Saturday, April 14, 2012

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Latin Genealogy Sayings

It's Saturday Night - time for some Genealogy Fun!!!

Your mission, should you decide to accept it (come on, it's easy this week, and you'll laugh) is to:

1)  Find some of your favorite sayings, aphorisms, jokes, etc. They can be genealogy-related, or not.

2)  Translate them into Latin using Google Translate (http://translate.google.com/?hl=en&tab=wT).

3)  Share them with us in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a Facebook status line or Google Plus Stream post (impress your non-genealogy friends with your Latin skills!).

4)  Of course, you could translate the Latin you read back (on my blog, or the blogs of others) into English (or your native language) using Google Translate too to see who was really funny, or mean, or romantic  If you want to be really fancy, you could translate your sayings into any other language that uses Google Translate and really confuse all of us.  

Here's five of mine:

*  Venit mi, ut i tibi mea genealogia spelunca

*  Ostende mihi si tibi ostendam tibi ahnentafel

*  Genealogia est non amatsuus an nimiam

*  Communio domus mea tergo insignia - quod rectum

*  Ego non adhæsitsum antecessor provocatus

Who can guess what these say in English?

Your turn - go for it!!!


The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/04/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-latin.html


Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

Surname Saturday - BARBER (England > Rhode Island)

It's Surname Saturday, and I'm "counting down" my Ancestral Name List each week.  I am now up to number 381, who is Anna Barber (1717-1800), one of my 6th-great-grandparents. [Note: The 6th great-grandfathers have been covered in earlier posts] 

My ancestral line back through three generations of BARBER ancestral families is

1. Randall J. Seaver

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

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

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

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

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


94.  Joseph Champlin (1758-1850)
95.  Nancy Kenyon (1765-????) 


190.  John Kenyon (1742-1831)
191.  Anna --?-- (????-????)

380.  Sylvester Kenyon, born 07 April 1710 in Kingstown, Washington, Rhode Island, United States; died 03 May 1800 in Voluntown, New London, Connecticut, United States.  He was the son of 760. John Kenyon and 761. Elizabeth Remington.  He married  07 April 1740 in North Kingstown, Washington, Rhode Island, United States.
381.  Anna Barber, born 08 October 1717 in North Kingstown, Washington, Rhode Island, United States; died Aft. 1800 in Sterling City, Windham, Connecticut, United States.  

Children of Sylvester Kenyon and Anna Barber are:  Giles Kenyon (1740-????); Sylvester Kenyon (1741-1838); John Kenyon (1742-1831); Abigail Kenyon (1744-????); Paul Kenyon (1746-????); Moses Kenyon (1750-1824).

762.  Moses Barber, born about 1652 in South Kingstown, Washington, Rhode Island, United States; died before 17 December 1733 in South Kingstown, Washington, Rhode Island, United States.  He married 24 March 1692 in Kingstown, Washington, Rhode Island, United States.
763.  Susanna West, born about 1666 in North Kingstown, Washington, Rhode Island, United States; died before 04 April 1756 in Charlestown, Washington, Rhode Island, United States.  She was the daughter of 1526. Francis West and 1527. Susanna Soule.

Children of Moses Barber and Susanna West are:  Dinah Barber (1693-1774); Lydia Barber (1694-1733); Samuel Barber (1695-1760); Susannah Barber (1697-1755);  Thomas Barber (1699-1762); Joseph Barber (1701-1779); Martha Barber (1703-????); Ruth Barber (1705-1755);  Benjamin Barber (1707-1792); Mercy Barber (1709-1790); Ezekiel Barber (1711-1782); Abigail Barber (1713-????); Daniel Barber (1714-1805); Anna Barber (1717-1800).

1424.  James Barber, born about 1620 in England.

The child of James Barber is:  Moses Barber (1652-1733).

I know nothing about James Barber or Moses Barber, other than the names of Moses' children.  I do have Moses Barber's will transcription from FHL microfilms of South Kingstown RI probate records.  

The URL For this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/04/surname-saturday-barber-england-rhode.html

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

Friday, April 13, 2012

San Diego Historical Maps

I love maps, especially historical maps.  Especially for San Diego, which I think I know intimately.  Canyons, plateaus, streams, streets, roads, buildings, waterlines, etc.

J. Paul Hawthorne, the CGSSD President, posted about a San Diego City Planning website today on Facebook with a number of historic maps in large PDF files.  The site is http://www.sandiego.gov/city-clerk/inforecords/historicalmaps.shtml.

There are links to a number of historical maps from the U.S. Geological Survey, Census Enumeration Districts, an Auto Club Map, a land plat map, etc.  What a gold mine.

