Saturday, February 15, 2014

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Share Some of Your Memories

It's Saturday Night - 
time for more Genealogy Fun! 



Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible! music) is to:


1)  Judy Russell asked six questions in her Keynote address at RootsTech to determine if audience members knew certain family stories about their parents, grandparents and great-grandparents.  She demonstrated very well that family stories are lost within three generations if they are not recorded and passed on to later generations.


2)  This week, I want you to answer Judy's six questions, but about YOUR own life story, not your ancestors.  Here are the questions:

a)  What was your first illness as a child?

b)  What was the first funeral you attended?

c)  What was your favorite book as a child?

d)  What was your favorite class in elementary school?

e)  What was your favorite toy as a child?

f)  Did you learn how to swim, and where did you learn?

3)  Tell us in your own blog post, or in a comment to this post, or in a Facebook or Google+ post.

Here are my stories:

a)  The first illness I recall as a child was the chicken pox.  I'm sure that I got it in the first two or three years of school from another classmate, and I passed it to my brother.  I still have a scar on the side of my nose from it.  

b)  The first funeral I attended may have been for my grandfather, Lyle Carringer, in November 1976.  I son't recall an earlier one in the family, or for friends.  I was too young to go to my great-grandmother's funeral in 1952, and my Massachusetts grandmother, who died in 1962, was too far away.

c)  My favorite book as a child was the World Book Encyclopedia.  I read it voraciously just about every day.  My favorite subjects were geography, history and science.  

d)  My favorite class at Brooklyn Elementary School was 4th grade.  Miss Williams was the teacher, and she was very patient and encouraging.  

e)  My favorite toy as a child was my Lionel train set.  My father, brother, and I would play for hours setting up the track through the house, and running at least two engines on it to try to make spectacular crashes.   I spent my allowance money on more train cars.

f)  I learned how to swim in summer 1954 at age 10 at Bass Lake near Yosemite.  That was our first family vacation away from San Diego, and it was memorable not only for swimming in the lake, but also fishing on the lake and buying baseball cards at the park store.  

I have no clue how my parents, or grandparents, or great-grandparents would answer those questions.  At RootsTech, I sat down before the first question was finished!  

I wrote my answers down so that they would be saved somewhere on the Internet and perhaps my children and grandchildren will see them.  When Judy's grand-niece gives a Keynote lecture at RootsTech 2054, my grandchildren will be able to answer some of the questions she might pose as a challenge to the audience!

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2014/02/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-share-some.html

Copyright (c) 2014, Randall J. Seaver



Surname Saturday - Hare (England)

It's Surname Saturday, and I'm "counting down" my Ancestral Name List each week.  


I am in the 7th great-grandmothers and I'm up to Ancestor #861, but I don't know who she is, or #863 for that matter.  So onward to #865, who is Mary HARE (1668-1733
).   [Note: the earlier great-grandmothers and 7th great-grandfathers have been covered in earlier posts].

My ancestral line back through just one generation in this HARE family line is:

1.  Randall J. Seaver (1943-living)

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.  Abbey Ardell Smith (1862-1944)

26.  Devier James Lamphier Smith (1839-1884)
27.  Abigail A. Vaux (1844-1931)


54.  Samuekl Vaux (1814-1880)
55.  Mary Ann Underhill (1816-1883)

108.  James Vaux (1787-1839)
109.  Mary Palmer (1788-1844)

216.  John Vaux (1747-1806)
217.  Joanna Laver (1763-1836)

432.  James Vaux (1704-1776)
433.  Amy Terrell (1708-1780)

864.  William Vaux, born 1653 in South Petherton, Somerset, England; died before 20 May 1706 in South Petherton, Somerset, England.  He was the son of 1728. John Vaux and 1729. Margerie.  He married 12 September 1691 in South Petherton, Somerset, England.
865.  Mary Hare, born 1668 in South Petherton, Somerset, England; died before 16 January 1733 in South Petherton, Somerset, England.

Children of William Vaux and Mary Hare are:
*  Mary Vaux (1692-????).
*  William Vaux (1694-????)
*  Elizabeth Vaux (1694-????)
*  Josiah Vaux (1696-1769,. married 1739 Dina.
*  Samuel Vaux (1698-1725), married 1720 Anna Baker (1700-????)
*  Patience Vaux (1701-????0, married 1721 Hugo Parker.
*  Amora Vaux (1702-????), married 1720 John Axe (1686-????)
*  James Vaux (1704-1776), married 1729 Amy Terrell (1708-1780) 
*  Jacob Vaux (1707-????), married Anna.

The vital record information came from the parish church records of South Petherton and surrounding parishes in Somerset.  The information has been collected in an unpublished manuscript provided by the author:

Sara Anson Vaux, The Vaux Family of England, the United States, and Australia (unpublished).

