Saturday, February 12, 2011

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Three Questions

Hey genealogy buffs, it's Saturday Night - time for some Genealogy Fun!  Besides what's happening in Salt Lake City tonight at Dick Eastman's Genealogy Jeopardy dinner. 

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

1)  Check out the Tpstry blog at http://blog.tpstry.com/ and watch one or more of their "Three Questions" interviews.  They are making those at the RootsTech Conference in SLC.

2)  For SNGF, answer these three questions:

*  Has you grandmother ever ridden a roller-coaster?

*  What is your grandfather's "dream car?"

*  Who was your mother's prom date?

3)  Tell us about it on your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a status report on Facebook.

Here's mine (such as they are):

*  I sincerely doubt that either of my grandmothers ever rode a roller-coaster.  My Massachusetts grandmother, Alma Bessie (Richmond) Seaver (1882-1962) was a widow after 1942, and my impression is that she never went anywhere near an amusement park.  On the other hand, one of her daughters lived in Salem, New Hampshire near Canobie Lake which had an amusement park of sorts.  So maybe she did - I'll have to ask my cousin who would know.

My maternal grandmother, Emily Kemp (Auble) Carringer (1899-1977), was very prim and proper, and my impression is that she was not very adventurous.  On the other hand, I know that San Diego had the Belmont Park amusement park and she might have ridden something there.  I remember going to Disneyland with my grandparents in the 1950s, but I doubt that she rode anything besides the Fantasyland rides.

*  My paternal grandfather, Frederick Walton Seaver (1876-1942), did not like to drive, although he did.  My guess is that he never thought about a "dream car."

My maternal grandfather, Lyle Lawrence Carringer (1891-1976), loved to drive, and they always had a fairly new car, starting with a Model T Ford in the 1920 time frame.  I remember a Hudson from the early 1950s fairly well, but can't recall the year or the color.  But a "dream car?"  I have no idea - I'm going to say an Oldsmobile.

*  My mother, Betty Virginia (Carringer) Seaver (1919-2002) graduated from San Diego High School in 1936.  I don't know the names of her friends or boyfriends, so I'm clueless as to who her prom date was, or if she went to the prom.  I know that it wasn't my father, who came to San Diego in December 1940.

It seems to me that the Tpstry set of questions about family are geared to the generations after the Boomers - whose parents are probably still alive and can be consulted for answers.

Surname Saturday - TRACY (England > Plymouth)

It's Surname Saturday, and I'm "counting down" my Ancestral Name List each week. I am up to number 181,  who is Deborah TRACY (1731-????), one of my 5th-great-grandmothers. [Note: The 5th great-grandfathers haveen covered in earlier posts] 

My ancestral line back through five generations of TRACY 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)

90.  Simon Wade (1767-1857)
91.  Phebe Horton (1772-????)

180. Simon Wade, born 11 December 1731 in Scituate, Providence, Rhode Island, United States; died after 1790 in probably Foster, Providence, Rhode Island, United States. He was the son of 360. Nathaniel Wade and 361. Ruth Hawkins. He married before 1765 in probably Providence, Providence, Rhode Island, United States.
181. Deborah Tracy, born 20 February 1731 in Providence, Providence, Rhode Island, United States; died in probably Foster, Providence, Rhode Island, United States.

Children of Simon Wade and Deborah Tracy are:  Levi Wade (1765-????); Simon Wade (1767-1857); Nehemiah Wade (1769-????); Gideon Wade (1769-????); Ruth Wade (1773-????); Molly Wade (1775-????);  Deborah Wade (1777-????).

382. John Tracy, born about 1695 in Duxbury, Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States; died 1751 in Providence, Providence, Rhode Island, United States. He married 02 January 1728 in Providence, Providence, Rhode Island, United States.
383. Mary Hawkins, born about 1710 in Providence, Providence, Rhode Island, United States; died 1767 in Providence, Providence, Rhode Island, United States. She was the daughter of 766. William Hawkins and 767. Mary.

Children of John Tracy and Mary Hawkins are:  John Tracy (1729-????); Deborah Tracy (1731-????); Prince Tracy (1731-????); Mary Tracy (1733-????); Sarah Tracy (1735-????); Eve Tracy (1738-????); Adam Tracy (1738-????); Olive Tracy (1744-????); Lois Tracy (1746-1790).

764. John Tracy, born Abt. 1661 in Duxbury, Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States; died before July 1701 in Duxbury, Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States. He married about 1682 in Massachusetts, United States.
765. Deborah

Children of John Tracy and Deborah are:  Susanna Tracy (1683-1766); Sarah Tracy (1686-1731); Thomas Tracy (1688-1755); Mary Tracy (1690-????); Deborah Tracy (1692-????); John Tracy (1695-1751); Tryphosa Tracy (1699-1758).

1528. John Tracy, born 1633 in Plymouth, Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States; died 30 May 1718 in Windham, Windham, Connecticut, United States. He married  about 1660 in Massachusetts, United States.
1529. Mary Prence, born about 1639 in Duxbury, Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States. She was the daughter of 3058. Thomas Prence and 3059. Mary Collier.

