SNGF - People in my database born on 23 October

The Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge this week is to:

1) Is there a person in your genealogy database that has the same birth date that you do? If so, tell us about him or her - what do you know, and how is s/he related to you?


2) For bonus points, how did you determine this? What feature or process did you use in your software to work this problem out? I think the Calendar feature probably does it, but perhaps you have a trick to make this work outside of the calendar function.

Here's my response:
 
1)  No one in my database has my exact birth date of 23 October 1943, besides myself.  I expected that.
 
There are 40 persons in my database with a birth day of 23 October, but none of them are an ancestor of mine.  That really surprised me.  I have 39,500 persons in my database, and of those about 2,100 are direct-line ancestors of mine.  The odds are that 6 or 7 would be born on any specific day of the year.  I have only one - me!
 
Of the 40 with the same birth day, there are only 15 born after 1800, and only one in the 20th century.  Tracey was born 23 October 1979, and is a fifth cousin once removed.
 
2)  How did I do this?  I used Family Tree Maker 16, RootsMagic 4, and Legacy Family Tree 7 to try to figure this out.
 
a)  In Family Tree Maker 16, the only way I could do this was to:
 
*  Create a Custom Report in Reports; then Custom Report; then Contents; then Items to Include (= Name, Birth Date, Death Date); then Individuals to Include (=All).  The report created was 692 pages long.
 
*  Save the report as an RTF file:  Go to File; then Export Report; then To Word Processor (RTF)
 
*  Open my word processor, and go to Edit; then Find and enter "23 October"
 
*  Write down the name and year, click on Next, etc.
 
b)  In RootsMagic 4, the easiest way for me to do this was to:
 
*  Go to Reports; then Lists; then Birthday and Anniversary List;  then Create Report
 
*  Select "Birthdays" and "Everyone" in the database, click on Generate Report.  The report created was in date order, and was 361 pages long.
 
*  Scroll down the report to 23 October, note the names and years, print out two pages.
 
3)  In Legacy Family Tree 7, the easiest way for me to do this was to:
 
*  Go to Reports, then Calendar List Report
 
*  In the Include tab, select "All Individuals, Living or Dead;"  in the Options tab, select "Surname, given Name" and "Birthdays" and "Birth date;" In the Months tab, select "October";  click on "Preview"
 
*  I received a 30 page report for October listed by day of the month, and scrolling down to 23 October resulted in the same individuals as found in the other two programs.
 
I'll leave it to someone else to do Family Tree Maker 2010 and other programs.
 
There may be easier, or faster, ways to do this task, but these were the ones I figured out first!

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Same birthday as yours?

Hey there, Genealogy Jedis - it's Saturday Night - time for more Genealogy Fun!

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to:

1)  Is there a person in your genealogy database that has the same birth date that you do?  If so, tell us about him or her - what do you know, and how is s/he related to you?

2)  For bonus points, how did you determine this?  What feature or process did you use in your software to work this problem out?  I think the Calendar feature probably does it, but perhaps you have a trick to make this work outside of the calendar function.

That's it - go for it - use your Genealogy Jedi lightsword to cut through your genealogy database to solve this task!  May the genea-force be with you!

I will post mine on Saturday evening after I return from Salt Lake City.

Surname Saturday - Hutchison/Hutchinson (NJ > NB > ONT)

It's Surname Saturday, and I'm "counting down" my Ancestral Name List each week. I am up to number 123, who is the unknown mother of #61 Sarah Sephrona Fletcher;  the next number is #125, who is Mary Jane Hutchison (ca 1792-1868), one of my 4th-great-grandparents.

My ancestral line back through two generations of HUTCHISON (and variants) families is:

1. Randall J. Seaver

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

6. Lyle Lawrence Carringer (1891-1976)
7. Emily Kemp Auble (1899-1977)

14. Charles Auble (1849-1916)
15. Georgianna Kemp (1868-1952)

30. James Abraham Kemp (1831-1902)
31. Mary Jane Sovereen (1840-1874)

62.  Alexander Sovereign (1814-1907)
63.  Eliza Putman (1820-1895)

124.  Frederick Sovereign, born 14 February 1786 in Schooley's Mountain, Warren County, NJ; died 14 June 1875 in Middleton, Norfolk County, ONTARIO, CANADA. He was the son of 248. Jacob Sovereign and 249. Elizabeth Pickle. He married  17 May 1810 in London District, Upper Canada.

125. Mary Jane Hutchison, born 22 January 1792 in Pleasant Valley, New Brunswick, CANADA; died 16 April 1868 in Delhi, Norfolk County, Ontario, CANADA.
Children of Frederick Sovereign and Mary Hutchison are: William Lewis sovereign (1811-1892); Mary Catherine Sovereign (1813-????); Alexander Sovereign (1814-1907); Jacob Sovereign (1817-1909).

250. William Hutchinson, born 1745 in of Knowlton, Sussex, New Jersey, USA; died 20 March 1826 in Walsingham, Norfolk County, Ontario, Canada. He married  03 August 1784 in Parr, New Brunswick, Canada.
251. Catherine Lewis, born 22 March 1759 in Richmond County, New York; died 15 August 1845 in Walsingham, Norfolk County, Ontario, Canada. She was the daughter of 502. Jonathan Lewis and 503. Marie La Tourette.

Children of William Hutchinson and Catherine Lewis are:  James Hutchison (1788-1858); Mary Jane Hutchison (1792-1868); Elizabeth Hutchison (1794-1871); Catherine Hutchison (1796-1840); David Hutchison (1798-1865); George Hutchison (1799-1888); Joseph P. Hutchison (1801-1889).

I have done no original research on this surname.  I tried to summarize what I knew about William Hutchi(n)son in William Hutchi(n)son (1745-1826) Family History - Post 1  and Post 2. 

I don't know (and nobody else does either, apparently) the parents or siblings of William Hutchi(n)son. He supposedly was born in about 1745 and resided in Knowlton, Sussex County (now in Warren County) NJ in the 1773-4 time frame.  According to one of the family stories, he had a family by his first wife and all but son Alexander died before he migrated to New Brunswick, where he married Catherine Lewis. 
 
Any Hutchinson or Hutchison cousins reading this?  If you have more information about William H, please email me at rjseaver@cox.net. 

Full Day Research at the FHL

I've had a fairly full day doing research at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City today.

I've accomplished these feats of genealogical research wizardry (or not...) today:

*  Found marriage record in 1840 for Alexander Whittle and Rachel Morley in Bolton-le-Moors Parish Registers on microfilm.

*  Found baptism record for Elizabeth Morley, illegitimate daughter of Jane Morley, in 1839 in Bolton-le-Moors Parish Register.

*  Found burial record for Jane (Haslam) (Bury) Morley in 1834 in Bolton-le-Moors parish register.

*  Found marriage record for Jane Haslam to Robert Bury in 1801 and to Thomas Morley in 1806 in Bolton-le-Moors parish register.

* Did not find burial record for Alexander Whittle in 1855, or Margaret Whittle in 1854, in Chorley Parish Register.  They are listed in Civil Registration as dying in Chorley but there is no parish record.

*  Checked out the Bolton-le-Moors Churchwarden's accounts, but didn't see anything relating to Morley's or Whittles. 

* Found and copied British damage claims to the William Cutter family and Samuel fitz Randolph family in New Jersey after Revolutionary War.

*  Searched for, and did not find, an estate case file for Samuel or Mary Ann Vaux in Marshall County, Kansas in 1880 to 1890 time period.  Wonder if there is one in another nearby county?

*  Searched for, and did not find, a listing for Samuel Vaux in the Blue Rapids, Marshall County, Kansas abstracts of town lots, 1870-1995. Samuel was in Blue Rapids in the 1880 US Census.

*  Searched for, and did not find, Donna P's Jan Pater in an obscure Polish village birth records (she gave me the film number, and told me what to look for, and I did it).

*  Managed to get tens of feet of microfilm on the floor and desktop when I mounted a film the wrong way in the microfilm scanner machine.  Claire came by at that moment to say hello, and I said "help."  I stopped the machine by closing out the program, and the staff helped me rewind the film, mount it correctly, and give me instructions on how to correctly obtain the image and scan it to my flash drive.  Embarrassing. 

For lunch, I went over to the Joseph Smith Building and met Michael and Jimmy for lunch, and a short meeting - thank you, guys!  That was fun.

For dinner, I went to JB's on the corner and had a quick Yankee Pot Roast dinner in the corner by myself.  It was great to sit quietly and think. 

I'm back in the library at 7 PM and ready to go hunt Whittles in the California Gold Country. 

Wifi-less in Salt Lake City

Well, not really, if I want to pay for it.  Rather than invest $12.95 for one day at the hotel, or even worse, 49 cents a minute in the hotel business center, I decided to forgo blogging last night at the hotel when I returned from the Blogger Day at FamilySearch.  I figured "I'll read my email, read my blogs and post something on Friday morning at the Family History Library."  So that's where I am, bright and early at 8 a.m. and now it's 9 a.m. after grabbing a Danish for breakfast, reading my email and blogs, and now what should I post about?

Ah, the last two days!

I flew from San Diego to Salt Lake City on Wednesday, arriving at 1 p.m. and in the Marriott Hotel by 1:45.  After unloading my stuff in the room, it was off to the Family History Library about one block away.  In my hurry, I forgot my flash drives were in the other case - no problem - I'll do the things I want to do in the books.  I found a good Lewis book that provided significant family history information about the John Lewis of Westerly RI line that ended up in Staten Island, New york.  It even mentioned Katherine Lewis, daughter of Jonathan and Marie (LaTourette) Lewis, but did not list a husband for her.  Is she the Catherine Lewis that married William Hutchinson in New Brunswick?  I don't know...but if she is, then I have some useful Lewis family history information.

I walked over to the Plaza Hotel at 5:30 p.m. and sat in the lobby until James Tanner, author of the Genealogy's Star blog, came in and we walked to the Joseph Smith Building for dinner at the Nauvoo Cafe on the first floor.  We enjoyed our carved sandwiches and boysenberry pie, and shared about our lives and interests.  When genea-bloggers meet, we seem to eat and talk and the time flies!  After dinner, we walked through Temple Square, and James gave me a guided tour of several of the buildings and then we visited the FamilySearch Center in the Joseph Smith Building.  It would be really cool to work in this building - a FamilySearch Center in the basement!

The Bloggers Day at FamilySearch was on Thursday, starting with breakfast at 7:30 a.m. We met in the Joseph Smith Building and were in the FamilySearch offices there.  After a buffet breakfast, the 9-hour program started promptly at 8 a.m. with a welcome from Paul Nauta, introductions by Shipley Munson and a briefing by FamilySearch President Jay Verkler.  Then a number of FamilySearch product managers described their work until 5 p.m.  We broke for lunch at 12 noon and enjoyed food from the Garden Restaurant in the building. 

The Blogger Day agenda was listed here.

I tweeted on http://twitter.com/rjseaver throughout the day, and you can see all tweets by myself, Thomas MacEntee, Kimberly Powell and DearMYRTLE by using the hashtag #FSBlogDay on Twitter.  Other bloggers in attendance have written posts about their experiences and learning - you can see them all on Geneabloggers in Latest News from the Family Search Bloggers Day.  Diane Haddad has written a summary on The Genealogy Insider blog, and James Tanner blogged continuously during the event on Genealogy's Star blog.  I may collect my Twitter notes after I return home and psot them - my guess is that I had over 200 tweets in 9 hours!

I stayed in the room and chatted with Paul Nauta and Jim Ericson for awhile, and read some of my email before we left for the 6 p.m. dinner hosted by FamilySearch in The Roof Restaurant at the top of the Joseph Smith Building.  I enjoyed the conversation at the table with Paul Nauta, Ann Harrison, and The Ancestry Insider.  After dinner, I wandered back to the hotel pretty much spent and watched the end of the baseball game.

I asked several of the questions submitted by email from my readers, and will respond with emails to the senders when I return home on Saturday.  I will also write blog posts abut some of them for everybody's edification.

Needless to say, Thursday was enlightening and fun.  I especially enjoyed meeting more of the FamilySearch personnel, and hearing about their product status, future plans, and visions for FamilySearch.  It is very much a work in progress. 

So, here I am at the Family History Library ready to go read some microfilms about the Whittle/Morley folks in England.  Wish me luck!

Disclosure: FamilySearch paid for my airfare, hotel lodging and incidental expenses in order for me to attend this event.  I appreciate their generosity and outreach.  I have tried, and will continue to try, to be objective in my writings about FamilySearch products.

Source Citation Mangling through GEDCOMs - Post 1

I complained last week, in Why I use several software programs that :

"I recently imported my FTM 16 file into FTM 2010, RootsMagic and Legacy.  The names, dates, places, notes all imported well, but I found that some of the source  information (which I'm working really hard on) did not come across completely."

The circumstances are this:

*  I'm doing all of my database correction work (duplicate names, unconnected persons, source citations, place name cleanups, date errors, etc.) in Family Tree Maker 16 because I find it much easier and faster to navigate.  Part of that is my twelve years working in the program, but also the relative simplicity (navigation, fewer clicks, etc.) of the program.

*  I tried to create a GEDCOM file after compacting the file, and FTM 16 said that I had data errors that prevented the file creation. 

*  Smart fellow that I think I am, I figured I could read it directly into Family Tree Maker 2010, save it, create a GEDCOM file there, and read it back into FTM 16. 

*  This worked well, and I was soon adding, deleting, and editing data in my revised FTM 16 database. 

*  big mistake!  I made it so easily!  I didn't even check the Master Source details.  Because FTM 2010 does not read the FTM 16 file accurately and put the right information in the right place, at least in source citations.

I've re-created the event using one Master Source citation to demonstrate the problem.  In the instances below, each program put the citation detail or note in the correct place.  I didn't have any source notes or comments in the fields, so cannot evaluate that aspect.

1)  Here is the screen from Family Tree Maker 16 for my source citation for the birth of Peregrine White (I've cleaned it up by editing this one citation to be, well, almost perfect (I sure hope ESM doesn't read this!)):

The FTM 16 source citation elements include:

*  Title of source:  Mayflower Families Through Five Generations; Volume 13: Family of William White
*  Author/Originator: Robert S. Wakefield (editor)
*  Publication facts: Boston, Mass.: General Society of Mayflower Descendants, 1997
*  Source location: Carlsbad Public Library, Carlsbad, CA
*  Source medium:  Book
*  source quality: Derivative but authoritative
*  Citation page: page 6

The Footnote created from this source citation is:

Robert S. Wakefield (editor), Mayflower Families Through Five Generations; Volume 13: Family of William White,  (Boston, Mass.: General Society of Mayflower Descendants, 1997), page 6.

2)  I created a GEDCOM file and imported it into Family Tree Maker 2010.  Here is the screen shot for the same source citation in FTM 2010 for the same person:

The FTM 2010 source citation elements include:


* Source template: [blank]
* Title: Mayflower Families Through Five Generations; Volume 13: Family of William White
* Author: Robert S. Wakefield (editor)
* Publication name: Boston, Mass.: General Society of Mayflower Descendants, 1997
* Publisher location: Carlsbad Public Library, Carlsbad, CA
* Publish date: [blank]
* Source repository: [none]
* Comments: Source medium: Book; Derivative but authoritative
* Citation detail: page 6

The Footnote created from this source citation is:

Robert S. Wakefield (editor), Mayflower Families Through Five Generations; Volume 13: Family of William White, (Boston, Mass.: General Society of Mayflower Descendants, 1997), page 6.

3) I imported the same GEDCOM file into RootsMagic 4. Here is the screen shot for the same source citation in RootsMagic 4 for the same person:

The RootsMagic 4 source citation elements include:


* Title: Mayflower Families Through Five Generations; Volume 13: Family of William White
* Author: Robert S. Wakefield (editor)
* Publication data: Boston, Mass.: General Society of Mayflower Descendants, 1997
* Repository tab: [none listed]
* Quality tab: [none listed]
*  Source Details: Page Number: page 6

The Footnote created from this source citation is:

Robert S. Wakefield (editor), Mayflower Families Through Five Generations; Volume 13: Family of William White (Boston, Mass.: General Society of Mayflower Descendants, 1997), page 6.

4) I imported the same GEDCOM file into Legacy Family Tree 7.4. Here is the screen shot for the same source citation in Legacy Family Tree 7.4 for the same person:

The Legacy Family Tree 7.4 source citation elements include:

*  Source List Name:  Mayflower Families Through Five Generations; Volume 13: Family of William White
*  Author: Robert S. Wakefield (editor)
*  Title:  Mayflower Families Through Five Generations; Volume 13: Family of William White
*  Publication facts: Boston, Mass.: General Society of Mayflower Descendants, 1997
*  Repository tab:  Location: Not given (see Notes).  Notes: Carlsbad Public Library, Carlsbad CA
*  Comments tab:  Derivative but authoritative
*  Source Detail: page 6

The Footnote/End Note created from this source citation is:

Robert S. Wakefield (editor), Mayflower Families Through Five Generations; Volume 13: Family of William White (Boston, Mass.: General Society of Mayflower Descendants, 1997), page 6.

You can readily see that the GEDCOM created by Family Tree Maker 16 results in an identical source citations in the other three programs.  However, the details within the Master Source detail fields are mangled.  RootsMagic 4 would probably be the easiest one to fix - I would need to add the Repository and quality data. 

This probably occurs because of the intricacies in the GEDCOM code - I've read that Family Tree Maker 16 (and earlier) used non-standard fields for some database entries, and the other programs are not set up to read them and put them in the similar field. 

Because of my error in judgment described at the top of this post, I'm stuck with somewhat faulty entries in my Family Tree Maker 16 database.  I have over 600 Master Sources to fix after reading back the GEDCOM from FTM 2010.  If I correct the files in FTM 16, and then export the corrected database to FTM 2010, RootsMagic 4, or Legacy Family Tree 7, then the Master Source details will get mangled again. 

If I edit the Master Sources in, say, RootsMagic 4, and then GEDCOM the file back into one of the other programs, will the Master Source details be mangled?  I don't know, but I'll check that out and report on it in the next post.

One solution might be to have only the Author, Title and Publication details in the Master Sources.  The other detail fields won't come across in a GEDCOM file.

Now I'm wondering what these sources will look like when I GEDCOM them into the Ancestry Member Tree.  Or some other family tree system. 

Oh, what a tangled web I've woven...

Any bright ideas from my readers? 

FamilySearch Blogger Day Tweets

I've been posting on Twitter throughout the Blogger Day event at FamilySearch in Salt Lake City.

Check out my tweets at http://twitter.com/rjseaver

Check out all tweets using the #FSBlogDay hashtag at http://twitter.com/search?q=%23FSBlogDay#search?q=%23FSBlogDay

More to come!!

Treasure Chest Thursday - Frederick Seaver's Baptism Certificates

It's Treasure Chest Thursday - time to show-and-tell another document or artifact that defines some of my family history.

Today's treasures are two different records that document my father's baptism in Massachusetts.  Frederick Walton Seaver was born 15 October 1911 in Fitchburg, Massachusetts.  He was baptized on Easter Even, 1912, in St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Leominster, Massachusetts, as evidenced by the first two baptism records found in the treasure box:

1)  The "official" Episcopal Church Diocese of Western Massachusetts certificate:

2)  The St. Mark's Episcopal Church baptismal record:

The information on these two documents is the same - the parents are named as Frederick W. Seaver and Alma B. [Seaver], and the witnesses are Everett G. Richmond (brother of Alma B. (Richmond) Seaver) and Eleanor M. Coleman (a close family friend).

Review: Quicksheet. Genealogical Problem Analysis: A Strategis Plan

The latest publication in Elizabeth Shown Mills' series of laminated research aids is the Quicksheet. Genealogical Problem Analysis: A Strategic Plan. 



This QuickSheet is a two-sided laminated designed for heavy use, like the first two Quicksheets in this series (Citing Online Historical Resources and Citing Ancestry.com Databases & Images).

The front side of this Quicksheet is a summary of the basic premises and basic appraisal elements to solve genealogical research problems using the Genealogical Proof Standard.  This side also has a "10 Steps to a Solution" list intended to help researchers work step-by-step through problem definition, file organization,  source appriasal, existing analysis, and research planning using a series of Worksheets (which are not provided, but are described so a researcher can easily create them in a word processing document - which can then be updated continuously for every research problem in work).

The second side has a "Life Stages Worksheet" which is a form that can be filled in that covers most life events from birth to death through six specific stages of life.  There are 38 record categories listed on this worksheet.  A researcher can review this single page at a glance to determine which records might be found for their research target. 

This QuickSheet sells for $5.95 plus postage and handling (ISBN 978-0-8063-1868-4).  It is available from:

Genealogical Publishing Company

3600 Clipper Mill Road, Suite 260

Baltimore, MD 21211-1953

(410) 837-8271

http://www.genealogical.com/

Disclosure:  I received a complimentary copy of this QuickSheet for purposes of reviewing it from Genealogical Publishing Company.  I am not an employee or affiliate of GPC, and have received no remuneration for this review. 

(Not So) Wordless Wednesday - Post 125: Samuel Crouch

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

Here is a photograph from the Carringer/Smith family collection handed down by my mother in the 1988 to 2002 time period:

This is a picture of Samuel Crouch (1840-1931) who resided in Long Beach, California from before 1910 until his death.  Samuel was born in September 1840 in England.  He married Elizabeth Vaux (1850-1931) on 19 October 1871 in Andrew County, Missouri.  They resided in Platte township, Andrew County, Missouri in 1880 and in Beaver township, Boone County, Nebraska in 1900.  Samuel died 19 May 1931 in Long Beach, and Elizabeth died 10 May 1931 in Long Beach.  They had three children - Myrtle Crouch (1872-1963), who married Benjamin Milbank; William Samuel Crouch (1874-1940) who married Elizabeth Riley;  Ralph Crouch (1880-????), who probably died young. 

Elizabeth (Vaux) Crouch was a sister of my great-great-grandmother, Abbie (Vaux) Smith (1844-1931) married Devier J. Smith in Wisconsin, lived in Taylor County, Iowa, Andrew County, Missouri, Concordia, Cloud county, Kansas, McCook, Red Willow County, Nebraska and San Diego County, California.  The two families exchanged frequent letters and visited occasionally.