The URL for this post is:

Copyright (c) 2014, Randall J. Seaver

Friday, February 14, 2014

Ideas for Ancestry.com Improvements -- Improve the Ancestry Public Member Trees Match List to Put the "Richest Tree Person" First

I attended the Ancestry.com breakfast for some Genea-bloggers on last Thursday, 6 February, in Salt Lake City.  Tim Sullivan (President and CEO), Eric Shoup (Executive Vice-President for Product) and Heather Erickson (Senior Director of Corporate Communications) from Ancestry.com discussed the company, the near future, and encouraged questions and feedback.  The Ancestry Insider summarized the meeting well in #RootsTech Ancestry.com Blogger Breakfast.

One idea for improvement of the search features that I suggested was:

Improve the list of matches in the Ancestry Public Member Trees by ordering the matches according to some rational "Best Match" criteria - I suggest putting the "Richest Tree Person" first on the list.


I don't know how Ancestry.com orders the matches at present.  The order seems almost random, except for a birth year order for a given spelling of the name.  The match list often has many entries with only a name and no birth or death years, and these are often near the top of the match list.  To me, those are pretty worthless matches.  

In most search result lists on Ancestry.com and other database sites, the provider tries really hard to provide "the best matches" to the search criteria right at the top of the results list.  Ancestry.com does that for matches from their databases - they rank them using an algorithm so that the match list has the "best" matches at the top.  Except for, it seems, in the Ancestry Member Trees.

When I am fishing for cousins in the Ancestry Member Trees, I want to find the submitted tree with my target person with the "richest" set of sources, attached records, and uploaded photos or stories.  I am willing to look at 5 to 10 profiles, maybe even 20, but not 100, or 1,000, or 20,000 or more. 

Here is an example:

1)  I searched for one of my ancestors, my 5th great-grandfather, Norman Seaver (1734-1787) who married Sarah Read (1736-1809), and resided in Sudbury, Shrewsbury and Westminster, Massachusetts.  My search was:

*  first name = norman
*  last name - se*ver
*  birth year = 1734 plus/minus 2 years
*  exact matches checked

For this search, I searched the way I search on Ancestry.com - what I know for the name (and usually with a wild card to cover known spelling variations), plus a birth date with a range of years.  If this was a common name, or if I didn't know an approximate birth year, I would have added the spouse's name (if known) to narrow the search.

There were 107 matches on the list.  Here's the top of the first page:



2)  I clicked on the first match, and saw Norman Seaver's profile in this tree:


The tree had one source and no attached or uploaded media.  It did not have the parents of Norman Seaver, and had only one child listed.  Was that the BEST match of the 107?

3)  I scrolled down the match list looking for a tree with many sources and attached records.  I found the one below in position 14 on the list.  It had 7 sources and 8 attached records, but no uploaded media:


That was pretty good, and everything I saw matched what I know about my 5th great-grandfather.

4)  There were several other trees with this person that had about the same number of sources and attached records, but there were few uploaded media items.

Further down on the match list (number 95) was one of my own trees, which had 3 sources and 5 attached records;  I had also uploaded 6 document images from my computer files:


6)  Which tree match would you want to see?  I want to see the one with the "richest" information possible.  I want to review the information, look at the sources, check the applicability of the attached records and the uploaded media items, and perhaps contact the submitter of the tree. 

Of the three tree profiles above, the 2nd and 3rd are pretty "rich" in content, and could probably help me if I needed information on this person.  I could attach the Ancestry.com sources to the person in my tree, and I could contact the person to see if they would allow me to attach the uploaded media items (I know, people attach them without asking, but I like to ask).  

So why aren't those two items - #14 and #95 on the list of 107 matches, at the very top of the Match list?  I don't know, but I think they should be.

So how could this be done?  One way would be a simple sum of, say, sources plus attached records plus uploaded media items.  On that basis, the number 1 match on the list above would have a score of 1, #14 would have a score of 15, and number 95 would have a score of 14.  

Would this system be foolproof?  No, of course not.  There are always false positives, and not every researcher has attached sources, or attached records, or uploaded media items.  But the above relatively simple ranking measure would vastly improve the Results list.  

Other considerations for ranking matches might be:

*  the number of events in a person's profile (e.g., birth, baptism, marriages, immigration, military service, census, residences, occupations, death, burial, etc.).  Add the number to the other items.

*  the number of spouses and children in their family list.  Add the number to the other items.

*  do they have parents listed on the profile?  Add the number to the other items.

If we used that sum (sources, attached records, uploaded media, events, parents, spouses and children names), then Match #1 on the Norman Seaver list would have 5, #14 would have 38, and #95 would have 30.

In a real fancy algorithm, all of those things could be weighted somehow - maybe more weight for number of people and sources, and maybe less for number of events.  

All of the above assumes, perhaps naively on my part, that each person who submits a family tree tries to do the best they can for each person in the tree, and they don't waste time by adding extraneous or duplicate events or sources or media to persons in their tree.  

A match list with my example ranking system would put the target profiles of trees I want to review right at the top of the match list, and trees with virtually no information beyond a name at the bottom of the match list.  

What do you think?  Would a list that ranked the "richest" tree profile at the top of the match list  help you search Ancestry Member Trees?  

What other ideas do you have to improve the Ancestry.com search experience?  

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2014/02/ideas-for-ancestrycom-improvements.html

Copyright (c) 2014, Randall J. Seaver


52 Ancestors Friday - Charles Auble (1849-1916)

Amy Johnson Crow suggested a weekly blog theme of "52 Ancestors" in her blog post Challenge:  52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks on the No Story Too Small blog.  Here is my ancestor biography for week #7:

Charles Auble (1849-1916) is #14 on my Ancestor Name List, and is my great-grandfather.  He married #15, Georgianna Kemp (1868-1952) in 1898.



 I am descended through:

*  their daughter, #7 Emily Kemp Auble (1899-1977), who married 1918 #6 Lyle Lawrence Carringer (1891-1976)
*  their daughter, #3 Betty Virginia Carringer (1919-2002) who married 1942 Frederick Walton Seaver (1911-1983)
*  their son, #1 Randall J. Seaver (1943-....)


To create this post, I made an Individual Summary report in RootsMagic 6, then saved it into an RTF file.  I then copied and pasted the Person, the Individual Fact List, the Marriages/Children, the General Notes, and the Source Citations into this blog post.  Unfortunately, the source citations superscripts did not survive this process as superscripts, so I put them in brackets in the Individual Facts list below, and without brackets in the Source Citation list.  I have images of many of these records, but have not included them in this blog post due to the length of the post.  Many of them have been transcribed or shown in Amanuensis Monday and Treasure Chest Thursday posts.

=====================================================
1)  PERSON 
(with source citations as indicated in brackets):


*  Name:                    Charles Auble [1–10]    
*  Sex:                  Male [1-2]   
*  Father:                   David Auble (1817-1894) [2]   
*  Mother:                  Sarah G. Knapp (1818-1900) [2]     
  
2)  INDIVIDUAL FACTS (with source citations as indicated in brackets):  

*  Birth:                     31 October 1849, Newark, Essex, New Jersey, United States [1–2]   
* Census:                   1 June 1850 (age 0), Newark, Essex, New Jersey, United States [3]   
*  Census:                  1 June 1860 (age 10), Newark, Essex, New Jersey, United States [4]
*  Census:                  1 June 1870 (age 20), Terre Haute, Vigo, Indiana, United States [5] 
*  Occupation:            1 June 1880 (age 30), Painter; Terre Haute, Vigo, Indiana, United States [6]
*  Census:                  1 June 1880 (age 30), Terre Haute, Vigo, Indiana, United States [6]
*  Residence:              1888 (about age 39), 429 W. Madison, Chicago, Cook, Illinois, United States [11]
*  Residence:             1897 (about age 48), 414 W. Monroe, Chicago, Cook, Illinois, United States [12]
*  Residence:             1900 (about age 51), 515 West Adams Street, Chicago, Cook, Illinois, United States [13]
*  Census:                 1 June 1900 (age 50), 515 West Adams Street, Chicago, Cook, Illinois, United States [7]
*  Occupation:           1 June 1900 (age 50), House decorator ; Chicago, Cook, Illinois, United States [7]
*  Residence:             1901 (about age 52), 7121 Union Avenue, Chicago, Cook, Illinois, United States [14]
*  Residence:             1909 (about age 60), 709 West 70th, Chicago, Cook, Illinois, United States [15]
*  Census:                 1 April 1910 (age 60), 32nd Ward, 611 West 76th Street, Chicago, Cook, Illinois, United States [8]
*  Occupation:           1 April 1910 (age 60), House decorator; Chicago, Cook, Illinois, United States [8]
*  Residence:             1913–1915 (about age 64–about 66), 767 14th Street, San Diego, San Diego, California, United States [16–18]
*  Occupation:           1913–1915 (about age 64–about 66), Painter; San Diego, San Diego, California, United States [16–19]
*  Residence:             1914 (about age 65), 767 14th Street, San Diego, San Diego, California, United States [19]
*  Death:                   23 March 1916 (age 66), of cystitis and ruptured gall bladder; San Diego, San Diego, California, United States [20]
*  Obituary:               25 March 1916 (after age 66), San Diego, San Diego, California, United States [9, 21]
*  Burial:                   25 March 1916 (age 66), Mount Hope Cemetery (unmarked grave), San Diego, San Diego, California, United States [10,22]
  
3)  MARRIAGES/CHILDREN (with source citations as indicated in brackets):    

*  Spouse 1:              Georgianna Kemp (1868-1952)   
*  Marriage 1:            19 June 1898 (age 48), Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States [2]

*  Child 1:                 Emily Kemp Auble (1899-1977)   

 
4)  NOTES (with source citations as indicated in brackets):

Charles Auble was born on 31 October 1849, probably in Newton, Sussex County, New Jersey, based on conclusions from all of the available records. 

In the 1850 United States census, the David Auble family resided in the West Ward of Newark, Union County, New Jersey.  The household included [3]:

*  David Auble -- age 32, male, a boot and shoe man, born in NJ
*  Sarah Auble -- age 30, female, born NJ
*  William Auble -- age 5, male, born NJ, attended school
*  Frances Auble -- age 3, female, born NJ
*  Charles Auble -- age 1, male, born NJ.

In the 1860 United States census, the David Auble family resided in the Fourth Ward of Newark,  New Jersey. The family included [4]:

*  David Auble -- age 42, male, worked in a shoe store, had personal property of $500, born NJ
*  Sarah Auble -- age 39, female, born NJ
*  Wm A. Auble -- age 15, male, born NJ, attended school
*  Mary F. Auble -- age 13, female, born NJ, attended school
*  Chas Auble -- age 11, male, born NJ, attended school
*  Kate Auble -- age 8, female, born NJ
*  Anna Auble -- age 1, female, born NJ

The David Auble family moved to Terre Haute, Vigo County, Indiana in about 1864.

In the 1870 United States census, the Daniel Auble family resided in Terre Haute city, Vigo County, Indiana. The household included [5]:

*  Daniel Auble (perhaps this is a census taker's error for David, it is obviously the David Auble family) -- age 53, male, a boot and shoemaker, with $2,500 in real estate and $200 in personal property, born NJ
*  Sarah Auble -- age 50, female, keeping house, born NJ
*  Mary Auble -- age 23, female, a teacher, born NJ
*  Charles Auble -- age 21, male, a painter, born NJ
*  Kate Auble -- age 17, female, at home, born NJ, attended school
*  Anna Auble -- age 10, female, at home, born NJ, attended school
*  Cora Auble -- age 8, female, at home, born NJ, attended school

In the 1880 US census, the David Auble family resided at 40 Chestnut Street in Terre Haute, Vigo County, Indiana. The household included [6]:

*   David Auble -- white, male, age 63, married, shoemaker, born NJ, father and mother born NJ
*  Sarah G. Auble -- white, female, age 62, wife, married, keeps house, born NJ, father born NY, mother born NJ) 
*  Charles Auble -- white, male, age 30, son, single, painter, born NJ, parents born NJ
*  Fannie Auble -- white, female, age 32, daughter, single, at home, born NJ, parents born NJ
*  Katherine Auble -- white, female, age 24, daughter, single, at home, born NJ, parents born NJ
*  Anna M. Auble -- white, female, age 20, daughter, single, at home, born NJ, parents born NJ

Charles Auble left the family before 1888, and moved to Chicago, Illinois.

In the 1888 Chicago, Illinois City Directory, his residence was 429 W. Madison in Chicago [11].

In the 1897 Chicago City Directory, Charles Auble resided at 414 W. Monroe in Chicago [12].

While in Chicago, he met his future wife, Georgianna Kemp (usually called Georgia), and romanced her with poems and flowers.  They married on 19 June 1898 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin [2].  The transcription of the marriage record for Charles Auble and Georgia Kemp is:

* No.: 1941
* Full Name of husband: Charles Auble
* Full name of the father of husband: David Auble
* Full name of the mother of husband (a): Sarah G. Knapp
* Occupation of husband: Painter
* Residence of husband: Chicago, Ill.
* Birthplace of husband: Newark, N.J.
* Full name of wife prior to marriage: Georgia Kemp
* Full name of father of the wife: James H. Kemp
* Full name of the mother of the wife (a): Mary Jane Sovereen
* Birthplace of wife: Ontario
* Time when marriage was contracted: June 19 -98
* The place, town or township, and county where the marriage was contracted: Milwaukee
* The color of the parties (b): White
* By what ceremony contracted: Methodist Episcopal
* Names of subscribing witnesses: Laura Masden, W.B. Masden
* Any additional circumstances: [none written]

In the 1900 U.S. census, the family lived at 515 West Adams Street in Chicago, Illinois. The household included [7]:

*  Charles Auble -- head of household, white, male, born Oct 1864, age 35, married 2 years, born NJ, parents born NJ, a house decorator
*  Georgia Auble -- wife, white, female, born Aug 1868, age 31, married 2 years, 1 child born, 1 living, born English Canada, parents born English Canada, immigrated in 1889, resident of US for 11 years
*  Emily K. Auble -- daughter, white, female, born Aug 1899, age 10 months, single, born IL, father born NJ, mother born English Canada
*  Franklin Kemp -- Brother-in-law, white, male, born Feb 1880, age 20, single, born English Canada, parents born English Canada

In the 1900 and 1901 Chicago City Directories, Charles Auble resided at 7121 Union Avenue in Chicago [13, 14].

