Saturday, December 5, 2015

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun -- Your Best Visit With Relatives

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: 

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



Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the Mission Impossible music, please!):

1)  Have you visited with friends or relatives to find out more about your ancestors (parents, grandparents, etc.)?  
If so, what was your "best" visit with friends or relatives who provided information, stories or photographs of your ancestors?

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

Here's mine:

I started researching my family history in early 1988, and made significant progress in the next two plus years.  In September of 1990, my aunt and uncle, d and Janet Seaver (my father's brother) celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in Leominster, Massachusetts with a reception, a church service, and a family reunion over several days in the Leominster area.

My brother, Scott, and I attended the event, and stayed in Massachusetts for another week or so, staying with my cousins up in Salem, New Hampshire.  I knew that my grandmother's Richmond family had had a farm in Putnam, Connecticut, and that there were Richmond cousins still living near the farm.  Scott and I drove from Salem to Putnam one day, and stayed in a hotel near Grove Street Cemetery in Putnam.  My goal was to check the cemetery, visit libraries, and try to contact Richmond folks in the telephone book.

After checking into the hotel, I looked in the phone book and found that there were several Richmond names, so I called one.  I explained who I was, how I was related to James and Hannah Richmond, and she said that her son, Russell, had a lot of family history information, and gave me the phone number.  But she said I would have to talk to his wife, because Russell was deaf.  I called, and talked to the wife, Helen, and she was very happy to hear from a California cousin.  We arranged for Russell, who could read lips, to meet us at the hotel and guide us through the cemetery to the Richmond graves, and then to visit their home very near the old Richmond dairy farm in Putnam, which had been sold recently.

The next morning, Russell came and we toured the graveyard.  He told us some stories (which I've forgotten), and I took photos of the gravestones.  Then we went to their home on Richmond Road in Putnam, which was across the road from the farm.  It was a relatively new log cabin home with all of the amenities.  Helen served a nice lunch, and we sat together and looked through photographs and papers, and Russell told stories about the Richmond family, and especially his line.  He recalled that my grandmother and several of her sisters had visited the Putnam family back in the 1930s.  

We took a little excursion across the road, and Russell explained the dairy farm workings, the buildings, etc.  I took more photographs, and have forgotten the stories.

I asked if we could make photocopies of the pertinent papers and photographs from his collection, and he agreed.  I picked out what I wanted, and we went to a drug store in town that had a photocopy machine, and I got black and white copies of the material.  When we returned, I wrote the information about the subjects of the photos on the back of the photocopies.  

We said our goodbyes in the late afternoon, promised to drop in again the next time we were in the area, and went back to the hotel.  We went to Boston the next day and did the tourist thing - Scott wanted to see the Cheers Bar and Fenway Park, and I wanted to see Paul Revere's house and the Freedom Trail.  

This was an excellent adventure - totally on the fly without much preparation, and it turned out really well.   I learned a lot - I needed to be able to record the stories, and make arrangements ahead of the visit.

Linda and I went to Massachusetts again in 1994, and we called Russell and Helen again, and found that they had moved to Pomfret, a town just northwest of Putnam.  We visited again, and I shared more information about what I had found out about the Richman family in Wiltshire, England in 1993 on our vacation there.  

Russell is my second cousin once removed.  We exchanged Christmas cards for several years, until Russell died in 2003, and Helen died in 2010.  

The URL for this post is:  

Copyright (c) 2015, Randall J. Seaver

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.



Surname Saturday - PIN (England to colonial Massachusetts)

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


I am in the 8th great-grandmothers and I'm up to Ancestor #1179 who is Katherine Pin (1611-1685) 
[Note: the earlier great-grandmothers and 8th great-grandfathers have been covered in earlier posts].