Here is a snippet from the earliest map available of central San Diego (USGS Map, 1904):


What a fascinating document!  I zoomed in on the 30th Street neighborhood I grew up in:


The map image has enough resolution that I can zoom in to see what buildings were up in 1904.  As you may have guessed, I can see the two Carringer houses:


The third street up from the bottom of the image above is Hawthorn Street.  The middle street of the three running parallel in the middle of the image above is 30th Street.  The house at the corner of Hawthorn and 30th Streets is the house my great-grandparents built in the late 1890s, and that I grew up in (after a second floor was added and the house moved to the middle of the block in the 1920s).  The D.J. Carringer house is one block north and one block to the west at the corner of 30th and Ivy Streets.

I'll post about another very useful map on this site soon.

Thank you, Paul, for sharing the website URL on Facebook.  He was down at the County Administration Building today looking at San Diego Deed Index books (and the deed books on microfilm, I think)!  I need to do that some day soon.

Have you looked online, or been to the County or City administrative offices for your city or town?  Do they have historical maps like this that you might be able to use in your research?

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/04/san-diego-historical-maps.html

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

Creating a 1940 U.S. Census Source Citation in Family Tree Maker 2012

To my knowledge, a specific 1940 U.S. Census source citation has not been included in the Family Tree Maker 2012 genealogy program.  

However, the program already has at least five source citation templates in place that can be used for digital images found on a website like Ancestry.com. I used all five of them, adding content to the source and citation fields provided, to create the resulting source citations for my father's 1940 census record:

1)  Population Schedules - United States, 1880–1930 (by Census Year):

1940 U.S. census, population schedule, NARA microfilm publication T627, Roll 1651, Massachusetts, Worcester County, Leominster, enumeration district (ED) 14-160, sheet 6-B, family 113, Bowers A. Fisher household; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com).

2)  Population Schedule - United States, 1880-1930 (by Census Year and Location):

1940 U.S. census, population schedule, Massachusetts, Worcester, Leominster, enumeration district (ED) 14-160, sheet 6-B, family 113, Bowers A. Fisher household, accessed 12 Apr 2012; NARA microfilm publication T627, roll 1651; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com).

3)  Online Commercial Site - Generic (Census, Digital Image by Census Year):

1940 census of United States, Massachusetts, Worcester County, Leominster, enumeration district (ED) 14-160, sheet 6-B, family 113, Bowers A. Fisher household, accessed 12 Apr 2012; citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm T627, roll 1651; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com).

4)  Online Commercial Site - Generic (Census, Digital Image by Year and Location):

1940 census of United States, Population schedule, Leominster, Worcester, Massachusetts, enumeration district (ED) 14-160, sheet 6-B, family 113, Bowers A. Fisher household, accessed 12 Apr 2012); citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm T627, roll 1651; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com).

I find it interesting that none of those source templates in Family Tree Maker 2012 come close to matching the source citation model in Evidence! Explained or in the QuickSheet Citing Ancestry.com Databases & Images for census images.  I can create an EE-style source citation in Family Tree Maker 2012 using:

5)  Default template (not chosen from the template list):  

1940 U.S. Census, Worcester County, Massachusetts, population schedule, Leominster, Enumeration District (ED) 14-160, sheet 6-B, family 113, Bowers A. Fisher household; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 12 April 2012), citing National Archives microfilm publication T627, roll 1651.

In the above citation, only "1940 U.S. Census" is in the Master source field, and the rest of the citation is in the Citation Detail field.

This is, of course, one reason that I prefer to use a Free-form, or Basic Style, source citation for all of my sources.  It's a bit more work sometimes, but the sources get transferred to other programs, and online family trees, relatively cleanly using the free-form sources.  Having done hundreds of them now, I can do it from memory inserting the different numbers and names into the citation details.

Frankly, it shouldn't be that hard for Family Tree Maker 2012 to implement the EE-style source citations with the elements in the correct order - they have all of the pieces, but they need to put them in the correct order and use the standard words and punctuation.

Lastly, I know some readers think that I'm being a bit anal about this ("citation police" and so on), but it is important to get these things as right as possible so that we don't have to continually edit them in our databases or research papers/articles/reports/books.  Software should do the work to a standard, do it consistently, and permit transmission to other software and/or websites without being mangled.  <Anal rant off>

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/04/creating-1940-us-census-source-citation.html

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

Some Interesting 1940 U.S. Census Entries

Over on Twitter, @FACHWGCRSOB posted yesterday about an ED in Lincoln, Lancaster County, Nebraska that had some interesting notations.  It was in Roll 2253, ED 55-18, pages 31 and 37.

