Saturday, March 15, 2014

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - March Madness!

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)  The NCAA Basketball Tournament, called "March Madness," opens this next week. 


Think of your Pedigree Chart like a basketball tournament bracket - there are 64 teams (4th great-grandparents) in the First round of the tournament, 16 teams (2nd great-grandparents) in the Second Round of the Tournament, 4 teams (grandparents) in the Regional Tournament.  Think of yourself as #1 on the Pedigree chart.  You're the winner of the Pedigree Chart!  All of your ancestors did the hard work to make you you!

Have you honored all of those ancestors up to, say, 4th great-grandparents?  Do you know who they all are?  Have you researched them in repositories and online?  Have you written a biography for each one of them?  Have you entered them all into the FamilySearch Family Tree?  Have you looked at all of the green leaf Hints on your Ancestry Member Tree?

2)  For this week's SNGF, please show us a Pedigree Chart of a portion of your family tree that shows that you have work to do to determine the identity of an ancestor, or to add content to the person profiles of your ancestors in your software or an online family tree. 

3)  Pick one of your ancestors that you need to work on. Then do a little bit to add more information to that person in your genealogy software or online family tree.  For example, check all of the green leaf Hints on Ancestry, add them to the FamilySearch Family Tree, do research in FamilySearch or Ancestry to find more records for that person.

4)  Tell us about it in a blog post of your own, in a comment to this post, or in a Facebook or Google+ post.

Here's mine:

2)  Here is a Pedigree Chart View in RootsMagic 6 for ancestors of my 2nd great-grandmother Lucretia Townsend (Smith) Seaver (1828-1884).



3)  This Pedigree view is full for all four generations of ancestors for Lucretia, but I see that I haven't matched her great-grandparents, Moses Smith and Patience Hamant to persons in the FamilySearch Family Tree.  I can tell because the FamilySearch icon to the right of their names is not blue - it's gray, which means they are unmatched to persons in the FamilySearch Family Tree.

Here is the Family View for Moses and Patience (Hamant) Smith family in RootsMagic:



I clicked on the FamilySearch icon for Moses Smith, and RootsMagic opens the "FamilySearch Person Tools" screen for "Find Matches" to help me find a match in the FamilySearch Family Tree:



There are a number of possible Moses Smith persons already in the Family Tree, but only one of them has the correct birth year, birthplace, father, mother and spouse names.  I matched my person with the match at the top of the list.  I also matched him to the next two persons down the list which had the birth date and parents names right.

When I was done, I clicked the "Close" button and went into the "FamilySearch Person Tools" screen for "Share Data:"



The information in green are the people and events that my RootsMagic database and the FamilySearch Family Tree agree on.  In yellow are the people that need to be matched, and the Events that don't match exactly but probably should be matched, edited or added. In white are the People and Events that are not covered in either RootsMagic or the Family Tree. I have a lot of work to do on this family.  

After about 15 minutes of effort matching Persons, and adding or modifying Event data, I had significantly improved the Moses Smith profile on FamilySearch Family Tree - almost everything is green, and nothing is yellow.



I still have some clean up work to do when I'm in the tree.  I need to delete the "Unknown father #1" for Moses Smith.  I need to disconnect the son Calvin Smith from Moses and Sarah (Clark) smith (Moses' first wife) and make sure he is attached to Moses and Patience (Hamant) Smith (he is also listed as a son to them because I added him to the Family Tree), and Calvin Smith on the screen above has the same FSFT ID number, but he has two sets of parents in the Family Tree.  

Then there's the matter of Moses Smith's christening...the Family Tree has a date exactly the same as his birth date - I need to check the Medfield vital Record book and see if it lists a Christening date or a Birth Date.  If it's a Christening date, I will add that to my RootsMagic database and change the Birth date.  If it's only a Birth date, then I will delete the Christening date.

I also added three more sources to the FamilySearch Family Tree profile for Moses Smith - for birth, death and burial.  

Later, I will go through the rest of this family and add Event data for both wives and the six children of Moses Smith, and their spouses.

4)  I did it!

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2014/03/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-march.html

Copyright (c) 2014, Randall J. Seaver

Surname Saturday - BARTLETT (England > New 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 #885, who is Anne BARTLETT (1684-1721)
.   [Note: the earlier great-grandmothers and 7th great-grandfathers have been covered in earlier posts].