Children of John Tracy and Mary Prence are: John Tracy (1661-1701); Apphia Tracy (1663-1739); Hannah Tracy (1666-????); Stephen Tracy (1673-1769); Susannah Tracy (1676-????).

3056. Stephen Tracy, born before 28 December 1596 in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, England; died after 20 March 1654 in England. He was the son of 6112. Stephen Tracy and 6113. Agnes Erdley. He married 02 January 1621 in Leiden, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands.
3057. Tryphosa Lee, born about 1596 in England; died before 1654 in Plymouth, Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States.

Children of Stephen Tracy and Tryphosa Lee are: Sarah Tracy (1622-1708); Rebecca Tracy (1624-1688); Ruth Tracy (1629-????); Mary Tracy (1630-1655); John Tracy (1633-1718).

The most authoritative reference book for the immigrants Stephen and Tryphosa (Lee) Tracy is:

Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration Begins, Immigrants to New England 1620-1633 (Boston, Mass. : New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1995), Volume III, pages 1832-1834.

For later generations, one book found was:

Cuyler Reynolds, Genealogical and family history of southern New York and the Hudson River Valley: a record of the achievements of her people in the making of a commonwealth and the building of a nation, Volume 3 (Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1914).

I got a kick out of the Eve and Adam Tracy, children of John and Mary (Hawkins) Tracy.  Look at all of the Biblical names in the Simon and Deborah (Tracy) Wade family also. 

Any Tracy cousins?  Any help with the elusive females that married 382. John Tracy and 764. John Tracy?

Friday, February 11, 2011

Italicizing Source material in RootsMagic 4

One of the neat "tricks" I learned about RootsMagic 4 from the Sources, Citations and Documentation with RootsMagic webinar (broadcast 4 February, see link here) was that text in Source templates could be italicized. 

That means that Free-form source citations can have italicized words and phrases.  This is important to me, because all of my source citations are in Free-form citation templates (which just provide fields for Footnote, Short Footnote and Bibliography format. where the user edits each field in RootsMagic without an automatic source creation).  As some genealogists know, many Evidence! Explained models show italicized words and phrases in certain fields.  The "Template Sources," basic mainly on Evidence! Explained models, provide these automatically, of course.

Here is the process:

1)  In a Free-form Source template (I'm using the one for Isaac Seaver's Birth again as in past posts):


I want to italicize the Title of this Book, so I highlight, with my mouse, the book title in the Footnote field, as shown above.  I then right-click (in Windows) and the editing feature list opens, which includes Bold, Italics and Underlined:


I chose "Italics" and the text I had highlighted was now italicized.  I went ahead and italicized the book title in the Short Footnote and Bibliography fields also.  The final product looks like this:

 
The source citations from my RootsMagic 4 screen shows:

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

Short Footnote:
Systematic History Fund, Vital Records of Westminster, Massachusetts, to the End of the Year 1849, Page 83.

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


That takes a little work to do, but it results in the correct formatting, which gets transferred via a GEDCOM export to other programs or online databases that can recognize the formatting.  for example, Ancestry.com, as shown in RootsMagic 4 Source Citations Uploaded via GEDCOM to Ancestry.com - a Surprise!

Stay tuned for more in the Seaver Source Citation Saga!

Curt Witcher's Presentation at RootsTech Conference

I had never seen Curt Witcher make a presentation before.  I want to see more, and I urge my readers to attend any presentation he makes in your area, at a conference or on the Internet.

His talk today at RootsTech was titled "The Changing Face of Genealogy" and it was excellent.  I hope that it will be available on the Internet in the near future.



I did not take notes, but there are some helpful tweets from attendees and watchers about some of the points:

ClueWagon Curt Witcher is about to speak at #Rootstech. The last talk I heard about from him was on how computers threaten genealogy, so we'll see.

savingstories "We all have a story to tell." Curt Witcher #RootsTech

Luxegen Witcher: The best of times for genealogy #rootstech

cuwac1 Curt Witcher, Allen County library: "good old days" really meant more time & effort finding docs, less time analyzing & applying #rootstech

rjseaver Witcher at #rootstech. "The more often a wiki page is edited, the more accurate it is." exactly right. #genealogy

randywhited #rootstech Witcher: "Life is lived in the little places." I love that quote

rjseaver  Witcher: "is it better to have a photo archivally preserved in a vertical file, or online where people can find it?" #rootstech #genealogy

savingstories Millions of books you can download and search online! (Curt Witcher) #RootsTech His fav TV is Roots Television

rkoelz We need to show Witcher's presentation to local genealogy meetings #rootstech

findmyancestor "A changing environment... changes the face of genealogy..." #genealogy #RootsTech

jimmyzimmerman Technology allows us to spend less time searching and more time telling the story #RootsTech

MMBCommunity 13 mil active researchers #rootstech

MMBCommunity 1.6 million hobby genealogists online between ages of 18-44 #rootstech

randywhited #rootstech genealogy enthusiasts numbers have exploded 20-100x in a single generation

ClueWagon People don't join societies because there's no ROI. Societies aren't embracing technology. EXACTLY. #rootstech

ACoffin Is Witcher's 21st century genealogist profile on par? What say you? #rootstech

timshadel "21st century genealogists *expect* Moore's law" (Curt Witcher) #rootstech

rjseaver Witcher: it's about the experience, it';s about fun and success. Amen!!! #genealogy #rootstech

baysideresearch Witcher: #genealogy is abt the experience, not matching citations to Evidence Explained format. #RootsTech

dustyr #rootstech genealogy needs to be fun and people need success. People don't keep doing things that make them miserable.

ClueWagon The white gloves debate. Omigawd. I feel another drinking-game post coming on. #rootstech

footnoteMaven #rootstech Favorite Curt Witcher quote: "Change is opportunity." #genealogy

cuwac1 Witcher: There are a lot of online-only non-traditional genealogists (more than trad. folks) & it's all about the experience. #rootstech

findmyancestor The Face of Genealogy - Witcher is talking about all the YOUNG people. THEY are the future of #genealogy!! #RootsTech

ACoffin Witcher won me over with his "lighten up" speech. That exactly how I feel. Get 'em in the sandbox. They'll stay and play. #rootstech

TamuraJones #genealogy #rootstech Witcher has seen the light? No more "dark age" talk, but "I like technology now and you should too" instead.

travis_jordan Give them a good experience FIRST...right on....then learn the skill. "Get them in the sandbox or they will not want to play!" #rootstech

MMBCommunity Fun and success is how family history should be NOT frustrating! Get them in the sandbox! #rootstech

Famlyhstryalive Witcher-take the honey approach and get people in the sandbox. Don't focus on doing #genealogy the 'right way'. #rootstech

ClueWagon I'm shocked to hear this from an establishment guy. We should stop beating people over the head...this is a huge shift. #rootstech

savingstories Are we going to beat them over the head with 'You gotta do it this way?" Good Point #RootsTech Curt Witcher

savingstories "There is so much living history that dies everyday" #RootsTech Curt Witcher

LorineMS  Keynote Speaker Curt Witcher -New technology gives power to tell our stories. Best of times for genealogists #RootsTech

LynnPal Curt Witcher "less looking, more researching, more storytelling" thank you for a great online presentation at #RootsTech#genealogy

I heartily agree - this Curt Witcher presentation should be shown to genealogical societies all over the country.  And to their Boards of Directors before hand!

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Some videos from RootsTech on YouTube

The Family History Expos team, headed by Holly Hansen, has posted two videos made at RootsTech in Salt Lake City this week.

They include:

1)  DearMYRTLE interviewing Tami Glatz (Relative Curious About Genealogy blog) about SecondLife:



2) DearMYRTLE Interviews Thomas MacEntee (Geneabloggers, and several other blogs) about Virtual Presentations and more:



There will probably be more of these short interviews - check on YouTube and search for "RootsTech."

Have you watched the RootsTech Live Videos yet?

One of the features of the RootsTech Conference currently underway in Salt Lake City is the use of streaming video to show some of the presentations, at http://rootstech.familysearch.org/video.php

I missed the opening sessions this morning, but I watched almost all of Barry Ewell's presentation this afternoon on Digitally Preserving Your Family Heritage.  He took the audience through all media types and converting all types of media to digital content. 

Here are some screenshots from the presentation:




The camera switched back and forth from the shot of Barry speaking and the slides, and the video was crystal clear, even at full screen. 

I magnified my screen image to 150% for the above screenshots.

Barry offered to send a PDF of his handout to those interested - the email address is on the last screenshot above!

On Friday, these presentations will be on streaming video (all times Mountain Standard, subtract one hour for Pacific, add one hour for Central, or two hours for Eastern):

*  8:30 a.m. - 9:30 a.m. :  The Changing Face of Genealogy – Curt Witcher
Personal Archiving and Primary Documents –
Brewster Kahle


* 9:45 a.m. to 10:45 a.m. : Cloud Computing: What It Is and How It Has Been used – Brian Pugh 

*  3:00 p.m. to  4:00 p.m. : The Power of PDF: Tools for Every Genealogist – Josh Taylor

On Friday, these presentations will be on streaming video (all times Mountain Standard, subtract one hour for Pacific, add one hour for Central, or two hours for Eastern):

*  8:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. : Personal Archiving and Primary Documents – Brewster Kahle

*  1:45 p.m. to 2:45 p.m. : Virtual Presentations Roundtable – Thomas MacEntee

I hope that these videos will be available after the conference for viewing - perhaps they will be added to the Online courses on the Learn tab of http://www.familysearch.org/.

Yes, I have a major case of geneablogger envy, seeing and hearing about all of the neat opportunities for networking, learning and participating in this conference. 

50 Most Popular Genealogy Websites for 2011

The latest ranking of Genealogy Websites has been compiled by Kory Meyerink of ProGenealogists and listed at 50 Most Popular Genealogy Websites for 2011.

Number one on the "hit parade" is, of course, Ancestry.com.

I continue to be surprised that more people don't use www.FamilySearch.org.  It is at #4, which it was also in 2010. 

Other surprises for me include:

http://www.genealogy.com/ - ranked at #5.  I don't know anyone that uses this as a database site, do you?  It can't be all Genforum message boards and the hosted web sites, can it?

www.FamilyLink.com - seriously, does anyone really use this site?  This may be a hangover from the application on Facebook, which I doubt many people use.

www.WorldVitalRecords.com fell pretty far in the rankings

www.AmericanAncestors.org climbed into the Top 50 at #49.

www.FindMyPast.co.uk climbed high into the Top 50

www.Geneanet.org climbed high into the Top 50

The one site that I use quite a bit that is not in the Top 50 is the www.USGenWeb.org site.  I think that, since the links on the site go to state sites with their own URL, it is down in the rankings because of that - users go there to use the link to the state GenWeb site and then to a county GenWeb site.

It would be interesting to know what the average monthly visits to each website is.

Which ratings surprise you - do you think they're too high or too low?  What websites do you use that are not on this list?

RootsMagic 4 Source Citations Uploaded via GEDCOM to Ancestry.com - a Surprise!

In my post yesterday, FTM 2011 Citations Uploaded via GEDCOM to Ancestry.com, I showed that the Source Citations created in Family Tree Maker 2011, when passed through a GEDCOM export and Ancestry Member Tree upload process, are imperfect - they are not exactly what FTM 2011 created in either a "Free-form source" or "Template source" format. 

In this post, I'm going to show what happens when a GEDCOM file is created in RootsMagic 4 and uploaded into an Ancestry.com Member Tree.  I was surprised by the results.  The GEDCOM file was the same one created and shown in Peeking at RootsMagic 4 Source Citations in a GEDCOM File - Post 1.

Here is the "Template Source" screen for Isaac Seaver's birth record for reference (a "Book: basic format" template):




After uploading the GEDCOM file to a new Ancestry.com Member Tree, the screen for Isaac Seaver looks like this:



I clicked on the Birth Fact "2 source citations" link and then on each source individually.  Here is the "Source Information" screen for the Birth source created from the "Template Source" in RootsMagic:



The information on the screen is:

Title: Systematic History Fund, Vital Records of Westminster, Massachusetts, to the end of year 1849 (Worcester, Mass.: F.P. Rice, 1908)
Author: [empty]
Publisher: [empty]
Publisher Location: [empty]
Publisher Date: [empty]
Call Number: [empty]
Notes: [empty]

Note that the Title field contains a complete Footnote style source citation, including the publication information within parentheses and the book title is italicized.  There are no entries in the Author, Publisher and Notes fields. 

The Repository information and the Citation Detail information also came through the GEDCOM process as typed in the RootsMagic source citation.  The Quality data did not come through.


Here is the "Source Information" screen for the Birth source created from the "Free-form Source" in RootsMagic:
 

The information on the screen is: 

Title: Systematic History Fund, Vital Records of Westminster, Massachusetts, to the end of year 1849 (Worcester, Mass.: F.P. Rice, 1908)
Author: [empty]
Publisher: [empty]
Publisher Location: [empty]
Publisher Date: [empty]
Call Number: [empty]
Notes: [empty]
This is exactly the same as the source citation in RootsMagic 4.  The book title is not italicized in the RootsMagic 4 file, and is not italicized in the Amcestry.com Member Tree file. The Repository and Citation Detail information (not shown) came through fine. 

Why does the Title field include the full Footnote source citation, and why aren't the Author, Publisher and Notes fields filled in above?  The simple answer is that the GEDCOM file created by RootsMagic 4 has a TITLe tag with the full Footnote source citation, and it does not include lines with the AUTHor, PUBLisher and NOTE tags. 

Why does the Title italicization come through into the Ancestry.com Member Tree?  The simple answer is that the Ancestry.com Member Tree recognized the [ i ] indicator in the RootsMagic GEDCOM file, and applied it. 

This is really good news, I think.  If a software program can format parts of a source citation with bold or italics or underlining, it's probable that the Ancestry.com Member Tree will include that formatting. 

I was surprised by both the full Footnote, of Evidence! Explained quality, being shown including the italicization.  That is really good news for me, I think.

The Seaver Source Citation Saga will continue [heck, I have to do something useful while being depressed about not being at RootsTech with my genea-blogging colleagues].

Treasure Chest Thursday - Isaac Seaver's Civil War Pension Papers: Deposition (Part 3) 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 third 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. 

The first part of the deposition was transcribed here.  The second part of the deposition was transcribed here. The third part of the deposition has two handwritten pages (written by the examiner and signed by the deponent).  It is a continuation of the second part of the deposition - it starts in the middle of a sentence:


The transcription of this third part of the deposition reads (filled in lines underlined, handwritten items italicized, tables spaced by periods):

[First page]

Except as stated above
I have no property,
real or personal and
no income from any
source nor have I had
since I filed my claim
for pension.
I have transferred no
property except as stated
above.
Soldier left no life insurance.
No one is bound for my support.
I understand fully all
my rights in this
exmaination and I
voluntarily waive my
claim for pension under
the acts of June 27, 1890,
and May 9, 1900, for it
is evident to me that
my annual income is
much in excess of
$250, the amount prescribed
by law.
If in the future my

[second page]

income should decrease
for any reason so
as to bring me within
the law I shall file
a new application.
Please add that
I suffer greatly with
rheumatism and am so
crippled in my limbs
that I may be obliged
at any time to require
the services of a nurse.
I am so lame I can
go out but very little.

I do not desire to be
present at the further
examination of my
claim for pension.
I have heard the
foregoing statement read
and it is correct.

................ /s/ Alvina M. Seaver
...................  Deponent

Sworn to and subscribed
before me this 23 day of
December 1901 and I
certify that the contents were
???? made known to
deponent before signing.
.................. /s/ Frank Shapleigh
.................... Special Examiner

The deposition ends with Alvina agreeing that her income exceeds the maximum income that qualifies for a pension.  I didn't know what the limit was, but Alvina's income exceeds it significantly.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Chapman Family Association Convention in June 2011

I received this announcement in email today:

---------------------------------

 The Chapman Family Association will hold its 11th annual convention and reunion on June 10 & 11, 2011 at the Salt Lake Plaza Hotel, 122 West South Temple, Salt Lake City, Utah.

The program will consist of a variety of presentations and there will be a photo contest, a silent auction, some sessions at the Family History Library, and a fantastic photo display. Sessions will include sharing information about Chapman Rogues, whether they are ancestors or not, and other historical and genealogical topics.

You need not be a CFA member to attend the convention, but registration is required. Registration can be made on site; however, advance registration is highly recommended. Hotel reservations must be received by May 10, 2011 to get the special rates by mentioning the Chapman Family Association. The CFA group rate will be available three days before and three days after the convention for those wanting extra time for research, sightseeing or just plain relaxing.

Further information is available by contacting one of the following: the CFA website at www.chapmanfamilies.org/. and going to “Annual Convention” and then “Salt Lake City, Utah” or contacting Liz Codding at LCodding@aol.com.

------------------------------------

Sounds like a great time!  Why don't associations with my family names do this?

SDGS Meeting on Saturday, 12 February: "The Genealogical Proof Standard and Doing a Reasonably Exhaustive Search"

The next San Diego Genealogical Society program meeting is Saturday, 12 February at 10 a.m. (Note:  this is a new time!) at St. Andrew's Lutheran Church (8350 Lake Murray Drive, at the corner of Jackson Drive in San Diego).

The speaker for both sessions (at 10 a.m. and 11:30 a.m.) will be Randy Seaver, a San Diego area genealogist.  The topic is "Finding Your Elusive Ancestor: The Genealogical Proof Standard and Doing a Reasonably Exhaustive Search."

The program description:

"Are you familiar with the five elements of the Genealogical Proof Standard (GPS)?  It deals with information, sources, evidence, analysis and proof, and was developed by the Board for Certification of Genealogists (BCG).  It is the "standard" methodology for professionals to prove assertions of genealogical facts.  The first element of the GPS is "to do a reasonably exhaustive search."

"In this presentation, Randy will explain the GPS, take a whirlwind tour through traditional and online resources that should be included in a search, discuss his favorite search strategies and techniques, and describe several case studies of his still elusive ancestors that demonstrate using the GPS concepts."

The speaker genie-ography:

"Randy Seaver is a native San Diegan.  His ancestry is mainly colonial New England and Upper Atlantic, with some colonial German, French and Dutch forebears, and several 19th-century English immigrants.

"Randy is a former President of the Chula Vista Genealogical Society, and is currently Newsletter Editor and Research Chair.  He speaks to Southern California societies, libraries and groups, teaches Beginning computer Genealogy adult classes at OASIS, and writes the Genealogy 2.0 column for the FGS FORUM magazine.  He is a member of NGS, NEHGS, SDGS, CGSSD and CVGS.  Randy blogs daily at Genea-Musings (www.geneamusings.com), The Geneaholic (www.Geneaholic.com) and the Chula Vista Genealogy Cafe (http://CVGenCafe.blogspot.com)."

I hope to see many of my genealogy friends at this meeting! 

Thomas MacEntee's Interview with Elizabeth Shown Mills

Here's a little test:

*  is "bathroom wallpaper" a source?

*  what is a "Gee-Whiz" tree?

*  who is St. Genie?

One of the really neat "coming of age" signs for genealogy bloggers is that there are many more interviews of important people in genealogy and family history research.

Thomas MacEntee's interview with Elizabeth Shown Mills on the Geneabloggers blog is priceless - it's informational, it's humorous, it's creative.  Excellent questions and amazing answers.

Read all of it at http://www.geneabloggers.com/interview-elizabeth-shown-mills/.  Nailed. it. well!

I almsot had a genea-gasm over this one!

FTM 2011 Citations Uploaded via GEDCOM to Ancestry.com

In my post FTM 2011 Citations Uploaded to Ancestry.com yesterday, I uploaded a Family Tree Maker 2011 database directly into an Ancestry.com Member Tree using the "Share" button in FTM 2011. 

I wanted to see if a GEDCOM file created by Family Tree Maker 2011 and uploaded to an Ancestry.com Member Tree has any problems with the Source citations - those created by both Template sources and Free-form sources.

I used the same database with both Free-form and template sources for the same Facts, exported a GEDCOM 5.5 file to my computer files, then imported the GEDCOM file to Ancestry.com.

The resulting Person page for Isaac Seaver looks like this:


It looks like the same screen in yesterday's post, except the Media Items did not transfer (as expected) using the GEDCOM transfer.

Here's the "Template Source" screen for the Birth Fact:


The Source information shown is:

* Title:  Systematic History Fund, Vital Records of Westminster, Massachusetts, to the End of the Year 1849 [template]
*  Author: [empty]
*  Publisher: [empty]
*  Publisher Location: [empty]
*  Publisher Date: [empty]
*  Call Number: [empty]
*  Notes:  Systematic History Fund. Vital Records of Westminster, Massachusetts, to the End of the Year 1849. Worcester, Mass.: F.P. Rice, 1908.

That is exactly what was transferred in yesterday's test.

The source citation itself, in the "Notes" field, if a "Footnote" citation, needs parentheses around the Publication data, according to the Evidence! Explained "Basic Book" models.  The citation is fine as a "Bibliography" entry per EE models.

The "Free-form Source" for the Birth Fact is:


The Source information shown is:

* Title:  Systematic History Fund, Vital Records of Westminster, Massachusetts, to the End of the Year 1849
*  Author: Systematic History Fund
*  Publisher: Name: Name: Worcester, Mass., F.P. Rice, 1908;;
*  Publisher Location: [empty]
*  Publisher Date: [empty]
*  Call Number: [empty]
*  Notes:  Systematic History Fund. Vital Records of Westminster, Massachusetts, to the End of the Year 1849. Worcester, Mass.: F.P. Rice, 1908.

This information is identical to the Free-form source information from the previous post yesterday.

Note that it has exactly the same "mangled" data - the "Name: Name" words in the Publisher field, and the ";;" at the end of the Publisher field.  The source citation itself, in the "Notes" field, needs parentheses around the Publication data, according to the Evidence! Explained models for a "Basic Book" Footnote..

The list of all of the source citations in the Ancestry.com Member Tree file looks like this:


Note that this list shows only the "Title" of the Source (which is the "Title" in the Family Tree Maker 2011 Source List - which has no capability for a shorthand source as discussed here). and the Source Detail. 

It appears that there is no difference in the Source Citations imported and displayed in an Ancestry Member Tree between uploading a Family Tree Maker 2011 file directly or importing the file using a GEDCOM file.  Neither perfectly matches Evidence! Explained models.

Now what about a RootsMagic 4 GEDCOM export and import to an Ancestry Member Tree?  The Seaver Source Citation Saga continues... endless, isn't it?  There is a reason!

(Not So) Wordless Wednesday - Post 139: The Players

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 picture is of three San Diego Padres baseball fans in 1958.  Knowledgeable baseball fans will say "but the Padres entered the Major Leagues in 1969."  There was, of course, a minor league San Diego Padres team from 1936 to 1967.

Pictured here, from left to right, are the Seaver boys - Randy, Scott and Stanley.  From this photo, you can guess that Randy is left-handed and Stanley is right-handed. 

The real prize here is the glove on Scott's left hand - it's a Luke Appling five-fingered glove that my father had from his baseball days in the 1930's (that's what he said...).  Luke Appling played from 1933 to 1950 in the Major Leagues.  In 1958, Stanley was a catcher playing Little League baseball, Randy was keeping score and Scott was trying to master catching the ball (and the Luke Appling glove didn't help much, since Scott's hand wasn't big enough to squeeze the ball!).  Scott had the best high school baseball career - as a pitcher - he  baffled hitters with his repertoire.  Randy didn't play, and Stan was a backup catcher to an all-league player.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Which Mrs. Lucy Seaver is she?

My dear friend, footnoteMaven, gave me a link to a picture on eBay of Mrs. Lucy Seaver, with her name on the back of it and the date 19 April 1883.



From the picture, my first guess was that she was around age 40 in this picture.  footnoteMaven thought that she was younger. 

I wondered who this Lucy Seaver was, and went investigating a bit in the 1880 U.S. Census on Ancestry.com.  Assuming that she is either a wife or a widow in 1883, and under age 50, that narrowed the search down to these possibilities:

1)  Lucy J. (Abbott) Seaver (1839-1894), who married in 1874 in Boston, Massachusetts to William F. Seaver (1836-????).  In 1880, they resided at 49 Eutaw Street in Boston.  They apparently had no children.

2)  Lucy Conant (Byram) Seaver (1835-1903), who married in 1855 in East Bridgewater, Massachusetts to Samuel Leonard Seaver (1834-1894).  In 1880, they resided in East Bridgewater, Massachusetts. They had four children, but only one was living in 1880.

3)  Lucinda C. (Merriam) Seaver (1832-????), who married in 1851 in Holden, Massachusetts to John W. Seaver (1827-????).  In 1880, they resided in Worcester, Massachusetts.  They had five children, and four were living in 1880.

4)  some other lady named Lucy Seaver for whom I have no record, and was missed in the 1880 U.S. census. 

One more possibility is Lucy J. (Beals) Seaver (1857-????), who married in 1876 in Swanzey, New Hampshire to George A. Seaver (1853-????).  They are in the 1900 census, but not in the 1880 census, although they should be!

Does any reader recognize this picture of Mrs. Lucy Seaver from 1883?

Thank you to footnoteMaven for the find... and the challenge!

RootsMagic Webinars - Archived and Future

I finally found time today to review the RootsMagic Webinar from 4 February 2011 on the subject of Sources, Citations and Documentation with RootsMagic.  It was interesting, and I learned a few new tricks - not the least of which was how to create a Source list for a selected Master Source. 

Each Webinar is about an hour long, and can be viewed on the Internet, or can be downloaded (but the files are large - the one I viewed today is 59 mb).

Go to the RootsMagic Webinar page at http://www.rootsmagic.com/Webinars/.  There are five Webinars in the Archives right now:

Getting Started with RootsMagic, Recorded 8 Jan 2011, 78 minutes, 53 MB

Publishing a Family History with RootsMagic, Recorded 11 Jan 2011, 64 minutes, 52 MB

FamilySearch Made Easy with RootsMagic, Recorded 18 Jan 2011, 102 minutes, 63 MB

RootsMagic To-Go: Running RootsMagic on a Flash Drive, Recorded 24 Jan 2011, 63 minutes, 28 MB

Sources, Citations and Documentation with RootsMagic, Recorded 4 Feb 2011, 85 minutes, 59 MB

The future Webinars that will be shown in February include:

Working with Files and Folders in RootsMagic, Tuesday, February 8, 2011, 5pm MST

Cleaning Your Family Tree in RootsMagic, Friday, February 18, 2011, 3pm MST

Personal Historian: Bringing Life to Your Life Stories, Wednesday, February 23, 2011, 5pm MST

These are very well done.  You can hear the speaker and see the slides in real-time, and can interact with the speaker, by asking questions in a chat window, during the actual Webinar.  RootsMagic requires a registration for the real-time webinars - click on the link to the webinar to reserve a spot.  To see and hear an archived Webinar, you can click on the "Watch" button for the one you want to see.

FTM 2011 Citations Uploaded Directly to Ancestry.com

One of the issues I was concerned about in the ongoing Seaver Source Citation Saga is "Will Template Sources be mangled when uploaded to Ancestry.com Member Trees?"   The question really needs to be separated into two parts - with a direct upload from Family Tree Maker 2011, and from a GEDCOM file from, say, RootsMagic 4.

To answer the first question:  In Family Tree Maker 2011, I already had a "clean" "Free-form" source for Isaac Seaver's birth record (from the Westminster, Massachusetts Vital Record book. I also created a Template Source citation for Isaac Seaver's birth record in a Basic Book format. 

From Family Tree Maker 2011, I clicked on the "Share" button in the upper right-hand corner of the screen.  The first option is to "Upload to Ancestry."  I clicked on that and saw:


I checked the right boxes, and clicked on "OK."  Ancestry.com opened with:


I added the database name, unclicked the Public Member Tree option, and clicked on the terms acceptance box, and clicked on  the orange "Upload" button.

The one-person file uploaded very quickly!  I opened the new Family Tree, navigated to Isaac Seaver's page, and saw:



All of the Facts and Media in the file are there.  The Birth Fact above has two sources noted, so I clicked on the "Facts and Sources" tab and saw:


I then clicked on each of the two Source citation links for the Birth Fact.  Here is the so-called Template Source citation screen (after clicking on the "View Source Details" link):


On this screen, the entries in the fields are:

* Title:  Systematic History Fund, Vital Records of Westminster, Massachusetts, to the End of the Year 1849 [template]
*  Author: [empty]
*  Publisher: [empty]
*  Publisher Location: [empty]
*  Publisher Date: [empty]
*  Call Number: [empty]
*  Notes:  Systematic History Fund. Vital Records of Westminster, Massachusetts, to the End of the Year 1849. Worcester, Mass.: F.P. Rice, 1908.

The "Title" field shows the title of the Source, which includes author and title and the word "[Template]" which I added to distinguish it from the Free-form source).  The Author, Publisher, Publisher Location, Publication Date, and Call Number fields are empty, even though I had entries in all of the fields except the Call Number.  A Footnote-style citation is in the "Notes" section, and reflects the Footnote created by the Basic Book format template in Family Tree Maker 2011. 

The Family Tree Maker 2011 Template Source citation has the book title italicized. In the Notes section, the corresponding  Ancestry Member Tree citation above does not include the italicized information.  In the "Notes" field, which I assume is the entire "Footnote," the Publication data is not enclosed in parentheses.  Therefore, it doesn't conform to Evidence! Explained models for Book citation.
Here is the "Free-form" Source screen in ancestry for the same reference book source (but without the word "[Template]" in the title):


On this screen, the entries in the fields are:

* Title:  Systematic History Fund, Vital Records of Westminster, Massachusetts, to the End of the Year 1849
*  Author: Systematic History Fund
*  Publisher: Name: Name: Worcester, Mass., F.P. Rice, 1908;;
*  Publisher Location: [empty]
*  Publisher Date: [empty]
*  Call Number: [empty]
*  Notes:  Systematic History Fund. Vital Records of Westminster, Massachusetts, to the End of the Year 1849. Worcester, Mass.: F.P. Rice, 1908.

The Free-form Source citation in Ancestry.com actually puts information into the correct fields (note - I had all of the publication information in the Publisher's Name field in the FTM 2011 citation template).  However, the extraneous "Name: Name:" words and the ";;" punctuation at the end of the Publisher are included, but are not in the Free-form Source citation in Family Tree Maker 2011. 

The final Source Citation in Ancestry.com for the Free-form citation has the same problem with the Publication data in the "Notes" field - it should have parentheses around that information.  It has no extraneous information, but it does not have the italicized title.

It looks like the answer to my question posed at the top of this post is:

"NO.  The Template Source citation created in Family Tree Maker 2011 do not translate directly into Sources in Ancestry Member Trees, but they are not "mangled."  The information does not enter the Ancestry.com Source fields, the Title is not italicized, the Publication information is not in parentheses, but the Footnote comes out fairly well."

What will RootsMagic 4 Template and Free-form Source citations look like in an Ancestry Member Tree?  I'll have to use a GEDCOM for that.

Updated 9 February:  edited text to add content about the parentheses and to be more accurate.

Tuesday's Tip - Use NUCMC to Find Manuscript Holdings

Today's Tuesday's Tip is:  Use the National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections (NUCMC) search engine to find manuscript collections that may have information about your ancestral families.  The location of these manuscript collections is in a repository (e.g., Library of Congress, historical societies, university libraries, etc.) and they are not digitized or available online.

The NUCMC home page is at http://www.loc.gov/coll/nucmc/.

The home page looks like this:


There is a Search box at the top of this page - DON'T USE ONLY THIS!!!  It searches only the NUCMC web pages, all Cataloguing Web Pages, and All Library of Congress Web pages. 

The actual search for manuscript collections is through the link  for "Searching on OCLC WorldCat" under the "Searching Manuscripts" heading in the middle of the page.  That page looks like:



The options on this page are to:

1. Simple Search Form (word list) -- titles, notes, and subject fields
2. Simple Search Form (word list) -- all names fields
3. Simple Search Form (left-anchored phrase) -- all names fields
4. Advanced Search Form
Searching Instructions and Hints

I used the "Simple Search Form (word list) - titles, notes and subject fields" for (without the quotes):

*  "seaver" - 359 matches
*  "seaver family" - 56 matches
*  "seaver diary" - 7 matches
*  "seaver letter" - 39 matches
*  "seaver genealogy" - 12 matches

Try all of the Search options - they may lead you to a collection that is not found by searching just the Names fields.

As an example of a manuscript collection that might contain significant Seaver family history material:

Author:        Seaver family.
Title:         Papers, 1672-1944, bulk: 1672-1898.
Description:   1 narrow box and 1 oversize box.
Notes:         Papers of the Seaver family of Roxbury, Mass.
                  including deeds and plans for lands in Roxbury and later
                  Colrain, Mass., quitclaims, wills, inventories, and other
                  estate records of Joshua Seaver, his sons Ebenezer
                  (1687-1773), Joshua, Robert, and Jonathan, and Ebenezer's son
                  Ebenezer (1721-1785). Also, Jonathan Seaver's account books
                  (1734-45, 1745-53); a few letters to Ebenezer Seaver
                  (1763-1844); a sketch of the history of New England written
                  for his descendants by Noah Clap; and letters exchanged
                  between Susie (Hibbard) Seaver and her son Henry M. while the
                  latter was travelling in Europe in 1898.
               Parker, Mary S., Dec. 1925.
               Some items are individually described in the MHS
                  manuscript catalog.
Subjects:      Clap family.
               Account books.
               Inventories of decedents' estates.
               Real property -- Massachusetts -- Colrain.
               Real property -- Massachusetts -- Roxbury
                  (Boston)
               Voyages and travels.
               Wills.
               Europe -- Description and travel.
Other authors: Clap, Noah, 1718-1799.
               Seaver, Ebenezer, 1687-1773.
               Seaver, Ebenezer, 1721-1785.
               Seaver, Ebenezer, 1763-1844.
               Seaver, Henry Morse, 1873-1947.
               Seaver, Jonathan, 1700-1754.
               Seaver, Joshua, 1641-1730.
               Seaver, Joshua, 1678-1739.
               Seaver, Robert, 1698-1771.
               Seaver, Susan Hibbard, 1851-1909.
Control No.:   ocm26827656 

Do you think that a descendant of one of these Seaver men would like to see this manuscript collection?  Heck, I want to see it!!  Where is it? 

They cleverly hide how to find out the name of the repository in their Locating Collections page.  I followed this trail, which I wrote about three years ago, here.  The collection above is at the Massachusetts Historical Society at 1154 Boylston Street in Boston.