Saturday, October 1, 2011

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - List Your Matrilineal Line(s)

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Hey genealogy buffs - it's Saturday Night again -- time for more Genealogy Fun!!
Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to:

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

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

3) Post your responses on your own blog post, in Comments to this blog post, or in a Status line on Facebook or in your Stream at Google Plus.

4)  If you have done this before, please do your father's matrilineal line, or your grandfather's matrilineal line, or your spouse's matriliuneal line.

5)  Does this list spur you to find distant cousins that might share one of your matrilineal lines? 

Here's mine:

My matrilineal line is:

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

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

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

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

My Carringer grandfather's matrilineal line is:

a)  Lyle Lawrence Carringer (1891 San Diego CA - 1976 San Diego CA) married Emily Kemp Auble
b)  Abbie Ardell Smith (1862 Burnett WI - 1944 San Diego CA) married Henry Austin Carringer
c)  Abigail  A. Vaux (1844 Aurora NY - 1931 San Diego CA) married Devier J. Lamphier Smith
d)  Mary Ann Underhill (1815 Aurora NY - after 1880 KS?) married Samuel Vaux
e)  Mary (Polly) Metcalf (ca 1780 Piermont NH) - before 1860 Aurora NY) married Amos Underhill
f)  Jerusha --?-- (ca 1750 ??? - 1817 Piermont NH) married Burgess Metcalf

My Seaver grandfather's matrilineal line is:

a)  Frederick Walton Seaver (1876 Leominster MA - 1942 Leominster MA) married Alma Bessie Richmond.
b)  Hattie Louisa Hildreth (1857 Northborough MA - 1920 Leominster MA) married Frank Walton Seaver.
c)  Sophia Newton (1834 Springfield VT - 1923 Leominster MA) married Edward Hildreth
d)  Sophia Buck (1797 Holden MA - 1883 Westborough MA), married (2) Thomas J. Newton
e)  Martha Phillips (1757 Shrewsbury MA - after 1820 Sterling MA), married Isaac Buck
f)  Hannah Brown (about 1725 MA - before 1774 Shrewsbury MA), married John Phillips

To my knowledge, none of my female-line cousins have had their mitochondrial DNA tested. Now I'm wondering if anybody connected to these people have had their autosomal DNA tested and put in a database.  Those are two more items for my to-do list, I guess!

Surname Saturday - BOYDEN (England > Medfield MA)

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It's Surname Saturday, and I'm "counting down" my Ancestral Name List each week. I am up to number 279, who is  Mary BOYDEN (1708-????), one of my 6th-great-grandparents. [Note: The 6th great-grandfathers have been covered in earlier posts]

My ancestral line back through four generations of BOYDEN  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)

8. Frank Walton Seaver (1852-1922)
9. Hattie Louise Hildreth (1857-1920)

16. Isaac Seaver (1823-1901)
17. Lucretia Townsend Smith (1827-1884)

34. Alpheus B. Smith (1802-1840)
35. Elizabeth Horton Dill (1791-1969)

68. Aaron Smith (1765-1841)
69. Mercy Plimpton (1772-1850)

138. Amos Plimpton (1735-1808)
139. Mary Guild (1735-1800)

278.  Nathaniel Guild, born 20 March 1712 in Dedham, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States; died 10 September 1796 in Walpole, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States.  He was the son of 556. Nathaniel Guild and 557. Mehitable Farrington.  He married 12 June 1733 in Dedham, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States.
 279.  Mary Boyden, born 09 February 1708 in Wrentham, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States.

Children of Nathaniel Guild and Mary Boyden are:  Mary Guild (1735-1800); Nathaniel Guild (1741-1793); Mercy Guild (1744-????); Samuel Guild (1746-1816); Susan Guild (1750-1822); Mehitable Guild (1752-1816).

558.  Thomas Boyden, born 16 March 1682 in Medfield, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States; died 27 September 1771 in Wrentham, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States.  He married 29 April 1707 in Medfield, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States.
559.  Deborah Wight, born 01 December 1685 in Medfield, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States; died about 1714 in Massachusetts, United States.  She was the daughter of 1118. Ephraim Wight and 1119. Lydia Morse.

Children of Thomas Boyden and Deborah Wight are:  Mary Boyden (1708-????); James Boyden (1709-1779); Deborah Boyden (1711-????); Beriah Boyden (1714-????).

 1116.  Jonathan Boyden, born 20 February 1652 in Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States; died 30 May 1732 in Medfield, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States.    He married  26 September 1673 in Medfield, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States.
 1117.  Mary Clark, born 12 March 1649 in Dedham, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States; died before 1732 in Medfield, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States.  She was the daughter of 2234. Joseph Clarke and 2235. Alice Fenn.

Children of Jonathan Boyden and Mary Clark are: Jonathan Boyden (1674-1719); Mary Boyden (1677-1718); Elizabeth Boyden (1678-1756); Mehitable Boyden (1680-????); Thomas Boyden (1682-1771); John Boyden (1685-1754); Joseph Boyden (1687-1758; Sarah Boyden (1690-????).

 2232.  Thomas Boyden, born 1613 in Ipswich, Suffolk, England; died 1682 in Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States.  He married before 1639.
 2233.  Frances, born about 1620 in England; died 17 March 1658 in Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States.

Children of Thomas Boyden and Frances are:  Thomas Boyden (1639-1719); Mary Boyden (1641-????); Rebecca Boyden (1643-????); Nathaniel Boyden (1650-????); Jonathan Boyden (1652-1732); Sarah Boyden (1654-???).

Useful publications include:

* William S. Tilden (editor) History of the Town of Medfield, Massachusetts, 1650-1886 (Boston, Mass.: Geo. H. Ellis, 1887).

*  Robert Charles Anderson, George F. Sanborn, Jr. and Melinde Lutz Sanborn, The Great Migration:  Immigrants to New England 1634-1635 (Boston, Mass.: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1999), Volume 1, pages 366-268.

*  Town vital record books for Dedham, Wrentham, Medfield, Walpole, etc.

Friday, September 30, 2011

Canadian Genealogy Websites and Blogs

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Over the past month, Genealogy Canada blogger Elizabeth Lapointe has been finding and listing Canadian genealogy websites and blogs.  The posts include:

New/Improved Canadian Websites and Blogs - Week 1 (5 September 2011)

New/Improved Canadian Websites and Blogs Week 2  (12 September 2011)

New/Improved Canadian Websites and Blogs Week 3 (19 September 2011)

Top Five Canadian Genealogy Sites (23 September 2011)

New/Improved Canadian Websites and Blogs Week 4 (26 September 2011)

If you have Canadian ancestry, or an interest in Canadian genealogy research, you might check out the links in Elizabeth's posts.

Follow Friday - Weekend Genealogy Fun

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Here are my recommendations for some Genealogy Fun this weekend:

1) Listen to Geneabloggers Radio tonight (Friday night, 10 p.m. ET, 9 p.m. CT, 8 p.m. MT and 7 p.m. PT) hosted by DearMYRTLE. This week's topic is "Digging Deeper: Dealing with Conflicting Genealogy Evidence." The special guests include:

* Barbara Mathews, CG℠ certified genealogist and author of The Demanding Genealogist blog;
*  Accredited genealogist and Family History Library employee Claire V. Brisson-Banks, BS, MLIS, AG® of Timeless Genealogies, and
*  Certified genealogist Michael Hait, CG℠ of Hait Family Research

These experts will help us understand the role of conflicting evidence in genealogy research.

2) Listen to the FGS Radio - My Society show on Saturday (2 p.m. ET, 1 p.m. CT, 12 noon MT, 11 a.m. PT) hosted by Randy Whited this week. The topic is "State Society Panel Discussion – Issues and Projects."
 
The special guests are:

*   Harry Ross, President of the Colorado Council of Genealogical Societies
*  Joyce Homan, Associate Director of The Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania.
*  We’ll be highlighting The Friends of the Bohemian National Cemetery in our weekly Society Spotlight feature.

3) Check out the recent Webinars on:

* Researching Your Connecticut Ancestors. by Marian Pierre-Louis (free until 3 October 2011)
* Exploring FamilyLink.com and WorldVitalRecords.com by their founder, Paul Allen.
* "Newspapers for Genealogists: Using GenealogyBank.com to document every day of your ancestors' lives" with Tom Kemp.
* "Organizng for Success" with Karen Clifford (available free indefinitely from Legacy Family Tree)
* "The Power of DNA in Unlocking Family Relationships," with Ugo Perugo (available indefinitely from Legacy Family Tree)
* "Leveraging the Power of "We": a Watershed Event in Discovering Where to Find Your Ancestors (Research Wiki, Research Courses, and FamilySearch Forums)," with Michael Ritchey (available from Legacy Family Tree).

* RootsMagic Webinars (all free) available at http://www.rootsmagic.com/Webinars/

* National Genealogical Society (NGS) Videos (some are free to view) at http://www.ngsgenealogy.org/cs/videos_online

* Thomas MacEntee's Explorinar on Easy Website Creation (free to view).
* Thomas MacEntee's Explorinar on Evernote - Easy Note Taking UPDATED (free to view)

4) Respond to my Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge, posted on www.geneamusings.com soon after 12 noon Pacific time (that's 1900 GMT for those who understand time zones).

5) Go to a local genealogical society program. Unfortunately, there is no San Diego area presentation scheduled. 

6) Go to a local or close repository with genealogy and family history material. Do some research in traditional resources or order FamilySearch microfilms online with original source records.

7) do some online research in the latest record collections at FamilySearch (free, https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/list), Ancestry ($$, http://www.ancestry.com/cs/reccol/default), Fold3 ($$, www.fold3.com), WorldVitalRecords ($$, www.WorldvitalRecords.com), American Ancestors ($$, www.AmericanAncestors.org), GenealogyBank ($$, www.GenealogyBank.com), etc.

8) Add material (names, dates, places, notes, images, sources, etc.) to your genealogy software program. I still have three inches of paper collected from my vacation, and will try to enter some of it into my database this weekend.

9) Spend time with your family doing fun things.  Linda's brother, Paul, and his partner Deb are flying in on Saturday for the weekend.  We will do some sightseeing, talk about family and share family stories, and introduce Paul and Deb to their grand-nieces. 

10) Go to a local cemetery and clean stones, take gravestone pictures, or transcribe epitaphs for your local society, for Find-a-Grave, or a similar online service.

Whatever you decide, please tell us about your genealogy endeavors on a social network or in a blog post. You never know when your experiences may stimulate or encourage others to do useful genealogy work.

Thursday, September 29, 2011

The Seaver Family History Mystery Tour Compendium

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I'm having trouble finding all of my blog posts about our upper Midwest vacation, so here is a compendium of posts in case anyone else really cares:

Planning for my visit to Dodge County, Wisconsin (25 August 2011)
Planning for my visit to Dane County, Wisconsin (31 August 2011)
I'm almost ready now to go research! (2 September 2011)
Leaving on a Jet Plane... (5 September 2011)
We're in Springfield, Illinois for the FGS Conference (6 September 2011)

FGS Conference Day 1 Summary (7 September 2011)
Day 2 (Thursday) at the FGS Conference (8 September 2011)
Day 3 (Friday) at the FGS Conference (9 September 2011)
Day 4 (Saturday) at the FGS Conference (10 September 2011)

Day 7 on the Seaver Midwest Genealogy Tour (Fort Wayne IN, 12 September 2011)
Days 8 and 9 of the Seaver Midwest Genealogy Tour (St. Joseph MI, 14 September 2011)
Day 10 of the Seaver Family History Mystery Tour (Dodge County WI, 15 September 2011)
Day 11 of the Seaver Family History Mystery Tour (Madison WI, 16 September 2011)
Day 12 of the Seaver Family History Mystery Tour (Dane County WI, 17 September 2011)

Day 13 on the Seaver Family History Mystery Tour (Eagle WI, 18 September 2011)
Day 14 of the Seaver Family History Mystery Tour (Chicago, 19 September 2011)
FGS Photos - the Geneablogger Lounge (19 September 2011)
Day 15 of the Seaver Family History Mystery Tour (Chicago, 20 September 2011)
FGS Photos - some Vendor shots (20 September 2011)

Photos from the Allen County Public Library Visit (21 September 2011)
FGS Photos - More Vendor Shots (21 September 2011)
Visiting the Beaver Dam (Wisconsin) Community Library (22 September 2011)
(Not So) Wordless Wednesday - Post 172: Rolling Prairie, Wisconsin (28 September 2011)
Finding Material in the Wisconsin Historical Society Archives (28 September 2011)

Tombstone Tuesday - Severt T. Leland (1804-1889) of Deerfield WI (4 October 2011)
Photos from my Visit to the Wisconsin Historical Society Library in Madison WI (4 October 2011)
(Not So) Wordless Wednesday - Post 173: Hunting for Natvig Land in Cottage Grove WI (5 October 2011)
Treasure Chest Thursday - A Certificate of Naturalization for T.S. Leland (6 October 2011)
Follow-Up Friday: Creating a Naturalization Source Citation (7 October 2011)

My picture is in the newspaper (10 October 2011)
Tombstone Tuesday - Anna and Torger Leland in Deerfield, Wisconsin (11 October 2011)
(Not So) Wordless Wednesday - Post 174: The Four-Mile House in 1930 (12 October 2011)
Treasure Chest Thursday - the 1876 Leland/Natvig Marriage Record (13 October 2011)
Tombstone Tuesday - Anna (Leland) Woelffer (1859-1892) in Deerfield, Wisconsin (18 October 2011)

(Not So) Wordless Wednesday - Post 175: Inside The Four-Mile Inn at Old World Wisconsin (19 October 2011)
Using Google Maps to Document Your Way (19 October 2011)
Follow-up Friday - Dane County, Wisconsin Naturalization Records (21 October 2011)
Tombstone Tuesday - Levi Holcomb (1763-1854) in Burnett, Wisconsin (25 October 2011)
(Not So) Wordless Wednesday - Post 176: Inside the Four-Mile Inn Kitchen (26 October 2011)

I will add posts to this compendium as necessary.

Last update:  Wednesday, 26 October.

Treasure Chest Thursday - A Wisconsin Name Change in 1866

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It's Treasure Chest Thursday - time to look in my digital image files to see what treasures I can find for my family history and genealogy musings.

This week, the "treasure" is the Wisconsin State Senate Act that officially changed the name of Devier Lamphier to Devier J. Smith:


I found the name change record in the book (Wisconsin Legislature, Enrolled Acts, resolutions and memorials, 1836-1943 (259 volumes), Series 188, Volume 80 (1866, January-March) in the Wisconsin State Historical Society Archives in Madison, Wisconsin.  The label on the bound book says:

"SECRETARY OF STATE
Elections and Records

Legislative Journals, 1836-

Senate Journal,
1866, #2"

The page that shows the official name change is the right-hand page in the picture below:





This page reads:

AN ACT

To change the name of Devier Lamphier to Devier
J. Smith and constitute him the legal heir of
Ranslow Smith of dodge County.

The People of the State of Wisconsin represented
in Senate and Assembly do enact as follows:

Section 1.  The name of Devier Lamphier is here-
by changed to Devier J. Smith and the said Dev-
ier Lamphier is hereby declared to be the adopted
child and legal heir of Ranslow Smith of
Dodge County.

Section 2.  This act shall take effect and be in
force from and after its passage and publication.

Henry A. Barron
Speaker of the Assembly

Wyman Spooner
President of the Senate

Approved March 21st 1866
Lucius  Fairchild
Governor

I asked at the Archives if I could obtain a photocopy of this page, or if I could take a digital photograph of the page.  The curator looked at the volume, judged that it was too fragile to make a photocopy from, and permitted me to take digital photographs of the pages.  I took several, and the one above is the "best" and "most readable" of the ones I took.  It is imperfect...

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Finding Material in the Wisconsin Historical Society Archives

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I summarized my experiences at the Wisconsin Historical Society Archives (Madison, Wisconsin) in Day 11 of the Seaver Family History Mystery Tour.  I described the identification, retrieval and copying process briefly, saying:

"I arrived at the State Historical Society of Wisconsin (816 State Street) in Madison, Wisconsin shortly after 9 a.m. My first stop was the Archives section on the 4th floor. After filling out the registration form and receiving my researchers card, I asked the gentleman helping me where I might find Wisconsin State Senate records from March 1866 (the Devier J. Lamphier Smith name change). My hope was that there would be something more - like a supporting file - than just the Senate Act granting the name change. This Archive is very well organized - you check the online catalog, write the call number, box or volume number, shelf location, title and your name on a form and they bring the item to you within 5 minutes. However, you can work on only one item at a time."

I want to lead my patient and curious readers through the catalog search process, because it is, I think, fairly typical of what researchers will find at most state archives and many record repositories. 

The "Guided Search" catalog for the Wisconsin Historical Society Archives (ArCat) is online at http://arcat.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?DB=local&PAGE=bbSearch.  There are "Search Hints" at http://arcat.library.wisc.edu/help/aboutarcat.htm.  The "Guided Search" page looks like this:


The user can input up to three search terms, which can be "as a phrase" (the default), "all of these" or "any of these."

The user can search by Keyword Anywhere, Title, Subject, Author, Call Numbers, etc.

I input "senate" and "acts" in the search boxes, kept "as a phrase" and "keyword anywhere," and clicked on the "Search" button, which gave me seven matches:


Two items stood out for me - the 4th and 5th ones down.  The 4th one down was titled "Enrolled, acts, resolutions, and memorials, 1836-1943."  That sounded like one I might be interested in.  I clicked on it, and saw:


The page above tells me that there are 51.8 cubic feet of records in this collection, comprised of 259 volumes.  Which one has March of 1866 in it?  [Note:  I was really lucky that I knew the date of Devier Lamphier's name change!]

There is a link about half way down the page above for "Register available online."  I clicked on that:


This page provides the following information:

"Title: Wisconsin. Legislature: Enrolled Acts, Resolutions, and Memorials
Inclusive Dates: 1836-1943
Creator: Wisconsin. Legislature
Call Number: Series 188
Quantity: 51.8 c.f. (259 volumes)
Repository: Wisconsin Historical Society Archives
Contact Information
Physical Location:  See the catalog entry for information on possible additional materials and shelf locations.
Archival Location:  Map: Wisconsin Historical Society
Abstract:  All laws, resolutions, and memorials signed by the chief clerk of the Assembly, the President of the Senate, and the Governor.
Language: EnglishURL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-ser00188"

There is a link on the left-hand side of the page for "Contents List."  Clicking on that, showed a long list of the contents of each page:



The contents with information from March 1866 is in Volumes 80 and 81.  I filled out the Call form for both volumes, printing these items:

Call Number:  Series 188 (from the 4th image above)
Box/Vol. No.:  80 (from the 5th image above)
Shelf Location:  2M/51/D1-J1 (from the 3rd image above)
Author/Creator:  Legislative Enrolled Acts
Reason for Use:  Genealogical (checked)
Researcher's Name:  Randy Seaver
Day/Mo/Year:  9/16/11

That was the process used.  Unfortunately, the two items noted above were the only ones that seemed to have information about this Senate Act. 

I broadened the search in hopes of finding supporting files for the Senate Act, but found only one item out of 198 search matches that had a possible find - but there was no box available for 1866.  I doubt that any papers that might support the Devier Lamphier name change, perhaps providing his birth parents names, exists if it is not in this State Archive.

It is crucial that ALL genealogical researchers understand that there are many archived records available at State Archives, and at the National Archives.  They are usually not digitized, are not indexed, and must be accessed using a process similar to the one described above.  Most of these archives have an online catalog for researchers to explore and identify possible resources before going to the physical location of the archive. 

The staff at the Wisconsin Historical Society Archives was very friendly, helpful, encouraging and prompt.  I can hardly wait to go back! 

Serendipity Happens? Dear Randy: Can you Help with my Lelands?

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While we were on our vacation two weeks ago, I received this email from Louis on 14 September (edited to remove extraneous or identifying information):

"Dear Sir, attached you will find info on Lewis B. Leland of Voss, Norway.  He was my great-grandfather. ... I have seen spellings vary from Liland, Leland, Leeland to Lieland.  I'm doing pretty good with the USA Lelands but nothing on the Norwegians except what you read in the attachment.  ... My Leland grandparents died between 1920 and 1929.  I knew very little about the Lelands as they were not mentioned while I was growing up. "

The attachment that Louis sent along was a sketch from the book:

Arthur P. Rose, An Illustrated History of Lyon County (Marshall, Minn.: Northern History Pub. Co.,1912), accessed on the Lyon County Biographies website,
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mnlyon2/bios/i.html.

It said:

"LEWIS B. LELAND (1879) is a farmer of Nordland township who has a thirty-three year residence in Lyon county to his credit. He lives upon the farm he took as a homestead in the early days, the southeast quarter of section 28.

"Mr. Leland was born in Vos, Norway, December 11, 1847, a son of Bernard and Maglina (Grimestad) Leland. The family came to the United States in 1849, in company with Knute Nelson, now United States senator from Minnesota, and landed in New York on the nation's birthday. The Lelands made settlement in Dane county, Wisconsin, and in 1873 moved to Buffalo county of the same state.

"It was in 1879 that Lewis B. Leland left Wisconsin and came to Lyon county. He purchased a preemption claim to his present farm, changed the filing to a homestead, proved up on it, and engaged in its cultivation until 1894. That year he moved to Minneota and for the next fifteen years he worked at the carpenter's trade and conducted a wagon shop there. In 1909 Mr. Leland returned to the farm. For seven or eight years he was clerk of school district No. 25 and for four years he was a justice of the peace. He is a member of the Norwegian Lutheran church.

"Mr. Leland is a man of family, having been married in Stoughton, Wisconsin, May 9, 1872, to Martha Gilderhus. She is a native of Dane county, Wisconsin, and was born October l, 1850. Her parents. Ole and Martha (Overland) Gilderhus, were born in Vos, Norway. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Leland are Luella, Josie, Lillian, Beatrice, Marvin, Mabel and Winnifred."

My email response to Louis:

"As you will see, it is fortuitous that I did not answer you immediately!  When you sent the email, we were on vacation in Wisconsin and on 16 September I visited the Norwegian-American  Genealogy Center and Naeseth Museum in Madison, Wisconsin.  While there, I found significant information on my wife's Leland family and, I think, on your Leland line. 

"One of the resources at this library was:

"K.A. Rene, History of Emigration from Voss and the Vossings in America (Madison, Wis.: the author, 1930), English Translation, Volume 1, page 383-4, provides a short summary of Brynjulv Larson Liland's life:

" 'Brynjulv Larson Liland was born in Voss December 11, 1825, the son of Lars Brynjulvson Liland and wife Anna Styrksdatter Seim, born 1797, who was of the Miltzow lineage.  He was married to Magli Samsonsdatter Grimarstad, born March 8, 1824, and one son, Lars, born in 1847, then they emigrated in 1849.  They came to Koshkonong and settled on a farm that they bought one mile southwest of Kroghville in Deerfield Township.  There they built a good residential home -- and a smithy.  He was an inordinately clever man to do all kinds of work in iron and wood.  On his farm, he began to manufacture farm equipment -- especially wagons.  He also made a pipe organ, which was used at Liberty Prairie Church and sold for $300.  For 18 years, he lived there.  He ran a wagon factory nin Ft. Atkinson, WI.  Then he sold the farm and moved to Stoughton, WI, where in 1867 he constructed an iron foundry and blacksmith shop: continued with the manufacture of wagons, plows and other farm implements and employed, on the average, twelve men.  He found a market for his manufactured ware in Iowa and Minnesota, besides Wisconsin.  However, there were others, who carried on in the same kind of work in that little town, and in 1876, he sold out and moved to Lyon County, Minnesota, where he farmed.  He died at home in Minneota, MN, in January 1903.  His wife died in March 1914.  They left ten children:  Lars, Joseph, Anna, Martha, Sam, Ole, Erick, Betsy, Mary and Sivert.  One child died young.

" 'Lars Brynjulvson Liland -- Brynulv's father died in Deerfield Township, Wisconsin.  The mother died in Voss.'

"I believe that Lars Brynjulvson Liland is the Bernard L. Leland named in the Lyon county MN Biographies page you sent to me as an attachment.  I also think that the son, Lars, mentioned above as born in 1847, is your Lewis B. Leland.  While the first names are different, I think that it is because of two factors:

"1)  I don't know how much you've learned about Norwegian names and the surname selection that was forced on them in the 1870s time period in Norway, which also occurred in the USA.  Before the 1870s, people in Norway took their father's first name as a second name - it was called a patronymic naming system.  Hence Lars Brynjulvson was the son of Brynjulv, and Brynjulv Larson was the son of Lars, and Magli Samsonsdatter was the daughter of Samson.  They would often use the name of the farm that they resided on (and the farm name could change when they moved) as another identifying name.  In the 1870s, Norway directed that everyone choose a surname and that surname would be given to the children of that person.  Many chose the patronymic name of their father, and many chose a farm name, and some chose some other surname altogether.

"Hence, when Lars Brynjulvson came to America, he was known as Lars Brynjulvson until the 1870s, when he chose the farm name Liland (in Voss) to be known by.   His son Brynjulv Latrson also chose the Liland farm name.  His daughter, Kari Larsdatter, married Ivar Torgerson (son of Torger Olson of Tungeteigens in Voss) and Ivar's family adopted the Liland surname also.  So did Ivar's brother, Sjur Torgerson and his family (that is my wife's line).  I believe that you will be able to find them in the 1850, 1860 and 1870 census records using their patronymic names, and in the 1880 and later census records using Leland (or a spelling variant).

"2)  As time went on, the Norwegians also Americanized some of their first names - Brynjulv became known as Bernard, Lars became known as Lewis, Sjur became known as Sivert, etc.  

"That, in a nutshell, is why I think your Lewis B. Leland is the son of Brynjulv Larson Liland, and grandson of Lars Brynjulvson. 

"I have not followed the Liland farm families back before Lars Brynjulvson.  I am quite sure that they are listed in the Voss bygdebok (farm book, in Norwegian) that is available at the Norwegian-American Genealogy Center and on microfilm at the LDS Family History Library and Family History Centers."


There were several points of commonality in the names and places that led me to my conclusions - such as the mention of Voss in Norway, of Minneota, Minnesota, of Maglina Grimestad (similar to Magli Grimarstad), etc.  In addition, the Americanized names using Liland or Leland match the patronymic names fairly well.  I love it when clues come together like that!

As you can see, this was a fortuitous find for Louis.  If I hadn't copied every sketch of a Liland/Leland person from Rene's book at the Norwegian-American Genealogy Center and Naeseth Library (NAGCNL) in Madison on 16 September, I would not have had the piece of information that helps Louis identify the Norwegian name of his great-grandfather, and two generations before.  Louis still has plenty of work to do!

I will be showing more of the information I found at the NAGCNL i n future blog posts.

I love it when serendipity happens!  If Louis had written me a month ago, my response would have been "I'm sorry, I know nothing about your Leland ancestry."

(Not So) Wordless Wednesday - Post 172: Rolling Prairie, Wisconsin

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I've been posting old family photographs from my collection on Wednesdays, but now I want to post some current photographs.  This is not a wordless posts like others do - I simply am incapable of having a wordless post.

On Day 10 of the Seaver Family History Mystery Tour two weeks ago, we stopped in Rolling Prairie, dodge County, Wisconsin.  This is where the Four-Mile Inn was built in 1853 by my third great grandfather, Ranslow Smith.  The Inn was located here until it was purchased and moved to Old World Wisconsin in about 1980.  The 1859 plat map of Dodge County indicates that the Inn stood on the southwest corner of Smith Street (now County Road I, which runs north-south) and Beaver Dam Road (now Prospect Road, which runs east-west).  This intersection was about 200 yards north of the railroad tracks that were installed in about 1856.   I wanted to visit the original site of the Inn and see the "sights" of Rolling Prairie.

We traveled north up County Road I until we crossed the railroad tracks that were just south of Prospect Road (an east-west road).  The road curves as it approaches Prospect Road.  The photo below was taken from just south of the railroad tracks looking north along County Road I. 



There is a two-story building that sits at an angle to the road on the north side of the railroad tracks, about 50 yards north of the tracks.  This building is currently a tavern, and it may have been a tavern back in the 1850s after the railroad came through in 1856.  It may have been built then as a train depot, but was probably modified or rebuilt several times over the years. 

Here is your intrepid researcher trying to enter the tavern at about 9 a.m. on a Thursday morning:


The outer door opened, but the inner door into the tavern was locked.  Linda took the picture above.  Look at the green sign and the red sign.  The green sign says "Rolling Prairie, Population Varies."  The red sign says "Wisconsin Spoken Here." 

The proprietor of the tavern must have heard us outside, since he came out soon after I tried to open the locked inner door.  I explained my mission, and he said that he had lived there for about 20 years, and didn't know of any "old-timers" around the area who might recall the Four-Mile Inn that stood about 100 yards up the road. 

There were a number of homes, which seemed to have been built in the past thirty years, on both sides of  County Road I.  I took a picture of the southwest corner of County Road I and Prospect Road:



The grassy area in front of the house is where the Four-Mile Inn was located before 1980. 

Here is a picture of the current Four-Mile Inn building taken at Old World Wisconsin:


I can visualize this building sitting on the corner of County Road I and Prospect Road, can't you?  I also have the 1930 picture of the Inn which I'll share in a future post.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Family Tree Maker 2012 TreeSync - Questions Answered

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In my post yesterday, Family Tree Maker 2012 TreeSync - Differences Between Online and Desktop Trees, I listed some of my concerns and asked some questions about the noted issues.

Duff Wilson, a Family Tree Maker Product Manager, responded in Comments with answers to my questions.  They were (keyed to my bullet points):

As you indicated, the core data in linked trees is synchronized in both directions. Some types of data that are unique to Ancestry Member Trees or Family Tree Maker, although not synchronized, can continue to be used fully in their native system. With respect to some of these items, I wanted to respond to your questions.

1) Regarding the statement that Ancestry records that are merged into Family Tree Maker are not re-uploaded to Ancestry as part of the sync process. This is referring to Ancestry records that are merged and attached to source citations directly in FTM or on Ancestry. Since these are directly linked to the records that are already on Ancestry.com, there is no need to upload them again. Record images that are downloaded and attached manually would be uploaded because they are not directly linked to the Ancestry record online.

2) Non-person notes in your FTM file will remain in FTM. They are simply not synchronized to Ancestry. If an FTM tree is later created from the online tree, the non-person notes are not in the online tree and will not be part of that download. Because the data stored in the two tree systems is not identical, neither is a complete backup of the other. We recommend that people continue the practice of creating periodic backups in Family Tree Maker.

3) While media items attached to source citations are common, media items attached to sources are not. When present in FTM, these source media items are uploaded during the sync process and are attached to the citations associated with the source.

4) The stories created in each system are fundamentally different and are transferred to the other system during the sync process for read access. Stories created on Ancestry are saved in a common web format as .htm files, while stories from Family Tree Maker are saved in a common desktop format as Rich Text (.rtf) files.

Some of these limitations will likely be improved with future enhancements.


I greatly appreciate Duff's quick and informational responses that answered my questions.  

Astute readers will note that if the original tree was created in FTM 2012, then the information in the FTM 2012 tree will not be completely uploaded into an Ancestry Member Tree (AMT).  If a user adds information to the AMT, then a sync will bring it to the FTM tree, which will still have the information not in the AMT. 

Of course, if a user downloads the original tree from Ancestry.com, then the FTM 2012 database will be identical after it is downloaded.

But what will happen if the synchronization fails, and the Ancestry Member Tree has newly added, edited or deleted information not in the former FTM 2012 tree?  Downloading the AMT into a new FTM 2012 database will then lose the information previously in the FTM 2012 database.  Will synchronization ever fail?  I hope not, but my logic scale always has a "bad stuff happens" section on it. 

My takeaway here is that I should probably keep the FTM 2012 tree as my primary tree to add, edit and delete data, since AMTs will not have ALL of the information in the FTM database.  That works for me.  Being able to add data, sources and media to an FTM 2012 tree, and then syncing it to an Ancestry tree, makes the most sense to me.  It keeps the Ancestry tree updated.  However, there will be many users that will use their Ancestry Member Tree, using whatever platform they have (computer, tablet, smart phone, etc.) to make the changes.  It's inevitable.

Russ Worthington, on his Family Tree Maker User blog, has been going through each of the items identified as being different, between FTM 2012 and Ancestry Member Trees, in my earlier post, showing them item by item in separate blog posts.  All of these posts are in his FTM 2012 label posts. 

As far as I know, Russ is the only genea-blogger currently showing screen captures and details from the latest Beta version of Family Tree Maker 2012. 

The released version of FTM 2012 is due in mailboxes within the next week.  I will probably write some blog posts about the new features after I receive it.

Can I Ever Tame (even manage?) my Genea-Monster?

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Reader Tessa made a comment on my post Tuesday's Tip - Keep your Genealogy To-Do list(s) up to date (13 September 2011), Tessa said:

"Some quick questions regarding this tip (great tip as I am currently updating my to-do lists).
1. why don't you use the to-do list in a genealogy database program - they appear to be keyed to individuals as well as general to-dos?
2. why do you delete finished to-dos? Do you ever find you redo a to-do?
3. why do you keep a separate research log?
4. how do you coordinate your genealogy database with your word processing documents?

"I am trying to find the most efficient way to keep my to-dos and wonder how yours works in practice. Thanks so much for sharing."

Thank you for the questions Tessa - they are logical, and point out some of my idiosyncrasies,  inconsistencies and failures.

My answers:

1.  I have never used the to-do lists in genealogy software.  I probably should do that, but I haven't.  My mind set was that I would have to print out each to-do list from each of the ancestral families that I wanted to research in the libraries and archives.  Of course, if I had checked my RootsMagic program more carefully, I would have seen that they have several types of To-Do lists to use, and they can be printed out either separately or as one general list.

Some of the resources I wanted to access had information on a number of my ancestral families.  I chose to make a to-do list that listed the resources, and noted the ancestral names to review.  That list totaled 14 pages, so it was fairly efficient (in my mind).

2.  My last resource to-do list was dated February 2011, and included books and periodicals.  Some of the items on the list had been already reviewed and notations were made on my list.  I saved those notations, then made an updated list for September 2011 that deleted those resources I had already reviewed, then added many more items to the resource to-do list. 

I do sometimes re-do a to-do, especially when I find a new ancestral family that may be in a specific resource.  My effort to document in which resources I've found information for a specific family was described in I'm almost ready now to go research! (2 September 2011).  I try to avoid a re-do by keeping the Source Reference Lists up-to-date.

3)  I started out having a Research Log for each surname, on paper in my notebooks, but I have not kept them up-to-date.  Bad Randy!  I should have, and know it... but I haven't... since the 1995 time frame  I don't keep a general research log of everything I do at repositories or online (not enough fun...the hunt is lots more fun!).  Rather than have a paper or digital research log, I try to summarize (or transcribe) the information I gather into the Notes in my genealogy software program, along with the source information.  Therefore, my Notes for each person includes a summary of my research on that person. 

4)  Coordinating my genealogy software database with my word processing documents (and by extension, photocopies from books and periodicals, and saved web pages) is a challenge for me.  I have 30 linear feet of paper in notebooks, another two feet in paper piles, and thousands of downloaded webpages, computer files, microfilm images, record images and book images on my computer hard drive.  Getting all of that into my genealogy software database (which includes over 40,000 persons collected along the way), properly sourced and with media files attached, is a lifetime of work.  After 23 years, I'm still working on it, and will never finish it.

Like topsy, the problem started early and just grew into a paper monster and now a computer file monster, and I'm just trying to keep my head above my desktop.  It didn't help that I brought back another three inches of paper photocopies, and about 400 photographs (including some of records), from my recent vacation. 

I do have a choice - keep feeding the genea-monster as best I can (complaining all the way, but it's a lot more fun to keep researching and writing), or completely reorganize my files at the expense of all other genealogy activity over a period of years (a boring task...).  I can always use my genea-monster as a bad example and hope that readers will learn from my experiences. 

Tessa - I don't know if you learned anything about "To-Do List Best Practices" in the discussion above.  I encourage you, and other interested readers, to read articles, attend seminar/conference programs, and watch webinars about research and file organization. 

I hope that readers will share their own organization ideas, or those prevously published by others,  and the ways they have tamed their paper and digital genea-monsters.

Tombstone Tuesday - Mary Smith (1805-1865) in Burnett WI

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I finally have some gravestone pictures of my own to share again on Tombstone Tuesday!

On our Midwest Family History Mystery Tour, we stopped by the Burnett Corners Cemetery in Burnett, Dodge County, Wisconsin.  The Find-a-Grave site for this cemetery says that it is 1.7 miles west of County Road I.   It isn't - it's about 0.3 miles west of County Road I, right when County Road B turns to the left toward Beaver Dam.

I took some pictures at the entrance to the cemetery - this one looking to the northeast:


And this one looking to the northwest:


You can see the tire track trail leading into the cemetery in the picture above (on the right).

I did not know where Mary Smith's stone was located, but I knew it was there because I'd seen it on Find-a-Grave.  So, it was a matter of walking around.  I knew from the Find-a-Grave picture that the stone was not standing upright - so I went looking for a stone in the ground.  I decided to walk down the tire tracks first, and walked right to Mary's stone.  It was half covered with grass, and I didn't bring any tools to deal with that.  so I got down on my knees and used my hands to strip away the grass and dirt that covered the stone.  After my rough handiwork, the stone looked like this:


The stone seems to say:

Wife
R. SMITH
DIED
May 12, 1865
AE 60 y 19d

I took a picture of the gravesite looking back toward the south (down the tire tracks):




You can see the car on the road in the picture above.  You can also see the grass debris that I cleared away from the stone.  Some of the small remnants of the rest of the stone on the ground can be seen near the readable portion of the gravestone (you can see more on the Find-a-Grave picture taken in 2008). 

Before I left, I put the grass debris back around the stone as best I could, and said a little prayer thanking Mary for raising my second great-grandfather, Devier J. Smith to be such an enterprising, interesting and mysterious man.  I also asked for her help in finding Devier's birth parents - she may have been the only one who knew!

How do I know that this is Mary (Bell) Smith, wife of Ranslow Smith?  Frankly, it's from the death date and age at death.  The papers I have written by Devier's wife, Abbey (Vaux) Smith, lists Devier's  mother's birth date as April 23, 1805 and her death date as May 12, 1865.  This was written some time between 1890 and 1900.  That matches the information on the gravestone exactly.

Monday, September 26, 2011

FamilySearch Research Courses - 209? 273? 262?

...
It used to be fairly easy to tell how many Research Courses there were available on the FamilySearch Learning Center - you could count them.  They also highlighted the new ones to help users find them.

Now, the Learning Center page has a list of places associated with the research courses, and there are 209 of them.  Unless some have more than one place associated with them.


There is also a set of links for Skill Level - 40 are Advanced, 45 are Beginner and 188 are Intermediate.  That adds up to 273.

There are five new courses highlighted:

Finding Records of LDS Ancestors (36 minutes)

Germany Beginning Research Series Lesson 1: Getting Started (15 minutes)

Germany Beginning Research Series Lesson 2: Learn about Historical Background (30 minutes)

Getting Started with Family History Research (12 minutes)

Tracing Family Traits Using a Genogram (20 minutes)

You would think that these would be the last five added, but I'm not sure that that is the case.  The highest number of the five above, in the URL for the course, is #262.  Perhaps some have been numbered and not added to the list yet?

The most popular research courses are listed as:

5 Minute Genealogy Episode 1: Find a Record in Five Minutes (5 minutes)

African American Genealogical Research at the Library of Congress (29 minutes)

Genealogy Boot Camp (27 minutes)

Ireland Beginning Research Series Immigration Part 1: Strategies (21 minutes)

My Experiences in German Family Research (59 minutes)

There is a wealth of educational material here for all levels of genealogists and family historians.  I hope that my readers are taking advantage of them, and are encouraging colleagues to use them also. 

Family Tree Maker 2012 TreeSync - Differences Between Online and Desktop Trees

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Tanura Jones (Modern Software Experience) wrote TreeSync Limitatons on 5 August 2011 that idnetified some of these issues, and commented on TreeSync.

Kathi Reed posted an interesting item on her Ancestor Search Blog on 12 September 2012 that I haven't seen referred to or posted anywhere else.  It appeared on the Ancestry.com Customer Help page (see What are the differences between the Family Tree Maker and Ancestry.com trees when using TreeSync™?).

Here is what it says:

Most content in trees is uploaded and/or synced seamlessly between Family Tree Maker and Ancestry. However, because Ancestry.com and Family Tree Maker trees are in different formats, there are a few differences you should be aware of.

Facts

In general fact dates, names, places, and descriptions (including custom and alternate facts) are the same in Family Tree Maker and Ancestry trees. However, you may find that some fact types are labeled differently. For example, the Physical Description fact in Family Tree Maker is the Description fact in Ancestry trees.

Media Items
  • The caption of a media item in Family Tree Maker is the same as the Picture name field on Ancestry.
  • Audio and video items are not transferred between Family Tree Maker and Ancestry.
  • Media items attached to relationships in Family Tree Maker are not uploaded to Ancestry.com.
  • Records you’ve found on Ancestry.com and merged into Family Tree Maker won’t be re-uploaded to Ancestry.
  • Documents in Family Tree Maker will be uploaded to an Ancestry tree only if they are in one of these formats: .pdf, .doc, .txt, .rtf, and .htm.
  • Photos uploaded to Ancestry Member Trees cannot exceed 15MB, so a photo in your desktop tree that exceed this size limit will be resized when it is copied to Ancestry—your original file will not be affected. Images need to be in one of these formats: .jpeg, .bmp, .png, .gif, and .tiff.
Notes

In Family Tree Maker you can create a variety of notes: person, research, fact, relationship, media, and source citation. When you upload a tree to Ancestry only person notes will be included; they can only be viewed by people you have invited to your online tree.

Places

If you have entered shortened display names for locations or custom GPS coordinates in Family Tree Maker, they will not be included in your Ancestry tree.

Publications

Saved reports, charts, and books cannot be transferred from Family Tree Maker to Ancestry.

Relationships

In Family Tree Maker only you can view information you’ve entered for a living individual. In your Ancestry tree, anyone who is invited to your tree can view information about living individuals.

Sources
  • Sources created in Family Tree Maker using source templates will transfer to Ancestry, but you cannot edit these sources online.
  • Media items attached to source citations in Family Tree Maker will be uploaded; media items attached to sources in Family Tree Maker will not be uploaded.
Stories
  • A story created on Ancestry.com will become a .htm file in Family Tree Maker, which can be viewed in a Web browser. You can edit the text in a word-processing program.
  • Smart Stories created in Family Tree Maker will become .rtf text files in Ancestry. The story can’t be viewed within your Ancestry tree but the document can be down¬loaded. (Smart Stories are uploaded only if they are attached to individuals.)
There are many "small" differences on that list that may be significant for me and other FTM 2012 users.  The ones that concerned me were:

"Records you’ve found on Ancestry.com and merged into Family Tree Maker won’t be re-uploaded to Ancestry."  I'm confused here - does this mean if I've found a record on Ancestry.com and attached as a media item using FTM WebSearch won't be re-uploaded?  Or does it mean that a record I found on Ancestry.com, downloaded to my hard drive, and attached as a media item in FTM won't be re-uploaded?   I'm guessing that the second image would be uploaded to Ancestry, since I probably renamed the file in my computer files before attaching it to a person in my FTM file.

"In Family Tree Maker you can create a variety of notes: person, research, fact, relationship, media, and source citation. When you upload a tree to Ancestry only person notes will be included; "  If I have non-person notes in my FTM file, and sync it to Ancestry, will the non-person notes still be in my FTM file?  I think they will.  However, if something goes wrong with a sync, and I have to use the Ancestry tree to start again, will those non-person notes be included?

"Media items attached to source citations in Family Tree Maker will be uploaded; media items attached to sources in Family Tree Maker will not be uploaded."  Do people attach media to sources, and not to source citations?  I can think of some reasons to do that - attach an image of the front page or copyright page of a book or periodical issue. 

*  "Smart Stories created in Family Tree Maker will become .rtf text files in Ancestry. The story can’t be viewed within your Ancestry tree but the document can be down¬loaded. (Smart Stories are uploaded only if they are attached to individuals.)"  This surprised me - I've always thought that the purpose of "Smart Stories" was to be able to sync with a "Story" on an Ancestry Member Tree.  I was wrong, apparently (not the first time!).

I also found it interesting that this appeared in the Ancestry.com Customer Help section but is not (yet) on the Family Tree Maker Knowledge Base.  I think that it will be, however.

There are several other items in the Ancestry Customer Help database concerning Family Tree Maker 2012:

What’s new in Family Tree Maker 2012
Using the new TreeSync
TreeSync Frequently Asked Questions

In summary, I think that being able to synchronize "almost all" data between an Ancestry Member Tree and a Family Tree Maker 2012 database is a significant advance in technology.  This is a real advance for Ancestry and FTM that will advance FTM 2012 sales and AMT use.  However, there will be a major social problem for Ancestry/FTM IF there are significant sync problems that cause users to lose data.   In other words, they need to get it right the first time out of the box.

Edited 1 p.m. to include the Tamura Jones article link.

Amanuensis Monday - the Will of Thomas Rice (1626-1681) of Sudbury MA

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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 will of Thomas Rice (1626-1681) of Sudbury, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, son of Edmund and Thomasine (Frost) Rice.  Thomas Rice married Mary King (1630-1715), daughter of Thomas and Anne (--?--) King in about 1651, and they had thirteen children:  Grace King (1653-1654); Thomas Rice (1654-????); Mary Rice (1656-1733); Peter Rice (1658-1753); Nathaniel Rice (1660-1726); Sarah Rice (1662-1742); Ephraim Rice (1665-1732); Gershom Rice (1667-1768); James Rice (1670-1730); Frances Rice (1671-1721); Jonas Rice (1673-1753); Grace Rice (1675-1768); and Elisha Rice (1679-1761). 

Thomas Rice of Sudbury died testate on 16 November 1681 with a fairly large estate.  His will (transcribed from Middlesex County Probate Records, Probate Packet #18,810, accessed on FHL Microfilm 0,421,502, with significant aid from the copy in Middlesex County Probate Records, volume 5, pages 394-395) reads:

"The Last Will & Testament of Thomas Rice of Sudbury in the County of Midlesex of the Massachusets Colony in New England, made the eleventh day of November in the yeare of our Lord God one thousand six hundred eighty & one.

"Inasmuch as I Thomas Rice am now weak in body (though of sound understanding & memory) I do have reason to expect my great change, doe comitt my soul to God & my body after my decease to be buryed at discretion of my wife & friends to rest in the grave in hope of a blessed resurrection through ye merrits of my Dear Redeemer, & for my outward estate I doe hereby will & dispose ye same as followeth.

"Imprimus.  I give & bequeath & confirme unto my Eldest Son Thomas, what I formerly promised (to will) one halfe pt of my houslott at Marlborough, yt is to say, the halfe pt next ye Pond & also my stirrup (?) meadow & nonsuch meadow at ... which shall be his own & at his dispose for ever.

"Item.  I Give & bequeath unto my second son Peter, the other halfe pt of my houslott at Marlborough & my parcell of meadow ground in Marlborough, called three corner meadow which shall be his own & at his dispose forever.

"Item:  I Give & bequeath unto my third son Nathaniel yt my houselott at Marlborough which I lately bought of John Brown, & the first division of meadow which I also bought of sd Brown wch shall be his own & at his dispose forever.

"Item:  I give & bequeath unto my fourth son Ephraim, all yt my uplands yt lyes in Sudbury at or near to Hogg House Hill & also all yt my parcell of meadow ground lying near unto it wch I lately bought of my brother Benjamin Rice wch shall be his own as soon as he shall be one & twenty years of age & from thereon shall be at his own dispose for ever.

"Item:  I Give & bequeath unto Mary my beloved wife all ye rest of my estate of housing, lands, cattell, beasts, mony, goods & moveables, debts due to me wherever they may be found during her natural life to be by her used & improved at her pleasure for the remainder of her life & also to be disposed of unto the rest of my younger children not abovenamed at her will & discretion both in her lifetime & at her death.

"My will also is yt all my debts which I really owe to any person shall be paid by just proportion out of my whole estate, & also my funerall expenses, excepting out of ye legacys abovegiven to my eldest son Thomas as abovesd.

"And I do hereby declare, will & constitute Mary my beloved wife the only Executrix of this my will & also I do desire & constitute my loveing friend Deacon John Haynes of Sudbury & my three brethren Henry Rice, Matthew Rice & Peter King to be overseers & to be assisting counselling & every way helpful to my deare wife and children in all things needfull.  Dated yt day & yeare first above written, & in the three & thirtieth yeare of his Majesties reign.
........................................................................................ Thomas Rice & seale
"Signed, sealed & owned by
ye abovenamed Tho: Rice to
be his last will in presence
of us John Green
John Haynes
John Haynes senr
Peter King"


The will was proved on 4 April 1682, with John Haynes senior and Peter King making oath to the will.

On 19 December 1681, the lands and chattels of Thomas Rice senior, deceased, in Marlborough were apprised by Gamaliel Beaman, Samuel Rice and Abraham Williams.  This inventory totalled 370 pounds.   It included the following real property:

1)  Homestall and housestall given him by the town of Marlborough being 35 acres of upland and the second and third divisions of upland and all his divisions of meadows and rights in the town (260 pounds).
2)  A houselott and homestall purchased of Jno Brown, being a grant of the town containing 18 acres with second and third divisions of upland and all his divisions of meadows and rights in the town (60 pounds)

An inventory of the estate of Corporal Thomas Rice of Sudbury, deceased, was taken by Henry Rice, Peter King, Mathew Rice and John Haynes on 26 February 1682.  This inventory totalled 702 pounds, including the following real estate:

1)  Housing, homestall & uplands & meadows (400 pounds)
SudburySudbury with all town rights and privileges in commons (80 pounds)

In addition, they found 50 pounds in money to be paid out of the estate.  On 4 April 1682, Mary Rice Executrix appeared in Court and made oath to the above inventory.

No further records were found.

The will names only his four sons and his wife, Mary.  There is no mention of the four youngest sons (Gershom, James, Jonas, and Elisha), and the four daughters that survived him (Mary, Sarah, Frances, and Grace).  My ancestry is through daughter Frances Rice (1671-1721) who married Benjamin Allen (1662-1721) in about 1690.

Sunday, September 25, 2011

"Finding the Living - and Maybe the Dead" CVGS Program on 28 September

...
The Chula Vista Genealogical Society (CVGS) program on Wednesday, 28 September at 12 noon in the Auditorium of the Chula Vista Civic Center Branch Library (365 F Street, Chula Vista CA 91910) features:

Arnold Botts on "Finding the Living - and Maybe the Dead."

Arnold Botts is a retired Sergeant with the Chula Vista Police Department. He joined the department in 1968, and retired 25 years later, having worked most aspects of police work including patrol, detectives, and under cover. Since retirement, he has been a private investigator, working several aspects of that field. His work has included covert surveillance, personal protection, criminal and civil investigations, and background investigations.

His presentation will discuss methods and resources that private investigators use to find living people. This has a direct application to genealogists trying to locate living relatives, old friends and classmates.

This program is free for all persons to attend.  Please enter the auditorium through the conference room door in order to register your attendance, pick up the program sheet and have a snack and drink, compliments of CVGS. 

Best of the Genea-Blogs - Post-Vacation Edition

...
As devoted Genea-Musings readers know, I was on vacation for part of last week, returning home on Wednesday night.  Therefore, I won't have my regular Best of the Genea-Blogs list for this week. 

I actually posted some daily "Good Genea-Read" blogs after I returned (trying to whip my brain into shape for next week) - see:

* Thursday's "Good" Genea-Reads

* Friday's "Good Genea-Reads"

* Saturday's "Good Genea-Reads"

Several of my geneablogging colleagues have been busy collecting excellent blog posts and other features, and I hope that you will take the time to read their lists and to read the blog posts that they have linked.

Several genea-bloggers wrote weekly pick posts and news summary posts this week, including:

* Monday Morning Mentions by Lynn Palermo on The Armchair Genealogist blog.

* Monday's Link Roundup by Dan Curtis on the Dan Curtis ~ Professional Personal Historian blog.

* Ruth's Recommendations by Ruth Blair on The Passionate Genealogist blog.

* Genealogy Round Up, September 22 by Megan Smolenyak on Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak's Roots World blog.

* Genealogy News Corral, September 19-23 by Diane Haddad on the Genealogy Insider blog.

* Follow Friday Gems, 09-23-11 by Deb Ruth on the Adventures in Genealogy blog.

* Best Bytes for the Week of September 23, 2011 by Elizabeth O'Neal on the Little Bytes of Life blog.

* Week in Review by John Newmark on the TransylvaniaDutch blog.

Enjoy! My weekly Best of the Genea-b logs will return next week, on 2 October.