My ancestral line back through one generation of this PIN family line is:


1. Randall J. Seaver

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

4. Frederick Walton Seaver (1876-1942)
5. Alma Bessie Richmond (1882-1962)

8. Frank Walton Seaver (1852-1922)
9. Hattie Louise Hildreth (1857-1920)


18.  Edward Hildreth (1831-1899)
19.  Sophia Newton (1834-1923)

36.  Zavhariah Hildreth (1783-1857)
37.  Hannah Sawtell (1789-1857)

72.  Zachariah Hildreth (1754-1828)
73.  Elizabeth Keyes (1759-1793)

146.  Jonathan Keyes (1722-1781)
147.  Elizabeth Fletcher (1720-1761)

294.  Samuel Fletcher (1684-1749)
295.  Hannah --?-- (1689-1759)

588.  Samuel Fletcher (1652-1723)
589.  Hannah Wheeler (1649-1697)

1178.  George Wheeler, born before 23 March 1606 in Cranfield, Bedfordshire, England; died 02 June 1687 in Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States.  He was the son of 2356. Thomas Wheeler.  He married 08 June 1630 in Cranfield, Bedfordshire, England.
1179.  Katherine Pin, born about 1611 in England; died 02 January 1685 in Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States.

Children of George Wheeler and Katherine Pin are:
i. William Wheeler, born before 24 July 1631 in Cranfield, Bedfordshire, England; died 30 November 1683 in Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States; married Hannah Buss 30 October 1659 in Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States; born 18 February 1642 in Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States; died March 1693 in Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States.
ii. Thomas Wheeler, born before 01 August 1633 in Cranfield, Bedfordshire, England; died 16 December 1686 in Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States; married Hannah Harwood 10 October 1657 in Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States; born about 1632 in England; died after 1707 in Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States.
iii. Elizabeth Wheeler, born before 03 January 1636 in Cranfield, Bedfordshire, England; died 14 June 1704 in Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States; married Francis Fletcher 11 October 1656 in Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States; born about 1630 in England; died about 1704 in Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States.
iv. Sarah Wheeler, born 30 March 1640 in Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States; died 12 December 1713 in Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States; married Francis Dudley 26 October 1665 in Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States; born 1638 in Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States; died 1702 in Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States.
v. John Wheeler, born 19 March 1643 in Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States; died 27 September 1713 in Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States; married Sarah Larkin 25 March 1663 in Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States; born 12 March 1648 in Charlestown, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States; died 12 August 1725 in Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States.
vi. Mary Wheeler, born 06 September 1645 in Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States; died 24 February 1679 in Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States; married Eliphalet Fox 26 October 1665 in Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States; born 1644 in Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States; died 15 August 1711 in Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States.
vii. Ruth Wheeler, born about 1647 in Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States; died 19 December 1703 in Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States; married Samuel Hartwell 26 October 1665 in Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States; born 26 March 1645 in Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States; died 26 July 1725 in Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States.
viii. Hannah Wheeler, born about 1649 in Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States; died 11 December 1697 in Chelmsford, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States; married Samuel Fletcher 05 July 1672 in Chelmsford, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States.

I don't think any researcher has found information about the parents of Katherine Pin.  I have these resources for these Wheeler families:

*  M. Wheeler Molyneaux, The Wheeler Family of Cranfield, England and Concord, Massachusetts and Some Descendants of Sgt. Thomas Wheeler of Concord (Long Beach, Calif. : the author, 1992)

John Brooks Threlfall, 50 Great Migration Colonists in New England and Their Origins (Madison, Wis. : the author, 1990)

Dean Crawford Smith, edited by Melinde Lutz Sanborn, The Ancestry of Eva Belle Kempton, 1878-1908; Part III: The Ancestry of Henry Clay Bartlett, 1832-1892 (Boston : New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2004)


The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2015/12/surname-saturday-pin-england-to.html

Copyright (c) 2015, Randall J. Seaver


Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.


Friday, December 4, 2015

My Legacy Family Tree Colors

On the Legacy User's Group on Facebook, Michele Simmons Lewis challenged the group to show the colors of their Legacy Family Tree Version 8 screens.

I was waiting for a GEDCOM to load on another website, so I changed my colors (from the "Options" tab and the "Change Colors" button), both text colors and background colors for each field.

Here is my "Family" View screen:


I also color coded my ancestors, and my wife's, using the 8 color great-grandparents option.  Here is my "Pedigree" View screen:


As you can see, the only one that isn't easily readable is the 4th one down for Julie E. White.

I like pastel colors, but this may be a bit much.  I will try it for awhile and probably change it again.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2015/12/my-legacy-family-tree-colors.html

Copyright (c) 2015, Randall J. Seaver

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.



52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 101: #125 Mary Jane (Hutchison) Sovereen (1792-1868)

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.  I am extending this theme in 2015 to 104 Ancestors in 104 Weeks. Here is my ancestor biography for week #101:

Mary Jane Hutchison (1792-1868) is #125 on my Ahnentafel list, my 4th great-grandmother, who married #124 Frederick Sovereen (1786-1875) in 1810.  

I am descended through:

* their son, #62 Alexander Sovereen (1814-1907 who married #63 Elizabeth Putman (1818-1895) in 1840, 

*  their daughter, #31 Mary Jane Sovereen (1844-1874) who married #30 James Abraham Kemp (1831-1902) in 1861.
*  their daughter, Gerogianna Kemp (1868-1952) who married #14 Charles Auble (1849-1916) in 1898.
*  their daughter #7 Emily Kemp Auble (1899-1977) who married #6 Lyle Lawrence Carringer in 1918.
*  their daughter, #3 Betty Virginia Carringer (1919-2002), who married #2 Frederick Walton Seaver (1911-1983) in 1942.
*  their son, #1 Randall J. Seaver (1943-....)

 =====================================================

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


*  Name:                       Mary Jane Hutchison[1–2]   
*  Alternate Name:       Mary Jane Sovereen[3]    
*  Alternate Name:       Jane Sovereen[4]

*  Sex:                           Female   

*  Father:                      William Hutchison (1745-1826)   
*  Mother:                     Catherine Lewis (1759-1845)   
  
2)  INDIVIDUAL EVENTS (with source citations as indicated in brackets):   

*  Birth:                        22 January 1792, Pleasant Valley, Kings, New Brunswick, Canada[1]   
*  Census:                     1 April 1851 (age 59), Windham, Norfolk, Ontario, Canada[3]   
*  Census:                     1 April 1861 (age 69), Windham, Norfolk, Ontario, Canada[4]
*  Death:                       16 April 1868 (age 76), Delhi, Norfolk, Ontario, Canada[1]   
*  Burial:                      after 16 April 1868 (after age 76), Delhi, Norfolk, Ontario, Canada[1]
   
3)  SHARED EVENTS (with source citations as indicated in brackets):   
  
*  Spouse 1:                 Frederick Sovereen (1786-1875)   
*  Marriage:                 17 May 1810 (age 18), London, Middlesex, Ontario, Canada[2]

*  Child 1:                    William Lewis Sovereign (1811-1892)   
*  Child 2:                    Mary Catherine Sovereign (1813-    )   
*  Child 3:                    Alexander Sovereen (1814-1907)   
*  Child 4:                    Jacob Sovereign (1817-1909)   
  
4)  NOTES (with source citations as indicated in brackets):   

 Mary Jane Hutchison was born 22 January 1792, the daughter of William and Catherine (Lewis) Hutchison.  According to the Pioneer Sketches of Long Point Settlement book, Her gravestone says she died 16 April 1868 at age 76 years, 2 months and 25 days[1].  The William Hutchison family resided in Kings County, New Brunswick at the time of the birth.

The Hutchison family migrated from New Brunswick to the London District on the north shore of Lake Erie in about 1801, and William Hutchison was granted 12,000 acres in Walsingham[1].  