I was curious, so I checked them out:

a)  Here's a snippet from page 31 (Sheet 86-A, the Capitol Hotel):


Line 12 here is for Geo. M. Clark, and says to the left of his name "Sealed report to Washington."

b)  Another snippet from Page 31 (Sheet 86-A, the Capitol Hotel):


Line 18 is for C.A. Mattson, and says to the right of his name "States he was enumerated at his home in Hooper, Nebr. He is a teacher at the State University."

Line 19 is for J.L. Krick, and it says to the right of his name "Enumerated elsewhere."

Lines 26 and 27 also had persons "Enumerated elsewhere."

c)  A snippet from Page 37 (Sheet 89-A, the Hotel Grand):


Lines 13 and 14 are for J.P. Miller and his unnamed wife, and to the left of the names it says "Signed Report Sent."

I was curious about what the enumerator's instructions say about hotel residents, so I checked the 1940 Census Instructions for Enumerators (pages 22-24):

Persons Living in Hotels

341. Before 1 p. m. on April 8 call at every hotel in your district, leave the Hotel List (Form P-8) with the manager, together with a sufficient supply of Individual Census Forms (Form P-7) and return envelopes (Form 0-131) for each guest or resident employee. Note that this special procedure does not apply to apartment hotels or to sections of transient hotels which are entirely devoted to apartment rather than to transient use (see par. 426). Space is provided for the supplementary questions on every Individual Census Form, and the supplementary information is to be obtained from every person in the hotel.

342. Request the manager to list on the Hotel List all persons who spend the night of April 8 in his hotel, and any permanent guests whose usual place of residence is in the hotel, even though temporarily absent on the night of April 8. The manager is also to indicate on the Hotel List whether these persons are permanent or transient guests or employees. Request him to see that in the course of the evening each person receives an Individual Census Form and a return envelope.

343. On April 9 return to the hotel during the course of the day to collect the Individual Census Forms that have been left at the hotel desk for you. Examine each Individual Census Form and put aside all forms that have been incompletely or inaccurately filled out. On the evening of April 9, return to the hotel and interview personally, as far as possible, individuals whose names appear on the Hotel List for whom you have not obtained an Individual Census Form and those whose Individual Census Forms you have set aside as incomplete. Enter on the Hotel List, opposite the name of each person, the date on which the Individual Census Form is obtained.

344. Make as many return visits as necessary to obtain an Individual Census Form for each person. For permanent guests who are temporarily absent during the entire period of the canvass, follow the same procedure as that indicated for "Absent Households." (See par. 372.) 

345. If there are so many hotels in your district that it is impossible for you to enumerate all of them alone, notify your Supervisor sufficiently in advance in order that he may provide assistance for you.

346. After you have obtained all the Individual Census Forms from any hotel, you will separate them into two groups: (a) Persons who specify in answer to questions 2, 3, and 4 that they have a usual place of residence elsewhere at which they will be reported; and (b) all others.

347. For each Individual Census Form in the first group check the box "Nonresident" at the bottom of the first page, and hold for later delivery to your Supervisor (see par. 352).


348. Transfer of Information to the Population Schedule.The second pile of the Individual Census Forms will be from persons who are permanent guests of the hotel, or resident employees, or transient guests who will not be reported elsewhere. Transfer the information from these Individual Census Forms to the sheet of the Population schedule that has been reserved for persons enumerated as of the night of April 8th. These sheets will be numbered serially beginning with 81. You will already have entered on them the names of persons enumerated in tourist camps, trailer camps, flophouses, etc., if there are any within your district. Leave no line vacant, but following the name of the last person that you have entered on this separate sheet make the notation, "The following persons were enumerated in the ______ hotel, block ______ ," or "The following persons were enumerated in the _____ _ or "The following persons were enumerated in the _____ _ hotel in ______ which is unincorporated," before beginning the transfer of the information from the Individual Census Forms to the Population schedule.

349. Transfer the supplementary information into the space provided at the bottom of the Population schedule only for those persons whose names fall on the line numbers requiring it (par. 599), and disregard the supplementary responses on the Individual Census Forms for all other persons.

350. Do not assign a household visitation number to hotels nor to persons enumerated in hotels. In transferring information from an Individual Census Form to the Population schedule enter the letter "T" in col. 3 for the first person in each hotel and leave col. 3 blank for all others.

351. After transferring the information from the Individual Census Form, enter in the space provided at the bottom of the first page of the form, the sheet and line number of the Population schedule to which the information was transferred.

352. The two groups of Individual Census Forms, together with the Hotel Lists, are to be turned in to your Supervisor in your portfolio, along with the other materials, at the completion of the enumeration of your district.

