Saturday, February 28, 2015

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun -- How Did You Meet Your Significant Other?

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


For this week's mission (should you decide to accept it), I challenge you to:

1)  It's story time - tell us how you met your spouse or significant other.  If you don't have one, tell us about your parents met each other.


2) Share your story on your own blog post, or in a comment on this blog post, or in a post on Facebook  or Google+.

Here's mine:

I was 24 years old in San Diego in February 1968, with a good job (finally), out of debt, and just really starting to be "successful" in meeting young ladies.  Bowling was the key - my social life revolved around bowling in mixed leagues (see, pretty smart, eh, looking nifty in my bowling shirts) once a week on a Sunday night.  Friday and Saturday were devoted to bowling and drinking in the bars, kibitzing with my buddies who were all older than I was so they were "helping" me with this.

I was living with my good buddy, John, and John was dating a young teacher named Sherry and she had roped him, and me, into bowling in the Sunday night mixed league at Frontier Lanes.  There was always a need for female substitutes, and Sherry had many friends, and one of them was Linda, a teacher from San Francisco who had just started working in Coronado in September 1967.  Sherry roped Linda into being a substitute on a Sunday night in February 1968.

As luck would have it, Linda was a substitute on the team that my team was playing that night.  Linda was long legged and pretty, and I was a bit distracted.  I don't know how I did bowling that night, but I imagine it was below my 175 average because I was trying to show off for the substitute.

After the league contest was over, we all retired to the bar at the bowling alley, and Sherry, Linda, John and I played some pool, in addition to talking, laughing and drinking.  We were sitting close to the pool table.  One of my shots jumped the cue ball off the table and it landed in Linda's lap.  She was OK, we all laughed, and I was smitten.

In April 1968, all four of us went to the Los Angeles area for something (I really can't remember what - I know it wasn't sports and probably not bowling!), and we stayed up all night.  We headed home after 3 a.m. (only 120 miles or so) and I was driving.  John and Sherry passed out early on, and Linda stayed awake to make sure I was awake.  She sat in back of me, and over the last 50 miles or so, she rubbed my neck to keep me awake.  That worked!  

On Memorial Day 1968, Linda was in bed at her apartment in her negligee, and a pickup truck backed through her bedroom wall and threw her against the opposite wall, breaking a vertebra in her back.  She was taken to the hospital and kept for about a week.  Sherry told John and I about it, so we went to visit her.  On the way, we stopped at a liquor store to get her a magazine and a bottle of beer.  As we are approaching the hospital in Coronado, I see a man trimming his rose bushes, so we stopped the car, I jumped out and asked the man if I can have some roses for my friend in the hospital, and he gave me three or four beautiful roses.  We opened the bottle of beer and put them in the bottle.  At the hospital, we gave Linda the magazines and the roses in the beer bottle, and told her the beer was fresh, and it would be good for her back.  She laughed, drank, and thanked us for being so thoughtful and romantic.

Linda spent the summer of 1968 in San Francisco, and I had several other lady friends at the time, being Mr. Romantic and all, and drinking too much at the bowling alley.  I saw her occasionally at Sherry's, but we didn't really date again until August 1969, because she couldn't bowl with the back problem.  She threw a party on a Saturday night, and some of my bowling and drinking friends were there and gave her my new phone number.  As the party ended, she called and said "I didn't have your number, and you missed my party."  I said something like, "Well, I'll come down now and we can party some more."  Mr. Bravado there!   I did, and we talked a lot, and I helped her clean up the bottles and debris, and went home thinking "wow, what a babe!"  

From then on, we were a couple, going out to dinner, spending time together, attending Sherry's parties, hanging out at King Luis Inn ("our bar"), going to Padre games and Charger games at the stadium.  In February 1970, on Valentine's Day evening, I asked her to marry me. Mr. Romantic strikes again! 

And the rest is, as they say, family history!

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2015/02/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-how-did.html

Copyright (c) 2015, Randall J. Seaver


Surname Saturday - CLARKE (England to colonial Massachusetts)

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


I am in the 8th great-grandmothers and I'm up to Ancestor #1093 who is  Elizabeth CLARKE (1620-1683) 
[Note: the earlier great-grandmothers and 8th great-grandfathers have been covered in earlier posts].

My ancestral line back through two generations in this CLARKE family line is:


1. Randall J. Seaver

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

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

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

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

34. Alpheus B. Smith (1802-1840)
35. Elizabeth Horton Dill (1791-1869)


68.  Aaron Smith (1765-1841)
69.  Mercy Plimpton (1772-1850)

136.  Moses Smith (1732-1806)
137.  Patience Hamant (1735-1780)

272.  Henry Smith (1680-1743)
273.  Ruth Barber (1696-????)

546.  Zechariah Barber (1656-1705)
547.  Abiel Ellis (1662-1715)

1092.  George Barber, born about 1617 in Fressingfield, Suffolk, England; died 13 April 1685 in Medfield, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States.  He married 4 November 1642 in Dedham, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States.
1093.  Elizabeth Clarke, born before 23 July 1620 in Banham, Norfolk, England; died 22 December 1683 in Dedham, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States.  

Children of George Barber and Elizabeth Clarke are:
*  Elizabeth Barber (1641-1642).
*  Mary Barber (1643-1643).
*  Mary Barber (1644-1700_, married 1666 Jonathan Morse (1643-1727).
*  Samuel Barber (1647-1736), married (1) 1670 Mary Harding (1653-1675); (2) 1676 Sarah Millens (1654-1721).
*  John Barber (1649-1688), married 1674 Abigail Babcock (1656-1693).
*  Elizabeth Barber (1651-1714), married 1669 Daniel Morse (1641-1702).
*  Hannah Barber (1654-1705), married 1686 Ebenezer Babcock (1662-1717).
*  Zechariah Barber (1656-1705), married 1683 Abiel Ellis (1662-1715).
*  Abigail Barber (1659-????), married 1691 Samuel Thorne (1655-????).

2186.  Thomas Clarke, born before 07 March 1568 in Banham, Norfolk, England; died Bef. 10 May 1638 in Banham, Norfolk, England.  He was the son of 4372. Rowland Clarke and 4373. Margaret Micklewood.  He married 17 October 1602 in Banham, Norfolk, England.
2187.  Mary Canne, born about 1580 in Suffolk, England; died 22 May 1642 in Dedham, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States.

Children of Thomas Clarke and Mary Canne are:
*  Thomas Clarke (1604-1656).
*  Rowland Clarke (1607-1639).
*  Rebecca Clarke (1610-1681), married 1630 Ralph Wheelock (1600-1684).
*  Joseph Clarke (1613-1684), married 1640 Alicia Fenne (1619-1710).
*  Mary Clarke (1615-????), married Benjamin Smith (1612-1685).
*  Elizabeth Clarke (1620-1683), married 1642 George Barber (1617-1685).

 Information about this Clark(e) family was obtained from:

*  Christopher Gleason Clark, "The English Ancestry of Joseph Clark (1613-1683) of Dedham and Medfield, Massachusetts," New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Volume 152, Number 1 (January 1998), pages 3-23.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2015/02/surname-saturday-clarke-england-to.html

Copyright (c) 2015, Randall J. Seaver


Friday, February 27, 2015

Trying Out the Famberry Family Tree

Famberry, a United Kingdom based collaborative family tree website, announced that they are now accepting GEDCOM uploads and a search capability - see Famberry Launches "Famberry Search" and GEDCOM Uploads on Dick Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter.



The press release says: “Famberry Search is for people who want to connect to more than a name, they want to connect to a whole family tree.”

The concept looks promising, so I decided to register for free and see what a family tree on Famberry might appear.  On the home page (www.famberry.com or www.famberry.co.uk) I could start adding information for myself and my parents.  I didn't want to do that - after all, I have over 44,000 persons in my database and I can add them using a GEDCOM file.

On the home page, I found "Upload GEDCOM File" on the "Admin" tab:


I made a GEDCOM file in RootsMagic and included all of my ancestral families - about 9,000 persons.  When I tried to upload it, I got a message that the file was not properly formatted.  There was a message on the screen that said:

"Please ensure that you have no data in this family tree that you wish to keep. Create a new family tree in Family Tree->Show Family Trees, if you are unsure. Famberry accepts valid GEDCOM files which meet the latest specification, however the information in the tree must be from one family bloodline only. If you have a GEDCOM file with multiple families, please spilt the information into separate GEDCOM files and import into separate family trees lines in Famberry.

"If you have any issues importing your GEDCOM file please email info@famberry.co.uk where we will be happy to assist."

I sent an email to Famberry about it and was told that the limit was 3,000 persons and only one "family bloodline," whatever that means.  I created a smaller GEDCOM file with 500 persons (5 generations of ancestors and 5 generations of descendants of Thomas Richmond (1848-1917), my great-grandfather, without Notes, Sources, or Images) and tried to upload that, and got another message similar to the first:


In another email, Steve told me that the RootsMagic "export is creating a file with a character set of UTF with byte ordering, this is non-standard."  He corrected it somehow and sent it back to me.

I tried to import the modified file and it uploaded, and I used the Family Tree > Rename Tree tab in Famberry to change the tree name:



I added a description, and clicked on "Save."

The tree opened with a descendants chart tree view, and I could use the right-left scroll bar on the bottom and the up-down scroll bar on the right of the screen to move around the tree.


I rolled my mouse over my father's profile on the screen above, and options to "Upload Photo," "Modify Details," "Add Child" or "Remove Person" appeared.  I didn't do any of those things - I clicked on my father's profile icon and saw a profile card with a summary of his life:


The "Family information" area of the profile card has a summary of his life - birth, marriage and death.  Further down the profile card is sibling information and children information.  At the bottom of the profile card are icons for "Messages, "Photos," "Timeline," "Chart," and "Modify Details."

I clicked on the "Timeline" icon and saw a list of events in my father's life (obtained from the information in the tree):


I could add/edit information by clicking the "Modify" icon on the right side.

Then I ran into a problem.  I noticed that only profile cards on the direct "bloodline" (apparently from the earliest generation ancestor to the latest generation relatives) had the "Family information" on the card included  For example, here is the Profile card for my second great-grandfather, James Richman (1821-1912), father of my starting person, Thomas Richmond:



His parents are not named, although they were in the GEDCOM file.  There are no links to parents, siblings or children on the profile card, and the parents are not shown on the family tree, even though they were included in the tree.  This is the case for any of the persons not in the "direct bloodline."

There are complete profile cards for persons on the tree with the last name capitalized.  For the persons not on the "direct bloodline," the Timeline icon does show the events included in the GEDCOM file, and those events can be edited from within the Timeline

I pointed those things out to Steve, and he said they are on their list for the next update.

To me, a family tree program like this, intended for family stories, photos and collaboration, should be for an initial person, and include their ancestors (say three generations back) and the descendants of those ancestors (siblings of the ancestors, their spouses, and their children - the cousins that we hope to connect to and share stories and photos with).  At this time, Famberry doesn't provide information about all of those persons.   For example, I have a complete profile card, but my wife doesn't.  That isn't very inviting for my grandchildren or my grand nephews and grand-niece who I might want to invite to Famberry so they can learn about their family members.

Frankly, when a website makes a public announcement about new features, the website and those new features should work at least to a basic expectation level.  My basic expectation level for Famberry was that my GEDCOM file would upload, that all persons in the tree would show relationships and the same basic information (birth, marriage, death, parents, siblings, spouses, children), that all of the features shown would work, etc.  That didn't happen in this case with Famberry today.  Perhaps my expectations were too high.

I will review Famberry again when all of the "family" members are included and meaningful collaboration can occur.  I hope that it is soon.

Steve was very responsive to my emails about the problems, and I appreciate that his responses were helpful and correct.

I think that Famberry has an excellent potential to be useful, especially if  the problems are fixed and family members can be invited and induced to contribute information, stories and photographs of their family members.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2015/02/trying-out-famberry-family-tree.html

Copyright (c) 2015, Randall J. Seaver


More Information About MooseRoots.com

I wrote MooseRoots Is a New Genealogy Research Engine yesterday - it's a new, FREE, US-based (at this time), genealogy research service (meaning it searches for records).

I had some questions about the product, so I emailed my contact at MooseRoots, David Schmidt, and he quickly responded to my queries with:

Q1)  Please describe MooseRoots - what is its purpose, how much does it cost?  What is your income stream? 

MooseRoots is a tool that helps genealogists of all walks uncover and explore their heritage, with  more than 1 billion birth, marriage, death, census, grave, and military records,  including U.S. and international collections that aren't available on other genealogy websites. Additionally, MooseRoots offers users compelling contextual “snapshots” from their ancestors’ lives by visualizing interesting ancillary data, such as their family structure and origin, the meaning and popularity of their name, information about the town and time in which they lived, etc. Finally, we allow users to take any visualization they see on our pages and copy and paste them directly into their blogs and articles just like a YouTube video. I have included some example codes below that would be interesting to include in this post.

MooseRoots is a 100% free website that is supported by ads. 

Q2)  You have a number of genealogy databases, some of them from FamilySearch and other free websites.  Do you have agreements with FamilySearch (and other providers) to display index results and record images? 

We have an agreement with FamilySearch to display index results for ~550 million index results. At the end of June 2015, we will have access to record images. We also have a number of partnerships with other data providers that vary in terms depending on the agreement. 

Q3)   Do you have a list of available databases?  How often do you add content?  What is the plan for adding content?  

Yes, a list of the available databases can by viewed by visiting genealogy-collections.mooseroots.com. From there, you can see what collections are currently available as well as years covered and number of records in each collection. We are always working to expand our database and are adding new data from a variety of collections as frequently as possibly. We are currently in the process of expanding our vitals record. The release date of these new records is TBD.

I have included one of David's example visualizations code - for Abraham Lincoln's family in 1860 - below:


The "See more details" link on the image above takes the user to the record summary.

Thank you to David for the quick responses and details.

I used the link for http://genealogy-collections.mooseroots.com/ and saw the list of 71 collections (note that the Census records for 1790-1940 are all in one collection):


Each collection on the list above tells you the record type, the year range covered, and the number of records in the database.

I clicked on the Social Security Death Index collection and saw (two screens):




The collection page provides information about the collection.  The collection description is:

"This database is provided by the Social Security Administration (SSA). It contains 92,554,687 Death Records in the United States that occurred between 1936 and 2014. Additional records are added on a monthly basis. It may also be called the Death Master File (DMF).The information below is included with each record:"

By clicking the record image, I can embed the graph into my blog post by copying and pasting the widget code into my Blogger editor:


How cool is that!  I love it.

We will have to see how much additional content - record collections, record images, etc. - that MooseRoots adds over time.  I hope that they add content on a regular basis based on their agreements with database providers.

As I noted in the first post, this is still a website with limited genealogy resources, but it is FREE and relatively easy to use.  Users do need to narrow their search terms - putting "John Smith" into the search field and expecting your specific John Smith to appear at the top of the list is unrealistic.  Adding additional information - such as a birth year and birth place - will reduce the volume of results and focus the results on the search target.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2015/02/more-information-about-mooserootscom.html

Copyright (c) 2015, Randall J. Seaver


52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 61: #68, Aaron Smith (1765-1841)

Amy Johnson Crow suggested a weekly blog theme of "52 Ancestors" in her blog post Challenge:  52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks on the No Story Too Small blog.  I am extending this theme in 2015 to 104 Ancestors in 104 Weeks. Here is my ancestor biography for week #61:

Aaron Smith (1765-1841)  is #68 on my Ahnentafel list, my 4th great-grandfather. He married in 1795  to #69 Mercy Plimpton (1772-1850).



I am descended through:

*  their son 
#34 Alpheus B. Smith (1802-1840) who married  #35 Elizabeth Dill (1791-1869),  in 1826.
*  their daughter, #17 Lucretia Townsend Smith (1828-1884), who married #16 Isaac Seaver (1823-1901), in 1852.
*  their son, #8 Frank Walton Seaver (1852-1922), who married #9 Hattie Louise Hildreth (1847-1920) in 1874. 
*  their son, #4 Frederick Walton Seaver (1876-1942), who married Alma Bessie Richmond (1882-1962) in 1900.
* their son, #2 Frederick Walton Seaver (1911-1983), who married #3 Betty Virginia Carringer (1919-2002) in 1942.
*  their son, #1 Randall J. Seaver (1943-....)

 =====================================================

1)  PERSON (with source citations as indicated in brackets):


*  Name:                       Aaron Smith[1–8]   
*  Sex:                          Male   

*  Father:                     Moses Smith (1732-1806)   
*  Mother:                   Patience Hamant (1735-1780)   
  
2)  INDIVIDUAL EVENTS (with source citations as indicated in brackets):
  
*  Birth:                      29 May 1765, Walpole, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States[1]
*  Census :                  1 June 1800 (age 35), Medfield, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States[3]
*  Census:                  1 June 1820 (age 55), Medfield, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States[4]
*  Census:                  1 June 1830 (age 65), Medfield, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States[5]
*  Census:                  1 June 1840 (age 75), Medfield, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States[6]
*  Death:                    4 December 1841 (age 76), Medfield, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States[7]
*  Burial:                    after 4 December 1841 (after age 76), Vine Lake Cemetery, Medfield, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States[8]   
  
3)  SHARED EVENTS (with source citations as indicated in brackets):
   
*  Spouse 1:                Mercy Plimpton (1772-1850)   
*  Marriage 1:             6 October 1795 (age 30), Medfield, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States[2]
*  Child 1:                   Susanna Smith (1795-1813)   
*  Child 2:                   Patience Smith (1799-1842)   
*  Child 3:                   Mary Plimpton Smith (1800-1890)   
*  Child 4:                   Alpheus B. Smith (1802-1840)   
*  Child 5:                   Lucy Smith (1804-1884)   
*  Child 6:                   Elizabeth P. Smith (1806-1876)   
*  Child 7:                   Nancy Smith (1808-1879)   
*  Child 8:                   Aaron Smith (1815-1851)   
  
4)  NOTES (with source citations as indicated in brackets):

William S. Tilden edited the book History of the Town of Medfield, Massachusetts, 1650-1886 published by Geo. H. Ellis in Boston, Mass., in 1887.  The family genealogy section of the book provides this summary of the life of Aaron Smith:

"Aaron Smith was born in Walpole in 1765, and came to Medfield about 1782.  He married in 1795 Mercy Plimpton, and bought the place on South Street near the South School-house.  He died in 1841, his wife in 1850."

Aaron was the first born of four sons of Moses Smith and Patience Hamant, who was Moses second wife.[1]  All four children were born in Walpole, and Moses and Patience died there in 1806 and 1780, respectively. 

The Walpole vital records book entry says[1] :

"SMITH, Aaron, son of Moses and Patience, 29 May 1765"

The Medfield, Massachusetts vital record book lists the marriage of Aaron Smith and Mercy Plimpton[12] :

"Aaron Smith of Walpole and Mercy Plimpton, Oct. 6, 1795"

In the 1800 U.S. Census, Aaron Smith was head of household in Medfield, Norfolk County, Massachusetts.[3]   The household included:

*  One male aged 26 to 45
*  Two females under age 10
*  One female aged 26-45.

There is no listing for Aaron Smith in the 1810 U.S. Census in Norfolk County, Massachusetts.

In the 1820 US Census, the Aaron Smith family resided in Medfield, Norfolk County, Massachusetts.[4]   The household included:

*  One male under age 10, 
*  One male aged over age 45, 
*  Two females aged 10 to 16, 
*  One female aged over age 45.

In the 1830 US Census, the Aaron Smith family resided in Medfield, Norfolk County, Massachusetts.[5]   The household included:

*  One male aged 10 to 14, 
*  One male aged 20 to 29, 
*  One male aged 60-69, 
*  One female aged 20-29, 
*  One female aged 50 to 59

In the 1840 US Census, Aaron Smith was a head of household in Medfield, Norfolk County, Massachusetts.[6]   The household included:

*  One male aged 20-30, 
*  One male aged 70 to 80, 
*  One female aged 15-20, 
*  One female aged 60-70 

Aaron Smith died on 4 December 1841 in Medfield, Massachusetts.[7]   The death record in the Medfield vital records book says:

"Smith, Aaron, Dec. 4, 1841, age 76"

The gravestone inscription in Vine Lake Cemetery in Medfield for Aaron Smith says:[8] 


In memory of
AARON SMITH
died
Dec. 4, 1841:
aged 76 years.

There are no probate records listed for Aaron Smith in the Norfolk, Massachusetts Probate Index, 1793-1900.

5)  SOURCES
 
[1] Vital Records of Walpole, Massachusetts to the Year 1850 (Boston, Mass. :New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1902), Births, page 73, Aaron Smith entry.

[2] Vital Records of Medfield, Massachusetts to the Year 1850 (Boston, Mass. :  New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1903), Marriages, page 171, Aaron Smith and Mercy Plimpton entry.

[3] 1800 United States Federal Census, Population Schedule, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, Medfield town; Page 90, Aaron Smith household; indexed database and digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com) citing National Archives Microfilm Publication M32, Roll 18.

[4] 1820 United States Federal Census, Population Schedule, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, Medfield town; Page 464, Aaron Smith household; indexed database and digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com) citing National Archives Microfilm Publication M33, Roll 52.

[5] 1830 United States Federal Census, Population Schedule, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, Medfield town; Page 274, Aaron Smith household; indexed database and digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com) citing National Archives Microfilm Publication M19, Roll 60.

[6] 1840 United States Federal Census, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, Medfield town; Page 196, Aaron Smith household; indexed database and digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com) citing National Archives Microfilm Publication M704, Roll 192.

[7] Vital Records of Medfield, Massachusetts to the Year 1850 (Boston, Mass. :  New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1903), Deaths, page 234, Aaron Smith entry.

[8] Jim Tipton, indexed database, Find A Grave (http://www.findagrave.com), Vine Lake Cemetery, Medfield, Mass., Aaron Smith memorial # 59933167.


====================================

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2015/02/52-ancestors-in-52-weeks-week-61-68.html

Copyright (c) 2015, Randall J. Seaver


Thursday, February 26, 2015

MooseRoots Is a New Genealogy Research Engine

I stopped by the MooseRoots exhibit at RootsTech/FGS 2015, and was intrigued by the website.

The website has a genealogy search engine that includes a number of vital records, census, military, and immigration record collections - all FREE.  It is part of the FindTheBest family of websites.  The Google search for the site results describe the site as:

"Get the most detailed ancestry information available. Explore death records, find military records, compare popular names, and research your family history."

Here is the top of the MooseRoots website (www.mooseroots.com) (two screens below):



Users can register for free if they wish.  The search works without registration.

At the top of the screen above, is a search field, so I typed "isaac seaver" in the field and saw:


I picked the "Search all of MooseRoots for "isaac seaver" item on the dropdown list:


The first item on the list above is "Isaac Seaver Census Records."  I clicked that:


There are additional search fields on the left side to narrow the search to a county or state, to a birth date and place, etc.

I clicked on the first result on the list to see what information was provided for Isaac S. Seaver in the 1930 U.S. Census (5 screens shown below)






And there's still more information about the state and county.

The 1930 U.S. census result for Isaac S. Seaver above includes details about the person, the persons in the household (linked to profiles), the original record (the image is not available at this time), links to Isaac Seaver in other census records, and a source citation.  The census detail information is from FamilySearch.

Below the specific census information are charts and text about the first name and last name, and information about the specific county (demographics, economic conditions), the 1930 census, etc.

I will have more information on this website tomorrow.

My opinion is that this website provides free information about individuals and families from a limited number of freely available record collections.  FREE is good for all of us. The challenge for the website is to add sufficient record collections so that it becomes a "go-to" site for researchers.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2015/02/mooseroots-is-new-genealogy-research.html

Copyright (c) 2015, Randall J. Seaver


Fixing Online Family Trees - One Person at a Time on FamilySearch Family Tree

Since I have contributed a number of profiles to many online family trees over the past 15 years, I need to try to correct erroneous relationships and information that have been added by myself and other researchers over time. 

One example of this process is the profile on FamilySearch Family Tree for my immigrant ancestor, Robert Seaver (my 9th great-grandfather, 1608-1683) LZVZ-VBH, who came to Roxbury, Massachusetts in March, 1634 aboard the Mary and John.  He married Elizabeth Ballard and two other spouses, had seven children, and thousands of descendants.  I have been unable to identify parents of Robert Seaver in my 27 years of Seaver research.  He was born in England to unknown parents.


Before yesterday, Robert Seaver's parents on the Family Tree were identified as Thomas Savory (1572-1674) LHPL-W5Z and Mary Woodrorke (1574-1607) LZVZ-KSP.  Thomas Savory was in Plymouth by 1634, and died in Plymouth in 1674.  One of the profiles had a son Robert Savory 1598-1678, but Robert Savory was not conflated with Robert Seaver (1608-1683) in the family - they were lsited as two different sons with different last names.

In addition, the Family Tree profile for Robert Seaver's wife, Elizabeth Ballard (ca 1616-1657) identified her parents as Henry Ballard (1575-1642) MMJX-9JY and Elizabeth Townsend (1577-1637) L8FB-T6F. There is another Elizabeth Ballard (1611-1704) L844-RGL in their list of children married to another person. 

Earlier, I had added Discussion items on the profiles for Thomas Savory and Henry Ballard asking for source information and explanation of how Robert and Elizabeth were added to the profiles of their reputed "parents" as children.

1)  I consider the relationship of Robert Seaver LZVZ-VBH to Thomas Savory LHPL-W5Z and Mary Woodrorke LZVZ-KSP to be non-existent.  So I deleted the relationship between Robert and his Savory "parents."

2)  I also consider the spousal relationship between Elizabeth Ballard L844-RGL and Robert Seaver to be non-existent.  So I deleted their relationship.  Because Elizabeth was in a family with the seven children of Robert Seaver, I had to delete their relationship with their parents.

3)  Next, I had to create a new profile for the Elizabeth Ballard (ca 1616-1657) who married Robert Seaver LZVZ-VBH.  I did that, and she is Elizabeth Ballard LVX7-TMH.  Then I added the seven known children of Robert and Elizabeth to the family, knowing their current FamilySearch ID numbers.  Now the family is as correct as I (and other Seaver researchers) know it.  

4)  After this, I added Discussion items for both Robert Seaver and Elizabeth Ballard explaining why I disconnected them from the reputed "parents."  Hopefully, other Family Tree users will not come along and add "parents" to Robert and Elizabeth as time goes on.

Here is the Family Members area for Robert Seaver LZVZ-VBH:


And the Discussion area for Robert Seaver LZVZ-VBH:


Here is the Family Members area for Elizabeth Ballard LVX7-TMH (note no parents shown):


And Here is the Discussions area for Elizabeth Ballard LVX7-TMH:


5)  This process was fairly straightforward, and I did not need a curator or any help to do it.  It is important that the person taking actions like this understand the logic of the delete relationship process.  I didn't delete any persons, but I had to delete 9 relationships and add one new profile in order to get the family correct.  Note that I had to do all of these operations within FamilySearch Family tree, not using a program like RootsMagic to add or change information or persons.

Of course, some other researcher may reverse it, but I hope they will discuss it with me (and other interested researchers) before they do that.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2015/02/fixing-online-family-trees-one-person_26.html

Copyright (c) 2015, Randall J. Seaver


Treasure Chest Thursday - Post 251: 1777 Marriage Record of Zachariah Hildreth and Elizabeth Keyes in Townsend, Mass.

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  1777 marriage record of Zachariah Hildreth (1754-1828) and his first wife, Elizabeth Keyes (1759-1793) in Townsend, Massachusetts:



The snippet for the Hildreth-Keyes marriage is on the right-hand page:


The transcription of the entry is:

"Sept 1 [1777] Zachariah Hildreth with Elisabeth Keys both of Westford"

The source citation for this entry is:

Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988, digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 28 May 2012), "Townsend Births, Marriages, and Deaths," page 338 (image 793 of 1351): Zachariah Hildreth and Elisabeth Keys entry.

The Townsend Vital Record book also lists this marriage:


The source citation for this record is:

Henry C. Hallowell (editor), Vital Records of Townsend, Massachusetts (Boston, Mass. : New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1992), Marriages, Book 1, page 23, Zachariash Hildreth and Elisabeth Keys entry.

The Westford, Massachusetts Vital Record book has the same marriage recorded as:

"HILDRETH, Zachariah [jr., int.], and Elizabeth Keyes, at Townsend, Sept. 1, 1777*"

The source citation for the Westford record is:

Vital Records of Westford, Massachusetts to the Year 1849 (Salem, Mass. : The Essex Institute, 1915), Marriages, page 194, Zachariah Hildreth and Elizabeth Keyes entry.

Zachariah Hildreth (1754-1828) and Elizabeth Keyes (1759-1793) are my fourth great-grandparents, throguh their son Zachariah Hildreth (1783-1857) who married Hannah Sawtell (1789-1857) in 1810.


Copyright (c) 2015, Randall J. Seaver