Saturday, October 6, 2012

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun -- Image Caption Time!


Hey genealogy buffs - it's Saturday Night again --
 time for more Genealogy Fun!!



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



1)  Look at this image:




2)  What is a funny, or serious, Title for this book, if it was a genealogy book (yours, or someone else's)?

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

Here's mine:

a)  Funny:  The Big Book of Smith Families Through Ten Generations

b)  Funny but accurate:  A Genea-Musings Blog Compendium

c)  Serious:  Randy Seaver's Genealogy and Family History through 20 Generations, with Links to the English Kings and European Royalty; including Descendants of Robert Seaver of Roxbury, Massachusetts.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/10/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-image.html

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

Surname Saturday - SHEPARD (England > Massachusetts)

It's Surname Saturday, and I'm "counting down" my Ancestral Name List each week.  

I am in the 7th great-grandmothers, up to number 527: Sarah SHEPARD (1667-1746). [Note: The 7th great-grandfathers have been covered in earlier posts].

My ancestral line back through two American generations of this SHEPARD family is:

1. Randall J. Seaver

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

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

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

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

32. Benjamin Seaver (1791-1825)
33. Abigail Gates (1797-1869)

64. Benjamin Seaver (1757-1816)
65. Martha Whitney (1764-1832)

130.  Samuel Whitney (1719-1782)
131.  Abigail Fletcher (1720-1783)


262.  John Fletcher (1692-1749)
263.  Mary Goble (1694-1734)



526.  Thomas Goble, born 21 May 1656 in Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States; died 10 March 1723/24 in Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States.  He was the son of 1052. Thomas Goble and 1053. Ruth.  He married  04 July 1686 in Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States.
527.  Sarah Shepard, born about 1667 in probably Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States; died 07 May 1746 in Weston, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States.  
Children of Thomas Goble and Sarah Shepard are:  Sarah Goble (1692-1728); Stephen Goble (1694-????); Mary Goble (1694-1734); John Goble (1696-????); Abigail goble (1697-1723); Thomas Goble (1714-1714).

1054.  John Shepard, born about 1633 in England; died 15 December 1699 in Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States.  He married before 1661 in probably Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States.
1055.  Sarah Goble, born before 27 March 1638 in Charlestown, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States; died 30 November 1717 in Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States.  She was the daughter of 2110. Thomas Goble and 2111. Alice Brookman.
Children of John Shepard and Sarah Goble are:  John Shepard (1661-1690); Mary Shepard (1663-1727); Martha Shepard (1663-????); Rachel Shepard (1665-1724); Sarah Shepard (1667-1746); Dorothy Shepard (1669-1746); Daniel Shepard (1673-1734).

The biography and descendants of John Shepard of Concord was ably covered in:

Gerald Faulkner Shepard, edited by Donald L. Jacobus, The Shepard Families of New England, Volume III, Additional Family Groups (New Haven, Conn. : New Haven Colony Historical Society, 1973).

This book did not provide a set of parents or siblings for John Shepard.  There are many online family trees (e.g., at Rootsweb WorldConnect and Ancestry Member Trees) that assign John Shepard to Ralph and Thankslord (Perkins) Shepard who settled in Concord around 1660.  I don't know if these assertions are correct.  Does anyone have probate or land records that describe John Shepard as the son of Ralph Shepard?  Perhaps John is a nephew of Ralph.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/10/surname-saturday-shepard-england.html

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

Friday, October 5, 2012

My Top 10 Genealogy Tools

Jill Ball wrote her own blog post on this topic - Family History Through the Alphabet – T is for … Ten on the Geniaus blog.  Thanks for the idea, Jill!

The definition of "Tool" is:

 "tool is any physical item that can be used to achieve a goal, especially if the item is not consumed in the process. Informally the word is also used to describe a procedure or process with a specific purpose."  -- Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tool)

That is fairly broad.  When Jill did this, she included software program and websites that perform a function.  I will keep that in mind.

Here are my Top Ten Genealogy Tools - in alphabetical order.

*  Adobe Reader (http://get.adobe.com/reader/) -- This FREE program permits readable documents across platforms.  I use it to transmit research reports, articles, magazines, presentations, etc. to myself or other persons.

