Saturday, June 18, 2011

My daughter's Father's Day Facebook photo

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There is this meme status line going around Facebook this week:

"In honor of Father's Day I'm trying to see how many are willing to change your profile picture to a picture of your father and keep it there till June 19th. If you will and like this idea, please re-post this as your status, so everyone gets the word out and see how many wonderful fathers we can get on FB."

Here is the photo that one of my daughter's is using:


Here is the one I'm using:




That;s my father, not my daughter's father!

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Who is Your Most Recent Unknown Ancestor?

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Hey geneaphiles, it's Saturday Night again - time for more Genealogy Fun!!

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

1)  Determine who your most recent unknown ancestor is - the one that you don't even know his or her name. 

2)  Summarize what you know about his or her family, including resources that you have searched and the resources you should search but haven't searched yet.

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

Here's mine:

#76 on my ancestor list is the father of Thomas J. Newton (ca 1795 - after 1834).  Thomas J. Newton married before 1832 to Sophia (Buck) Brigham (1979-1882, widow of Lambert Brigham (died 1830).  Thomas J. and Sophia (Buck) (Brigham) Newton had two children, Thomas J. Newton (1832-1915) and Sophia Newton (1834-1923).  The marriage records for the two children say that their father was born in Maine, and that they were born in Cambridge, Vermont (presumably the one in Lamoille County). 

There were two known Newton families in Maine before 1800 -

1)  Nathan and Anna (Brigham) Newton who moved from Northborough MA in 1794 to Andover, Oxford County, ME.  They had a son Lambert Newton and a daughter Sophia Newton. The Brigham, Lambert and Sophia names coincide with those found in the family of Sophia Newton's mother. In addition, Sophia Buck's first husband was named Lambert Brigham.  The known children of this family appear in the Sudbury MA town records.  Anna (Brigham) Newton died in 1794, and Nathan married Dorothy Wood soon after, and she bore him nine more children, five of whom are in the Andover ME town records.

2)  Levi and Elizabeth (Woodward) Newton moved from Sutton MA in about 1786 and settled in Dixfield, Oxford County, Maine.  They had seven children between 1770 and 1787, including five sons who had children in Dixfield.   almost all of the births of the children of the five sons are recorded in the Dixfield town records from 1802 onwards.  One of the sons, Jacob Newton, had a son Thomas J. Newton born in 18i08, who died in 1852 in Reading MA.  I don't think that this is the Thomas J. Newton that married Sophia (Buck) Brigham before 1832.

Of course, there may be other Newton families in Maine in the 1800 time frame!

I have searched Maine records, Vermont records, Massachusetts records and New Hampshire records (Vital Records, census, some land and probate records, Newton family books, town histories, etc) for Thomas J. Newton. There is not a clear record for Thomas J. Newton in the 1830 or 1840 census for Massachusetts, Vermont or Maine.

The "Newton Genealogy" by Ermina Newton Leonard has been perused for hours, trying to link Thomas J. Newton with a Maine, Vermont or Massachusetts family, with no success.

There is more information about Thomas J. Newton in Mystery Monday - Thomas J. Newton of Maine (19th century), Using the FAN Club Principle - Thomas J. Newton, Father of Sophia Newton (1834-1923) - Post 1 and - Post 2.


l suggestions are welcome!

Surname Saturday - PICKLE/BEUCHEL - Germany > NJ)

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It's Surname Saturday, and I'm "counting down" my Ancestral Name List each week. I am up to number 245, who is the unknown grandmother of #61 Sarah Sephrona Fletcher (1802-after 1861).  #247 is the other unknown grandmother of #61, Sarah Sephrona Fletcher.   That brings us to #249, who is Elizabeth PICKLE (1764-1849), another of my 5th-great-grandmothers. [Note: The 5th great-grandfathers have been covered in earlier posts].

My ancestral line back to Elizabeth Pickle is:


1. Randall Jeffrey Seaver (1943-....)

2. Frederick Walton Seaver (1911-1983)

3. Betty Virginia Carringer (1919-2002)

6. Lyle Lawrence Carringer (1891-1976)

7. Emily Kemp Auble (1899-1977)

14. Charles Auble (1849-1916)
15. Georgianna Kemp (1868-1952)


30. James Abram Kemp (1831-1902)
31. Mary Jane Sovereen (1841-1874)

62. Alexander Sovereen (1814-1907)

63.  Eliza Putman (1820-1895)

124.  Frederick Sovereign, born 14 February 1786 in New Germantown, Hunterdon, New Jersey, United States; died 14 June 1875 in Middleton, Norfolk, Ontario, Canada.  He married 17 May 1810 in London, Ontario, Canada. 
125.  Mary Jane Hutchison, born 22 January 1792 in Pleasant Valley, New Brunswick, Canada, and died 16 April 1868 in Delhi, Norfolk, Ontario, Canada.  She was the daughter of 250. William Hutchinson and 251.  Catherine Lewis.

248.  Jacob Sovereign, born 06 November 1759 in Schooleys Mountain, Morris, New Jersey, United States; died 1845 in Charlotteville, Norfolk, Ontario, Canada.  He was the son of 496. Frederick Zavering and 497. Ann Waldruff.  He married 01 March 1781 in Oldwick, Hunterdon, New Jersey, United States.
249.  Elizabeth Pickle, born 03 November 1764 in Hunterdon, New Jersey, United States; died 02 January 1849 in Delhi, Norfolk, Ontario, Canada.  


Children of Jacob Sovereign and Elizabeth Pickle are:


*  Elisabeth Sovereign, born 15 December 1783 in New Germantown, Hunterdon, New Jersey, United States; married Jonathan Wade 17 November 1799 in London, Ontario, Canada; born 1767 in Somerset, England.
Frederick Sovereign, born 14 February 1786 in New Germantown, Hunterdon, New Jersey, United States; died 14 June 1875 in Middleton, Norfolk, Ontario, Canada; married Mary Jane Hutchison 17 May 1810 in London, Ontario, Canada.
*  Henry Baltis Sovereign, born 30 August 1787 in New Germantown, Hunterdon, New Jersey, United States; died 23 July 1878 in Fredericksburgh, Norfolk, Ontario, Canada; married Margaret Brown 04 January 1815 in Charlotteville, Norfolk, Ontario, Canada; born 08 April 1793 in Ontario, Canada; died 02 February 1877 in Fredericksburgh, Norfolk, Ontario, Canada.


498.  Henry Pickel, born 15 February 1728/29 in Hunterdon, New Jersey, United States; died 05 December 1765 in Oldwick, Hunterdon, New Jersey, United States.   He married before 1760 in New Jersey, United States.
499.  Elizabeth, born about 1731 in New Jersey, United States.


Children of Henry Pickel and Elizabeth are:
 

*  Baltus Pickle, born 1760 in Hunterdon, New Jersey, United States; died 18 March 1760 in Hunterdon, New Jersey, United States.
*  Gertraut Pickle, born about 1762 in Hunterdon, New Jersey, United States.
Elizabeth Pickle, born 03 November 1764 in Hunterdon, New Jersey, United States; died 02 January 1849 in Delhi, Norfolk, Ontario, Canada; married Jacob Sovereign 01 March 1781 in Oldwick, Hunterdon, New Jersey, United States.
*  Henry Baltus Pickle, born 05 November 1765 in Hunterdon, New Jersey, United States; died 02 November 1833 in Old Trumansburgh, Tompkins, New York, United States; married Maria Schmidt before 1784 in New Jersey, United States; born 1764; died 11 March 1834 in Old Trumansburgh, Tompkins, New York, United States.


996.  Johann Balthasar Pickel, born 1687 in Hartenburg, Germany; died 05 December 1765 in Oldwick, Hunterdon, New Jersey, United States.  He married 16 August 1718 in New York, United States.
997.  Anna Gertrude Reiterin, born about 1684 in Germany; died 04 December 1761 in Hunterdon, New Jersey, United States.

Children of Johann Pickel and Anna Reiterin are:
 

*  Maria Catherina Pickel, born 15 July 1719 in Somerset, New Jersey, United States; died 1744 in Hunterdon, New Jersey, United States.
Balthazar Pickel, born 08 September 1720 in Somerset, New Jersey, United States; died 25 November 1786 in New Germantown, Hunterdon, New Jersey, United States; married (1) Sophia Van Horne 10 November 1746 in Hunterdon, New Jersey, United States; born 07 November 1726; died 17 May 1764 in Trenton, Mercer, New Jersey, United States; married (2) Anna Gerhart 02 March 1766 in New Jersey, United States.
*   Anna Eva Pickel, born about 1723 in Somerset, New Jersey, United States; married Johannes Helfrich Schaum.
Henry Pickel, born 15 February 1728/29 in Hunterdon, New Jersey, United States; died 05 December 1765 in Oldwick, Hunterdon, New Jersey, United States; married Elizabeth before 1760 in New Jersey, United States.


1992.  Balthazar Beuchel, born 1656 in Hartenburg, Germany; died 1703 in Bad-Durkheim, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.  He married 22 January 1677/78 in Germany.
1993.  Anna Eva Mullier
Children of Balthazar Beuchel and Anna Mullier are:
 

*  Anna Magdalena Pickel, born 1679 in Rhineland-Palatinate, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany; died in  ; married Johan Peter Appleman.
*  Johannes Michel Pickel, born 01 June 1681 in Rhineland-Palatinate, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany; married Maria Catherina 13 June 1703 in Rhineland-Palatinate, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany.
*  Johan Niclaus Pickel, born 1683 in Rhineland-Palatinate, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany; died 1774 in Hunterdon
*  Maria Catherina Pickel, born 1685 in Rhineland-Palatinate, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany.

*  Johan Conrad Pickel, born 1687 in Rhineland-Palatinate, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany; died 11 December 1689 in Rhineland-Palatinate, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany.
Johann Balthasar Pickel, born 1687 in Hartenburg, Germany; died 05 December 1765 in Oldwick, Hunterdon, New Jersey, United States; married Anna Gertrude Reiterin 16 August 1718 in New York, United States.
*   Franz Wilhelm Pickel, born about 1690 in Rhineland-Palatinate, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany.


The resource with the most complete information about the earliest generations of this family is the website "Descendants of Balthasar Pickel"  (http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~katy/pickel/) by Kay Haden.

I have done no original research on this family. 

The URL for this post is

(c) 2011. Randall J. Seaver. All Rights Reserved. If you wish to re-publish my content, please contact me for permission, which I will usually grant. If you are reading this on any other genealogy website, then they have stolen my work (RSS feed readers excepted).

Friday, June 17, 2011

Genealogy Radio Shows and Webinars this weekend

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I try to keep up with the genealogy-oriented radio shows and webinars, but there are usually schedule conflicts.  As a reminder to me (mostly), here are the imminent events this weekend:

Geneabloggers Radio on Friday night, 17 June, at 10 p.m. Eastern, 9 p.m. Central, 8 p.m. Mountain and 7 p.m. Pacific.  This is usually a 90 minute show hosted by Thomas MacEntee.  This week, the topic is A Juneteenth Celebration – Emancipation Records & Genealogy.  The guests are Angela Walton-Raji and Shelley Murphy.

FGS Radio - My Society on Saturday, 18 June, at 2 p.m. Eastern, 1 p.m. Central, 12 noon Mountain and 11 a.m. Pacific.  This is a 60 minute show, hosted this week by Thomas MacEntee.  This week the topic is FGS 2011 Conference Highlights.  The guests are D. Joshua Taylor, Paula Stuart-Warren and J. Mark Lowe.

FGS Webinar:  Josh Taylor - Your Society's Next Generation: Reaching Out to New Communities, on Saturday, 18 June, at 4 p.m. Eastern, 3 p.m. Central, 2 p.m. Mountain and 1 p.m. Pacific.  This is a 90 minute webinar targetting genealogical society leaders.

I hope to listen to the Friday radio show (and participate in the chat board), but will have to catch the MySociety radio show later due to the CGSSD meeting on Saturday morning here.  If my granddaughters cooperate, I'll be able to participate in the webinar on Saturday too.

If these events fit your schedule, I encourage you to participate in them.

The URL for this post is http://www.geneamusings.com/2011/06/genealogy-radio-shows-and-webinars-this.html

(c) 2011. Randall J. Seaver. All Rights Reserved. If you wish to re-publish my content, please contact me for permission, which I will usually grant. If you are reading this on any other genealogy website, then they have stolen my work.

Dear Randy: Can you explain this Genealogical Paradox?

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Reader Bud wrote an email asking a question:

"You seem like a person who would be familiar with what I call the Genealogical Paradox. Hopefully, you can tell what others are calling it these days and the solution others have come up with.

"Genealogical Paradox: We can trace our roots back to a time when everyone in the world is our ancestor. Equally, we are all related! Although this is a possibility, it seems unlikely. Let me use the attached worksheet to outline the argument.

"First, I researched our scientist’s best estimates of the world’s population. E.g. http://www.scottmanning.com/content/year-by-year-world-population-estimates/

"Where I did not have estimates, I filled in a reasonably consistent manner. Now to Sheet 1. In columns E-J, I assumed various intervals between a child’s birth and his/her parents. I begin in 1954. In column K, I assumed that each ancestor child had distinct parents from all other ancestor children…each child is independent from all others….only children. In columns M-R, I looked up the population in millions for each year in columns E-J from Sheet2. In column S, I took the 25 year spacing and blew it out for comparability in column K.

"All the estimates I found suggested that before the year (approx.) 1000, the world (not just Europe) had a population of 300 million or less.  What it shows is that at my 30 generation, everyone in the world is my 30th great-grandparents!

"Ok. Absurd, yes. My “independence” assumption is NOT true.  Because of the exponential affect, these exorbitant numbers are cut down a great deal.

"However, unless the world had more than 300 million people at some points in time, it doesn’t change the conclusion; it defers the conclusion: At some point in time, everyone in the world is our ancestor.

"My problem is looking at the magnitude of the numbers. It explodes well before we get into B.C era. Any direction or insights would be appreciated. And if I am the only nut who thinks of such things, then please pray for me. I must have too much time on my hands."

Bud did a lot of work trying to figure out his paradox.  Where are all of the missing ancestors?  The spreadsheet was well done, and accurate, too. 

I am not an expert at this, so my answer to Bud referred to more knowledgeable people than myself.  Here is my response:

"The simple answer to your question is: Pedigree Collapse. Before 1800, people often married their cousins because of the limited "breeding stock" within walking distance, and because of familiarity with their family.

"There are a number of excellent articles, with examples, at:

"* Pedigree Collapse -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedigree_collapse

"This article says:

'Since every person has two parents, the number of ancestors in each older generation can be calculated by multiplying by two again. So 2 parents in 2 generations = 2 x 2 = 4 ancestors (grandparents). 2 parents in 3 generations = 2 x 2 x 2 = 8 ancestors (great-grandparents). Going back 30 generations would mean 230, or a billion, ancestors. Few people have the same maternal and paternal grandfather, but many people have, for example, relatives who are both a great-grandfather and a great-great-grandfather — each through a different side of the family. This is because cousins — sometimes quite distant cousins — marry. So instead of a person having a billion distinct ancestors 30 generations ago, they are limited to a much smaller number, especially since historically many families lived in the same area for hundreds of years.'

"* Pedigree Collapse -- http://www.generations.on.ca/genealogy/pedigree.htm

"This is an excellent article by John Becker, from the Ontario Genealogical Society Families periodical (Volume 38, Number 3, 1999) that explains it clearly, as in:

'We all are blessed with two parents, four grandparents, eight great grandparents and so on. If the average generation is twenty-five years, in 1200 years (back to 800 AD, the time of Charlemagne) each person has 281.5 trillion grandparents. That's the way geometric progressions work. The number of grandparents doubles every 25 years and in 1200 years or 48 generations, 281.5 trillion names would be on your pedigree.'

"* Pedigree Collapse -- http://www.isogg.org/wiki/Pedigree_collapse"

"This article is a bit more scientific, but the explanation is the same:

'Without pedigree collapse, a person's ancestor tree is a binary tree, formed by the person, the parents, grandparents, and so on. However, the number of individuals in such a tree grows exponentially and will eventually become impossibly high. For example, a single individual alive today would, over 30 generations going back to the High Middle Ages, have roughly a billion ancestors, more than the total world population at the time. This apparent paradox occurs because the individuals in the binary tree are not distinct: instead, a single individual may occupy multiple places in the binary tree. This typically happens when the parents of an ancestor are cousins (sometimes unbeknownst to themselves). For example, the offspring of two first cousins has at most only six great-grandparents instead of the normal eight. This reduction in the number of ancestors is pedigree collapse. It collapses the binary tree into a directed acyclic graph with two different, directed paths starting from the ancestor who in the binary tree would occupy two places.'

Does another reader have a better explanation, or better examples? 

The URL for this post is http://www.geneamusings.com/2011/06/dear-randy-can-you-explain-this.html

(c) 2011. Randall J. Seaver. All Rights Reserved. If you wish to re-publish my content, please contact me for permission, which I will usually grant. If you are reading this on any other genealogy website, then they have stolen my work.

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Check Out my Wikid at WikiTree!

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I just saw the press release about the Wikid Shareable Tree on GeneaPress, and thought that I would try it.  Here's my Wikid tree:


I love it!  It works best, I think, when there are pictures of your ancestors, and most of us have few, if any, pictures of our great-great-grandparents (I do have 9 out of 16). 

The Wikid seems to be created only for the creator of the family tree on WikiTree. I tried to do one for my father and my mother and it created one for me.
This type of thing would be a great Christmas present for my siblings and my children - clip the image, print it out in color, put it in a frame and, voila, an instant and different family tree!  Cheap, but useful! 

Now I'm wondering why no one on my tree looks like me!  Perhaps it's because of the age of the persons in the photos on the tree.  I must have got my hair gene from Charley Auble!


The URL for this post is http://www.geneamusings.com/2011/06/check-out-my-wikid-at-wikitree.html

(c) 2011. Randall J. Seaver. All Rights Reserved. If you wish to re-publish my content, please contact me for permission, which I will usually grant. If you are reading this on any other genealogy website, then they have stolen my work.

A Neat Genealogy DNA Story: Distant Cousins Meet at Jamboree

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I missed meeting Dave Dowell (the Dr. D. Digs Up Ancestors blog), but I met CeCe Moore (the Your Genetic Genealogist blog) briefly, at the SCGS Genealogy Jamboree last weekend.

It turns out that Dave and CeCe are distant cousins through a mitochondrial DNA exact match.  See the picture of the two and the details of the DNA match in Dave's post, Dr D finally meets Your Genetic Genealogist

Amazing!  Mitochondrial matches do occur, but to have two geneabloggers match (well, Dave's first cousin and CeCe) must be a relative rarity.

Funny, they don't look like cousins, do they?  But then I don't look like some of mine either!

The URL for this post is http://www.geneamusings.com/2011/06/neat-genealogy-dna-story-distant.html

(c) 2011. Randall J. Seaver. All Rights Reserved. If you wish to re-publish my content, please contact me for permission, which I will usually grant. If you are reading this on any other genealogy website, then they have stolen my work.

Geni.com's Happy Father's Day Graphic

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I really like the way Geni.com is creating graphics about specific subjects. Here is the graphic posted today on the Geni.com blog for Happy Father's Day:


Create your family tree on Geni for free, and connect to the World Family Tree
to find out if you're related to any of our famous fathers.
Geni.com creates these graphics from the information provided by Geni.com users in their family trees.  Therefore, the information may be skewed a bit by the user demographics of the Geni.com subscribers - in this case, 16.8 million fathers!

Disclosure:  I received no remuneration for writing this blog post.  I have received a free Pro account from Geni.com as part of the Geneabloggers group gift bag at the SCGS Jamboree.  I have a relatively small family tree on Geni.com.

Getting Started Videos on FamilySearch.org

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www.FamilySearch.org recently added four short Getting Started videos to their website - at https://www.familysearch.org/learn/getting_started:



clicking on the purple "Start Watching" button takes you to the screen with the first video and links to all of the videos:



The  four videos cover:

Step 1: Finding Easy Information (3:07) - Memory, Home, Relatives

Step 2:  Recording and Sharing Your Family History (3:03) - Written History, Record Keeping (Forms, Software, Websites)

Step 3:  Finding Challenging Information (3:44) - Principles, Record Types

Step 4:  Using FamilySearch.org (3:10)

At the bottom of each page, there are summaries, with links, to describe the key points made on each video:



These four videos are short and succinct, are very well done, and impart the basic information needed for persons to get started.

 Of course, there are many more, and longer, videos on the Research Courses page - https://www.familysearch.org/learn/researchcourses.

The URL for this post is http://www.geneamusings.com/2011/06/getting-started-videos-on.html

(c) 2011. Randall J. Seaver. All Rights Reserved. If you wish to re-publish my content, please contact me for permission, which I will usually grant. If you are reading this on any other genealogy website, then they have stolen my work.

SCGS Jamboree 2011 Pictures - Post 3: Geneabloggers Pajama Party

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The next event on the crowded Geneabloggers agenda at the SCGS Genealogy Jamboree was the Pajama Party on Saturday night.  This was an informal "come if you can" event with no planning and no guest list.  Elyse Doerflinger suggested it several months ago on the Geneabloggers Radio show chat board, and a number of us thought that it sounded like fun. 

The problem was "where should we do this?"  Doing it in a hotel room sounded limiting and unfair to the room occupant.  Lining up a meeting room sounded expensive and limiting.  Doing it out in an outdoor area at the hotel sounded unreasonable.  We settled for the area just off the lobby (I called it "Blogger Heaven" because the wi-fi was free there and we had hung out there over the past three years) that was public, had enough room (we hoped) and would not interfere with other hotel activities.

Here are some of the pictures that turned out for me:

1)  Linda and I posed for this picture at the entrance to Blogger Heaven:


2)  Most of the seats in the lounge were occupied - here Donna Pointkouski, Elyse Doerflinger and Diana Ritchie are watching the party.  Peter the Parrot pinata is on Donna's lap:


3)  Lots of picture taking was happening - in the photo below the identifiable bloggers include (from left): Thomas MacEntee (seated, with the knees), Elyse Doerflinger (standing), Angela Kraft (seated), A.C. Ivory (seated), Cheryl Palmer (standing with camera) and Emma (seated, trying to hide):


4)  After the Saturday night dinner, more bloggers came to the party.  The identifiable bloggers in the photo below are (left to right):  Heather Rojo (standing, in nightcap and nightgown), Vincent Rojo (Heather's husband, back turned), Donna Pointkouski (seated without Peter), Daniel Horowitz (standing in back of Donna, checking his email?), Steven Danko (seated, in the white and black PJs), Patricia Stannard (seated, in orange WikiTree shirt), and Susi Pentico (standing, behind Patricia).  In the background are Ron Arons (blue shirt), Steve Morse (seated) and Dan Lynch (yellow shirt):


5)  Heather Rojo had the most creative costume, I thought - a colonial nightcap and nightgown.  Here she is with her husband, Vincent Rojo:


6)  After two hours of the fun and festivities, and many pictures, the "powers that be" decided the the useful life of Peter the Parrot pinata was over - it was time to whack Peter and see what was inside of him.  We all trooped through the lobby, and to a lanai area near the walkway between the two hotel buildings.  Ron Arons provided a rope and a length of PVC pipe, and Sheri Fenley hung Peter from the overhang slat.  Peter was wearing his hula skirt.  The photo below shows Donna Pointkouski (with the Peter whacker) and Sheri Fenley (in the red fuzzy footie) getting ready:


Several erstwhile geneabloggers took their whacks, but Peter's thick skin resisted them.  It fell to Dan Lynch to take a really big whack and relieve Peter of his goodies.  Dan obviously knew how to do this!

7)  After the Peter whacking job, we took pictures in the walkway.  Here is the group of Geneabloggers that "dressed up" in their PJs for the party (from left to right):  Terri O'Connell (standing, in pink), Diana Ritchie (standing), Joan Miller (seated, in gray and black), Linda Seaver (standing in white t-shirt, an honorary genea-blogger), Elyse Doerflinger (seated, in green top), Randy Seaver (standing, in white t-shirt), Donna Pointkouski (seated, in purple top), Sheri Fenley (on ground, in red footie), Steven Danko (in black and white PJs), Kim Von Aspern (seated, in light blue PJs), Heather Rojo (standing on right).


That was a lot of fun.  We got to share more time with our geneablogger colleagues.  Some of the non-bloggers attended the party too, and some hotel guests passed by the Blogger Heaven lounge with horror on their faces.  We aren't sure that we'll be able to do this in the lounge again because it was pretty loud at times, as was the Peter-whacking outside (someone said they heard us on the 8th floor of the hotel). 

That's almost the end of my pictures.  I have a few more...maybe tomorrow.

Treasure Chest Thursday - Lyle Carringer's High School Diploma

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For Treasure Chest Thursday this week, I'm presenting my grandfather's high school diploma:



The transcription of this diploma is:

San Diego High School
San Diego, California

Be it known that Lyle Lawrence Carringer
has completed with Credit the Course of Study prescribed for 
Graduation from this School and is hereby awarded this Diploma

In Witness whereof we have hereunto set our Hands and affixed the
Seal of the Board of Education this twenty-sixth
Day of June, nineteen hundred and fourteen.

E. R. Watson, President
J.G. Jones, Clerk
Duncan MacKinnon, Superintendent
Arthur Gould, Principal

I could not decipher the Superintendent's name from the signature - I guessed "Duncan MacTienon."  A  Google search turned up "Douglas MacKinnon."  I think it's "Duncan MacKinnon!"

Lyle was age 22 when he graduated from high school.  He was aged 11 when he was in 4th grade in 1903.  He was an intelligent youth and man - why was he four years behind in school?  I think that he started school two or three years late due to his size and health.  I think that he took time away from school to work at the Marston Company in downtown San Diego during the 1905 to 1914 time period. He continued working there until he retired in 1961.

The URL for this post is: http://www.geneamusings.com/2011/06/treasure-chest-thursday-lyle-carringers.html

(c) 2011. Randall J. Seaver. All Rights Reserved. If you wish to re-publish my content, please contact me for permission, which I will usually grant. If you are reading this on any other genealogy website, then they have stolen my work.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Archives.com Subscription Offer - for Father's Day!

...
From my email (from Julie Hill at www.Archives.com):

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

Good Afternoon! I wanted to let you know that Archives.com is doing a membership giveaway for Father’s Day.
Though you may already have an Archives membership, your readers may not! Father’s Day is a really special time of year, and we wanted to give anyone the opportunity to win a membership for their dad – regularly priced at $39.95.
To enter, all you need to do is visit our blog and tell us why your dad, or a dad you know, wants to trace his family history in a comment.
Comments must be made today or tomorrow to be eligible!
-----------------------------------
Thank you, Julie, for the heads up on this. 
It is unclear if this is for ONE free membership, or for an unknown number of memberships. 

 Disclosure:  I was not remunerated in any way for writing this blog post.  I received a 3-month free subscription to Archives.com after the NGS Conference in May 2011.  I also received a complimentary membership from Archives.com through December 2011 at the SCGS Jamboree.

The URL for this post is: http://www.geneamusings.com/2011/06/archivescom-subscription-offer-for.html

(c) 2011. Randall J. Seaver. All Rights Reserved. If you wish to re-publish my content, please contact me for permission, which I will usually grant. If you are reading this on any other genealogy website, then they have stolen my work.

Some Sparsely Indexed Census Databases on Ancestry.com

...
There are quite a few databases on Ancestry.com that are indexed only sparsely - they don't have every name indexed, for whatever reason.  A "global search" for a person's name, even when a location is specified, will not produce matches for persons in these databases. Some of these databases may be part of Ancestry's World Archives Project and an every-name index will be provided at a later date.  Some, or perhaps most, of the databases listed below are indexed using OCR (Optical Character Resolution) techniques.  Without checking each one, it is difficult to tell.

However, many of the sparsely indexed databases are there, just waiting for an enterprising genealogy researcher to browse them, and find the hidden nuggets of family history information hiding in them.  They are only found by perusing the Ancestry.com Card Catalog for the specific state or country.

I went through the Census and Voter Records card catalog entries looking for these "nuggets" and found these (I haven't listed every one...):

* Boston, Massachusetts, Census, 1707 -- http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=6363

* Nova Scotia 1770 census -- http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=28981

* 1770-1790 Census of the Cumberland Settlements -- http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=48252

* State Census of North Carolina, 1784-1787 -- http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=49368

* Inhabitants of New Hampshire, 1776 -- http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=49199

* The Rhode Island 1777 Military Census -- http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=49316

* The Reconstructed 1790 Census of Georgia -- http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=48008

* Families of Cabarrus County North Carolina 1792-1815 -- http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=49045

* Lists of inhabitants in Washington County, Pennsylvania, 1800 or before --http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=24889

* Botetourt County, Va., 1785 enumeration -- http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=10615

* Tenth legion tithables (Rockingham Division) Rockingham County, Virginia : tithables for 1792, a list of all the white males ab -- http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=10629

* 1810 census of Augusta County, Virginia -- http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=10616

* 1810 census of Botetourt County, Virginia -- http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=10618

* 1810 Frederick County, Virginia census -- http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=10620

* 1810 census of Giles County, Virginia -- http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=10619

* Third census of the United States (1810 census), Clark County, Kentucky -- http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=22787

* 1810 census of Montgomery County, Virginia -- http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=10621

* 1810 census of Bath County, Virginia -- http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=10617

* Census of 1810, Nicholas County, Kentucky -- http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=22677

* Census of 1810, Jessamine County, Kentucky -- http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=22676

* Third census of the United States (1810 census), Lincoln County, Kentucky -- http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=22789

* Russell County, Virginia, census of 1820 -- http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=10608

* [1800] Census of Delaware County, New York -- http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=16631

* Otsego County, New York, U.S. Census of 1800, for the towns of Cherry Valley (all) and Middlefield (part) : names of heads of families -- http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=17568

* 1800 census, Clinton County, New York -- http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=13453

* 1855 town of Brant census, Erie County, New York -- http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=12527

* Population index to the 1855 Baldwin County [Alabama] census -- http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=26535

* 1860 Columbia County, Oregon census -- http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=28772

* 1850 census, San Joaquin County --
http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=26638

* The 1860 census records of Sawamish County, Washington Territory --http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=28788

* The first census of the original counties of Dubuque and Demoine (Iowa) taken in July, 1836 -- http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=23732

* Free Negro owners of slaves in the United States in 1830 : together with Absentee ownership of slaves in the United States in 1830 -- http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=29838

* County Cork, Ireland, a Collection of 1851 Census Records --http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=48535

* 1880 census, Spokane County, Washington Territory -- http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=28589

* The Children's Aid Society of New York -- http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=49105

What other census records are not completely indexed on Ancestry.com?  Add them to Comments and I'll add them to this list.

The URL for this post is: http://www.geneamusings.com/2011/06/some-sparsely-indexed-census-databases.html

(c) 2011. Randall J. Seaver. All Rights Reserved. If you wish to re-publish my content, please contact me for permission, which I will usually grant. If you are reading this on any other genealogy website, then they have stolen my work.

SCGS Jamboree 2011 Pictures - Post 2

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Following up on the pictures posted in SCGS Jamboree 2011 Pictures - Post 1, here are photos of geneabloggers taken at the Ice Cream social on Friday evening at the SCGS Genealogy Jamboree.  This event was sponsored by Geni.com, and was a really fun time getting to know my geneablogging colleagues and the Geni.com staff.  Thank you to the Geni.com staff for their kindness and good humor. 

Here are some of my pictures from this event:

1)  Terri O'Connell, Cheryl Palmer and A.C. Ivory:


2)  A.C. Ivory (far left), Emma, Steve Webb, Gini Webb:


3)  From left:  CeCe Moore, Diana Ritchie, Caroline Pointer, Tonia Kendrick:


4)  From left:  George G. Morgan (seated), Amy Coffin (seated), A.C. Ivory (seated), Cheryl Palmer (in grass skirt), Sheri Fenley (in grass skirt), ??? (standing on right), somebody's hand and camera:


5)  The genea-parazzi (this was when Cheryl and I were wearing the grass skirts on our heads), from left:  Caroline Pointer (seated, green lei), Sheri Fenley (seated, orange and green lei), Tonia Kendrick (seated, pink lei), Elyse Doerflinger (purple sweater, with camera), Diana Ritchie (red blouse, blue lei, with camera), Joan Miller (head back, camera in air), Charles (from Geni.com, with spiffy hat), Elizabeth O'Neal ( Hawaiian dress, pink lei, smiling, holding camera), Kathryn Doyle (seated, front right, holding camera):



6)  Linda and I wore our Geneaholic shirts to this semi-formal event:


7)  Steve Morse and Ron Arons were having fun at their table too:


8)  Lisa Louise Cooke and her daughter, Vienna, are seated at the table:


9)  Keeping with the Hawaiian theme of the ice cream social, Susan Kitchens and Donna Wendt (who lives in Hawaii) donned grass skirts and hula-danced (really well) to the music:



10)  The picture of Cheryl Palmer and myself that caused the genea-parazzi the excitement (thank you, Diana Ritchie for the photo, I didn't get one!):


That's the now world-famous Peter the Parrot pinata held by Cheryl - he will star also in the next photo collection!

The URL for this post is http://www.geneamusings.com/2011/06/scgs-jamboree-2011-pictures-post-2.html2

(c) 2011. Randall J. Seaver. All Rights Reserved. If you wish to re-publish my content, please contact me for permission, which I will usually grant. If you are reading this on any other genealogy website, then they have stolen my work.

CGSSD Meeting on Saturday, 18 June Features Elyse Doerflinger

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The Computer Genealogy Society of San Diego (CGSSD) meets on the 3rd Saturday of each month (except December) from 9:00 a.m. to noon on the campus of UCSD, University of California, San Diego. See our map page for directions.
The next meeting will be held on 18 June 2011 from 9:00 am to noon. Here are the details:

9:00 - User groups: Family Tree Maker and Macintosh; SIG: DNA Genealogy
10:00 - Break, refreshments
10:15 - Announcements followed by:

Google: More than a Search Engine
by Elyse Doerflinger

Elyse Doerflinger is a full time college student studying to become an elementary school teacher. She has been researching her family tree for nearly 8 years. She writes Elyse’s Genealogy blog. and in 2010, she began speaking at genealogy societies in Southern California and the SCGS Genealogy Jamboree. She writes for genealogy magazines, including Internet Genealogy and Family Chronicle, and was featured in Family Tree Magazine. Elyse also works for a family tree building website, WikiTree which has unique privacy controls.
We meet at the Robinson Auditorium complex on the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) campus in La Jolla. From North Torrey Pines Road, turn at Pangea Drive into UCSD. Free parking is available in the parking garage on the left; use any space other than those specifically reserved for UCSD vehicles. Signs will mark directions to our meeting room. Please refer to our website www.cgssd.org; or the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies website http://irps.ucsd.edu/about/how-to-find-us.htm for driving directions and a map.

The URL for this post is http://www.geneamusings.com/2011/06/cgsasd-meeting-on-saturday-18-june.html

(c) 2011. Randall J. Seaver. All Rights Reserved. If you wish to re-publish my content, please contact me for permission, which I will usually grant. If you are reading this on any other genealogy website, then they have stolen my work.

(Not So) Wordless Wednesday - Post 157: Kimball's Mill hands in 1888

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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:



The caption on the back of this photograph, written in my great-grandmother's hand, is "Kimball's Mill, Nat. City, 1888."  My great-grandfather, Henry Austin Carringer (1853-1946), came to San Diego in 1887 after his marriage to Della Smith, and his first job was working in Kimball's Mill in National City.

I think that Austin is the man in the middle of the group on the right side of this photo - the fifth from the right, with a full mustache (they all have mustaches!) and the hat.  However, I am not 100% sure of that.  That man is the only one that looks remotely like Austin Carringer.

The URL for this post is http://www.geneamusings.com/2011/06/not-so-wordless-wednesday-post-157.html

(c) 2011. Randall J. Seaver. All Rights Reserved. If you wish to re-publish my content, please contact me for permission, which I will usually grant. If you are reading this on any other genealogy website, then they have stolen my work.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

New FamilySearch Family Tree - Post 11: A Mysterious Error Message in RootsMagic 4

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Previous posts in this series can be read in the New FamilySearch Family Tree Compendium. As mentioned in earlier posts, a researcher needs to have registered for a free FamilySearch account, and be granted access to newFamilySearch (currently, only LDS church members and selected non-members, including me), in order to access the NewFamilySearch Family Tree. FamilySearch has stated that the system might be open to everyone in late 2011.

In posts 7 to 10, I demonstrated using RootsMagic 4 to access the newFamilySearch Family Tree, and to add persons, events and places to the newFamilySearch database.

However, I've run into a problem that I don't know how to solve, and need the help of FamilySearch experts (I think, maybe I'm just doing something stupid - I hope they will tell me!).  Here is the sequence of events I've experienced numerous times:

1)  From the RootsMagic 4 Family View for Amy Frances Oatley (1826-ca 1870), I clicked on the FamilySearch icon to the right of Amy's name and the FamilySearch Person Tools for Amy appeared:



I entered Amy's birth and death information, and wanted to add her parents to the newFamilySearch database.  In the screen above, I clicked on the box next to her father's name, and the popup window opened asking "Add as a new father in FamilySearch?"  That was the only option offered, so I clicked "OK."

2)  The screen for finding possible matches to persons already in FamilySearch opened, and there was one match, so I clicked on that and told newFamilySearch to match that person with the person in my RootsMagic tree:



3)  On the screen above, I clicked on "Continue" and it went back to the FamilySearch Person Tool screen, and I got an error message screen:



The error message says "Unable to update a person's children" and "A relationship version is required for a relationship update."  There is a "See details" link, and after clicking that it added "Error #400: A relationship version is required for a relationship update." 

That doesn't really tell me what to do - it reiterates what it previously said.

I clicked "OK" and the name of Amy's father turned green on the FamilySearch Person Tool screen, and it seems to act as if everything is good to go.

4)  When I go into newFamilySearch, and go find Jonathan Oatley, or any other person's parent that I've entered using the above process that was matched to someone already in newFamilySearch, and click on their Summary screen, I see:



The data I entered is in the newFamilySearch system (I can tell because I'm the only one that's entered the place name according to the Standard Finder).  The information for the spouse and children of Jonathan Oatley is also correct in newFamilySearch. 

So it appears that the error message doesn't matter, but it has concerned me for several weeks now.  Up until now, I've ignored trying to complain about it.  Is there something that I should be doing to ensure that there is a relationship version?  

5)  Here is the screen for the relationship of Amy Oatley to her parents in RootsMagic:


The relationship of Amy Frances Oatley to her father, Jonathan Oatley, is shown as "Birth" as is her relationship to her mother, Amy Champlin.  However, the "Proof" field is empty.  Is that the problem?  Or is it something else?  Inquiring minds want to know!

The URL for this post is http://www.geneamusings.com/2011/06/new-familysearch-family-tree-post-11.html

(c) 2011. Randall J. Seaver. All Rights Reserved. If you wish to re-publish my content, please contact me for permission, which I will usually grant. If you are reading this on any other genealogy website, then they have stolen my work.