Friday, October 25, 2013

Follow-Up Friday - Helpful and Interesting Reader Comments

It's Friday, so here are some of the helpful and interesting reader comments on Genea-Musings posts this past week:

1)  On Answering Sue's Extracting Challenge - A Simple Massachusetts Deed (22 October 2013):

a)  Geolover commented:  "One element of recorded deeds is that they may reflect a transaction that actually took place before the conveyance was written. The date of the instrument may just be the time by which full payment was received. Sometimes when the property was substantial the grantor may have transaction details spelled out as to dates that partial payments were made (this can occur also in heirs' deeds for a decedent's property).

"One element I missed seeing was that Luke Bigelow caused the deed to be written -- or do you think he wrote the original himself?

"Another element I missed seeing was whether there was a marginal note stating when the original document was given to the grantee by the recording Register of Deeds. Sometimes that is the date by which actual payment was completed. At times the original agreement was put in the hands of the Clerk/Recorder until the grantee showed up with proof that the terms of the sale were met (such as a receipt from the grantee for the consideration money), and paid the official to have the document recorded.

"The old 'indenture' technique had the same purpose. When the grantee showed up with a missing part of a document, presumably provided by the grantor upon receipt of final payment, the official could go ahead and record the transaction and deliver the other part of the document to the grantee."


My comment:  I did not see any marginal notes - I transcribed what was on the deed record pages.  This was, of course, the county deed recorder's book, and information was entered only when the deed was provided to the recorder for copying into the book.  Presumably, the grantor was satisfied with the transaction because he gave the original paper deed to the grantee at some point in time.  

b)  Susan Clark offered:  "This is very similar to the what I am doing with less complicated documents using Evidentia. The database created in Evidentia will allow me to connect individuals to all documents where they are named. With luck I will be able to draw some connections I have not yet made."

My comment:  It seems to me that Sue's method is more extensive than Evidentia offers, and using the color coding and tables itemizes things nicely.  
c)  eva goodwin said:  "This sure is an interesting approach. But I'm like you - I'm lucky to get it thoroughly transcribed and accurately cited! I think doing it this way would hurt my brain because I tend to overthink things."

My comment:  I think that overthinking is beneficial - at least for me it is.  I usually reach a conclusion and am happy to have it.  Then I need to remember it.

2)  On Extracting Information From a 1930 U.S. Census Record (22 October 2013):

a)  oldbonessearch.com said:  "I completely agree with you on the 1930 census. This is the census I use to teach my classes about the incredible amount of data from a couple of little lines. I use my own grandfather's enumeration. It also answered a number of questions for me. Although he was born in Canada, he moved to the US in 1917 and married my grandmother (a descendant of William Bassett of Plymouth Colony) and by 1930 had 2 children, my mother and uncle. But curiously, my Canadian great grandmother was also enumerated. Even though she lived in Canada, apparently she was visiting at the time of the enumeration. At the time I had found this...just after the release of the 1930 records...I had been having difficulty finding any records of her or her husband. The census answered several question: 1) She was widowed by 1930, 2) Her approximate year of birth and 3) the fact that her father was born in Ireland. Can you say, 'Goldmine'! Well, it was for me anyway!"

My comment:  I'm a William Bassett of Plymouth descendant too!  I agree with you - census records often reveal very useful bits of information, especially when extended family members are included.  

b)  Russ Worthington noted:  "I have gotten into the habit of capturing the Line Numbers for the Household, in the citation.

"1930 U.S. census, population schedule, Pennsylvania, Chester County, West Chester; enumeration district 15-88; sheet number 11-B; 700 North High Street; dwelling number 242; family number 268 ; Lines 73 - 77; Marshall Darlington Strode household; Image: 94.0; FHL microfilm: 2341755; ; accessed 15 Apr 2012; NARA microfilm publication T626, roll 2020; digital image, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com)."

My comment:  I used to do that too, but I used the Line Numbers in place of the Dwelling and family numbers.  Using the line numbers makes sense, but seems redundant to me if I use dwelling and family numbers too.  Evidence Explained uses only dwelling and family numbers (but sopmetimes they are confusing or unreadable on census records).

3)  On Ancestry.com's Online Support Community Forums (23 October 2013):

a)  bgwiehle answered my question:  "The Ancestry forums were launched back in Jan 2013 
[http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2013/01/ancestrycom-introduces-new-support-communities.html]

"This was after the Genealogy and Family History Stack Exchange site was launched in 2012 [http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2012/10/genealogy-family-history-question-answer-site-now-in-public-beta.html, http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/10/genealogy-stack-exchange-is-up-and.html] and before the Mocavo's Genealogy Karma in May 2013 [http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2013/05/mocavo-announces-genealogy-karma.html].

"And, of course, Genforum [http://genforum.genealogy.com/] and all the message boards are still around.

"It takes a bit of investigation to know the best place to post a message. And I doubt many researchers monitor every site."


My comment:  I don't monitor any of those sites, and maybe I should.  What do I give up timewise to do that?  What great insights will I receive by doing so?  At least the Ancestry Community Forums are about Ancestry.com so it's a bit more focused than the message boards.


a)  www.HungarianFamilyRecord.org noted:  "Your treatise on the Erie County probate records have been keeping me busy redoing all my citations. Question : Did you also put the IMAGE numbers on your citations or do you find they change too much to be consistent ?"

My comment:  Heh heh.  There's method to my madness.  I now put the image numbers on my citations because that is the easiest way to find them again.  I also put the Waypoint trail (county, book title, volume, page) in my citations because that way, if someone was accessing the original books or a microfilm of them, they could find their way to the exact page.  


a)  Olivier Le Dour offered:  "My name is Olivier Le Dour. I thought you might like to know that I have just published a book (in French) with extensive section (some 100 pages) on the Brusie/Bresee Poupart, the origin of Christoffel Brusie (actually Christophe Bruzai, born in Ancenis, close to Nantes, in France), the conditions of his arrival to New France as well as his descendants. 

"The title is LES HUGUENOTS BRETONS EN AMÉRIQUE DU NORD - VOL 2.  It is available on the Coop Breizh Website
http://www.coop-breizh.fr/livres-3/livres-3/histoire-de-bretagne-et-des-pays-celtiques-320/les-huguenots-bretons-en-amerique-du-nord-vol-5458/zoom-fr.htm

"And hopefully soon on amazon.fr: 
http://www.amazon.fr/Huguenots-Bretons-Amerique-Nord-Olivier/dp/2914612311/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1382433591&sr=1-1&keywords=huguenots+bretons "


My comment:  Thank you, Olivier, for this information.  That is new material for me, and I appreciate the references.


a)  Olivier Le Dour noted:  "Would you mean Cornelia Bresie, baptized in 1725 in Linlithgo, daughter of Andries Brusy (born 1688 indeed in ALbany) and Engeltje Clauw?  Andries' father was not from the Netherlands but from France. He came via New France as a soldier in the régiment de Carignan."

My comment:  No, it's a later Cornelia, but from the same Bresee/Bresie/Brusy family in the Hudson River area.  

Dear readers, this is why I blog.  I wrote these blog posts back in 2007, but Olivier found them using an online search and was able to offer new information, including his own book, to me and the genealogy world.  

7)  On one of my blog posts, this comment didn't get past the spam filter:

a)  Anonymous piped:  "Greetings from California! I'm bored to tears at work so I decided to check out your website on my iphone during lunch break. I really like the info you provide here and can't wait to take a look when I get home. I'm surprised at how fast your blog loaded on my phone .. I'm not even using WIFI, just 3G .. Anyways, awesome site!"

My comment:  Oh, how I wish there had been genealogy blogs and online databases when I was working.  But I might not have gotten anything useful done at work!  

8)  Thank you to my readers who managed to escape from the dreaded Captcha trap and were able to successfully post a comment.  I appreciate your persistence and wisdom.


Copyright (c) 2013, Randall J. Seaver

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