Saturday, May 8, 2010

Free Downloadable eBook for Mother's Day

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Renee Zamora (who I briefly met in Salt Lake City last week for the first time) posted Free Downloadable ebook "Getting Started in Genealogy Online" from FamilyLink on her Renee's Genealogy Blog.





This is a 67 page book, published in 2006 by Genealogical Publishing Company, with some useful information. The page to start the download from is here.

I'm not sure how long this will be available online - so go get it ASAP!

Thank you, Renee, for the post!

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Matrilineal Line

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Hey genealogy buffs - it's Saturday Night again -- time for more Genealogy Fun!!

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to:

1) List your matrilineal line - your mother, her mother, etc. back to the first identifiable mother. Note: this line is how your mitochondrial DNA was passed to you!

2) Tell us if you have had your mitochondrial DNA tested, and if so, which Haplogroup you are in.

3) Post your responses on your own blog post, in Comments to this blog post, or in a Note or status line on Facebook.

Here's mine:

My matrilineal line is:

a) Randall J. Seaver
b) Betty Virginia Carringer (1919 San Diego CA - 2002 San Diego CA) married Frederick W. Seaver
c) Emily Kemp Auble (1899 Chicago IL -1977 San Diego CA) married Lyle L. Carringer
d) Georgianna Kemp (1868 Norfolk County, ON - 1952 San Diego CA) married Charles Auble
e) Mary Jane Sovereen (1840 Norfolk Co ON - 1874 Norfolk Co ON) married James Abram Kemp
f) Eliza Putman (1820 Steuben Co NY - 1895 Norfolk Co ON) married Alexander Sovereen
g) Sarah Martin (1792 NJ - 1860 Norfolk Co ON) married John Putman
h) Betsey Rolfe (1766 NJ - ????) married Mulford Martin
i) Sarah Campbell (1746 NJ? -1838 Tompkins Co NY) married Ephraim Rolfe
j) FNU LNU married Robert Campbell (?)

I have had my mitochondrial DNA tested, and I am in Haplogroup K. I reported on it in My mtDNA is in the K Haplogroup, Working with my mtDNA Results - Post 1 and Working with my mtDNA Results - Post 2. There were two exact matches in the GeneTree database, but their end-of-line surnames don't match mine. It appears that mine may be Scottish or Irish, though!

On my Seaver side, the matrilineal line of my father is:

a) Frederick W. Seaver (1911 Fitchburg MA - 1983 San Diego CA)
b) Alma Bessie Richmond (1882 Killingly CT - 1962 Leominster MA) married Frederick W. Seaver
c) Julia White (1848 Killingly CT - 1913 Putnam CT) married Thomas Richmond
d) Amy Frances Oatley (1826 S. Kingstown RI - bef. 1870, Killingly CT) married Henry A. White
e) Amy Champlin (1797 S. Kingstown RI - 1865 Killingly CT) married Jonathan Oatley
f) Nancy Kenyon (ca 1765 RI - bef. 1850 S. Kingstown RI) married Joseph Champlin
g) Anna --?-- (perhaps Kenyon) (ca 1740 RI? - ???) married John Kenyon

To my knowledge, none of my female-line cousins have had their mitochondrial DNA tested. That's another thing for my to-do list, I guess!

Surname Saturday - ROW (?? > NJ)

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It's Surname Saturday, and I'm "counting down" my Ahnentafel list each week. I'm up to number 57, who is Anna (Row) Auble (ca 1787-1860).

My ancestral line back through the two generations of my Row ancestral families:

1. Randall J. Seaver

2. Frederick W. Seaver (1911-1983)
3. Betty V. Carringer (1919-2002)

6. Lyle Lawrence Carringer (1891-1976)
7. Emily Kemp Auble (1899-1977)

14. Charles Auble (1848-1916)
15. Georgianna Kemp (1868-1952)

28. David Auble (1817-1894)
29. Sarah Knapp (1818-ca 1900)

56. Johannes Auble, born 11 March 1780 in New Germantown, Hunterdon County, NJ. He was the son of Johannes Able and Sophia Trimmer. He married 15 July 1804 in New Germantown, Hunterdon County, NJ.
57. Anna Row, born about 1787 in New Germantown, Hunterdon County, NJ; died 12 June 1860 in Stillwater, Sussex County, NJ.

114. Philip Jacob Row, born about December 1752 in probably NJ; died 09 January 1817 in Tewksbury, Hunterdon County, NJ. He married July 1772 in probably Hunterdon County, NJ.
115. Maria Smith, born about November 1753 in probably NJ; died about 1842 in Hunterdon County, NJ.

Children of Philip Row and Maria Smith are: Mary (1773-????); Elisabetha (1776-????); John Jacob (1779-????); Peter (1782-????); Anna (1787-1860); Phillip (1791-????); Johannes (1795-????)

I have only two documents to support the facts listed above - the abstract of the will of Philip Jacob Row in New Jersey Archives and the Revolutionary War Pension File for the widow, Maria (Smith) Row.

One online family tree claims that Phillip Row is the son of Johannes and Catherine (Loscher) Rau of Columbia and Dutchess Counties, New York, but there is no evidence other than they had a son named Phillip who evidently had land near his parents in New York in adulthood. Several other online trees conflate a Phillip Jacob Row with a Phillip Johannes Row, who may have been the New York son of Johannes Row. 'Tis another mystery!

The other question is, who is Maria Smith? Or was it Schmidt?

I would appreciate being contacted by anyone else who has this family in their ancestry, especially if they have more information than I do about them! With sources, of course!

Friday, May 7, 2010

Finding Ancestry.com Databases without Name Indexes

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I posted twice last year about Ancestry.com databases that do not have name indexes, but have a significant number of names included in the database images. The two posts were:

* Updated List of Unindexed Ancestry.com Databases on 2 October 2009

* Unindexed Databases at Ancestry.com Redux on 5 May 2009

In both of those posts, I used this search string on Google: [site:ancestry.com "no search function for names" ] . Unfortunately, that search string no longer returns many matches - apparently Ancestry.com has changed their database descriptions and are no longer using a standard phrase for databases without name indexes. It was so easy before! Arggh!!