She married, on 17 May 1810 in London District, Ontario, to Frederick Sovereen, son of Jacob and Elizabeth (Pickle) Sovereen.  The marriage entry in the list of "Early London District Marriages" says[2]:

"17 May 1810. Frederick Sovereen Jr. of Charlotteville, yeoman and Mary Jane Hutchison of Walsingham, spinster, by Thomas Welch JP. Witnesses-John Backhouse, Cornelius Dedrick, James Hutchison, John Backhouse and Ephraim C. Mitchell."

Frederick and Mary Jane (Hutchison) Sovereen had four children born between 1811 and 1817, all born in Norfolk County, Ontario.

In the 1851 Census for Canada West, the Frederick Sovereen household resided in Windham township, Norfolk County, Canada West[3].  The household included:

*  Frederick Sovereen - farmer, born in United States, Baptist religion, age 66, male.
*  Mary Jane Sovereen - born in New Brunswick, Baptist religion, age 61, female.

In the 1861 Census of Canada West, the Frederick Sovereen household was enumerated in Windham, Norfolk county, Canada West[4].  The household included:

*  Frederick Sovereen - a farmer, born in USA, Baptist religion, age 75, male, married
*  Jane Sovereen - born in New Brunswick, Baptist religion, age 70, female, married

The book, Pioneer Sketches of Long Point Settlement, has a series of historical sketches, genealogies and essays which tell the story of pioneer life in the early days of Long Point Settlement in Norfolk County, Ontario, and depict the character and life work of the first cabin-builders.  The sketch for William Hutchison, is on Pages 207-210, titled "A Jolly Pioneer."  The paragraph about Mary Jane (Hutchison) Sovereen says[1]:

"Mary Jane Hutchinson, eldest daughter of William, married Frederick Sovereign, the founder of Fredericksburg. Her children are enumerated in the Sovereign genealogy. This old pioneer mother was known far and wide as 'Aunt Jane Sovereign,' and was noted for her generous hospitality and her quaint, off-hand manner of speech. She was an indefatigable worker, and found rest in busy activity; and to sit still for any length of time was misery to her. She was a regular attendant at church, and to sit in a pew for a solid hour and keep awake until the old-fashioned 'fourthly' had dragged out its weary length, was a cross that she was not always able to bear. On one occasion during a 'protracted meetin'' the sermon had been unusually long, and when the 'conference' exercises began, 'Aunt Jane' stood up, but said nothing. The kind-hearted pastor, divining that some great trouble was weighing upon her mind, called her by name and offered words of encouragement. 'Oh!' exclaimed Aunt Jane, as she looked up with arms akimbo, 'I've just stood up to rest my hips abit.' As these lines are being written an old familiar scene presents itself.  In my mind's eye I see the old fire-place aglow once more with its flickering flame. In it I see the old crane, and once again I hear the sputtering of the old iron teakettle. In front stands the bent form of a dear old familiar figure. With arms akimbo, she looks into the glowing coals for a moment while the ashes from the inverted bowl of her clay pipe drops upon the old hearth. For a brief moment I turn aside to catch a glimpse of some other passing scene, and when I look again, behold, all is changed! Was it only a phantom? Verily so. The old chimney is dark, damp and musty; the old hearth has caved in and the old crane lies buried in the dust. The old tea-kettle has yielded up its form and the elements of which it was composed have been incorporated into other and newer forms, and in the village cemetery I see a granite column whereon is engraved these lines: 'Mary Jane, wife of Frederick Sovereign, died April 16th, 1868, aged 76 years, 2 months and 25 days.'

5)  SOURCES
 
1. E.A. Owen, Pioneer Sketches of Long Point Settlement (Toronto, Ont. :  William Briggs, 1898), pages 207-210, William Hutchson sketch.

2. Bill Martin, "Early London District [Ontario] Marriages," online database, Bill Martin's Genealogy Website (http://my.tbaytel.net/bmartin/london_m.htm), Frederick Sovereen Jr. and Mary Jane Hutchison entry.

3. Census of 1851, Canada West, Norfolk District 25, Windham, sub-district 237, page 35 (stamped), lines 38-39, Frederick Sovereen household; digital image, Library and Archives Canada (http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/census-1851/index-e.html : accessed 10 March 2013); citing Library and Archives Canada Microfilm C-11741.


4. Census of Canada, 1861, Canada West, Norfolk District, Windham sub-district, Page 76, Lines 12-13, Frederick Sovereen household; digital image, Library and Archives Canada (http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/census/1861/Pages/1861.aspx : accessed 23 August 2013); citing Library and Archives Canada Microfilm C-1053.


==================================

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2015/12/52-ancestors-in-52-weeks-week-101-125.html

Copyright (c) 2015, Randall J. Seaver

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.



Thursday, December 3, 2015

First Look at GigaTrees Family Tree Site

A Facebook friend asked me if I had heard of, or contributed to, the GigaTrees.com family tree website.  I admitted that I had missed it, and then went to look at it.  The site is apparently owned by Tim Forsythe.

1)  When I entered the website URL, I saw this screen:


The site says:

"Gigatrees.com was created for all types of users, from family historian newbies to certified genealogist technonerds. Regardless of your flavor, Gigatrees.com will make building your family tree a piece of cake. And when you are ready to take your Genealogy to the next level, you'll find Gigatrees.com provides loads of advanced features not found on other family trees, including support for the Genealogy Proof Standard, Bonkers consistency checking, Census Table Reports, Ancestor Distribution Heatmaps, Generation Lists and much, much more.
"Gigatrees.com is fast, friendly, flexible and free.
  1. It uses the latest technologies, including distributed content delivery networks, jQuery and Bootstrap 3 to provide fast, consistent and reliable page load speeds, worldwide.
  2. It supports both ANSI and UTF-8 encoding so no matter what language your data is in or which application you use, it will be displayed correctly.
  3. It is highly configurable giving you the ability to tailor the content of your tree to your own specific needs, but don't worry, the default configuration was designed to accommodate almost everyone. In fact, unless you are a power user, you won't need to change a thing.
  4. Best of all, Gigatrees.com is completely free. Gigatrees.com relies on the generous support of our satisfied users to cover operating costs."

Reading the text, it appears that you submit your family tree via a GEDCOM file, or add content person-by-person on the site, and then the GigaTrees site examines and analyzes your tree persons.  It also creates a set of files that could be uploaded to a website.

Note that the screen above has very few links or menus.  In fact, zero, except for the three bars at the top left of the screen on the line with the word "GIGATREES."  Clicking on the three bars, revealed a menu on the left side of the screen:


On that list is:

*  Sign In - I created an account
*  Blog - see http://gigatrees.com/blog/
*  User Guide - a how-to for advanced users; see http://gigatrees.com/userguide
*  Gigatree - build an offline family tree for download

I clicked on "Gigatree" and the screen showed some buttons for:

*  Upload GEDCOM
*  Restore Default Config
*  Save Config
*  Build Gigatree

I clicked on the "Upload GEDCOM" button and the GEDCOM file, with over 12,000 persons, started to upload.  It took about 8 minutes:


After the GEDCOM upload, I was back to the GigaTrees page.  I scrolled down a bit and added a tree name, then checked out all of the Configuration items.   Here are the first two screens with the title and configuration details:



After checking all of the Configuration items, I clicked the button at the top of the screen to "Save Config."

That took some minutes to save (as I recall), and then this screen appeared:


At the top of the screen above, with the light yellow background, is the message:

"Almost there.  We'll send you an email when your build is complete."

Well, I've not received an email over the last three days, and when I check the site I cannot see any tree data.

There is a sample tree for viewers to look at - see Tim Forsythe's  The Forsythe Saga - and explore.

Hopefully, I will be able to display and demonstrate more on this site when my tree has been built by GigaTrees.


Copyright (c) 2015, Randall J. Seaver

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.