Saturday, May 14, 2011

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - A day without blogging

...
Hey genea-philes - it's Saturday Night - time for lots more Genealogy Fun!!

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to:

1)  We all know that Blogger (www.blogspot.com) was down for 20 hours from Thursday afternoon to Friday morning.  What did you do with yourself during that time period?

2)  If we lost our blogging platforms for awhile (but not the Internet as a whole), what would you do with your genealogy time?  What projects would you start, continue working on, or try to finish instead of blogging?

3)  Tell us in a blog post of your own, in a comment on this post, or in a status thread on Facebook.

Here's mine:

1)  I summarized my dead-blogging activities in the post Blogger withdrawal.

2)  I have many semi-neglected projects that I would try to work on (but doubt if I can complete), including:

*  Getting all of my paper files into Surname Notebooks, including photographs and documents.

*  Reorganizing my computer files to get all digital information into Surname and Family file folders.  This includes consistent labelling of photographs and document images.

*  Going through the digital file folders and Surname Notebooks to get all useful information into the family tree database with source citations.

*  Edit the Notes in my family tree database to summarize and source the available information so that they are nearly book-ready, do not violate copyright protections, and properly attribute information.

*  Create a new Randy Seaver's Genealogy web page with long, boring reports of my research data, my transcribed document collection (wills, pension files, etc.) with images, genealogy presentation handouts, and my genealogy toolbox collection. 

*  Write family history books for my own ancestry (ulti-volume), my wife's ancestry, descendants of Robert Seaver, Martin Carringer, and several others.  Also, a book of the Best of Genea-Musings.

*  Reorganize my bookcases and file cabinets to get the boxes of paper off the floor, do something with 20 years of periodicals now on the top of my bookcases, etc.  I think I need a bigger genea-cave, however! 

I have the plans, I just need several more lifetimes to make it happen!  Giving up blogging would make it happen faster, I think, but would make life less exciting and fun for me.  I love to blog! 

Surname Saturday - NACHBAR (Germany to New Jersey)

It's Surname Saturday, and I'm "counting down" my Ancestral Name List each week. I am up to number 227,  who is Anna Martha NACHBAR (1724-????), another of my 5th-great-grandmothers. [Note: The 5th great-grandfathers have been covered in earlier posts].

My ancestral line back to Anna Martha Nachbar is:


1.  Randall Jeffrey Seaver (1943-....)

2.  Frederick Walton Seaver (1911-1983)

3.  Betty Virginia Carringer (1919-2002)
 
6.  Lyle Lawrence Carringer (1891-1976)
7.  Emily Kemp Auble (1899-1977)

14.  Charles Auble (1849-1916)
15.  Georgianna Kemp (1868-1952)

28.  Daniel Auble (1817-1894)
29.  Sarah Knapp (1818-ca1900)

56.  Johannes Able (1780-????)
57.  Anna Row (1787-1863)

112.  Johannes Able (1758-1818)
113.  Sophia Trimmer (1747-1811) 


226.  Matthias Trimmer, born 1722 in Germany; died before 10 March 1793 in Readington, Hunterdon, New Jersey, United States.  He was the son of 452. Johannes Trimmer and 453. Mary.  He married  1742 in New Jersey, United States.
 227.  Anna Martha Nachbar, born about 1724 in Germany.  


Children of Matthias Trimmer and Anna Nachbar are:


  i. Mary Anna Trimmer, born 1743 in Hunterdon, New Jersey, United States; died 05 January 1826 in New Jersey, United States; married George Stephen Dufford 25 June 1767 in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States; born 1741; died 23 January 1817 in New Jersey, United States.
  ii. John Trimmer, born about 1745 in Hunterdon, New Jersey, United States; married (1) Catherine Roelofson; born 20 February 1745/46 in Middlesex, New Jersey, United States, died 26 May 1785 in Morris, New Jersey, United States; married (2) Ann Catherine Sharp 27 October 1785 in Oldwick, Hunterdon, New Jersey, United States; born 01 January 1769 in New Jersey, United States.
  iii. Matthias Trimmer, born about 1746 in Hunterdon, New Jersey, United States.
 iv. Sophia Trimmer, born 1747 in Hunterdon, New Jersey, United States; died before 1811 in Sussex, New Jersey, United States; married Johannes Able 30 January 1777 in Oldwick, Hunterdon, New Jersey, United States.
  v. Elizabeth Trimmer, born 1750 in Hunterdon, New Jersey, United States; married Snook.
  vi. Leonard Erhart Trimmer, born 20 December 1752 in Hunterdon, New Jersey, United States; died 1777 in Hunterdon, New Jersey, United States; married Anna Mary Kern; born 20 December 1752 in German Valley, Morris, New Jersey, United States; died 25 July 1787 in Morris, New Jersey, United States.
  vii. Jacob Trimmer, born 1757 in Hunterdon, New Jersey, United States; married Anna Mary Kern; born 20 December 1752 in German Valley, Morris, New Jersey, United States; died 25 July 1787 in Morris, New Jersey, United States.
  viii. David Morris Trimmer, born 1759 in Hunterdon, New Jersey, United States; died 01 March 1824 in New Jersey, United States; married Margaret A. Pickel 13 June 1778 in Morris, New Jersey, United States; born 1758; died 25 December 1827 in New Jersey, United States.


454.  Johann Leonhard Nachbar, born 24 March 1699/00 in Hinzweiler, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany; died 26 August 1766 in German Valley, Morris, New Jersey, United States.  He was the son of 908. Thomas Nachbar and 909. Elisabetha Margaretha.  He married before 1724 in Germany.
455.  Maria Margaretha, born about 1698 in Germany; died 17 November 1770 in German Valley, Morris, New Jersey, United States.

Children of Johann Nachbar and Maria Margaretha are:


i. Anna Martha Nachbar, born about 1724 in Germany; died in  ; married Matthias Trimmer 1742 in New Jersey, United States.
ii. Anna Margaretha Neighbor, born about 1727 in Germany; married Henrich Schenckel.
iii. Maria Elisabetha Neighbor, born about 1730 in Germany; married Johann Wilhelm Welsch.
iv. Leonhard Nachbar, born 02 May 1741 in Morris, New Jersey, United States; died 11 April 1806 in German Valley, Morris, New Jersey, United States; married Louisa Elisabeth; born about 1744 in New Jersey, United States; died 05 February 1807 in German Valley, Morris, New Jersey, United States.


The above information is from two sources:

1)  Theodore Frelinghuysen Chambers, The Early Germans of New Jersey: their history, churches, and genealogies (Baltimore, Md.: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1982)

2)  Henry Z. Jones, More Palatine Families: some immigrants to the middle colonies 1717-1776 and their European origins, plus new discoveries on German families who arrived in Colonial New York in 1710  (Universal City, Calif. : H.Z. Jones, 1991)

Friday, May 13, 2011

What is Ancestry.com's Web Search?

Ancestry.com announced the launch of Web Search today - see http://www.ancestry.com/websearch for more details about the service.  Ancestry.com says that the guiding principles of Web Search are:
  • Free access to Web Records – Users do not have to subscribe or even register with Ancestry.com to view these records
  • Proper attribution of Web Records to content publishers
  • Easy access to Web Records – Prominent links in search results and the record page make it easy to get to the source website
My first impressions of Web Search are:

1)  Collections on Ancestry.com will carry a "Web:" designation on the Card Catalog list and in any search results.

2)  The indexes to the "Web" collections are FREE on Ancestry.com.  To see the data, you will have to click on a link to go to the hosting web page with the specific information. 

3)  There are only three databases (as of 2 p.m. on 13 May 2011) with the "Web:" designation.  They are:

** Web: Marion County, Indiana Marriages since 1925
** Web: Allen County, Indiana Deaths 1870-1920
**  Web: Rootsweb Obituary Index

4)    At present, there is no "special" page with all of the "Web:" collections listed - they will appear in the general search results.  I would love to see a special page on Ancestry listing all of the freely available index and image collections, whether "Web:" or not. 

Readers should note that the actual record collections are not stored on Ancestry.com servers - they are on the web pages controlled by the owners of the database.  They have not been "stolen" and hidden behind the Ancestry subscription firewall - they are freely available to anyone searching through Ancestry, Google, or other search engines.  They have been indexed by Ancestry.com and the indexes provide links to the original databases found by anyone who searches on Ancestry.com, whether a subscriber, a registered user, or a non-registered user.  What Ancestry.com has done is very similar to what Google and other search engines (Yahoo, Bing, Mocavo, etc.) have done to index key words to make online searches easier.  You can read the discussion about these issues on the Ancestry Content Publishers Feedback message board here.  Brian Edwards and Andy Hatchett did a good job of debating these issues on that board.

I greatly appreciate Ancestry.com's efforts to provide free access to non-Ancestry.com databases and web pages.  It's part of their effort to provide as much information as possible to their customers.  My opinion is that this enhances the value of an Ancestry.com subscription while adding value to the content providers  through links to the source providers.  I hope that they add many more freely available online databases and indexes. 

What other freely available record collections would you like to see indexed by Ancestry.com and provided free of charge to Ancestry searchers?  The USGenWeb Archives come to mind, as do free databases and web pages at http://www.rootsweb.com/, http://www.genealogy.com/ and http://www.familytreemaker.com/.  I would love to have my blog included in the search because I post quite a bit about my research results. 

Family Tree Maker 2012 News

In his post Ancestry.com's Preview of Coming Attractions on the Eastman's Online Genealogy Blog, Dick Eastman summarized the highlights from the evening event sponsored by Ancestry.com at the National Genealogical Society Conference in Charleston, SC.

The most meaningful news I saw on his list was this:

"Family Tree Maker 2012 will sync both ways (includes today's one-way push or your data on your local computer to Ancestry.com and will also add the capability to download from Ancestry.com to your computer, although not including the shoebox

"If your data is stored in Ancestry.com, you will be able to access your data from Family Tree Maker 2012 or from the iPhone/iPad app or (soon) the Android app, wherever you are, at home, at a conference, at the library, while riding the commuter train, or most anyplace else."

The "magic word" here is "sync" -- meaning "synchronize" -- meaning ( believe) that if I change something on Ancestry.com, then the change will show up in the Family Tree Maker 2012 database that is "synchronized" with the Ancestry.com family tree.  And vice versa - if I change something in FTM 2012 it will show up in the Ancestry.com Member Tree.

That is a significant advance for Ancestry.com (several other websites claim to do this already).  And to a smart phone app too! 

This means that, theoretically, I could go to the Family History Center and abstract or transcribe information from a book or microfilm right into my computer or smart phone, and it would appear on my Ancestry.com Member Tree forthwith.  Or if I transferred a microfilm image to my flash drive, then put the flash drive into my computer and added the image to my FTM 2012 datafile, that it would appear on my Ancestry.com Member Tree.  I could even do all of that while working in my Ancestry.com Member Tree at the library or FHC, or cemetery, or a courthouse, etc. (as long as I had a wireless or direct Internet connection) and the information would appear in my FTM 2012 database on my computer(s) and smart phone if and when they are connected to the Internet.

What about images of photographs and documents that I've attached to my Ancestry.com Member Tree?  Will those download to the FTM 2012 software and be stored on my computer systems?  Will images that I've attached to persons and events in my FTM 2012 database upload to Ancestry.com through this synchronization process?  The announcement implies that they will.  Presently, attached images - not links to images - are uploaded and downloaded directly from an Ancestry Member Tree to a Family Tree Maker 2011 database, although a new Member Tree or FTM 2011 database are created.

This sounds really cool, but is it what I really want to be able to do?  I like the idea that the Tree is in the "cloud" and not solely on my hardware and software.  I like the idea that my online tree and my software tree is synchronized.  I definitely don't like being tied down to using Family Tree Maker 2012 to work in as my preferred software at this time. 

 The implication is that they've found a way to UPDATE the Ancestry Member Tree and the FTM 2012 database rather than CREATE a new file on the second system.  Is that correct?  Am I reading too much into Dick's use of the word "sync?" Did others at the Ancestry.com meeting get this impression and understanding of this issue?  Perhaps some Ancestry.com and FTM 2012 developers will chime in and give us the straight scoop.

Blogger withdrawal

Does Blogger know what they've done to many of us?  Their system for writing blog posts went down on Thursday afternoon and just came back up in the last 30 minutes.  Whew.  However, being able to read blog posts was not affected (except for Thursdays posts...).  The Google Reader was pretty sparse this morning!

I was suffering withdrawal pains here.  I had to spend my genealogy time (pretty much 8 to 10 hours a day...) having lots of genealogy fun doing:

*  Writing snarky or inane Twitter posts and Facebook comments, many of them attempts at humor. [Note, the best, I thought, was the suggestion that the SCGS Jamboree make "rabbit ears" like Princess Beatrice's wedding chapeau with "I like SCGS" in the circle.]  OK, i complained about Blogger too - couldn't help it.

*   Add content to the database.  I lucked out and received an email yesterday from a Calaveras County researcher (thank you Lori!!!!) who sent information about some of the Whittle family. 

*  Finish up the 1900 U.S. Census source citations - I had over 200 citations that needed "standardizing" to near EE quality.

*  Add source citations to various facts in my database, starting with items in my "to be added" paper stack.  My "to be filed" stack is getting taller!  If I can burn my paper stacks down, then I will have more room for surname notebooks in the bookcases.

*  Created a new GEDCOM file of my RootsMagic database, and imported it into Family Tree Maker 2011 and Legacy Family Tree 7.  I like to have a relatively up-to-date database in all of my programs.  I will soon upload the FTM database to Ancestry, hopefully taking all of my free-form sources with it.

*  Checked out the new Ancestry.com databases, and noted three Web databases in the list.  I will write something soon about WebSearch!

*  Checked out the new FamilySearch Historical Collections (up to 624 today!) to see if there was a database to be mined and data entered into the database. 

*  Did more searching in the New FamilySearch Family Tree for elusive ancestors.  Did not upload any more persons to the FSFT though. 

*  Started outlining my "New England Research" presentation for CVGS on 4 June 2011 at Bonita-Sunnyside Library.

See, there are things I can do besides write blog posts and try to find esoteric problems in genealogy software programs! 

Thursday, May 12, 2011

The New FamilySearch Family Tree - Post 1: I Have Access

I've written about the promises and projections made for the New FamilySearch Family Tree (an online interlinked family tree) in:

*  FamilySearch Blogger Day - FamilySearch Family Tree (25 October 2011)
FamilySearch Family Tree Update (21 January 2011)
More on the FamilySearch Family Tree Update (23 January 2011)

Since I am not an LDS Church member, I have not been able to observe or participate in this family tree database, and have been very curious about it.  I submitted an evaluation participation survey after the RootsTech announcement that the New FamilySearch Family Tree would be opened to selected non-LDS church members, and was invited to participate on Monday, 9 May.  I have taken advantage of that opportunity, and will be sharing my experiences, observations, criticisms, and suggestions here on Genea-Musings.  Access to the New FamilySearch Family Tree requires a registration on FamilySearch.org, and an invitation from FamilySearch.org to participate at this time.

To prepare for this adventure, I have checked out the following online resources:

*  FamilySearch has a report "A User's Guide to the New FamilySearch Website (February 2011)"

*  Family Search has a number of Videos about adding, editing, correcting and matching data in the Family Tree - see:

**   Getting Started in Your Family Tree
**  Navigating and Viewing the Pedigree
**  Combining and Separating Records
**  Displaying Correct Information   
**  Adding Missing Individuals

*  James Tanner has written extensively about New FamilySearch Family Tree on the excellent Genealogy's Star blog, including:

**  A current assessment of New FamilySearch (28 April 2011)
**  When is a source not a source? In New FamilySearch? (21 April 2011)
**  New FamilySearch goes public? (28 February 2011)
**  Sorting out the genealogical chaff (17 August 2010)
**  Probably many more that I didn't find in my search on his blog.

*  The Ancestry Insider has written quite a bit about New FamilySearch Family Tree sources in the excellent The Ancestry Insider blog (which could be renamed The FamilySearch Insider blog), including:

*  See the FamilySearch Tree archive of posts.

When I did a Google search for "new familysearch blog," I was surprised by the dearth of blog posts by geneabloggers on using New FamilySearch.  I wondered if there was some sort of non-disclosure agreement that prevented geneabloggers from showing screens, discussing features and problems, or whatever.  James assured me that there was no agreement that he knew of.  Other than James Tanner and The Ancestry Insider, very few geneabloggers with access to the New FamilySearch Family Tree have written much about the system, other than posting FamilySearch announcements. 

Over the past four days, I've explored the New FamilySearch Family Tree a bit, and observed many of the problems that James has written about in significant detail.  I searched for some of my ancestors back five or more generations, and see some of the duplicate person and duplicate assertion problems.  I'll point out some of them in future posts as examples, and discuss the options for how to deal with them. 

I entered my parents into the New FamilySearch Family Tree system to see how easy it was to enter information about persons online.  I entered only names, birth, marriage and death information, with sources for each.  It wasn't very easy.  For one person it took me ten minutes or more.  I did not try to add children to the family.

I knew that there was another way to access the New FamilySearch Family Tree and to add information to it - through desktop genealogy software like RootsMagic 4 and Legacy Family Tree 7.5 (there are other programs that do this also).  I watched several FREE webinars to help me understand this process, including:

FamilySearch Made Easy with Michael Booth and Bruce Buzbee of RootsMagic (link to watch on http://www.rootsmagic.com/Webinars/).

New FamilySearch Made Easy with Legacy Family Tree, with Geoff Rasmussen of Legacy Family Tree (link to watch on http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/Webinars.asp)

Improving Your Use of New FamilySearch: Data Cleanup Strategies, with Geoff Rasmussen of Legacy Family Tree (link to watch on http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/Webinars.asp)

I've been using RootsMagic 4 to add and edit my genealogy data, so I experimented with it the last two nights and have managed to add about 60 more individuals to the New FamilySearch Family Tree.  It's very easy to do, but takes some time to add a person and their data (one to two minutes), but there are some limitations and pitfalls.

We'll look at using RootsMagic 4 to add family data in future posts, and also look at how things appear in the New FamilySearch Family Tree.
Note:  This was originally written on Thursday, 12 May just before the Blogger meltdown.  It hasn't come back yet, so I retrieved it from Google Reader.  Now to archive all blog posts somehow!

NGS Conference Posts Compendium

I'm enjoying reading all of the highlight posts from the National Genealogical Society conference in Charleston, South Carolina this week.  There are a number of genea-bloggers in attendance, so I thought that I would try to capture their blog posts in a compendium so that readers can vicariously attend the conference with them:

1)  Genealogy by Ginger Blog (Ginger R. Smith)

NGS Charleston, S. C. Here We Are! (10 May 2011)
NGS – Day 1 – David Ferriero, Archivist of the United States (10 May 2011)
Write Your Family History as a Snapshot, not a Family Portrait - Buzzy Jackson (11 May 2011)
NGS Conference - First Round of Classes (13 May 2011)
NGS – Last Day and Return Trip Home (15 May 2011)
More NGS Conference Fun (Day 2)  (16 May 2011)
Lessons Learned at the NGS Conference  (18 May 2011)

2)  Le Maison Duchamp (by Kim von Aspern-Parker):

NGS Conference in Charleston, South Carolina (11 May 2011)
Transition (16 May 2011)

3)  Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter (Dick Eastman)

NGS Conference in Charleston - Day Zero (10 May 2011)
Cloud Computing and Genealogical Collaboration: How Technology Can Help Us Work Together (11 May 2011)
NGS Conference in Charleston - Day #1 (11 May 2011)
Free Wi-Fi at the NGS Conference in Charleston, SC (12 May 2011)
NGS Conference in Charleston - Day #2 (12 May 2011)
Ancestry.com's Preview of Coming Attractions (12 May 2011)
EOGN Dinner Held on Saturday Evening after the NGS Conference (17 May 2011)
NGS 2011 Conference Wrap-up (17 May 2011)
Are You In? Citizen Archivists, Crowdsourcing, and Open Government (19 May 2011)

4)  Climbing My Family Tree (Jenn)

A Peek at Charleston  (11 May 2011) [don't miss this one for the beautiful pictures!]
Bloggers’ Dinner with FamilySearch (11 May 2011)
NGS 2011 Charleston – Day One (11 May 2011)
Charleston NGS 2011: Day 2 (12 May 2011)
NGS 2011 in Charleston: Days 3 and 4 (14 May 2011)
My Daughter’s View of the NGS 2011 Conference in Charleston (15 May 2011)

5)  Documenting the Details (Linda McCauley)

NGS 2011 - Pre-Conference  (9 May 2011)
NGS 2011 - Day 1, Part 1 (11 May 2011)
NGS 2011 - Day 1, Part 2 (14 May 2011)
NGS 2011 - Day 2 (14 May 2011)
NGS 2011 - Day 3 (17 May 2011)
NGS 2011 - Day 4 (17 May 2011)
NGS 2011 - Conflicting Social Media Policy (19 May 2011)
Fort Sumter National Monument (20 May 2011)
NGS 2011 - Wrap Up (21 May 2011)

6)  Greta's Genealogy Bog (Greta Koehl)

In Charleston (10 May 2011)
Day One at NGS Charleston (11 May 2011)
Day Two at NGS Charleston (13 May 2011)
Day Three at NGS Charleston (13 May 2011)
Day Four at NGS Charleston (14 May 2011)
Conference Swag (21 May 2011)

7)  Have You Seen My Roots? (Cheryl Cayemberg)

Amanuensis Monday - After Fort Sumter (9 May 2011)
*  The Transformation of NARA (11 May 2011)
NGS and My Darned Day Job (11 May 2011)
12)  DearMYRTLE's Genealogy Blog (DearMYRTLE)
 
 
13)  The Genealogy Insider (Diane Haddad)
 

14) Geni blog (Grant Brunner)

Geni At NGS 2011 (12 May 2011)
* NGS 2011 with Dear Myrtle and Gordon Clarke (13 May 2011)
NGS 2011 Recap (16 May 2011)

15)  Threading needles in a haystack: the genealogy journey (Mary Ellen)

Getting to know Charleston, South Carolina and some little known southern roots ahead of the national genealogy conference (10 May 2011)
All good things must come to an end... (14 May 2011)
National Genealogical Society family history conference Charleston 2011: an overview of a first-timer's experience (16 May 2011)

16)  Genealogy Journey (Robin Foster)

A sweet meet at #NGS2011 (13 May 2011)
Helping at Charleston SC Family History Center during #NGS2011 (13 May 2011)
*  Meet up with twin, @LCAfricana, at #NGS2011  (14 May 2011)
Mr. SavingStories goes to #NGS2011 (14 May 2011)
Meeting African American genealogist, Bernice Bennett at #NGS2011 (15 May 2011)

17) My Tapley Tree ... and its Branches (Liz Tapley-Matthews)

NGS 2011 Conference: Travel Day (10 May 2011)
NGS 2011 Conference: Day 1 (13 May 2011)
NGS 2011 Conference: Days 2 and 3 (13 May 2011)
NGS 2011 Conference: 4th and Final Day (14 May 2011)
Photos from NGS and Charleston (16 May 2011)

18)  My Heritage Blog (Tara)

National Genealogical Society 2011 Family History Conference: Coverage Roundup (16 May 2011)

19)  GenealogyMedia.com   (Jordan Jones)

NGS 2011 Conference in Charleston, South Carolina (16 May 2011)

20)  Keeping the Story Alive (J. Mark Lowe)

Charleston SC backdrop for National Genealogical Society - pt 1 (18 May 2011)

21)  GenealogyAndFamilyHistory.com (Carolyn Barkley)

Highlights from the National Genealogical Society Family History Conference (20 May 2011)

Archives.com blog

Live From Charleston! Archives at NGS 2011 (10 May 2011)
Archives to Award Special NGS Grant (11 May 2011)
Anne Roach Joins the Archives.com Team! (12 May 2011)
Archives Grant Award Announced At NGS 2011 (16 May 2011)

The NGS page on Facebook has photographs of speakers and events here.

You can read all of the Twitter entries by searching for NGS2011 (the hashtag was #NGS2011, but not everyone used it).

I know that there are several other geneabloggers in Charleston - please let me know if I've missed your blog and your posts (email at rjseaver@cox.net, or comment on this post).

I will try to update this post over the next few days.

Last updated: 2 p.m., 21 May 2011.

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Dear Randy: How should I transfer my FTM 2011 database to RootsMagic?

NOTE:  This is another post lost during the Blogger blackout for some reason.  It was originally posted on Wednesday, 11 May.

In a comment to my post  Source Citation Merging in RootsMagic 4 - Uh Oh!, reader Jann asked:

"Randy, Janet Hovorka gave us your name and website on the Webinar this morning for Sourcing/Citations. She is a big fan of yours. Thank you for your research. I am changing from FTM 2011 to RM4 before the Jamboree this year. I have a lot of data that is not to the correct form --as yet. I want the right program for me and I feel its RM4. I have a question. Should I transfer my tree through a Gedcom or directly from FTM to RM4?"

Dear Jann,

Thank you for your question, and your kind comments (and Janet's too!).  The answer to your question is pretty simple - you cannot directly import an FTM 2011 file into RootsMagic 4.  Therefore, it will have to be transferred through a GEDCOM file.

Be aware, though, that there are at least two significant problems with transferring a GEDCOM 5.5 file created by FTM 2011:

1)  The "Notes" section will have words run together in every line.  This is because FTM 2011 does not use the CONCatenenate and CONTinue GEDCOM tags correctly.  For example, here is the first paragraph of my notes for Isaac Seaver in FTM 2011:

"Isaac Seaver was called Isaac Seaver 3rd throughout his lifetime because there were two other Isaac Seaver's in Westminster while he was a youth, including his uncle and step-father, Isaac Seaver 2nd, the second husband of his mother, Abigail (Gates) (Seaver) Seaver."

Here is the same paragraph imported via GEDCOM into RootsMagic 4:

"Isaac Seaver was called Isaac Seaver 3rd throughout his lifetimebecause there were two other Isaac Seaver's in Westminster while hewas a youth, including his uncle and step-father, Isaac Seaver 2nd,the second husband of his mother, Abigail (Gates) (Seaver) Seaver."

Note the spaces that are missing in three spots?  All Notes will feature this problem.


2)  Extra characters and words are added to source citations.  Here is a "Reference Note" source citation created in FTM 2011:

Systematic History Fund, Vital Records of Westminster, Massachusetts, to the End of the Year 1849 (Worcester, Mass.: F.P. Rice, 1908), New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Massachusetts, Page 83.

When the FTM 2011 file is imported into RootsMagic 4 through GEDCOM, the "Footnote" is:

Systematic History Fund, Vital Records of Westminster, Massachusetts, to the End of the Year1849 (Name: Worcester, Mass.: F.P. Rice, 1908;), Page 83.

Note the lack of a space between "Year" and "1849," the added "Name:" term in the publication information, and the extraneous semi-colon after "1908."  The repository is in the FTM 2011 citation, but not in the RootsMagic 4 citation (although it is in the "Repository" section in the RootsMagic Source Citation template. 

I showed during the Seaver Source Citation Saga that these problems are caused by Family Tree Maker 2011 when creating GEDCOM files - see Peeking at Family Tree Maker 2011 Source Citations in the GEDCOM File - Post 1, and the extraneous source citations problems even occur when uploading the FTM 2011 file (with "Free-form sources") directly to Ancestry.com - see FTM 2011 Citations Uploaded Directly to Ancestry.com.  Note that the "Template sources" in FTM 2011 translate to Ancestry.com correctly, but the "Free-form sources" do not. 

One potential way to avoid the source problem is to create "Template sources" in FTM 2011, transfer them to an Ancestry.com Member Tree, and download the Ancestry.com tree via a GEDCOM file into RootsMagic through fine into RootsMagic 4.

If you have Notes and Source citations in your Family Tree Maker 2011 file, then they will be mangled a bit any time you transfer a GEDCOM file from FTM 2011 to RootsMagic 4.

That was probably "Too much information" for Jann, but it's an enduring problem with Family Tree Maker 2011 that should be quickly corrected (if not sooner!!) by Ancestry.com.  

I've had private emails wondering if Ancestry.com has sabotaged the FTM 2011 GEDCOM files for business reasons - so that users have to use FTM rather than buy a new program.  I don't believe that, since the problems have existed for years (at least since FTM Version 16, and probably from FTM Version 5) and nothing has been done about it.

SDGS Meeting on Saturday, 14 May - Connie Moretti Presents

...
The May program meeting of the San Diego Genealogical Society is this Saturday, 14 May, at 10 a.m. at St. Andrew's Lutheran Church (8350 Lake Murray Blvd., at Jackson Drive). 

The program speaker for both sessions is Connie Walton Moretti.  Her presentations will be on:

*  Lineage Societies

*  DAR Online Resources

The presentation summaries:

Have you ever pondered how much research it might take to prove an ancestor served in the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, or arrived on the Mayflower?  Are you afraid that it might be too much research or that you're in over your head?  Speaker Connie Moretti will discuss the reasons for joining a lineage society and review the many types of such organizations.  Information and tips on completing the applications will also be discussed.

The Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) have made many of their unique resources available to the public at their website.  Each type of resource will be discussed as well as how to coordinate some of them with the Family History Library Catalog.

Representatives from a variety of lineage societies have been invited to be present.  Come as early as 9:30 a.m. before the meeting starts to speak with them individually, or see them during the refreshment break.

Connie Moretti is a retired educator active in lineage and genealogy societies and co-author of Stepping Stones to Genealogy and On the Road (a guide to Southern Los Angeles County genealogy libraries).

(Not So) Wordless Wednesday - Post 152: the Carringer House in 1957

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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 photograph was taken of the Carringer home at 825 Harbor View Place in San Diego in November 1957, six years after the house was built on a small vee-shaped piece of land at the intersection of Harbor View Place and Armada Terrace.

Compare this view with last week's photograph taken from essentially the same location in 1951.  The vegetation on the hillside has grown to hide the bare slopes and the trees on the patio are now providing some shade.  The telephone pole on the corner is gone...apparently, the city undergrounded the utilities before 1957.

My grandmother, Emily (Auble) Carringer, had a wonderful green thumb - she loved flowers, plants, shrubs and trees, and planted them everywhere on the property. 

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Genealogical Meeting and Conference Dynamics

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DearMYRTLE posted 90 minute institute and conference sessions yesterday, with a link to Rethinking how we 'conference' How to design a conference with the brain in mind, p
























Tuesday's Tip - Find County Boundary Changes in "Atlas of Historical County Boundaries"

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This week's Tuesday Tip is to:  Find U.S. county boundary changes in the Newberry Library's "Atlas of Historical County Boundaries."

Knowing which county a family resided in at a specific point in time is important for all researchers because the County government is usually the repository with land, tax, vital and probate records - all record types that help us define the life events and history of a person and family.  Life events were usually recorded in the county with jurisdiction over a location at the time of the event.

The Newberry Library's "Atlas of Historical County Boundaries" provides this information for researchers.  The web site describes this project as:

"The Atlas presents in maps and text complete data about the creation and all subsequent changes (dated to the day) in the size, shape, and location of every county in the fifty United States and the District of Columbia. It also includes non-county areas, unsuccessful authorizations for new counties, changes in county names and organization, and the temporary attachments of non-county areas and unorganized counties to fully functioning counties. The principal sources for these data are the most authoritative available: the session laws of the colonies, territories, and states that created and changed the counties."

There are directions for using the atlas here.  I wrote a fairly extensive article about it in Exploring Newberry's Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.  The system is not easy to use, but it is useful once you learn how to manipulate the different features.

Monday, May 9, 2011

The Family of Martha (Davis) Seaver (1793-1868)

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On 15 March, I posted "A Horrid Murder" in Alexandria.  The newspaper article about his murder on 6 July 1821 was lurid, but what happened after that?  On 17 March, I wrote William Seaver's Murder in 1821 - a Reward Offered - by the President of the United States, and three mayors.  The William Seaver's Murder in 1821 - A Jailhouse Confession post on 18 March seemed to solve the case.  William Seaver's Murder in 1821 - Was it Ever Solved? posted on 21 March was an article from 1874 claiming that the murder was a "cold case," but mentioned a confession to a murder printed in the Alexandria Gazette newspaper in 1866.  William Seaver's Murder in 1821 - the 1866 Confession, posted on 30 March, provided the first part of the 1866 Confession of John Trust from the Alexandria Gazette newspaper, and Part 2 on 31 March provided more detail of the murder from the confession. 

In Clues for the Ancestry of murder victim, William Seaver, I summarized the information I have for William Seaver's ancestry.  It wasn't much, but seemed to point to him being the son of Ebenezer and Sarah (Coolidge) Seaver, born in 1782 in Roxbury, Massachusetts, who married Martha Davis in 1809.  Some Records for the William Seaver Family Members described some records found in online census and city directories for the widow and children.  In Is this William R. Seaver, son of the murdered William Seaver? I thought that I had found the son of William and Martha (Davis) Seaver.  Last week, I found a book by Gilbert A. Davis in the BYU Family History Archive that shed more light on this family - see More Information on the Family of William Seaver (1783-1821).

One of the unknowns when we started this investigation was the origins of Martha Davis, who married William Seaver.  The book:

Gilbert A. Davis, History of Reading, Windsor County, Vermont, Volume II, Windsor, Vermont, by the author, 1903. 
sheds some light on her parents and siblings, and nieces and nephews.  Here is what I've learned:

Stephen Davis was born 20 March 1765, the son of Jacob Davis (1742-1809) and Dorothy Baker.  Stephen married 1 July 1787 Martha Tileston of Dorchester, Mass., daughter of Nathaniel Tileston; she died 14 November 1825.  Stephen Davis was a leather dresser, and had his place of business on what is now Washington Street in Roxbury, Mass.  Neither Stephen Davis nor his wife was a church member, but they attended the Congregational church, of which Rev. Dr. Porter was pastor.  He was one of the founders of Washington Lodge, F. & A. Masons, instituted at Roxbury, 14 March 1796, and was for many years Master of this lodge.  He was commissioned Adjutant of the Battalion of Artillery in the 1st Regiment, 1st Division of Massachusetts Militia, by Moses Gill, Lieutenant Governor and Commander-in-Chief.   His commission bears date 12 June 1799, "to take rank from 27 April 1799, when elected."  He held the position until 1 March 1804, when, on resignation, he was honorably discharged.  He was a tall slim man, light complection, and of moderate circumstances as to property.  He died 22 March 1821, at age 56 years, of pulmonary consumption, and is buried in the old cemetery at Roxbury.

The children of Stephen and Martha (Tileston) Davis were (all born in Roxbury, Mass.):

i.  Stephen Davis, born 22 December 1787, died in Portland, Maine;  he married a Blanchard in Portland, and had a daughter.  He was a circus rider.

ii.  Asa Davis, born 22 August, 1789, married 12 October 1815 Mary Hosmer at Chester, Vermont.  He died 13 January 1873 in Reading, Vermont.  They had children Charles L. Davis (1833-????); Gilbert A. Davis (1835-????).

iii.  Artemas Davis, born 26 October 1791, married Sarah Gardner Tuck on 8 March 1822, and resided on the island of Nantucket, Mass.  They had children Sarah Elizabeth (1822-1826); Mary Susan Davis (1824-1829); Samuel Stephen Davis (1835-????), married Avis Swift.

iv.  Martha Davis, born 1 March 1893, married William Seaver of Roxbury (see More Information on the Family of William Seaver (1783-1821).

v.  Ebenezer Davis, born 11 June 1794, died 5 June 1810.

vi.  Jacob Davis, born 13 March 1796, died 7 September 1832 in Charleston, S.C.  He married, and had children Jacob Davis, Mary Davis, and others.

vii.  Cecilia Davis, born 22 Devcember 1798, married Stephen A. Dix, and they had children Stephen A. Dix, Sarah Anna Dix, and Francis Henry Dix.

viii. Nathaniel Tileston Davis, born 11 October 1802.  He went to sea in 1820 on the ship "Independence," and was working in the store of William Seaver in Washington when Mr. Seaver was murdered.  He worked at the store that succeeded Seaver & Bulfinch in Washington, then returned to Boston, and settled in Wellfleet, Mass. where he married Mrs. Hannah Kemp.  She had three small children: Hannah Kemp, Robert Kemp, and Henry Kemp who died young.

ix.  Sally Davis, born 2 April 1804, married Charles Lowrey and they settled in Washington, D.C.  They had one son who was in the Union Army.

x.  Abigail Davis, born 8 May 1806, died 5 September 1806.

xi.  Elizabeth Dorothy Davis, born 15 April 1809, died 14 February 1818.

The Gilbert A. Davis book has much more information about some of these families, especially for his own line. 

In More Information on the Family of William Seaver (1783-1821), the will of Sarah A.C. Seaver (daughter of William and Martha (Davis) Seaver) was contested by five cousins - Charles L. Davis, Gilbert A. Davis, Samuel S. Davis, Sarah A. Gordon and Martha T. Miller.  I believe that these persons are:

*  Charles L. Davis, son of Asa and Mary (Hosmer) Davis, a nephew of Martha (Davis) Seaver, and a first cousin of Sarah Seaver.
*  Gilbert A. Davis, son of Asa and Mary (Hosmer) Davis, a nephew of Martha (Davis) Seaver, and a first cousin of Sarah Seaver.
*  Samuel S. Davis, son of Artemas and Sarah (Tuck) Davis, a nephew of Martha (Davis) Seaver, and a first cousin of Sarah Seaver.
*  Sarah A. Gordon, probably daughter of Stephen and Cecilia (Davis) Dix, a niece of Martha (Davis) Seaver, and a first cousin of Sarah Seaver.
*  Martha T. Miller, probably a daughter of one of the other children, perhaps Stephen Davis or  Jacob Davis, a niece of Martha (Davis) Seaver, and a first cousin of Sarah Seaver.

Why did the cousins contest the will?  Recall that all three children of William and Martha (Davis) Seaver had not married, and had no children.  If Sarah had died intestate, her estate would have gone to descendants of her parents siblings, and I believe that the five named in the will contest are nieces and nephews of Martha (Davis) Seaver.  What about the siblings of William Seaver?  William died in 1821, 79 years before Sarah Seaver's death in 1900.  It is very probable that the children of William Seaver lost contact in the Boston area with their Seaver aunts and uncles. 

Another lingering mystery is why the marriage of William Seaver and Martha Davis in 1809 in Providence, Rhode Island was reported in a Maine newspaper?  The reason is most likely that one of Martha's uncles, Jacob Davis, resided in Gardiner, Maine at the time,

I think that this is the end of the William Seaver murder saga.  I didn't know where it was going when I started, but it has been challenging and interesting and fun.  I've done this research in online historical record collections and newspapers, and there are probably many more records in brick-and-mortar repositories like the National Archives, state archives, local and regional historical societies, county vital records offices, county probate courts, etc.

Amanuensis Monday - Will of Ephraim Buck (1646-1721) of Woburn, Mass.

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Genea-blogger John Newmark (who writes the excellent TransylvanianDutch blog) started a 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."

The subject today is the will of Ephraim Buck (1646-1721) of Woburn, Massachusetts.  He married Sarah Brooks (1652-????) in 1671 in Woburn, and they had eight children:  Sarah Buck (1674-1734); Ephraim Buck (1676-1721); John Buck (1678-1678); Samuel Buck (1682-????); Eunice Buck (1685-????); Ebenezer Buck (1689-1752) and Mary Buck (1689-????).

Ephraim Buck of Woburn died testate, and his probate records are in Middlesex County [Massachusetts] Probate Court Records, Probate Packet #3,341 (accessed on FHL Microfilm 0,386,342).  The will reads:

"In the Name of God Amen this twenty third day of November one thousand seven hundred and seventeen, I Ephraim Buck of Wooburn in ye county of Middlesex in this province of ye Massachusetts Bay in New England yeoman Being sick and weak of body, but of prfect mind & memory, Thanks be given unto god therefore Calling unto minde the mortality of my Body and knowing yt it is apointed to all men once to Dye, Do make and ordaine this my Last Will & Testament that is to say Principaly and first of all I Give and Recomen my soule into ye Hands of God yt gave it and my Body I Recomend to the Earth to be buried in Decent and Christian maner by my son Ebenezer Buck, He being obliged yr to bt a certain Bond or Oblegation under Hand and Seal, Nothing Doubting but that at ye Generall Resurection I shall Recive the same again by the Almighty power of God.  And as touching such worldly estate where with It hath pleased God to bless me with in this life besids what I have allredy desposed of to my wife and Children by Deed of Gift under my hand and seal, I give, demise and dispose of the same in ye folowing maner and forme.

"Imp.  I Give and bequeath to Sarah Buck my Dearly beloved Wife all my movable Estat within doors with my Cattels, Hogs and Sheep and ye Hay and Corn to be at her own despose for ever.

"Item.  I Give to my two sons namly Ephraim Buck and Samuell Buck all my land and medow lying on the Northerly side of Andover Row that is otherwise Desposed of, Provided that they pay out unto the several person hereafter Named the ... sums assignd to tham in this my last will and testament.  Itim I Give to my son John Buck thirty shillings to be payd to him by my two sons Ephraim and Samuell in Equiall proportion Emediatly after my decease.  Itim I Give unto my son Ebenezer Buck thirty shillings to be paid to him by my two sons aforsd Emeditly after my Decease.

" Itim.  I Give to my Daughter Sarah Grover five Pounds to be payd unto her by my two sons Ephraim and Samuell before named Emediatly after my Decease.  Itim.  I Give to my Daughter Mary Spike five pounds to be paid unto her by my two sons Ephraim and Samuell afore named Emediatly after my Decease.  Itim.  I Give to my Daughter Eunis Buck Twent pounds to be payd unto her by my two sons Ephraim Buck and Samll Buck afornamed.  Itim.  I further give to Eunice Richardson yt I Brought up five pounds to be payd unto her by my two sons aforsd, in Equall proportion when she shall arrive at ye age of Eighteen years or at Her Marage if it be before that time.

"Itim.  I Give to my loving Wife Sarah Buck seven pounds besids what I have alredy given Her to be payd to her by my two sons before named Emediatly after my Decease and Lastly I Give to my well beloved and trusty friends John Richardson Senr and Eleazer Flagg Twenty shillings apeece to be payd to them by my two sons Ephraim and Samuell in Equall proportion, and I do by thes presence Constatute make and ordain them my said Trusty and well beloved friends, John Richardson and Eleazer Flagg my sole Exec-rs of this my Last Will and Testament and I Do by these presents Impower them to Make sale of that tract of land and meadow that I have given to my two sons namly Ephraim Buck and Samuell Buck, In Case they Refuse to tak up wuith what I have ordered and assigned them to pay in this my last Will and Testament, and they With the money to pay the several legacies afornamed as sone (?) and I Desire them to take care of my wife and daughter Eunis & as Conveniantly may be, and I Do hereby uterly Disallow Revoke and disannull all and Every other former Testament Wills Legacies and Bequests and ??? by me in any Way before Named Willed and bequeathed Ratifying and Confirming this and no other to be my Last Will and Testament.  In Wittnes Whereof I have Hereunto set my Hand and seal the day and year first above written.
.............................................................................. Ephraim Buck    (seal)"Signed seald published pronounced and declared ........ his mark
by the sd Ephraim Buck as his Last Will and testament
In ye presence of us ye subscrobers
Benjamin Richardson
his mark
Saml Richardson


The will was proved by the executors at the Probate Court in Cambridge on 20 March 1720.  A bond of one hundred pounds was posted by Ephraim Buck, Samuel Buck and John Richardson on 20 March 1720.  On that date, John Richardson and Eleazer Flagg refused to be executors of the estate, and Ephraim Buck and Samuel Buck were appointed administrators of the estate.
The will names seven of his children - sons Ephraim, John, Samuel and Ebenezer, and three daughters, Sarah Grover, Mary Spike and Eunice Buck.  My ancestry is through the son, Ephraim Buck who married Esther Waget in 1696 in Woburn.

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Best of the Genea-Blogs - 1 to 7 May 2011

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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:

Urban Ancestors: Obtaining EDs for the 1940 Census in One Step by Linda Woodward Geiger on the Musings by Linda: My Family Research blog.  We will all be needing this post in 11 months!

DearMYRTLE's May 2011 Organization Checklist by Pat Richley-Erickson on the DearMYRTLE's Genealogy Blog.  You are trying to keep up, aren't you?  Good for you (I'm still bogged down in January making surname notebooks!).

What I Know About Nicoletta by Leah on the Leah's Family Tree blog.  Leah shares what she knows about her brick wall ancestor, and determines her next research task. 

Your Advice for the Busy Mom, Dad and Grandparent Genealogist by Diane Haddad on The Genealogy Insider blog.  Diane is a new mom, and asked readers for advice.  Very practical and helpful.

Visiting Courthouses by Kim on the Ancestors of mine from Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky & Beyond blog.  Kim has this down to a science and an art - excellent advice!

Carnival of Genealogy, 105th Edition by Jasia on the Creative Gene blog.  There are 17 entries in this writing carnival on the theme of Favorite Current Technology.

Awareness of Kinship Systems -- When is an Aunt not an Aunt? by James Tanner on the Genealogy's Star blog.  An interesting discussion, and a prize in a 17-page article published in 1943 that defines a kinship system.

The Plus Side of On-line Family Trees by Ian Hadden on Ian Hadden's Family History blog.  Ian covers both sides of the argument, and finds many pluses in online family trees.

Using Autosomal DNA Testing to Identify An Adoptee’s Roots by Blaine D. Bettinger on The Genetic Genealogist blog.  Perhaps the most important post of the year - this is how it can be done.  Very clear explanation of a complex subject.

Research Note: A Bit of Info about SSDI and Research Note: The SSDI (Part II) by Craig Manson on the Geneablogie blog.  Craig provides a tutorial on the Social Security Death Index.

Is There Any Security In Genealogy Data? by Lee R. Drew on the Family History with the Lineagekeeper blog.  Lee is an expert at this, and summarizes many of the problems with social networks and online presence.  Yikes.

Several other genea-bloggers wrote weekly pick posts this week, including:

Follow Friday Newsletter: 6 May 2011 by Greta Koehl on the Greta's Genealogy Bog blog.  Greta included links to many posts for this week's Geneabloggers series on Genealogy Conferences.

Follow Friday: This Week’s Favorite Finds by Jen on the Climbing My Family Tree blog.

Best Bytes for the Week of May 6, 2011 by Elizabeth O'Neal on the Little Bytes of Life blog.

Around the Blogosphere: May 8, 2011 by Susan Petersen on the Long Lost Relatives.net blog.

I encourage you to go to the blogs listed above and read their articles, and add their blogs to your Favorites, Google Reader, RSS 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 860 genealogy bloggers using Google Reader, but I still miss quite a few it seems.

Read past Best of the Genea-Blogs posts here.