Saturday, January 29, 2011

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - The Date You Were Born

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

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

1) What day of the week were you born? Tell us how you found out.

2) What has happened in recorded history on your birth date (day and month)? Tell us how you found out, and list five events.


3)  What famous people have been born on your birth date?  Tell us how you found out, and list five of them.

4)  Put your responses in your own blog post, in a comment on this blog post, or in a status or comment on Facebook.

Here are mine, without the "Tell us how" bit...

1) 23 October 1943 was a Saturday.

2) Historic events that happened on 23 October:

* On 10/23/1086 - Battle of Zalaka: Alfonso VI vs Almoravids
* On 10/23/1642 - Battle at Edgeville (Warwick): King Charles I vs English parliament
* On 10/23/1775 - Continental Congress approves resolution barring blacks from army
* On 10/23/1824 - 1st steam locomotive is introduced
* On 10/23/1910 - Blanche Scott became 1st woman solo a public airplane flight

3)  The famous birthdays:

  • 1959 'Weird' Al Yankovic (singer, comedian)

  • 1942 Michael (John) Crichton (writer)

  • 1940 Pele (Edson Arantes do Nascimento) (Brazil's soccer star)

  • 1925 Johnny Carson (comedian, TV Host)

  • 1835 Adlai Ewing Stevenson (23rd Vice President)


  • Hint:  For the day of the week you were born, check here.

    Hint:  For the events on that day, check here.

    Hint: For the Famous birthdays, check here.

    Surname Saturday - WING (England to colonial Massachusetts)

    It's Surname Saturday, and I'm "counting down" my Ancestral Name List each week. I am up to number 161, but numbers 161 to 175 are unknown to me - great-great-grandmothers of my ancestor, Thomas Richmond.  Next up is #177, who is Abigail WING (1734-1806), one of my 5th-great-grandmothers. [Note: The 5th great-grandfathers have been covered in earlier posts] 

    My ancestral line back through five generations of WING families 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)
     
    10.  Thomas Richmond (1848-1917)
    11.  Julia White (1848-1912)
     
    22.  Henry Arnold White (1824-1885)
    23.  Amy Frances Oatley (1826-before 1870)
     
    44.  Jonathan White (1806-1850)
    45.  Miranda Wade (1804-1850)
     
    88.  Humphrey White (1758-1814)
    89.  Sybil Kirby (1764-1848)

    176. Jonathan White, born about 1732 in probably Dartmouth, Bristol County, MA; died 21 Nov 1804 in Westport, Bristol County, MA. He was the son of 352. William White and 353. Abigail Thurston. He married 01 Jan 1756 in Dartmouth, Bristol County, MA.
    177. Abigail Wing, born 25 Apr 1734 in Dartmouth, Bristol County, MA; died 06 Aug 1806 in Dartmouth, Bristol County, MA.

    Children of Jonathan White and Abigail Wing are:  Humphrey White (1758-1814); Ruth White (1759-1835); Rhoda White (1761-1822); Hannah White (1765-1842); Holder White (1768-1853); Jonathan White (1778-1846);

    354. Benjamin Wing, born 01 Feb 1697/98 in Dartmouth, Bristol County, MA; died after 15 Oct 1776 in in Dartmouth, Bristol County, MA.  He married 18 Oct 1722 in Dartmouth, Bristol County, MA.
    355. Content Tucker, born 12 Mar 1694/95 in Dartmouth, Bristol County, MA; died before Oct 1738 in Dartmouth, Bristol County, MA. She was the daughter of 710. Abraham Tucker and 711. Hannah Mott.

    Children of Benjamin Wing and Content Tucker are: Elizabeth Wing (1724-1778); Sarah Wing (1726-1813); Hannah Wing (1728-????); Benjamin Wing (1732-1801); Abigail Wing (1734-1806).

    708. Matthew Wing, born 01 Mar 1673/74 in Sandwich, Barnstable County, MA; died before 21 Jul 1724 in Dartmouth, Bristol County, MA. He married 04 Sep 1694 in Dartmouth, Bristol County, MA.
    709. Elizabeth Mott, born 09 Aug 1659 in Portsmouth, Newport County, RI; died 1723 in Dartmouth, Bristol County, MA. She was the daughter of 1418. Adam Mott and 1419. Mary Lott.

    Children of Matthew Wing and Elizabeth Mott are: Joseph Wing (1697-1778); Benjamin Wing (1698-1776); Abigail Wing (1701-1792).

    1416. Stephen Wing, born about 1621 in probably Flushing, HOLLAND; died 24 Apr 1710 in Sandwich, Barnstable County, MA. He married  07 Feb 1653/54 in Sandwich, Barnstable County, MA.
    1417. Sarah Briggs, born about 1638 in prob. Sandwich, Barnstable County, MA; died 26 Mar 1689 in Sandwich, Barnstable County, MA. She was the daughter of 2834. John Briggs and 2835. Katherine.

    Children of Stephen Wing and Sarah Briggs are:  Stephen Wing (1656-1676); Sarah Wing (1659-1720); John Wing (1661-1728); Abigail Wing (1664-1700); Elisha Wing (1669-1757); Ebenezer Wing (1671-1738); Matthew Wing (1674-1724).

    2832. John Wing, born before 12 Jan 1583/84 in Banbury, Oxfordshire, ENGLAND; died before 04 Aug 1630 in London, London, ENGLAND. He was the son of 5664. Matthew Wing and 5665. Mary. He married about 1610 in probably Hampshire, ENGLAND.
    2833. Deborah Bachiler, born about 1592 in Wherwell, Hampshire, ENGLAND; died Bef. 1680 in prob. Yarmouth, Barnstable County, MA. She was the daughter of 5666. Stephen Bachiler and 5667. Anne.

    Children of John Wing and Deborah Bachiler are: Deborah Wing (1611-1699); John Wing (1613-1699); Daniel Wing (1617-1698); Stephen Wing (1621-1710); Matthew Wing (1624-1680).

    The Wing Family Association website (http://www.wingfamily.org/) has links to full information about the Wing family.  There is a Wing Family History Wiki at http://worldcupcafe.pbworks.com/w/page/15367954/FrontPage with sketches of early generations.

    Friday, January 28, 2011

    Getting Ready for the FamilySearch Center on Saturday

    The Chula Vista Genealogical Society is sponsoring a research trip about ten miles up the road to the San Diego FamilySearch Center in San Diego.  It's not far, but we're carpooling so that members who don't drive on the freeways any more can go.  We have 14 signed up for the carpool trip, and some of them are new members, and many of them have not been to the FHC before.  It should be fun.

    My main job will be to shepherd the group there and help them while we're there, but I hope to do a little searching of my own. 

    I have not done a good literature search on the latest group of ancestors I've added to my family tree - the ancestors of Sarah Martin (1792-1860).  She has a very rich New Jersey and New England ancestry, including one or two Mayflower Famlies if you believe the online family trees. 

    I recalled that Martin Hollick had written a blog post on The Slovak Yankee about how he searches existing works - I had to go back to August 2010, but I found his post Shepardizing Your Genealogy which summarized how he does it:

    1) " ... Donald Lines Jacobus, Index to Genealogical Periodicals, which will let me see all the scholarship for east coast families up to the publication year of 1953."

    2)  "... Meredith Colket's Founders of Early American Families which takes me up to 1985, albeit imperfectly.  At least the major journals are indexed therein, but it is only families that fall within that lineage society's rules (a family here before 1657 and continuing in the male line to the American Revolution)."  

    3)  Martin's own book, "New Englanders in the 1600s which covers 1980 to 2005 (in print), and then my own private update which takes me to the end of 2009.  That's how I see what is current for (mostly) New England families."

    I have 2) and 3), and today I went through Martin's excellent book for all of the immigrant names that I think are in Sarah Martin's ancestry, and added them to my to-do list for published books and periodicals. 

    Let me give you an example of what is in Martin's book (from page 94):

    "HALE, THOMAS, b. 1606, d. Newbury, Mass., 21 December 1682.  Davis II:62-69 [Phoebe Tilton], including English origins.  Wife's Kirby ancestry given at Davis II:394-395 [Phoebe Tilton]; 50Imm, pp. 169-98; MBT #844; NEHGR 151:128-34 (wife's ancestry); TAG 68:77-83 (Mary-3, Thomas-2); TAG 69:212-18 (Mary-2)."

    The references are cryptic but a full source citation for each is provided in the front part of the book.  I knew that "50Imm" referred to John Brooks Threlfall's book 50 Gret Migration Colonists to New England & Their Origins, published in 1990 by the author.  "NEHGR" is the New England Historical and Genealogical Register, and "TAG" is The American Genealogist.

    I really appreciate Martin's book, which he sent to me gratis over a year ago.  It has become the first reference work I check when I find a new New England ancestral family.

    I updated my "Books I Want to Review" and "Journals I Want to Review" lists today, adding information directly from the entries in Martin's book.  Now all I have to do is print them out and I'm ready to check the stacks (they have TAG, Connecticut Nutmeggers, NEHGR, and other periodicals too). 

    Source Citation Dilemma in Legacy Family Tree 7

    When I last looked at creating Source Citations in Legacy Family Tree 7, in Peeking at Legacy Family Tree 7.5 Source Citations in the GEDCOM File - Post 1, I found that the source citations created using the Legacy SourceWriter templates followed the Evidence! Explained model well.  After that post, I created a number of different types of source citations using the SourceWriter templates.  The other conclusion from that study was that Legacy Family Tree 7 created a GEDCOM file that put the source elements into the right tags and did not add extraneous words to the GEDCOM file.  That was all to the good.

    My dilemma now is this:  I have over 20,000 sources citations in over 650 Master Sources, but all of the Master Sources (except the ones I've created recently using the SourceWriter) are Basic Sources because they came across in the GEDCOM file in that format (since GEDCOM has fairly rigid tag fields). 

    My idea was to create a Template Source for many of the Master Sources, then combine or merge all of the citations in Basic Sources into the Template Source.  Here was the process I tried to use:

    I created a Template Source for the Massachusetts Vital Records, 1841-1910 online database using the "Death Records = Death register = Created at state/provincial level = Online image" template in SourceWriter:


    The resulting Source Citations for this source using the SourceWriter template are:

    Footnote/Endnote Citation: 
    Massachusetts State Archives, Massachusetts Vital Records, 1841-1910, ; digital image, New England Historic Genealogical Society, American Ancestors (http://www.AmericanAncestors.org).  
    Subsequent Citation:
    Massachusetts Massachusetts Vital Records, 1841-1910, .
    Bibliography:
    Massachusetts. State Archives. Massachusetts Vital Records, 1841-1910. New England Historic Genealogical Society. American Ancestors. http://www.AmericanAncestors.org: 2004.  

    Well, those are not perfect, are they?  The problems I have include:

    * In the Footnote/Endnote, there is a comma after "1910." 
    *  In the Subsequent citation, there is the word "Massachusetts" before the name of the database (caused by putting the Jurisdiction State in the field in the template)
    *  In the Subsequent citation, there is an extra comma after "1910." 
    *  In the Bibliography, the word "Massachusetts" has a period after it (again, the Jurisdiction State entry in the template).

    I attempted to duplicate the Legacy SourceWriter template citation in the Basic Source Citation, with this result:




    The resulting Source Citations for this source using the Basic Source template are:

    Footnote/Endnote Citation:
    Massachusetts State Archives, Massachusetts Vital Records, 1841-1910 [online database],
    Boston, Mass. : New England Historic Genealogical Society, American Ancestors (www.americanancestors.org) , 2004.
    Subsequent Citation:
    Massachusetts State Archives, Massachusetts Vital Records, 1841-1910 [online database],
    Boston, Mass. : New England Historic Genealogical Society, American Ancestors (www.americanancestors.org) , 2004.
    Bibliography
    Massachusetts State Archives, Massachusetts Vital Records, 1841-1910 [online database],
    Boston, Mass. : New England Historic Genealogical Society, American Ancestors (www.americanancestors.org) , 2004.


     The problems I see with this set of Basic Source Citations include:

    *  They are not exactly what the Evidence! Explained model for this type of source citation shows, but it is close.  I can probably edit it to be closer to the EE models.
    *  There is no extraneous punctuation in the citations
    *  The website name is not italicized as in the SourceWriter template and EE model.
    *  The Subsequent Citation is in an improper format (since it wasn't created from a SourceWriter template)
    *  The Bibliography entry is in an improper format (since it wasn't created from a SourceWriter template).


    Be that as it may, I want to combine all 1,423 of the source citations made with the Free-form template with the one made by the SourceWriter template.  There appears to be an easy way to do this - there is a button at the bottom of the Master Source List (View = Master Lists = Source) to "Combine Highlighted Source with Another in the List":



    I clicked that button, then it said "Highlight Destination Source, Then Click this Button" and I did that, and got this screen:




    UPDATED 31 January:  Noticed that two screens were out of order, fixed it!
     The message box says:

    "Basic Style and Template Style sources cannot be combined.  You need to select all Basic Style sources or all Template Style sources.  Don't mix the two.

    "Would you like to turn on the display of Template ID's to make it easier to see which sources can be combined?"

    Well, that didn't work.  Is there another way to combine two master sources of different types?  I checked the "Options" button in the Master Source List and that didn't work (presumably because the two Source citations were not exactly equal to each other) either.

    So I still have a major dilemma:

    Do I accept the fact that I can't combine the Basic Source and SourceWriter Source data, and stick with the Basic source?  The benefit here is I can probably put information into the Basic Source template fields to closely match Evidence! Explained models, without using the SourceWriter templates.  The downside is that the Subsequent Citations and Bibliography entries will not be correct in a report created by Legacy Family Tree 7. 

    On the other hand, if I convert all 20,000+ source citations to the Legacy SourceWriter templates (which will be a major time effort), I would have Evidence! Explained quality source citations (with minor punctuation problems) for Footnotes/Endnotes, Subsequent and Bibliography entries.  However, whenever I export a Legacy Family Tree 7 database as a GEDCOM file to another software program (for whatever reason) or to an online database (I have about ten out in the genealogy world right now), all source citations will be transferred in a Basic Source format due to the limitations of the GEDCOM 5.5 standard. 


    Will another program read the Legacy Family Tree 7 native format file?  Yes - RootsMagic 4 can do that (it says...).  I think that I will explore what happens if I import the LFT7 file into RootsMagic 4 to see if the sources come across in a template form, or if a Basic Source form and a Template Source form can be combined easily.

    The Seaver Source Citation Search for Perfection continues... stay tuned!

    Thursday, January 27, 2011

    2011 Ultimate Family History Journey Sweepstakes


    Ancestry.com has another "Ultimate Family History Journey Sweepstakes" contest going at http://www.ancestry.com/wdytya2011

    The site says:

    "You could win a $20,000 journey to your family's homeland.

    "Ancestry.com is partnering with NBC to help celebrities discover their family stories in Season 2 of Who Do You Think You Are? and giving you a chance to win an amazing experience of your own.

    "The Grand Prize includes $20,000 in travel money, plus:
    • Up to 8 hours of consultation time with an expert genealogist
    • Help from up to 5 experts in fields relevant to your family history
    • A yearlong Ancestry.com World Deluxe membership for you and 5 family members
    "20 First Prize winners will get an annual Ancestry.com World Deluxe membership.

    "For additional chances to win, come back and enter once a day through April 8, 2011."

    The Official Rules are here.  No purchase is necessary.

    Each time you click on the link, you will have to enter your email address, name and mail address.  You can earn another entry by adding five email addresses of friends.

    Hat tip to Thomas MacEntee on the Geneabloggers blog for alerting the geneablogging world to this promotion.

    Ancestry.com and the Genealogical Community

    This week's Open Thread Thursday topic on the Geneabloggers blog is Ancestry.com and the Genealogy Community.  Thomas asks:

    "This week Ancestry.com announced that it would cease operation of Expert Connect on February 3, 2011. This has caused much discussion on various genealogy blogs and mailing lists about Ancestry.com’s commitment to and role in the genealogy community.

    "What are your opinions about Ancestry.com’s role in the genealogy community? Does the biggest player in the industry have any duty to this vibrant group of genealogists and family historians? Or is its duty solely to its stockholders and customers since Ancestry went public in late 2009?"

    My observations and opinions (I am not an attorney):

    *  Ancestry.com, and its subsidiaries, has a contractual obligation to live up to its Terms and Conditions with its customers.  However, they can unilaterally change them.  Have you read them recently?

    *  Ancestry.com has a contractual obligation to its investors to operate according to the Corporate Governance documents created by the company.  The Board of directors can change them.

    *  Ancestry.com has no "duty" to the "genealogical community" as a whole, but since many of its customers are members of that community (researchers, authors, bloggers, etc.) it would be foolish, almost negligent, not to interact (listen to, improve relations with, and market to) the community. 

    *  Ancestry.com will thrive or die based on two things - the content and services that it provides to customers, and how it deals with those customers, individually and as a group.  They have a significant churn rate (4% per month is the last number I heard - that means they have to replace 4% of their subscribers every month) that impels them to do marketing in all media and events, and to add content, add services and improve the quality of the content and services constantly.  If they don't add content or improve services constantly, existing subscribers may drop off.

    *  At the first Blogger Day two years ago, Ancestry.com said that "Content is King, Quality is Queen" and they promised to improve community relations with the genealogical community.  The past two years have been characterized by much more content, improved services and more openness and communication - via email, telephone, online and at conferences.

    *  Ancestry.com has significantly improved the Search capabilities for users of the records collection to the point that it is the most complex and sophisticated search engine in the genealogical community. Some think it is too complex.

    *  Ancestry.com have made substantial changes to the Member Tree experience, but it is not nearly as fast or user friendly as many genealogy software packages.

    *  Ancestry.com's Family Tree Maker genealogy software is one of the best selling, and was completely reprogrammed in 2008.  It now has added capabilities over the earlier software versions (16 and before), but is much more complex to use, and has some GEDCOM file creation problems.

    *  Ancestry.com's MyCanvas book building tool produces high quality coffee-table type books that can be printed or purchased, but they are limited in the number of pages available.

    *  Ancestry.com has a DNA testing service that is competitive with other services, accepts results from other services to attach to persons in a Member Tree, and finds possible matches to a subscribers markers.

    *  Ancestry.com has a Learning Center that contains how-to videos, articles, and webinars to help all levels of researchers.  The site promotes other Ancestry.com products. 

    *  Ancestry.com just terminated the Expert Connect service after buying ProGenealogists in August 2010.  The termination has been painful for some of the "experts" hired through Ancestry.com by customers.  Will ProGenealogists do a better job for customers needing record lookups, consultation, family tree research, book writing, etc.?  Will ProGenealogists be cheaper for the customers desiring the services?   My guess is "yes" and "no" but only time will tell. 

    *  Ancestry.com owns Rootsweb, a totally free site with record databases, a family tree system, mailing lists, message boards, web pages, etc.  The free record databases have not had added content for years (except for incremental regular Social Security Death Index additions). The Rootsweb WorldConnect family tree database adds maybe 30 million names per year, and the mailing lists and message boards add content every year, but not at the level of earlier years.   Many local and regional genealogical societies have web sites on Rootsweb.

    *  Ancestry.com owns Genealogy.com, a subscription site with some free elements. The subscription elements on Genealogy.com are, I think, duplicated on Ancestry.com, but there are still subscribers for the service that is essentially static.  The free elements are user web pages and the GenForum message boards and have minimum added content each year, but are a good resource.

    *  Ancestry.com now owns Footnote.com, a subscription site with some free elements, and with significant technological capabilities and contracts with content providers.  I would not be surprised to see more interaction between Ancestry and Footnote databases - that Footnote results might show up in Ancestry search results and vice versa, and that Ancestry Member Trees might link to or even create Footnote Pages.

    *  If one of the measures of a company's benevolence is the free services that it offers customers, then Ancestry.com certainly should be credited with contributing to the genealogical community by hosting and adding content to the Learning Center, Rootsweb and Genealogy.com websites. 

    *  They say that the sins of the fathers persist for generations, and the same is true for companies like Ancestry.com that serve customers while trying to grow the company and keep it profitable.  They made several mistakes in past years that affected their reputation, but I think they have repaired that reputation among many in the community over the last two years.

    *  There are still  people that resent Ancestry.com and other commercial companies that provide genealogical products and services for a subscription cost.  These folks think that the services should be free and the products should be cheaper.  Frankly, the only way that the products and services will be cheaper is if there is more competition in the marketplace.  It has been hard to start and grown any company in the current economic climate, but it may be easier in the future.  I doubt that there will be any companies or organizations with "free" record content and services, except for FamilySearch and the various government archives.

    *  Ancestry.com has been the "Elephant in the genealogy room" for a long time.  FamilySearch has grown significantly over the past two years and is now ":Elephant sized" as well, and is free to use.  While it doesn't have as much content as Ancestry.com yet, it no doubt will have more content as more microfilms are digitized and more historical collections are indexed.  There's room for both in the genealogical community.  It's really a good time to be a genealogist!

    What have I missed?   What are your opinions about Ancestry.com?

    Treasure Chest Thursday - Isaac Seaver's Civil War Pension Papers: Deposition (Part 1) of the Widow

    It's Treasure Chest Thursday, time to share one of the documents or artifacts in my family history collection.  In previous posts, I have displayed documents from the Civil War Pension File of Isaac Seaver, my second great-grandfather. 

    I received the complete Civil War Pension File for Isaac Seaver on 3 January - see my post My Christmas Present Came Today - Oh Boy! - and it has 81 pages in the file.  Some of them have little or no information on them.  I'm going to cherry-pick some pages for this and later Treasure Chest Thursday posts.

    The "treasure" this week is the first part of the "Deposition" that supports the application of the widow, Alvina M. (Bradley) (Lewis) Seaver, taken on 23 December 1901 by Frank Shapleigh of the Bureau of Pensions.  This deposition has three handwritten pages (written by the examiner and signed by the deponent):




    The Deposition reads (filled in lines underlined, handwritten items italicized):

    [First page]

    DEPOSITION  __________________

    Case of Alvina M. Seaver, No. 738086

    On this 23 day of Dec, 190 1, at
    Fitchburg, County of Worcester
    State of Mass, before me, FRANK SHAPLEIGH
    a special examiner of the Bureau of Pensions, personally appeared
    Alvina M. Seaver, who, being by me first duly sworn to
    answer truly all interrogations propounded to h___ during this special
    examination of aforesaid claim for pension, deposes and says:  I am 53
    years of age; my post-office address is 15 Clinton St.,
    Fitchburg Mass.
    No occupation

    I am the widow of
    Isaac Seaver 3d late
    Co H 4 Mass H A who
    died of cancer of the
    Stomach on March 12, 1901

    I had been married once
    only prior to my marriage to
    Mr. Seaver - to Joseph P.
     Lewis.

    Soldier had been married
    twice only prior to our
    marriage - to Juliette Glazier
    and Lucretia D. Smith.

    There was three months
    pension due soldier
    at the time of his death
    but same has not been

    [Second page]

    paid to me yet.

    At time of soldiers death
    the only property owned
    by him/or us which he had
    any interest was as
    follows, including real
    and personal property.

    A three tenement house at
    66 Mechanic St Leominster
    Mass.

    $325 in the Leominster
    Savings Bank and
    accrued interest.
    He left no other property
    of any kind.

    About the last of Feby
    ???? soldier made his
    will.  He gave me in will
    an interest of $1200 in the
    house 66 Mechanic St
    and bequeathed the
    remaining interest in the
    house and his money
    in the Bank to his
    four children to be
    equally divided.
    Names of children:
    Frank Seaver Leominster Mass
    Juliette Bryant Fitchburg Mass
    Lizzie Blanchard ? Cal
    Nellie M. Seaver Leominster Mass
    I understand that
    each received about

    [third page]

    $450 upon the settlement
    of the estate.

    At time of soldier's death
    I owned My home at
    7 Cedar St Leominster Mass.,
    valued at about $2500
    true value.  I used same
    as a home and
    derived no income from it.
    Taxes ........................... $35.75
    Water Rent .................... 11.00
    Insurance .........................3.60
    Repairs (estimated) ....... 25.00
    Total  .......................... $75.35

    I occupied my home until
    May 1, 1901, when I sold
    same to a Mr. Milford for
    $2500.
    Of this sum I received
    $1500 cash and a
    note secured by mortgage
    for $1000 at 5% interest.
    I immediately bought
    my husband's old
    place at 66 Mechanic St.

    /s/ Alvina M. Seaver Deponent

    Sworn to and subscribed before me this 23 day of Dec
    190 1 and I certify that the contents were fully made known to deponent before signing.

    /s/ Frank Shapleigh, Special Examiner

    This is Part 1 of Alvina's deposition to the Pension Bureau examiner.  Part 2 next week.

    This deposition provides the clearest explanation I have of the real estate situation at the time of Isaac Seaver's death.  Previously, I had thought that Isaac owned the house at 7 Cedar Street in Leominster;  it is apparent, from this deposition, that Alvina owned that house and Isaac owned the house at 66 Mechanic Street.  I have not obtained the deed records for these properties, but I should! 

    The facts of Isaac Seaver's estate are almost correct - see Amanuensis Monday - Probate Records of Isaac Seaver (1823-1901) to compare the facts.  The specific real estate was not mentioned in the probate records.  Alvina did not mention the $300 she received for the furniture in the probate distribution.

    Wednesday, January 26, 2011

    SLIG Course Summary - Advanced Genealogical Methodology

    I've been enjoying reading Jeffrey Vaillant's summaries of his week at the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy (held January 10-14) that are posted on the California Genealogical Society and Library Blog.  Jeff took the Advanced Genealogical Methodology class.taught by Thomas Jones, PhD, CG, CGL, FASG, FUGA, FNGS. 

    Here are the posts in this series to date:

    Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy 2011 - Jeff's Report #1

    Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy 2011 - Jeff's Report #2

    Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy 2011 - Jeff's Report #3

    Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy - Jeff's Report #4

    Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy 2011 - Jeff's Report #5

    *  Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy: Jeff's Report #6

    While the dates on the blog are for the dates that individual classes were held, they have been posted on the CGSL blog over the past two days (Google Reader doesn't lie...).

    I found it interesting to see the curriculum, the speakers and some indication of the homework load.  Poor Jeff had to go research in the Family History Library every night!

    I haven't taken any education courses like this, and I know that I should...so maybe it's a Christmas present for me next year? (hint hint...)

    Thank you, Jeff, for drawing back the curtain a bit on this SLIG course.

    UPDATED 29 January:  added #6 posted this day.

    Legacy Family Tree 7.5 - Error in Ancestor Book Reports

    I've been exploring some of the capabilities of Legacy Family Tree Version 7.5 while working on my source citations, and last night ran across an error in the Ancestor Book Report function.

    One of the report pages showing a list of children is shown below:


    Notice the list of children (this is for a one-marriage family).  The family children numbers start with "ii." and go through "viii." for the seven children in this family.  How did that happen?  I double checked many pages in the report, and it happened on all of them. 

    I checked the Descendant Book Report and the numbers start with "i." as expected. 

    I decided to report it to Legacy Family Tree, which has a Help Center at http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/Help.asp and a Report a Problem page at http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/Problems.asp.  I made a report as shown below:



    I received an email this morning from Legacy Family Tree's Technical Support team, saying:

    "This is a known problem when Footnotes are selected for sources.  I don't know how soon the programmers will be able to solve this issue, but in the meantime, please use Endnotes rather than Footnotes.

    "I'll pass this on as a reminder and to add you as a reporter of this problem."


    That was fast!  And informative.  And right.

    I went back into Legacy Family Tree this morning and figured out how to select Endnotes rather than Footnotes - there is a check box on the Report Options menu in the Sources tab to "Print source citations," and then click on "As Endnotes after each enerationg" or "As Endnotes at end of report," rather than "as Footnotes" - the Options Sources menu is:



    When I do this, the Ancestor Book Report page looks like this:



    The child numbers start with "i." as expected. 

    What if the user does not select any source citations?  The family child numbers start at "i." as expected.

    I really like the formatting in the Legacy Family Tree reports - the user has a lot of control over the details, the user can include a title page, table of contents, and an index, and there are plenty of print and save options. 

    My first experience with the Legacy Family Tree Technical Support operation was excellent - an easy to use report screen, and a quick and accurate response.

    UPDATED 27 January:  Dave B. commented on this post:

    "The problem with the child list starting with 'ii' when footnotes were selected has been fixed and will be in the next free update in a day or two."

    That's great.  I got the notice today that Version 7.5.0.47 was available, and downloaded and installed it today.  I checked the problem noted above - and it's not fixed yet.

    (Not So) Wordless Wednesday - Post 137: Lyle and Emily Smiling

    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.

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



    This photo is of my grandparents, Emily Kemp Auble and Lyle Lawrence Carringer, probably around the time of their wedding on 19 June 1918.  I wonder if this is their wedding picture?  I don't have one.  They are both smiling - which was rare for them to do in pictures.

    I think the setting is the Carringer house at 2105 30th Street in San Diego - the details of the window on the house on the left side of the picture look familiar to me, and so does the vegetation.in the background on the right.  That is not a cross in back of Lyle and Emily - I think it was a ladder of sorts that Lyle used to climb up to the second story of the house - I believe he slept upstairs (both inside and outside) while he was a young man.

    Tuesday, January 25, 2011

    Peeking at Legacy Family Tree 7.5 Source Citations in the GEDCOM File - Post 1

    Following up on my post Peeking at Family Tree Maker 2011 Source Citations in the GEDCOM File - Post 1 from yesterday, reader David B. created the same source citation in Legacy Family Tree 7.5 and added it in a comment to the post.

    I did a similar task today in Legacy Family Tree 7.5 and exported it in a small GEDCOM file for comparison to the Family Tree Maker 2011 example.

    For the Isaac Seaver Birth Fact, I used the source data that came across in an earlier GEDCOM file of my entire database, which did not use the Legacy Source Creation tool.  Then I created a second source citation using the Legacy SourceWriter.

    Here is the source template screen for the Birth Fact that came across from FTM 2011, but edited to select "Book" for the Source Type (a Legacy feature), and to remove the word "Name:" from the publication information (which came across from the FTM 2011 GEDCOM file):



    The Footnote/End Note Citation, including the Source Detail, is:

    Systematic History Fund, Vital Records of Westminster, Massachusetts, to the End of the Year 1849 (Worcester, Mass.: F.P. Rice, 1908), Page 83.

    The Subsequent Citation is exactly the same.

    To create the same source in the Legacy SourceWriter, I used the template for Books - Book, Authored - Authored by an agency - Basic format:



    I added the data to the appropriate fields in this template, including in the Repository tab.  I added a shorthand source title - "Westminster VRs" for this source so I can easily find it in the master source index.  Here is the screen for the results:



    The resulting Source Citations are:

    Footnote/Endnote Citation:Systematic History Fund, Vital Records of Westminster, Massachusetts, to the End of the Year 1849 (Worcester, Mass.: F.P. Rice, 1908), Page 83.
    Subsequent Citation:
    Systematic History Fund, Page 83. What about the GEDCOM file - what do these two source citations look like?  Here are the three sections (Fact data, SOURce data and REPOsitory data):

    1)  Fact data:

    0 @I33927@ INDI
    1 NAME Isaac /Seaver/
    2 GIVN Isaac
    2 SURN Seaver
    1 SEX M
    1 BIRT
    2 DATE 16 Oct 1823
    2 PLAC Westminster, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA
    2 SOUR @S559@
    3 PAGE Page 83
    3 QUAY 3
    2 SOUR @S673@
    3 PAGE Page 83.
    3 QUAY 3


    2)  SOURce data:

    0 @S559@ SOUR
    1 MEDI Book
    1 ABBR Vital Records of Westminster, Massachusetts, to the End of the Year 1849
    1 TITL Vital Records of Westminster, Massachusetts, to the End o
    2 CONC f the Year 1849
    1 AUTH Systematic History Fund
    1 PUBL Worcester, Mass.: F.P. Rice, 1908
    1 REPO @R41@
    1 _ITALIC Y
    1 _PAREN Y
    0 @S673@ SOUR
    1 ABBR Westminster VRs
    1 TITL Vital Records of Westminster, Massachusetts, to the End o
    2 CONC f the Year 1849
    1 AUTH Systematic History Fund
    1 PUBL Worcester, Mass.: F.P. Rice, 1908.
    1 REPO @R41@
    1 _ITALIC Y
    1 _PAREN Y


    3)  REPOsitory data:

    0 @R41@ REPO
    1 NAME New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Massachusetts
    1 ADDR
    2 _NAME New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Massachusetts

    Some observations and comments:

    *  In the Fact data, the first source for the Fact is denoted as S559, and the second source denoted S673 and is within the QUAY tags (what does that mean?).

    *  Legacy has separated the Person's name into GIVeN name and SURName tags.

    *  In the SOURce section for the first citation, there is a MEDIa tag for "Book."  In the second source citation, which used a Book Template, there is no MEDIa tag line.  I wonder why there isn't?

    *  There are no word or phrase duplications, or extraneous words, added to the GEDCOM tag fields in the SOURce lines. 

    *  The only difference between the two SOURce sections in the GEDCOM are the ABBReviations (which I intentionally changed), the MEDIa tag in the first citation that is not in the second citation, and there is a period at the end of the PUBLication tag line for the second citation. 

    *  Both SOURce tag sections have a 1_ITALIC Y line and a 1_PAREN Y line - I assume that means put the TITLe in italics and the PUBLication section in parentheses.

    *  The REPOsitory tag section added the Repository name to the ADDRess tag field.  There is also a 2 _NAME line for some reason.

    It looks to me that, at least for this particular source type, that Legacy Family Tree 7.5 will create a GEDCOM file that has little or no extraneous information included, and has some formatting (italics and parentheses) in the right places.  That is really good news for me!

    I will do the same study for several more citation types in Legacy Family Tree 7.5, and then will do a similar set of studies in RootsMagic 4.

    ProGenealogists has a Makeover

    I didn't comment on the Ancestry.com news yesterday about disconnecting their Expert Connect service, where researchers could request genealogical services from "experts" in various locations around the world.  I had no skin in that game - I wasn't an "expert" doing research for them and I wasn't a customer of the service.

    As readers will recall, Ancestry.com acquired the ProGenealogists company less than six months ago, and the last time I checked their website, it had not been "melded" into the Ancestry.com fold.

    Now it has - the home page (http://www.progenealogists.com/) looks like this:


    The top banner says that the site is "Official Ancestry.com research partner."  An Ancestry.com stylish "leaf" logo is displayed (although it is different from other Ancestry.com logos), the colors are the green we all recognize, and the website has been revamped considerably.

    I clicked on the "Services" tab and saw:



    There are two sections here - at the top is the "We Do All the Research For You"  with a list of service options -

    *  Ancestry Research
    *  Mini-Session Ancestry Research
    *  International Ancestry Research
    *  Family History Book Creation and Publication
    *  Probate and Missing Heir Research

    The second major area on the "Services" page is "We Help You Do Your Own Research" Options:


    Here the options available for the consumer include:

    *  Record Search
    *  Consultation
    *  Ask A Pro

    It seems to me that the options in the two groups pretty much cover what the Expert Connect service providers performed, albeit with some question about quality of service and results and a major paperwork headache for Ancestry.com taking money from clients and paying the providers. 

    With ProGenealogists doing these tasks, it seems to me that the quality of service and results will be better and the exchange of funds is streamlined with an existing company financial department.

    What about the lack of "experts" in companies around the world at ProGenealogists?  Check the list of professionals that are ProGenealogists Associates.  http://www.progenealogists.com/aboutus.htm.  My guess is that ProGenealogists might hire some of the genealogists in other countries where they don't have expertise to be contractors for the company, including some of those that were providing "Expert Connect" service.

    UPDATE:  Stephanie commented about my basis for the statement "...quality of service and results will be better..." above.  I did not intend to impugn the work quality of any particular Expert Connect provider.  It stands to reason, to me at least, that the ProGenealogists providers will have more resources available and, in some cases, more expertise, than some of the Expert Connect providers.  I should have been more precise.

    CVGS Program on Wednesday, 26 January - Ruth Himan presents "Mining Genealogical History in Kansas"

    The next program meeting of the Chula Vista Genealogical Society (CVGS) is Wednesday, 26 January at 12 noon at the Chula Vista Civic Center Branch Library (365 F Street in Chula Vista, between Third and Fourth Avenues) in the library Auditorium. 

    After a brief business meeting, CVGS Member Ruth Himan will present "Mining Genealogical History in Kansas."  Ruth's CV and talk synopsis is:

    Ruth Himan will be sharing a CASE STUDY of a child left fatherless by the Civil War. John Christopher Hayley (1872-1931) was born in Tennessee, and died in Arizona. Ruth's research of the "dash" led to research in the state of Kansas.

    Demonstrating the principle that "The internet is only the tip of the genealogy iceberg," Ruth ventured out to Kansas with her family in search of the life of John Christopher Hayley.

    This presentation will include preparing for the journey, gathering genealogy tools, establishing maps and contacts. Ruth will will explain how a little digging into the history of the dash, can lead to some very unexpected findings for the family and for genealogist as a whole. Everyone has a story well worth exploring.

    Ruth's professional experience includes being a Quality Assurance and Documentation Manager, with full responsibility of a QA department from Receiving Inspection to Shipping, including engineering drawings, change orders, work instructions, and Quality Manual. Her experience and knowledge of military specifications enabled her to quickly and effectively develop result driven Quality Management Systems.

    Ruth is the author of the genealogy blog http://genealogyisruthlesswithoutme.blogspot.com,  Grandma's Genealogy Camp and and numerous other genealogical articles, presentations and blog posts.

    Tuesday's Tip - Use FamilySearch Research Courses

    This week's Tuesday's Tip is:  Use the collection of genealogy learning videos and presentations on the FamilySearch Research Courses page.

    The introduction to this page says:

    "FamilySearch offers a variety of free classes online and in person to help you discover your family tree. Whether you are just beginning your family history research or are an experienced genealogist, you can learn something new. These classes are taught by genealogy research consultants at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah, as well as experts from around the world."

    There are over 120 video presentations available.  Some of them can be downloaded to your computer and viewed at your leisure.  some of them have a syllabus available for downloading.

    You can find videos dealing with:

    *  England Beginning Research Series
    *  Germany Research
    *  Ireland Beginning Research Series
    *  Italy Research
    *  New Zealand Research
    *  Poland Research
    *  Mexico Research
    *  Reading Handwritten Records Series
    *  Research Principles and Tools
    *  Russia Research
    *  United States of America Research
    *  Association of Professional Genealogists
    *  Board for Certification of Genealogists
    *  ICAPGEN: The International Commission for the Accreditation of Professional Genealogists

    If you live in an area where you don't have an opportunity to attend or hear quality genealogical speakers, these FamilySearch Research Courses provide an excellent education on selected research subjects.

    Monday, January 24, 2011

    Book Review: Life in Civil War America, by Michael J. Varhola



    The Civil War was a major event in the history of the United States - a clash of cultures that affected nearly every state in the young nation. 

    Michael J. Varhola has crafted a book that informs and entertains the casual reader and the interested historian about life in the 1860's time period.  This is not a book about the Civil War per se - the events, battles, personalities, etc.  It is a book about how the people in the United States lived during that time.

    Do you want to know:

    *  what was a Jake? A Joe? A John?
    *  what was a goober grabber, a corn cracker, or a tobacco worm?
    *  who were Ira Frederick Aldridge, Charlotte Saunders Cushman, and Joice Heth?
    *  what wages were paid to civilians, and to soldiers on both sides?
    *  what was pop skull, switchel and embalmed beef?

    You can find out about these terms, and hundreds more, in this book.

    The chapters of the book outline the content of this work:

    1.  North and South: One Nation, Two Peoples - a look at each state with an emphasis on their contributions to the war effort
    2.  Where People Lived: Life in City, Town and country - including architectural styles, costs of homes and housing.
    3.  Education: From Schoolhouses to Universities - review of opportunities in each state
    4.  Slang and Idiom: How People and Events Shaped Language
    5.  Religion: What People Believed - denominations, movements, benevolent societies, and more
    6.  Fun and Games: How People Entertained Themselves - games, music, sports, theater, circuses, vices
    7.  Wages and Currency: Coins, Greenbacks, and Postal Currency
    8.  Clothing and Dry Goods: What Items Cost and the Impact of Shortage
    9.  Food and Diet: How People Ate at Home and on the War Front
    10.  Technology:  Inventions That Changed Life and Warfare - including military, medical, farm, transportation, communication, photography
    11.  The War on the Home Front: The Draft and Civil Unrest - including attitudes, slavery, reconstruction, terrorism
    12.  Brothers at War: Billy Yank, Johnny Reb
    13.  Arms, Equipment and Uniforms,: Supplying the Servicemen - weapons, uniforms, rank and insignia, flags

    Appendix A; Civil War Photography, by Maureen A. Taylor
    Appendix B: Civil War Timeline
    Appendix C:  Bibliography and Recommended Books
    Appendix D - Resources
    Appendix E - Songs and Poetry

    Each chapter ends with definitions of common terms, slang and idioms of the time. 

    The scope of the book is staggering, but the author manages to convey the important features and realities of daily life in the 1860's, from big cities to small towns and plantations.  There are sections that explain military life in the Army and Navy, the typical diets, etc.

    The Appendices cover a Civil War timeline, tips for researching ancestors in this time period, Civil War resource books, periodicals, websites and historic sites.

    I really enjoyed reading this book in order to be able to understand and relate the events, habits, attitudes, language, education and other features of mid-19th century America.  It was fascinating and informative, without being pedantic or tedious.  The use of period photographs and the language terms help to keep my interest.  I think it is an absolutely necessary book for the casual historian's bookshelf and for public libraries.

    More information about the book can be found on the Shop Family Tree site. The book can be pre-ordered there.  The projected publication date is late February 2011.

    Michael J. Varhola, Life in Civil War America, F+W Media, Inc., 2011.  $22.99 (retail). 

    Disclosure:  I was sent a link to a PDF early edition of this book by F+W Media, Inc. for the purposes of reviewing the book, and was promised a hard copy of the book when it was available.

    MyHeritage.com Upgrades Smart Matching

    Daniel Horowitz sent this announcement along today about Smart Matches and some new features on the http://www.myheritage.com/ website:

    MyHeritage.com Transforms Family Tree Discoveries into a Collaborative Experience with Upgraded Smart Matching Platform

    London, England & Tel Aviv, Israel January 24, 2011 - MyHeritage.com, the most popular family network on the web, today released a major update of its flagship Smart Matchingtechnology. A suite of new collaboration features significantly enhances one of the most advanced systems for automatic people discovery in the family history market, evolving Smart Matchinginto a community platform.

    Smart Matching™ is a unique technology that matches between the people in a user’s family tree and more than 680 million people in 17 million other family trees on MyHeritage.com. The matching technology is sophisticated and bridges across differences in spelling, phonetics and relationships that may exist between the trees. The technology, available for free, has helped hundreds of thousands of people discover ancestors and locate long-lost relatives, reuniting families whose ties have been broken by time and fate. Several dozen of these success stories are described in interviews on the MyHeritage Blog.

    The latest improvements include a complete overhaul of the presentation of Smart Matches™, and a range of new premium features for organizing and reviewing matches more efficiently.

    The new Consensus Page, one of the first of its kind available to family historians, aggregates data from all Smart Matches™, presenting the big picture for each person. The Consensus lets users skip numerous one-on-one comparisons with individual family trees, and helps them fill in missing information about relatives more quickly and with more confidence. It conveniently displays a summary of the different names, birth and death dates and places, marriage info, etc., for any particular relative, indicating the number of times each piece of information has been used in other family trees. Users can then copy the most commonly used data as they see fit directly into their own family tree, complete with photos of their choice, and can also add a source citation on the copied data linking back to the original family tree.


    The enhanced Smart Matching allows users to confirm or reject any match, and the platform distinguishes between matches that were confirmed or rejected by each respective tree owner. Users also have the ability to start discussions about matches, encouraging dialogue between researchers and family members about discoveries and the exchange of noteworthy information on mutual relatives.



    Tracing back the family history as far as possible into the past, and finding new living relatives in the present, are key drivers of the rising trend in online family history that we are witnessing”, said Gilad Japhet, Founder and CEO of MyHeritage.com. “Our Smart Matching technology is instrumental in achieving these goals, by harnessing the vast collective knowledge of the 54 million registered users on MyHeritage.com. Successfully matching between family trees requires cutting-edge technology and a huge family tree data set, and MyHeritage.com has established itself as a world leader in both these areas. We’re committed to creating an environment that nurtures genealogy as a community experience – to be enjoyed and shared by the whole family. The new update adds a layer of collaboration and transforms our powerful technology into a community platform.”


    Smart Matching works in real time as users enter new information into their trees, as well as offline for deeper and more accurate comparisons. Users are notified by email of new discoveries made by the system. They are then presented with a list of suggested Smart Matches™ for common relatives between two or more family trees – complete with matching criteria and quality scores. Matches can be viewed by individual or by matching tree. The site’s huge global reach and support of 36 languages helps users find and reunite with family members around the world more effectively. Mutually confirmed Smart Matches™ cause family trees to be hyperlinked, not merged, so that tree owners retain complete control of their tree and can always export or delete it – important qualities not available in other family history platforms.

    In order to get Smart Matches™ for free, go to www.myheritage.com and start a new family tree, or import an existing tree by uploading a GEDCOM file.


    MyHeritage.com is the most popular family network on the web. Millions of families around the world enjoy having a private place for their families to keep in touch and to showcase their roots. MyHeritage.com’s Smart Matching™ technology empowers users with an exciting and innovative way to find relatives and explore their family history. With all family information stored in a secure site, MyHeritage.com is the ideal place to share family photos, and celebrate and preserve special family moments. With 680 million profiles and 17 million family trees, and available in 36 languages, MyHeritage.com is nurturing family relationships and uniting families worldwide. For more information please visit www.myheritage.com

    Peeking at Family Tree Maker 2011 Source Citations in the GEDCOM File - Post 1

    I know that the earlier posts about Creating Source Citations in Family Tree Maker 2011, and how they translated to other software programs like RootsMagic 4 and Legacy Family Tree 7, were not too exciting... However, they served a purpose - to demonstrate that Source Citations, whether created by templates or in free-form mode, can get mangled when they go through the GEDCOM export/import process.  I didn't know why this happened, only that it happened and I didn't like it.

    I created a small GEDCOM 5.5 file of just Isaac Seaver (1823-1901) and his three wives from the Family Tree Maker 2011 program for the purposes of easily finding Source items in a GEDCOM file.  This is a Text file that I opened in Wordpad on my computer. 

    Here is the screen of the Source Template for Isaac Seaver's birth Fact from the Westminster, Massachusetts Vital Record book (using the "Book: Basic Format (Print Publication)" template):



    I added this in the source template fields (entered data in red):

    Author surname:  Systematic History Fund
    Author forenames:  [blank]
    Author credentials: [blank]
    Other authors: [blank]
    Main Title: Vital Records of Westminster, Massachusetts to the End of the Year 1849
    Subtitle:  [blank]
    Publisher: F.P. Rice
    Publication Place: Worcester, Mass.
    Year: 1908
    Repository:  New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Massachusetts
    Comments: [blank]

    The Citation Detail for the specific Fact was: Page 83

    The Source Citation for Isaac Seaver's birth that resulted was (including the Source Detail and Repository):

    Systematic History Fund, Vital Records of Westminster, Massachusetts, to the End of the Year 1849: (Worcester, Mass.: F.P. Rice, 1908), Page 83. New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Massachusetts.

    The GEDCOM file text for this Person, Fact, Source and Repository was in three parts:

    1)  FACT identification:

    0 @I33927@ INDI
    1 NAME Isaac /Seaver/
    1 SEX M
    1 BIRT
    2 DATE 16 OCT 1823
    2 PLAC Westminster, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA
    2 SOUR @S611@
    3 PAGE Page 83

    The birth DATE tag has "16 OCT 1823" in the field, and the birthplace (PLAC) tag has "Westminster, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA" in the field.

    The Citation Detail for this citation is in the PAGE tag.

    This lists the Source number as S611. 

    2)  The SOURce tag information:  Further down in the GEDCOM file are the lines created by FTM 2011 for this Source tag (SOUR):

    0 @S611@ SOUR
    1 AUTH Systematic History Fund
    1 TITL Systematic History Fund, Vital Records of Westminster, Massachusetts,
    2 CONC to the End of the Year 1849
    1 PUBL Name: Worcester, Mass., F.P. Rice, 1908;
    1 REPO @R7@
    1 NOTE
    2 CONC Systematic History Fund. Vital Records of Westminster, Massachusetts,
    2 CONC to the End of the Year 1849. Worcester, Mass.: F.P. Rice, 1908.


    The tags in this part are AUTH for Author; TITLE for Title, PUBL for Publisher, REPO for Repository, and NOTE for Notes.  The CONC tag is apparently used to concatenate text that is longer than the allotted GEDCOM field length (it seems to act like a line break).

     3)  REPOsitory tag:  Further down in the GEDCOM file is the Repository tag (REPO) with information:

    0 @R7@ REPO
    1 NAME New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Massachusetts
    1 ADDR
    1 EMAIL
    1 PHON


    The Repository portion of the GEDCOM identifies the NAME, the ADDRess, the EMAIL address and the PHONe number of the Repository.

    We can see that creating a GEDCOM 5.5 Source Citation Family Tree Maker 2011 appears to create some extraneous information for Isaac Seaver's birth source, which is a Basic Book:

    *  The AUThor tag has the complete Author's name
    *  In the TITLe tag, the Author's name is included before the Title (which is complete)
    *  In the PUBLisher tag, there is the word "NAME" for some reason;  all three elements are provided but are in an improper format (a colon is supposed to follow the publishing place, and there should be no semi-colon at the end)
    *  The NOTE field contains the complete Source created by the Source Template (without parenthese around the Publisher information). 
    *  The REPOsitory tag has the complete Repository information

    It's no mystery to me why, when the Source Citations created in Family Tree Maker 2011 were exported to a GEDCOM 5.5 file and imported to the other programs, that the source citations in the other programs were badly mangled.  This looks like a classic case of GIGO - Garbage In, Garbage Out. 

    I think that if Family Tree Maker 2011 had put the proper information from the Source Template into the proper GEDCOM fields, that the GEDCOM file would have the correct information for importing to another program or to an online database. 

    I want to look at the output of the "Free-form" source template in FTM 2011 for a similar source type to see if  the GEDCOM components are poorly crafted.  We'll look at the other programs too in future posts.

    Was this just inattention to detail on the part of FTM 2011's programmers, or is it a way to keep researchers from switching to another software program?  I've heard others say that it is deliberate, but I don't know that.

    The fact is that the SOURce lines in a GEDCOM 5.5 export file created by Family Tree Maker 2011 should be corrected  by the software supplier ASAP, especially before the FamilySearch Family Tree comes online for the general public.

    Your comments and observations are welcome.