This series of family letters is from the parents, brother and aunt of Henry Austin Carringer residing in National City and San Diego in the 1890 to 1900 time frame. Austin's parents (David Jackson and Rebecca (Spangler) Carringer and brother (Edgar, unmarried) resided in Boulder, Colorado during this period of time and there is news of towns people and events in these letters.
The eighth letter is from Austin's mother, Rebecca Carringer, in Boulder.
----------------------------
Letter from Rebecca Carringer of Boulder, Colorado to Austin and Della Carringer in San Diego, California. No envelope.
Boulder Colo Ap 5 [18]97
Dear Children I was to lasy to write and now we have our close on the line and Ed has gone to town to see why our coald did not come satterday and Pa is trimming the hege he is not feeling as well for the last 2 days he has got some cold. I am about the same if the weather would get good I think we would feel better we have had snow all last week the funeyest weather I ever saw it will snow one day and the next day it will go away then with snow the next this the next go away that is the way all last week now the snow is amost all gone but it is getting cloudy so it is amost time for another shower.
After Diner I will not get this to the office today. How many chicks have you got. We will have som tomorrow and some next day if they hach. We have had so much snow I don’t know how it will be. Morn well we had our first rain last night and it rained hard to and did not snow a bit and is clearing off now. I wish the ground would dry up for we want to have some plowing done.
[abruptly ends – page missing?]
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More of the same - health, weather, business.
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Genea-Musings is on the road again
After the CVGS seminar on Saturday, Linda and I are flying to Santa Cruz for a week taking care of our grandsons. Their mother has flown to North Carolina to greet her Marine husband flying home from Iraq. Their life, and ours, will get back to normalcy in another month or so.
I am taking the laptop, and they have Internet access, so I anticipate being able to read my email, all of my favorite blogs, and even post once or twice a day. Get ready for a steady diet of elusive ancestors and family letters! I won't be doing much research. But we will be making more family history for two little boys and ourselves.
I'll be back next Sunday. I anticipate big genealogy news announcements in the next week - they always seem to happen when I'm on the road!
I am taking the laptop, and they have Internet access, so I anticipate being able to read my email, all of my favorite blogs, and even post once or twice a day. Get ready for a steady diet of elusive ancestors and family letters! I won't be doing much research. But we will be making more family history for two little boys and ourselves.
I'll be back next Sunday. I anticipate big genealogy news announcements in the next week - they always seem to happen when I'm on the road!
Friday, April 4, 2008
Ranked Matches in the Ancestry.com New Search
I posted yesterday about the Ancestry.com New Search "look and feel" using Exact Matches here. In this post, I'll show a Ranked Match search in sequence.
1) When I click on ancestry.com from my Favorites, this is the first screen I see. I input "Isaac" "Seaver" "1823" and "+/- 5 years" and unchecked the Exact Match box.
2) The next screen is the listing of databases with the possible matches from all of Ancestry's databases. This is the top half of the page.
5) This is the next screen down from the last one on the same web page. There are more ranked matches - starting with Isaac Seaver's (and other spellings) with birth dates outside of the range I specified. Then there are even more ranked matches that don't match the given name at all, but do match the surname and year. I didn't capture screens below this one (there were over 1,600 ranked matches).
6) I clicked on the "View Record" link for the first Ranked Match - the one that is my Isaac Seaver. This is the record page for the specific match - it's just like the Exact match screen.
7) And I clicked on the "View Original Image" link to get the document image - just like the Exact Match image.
The one thing I really miss in the New Search is the Search box, with all of the search criteria visible, at the bottom of each web page (except for the document images). In Old Search, I use that box to modify my searches. It's very efficient. In New Search, you have a choice -
1) You can modify the search criteria one at a time (see #4 above - the search criteria are in the left-hand column) and hit the Search button. I really don't like this - I often change more than one search parameter at a time, and now I have to click each item I want to change and enter a value.
2) You can click on the "Start a new search" link just below the Search button on Screen #4 and start over. This brings up an overlay Search Box in which you have to put every entry back in the different boxes. I don't like this either.