*  Apple iPhone 4 -- I use my iPhone to take Photos, check calendar, read email, read blogs, check Facebook, check Twitter, check maps, access my family tree (Ancestry and MyHeritage), Evernote, Dropbox, Shoebox, Billion Graves, and more. 

*  Blogger (www.blogger.com) -- I'm in this FREE blog platform at least 3 hours a day writing, editing, or deleting.

*  Dropbox (www.dropbox.com) -- I use this FREE (up to 2.5 gb) file storage system almost every day, and can sync files, photos, etc. between my desktop, laptop and mobile devices.

*  Google (www.google.com) -- I use this FREE website for Search, Mail, Calendar, Chrome, Maps, Images, News, Alerts, Translate, Books, Drive, and more.  What's not to like here?

*  Google Reader (http://www.google.com/reader) -- I'm on this FREE blog reader an hour or two a day to keep track of genealogy news.

*  HP 6350 Photosmart C6350 All-in-One Printer -- I print, photocopy and scan using this device.  Reliable, quality, but not free -- the black ink costs about $4,000 per gallon, and the color ink costs about $10,000 per gallon.

*  OpenOffice 3.3 (www.openoffice.org) -- my FREE word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation program of choice.

*  RootsMagic 5 (www.rootsmagic.com) -- This is my favorite genealogy management program at this time, I'm in it 0 to 4 hours a day.

*  Thunderbird (http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/) -- My email program of choice was FREE - I can direct all of my email addresses here, then read them, put them in folders, delete them, save them to files, etc.

There's my list.  I do have four other genealogy management programs that I use every week (Family Tree Maker 16, Family Tree Maker 2012, Family Tree Builder 6, and Legacy Family Tree 7.5), but I don't "work" in them - I just use them to do tasks that I need done.  In my Top 20, I would add the Windows 7 Snipping Tool, PhotoScape for Photo Editing, Evernote, my Samsung Tablet (I use it mainly to serve as a cell hot spot), etc.

What is your list of Top Ten Genealogy Tools that you use to perform tasks that further your genealogy research?

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/10/my-top-10-genealogy-tools.html

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

Follow-Up Friday - Helpful Reader Comments

It's Follow-Up Friday - time to review some of the Reader Comments that might help other readers, or that ask a question that I can answer.

1)  On Massachusetts Town Clerk, Vital, and Town Records on FamilySearch (28 September 2012):

*  Geolover asked:  "As for your citation, when getting the image data from a microfilm collection, wouldn't the microfilm number be a requisite element?

"You say Ancestry.com does not have Sudbury images "yet." Are you sure that the selective microfilm collection they've uploaded included this?"


My responses:  The FHL microfilm number could be very useful to a researcher, and could be added to the source citation by adding "(also accessible on FHL US/CAN Microfilm 1,234,567)" or similar to the Source Citation Detail.  The microfilm number could be taken from the first image in the specific collection, or by looking it up in the Family History Library Catalog.  The most  important item to cite (and I didn't do it initially) is the exact record set title (i.e., "Births, marriages, deaths, 1663-1829, Vol. 4," such as I did in my source citation.

I think that Sudbury was in the Holbrook collection.  It is one of the 54 towns listed on Ancestry's page for this database at http://search.ancestry.com/search/dbextra.aspx?dbid=2495.  I erred, obviously!  There are 315 towns in the Holbrook collection, so there should be many more additions to the Ancestry collection.  

2)  On Guest Post - Old German Script Need not Fade (29 September 2012):

*  bgwiehle noted:  "Old German handwriting styles are not the problem. Letter lists and sample texts are available, also tutorials like those at FamilySearch. It's not that difficult.  The bigger issues are knowledge of the language itself, including abbreviations, archaic words and spellings and cultural context, and the preservation quality of the document itself. This is true of any older text, any language. Reading older documents takes practice (and a little luck with the writer's penmanship), but it is doable."

My response:  Thanks, good information.


*  Andrea noted:  "Custom reports in RM have been a struggle for me since the beginning so I share your pain & avoid them as much as possible. I've had some luck, however, creating subsets of the database by creating groups of people who meet specific search criteria. You can then run RM reports on the group instead of everyone in your database or selecting individuals from the list each time.