My ancestral line back through four generations in this BARTLETT 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)

110.  Amos Underhill (1772-1865)
111.  Mary Metcalf (1780-1855)

220.  John Underhill (1745-812)
221.  Hannah Colby (1745-????)


442.  Joseph Colby (1707-1768)
443.  Abigail Worthen (1714-????)

884.  Joseph Colby, born 01 August 1680 in Amesbury, Essex, Massachusetts, United States; died before 23 May 1754 in Hampstead, Rockingham, New Hampshire, United States.  He was the son of 1768. John Colby and 1769. Sarah Eldredge.  He married 22 November 1704 in Amesbury, Essex, Massachusetts, United States.
885..  Anne Bartlett, born 19 March 1684 in Newbury, Essex, Massachusetts, United States; died 24 October 1721 in Amesbury, Essex, Massachusetts, United States.  

Children of Joseph Colby and Anne Bartlett are:
*  Benaiah Colby (1705-1746), married 1728 Mary Webster (1709-1745)
*  Joseph Colby (1707-1768), married 1736 Abigail Worthen (1714-????).
*  Nathan Colby (1710-1759), married 1735 Hannah Worthen (1716-1750)
*  Judith Colby (1712-1761), married 1731 Thomas Carter (1707-1761).
*  Hannah Colby (1714-????)
*  Martha Colby (1717-????), married 1740 George Kimball (1717-1763).
*  Ann Colby (1718-1799), married 1740 Moses Wells (1716-????).
*  John Colby (1721-1721).

1770.  Christopher Bartlett, born 11 June 1655 in Newbury, Essex, Massachusetts, United States; died 14 April 1711 in Haverhill, Essex, Massachusetts, United States.  He married 29 November 1677 in Newbury, Essex, Massachusetts, United States.
1771.  Deborah Weed, born 15 June 1659 in Salisbury, Essex, Massachusetts, United States; died 06 June 1726 in Amesbury, Essex, Massachusetts, United States.  She was the daughter of 3542. John Weed and 3543. Deborah Winsley.

Children of Christopher Bartlett and Deborah Weed are:
*  Christopher Bartlett (1678-1747), married (1) 1703 Susanna Griffin (1673-1712); (2) 1718 Mary Clement (1680-1735); (3) 1735 Rachel Atwood (1691-1774).
*  Deborah Bartlett (1680-????), married (1) 1703 Ephraim Blaisdell (1682-1728); (2) 1732 George Worthen (1669-1745).
*  Mary Bartlett (1682-1725), married 1700 John Stevens (1674-????)
*  Anne Bartlett (1684-1721), married 1704 Joseph Colby (1680-1754)
*  Martha Bartlett (1686-????), married 1709 Henry Blaisdell (1682-1736)
*  Lydia Bartlett (1688-1776), married 1708 Samuel Burbank (1684-1748)
*  Hannah Bartlett (1689-1690).
*  Sarah Bartlett (1691-1693).
*  child Bartlett (1694-1694).
*  Abigail Bartlett (1695-????), married 1715 Benjamin Stevens.
*  Samuel Bartlett (1698-????).
*  child Bartlett (1699-1699).
*  child Bartlett (1700-1700)
*  Mehitable Bartlett (1701-????), married 1720 Cornelius Davis.

3540.  Christopher Bartlett, born before 25 February 1624 in Earnley, Sussex, England; died 15 March 1670 in Newbury, Essex, Massachusetts, United States.  He married 17 April 1645 in Newbury, Essex, Massachusetts, United States.
3541.  Mary, born about 1625 in England; died 24 December 1660 in Newbury, Essex, Massachusetts, United States.

Children of Christopher Bartlett and Mary are:
*  Mary Bartlett (1647-????), married 1667 John Ash (1644-1694).
*  Anne Bartlett (1650-????), married (1) John Weed (1655-????), married (2) 1673 Edward Richardson.
*  Martha Bartlett (1653-1718), married 1670 Thomas Stevens (1650-????).
*  Christopher Bartlett (1655-1711), married 1677 Deborah Weed (1659-1726).
*  Jonathan Bartlett (1657-1659).

7080.  Richard Bartlett, born about 1585 in Sussex, England; died 20 May 1647 in Newbury, Essex, Massachusetts, United States.  He married before 1610 in England.
7081.  Joane, born about 1590 in England; died 05 February 1643 in Newbury, Essex, Massachusetts, United States.

Children of Richard Bartlett and Joanne are:
*  Joane Bartlett (1610-1653), married 1640 William Titcomb (1613-1676).
*  John Bartlett (1613-1679), married 1636 Joan (1615-1678).
*  Thomas Bartlett (1615-1647).
*  Richard Bartlett (1621-1698), married 1645 Abigail (1623-1687).
*  Christopher Bartlett (1624-1670), married (1) 1645 Mary (1625-1660); (2) 1663 Mary Hoyt.
*  Anne Bartlett (1625-1647).

Information about these Bartlett families was obtained from:

*  Dean Crawford Smith, edited by Melinde Lutz Sanborn, The Ancestry of Eva Belle Kempton, 1878-1908, Part II: The Ancestry of Amanda Spiller, 1823-1873 (Boston, Mass.: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2008).

*  David Webster Hoyt, The Old Families of Salisbury and Amesbury, Massachusetts ; with some related families of Newbury, Haverhill, Ipswich and Hampton (Providence, R.I., Snow & Farnham, printers, 1897-1917)

The URL for this post is:

Copyright (c) 2014, Randall J. Seaver


Friday, March 14, 2014

More Quirks with Ancestry.com Sliders and Record Counts

Genea-Musings reader Glenn has been working in Ancestry.com (see Another Ancestry.com Slider Quirk - Orpha Hildreth, posted 11 March 2014) some more, and has found another strange thing:

1)  He did a search, using the Advanced Search form, and put in only Location = Kentucky,USA" and picked "Restrict to Exact" to limit the search to only that state.  Here is the Advanced Search form when I duplicated his search:



The Results (using the "Categories" tab looks like this (note the "ANY Location" slider is on Exact):


Okay, there are more than 750 million matches in all of Ancestry's indexed databases.  That seems like a lot!

I scrolled down to the bottom of the list, and it looks like the Family Trees category makes about 90% of the matches, with over 664 million of them (497 million in Public Member Trees):



I went to the Public Member Trees collection and saw the matches:


There are over 638 million matches on the list.  

Some concerns:

*  The number for Public Member Trees on the "Categories" list (497 million) doesn't match the list for the specific collection (638 million).  

*  If you look at the first 200 matches (I only went the first 200!) and the locations listed on the Results list, you see that very few on the results list have Kentucky as a Location entry.  

I checked the other slider positions and found for Public Member Trees:

*  Not Exact = 1,760,775,866 in Public Member Trees
*  It wouldn't let me choose any other position except "Exact."

Earlier today, I was able to move the slider for ANY Location and see "Country," "State and Adjacent States," "State" and "Exact" slider settings.

I went back to the Search page, and selected "Clark County, Kentucky, USA" and the results for the slider settings were:

*  Not Exact = 1,760,775,866
*  Country = 1,500,580,486
*  State and Adjacent States = 501,349,353
*  State = 501,349,276
*  County and Adjacent Counties = 3,594,054
*  County = 3,594,054
*  Exact = 3,594,054

Those numbers seem awfully high for a county in Kentucky that had a population of population of 20,382 in the 1940 U.S. Census.  Note that the number stayed the same for "County and Adjacent Counties, "County" and "Exact" slider settings.  And that the "State and Adjacent States" and the "State" settings are almost the same.

On the top 50 matches (supposedly the "Best" matches) for the "Exact" slider setting for Clark County, Kentucky in the Public Member Trees, there are 4 matches for Clark County, Kentucky (numbers 47-50).  My guess is that most of the matches are for blank locations or for "USA" matches, but not "Clark County, Kentucky" matches.

Michael John Neill, on his Rootdig.com blog, has also done some investigations and found that checking the "Match all terms exactly" box on the Advanced Search page makes a difference.

When I started from the Search page and checked the "Match all terms exactly" box, the results came out with slider positions for "Exact" and "Not Exact."  When I start from the Home or Search page, and input only "Kentucky, USA" in the location field, without the "Match all terms exactly" checked, I get five slider positions on the Results page.

Perhaps the results above are caused by not having entries in the Given Name or Last Name fields.  When I use a Last Name = "smith" with the slider set to "Exact and Similar"), and set the slider to "Exact" for ANY Location = "Kentucky,USA" I get 4,624,546 matches in Public Member Trees. When I narrow the search to "Clark County, Kentucky, USA," I get 45,060 matches in Public Member Trees.  They are all Smith (or similar), but I don't see a Clark County entry on any of the first 50 matches (the "Best" matches).  If I look at the "Records" category results, the top matches are all from Clark County, Kentucky, and from the 1940 U.S. Census.

For some of the above studies, I was unable to get consistent results counts when I performed the same search (I thought!) and put the sliders in the same positions with the same search field entries.

I do a lot of searches on Ancestry using all of the tools they provide - the name filters, the location filters, wild cards, keywords, etc.  Up until the sliders were introduced, I saw tremendous consistency in the results - they duplicated previous searches, and were consistent - no alarm bells went off in my head saying "this can't be right."

My conclusions from this, and other studies performed by other researchers, include:

*  Something is wrong with the number of results for the Ancestry.com sliders - they don't make sense - either in absolute terms, or in relative terms.

*  Something is wrong with the "Exact" Location results - they are including extraneous results.

*  The sliders are a good idea from a searcher's viewpoint - I don't have to click to another search box, I can adjust the search parameters right on the screen.  But they need to be fixed so that they are consistent and the number of matches are correct.

*  It is unfortunate that Ancestry.com introduced the sliders at the same time as they eliminated the "Old Search."  Those who tried "New Search" for the first time this week also had to deal with the confusion of the sliders.

*  Researchers will question whether they are getting ALL of the results they request if the numbers are not consistent and correct, and the slider positions give confusing results.

For readers' information, I had a note recently from Ancestry.com saying that they are aware of the problems with the sliders and are working hard to fix them.  I know that this is not easy.  On the other hand, they've been working on sliders for several months.  I have every confidence that they will get this right, and, hopefully, very soon.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2014/03/more-quirks-with-ancestrycom-sliders.html

Copyright (c) 2014, Randall J. Seaver


52 Ancestors, Week 11: #18 Edward Hildreth (1831-1899)

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 #10:

Edward Hildreth (1831-1899) is #18 on my Ahnentafel List, and is my 2nd great-grandfather. He married #19 Sophia Newrton (12834-1923) in 1852.

 I am descended through:

*  their daughter, #9 Hattie Louisa Hildreth (1857-1920), who married 1874 #8 Frank Walton Seaver (1852-1922)

*  their son, #4 Frederick Walton Seaver (1876-1942), who married 1900 Alma Bessie Richmond (1882-1962)
* their son, #2 Frederick Walton Seaver (1911-1983), who married 1942 Betty Virginia Carringer (1919-2002) 
*  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:                        Edward Hildreth [1–14]
*  Sex:                           Male
*  Father:                       Zachariah Hildreth (1783-1857) [7, 10]
*  Mother:                      Hannah Sawtell (1789-1857) [7, 10]

2)  INDIVIDUAL FACTS  (with source citations as indicated in brackets):

*  Birth:                         30 April 1831, Townsend, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States [1, 7, 10]
*  Census:                      1 June 1850 (age 19), Berlin, Worcester, Massachusetts, United States [2]
*  Occupation:                1 June 1850 (age 19), clerk; Berlin, Worcester, Massachusetts, United States [2]
*  Census:                      27 September 1855 (age 24), Northborough, Worcester, Massachusetts, United States [3]
*  Census:                      1 June 1860 (age 29), Northborough, Worcester, Massachusetts, United States [4]
*  Occupation:                1 June 1860 (age 29), combmaker; Northborough, Worcester, Massachusetts, United States [4]
*  Census:                      29 August 1865 (age 34), Northborough, Worcester, Massachusetts, United States [11]
*  Census:                      1 June 1870 (age 39), 149 Lancaster Street, Leominster, Worcester, Massachusetts, United States [5]
*  Occupation:                1 June 1870 (age 39), machine shop; Leominster, Worcester, Massachusetts, United States [5]
*  Census:                      1 June 1880 (age 49), 149 Lancaster Street, Leominster, Worcester, Massachusetts, United States [6]
*  Occupation:                1 June 1880 (age 49), machinist; Leominster, Worcester, Massachusetts, United States [6]
*  Death:                        26 April 1899 (age 67), of cerebral apoplexy; Leominster, Worcester, Massachusetts, United States [7, 10, 11]
*  Burial:                        after 26 April 1899 (after age 67), Evergreen Cemetery, Leominster, Worcester, Massachusetts, United States [12–13]
*  Probate:                     24 October 1899 (age 68), Administration filed; Leominster, Worcester, Massachusetts, United States [14]

3)  MARRIAGES/CHILDREN  (with source citations as indicated in brackets):

*  Spouse 1:                   Sophia Newton (1834-1923)
*  Marriage 1:                25 December 1852 (age 21), Northborough, Worcester, Massachusetts, United States [8–9]
*  Child 1:                     Hattie Louisa Hildreth (1857-1920)
*  Child 2:                     Clarence Edward Hildreth (1874-1878)

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

According to the Milo Hildreth Family Bible Records, the birth of Edward Hildreth, son of Zachariah Hildreth and Hannah Sawtelle, is given as [1]:

Edward Hildreth, April 30th, 1831

In the 1850 US Census, Edward Hildreth (age 18, male, a clerk, born MA) resided in Berlin, Worcester County, Massachusetts in the household of Rufus Hastings [2].

The marriage record for Edward Hildreth and Sophia Newton in the Massachusetts Vital Records, 1841-1915 provides this information [8, 9]:

*  Marriage date:  25 December 1852 in Northborough
*  Groom Information:  Edward Hildreth, resident of Southborough, age 21, a Combmaker, born in Townsend, parents Zachariah Hildreth, first marriage
*  Bride information:  Sophia Newton, resident of Southborough, age 18, born in Vermont, parents Thomas J. Newton, first marriage.
*  By: S.L. Ashley, Minisiter, Northborough.

In the 1855 Massachusetts State Census, the Edward Hildreth family resided in Northborough, Worcester County, and included [3]:

*  Edward Hildreth - age 24, male, white, a comb manft, born Mass.
*  Sophiah Hildreth - age 20, female, white, born Vt.

In the 1860 US census, the Edward Hildreth family resided in Northborough, Worcester County, Massachusetts with the Theodore McNeil family. The household included [4]:

*   Edward Hildreth -- age 28, male, born MA, a combmaker, with $500 personal property
*  Sophia Hildreth -- age 24, female, born MA
*  Hattie L. Hildreth -- age 2, female, born MA.

The 1865 Massachusetts State Census entry for the Edward Hildreth household residing in Northborough, Worcester County includes [11]:

*  Edward Hildreth - age 34, male, born Mass., married, a combmaker, ratable poll checked, legal voter checked
*  Sophia Hildreth - age 28, female, born Mass., married, a housekeeper
*  Hattie Hildreth - age 7, female, born Mass., single

The Edward Hildreth family resided in Leominster in the house that is now 149 Lancaster Street.  An ell was built on the house and his daughter, Hattie (Hildreth) Seaver, and her family lived in that part of the house.

In the 1870 US census, the Edward Hildreth family resided in Leominster, Worcester County, Massachusetts.  The household included [5]:

*  Edward Hildreth -- age 39, male, works in machine shop, $2,000 in real property, $500 in personal property, born MA
*  Sophia Hildreth -- age 34, female, keeping house, born VT
*  Hattie L. Hildreth --age 12, female, attends school, born MA.

In the 1880 US census, the Edward Hildreth family lived in Leominster in Worcester County, Massachusetts. The family included [6]:

*  Edward Hildreth -- white, male, age 49, married, machinist, born MA, father and mother born MA
*  Sophia Hildreth -- white, female, age 46, wife, married, keeping house, born VT, father born ME, mother born MA
*  Sophia Stone -- white, female, age 84, mother-in-law, widowed, born MA, father and mother born MA

A careful search for births of children of Edward and Sophia Hildreth was conducted in the Massachusetts Vital Records, 1841-1915 in the American Ancestors (NEHGS) website database between the years of 1850 and 1880 in both Northborough and Leominster.  The only birth records for children of Edward and Sophia Hildreth were Hattie Louisa Hildreth in 1857 in Northborough and Clarence Edward Hildrith in 1874 in Leominster, who died in 1878.  Perhaps there were miscarriages, or stillborn children who were not recorded.

Edward Hildreth's death record in the Leominster town records [10] and the death certificate [7] obtained from the Leominster city clerk  includes this information:

*  Date of death:  26 April 1899, died in Leominster
*  Name:  Edward Hildreth, male, married, resident of Leominster
*  Age at death:  68 years, 11 months, 26 days
*  Cause of death:  cerebral apoplexy following Bright's disease
*  Occupation: machinist
*  Birthplace:  Townsend, Mass.
*  Parents names:  Zacharriah & Hannah (    ) Hildreth 
*  Parents birthplaces:  Townsend, Mass. and (not known)

Edward Hildreth died intestate on 26 April 1899 in Leominster, Worcester County, Massachusetts.  His probate records are in Worcester County (MA) Probate Records [14].  Administration was granted on 24 October 1899 to his widow, Sophia Hildreth, who posted a bond on $3,000 on that date.  The heirs-at-law were listed as:

*  Sophia Hildreth, Leominster, Mass., widow.
*  Hattie L. Seaver, Leominster, Mass., daughter.

No inventory was made or filed.

Edward Hildreth is buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Leominster, Massachusetts with his wife, daughter, son and son-in-law [12, 13].  The Hildreth gravestone is inscribed on one side with:

Edward Hildreth
1830-1899
Sophia Hildreth His wife
1836-1923
Clarence E. Hildreth
1874-1878

5)  SOURCES:

1. Richard C. Fipphen, "Bible Records - Northborough Historical Society," The Mayflower Descendant, Vol. 35, No. 2 (July 1985), page 158, Edward Hildreth entry.

2. 1850 United States Federal Census, Worcester County, Massachusetts, population schedule, Berlin town; Page 38, Line 32, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com), citing National Archives Publication M432, Roll 341.

3. "Massachusetts, State Census, 1855", Worcester County, Massachusetts, Northborough: Image 18 of 20, Dwelling #45, Family #57, Edward Hildreth household; digital images, FamilySearch (http://www.familysearch.org : accessed 14 February 2013).

4. 1860 United States Federal Census, Population Schedule, Worcester County, Massachusetts, Northborough town; Page 955, Dwelling #794, Family 984, Edward Hildreth household; online database, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com); citing National Archives Microfilm Publication M653, Roll 528.

5. 1870 United States Federal Census, Population Schedule, Worcester County, Massachusetts; Leominster town: Page 261, house #67, family #86, Edward Hildreth household; online database, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com); citing National Archives Microfilm Publication M593, Roll 654.

6. 1880 United States Federal Census, Population Schedule, Worcester County, Massachusetts; Leominster: Page 532A, dwelling #480, family #605, Edward Hildreth household; online database, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com); citing National Archives Microfilm Publication T9, Roll 565.

7. Leominster, Massachusetts, Death Certificate, Edward Hildreth; 1899, Town Clerk's Office, Leominster, Mass. (certificate dated 17 September 1990).

8. Northborough, Massachusetts, Copy of Record of Marriage, Edward Hildreth and Sophia Newton; citing Volume 3, Page 1, Record 10 (1853), Town Clerk's Office, Northborough, Mass. (document dated 13 September 1994).

9. New England Historic Genealogical Society, Massachusetts Vital Records, 1841-1915, indexed database and digital images, American Ancestors (http://www.AmericanAncestors.org), Marriages: Volume 62, Page 212, Northborough, 1852: Edward Hildreth and Sophia Newton entry.

10. New England Historic Genealogical Society, Massachusetts Vital Records, 1841-1915, indexed database and images, American Ancestors, Deaths: Volume 494, Page 365, Leominster, 1899; Edward Hildreth entry.

11. "Massachusetts, State Census, 1865", Worcester County, Massachusetts, Northborough; Image 7 of 31, Dwelling #30, family #40, Edward Hildreth household; digital image,  FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org : accessed 14 February 2013).

12. Find A Grave, database and images (http://www.findagrave.com), Evergreen Cemetery, Leominster, Mass., Edward Hildreth memorial #45051832.

13. Evergreen Cemetery (Leominster, Mass., on Main Street), Edward Hildreth gravestone.

14. "Worcester County, Massachusetts Probate Court Records" (Worcester County Probate Courthouse, Worcester, Mass.), Edward Hildreth, Probate Packet B-25,255.

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Copyright (c) 2014, Randall J. Seaver

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Free Weekend in Swedish Archives Site ArkivDigital - March 15/16

Genea-Musings reader Al Johnson in Illinois passed this information to me.

The ArkivDigital email newsletter for 11 March 2014 announced that the website would be free to access on March 15 and 16, 2014 (presumably Sweden time).  You can read the entire newsletter at http://www.arkivdigital.net/news-item/arkivdigital-for-free-march-15-16.



The newsletter says:

"ArkivDigital invites all who are interested in their Swedish history free access to our entire online historical archive on Saturday and Sunday (March 15-16, 2014). Take the opportunity to discover the wealth of records in the archive including the church books, tax registers, court records, muster rolls, seaman records, name registers, ship manifests, prison records and many other types of records. 


"To access ArkivDigital online for free during this weekend and if you are already registered, use your previous login details (Email address and Password). If you do not have a user account with us, go to the register formand create an account and then install ArkivDigital online
"All current subscriptions will be extended two days because of the two free days (March 15-16)."

This is an excellent opportunity to look for your Swedish ancestors on this website it you have not done so before.

Thank you, Al, for the heads up.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2014/03/free-weekend-in-swedish-archives-site.html

Copyright (c) 2014, Randall J. Seaver


Mocavo.com Announces Free Access Weekend Through Sunday, 16 March

I received this via email today from Mocavo:

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Announcement Blog Link: http://blog.mocavo.com/2014/03/open-access-mocavo-gold-sunday-midnight

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Here is the text for the announcement:

Over the past few months, we received so much positive feedback from our free access weekends that we decided to do it again!

Back by popular demand, all Mocavo Basic members can now access all of the premium Mocavo Gold features for free until Sunday at Midnight. This means you can search our entire collection to your heart’s content, upload your tree to receive new discovery alerts, download and print any document you find, and much more!


Need some extra help using Mocavo Gold?  If you would like to get the most out of the Mocavo Gold Open Access Weekend, check out these easy-to-follow guides!

Read the Guide to Mocavo Gold Search

Watch a Short Video About Mocavo Gold Faceted Search 

Trouble Accessing Mocavo Gold? Check Out These Quick Tips

These premium search features are generally available to Mocavo Gold members. If you decide that you enjoy the premium features of Mocavo Gold, consider joining our revolution and becoming a part of the Mocavo Gold community. 

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This is a great opportunity to try out the Mocavo Gold features.  There are thousands of databases on this site, and they may contain information about or records for your ancestors.


Disclosure:  I have a complimentary Mocavo Gold subscription, which I greatly appreciate.  I chose to write this post, and received no compensation for doing so.

Treasure Chest Thursday - Post 205: Death Record for Jeremiah Knowlton (1745-1785)

It's Treasure Chest Thursday - time to look in my digital image files to see what treasures I can find for my family history and genealogy musings.

The treasure today is the Death Record for Jeremiah Knowlton (1745-1785) in Weston, Massachusetts:


The page from the Weston town vital records book says:

"Jeremiah Knowlton, d. June 11, 1785.  His widow, Hannah, and family were removed to Concord."

I just found this last night after years of searching town records.  I don't know how I missed it.  This family resided in Lincoln, a nearby town, in the 1770s and early 1780s, with several children recorded there.  

There is also a clue for further research - the family removed to Concord, another nearby town.  

The source citation for this entry in the Weston town vital record book is:

Mary Frances Peirce, Town of Weston. Births, Deaths and Marriages, 1707-1850. Gravestones, 1703-1900. Church Records, 1709-1825 (Boston, Mass. : McIndoe Bros., Printers, 1901), page 563, Jeremiah Knowlton entry.

In the process of searching for Jeremiah last night, I also found the death record for his second wife in Concord in 1797, and birth/baptism records for three children by his second wife in Lincoln which I did not have.

Jeremiah Knowlton is my 5th great-grandfather, and father of Abigail Knowlton (1774-1855), who married Nathan Gates in 1790 in Westminster, Massachusetts.  I've been trying to figure out why Abigail would leave her home and marry someone fairly far away from where she grew up at age 16.  One hypothesis is that she may have had a guardian (another item for the to-do list) who moved to the Westminster area after her father died.  Abigail's mother, Abigail (Pierce) Knowlton, died in 1776, so Abigail (Knowlton) Gates grew up with a step-mother, Hannah (Goffe) Knowlton.  

Copyright (c) 2014, Randall J. Seaver

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Creating a "Facts Without Sources" List in RootsMagic 6

James Tanner, in his post "Comments on Becoming an Excellent Genealogist - Chapter Three" today on the Genealogy's Star blog, said:

"Even though some of the current programs have extensive and complex sourcing resources, those parts of the program can be totally ignored. For example, do you know of a program that will report to you all of the events you have entered without a source?"

Well, yes, I do!  I love challenges...

I remembered asking this question before, and found the post Can Your Software Make A Place-Name-Event-Source List? (posted 18 May 2010).  I couldn't find a program that would do exactly what I wanted, but reader RootsMagic offered:

"I'm not sure I follow exactly what you are looking for, but in RootsMagic 4 you can try this...

- Reports > Lists > Fact Type list
- Choose "Facts without sources"

This will give you a list of every fact in your file without sources.  On that same report you can also filter which people you want to include."


There were also comments on my post that Reunion, Family Tree Maker and Legacy Family Tree can do this also using certain reports and techniques.

I'll do it in RootsMagic 6 here, and hope that my fellow geneabloggers will exercise their favorite software programs to do the same task.

My goal here is to create a list of FACTS (or called EVENTS) without a source.  i'd like to have the person's name, the Fact type, the date, and the place name.  Ideally, I would like to have it in Place Name order so I could work in a limited number of sources at a time.

Here's what I did:

1)  In RootsMagic 6, I clicked on the "Reports" menu item, selected "Lists," and selected "Fact List:"



2)  clicking on the "Fact List" icon opened the "Report Settings" screen for the "Fact List" report.  I clicked on the down arrow for the "Create a list of:" options, and selected "Facts without sources:"


I selected "Facts without sources" and then decided to select my ancestors and descendants rather than everyone in my data file.  I clicked on the down arrow for the "People to include" dropdown menu and selected "Select from list:"


The "Select People" screen opened, and I scrolled to myself, and clicked on the "Mark group" button.  I decided to select "Ancestors of highlighted persons" option:


That opened the "Ancestor Options" screen, and I ran the number up to 13 generations of Ancestors:


I clicked the "OK" button on that screen, and on the "Select Person" screen, and then clicked on "Generate Report" button on the "Report Settings" screen, and the report started to be created.  It took a minute or two.

3)  Here is one page from the "Facts Without Sources" report:


The report created is 127 pages.  There are about 34 names on each page, for a grand total of something like 4,300 Facts without sources for just my ancestors back 13 generations.  Yikes...just to make me feel better, I ran another report with the option of "Facts With Sources" and received 203 pages (about 6,800) of facts with sources.  If I ran the report for all persons in the database, I'd end up with about 2,700 pages in the report (I have about 50,000 sources for 130,000 facts at this time).

The report shown above has columns for Name, Event, Date and Place.  It is in alphabetical Last Name order.  I can save it as an RTF, PDF, HTML or text file.  I saved it as a PDF file.

I wish there was a way to exclude certain Facts from the report - the Ref # is one of them.

I could go through my database one person at a time and try to search, find and add sources to the Facts without a source citation.  That does not seem real time efficient for me.  

I have many Places where many events occurred, and I would like to create the Fact list in Place order rather than Name order.  That way I could concentrate my efforts in adding sources on a specific place, for which there are only a few resources rather than do a wide search for a person to find sources for each Fact.  For example, the Sudbury, Massachusetts Vital Record book could provide me with births, deaths and marriages for hundreds of persons in my database.  

A work-around would be to search for a given Fact or a given Place in the created report above.  If I do that, I find 15 items for "Sudbury" in the report.  

4)  The "Facts Without Sources" report in RootsMagic almost satisfies me...and it should answer James Tanner's question about whether any software program can do this.

Is anyone else brave enough to share how many Facts they have without and with sources in their program or database?

Who wants to tackle Legacy Family Tree, Family Tree Maker, Reunion, Ancestral Quest, Family Tree Builder, or another genealogy software package.  Show us how to create a "Facts Without Sources" report.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2014/03/creating-facts-without-sources-list-in.html

Copyright (c) 2014, Randall J. Seaver




Alice Volkert Speaks on "Yours, Mine and Ours" at CGSSD Meeting on Saturday, 15 March

The Computer Genealogy Society of San Diego (CGSSD) meets on the 3rd Saturday of each month (except December) from 9:00 a.m. to noon on the campus of UCSD, University of California, San Diego. 

The next meeting will be held on 15 March 2014 from 9:00 am to noon. Here are the details:

 9:00 AM  SIG/User Group meetings: 
                Family Tree Maker:  Ken Robison
                Roots Magic:  Chris Christensen

10:00 AM Break / snacks & refreshments

10:20 AM Announcements 

10:30 AM Guest Speaker:  Alice Colby Volkert
                   Presentation: "Yours, Mine and Ours" 

The idea is exploring how people USED to "do genealogy" in the old days. With self-address-stamped-envelopes, etc. Then input from the attendees. Then how we the people NOW "do genealogy; with their own records: Ancestry, Legacy, MAC, etc. Then input from the attendees. Then we look into the ways people are sharing and combining their efforts. Then input from the attendees. Wrap-up will be a look into the future: automatic processing, face recognition, semantic searches, etc.

Biography:

Alice Colby Volkert is a professional genealogist who is involved in many aspects of genealogy.  She specializes in New England, particularly Massachusetts, as well as general United States family history work. But can research in any part of the United States. Alice enjoys being a coach, helping people make their own discoveries and organizing their data. She guides and assists people who want to 'do-it-themselves' or can do as much for anyone as they require.  Alice was one of the researchers for the PBS television "Genealogy Roadshow!"

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.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2014/03/alice-volkert-speaks-on-yours-mine-and.html