Saturday, February 27, 2016

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun -- What Did You Collect as a Youth?

Hey genea-folks, 
it's Saturday Night again, 

 time for more Genealogy Fun!

 


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


1)   Most of us collect dead ancestors and relatives now - what did you collect when you were a child or teenager, or adult?

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

Here's mine:

I had several collections between the ages of 6 and 18, including:

*  Baseball cards:  In the early 1950s, I rode my bike all over North Park and East San Diego trying to find stores with baseball cards (5 to a pack, with a slab of pink gum, for 10 cents (?)).  Then I would trade duplicates with my brother, my friends, etc.  In 1954, I had a complete collection of all the cards published by Topps.  Eventually, I invented a dice game to play my own fantasy baseball games - my team usually won somehow.

*  Bottle caps:  I had a collection, usually gleaned from my family, neighbors, and friends who saved them for me.  I also went to grocery stores and asked for them.

*  Maps:  My father's cousin Dorothy subscribed to National Geographic, and I asked for maps from the magazine when they were finished with them.  I also obtained city maps from gas stations and studied them.  This led to making my own maps with rivers, streams, hills, railroads, bridges, highways, stop lights, etc.  In color.

*  Stamps:  My grandfather, Lyle Carringer, gave my brother and I a treasure trove of cancelled stamps when we were 8 or 10 years old.  We got stamp albums and pasted them in, both U.S. and foreign.  Then we started getting uncanceled stamps from my grandfather's weekly trips to the post office, and eventually plate blocks.  He had a worldwide correspondence of stamp collectors.  This became my sick-day or rainy-day activity.  We ended up buying additional uncanceled stamps for our collection at a downtown stamp shop.

*  Coins:  My brother and I collected coins also - each denomination (up to quarters), each year, each mint, etc.  We had coin books for each denomination/year/mint.  My folks and grandparents saved coins for us to catalog.  I still have these somewhere in the cave.

*  Bus schedules:  We lived right on the #2 bus line in San Diego, and I collected the schedules for as many lines as possible.  I loved the maps.  From my front window, I noted when a scheduled bus was late, noting the bus number to try to figure out the schedule.  Another sick/rainy day activity.

Collecting things was a big deal for me - it stimulated my curiosity and creativity, gave me goals to achieve, and I learned about geography, money, baseball, maps, etc.  

In my late teens and early 20s, I collected radio station music surveys (Top 40 lists) from all over the country.  I wrote away to rock radio stations around the country and asked to be put on their mailing list.  I checked Billboard Magazine every week for their Top 100 list.  Eventually, I made my own Top 40 hits list every week for several years based on the surveys I received.  

From age 20 to 45, I listened for distant U.S. and foreign radio stations on the AM band, kept a reception log, made tape recordings, and learned about radio wave propagation.  This was usually an evening and early morning (like 1 a.m. to 4 a.m. activity).  I also collected QSL cards and verification letters from the stations.  From San Diego, I routinely heard Japan, China, Hawaii, Australia, New Zealand, Central America, Mouth America radio stations during a calendar year.  Occasionally, I would hear stations in western Europe, Thailand, western Africa, and other distant countries.  I was an editor of the DX Worldwide column for the International Radio Club of America (IRCA) in the mid-1960s.

Then I started on genealogy in 1988 and have collected thousands of dead ancestors and relatives.  


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Copyright (c) 2016, 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.  Share it on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ or Pinterest using the icons below.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

Surname Saturday -- BREWER (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 #1257, who is Mary BREWER (1653-1706) 
[Note: the earlier great-grandmothers and 8th great-grandfathers have been covered in earlier posts].

My ancestral line back through two generations of this BREWER 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)

38.  Thomas J. Newton (1800-????)
39.  Sophia Buck (1797-1882)

78.  Isaac Buck (1757-1846)
79.  Martha Phillips (1757-1820)

156.  Isaac Buck (1732-????)
157.  Mary Richards (1733-????)

314.  Joseph richards (1703-1748)
315.  Mary Bowden (1705-1755)

628.  Crispus Richards (1683-1763)
629.  Sarah Collins (1678-1757)

1256.  John Richards, born about 1644 in Lynn, Essex, Massachusetts, United States; died before 10 March 1713 in Lynn, Essex, Massachusetts, United States.  He was the son of 2512. Edward Richards and 2513. FNU LNU.  He married 18 November 1674 in Lynn, Essex, Massachusetts, United States.
1257.  Mary Brewer, born 1653 in Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States; died 1706 in Massachusetts, United States.  

Children of John Richards and Mary Brewer are:
*  Mary Richards (1675-1754), married 1698 Benjamin Darling (1672-1709).
*  John Richards (1677-1733), married 1705 Mary Allen (1685-????).
*  Edward Richards (1679-1748), married (1_ 1703 Mary Kidder; (2) 1722 Hannah Copp (1702-????).
*  Crispus Richards (1681-1763), married 1702 Sarah Collins (1678-1757).
*  Elizabeth Richards (1683-????), married 1715 Henry Kent (1679-????).
*  Joseph Richards (1685-1745), married Sarah (????-1754).
*  William Richards (1688-????).
*  Abigail Richards (1690-1774), married 1711 William Collins (1690-1767).

2514.  Crispus Brewer, born about 1626 in England; died Bef. 10 February 1707 in Lynn, Essex, Massachusetts, United States.  He married about 1652 in probably Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States.
2515.  Mary LNU, born 1629 in England; died 03 May 1693 in Lynn, Essex, Massachusetts, United States.

Children of Crispus Brewer and Mary are:
*  Mary Brewer (1653-1706), married 1674 John Richards (1644-1713)
*  Hannah Brewer (1659-????), married 1681 Samuel Ingolls.
*  Thomas Brewer (1659-1709), married 1682 Elizabeth Graves (1662-????).
*  Sarah Brewer (1659-1723), married 1678 Samuel Graves (1655-1723).
*  Elizabeth Brewer (1660-????), married 1683 John Lewis.
*  Abigail Brewer (1664-1737), married 1693 John Liscom (????-1707).
*  Rebecca Brewer (1667-1701).

Information about this Brewer family was obtained from:

*  Winifred Lovering Holman, "Crispus Brewer of Boston and Lynn," The Essex Genealogist, Volume 19, number 2 (May 1999), pages 77-80.


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Copyright (c) 2016, 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.  Share it on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ or Pinterest using the icons below.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.


Friday, February 26, 2016

Where Did 17,132 More MyHeritage Record Matches Come From? Published Books!

I check on my MyHeritage Record Matches count in my MyHeritage family tree every week or so, and was really surprised to see that I had 17,132 more Record Matches than I did on 16 February 2016.  I added a few persons to the tree recently, but 17,132?  Note:  The numbers include all Matches (Pending, confirmed and Rejected) with 1 star or better.

When I checked the list of "Record Matches by Collections" I saw the reason why:  There is a Collection called "Compilation of Published Sources."  I have 17,466 matches now in that collection:


I recalled that MyHeritage added 150,000 published books back in December 2015, and I wrote about searching that collection in MyHeritage Releases Over 150,000 Family History Books - FREE to Access (8 December 2015).

It looks like MyHeritage is now providing Record Matches for those published books.  Bravo!  This means that users can add a link to those book pages to persons in their family tree.  

I selected the "Compilation of Published sources" collection on the list above, and then chose to see the Record Matches by "Last name" in the dropdown menu at the top right of the screen below:


The list started at A surnames, but I really wanted to see the Seaver names.  I could have skipped page to page to find it, but instead I switched to seeing 100 matches at a time, and then figured out that there were 175 pages for this collection, and I needed a way to guess the page number to find the Seaver folks.  By skipping to the last page number shown at the bottom of the page, I eventually got to page 74 which had many Seaver entries.  This system really needs a surname search!

Here is the top of one of the pages with Seaver matches:


I wanted to see what the match at the top of the page looked like, so I clicked on the name of the boo, and saw:


This particular match is a biographical book that I don't recall seeing.  There is information about three or four Seaver generations which may be useful to other researchers who access my online family trees.

Further down, there is information about the source of the book and an OCR transcription of the text of the page:


And at the bottom of the page is the orange "Confirm" button and some Record Detective results:


I confirmed the match, and added the Source to the person profile.  I could copy the transcribed information above and add it to the note for this person and several others.

After looking at several pages of results, I noted that there is some duplication of matches, which is understandable.  Married females are listed under their maiden name, but after the last person with the surname without a different married surname.  So Edith Rachel Seaver (Adams) is listed after William Whitney Seaver.

Once again, the MyHeritage technology advances has helped me find resources that I did not have a month ago.  It will take some time to go through these and confirm or reject them.

If you have a MyHeritage tree and data subscription, go check your Record Matches and see if they have found entries in the published book collection for your tree persons.  You may find something that really aids your research.

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Copyright (c) 2016, 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.  Share it on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ or Pinterest using the icons below.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.


52 Ancestors - Week 113: #136 Moses Smith (1732-1806)

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 2016 to 156 Ancestors in 156 Weeks. Here is my ancestor biography for week #113:

Moses Smith (1732-1806) is #136 on my Ahnentafel list, my 5th great-grandfather who married #137 Patience Hamant (1735-1780) in 1762.


I am descended through:

*  their son, #68 Aaron Smith (1765-1841), wh
o married #69 Mercy Plimpton (1772-1850), in 1795. 
*  their son, #34 Alpheus B. Smith (1802-1840)
who married #35 Elizabeth Horton Dill (1791-1869) in 1826.
*  their daughter, #17 Lucretia Townsend smith (1828-1884), who married #16 Isaac Seaver (1823-1901) in 1852.
*  their son, #8 Frank Walton Seaver (1852-1922), who married #9 Hattie Louise Hildreth (1847-1920) in 1874. 
*  their son, #4 Frederick Walton Seaver (1876-1942), who married Alma Bessie Richmond (1882-1962) in 1900.
* their son, #2 Frederick Walton Seaver (1911-1983), who married #3 Betty Virginia Carringer (1919-2002) in 1942.
*  their son, #1 Randall J. Seaver (1943-....)

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

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


 *  Name:                        Moses Smith[1–9]    
*  Sex:                            Male   

*  Father:                        Henry Smith (1680-1743)   
*  Mother:                      Ruth Barber (1696-1761)   

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

*  Birth:                         2 April 1732, Medfield, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States[1]
*  Military:                    1 August 1780 (age 48), Walpole, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States[5]   
*  Census:                     1 June 1790 (age 58), Walpole, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States6[6]
*  Tax List:                   1798 (about age 66), Walpole, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States[7]
*  Census:                     1 June 1800 (age 68), Walpole, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States[8]
*  Death:                       6 January 1806 (age 73), Walpole, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States[9]
*  Burial:                      after 6 January 1806 (after age 73), Plains Cemetery, Walpole, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States[9]
  
3)  SHARED EVENTS (with source citations as indicated in brackets):
  
*  Spouse 1:                 Sarah Clark (1731-1761)   
*  Marriage 1:              2 December 1756 (age 24), Walpole, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States[2]   
*  Child 1:                   Sarah Smith (1758-    )   
*  Child 2:                   Zillah Smith (1759-1761)   

*  Spouse 2:                Patience Hamant (1735-1780)   
*  Marriage 2 Intentions:  17 July 1762 (age 30), Walpole, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States[3]
*  Marriage 2:            23 September 1762 (age 30), Medfield, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States[4]    

*  Child 3:                 Aaron Smith (1765-1841)   
*  Child 4:                 Luther Smith (1766-    )   
*  Child 5:                 Calvin Smith (1768-    )   
*  Child 6:                 Timothy Smith (1773-    )   
  
4)  NOTES (with source citations as indicated in brackets):

Moses Smith was born in Medfield, Massachusetts, the second child and first son of Henry Smith and his third wife, Ruth Barber.  The Medfield vital record book has this entry[1]:

"SMITH, Moses, s. Henry and Ruth, Apr. 2, 1732"

The marriage record of Moses Smith and Sarah Clark was found in the Walpole, Massachusetts vital record book[2]:

"SMITH, Moses and Sarah Clark, Dec. 2, 1756."

Moses and Sarah (Clark) Smith had two children born in 1758 and 1759 in Walpole.  Sarah (Clark) Smith and her second child died in October 1761.

The intentions of marriage of Moses Smith and Patience Hamant were listed in the Walpole vital records book[3]:

"SMITH, Moses and Patience Hamment, int., July 17, 1762."

The marriage record of Moses Smith and Patience Hammant were found in the Medfield, Massachusetts vital record book[4]:

"SMITH, Moses of Walpole, and Patiance Hammant, Sept. 23, 1762.*"

Moses and Patience (Hamant) Smith had four children born in Walpole between 1765 and 1773.

Moses Smith of Walpole, Massachusetts was a Private in Timothy Mann's Company of the 4th Suffolk Regiment commanded by Major Seth Bullard, which marched on 1 August 1780 and was discharged on 8 August 1780[5].  The company marched to Rhode Island on an alarm.  Total service of 7 days, including 2 days of travel home.

Patience (Hamant) Smith died in December 1780, leaving Moses with four children to raise to adulthood.

In the 1790 U.S. Census, Moses Smith's family was enumerated in Walpole, Suffolk County, Massachusetts[6].  The household included:

*  2 free white males over 16 years of age
*  1 free white males under 16 years of age
*  4 free white females 

Moses Smith was enumerated in the 1798 Direct Tax List for Massachusetts and Maine[7].  The information in this record includes:

*  Name of Occupants or Possessors:  Moses Smith
*  Names of Reputed Owner:  Smith, Moses
*  Town:  Walpole
*  Number of Dwelling Houses Exempt from Valuation:  [blank]
*  Number of Dwelling Houses Subject to and Included in the Valuation:  
**  Dwelling Houses:  1
** Outhouses:  1
** Quantities of Land:  1 Acre
*  Valuations as Determined by the Principal Assessors:  450 Dollars

In the 1800 U.S. Census, Moses Smith's family was enumerated in Walpole, Norfolk County, Massachusetts[8].  The household included:

*  2 males under age 10
*  1 male aged 26-45
*  1 male aged over 45
*  2 females under age 10
*  1 female aged 26-45
*  1 female aged over 45

There are no vital records in Walpole or Medfield for the death date of Moses Smith.  The date for his death is from his gravestone.  The gravestone of Moses Smith in Plains Cemetery in Walpole, Massachusetts has this inscription[9]:


Sacred
to the Memory of
Mr. Moses Smith
who died Jan. 6th
1806
in the 74th Year of
his Age.

No probate records were found in Norfolk County records for Moses Smith.

5)  SOURCES
 
1. Vital Records of Medfield, Massachusetts to the Year 1850 (Boston, Mass. :  New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1903), Births, page 93, Moses Smith entry.

2. Vital Records of Walpole, Massachusetts to the Year 1850 (Boston, Mass. :New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1902), Marriages, page 174, Moses Smith and Sarah Clark entry.

3. Vital Records of Walpole, Massachusetts to the Year 1850, Marriages, page 174, Moses Smith and Patience Hamment intentions entry.

4. Vital Records of Medfield, Massachusetts to the Year 1850, Marriages, page 173, Moses Smith and Patiance Hammant entry.

5. Massachusetts, Secretary of the Commonwealth, Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War (Boston, Mass. : Wright & Potter Pritning, 1896-1908), Volume 14, Page 502, Moses Smith entry.

6. 1790 United States Federal Census,, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, population schedule, Walpole, page 667, Moses Smith household; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com); citing Natinoal Archives Microfilm Publication M637, Roll 4.

7. "Massachusetts and Maine 1798 Direct Tax," indexed database and digital image, American Ancestors (http://www.americanancestors.org), Volume 8, Page 644 of 810, Moses Smith entry.

8. 1800 United States Federal Census, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, population schedule, Walpole, page 31,  Moses Smith household; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com); citing Natinoal Archives Microfilm Publication M32, Roll 18.


9. Jim Tipton, indexed database, Find A Grave (http://www.findagrave.com), Plains Cemetery (Walpole, Mass.), entry for Moses Smith (1732-1806).


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Copyright (c) 2016, 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.  Share it on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ or Pinterest using the icons below.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.


Thursday, February 25, 2016

MyHeritage Announces "Record Detective II" Technology - And I Test It Out

The MyHeritage Blog posted "Introducing Record Detective II" today.


The description of the earlier Record Detective technology was that it was "records found in MyHeritage SuperSearch™ automatically point to additional records and family tree profiles relating to the same person."  The example given was that the Record Detective found what seemed to be the same person in MyHeritage Trees, and if they found that those trees had attached records, they made that a match on the Record Detective list.  In other words, this was a "Record 1 to person A to Person B to Record 2" search.

The Record Detective II technology is different - if you search for a person (or have a Record Match for a person), then SuperSearch searches all of the records on MyHeritage for the person based on the indexed information for the record found in your search.  In other words, it is a "Record 1 to Record 2" search, eliminating the Person to Person matches and links.  

Read the entire blog post - there are 7 examples of Record Detective II matches.  The summary says:

"Thanks to Record Detective™ II, a record you've found on MyHeritage can effortlessly open the door to many more records about the same person. These records may come from totally different collection types, and they may originate from another part of the world you didn't expect. The technology helps you by saving you time and revealing new information you may never have found on your own."

The blog post notes that over 2.2 billion additional matches in the MyHeritage system.  I'm not sure what this means - did they search for all person profiles in the MyHeritage trees?  

I did a search on MyHeritage for Isaac Seaver (exact names, 1823-1901), limiting results to born 1821-1825 in Massachusetts (flexible), and Massachusetts (flexible) in the Residence field.



There were 22 results for:

*  12 MyHeritage Trees
*  1850 U.S. Census
*  1860 U.S. Census
*  1870 U.S. Census
*  1880 U.S. Census
*  1900 U.S. Census
*  Geni World Tree
*  WikiTree
*  2 Massachusetts Marriages, 1841-1915 (both for his third wife)
*  1 Search Connect

All of the matches are correct.  Strangely, there was no match for FamilySearch Family Tree.

I clicked on the 1900 U.S. Census record, and scrolled down to the bottom of the page:


There were no Record Detective matches for this record.  I wonder if it is because there are no other family members on the record, except for a wife whose first name was enumerated incorrectly.

I tried the 1880 U.S. census match, and at the bottom of the page, I saw this (it took several seconds for the Record Detective matches to appear):


There are 15 Record Detective results, for:

*  FamilySearch Family Tree
*  Geni World Tree
*  WikiTree
*  2 Massachusetts Marriages, 1841-1915 (both for his third wife)
*  1860 U.S. Census
*  Fitchburg Sentinel newspaper article
*  4 records for his daughter, Ellen Seaver
*  3 records for his wife, Lucretia Seaver (1860, 1870, FSFT)
*  1870 U.S. Census

It did not find the 1850 and 1900 U.S. Census records for some reason.

The 1870 U.S. Census record had 32 Record Detective matches  (the other 17 are records for family members).

The 1860 U.S. Census record had 29 Record Detective matches (the other 14 are records for family members).

The 1850 U.S. Census record had 3 Record Detective matches, none of them Isaac Seaver (he was a boarder).

This is just one case, with one set of search criteria, but I think it is instructive.  The Record Detective found a different number of matches for each record, and in no case did it find all of the records found in the Search for Isaac Seaver.

A different set of search criteria may result in all of the records being found, and more.  Obviously, MyHeritage has a specific set of record collections, so I might get different search results on another website.

I like that the Record Detective finds other records for relatives who are on the record found in the search.

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Copyright (c) 2016, 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.  Share it on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ or Pinterest using the icons below.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.