Saturday, April 21, 2012

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Do a Wordle Cloud

Hey genea-addicts - it's SATURDAY NIGHT, time to kick back and have some GENEALOGY FUN!

Yes, I want you to X out of your Ancestry Member Tree, shut down your genealogy management program, tell your Facebook friends you're going to take a 30 minute break, step away from Evidence! Explained, and go on your weekly SNGF mission.  It should take less than 30 minutes of your time.

Here is your mission, if you decide to accept it (shouldn't this be mandatory for all Genea-Musings readers every Saturday night?):

1)  Find something that you have written (letter, report, book, website, blog post, etc.) and copy all or part of it  (you know, do an Edit > Copy or a Ctrl-C on it).  If it's a website with an RSS feed, then just copy the URL in the browser address bar.

2)  go to www.wordle.net and put the copied text into the text box at http://www.wordle.net/create or URL at the site.  Be creative - select a Font, a Layout, and a color scheme.

3)  Capture the image by doing a screen capture, or by doing an image snip.

4)  Show us your Wordle creation on your own blog, on a Facebook status, or on a Google Plus stream post.  

5)  What use to do see for a Wordle cloud that you created?

6)  Be sure to leave a Comment to this blog post telling us where to find it.

Here are some of mine:

*  My surnames:


*  The current Genea-Musings blog page (www.geneamusings.com):


 *  The current Chula Vista Genealogy Cafe blog page (CVGenCafe.blogspot.com):


*  My 15 generation ancestor list:


*  The 1940 Census blog (https://the1940census.com/):



For these Wordle clouds online, I much prefer to have all of the words horizontal.

As you can see, the Wordle cloud sizes the words by the number of times it appears in the text sample.  That's why my Ancestor List Wordle didn't work well - my list has a LOT of words like United, States, England, born, died, married, Massachusetts words in it.

To make my Surname cloud, I took the surnames in my five-generation pedigree chart and added just the surnames to the Wordle text box, so that Seaver had the most entries, Carringer the second most, etc.  I weighted the entries by the number of occurrences in my pedigree chart in those five generations.  I also added the word "Genealogy."

I've used my Wordle Cloud as a background on Twitter and, since I have it in my Genea-Musings sidebar, it shows up on Google Plus stream posts when I don't have an image in my linked blog post.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/04/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-do-wordle.html

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

Surname Saturday - HEALEY (England > Massachusetts > New Hampshire)

It's Surname Saturday, and I'm "counting down" my Ancestral Name List each week.  I was up  to number 383, but I don't have any known 6th-great-grandparents between 383 and 443.  Therefore, I'll do 441. Joanna Healey (1718-1809). [Note: The 6th great-grandfathers have been covered in earlier posts] 

My ancestral line back through four generations of HEALEY ancestral families is

1. Randall J. Seaver

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


6.  Lyle Lawrence Carringer (1891-1976)
7.  Emily Kemp Auble (1899-1977)

12.  Henry Austin Carringer (1853-1946)
13.  Abbie Ardell Smith (1863-1944)

26.  Devier James Lamphier Smith (1839-1894)
27.  Abbie A. Vaux (1844-1931)

54.   Samuel Vaux (1816-after 1880) 
55.  Mary Ann Underhill (1815-after 1880)

110.  Amos Underhill (1772-1865)
111. Mary Metcalf (1780-ca 1860)

220.  John Underhill (1745-1816)
221.  Hannah Colby (1745-????)

440.  John Underhill, born 16 March 1721 in Salisbury, Essex, Massachusetts, United States; died 31 July 1793 in Chester, Rockingham, New Hampshire, United States.  He was the son of 880. Sampson Underhill and 881. Elizabeth Ambrose.  He married 21 October 1741 in Chester, Rockingham, New Hampshire, United States.
441.  Joanna Healey, born 29 July 1718 in Hampton Falls, Rockingham, New Hampshire, United States; died August 1809 in Chester, Rockingham, New Hampshire, United States. 
Children of John Underhill and Joanna Healey are:  Betty Underhill (1742-1806); William Underhill (1744-1780); John Underhill (1745-1816); Molly Underhill (1747-1835); Moses Underhill (1749-1838); David Underhill (1751-1827); Samuel Underhill (1753-1828); Jeremiah Underhill (1755-1794); Sarah Underhill (1759-1838); Joanna Underhill (1764-????).

882.  William Healey, born 29 January 1690 in Salisbury, Essex, Massachusetts, United States; died about 1772 in Chester, Rockingham, New Hampshire, United States.   He married  13 January 1716 in Hampton Falls, Rockingham, New Hampshire, United States.
883.  Mary Samborne, born 27 October 1690 in Hampton Falls, Rockingham, New Hampshire, United States; died about 1790 in Chester, Rockingham, New Hampshire, United States.  She was the daughter of 1766. Benjamin Samborne and 1767. Sarah Worcester.
Children of William Healey and Mary Samborne are:  Phebe Healey (1716-1806); Joanna Healey (1718-1809); Samuel Healey (1720-????); Mary Healey (1722-????); Dorothy Healey (1724-????); Sarah Healey (1726-????); William Healey (1729-????); Paul Healey (1730-????); Hannah Healey (1734-1805).

