Saturday, May 21, 2011

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - it's Wordle Time!

Hey genea-kids, it's Saturday Night - time for lots of Genealogy Fun! 

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

1)  Go to the Wordle site - www.wordle.net and create your own unique Wordle  - it's a word cloud.  You can use either a clump of text, enter your own words (say, surnames, or given names), use a blog page address, or something else.  Your choice!  Be creative with the fonts, colors, backgrounds, and layout. 

2)  Save it as an image (I used Print Screen, pasted it to a Word document, used the Windows snipping tool to edit it, and saved it to a file).  Tell us how you did it.

3)  Show us your handiwork!  Add the image to a blog post of your own or on a web page of your own.  Tell me in a comment here where it is.  

Note: If you want to email it to me (rjseaver@cox.net), I'll put it up here on Genea-Musings for you as an update to this post.

Here's mine:

Here's one for Genea-Musings (www.geneamusings.com):


I guess I know what I've been writing about recently, eh?

Here'sd one for my Geneaholic blog (www.geneaholic.com):



I like having all of my words horizontal (probably because I'm an engineer) so that they are readable without turning my head 90 degrees.

I showed you mine - now show me yours!

Updated 4 p.m. Sunday:

1)  Randy Majors (www.randymajors.com) sent his Wordle to me, saying " Guess I've been focused on lots of Google Seaches and DNA test Matches and such lately:"



2)  Doris Wheeler sent her Palatine 300th Anniversary Wordle as a PDF file.  She said that they "used it last year  on t-shirts for family members. We have 38+ ancestors who arrived with the 1710 Palatine movement, so the names have personal meaning."  I converted it to an image:

Surname Saturday - KENT (New Jersey)

...
It's Surname Saturday, and I'm "counting down" my Ancestral Name List each week. I am up to number 229,  who is the mother of #114 Philip Jacob Row (1752-1817).  I don't know who she is, and I don't know the names of them others of #231, #233, or #235 either.  The next name on my ancestral name list is #237, Mary Kent (1726-????), another of my 5th-great-grandmothers. [Note: The 5th great-grandfathers have been covered in earlier posts].

My ancestral line back to Mary Kent 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)

58.  William Knapp (1775-1856)
59.  Sarah Cutter (1785-1878)

118.  Stephen Cutter (1757-1823)
119. Tabitha Randolph (ca 1750-1841)
 


236. William Cutter, born about 1722 in Woodbridge, Middlesex, New Jersey, United States; died 14 February 1780 in Woodbridge, Middlesex, New Jersey, United States. He was the son of 472. Richard Cutter and 473. Mercy Kelsey. He married  before 1744 in probably Woodbridge, Middlesex, New Jersey, United States.
237. Mary Kent, born about 1726 in probably Woodbridge, Middlesex, New Jersey, United States; died in Woodbridge, Middlesex, New Jersey, United States.
  
Children of William Cutter and Mary Kent are:
  
i. Stephen Cutter, born 10 February 1744/45 in Woodbridge, Middlesex, New Jersey, United States;
 died 21 June 1823 in Woodbridge, Middlesex, New Jersey, United States; married Tabitha Randolph
about  1769 in probably Woodbridge, Middlesex, New Jersey, United States.
ii. Richard Cutter, born about 1746 in Woodbridge, Middlesex, New Jersey, United States; died 20
 August 1770 in Woodbridge, Middlesex, New Jersey, United States; married Catherine Laing.
iii. Sarah Cutter, born about 1748 in Woodbridge, Middlesex, New Jersey, United States; married
John Brown; born about 1734; died 23 April 1797 in New Jersey, United States.
iv. Mary Cutter, born about 1750 in Woodbridge, Middlesex, New Jersey, United States;
v. Hannah Cutter, born about 1753 in Woodbridge, Middlesex, New Jersey, United States; married
William Bloodgood.
vi. Kelsey Cutter, born about 1756 in Woodbridge, Middlesex, New Jersey, United States; died 07
March 1798 in Woodbridge, Middlesex, New Jersey, United States; married Hannah Marsh 22 May
1777 in Morristown, Morris, New Jersey, United States; born about 1759 in Middlesex, New Jersey,
United States; died 08 January 1830 in Woodbridge, Middlesex, New Jersey, United States.
vii. Samuel Cutter, born about 1761 in Woodbridge, Middlesex, New Jersey, United States; died 01
May 1805 in Woodbridge, Middlesex, New Jersey, United States; married Sarah Bloomfield before
1791 in Woodbridge, Middlesex, New Jersey, United States; born 02 December 1769 in Woodbridge,
Middlesex, New Jersey, United States; died 02 January 1852 in Woodbridge, Middlesex, New Jersey,
United States.
viii. Keturah Cutter, born about 1765 in Woodbridge, Middlesex, New Jersey, United States; died 13
September 1794 in Woodbridge, Middlesex, New Jersey, United States; married Joshua Rockhow;
born about 1760 in Woodbridge, Middlesex, New Jersey, United States; died 14 February 1801 in
Woodbridge, Middlesex, New Jersey, United States.
My notes for Mary Kent say:
 "Mary Kent's parents are unknown.  It is possible that she was the daughter of Stephen Kent, and the
granddaughter of another Stephen Kent who resided in Woodbridge, Middlesex County, New Jersey.
However, there are no records to prove this supposition."
 There were Kent families in the Woodbridge area of New Jersey in the early 1700s.  They are descended 
 from Stephen Kent (1605-1679) and Ann (????-1660).  Stephen was the son of Thomas Kent (1563-
1605) and Ellen Pyle, who settled in Newbury, Massachusetts. 
  
The English ancestry of this Kent family was discussed extensively in:
  
 Jane Fletcher Fiske, "The English  Background of Richard Kent, Sr. and Stephen Kent of Newbury,
Massachusetts, and Mary, wife of Nicholas Easton of Newport, Rhode Island," New England Historical and
Genealogical Register, Volume 162, Number 4 (October 2008), Pages 245-254, and Volume 163, Number
1 (January 2009), pages 51-65.
  
However, the line was not extended to the descendants.
  
A book that covers some of the descendants (but my Mary Kent is not included) is:
  
  L. Vernon Briggs, "Genealogy of Different Families Bearing the Name of Kent in the United States,"
Rockwell and Churchill Press, Boston, 1898.

Friday, May 20, 2011

The New FamilySearch Family Tree - Post 6: Adding Sources to Assertions

...
Previous posts in this series can be read in the New FamilySearch Family Tree Compendium.

In this post, I'm going to attempt to add source citation information to the vital records for Isaac Seaver (1802-1870) into the New FamilySearch Family Tree while online in the tree database. 

Starting from the "Details" page for Isaac Seaver (PIN LHRX-R59), I clicked on the "Edit" link for the Birth Fact that I wanted to add a source for.  That screen looks like this:


On the screen above, I clicked on the "Add a Source" link.  This new window opened, and I filled in as many of the form fields as possible, as shown below:


In this Source form, there are fields for selections of Source Type (e.g., government record, published book, etc. -- you have to pick one to add anything else), Source Detail (the type of record, e.g., birth, death, etc.) and Media Type (e.g., paper, website, microfilm, DVD, etc.). 

I added as much information as I could, and clicked on the "Done" button (below the bottom of the screen above.  The complete Source citation appeared in the window:



All of my information is in the "Source" field above.  It says:

"Source type: Published information, Source detail: Birth record or certificate, Media type: Book, Title: Vital Records of Westminster, Massachusetts, to the End of the Year 1849 , Author: Systematic History Fund, Publication information: Worcester, Mass.: F.P. Rice, 1908, Repository type: Library, Repository name: Family History Library, Repository city: Salt Lake City, Repository state: Utah, Repository country: United States, Page number: 83, Actual text: SEAVER, Isaac, s. Benjamin and Marthy, Dec. 20 1802, Comment: This book has birth records from the Westminster town records., Contributor: randyseaver1, Contributor of repository: randyseaver1"

That took about three minutes, by my estimation.  I copied and pasted the information from my RootsMagic 4 database, then cut/pasted it into the different form fields.

That was so much fun that I did the same thing for the Death record.  The summary Source screen for the Death is:



The source information for the death record is:

"Source type: Government record, Source detail: Death record or certificate, Media type: Website, Title: "Massachusetts Vital Records, 1841-1910," online database, Author: New England Historic Genealogical Society, Publication information: American Ancestors (http://www.AmericanAncestors.org), Repository type: Archive, Repository name: Massachusetts State Archives, Repository city: Boston, Repository state: Massachusetts, Repository country: United States, Page number: Deaths: Volume 231, Page 338, Comment: This data is on FHL US/CAN Film 960197 , Contributor: randyseaver1, Contributor of repository: randyseaver1"

I also entered the source information for the marriage record:


Here is the source information entered for the Marriage record:

"Source type: Published information, Source detail: Marriage record or certificate, Media type: Book, Title: Vital Records of Westminster, Massachusetts, to the End of the Year 1849 , Author: Systematic History Fund, , Publication information: Worcester, Mass.: F.P. Rice, 1908, Repository type: Library, Repository name: Family History Library, Repository city: Salt Lake City, Repository state: Utah, Repository country: United States, Page number: 186, Actual text: SEAVER, Isaac and Abigail Seaver, int., Nov. 29, 1832, Comment: Abigail Seaver had maiden name Gates, and was previously married to Isaac's brother, Benjamin Seaver, who died in 1825., Contributor: randyseaver1, Contributor of repository: randyseaver1"

Back to the "Details" page and I clicked on the "Individual Sources" link at the bottom of the screen and saw:



They're all there!  Cool.  Success the first time!

The Source citations are not exactly Evidence! Explained quality, are they?  But all of the information that I entered is present, and a researcher could find the records cited. 

There are some drawbacks with the current Source form.  It is fixed and inflexible, geared to published books and journals, although many Source Detail types can be entered fairly easily.  There are no "Master Sources" like in the genealogy software programs - the user has to add the information (author, title, publication, repository, page, etc.) for each assertion in every field every time.

The ideal situation would be something like genealogy software has - a set of "Master Sources" and "Repositories" entered by each user, along with standardization suggestions.  Then the user would have to enter the information only once, and then have to enter the "Page number" information for each use of the Master Source.  Creation of an Evidence! Explained quality Footnote would be good to have also.

I'm going to take the weekend off in working in the New FamilySearch Family Tree, but I'll post again about it next week.  I think using RootsMagic 4 to enter persons into the nFSFT is next!

More on Free-Form Citations and Template Source Citations

...
In my post yesterday, Dear Randy: What are Free-form Citations, and why are you using them?, I defined my reasons for using Free-Form Source Citations rather than Evidence! Explained quality Template Source Citations in my genealogy family tree database in RootsMagic 4.  Interested readers in my complete archive of source citation posts can read through the list at The Seaver Source Citation Saga.

I promised to show some examples of the two and describe my method for developing the Free-Form Sources, and will provide two in this post. 

In RootsMagic 4, the user can choose from a wealth of different Master Source citation templates that are built around the examples in Evidence! Explained (and several other sources).  Each EE-quality source has a unique master source form with fields to be filled out by the user, and then each source citation has a set of fields for the unique citation - the page number or other identifier for the fact.

The EE-quality sources for published books and periodicals are fairly straightforward, and Free-form master source citations can be created for them fairly easily. 

In this post, I will show EE-quality sources for a vital record certificate and for an online database from a multi-database website.  These two are more complicated, and more difficult to create in a Free-Form source citation.

1)  Here is the EE-quality source template for a vital records birth certificate, showing the fields filled in:


With the fields filled in, the three different source citations for this entry are:

Footnote: San Diego County, California, birth certificate no. Department of Public Health No. NC-867 (1943) (31 October 1943), Randall Jeffrey Seaver; San Diego County Clerk's Office, San Diego, Calif.
Short Footnote: San Diego County, California, birth certificate no. Department of Public Health No. NC-867 (1943), (31 October 1943), Randall Jeffrey Seaver.
Bibliography: California. San Diego County. Birth Certificate. San Diego County Clerk's Office, San Diego, Calif.

2)  The Free-form source citation for a Vital Records birth certificate is below:


With the fields filled in, the three different source citations for this entry are:

Footnote: San Diego County, California, Birth Certificate, Department of Public Health No. NC-867 (1943) (31 October 1943), Randall Jeffrey Seaver.
Short Footnote: San Diego County, California, Birth Certificate, Department of Public Health No. NC-867 (1943) (31 October 1943), Randall Jeffrey Seaver.
Bibliography: California. San Diego County. Birth Certificate. San Diego County Clerk's Office, San Diego, Calif.

There are differences between these two sets of citations:

a)  The EE-quality Footnote and Short Footnote source citations read "birth certificate no. Department of Public Health No. NC-867 (1943) (31 October 1943)" while the Free-form Footnote and Short Footnote source reads "Birth Certificate, Department of Public Health No. NC-867 (1943) (31 October 1943)."
b)  The EE-quality Footnote source reads "Randall Jeffrey Seaver; San Diego County Clerk's Office, San Diego, Calif." while the Free-form Footnote source reads only "Randall Jeffrey Seaver."

I could not modify the EE-quality source to delete the word "no." after "birth certificate." Since the Repository is in the database, I don't think that it is that important in the Footnote.  I like the Free-form citations better, but they aren't "perfect" suitable for publication in a peer-reviewed journal or book.  But my Free-form source citation is "near EE-quality" in my view.

3)  The EE-quality source template for an online database (I chose the Massachusetts Vital Records, 1841-1910 database for which I have hundreds of citations) is shown below:



With the fields filled in, the three different source citations for this entry are:

Footnote: "Massachusetts Vital Records, 1841-1910," online database, New England Historic Genealogical Society, American Ancestors (http://www.AmericanAncestors.org: downloaded 5 March 2009), Marriages: Volume 502, Page 297, Leominster, Worcester County entry Frederick W. Seaver and Alma Bessie Richmond; citing original records in the Massachusetts Archives.
Short Footnote: American Ancestors, Marriages: Volume 502, Page 297, Leominster, Worcester County entry Frederick W. Seaver and Alma Bessie Richmond.
Bibliography: "Massachusetts Vital Records, 1841-1910." Online database. New England Historic Genealogical Society. American Ancestors. http://www.AmericanAncestors.org: 2009.

4)  Here is the Free-form source citation screen for this database:


With the fields filled in, the three different source citations for this entry are:

Footnote: "Massachusetts Vital Records, 1841-1910," online database, New England Historic Genealogical Society, American Ancestors (http://www.AmericanAncestors.org), citing original data at Massachusetts State Archives, Marriages: Volume 502, Page 297, Leominster, Worcester County entry for Frederick W. Seaver and Alma Bessie Richmond.
Short Footnote: "Massachusetts Vital Records, 1841-1910," online database, New England Historic Genealogical Society, American Ancestors, Marriages: Volume 502, Page 297, Leominster, Worcester County entry for Frederick W. Seaver and Alma Bessie Richmond.
Bibliography: New England Historic Genealogical Society. Online database. American Ancestors. http://www.AmericanAncestors.org.

The only difference between these two sets of source citations is the "downloaded 5 March 2009" in the  EE-quality Footnote.  I could have added it to the Page number in the free-form Detail field, but I don't have that information available for hundreds of source citations that refer to this Master Source.

So, again, it isn't perfect EE-quality, but it's nearly perfect. 

Eileen asked how I perform this process.  Here's my method of creating a Free-form Master Source based on an EE-quality Master Source template:

1)  For one specific source, I create an EE-quality source citation for that source but name it with an EE-prefix - the second one above was named "EE- Massachusetts VRS 1841-1910 - AmericanAncestors."  This is my "model" for the Free-form source.