That defined the enumeration process, but didn't really address the terms seen in the Lincoln, Nebraska census pages.  Page 28 provides instructions for Individual census forms, which contained a reference to a sealed envelope:

364. Individual Census Form.-Use the Individual Census Form to obtain information concerning members of households, including boarders and lodgers, who are absent at the time of your visit, and for whom the required details cannot be supplied by others; and to obtain information concerning persons Jiving or staying in hotels. (See par. 341.) 

365. Note that the Individual Census Form contains both the Population schedule inquiries and the supplementary questions. If you are sure that the individual's name, when entered on the Population schedule, will not fall on a line requiring the answers to the supplementary questions, indicate that the  individual is not to answer these questions by drawing a line through questions 29 to 43 on the Individual Census Form. 

366. Before leaving the form you must make the entries called for on the first page of the form and make. the proper entry in the Record Book.

367. Leave an envelope addressed "Census Enumerator" (Form C-131) wherever you leave an Individual Census Form. The form is to be filled out by the lodger or other person for whom it is intended, in accordance with the instructions printed on it, enclosed in the envelope provided, and sealed, and is to be called for by you later .

368. Do not fail to make a return call for every Individual Census Form which you ha,e left at any place in your district. It may be necessary for you to make several return calls for some of the forms or to call in the evening. You must obtain these forms, however, or get the necessary information from the person direct, or from  Lodging house keepers, neighbors, or other persons, as the enumeration of your district will not be complete unless you have obtained information for every person residing there.

369. Transfer the entries obtained on the Individual Census Form to the Population schedule (and to the space for the supplementary question responses if required) unless the person indicates in answer to questions 2 to 4 of the Individual Census Form that his usual place of residence is elsewhere and that there is some person at his usual place of residence who will report the required information for him. In the latter case check the box "Nonresident" at the bottom of the first page of the Individual Census Form.

370. In transferring the information forom the individual forms to the schedules, note that the numbers in parentheses after the spaces provided for the answers on the Individual Census Form refer to the corresponding columns on the population schedule. Note also that the symbol to be entered on the schedule is in some cases shown in parentheses immediately after the check-box on the Individual Census Form. These symbols are shown on the form in order to assist you in transferring the information to the Population schedule. If you have any difficulty in transferring the required information from the individual forms to the schedules, consult your Squad Leader or Supervisor for further instructions.

371. Save all Individual Census Forms filled out in the course of the enumeration of your district, including those for nonresidents, and turn them in with other completed work at the close of the enumeration.

There is much more in these Enumerator Instructions about HOW and WHY they did the enumeration as they did.

Did the enumerators do these hotels in Lincoln, Nebraska correctly?  I don't know - I don't have enough knowledge of the instructions yet.

My next question is even more important - how should those lines on the Lincoln, Nebraska census pages be indexed?  Should the name of the person be indexed?  What about the unnamed wife?  Should the notes on the lines be entered?

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/04/some-interesting-1940-us-census-entries.html

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

Follow-Up Friday - 1940 Census and More

On Fridays, I like to follow-up on blog comments and email comments from my readers, especially those that provide useful information to readers or that challenge my take on things.

1)  On Using the MyHeritage Mobile App, Anonymous wrote:

"Here are instructions for taking a screen shot with your iPhone:

http://www.ehow.com/how_4605966_screen-shot-iphone-screenshot-app.html"


My response:  Thanks - just what I wanted!  Blogging works, eh?  It's easy to do  - you just have to remember the process.

2)  On Feeding my Family Tree - Massachusetts Folks, reader WyoSpring commented:

"Randy this is my first post to you and have been wanting to write to you for a long time--don't see where I can just post a note to you about your blog as a whole which I REALLY LIKE. Tell me where I can do that. "

My response:  You can email me at rjseaver@cox.net.  The eddress is in my "About Me" section in the right sidebar.  Thanks for the compliment!

3)  There were several comments on my post Before Doing FamilySearch Indexing, RTFM, including:

a)  DianaR commented:

"*FANCY* - now I know what the F stands for...my mistake ;-) But then I work in aerospace and we have more ,um, interesting "technical" language being used!!"

My comment:  I was in aerospace too, but I thought that some of my genea-readers might not understand  the real technical term.  Ever hear of SRDH?  I thought so!

b)  Celia commented:

"Hah! I always tell my class (genealogy beginners) to READ HELP or the manual or the FAQ or whatever the website says will be helpful to the searcher. So, of course I was perfect and read that #@!* manual first. But the truth is that some handwriting (or weird printing) is very challenging to read, even when checking several pages for examples of an ending "e" or a middle "d" etc.... so I'm happy to be getting 98-99% on many, and 100% on some."

My response:  But do you use the aerospace technical language when you teach?  Yep, the handwriting is sometimes confusing, and my interpretation is not always the other indexer's interpretation.  I'm learning to accept correction.  Slowly...using with more technical language to make me feel better.

c)  Linda commented:

"I had actually read most of the guidelines and got a few 100%, but am mostly getting 98%...and one 92%!! When I go to review the "mistakes", I am finding that I am right about 99% of the ones marked as wrong!! It is quite frustrating. In those cases, I click the button asking them to review the entry again, but so far it doesn't appear that anyone has reviewed them!!"


My response:  I had some responses about the Review option on other posts (see below), Facebook and Google Plus - everybody said that nothing ever comes from clicking on Review.  My guess is that it's purpose is to make you feel a little better about being corrected (whether rightly or wrongly).  I know that I felt better clicking on it - "take that, you stupid indexer/arbitrator!  RTFM!"

4)  There were lots of comments in Accuracy in FamilySearch Indexing - My Results To Date - some were:

a)  Candace commented:

"There is a standard list for relationships. If you click on the drop down box in the relationship field and then select the bottom choice (I don't have a batch active now and don't remember the exact wording) you can select from a list.   My main complaint with the arbitrations is that the instructions say to correct the spelling of geographic locations, but whenever I have done that, the arbitrator has changed it back to what appeared in the record."

My response:  Thanks - I found it.  Another "Eureka" moment.  I know - RTFM.  BTDT.

b)  April Robertson offered:

"So with the relationships always use the lookup (drop down lists) first and then if you can't find it in there type what you see.  Blank lines should not have the line numbers included so the arbitrator in the one batch who put them in was wrong.

"As far as the review nothing will come back to you at this time. FamilySearch is working on a new indexing program that will have more features that the indexers have been asking for. Currently the review goes to a special team that looks them over and new updates are created from the reviews. It doesn't go back to the arbitrator and doesn't get redone unless the project has too many errors. Which has happened.

"Otherwise the problems are with the field helps and the spread out places where the updates and other information are located.

If you're on Facebook check out our share batch group if you ever want more help.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/unofficialsharebatchfsi/"


My response:  Very helpful information - thank you!  Clicking the Review button does permit me to use more technical language.

c)  Kimberly Powell noted:

"RE: Line Numbers The Project Instructions say "If an entry line on the census form is blank or has no data to be indexed, mark the record as blank in the data entry area." The important part of this instruction is "Record" as this refers to the entire record, including the line number (you can view each record individually in the Form Entry view). The easiest way to mark an entire record (line) as blank is to enter Ctrl+Shift+B while your cursor is in the line number tab location. The arbitrator that said the line number is required was incorrect to my knowledge."

My response:  Thanks!  Something else to read (I did!).  RTFM seems to be in several places... Does the arbitrator have to read the Project Instructions too?


a) Russ Worthington offered:

"I see that you were on Ancestry for that record. Hint: Rotate the page to the RIGHT if you have a Street Name. Rotate is back to the Left when you see your street name. BUT don't stop there, keep going til the end of that ED if you don't find who you are looking for. That street may or WILL appear on more than one page and probably NOT the "next" page. At the end, of the ED, may be a page of people who were not home when their house was canvased.  Glad you found who you were looking for and posted your findings."

My response:  Good suggestion, and it works.  It's relatively easy to see the street address number too.  
b)  Elizabeth commented:

"Another item to be aware of - a child with his step-father's surname rather than his own surname - see my post about all the errors in my Dad's household at From Maine to Kentucky."

My response:  Excellent tip.  All of this demonstrates that the enumerators were not perfect. 


copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Moe Howard (A Stooge) in the 1940 US Census

The Three Stooges made a short film about the 1940 Census - Denise Levenick highlighted it on her blog in The 1940 U.S. Census Stooges Style - No Census, No Feeling.  Watch it if you like The Three Stooges.

I wondered if Moe Howard, Curly Howard and Larry Fine were enumerated in the 1940 U.S. census.

I checked the 1940 Los Angeles (CA) City Directory, and found Moe Howard easily - residing at 540 N. Highland Avenue. But I did not find the other two.  Using Google Maps gave me the streets Rosewood, Oakdale and McCadden Place that define the block.  That led to the Steve Morse ED Finder and the ED of 60-265 for the block.  The Moe Howard family is enumerated on Sheet 5-A of this ED, household #94 (rents, for $100/month).



Moe's information is :

Name:  Moe Howard
Details:  Male, White, age 42, married, 1 year of high school, born in New York, resided same place in 1935.
Employment:  Worked 60 hours the last week of March, an actor, in motion picture industry, worked 52 weeks in 1939, and made more than $5000 in 1939.

He resided with his wife Helen (age 40, born New York); daughter Jean (age 13, born New York), daughter Paul (age 4, born New York - I know, it says daughter and marked as female); chauffeur Oren Heilman (age 25, born Minnesota, made $400 in 1939 working 52 weeks as a chauffeur);  cook Elouise Heilman (age 26, born Minnesota, made $400 in 1939 working 52 weeks as a cook).

I guess that we'll have to wait for the census index to find Curly and Shemp Howard and Larry Fine.

Now I'm wondering about Ted Williams and Babe Ruth.  Were they enumerated in their home towns, in Florida during spring training, or in the cities where they played baseball?  

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/04/moe-howard-stooge-in-1940-us-census.html

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

1940 U.S. Census Source Citation with Legacy Family Tree 7.5

While reading blogs this morning, I noticed that Legacy Family Tree 7.5.0.182 had been released in order to fix the 1940 U.S. Census source template.  So I updated my Legacy 7.5 program, and tried out the improved source template:

1)  I clicked on my father's name, opened his "Individual's Information" screen, and added a Fact for the 1940 Census.  I highlighted that Fact, clicked on the "Sources" icon and then clicked on "Add a New Source":


I entered "census" in the "What kind of source do you want to cite?" field above.  Note that I could have selected "census records" from the "choose the type of record from this list."  


2)  I clicked on "Search" and had to select from a very long list of census records.  Eventually, I found the 1940 U.S. Census with digital images:



3)  I clicked on the "1940 > Census records > United States > Federal census records > 1940 population schedule > Online images" line and clicked on the "Go" button.  The "Step 2. Fill in the fields below" page opened:



In the "Source Info" tab, I added information for the Source list name, state, county, website title, website URL, publish date, and format, as shown above.  Note that the database title ("1940 U.S. census"), the publisher (National Archives and Records Administration") and the Series ("T627") are already filled in.  


I could have added information in the "Text/Comments," "Repository," "Multimedia" and "Override" tabs also.


4)  I clicked on the "Save" button and the "Edit the Source Detail" screen opened.  Here, I added information for the City, Roll Number, Enumeration District, Sheet, Page, and Household Number.  



The screen above shows the information that I entered into the fields.


5)  I clicked on the Save button, and I was back to the "Assigned Sources" screen, and the Footnote/Endnote Citation, the Subsequent Citation and the Bibliography in the lower part of the screen:




The created Source Citations are (with the "Show Entire Source" radio button selected):

Footnote/Endnote Citation:
1940 U.S. census, Worcester County, Massachusetts, population schedule, Leominster, enumeration district (ED) 14-160, sheet 6-B, household 113, Bowers A. Fisher household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com); citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm T627, roll 1651. Cit. Date: 12 Apr 2012.  

Subsequent Citation:
1940 U.S. census, Worcester County, Massachusetts, pop. sch., Leominster, ED 14-160, sheet 6-B, house. 113, Bowers A. Fisher household. Cit. Date: 12 Apr 2012.  

Bibliography:
Massachusetts. Worcester County. 1940 U.S. census, population schedule. Digital images. Ancestry.com. http://www.ancestry.com : 2012.  

Creating this specific source citation was really easy using the Legacy Family Tree source template.  However, I would have to create a different master source citation for every County/State combination, since the Master source requires those elements.  

As stated previously, my preference is to create Free-form source citations (called "Basic Style" in Legacy Family Tree 7.5), that would have as elements for the Footnote/Endnote Citation:

Master Source entry:  1940 United States Census

Detail citation entry:  Worcester County, Massachusetts, population schedule, Leominster, enumeration district (ED) 14-160, sheet 6-B, household 113, Bowers A. Fisher household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 12 Apr 2012); citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm T627, roll 1651. 

The only change I made to the created citation was to put quotes around the database name, and put the "accessed date" element inside the website, both a la Evidence! Explained.  I also dislike abbreviations in my Footnotes.  

The resulting free-form citation from Legacy looks like:

1940 United States Census, Worcester County, Massachusetts, population schedule, Leominster, enumeration district (ED) 14-160, sheet 6-B, household 113, Bowers A. Fisher household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 12 Apr 2012); citing National Archiv.  

Oops, it cut off the last parts of the citation detail.  Is this because there is a limit on the number of characters allowed for the citation detail?  I count 255 characters in the created citation above.  Is that a GEDCOM limitation?  Has this always been in the Legacy source citation details?  I don't think I've looked for it before.  


UPDATE 1:50 p.m.:  I just looked at my Legacy database source citations, with the database imported from RootsMagic, and many census source citations are truncated as shown above because the Citation Detail is too long for the allowable field.  I have hundreds of source citations longer than 255 characters in my RootsMagic database.

I hope that the next generation of GEDCOM (or successor) standards permit more than 255 characters in the source citation detail field.  I think that limitation is too limiting for modern source citations that often have fairly long citation details and cite the original source data that was incorporated into online databases..


Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

Finding 1940 Census Images on FamilySearch.org

The 1940 U.S. Census images are available on Archives.gov (all states), Ancestry.com (all states), MyHeritage (all states), FamilyLink (all states) and FamilySearch.org (not all states).  The Ancestry Insider's latest "scorecard" of what is available where is at #1940Census Status Update for 11 April 2012.

I have been quickly reviewing Enumeration Districts on Ancestry and MyHeritage because they are easier to use than the records on the Archives and FamilyLink sites.  I have not tried to search EDs on FamilySearch.org until now.  I wanted to see how easy a search on FamilySearch for a specific Enumeration district and specific family was compared to the Ancestry and MyHeritage sites.

1)  The FamilySearch.org page for the 1940 U.S. Census is https://www.familysearch.org/1940census/: 


On the map above, a user can hover over any state and see the Image and Indexing status for that state.  Just below the map is the search fields for State, county and city/township or ED description.  I knew the ED number for my Carringer family (62-63A).  I input California, San Diego, and San Diego into the search field and saw:


This page told me that there were 208 EDs for the search terms.  Way down the page is ED 62-63A:


The order of these listings is unclear - it seems random to me.  If I did not know the ED number, I would be totally lost.  There are no links available to ED maps (that I saw...).  It would be a lot easier for users who know an ED number if the list was ordered by ED number.

Actually, there's an easy way to go directly to a specific ED number - the user can put the ED number in the "City/Township or Enumeration district" field on the search engine on the home page.  I went back and put State = "california" and City = "62-63A" and it easily selected the right ED:


Clicking on that link for ED 62-63A opened the first image of the 40 page images in the ED:


The user can use the controls on the menu line above the image (Full Screen, Zoom in, Zoom out, Rotate, Invert) to manipulate the image.  The image number is above the "Full Screen" menu item.  A user can go to a specific image number by editing the entry in the Page field.  On the top line (the one with the ED description) has advance arrows to move to the previous or next image on the far right next to the Search link.

The user can move the page image around using the mouse drag function (I call it "the magic hand").

I zoomed in a bit, then advanced to Page 2 (it took about 40 seconds) and was surprised that it took so long.  It took over 40 seconds for every page change on my computer.  I finally got to Page 34 of 40 and found my Carringer family.  It took over 30 minutes to do this.  Here is the page:


The user can Save the image, or print the image, using the controls on the right side of the menu line above the image.  I saved the image above (it was a 4.736 mb JPG file), and that took over 65 seconds on my computer.  

My conclusions on the 1940 U.S. Census on FamilySearch.org:

*  Provides a larger page image than Ancestry and MyHeritage
*  Access is free - it requires no registration
*  Navigation to a specific ED has no help tools (e.g., Steve Morse ED Finder and no ED Maps)
*  Navigation to another page is relatively slow (40 seconds to load an image)
*  The site is relatively slow to Save to a file (over 60 seconds)


Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

Treasure Chest Thursday - the Seaver 1940 Census Page

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

This week's treasure is the 1940 United States Census page with my grandfather and my aunt on the page.  




This is Sheet 9-A in Enumeration District 14-181 in Leominster, Worcester County, Massachusetts (accessed on www.ancestry.com).

Lines 19 and 20 provide information about my grandfather, Frederick Seaver and my aunt, Geraldine Seaver, who resided at 90 Main Street (household #202, home rented for $45 per month):





The information for them includes:

*  Frederick Seaver  (gave the information) - Head of household, male, white, age 63, married, 2 years of high school, born Massachusetts, lived in same place in 1935, worked the last week of March 1940 (40 hours), occupation is Foreman, and Industry is Viscoloid, earned $3000 in 1939 in wages, did not make over $50 in other income.


*  Geraldine Seaver - Daughter, female, white, age 22, single, 4 years of college, born Massachusetts, lived in same place in 1935, worked the last week of March 1940 (35 hours), occupation is music teacher, Industry is public school, made $1100 in 1939 in wages, and over $50 in other income.

The most interesting information in these records is the education, employment and salary information.

Frederick W. Seaver worked for the same company for many years.  For the years between 1913 and 1927, the family lived at 290 Central Street in Leominster next to the plant.  Viscoloid was a company that made products out of celluloid, like combs, brushes and hair ornaments.  The Wikipedia article for Leominster, Massachusetts notes that:

"The Viscoloid Company was incorporated in 1901. It was founded by Alexander Paton, the president of the company. He was accompanied by Ludwig Stross and his Secretary and Treasurer Bernard Doyle. In 1902, the partners started the Sterling Comb company which made dress combs and other hair ornaments. The men owned the Viscoloid Company, Harvard Novelty Company, and the Paton Company, but in 1912 the companies were consolidated under the name Viscoloid Company and later the Viscoloid Company Inc. By 1923, the company's capital reached three million dollars and had become the largest employer in Leominster. That same year, Alexander Paton resigned and Bernard Doyle became Chief Executive. He remained Chief until 1925 when the company merged with the DuPont company. The name was then changed to the Dupont Viscoloid Company. The company was the largest in the city, making dress combs, brushes, mirrors, toilet articles, hair ornaments, and other novelties."

The census return indicates that there were six families residing at 90 Main Street in Leominster, so it was some sort of multi-family dwelling place.  

The mystery for me is that my grandmother, Alma Bessie (Richmond) Seaver was not residing with her husband and daughter.  I have looked for and found the families of their three married daughters and she is not residing with them.  I have not found my uncle, Edward R. Seaver, in the census yet -he married later in 1940 and was probably living in an apartment as a single man.   I think that I will have to wait until the index is available to find them.  

A source citation for the record above is:

"1940 United States Federal Census," Worcester County, Massachusetts,  population schedule, Leominster: Enumeration District 14-181, Sheet 9-A, Household #202, Frederick Seaver household; online images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 12 April 2012), citing National Archives Microfilm Publication T627, Roll 1651.

The URL for this post is: http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/04/treasure-chest-thursday-seaver-1940.html

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Using the MyHeritage Mobile App

MyHeritage announced last week the upgrading of the MyHeritage app for Apple and Android mobile devices - see the press release at MyHeritage releases mobile app for on-the-go discoveries.  You can see more information about it on the MyHeritage Mobile App web page (shown below).



The app summary:


The MyHeritage Mobile App has four elements, as shown below:


They are:

*  Family Tree (your own Family Tree on MyHeritage)
*  Research (search billions of records on MyHeritage, including the family trees and the records on FamilyLink.com and WorldVitalRecords.com)
*  Share photos (capture, store and share your photos)
*  MyCeleb (discover your celebrity look-alike)

Here is what the Family Tree interface looks like:

 The Research feature looks like this:

Note that I used the MyHeritage images for the screens above, since I haven't figured out how to do a screen capture from my own iPhone yet.

I was most interested in the Research feature, since that is one of the new additions to the mobile app.

In the Research feature, there are five search fields - First Name, Last Name, birth Year, Place and Keywords.  I entered FirstName = frederick, last Name = seaver, Birth Year = 1876, Place = Massachusetts, and left Keyword = blank.

The app returned 591,886 results in 3.38 seconds.  The first 20 results included:

*  MyHeritage family trees for my Frederick Seaver (my own plus five more)
*  Ellis Island passenger arrival record for Frederick J. Seaver (born 1877)
*  1930 US Census record for Freerick L. Seaver (born 1875)
*  MyHeritage family trees for other Frederick Seavers (my father too, plus five more)
*  SSDI entry for Frederick F. Seaver (born 1958)
*  California Death Index for my father (born 1911, not 1876)
*  1860 US Census record for Frederick Seaver (born 1856)
*  1930 US Census record Frederick W. Seaver (born 1912)
*  1860 US Census record for Frederick Seaver (born 1848)
*  SSDI entry for Frederick Seaver (born 1901)

A search for First Name = fred and the other parameters surfaced more family trees (only one was mine) and the 1930 US Census for the right Fred Seaver.

A search for First Name = fred* and the other parameters surfaced both sets of results plus other spellings of Frederick.

The search used rank matching criteria - the items at the top of the results list had exact names, dates, etc., and gradually expanded the search for all of the criteria put in the search fields.

The "Research" tab on the MyHeritage web page uses the same search fields and matching criteria, but provides an Advanced Search box where the user can specify exact or similar name searches, can add a date range to birth and death date, can add a marriage date, or can add parents, children or spouses names.

All in all, the MyHeritage App is pretty good for what it does.  It does not have the "shaky leaf" feature from within the Family Tree like the Ancestry.com app has, but it does permit searching, while Ancestry.com does not permit doing record searching in their app (of course, the shaky leaves do the search for you).

Note that you have to have a MyHeritage account to use the site and the mobile app, and my guess is that you have to have a subscription to the FamilyLink/WorldVitalRecords record collections in order to use the Research capability.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/04/using-myheritage-mobile-app.html

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver