries, societies and commercial companies to offer resources either online for everybody or on computers at the FHL and FHCs.
7. Commercial genealogy services (today exemplified by Ancestry, Footnote, WorldVitalRecords, GenealogyBank, etc. - there are many others) will continue to image, digitize and index records. These companies will continue to partner and collaborate with smaller database providers and genealogy societies. New companies may emerge to fill a niche, and companies may merge their assets. Competition will drive the industry to image and index more records. Genealogists will benefit from lower subscription prices resulting from more subscribers and more available records.
8. There will still be books and records that cannot be imaged and indexed due to copyright and privacy restrictions. "Public records" in cities, counties and states after about 1900 and before about 1980 are generally not available in books or microform except in person at a repository. There will be a massive effort by the LDS and commercial companies to image and digitize these records but it will take a long time, and coverage will not be uniform. I think birth and marriage records for living people will not be available for every state for a long time, if ever.
9. Family Tree data submitted by researchers past and present will proliferate and will always contain inaccuracies and outright errors. Online genealogy data sharing sites will also proliferate and will eventually coalesce into a smaller number of databases with large numbers. The challenge for every site will be to choose what data is "right" and to create the Mother of All Genealogy Databases (MOAGD). Will LDS scrap Ancestral File and Pedigree Resource File? Will Ancestry scrap Ancestry World Trees and One World Tree? I doubt it - they will likely integrate that information into their new database formats somehow. There will not be just one MOAGD - there will probably be several or many.
10. Sharing between genealogy researchers will continue to grow through message boards, mailing lists, online family trees, genealogy societies and email. Wikis will proliferate on the Internet, but I don't think the majority of researchers will use them to share genealogy data.
11. Publication of compiled genealogies and family histories in book form or on digital media will be more "publish on demand" for family members and correspondents, rather than in traditional book publication. These e-books may not find their way into libraries or magazines.
12. Genealogy magazines in paper and digital formats will continue to provide readers with interesting and useful information. Magazines may go to a dual publication - in both paper and digital formats with a price break for the digital format. Digital magazines may break the mold of a semi-monthly or quarterly formal publication and go to a weekly distribution of timely articles and reviews.
13. Genealogy societies will start growing again as more researchers cannot find "everything" on the Internet. The emphasis will be on collaboration and sharing - "traditional" researchers helping "online" researchers understand and use the classical research process, and "online" researchers helping "traditional" researchers use the Internet effectively. Societies will also use a dual newsletter/journal publication method - on paper format mailed out or online in digital format. There may be more specialized genealogy societies rather than locality-oriented societies.
14. Genealogy societies will have to have an Internet presence - a web site to inform members and sell products, a blog and email list to communicate with members and prospects, and indexing/transcribing projects to provide local family history records. They will collaborate with free or commercial genealogy sites. For example, a society-generated cemetery index might be digitized and indexed and included in the FamilySearch or Ancestry search engine and database, but the inscriptions and photos of tombstones might be available only through the society for a small price.
15. Genealogy software will continue to gravitate to online storage of databases with user-selected access - accessible anywhere a researcher is on a computer (relative, library, airplane, etc) and not subject to a home disaster. Book-making capabilities within the software will improve, especially for constructing indexes, including images, etc.
I think I'll stop there. I realize that I'm hampered by not being on the "inside" of the industry. Reading this over I see that I am not very visionary in this list. It's pretty much "review the past," "glass-half-full" and "genealogy-and-apple-pie" with a dash of hopefulness.
I am really interested in what you think. Tell me where I'm right or wrong. What have I missed? Please blog about this, share your thoughts in comments to this post, or via email to rjseaver(at)cox.net. If you have visionary thoughts about the future of genealogy, and are willing for me to post them in a separate post, please let me know and I will do that with attribution or anonymity - your choice.
1. The future of genealogy research is limitless - genealogy will always be with us to the end of time because enough people will always want to know about world history, local history and family history. In five years, doing effective research may be considerably faster to perform due to the presence of more original documents on the Internet.
2. Genealogy research will always require working with original documents, derivative documents, government records, record indexes, family histories, locality histories, family trees, etc. "Every" document will not be imaged, digitized and indexed - there will always be records not available on the Internet.
3. More images of original and derivative documents will be available on the Internet every year. The number of document images has exploded in the last 5 years - to the benefit of all researchers. Effective use of the images requires accurate indexes.
4. More indexes of person names and locality names will be available on the Internet every year. Indexes are essential for finding of and the effective use of document images. The indexes need to permit sound-alike and wild cards, and specific phrases, in order to consistently find person names. Search engines will have these capabilities also.
5. Freely available records (mainly indexes and transcriptions) will proliferate on the Internet at sites like www.rootsweb.com, www.usgenweb.org and www.worldgenweb.org. There are many other sites with data posted by volunteers and organizations.
6. The LDS church effort to image, digitize and index the records by volunteers on over 2 million microfilms and over 1 million microfiche will continue at a fast pace and New FamilySearch will be used to access those records and images. In 5 years, New FamilySearch may have most of the US census records, many vital records indexes and many military records indexed and available - but there will be many records currently on microform left to be indexed - land, probate, tax, directories, etc. When the latter records have been indexed, then more research breakthroughs will occur. New FamilySearch will continue to collaborate with other libraries, societies and commercial companies to offer resources either online for everybody or on computers at the FHL and FHCs.
7. Commercial genealogy services (today exemplified by Ancestry, Footnote, WorldVitalRecords, GenealogyBank, etc. - there are many others) will continue to image, digitize and index records. These companies will continue to partner and collaborate with smaller database providers and genealogy societies. New companies may emerge to fill a niche, and companies may merge their assets. Competition will drive the industry to image and index more records. Genealogists will benefit from lower subscription prices resulting from more subscribers and more available records.
8. There will still be books and records that cannot be imaged and indexed due to copyright and privacy restrictions. "Public records" in cities, counties and states after about 1900 and before about 1980 are generally not available in books or microform except in person at a repository. There will be a massive effort by the LDS and commercial companies to image and digitize these records but it will take a long time, and coverage will not be uniform. I think birth and marriage records for living people will not be available for every state for a long time, if ever.
9. Family Tree data submitted by researchers past and present will proliferate and will always contain inaccuracies and outright errors. Online genealogy data sharing sites will also proliferate and will eventually coalesce into a smaller number of databases with large numbers. The challenge for every site will be to choose what data is "right" and to create the Mother of All Genealogy Databases (MOAGD). Will LDS scrap Ancestral File and Pedigree Resource File? Will Ancestry scrap Ancestry World Trees and One World Tree? I doubt it - they will likely integrate that information into their new database formats somehow. There will not be just one MOAGD - there will probably be several or many.
10. Sharing between genealogy researchers will continue to grow through message boards, mailing lists, online family trees, genealogy societies and email. Wikis will proliferate on the Internet, but I don't think the majority of researchers will use them to share genealogy data.
11. Publication of compiled genealogies and family histories in book form or on digital media will be more "publish on demand" for family members and correspondents, rather than in traditional book publication. These e-books may not find their way into libraries or magazines.
12. Genealogy magazines in paper and digital formats will continue to provide readers with interesting and useful information. Magazines may go to a dual publication - in both paper and digital formats with a price break for the digital format. Digital magazines may break the mold of a semi-monthly or quarterly formal publication and go to a weekly distribution of timely articles and reviews.
13. Genealogy societies will start growing again as more researchers cannot find "everything" on the Internet. The emphasis will be on collaboration and sharing - "traditional" researchers helping "online" researchers understand and use the classical research process, and "online" researchers helping "traditional" researchers use the Internet effectively. Societies will also use a dual newsletter/journal publication method - on paper format mailed out or online in digital format. There may be more specialized genealogy societies rather than locality-oriented societies.
14. Genealogy societies will have to have an Internet presence - a web site to inform members and sell products, a blog and email list to communicate with members and prospects, and indexing/transcribing projects to provide local family history records. They will collaborate with free or commercial genealogy sites. For example, a society-generated cemetery index might be digitized and indexed and included in the FamilySearch or Ancestry search engine and database, but the inscriptions and photos of tombstones might be available only through the society for a small price.
15. Genealogy software will continue to gravitate to online storage of databases with user-selected access - accessible anywhere a researcher is on a computer (relative, library, airplane, etc) and not subject to a home disaster. Book-making capabilities within the software will improve, especially for constructing indexes, including images, etc.
I think I'll stop there. I realize that I'm hampered by not being on the "inside" of the industry. Reading this over I see that I am not very visionary in this list. It's pretty much "review the past," "glass-half-full" and "genealogy-and-apple-pie" with a dash of hopefulness.
I am really interested in what you think. Tell me where I'm right or wrong. What have I missed? Please blog about this, share your thoughts in comments to this post, or via email to rjseaver(at)cox.net. If you have visionary thoughts about the future of genealogy, and are willing for me to post them in a separate post, please let me know and I will do that with attribution or anonymity - your choice.
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