2)  For the same specific source, I create a Free-form source citation for that source but name it specifically.  for example, as "Massachusetts Vital Records, 1841-1910 (AmericanAncestors.org)"  One of the reasons I like RootsMagic to create source citations is the ability to create "shorthand names" for the sources (Legacy permits this too, but FTM 2011 does not).  I digress. 

3)  To create the Free-form citation, I go back to the EE-quality source and Copy the Footnote created.  I close that, then go to the Free-form source and Paste the EE-quality Footnote into the "Footnote" field.  I Cut the specific citation data (the Page number, or the other information) from the Footnote and Paste it into the "Page number" field.  I do the same thing for the "Short Footnote" and "Bibliography" entries - Copy them from the EE-quality source citation and Paste them into the Free-form source fields for "Short Footnote" and "Bibliography."  For some that I'm really used to, I just copy the "Footnote" entry, Paste it into the "Short Footnote" and "Bibliography."

4)  There is always some cleanup required when I do the Copy and Paste process.  In the Free-form source, I can edit out extraneous punctuation, and add more detail wherever I want.

5)  I can then use the "EE - Master Source" format for any other similar Free-form Master Source just by editing the details copied from the EE-Master Source."  For example, for another American Ancestors database, I would create the Free-form source for it, copy the EE - Mass Vital Records" Footnote, and edit it with the correct database name. 

That's my process.  It works for me.  If it works for you, fine. 

To re-iterate the most significant reason for doing this is to create near-EE-quality source citations in a Free-form that will transfer via GEDCOM to another genealogy program or to an online family tree without getting mangled in the process.  My process does it - I haven't found any other process that does.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

The New FamilySearch Family Tree - Post 5: Adding Person Identity Data to the Tree

...
Previous posts in this series can be read in the New FamilySearch Family Tree Compendium.

In this post, I'm going to attempt to add the correct information about Isaac Seaver (1802-1870) into the New FamilySearch Family Tree while online in the tree database. 

Starting from the Details page for Isaac Seaver (PIN LWL3-LN4):



At the bottom of the page above, there is an "Add Information" link (not shown above).  I clicked on it and saw this form to select the information types to be added:

 

I checked only Birth and Death from this form, and clicked on the "Continue" button and saw the "Add Information" form with entries for the name, the birth and death data:



I added the name, the birth date and place, and the death date and place, to the form.  Even though I entered "20 Dec 1802" for the date, the form standardized it to "20 December 1802."  The system lets you define "On," "Before," "After," or "About" for the dates.Likewise, once I started typing "Westminster, Worcester" the form let me select "Westminster, Worcester, Massachusetts, United States" from a drop-down menu.  I had some trouble getting to the next form field in this process.  I'm pleased to see these standardization features in the online tree.

On the right side of the form above is "Where did you get the information?" with "Select a source" for each assertion being entered.  The user can uncheck the box to "Use this source for anything on this page."  I unchecked it, because the source citations for Isaac's birth and death are different.  It looks like I'll have to add separate source entries for each assertion.  I decided to enter my sources later for these assertions.

When I clicked on the "Done" button, I received a "Summary" page of the information I added:


It showed the information that I entered, and the standardized information that FamilySearch suggested for the dates and places.  The red line says "The name parts are denoted correctly."  I checked the box.

I clicked on "Done" and was back to the "Details" screen for Isaac Seaver (1802-1870, PIN LWL3-LN4).  I wondered if my information was added to the tree.    Since I entered the birth date, I clicked on the "Multiple" contributors link and saw a pop-up form:


The pop-up form showed me as a Contributor to this assertion of the date and place.  I clicked "Close."

What now?  How about the "Combined Records" screen - will I be on it?  I clicked on "Combined Records" at the bottom of the "Details" page and saw:


Hey, I'm Number 1!  Actually, there are 5 contributors to this specific Record, but my userID shows up in the form (last one in, I guess?).  Scrolling down the page above showed me two bothersome things - the assertion of a Birth in 1825 in Gardner, Mass. is in the column for Record 1 - I wonder how I can get rid of that?  The PIN number for this Person Identity is MSHG-F27.  Huh?  I thought we were working on LWL3-LN4?  My guess is that each one of the 12 entries on the "Combined Records" page have unique PIN numbers, and are combined into the LWL3-LN4 Summary. 

I went to the "Summary" page and clicked on down arrow to the right of the Death entry and selected the correct death date from the drop-down menu.  Then my userID showed up in the list of "Changed by" on the right-side of the screen. 

The "Summary" page for this person now looks like this:


I wanted to select the correct birth date and place also, so I clicked the down arrow next to the Birth fact and selected the right information from the dropdown menu, as shown above.

The "Summary" screen for Isaac Seaver (1802-1870) now looks like this:



My entries are now shown on the "Summary" page.  Apparently, I had to enter my own data in order to be able to select the information to be shown on the "Summary" page.  Will anybody know that I've done this exercise?  Only if they are watching this person - there is a "Watch" link at the top right of the screen.  I clicked on it and a pop-up box said:

 "You will receive weekly e-mail notifications about this individual. To stop receiving notifications, you can either change your preferences or click the unsubscribe link in your e-mail."

One other thing I noticed - the PIN For Isaac Seaver is now LHRX-R59.  Apparently, because I entered data into one the supporting PIN numbers, a new PIN number was created for Isaac Seaver which has all of the combined records.  I searched for the previous PIN number LWL3-LN4 and the system says it doesn't exist. 

If I had done the above process straight through without trying to capture screens, it would have taken about ten minutes.  The process is fairly cumbersome with many popup screens and forms, but it is logical.  FamilySearch has chosen to keep all of the records provided by all submitters, so the screens and forms have to accommodate that choice.  This isn't like our genealogical software where we have one field, with potentially many sources, for each Fact or Event. 

I still need to add the correct mother to Isaac Seaver - apparently Martha Whitney (1764-1832) is not identified as Isaac's mother in the New FamilySearch Family Tree yet.  Martha is in the tree, but not connected to Benjamin Seaver.  Another task!   I'm not quite sure how to do this in the online tree - perhaps by adding parents to the "Spouses and Siblings" page for Isaac Seaver (1802-1870) if the correct parents are not already identified in the online tree.

However, the next post will be about my experiences adding a source citation to Isaac Seaver's birth - I'm looking forward to that.  There is no source data yet for him, only assertions without documentation!

I will write about adding information to the online tree using a software program sometime next week.  I wanted to go through the process of adding information in the online tree first.

If readers more knowledgeable than I am have comments on my challenges and experiences here, please tell me how I should have done this, or of potential shortcuts that can be used to enter information into the online tree system.   I'm still learning here...

New FamilySearch Family Tree Compendium

...
I want to collect all of my posts about the New FamilySearch Family Tree into one compendium of posts.  Hopefully, a reader of these posts will have a better understanding of the online inter-connected family tree offered by FamilySearch (currently to LDS church members and a few public users, and open to everyone perhaps late in 2011) - how to search it, how to add to it, and how to update it.  
Here are the posts in the series so far:

The New FamilySearch Family Tree - Post 1: I Have Access (12 May 2011)
The New FamilySearch Family Tree - Post 2: Searching for Ancestors (16 May 2011)
The New FamilySearch Family Tree - Post 3: A Person's Data (17 May 2011)
The New FamilySearch Family Tree - Post 4: A Person's Notes, Sources and Combined Records (18 May 2011)
The New FamilySearch Family Tree - Post 5: Adding Person Identity Data to the Tree (19 May 2011)

The New FamilySearch Family Tree - Post 6: Adding Sources to Assertions (20 May 2011)
The New FamilySearch Family Tree - Post 7: Searching using RootsMagic 4 (23 May 2011)
New FamilySearch Family Tree - Post 8: Adding a Family using RootsMagic 4 (24 May 2011)
New FamilySearch Family Tree - Post 9: Combining Records in newFamilySearch (25 May 2011)
New FamilySearch Family Tree - Post 10: A Better Way to Access nFS using RootsMagic 4 (26 May 2011)

New FamilySearch Family Tree - Post 11: A Mysterious Error Message in RootsMagic 4 (14 June 2011)
I will update this list whenever I add another post in the series.

Updated last on 25 June 2011.

Dear Randy: What are Free-form Citations, and why are you using them?

...
In my post Data Mining and Fixing the Database - an Update, faithful reader Eileen commented:

"I have been following all your efforts and have really appreciated all the work you've done analyzing citations. I would like to apply some of your ideas to my database but I confess that I am a little unsure of what you mean by "free form" citations, especially when it appears that you complete every field in the citation entry window."

My apologies for being so obtuse... I've been living with my Seaver Source Citation Saga for about six months now!  My post Software Programs, GEDCOM Files and Source Citations - Some Recommendations  described my conclusions and recommendations for sources, GEDCOM and online trees.  Another post where I discussed my reasons for using Free-form source citations in my genealogy software is My Solution for US Census Free-form Source Citations in RootsMagic 4. 

My reasons for intentionally choosing to use Free-form source citations is very simple (but the explanation is long):

1)  Genealogical and family history data (names, dates, places, relationships, other events) in genealogy databases should have source citations attached to them for documentation purposes, including images of the documentation. 

2)  I want to share my genealogy database on different family tree websites - in http://www.ancestry.com/, on http://www.wikitree.com/, in http://www.werelate.org/, on http://www.myheritage.com/, on http://www.geni.com/, on the New FamilySearch Family Tree,and many more,  etc.  It's all about finding other researchers who share ancestry with me - it's "cousin bait."  My hope is that they will contact me and share information freely with me, as I am dedicated to doing with them.

3)  To upload my family tree to any of these websites, I need to use a GEDCOM file (at least until a better way to translate a family tree from one program to another, or to a website, comes along). 

4)  Free-form source citations are the only reliable format to transfer source citation information in family trees between programs and between programs and websites.  I demonstrated this in the Seaver Source Citation Saga.

Now I know people are asking:  "But the software companies have invested time and expense in developing Evidence! Explained quality source citations. Why aren't you using them?"

The simple answer to that is:  "Yes, they create wonderful source citations, using 'fill-in-a-template' forms, but the information in those templates do not transfer to another program format or to an online family tree reliably."

Therefore, I decided that the Free-form source citation format is the only way to produce reliable source citations that will be minimally mangled when transferred via GEDCOM to another program or an online family tree. 

I also determined that RootsMagic 4 was my program of choice to create all of the free-form source citations because it was the easiest to use, and suffered no source citation mangling, of the three programs I have available to me - I also have Family Tree Maker 2011 and Legacy Family Tree 7. 

Eileen's comment wondered how I did it - I'll do a little demonstration in another post. 

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

The New FamilySearch Family Tree - Post 4: A Person's Notes, Sources and Combined Records

...
In the post The New FamilySearch Family Tree - Post 2: Searching for Ancestors, I went searching for Isaac Seaver, and found a mishmash of data that purported to be for my great-great-grandfather, Isaac Seaver (1823-1901), with at least six different Person Identifiers.  In The New FamilySearch Family Tree - Post 3: A Person's Data, I showed all of the different screens from the buttons on the left-hand side of a Person Identifier page for Isaac Seaver (1802-1870), not my ancestor. 

In this post, I want to explore several more links that are on the Person Identifier page.

Here is the Person Identifier page for Isaac Seaver (1802-1870), who is PIN LWL3-LN4:


There are three links at the bottom of the page for:

*  Individual notes
*  Individual sources
*  Combined records

The screens below show these in order.  Here is the "Individual notes" screen:



As you can see from the screen above, the "Notes" for this individual contain only a list of the assertions made for each element of his person identity - his name, gender, birth, marriage, death, etc.  Along with each assertion is a link to see the user name of each Contributor, and their email address (presumably current, but who knows!).

Each section has a link to "Add a note about this individual."  So I added a note to summarize my opinion about the data in this person's identity.  Here is a screen view of the Note after I wrote it:



And after I submitted the Note, the "Individual note" screen looked like this:



The Note said:

"There is a wealth of wrong dates, places and relationships on this person, Isaac Seaver (1802-1870), husband of Abigail Gates.

"He was born 20 December 1802 in Westminster, worcester, Mass., married on 13 November 1832 in Westmnster to Abigail (Gates) Seaver, the widow of his brother Benjamin Seaver (1791-1825).  He had two children with Abigail, Lyman Seaver (born 23 April 1834 in Westminster) and Loring Seaver (born 15 November 1837 in Westminster).  Isaac died  1 July 1870 in Westminster.

"His father was Benjamin Seaver (1754-1817) and his mother was Martha Whitney (1764-1832).  His parents were not Benjamin Seaver (1791-1825) and Abigail Gates (1797-1867).

"Information for another Isaac Seaver (1823-1901) has been conflated with Isaac Seaver (1802-1870).  The information that pertains to Isaac Seaver (1823-1901) should be deleted from this person ID.  I will create a correct Isaac Seaver (1823-1901) PIN so that other data can be combined with it.

"I have or can produce source documents for every one of my assertions above to prove the names, dates, places and relationships above."

Obviously, I could write a note about every piece of wrong information about this person, but that might take days of useless typing on my part.  I hope that the note I submitted will suffice in one place with a decent summary of the facts.  

What should happen now to this collection of information?  My understanding is that the "owners" of each piece of information could sign in and change their information.  There is probably no real chance that will occur.  In the future, IF the promised "Open Environment Source Centric" family tree eventuates, then I, or someone else, can make conclusions using the correct, sourced information for this person, rather than the erroneous assertions in this Person Identity.

The second link on the Person Identifier page is the "Individual Sources:"



Each item of Person Identity shows the assertions made for the event - but only the date and the location.  There are no real "sources" identified here - nothing that says a town record, a vital certificate, a published book, Ancestral File, etc. 

There is a link to "Add a source about this individual" which looks like this:



The source form fields are for: Source Type, Source detail, Media type, Title, Author, Publication information, Location Type or Repository, Name, Address, City, State, Country, Postal Code, Phone, FAX, Page Number, Actual Text, and Comment.

That certainly seems complete.  I'm not sure if the Name, Address, etc. through FAX refer to the submitter of the information, or to the location or repository of the source itself.  I think it's the latter, but it would be useful to know that.

In the current state of this "Individual Source" page, the Source is linked only to the Person Identity.  There is no way to link the source to one or any number of, specific events.  Each assertion should have its own source, obviously (at least to me!).  Why doesn't it?  Perhaps this will be corrected in the future.

I resisted filling in this form for any of the events.  Unless I add my own set of assertions, I cannot add a source to the assertions.  I could do that, and then add a source, but I feel it would be a waste of my time to do it at this time.  Hopefully, there will be an easier way to source each assertion in the future than adding text to a form with 18 text fields.  Many of the entries would be repetitive, but all have to be entered manually by typing in the field at this time.

The third link at the bottom of the Person Identifier page is for "Combined Records:"




This is an interesting table.  I showed only the first of three pages, since there are twelve Contributors to all of the submitted and combined records for this Person Identity.  The Contributor user names are shown across the top of the table, and the assertions made for each element of the Person Identity are in the left-hand column.  Six of the contributors were the "FamilySearch Data Administrator" who, I'm guessing, is the contributor for records extracted for the International Genealogical Index. 

No contributor knew everything about this person, but all thought they knew something.  One contributor combined the birth for Isaac Seaver born 1823 with the data for Isaac Seaver born in 1823.  One contributor (number 11) got the birth, marriage and death dates and places, the spouse's name, and the father's name correct, but had the mother's name wrong.  In fact, none of the 12 contributors got the right mother's name for this Person Identity!

There are actually 13 Person Identifier Numbers for this person.  The one I chose was LWL3-LN4.  The 12 contributors all created persons with unique identifier numbers. 

It's really not that hard to copy material from a published vital records book, is it?  That's where the birth and marriage information can be found - in the book:

Systematic History Fund, Vital Records of Westminster, Massachusetts, to the End of the Year 1849 (Worcester, Mass.: F.P. Rice, 1908), pages 83 and 186. 

While the book above is a derivative source, it is considered authoritative because the information was extracted from the Westminster town records.  The original source for all of those assertions is really the town record book for Westminster, which is available at the Westminster Town Hall, and on microfilm at the Family History Library. 

In this post, we've learned a bit about what notes and sources there are for a person identity, and how to add information to them.  We've also looked at the Combined Records to identify the contributors of each piece of information attached to this Person Identity.

Based on the information in these last three posts, I now understand (probably not fully yet!!), just how messed up this family tree database really is. 

I'm going to continue with these posts on my own schedule because I want to share my experiences of working with the New FamilySearch Family Tree with my readers.  Next up is adding the correct information, maybe even with some real sources, to this Isaac Seaver!  Stay tuned!

Book Review: Raking the Ashes, by Nancy S. Peterson


It starts: “DISASTER! At 5:12 a.m., April 18, 1906, the ground beneath San Francisco began to tremble;” and much of the city was destroyed by the earthquake and the resulting fire, along with many of the historical, genealogical and family records held in the city repositories and homes.

The Second Edition of Raking the Ashes: Genealogical Strategies for Pre-1906 San Francisco Research, by Nancy S. Peterson, published by the California Genealogical Society in Oakland, California, is a unique work for genealogical research. This Second Edition extensively revises, updates and expands the previous edition, first published in 2006.  This is a pre-publication review.  The projected publication date is June 2011.

The book is in four parts:

Part I. Original Records: What did and did not survive, with work-arounds for lost records. This section covers: Vital (civil) records (birth, marriage, death); mortuary, Crematory and coroner's records; Cemetery and columbarium records; Religious records; Newspapers: films, indexes, abstracts and online digitizations; Census enumerations and indexes; San Francisco city directories; Municipal records: annual reports, tax records; Land records; Original and appellate court records: naturalization, probate, land, divorce and adoption; Voting records; Immigration: overland arrivals, passenger lists and passports; Military records; Records of fraternal organizations and benevolent societies; Institutional, business and occupational records; Pre-statehood Spanish and Mexican records; Diaries and first-hand accounts; Ethnic records and resources.

Part II. Continuing the Search: Additional Resources: Biographical and historical publications; The California Information File; Records of pioneer and other lineage societies; Help from internet resources; Family History Library resources; Local repositories; Professional research assistance.

Part III. Research Techniques for Solving Genealogical Problems: Assembling and assessing the evidence; The Basics: census and city directories; A quick survey of the most-used resources; A less-used source: religious records; Location, location, location; Expanding your search: wider and later; Naming complications; Thinking beyond San Francisco; Source summaries: Where to find what; Putting it all together.

Appendix. Pre-Earthquake Newspaper Collections: Titles, Local Sources and Dates of Coverage.

For the family historian with San Francisco ancestral families, this book is priceless! The descriptions of the records lost, and the records still extant, are very useful. Each section in Part 1 provides lists or ideas for substitute records – how to find information that helps to define the lives of the residents before and after 1906. The substitute records are often found in repositories and archives within the San Francisco Bay area, or outside the Bay Area. Some records can be found in online repositories, but most of the records discussed are in archival form, without indexes, in repositories that must be visited.

For the family historian with California ancestral families outside of San Francisco, the records displayed and suggested offer excellent research opportunities in non-Bay Area repositories and in online historical collections. Website URLs for record collections and for repository catalogs are provided throughout the discussion of the records in Part I and II.

Along with the description of the historical records lost or extant is the historical context in which the records were created. There are numerous descriptions and lists of churches, cemeteries, funeral homes, newspapers, city directories, courts, fraternal organizations, and other resources, that trace the history of these institutions.

The author recommends starting with Part III if readers are not familiar with genealogical research concepts and records. This section also has three page-size tables of “Where to Look for...” birth, marriage and death information that list resources and if information about dates and places are provided. These lists could be applied to many other locations by substituting the specific details about local newspapers and repositories.

There is a wealth of photograph, map and document images showing the materials that might be found in a well-organized search for the original and substitute records. The map on page 182 shows the extent of the fire damage after the earthquake – it comes within blocks of the home of my wife's McKnew family on 19th Street!

The Appendix provides a comprehensive list of pre-1906 newspapers published in the San Francisco Bay Area that may have information or articles about ancestral families. General newspapers and specialized newspapers are covered with the period published, and the holdings available at the California State Library, the San Francisco Public Library, and the University of California Doe and Bancroft Libraries.

The last paragraph of Part III sums up the benefits of doing difficult research, whether in San Francisco or another location, if pursued industriously:

“Rather than amassing a collection of 'begats,' we develop robust families. In collecting many times the usual amount of evidence, we probably form a much richer picture of our ancestors and the city they lived in.”

In this book, Nancy Peterson has created a wonderful resource guide to help genealogists find the available pre-1906 records in San Francisco that define their elusive ancestors. Every major city should be so lucky!

Even more valuable to all researchers are, I think, the examples in this book of the substitute records that may define the lives of our ancestral families – they provide hope for researchers in places where historical records have been lost or destroyed.

I started out reading this book for the history, not understanding the real purpose of the book.  There is some historical detail and many historical pictures, but I ended up greatly appreciating Raking the Ashes for the exhaustive description and details of the genealogical and historical resources.  This book is a must-have for researchers with Bay Area ancestry, and should be on every genealogical library shelf, and could be used as an excellent example for researching in any locality.

Dear Randy: Where did Texas Death images go?

Reader Jean asked in email recently:

"Do you know why the Texas Death Records 1890-1976 no longer have the images available?  The index shows images are available, but when you try to get to the image it states image not available online.  They were at one time.  I have tried contacting FamilySearch but haven't had any luck and I could not find an explanation on the webpage."

Dear Jean,

Everything you wrote is true - the "image" icon for the "Texas Deaths, 1890-1976" record collection on FamilySearch is on the collection list, the description of the database says that there are "Name index and images of Texas statewide death certificates, 1890-1976." 

Here is an image of one of the index entries in the collection:


The image box says "Image is not available online." 

I checked several other Texas databases, and the "Texas Birth Certificates, 1903-1934" collection does not have record images either, although the "image" icon is present and the collection description says that there are record images.

Is this a glitch, or a change to these databases?  If images cannot be displayed, is there another website where the images are available?

UPDATE 1 p.m.:  The problem that I had was because we were not signed into the FamilySearch website.  I tried, signed in, but never got signed in.  I was able to see the image after I signed in.  Jean may have had the same problem. 

The index page with the link to the image should say something like "Sign in to see this image."

Thank you to readers, and tweeters, who pointed this out!

UPDATE 2:30 p.m.  While the image appeared while I was signed in to FamilySearch at the library, it doesn't appear to me when signed in, using Windows 7 and IE 8, at home.  The index page for the person shown above still looks like the screen above - no image available.  What's the problem here?  Is it my operating system and browser, or is the server with the images messed up, or something else?

CGSSD Meeting on Saturday, 21 May - "Managing Your Digital Environment"

The May meeting of the computer Genealogy Society of San Diego (CGSSD) will be held on 21 May 2011 from 9 a.m. to Noon. Here are the details:

 - User groups: Legacy and RootsMagic; No SIG meeting this month

10:00 - Break, refreshments

10:15 - Announcements followed by:

Managing Your Digital Research Environment
by Nancy Loe


Nancy Loe will present simple, effective, and demonstrable strategies for organizing your digital files so you can find what you need, avoid duplicating research, and finally tame your information overload. She will cover:

1) Top Ten Things Archivists Can Teach Us About Organizing Research
2) Using Controlled Vocabulary to Create, File, and Retrieve Your Records
3) File Naming and Taxonomy for Digital Records
4) Using Metadata to Organize Family Photographs
5) Organizing Your Online Life: Bookmarks, Email, Blogs
6) Web Resources for Organizing Your Research.
   
Nancy Loe has been an archivist, librarian, and genealogist for over 30 years. She founded and served as the first president of  Pikes Peak (Colorado) Genealogical Society and served as the head of genealogy department at the Pikes Peak Library District in Colorado Springs. She recently retired as head of Special Collections and Archives at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, California. She has an MA in American History and a Master’s in Library Science. In addition to teaching beginning genealogy in local adult schools, she has assisted hundreds of people in libraries and archives with their family research and is working on her own family tree in the United States, Norway, Sweden, Scotland, Austria, and Prussia. Her blog, Sassy Jane Genealogy, is located at http://www.sassyjanegenealogy.blogspot.com/.

We meet at the Robinson Auditorium complex on the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) campus in La Jolla. From North Torrey Pines Road , turn at Pangea Drive into UCSD. Free parking is available in the parking garage on the left; use any space other than those specifically reserved for UCSD vehicles. Signs will mark directions to our meeting room. Please refer to our website www.cgssd.org; or the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies website http://irps.ucsd.edu/about/how-to-find-us.htm for driving directions and a map.

(Not So) Wordless Wednesday - Post 153: Thomas Richmond Family in Massachusetts

...
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 picture is the Thomas Richmond (1848-1917) family taken in Clinton, Massachusetts in about 1895.  Thomas and Julia (White) Richmond are my great-grandparents.  The persons in the picture are:

*  In the back row, from left to right: Edwin Thomas Richmond (1883-1935), Charles Percival Richmond (1880-1910), Grace L. Richmond (1876-1963), Emily White Richmond (1879-1966) and Everett Glens Richmond (1875-1917)
*  In the front row: Alma Bessie Richmond (1882-1962), Julia (White) Richmond (1848-1913), Thomas Richmond (1848-1917) and Anne Frances Richmond (1869-1939)
*  Seated in front: James Henry Richmond (1885-1913)
*  I don't know gthe name of the family cat lounging in front of James.

All of the children living in 1895 are shown in this photograph.  The first son of Thomas and Julia Richmond was Frederic J. Richmond (1870-1875).

This photograph has hung in the hallways of the Seaver and Richmond homes forever, it seems.  Every grandchild of Thomas and Julia (White) Richmond had a framed photograph with the names on the back of the photo backing. 

The four sons shown had relatively short lifespans - 52, 30, 42 and 28 years.  I wonder if there was some genetic problem passed through the Y-chromosome in this family line, or if it was just happenstance or environmental factors.  The father, Thomas, died at age 69.

The four daughters had relatively long lives - 70, 87, 87 and 80 years.

My grandmother is Alma Bessie Richmond (1882-1962), who married Frederick Walton Seaver (1876-1942) in 1900.

The Surname Saturday - RICHMAN/RICHMOND post has the ancestry of Thomas Richman/Richmond. I welcome contact from any Richmond cousin from this family line - email me at rjseaver@cox.net.