Saturday, June 18, 2016

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Three Stories for Father's Day

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)  Sunday, 19 June, is Father's Day.  Let's celebrate by writing a blog post about our father, or another significant male ancestor (e.g., a grandfather).

2)  What are three things about your father (or significant male ancestor) that you vividly remember about him?

3)  Tell us all about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a Facebook Status or Google+ Stream post.

Here's mine:


My father was Frederick Walton Seaver (1911-1983), born in Fitchburg, Massachusetts to Fred and Alma Bessie (Richmond) Seaver, moved to San Diego in 1940, married Betty Virginia Carringer (1919-2002) in San Diego in 1942, and died there in 1983.  They had three sons, and I'm the eldest son. 

1)  My father loved baseball.  He played it as a boy and a young man, going to Dartmouth College on a scholarship to play in about 1932, but he suffered a knee injury.  He grew up listening to the radio and his favorite team was the Boston Red Sox.  After he moved to San Diego in 1940, he regularly listened to the San Diego Padres on the radio.  He signed up as a manager in 1957 when Little League baseball came to our area of San Diego.  My brother, Stan, was 10 years old, and dad managed the team for three years in Mike Morrow Little League (8 to 12 years old), then two years in Pioneer Pony League (13-14 years old), and two years in Pioneer Colt League (15-16 years old).  My brother, Scott, was 8 in 1964, and dad went back and coached Little League for 5 years, Pony League for two years, and Colt League for two years.  In addition to managing teams, he usually worked on the baseball fields for hours each week during the summer - dragging the field, mowing the grass, lining the batters box and foul lines, cleaning up around the dugouts and stands, etc.  He did not attend many pro baseball games in person, but watched the World Series, and other nationally televised games, until he died in 1983.  


2)  My father was an avid bowler (ten pins), and this was his only "boy's night out" activity from 1950 to 1970.  At the peak of his prowess, he averaged in the 190s (which was pretty good at the time).  He was 6 foot 2 inches tall, 190 pounds in his prime, right-handed, debonair in his bowling shirt and shoes, and very graceful in his four step delivery, with a great roundhouse curve.  He bowled on several teams in San Diego, including travel leagues.  Our summer vacations from 1955 to about 1963 were to the California State Bowling Tournament - we went to Fresno, Sacramento, San Jose, Los Angeles, etc. in the air conditioned blue Mercury and later the pink Oldsmobile.  I don't think he ever rolled a perfect game, though, but he came close several times.  He was very competitive.  I can find many articles in the San Diego Union newspaper that mention his bowling exploits.  As kids, we didn't go to the league bowling with him because of our early bedtime and the unsavory environment (smoking, drinking, cussing, etc.).  As a young man, I often went with him to the bowling league on Friday nights, and even practiced driving on the way home one year.  However, we gleaned one excellent benefit from his bowling - he always stopped at a bakery after keggling and bought delicious fresh donuts, cream puffs, eclairs, etc.  We loved Saturday morning!  His bowling career ended in 1971 when he cut off one finger and mangled another using his circular saw in the garage.


2)  My father was a life insurance salesman for Prudential Insurance Company (we had a piece of the Rock!) from 1947 to 1971, when he retired.  His office was in Point Loma, and his "debit" (his service area) was in Pacific Beach - a good 12 miles away from home.  He usually went to his office once a week and to his service area two or three times a week.  He went door-to-door selling life insurance policies, and then collected monthly premiums from his customers.  The other days, and into the night, sometimes until 11 p.m. or midnight, he worked at his desk overlooking the front door steps in our apartment at 2119 30th Street.  He had an adding machine with a narrow tape roll (it was great fun to play with when I was a kid, and my daughters loved playing with it too!), file cabinets, and many ledger books in which he entered the payments received.  He was always there when I came home from school, work or evening activities.  This work schedule permitted coaching baseball, working on the ball fields, and bowling.

There are my three memories of my father.  He was not especially communicative with his sons - but we loved and respected him while we were growing up, attending school and starting out work lives.  He was supportive in our athletic endeavors also, attending my brothers' high school baseball games and coaching us with bowling.  We played basketball and ping pong on the patio in the summertime.  We played word games at dinner time, and sometimes we played card games (Canasta) board games (Sorry, Monopoly) in the evening if there was nothing good on television.  



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Copyright (c) 2016, Randall J. Seaver

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post.  Share it on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ or Pinterest using the icons below.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.


Surname Saturday - HOLLOWAY (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 #1429, who is Sarah HOLLOWAY (1643-1675) 
[Note: the earlier great-grandmothers and 8th great-grandfathers have been covered in earlier posts].

My ancestral line back through two generations of this HOLLOWAY 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)


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

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

44.  Jonathan White (1805-1850)
45.  Miranda Wade (1804-1850)

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

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

356.  Ichabod Kirby (1705-1793)
357.  Rachel Allen (1708-1801)

714.  Joseph Allen (1667-1735)
715.  Rachel (1668-1721)

1428.  Joseph Allen, born about 1645 in Sandwich, Barnstable, Massachusetts, United States; died September 1704 in Dartmouth, Bristol, Massachusetts, United States.  He was the son of 2856. Ralph Allen and 2857. Susannah.  He married July 1662 in Sandwich, Barnstable, Massachusetts, United States.
1429.  Sarah Holloway, born about 1643 in Sandwich, Barnstable, Massachusetts, United States; died about 1675 in Dartmouth, Bristol, Massachusetts, United States.  

Children of Joseph Allen and Sarah Holloway are:
*  Abigail Allen (1663-1733), married 1681 Edward Cottel (1660-1751).
*  Rose Allen (1665-????), married Nathaniel Howland.
*  Joseph Allen (1667-1735), married (1) 1698 Rachel (1668-1721); (2) 1721 Jenett Ray.
*  John Allen (1669-????).
*  Philip Allen (1671-????).
*  William Allen (1673-1760), married 1700 Elizabeth (1675-????).
*  Josiah Allen (1675-1718).

2858.  Joseph Holloway, born about 1607 in probably Somerset, England; died December 1647 in Sandwich, Barnstable, Massachusetts, United States.  He married before 1638 in probably Sandwich, Barnstable, Massachusetts, United States.
2859.  Rose Allen, born about 1609 in England; died about 1692 in Sandwich, Barnstable, Massachusetts, United States.  She was the daughter of 5718. George Allen and 5719. unknown.

Children of Joseph Holloway and Rose Allen are:
*  Joseph Holloway (1638-1692), married 1661 Mary Hull (1645-1692).
*  Mary Holloway (1641-1703), married 1662 Nathaniel Fitz Randolph (1642-1715).
*  Sarah Holloway (1643-1675), married 1662 Joseph Allen (1645-1704).
*  Experience Holloway (1644-????), married 1668 John Goodspeed (1645-1719).
*  Hopestill Holloway (1646-1715), married 1665 Samuel Worden (1645-1716).

Information about the Holloway family was obtained from:

*  Carl Boyer 3rd, Ancestral Lines, Third Edition (Santa Clarita, Calif. : the author, 1998), pages 306-307.

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The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2016/06/surname-saturday-holloway-england-to.html

Copyright (c) 2016, Randall J. Seaver

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post.  Share it on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ or Pinterest using the icons below.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

Friday, June 17, 2016

Dear Randy: How Did You Figure Out Those Relationships on WikiTree?

After my post Famous Cousins - Bogart, Shepard, Williams, Earhart, Dudley and Bradstreet  yesterday, reader Janet asked that question of me in email.  

Here is the process I used (it is fairly complex, but the "Help" button can be your friend!):

1)  After logging into www.WikiTree.com (which is totally FREE!!), I went to my "Navigation Home Page:"



2)  In order to find a relationship, I need to find the person of interest.  In this case, I selected Alan Shepard.  I put his name in the search box at the top of the screen above (in the red box).  I clicked on the "Search" icon and the program found all of the persons named Alan Shepard in WikiTree:


Alan Shepard the astronaut is the second one on the list (you could use Wikipedia.org for famous persons if you are unsure of birth and death dates).

3)  I clicked on his name on the above screen, and saw his WikiTree profile:


4)  Obtaining the relationship is a two step process - first you run your mouse over the "My WikiTree" link at the top of the page (in the top red box on the screen above), which opens the dropdown list of operations you can perform.  Down near the bottom of the dropdown list is "Relationship to Me" (in the bottom red box on the screen above).  I clicked on the "Relationship to Me" link (two screens shown):


It took awhile (about 60 seconds?) to create the page above, but it worked.  The most recent common ancestor is listed - in this case, Stephen Tracy -  along with the trail from Alan Shepard back to the common ancestor, and then it shows the trail from me back to the common ancestor, plus a statement of the relationship - in this case, Stephen Tracy is our 9th great-grandfather, so Alan Shepard and I are 10th cousins.

That is an excellent informational page about the relationship.

5)  But there's more!  On the page above, I put a red box around the "Explore more" box.  This tells me that Alan Shepard and I share 318 ancestors in common in WikiTree, back to the 25th generation.  By clicking the green down arrow in the red box (shown below), I can see the list of the 318 persons who are our common ancestors, and I can click on any one of them to see the relationship trails:


The list is ordered by the number of generations from the ancestor to the target person and to me.

6)  I really like this feature in WikiTree.  Not every relationship may be correct because there may be errors in the research of the users who contributed the information, so I can see if there is another relationship in which I have more confidence.  


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Copyright (c) 2016, Randall J. Seaver

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post.  Share it on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ or Pinterest using the icons below.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

New records available to search this Findmypast Friday, 17 June 2016

I received this information from Findmypast today:

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New records available to search this Findmypast Friday


This week’s Findmypast Friday marks the release of a series of new additions to existing UK and Irish collections as well as some brand new Rate Books from South Australia.


Over 2.9 million articles have been our collection of historic British newspapers. This includes the addition of 13 brand new titles and updates to a further 17.

Fascinating new newspapers from all round England, Scotland and Wales have joined the line-up including Kirkintilloch Gazette covering 1898-1938, The Cornish Telegraph covering 1887-1888 and Aberdare Times from 1889. The updates to existing titles in the collection include generous supplements to the Coventry Evening Telegraph (126,975 new articles), Monmouthshire Merlin (180,701 new articles) and Rochdale Observer (163,633 new articles).


Over 49,000 new records from Yorkshire’s West Riding have been added to our collection of Yorkshire Marriages. The amount of information included can vary, but the records usually contain the full names of the bride and groom, their ages, home parishes and the date of their wedding. In some cases the records can also include the names of any witnesses (often family members), the names and occupations of the bride's and groom's parents, the occupation of the groom, the couple's previous marital condition and the name of the officiating minister.


Explore new additions to our Knights of the Realm index to find out if any of your forebears were awarded an order of chivalry. The Knights of the Realm index records the details of over 35,000 individuals who were awarded an order of chivalry by a British monarch. The index was created by Colin J Parry over a 40 year period to determine how many knights were made in each century and, furthermore, who they actually were.


Explore more than 343,000 additional records to uncover the age, colour, and breed of your ancestors four legged friend. Now containing over 6.3 million records, the Irish Dog Licences list not only the name, breed, colour and sex of your ancestor’s four legged friend, but also the owner’s address and the date the licence was issued, making them an incredibly valuable census substitute.


Over 547,000 new records have been added to complete our collection of Irish Petty Sessions Court Registers. Petty Sessions handled the bulk of lesser criminal and civil legal proceedings. They include details of victims, witnesses and the accused, such as address, date in court, details of the offence, details of the verdict and the sentence.



Search 1,000 new records to learn more about the poor relief efforts in Ireland from the late 1830s to the early 1860s. The Irish Poor Law Act of 1838 created the system of poor law unions in Ireland, which established 130 poor law unions. Under this system, the poor received relief, either from a workhouse or outdoor relief (which included money, goods, clothing, or food) provided for by poor rates assessed under the poor law valuation.


South Australia Rate books is an index of roughly 4,000 records. The index was transcribed from rate assessments for the coastal district of Beachport in southeast South Australia between 1882 and 1888. Each record includes a transcript and an original image. The amount of information listed varies, but the transcripts usually include your ancestor’s name, assessment year, assessment number, occupier, owner, situation and town. Images may be able to provide additional details, such as property descriptions, rate values, and dates paid.

Don’t forget to regularly check our dedicated Findmypast Friday page to keep up to date with all the latest additions.

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Copyright (c) 2016, Randall J. Seaver

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post.  Share it on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ or Pinterest using the icons below.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.