Saturday, March 24, 2012

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - #1 Songs

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

Tonight, we're going to go down memory lane a bit.

1) What was the #1 song on the day you were born? Or on your birthday when you were 18? Or when you married? Or some other important date in your life.

2) Go to http://www.thisdayinmusic.com/birthdayno1 and enter the date and select from UK, US or Australia record lists. Note: the first date available is 1 January 1946.

Alternatively, go to http://www.joshhosler.biz/ and enter the month and date and see a list of songs for each year since 1940.

3) Tell us what your results are (If you are sensitive about your age, don't list the date or year... ) on a blog post of your own, a comment to this post,  in a Facebook status line, or in a Google Plus Stream  note.

Here's mine:

* Birth date 23 October 1943:

From the http://www.joshhosler.biz/ site, #1 on that date was "Sunday, Monday or Always" by Bing Crosby (lyrics only, couldn't find a video or recording online)

* Age 18 on 23 October 1961:

From the http://www.joshhosler.biz/site, #1 was Runaround Sue by Dion and the Belmonts (YouTube video)

* Married on 21 March 1970:

From the http://www.joshhosler.biz/ site, #1 was "Bridge Over Troubled Water" by Simon & Garfunkel (YouTube video)

* During the time that I was really "into" popular music (1956-1970), the #1 hits on my birthday were:

** 1956. Don't Be Cruel/Hound Dog -- Elvis Presley
** 1957. Jailhouse Rock/Treat Me Nice -- Elvis Presley
** 1958. It's All in the Game -- Tommy Edwards
** 1959. Mack the Knife -- Bobby Darin
** 1960. I Want to be Wanted -- Brenda Lee

** 1961. Runaround Sue -- Dion
** 1962. Monster Mash -- Bobby Boris Pickett & the Crypt Kickers
** 1963. Sugar Shack -- Jimmy Gilmer & the Fireballs
** 1964. Do Wah Diddy -- Manfred Mann
** 1965. Yesterday -- The Beatles

** 1966. 96 Tears -- ?? & the Mysterians
** 1967. To Sir, with Love -- Lulu
** 1968. Hey Jude -- The Beatles
** 1969. I Can't Next to You -- The Temptations
** 1970. I'll Be There -- The Jackson Five

Surname Saturday - SMITH (England > Rhode Island)

It's Surname Saturday, and I'm "counting down" my Ancestral Name List each week.  I am now up to number 375, who is Renewed SMITH (1717-????), 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 SMITH ancestors is:

1. Randall J. Seaver

2. Frederick Walton Seaver (1911-1983)
3. Betty Virginia Carringer (1919-2002)

4. Frederick Walton Seaver (1876-1942)
5. Alma Bessie Richmond (1882-1962)

10. Thomas Richmond (1848-1917)
11. Julia White (1848-1913)

22. Henry Arnold White ((1824-1885)
23. Amy Frances Oatley (1826-before 1870)

46.  Jonathan Oatley (1790-1872)
47.  Amy Champlin (1798-1865)

92.  Joseph Oatley (1755-1815)

93.  Mary Hazard (1765-1857)


186.  Stephen Hazard (1730-1804)
187. Elizabeth Carpenter (1741-????)


374..  Daniel Carpenter, born 18 December 1712 in Westerly, Washington, Rhode Island, United States; died in  .  He was the son of 748. Solomon Carpenter and 749. Elizabeth Tefft.  He married 29 April 1733 in North Kingstown, Washington, Rhode Island, United States.
375.  Renewed Smith, born 08 May 1717 in North Kingstown, Washington, Rhode Island, United States.  

Children of Daniel Carpenter and Renewed Smith are:  Jeremiah Carpenter (1734-????); Sarah Carpenter (1736-????); Jonathan Carpenter (1739-????); Elizabeth Carpenter (1741-????); Daniel Carpenter (1744-????); Renewed Carpenter (1746-1810); Margaret Carpenter (1749-????); Mercy Carpenter (1752-????);  Hannah Carpenter (1754-????); James Carpenter (1756-????); Mary Carpenter (1759-1823); Stephen Carpenter (1763-1835).

750.  Ephraim Smith, born about 1680 in Portsmouth, Newport, Rhode Island, United States; died before 14 May 1733 in North Kingstown, Washington, Rhode Island, United States.  He married about 1710 in probably Portsmouth, Newport, Rhode Island, United States.
751.  Margaret Pearce, born about 1689 in Portsmouth, Newport, Rhode Island, United States.  She was the daughter of 1502. Daniel Pearce and 1503. Mary Weaver.

Children of Ephraim Smith and Margaret Pearce are:  Renewed Smith (1717-????); Margaret Smith (1719-????); Ephraim Smith (1722-????).

1500.  Jeremiah Smith, born about 1648 in Portsmouth, Newport, Rhode Island, United States; died before 11 April 1720 in Portsmouth, Newport, Rhode Island, United States.  He married 02 January 1672 in Warwick, Kent, Rhode Island, United States.
1501.  Mary Gereardy, born 11 October 1654 in New Amsterdam; died 1722 in Portsmouth, Newport, Rhode Island, United States.  She was the daughter of 3002. Jan Gereardy and 3003. Renewed Sweet.

Children of Jeremiah Smith and Mary Gereardy are:  John Smith (????-????); Ebenezer Smith (????-????); Sarah Smith (1678-1765); Ephraim Smith (1680-1733); Mary Smith (1682-????); Deliverance Smith (1684-1715); 

3000.  John Smith, born about 1621 in England; died before 24 October 1677 in Portsmouth, Newport, Rhode Island, United States.  He married about 1640 in probably Portsmouth, Newport, Rhode Island, United States.
3001.  Margaret, born about 1620 in England; died after 1677 in Rhode Island, United States.

Children of John Smith and Margaret are:  John Smith (1646-1730); Jeremiah Smith (1648-1720); Mercy Smith (1650-1697); Hannah Smith (1655-1713); Daniel Smith (1657-1707).

I have found very little published material on this SMITH family line, and have done none of my own research on this line.  I have found two interesting websites that appear to have information about John Smith of Prudence Island and some of his descendants:

*  The Bailey Family website -  http://nybirds.net/jsbailey/d184.htm#P6026.

*  Alfred Rose's family tree on Rootsweb WorldConnect -  http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=butchrose&id=I04677

Note that this is one of at least five John Smiths that resided in Rhode Island in the 1600s.  I'm related also to John Smith the Miller, but not John Smith the Mason (as far as I know).  However, there seems to be no connection between these two and John Smith of Prudence Island and Portsmouth.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/03/surname-saturday-smith-england.html

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

Friday, March 23, 2012

Fun with Tweets and Twits

Here are some of the "best" tweets concerning Ancestry.com this week (tweeters anonymous):


*  Wonder if anyone ever mixes up  and... 


*  According to , I'm third cousins, twice removed from David Letterman's mug


*    says we may be related. ~Floyd the Maltese. :-D


*  I'm addicted to . Admitting I have a problem is the first step. 11 more to go...just as soon as I finish my family tree


*  my HST teacher said she was using  and she found out that she's relates to charlemagne!


*  Breaking News: House Speaker John Boehner Joins  ~ Finds Out His Grandfather Was An Orange


*  omg, this  commercial... she made her grandma look like such a whore! lol


*   - the new  dating site


*  I give a different name when I'm signing up on  cuz its funnier that way. And my parents dont have records.. 


*   when hillbilly's use  as a dating site


*  .com should issue a disclaimer: not for seniors with OCD.


*  NBC's new show "Who Do You Think You Are" aka "Let's get  to advertise for life".” So true.


*  needs to check  bc too much of  applies to me and mine lol


*   what if you are a dirty Mexican living in the states. Does it still know a thing or two about your past???


*  I can't wait for my great great great grandchildren to go on  and find out I was a tranny porn star.


*  better check  first before you have lil retarded babies


*  omggg  just got 17 million Massachusetts records dating back to 1620??? brb setting up another free trial 


*  Ancestry. com is mainly for white ppl bcuz black ppls family tree will more than likely end in somebody being a slave...smh


*  Is  legit?


*  Lol I actually was tryna see if that  thingy worked but then i gave up cuz they were asking too many questions


*   will not get a cent of my money until they can tell me which apes I came from.


*  Im tempted to go on  but lets face... Im barely keeping up with the secrets i already know.


*  Did you know if you go on  that you will be bored?


*  For someone who treats his family like they're made of anthrax, I sure spend a lot of time on .


*  remember everyone has a hot cousin... Find yours now at


*  Diamonds are her best friend. I checked on  and her cousins are rhinestones. 


*  when we are all long gone, our great great great grand kids will get on ancestry .com and they will be taken to our twitter page


I couldn't resist doing this once I saw the richness.  These were just the clean ones!  I noted that most of these were relatively young people.  It seems to me that the Ancestry commercials and WDYTYA are raising the awareness of young folks.  I guess that's good!


The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/03/fun-with-tweets-and-twits.html



Follow Friday - This Weekend's Radio and TV Genealogy Shows

There are two television shows about genealogy and there are two genealogy-related radio shows on Blog Talk Radio (www.blogtalkradio.com) this weekend.  They are:

1)  Who Do You Think You Are? (NBC, 8 p.m. EDT, PDT, 7 p.m. CDT, MDT) -- This week the celebrity is Helen Hunt (a new episode).  


You can watch past episodes at http://www.nbc.com/who-do-you-think-you-are/.

2)  Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (PBS, 8 p.m. EDT, PDT, 7 p.m. CDT, MDT) -- This week the celebrity is Wanda Sykes.


The PBS web page for the series is at http://www.pbs.org/wnet/finding-your-roots/.  You can watch previews of this series at  http://video.pbs.org/video/2189457832/ 


3)  GeneaBloggers Radio -- this show is taking the week off.  Episode 60 will air next week with Thomas MacEntee hosting.
The show is  titled  TBD.   This show is on:


Friday, March 23, 2012
*  9 pm-10:30 pm Eastern US
*  8-9:30 pm Central US
*  7-8:30 pm Mountain US
*  6-7:30 pm Pacific US
*  2 am London UK

*  1pm Saturday Sydney AUS  

The show guests are:


*  TBD

Don’t forget that there is a chat room where all the “cool kids” hang out on Friday night! Sign in to BlogTalkRadio with your Facebook account or set up a free BlogTalkRadio account to join in the fun.

4)  FGS Radio - My Society, an Internet radio show on Blog Talk Radio presented by the Federation of Genealogical Societies.  This week's show is Ask an Editor: Publication Challenges to 21st Century Societies hosted by Randy Whited.  T
he show airs at:


Saturday, March 24, 2012
*  2-3 pm Eastern US
*  1-2 pm Central US
*  12-1 pm Mountain US
*  11 am-12pm Pacific US 


The special guests and features include:
 


Matt Wright, Editor of the FGS FORUM. Matt and Randy will discuss challenges and successes for society publications.
*  Paula Stuart-Warren, FGS Board member, as we start our series featuring speakers for the upcoming FGS 2012 Annual Conference in Birmingham.
*  In addition, we’ll be featuring FGS member society, Northern Arizona Genealogical Society, in our weekly Society Spotlight feature.
Tune in to FGS Radio – My Society each week to learn more about genealogy societies and join in a discussion of the issues impacting the genealogical community. 

You can also listen to the archived shows on Blog Talk Radio by going to the two show sites:

*  Geneabloggers Radio:  http://www.blogtalkradio.com/geneabloggers/

*  FGS Radio - MySociety: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/mysociety/   


The URL for this post is:  
 http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/03/follow-friday-this-weekends-genealogy_23.html

Copyright (c) Randall J. Seaver, 2012.
  

Press Release: Generations Publishes Kids Textbooks

I received this press release from geneablogger Jennifer Holik:

Chicago, Illinois – March 23, 2012: Professional Genealogist, Jennifer Holik, of Generations publishes six new genealogy textbooks for kids. Parents, teachers, and genealogical societies looking for a how-to genealogy textbook for elementary through high school-aged students need to look no further. In Branching Out, a new series available from Generations, author and professional genealogist Jennifer Holik provides parents and educators with the tools they need to teach genealogical research skills to children and teens.

Through thirty fun and educational lessons, students will learn the foundations of genealogy and how to begin research on a level that they can understand and enjoy. Each lesson contains a clearly defined goal, all necessary vocabulary, additional reading assignments, and lesson and homework assignments to extend understanding of the concept.

The Branching Out series of books begins with six paperback textbooks which are also available as a PDF or PowerPoint download. The PowerPoint files, which were created with the visual and hands-on learner in mind, contain the same information as the textbooks with a few fun and interactive extras.

The Branching Out: Genealogy Lessons for Adults will be released in April with additional books for families, genealogical societies, and educators to be published later in 2012.

The books are available on CreateSpace in paperback form at the links provided. The PDF and PowerPoint files are available at the Generations Store at: http://www.e-junkie.com/generations


If you live in the Chicagoland area, you can meet Jennifer and purchase books at the Fountaindale Public Library’s Author Fair on Saturday, April 14, 2012. For more information visit the Generations Blog

Thursday, March 22, 2012

My First Look at FamilySearch Family Tree - Post 1

After watching Ron Tanner's video presentation at RootsTech 2012 about the FamilySearch Family Tree (not currently available), and knowing that there was a Beta test of the improved Family Tree in operation, I wanted to be invited to see how the FamilySearch Family Tree looks, feels and works. One of my friends invited me yesterday and I took advantage of it.  Previously, I added about 400 persons to the New FamilySearch (NFS) database using RootsMagic and their interface with the NFS tree.  My last post about the Family Tree was What is the Status of the FamilySearch Family Tree?

After accepting the invitation, and after logging into FamilySearch, the FamilySearch home page (https://www.familysearch.org/) now has a "Family Tree" item in the top menu line (to the right of the FamilySearch logo):


Clicking on the "Family Tree" menu item opened the Family Tree with myself in the #1 position.  I clicked on the right arrow for my grandfather, Frederick Walton Seaver, and two more generations appeared, as seen below:


There are several menu items at the top of the Family Tree page - "Tree" (shown above), "Ancestor," "Search," "Watchlist" and over on the right, "History."  If you click on the "Ancestor" menu item, you go to the page for the person in the #1 position on the tree.

The user can move this page around by dragging and dropping the mouse button, and can click on the right arrow next to a person to see two more generations and navigate to earlier generations.

If you click on a person's name in the Family Tree, then a popup box comes up with the person's name, birth information, and death information.  I clicked on Isaac Seaver's name and saw:


This popup box has links for "View Tree," "View Ancestor," and "Watch."  When you click "View Tree" you see the person, and the children of that person to the left of the person.  I clicked on the "View Ancestor" link and saw all of the information for Isaac Seaver (four screens below):





The information in blue is clickable so that it can be edited.  When I clicked on the Death Fact, the Death information was expanded so it could be edited:


On the screen above, the "Deceased" button is selected, the Death Date is shown (and it tells me it's in the correct format - Day-Month-Year), the place name is shown (and it tells me that it's in the correct format (Town-county-State-Country), and an "Evidence and Analysis" box is shown.  If the date and place are not in the correct format, I could edit them and, hopefully, conform them to the standard.

I can add information to the "Evidence and Analysis" text box to explain my conclusion for the Fact.  I'm not sure if there are examples for this, so my thought is to add a summary like:

"Death certificate and probate record indicate that Isaac Seaver died on 12 March 1901.  See sources for details."

I have not seen enough information yet to understand what information has been included in the FamilySearch Family Tree.  I have many questions, including:  Are all assertions included for a Person and relationships of that person?  How do I edit the information?  How do I delete information?  How do I remove a relationship from the tree?

How do I add a Source?  I'll look at that task in the next post in this series.

The URL for this post is: http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/03/my-first-look-at-familysearch-family.html

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

Finding Addresses of People in the 1940 U.S. Census Using City Directories

After writing Where Were My Peeps in 1940? yesterday, I went hunting for the addresses of my father's family and his sibling's families in the City Directories collection on Ancestry.com.   Ancestry.com has a wealth of small and large city directories from the 1940 time period in their U.S. City Directories collection.

Fortunately for me, Ancestry.com has City Directories from 1880 to 1963 for Leominster, Massachusetts, where my Seaver family resided.  A search for [fred* w seaver] in the search box in 1940 in Leominster did not find him.  Deleting the 1940, the search found 43 matches in Leominster, but not for 1940.  Plan B was to browse the 1940 City Directory for Leominster for my Seaver families.  Here is the database search field and the browse entries:


Note that there are dropdown boxes in the "Browse this collection" area (on the right) for State, City or county, and Year.  Once the boxes are filled in, a link to the available city directories is provided.  I clicked on the link.

The link took me to the first image of the selected directory.  I noted that there were 432 images in this directory, so I put 300 in the image number box, and quickly found the Seaver listings on Image 320:


Aha.  Frederick W. Seaver, his wife A. Bessie, his son Edward R., his son Frederick W. Jr, and his daughter Geraldine all resided at 90 Main Street in Leominster. As a result of this, I went back this morning and edited my earlier post to find the ED of 90 Main Street in 1940 (it was ED 14-181).  

Now I want to find the EDs for the three married daughters of Fred and Bessie Seaver.

1)  Marion Braithwaite - the 1940 Leominster City Directory said that she lived with her husband Irving Braithwaite at 16 Walnut Court in Leominster.  Using the Steve Morse ED Finder, that is in ED 14-181.

2)  Ruth Fischer - the 1940 Leominster City Directory said that she lived with her husband Bowers A Fischer at 918 Main Street in North Leominster.  The cross and back streets are, from the current Google Map, Keystone, Eastern and Industrial.  These streets are not in the Steve Morse ED Finder.  I went to the NARA 1940 ED Map website (http://www.archives.gov/research/search/) and by comparing the streets on that map with the current Google Map, I was able to determine that the ED was 14-160, as shown below (918 Main Street is near the intersection of Lincoln and Main):


3)  Evelyn Wood - the 1940 Leominster City directory did not list her or her husband, Walter H. Wood.  I checked the Lawrence, Massachusetts City Directory and there was a listing for Walter H. Wood.  It said he worked in Lawrence, but resided in Salem, New Hampshire.  There is no 1940 City Directory available for Salem, N.H.  The Steve Morse ED Finder was used to find the small town or rural ED numbers for Salem - it is either 8-69 (north of route 28) or 8-70 (south of Route 28).  The ED description for ED 8-69 is:

"SALEM TOWN N OF A LINE BEGINNING WHERE STATE ROAD 28 CROSSES WESTERN TOWN LINE, THEN SOUTHERLY ALONG CENTER OF STATE ROAD 28 TO BROADWAY IN SALEM DEPOT, THEN ALONG CENTER OF BROADWAY TO STATE ROAD 28, AND THEN ALONG CENTER OF STATE ROAD 28 TO SOUTHERN TOWN LINE; CANOBIE LAKE (PART), HAMPSHIRE ROAD (PART), NORTH SALEM, SALEM, SALEM DEPOT (PART)"

I know that they lived on Main Street just east of Broadway, so I think that it should be ED 8-69.

Lastly, I was curious as to why the search for Fred* W. Seaver in the 1940 Leominster City Directory did not find him.  The reason was, apparently, he was not the first Seaver listed on the page.  A search for Edward Seaver with Lived In = Leominster found him in the 1940 City Directory.  A search for just Seaver and Lived In = Leominster and Year = 1940 found the same listing.  Apparently, Ancestry.com did not index every person in the City directories, only the first name in a surname listing.  

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/03/finding-addresses-of-people-in-1940-us.html

copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

Treasure Chest Thursday - David D. Smith Articles

It's Treasure Chest Thursday - a time to reveal another gem in my treasure chest of family history.  

This week, it's two newspaper articles.  The first one is from the San Diego Union dated 26 November 1908 (page 5, accessed on GenealogyBank):  




The information in the Marriage Licenses section of the newspaper pertaining to David D. Smith is:

"Smith-Ashdown -- David D. Smith, aged 45, native of Wisconsin and Amy A. Ashdown, aged 31, native of California, both residents of San Diego."

I had this information before from a San Diego County marriage index (they married 25 May 1908), but I have always wondered about their daughter, Maybelle C. Smith, born in 1902 in San Diego.  In the 1910 census, David and "Emma" are listed as being married for nine years, and daughter Mabelle is age 8.  I still don't know if she was David's natural daughter, or if he adopted her.  

The second article was published in the San Diego Union newspaper dated 3 February 1920, page 5 (accessed on www.genealogybank.com):  




The notice says:

"SMITH - In this city, Feb. 2, 1920, David D. Smith, husband of Amy A. Smith, father of Miss Mabelle Smith and Mrs. Howard DeFrance of this city, son of Mrs. J.D. Smith of Los Angeles, Cal., and brother of Mrs. Della Carringer of this city, and Mrs. Matie Cramer of Portland, Ore.;  a native of Wisconsin, aged 56 years 3 months 17 days.

"Friends are invited to attend the funeral services to be held at the Benbough funeral parlors, Wednesday, Feb. 4, at 2 o'clock p.m.  Cremation Clover Lawn crematory.  Please omit flowers."

Death notices like this are very helpful when they list the family members.  This provided me with information  on the location of David's mother (actually Mrs. D.J. Smith) and his sister, Matie (Smith) (Chenery) Cramer, and the married name of his first daughter.  

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/03/treasure-chest-thursday-david-d-smith.html

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver