Saturday, August 24, 2013

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Make an Ancestor's Timeline



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!):


1) Have you created a Timeline for one of your ancestors using a genealogy software program (e.g., Family Tree Maker, RootsMagic, Legacy, Reunion, etc.) or an online family Tree (e.g., Ancestry Member Tree, FamilySearch Family Tree, Geni, MyHeritage, etc.), or in a spreadsheet (e.g., Excel)?


2)  If not, try to create a timeline using the program/website of your choice.  If so, create another one for the ancestor of your choice!

3)  Show us your Timeline creation, and tell us how you did it.  Which program/website, the process you used, and how you captured the images to display your timeline.

4)  Share your Timeline creation on your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or on Facebook or Google+.

Here's mine:

2)  I chose to use the RootsMagic 6 genealogy software program, which has both a Timeline View and a Timeline Report.

3)  Here is the "Timeline View" format in RootsMagic 6:


The "Timeline View" for a person has columns for "Age," "Facts," "Date," "Details," "place" and icons for Notes, Sources, and Media (the green check marks)   The "Timeline View" added the immediate family members (parents, siblings, spouses, children) to the list without my having to request it (you can select the options in the "Options" button on the "Timeline View" menu).  I really like this view, but, other than using a screen capture like above, I could not find a way to print out this list in color 

The second option to produce a Timeline is to use the Reports menu > Lists item > Timeline (chronology) item, and select "Individual Timeline list," select a person from the "Select others to include in timeline," select the person, and then create a group by using "Mark group" and picking "Family of highlighted person" (which adds parents, siblings, spouses and children events).

Here are the two pages for the Timeline:


I also requested "Sources" in an Endnote format:



The "Timeline (chronology)" report is very plain - but it is very useful.  I would like to see a little more information about the relationships - for instance, identify the family persons as son, daughter, wife, father, mother, brother, sister, etc.  

4)  I did it above!


Copyright (c) 2013, Randall J. Seaver

Surname Saturday - MOTT (England to colonial Rhode Island)

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


I am in the 7th great-grandmothers and I'm up to Ancestor #711, who is Hannah MOTT (1663-1730) 
[Note: the earlier great-grandmothers and 7th great-grandfathers have been covered in earlier posts].

My ancestral line back through three American generations of this MOTT 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)


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

22.  Henry Arnold White (1824-1885)
23.  Amy Frances Oatley (1826-1864)

44.  Jonathan White (1806-1850)
45.  Miranda Wade (1804-1850)

88.  Humphrey White (1758-1814)
89.  Sybil Kirby (1764-1848)

176.  Jonathan White (1732-1804)
177. Abigail Wing (1734-1806)

354.  Benjamin Wing (1698-1776)
355.  Content Tucker (1695-1738)

710.  Abraham Tucker, born 13 October 1653 in Portsmouth, Newport, Rhode Island, United States; died 16 March 1725 in Dartmouth, Bristol, Massachusetts, United States.  He was the son of 1420. Henry Tucker and 1421. Martha.  He married 26 November 1690 in Dartmouth, Bristol, Massachusetts, United States.
711.  Hannah Mott, born November 1663 in Portsmouth, Newport, Rhode Island, United States; died November 1730 in Portsmouth, Newport, Rhode Island, United States.  

Children of Abraham Tucker and Hannah Mott are:
*  Elizabeth Tucker (1691-1768), married 1715 James Barker (1691-1749)
*  Sarah Tucker (1693-1727), married 1714 Edward Wing.
*  Content Tucker (1695-1727), married 1714 Benjamin Wing (1698-1776)
*  Abraham Tucker (1697-1776), married (1) 1722 Elizabeth Russell; (2) 1728 Hannah Hall.
*  Joanna Tucker (1699-1772), married 1726 John Russell (1686-1747).
*  Ruth Tucker (1701-????)
*  Hannah Tucker (1704-????), married James Greene.

1422.  Jacob Mott, born about 1636 in probably Roxbury, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States; died 15 November 1711 in Portsmouth, Newport, Rhode Island, United States.  He married before 1661 in Portsmouth, Newport, Rhode Island, United States.
1423.  Joanna Slocum, born 16 May 1642 in Portsmouth, Newport, Rhode Island, United States; died 06 January 1724 in Portsmouth, Newport, Rhode Island, United States.  She was the daughter of 2846. Giles Slocum and 2847. Joan.

Children of Jacob Mott and Joanna Slocum are:
*  Jacob Mott (1661-1737), married 1689 Cassandra Southwick (1666-1705)
*  Hannah Mott (1663-1730), married 1690 Abraham Tucker (1653-1725)
*  Mercy Mott (1667-1754), married 1683 John Cook (1662-????)
*  Sarah Mott (1670-1738), married Gershom Wodell (????-1741).
*  Elizabeth Mott (1672-1749), married 1690 Thomas Gould (1655-1734)
*  Samuel Mott (1678-1727), married 1708 Mary Wolverton (????-1709).

2844.  Adam Mott, born 1596 in Saffron Waldon, Essex, England; died before 12 August 1661 in Portsmouth, Newport, Rhode Island, United States.  He was the son of 5688. John Mott and 5689. Elizabeth.  He married  11 May 1635 in Horseheath, Cambridgeshire, England.
2845.  Sarah, born about 1604 in England; died after 31 August 1661 in Portsmouth, Newport, Rhode Island, United States.

Children of Adam Mott and Sarah are:
*  Jacob Mott (1636-1711), married 1661 Joanna Slocum (1642-1724)
*  Gershom Mott (1638-????).
*  Eleazer Mott (1640-????)

Note:  2845. Sarah is Adam Mott's second wife.  His first wife, Elizabeth Creel (1598-1635) had five children.

Information about these Mott families were obtained from:

*  The English ancestry and biography of Adam Mott was provided in the book Ancestral Lines, Third Edition, compiled by Carl Boyer 3rd, published by the compiler in Santa Clarita, California in 1998.

*  Adam Mott has a sketch in the book The Great Migration, Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635, Volume V, by Robert Charles Anderson, published by the New England Historic Genealogical Society in 2007 (pages 181-185).

The URL for this post is:  
http://www.geneamusings.com/2013/08/surname-saturday-mott-england-to_24.html

copyright (c) 2013, Randall J. Seaver

Friday, August 23, 2013

A Visit to Mount Hope Cemetery in San Diego

I had a cemetery gravestone photo query task to do today, and visited Mount Hope Cemetery in San Diego.  The USGenWeb Archives has several thousand gravestone transcriptions available in http://www.usgwarchives.net/ca/sandiego/cemeteries.html.  Find A Grave has 23,940 interments listed at Mount Hope Cemetery, but only 49 are photographed.

I always go to the cemetery office when it is open, because they have a computer catalog of their interments, and they provide a map to help the inquirer find the section of the cemetery and then the plot.  My great-grandfather, Charles Auble (1849-1916) is buried in Mount Hope, and I found his gravesite (without a gravestone) and wrote about it in Tombstone Tuesday - Charles Auble (1849-1916) in San Diego (posted 1 November 2011).

Today, I was looking for the gravestone of Ann E. Stephen-Hassard (1875-1949) and Edward M. Stephen-Hassard (1873-1954) buried in Mount Hope Cemetery.  My queryist had found them in the USGenWeb Archives index as Ann E. Hassard and Edward M. Stephen.  

Here is an image of the the map I received at the office of Mount Hope Cemetery:




On the top half of the page, is a map of the entire cemetery and a listing of the information for Edward Maxwell Stephen-Hassard.  The office clerk told me that Ann Elliott Stephen-Hassard was in the same plot.  They are buried in the Masonic division, Section D, Lot 5, Grave 14.

Below the office information for the deceased person, there is a list of 21 "neighbors" of the Stephen-Hassards.  On the bottom half of the map, there is a closeup map (oriented up is north) that shows grave locations with the desired locations denoted by a star in the middle of the map.  13 of the "neighbors" are also shown on this map.  The Stephen-Hassard stone is between neighbor 18 to the north, 9 to the south, 5 to the west and 7 to the east.

The clerk told me how to get to the area which was on King Solomon Drive between Sections C and J.  I found the area, but the different divisions and sections are not well marked.  I wandered around for awhile, looking for familiar names from the "neighbor" list.  I finally found #14 August S. Schrey with a large above-ground stone, saw #15 and #16 (Earl and Ida Solwick), and was able to see the Stephen-Hassard stone in the ground nearby.  There was lots of overgrown grass around the edges so I pulled some of it, and there was dead mown grass on the face of the stone so I wiped that off.  The area had been watered fairly recently, and some of the stone that was under the grass was damp.  The stone was in the shade of a large tree with some sun peeking through, but by standing above the stone I was able to get a decent picture without any shadows.

Here is the best picture I took of the stone with my iPhone.





As you can see, the people who indexed the gravestones online were easily confused by the hyphenated last name on the gravestone.

I spent some time taking pictures in the Masonic Division of the cemetery because that is where the first burials in this particular cemetery are.

I really like the friendliness and helpfulness of the office folks at Mount Hope Cemetery, and really appreciate their map that shows the exact grave location and the "neighbors."  I thought my readers might enjoy seeing the map to the target gravesite.

After I took the pictures, while driving home, I thought to myself "you know, you really should have used the Billion Graves app on the iPhone to take these pictures."  Oh well, maybe next time.  I need to practice with it a bit also.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2013/08/a-visit-to-mount-hope-cemetery-in-san.html

Copyright (c) 2013, Randall J. Seaver

Follow-up Friday - Helpful and Interesting Reader Comments, 23 August 2013

It's Friday morning here, and I'm not at the FGS Conference in Fort Wayne, so it's time to walk through the helpful and interesting reader comments that have come into Genea-Musings over the past week.

1)  On My Autosomal DNA Quandary (posted 22 August 2013):

a)  Eileen said:  "Randy, what a great post and so relevant. I wrote on my DNA quandary today, too. Please see my post at http://www.oldbonesgenealogy.com/dna-and-me/."

b)  Jacqi Stevens noted:  "Randy, thanks for your thorough posts on the various facets of DNA testing you are observing. Though not quite so facile as you in handling the resulting data, I'm going through the genetic testing process on behalf of two relatives, myself--and sometimes feeling as if I need to return to college to get an advanced degree on the subject before proceeding with any analysis...or...confess that I feel mildly as if I am a player in a variation of the unfolding tale, 'The Emperor's New Clothes.' Are these results valid? Why the differences? You are the same 'you' in all three iterations, I'm presuming. Like you, I have a lot of questions (even though I'm doing my best to get myself educated on the subject), but my questions are much more rough around the edges."

c)  Anonymous commented:  "I don't know much about dna yet. I have found many things in 23andme.com 's testing to be correct in the relatives and health categories. I used their testing and watched it with a cynical eye. I am satisfied.  I am wondering who's right between 23andme and gedmatch.com or both."

d)  Cary Bright suggested:  "Instead of transferring your results, go to each site and down load the "raw data" from each autosomal testing company and then go to http://www.gedmatch.com to upload each of the raw data files with the wonderful upload directions you find after you create a Gedmatch.com login. You will have to wait a few weeks to see the comparisons, but soon you can see how you relate to your other "twins". Your fun is just beginning once you learn your Chr. matching!!"

My comment:  Great suggestion, Cary.  I will do that!  

2)  On Finding Henry Carringer's Land in Louisa County, Iowa (posted 21 August 2013):

a)  Geolover helped:  "When determined to track down land ownership history when in a Land Grant State and the land was sold pursuant to Court order, it can be useful to establish prior and subsequent owners.

"This is partly because there may be further Court proceedings than you found in the estate record proper, where the administrator came into the Probate Court or a different Court and produced evidence that (for instance) he had placed advertisements in accordance with law of time/place, notifying the public of sale, and that on such-and-such a date he sold the property to XXX (who might have been the only or the best-price bidder). There may be a Court ordering the Sheriff, the administrator, or an appointed commissioner to make out a deed of sale, perhaps with conditions as to payment and distribution of proceeds.

"Two possible date-bracketing points are 1) original grantee of the land and date; 2) identity of owner of the land as soon as possible after the land left the relative's estate's possession.

"The BLM/GLO site search form has a way to search for properties by legal description as to Township, Range Meridian and Section:
http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/search/default.aspx?searchTabIndex=0&searchByTypeIndex=0

"In this case, the Meridian was not necessary to find that the original grantee was one Draper Tabor in 1848. One possible "plus" is that one just might find that an unsuspected relative was original owner, a tipoff to possible further estate matters of interest. So it's always wise to check out such "first" titles.

"For the second bracketing date, I found there was a land-ownership map for Louisa County, IA published in 1900. The Townships mostly still have their original legal descriptions, so finding Sec. 29 would be an easy matter.

"When a parcel is sold pursuant to Court order, the grantor might not be the Administrator, and the deceased owner or heirs might not be listed in the grantor-grantee indices to deeds/mortgages. So if one can find a subsequent owner, their purchase deed just might give official history -- from whom exactly they bought it, and might even given a land-record book volume and page number.

"Similarly, your party of interest might have bought the land pursuant to yet another Court proceeding. Sometimes in these instances no sale deed was recorded, transfer of title was considered valid pursuant to whatever order of whatever Court. This could have occurred through partition of yet another estate (partition records might occur in unexpected places, not necessarily in books specifically dedicated to such records). But at least knowing the name of the original grantee gives one a place to start, in the knowledge that one might have to delve through estate records of unexpected persons, such as of Mr. Tabor.

"It can be very useful to try to get familiar with what Courts existed for the time/place of interest, what their jurisdictions were, and something about estate and land-conveyance procedures.

"Land records are fun!"


My comment:  Thank you, Geolover, for the tutorial and suggestions.  I will follow up, and report back.  Yes, land records are fun ... and sometimes difficult to access.


a)  Geolover commented:  "Sometimes the administrator on an intestate estate was a principal creditor. Sometimes in this case the person is identified as such by the appointing authority, and/or in the petition for administration. Petitions for administration also can identify heirs and their residences, and even ages of minor heirs.

"If any accounting or settlement were filed, if the administrator was a creditor you could see him receiving a large share of the estate assets.  It is possible also that some personal property goods or monies were allocated to the widow for her support for a certain period of time.

"It really is useful to obtain a full estate record, start to finish."


My comment:  Agreed.  I have more estate items for another post or two.  This post was the one which named the heirs.

4)  On Roger the Watchdog is in the 1911 England Census (posted 16 August 2013):

a)  Hilary Gadsby offered:  "As with earlier censuses the numbers refer to registration districts, enumeration districts and schedules.  See the website for the National Archive of the UK. http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/default.htm

"On the UK site you can search by a place as well as person. The US site has a different way of filtering the results."

My comment:  I didn't know that, thanks for the link too.

b)  Claire Keenan helped:  "Record Group, Piece. I assume UKC is UK Census. 1911 is the census year--which normally you wouldn't put in a TNA (The National Archives) cite, as the RG number is specific to each census (and other grouping of records). Internally TNA would just use RG/Piece/Page number format. Their site probably explains it better... :-)"

c)  Claire again: "FYI, the full cite in the UK for paper / microfilm use of TNA material is RG/Piece/Folio/Page (a series of numbers separated by slashes). Once you get to know them, the RG numbers are all you need to identify the type and year of the record. Hope that helps explain it. "

My comment:  Thanks, Claire for the help on this.  I haven't memorized these citations yet!  I still need to use the source templates (thank goodness for the source templates!).

5)  On Using the Web Tags Feature in RootsMagic 6 (posted 13 August 2013):

a)  Tom Holden offered:  "I worked on getting URLs to sources from Ancestry.com GEDCOMs to marry up with sources and their respective images downloaded by FamilyTreeMaker and then get those URLs into the WebTags of the Citations imported into RootsMagic. That is described at WebTags - from Ancestry.com and FTM. Then, given that Citation WebTags are so hard to get to, I developed WebTags - Consolidate to create Person WebTags from Citation WebTags to help consolidate all WebTags pertaining to a person to the WebTags button on the Edit Person Screen."

My comment:  Thanks, Tom.  i'll take a look at those RootsMagic Tools.

6)  That's it for this week's valiant commenters - the ones who successfully defeated the Captcha developed by the Blogger Spam Chasers to tax the patience of every blog commenter.  


Copyright (c) 2013, Randall J. Seaver


Thursday, August 22, 2013

FGS 2013 Conference Blog Compendium

Even though I'm not at the Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) Conference this week, I'm enjoying "being virtually there" through the eyes, ears and voices of many genea-bloggers.


This is a compendium of blog posts by genea-bloggers attending the FGS Conference in Fort Wayne, Indiana.  Here is what I've found to date:

1)  Brenda Leyndyke on the Journey to the Past blog;

*  FamilySearch Treats Bloggers to Good Food and Good News (21 August 2013)
*  FGS Is In Full Swing (21 August 2013)
*  First Day Filled With News and Education at FGS 2013 (23 August 2013)
*  A Full Friday at FGS 2013 (24 August 2013)
*  Six Saturday Sessions Completes a Great FGS 2013 (24 August 2013)
*  FGS 2013 in Pictures (27 August 2013)

2)  Jennifer Holik on the Generations blog:

*  It's Time for FGS 2013!! (21 August 2013)

3)  Sandra Gardner-Benward on the Root Cellar Sacramento Genealogical Society blog:

*  Wednesday Workday - Library Day (20 August 2013)
*  Thursday Treasure Chest - Society Day at FGS Conference (21 August 2013)
*  Fridays Faces From the Past ---- FGS Conference (22 August 2013)
*  Saturday Shopping at FGS Conference (23 August 2013)
*  Sentimental Sunday - Final Day of FGS Conference in Fort Wayne, Indiana (24 August 2013)

4)  The Ancestry Insider blog:

*  For Librarians Only (21 August 2013)
*  New Family History Library Concepts, Director (21 August 2013).
*  #FGS2013 Community Trees: A Win-Win for Societies (21 August 2013)
*  #FGS2013 - Breaking Out of the Dog Pile (21 August 2013)
*  #FGS2013 - Survive and Thrive! (21 August 2013)
*  #FGS2013 How to Grow Your Society Through Social Media (21 August 2013)
*  Is Your Society Doing All It's Cracked Up to Be? (22 August 2013)
*  Uber Cool Family History Center of the Future Shown at #FGS2013 (22 August 2013)
*  #FGS2013 - Getting the Most Out of Newspapers (23 August 2013)
*  Lessons Learned From WDYTYA at #FGS2013 (24 August 2013)
*  #FGS2013 - Society Partnership Opportunities (27 August 2013)

5)  Laura Cosgrove Lorenzana on The Last Leaf on this Branch blog:

*  Tuesday's Tip - Collaboration and a Behind the Scenes Tour of ACPL at FGS2013 (21 August 2013)
*  Thankful Thursday - FGS 2013: The New "Buzzword" is Collaboration (22 August 2013)
*  Follow Friday - #FGS2013, A Plethora of People to Pursue (23 August 2013)
*  Tuesday Tip - FGS2013 Open Minds, Open Hearts, Open Doors (27 August 2013)

6)  Kay Haden on the Leaves of the Tree blog:

*  Hats Off to FamilySearch (21 August 2013)

7)  Judy Russell on The Legal Genealogist blog:

*  Methods to our Madness (21 August 2013)
*  The 21st Century Stuff at FGS (22 August 2013)
*  FGS 2013 at Home (23 August 2013)
*  A Genealogical Birthday Gift at FGS 2013 (24 August 2013)

8)  Amy Coffin on The We Tree Genealogy blog:


9)  Ruth Blair on The Passionate Genealogist blog.


10)  Diane Biddle on the Adventures in Brown County History & Genealogy blog.

*  Day One - FGS Conference (21 August 2013)
*  Day Two - FGS Conference (23 August 2013)
*  Day Three - FGS Conference (23 August 2013)
*  Day Four - FGS Conference (24 August 2013)

11) Cheri Daniels on the Journeys Past blog:

*  FGS Pre-Conference Events (20 August 2013)
*  FGS Day 1 - Officially (21 August 2013)
*  FGS Day 2! (22 August 2013)
*  FGS Day 3!  Caffeine I.V. Please! (23 August 2013)
*  #FGS2013 - That's a Wrap Folks! (24 August 2013)

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

*  Many New Announcements from FamilySearch (21 August 2013)
*  FGS Conference Plenary Session (21 August 2013)

13)  Cinamon Collins on the (Mis)Adventures of a Genealogist blog:

*  FGS 2013 - The Kickoff (22 August 2013)
*  FGS 2013 - A Recap (27 August 2013)

14)  Shannon Bennett on The Trials and Tribulations of a Self-Taught Family Historian blog:

*  FGS, Indiana, and My Trip So Far (22 August 2013)
*  Friday at FGS! (23 August 2013)

15)  Marian Burk Wood on the Climbing My Family Tree blog:

*  FGS Fun and Wabash Adventures (22 August 2013)
*  Friday FGS and ACPL Discoveries: The Mcclures of Donegal (23 August 2013)
*  Motivation Monday:  FGS + ACPL = New Ideas and Info (25 August 2013)

16)  Sandy on The Frugal Genealogist blog:

*  What Did You Learn Today?  (21 August 2013)
*  What Did We Learn Today?  Part II (22 August 2013)
*  The Virginia Reel is Alive and Well in Downtown Fort Wayne! (23 August 2013)

17)  Shelley Bishop on the A Sense of Family blog:

*  Researching 'Til You Drop in Fort Wayne (23 August 2013)

18)  Pam Warren on the Granny's Genealogy blog:

*  FGS Day One (21 August 2013)

19)  Wendy Malinowsky on the Our Lineage blog:

*  Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) Conference is Underway (21 August 2013)

20)  Angela Walton-Raji on the My Ancestor's Name blog.

*  FGS 2013 Unfolds - Fireworks and All! (23 August 2013)

21)  Diane Boumenot on the One Rhode Island Family blog:

*  A Visit to the Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center (24 August 2013)
*  The Federation of Genealogical Societies Conference 2013 (25 August 2013)

22)  Kimberly Nagy on the What's My Lineage blog:

*  Society Saturday - #FGS2013 (24 August 2013)

23)  Denise Levenick on The Family Curator blog:

*  Federation of Genealogical Societies Hits a Home Run With Fort Wayne FGS 2013 Conference (29 August 2013)

If you have written a blog post not on this list, or know of a blog post I've missed, please email me at rjseaver@cox.net and I'll add it to the list.

I will update this list on a regular basis, so please check back to see the latest updates.  Note that I am putting the post date on the items to help you determine what you haven't read yet.

Last updated:  30 August, 3 p.m. PDT.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2013/08/fgs-conference-blog-compendium.html

Copyright (c) 2013, Randall J. Seaver

My Autosomal DNA Quandary

I have had my autosomal DNA tested by AncestryDNA, by FamilyTreeDNA, and by 23andMe.  All three provided a different answer to my question - what populations did my DNA come from?

My perceived DNA origins, based on my genealogical research is approximately (from estimated origins of my 128 5th great-grandparents):

68%  British Isles
24%  Germany
1%  Holland
1%  France
6%  Unknown (perhaps some are French, some are English)
Here are my findings to date:

1)  AncestryDNA - I wrote about my results in Results from Ancestry.com Autosomal DNA Tests - Post 1, and Results from Ancestry.com Autosomal DNA Test - Post 2.  Here is the chart:



The chart says that I have 94% "British Isles" DNA and 6% "Uncertain."

The 6% "Uncertain" may include all of my perceived western European origins.  The 94% "British Isles" may include a significant portion of my western European origins - Angles, Saxons, etc.

AncestryDNA does not, yet, provide chromosome number and region details about the matches found with another AncestryDNA tester.  It does provide a comparison of surnames and a user can usually see the family tree of persons they match with.

2)  FamilyTreeDNA - I wrote about my FTDNA results in My Family Finder Autosomal Test Results - Post 1 and My Family Finder Autosomal Test Results - Post 2.  The chart is similar:


My guess is that the 10.78% "Middle East" component may include some of my Germany origins, and may indicate that some of them have Ashkenazi heritage.

Using the "Family Finder" results and matches to portions of data on each chromosome, I can see which chromosome I share with another FamilyTreeDNA tester.  That is very useful.  I can see the family tree of most FamilyTreeDNA testers to see where matches might occur.

3)  23AndMe - I wrote about my 23ndMe autosomal test results in My 23andMe DNA Test Results - Post 1, My 23andMe Test Results - Post 2: Chromosome Views UPDATED! and My 23andMe DNA Test Results - Post 3: Finding Matches and Seeing Connections.  The "Ancestry Compositon" chart looks like this:


23 andMe has a "Chromosome View" chart which shows the areas on each chromosome from each of the 22 populations identified worldwide:


This chart reflects what my genealogical perceptions are, with only a small exception - the 0.6% that is "East Asian and Native-American."  I've guessed that this may reflect 1 out of my 128 5th great-grandparents being Native-American.  I think it's probably from a grandparent of the French-Canadian wife of Abraham James Kemp, named Sarah Fletcher (a 3rd great-grandparent). 

Using the "Family Inheritance: Advanced" results provides visible matches to the chromosome portions I share with another 23and Me DNA tester.  That is very useful.  I can see the family tree of only a few of the 23andMe DNA testers to see where matches might occur.

4)  My quandary is the inconsistency between the three test results.  I understand that the three testing companies are using different reference populations, and that those reference populations don't separate out every country of origin, but they generally separate out the continents of origin.  Is this just the case of higher expectations than can reasonably be expected?

Another quandary is this:  Did AncestryDNA, FamilyTreeDNA and 23andMe test all of the same chromosomal regions?   If so, then there is no point in transferring 23andMe or AncestryDNA results into FamilyTreeDNA's database.  

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2013/08/my-autosomal-dna-quandary.html

Copyright (c) 2013, Randall J. Seaver

   

Treasure Chest Thursday - Post 178: Frederick W. Seaver (1876-1942) Death Certificate

It's Treasure Chest Thursday - time to showcase some of the collected documents and other treasures of my ancestors.

Here is the Record of Death certificate for my grandfather, Frederick Walton Seaver (1876-1942), obtained from the Lawrence (Mass.) City Clerk by my cousin Virginia in 1996:




The transcription of this death certificate is (typed portions underlined, handwritten portions in italics):


Commonwealth of Massachusetts

CITY OF LAWRENCE  ____________________________ COUNTY OF ESSEX

I hereby certify that the following is a true and compared copy of a Record of Death as Recorded in the original Records of the City of Lawrence, Massachusetts, which are in the custody of the City Clerk of said city.  This death is duly recorded in the Official Death Records of said city in Book   20   Page   100   No.    228   .

Name:  Frederick W. Seaver, Sr.
Age  65  Yrs   5  Mos.  4  Days    Date of Death:  March 13, 1942
Sex:   Male   Color:  ---   Condition:  Married
Disease or Cause of Death:  Cancer Prostate.
Place of Burial:  Evergreen Cemetery, Leominster, MA
Residence:  Clinton Street, Salem, N.H.
Place of Death:  General Hospital, Lawrence, MA
Occupation:  Supt.
Place of Birth:  Leominster, MA
Name and Birthplace of Father:  Frank W. Seaver, Westminster, MA
Name and Birthplace of Mother:  Harriet L. Hildreth, Northboro, MA
Date of Record:  March 18, 1942
Informant:  Douglas & Dewhirst, Methuen, MA

I, James McGravey City Clerk of said City of Lawrence, Massachusetts, hereby depose and say that the original Records of Deaths of said city are in my custody and that the above is a true and attested extract from said Records.

Witness my hand and seal of the said City of Lawrence, Massachusetts this 20th day of December in the year Nineteen Hundred and Ninety-Six  A.D.
                                                                 James McGravey
                                                                 CITY CLERK


ANY ALTERATION MADE ON THIS DOCUMENT RENDERS IT VOID

The only error I see on this document is the birthplace of Frederick's father, Frank W. Seaver.  It was in Medfield, Massachusetts and not in Westminster.  

The source citation for this death certificate is (using the Evidence Explained template for a Death Certificate, local level):

Frederick W. Seaver, Sr., record of death - no number; extracted from Book 20, Page 100, No. 228 (13 March 1942, obtained 20 December 1996), City Clerk's Office, Lawrence, Essex County, Massachusetts.

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Copyright (c) 2013, Randall J. Seaver

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Finding Henry Carringer's Land in Louisa County, Iowa

In Amanuensis Monday - Post 185: Probate Records of Henry Carringer (1800-1879) - Part 1, I found out that Henry Carringer's (1800-1879) land description was:

"...Real estate situated in the County of Louisa and State of Iowa viz. The North West quarter ¼ in the North East quarter ¼ of Section Number twenty nine 29 Township number 75 seventy five Range number five 5 west be it containing forty acres more or less ..."

I fired up the www.Earthpoint.us website, entered the Township, Range and Section information into the search fields, and downloaded the KML file (see Finding Henry Carringer's Land Patents, and Location, in Cheyenne County, Kansas for this process).  I clicked on the KML file and watched Google Earth fly to the Section (outlined in purple) in the Township (outlined in orange):



The Section is about four miles west of Columbus City, Louisa County, Iowa, and about 1 mile south of the town of Cotter.

Zooming in, I can see some land details for the Section:


You can see the approximate outlines of the quarter-sections and the quarter parts of the quarter sections.

Zooming in still further to see the Northwest Quarter of the Northeast Quarter, I outlined the approximate boundaries of Henry Carringer's 40 acres in red:



It appears that there was a small creek running through this 40 acre parcel.  It looks pretty flat and is still growing crops.  There appears to be no house on these 40 acres at present (there looks like a small building near the bottom red line).

I wondered how I could find it br driving there.  I pulled up Google Maps, found the area, and outlined (approximately) the plot on the map:


The road across the top of the plot is 150th Street, and the road along the west edge of the plot is West 66.

One thing leads to another.  The cemetery record led to the probate record.  The probate record led to this land location.  My next task is to find the deeds for this land - when did Henry Carringer buy it, and then finding the deed selling it during the probate of his estate.  This is another to-do item for my next visit to the FamilySearch Library in Salt Lake City next February (unless FamilySearch adds Iowa County Land Records to their online record collections soon!)..

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2013/08/finding-henry-carringers-land-in-louisa.html

Copyright (c) 2013, Randall J. Seaver