Saturday, February 19, 2011

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Go For A Better Google Search

It's Saturday Night -- time for more Genealogy Fun!!  A little late - it almost didn't happen this week, considering last week's response (three that I counted), I hope that more readers want to participate in this this week.

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

1)  Go to genea-blogger Ramdy Majors website (http://www.randymajors.com/).

2)  Add his blog to your RSS reader, if you don't have it already.

3) Read his blog post AncestorSearch using Google Custom Search - BETASee the link at the top of the page that says "AncestorSearch using Google Custom Search - BETA?"  Click on it.

4)  Test out his Custom Google Search form to help you find online information about your ancestors, especially for their marriages. 

5)  Tell us about your results - was this useful? Did you find something new?  How can Randy improve it?

6)  If you like Randy's Custom Search, add it to your Bookmarks or Favorites.

Thank you, Randy Majors, for creating a useful search capability and sharing it with all of us.  May your site receive many hits, and RSS subscriptions!

Here are my comments:

I tried it using several different couples and several individuals, and found all of my blog articles and my website for everyone that I tried in my ancestral families.  I also found several splogs that scrape all or part of my blog posts.

I tried it using some of my clients families that I have not blogged about and found several matches on web pages and in online family trees (E.g., Geni.com, WorldConnect).

One addition I would make, if possible, would be to add a "wild card" for middle names or initials in the name searches.  for instance, the Google search string would be

(("frank * seaver"|"seaver, frank *")) (("hattie * hildreth"|"hildreth, hattie *")) "massachusetts" (marriage|married|marriages) (1873|1874|1875)

Of course, the user can put the asterisk or middle initial in him/herself in Randy's Custom Search box.

Surname Saturday - PRAY (England > Massachusetts > Rhode Island)

It's Surname Saturday, and I'm "counting down" my Ancestral Name List each week. I am up to number 183,  who is Sarah PRAY (about 1734- after 1819), 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 PRAY 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-????)

182.  Nathaniel Horton, born about 1730 in Rehoboth, Bristol, Massachusetts, United States; died 04 May 1819 in Foster, Providence, Rhode Island, United States. He was the son of 364. John Horton and 365. Mary Chase. He married about 1755 in probably Scituate, Providence, Rhode Island, United States.
183. Sarah Pray, born about 1734 in Providence, Rhode Island, United States; died Aft. 1819 in probably Foster, Providence, Rhode Island, United States.

Children of Nathaniel Horton and Sarah Pray are:  Nathaniel Horton (1755-1835); Abiel Horton (1756-1842); Katherine Horton (1758-1779); John Horton (1760-????); Chase Horton (1762-????); Ruth Horton (1764-????); Rachel Horton (1766-????); Sarah Horton (1768-????); Freelove Horton (1770-????); Phebe Horton (1772-????); Olive Horton (1774-????).

366. Richard Pray, born about 1683 in Providence, Providence, Rhode Island, United States; died 10 July 1755 in Scituate, Providence, Rhode Island, United States.  He married before 1725 in probably Rhode Island, United States.
367. Rachel, died before 1755 in Scituate, Providence, Rhode Island, United States.

Children of Richard Pray and Rachel are:  Rachel Pray (1725-????); Mary Pray (1728-????); Sarah Pray (1734-1819).

732. John Pray, born about 1653 in probably Providence, Providence, Rhode Island, United States; died 09 October 1733 in Smithfield, Providence, Rhode Island, United States. He married 14 November 1678 in Providence, Providence, Rhode Island, United States.
733. Sarah Brown, born 18 March 1662 in Providence, Providence, Rhode Island, United States; died before October 1733 in Providence, Providence, Rhode Island, United States. She was the daughter of 1466. John Brown and 1467. Mary Holmes.

Children of John Pray and Sarah Brown are:  John Pray (1679-1751); Sarah Pray (1681-1728); Richard Pray (1683-1755); Mary Pray (1685-1765); Hugh Pray (1687-1761); Penelope Pray (1688-1752); Katherine Pray (1689-1728); Martha Pray (1693-1784.

1464. Richard Pray, born about 1625 in England; died 1693 in Providence, Providence, Rhode Island, United States. He married about1648 in probably Lynn, Essex, Massachusetts, United States.
1465. Mary, born about 1629 in England; died about 1686 in Providence, Providence, Rhode Island, United States.

Children of Richard Pray and Mary are:  Ephraim Pray (1651-1727); John Pray (1653-1733); William Pray (1655-????); Mary Pray (1657-????). 

2928. Quinton Pray, born before 23 November 1595 in Chiddingstone, Kent, England; died 17 June 1667 in Braintree, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States. He was the son of 5856. Robert Pray. He married 17 June 1621 in Mayfield, Sussex, England.
2929. Joan Valliance, born about 1599 in England; died 12 October 1664 in Braintree, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States.

Children of Quinton Pray and Joan Valliance are:  Richard Pray (1625-1693); Dorothy Pray (1630-1705); John Pray (1632-1676); Hannah Pray (1634-1656); Ephraim Pray (1637-1710).

This is one ancestral family that I do not have an authoritative source for.  Martin Hollick's useful book, New Englanders in the 1600s, lists one recent work that provides information on the earliest generations:

Edmund K. Swigart, Ph.D., An Emerson-Benson Saga: The Ancestry of Charles F. Emerson and Bessie Benson and the Struggle to Settle the United States Including 194 Allied Lines (Baltimore, Md. : Gateway Press, 1994), pages 462-466.

I don't have that book yet, but I've put it on my "to-do" list for the next trip to Carlsbad Library, NEHGS or the FHL. 

There are, of course, numerous derivative sources, including many websites, that provide some details for each of these families. 

Friday, February 18, 2011

FamilySearch Research Wiki - U.S. Census Records

I check out the FamilySearch Research Wiki occasionally (and much more often than a month ago!) to see how the information "grows" and "improves."  It does!  I found a neat chart on the United States Census records today that I wanted to share.

Starting from the Research Wiki page for the United States Census:


And scrolling down, there is a nice list of all of the states and territories:


From here, I clicked on Massachusetts, and saw:



A little further down is a chart showing where indexes and images of the Federal Census records are available online:


The chart shows what is on FamilySearch (Record Search and the "Classic" site) for Free, available for Free at some libraries (HeritageQuest, Footnote, Ancestry FHL, Ancestry Library), and what is available from home on http://www.ancestry.com/.  Each State has a similar form specific to the state.

Further down is a list for Federal Non-Population Census Records and State and Colonial Census Records:



 The page has links to the Microfilm images that are available in the Family History Library Catalog.

These tables are very useful for every researcher to keep track of what census records are available on microfilm or online, and whether with index and images.

Every researcher should be using the FamilySearch Research Wiki to help them determine what is available for book, microfilm and online research.

Take Family History to a new level!

Do you want an 11/11/11 baby?  Tonight's the Night! 



If a baby is conceived tonight, a full term baby should be delivered on 11 November 2011. 

I suggest you wait until after Who Do You Think You Are? 

Think of the family stories that could come out of this:  "We were watching Rosie O'Donnell find out about her ancestry when you were conceived."  Or not. 

If you're a grandparent, then remind your kids!  Or not.  Maybe TMI?

WDYTYA? Tonight - Drinking Game? Bingo?

The third episode of Who Do You Think You Are? is tonight (8 p.m. EST, 7 p.m. CST, 7 p.m. MST and 8 p.m. PST) on your NBC network station.  The featured celebrity tonight is Rosie O'Donnell.





Donna Pointkouski on the What's Past is Prologue blog has devised The WDYTYA Drinking Game
for this show!  Great idea. 

Another potential game might be WDYTYA? Bingo - where we all have a list of items to check off, and shout Bingo! on Twitter or Facebook when we get one row complete, or the five we picked before hand, or the whole list complete.  We need 25 items for the list, though. 

My wife really likes the show, especially the family emotions and the travel aspects of it.  The research part, not so much.  I'm just the opposite, of course. 

Chasing Women, Newspapers, and Software

I love the Webinars being posted by different genealogy software companies.  I usually learn something about genealogy and the software.

1)  Legacy Family Tree has two new Webinars posted this month:

Chasing Women - Finding Your Female Ancestors.  (1 hour, 21 minutes, available until 16 March 2011) -- Locating the names of our female ancestors can be difficult - principally because their names changed upon marrying. Women historically have not produced as many records as their husbands, since women's suffrage largely did not exist until the twentieth century. This adds to the difficulty of finding their names, let alone the details of their lives. There are two major search areas that we deal with in locating women's names, the first being the search for their maiden names, and secondly, the search for their married names. One search can be as hard as the other, and you may find you are doing both types of searches on the same women. Join nationally-known speaker, author, and publisher, Leland K. Meitzler as he gives details on a wide variety of sources, starting with the obvious, and working its way through sources that you may not have thought of using previously.

*  Newspapers: Critical Resource to Complete Your Family Tree (1 hour, 28 minutes, available until 10 March 2011) -- . Learn how to document the daily life of your ancestors in over 300 years of fragile, rare newspapers, books and documents. See how you can click and read articles about your ancestors, obituaries & marriage notices, military reports and even the sermons preached at their funerals! History comes alive as you climb beyond the names and dates on your family tree to the recorded details of their lives. Join librarian, lecturer, newspaper expert, and GenealogyBank.com's Thomas Jay Kemp for this one-hour webinar on U.S. newspaper research, including a demonstration of the historical newspapers, books, and documents available at GenealogyBank.com.

2)  RootsMagic has had three Webinars this month, all dealing with RootsMagic software (you can Watch or Download these Webinars):

Sources, Citations and Documentation in RootsMagic (85 minutes)

Working with Files and Folders in RootsMagic (74 minutes)

Cleaning Your Family Tree in RootsMagic (85 minutes)

There is one Webinar scheduled during the rest of February:

Personal Historian: Bringing Life to Your Life Story (23 February 2011, 5 p.m. MST, registration required)

3)  There was a Family Tree Maker 2011 Webinar on Wednesday, 16 February, but it is not archived on the Ancestry.com Webinar page yet.  Watch for it!

UPDATED 9:50 AM:  Bruce Buzbee provided links to the RootsMagic Webinar in Comments.  You know, I never think about right-clicking!  Thanks, Bruce.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Software Programs, GEDCOM Files and Source Citations - Some Recommendations

I have experimented quite a bit with Family Tree Maker 2011, Legacy Family Tree 7 and RootsMagic 4  genealogy software source citation creation and transfer (see The Seaver Source Citation Saga Compendium).

I've come to the following conclusions as they apply to Source Citations in genealogy software and transferring them via GEDCOM to another user or via upload to an online family tree:

1)   Each software vendor uses a proprietary set of master Source Templates to represent the Evidence! Explained models and adds the information into a GEDCOM file differently.

Family Tree Maker 2011 uses standard tags for TITLe, AUTHor, PUBLisher, and REPOsitory for Free-form and Template Sources in the GEDCOM file, but adds extraneous words and punctuation to the fields.

*  Legacy Family Tree 7 uses the standard tags for TITle, AUTHor, PUBLisher and REPOsitory for Free-form and Template Sources in the GEDCOM file.

*  RootsMagic 4 does not use the AUTHor and PUBLisher tags, but adds that information to the TITle field for Free-form sources and Template Sources in the GEDCOM file.  It also creates a unique set of tags for sources created from a number of Source Templates based on Evidence! Explained models in the GEDCOM file.

*  Other software programs may have different Source Templates and GEDCOM tags - I've only worked with these three programs.

2)  All three programs convey the PAGE (citation details) and REPOsitory tag information correctly and consistently.

3)  Each program can transfer the Source Citation information in the native program format to another user of the same program.  In other words, an FTM 2011 user can read the file obtained from another FTM 2011 user without loss of source content.

What is important in all of this is that source citation information, whether created by a Free-form or Source Template, be preserved when transferred to another user, including to or from an online family tree.  Many researchers work long and hard to cite their sources and to use recommended source citation models, such as in Evidence! Explained.  Here are three recommendations:

1)  The surest way to have a Source Citation "survive" the GEDCOM experience for transfer to another program, or to an online family tree website, is to create the master Source Citations putting all of the information into one field - for instance, as RootsMagic 4 puts all the author, title and publication information in the TITLe field.  However, this does not cover the Subsequent Footnote and Bibliography entries created by the different Source Templates. 

2)  My second recommendation is simple and should work:  GEDCOM fields for FOOTnote, SUBSequent Footnote and BIBLiography could be created by the software programs (from Free-form or Template models) and the appropriate information put in those fields for transfer of the complete Master Source Citation.  This would preserve the proprietary software models, but would require agreement between software vendors and online family tree websites in order to make it work.

3)  The use of italics (or other formatting) in the Source citations should be included in any improvements made to the GEDCOM standard.

There is a Build a BetterGEDCOM group that seeks to participate in establishing a standard for the transmission, sharing and updating of genealogical information.

At the RootsTech Conference last week in Salt Lake City,  FamilySearch said that the present standard is being evaluated and that FamilySearch would be moving ahead to update the standard (thank you, James Tanner of the Genealogy's Star blog).

Jordan Jones wrote RootsTech 2011: Towards a New Genealogical Data Model on the GenealogyMedia.com blog that discusses the open discussion session chaired by The Ancestry Insider.  He mentioned the FamilySearch statement, and wrote:

"This is an excit­ing devel­op­ment in the inter­sec­tion of geneal­ogy and tech­nol­ogy. If FamilySearch decides to share their work, and if a gov­er­nance body can be iden­ti­fied or set up, and finally if that gov­er­nance body has the trust of the genealog­i­cal com­mu­nity, including:
  • the major desk­top and mobile appli­ca­tion developers
  • the major web databases
  • the NGS
  • NEHGS (New England Historic Genealogical Society)
  • FGS (the Federation of Genealogical Societies)
  • BCG (the Board for Certification of Genealogists)
  • APG (the Association of Professional Genealogists)
"We could be near the start of a much more rich tech­nol­ogy envi­ron­ment. A new data model, address­ing issues with GEDCOM and upgraded and changed through a com­mu­nity gov­er­nance model could lead to inte­grated set of inde­pen­dently devel­oped soft­ware tools that would allow peo­ple to rep­re­sent their research bet­ter than they can with GEDCOM, and bet­ter share their data or move it from one vended prod­uct to another."

Thank you, Jordan, for an excellent report and reasoned suggestions.

I offer my Source Citation studies and my recommendations above in the spirit of cooperation and collaboration, and I hope that they are considered in any creation of an improved  genealogical data standard.

Rest in Peace: Sandra Hargreaves Luebking

The FGS Voice blog has the sad news that Sandra Hargreaves Luebking has passed away.


Please read  In Memoriam: Sandra Hargreaves Luebking. 

Sandra was a really beautiful person dedicated to genealogy research and education.  Our Genealogy World  is dimmed a bit today.

I met Sandra only once - at the Federation of Genealogical Societies Conference in Little rock, Arkansas in 2009.  However, she was my (first!) editor (the "Genealogy 2.0" column in the quarterly FGS FORUM magazine), and for two years she shepherded me through the ins and outs of genealogy magazine column writing. I loved working with her long distance. 

Treasure Chest Thursday - Isaac Seaver's Civil War Pension Papers: Widow's Second Application

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.

Last week, we saw that Isaac's widow, Alvina Seaver, listed all of her assets and it was apparent that she earned too much money each year to qualify for a widow's pension.  That affidavit was dated 23 December 1901.

The "Treasure" this week is the Declaration for Widow's Pension of Alvina M. Seaver in 1908, who once again requested a pension based on her husband's Civil War service.


The transcript of this page is (filled in lines underlined, handwritten items italicized, tables spaced by periods):

ACT OF APRIL 19, 1908
DECLARATION OF WIDOW'S PENSION

State of New York, County of Franklin, SS:
On this 29th day of July A.D. one thousand nine hundred and
eight, personally appeared before me, a Notary Public, within and for the
County and State aforesaid, Alvina M. Seaver, aged 58 years, a
resident of Dickinson County of Franklin, State of
New York who, being duly sworn according to law, declares that she is the widow of
Isaac Seaver, 3d, who enlisted under the name of
Isaac Seaver 3d, on the 26th day of August, A.D.
18 64 as a Private in Company H, in the 4th Regiment of
Mass Vol H'y Art'y and served at least ninety days in the late War
of the Rebellion, in the service of the United States, who was HONORABLY DISCHARGED June 17
1865, and died March 12, 1901.  That he was never employed
... in the military or naval service of the United States after the 17th
day of June 18 65.  That she was married under the name of
Alvina M. Lewis to said Isaac Seaver 3d, on
the 15th day of September A.D. 1888, by Rev. J.P. Dunham
at St. Regis Falls, N.Y. there being no legal barrier to such marriage; that she had not
been previously married; that her said husband had not been previously married. (4) See all
evidence on file in her previous claim for pension.
That she has not remarried since the death of the said Isaac Seaver 3d
That the names and dates of birth of all of the children of the soldier, now living, and under sixteen years of
age, are as follows:
That there are no children of the soldier
now living who are under sixteen years of age.
...
That a prior application for pension has been filed by herself or the soldier under
Act of June 27, 1890 Claim No. 738,086. That her
husband was a pensioner under Act of June 27, 1890 Cf No 850936
That she makes this declaration for the purposes of being placed on the pension roll of the United States,
under the provisions of the act of April 19, 1908.  She hereby appoints, with full power of
substitution and revocation,
Charles W. Kendall of Fitchburg, Mass.
her true and lawful attorney to prosecute her claim, the fee to be TEN DOLLARS, payable as prescribed by law.
That her POST-OFFICE ADDRESS is Dickinson Centre, County of
Franklin, State of New York
Attest:
H.E. Hathaway /s/ ............................... Alvina M. Seaver /s/
Anna C. Hathaway /s/

This doesn't tell me anything new, except that Alvina was living in Dickinson Centre, Franklin County, New York in 1908. 

Apparently, she thought that she qualified under the Act of April 19, 1908 and applied for a pension soon after.  What changed?

The back of this Affidavit includes the Act of April 19, 1908 (it's only one page!).  It includes:

"Sec. 2.  That if any officer or enlisted man who served ninety days or more in the Army or Navy of the United States during the late civil war and who has been honorably discharged therefrom has died or shall hereafter die, leaving a widow, such widow shall, upon the proof of her husband's death, without proving his death to be the result of his army or navy service, be placed on the pension roll from the date of filing of her application therefor under this Act at the rate of twelve dollars per month during her widowhood, provided that said widow shall have married said soldier or sailor prior to June twenty-seventh, eighteen hundred and ninety; and the benefits of this section shall include those widows whose husbands if living would have a pensionable status under the joint resolutions of February fifteenth, eighteen hundred and ninety-five, and of July first, nineteen hundred and two, and June twenty-eighth, nineteen hundred and six."

Alvina lucked out, didn't she? 

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

More Thoughts on the Three (or more) Genealogy Worlds

I had excellent responses to my post Three (or more!) Genealogy Worlds? written on Sunday.  I want to explain some of my observations, based on the comments received:

1)  theKiwi commented that he thought the breakdown was more like 60% / 25-30% / 10-15%. 

The statistics that I based my guesses on (and they were just estimates of 75% to 85% in the Traditional World, 5 % to 15% in the Online World, and 0% to 2% in the Technology World) were:

*   Witcher's total of 49 million have a "deep appreciation for their ancestors."  I interpreted that to mean they have an interest in genealogy and family history, and have an interest in genealogy.  That may be an incorrect interpretation.  I think it includes "inactive" genealogists - those not actively researching, and includes many that are members of genealogical societies and are not participating.  Therefore, I used the 49 million as my "base" for "all genealogists." 

*  Witcher's total of 13 million "active researchers."  That is 26.5% of the 49 million.  It includes Traditional, Online and Technology folks.  Therefore, the total of Online and Technology folks can't be more than 26.5%.  I put the ones who aren't Online or Technology into the Traditional World by default.

*  Witcher's total of 1.6 million online researchers who are aged 18 to 44, and his 7.5 million online researchers who are aged 45 and over.  Therefore, 17.6% of online researchers are under age 45.  The total of 9.1 million online researchers is 70% of the 13 million active researchers, and 18.6% of the 49 million.

2)  theKiwi also questioned the 500,000 memberships in 500 genealogical societies, for an average of 1,000 per society. 

There are some national, regional and state societies that have membership counts over 1,000, but there are many that have less than 200 members.  Many small societies are not members of FGS, but most large societies (above 500 members) are FGS members.  The three San Diego area societies that I'm a member of have 125, 225, and 500 members.  An average of 1,000 members seems reasonable, but the median is probably more like 300.

3)  Kerry Scott noted that not all "21st century genealogists" are under age 44. 

I agree (and should modify my comment "presumably under age 44," which was an ageist comment).  I do think that all "21st century genealogists," as defined by Witcher, are online genealogists, very few are society members, and use social networks and handheld devices.  How many are there?  

My "Technology" group includes these "21st century genealogists" of Witcher's, but it includes many folks who also work in the Traditional and Online worlds and embrace the Technology.  Most professionals, social networkers and genea-bloggers are in this group.  How many are there?  I guessed up to 2% of all genealogists.  That would be up to 980,000 of the 49 million group.  Do you think that there are that many?  The most enthusiastic of them went to RootsTech.  3,000 out of 980,000 is 0.3% - 1 out of 327.

4)  Kerry thinks that Ancestry.com's subscribers are more than 5% to 15% of the genealogy world. 

If there are 1.3 million Ancestry subscribers, that's 14.3% of the online group, 10% of the active researcher group, and 2.6% of the 49 million.

5)  Kerry thinks that societies are missing out on most of the genealogist population. 

I agree.  By the statistics, they have 500,000 of the 49 million (1%), and my guess is that 60% of the society members are dormant - they don't participate.  We know that 73.5% of the 49 million are not active researchers.  A significant percentage of society leadership is not in the Online or Technology worlds, and therefore the societies are slow to adapt. 

6)  Debbie Parker Wayne added the "Traditional but Experienced" World to my Three Worlds in her blog post at Deb's Delvings

Good ideas and commentary, and the commenters have them too.   

I realize now that I should have included persons that work on genealogy every day (or even all day) in each of the Three Worlds I posited.  As Debbie points out, there are folks who are not online or have handhelds, but they are actively contributing to genealogy on a regular basis. 

The biggest question in my mind is "how many people are in the Genealogy World?"  If we knew the answer to that, we could discuss the actual percentages in each World. 

Thank you all for the comments - I appreciate them and respect your opinions.  If readers  have more demographics and statistics, or opinions about this subject, please chime in with Comments on this post, or in your own blog post.

The Seaver Source Citation Saga Compendium

I've published so many blog posts about working with Source Citations, Genealogy Software and GEDCOM files over the past two months that I want to publish a Compendium of them here, in order of publication, and I'll try to keep it updated.

In these studies, I've worked with Family Tree Maker 16, Family Tree Maker 2011, Legacy Family Tree 7 and RootsMagic 4.  Each of these programs has Source Citation templates, and the last three offer both Free-form and Evidence! Explained Source Templates.

Here is the list:

Managing Repositories in Family Tree Maker 2011 (13 December 2010)
Adventures in FTM 2011 - Creating a Source Citation (16 December 2010)
FTM2011 Source Citations in RootsMagic 4 - Mangled? (6 January 2011)
Creating Source Citations in Family Tree Maker 2011 - Post 1: The Challenge (10 January 2011)
Creating Source Citations in Family Tree Maker 2011 - Post 2: Converting Free-form Sources to Template Sources (11 January 2011)

Creating Source Citations in Family Tree Maker 2011 - Post 3: Online Databases (12 January 2011)
Creating Source Citations in Family Tree Maker 2011 - Post 4: Census Records (13 January 2011)
Creating Source Citations in Family Tree Maker 2011 - Post 5: Some Issues (14 January 2011)
Source Citations Created in Family Tree Maker 2011 - some examples (17 January 2011)
FTM 2011 Source Citations in Legacy Family Tree 7 - Mangled? (19 January 2011)

Source Citation Templates and GEDCOM Files - Oh My! (20 January 2011)
Peeking at Family Tree Maker 2011 Source Citations in the GEDCOM File - Post 1 (24 January 2011)
Peeking at Legacy Family Tree 7.5 Source Citations in the GEDCOM File - Post 1 (25 January 2011)
Source Citation Dilemma in Legacy Family Tree 7 (28 January 2011)
Source Citation Creation in RootsMagic 4 - some examples (31 January 2011)

Source Citation Merging in RootsMagic 4 - Uh Oh! (1 February 2011)
Peeking at RootsMagic 4 Source Citations in a GEDCOM File - Post 1 (2 February 2011)
How did the RootsMagic 4 Source Citations Look in Legacy Family Tree 7? (4 February 2011)
Do Genealogy Template Sources Survive When Passed Through GEDCOM? (7 February 2011)
FTM 2011 Citations Uploaded Directly to Ancestry.com (8 February 2011)

FTM 2011 Citations Uploaded via GEDCOM to Ancestry.com (9 February 2011)
RootsMagic 4 Source Citations Uploaded via GEDCOM to Ancestry.com - a Surprise! (10 February 2011)
Italicizing Source material in RootsMagic 4 (11 February 2011)
Creating and Using a Source Fact List in RootsMagic 4 (15 February 2011)
Software Programs, GEDCOM Files and Source Citations (17 February 2011)

My Solution for US Census Free-form Source Citations in RootsMagic 4 (15 April 2011)

Last updated: 17 April 2011

CGSSD Meeting on Saturday, 19 February, Features Tom Underhill

The February meeting of the Computer Genealogy Society of San Diego (CGSSD) is Saturday, 19 February, from 9 a.m. to 12 noon on the campus of the University of California, San Diego. See our map page for directions.
 
The schedule is:
 
9:00 - User groups: Legacy and RootsMagic+; SIG: DNA Genealogy
10:00 - Break, refreshments
10:15 - Announcements followed by:

Scanning Tips & Tricks
by Tom Underhill

Learn all of the secrets of scanning your treasured photos and documents. What’s resolution? What are the best formats? Learn from a pro.

Tom Underhill will give this presentation in place of Andy Pomeroy who was previously announced. Tom is the publisher and senior designer at Creative Continuum, a book design and publishing company specializing in high-quality, short-run books. During the last several years, Tom and his company produced more than 400 family history heirloom books, printed more than 10.25 million pages and scanned more than 12,000 photographs. Creative Continuum has published several award-winning books. Among them, The California Missions as Art won a Davey Award in 2007 for design. A History of African-American Families and Slaveholders in Cass County, East Texas was awarded the Best Genealogy in Texas in 2005.

Tom's speaking experience includes most of Southern California's family history fairs and several major genealogical conferences. Tom is the author of nine books and is the lead architect for My Life Story, an initiative to find a fun and easy way to help people record their personal and family memoirs.

(Not So) Wordless Wednesday - Post 140: The 30th Street House

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 is a view of the Carringer house standing on the corner of what is now 30th Street and Hawthorn Street in San Diego.  The side facing the camera is along 30th Street.  I posted another picture of this house in The house I grew up in and in A Victorian House in San Diego - turned into a box.

The picture above was taken in the 1905 to 19210 time frame, because there is much more vegetation around the house and the little boy has grown up into a big boy.

In the picture above, the people are:

*  On the far left, in the hat and uniform (band, messenger, military?) is Harvey Edgar Carringer (1852-1946, brother of Austin Carringer).
*  Standing to the left of the seated womn is Abigail (Vaux) Smith (1844-1931, mother of Della (Smith) Carringer)
*  The seated woman is, I think, Harriet (Vaux) Loucks (1849-1924, a second cousin of Abigail (Vaux) Smith)
*  Standing to the right of the seated woman is Della (Smith) Carringer (1862-1944, daughter of Abigail Smith and wife of Austin Carringer)
*  The young man is Lyle Lawrence Carringer (1891-1976, son of Austin and Della (Smith) Carringer)
*  The man standing to the right is Henry Austin Carringer (1853-1946, husband of Della (Smith) Carringer)

This view provides more opportunity to gauge the house's dimensions.  From this photo, assuming that Austin Carringer was about six feet tall, I measured the house and figure that the house is about 20 feet wide, and the first floor ceiling was about seven feet high and the second floor roofline was about six feet above the first floor ceiling.  The second floor ceiling was higher, since the roof has an overhang and a slope.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Interesting Q&A with FamilySearch Leaders

James Tanner, who writes the excellent Genealogy's Star blog, was one of the smartest, fastest and most prolific genea-bloggers at last week's RootsTech Conference

One of his posts on Saturday was RootsTech -- Devotional with Elder Richard G. Scott.  I skipped right past it in my Google Reader (since James only permits a few lines of his post to be shown in the RSS feed) since I'm not particular interested in LDS church information.  Bad decision...

The post was a summary of the Question and Answer session, with Elder Scott and a panel that included David Rencher, Craig Miller, Ransom Love, Jim Greene, all from FamilySearch. Introductions and opening was by CEO Jay Verkler.  All of them are high powered, knowledgeable leaders who are driving FamilySearch into the 21st century.

I urge all readers to check out James Tanner's post for more information.  My impression is that James took notes on his laptop and crafted them into this post soon after the event (the time stamp is 12:14 PM on 12 February).  I appreciate his note taking skills! 

By far the most intriguing, and potentially disturbing, question and answer I saw was this one:

"What is the balance between involving everyone and being genealogically sound?

"David Rencher. FamilySearch is trying to change the entire way that people in the Church do family history. They are not going in the direction of the academic genealogists."

I hope that David Rencher, or someone from FamilySearch, can expand on this answer.  The comments I have are:

*  Does this imply that Church people do not pursue "academic genealogy" presently?

*  What is an "academic genealogist?" To me, it is a genealogist that writes and/or edits well-sourced, peer-reviewed journal articles and books (e.g., Elizabeth Shown Mills, Thomas W. Jones, etc.).  Many "academic genealogists" live in the technology world while they live in the more traditional genealogy world.  The worlds are not mutually exclusive.

*  Does the "going in the direction of the academic genealogists" phrase mean that FamilySearch will not be sticklers for Evidence! Explained quality source citations? 

The latter point is what makes the most sense to me - they may encourage complete source citations, but may accept less than EE-quality citations in the spirit of pursuing research and not turning off submitters with less-than-perfect citations.  It may be that, in the wiki-like environment that FamilySearch has indicated will be used in the new Family Tree, footnote mavens and source gurus will edit sources into EE-quality citations.

Thank you, James Tanner, for the Q&A summary.  I think we'll be discussing these issue for awhile.

Creating and Using a Source Fact List in RootsMagic 4

As I've been editing my master Sources in RootsMagic 4, I'm finding that I also need to edit my Source Details - the ones that note volumes, page numbers, census pages, etc.  My earlier posts about RootsMagic are here.

How can I obtain a list of the Facts that use the master Sources so that I can edit my Source Details?  Ideally, there would be a button that shows a list of the Facts, and then I could click on each Fact to edit the Source Detail.  Sounds simple, right?  Here's the screen for a specific master Source:


There is no magic button on this screen that I can see.  I checked the RootsMagic 4 Help! index and search capability and found no way to have a list like I want.

There is, of course, a way to make a Fact list using the Reports > Lists > Source List  option:


That opens a "Report Settings" menu where I can choose between "Print all sources" and "Print a single source:"



Well, I have over 650 master sources, and a list of all 20,000+ Facts will likely create a report that is about 1,000 pages long.  That's probably unwieldy - especially to find a specific master Source.  I decided to select a single source:


I chose the 1900 U.S. Census, for which I have 227 citations at this time.  Here's the start of the 9 page list:


I saved the list as an RTF file to my RootsMagic computer folder, and it opened in WordPad in a separate window.  How can I use it?  One way is to put the WordPad file window side-by-side with my RootsMagic 4 file window on my screen, for example:


Here I can edit my Source Detail information on the RootsMagic 4 screen.  I can also highlight the completed Source Detail on the WordPad window so that I know that I've completed that one.  It's a work-around, but it's fairly easy to do and use.  226 Source Details for the 1900 census to go!  Then 649+ more master Sources to do. 

A magic button that provides a Fact list for a specific master Source would be helpful, but I can work with the one-at-a-time list using my work-around method above.

For reference purposes, I note that Family Tree Maker 2011 and Legacy Family Tree 7.5 can access a Fact list for a specific master Source, and the user can click on the Source Detail to edit that detail, without creating a Source List report. 

The Seaver Source Citation Saga continues...

Tuesday's Tip - Use the list of FREE Online Vital Records Databases on LearnWebSkills.com site

This week's Tuesday's Tip is:  Use the FREE Online Vital Records Databases on the LearnWebSkills.com tutorial site.

I know - I recommended the genealogy tutorial site two weeks ago - but that was as a general tip for beginning genealogists, or beginning online genealogists. 

In Module 3 of the tutorial, there is a link to the page with over 3,000 free vital records and probate records organized by state and county.  The link to the page is http://www.learnwebskills.com/family/vitalrecords1.htm.


On this page, there are links to go to each state.  If you want to browse the entire list, it is broken up into two lists - Alabama through Massachusetts, and Michigan through Wyoming.  There are no listings for Alaska, the District of Columbia and Hawaii.

I scrolled down to California and saw:



I had forgotten that there is FREE access to the California Birth Index, 1905-1995 at  http://www.sfgenealogy.net/.  Note: There is also free access at http://www.familytreelegends.com/, but that link is not provided on the LearnWebSkills page.

Many of the links on the LearnWebSkills FREE Vital Records page are to the databases on the FamilySearch Historical Collections.  Hopefully, the page will be continually updated as more vital records are added to the FamilySearch collection.

I just added this page to my Vital Records Favorites list - it's great to have a one-stop shop for FREE vital records access.

I absolutely love and appreciate what Debbie Duay has done with the http://www.learningwebskills.com/ site - I use it in my Beginning Computer Genealogy class, and my Genealogy 101 class, as a way to get beginners started on using genealogy web sites.

Monday, February 14, 2011

FamilyTech site at FamilySearch.org

Have you seen the FamilyTech web page on the FamilySearch.org site yet?  The page headline says "Technology tips for genealogists and family historians."

Here is the home page (two screens):



There are pages for:

1)  Computing: Computers, Mobile, Networks, Tablets

2)  Software: File Sharing, GPS, Image Editing

3)  Devices: Cameras, GPS, Printers, Scanners, Storage

4)  Internet: Social Netowrk, Safety, Resources

5)  How-Tos: Digitization, Preservation, Share

6)  Contribute

There are articles, written in a blog style, by a number of notable authors, most of whom are associated with FamilySearch and the LDS Church.  Although they are on a blog-like webpage, the page does not have an RSS feed yet.  Frankly, it should! 

Go take a look, and check back occasionally.

Is there a New GEDCOM Standard in our future?

While I've been working with Source Citations in several software programs, the Build a BetterGEDCOM group has been trying to work on an improved GEDCOM Standard.

At RootsTech in Salt Lake City last week, there was an open discussion session about GEDCOM standards.  Jordan Jones, on the GenealogyMedia blog, wrote RootsTech 2011: Towards a New Genealogical Data Model that describes the discussions. 

The key point in Jordan's post is that:

"...Tom Creighton, the CTO of FamilySearch, got up and announced that FamilySearch is nearly ready to announce a new proposed data model. This changed the meeting immediately. Instead of an open discussion, it became more like a press conference, with Tom fielding questions about what they have done, when the work will be shared, and so on. There was not a lot that he was able to divulge at this point."

Jordan discusses the issue further in his blog, and notes that:

"This is an exciting development in the intersection of genealogy and technology. If FamilySearch decides to share their work, and if a governance body can be identified or set up, and finally if that governance body has the trust of the genealogical community..."

I believe that the governance body is critical, as is the broad agreement of software providers, online family tree providers (including FamilySearch), and the users of software and websites.

Read all of Jordan's post.  I think that this is a positive development, since a major player in the Genealogy world is working on the problem.

Amanuensis Monday - Probate Records of Joseph Allen (1667-1735) of Dartmouth, MA

Genea-blogger John Newmark (who writes the excellent TransylvanianDutch blog) started a Monday blog theme many months ago called Amanuensis Monday. What does "amanuensis" mean? John offers this definition:

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

The subject today is the probate file of Joseph Allen (1667-1735) of Dartmouth, Bristol County, Massachusetts.  He married (1) before 1700 to Rachel --?--, who died in 1731 in Dartmouth.  They had children: Lydia Allen (1700-1771), Phillis Allen (1703-1790), Joseph Allen (1705-????), Rachel Allen (1708-????), Elizabeth Allen (1710-1759).  Joseph Allen married (2) Jennet Ray in 1731 in Dartmouth.

Joseph Allen of Dartmouth died testate, having written a will dated 24 December 1734.  The will reads (transcribed by Randy Seaver from the Probate Court copy in Bristol County (Massachusetts) Probate Court Records, Volume 8, Pages 222-223, on FHL Microfilm 0,461,884):

"I Joseph Allen of Dartmouth in the County of Bristoll in the Province of the Massachusets Bay in New England yeoman being sick and weak of body but of sound and Perfect mind and memory Praised be therfore unto almighty God therefor Calling to mind the mortality of my body and Knowing that it is appointed for all men  once to dye do make and ordain this my Last will and Testament in manner and form following that is to say first and Principally I Commend my Soul unto the hands of almighty God hoping through the merrits Death & Passion of my Saviour Jesus Christ to have full and free pardon and forgiveness of all my Sins and to Inherit Everlasting Life, and my body I Commit to the Earth to be Decently buried at the Discresion of my Executors hereafter named and as Touching the Disposition of all such Temporal Estate as it haith Pleased Almighty God to bestow upon me I give and Dispose thereof as followeth ---

"Imp.  I Will that all my Lawfull Debtes and funerall Charges be paid & Discharged.

"Item.  I give and bequeath unto Gennet my Dearly beloved wife five pounds in Currant money of New England or Lawfull bills of Credit of any of the Colonies of New England and one hundred and twenty weights of good Cow beef and one year and vantage Swine fatted and Twelve Busshels of Indian Corn and one busshel of wheat and ten Gallons of molasses and Twelve pound of flax from the Swingle and Two Cows and ten sheep and to be Kept in Summer & Winter on my Land, and also two Gees and one third part of the fruit of my orchard and also the Choice of my houses to be understood one of them, and convenient fire wood brought to the Dore, all the abovsaid Gifts & Legacies I give and bequeath to my said wife During her widdowhood, and no Longer in Lewe of her thirds and dowry and to be paid unto her and Informed yearly and Every year During the time She Remains my widdow by my Executor herein after Named, also I give to my said wife half the Increase of the said Cow and sheep and Geese yearly and Every year During as abovesaid that is to be understood which Said half of ye Increase to be Left on my Land the Summertime yearly as abovesaid and that at the fall of the year to be disposed of by my said wife as she see Cause, so that my said Executor be not Complied to winter the said half of the said Increase also I Do allow my said wife the use of my household goods During ye Time she Remains my widdow, the said Two Cows ten sheep and Two Gees to be Kept with Pasture in Summer and fodder in winter or otherwise Suitable for her Creatures on my homestead farm for my said wife During all the time She Remains my widdow, by my said Executor as he keeps his own cows sheep & Gees with the Increase Suitable as abovesaid, During as abovesaid and also fifteen pounds of Tallow yearly and Every year During the Abovesaid Term of her widdowhood.

"Item.  I Give and Bequeath unto my son Joseph Allen and to his heirs & assignes forever all that my homestead farm whereon I now Dwell with all the housing and buildings on it only Excepting one of the houses above mentioned and given to my said wife During her widdowhood as aforesaid also all that tract of Land Scituate Lying and being on ye west Side of Acoset River at a Place Called Kickameast (?) in said Dartmouth with the housing and all buildings on it also all my meadows and Sedge fealls in said Dartmouth I Give and Bequeath unto my Said son, Joseph Allen his heirs & assignes forever.

"Item.  I Give and Bequeath unto my four Daughters viz Lidia Allen Phillis Gifford Rachel Kirbey and Elezebeth Gifford to them and their heires and assigns forever forty five acres of Land a Peace of that tract of Land Scituate in sd Dartmouth and Lying at or westward of the new sawmill, which Part of sd mill Did formerly belong to William Soul of said Dartmouth, Deceased, but if the Survey of said Tract of Land doth not Stand Goodor be made good in that Place to be understood at or to the westward of said mill, that ?? my said Daughters shall have forty five acres of Land a piece were it Shall be Laid out of the undevided Land in Leu thereof in the same Devision.

"Item.  I Give and Bequeath unto my Said son Joseph Allen all the Rest of my Lands and meadows and Cedar Swamp in the Township of said Dartmouth to him my said son and to his heirs and assignes forever, Excepting no part of my Lands meadows nor Swamps in the Township in said Dartmouth but the forty five acres of Land a Peace as abovesaid which is given to my Daughters.

"Item.  I Give and Bequeath to my Son Joseph Allen all my wearing Apparril and also my farming utensils as Carts Plows Chaines axes hoes free and Clear.

"Item.  I Give and Bequeath all my moveable stock Shall be Left at my Decease that is to be understood Living Creatures Shall be Equally Devided to and amongst my four Daughters, Excepting the Two Cows and ten sheep and two Geese which is before given to my said wife, and my mind and will is and I will that all that be Left of my said househould Goods at my said wifes Decease or Second marriage which shall first happen Shall be Equally Devided to and amongst my said four Daughters.

"And I do hereby Constitute make and ordaine my said son Joseph Allen my Sole Executor to this my Last will and Testament, and I do hereby utterly Disallow Revoke and Disannul all and Every other former Testaments wills Legacies and bequests by me in any ways before named willed and bequeathed Ratifying and Confirming this and no other To be my Last will and Testament whereof I have hereunto Set my hand and Seal this Twenty fourth Day of December in the Eighth year of his Majesties Reigne George the Second King of Grait Brittain se Annoque Domini 1734.

"Signed, Sealed Published & Announced
and Declared by the said Joseph
Allen to be his Last will & Testament
In Presence of us
Ebenr Fish
George Cornell ..................................................... Joseph Allen     (signed)
James Allen"


Joseph Allen, the son and sole Executor to the last will and testament of Joseph Allen late of Dartmouth deceased, appeared before the Probate Court on 18 March 1734/5 to present the will.  The Court directed him to execute the will and administer the estate and to report to the Court one year later (Bristol County (Massachusetts) Probate Court Records, Volume 8, Page 221, on FHL Microfilm 0,461,884).

On 18 March 1734/5, Ebenezer Fish and James Allen made oath that they witnessed the making and signing of the will by Joseph Allen, late of Dartmouth deceased, and that Joseph Allen was of a sound disposing mind when he did so (Bristol County (Massachusetts) Probate Court Records, Volume 8, Page 223, on FHL Microfilm 0,461,884).

On February 11, 1734/5, a True Inventory of the whole estate of Joseph Allen, late of Dartmouth deceased, was taken by John Akin, James Allen and Timothy Gifford.  The Real Estate was apprised at 200 pounds and the personal estate totalled 304 pounds, 0 shillings, 11 pence. Joseph Allen presented the Inventory to the Court on 18 April 1735 (Bristol County (Massachusetts) Probate Court Records, Volume 8, Pages 232-233, on FHL Microfilm 0,461,884).

Joseph Allen presented his Account of the Estate to the Probate Court on 17 June 1735, and it was approved by the Court.  He added 5 pounds to the Inventory list for an old coat.  He charged himself with the personal estate, and paid the funeral charges, the expenses to probate the estate, the debts due, paid 33 pounds to his honoured mother Jennet Allen for her share, and paid 58 pounds 15 shillings to each of the four daughters of Joseph Allen - Lidia Allen (wife of Increase Allen), Phillis Gifford (wife of Enos Gifford), Rachel Kerbey (wife of Icabod Kirbey) and Elezebeth Gifford (wife of Gideon Gifford) (Bristol County (Massachusetts) Probate Court Records, Volume 8, Page 254, on FHL Microfilm 0,461,884).

My ancestry is through Rachel Allen, who married Ichabod Kirby in 1733 in Dartmouth.  In addition to the will, the Account of the estate names not only the daughters but also the names of their husbands. 

Valentine's Day Census Whacking

There are quite a few names associated with Valentine's Day reflecting our traditions and habits. I checked the 1920 census for some of them, and found:

SURNAMES

* Valentine - 17,911 people
* Valentino - 1,287 people
* Lover - 762 people
* Lovejoy - 4,192 people
* Loveland - 3,168 people
* Loveless - 3,524 people
* Sweet - 15,671 people
* Kiss - 1,458 people
* Cupid - 28 people
* Sweetheart - 1 person


GIVEN NAMES

* Valentine - 16,632 people
* Rose - 439,241 people
* Candy - 638 people
* Cupid - 78 people
* Romeo - 3,666 people
* Juliet - 8,008 people


COMBINATION NAMES

* Lovey Valentine - in Newark NJ
* Romeo Valentine - in Norristown PA
* Julie Valentine - in Hempstead NY
* Valentine Love - in Brooklyn NY
* Valentine Hart - in South Williamsport PA
* Valentine Rose - in Detroit MI
* Valentine Kiss - in Dubuque IA
* Valentine Flowers - in Blairsville PA
* Valentine Valentine - in Philadelphia PA
* Honey Lover - in Loves, GA
* Love Lovejoy - in Lawrence KS
* Cupid Luvie - in Liberty County TX
* Cande Hart - in Upshur County TX
* Rose Flowers - 26 of them!
* Rose Rose - 295 of them
* Juliet Romeo - in Brooklyn NY


Enjoy, census lovers!Now if my sweet honey loving valentine will give me See's peppermint patties and molasses chips, I'll be a happy guy.

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Three (or more!) Genealogy Worlds?

After viewing the RootsTech Conference in Salt Lake City from afar, and giving a presentation at the San Diego Genealogical Society on Saturday, I've concluded that self-proclaimed genealogists live in at least three different "genealogy worlds."  I would define them as:

1)  The "traditional" genealogy world  folks occasionally visit libraries and archives, occasionally attend monthly genealogical society meetings, use computers minimally (perhaps for email only), and don't use "technology."  These people are retired, are often on a limited budget,  and rarely pursue genealogical activities more than once or twice a month.  My guess is that about 85% to 95% of all self-proclaimed genealogists live in this world. 

2)  The "online" genealogy world people actively do research in both repositories and online, are comfortable with the computer (e.g., email, web pages, online searches, software), use some "technology" systems, may join and attend genealogical society meetings, may attend seminars and conferences, pursue genealogical activities several times a week.  These people may still be working in a profession, raising a family, or are actively retired.  My guess is that about 5% to 15% of all self-proclaimed genealogists live in this world.

3)  The "technology" genealogy world is where the genealogist has some of the latest devices, and yearns for more of them, and uses online tools like blogs, wikis, social networks, websites, databases, software, etc.  They are the "early adopters."  Many of these people are working in a profession, are raising a family, are students, or are actively retired.  Many of the experienced genealogists in this group are in several societies, consume print magazines and journals, and regularly attend seminars and conferences.  Many younger people in this group don't research in repositories and don't belong to societies.  My guess is that only 0% to 2% of self-proclaimed genealogists live in this world. 

Why do I think this?  Because I have lived in all three worlds over the past 23 years, and see people in the three groups every month at my genealogical society meetings.  I am mostly in the "technology world" except I don't have many handheld devices (only cell phone, laptop, GPS, digital camera, digital recorder).

In his RootsTech presentation on Friday, "The Changing Face of Genealogy," Curt Witcher provided some metrics to describe the current genealogy demographics, including:

*  49 million people have a "deep appreciation for their ancestors"
*  13 million active researchers
*  1.6 million hobby genealogists online between ages of 18 and 44
*  7.5 million hobby genealogists online over age 45
*  1++ million subscribers to Ancestry.com

Witcher also said that the "21st-century genealogists" (meaning young people, presumably under age 44):

* are not genealogical society members (because societies, in general, aren’t embracing technology)
*  use repositories ("brick-and-mortar") resources as a last resort
*  are consumers of the latest technologies and have handheld devices
*  expects real-time information
*  expects rapid technology changes according to Moore’s law (which states that technology will double in capability/capacity every 18 months).

At the SDGS meeting on Saturday, I asked some questions of the 150 or so in attendance during my presentation, including (with the approximate responses):

*  Have you heard of Elizabeth Shown Mills? (about 20%)
*  Have you heard of the Genealogical Proof Standard? (about 10%)
*  Have you used the revamped FamilySearch.org website? (about 20%)
*  Do you read my blog on a regular basis? (about 5%)

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

Some other statistics I've gleaned over the past few months (approximate from memory):

*  The RootsTech Conference in Salt Lake City attracted about 3,000 attendees in February.
*  The NGS Conference in Salt Lake City attracted about 2,000 attendees last April.
*  The FGS Conference in Knoxville attracted about 1,500 attendees last August.
*  Dick Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter has about 60,000 unique visitors per month.
Family Tree Magazine has a print circulation of 70,000.
*  The largest U.S. genealogical society, the New England Historic Genealogical Society, has about 25,000 members.
*  500,000 members belong to 500 societies in the Federation of Genealogical Societies

Some analysis:

For reference purposes, 1% of the 49 million who "have a deep appreciation for my ancestors" is about 490,000 people.  1% of the 13 million that are active researchers is 130,000.  1% of the 9 million that are adults that do online genealogy is 90,000. 

The NEHGS membership is 0.0051% of the 49 million, and 0.19% of the 13 million.  The FGS membership is 1.0% of the 49 million and 3.8% of the 13 million.  The magazine subscriptions are 0.14% of the 49 million and 0.54% of the 13 million.

For a conference attendance of 3,000, that is 0.023% of the 13 million that are active researchers. Eastman's readership is 0.67% of the 9 million that are online. The people with Ancestry subscriptions is about 9% of the 13 million active researchers.

These statistics provoke some questions for genealogical societies to ponder, in particular:

*  How do they attract the "technology" world genealogists, especially the working folks?

*  How do they educate the "online" world genealogists to improve their search skills and broaden their research knowledge?

*  How do they retain the "traditional" world genealogists, who they depend on for most of their membership subscriptions?  Are these people able to learn additional computer skills?

*  How do they embrace technology and attract the 21sters (as Witcher called them) without turning off the "traditionals?"

If readers have other demographics about genealogy, or disagree with my estimates, or disagree with the definitions of the "genealogy worlds," or the steps that genealogical societies need to take to survive, please comment!

UPDATED 8 PM to correct math error (darn calculator!), thanks Roger. Note to self: use the darn calculator...

Best of the Genea-Blogs - 6 - 12 February 2011

Hundreds of genealogy and family history bloggers write thousands of posts every week about their research, their families, and their interests. I appreciate each one of them and their efforts.

My criteria for "Best of ..." are pretty simple - I pick posts that advance knowledge about genealogy and family history, address current genealogy issues, provide personal family history, are funny or are poignant. I don't list posts destined for the genealogy carnivals, or other meme submissions (but I do include summaries of them), or my own posts.

Here are my picks for great reads from the genealogy blogs for this past week:
Motivation Monday - Research Plans by Tessa on the Keough Corner blog.  Tessa shares her ProGen Research Plan with us - one of the best I've seen!  Well done.

Why It Doesn't Matter Which Software You Use by Kerry Scott on the Clue Wagon blog.  Kerry views software as a tool to organize her information.  Good points.  Now she tells me!

* Genealogy, Ancestry, heritage - what does it all mean? by Abby Burchett on the pursuits of a desperate genie blog.  Abby asks questions, offers some answers, and links to a neat video about "what is Genealogical research?"

Interview – Elizabeth Shown Mills by Thomas MacEntee on the Geneabloggers blog.  I really enjoyed this interview - this is the real Elizabeth - funny, creative, full of concepts and ideas. 

A Conversation with Pamela Boyer Sayre by Leslie Albrecht Huber on The Journey Takers blog.  Leslie's interview with Pam covers more than genealogy - we get to hear about Pam's life before genealogy too.  I like the conversational style here.

Smiling Big & Laughing Hard by Caroline M. Pointer on the Family Stories blog.  Caroline keeps telling big Paw Paw stories, and I'm hooked.  Court records are great, eh?  These stories are too - I was hooked by the chocolate shake.

Presenter Interview: Colleen Fitzpatrick, Forensic Genealogist by Cynthia Shenette on the Heritage Zen blog.  I enjoyed reading about Colleen Fitzpatrick's research in this interview.  Cynthia did a great job with questions.

An Interview with Leslie Albrecht Huber, Author of The Journey Takers by Marian Pierre-Louis on the Marina's Roots and Rambles blog.  Marian interviewed Leslie Huber about her book, her genealogy research and her real life.  Well done!

I Don’t Care Where You Put the Comma by Amy Crow on the Amy's Genealogy, etc. Blog.  Amy discusses source citations in an, um, practical way.  Lots of readers agree with her!

Putting Dropbox to Work by Denise Olson on the Moultrie Creek Gazette blog.  Denise has the lowdown on how to use Dropbox as an online file storage system.  Well done!

Genealogy Monopoly by Greta Koehl on Greta's Genealogy Bog blog.  An interesting take on investing in genealogical resources.  Greta has, and its paid off handsomely. 

Latest News from RootsTech by Thomas MacEntee on the Geneabloggers blog.  Thomas colelcted all of the posts about RootsTech in this post.  Read them!

Several other genea-bloggers wrote weekly pick posts this week, including:

Follow Friday: This Week’s Favs by Jen on the Climbing My Family Tree blog.

Friday Newsletter and Follow News: 11 February 2011 by Greta Koehl on Greta's Genealogy Bog blog.

Follow Friday: Around the Blogosphere - February 11 by Susan Petersen on the Long Lost Relatives.net blog.

I encourage you to go to the blogs listed above and read their articles, and add their blog to your Favorites, Google Reader, RSS feed or email if you like what you read. Please make a comment to them also - all bloggers appreciate feedback on what they write.

Did I miss a great genealogy blog post? Tell me! I am currently reading posts from over 810 genealogy bloggers using Google Reader, but I still miss quite a few it seems.

Read past Best of the Genea-Blogs posts here.