Saturday, January 22, 2011

These Folks had Genealogy Fun Tonight Doing Random Research

Today's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Do Some Random Research required considerable effort by those that participated, so I want to give a shout out to the contributors:

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun...Do Some Random Research by TexicanWife on the Mountain Genealogists blog.  Her random name was Jordan Gamble.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Do Some Random Research by Rebecca Hudson on the Blundering Blindly Backwards blog.  Rebecca's random name was Moses Lynn.

*  Kinnicks in Tennessee by Dr. Bill Smith on The Kinnick Project blog.  Although he didn't follow directions, Bill submitted this random research done a week ago, I'm assuming because he anticipated this SNGF.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Do Some Random Research by Caroline Gurney on Caro's Family Chronicles blog.  Her random name researched was Cornelia Dalton (researched in England).

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Do Some Random Research by Donna Jane on the Hanging from the Family Tree blog.  Her random name was Ernest Neal.

Saturday Night Genealogical Fun: John Galen Singleton by Donna on DonnaB's Weblog.  Her random name was Galen Singleton (she found three generations of them).

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Do Some Random Research  by Dee on the Ancestrally Challenged blog.  Dee's random name was Juanita Stephenson.

*  Random Research Results: “Roman Stanton” b. 1927 by Chris Staats on the Staats Place blog.  The guy that thought up this SNGF researched Roman Stanton.

SNGF: Do some random research by Jen Smart on the Jen's Genealogy Pages blog.  Jen researched Eugenia Sullivan.

Saturday Night Fun Random Name by Charles Hansen on the Mikkel's Hus blog.  Chuck researched Sam Crane.

SNGF - Gertrude Pugh by Leah on The Internet Genealogist blog.  Leah research Gertrude Pugh.

*  \Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Do Some Random Research by Mavis Jones on the Georgia Black Crackers blog.  Mavis researched Gloria Bennett.

Saturday Night GEN Fun...that went into Sunday..and Monday...  by CJ on the All About GEN blog.  CJ researched Abby Randall and her paternal line.
If there are more entries, I will try to list them here.  If I've missed yours, please comment to this post with a link. 

Several of the blogs listed above were new to me.  Responding to a weekly meme like SNGF is an excellent opportunity for relatively new genea-bloggers to draw readers to their blogs.  I'm not going to write a post like this every week, but I thought this week's responses deserved a listing.  Thank you, players - I hope you had genealogy FUN doing it!

Last UPDATED: 8:20 a.m. on 24 January.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Do Some Random Research

Hey genealogy buffs - it's Saturday Night and time for more Genealogy Fun!  Play along with us and tell us about it.

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to follow Chris Staats' rules (from Freaky Friday: Random Research Reports)  for picking a random person's name and then doing some online research about that person.  Here are Chris's rules:

1. Go to The Random Name Generator and click the red “Generate Name” button at the top of the screen

2. Go to Ancestry.com and enter your generated name in the search box on the main search page. [Randy's add:  If you don't have Ancestry.com, go to http://www.familysearch.org/ and do it there - it's free.]

3. From the results, your research target will be the first census result for your generated name.

4. Using whatever online resources are at your disposal, see what else you can discover about your random person and write about it. It can be a formal report complete with footnotes, or just a “research story” about what you tried, problems you overcame, or success you had. Maybe you want to create a research plan for practice?

5. Post about it on your blog or wherever you wish, and link here to tell Chris about it.  Tell Randy about it too as a comment here or a comment on Facebook or Twitter.

Here's mine:

1)  My random name was "Johnie Stanley."

2)  I was surprised to see that Ancestry had quite a few matches in the US Census records with exact matching of first and last names.

3)  The first census record was for the 1930 US Census, and the first person named "Johnie Stanley" was: Johnie E. Stanley - male, white, age 59, married to Mirtie for 27 years, born North Carolina, parents born NC/NC, a farmer, residing in Ingrams, Johnston County, North Carolina  (Year: 1930; Census Place:  IngramsJohnstonNorth Carolina; Roll:  1701; Page:  8A; Enumeration District:  19; Image:  744.0.)  The indexer misindexed his first name - it is clearly "Johnnie."

4)  I found these additional records on Ancestry.com:

a)  1920 US Census: Johnie E. Stanley - male, white, age 49, married to Merta," born NC, parents born NC/NC, a farmer, residing in Ingrams, Johnston County, North Carolina (Year: 1920;Census Place:  IngramsJohnstonNorth Carolina; Roll:  T625_1307; Page:  10B; Enumeration District:  52; Image:  472.)

b)  1910 US Census: Jonie E. Stanly - male, white, age 39, first marriage, for 9 years, born NC, parents born NC/NC, a farmer residing in Ingrams, Johnston County, North Carolina (Year: 1910; Census Place: Ingrams, Johnston, North Carolina; Roll: T624_1119; Page: 17B; Enumeration District: 49; Image: 134. ).  The indexer misindexed this name - it is clearly "Johnie Stanly"

c)  1900 US census:  John E. Stanly - white, male, born Jun 1870, age 29, single, born NC, parents born NC/NC, a farm laborer, son of William R. and Sarah Stanly, residing in Four Oaks, Johnston County, North Carolina (Year: 1900; Census Place:  Four OaksJohnstonNorth Carolina; Roll:  T623_ 1202; Page:  11A; Enumeration District:  57.)

d)  1880 US Census:  John E. Stanly - white, male, age 9, single, born NC, parents born NC/NC, at home, son of William R. and Sarah Stanly, residing in Ingram, Johnston County, North Carolina (Year: 1880; Census Place:  IngramJohnstonNorth Carolina; Roll:  969; Family History Film:  1254969; Page:  431D; Enumeration District:  161; Image:  0397.)

e)  1870 US Census:  1870 US Census:  John E. Stanly is not born as of 1 June 1870.  The Ruffin Stanly family resided in Ingrams, Johnston County, North Carolina with the same wife's name (Sarah) and all children appeared in the 1880 census (Year: 1870; Census Place:  IngramsJohnstonNorth Carolina; Roll:  M593_1145; Page:  415A; Image:  208; Family History Library Film:  552644.).

f)  John Ruffin Stanley died 11 Feb 1951 in Ingrams, Johnston County, North Carolina.  He was white, age 80, birth date 13 October 1870, parents were William Ruffin Stanley and Sallie Blackman, residence Ingrams, Johnston County, North Carolina (Ancestry.com. North Carolina Death Certificates, 1909-1975 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007. Original data: North Carolina State Board of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics. North Carolina Death Certificates. Microfilm S.123. Rolls 19-242, 280, 313-682, 1040-1297. North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh, North Carolina.).

g)  The Proffitt-Penny Family Tree on Ancestry Public Member Trees includes John E. Stanly - he was married to Myrtle Benson.  This tree takes the Stanley line back several generations.
h)  There are no family trees on Rootsweb WorldConnect that have John/Johnie Stanley/Stanly or his father in them.
i)  I found no matches on GenealogyBank for Johnie Stanley or Stanly for this particular person.
j)  I found no matches on Footnote.com for this particular person.
k)  With most of the above information, I found the marriage record for J.E. Stanley to Myrtle Benson on 14 April 1901 in Ingrams township, Johnston County, North Carolina (http://www.famlysearch.org/ online database: North Carolina Marriages, 17y59-1979).
Not bad for 45 minutes!  Thank you, Chris, for a fun research time.

Surname Saturday - BROWN (18th Century Colonial Massachusetts) Help!

It's Surname Saturday, and I'm "counting down" my Ancestral Name List each week. I am up to number 159, who is Hannah BROWN (ca 1725-before 1774), one of my 5th-great-grandmothers. [Note: The 5th great-grandfathers have been covered in earlier posts] 

My ancestral line back through one generation of BROWN families is:

1. Randall J. Seaver

2. Frederick Walton Seaver (1911-1983)
3. Betty Virginia Carringer (1919-2002)

4. Frederick Walton Seaver (1876-1942)
5. Alma Bessie Richmond (1882-1962)

8. Frank Walton Seaver (1852-1922)
9. Hattie Louise Hildreth (1857-1920)

18.  Edward Hildreth (1831-1899)
19.  Sophia Newton (1834-1923)

38.  Thomas J. Newton (ca 1795 - after 1834)
39.  Sophia Buck (1797-1882)

78.  Isaac Buck (1757-1846)
79.  Martha Phillips (1757-after 1820)

158.  John Phillips, born 11 Sep 1722 in Charlestown, Suffolk, Massachusetts, USA. He was the son of 316. Ebenezer Phillips and 317. Mary Smith. He married 03 May 1749 in Southborough, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA.
159. Hannah Brown, born about 1725 in Massachusetts, USA; died before 1774 in probably Shrewsbury, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA.

Children of John Phillips and Hannah Brown are:

i. Sarah Phillips, born 01 May 1750 in Southborough, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA.
ii. Jonathan Phillips, born 22 Feb 1752 in Southborough, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA.
iii. Joanna Phillips, born 24 Aug 1755 in Shrewsbury, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA.
iv. Martha Phillips, born 20 Aug 1757 in Shrewsbury, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA
v. Elizabeth Phillips, born 15 Jun 1764 in Shrewsbury, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA.

That's it.  Hannah Brown is a complete mystery - only a name and a marriage date and place, and five 
children. I wrote about this elusive female ancestor in The Elusive Hannah Brown (ca 1725 - before 1774, wife of John Phillips).

As mentioned in the blog post, there are no vital records for the birth of a Hannah Brown that “fit” - that might lead me to a set of parents that could be investigated. I have searched for Brown probate records in Worcester and Middlesex Counties and found none that mentioned Hannah Phillips; this was easier to do in Middlesex County, since the probate packets are on microfilm, while in Worcester County, the probate records on microfilm are the clerk's copies filed by Volume and Page Number. I have not searched for land records for John Phillips yet – there may be clues there. I also have not searched the Southborough town records (also on microfilm) for tax and other information for the Phillips and Brown families.

There were numerous Brown families in and around Southborough in the 1740's when Hannah married John Phillips. I have only searched in Brown surname books and manuscripts for Hannah, I haven't done an exhaustive search for the different Brown families in the Southborough area. It is possible that Hannah Brown came from around Stoneham in Middlesex County, since John Phillips resided there as a young man.

Perhaps the most intriguing, and so far unresearched, idea is that Hannah was a widow that needed a husband when she married John Phillips. He was age 27, and a hypothesis that Hannah was a young widow with one or more small children is a reasonable one.

Any research suggestions are most welcome!

Does any other researcher know anything about the family of John Phillips and Hannah Brown? If so, please contact me!

UPDATED 8 a.m.:  Fixed the obvious editing problem...was I confused early in the morning?

Friday, January 21, 2011

FamilySearch Family Tree Update

One of the really big news items from the FamilySearch Blogger Day back on 21 October 2010 was the description of the FamilySearch Family Tree (still known as "New FamilySearch" it seems).  I posted about this topic in FamilySearch Blogger Day - FamilySearch Family Tree.  I thought I understood what they were going to do, but was unsure until this week.

During the FamilySearch Bloginar on Tuesday, 18 January, I asked about the progress on the Family Tree and then followed up with an email to FamilySearch.  In my email to FamilySearch, I asked:

"At the Blogger Day, Ron Tanner said they would remove all sources that are in Ancestral File, Pedigree Resource File and International Genealogical Index from the new Family Tree. The information in these databases would be kept in separate databases on the FamilySearch website. At the time, I understood the statement to mean they would leave the name, date, and place assertions (from AF, PRF, IGI) in the Family Tree and trust the tree system (discussions, alternate assertions, source citations, etc.) to reach conclusions through a wiki-like environment.  Is this an accurate understanding?  Is it really going to happen?  If so, when can we expect it?" 

I received a response today from Robert Kehrer of FamilySearch, who wrote (and permitted me to share it with my readers):

"It sounds like you have a solid understanding of our plans. 

"FamilySearch is in the process of providing separate databases for the various types of data (IGI, AF, PRF, Etc) that underlie the conclusions in the current Family Tree (new FamilySearch). These databases are being provided in such a way that users can reference them, as well as sources elsewhere on the web, to properly source the conclusions they make in the tree. Once all the source databases are available, we will replace the data in the Family Tree with links back to the original sources in the databases. The goal is to increase the genealogical soundness of the overall system by making referencing of sources central to drawing and documenting ancestral conclusions. 

"The data in Family Tree will also become editable by all registered patrons. Critical to the success of this plan is the provision of key tools that: 1) allow a user to be notified when designated parts of the tree that they care about are changed, 2) allow users to communicate about those changes and share the info they have, 3) and tools allowing rollback of changes deemed incorrect. The goal is to increase genealogical soundness by enabling greater collaboration in a shared tree context.

"Beginning in 2011 you will see many of these integrated tools delivered to users. Some of the data sources and tools are already available and can be accessed at the following locations:  

"Ancestral File is currently searchable at (https://www.familysearch.org/#form=trees). The Pedigree Resource File will be added to this search shortly. 

"The extracted IGI is currently searchable as part of the historical records search (https://www.familysearch.org/#form=advanced-records). We will be providing a search by IGI batch number in the future. 

"Discussions have already been provided on each person in the tree.  
 
"Additional functionality needed to achieve our goals will be released as they are available."
 
My thanks to Robert Kehrer, Paul Nauta and the FamilySearch team for being open and responsive to my question.
 
My opinion is that when this FamilySearch Family Tree is released to the general public, if it works as described at the Blogger Day and the note above, it will eventually be the largest, most accurate and best sourced family tree available to the genealogical community.  There will be a learning curve for everybody - LDS member and general public alike - but the "cream will rise to the top" pretty quickly once researchers understand and use the wiki environment and the "discussions" to drive to well-sourced conclusions.  I can't wait!
 
Are you ready to add your genealogical information to the FamilySearch Family Tree?  I wanted to be as ready as possible, which is why I recently tried to eliminate name and date errors from my database, standardized all of my locations, and am working hard to standardize my sources.  I haven't attached any document or photo images to my family tree database, but I will sometime down the road.

Google Maps Fail...

I saw this on Facebook last night and can't resist sharing it with my readers.  I use Google Maps all the time to find my way around town and California, and use it when I travel to a distant city.

Here's the map and directions for Chula Vista, California  to Tokyo, Japan:


Using this route is 7,999 miles and will take 35 days and 5 hours.  The directions say to drive up Interstate 5 to Seattle, and then:

14.  Kayak across the Pacific Ocean (to Honolulu) - 2,756 miles

and:

29.  Kayak across the Pacific Ocean (to Tokyo).  Entering Japan - 3,879 miles

I wonder why it didn't say catch a plane in Los Angeles and fly direct?  I doubt a kayak would be large enough to sustain me for 32 days at sea.  The average speed for 35 days, 5 hours is about 9.57 miles per hour - can anyone row a kayak that fast?  Would there be wireless Internet?

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Source Citation Templates and GEDCOM Files - Oh My!

I've blogged about my experiences taking Family Tree Maker 2011 source citations created by source templates, exporting a GEDCOM file, and importing the GEDCOM file into RootsMagic 4 and Legacy Family Tree 7 in:

Source Citations Created in Family Tree Maker 2011 - some examples
FTM2011 Source Citations in RootsMagic 4 - Mangled?
FTM 2011 Source Citations in Legacy Family Tree 7 - Mangled?

For example, a book citation created using a Family Tree Maker 2011 source template looks like this:

Robert S. Wakefield (editor), Mayflower Families Through Five Generations: Volume 13: Family of William White (Boston, Mass.: General Society of Mayflower Descendants, 1997), page 6. Carlsbad Georgina Cole Library, Carlsbad California, USA, (1250 Carlsbad Village Dr., Carlsbad, California, USA).

After exporting the FTM2011 GEDCOM file, and importing it into RootsMagic 4, the RootsMagic source citation looks like this:

Robert S. Wakefield (editor), Wakefield (editor), Robert S., Mayflower Families Through FiveGenerations (Name: Boston, Mass.: General Society of Mayflower Descendants, 1997;), page 6.

And importing the FTM2011 GEDCOM file into Legacy Family Tree 7, the source citation looks like this:

Robert S. Wakefield (editor), Wakefield (editor), Robert S., Mayflower Families Through Five Generations (Name: Boston, Mass.: General Society of Mayflower Descendants, 1997;), page 6.

You can easily see the differences.  When a GEDCOM file is created, the elements in the FTM 2011 source citation template get different tags - AUTH for Author, TITL for Title, the PUBL for Publisher, REPO for Repository, etc.  Additional information in the source template seems to get put into a NOTE tag.  The FTM 2011 source template for Books has an author's Last Name field and an author's First Name field, plus an Other Authors field, and all of that gets put into the AUTH field in the GEDCOM file.  Why does it get duplicated when it is imported into the other programs?

When RootsMagic 4 and Legacy Family Tree 7 import the GEDCOM file, the information in the file gets put into specific source citation fields also, but not into a source template.  The result is as shown above.

I suspect that if I export a GEDCOM from RootsMagic 4 and Legacy Family Tree 7, with well-crafterd source citations created by Evidence! Explained quality templates, and import it into the other programs, that the same thing will happen.  I will try to do that sometime soon, but have to go create source template citations in those programs to export to the others. 

My purpose in doing this was to show that, despite the best efforts of each software program, and of the researcher trying to create Evidence! Explained quality source citations, the use of the current GEDCOM export/import capability mangles almost all of the citations created when they are read into another software program. 

This points up one of the reasons that a group of researchers and software developers have started the Build a BetterGEDCOM Wiki site.  If you are interested in helping this effort, please sign up at the site.

There is a BetterGEDCOM blog also, and Russ Worthington has done similar tests on sources and locations on the blog.

Several people have commented on my earlier posts, and these are useful and illuminating:

RootsMagic said:

"If you look at the sources in the GEDCOM file created by FTM, I'm guessing you will see that FTM doesn't export the templated sources, but puts the sources in the TITL, AUTH, and PUBL fields. That is what RootsMagic ends up having to read from the GEDCOM file."

Russ said:

"From my test results, FTM exported the Template information BUT it didn't remove the AUTH tag. I can't see that information in the Family Tree Maker Source / Citation screen. It was there, because it was in the screen that Randy started with. I have moved the Source format to the Template format. The Template format should have, unless I missed a step somewhere, remove that AUTH tag information.

Just went back into Family Tree Maker and the AUTH information is not there. BUT, it is in the GEDCOM."


Tree Traverser said:

"It is partly a GEDCOM issue because source templates are non-standard and therefore they are proprietary to each software vendor. But, even if a vendor exports their proprietary format via GEDCOM, a third-party application may still not be able to reconstruct the source information. For instance RootsMagic exports its source templates, but a third-party application cannot currently reconstruct those sources even if it understands that proprietary format. Until the technology matures, I recommend using a citation generator like easybib.com, then pasting the results as a free-form source in your genealogy program.

"Perhaps vendors will keep the ease of use factor in their source template implementations, but ultimately generate and store the "free-form" source citation for eventual export. Hopefully, one could modify the information stored in the template, and the free-form source would be updated automatically."


Ron Ferguson said:

"There has been quite a lot of discussion about this question in the Legacy User Group. The consensus view is that the GEDCOM is not able to translate Legacy's formatted Source Writer sources corrected, and I suspect this is probably true for FTM's formatted sources as well.  Yet another reason for either an updated GEDCOM standard or something new altogether. However, given the multitude of templates which Legacy has (I do not know FTM, so cannot comment) I cannot really see how this might be achieved."

lkessler said:

"Is Legacy able to restore its sources properly if it reads a GEDCOM that it creates? If so, then the potential is there for any program to read them. But most programs don't go to the effort to do so. If Legacy can read its own sources, kudos to them. They are not the problem. Other programs can read them if the put the effort in to do so. If Legacy can't read their own sources, then Legacy is at fault, so don't blame the other programs. Same goes for all programs.

"Yes, BetterGEDCOM's goal is to make it easier for all programs to transfer this data. But until that happens, the transfer is still possible if with two well-meaning programs."


My thanks to the commenters - this is a complex subject.  There are significant problems with sharing data between software programs using GEDCOM, but it's better than not having any method to do it.  Each program creator has unique code and capabilities, but unless a researcher sticks with one genealogy program, there are problems.

UPDATED: 1:30 p.m.  Edited some text formatting, added a phrase to the paragraph starting with "My purpose in doing this..." and added the disclosure below.

Disclosure:   I received gratis copies of Family Tree Maker 2011, RootsMagic 4 and Legacy Family Tree 7 from the software companies in the past. I try very hard to be objective in my comments about all genealogy software, subscription sites and websites.

Treasure Chest Thursday - Isaac Seaver's Civil War Pension Papers: Affidavit Supporting the Widow

It's Treasure Chest Thursday, time to share one of the documents or artifacts in my family history collection.  In previous posts, I have displayed documents from the Civil War Pension File of Isaac Seaver, my second great-grandfather. 

I received the complete Civil War Pension File for Isaac Seaver on 3 January - see my post My Christmas Present Came Today - Oh Boy! - and it has 81 pages in the file.  Some of them have little or no information on them.  I'm going to cherry-pick some pages for this and later Treasure Chest Thursday posts.

The "treasure" this week is the "General Affidavit" that supports the application of the widow, Alvina M. (Bradley) (Lewis) Seaver.


The transcription of this document is (underlined is text filled in on lines in the form; italics is handwritten text):

GENERAL AFFIDAVIT

State of Massachusetts, County of Worcester, SS;
In the matter of widows original pension claim No 738,086 Alvina M. Seaver,
widow of Isaac Seaver, 3d, Co "H" 4th Reg't Mass Vol. H.A.
on this 20 day of April, A.D. 1901, personally
appeared before me a Special Commissioner in and for the afore-
said County, duly authorized to administer oaths Frank A. Bradley,
aged 36 years, a resident of Fitchburg, in the County
of Worcester, and State of Massachusetts
whose Post-office address is #101 Walton St. Fitchburg Mass.
Ida M. Belcher aged 42 years, a resident of Fitchburg,
in the County of Worcester,
and State of Massachusetts, whose Post-office address is
#24 Leighton Street - Fitchburg, Mass.
well known to be reputable and entitled to credit, and who, being duly sworn, declared in relation to aforesaid
case as follows: that we have been acquainted with the
above named Alvina M. (Bradley) (Lewis) Seaver
from our infancy.  We know that she was never
married but twice and the first time was when
she married with Joseph P. Lewis.  We were well
acquainted with the above named Isaac Seaver 3d
and we know that claimant lived with him from
time of their marriage to the date of his death and
she was never divorced from hi.  We know that
the claimant has not remarried since the soldier's death.
We further know that claimant owns house and
land (her house) in Leominster, Mass., cash value $1,700.00 also
about $4,500.00 deposited in seven different savings
institutions in Worcester, Clinton, Leominster and Fitchburg, Mass,
also that she will receive from her late husband's estate $1,200.00
We know that the above is all the property she has got
and that she did not receive, nor will she receive any
life insurance money.  We know that there is no person
legally bound to support her and we do not consider
that her income from the above property less annual
expenses will exceed $250.00 per year, and she is
dependent upon her daily labor for support and her
income from the above described property.
We further declare that we have no interest in said case and are
not concerned in its prosecution.

/signed/  Frank A. Bradley
/signed/ Ida M. Belcher"

Round stamp of the Pension Office is dated 3 May 1901.

This affidavit was written just six weeks after the death of Isaac Seaver on 12 March 1901.  Alvina had built up quite a savings from her two marriages - family stories were that she was frugal.  Isaac Seaver's will did not mention any of the details of his real estate (which was sold to pay the legacies), so this document (and others in the packet) adds to my knowledge base about his real estate holdings.

The affidavit indicates that Frank A. Bradley and Ida M. Belcher have known Alvina "since infancy" - my guess is that they are Alvina's siblings.  This is sort of a no brainer - Bradley was Alvina's married name.  In the 1870 US Census, the Harvey Bradley family in Dickinson, Franklin County, New York lists Alvina Bradley age 21, Ida Bradley age 11 and Frank Bradley age 7.


Wednesday, January 19, 2011

What's New on Ancestry.com?

I check the Recent Genealogy Databases page on Ancestry.com every week to see if I've missed something.  Here's the recently added or updated databases since 1 January 2011:

New South Wales, Australia, Tickets of Leave, 1824-1867 - Free Index 1/19/2011
1916 Canada Census of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta - Updated 1/19/2011
Atlantic Ports Passenger Lists, 1820-1873 and 1893-1959 - Updated 1/18/2011
Border Crossings: From Mexico to U.S., 1895-1957 - Updated 1/13/2011
Kentucky Death Records, 1852-1953 - Updated 1/13/2011
Caribbean Obituary Collection - Updated 1/11/2011
Canada Obituary Collection - Updated 1/11/2011
Australia and New Zealand Obituary Collection - Updated 1/11/2011
United States Obituary Collection - Updated 1/11/2011
United Kingdom and Ireland Obituary Collection - Updated 1/11/2011
England, Alien Arrivals, 1810-1811, 1826-1869 - Updated 1/11/2011
London, England, Land Tax Valuations, 1910 - Free Index 1/10/2011
Index to Passengers Arriving at Honolulu, Hawaii, 1900-1952 1/6/2011
Index to Alien Arrivals by Airplane at Miami, Florida, 1930-1942 1/6/2011
Michigan Passenger and Crew Lists, 1903-1965 - Free Index - Updated 1/5/2011
Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s - Updated 1/5/2011
Australia Death Index, 1787-1985 - Updated 1/3/2011
Australia Birth Index, 1788-1922 - Updated 1/3/2011
Australia Marriage Index, 1788-1949 - Updated 1/3/2011
Jews in Colonial America (AJHS Oppenheim Collection), 1650-1850 1/3/2011
AJHS WWI Jewish Servicemen Questionnaires, 1918-1921 1/3/2011
AJHS WWII Jewish Servicemen Cards, 1942-1947 1/3/2011
AJHS New York Hebrew Orphan Asylum Records, 1860-1934 - Updated 1/3/2011
Das jüdische Amerika : wahrnehmungen und betrachtungen (in German) - Updated 1/3/2011
Deutsch-Amerikanische Skizzen : für jüdische Auswanderer und Nichtauswanderer (in German) - Updated 1/3/2011

There are lots of updated databases, but not many USA databases were added so far this month.




FTM 2011 Source Citations in Legacy Family Tree 7 - Mangled?

I posted some source citations created in Family Tree Maker 2011 using the source templates, as a benchmark, in an effort to understand how they translate via a GEDCOM file to other genealogy software programs that I have available. 

I imported the GEDCOM file created by FTM 2011 into Legacy Family Tree 7.4 yesterday, and looked at the same source citations in Legacy Family Tree (the "Footnote/Endnote Citation").  The results are:

Vital records index

State of California. California Death Index, 1940-1997. Sacramento,CA, USA: State of California Department of Health Services, Center for Health Statistics, "California Death Index, 1940-1997", Rootsweb, California Death Index, 1940-1997 (Name: accessed on http://vitals.rootsweb.ancestry.com/ca/death/search.cgi;), Maybelle C. Wright entry, Death Date 31 March 1964, Death place San diego (80), Birth date 17 May 1902, Mother's maiden name Ashdown.

The source screen for this citation is shown below:
 

As you can see, the  Legacy Family Tree "Assigned Sources" screen shows all of the Facts and the sources assigned to them.  At the bottom are four tabs - for "Output," "Text/Comments," "Repository" and "Pictures."

The FTM 2011 sources imported into Legacy Family Tree 7.4 as a "free-form" citation. So, any source template work in FTM 2011 does not come into Legacy Family Tree 7.4, as I expected.
 
Here are the rest of them:

Vital records certificate

Registrar of Births, Department of Public Health, San Diego, San DiegoCounty, California, California, San Diego County, Certificate of Registration, Register of Births (Name: Name: not published;;), Department of Public Health Certificate No. NC-867 (1943).

Published book

Blaine Whipple, Whipple, Blaine, History and Genealogy of "Elder" John Whipple of Ipswich, Massachusetts (Name: Name: Victoria, BC, Canada: Whipple Development Corporation, 2003;;). Whipple, Blaine. History and Genealogy of "Elder" John Whipple of Ipswich, Massachusetts. Victoria, B.C., Canada: Whipple Development Corporation, 2003.

Boston City Registrar, Boston City Registrar, Reports of the Record Commissioners of the City of Boston (Name: Reports of the Record Commissioners of the City of Boston,Volume 9, Rockwell and Churchill, Boston, MA, 1883;). Boston City Registrar. Reports of the Record Commissioners of the City of Boston: Volume 9: Boston Births, Marriages and Deaths, 1630-1699. Boston, Mass.: Rockwell and Churchill, 1883.

Robert S. Wakefield (editor), Wakefield (editor), Robert S., Mayflower Families Through Five Generations (Name: Boston, Mass.: General Society of Mayflower Descendants, 1997;), page 6.

Periodicals

Caroline Martino and Marcia Lindberg, Martino, Caroline, "Henry Collins of Lynn and his Descendants" (Name: Name: The Essex Genealogist, starting Vol. 10, #3-4 (1990), Vol 11,#1-3 (1991), Vol 12 #4 (1992);;). Martino, Caroline, Marcia Lindberg. "Henry Collins of Lynn and his Descendants". The Essex Genealogist. Volume 10, #3-4; Volume 11, #1-3; Volume 12 #4 (1990-1992).

Elizabeth French Bartlett, Bartlett, Elizabeth French, " Genealogical Research in England" (Name: Name: New England historical and Genealogical Register, Volume 76,Number 2 (April 1922), pages 115-129;;). Bartlett, Elizabeth French. " Genealogical Research in England: Weeden". New England Historical and Genealogical Register,. Volume 76, Number 2 (April 1922): Pages 115-129.

Newspaper articles

San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco, California (online archive) (Name: Name: San Francisco CA (accessed on www.SFGenealogy.com);;), Frederick Schaffner Death Notice, 1 July 1899, page 10.

Census records

1930 U.S. Census, Population Schedule; NARA Microfilm Publication T626, San Diego County, California, San Diego city; ED 116, Sheet 5A, Dwelling #142, Family #148, Lyle L. Carringer household, Roll 192.

Probate Records

Massachusetts, Worcester, Worcester County [Mass.] Probate Court Records, Abigail Gates, 1867; Probate Packet 52,857 (viewed at Worcester County Court House).

Cemetery Marker

Woodside Cemetery (Westminster, Massachusetts), Grave Markers, Benjamin Seaver monument.

Family papers

Abigail (Vaux) Smith, Della (Smith) Carringer, others, to Abigail (Vaux) Smith, Della (Smith) Carringer, others, Personal Notes and Letters , Smith/Carringer Family Letter Collection, 1888-1902; privately held by Randall J. Seaver, Chula Vista CA 91911.

 Family Bible

unknown, Rebecca (Spangler) Carringer, 1828-1946, Carringer Family Births, Marriages and Deaths (loose pages) (Name: no publication information;).

For comparison purposes, I entered information for this last citation into the Legacy Family Tree 7.4 source template for "Bible Records, privately held, loose pages" to see how it looked.  The source template looked like this (filled in):

 
The source citation looks like this:
Family Bible (Using Legacy Family tree 7.4 Bible (privately held, loose pages) Template:)
 
Rebecca (Spangler) Carringer Family Bible (1828-1946), family pages; Original, loose pages held by Randall J. Seaver, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] Chula Vista, California, 1988; Carringer Family Births, Marriages and Deaths (loose pages)
 
Listed below are items that I noticed resulting from the export of the FTM 2011 database into a GEDCOM file and then importing that file into the Legacy Family Tree 7.4 program:

*  All of the Master Sources in Legacy Family Tree 7.4 are Free-form" format. [no surprise to me...]

*  Any italicization of titles or other fields was lost. [no surprise here, GEDCOM is a pure text file without formatting]

*  The Publication fields are pretty messed up, with the word "Name" added, and sometimes the words "Name: Name:" added at the beginning of the field.  There are also semi-colons added to the end of most publication fields. [this surprised me, both program have the same fields]

*  Author's names, and titles, for published books, periodicals and newspaper articles are duplicated.  FTM 2011 has separate fields for lead author surname, lead author first name, and other authors names. [not surprised due to different fields in different programs]

*  The order of source elements is different from the FTM 2011 template order, and many elements in the FTM 2011 templates are provided in Source Comments in Legacy Family Tree 7.4 [not surprised, Legacy Family Tree tries to put data into the free-form fields.]

*  The repository data is provided in the Repository field in Legacy Family Tree 7.4 as opposed to in the actual Source Citation in FTM 2011 (if selected by the user). [logical to me why this happened]

I'm sure that there are more differences for each citation type.  The careful reader will notice that all of these are similar to the comments made for the RootsMagic 4 test yesterday (except for one not inncluded above, see FTM2011 Source Citations in RootsMagic 4 - Mangled?).

The purpose of this post was to show the differences, and not assign blame or make suggestions for improvement for either program.  An examination of the GEDCOM file text would indicate which GEDCOM tags are used to export the file to determine if the exporting program or the importing program create the problems.  A fair test would take template sources from Legacy Family Tree and import them into Family Tree Maker 2011 using the same process.

However, it does demonstrate the problem that GEDCOM export/import of sources badly often mangles the sources carefully created using source templates in the original program.  The ideal situation is that every bit of information in the imported program using GEDCOM is identical in content and format to the information in the exporting program.
 
I was pleased to note that the concatenation/continuation problem (two words stuck together) noticed in the RootsMagic source citations and notes don't show up in the Legacy Family Tree 7.4 sources and notes.  That gives me hope that Legacy Family Tree might be the program where I can edit all of my source citations so that they don't get mangled when I GEDCOM them into an online tree or another software program.

(Not So) Wordless Wednesday - Post 136: Lyle Carringer Family in about 1924

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.

Here is a photograph from the Seaver//Carringer family collection handed down by my mother in the 1988 to 2002 time period:

This family photograph was taken in about 1924, based on the apparent age of the little girl, who is my mother, Betty Virginia Carringer.  Her parents are also shown - Lyle and Emily (Auble) Carringer.  And the family dog, Rex. 

I don't know exactly where this picture was taken - my best guess is at a greenhouse in Balboa Park in San Diego.  One of Emily's interests was flower arrangements, and they may have been on a Sunday outing to the park, which was less than two miles away from their home.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

James H. Dill in Newspaper, Cemetery and Book Records

Continuing my online research (see James H. Dill in the Vital and Census Records) looking for clues of the life of James H. Dill, perhaps a brother of my Elizabeth Horton (Dill) Smith, I checked the online historical newspapers, cemetery records, and did a Google Books search.  Here are some of the results:

1)  Newspaper articles:

a)  From the Boston Daily Advertiser, dated 16 October 1822 (on http://www.genealogybank.com/):

"For Gibraltar and Malage, The stanch sailing fast brig CARAVAN, James H. Dill master, having three quarters of her cargo engaged, and loading, will be despatched immediately.  for freight or passage, aplly to LEMUEL POP, Jr. or THO'S THAXTER, State street.  N.B. A gentleman will go out in the brig and take charge of any business entrusted to his care."

b)  From The National Advocate [New York City?], Monday, 19 July 1824, in "List of Letters Remaining in the Post-Office  on the 15th Day of July" (in 19th Century U.S. Newspapers" on http://www.americanancestors.org/):

"Capt. James H. Dill"

b)  From the Spectator [New York], dated 20 March 1827:

"MELANCHOLY SHIPWRECK
Extract of a letter from Capt. James H. Dill, late master of big Potomac, of boston.
--ST. CRUZ, Tenerife, Nov. 20, 1826
--Sir: I am sorry to have to announce to you the unfortunate loss of the Potomac.  When we had performed our quarantine, and discharged our cargo that we had to Grand Canary, we came directly to this place, and were waiting here to obtain license from the government to take passengers, for within a few months an order has been sent out here, froim the King, preventing all foreign vessel from taking natives of these islands away; consequently we kept the vessel here to to wait the result of an interest with the government, to go on with the expedition, and finally, a few days previous to the loss of the vessel, we succeeded, and had taken in a large quantity of stores, &c for the passengers; and, the day before we were ready to sail for Lanzaretto, there came on one of the most tremendous hurricanes that the oldest inhabitants remember to have witnessed in these islands.  Notwithstanding it came on very suddenly, and right on shore, I had got off a chain cable and anchor, from the shore, before the communication to the vessel became impracticable, -- but the storm raged with increasing fury, every vessel parted, and went on to the beach, one after another, the wind hauling every fifteen minutes, so that no vessel could ride a strain on more than one cable, till at length my small bower parted, and the chain was let go, and a scope veered out -- the sea was very bad, the boats all washed away, the vessel was unable to bear so hard labour, and leaked very badly; still, every thing was done to keep her free, and to save her, but all in vain -- at half past 9, the best bower parted, and the chain and anchor would not bring her up, and she was dashed against the rocks, and in five minutes nothing was to be seen of the Potomac but some small pieces afloat in the surf; and with her my mate and cook shared the same fate; the rest, some made their escape by throwing themselves from the yards and rigging on to the rocks, and some were thrown up by the sea on to the rocks, with broken arms and legs; and I have scarcely recovered yet sufficiently to write you a description of the shocking scene.  The general destruction in all the islands, has not left a vessel that we can procure.
[The Potomac was to take her passengers to Lanzaretto and proceed to Monte Video.]"

There are many articles about a James H. Dill in New York City during the 1830 to 1850 time frame who was appointed by the Governor of New York to several offices there, including a Notary Public and Commissioner of Deeds for Kings County.  I am unsure if this is the same person as the Ship Captain.  I don't think that it is, the 1840 U.S. Census shows a James H. Dill residing in Brooklyn, Kings County, NY with several children.  The 1850 census shows a James Dill age 58 in Southfield, Richmond County, NY married to an Eliza Dill with four children. 

2)  Cemetery Records

I went on to Find-A-Grave and input James Dill and New Jersey in the search fields, and was rewarded with :

a)  James H. Dill
Birth: 1796 Massachusetts, USA
Death: 1862
husband of Ruth T. Dill
father of Mary Elizabeth Burnet
Burial: Hillside Cemetewry, Madison, Morris County, New Jersey, USA

b)  Ruth T. Dill
Birth: 1799, Massachusetts, USA
Death: 1866, New Jersey, nUSA
wife of James Dill
mother of Mary Elizabeth Burnet
Burial: Hillside Cemetery, Madison, Morris County, New Jersey, USA

3)  Google Books (http://books.google.com/):

Biographical and Genealogical History of Morris and Sussex Counties, New Jersey, Volume 1,  Lewis Publishing company, 1899.

in the sketch on page 290 for J.D. Burnett is this paragraph:

"Samuel D. Burnett, father of our subject, also carried on agricultural pursuits and was one of the valued citizens of the community, whose interest in public affairs, manifested by active co-operation therein, led to many public improvements, notably the beautifying of the Madison cemetery.  He was a very active church worker sand a consistent member of the Presbyterian church, in which he long served as a member of the board of trustees.  He was united in marriage to Miss Mary E. Dill, a daughter of James Dill, a sea captain, and to them were born seven children, as follows: James D., Samuel F., Roland C., William I., Mary E., Ruth, who became the wife of William Linn, of Chatham, and Martha."

I found the Samuel D. Burnet family in the 1860 U.S. Census residing in Chatham, Morris County, New Jersey, with Mary E. Burnet aged 37 born in Massachusetts.  In the 1870 U.S. census, the family  resided in Chatham, Morris, New Jersey; Mary E. Burnet was age 45 born in Massachusetts.  They were also in the 1880 US Census in Chatham, with Mary E. Burnet aged 57 born in Massachusetts, and parents born in Massachusetts.  In the 1900 US Census, Mary E. Burnet was a widow residing in Chatham with two of her adult children, age 75, born September 1824 in Massachusetts, parents born in Massachusetts.

All of this indicates that James H. Dill was a sea captain born in Massachusetts, married to Ruth, with a daughter Mary Elizabeth Dill, who married Samuel D. Burnet and had seven children.

I may have missed some newspaper articles or Google matches.  More searching is required.

So far, I have no conflicting evidence that the sea captain and the man residing in Chatham, Morris, NJ with wife Ruth is the James H. Dill that married Ruth Cushing in 1819 in Boston. 

But I have no evidence at all that this is the same James H. Dill, Esquire, that bought the land of Alpheus B. Smith in 1841 in Medfield, Massachusetts, and a relative of Elizabeth H. (Dill) Smith. 

What about online family trees?  Now I have a daughter's name - perhaps a descendant has posted an online tree?

FTM2011 Source Citations in RootsMagic 4 - Mangled?

I posted some source citations created in Family Tree Maker 2011 using the source templates, as a benchmark, in an effort to understand how they translate via a GEDCOM file to other genealogy software programs that I have available. 

I imported the GEDCOM file created by FTM 2011 into RootsMagic 4 yesterday, and looked at the same source citations in RootsMagic (the "Footnote").  The results are (with some entries showing the Source Comments also because they are sometimes informative):

 Vital records index (imported from FTM2011)

State of California. California Death Index, 1940-1997. Sacramento,CA,USA: State of California Department of Health Services, Center forHealth Statistics, "California Death Index, 1940-1997", Rootsweb, California Death Index,1940-1997 (Name: accessed onhttp://vitals.rootsweb.ancestry.com/ca/death/search.cgi;), Maybelle C. Wright entry, Death Date 31 March 1964, Death place SanDiego (80), Birth date 17 May 1902, Mother's maiden name Ashdown.

The source screen for this citation is shown below:


As you can see, RootsMagic shows the Master Source Name (this shows up in the Source List), the Footnote citation, the Short Footnote citation and the Bibliography field, based on the Source information and any detail citation information.  There are buttons at the top of the box for Quality and Repository, a button for "Source Detail" More at the bottom.

The FTM 2011 sources imported into RootsMagic 4 as a "free-form" citation (see note at top right of the box).  So, any source template work in FTM 2011 does not come into RootsMagic, as I expected.
Here are the rest of them:

Vital records certificate (imported from FTM2011)

Registrar of Births, Department of Public Health, San Diego, SanDiegoCounty, California, California, San Diego County, Certificate of Registration, Register ofBirths (Name: Name: not published;;), Department of Public Health Certificate No. NC-867 (1943).

Published book (imported from FTM2011)

Blaine Whipple, Whipple, Blaine, History and Genealogy of "Elder" John Whipple ofIpswich, Massachusetts (Name: Name: Victoria, BC, Canada: Whipple Development Corporation,2003;;).

Record Commissioners of Boston, Record Commissioners of Boston, A Report of the Record Commissionersof the City of Boston Containing Dorchester Births, Marriages andDeaths to the End of 1825 (Name: Boston, Mass., Rockwell & Churchill, City Printers, 1890;)

Robert S. Wakefield (editor), Wakefield (editor), Robert S., Mayflower Families Through FiveGenerations (Name: Boston, Mass.: General Society of Mayflower Descendants, 1997;), page 6.

Periodicals (imported from FTM2011)

Caroline Martino and Marcia Lindberg, Martino, Caroline, "Henry Collins of Lynn and his Descendants" (Name: Name: The Essex Genealogist, starting Vol. 10, #3-4 (1990), Vol11,#1-3 (1991), Vol 12 #4 (1992);;)

Elizabeth French Bartlett, Bartlett, Elizabeth French, " Genealogical Research in England" (Name: Name: New England historical and Genealogical Register, Volume76,Number 2 (April 1922), pages 115-129;;)
Source comments:
Bartlett, Elizabeth French. " Genealogical Research in England:Weeden". New England Historical and Genealogical Register,. Volume76, Number 2 (April 1922): Pages 115-129.


Newspaper articles (imported from FTM2011)

San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco, California (online archive) (Name: Name: San Francisco CA (accessed on www.SFGenealogy.com);;), Frederick Schaffner Death Notice, 1 July 1899, page 10.

Census records (imported from FTM2011)

1930 U.S. Census, Population Schedule; NARA Microfilm Publication T626, San Diego County, California, San Diego city; ED 116, Sheet 5A,Dwelling #142, Family #148, Lyle L. Carringer household, Roll 192.

Probate Records (imported from FTM2011)

Massachusetts, Worcester, Worcester County [Mass.] Probate CourtRecords, Abigail Gates, 1867; Probate Packet 52,857 (viewed at Worcester CountyCourt House).

Cemetery Marker (imported from FTM2011)

Woodside Cemetery (Westminster, Massachusetts), Grave Markers, Benjamin Seaver monument.

Family papers (imported from FTM2011)

Abigail (Vaux) Smith, Della (Smith) Carringer, others, Personal Notesand Letters to Abigail (Vaux) Smith, Della (Smith) Carringer, others,Smith/Carringer Family Letter Collection, 1888-1902 (Name: Name: unpublished;;).
Source comments:
Smith/Carringer Family Letter Collection, 1888-1902. Privately heldby Randall J. Seaver, Chula Vista CA 91911.


Family Bible (imported from FTM2011)

unknown, Rebecca (Spangler) Carringer, 1828-1946, Carringer Family Births,Marriages and Deaths (loose pages) (Name: no publication information;).
Source comments:
Rebecca (Spangler) Carringer, Carringer Family Births, Marriages andDeaths (loose pages), 1828-1946. unknown title. unknown location:unknown publisher, unknown date; before 1901. Privately held byRandall J. Seaver, Chula Vista, California 91911. 1988-2011.

Loose Birth, Death and Marriage pages in hand of Rebecca (Spangler)Carringer, Della (Smith) Carringer and Lyle L. Carringer

For reference purposes, I entered information for this last citation into the RootsMagic 4 source template for "Bible Records" to see how it looked: 

Family Bible (Using RootsMagic 4 Template:)

Family data, Rebecca (Spangler) Carringer Family Bible, Carringer Family Births, Marriages and Deaths (loose pages): (1828-1946), (unknown place: unknown publisher, unknown date); original owned in 1988–2011 by Randall J. Seaver, [address for private use].

Listed below are items that I noticed resulting from the export of the FTM 2011 database into a GEDCOM file and then importing that file into the RootsMagic 4 program:

*  All of the Master Sources in RootsMagic are Free-form" format. [no surprise to me...]

*  There are often two words stuck together that should have a space between them.  This happens in the Notes also for an FTYM 2011 to RM4 GEDCOM import. [I have heard that this is because of FTM's use of the concatenate tag (CONC) rather than the Continuation (CONT) tag in the GEDCOM file.]

*  Any italicization of titles or other fields was lost. [no surprise here, GEDCOM is a pure text file without formatting]

*  The Publication fields are pretty messed up, with the word "Name" added, and sometimes the words "Name: Name:" added at the beginning of the field.  There are also semi-colons added to the end of most publication fields. [this surprised me, both program have the same fields]

*  Authors names for published books, periodicals and newspaper articles are sometimes duplicated.  FTM 2011 has separate fields for lead author surname, lead author first name, and other authors names. [not surprised due to different fields in different programs]

*  The order of source elements is different from the FTM 2011 template order, and many elements in the FTM 2011 templates are provided in Source Comments in RootsMagic 4. [not surprised, RootsMagic tries to put data into the free-form fields.]

*  The repository data is provided in the Repository field in RootsMagic 4 as opposed to in the actual Source Citation in FTM 2011 (if selected by the user). [logical to me why this happened]

I'm sure that there are more differences for each citation type. 

The purpose of this post was to show the differences, and not assign blame or make suggestions for improvement for either program.  An examination of the GEDCOM file text would indicate which GEDCOM tags are used to export the file to determine if the exporting program or the importing program create the problems.  A fair test would take template sources from RootsMagic and import them into Family Tree Maker 2011 using the same process.

However, it does demonstrate the problem that GEDCOM export/import of sources badly often mangles the sources carefully created using source templates in the original program.  The ideal situation is that every bit of information in the imported program using GEDCOM is identical in content and format to the information in the exporting program.

I'm still wondering if it is worth the time to use the source templates in any program, or just use free-form citations (created perhaps using Evidence! Explained models).

We will look at Legacy Family Tree 7 tomorrow.

RootsTech Open Interactive Discussions

I'm monitoring the FamilySearch Bloginar right now, and the big news from the RootsTech (February 10-12) conference is that there will be five open interactive discussions with moderators and interactions with the audience.  They are:

*  Thursday, the 10th, 1:00 p.m.: "Value and Use of APIs" with The Ancestry Insider

*  Thursday, the 10th, 4:15 pm.: "How should we handle sources?" with Rick Laxman

*  Friday, the 11th, 9:45 a.m.: "Exploring cemetery Solutions" with Gordon Clarke

*  Friday, the 11th, 1:00 pm.:  "How do we define a person?" with Phil Windley

*  Saturday, the 12th, 9:45 a.m.:  "Genealogical Data Standards" with The Ancestry Insider

These sound very interesting - I wish I could be there!

More to come! 

Tuesday's Tip - Check your files from time to time!

This week's Tuesday's Tip is to:  Occasionally check the records and documents that you have collected in your search for elusive ancestors.

As I explained in Alpheus Smith, Elizabeth Dill, Forrest Gump and SNGF, I had not checked the papers collected for Alpheus and Elizabeth (Dill) Smith for a long time.  I had checked my Dill paper files from time-to-time, but not the Smith files.  When I searched for the probate records of Alpheus Smith, in about 2002, in the Norfolk County [Mass.] Probate Records on FHL microfilm, I made copies of about 15 pages.  In a rare paper filing binge, I put them under the "Smith family"tab in the four-inch thick "Medfield families" binder on my bookshelf.  Frankly, I don't remember reading them carefully at the time, and I didn't abstract or transcribe them at the time. My bad!  If I had, I would have seen the "clue" that might lead me to solve my Elizabeth Horton Dill: A Very Elusive Ancestor problem eight years later.

I have about 40 linear feet of paper in my bookcases, and thousands of scanned or digitized documents in my computer, that may contain more clues to solving my elusive ancestor problems.  The answer is, of course, ORGANIZATION.  I need to organize all of those files better, and access them more frequently. 

