Saturday, September 21, 2013

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - How Many Children/Grandchildren in Your Birth Surname Line?

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



Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible! music) is to:


1)  Consider your Birth Surname families - the ones from your father back through his father all the way back to the first of that surname in your family group sheets or genealogy database.  List the father's name, and lifespan years.

2)  Use your paper charts or genealogy software program to create a Descendants chart (dropline or graphical) that provide the children and their children (i.e., up to the grandchildren of each father in the surname list).

3)  Count how many children they had (with all spouses), and the children of those children in your records and/or database.  Add those numbers to the list.  See my example below!  [Note: Do not count the spouses of the children]

4)  What does this list of children and grandchildren tell you about these persons in your birth surname line?  Does this task indicate areas that you need to do more research to fill out families and find potential cousins?

5)  Tell us about it in your own blog post, or in a comment to this post, or in a comment on Facebook or Google+.

Here's mine:

1)  My SEAVER surname line is:

*  Robert Seaver (1608-1683) had 7 children and 34 grandchildren.
*  Shubael Seaver (1639-1730) had 6 children and 20 grandchildren
*  Joseph Seaver (1672-1754) had 6 children and 48 grandchildren
*  Robert Seaver (1702-1752) had 9 children and 40 grandchildren
*  Norman Seaver (1734-1787) had 13 children and 48 grandchildren
*  Benjamin Seaver (1757-1816) had 10 children and 42 grandchildren
*  Benjamin Seaver (1791-1825) had 4 children and 9 grandchildren
*  Isaac Seaver (1823-1901) had 5 children and 8 grandchildren
*  Frank Walton Seaver (1852-1922) had 3 children and 7 grandchildren
*  Frederick Walton Seaver (1876-1942) had 7 children and 11 grandchildren
*  Frederick Walton Seaver (1911-1983) had 3 children and 6 grandchildren. 

2)  I did this task by doing a 3-generation dropline Descendant List in RootsMagic 6 (Reports > Lists > Descendant List) and counting the children (generation 2) and grandchildren (generation 3) for each person.  Here's the first page for Benjamin Seaver (1757-1816):



4)  The list above tells me several things:

*  The first six generations on the list had 51 children, so 8.4 children on average.  The last five generations on the list had 22 children, so 4.4 children on average.  
*  The 11 generations above had 73 children (average of 6.6), and 273 grandchildren (average of 24.8).
*  The number of children started reducing in the early 1800s for some reason - perhaps for reasons that are social, economic,  religious, distraction, or relative fertility).  All of my Seaver families worshipped as Protestant Christians.
*  A father who dies in his wife's child-bearing years really reduces the numbers (only Benjamin Seaver 1791 really has this problem).  Early deaths of children in childhood or before marriage reduces the numbers of potential grandchildren.
*  Once the families moved off the farm for a town or city, the number of children is reduced. (Isaac Seaver 1823 was the first one to not work as a farmer or to live in a place larger than a village of hundreds of people).
*  I think that I have captured all of the children and grandchildren of each of these fathers in my research and genealogy database.  There were some of the grandchildren on the lists (especially the children of female children) where I did not have death dates, spouse names or marriage dates.  That creates research opportunities to add to my genealogy database.

5)  I did this here!

NOTE:  Saturday Night Genealogy Fun will be on hiatus for the next two weeks because I will be enjoying the Legacy Family Tree Cruise through the Panama Canal.  Saturday Night Genealogy Fun will resume on Saturday, 12 October.

The URL of this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2013/09/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-how-many.html

Copyright (c) 2013, Randall J. Seaver

Surname Saturday - TRIPP (England - 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  #719, who is Mary TRIPP (1689-1754) 
[Note: the earlier great-grandmothers and 7th great-grandfathers have been covered in earlier posts].

My ancestral line back through three generations in this TRIPP 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)

178.  David Kirby (1740-1832)
179.  Martha Soule (1743-1828)

358.  Benjamin Soule (1719-1803)
359.  Meribah Waite (1720-1803)

718.  Thomas Waite, born 22 April 1683 in Dartmouth, Bristol, Massachusetts, United States; died after 1743 in probably Dartmouth, Bristol, Massachusetts, United States.  He was the son of 1436. Reuben Waite and 1437. Tabitha Launders.  He married 25 January 1711 in Dartmouth, Bristol, Massachusetts, United States.
719.  Mary Tripp, born 22 August 1689 in Dartmouth, Bristol, Massachusetts, United States; died after 1754 in probably Dartmouth, Bristol, Massachusetts, United States.  

Children of Thomas Waite and Mary Tripp are:
*  John Waite (1711-1770), married 1733 Elizabeth Sullivant (1711-????).
*  Reuben Waite (1713-1754), married (1) 1735 Rebecca Soule (1715-1747), (2) 1745 Rebecca Tripp (1724-????).
*  Thomas Waite (1716-1790), married 1743 Tabitha Ellis (1721-1813).
*  Mary Waite (1718-1803), married 1743 William Tripp (1712-1785).
*  Meribah Waite (1720-1803), married 1742 Benjamin Soule (1719-1803)
*  Mehitable Waite (1722-????), married 1746 Henry Reynolds.
*  Martha Waite (1725-????), married 1756 John Wightman.
*  Alice Waite (1729-????).

1438.  Joseph Tripp, born about 1644 in probably Portsmouth, Newport, Rhode Island, United States; died 27 November 1718 in Dartmouth, Bristol, Massachusetts, United States. He married 06 August 1667 in Portsmouth, Newport, Rhode Island, United States.
1439.  Mehitable Fish, born about 1647 in Portsmouth, Newport, Rhode Island, United States; died 09 September 1697 in Dartmouth, Bristol, Massachusetts, United States.  She was the daughter of 2878. Thomas Fish and 2879. Mary.

Children of Joseph Tripp and Mehitable Fish are:
*  John Tripp (1668-????).
*  Thomas Tripp (1670-????).
*  Jonathan Tripp (1671-1706), married 1695 Martha Brownell (1678-1736).
*  Peleg Tripp (1673-????), married (1) 1696 Abigail Jenkins (1673-1712), (2) 1712 Elizabeth Cornell (1673-1761).
*  Ebenezer Tripp (1675-1757), married 1703 Abigail Cudworth (1680-1753).
*  James Tripp (1677-1730), married 1682 Mary Lawton.
*  Alice Tripp (1679-????), married Joshua Sherman.
*  Abiel Tripp (1681-????), married 1711 Anne Davis.
*  Mehitable Tripp (1683-1743), married 1708 Ephraim Sherman (1685-1772).
*  Joseph Tripp (1685-????), married (1) 1709 Elizabeth Smith, (2) 1737 Abigail Waite.
*  Jabez Tripp (1687-????), married 1716 Hepsibeth Daggett (1692-????).
*  Mary Tripp (1689-1754), married 1711 Thomas Waite (1683-1743)
*  Daniel Tripp (1691-1778), married 1719 Rebecca Mosher (1695-1743).

2876.  John Tripp, born before 08 September 1611 in Horkstow, Lincolnshire, England; died before 26 December 1678 in Portsmouth, Newport, Rhode Island, United States.  He was the son of 5752. John Tripp and 5753. Isabel Moses.  He married about 1639 in probably Portsmouth, Newport, Rhode Island, United States.
2877.  Mary Paine, born before 12 October 1611 in Wrentham, Suffolk, England; died 12 February 1687 in Portsmouth, Newport, Rhode Island, United States.  She was the daughter of 5754. Thomas Paine and 5755. Elizabeth Bloomfield.

Children of John Tripp and Mary Paine are:
*  John Tripp (1640-1719), married 1665 Susannah Anthony (1644-1716).
*  Peleg Tripp (1642-1714), married 1667 Anne Sisson (1647-1715)
*  Joseph Tripp (1644-1718), married 1667 Mehitable Fish (1647-1697)
*  Mary Tripp (1646-1716), married (1) 1662 Gershom Wodell (????-1683), (2) 1684 Jonathan Gatchell.
*  Elizabeth Tripp (1648-1701), married 1665 Zuriel Hall (????-1691).
*  Alice Tripp (1650-1700), married 1671 William Hall (????-1698).
*  Isabel Tripp (1651-1716), married 1675 Samson Sherman (1642-1718).
*  Abiel Tripp (1653-1684), married 1679 Deliverance Hall (????-1721).
*  James Tripp (1656-1730), married (1) 1682 Mercy Lawton (1660-1685), (2) 1702 Lydia --?-- (????-1702), (3) 1702 Elizabeth Cudworth (1677-????).
*  Martha Tripp (1658-1717), married 1681 Samuel Sherman (1648-1717).
*  Sylvanus Tripp (1660-????), married Margaret Diamond.

Published resources for this Tripp family include:

1)  Neil D. Thompson, "Some Observations on the Ancestry of John Tripp, Emigrant to Portsmouth, Rhode Island," The Genealogist, Volume 10, Number 2 (Fall 1989), Pages 195-199.

2)  Carl Boyer 3rd, Ancestral Lines, Third Edition (Santa Clarita, Calif. : the author, 1998).

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2013/09/surname-saturday-tripp-england-colonial.html

Copyright (c) 2013, Randall J. Seaver

Friday, September 20, 2013

A FREE Swedish Genealogy Research Day in San Diego - October 19, 2013

The Swedish Consulate in San Diego is sponsoring and promoting "A Swedish Genealogy Research Day" on Saturday, October 19th, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the La Jolla Public Library (7555 Draper Avenue, La Jolla, California 92037).

There will be three speakers on Swedish research, plus one-on-one sessions and questions (which require a special appointment - see the flyer below for the URL).


Admission to this event is FREE, but registration is required at www.swedgen.eventbrite.com.

You can receive more information by emailing prsd@consulateofsweden.org.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2013/09/a-free-swedish-genealogy-research-day.html

First Look at Family Tree Maker 2014 - Post 5: New Family View Report

Family Tree Maker announced their release of Family Tree Maker 2014 genealogy software four weeks ago - I covered it in Family Tree Maker 2014 Software Announced - 30% Discount (or more) (posted 26 August 2013).  

I ordered it and downloaded it, and imported a recent GEDCOM file created in RootsMagic 6.  


One of the new or improved items on the list was:

*  "New and improved charts and reports — more options and views let you display an individual’s ancestors, spouses, and children together. Also, the Index of Individuals Report has been expanded with options for anniversary, birthday, and contact lists and more."

The one new report that caught my eye (there may have been others, but they didn't catch my eye!) was the Family View Report.  

1)  In Family Tree Maker2014, with my grandfather highlighted in the "People" Workspace, I clicked on the "Publish" Workspace (the top menu) and selected the Relationship Reports" and then the "Family View Report:"



The brief information for this report says:

"The Family View Report is a hybrid family and ancestor report.  It displays three generations of ancestors for a person along with that person's spouse and children.  The report is similar to the Family view in the People workspace."

2)  Here is the Family View Report for my grandparents family (two screens below):




3)  I can "Share" this report ( "Share" icon next to the "Print" icon) and "Send" it as a PDF, CSV, RTF or as an image, or "Export" it as a PDF, CSV, RTF or HTML file.  I can "Print" this report also using the "Print" icon.

I decided to "Send" the file as an image, and saved it as a PNG file to my computer files.  Here is the one-page Family View Report for my grandfather:



It is 80 kb in file size.

This report does not have all of the information in a Family Group Sheet; for instance, spouses of the children and their marriage dates are not listed.  

5)  I like the idea and layout of this Family View Report report, but it bothers me that, although it was created for one person (my grandfather), it shows the information for him and his wife, my grandmother.  For completeness, a similar report would have to be created for my grandmother also.  However, only the title and the pedigree chart would be different.  Perhaps a pedigree chart that shows both the husband and wife and two more generations (that would be the same size pedigree chart, I think.  I would also like to see the lifespan years in the earliest generation on the pedigree chart.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2013/09/first-look-at-family-tree-maker-2014_20.html

Copyright (c) 2013, Randall J. Seaver

Follow-Up Friday - Helpful and Interesting Reader Comments

Each week I try to follow-up on helpful and interesting reader comments received during the last week or so.  Here is the chosen comments for this week:

1)  On First Look at my AncestryDNA Ethnicity Update - Post 2: More DNA Results (posted 13 September 2013):

a)  Dan Stone offered:  "While I consider this a big step forward, it will certainly continue to get even better with time and a bigger "reference collection" of people. As it stands now, the reference population they are using is still tiny. In your second graphic in this post, you will see the "reference collection" you are being compared against is only 416 people. The other ethnic categories also have similarly small numbers at this time, judging from what I saw in the updated ethnicity results of the four DNA accounts I administer.

"I have every confidence they will continue to improve their ethnicity reporting, but I'm sure many will still be complaining. Unfortunately, it seems many of those who have been complaining do not fully grasp that these ethnicity results will continue to evolve and improve, and that the ethnicity reported covers time periods way before most of our genealogy research covers."


My comment:  I understood that the first time around, and my expectation was that the next time the ethnicity estimate would improve significantly.  For me, the pendulum swung from 94% British Isles to 27%.  If they add several thousand more to the reference population for Britain/Ireland over the next year or so, will the estimate change drastically?  I don't know.

b)  Helen wrote:  "I have similar European ancestry to yours and have tested with all 3 companies, so I will post my various results including my AncestryDNA ethnicity update shortly for you to see. Where do you get "18% British and Irish on 23andMe" from? I have checked your earlier posts and can't find that figure under their standard or speculative estimate for you."


My comment:  I had 11.5% British and Irish for the standard estimate on 23andMe, per my post My 23andMe DNA Test Results - Post 1.  I don't know where I got 18%!  Confused, I guess.  Thanks for catching this, I guess I should correct it.

c)  Eileen noted:  "It is good to hear about the new ethnicity results. I was so excited when I read this post that I went to my results but they are still the same old figures. Can't wait until the new ones role out. Maybe then I will find out what happened to all my German ancestry."


a)  Charles Vigneron said:  "I don't use FTM primarily because I use a Mac. I use names and counties as they would have been appropriate to their day. Henrico, Virginia, USA, will be earlier: Henrico, Virginia Colony. Johnsonburg, Sussex County, New Jersey, rather than Warren, pre 1827. Augusta and Yohogania County rather than West Virginia counties, etc.  This educates me about the political history/divisions of the region as well as the families.  Your thoughts, sir?"

My thoughts:  You can buy and use FTM for the Mac if you wanted to.    I understand that you have used historically accurate place names for the time period of the event - and that is what is recommended for professional quality research.  However, some genealogy software, which many of us cannot work efficiently without, provides the use of online mapping services at Google and Bing, and those require current place names in order to be used for display of locations and migration maps.  In a perfect genealogy software world, the historical place names would be used for a date-specific event when a current place name is used.  Unfortunately, no software (yet) is perfect.

b)  Russ Worthington added:  "FTMM-3 for the Mac is due out 'before the end of the year'

"FTM2012 and FTM2014 allows us to handle Historical Place names correctly. I have a blog post on that. I haven't blogged about FTMM-2 but I have it, so I am not sure if FTMM-2 (current version) handles historic names yet."



a)  Charles Vigneron asked:  "Very interesting. Do the programs allow to save format to user-size specifications? Beyond, letter, legal, ledger?

"Large format printing, color and b&w, are found in most towns today. I've made several pdfs 3x5 feet. Five b&w copies ≈ $5."


My comment:  Maybe Russ will answer your question about saving to user size specs.  Besides local large size printing, there is also the option to have a commercial company print a large color chart for a price;  most of these companies will add embellishments beyond the software programs to enhance the chart at your request.

b)  Glenn Harvey noted:  "Not sure about FTM2014 (I've ordered but not received the CD here in Australia).  I can't see why they would change it, but Chart Titles can be edited as you want in FTM2012. have a look at the second icon from the left in the option panel the fonts one(has 2 letter A's in it).  Options include changes to Names, Facts, Chart titles and more, you can change the font type, size, colour, and alignment."

My comment:  Thanks for the help.  I found the Title options, and used it, but there is no option to Center the Title on the chart; clicking on "Center" keeps the Title in the top left-hand corner but "centers" the second line relative to the top line.


*  T said:  "Since FamilySearch is laying off I doubt they will be taking care of old business."

My comment:  The report I saw said that they laid off employees in the Computer Technology, Information Technology, Publishing Technology and Information Communication Systems departments.  

In almost every enterprise, there are changes in job types, job requirements, department budgets, etc.  FamilySearch made a change in emphasis in early 2013 to feature Photos and Stories and the FamilySearch Family Tree, and to stop development of and eventually retire the New FamilySearch tree.  

They are committed, I think, to continue adding content to FamilySearch  in terms of digitized historical record collections from microfilm, and volunteer-indexed records and links to many of those collections.  At some point, they will have to make the user-interface with the list of those record collections easier to use and more efficient.  As it is, they load over 1640 lines and links each time someone clicks on the List URL.  I doubt that they will do that when they have, say, 5,000 collections on their list.

5)  Reader Anonymous has been prolific this past week, and the Blogger spam filter has caught every one of them!  I'm grateful.  Some samples for your reading pleasure:

a)  "Its like you read my mind! You appear to know a lot about this, like you wrote the book in it or something. I think that you could do with a few pics to drive the message home a little bit, but other than that, this is fantastic blog. A fantastic read. I will definitely be back"

b)  Hurrah! At last I got a web site from where I be able to in fact take useful facts concerning my study and knowledge. Have a look at my blog

c)  This is really attention-grabbing, You are an overly professional blogger. I have joined your rss feed and sit up for looking for more of your excellent post. Additionally, I have shared your website in my social networks

d)  I'm extremely inspired together with your writing abilities as smartly as with the structure in your blog. Is that this a paid theme or did you modify it yourself? Either way stay up the nice high quality writing, it is rare to peer a nice weblog like this one these days

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My comment:  I love to receive fan mail, but this is probably over the top.  I left out their link if they provided it, or the product name.  I wish they would send pictures of themselves and provide a link so I could pay them back somehow.  Seriously, why does anyone take the time to write this crap and then have to defeat the Captcha trap?  

The URL for this post is:

Copyright (c) 2013, Randall J. Seaver.

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Making a Descendants Chart Using Legacy Family Tree 7.5

I received a question in email from a correspondent last week about making a Descendant's Chart using genealogy software, and so I set out to look at how to do this in the three major software programs I have. 

She specifically wanted a chart that showed a set of parents, and then their children with their spouses (all of them), and all on one sheet of paper.  She had 10 children to show...so the one sheet of paper might be a problem, unless their boxes are very narrow.


This post uses Legacy Family Tree 7.5, and I've done posts using Family Tree Maker 2014  and RootsMagic 6 also.  Maybe I'll learn something in the process too.

1)  In the Family view in Legacy Family Tree 7.5, with my great-grandfather Frank Walton Seaver highlighted, I clicked on the "Reports" menu item (not the "Reports" icon) and saw a dropdown list:


From the dropdown list, I chose "Legacy Charting...":


From the list of different charts, I chose the "Standard" Descendants chart.

2)  I exercised all of the "Appearance" menu buttons (Themes, Box Items, Borders, Sizing, Background and Privacy) and finagled them a bit and ended up with:


This chart is 34 inches wide and 11 inches high full scale.  It uses four pieces of paper.  I did include birth, marriage and death information.  Here is a "full scale" view:


I used a 20 point font for the title, a 14-point font for the Name and 10-point for the vital information.

3)  I wanted to save the chart as a JPG file, so I clicked on the "Publish" button and a dialog box opened with options for file types a button to calculate the file size, and a browse button to pick a file folder to save it in:


I saved it as a JPG and the file size is about 0.5 mb:


There are 14 persons in the third generation, 7 children and 7 spouses.  I could reduce the box width to 1.5 inches to get it on three pages, but the names get word-wrapped.  I have a problem with the thumbnail pictures not showing up for some of the persons even though they show up in a family and pedigree view.  

I like this rendition of the descendants chart - it has what I want in it, and is relatively easy to read in full scale.  

4)  I used the "Help" button to find out how to make this a Landscape chart and succeeded:


But that came out 33 inches wide and 17 inches high, and would print on 6 pieces of paper.

5)  My correspondent wants 20 names across on one sheet of paper, and that won't happen with any of these programs since the boxes would have to be 0.5 inches wide.  

As we've seen, none of the three programs I've looked at have the flexibility to stagger the longest row of people up and down in order to minimize the width of the chart.  

I may be left to recommending that they use something like Powerpoint to create text boxes and enter text and move them around to fit.  With that, the boxes would still be only 1.05 inch wide at most (on an 11 inch wide piece of paper) for a generation with 20 persons in it.  Or use a fold-out 11 x 17 piece of paper for the charts.

The URL for this post is:

Copyright (c) 2014, Randall J. Seaver

Family Tree Webinars Offers Free Viewing for Limited Time

Legacy's Family Tree Webinars offers free viewing of some of their archived Webinars indefinitely, and for a limited time for all of the others, usually for one week after their live broadcast.


Because Geoff Rasmussen, and about 300 of his friends and fans, are going on the 10th Annual Legacy Family Tree cruise on the Celebrity Millennium (leaving Sunday from San Diego, and arriving in Fort Lauderdale on Monday, 7 October), they are offering free viewing to three of the archived webinars starring three of the speakers on the cruise.  Here are the three free webinars and their "expiration" dates:

*  Reverse Genealogy: Finding the Living by Megan Smolenyak, available free through September 26, 2013

*  Pre-1850 U.S. Research Methodologies by Karen Clifford, available free through October 3, 2013

*  The 5 C's for Success in Genealogy Today by Barbara Renick, available free through October 10, 2013

If you missed seeing these webinars, or if you want to refresh your memory of the material, please go watch them for FREE by the noted deadlines.

I checked the cruise schedule of speakers and topics, and those three are not being presented on the cruise.  I know that I've seen Barbara's presentation live.  I plan to see Karen's talk on Saturday at the San Diego Genealogical Society fall seminar, but I missed Megan's webinar, so I will go watch that today as I prepare to pack for the cruise.  Yes, my wife and I are cruising with Geoff and his other 298 friends and fans, and it should be a lot of genealogy fun, not to mention education.

Family Tree Webinars offers a monthly or yearly subscription to watch any of their webinars at any time, which includes the syllabus material.  There are over 190 hours of educational material by well-known presenters in the webinar archives.   This is equivalent to about seven 3-day national or regional conferences, all from the comfort of your own genealogy cave.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2013/09/family-tree-webinars-offers-free.html

Copyright (c) 2013, Randall J. Seaver

Treasure Chest Thursday - Post 182: 1920 U.S. Census Record for the Henry Carringer Household in San Diego, California

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 1920 United States Census record for my Carringer great-grandparents and their family in San Diego, San Diego County, California: 


The entry for the Henry A,. Carringer household:



The extracted information for the household, residing at 2105 30th Street in San Diego, San Diego County, California, taken 8 January 1920, is:


*  Henry A. Carringer -- head, owns home with a mortgage, male, white, age 66, married, able to read and write, born in Pennsylvania, parents born in Pennsylvania/Pennsylvania, a cabinet-maker, works in a furniture store, a worker
*  Della A. Carringer -- wife, female, white, age 57, married, able to read and write, born in Wisconsin, parents born in New York/New York
*  Abbie A. Smith -- mother-in-law, female, white, age 75, widow, able to read and write, born in New York, father born in England, mother born in New York
*  Mary S. Griffith -- a lodger, female, white, age 45, single, able to read and write, born Michigan, father born Delaware, mother born New York, a music teacher, piano, works on own account.

The source citation for this census image is:

1920 United States Federal Census, San Diego County, California, Population Schedule, San Diego city; ED 285, sheet 5B, dwelling #142, family #157, Henry A. Carringer household; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 20 October 2011); citing National Archives Microfilm Publication T625, Roll 131.

I don't see any errors in this enumeration.  The relationships are correct, ages are correct for the enumeration date, the birthplaces and parents birthplaces are correct, and the occupation information for Henry is consistent with what I know from other resources.  I don't know much about the lodger, Mary Griffith.  She may have been renting the upstairs apartment.


Copyright (c) 2013, Randall J. Seaver

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

CGSSD Meeting on Saturday, 21 September: "Through Their Eyes" with Alice Volkert

The Computer Genealogy Society of San Diego (CGSSD) meets on the 3rd Saturday of each month (except December) from 9:00 a.m. to noon on the campus of UCSD, University of California, San Diego. See our web page www.cgssd.org  for directions.

The next meeting will be held on 21 September 2013 from 9:00 a.m. to noon.

 Special Note: The scheduled Special Interest Group - Beginning Computer Genealogy 101 - has been cancelled due to a death in Judy Jiru’s family.

 So, Corlee Morris, the User Group and SIG coordinator, will be holding a discussion of some of the genealogy applications and web sites we might want to add to our 2014 User Group and Special Interest Groups Schedule. We will have live Internet access so we can go to suggested websites and explore the sites together.  Then we can discuss what we find in preparation for making a tentative decision on which ones we might want to add for 2014 and beyond.  Come with candidate sites, applications and URLs.

 Here are the meeting details:

9:00 - User group: Macintosh – Gary Hoffman
9:00 - Special Discussion: Genealogy Applications and Web Sites – Corlee Morris

10:00 - Break

10:20 - Announcements followed by program:

 “Through Their Eyes”
by Alice Colby Volkert

After using all the tried-and-true research strategies there are still some individuals that just can not be found! As far as researching individuals, we keep narrowing our field of vision until we have little hope of "seeing" anything new. But, if we stop and think about it and no longer try to use our own eyes, but turn around and use the eyes of the person we are investigating; we may "see" the solution. What did your mystery person see?

Alice Colby Volkert is a professional genealogist who is involved in many aspects of genealogy. She specializes in New England, particularly Massachusetts, but can research in any part of the United States. Alice enjoys being a coach, helping people make their own discoveries and organizing their data. She guides and assists people who want to "do-it-themselves," or can do as much for anyone as they require.

She speaks at UGA, Expo and Jamboree Genealogy Conferences as well as local Family History Fairs and genealogy societies' meetings. She is on the board of the Southern California Chapter of the Association for Professional Genealogists.

Alice is President of the Colby Family Association, the descendants of Anthony & Susannah Colby who arrived with the Winthrop Fleet.

We meet at the Robinson Auditorium complex on the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) campus in La Jolla. From North Torrey Pines Road, turn at Pangea Drive into UCSD. Free parking is available in the parking garage on the left; use any space other than those specifically reserved for UCSD vehicles. Signs will mark directions to our meeting room. Please refer to our website www.cgssd.org; or the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies website (click here) for driving directions and a map.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2013/09/cgssd-meeting-on-saturday-21-september.html


Making a Descendants Chart Using Family Tree Maker 2014

I received a question in email from a correspondent last week about making a Descendant's Chart using genealogy software, and so I set out to look at how to do this in the three major software programs I have. 

She specifically wanted a chart that showed a set of parents, and then their children with their spouses (all of them), and all on one sheet of paper.  She had 10 children to show...so the one sheet of paper might be a problem, unless their boxes are very narrow.

This post uses Family Tree Maker 2014, and I'll do posts on Legacy Family Tree 7.5 and RootsMagic 6 also.  Maybe I'll learn something in the process too.

1)  In the Family Tree Maker 2014 "Publish" Workspace and "Collection" tab for my great-grandfather, I clicked on the "Descendant Chart" icon:



2)  When I clicked on the "Create Chart" button in the right-hand panel above, the chart opened with my previous chart settings.  I edited them, picking:

*  Layout = Poster
*  Spacing = Custom
*  Generations = 2
*  Descendatns = All Descendants
*  Background = None
*  Pictures = Thumbnails
*  "Center this page" checked
*  "Include spouse of primary individual" checked
*  "Boxes overlap page breaks" checked
*  In the "Box, border and Line Options" icon, I selected box fill colors for females (pink) and males (blue).
*  In the "Items to Include" icon, I chose Name and Lifespan items

Here is the three generation descendants chart that was created:


This chart is about 20.5 inches wide and 5 inches high.  It would print on two landscape pages full size.

Here is a two-generation chart with the same parameters set:


I think that this is exactly what my correspondent wanted.  It shows the children and their spouses.  Ten children and spouses would probably be about two pages wide - she could reduce the box width if she chose to fit them all.

3)  The user can save the chart as a PDF of graphic image (click on the "Share" button in the upper right-hand corner of the screen) or Print on paper.  Here is the three-generation chart saved as a JPG image:



4)  If my correspondent wants more information for birth and death, she can eliminate the Lifespan item from the Items to Include field and add in Birth and Death items.  She will have to adjust the box width.  Here is the two-generation chart (on two landscape pages):


The three generation chart (with 13 persons in the third generation) spread over three landscape pages.  My correspondent probably wants to keep the Lifespan item rather than use Birth and Death items on her charts in order to reduce the overall chart width.

I haven't resolved all of my media in my FTM 2014 database yet, so not all thumbnails showed.

I didn't see any way to center the Title of this chart, or to edit it to increase the font size or change the color.  Are there such settings?  My preference is a color title and centered on the chart.

5)  I think that Family Tree Maker 2014 (and probably earlier versions of Family Tree Maker) will satisfy my correspondent's wishes as long as she doesn't use thumbnail images for persons and keeps the box width down to fit all of the persons on one landscape page.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2013/09/making-descendants-chart-using-family.html

Copyright (c) 2013, Randall J. Seaver

(Not So) Wordless Wednesday - Post 274: Grandparents at our Wedding

I'm posting family photographs from my collection on Wednesdays, but they aren't Wordless Wednesday posts like others do - I am incapable of having a wordless post.

Here is a photograph from our wedding albums:




This is one of those traditional wedding group photographs - the happy bride and groom and their grandparents.

Pictured here are, from the left:

*  Edna Catherine "OoHoo" (McKnew) Schaffner (1884-1974), Linda's maternal grandmother.
*  Linda J. (Leland) Seaver, the bride
*  Randall J. Seaver, the lucky groom
*  Emily Kemp (Auble) Carringer (1899-1977), Randy's maternal grandmother
*  Lyle L. Carringer (1891-1976), Randy's maternal grandfather.

We had only four of our eight grandparents living at the time of our wedding on 21 March 1970 in Chula Vista, California.  The fourth is Linda's paternal grandmother, Amelia Anna (Brocke) Leland (1884-1975) who was not in attendance at our wedding.

This picture was taken in the church after the wedding ceremony and before the reception.  Right in the center of the picture is my right hand (holding my pants up?).  Actually, I think it had to go somewhere because Linda's left hand was through my right arm holding her bouquet.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2013/09/not-so-wordless-wednesday-post-274.html

Copyright (c) 2013, Randall J. Seaver