Sunday, March 7, 2010
Can you document all names back 10 generations?
No, I cannot. Even with my "fine New England ancestry" I get "holes" in my pedigree chart in the 5th generation back, I'm missing names for 2 out of 32 3rd great-grandparents; and in the 6th generation back, I'm missing names for 16 out of 64 4th great-grandparents.
Why did I ask this question? Because there has been a civil debate in the Comments of my post I'm Puzzled by DNA Claims on "Faces of America" between Tamura Jones, Martin Hollick and Patti Hobbs after Tamura said:
"Being able to document all names for ten or twelve generations isn't all that rare. In many Western countries, BMD registrations started around 1600 or 1650, that is 350 to 400 years ago."
Martin said:
"I respectfully disagree. Perhaps Randy can ask the question. How many people who read his blog know all their ancestors in all lines up to the level of 10 generations (counting yourself as generation #1). That is 512 ancestors. I'm guessing it's maybe 1 or 2% of people doing genealogy."
Patti commented:
"Tamura, when I re-read Martin's post, he didn't say that it wasn't possible or couldn't be done. He just said it was rare. I agree with him. I'm not saying it's impossible either. Maybe it depends on where your ancestors were, but there are almost no birth, marriage, and death records in much of New York and Pennsylvania until 1883-5. I have a lot of ancestors from those places."
And on it went.
Tamura lives in Europe, where the civil records and the church records usually go back to the 1500s, unless there are major record losses in the country or provinces. I have a 50% American and 50% European ancestry back 10 generations, Martin has perhaps a 75% Slovak and 25% American ancestry back 10 generations, I don't know what Patti has.
Here are some of my family tree statistics (generated by making ahnentafels and counting the number of names in each slot):
1) Number of full names (first name and last name) in my father's ancestry (going back 10 generations, counting him as the first generation). My father has 75% colonial New England and 25% English ancestry:
* Generations 1-4 - 15 out of 15 possible names (100%)
* In the 5th generation - 16 out of 16 possible names (100%)
* In the 6th generation - 24 out of 32 possible names (75%)
* In the 7th generation - 38 out of 64 possible names (59.4%)
* In the 8th generation - 71 out of 128 possible names (55.5%)
* In the 9th generation - 129 out of 256 possible names (50.4%)
* In the 10th generation - 219 out of 512 possible names (42.8%)
* 513 names out of 1,023 possible names in 10 generations (50.1%)
2) Number of full names (first name and last name) in my mother's ancestry (going back 10 generations, counting her as the first generation). My mother has about 50% colonial New England about 37.5% European immigrants (in the 1700s to NY, PA, NJ), and 12.5% English ancestry (immigrated in 1840s):
* Generations 1-4 - 15 out of 15 possible names (100%)
* In the 5th generation - 14 out of 16 possible names (87.5%)
* In the 6th generation - 23 out of 32 possible names (71.9%)
* In the 7th generation - 31 out of 64 possible names (48.4%)
* In the 8th generation - 39 out of 128 possible names (30.5%)
* In the 9th generation - 49 out of 256 possible names (19.1%)
* In the 10th generation - 70 out of 512 possible names (13.7%)
* 241 names out of 1,023 possible names in 10 generations (23.6%)
3) So I have the names of:
* 287 out of 511 ancestors (56.2%) in 9 generations starting with myself (back to about 1700)
* 465 out of 1,023 ancestors (45.5%) in 10 generations starting with myself (back to about 1670)
* 754 out of 2,047 ancestors (36.8%) in 11 generations starting with myself. (back to about 1640)
Now some people may argue that I may have missed some of my people through shoddy research or poor counting, but those numbers are about right. I am doing very little name-gathering these days because there are no records online or in books for ancestors without a name (i.e., parents of the "end-of-the-line" people that I have with names). The one exception is the Martin family ancestry in New Jersey that just came loose last November through Mark Putman's efforts. I'm still in the Survey Research phase for those family lines, but I've included most of them in the numbers above.
In my present research, I am concentrating on finding primary information and original source records for the people that I do have, in hopes of finding the parents names, or leads to those names, in those records. The vital records data is either non-existent or exhausted for the "end-of-the-line" folks - I'm in military, church, land, tax and probate records.
Now there may be 10-generation family trees posted on WorldConnect or Ancestry.com that are 100% colonial New England and have all of the ten generations filled up, but I've never seen one. There are too many "females without a surname" that marry in the 1607-1850 time frame. For example, in the 10th generation of my father's line, I have an additional 55 persons with a given name and no surname. That is very typical of New England records - without a marriage record the female surnames are often not known.
On the other hand, I have seen some 7-generation ahnentafel lists posted in periodicals (e.g., The Essex Genealogist) with all 64 slots filled in in the 7th generation.
My English ancestral lines on both my father's and mother's ancestries are hampered by a lack of church parish registry records before 1800 - my Richman family line starts in 1790 and I know nothing about any of the Richman-Marshman-Rich-Hill lines in Wiltshire before then. That's 25% of my father's ancestry. My mother also has a significant English immigrant line, and I have only one family back into the 1600s on that line. Many English parishes have fairly complete records, but they are incomplete for my particular lines.
Massachusetts didn't mandate civil registration at the town level (with reports to the state) of births, marriages and deaths until 1841, and the other New England states did so in the 1790 to 1870 time frame. Before civil registration at the town level, the town record books often included birth, marriage and death record entries, but they were not complete, and in many towns, the returns were pretty sparse, especially in the 1750 to 1850 time frame. Records between 1630 and 1750 are pretty good in most towns. All of this makes it difficult to obtain a complete record of the families involved.
Coastal New York and New Jersey were settled by the Dutch in 1624, and then populated by the English after 1664. Pennsylvania was settled by the English in the 1680's along the Delaware River. German immigration in the early 1700s into all three states expanded the population tremendously. Scots-Irish started immigrating in the mid-1700s into Pennsylvania and points south. In New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, some areas have decent church records once towns were established (New York City and Long Island Dutch and English churches, Hudson River Dutch and German churches, Pennsylvania German churches, New Jersey Dutch, English and German churches), but there is not 100% coverage within a town or 100% coverage of all towns. That's just the facts of genealogy life in the USA. We generally use military, church, land, probate and tax records to try to define our families and relationships before 1850.
I don't have any ancestry in the states south of colonial Pennsylvania so I can't give a general synopsis of availability of records, but the situation is similar to the mid-Atlantic states - researchers have to rely on military, church, land, tax and probate records before 1850.
Martin estimated that perhaps 1 or 2% of all researchers had their 10-generation chart filled up - every name. I'm not as optimistic - I sincerely doubt that any person has all 1,023 names filled out in a 10-generation pedigree chart.
My thanks to Tamura, Martin and Patti for the spirited discussion - hopefully we all learned something useful.
Hmm, I started this at 8:38 p.m. and it's now 10:20 pm. - spent almost two hours crunching numbers. Oh well, sleep comes and goes anyway! I had fun!
Does any reader have a completed pedigree chart back ten generations or more?
Why did I ask this question? Because there has been a civil debate in the Comments of my post I'm Puzzled by DNA Claims on "Faces of America" between Tamura Jones, Martin Hollick and Patti Hobbs after Tamura said:
"Being able to document all names for ten or twelve generations isn't all that rare. In many Western countries, BMD registrations started around 1600 or 1650, that is 350 to 400 years ago."
Martin said:
"I respectfully disagree. Perhaps Randy can ask the question. How many people who read his blog know all their ancestors in all lines up to the level of 10 generations (counting yourself as generation #1). That is 512 ancestors. I'm guessing it's maybe 1 or 2% of people doing genealogy."
Patti commented:
"Tamura, when I re-read Martin's post, he didn't say that it wasn't possible or couldn't be done. He just said it was rare. I agree with him. I'm not saying it's impossible either. Maybe it depends on where your ancestors were, but there are almost no birth, marriage, and death records in much of New York and Pennsylvania until 1883-5. I have a lot of ancestors from those places."
And on it went.
Tamura lives in Europe, where the civil records and the church records usually go back to the 1500s, unless there are major record losses in the country or provinces. I have a 50% American and 50% European ancestry back 10 generations, Martin has perhaps a 75% Slovak and 25% American ancestry back 10 generations, I don't know what Patti has.
Here are some of my family tree statistics (generated by making ahnentafels and counting the number of names in each slot):
1) Number of full names (first name and last name) in my father's ancestry (going back 10 generations, counting him as the first generation). My father has 75% colonial New England and 25% English ancestry:
* Generations 1-4 - 15 out of 15 possible names (100%)
* In the 5th generation - 16 out of 16 possible names (100%)
* In the 6th generation - 24 out of 32 possible names (75%)
* In the 7th generation - 38 out of 64 possible names (59.4%)
* In the 8th generation - 71 out of 128 possible names (55.5%)
* In the 9th generation - 129 out of 256 possible names (50.4%)
* In the 10th generation - 219 out of 512 possible names (42.8%)
* 513 names out of 1,023 possible names in 10 generations (50.1%)
2) Number of full names (first name and last name) in my mother's ancestry (going back 10 generations, counting her as the first generation). My mother has about 50% colonial New England about 37.5% European immigrants (in the 1700s to NY, PA, NJ), and 12.5% English ancestry (immigrated in 1840s):
* Generations 1-4 - 15 out of 15 possible names (100%)
* In the 5th generation - 14 out of 16 possible names (87.5%)
* In the 6th generation - 23 out of 32 possible names (71.9%)
* In the 7th generation - 31 out of 64 possible names (48.4%)
* In the 8th generation - 39 out of 128 possible names (30.5%)
* In the 9th generation - 49 out of 256 possible names (19.1%)
* In the 10th generation - 70 out of 512 possible names (13.7%)
* 241 names out of 1,023 possible names in 10 generations (23.6%)
3) So I have the names of:
* 287 out of 511 ancestors (56.2%) in 9 generations starting with myself (back to about 1700)
* 465 out of 1,023 ancestors (45.5%) in 10 generations starting with myself (back to about 1670)
* 754 out of 2,047 ancestors (36.8%) in 11 generations starting with myself. (back to about 1640)
Now some people may argue that I may have missed some of my people through shoddy research or poor counting, but those numbers are about right. I am doing very little name-gathering these days because there are no records online or in books for ancestors without a name (i.e., parents of the "end-of-the-line" people that I have with names). The one exception is the Martin family ancestry in New Jersey that just came loose last November through Mark Putman's efforts. I'm still in the Survey Research phase for those family lines, but I've included most of them in the numbers above.
In my present research, I am concentrating on finding primary information and original source records for the people that I do have, in hopes of finding the parents names, or leads to those names, in those records. The vital records data is either non-existent or exhausted for the "end-of-the-line" folks - I'm in military, church, land, tax and probate records.
Now there may be 10-generation family trees posted on WorldConnect or Ancestry.com that are 100% colonial New England and have all of the ten generations filled up, but I've never seen one. There are too many "females without a surname" that marry in the 1607-1850 time frame. For example, in the 10th generation of my father's line, I have an additional 55 persons with a given name and no surname. That is very typical of New England records - without a marriage record the female surnames are often not known.
On the other hand, I have seen some 7-generation ahnentafel lists posted in periodicals (e.g., The Essex Genealogist) with all 64 slots filled in in the 7th generation.
My English ancestral lines on both my father's and mother's ancestries are hampered by a lack of church parish registry records before 1800 - my Richman family line starts in 1790 and I know nothing about any of the Richman-Marshman-Rich-Hill lines in Wiltshire before then. That's 25% of my father's ancestry. My mother also has a significant English immigrant line, and I have only one family back into the 1600s on that line. Many English parishes have fairly complete records, but they are incomplete for my particular lines.
Massachusetts didn't mandate civil registration at the town level (with reports to the state) of births, marriages and deaths until 1841, and the other New England states did so in the 1790 to 1870 time frame. Before civil registration at the town level, the town record books often included birth, marriage and death record entries, but they were not complete, and in many towns, the returns were pretty sparse, especially in the 1750 to 1850 time frame. Records between 1630 and 1750 are pretty good in most towns. All of this makes it difficult to obtain a complete record of the families involved.
Coastal New York and New Jersey were settled by the Dutch in 1624, and then populated by the English after 1664. Pennsylvania was settled by the English in the 1680's along the Delaware River. German immigration in the early 1700s into all three states expanded the population tremendously. Scots-Irish started immigrating in the mid-1700s into Pennsylvania and points south. In New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, some areas have decent church records once towns were established (New York City and Long Island Dutch and English churches, Hudson River Dutch and German churches, Pennsylvania German churches, New Jersey Dutch, English and German churches), but there is not 100% coverage within a town or 100% coverage of all towns. That's just the facts of genealogy life in the USA. We generally use military, church, land, probate and tax records to try to define our families and relationships before 1850.
I don't have any ancestry in the states south of colonial Pennsylvania so I can't give a general synopsis of availability of records, but the situation is similar to the mid-Atlantic states - researchers have to rely on military, church, land, tax and probate records before 1850.
Martin estimated that perhaps 1 or 2% of all researchers had their 10-generation chart filled up - every name. I'm not as optimistic - I sincerely doubt that any person has all 1,023 names filled out in a 10-generation pedigree chart.
My thanks to Tamura, Martin and Patti for the spirited discussion - hopefully we all learned something useful.
Hmm, I started this at 8:38 p.m. and it's now 10:20 pm. - spent almost two hours crunching numbers. Oh well, sleep comes and goes anyway! I had fun!
Does any reader have a completed pedigree chart back ten generations or more?
Labels: Family Trees, My genealogy research
Best of the Genea-Blogs - 28 February - 6 March 2010
Hundreds of 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:
* What's Happening In The Next Few Years by Renee Zamora on Renee's Genealogy Blog. Renee found an interesting list of predictions for our world and daily lives.
* A Toast To Mom: 6/20/1959 – 2/28/2010 by Elyse Doerflinger on Elyse's Genealogy Blog. Elyse's mother died last weekend and this is Elyse's beautiful tribute to her. Elyse has a new URL and blog design too.
* Genealogy: A $1B Market? Maybe by Dean Richardson on the Genlighten Blog - Genealogy Documented. Dean explains how he estimated the genealogy market size - useful information!
* Strategies for Starting Your Family History: Recording Your Findings by Donna Moughty on Donna's Genealogy Blog. This weekly series is excellent - read them all!
* Top Ten Things a Real Genealogist Can't Live Without by Martin Hollick on The Slovak Yankee blog. Martin made his own list after DearMYRTLE's list last week - major differences, due to different views.
* Genealogy Boot Camp: Get to know Your Research Tools by Thomas Kemp on GenealogyBank - The Official Blog. Tom provides al ink to his latest slide presentation.
* Bloggers & Tweeters & Chatters – Oh My! by Renee on the Above the Trees blog. Renee recounts her experiences at the St. George, Utah Family History Expo last weekend.
* Research Delivered: eBay Saved Searches by Denise Olson on the Family Matters blog. Denise shares how to let eBay tell you when something of interest to you is offered for sale.
* Genealogy As Therapy by Jasia on the Creative Gene blog. Jasia thinks genealogy research is therapeutic, satisfying and fun. I totally agree! Read Jasia's reasons.
* My Luckie Afternoon With Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr.!:-) by Luckie Daniels on the Our Georgia Roots blog. Luckie goes to a HLG presentation and gets to ask him a question. Great experience, and excellent job.
* Funding the Genealogy Collections at the Library of Michigan by Roger Moffat on the Roger's Ramblings blog. Roger discusses the problems with the Michigan library genealogy collection.
* Faces of America and Genetic Genealogy Testing by Blaine Bettinger on The Genetic Genealogist blog. Blaine summarizes the different tests shown on the last episode of Faces of America. Thanks for setting me straight, Blaine!
* Genealogy Discussion Group at Osan Air Base and Group Review by Wendy Hawksley on the New England Genealogy blog. Wendy is far away from home and started a new discussion group on their base - with an interesting result. Great opportunity here!
* Rate Your Genealogical Maturity by the writer of The Ancestry Insider blog. Mr. AI has modified his Genealogical Maturity Model and wants you to rate your skills. Try it.
* Weekly Rewind by Apple on the Apple's Tree blog. Apple always finds posts that I've missed!
* Weekly Genealogy Picks by John Newmark on the TransylvanianDutch blog. John's weekly picks and other genealogy news keeps me well informed.
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 610 genealogy bloggers using Bloglines, but I still miss quite a few it seems.
Read past Best of the Genea-Blogs posts here.
NOTE: Linda and I are off late next week for a three-week vacation far away from San Diego - to Australia (Sydney, Cairns), New Zealand (Christchurch, Queenstown, Auckland) and Fiji (Suva) to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary. I am not taking my laptop, and I will not be reading blogs, so therefore Best of the Genea-Blogs will be dark for four weeks. Please read Apple's Weekly Rewind posts and John's Weekly Genealogy Picks.
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:
* What's Happening In The Next Few Years by Renee Zamora on Renee's Genealogy Blog. Renee found an interesting list of predictions for our world and daily lives.
* A Toast To Mom: 6/20/1959 – 2/28/2010 by Elyse Doerflinger on Elyse's Genealogy Blog. Elyse's mother died last weekend and this is Elyse's beautiful tribute to her. Elyse has a new URL and blog design too.
* Genealogy: A $1B Market? Maybe by Dean Richardson on the Genlighten Blog - Genealogy Documented. Dean explains how he estimated the genealogy market size - useful information!
* Strategies for Starting Your Family History: Recording Your Findings by Donna Moughty on Donna's Genealogy Blog. This weekly series is excellent - read them all!
* Top Ten Things a Real Genealogist Can't Live Without by Martin Hollick on The Slovak Yankee blog. Martin made his own list after DearMYRTLE's list last week - major differences, due to different views.
* Genealogy Boot Camp: Get to know Your Research Tools by Thomas Kemp on GenealogyBank - The Official Blog. Tom provides al ink to his latest slide presentation.
* Bloggers & Tweeters & Chatters – Oh My! by Renee on the Above the Trees blog. Renee recounts her experiences at the St. George, Utah Family History Expo last weekend.
* Research Delivered: eBay Saved Searches by Denise Olson on the Family Matters blog. Denise shares how to let eBay tell you when something of interest to you is offered for sale.
* Genealogy As Therapy by Jasia on the Creative Gene blog. Jasia thinks genealogy research is therapeutic, satisfying and fun. I totally agree! Read Jasia's reasons.
* My Luckie Afternoon With Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr.!:-) by Luckie Daniels on the Our Georgia Roots blog. Luckie goes to a HLG presentation and gets to ask him a question. Great experience, and excellent job.
* Funding the Genealogy Collections at the Library of Michigan by Roger Moffat on the Roger's Ramblings blog. Roger discusses the problems with the Michigan library genealogy collection.
* Faces of America and Genetic Genealogy Testing by Blaine Bettinger on The Genetic Genealogist blog. Blaine summarizes the different tests shown on the last episode of Faces of America. Thanks for setting me straight, Blaine!
* Genealogy Discussion Group at Osan Air Base and Group Review by Wendy Hawksley on the New England Genealogy blog. Wendy is far away from home and started a new discussion group on their base - with an interesting result. Great opportunity here!
* Rate Your Genealogical Maturity by the writer of The Ancestry Insider blog. Mr. AI has modified his Genealogical Maturity Model and wants you to rate your skills. Try it.
* Weekly Rewind by Apple on the Apple's Tree blog. Apple always finds posts that I've missed!
* Weekly Genealogy Picks by John Newmark on the TransylvanianDutch blog. John's weekly picks and other genealogy news keeps me well informed.
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 610 genealogy bloggers using Bloglines, but I still miss quite a few it seems.
Read past Best of the Genea-Blogs posts here.
NOTE: Linda and I are off late next week for a three-week vacation far away from San Diego - to Australia (Sydney, Cairns), New Zealand (Christchurch, Queenstown, Auckland) and Fiji (Suva) to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary. I am not taking my laptop, and I will not be reading blogs, so therefore Best of the Genea-Blogs will be dark for four weeks. Please read Apple's Weekly Rewind posts and John's Weekly Genealogy Picks.
Labels: BestofGeneaBlogs, genealogy blogs
At the Escondido Family History Fair
I had the pleasure of attending the annual Escondido (CA) Family History Fair at the Escondido Family History Center on Saturday, 6 March. This is the best one-day conference in San Diego County each year, featuring a keynote speaker, five sessions with seven tracks in each time slot, and an exhibit hall where no vendor can sell anything (the only real drawback).
I usually carpool the 40 miles each way to the Fair with my Chula Vista Genealogical Society (CVGS) colleagues, and this year eight of us went in three cars, arriving at 8:15 a.m. Another seven CVGS members attended on their own, for a grand total of 15 in attendance, out of about 200 total attendees.
CVGS had a table near one of the exhibit hall entrances, and we displayed a poster of our three resident bloggers (Ruth, Susi and Randy), had handouts and my laptop highlighting the Chula Vista Genealogy Cafe blog. There was usually one member minding the table while the others went off to the presentations. Almost all of the San Diego County societies were there, plus quite a few lineage and heritage societies. The National Archives and Footnote.com were also represented.
The keynote speaker was David Rencher, Chief Genealogical Officer of FamilySearch. He spoke on "FamilySearch Tackles the Information Explosion," discussing why certain features are being phased out and how and why the new FamilySearch features are being phased in. He noted that PAF, CD products, IGI, PRF, FHLC on CD, Research Guidance, paper publications, microfilms, Scottish Church records, Vietnam and Korean War casualty files are being phased out. Being phased in with newFamilySearch are FamilyTree, FamilySearch Wiki, Standard Finder, Record Search (Pilot), FamilySearch Indexing, and Book Scanning. Not a word about GenSeek!
I didn't attend a presentation in the second hour, but did talk extensively to Roger Bell of Footnote.com, who showed me the new Footnote Viewer that will be available soon.
In the second hour, I couldn't wedge myself into the room for Debby Horton's talk on "Collaborating with Others" so I found a seat in Caroline Rober's talk on "Basic Military Research." She defined the types of military records that can be found, the many wars that there are records available for, some research strategies, what information might be found in different record types, and where the records can be found.
After a lunch (Subway sandwich, cookie, chips, apple, water) prepared by a Boy Scout troop (great service project!), I returned to the CVGS table in the exhibit hall and talked to people as they stopped by, including those minding the other society tables.
In the first hour after lunch, I tried to go to Frank Chocco's talk on "12 Step Program to Find That Elusive Ancestor" but left when I couldn't find a seat.. So I attended Barbara Renick's presentation on "5 C's to Success in Genealogy Today." Barbara used two fairly complex case studies to illustrate how to use classic and computer resources, collaborate with cousins, consistently cite sources (chant: find, cite, search, copy), and perform comprehensive searches (chant: civil, church, family, single source, multiple sources, census, probate). Interesting cases and solutions. My major takeaway here was to search up and down watercourses, rather than over mountain ranges, and to draw a 9-mile radius circle to find spouse's family - 9 miles being distance to walk or ride on a horse in several hours).
In the next hour, I stayed in the cozy seats in the Chapel and saw Barbara Renick's presentation on "Searching Newspapers Online." She walked us through newspaper archives on commercial genealogy sites (Accessible Archives, Ancestry.com, Footnote.com, GenealogyBank, com, and WorldVitalRecords.com; commercial information sites (NewsBank, NewspaperARCHIVE.com, ProQuest, ProQuest Historical Newspapers, and Proquest Obituaries); Free genealogy sites (Google News Archive Search and SmallTownPapers.com). During this talk, Barbara showed screen shots and different search techniques used on each site to find her Renick and Zucknick ancestors. Lots of information here. Her handout is on her website at http://www.zroots.com/newspapers.htm.
I stayed at the CVGS table during the last hour of presentations, and helped John and Ann take down the booth stuff, and put my laptop away.
During the day, I tweeted occasionally (on http://Twitter.com/rjseaver/) about my plans and/or events, but I didn't blog about the talks because of the time constraints.
The 159 page paper syllabus provided outlines and notes for most of the talks by the presenters at the Fair. I have some reading to do about the talks I missed.
All in all, this was a good genealogy day - outstanding presentations and excellent company.
I usually carpool the 40 miles each way to the Fair with my Chula Vista Genealogical Society (CVGS) colleagues, and this year eight of us went in three cars, arriving at 8:15 a.m. Another seven CVGS members attended on their own, for a grand total of 15 in attendance, out of about 200 total attendees.
CVGS had a table near one of the exhibit hall entrances, and we displayed a poster of our three resident bloggers (Ruth, Susi and Randy), had handouts and my laptop highlighting the Chula Vista Genealogy Cafe blog. There was usually one member minding the table while the others went off to the presentations. Almost all of the San Diego County societies were there, plus quite a few lineage and heritage societies. The National Archives and Footnote.com were also represented.
The keynote speaker was David Rencher, Chief Genealogical Officer of FamilySearch. He spoke on "FamilySearch Tackles the Information Explosion," discussing why certain features are being phased out and how and why the new FamilySearch features are being phased in. He noted that PAF, CD products, IGI, PRF, FHLC on CD, Research Guidance, paper publications, microfilms, Scottish Church records, Vietnam and Korean War casualty files are being phased out. Being phased in with newFamilySearch are FamilyTree, FamilySearch Wiki, Standard Finder, Record Search (Pilot), FamilySearch Indexing, and Book Scanning. Not a word about GenSeek!
I didn't attend a presentation in the second hour, but did talk extensively to Roger Bell of Footnote.com, who showed me the new Footnote Viewer that will be available soon.
In the second hour, I couldn't wedge myself into the room for Debby Horton's talk on "Collaborating with Others" so I found a seat in Caroline Rober's talk on "Basic Military Research." She defined the types of military records that can be found, the many wars that there are records available for, some research strategies, what information might be found in different record types, and where the records can be found.
After a lunch (Subway sandwich, cookie, chips, apple, water) prepared by a Boy Scout troop (great service project!), I returned to the CVGS table in the exhibit hall and talked to people as they stopped by, including those minding the other society tables.
In the first hour after lunch, I tried to go to Frank Chocco's talk on "12 Step Program to Find That Elusive Ancestor" but left when I couldn't find a seat.. So I attended Barbara Renick's presentation on "5 C's to Success in Genealogy Today." Barbara used two fairly complex case studies to illustrate how to use classic and computer resources, collaborate with cousins, consistently cite sources (chant: find, cite, search, copy), and perform comprehensive searches (chant: civil, church, family, single source, multiple sources, census, probate). Interesting cases and solutions. My major takeaway here was to search up and down watercourses, rather than over mountain ranges, and to draw a 9-mile radius circle to find spouse's family - 9 miles being distance to walk or ride on a horse in several hours).
In the next hour, I stayed in the cozy seats in the Chapel and saw Barbara Renick's presentation on "Searching Newspapers Online." She walked us through newspaper archives on commercial genealogy sites (Accessible Archives, Ancestry.com, Footnote.com, GenealogyBank, com, and WorldVitalRecords.com; commercial information sites (NewsBank, NewspaperARCHIVE.com, ProQuest, ProQuest Historical Newspapers, and Proquest Obituaries); Free genealogy sites (Google News Archive Search and SmallTownPapers.com). During this talk, Barbara showed screen shots and different search techniques used on each site to find her Renick and Zucknick ancestors. Lots of information here. Her handout is on her website at http://www.zroots.com/newspapers.htm.
I stayed at the CVGS table during the last hour of presentations, and helped John and Ann take down the booth stuff, and put my laptop away.
During the day, I tweeted occasionally (on http://Twitter.com/rjseaver/) about my plans and/or events, but I didn't blog about the talks because of the time constraints.
The 159 page paper syllabus provided outlines and notes for most of the talks by the presenters at the Fair. I have some reading to do about the talks I missed.
All in all, this was a good genealogy day - outstanding presentations and excellent company.
Labels: Conferences/Seminars, LDS Resources, San Diego area
Saturday, March 6, 2010
SNGF - The Stars of My WDYTYA? Show
My entry for this week's wonderful Saturday Night Genealogy Fun mission suggested by some Top 40 genea-blogger is to:
1) Pretend that you are one of the subjects on the Who Do You Think You Are? show on NBC TV.
Okay - the charming and personable, yet humble, star of this week's WDYTYA? show is none other than unknown Chula Vista, California genealogist and family historian, Randy Seaver!
2) Which of your ancestors (maximum of two) would be featured on your hour-long show? What stories would be told, and what places would you visit?
The life of Devier James Lamphear Smith (1839-1894) would be told in its entirety, highlighting:
* An adopted child of Ranslow and Mary (Bell) Smith in Jefferson County, NY. Who were the parents?
* Moving with his family to Dodge County, Wisconsin, and growing up in his father's "Four Mile House" hotel and working in his own livery business. Officially changes his name from Lamphear to Smith after adoptive father writes his will.
* After the railroad comes to town, he moves with his wife and young children to Taylor County, Iowa, then to Andrew County, Missouri, then to Concordia, Cloud County, Kansas, and finally to McCook, Red Willow County, Nebraska. In these years, several more children are born, and several children die. He proves his father's will in Andrew County, Missouri.
* The "Four Mile House" hotel that Devier grew up in Dodge County, Wisconsin is a living history museum building at Old World Wisconsin in Eagle, Wisconsin.
* Starts a livery business in McCook, but is also an inventor, a snake-oil salesman and a land speculator.
* Buys land in Wano, Cheyenne County, Kansas and builds a ranch. Daughters star in prairie melodramas in a small playhouse, which leads to the wedding of darling daughter Della to Austin Carringer. Writes family information in the family Bible.
* Death in McCook and burial there.
I would visit all of the above named places, plus the Family History Library and the Wisconsin State Historical Society. I hope that the professional genealogists, sparing no expense, can find the names of Devier's birth parents, land records in all of those places, and a probate record in McCook.
1) Pretend that you are one of the subjects on the Who Do You Think You Are? show on NBC TV.
Okay - the charming and personable, yet humble, star of this week's WDYTYA? show is none other than unknown Chula Vista, California genealogist and family historian, Randy Seaver!
2) Which of your ancestors (maximum of two) would be featured on your hour-long show? What stories would be told, and what places would you visit?
The life of Devier James Lamphear Smith (1839-1894) would be told in its entirety, highlighting:
* An adopted child of Ranslow and Mary (Bell) Smith in Jefferson County, NY. Who were the parents?
* Moving with his family to Dodge County, Wisconsin, and growing up in his father's "Four Mile House" hotel and working in his own livery business. Officially changes his name from Lamphear to Smith after adoptive father writes his will.
* After the railroad comes to town, he moves with his wife and young children to Taylor County, Iowa, then to Andrew County, Missouri, then to Concordia, Cloud County, Kansas, and finally to McCook, Red Willow County, Nebraska. In these years, several more children are born, and several children die. He proves his father's will in Andrew County, Missouri.
* The "Four Mile House" hotel that Devier grew up in Dodge County, Wisconsin is a living history museum building at Old World Wisconsin in Eagle, Wisconsin.
* Starts a livery business in McCook, but is also an inventor, a snake-oil salesman and a land speculator.
* Buys land in Wano, Cheyenne County, Kansas and builds a ranch. Daughters star in prairie melodramas in a small playhouse, which leads to the wedding of darling daughter Della to Austin Carringer. Writes family information in the family Bible.
* Death in McCook and burial there.
I would visit all of the above named places, plus the Family History Library and the Wisconsin State Historical Society. I hope that the professional genealogists, sparing no expense, can find the names of Devier's birth parents, land records in all of those places, and a probate record in McCook.
Labels: Family Stories, My genealogy research, SNGF
Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Your own WDYTYA?
Hey genea-people - it's Saturday Night, time for more Genealogy Fun!!
You outdid yourself last week with the posts about the "If You Won the Ancestry.com contest."
Tonight's mission, should you decide to accept it, is to:
1) Pretend that you are one of the subjects on the Who Do You Think You Are? show on NBC TV.
2) Which of your ancestors (maximum of two) would be featured on your hour-long show? What stories would be told, and what places would you visit?
3) Tell us about it on your own blog, in comments to this blog post, or in a Note or Comment on Facebook.
I will post mine in a separate blog post on Saturday night (of course!) - after my full day at the Escondido Family History Fair.
You outdid yourself last week with the posts about the "If You Won the Ancestry.com contest."
Tonight's mission, should you decide to accept it, is to:
1) Pretend that you are one of the subjects on the Who Do You Think You Are? show on NBC TV.
2) Which of your ancestors (maximum of two) would be featured on your hour-long show? What stories would be told, and what places would you visit?
3) Tell us about it on your own blog, in comments to this blog post, or in a Note or Comment on Facebook.
I will post mine in a separate blog post on Saturday night (of course!) - after my full day at the Escondido Family History Fair.
Labels: Family Stories, SNGF
Surname Saturday - BUCK (of Massachusetts)
On Surname Saturdays, I am posting family lines from my own ancestry. I am doing this in Ahnentafel order, and am up to number #39, who is Sophia Buck (1797-1882).
My ancestral line back through the eight generations of my Buck ancestral families:
1. Randall J. Seaver
2. Frederick W. Seaver (1911-1983)
3. Betty V. Carringer (1919-2002)
4. Frederick W. Seaver (1876-1942)
5. Alma Bessie Richmond (1882-1962)
8. Frank W. Seaver (1852-1922)
9. Hattie Hildreth (1857-1920)
18. Edward Hildreth (1831-1899)
19. Sophia Newton (1834-1923)
38. Thomas J. Newton (ca 1795-????)
39 Sophia Buck, born 03 May 1797 in Holden, Worcester County, MA; died 06 January 1882 in Westborough, Worcester County, MA. She married (1) Lambert Brigham before 22 February 1817 in Sterling, Worcester County, MA. He was born 07 June 1794 in Westborough, Worcester County, MA, and died about 1831 in prob. Sterling, Worcester County, MA. He was the son of Phineas Brigham and Lydia Batherick. She married (2) Thomas J. Newton before 1832 in probably Worcester County, MA. He was born about 1795 in ME. She married (3) Jonathan Stone 07 July 1862 in Westborough, Worcester County, MA.
78. Isaac Buck, born 27 September 1757 in Southborough, Worcester County, MA; died 07 February 1846 in Sterling, Worcester, MA. He married 18 May 1780 in Lancaster, Worcester County, MA.
79. Martha/Patty Phillips, born 20 August 1757 in Shrewsbury, Worcester County, MA; died after 1820 in probably Sterling, Worcester County, MA. She was the daughter of 158. John Phillips and 159. Hannah Brown.
Children of Isaac Buck and Martha Phillips are: Polly Buck (1782-????); Silas Buck (1784-1863); Pliny Buck (1789-1874); Martha Buck (1791-????); Sally Buck (1794-????); Sophia Buck (1797-1882); Isaac Buck (1807-1871); Leander Howe Buck (1810-????).
156. Isaac Buck, born About 1732 in prob. Wilmington, Middlesex, MA. He did not marry.
157. Mary Richards, born 27 September 1733 in Southborough, Worcester, MA. She was the daughter of 314. Joseph Richards and 315. Mary Bowden.
Child of Isaac Buck and Mary Richards is: Isaac Buck (1757-1846).
312. Isaac Buck, born about 1706 in Woburn, Middlesex, MA; died 19 May 1780 in Framingham, Middlesex, MA. He married 03 December 1729 in Reading, Middlesex, MA.
313. Ruth Graves, born 10 January 1709/10 in Lynn, Essex, MA. She was the daughter of 626. Thomas Graves and 627. Ruth Collins.
Children of Isaac Buck and Ruth Graves are: Thomas Buck (1730-????); Isaac Buck (1732-????); Esther Buck (1734-????); Susanna Buck (1736-????); Ebenezer Buck (1738-1827); Joseph Buck (1740-????).
624. Ephraim Buck, born 13 July 1676 in Woburn, Middlesex, MA; died January 1720/21 in Woburn, Middlesex, MA. He married 01 December 1696 in Woburn, Middlesex, MA.
625. Esther Waget, died before 19 December 1748 in Wilmington, Middlesex, MA.
Children of Ephraim Buck and Esther Waget are: Sarah Buck (1697-????); Hester Buck (1700-????); Ephraim Buck (1702-????); Susanna Buck (1705-????); Isaac Buck (1706-1780).
1248. Ephraim Buck, born 26 July 1646 in Cambridge, Middlesex, MA; died January 1720/21 in Woburn, Middlesex, MA. He married 01 January 1670/71 in Woburn, Middlesex, MA.
1249. Sarah Brooks, born 21 November 1652 in Woburn, Middlesex, MA. She was the daughter of 2498. John Brooks and 2499. Eunice Mousall.
Children of Ephraim Buck and Sarah Brooks are: Sarah Buck (1674-1734); Ephraim Buck (1676-1721); John Buck (1678-1678); John Buck (1680-1752); Samuel Buck (1682-????); Eunice Buck (1685-????); Ebenezer Buck (1689-1752); Mary Buck (1689-????).
2296. Roger Buck, born about 1617 in ENGLAND; died 10 November 1693 in Woburn, Middlesex, MA. He married about 1640 in Cambridge, Middlesex, MA.
2297. Susanna, born about 1618 in ENGLAND; died 10 September 1685 in Cambridge, Middlesex, MA.
Children of Roger Buck and Susanna are: Samuel Buck (1643-1690); John Buck (1644-????); Ephraim Buck (1646-1721); Mary Buck (1649-1669); Lydia Buck (1650-????); Ruth Buck (1653-1683); Elizabeth Buck (1657-????).
4592. William Buck, born About 1585 in ENGLAND; died 24 January 1656/57 in Cambridge, Middlesex, MA.
Child of William Buck is: Roger Buck (1617-1693)
I've written about Isaac Buck (1732-???) and Mary Richards in two posts titled "Isaac Buck in the Woodpile - Part I" and "Part II."
Are any readers and genea-bloggers descended from William Buck and Roger Buck? There were several other Buck families in the mid-1600s in New England.
My ancestral line back through the eight generations of my Buck ancestral families:
1. Randall J. Seaver
2. Frederick W. Seaver (1911-1983)
3. Betty V. Carringer (1919-2002)
4. Frederick W. Seaver (1876-1942)
5. Alma Bessie Richmond (1882-1962)
8. Frank W. Seaver (1852-1922)
9. Hattie Hildreth (1857-1920)
18. Edward Hildreth (1831-1899)
19. Sophia Newton (1834-1923)
38. Thomas J. Newton (ca 1795-????)
39 Sophia Buck, born 03 May 1797 in Holden, Worcester County, MA; died 06 January 1882 in Westborough, Worcester County, MA. She married (1) Lambert Brigham before 22 February 1817 in Sterling, Worcester County, MA. He was born 07 June 1794 in Westborough, Worcester County, MA, and died about 1831 in prob. Sterling, Worcester County, MA. He was the son of Phineas Brigham and Lydia Batherick. She married (2) Thomas J. Newton before 1832 in probably Worcester County, MA. He was born about 1795 in ME. She married (3) Jonathan Stone 07 July 1862 in Westborough, Worcester County, MA.
78. Isaac Buck, born 27 September 1757 in Southborough, Worcester County, MA; died 07 February 1846 in Sterling, Worcester, MA. He married 18 May 1780 in Lancaster, Worcester County, MA.
79. Martha/Patty Phillips, born 20 August 1757 in Shrewsbury, Worcester County, MA; died after 1820 in probably Sterling, Worcester County, MA. She was the daughter of 158. John Phillips and 159. Hannah Brown.
Children of Isaac Buck and Martha Phillips are: Polly Buck (1782-????); Silas Buck (1784-1863); Pliny Buck (1789-1874); Martha Buck (1791-????); Sally Buck (1794-????); Sophia Buck (1797-1882); Isaac Buck (1807-1871); Leander Howe Buck (1810-????).
156. Isaac Buck, born About 1732 in prob. Wilmington, Middlesex, MA. He did not marry.
157. Mary Richards, born 27 September 1733 in Southborough, Worcester, MA. She was the daughter of 314. Joseph Richards and 315. Mary Bowden.
Child of Isaac Buck and Mary Richards is: Isaac Buck (1757-1846).
312. Isaac Buck, born about 1706 in Woburn, Middlesex, MA; died 19 May 1780 in Framingham, Middlesex, MA. He married 03 December 1729 in Reading, Middlesex, MA.
313. Ruth Graves, born 10 January 1709/10 in Lynn, Essex, MA. She was the daughter of 626. Thomas Graves and 627. Ruth Collins.
Children of Isaac Buck and Ruth Graves are: Thomas Buck (1730-????); Isaac Buck (1732-????); Esther Buck (1734-????); Susanna Buck (1736-????); Ebenezer Buck (1738-1827); Joseph Buck (1740-????).
624. Ephraim Buck, born 13 July 1676 in Woburn, Middlesex, MA; died January 1720/21 in Woburn, Middlesex, MA. He married 01 December 1696 in Woburn, Middlesex, MA.
625. Esther Waget, died before 19 December 1748 in Wilmington, Middlesex, MA.
Children of Ephraim Buck and Esther Waget are: Sarah Buck (1697-????); Hester Buck (1700-????); Ephraim Buck (1702-????); Susanna Buck (1705-????); Isaac Buck (1706-1780).
1248. Ephraim Buck, born 26 July 1646 in Cambridge, Middlesex, MA; died January 1720/21 in Woburn, Middlesex, MA. He married 01 January 1670/71 in Woburn, Middlesex, MA.
1249. Sarah Brooks, born 21 November 1652 in Woburn, Middlesex, MA. She was the daughter of 2498. John Brooks and 2499. Eunice Mousall.
Children of Ephraim Buck and Sarah Brooks are: Sarah Buck (1674-1734); Ephraim Buck (1676-1721); John Buck (1678-1678); John Buck (1680-1752); Samuel Buck (1682-????); Eunice Buck (1685-????); Ebenezer Buck (1689-1752); Mary Buck (1689-????).
2296. Roger Buck, born about 1617 in ENGLAND; died 10 November 1693 in Woburn, Middlesex, MA. He married about 1640 in Cambridge, Middlesex, MA.
2297. Susanna, born about 1618 in ENGLAND; died 10 September 1685 in Cambridge, Middlesex, MA.
Children of Roger Buck and Susanna are: Samuel Buck (1643-1690); John Buck (1644-????); Ephraim Buck (1646-1721); Mary Buck (1649-1669); Lydia Buck (1650-????); Ruth Buck (1653-1683); Elizabeth Buck (1657-????).
4592. William Buck, born About 1585 in ENGLAND; died 24 January 1656/57 in Cambridge, Middlesex, MA.
Child of William Buck is: Roger Buck (1617-1693)
I've written about Isaac Buck (1732-???) and Mary Richards in two posts titled "Isaac Buck in the Woodpile - Part I" and "Part II."
Are any readers and genea-bloggers descended from William Buck and Roger Buck? There were several other Buck families in the mid-1600s in New England.
Labels: Family Trees, My genealogy research, Surname Saturday
Friday, March 5, 2010
Who Do You Think You Are? Episode 1 Recap
Tonight I watched with much anticipation the first episode of the new NBC-TV series, Who Do You Think You Are?
My hopes were that the show would show genealogy and family history research in a positive way, and that the actual documents and the search process would be shown realistically. The first hope was met - Sarah Jessica Parker participated in the research to some extent, was very enthusiastic and emotional during the episode, and was a good first subject. My second hope was only partially met - and that was because they don't have enough time to show the actual research process and all of the documents, so they picked the "low hanging fruit" of Sarah's Gold Rush miner and accused Salem witch.
For a summary of the episode, check out the Ancestry.com blog post titled Who Do You Think You Are? Episode 1 – Sarah Jessica Parker by Heather Erickson.
Anastasia Tyler, the Ancestry.com Public Relations Manager, sent an email with useful information - Thomas MacEntee published it in his post on the Geneabloggers blog titled The Research Process for Sarah Jessica Parker’s Genealogy.
Many geneabloggers wrote comments about this episode. Thomas MacEntee collected them into the post Who Do You Think You Are? Episode 1 Review on the Geneabloggers blog.
My grade for this episode was a B+. I want to save a little room for a really outstanding episode.
I also had hoped that in the first episode that they would say just a bit about the family tree, show - for example, "if you go back 10 generations that each of us has potentially 1,024 ancestors in that generation and 2,047 overall, and we're going to show you only some of them due to time constraints," and show a family tree graphic. Then at the end of the show, I hoped that they would show the ancestors they focused on in relation to the rest of the family tree. Not everybody who watched the show will understand that, and will think that all they have to do is go down to the library, log onto Ancestry.com and find notable ancestors hanging from the family tree.
My wife watched this episode in the bedroom - and when I went in to ask her if she enjoyed it, she was peacefully snoozing all warm and toasty under the covers. Surely she didn't miss the Salem witch documents, did she? I'll have to ask her in the morning what she liked about the show, and if she saw the records of the Salem witch being executed. :)
My hopes were that the show would show genealogy and family history research in a positive way, and that the actual documents and the search process would be shown realistically. The first hope was met - Sarah Jessica Parker participated in the research to some extent, was very enthusiastic and emotional during the episode, and was a good first subject. My second hope was only partially met - and that was because they don't have enough time to show the actual research process and all of the documents, so they picked the "low hanging fruit" of Sarah's Gold Rush miner and accused Salem witch.
For a summary of the episode, check out the Ancestry.com blog post titled Who Do You Think You Are? Episode 1 – Sarah Jessica Parker by Heather Erickson.
Anastasia Tyler, the Ancestry.com Public Relations Manager, sent an email with useful information - Thomas MacEntee published it in his post on the Geneabloggers blog titled The Research Process for Sarah Jessica Parker’s Genealogy.
Many geneabloggers wrote comments about this episode. Thomas MacEntee collected them into the post Who Do You Think You Are? Episode 1 Review on the Geneabloggers blog.
My grade for this episode was a B+. I want to save a little room for a really outstanding episode.
I also had hoped that in the first episode that they would say just a bit about the family tree, show - for example, "if you go back 10 generations that each of us has potentially 1,024 ancestors in that generation and 2,047 overall, and we're going to show you only some of them due to time constraints," and show a family tree graphic. Then at the end of the show, I hoped that they would show the ancestors they focused on in relation to the rest of the family tree. Not everybody who watched the show will understand that, and will think that all they have to do is go down to the library, log onto Ancestry.com and find notable ancestors hanging from the family tree.
My wife watched this episode in the bedroom - and when I went in to ask her if she enjoyed it, she was peacefully snoozing all warm and toasty under the covers. Surely she didn't miss the Salem witch documents, did she? I'll have to ask her in the morning what she liked about the show, and if she saw the records of the Salem witch being executed. :)
Labels: genealogy resources, Genealogy Video, Online resources
Using GenSmarts - Post 4: Research Locations
....
I received a copy of the latest version of the GenSmarts family tree analysis software last month - see CGSSD Program Review - Aaron Underwood - GenSmarts for my summary of the meeting. GenSmarts is a Windows only computer program.
In the first post, I demonstrated the "File Open Wizard" that gets a genealogy database file (in my case, from Family Tree Maker 16) into the GenSmarts program. In the second post, I explored two of the program tabs - the "To-Do List" and "My Genealogy File" tabs. In the third post, I demonstrated using the To-Do list for a specific person.
In this post I'm going to demonstrate how the user can determine which records might be found in which research library or website using GenSmarts "Research Locations" list for a specific person.
I'm still working with the David Jackson Carringer family. From the last screen, I clicked on the "Research Location" tab, and saw a list of research facilities and libraries in the top left box on the screen. I selected the "Family History Library" from the list. In order to find suggestions for David Jackson Carringer, I typed "david jackson" into the search box below the list of locations:
The program found seven suggestions for David Jackson Carringer - I highlighted the first one above and the right side of the screen showed me the FHL microfilms for Mercer County PA land records. With a research location selected, and a specific record selected from the list, the program usually shows information about that record at the research location. Sometimes, the program shows only the address of a research library and no further details.
If I had had more than one person with the words "david jackson" in their name, the program would have provided me with all of the suggestions. I initially had a hard time getting results here, and had to retype at least a part of the name for each locality.
What if I had typed in "d.j." which is part of the name in my database? I did that, and it
gave me the same seven suggestions:
D.J. Carringer is RIN number [5150] in my database - I found it works to input just this number (enclosed by brackets) to get information for a specific person in my database:
The above method of using the RIN number may be the best way to isolate suggestions about a specific person in the database. Note that the program uses the person's name in the database, not in the actual records. If I were to search on Ancestry.com or FamilySearch.org for David Jackson D.J. Carringer, I would have to use all of the tips in my bag of search tricks to find him in the records.
This method of finding which records for a given person are in which research location is fairly cumbersome. The user has to go one-by-one in the Research Location list to find results. The should be a way to get information about:
* A specific person in all research locations
* A selected number of persons (e.g., all of a surname, all in a family, all in an ancestral group, or all in the database) in one research location
There are several better ways to do this task, and I'll demonstrate them in one of the next posts.
I received a copy of the latest version of the GenSmarts family tree analysis software last month - see CGSSD Program Review - Aaron Underwood - GenSmarts for my summary of the meeting. GenSmarts is a Windows only computer program.
In the first post, I demonstrated the "File Open Wizard" that gets a genealogy database file (in my case, from Family Tree Maker 16) into the GenSmarts program. In the second post, I explored two of the program tabs - the "To-Do List" and "My Genealogy File" tabs. In the third post, I demonstrated using the To-Do list for a specific person.
In this post I'm going to demonstrate how the user can determine which records might be found in which research library or website using GenSmarts "Research Locations" list for a specific person.
I'm still working with the David Jackson Carringer family. From the last screen, I clicked on the "Research Location" tab, and saw a list of research facilities and libraries in the top left box on the screen. I selected the "Family History Library" from the list. In order to find suggestions for David Jackson Carringer, I typed "david jackson" into the search box below the list of locations:
The program found seven suggestions for David Jackson Carringer - I highlighted the first one above and the right side of the screen showed me the FHL microfilms for Mercer County PA land records. With a research location selected, and a specific record selected from the list, the program usually shows information about that record at the research location. Sometimes, the program shows only the address of a research library and no further details.
If I had had more than one person with the words "david jackson" in their name, the program would have provided me with all of the suggestions. I initially had a hard time getting results here, and had to retype at least a part of the name for each locality.
What if I had typed in "d.j." which is part of the name in my database? I did that, and it
gave me the same seven suggestions:
D.J. Carringer is RIN number [5150] in my database - I found it works to input just this number (enclosed by brackets) to get information for a specific person in my database:
The above method of using the RIN number may be the best way to isolate suggestions about a specific person in the database. Note that the program uses the person's name in the database, not in the actual records. If I were to search on Ancestry.com or FamilySearch.org for David Jackson D.J. Carringer, I would have to use all of the tips in my bag of search tricks to find him in the records.
This method of finding which records for a given person are in which research location is fairly cumbersome. The user has to go one-by-one in the Research Location list to find results. The should be a way to get information about:
* A specific person in all research locations
* A selected number of persons (e.g., all of a surname, all in a family, all in an ancestral group, or all in the database) in one research location
There are several better ways to do this task, and I'll demonstrate them in one of the next posts.
Labels: genealogy software, Gensmarts, My genealogy research, Online resources
Fearless Females - March 5: How did they meet?
The Fearless Female blog prompt for today is:
March 5 — How did they meet? You’ve documented marriages, now, go back a bit. Do you know the story of how your parents met? Your grandparents?
Did you read my post yesterday - Treasure Chest Thursday - "I'll be out to see you" - and wonder how my father met my mother?
Here's the next chapter of the story.
My father, Fred Seaver, arrived in San Diego just before Christmas 1940 and lived for awhile with the George and Emily (Richmond) Taylor family (Emily was Fred's Aunt, sister of Fred's mother), which included their daughter's family, Marshall and Dorothy (Taylor) Chamberlain and their daughter Marcia. They lived at 4601 Terrace Drive in the Kensington community of San Diego. Fred got a job with his cousin-in-law, Marshall Chamberlain and eventually moved into an apartment.
My mother, Betty Carringer, graduated from San Diego State College in June 1940 and embarked on a public school teaching career, starting at Woodrow Wilson Junior High (on El Cajon Boulevard in San Diego, about one mile from Terrace Drive) in September 1940, teaching English and Art. She resided at her parents home at 2130 Fern Street in San Diego, about four miles from the school (I'm sure that she took the bus, since she never drove or had a license).
Dorothy (Taylor) Chamberlain (1904-1988) told the story about how Fred met Betty every time we visited her in her later years:
"After some time, Fred announced at the dinner table 'I need a girl friend.'
"Marcia, age 14 at the time and attending Wilson Junior High School, said 'I know a nice teacher. I know her from my Art class.'
"Fred sent flowers to Betty through Marcia, they had a miniature golf date in Balboa Park with the Chamberlains as chaperones, a romance blossomed, resulting in their marriage in July 1942."
Dorothy would tell this story each time we would take her on an outing in her later years, and I always wondered about the truth of it. So I asked her daughter, Marcia, about it. Cousin Marcia wrote several letters to me about her memories of my father, after he arrived from New England in December 1940, that describe this event.
So that's the story - he wanted a girl friend, sent flowers, and romance bloomed in San Diego.
March 5 — How did they meet? You’ve documented marriages, now, go back a bit. Do you know the story of how your parents met? Your grandparents?
Did you read my post yesterday - Treasure Chest Thursday - "I'll be out to see you" - and wonder how my father met my mother?
Here's the next chapter of the story.
My father, Fred Seaver, arrived in San Diego just before Christmas 1940 and lived for awhile with the George and Emily (Richmond) Taylor family (Emily was Fred's Aunt, sister of Fred's mother), which included their daughter's family, Marshall and Dorothy (Taylor) Chamberlain and their daughter Marcia. They lived at 4601 Terrace Drive in the Kensington community of San Diego. Fred got a job with his cousin-in-law, Marshall Chamberlain and eventually moved into an apartment.
My mother, Betty Carringer, graduated from San Diego State College in June 1940 and embarked on a public school teaching career, starting at Woodrow Wilson Junior High (on El Cajon Boulevard in San Diego, about one mile from Terrace Drive) in September 1940, teaching English and Art. She resided at her parents home at 2130 Fern Street in San Diego, about four miles from the school (I'm sure that she took the bus, since she never drove or had a license).
Dorothy (Taylor) Chamberlain (1904-1988) told the story about how Fred met Betty every time we visited her in her later years:
"After some time, Fred announced at the dinner table 'I need a girl friend.'
"Marcia, age 14 at the time and attending Wilson Junior High School, said 'I know a nice teacher. I know her from my Art class.'
"Fred sent flowers to Betty through Marcia, they had a miniature golf date in Balboa Park with the Chamberlains as chaperones, a romance blossomed, resulting in their marriage in July 1942."
Dorothy would tell this story each time we would take her on an outing in her later years, and I always wondered about the truth of it. So I asked her daughter, Marcia, about it. Cousin Marcia wrote several letters to me about her memories of my father, after he arrived from New England in December 1940, that describe this event.
So that's the story - he wanted a girl friend, sent flowers, and romance bloomed in San Diego.
Labels: Family Stories, Fearless Females, Memories, My genealogy research
Follow Friday - Creative Gene
It's Follow Friday - time for a look at one of my favorite blogs.
The Creative Gene blog is authored by Jasia, the beautiful and mysterious photographer from Detroit and now St. Joseph, Michigan. Jasia is of Polish ancestry, and claims that her ancestral research is completed.
The Creative Gene blog is authored by Jasia, the beautiful and mysterious photographer from Detroit and now St. Joseph, Michigan. Jasia is of Polish ancestry, and claims that her ancestral research is completed.
Jasia's Creative Gene blog was started in March 2006, and is best known for hosting almost all of the Carnival of Genealogy. There have been 90 editions of this Carnival, comprised of genealogy-related blog posts on a specific topic, published twice a month (starting summer 2006). In the early days of genealogy blogging, the Carnival was the main "community-building" event for genea-bloggers. The really neat thing about starting and participating in the Carnival was that the topics emphasized family history, photographs and stories and we all got to know each other as colleagues and friends rather than as competitors. Jasia did it!
But Creative Gene is more than the Carnival of Genealogy - on her blog, Jasia shares her family stories and comments on genealogy research. Jasia is one of the genea-bloggers that I haven't met in person, but she's on my genea-blogger bucket list! Of course, I won't recognize her, unless she's holding her camera up to her face.
If, by some chance, you don't have Creative Gene on your blog reader, please go visit and add Creative Gene to your reading. You will totally enjoy her blog.
Labels: Carnivals, Follow Friday, genealogy blogs
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Book Review: Who Do You Think You Are?
...
Who Do You Think You Are? The Essential Guide to Tracing Your Family History, by Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak and published by Viking/Penguin Group, was released today to the public, and is available on Amazon Books in hard-cover book and Kindle format, and in major bookstores.
The book is a companion guide to the NBC Television series Who Do You Think You Are? that starts on March 5 and runs through 23 April (8 p.m. EST/PST, 7 PM CST/MST) in seven episodes. The episodes feature celebrities Sarah Jessica Parker, Matthew Broderick, Susan Sarandon, Lisa Kudrow, Spike Lee, Brooke Shields and Emmitt Smith.
For genealogists, the profiles of the celebrities is interesting and fine examples of genealogy research. However, the celebrities are not the major part of this book. Each one has two or three pages that summarizes their heritage and their ancestral search. All of that will be covered in the television series, of course.
The real purpose of this book is to provide a basic introduction to genealogy research for readers/viewers who are interested enough in their own ancestry to buy or borrow the book. The book contents include:
* Preparing for your ancestral hunt - start with what you know, go on a treasure hunt, talk to the folks, organize and chart your findings, don't believe everything you hear, and all about names.
* What resources are online? - a brief review of Ancestry.com, FamilySearch.org, CyndisList.com, USGenWeb and rootsweb, Footnote.com, GenealogyBank.com, EllisIsland.org and CastleGarden.org, government records, Google, libraries, archives, societies, ethnic, magazines, RootsTelevision.com, ISOGG.org, SteveMorse.org, FindAGrave.com, DeathIndexes.com, DeadFred.com, RAOGK.org, genea-bloggers (7 of them, not Genea-Musings), and several social networks.
* Chapters about the Census Records, Military Records, Vital Records, Military Records, Immigration and Naturalization Records, other records (brief summaries for church, newspapers, court, cemetery records), and DNA testing.
The "Sleuthing in Action" chapter describes Megan's research on President Obama's Irish roots and finding the "real Annie Moore" as success stories.
The last chapter is "Passing it On" - advice to ancestry-seekers on how to protect, preserve and share the results of their sleuthing.
* There is no index in this 204 page book, but it is laid out very clearly and probably doesn't need one.
Throughout the chapters, Megan uses illustrations of records for famous people (arts, politics, and her own family) to demonstrate the record types and their value. These are really interesting, and made the book intriguing for me - I could hardly wait for the next illustration! Online resources are mentioned in every chapter, but the reader is advised that many records are not yet online.
In summary, this is a very readable genealogy tutorial book which beginning genealogists can use to get them started in their research. Intermediate genealogists will find it useful for the up-to-date treatment of repository and online records. Advanced and experienced researchers will not find anything to help them with specific research problems or new methodologies. The book is intended to be a "getting started" or "get going again" tutorial and succeeds.
It would be excellent as the first genealogy book on the shelf of a new researcher trying to learn the methodology and record types involved in genealogy research. It should be on every library's genealogy book shelf and on their circulation shelf too! It would be very helpful as a guide book for a beginning genealogy class sponsored by a library or a genealogy society.
Wouldn't a DVD with the book set be great as a birthday or Christmas gift for a grandparent or adult child to try to get them interested in family history?
Disclosure: I received a free copy of this book in the mail earlier this week, through Megan Smolenyak's good efforts. I have received no money or other remuneration (not even a mention in the book) for writing this review. I really liked this book (could you tell?), and hope that it educates many new genealogists!
Who Do You Think You Are? The Essential Guide to Tracing Your Family History, by Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak and published by Viking/Penguin Group, was released today to the public, and is available on Amazon Books in hard-cover book and Kindle format, and in major bookstores.
The book is a companion guide to the NBC Television series Who Do You Think You Are? that starts on March 5 and runs through 23 April (8 p.m. EST/PST, 7 PM CST/MST) in seven episodes. The episodes feature celebrities Sarah Jessica Parker, Matthew Broderick, Susan Sarandon, Lisa Kudrow, Spike Lee, Brooke Shields and Emmitt Smith.
For genealogists, the profiles of the celebrities is interesting and fine examples of genealogy research. However, the celebrities are not the major part of this book. Each one has two or three pages that summarizes their heritage and their ancestral search. All of that will be covered in the television series, of course.
The real purpose of this book is to provide a basic introduction to genealogy research for readers/viewers who are interested enough in their own ancestry to buy or borrow the book. The book contents include:
* Preparing for your ancestral hunt - start with what you know, go on a treasure hunt, talk to the folks, organize and chart your findings, don't believe everything you hear, and all about names.
* What resources are online? - a brief review of Ancestry.com, FamilySearch.org, CyndisList.com, USGenWeb and rootsweb, Footnote.com, GenealogyBank.com, EllisIsland.org and CastleGarden.org, government records, Google, libraries, archives, societies, ethnic, magazines, RootsTelevision.com, ISOGG.org, SteveMorse.org, FindAGrave.com, DeathIndexes.com, DeadFred.com, RAOGK.org, genea-bloggers (7 of them, not Genea-Musings), and several social networks.
* Chapters about the Census Records, Military Records, Vital Records, Military Records, Immigration and Naturalization Records, other records (brief summaries for church, newspapers, court, cemetery records), and DNA testing.
The "Sleuthing in Action" chapter describes Megan's research on President Obama's Irish roots and finding the "real Annie Moore" as success stories.
The last chapter is "Passing it On" - advice to ancestry-seekers on how to protect, preserve and share the results of their sleuthing.
* There is no index in this 204 page book, but it is laid out very clearly and probably doesn't need one.
Throughout the chapters, Megan uses illustrations of records for famous people (arts, politics, and her own family) to demonstrate the record types and their value. These are really interesting, and made the book intriguing for me - I could hardly wait for the next illustration! Online resources are mentioned in every chapter, but the reader is advised that many records are not yet online.
In summary, this is a very readable genealogy tutorial book which beginning genealogists can use to get them started in their research. Intermediate genealogists will find it useful for the up-to-date treatment of repository and online records. Advanced and experienced researchers will not find anything to help them with specific research problems or new methodologies. The book is intended to be a "getting started" or "get going again" tutorial and succeeds.
It would be excellent as the first genealogy book on the shelf of a new researcher trying to learn the methodology and record types involved in genealogy research. It should be on every library's genealogy book shelf and on their circulation shelf too! It would be very helpful as a guide book for a beginning genealogy class sponsored by a library or a genealogy society.
Wouldn't a DVD with the book set be great as a birthday or Christmas gift for a grandparent or adult child to try to get them interested in family history?
Disclosure: I received a free copy of this book in the mail earlier this week, through Megan Smolenyak's good efforts. I have received no money or other remuneration (not even a mention in the book) for writing this review. I really liked this book (could you tell?), and hope that it educates many new genealogists!
UPDATED 6:30 p.m. - added a line about advanced genealogists in response to Mary's comment.
Labels: Beginning Genealogy, book reviews, genealogy resources, Genealogy Video, Online resources, Research techniques, Research tips
I'm Puzzled by DNA Claims on "Faces of America"
UPDATED 5 March, 10 p.m.: Blaine Bettinger on The Genetic genealogist blog has posted an accurate summary of the DNA tests and discussions shown on this show. Please see his post titled Faces of America and Genetic Genealogy Testing. I really got some of the details wrong in my original post - my apologies. The lesson learned here is "take notes." Thank you, Blaine!
I watched the four episodes of "Faces of America" on PBS over the past four Wednesday nights - and tried really hard to follow what was said by the subjects, by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and by the analysts. I realized last night that I should have taken notes...
I agree with some other genea-bloggers that the episodes were disjointed - each episode had a common theme and not every subject was included in each episode. While we saw glimpses of the "family tree" of the subjects, the research process was not the focus - the theme for each episode was the focus, and the subjects "just sat there and emoted" in brief video clips about the family history book compiled for them. Gates essentially played the "revealer of ancestral truths" and really enjoyed the role. How much better would the show have been if the subjects had been able to accompany Gates to the ancestral homelands rather than just see pictures and read from their book?
Last night, there were at least three sets of DNA results provided to almost all of the subjects (Louise Erdrich refused to have DNA tests done).
The first was the Knome "Know Thyself" company that does a full human genome on subjects. They performed and analyzed this for Henry Louis Gates and for his father. There have been only 50 or so individual genomes sequenced so far because of the complexity and the costs. For me, the most impressive result from this application was the ability to see which genes were inherited from Gates' mother and from his father.
The second DNA test result shown was the Autosomal test, wherein the company 23andMe (I think!) analyzed the subjects' DNA and estimated the percentage of European, Asian, and African genetic makeup for each subject. The most useful result is probably identifying the potential medical problems inherited from your ancestors.
The third set of tests was the most intriguing to me, mainly because some of the results did not make sense. I believe that the text compared the DNA of each pair of subjects, and claimed that some of them had a common ancestor within the last 250 years (less than ten generations). Was this the 23andMe's Relative Finder test? The results that made little or no sense to me were:
* Steven Colbert and Elizabeth Alexander were matched - the intrigue for me wasn't because Stephen is "100% white man" according to the tests, or that Elizabeth was 66% European, it was that there would be a match in the last 250 years. I guess it's possible that one or more of Elizabeth's slaveholding ancestors came from the same family as one of Stephen's colonial American, French or Irish ancestors, but it seems a stretch to me. I would understand 500 years or 1,000 years.
* Yo-Yo Ma and Eva Longoria were matched - the intrigue here for me is that Yo-Yo's ancestry is 100% Chinese - he is the emigrant...which means that one of Eva's ancestors had to come from China in the last 250 years and from Yo-Yo's ancestral families. I can see it if the claim is 2,000 years past, or maybe even 1,000 years past. Eva had 27% Asian (including Native-American) ancestry, so there should definitely be some link, but 250 years is just not believable to me.
* Was the third pair Mario Batali and Meryl Streep? Mario is 100% Italian heritage, and Meryl had a significant English and colonial American ancestry, but we didn't see much of her European heritage lines. While there were some Italian immigrants before 1800 into America, I doubt that these two have a common ancestor in the past 250 years. Again, within 1,000 years, probably no doubt.
These comparisons were made by comparing the autosomal DNA collected from the subjects.
I am not an expert in the DNA and genetic subjects, and I hope that some of my genea-blogging colleagues who are experts in DNA and genetics can sort this out for me. I used Google to try to see if there was information about the test comparisons but the subject must be too new, or my Googling skills too primitive, to help me this afternoon.
As a genealogist, I would like to see the family trees, and the DNA Autosomal results, posted along with the profiles on the Faces of America website.
UPDATED 4 p.m. Martin set me straight on Meryl Streep and Mike Nichols in comments...Streep has Dutch Jewish heritage. He also said that Alexander's mother was white, so perhaps there is a realtively close connection with Colbert. So Alexander's mother's ancestry should be findable, as should Colbert's, if they are American cousins. But probably not if they're Irish cousins. The puzzler for me is still Ma-Longoria. Thanks for the help, Martin.
I watched the four episodes of "Faces of America" on PBS over the past four Wednesday nights - and tried really hard to follow what was said by the subjects, by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and by the analysts. I realized last night that I should have taken notes...
I agree with some other genea-bloggers that the episodes were disjointed - each episode had a common theme and not every subject was included in each episode. While we saw glimpses of the "family tree" of the subjects, the research process was not the focus - the theme for each episode was the focus, and the subjects "just sat there and emoted" in brief video clips about the family history book compiled for them. Gates essentially played the "revealer of ancestral truths" and really enjoyed the role. How much better would the show have been if the subjects had been able to accompany Gates to the ancestral homelands rather than just see pictures and read from their book?
Last night, there were at least three sets of DNA results provided to almost all of the subjects (Louise Erdrich refused to have DNA tests done).
The first was the Knome "Know Thyself" company that does a full human genome on subjects. They performed and analyzed this for Henry Louis Gates and for his father. There have been only 50 or so individual genomes sequenced so far because of the complexity and the costs. For me, the most impressive result from this application was the ability to see which genes were inherited from Gates' mother and from his father.
The second DNA test result shown was the Autosomal test, wherein the company 23andMe (I think!) analyzed the subjects' DNA and estimated the percentage of European, Asian, and African genetic makeup for each subject. The most useful result is probably identifying the potential medical problems inherited from your ancestors.
The third set of tests was the most intriguing to me, mainly because some of the results did not make sense. I believe that the text compared the DNA of each pair of subjects, and claimed that some of them had a common ancestor within the last 250 years (less than ten generations). Was this the 23andMe's Relative Finder test? The results that made little or no sense to me were:
* Steven Colbert and Elizabeth Alexander were matched - the intrigue for me wasn't because Stephen is "100% white man" according to the tests, or that Elizabeth was 66% European, it was that there would be a match in the last 250 years. I guess it's possible that one or more of Elizabeth's slaveholding ancestors came from the same family as one of Stephen's colonial American, French or Irish ancestors, but it seems a stretch to me. I would understand 500 years or 1,000 years.
* Yo-Yo Ma and Eva Longoria were matched - the intrigue here for me is that Yo-Yo's ancestry is 100% Chinese - he is the emigrant...which means that one of Eva's ancestors had to come from China in the last 250 years and from Yo-Yo's ancestral families. I can see it if the claim is 2,000 years past, or maybe even 1,000 years past. Eva had 27% Asian (including Native-American) ancestry, so there should definitely be some link, but 250 years is just not believable to me.
* Was the third pair Mario Batali and Meryl Streep? Mario is 100% Italian heritage, and Meryl had a significant English and colonial American ancestry, but we didn't see much of her European heritage lines. While there were some Italian immigrants before 1800 into America, I doubt that these two have a common ancestor in the past 250 years. Again, within 1,000 years, probably no doubt.
These comparisons were made by comparing the autosomal DNA collected from the subjects.
I am not an expert in the DNA and genetic subjects, and I hope that some of my genea-blogging colleagues who are experts in DNA and genetics can sort this out for me. I used Google to try to see if there was information about the test comparisons but the subject must be too new, or my Googling skills too primitive, to help me this afternoon.
As a genealogist, I would like to see the family trees, and the DNA Autosomal results, posted along with the profiles on the Faces of America website.
UPDATED 4 p.m. Martin set me straight on Meryl Streep and Mike Nichols in comments...Streep has Dutch Jewish heritage. He also said that Alexander's mother was white, so perhaps there is a realtively close connection with Colbert. So Alexander's mother's ancestry should be findable, as should Colbert's, if they are American cousins. But probably not if they're Irish cousins. The puzzler for me is still Ma-Longoria. Thanks for the help, Martin.
Labels: DNA, Genealogy Video, genetics
Treasure Chest Thursday - "I'll be out to see you"
It's Treasure Chest Thursday - time to "show and tell" a goodie from the ephemera, papers and artifacts collected over several lifetimes by members of the Seaver and Carringer family trees.
Today the adage that "There are things that happen in a second that take a lifetime to explain" rings loud and clear with this letter from my Father, Frederick W. Seaver, dated 18 December 1940, to his aunt and uncle, George and Emily (Richmond) Taylor in San Diego:
Fred wrote this from Columbus, Ohio on 18 December 1940, and he said that he hoped to arrive on Sunday, 22 December. This was going to be a big surprise to the Taylor family, of course! He had the foresight to warn them, at least. Here is the face of the envelope:
At least he sent it air Mail! I wonder when it arrived? Probably December 20 or 21.
Why did Fred leave New England? There are two stories. The "official" story is that he got tired of shoveling snow at his sister's house. The "non-official" story, the one told by his sisters and their daughters - every one of them - is discussed in A Challenging Moral Dilemma.
This decision by my father to drive west to San Diego , for whatever reason, changed his whole life. He ended up 2,500 miles away from the only family he'd ever known, yet he never went back. He didn't know what the future held - work, marriage, children, military service, interests, retirement, sickness, death. But I'm happy that he made it to San Diego and that the rest is history. See what I mean by "There are things that happen in a second that take a lifetime to explain?"
In many cases, genealogists and family historians don't have an explanation of how or why our ancestors migrated from one place to another. In some cases, there are immigration records so we can pin down a date, but we often cannot pinpoint a year, or a month in a year, when a migration took place.
Today the adage that "There are things that happen in a second that take a lifetime to explain" rings loud and clear with this letter from my Father, Frederick W. Seaver, dated 18 December 1940, to his aunt and uncle, George and Emily (Richmond) Taylor in San Diego:
Fred wrote this from Columbus, Ohio on 18 December 1940, and he said that he hoped to arrive on Sunday, 22 December. This was going to be a big surprise to the Taylor family, of course! He had the foresight to warn them, at least. Here is the face of the envelope:
At least he sent it air Mail! I wonder when it arrived? Probably December 20 or 21.
Why did Fred leave New England? There are two stories. The "official" story is that he got tired of shoveling snow at his sister's house. The "non-official" story, the one told by his sisters and their daughters - every one of them - is discussed in A Challenging Moral Dilemma.
This decision by my father to drive west to San Diego , for whatever reason, changed his whole life. He ended up 2,500 miles away from the only family he'd ever known, yet he never went back. He didn't know what the future held - work, marriage, children, military service, interests, retirement, sickness, death. But I'm happy that he made it to San Diego and that the rest is history. See what I mean by "There are things that happen in a second that take a lifetime to explain?"
In many cases, genealogists and family historians don't have an explanation of how or why our ancestors migrated from one place to another. In some cases, there are immigration records so we can pin down a date, but we often cannot pinpoint a year, or a month in a year, when a migration took place.
Labels: Family Stories, My genealogy research, Seaver Research, Treasure Chest Thursday
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Fearless Females - March 3: Unusual Names
The Fearless Female blog prompt for today is:
March 3 — Do you share a first name with one of your female ancestors? Perhaps you were named for your great-grandmother, or your name follows a particular naming pattern. If not, then list the most unique or unusual female first name you’ve come across in your family tree.
No, I don't share a first name with any of my female ancestors. My first 15 female first names in ahnentafel order are:
3. Betty Virginia Carringer - my mother
5. Alma Bessie Richmond
7. Emily Kemp Auble
9. Hattie Louisa Hildreth
11. Julia White
13. Abbie Ardell Smith
15. Georgianna Kemp
17. Lucretia Townsend Smith
19. Sophia Newton
21. Hannah Rich
23. Amy Frances Oatley
25. Rebecca Spangler
27. Abigail A. Vaux
29. Sarah G. Knapp
31. Mary Jane Sovereen
The only "fairly different" name in that group is Lucretia (1827-1884), the second wife of Isaac Seaver.
There are some "fairly different" names back about seven generations from me - Content Tucker (1695-1738) who married Benjamin Wing (1698-1776) in Bristol County, Massachusetts; and Renewed Smith (1717-????) who married Daniel Carpenter (1712-????) in Washington County, RI.
I guess my ancestors were not very adventurous or original in naming their daughters! Frankly, I would love to have any ancestor named in my collection of Census Whacking names just so I could say that I'm descended from one of them!
March 3 — Do you share a first name with one of your female ancestors? Perhaps you were named for your great-grandmother, or your name follows a particular naming pattern. If not, then list the most unique or unusual female first name you’ve come across in your family tree.
No, I don't share a first name with any of my female ancestors. My first 15 female first names in ahnentafel order are:
3. Betty Virginia Carringer - my mother
5. Alma Bessie Richmond
7. Emily Kemp Auble
9. Hattie Louisa Hildreth
11. Julia White
13. Abbie Ardell Smith
15. Georgianna Kemp
17. Lucretia Townsend Smith
19. Sophia Newton
21. Hannah Rich
23. Amy Frances Oatley
25. Rebecca Spangler
27. Abigail A. Vaux
29. Sarah G. Knapp
31. Mary Jane Sovereen
The only "fairly different" name in that group is Lucretia (1827-1884), the second wife of Isaac Seaver.
There are some "fairly different" names back about seven generations from me - Content Tucker (1695-1738) who married Benjamin Wing (1698-1776) in Bristol County, Massachusetts; and Renewed Smith (1717-????) who married Daniel Carpenter (1712-????) in Washington County, RI.
I guess my ancestors were not very adventurous or original in naming their daughters! Frankly, I would love to have any ancestor named in my collection of Census Whacking names just so I could say that I'm descended from one of them!
Labels: Fearless Females, My genealogy research, Names
(Not So) Wordless Wednesday - Post 93: Catherine Buntin
I'm posting 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.
I managed to scan about 100 family photographs in the Scanfest in January, and have converted the scanned TIF files to smaller JPGs, cropped and rotated as best I can.
Here is a photograph from the Carringer family collection handed down by my mother in the 1988 to 2002 time period:
I managed to scan about 100 family photographs in the Scanfest in January, and have converted the scanned TIF files to smaller JPGs, cropped and rotated as best I can.
Here is a photograph from the Carringer family collection handed down by my mother in the 1988 to 2002 time period:
The name of Catherine Buntin is written on the back of this picture, and the photographer's name on the front of the card is Sexton in Bushnell, Illinois.
Catherine Buntin was born in May 1897 to Henry S. and Anna (Auble) Buntin, their third child (after sons David and Henry). The family is enumerated in the 1900 US Census in Bushnell, McDonough County, Illinois. In the 1910 census, Anna is a widow and the three children are still living with their mother. The child in this picture appears to be about age 1 or 2 (she can sit up and smile for the camera!), so the picture was likely taken in 1898 or 1899.
Anna Auble (1860-????) was the daughter of David and Sarah (Knapp) Auble, and was born in Newark, New Jersey. The Auble family moved to Terre Haute, Indiana before 1870, and David Auble (1817-1894) died there. I don't know where Sarah died, but it may have been in McDonough County, Illinois. Anna Auble is the sister of my great-grandfather, Charles Auble (1849-1916), who married Georgianna Kemp (1868-1952) and had one daughter, Emily Kemp Auble (1899-1977), my maternal grandmother.
So Catherine Buntin, and her brothers, were first cousins of my grandmother. I have not followed the Buntin children yet - I might be surprised to find some third and fourth cousins still living. And if it is daughters of daughters then there might be a mitochondrial DNA lead for this female line. I hadn't thought of that before!
Labels: Family Stories, My genealogy research, photographs
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Retention of 2010 US Census Data
There have been several blog posts in recent weeks about possible destruction of the 2010 US Census - e.g., Save 2010 Census - no images to be preserved on the Cape Cod Genealogical Society blog. Dick Eastman posted 2010 Census: No Images to be Preserved? expressing doubt that that was the case. The fear was that the actual census forms submitted by residents were not going to be preserved after the statistical data was obtained from them, and that genealogists would not be able to access any information about their ancestors.
The blog post NARA and the 2010 Census on the NARAtions blog by Paul Wester today seems to put those fears to rest. It states:
* The 2010 census is planned as an all-electronic census which will affect the format in which permanent records are preserved. The Census Bureau will scan the respondent questionnaires as part of its business process for compiling the census. The draft schedule calls for the permanent retention of the scanned digital images. These scanned images are the 21st century equivalent to the microfilm copies of census forms generated for previous decennial censuses.
* In addition, the Census Bureau is also proposing permanent retention for the unedited file containing response data, with linkage information to the scanned images. This means that once the census is opened to the public 72 years from the enumeration date of the 2010 census, genealogists will have two means of searching for their ancestors. They can search the database, which will contain all the data (including names and addresses) from the respondent forms. They can also use the database to locate and retrieve images of the forms themselves.
That seems very clear and concise - the 2010 census forms will be preserved in a digital format and there will be a digital index of the pertinent response data. And it will be made available in 2082. Case closed?
The blog post NARA and the 2010 Census on the NARAtions blog by Paul Wester today seems to put those fears to rest. It states:
* The 2010 census is planned as an all-electronic census which will affect the format in which permanent records are preserved. The Census Bureau will scan the respondent questionnaires as part of its business process for compiling the census. The draft schedule calls for the permanent retention of the scanned digital images. These scanned images are the 21st century equivalent to the microfilm copies of census forms generated for previous decennial censuses.
* In addition, the Census Bureau is also proposing permanent retention for the unedited file containing response data, with linkage information to the scanned images. This means that once the census is opened to the public 72 years from the enumeration date of the 2010 census, genealogists will have two means of searching for their ancestors. They can search the database, which will contain all the data (including names and addresses) from the respondent forms. They can also use the database to locate and retrieve images of the forms themselves.
That seems very clear and concise - the 2010 census forms will be preserved in a digital format and there will be a digital index of the pertinent response data. And it will be made available in 2082. Case closed?
Labels: Census Records, National Archives, Online resources
Fearless Females - March 2: Ancestral Photo
The Fearless Female blog prompt for today is:
March 2 - Post a photo of one of your female ancestors. Who is in the photo? When was it taken? Why did you select this photo?
This picture was taken in 1930 according to a note on the back of the photograph. Betty was age 11 and Emily age 31. Emily is younger in this picture than my two daughters are now. I look at my daughters and say "Wow, what beautiful and wonderful women they are." And then I think - "No wonder, they are descended from these two women, and from my wife and her family too."
I selected the photograph because it shows the beauty, innocence and hope of my mother and grandmother at this point in their life. At this time, their life was pretty good - they had a home of their own, Betty's father was working as an accountant, three of Betty's four grandparents were living on the same block in San Diego, and they had a fine set of friends and relatives. They did not know what life held for them - about the Great Depression, World War II, marriage, births, deaths, education, occupations, interests, social events, etc.
March 2 - Post a photo of one of your female ancestors. Who is in the photo? When was it taken? Why did you select this photo?
I couldn't resist showing two of the absolute favorite females in my life (there are now seven of them!). This picture is of my mother, Betty Virginia Carringer, born in 1919, and her mother, my grandmother, Emily Kemp (Auble) Carringer, born in 1899.
This picture was taken in 1930 according to a note on the back of the photograph. Betty was age 11 and Emily age 31. Emily is younger in this picture than my two daughters are now. I look at my daughters and say "Wow, what beautiful and wonderful women they are." And then I think - "No wonder, they are descended from these two women, and from my wife and her family too."
I selected the photograph because it shows the beauty, innocence and hope of my mother and grandmother at this point in their life. At this time, their life was pretty good - they had a home of their own, Betty's father was working as an accountant, three of Betty's four grandparents were living on the same block in San Diego, and they had a fine set of friends and relatives. They did not know what life held for them - about the Great Depression, World War II, marriage, births, deaths, education, occupations, interests, social events, etc.
Labels: Family Stories, Fearless Females, My genealogy research, photographs
1000 Years of Family History in 37 Minutes?
The Mormon Times website has an article today titled A thousand years of family history in 37 minutes by Emily Schmul. The article highlights a 37 minute YouTube video (in four parts) put together by Clayton Brough, the current President of the Richard Brough Family Organization.
There is a transcript of the video on the Richard Brough Family Organization on their website.
I am genea-smacked by two things about this organization and the video created by it.
1) Look at the Richard Brough Family Organization website. What a wonderful tribute and work of family history by a group of family historians. Absolutely wonderful. What a great example of what can be done when a family organization works together.
2) The video and script are absolutely beautiful! What a story to be able to hand to their children, grandchildren and future generations.
I admit to being impressed by family history efforts such as this. Are there other works similar to this one? There are many family history associations and organizations available for membership and participation - but I fear that their activities are not as well attended or supported as they were in the past, before the Internet explosion of genealogy.
Hat tip to Dianne Simpson @FamilyTree101 who posted about this on Twitter this morning. Nice find!
There is a transcript of the video on the Richard Brough Family Organization on their website.
I am genea-smacked by two things about this organization and the video created by it.
1) Look at the Richard Brough Family Organization website. What a wonderful tribute and work of family history by a group of family historians. Absolutely wonderful. What a great example of what can be done when a family organization works together.
2) The video and script are absolutely beautiful! What a story to be able to hand to their children, grandchildren and future generations.
I admit to being impressed by family history efforts such as this. Are there other works similar to this one? There are many family history associations and organizations available for membership and participation - but I fear that their activities are not as well attended or supported as they were in the past, before the Internet explosion of genealogy.
Hat tip to Dianne Simpson @FamilyTree101 who posted about this on Twitter this morning. Nice find!
Labels: current newspaper articles, Family Associations, Genealogy Video
Tombstone Tuesday - Rebecca (Towne) Nurse (1621-1692)
I ran out of gravestone and tombstone pictures of my own several months ago, so I am reduced to finding pictures of my ancestors' graves on the Internet. Surprisingly, there are quite a few, especially of my early colonial New England ancestors.
Rebecca (Towne) Nurse (1621-1692) was hanged in 1692 after being accused and convicted of being a witch during the Salem witch trial hysteria in Salem Village (now Danvers), Massachusetts.
Rebecca is buried on the Nurse Homestead in Danvers in an unmarked grave. There is a memorial standing in the homestead burying ground that commemorates her life. You can see pictures of the memorial on the Find-A-Grave web site here. There are pictures of all of the graves in the Nurse Homestead burying ground on the GraveMatters web site here.
The Rebecca Nurse Homestead graveyard web page is here.
The two sides of the memorial read:
Rebecca (Towne) Nurse (1621-1692) was hanged in 1692 after being accused and convicted of being a witch during the Salem witch trial hysteria in Salem Village (now Danvers), Massachusetts.
Rebecca is buried on the Nurse Homestead in Danvers in an unmarked grave. There is a memorial standing in the homestead burying ground that commemorates her life. You can see pictures of the memorial on the Find-A-Grave web site here. There are pictures of all of the graves in the Nurse Homestead burying ground on the GraveMatters web site here.
The Rebecca Nurse Homestead graveyard web page is here.
The two sides of the memorial read:
Rebecca Nurse
Yarmouth, England
1621
Salem Mass
1692
O Christian Martyr
who for Truth could die
When all about thee
owned the hideous lie!
The world redeemed
from Superstition's sway
is breathing freer
for thy sake today
Accused of Witchcraft
She declared
"I am innocent and God will
clear my innocence!"
Once acquitted yet falsely
condemned She suffered
death July 19, 1692
In loving memory of her
Christian character
even when truly attested by
forty of her neighbors
This monument is erected
July 1885
Rebecca (Towne) Nurse is one of my 9th great-grandmothers. My line from her to myself is (with Ahnentafel numbers for the direct line):
1. 2395 Rebecca Towne (1621-1692) m. 1644 Francis Nurse (1618-1695)
2. 1197 Sarah Nurse (1648-????) m. 1669 Michael Bowden (1651-1740)
3. 598 Michael Bowden (1673-1741) m. 1697 Sarah Davis (1676-1754)
4. 299 Mary Bowden (1705-????) m. 1726 Michael Bowden (1703-1748)
5. 149 Mary Richards (1733-????) and Isaac Buck (ca1730-????)
6. 74 Isaac Buck (1757-1846) m. 1780 Martha Phillips (1757-1820)
7. 37 Sophia Buck (1797-1882) m. ca 1833 Thomas J. Newton (????-????)
8. 18 Edward Hildreth (1831-1899) m. 1852 Sophia Newton (1834-1923)
9. 9 Hattie L. Hildreth (1857-1920) m. 1874Frank W. Seaver (1852-1922)
10. 4 Frederick W. Seaver (1876-1940) m. 1900 Alma Bessie Richmond (1882-1962)
11. 2 Frederick W. Seaver (1911-1983) m. 1942 Betty V. Carringer (1919-2002)
12. 1 Randall J. Seaver (1943- )
Are any Genea-Musings readers also descended from Rebecca (Towne) Nurse (1621-1692)? I think that there are several. Tell me in comments.
Labels: Cemetery records, My genealogy research, Tombstone Tuesday
Monday, March 1, 2010
Using GenSmarts - Post 3: To-Do List Actions
....
I received a copy of the latest version of the GenSmarts family tree analysis software last month - see CGSSD Program Review - Aaron Underwood - GenSmarts for my summary of the meeting. GenSmarts is a Windows only computer program.
In the first post, I demonstrated the "File Open Wizard" that gets a genealogy database file (in my case, from Family Tree Maker 16) into the GenSmarts program. In the second post, I explored two of the program tabs - the "To-Do List" and "My Genealogy File" tabs.
In this post I'm going to demonstrate how the user can keep track of their research using the GenSmarts To-Do list for a specific person.
At the end of the second post, I had created a To-Do List for a specific person - my second great-grandfather, David Jackson Carringer. There were 71 suggestions in the To-Do list, including items about his parents, his spouse and his children.
In the screen below, the Mercer County PA Marriage Records "suggestion" for David's father, Heinrich Carringer is highlighted. There are a number of small icons to the left of the suggestion in the list, including: Available Online; Available Online (Fee); Missing Data; Missing Source; Direct Ancestor Root; Direct Ancestor; Found; Not found; Plan to Search; Ignore; and Revisit Later. Every entry in the To-Do list may have some of these icons. The first six icons are created by GenSmarts based on the content of the genealogy database. The last five are user-selected based on the status of their research.
I have a choice of actions to make for each one of the To-Do List items for the specific person using the five buttons (Found; Not found; Plan to Search; Ignore; Revisit Later). For the Mercer County PA Marriage Records "suggestion," I clicked on the "Not Found" button and the red icon (a box with an X) appeared next to that item, as shown below:
I clicked on "Not Found" for the second item too, and for the third item - the 1850 US Census record for David Carringer, I clicked on the "Found" button because I have already found that resource. The green icon (a box with a check mark) appears next to the item (see below):
I can go down the list of 71 items clicking on the correct box to my heart's content. In the screen below, I clicked "Plan to Search" for the Colorado Land Patent for David Carringer:
Over on the right of the screen, under the list of icons, is a box that has "Available Online" highlighted in Bold IF the item is online. The screen above indicates that the Colorado Land Patent database is online, so I clicked on the "Available Online" link and saw:
A separate window opened for the BLM General Land Office records website and the program filled in the blanks for State = Colorado, Last Name = Carringer and first Name = David, as shown above.
I clicked on the "Search" button and this screen appeared:
No matches were found in the Colorado Land Patents for David Carringer. I went Back a page and put First Name = Jackson" with no matches, and then searched for no First Name, and there were no matches for my David Jackson (or D.J.) Carringer.
I closed the BLM GLO website window and clicked the "Not Found" button for that item (see below):
I want to create a shortened To-Do list for the "Plan to Research" items on the list and take that to a repository. In the next post we'll take a look at the Repositories on the list with "Plan to Research" items for David Carringer.
I mentioned before that the GenSmarts program loads your genealogy database every time you start the program. It remembers any of the Actions you took (Found, Not Found, etc.) even if the database was modified after the last time it was used in GenSmarts.
Do you see how powerful this program can be? It can be used to organize your research for specific persons and/or at specific repositories (e.g., the Family History Library, Ancestry.com, etc.).
I know that the screens above are fairly hard to read unless you click on them, but you should be able to follow my actions by reading the text descriptions. You can click on the figures and see them fairly clearly.
I received a copy of the latest version of the GenSmarts family tree analysis software last month - see CGSSD Program Review - Aaron Underwood - GenSmarts for my summary of the meeting. GenSmarts is a Windows only computer program.
In the first post, I demonstrated the "File Open Wizard" that gets a genealogy database file (in my case, from Family Tree Maker 16) into the GenSmarts program. In the second post, I explored two of the program tabs - the "To-Do List" and "My Genealogy File" tabs.
In this post I'm going to demonstrate how the user can keep track of their research using the GenSmarts To-Do list for a specific person.
At the end of the second post, I had created a To-Do List for a specific person - my second great-grandfather, David Jackson Carringer. There were 71 suggestions in the To-Do list, including items about his parents, his spouse and his children.
In the screen below, the Mercer County PA Marriage Records "suggestion" for David's father, Heinrich Carringer is highlighted. There are a number of small icons to the left of the suggestion in the list, including: Available Online; Available Online (Fee); Missing Data; Missing Source; Direct Ancestor Root; Direct Ancestor; Found; Not found; Plan to Search; Ignore; and Revisit Later. Every entry in the To-Do list may have some of these icons. The first six icons are created by GenSmarts based on the content of the genealogy database. The last five are user-selected based on the status of their research.
I have a choice of actions to make for each one of the To-Do List items for the specific person using the five buttons (Found; Not found; Plan to Search; Ignore; Revisit Later). For the Mercer County PA Marriage Records "suggestion," I clicked on the "Not Found" button and the red icon (a box with an X) appeared next to that item, as shown below:
I clicked on "Not Found" for the second item too, and for the third item - the 1850 US Census record for David Carringer, I clicked on the "Found" button because I have already found that resource. The green icon (a box with a check mark) appears next to the item (see below):
I can go down the list of 71 items clicking on the correct box to my heart's content. In the screen below, I clicked "Plan to Search" for the Colorado Land Patent for David Carringer:
Over on the right of the screen, under the list of icons, is a box that has "Available Online" highlighted in Bold IF the item is online. The screen above indicates that the Colorado Land Patent database is online, so I clicked on the "Available Online" link and saw:
A separate window opened for the BLM General Land Office records website and the program filled in the blanks for State = Colorado, Last Name = Carringer and first Name = David, as shown above.
I clicked on the "Search" button and this screen appeared:
No matches were found in the Colorado Land Patents for David Carringer. I went Back a page and put First Name = Jackson" with no matches, and then searched for no First Name, and there were no matches for my David Jackson (or D.J.) Carringer.
I closed the BLM GLO website window and clicked the "Not Found" button for that item (see below):
I worked my way through the entire list of 71 suggestions clicking the buttons based on my knowledge of the research for David Carringer.
I want to create a shortened To-Do list for the "Plan to Research" items on the list and take that to a repository. In the next post we'll take a look at the Repositories on the list with "Plan to Research" items for David Carringer.
I mentioned before that the GenSmarts program loads your genealogy database every time you start the program. It remembers any of the Actions you took (Found, Not Found, etc.) even if the database was modified after the last time it was used in GenSmarts.
Do you see how powerful this program can be? It can be used to organize your research for specific persons and/or at specific repositories (e.g., the Family History Library, Ancestry.com, etc.).
I know that the screens above are fairly hard to read unless you click on them, but you should be able to follow my actions by reading the text descriptions. You can click on the figures and see them fairly clearly.
Labels: genealogy software, Gensmarts, Research tips
Fearless Females - Abigail (Vaux) Smith
The Fearless Female blog prompt for today is:
"March 1 — Do you have a favorite female ancestor? One you are drawn to or want to learn more about? Write down some key facts you have already learned or what you would like to learn and outline your goals and potential sources you plan to check."
My "favorite ancestors" are usually the ones that overcome hardship and persevere throughout their life.
I had thought of saying that my "favorite female" was Della (Smith) Carringer (1862-1944) because I know so much about Della and her life because of the ephemera and papers I have from the Treasures in the Closet, including her 1929 daily journal.
However, I'm going to say that it is Abigail (Vaux) Smith (1844-1931), daughter of Samuel and Mary Ann (Underhill) Vaux, wife of Devier J. (Lamphear) Smith (1839-1894), and mother of Della (Smith) Carringer. Abbie is my second great-grandmother on the maternal grandfather's side of my ancestry. I posted Abbie (Vaux) Smith for the Carnival of Genealogy two years ago and haven't added much, if any, information to that available then. I ended that article with:
"What a life. Abby experienced so many joys, sorrows and hardships that I can hardly imagine them. She moved her household at least eight times and probably more. She observed and experienced travel improve (?) from coaches and wagons to steamships and railroad trains to automobiles and trolleys to airplanes. She witnessed communication improve from letters to telegraph to telephone to radio. She lived on farms, in towns, on a ranch, and in a growing city.
"She "worked" in the house to the end of her life - doing the things that she learned to do at her mother's knee and taught her daughters to do.There are big gaps in my knowledge about Abby's life - I don't have any letters from the 1860 to 1887 time frame, or from about 1900 to 1929. The Letters from Home and Della's Journal are just short moments in time - snapshots of life in a place and time. But they are precious to me and invaluable to my family history.
"What a life! How I wish she had left some memoirs - they would be worthy of a book."
Since I wrote that article, I discovered the Devier and Abby (Vaux) Smith photograph from the 1870 time frame in my treasure boxes.
What other records could I look for? I'm not really sure. The 19th century and early 20th century wives are almost always ignored in the public records unless there is a scandal or a recordable event like a deed, death or estate probate. I have Abbie's death certificate - it provided the maiden name of her mother - Mary Ann Underhill.
The one record that might exist that I have not searched for is a probate record for Abigail (Vaux) Smith in San Diego County - I need to do that in the near future (as well as probate records for several other families that died in San Diego).
"March 1 — Do you have a favorite female ancestor? One you are drawn to or want to learn more about? Write down some key facts you have already learned or what you would like to learn and outline your goals and potential sources you plan to check."
My "favorite ancestors" are usually the ones that overcome hardship and persevere throughout their life.
I had thought of saying that my "favorite female" was Della (Smith) Carringer (1862-1944) because I know so much about Della and her life because of the ephemera and papers I have from the Treasures in the Closet, including her 1929 daily journal.
However, I'm going to say that it is Abigail (Vaux) Smith (1844-1931), daughter of Samuel and Mary Ann (Underhill) Vaux, wife of Devier J. (Lamphear) Smith (1839-1894), and mother of Della (Smith) Carringer. Abbie is my second great-grandmother on the maternal grandfather's side of my ancestry. I posted Abbie (Vaux) Smith for the Carnival of Genealogy two years ago and haven't added much, if any, information to that available then. I ended that article with:
"What a life. Abby experienced so many joys, sorrows and hardships that I can hardly imagine them. She moved her household at least eight times and probably more. She observed and experienced travel improve (?) from coaches and wagons to steamships and railroad trains to automobiles and trolleys to airplanes. She witnessed communication improve from letters to telegraph to telephone to radio. She lived on farms, in towns, on a ranch, and in a growing city.
"She "worked" in the house to the end of her life - doing the things that she learned to do at her mother's knee and taught her daughters to do.There are big gaps in my knowledge about Abby's life - I don't have any letters from the 1860 to 1887 time frame, or from about 1900 to 1929. The Letters from Home and Della's Journal are just short moments in time - snapshots of life in a place and time. But they are precious to me and invaluable to my family history.
"What a life! How I wish she had left some memoirs - they would be worthy of a book."
Since I wrote that article, I discovered the Devier and Abby (Vaux) Smith photograph from the 1870 time frame in my treasure boxes.
What other records could I look for? I'm not really sure. The 19th century and early 20th century wives are almost always ignored in the public records unless there is a scandal or a recordable event like a deed, death or estate probate. I have Abbie's death certificate - it provided the maiden name of her mother - Mary Ann Underhill.
The one record that might exist that I have not searched for is a probate record for Abigail (Vaux) Smith in San Diego County - I need to do that in the near future (as well as probate records for several other families that died in San Diego).
Labels: Family Stories, Fearless Females, My genealogy research
Celebrate Women's History Month - blogging prompts
March is National Women's History Month, and author/geneablogger Lisa Alzo (The Accidental Genealogist) has written the post Fearless Females: 31 Blogging Prompts to Celebrate Women’s History Month to help us celebrate the month, and write about our fearless female ancestors.
Lisa has listed thirty-one blog prompts for geneabloggers to use to tell their readers about special women in their ancestry.
Here is the prompt for March 1 (today):
"March 1 — Do you have a favorite female ancestor? One you are drawn to or want to learn more about? Write down some key facts you have already learned or what you would like to learn and outline your goals and potential sources you plan to check."
Please go read Lisa's blog post to see all of the prompts.
Nice work, Lisa!!
Lisa has listed thirty-one blog prompts for geneabloggers to use to tell their readers about special women in their ancestry.
Here is the prompt for March 1 (today):
"March 1 — Do you have a favorite female ancestor? One you are drawn to or want to learn more about? Write down some key facts you have already learned or what you would like to learn and outline your goals and potential sources you plan to check."
Please go read Lisa's blog post to see all of the prompts.
Nice work, Lisa!!
Labels: genealogy blogs
Amanuensis Monday - Inventory of Robert Seaver (1702-1752) Estate
Genea-blogger John Newmark (who writes the excellent TransylvanianDutch blog) started his own Monday blog theme several months ago called Amanuensis Monday. I loved the idea, and recently decided to follow it in order to share ancestral information and keep the theme going, and perhaps it will expand to other genealogy bloggers.
What does "amanuensis" mean? John offers this definition:
"A person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another."
I am enthralled (and sometimes perplexed) by the estate property inventories prepared as part of the probate process. Some are very short (written on one sheet of paper), and some are extensive (taking several pages to list each piece of property). One that is relatively short, but instructive, is that of Robert Seaver (1702-1752), my 6th great-grandfather.
Robert Sever, bricklayer of Narragansett No. 2 (now the town of Westminster, west of Fitchburg in Massachusetts), died in early 1752 intestate (Worcester County Probate Records, Packet 52,920, accessed at Worcester County Courthouse in 1991). Robert's wife, Eunice (Rayment) Seaver was appointed administratrix. An inventory was taken by Oliver Wilder, David Hoar and Joseph Miller on 26 September 1752. The inventory included (listed in pounds:shillings:pence format):
The Real Estate ............................................................................. 66:13:04
To Personal Estate:
To one note of Hand 8/ & to apparel 24/........................................... 1:12:00
To bedding and furniture 40/ To 2 chests one old Corboard 8/ ........ 2:08:00
To five old chairs one old Table 5/ To one spining wheel 6/ ............... 0:11:00
To one Tubb one nail, one Pigon 5/1 ..................................................... 5:01
To pewter and wooden Platts ............................................................... 8:08
To Two Iron Potts one frying pan ......................................................... 4:06
To old axes one shavy two stone hammers ........................................... 13:05
To Two Trowells 3/ to old books and shoes 4/4 ..................................... 7:04
to one Staple and Ring and two Cart Boxes one Chain ........................... 9:04
To one narrow hoe and old iron ............................................................ 1:08
To one plow & five plow irons ............................................................. 16:00
To Knives and forks and Razor ............................................................. 1:02
To Bible and other books 12/6 ............................................................ 12:06
To one Saddle one pitch fork two Rakes ............................................... 14:11
To Shovell 2/ To one yoke of oxen L8:13:4 ........................................ 8:15:04
To Two Cows L6 To one Horse L6:5/ .............................................. 12:05:00
To Two Calves 20/ To Hay L2:13:4 ................................................... 3:13:04
To Two Shoah 12/ To 4 thousand of brick 42/8 ................................ 2:14:08
To Bettle Ring 1/8 To 1750 feet of boards 35/ .................................... 1:16:08
To Seven Cherry Tree Boards and Logg ................................................. 3:00
To three thousand of Shingles .......................................................... 1:04:00
======================================================
Entire estate: ................................................................................ 106:13:06
The debts apparently exceeded the value of the personal effects that could be sold, so Eunice sold the property to pay off the residual debts. The 60 acres of land in Lot 70 were sold in two lots to Luke Brown of Worcester for 20 pounds and to Ezra Taylor on 7 April 1755 for a total of 54 pounds, 8 shillings, 10 pence (Worcester County Deeds 36.270, 36.281, accessed on LDS Microfilm 0,843,173). Eunice Seaver's account was allowed on 21 August 1755.
[Due to the formatting limitations of Blogger (I cannot use tables for some reason in Old Blogger), I tried to make the numbers in the list above line up. I did my best! The originals did not have the periods I've inserted to make the numbers line up. I could have "whited out" the periods but that was too much work.]
This family had a father, a mother, and at least seven children living at home when Robert Seaver died. They had bare bones "old" furniture - and look at the values. The sum of the furniture total was less than three pounds; The kitchen stuff was worth about one pound; the tools were worth less than two pounds. The family had some books and an old Bible (what I would give for that!!! Was Robert was literate?). The farm animals were worth about 23 pounds; the brick, wood and shingles were worth about 6 pounds total.
Was this family rich, middle class or poor? They did own real property, but that had to be sold in order to pay the debts, which are not listed. Were the farm animals raised to be sold off or eaten? Perhaps both - the cows gave milk, the oxen and horse worked the land, but the shoahs (pigs) and perhaps the calves may have been raised for food supply.
What does "amanuensis" mean? John offers this definition:
"A person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another."
I am enthralled (and sometimes perplexed) by the estate property inventories prepared as part of the probate process. Some are very short (written on one sheet of paper), and some are extensive (taking several pages to list each piece of property). One that is relatively short, but instructive, is that of Robert Seaver (1702-1752), my 6th great-grandfather.
Robert Sever, bricklayer of Narragansett No. 2 (now the town of Westminster, west of Fitchburg in Massachusetts), died in early 1752 intestate (Worcester County Probate Records, Packet 52,920, accessed at Worcester County Courthouse in 1991). Robert's wife, Eunice (Rayment) Seaver was appointed administratrix. An inventory was taken by Oliver Wilder, David Hoar and Joseph Miller on 26 September 1752. The inventory included (listed in pounds:shillings:pence format):
The Real Estate ............................................................................. 66:13:04
To Personal Estate:
To one note of Hand 8/ & to apparel 24/........................................... 1:12:00
To bedding and furniture 40/ To 2 chests one old Corboard 8/ ........ 2:08:00
To five old chairs one old Table 5/ To one spining wheel 6/ ............... 0:11:00
To one Tubb one nail, one Pigon 5/1 ..................................................... 5:01
To pewter and wooden Platts ............................................................... 8:08
To Two Iron Potts one frying pan ......................................................... 4:06
To old axes one shavy two stone hammers ........................................... 13:05
To Two Trowells 3/ to old books and shoes 4/4 ..................................... 7:04
to one Staple and Ring and two Cart Boxes one Chain ........................... 9:04
To one narrow hoe and old iron ............................................................ 1:08
To one plow & five plow irons ............................................................. 16:00
To Knives and forks and Razor ............................................................. 1:02
To Bible and other books 12/6 ............................................................ 12:06
To one Saddle one pitch fork two Rakes ............................................... 14:11
To Shovell 2/ To one yoke of oxen L8:13:4 ........................................ 8:15:04
To Two Cows L6 To one Horse L6:5/ .............................................. 12:05:00
To Two Calves 20/ To Hay L2:13:4 ................................................... 3:13:04
To Two Shoah 12/ To 4 thousand of brick 42/8 ................................ 2:14:08
To Bettle Ring 1/8 To 1750 feet of boards 35/ .................................... 1:16:08
To Seven Cherry Tree Boards and Logg ................................................. 3:00
To three thousand of Shingles .......................................................... 1:04:00
======================================================
Entire estate: ................................................................................ 106:13:06
The debts apparently exceeded the value of the personal effects that could be sold, so Eunice sold the property to pay off the residual debts. The 60 acres of land in Lot 70 were sold in two lots to Luke Brown of Worcester for 20 pounds and to Ezra Taylor on 7 April 1755 for a total of 54 pounds, 8 shillings, 10 pence (Worcester County Deeds 36.270, 36.281, accessed on LDS Microfilm 0,843,173). Eunice Seaver's account was allowed on 21 August 1755.
[Due to the formatting limitations of Blogger (I cannot use tables for some reason in Old Blogger), I tried to make the numbers in the list above line up. I did my best! The originals did not have the periods I've inserted to make the numbers line up. I could have "whited out" the periods but that was too much work.]
This family had a father, a mother, and at least seven children living at home when Robert Seaver died. They had bare bones "old" furniture - and look at the values. The sum of the furniture total was less than three pounds; The kitchen stuff was worth about one pound; the tools were worth less than two pounds. The family had some books and an old Bible (what I would give for that!!! Was Robert was literate?). The farm animals were worth about 23 pounds; the brick, wood and shingles were worth about 6 pounds total.
Was this family rich, middle class or poor? They did own real property, but that had to be sold in order to pay the debts, which are not listed. Were the farm animals raised to be sold off or eaten? Perhaps both - the cows gave milk, the oxen and horse worked the land, but the shoahs (pigs) and perhaps the calves may have been raised for food supply.
Labels: Amanuensis Monday, My genealogy research, Probate Records
