Saturday, November 12, 2011

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun -- A Veteran's Service and Gravesite

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Dear genealogists everywhere, it's Saturday Night!  Time for some Genealogy FUN.

Is the bloom off of the Genea-Rose here?  There has been very poor participation in SNGF the last two weeks, likely because the tasks were too hard or too esoteric.  I'll try to fix that this week!

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

1)  To celebrate Veterans Day, pick one of your ancestors or relatives with a military record and a gravestone.

2)  Tell us about your ancestor's military service.

3)  Tell us about your ancestor's gravestone - where is it, what is the inscription, when were you last there?  Show us a picture of it if you have one available. 

4)  Write your own blog post about this ancestor and his gravestone, or share it in a Comment to this blog post, in a status line on Facebook, or in a Google Plus Stream post. 

Here's mine:

I'm going to use my second-great-grandfather, Isaac Seaver (1823-1901), who served in Company H, 4th Regiment of Massachusetts Heavy Artillery during the Civil War.  He mustered in on 10 August 1864 as a Private.  The summary of the Regiment's service is short:

"...The several companies left the state in three detachments about the middle of Sept., 1864, and were stationed on garrison duty in the defenses of Washington during their entire term of service. The regiment was mustered out of service June 17, 1865."

Isaac is buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Leominster, Massachusetts with his first wife, his second wife, one son and one daughter.  Here are photographs of his gravestone:



The gravestone inscription is:

1823  Isaac Seaver 1901
1826 Juliett, his wife 1847
1828 Lucretia T., his wife 1884
1854 Benjamin Seaver 1894
1861  Nellie M. Seaver 1933

The last time that I was at Isaac Seaver's grave was in May 2007 when we buried my Aunt Geraldine (Seaver) Remley in this cemetery.



Surname Saturday - HARWOOD (England > Massachusetts)

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It's Surname Saturday, and I'm "counting down" my Ancestral Name List each week. I am up to number 291, who is Elizabeth HARWOOD (1701-1739), 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 HARWOOD  families (ancestors in blue) 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)

18. Edward Hildreth (1831-1899)
19. Sophia Newton (1834-1923)

36. Zachariah Hildreth (1783-1857)
37. Hannah Sawtell (1789-1857)

72. Zachariah Hildreth (1754-1828)
73. elizabeth Keyes (1759-1793)

144. Zachariah Hildreth (1728-1784)
145. Elizabeth Prescott (1734-1812)

 290.  Jonas Prescott, born 26 January 1703 in Groton, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States; died 09 September 1784 in Westford, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States.  He was the son of 580. Jonas Prescott and 581. Thankful Wheeler.  He married  07 March 1731 in Westford, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States.
291.  Elizabeth Harwood, born 28 January 1701 in Chelmsford, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States; died 27 December 1739 in Westford, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States. 

Children of Jonas Prescott and Elizabeth Harwood are:  Elijah Prescott (1732-????); Elizabeth Prescott (1734-1812); Isaac Prescott (1737-????); Benjamin Prescott (1739-????).

582.  Nathaniel Harwood, born 01 October 1669 in Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States; died 30 August 1751 in Chelmsford, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States.   He married before 1696 in Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States.
583.  Mary Barron, born 01 March 1673 in Chelmsford, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States; died 10 October 1758 in Chelmsford, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States.  She was the daughter of 1166. Moses Barron and 1167. Mary Learned.

Children of Nathaniel Harwood and Mary Barron are:  Mary Harwood (1696-????); Hannah Harwood (1698-????); Elizabeth Harwood (1701-1739); Rachel Harwood (1703-1784); Sarah Harwood (1707-????); Jonathan Harwood (1710-1784); Susanna Harwood (1713-????).

1164.  Nathaniel Harwood, born about 1640 in England; died 07 February 1716 in Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States.   He married  before 1665 in Massachusetts, United States.
1165.  Elizabeth, born about 1639 in England, died 25 April 1715 in Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States.

Children of Nathaniel Harwood and Elizabeth are:  William Harwood (1665-1740); Elizabeth Harwood (1667-????); Nathaniel Harwood (1669-1751); Peter Harwood (1671-1740); John Harwood (1674-????); Mary Harwood (1676-????).

2328.  Mr. Harwood, born in England, probably died in England.  He married in England.
2329.  Unknown, born in England; perhaps died in Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States.

Children of Mr. and Mrs. Harwood are:  John Harwood (1625-????); Thomas Harwood (1627-1708); Hannah Harwood (1632-????); Sarah Harwood (1635-????); Nathaniel Harwood (1640-1716);  Robert Harwood (1644-1678).

The English origins and descendants of Nathaniel Harwood of Concord MA are listed, very sketchily, in a book by:

Watson H. Harwood, MD, A Genealogical Hhistory of the Concord Harwoods, Descendants of Nathaniel Harwood, son of John Harwood of London, England, Volume III, (Chasm Falls NY : 1912).

A more recent treatment of the possible English ancestry and the family of the first Nathaniel Harwood is in:

2) Dean Crawford Smith, edited by Melinde Lutz Sanborn, The Ancestry of Eva Belle Kempton, 1878-1908: Part III: The Ancestry of Henry Clay Bartlett, 1832-1892 (Boston, Mass.: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2004), pages 290-297.

The latter work disagrees with the Harwood book as to Nathaniel Harwood's parents and earlier generations.  From reviewing the information available, I think the Dean Smith book is probably correct.

Friday, November 11, 2011

Follow-Up Friday - Responses to Family Tree Maker 2012 Series Comments

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I want to follow-up to some of the comments made by readers in the Exploring Family Tree Maker 2012 series of posts written this week:

1)  In Exploring Family Tree Maker 2012 - Post 19: Creating U.S. Census Source Citations, these reader comments are interesting and helpful:

a.  Helen D asked:  "Whilst I like all of this info on generating reports, I still don't know how to generate a report of unsourced/documented facts :-(  Surely someone out there knows how............"

Pamela Wile answered:  "Helen, it seems that the unsourced facts report disappeared a few versions ago. Why? Who knows? I was really disappointed that it wasn't included in FTM2009 and apparently it's not in FTM2012."

