Saturday, June 8, 2013

SCGS Genealogy Jamboree - Day Two

Day Two at the SCGS Genealogy Jamboree in Burbank, California was full of classes, exhibit hall wandering and some blogging.  What else is new?

*  Was in the Bloggers Lounge at 7 a.m. for breakfast, and checked my email and blogs on the iPhone.  Other bloggers gradually wandered in and we talked...what else do we do?

*  My first class for the day was Craig Scott's "Researching a War of 1812 Ancestor."  Unfortunately, my email with my notes, sent from the tablet, got messed up somehow!  All I remember is that Craig said that you are usually looking for one record in billions of pieces of paper which may or not be indexed or online.  He walked us through how the National Archives are organized, know the name, birth year and residence at the time of the War of 1812, then check the online resources at Fold3, Ancestry and FamilySearch for entries in the Compiled Military Service Records, pension files, and a number of other files.  There are several lineage societies that may be helpful, such as the National Society, United States Daughters of 1812. Craig provided a list of records to check, including courts martial, soldiers who died in the war, bounty land, officers, manuscript collections, organizational records, unit records, state and private claims, etc.

*  My second class at 10 a.m. was with Geoff Rasmussen titled "Organizing, Researching, Mapping, Sourcing and Sharing in Legacy Family Tree 8.0."  Geoff briefly reviewed some of the changes he showed in his first talk yesterday, and then demonstrated some of the additions and changes in Version 8.0.  The ones I noted were more pedigree chart color coding, the Person page sorts events by date, the Media Gallery can include web page links, there will be a "master" re-link media button, a family bow-tie chart was added, the family file statistics report will have many more lines with database data, statistics can be graphed, and added children and spouses will be listed in date order (as long as the family members have a birth or marriage date).  I hope I remembered those correctly, I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong.  I'm sure I missed some items.  I asked about FamilySearch Family Tree integration, and Geoff said it would be included in Version 8.  Cool.

*  I had a quick lunch (hot dog, apple) and went to the Blogger Summit class at 11:30, moderated by Thomas MacEntee with Paula Stuart-Warren, Judy G. Russell, Denise Levenick and CeCe Moore as panelists.  They answered a series of questions, and then some from the audience.  There was some tweeting going on too.  We took the annual Genea-Blogger picture after this session in the hotel lobby.

*  I visited the Blogger Lounge, then the Tech Zone to write the Saturday Night Genealogy Fun post, and wandered the exhibit hall (I even took some pictures).

*  The 2 p.m. class was with Lisa Louise Cooke and "The Google Earth Military March Game Show."  This was interesting and fun.  While demonstrating how a user can embed images, videos, webpages, etc. into Google Earth to make it a "show," Lisa had a series of 15 questions about U.S. military events to challenge two sets of contestants.  Each panel received a point for answering the questions correctly, as determined by Lisa clicking a link within the show from a list.  The panelists put their answer on a whiteboard to show to the audience.  I loved it!  The four contestants received prizes, and, because I kept score, Lisa gifted me with a prize also.

*  I hustled over to the Pavilion to attend Judy G. Russell's class on "No Vitals? No Problem! Building a Family Through Circumstantial Research."  This was a case study wrapped around information about the Genealogical Proof Standard.  Judy started with a person's name in the 1850 census, and 18-year old named Isabella Robinson (sic) perhaps married with two small children and a father-in-law, and using GPS principles put her into a birth family and into her own family by working her way through many records, using the GPS to analyze and sort out evidence, and coming to a near-certain conclusion.

*  I was done with classes at 4:30 p.m. - so I went to my room, got the laptop, and downloaded my pictures and wrote my picture blog post on Genea-Musings, plus talked to Connie Moretti and several others at the table.  I went to the room at 6 p.m., and we came down to meet Donna Peterson and we had dinner at the hotel restaurant again (I had chicken pot pie again).

*  After dinner, it was back to the Blogger Lounge table with the laptop to write this post and update the Jamboree Compendium post.  I started at 8 p.m., and it's 10:30 now.  Tom Kemp came by and we talked for 30 minutes, then Pam Journey came and we discussed things, and then Bruce and Laurie Buzbee dropped by.  That was fun.  I finally completed this blog post too.  I think.  I'm too tired now to remember it all.

So I went to 5 of the 6 class opportunities, and have now attended 10 of the possible 12 class sessions.

Sunday is the last day of Jamboree, and we won't get home until about 8:30 p.m. on Sunday night, so I may not post much on Sunday.  Besides the Best of the Genea-Blogs post, of course!

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2013/06/scgs-genealogy-jamboree-day-three.html

Copyright (c) 2013, Randall J. Seaver

Photos from SCGS Jamboree 2013

I don't have time right now to write about my 2nd day at the SCGS Genealogy Jamboree, so I'll post some of my photos to tide my Genea-Musings readers over.  I'll probably have another Photo post after we get home on Sunday night.

Here are some of the photos I've taken (or had taken):

 1)  Thomas MacEntee moderated the Bloggers Summit today, with panelists (from the left) Paula Stuart-Warren, Judy G. Russell, Denise Levenick and CeCe Moore:


2)  After the Blogger Summit session, the present genea-bloggers posed for their annual picture (taken by Paul Hawthorne):


Can you find me in the picture above?  I'm the 4th from the left in the back row behind Susi Pentico in the orange top.

3.  Some of the folks in the Blogger Lounge this afternoon:


4.  I really enjoyed the presentation by Connie Moretti and Lisa Schumacher about their gala WDYTYA production:


5)  The MyHeritage exhibit with Daniel horowitz and Amanda helping customers:


6)  The gentlemen at the Sons of the American Revolution exhibit:


7)  The Fold3 and Newspapers.com exhibits:


8)  The Legacy Family Tree software exhibit:


9)  Diane Lott and Ken Robison at the San Diego Genealogical Society exhibit:



I hope to have more later on.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2013/06/photos-from-scgs-jamboree-2013.html

Copyright (c) 2013, Randall J. Seaver

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Your Genealogy Fun This Week

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: 



 It's Saturday Night again - 

time for some more Genealogy Fun!!






Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the Mission Impossible music, please!):


The writer of Saturday Night Genealogy Fun is having too much fun at the SCGS Genealogy Jamboree this week and is unable to think up something fun for YOU to do.  So I'm going to rely on that old standby of:

What Genealogy Fun Have You Had This Week?"

Please write a blog post, or put something on Facebook or Google+ (or both) and share it with everybody.

Here's mine:

You can read my escapades at the SCGS Genealogy Jamboree in:

*  Day 0 at Jamboree! Geneablogger Name-Dropping Edition (6 June 2013)
*  Jamboree Day One - Education Galore (7 June 2013)
*  Photos From SCGS Jamboree 2013 (8 June 2013)

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2013/06/saturday-night-genwalogy-fun-your.html

Copyright (c) 2013, Randall J. Seaver

Surname Saturday - NUTTING (England > colonial Massachusetts)

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


I am in the 7th great-grandmothers, I'm up to number 597, Sarah NUTTING (1663-????)[Note: the earlier great-grandmothers and 7th great-grandfathers have been covered in earlier posts].

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

1.  Randall J. Seaver (1943-living)

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

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

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


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

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

74.  Josiah Sawtell (1768-1847)
75.  Hannah Smith (1768-1827)

148.  Ephraim Sawtell (1735-about 1800)
149.  Abigail Stone (1736-before 1800)



298.  James Stone (1702-1783)
299.  Mary Farwell (1709-1783)

596.  John Stone, born 23 July 1658 in Watertown, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States; died 1735 in Groton, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States.  He was the son of 1192. Simon Stone and 1193. Mary Whipple.  He married 16 December 1698 in Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States.
597.  Sarah Nutting, born 29 May 1663 in Groton, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States. 

Children of John Stone and Sarah Nutting are:
*  John Stone (1699-1784), married (1) 1722 Elizabeth Farwell (1703-1762); married (2) 1763 Rachel Harwood (1703-1784).
*  James Stone (1702-1783), married 1726 Mary Farwell (1709-1783)

1194.  John Nutting, born about 1620 in Kent, England; died 13 March 1675/76 in Chelmsford, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States.  He was the son of 2388. John Nutting and 2389. Elizabeth Rawlings.  He married 28 August 1650 in Woburn, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States.
1195.  Sarah Eggleton, born about 1630 in England; died 10 March 1686/87 in Woburn, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States.  She was the daughter of 2390. Eggleton and 2391. Jane --?--.

Children of John Nutting and Sarah Eggleton are:
*  John Nutting (1651-1731), married 1674 Mary Lakin.
*  James Nutting (1653-1732, married 1672 Lydia Longley.
*  Mary Nutting (1656-1727), married 1678 Samuel Howe (1642-1713).
*  Josiah Nutting (1658-1658).
*  Sarah Butting (1660-1660)
*  Sarah Nutting (1663-????), married (1) 1681 Matthias Farnsworth (1650-1693); married (2) 1698 John Stone (1658-1735).
*  Ebenezer Nutting (1666-????), married Lydia.
*  Jonathan Nutting (1668-????), married Elizabeth.
*  Deborah Nutting (1670-????), married Jacob Taylor.

The only resources I have for this Nutting family are the Massachusetts town vital record books.

The URL for this post is:

Copyright (c) 2013, Randall J. Seaver

Friday, June 7, 2013

SCGS Genealogy Jamboree 2013 Blog Compendium

Here is a compendium of the genealogy blogs from the SCGS Genealogy Jamboree 2013 held June 7th to 9th, 2013 in Burbank, California.


1)  Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings:

*  Day 0 at Jamboree! Geneablogger Name-Dropping Edition (6 June 2013)
SCGS Genealogy Jamboree Day One - Education Galore (7 June 2013)
*  SCGS Genealogy Jamboree Blog Compendium (7 June 2013)
*  Photos From SCGS Jamboree 2013 (8 June 2013)
SCGS Genealogy Jamboree Day Two (8 June 2013) 
*  SCGS Genealogy Jamboree Day Three (9 June 2013)

2)  J.K. Morelli on Genealogy Certification: My Personal Journal:

*  My Dinner With Judy!* (6 June 2013)
*  Jamboree Day #1 (7 June 2013)
*  Jamboree Friday (8 June 2013)
*  Jamboree Saturday am (8 June 2013)
*  Jamboree Sunday (9 June 2013)

3)  Angela Walton-Raji on My Ancestor's Name:

*  Checking In At the California Genealogy Jamboree 2013 (7 June 2013)

4)  Dick Eastman on Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter:

*  "Family History and DNA" Day at the Southern California Genealogy Jamboree (7 June 2013)
*  Friday at the Southern California Genealogy Jamboree (8 June 2013)

5)  Judy G. Russell on The Legal Genealogist:

*  DNA Day in Burbank (7 June 2013)
DNA: News from Burbank (9 June 2013)

7)  Elyse Doerflinger on Elyse's Genealogy Blog:

*  Jamboree: Thursday's Review (6 June 2013)

6)   Root Cellar Sacramento Genealogy Society:

*  Friday's Face From the Past - Jamboree  by Sandra Gardner-Benward (6 June 2013)
*  Denise's DNA Day at Jamboree by Denise Richmond (7 June 2013)
*  Just Another Day At Jamboree by Sandra Gardner-Benward  (8 June 2013)
*  Monday Madness - "Final Day of Jamboree" by Sandra Gardner-Benward (10 June 2013)

7)  Gayle Ficarra Wolcott on Genealogy Dragnet:

*  2013 Jamboree - Day 1 (6 June 2013)
*  2013 Jamboree - Day 2 (7 June 2013)
2013 Jamboree - Day 3 (8 June 2013)

8)  Del Ritchhart on Del's Ramblings:

*  Jamboree First Day (7 June 2013)
Saturday at Jamboree (9 June 2013)
*  The Last Day of Jamboree (9 June 2013)

9)  Biff Barnes on Stories To Tell Blog:

*  Jamboree 2013: Know the Audience for your Family History Book (8 June 2013)

10)  Paula Hinkel on Genealogy Jamboree Blog:

*  Jamboree Streamed Video: Log-on Codes (8 June 2013)
*  Jamboree Attendance Announced (9 June 2013)

11)  Arlene Eakle on Arlene Eakle's Genealogy Blog:

*  Live from the Southern California Jamboree (8 June 2013)

12)  Patricia Stannard on My Genealogy Obsession:

*  SCGS Jamboree - Day One (8 June 2013)

13)  MHD on GreatGreats:

*  Jamboree: Day One (7 June 2013)
*  Jamboree: Day Two (8 June 2013)
*  Jamboree: Day Three (9 June 2013)

14)  The Ancestral Archaeologist:

*  California Rays (8 June 2013)
*  SCGS Jamboree: Parting  Glances (11 June 2013)

15)  Kathryn Doyle on California Genealogical Society and Library:

*  Members United at Jamboree #SCGS2013 (8 June 2013)

16)  Paula Stuart-Warren on Paula's Genealogical Eclectica:

*  Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree (8 June 2013)

17)  Blaine Bettinger on The Genetic Genealogist:

The First DNA Day at the Southern California Genealogy Jamboree (8 June 2013)

18)  Amanda on the Geni Blog:

*  Jamboree 2013 Recap (10 June 2013)

19)  Cheryl Palmer on My Heritage Happens:

*  Jamboree 2013 - The First Day (10 June 2013)

20)  Denise Leenick on The Family Curator:

*  5 New Things I learned at #SCGS2013 Jamboree Including New Data on the Hockey Gene (10 June 2013)

21)  Susi Pentico on Ancestor Seeking by the Root Bound:

*  Jamboree Sessions Attended, Information Gathered Day 1 (10 June 2013)
*   Jamboree Day 2, 2013 (10 June 2013)
*  Jamboree 2013, Day Three at Burbank, CA (11 June 2013)

22)  Susi Pentico on Susi's Chatty Performances on Genealogy:

*  Jamboree Burbank CA 2013 (10 June 2013)

23)  Anne Gillespie Mitchell on Ancestry Reference Desk:

*  Presentations From SoCal Jamboree 2013! (10 June 2013)

I will update this post on a regular basis.  If anyone is not listed here, please let me know in a comment or via email (rjseaver@cox.net).

The last update was 11 June, 10 p.m.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2013/06/jamboree-2013-blog-compendium.html

SCGS Genealogy Jamboree Day One - Education Galore

Day One of the SCGS Genealogy Jsmboree is over for me...except for the evening exploits.  But today was about education and learning, and I enjoyed it.

Some highlights:

*  Down to the Blogger Lounge early (like 7 a.m.), and no one else was there but the breakfast bar guy, so we enjoyed our muffin (me) and bagel (Linda).  I went to my first session at 8 a.m. and Linda went off to do her registration volunteer work with Jane and Marilyn.

*  My first class was Connie Moretti and Lisa Schumacher's presentation on "DIY: WDYTYA.  "This was inspiring and I'm amazed that a relatively small society would be brave enough to execute such an excellent community event.  I'm not amazed that they succeeded, because this group is very talented and organized.  The South Bay Cities planned, organized and executed a Who Do You Think You Are? event to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the city of Torrance, California, featuring the family history of Jim and Beverly Posy (a first family of Torrance), Frank and Mrs. Scotto (current Mayor of Torrance), and Michael Shafer (a noted chef in a Torrance restaurant), in a two hour program before 500 people in a tech-friendly auditorium, and made money doing it.  Connie and Lisa described the planning, logistics, preparation for family history, the research itself, the production and the follow-up.  This program showing how they did it is excellent in itself, and Southern California societies should consider having them speak about it.  Bravo!

*  I rushed out of that class and caught John Phillip Colletta's first talk on "Our National Archives: The Astounding Institution and How to Use It."  It was also an astounding, and funny, presentation. John described the structure of NARA, the organization of the Archives (Record Groups and Series), and the Finding Aids available (Access to Archival Databases, Archival Research Catalog, published guides, catalogs, Preliminary Inventories, Descriptive Pamphlets, Lists and Checklists, etc.).  He then went through two examples of how to find one record amongst the billions of pages in the Archives!  A virtuoso performance.

*  At 10:45 a.m., I went to the World Genealogy Roundtable, which had 20 tables for specific topics, with discussion leaders at each table.  I attended the New York/New Jersey Research table hosted by Norma Storrs-Keating (of GSNOCC).  She was very knowledgeable about the subject, and brought books, the FHL Research Guides and other resources to help the attendees.  I asked a question about early land records in New Jersey and how to obtain the wills listed in the New Jersey Archives books.

*  Then it was lunchtime, since I wanted to be ready for the Exhibit Hall opening.  I had a hamburger and was ready to go into the Exhibit Hall when it opened.  I walked the whole thing, talked to quite a few exhibitors, and took my cell phone up to the room to charge it.

*  Before 1:30 p.m., I went to the classroom for Geoff Rasmussen's "What's New in Legacy Family Tree 8."  The program is not released yet, but will be before the end of 2013, and probably sooner rather than later.  I took notes...and asked Geoff if I could share them with my readers; he graciously said I could, but I note that I've only seen a few of the changes.  He has three more presentations this weekend with more revelations.  The basic screen views and navigation are essentially the same as Legacy 7.5.  The typeface and backgrounds are different, and there are no dropdown menus from the menu bar.  Rather, clicking on a menu item opens a different toolbar for each menu item.   The Pedigree View has changed a bit, with two lines for the name and lifespan.  One excellent change is Problem Indicators - notifications that show a red indicator for a person, and popup windows that describe a potential problem.  He also described a Shared Event feature (like Census-household), where one source can be easily added to a whole household.  There are several new toolbar icons, and several new reports (origins of a group, or migration of a group).  They have added Source Quality measures.  Geoff said that Jamboree attendees can buy Legacy 8, with a book, for $20 as a show special, but the disk is for Legacy 7.5 at this time (buyers upgrade for free when Version 8 is released).  A friend noted that if I bought it, I could read about all of the changes in Legacy 8 in the book!

*  Another walk around the Exhibit Hall before going to Judy G. Russell's talk on "The Ethical Genealogist."  I am awed by Judy's presentations skills and this talk was excellent.  I didn't take notes because I didn't want to get something wrong.  She had several examples for each of her main points - Tell the Truth, Play Nice with Others, and Don't Tell Tales Out of School.  In addition to the examples, she provided summaries of codes of ethics at BCG, APG and NGS.

*  Whew, I'm done for the day.  I rushed up to the room to get the laptop and get down to the Bloggers Lounge to write this post before all of the bloggers go to the bar, and we'll eat dinner with somebody, I'm sure.

I've been real happy with the Jamboree 2013 App on my iPhone and Samsung tablet.  The class locations and the syllabus pages for each class are on the App, and for each class, I can take notes on them (I use the tablet) and then email the notes to myself.

Saturday is another full day of classes, so I probably won't blog about them until Saturday night.  I need to start taking pictures too!

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2013/06/jamboree-day-1-education-galore.html

Copyright (c) 2013, Randall J. Seaver

Book Review - "The Name Is the Game" by Lloyd de Witt Bockstruck

Have you, as a genealogist, ever wondered how names came about, and how they've changed over time?  Then you need to know about Onomatology...and here's a book to help you with it:

Lloyd de Witt Bockstruck, The Name Is the Game: Onomatology and the Genealogist (Baltimore, Md.: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2013), 88 pages, $16.95 (soft cover).  ISBN: 9780806356273
Item #: CF8006


The publicity for this book says:

"Names, like people, have lives of their own, which is why Lloyd Bockstruck’s new book about the serendipity and life’s choices that can alter our family names is must-reading for every researcher. Mr. Bockstruck, one of America’s foremost genealogists and the former genealogy librarian at the Dallas Public Library, has distilled the wisdom of a lifetime about the vagaries of names into this work. Eminently readable, The Name IS the Game is a collection of illustrations and cautionary tales that can help family historians surmount the obstacles or avert the pitfalls associated with naming practices throughout the centuries.

The book is divided into five chapters, and it engages the reader at the get-go. For instance, in the introductory first chapter Bockstruck relates a number of first-hand accounts that fostered his early fascination with names, such as his initial failure to find the tombstone of German great-aunt Barbara Baker (born Barbara Becker). The introduction’s high point is the incredible story of the peregrinating Scots colonist Ian Ferguson, whose name was recorded as Johann Feuerstein when he was among the Pennsylvania Palatine immigrants, and was later recorded as John Flint when he moved to Philadelphia. Two generations later, one of his grandsons, Peter Flint, moved to Louisiana, where he was recorded as Pierre a Fusil, only to end up as Peter Gunn when he settled in Texas after the Civil War.

“Chapter 2: Forenames” discusses the ancestral clues that are inherent in names. Did you know, for example, that the German forenames Franz and Xavier were predominantly used by Roman Catholics? Similarly, if the father of an unborn child died before the baby’s birth, the child might have been named Ichabod. And Doctor was often used as a nickname for the seventh son in a family because it was believed that a seventh son had an intuitive knowledge of the use of herbs.
The “Surname” section of the book (Chapter 3) is the longest, and it covers lots of territory. Topics include maiden names, spelling, surname misinterpretation, aliases, military influences, changes in language, dialects, surname abbreviations, and much more. Among the lessons learned by Mr. Bockstruck: (1) Database indexers have transformed the names Farmer into Turner, Martin into Mortin, and Warren into Warner, among others. (2) In Virginia records, the actual William Hastin has appeared as William Heaston and William Hasting; in New England, the Andros family is also recorded as Andrews; and runaway servant William Wyatt, after fleeing from Virginia to North Carolina, used the name John Murphey. (3) Interesting things happen when individuals shorten their names--John DeLong might later show up as John D. Long; William Arrowsmith might have become William A. Smith; and John Essman might have reverted to John S. Mann. The examples abound!

By the time the reader has consumed the two short final chapters, covering toponyms (place names) and change of name statutes respectively, he/she will be much more cognizant that a name change may be the actual cause of an ancestor’s "disappearance," and, best of all, will possess the tools for finding the missing antecedent."

This book costs $16.95 plus $5.50 shipping costs from Genealogical Publishing.  You can order it here.

Disclosure: Genealogical.com contacted me recently and asked me to provide a review of this book. They mailed me a review copy for my personal use as remuneration for this review. 

Thursday, June 6, 2013

Day 0 at Jamboree! Geneablogger Name-Dropping Edition

It's been a full day for Linda and me, me took the 9:25 AM Amtrak train from San Diego, and arrived at Burbank station at 12:45 PM.  We checked in at the Marriott Burbank Airport and went to the hotel restaurant for lunch.  Linda went to the pool, and I went to the lobby to hunt for genea-bloggers.

Elyse was the first one I saw, and quickly saw Mark Olsen, Daniel Horowitz, Cyndi Howells, Leland Meitzler, Paula Stuart-Warren, Paula Hinkel,  and then I lost track.  I got the laptop and read my blogs in the blogger lounge (the area by the breakfast bar with free wi-fi) and got talking to Charley Warthen of the North County society in Carlsbad about DNA and more.  I went at 5 PM to help Diane and Ken unload the SDGS books for sale, load them on the dolly and take them into the exhibit hall for the SDGS exhibit.  Then I met Linda in the lobby (she was talking to genea-blogger Donna Peterson) and we went to the hotel bar and sat with Denise Levenick, Lisa Alzo, Kathryn Doyle, Diana Edwards, Lavinia Schwarz.  and Kim Cotton.

Our friends, Dennis and Gloria Maness, were in the lobby, and we sat with them and talked for awhile, then Linda and I went off to the Jamboree registration area at 6:45 PM, and back to go out to dinner at Outback with them.

After we returned for dinner, I took the laptop down to the Blogger Lounge and am sitting here with Elyse, Cheryl Palmer, Gini, Steve and Emma Webb doing ...blogging and talking.

Not a very exciting day, except for the glimpse I had of Henry Louis Gates, who was here for the Family History and DNA Conference, who was walking through with CeCe Moore.

Tomorrow is the JamboFREE activities in the morning - I'll probably go to Connie Moretti's talk in the morning about doing a WDYTYA program for her local society, and then to the Genealogy World Roundtables.  Linda volunteered to help at the registration desk.  The Exhibit Hall opens at 12 noon, and the first presentation is at 1:30 PM (I think!).  I'll try to report on my Friday tomorrow night.

The URL for this post is:

Copyright (c) 2013, Randall J. Seaver

Reader Issues, Suggestions and Questions for Ancestry.com

In Do You Have Issues/Suggestions/Questions for Ancestry.com? (posted 3 May 2013), I asked readers to provide me with issues, suggestions and questions to talk to Ancestry.com about while I was at the SCGS Genealogy Jamboree this weekend.

I received quite a few via comments on the blog posts, plus some in email and some on Google+ and Facebook.  Here they are, without my own comments:

1)  Doug Williams:  "Ask Ancestry to allow user changes to more fields in their indexes. I find no way to add a person who was missed on a census enumeration - and no easy way to alert Ancestry to the missing person. Nor is there any way to change an age which is incorrect in the index, which means an incorrect year of birth is present. Oh, and while you're asking, see if you can't get them to lower the annual subscription price!"

2)  Tessa:  "Please make the shoebox more useful by allowing us to file and tag items (would be great to group family documents). I want to be able to search it easily and I know the technology exists."

3)  Monique Riley:  "I don't care for the new document viewer in regards to seeing the source of the document now. Before you could click on an expandable arrow and it would expand out the source info on the right of the document. Now you have to click on "more" then "view source" then the source info pops up in the middle of your document covering it up. I liked it better when I I could view both at the same time."

4)  Russ Worthington:  "In addition, please expand your comments to the Web Merge feature within Family Tree Maker. When I use the Web Merge feature in FTM2012, I MUST edit / reformat the Source, then edit the Citation. 

"New vs Old Search: There is no way to set which search I want on the new Home (customized home page for each user). The "default" is Old. I want to set the "default" to New. Yes, there is a quick way to get to the new, but I don't want that extra click. Your 2nd and 3rd bullet points are very valid, I just wanted to through in the Customized Home Page feature in that discussion.

"New Search": IF I make changes in the Name (first or last), Years (+ / -), or Place, to one of the Options. There should be a "reset" or clear the options, on the New Search Screen, NOT have to click on Exact two or three times. I have had a couple of times where an option was not reset."


5)  Larry Davies:  "1. Have an option within the List of All People to include alternate names and married names.

"2. Provide some means of identifying different lines. I have my lines, my wife's lines and my ex-wife's lines in the same tree as they are all our children's lines. Color coding (background and/or foreground) the names would do it and could be carried over to all displays and reports."

6)  Barbara Snow:  "This problem applies to those of us who have the international subscription.  My default collection priority is "United States" AND I have checked the box that says "Show only records from these collections." If I search from the home page, I check the box "Only Records from U.S. Collections."  Yet my results include many other countries, which makes it cumbersome to navigate them. 

"I would like to have these restrictions work the way their names suggest they will. If I ask for results only from U.S. Collections, give me results only from U.S. collections. "

7)  Annick:  "I am still a beginner, but I get very frustrated with Ancestry's searches. I research ONLY in France and I filter on that country, but still I get "zillions" of irrelevant hits from other countries. Could Ancestry respect the filters they have themselves established??? Also what's the use of Ancestry offering restricted searches like location and name spelling, if Ancestry's returned results ignore them?"

8)  Jean:  "Looking up my great grandfather I found tree postings from several family members that are accurate or partially so. But - the default tree is from someone or composites that show him with a middle name - a picture not his, 4 wives and over 30 children being born from marriages at the same time. There are death places wrong. I posted comments that this was completely wrong - but surely there should be a way to contact the poster to have them remove all the bogus garbage material. I click on the submitters name but get no where Only the listed 3rd wife (his only) is correct."

9)  Sven Ove-Westberg:  "When will Ancestry publish an open API so other programs then the Family Tree Maker can use the site."

10)  Rosemary:  "I totally agree with Monique Riley on the source data covering up the image. With the source data on the right I could copy and paste that data while in the middle of saving the record. As it is, I have to save the source data elsewhere and then remember to delete it when I have finished saving the record to my PC."

11)  Debbie Blanton McCoy:  "In addition to what Monique and Rosemary have said, when using the new viewer there is no list on the right showing users who have posted that document to their trees. I used that feature often."

12)  FranD (several comments):  "FTM Mac 2 linked to Ancestry.  Last night while viewing notes for an individual on Ancestry I added notes for the same person via FTM. Then I tried to synch the two. That was the only change because I was testing another suspicious action.  FTM would not synch saying there were no changes.  I immediately did screen captures of both and have them saved in a document. This morning, I added a few names then did the synch to see if it needed to find another "valid" change or something.  The notes have not been ported over to Ancestry!!
Now, that's quite frightening. What else is missing?

"Worse yet, I've had to unlink then download from Ancestry a couple of times due to FTM faulty merge of two individuals. What a mess that made. When I compacted the file to see if it could possibly repair itself, it then changed the names to ""!!!!  When I called Ancestry/FTM, the first guy was quite sympathetic but had no answer. I think they avoid discussing the faulty programming.

"I was looking at the Family vs. Person tabs in FTM to see where the military information I saved on Ancestry was put in FTM. Just cannot find it. I don't like the idea of a link to the images rather than really "saving" the actual images on Ancestry. 

"Anyway, in the Family view I can see all of my notes. In the Person vie I cannot!!!! The NOTES tab shows only the first note!!  At the moment, since I work in both simultaneously, which by the way the representative said I could do, I am not sure if I put the original note in via Ancestry or not. I suspect so, but am not sure.

"Response from Ancestry:  All notes should have been transferred. Must be file corruption. How? Blah, blah, blah. Compact file.  Export from Charts.  Use that one to upload to another tree on Ancestry.  Download that one from Ancestry.  Then see if the new tree has been fixed.  Can't help me if I won't follow these steps.  Sounds like hours of work to me and I just don't have the time."

13)  ToniP:  "I would like to be able to order my media in year order. I haven't ever found anyone's photos or other media in the order they happened.  I upload as I find. Then everything is out of order because the new items show up first."  

14) Shirley: "The question: Why are hits from computer-generated databases being promoted as "Historical Records" from the 1500s and 1600s in England via Green Leaf Hints?   Most of them for some families are wrong.

"The backup:  Reference: Stephen Hopkins of the Mayflower
 The Family Data Collections Series (- Individual, - Births, - Marriages, - Deaths),
U.S. and International Marriage Records 1560-1900,
U.S., New England Marriages Prior to 1700 ,
the profile part at "Profiles and Historical Records",
Passenger and Immigration Lists Index 1500s-1900s,
OneWorldTree,  and the Millennium File
are hits from databases, not historical records or documents.

"One of the seven different "U.S. and International Marriage Records 1560-1900" for a marriage to the mythical Constance  Dudley http://tinyurl.com/896oxx9  has him being born in Massachusetts in 1581, 39 years before the Mayflower arrived;  one has second wife Elizabeth Fisher born there also http://tinyurl.com/7hq8tya .

"Stephen's Millennium file  http://tinyurl.com/7hdaxtm  which says he was born in Wortley, London.    Problem is--Wortley isn't in London and according to the records found in Hampshire, England in 2004 he wasn't born in either (nor in Gloucestershire).   The Millennium file has his birth date two years after his baptism, has the date of his second marriage shown a month after it occurred, and lists the death date as the date his will was probated (which was a full month after the estate's inventory)"

15)  Edith:  "Here's my suggestion/gripe.  Ancestry pops us "the millennium file" & "U.S. International Marriage Records" as sources.  Looking at what these are, they are just summarized pedigree charts, i.e., a popularity contest.  They are not real sources.  My suggestions is ask ancestry to drop these as they perpetuate a lot of misinformation."

16)  Barbara:  "Unless they have fixed it in the last month, there is a serious bug when  you use the Safari browser.  When you move to a record database linked to Ancestry, and then want to add that info to your person, sometimes you get bounced off Ancestry and have to log back in.  It doesn't happen every time, but once it starts happening to you on a given day, it will recur often and is too annoying to continue.  Twice I've called about it.  Their answers, basically, they know about it; it's very complex to figure out, users should use another browser.  There are a significant number of Apple users I would guess, using the Ancestry product.  It'd be nice if they worked on it."

17)  Glenna:  "The one thing that drives me crazy is that often when I refine my search – absolutely nothing happens. If I had half a million hits before, I’ll have half a million hits after. This is particularly true if I try to refine by country. However, if I ask for exact, that half million goes to zero ... every time.  Why give us the option of refining our searches when they aren’t taken into account in the next go-round?"


18)  Sherry:  "Ancestry has become user unfriendly in the past several months.  I have two friends who have left Ancestry due to the changes and am contemplating doing the same.  They claim they have surveyed the membership for suggestions?  I have never been “surveyed.”  As you mention, hints have become more unreliable….often covering folk who have long passed.  It takes more steps to add an individual instead of streamlining  procedures.  And WHEN are they going to make it possible to rearrange the photo additions to an individual?"

19)  Diane:  "If I have multiple photos for an event I'd like to be able to choose which one is displayed in the overview section of a person. "

20)  Randy:  "*  The sources for Ancestry.com record summaries and images are non-standard, they aren't Chicago, Turabian, MLA, APA or Evidence! Explained format.  Will ANY effort be expended to upgrade the source citations that are listed on a record summary or attached to a person or event in an Ancestry Member Tree?

*  Will "Old" Search be continued, or will it be retired?  If it will be retired, when?  If it is retired, what features will be integrated into "New" Search?

*  "New" Search is very complex with the Name and Location filters feature (which are very useful if you know how to use them!).  Can the filters be made more user friendly, and/or can short video tutorials be provided on the Search page so more users can learn how to use them effectively?

*  Many users complain about getting results from searches that are outside of the life span of the individual sought in the search, or outside of a specified locality.  Is there a way to restrict search results to a specific year range?  Or to a specific set of states (say one central state, and the surrounding states)?

Whew, my readers sure unloaded their pent up frustrations and complaints, didn't they?  I don't know the answers to these issues and problems, but I'm sure that Ancestry.com will read this list and perhaps comment on them in Comments, or in an email to me (rjseaver@cox.net).  I will try to ask these questions at the Genealogy Jamboree between Friday and Sunday, and I will highlight any responses I get.


Copyright (c) 2013, Randall J. Seaver

SDGS Meeting on Saturday, 8 June: Rick Crawford on "The New Library and You"

The San Diego Genealogical Society meeting on Saturday, June 8th is from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.  The meeting is at St. Andrews Lutheran Church (8350 Lake Murray Blvd., just south of Jackson Drive) in San Diego, California.

The program speaker will be Rick Crawford, on "The New Library and You."

The new San Diego Public Library in downtown San Diego will be the focus of Rick Crawford's presentation.  He will give the history of the library and provide context to our current library and its collections.  Rick will show some historical photos and current photos of the new facility.

Rick will discuss the Special Collections, which will include images of the new genealogy area.  Though books and materials are not scheduled to move into the building until late July, Rick will show the reading room, the shelving and work areas, and talk about volunteer opportunities.

Rick Crawford is the Supervisor of Special Collections at the San Diego Public Library.  He is the former Archives Director at the San Diego Historical Society, where he also edited the Journal of San Diego History.  Born in Long Beach, he has been a San Diegan since 1973.  He has degrees in History from San Diego State University and Library Science from San Jose State University.  As a historian and archivist, Rick has written extensively on local history, including articles for the San Diego Union-Tribune and the books:  Stranger Than Fiction: Vignettes of San Diego History and The Way We Were in San Diego.

The information above was obtained from the SDGS Newsletter for June 2013.

The URL for this post is:


Treasure Chest Thursday - 1860 U.S. Census for Jonathan Oatley

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 1860 United States Census record for Jonathan Oatley (one of my 3rd great-grandfathers) in Killingly (East Killingly Post Office), Windham County, Connecticut:




The two Oatley families on this census:


The extracted information for the two households, enumerated on 29 June 1860:

*  Jonathan Oatley - age 70, male, a mason, $1000 in real property, born Conn.
*  Annie Oatley - age 60, female, born Conn.

*  Benedict Oatley - age 34, male, born Conn.
*  Caroline Oatley - age 34, female, born Conn.
*  Henry U. Oatley - age 9, male, born Conn.
*  Monroe Warner - age 21, male, Laborer, born Conn.
*  Sarah Warner - age 17, female, born Conn.

The source citation for the Jonathan Oatley entry is:

1860 United States Federal Census, Windham County, Connecticut, Population Schedule, East Killingly, Page 553, dwelling #584, family #606, Jonathan Oatley household; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com); citing National Archives Microfilm Series M653, Roll 92.

The obvious errors in this census record include:

*  Jonathan's wife, "Annie" was named Amy, and this is the only source I've seen with "Annie."
*  Jonathan was born in July 1790, so he should be age 69.
*  Amy (Champlin) Oatley was born in March 1798, so should be age 62.
*  Jonathan Oatley, Amy (Champlin) Oatley, Benedict Oatley, and Caroline (Mowry) Oatley were born in Rhode Island, not Connecticut.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2013/06/treasure-chest-thursday-1860-us-census.html

Copyright (c) 2013, Randall J. Seaver

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

SCGS Genealogy Jamboree - Live Streamed Video Sessions

This press notice was provided by Paula Hinkel of the Southern California Genealogical Society:

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"SCGS is there for you, no matter where you are." That statement is never as true as it will be the coming 10 days , during the Society's annual Southern California Genealogy Jamboree.

The Southern California Genealogical Society announces its schedule of live-streamed sessions of the 2013 Southern California Genealogy Jamboree. The "JamboSTREAM" webcast is free to viewers and is made available through the gracious support of Ancestry.com.

"We are very excited to be able to offer these outstanding classes to genealogists around the world. Our course list includes a good mix of topics from some of the best speakers around. We are confident that this event will be very popular and well-attended," said Paula Hinkel, co-chair of the annual event. 

"Our partnership with Ancestry.com provides a particularly valuable service to the genealogical community in 2013. This year, Ancestry.com will be running pre-recorded webinars and instructional programs during Jamboree's break times and lunch hours. Our viewers will have an opportunity to sharpen skills in so many areas," Hinkel continued.

To sign up for a session, just click on the link for each class. You will receive a confirmation notice with the security credentials (username and password) for each session. You must be registered in order to be able to view a session, and you must register for each individual session that you wish to attend.

Sessions to be live streamed include:



Friday, June 7

1:30 PM to 2:30 PM 
FR001: Basic Military Research 
Craig Roberts Scott MA, CG 

3:00 PM to 4:00 PM 
FR016: The Ethical Genealogist 
Judy G. Russell JD, CG 
Handout

4:30 PM to 6:00 PM 
FR022: DNA Panel Discussion - Hear it from the Experts
CeCe Moore; Alice Fairhurst; Ken Chanine PhD; Joanna Mountain PhD; Bennett Greenspan
Co-Sponsored by International Society of Genetic Genealogy 



Saturday, June 8


8:30 AM to 9:30 AM 
SA004: Researching Your War of 1812 Ancestor 
Craig Roberts Scott MA,CG 

10:00 AM to 11:00 AM 
SA018: Genealogical Periodicals: Where the Answers Are 
Kory L. Meyerink MLS, AG, FUGA 

11:30 AM to 12:30 PM 
SA020: Master Using Google for Common Surname Searches
Lisa Louise Cooke 

2:00 PM to 3:00 PM 
SA032: Turning Genealogy into Family History: Creating Stories from Stats
Jean Wilcox Hibben PhD, MA, CG 

3:30 PM to 4:30 PM 
SA041: Finding Your Family in the French and Indian Wars
Leland Meitzler 

5:00 PM to 6:00 PM 
SA048: Staying Safe Online 
Thomas MacEntee 



Sunday, June 9


8:30 AM to 9:30 AM 
SU003: A Guided Tour of Cyndi's List 2.0 
Cyndi Ingle Howells 

10:00 AM to 11:30 AM 
SU017: Scanning and Photo Retouching for Beginners: Foundations and Fundamentals 
Tom Underhill 

1:00 PM to 2:00 PM 
SU020: Strange and Unusual Sources for Irish Family History 
James Ryan, PhD 

2:30 PM to 3:30 PM 
SU029: Lessons from the Archive 
Denise Levenick 

The Southern California Genealogical Society hosts semi-monthly webinar sessions that are offered free to the public. SCGS members are able to access nearly 60 recorded webinars at their convenience in the members' archive. The streamed sessions will be added to the archive at a later date, speaker authorization permitting.


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It's not too late to register for these webinars, so sign up and put them on your calendar.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2013/06/scgs-genealogy-jamboree-live-streamed.html