In the 1909 Chicago City Directory, Charles Auble, a painter, lived at 611 West 76th Street in Chicago [15].

In the 1910 U.S. census, the Charles Auble family resided at 611 West 70th Street in the 32nd Ward of Chicago, Cook County, Illinois.  The household included [8]:

*  Charles Auble -- head of household, male, white, age 54, first marriage, married 11 years, born NJ, parents born NJ, a decorator (of houses), rents home
*  Georgia Auble -- wife, female, white, age 41, first marriage, married 11 years, 1 child born, 1 living, born Canada English, parents born Canada English, immigrated in 1890
*  Emily Auble -- daughter, female, white, age 10, single, born IL, father born NJ, mother born Canada English, attended school

The family moved to San Diego, California in about 1911, probably to be near Georgia's brothers, James and Franklin.  Charles was a painter and interior decorator, and a picture of the home in San Diego at 767 14th Street has a sign outside that reads "Painting" and "Decorating." He used the basement of the house as his studio.

In the 1913, 1914 and 1915 San Diego City Directories, Charles Auble, a painter, and Georgia resided at 767 14th Street in San Diego [16-18].  

Charles suffered a fall three months before his death, and died of cystitis caused by a ruptured gall bladder from the fall [20].

Charles was a man who liked strong drink, and apparently lied about his age throughout his marriage (e.g., he is listed as age 35 in the 1900 U.S. census, age 54 in the 1910 U.S. census, and as age 61 on his death certificate in 1916).  In his later years, he was portly, bald, and wore a mustache.

Three obituaries for Charles Auble were published in the newspapers:

a.  From the San Diego Union newspaper, dated Friday, 25 March 1916, page 10 in the DEATHS" section [9]:

:"AUBLE -- In this city, March 23, 1916, Charles Auble, husband of Georgia K. Auble, father of Emily Auble, of San Diego, brother of Mary F. and Katherine Auble of Bushnell, Ill., brother-in-law of James A. Kemp of Foster, Cal., and A.F. Kemp of San Diego; a native of New Jersey, aged 61 years.

"Friends and members of Painters Union, Local No. 333, are invited to attend the funeral services to be held at Bradley & Woolman's chapel, G Street, corner of Seventh, Saturday, March 25, 1916, at 2 o'clock p.m. Rev. W.E. Crabtree officiating."

b.  From the labor newspaper, The Labor Leader, in San Diego (a clipping).  It reads [21]:

" Charles Auble, Old Time Painter, Dead

"Departed Brother Leaves Widow and Daughter to Mourn Departure -- Funeral Will Be Saturday Afternoon

"Charles Auble, an old time member of the Painter's Union, died Thursday night at his home, 767 Fourteenth street. He leaves a widow, Georgia, one daughter, Emily, to mourn his departure.

"Brother Auble has been a member of the Painter's union for many years, coming to San Diego from Chicago about five years ago, and immediately affiliating with local No. 333 in San Diego.

"Funeral services will be held at the Bradley & Woolman chapel at 2 o'clock Saturday afternoon, interment being in Greenwood cemetery. All members of Painter's union and friends are requested to be present."

c,  From the labor newspaper, The Labor Leader, in San Diego (a clipping). It reads [21]:

"Honor the Memory of Departed Brother

"Painters' Union No. 333, Adopt Resolutions of Condolence in Memory of Charles Aubell -- Was Old and Honored Member

"A committee of Painters' Union No. 333 submitted the following resolutions in honor of the memory of Charles Aubell, one of the old and honored members of the Painters' union, who died March 23, and were adopted at the meeting of the Painters' union Monday night.

" 'To the Officers and Members Local Union No. 333

" 'Your committee on resolutions of condolence on the death of our late brother, Charles Aubell, beg leave to submit the following:

"'Whereas, Nature's law requires that we, each and every one of us, sooner or later, go into transition, commonly known as and called death, thereby relieving us of all earthly cares and burdens we might have been carrying, leaving family and friends to mourn our passing, in accordance with the degree in which we were environed, and

"'Whereas, In accordance with that inexorable law, the Brotherhood of Painters, Decorators and Paperhangers of America have suffered a loss from their ranks and our late honored and esteemed Brother Aubell is no more. While we feel a very keen sadness at our loss, we can but realize that the pain is but a disappointment compared to the real sorrow that must necessarily accompany the great void in the hearts of his helpmate and family in the vicissitude of life, caused by the removal from their midst of the husband and father. Therefore, be it

" 'Resolved, By Local No. 333 of the B. of P., D. and P. of A., that we extend to the bereft family of our late brother, Charles Aubell, an expression of that sincere sympathy which we each and every one feel in this their seemingly darkest hour and sorrow of their lives, with an assurance of our best offices in every way possible in alleviating the pain, and be it further

"'Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be furnished the family of the deceased, that they be published in The Labor Leader, and be made a part of our minutes.

" 'G.W. Myers
Arthur H. Dutton
H.M. Hubbard
'Committee" 'San Diego, Cal., April 3, 1916' "

The Free Mason's Cemetery Company granted Georgia K. Auble grave number 15 in lot number 21 in Division S of the Masonic Cemetery for $25.  The unmarked grave is now in the bounds of Mount Hope Cemetery in San Diego [10, 22].

5)  SOURCES:

1. San Diego County, California, Certificate of Death, Charles Auble, died 23 March 1916; State of California, Department of Health; buried 25 March 1916.

2. "Milwaukee County registration of marriages, 1837-1907; index to marriages, 1852-1907," Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, 63 FHL US/CAN microfilms, Volume 30, on FHL Microfilm 1,292,310, Charles Auble and Georgia Kemp entry.

3. 1850 United States Federal Census, Union County, New Jersey, population schedule, West Ward, Newark; Page 363, Dwelling #580, Family #826, David Auble household; online database, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com); citing National Archives Microfilm Publication M432, Roll 448.

4. 1860 United States Federal Census, Population Schedule, Essex County, New Jersey, 4th Ward, Newark; Page 106 (penned), Dwelling #554, Family #753,  David Auble household; online database, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com); citing National Archives Microfilm Publication M653, Roll 688.

5. 1870 United States Federal Census, Population Schedule, Vigo County, Indiana, Terre Haute: Page 503, Dwelling #117, Family #118, David Auble household; online database, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com), citing National Archives microfilm publication M593, Roll 366.

6. 1880 United States Federal Census, Population Schedule, Vigo County, Indiana,Terre Haute: Page 503D, Dwelling #59, Family #63,  David Auble household; online database, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com); citing National Archives Microfilm Publication T9, Roll 319.

7. 1900 United States Federal Census, Population Schedule, Cook County, Illinois, Chicago; ED 376, Page 264, Sheet 8B, dwelling #75, family #112, line 77,Charles Auble household; online database, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com), citing National Archives Microfilm Publication T623, Roll 257.

8. 1910 United States Federal Census, Population Schedule, Cook County, Illinois, Chicago Ward 32: ED 1391, Sheet 2B, dwelling #28, family #33,  Charles Aubbe household;  online database, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com); citing National Archives Microfilm Publication T624,  Roll 278.

9. San Diego [Calif.] Union newspaper, digital image, GenealogyBank (http://www.genealogybank.com), "Deaths" column, Friday, 24 March 1916, page 10, "Auble" item.

10. Mount Hope Cemetery, San Diego, California, Office computer listings, entry for Charles Auble; Division S, Section 21, Lot 15.

11. "U.S. City Directories, 1821-1989", digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com), page 157 (image 81 of 1220), Chicago, Ill., 1888, citing "Chicago, Illinois, City Directory, 1888".

12. "U.S. City Directories, 1821-1989," digital image, Ancestry.com, page 182 (image 97 of 656), Chicago, Ill., 1897, citing "Chicago, Illinois, City Directory, 1897".

13. "U.S. City Directories, 1821-1989," digital image, Ancestry.com, page 181 (image 96 of 659), Chicago, Ill., 1900, citing "Chicago, Illinois, City Directory, 1900".

14. "U.S. City Directories, 1821-1989," digital image, Ancestry.com, page 187 (image 100 of 660), Chicago, Ill., 1901, citing "Chicago, Illinois, City Directory, 1901".

15. "U.S. City Directories, 1821-1989," digital image, Ancestry.com, page 195, Chicago, Ill., 1909, citing "Chicago, Illinois, City Directory, 1909".

16. "U.S. City Directories, 1821-1989," digital image, Ancestry.com, page 215 (image 114 of 774), Chas Auble entry; citing "San Diego City and County Directory, 1914 (San Diego, Calif.: San Diego directory Company, 1914).

17. "U.S. City Directories, 1821-1989," digital image, Ancestry.com, page 119 (image 67 of 708), Chas Auble entry; citing "San Diego City and County Directory, 1913 (San Diego, Calif.: San Diego Directory Company, 1913).

