Searching for really rare surnames on Ancestry boards

As part of my O research project (I'm using letters for privacy reasons), I went searching on the Rootsweb/Ancestry message boards today. I input the O******* name (well, with the right letters, of course) in the keyword field (basic search) on the Message Board page and found that I got over 19 million matches. Oh no! It will take me a day or two to read all 19 million messages!

Hey - this is a really rare surname. What happened? I tested it again using a more common name - like Smith, and got over 500,000 matches, which seemed about right for all message boards. I tried a made-up surname - "Zxcvb" to see what would happen. Same thing - there were 19, 798,495 messages (as of today!) for that keyword. The screen shot below shows the count:

This looks like a problem with the Search algorithm - if there are no matches, it returns all messages in the database. Using the word "the" as a keyword returned 12,761,805 messages. The word "family" appears on 6,662,137 messages. The word "geneology" appears in 57,918 messages, and "genealogy" in 389,866 messages. I guess this means that over 13% of all message board users can't spell the word correctly!

However, if I choose the Advanced Search option, and use the Surname entry box (and not the Keyword box), I get 0 matches for "O******" and even for "Zxcvb!"

When using the message board Advanced Search, you can use a wild card in the Surname box, choose a Soundex option, but you have to click on the Search button in order to get results (i.e., you cannot just hit your Return key).

The lesson here is to not take search results at face value, and to use the Advanced Search options on the Rootsweb/Ancestry message boards.

They found Ydnar, my 24,880th cousin 1,520 times removed

Finally! Bones from my 24,880th cousin, 1,520 times removed (give or take a few hundred for each number) was tested for mitochondrial DNA recently.

Yahoo has the story "Scientists map mitochondrial DNA of prehistoric Neanderthal" posted at http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080807/sc_afp/usanthropologygeneticgermany_080807180928

The important paragraphs include:

"Researchers announced Thursday that they have sequenced the mitochondrial DNA of a Neanderthal, using genetic material recovered from a 38,000-year-old bone. "

and

"Research suggests that the last common ancestor of Neanderthals and humans lived about 660,000 years ago."

Of course, this person doesn't have a name...we could call him Og, but that name is already taken. How about Ydnar? That sounds pretty good, doesn't it? Who's Ydnar you ask? My distant cousin, of course.

Is this really a relative of mine? Of course he is - and yours too! Maybe I've missed by several generations (I assumed 25 years per generation in the calculations above), but after all these years it's great to finally find a Neanderthal in my family (not counting Uncle Harry, of course).

The Genea-blogger Games are ON!

My first thought when I saw the announcement of the Genea-Bloggers Genealympic Games was "that's nice - it's something I can do in my spare time - maybe after watching two weeks of the Olympic Games in China." Well - not exactly!

Miriam Midkiff on her Ancestories: Stories of My Ancestors blog announced the Genea-Blogger Group Olympic Games events, and these games are a bit strenuous for a typical armchair genea-blogger like me. There is a badge to be worn on all Genea-blogger posts (created by the footnoteMaven, who has a knack for these things):


Each participant was asked to create a flag for the Opening Ceremonies using the tool on http://www.wearemulticolored.com/ to create and then save it. The tool only lets you use the flags of three countries, so I chose England, Canada and the United States. England is the "mother country" for almost all of my colonial ancestors and the mother country of the USA and Canada. I have a few Canadian ancestors, and many colonial American ancestors and USA-born ancestors. So here is my flag:

Now then, which Genealympics events to compete in? There are five different events, but my time is limited by several factors (the grandsons are coming on 19 August). Therefore, I'm going to choose two events to compete in. Here are the Genealogist's Pentathlon events and my choices:

1) Go Back and Cite Your Sources! -- this is not one of my genealogical strengths, meaning that it should be easy to rack up a medal here if I were to compete. But I'm not going to compete here because I'm not that good at it.

2) Back Up Your Data! -- This is a worthy event, but I have too much "stuff" to sort through, scan, back up and archive to compete for the top medals here. I do some of these things routinely.

3) Organize Your Research! -- I will compete in this event because I need to do these tasks routinely and the targets are achievable in the time I have available.

4) Write! Write! Write! -- I'm not going to compete in this event, even though I do several of these tasks routinely. I can't pre-publish with my current blogging platform (I know, I should use New Blogger).

5) Reach Out and Perform Genealogical Acts of Kindness -- I will compete in this event, since I have several projects on my research plate.

Miriam Midkiff, Kathryn M. Doyle and Thomas MacEntee have put this Genea-bloggers Games together, showing much common sense and good humor. My thanks to them for taking the time to work together for the benefit of many, including the participants.

UPDATED 3 p.m.: I was informed that I shouldn't use the word "Olympics" because of restrictions on the use of the word... I changed almost all of the instances where I used it. Maybe if we spelled it differently - Genlympics? Genealympics? Surely they won't object, right? Let's see if that works. I love making up new words or phrases.

Utah Genealogical Association conference - September 12-13, 2008

I was reading The Ancestry Insider today (every day, it's great material) and noted that he is speaking at the Utah Genealogical Association fall conference at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City on September 12-13, 2008. Being a curious type, I checked the links for the conference to see if his real name was listed on the program. It isn't. My guess is that almost everybody going to the conference already knows who he is, it's only his non-Utah readers who don't. I'm tempted to go to the conference just to get a picture of him...

The UGA Conference registration form is here, and the detailed program sschedule is here. What a great lineup of speakers and topics. Check it out. There are many speakers that have been below my radar, so to speak. I love hearing new-to-me speakers.

Now the only question I have is if I can make this conference on short notice. I'd hate to go just for the weekend and miss out on researching at the FHL. I could stay over another day or go a day or two ahead of the conference. The San Diego Genealogical Society has a research trip to the FHL from September 14-21, but I didn't sign up because I have to be back before the weekend because I have a commitment on 20 September. Hmmmm...... any other blogger going (I see Pat Richley and Michael John Neill are going to be presenters).

Family Photographs - Post 17: Charles Auble-1898

I'm posting old family photographs from my collection on Wednesdays, but they won't be wordless posts like others do - I simply am incapable of having a wordless post.

Here is one of the most precious (to me) images from my Auble/Carringer family collection:



This is Charles Auble (1849-1916), my great-grandfather. He was born in Newton, Sussex County, NJ to David and Sarah (Knapp) Auble. He married Georgianna Kemp on 29 June 1898 in Milwaukee, WI. I posted my biography of Charles Auble here.

This picture was taken in about 1898, perhaps at the time of his marriage. Doesn't he look very distinguished? Charlie was a painter, although I'm not sure if he was an artist or a house painter. I think the latter, but I'm not sure.

This photograph was handed down from Charles and Georgianna (Kemp) Auble to their daughter Emily Kemp (Auble) Carringer (who married Lyle L. Carringer), to their daughter Betty Virginia (Carringer) Seaver (who married Fred Seaver) to me, their son.

I fear that I inherited Charlie's hairline...

Barack Obama's Family Tree

This week's issue of the New England Historical and Genealogical Society E-newsletter had an article about Barack Obama's family tree. The e-newsletter article said:

"Chicago Sun-Times newspaper reporter Scott Fornek has been honored by the National Association of Black Journalists' 2008 Salute to Excellence National Media Awards for his examination of the family history of Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama.

"The New England Historic Genealogical Society, which conducted substantial research on Obama’s ancestry, is mentioned in the article, along with a quote from staff genealogist Christopher Child. The article provides links to the 5-part special report, which includes more than 30 sketches of various Obama ancestors. You can read the article in the Chicago Sun-Times online at www.suntimes.com/news/elections/548552,CST-NWS-otreemain09.article

"Earlier this year, NEHGS released a story that showed Senator Obama and actor Brad Pitt are distant cousins. Hillary Clinton and Angelina Jolie are also cousins, as are Senator John McCain and First Lady Laura Bush. NEHGS staff has done extensive research on many public figures and politicians."

I missed the Sun-Times article when it was first published. On the article web page, the sidebar has links to biographies of 30 of Obama's relatives, an interactive family tree (done with The Next Generation of Genealogy Sitebuilding software?) and also a PDF of a Obama's family tree in graphical form. It's interesting that the family tree doesn't go back to more of the known New England ancestors (like Edward FitzRandolph and Thomas Blossom) - perhaps they ran out of space on the chart. I didn't find any other common ancestors that I share with my distant cousin.

SDGS Meeting on Saturday - Annual Book Auction and Potluck Luncheon

The San Diego Genealogical Society meeting on Saturday, 9 August starts at 12 noon at St. Andrews Lutheran Church (8350 Lake Murray Blvd, at Jackson Drive in San Diego). The August meeting is always the Pot luck Luncheon and the Book Auction.

The program notice published in the SDGS Newsletter says:

This is your chance to get great bargains on genealogical books, journals, magazines, and other items to improve your research. There will be lots of unique and hard-to-find items, so get there early to preview the collection and be prepared for spirited bidding. This is a great way to get those much-needed research tools while helping the Society raise money. So, bring lots of cash and your checkbook. We will also have some books for direct sale.

Our auctioneer will be Peter Steelquist, who served as Society President for the past six years. With over 20 years of genealogical experience, he will be sure that bidding is lively and that everyone has an equal opportunity to get in the highest bid. Having fun will be the prerequisite for the afternoon. Be sure not to miss it!

For our potluck, bring your favorite dishes (and we do have some great cooks!). Last names beginning with A-H can bring desserts, I-R salads and S-Z main courses and casseroles. Be sure to also bring serving utensils for your dish as well as a place setting for yourself. Coffee and beverages will be provided. Bon appetit!

In order to prepare for this, I need to update my list of magazine and journal holdings, plus print off my LibraryThing list (after all, that's what it's for, right?). This is also a good way for smaller societies like CVGS to enrich their holdings.

Memorial Service for the "Unknown Child on the Titanic"

This press release was sent to me today by Colleen Fitzpatrick, Ph.D. (CFitzp@aol.com)

Memorial Service for the "Unknown Child on the Titanic” to be Held in Halifax

Forensic Genealogy and Expanded DNA Testing Correctly Identify Child

On Wednesday 6th August, 2008, at 2 pm, a memorial will be held at Fairview Lawn Cemetery in Halifax, Nova Scotia in honor of Sidney Leslie Goodwin, who for nearly 100 years, lay anonymously beneath a tombstone declaring he was the Unknown Child on the Titanic. The service will be attended by descendants of the families of Frederick Goodwin and Augusta Tyler Goodwin who died with their six children on the Titanic. Their 19-month-old son Sidney was buried in 1912 with over two hundred bodies salvaged from the North Atlantic by the Mackay Bennett cable ship.

In 2002, the child was erroneously identified as 13-month-old Eino Panula. This initial identification was based on ambiguous DNA analysis and forensic odontology on several teeth found in the grave in 2000. Suspicions were aroused that the identification was in error when the child’s shoes, held by the Maritime Museum in Halifax, were found to be too large to be those of a 13-month-old. Expanded DNA analysis and new forensic research on the Goodwin family identified the child as 19- month-old Sidney.

The graveside service will be conducted by Reverend Westhaver from St. George's Round Church in Halifax. Now a historical Canadian site, the church is the location of the first burial service held by the Captain and crew of the Mackay-Bennett. Both Goodwins and Tylers will come from England for the service to join their American cousins from California, Arizona, Wisconsin and Illinois. Some will be meeting each other for the first time. During the service, family members will read the names of the fifty-three children under twelve who died in the accident. Over the decades, thousands of people have visited the child’s tombstone, leaving flowers and toys as a tribute to The Unknown Child.

Goodwin and Tyler family members will be available for interviews at 4 pm after the service by phone or in person at The Lord Nelson Hotel in Halifax. Call (714) 296-3065 for more information.

There was also a newspaper article in the Halifax (NS) Chronicle-Herald by Davene Jeffrey and Devin Stevens titled "Remembering new-found kin" at http://www.thechronicleherald.ca/Search/1070779.html

Colleen participated in this search. The article says:

Colleen Fitzpatrick, a forensic genealogist and retired nuclear physicist, was called in to help with the project after the two initial tests on Sidney’s DNA.

Ms. Fitzpatrick found Sidney’s nearest living male relative in Australia through the boy’s paternal grandfather.

"I had to go up the (family) tree and down the tree," said the California resident. She figures there were eight generations separating Sidney from his Australian relative.

But before a sample could be submitted, a third test showed a mutation in the maternal DNA that was an exact match to a living relative on the Sidney’s mother’s side."

This is a great forensic genealogy and family history story.

Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 12: Charts I

I installed FamilyTreeMaker 2008 in early July and uploaded a large database to see how it worked. I also started a new database to test other program features. Please see the list at the bottom of this post for the earlier posts.

In this post, I want to describe the Charts that can be created by the program in the first of two posts.

I'm going to use my updated Master genealogy database for this exercise, and start with Benjamin Seaver (1757-1816) because I can do ancestral and descendant charts with him easily.

When I have Benjamin Seaver as my selected person in the People icon screen, I clicked on the [Publish] icon in the top menu row. The screen below appears - there are three panels here - a list of the different charts and reports on the left panel, the choice of charts (because Charts were highlighted in the left-hand panel) in the center panel, and a description of the highlighted chart (in this case, the Pedigree Chart) in the right-hand panel.



In the left-hand panel are all of the different types of charts and reports available in the [Publish] suite, including:

* Chart Reports
* Person Reports
* Relationship Reports
* Place Reports
* Media Reports
* Source Reports
* Books

We'll deal with the charts in this post and the next. I selected the Charts item on the list.

I clicked on the Pedigree Chart icon, and the screen below opened. A four generation pedigree chart is shown in the larger panel, with Benjamin Seaver as the person in the #1 position. I reduced the image size to 74% so that the entire page is shown.

In the right-hand panel, there is information and options for the chart:

* the chart title,
* the layout (book (8.5 x 11 pages) or poster (spread over multiple pages)),
* the overlap (columns overlap, only root overlaps, no overlaps),
* the spacing (perfect, collapsed or squished),
* the align nodes (top, center, bezier or straight),
* the number of generations (total and per page, 4 is default),
* the background (choice of backgrounds, with transparency and centered, stretched, zoomed or tiled),
* the pictures (none, thumbnail or photo).

The details included in the Chart can be customized by clicking on the edit icons in the right-hand "Pedigree Chart" panel. There are buttons for

* Items to include (e.g., name, birth, marriage, death, although you can select any of the Facts on a list)

* Fonts (for any of the names, facts, chart title, etc.) - choice of font type, font size, color and alignment.

* Box, Border and Line Options - you can select for the chart, the boxes for each person, the connecting lines, etc.

* Header/Footer - add any text you want to the chart

* Page Setup - paper size, printer tray, orientation and margins

* Save settings - save the current settings

* Use saved settings - use a previously saved setting

* Save chart - save the current chart with a chart name

By clicking on the Collection tab on the chart screen, the program goes to the chart selection page (first screen above). I clicked on the Descendant Chart report, and the screen below appeared (5 generations is default):

By manipulating the Zoom menu (located at the left-hand top of the chart, under the words "Chart/Report Preview," you can select a chart size from 10% to 300% to show on the screen. You go to the previous Zoom level by using the upward arrow button, and go to 100% by using the 1:1 button. Insterad of using the Zoom list, you can change the magnification by moving the scroll wheel on your mouse. The 33% chart is shown below:

In the case above, the chart would print over three 8.5 x 11 pages. Note that it is in the "Poster" view.

I like the variety and inclusiveness of the information in the Pedigree Chart and Descendants Chart. I can't think of anything more that I want a program to do, nor does it do anything really superflous to my way of thinking.

Previous posts in this series:

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 1: Loading. Installing the program and uploading an existing database file.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 2: Exploring. Looking around the uploaded database file to see what the different views look like.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 3: The Menus. Most of the menus were itemized and described.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 4: Starting a New Tree. I started a new tree and added some people demonstrating the program options to do this.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 5: Adding a Source. I added sources to the Facts that I previously entered.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 6: Adding Children to a Family. I added children to a family.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 7: The Person Menu. I described the items in the Person menu and attached a spouse to a person.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 8: Finding a Person in the database. I described three ways to Find a person.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 9: Places I. I explored the vagaries of the Places icon.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 10: Places II. The different map types are discussed and displayed.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 11: Places III. The method to Resolve many places with standardized place names is explored.

In the next post, we'll explore the other two chart type options.

Obituary Links Page

In my new research project, I'm searching for death notices and obituaries in the 1920 to 1970 time frame. In the state of Georgia, which I know very little about.

I saw a description of www.ObitLinksPage.com in a recent magazine article, and thought I would investigate the resources there. The web site introduction says:

"Obitlinkspage.com was created to provide an easy to access State-by-State directory of obituaries and obituaries related resources. This site is focused on obituaries, their importance in genealogy, and finding vital records such as birth certificates, death records, divorce decrees, and marriage licenses.

"Finding obituaries can be difficult and we have developed this free site to help you find the obituaries, death records, birth certificates, and marriage records you will need. Because you should start at the city and state of the interested person when looking for obituaries and other vital records, this site is designed as a State-by-State Directory."

There is a map of the United States and you can click on the state of your choice. I chose Georgia. The Georgia page says:

"Below are obituary resource links organized by county. Please contact us if you would like to add your site. Looking for the obituary section for a local newspaper?

"Please search through our full list of Georgia Newspapers and access their online obituary sections. Click here to access Georgia Newspapers."

There is a list of statewide resources, and then resources by each county. The listed links are to obituaries, cemeteries, vital records indexes, and other databases on other web sites - such as www.Ancestry.com, USGenWeb Archives (www.USGEArchives.org), www.Legacy.com and many others, depending on the locality.

Unfortunately for me, Chattooga County GA has very little in the way of data online - only some limited cemetery listings. The statewide databases may be useful, though.

I think that this is a pretty useful web page. You can search in a specific state and/or county in a given state.

Two Genealogy Meetings on Thursday, 7 August

Hey San Diego area readers -- there are two excellent genealogy programs this Thursday, 7 August at the Tecolote Nature Center Classroom (5180 Tecolote Rd., Exit 21 on I-5 (Sea World Drive/Tecolote Rd), drive east about 0.5 mile, past the Recreation Center ball fields). The programs are free to attend, and all genealogists are welcome.

10 a.m. to 12 noon: German Genealogical Research, Questions and Answers with Reinhard Hofer (genealogist from Germany) sponsored by the German Research Association, Inc. Reinhard Hofer, of Ruhstorf, Niederbayern, Bavaria, is a professional genealogist specializing in German emigration research, Bavarian Church book research, research in all Bavarian archives on site, research also in Austrian and Czech archives, transcriptions of Latin and Old German writing, and the Holocaust.

1:30 p.m. to 3:15 p.m.: An Afternoon with Michael Gandy. Renowned British genealogist Michael Gandy will present two topics -- Puritans and Quakers: 17th Century Emigrant Ancestry, and Huguenots: Many Went to America, sponsored by the British Isles Genealogical Research Association.

Take a sack lunch and enjoy time with other genealogists. Donations for both programs will be gratefully accepted.

This is a great idea for smaller specialty societies like GRA and BIGRA - work together and share meeting dates and costs.

Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 11: Places III

I installed FamilyTreeMaker 2008 in early July and uploaded a large database to see how it worked. I also started a new database to test other program features. Please see the list at the bottom of this post for the earlier posts.

In this post, I want to describe how to resolve a number of place names in one (or several actions).

I'm going to use my Test tree (the one I started a new tree with) because I don't want to resolve everything in my Master tree (which has shorthand source citations in the place names) yet. In my Test tree, I had a number of Place names with the word "County" in them and I want to resolve them so that the correct places are shown on the map and I have a consistent format for place names in my database.

Here is the screen when I have Benjamin Seaver on my [People] menu and I click on the [Places] icon:

As discussed in Post 9, even though I specified "Westminster, Worcester County, MA" in my place name, FTM 2008 provided a map for Westminster Street in "Worcester, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA."

Since I have several place names I want to resolve, I can do them either one at a time, like I did in Post 9, or I can do many in one action. To do the latter, I click on the "Resolve All" link at the top right of the Place Name Index on the right side of the left-hand panel.

FTM 2008 asks you "Before you perform this operation, it is a good idea to make a backup of your file. Do you want to make a Backup now?" I did...

After the backup was made, the screen below appeared:

FamilyTreeMaker 2008 allows you to choose from several options at this point:

* Unrecognized Place Name - keep the place name as it is

* Suggested Place Name - replace the unrecognized place name with the suggested place name

* Desc - move unrecognized place name to the Description field

* Ignore - stop marking this place name as unrecognized

* Other - search for another spelling of this place name

For each place name on the list, you must choose one of these options. In the screen shot above, I checked Desc before I realized what it was. I should have read the options before I checked them all and then clicked on OK.

I had to go back later and re-enter all of the Place Names for the ones I mistakenly moved to the Description Field (which is on the [People} screen). When I did this, I resloved them again and this time chose the Suggested Place Name and everything was finally correct.

One of the places that was resolved was Westminster, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA - and the screen shot below shows the map that resulted when I clicked on it in the Places Index list.

Note that on the right-hand panel is a list of names in my People list that are associated with Westminster, MA.

To re-iterate - if you do not have the identical place name in your Places fields that matches the program's Place Authority list, then you might not get the correct map. You'll have to go through and Resolve each place that you want to show on the map.

I didn't mention the Description Field in the Place names before when we were on the [People] screens. That's because I had missed the detail when I was entering data. Some of the data was entered into the Description Field, and it showed up in the information for each person. You can use the Description Field to add information to the Place Name - for instance, a church name, a hospital name, a street address, a cemetery name, etc. Or even shorthand source information! That is one solution for my Master database problem - but it's not the "best" solution -- I should put my source citations in the Sources field.

Previous posts in this series:

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 1: Loading. Installing the program and uploading an existing database file.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 2: Exploring. Looking around the uploaded database file to see what the different views look like.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 3: The Menus. Most of the menus were itemized and described.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 4: Starting a New Tree. I started a new tree and added some people demonstrating the program options to do this.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 5: Adding a Source. I added sources to the Facts that I previously entered.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 6: Adding Children to a Family. I added children to a family.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 7: The Person Menu. I described the items in the Person menu and attached a spouse to a person.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 8: Finding a Person in the database. I described three ways to Find a person.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 9: Places I. I explored the vagaries of the Places icon.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 10: Places II. The different map types are discussed and displayed.

In the next post, we'll explore some of the Reports and Charts in the [Publish] icon section.

53rd Carnival of Genealogy is a Carousel

Jasia has posted the 53rd Carnival of Genealogy on her blog, Creative Gene. This edition of the Carnival is a Carousel edition - bloggers submitted a genealogy-related post on anything they want to.

There are 39 entries in this Carnival - I encourage you to go read all of them. As always, there are some bloggers who are "new to me" for one reason or another.

The topic for the next edition of the COG is, The Family Language... Does your family use words and phrases that no one else knows or understands? Where did they come from? Did you ever try to explain your "family language" to outsiders? Tell a story about your family-coined words, phrases, or nicknames. This topic was chosen by Donna Pointkouski who will be hosting the next edition of the COG at What's Past is Prologue. Thanks Donna! The deadline for submissions is August 15th.

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.

Best of the Genea-Blogs - July 27-August 2, 2008

Several hundred genealogy and family history bloggers write thousands of posts every week about their research, their families, and their interests. I appreciate each one of them and their efforts.

My criteria for "Best of ..." are pretty simple - I pick posts that advance knowledge about genealogy and family history, address current genealogy issues, provide personal family history, are funny or are poignant. I don't list posts destined for the Carnival of Genealogy, or other meme submissions (but I do include summaries of them), or my own posts.

Here are my picks for great reads from the genealogy blogs for this past week:

* Looking into the heart of Ireland by Lisa on the Small-leaved Shamrock blog. This is a Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture summary. Lisa does a wonderful job of summarizing and highlighting the entries. I still wish that I had some Irish ancestry... I'm green with envy of those who have Emerald Isle folks.

* Open Library: Online Books Resource by Jennifer on the Rainy Day Genealogy Readings blog. Jennifer explores a relatively new wiki - online books at http://openlibrary.org/. She tried it out, and it provides sparse results at present, but perhaps is a web site to keep tabs on while it is "filling out."

* How Much is That Redcoat (of Scarlet or Dusty Rose)? by Tim Abbott on the Walking the Berkshires blog. Greenman Tim discusses the colonial era English soldier's uniforms, and tries to figure out what color a "redcoat" really was and how it was created.

* Tuesday Tales from the Road - Salt Lake City by Kathryn Doyle on the California Genealogical Society and Library blog. One of the CGS members, Mary Mettler, is on a cross-country genealogy trip, and sends her first installment. I love genealogy travel stories, and can hardly wait for more in this series.

* Will your work survive the digital age--Refreshing and Backup, Will your work survive the digital age--Replication, Will your work survive the digital age--Migration, and Will Your Work Survive the Digital Age--Naming, Tagging, and Filing by Janet Hovorka on The Chart Chick blog. Janet continues her series of posts on the subject - all excellent advice that all researchers should follow.

* Two Roads: Do McEntee and MacEntee Converge or Fork? Part 4 by Thomas MacEntee on the Destination: Austin Family blog. Thomas describes his research to date trying to determine the answer to his question. He has more work to do, I think, but this is an excellent example of using a genealogy blog to post noteworthy work while searching for answers.

* Learning to date old photographs by Sally Jacobs on The Practical Archivist blog. Sally uses one of my photographs (I was surprised to see this post a year later!) and provides great resource advice. As a result of reading Sally's post, expert photo analyst Maureen Taylor commented on my blog post with very helpful dating advice.

* Xmas in July by John Newmark on the Transylvanian Dutch blog. John gets his hidden treasure in the form of a box of paper found in a storage room. It really pays to help your parents or other relatives sort through stuff!

* This and That by Miriam Midkiff on the Ancestories: The Stories of my Ancestors blog. Miriam hits a number of interesting subjects, including the Facebook genealogy activities.

* Turf and Twig Ceremony by Carla Joyce Gade on the Relatively Speaking blog. This was probably the most interesting post for me this week. I had never heard of turf and twig, even though I've done a lot of research in colonial New England land and probate records. Carla has many interesting posts on her blog!

* How to Get Your Family History Printed For Free by Jasia on the Creative Gene blog. Jasia's friend, Waleria, tipped her to this method of getting a free published book.

* Genealogy Courses & cruises by Pat Richley on the DearMYRTLE's Genealogy Blog. Pat answers a question about "why continue learning?" with very sage advice. In the process, she tells us about the recent Legacy cruise (that I so wanted to sail on!), and also her thoughts about the real value of courses, conferences and cruises.

* Learning Probate Records, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4 by the GenMaster (Brian Nichols?) of The Mad Genealogist blog. These are part of an ongoing series of excellent posts about probate records.

Thank you to all genealogy bloggers for an interesting and informative week.

I encourage you to go to the blogs listed above and read their articles, and add their blog to your Favorites, Bloglines, reader, feed or email if you like what you read. Please make a comment to them also - we all appreciate feedback on what we write.

Did I miss a great genealogy blog post? Tell me!

UPDATED 8/4: I know it would happen one of these days - I mixed up Sally and Susan's names, my apologies to both. It's like getting your tang tongled, I think. Or your brain addled. I've had so many conversations with a 3-month old this week that I'm not thinking straight.

Wheel of Genealogy Fortune - Post 9

You all know how to play Wheel of Fortune - I've given you R S T L N and E just like in the Final Round on the TV game!

Take a crack at this quote:

_ .... _ _ .... E N _ _ _ E .... _ N

.... _ E N E _ L _ _ _ _ _ L

.... R E S E _ R _ _ ...._ _ S T L _

.... T _ .... S _ _ N _ _ L _ _ E

.... _ L _ .... L _ _ _ E S.

Can you figure this out, find the author, and find it on a blog page?

Please email me your answers (rjseaver@cox.net) and I'll list the answer and the readers who get it right in Comments later in the week.

Customized Ancestry.com Home Page

I was reading the Ancestry.com blog post about customizing the Ancestry home page, so I thought I would do it, since I complained about it a month ago.

At the bottom of the home page, there is a "Customize this page" button. I tickled that and was able to move the different boxes around. Here's the top of my Ancestry home page screen (I didn't click on the KFC ad, though!):


As you can see, I moved the Search box to the top of my screen, and I added several links to the right-hand side of the screen.

Here's the bottom of my Home Page screen:

If I want to go to my databases, I can but I rarely check my own stuff out. I'd rather check out everybody else's stuff! True confession: I haven't used the "My To-do List" or "My Shoebox" features yet.

"Internet Genealogy" Magazine TOC - August/September 2008 issue

Internet Genealogy magazine is published by Moorshead Magazines Ltd., which also publishes Family Chronicle, Discovering Family History and History magazines. An Internet Genealogy yearly subscription is $22.50 for online access, $28 for a print version, and $6.95 on the newsstand (if you can find it) for US and Canada.


The Table of Contents for the August-September 2008 issue includes:

* Net Notes - FamilyRelatives, Bloodlines of Salem, Shades of the Departed, and Purpose Games are highlighted - page 6

* Brickwall Solutions: Internet Style! -- We excerpted a few Internet-related brickwall solutions from our best selling book - page 9

* E.W.G.S. at 75: Thrivin' and Survivin' - Donna Potter Phillips sings the praises of her local genealogical society - page 14

* Who Was Mary Virginia? - Alice Luckhardt uses the Internet to find answers about a long forgotten lady - page 15

* Cold Case Research: Genealogy Style - Donna Potter Phillips offers an idea for today's genealogists - page 17

* Project StoryKeeper and LifeLenz - Diane L. Richard shows how to preserve stories and memories - page 18

* Picture Perfecting Picasa: Image Artistry at the Click of a Button - Bill Puller looks at another great resource from the folks at Google - page 22

* 50 Websites You Might Be Missing! - Lisa A. Alzo looks at the online resources that just might be the missing piece of your genealogy puzzle - page 27

* Academic Focus: Continuing Education - Richard Crooks goes back to school to go beyond his genealogical brick walls - page 32

* Academic Focus: Academic Theses - A Genealogist's Tool - Janice Nickerson shares an untapped resource that will give your research an A+ push - page 35

* Academic Focus: CPS Alumni - School's In On the Web! - Diane L. Richard goes old school in her genealogy research - page 38

* Academic Focus: School Records Online - David A. Norris shows you the A B C's of finding your family's school records online - page 40

* Civil War Maps Online - David A. Norris explores some uncharted territory in search of Civil War maps - page 47

* What's Coming in Internet Genealogy - A peek at what we are working on for future issues - page 53

* I Share an Un-erasable Bond with my Typewriter - David A. Norris xxxxxxx types an ode to his typewriter - page 54.

That's it - 56 pages chock full of useful genealogy information about Internet resources.

footnoteMaven's excellent Shades of the Departed blog is highlighted in Net Notes. The Eastern Washington Genealogical Society is highlighted in Donna Phillips article, whichg has lots of great ideas for genealogy society members.

I really enjoyed, and will investigate thoroughly, Lisa Alzo's list of 50 web sites (I figure I've missed at least 25% of them). The School Records articles were interesting and may be useful. I really like elusive ancestor stories, and the Brickwall Solutions, Mary Virginia, and Cold Case Research stories were great.

As always, my problem is how to find these articles once I have read them once. A paper copy in a file is not the best way for me - my piles get higher and I've wasted paper. Having them online in PDF format, and this table of contents on my blog and in my computer files, works best for me.

BFFed - who to tag next?

I received the Blogger Friends Forever (BFF) award this morning from Terry Thornton, who writes the superb Hill Country of Monroe County, Mississippi blog. Thank you Terry for thinking of me. I could post the logo below on my sidebar if I could figure out how to do it (I'm still on old Blogger):


The rules are if I accept this award I must pass it on. The rules for passing on the award are:

1. Only five people are allowed to receive the award.
2. Four of them must followers of your blog.
3. One has to be new to your blog and live in another part of the world.
4. You must link back to whoever gave you the award.

I choose the following five genealogy bloggers:

* Mark Tucker at the ThinkGenealogy blog
* Laura Womack at the LifeAtTheHome20 blog (a new blog to me)
* Dean Richardson at the Genlighten Blog - Genealogy Documented blog.
* Carolyn Earle Billingsley at the Life in Possum Holler blog.
* Schelly Talalay Dardashti at the Tracing the Tribe - The Jewish Genealogy Blog (I hope this qualifies for the "lives in another part of the world").

Why did I pick these people to be my BFF? Several reasons - they are blogs I learn something from, they are relatively new genealogy blogs, and they are blogs written by Facebook friends, or a combination thereof!

One the neat things about memes like this is that you find interesting blogs you didn't know existed, and some readers of other blogs find your blog too.

Unlike some people (thank you, Terr), I am not going to alert via email my nominees - I'll let them find their award on their own - a surprise! Let's see how long it takes for them to find it.

Fair Warning - or hysteria?

Dick Hillenbrand on his Genealogy Miscellanea blog has posted Genealogists Warning: Do Not Take Laptop, Ipod, Cell Phone, or any other electronic recording device abroad today. It references a Washington Post story that describes the possible perils of travel abroad with digital electronic devices.

Dick's link to the Washington Post didn't work - here's a link to the story by Ellen Nakashima published today. The gist of the story is:

"Federal agents may take a traveler's laptop or other electronic device to an off-site location for an unspecified period of time without any suspicion of wrongdoing, as part of border search policies the Department of Homeland Security recently disclosed.

"Also, officials may share copies of the laptop's contents with other agencies and private entities for language translation, data decryption or other reasons, according to the policies, dated July 16 and issued by two DHS agencies, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement."

That article is certainly ominous - and fair warning for all travelers. The article is sure to cause some hysteria in the travel industries and in newsrooms. But is the article accurate? Frankly, I don't trust any of the major newspapers or news services to provide accurate information - the stories always seem to be slanted one way or another.

The five page ICE policy is published here in PDF form. The article seems to quote the policy accurately.

Trying to find a positive side to this, I'm wondering if the contents of my laptop computer might be transferred from ICE to DHS to NARA to a commercial web site after the appropriate time interval? It might be a genealogy bonanza for a researcher 100 years from now.

I was planning on taking my laptop computer, digital camera and iPod on our genealogy cruise in October. Do you think they'll be interested in my five different genealogy software programs, two books in digital format, pictures of the old guys and young kids, and my notes about how to use The Master Genealogist? Hopefully, this will be straightened out before then.

Thank you to Dick for bringing this to our attention.

Cruiser needs hotel advice in NYC and PR

My wife and I are going cruising in October on the Wholly Genes cruise, departing New York City on 26 October, visiting Antigua and the Virgin Islands before landing in San Juan, Puerto Rico on 2 November. There are three days of genealogy classes during this cruise. The cruise and genealogy class details are here if anybody else want to participate (I have no idea if there is space available).

My reason for posting this is to ask for advice on spending a few days in both New York City before the cruise and in San Juan after the cruise. Our schedules are flexible at this point - we just need to get on the boat in Brooklyn and get off in PR.

Of course, we would love to stay in a hotel that is safe, clean, cheap, has king size beds, has wireless internet, is close to nearby restaurants, has a tour group stop, and/or is near a subway. Oh, also is fairly close to the cruise terminals. I realize that some of these requirements are mutually exclusive! My thought is that some of my readers may have experience and opinions about hotels in these areas.

I've looked at hotels in Brooklyn between JFK airport and the Brooklyn Cruise Terminals on Expedia, Travelocity and AAA. It's difficult to choose! Has anybody cruised out of Brooklyn before and stayed close by in a great place that meets my expectations?

On the San Juan end, I haven't checked for hotels yet. I thought I would go get a AAA book about Puerto Rico and use that to plan, but if someone has a recommendation I would really appreciate it.

Thanks for any help. If you want to email me with information, please do so to rjseaver@cox.net.