1764.  Samuel Healey, born 14 September 1662 in Cambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States; died after 1732 in Hampton Falls, Rockingham, New Hampshire, United States.    He married 26 May 1685 in Salisbury, Essex, Massachusetts, United States.
1765.  Hannah Smith, born about 1666 in Salisbury, Essex, Massachusetts, United States; died before September 1693 in Hampton Falls, Rockingham, New Hampshire, United States.
Children of Samuel Healey and Hannah Smith are:  Samuel Healey (1685-1697); Nathaniel Healey (1687-????); Mary Healey (1690-1690); William Healey (1690-1772); Nathaniel Healey (1692-1774).

3528.  William Healey, born about 1613 in England; died 29 November 1683 in Cambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States.   He married 15 August 1661 in Cambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States.
3529.  Phebe Green, born about 1629 in England; died before 1677 in Cambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States.  She was the daughter of 7058. Batholomew Green and 7059. Elizabeth.
Children of William Healey and Phebe Green are:  Samuel Healey (1662-1732); Paul Healey (1664-1717); Mary Healey (1665-1728).

I have found these helpful sources for information about the Healey family in New England:

1)  Malva Lynn Teed and Mary Louise Emil, We Are Because They Were, (Dugway, Utah : Malva Teed, 1982, accessed on Family History Library US/CAN Film 1033945, Item 6.).

2)  Janet Foster, "Ancestors and Descendants of Janet Louise Beckstrom," Jerry and Janet Foster Family Genealogy (http://fosterfamily.surnames.com/gedhtree/Beckstrom/np20.htm  : accessed 2010).

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/04/surname-saturday-healey-england.html

Copyright (c) 2012, randall j. Seaver

Friday, April 20, 2012

Dear Randy - Help Me Find Donna's Father's Name

I received an email today from one of my geneablogging colleagues, asking for help on a San Diego person.  I have substituted for the names and available data, but I want to demonstrate how I go about finding possible living persons using the resources that I have available.  If readers have additional suggestions, I would appreciate hearing them.

A)  The known information:  Donna Jean Logan was born 1 November 1950 in San Diego County, with a  mother's maiden name of Reagan (per the California Birth Index, 1905-1995 on Ancestry.   Her mother's first name was probably Betty Jo.

B)  I checked these resources online:

1)  Search San Diego Union newspapers from 1895 to about 1980 (search for articles or obituaries for Donna and/or Betty) on GenealogyBank:

*  Searched for [Donna Logan] and did not find a record that fits.
*  Searched for [Betty Reagan] and [Betty Logan] and did not find a record that fits.

2)  San Diego Union-Tribune newspapers from 1983 to 2012 (search for articles or obituaries for Donna and/or Betty).  These records are on Newsbank (http://www.newslibrary.com/sites/sdub/, accessed using SD U-T subscription):

*  Searched for [donna + logan + betty] and received 87 matches.  Searched all of them for [donna] and did not find an article or obituary that fit.

3)  Search All newspapers on GenealogyBank :

*  Search for [betty + reagan + logan] and got three matches, none fit.

4)  Search California Marriage Index 1960-1985 on Ancestry.com:

*  Donna A Logan (age 17) married Frederick L Ruiz (age 19) on 6 Oct 1968 in San Diego City.
*  No other obvious Donna J Logan or Donna J Ruiz noted.

5)  Search California Divorce Index 1966-1984 on Ancestry.com:

*  Donna A. Logan and Frederick Ruiz divorced in June 1969.
*  Betty Logan - no divorce listed in San Diego County

6) Search Social Security Death Index on Ancestry.com:

*  Searched for a Donna born 1 Nov 1950.  7 matches, hard to tell which one might be her.
*  Searched for a Betty Logan born 1915-1935.  244 matches, 28 died in California.  2 in San Diego County.  Impossible to tell if any are her.

7)  Search California Death Index, 1940-1997 on Rootsweb:

*  Searched for [Donna] born 1950 in CA with mother's maiden name of [Reagan] - no matches
*  Searched for [Betty Logan] with father's name of [Reagan] - no matches.

8)  Searched San Diego City Directories on Ancestry.com for San Diego (any Logan with Betty as a wife]:

*  1950 San Diego City Directory:   no Logans with Betty as a wife

*  1953 San Diego City Directory:  Jas M Logan (Betty) r Palm City

*  1956  San Diego City Directory:  Donald L Logan (Betty M) h 3924 Newton Ave
*  1956 San Diego City Directory:  Jas Logan (Bettye N) r Palm City
*  1956 San Diego City Directory:  John L Logan (Betty) firefighter h3950 Baker

*  1959 San Diego City Directory:  John L Logan (Betty M) aircraft worker h 3950 Baker

*  No San Diego City Directories are available on Ancestry.com between 1960 and 1975.