I don't know what to say to those of you who don't see the "Try It" button in the upper right-hand area of the Ancestry screen in Old Search. It works for me whether I am logged in or not. I'm wondering if it is cached on my computer system?
If it doesn't work for you, I'm sure that it will in the near future. consider these posts to be a sneak peak at the future of ancestry.com searches.
1) When I click on ancestry.com from my Favorites, this is the first screen I see. I input "Isaac" "Seaver" "1823" and "+/- 5 years" and unchecked the Exact Match box.
2) The next screen is the listing of databases with the possible matches from all of Ancestry's databases. This is the top half of the page.
3) This is the bottom half of the database list web page. As you can see, all Ancestry database types are on one list. I like that feature.
4) I clicked on the 1880 US Census database. The New Search selects one item from the list that best matches the search criteria. In this case, it picked Isaac Seaver, born 1824 in Massachusetts, husband of Lucretia. That was the right one! It also says that matches below that first one are probably not the one I was looking for. This is the top screen of the web page.
5) This is the next screen down from the last one on the same web page. There are more ranked matches - starting with Isaac Seaver's (and other spellings) with birth dates outside of the range I specified. Then there are even more ranked matches that don't match the given name at all, but do match the surname and year. I didn't capture screens below this one (there were over 1,600 ranked matches).
6) I clicked on the "View Record" link for the first Ranked Match - the one that is my Isaac Seaver. This is the record page for the specific match - it's just like the Exact match screen.
7) And I clicked on the "View Original Image" link to get the document image - just like the Exact Match image.
The one thing I really miss in the New Search is the Search box, with all of the search criteria visible, at the bottom of each web page (except for the document images). In Old Search, I use that box to modify my searches. It's very efficient. In New Search, you have a choice -
1) You can modify the search criteria one at a time (see #4 above - the search criteria are in the left-hand column) and hit the Search button. I really don't like this - I often change more than one search parameter at a time, and now I have to click each item I want to change and enter a value.
2) You can click on the "Start a new search" link just below the Search button on Screen #4 and start over. This brings up an overlay Search Box in which you have to put every entry back in the different boxes. I don't like this either.
I don't know what to say to those of you who don't see the "Try It" button in the upper right-hand area of the Ancestry screen in Old Search. It works for me whether I am logged in or not. I'm wondering if it is cached on my computer system?
If it doesn't work for you, I'm sure that it will in the near future. consider these posts to be a sneak peak at the future of ancestry.com searches.
45th Carnival of Genealogy is Posted - Cars!
Jasia on the Creative Gene blog has posted the 45th Carnival of Genealogy at http://creativegene.blogspot.com/2008/04/carnival-of-genealogy-45th-edition.html. The topic for this Carnival is Cars as stars of our family history! With 36 participants, some who wrote multiple articles, this is the largest edition of the Carnival of Genealogy ever!
My own post was "The Cars of My Life." Please read Jasia's comments on each post submitted to the Carnival and read each of the blog posts by the contributors.
The topic of the next Carnival of Genealogy will be: What traits run in your family? Which of them did you inherit? Do you have your mother's blue eyes? Your grandfather's stubbornness? Your aunt's skill with knitting needles? Is there a talent for music in your family? Or do you come from a long line of teachers? Have you ever looked at an old photo and recognized your nose on another family member's face? Tell us all about your family traits and please submit your articles by the deadline, April 15th.
Submit your blog article to the next edition of the Carnival of Genealogy using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.
My own post was "The Cars of My Life." Please read Jasia's comments on each post submitted to the Carnival and read each of the blog posts by the contributors.
The topic of the next Carnival of Genealogy will be: What traits run in your family? Which of them did you inherit? Do you have your mother's blue eyes? Your grandfather's stubbornness? Your aunt's skill with knitting needles? Is there a talent for music in your family? Or do you come from a long line of teachers? Have you ever looked at an old photo and recognized your nose on another family member's face? Tell us all about your family traits and please submit your articles by the deadline, April 15th.
Submit your blog article to the next edition of the Carnival of Genealogy using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.
Genealogy Link Site Traffic
Here are the Reach (unique visitors each day per million Internet users), Rank (of all web sites), and Page Views (daily views per million Internet users) statistics charts from http://www.alexa.com/ for five of the genealogy largest link web sites over the last three years -
* http://www.AncestorHunt.com/ (#12 on Kory Meyerink's Top 50)
* http://www.AccessGenealogy.com/ (#13)
* http://www.CyndisList.com/ (#15)
* http://SearchForAncestors.com/ (#21)
* http://www.deathindexes.com/ (#31)
* http://www.AncestorHunt.com/ (#12 on Kory Meyerink's Top 50)
* http://www.AccessGenealogy.com/ (#13)
* http://www.CyndisList.com/ (#15)
* http://SearchForAncestors.com/ (#21)
* http://www.deathindexes.com/ (#31)
Since the graphs are somewhat hard to read, I will list the average Reach (per Million Internet users) and page views (per user) for the last three months for these three sites (plus Ancestry's statistics for comparison purposes) -
* http://www.ancestry.com/ -- Reach = 197.5, Page Views = 15.4 per user
* http://www.AncestorHunt.com/ - Reach = 9.65, Page Views = 1.5 per user
* http://www.CyndisList.com - Reach = 11.0, Page Views = 2.1 per user
* http://www.AccessGenealogy.com - Reach = 8.35, Page Views = 2.4 per user
* http://www.DeathIndexes.com - Reach = 2.4, Page Views = 1.6
You can see that www.CyndisList.com had a Reach of over 60 in early 2006, and now is down around 10, and has been steadily declining since then.
www.AccessGenealogy.com has several Page View spikes in 2005 and 2006, which may be additional Canadian Census database additions to the web site. Their Reach peaked at around 40 during 2005 and 2006.
www.AncestorHunt.com and www.SearchForAncestors.com have not had the significant traffic decreases that Ancestry, some of the Free database sites, and Cyndi's List and others have had over the past three years.
www.DeathIndexes.com had a peak Reach of about 15, but has been fairly steady over the last year.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Have you tried the New Ancestry Search?
http://www.ancestry.com/ has been modifying the "look and feel" of their Search box and Match results over the past few months. Users were invited to evaluate the "New Search" and to make feedback comments to the development team, led by Kendall Hulet. I made many comments to the team over the past month via email, and also took weekly surveys about likes and dislikes. The resulting "Look and Feel" are quite different from when this feedback was started thanks to input from the commenters and the work of the development team.
Any Ancestry user can now take the New Search for a test drive. Here is one set of screen shots from an exact search I just made for Isaac Seaver, born in 1823 +/- 5 years.
1) The initial screen when I bring Ancestry up from my Favorites (in "Old Search," note I have checked "Exact Matches" and have inserted "Seaver" in the last name box):
2) This is the match results using the "Old Search." Note the "New Search" and "Try It" link in the top right of the screen. I clicked on it.
7) I chose the 1880 Census from the match list for my Search criteria, and clicked on the "View Record" link. Note that my Search criteria are listed in the left-hand column, with exact match criteria in quote marks.
8) The record summary of the 1880 census entry for Isaac Seaver is shown in the next screen. Note that the left-hand column allows me to do a number of operations with this record. The summary of the record is expanded vertically from the Old Search, and has a larger font size. The Source citation is at the bottom of the record summary. I clicked on the "View Original Image" link.
9) This screen shows the actual record requested. The same buttons as on the Old Search are available to Zoom in or out, go to the Previous or Next image, and Order, Save, Print, Share the image, or get Help.
Any Ancestry user can now take the New Search for a test drive. Here is one set of screen shots from an exact search I just made for Isaac Seaver, born in 1823 +/- 5 years.
1) The initial screen when I bring Ancestry up from my Favorites (in "Old Search," note I have checked "Exact Matches" and have inserted "Seaver" in the last name box):
2) This is the match results using the "Old Search." Note the "New Search" and "Try It" link in the top right of the screen. I clicked on it.
3) Clicking on "Try It" brings up an explanatory screen about New Search. I clicked on the "Get Started Now" link in the box beside the reddish "Take the Tour" link.
4) The "Get Started Now" link takes me to a New Search screen - I input "Isaac" "Seaver" and "1823" "+/- 5 years" as Exact search criteria. This is the top of this web page.
5) At the bottom of this screen is a list of Specific Titles and Collections if I wanted to go directly to one database (but not all of them are listed). The bottom part of the web page looks like this.
6) After filling in the Search boxes, I clicked on the reddish "Search" button at the bottom of the Search box. The screen below shows the results of my Search. Note that it found only three census records and three sets of Family Trees that met my Search criteria.
7) I chose the 1880 Census from the match list for my Search criteria, and clicked on the "View Record" link. Note that my Search criteria are listed in the left-hand column, with exact match criteria in quote marks.
8) The record summary of the 1880 census entry for Isaac Seaver is shown in the next screen. Note that the left-hand column allows me to do a number of operations with this record. The summary of the record is expanded vertically from the Old Search, and has a larger font size. The Source citation is at the bottom of the record summary. I clicked on the "View Original Image" link.
9) This screen shows the actual record requested. The same buttons as on the Old Search are available to Zoom in or out, go to the Previous or Next image, and Order, Save, Print, Share the image, or get Help.
Ancestry has modified the Old Search screens also - once you pick a database to search, the screens in Old Search look like New Search screens (in my example above, Screens 8 and 9 are identical). They have also expanded vertically the Old Screen web page presentations a bit with a larger font and more intermediate lines between information. You have to scroll down more but they are easier to read.
It appears that they have eliminated, or just haven't included, the Ancestry World Tree matches in the Family Trees section. Ancestry World Tree is the same database as the Rootsweb WorldConnect database which will move to the Ancestry domain at some time in the future. Hopefully, Ancestry will reinstate the link to the WorldConnect database in the near future, since it is a separate database.
One addition that I like in New Search is that they have eliminated the Search box tabs on the opening screen - the ones for Historical Data, Family Trees, Stories and Publications, and Photos and Maps. In New Search, you get a list of all matches in your Database Matches screen. Other than this change, the Search results are exactly the same between Old Search and New Search, as far as I can tell. Presumably, they will delete the explanatory screen (#3 above) at some point in time.
If you set your Ancestry opening screen to the New Search, you get a different look and feel. I'll show that sequence tomorrow.
This look at New Search Ancestry assumed Exact Matches - I will do the same thing tomorrow with Ranked Searches so that you can see the differences.
UPDATED 4/4: Miriam commented that she couldn't see the "Try It" on the Search box screen, and wondered if she had to be signed in. I just tried it after logging out, and the "Try It" shows up on the second screen - the one after the inital screen. You do have to be a subscriber to see the document images, but you can do a search down to Screen 7 above.
Watching FamilyLink and WorldVitalRecords Grow
One of the unique things about the FamilyLink.com organization (including the subscription database site www.WorldVitalRecords.com and the family tree database site www.FamilyLink.com ) is that the CEO blogs about what he is thinking, planning and doing. Right out loud, for all of us to read, understand and learn from.
Paul Allen has posted "We're Hiring" on his Paul Allen (the lesser) blog about not only the positions open (admitting they don't have an HR department, which is probably a good thing) but also about beta testing, their web design, and their new business and database initiatives.
FamilyLink.com offers their employees 10% of their paid time to work on their own family history research. That is a tremendous investment in their employees - and it will pay off big time because it will spark enthusiasm, inquisitiveness and innovation in the employees as they work.
www.WorldvitalRecords.com is number 10 on the Kory Meyerink list of most popular genealogy web sites in 2008 as measured by traffic. WVR started off over a year ago with the goal of being #2 in the genealogy world, and it looks like it is well on its way to achieve that goal.
I appreciate and applaud Paul's efforts to keep his employees, customers and readers informed about his company and its products. I'm going to send a link to his post to my son-in-law who is an IT manager! I would love to have family in the Salt Lake City area!
Paul Allen has posted "We're Hiring" on his Paul Allen (the lesser) blog about not only the positions open (admitting they don't have an HR department, which is probably a good thing) but also about beta testing, their web design, and their new business and database initiatives.
FamilyLink.com offers their employees 10% of their paid time to work on their own family history research. That is a tremendous investment in their employees - and it will pay off big time because it will spark enthusiasm, inquisitiveness and innovation in the employees as they work.
www.WorldvitalRecords.com is number 10 on the Kory Meyerink list of most popular genealogy web sites in 2008 as measured by traffic. WVR started off over a year ago with the goal of being #2 in the genealogy world, and it looks like it is well on its way to achieve that goal.
I appreciate and applaud Paul's efforts to keep his employees, customers and readers informed about his company and its products. I'm going to send a link to his post to my son-in-law who is an IT manager! I would love to have family in the Salt Lake City area!
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Subscription Family Tree Web Site Traffic
Here are the Reach (unique visitors each day per million Internet users), Rank (of all web sites), and Page Views (daily views per million Internet users) statistics charts from http://www.alexa.com/ for three of the genealogy subscription family tree web sites over the last three years -
* http://www.OneGreatFamily.com/ (#9 on Kory Meyerink's Top 50)
* http://www.KindredKonnections.com/ (#19)
* http://www.GenCircles.com/ (#30)
Since the graphs are somewhat hard to read, I will list the average Reach (per Million Internet users) and page views (per user) for the last three months for these three sites (plus Ancestry's statistics for comparison purposes) -
* http://www.ancestry.com/ -- Reach = 197.5, Page Views = 15.4 per user
* http://www.OneGreatFamily.com/ - Reach = 14.5, Page Views = 20.0 per user
* http://www.KindredKonnections.com - Reach = 4.65, Page Views = 5.5 per user
* http://www.GenCircles.com - Reach = 4.0, Page Views = 8.6
Compare these charts with the Social Networking charts in my earlier traffic comparison, and you can see that the decline in the subscription traffic does not coincide with the increase in traffic on the free social networking sites. It's almost as if new people uploaded their data to the social network sites.
The decline over 2005 and 2006 on these sites corresponds to the declines on other subscription sites as indicated here and on free sites shown here. Over the last year, these subscription sites have held traffic essentially constant, similar to the other sites noted above. The new subscription database sites, shown here, have maintained and slightly increased traffic over the past year.
* http://www.OneGreatFamily.com/ (#9 on Kory Meyerink's Top 50)
* http://www.KindredKonnections.com/ (#19)
* http://www.GenCircles.com/ (#30)
Since the graphs are somewhat hard to read, I will list the average Reach (per Million Internet users) and page views (per user) for the last three months for these three sites (plus Ancestry's statistics for comparison purposes) -
* http://www.ancestry.com/ -- Reach = 197.5, Page Views = 15.4 per user
* http://www.OneGreatFamily.com/ - Reach = 14.5, Page Views = 20.0 per user
* http://www.KindredKonnections.com - Reach = 4.65, Page Views = 5.5 per user
* http://www.GenCircles.com - Reach = 4.0, Page Views = 8.6
Compare these charts with the Social Networking charts in my earlier traffic comparison, and you can see that the decline in the subscription traffic does not coincide with the increase in traffic on the free social networking sites. It's almost as if new people uploaded their data to the social network sites.
The decline over 2005 and 2006 on these sites corresponds to the declines on other subscription sites as indicated here and on free sites shown here. Over the last year, these subscription sites have held traffic essentially constant, similar to the other sites noted above. The new subscription database sites, shown here, have maintained and slightly increased traffic over the past year.
CVGS Seminar "Finding Your Elusive Ancestors" on Saturday, 5 April
"FINDING YOUR ELUSIVE ANCESTORS"
Seminar on Saturday, April 5th in Chula Vista
The Chula Vista Genealogical Society will host a free seminar on Saturday, April 5th in the Chula Vista Civic Center Branch Library auditorium (365 F Street in Chula Vista) from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
* After registration and program introduction, Randy Seaver will present the methods and resources for "Finding Your Elusive Ancestors."
* At noon time, refreshments (sandwiches, veggies, fruit, drinks) will be served in the Conference Room.
* At 1 p.m., there will be a panel discussion on "Solving Your Brickwall Problems" with Shirley Becker, John Finch and Susi Pentico on the panel and Randy Seaver as the moderator. CVGS Members were asked to submit their difficult research problems and the panel will suggest research opportunities to solve the problems.
* Lastly, there will be time for questions from the audience on genealogy research topics and problems - and the panel will try to answer them.
You need to make a reservation for this seminar so that we can plan the food - please contact Virginia at 619-425-7922 or email irishdoll@cox.net for information and reservations.
Seminar on Saturday, April 5th in Chula Vista
The Chula Vista Genealogical Society will host a free seminar on Saturday, April 5th in the Chula Vista Civic Center Branch Library auditorium (365 F Street in Chula Vista) from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
* After registration and program introduction, Randy Seaver will present the methods and resources for "Finding Your Elusive Ancestors."
* At noon time, refreshments (sandwiches, veggies, fruit, drinks) will be served in the Conference Room.
* At 1 p.m., there will be a panel discussion on "Solving Your Brickwall Problems" with Shirley Becker, John Finch and Susi Pentico on the panel and Randy Seaver as the moderator. CVGS Members were asked to submit their difficult research problems and the panel will suggest research opportunities to solve the problems.
* Lastly, there will be time for questions from the audience on genealogy research topics and problems - and the panel will try to answer them.
You need to make a reservation for this seminar so that we can plan the food - please contact Virginia at 619-425-7922 or email irishdoll@cox.net for information and reservations.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Ancestry's plan seems to be working
Last week I posted traffic data from http://www.alexa.com/ about the change in Reach, Rank and Page Views between Ancestry and Rootsweb a few days after the domain name for the Rootsweb main page changed to http://rootsweb.ancestry.com/.
I checked again today to see how the traffic had changed over the past week. The changes are dramatic.
Here is Reach (daily unique visitors per million Internet users)
The Page Views (per million Internet users)
I checked again today to see how the traffic had changed over the past week. The changes are dramatic.
Here is Reach (daily unique visitors per million Internet users)
The Rank (among all web sites) -
The Page Views (per million Internet users)
It appears that in the last week (from Sunday 3/23 to Saturday 3/29), the Ancestry Reach has increased from about about 245 to about 370 (a 51% increase) while the Rootsweb Reach has decreased from about 215 to about 100 (a 54% decrease).
The Page Views have increased for Ancestry from about 36.5 to 39.5 (an 8% increase) while Rootsweb's have decreased from about 8.5 down to 6.5 (an 24% decrease).
Ancestry's Rank has improved from about 2,900 to 2,500, while Rootsweb has decreased from about 6,900 to 11,500.
My conclusion is that "the plan to increase Ancestry's traffic at the expense of Rootsweb is working!"
I found the breakdown of Ancestry's sub-domain's interesting (probably over the last three months, although it doesn't say):
* search.ancestry.com - 40%
* trees.ancestry.com - 29%
* ancestry.com - 15%
* content.ancestry.com - 8%
* boards.ancestry.com - 3%
* secure.ancestry.com - 1%
* awtc.ancestry.com - 1%
* awt.ancestry.com - 1%
* Other websites - 2%
Before this announcement, the Message Boards were accessible with either the Ancestry or Rootsweb domains, and the Rootsweb WorldConnect database was available from both Ancestry (awt. and awtc.) and Rootsweb (wc.rootsweb.com).
When I checked the Rootsweb pages late last week on 3/28, the following had been transferred to the Ancestry domain:
* Main page
* Databases (SSDI, CA DI, KY DI, ME DI, TX DI)
* Websites
* Freepages
* Books We Own
* US GenWeb Archives
* Obituary Daily Times.
The decrease in Rootsweb reach and increase in Ancestry Reach is now evident - they moved some of the "heavy hitters" first - the SSDI and death databases, USGenWeb Archives, the web sites and free pages. The other big databases are probably WorldConnect, the message boards and the mailing list archives. I look for them to migrate shortly. Those are probably the hardest to move since they are fairly dynamic - many users and additions each day - and may result in disruption of service when they do migrate.
Why didn't the page views change as much as the Reach? Probably because people looked at relatively few pages on the sub-domains that moved. People who work in the SSDI may do only 2 or 3 searches and move away. But they visited Ancestry. I expect that when the WorldConnect pages move that the Reach and Page Views will increase significantly on Ancestry and decrease significantly on Rootsweb.
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