Wednesday, October 7, 2009
SDGS Seminar on 14 November: Ancestry.com
The San Diego Genealogical Society will have an All-Day Seminar on Saturday, 14 November featuring Ancestry.com. Here is the announcement from the SDGS Newsletter:
On November 14th, replacing our regular monthly meeting, we will be having an all-day seminar featuring Ancestry.com -- the largest online genealogy research service. It is titled: Everyone Has a Story -- Discover Yours!
Ancestry.com company representatives will be with us and give four presentations covering how to get the most from Ancestry.com. They will cover:
1) The best strategies for getting the most out of Ancestry.com,
2) Tapping into the Ancestry.com and Rootsweb community,
3) The Ancestry World Archives Project
4) Publishing and printing using ‘My Canvas’.
There will certainly be something of interest to researchers at all levels. If you haven’t used Ancestry or feel you’re not getting the most out of your time online, this seminar is a ‘must’.
The event will be held at the Handlery Hotel in Mission Valley. The cost for the meeting, including lunch, will be $30 for members and $35 for nonmembers. A delicious boxed lunch will be served with a croissant sandwich (choice of ham, turkey, roast beef or grilled vegetables), potato chips, whole fruit, cookie and beverage. Reservations are required, so look for the reservation flyer in this Newsletter and on our web site. The meeting will also be promoted by Ancestry.com and we expect a record turnout, so be sure get your reservations in early. There is limited seating so mail your reservation form and check in today so you won’t miss this exciting and information packed seminar. There will be an ‘opportunity drawing’ for an Ancestry.com Annual World Deluxe membership. Tickets will be on sale at our meetings and through our web site -- a $300 value. Be sure to enter.
The seminar runs from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. The Handlery Hotel in Mission Valley is located at 950 Hotel Circle North in Mission Valley (between I-5 and I-15).
The registration form is on the SDGS web site here.
I'm looking forward to hearing what Ancestry.com has to say in this seminar. I missed a similar set of presentations at the FGS Conference in Little Rock.
This type of seminar is a win-win for both Ancestry.com and the society - Ancestry.com may gain new subscribers and SDGS may gain new members.
On November 14th, replacing our regular monthly meeting, we will be having an all-day seminar featuring Ancestry.com -- the largest online genealogy research service. It is titled: Everyone Has a Story -- Discover Yours!
Ancestry.com company representatives will be with us and give four presentations covering how to get the most from Ancestry.com. They will cover:
1) The best strategies for getting the most out of Ancestry.com,
2) Tapping into the Ancestry.com and Rootsweb community,
3) The Ancestry World Archives Project
4) Publishing and printing using ‘My Canvas’.
There will certainly be something of interest to researchers at all levels. If you haven’t used Ancestry or feel you’re not getting the most out of your time online, this seminar is a ‘must’.
The event will be held at the Handlery Hotel in Mission Valley. The cost for the meeting, including lunch, will be $30 for members and $35 for nonmembers. A delicious boxed lunch will be served with a croissant sandwich (choice of ham, turkey, roast beef or grilled vegetables), potato chips, whole fruit, cookie and beverage. Reservations are required, so look for the reservation flyer in this Newsletter and on our web site. The meeting will also be promoted by Ancestry.com and we expect a record turnout, so be sure get your reservations in early. There is limited seating so mail your reservation form and check in today so you won’t miss this exciting and information packed seminar. There will be an ‘opportunity drawing’ for an Ancestry.com Annual World Deluxe membership. Tickets will be on sale at our meetings and through our web site -- a $300 value. Be sure to enter.
The seminar runs from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. The Handlery Hotel in Mission Valley is located at 950 Hotel Circle North in Mission Valley (between I-5 and I-15).
The registration form is on the SDGS web site here.
I'm looking forward to hearing what Ancestry.com has to say in this seminar. I missed a similar set of presentations at the FGS Conference in Little Rock.
This type of seminar is a win-win for both Ancestry.com and the society - Ancestry.com may gain new subscribers and SDGS may gain new members.
Labels: Ancestry.com, Conferences/Seminars, San Diego area, SDGS
Michelle Obama's Roots - Video and Article
Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak has worked on the ancestry and family history of several current political figures. Her latest subject is Michelle (Robinson) Obama, wife of President Barack Obama (my cousin!).
Megan's search for the First Lady's heritage, and in particular the migration from the American South to Chicago, Illinois, are presented in the video. The video includes details about Michelle's Native and Irish heritage, free and enslaved ancestors, ten states that claim a piece of Michelle's past, and which relative invented a marble shooter!
The video is online at Roots Television in Michelle Obama's Roots.
There is an article in The New York Times today, by Rachel L. Swarns and Jodi Kantor titled "In First Lady’s Roots, a Complex Path From Slavery." The article provides more details about the life of Melvina, one of Michelle's slave ancestors.
Both the video and the article are excellent pieces of genealogy research work that demonstrate that genealogy research can unearth significant details in African-American families back to the time of the Civil War, and occasionally back into the 1700s.
The stories of Michelle's ancestors also demonstrate, to me at least, that any person in present-day America can succeed in life through education and determination.
Now I'm wondering if there are any genea-bloggers related to Michelle?
Nice work, Megan! I love it when genealogy research receive favorable publicity in the media.
UPDATED: I wonder if there is a male line from the son Dolphus Shields down to present-day Shields males. If so, then a Y-DNA test might confirm a white Shields paternity for Dolphus if they can find a white male Shields descendant from the 1850's Shields family.
Megan's search for the First Lady's heritage, and in particular the migration from the American South to Chicago, Illinois, are presented in the video. The video includes details about Michelle's Native and Irish heritage, free and enslaved ancestors, ten states that claim a piece of Michelle's past, and which relative invented a marble shooter!
The video is online at Roots Television in Michelle Obama's Roots.
There is an article in The New York Times today, by Rachel L. Swarns and Jodi Kantor titled "In First Lady’s Roots, a Complex Path From Slavery." The article provides more details about the life of Melvina, one of Michelle's slave ancestors.
Both the video and the article are excellent pieces of genealogy research work that demonstrate that genealogy research can unearth significant details in African-American families back to the time of the Civil War, and occasionally back into the 1700s.
The stories of Michelle's ancestors also demonstrate, to me at least, that any person in present-day America can succeed in life through education and determination.
Now I'm wondering if there are any genea-bloggers related to Michelle?
Nice work, Megan! I love it when genealogy research receive favorable publicity in the media.
UPDATED: I wonder if there is a male line from the son Dolphus Shields down to present-day Shields males. If so, then a Y-DNA test might confirm a white Shields paternity for Dolphus if they can find a white male Shields descendant from the 1850's Shields family.
Labels: African-American Research, Elusive ancestors, genealogy resources, Online resources
The Genea-Monster Mash
Someone has way too much time on their hands, and is wonderfully creative!
Check out this seasonal video starring, well, see if you can guess who!
The Genea-Monster Mash!!
Check out this seasonal video starring, well, see if you can guess who!
The Genea-Monster Mash!!
Enjoy!
UPDATED 5 p.m. OK, now we know who did it... I'm surprised that she didn't put it on her blog!
Labels: genealogy blogs, strange or funny
SDGS Meeting -- Gena Ortega on "Using Google for Your Genealogy"
The next meeting of the San Diego Genealogical Society is at 12 noon on Saturday, 10 October, at St. Andrew's Methodist Church (8350 Lake Murray Blvd., at Jackson Drive) in San Diego.
The program speaker is Gena Philibert Ortega on "Using Google for Your Genealogy." The program description and Gena's curriculum vitae are (from the SDGS Newsletter):
Everyone knows what a great search engine Google is but not every family historian knows the many other features it has that can enhance your research. Our presentation will explore the less used aspects of Google like Books, Picasa,
Docs, Maps, World, Archives, etc. If you don’t feel you are getting the most out of this powerful search engine and its many other programs, you need to attend this meeting. You will be amazed at what it can do to take your research to whole new levels.
Our presenter, Gena Philibert Ortega, is a professional genealogist, helping others research their family history. She also teaches classes and workshops in genealogical research techniques. As an author, she writes articles for the online newsletter, Genweekly, published by Genealogy Today. In addition, she has written a book, Cemeteries of the Eastern Sierra published by Arcadia Publishing.
Gena has a master’s degree in Interdisciplinary Studies (Psychology and Women’s Studies) and also holds a Master’s degree in Religion.
You will not want to miss this special presentation that will leave you wondering how you ever got along without Google in your genealogy tool kit.
I look forward to seeing Gena again and learning more about the wonders of using Google for my genealogy research.
The program speaker is Gena Philibert Ortega on "Using Google for Your Genealogy." The program description and Gena's curriculum vitae are (from the SDGS Newsletter):
Everyone knows what a great search engine Google is but not every family historian knows the many other features it has that can enhance your research. Our presentation will explore the less used aspects of Google like Books, Picasa,
Docs, Maps, World, Archives, etc. If you don’t feel you are getting the most out of this powerful search engine and its many other programs, you need to attend this meeting. You will be amazed at what it can do to take your research to whole new levels.
Our presenter, Gena Philibert Ortega, is a professional genealogist, helping others research their family history. She also teaches classes and workshops in genealogical research techniques. As an author, she writes articles for the online newsletter, Genweekly, published by Genealogy Today. In addition, she has written a book, Cemeteries of the Eastern Sierra published by Arcadia Publishing.
Gena has a master’s degree in Interdisciplinary Studies (Psychology and Women’s Studies) and also holds a Master’s degree in Religion.
You will not want to miss this special presentation that will leave you wondering how you ever got along without Google in your genealogy tool kit.
I look forward to seeing Gena again and learning more about the wonders of using Google for my genealogy research.
Labels: genealogy societies, SDGS, Search Engines
The Geneaholic's New Workstation
For the Geneaholic who has no time for regular life functions...
Notice the rollers on the workstation? Cool, eh?
Now where can I put all of my genealogy books and files that are not on my computer hard drive yet?
Labels: Genealogy Fun, strange or funny
Wordy Wednesday - Family Photographs: Post 74: Georgianna (Kemp) Auble
I'm posting old family photographs from my collection on Wednesdays, but they won't be wordless Wednesday posts like others do - I simply am incapable of having a wordless post. So this one will be wordy...
This photograph is from the collection of pictures given to me by my mother from the four generation Smith-Auble-Carringer-Seaver archives during the 1988 to 2002 time period:
The subject of this photograph is Georgianna (Kemp) Auble (1868-1952), daughter of James Abram and Mary Jane (Sovereen) Kemp, wife of Charles Auble (1849-1916) and mother of Emily Kemp (Auble) Carringer, my maternal grandmother.
This photograph was taken in about 1916. At this time, the Auble family lived at 767 14th Street in San Diego, according to San Diego City Directories. Charles Auble fell down stairs in March 1916 and died soon after. My guess is that this picture was taken before his fall and death because Georgianna is not in mourning clothes.
I digitally captioned many of these old photographs several years ago, as seen above. For the next Scanfest, I'm going to re-scan many of these photographs at higher resolution with my new printer/scanner/copier and tag the photographs rather than add a caption to the front of the digital photograph.
This photograph is from the collection of pictures given to me by my mother from the four generation Smith-Auble-Carringer-Seaver archives during the 1988 to 2002 time period:
The subject of this photograph is Georgianna (Kemp) Auble (1868-1952), daughter of James Abram and Mary Jane (Sovereen) Kemp, wife of Charles Auble (1849-1916) and mother of Emily Kemp (Auble) Carringer, my maternal grandmother.
This photograph was taken in about 1916. At this time, the Auble family lived at 767 14th Street in San Diego, according to San Diego City Directories. Charles Auble fell down stairs in March 1916 and died soon after. My guess is that this picture was taken before his fall and death because Georgianna is not in mourning clothes.
I digitally captioned many of these old photographs several years ago, as seen above. For the next Scanfest, I'm going to re-scan many of these photographs at higher resolution with my new printer/scanner/copier and tag the photographs rather than add a caption to the front of the digital photograph.
Labels: My genealogy research, photographs
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
NEHGS has Genealogical Journals Online webpage
The New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) has created a separate web page for six scholarly genealogy periodicals called "Genealogical Journals Online: National Collection." This page is accessible to NEHGS members only.
The six journals include:
* New England Historical and Genealogical Register (1847 to present)
* New England Ancestors Magazine (2000 to present)
* The American Genealogist (1937 to present)
* The Connecticut Nutmegger (1968 to present)
* New Netherlands Connection (1996 to 2008)
* The Virginia Genealogist (1957 to 1966)
These periodicals are first and last name and subject article keyword indexed. Images of the original pages may be seen from the search results page. It is also possible to browse the pages by entering a Year (or volume number) and a page number.
Full Disclosure: I am not an employee or affiliate of NEHGS, but I am a paid-up NEHGS member and have access to these databases. No one paid me to publish this information.
The six journals include:
* New England Historical and Genealogical Register (1847 to present)
* New England Ancestors Magazine (2000 to present)
* The American Genealogist (1937 to present)
* The Connecticut Nutmegger (1968 to present)
* New Netherlands Connection (1996 to 2008)
* The Virginia Genealogist (1957 to 1966)
These periodicals are first and last name and subject article keyword indexed. Images of the original pages may be seen from the search results page. It is also possible to browse the pages by entering a Year (or volume number) and a page number.
Full Disclosure: I am not an employee or affiliate of NEHGS, but I am a paid-up NEHGS member and have access to these databases. No one paid me to publish this information.
Labels: NEHGS, Online resources, periodical indexes, Search Engines
Ancestry Product Updates
One section of the latest Ancestry.com publicity email addresses Product Updates from Eric Shoup, VP Product, including:
* Family Tree Maker 2010
Since Family Tree Maker 2010 was released in mid August, initial reviews are very positive overall. Especially popular is the new ability to download a tree (including photos and stories) from Ancestry.com into Family Tree Maker.
We are planning to release a small update to the 2010 version that will address some of the issues that have been reported in early use of the product. Of particular note are the following:
*** Improved linking to source records in trees downloaded from Ancestry.com
*** Ability to manually download Ancestry.com linked records
*** Fix for media item display when added to a book
*** Improved wording of custom facts in the genealogy reports
*** Improved importing from GEDCOM, PAF and Legacy
*** Other minor stability improvements
* New Tree Viewer
We have had our new tree viewer out in preview mode for a few weeks now. We’ve received more than 8,000 feedback emails so far about it. The preview will continue for several more weeks as we continue to iterate and listen to customer feedback. Stay tuned as we work to update the New Tree Viewer preview to address points of member feedback.
* New Enhanced Image Page
The new Enhanced Image Page (aka the new Content Viewer) has been in use for 2 months now. In my last update, I pondered aloud how the new editing would impact our rate of augmentations submitted by Ancestry.com members to our indices. After 2 months of usage, members have submitted 685,000 edits. This equates to 85,000 edits per week over the last 8 weeks, which is up from 30,000 edits per week prior to the new Enhanced Image Page.
* Just Launched -- Share Records through Facebook, Twitter & Email
This week, we just added the ability to share a historical record via Facebook, Twitter and email. Once shared, your friends and family can click-through to Ancestry.com to view the record without needing to register. This is an easy way to share your daily discoveries with people who matter to you.
We have implemented this capability in a limited way on the site to gauge interest. You are only able to share historical records and only from the Record page itself. If the response is positive, we will extend this same capability to more places on the site and to more types of media (such as photos and stories).
You can try this by going to a Record page and clicking on Share this record.
From there, you can customize the text of the post or email.
My comments:
There was also an update on the Member Connect feature.
I'm sure that all of these announcements and updates, especially the screen shots and perhaps more detail of the Sharing in Twitter, Facebook and email, will be put on the Ancestry.com blog.
I wonder how they will distribute the updates to FTM 2010? Probably by CDROM if past history is an indicator - they haven't done any online downloads if I recall correctly.
The New Tree Viewer is useful, but seems like a small change to me and is somewhat confusing to a new user.
The New Enhanced Image Page is great and is a big change from the previous image page. I especially like seeing the index and the source citation information (such as it is). The Magnify feature is really useful, too. The user can expand the image area by clicking on the down arrow to deflate the index box and the right arrow to deflate the Member Connect/source box.
An addition or improvement that I would like to see is to be able to browse through the index page-by-page. It is much easier to read an index list of typed names than to read the handwriting on the image page.
Full disclosure (required by new FTC rules): I am not an Ancestry.com employee, contractor or affiliate. I receive publicity emails from Ancestry.com. I have my own paid US Subscription to Ancestry.com. I have purchased Family Tree Maker 2008, 2009 and 2010, and have received complimentary copies of FTM 2009 and 2010, which I donated to my local genealogy society.
UPDATED 6 October: So my memory was faulty... Family Tree Maker updated other versions using a downloadable software patch. Sorry! You can download updates for earlier versions by using the "Help" menu in your FTM program and using the "Update" button. You have to be connected to the Internet. See more info on the FTM Support web page.
* Family Tree Maker 2010
Since Family Tree Maker 2010 was released in mid August, initial reviews are very positive overall. Especially popular is the new ability to download a tree (including photos and stories) from Ancestry.com into Family Tree Maker.
We are planning to release a small update to the 2010 version that will address some of the issues that have been reported in early use of the product. Of particular note are the following:
*** Improved linking to source records in trees downloaded from Ancestry.com
*** Ability to manually download Ancestry.com linked records
*** Fix for media item display when added to a book
*** Improved wording of custom facts in the genealogy reports
*** Improved importing from GEDCOM, PAF and Legacy
*** Other minor stability improvements
* New Tree Viewer
We have had our new tree viewer out in preview mode for a few weeks now. We’ve received more than 8,000 feedback emails so far about it. The preview will continue for several more weeks as we continue to iterate and listen to customer feedback. Stay tuned as we work to update the New Tree Viewer preview to address points of member feedback.
* New Enhanced Image Page
The new Enhanced Image Page (aka the new Content Viewer) has been in use for 2 months now. In my last update, I pondered aloud how the new editing would impact our rate of augmentations submitted by Ancestry.com members to our indices. After 2 months of usage, members have submitted 685,000 edits. This equates to 85,000 edits per week over the last 8 weeks, which is up from 30,000 edits per week prior to the new Enhanced Image Page.
* Just Launched -- Share Records through Facebook, Twitter & Email
This week, we just added the ability to share a historical record via Facebook, Twitter and email. Once shared, your friends and family can click-through to Ancestry.com to view the record without needing to register. This is an easy way to share your daily discoveries with people who matter to you.
We have implemented this capability in a limited way on the site to gauge interest. You are only able to share historical records and only from the Record page itself. If the response is positive, we will extend this same capability to more places on the site and to more types of media (such as photos and stories).
You can try this by going to a Record page and clicking on Share this record.
From there, you can customize the text of the post or email.
My comments:
There was also an update on the Member Connect feature.
I'm sure that all of these announcements and updates, especially the screen shots and perhaps more detail of the Sharing in Twitter, Facebook and email, will be put on the Ancestry.com blog.
I wonder how they will distribute the updates to FTM 2010? Probably by CDROM if past history is an indicator - they haven't done any online downloads if I recall correctly.
The New Tree Viewer is useful, but seems like a small change to me and is somewhat confusing to a new user.
The New Enhanced Image Page is great and is a big change from the previous image page. I especially like seeing the index and the source citation information (such as it is). The Magnify feature is really useful, too. The user can expand the image area by clicking on the down arrow to deflate the index box and the right arrow to deflate the Member Connect/source box.
An addition or improvement that I would like to see is to be able to browse through the index page-by-page. It is much easier to read an index list of typed names than to read the handwriting on the image page.
Full disclosure (required by new FTC rules): I am not an Ancestry.com employee, contractor or affiliate. I receive publicity emails from Ancestry.com. I have my own paid US Subscription to Ancestry.com. I have purchased Family Tree Maker 2008, 2009 and 2010, and have received complimentary copies of FTM 2009 and 2010, which I donated to my local genealogy society.
UPDATED 6 October: So my memory was faulty... Family Tree Maker updated other versions using a downloadable software patch. Sorry! You can download updates for earlier versions by using the "Help" menu in your FTM program and using the "Update" button. You have to be connected to the Internet. See more info on the FTM Support web page.
Labels: Ancestry.com, Facebook, Online resources
Databases Coming Soon to Ancestry.com
From the email sent by Ancestry.com today:
Here’s a preview of some of the Collections Coming soon to Ancestry.com:
* Improved U.S. Census Collection (1790-1840)
Description: Ancestry.com will be release all of the early census years with improved images. These new images will prove new clarity to often difficult to read census pages.
* Improved U.S. Census Collection (1850-1870)
Description: Along with the early census year Ancestry will be releasing improved images and indexes for the census years 1850, 1860 and 1870.
* U.S. Navy Cruise Books
Est. Record Count: 500k
Est. Image County: 78k
Description: U.S. Navy Cruise Books are the equivalent of a high school yearbook for Navy ship deployments. They consist of photos of personnel, ship activities and other events of a deployment.
* Historic Postcards Collection, c. 1893-1963
Est. Record Count: 23k
Est. Image Count: 41k
Description: The current database contains approximately 200,000 postcards dating from about 1893-1960, information provided about each postcard includes: place information, caption, and year range. This addition will include postcards from NJ, SC, CT, WI, WA, TN, IA, VA, IN, MI
At the Ancestry.com briefing for bloggers at the FGS Conference, Ancestry.com said that they had released almost all of the databases that they had listed in the December 2008 "Coming Soon" page, and listed more databases that would be coming soon.
Ancestry.com has apparently taken down their "Coming Soon" page that I summarized back in August. I do have screen shots of the August page...
At the FGS Conference meeting, they said that they will not provide "forward looking" announcements because of SEC restrictions.
Full disclosure: I am not an Ancestry.com employee or affiliate. I do receive publicity emails from Ancestry.com. I have my own paid US Subscription to Ancestry.com.
Here’s a preview of some of the Collections Coming soon to Ancestry.com:
* Improved U.S. Census Collection (1790-1840)
Description: Ancestry.com will be release all of the early census years with improved images. These new images will prove new clarity to often difficult to read census pages.
* Improved U.S. Census Collection (1850-1870)
Description: Along with the early census year Ancestry will be releasing improved images and indexes for the census years 1850, 1860 and 1870.
* U.S. Navy Cruise Books
Est. Record Count: 500k
Est. Image County: 78k
Description: U.S. Navy Cruise Books are the equivalent of a high school yearbook for Navy ship deployments. They consist of photos of personnel, ship activities and other events of a deployment.
* Historic Postcards Collection, c. 1893-1963
Est. Record Count: 23k
Est. Image Count: 41k
Description: The current database contains approximately 200,000 postcards dating from about 1893-1960, information provided about each postcard includes: place information, caption, and year range. This addition will include postcards from NJ, SC, CT, WI, WA, TN, IA, VA, IN, MI
At the Ancestry.com briefing for bloggers at the FGS Conference, Ancestry.com said that they had released almost all of the databases that they had listed in the December 2008 "Coming Soon" page, and listed more databases that would be coming soon.
Ancestry.com has apparently taken down their "Coming Soon" page that I summarized back in August. I do have screen shots of the August page...
At the FGS Conference meeting, they said that they will not provide "forward looking" announcements because of SEC restrictions.
Full disclosure: I am not an Ancestry.com employee or affiliate. I do receive publicity emails from Ancestry.com. I have my own paid US Subscription to Ancestry.com.
Labels: Ancestry.com, Online resources
Ancestry.com teams with NARA
Ancestry.com has announced that they expanded their relationship with the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) that enables the company to digitize NARA record collections at a new Ancestry.com facility in the Washington, D.C., area. The press release of this announcement can be read online in the Ancestry.com press room at http://corporate.ancestry.com/press/press-releases/view/?id=494
The first two collections scanned at this new facility are described below:
* Honolulu, Hawaii Passenger Lists, 1900-1953 – The Honolulu Passenger Lists consists of inbound vessel passenger manifests for the period February 1900 to December 1953 and provides a unique insight into non-traditional ports of entry.
* Death Reports of American Citizens Abroad, 1910-1974 – Death Reports of American Citizens Abroad includes records of the U.S. consular officers that reported to the Department of State the names of U.S. citizens who died within their consular districts. These death reports commonly provide acceptable documentation in the English language for cases in which satisfactory proof of an American death might be very difficult to obtain in any other form.
You can view the full list of databases recently added by Ancestry.com, extending back a couple of months, at http://www.ancestry.com/search/rectype/recent.aspx.
Full disclosure: I am not an Ancestry.com employee or affiliate. I do receive publicity emails from Ancestry.com. I have my own paid US Subscription to Ancestry.com.
The first two collections scanned at this new facility are described below:
* Honolulu, Hawaii Passenger Lists, 1900-1953 – The Honolulu Passenger Lists consists of inbound vessel passenger manifests for the period February 1900 to December 1953 and provides a unique insight into non-traditional ports of entry.
* Death Reports of American Citizens Abroad, 1910-1974 – Death Reports of American Citizens Abroad includes records of the U.S. consular officers that reported to the Department of State the names of U.S. citizens who died within their consular districts. These death reports commonly provide acceptable documentation in the English language for cases in which satisfactory proof of an American death might be very difficult to obtain in any other form.
You can view the full list of databases recently added by Ancestry.com, extending back a couple of months, at http://www.ancestry.com/search/rectype/recent.aspx.
Full disclosure: I am not an Ancestry.com employee or affiliate. I do receive publicity emails from Ancestry.com. I have my own paid US Subscription to Ancestry.com.
Labels: Ancestry.com, National Archives, Online resources
Monday, October 5, 2009
Vote for Your Favorite Genealogy Blogs
The polls are now open until 5 November at Family Tree Magazine for voting on your favorite genealogy blogs. The categories (described in detail on The Genealogy Insider blog post) , and number of blogs to vote for in each category, are:
* All-Around (vote for 3)
* Cemeteries (vote for 2)
* Genealogy Companies (vote for 1)
* Genetic Genealogy (vote for 1)
* Heritage (vote for 4)
* How To (vote for 3)
* Local/Regional (vote for 3)
* News/Resources - vote for 4)
* Photos/Heirlooms (vote for 2)
* Personal/Family (vote for 12)
The wonderful and thoughtful footnoteMaven has listed links to all of the nominated blogs in her post here.
I like that they have broken the blogs into categories, that the order in the list is tandom (it changes every time you go to the list), and that we can vote for a number of blogs in each category. There are 131 blogs on the nomination form.
You can vote any number of times - you just need to follow the directions.
Genea-Musings is in the All-Around category. Thank you to those who nominated this blog, and I will greatly appreciate your votes.
What happens after 5 November? The Genealogy Insider blog post says:
"The top 80 vote-getting blogs will make it through to a "final" round, and our editorial staff will select 40 blogs from that list. The Family Tree 40 will be announced in the May 2010 Family Tree Magazine and in the Genealogy Insider e-mail newsletter."
Labels: genealogy blogs
Family Tree Maker 2010 Webinar Available
The Family Tree Maker 2010 Webinar, given on Wednesday, 30 September, is now available.
All of the Ancestry.com Webinars are listed at http://learn.ancestry.com/LearnMore/Webinars.aspx.
The Family Tree Maker 2010 webinar is here. You have to register with your name and an email address in order to watch and hear the webinar.
Michele Pfister moderated this webinar, and Duff Wilson described the FTM 2010 features in the first 24 minutes, and the balance of the webinar (total of 58 minutes) addresses questions submitted on their blog and by webinar registrants.
I learned a few things from watching this webinar - one being that I could see the Places associated with events for one person, or for up to four generations of a family, by using the Person index in the Places workspace. That had escaped me before.
If you are using FTM 2010 and have a free hour, watch and listen to the webinar.
A recap of this webinar was posted on the Ancestry.com blog.
Ancestry.com has a number of helpful webinars available on their Webinar page for viewing and listening. There is no cost to participate in and/or view the webinars.
All of the Ancestry.com Webinars are listed at http://learn.ancestry.com/LearnMore/Webinars.aspx.
The Family Tree Maker 2010 webinar is here. You have to register with your name and an email address in order to watch and hear the webinar.
Michele Pfister moderated this webinar, and Duff Wilson described the FTM 2010 features in the first 24 minutes, and the balance of the webinar (total of 58 minutes) addresses questions submitted on their blog and by webinar registrants.
I learned a few things from watching this webinar - one being that I could see the Places associated with events for one person, or for up to four generations of a family, by using the Person index in the Places workspace. That had escaped me before.
If you are using FTM 2010 and have a free hour, watch and listen to the webinar.
A recap of this webinar was posted on the Ancestry.com blog.
Ancestry.com has a number of helpful webinars available on their Webinar page for viewing and listening. There is no cost to participate in and/or view the webinars.
Labels: Ancestry.com, Genealogy Video
"Is She the World's Greatest DNA Detective?"
The Orange County (CA) Register newspaper ran an article by Tom Berg on Friday, 2 October with this title about my genealogy friend, Colleen Fitzpatrick (www.identifnders.com, www.forensicgenealogy.info). The web page has a heading "She's part Sherlock Holmes, part Miss Marple, and a lot CSI." The article talks a bit about Colleen and her search for the identity of "Benjaman Kyle," the man with amnesia found near Savannah, Georgia in 2004.
Read the entire article - it is an excellent summary of Colleen's life and one of the cases that has stumped her, and others. It even lists her telephone number and email address.
There are seven photographs on the page - click through each of them and read the captions too.
Three more stories are planned --
* Tuesday, October 6 -- Fitzpatrick tracks a severed arm halfway around the world
* Wednesday, October 7 -- Three tiny teeth tell the story of the Titanic's "Unknown Child."
* Thursday, October 8 -- Will the Man With No Memory be the first case Fitzpatrick can't solve?
I'm looking forward to all three of these articles.
On the one hand, I am happy that Colleen is getting this publicity because it is a major and favorable boost for Genetic Genealogy and Forensic Genealogy.
However, I think the headline is misleading. There are many DNA detectives out there, and Colleen is one of the best. But I would not put her in the same class as, say, Bryan Sykes.
Read the entire article - it is an excellent summary of Colleen's life and one of the cases that has stumped her, and others. It even lists her telephone number and email address.
There are seven photographs on the page - click through each of them and read the captions too.
Three more stories are planned --
* Tuesday, October 6 -- Fitzpatrick tracks a severed arm halfway around the world
* Wednesday, October 7 -- Three tiny teeth tell the story of the Titanic's "Unknown Child."
* Thursday, October 8 -- Will the Man With No Memory be the first case Fitzpatrick can't solve?
I'm looking forward to all three of these articles.
On the one hand, I am happy that Colleen is getting this publicity because it is a major and favorable boost for Genetic Genealogy and Forensic Genealogy.
However, I think the headline is misleading. There are many DNA detectives out there, and Colleen is one of the best. But I would not put her in the same class as, say, Bryan Sykes.
Labels: current newspaper articles, DNA
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Best of the Genea-Blogs - September 27 - October 3, 2009
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 genealogy carnivals, 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:
* DropBox: Why You Need This Program by Dick Eastman on the Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter blog. Dick finds these computer gems and tells us about them. This one looks really useful for those of us with more than one computer.
* Finding Sources For IGI Records by the writer of The Ancestry Insider blog. Mr. AI contributes a very welcome tutorial on sources for the IGI records.
* Whatever happened to genealogical evidence standards? and A little more on proof in genealogy by James Tanner on the Genealogy's Star blog. James describes his experiences and frustrations with genealogists who don't understand the need for standards.
* You Don't Know What You Don't Know by Tim Cox on the California Genealogical Society and Library blog. Tim's research experiences parallel those of many researchers - and we should all heed his recommendations.
* Graveyard Rabbits Carnival – October 2009 Edition by Julie Cahill Tarr on The Graveyard Rabbit blog. There were 8 entries in this carnival on the subject of "Funeral Cards."
* More Stirrings from Matilda and Blessings from the Ancestors by Mavis Jones on the Georgia Black Crackers blog. Mavis finds some hidden treasures and then reconnects with some probable cousins.
* The Mysteries of Adline Gines & Belle Wheeler by Craig Manson on the Geneablogie blog. It seems that Craig solves more research mysteries each month than I identify in a year. I love how he tells us about the problems, the research and the solutions. There are lessons her for everybody.
* New (and new to me) Genealogical Serendipity by Janet Hovorka on The Chart Chick blog. Janet collects serendipity stories, and has some good ones for us, and some links to others.
* Look out world - here comes the iceberg! by Tami Glatz on the relatively curious about genealogy blog. Tami comments on the news that most of the FHL microfilms have been digitized.
* Mourning Visiting Cards by footnoteMaven on the Shades of the Departed blog. fM tells us about visiting cards and mourning cards from the Victorian era.
* Google Wave Will Revolutionize Collaborative Genealogy by Jordan Jones on the GenealogyMedia.com: the blog. Jordan describes how Google Wave may impact genealogy research - fascinating.
* Identity Theft is Usually an Unsophisticated Crime by Dick Eastman on the Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter blog.
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 - all bloggers appreciate feedback on what they write.
Did I miss a great genealogy blog post? Tell me! I am currently reading posts from over 510 genealogy bloggers using Bloglines, but I still miss quite a few it seems.
Read past Best of the Genea-Blogs posts here.
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 genealogy carnivals, 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:
* DropBox: Why You Need This Program by Dick Eastman on the Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter blog. Dick finds these computer gems and tells us about them. This one looks really useful for those of us with more than one computer.
* Finding Sources For IGI Records by the writer of The Ancestry Insider blog. Mr. AI contributes a very welcome tutorial on sources for the IGI records.
* Whatever happened to genealogical evidence standards? and A little more on proof in genealogy by James Tanner on the Genealogy's Star blog. James describes his experiences and frustrations with genealogists who don't understand the need for standards.
* You Don't Know What You Don't Know by Tim Cox on the California Genealogical Society and Library blog. Tim's research experiences parallel those of many researchers - and we should all heed his recommendations.
* Graveyard Rabbits Carnival – October 2009 Edition by Julie Cahill Tarr on The Graveyard Rabbit blog. There were 8 entries in this carnival on the subject of "Funeral Cards."
* More Stirrings from Matilda and Blessings from the Ancestors by Mavis Jones on the Georgia Black Crackers blog. Mavis finds some hidden treasures and then reconnects with some probable cousins.
* The Mysteries of Adline Gines & Belle Wheeler by Craig Manson on the Geneablogie blog. It seems that Craig solves more research mysteries each month than I identify in a year. I love how he tells us about the problems, the research and the solutions. There are lessons her for everybody.
* New (and new to me) Genealogical Serendipity by Janet Hovorka on The Chart Chick blog. Janet collects serendipity stories, and has some good ones for us, and some links to others.
* Look out world - here comes the iceberg! by Tami Glatz on the relatively curious about genealogy blog. Tami comments on the news that most of the FHL microfilms have been digitized.
* Mourning Visiting Cards by footnoteMaven on the Shades of the Departed blog. fM tells us about visiting cards and mourning cards from the Victorian era.
* Google Wave Will Revolutionize Collaborative Genealogy by Jordan Jones on the GenealogyMedia.com: the blog. Jordan describes how Google Wave may impact genealogy research - fascinating.
* Identity Theft is Usually an Unsophisticated Crime by Dick Eastman on the Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter blog.
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 - all bloggers appreciate feedback on what they write.
Did I miss a great genealogy blog post? Tell me! I am currently reading posts from over 510 genealogy bloggers using Bloglines, but I still miss quite a few it seems.
Read past Best of the Genea-Blogs posts here.
Labels: BestofGeneaBlogs, genealogy blogs, genealogy resources, Online resources
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - A Childhood Memory
Hey, it's Saturday Night - time for some Genealogy Fun!
We all have childhood memories, but if you're like me, you're concentrating on getting the family history of your parents and earlier generations. Let's think about ourselves here.
Here's your mission if you want to accept it ...
1. What is one of your most vivid childhood memories? Was it family, friends, places, events, or just plain fun?
2) Tell us about it in a comment to this post, a Comment or Note on Facebook, or in a blog post of your own.
Here's mine:
My earliest memory is of my parents bringing my brother Stanley home from the hospital after his birth. I still have the visual of my father holding the baby as he came through the front door of the small flat at 2114 Fern Street in San Diego.
I was almost three years old and had been the focus of my parents and my grandparents for a long time. It wasn't long before our growing family moved into a larger flat at 2119 30th Street in the two-story house right next to the Fern Street house. I have many memories of the 30th Street house, and can draw the floor plan from memory.
Probably the most fun that Stan and I had in the 30th Street house was setting up and playing with the Lionel train set. We had tracks through the living room, our adjoining bedroom, in my parents bedroom and into the entry hall/office area. We ran two different trains on the tracks trying to make them crash into each other. Heck, we were boys! Our father was probably the biggest boy of all!
There - two memories... there are many more!
We all have childhood memories, but if you're like me, you're concentrating on getting the family history of your parents and earlier generations. Let's think about ourselves here.
Here's your mission if you want to accept it ...
1. What is one of your most vivid childhood memories? Was it family, friends, places, events, or just plain fun?
2) Tell us about it in a comment to this post, a Comment or Note on Facebook, or in a blog post of your own.
Here's mine:
My earliest memory is of my parents bringing my brother Stanley home from the hospital after his birth. I still have the visual of my father holding the baby as he came through the front door of the small flat at 2114 Fern Street in San Diego.
I was almost three years old and had been the focus of my parents and my grandparents for a long time. It wasn't long before our growing family moved into a larger flat at 2119 30th Street in the two-story house right next to the Fern Street house. I have many memories of the 30th Street house, and can draw the floor plan from memory.
Probably the most fun that Stan and I had in the 30th Street house was setting up and playing with the Lionel train set. We had tracks through the living room, our adjoining bedroom, in my parents bedroom and into the entry hall/office area. We ran two different trains on the tracks trying to make them crash into each other. Heck, we were boys! Our father was probably the biggest boy of all!
There - two memories... there are many more!
Labels: Family Stories, Memories, SNGF
Free Databases on Ancestry.com
There are at least three lists of FREE databases on Ancestry.com. They are:
* Genealogy Buff (http://www.genealogybuff.com/) has a list with links here. Some of the items on this list are duplicates - it looks like there are 68 different links at this time.
* Cyndi's List (http://www.cyndislist.com/) has a list with links here. There are 55 databases on this list, including some that are not on the Genealogy Buff list.
* Lorine Schulze's Olive Tree Genealogy (http://www.olivetreegenealogy.com) has a list with links here. She claims over 250 links, but some are duplicates, I think. I think that she has some not on the other two lists.
In some cases, the Free access includes only the Index and the record summary, not the record image. This is the case for the 1880 United States census, and the 1881 England/Wales Census. Of course, if you are an Ancestry paid subscriber you can access the images too.
If someone has another list of FREE Ancestry databases, please let me know.
UPDATED: Lorine commented that her web site has links also - I added it to my list above.
* Genealogy Buff (http://www.genealogybuff.com/) has a list with links here. Some of the items on this list are duplicates - it looks like there are 68 different links at this time.
* Cyndi's List (http://www.cyndislist.com/) has a list with links here. There are 55 databases on this list, including some that are not on the Genealogy Buff list.
* Lorine Schulze's Olive Tree Genealogy (http://www.olivetreegenealogy.com) has a list with links here. She claims over 250 links, but some are duplicates, I think. I think that she has some not on the other two lists.
In some cases, the Free access includes only the Index and the record summary, not the record image. This is the case for the 1880 United States census, and the 1881 England/Wales Census. Of course, if you are an Ancestry paid subscriber you can access the images too.
If someone has another list of FREE Ancestry databases, please let me know.
UPDATED: Lorine commented that her web site has links also - I added it to my list above.
Labels: Ancestry.com, Online resources, Research tips
Friday, October 2, 2009
Updated List of Unindexed Ancestry.com Databases
I posted Unindexed Databases on Ancestry.com Redux back in May, and wanted to update the list, since it appears that there are more databases that are not name indexed now on the list. They can be searched only by browsing page by page.
I used the Google site search string of "no search function for names" and received these results:
* Missouri Still Birth & Miscellaneous Records, 1805-2002
* Selected U.S. Naturalization Record Indexes, 1791-1992 (World ...
* U.S. Revolutionary War Miscellaneous Records (Manuscript File ...
* U.S. Index to General Correspondence of the Record and Pension ...
* War of 1812 Pension Application Files Index, 1812-1815
* Hamburg Passenger Lists, Handwritten Indexes, 1855-1934
* Returns from U.S. Military Posts, 1800-1916 (World Archives ...
* AJHS New York Hebrew Orphan Asylum Records, 1860-1934
* AJHS Industrial Removal Office Records, 1899-1922
* AJHS Selected Mayor's Court Cases, New York, 1674-1860
* AJHS Selected Insolvent Debtor's Cases, 1787-1861
* Paris & Vicinity, France, Death Notices, 1860-1902
* New Orleans, Louisiana, Slave Manifests, 1807-1860 (World Archives ...
* Dept of Interior Decisions on Pensions and Bounty-Land Claims ...
* London, England, Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812 ...
* U.S. Virgin Islands, St. Croix Slave Plantation and Head Tax Lists ...
* Lübeck, Germany, Births, 1813-1875
* U.S. Freedmen's Marriage Records, 1861-1869
* Summit County, Ohio, Death Records, 1870-1908
* Selected U.S. Federal Census Non-Population Schedules, 1850-1880 ...
* World War II Japanese-American Internment Camp Documents, 1942 ...
* Returns from Regular Army Regiments, 1821-1916
* U.S. Circuit Court Criminal Case Files, 1790-1871
* Lübeck, Germany, Marriage Banns, 1813-1871
* Lübeck, Germany Citizenship Register, 1591-1919
So there are 25 databases without any name indexing now - there were only 15 on this list in May 2009. Some of these databases being indexed by the World Archives Project may have an index later.
My May post also pointed out that many of the Massachusetts Vital Records to Year 1850 books are not first-name indexed, and that the US Revolutionary War Compiled Service Records database is arranged by State and Regiment.
Now I need to figure out how to find all of the FREE databases on Ancestry.com.
What happened to the ability to search the Ancestry.com Card Catalog list of over 29,000 databases by size of database, date of availability, etc.?
I used the Google site search string of "no search function for names" and received these results:
* Missouri Still Birth & Miscellaneous Records, 1805-2002
* Selected U.S. Naturalization Record Indexes, 1791-1992 (World ...
* U.S. Revolutionary War Miscellaneous Records (Manuscript File ...
* U.S. Index to General Correspondence of the Record and Pension ...
* War of 1812 Pension Application Files Index, 1812-1815
* Hamburg Passenger Lists, Handwritten Indexes, 1855-1934
* Returns from U.S. Military Posts, 1800-1916 (World Archives ...
* AJHS New York Hebrew Orphan Asylum Records, 1860-1934
* AJHS Industrial Removal Office Records, 1899-1922
* AJHS Selected Mayor's Court Cases, New York, 1674-1860
* AJHS Selected Insolvent Debtor's Cases, 1787-1861
* Paris & Vicinity, France, Death Notices, 1860-1902
* New Orleans, Louisiana, Slave Manifests, 1807-1860 (World Archives ...
* Dept of Interior Decisions on Pensions and Bounty-Land Claims ...
* London, England, Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812 ...
* U.S. Virgin Islands, St. Croix Slave Plantation and Head Tax Lists ...
* Lübeck, Germany, Births, 1813-1875
* U.S. Freedmen's Marriage Records, 1861-1869
* Summit County, Ohio, Death Records, 1870-1908
* Selected U.S. Federal Census Non-Population Schedules, 1850-1880 ...
* World War II Japanese-American Internment Camp Documents, 1942 ...
* Returns from Regular Army Regiments, 1821-1916
* U.S. Circuit Court Criminal Case Files, 1790-1871
* Lübeck, Germany, Marriage Banns, 1813-1871
* Lübeck, Germany Citizenship Register, 1591-1919
So there are 25 databases without any name indexing now - there were only 15 on this list in May 2009. Some of these databases being indexed by the World Archives Project may have an index later.
My May post also pointed out that many of the Massachusetts Vital Records to Year 1850 books are not first-name indexed, and that the US Revolutionary War Compiled Service Records database is arranged by State and Regiment.
Now I need to figure out how to find all of the FREE databases on Ancestry.com.
What happened to the ability to search the Ancestry.com Card Catalog list of over 29,000 databases by size of database, date of availability, etc.?
Labels: Ancestry.com, data management, Online resources
FamilySearch Wiki Research Articles
There is a wealth of useful information for Beginning and Intermediate genealogy researchers on the LDS FamilySearch Wiki Research Page.
There are categories for:
* Get Started with this site
* Where to start
* Research Analysis
* Organization and Documentation
* Getting Started in Research
* Technology
There are some interesting articles on this list - I carefully read:
* Genealogical Proof Standard
* Cite Your Sources (Source Footnotes) -- has examples
* Organizing Your Files
* Major Databases for Beginning United States Research
* Rookie Mistakes
* Solving Tough Research Problems—Overcoming Brick Walls
There are many more articles. Check them out.
There are categories for:
* Get Started with this site
* Where to start
* Research Analysis
* Organization and Documentation
* Getting Started in Research
* Technology
There are some interesting articles on this list - I carefully read:
* Genealogical Proof Standard
* Cite Your Sources (Source Footnotes) -- has examples
* Organizing Your Files
* Major Databases for Beginning United States Research
* Rookie Mistakes
* Solving Tough Research Problems—Overcoming Brick Walls
There are many more articles. Check them out.
Labels: FamilySearch, genealogy education, LDS Resources, Online resources, Research techniques, Research tips
Family History Library Favorites
I was browsing through the FamilySearch Wiki this morning and found this article about Family History Library Internet Favorites. There is a link to this web page with the list of Family History Library Favorites.
This compilation is organized by country (and then state, province or county) and then by subject.
For instance, for the state of Wisconsin, the links include:
Archives Libraries and Internet
Wisconsin Historical Society Archives
Wisconsin Maritime Museum Library and Archives
Biography
Wisconsin Name Index (Biographies)
Cemeteries
Archdiocese of Milwaukee Catholic Cemeteries Index
Tombstone Photos
Census
1855 WI State Census Images - FamilySearch
1875 WI State Census Images - FamilySearch
1885 WI State Census Images - FamilySearch
1895 WI State Census Images - FamilySearch
1905 WI State Census Images - FamilySearch
Census Indexes Online for States and Counties
Census Indexes Online Links - census-online.com
Colonial and Territorial Census List
State Census List
Wisconsin Indexes 1830-1926
Church Records
Drouin French Cath Collection 1621-1967 Ancestry.ca
Emigration and Immigration
Immigration and Settlement
Gazetteers
Ghost Towns of Wisconsin
Genealogy
Draper Manuscripts at Bowling Green State Univ
Draper Manuscripts at Family History Library
Draper Manuscripts at Ohio Univ Libraries
Draper Manuscripts at RootsWeb
Draper Manuscripts at Truman State Univ
Draper Manuscripts at UMI ProQuest
Draper Manuscripts at Wisconsin Hist Soc
Draper Manuscripts description
Genealogy Resources at Wis Hist Soc
Guide to the Draper Mss. book description
Lyman C. Draper Documents Home Page
Land and Property
Wisconsin Land Records Index
Maps
Historic Maps » of Wisconsin
Military Records
Roster of Wis Volunteers, Civil War 1861-1865
Native Races
Early Native Peoples
Naturalization and Citizenship
Online Searchable Naturalization Indexes
Newspapers
Wisconsin Newspaper Articles
Obituaries
Obituary Lookup Volunteers
Wisconsin Name Index (Obituaries)
Societies
Historical and Genealogical Societies of Wisconsin
Vital Records
Births 1820-1907 Ancestry.com
Births Marriages Deaths Index Pre-1907
Burned Courthouses Dates
Deaths 1820-1907 Ancestry.com
Delayed Births before 1 Oct 1907
Marriages 1835-1900 Ancestry.com
Marriages to 1907 Ancestry.com
Online Birth & Marriage Records Indexes
Online Wisconsin Death Indexes
Record Office
Wisconsin Genealogy Index pre-1907 BMDs
Cyndi s List - U.S. - Wisconsin
USGenWeb
Wisconsin Genealogy Links
Wisconsin Research Outline
This is a useful file to download and to make a Favorite or Bookmark in your Internet browser. It is a large file (over 2.2 megabytes).
This compilation is organized by country (and then state, province or county) and then by subject.
For instance, for the state of Wisconsin, the links include:
Archives Libraries and Internet
Wisconsin Historical Society Archives
Wisconsin Maritime Museum Library and Archives
Biography
Wisconsin Name Index (Biographies)
Cemeteries
Archdiocese of Milwaukee Catholic Cemeteries Index
Tombstone Photos
Census
1855 WI State Census Images - FamilySearch
1875 WI State Census Images - FamilySearch
1885 WI State Census Images - FamilySearch
1895 WI State Census Images - FamilySearch
1905 WI State Census Images - FamilySearch
Census Indexes Online for States and Counties
Census Indexes Online Links - census-online.com
Colonial and Territorial Census List
State Census List
Wisconsin Indexes 1830-1926
Church Records
Drouin French Cath Collection 1621-1967 Ancestry.ca
Emigration and Immigration
Immigration and Settlement
Gazetteers
Ghost Towns of Wisconsin
Genealogy
Draper Manuscripts at Bowling Green State Univ
Draper Manuscripts at Family History Library
Draper Manuscripts at Ohio Univ Libraries
Draper Manuscripts at RootsWeb
Draper Manuscripts at Truman State Univ
Draper Manuscripts at UMI ProQuest
Draper Manuscripts at Wisconsin Hist Soc
Draper Manuscripts description
Genealogy Resources at Wis Hist Soc
Guide to the Draper Mss. book description
Lyman C. Draper Documents Home Page
Land and Property
Wisconsin Land Records Index
Maps
Historic Maps » of Wisconsin
Military Records
Roster of Wis Volunteers, Civil War 1861-1865
Native Races
Early Native Peoples
Naturalization and Citizenship
Online Searchable Naturalization Indexes
Newspapers
Wisconsin Newspaper Articles
Obituaries
Obituary Lookup Volunteers
Wisconsin Name Index (Obituaries)
Societies
Historical and Genealogical Societies of Wisconsin
Vital Records
Births 1820-1907 Ancestry.com
Births Marriages Deaths Index Pre-1907
Burned Courthouses Dates
Deaths 1820-1907 Ancestry.com
Delayed Births before 1 Oct 1907
Marriages 1835-1900 Ancestry.com
Marriages to 1907 Ancestry.com
Online Birth & Marriage Records Indexes
Online Wisconsin Death Indexes
Record Office
Wisconsin Genealogy Index pre-1907 BMDs
Cyndi s List - U.S. - Wisconsin
USGenWeb
Wisconsin Genealogy Links
Wisconsin Research Outline
This is a useful file to download and to make a Favorite or Bookmark in your Internet browser. It is a large file (over 2.2 megabytes).
Labels: FamilySearch, LDS Resources, Online resources
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Genea-Musings dies - blogger goes...
Genea-Musings, Rest in Peace (somewhere!)
One minute it was there, and the next minute it was gone. Disappeared. As if it was never there. Oh, some of it is on the Internet Archive Wayback Machine, and the cached pages will be on Google searches for some time, but the blog itself is gone. And the archived monthly pages are hiding on more than one computer.
What happened? Well, the writer of the Genea-Musings blog worked so hard at providing content to his hundreds of readers that he filled up the allowable number of posts and images on Blogger. Screen images were probably the downfall - they take up bandwidth and Genea-Musings had thousands of them. Of Family Tree Maker, RootsMagic, Legacy Family Tree, Family Tree Builder, Ancestry, Footnote, WorldVitalRecords, and many more websites. Family pictures and record images too. They were all there, and now the images - and the text - are gone. Off to blog hell...
Two days ago, when the blog writer logged into Blogger the dashboard said that there was no Genea-Musings. What? How could that be? A futile search, and messages to the Blogger proprietors resulted in nothing but silence... and Genea-Musings was lost. All of that work. Those family pictures. The family stories and transcriptions. The endless screen shots.
After 3 years, five months, and 12 days, with 3,425 posts carefully crafted (yeah, right!) in those 1,270 days, it is all gone. Poof! Kaput! Gone. Whew!
On the second day after the loss, the blog writer decided to sell his house, put all of his genealogy papers in a repository, buy a small motor home with a satellite wireless connection, and hit the road with his lovely but neglected bride of 40 years, with a driver. The plan is to work in the databases during the drives, visit the grandchildren regularly, visit friends and relatives occasionally, travel to genealogy libraries and societies all over the country to do research and give stirring presentations about the benefits and evils of online genealogy research, and attend as many genealogy seminars and conferences as possible. Talk about the endless genealogy vacation!
In the past year, Genea-Musings has taken more and more of the writer's time - at times 10 hours a day. He has had less time to do his own research, to create and give presentations and classes, and to enjoy "real life" in San Diego, Santa Cruz and Victorville, not to mention San Francisco, Seattle, Salt Lake City, Denver, Nebraska, Wisconsin, New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, England, Norway and other fun places to visit and do research.
So remember Genea-Musings with fond memories of that smiling, rotund, bearded genealogy blogger that no one had ever heard of three years ago, and if he comes knocking on your door please offer him a place to park, a bowl of soup and some genealogy conversation.
I've just been informed that there's been a setback for this plan - the writer of Genea-Musings was admitted today to the Geneaholic wing of the Geneabloggers Sunnybrook Farm in Salt Lake City, Utah for rest and rehabilitation. His lovely wife is there with him... trying to pry his fingers off the wornk eyboard thatk eeps makingt ypographic error sin everyp ost. He just keeps repeating "Control-C, Control-V, spell check, damn fingers, genealogical proof standard, it's not all on the internet, Ancestry is..., they're coming to take my blog away! it's Carnival time, Saturday Night Genealogy Fun rocks..."
To Genea-Musings - Rest in Peace! And have fun doing it!
/signed/
Dr. Jasia (Meitzler) (MacEntee) (Thornton) Eastman, Psychiatrist
Geneabloggers Sunnybrook Farm Staff and Family History Guru
author of "When Bloggers go mad, and other fun times"
[Note: posted for the 81st Carnival of Genealogy - topic is Your Blog's Obituary.]
One minute it was there, and the next minute it was gone. Disappeared. As if it was never there. Oh, some of it is on the Internet Archive Wayback Machine, and the cached pages will be on Google searches for some time, but the blog itself is gone. And the archived monthly pages are hiding on more than one computer.
What happened? Well, the writer of the Genea-Musings blog worked so hard at providing content to his hundreds of readers that he filled up the allowable number of posts and images on Blogger. Screen images were probably the downfall - they take up bandwidth and Genea-Musings had thousands of them. Of Family Tree Maker, RootsMagic, Legacy Family Tree, Family Tree Builder, Ancestry, Footnote, WorldVitalRecords, and many more websites. Family pictures and record images too. They were all there, and now the images - and the text - are gone. Off to blog hell...
Two days ago, when the blog writer logged into Blogger the dashboard said that there was no Genea-Musings. What? How could that be? A futile search, and messages to the Blogger proprietors resulted in nothing but silence... and Genea-Musings was lost. All of that work. Those family pictures. The family stories and transcriptions. The endless screen shots.
After 3 years, five months, and 12 days, with 3,425 posts carefully crafted (yeah, right!) in those 1,270 days, it is all gone. Poof! Kaput! Gone. Whew!
On the second day after the loss, the blog writer decided to sell his house, put all of his genealogy papers in a repository, buy a small motor home with a satellite wireless connection, and hit the road with his lovely but neglected bride of 40 years, with a driver. The plan is to work in the databases during the drives, visit the grandchildren regularly, visit friends and relatives occasionally, travel to genealogy libraries and societies all over the country to do research and give stirring presentations about the benefits and evils of online genealogy research, and attend as many genealogy seminars and conferences as possible. Talk about the endless genealogy vacation!
In the past year, Genea-Musings has taken more and more of the writer's time - at times 10 hours a day. He has had less time to do his own research, to create and give presentations and classes, and to enjoy "real life" in San Diego, Santa Cruz and Victorville, not to mention San Francisco, Seattle, Salt Lake City, Denver, Nebraska, Wisconsin, New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, England, Norway and other fun places to visit and do research.
So remember Genea-Musings with fond memories of that smiling, rotund, bearded genealogy blogger that no one had ever heard of three years ago, and if he comes knocking on your door please offer him a place to park, a bowl of soup and some genealogy conversation.
I've just been informed that there's been a setback for this plan - the writer of Genea-Musings was admitted today to the Geneaholic wing of the Geneabloggers Sunnybrook Farm in Salt Lake City, Utah for rest and rehabilitation. His lovely wife is there with him... trying to pry his fingers off the wornk eyboard thatk eeps makingt ypographic error sin everyp ost. He just keeps repeating "Control-C, Control-V, spell check, damn fingers, genealogical proof standard, it's not all on the internet, Ancestry is..., they're coming to take my blog away! it's Carnival time, Saturday Night Genealogy Fun rocks..."
To Genea-Musings - Rest in Peace! And have fun doing it!
/signed/
Dr. Jasia (Meitzler) (MacEntee) (Thornton) Eastman, Psychiatrist
Geneabloggers Sunnybrook Farm Staff and Family History Guru
author of "When Bloggers go mad, and other fun times"
[Note: posted for the 81st Carnival of Genealogy - topic is Your Blog's Obituary.]
Labels: Carnivals, genealogy blogs
Stymied on Devier J. Lamphear Smith problems
I used my Devier J. Lamphear Smith research problem for my ProGen homework assignment. Specifically, when and where was he born?
Devoted Genea-Musings readers will recall that Devier J. Smith was adopted by Ranslow and Mary (Bell) Smith, according to Ranslow Smith's will from 1875, and that Devier changed his surname from Lamphear to Smith via a Wisconsin Legislature private law in 1866.
To recap, the evidence includes:
* A Family Bible page written by Devier himself in 1889 that states he was born on 7 May 1842 in Jefferson County NY.
* A family paper written by his wife, Abigail (Vaux) Smith in (probably 1895) that states he was born on 7 May 1839 in Jefferson County NY.
* An obituary in the McCook NE Times-Democrat newspaper that says he was born in May 1842 in Wisconsin.
* A transcription of his tombstone in a Red Willow County NE cemetery book that says 1842.
* A newspaper article in the Wano KS Plain Dealer published in 1886 states 1839 that says he was born in Jefferson County NY.
* Federal census records for 1850 (age 11), 1860 (age 21), 1870 (age 30), and 1880 (age 41) that imply 1839 or 1840.
* State census records for 1875 (KS, age 35), 1885 (KS, age 46), and 1885 (NE, age 45) that imply 1839 or 1840.
The informant for the obituary and the tombstone was Devier's son, David D. Smith, who had access to the Family Bible. So there is really one original source record for 1842, and one original source record for 1839, and they are secondary information because of the dates they were written. There are nine derivative sources with secondary information for 1839 or 1840.
The Preponderance of Evidence principle is no longer the standard - the Genealogical Proof Standard requires resolution of all conflicts - and I cannot resolve the conflict at this time with the information I have.
In order to resolve the contradiction, I need more source records. I have two localities to investigate:
1) Jefferson County, New York is where Devier was almost certainly born. I've checked guardianship, letters of administration and estate papers for Lamphears in Jefferson County without a mention of Devier Lamphear.
There is one record that might be available -- a church record may identify Devier's birth parents and birth date. I need to determine if there are any records in the Henderson/Adams/Lorraine townships at that time.
2) Dodge County, Wisconsin is where Devier J. Smith ended up as an adopted son of Ranslow and Mary (Bell) Smith, formerly of Henderson, Jefferson County, New York, who migrated in 1843. All county records were lost in a fire in 1877, including guardianships, probates, deeds, taxes, vital records, etc.
My first thought had been that, since Devier J. Smith married Abigail Vaux in April 1861 in Dodge County (when Devier was either 18 or 21, and Abigail was age 16), that there might be a marriage record for the marriage that might list their ages, or the agreement by both parents for the marriage.
My second thought was that Devier J. Smith might be listed on a tax list when he turned age 21 - either in 1860 or 1863.
My third thought is that there might be an article in the local newspaper for the marriage, and perhaps another when his name change became official in March 1866.
I contacted the Dodge/Jefferson Counties Genealogical Society last week to see if there are records for churches and newspapers in those time frames. Apparently, there are, and they can perform the search for a fee. I'm thinking about it!
Before I request this search, I'm wondering if other researchers have any other ideas to help me solve my dilemma?
Devoted Genea-Musings readers will recall that Devier J. Smith was adopted by Ranslow and Mary (Bell) Smith, according to Ranslow Smith's will from 1875, and that Devier changed his surname from Lamphear to Smith via a Wisconsin Legislature private law in 1866.
To recap, the evidence includes:
* A Family Bible page written by Devier himself in 1889 that states he was born on 7 May 1842 in Jefferson County NY.
* A family paper written by his wife, Abigail (Vaux) Smith in (probably 1895) that states he was born on 7 May 1839 in Jefferson County NY.
* An obituary in the McCook NE Times-Democrat newspaper that says he was born in May 1842 in Wisconsin.
* A transcription of his tombstone in a Red Willow County NE cemetery book that says 1842.
* A newspaper article in the Wano KS Plain Dealer published in 1886 states 1839 that says he was born in Jefferson County NY.
* Federal census records for 1850 (age 11), 1860 (age 21), 1870 (age 30), and 1880 (age 41) that imply 1839 or 1840.
* State census records for 1875 (KS, age 35), 1885 (KS, age 46), and 1885 (NE, age 45) that imply 1839 or 1840.
The informant for the obituary and the tombstone was Devier's son, David D. Smith, who had access to the Family Bible. So there is really one original source record for 1842, and one original source record for 1839, and they are secondary information because of the dates they were written. There are nine derivative sources with secondary information for 1839 or 1840.
The Preponderance of Evidence principle is no longer the standard - the Genealogical Proof Standard requires resolution of all conflicts - and I cannot resolve the conflict at this time with the information I have.
In order to resolve the contradiction, I need more source records. I have two localities to investigate:
1) Jefferson County, New York is where Devier was almost certainly born. I've checked guardianship, letters of administration and estate papers for Lamphears in Jefferson County without a mention of Devier Lamphear.
There is one record that might be available -- a church record may identify Devier's birth parents and birth date. I need to determine if there are any records in the Henderson/Adams/Lorraine townships at that time.
2) Dodge County, Wisconsin is where Devier J. Smith ended up as an adopted son of Ranslow and Mary (Bell) Smith, formerly of Henderson, Jefferson County, New York, who migrated in 1843. All county records were lost in a fire in 1877, including guardianships, probates, deeds, taxes, vital records, etc.
My first thought had been that, since Devier J. Smith married Abigail Vaux in April 1861 in Dodge County (when Devier was either 18 or 21, and Abigail was age 16), that there might be a marriage record for the marriage that might list their ages, or the agreement by both parents for the marriage.
My second thought was that Devier J. Smith might be listed on a tax list when he turned age 21 - either in 1860 or 1863.
My third thought is that there might be an article in the local newspaper for the marriage, and perhaps another when his name change became official in March 1866.
I contacted the Dodge/Jefferson Counties Genealogical Society last week to see if there are records for churches and newspapers in those time frames. Apparently, there are, and they can perform the search for a fee. I'm thinking about it!
Before I request this search, I'm wondering if other researchers have any other ideas to help me solve my dilemma?
Labels: genealogy resources, My genealogy research, Online resources, Research techniques
"Lost and Forgotten Cemeteries of San Diego" Program Summary
The September 30th program meeting of the Chula Vista Genealogical Society featured Dr. Setrh Mallios of San Diego State University's Anthropology Department as the speaker. Dr. Mallios's topic was "The Lost and Forgotten Cemeteries of San Diego." His curriculum vitae was posted here.
This presentation was one of the "best ever" we've had at CVGS. Seth is an accomplished professor of anthropology, and has written two books (with David Caterino) on San Diego cemeteries - The Cemeteries of San Diego and The Cemeteries of San Diego County, both published by Arcadia Press and available online and in San Diego bookstores.
Seth described the San Diego Gravestone Project, which includes a study of San Diego's dead and how San Diego treats them, restoration and preservation of grave markers (which are a non-renewable cultural resource), and anthropological analysis of mortuary culture.
The goal of the San Diego Gravestone Project is to document all cemeteries and grave markers in San Diego County erected prior to 1960, to locate them using a Geographic Information System (GIS), to document them with digital photos, using archaeological rigor and standardized methodology. The project includes collecting data about gravestone physical properties (type of marker, type of material, condition) and literal properties (inscriptions, etc.).
There are 23 known cemeteries within San Diego city limits, and about 150 known cemeteries in the County. However, some of the known cemeteries are buried under parks, roads, parking lots and buildings. The most well-known example is Calvary Cemetery in the Mission Hills neighborhood of San Diego. There were over 3,000 burials in this cemetery when it was converted to a park (called Pioneer Park) in 1968. The gravestones were removed and dumped in a ravine at Mount Hope Cemetery several miles away. When the stones were found, the 142 "best looking" stones were salvaged and returned to Pioneer Park and placed in a corner of the park. These stones were not placed on the graves of their namesakes, just put in the corner. The graves are still in Calvary Cemetery under Pioneer Park.
A 1982 article in the Journal of San Diego History listed 38 known cemeteries in San Diego County. Mallios's team found another 110 cemeteries by searching old maps, old photographs, surveys and word of mouth.
Seth provided a chronology of San Diego cemeteries - breaking the known locations down into Prehistoric, Mission and Indian (1769-1847, with Indian, Spanish and Mexican remains), Pioneer (1848-1907, with early American and Victorian graves), and Mega (1908 to the present, with gardens and landscaped grounds). He noted the trends in types of markers and symbols over the years. The shift from above ground columns, tablets and markers to flush in-ground stones took place in the 1910-1920 time period, and was heavily influenced by World War I and the 1918 influenza pandemic.
There was much more in the hour-long talk, of course! This presentation was an enjoyable, amusing and informative walk through San Diego's past. Seth is an excellent presenter and an expert in San Diego burial cultural history.
There are some interesting articles available online about Seth Mallios and the San Diego Gravestone Project:
* The San Diego Gravestone Project (with a list of pre-1960 burials at the Jewish Home of Peace Cemetery in San Diego)
* City of the forgotten dead (describes the Calvary Cemetery debacle)
* Cemeteries are the repository of centuries past
This presentation was one of the "best ever" we've had at CVGS. Seth is an accomplished professor of anthropology, and has written two books (with David Caterino) on San Diego cemeteries - The Cemeteries of San Diego and The Cemeteries of San Diego County, both published by Arcadia Press and available online and in San Diego bookstores.
Seth described the San Diego Gravestone Project, which includes a study of San Diego's dead and how San Diego treats them, restoration and preservation of grave markers (which are a non-renewable cultural resource), and anthropological analysis of mortuary culture.
The goal of the San Diego Gravestone Project is to document all cemeteries and grave markers in San Diego County erected prior to 1960, to locate them using a Geographic Information System (GIS), to document them with digital photos, using archaeological rigor and standardized methodology. The project includes collecting data about gravestone physical properties (type of marker, type of material, condition) and literal properties (inscriptions, etc.).
There are 23 known cemeteries within San Diego city limits, and about 150 known cemeteries in the County. However, some of the known cemeteries are buried under parks, roads, parking lots and buildings. The most well-known example is Calvary Cemetery in the Mission Hills neighborhood of San Diego. There were over 3,000 burials in this cemetery when it was converted to a park (called Pioneer Park) in 1968. The gravestones were removed and dumped in a ravine at Mount Hope Cemetery several miles away. When the stones were found, the 142 "best looking" stones were salvaged and returned to Pioneer Park and placed in a corner of the park. These stones were not placed on the graves of their namesakes, just put in the corner. The graves are still in Calvary Cemetery under Pioneer Park.
A 1982 article in the Journal of San Diego History listed 38 known cemeteries in San Diego County. Mallios's team found another 110 cemeteries by searching old maps, old photographs, surveys and word of mouth.
Seth provided a chronology of San Diego cemeteries - breaking the known locations down into Prehistoric, Mission and Indian (1769-1847, with Indian, Spanish and Mexican remains), Pioneer (1848-1907, with early American and Victorian graves), and Mega (1908 to the present, with gardens and landscaped grounds). He noted the trends in types of markers and symbols over the years. The shift from above ground columns, tablets and markers to flush in-ground stones took place in the 1910-1920 time period, and was heavily influenced by World War I and the 1918 influenza pandemic.
There was much more in the hour-long talk, of course! This presentation was an enjoyable, amusing and informative walk through San Diego's past. Seth is an excellent presenter and an expert in San Diego burial cultural history.
There are some interesting articles available online about Seth Mallios and the San Diego Gravestone Project:
* The San Diego Gravestone Project (with a list of pre-1960 burials at the Jewish Home of Peace Cemetery in San Diego)
* City of the forgotten dead (describes the Calvary Cemetery debacle)
* Cemeteries are the repository of centuries past
Labels: Cemetery records, San Diego area