Thank you, Pam.  I had no clue!

b.  bgwiehle noted:  In your screen shots, it seems that not all available census years are included as census facts. Do you only enter census facts only for adults or only for the head of household? How do you document enumeration for other household members or persons not living with a relative? What about those missing from the expected household?

My response:  My database content is incomplete and imperfect.  I usually enter census facts for the head of household, and put the census abstract in my Notes.  I could discuss missing family members in notes also.  If a child is found in a separate census entry, I add the Census Fact and put the details in the Note for that person.

c.  Sue Adams stated:  "If Ancestry say the template follows EE then it should do so to the letter -no excuses. It would be a good thing if they also recognised that, influential as EE is, it is not the only way to cite a source. The facility to build your own custom format should be included."

My response:  Amen!

2)  In Exploring Family Tree Maker 2012 - Post 21: Creating a Cemetery Grave Marker Source,  these reader comments are interesting and helpful:

a.  Lauren Mahieu noted:  "On a separate (but related) subject, I'm interested to hear if any of your other readers have had issues with FTM 2012 and their Ancestry.com trees? I purchased FTM 2012 only for the purpose of uploading and maintaining my trees on Ancestry.com, and my tree is heavy on media. Altogether I have about 2500 individuals, but have saved each census as an image an have it linked to the individuals, as well as scanned versions of all other documents I have that related to those individuals. I can view the tree fine on a PC and even on my iPhone. However, my iPad (iOS 5) is unable to display the tree. Either the Ancestry.com app crashes, or it doesn't load the tree, or only loads some of the individuals. I've uninstalled/reinstalled dozens of times, called and emailed Ancestry.com but as yet have not had my problem resolved. Can't imagine I'm the only one with issues, and keep hoping they release an update to the app."

Russ Worthington responded:  "I have had no issues with the iPad App from Ancestry, nor the Droid (Beta) App. I use FTM2012 and have had no issues with seeing my Tree(s) on the mobile devices. Used them several times this past weekend.  One thing that I make sure, with both Apps is that I see the Downloading take place when I am first opening the App. I have changed Trees a couple of times to make sure that I see that download."

My comment:  I know nothing about these issues, and am kind of glad I'm not bogged down with smart phone issues.

b.  Jeff Hodge noted:  "Randy states 'Family Tree Maker 2012 did pretty well with this citation ... The differences in the Citation details can be easily modified by the user to match the EE example.' I assume this means going into the Reference note tab and manually editing the citation that FTM has created. I have considered doing this and wonder if others do this, and whether it has any consequences when generating reports and the like."

My comment:  I would do two things - first, I would experiment with putting info into the source field and citation detail entries to see if I could come close to the EE format; second, I have manually edited the "Reference Note" to correct minor things like capitalization and punctuation.  The problem  there is that the next time you change the Edit Source fields, the FTM format is returned.  It would be better to fix it so that it's right.

3)  In email responding to Exploring Family Tree Maker 2012 - Post 17: Creating a Vital Record Certificate Source Citation, Roger asked several questions:

a.  "Why did you not fill in the "Citation Text" area with information such as birth date, parent's names and other data that would normally be found on a birth certificate?"
 
 
My response:  My personal preference is to put that information into Fact Notes or general Notes.  It's what I've always done. 
 
 
b.  "I was surprised to see the census information in the "Notes" area on the "Person" page. I put that information in the "Citation Text" area on the source template for the census. Should that information be recorded as you did in Post 17 and not be included in the source information as I have done?"
 
 
My response:  Again, personal preference, and it's what I've always done.  When I started in PAF and then earlier FTM versions, that information had to be in Notes.  For persons just starting to add content to their genealogy management program, it makes sense to add it to the Citation Text field in the source template, although the resulting source citation that includes the Citation Text follows the source citation immediately.
 
 
c.  "In "Post 17" you have "Census" data shown on the "Person" page but not "Residence" data. In a previous post you had both with the "Residence" data reporting the source as the census record. My Family Tree Maker files are full of inconsistencies but did not expect that in yours. I include the location information in the census source "Citation Text'; do you omit it there but add it to the "Citation Text" area when you use the existing census source to prove your "Residence" data?"
 
 
My response:  My tree is so full of inconsistencies, you wouldn't believe it!  I clean some of these examples up out of embarrassment!  I have always used the Census Fact to record census source citations, and the Residence Fact to record addresses or places that the person lived at a specific time. 

When I add the Census Fact, I include the census date in the Date field (I use the official date, not the enumeration date), the town/city, county, state, county, country in the Place field, and the family's address in the Place Description field.  I also add that information in the General Notes.

When a user attaches a Census image link to their Ancestry Member Tree, that Fact downloads and/or syncs as a Residence Fact rather than a Census Fact.  Since the Census entry contains so many potential facts (Name, Birth Year, Birth Place, Estimated Marriage Year, Parents birth places, Immigration Year, Citizenship Status, Occupation, Home Ownership, etc., I prefer to use the Census Facts and then enter specific Facts for those other items.  However, I don't have a lot of those Facts included yet - it's on my to-do list.  There's a certain inertia to doing this when I have 41,000 persons in my database - I can add detail like this, much of which is in notes, or add new Facts and source citation for Facts previously entered.  I usually choose the latter because it's more fun!

Thank you to my readers for their questions and comments, and I hope that my responses help readers with their understanding of Family Tree Maker 2012 and of my own preferences (which may be different from yours, or other researchers). 
 
 
As you can see, I am not an expert in FTM 2012, and am trying to learn how to use it in order to help my society colleagues.  I'm trying to think like a somewhat knowledgeable user in this series.
 

What's My Morning Tech Routine?

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Jill Ball asked Genealogists - What's your Morning Tech Routine? on her Geniaus blog earlier today.  I hesitate to respond lest my readers think that I'm a technosaur...

Here's my morning "tech" routine:

*  Up between 6:30 and 7 a.m., wander into the family room, turn on the TV (low tech?), see if Linda has retrieved the newspaper yet (very low tech?).  If not, stagger out the front door in my bare feet to scrape it off the driveway (I need a robot to do this, I think - that would be high tech!).