*  1975 San Diego Phone Directory:  Mrs Betty Logan 3950 Baker
*  1975 San Diego Phone Directory:  no Donna Logan or Donna Ruiz listed

10)  Look for John Logan on all of the above databases.  Nothing really fit.

From all of the above, done in about one hour, I developed a hypothesis:

Since Donna J. Logan who married Ruiz in 1968 in San Diego County is probably the one born in 1950, it is likely that Donna's parents resided in San Diego during the period 1950-1968, and probably longer.  Based on that, Donna Logan's father may be John L. Logan, husband of Betty Logan.  He may have died between 1959 and 1975 since Betty is listed as Mrs. Betty Logan in the 1975 directory.  A check of the California Death Index shows: 7 John Logan entries, but none died between 1959 and 1975.  Perhaps Betty was divorced... There was no divorce for John and Betty in the California Divorce Index, 1966-1984; perhaps it was before 1966.  A caveat:  If Donna's mother's name was not Betty, then the above does not apply!

NOTE:  I changed names, dates and street names on all of the above, so please don't spend time looking using the names I used above.

What other online resources would you use to find records for the father of Donna and the husband of Betty?  Please make suggestions in Comments and I'll check them out and add information to this post as time permits.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/04/dear-randy-help-me-find-donnas-fathers.html

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

Follow-Up Friday - This Week's Reader Comments and Questions

On Fridays, I'm trying to respond to reader comments on my blog posts, or in email, that may be helpful to my readers.

1)  In 1940 U.S. Census Source Citation in RootsMagic 5 - Census Image Source Template, RootsMagic (Bruce) noted:


"Make sure to watch our webinar on May 17th to learn a solution to that drawback you mentioned. ;-)"


My response:  The "drawback" is that, using the RootsMagic 5 Source Template for a specific census year and county, the user needs to create a source for every County and every Roll number in the County because that information goes into the Source field that is used for every Citation Detail. 

Bruce's comment implies that RootsMagic will tweak their source citation template so that the county and state information will go into the Citation Detail portion of the template, but the source elements will be in the correct Evidence! Explained order.  


2)  After posting my two posts - Surname Saturday - BARBER (England > Rhode Island) and Amanuensis Monday - Probate Records of Moses Barber (1652-1733) of South Kingstown, R.I., - Midge Frazel checked her files and provided some periodical images for Moses Barber.  She now has a transcription of the will of both Moses Barber and his wife, Susannah (West) Barber).  I am a  distant cousin with Midge and Becky Higgins through this line.  blogging works!


3)  My Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Latin Genealogy Sayings post generated some interesting sayings in Latin and English:


 My own were:


*  Venit mi, ut i tibi mea genealogia spelunca (Come, my dear, may I show you my genealogy cave?)
*  Ostende mihi si tibi ostendam tibi ahnentafel (I'll show you my ahnentafel if you show me yours)
*  Genealogia est non amatsuus an nimiam (Genealogy is not a hobby, it's an obsession)
*  Communio domus mea tergo insignia - quod rectum (My family coat of arms ties in the back - is that normal?)
*  Ego non adhæsitsum antecessor provocatus (I'm not stuck, I'm ancestor challenged)


Those of others (from blog comments):


< *  Dorene from Ohio offered:  Ego amare genealogia Conferentiae! (I love genealogy conferences!)


*  Andy Hatchett offered:  "Neque desideratum nec esse voluistis petere - et in futuro erit!" ("Your approval has been neither asked for nor desired - and such will be true in the future!")


*  Pam Beveridge offered [A man from Maine sees grapefruit for the first time when the A&P opens]:  Whoa! Non multa, ut duodecim, facite (Whoa, don't take many of them to make a dozen, do it!)  


*  Julie offered:  Hodie est cras anxius de heri (Today is the tomorrow we worried about yesterday)


*  www.HungatrianFamilyRecord.org offered:  Clamo, clamatis, omnes clamamus pro glace lactis (I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream.)


*  Heather Rojo offered:  "Si hoc legere scis, nimis eruditionis habes" (If you can read this you are over educated!)


There were also several blog posts.  Thank you all for playing.  


4)  In Genea-Musings is 6 Today!!, Kathy Reed asked:


"...can you tell me how I could access the stat counter you use? I'd be particularly interested in applying it to our genealogical society's blog."


My response:  I have three statistics counters on my blog.  Sitemeter (www.sitemeter.com) is the oldest, I've used it since 2006.  It's free, and useful.  StatCounter (www.statcounter.com) is another counter I use.  I used to use Google Analytics but don't any longer.  I also use Google Stats provided by Blogger.    They each provide different metrics, and I don't know which one is "best."


5)  In email, reader Andrea asked:  


"...how do you find someone if you don't know exactly where they live as you could do in the past?"


My response (in email):  You have to wait for the Indexes to appear for your state.  If you don't know a state, you have to wait until all states are completely indexed.  It should be about six months from now.  It may be that Ancestry, or MyHeritage, or FamilySearch, or another company, will have your state of interest indexed first, so keep looking for the states they have indexed.

The only easy way to find someone in the 1940 Census right now is if you think you know where the family lived - a town or city neighborhood or city address.  Then you can use the Steve Mores ED Finder Tool to determine the Enumeration District.  Once you know the ED, then you can search all of the pages in that ED for the family.  That's what I did in the Moe Howard search below, and for my own families in the 1940 census.  If you think you know the town or county where your family lived, then you could search all of the EDs for that town or county.  Searching two or three EDs doesn't take very long, but searching hundreds of EDs will take a long time.  I could do 3 in an hour if I tried, but doing 300 EDs in 100 hours is not an efficient use of my time.  I'll wait for the index!

When the 1940 US Census index becomes available in the months ahead, then you'll be able to search on Ancestry, or MyHeritage, or FamilySearch, or naother site, using names, locations, ages, etc. just like you do now for the 1790 to 1930 census records.


6)  In email, reader Jason said:

"I have searched your site for help on how to cite facebook & I could not find anything. I am using FTM 2012 and do not know what the best source template is to use for this. I just found out about a death of a distant cousin and would like to cite facebook as my source for the information."

My response (in email):  I found a model in EE.  The Discussion List model on page 788 (first edition).  A Facebook entry would be:

Randy Seaver, "I knew that I shoulda read the manual for FamilySearch Indexing...," Facebook, social network, 8 April 2012 (https://www.facebook.com/Geneaholic, accessed 9 April 2012).

That should work for Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace, etc.  Also Message Boards, Mailing Lists and Forums. Just substitute the correct information.  FTM 2012 has this template:  Publications -Periodicals, Broadcasts and Web Miscellenea > Broadcasts and Web Miscellenea > Discussion Forum or List.. 

I appreciate the comments on Genea-Musings and the questions or comments asked in email.  I'll try to respond within a week to everything I receive.


Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Ted Williams in the 1940 U.S. Census

One of San Diego's "favorite sons" is Ted Williams, the Hall of Fame baseball player for the Boston Red Sox in the 1938-1961 time frame.  My mother was born the same year as Ted, and knew him in Junior High School.  She went to San Diego High, and Ted went to Hoover High.

I wanted to find him in the 1940 U.S. Census, but knew that on 1 April 1940 he was probably at Spring Training in Florida, or in Boston with the team, or on the road with the team.  I decided to find his mother, May Williams, in the census and maybe I would luck out and find his listing also.

I was lucky!  The Williams family resided at 4121 Utah Street in the North Park neighborhood of San Diego during the 1930s, and they were there in the 1940 San Diego City Directory (found on Ancestry.com) so I decided to look there.  I used Google Maps to determine that the block was bounded by Utah, Howard, Kansas and Polk.

Using the easy-to-use ED Finder on Ancestry (derived from Steve Morse's ED Finder), I input the four streets and that provided three EDs.  I used the descriptions to determine that the address was probably in ED 62-53B.

After clicking on the ED number, the first page of the ED had the address of 4121 Utah Street, and there was the Williams family in lines 17-21:


There were five persons in this family:

*  Samuel S. Williams - head, male, white, age 50, married, born New York, lived in same house in 1935.
*  May V. Williams (informant) - wife, female, white, age 47, married, born Texas, lived in same house in 1935.
*  Ted Williams (absent) - son, male, white, age 21, single, 4 years of high school, born California, lived in same house in 1935.
*  Dan Williams - son, male, white, age 19, married, born California, lived in same house in 1935.
*  Helen Williams - daughter-in-law, female, white, age 18, born California, lived in same house in 1935.

The employment and income information for Ted Williams is interesting:



The information for Ted is:

*  Employed the last week of March = Yes
*  Hours worked the last week of March = 60
*  Occupation = Baseball player
*  Industry = Boston Red Sox
*  Class of worker = P.W. [personal work?]
*  Number of weeks worked in 1939 = 52
*  Amount of money wages or salary earned in 1939 = $4500.


You can see other celebrity persons in the 1940 U.S. Census using the links at 

Celebrity 1940 US Census Records Collection.



Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

Patriot's Day: My Revolutionary War Soldiers

It's Patriot's Day (19 April) in Massachusetts - where they honor the persons involved in the "shot heard round the world" at Lexington and Concord.

I wanted to list, and link to my blog posts about, my known Revolutionary War soldiers - not just from Massachusetts, but from all of the colonies.  

* Martin Carringer (1758-1835) of Mercer County PA (RevWar Pension file)

* Philip Row (1752-1817) of Hunterdon County NJ (RevWar Pension File)


* Peter Putman (1760-1835) of NJ and Yates County NY (RevWar Pension file)

* Stephen Feather (17??-1804) of NJ and Westmoreland County PA

* Rudolf Spengler (1738-1811) of York County PA

* Philip Jacob King (1738-1792) of York County PA

* Burgess Metcalf (1741-1816) of Piermont NH

* Isaac Buck (1757-1846) of Sterling MA (RevWar Pension File)

* Thomas Dill (1755-1830) of Eastham MA (RevWar Pension File)

* Joseph Champlin (1758-1850) of S. Kingston RI (RevWar Pension File)

* Norman Seaver (1734-1787) of Westminster MA

* Benjamin Seaver (1757-1816) of Westminster MA

* Zachariah Hildreth (1728-1784) of Westford MA

* Zachariah Hildreth (1754-1828) of Townsend MA

* Amos Plimpton (1735-1808) of Medfield MA

* David Kirby (1740-1832) of Westport MA

* Joseph Oatley (1756-1815) of S. Kingston RI.

I can see that I have some future blog posts to do about the Revolutionary War service of these persons in my ancestry.

The URL for this post is: http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/04/patriots-day-my-revolutionary-war.html

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

Treasure Chest Thursday - 1950 San Diego Plat Map

It's Treasure Chest Thursday - time to display and discuss a document, image or artifact from my collection of genealogy and family history stuff.

This week, my Treasure is a 1950 Map of San Diego.  In my post last Friday, San Diego Historical Maps, I described the historical maps found on the San Diego City Planning website (http://www.sandiego.gov/city-clerk/inforecords/historicalmaps.shtml.).

One of the most interesting maps I found was titled San Diego "The Unseen City" Census Data Map.  This piqued my curiosity, and my first thought was "Cool, I can use this when the 1950 U.S. Census is released on  1 April 2022."

When I looked at the map, I realized that I wouldn't have to wait until then for it to be really useful.  Here is the map of the eastern portion of the City of San Diego in 1950:



The map above is for the portion of San Diego east of 28th Street and south of Palm Street.  My childhood neighborhood, and the block I grew up in, is on this map.

Here is the "neighborhood" - I grew up on the block bounded by Ivy Street (north), Fern Street (east), Hawthorn Street (south) and 30th Street (west).  It is block 61 on the map:


An astute observer will see the Census ED number "63" with boundaries - this was in 1950, but it looks like the same boundaries as in 1940.

An astute observer will also observe that the land parcels on each block are defined on the map.  Zooming in a bit more to see Block 61 and the surrounding blocks:


The "subdivision" is identified on the map as "Seaman and Choate's."  Block 61 has 12 parcels laid out - 1 bounding Ivy Street and 12 bounding Hawthorn Street.  These lots were 100 feet wide.

Austin and Della Carringer bought lots 4 through 12 on Block 61 in 1894 from Angeline and David Seaman.  They initially built their home on Lots 11 and 12, but moved it to the western portion of Lots 8, 9 and 10 in about 1925.  

Austin and Della gave lots 5, 6 and 7 to their son Lyle L. Carringer in 1919, and he built the home at 2130 Fern Street, plus two cottages on 30th Street.  

After Austin and Della died in the 1940s, Lyle sold the eastern half of Lots 5, 6 and 7 to John Smith in 1950, and Lots 11 and 12 to Glenn Glasford in 1953.  After Lyle and Emily died in the 1970's, my parents sold the remaining properties to Steve Sandoval in about 1980.

The real value of this map is the names of the different subdivisions (like "Seaman and Choate's"), the numbering of the blocks, and the numbering of the lots on each block.  All of the San Diego land records are based on this organization and nomenclature.

The Eastern portion of San Diego is the only map presently available on the San Diego City Planning website.  I hope that they add the other portions of the city sometime soon.  I have many more land definitions in my notes, and in the San Diego Union newspaper available on GenealogyBank for my San Diego ancestral families.

The City of San Diego has expanded far beyond the defined blocks on the 1950 map above.  While many of the blocks on the map above have been laid out and surveyed, not all of them have buildings on them because of the terrain - there are many canyons that run through this area (and they are lightly shown on the map above) and there still are no buildings on them.  Likewise, some of the streets shown on the map above don't exist due to the terrain, and some streets (and freeways) have been added to the map above.  I would love to see the current map showing the actual San Diego layout and the now existing streets.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/04/treasure-chest-thursday-1950-san-diego.html

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

I Found a Bride of Frankenstein in the 1940 U.S. Census

While I'm doing FamilySearch Indexing in the 1940 U.S. Census, I'm looking for humorous or strange names or situations to use as blog fodder.  Who wouldn't?

The best one I've found so far is this entry in the Beverly Hills, Los Angeles County, California census (ED 19-49, Sheet 6-B).


This family resided at 308 North LaPeer Drive in Beverly Hills.  The family resented a house for $65 per month.  The persons in the household were:

*  Leo Frankenstein - head, male, white, age 27, married, completed 2 years of college, born in California, resided in Same Place in 1935, did not work the last week of March 1940, had a job, was a salesman, in clothing manufacturing industry, worked 52 weeks in 1939, made $2400 in 1939 in wages.

*  Gertrude Frankenstein - wife (informant), female, white, age 25, married, completed 4 years of college, born New York, resided in Same Place in 1935, engaged in home housework the last week of March, no occupation or industry listed, 0 weeks worked in 1939, $0 in wages in 1939.

*  Hazel E. Carillo - servant, female, white, age 44, divorced, completed 4 years of high school, born California, resided in Same Place in 1935, worked the last week of March 1940, worked 54 hours, occupation is Nurse, industry in Household, worked 30 weeks in 1939, earned $300 in wages in 1939.

So, the question in my mind is -- Is Gertrude the Bride of Frankenstein?  I don't know, but she apparently was the bride of Leo Frankenstein!

From the California Death Index, 1940-1997:  Leo E. Frankenstein was born 13 September 1912 in California, and died 18 April 1993 in Los Angeles County.

From the California Death Index, 1940-1997:  Gertrude Frankenstein was born 22 August 1914 in New York, and died 5 May 1983 in Los Angeles County.  Her father's surname was Jaffee, and her mother's maiden name was Seamon.

What funny, or strange, entries have you found in the 1940 U.s. Census while Indexing or searching through the Enumeration Districts.

The URL for this post is: http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/04/i-found-bride-of-frankenstein-in-1940.html

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver



Results from Ancestry.com Autosomal DNA Test - Post 2

In Results from Ancestry.com Autosomal DNA Tests - Post 1, I described taking an autosomal DNA test and receiving the results (94% British Isles, 6% Uncertain).  

The next step in looking at the results is to examine possible relationships with other researchers who share some of my DNA markers.  On the AncestryDNA Match page, there is a bar that shows AncestryDNA Member Match,  The results page shows a blue bar out to the 50% Match level (Distant cousins, perhaps 5th to 8th cousins).



The match list shows one person who is a 96% match (4th to 6th cousin) and a list of others who are 50% matches (5th to 8th cousin).

Naturally, I was curious about the family trees of these matches, so I chose the top one and clicked on the green "Review Match" button and saw:


This person has 100% British Isles ancestry compared to my 94%.  In the lower half of the screen above, I expected to see a list of surnames in common with mine and a family tree, but I didn't see that (see this feature further below).  I don't know why - perhaps that person did not want to show their list of surnames, although they permitted the system to show their tree.

I clicked on the "View Full Tree" button and saw the person's tree (from their Ancestry Member Tree):



I can click on the right arrow link for any of the persons in the right-most generation above, as I did below for the top person on the tree above:



After looking through this person's tree, I see one common ancestral family - Samuel Gray and Deborah Church (the person's 7th great-grandparents).  There are also several other surnames that may match my ancestors - Smith, Hathaway, and Kent).

Based on the information provided, I think that I am a 7th cousin of this person.

In order to show how the system is supposed to work, I clicked on the second person on my match list and saw their summary:


This person has 97% British Isles ancestry, and her page provides a list of the surnames in her 10 generation tree that match my 10 generation tree.  The screen above provides my Shared Surnames with her, including Allen, Anna, Gifford, Hill, Hutchinson, Smith and Walker.  The page also shows seven generations of this person's tree.

On the list of the person's Surnames, I can click on the surname and see the list of persons with that surname, and the details of each person.  Here is the Smith comparison:



I perused the family tree of this matching person and did not see any match with persons in my tree.  Perhaps it is earlier than 10 generations.  Ten generations back, with me as the first generation, are my 7th great-grandparents, and if a matching person has one of my 7th great-grandparents then they would be my 8th cousin.  

I think my next move here is to contact some of these matching persons in order to share genealogy information.  After that, I need to wait for more persons to take this autosomal DNA test and perhaps match my results.

So far, Ancestry.com has not provided a comparison of the DNA matches on specific chromosomes the way other autosomal DNA testing companies have done (see My Family Finder Autosomal Test Results - Post 2).  I hope that they will provide that information in the future.  That would provide confidence that I actually share DNA segments with the Match persons.

Ancestry.com is comparing my autosomal DNA test results with other persons who have taken the Ancestry.com DNA test.  This is a limited number of persons tested to date.  If hundreds of thousands of people do autosomal testing with AncestryDNA, then there probably will be more DNA matches - hopefully 2nd or 3rd cousins.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/04/results-from-ancestrycom-autosomal-dna_18.html

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver



CGSSD Meeting on Saturday, 21 April on Computer Security

The April meeting of the Computer Genealogy Society of San Diego is this Saturday, 21 April from 9:00 a.m. to noon on the campus of UCSD, the University of California, San Diego. See the map page for directions.
The schedule is:
*  9:00 - User groups: Macintosh with Dona Ritchie, and Legacy with Reuben Marchant. No SIG this month.
*  10:00 - Break, refreshments.
*  10:20 - Announcements followed by program:
"Computer Security and Safety" by Daniel A. Libby, Director of Digital Forensics, Inc.


Daniel A. Libby, CFC, ACE, CHS-III is the founder and currently Director & Chief Examiner of Digital Forensics Group, a PROTEX International company.  He founded the company in 2000 after completing a career as a Cryptologist with the United States Naval Security Group.
 

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 (click here) for driving directions and a map.

(Not So) Wordless Wednesday - Post 201: Christmas 1967

 I am posting photographs from my family collections for (Not So) Wordless Wednesday (you know me, I can't go wordless!).    

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



This picture was taken at Christmas, 1967 at the home of my grandparents at 825 Harbor view Place in San Diego.  

The persons in this photo are (from left):

*  Scott Seaver, my youngest brother
*  Betty Virginia (Carringer) Seaver, my mother
*  Lyle Lawrence Carringer (1891-1976), my grandfather
*  Emily Kemp (Auble) Carringer, my grandmother
*  Randy Seaver, moi (at age 24).

My guess is that my father took this picture with his Kodak Brownie camera.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/04/not-so-wordless-wednesday-post-201.html

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

FamilySearch Indexing Challenges - Post 2

I've been reviewing my FamilySearch Indexing successes and, um, challenges.  The good news is that I finally achieved 100% on a 1940 U.S. census batch - the one for Beverly Hills, California where the handwriting was very clear and the enumerator actually knew the place names.

Then I checked the previous batch that I indexed for Antelope township in Los Angeles County, and had these noted errors:

*  1935 Residence was enumerated as Trinidad, Los Amis, Colorado.  I looked up where Trinidad was, and it said Las Animas county in Colorado.  The arbitrator selected "Los A"  Not "Los Amis"  Oh well...two dings.

*  Surname looked like Pelater to me (quite blurry), the arbitrator selected Pelster.  One ding, perhaps correct.

*  Surname looked like O Dane to me, arbitrator selected ODane.  Two dings, perhaps correct.

*  1935 Residence was enumerated as Alamonte, Los Angeles, California.  I looked up "Alamonte" and there was none in Los Angeles County, so I indexed it as El Monte, which was in Los Angeles County.  The arbitrator selected Alamonte.  Two dings.

*  1935 Residence looked like R, Caddeu, Oklahoma.  I looked up Oklahoma counties and the only one starting with Cadd was Caddo, which is how I indexed it.  The arbitrator selected "unreadable."  Two dings.

An earlier batch had these errors:

*  Color or Race - the name was Nielsen...the field said "Indian."  I selected American Indian from the list, and the arbitrator selected Indian.  Oh well.

*  Line number - the line was blank, so I used Ctrl-Shift-B to mark the entire line blank as previously stated by veteran indexers and the project directions.  The arbitrator selected the line number, which is clearly wrong.  Four dings.

So, out of the 13 dings above, I think I was right on 10 of them.  But I guess I cheated by looking up the actual place names so that others won't have to do it later.

My arbitration results are up a bit - I'm at 97% for the whole time, and have an average of 98.6% for the 1940 Census batches (but it should be higher - right?).

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/04/familysearch-indexing-challenges-post-2.html

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

1940 U.S. Census Source Citation in RootsMagic 5 - Census Image Source Template

In 1940 U.S. Census Source Citation in RootsMagic 5 - Free-Form Template yesterday, I created a Free-form source citation for my grandfather's entry in the 1940 Census found on a digital image on Ancestry.com using RootsMagic 5.

I want to demonstrate the process used to create a Source citation for this record using a specific Census Source Template in RootsMagic 5.

1)  From Frederick Walton Seaver's "Edit Person" page, I clicked on the 1940 U.S. Census Fact and clicked on the "Sources" button (on the right, below the Fact entry fields), and then clicked on the "Add New Source" button (top left).  The list of Source Types opened, and I selected "Census, U.S. Federal (online images)" (this is the only one that fits the source that I'm using - the digital images on Ancestry.com): 



2)  After clicking "OK" the Source Template opened and I added information to the fields for the Source, including (my entries in ""):

*  Country = [blank]
*  Year and Type = "1940 United States Census"
*  Jurisdiction = Worcester County, Massachusetts"
*  Schedule = "Population Schedule"
*  Item Type = "Digital images"
*  Website = Ancestry.com"
*  URL = "http://www.ancestry.com"
*  Credit Line = "citing National Archives Microfilm Publication T627, Roll 1651".

I also added to the Citation Detail fields, including (my entries in ""):

*  Civil Division = "Leominster"
*  Enumeration District = "14-181"
*  Page ID = "Sheet 9-A"
*  Household ID = "Family #202"
*  Person of Interest = "Frederick Seaver household"
*  Access Type = "Accessed"
*  Access Date = "12 April 2012"



Having completed all of the fields, I clicked on "OK" and was asked to give this source a Master Source name.  I typed in "1940 U.S. Census - Worcester County, MA (Roll 1651) (Ancestry.com)":


4)  clicking on "OK" brought up the Source Summary:



The completed set of source citations as presented are (lower left-hand portion of the screen above):


Footnote: 
1940 United States Census, Worcester County, Massachusetts, population schedule, Leominster, enumeration district (ED) 14-181, Sheet 9-A, Family #202, Frederick Seaver household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 12 April 2012); citing National Archives Microfilm Publication T627, Roll 1651.
Short Footnote: 
1940 United States Census, Worcester County, Massachusetts, Population Schedule, Leominster, ED 14-181, Sheet 9-A, Family #202, Frederick Seaver household.
Bibliography: 
Massachusetts. Worcester County. 1940 United States Census, population schedule. Digital Images. Ancestry.com. http://www.ancestry.com : 2012.
Repository:
Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com) (Provo, Utah, USA)


If you check Evidence! Explained, or the QuickSheet for Citing Ancestry.com Databases & Images, you can see that the above citations almost perfectly match the standard citation formats.  Compare the Short Footnote and Bibliography entries above with the ones I created using the Free-form source citations and you can see some differences (mainly because I have limited information in the Short Footnote field).  

One of the drawbacks in using the RootsMagic 5 Source Template for this specific source is that I need to create a source for every County and every Roll number in the County because that information goes into the Source field that is used for every Citation Detail.  If a researcher has only a few citations for this specific census year in their database, this is not much of a problem.  However, if a researcher has hundreds of Census citations for a specific year, this becomes a more challenging task.  That's one reason I'm using a Free-form source template rather than a specific Census source template.  The other reason is that a GEDCOM representation of the Source Template citation gets mangled when imported to other software programs and online family trees.

The time taken to create this citation was about the same as the free-form citation - about two minutes.

I did this same sort of exercise in:

*  Family Tree Maker 2012:  Creating a 1940 U.S. Census Source Citation in Family Tree Maker 2012

*  Legacy Family Tree 7.5:  1940 U.S. Census Source Citation with Legacy Family Tree 7.5


*  RootsMagic 5 (Free-form source): 1940 U.S. Census Source Citation in RootsMagic 5 - Free-Form Template

The URL for this post is: http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/04/1940-us-census-source-citation-in_17.html

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

Tuesday's Tip - SamPubCo has Probate Indexes and more

This week's Tuesday's Tip is:  Look on the SamPubCo website (www.sampubco.com) to find probate records for your ancestors, especially in New York!

David Samuelson is the proprietor of SamPubCo, and it is a business venture.  If you order something from the site, you will have to pay for it.  My understanding is that Mr. Samuelson has access to the LDS Family History Library microfilms and provides digital or paper copies of over 230,000 records for a fee.

The home page of the website looks like this:


There are links on the home page to Wills, Guardianships, Naturalizations, Letters of Administration, Letters Testamentary, Surrogate's Records/Probate Files, and Census.  For each category, there are links to the states available, and on the state pages there are links to the counties available.  Within a county, there are links to alphabetical lists of the records, along with the list of record volume numbers for the county.

If you see a record that you want, you write down the type of record, the state, the county, plus the volume and page number of the record.  You then fill out a text-based order form (either by hand or in a word processor) and submit it to SamPubCo (either by email or by snail mail - email is cheaper!).  You pay with either a credit card, PayPal or an echeck online, or a personal check if by mail.

I was interested in the KNAPP surname in Dutchess County, New York.  Here are the available Wills:


The available Surrogate's Records/Probate Files for Dutchess County were:



On the page with the Wills is a link for the list of volumes for Dutchess County (http://www.sampubco.com/wills/volumes/nydutchess.htm) which provides a list of the volume numbers and years:
The other record types have similar listings of record volumes.


SamPubCo seems to have concentrated on New York, and on Wills.  However, check all of the record types to determine if your ancestors of interest are available.  


The alternative for all researchers who want these records is to either travel to the State/County of interest and access the records in a County office, go to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City and access the records on microfilm, order microfilms from the FHL at a local FamilySearch Center and read/copy them there, or to hire a local researcher to find and copy the records for you.  SamPubCo gives you a fairly cost effective option if your ancestor is listed in his files.


The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/04/tuesdays-tip-sampubco-has-probate.html


Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver