Monday, June 7, 2010
New FamilySearch Videos Online
..
I was clicking through the "classic" www.FamilySearch.org last night, and noted that more videos have been added to the "Research Classes Online" page. A lot more!
The "Research Classes Online" page notes that there are three new series:
* Reading Handwriting Records Series (18 videos, 11 languages)
* Research Principles and Tools (10 lessons/videos)
* U.S. Research (15 videos)
This is in addition to the previous classes that cover:
* England Basic Research (5 videos, plus class handout)
* Ireland Research (5 videos)
* Italy Research (1 video)
* Russia Research (2 videos)
* Principios básicos para la investigación genealógica en Hispanoamérica (México) (3 videos)
Here is a screen shot of the "Research Classes Online" page:
There are a number of really interesting videos on this list. Here is the opening screen of Thomas Jones presentation on "Inferential Genealogy:"
Anna Roach's presentation on "U.S. Courthouse Records Overview." On this screen, the presenter speaking shows on the small video screen on the left of the screen:
A presentation (I couldn't understand the speaker's name here) on "U.S. Military Records: Civil War:"
Mary Penner's presentation is on "The Bachelor: Reconstructing a Solitary Life:"
I watched a portion of each of the above videos, and the quality is fairly good. You do need a high-speed Internet connection.
I was clicking through the "classic" www.FamilySearch.org last night, and noted that more videos have been added to the "Research Classes Online" page. A lot more!
The "Research Classes Online" page notes that there are three new series:
* Reading Handwriting Records Series (18 videos, 11 languages)
* Research Principles and Tools (10 lessons/videos)
* U.S. Research (15 videos)
This is in addition to the previous classes that cover:
* England Basic Research (5 videos, plus class handout)
* Ireland Research (5 videos)
* Italy Research (1 video)
* Russia Research (2 videos)
* Principios básicos para la investigación genealógica en Hispanoamérica (México) (3 videos)
Here is a screen shot of the "Research Classes Online" page:
There are a number of really interesting videos on this list. Here is the opening screen of Thomas Jones presentation on "Inferential Genealogy:"
Anna Roach's presentation on "U.S. Courthouse Records Overview." On this screen, the presenter speaking shows on the small video screen on the left of the screen:
A presentation (I couldn't understand the speaker's name here) on "U.S. Military Records: Civil War:"
Mary Penner's presentation is on "The Bachelor: Reconstructing a Solitary Life:"
I watched a portion of each of the above videos, and the quality is fairly good. You do need a high-speed Internet connection.
If you are a beginning researcher who wants to learn about any of these subjects, this website is an excellent place to start!
Labels: genealogy education, Genealogy Video
Amanuensis Monday - the Will of Isaac Read of Sudbury
...
Genea-blogger John Newmark (who writes the excellent TransylvanianDutch blog) started his own Monday blog theme many months ago called Amanuensis Monday. 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."
My subject today is the probate records of Isaac Read (1704-1780) of Sudbury, Middlesex County, Massachusetts. He married Experience Willis (1709-1787) in 1730, and they had eleven children.
The will of Isaac Read of Sudbury was written 15 May 1780, and proved on 14 June 1780. The will reads (from Middlesex County [MA] Probate Court, packet 18,507, on FHL Microfilm 0,421,500):
"In the Name of God, Amen. I, Isaac Read of Sudbury in the County of Middlesex in the State of the Massachusetts Bay in New England, yeoman, being of sound disposing mind, though infirm in body, sensible of my own frailty and mortality, do make and ordain this my last will and testament. Firstly committing my soul into the hands of God, hoping for salvation through Jesus Christ the only Saviour of Men, and my body to be decently buried, at the discretion of my executor, hereafter named, in hopes of a Reformation to a blessed immortality --- and as to the temporal estate which God has given me, I dispose of that in manner following ---
"Item. I give unto my beloved Wife Experience the use, improvement and the disposal of all my moveable estate within Doors, and if not disposed of by her, in her life time, my will is that it be equally divided among my five daughters, my clock excepted, which I mean shall remain in my house and be considered as the property of my son Jacob, after my wife's decease. I also give my sd wife, the improvement of the third part of my dwelling house and barn and one third part of all my lands, which will remain after the lands shall be taken off which I give to my daughter Lois Hill and to my grandson Nathan Read, hereafter mentioned, and also one third part of my stock of cattle, and one third part of my husbandry utensils, these to be for her life and improvement, during her natural life.
"Item. I give and bequeath to my son Jacob Reed, the remainder of all my estate, both real and personal, including my Bonds and Notes of hand (excepting the lands, herein after named, which I give to my daughter Hill, and to my grandson Nathan Read); to him and to his heirs and assigns, that is the remainder of my dwelling house and barn and lands with all their appurtenances, he paying all the debts, dower and legacies, ordered in this my will, and twelve thousand pounds lawful money, to be equally divided between my four daughters Experience, Sarah, Mary and Ruth.
"Item. I give to my Daughter Lois Hill my house and barn, with all my lands, lying in Framingham, where now they dwell, with all the appurtenances thereof; also about four acres of meadow adjoining said farm, though lying in Sudbury. The east side of Sd meadow lies on the River, the North and west sides thereof lie against other of my land. I also give her another piece of meadow near Capt. Moses Stone's, containing by estimation about two acres, the south side of which lies on the River, the north side bounded by a woodland side hill belonging to me, and ye westerly side by lands which I improved as a pasture; but out of what I thus give to my daughter Hill, my will is that there be paid one thousand pounds, to be equally divided among my other four daughters, which with what my son Jacob is to pay them, and what they have already received, is each of their full portions of my estate.
"Item. I give unto my grandson Nathan Reed, in addition to what I had before given to his father Isaac Reed deceased, a piece of land known by the name of the Clay Pitts, which is now inclosed by itself with a fence; also four acres of west meadow, so called, lying in East Sudbury, and on the side which joins to and of Silas Goodenow, running from Lannum Brook, so called, to the shore. Also a piece of woodland lying near Mr. Jonathan Graves, containing about three acres, be the same more or less - also ten acres of woodland, lying in what is called the new Grant in Sudbury bounded upon the highway and running from the lands of Uriah Hayden to the lands of Mr. Osborn - which together with the money he has already had with other favors, is to be considered as his full portion, and as a consideration for my use of his place.
"And my will is that the money which is to be paid by my son Jacob, and also that which is to be paid out of what I have given to my daughter Lois Hill, shall be paid in the same proportion, according as money shall depreciate or appreciate from this present day; and that it be all paid within two years next after my decease.
"And I do hereby constitute and appoint my son Jacob sole executor to this my last will and testament in full power and trust, ratifying and confirming this my last will and testament, revoking and disannulling all others, this fifteenth day of May Anno Domini, one thousand seven hundred and eighty."
"Signed, sealed and declared to be the last will and testament,
Jonathan Robinson .................................. his
Aaron Haynes .................................. Isaac + Read
Joseph Read ............................................ mark"
Jacob Read and Nathan Read apparently disagreed on some aspects of the estate, prompting the following:
"At a Court of Probate held at Concord within and for the county of Middlesex on Wednesday the 14th day of June 1780, by the Honorable Oliver Prescott Esquire, Judge of said Court -- Came into court on one part Jacob Read executor to the last will and testament of Isaac Read late of Sudbury in the said County, yeoman deceased, and on the other part Nathan Read one of the legatees therein named, and agreed to submit all matters of difference between them respecting ye deceased's estate to Jonas Dix of Waltham, Esqr and Ephraim Wood Jr and Joseph Hosmer both of Concord Esquires and that the determination of them by the said judge, all three being first notified and all parties warned of the time and place of meeting. And they are to report to the Judge as soon as conveniently may be.
"By the order of the Judge ............................... James Winthrop Regr"
A month later it was reported:
"Middlesex ye July 15th 1780 -- to the Honorable Oliver Prescott Esqr Judge of Probate -- in observance of the within commission we attended the service and after spending ????? days reasoning with the parties upon the premises we prevailed upon them to agree in such manner as both rejoiced therein -- all which is humbly submitted,
Jonas Dix
Ephraim Wood Jr
Joseph Hosmer"
There is no inventory mentioned or shown, nor a distribution of the estate included, in the probate packet. It is not known whether the legatees received the sizable inheritance from their father.
Trying to interpret the probate process in this will and the two other legal papers is difficult. My best guess is that:
* Son and Executor Jacob Read objected to the provision to pay four of his sisters 3,000 pounds each within two years of his father's death. The estate may not have been worth that much, but it is impossible to know the value of the estate without an inventory of the real and personal property.
* Grandson Nathan Read may have objected that he didn't receive a large sum of money like the four daughters of Isaac Read.
* Daughter Lois Hill did not complain in court, but was on the hook for paying 1,000 pounds to her four sisters. Perhaps Lois (Read) Hill, who resided in nearby Framingham, was unaware of the probate proceedings until after the agreement.
* Unfortunately, there is no distribution in the probate packet that might explain the actual size of the estate, and the names and residence of the legatees.
* The persons named in the will are wife Experience (Willis) Read, son Jacob Read, grandson Nathan Read (son of son Isaac Read, who died in 1759), daughter Lois (Read) Hill (wife of Jonathan Hill of Framingham), and daughters Experience, Sarah, Mary and Ruth (listed without married names).
* Assuming that the list of children above are those living in 1780, it is apparent that children Isaac Read, Samuel Read, Samuel Read, Eunice Read and Asahel Read were deceased before the will was written. The only ones that I have a death date for are Isaac Read (1731-1759) and Asahel Read (1753-1775), who died as a result of the fight at Lexington and Concord on 19 April 1775.
* My interest in this is the daughter, Sarah Read (1736-1809), who married in 1755 to Norman Seaver (1734-1787), and resided in Westminster, Massachusetts in 1780. Norman and Sarah (Read) Seaver named a son Asahel Read Seaver, born 22 October 1775.
Genea-blogger John Newmark (who writes the excellent TransylvanianDutch blog) started his own Monday blog theme many months ago called Amanuensis Monday. 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."
My subject today is the probate records of Isaac Read (1704-1780) of Sudbury, Middlesex County, Massachusetts. He married Experience Willis (1709-1787) in 1730, and they had eleven children.
The will of Isaac Read of Sudbury was written 15 May 1780, and proved on 14 June 1780. The will reads (from Middlesex County [MA] Probate Court, packet 18,507, on FHL Microfilm 0,421,500):
"In the Name of God, Amen. I, Isaac Read of Sudbury in the County of Middlesex in the State of the Massachusetts Bay in New England, yeoman, being of sound disposing mind, though infirm in body, sensible of my own frailty and mortality, do make and ordain this my last will and testament. Firstly committing my soul into the hands of God, hoping for salvation through Jesus Christ the only Saviour of Men, and my body to be decently buried, at the discretion of my executor, hereafter named, in hopes of a Reformation to a blessed immortality --- and as to the temporal estate which God has given me, I dispose of that in manner following ---
"Item. I give unto my beloved Wife Experience the use, improvement and the disposal of all my moveable estate within Doors, and if not disposed of by her, in her life time, my will is that it be equally divided among my five daughters, my clock excepted, which I mean shall remain in my house and be considered as the property of my son Jacob, after my wife's decease. I also give my sd wife, the improvement of the third part of my dwelling house and barn and one third part of all my lands, which will remain after the lands shall be taken off which I give to my daughter Lois Hill and to my grandson Nathan Read, hereafter mentioned, and also one third part of my stock of cattle, and one third part of my husbandry utensils, these to be for her life and improvement, during her natural life.
"Item. I give and bequeath to my son Jacob Reed, the remainder of all my estate, both real and personal, including my Bonds and Notes of hand (excepting the lands, herein after named, which I give to my daughter Hill, and to my grandson Nathan Read); to him and to his heirs and assigns, that is the remainder of my dwelling house and barn and lands with all their appurtenances, he paying all the debts, dower and legacies, ordered in this my will, and twelve thousand pounds lawful money, to be equally divided between my four daughters Experience, Sarah, Mary and Ruth.
"Item. I give to my Daughter Lois Hill my house and barn, with all my lands, lying in Framingham, where now they dwell, with all the appurtenances thereof; also about four acres of meadow adjoining said farm, though lying in Sudbury. The east side of Sd meadow lies on the River, the North and west sides thereof lie against other of my land. I also give her another piece of meadow near Capt. Moses Stone's, containing by estimation about two acres, the south side of which lies on the River, the north side bounded by a woodland side hill belonging to me, and ye westerly side by lands which I improved as a pasture; but out of what I thus give to my daughter Hill, my will is that there be paid one thousand pounds, to be equally divided among my other four daughters, which with what my son Jacob is to pay them, and what they have already received, is each of their full portions of my estate.
"Item. I give unto my grandson Nathan Reed, in addition to what I had before given to his father Isaac Reed deceased, a piece of land known by the name of the Clay Pitts, which is now inclosed by itself with a fence; also four acres of west meadow, so called, lying in East Sudbury, and on the side which joins to and of Silas Goodenow, running from Lannum Brook, so called, to the shore. Also a piece of woodland lying near Mr. Jonathan Graves, containing about three acres, be the same more or less - also ten acres of woodland, lying in what is called the new Grant in Sudbury bounded upon the highway and running from the lands of Uriah Hayden to the lands of Mr. Osborn - which together with the money he has already had with other favors, is to be considered as his full portion, and as a consideration for my use of his place.
"And my will is that the money which is to be paid by my son Jacob, and also that which is to be paid out of what I have given to my daughter Lois Hill, shall be paid in the same proportion, according as money shall depreciate or appreciate from this present day; and that it be all paid within two years next after my decease.
"And I do hereby constitute and appoint my son Jacob sole executor to this my last will and testament in full power and trust, ratifying and confirming this my last will and testament, revoking and disannulling all others, this fifteenth day of May Anno Domini, one thousand seven hundred and eighty."
"Signed, sealed and declared to be the last will and testament,
Jonathan Robinson .................................. his
Aaron Haynes .................................. Isaac + Read
Joseph Read ............................................ mark"
Jacob Read and Nathan Read apparently disagreed on some aspects of the estate, prompting the following:
"At a Court of Probate held at Concord within and for the county of Middlesex on Wednesday the 14th day of June 1780, by the Honorable Oliver Prescott Esquire, Judge of said Court -- Came into court on one part Jacob Read executor to the last will and testament of Isaac Read late of Sudbury in the said County, yeoman deceased, and on the other part Nathan Read one of the legatees therein named, and agreed to submit all matters of difference between them respecting ye deceased's estate to Jonas Dix of Waltham, Esqr and Ephraim Wood Jr and Joseph Hosmer both of Concord Esquires and that the determination of them by the said judge, all three being first notified and all parties warned of the time and place of meeting. And they are to report to the Judge as soon as conveniently may be.
"By the order of the Judge ............................... James Winthrop Regr"
A month later it was reported:
"Middlesex ye July 15th 1780 -- to the Honorable Oliver Prescott Esqr Judge of Probate -- in observance of the within commission we attended the service and after spending ????? days reasoning with the parties upon the premises we prevailed upon them to agree in such manner as both rejoiced therein -- all which is humbly submitted,
Jonas Dix
Ephraim Wood Jr
Joseph Hosmer"
There is no inventory mentioned or shown, nor a distribution of the estate included, in the probate packet. It is not known whether the legatees received the sizable inheritance from their father.
Trying to interpret the probate process in this will and the two other legal papers is difficult. My best guess is that:
* Son and Executor Jacob Read objected to the provision to pay four of his sisters 3,000 pounds each within two years of his father's death. The estate may not have been worth that much, but it is impossible to know the value of the estate without an inventory of the real and personal property.
* Grandson Nathan Read may have objected that he didn't receive a large sum of money like the four daughters of Isaac Read.
* Daughter Lois Hill did not complain in court, but was on the hook for paying 1,000 pounds to her four sisters. Perhaps Lois (Read) Hill, who resided in nearby Framingham, was unaware of the probate proceedings until after the agreement.
* Unfortunately, there is no distribution in the probate packet that might explain the actual size of the estate, and the names and residence of the legatees.
* The persons named in the will are wife Experience (Willis) Read, son Jacob Read, grandson Nathan Read (son of son Isaac Read, who died in 1759), daughter Lois (Read) Hill (wife of Jonathan Hill of Framingham), and daughters Experience, Sarah, Mary and Ruth (listed without married names).
* Assuming that the list of children above are those living in 1780, it is apparent that children Isaac Read, Samuel Read, Samuel Read, Eunice Read and Asahel Read were deceased before the will was written. The only ones that I have a death date for are Isaac Read (1731-1759) and Asahel Read (1753-1775), who died as a result of the fight at Lexington and Concord on 19 April 1775.
* My interest in this is the daughter, Sarah Read (1736-1809), who married in 1755 to Norman Seaver (1734-1787), and resided in Westminster, Massachusetts in 1780. Norman and Sarah (Read) Seaver named a son Asahel Read Seaver, born 22 October 1775.
Labels: Amanuensis Monday, My genealogy research, Probate Records, Seaver Research
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Recent Chula Vista Genealogy Cafe Posts
...
Here are links to recent posts on the Chula Vista Genealogy Cafe blog (provided by the Chula Vista Genealogical Society):
* Larry Schultheis (1926-2010), RIP (Obituary of CVGS Member)
* "Where in the world is Acadia" by Bobbie Lane on Wednesday, 26 May (CVGS Program Announcement)
* Bobbie Lane's "Where in the World is Acadia?" Presentation Summary (CVGS Program Summary)
* Genealogy 101 Beginner's Workshop a Success! (CVGS Class had 19 attendees, including 12 recent and new members)
* Memorial Day at La Vista Memorial Park (Program announcement)
* Genealogy Days in Chula Vista - June 2010 (CVGS Calendar for June)
* In Memoriam: Robert W. Kerney (1920-2010) (Member Obituary)
If you are a San Diego area genealogist looking for a friendly, active and helpful genealogy society to join, consider coming to a Chula Vista Genealogical Society meeting when you can. The society newsletters are posted online on the CVGS website here. Contact Randy Seaver (rjseaver@cox.net) for more information!
Here are links to recent posts on the Chula Vista Genealogy Cafe blog (provided by the Chula Vista Genealogical Society):
* Larry Schultheis (1926-2010), RIP (Obituary of CVGS Member)
* "Where in the world is Acadia" by Bobbie Lane on Wednesday, 26 May (CVGS Program Announcement)
* Bobbie Lane's "Where in the World is Acadia?" Presentation Summary (CVGS Program Summary)
* Genealogy 101 Beginner's Workshop a Success! (CVGS Class had 19 attendees, including 12 recent and new members)
* Memorial Day at La Vista Memorial Park (Program announcement)
* Genealogy Days in Chula Vista - June 2010 (CVGS Calendar for June)
* In Memoriam: Robert W. Kerney (1920-2010) (Member Obituary)
If you are a San Diego area genealogist looking for a friendly, active and helpful genealogy society to join, consider coming to a Chula Vista Genealogical Society meeting when you can. The society newsletters are posted online on the CVGS website here. Contact Randy Seaver (rjseaver@cox.net) for more information!
Labels: CVGS, genealogy societies, San Diego area
Best of the Genea-Blogs - 30 May to 5 June 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:
* “Evidence: There’s No Better Rule” by the writer of The Ancestry Insider blog. Mr. AI continues his weekly discussion about Evidence and listing it separate from Sources and Conclusions. I'm glad he's doing it - it's above my mental capability, I fear!
* Sentimental Sunday -- Two Soldiers Connect by Barbara Poole on the Life From the Roots blog. Barbara's post was the best Memorial Day story I read. What a wonderful outcome!
* Not How-to but Why-do? by Daniel Hubbard on the Personal Past Meditations - a Genealogical Blog. Daniel asks "why do we pursue what might be called 'a gentle madness'" and analyzes it from his perspective. I'm pretty simple - "because it's fun and I love the thrill of the hunt."
* Summer of Genealogy Wishes - Genealogy Societies: The Transition Balance Beam by Thomas MacEntee posted by Tina Lyons on the Gen Wish List blog. Thomas has excellent advice for struggling genealogical societies - thoughtful and challenging!
* Can You Teach an Old Genealogist New Tricks? by Lorine Schulze on the Olive Tree Genealogy Blog. Lorine answers her own question - and I will too: YES! But it's painful sometimes.
* Graveyard Rabbit Carnival - June 2010 by footnoteMaven on The Graveyard Rabbit blog. There were 12 submissions for this carnival on the topic of The Interesting, The Odd, The Beautiful.
* Houston We Have Lift Off - Shades The Magazine - May Issue by footnoteMaven on the Shades of the Departed blog. The May 2010 issue of Shades of the Departed Magazine is a keeper!
* Search Engines for Genealogy: Going Beyond Google by Robert on the MyHeritage Blog. Robert makes a good point that just using Google to search anything isn't a good idea, and shows several alternative sites.
* Topics in Research-Was Iva May Insane? Part One. by Jennifer on the Rainy Day Genealogy Readings blog. What an interesting study that includes rarely used resources. I can hardly wait for the followup.
* Are You A Genealogy Geek? by Joanne Schleier on the Keeper of the Records blog. Joanne follows up on Natalie's post from last week with another fine list for our amusement.
* History by Fact, or by Faith? by Chery Kinnick on the Nordic Blue blog. Chery muses her way through knowledge, truth, religion, Sherlock Holmes and time travel. I like musings!
* Obituaries, The Woman’s Movement, & Humor by footnoteMaven on the Online Graveyard Rabbit Journal blog. fM writes about obituaries about women and how they've changed over the years. for the better!
* Privacy Rights and Family History by Gena Ortega on Gena's Genealogy Blog. Gena has comments about these issues, and a link to a Steve Luxemburg article that everybody should read.
* Thoughtful Thursday: Malcom Gladwell Quotes and Genealogy by Chris Staats on the Staats Place blog. Chris worries that he's caught in learning genealogy process and is not doing enough research.
* Carnival of Genealogy, 94th Edition edited by Jasia on the Creative Gene blog. There were nine entries to this carnival on the subject of the Changing Roles of Women. Cynthia Shenette was the featured author for her post Meditation: The Strength of Ordinary Women at the Heritage Zen: blog.
Other genea-bloggers reading recommendations:
* Follow Friday: Rainy Day Genealogy Readings by Greta Koehl on the Greta's Genealogy Bog blog. Greta's weekly reading picks are somewhat different from mine - we each have favorites!
* Weekly Genealogy Picks by John Newmark on the TransylvanianDutch blog. John picks different posts than I do - they're all good!
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 640 genealogy bloggers using Bloglines, but I still miss quite a few it seems.
Read past Best of the Genea-Blogs posts here.
NOTE: Best of the Genea-Blogs will be on a one-week hiatus - I will be at the SCGS Jamboree next week with 50 or more of my genea-blogging colleagues.
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:
* “Evidence: There’s No Better Rule” by the writer of The Ancestry Insider blog. Mr. AI continues his weekly discussion about Evidence and listing it separate from Sources and Conclusions. I'm glad he's doing it - it's above my mental capability, I fear!
* Sentimental Sunday -- Two Soldiers Connect by Barbara Poole on the Life From the Roots blog. Barbara's post was the best Memorial Day story I read. What a wonderful outcome!
* Not How-to but Why-do? by Daniel Hubbard on the Personal Past Meditations - a Genealogical Blog. Daniel asks "why do we pursue what might be called 'a gentle madness'" and analyzes it from his perspective. I'm pretty simple - "because it's fun and I love the thrill of the hunt."
* Summer of Genealogy Wishes - Genealogy Societies: The Transition Balance Beam by Thomas MacEntee posted by Tina Lyons on the Gen Wish List blog. Thomas has excellent advice for struggling genealogical societies - thoughtful and challenging!
* Can You Teach an Old Genealogist New Tricks? by Lorine Schulze on the Olive Tree Genealogy Blog. Lorine answers her own question - and I will too: YES! But it's painful sometimes.
* Graveyard Rabbit Carnival - June 2010 by footnoteMaven on The Graveyard Rabbit blog. There were 12 submissions for this carnival on the topic of The Interesting, The Odd, The Beautiful.
* Houston We Have Lift Off - Shades The Magazine - May Issue by footnoteMaven on the Shades of the Departed blog. The May 2010 issue of Shades of the Departed Magazine is a keeper!
* Search Engines for Genealogy: Going Beyond Google by Robert on the MyHeritage Blog. Robert makes a good point that just using Google to search anything isn't a good idea, and shows several alternative sites.
* Topics in Research-Was Iva May Insane? Part One. by Jennifer on the Rainy Day Genealogy Readings blog. What an interesting study that includes rarely used resources. I can hardly wait for the followup.
* Are You A Genealogy Geek? by Joanne Schleier on the Keeper of the Records blog. Joanne follows up on Natalie's post from last week with another fine list for our amusement.
* History by Fact, or by Faith? by Chery Kinnick on the Nordic Blue blog. Chery muses her way through knowledge, truth, religion, Sherlock Holmes and time travel. I like musings!
* Obituaries, The Woman’s Movement, & Humor by footnoteMaven on the Online Graveyard Rabbit Journal blog. fM writes about obituaries about women and how they've changed over the years. for the better!
* Privacy Rights and Family History by Gena Ortega on Gena's Genealogy Blog. Gena has comments about these issues, and a link to a Steve Luxemburg article that everybody should read.
* Thoughtful Thursday: Malcom Gladwell Quotes and Genealogy by Chris Staats on the Staats Place blog. Chris worries that he's caught in learning genealogy process and is not doing enough research.
* Carnival of Genealogy, 94th Edition edited by Jasia on the Creative Gene blog. There were nine entries to this carnival on the subject of the Changing Roles of Women. Cynthia Shenette was the featured author for her post Meditation: The Strength of Ordinary Women at the Heritage Zen: blog.
Other genea-bloggers reading recommendations:
* Follow Friday: Rainy Day Genealogy Readings by Greta Koehl on the Greta's Genealogy Bog blog. Greta's weekly reading picks are somewhat different from mine - we each have favorites!
* Weekly Genealogy Picks by John Newmark on the TransylvanianDutch blog. John picks different posts than I do - they're all good!
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 640 genealogy bloggers using Bloglines, but I still miss quite a few it seems.
Read past Best of the Genea-Blogs posts here.
NOTE: Best of the Genea-Blogs will be on a one-week hiatus - I will be at the SCGS Jamboree next week with 50 or more of my genea-blogging colleagues.
Labels: BestofGeneaBlogs, genealogy blogs
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Using Branches Genealogy Software - Post 4: Using the Help Function
This is the fourth post in the series about using genealogy software named Branches. Previous posts in the series include:
* The first post demonstrated navigating around a database uploaded from a GEDCOM file.
* The second post demonstrated adding an unrelated person to the database (similar to starting a brand new database).
* The third post demonstrated adding a spouse and parents to a person, but complained that adding children was way too difficult.
In this post, I am going to show the Help screen, and how to add a child to a family and then explore other "Family Options."
Some readers helped me out in comments to find the "Family Options" and the "Add source to Event" and other options - of course, if I'd read the Branches Help screen, I would have not embarrassed myself by whining about it when it was in plain sight.
The Help function is in the top menu row of the Branches screen. It appears to be full featured, typical of most genealogy software programs. Here is the Help Introduction screen:
If I had read the Help screen before Post 3, I would have known that any vertical line on the Branches Screen represented a Family. If you run your mouse over a vertical line, as I did in the screen below, a green message appears at the bottom of the screen that says "Cursor is over Family. click the right mouse button for options:"
The "FAMILY OPTIONS" menu includes:
After clicking "Save and Exit," I saw that the child had been added to the family (see screen below).
* The first post demonstrated navigating around a database uploaded from a GEDCOM file.
* The second post demonstrated adding an unrelated person to the database (similar to starting a brand new database).
* The third post demonstrated adding a spouse and parents to a person, but complained that adding children was way too difficult.
In this post, I am going to show the Help screen, and how to add a child to a family and then explore other "Family Options."
Some readers helped me out in comments to find the "Family Options" and the "Add source to Event" and other options - of course, if I'd read the Branches Help screen, I would have not embarrassed myself by whining about it when it was in plain sight.
The Help function is in the top menu row of the Branches screen. It appears to be full featured, typical of most genealogy software programs. Here is the Help Introduction screen:
If I had read the Help screen before Post 3, I would have known that any vertical line on the Branches Screen represented a Family. If you run your mouse over a vertical line, as I did in the screen below, a green message appears at the bottom of the screen that says "Cursor is over Family. click the right mouse button for options:"
When I right-clicked the green vertical line, the "FAMILY OPTIONS" dropdown menu opens:
The "FAMILY OPTIONS" menu includes:
* ADD children
* ADD Event to marriage
-----------------
* DELETE Family
-----------------
* REORDER Children
-----------------
* LINK this family to an existing child
-----------------
* PRINT reports
I clicked on "Add children" and entered the child's name and gender to the fields:
After clicking "Save and Exit," I saw that the child had been added to the family (see screen below).
At this point, I could go through the tasks of adding a birth event, a death event, a spouse and marriage data, etc. for the child. There appears to be no easy way to do these tasks quickly and easily - you have to click through the sequence. And you have to do this task sequence for every child you want to add to the family.
One of my other complaints was that there appeared to be no way to connect a source to an event, only to a person. I was wrong again. If you right-click on any Event (say a birth date and place) on the Branches Screen, you get an EVENT OPTIONS dropdown menu, as shown below:
The EVENT OPTIONS include:
Lastly, I clicked on the "SHOW Event place in Google Maps" and my Internet browser opened and found the event location easily:
So some of my problems could have been easily solved if I'd just read the manual, er, Help function. I seem to learn by experimenting and doing, and then complaining without reading the manual. I need to change my ways!
One of my other complaints was that there appeared to be no way to connect a source to an event, only to a person. I was wrong again. If you right-click on any Event (say a birth date and place) on the Branches Screen, you get an EVENT OPTIONS dropdown menu, as shown below:
The EVENT OPTIONS include:
* ADD Source citation to event
* ADD Multimedia to Event
---------------
* EDIT Event
* SHOW Event place on Google Maps
---------------
* DELETE Event
When I clicked on "ADD Source citation to Event" I received the same source menu fields that I showed in Post 2. I clicked on the "ADD Multimedia to event" and the Windows Explorer box opened to identify the multimedia item in my computer files, and then this "Add Multimedia Object" box opened for editing:
Lastly, I clicked on the "SHOW Event place in Google Maps" and my Internet browser opened and found the event location easily:
So some of my problems could have been easily solved if I'd just read the manual, er, Help function. I seem to learn by experimenting and doing, and then complaining without reading the manual. I need to change my ways!
The next post will deal with creating and printing reports. Then I'll be done with this series because my 30-day free trial has only two days left on it!
Labels: Branches, genealogy software
Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Feeling Lucky?
Hey genealogy enthusiasts - it's Saturday Night, time for more Genealogy Fun!!
Your mission tonight, should you decide to accept it, is to:
1) Go to http://www.google.com/ and enter a search term and click on the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button.
2) Try your name, your local society, favorite genealogy terms, whatever you want. Do at least three, and as many as you want if you have time. Be creative! Have fun!
3) What did you learn from this exercise?
4) Tell us about it in a blog post of your own, as a comment to this post, or as a Note or comment on Facebook.
Here's mine (search terms in brackets [ ]):
* [randy seaver] = http://www.geneamusings.com/ (my website)
* [chula vista] = http://www.ci.chula-vista.ca.us/ (city website)
* [chula vista genealogy] = http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cacvgs2/ (local society website)
* [chula vista cemetery] = http://www.lavistamemorialpark.com/ (National City cemetery website, not in Chula Vista, but nearby)
* [genealogy] = http://www.genealogy.com/index_a.html (not unexpected)
* [geneology] = http://www.myheritage.com/page/geneology (huh?)
* [genealogy free] = http://www.ancestorhunt.com/ (interesting)
* [free genealogy] = http://www.accessgenealogy.com/ (interesting - word order makes a difference!)
* [genealogy fun] = http://www.bjhughes.org/funtime.html (how disappointing!)
* [geneaholic] = http://www.geneaholic.com/ (yes!)
* [professional genealogy] = http://www.apgen.org/ (expected result)
* [genealogy software] = http://genealogy-software-review.toptenreviews.com/
* [lucky genealogist] = http://www.ancestry.com/learn/library/article.aspx?article=1556
* [sexy genealogist] = http://www.cafepress.com/jolenestrailer/677586
* [genealogy success] = http://www.isogg.org/successstories.htm
* [genealogy failure] = http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-8873-African-American-Genealogy-Examiner~y2010m1d18-Learning-from-genealogical-failure (excellent article by Michael Hait!)
What did I learn?
* The more times you put your name, or key search terms, online, the better chances of having your site come up on the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button
* Word order in a search can make a difference
* I need to work more words like "success," "best," "fantastic," "sexy," "expert," and "learned" into my blog posts near the words "genealogy" or "genealogist," even if they don't refer to me!
Your mission tonight, should you decide to accept it, is to:
1) Go to http://www.google.com/ and enter a search term and click on the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button.
2) Try your name, your local society, favorite genealogy terms, whatever you want. Do at least three, and as many as you want if you have time. Be creative! Have fun!
3) What did you learn from this exercise?
4) Tell us about it in a blog post of your own, as a comment to this post, or as a Note or comment on Facebook.
Here's mine (search terms in brackets [ ]):
* [randy seaver] = http://www.geneamusings.com/ (my website)
* [chula vista] = http://www.ci.chula-vista.ca.us/ (city website)
* [chula vista genealogy] = http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cacvgs2/ (local society website)
* [chula vista cemetery] = http://www.lavistamemorialpark.com/ (National City cemetery website, not in Chula Vista, but nearby)
* [genealogy] = http://www.genealogy.com/index_a.html (not unexpected)
* [geneology] = http://www.myheritage.com/page/geneology (huh?)
* [genealogy free] = http://www.ancestorhunt.com/ (interesting)
* [free genealogy] = http://www.accessgenealogy.com/ (interesting - word order makes a difference!)
* [genealogy fun] = http://www.bjhughes.org/funtime.html (how disappointing!)
* [geneaholic] = http://www.geneaholic.com/ (yes!)
* [professional genealogy] = http://www.apgen.org/ (expected result)
* [genealogy software] = http://genealogy-software-review.toptenreviews.com/
* [lucky genealogist] = http://www.ancestry.com/learn/library/article.aspx?article=1556
* [sexy genealogist] = http://www.cafepress.com/jolenestrailer/677586
* [genealogy success] = http://www.isogg.org/successstories.htm
* [genealogy failure] = http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-8873-African-American-Genealogy-Examiner~y2010m1d18-Learning-from-genealogical-failure (excellent article by Michael Hait!)
What did I learn?
* The more times you put your name, or key search terms, online, the better chances of having your site come up on the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button
* Word order in a search can make a difference
* I need to work more words like "success," "best," "fantastic," "sexy," "expert," and "learned" into my blog posts near the words "genealogy" or "genealogist," even if they don't refer to me!
Labels: Genealogy Fun, SNGF
Surname Saturday - WHITNEY (England > MA)
It's Surname Saturday, and I'm "counting down" my Ancestral Name List each week. I'm up to number 65, who is Martha Whitney (1764-1832). This starts my listings of my 4th great-grandparents.
My ancestral line back through six generations of WHITNEYs is:
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. Harriet Hildreth (1857-1920)
16. Isaac Seaver (1823-1901)
17. Lucretia Townsend Smith (1827-1884)
32. Benjamin Seaver (1791-1825)
33. Abigail Gates (1797-1867)
64. Benjamin Seaver, born 21 April 1757 in Sudbury, Middlesex County, MA, and died 24 June 1816 in Westminster, Worcester County, MA. He was the son of Norman Seaver and Sarah Read. He married 19 August 1783 in Leominster, Worcester County, MA.
65. Martha Whitney, born 18 September 1764 in Westminster, Worcester County, MA; died 02 September 1832 in Westminster, Worcester County, MA.
Children of Benjamin Seaver and Martha Whitney are: Achsah Whitney Seaver (1784-1865); Abigail Seaver (1786-1817); Job Seaver (1789-1869); Benjamin Seaver (1791-1825); Susannah Whitney Seaver (1794-1879); Martha Seaver (1797-1837); Silas Whitney Seaver (1799-????); Isaac Seaver (1802-1870); Rozilla Seaver (1806-1825); Mary Jane Seaver (1812-1892).
130. Samuel Whitney, born 23 May 1719 in Weston, Middlesex, MA; died 01 January 1782 in Westminster, Worcester, MA. He married 20 October 1741 in Weston, Middlesex, MA.
131. Abigail Fletcher, born 02 July 1720 in Concord, Middlesex, MA. She was the daughter of 262. John Fletcher and 263. Mary Goble.
Children of Samuel Whitney and Abigail Fletcher are: Abigail Whitney (1742-????); Mary Whitney (1744-????); Samuel Whitney (1746-1812); Abner Whitney (1748-1811); Achsah Whitney (1750-1772); Silas Whitney (1752-1798); Martha Whitney (1755-1755); Elisha Whitney (1757-????); Alpheus Whitney (1759-1821); Phinehas Whitney (1761-????); Hananiah Whitney (1762-1835); Martha Whitney (1764-1832); Susannah Whitney (1767-????).
260. William Whitney, born 06 May 1683 in Watertown, Middlesex, MA; died 24 June 1720 in Weston, Middlesex, MA. He married 17 May 1706 in Lexington, Middlesex, MA.
261. Martha Peirce, born 24 December 1681 in Watertown, Middlesex, MA; died 15 September 1759 in Weston, Middlesex, MA. She was the daughter of 522. Joseph Peirce and 523. Martha.
Children of William Whitney and Martha Peirce are: William Whitney (1707-1789); Judith Whitney (1708-????); Amity Whitney (1712-????); Martha Whitney (1716-????); Samuel Whitney (1719-1782).
520. Nathaniel Whitney, born 01 February 1646/47 in Watertown, Middlesex, MA; died 07 January 1732/33 in Weston, Middlesex, MA. He married 12 March 1673/74 in Watertown, Middlesex, MA.
521. Sarah Hagar, born 01 September 1651 in Watertown, Middlesex, MA; died 29 July 1722 in Weston, Middlesex, MA. She was the daughter of 1042. William Hagar and 1043. Mary Bemis.
Children of Nathaniel Whitney and Sarah Hagar are: Nathaniel Whitney (1676-1730); Sarah Whitney (1679-????); William Whitney (1683-1720); Samuel Whitney (1687-1753); Hannah Whitney (1689-????); Elizabeth Whitney (1692-????); Grace Whitney (1700-1720); Mercy Whitney (1700-????).
1040. John Whitney, born before 14 September 1621 in Isleworth, Middlesex, ENGLAND; died 12 October 1692 in Watertown, Middlesex, MA. He married 1642 in probably Boston, Suffolk, MA.
1041. Ruth Reynolds, born 1623 of Aylesford, Kent, ENGLAND; died before 1706 in Watertown, Middlesex, MA. She was the daughter of 2082. Robert Reynolds and 2083. Mary Pulleyne.
Children of John Whitney and Ruth Reynolds are: John Whitney (1643-1727); Ruth Whitney (1645-1718); Nathaniel Whitney (1647-1733); Samuel Whitney (1648-1731); Mary Whitney (1650-1693); Joseph Whitney (1652-1702); Sarah Whitney (1654-1720); Hannah Whitney (1658-????); Benjamin Whitney (1660-1736); Elizabeth Whitney (1656-1712).
2080. John Whitney, born 1592 in St. Margarets, Westminster, ENGLAND; died 01 June 1673 in Watertown, Middlesex, MA. He married before 1619 in ENGLAND.
2081. Elinor, born about 1599 in ENGLAND; died 11 May 1659 in Watertown, Middlesex, MA.
Children of John Whitney and Elinor are: Mary Whitney (1619-1627); John Whitney (1621-1692); Richard Whitney (1624-1719); Nathaniel Whitney (1627-1635); Thomas Whitney (1627-1719); Mary Whitney (1629-1635); Jonathan Whitney (1635-1703); Joshua Whitney (1635-1719); Caleb Whitney (1640-1640); Benjamin Whitney (1643-1723).
I know that there is recently published scholarly material about John Whitney's parentage, but I haven't entered the information into my database yet. The Whitney Research Group wiki has an excellent entry about John Whitney's English Parentage by Robert L. Ward.
If any readers are Whitney cousins, please let me know via a comment or email to rjseaver@cox.net. Tell me yourl ine so we can determine our cousin number.
My ancestral line back through six generations of WHITNEYs is:
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. Harriet Hildreth (1857-1920)
16. Isaac Seaver (1823-1901)
17. Lucretia Townsend Smith (1827-1884)
32. Benjamin Seaver (1791-1825)
33. Abigail Gates (1797-1867)
64. Benjamin Seaver, born 21 April 1757 in Sudbury, Middlesex County, MA, and died 24 June 1816 in Westminster, Worcester County, MA. He was the son of Norman Seaver and Sarah Read. He married 19 August 1783 in Leominster, Worcester County, MA.
65. Martha Whitney, born 18 September 1764 in Westminster, Worcester County, MA; died 02 September 1832 in Westminster, Worcester County, MA.
Children of Benjamin Seaver and Martha Whitney are: Achsah Whitney Seaver (1784-1865); Abigail Seaver (1786-1817); Job Seaver (1789-1869); Benjamin Seaver (1791-1825); Susannah Whitney Seaver (1794-1879); Martha Seaver (1797-1837); Silas Whitney Seaver (1799-????); Isaac Seaver (1802-1870); Rozilla Seaver (1806-1825); Mary Jane Seaver (1812-1892).
130. Samuel Whitney, born 23 May 1719 in Weston, Middlesex, MA; died 01 January 1782 in Westminster, Worcester, MA. He married 20 October 1741 in Weston, Middlesex, MA.
131. Abigail Fletcher, born 02 July 1720 in Concord, Middlesex, MA. She was the daughter of 262. John Fletcher and 263. Mary Goble.
Children of Samuel Whitney and Abigail Fletcher are: Abigail Whitney (1742-????); Mary Whitney (1744-????); Samuel Whitney (1746-1812); Abner Whitney (1748-1811); Achsah Whitney (1750-1772); Silas Whitney (1752-1798); Martha Whitney (1755-1755); Elisha Whitney (1757-????); Alpheus Whitney (1759-1821); Phinehas Whitney (1761-????); Hananiah Whitney (1762-1835); Martha Whitney (1764-1832); Susannah Whitney (1767-????).
260. William Whitney, born 06 May 1683 in Watertown, Middlesex, MA; died 24 June 1720 in Weston, Middlesex, MA. He married 17 May 1706 in Lexington, Middlesex, MA.
261. Martha Peirce, born 24 December 1681 in Watertown, Middlesex, MA; died 15 September 1759 in Weston, Middlesex, MA. She was the daughter of 522. Joseph Peirce and 523. Martha.
Children of William Whitney and Martha Peirce are: William Whitney (1707-1789); Judith Whitney (1708-????); Amity Whitney (1712-????); Martha Whitney (1716-????); Samuel Whitney (1719-1782).
520. Nathaniel Whitney, born 01 February 1646/47 in Watertown, Middlesex, MA; died 07 January 1732/33 in Weston, Middlesex, MA. He married 12 March 1673/74 in Watertown, Middlesex, MA.
521. Sarah Hagar, born 01 September 1651 in Watertown, Middlesex, MA; died 29 July 1722 in Weston, Middlesex, MA. She was the daughter of 1042. William Hagar and 1043. Mary Bemis.
Children of Nathaniel Whitney and Sarah Hagar are: Nathaniel Whitney (1676-1730); Sarah Whitney (1679-????); William Whitney (1683-1720); Samuel Whitney (1687-1753); Hannah Whitney (1689-????); Elizabeth Whitney (1692-????); Grace Whitney (1700-1720); Mercy Whitney (1700-????).
1040. John Whitney, born before 14 September 1621 in Isleworth, Middlesex, ENGLAND; died 12 October 1692 in Watertown, Middlesex, MA. He married 1642 in probably Boston, Suffolk, MA.
1041. Ruth Reynolds, born 1623 of Aylesford, Kent, ENGLAND; died before 1706 in Watertown, Middlesex, MA. She was the daughter of 2082. Robert Reynolds and 2083. Mary Pulleyne.
Children of John Whitney and Ruth Reynolds are: John Whitney (1643-1727); Ruth Whitney (1645-1718); Nathaniel Whitney (1647-1733); Samuel Whitney (1648-1731); Mary Whitney (1650-1693); Joseph Whitney (1652-1702); Sarah Whitney (1654-1720); Hannah Whitney (1658-????); Benjamin Whitney (1660-1736); Elizabeth Whitney (1656-1712).
2080. John Whitney, born 1592 in St. Margarets, Westminster, ENGLAND; died 01 June 1673 in Watertown, Middlesex, MA. He married before 1619 in ENGLAND.
2081. Elinor, born about 1599 in ENGLAND; died 11 May 1659 in Watertown, Middlesex, MA.
Children of John Whitney and Elinor are: Mary Whitney (1619-1627); John Whitney (1621-1692); Richard Whitney (1624-1719); Nathaniel Whitney (1627-1635); Thomas Whitney (1627-1719); Mary Whitney (1629-1635); Jonathan Whitney (1635-1703); Joshua Whitney (1635-1719); Caleb Whitney (1640-1640); Benjamin Whitney (1643-1723).
I know that there is recently published scholarly material about John Whitney's parentage, but I haven't entered the information into my database yet. The Whitney Research Group wiki has an excellent entry about John Whitney's English Parentage by Robert L. Ward.
If any readers are Whitney cousins, please let me know via a comment or email to rjseaver@cox.net. Tell me yourl ine so we can determine our cousin number.
Labels: My genealogy research, Seaver Research, Surname Saturday
Friday, June 4, 2010
FamilySearch Beta Library Search - Works!
..
I whined one month ago, in FamilySearch Beta Library Search - FAIL, that the LDS Family History Library Catalog (FHLC) posted on the FamilySearch Beta site did not provide the book call number, or microfilm or microfiche numbers of the catalog items, and was therefore fairly useless, as then designed, to most researchers.
Dan Lawyer, of FamilySearch Labs, quickly responded, saying "The shortcomings you've identified are in the plan but just not finished yet."
I am very happy to report that the book call numbers and the microfilm and microfiche numbers are now listed in the Library Catalog on the FamilySearch Beta site. Let's walk through some of the screens to get there:
1) On the main FamilySearch Beta site (http://fsbeta.familysearch.org), there are links to Home, Learn, Library, Indexing and Blog in the top menu, and links to Historical Records, Trees, Library Catalog and All collections in the menu below "Discover Your Ancestors" in the screen below:
2) I clicked on "Library Catalog" and saw this search form:
In the form above, I chose "Last Name" from the dropdown list for "Search," and put "Seaver" in the search field.
3. The search results looked like this:
There were 423 matches for the search term. I didn't check all of them, but it looks like the matches cover alternate spellings, perhaps via a Soundex match and plurals. There is an "Exact match" box in the Search area if you want only exact matches.
There is a list of Topics, Languages and Availability on the left sidebar in the screen above, which shows how many matches are in each topic, language and availability (e.g., Digital Images, Family History Centers, Family History Library).
4. I clicked on the third item on the search match list above, and saw (two screens):
The entry for this particular resource includes information about the item, including the title, publication information, notes, subject, film notes and about this record. The Microfiche number of this resource is included.
I whined one month ago, in FamilySearch Beta Library Search - FAIL, that the LDS Family History Library Catalog (FHLC) posted on the FamilySearch Beta site did not provide the book call number, or microfilm or microfiche numbers of the catalog items, and was therefore fairly useless, as then designed, to most researchers.
Dan Lawyer, of FamilySearch Labs, quickly responded, saying "The shortcomings you've identified are in the plan but just not finished yet."
I am very happy to report that the book call numbers and the microfilm and microfiche numbers are now listed in the Library Catalog on the FamilySearch Beta site. Let's walk through some of the screens to get there:
1) On the main FamilySearch Beta site (http://fsbeta.familysearch.org), there are links to Home, Learn, Library, Indexing and Blog in the top menu, and links to Historical Records, Trees, Library Catalog and All collections in the menu below "Discover Your Ancestors" in the screen below:
2) I clicked on "Library Catalog" and saw this search form:
In the form above, I chose "Last Name" from the dropdown list for "Search," and put "Seaver" in the search field.
3. The search results looked like this:
There were 423 matches for the search term. I didn't check all of them, but it looks like the matches cover alternate spellings, perhaps via a Soundex match and plurals. There is an "Exact match" box in the Search area if you want only exact matches.
There is a list of Topics, Languages and Availability on the left sidebar in the screen above, which shows how many matches are in each topic, language and availability (e.g., Digital Images, Family History Centers, Family History Library).
4. I clicked on the third item on the search match list above, and saw (two screens):
The entry for this particular resource includes information about the item, including the title, publication information, notes, subject, film notes and about this record. The Microfiche number of this resource is included.
5. What about place searches? I did a place search for "Jefferson, New York" and received 168 matches:
That was too many to search through screen-by-screen, so I clicked on the "Court, Land, Wills and Financial" category, which had only 24 entries.
That was too many to search through screen-by-screen, so I clicked on the "Court, Land, Wills and Financial" category, which had only 24 entries.
5. One of those entries was of particular interest, the Estate papers, 1805-1945, so I clicked on it and saw (two screens):
This record was quite long, because there were 278 microfilm reels listed. Again, the microfilm numbers are listed, exactly the same as on the "classic" Family History Library Catalog entries.
This record was quite long, because there were 278 microfilm reels listed. Again, the microfilm numbers are listed, exactly the same as on the "classic" Family History Library Catalog entries.
6. I wanted to print out some of this record. When I went to File > Print Preview, I received 12 pages to print. The first page looked like this:
When I printed out this page, the print was very small (maybe font 6 or 8?) and relatively faint. This is a far cry from the text printout on the "classic" FHL Catalog page which is a larger font, darker print, and without spaces between entries. Many researchers print these out at home and take them to the FHC to order films, or take them to the FHL to find films in the drawers.
When I printed out this page, the print was very small (maybe font 6 or 8?) and relatively faint. This is a far cry from the text printout on the "classic" FHL Catalog page which is a larger font, darker print, and without spaces between entries. Many researchers print these out at home and take them to the FHC to order films, or take them to the FHL to find films in the drawers.
I really appreciate that the FHL Catalog on the FamilySearch Beta now provides the card catalog number and the microfilm/microfiche numbers for the entries. This makes the FHL Catalog on the FamilySearch Beta site almost as useful as the classic FHL Catalog site. Perhaps the printing issue will be addressed at some point in the future.
Labels: FamilySearch, LDS Resources, Online resources
Live Genealogy Gems Podcast at SCGS Jamboree
..
There will be a live Genealogy Gems podcast at the Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree on Saturday, 12 June at 1 p.m. in the Pavilion area, hosted by Lisa Louise Cooke (my favorite genea-podcast and genea-video maven).
Lisa has some great guests lined up:
* Maureen Taylor, the Photo Detective
* Suzanne Russo Adams, Ancestry talking about her research on Who Do You Think You Are?
* Chris Haley
Lisa put together a 2 minute video that she hopes will generate some excitement at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlZM_Xjcrwk
Lisa will be giving away lots of very cool prizes throughout the show too! (Watch the video to see the prizes!)
Thank you, Lisa, for this news! I'm going to be there, will you? I hope so. Let's fill the Pavilion and enjoy the show.
There will be a live Genealogy Gems podcast at the Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree on Saturday, 12 June at 1 p.m. in the Pavilion area, hosted by Lisa Louise Cooke (my favorite genea-podcast and genea-video maven).
Lisa has some great guests lined up:
* Maureen Taylor, the Photo Detective
* Suzanne Russo Adams, Ancestry talking about her research on Who Do You Think You Are?
* Chris Haley
Lisa put together a 2 minute video that she hopes will generate some excitement at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlZM_Xjcrwk
Lisa will be giving away lots of very cool prizes throughout the show too! (Watch the video to see the prizes!)
Thank you, Lisa, for this news! I'm going to be there, will you? I hope so. Let's fill the Pavilion and enjoy the show.
Labels: Conferences/Seminars, Genealogy Video, SCGS
"The DNA Detective" article in MORE Magazine
...
Colleen Fitzpatrick is the subject of an excellent article in MORE Magazine by Lynn Rosellini titled "The DNA Detective." It is on five web pages. The top of the first page is shown below:
The lead to the article says:
"A former nuclear physicist, Colleen Fitzpatrick once designed equipment for NASA to send to Jupiter. Now she scours the earth for missing persons, dead or alive"
In this article, there are details of some of Colleen's research, especially the Frozen Arm saga. There are also highlights of Colleen's education and career as a scientist, and even some glimpses of her personal life (she feeds her bird M&Ms).
I really enjoyed this article, and encourage all of my readers to read it. And to visit and participate in her Forensic Genealogy mystery photo contest on a regular basis too.
Colleen Fitzpatrick is the subject of an excellent article in MORE Magazine by Lynn Rosellini titled "The DNA Detective." It is on five web pages. The top of the first page is shown below:
The lead to the article says:
"A former nuclear physicist, Colleen Fitzpatrick once designed equipment for NASA to send to Jupiter. Now she scours the earth for missing persons, dead or alive"
In this article, there are details of some of Colleen's research, especially the Frozen Arm saga. There are also highlights of Colleen's education and career as a scientist, and even some glimpses of her personal life (she feeds her bird M&Ms).
I really enjoyed this article, and encourage all of my readers to read it. And to visit and participate in her Forensic Genealogy mystery photo contest on a regular basis too.
Labels: DNA, genealogy education, magazine articles
Using Branches genealogy software - Post 3: Adding a Spouse and Parents
...
This is the third post in the series about using genealogy software named Branches. Previous posts in the series include:
* The first post demonstrated navigating around a database uploaded from a GEDCOM file.
* The second post demonstrated adding an unrelated person to the database (similar to starting a brand new database).
In this post, I am going to work through adding a spouse, children and parents to a person in the database.
In the last post, I added an unrelated person to the database, added birth and death information, and created a source citation for the 1930 census. From the family tree screen, I right-clicked on the person's name to obtain the "Individual Options" menu box, and selected "Add a Spouse:"
The "Add Spouse" menu box opened, and I added the spouse's name, the marriage date and marriage place:
This is the third post in the series about using genealogy software named Branches. Previous posts in the series include:
* The first post demonstrated navigating around a database uploaded from a GEDCOM file.
* The second post demonstrated adding an unrelated person to the database (similar to starting a brand new database).
In this post, I am going to work through adding a spouse, children and parents to a person in the database.
In the last post, I added an unrelated person to the database, added birth and death information, and created a source citation for the 1930 census. From the family tree screen, I right-clicked on the person's name to obtain the "Individual Options" menu box, and selected "Add a Spouse:"
The "Add Spouse" menu box opened, and I added the spouse's name, the marriage date and marriage place:
Note that there is no capability to add a Source citation to this marriage event. I clicked on "Save and Exit" and was back to the main screen. Note that the spouse has been added to the screen below. Now I want to add parents for Herkimer Seaver, so I right-click on his name and select the "Add Parents" option:
The "Add Parents" menu box opened, and I added the names of Herkimer's parents and their marriage date and place:
Note that in the marriage place field that the type-ahead feature added the place name after I typed several letters.
Note that in the marriage place field that the type-ahead feature added the place name after I typed several letters.
I clicked on "Save and Exit" and was back to the main screen that showed Herkimer Seaver with his spouse and his parents:
At this point, I wanted to add children to the family of Johnson and Lucretia (Jones) Seaver - Herkimer's brothers and sisters. This was a large family of seven children. How can I add these other six children and their birth, death and marriage information?
When I tried to do this, a little "stick-man" icon showed on the screen and nothing happened. After several minutes, I finally clicked on the "stick-man" icon and canceled the action.
At this point, I wanted to add children to the family of Johnson and Lucretia (Jones) Seaver - Herkimer's brothers and sisters. This was a large family of seven children. How can I add these other six children and their birth, death and marriage information?
I right-clicked on the name of Johnson Seaver and saw no way to accomplish this task in the "Individual Options" menu box. Surely there must be a way to add a child to a family, but Branches does not offer an easy method at this point in the program development. One work-around would be to:
* For each child, create an unrelated person (using a right-click on the white space background of the main screen) and his/her birth, death, spouse, marriage information.
* Then right-click on each new unrelated person's name and select "Link to a Person as a child to an existing family" from the "Individual Options" menu box.
I didn't do this because it is simply too complex a task. Other genealogy software programs have very easy and intuitive methods to add children and their birth and death information - all on one screen with easy navigation from child-to-child.
A similar task would be to connect Johnson Seaver, who in the entries above is not connected to a set of parents, to an existing set of parents in my large database. I right-clicked on the name of Johnson Seaver, and selected "Link to a Person as a child to an existing family" as shown below:
When I tried to do this, a little "stick-man" icon showed on the screen and nothing happened. After several minutes, I finally clicked on the "stick-man" icon and canceled the action.
I think that this is related to my computer RAM problem where my computer cannot load the large database into memory in order to use it. At one point, earlier, while using the large database, Branches was using over 350 megabytes of memory. That seems like a lot - even Family Tree Maker 2010 uses "only" 191 megabytes for this same database, and RootsMagic and Legacy Family Tree use much less RAM.
The last two posts have shown that Branches software has serious flaws that, if not fixed, will make it fairly useless for use by seasoned genealogists. These flaws include the complexity of adding vital records and other event data to a person, adding children to a family, and attaching source citations to a person instead of an event. In other software programs, these tasks are handled simply, quickly and intuitively. My opinion is that Branches can greatly improve these tasks by modifying their "Individual Options" menu items.
The large RAM usage is a problem for researchers like myself with a medium sized family tree database using an older Windows computer system with limited RAM. My guess is that the main screen zoom and navigation capabilities, which are the main differentiators between Branches and other genealogy software, is why there is so much RAM usage. A researcher with a small database may not have these problems.
In the next post, I will investigate the Report Options offered by Branches.
Labels: Branches, Family Trees, genealogy software
Thursday, June 3, 2010
May 2010 Issue of "Shades of the Departed" Magazine
...
Our geneablogging diva footnoteMaven has published the May 2010 issue of the wonderful online Shades of the Departed Magazine. You can access it here on the Shades of the Departed blog.
The Table of Contents includes:
page 3 - From My Keyboard; letter from the editor
page 4 - The Exchange; your comments
page 6 - Penelope Dreadful column; A Dreadful Scheme, by Denise Levenick
page 12 - Let's Use Our Family Photographs; Project ideas, by footnoteMaven
page 26 - in2Genealogy column; Discovering a Wildcatter, by Caroline Pointer
page 40 - Appealing Subject column; The Many Migrant Mothers of Dorothea Lange, by Craig Manson
page 54 - The Year Was... column; The Year Was 1919, by Sheri Fenley
page 62 - Saving Face column; A Rare Book is Not a Manuscript, by Rebecca Fenning
page 65 - Smile For The Camera; The Ties That Bind, by Terri Kallio
page 66 - The Future of Memories column; Grandpa's Letters, by Denise Olson
back cover - The Last Picture Show
I really enjoyed every article in this month's Shades magazine. What a work of scholarship, beauty and art.
I encourage all of my readers to read this magazine at your leisure (meaning, spend some time reading it - don't hurry through).
Thank you, footnoteMaven and columnists. Excellent work!
Our geneablogging diva footnoteMaven has published the May 2010 issue of the wonderful online Shades of the Departed Magazine. You can access it here on the Shades of the Departed blog.
The Table of Contents includes:
page 3 - From My Keyboard; letter from the editor
page 4 - The Exchange; your comments
page 6 - Penelope Dreadful column; A Dreadful Scheme, by Denise Levenick
page 12 - Let's Use Our Family Photographs; Project ideas, by footnoteMaven
page 26 - in2Genealogy column; Discovering a Wildcatter, by Caroline Pointer
page 40 - Appealing Subject column; The Many Migrant Mothers of Dorothea Lange, by Craig Manson
page 54 - The Year Was... column; The Year Was 1919, by Sheri Fenley
page 62 - Saving Face column; A Rare Book is Not a Manuscript, by Rebecca Fenning
page 65 - Smile For The Camera; The Ties That Bind, by Terri Kallio
page 66 - The Future of Memories column; Grandpa's Letters, by Denise Olson
back cover - The Last Picture Show
I really enjoyed every article in this month's Shades magazine. What a work of scholarship, beauty and art.
I encourage all of my readers to read this magazine at your leisure (meaning, spend some time reading it - don't hurry through).
Thank you, footnoteMaven and columnists. Excellent work!
Labels: genealogy education, periodical indexes, photographs
Using Branches Genealogy software - Post 2: Adding Unrelated Person
This is the second post in the series about using genealogy software named Branches. The first post demonstrated navigating around a database uploaded from a GEDCOM file.
In this post, I am going to work through adding an unrelated person to the database. This could demonstrate how to start a new database to Branches with the first person in the database.
Here is the screen with my 39,000 person database. To Add an Unrelated Person, the user clicks in the "White Space" between persons in the tree. A small box opens:
The options in the small box include:
* Return to Home Menu
* Events On
* Sources Off
* Add Individual
* Print Reports
I clicked on the "Add Individual" link and the "Add an Individual" box opened and I added the name of my person - "Herkimer Seaver" and his gender "M":
The options after adding the name are to:
* Save and Add Another
* Save and Exit
* Cancel
I chose to "Save and Exit" and was back to my screen with the big family tree. I want to add information to the person I added, but where can I find Herkimer Seaver? Ah, he's at the bottom of the list of the list of "loose persons" in the tree database. I clicked on the "Tree List" menu item (in the top menu on the screen) and scrolled down and there was Herkimer Seaver:
I clicked on Herkimer Seaver in thel ist above, and the screen split into two parts - with the large tree above and Herkimer Seaver all by himself in the bottom part. I closed the large tree and Herkimer Seaver's tree filled the screen:
I want to add Birth and Death and other Event information to Herkimer Seaver. I right-clicked on the name "Herkimer Seaver" and saw the "Individual Options" menu:
In this post, I am going to work through adding an unrelated person to the database. This could demonstrate how to start a new database to Branches with the first person in the database.
Here is the screen with my 39,000 person database. To Add an Unrelated Person, the user clicks in the "White Space" between persons in the tree. A small box opens:
The options in the small box include:
* Return to Home Menu
* Events On
* Sources Off
* Add Individual
* Print Reports
I clicked on the "Add Individual" link and the "Add an Individual" box opened and I added the name of my person - "Herkimer Seaver" and his gender "M":
The options after adding the name are to:
* Save and Add Another
* Save and Exit
* Cancel
I chose to "Save and Exit" and was back to my screen with the big family tree. I want to add information to the person I added, but where can I find Herkimer Seaver? Ah, he's at the bottom of the list of the list of "loose persons" in the tree database. I clicked on the "Tree List" menu item (in the top menu on the screen) and scrolled down and there was Herkimer Seaver:
I clicked on Herkimer Seaver in thel ist above, and the screen split into two parts - with the large tree above and Herkimer Seaver all by himself in the bottom part. I closed the large tree and Herkimer Seaver's tree filled the screen:
I want to add Birth and Death and other Event information to Herkimer Seaver. I right-clicked on the name "Herkimer Seaver" and saw the "Individual Options" menu:
I chose the "Add Event for Individual" item on the list above, and chose "Birth" from the list of Events. I filled in the birth date and birth place for Herkimer Seaver. I chose the place name from the dropdown list that appeared once I started typing "Fitchburg, Worcester, MA" (which was in the place name index in the entire database):
I could have added a Note about the birth record, but I didn't. There is no observable place to enter a Source for this Event.
I could have added a Note about the birth record, but I didn't. There is no observable place to enter a Source for this Event.
I did the same process to add a Death Event - date and place, as shown below:
Now I have a birth event and a death event for Herkimer Seaver. But I had to do a lot of clicking around to do it. It would be much easier for a user to open an "Edit Individual Data" box and be able to see some fixed Events like Birth, Baptism, Death and Burial, and the option to add additional Events from the list, all in one Individual Data box. That would ease the data input process.
Now I have a birth event and a death event for Herkimer Seaver. But I had to do a lot of clicking around to do it. It would be much easier for a user to open an "Edit Individual Data" box and be able to see some fixed Events like Birth, Baptism, Death and Burial, and the option to add additional Events from the list, all in one Individual Data box. That would ease the data input process.
Herkimer Seaver was in the 1930 US Census as a husband of Susan, so I added that Event also. I wanted to add a Source for the 1930 census, and clicked on the "Add a Source" in the "Individual Options" box. In the "Add Individual Source Citation" box, I chose the 1930 US Census master source from the existing sources (all from the entire database), and added the source citation details (the heading says "Film/Volume/Page Number") to the box in the upper left. I added the "Date Record was Made" and extracted the information about Herkimer Seaver in the "Actual Text" box. I didn't add a Comment or Repository to the available boxes. My previously entered data appeared in the grayed areas on the right - the Title, Author, Call Number, Publisher, etc. The screen below shows the filled in Source information:
Note that the Source Option buttons, in the screen above, are "New," "Edit," "Delete" and "Merge" sources. Those are self-explanatory. The "New" source form looksl ike the box above, but without the existing source list.
There appear to be no variations in this "Add Individual Source Citation" box - the box appears to be identical for each type of Event. And each Source is attached to the Individual and not to the Event. This is unlike most of the other modern genealogy programs, which connect sources to Events rather than Persons.
In the next post, I will add a Spouse and Parents for Herkimer Seaver, and try to connect his father to the larger family tree.
Labels: Branches, Family Trees, genealogy software
Treasure Chest Thursday - 50th Wedding Anniversary Article
...
It's Treasure Chest Thursday - time to find one of those "family history jewels" that illuminates the lives and times of our ancestors.
Today is a newspaper article from the San Diego Union newspaper dated 11 September 1937. The subject is the 50th Wedding anniversary of my great-grandparents, Henry Austin and Della (Smith) Carringer.
------------------------------
Page 2 has the headline:
" 'Germany Never Will be Conquered' Fuehrer Tells Nazis"
and the picture at the top of the page is headlined:
"True Vowers View Letters on Golden Wedding Day."
It's Treasure Chest Thursday - time to find one of those "family history jewels" that illuminates the lives and times of our ancestors.
Today is a newspaper article from the San Diego Union newspaper dated 11 September 1937. The subject is the 50th Wedding anniversary of my great-grandparents, Henry Austin and Della (Smith) Carringer.
------------------------------
Page 2 has the headline:
" 'Germany Never Will be Conquered' Fuehrer Tells Nazis"
and the picture at the top of the page is headlined:
"True Vowers View Letters on Golden Wedding Day."
Below the picture, the caption says:
"Mr. and Mrs. Henry A. Carringer, who came to San Diego on their honeymoon 49 years and 11 months ago, are looking over letters at their mailbox. Today is their Golden Wedding anniversary."
There is a long column article to the right of the picture, which reads:
HONEYMOON TRIP TO S.D. EXTENDS HALF A CENTURY
by Forrest Warren
Mr. and Mrs. Henry A. Carringer, 2115 Thirtieth st., are fine examples of True Vowers, who have worked together side by side for 50 years. Today they celebrate their Golden Wedding anniversary.
The romance of Mr. and Mrs. Carringer began, when they met in Boulder, Colo. She was Della Smith then and her home was in Concordia, Kan.
After three years of courtship, during which time they each proved up on claims in Cheyenne county, Kan., hey sold their holdings, were united in marriage, and came to San Diego one month later.
Mr. and Mrs. Carringer came to San Diego on their honeymoon and are just one month short of having been here 50 years. Mr. Carringer recalled yesterday that he had $20 in his pocket when they landed here.
39 years at One Address
"We have lived here on this corner 39 years," said Mrs. Carringer. "We built this house. On our lot we have planted and grown most every kind of fruit and vegetable that grows in California. Flowers have always been my hobby."
After his working hours as a cabinet maker, Mr. Carringer did all the finishing on their home and also built some of their beautiful furniture.
"My wife designed some of the furniture and many a time I worked while she held a lamp for me to see," said Mr. Carringer.
The tables and chairs in their home are made from several varieties of rare woods and are quite attractive in their design.
Mrs. Carringer's artistic ability is evidenced by her paintings. When asked if she had done any painting in the last few years she replied, "No, I have been too busy to paint." The Carringers have several apartments they rent and they spend most of their time looking after their property.
Still Busy at 84
Mr. Carringer, although near 85, showed a visitor his activity around the home by keeping busy with a wheelbarrow that was loaded with trimmings he had cut from trees.
Life as a skilled mechanic started at 64 for Mr. Carringer, when he took a job as airplane repair man at Rockwell field.
He saw the airplane develop from its primitive state to its present high efficiency. When he began work in the repair of airplanes, the wood propeller was used. On the piano in the Carringer home is a propeller, highly polished, that he made. It was used for experimental purposes. This propeller is more than eight feet long.
For ten years Mr. Carringer was foreman in the wood and fabric section of the plane repair shop at Rockwell field. After 15 years of service, and on his 79th birthday, Mr. Carringer was retired with high honors. The superintendent, E.G. Lupton, together with 114 employees, signed a letter of appreciation and presented him with a big, easy chair.
Have Neighborly Philosophy
"It's a nice chair, but up to now I've been too busy to use it much," said the veteran mechanic.
Their son, Lyle Carringer, "grew up" in the Marston store, being employed there when he was 14. He is in the business offices of the store. The son, with his wife and daughter, Betty, live at 2130 Fern st., which adjoins the Carringer home. Miss Betty is in her second year at State college.
When asked about their philosophy of life, Mrs. Carringer said: "We have worked hard as partners and tried always to be kind and helpful to others. After all, we are of the opinion that this is the best religion to make a happy and successful life.
Rode in Surrey to Street Car
When the Carringers began building their present home, the nearest street car was at Sixteenth and Broadway. They had an old horsedrawn surrey they used in transporting themselves and neighbors to the Broadway car. "Our old surrey would be crammed full of men, women and children," said Mrs. Carringer.
The collection of photographs, showing scenes around their home are interesting. Some of their old time neighbors who have lived in the Brooklyn Heights district will felicitate Mr. and Mrs. Carringer today.
The Carringers will hold a family dinner and will proudly wear their blue and gold True Vow Keeper buttons presented to them yesterday.
-----------------------------
There are many items of family and historical interest in this article, and this is the only record I have about them. For instance, I did not know where they met, or when; I did not know that they had land in Cheyenne county, Kansas; I did not know how long Austin worked at Rockwell Field (which is now North Island Naval Air Station in Coronado), or when he retired; I didn't know about the horsedrawn surrey - that's a great story.
I sure wish that the family still had the eight-foot long propeller and some of the handmade furniture. My brother has the melodion (not mentioned above) and several of the Victorian style chairs. I would love to visit the family home again and see the inside of the rooms again (the last time I was there was probably about 1980 and I didn't pay attention to the details).
Fortunately, the index to the San Diego Union newspaper covers these years, and I was able to easily find this article on microfilm at the San Diego Public Library.
Labels: Carringer Research, Family Stories, San Diego area, Treasure Chest Thursday
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Using Branches Genealogy Software - Post 1: Navigating an Existing Tree
I finally got a chance to use the Branches genealogy software program tonight. After my first post - First Look at Branches - Genealogy Software - which ended in my 39,000 person GEDCOM (created from Family Tree Maker 16) unsuccessfully loading into the program, I received an email from Mike Miller stating that they had fixed some bugs relatred to imports from FTM, and he asked me to try it again. So I tried again tonight, and the file uploaded in about five minutes.
The Branches program download can be obtained at http://www.branchesgenealogy.com/ for a 30-day free trial. After 30 days, the program costs $39.95 retail. Has anyone else blogged about this software yet? [Reader Finn noted that Dick Eastman reviewed it in osme detail in Branches - A Major New Windows Genealogy Program.]
I have not read the Help screens or the FAQs for this program, so I'm going to explore it as a new user. I may consult the Help screens later.
In this post, I will discuss Navigation and investigate the Individual editing options.
The program took about 20 seconds to open my 39,000 person database, and opened to a screen with a list of 376 different unconnected "trees" in my database (I guess that's how many "loose ends" I have!). I clicked on the biggest one, and worked my way to myself in the tree and made myself the "Root Person."
Navigation in the tree is by holding down the left mouse button and moving the cursor. Zooming in and out is performed using the mouse wheel. This is very easy to perform and becomes natural very quickly.
As the "Root person," I show up on the screen on the left, with my ancestors to the right, and my descendants to the left of me, as shown below:
In the screen above, siblings of my ancestors show up to the left of the vertical line connecting parents. If a person has more than one spouse, then all spouses and their children show up on the screen. The screen above shows ten generations of ancestors.
I scrolled back to my great-grandfather, Frank Walton Seaver and zoomed in on him a bit - you can see the tree below, including the inset box which shows the portion of the tree outlined in green:
To add content to a person in the tree, you right mouse click the person's name. In the screen below, I clicked on Frank Walton Seaver and saw:
The "Individual Options" box has the following capabilities:
* Add Parents
* Add Spouse
* Add Event to individual
* Add Source citation to individual
* Add Note to individual
* Add Address to individual
* Add Multimedia item to individual
---------
* Edit Individual
---------
* DELETE Individual
---------
* Unlink this person from parents
* Unlink this person from spouse
---------
* Reorder Parents
* Reorder Spouses
* Reorder Events
---------
* Merge Individuals
---------
* Link this person as a child to an existing family
* Link this person as a spouse to an existing person
---------
* Change this person to the permanent Root Person
* Change this person to a temporary Root Person with Descendants
* Change this person to a temporary Root Person without Descendants
---------
* Print Records
That list looked fairly complete until I started doing some of the actions and trying to do others. Since I uploaded a GEDCOM file, the names, dates, places and events were all uploaded into the tree. I clicked on the "Edit Individual" link in the box above:
I fully expected that the box above would show me the Name, Birth date and location, and Death date and location, with source options, plus the notes for the person. It only showed the Name, Gender, Title and the Notes. The Notes can be edited in the box above (or in the "Add Notes" option), but there are no word processing capabilities - it's strictly plain text.
My problem is this: if I wanted to edit or delete the birth date or location (or death date or location) there is no means to do that. I don't believe that I can delete those items individually, but I could Add a new Event like a birth or death. My preference would be to Edit the Birth and Death information for a person in the Edit Individual screen.
I tested most of the available options and they worked. I have not tried to add a family to the database by hand yet, but will soon.
To Add an Event, I clicked on the "Add Event" link in the Individual Options box, and selected "Burial" from the long list of possible Events. I inserted the date, then clicked on the "Select" button which opened a dropdown menu for the place names. I selected Leominster, Worcester County, MA, as shown in the screen below and clicked "OK:"
That added a burial location as an Event to Frank Walton Seaver's list of Events.
[I know that I have those crazy green lines in the screen above, but just ignore them for now. We'll get to them in a later post.]
My initial impression is that the program works fairly quickly with my medium sized database with many "loose ends." The navigation is simple to understand and use, although much different from all of the other available genealogy software.
However, more work needs to be done with the "Edit Individual" information - namely to add the ability to edit the birth date, birth location, death date and death location.
I thought that perhaps the editing of birth and death information could be done by clicking on the "Add Event" and it would show the Event information, but it does not.
While trying to do all of the above, I managed to mess up the database somehow and now it will open to one of the one person trees in the database, even though it lists all 376 trees in the database. When I select the tree I want, it gives me an error message (System:OutOfMemoryException) - I show that BranchesCE.exe is using 209,948 K of memory and I have only 179,000 K available. I will have to open it again after I reboot tonight.
In the next post, I will try to add persons by hand and then try to connect that "loose tree" to the larger database. Wish me luck!
UPDATED 10 p.m. Added note and link to Dick Eastman's review.
The Branches program download can be obtained at http://www.branchesgenealogy.com/ for a 30-day free trial. After 30 days, the program costs $39.95 retail. Has anyone else blogged about this software yet? [Reader Finn noted that Dick Eastman reviewed it in osme detail in Branches - A Major New Windows Genealogy Program.]
I have not read the Help screens or the FAQs for this program, so I'm going to explore it as a new user. I may consult the Help screens later.
In this post, I will discuss Navigation and investigate the Individual editing options.
The program took about 20 seconds to open my 39,000 person database, and opened to a screen with a list of 376 different unconnected "trees" in my database (I guess that's how many "loose ends" I have!). I clicked on the biggest one, and worked my way to myself in the tree and made myself the "Root Person."
Navigation in the tree is by holding down the left mouse button and moving the cursor. Zooming in and out is performed using the mouse wheel. This is very easy to perform and becomes natural very quickly.
As the "Root person," I show up on the screen on the left, with my ancestors to the right, and my descendants to the left of me, as shown below:
In the screen above, siblings of my ancestors show up to the left of the vertical line connecting parents. If a person has more than one spouse, then all spouses and their children show up on the screen. The screen above shows ten generations of ancestors.
I scrolled back to my great-grandfather, Frank Walton Seaver and zoomed in on him a bit - you can see the tree below, including the inset box which shows the portion of the tree outlined in green:
To add content to a person in the tree, you right mouse click the person's name. In the screen below, I clicked on Frank Walton Seaver and saw:
The "Individual Options" box has the following capabilities:
* Add Parents
* Add Spouse
* Add Event to individual
* Add Source citation to individual
* Add Note to individual
* Add Address to individual
* Add Multimedia item to individual
---------
* Edit Individual
---------
* DELETE Individual
---------
* Unlink this person from parents
* Unlink this person from spouse
---------
* Reorder Parents
* Reorder Spouses
* Reorder Events
---------
* Merge Individuals
---------
* Link this person as a child to an existing family
* Link this person as a spouse to an existing person
---------
* Change this person to the permanent Root Person
* Change this person to a temporary Root Person with Descendants
* Change this person to a temporary Root Person without Descendants
---------
* Print Records
That list looked fairly complete until I started doing some of the actions and trying to do others. Since I uploaded a GEDCOM file, the names, dates, places and events were all uploaded into the tree. I clicked on the "Edit Individual" link in the box above:
I fully expected that the box above would show me the Name, Birth date and location, and Death date and location, with source options, plus the notes for the person. It only showed the Name, Gender, Title and the Notes. The Notes can be edited in the box above (or in the "Add Notes" option), but there are no word processing capabilities - it's strictly plain text.
My problem is this: if I wanted to edit or delete the birth date or location (or death date or location) there is no means to do that. I don't believe that I can delete those items individually, but I could Add a new Event like a birth or death. My preference would be to Edit the Birth and Death information for a person in the Edit Individual screen.
I tested most of the available options and they worked. I have not tried to add a family to the database by hand yet, but will soon.
To Add an Event, I clicked on the "Add Event" link in the Individual Options box, and selected "Burial" from the long list of possible Events. I inserted the date, then clicked on the "Select" button which opened a dropdown menu for the place names. I selected Leominster, Worcester County, MA, as shown in the screen below and clicked "OK:"
That added a burial location as an Event to Frank Walton Seaver's list of Events.
[I know that I have those crazy green lines in the screen above, but just ignore them for now. We'll get to them in a later post.]
My initial impression is that the program works fairly quickly with my medium sized database with many "loose ends." The navigation is simple to understand and use, although much different from all of the other available genealogy software.
However, more work needs to be done with the "Edit Individual" information - namely to add the ability to edit the birth date, birth location, death date and death location.
I thought that perhaps the editing of birth and death information could be done by clicking on the "Add Event" and it would show the Event information, but it does not.
While trying to do all of the above, I managed to mess up the database somehow and now it will open to one of the one person trees in the database, even though it lists all 376 trees in the database. When I select the tree I want, it gives me an error message (System:OutOfMemoryException) - I show that BranchesCE.exe is using 209,948 K of memory and I have only 179,000 K available. I will have to open it again after I reboot tonight.
In the next post, I will try to add persons by hand and then try to connect that "loose tree" to the larger database. Wish me luck!
UPDATED 10 p.m. Added note and link to Dick Eastman's review.
Labels: Branches, Family Trees, genealogy software
What is the Best Place to leave "Cousin Bait?"
...
Greta Koehl used the term "Cousin Bait" last month in her post Online Trees about the purpose of posting online family tree data. At least, that was the first use of the term I've seen published - an excellent term! Her point was that putting a family tree online in a database or on a web page may help induce distant cousins, who share your ancestry, into contacting you and perhaps provide more information about the common ancestral families.
There has been an interesting thread the past two weeks on the Transitional Genealogists Forum mailing list titled Publishing Online: What Do You Do and Why?. Connie Sheets started the thread, and it has about 40 responses to date. Daniela Moneta did a study of Googling a name and location known to be on many websites, and found that:
"Using a simple search on Google, the method most people use, didn't come up with all of her sites and no WorldConnect. Using the simple search on Google, WeRelate came up as the first two hits, familypedia.wikia.com came up third, then plymouthcolony.net, and then her freepages on RootsWeb.com. I used as my test search 'Richard Taylor genealogy Yarmouth' (without quotes)."
Daniela also noted that while the "advanced search" features of Google can be used to refine searches, the average person using Google is probably unaware of those advanced search features. I think that's probably right.
I decided to try my own search results.
I have parts of my genealogy database on Ancestry Member Trees, the WeRelate.org wiki, the MyHeritage site, GeneaNet.org, Geni.com, FamilyPursuit.com, AppleTree.com, GenesReunited.com, a Genealogy.com users web page, an ancestral name list on the CVGS web page, some online message boards and mailing list posts, plus all of my blog posts (and probably several other online trees). I do not have a database on Rootsweb WorldConnect, but I will choose a person that is on WorldConnect (I checked!).
I chose to search for this string:
humphrey white genealogy glocester (no quotes)
The results show 28,400 matches, including in the top 10:
* #1, #2 and #3 are from Genea-Musings
* #4 is from a Genealogy.com web page by Mary A. Sorenson
* #5 and #6 is for the Wing Family of America site
* #7 is from a Genealogy.com web page by Randy Seaver
* #8 is a genealogy page from PCPlayground.com - not specifically Humphrey White
* #9 is a family list of Convicts to Australia - not specifically Humphrey White
* #10 is a name index created by PAF - not specifically Humphrey White
If I search for:
"humphrey white" genealogy glocester (with quotes)
The results show only 54 matches (only 19 shown), including in the top 20:
* #1 to 7 are the same as above
* #8 is my database from Geni.com
* #9 is an OfficialFamilySite.com repost of one of my Genea-Musings posts (hmm, this site reposts all of my Genea-Musings posts - polite request to be sent soon, nasty letter to follow?)
* #10 is from an Archive.org text - not specifically Humphrey White
* #11 is a gnibo.net article about Glocester RI that excerpted some of my Humphrey White data
* #12 is a page on NashFamilyHistory.com that is the specific Humphrey White
* #13 is another page from Mary A. Sorenson's Genealogy.com web page
* #14 is a page on Martha Soule from isthisyour.name
* #15 is Ancestors of Seaver from the Chula VFista Genealogical Society web page (my data)
* #16 is a Euronews.com page that captured some of my Humphrey White data
* #17 is a webmiiscore.com page for Arnold White that captured some of my Humphrey White data
* #18 is a Toluu.com page that captured some of my Humphrey White data
* #19 is from an Archives.org text - not specifically Humphrey White
That's all - no WorldConnect data, and none of my other online databases, including WeRelate.org (although I posted that only about three weeks ago).
What if I did a last name first search for:
"white humphrey" genealogy glocester (with quotes)
There were 6 results - and only one new site:
* #6 was a SortedByName.com listing with the correct Humphrey White, but not quoting my site.
I could do another search for Humphrey White and his wife Sybil Kirby, as in:
"humphrey white" "sybil kirby" glocester (with quotes)
There were 56 matches (only 13 listed), including:
* #1 #2 and #3 were my Genea-Musings posts
* #4 and #5 were from the Wing Family In America pages
* #6 was the Mary A. Sorenson page on Genealogy.com
* #7 was a WikiWorldBook.com page for a Humphrey White (all data private, not this one)
* #8 and #9 were two Rootsweb WorldConnect pages for the correct Humphrey and Sybil
* #10 was the isthisyour.name page for Martha Soule
* #11 was the webmiiscore.com page for Arnold White
* #12 was the Ancestors of Seaver page on the CVGS site (my data)
* #13 was the Toluu.com page that captured some of my data.
In retrospect, I don't think that I have posted about this couple on the message boards or mailing lists. My experience is that message board and mailing list posts do show up on Google searches for names and places.
That's enough for now - here are my takeaways from this study:
* Putting specific family information (names, dates, places, etc) on blogs and web pages creates good "cousin bait"
* Putting specific family information in online family tree databases does not return many matches, and those matches are usually not near the top of the list
* Using quote marks about names really narrows the search well. As a researcher, I will spend some time searching 19 matches, but usually won't go past 40 or 50 matches.
Of course, people can search for specific persons in online family trees effectively - this study was only to see what the Google search engine would find. Your results may be different!
What lessons did you learn from this little study?
Have you done your own study like this? If so, please tell us about it!
Greta Koehl used the term "Cousin Bait" last month in her post Online Trees about the purpose of posting online family tree data. At least, that was the first use of the term I've seen published - an excellent term! Her point was that putting a family tree online in a database or on a web page may help induce distant cousins, who share your ancestry, into contacting you and perhaps provide more information about the common ancestral families.
There has been an interesting thread the past two weeks on the Transitional Genealogists Forum mailing list titled Publishing Online: What Do You Do and Why?. Connie Sheets started the thread, and it has about 40 responses to date. Daniela Moneta did a study of Googling a name and location known to be on many websites, and found that:
"Using a simple search on Google, the method most people use, didn't come up with all of her sites and no WorldConnect. Using the simple search on Google, WeRelate came up as the first two hits, familypedia.wikia.com came up third, then plymouthcolony.net, and then her freepages on RootsWeb.com. I used as my test search 'Richard Taylor genealogy Yarmouth' (without quotes)."
Daniela also noted that while the "advanced search" features of Google can be used to refine searches, the average person using Google is probably unaware of those advanced search features. I think that's probably right.
I decided to try my own search results.
I have parts of my genealogy database on Ancestry Member Trees, the WeRelate.org wiki, the MyHeritage site, GeneaNet.org, Geni.com, FamilyPursuit.com, AppleTree.com, GenesReunited.com, a Genealogy.com users web page, an ancestral name list on the CVGS web page, some online message boards and mailing list posts, plus all of my blog posts (and probably several other online trees). I do not have a database on Rootsweb WorldConnect, but I will choose a person that is on WorldConnect (I checked!).
I chose to search for this string:
humphrey white genealogy glocester (no quotes)
The results show 28,400 matches, including in the top 10:
* #1, #2 and #3 are from Genea-Musings
* #4 is from a Genealogy.com web page by Mary A. Sorenson
* #5 and #6 is for the Wing Family of America site
* #7 is from a Genealogy.com web page by Randy Seaver
* #8 is a genealogy page from PCPlayground.com - not specifically Humphrey White
* #9 is a family list of Convicts to Australia - not specifically Humphrey White
* #10 is a name index created by PAF - not specifically Humphrey White
If I search for:
"humphrey white" genealogy glocester (with quotes)
The results show only 54 matches (only 19 shown), including in the top 20:
* #1 to 7 are the same as above
* #8 is my database from Geni.com
* #9 is an OfficialFamilySite.com repost of one of my Genea-Musings posts (hmm, this site reposts all of my Genea-Musings posts - polite request to be sent soon, nasty letter to follow?)
* #10 is from an Archive.org text - not specifically Humphrey White
* #11 is a gnibo.net article about Glocester RI that excerpted some of my Humphrey White data
* #12 is a page on NashFamilyHistory.com that is the specific Humphrey White
* #13 is another page from Mary A. Sorenson's Genealogy.com web page
* #14 is a page on Martha Soule from isthisyour.name
* #15 is Ancestors of Seaver from the Chula VFista Genealogical Society web page (my data)
* #16 is a Euronews.com page that captured some of my Humphrey White data
* #17 is a webmiiscore.com page for Arnold White that captured some of my Humphrey White data
* #18 is a Toluu.com page that captured some of my Humphrey White data
* #19 is from an Archives.org text - not specifically Humphrey White
That's all - no WorldConnect data, and none of my other online databases, including WeRelate.org (although I posted that only about three weeks ago).
What if I did a last name first search for:
"white humphrey" genealogy glocester (with quotes)
There were 6 results - and only one new site:
* #6 was a SortedByName.com listing with the correct Humphrey White, but not quoting my site.
I could do another search for Humphrey White and his wife Sybil Kirby, as in:
"humphrey white" "sybil kirby" glocester (with quotes)
There were 56 matches (only 13 listed), including:
* #1 #2 and #3 were my Genea-Musings posts
* #4 and #5 were from the Wing Family In America pages
* #6 was the Mary A. Sorenson page on Genealogy.com
* #7 was a WikiWorldBook.com page for a Humphrey White (all data private, not this one)
* #8 and #9 were two Rootsweb WorldConnect pages for the correct Humphrey and Sybil
* #10 was the isthisyour.name page for Martha Soule
* #11 was the webmiiscore.com page for Arnold White
* #12 was the Ancestors of Seaver page on the CVGS site (my data)
* #13 was the Toluu.com page that captured some of my data.
In retrospect, I don't think that I have posted about this couple on the message boards or mailing lists. My experience is that message board and mailing list posts do show up on Google searches for names and places.
That's enough for now - here are my takeaways from this study:
* Putting specific family information (names, dates, places, etc) on blogs and web pages creates good "cousin bait"
* Putting specific family information in online family tree databases does not return many matches, and those matches are usually not near the top of the list
* Using quote marks about names really narrows the search well. As a researcher, I will spend some time searching 19 matches, but usually won't go past 40 or 50 matches.
Of course, people can search for specific persons in online family trees effectively - this study was only to see what the Google search engine would find. Your results may be different!
What lessons did you learn from this little study?
Have you done your own study like this? If so, please tell us about it!
Labels: Google, My genealogy research, Online resources, Search Engines
(Not So) Wordless Wednesday - Post 105: Betty and her Dolly
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. Many of these were "new" to my digital photograph collection.
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. Many of these were "new" to my digital photograph collection.
Here is a photograph from the Carringer family collection handed down by my mother in the 1988 to 2002 time period:
This photograph features my mother, Betty Virginia Carringer, as a young child - probably two or three years old, so it is 1921 or 1922. The setting is probably the berry patch on the south end of the block between 30th Street and Fern Street along Hawthorn Street in San Diego. Betty has her Mary Jane shoes on, and a big bow in her hair - perhaps this is Easter time or her birthday.
The doll looks brand new, I wonder if it was a popular type of doll in the early 1920s? I have no clue, but maybe some readers do! Help me out if you know what type of doll this is.
Labels: Family Stories, photographs