*  Eat my banana, read the sports section, then get breakfast (either frozen waffles cooked in the toaster (very low tech!) with butter on them, or Quaker Oats oatmeal with raisins and milk, cooked in the microwave (low tech!).  Eat breakfast while watching the first hour of the Today show on TV (low tech!). 

*  Sometime between 7:30 and 8 a.m., wander into the genealogy cave, turn on the radio for news and commentary, and bring up the desktop computer (real tech!) - I leave it on overnight usually.   I read my 30 to 40 emails (mostly crapola), transfer some to the email folders. 

*  Open IE9, open Google Reader and Blogger (high tech?), and open the next Best Of post.  While I read the 100 to 150 blogs from overnight, I add content to the Best Of post.  That usually takes about 30 to 40 minutes.

*  I close the Best Of post, and open a New Post and try to remember what day it is and what meme I want to try to contribute to.  I search my files for something appropriate to post, and, thankfully for spell check (tech?), manage to get it put together, usually within 30 minutes.

*  At some point in the morning, I leave the computer and go get cleaned up and dressed, depending on the plan for the day. 

*  My daily goal is to post three blogs during the day, except for the weekend.  I try to post one before 9 a.m., one around noon time, and one in the mid-afternoon, around 3 p.m.  That varies, of course, but that's the goal.  I use Blogger's scheduling capability to get the blog posts up at the times. For each post, I put something on Twitter (high tech) and Google Plus (high tech), and the Twitter post and the blog post get put on Facebook (high tech).   I don't have any fancy Twitter things that I use.

*  I often open one of the genealogy management programs in order to investigate a feature, or to help write a blog post.  I collect screen shots in an OpenOffice presentation, then save the presentation and the individual images in a file folder on my computer.  I rarely do any database work in the morning in the program - that's usually an afternoon or evening task, because I want to get the scheduled writing done in the morning.

*  The land line telephone (low tech) occasionally rings, and I keep my cell phone turned off in my pants pocket (tech!) to save the battery - it's only for emergencies, and no one ever calls me on it (because I keep it off). 

*  If I'm home, sometime during the morning I will go check the Recently Added page on Ancestry.com and the Last Updated page in the FamilySearch Historical Collections. 

*  If I have a presentation or submitted article to work on, I will usually work on them in the morning after writing at least two blog posts.

*  I check email once an hour or so, and checked Twitter and Google Plus several times a day, and Facebook only once a day, usually in the late evening.  I get very few comments on my Facebook posts, and some on my Google Plus posts.

*  Sometime between 11 a.m. and 12:30 p.m., I eat lunch - usually an apple or grapes, sometimes a bologna or peanut butter sandwich, sometimes Vegetable Beef soup, or frozen pizza, or salami, a dinner leftover, topped off with a chocolate chip cookie and sometimes a chocolate pudding cup.  If I'm going out to the library for a CVGS society meeting, I will often stop at McDonald's for lunch (6 chicken nuggets, 3 chocolate chip cookies, small chocolate shake).

So - that's my morning tech routine.  It's pretty boring.  I sit too much, and don't walk around enough (walking is pretty boring...) and hardly exercise at all (except my eyes, brain and fingers).. 

There's not much tech there, is there?  See - I'm a technosaur.  That may change sometime soon if I invest in an iPhone or Droid smart phone - I've been wondering how other bloggers deal with them and this meme may inform me.  If I get one, what other activities will I have to give up during the 16 hour time window that I'm awake?

No one asked me, but my judgment (wild ass guess) about the use of technology by genealogists is that:

*  Only about 5% of all genealogists (limited to, say, those who occasionally do research or attend society meetings) have a smart phone and are "tech-savvy" like some of my geneablogger colleagues.  It's easy to think, by reading the genealogy blogs, that everybody is "tech-savvy" and using smart phones and iPads. 

*  Only about 5% of all genealogists even read one or more genealogy blogs, and about 80% have no clue that they even exist. 

*  About 80% of the genealogists have email but don't know how to use a browser effectively, let alone download software, use an RSS Reader, read a website, watch a webinar or radio show, search an online database, or save an image to their computer file folders. 

*  Of the 20% who can at least get online, 80% struggle to search a database because of the complexity of the search algorithms, the confusion of too many details, and their fear of doing something wrong. 

This is the reality I see in my little corner of the genealogy world, and it's frustrating to me, and I try to help out by speaking, teaching and helping. 

What is your morning tech routine?  Are you an "early adopter" for tech things, or are you, like me, a technosaur?

Follow Friday - More Weekend Genealogy Fun

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Yes, you should have some Genealogy Fun this weekend.  I recommend:

1) Listen to Geneabloggers Radio tonight (Friday night, 9 p.m. ET, 8 p.m. CT, 7 p.m. MT and 6 p.m. PT) hosted by Thomas MacEntee. This week's topic is "Our Veteran Ancestors: Military Records and Genealogy." The special guests include:

Ellen Rohr of the group Families for Forgotten Heroes who will explain how she and others are working to reunite unclaimed remains of veterans with their families.
*  Polly FitzGerald Kimmitt, CG℠, of Kimmitt Genealogical Research, a certified genealogist who has been using her forensic skills in Army repatriation projects involving remains of veterans.

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 Thomas MacEntee.  This week's topic is "Genealogy and the Vital Records Access Crisis."  The special guest is:

Frederick E. Moss, FGS legal advisor and member of the Records Access and Preservation Committee, a joint committee of the Federation of Genealogical Societies, the National Genealogical Society, and the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies. Fred will help us understand how access to vital records is currently being threatened and what you can do to ensure access for all genealogy and family history researchers.
*  The highlighted FGS member Society is Root Cellar - Sacramento Genealogical Society.

3) Check out the recent FREE Webinars on:
It Is Well With My Soul: Finding Ancestors Amid the Rubble of Disaster and Misfortune, by Thomas MacEntee (Legacy Family Tree, free until 21 November)
FamilyRoots Organizer System, by Mary Hill (Legacy Family Tree, free until 14 November 2011)* Cracking the Case of Nathan Brown's Parents, by Marian Pierre-Louis (Legacy Family Tree, free until 14 November)
* Let Your Voice Be Heard in the Digital Conversation, by Drusilla Pair (Legacy Family Tree)
* Exploring FamilyLink.com and WorldVitalRecords.com by their founder, Paul Allen. (Legacy Family Tree)
* "Newspapers for Genealogists: Using GenealogyBank.com to document every day of your ancestors' lives" with Tom Kemp. (Legacy Family Tree)
* "Organizng for Success" with Karen Clifford (Legacy Family Tree)
* "The Power of DNA in Unlocking Family Relationships," with Ugo Perugo (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 Explorinars, including:

** Easy Website Creation (free to view).
** Evernote - Easy Note Taking UPDATED (free to view)
** Facebook Pages vs. Facebook Groups (free to view)

* Ancestry.com's YouTube Channel has 98 items on it now, including (free to view):

** Ancestry.com LIVE: Search with Ancestry Anne with Anne Mitchell
** Ancestry.com LIVE: One Question with the Barefoot Genealogist with Crista Cowan
** Ancestry.com LIVE: Lorraine's 5 Tips for Online Grave Digging with Lorraine Bourne
** Ancestry.com LIVE: How do I use newspapers on Ancestry.com to find out more about my ancestors? with Crista Cowan


** Emigration & Immigration Records Online with Crista Cowan @ Ancestry Day San Francisco
** Ancestry.com LIVE: How to Find Your Civil War Roots on Ancestry.com  with Anne Mitchell
**  Find Them Fast: Secrets to Searching Ancestry.com with Laura Dansbury @ Ancestry Day San Francisco 
**  Five Tips for Digging Up Answers at Ancestry.com with Jeanie Croasmun @ Ancestry Day San Francisco 

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. I'm going to the San Diego Genealogical Society Fall seminar on Saturday featuring Lou Szucs.  You might want to check out what's offered in your area.

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 ($$, www.GenealogyBank.com),
* Archives ($$, www.Archives.com)

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

9) Spend time with your family doing fun things. My wife's on vacation in Cabo San Lucas, the grandkids are busy with their parents, and I have to spend the weekend doing genealogy.  Your turn!

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.

Veteran's Day 2011 - Thank You, Gramps

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On the 11th minute of the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11 month of the year 1918, the guns fell silent. It was called Armistice Day then. Now, we commemorate our veterans on Veteran's Day.



I listed the veterans (of all American wars) in my ancestry in my post Veteran's Day - My Heroes.

The only ancestor of mine that served in World War I was my maternal grandfather, Lyle Lawrence Carringer (1891-1976). I posted a biography and muse about him and his life in Today is Gramps' 120th Birthday.

Here is a photograph of Gramps in his U.S. Marines uniform taken in about 1917 in San Diego.




I honor my grandfather and appreciate his service to our country, and his devotion to our family.

I have tremendous respect and appreciation for those serving in the Armed Forces today in Iraq, Afghanistan, and around the world. May God bless them all and bring them home safe.

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Win a FREE Registration to RootsTech (2-4 February 2012)


Like the other Official Bloggers for RootsTech, I am able to offer one complimentary registration to the RootsTech 2012 Conference in Salt Lake City, to be held at the Salt Palace Convention Center from February 2-4, 2012. 

If you want to attend RootsTech, then you can compete for a free registration right here on Genea-Musings. Here are my rules:

1)  This contest will be by a random drawing.  I will make a numerical list of entries, and use a random number selection process to select the number.

2)  To enter the contest, please go to the official RootsTech website, and perform these tasks:

*  Go to the "Schedule" page (http://www.rootstech.org/schedule) and select one of the speaker presentations that you just have to attend - your research depends on it.

* There is no list of exhibitors yet, so tell me which genealogy vendor you want to visit while you're at RootsTech.

3)  Tell me about your two choices in an email to me at rjseaver@cox.net.  Title your email with "RootsTech 2012" so that I can add you to the list of entrants.

Easy, eh?  Please enter ONLY if you intend to attend RootsTech 2012.

Note that this contest is ONLY for a complimentary registration to the conference - you will have to pay your own travel, lodging and food costs to get there and stay there.  There will be no "Occupy RootsTech" camp available.

This contest will end at 11:59 PM Pacific Standard Time on Sunday, 13 November 2011. 

I will select a winner by 11:59 PM PST on Monday, 14 November, and will publicize the winner on Tuesday, 15 November.  I will contact the winner by email, and will notify the RootsTech Conference people so that they can convey the complimentary registration to the winner.

The Registration page for RootsTech notes that the Full Registration fee is $129 until 30 November, and is $189 after 30 November.  So register early!

Disclosure:  I am an Official RootsTech 2012 Blogger and one of the perks is this Free registration contest for my readers.  I have received a complimentary registration to RootsTech 2012 also, and look forward to seeing many friends, bloggers and readers there.  It should be fun!

Exploring Family Tree Maker 2012 - Post 22: Creating a Civil War Pension File Source

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See all posts in this series at Exploring Family Tree Maker 2012 Compendium.

One of my major criteria for selecting a "preferred" genealogy management program is the ease in creating source citations. I want to demonstrate the source citation creation process in Family Tree Maker 2012 in a number of posts for several different types of records, both for my own education and, hopefully, to help others navigate this fairly complex process.

Another Source record type is Military Pension Files. I want to create a source citation for a Civil War Pension File for my great-great-grandfather, Isaac Seaver (1823-1901).  I received the full pension file for Isaac and his widow, Alvina M. Seaver, early in 2011. 

The process I used to create this source citation was:

a. Go to "People" workspace, and "Person" view for my great-great-grandfather, Isaac Seaver.
b. Select (single click on it) the Pension Fact (previously created)
c. In the right-hand panel in the "Source" tab, click on "New" and select "Add new source citation."
d. In the "Add Source Citation for Burial for ..." window, click the "New" button
e. With the "Source template" window open, click on the "More" button
f. Pick the "National Government Records" template from the "Select Source Template" list, then pick "Original Materials (United States)" in the Category field, and "Manuscript: National Archives" in the Template field.

The "Source Template List" is shown below:



g. Click "OK"
h. The "Add Source" window opens, fill in the template fields with:

* Series:  Widow's Certificate
* Sub-group title:  Case Files of Approved Pension Applications ..., 1861-1934
*  Record group title:  Civil War and Later Pension Files, Department of Veterans Affairs
*   Record group number: 15

True confessions:  I looked on the National Archives website for military genealogy  records  (http://www.archives.gov/research/military/genealogy.html) and used some search terms, but could not figure out the appropriate information for the above entries.  The NARA site is really difficult to use to find information like Series numbers, Record Group numbers, etc., at least for me.  Perhaps my readers have some handy hints?  So I consulted Evidence! Explained, and found excellent examples on page 604, which I used to create the entries above.  That was much easier than trying to wade through the NARA site, but it doesn't help me with pension files for service in other wars.

The "Add Source" window looks like this:


i. Click "OK" and you're back to the "Add Source Citation for Pension ..." window,
j. Fill in the template fields for:

* Citation detail: Alvina M. Seaver, widow’s pension application no. 738,086, certificate number 667,027, service of Isaac Seaver (Pvt., Co. H, 4th Massachusetts Heavy Artillery, Civil War)
* Citation text: [blank]

The "Add Source citation..." window looks like this:


k. To get the "Reference Note" for this source citation, click on the "Reference Note" tab:


The completed Reference Note source citation, including the Citation text, reads (source template elements in purple, citation details in red):

Alvina M. Seaver, widow’s pension application no. 738,086, certificate number 667,027, service of Isaac Seaver (Pvt., Co. H, 4th Massachusetts Heavy Artillery, Civil War), Widow's Certificate; Case Files of Approved Pension Applications ..., 1861-1934; Civil War and Later Pension Files, Department of Veterans Affairs, National Archives record Group 15; National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.

That matches the Evidence! Explained example very well, with the only small glitches I see being having "Widow's Certificate" after the citation detail, and capitalizing the word "Record" the the Record group entry.  I had to have an entry in the "Series" field, so I deleted "Widow's Certificate" from the Reference Note and edited the Reference Note to capitalize "Record" to give me:

Alvina M. Seaver, widow’s pension application no. 738,086, certificate number 667,027, service of Isaac Seaver (Pvt., Co. H, 4th Massachusetts Heavy Artillery, Civil War); Case Files of Approved Pension Applications ..., 1861-1934; Civil War and Later Pension Files, Department of Veterans Affairs, National Archives Record Group 15; National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.


As long as I don't click the "Reset" button on the "Edit source citation for Pension..." Reference Note tab, the citation as crafted above will remain in the system.

However (isn't there always a "however"?), there are many Facts that could be added for a Pension File - the soldier's application, the soldier's affidavit, the pension award, the requests for an increase, the widow's application, affidavit, award, etc.  How can that be sourced?

Let's use the "Declaration for an Invalid Pension" filed by Isaac Seaver on 11 June 1892.  The additional information for this document can be added to the "Citation detail" field so as to read (using the Evidence! Explained model again):

Declaration for Invalid Pension, 11 June 1892 (submitted by Isaac Seaver), Alvina M. Seaver, widow’s pension application no. 738,086, certificate number 667,027, service of Isaac Seaver (Pvt., Co. H, 4th Massachusetts Heavy Artillery, Civil War); Case Files of Approved Pension Applications ..., 1861-1934; Civil War and Later Pension Files, Department of Veterans Affairs, National Archives Record Group 15; National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.

I kind of winged it above, since Isaac Seaver filed this Declaration, but all of these papers are filed in the Widow's Pension File rather than the Soldier's Pension File, according to information on the NARA website.  So I think that the actual Pension File cited should be the Widow's File, since the Soldier's file appears to be included in the Widow's File.  I would appreciate comments on the appropriateness of that!

A user could create a series of Facts for the events provided in a Pension File by using the "Pension" Fact in Family Tree Maker (or by creating a new Fact type), and adding the location when the paper was created, and then adding a "Description" of the Fact.  For example, for the citation above:

Pension:  11 June 1892; Clinton, Worcester, Massachusetts, United States; Declaration for Invalid Pension (submitted by Isaac Seaver)

Now I'm wondering how that will look when printed in a genealogy report.  I created an Individual Report for Isaac Seaver, and the entry says:

Pension:  Declaration for Invalid Pension (submitted by Isaac Seaver)

That does not provide a date and a place for the Fact, even though the date and place were entered into the appropriate fields.  If I put the date and place in the Description, it shows:

Pension: 11 June 1892; Clinton, Worcester, Massachusetts, United States; Declaration for Invalid Pension (submitted by Isaac Seaver)

That works, but I think that I really should not have to do the work-around - FTM 2012 should put the date and place in the Fact list in the report similar to other Facts in the Report.

I seem to be finding niggling little problems with Family Tree Maker 2012.  That wasn't my original intention in this series of posts, but it seems to be turning into a series of complaints (which I think are justified).  This is a very powerful program, but it still needs development and attention to detail, especially in the source citation area.

Treasure Chest Thursday - Frank W. Seaver's (1852-1922) Death Certificate

...
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.

The treasure today is
Frank Walton Seaver's (1852-1922) death certificate in Leominster, Worcester County, Massachusetts....



I obtained this death certificate in person at the Leominster Town Hall (on election day - they were really busy!).

Here is the transcription of the death certificate (typed parts in italics, form lines underlined):


Commonwealth of Massachusetts
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
--------------
CERTIFICATE of DEATH
From the Records of Deaths in the City of Leominster,

Massachusetts, U.S.A.
======================
1. Date of Death: November 27, 1922
2. Name:  Frank W. Seaver
Maiden Name: [blank]
3. Sex, and whether Single, Male
Married or widowed: Widowed
4. Age: 71 Years 5 Months  22 Days
5. Color: White
6. Disease or Cause of Death:  Cerebral Hemorrhage
7. Residence: Not Listed
8. Occupation:  Sup't Home Supply Co.
9. Place of Death: Leominster Hospital, Leominster, MA
10. Place of Birth: Westminster, MA
11. Name of Husband or Wife: Hattie L. Seaver
12. Name of Father:  Isaac Seaver
13. Maiden Name of Mother:  Lucretia Smith
14. Birthplace of Father:  Westminster, MA
15. Birthplace of Mother: Medfield, MA
16. Place of Interment: Evergreen Cemetery, Leominster, MA
====================
I, AUDREY J. JOHNSON, depose and say that I hold the office of City Clerk of the City of Leominster, County of Worcester and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, that the records of Births, Marriages and Deaths required by law to be kept in said City are in my custody, and that the above is a true extract from the records of Deaths in said City, as certified by me.

Date of Recording: 1922

 WITNESS my hand and seal of said City, on the 17th day of September 19 90.
/s/ Audrey J. Johnson,

City Clerk.

The only mistake I see in this record is Frank Seaver's occupation:  He was a Superintendent of the Horn Supply Company, not the Home Supply Company. 

I checked the age at death (71-5-22) to check the birth date, and came up with 5 June 1852.  Frank's  birth date from the Medfield, Massachusetts record book and birth certificate is 5 June 1852.  Amazingly, I've been using 6 June 1852 for all of this time!  I corrected it in my database just now.

Since this form was typed in 1990, I wonder if the Leominster record book does not include the Residence and therefore the form typed in 1990 could not include the information. 

The form does not indicate the informant of this information.  It may have been his mother-in-law, Sophia (Newton) Hildreth (1834-1923) who lived in the same house at 149 Lancaster Street in Leominster, or it may have been one of Frank's sons - Fred W. Seaver or Harry C. Seaver. 

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

San Diego Genealogical Society Seminar on Saturday Features Lou Szucs

...
I'm really looking forward to the San Diego Genealogical Society (SDGS) Fall Seminar this Saturday, 12 November, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Crowne Plaza Hotel and Resort in Mission Valley (2270 Hotel Circle North). 

The featured speaker at this event is Loretto (Lou) Dennis Szucs of Ancestry.com.  Lou will present four talks:

*  A Dozen Ways to Jump Start Your Family History Project

This visually-rich presentation is designed to find new ways to overcome the challenges and solve the problems.

*  Hidden Sources

From Admiralty court records and almshouse and apprenticeship documents to pension applications, World War records and yearbooks, this is an alphabet soup of over 50 underused sources that can reveal surprising details about your family.

*  What's New in Family History

In an age of constant changes, new gadgets and technological advancements, it’s sometimes difficult to keep up with it all. This presentation will present an overview of recent publications and developments and ideas to keep current with all that’s new in family history research.

*  Getting the Most out of Ancestry.com

New databases are constantly added and the Ancestry team is regularly improving the search experience. Come and learn what’s new and get some great tips on using the Ancestry.com site most effectively.

The seminar cost is $35.00 per person for SDGS members or $40.00 per person for non-members. Registration includes seated luncheon. The Crowne-Plaza Hotel & Resort charges $4.00 for all day parking with event validation.

Exploring Family Tree Maker 2012 - Post 21: Creating a Cemetery Grave Marker Source

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See all posts in this series at Exploring Family Tree Maker 2012 Compendium.

One of my major criteria for selecting a "preferred" genealogy management program is the ease in creating source citations. I want to demonstrate the source citation creation process in Family Tree Maker 2012 in a number of posts for several different types of records, both for my own education and, hopefully, to help others navigate this fairly complex process.

Another Source record type is Cemetery grave markers.  I want to create a source citation for a grave marker in a specific cemetery that I have visited and have a photograph of.  I'm going to use my great-grandfather, Frank Walton Seaver (1852-1922) for this.  He is buried in Lot 68 of Section 6 of Evergreen Cemetery on Main Street in Leominster, Massachusetts, with his wife and son.

The process I used to create this source citation was:

a. Go to "People" workspace, and "Person" view for my great-grandfather, Frank Walton Seaver.
b. Select (single click on it) the Burial Fact.
c. In the right-hand panel in the "Source" tab, click on "New" and select "Add new source citation."
d. In the "Add Source Citation for Burial for ..." window, click the "New" button
e.  With the "Source template" window, click on the "More" button
f. Pick the "Cemetery Records" template from the "Select Source Template" list, then pick "Grave Markers" in the Category field, and "Rural Location" in the Template field. 

The "Source Template List" is shown below:


g. Click "OK"
h. The "Add Source" window opens, fill in the template fields with:

*  Cemetery:  Evergreen Cemetery
*  Location:  Leominster, Worcester County, Massachusetts
*  Access data: North on Main Street 0.8 miles  from town center
*  Comments: [blank]

The "Add Source" window looks like this:


i.  Click "OK" and you're back to the "Add Source Citation for Burial ..." window,
j.  Fill in the template fields for:

*  Citation detail:  Frank W. Seaver gravestone, Lot 68, Section 6; visited 25 August 2006 by Randy Seaver
*  Citation text:  Inscription:
Frank W. Seaver
1853-1922
Hattie L. Seaver his wife
1858-1920
Howard R. Seaver
1893-1900


The "Add Source citation..." window looks like this:


k.  To get the "Reference Note" for this source citation, click on the "Reference Note" tab:


The completed Reference Note source citation, including the Citation text, reads (source template elements in purple, citation details in red):

Evergreen Cemetery (Leominster, Worcester County, Massachusetts); North on Main Street 0.8 miles from town center, Frank W. Seaver gravestone, Lot 68, Section 6; visited 25 August 2006 by Randy Seaver.
Inscription:
Frank W. Seaver
1853-1922
Hattie L. Seaver his wife
1858-1920
Howard E. Seaver
1893-1900.

I created that source citation without looking at Evidence! Explained, using the hints provided by FTM 2012 for each field.. 

How did Family Tree Maker 2012 do?  Here is a source citation crafted for the above Fact using the Evidence! Explained model (Grave Markers: Rural, on page 213 (of the 2007 Edition):

Evergreen Cemetery (Leominster, Worcester County, Massachusetts; North on Main Street 0.8 miles from town center), Frank W. Seaver marker, photographed by Randy Seaver, 25 August 2006.

Family Tree Maker 2012 did pretty well with this citation.  The major difference is in the directions - they are within the parentheses in EE, but outside them in FTM2012.  The differences in the Citation details can be easily modified by the user to match the EE example.

The "Cemetery Records" templates include Categories and Templates for:

1.  Cemetery Office Records
**  Personally Used
**  Supplied by Staff
**  Online image
**  Preservation film - FHL-GSU
2.  Grave Markers
**  Rural location
**  Urban location
**  Online image
3.  Memorial Plaques
**  Memorial Plaque
4.  Derivatives
**  Cemetery abstract - vertical file
**  Cemetery abstract - card file
**  Online database

The Cemetery source citation templates in FTM 2012 seem to follow the Evidence! Explained examples fairly well. 

A Cemetery Marker source citation crafted for Frank W. Seaver's entry on the Find A Grave website would be (using the Cemetery Records > Grave markers  > Online image template) is:

Jim Tipton, Find A Grave, digital images (http://www.findagrave.com), (accessed 25 August 2006), photograph, gravestone for Frank W. Seaver (1853-1922), Evergreen Cemetery, Leominster, Massachusetts.
The Evidence! Explained model (Grave Markers, Images Online on page 216 of the 2007 Edition) for the Frank W. Seaver Burial Fact is:

Jim Tipton, Find A Grave, digital images, (http://www.findagrave.com : accessed 25 August 2006), photograph, gravestone for Frank W. Seaver (1853-1922), Leominster, Massachusetts.


Close, but not exactly the same.  Family Tree Maker could revise their source template to include the access date to more fully conform to the EE model.  I think that the cemetery name should be in the online image source citation in order to help readers know where the grave is located. 

(Not So) Wordless Wednesday - Post 178: Dinner in Oslo with Genealogists

...
I'm finished with photographs from our Midwestern vacation.  I scanned some photographs from our 1999 trip to Scandinavia, including a visit to Oslo and Voss in Norway.  I'll post some of these in the next weeks.

One of the highlights (for me!) on this trip was meeting three Norwegian genealogists in Oslo for dinner.  We had corresponded on the Norway mailing list on Rootsweb. 


The people in this picture are:  Odd Braathun, Elin Lihaug, Linda Seaver, Randy Seaver and Ole Kjolseth. 

for an overview of our trip, see:

*  General trip:  http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/norway/1999-08/0935265191
*  Voss research:  http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/norway/1999-08/0935354804
*  Liland Farm visit:  http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/norway/1999-08/0935465224

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Volunteer for Families for Forgotten Heroes and Unclaimed Persons Project

...
I received this press release from Skip Murray, the Genealogy Team Leader for the Families for forgotten Heroes (FFFH) and the Co-Director for the Unclaimed Persons project.

Both projects are worthy of your consideration in terms of volunteering to help them fulfill their mission..

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

Press Release from the Genealogy Team at Families For Forgotten Heroes
https://www.facebook.com/familiesforforgottenheroes



There are staggering numbers of veterans who are dying alone, homeless on the streets. Many Unclaimed Veterans are reduced to a can of ashes, sitting in storage on a funeral home shelf. Even if their families knew of their death, they couldn't afford to bury them.

There are groups out there who are researching the cremains in storage, trying to identify which ones are Veterans, and get them their proper military burial. One of these groups is the “Missing In America Project” http://www.miap.us/ (An amazing group that is also seeking volunteers to help in their mission). It is a good thing to see these Heroes honored and given the respect they deserve!

There is one final piece of the story that is still missing for the lives of these Veterans....

That piece is telling the Veteran's family that their Veteran has passed away and / or has been buried. There are two organizations that are trying to do something about this nation's epidemic of Unclaimed Veterans. Both groups seek to identify the Next Of Kin of Unclaimed Persons. One group specializes in only Veteran cases, the other group researches civilians and veterans. Both groups are working together on Veterans Day to raise awareness of Unclaimed Veterans, and to seek more volunteers to help us research these brave heroes, so we can find their families and send them home. If you are good at researching on the internet, you would be a valuable member to these groups. Please consider volunteering your time!

Veteran's Day Homecoming November 11, 2011. On Veteran's Day Families For Forgotten Heroes https://www.facebook.com/familiesforforgottenheroes and Unclaimed Persons https://www.facebook.com/UnclaimedPersons will be posting several new Unclaimed Veterans cases on their forums. FFFH will be one of the guests Friday night on the Geneabloggers Online Radio Show hosted by Thomas MacEntee. This episode is entitled "Our Veteran Ancestors: Military Records and Genealogy"  http://www.geneabloggers.com/.

Mark your calendars for a little volunteer work on Nove 11th to help UP and FFFH send this country's Unclaimed Veterans home, while listening to the radio show! The online radio show will give everyone an opportunity to learn about what FFFH does, how we do it, and how ANYONE can help us reunite deceased veterans with their families.

Skip Murray – Brainerd, MN
Genealogy Team Leader - Families For Forgotten Heroes
http://www.familiesforforgottenheroes.org/
Co-Director - Unclaimed Persons
http://www.unclaimed-persons.org/forums/index.php

Videos from Ancestry Day at San Francisco 2011

...
Nick Cifuentes, in Ancestry Day in San Francisco 2011 on the Ancestry.com Blog, highlighted the four new videos that were live-streamed from the Ancestry Day in San Francisco 2011. 

I watched each of them on Saturday while they were given, and enjoyed them and learned a few things from them.

The four available videos are about one hour long, and the links and video links are below::

Emigration & Immigration Records Online with Crista Cowan “Barefoot Genealogist”



How to Find Civil War Roots on Ancestry.com with Anne Mitchell “Ancestry Anne”




Five Quick Tips for Digging UP Answers at Ancestry.com with Jeanie Croasmun



Find them Fast: Secrets to Searching Your Family History on Ancestry.com with Laura Dansbury

Exploring Family Tree Maker 2012 - Post 20: Using a Generic Source Citation Template

...
See all posts in this series at Exploring Family Tree Maker 2012 Compendium.

One of my major criteria for selecting a "preferred" genealogy management program is the ease in creating source citations. I want to demonstrate the source citation creation process in Family Tree Maker 2012 in a number of posts for several different types of records, both for my own education and, hopefully, to help others navigate this fairly complex process.

In Exploring Family Tree Maker 2012 - Post 19: Creating U.S. Census Source Citations, I showed how to create United States Census source citations for records on Ancestry.com using two different Source Citation Templates in FTM 2012.  Unfortunately, neither of them created a "perfect" source citation that matched Evidence! Explained or QuickSheet standards. 

In Comments to that post, Jeff suggested:

"Randy, my first guess would have been the "Online Commercial Site - Generic (Census, Digital Image by Year and Location)" template. I tried it but it too differs from EE. I commented late on some of your earlier FTM citation posts, but I'm about convinced that the only practical approach is to use a program's Free Form source "template" (or really non-template). I've wasted so much time trying to get templates to work right (compared to EE), including experimenting the way that you have been. Unfortunately, FTM doesn't have a true Free Form option. It does have a "Basic" template but it is limiting as well."

Russ Worthington suggested the "Online Commercial Site - Generic (Census, Digital Image by Year)" template to me in email after my post was published. 

1)  Let's look at the "Online Commercial Site - Generic (Census, Digital Image by Year)" template.  In order to make this source citation as close to EE standards as possible, I had to "play with it" a bit.  I got there using this mouse thread for my particular 1900 US Census source citation:

a.  Go to  "People" workspace, and "Person" view for my great-grandfather, Frank Walton Seaver.
b.  Select (single click on it) the 1900 Census Fact.
c.  In the right-hand panel in the "Source" tab, click on "New" and select "Add New source citation."
d.  In the "Add Source Citation for Census for ..." window, click the "New" button
e.  In the "Source template" field, type "census"
f.  Pick "Online Commercial Site - Generic (Census, Digital Image by Year)" template from the list.
g.  In the "Add Source" window, fill in the template fields with:

**  Census year:  1900
**  Country: [blank]
**  Schedule:  T623
**  Website title: Ancestry.com
**  URL: http://www.ancestry.com
**  Year:  population

Here is the "Add Source" screen:


h.  Click "OK" when finished
i.  Back in the "Add Source citation..." window, enter the Citation Detail and Citation Text into the template fields. 

Here is the screen for this window:


j.  I unchecked the box for "Include citation text in reference note."
k.  Click on the Reference Note tab:


The completed Reference Note source citation is:

1900 census, population schedule, Worcester County, Massachusetts, Leominster, Enumeration District (ED) 1645, sheet 16-A, Page 264 (stamped), dwelling 258, family 371, Frank W. Seaver household; citing National Archives microfilm publication T623, Roll 692; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com).

The red part is the citation detail, and the purple part is generated by the source template.  Note that I had to put the NARA publication number and roll number in the citation detail.

For reference purposes, the Evidence! Explained citation crafted for this Fact is (from Post 19):

1900 U.S. census, Worcester County, Massachusetts, population schedule, Leominster, Enumeration district (ED) 1645, sheet 16-A, p. 264 (stamped), dwelling 258, family 371, Frank W. Seaver; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 21 April 2009), citing National Archives microfilm publication T623, roll 692.

IMHO, this FTM 2012 citation is a better representation of the EE format than the other two citations crafted from the specific Census Source Templates in FTM 2012. 

A user could use this template for all source citations for a specific year.

2)  I did the same exercise using the "Online Commercial Site - Generic (Census, Digital Image by Year and Location)" template suggested by Jeff.  Here's is the best I could do to match an EE crafted source citation:

1900 census, population schedule, Leominster, Worcester, Massachusetts, Enumeration District (ED) 1645, sheet 16-A, page 264 (stamped), dwelling 258, family 371, Frank W. Seaver household; citing National Archives microfilm publication T623, Roll 692; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com).

The red part is the citation detail, and the purple is from the source template.  Again, it is not perfectly to EE standards.

I had to add the NARA microfilm publication number and roll to the citation detail.  There is a template field for the microfilm publication, but it doesn't print out in the Reference Note citation. 

In this "Online Commercial Site - Generic (Census, Digital Image by Year and Location)" template, the EE format could be created by adjusting the order of the source template elements to print (purple is source template entries, red is citation detail entries, and blue is text added by the program):

*  Census year:  1900 U.S. census
*  Country: [blank]
*  County:  Worcester County
*  State: Massachusetts

* Schedule: population schedule
*  Civil jurisdiction:  Leominster
*  Citation detail:  Enumeration District (ED) 1645, sheet 16-A, page 264 (stamped), dwelling 258, family 371, Frank W. Seaver household
*  text:  digital image
*  Website:  Ancestry.com [in italics]
*  URL:  (http://www.ancestry.com)
Access date:  21 January 2009
*  text: citing
*  NARA microfilm and roll number:  National Archives microfilm publication T623, roll 692.

In order to exactly match the EE format for this source citation, FTM 2012 would have to add only the access date and the NARA Roll number to the source template, add the required text, and get the punctuation right. 

For this template, the user would have to create a separate source citation for each roll of microfilm used.

Thank you to Jeff and Russ for their suggestions, and I hope that this has enlightened FTM 2012 users, my readers, and the FTM developers. 

Some comments:

1) Jeff noted in his comment:

"...I'm about convinced that the only practical approach is to use a program's Free Form source "template" (or really non-template)."

I agree completely, and came to that conclusion myself back in May 2011, mainly because of the failure of the different programs and online trees in transferring template source citations adequately through GEDCOM to another program or website.

2)  Frankly, Family Tree Maker's source templates are the most difficult to use of the four programs I currently have (FTM 2012, FTM 16, Legacy Family Tree 7, RootsMagic 4), and the source citations that FTM 2012 crafts do not match the Evidence! Explained formats well.  I wish that it did, and that this issue will be addressed in the next program release.

3)  Some persons in the genealogy field will say "why are you so nitpicky about this?  Just use what they provide and get on with citing your sources."  My opinion is that other programs have provided EE-quality source citations using source templates, and that FTM 2012 should also be able to create them.  It is frustrating to take the time to use the source templates in the programs and have the result not match the EE formats.