What surprises lurk in your genealogy files just waiting to be discovered?  You won't know until you look through those files.  Do it on a regular basis!  Now I need to do as I say, eh?

Monday, January 17, 2011

James H. Dill in the Vital and Census Records

James H. Dill, the buyer at auction of the property of Alpheus B. Smith in Medfield in 1840 may have been the brother of Elizabeth Horton Dill.  There is a birth record for a James Dill in Eastham, Barnstable, Massachusetts on 20 November 1792, son of Thomas and Hannah (Horton) Dill.  I also found a marriage record in a search on the http://www.americanancestors.org/ site for a James H. Dill to Ruth T. Cushing on 11 March 1819 in Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts.  I also searched the http://www.americanancestors.org/ site for children born to a James Dill or a Ruth Dill in Massachusetts, and found no listings that fit. 

I don't know if this is the right James H. Dill or not, but it is a solid lead, so I will pursue it a bit in online historical records and family trees.

I have found that James H. Dill and his wife Ruth are fairly elusive in the United States census records.

My searches so far have used search terms on http://www.ancestry.com/ like:

*  Jam* D?ll
*  Jam* Dil*
*  Rut* D?ll
*  Rut* Dil*
*  Jas D?ll
*  J. D?ll
*  R. D?ll
*  J. Dil*
*  R. Dil*

From those searches, I have only these results that I think represents them:

1)  1820 US Census - in Boston 3rd Ward, Suffolk County, Massachusetts:

*  James Dill, aged 26-44
*  female, aged 18-25

2)  1830 US Census - not found

3)  1840 US Census = not found

4)  1850 US Census - not found

5)  1860 US Census - in Chatham, Morris, New Jersey ( Roll:  M653_704; Page:  862; Image:  397; Family History Library Film:  803704.)

*  James H. Dill, aged 62, a "gentleman," born in Mass.
*  Ruth Dill, aged 58, a "lady," born in Mass.

6)  1870 US Census - not found

7)  1880 US Census - not found

Well, that wasn't as productive as I hoped it would be!  You would think that a "gentleman" would appear in more census records.  It's not possible to tell from the limited information above if James and Ruth had any children. 

There are other James Dill persons in the census records - for instance in 1850 there are these born before 1800:

*  James Dill, born 1783, born Maine, residing in Phillips, Franklin, Maine, wife is Nancy
*  James Dill, born 1792, born NJ, residing in Winslow, Camden, NJ, wife is Ann
*  James Dill, born 1792 in NY, residing in Southfield, Richmond, NY, wife is Eliza
*  James H. Dill, born 1808 in Maine, residing in Dixmont, Penobscot, Maine, wife is Lydia

Since the James H. Dill on the probate record was a "esquire" in 1840 and the James H. Dill that married Ruth Cushing in 1819 was a "gentleman" in 1860, he may be "High Society," or at least some wealth, you know.

 What other records can I search online?  Cemetery, Military, NJ Deaths, Newspapers, what else?

Source Citations Created in Family Tree Maker 2011 - some examples

I wrote five posts last week about some of the problems I encountered while creating source citations in Family Tree Maker 2011 using the source templates.  I've created about 100 source groups using the source templates to the best of my ability.

The next step in this study is to show some of my source citations created by the FTM 2011 source templates so that I can compare them to the source templates created by other programs from a GEDCOM file of my FTM 2011 database. 

In other words, how mangled do my carefully crafted source citations get mangled when they are exported from FTM 2011 to other programs.  I must note that any differences are not solely the fault of either of the programs involved - it means that their GEDCOM export and import processes are different.

Why do this?  Well, I still have more than 500 source groups to convert from free-form sources to template sources, and I want to know if it is worth my time to convert them.  And if I do, which sources get mangled through GEDCOM to another program or to an online family tree.  Or, am I stuck with using FTM 2011 once I've used their source templates?
Here are some of my source citations created by the FTM 2011 templates:

 Vital records index

"California Death Index, 1940-1997", Rootsweb, California Death Index, 1940-1997 (http://vitals.rootsweb.ancestry.com/ca/death/search.cgi).), Maybelle C. Wright entry, Death Date 31 March 1964, Death place San Diego (80), Birth date 17 May 1902, Mother's maiden name Ashdown.

Vital records certificate

Certificate of Registration, San Diego County, California, Department of Public Health Certificate No. NC-867 (1943). "This is to Certify that Randall Jeffrey Seaver was born on October23, 1943 in the City of National City, San Diego, Calif."; Department of Public Health, San Diego County, California.

Published book

Blaine Whipple, History and Genealogy of "Elder" John Whipple of Ipswich, Massachusetts: (Victoria, B.C., Canada: Whipple Development Corporation, 2003). Carlsbad Georgina Cole Library, Carlsbad California, USA, (1250 Carlsbad Village Dr., Carlsbad, California, USA).

Record Commissioners of Boston, A Report of the Record Commissioners of the City of Boston Containing Dorchester Births, Marriages and Deaths to the End of 1825: (Boston, Mass.: Rockwell & Churchill, City Printers, 1890). New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Massachusetts.

Robert S. Wakefield (editor), Mayflower Families Through Five Generations: Volume 13: Family of William White (Boston, Mass.: General Society of Mayflower Descendants, 1997), page 6. Carlsbad Georgina Cole Library, Carlsbad California, USA, (1250 Carlsbad Village Dr., Carlsbad, California, USA).

Periodicals

Caroline Martino, Marcia Lindberg, "Henry Collins of Lynn and his Descendants", The Essex Genealogist Volume 10, #3-4; Volume 11, #1-3; Volume 12 #4 (1990-1992). New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Massachusetts.

Elizabeth French Bartlett, " Genealogical Research in England: Weeden", New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Volume 76, Number 2 (April 1922): Pages 115-129. New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Massachusetts.

Newspaper articles

Frederick Schaffner Death Notice, 1 July 1899, page 10, San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco, California, online images (http://www.sfgenealogy.com/).
Census records


1930 U.S. census, population schedule, NARA microfilm publication T626, San Diego County, California, San Diego city; ED 116, Sheet 5A, Dwelling #142, Family #148, Lyle L. Carringer household, Roll 192; digital image, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com).
 
Probate Records
Worcester, Massachusetts, Worcester County [Mass.] Probate Court Records, Abigail Gates, 1867; Probate Packet 52,857 (viewed at Worcester County Court House); Worcester County Courthouse, Worcester, Massachusetts.

Cemetery marker

Woodside Cemetery (Westminster, Massachusetts), Benjamin Seaver monument.

Family papers

Abigail (Vaux) Smith, Della (Smith) Carringer, others, to Abigail (Vaux) Smith, Della (Smith) Carringer, others, Personal Notes and Letters , Smith/Carringer Family Letter Collection, 1888-1902; privately held by Randall J. Seaver, Chula Vista CA 91911.

Family Bible

Rebecca (Spangler) Carringer, 1828-1946, Carringer Family Births, Marriages and Deaths (loose pages), unknown title (unknown location: unknown publisher, unknown date; before 1901); privately held by Randall J. Seaver, Chula Vista, California 91911, 1988-2011.

Note that some of the selected source citations above have source details and comments in them. 

I made the FTM 2011 GEDCOM export file after creating those citations, and will import the GEDCOM file to RootsMagic 4, Legacy Family Tree 7, and Family Tree Maker 16.