I wanted to update this list, so I went through the lists in the two previous posts to determine if the databases listed still were not name indexed, plus Googled some search terms, and came up with these (there are a few new ones):

* Missouri Still Birth & Miscellaneous Records, 1805-2002

* Selected U.S. Naturalization Record Indexes, 1791-1992 (Image Only - World Archives Project)

* U.S. Revolutionary War Miscellaneous Records (Manuscript File(, 1775-1790s

* U.S. Index to General Correspondence of the Record and Pension Office, 1889-1904

* War of 1812 Pension Application Files Index, 1812-1815

* Hamburg Passenger Lists, Handwritten Indexes, 1855-1934

* Returns from U.S. Military Posts, 1800-1916 (World Archives Project)

* AJHS New York Hebrew Orphan Asylum Records, 1860-1934

* AJHS Industrial Removal Office Records, 1899-1922

* AJHS Selected Mayor's Court Cases, New York, 1674-1860

* AJHS Selected Insolvent Debtor's Cases, 1787-1861

* Mecklenburg, Germany, Jewish Birth, Marriage, and Death Records, 1813-1918

* Mecklenburg, Germany, Parish Register Transcripts, 1876-1918

* Paris & Vicinity, France, Death Notices, 1860-1902

* New Orleans, Louisiana, Slave Manifests, 1807-1860 (World Archives Project)

* Dept of Interior Decisions on Pensions and Bounty-Land Claims (1886-1930)

* London, England, Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812

* U.S. Virgin Islands, St. Croix Slave Plantation and Head Tax Lists, 1772-1821

* U.S. Freedmen's Marriage Records, 1861-1869

* Summit County, Ohio, Death Records, 1870-1908

* World War II Japanese-American Internment Camp Documents, 1942 -1946

* Returns from Regular Army Regiments, 1821-1916

* U.S. Circuit Court Criminal Case Files, 1790-1871

* Lübeck, Germany, Births, 1813-1875

* Lübeck, Germany, Marriage Banns, 1813-1871

* Lübeck, Germany Citizenship Register, 1591-1919

War of 1812 Papers, 1789-1815

Several of the projects above are in the Ancestry.com World Archives Project (AWAP). The current list of Ancestry World Archives Projects is at http://community.ancestry.com/wap/dashboard.aspx. The page includes databases that are Available (for indexing), Unavailable (for indexing), Completed (indexed and images are available) and Live (being indexed, but available for searching and browsing on Ancestry.com).

There are also several (how many?) databases on Ancestry.com that are poorly indexed. These include:

* Many of the Massachusetts Vital Records to Year 1850 ("tan") books are not first-name indexed.

* The US Revolutionary War Compiled Service Records database is arranged by State and Regiment.

* The Berks County, Pennsylvania Estate Papers, 1752-1914 surname search returns no names after Bleckley.

* The California Voter Registrations, 1900-1968 are notorious for not providing exact matches of first and last names, and for having the street names indexed

* The Newspapers matches do not provide for exact matches of first and last names, and are keyword indexed so that names are not distinguished from ordinary words

The last four items were noted by Genea-Musings reader and commenter Geolover in the earlier posts.

What good are these online databases if there is not a useful name index? If a researcher searches for a name, the records in these databases will not show up on the list of matches. Not every researcher knows that there are some databases on Ancestry.com that do not have name indexes.

The Ancestry.com Card Catalog can be used to determine the databases available for specific subjects. There is a link to the Card Catalog in the "Record Collections" box on a person's home page, but it is not prominent.

IMHO, a link to the list of unindexed databases in Ancestry'c collection should be highlighted on a member's home page.

If you know of another unindexed database, or a poorly indexed database, please comment and I will add it to the list above.

Last updated: 3 July 2011

Images of the Will of Thomas Page (died Hawstead, Suffolk, 1637)

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I took advantage of my one day at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City last week to find the will of Thomas Page, yeoman of Hawstead in Suffolk, the father of my ancestress Susanna (Page) Gleason. The rampant online family tree errors and the fortuitous Googling that led me to this relationship was discussed in my post Who were parents of Susanna Page (ca1611-1691)?

While at the FHL, I ventured to the British/Canadian Floor and talked to one of the consultants about my specific problem. I had a name, a parish and a year, but was unsure which resource to use. The consultant was excellent, and after consulting a notebook on the shelf concerning Suffolk resources, advised me to check British film 97,086 for "Original wills, 1634-1635, indexes." I did that, and did not find an index entry for Thomas Page. So I looked at the next film , 97,087, for "Registered wills, v. 53 Gael 1636-1638."

After much scrolling, I found the will of Thomas Page of Hawstead on pages 146 and 147 (there are two leafs for each page). Here is the image I captured from the microfilm to my USB drive for the right part of Page 146:



As you can see, there is quite a bit of bleed-through from the other side of the paper, but you can see the start of Thomas Page's will at the bottom of the page.

I brought the images of the three pages into my Photo editing program, and adjusted brightness and contrast and obtained images with somewhat improved readability. Here is page 146:

And page 147 (left leaf) with the mention of "my daughter Susan Page ... wife of Thomas Gleeson" in the 18th line into the 19th line (Gleeson is the first word of the 19th line down):

And the third image from the will, with the will of Marian Frost taking the balance of the page:



I was pretty lucky to find this will to be fairly clear - there were many wills on this microfilm that had significant bleed-through and thick pen strokes to the extent that they were unreadable. These pages are clear enough to read most of it, and if I could figure out the Elizabethan paleography, I would transcribe it. I can make out some of it, but some of it is really difficult.

The lessons learned in this effort include:

* You can find old wills and other records in English parishes and counties - mostly on the FHL Microfilms.
* It was really unclear which set of probate records would have this record - there were two different sets of original wills on microfilm.
* The FHL films list volume numbers for these probate records, but the numbers don't match those in the published book Index of the Probate Records of the Court of the Archdeacon of Sudbury, 1354-1700 (compiled by M.E. Grimwade, British Record Society, 1984 (942 B4b v. 96)) listed this particular will (on Page 409) as
"Thomas Page, yeoman, Hawstead,
1637 R2/57/146
W1/92/182."
Apparently, the volume that was used by the index book was Volume 57, while the FHL volume was Volume 53. It was on page 146!
* The Page family researchers did a marvelous job of finding and abstracting information from these wills!
* Online family trees can really suck, especially for "unconnected females" in colonial New England.

UPDATED 8 p.m.: Martin asked in Comments "Question: Did the web page on which you found the information give the proper citation for this will or just a transcription? How much work on your own did you have to do to verify this information?"

The web page that I found this on - here - noted only that "...They have been sifting records for Co. Suffolk, England..." and "THOMAS PAGE of Hawstead, yeoman, 13 January 1636/37" for a reference. The page had a wordy abstract of the will rather than a transcription.

In order to find the actual will, I consulted the LDS Family History Library Catalog before I went to Salt Lake City, looked for "Suffolk, England" and "Probate Record Indexes" and printed off the pages for two references - this book and this list of registered wills in the Archdeaconry of Sudbury. Before I got to SLC, I had identified film 97,087 (1636-1638) as the most likely candidate, but didn't have a page number for the will.

At the FHL, I checked the book first, noted the volume/page for Thomas Page of Hawstead 1637, and then the volume number in the book didn't match the volume number in the microfilms. So I asked the FHL consultant, who looked in a notebook, and said to check the 1634-1635 index, so I did. Nothing there helped me. So I went through the 1636-1638 volume page-by-page until I found the right will on page 146. It helps that they wrote the testator's name in large print in the margin! That's when I figured out that the book's volume 57 equalled the FHL Volume 53 (you would think that the FHL would have kept the same numbering system, but no...). This exercise took about 60 minutes total at the FHL, including getting the images from the film to my USB drive.

As you can see, I had to find the right microfilm using finding aids and scroll through it to find the prize. The message board post definitely helped, though!

Then to verify the information, I pored over the secretary hand of the will long into the night and after many head scratches (and pulls on my favorite beverage) I decided that the will abstract matched the actual will pretty well!

Follow Friday - Boston 1775

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One of my daily pleasures is reading the recent posts of over 600 genealogy and history blogs, and one I really look forward to is the Boston 1775 blog authored by J.L. Bell.


The description on the blog page says "History, analysis, and unabashed gossip about the start of the American Revolution in Massachusetts."

J.L. writes one blog post each day, often in a series format, and often according to the calendar (i.e., what happened on this date back in 1775 or some other year). I've learned so much about Revolutionary War history by reading his posts each day for the past four years. The current series about Isaac Bissell grew out of posts about the Lexington Alarm on 19 April 1775, and discusses one of those little-known actors in history with 15 minutes of fame. J.L. also blogs occasionally about his Twitter comments...an interesting collection of links. Brave man!

Check out the Resources, Other Blogs and Favorite Sites on his left sidebar, and the topics on the right sidebar. This is a truly wonderful collection of articles.

Thursday, May 6, 2010

First Look at Branches - Genealogy Software

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One of the most interesting exhibits at the NGS 2010 Conference in the GenTech Zone was a new genealogy software offering called Branches - Genealogy Software for the 21st Century. I was provided a 15 minute exploration of the software and was fairly impressed by its concept and capabilities.

I think that the two biggest positives I saw were:

* The entire family tree database was exhibited on the screen - it could go back hundreds of generations. Navigation was accomplished using this large graphical family tree. A user could select a portion of the tree and zoom it in or select a specific person to see that person's information.

* Doing tasks in the software seemed to be very fast - perhaps it was because of a small number of persons in the database, but I'm not sure. It looked like there were several thousand persons in the sample database.

Branches has a retail price of $39.95, but offers a free download for a 31-day free trial.

The home page of the Branches website -- www.BranchesGenealogy.com -- looks like this:




If you run your mouse over the colored boxes at the bottom of the Lincoln image above, the graphic changes to reflect the colored box theme - Zoom, Events, Merging, Pruning, Adding, Map, Search, Trees, and Views.

There are several tabs across the top of the screen - Home, About, Buy, Contact Information, Download FAQs and Privacy. I clicked on the FAQs page and there are 22 questions answered there, including the note that a GEDCOM file with over 30,000 persons might slow down the program due to its graphical nature.




Being the adventurous sort, I decided to Download the program to my desktop computer and start my 31-day free trial. The download went very quickly and smoothly on my Windows XP machine, and the files downloaded included Microsoft SQL Server Compacvt Edition and Microsoft Synchronization Services, but I cannot find the actual executable Branches code in my computer files (I'm not an expert at this stuff!).

After the program is downloaded and run, the Initial Startup Instructions appear:



In the screen above, the user has the choice of Transferring data from another genealogy program (via a GEDCOM file upload), Setting up a new file manually, or bypassing this process for the time being. If you choose the latter, you have a blank gray screen with the Branches menu across the top.

I chose to import an existing GEDCOM file made recently by Family Tree Maker 16 with almost 40,000 persons and about 16 megabytes in size. The GEDCOM upload stalled after about ten minutes and eventually a warning message appeared, as show below:



The message was the "Unhandled exception has occurredin your application" in the Microsoft .NET Framework and my choices were to Continue or Quit. I chose Continue and the Upload never ended, resulting in this screen:



After 60 minutes, I ended the Branches program session and tried again. The GEDCOM upload didn't finish again.

So now I'm stuck on Day 1 of my free trial without any idea of what to do next. Perhaps I should make a smaller GEDCOM and try again? Perhaps I should try the Branches free help support line.

Comments are welcome here!



Randy's NGS 2010 Conference Photos - Post 3

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I have been posting photographs taken at the NGS 2010 Conference in Salt Lake City. Unfortunately, I took relatively few photos, so I don't have much to show my faithful readers. Here are some "crowd shots" rather than "people shots":

1) Ancestry.com was a major presence at this conference, with at least three exhibit areas, two of them in the GenTech zone. The one in the general exhibit area looked like this as you entered the Exhibit Hall:


On the left is a small seating area with a large screen where Ancestry employees gave short presentations about Ancestry.com products. In the background, behind the partition, was an area with about ten computers where persons could search Ancestry.com's databases and ask questions. There were always several Ancestry.com employees available to help researchers. Duff Wilson manned a Family Tree Maker 2010 table in one corner of the exhibit.

2) FamilySearch.org had perhaps the largest display area in the Exhibit Hall. They had many computers and many employees available to help researchers.



FamilySearch.org gave away free green T-shirts that said "Branch Out" (on the table in the foreground) but I didn't see many people wearing one in the crowds. I got one!

3) Adjacent to both the GenTech Zone and the lunch room was the computer bank set up by FamilySearch to help researchers use the Internet for free - to search FamilySearch, Ancestry, or, in my case, email, blogging and Twitter! The computer bank was between two large areas with stages for speakers and large screens and perhaps 100 seats for an audience to hear the speaker (or perhaps rest their feet or take a nap). This picture below shows some of the computer bank and one of the stage/screen/seats area:




The computer area was very well used, especially during the 30 minute breaks between the speaker presentations. Unfortunately, the 20-minute speaker segments on the two stages were not well attended.

4. One of the busiest vendors seemed to be the Fun Stuff for Genealogists exhibit, shown below:



5) Footnote.com had a fairly large exhibit area that was always busy. Dick Eastman had a table in this display:




6) When you first walked into the Exhibit Hall, you couldn't miss the National Genealogical Society display - there were many society leaders and members to talk to and help visitors:




That's almost all of the pictures that I have that are fit to print. Please see other genea-bloggers who have posted pictures - I don't have a complete list, nor the time to compile one. There were at least 40 genea-bloggers at this conference.

Treasure Chest Thursday - A Graduation Announcement

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It's Treasure Chest Thursday - time to look into my genealogy files for a family history jewel.

As I've noted before, my Aunt Geraldine (Seaver) Remley died back in 2007, and I asked for and received her family papers and some artifacts. Many of the papers were from Gerry's own persona life, including her high school and college diplomas, newspaper articles on important events in her life, and her professional resume.

One of the important events in Gerry's life revealed a useful family history clue. Here is a newspaper article, probably not from The Fitchburg (MA) Sentinel (I couldn't find it in the Ancestry.com collection) in May 1939 (my estimate):



The article reads:

"S.T.C. Graduate

"LEOMINSTER, May 19 -- Miss Geraldine Seaver (above), daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Seaver of 90 Main Street, who will be graduated from Lowell State Teachers College at commencement exercises in June, has accepted a position as assistant in music in the public schools of Northampton.

"Miss Seaver, who has specialized in music at the Lowell institution, will present a voice recital at the college next Wednesday, May 24, at 2 o'clock. She is soloist at First Church of Christ Scientist in Fitchburg. She was graduated from Leominster High School in 1935."

What did I learn from this? The useful facts include:

* The name of her father, and that both parents were living in 1939.
* The residence of her parents in May 1939 - 90 Main Street
* Gerry was not married in 1939.
* The name of the college she attended and graduated from.
* The location of a job after graduation.
* Her high school location and her graduation date.

Newspaper articles such as this often provide significant biographical details that cannot be found in any other resource. Since this article was, apparently, not from The Fitchburg Sentinel or The Lowell Sun (both of which are indexed on Ancestry.com for this time period, I should try to determine the source of this article that was clipped and put in Aunt Gerry's family papers. My first guess is that there was a Leominster MA newspaper that published it. Or perhaps it is a Northampton newspaper that published it.

Another lesson learned here is that not every newspaper, and not every issue of a newspaper, is microfilmed, digitized and indexed. At least, not yet!

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

SDGS Meeting on Saturday 8 May - Wendy Elliott

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The May program meeting of the San Diego Genealogical Society is Saturday, 8 May 2010 at 12 noon at St. Andrews Lutheran Church (8350 Lake Murray Blvd. in San Diego, near Jackson Drive).

The program speaker will be Wendy Elliott, PhD, FUGA on “Tracking Your Fore-Mothers” and “Writing and Publishing Your Work” in the two separate program segments.

Wendy Elliott, PhD, FUGA (Fellow, Utah Genealogical Society), is a professor of history at Cal State University-Fullerton and a nationally known speaker and author with five chapters in Redbook and two articles in Encyclopedia of Immigration and Migration in the American West.

Wendy has been a professional genealogist almost 40 years and is past president of the Federation of Genealogical Societies.

You will not want to miss these special presentations tracking our fore-mothers and writing and publishing your work.

The RootsMagic Users Group and the "Basic Genealogy" class will meet at 10 a.m. at St. Andrews.

Randy's NGS Conference Photos - Post 2

I took some photographs, but not very many, at the NGS Conference last week in Salt Lake City. Here are some of my favorite genealogy people:

1) Tom Kemp visited Leland Meitzler (Family Roots Publishing) at the same time I did, so I snapped their photograph together:




That's Patty Meitzler working hard on the left of the photo while the three guys talked about genealogy. Leland said they had a lot of business at this conference - that's good for him, his business and all of genealogy.

2) At the Family Tree Magazine exhibit, I managed to catch Diane Haddad and Allison Stacy in a quiet moment:


3) In the GenTech Zone, Sebastian Hue and Daniel Horowitz entertained me for about 30 minutes (they showed me the new software and website features) at the MyHeritage exhibit:



4) Megan Smolenyak did a Who Do You Think You Are? book signing on Friday in the NYGBS exhibit:


5) The Generations Map exhibit was buzzing all conference long - I caught up with Janet Hovorka in a quiet moment:



I don't have many more photographs of the exhibits and mat post some crowd shots next time.

(Not So) Wordless Wednesday - Post 101: Mrs. Marsden Law

I'm posting family photographs from my collection on Wednesdays, but they won't be wordless Wednesday posts like others do - I simply am incapable of having a wordless post.

I managed to scan about 100 family photographs in the Scanfest in January, and have converted the scanned TIF files to smaller JPGs, cropped and rotated as best I can. Many of these were "new" to my digital photograph collection.

Here is a photograph from the Carringer family collection handed down by my mother in the 1988 to 2002 time period:


Someone wrote "Mrs. Marsden Law" and "1880" (two different hands?) on the front of this card from Toronto. The card was made by S.J. Dixon, a photographer located at the corner of King and Yonge Streets in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

I have no idea who Mrs. Marsden Law is - perhaps a friend or a cousin of Georgianna (Kemp) Auble, my great-grandmother.

If you are related to Mrs. Marsden Law, or know her maiden name, I would appreciate knowing those facts!

UPDATED 7 p.m.: It only took a few hours for kind genealogists to find the answer to my question above:

On Facebook, Sherry Leafgreen commented:

"Randy, There is a Edward Marsden Law who married W. Ann Wilson and they are listed in the 1881 Ontario census. She was born approximately 1842. Does she look about 40?"

And in Comments to this post, Ian Hadden noted: "I did a quick search for Mrs. Marsden Law and she may have been married to Edward Marsden Law. If this correct, they married 6 Jun 1865 in North Gwillimbury Township, Ontario. The marriage registration indicates both were living or were going to live in Bell Ewart, a small town on the shores of Lake Simcoe, about a one hour drive north of Toronto. The intersection of King St. and Yonge St. in Toronto would have been (and still is) in the heart of downtown Toronto. Hope this might help." Ian followed that up with "Sorry, forgot to add her maiden name is listed as Miss W.Ann Wilson."

So it's very likely that she is M. Ann Wilson, born about 1842. How did my great-grandmother Georgianna Kemp know her? She may have been a sister of Georgianna's step-mother, Melissa Wilson, who married James Abram Kemp on 16 November 1875 in Belle Ewart Innisfil in Ontario. Georgianna's birth mother, Mary Jane (Sovereen) Kemp, died 20 May 1874 in Middleton, Norfolk County, Ontario.

My thanks to Sherry and Ian for doing a little bit of research to help me out on this former mystery!

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

FamilySearch Beta Library Search - FAIL

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The FamilySearch organization recently highlighted their FamilySearch Beta site to the genealogy world, so I went to take a look at it and see if it accesses Family History Library Catalog (FHLC) items in a user-friendly way.

Nope - it doesn't - it's a major FAIL in my opinion at this point in time (yes, I realize it's a beta site...but common sense should prevail on a beta site). Here's why--

Here is the home screen for the FamilySearch Beta site:





I want to look at the FHLC, so I could choose "Library" from the top menu or "Library Catalog" from the "Discover Your Ancestors" menu. I chose the "Library" item from the top menu and saw the Library page:




The "Library" page has a link for the "Library Catalog" in the right sidebar (it goes to the same page as the "Library Catalog" link on the Home page). The "Library Catalog" search page looks like this:




The user has the choice of "Place names," "Last names," "Year range," "Titles," "Author information," "Subjects," "Call numbers," "Film numbers," and "Entire Catalog (beta)".

I chose "Place names" and put "Dodge Wisconsin" in the search box, as shown above. The results page for Dodge County, Wisconsin looked like this:




There were 130 results for Dodge County, Wisconsin, with 50 shown on this first page. There is no hierarchy here - the items appear to be randomly listed. There is a list of Topics, Availability and Languages in the left column. I was looking for the record by Clara Turner on Cemeteries and Churches of Dodge County, Wisconsin and found it lower on the first page of matches.

The Library Catalog record for this resource looks like this:



The page provides the author, format, title, and publication information. The format notes "Books/Monographs/With Film" but does not provide the Family History Library call number for the book or the Microform number for the Microfilm.

The online Family History Center Catalog listing for this same record on the older "Classic FamilySearch" site looks like this:




This "classic" listing provides quite a bit more information, including the FHL Call Number of the book on the shelf and the Microfilm number in the FHL microfilm drawers or for ordering at a local Family History Center.

I like the list of topics on the left-hand column of the Results page - it is probably the most useful part of the results page if there are more than ten or so matches on that page.

I really cannot believe that this new Library Catalog system does not list the book call number or microfilm number. Isn't the purpose of this Library Catalog, for a user like me, to be able to find this work on the shelf or in the microfilm drawers at the FHL, or to be able to order the microfilm at my local Family History Center?

This is a MAJOR FAIL in my book - I hope that they get this fixed before the classic FHLC interface goes away.

Readers with a good memory will recall that GenSeek.com was being developed by FamilyLink.com in order to access Family History Library Catalog items, and other repository and online resources, in a modern web page environment. Wasn't GenSeek.com going to be the best genealogy web site in the genea-universe? I posted about using the GenSeek application on Facebook (which was a Beta development) here back in September 2009. It didn't look like this FamilySearch Beta Library Catalog application - I complained then that it had a book call number but no microfilm number!

Some astute readers may be asking "whatever happened to GenSeek?" I asked a FamilyLink.com person at the WorldVitalRecords.com exhibit at the NGS Conference last week directly, and received the answer to the effect that "GenSeek has been put on hold for now, we're working with more immediate issues right now." Huh? Another FAIL IMHO.

UPDATED 5/5, 7 p.m.: Dan Lawyer of FamilySearch Labs commented on this post today, saying:

"Thanks for your thoughts on the Family History Library Catalog Feature. I agree completely with the things you've pointed out. As someone involved with the project (in other words, I work for FamilySearch) I'm happy to report that what you're seeing in the current beta is not what we plan to release. Just like nobody wants to use a bathroom that hasn't been plumbed in or framed, no body wants to use this feature in its current form. The shortcomings you've identified are in the plan but just not finished yet."

That is good news for all of us. Thank you, Dan, for the quick response!

Family Tree Magazine sizes up the Genealogy Market

...
The Family Tree Magazine folks have put together a 2010 Family Tree Magazine Genealogy Media Planner (warning, a 4 megabyte PDF download) which includes a summary of the genealogy market, the Family Tree Magazine audience, the 2010 Editorial Content and Calendars, Advertising Information, and Staff Contacts.

The genealogy market information was especially interesting to me, including these facts:

* 500,000 genealogists belong to more than 500 Federation of Genealogical Societies member groups.

* 651,500 people have taken a genetic genealogy test.

* 1,900 people visit the Family History Library in Salt Lake City every day.

* 1 million+ people visit the National Archives annually.

* The National Archives and its regional research facilities receive 1.1 million written research requests a year.

* 9.1 million US web visitors use genealogy websites each month.


* Family Tree Magazine has a 70,000 person paid print circulation.

There is much more interesting information in the 42-page PDF file. Read it all!

Hat tip to Thomas MacEntee for pointing me to the PDF file.

Any reader comments on these statistics, or any others in the Media Planner?

Randy's NGS 2010 Photos - Post 1

...
I didn't take as many pictures as I wanted to at the NGS Conference in Salt Lake City last week. And some of them turned out badly (I think my camera is not working perfectly... or the operator is flawed).

Some of the more "interesting pictures" I took include:

1) SNOW! For a San Diego boy who has seen snow fall like twice in his life, this was a really big deal:




This was at 12 noon just outside the convention center. I have my Einstein Genealogy T-shirt from JMK Gifts on... and you can barely see my "beard" the nametag and the nine little thingies that are attached to it.

2) Tim Firkowski walked around the Exhibit Hall in a Sherlock Holmes outfit - very cool. I posed for this picture with Tim and Alvie Davidson at the APG Booth:




3) Author and speaker Ron Arons, who wrote the books The Jews of Sing-Sing and WANTED: U.S. Criminal Records, wore an interesting outfit while manning his booth for Criminal Research Press:



4) This outfit was even more impressive - I hope he changed clothes before going out on the street or to the hotel:



More photos to come...

Tombstone Tuesday - Unmarked Graves in Searchlight, Nevada

...
I haven't been posting on Tombstone Tuesday recently because I ran out of my own gravestone photographs.

However, a Chula Vista Genealogical Society colleague, Wilma, was in Nevada in April, and took some pictures of some interesting markers that provide names of persons buried in unmarked graves. The pictures are:



The persons listed on these markers include:

* Arthur Bagnall 1874-1903
* Nat S. Lewis 1830-1903
* Thelma Kennedy 1898-1904
* Anna Socwell 1887-1904
* Tanquist Nelson 1886-1905
* Unknown Man Died 1905
* George E. McNaught 1855-1907
* Richard Newman 1906-1907
* Able Caballero Died 1907
* John Miller 1845-1907
* Samuel W. Harris 1855-1907
* Joe Godfrey 1826-1908

* Winfield Morrison 1901-1908
* Andrew Hall 1897-1908
* Neva Booth 1898-1908
* Foster L. Funk 1907-1908
* Anna Myrle 1902-1908
* Carl Larsen 1852-1909
* William J. Kennedy 1860-1909
* Frank Brittan 1886-1910
* Judge John Vogel 1859-1910
* Fred Barker Died 1911
* A.L. Mitchell 1866-1911
* Baby Son Wells 1911-1911

* James P. Minnor ?? - 1904
* Andrew P. McMahon ?? - 1904
* G.W. Roudolph ??-1904
* John Lanquest Nelson ??-1905
* Charles Webb ??-1905
* Fred Brash 1866-1905
* Bert Stewart ??-1906
* Carl Garrison 1850-1907
* Jess Gilliard "Old Mizzco" ??-1907
* John McGregor ??-1908
* Frank Orr 1870-1909
* Robert B. Kendal ??-1910
* Frank B. Miller 1876-1911

* James A. Mauhgowery 1857-1913
* Thomas J. Bartogee 1874-1914
* Richard Cornin 1857-1914
* D.M. Neblett ??-1915
* John Travis ??-1915
* J.A. Overton 1875-1915
* J.S.S. Farrar 1865-1915
* Wm Bagley 1857-1918
* Ben Detmars ??-1917
* John H. Weaver 1846-1922
* Charles M. White 1865-1922
* William R. Goldeusmith ??-1922
* Jabez Shovell 1877-1933
* Wilbur Clark 1893-1033

This Clark county, Nevada cemetery is listed in Find A Grave here. It looks like all of the names above are listed on Find A Grave.

I wonder if "Able Caballero" was that person's real name. I think it's safe to say that "Unknown Man" was not that person's real name.

Monday, May 3, 2010

Blogger Meetups at NGS 2010

One of the highlights for me at genealogy conferences is meeting with my genea-blogger colleagues. We had over 35 genea-bloggers at the NGS 2010 Conference in Salt Lake City last week, out of over 2,500 conference attendees.

Through the magic of Facebook and cell phones, Linda and I managed to find and enjoy the company of a number of genea-bloggers. Here are some of my pictures:

1) On Wednesday night, we connected with Lisa Alzo and Donna Pointkouski at the Red Rock Brewery:



2) On Friday night, before the showing of WDYTYA?, Linda and I had an enjoyable dinner at The Olive Garden with (from left) Sheri Fenley, Denise Levenick and Donna Pointkouski.


3) There was a Blogger's Row at the Friday night Ancestry.com showing of Who Do You Think You Are? at the Convention Center, and we were posed against a wall with several other bloggers from the audience. The group below is (from the left) Megan Smolenyak, Lou Szucs, Randy Seaver, Kathleen Doyle, Maureen Taylor, Diane Haddad, Steve Danko, Sheri Fenley, Donna Pointkouski and Elizabeth Hansford.



4) Janet Hovorka suggested a Bloggers lunch meetup on Saturday in the Convention Center, so we invited bloggers when we saw them and put the word out on Facebook and Twitter. The picture below shows (from left) Randy Seaver, Janet Hovorka, Lisa Alzo, Amy Urman, Madaleine Laird, Angela McGhie and Sheri Fenley. Dean Richardson left before the picture was taken, and A.C. Ivory joined the group just after the picture was taken:


There were, of course, blogger meetups that I didn't attend or even know about - I hope that pictures of those happenings will surface on blogs and on Facebook.

There is this wonderful camaraderie amongst genea-bloggers because we tend to know more about each, and we share the common experience of writing and posting for public consumption. The restaurant and food served doesn't matter - the important thing is enjoying each other's company, sharing experiences and news, and encouraging each other, which happens a lot in these meetups. Oh, the gossip, too!

New FamilySearch Record Search Databases - 300 million names!

My email this morning had this message from Paul Nauta, the FamilySearch Public Affairs Manager:

There were over 150 new collections added or enhanced this week at FamilySearch.org. FamilySearch volunteers indexed over 120 million records—over 300 million new names—from original source documents to accomplish this great feat. The massive release was announced this past week at the National Genealogical Society annual conference in Salt Lake City, Utah.

The records can be found at
FamilySearch’s Record Search pilot (FamilySearch.org, click Search Records, and then click Record Search pilot) or http://beta.familysearch.org/. Be sure to share the good news with family and friends.

See the chart below for the complete list of all the newly added or improved collections.

None of this would be possible without the great contributions of many online FamilySearch volunteers. These individuals donate the time and effort needed to make these collections freely available to FamilySearch patrons. If you would like to become a volunteer in the FamilySearch community, please go to
FamilySearchIndexing.org. Many hands produce great work. Thank you for your support!

Collection Name (Records Indexed)

Argentina Baptisms , 1645—1930 (4,209,653)
Argentina Marriages , 1722—1911 (150,895)

Australia Deaths and Burials , 1816—1980 (106,767)

Austria Births and Baptisms , 1651—1940 (88,885)
Austria Burials , 1768 – 1918 (31,756)
Austria Marriages , 1722 — 1898 (25,383)

Bahamas Births , 1550—1891 (53,476)

Barbados Baptisms , 1739—1891 (222,010)
Barbados Burials , 1854—1885 (92,226)
Barbados Marriages , 1854—1879 (15,666)

Belgium Births and Baptisms , 1560—1890 (354,038)
Belgium Deaths and Burials , 1564—1900 (67,182)

Brazil Baptisms , 1688—1935 (3,597,609)
Brazil Deaths , 1750—1890 (43,931)
Brazil Marriages , 1730—1955 (475,107)

Canada Births and Baptisms , 1661—1959 (2,160,243)
Canada Deaths and Burials , 1664—1955 (101,189)
Canada Marriages , 1661—1949 (262,982)


British Columbia Death Registrations , 1872—1986 (928,851)
British Columbia Marriage Registrations , 1859—1932 (124,593)

New Brunswick Births , 1819—1899 (25,414)

Nova Scotia Births , 1702—1896 (125,791)
Nova Scotia Marriages , 1711—1909 (32,245)

Ontario Births , 1779—1899 (455,469)
Ontario Marriages , 1800—1910 (28,574)

Quebec Births, 1662—1898 (27,212)

Caribbean Births , 1590—1928 (438,073)
Caribbean Deaths , 1790—1906 (13,088)
Caribbean Marriages , 1591—1905 (88,186)

Costa Rica Baptisms , 1700—1915 (176,574)
Costa Rica Deaths , 1787—1900 (31,505)
Costa Rica Marriages , 1750—1920 (57,849)

Czech Republic Births , 1637—1889 (33,062)
Czech Republic Marriages , 1654—1889 (12,698)

Dominican Republic Baptisms , 1726—1924 (114,209)
Dominican Republic Deaths , 1666—1862 (14,636)
Dominican Republic Marriages , 1743—1929 (31,992)

Ecuador Baptisms , 1680—1930 (593,710)
Ecuador Deaths , 1800—1920 (43,852)
Ecuador Marriages , 1680—1930 (271,061)

El Salvador Baptisms , 1750—1940 (218,500)
El Salvador Marriages , 1810—1930 (28,162)

France Deaths and Burials , 1546—1960 (347,368)
France Marriages , 1546—1924 (1,397,204)

Germany Births and Baptisms , 1558—1898 (33,749,332)

Gibraltar Marriages , 1879—1918 (2,201)
Gibraltar Births and Baptisms , 1704—1876 (30,515)

Great Britain Deaths and Burials , 1778—1988 (69,278)
Great Britain Marriages , 1797—1988 (22,036)

Channel Islands Births and Baptisms , 1820—1907 (41,647)

Isle of Man Births and Baptisms , 1821—1911 (224,489)
Isle of Man Deaths and Burials , 1844—1911 (42,389)
Isle of Man Marriages , 1849—1911 (42,662)

Wales, Births and Baptisms , 1586—1907 (773,392)
Wales, Deaths and Burials, 1586—1885 (15,109)
Wales, Marriages, 1541—1900 (39,630)

Grenada Births and Baptisms , 1866—1891 (33,239)

Guatemala Baptisms , 1730—1917 (466,223)
Guatemala Deaths , 1760—1880 (20,921)
Guatemala Marriages , 1750—1930 (112,610)

Honduras Baptisms , 1730—1930 (220,317)
Honduras Marriages , 1800—1910 (31,686)

Hungary Baptisms , 1734—1895 (14,210)

Iceland Marriages , 1770—1920 (42,954)

India Births and Baptisms , 1800—1945 (887,579)
India Deaths and Burials , 1800—1945 (566,529)
India Marriages , 1800—1945 (203,970)

Ireland Deaths , 1864—1870 (51,249)

Italy Births and Baptisms , 1806—1900 (1,940,693)
Italy Deaths and Burials , 1809—1900 (438,494)

Jamaica Births and Baptisms , 1752—1920 (331,497)

Luxembourg Births , 1662—1840 (7,835)
Luxembourg Deaths , 1702—1798 (1,554)
Luxembourg Marriages , 1700—1810 (1,471)

Mexico Deaths , 1680—1940 (362,067)
Mexico Marriages , 1570—1950 (6,232,176)

Panama Baptisms , 1750—1938 (269,054)
Panama Deaths , 1840—1930 (21,463)
Panama Marriages , 1800—1950 (39,839)

Paraguay Baptisms , 1800—1930 (101,337)
Paraguay Marriages , 1800—1900 (14,400)

Peru Baptisms , 1556—1930 (4,013,461)
Peru Deaths , 1750—1930 (101,257)
Peru Marriages , 1600—1940 (443,248)

Philippines Births and Baptisms , 1642—1994 (334,139)
Philippines Deaths and Burials , 1726—1957 (5,128,622)
Philippines Marriages , 1723—1957 (2,247,381)

Portugal Baptisms , 1570—1910 (424,354)
Portugal Deaths , 1640—1910 (100,234)
Portugal Marriages , 1670—1910 (59,735)

Russia Births and Baptisms , 1755—1917 (170,844)
Russia Deaths and Burials , 1815—1917 (100,647)
Russia Marriages , 1793—1919 (33,559)

Samoa Baptisms , 1863—1940 (28,013)
Samoa Burials , 1895—1970 (42,061)

Spain Deaths , 1600—1920 (186,259)

Sweden Baptisms, 1611—1920 (9,280,828)
Sweden Burials, 1649-1920 (1,207,501)
Sweden Marriages, 1630-1920 (2,243,064)

Switzerland Baptisms , 1491-1940 (1,001,685)
Switzerland Burials , 1613-1875 (138,011)
Switzerland Marriages , 1532-1910 (268,739)
Switzerland, Basel City Church Books, 1380-1917 (Images Only)

Switzerland, Schaffhausen Genealogies and City Directories, 1460-1952 (Images Only)

Ukraine, Births and Baptisms (14,166)

Uruguay Marriages , 1840—1900 (19,810)

United States 1910 Federal Census (AZ, CA, DE, FL) (4,078,117)

United States Births , 1867—1931 (20,946)
United States Deaths , 1867—1961 (3,705)
United States Marriages , 1733—1990 (7,176)

Arizona Births and Christenings , 1909—1917 (27,483)
Arizona Deaths , 1910—1911; 1993—1994 (10,168)
Arizona Marriages , 1888—1908 (75,094)

Arkansas Births and Christenings , 1880—1893 (11,724)
Arkansas Deaths and Burials, 1882—1929; 1945—1963 (38,956)
Arkansas Marriages , 1837—1944 (1,005,608)

Delaware Births and Christenings , 1710—1896 (30,298)
Delaware Deaths and Burials , 1815—1955 (209,592)
Delaware Marriages , 1713—1953 (70,024)

District of Columbia Births and Christenings , 1830—1955 (121,224)
District of Columbia Deaths and Burials , 1840—1964 (372,173)
District of Columbia Marriages , 1830—1921 (242,760)

Florida Births and Christenings , 1880—1935 (28,301)
Florida Deaths and Burials , 1900—1921 (24,800)
Florida Marriages , 1837—1974 (860,110)

Hawaii Births and Christenings , 1852—1933 (150,992)
Hawaii Deaths and Burials , 1862—1919 (105,519)
Hawaii Marriages , 1826—1922 (103,871)

Idaho Births and Christenings , 1856—1965 (75,881)
Idaho Deaths and Burials , 1907—1965 (31,253)
Idaho Marriages , 1878—1898/1903—1942 (88,588)

Kansas Births and Christenings , 1818—1936 (59,392)
Kansas Deaths and Burials , 1885—1930 (39,907)
Kansas Marriages , 1840—1935 (378,903)

Kentucky Births and Christenings , 1839—1960 (547,119)
Kentucky Deaths and Burials , 1843—1970 (1,971,681)
Kentucky Marriages , 1785—1979 (1,532,718)

Louisiana Births, Christenings , 1811—1830; 1854—1934 (16,890)
Louisiana Marriages , 1816—1906 (129,641)

Maine Births and Christenings , 1739—1900 (940,882)
Maine Deaths and Burials , 1841—1910 (172,879)
Maine Marriages , 1771—1907 (597,508)

Maryland Births and Christenings , 1650—1995 (206,288)
Maryland Deaths and Burials , 1877—1992 (11,686)
Maryland Marriages , 1666—1970 (253,727)

Montana Marriages , 1889—1947 (197,930)

New Mexico Births and Christenings , 1726—1918 (435,411)
New Mexico Deaths , 1788—1798; 1838—1955 (9,627)
New Mexico Marriages , 1751—1918 (93,387)

New York Births and Christenings , 1640—1962 (1,351,166)
New York Deaths and Burials , 1795—1952 (701,396)
New York Marriages , 1686—1980 (859,927)

North Carolina Births and Christenings , 1866—1964 (156,156)
North Carolina Deaths and Burials , 1898—1994 (2,742,609)
North Carolina Marriages , 1759—1979 (2,128,391)

Ohio Deaths and Burials , 1854—1997 (2,535,557)

Oregon Births and Christenings , 1868—1929 (70,253)
Oregon Deaths and Burials , 1903—1947 (29,035)
Oregon Marriages , 1853—1935 (57,523)

South Dakota State Census , 1935 (673,322)

Tennessee County Marriages, 1790—1950 (10,145)

Utah Births and Christenings , 1892—1941 (48,049)
Utah Deaths , 1888—1946 (148,933)
Utah Marriages , 1887—1966 (308,854)

Vermont Births and Christenings , 1765—1908 (402,329)
Vermont Deaths , 1871—1965 (235,415)
Vermont Marriages , 1791—1974 (185,433)

Virginia Deaths and Burials , 1853—1912 (785,241)

West Virginia Births and Christenings , 1853—1928 (544,589)
West Virginia Deaths and Burials , 1854—1932 (56,688)
West Virginia Marriages , 1854—1932 (203,378)

Wyoming Marriages , 1877—1920 (14,070)

World Misc Births , 1534—1983 (616,742)
World Misc Deaths , 1767—1950 (15,269)
World Misc Marriages , 1662—1945 (28,668)


My impression is that, in many cases, these are not complete record collections for the years shown. But every little bit helps!

My thanks to Paul Nauta for creating this list. I was about to do it myself, and this saved me hours of effort!

Amanuensis Monday - the Will of Jonathan White (1730-1804)

...
Genea-blogger John Newmark (who writes the excellent TransylvanianDutch blog) started his own Monday blog theme several months ago called Amanuensis Monday.

What does "amanuensis" mean? John offers this definition:

"A person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another."

Today, my subject is Jonathan White (ca 1730-1804), the son of William and Abigail (Thurston) White of Dartmouth MA, the husband of Abigail (Wing) White, and the father of Humphrey, Ruth, Rhoda, Hannah, Holder and Jonathan White, all born in the Dartmouth and Westport area of Bristol County, Massachusetts. Jonathan White (ca 1730-1804) is one of my fifth great-grandfathers, and I descend from his son Humphrey White (1758-1814) who married Sybil Kirby.

Jonathan White died testate on 21 November 1804 in Westport, Bristol County, Massachusetts. His will was proved 4 December 1804 in the Bristol County, Massachusetts, Probate Court. The will transcription reads (from Bristol County, Massachusetts, Probate Records, Volume 41, 1804-1807, on FHL Microfilm 0,462,642, no page numbers):

"I, Jonathan White of Westport in the County of Bristol & Commonwealth of Massachusetts, yeoman, Being at this time in usual health and of sound disposing mind & memory, remembering the uncertainty of life & that is appointed for all men once to die - to prevent Difficulty that might otherways take place with respect to what I have been blessed with of the things of this World, do dispose of in the following manner & form, viz.:

"Imprimus, My Will is that my just Debts & funeral charges be paid by my Executors hereinafter mentioned.

"Item. I Give unto my Beloved Wife, Abigail White the Use and Improvement of the Easterly part of my now Dwelling house, including the Great Room in the Southeast Corner of said house and the bedroom adjoining and all the rooms of the Chamber & Garret that are above them with a priviledge through the Entries and Doors and up Chamber and to the Oven and Well for her use as often as occasion shall require and to the Cellar & to have one Quarter part of the Cellar in the Southwest Corner. I also give her yearly & every year fire wood as much as she shall need for one fire but a suitable length for her fireplace & Draw'd to the door when she shall choose to have it and six bushels of good Indian corn & two bushels of good rye, and half an hundred of good flour, sixty pounds of food pork, fifty pounds of good beef, fifteen pounds fried tallow, ten pounds hog's lard, three pound good Bohea tea, three pounds good coffee, four gallons molasses, eighteen pounds good brown sugar, ten pounds good sheep's wool, ten pounds good flax from the Swingle, and what summer apples she shall need for use out of which orchard she shall choose so long as any apples remains in the orchards & at the time of gathering in apples for her to have six bushels of good winter apples gathered and put in the cellar for her, & two barrels of good late made cyder put in the cellar for her and a sufficiency of all kinds of sauce (that is rais'd) for her use both winter & summer that is, all seasons of the year, and fifteen pounds of good butter & fifty pounds of good new milk, cheese and one pint of milk per day, and half a bushel of salt & one pair Cloth Shoes, and one pair Leather shoes, & the keeping of two Dunghil fowls. And these to be provided and kept for her that is suitable for her to ... and to be ... and stacked for her as often and when she shall call for it both winter & summer all the aforesaid gifts to be provided and delivered her by my two sons Holder White and Jonathan White equally between them yearly and every year so long as my said wife remains my widow and no longer.

"Also I give unto my said wife three Dollars a year that is yearly and every year to be paid by my three sons Humphrey, Holder & Jonathan equally between them so long as she shall remain my widow.

"Also I give unto my said wife my best side saddle & a good bridle, my great looking glass and fire dogs and one half my Silver Spoons and my Great Bible and John Griffiths journal & my two smallest meat tubs together with one half my household goods & furniture, excepting what I shall herein otherways dispose of and one hundred Dollars to her free & clear to her own disposal.

"All the aforesaid gifts & improvements in lieu of her right of dowry or thirds of my estate. I also order my two sons Holder & Jonathan, whenever my said wife shall be sick or unwell to provide a Nurse and whatever necessary she shall want for her comfort or support equally between them.

"Item. I give unto my son Humphrey White, to him his heirs & assigns forever, all my wearing apparel & all my Notes & Book Debts that I have against him (that bear date before this time) excepting one Note of twenty two dollars I give unto his daughter Elizabeth and order him to pay it to her when she shall marry or arrive to the age of eighteen years, but if she should not live to the age of eighteen years then I give it unto my said son Humphrey.

"Item. I give unto my son Holder White to him his heirs & assigns forever all that Farm or tract of land I bought of Joseph Tripp with the salt meadow laying at the foot thereof with all my land laying on the east side of Acoahset River & salt meadow adjoining the same, and my lot of wood land I bought of Silvanus White as by deed may appear, and my half of that lot of wood land called the Cadman lot (& which lot he now owns the other half) bounded easterly on Barney Fitch's land, southerly & westerly on the highway with a priviledge to pass and repass through the land call'd the Willcox lot to Stephen Kirby's land (except the wood on this my said half of Cadman lot I give unto my son Jonathan & for him to cut the wood off when he shall have occasion). I also give unto my said son Holder my sedge flat laying on the great flat so called given me by Hon'd Father. I also give him the one half of all my Cedar Swamp or Rights in Cedar Swamps wherever it may be found with all the Buildings, Priviledges & appurtenances belonging to any and all the aforesaid lands & lots, excepting what is already mentioned. I also give him my said son Holder one cow & the one half of all my blacksmiths tools & all the hay that shall be on the aforesaid lands given him that I shall have at my decease.

"Item. I give unto my son Jonathan White to him his heirs and assigns forever, all the rest and remainder of my lands & lots of land, salt meadow & sedge flats & cedar swamps together with the Buildings thereon & privileges thereto belonging that I have herein otherways disposed of together with the wood on that land given to Holder as is before mentioned and all my live stock, hay & provisions that I have not herein already disposed of and the other half of my blacksmith's tools, & all my farming tools & outdoor moveables & my Desk.

"Item. I give unto my three Daughters Ruth Cornell, Rhoda Cornell & Hannah Kirby the other half of my Household goods & furniture & the one half of my silver spoons not herein before disposed of to be equally divided between my three said daughters. I also give unto my three said Daughters Six hundred dollars that is to each one two hundred Dollars to be paid them by my Executors one year after my decease.

"Lastly, I give unto my two sons Holder & Jonathan & to their heirs & assigns forever all the Residue & Remainder of my Estate not herein otherways disposed of and out of the gifts herein given them I order them to pay my Debts & Expenses of settling my Estate. But if any of my children shall bring in any account against my estate for labor done for me I order the same to be paid and discharged out of that part of my estate that I have herein given them respectively. And I do hereby constitute my two said sons Holder & Jonathan jointly executors to this my last will & testament ordering them to pay the gifts & legacies herein mentioned.

"In Witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand & seal this sixteenth day of March One thousand Seven hundred & Ninety Seven, 1797."
Jonathan White


"Signed sealed & Declared by the said Jonathan White to be his last will & testament in presence of us
Prince Wing

Abner White
Abner Brownell"

The will clearly identifies the names of Jonathan White's children at the time of the writing of the will in 1797.

Although Humphrey White was the oldest son, he was not named an executor of the will, but was listed as one of the supporters of Jonathan's wife, Abigail White. When the will was written in 1797, Humphrey White and his family resided in Glocester, Providence County, Rhode Island, some distance away from Westport, Bristol County, Massachusetts. Humphrey was bequeathed Jonathan's clothing and all of the "notes and book debts" held against him - apparently Humphrey White owed his father money. Elizabeth White, the daughter of Humphrey White, may have been a favorite of her grandfather Jonathan White - she was bequeathed 22 dollars at age 18 or when she married (she was born before 1797, and married Peleg Wood, although I don't have any more information about her than that).