18. "U.S. City Directories, 1821-1989," digital image, Ancestry.com, page 191 (image 99 of 763), Chas Auble entry; citing "San Diego City and County Directory, 1915 (San Diego, Calif.: San Diego Directory Company, 1915).

19. "California Voter Registers, 1900-1968," digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com), San Diego County, 1914, Precinct No. 67 (image 458 of 925), Charles Auble entry; citing "Index to Great Register of San Diego County".

20. San Diego County, California, Certificate of Death, Charles Auble, died 23 March 1916; State of California, Department of Health.

21. Two clippings from San Diego Labor Leader newspaper, about 25 March 1916), clippings privately held by Randall J. Seaver, [address for private use], Chula Vista, Calif., 1988. provided by Lyle L. Carringer to Betty (Carringer) Seaver and passed to current owner.

22. San Diego County, California, Certificate of Death, Charles Auble, died 23 March 1916; State of California, Department of Health; buried 25 March 1916.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2014/02/52-ancestors-friday-charles-auble-1849.html

Copyright (c) 2014, Randall J. Seaver

Mocavo Offers FREE Access to Their Gold Level Universal Search Through Sunday

Mocavo announced today that they will provide FREE access to their gold level universal search features through midnight Sunday (presumably 12 midnight Mountain time).  This is a Valentine's Day gift for the support they've received over the past months.

Mocavo has been adding about 1,000 new databases each day, and now has over 255,000 different databases with genealogy and family history content.

See the Mocavo blog post at  http://blog.mocavo.com/2014/02/open-access-universal-search-sunday-midnight.  It says:

"Typically, Mocavo Basic members are able to search and browse each one of our individual databases for free as much as they like. Our Gold subscribers have Universal Search all the time and can search all of our databases at once, from one convenient location. If you enjoy your experience this weekend and would like to search all of our content at once, we would love for you to join our revolution and upgrade to Mocavo Gold."

It costs nothing to search Mocavo this weekend, so I encourage my readers to spend some time and search this collection of databases for records and stories of your ancestors.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2014/02/mocavo-offers-free-access-to-their-gold.html

Copyright (c) 2014, Randall J. Seaver

Valentine's Day CensusWhacking

Happy Valentine's Day, Genea-lovers!!!  Here are some virtual roses for your desktop:




There are quite a few names associated with Valentine's Day reflecting our traditions and habits. I checked the 1920 census for some of them, and found:

SURNAMES

* Valentine - 17,911 people
* Valentino - 1,287 people
* Lover - 762 people
* Lovejoy - 4,192 people
* Loveland - 3,168 people
* Loveless - 3,524 people
* Sweet - 15,671 people
* Kiss - 1,458 people
* Cupid - 28 people
* Sweetheart - 1 person


GIVEN NAMES

* Valentine - 16,632 people
* Rose - 439,241 people
* Candy - 638 people
* Cupid - 78 people
* Romeo - 3,666 people
* Juliet - 8,008 people


COMBINATION NAMES

* Lovey Valentine - in Newark NJ
* Romeo Valentine - in Norristown PA
* Julie Valentine - in Hempstead NY
* Valentine Love - in Brooklyn NY
* Valentine Hart - in South Williamsport PA
* Valentine Rose - in Detroit MI
* Valentine Kiss - in Dubuque IA
* Valentine Flowers - in Blairsville PA
* Valentine Valentine - in Philadelphia PA
* Honey Lover - in Loves, GA
* Love Lovejoy - in Lawrence KS
* Cupid Luvie - in Liberty County TX
* Cande Hart - in Upshur County TX
* Rose Flowers - 26 of them!
* Rose Rose - 295 of them
* Juliet Romeo - in Brooklyn NY


Enjoy, census lovers!  

I need to go get some roses for my wife soon (CostCo isn't open yet!).  Now if my sweet honey loving valentine will give me See's peppermint patties and molasses chips, I'll be a happy guy.  Fatter too...


The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2014/02/valentines-day-censuswhacking.html

Copyright (c) 2014, Randall J. Seaver

Thursday, February 13, 2014

"Crowdsourcing and the Genealogy Boom" on NPR's On Point with Tom Ashbrook radio show

Genealogy had some excellent nationwide exposure today in the National Public Radio show, On Point with Tom Ashbrook.

You can listen to the 45 minute segment at http://onpoint.wbur.org/2014/02/13/genealogy-family-tree-cousins.  Click on the red arrow to make it play.  You can advance the show to a specific time point by clicking on the growing time bar.


The guests are:

*  A.J. Jacobs, who wrote an interesting article "Are You My Cousin?" in the New York Times two weeks ago.

*  Judy G. Russell, law professor, certified genealogist and author of The Legal Genealogist blog.

*  Dr. Spencer Wells, geneticist and director of the Genographic Project at National Geographic.

Tom starts with A.J., brings in Judy after a few minutes, takes some listener calls with research stories and questions, and eventually gets Dr. Wells on.  A.J. goes on about his experiences with the Geni.com inter-connected trees.  Tom uses his own, and A.J.'s experiences and knowledge, to quiz Judy on DNA research, accuracy in online trees, etc.  Wells covers human migration, pedigree collapse,

It was all interesting and very well presented by all of the participants.  I thought that I wanted to hearm ore from Dr. Wells.  Judy did really well answering the genealogy research questions, presumably without any forewarning.  A.J. was interesting too.

I did a little Geni.com research while I was listening and found that A.J. is my 7th great aunt's 6th great nephew's ex-wife's first cousin once removed!  Of course he is... here's the chart that shows the trail:


Well now, that was fun and interesting!!!

If the spirit moves you, please listen to this broadcast on NPR.  You can access it at http://onpoint.wbur.org/2014/02/13/genealogy-family-tree-cousins.  Just click on the red arrow to make it play.

Congratulations to Judy for being such a great evangelist for documented genealogy research.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2014/02/crowdsourcing-and-genealogy-boom-on.html

Copyright (c) 2014, Randall J. Seaver

Ideas for Ancestry.com Search Improvements - Show Me My Cousins

I attended the Ancestry.com breakfast for some Genea-bloggers on last Thursday, 6 February, in Salt Lake City.  Tim Sullivan (President and CEO), Eric Shoup (Executive Vice-President for Product) and Heather Erickson (Senior Director of Corporate Communications) from Ancestry.com discussed the company, the near future, and encouraged questions and feedback.  The Ancestry Insider summarized the meeting well in #RootsTech Ancestry.com Blogger Breakfast.

One idea for improvement of the search features that I suggested was:

Create a list of "My Ancestral Cousins" (who are close cousins - say down to 6th cousins) based on the Ancestry Member Trees.  In other words, show me a list of persons who own Ancestry Member Trees who share my ancestors also.

They do this for the AncestryDNA autosomal results.  The top of my "Hints" list on AncestryDNA looks like this:


When I click the "Review Match" link, the comparison of the respective lines looks like this:


This is an excellent use of the Ancestry Member Trees to provide matches for distant relatives with a DNA match.

So my question was:  Why can't Ancestry.com provide a similar set of matches to help me find the relatively close cousins to me by comparing my ancestors to the ancestors of other tree submitters?

I know, when you search for a person, they provide Hints for Ancestry Member Trees, but I rarely look through those matches because I don't take the time and rarely find useful information in them.

I was curious to see if the match above was in my list of Hints.  Here is the top of my Ancestry Member Tree Hints for Norman Seaver (1734-1787):


There are 10 Trees with the same person in them, according to the Hints.  On the Member Tree Hints, I don't have any indication that the person in the other trees are their ancestors, only that they are in the tree.

However, the tree from the AncestryDNA Match above is not included in the list of 10 matches for some reason.  So I would not have found this tree if I had searched the Hints.  I don't know why that happened, and I just found it while doing this post.

Anyway, a list of "My Ancestral Cousins" from matches from Ancestry Member Trees would be very welcome.  A chart similar to the AncestryDNA chart with my line and the cousin's line would be great.

Why is that?  Well, it is those close cousins who may have records, photographs, letters, ephemera, etc. that my family sent to them over the years.  For example, I have several personal letters, Christmas letters and cards from my aunts and uncles sent to my parents over the years.  I don't have any of my parents letters sent to them.  We sent them photos and letters but we didn't keep a draft or copy of them.  My first to third cousins are likely to have photographs and letters from my family that I don't have.

I think that a list as described above would be very helpful for those of us with Ancestry Member Trees.  We could see who our shared ancestors are for those who have not done an AncestryDNA test, could engage them via the message service, and could collaborate with them to improve our common ancestral families.

Now I can hear some readers saying:  "How can you be sure that the other person's line is correct?" 

My answer is:  "I can't be sure unless I've done the research and verified their assertions, but I think that most researchers are conscientious about their own ancestral lines, especially for the most recent generations."  Also, if they're wrong, or if I'm wrong, there won't be a DNA match.

What ideas for improving Ancestry.com searches do you have?  How could Ancestry.com present their results better?  What would help you find cousins?  Tell me in comments to this post and i'll be happy to pass them on to Ancestry.com (or they can read them here).

I have several more ideas and I'll write a separate post about them.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2014/02/ideas-for-ancestrycom-search.html

Copyright (c) 2014, Randall J. Seaver