"As a test, I created a group for individuals who had any fact place containing "Los Angeles" AND any fact source that "does not exist" using dropdown menus using Find in the Select People option. I then ran a list individuals report to display facts sorted by person. See "Working with Groups" in the help section for more info."


My response:  Ah, create a group!  Is that the key?  I will try it.  Thanks!


*  Nettie said:  "Any of the reports can be saved as a rtf form and come up in a word processing file and THEN you can sort or change them. I do that all the time."

My response:  Thanks.  I usually use PDF because the RTF file that RootsMagic creates doesn't open in my OpenOffice word processor.  It does open with Wordpad, however.  My choice.

Another factor for me is that, for narrative reports, I want to create a title page, an introduction, etc. to the report that RootsMagic creates.  If I edit the RTF report to add pages, that messes up the Index.


*  Randy said: "When I had my info online I received many more contacts from spammers than serious inquiries. This method does look interesting however."

My response:  That's one reason why I did it previously in HTML on a web page, and now in PDF format rather than in blog posts - to avoid the spammers.  They could email me but they get no online exposure and no response - so a waste of their time and effort.

I'm surprised that there have been over 680 reads of one of my PDF reports that I have on Scribd. There is an option to "Comment" on the PDF report, but nobody has yet.  


*  Russ asked:  "Have you put your Place Names into the Place Name Authority format? If so, you can put the full Place Name into the "Contains" field, where you just entered Sudbury.

"OR: You can < filter out "Sudbury, Suffolk, England"

"A real benefit of putting Place Names into the PNA authority format."


My response:  I tried putting the exact Place Name "Sudbury, Worcester, Massachusetts, United States" into the "Contains" field and it treated them as OR search terms - it found whatever place name had any one of them.  I tried putting it in quotes and that didn't work either.

No, I haven't used the PNA feature yet, Russ.  Thanks for the suggestion.  I know you did a blog post on it at http://ftmuser.blogspot.com/2012/09/ftm2012-704-place-name-hierarchies_23.html.


*  Connie Sheets offered (concerning creating a report for unsourced events in a specific place):  "Yes, it can be done.

"(1) If necessary, clear any previous tagging you've done. 
(2) From the Location list, tag everyone with a Sudbury, Mass. location.
(3) Go to the Search menu and click on the Missing Sources tab.
Check what type of Missing Source list you want (I'd guess Anything might be your best bet, but you might want a list of only Birth data, or only Death data, etc.)
(4) Click on Create List. This will give you a list of everyone in your database with Missing Sources, but notice that some of them (the ones with a Sudbury location) will be Tagged.
(5) Click on the Search button at the bottom of the list, choose Show All Tagged, then Tag 1 individuals. This will convert your list of people with missing sources to only those people with Sudbury locations.
(6) Click the Print button at the bottom of the list, and choose the options you want from the various tabs. For example, on Row 1 you might want to print the birth and death data, or only the burial data, etc.
From there, you can click Preview, Print, or Save as per usual."


And:  "Clarification re: Step 5 in my above comment:
(5) Click on the Search button at the bottom of the list, choose Show All Tagged, then Tag 1 individuals. This will convert your list of people with missing sources to only those people with missing sources AND a Sudbury location."

My response:  Thank you, Connie.  That helps, although it seems complex just reading it.  To my simple mind, I think that a Place report with a check box for a specific place and another to find all unsourced Events would be easier to figure out and use.  I really do like simple!  


*  Kay Haden noted:  "I've been trying this today. I've discovered two things. The persons who report they are unable to merge have no dates at all and I think are therefore thought to be "living". I suspect this may have something to do with the Merge. I also noticed that a few times, the attempt to merge to people that did have dates and data, reported they could not merge, but if I waited for a bit, they went ahead and merged and disappeared from the reported Duplicates."

My response:  Excellent observation.  I thought that I had seen that, but could not duplicate it.  I think the IOUS problem is real - you can't merge them.  The others with limited information (no data, no parents, no children, no dates, no locations) may get merged after all.

My thanks to all of my readers for fighting through the Captcha trap and writing helpful and friendly comments.

I do get some spam comments, and Blogger is pretty good at putting them where their words don't shine.  I did get an interesting one from Anonymous last week:

"Hi! I just wanted to ask if you ever have any problems with hackers? My last blog (wordpress) was hacked and I ended up losing many months of hard work due to no backup. Do you have any solutions to protect against hackers? Also see my page > one way link building 

Um, strong passwords seems to work.  Backup works.  


Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

Thursday, October 4, 2012

FamilySearch Family Tree Introduces Merge Feature

I noted James Tanner's post yesterday, The Last Piece Falls Into Place? -- Merge Comes to FamilySearch Family Tree? on the Genealogy's Star blog.  Great catch, James.

I had a preview of this Merge feature about a month ago in a session with FamilySearch developers, and it acts pretty much the way I recall from then.

One of the major problems with FamilySearch Family Tree is that there are a LOT of duplicate persons.  In the New FamilySearch tree period, LDS members were supposed to combine duplicate persons as best they can.  But they could not delete the data associated with those persons, they could only select the best evidence for presentation.  As noted in my post, The Problem with FamilySearch Family Tree, it is difficult to sort out event assertions and relationships in FSFT for many persons due to the erroneous information, conflicting information and duplicate persons.

There is another way to match duplicate persons, and that is to use one of the genealogy software programs (like Legacy Family Tree or RootsMagic) that permits the user to search for matches and combine persons.  However, the resulting event assertions and relationships cannot be combined or deleted - the user can only do this in FamilySearch Family Tree.

The Merge feature for possible duplicates works well.  I've tried it several times, and will show the process below.

Like James Tanner, one of my first attempts was on a Person (Peregrine White, 1620-1704).  The FSFT would not let me finalize the merge for some reason.  After spending some time looking at Event assertions and relationships, I got the message "These two People can't be merged."  That's frustrating...

I chose another ancestor of mine that had several possible duplicate entries - Ichabod Kirby (1710-1794).  Here's the process I followed:

1)  From the Person screen for Icabod Kirby:



Note the "Tools" section on the top of the right-hand sidebar.  It now contains a "Possible Duplicates" tool.

2)  I clicked on that, and the "Possible Duplicates for Icabod Kirby" screen appeared:


On the screen above, the information for Icabod Kirby is presented at the top of the page.  There are four other "Possible Duplicate" persons listed.

3)  I clicked on the second one on the list above because the spouse's name was the same, although it did not have any Events or Parents listed.  This screen, which compares the information for the base persona (Icabod Kirby, the one above) in the left-hand column with information for the selected "Possible Duplicate" persona (Icobod Kirby) in the right-hand column:


On the screen above, each assertion in the "Possible Duplicate" right-hand column is highlighted within a light green box.  For each assertion, there is a link for "Replace" or "Reject."  Clicking on "Reject" will change the box color to light red, and that assertion will be deleted if the two persons are merged.

5)  I "Reject"ed the two assertions above because they were either duplicative or wrong, IMHO, and saw:


6)  Further down, I "Reject"ed the spouse's name because it was duplicative (and on second thought, I probably should have "Replace"d it and then merged those two personas also - a rookie error, I think!).  There is a son, David Kirby listed for the "Possible Duplicate" person:


7)  However, the only assertion of a child that I saw on this page was the son, David Kirby, so I decided to "Replace" him into the base persona.  After I clicked on "Replace," the entry moved over to the left-hand column, as shown below:


8)  Further down the page, near the bottom, is a blue "Continue" button, and the system took me back to the top of the page, and showed:


On the screen above, the right-hand column has a text box for "Reason This Merge Is Correct."  I typed in a fairly lame reason - "The merged person was a duplicate by all indications provided."

9)  I clicked on the blue "Finish Merge" button on the screen above and saw:


The two persons were merged, and the information for Icobod Kirby that I "Replace"d in the Icabod Kirby persona is listed in that.

Look at the right-hand column on the screen above - the "Latest Changes" list reflects the completed merge, including the addition of several other changes, including mother relationship and father relationship (since I effectively added a child to the base person, Icabod Kirby).

This is a logical step-by-step process, but it's going to require guidelines and experience in order to implement merging possible duplicate persons effectively.  Using this process to merge duplicate persons will require judgment on the part of the user performing the task, and should be done with some thought and discernment.  

In my opinion, the bigger problem in the FamilySearch Family Tree will be how to effectively get the relationships between parents and spouses correct.  In many of the Persons in the FSFT that I connect to, there are three or four spouses, sets of children, and even sets of parents and siblings for the base person.  All of that needs to be reconciled so that duplicate persons are merged and not left hanging as isolated persons in the FSFT without a set of parents or a spouse.  The problem is much worse for persons that have many descendants, the so-called "Persons of Unusual size" like Peregrine White that could not be Merged for some reason in my exercise above.

My guess is that there are more "Tools" still to be deployed.

I know, "Icabod Kirby" should be "Ichabod Kirby" - after I merged those two persons, I changed his name on the "Person" page.

My hope is that FamilySearch will provide a "how-to" video for this "Possible Duplicate" Tool to demonstrate the correct way to merge persons in the FamilySearch Family Tree.

Like James Tanner, I ran up against the "These two persons can't be merged" for whatever reason.  This needs to be fixed, because these persons have the most duplicates of all!

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/10/familysearch-family-tree-introduces.html

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver



WikiTree Reopens Member Registration


I received this press release today from Elyse Doerflinger, the WikiTree Evangelist (Elyse@WikiTree.com)


WikiTree Reopens Member Registration

3 Oct 2012: WikiTree.com is now inviting all genealogists and family historians to register for a free membership.

WikiTree closed registration in January 2012. This was done to give the WikiTree community
time to absorb the flood of information that had been added by people who registered for a free
membership and uploaded GEDCOMs, but did not take the time to integrate their genealogy
into the shared family tree that the WikiTree community is growing.

To help ensure that new members understand the mission and aren’t just taking advantage
of free services such as unlimited private family web pages and photos, the registration
process creates a temporary and limited Guest Membership. If the guest decides to make their
membership permanent they can either volunteer to participate in the community as a Wiki
Genealogist or they can ask if a Wiki Genealogist will help connect their family to the shared
tree.

Full membership at the Wiki Genealogist level requires signing the Wiki Genealogist Honor
Code. This simple, nine-point set of rules is the foundation of the community’s unique culture
of enjoyable and productive genealogical collaboration. It makes clear the importance of citing
sources, respecting copyrights, and maintaining privacy while still working on the common goal
of making genealogical information free and accessible.

All account levels, including unlimited Wiki Genealogist accounts, are free. WikiTree is
committed to growing a completely free shared family tree. For this reason, the full membership
needs to be limited to genealogists who share the same vision and understand the Honor Code.
About WikiTree: Growing since 2008, WikiTree.com is a shared family tree website that
balances privacy and collaboration. Community members privately collaborate with close
family members on modern family history and publicly collaborate with other genealogists on
deep ancestry. Since all the private and public profiles are connected on the same system this
process is helping to grow a single, worldwide family tree that will eventually connect us all and
thereby make it free and easy for anyone to discover their roots. See http://www.WikiTree.com/

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/10/wikitree-reopens-member-registration.html

"Getting Started in Genetic Genealogy" Workshop on Sunday, 7 October

The October Chula Vista Genealogical Society (CVGS) Workshop is this Sunday, 7 October, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. at the Bonita-Sunnyside Library (4375 Bonita Road in Bonita, turn left at Billy Casper Way, library is on the left) in the Community Room.

The workshop speaker will be CeCe Moore on "Getting Started in Genetic Genealogy." 



Discover the fascinating world of genetic genealogy (DNA Testing for Genealogy). Genetic Genealogy is a wonderful resource for the family genealogist or historian and is growing daily! This presentation will provide you with an overview about DNA testing for genealogy by making the subject accessible and understandable for the non–scientist. 

CeCe Moore is a full-time genetic genealogist, and author of the Your Genetic Genealogist blog.  She is the Ancestry Ambassador for 23andMe, the Moderator for the ISOGG DNA Newbie List, on the Advisory Board for the Mixed Roots Foundation, the Co-Director of the Global Adoptee Genealogy Project, ISOGG Regional Coordinator for Southern California, Proctor DNA Project Administrator, Travis DNA Project Co-Administrator (FTDNA), and Administrator for the ISOGG Wikipedia (www.isogg.org/wiki). 

I'll be there - will you?  I hope so!

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/10/getting-started-in-genetic-genealogy.html

Treasure Chest Thursday - 1930 U.S. Census Record for Lyle L. Carringer Family


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 the 1930 United States Census record for my Carringer grandparents and their family in San Diego, San Diego County, California: 


The entry for the Lyle L. Carringer family:


The extracted information for the family, residing at 2130 Fern Street in San Diego, taken on 5 April 1930, is:

*  Lyle L. Carringer - Head, owns home, worth $10,000, has a radio, male, white, age 38, married, married at age 26, did not attend school, can read and write, born California, father born Pennsylvania, mother born Wisconsin, can speak English, occupation is Office Work, works in Dry Goods store, a Worker, employed on last working day, a U.S. military veteran, in W.W. (World War).
*  Emily K. Carringer - Wife, female, white, age 30, married, married at age 18, did not attend school, can read and write, born Illinois, father born New Jersey, mother born Canada English, can speak English, no occupation
*  Betty V. Carringer - Daughter, female, white, age 10, Single, attending school, can read and write, born California, father born California, mother born Illinois, can speak English, no occupation
*  Georgia K. Auble - Mother-in-Law, female, white, age 61, Widow, did not attend school, can read and write, born Canada English, father born Canada English, mother born Canada English, Native language English, immigrated to U.S. in 1874, a Naturalized citizen, can speak English, no occupation.

The source citation for the census image is:

1930 United States Federal Census, San Diego County, California, population schedule, San Diego City, Enumeration District (ED) 116, Sheet 5A, Dwelling #142, Family #148, Lyle L. Carringer household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 19 June 2012), citing National Archives microfilm publication T626, Roll 192.

I see only one probable error in this census record:

*  I believe that Georgia (Kemp) Auble immigrated in about 1889, rather than 1874.  She was in the 1881 Canada Census with her father, step-mother and brother, but was not in the 1891 Canada Census with them.  In the 1920 U.s. Census, the immigration date is given as 1889;  in the 1910 U.S. Census, the immigration date is 1890; in the 1900 U.S. Census, the immigration date is 1889.


Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

2013 Legacy Family Tree Cruise Webinar on Friday, 5 October

Are you going on the Legacy Family Tree Cruise in September 2013 with me and 100 other genealogists?  Are you thinking about it?  Here's the cruise map ... this will be so great!


Legacy Family Tree has a FREE to view webinar coming up at 2 p.m. EDT (1 p.m. CDT, 12 noon MDT, 11 a.m. PDT) about the cruise, featuring Christy Downing, the travel director who makes the Legacy Family Tree cruise arrangements.


The cruise webinar page at https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/845949078 says:

"Our 10th annual Legacy Genealogy Cruise will take place September 22 through October 7, 2013. In addition to the 25 hours of optional genealogy and Legacy classes, we will visit San Diego, California; Cabo San Lucas, Mexico; Puerto Vallarta, Mexico; Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala; Puntarenas, Costa Rica; the Panama Canal; Colon, Panama; Cartagena, Columbia; and Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

"Speakers include Megan Smolenyak, Karen Clifford, Barbara Renick, Geoff Rasmussen, Randy Seaver, Steve Salisbury, Dave Berdan, Ken McGinnis, and Luc Comeau.

"Join us for this webinar to get an overview of the cruise and have any of your questions answered."


You can sign up for the webinar on the page above.

Signup for the actual cruise is at http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/CruiseInfo_2013.asp.

The last I heard was that the Legacy allotment of rooms was about 50% subscribed, so if you want to take this cruise, with 7 days of genealogy classes while at sea, sign up soon!

Check out all of the upcoming Legacy Family Tree webinars at http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/webinars.asp and register for them if they interest you.  They are FREE to watch for about ten days after the live presentation, and are available on CDROMs after that.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/10/2013-legacy-family-tree-cruise-webinar.html

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

Creating a Specific Place List Report in Legacy Family Tree 7.5

Last week, I discussed how to create a specific Source Usage List Report in RootsMagic 5, Family Tree Maker 2012, and Legacy Family Tree 7.5 genealogy software.  My purpose was so that I could determine which source citations need to be improved to (near) Evidence! Explained quality.   The lists created by RootsMagic and Legacy were fairly easy to generate and were useful to me; the list in Family Tree Maker was more difficult to create and was useful.

This week, I want to create a specific Place List Report in each software program listed so that I can determine which Facts in my database for a specific place do not have a Source Citation.  I want to search the available resources and add source citations for those Facts.

Other posts in this series include:


*  Creating a Specific Place List Report in RootsMagic 5

*  Creating  a Specific Place List Report in Family Tree Maker 2012

I will use Sudbury, Middlesex County, Massachusetts as my test Place.  I have already made a Source Usage report for the Vital Records of Sudbury book.  Ideally, I want a Place Usage report that lists these items, ideally in columns:

*  Place Name
*  Persons
* Fact Type
* Fact Date
* Fact Source Citation


In Legacy Family Tree 7.5, I found that I could make a Place List for Persons and Facts associated with a specific Place.  Here is the process: 

1)  On the Legacy top menu, click on the "View" item, select the "Master Lists" and then select the "Location" item:



2) On the "Master Location List," search for or scroll down to the location you want - in my case, I searched for Sudbury, Massachusetts.  "Tag" that location by clicking in the Tag check box.  The list of "People using this location" appeared in the right hand area.  To "Tag" those persons, click on the "List Options" button (just below the list of names) and select the "Tag Everyone in List."  I selected "Tag Level 1" for this set of persons.  



In the screen above, you can see that an "X" appears next to each person in the List of names with an Event in Sudbury.

3)  After the location and people are tagged, then click on the "Options" button to the right of the list of tagged people.  In the dropdown menu, select "Print" and then "Location Report:" 



4)  The "Location Report" window opens, and the user can choose the desired options.



On the screen above, I selected "Only tagged ancestors," "Master locations and who uses them," "Include specific events" and "Include event data."  

4)  I clicked the "Preview" button and received the "Location List" for Sudbury, Massachusetts:



The Location List provides the person's name, birth-death dates, and Event type and date.  There is no indication if a source citation is available.  Therefore, this list is for all persons with events in Sudbury, Massachusetts in the Location field - not just the unsourced events in Sudbury.

The report above is useful to me - it has everything I want except an indication that there is a source citation for the event.  I could print it out, or save it, and use it to find the persons in my database who have Sudbury, Massachusetts in a location field, and double check the Sudbury Vital Records book or find the correct source citation for the event and enter it appropriately.

I must admit that Tagging is a mystery to me.  In this task, it was easy to do.  However, I have been unable to figure out how to create a report for the unsourced Events in Sudbury, Massachusetts.  Perhaps it can be done, perhaps not.  Maybe someone smarter than me will help me out here!

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/10/creating-specific-place-list-report-in_3.html

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

(Not So) Wordless Wednesday - Post 225: Grandmother Bess Seaver in 1949

 I am posting photographs from my family collections for (Not So) Wordless Wednesday (you know me, I can't go wordless!).    

Here is a photograph from the Geraldine (Seaver) Remley family collection handed down from my Aunt Gerry in 2007 after her passing. 
 



This is my grandmother Alma Bessie (Richmond) Seaver (1882-1962) in a striped dress and white tennis shoes and a white necklace.  This 1949 picture is pretty much how I recall how my grandmother looked the only time I met her in 1959.

There is a young lady in the picture next to the automobile, and I don't know who she is.  Perhaps one of my cousins will know who it is when I share this photo with them at Christmas time.

I wonder why this picture was taken in this setting.  Did they stop at a rest stop or picnic area?  My guess is that Aunt Gerry took the picture.

Update:  My colleague, Susi Pentico, thinks that the shoes are "white oxfords" rather than "tennis shoes."  I have no clue, of course!  Susi also thinks that there is a man next to the young female in the background.  I think she may be right - although it may be an older woman whose arm and dark pattern shirt are visible but his head is turned away from the camera.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/10/not-so-wordless-wednesday-post-225.html

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

"Who Do You Think You Are?" Program In Torrance a Smash Hit!

I highlighted an intriguing local genealogical society program in a post titled "Who Do You Think You Are?" at Torrance, California Centennial on 2 August.

The program was on Wednesday, 19 September.  In the program, the South Bay Cities Genealogical Society (SBCGS) gave three WDYTYA? type presentations to three Torrance residents, as part of Torrance's Centennial celebration:

*  "Looking Back with the Post Family" - one of the earliest families to settle in Torrance.

*  "Honoring the Present with The Scottos" - Mayor Frank Scotto and Centennial Committee Cindy Scotto

*  Moving Forward with Michael Shafer - Torrance Area Chamber of Commerce 2012 Citizen of the Year.


There is a video of a news broadcast on a Los Angeles area cable television station below.  Fast forward to about the 19 minute mark for a 4 minute summary of the program, including interviews with several genealogists:





Here is a screen capture of my friend, Connie Moretti of SBCGS, speaking to the interviewer:


This was, in my opinion, an ambitious community-oriented program that showcased genealogical and family history research in a very positive way.  It may be something that other genealogical societies consider doing for a community program.

Congratulations to the South Bay Cities Genealogical Society for a program well planned and executed.  Genealogy rocks in genealogical societies!!

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/10/who-do-you-think-you-are-program-in.html

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

Creating a Specific Place List Report in Family Tree Maker 2012

Last week, I discussed how to create a specific Source Usage List Report in RootsMagic 5, Family Tree Maker 2012, and Legacy Family Tree 7.5 genealogy software.  My purpose was so that I could determine which source citations need to be improved to (near) Evidence! Explained quality.   The lists created by RootsMagic and Legacy were fairly easy to generate and were useful to me; the list in Family Tree Maker was more difficult to create and was useful.

This week, I want to create a specific Place List Report in each software program listed so that I can determine which Facts in my database for a specific place do not have a Source Citation.  I want to search the available resources and add source citations for those Facts. 

Other posts in this series include:


*  Creating a Specific Place List Report in RootsMagic 5

I will use Sudbury, Middlesex County, Massachusetts as my test Place.  I have already made a Source Usage report for the Vital Records of Sudbury book.  Ideally, I want a Place Usage report that lists these items, ideally in columns:


*  Place Name
*  Persons
* Fact Type
* Fact Date
* Fact Source Citation


In Family Tree Maker 2012, I found that I could make a list of Persons with Facts that contain a specific place name.  I found that I could also make an Undocumented Facts report for Persons with a specific Fact Place.  However, I can't create a Report for exactly what I want - with the Source citation listed if there is one.

Here is the process for the two Reports that come the closest to what I want:

1)  Place Usage Report for a specific place:

In the "Places" workspace, the list of Places in my database appeared with the places on the left, the map in the middle showing the selected and highlighted place, and the Persons with Facts for the selected Place.  I scrolled down the place list to Sudbury, Massachusetts:



The list of Persons on the right is what I want to obtain - so I clicked the "Share" button in the upper right-hand corner of the screen and saw a dropdown menu:



I chose :Export Place Usage Report for This Place," and saw the report:


The "Place Usage Report" has listings for Sudbury, Massachusetts, including the Person's name, the Fact Type, and Fact Date.  However, this report includes all Facts with the selected Place name, including those for which I already have a source citation.  That's OK for now.  I like this report.

2)  The Undocumented Facts Report:

In the "Publish" workspace and the "Source Reports" collection, there is an "Undocumented Facts" Report option.



After selecting the "Undocumented Facts" Report, I clicked the "Selected Individuals" radio button, which opened the "Filter Individuals" window so that I could select persons for the report.  I clicked on the "Filter In >" button in the "Filter Individuals" window, and the "Filter Individuals by Criteria" window opened:


In the screen above, I selected the "Other" radio button, selected "Any Fact Places" in the "Search where" dropdown menu, selected "Contains" and entered "Sudbury" in the "Where" field.  I clicked on "OK" and 405 persons were selected:


After licking on "OK" the "Undocumented Facts" report for all instances of "Sudbury " as a Place (which might include other states or countries) was created:


This is a 46 page report.  For each Person, the Facts for that Person, and the Place Name for each Fact are listed.

As you can see in the screen above, there are entries for Sudbury, Suffolk, England, but almost all of the entries are for Sudbury, Massachusetts.

I can use this report to find the Facts for Sudbury, Massachusetts that are not documented, which is what my goal was.  I can save it as a PDF file, and then use it to find entries in the Sudbury Vital Records book and enter the appropriate source citations in my database.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/10/creating-specific-place-list-report-in.html

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver